Disclaimed.
Finding Mikan
Chapter Eleven: The Unforgivable and the Unforgiving
Across the Port of Tokyo, hundreds of neon lights emitted a warm, fuzzy glow. Their reflection danced merrily in the pacific waters, illuminating every wave and ripple. The lights, the gentle breeze, and the soft hum of the boats united in a comforting serenity.
Lady Sakura, a relatively small cruise boat, was stationed amid it all, living up to her royal name. She was triple-decked, with walls painted a blinding snow white. In the semi-luminescent night, neon signs reflected off her paint and made her a billion different colours.
Even from Hotaru's standpoint a few hundred metres away, she could see Alices striding about on the deck of the ship, leaning on the rails and peering out into the tranquil bay. Especially easy to spot was Misaki's striking head of pink curls. The woman wore a blissful, rosy smile as she leaned her head on the shoulder of a darker Tsubasa, whose hair and navy suit blended with the night sky. The couple spotted her and waved briefly.
Hotaru offered them a wavering smile.
She was still tentative about Hayate's offer, especially since Natsume would be on the ship with her this time. In fact, her stomach's uneasiness increased in direct correlation to the decrease of the space between herself and the two guards of the boat. Her hands were also clammy to the point where she doubted the ticket would still be in one piece by the time she reached them.
Guarding the boat were two men both clad in black suits and striped ties. The left was a lanky raven with a sharp, pointy nose and pasty coloured skin that made him look absolutely ghastly in his uniform. Out of the two, he was the only one who formed a dimpled grin upon seeing her. His friend, a well-built man with foxy green eyes framed by classes could only manage a tight smile at best.
The latter placed himself in front with an impenetrable air of authority. "Good evening, madam. May I have your name?"
"Imai Hotaru."
"Welcome to Nakamura Cruising," the former informed with his smile firmly in place. "You'll be boarding in Room 205. Here's your card. Before you retire, I need you to wear this bracelet and step into the first room to the right. Hidaka-san will explain the rest of the accommodations."
Foxy-eyes clasped a tightly fitting bracelet around her wrist, almost causing Hotaru to jump at the touch of cold metal against her skin. He made no effort to secure it. There was no clasp on the bracelet but as she turned her wrist she saw that whatever opening it had before now closed off completely, a keyhole in its stead. Otherwise, the bracelet was very simple, no engravings or gloss. She suspected its main purpose laid in the clay-coloured stone it adorned. The stone was the size of a marble and it pulsated softly. An Alice stone.
"This way," directed the ghastly man, handing her the card and pointing her in.
She traveled from the corridor into the room rubbing at the stone and pondering what Alice it contained. It was impossible to tell from colour, for stone colours corresponded more to an individual's personality than his or her Alice. Funny enough, though, that the mechanism itself reminded her of some of the Truth Alice testings she had been subjected to in Irving Academy.
"Ah, and who would I find here but one Imai Hotaru?"
Her eyes snapped up in fright and alarm.
From a throne, the man stared at her blankly, his legs crossed and arms set on the armrests. He looked just as healthy as he did a week ago, only with a cleanly shaven face and jelled up hair this time. He was wearing an identical suit to the two guards. One of his shiny new black loafers pointed straight at her chest. His nonchalant face held no grudging feelings for her assault on him the other day.
"Why are you here? What do you want from me?"
His eyes flashed from her face down to her bracelet. In his usual, perfunctory way, Chiaki pulled out a small, golden key and tossed it to Hotaru, who caught it with her free hand before raising one eyebrow at him.
"I'm supposed to question you, make sure that you are who you are and go through the usual security procedures, but let's just face it. Neither of us wants to talk to the other right now. I'm tired of your presence so just go."
Hotaru's eyes flickered to her bracelet. "Is this a Truth Alice?"
"What do you think?"
She angled her head in a questioning way, "well if so, I believe that you should be collecting it. Is it not what those bags are for?" She gestured at the various bags of bracelets adorned with gray stones lying at his feet. "Or are they there to create a false sense of grandeur for you, who is always at the bottom of the food chain?"
Again, he gave her a long, hard stare. "Maybe I was wrong about you."
"Obviously you had enough doubt to infiltrate AFO just to ensure that I would stay on country waters."
Chiaki snorted. "That's rather conceited of you. What makes you think for a moment that I wasn't one of them in the first place?"
Her blood ran cold.
"Ah, I understand," she finally muttered after the pregnant pause.
Hotaru left the room, limply dragging her baggage in tow.
Things were getting way too complicated too fast. She could deal with separate entities, separate enemies from separate part of her lives. But as soon as they started conglomerating… Hotaru loathed to admit that she knew exactly what would happen next. United, they had power. A prime example was Chiaki with the backing of the ARC Department. Would she have considered him much of a threat on his own? No, she would have squelched and dismissed him a long time ago. Now, Chiaki, ARC, and AFO?
How she hated triple alliances.
"Cool Blue Sky!"
And there was always the other kind to deal with…
"You made it!" Hayate exclaimed, a hand touching on her bony shoulder which, thankfully, was clothed this time. "Isn't this awesome? Come on, come on! You haven't seen the interior yet!"
Despite the ship's size, Nakamura Cruise Company certainly did not sacrifice any elegance. The interior was a ballroom three floors high, illuminated by a chandelier half its size. Across the room, two grand staircases extended to the second and third floors and eventually out into the deck. Fifty Alices were lounging about in the ballroom, some dancing, some mingling. Waiters floated around carrying small trays of red wine and caviar crackers. On a stage in between the staircases, a pink grand piano was being caressed with Rui's magical fingers. He gave them all a soft ballad, a pleasing background lull to complete the sophisticated party scene.
A quick perusal confirmed that Natsume was thankfully nowhere in sight, but neither were any eighteen or nineteen year olds. Although Hotaru had no idea what Youichi looked like, she was determined to find him before the end of the night.
"Matusdaira, where is Hijiri-san?"
"Oh, I think I saw him on the deck."
Hotaru immediately ventured up the stairs, her luggage and Hayate in tow, and the latter being more of a hinder between the two. For some unexplained reason, he was convinced that her luggage was much too heavy for her to carry even though she somehow managed just fine for the past seven years. As they climbed the stairs, he redundantly insisted carrying it for her and she rejected curtly each and every single time. She was sure that at least forty nine of the fifty people down there were having a merry laugh at the spectacle.
"Do you not have your own room to go to?" she finally sneered.
"But I want to help you find yours first."
She sighed with an underlying grunt of annoyance before speeding off on the second floor. Maybe if she shut herself in her room for a while, he would get bored and leave, allowing her to actually carry out her affairs efficiently for once. So occupied was Hotaru in getting to 205 as fast as she could that she barely noticed she was going down the wrong corridor until they almost crashed into the opening of door 216.
Out came a tall, skinny teenager with sharp, blue-gray eyes. He was dressed in black jeans and a plain T-shirt, obviously with no intention to dance or mingle with the adults. In fact, this boy had a spacey look on his face, a little like Chiaki's but less dead. He scratched his head absentmindedly, smoothing down a tuft of hair that stuck out in an awkward direction. Only after some elapsed time did he appear to see Hotaru and Hayate.
"Yo."
"Youichi!" exclaimed Hayate, causing her to perk up at the name. "Great seeing you again!"
The boy's stare bored steadily into Hayate's eyes. "Matsudaira. We had a mission together once before you graduated."
"Oh, you remember?"
The boy stared at Hayate as if he had just offered some blue cheese. "No," he said slowly, "the spirits tell me." He then turned his gaze onto Hotaru. "Did you know that there's a lady who followed you here? Her husband was a fisherman. She lost him at sea and she thought you could guide her to him." He averted his eyes into a spot behind the inventor. "He's not here. He's gone, at peace."
Hotaru smiled stiffly, unsure of what to make of this strange boy.
"You are Imai Hotaru-san, aren't you? You're that woman who just came from America."
"Did the spirits tell you that as well?" she asked sarcastically.
He gave her the same look he had just given Hayate, mildly offending her, as he huffed, "no. Natsume-nii did. He told me you'd be back in Japan as soon as you graduated. By the way, have any of you seen him?"
"Um, no, not really."
The ends of Hotaru's lips curved up in a twitch. Maybe Natsume arrived late and would be missing the boat after all.
"Well I'm going up to the deck to find him. He'll probably be there, searching for the spirit of Mikan. Yeah, he lost someone as well, but she's not dead, just gone. You should come with me." It took Hotaru a whole second to realize that Youichi was conversing with the spirit supposedly haunting her.
It took her another second to get over the queerness of that. In a blink, he was already halfway down the hallway behind her.
"Wait," she called, whirling. "I need to talk to you."
Youichi only turned his head lazily. "I'll find you after dinner then. The spirits will tell me where to go."
"This will take but a second," she insisted, almost desperately taking a step forward and shoving Hayate aside. "I heard from Shouda-san that you graduated earlier this April. You must have heard about the child who was admitted two years ago, Imai Hikaru. Tell me how my nephew is faring."
"Hikaru? He's fine. Our class is treating him well."
"Your class?" But Sumire said that Youichi was in—
"Yeah. The Dangerous Ability Class."
If the entire world was made of a globe of glass, that globe would have shattered violently at that very instant.
Youichi's words echoed through her head like a vivid nightmare. The Dangerous Abilities Class... Dangerous Abilities... Dangerous... How could it be? How could Hikaru be a dangerous type? It simply did not make any sense. He inherited the Healing Alice from his father, something that was surely latent or even special type. Hotaru would give him special, but dangerous? If anything, his Alice was completely opposite from the kind that would be classified as dangerous type. And she should know; she had her fair experience with dangerous Alices in her lifetime.
"How?" Hayate suddenly voiced her thoughts in an outcry. "I thought Naomi-san didn't have an Alice and Subaru-san's got a Healing Alice. That shouldn't be dangerous!"
Hotaru gripped her suitcase tightly. For once, this birdbrain can think.
"He used to be latent," explained Youichi factually, "but that was before he accidentally used the Pain Alice on his classmate. Apparently he hurt her so bad that she had to be hospitalized for two days. After that, he was temporarily reclassified as dangerous. Temporary. Until he learns to control his Alice. When has anyone actually been temporarily put in the Dangerous Abilities Class?"
Youichi shrugged as if to tell her there was nothing he could do.
"Excuse me," Hotaru barely managed.
In her devastation, all that was surrounding her became nothing but a blur. She staggered down the corridor. Hayate ran to her side immediately, offering help with carrying her luggage, with finding her room, with walking. All of his words were completely lost to Hotaru's numb brain. The only thought that occurred to her was steadily putting one foot in front of the other until she reached room 205. Discerning the loud bump her luggage made as it was forcibly dragged across the threshold, Hotaru slammed her door before limping and flopping eagle spread on her freshly made bed. She buried her face into the pillow, uncomfortably breathing in lingering wafts of soap from the sheets' last wash.
In this vegetable state, she began to reflect. If what Youichi said was indeed true—and she could not imagine what an eighteen-year-old stranger could possibly gain by lying to her—then all hope was indeed lost. Alice Academy had been strict enough to she and Subaru and they were not even close to being dangerous ability.
So it would seem that once again, I have failed.
With a broken smile, her body racked in dry sobs and trembles. She balled up her duvet and held it close to her chest until she could only breathe in small pants. For hours, Hotaru remained in the fetal position, not really awake but not really sleeping. She was in a lucid state, trembling and hiccuping as the sky turned from navy to deep black. Even the lights outside slowly became dimmer and dimmer as they sped away at a breakneck place. For Hotaru, it only meant that the darkness was that much closer to engulfing her and swallowing her whole.
I am not worthless, she traced over and over in her sheets, whispering it to the dead of the night every time she finished.
Someone rapped on her door at a little past ten. She made no effort to get up and walk over, but the presence of another human being in her vicinity did do a lot to calm down the trembles. She panted heavily into her blanket ball as the person unexpectedly opened her door with a master room card.
"Imai-san, I brought you your dinner."
She sat up, her hair disheveled and her face a tired, shadowy mess. Immediately, the light in the doorway hit her face and she shied away from it, grunting, but not before she saw a worried Ruka with a large tray in his hands.
"Imai-san!" he exclaimed, setting the tray aside to run to her. "What happened?"
"N-nothing," she gritted, fisting the sheets vigorously. "I am just a little tired."
He was not convinced.
Hotaru turned to the food with a sigh and tired eyes. Ruka saved her an entire dish of seafood, some seaweed, sushi, fried potatoes, miso soup, and a bunch of assorted desserts. It looked like the rest of the Alices had buffet while she was busy trying to control her seizing body. Ruka, being the considerate man he was, also brought utensils and napkins as well. She thanked him.
"Are you sure you're okay?" he asked nervously.
She nodded.
In his unintrusive nature, Ruka sent her a meek smile and suggested, "well, just make sure that you don't make a mess and don't forget to bring the tray down later tonight or, um, tomorrow morning if you're sleeping early." He then slipped out of her apartment as quickly as he had come, taking care to switch on the light for her on his way.
Minutes after Ruka left, she reached two arms down to limply pick up the tray and set it on her lap. Hotaru looked down at the unappetizing food. If she had it her way, everything would be chucked into the garbage and down the sink in less than two seconds. But she knew better than that and she also knew from experience that her withdrawals became even worse if she stopped eating. Reluctantly stabbing a fork into a potato, Hotaru proceeded to force every morsel of food on the tray down her mouth.
The way she carried herself as she walked with the rest of the Alices out of the cruise boat and onto Oshima Island the next day deceived everyone but Ruka, who sent her a worried look before deviating his own way. Hotaru kept a small smile fixated on her face. Along with the minority of the group, she headed on a trail up a mountain instead of the beach.
All kinds of strange, striking vegetation flourished just beyond the trail. Flowers peeped from the cracks in the rocks. Ferns stuck out a lazy arm as if to purposely tickle any wandering passerby. Hotaru took her time to enjoy the scenery around her, almost wishing that she had a camera so that she could snap some photos along the way.
Eventually, she reached the top of the mountain where she could gaze miles and miles out into the clear, blue ocean and a few little uninhabited islands. A little farther out, there was a cozy gazebo and a friendly gray-haired woman that beckoned her closer.
"Isn't it beautiful here?" asked Shizune. She, on the other hand, actually did bring along a camera and was in the process of snapping many pictures in rapid succession.
"I have never seen anywhere like it."
"Ah, I love going to new places," she exclaimed. "You could say it's part of the reason why I decided to become a diplomat. Working for the government doesn't have nearly as many benefits as people say it does, you know?" Hotaru briefly thought of Chiaki and his jaded, miserable state. "Usually people have reasons for being employed."
"What is your other reason?"
Shizune faltered, "o-oh, well I suppose they do give good pay. I get to meet a lot of new people and make many connections and I get really nice health and travel benefits, not to mention insurance."
Hotaru narrowed her eyes. "Yamanouchi-san, the last time we talked I recall you saying something about Sakurano-san being the head of the Special Abilities Class. You seemed quite close to him, in fact. Forgive me if I am wrong, but if you are in fact good friends with him then were you not good friends with my brother as well, before he left the Alice Funding Organization?"
The gray haired woman was a little puzzled. "Well, I suppose I was."
Hotaru replayed all her encounters of Subaru and then all the bits and pieces other people have said about her brother. It was just too puzzling to try and piece together all of them. Discrepancies. That was the main problem. Her mother's story hardly added up to Chiaki's ties with her brother and Subaru's own opinion of Natsume and AFO's activities. Whatever he did, she was sure that he did not just leave Tokyo for his son.
"What was he doing for the two years that he was with you?"
"Subaru?" asked Shizune, glancing up at the sky in wonder and tucking her hair behind her ears. In the gentle breeze, the gray strands swayed to and fro gracefully. "Subaru's just been Subaru. He left his student teaching position to pursue university around the same time I did. He was in med school for some ten years, met Naomi along the way, married her and had a family. Later, when Natsume-san graduated, he helped create AFO. Up until he quit, he was one of the main messengers along with Sakurano."
So almost nothing that was of help, except the messenger part which was just about as vague as the universe is wide.
"What is his relationship with Hidaka-san?"
Her thin, gray eyebrows furrowed this time. "He had a few exchanges with Yoko after discovering that she was the one who took you across the seas. I don't know the nature of the exchanges as he's never told me. He seldom talks about the Hidakas in general."
Now it was Hotaru's turn to be surprised. She did remember that a lady took her overseas straight to Irving Academy and that she did not think much of the lady. As a kid, she could hardly care what Yoko's eye colour or hair colour was; had she not just been another hated personnel to Hotaru?
"I see…"
"Why don't you ask him yourself?" suggested Shizune, smiling. "I'm sure he'd be more than willing to tell you about his life's journey. He's waited his entire life for you to come back after all."
Then why does he not want me here? Hotaru thought, staring defiantly at Shizune.
"Okay," she finally conceded.
"Did you know that your son is in the Dangerous Abilities Class?"
She did not quite intend for the call to begin that way but the words slipped through her lips before Hotaru could muster up anything else to say. As soon as they were out there, the inventor did a spin and silently cursed herself for getting off to a bad start with Subaru once again. Not that it was ever any different anyway. Since her visit to Nagoya, their conversations were mostly Subaru being irritated at her and Hotaru rebutting or ignoring his crankiness.
"What?" It was not a what of disbelief. More like a what, how did you find out?
"How does it not faze you," she demanded, "knowing that he might be in danger at any given moment of the day? In our days in the academy, these kids were sent on missions that—"
"Shiki already stopped sending them on missions. It's more likely that the Dangerous Abilities Class exists nowadays to keep them in check and refrain them from harming their peers."
"Of course that is what you are told. Hikaru will be ostracized from his peers before he can even lay a finger on them."
"Hyuuga was ostracized from his peers," drawled Subaru. "Look where he is now, leading his band of Alices."
Irked, Hotaru snipped, "do not even go there."
There was a pause as both of them took a moment to recollect themselves and piece together their arguments.
"You're right," Subaru finally admitted. "Hyuuga is very underhanded. Maybe you'll find out the hard way someday."
Hotaru scowled. "Do not change the subject. Do you not care at all for the welfare of your son?"
He preluded his rant with a long and dreary sigh. When he spoke, it was with much annoyance and contempt, "of course I do. Who do you take me to be? I'm his father. It would be inhumane for me not to care for and love my own flesh and blood son. What I cannot understand is why you appear to care for him more than Naomi and I do.
"Hikaru is not nearly as helpless as you and mother think. He can look after himself as well as you and I have before him. Do not underestimate your own kin, Hotaru. As a child, I lived in an age of peril, witnessed a beloved teacher die and an upperclassman barely escape from the clutches of an evil man. A decade later, I was thrown back into the turmoil that killed the same upperclassman, corrupted her child, and stole my sister. You took charge of communication during the Rebellion singlehandedly before spending a decade and half in a foreign country establishing your own name and fortune from scratch. And you think that my son cannot handle being in the Dangerous Ability Class?"
Hotaru let go of a shaky breath. "He is but seven, Subaru."
"So what? I was six when I was attacked by Persona. The Academy officials could do nothing for me. I survived because I was able to take care of myself. You don't have to worry about him, Hotaru. Shuuichi informs me frequently of his great accomplishments. He is a three star and he can even make his own Alice stone. Not many people can accomplish that at his age."
She stared blankly at the wall in front of her. "What about Naomi-san? Is she fine with all this? Does she even know all this?"
"I—" he cut himself off, letting the silence fill in the rest of the sentence.
"See, this is why I somewhat empathize with Naomi-san, and why she divorced you."
"What?" Subaru's tone was sharp.
"You two really are like night and day regarding affairs that concern Hikaru. I know you already kept most of this from our mother and I even agree to some point, but do you not think that as Hikaru's mother, Naomi deserves to know about the risks and dangers her own son is placed in? After all, the main reason for her anguish is her lack of understanding for the entire Alice world. So why would you shelter her from this? You are not Hikaru's only parent."
He was silent for the longest time.
"You will never understand, Hotaru, what I have given up as a father, a husband, a brother, and a friend. You will never understand."
Through the speaker, his voice was coarse and raw, every treble and crack audible to the naked ear. Hotaru stood there, stunned, finally understanding why he had not ruthless shot down her first request to go home. Doing something like that would just be the lowest of the low. Any snide reply to a voice that hid absolutely nothing was akin to stealing bread from the starving homeless. All she could do was swallow a lump that formed in her own throat and softly agree.
"Just let me do things my way and I will no longer criticize you for doing things yours."
"All right." She supposed that the tension between them was too high for her to ask about his past affiliations without receiving equivocal or elusive responses. "I just have one more message to pass to you then."
"What?"
"Hidaka Chiaki wants to inform you that 'she is waiting.'"
What she got back was the beeping of dial tone.
Their given schedule for Sunday was absolutely unrelenting. At five o'clock sharp, the Alices had to be back in the dining room of Lady Sakura. Sumire wanted to squeeze in a quick speech before sending them up to their rooms to pack. At seven, they were come back down again for one last meal. Eight in the evening was the scheduled time to arrive back in Tokyo and if the Nakamura Cruising Company knew anything, it was punctuality.
When Hotaru reached the dining room, Sumire was already doing a head count. As soon as everyone arrived, she tapped a spoon on a wine glass much too fervently in Hotaru and many other Alices' opinion. They did stop their chatter and turn to face her though.
The woman raised both utensils into the air joyously while exclaiming, "we approach the end of the cruise! I hope everyone had a good time."
There was unanimous cheer which Hotaru excluded herself from.
"Now, we reach Tokyo in a few hours. When the meeting is over, I strongly suggest everyone to go back to their rooms and pack. Nakamura's not going to be happy if you dilly dally. Oh, and a shower would also be a good idea."
A few people laughed heartily.
"Okay, so now that that's over, let's all take a moment thank Umenomiya Anna and Tenoki Miruku for preparing our meals; Hidaka Chiaki for keeping order; Hoshimaru Hibiki and Takahashi Jiro for being the awesome tour guides they are; and last but not least, Nakamura Shinji whose uncle lent us the cruise ship and made all this possible."
Sumire pointed to a short, balding man who looked absolutely embarrassed to be in the centre of the spotlight. Loud applause exploded throughout the Alices. Koko and Kitsuneme even reached over several heads to gave him a pat on the back. Rather than partaking, Hotaru simply stood in place and scowled at the mention of Chiaki's name.
"Before we leave, we're going to have one last meal in the dining room. I will count seats. Do not miss out on this. This is our last dinner so no come and go as you please as some of you have during last meals. Yes Natsume, I'm talking to you. We're going to sit down at seven o'clock sharp and eat like a family. Then you may have your lives back. Got that Imai?"
From the corner of her eye, she saw Ruka shooting her a look of worry for the umpteenth time.
"Okay, now go pack, you sweaty gorillas. Andou couple, I said go pack, not have sex. Just because you knocked her up, Tsubasa, doesn't mean that you can bang her anytime you like. There is a time and there is a place…"
Their meaningless chatter became background noise as Hotaru scanned the throng of bodies for a lanky, spaced out eighteen year old. Her recent conversation with Subaru brought a few details to her attention, especially the one sentence Youichi said a while ago that did not quite make sense… There he was. Walking up the first set of stairs aside Natsume. Luckily, Natsume's room was on the third floor so Hotaru quickly slipped past all the people to grab Youichi just before he entered his room.
"I need to talk to you," she stated, latching a firm grip onto both of his shoulders.
"Have you noticed then?" he asked and her erratic heart, instead of calming down, raced twice as fast.
"Have I noticed what?"
He pointed behind her. "She's still following you around. She's getting a little restless now. It's been three days and you still haven't led her to where her husband is. She's going to put a curse on you soon. I can prevent that if you like."
"By all means," insisted Hotaru, stuck between utterly creeped out and relieved, "but that is not what I am here for. I need to ask things regarding Hyuuga. Privately."
Youichi nodded, complacently letting her in and shutting the door gently behind them.
Hotaru exhaled a breath of relief. "Thank you Hijiri-san."
"You don't need to address me so formally, you know, Hotaru-nee? I knew you back in the academy. We were on the same side during the rebellion."
"That is fine. I address everyone cordially," said Hotaru, too pressed for time to argue about the correct honorifics for their relationship. Her words all came out speedy and jumbled. "The first day we met after you graduated, you told me that Hyuuga knew I would come back as soon as I graduated. How?"
Youichi's gray eyes met Hotaru's violent ones. His gaze was steady but also laid back while her sharp eyes assertively pressed for the truth. Finally, the gray haired teenager sighed, "gee, That's a touchy topic, Hotaru-nee. Are you sure you don't just want me to get rid of that ghost for you?"
"I am far more concerned with Hyuuga's interference than I am about a ghost."
Youichi held out a hand, not to her but past her. He beckoned the spirit over and flicked his finger against what looked to Hotaru like thin air. "Okay, she won't bother you anymore. Natsume-nii told me he promised never to speak to you again. Is it true?"
Hotaru confirmed.
"Well that's too bad." His eyes found themselves back on hers again. "He used to desperately want you here in Japan. He always thought that you knew where Mikan-nee was. Before you came, Aoi told me that he spends most of his time staring into small objects, objects that remind him of Mikan-nee. She would wake up to find him smashing dishes against the wall in frustration. It used to scare her endlessly. She would always tell me that she wished Shizune-san could help him bring you back faster so that you could set him right again."
"He brought me back," she whispered frantically. "He brought me back."
Brushing aside Youichi, Hotaru set out on a rampage to comb ever single room of the cruise ship for Shizune. The ballroom was now empty except for the clean-up crew consisting of Alices she did not know. Hotaru whipped around as fast as she could and headed for the kitchen, but only Anna and Mikuru were there, too busy preparing for the feast to even notice her. No one but Sumire was in the dining room; Hotaru kept her mouth clamped shut, speeding past her in case she tried to start a conversation. The second and third floor corridors were completely empty, as was the deck of the ship.
It was almost six now. She had wasted to much time.
Hotaru returned to her room. She packed furiously, stuffing everything into her bag as quickly as possible.
The variables were all in place. Everything made sense. The answer was just not one she intended to arrive at.
Gritting her teeth, she decided to leave and search for the woman for a second time, only to crash into a very solid body. Both of them stumbled back, apologizing at the same time. Both of them looked back up, started at the familiar voice.
"Imai-san? What are you doing here?" It was the first time Ruka had not looked nervous when speaking to her in the past three days.
"Never mind that. Where is Yamanouchi-san?"
"Shizune left her room long ago after getting a call. Apparently she returned too early and now they want her back in Japan. She's been running around for the whole time trying to say goodbye to everyone. We should head down. It's already six forty five and, um, Sumire can be really menacing sometimes."
He escorted her to her room where she picked up her luggage and towed it down to the dining room. Most of the Alices already congregated there and were settled in their seats. There was a mountain of suitcases and coats piled against the wall nearest to the door. Some other vainer Alices draped their blazers on the backs of their chairs because god forbid that even a speck of dirt were to ruin that soft, black velvet sheen. Shizune's table, unfortunately, was already full of women and Ruka's had Natsume so Hotaru grudgingly took the only seat left beside Sumire.
"Hello Imai-san!" exclaimed Kitsuneme. "Remember me?"
"Yes. I always remember the people I have been introduced to."
The only upside of sitting in the same table as Sumire was that the gregarious woman did such a good job of supplying conversation that no one paid attention to Hotaru's preoccupied state. She was free to spend as much time with her eyes fixed on Shizune as she possibly could. More than once, Hotaru tried to catch the gray haired woman's attention as she accidentally glanced her way. But Shizune was too caught in conversation with her fellow Hana Hime girls to notice Hotaru's stare.
When the food came, the only thing Hotaru could taste was panic—panic that she would not make it in time and panic that she would. Because if she would, and if all of her fears were absolutely confirmed, then she had even more of a reason to hate Natsume.
Hotaru's eyes flitted to the clock every thirty seconds. Minute by minute, time ticked by until the small hand was almost at the eight and the big hand was on the nine. The plates of food were reduced to simply plates. From across the table, Koko let out a satisfied burp before getting chastised by Sumire.
It was at this exact moment that Shizune excused herself to head to the restroom and Hotaru hurriedly got up to tail her.
"Yamanouchi-san!"
About to enter a stall, the older lady turned around. "Wakamurasaki-no-kimi?"
"I need to ask you something. You must promise to answer me truthfully."
Shizune turned and walked to Hotaru. She now looked very concerned at the inventor's unusual behaviour. With knitted eyebrows, the woman ensured, "of course, Wakamurasaki-no-kimi. You know I'd never lie to you."
"Did Hyuuga make you or anyone else pull some strings within the government to bring me back to Japan?"
Shizune opened her mouth.
"Please, just give me a yes or no answer."
The gray haired woman closed her eyes gently and nodded apologetically. "Yes."
Hotaru inhaled and exhaled deeply. Well, at least she took it better than she expected—perhaps because she anticipated the answer, had known it since the talk back in Youichi's room. She expected her knees to fail her like they did when she found out that Hikaru was a dangerous type. They did not. They stood firmly. But they were also paralyzed and stiff as she channeled all her anger into clenching her fists and gritting her teeth.
"I hope you won't be too hard on him," sighed Shizune. "All he ever wanted is to find on Mikan-san. Natsume-san never knew the kind of feelings you had for America."
Hotaru nodded, but only to give the appearance. She put one foot behind another, backing out of the bathroom cautiously. Shizune's steady, apologetic gaze never left her face until she turned around the corner. In blinding fury, Hotaru whipped around and swept out of the bathroom.
The dining room was a chaotic mess as Sumire tried to maintain order until the boat landed. As soon as one Alice saw that it was seven fifty, he got up and fetched his coat. Naturally, everyone else followed suit. A few more minutes elapsed noisily and still nobody was ready to leave. Sumire unnecessarily screamed at the top of her lungs, which only added to the chaos. The inventor herself walked straight through the mass, angrily shoving them out of her way and disregarding their snide protests.
As she reached her luggage, she saw Shizune exiting the washroom.
What a shame that people like Shizune and Ruka, who never deserved this, would have to witness such an ugly scene.
A firm but small bump confirmed the ship's landing. The time was now seven fifty seven. As soon as the Alices felt the bump, the racket amplified twofold. They all made for the door at the same time, pushing and shoving to be the first one who got back on land. There was no way for Sumire and the tour guides to get everyone under control.
Hotaru lingered behind, sneering condescendingly at the unsightly scene. Not one of them had stayed behind to help clean up. Empty glasses, plates, and wine bottles still remained strewn over tables.
She swiftly grabbed the nearest bottle of Pinot Noir and, with sharp precision, wrung it at a wall. The smash of glass resounded throughout the entire room, capturing the attention of all the impatient Alices. They froze.
"Good evening everyone. My name is Imai Hotaru and I would like to give my very own toast to Hyuuga Natsume here, who came up with the brilliant idea of manipulating your government to send me an ocean over from America." She alone clapped slowly, loudly, and sardonically. "Truly impressive, Hyuuga. I want to thank you by personally promising to use every single one of my connections to bankrupt the entire AFO and all its associates in the next five years."
Everyone, including Sumire, was silent.
Hotaru sought Natsume out in the crowd and smiled his direction. "Somewhere out there, you have a special place in hell."
As she left the room, the Alices parted for her like the Red Sea did for Moses. Whether they did it in disgust or dumbfound, Hotaru would never know. She was preoccupied with pulling out her Blackberry to check the time. It was exactly eight in the evening.
LE GASP. OH, THE DRAMA. Yes, so here you see Hotaru and Natsume conflicting further, not that it's anything new. It's still interesting to write about, and even though Natsume hasn't really spoken much for the past seven chapters, he will very very soon.
Please alert, fave, review!
-IndigoGrapefruit
