Diclaimer: Mai HiME / Mai Otome and its Characters do not belong to me. All this stuff belongs to Sunrise.

Chapter 11

"Shizu- ru?" He sounded genuinely surprised, something I never heard before. My smile broadened.

"I didn't know that I already stained our family name for you to justify your intervention. If I recall correctly, our agreement didn't include a kidnapping on the second day of my leave."

He snorted, but restrained himself from speaking with me. It was endearing to know that he still despised me.

"But I didn't only call to tell you that I am doing well at the moment, but that you have around one hour to clean up the mess you forced me to cause. Otherwise the police will start to investigate why there is a half a dozen of corpses lying around. And don't forget to fish for the one swimming somewhere in the canal. You see, he ran out of luck last night."

"So at least you showed some resolve, ungrateful thing. That's fine, I will see to it personally then. My original plans didn't change, though you bought yourself a delay of some days with the lives you have taken today."

He sounded like he had a foul mood. It was understandable, although he would never admit that.

"There is one thing I wanted to ask you, Otou-san."

With a huff he agreed to at least hear me out.

"You see, Wáng-san is still alive and since he isn't able to move properly, I am unsure of what I should do with him. So, do you have any suggestions regarding this matter?"

"It is surprising that you let him out of all people alive. Whatever, he can be of use for a last service, so let him live."

"Why, thank you for your altruistic act, Otou-chan." I smiled, still very satisfied with me and the outcome of this little struggle here.

"Don't get too cocky, girl. If you get into trouble and the press gets their claws on you, it will reflect ill upon me. You are smarter than to think that I had something left for the abnormal likes of you." he practically growled into the phone, not hiding his displeasure at all.

"That's a shame, but it doesn't matter as long as my girlfriend is with me, you know?"

"Oi, Shizuru, stop mocking that old bastard!", Natsuki nearly yelled, fumbling around with her arms.

"It seems that my girlfriend doesn't like you, either." I added to the phone. I am also sure that he heard Natsuki calling him 'old bastard'. My mood brightened even more.

"You are walking a dangerous path, Shizuru. I will not tolerate this insolence and I will punish you for this, remember that!"

"Then let me tell you this as a last thing: I will kill everyone you send to disturb our togetherness."

When I hung up on him, Natsuki went all out, still fuming.

"Don't say such a thing, Shizuru, damnit! I won't let you kill people randomly… look at this mess, who will take care of it?!"

"Ara, Natsuki isn't fond of seeing bloody corpses and ragged bodies?" I added jokingly.

"Quit joking about that, I'm serious." Though she was no stranger to violence, she still had a few peaceful years. Until I came back into her life, bringing all the blood and death with me. I sighed before turning my attention to the wounded man, lowering the weapon in my hand and directing my voice towards Sergay Wáng.

"Otou-san wants you to stay alive and Natsuki will surely be angry with me if I produce another corpse, so you are free to go, Wáng-san. I won't guarantee for your safety, though, in case you decide to show up here ever again. Farewell."

Now there was nothing left but to wait for somebody getting the cleanup done.

Both of us were in my apartment again, saying nothing. The silence hung heavily in the air, while we avoided looking directly into each other's guilt ridden face.

"Natsuki… I'm sorry for letting you see this side of mine – again."

"There is nothing to apologize for, Shizuru. To be honest, I already thought about how to make them pay for taking… you away from me."

Shizuru said nothing for a moment, but after a long and tired sigh she responded in a quiet and gentle voice.

"To think that I was the reason for you shedding tears… I hope that will never happen again."

She was right, I never so much as cried before about anything. Without a word I smiled at her, showing her that everything was alright now. So did she.

The television was turned on, so that we wouldn't have to sit around in complete silence. It was difficult to find coherent words expressing one's mind after witnessing your girlfriend kill six people in cold blood, admitting another kill the night before by the hands that made lovingly breakfast for you the next morning.

But I was no saint, either, and above all still thankful that I hadn't lost her. Not that I ever had such a high… number of victims falling by my own hand, but that doesn't count, I think. We did what we had to do in order to survive, to not only save our very life, but that of our most important person, too. Today we fought a battle to preserve our new and yet old love, to ensure our undisturbed togetherness for at least another few days, until that old man of hers would most likely make another attempt to take away from me what was most important. Would that fact alone justify another kill? Would she forgive me if I killed her father? In theory, would I have forgiven her if she killed my mother to prevent her from selling me to Searrs? That's hard to tell… I will try to find the answer to this question another time. There were more pressing matters at hand, now.

Our eyes fell onto the urgent news, which popped up just at this moment. It wasn't enough to make them disrupt the morning program of Fuuka Local TV, though it was sufficient to blend the commonly used stripe of letters floating at the bottom of the screen, making the letters go from left to right.

It simply read: 'terrorist act in the outskirts of Fuuka City – seven civilians died – wounded terrorist Sergay Wáng seized by special police forces several minutes ago'

So they meant that by calling him useful. Considering everything what happened down there, they were really fast to bend reality to their wishes. I wondered how many of the other news I regularly read or heard were the whole truth?

"Just about an hour and the feared men in black were there. That means that Otou-san's men were already in position, observing the situation. Those thugs were probably the decoy without even knowing that." Shizuru noted, breaking the stillness of my, no, our apartment.

"Ah. But I still wish I could have killed the bald guy myself." I said bitterly, thinking back at today in the morning, when this bunch of idiots disturbed us.

"Why… would you say such a thing, Natsuki?" she asked with her eyes widened in irritation.

"You were focused on this Wáng-guy, so you didn't notice… the way he stared at you, it was disgusting. Nobody has the right to look at you this way, no one!"

It was true, I really did want to finish him off on my own. Never did I feel jealousy to this extend before.

"Thank you, Natsuki." A big and warm hug, followed by a peck on my cheek, was my reward. I should listen to my dark side more often, if it comes to possessiveness of Shizuru. I ignored my reddened cheek… well, I tried to ignore it at least.

"Ah. But we should think about what we will do next, how to prepare against their next attack or… well, how to prevent them from trying it ever again."

After a brief period, during which neither of us said anything, it was Shizuru who raised her voice again.

"You mean… strike them at their base or something like that?"

She eyed me with a thoughtful expression, tipping her chin with her index finger.

"Y- yeah, something like that." I answered, feeling ashamed of myself from even proposing such a thing. It was a selfish thing to ask of her, after all.

From the way she sighed I could tell she was tired. After the adrenaline wears off, tiredness will always kick in threefold, especially in the aftermath of a massacre you caused in the first place.

"Natsuki, I'm not sure if it is a good idea to go home and attack my own father, as much as I despise him for what he was trying to do. Though he lacks practice at his martial arts, I'm really sure that my influence wouldn't be sufficient to match or even surpass his."

"You mean… he is stronger than you?"

Disbelief must have been present on my face, for when she giggled I felt like little child who was about to be scolded for a wrong answer.

"That's not what I meant, at least not in the way you think we measure power. Actually, I am pretty certain my background as HiME, my youth and the lack of hesitation make me stronger than him, but to beat an opponent like him, I would need more influence within the Fujino-family."

Not grasping what she meant, I asked another question.

"You are the heiress of the whole business empire, so why do you need to gather influence at this point?"

Shizuru tightened her embrace, nuzzling my left ear with the tip of her nose. After giving my earlobe a soft bite, she proceeded with her explanation.

"Well, despite being his sole child and a member of the main-family, I didn't provide anything of value to our clan yet. I will have to prove my worth to them. Usually, as a woman you achieve this by choosing a proper husband, giving the clan an heir and then working fulltime for the company, but I did neither."

"And… do you plan to…"

Before I could go into panic-mode, Shizuru managed to calm me down.

"Ara, I'm not interested in taking over the whole business anyway, so there is no point in speaking about that. My future lies within you, Na-tsu-ki."

We remained silent for another ten minutes, enjoying holding each other after nearly being broken up by force.

"But by saying 'prevent them from trying ever again' you meant killing Otou-san, right?" she asked out of a sudden, not loosening her arms around my exhausted body.

"…"

It was hard to answer this question in all honesty. I was still lost in thought as to how I could respond to her question the best, when she started speaking again.

"I can see it in your face. I even sympathize with you in that point. However, who is going to clean up the mess once he and all his important connections are gone? As I said, I lack the right influence to avoid being sentenced to jail when I kill him."

This was something I hadn't thought of before. Back then I could do what I wanted, since I had the backup of the First District. They did everything to cover up those incidents caused by the HiME. Hell, they even managed to downplay the assault of heavily armed Special Forces, tanks, battleships and Alyssa's child's attack, which was everything but a modest display of Searrs' power.

With that gone, it was the political influence of Shizuru's father's that kept our records clean. It would prove to be a complete disaster if he were ever to be rendered incapable of stemming the oncoming force of law.

That meant, in short, that we were sitting ducks, waiting for being attacked over and over again.

"I see." was all I could muster up my strangled voice to reply.

"Therefore, I will take the risk and try to live with you rather than being separated from you for sure. I'm sorry there isn't much I can do about our situation."

Closing my eyes and inhaling her fragrant scent helped me to fight against the rising distress.

"It seems that we don't have a choice in that matter. But I want you to know that I will gladly risk everything to be with you, Shizuru, even my life." I whispered into her ear, meaning every bit of it.

"Natsuki… I will never be able to repay you for your kindness, when you keep being far too nice to me."

Her voice was shaky and barely audible. I could tell that she was not far from crying. A crying Shizuru wasn't something I could ever handle… most likely I would start shedding tears, too. Thus I had no choice but to steer our topic into a much safer direction.

"Well, for once you could help me out with the garage. You mentioned that you have some skills repairing your racing machine, so-"

I was effectively silenced by a strong, demanding and literally breathtaking kiss.

Nina came home from cram school when she found the front door to her small flat widely open. A police officer was blocking her way in. She came to a stop immediately when she felt a strong grip at her right shoulder, making her head turn to look at whoever was touching her.

"Nina Wáng?" the deep voice asked her before she could even make out the whole stature of the man behind her. All she could see was the typically beige trench coat, the same-colored hat and a day's growth of stubble on his cheeks and chin. His bloodshot and baggy eyes gave away that he didn't have much sleep the past few days.

She only nodded in silence. With a nod of his own he proceeded.

"Detective Oshigawa, Kyoto Police Department for homicide and inner security." he spoke, holding some sort of ID card with a police badge attached to it before her eyes to identify him.

"Did… something happen to father?" she asked with wide eyes and an unsteady voice.

"Please, come in, there is no need to talk about that out here, isn't it?" Though he smiled, the smile didn't reach his eyes. It was his job, after all, and he did that kind of talk probably every day. With her gaze downcast, she followed him inside.

He led her to the kitchen, where he offered her a seat. He, too, sat down, but he didn't even remove his hat.

"Miss Wáng, I am deeply sorry to be the messenger of bad news, but your father is in a hospital facility at Fuuka city's jail. Once he recovers, he will be transferred to Sapporo's high security jail, where he will be charged for treason, murder, committing an act of terrorism and illegal possession of firearms. Since you aren't of age yet, we will take you to an orphanage while we search for a foster family for you. I'm sorry that I don't have better news."

"Why…" was the first and only thing she asked. Within minutes her whole world shattered.

"Well, around 10 p.m. today he took six civilians hostage and executed them when we refused to give in to his demands. What it was that he wanted, that I cannot tell you, but it was something the intelligence service wasn't willed to give away. After a brief shooting, he fled wounded. Half an hour later we were able to seize him near a factory hall."

"Why… Fuuka? Why?" she asked again, barely capable of understanding the enormity of what he told her.

"The government has a military base there, so it is likely that what he searched for is to be found at said outpost. I can't tell you more, though, for they didn't explain everything in detail even to me."

"Can I… see him?" Nina asked with pleading eyes, wanting nothing more than to see her father and hear him telling her everything would be alright.

"I'm afraid not, Miss Wáng. At least not until he has recovered, I mean. If and when you can visit him in jail, that is beyond me right now."

"Daddy… how… why?"

"I will wait for you outside. You have around one hour to pack everything you want to take with you before we depart. After this, we will seal this apartment until further notice."

Nina only nodded, still too shocked to even cry.

The following days proved to be very peaceful and it is no understatement to say that I never experienced such tranquility. Of course, working this hard for the first time in my life wasn't easy and repairing various models of bikes forced me to learn many things in a short timeframe, but even then I enjoyed it, since it was Natsuki who was constantly around, teaching me many things, especially those small hidden things only a true expert could introduce you to.

We worked every day and also most of the nights to catch up our work, but that didn't matter to us. We had each other and that was enough. Of course, the business went rather well, considering that it were two girls now instead of one. It was astonishing to see our reputation grow this fast in only a few days. Although a little macabre, the killings right before our business also served as kind of a PR campaign. Those who haven't heard of Natsuki's business up until now, they now knew.

When thinking about all of that, my heart became very warm and for the first time ever I felt honestly loved and accepted with all of my faults and flaws, however minor or major they were. She gave me all I needed and I freely surrendered everything to her.

It was during those thoughts when I noticed the dark-clothed person in front of the garage, coming slowly closer. Since we were literally in constant danger, both of us had a small handgun with us. Not that I would need it to finish some lesser fools, but Otou-san doesn't make the same mistake twice – ever! Sending tired part-time criminals, who expected two mere girls, was most likely just a small test to see the level of resistance. Next time should prove to be a lot harder.

My right hand felt the rough and cold texture of the weapon hidden in one of the wide pockets of my working suit, when I straightened up and scanned the area for further intruders with my eyes.

Currently Natsuki was up in the apartment to fetch something to drink, so I was alone for now. I was relieved due to this fact, for I couldn't stand the thought of our roles being reversed. To think that Natsuki would be alone against those who dared to stand up against me on her own…

The person now entered the garage and I still couldn't identify him, though I could tell from the way he carried himself that it was most certainly a man.

"Good afternoon. Can I help you, sir?" I greeted him with my usual mask of friendliness, hiding the tension building up within my body.

"Ah." he said, shoving his somewhat scruffy long hair out of his face. When I recognized him, I let go of the weapon and tried to think of a reason why it was him out of all people that paid us a visit.

"Takeda-san?"

Now that I come to think of it, I didn't even remember him having shoulder-length hair in the first place. Not that I paid any attention to anything back at the HiME meeting, to be honest. All I remember is Natsuki's face in at least one hundred and seventy-eight different colours, ranging from crimson-red to pure white.

"Ah." he answered, his tone still sounding very depressed.

"Erm… how can I help you?" Uncertain of what to do with him, I decided to stay polite. The moment he insults Natsuki, however, would be the moment I would ki- eh, take care of him. Send him home, I mean.

"How are you… and Kuga-san?" he asked, staring into my eyes with such intensity I've never seen in his.

"I'm sorry, but I don't know what-"

"You know what I mean, Fujino-san. The dead people…" his voice become silent. I thought I knew what he tried to say.

Originally I wanted to send him away, to let my jealousy get the better of me, to keep my Natsuki to myself, to keep the privilege of being the only one who is allowed to show something like concern towards her, to scratch his eyes out for his mere presence, but… I knew the pain of unrequited love very well, the torture of not receiving any love from the only person you longed for. Unlike me, however, he lost this chance to get what his heart wanted so badly, and yet he was still concerned about her well-being. He was stronger than I thought.

My gaze softened and I let out the breath I didn't know I held.

"Takeda-san, I thank you for your sympathy. We were lucky that day and nothing happened to us, even though such a terrible thing occurred directly in front of the garage." I began.

When he nodded, I smiled and chose my words well. I wouldn't do any good if the truth came out… the fewer people knew of the problems I had with my father, the better.

"The police took great care of everything and the culprit was arrested, so I hope something like this won't repeat."

"But it's funny, isn't it? Since Nagi and his crazy festival it seems that violence and blood is following your every step. Kuga-san never came to rest and as far as I know, nobody of the other ex-HiME's found everlasting peace either."

"What a pessimistic way to see our lives, Takeda-san." I said, smiling at the sad truth of his words.

He smiled back and turned without a word to go. And when he was gone, I was left with the knowledge that unlike him I got what I desired. I had Natsuki, while he had nothing.

It was the first time I felt something like sympathy towards him.

"Who was that?"

I turned around to see Natsuki stepping out of her hiding place, two bottles of soda in her hands. It seems she waited in case the situation would require her to intervene. Fortunately, it didn't.

"It was just Takeda-san." I said, unsure about how I should proceed.

"What did he want?" Natsuki asked blatantly.

"Well… he asked about our well-being. That's all."

After a brief period of silence, Natsuki nodded and gave me the bottle full of refreshing, cool soda.

"Did you manage to find what's wrong with the Yamaha?"

Takeda's visit long forgotten, she leaned on a nearby workbench, popped her bottle open and took two deep gulps, before my sweet girlfriend smiled and waited for me to answer.

I was to repair a rather old Yamaha motorbike and had a rather hard time in finding the cause of its problems. Of course, Natsuki knew where to look, but I had a long way to go, after all.

"I have to admit, my knowledge of motorcycle's bodies is by far surpassed by my extensive knowledge of Natsuki's body."

I loved her cute blush and after being stuck without her for more than five minutes, I just needed to tease her. It was an addiction, so to speak. Needless to say that Natsuki didn't disappoint me with her reaction.

"B- baka." she whispered, certainly thinking about the more interesting things I did to explore her whole body and the funniest reactions to said things.

"Do you know what motorcycles and my Natsuki have in common?" I asked, chastising myself for my inability to stop teasing her.

"I don't want to know that." Which meant 'Go ahead, I can't stop you anyway'. Her face was red and her eyes looked everywhere but towards me. Her shyness despite everything we did night after night was utterly adorable.

"I love to ride them both." I sensually breathed towards her, licking my lips in a way she always found seductive.

Too bad we had to deal with a huge workload, since I always dreamed about having 'wild action' at work.

"Oshigawa-san, here is the full report. Though most of it consisted of classified files off-limits for us, I managed to get them out from an old hidden backup. The results are interesting."

Tokagara Ishida, our computer-expert, was a genius on his field. We were lucky to have him with us, especially since he was loyal. This loyalty to us came in handy whenever I had to check things the ministry of the interior or the intelligence service had their claws upon.

I mean, it was not that I didn't trust them, but there were still cases literally yelling something like 'I am fishy, check me out!'. Cases like Wáng's alleged act of terrorism. That whole thing was strange to begin with, not to mention that it was closed even before the full investigation started. Or any investigation at all.

"Ah, thanks. You can go and rest for now, it will take a while until I read those." I said while turning my gaze towards the pile of reports and documents.

Tokagara left and so again I was alone in my office.

"Let's see what we have here…"

This was really a lot, but it was sorted by relevance, so it didn't took me the whole night to find what exactly was bothering me this much.

This Sergay Wáng seemed to have a connection to the Fujino-family's main branch, the most important part of the Fujino clan. They had a large international acting company with its head office located here in the town of Kyoto. Not that he was employed there on an official base… whenever he got into trouble, he was bailed out by men known in the underworld for working directly for Fujino Sajonji-sama himself. I have dealt with two of them several years ago, when they were involved in a series of murders amongst higher-ranked people in the business world.

But to summarize it: A man, who worked for someone really powerful with connection throughout the world of business and politics, was found by agents and Special Forces not even one hour after a serious crime took place. The body-count was seven – including the corpse from the river, who was killed the night before. Some of them had fractures; most of them were simply killed with a single bullet straight into the head, the rest by breaking their neck.

Was that something a heavily wounded man could do? Break other people's bones? To aim with such a precision while on the verge of unconsciousness due to a potentially lethal wound? And why were those agents from the intelligence service there in the first place? And why did they keep the forensic people away from that place? Where was the murderer's weapon? Last I heard the corpses were cremated not even 24 hours after their death.

Furthermore, the crime scene was directly in front of a garage, which belonged to a young woman, who – coincidentally – was the daughter of a famous politician. But that wasn't all… the only child and heir of the Fujino business empire, the genius girl Fujino Shizuru, was – lo and behold – there to visit this girl, who was coincidentally her childhood friend, for a few days. And that garage was near the canal, where they found that other body, though this unlucky young man died approximately ten hours prior to his companions. Not to mention that he also was from Kyoto and seemed to have connections to Wáng-san reaching back to several years past.

Did he plan on kidnapping his boss's daughter, to blackmail him for ransom? And when his comrades proved to be loyal to the family, did he kill them all? And that was just one possibility there…

It was much more behind it than on first glance, and as such worth an investigation, I decided. Whoever it was who killed those men, I would find and arrest them.

Natsuki's father a famous politician - What if I told you that both of them will eventually meet? I don't want to spoil anything, so of course I won't say how good or bad their relation is. :-)

No Takeda-bashing today? - Well, he is to pity, but he isn't a bad guy, so I had mercy on him and decided to give that poor bastard some screen time. :-D