Chapter 11

"Kill it!"

Came a cold order from her master.

She looked at her best friend, her hand shaking as she gripped on the gun. Her eyes already wet from tears, as her friend's eyes stared back at her full of trust and love.

She closed her eyes tightly before she pulled the trigger, with a loud bang in the air, a whimper could be heard. Her friend. Her only friend and she...

"Good... now dispose it"

As her master walked away, she opened her eyes slowly. Her friend now in its final breath. Its chest rising and dropping slowly. She could feel her knees weak as she slumped next to it, crying silently, covering her mouth with her hand so her sobs will not be heard by her master. Then she felt something wet on her knee. He licked her knee while it was still whimpering in pain. Telling her that everything is alright, that everything will be alright. He accepted his fate and he still loved her no matter what. She placed her friend's head to rest on her lap and felt the soft fur as she rubbed his head. Slowly and peacefully, his eyes closed. She hugged him tightly before she carried it with her to its grave.

Natsuki raised her hand and waved at her audience before she put on her dark grey helmet. It was a specially made helmet that was made from the technology of NerveGear which had a virtual reality 3D vision for maneuvering. At the side of the helmet was written the label "SpHere". Stradling the matching colored motorbike which also had a same label at the side of gas tank, Natsuki gave a command from inside her helmet. "Engine, start!" The command was also heard by the audience from the central speaker. She could hear gasps from her audience as the engine of the machine started automatically just by the voice command. The big screen showed the live footage of Natsuki's vision monitor. As Natsuki turned her head toward Shizuru, the audience seeing the exact same thing Natsuki was seeing.

"Vision, Zoom 50... Zoom 100" She commanded.

"Ara!" Shizuru who was seated at the VIP seat was surprise as she saw her own image on the large screen, obviously, Natsuki was looking at her right now. She waved and smiles sweetly to her wife before Natsuki waved back and turned her atention to the track ahead.

"Sphere, auto pilot...start!"

As Natsuki gave the command, the machine started moving at a slow speed and at the first corner, the speed increased while Natsuki calmly just stradled her bike and let the auto pilot take the road.

"Sphere, switch to manual maneuver...start!"

A click sounded indicating the lock for auto pilot was lifted, and Natsuki gripped the handle to increase her speed. The screen showed the road, various calculations and meter on the screen inside the helmet.

Letters blinking "Frequency Interferrence" and "Auto Pilot Mode" appeared before the the word 'Error' in red letter appear on the screen.

"Huh?... Sphere, decrease speed" Natsuki gave another command, yet the same letters appeared.

"Sphere, emergency stop!"

The letters blinked again.

"Shit" Natsuki swore before she lost all control and crashed into the side road.

In the VIP seat, Shizuru's face become pale as she saw Natsuki's motorbike hit the side block with a loud crashing sound. The medic rushed to the rescue, luckily, the sphere technology had a separate accident counter measure engine, so the fire didn't occur as the carbon dioxide gas already bursted out from the back of the motorbike managing to purge the fire before it broke out.

Natsuki's body laid on the ground next to the motorbike... unmoving.

Shizuru's heart pounded hard in her chest. Raising to her feet, she excused herself and ran to the door leading to the race track.

Natsuki...Natsuki...

Over and over again, she was calling her wife inside her head.

Please be safe, my Natsuki.

As she reached the side of the race track, the medic already carrying Natsuki on a stretcher. She approached it, panic evident on her face as she saw that the grey fire suit had blood on it. The helmet was still on her, but Shizuru was sure that the blood coming from inside the helmet. Tears started to falling down her cheek as she called her wife's name, hoping Natsuki to would answer her. Holding her hand tightly as she accompanied the medic into an ambulance, it feel cold.

"Natsuki, please." Shizuru pleaded.

"Fujino-sama, I'm sorry but excuse me. Can you give us a little space, please." one of the medic officer interrupted.

Slowly the medic pulled the helmet and immediately put an oxygen mask in place.

Kissing the unconscious girl on the forhead, a single tear fell from Shizuru's eye and onto Natsuki's closed one. She looked so peaceful like she was asleep, away from any danger and nightmare she always had. Shizuru hoped that was the case but the reality it was painful for her. This time, she wished Natsuki would awaken and she will do anything for her. "Natsuki, please..."

...

Few days later...

"Baka-Puppy, you shouldn't go to work yet. Go back to your den and sleep" a loud voice vibrated in the hall early in the morning. Two women sat at the kitchen counter as the person that was more familiar to her surroundings put two cup of tea in front of them. The sight of those two officers wandering around her house, or making themselves comfortable on her sofa is was not rare to her anymore. Not that those two officers had spent many times in her house for almost 3 months, but had suddenly stopped spending nights at her house, and maybe stayed somewhere near her house after they received a new homicide case, believed to be the Shang again, thus started getting busy again, as she kicked down the door with shouts of various rude words and ran towards the crime scene. Three months were enough for them to grow into close friends as Haruka dared to called her with various nicknames, but most of all, she liked to called her 'Bubuzuke puppy', and she stuck on calling Shizuru 'Bubuzuke Onna'. Next to her, Yukino, her assistant frequently had to apologize on her behalf every time Haruka goes way too near the border of becoming violent, especially in her house, particularly, the door. That loud monkey should learn to control her strength. Natsuki mused as she took her seat at the kitchen counter.

"Ohayou, Shizuru" Natsuki smiled at the beautiful image of her wife. She usually just called her wife with her first name when they are not alone. She didn't want anyone to know that she was such a cheesy person to call her wife, honey, sweety or any of the same, but she prefered honey for the time being when they are alone.

"Natsuki, you shouldn't be up yet. Take a rest. I already told Nao about your condition and she said to leave the work to her" Shizuru reassured Natsuki as she put a cup of coffee in front of her wife.

"That's what I'm worried about. I need to check on the work sometimes." taking her cup with her left hand, Natsuki slowly drank her hot coffee, feeling refreshed by the aroma of it early in the morning.

"With that around your arm?" Haruka pointing at cast covering Natsuki's broken arm. "Seriously, pup. Go rest, you're going to make my work more difficult. I need to find the culprit who tried to kill you and at the same time need to guard you. Who knows, the recent accident may have been a plot by the Shang. If you're going to be running around, who knows what else will happen to you."

"Stop calling me puppy, monkey" Natsuki hissed.

"Haruka's right, Natsuki. Just rest at home. I'll help you check the work. I heard Nao's currently training a new manager...hurrmmm...what his name again? ah...Takeda... to help in the operation and he's quite good" setting her own green tea in front of her, Shizuru sat opposite of Natsuki and looked pleadingly at her.

After a long pause, Natsuki sighed. "Okay. I'll go back to sleep. I feel bored already… sleeping the whole day." She grumbled and nodded.

"You need a rest, dear" Shizuru said lovingly as a faint blush appeared on Natsuki's cheek for the display of affection.

"Uhh..ehem..." Haruka clear her throat "We need to go now. Pup, we still need to confiscate your bike a couple more days for fingerprints and other evidence we might find. Once it's done, we'll call your office to send someone to fetch it for you" rising to her feet, Haruka motioned for Yukino to follow her. After a polite bow from Yukino, they excused themselves.

After both of officer left, Natsuki finished her coffee and started to walk back to her room. "aaahhhh... I hate to stay at home like this..." she complain to no one.

Seeing Natsuki acting childishly, it brought relief to Shizuru that Natsuki was recovering well. Looking at Natsuki's retreating back, Shizuru recalled the events that took place.

Flashback

"...we already gave her some painkillers it will help with the pain. Apart from her broken right arm and leg, she just has some few scratches on her back, and it won't leave any scars. We still need to examine her for any internal injury. Urm... Fujino-san, have you contacted her family?"

"Not yet, why? You can ask me anything regarding her." Shizuru said to the doctor.

The doctor seemed to be in deep thought and contemplated in telling her, but she continued. " yes, well.. I saw a few old scars on her body. So, I was thinking, if you knew anything relating to any past accidents. This can help in our examination if she has had an accident before"

"Scars? I don't know about that, Youko-sensei"

"Thats all right, Fujino-san. I'll ask her later." There seemed to be something bothering her so Shizuru asked again. "Youko-sensei, what's wrong with Natsuki?"

"Ahh… no… nothing...hmm... are you very close with Kruger-san?"

"Yes, we already engaged. Is there something the matter?"

"erm… maybe you already knew about the scars on her body, or you may have seen it but don't remember. But… has she had any history of abuse?"

"What?" Shizuru asked in shock and looked down in thought.

"She hasn't told me anything about abuse. She said her family took very good care of her and I could see she has a good relationship with her family. Why do you say that?"

"Well, the old scars are similar to what a whip would leave after being lashed. Maybe it's just a coincidence, I shouldn't make any assumptions. Maybe the scars was from her previous accident. I'm sorry for asking such question, Fujino-san" the doctor bowed slightly in apology.

"It's all right." Was all Shizuru could say.

End of flashback

Until now, I haven't had the chance to ask her about that. That said, I've never asked her anything about her childhood either. The truth is I've never thought of getting to know Natsuki better about her past and family, apart from what she had willingly shared with me. What kind of wife am I?

Shizuru sighed.

'Why hadn't I thought about this before?' Shizuru thought to herself.

Closing her eyes, she contemplated on what she should do.

'Maybe I should be back early tonight.'

'Then I can take that as a chance for me to rape... ara... get to know her... fufu.'