Always with You

Disclaimer: I do not own SkipBeat! or any of its characters.

Chapter 21 – Terror at dawn

"Tsuruga-san. He loves you. He told me…" her voice was choked with a sob, "He is going to tell you. You can't leave before he… tells… you." As she spoke the last words her arm felt limp and left her ear and fell to her side. The phone remained clutched in otherwise lifeless fingers.

"Kyoko. KYOKO!" She flipped the phone shut.

It was almost 3am in the morning. She hadn't slept. She couldn't sleep. Her mind and heart wouldn't leave her alone.

She felt the weight of the phone in her hand, made to slip it into her pocket, felt the leather. She looked down at herself and realized that she was still wearing the dark-blue motorcycle outfit. A ride; A ride in the cold air might be nice.

She let herself out of the side door and into the covered area where she and Mari had parked their motorcycles. Her helmet was resting on her seat. She lifted it, ran her other hand along the seat and then over the gas tank. In the last month and a-half she had come to love riding this sports bike. It gave her a sense of freedom that she had never enjoyed before. And it was hers now.

She slipped the helmet on, hoping that it would block out the unwanted thoughts that kept flitting through her head. When her mother had repeatedly rejected her it had hurt terribly. When Shotoro had spoken his true feelings it had made her feel angry and used. But neither of these had ever had the impact that her feelings for Ren and his love for her best friend were having on her. She shook her head to dispel the images and drive back her tears.

The engine purred to life instantly with the turn of her key. Careful to avoid hitting Mari's bike, she maneuvered hers around until she was pointed out. And then she used her foot to slip it into first gear.

* * *

Choshi Kazu's hands shivered around the hot metal of the canned coffee as he guided it to his mouth for a sip. It had been a crystal clear evening, so the temperature had dropped unseasonably low in the wee hours of the morning. He couldn't say why he had stayed tonight. Maybe it was determination, or desperation; he didn't know. For whatever reason, whenever his thoughts told him to call it a night he had stubbornly held on.

And then he saw the person he hated the most in the world riding slowly out of the gate and turning down the road. Gotcha, Mogami Kyoko. You're mine now.

* * *

The cold early morning air felt wonderful to Kyoko after a night spent in a full leather suit. During the night she had felt nothing; her emotions had full control. But now she realized how uncomfortable she had been.

There was no traffic whatsoever except for the one car that was about a block behind her. She had no clear direction in mind, but the hills beckoned to her and so she turned left on the next block. Several of the crossroads opened up to major thoroughfares, and more traffic. She stayed within the city speed limits until she hit the first rise that would take her up the steep hillsides that always shadowed the Darumaya. She didn't notice that the same car was still a block behind her.

The hillside road was steep and curvy. In the darkness she almost felt like she was riding into the stars that pierced the night sky all around her like a blanket. Here, outside of town and away from the city lights below, her mind insisted on playing back her conversation with Ren. Her keen mind danced around the words, refusing to settle. As much as she wanted to forget that conversation, the analytical portion of her brain insisted that she complete her calculations. It insisted that she…

The bright lights behind her from the car disturbed her feelings of peace. The car was moving too fast, as if he intended to pass. There's no place to pass here, you jerk. Just wait and I'll get out of your way at the top.

The car kept coming faster, closer.

* * *

Taicho, already a stern looking man, looked ready to kill as he stomped to answer the insistent pounding on his restaurant door. He was ready to yell when he opened the door, but something in the face of the young man and woman on the other side gave him pause.

"Is she here, Taicho-san? Is Kyoko here?"

"Tsuruga-san? Kotonami-san? Of course she's…"

Kanae ran past him with a rushed, "excuse me."

Both men heard her pounding up the stairs, heard a hushed conversation, heard her pounding back down the stairs. "She's not here!"

As Okami-san and Mari-san walked sleepily out, Ren reached for the phone.

* * *

… ring…ring…ri…"If somebody's not dead, I'm going to…"

"Chief, its Tsuruga-san. She's gone."

Chief Fujita sat up and rubbed his face with a large palm, "Ok, explain."

"She called up her best friend. She was upset about a… a misunderstanding. Then she just dropped off in the middle of the conversation. We're at her place now and her motorcycle is gone."

"If she took her motorcycle then that means she left voluntarily. It doesn't sound like…"

"Chief, I'm sorry to interrupt you, but I think it's more than just a midnight ride. Kyoko… I can't explain, but I believe that she is in danger."

The chief rolled his eyes heavenward. "Does she have her cell phone with her?"

"We tried calling it. She didn't answer."

"Hear me out: does she have an LME cell phone?"

"Yes, the agency gave her one."

"Good. Takarada-san only buys phones with GPS systems installed. You remember what happen… no, never-mind. That was way before your time. I'll call dignitary protection and get them to activate the tracker. Then I'll have them call you on your cell."

"Than…" The chief hung up. It was probably just the young lady taking an early morning ride. But something was tickling his own instincts too.

* * *

There was nowhere to get away. At first Kyoko thought that he was just being a jerk. But now her instincts for danger were telling her that this person was deliberately trying to either hit her or drive her off of the road.

She was flying now, faster than she had ever ridden around curves that were meant to be taken with extreme caution. He just kept coming. There was loose gravel from the hillside as she came out of a sharp turn. Her wheels kicked out and she almost lost control. The car surged forward as if to catch her, but she was back in control and laying across the handlebars as she flew up the steep grade.

Suddenly she was at the top, in the open flat area where lovers and photographers parked to look at the stars and the city nightlights. It was empty at this time of the morning, and she pulled off hoping that he would continue on. He didn't, instead he followed her into the triangular parking lot until she was trapped in the far corner with steep dirt banks on either side.

* * *

"Is this Tsuruga-san?"

"Yes."

"This is dispatch operations, we're tracking her heading up hwy 165 into the foothills. She's flying, I mean, about 30 km over the posted speed limits at times."

"That's not like her at all. Does your office have satellite link? (Ren had learned all about this for his Declining Options movie).

"Yes. We're working on it."

"I'm handing the phone over to Kotonami-san. You talk to her while I'm driving."

"Sir, we're dispatching a unit right now. You need to stay…"

"Stow it, officer," an angry female voice demanded. "You just get on that computer and get the satellite picture. Where is she now?"

"Um, she's at the top of Kenagi Mountain in the viewing area. She doesn't appear to be moving."

Ren turned the key as they both buckled up. Aiko Mari revved up her bike to follow.

* * *

The squat older sports car pulled up until it effectively blocked Kyoko's exit. The door opened and Kyoko saw the figure of a man through the glare of the headlights.

"MOGAMI KYOKO!" The man yelled out her name with venom in his voice.

"Who are you?"

He turned off the headlights. Kyoko blinked her eyes, flipped up the visor. Choshi Kazu stood there. He looked horrible. His unshaven face was sunken with lack of food and the abundance of hatred that poured out of his mouth as he spoke, "You stole my movie. You ruined my reputation. You drove me away from my family. And now you're going to pay!"

The emotional roller-coaster of the night had taken its toll on Kyoko's good nature. She didn't feel inclined to be patient, "I didn't steal your movie! You threw it away. You played around and didn't come to work ready to do your job.

"As to the rest of it, Choshi-san, you destroyed your own reputation by doing exactly the same kind of stupid things that you're doing right now! How dare you blame you're incompetence and childishness on me! I've had enough! LEAVE ME ALONE!"

Kyoko slapped down her visor and powered her motorcycle straight at Kazu's car. He scrambled to jump in, but she was berming along the dirt bank before he could get into his seat. Ignoring his seatbelt he slammed it into reverse and backed up into the open. Once there he spun the wheel while punching the gas, spinning the car in place until turned. He slammed it into 2nd, then 3rd, and finally 4th.

Kyoko was out of the parking lot now and flying back down 165.

* * *

"Ok, we've got satellite. She's moving again, heading back down. There's a car following her. He's definitely chasing her. Good god…"

Kanae's heart was in her throat at the officer's exclamation, "What?!"

"She's fine, she just took a 20k turn at 60k. The car went up an embankment, but he's following her again"

"Don't scare me like that again. How close are we to her?"

She heard him talking to someone else, are we tracking… yes, their both in the same car I think. "We got you. You're thirty-two kilometers away. But if you combine the two speeds you will reach each other in less than 9 minutes."

Kanae looked over at Ren and saw the face of a man who was about to lose everything. She felt tenderness toward the man who loved her best friend so much. Even if he is an idiot. "She'll be fine, Ren-san. We'll be there soon."

"And then what?" He asked bleakly.
"I don't know."

* * *

Kyoko was using every trick that Hizami-san and Mari-chan had taught her to stay in her seat as she flew around each corner. One mistake, one little mistake at this speed and it would all be over. To her left was a steep drop-off and her stomach flip-flopped at the prospect of missing a turn and flying into open space.

Kazu was getting dangerously close in the straight stretches. But he was driving so erratically in the turns that he had hit several embankments. Still, two wheels were not as stable as four. And she just didn't have the skill to go any faster.

She rounded the next corner and her heart sank. This was the long straight stretch she remembered while riding up. She laid over the handles now, reducing her aerodynamic profile and twisting the gas to full throttle. He was in the straight now and she heard his engine race as he stood on the gas. The corner was getting nearer, but he was nearer still. She knew that the bottom of the straight stretch ended in three sharp serpentines. If she didn't slow down… his engine was loud in her ear now. He was almost on her.

She couldn't resist a look backwards. He was almost on top of… the embankment! What if I…?

* * *

Ren was flying through the curves now. They were close and Kanae didn't know what he was planning. As they rounded a long outside curve they could see a straight stretch in the distance. A motorcycle was almost under the grill of a battered looking sports car. "There."

Ren didn't say anything until he saw Kyoko make her move, "NO! It's too steep!"

Kyoko waited until she couldn't wait anymore and then turned suddenly toward the dirtbike trail that she had seen in the distance.

Choshi Kazu, operating on too little sleep, too little food, and too much adrenaline, couldn't follow her. His head turned to scream at her. But then he realized his own mistake. It was too late…

Ren, Kanae, and Mari witnessed the sports car smashing through the rail and hurtling down the cliff. They only heard the impact, though. Their concern was for the motorcycling that was flying up the embankment at four times the reasonable speed for such a trail.

It was inevitable. Her body left the bike as it flew spinning through the air. By the time that Ren and Mari were through the s-curves it was all over.

* * *

The med-evac helicopter had already been dispatched by Chief Fujita as the chase was underway. It arrived within two minutes of the time that Ren reached his love. She was alive, but she was in bad shape.

___________________________________________________________________________________

Note: That's it for tonight folks. I've got a busy day tomorrow, but I'll trying to get something out soon. Sorry to leave you on such a suspenseful moment.

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