Smoke and Mirrors
Chapter L: Home is Where the Heart is
by: Pocahontas X
"Take me down to the river bend. Take me down to the fighting end. Wash the poison from off my skin. Show me how to be whole again."
CASTLE OF GLASS, LINKIN PARK
Trigger warning. (Chapter end.)
(CCC)
"You never told us the good news." Natsuki's mother pointed out quietly, trying and failing to regulate the seriousness of the situation with a bit of humor.
If Natsuki were being completely honest, she really didn't have any good news to share other than the fact that Skye was alive and mostly well, but she wouldn't tell her family that. They relied on her optimism to remain strong.
She stroked the back of Shizuru's lightly scarred knuckles, each expanse of raised flesh her thumb came in contact with a testament of the highly skilled martial artist she used to be, and probably still was despite her sixteen-year abstinence.
"I know who's behind all of the attacks on the Yakuza." Natsuki replied. "Hiro Viola's the forerunner of the Red Lotus."
Shizuru stiffened. Her head shot up from its comfortable position of resting on Natsuki's shoulder, nearly clipping the younger woman's chin in the process. Her eyes flashed with countless emotions: shock, anger, and disgust just to name a few.
Reagan did something between a snort and a heavy sigh as her fingers pinched the bridge of her nose, her brows furrowed in annoyance. "Of course he is. He just doesn't know when to quit."
"Wait," Saeko said, "Hiro Viola? The Chief Executive Officer of Japan Post Holdings and owner of Viola Industries?"
"You could've just said CEO." Reagan mumbled.
Saeko shrugged. "I know, it just sounds more daunting when you say the whole thing… I know him."
"You know him?" Natsuki and her father echoed.
The oldest of the four women, though she wouldn't admit it out loud, nodded. "He used to be one of John's biggest investors before they fell out."
"Fell out?"
"Yes. Believe it or not, Hiro and John used to be good friends, though I always believed Hiro was more interested in John's money than anything. I told him countless times that Hiro was a shady man, but no one ever listens to me." Saeko snorted in the most unlady like fashion, but quickly made up for it by elegantly crossing her legs and folding her arms.
"Go on." Natsuki urged.
"Well, Hiro was adamant about merging the two companies, but John was reluctant to because the union would cause significant job losses. Hundreds of people would be laid off, and of course, John being the good samaritan ultimately refused. Hiro was furious." She explained.
Natsuki could honestly understand why Hiro would be furious. If those two had ended up merging, that company would have been one of the biggest conglomerates in the nation, possibly the world. Searrs' technology paired with the Viola Industries' bioengineering… just the thought of what could've been made Natsuki shudder.
Reagan must've been thinking the same thing because she blew out an impressed whistle. "Viola & Searrs, huh? Talk about money and power. Those two are million dollar companies separately, but together? They could've put Microsoft out of business."
Shizuru may have looked calm on the outside, but on the inside she was fuming. Her father had no business fraternizing with the underworld. He couldn't even begin to comprehend the amount of power he now wielded, and he most certainly wouldn't use it for the benefit of the syndicate, only for his own personal gain.
And not only that. He was sending hundreds of men and women to their deaths everyday trying to tempestuously dethrone the admittedly discombobulated Yakuza. Shizuru was sure those poor fools probably didn't even know exactly what they were fighting and dying for other than a dreadful game of monopoly.
The underworld was far more complex than outsiders gave it credit for. When people thought or spoke of the Yakuza or other crime organizations, the first things out of their mouths were usually something along the lines of senseless violence, or cool Mafia-like scenarios when in all honesty it was a corrupt game of politics.
It was a mind game built on the foundations of strategy and the ability to divide and conquer, often referred to as 'Bloody Monopoly' by its members. Her father was a very intelligent man, yes, but he was too self-obsessed for his own good.
"Shizuru."
Natsuki's calm voice caused her to snap out of her thoughts. Her green eyes were worried as she gazed at her wife with barely concealed anxiety. Her eyes were always so expressive. She was always able to tell exactly what she was thinking just by gazing into those deep, shimmering viridian depths. She'd never learned to close the windows of the soul, something Namikaze had warned her about countless times when she had been Natsuki's mentor.
Shizuru wasn't so much as worried about her father and his schemes as she was for her wife's safety. If he found out that Natsuki was the sovereign of the current bane of his existence, he'd try and kill her for sure.
She sighed and brought Natsuki's tattooed hand to her lips, placing an airy kiss on the tip of her pinkie, which had been shortened by a blade long ago. "He'll kill you."
Natsuki snorted. "He can try."
Reagan smiled slightly at her daughter's display of confidence, no matter how false it may have actually been. Endless optimism… she'd learned that from her grandmother, and her grandmother had learned it from Reagan.
Sensing the two needed a moment to speak in private, Reagan grabbed Saeko's elbow and hauled her to her feet. "Come on," she said softly, "Let's finish readying up those explosives."
Saeko nodded. However, before she left the room, she crossed the short distance separating the older couple from the younger couple and pulled them both into comforting hug. "We're here for you, sweetheart," her mother whispered, then her grey eyes hardened. "Don't think I'd ever let such a vile man touch my baby. I'll kill him myself if I have to."
Natsuki and Shizuru offered the old woman a smile and a loving kiss on the cheek. Her mother's elderly beauty was something Natsuki hadn't got used to yet, despite all the years that have passed by since they'd been reunited.
Her hair was no longer the endless pool of inky blackness it had once been in her youth. It was now a silvery mess of feather soft, pin straight tendrils. Her face was lined with wrinkles, the most obvious ones were the crow's feet on either side of her eyes and the laugh lines in her cheeks.
As a child, Natsuki had engraved the memory of her mother as the stunning, energetic ball of repressed energy she'd been in her younger years, and even now it was difficult to imagine her as anything but.
With one last fleeting smile, the old woman followed her partner out of the room, leaving the longtime couple alone.
"Natsuki," Shizuru said after a few moments of silence. "If you have the chance, will you kill him?"
"Are you asking me or are you asking me?" Natsuki countered.
She as well as most of the individuals who really knew Shizuru Viola-Kruger were aware of the bad blood the Viola patriarch and the exiled heir shared, but she didn't truly know if she wanted her father dead.
"He's a fool blinded by his ambition. He doesn't realize that he's on the verge of starting another war…" She paused and shook her head angrily. "Or maybe he does and he just doesn't care as long as he gets what he wants in the end. I know him, Natsuki. He'll do anything to make sure he stays on top, and that means hurting anyone who gets in his way. I learned that first hand."
"Shizuru…"
Her eyes shut tightly as her hands clenched into fists. "If he hurts you, I'll kill him myself." She recited her mother-in-law's earlier words. "He may be my father, but you are my world, Natsuki. Do you understand me?"
Her voice was almost pleading in its shaky, accented tones. Her hands gently stroked the contours of Natsuki's face as she rested their foreheads together, tears dribbling down her pale cheeks.
Natsuki covered her hands with her own and nodded once more, sensing the underlying message hidden beneath her wife's words.
"I understand."
(CCC)
Alex was awake and freshly showered by the time Kaiya dragged herself back up the stairs to their shared room. She beamed upon seeing her wife, briefly abandoning the task of drying her long, dark hair in favor of greeting Kaiya at their bedroom door.
"Good morning," Alex cooed sweetly, leaning down to give her wife a loving kiss on the lips.
"Good morning." Kaiya replied softly, wrapping her arms around Alex's slender waist and pressing her face into her breasts. She inhaled her wife's fresh, clean scent and let out a perplexed sigh.
"How's our baby girl?" The statuesque form lowered itself to a single knee as a large hand reached out to stroke the soft skin of Kaiya's baby bump.
"Sleeping for now," she replied, "I'm going to enjoy every moment of this peace while it lasts."
Alex smiled cutely and looked up at Kaiya with those huge dark eyes of hers. That goofy, doe-eyed gaze never ceased to make Kaiya's heart melt.
But now it made her heart hurt because soon she'd be leaving it behind.
"If I could I would share this pregnancy with you, but unfortunately it doesn't work like that." Alex giggled, then frowned when the joke didn't seem to have an effect on her wife. "What's wrong?" The Amazon rose to her full height and took Kaiya's hands, brushing her lips along her soft knuckles.
"You shouldn't put so much strain on your knee…" Kaiya said lamely, the tears beginning to flow now.
A sob broke through the barriers she'd struggled to construct and she held onto Alex's toned arms for dear life. Alarmed, Alex pulled her over to the bed and tucked her into a comforting embrace. "Baby, what's wrong?" She inquired anxiously.
"I-I'm leaving." Kaiya choked out.
Alex's tanned face went an unholy shade of pale. Her heart gave a few quick kicks, then seemed to cease all movement completely. "Y...you're leaving me?"
"NO!" Kaiya took her face in her hands. "God no, never."
Alex relaxed slightly, but she was still extremely weary.
"My father has a lot going on right now," Kaiya began, trying to be as elusive as possible about the situation without outwardly lying to her wife, "And she needs to go back to Japan"
"And you're going with her to support her." Alex interjected, squeezing Kaiya's hands.
Kaiya nodded. "We all are. I wish I could bring you with us, but I can't."
It's not safe for you, Kaiya thought sadly. You would be a target just because you're my wife. The wife of the daughter of the enemy... I would give anything to stay with you, but my father would never allow me to remain here unprotected. The Red Lotus probably knows everything about us thanks to Nagi.
Alex's deflated expression made Kaiya feel a million times worse than she already had been prior to this conversation.
"When will you be back?" Was the question whispered against Kaiya's lips.
"I don't know."
Kaiya cradled Alex's dark head tightly to her chest. Her stomach was churning enough to make her feel sick and anxious. She wondered if Cairo was feeling the same. For the first time in the weeks since she'd developed her arms and legs, the child was still. There were no fluttering kicks, no anxious twisting…
It was almost like the child was just floating around in her womb, the umbilical cord the only anchor keeping her from drifting away.
"I'll be back, Alex." Kaiya murmured. "I'll be back, I promise."
She didn't reply. She just tightened her hold on her wife's body and closed her eyes as she tried to fight the turmoil that was wreaking havoc on her insides because she'd be apart from her wife and child for an indistinguishable amount of time.
This sort of pain was perhaps the most agonizing. There was nothing more to be said. Nothing more to be done other than to just savor their time together before the inevitable happened.
(CCC)
After getting permission from her parents, Namiko went down to the family's eight car garage to retrieve her Camaro so she could make the journey to Queens to see Acacia and Cara. She glanced at her Rollex.
12:01 pm.
Acacia had only recently gotten off work about half an hour ago, which had given her enough time to pick up Cara from daycare, so they should be home right about now.
However, she'd been unable to take her car because her grandfather was 'fixing' it so she ended up driving her mother's Maserati Granturismo. It wasn't as fast as her Camaro, but she did manage to reach Queen's in about twenty-six minutes.
Acacia was surprised to see her when she opened the door to see who had been knocking so insistently. "Namiko? What're you doing here? I thought you were coming to pick us up later."
"Can I come in?" Namiko said instead, fighting the urge to fidget uncomfortably.
"Oh, of course," Acacia replied, stepping aside and allowing the younger girl inside. Namiko took a seat on the couch.
"You look like you have ants in your pants." Acacia said, coming to sit beside her. "Is there something bother you?"
Namiko sighed. "Yeah, there is. Is Cara here?"
Acacia nodded. "She's taking a nap. Would you like to see her?"
She'd already rose from the couch to make her way to the staircase when Namiko's hand darted out to catch her by the wrist. The taller girl gently pulled her back down to the couch. "In a minute. I have to tell you something."
Acacia's walls were set up immediately. Usually when someone said that there was never anything good that came out of their mouth. She clenched her jaw and willed all expression away from her face.
If Namiko was going to tell her something that was going to hurt her or destroy everything they'd just recently built, she would make sure Namiko wouldn't be able to tell by her facial expressions.
"I'm listening." She said curtly.
Namiko picked up on the curtness of her tone instantly, but wisely chose not to comment. "I'm going to Japan with my family for a few days. My dad's having some problems with… work."
Acacia was glad it wasn't anything along the lines of what she'd been thinking. She was half-expecting Namiko to tell her that she had some other girl on the side or that she had another baby or something. But it was still a significant blow to her happiness.
"What kind of problems?" She inquired worriedly, hoping it wasn't too serious. But it must be if Namiko's father needed their entire family to make the long trip back to Asia alongside her.
Namiko cringed. She hoped Acacia wouldn't ask about her father's line of work because she didn't want to lie to her. But it seemed like she had no choice. "If she doesn't go back then she's going to get… fired. She needs our support."
In a way, Acacia understood, but she was still skeptical. She gave the dark-haired young woman a reassuring smile and squeezed her knee. "I understand. How long will you be gone?"
"I don't know. She didn't say, but I'm guessing a few days, a week or two maybe."
"It must be serious."
Namiko nodded and leaned back against the cushions. Her dark hair was a mess around her face. Acacia reached out to smooth the stray curls away from her forehead, and it was then she noticed how warm Namiko's skin was. "Oh no," She fretted, "You're hot. Are you getting sick again? You shouldn't be doing so much, Namiko, I told you that. You're still weak."
Namiko found it in herself to laugh softly despite the situation. "I'm not getting sick… I'm just hot because you're so close."
Acacia felt the heat rise to her cheeks and uttered a small, "Oh."
The older girl moved closer until she was nestled against Namiko's side and rested her cheek against her collarbone. Namiko's arm came to rest protectively around her shoulders. They stayed like that for a while, basking in the intimate silence that surrounded them.
Acacia's hands clenched the fabric of her sweater tightly. "Is it selfish of me to say that I don't want you to go?"
Namiko's chest rumbled beneath her ear. "No. I don't want to leave you either. But my father needs all the help she can get. I wanted to see you guys before I left. I didn't just want to tell you over the phone and disappear for awhile."
"I'm glad you did." Acacia said and pulled away. "You probably have to get going soon, I assume."
"An hour and a half…"
Acacia winced and looked away. "Then you should spend it with your daughter."
"I want to spend it with both of you." Namiko whispered, pulling Acacia back against her chest and rubbing her back soothingly.
The nineteen year-old wrapped her arms around Namiko's neck and pressed their lips together in a soft, sweet kiss. "Then let's go see our baby."
The pair quietly made their way up the stairs like it was the middle of the night when in reality it was only the peak of the day, holding hands and making sure some part of their skin touched with every movement.
Acacia opened the door to Cara's room and led them inside. Namiko leaned over the edge of the crib and watched her daughter sleep with a gentle smile. She was fast asleep, curled up on her side with her teddy bear tucked under her chin and breathing evenly. Namiko reached out and stroked her baby soft curls, tucking them behind her pierced ear.
Acacia reached down and scooped the little girl up in her arms as gently as she could without waking her. "She's been asleep for almost an hour. I was going to wake her anyway. If she sleeps any longer she'll never go to bed tonight."
The young mother rocked the sleeping child in her arms. "Caraa," she cooed, "It's time to wake up, mi cielo. Look who's here to see you."
"Mi cielo?" Namiko echoed curiously.
"My Sky," Acacia translated, "But it truly means you are my world."
She handed the half-awake toddler to her father. Namiko took her earnestly and tucked her against her chest. Cara's sleepy eyes lit up when she saw her daddy, her chubby little fists already finding register in Namiko's long curly hair.
"Hi baby," Namiko said in that low, soft-spoken tone of hers. "I missed you."
Cara didn't reply of course, but the hand in her hair tightened. It was almost as if Cara was trying to hold onto her so she wouldn't leave again. She began blabbering in that odd, childish language of hers. Namiko didn't know what she was saying, but she listened intently anyway.
"Your birthday is in six days." Namiko relayed the information Acacia supplied her with when she first began making those tentative steps into her daughter's life. "You're going to be one! One already… I feel so old."
Acacia giggled behind her hand.
"What do you want for your birthday, Cara-chan? A puppy? A pony maybe?"
"Chan?" It was Acacia's turn to question the foreign endearment now.
"It's a title for babies, young girls or women who have cute, childlike features. My mother, grandmother, and sisters used to call me Nami-chan when I was young. Although, my father and grandfather used to call me Little Warrior." Namiko explained.
"That's sweet." Acacia replied. "Will you teach me Japanese when you return?"
"Only if you teach me Portuguese." Namiko said.
Acacia smiled sadly. "I promise." Then, the older woman tilted Namiko's chin to the left and kissed her deeply. "Cada dia que passa eu me apaixono mais por voce."
"That's not fair." Namiko breathed with an adorable pout when they broke away. "I don't know what that means." Acacia just smiled cheekily.
Intent on returning the favor, Namiko said, "Hajimete ata tokikara sukidata."
The older woman shook her head. "I'm assuming you're not going to tell me what that means either, huh?"
A smirk. "Not a chance."
(CCC)
Hiro Viola's son, Hiroshi, roughly dragged the beaten man in his grasp across the room by his hair. The man's cries of pain reverberated throughout the empty, steel corridors of the underground bunker.
Behind him, two of his assistants were doing the same with an equally beaten blonde woman. Her clothes were nothing but tattered remains of the designer products they used to be. Her face was a grotesque painting of bruises and welts from where her attacker's brass knuckles had shredded through her soft skin.
Alyssa Searrs was not in good shape.
John Searrs wasn't either, but his injuries were nothing compared to the ones his daughter had suffered. They'd been out on the town enjoying much needed father-daughter time when they had been ambushed in the parking lot by a group of men in red while on their way to John's Mercedes.
The leader of the pack, a blonde man with a pair of hauntingly familiar crimson eyes, had demanded that they come with him. But John refused upon seeing the Red Lotus insignia decorating each and every one of the men's left breast.
He didn't want anything to do with the underworld, especially not when his only daughter was present. They'd grabbed Alyssa first by her hair and forced her down to the damp asphalt where they proceeded to beat her ruthlessly until John finally cracked and agreed to go with them.
Hiroshi sighed and stopped, kneeling down beside the broken man and lifting him up by his hair. "This pain is nothing compared to the pain that will come if you don't tell me the information I seek."
John's swollen lips trembled as his grotesquely engorged eyelids struggled to remain open. "I… don't know…!"
Hiroshi tsked.
The Viola heir's fist collided with John's already tender abdomen. Blood splurted from the normally gentle man's ruined mouth, staining Hiroshi's white suit in the process. "Very well. We'll ask the girl."
"No!" John pleaded.
"It's much easier to break a woman than a man." Hiroshi tapped a bloody finger to his lips thoughtfully. "Although, I seem to have forgotten how. Ukito, care to refresh my memory?"
Ukito, the man holding Alyssa by the arm, smiled diabolically. His companion dropped the other arm he was holding backed away. The Red Lotus initiate fiddled with his belt until he was able to free his manhood from its confines.
Alyssa squirmed fearfully, her head whipping back and forth. "Please… no." She choked out.
"You're a monster!" John screamed, feeling the bile rising in his throat. "She has nothing to do with this! Please, leave her out of this!"
"Ukito." Hiroshi called. The man paused and waited further instructions from his superior. "Don't pull out."
Ukito's eyes sparkled devilishly. He forced Alyssa onto her stomach and tore at the remains of her dress. Alyssa tried to squeeze her legs shut to prevent the inevitable, but Ukito was much too strong.
"Daddy… please…" She begged when she felt his manhood began to poke around the backs of her thighs. "Please help me…"
"Hold still, bitch." Ukito growled, pinning her against the floor courtesy of a beefy paw pressed against the nape of her neck." Alyssa's scream of agony tore John apart.
"Alright!" He confessed with a strangled sob. "Alright, alright! I'll tell you what you want to know, just please get that monster away from my daughter!"
Hiroshi smiled pleasantly. "Smart man. Ukito."
Grumbling, Ukito tucked his manhood back into its confines and rose from his kneeling position between Alyssa's legs. A wink from Hiroshi promised him another time, and he uttered a tiny, perverted grin.
"Now," Hiroshi said, "I'm going to ask you again. Where is Natsuki Kruger hiding?"
"... In Brooklyn…" John moaned. "Brooklyn, New York…"
"That wasn't so hard, was it?" Hiroshi laughed sinisterly and clapped his hands together. "Boys, how do you like your meat?"
"Live." Ukito giggled.
"Excellent." Hiroshi said. "Round up the nastiest bastards you can find and meet me in my office in one hour. Oh, and Ukito."
"Eh?" The man glanced over his shoulder.
Hiroshi closed his eyes and offered him a pleasant wave. "Don't forget your coat. It's chilly this time of year."
Ukito nodded and disappeared the way they came. "I have enough men to flush her out in a matter of hours. She can run, but she cannot hide. Ukito there is a master of savagery. He'll get the job done, and he'll be treated to a handsome prize when he's finished. I hope your daughter likes her meat… raw."
A cackle of insanity followed, and John wept.
I'm so sorry, he thought as he began to rock back and forth.
I'm so sorry.
(CCC)
School has been kicking my ass recently. I apologize for the wait. Also, my grandmother recently passed, (48 hours ago to be exact) so I've been pretty messed up for a bit, but I try to use my pain as fuel for my writing since I've been out of gas for a while.
I promise the next update won't be so far off. Stay tuned, and don't forget to leave me your feedback! Thank you all for your support.
Cada dia que passa eu me apaixono mais por voce - "With everyday that passes, I fall in love with you more."
Hajimete ata tokikara sukidata - "I've loved you from the first moment I laid eyes on you."
