"Doctor... Look, he is waking up!" Keigo heard a female voice saying.
Keigo felt like he gained a ton of weight. He felt dazed and so weak that he was not able to lift his own arms. Slowly he realized that he was in a hospital. And he felt that something was covering his face. Oxygen... yeah he was connected to a mashine. A nurse and a doctor stood over him. What happened? Where is he? The last thing he remembered was that he drunk something to calm down while he watched the news about Ichigo and the others?
The doctor used a small flashlight to check his pupils. "Asano-san? Can you hear me?"
Keigo tried to say something, but his voice sound so strange. That was when he realized that he was more than just wasted.
"Asano-san, you are in the hopital of Nakagami, on Okinawa-jima! You had a cardiac-arrest!"
Keigo listened to the doctor. Did he just say that he had a cardiac-arrest? Keigo was to weak to answer...
"Asano-san, do you remember what happened?"
Keigo was able to shake his head a bit and show the man that he denies. His body felt so terribly heavy. Like it was made of stone.
"Your friend Midori-san brought you here."
Shino? Where is he now? What happened to him?
"You had a blood alcohol level of 2.6 when you arrived here. And we had to pump out your stomach. You took an overdose of pills..."
Keigo was shocked. Did he tried to kill himself? What happened? Did he thought that he can follow the Kurosaki's this way? How much time passed? These weird dreams he had. He had no clue how much time he spend in this weird darkness full of bad memories and the two voices who tried to convince to follow him.
"You spend two weeks in coma..."
"Two wee... eak... Wha..." Keigo wailed. A tear ran down his face. "... where..."
"Would you please call Midori-san, and tell him that his friend woke up..." he heard the doctor saying to the nurse who left the room. "Asano-san... you need to rest. And don't worry. Is there someone we should also call?"
Keigo was still overwhelmed. So much time have passed. Was the Soul Society meanwhile able to fix all the mess?
"Ma... Ma... ko... to..." Keigo stammered. He had still the tube in his throat. But maybe if he calls her he could ask her carefully if she remembers her own report. "... Hi... ra..."
"Shhh... calm down!" the doctor said. "We contact you friends. Don't worry. You had so much luck. Just a few minutes later and this Kurosaki would had eaten your soul..."
"Noooo..." Keigo wailed disappointed. "...for... get.."
That was the moment Keigo realized that everyone was still aware of them. What the hell is going on? Is he still trapped in this nightmare-world? Is this a trap? An evil joke? Keigo realized that there was only one way to figure out more... he had to get out of here!
The nurse came back: "Asano-san, your friend Midori-san is very happy that you woke up again. He will take the next flight here to visit you! For now you should rest..."
"TV..." Keigo said. "...Kuro... saki..."
"No no no... Don't worry. Kurosaki won't get your soul!" the nurse said. Proving that Keigo was still in trouble...
In Tokyo meanwhile... the people who actually cared for Keigo were happy that he was awake. After recieving the call from the hospital, Shino called Akira to tell her the good news and tell her that he will take the next flight down there.
"Oh thanks god!" she said. "Call me when you know something new!"
Akira hang off. She was actually in Keigo's penthouse again. Only to pour his jungle and to ventilate the place. It was an awfully hot summer-day and the sun was burning merciless hot from the cloudless sky. Still not able to understand what forced Keigo to throw in pills. After finishing giving the plants the water they needed, Akira went into Keigo's bedroom again. She remembered the photos, she and Shino found in his wardrobe.
Something was wrong with them. Keigo looked so happy, that Kurosaki-thing looked so annoyed... Akira didn't know why, but she took her smartphone to copy the photos... maybe she finds a clue... she couldn't imagine that such a guy like Keigo befriends a delinquent like Ichigo... He had to be jinxed... Tired she put the photos back and hold her stomach. She didn't feel well...
In the Soul Society, Kazui and Ichika were walking threw the alleys near the Kuchiki-Manor. Still talking about the recent events...
"Is the entry ban to our world still active?" Kazui asked.
"Unfortunately yes!" Ichika replied. "But I think the first Shinigami go back on duty there within the next days."
"And you?" Kazui asked hopeful. "Maybe you could look for Yupa?!"
"I already tried to. But I made my way to the world of the living so often without my parents permission that they look every single of my steps. That's why they told me to look after you because they know that you would tell them the truth."
"The truth hurts!" Kazui suddenly replied, suprising Ichika. "I am wondered why my parents wanted to get me out of the house today. What if they talk about me now? What if they figured out that I told Yupa everything?"
"Where they should know that?" Ichika asked while they entered the yard of the Kuchiki-manor and walked to the smaller house at the side. "I didn't tell anyone."
Inside the house, Chad was standing at the window and saw the two kids, approaching the house.
"They are comming!" he said and everyone prepared.
"But Karin is not back yet..." Ichigo wailed. Thier father send her to get Toshiro. "No matter! Everyone on his position..."
Outside, Kazui and Ichika reached the house.
"I ask myself why my parents act so weird." Kazui said before he opened the door.
In the moment he opened the door, a loud bang occured and confetti was blown over Kazui's head. The boy was surprised.
"What the..."
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" every present adult yelled.
Kazui was really surprised. His parents, Ichika's parents, his family and thier friends organized a little party for him... They had no balloons but a banner reading 'Happy Birthday'. Just Ichika's name at the end was folded away to hide the fact that it was originally for her. There was improvised decoration and something that was supposed to be a cake, but that looked more like the accident of a drunken member of the eight division...
Kazui suddenly remembered that his birthday was already a week ago. He forgot it. Well his family forgot, too... But they had other things to worry about. And now his parents came up with this ridiculous attempt to make him feel better... Kazui had no clue how to react. He should be happy that his family cares about him but he knew that he did some terrible things and that he does not deserve a party...
Kazui burst out in tears an ran away to hide in the other room... leaving his confused family and thier friends behind.
Orihime burst out in tears, too... Blaming herself for her son's sadness. "Aww... I knew that he will be mad on us..."
Orihime ran out of the house and passed Karin...
"Oh, I see... the boy cried." Karin said and turned around to leave the house again. "Toshiro, the party is over..."
And so she left, too. Isshin looked outside to see her accompaining Toshiro back to the gate. The chemistry between them looked kind of familiar to him. A wide grin appared on his face. Maybe his grandson's party was a flop, but he got an idea how to make his daughter and his successor happy...
Makoto Hirabata in Tokyo meanwhile, was looking over the E-Mails she recieved from all over the world... proving that Karakura was not the only place in the world with supernatural-incidents. Despite the fact that two weeks have passed and the world continued living, the 'Shinigami-family' was still the top story in the whole world. She recieved E-Mails from contrys, she honestly didn't know that they even excist. Her name and her face where everywhere. The only place the people didn't know her face now seemed to be North-Korea. But that was no problem for her. Even there they talked about her...
Makoto was just reading an E-Mail from Slovenia. A young man from Ljubljana, claimed that he once witnessed weird things in an abadoned warehouse. And than from one day to the other he became able to see Shinigami. They sprayed him with something, believing that it will alter his memory. But he was still able and called the police. They didn't believed him. The Shingami became mad and and start to beat him up. Nobody believed him. He lost his friends, his classmates start to bully him, his family believed that he was crazy. He was even send into the psychatric-clinic after another 'encounter' with a Shinigami. He start to believe to be crazy, too. Once even trying to commit suicide. Ghosts haunting him. Just after her report his parents finally believed him and he start to recover. He was very thankful to her, because she proved that he was not crazy and is now recovering from his 'therapy'.
Makoto felt great, but also worried. She helped this young man in Slovenia to get his life back, but had to think about Keigo again. Did he felt the same? Did Keigo think that he was crazy, too? Two weeks have passed and Keigo still dosen't respond to any of her calls or messages. Makoto put the E-Mail of the Slovenian man to the side, deciding to invite him along with some others. She took the next E-Mail from Indonesia...
A teenage-girl from Sumatra wrote about the death of her family. When she was six years old, she was at home in a small village with her parents and her four siblings when they suddenly heared a loud bawl from the forest. Her father left to look for the origin and was attacked by a huge black monster with a white mask. It attacked the house and killed her family. She didn't know why, but the monster spared her. Sometimes she thought that she recognized her oldest brother, who was killed several weeks before the attack, as the monster. With her report about Hollows, Makoto proved to her that she was not crazy. Nobody believed her until today. She didn't believed herself, too.
Makoto put the E-Mail on the 'go and interview them' stack and continued...
She was picking out people who got hurt by the Shinigami, or had bad lifes because of them to come to be guest in her show. Keigo, she thought, would fit perfectly in this show. It would also prove that he was not 'a friend of them' and that he was 'jinxed'. Because it would be better for him to be 'jinxed' than 'friend'. Latter would ruin his life.
Makoto was not aware that two Shinigami, stood right behind her. Send by the commission, to figure out more about her research. Makoto didn't mentioned them, standing just a few inches away, reading her E-Mails, too. And they were shocked about what they read... knowing that this were just the believable mails. There were thousands of E-Mails and most of them from people who only wanted to appear in TV...
The comission of inquiry was definetely overburden with the amount of informations. Offically just 10 Shinigami were part of it. But there where tens of thousands of hints and traces... too much to be handled by just 10 people. As well as many many new 'spirituall aware humans'...
"We have officially reached the mark of 25.000!" a female commission member said while smashing a heavy 'book' on the conference table. All others were shocked. "25.000 humans knowing about the Soul Society before. And aproximately between 3.1 and 3.4 million beeing able to see Shinigami. And that's only the data from one-third of all of the 'Districts' in the world of the living..."
For the Soul Society, the world of the livng was not Japan, the United States, Russia, Germany and so on... And Karakura was not Karakura for the Soul Society. It was District 3.600! The world of the living was so unbelivable big and varied... most of the Shinigami leared a lot about countrys and cites here. Just by reading reports...
"I have never heared about Ar... Archan... Archangelsk before!" another member of the comission said, pointing on another file about a spirituall aware woman from there, who became an outsider after her spirituall awareness developed. Today she appeared almost every day in Russian television and told about a Shinigami, she met in her grandmother's abadoned countryside house, living there without paying rent, beeing rude to her, eating the stuff from the garden and even stealing money...
A lot of humans reported about beeing treated very bad by the Shinigami. Until Makoto's report many of them were just too afraid to report anything. They feared to become outsiders or feared to turn crazy. But now things were exposed, that let every Shinigami look like a violent, abusive, greedy and selfish goon... Now it was a real surprise that the Shinigami hadn't already been exposed years ago... It became more and more difficult. Especially because they had no clue in which district these people lived. They had maps of the world of the living... but really old one...
"Oh,... I found Archangelsk. It's here in the north-western of the Soviet Union!" one said.
"Ah,... and here is Chisinau! In the south-western of the Soviet Union, near the borders to Romania and Czechoslowakia..." another one marked the city, Mizuiro spend the last few months.
"The human from Ljubljana, who wrote this letter to the journalist-lady... he wrote that he is from a country called Slovenia. But I see here that this place called Ljubljana is in Yugoslavia. I don't know why but if he got really hurt by one of us, he could cause more trouble.
The Kurosaki's would have been shocked about how chaotic the investigation was. And how outdated and retarded the stuff they used. The humans world would laugh about them. So it was no surprise that even after weeks, nobody found a clue... as there were too many suspects. Thousands of people all over the world had a motive. Keigo Asano, the only one who was at least aware of the Kurosaki's, was still nowhere to be found...
Almost three weeks after thier exposure, the Kurosaki's tried to calm down. And thier friends, too. Isshin only knew the Sereitei from before the war. So he was also very excited everytime they made a 'sightseeing-tour'. Tatsuki and Mizuiro meanwhile felt more and more like prisoners.
Unlike the Kurosaki's, Orihime and Chad,... Tatsuki and Mizuiro were never really 'involved' in Ichigo's 'heroic acts' and therefore only tolerated... They were forced to stay on the Kuchiki property the whole time. They were only allowed to leave the property when Rukia or Renji were with them. Not even Ichigo and his family were allowed to take them out without Rukia's or Renji's presence. The Kurosaki's and Chad on the other side, had much more freedom. They could leave and walk around freely. Isshin, as a former captain, was even offered to get his old house back... But the humans...
Mizuiro had a lot of time to think about some things since they arrived... but honestly he didn't dare to talk to the 'supernatural-part' of thier group about it. He, Tatsuki and Keigo were the 'human-part' of the group. Keigo was not here... so the only one he could talk about it was Tatsuki. But her mood was so bad, that Mizuiro feared that she explodes as soon as he opens his mouth. And Tatsuki had a lot of reasons to be in a very bad mood.
She felt humiliated and powerless. She felt like so weak. She was a human! A human, alone among hords of 'Souls' who had powers comparable with them of Superman. She was always a very protective person. Wanting the best for her friends. But now... she got more and more the feeling that she is a burden... And most Shinigami she met let her feel that. At least she thought so.
Mizuiro decided, that he couldn't wait anymore... he had to talk with her... she was the only one who could understand him. Tatsuki was sitting outside on the terrace, glaring on the wall. The Kurosaki's and the Abarai's were out, doing whatever. They were alone, so he tried something, because he had no clue when he gets the next chance...
"Tatsuki, do you want some coffee?"
"Leave me al... what... coffee?!" Tatsuki was about to explode but now she was surprised. The Soul-Society was a place without coffee! The Shinigami had no clue what coffee even was!
"I found this in the kitchen!" Mizuiro said presenting her a small glass with Instant-Coffee from the world of the living. Both never heared of that brand before, or could read what was written on it (Mizuiro supposed that it was Armenian). Maybe Renji or another Shinigami bought it while on duty in thier world. But it was definetely coffee.
"Oh, yeah... Coffee sounds great!" Tatsuki said. Her last cup was weeks ago...
By now, both had learned how to use the old traditional fireplace and were able to make hot water. Coffee was a 'human-thing'. It gave her a feeling that at least something is normal...
And so both sat next to each other. Each of them with a 'teacup' of hot and fresh instant-coffee. Sitting thier in thier borrowed kimono's that were still hard to get used to. They found no milk and no sugar... but both didn't care. It was still a 'humans-thing'...
A few minutes and two cups later... Mizuiro thought it was a good moment to talk to her. But much to his surprise... it was Tatsuki who start to talk...
"I feel like we are not welcome here!" she said.
"Wow, and I thought I am the only one thinking so."
"OH... Sorry! I forgot that you are here, too..." she replied. "It's just... there are so many things... Honestly... I feel like like I doesn't know Ichigo. Or Orihime? I feel like... like..."
"Like you are 'just a human'?"
"Exactly!" she said taking another sip from her cup. "And suddenly I remembered something... Keigo!"
"Keigo?"
"I don't know why... But Keigo was sometimes, inbetween his crazy pervert acts and you know what I mean... It was shortly after that Aizen incident. Keigo was... different."
"Keigo was always different than others!" Mizuiro replied.
"Yeah that's right, but... I mean, different about... Ichigo, his family... Before the incident, I honestly guessed that Keigo has a huge uncontrollable crush on Ichigo... Later I thought that it was because Ichigo always safed his ass... That he is his greatest fan... But... more and more it looked like Keigo was... terrified..."
"Oh, he was terrified! We both were!"
"Hmm...? What?"
"Before the day we met Ichigo, Keigo worst fear was to be in the same class as Ichigo. Not even his sister scared him more. You know how infamous Ichigo was? Oshima Reichii was the one who beated innocnents to death but Ichigo's reputation was way worse. And you... gosh... you know how afraid he was of you... even after our graduation..."
"I know the story Kojima!" Tatsuki moaned. "And I am not talking about that... it was more like... Keigo... gosh... no... I even dare to think about it...!"
"About what?"
Tatsuki, her face became pale meanwhile, took a deep breath and drunk the rest of of her coffee. "About... Keigo, seems to hate Shinigami! And honestly..." she looked around to be sure that nobody was listening to them. "...I don't like them, too..."
"Well... we are kind of prisoners. And we didn't did anything!" Mizuiro said. "So, I can say... me, too. I think they are so arrogant, believing that they are better than us 'normal-humans' just because they have Superpowers. And Keigo thinks so, too... Oh, feels great to say it. You are only person in this dimension who understands me."
"So... what if Keigo's, let's call it 'hate', against the Shinigami is so big..." Tatsuki guessed.
"And, that his personal anger against Ichigo and us, let him..." Mizuiro concluded.
"That Keigo maybe..." both said at the same time but stopped. They were shocked about thier guess...
"Tatsuki, that's a horrible thought!"
"Keigo... out of 7 billion people on Earth... no... No, Keigo is too coward..."
"Tatsuki, that's rude!" Kojima said. "But... The woman who reported about Ichigo..."
"What about her...?"
Kojima lift up to search his personal things. He found his smartphone... but the battery was empty... No surpise after three weeks in a world without 'electricity'.
"Dammed..."
"What, Kojima?" now Tatsuki was upset.
"I think... Keigo knows that woman..."
"WHAT?!" now Tatsuki screamed.
"I had a lot of time to think about it... and Keigo... somehow he managed that get spared."
"I thought it was because he was not on any of the pictures... because he left years ago..."
"I am... well I was, still in touch with him before we had to come to this place. Sometimes... he send me a photo... And... It's really bad that I can't look for it... it might be that I am mistaking but, I could swear that I once saw... that woman on one of his pictures..."
"Keigo Asano... and that lady... I know Keigo is stupid... But I don't think that he is so stupid to cause so much trouble..."
Kojima took his phone back and sat down next to her again. "Yeah, I know... But no matter how he got spared... I wish we were, too..."
"Yes, me too Kojima! Me, too!" Tatsuki moaned.
What both didn't know was that the Soul Society was well aware of how they thought about them. So, every time Tatsuki and Mizuiro were alone, a small black butterfly appeared in the house. Never mentioned by the two humans. Recording everything they talked about. Thier guess about Keigo, too.
"How did he did it?" Tatsuki asked. Mizuiro became curious, too. "How Keigo was able to get spared? I never thought about ever saying this, but... I wish to be on Keigo's place now!"
Keigo actually had no own opinion anymore. He was happy for his friends that they were able to flee, but also furious that they fled anyway. He hoped to hear good news about them but also hoped that they don't show up. He was not able to think clearly anymore. This weird 'nightmare' he just had was too much for him. It torn up old wounds. He remembered things he wanted to forget...
After he woke up, they checked him up again. For someone who spend two weeks in coma, who is (according to the doctor) dangerously underweight and has a drunkard liver... his condition was surprisingly good. So he was put from the intensive care unit, to a normal room. He was ordered to stay in bed and to relax. But Keigo did not endure it anymore in bed. As soon as he was alone, he carefully managed to stand up. Still conected to various monitors and beeing on a drip, he managed to walk a metre to the window to open the curtains.
He could see the ocean. It looked so beautiful in the sunlight. The world keeps turning. People lived thier lives, despite knowing that there was someone among them who 'devoured souls'. Keigo thought about the Kurosaki's again while feeling the warm sunlight on his skin... Do they have a sun in the Soul Society? And how do they live there? Do they have houses? Or are they living in gaves? Is it like the place he saw in 'Death Note'? Keigo shaked his head... he swore to himself not to waste any mind about them anymore... than he could hear that someone opened the door behind him...
His manager Shino entered the room, a bunch of flowers in his hands and with worry in his face... Surprised that Keigo was walking around, only hours after he woke up from a coma. But happy that he was awake... Keigo looked terrible. He looked so fragile and so weak. Shino feared to break him a bone if he hugs him too strong but he had to. Keigo was happy to see someone...
"Oh, gosh... you are alive..." he said relieved while he gave Keigo a careful hug, he was not able to reply because his arms were still too weak. "...By all gods in this world,... Keigo... do you know how much you scared us?"
Keigo was worried. He was afraid to say something wrong. "I... am sorry. Honestly,... I don't remember what happened. I don't remember anything!"
It was true... Keigo couldn't remember that he put the pills into his glass. It was like... something else was controlling him. Was it his sorrow? His anger? His fear, maybe? Keigo suddenly felt that his legs became weaker and he walked back to his bed to sit down. Shino helped him.
"Shino... did the people forgot about a man named Kurosaki?" Keigo asked carefully. Still hoping that it was out of the people's memories.
"Everyone knows the name Kurosaki!" his manager moaned. "And I am afraid it won't take long before the people learn about you, too."
What takes them so long to erase the stupid memories, Keigo thought. What is so difficult, this time? Keigo looked on his manager. He had a lot of questions.
"Is Akira here, too?"
"She is taking care of your jungle!"
"Oh, that's nice. And Makoto... is she, still alive... or missed?"
"What has Makoto Hirabata to do with... oh, because she exposed them, right? She is fine. But she asks for you every day. I told her and everyone else that you had a very severe pneumonia. If your suicide-attempt would be revealed everyone will think that you tried to follow this Kurosaki-thing to his world... Some people already believe that you are jinxed!"
"I am not jinxed?! If I would be jinxed, I would be in Karakura, my ash in trash-can after Tatsuki Arisawa breaked my neck for smiling on Orihime and my sister not willing to pay a proper funeral and my parents not even mentioning that I am gone." Keigo said.
Shino was shocked. He could imagine that Keigo past was hard, but that sound way worse than he imagined.
"Did you ask Makoto to keep your name out of it?"
"Yes, she is a friend. I really don't want to get pulled into that mess." Keigo said while he saw a name written on a small piece of paper, hanging on his bed. "Who is Masaru Osaka?"
"You!" Shino said. "It was not cheap to ensure your privacy..."
"Thank you!" Keigo said, looking outside again. It was a wonderwul summer-day outside. He knew that he had to go back to Tokyo, as soon as possible. "I have to go back..."
"Keigo, you just woke up from coma! A two weeks coma?! And you want to take a flight to Tokyo. The doctors won't let you go!"
"Convince them, to let me go!" Keigo said. "Shino I have to go back to Tokyo to fix this before my name appears in the media..."
Indeed, Makoto's efforts to prevent that Keigo's name get's published were sucessful for now. But there were thousands of newspapers, magazines, TV-channels and Internet-news-pages around the world. Too much to tell really everyone to let Keigo's name out of it. No other than Keigo's own sister told them. Many of them tried to contact Keigo's mangement. An useless attempt, as Keigo's management was aware and followed his orders. But journalists were able to do merciless things to get what they want...
Two American You-Tubers had a very very special idea for thier show... As the Shinigami were a worldwide-phenomenon, they knew that it would boost thier number of subscribers...
In the Soul Society meanwhile, Ichigo and his family were looking for a way to contact the world of the living. Or at least figure out what they talked about them thier... So, Ichigo and Chad went to the twelth division, while his father was watching the kids and Orihime was invited by Karin to join her for something that was going on at the tenth division, she was invited to by Hitsugaya.
"Recieving television-, radio-, phone- or internet-signals from the world of the living, transmitted by normal, not Soul-Society-produced devices is absolutely impossible." Mayuri Kurotsotchi, the scary and cruel captain of the twelth division told them with a malicious smile.
"So you let us wait here for two hours, just to tell us that there is no way?" Ichigo asked angrily. He and Chad were really waiting for two hours here in the captain's office.
"Let me finish, Kurosaki... You'll soon enough beeing impressed... As I said... Recieving this signals is impossible... but I actually found a way..." the scary captain said revealing an old TV under a dusty clouth. When he pulled it away, the dust covered Ichigo and Chad letting both of them cough. "Applause please!"
"You want me to be impressed by a chunky piece of electronic waste...?" Ichigo asked mad, seeing the old TV, that was obviously from the 80s. Maybe even older...
"This 'chunky piece of electronic waste', Kurosaki... is a specially modified device to recieve television-signals from every place in the world of the living." the captain said proudly.
"Prove it!"
"Fine..." Kurotsotchi said, and took something that looked like a remote-controler, but was connected to the device over a thick cable. With loud crackle the screen became grey and and a woman appeared. Definetely a humans-world TV-programme. But not from Japan...
"What is this?" Ichigo asked confused, hearing the woman talking in something that sound like Korean, but in a raised art.
"Sounds like Korean!" Chad replied. "Wait, that's the North-Korean-state-television!"
"Oh, wrong district... wait..." Kurotsotchi said, pressing various buttons and changed to a Japanese channel, just in time for a really terrfiying report about an incident in the United States...
In Okinawa, Keigo was able to call Makoto, who was relived to finally hear from him...
"Gosh, Keigo where are you? I was so worried." she said. Keigo knew that she was not aware of his suicide-attempt and his following coma. She thought that it was a pneumonia, too. "And most of all, how are you?"
"Better!" he said. According to his current state. But not according to his situation. "And you... how are you? Are you fine? Did something, happen to you?"
"No! No, I am fine!" she said. It was a big relieve for Keigo, because it meaned that the Soul Society did not hurt her, for what she did. "Why? Are you worried that the Shinigami might harm me? Gosh... did they harm you? Is that the reason why you disappeared...?"
"No! No, I just... gosh... this is so complicated... I need to talk to you personaly as soon as I am back in Tokyo!"
"When you will return?" she asked.
Keigo shrugged while he thought about his answer. "I hope to get out of here in two days..."
While Keigo spoke, he could hear threw the phone that someone was screaming Makoto's name. Keigo was surprised. And Makoto was scared briefly. "Sorry, Keigo... The channel director want's to see me... And you can hear, that he is pretty mad..."
"Okay,... I'll call you back." Keigo said and hang off. Not knowing that Makoto was called into the directors office because of him...
In Tokyo, Makoto went to the channel-director's office. He was visibly mad while he ordered her to take a seat. It was not the first time he called her into his bright, sterile office, that had this uncomfortable atmosphere. And it was not the first time he was mad on her. So she was sure, what ever happened, she was able to handle it.
"Yamashiro-san, what's the matter?" she asked. She could see that he was out of patience and that he wanted to scream. "Are you fine?"
"Yes! Yes, I am fine!" he said obviously upset. "And you?"
"Yeah... everything is fine!"
"Okay... nice to hear that! Hirabata-san... one question... Have you ever been in the United States?"
"No!"
"Okay! It's because... since your report about the Karakura-Shinigami, you are a well known person there, too." the man told, trying to not to freak out. "They talk about you in talk-shows, in the news. You became really famous there!"
"Oh, nice to hear that!"
"It's just... that some people there,... seemed to know more about your report, than you. Or at least, they talk more openly about it." he said, before he turned around the monitor of his computer to show her a live stream of a show that was aired on TV JPN right now... Exposing Keigo Asano as a part of the Shinigami-Gang and Makoto hiding this fact from the public... "How do you explain that?"
Makoto was shocked. TV JPN! The very first job in this business she had at TV JPN, actually just a small local channel, but still thier competitor! They treated her very bad. She hated them. There was nothing in the world she hated more than them. When she left to work for Tokyo One, she swore to herself that she will 'destroy' them one day. But now they seemed to destroy her...
"Where... where they got this from?" Makoto was horrified. Because she realized that she was busted. And Keigo, too... "That's... so unabashed..."
"STOP TALKING!" now the director start to scream. "You hide this very important fact from us and from the public. And now we are not even the first people to report about it."
"You... please, you have to understand my situation. I had not enough evidence to pull him into this. Of course I talked to him, but he denied everything! I think he is still jinxed!"
The director listened to her. There was no reason for her to lie to him now. Of course he know that she was totally loyal to them and that everything she does has a reason. Now Makoto was really mad and upset.
"Why TV JPN reports about it now? You know that they are our competitors and that they and I have a very complicated shared past! I would never... never ever, allow that they report about my stories before I reported about it. I... admit that he kind of blackmailed me to leave his name out of it. He... is a friend. It was to protect him. And our channel as well!"
"You know that Keigo Asano is not exclusivly working for our channel-network?" the director said. "He is working for various networks but mainly for the dubbing-studios here in this building!"
"Yes, I am well aware of that. But, I thought that I had to protect him. Listen, I don't know why! Maybe I am jinxed, too? Anyway... where they got this informations from?"
The channel director turned his monitor back to see what he was clicking on and opened YouTube. "Because... This video, was posted on YouTube, six hours ago. Two Youtubers from Los Angeles... are now more famous than you..."
In fear Makoto, in the world of the living on YouTube and Ichigo, Chad and Mayuri Kurotsotchi in the Soul Society on TV JPN, saw the video as it was aired again...
Please Review!