"My Lady, if you want, I can help you undress and take your measurements in a different dressing room?" the lovely non-bending young woman with very radical ideals I find myself agreeing to says when we pass by the most famous gossip columnist in the dressing room next to mine.
"That would be wonderful, Azumi. I know the whole keeping my wedding clothes secret is such a stupid thing, but I am already on bad terms with the press secretary and I did promise my fiancé that I wouldn't antagonize them further." I walk into the dressing room, which I just realized is the storage room with the secret exit we use when either a journalist, radio personality, or any of my dad's exes is here. "Oh, is Madame Chihiro turning the storage into a dressing room?"
"No, but you have to admit its perfect for kidnappings." Azumi locks the door and a man behind me chloroforms me.
As I look back at this moment, I realized I am a fucking idiot.
"Mimi's been in there a long time, do you think she wore that corselet from hell again?" Asiaq looked at the clock on the mantle again.
"No, she told me herself she was wearing the one with the zipper." Eun answered, her delicate eyebrows crinkling in worry. Eun had a bad feeling about today, an unsettling feeling in her stomach like the one she got that evening when she caught her husband with that awful actress.
"I can send someone to go check on them if you wish, your ladyship?" Madame Chihiro, who has been entertaining them and anxious to promote her upcoming fall collection to every woman in the room, asks Eun.
"If it isn't an inconvenience, Chihiro. I know Mimi can take care of herself and Miss Azumi is such a trustworthy employee, but I can't help feeling something is wrong." Eun says fully giving into that sixth sense telling her something is wrong. By this time Mimi's friends had gotten the hint and even if Asiaq didn't like her they knew not to discount Eun's sixth sense.
"I am sure Mimi just got carried away and neither have noticed the time." Ting-Ting reluctantly puts down the wedding catalogue filled with gorgeous designs inspired by traditional earth kingdom wedding clothes.
"No this isn't something Mimi does, not if she has plans after her appointment. She may be chatty, but our girl is punctual especially if it comes to getting time alone with Iroh without a chaperone." Jissika counters and removes the lid off the teapot in case she has need for an impromptu water whip or an icicle.
The other assistant Madame Chihiro had sent in her stead runs into the parlor screaming. "Azumi and Princess Mimi are gone!"
The nosy gossip columnist in the other dressing room squeals in delight at having found her story and Lady Chihiro faints.
"Your Grace! I couldn't stop her." Ichiro Nakamura's private secretary, who often helped him hide his infidelities from the media, managed to say keeling over from having run after Ichiro's wife. Yue had come looking angrier than ever, she had been incensed for telling Mimi about their divorce without her consent. She coddled Mimi too much, no wonder their daughter was wild and unrestrained.
"Get rid of your whore and your pet, we need to talk." Yue commanded and he listened. If Yue has openly sought him out, then it was of the utmost importance.
"Why do I have to leave? Its already bad enough you took back the ring, now you are leaving me out of something like this?" Kazaori complained and Yue looked her dead in the eyes.
"The ring was already willed to my daughter; he had no business giving it to someone so unworthy of a Fire Lady's jewels. Leave." It's a blatant lie, but his father had wanted him to give the parure to Mimi seeing it would go with the tiara his sister Ikumi had designed for her.
"Kazaori, darling, leave. This impromptu meeting with my wife will be over before you know it." Ichiro doesn't even bother looking at his fiancée. It was bad enough Mimi had made him give her his late Aunt's chrysanthemum parure which he had planned to give Kazaori, now his wife had the gall to show up unannounced.
Yue looked the door and cool it enough to make sure they can't eavesdrop.
"Mimi was kidnapped." Those three words were enough to make his blood run cold. His idealistic, spiteful daughter had a way of attracting trouble, but never this kind of trouble.
"Grab your things, kid, your mother wants you home." Katsashi, his bodyguard and head of his security detail unceremoniously grabs Iroh's things and leads him to the garage where an armed motorcade was waiting for him.
"Why? Did something happen to grandfather or her?" He asked worried, his mother never called him home unless something horrible had happened. The last time he was forced to leave in the middle of training, Ursa had been going into anaphylactic shock because one of her school's cooks had been trying to kill her with food she was allergic too.
"You know the drill, your highness." The guard said making Iroh feel more uneasy. The ride is short and quiet, but the knowledge that Katsashi was poised to strike unlike his usual quiet vigilance from the front seat.
It clicks when he is ushered to his grandfather's personal office and he see's Mimi's family waiting inside with his.
"Where's Mimi? Did something happen to her?"
"This is just in. Lady Misao Nakamura, daughter of the Duke of Shuhon and fiancée to his highness, the Prince Iroh, was kidnapped this morning.
The Royal Family nor the Chief of Fire Nation Police Forces have given out official statements, but our source was there at the scene.
We will keep you updated and ask that if any of our listeners has any leads , pleascontact your local authorities."
"Should've known they'd get their hands on the story." Naoko pops another mint into his mouth. He could use a cigarette right now. He bets Mimi could go for one as well, wherever they took her.
Mimi had always been too naïve to think someone would be stupid enough to try anything on her.
And yet, someone had kidnapped her along with a frumpy seamstress that looked a little too much to Aunt Ikumi. He would have to investigate if she is by chance the child his aunt had out of wedlock before she married.
Hisa and her children were scheduled to leave at noon, but now were under heavy guard in a bunker at the Omashu Embassy, Eun and Botan were there as well, while his mother put away her repulsion for her husband and remained with them not wanting to miss a single update on Mimi's case.
"Have they made demands?" Iroh asks pacing like the anguished lover in a novel. Naoko remembers that his little sister is the damsel in distress.
"They left a campaign flyer for Mr. Chao, the man at the head of the Equalist movement here in the Fire Nation." The Chief answered. "They have made no demands as of yet."
Rui Chao was kicked out of the Liberal Party for his affiliation with the movement who wanted to kill every bender and non-bender who dared to sympathize with benders. The growing Equalist Movement had garnered enough attention that they demanded to be recognized as a legitimate political party.
Taking Mimi was a stupid idea if they wanted to be seen as the victims of oppression they prey on.
"One of our people monitoring Nakamura House has reported someone has dropped off this." A detective, young, idealistic and surprisingly not his cousin, Kin. Kin must be the detective assigned to monitor the House.
The box doesn't look any different from the millions of disposable hat boxes his wife and sisters have accumulated. The box was trademarked by Madame Chihiro which made him doubt the seamstress was a victim.
The box is opened to reveal a rather large chunk of Mimi's hair- at least it wasn't something less trivial like a finger or an ear- and a note.
But this did let them know her abductors were amateurs and Mimi would be home complaining by high tea tomorrow. He'd bet twenty thousand yuans and his new luxury air ship that the frumpy seamstress did it.
He didn't have time to read it as his mother snatched it out of the box and read it out loud.
"If you wish to see your daughter again, you and your son must step down from office and fully endorse Rui Chao as your son's successor. We also demand ten million yuan-"
"Like hell I would. I haven't worked my ass off making sure every man, woman and child have a roof over their heads and food in their bellies just so that bigoted son of a bitch can undo it all!"
Naoko winces. The Duke of Shuhon claimed he put his children above his career, but he wouldn't hesitate sacrificing darling Mimi for his country. Nakamuras would do anything for their family, but even great aunt Misao had poisoned her own womb-unborn twin sons included- for the sake of the Fire Nation.
"This is the life of our youngest child you are speaking; I would gladly let the world burn if it meant no one touched a hair on my children!" Naoko's mother seethes in rage that her indolent husband seems fine with letting Mimi be tortured and murdered for the sake of people's rights.
If they could remember they were in the presence of Mimi's in-laws and one of them is the Fire Lord, who could take away their titles and wealth if he wanted to, it would be great.
Mimi would die of embarrassment if she knew this was happening.
"I would gladly give my own life for my baby sister, and that includes my career, but lucky for us and most importantly Mimi, she has the Police Force and the royal army to rescue her." Naoko tries his best to calm down his mother and assure everyone he has a heart.
"I assume there is already a plan in place. Miss Azumi doesn't any have any records and her henchmen are unlikely to have more experience in kidnapping someone as high profile as my sister."
"What makes you think the assistant seamstress did it?" Commander Bumi asked, intrigued to how he came to that conclusion.
'Agni, Yue and La, I hope they don't think I did it.' thought Naoko to himself,
"Mimi and Eun had mentioned Miss Azumi being very forward with her political ideals and singing praises about the Equalist Movement. She kept trying to invite them to the secret rallies, not that my wife and sister would accept it." Naoko can see the Chief of Police had arrived at that conclusion but hadn't yet been allowed to say it. "…and I recognize her handwriting from all the personalized notes she wrote on Madame Chihiro's behalf."
"Yes, Lord Fire Fountain is correct. Madame Chihiro's assistant, Miss Azumi is a member of the movement. We presume that her ally is a chi-blocker recently deported from the Republic. We have been using a Shirshu to track Lady Misao's scent and have everything under control." The Chief answered to everyone's satisfaction.
Well, almost everyone, Iroh didn't seem like the type to sit back and let other people do the work. The Prince had decided to earn his military honors instead of showering himself in them without spending more than an hour in training like the Earth King's late grandson -Shu's late paternal uncle- had done.
"Perhaps Commander Bumi and my grandson can assist in Lady Misao's rescue?" The Fire Lord says making Naoko secretly glad Fire Lord Zuko didn't mention him.
Naoko loved his sister, but there was only so much a politician could do in a rescue mission. He will gladly wait in the sidelines and bring her a hat.