The Fallen Women
Chapter 52
Somewhere else
Kyoko stepped from the train and walked up slowly out of the train station of train station, she looked around and pondered what her next move should be. Looking at her phone she thought briefly of calling Ren to let him know where she was but quickly changed her mind, he would probably be busy anyway and instead looked up the timetable for the local trains. She walked along the streets of Kyoto and let the memories of the last time she walked these street flood her mind.
She had been so different then , she smiled to herself and then frowned maybe not that different after all If she thought about it she had left Kyoto looking to be finally loved ,needed and at the time she had thought her prince Sho would do all the above if she worked hard enough, gave him everything ,that maybe someone would love her but the more she thought about it the more she realized that it hadn't really been about Sho at all, it had been all about Saena who would never love her and she was beginning to worry that maybe she was doing the same again, that maybe with Kuon and his family she was she still just doing what she was trained to do from birth to become the perfect whatever the people around her wanted ,do anything to get even the smallest bit of affection.
She shook her head no she was different now, she had to be different. She did things for herself now and no matter how much she loved Ren she would never let him stop her and he would never make her do anything for him if she didn't want too, in fact if she really thought about it she would probably say that it was her that could get him to do anything for her ,if the last couple of weeks was anything to go by Kuon would be delighted if she made more demands of him .
She sighed and decided that seeing as she had come back to Kyoto it was only right that she should go visit the Fuwa after all they had practically raised her and even if they had only done it because of their agreement with Saena she knew that her life would have been a lot worst without them and besides she had some questions she needed to ask them.
She walked toward Tobakaido Station noting that the next train left in seventeen minutes if she ran, she would probably make it.
Kyoko hurried along the street blurring past the other pedestrians and managed to arrive at the station get her ticket and get to the platform with two minutes to spare.
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Ren looked at his phone as he exited the studio, he had been hoping that Kyoko would call him back. He had been feeling a bit antsy. The shoot today had gone well, and they had wrapped up a whole hour ahead of time.
"Tsuruga-san" a voice cried out , Ren stopped and turned around to see Shingai walking towards him "Please remember you'll be staying at Kibune Fujiya while we are in Kyoto we have the place to ourselves so that should make it a little bit easier and hopefully we'll be finished there by Thursday" said Shingai as he handed him a piece of paper that had all the details written down .
"oh, and could you pass on this information to Kyoko, my assistant hasn't been able to get a hold of her today"
Ren nodded at him "yes I'll make sure she gets the information" he said "I'll see you next week Shingai"
"have a good night Tsuruga-san" he said as he walked off looking for Sukata.
Ren frowned and quickly dialled Kyoko phone he listened as it rung and his frown deeply as he hears her voicemail go
"hi, you've reached Kyoko I can't answer the phone but please leave a message and I'll get back to you as soon as possible"
"Hi Kyoko, Shingai wanted me to tell you that we will be staying at Kibune Fujiya when we are in Kyoto next week." He paused "we finished here earlier than expected so I probably be done with Kuu sooner, so I was thinking I could pick you up when I'm done. Just give me a call as soon as you get this"
He hung up and looked around for Kuu, who he spotted unsurprisingly by the vending machine, he shook his head and walked up to the man.
"anything good"
Kuu laughed "that depends on what you mean by good" he laughed as he picks up the packet the dropped into the collection area "I somehow doubt that Kyoko-chan would call approve"
Ren laughed "Definity not, but I promise I'll keep your secret"
Kuu smiled happily at his son "shall we head back to LME, Lory and Tomas wanted to talk to us before we go to our function."
"function, I thought we were doing dinner" Ren asked
"Yes, it's a dinner for disadvantaged children with an interest in the arts" he smiled "We thought that with the damage your little fisticuffs had done that your gentlemanly image could use some repairing"
"oh, ok that makes sense, it's a good idea but how did you manage to put it together so quickly"
"that would be the power of Lory" Kuu answered as he ate a chip from his bag.
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Lory looked sadly at the man across from him and then down at the papers on his desk
"So, you are sure that there is no other way around it?" he asked unhappily.
"It looks like it is unfortunately ironclad, she is engaged to the Mr Fuwa. He is still their heir and as such when Kyoko finishes her schooling at the end of this year he will have the right to marry her ,unless we can get the Fuwa to cancel the contract or unless she is already married or unwise dishonoured and if she is either of those she will have to pay compensation for their lost of a bride and all the training she received .We called the Fuwa but they were unwilling to talk to us about this " Tomas rubbed his temple
"what kind of compensation would they require" Tomas shook his head
" I'm still looking into that , if she refuses they could sue her for damages for breach promise to marry and for breach of wedding related contracts, they could also go for damages for financial loss for the years they housed and trained her and the loss of her future earnings would have contributed to the family ,compensatory damages for damage to their reputation and that's just the start"
Lory looked at Tomas shocked "surely not"
Tomas looked over at Lory "if they have a good lawyer they could indeed and more"
"well I guess it can't be helped, we need to set up a meeting with the Fuwa's and I will just have to make it impossible for them to refuse to talk to us"
Tomas stood up "well sir I'll leave that with you for now, I have to go do some more investigation."
"Thank you Tomas, I'll call you when I manage to set something up" Lory as he escorted Tomas from his office door he was about to open it when he heard a firm knock on the other side .
He opened the door and was surprised to see Kuu and Ren standing there. He looked at the clock
"you're a bit early" he said to the two men in front of him.
"Yes, filming went well so we finished ahead of schedule" Ren answered as he watched Tomas walk away "did we interrupt something important' he asked curiously
"no we had just finished, so yes right you'll be doing the dinner with R.A.D in should be fairly easy, eat ,talk and give a bit of advice and after dessert give these" he hand Kuu a small stack of envelops "to each one of them."
He sighed and looked at Ren "I trust that you will be on your best behaviour "and then looked over at Kuu "and you will not eat all the food"
They both nodded in agreement "Yes, sir best behaviour "
Lory smiled "good" he pointed to the door "then if you don't mind, I've had a long unfortunate day and I wish to spend some time with my darling grandchild "
Kuu look at Lory worried "Is everything alright" he asked
"Yes" Lory waved him off "just some new challenges to figure out, now you know where to go I hope"
"Yes, we will head there now"
Ren and Kuu left the room and Lory sighed and shook his head never in his life had the saying be careful what you wish for applied to him more, yes he had wanted Ren to be a little more interesting ,a little less straight laced and boring but really the universe had over compensated
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Kyoko reached Kurama station and walk toward the Kurama-dera Temple she had decided on the train that her first stop would be at the temple so she could pray for clarity and strength before she would walk by the forest path to the Fuwa ryokan.
As she approached the chozu bachi she poured the water over her left hand ,then her right , she then washed her mouth and the handle of the ladle to cleanse herself , she moved further into the hall before moving in front of the offering box. She throws a few coins into the offering box. She bowed twice, clapped twice, rang the bell and then processed to pray.
As she walked away from the main temple and toward where she had seen the omamori being sold. she bought a success, a ward away evil, a love and a luck charm. She tied the luck onto her phone and added the rest to her bag.
She smile and then walked down the side of the mountain and into the forest until she found the little stream that held so many memories for her ,this place was where she had always come when her mother had hurt her and suddenly she felt herself crying whole heartedly she cried and cried as every memory of Saena and her of all the rejection and the pain and every slapped away hand and disappointed glare had come and gone ,she cried about be abandoned and sold ,she cried about how much love she had spent on someone who couldn't love her and how she had followed the same pattern later ,she about Sho betrayal and about her fears of love she until she had ran dry and then she sighed sat on one of the ground and just let the rustling in the leaves soothe her and for the first time in days she felt as if a unbearable weight had been lift from her.
