Chapter 3: They Came

Kyoko waited at the front door of the darumaya. Her overnight bag hung close to her body as she waited for Yashiro-san & Tsuruga-san to pick her up. Initially she had insisted on riding her bicycle because she did not want Tsuruga-san to wake up even more early than he already had to, just to pick her up first on their way to LME.

She checked her watch & it was 4:30am. Looking around, there was not a soul in sight at this ungodly hour. The streets had never looked so calm. She looked up towards the road as she heard a soft rumble of an engine coming closer. It seemed today Tsuruga-san had chose to drive. She greeted him through the open window before opening the door to the backseat.

"Good morning Kyoko-chan!"

Kyoko couldn't help but squeak in surprise. Yashiro-san was lounging and quite comfortably so in the back seat. She always insisted to sit in the back but now that Yashiro-san was already seated, it would be rude to ask him to move. Resigned to her fate, she turned towards the front seat and found Tsuruga-san standing beside it with a hand held out towards her. Confused, she kept on looking at his hand.

"Kyoko...your bag?"

"Ah Yes" she uttered embarrassingly & passed her over night bag to him. He opened the car door and she graciously slid into the front passenger seat. A few seconds later he was back behind the wheel, right beside her.

"So Kyoko chan...are you excited about today?"

Kyoko flinched spotting Yashiro-san's exuberant face between her and Ren. Kyoko quickly recovered enough to say "Yes Yashiro-san! Although I'm more curious than excited as I've never been camping before."

Yashiro-san was surprised to hear this. "What? But how is that possible Kyoko-chan? Didn't you say you were from Kyoto? How can you have missed out on it?"

Kyoko froze for a few seconds, her spine was stiff as a board. The temperature in the car decreased to a haunting low. Kyoko's demons were huddled together while engaging in ice fishing.

Yashiro-san saw Ren gripping the steering wheel tightly and thought "I wonder...maybe I over stepped..there seems to be something of animosity for her in Kyoto..perhaps camping has something to do with that mama's boy rockstar in her past..but judging from Ren's reaction it seems he already knows what bothered her about my statement...HoHoHo so the couple has moved on to divulge about past secrets...just another something to add to the fan journal."

Just as Yashiro-san was about to apologise for drudging up the past and at the same time discreetly making a note to add to his fan journal tonight, Kyoko whipped her head around towards him so fast he couldn't help but flinch.

"Yashiro-san, Kyoto is indeed a beautiful place for outgoing activities but you see, us local folks have had to live through some hard working days, especially during autumn and spring so we didn't have the time for such things"

Hearing her say these things Yashiro couldn't help but imagine a 60 year old woman in her place, lamenting about working hard in the fields to feed her family. "What kind of a childhood did she have?!"

The atmosphere in the car was tense until they reached LME. Ren didn't bother commenting on her statement as he figured it didn't matter anymore, it's not like he can change her past but he did have the ability to secure her future along with his. So he'll focus on that.

Parking the car, the three of them got out, picked up their bags from the trunk and rode the elevator to the ground floor. They exited from the lobby entrance to the outside parking lot. It seemed they were right on time. The crowd had gathered near the entrance, it looked like close to a hundred people at least. There was a hum of anticipation in the air as men and women talked excitedly to each other. Beyond the crowd there were 5 buses parked in the parking lot.

Kyoko was in awe as she had never seen so many members and staff of LME together before.

Tsuruga-san was amused as he got to enjoy her reaction "Sometimes she's an open book for me and yet when her feelings are concerned she clams up"

"Tsuruga-san! I'm going to look for Kanae-san and um..THANK YOU FOR THE RIDE TSURUGA-SAN " said Kyoko bowing in a perfect 90 degree angle.

"You're always welcome Kyoko" replied Ren. His eyes couldn't help but follow her as she turned around and walked swiftly towards the crowd.

"I take it we wont be taking our car" said Yashiro-san, his eyes trained on the buses.

Ren sighed heavily. He was hoping to convince the president to let him take his car but now he didn't feel like saying anything as it would be highly unfair that everyone had to ride the bus and he could get away from experiencing the uncomfortable ride.

Yashiro-san patted his shoulder "oh come on Ren, don't look so put out by this. Sure it will be uncomfortable and long but don't you see the advantage of this?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Ren you get to sit next to Kyoko-chan, monopolize her time during the bus ride, share headphones while listening to love songs together and finally let her sleep with her head on your shoulders" Yashiro squealed excitedly in his ear.

Ren froze, his mind conjuring all those images that Yashiro was describing and he loved it. He couldn't help add a few images of his own, like Kyoko and him comfortably chatting with each other without any formality. Kyoko making that sweet sound when she giggles about something.

"So, what do you think?" Yashiro's voice jarred him from his thoughts. He hesitated to reply. He reminded himself that they had agreed to hold off their relationship and doing this would be the opposite of that "But if I keep letting there be distance between us in the name of holding off our relationship, things will change for the worse. Kyoko is the woman I love but before I fell for her, she was the woman I admired, the woman I enjoyed having a conversation with, the woman who kept me on my toes with her amazing craziness, the woman with whom I enjoyed spending time with and lastly, she is the woman for whom I don't have to pretend to be strong, I can be myself. In the name of holding off our relationship I can't lose all those things with her. It might take some time till we're both cemented in our careers and achieved our respective goals but I can't miss out on those things till then. I recently got hold of those things and now I'm happily addicted. Also Kyoko's progress was too slow already and now she seems to be nervous around me, I want her to be comfortable around me, we can still have those things and not pursue our relationship romantically although I selfishly want to get her used to my touches along the way. Yes.. we can do this"

Not wanting Yashiro-san to find out that he hit a bulls eye with his suggestion, Ren simply shrugged and replied, "We'll see."

Although Yashiro-San's expression did not change, there was a Tsunami of emotions waiting to burst from inside "oh you sly cat I'm on to you..hehehe... this trip is going to be so much fun..Thank goodness I bought my KyoXRen fan journal..I have so much to observe and so much to write..."

"OYE Yashiro! It's too early in the morning to be lost in one's thoughts" A loud voice boomed in his ear causing him to flinch. He turned around and saw it was Sawara-san. Eyes widening he exclaimed "Sawara-san what are you wearing?"

Sawara-san, grinned "What do you think Tsuruga-san, Yashiro? Its fitting for the occasion isn't it?"

Ren and Yashiro-san were rendered speechless. Sawara-san was decked out in all brown and was wearing something that could be called as a copy of Indiana Jones's costume. Ren and Yashiro recovered enough to compliment him as he seemed proud of his fashion choice for this morning. Sawara-san received the compliments gleefully, it was rather obvious he was proud of what he had chosen to wear. He turned towards Yashiro-san and said "I wasn't sold on the whole camping thing initially but after giving it a good thought I decided I may as well enjoy it, after all at least I have people close to my age on this trip, right Yashiro?" Sawara-san winked at him and tipped his hat.

Yashiro-san sputtered and for the life of him, he didn't know how to respond "wait...Is he implying we're the same age?..but how could he think that...I don't look old do I?"

Ren could sense the awkward atmosphere and proceeded to distract Sawara-san. "Sawara-san I have never seen you in such an informal attire..."

Now that the conversation was once again turned to his proud and bold fashion choice, Sawara-san was gleefully distracted.

"Indeed Tsuruga-san, I seldom leave the house in an informal attire but today I decided to take this trip as a laidback vacation...although today my wife was very hesitant in my leaving the house wearing this...I wonder why?" Sawara-san stroked his chin thoughtfully.

"I could take a guess" thought Ren and Yashiro.

"Anyways, You and me, Yashiro are gonna have a good time together, you see I used to be a nature enthusiast is my teens, so I know well on how to handle mother nature out there" said Sawara-san while gripping Yashiro-san around the shoulders.

"Wait no...oh help me...REN?. ...I can't believe this...all I wanted to do on this trip was observe and write in my fan journal and tease Ren..but this...nooooo" thought Yashiro-san.

The grip seemed painful to Ren and Yashiro-san's silent cry for help seemed to be the unheard music to his ears. He glanced away smoothly while feeling satisfied that finally Gods were taking his vengeance on Yashiro-san.

Suddenly the entrance to the lobby opened behind them and out walked Takarada Lory followed by Ruto-san.

The crowd stopped talking and turned towards their eccentric president. Today Lory was wearing a loud red Hawaiian T-shirt with khaki brown shorts that reached a few inches above his knee. He was wearing a wig with brown hair highlighted with silver streaks. He had sunglasses propped on his head and parrot green coloured crocs on his feet. He glared at the crowd ahead. Overall he looked like a leery old man retired from the mafia.

Needless to say the LME crowd was not impressed.

Lory's eyes fell on Sawara-san and widened comically.

They both took in each other's outfits for a few seconds. Then yelled "OUTRAGEOUS" towards each other simultaneously.

"You both are" thought the whole LME crowd.

Lory being called outrageous , responded by pouting like 10 year old.

While Sawara-san responded by lifting himself indignantly and stating "look who's talking.." "As if I'm going to get depressed because of what HE thinks of my clothes...for God's sake the man came dressed as a reindeer to our last Christmas get together and it wasn't even a costume party...I'm still better off than him"

Ruto-San cleared his throat loudly to get the president's attention. The president now jarred from his thoughts seemed to recollect himself. He looked towards the crowd and smiled mischievously.

"Good morning my lovelies, I'm glad you're all right on time..that means we will be right on schedule. We'll reach our first destination in 5 hours, camp there for the night then move on tomorrow to our 2nd destination which will take 3 hours or so, although the next day's camping site for the night I haven't decided yet but I will keep updating you along, you are all close to a hundred people, it will be around 20 people in each bus." He stopped to take a deep breath and was interrupted by a shrill cry.

"President!"

The crowd turned to look at the source of the voice and found Ruriko. She had on a pink glittery mini skirt and matching glittery tube top along with baby pink 6 inch heels. She stomped towards the president and glared at him.

"This is ridiculous, you expect me to sit in a public transport vehicle for 5 hours straight? That's too far, why can't we go somewhere closer and why can't we take our cars...Ruriko recently bought a new car and wanted to take it to a drive outside the city" she said flipping her hair over her shoulder, by the end of her complaints her voice had taken on a whiny quality.

Looking at her outfit Lory and Sawara-san couldn't help thinking "Hmph...does she not know how to dress for camping?"

Lory sighed and said "Well Ruriko I have already pre planned at least 1 of our destination and have made all the appropriate bookings so nothing can be done now..." he stopped and continued with a glint in his eyes "..although I have been looking for a person to stay back and look after Natsuo..would you prefer to stay back and keep him company it'll only be 3 days?"

Ruriko's blood drained from her face at the mention of the president's favourite pet.

"NO, NO...Ruriko can't stay back...um...Ruriko's really looking forward to this trip." Said Ruriko pulling off a pleasant smile and walking away.

Turning to address the crowd once again he said "Now please get on the buses. Our adventure awaits.."

He swiftly turned around and raised a finger towards Ruto. From behind the 5 busses was a parked RV, it was hidden from view and as the unknown driver drove it towards the president, the crowd couldn't help but gasp out loud. It was neon blue with flashy twinkling lights wrapped around it. It also showed Lory lying back on a black chaise lounge, clad in a white thong leotard with a smirk on his face, on both sides of the vehicle.

"HIDEOUS" The crowd exclaimed in their heads and winced simultaneously.

Ruriko stepped forward with horror sketched on her face and lifted a hand to point towards the RV.

"Is that...thing...going to be travelling along side us?" she asked

Lory, proud of his creation gave her a pleased smile and said "of course, and if you ask nicely you can ride in it too."

Ruriko backtracked so fast she almost tripped. "No, no I would never...I mean wouldn't want to impose" she said while walking briskly towards a bus.

Lory watched her go suspiciously as he knew well that Ruriko would never worry about 'imposing' ever. But for the life of him he couldn't figure out what made the girl run away so fast from him.

Tsuruga-san watching all this, began to slowly walk towards the bus that was closest to Kyoko in hopes of landing a seat next to hers'. As he moved, Lory's voice rang out

"Ren! We need to talk, meet me in the RV"

Tsuruga-san repressed his wince smoothly and began to walk towards his president's embarrassing creation.

"Mo! Get away from me, it's too early in the morning to be this energetic"

"But Moko-san, it'll be a magical journey for sure, we'll sit together, we'll eat snacks together, we'll look at the stars together, we'll even listen to music together." Kyoko went on dreamily.

"Hold up!" Kanea held up her arms in cross lock aiming at Kyoko causing her friend's arms to limply fall away from her body.

"I thought you said you never went camping before? Then how come you have so much planned?" she sternly asked Kyoko.

Kyoko's face flushed and she replied while looking at her feet shyly "Well I looked up camping on the internet and it had so many ideas...so Moko-san will sit with me?"

"No" she replied. Before Kyoko could clamp on her like a chimpanzee she continued "Because now you have some one else you need to look forward to sitting with you and before you start giving out dumb guesses I'll say it..its your lover boy Tsuruga-san"

Kyoko flushed a deeper red and bowed her head.

Kanae didn't like putting her on the spot like this and cursed herself for doing so now, but she couldn't help it. Kanae was jealous. There was another special person making a permanent spot in her heart and it irked her greatly.

Before she could distract Kyoko, Ruto appeared next to them.

"Kyoko-chan, the president would like to talk to you before we leave"

"Ah yes of course" she said before quickly waving at her friend and following behind him.

Kanae sighed heavily watching her leave.

Kyoko was thinking furiously as to what the president needed to talk to her about, when the RV came into view.

She stopped and turned to look at Ruto-san who too had stopped when she did.

"In there?" she asked while pointing a finger towards a painted half clad Lory.

Successfully suppressing his amusement, he silently nodded.

Kyoko blushing slightly and averting her eyes from the image on the van, climbed the steps and knocked.

"Come in" President's deep voice drawled out.

Bowing slightly she slipped in. She tried to keep her eyes downcast but curiosity got the better of her. "If the outside looked like that what would the inside be like?"

Surprisingly, there was nothing extraordinary about it on the inside aside from Tsuruga-san sitting opposite the president of course. She sighed in relief.

"Take a seat Kyoko" said the president.

She took the nearest seat and looked towards Tsuruga-san. He smiled at her encouragingly.

"I called you both in here so we could talk comfortably without prying eyes or ears...I wanted to update you on the matter with Maria" said Lory with a foreboding expression.

Ren stiffened.

Kyoko clenched her hands tightly. She was disappointed in herself for letting Maria down like that. "Sure it was our secret acting job but still..I can't help but feel terrible about this, she must be heart broken on finding her oni sama... and not to mention Tsuruga san whom she idolizes so much"

"Ruto?"

Kyoko flinched as the man in question stepped out towards him from the shadows at her back. She hadn't even noticed him coming in.

"Maria-chan says she is willing to forgive everyone on one condition" said Ruto

Ren looked at his boss inquiringly.

Lory shrugged in response and said "You both are not the only ones she's mad at. She's mad at me too, she hasn't even given me the chance to explain directly, Ruto explained everything to her but to no avail. The only way I can converse with my beloved Maria is through Ruto now."

Lory turned back to Ruto with pleading eyes and said "What does Maria want? What can I do to make this distance go away?"

Ren and Kyoko too looked at Ruto with determined faces, they too were ready to do anything and everything for her.

Ruto took a deep breath and said "Maria-chan wishes to spend a whole day with..." as he paused slightly, the trio exhaled in relief.

"...Cain and Setsu"

It took a few seconds before his words settled in.

"WHAT?" The three of them exclaimed.

To Be Continued...

Author's Note:

I've had a few commitments to keep here and there so the next chapter was delayed. Although this circus hasn't reached the roads yet, I needed to put this chapter in, as it forms a basis for the next ones. From here on its going to be hilarious, romantic and CRAZY.

Please keep up the reviews, as on rainy days they are the motivating force and I appreciate all your feedback as they help me improve too.

Ciao :)