I sighed silently while looking through the window of the jet. Only two more hours and it would be showtime. I have to put my game face on.

I only have a few goals I had to reach. First I had to re-establish my father's company's name. I had already built and thrived in Europe, most of the world followed suit so now all that was left to conquer was what my father and his family had conquered years before, the Asian market. The only difference is that this would endeavor would end up being much harder. This side of my family has never been particularly thrilled by my presence but I already have a backup plan. First stop, The Hitachiin Estate.

If everything goes smoothly, the next stop would be Ouran Academy. The thought of seeing my life long friend and cousin, Tamaki excited me. It had been far too long. Besides, the letter that I was carrying from his mother was burning a hole in my pocket.

Sara, my assistant and I continued to plan out our schedule. Most of my dads' old associates reacted positively to the idea of his company returning but showed a slight reservation about a still green-behind-the-ears-17-year-old leading that said company.

In order to convince those old timers, I will have to show them from what I'm made of. Re-establishing an old agreement my parents had made with the Hitachiin would be the first step to making my endeavor a successful one. I decided to follow Sara's advice and make a quick stop at the hotel before visiting my family' old friends; we have to make sure we're presentable of course.

We finished the finalization of our plans and I decided to take a quick nap before landing in Japan. Once we landed we entered a taxi and headed towards our hotel, finishing a few loose ends until I received a call from Yusuru Suoh. I picked up and we discussed the details of our business transaction. He wanted to bring some changes to the school's uniforms, specifically the female variant. Originally, my company only occupied themselves with fabrics and not the design of them but I realized over the years in Europe that it would be more advantageous to dip my toe in both those ventures. Besides, from what I could see from the pictures he had sent, the outfits were definitely in dire need of some renovation. I told him that I had a few sample versions of the new dresses and advised him that I should test them out by wearing them when attending the classes and courses. He was skeptical of the idea. I assured him that, working in this manner, we can receive practical information as to how the garment works in an everyday setting. Besides, this way we could easily get the girls opinion on the garments without going in for mass production and as such being able to provide maximum satisfaction to the female students in his school. Convinced by my arguments he agreed to the proposal. He then changed the subject to a more personal matter.

I heard a slight sigh when he finally asked me "How is she doing?"

I knew what he meant with "her", "her" was my mother's niece Anne-Sophie de Grantaine, Tamaki's mother. I sighed because; even good news in regards to her was, in reality, sad news. "She's doing better, the medication has made her illness stable." I heard a slight huff of relief coming for Yuzuru as I continued, "I've made preparations for her to go to Switzerland. There's a doctor there that is a specialist in regards to her illness maybe he can find a solution for it."

The conversation fell silent until he spoke again "Does my mother know about this plan of yours?"

"No, she does not. There is no need to, this has nothing to with her. Your family strictly provides for her lodging and medication. It is my choice, as head of the Noguchi family, to grant her this opportunity. It was her decision as Lady Grantaine to accept this offer. She isn't heading towards Japan and as such, she is still in agreement with the deal your dear mother force- pardon me, 'struck' with her.".

I let my voice drop with slight anger at the end of the sentence before continuing "The Suoh family has no leg to stand on or a word to say in this matter." Yuzuru was not a stupid man and understood that this was the end of this discussion. We returned the focus of the call back to the details for the dresses after that. We finished tying up the loose ends when I hung up the phone.

By then we had already arrived at the hotel and it was time to get prepared for a surprise visit to the Hitachiin's estate. I got dressed and put on a dark navy blue silk wrap dress, the darkness of the blue made the Armenian needlelace stand out that much more. The needle lace starts from the shoulders and follows along the V-neckline. It's reminisced of a shrug collar. I choose to accessorize with some pearl jewelry. Nothing to gawking of course: just some simple pearl earrings, a necklace, and a bracelet. The necklace is a simple silver necklace with one pearl pendant; the pearl engraved with the letter T. It was a gift from my father many years ago. The bracelet follows the same build as the necklace just without engravings on the pearls.

I opted for a French side fishtail braid. My dark hair makes the pearl earrings and the embroidery my hair rested on jump out. Hoping to come across, elegant, mature and professional; I grabbed a pair of simple low white heels along with my father's old dark brown leather and silver document case. I ended up finishing the look with generally natural makeup with the exception of adding a small cat eye.

Sara was already waiting for me in the taxi as I got in. I used the time it took to get there to mentally prepare myself, in case I would see either one of those twins. My mind wandered to the beautiful memory of when I met originally met half of the twin duo at the retreat. I shook that memory out of my head, remembering the awful events that followed many months and years later. If it wasn't for my fathers' will they would've been my adversaries and I would've crushed them completely. However, regardless of how I might feel or might have felt about these individuals, my parent's last wish is worth more than the world to me.

We arrived at the estate and were welcomed by the butler of the house asking us why we were here. I politely responded, "I want to meet with Yuzuha Hitachiin for a personal and a professional matter".

The butler bowed his head and asked me how he should refer to me so I responded, "Tell her Noguchi Taguhi is requesting to see her ." For a second I saw the butler's eyes grow wide when I said my family's name as if remembering a name from a time long, long ago. He responded with a "very well, follow me" and he brought me to one of the luxurious living rooms that graced the Hitachiin mansion. It seemed as this room was to become my waiting room.

I didn't wait long until she came down as gracious and exquisite as I expected and remembered her to be.

She opened her arms while walking towards us "Welcome Taguhi Noguchi, oh my how you've changed. I see you've grown to be quite a view to behold."

She ended with slightly lifting up my chin. "yes, you've grown into an exquisite sight". I tried to hold back a faint blush; I swear her sons take after her. Her movements reminded me of him. I tried to push along the conversation as quickly as possible but of course, that was not going to be an option because she had noticed my blush. "Awh, aren't you just absolutely adorable, I could eat you up". I coughed trying to push through another blush before getting back to the matter at hand.

"I believe your butler explained to you the reasons for me coming here" her expression grew slightly more serious as she sat on the couch across from us. "Yes, indeed a personal and professional matter. You've got me intrigued." She mused. "I'm here to re-establish the bonds our respective families used to have business wise." I continued explaining my proposal for the business venture until she interrupted me "I have no qualms about the offer you propose. However, how does the personal matter come into play?"

I gave her a grin as I went and opened my father's old document case. "This is how..." is all I said as I put a paper on the table that was placed between us. For once her face lit up with shock and surprise as she stared at the document "the marriage agreement..." she hushed as she stared at the paper. I decided to pull the dialogue along as she was staring at the document as a deer caught in headlights "I understand this isn't really of this day and age anymore but I do feel like this would, now more than ever, be a beneficial deal for your house." She finally broke eye contact with the document and gave me a saddened look "Do you understand what you're saying right now?" was her question towards me.

"I do, I am saying that you should put one of your sons up for marriage for the better of your house." Was my response while looking at her with pure determination. This is what my parents wanted and she's gonna be the thing that might make it or break it. She let out a heavy sigh before sinking slightly into her couch "I'm sorry but I can't openly agree to this contract". I was going to have to persuade her some way before she makes my parent's last will impossible to fulfill.

My train of thought got derailed as she continued with her reasoning "My sons have grown and now have their own word and say in the matter." I could get her on that "actually, unless you want to depart with your business, they don't." she gave me a skeptic look as I marched on "Pelletier now holds 55% of your shares right, Do they not?" she stared at me wide-eyed as she connected the dots, I was Pelletier. She should've at least been suspicious when I bought the shares last year.

"Now, to be honest, I don't want to take over the company. Even though I have the legal right and power to do so. It just wouldn't be beneficial to me because, quite frankly, I don't have the same design skills as you possess. I would also be unable to profit from the prestige that your house has built over the years. Which is why I've let you freely run it even though I had shares' majority."

Her stare seemed permanently fixed on my face throughout my rambling and was unreadable. This woman had an insane poker face when she wanted to. Being unable to gauze her opinion at the moment I resumed.

" HOWEVER, if you would like that power back you can either pay those shares back or agree to the proposal. Because of the marriage, my 55% will also become his and therefore full power would return to the Hitachiin house. " Yuzuha Hitachiin, the head of the Hitachiin house and CEO of Hitachiin fashion just stared at me dumbfounded. "I'll tell you what," I said to make her regain her composure "I understand you don't want to force any of your children into a forced marriage, so give me one year. One year to see if there's not a path where this contract may have some validity. If it turns out that they still oppose the thought of it, I'll sell you the 10% of the shares for the symbolic price of 1 yen. You won't have all of them of course but it's enough the regain full stock ownership of the company."

This was was my last resort; I didn't want it to go that far. I felt like I was blackmailing them. My gut feeling got worse as she gave me a look of disdain followed by one of disappointment. She picked up the paper and scanned the document once more. She finally came to a conclusion "Fine, I agree to your idea. HOWEVER, you will have to follow the rules stippled out in this document.

" I knew what that meant. It meant I had to live in the Hitachiin household. I could live with that. It did mean I would have less control over my surroundings, which was something new to me. "I will do so starting the day after tomorrow, I'll make sure one of my people will drop off all my stuff by tomorrow and I will follow the day after" was my answer. She nodded and said "we have a deal then." as she stood up. We walked towards the entrance of the mansion, I bowed politely telling her I had other meetings I had to get to. She politely waved me off at the door of the mansion.

My first mission was a success but only because I played it dirty. However, I got the chance I wanted and that's all I would need.

*Back at the Hitachiin Mansion*

"It seems Masaru's daughter has taken a turn for the worst." Mr. Hitachiin said to his wife from behind the entrance door as she was waving the child off.

"Well, she's definitely their daughter, as ruthless in business ventures as they were.", Yuzuha answered her husband. "Why did you want her to stay in our mansion anyway?" the Husband asked with a questioning look to his lovely wife. "Well, isn't it obvious? She has to relearn what it's like to be surrounded by a family and having to depend on others. If there's anything I know it's that she's still that little girl from back at the retreat. She even blushed when I complimented her. " Mr. Hitachiin gave his wife a doubtful look, Not completely buying her reason for inviting the child into the mansion. "Besides," she continued as her lips formed into a Cheshire cat smile "She entered the lion's den by her own volition. It'll be fun to tease her while she's here, get back at her for how she surprised and shocked me during this meeting"

Mr. Hitachiin let out a small chuckle followed by a smile "Yup, that sounds like you alright."

*Back in the cab*

We went straight back to the hotel, the discussion with Yuzuha Hitachiin dragged out longer than I had originally expected so we had to hurry to arrive on time to our next stop.

When we arrived back at the hotel I immediately hopped into the shower while Sara prepared her clothes for the party. When I got out of the shower Sara and I decided on my dress.

In the end, we went with an off the shoulder, long-sleeved dress that has a slit up the left leg and a small trail. The dress itself was a dark olive green color. The fabric was slightly opaque and didn't have much shine. The sleeves were made out of French lace and had a golden hue to them. The lace came together on the front of the dress shaping the olive fabric into a heart shaped bust. The combination of the colors gave it a regal look.

This time we opted for a curly side bun, wanting to show off my shoulders as much as possible. After the stylist was done I made sure to have a few loose strands of hair, I wanted to add an edge that way. I put on a pair of simple golden stilettos and pair of long strand drop golden earrings. With the outfit being as regal and dramatic as it was I figured the makeup should follow the same path.

I redrew the cat eyes and added a deep dark matte red lipstick. The combination of the red and the olive was just delightful. I wanted to add a clutch of some sorts, in case one our supplier or clients would call but Sara assured me she would handle it for the evening. Trusting her, we ordered a limousine and left hurried; heading towards the Ouran high school. Afterall, the Host club was holding a gala we just couldn't miss for the world.