Chapter 10: Nisekoi # 1-1

Seishiro Tsugumi had underestimated her opponent and as a result she had paid dearly. Who knew a simple guy like him, who talked too much in the face of danger, actually had the guts to wrestle with her for her firearm. She would have pummeled him to the ground had he not revealed that ace up his sleeve and taken advantage of the chink in her armour: her maiden heart which was not familiar with the notion of love.

In hindsight she should have seen it coming. Scum like these always deployed underhanded tricks to get the job done. It was her fault for falling into the trap. She should have immobilized him at the first chance, but she waited and engaged him in close combat and he took advantage of their physical closeness to do something so dastardly.

"Are you still bothered with what I did, Tsugumi-san?"

"Shut up. I hate you!"

"Look, I wasn't about to kiss you. I was just alarmed when you fired the first shot. I didn't actually think you would shoot."

"Why didn't you think I would shoot, Hachiman Hikigaya?" She demanded.

"Because when I met you, you were busy spying on someone. Now I don't know a lot about real life spying, but I understand that it requires a degree of stealth in some regard. However I overestimated your professionalism and skill set to some extent."

"What are you even trying to say?" She hated the way he spoke in circles. "Can you even speak in a simplified language?"

"Fine," He harrumphed. "All I'm trying to say is that I thought you wouldn't shoot me, because gun shots make a lot of noise and that would alert your target. Which it did!"

Seishiro Tsugumi didn't know how to pout like a woman, because she was raised as a man. But at this moment she found herself pouting. He was right, not that she would ever say that to him, because that would further worsen her position and make him even more infuriating which shouldn't be humanly possible.

But he wasn't human. He was scum and at the moment, he was running point on her mission, spying on her behalf because she had opened her stupid mouth and told him, that if he thought he could do a better job than her, then she would sit on her hands and let him do all the heavy work.

He had agreed, why wouldn't he, she thought ashamedly. He got to look at her beautiful blonde ojou-sama, Chitoge Kirisaki with a pair of binoculars. Meanwhile, she was left fuming, disarmed of weapons, because as he explained through logic and reason, she was not in the right space of mind, having already tried to kill him, not once, not twice, but three times, because she thought, he was trying to kiss her and she was well within her rights to kill him for puckering his lips like that.

God she will have nightmares for weeks.

Even so,

"Hey were you really trying not to kiss me?"

He didn't look away from the binoculars. "Promise me you won't shoot me."

"I make no such promises."

"Then no deal."

"Okay, okay fine. I promise you, I will not shoot you if you say you were gonna kiss me."

He looked away from the binoculars and stared at her like he had been before, like she was a mad woman in possession of way too many guns. "I thought it was gonna be the other way around."

"Huh?" She was confused.

What did she say?

Oh God!

Oh no.

"It's the other way around. I don't want to kiss you or anything. I mean I don't want you to kiss me or anything. Gah! You know what I mean. Don't make me sound like a confused maiden falling in love for the first time. I would shoot you. I don't care if ojou knows I'm here."

She said feeling hot in the face. It was a good thing he had gone back to looking through those binoculars. However it was a bad thing that he could still run his mouth.

"Don't worry. I'm sure as a hitman or rather hitperson, no, no, that just sounds dumb. Hitwoman, yeah lets go with that. Okay, um what was I saying?"

"You were making me feel confused about my own femininity," she scoffed. "Which I already do, no thanks to you!"

"Right. Um, I'm gonna side step that landmine, thank you." He faked a cough.

Then he continued. "As I was saying, what happened today, I doubt you would face a similar instance in your line of work. And just for the record, what I did today to you, making those kissy faces as you like to call it. It just kinda happened. I thought I was gonna die. There was a beautiful woman before me. Armed with a rifle, no doubt. Trying to kill me, as well. But I got this tunnel vision and all I could see were your lips. And before I know it, I felt this urge to open my mouth and take this mouthful of air and I don't know, it kinda happened. Or rather it almost happened."

Seishiro Tsugumi blushed. Hachiman Hikigaya had a way with words. She was learning that about him little by little. But mere words should not have this effect on him. She was a hitman for the Beehive Gang. She was here to protect ojou from the evil clutches of Raku Ichijou. She was raised not to have these kinds of feelings and what were these feelings anyway, nothing but a passing flimsy of her own imagination.

But he was here, sitting beside her on the grass and her heartbeat sounded pretty erratic from time to time and she believed it was because of him.

But why, maybe she wanted to find out.

"Have this every happened to you before?" she couldn't say it outright.

He didn't look all that conflicted. But he took a while before answering, probably collecting his own thoughts.

"Now that you asked, this exact thing happened to me before."

"Really?" She asked out loud, maybe a bit too loud.

Well, they say guys have only one thing in their minds. So what if he had past experience.

"Yeah. I was in the clubroom, minding my own business, reading a book. Then this girl, a first year university student, a kohai of mine -"

"Does she have a name?"

"Eru Chitanda."

Seishiro Tsugumi made a mental note. She could easily hack into the university database to learn more about her. "Okay continue."

"Right, so she is a bit of an airhead and right after she met me, out of nowhere, she gets into my personal space, much like I did to you and tries to kiss me. Well, she didn't say she was trying to kiss me, but I thought that was what she was trying to do. Seemed obvious enough. But it wasn't. Now that I'm in her shoes, facing a similar situation with you, Tsugumi, I can say with confidence that she was innocent."

"She is a virgin?"

There was something wrong with her voice.

"No, I said innocent."

"Well what did you do to her?" she asked.

"I bonked her on the head with a book."

"Oh really." Seishiro Tsugumi looked at him with a crumpled expression, twisted into something close to hate and embarrassment. "Since, I don't have a book with me, how about I use my gun, instead."

Hachiman Hikigaya didn't know what he had done wrong. He had just told her an incident which happened a day or two ago. Did she know Eru Chitanda as well, he could have asked, but now it seemed like the time for question and answers had come to a rather swift end.

It was time to use logic once more.

"You promised, you won't shoot me, Tsugumi-san. It would alert your ojou about our presence."

She looked like the incarnation of death and devastation. "Don't worry, I won't shoot you. I heard, if done right, pistol whipping can cause a fracture to the skull. Now stand still and let me end your miserable life, you scum!"

All Hachiman Hikigaya could do in the face of an angry woman was squeak out a small word.

"Why!"

Hachiman Hikigaya felt miserable. Seishiro Tsugumi felt a bit better. He had apologized profusely but she had still smacked him in the back of the head a couple of times. He deserved it as far as she was concerned. As expected, scum like him had women lying around for their own sick amusement. She was about to fall into his evil clutches, but she was smarter than that.

He had tried to weasel out of his situation, but she had got him good. Now he was looking through the binoculars and occasionally looking at her by using his rotten peripheral vision. It has been fifteen minutes and it looked like he was focused on completing her mission solely because of fear of consequence which waited him if he left it half done.

He said he was gonna impress her and she had blushed and hit him some more. But looks like he was really at the end of his patience. Pathetic. He didn't even last long.

"Okay, from what I can tell, these two are clearly faking it." He said rather confidently. Then blushed. "I didn't mean it like that -"

"What way did you mean?" She was confused.

He stared at her dumbfounded, then said something about not looking a gift horse in the mouth. He also used the word dumb and innocent somewhere in the sentence. Afterwards, he spoke a bit more clearly "Look, all I can say is that from what I observed, your ojou, Chitoge Kirisaki and the one you dubbed, unmanly beansprout, Raku Ichijou don't seem to be in a real relationship. They clearly seem to be faking it. Dammit!"

Tsugumi ignored his eccentricities. "How can you be this sure?"

"Well, see it yourself. Or rather close your eyes -"

"Huh, like that would happen." Despite never having done this, she brought both her hands to cover her breasts rather self-consciously. "I can't trust you. You might still want to kiss me."

"I thought we went over this. I have a bruise forming on my head which tells me we went over this." He faked a cough and resumed in a professional manner. "If you close your eyes and pay close attention, you can hear them shouting out words of love for each other like they are performing some kind of soliloquy from a Shakespearean play."

"Like Romeo and Juliet?" Tsugumi said with a frown.

"More like A Midsummer's Night Dream." He said coolly.

He was kinda silly, in a good way, Tsugumi thought. But then she returned to more important matters. "But how can we prove this?"

"Well, it's pretty simple."

Tsugumi waited for him to elaborate further, but he didn't open his mouth.

"Well?"

"Well what? You have my word for it."

"That isn't worth much. I barely know you, Hachiman Hikigaya."

He rubbed his jaw and thought about it for a second. "You are right. You don't know me, Tsugumi. But you can trust my faith in logic and reason. Look at it from this way. You say, that Chitoge Kirisaki and Raku Ichijou are in love, they are in a relationship. But so far, we have only seen them talking, glued to that bench in the park like their life depended on it."

Tsugumi didn't find it strange. "So what? Couples like to hang around in this park."

"Do they?" He asked, offering her the pair of binoculars. "Take these and look around. Can you see any other couples other than those two?"

She didn't believe him. Was there something wrong with his eyes now. So far he hadn't displayed any signs of impaired vision. Now he was asking her, with full confidence, which she found rather endearing, that there were no other couples in this park.

Outrageous.

She had seen them before.

But now that she peered through her binoculars, she found it rather strange. She couldn't find them. She couldn't find a single couple in the park, except for ojou and the beansprout, who were still busy chatting, sitting on the same bench, being rather loud now that she thought about it.

"What happened to the rest of the couples?"

"Your gunshots scared them off."

Her eyes widened. "But then why didn't they leave?"

"Because they are putting up a show." Hachiman Hikigaya explained. "I don't care whether you are the daughter of a mafia boss or the son of a yakuza head, gun shots are scary and a cause of immediate alarm. If you hear them, your first instinct is to leave. If you are a couple who are in love, then it would be ideal to leave together and not leave your partner behind while you run for your life. But these two didn't do either of those things. These two stayed behind. What does that tell you?"

She opined a guess.

"That they are so deeply in love that all they can hear is each other words and not gunshots."

"…Are you a closeted romantic, Tsugumi-san?"

She blushed, and gave him a glare. "You are really pushing it, Hachiman Hikigaya. I might just shoot you and see for myself what you are trying to say about gunshots and them putting up a show, because I'm not understanding anything you are saying."

He had stopped being afraid of her threats. Dammit.

"How can I make this more simple. It's like explaining stuff to the dense protagonist of a harem manga" He muttered to himself and tried again. "Chitoge Kirisaki and Raku Ichijou are still sitting on the bench because they know they are being watched. They heard the gunshots from earlier and presumed it was someone from either of their criminal organizations keeping a close watch on their activities. Which granted is true," he looked at her accusingly before continuing. "But by staying behind instead of fleeing, they have overplayed their lovey-dovey act and now even an idiot can see they are just two people pretending to be in a relationship. A real couple would have left by now, gunshots or not. They have better things to do then sit around at a bench on a park. But these two are still here, because we are still here. They are putting up a show for us, like a play from Shakespeare, understand?"

Tsugumi took a moment to let all this sink in. What he was saying, it made sense and it felt like the truth.

But still she had a hard time believing all this. It couldn't be. Not her ojou.

"Not saying I believe you, but why would they do such a thing?" She asked, helplessly.

"I don't know. But if history can be taken as an example, warring tribes and dynasties have called an end to their conflicts and blood feuds, when the heirs and heiresses are married into each other's family. Unlike what happens in Romeo and Juliet."

Tsugumi was starting to see reason. "This could be it. But how can we prove it." She looked at him and blushed under his discerning gaze. "I mean, I believe you. But I don't think I can make Claude-sama believe this. I need to have solid evidence."

"That can be arranged." He said, the same look of confidence never leaving his face. "I believe as a member of the underworld, you have access to special phones with untraceable IDs."

"Yeah, what about it?" Tsugumi asked curious.

"Well, give me one and I will show you the proof."

Tsugumi did as she was told. She didn't know why but she trusted him, this Hachiman Hikigaya person. He had a very perceptive mind and he thought differently. Thought in a way which could be used in her line of work. But that was something she would think about later.

For the time being she took out the phone he requested.

"Here."

"Dial your ojou's number and hand it to me."

"What?"

"Just do as I say. Trust me."

Did she trust him? Hachiman Hikigaya, this was the moment of truth.

"If you do anything -"

"She is in on it, Tsugumi. There's no way around it. I have to do this." He said, solemnly.

Tsugumi already knew that, saw the reason and logic behind what he had explained so far. But there was her ten year old self, which promised to protect ojou, that didn't quite want to believe this. Even so, she handed him the phone and watched him from the sidelines, coming to terms with what was happening or more likely what was about to happen that she had no clue about.

"Hello, Chitoge Kirisaki." Hachiman Hikigaya began. "I could say it was a pleasure knowing you, but you don't know me and I would like to keep it that way. But because I am feeling generous I will tell you something which you might not want others knowing, especially the members of your Bee Hive Gang, members like Seishiro Tsugumi."

Tsugumi could hear the shouting from way over the other side. Hachiman had also given her the binoculars. But she didn't need them to see what was going on.

Ojou was furious and pacing.

The beansprout was left alone on the bench.

Hachiman Hikigaya continued with his phone call.

"I know your relationship with Raku Ichijou is fake." He said into phone. From the binoculars, Tsugumi saw Chitoge stop dead in her tracks. Hachiman looked at her and raised an eyebrow. She gave an affirmative nod. He continued to spin his web. "I have video graphic evidence. Your own recorded words will be used against you to uncover the truth and unless you pay me one million yen by this afternoon, I will have the recordings sent to each member of your gang. Then, well, I don't need to say much more. Enjoy your fake date while you still can."

He ended the call and tossed the phone to her. Then he came to her side and sat down really close to her. A bit too close, but for some reason, she didn't seem to mind.

"Well, what do you see?" he asked her.

He didn't ask for the binoculars. He was really that confident about this. Tsugumi found this confidence of his rather…enticing. What was up with that, she rebuked herself mentally. This was no time to entertain such thoughts. Okay, he was a smart guy. Okay, he helped her big time, but what else.

"Ojou is panicking." She said, forlornly.

"And what does that tell you?" He asked with a smile.

"That your lame attempt at blackmail succeeded."

"Lame attempt? I thought I did pretty good."

"You asked for a million yen. That's less than ten thousand dollar. After living in America for so long, even I can cough up that kind of money, without making a big deal out of it. Ojou could pay off that kinda money easily. She doesn't even have to be that rich."

He made a crinkled face like a disappointed kid being told he was not a superhero.

"I fear for our country's economy." He then offered a dry chuckled. "When we were little, we were told, crime never pays. Evidently that seems to be wrong. Crimes pays quite well."

Tsugumi waved her hands in front of his face to stop him from getting distracted. He looked at her with question in his rotten dead fish eyes.

"Well, what do I do now?" Tsugumi asked helplessly.

"You can do whatever you want with this information. I doubt I can change your mind. Like you said, we barely know each other."

She hated when he said stuff like that. "C'mon, don't be like that. Tell me. Seriously, what should I do?"

He looked at her and told her the truth.

"From the way I see it you can do either of two things. Betray Chitoge or betray the Beehive Gang."

Tsugumi was conflicted. "Why are you being so straightforward all of a sudden? This is the time when I wanted you to talk your mouth off and speak all that nonsense."

"I'm afraid, I'm all out of nonsense." He said, softly. "But I can tell you this. Chitoge Kirisaki cares about you way more than your stupid gang. And from what I gathered, she can take care of herself."

"But Raku Ichijou -"

"He's a chump."

Tsugumi laughed at that.

Hachiman Hikigaya didn't say anything else and bade her farewell. He didn't ask her to do the right thing. He didn't even tell her what the right thing was. He just left it up to her.

When she left the park and returned back to her dorm, she wondered whether he cared so little about what happened today. Or whether he just trusted her judgment, trusted her to trust ojou and live with the consequences, whatever they might be.

There was her loyalty to the gang, which would be brought to question.

But then the ten year old in her remembered a promise, a promise to be strong and always protect Chitoge Kirisaki from coming into harm's way. There was Raku Ichijou, but he was a harmless beans sprout. She could easily kill him if he did something funny.

On the other hand if she disclosed their secret, she would be betraying Chitoge Kirisaki and that was something she couldn't see herself doing, not even if her life was threatened, not even if that meant betraying Claude-sama or the Bee Hive Gang.

That night, Seishiro Tsugumi slept uneasily. She also had a dream about Hachiman Hikigaya. In the dream, he had disarmed her and was about to kiss her. Only they didn't stop with just kissing. They had –

She woke up.

Afterwards, she couldn't sleep a wink.

Damn you, Hachiman Hikigaya, Seishiro Tsugumi thought.

A/N: The biggest chapter yet (3qualit800+ words)

Sometimes, I had to sacrifice quality for speed, and it's really difficult to write 1000+words chapter every day, but still I'm managing.

It's only possible because you guys keep me motivated with your reviews. Thank you for your support.

However, now that I have crossed the 10th chapter mark, I think it's time to return to the roots. With that said, here are the options for the next chapter:

Option 1: Haruno Yukinoshita.

Option 2: Shizuka Hiratsuka.

Option 3: Miura Yumiko.

Option 4: Saki Kawasaki.

Option 5: Orimoto Kaori.

Please pick an option from above or suggest a character in the review.

Hope everyone enjoyed reading this chapter.

Leave lots and lots of reviews, follow and fave.

Won't betray your dreams.