Family
Chapter Eight
Yukino Kikukawa sighed as the brown haired, glasses wearing young woman rode in the limo into a small town. "I still think this is a very bad idea," she told her companion.
Haruka Suzushiro smiled, the taller and somewhat bustier girl sitting across from her. "I just want to make sure that delinquent Nao isn't causing trouble," she said firmly.
Yukino sighed again, wishing her friend wasn't so easy to manipulate. Nagi had realized he couldn't talk Yukino into confronting Nao, but that Haruha still bore a grudge. So he went to Haruka, implying Nao was getting into all kinds of trouble. And Yukino couldn't let her go alone, could she? So Haruka made arrangements with her father, and off they went.
Haruka looked at Yukino sympathetically. She hated dragging her friend away from her studies, but there was no one she trusted more to watch her back. "What do you think about Nagi's comment that Nao had joined a gang?" she asked.
"I don't think I trust Nagi, so...," Yukino shrugged.
"He IS a little creep," Haruka agreed.
And 'gang' was a understatement. Nagi had explained to Yukino a bit about the Kampfer conflict going on, and she was more than a bit alarmed about Haruka wandering into this mess. These women were trying to kill each other with real weapons! The only good thing was they were trying to MOSTLY keep the conflict covert, so they didn't try to kill each other in public. If she and Haruka stayed in the open they should be safe. Mostly.
"I think we should try to talk to the student council president first," Haruka mused as they pulled up to the school, "then see where we stand."
If Yukino didn't know better, she would SWEAR that Shizuku Sango and Shizuru Fujino were related. Yes, Shizuku had dark blue hair, much unlike Shizuru's brown, but they both had that sort of laid back attitude that infuriated someone like Haruka. Worse, Shizuku seemed even more mischievous than Shizuru.
They were directed to the student council offices, where Shizuku had opened with the bombshell, "Ah, Miss Suzushiro. I've heard SO much about you."
Yukino REALLY didn't like her tone of voice, nor did Haruka.
"What do you mean by that?" Haruka demanded.
Shizuku leaned forward, "You chased Nao Yuuki for over a year, and not only failed to catch her, you never even proved a single complaint against her." She smirked, "Watch Les Miserables. You might see someone familiar."
"Lavort?" Haruka said flatly.
"Javert," Yukino corrected with a sigh.
Haruka ignored that, "Just because I never proved Nao was bad doesn't mean she wasn't." She got up from where she was sitting, "I was planning to come here as a courtesy to you, warning you of possible trouble. Clearly there is no point in that."
"Excuse us," Yukino said as they left.
"Suzushiro," Shizuko said as they reached the door, "whatever your feelings, this school and town are a fresh chance for Nao. Don't spoil it for her."
Haruka paused a second, then they both carried on.
"Haruka?" Yukino asked as they headed down the hallway.
"I'm fine, Yukino," Haruka replied flatly. She scowled, "Well, she's right... the best I ever managed was catching Nao sneaking on and off campus." Seriously she added, "Doesn't mean I'm wrong though."
Yukino sighed, "Yes, Haruka."
They carefully checked out Nao's class, then stopped in at the school office. Despite Haruka pulling rank as Fuka Academy's head of security etc etc, they were unable to get access to any official documents. In fact, the secretary got rather cross with them, forcing them to leave.
"Well, that was annoying," Haruka growled as they headed out to the still waiting car.
"I was able to find her current address, from the transfer documents at Fuka," Yukino offered a bit reluctantly, "do you want to go there?"
"No, I think we should probably go to the hotel," Haruka said thoughtfully, "we can look into things more thoroughly tomorrow."
"Okay," Yukino nodded, faintly relieved.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"I should have been more polite," Shizuko admitted regretfully as she finished explaining to Nao about what happened.
"What the hell is she doing out here?" Nao muttered, shaking her head.
Akane looked confused, "So, this volunteer cop never busted Nao for anything, and has followed her out here for revenge?"
"Nothing THAT dramatic, I think," Shizuko told her wryly. "But yes, she seems interested in completing their unfinished business."
"That doesn't really make sense tho," Nao pointed out. "I mean, yes she can trash my reputation here, maybe. But what's the point? She isn't the type to be that interested in revenge."
"Well, maybe," Shizuko noted, amused. It was kind of funny that someone who claimed to be as tough and cynical as Nao didn't consider avenging one's honour a good reason to get revenge. Changing the subject a bit she asked, "Do you want us to take steps?"
"Steps?" Nao blinked.
"Akane-chan here could go shoot up their hotel room," Shizuku suggested innocently, "I suspect that would get them out of town."
"No!" Nao yelped.
"No," Akane agreed, but much more mildly. Almost as if she had been thinking of doing just that, before Shizuko brought it up.
"You might want to warn your mother she might be coming around, too," Shizuko added.
Nao made a face, "You're right. Akane, we'd better go before they show up at the house."
"Right," Akane hurried to follow Nao out the door.
Shizuko tried to go back to her paperwork, but something nagged at her. Why HAD she been so snarky with Suzushiro? If she had just... charmed the other woman, she might have gotten valuable intelligence from her. At worse, she might at least have been better able to keep track of her.
'Is it just because she came here to cause trouble for Nao?' Shizuko made herself ask. If so, that had... troubling implications. She had thought that she was maintaining a degree of detachment towards Nao, but that might not be true.
Nao was disturbingly charming to Shizuko, frankly. She had a unique combination of innocent youth and hard edged street tough that was very beguiling to her. And, frankly, she was damn cute.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Yukino looked into the connected suite that they were sharing. (Oh did Yukino wish they were sharing one room! Especially one bed. But she didn't have the nerve to ask and she didn't know if Haruka went that way.) Haruka was on the phone with a local contact of her father, looking for possible leverage to make Shizuko cooperate.
"I'm going out for some snacks," Yukino told her then asked, "do you want me to get your usual curry buns?"
"Please," Haruka smiled back, "and be careful out there. No idea where those gangs Nagi talked about are."
"I will," Yukino nodded, feeling faintly guilty about lying to her.
Instead of going out to the street Yukino headed up to the hotel roof. It took a bit of time to jimmy the lock, but she got out onto the roof, looking out over the city.
"Diana!" Yukino cried, summoning her childe. The creature, the servant of a Hime, manifested as Yukino summoned up a series of mirrors around her to search the city. Images streamed by, even as Diana hid them from view.
Shizuko was in bed, doing...
"Eeep!" Yukino quickly turned that one off.
Using her mirrors, she quickly found the Kampfer she knew about, including Akane and Natsuru. Nagi's briefing had been good for something, at least. But annoyingly she couldn't seem to lock on Nao at all.
"Where are you...?" Yukino muttered to herself.
"Right here," a calm voice replied.
Yukino spun around, cursing softly as Nao stepped out from behind a utility building on the rooftop, the redhead standing calmly beside her spider-like childe, Julia. She looked more amused than hostile, so that was a good sign.
"I climbed up here to wait for you," Nao admitted, "I didn't expect you to come up here and summon your Diana."
"So why are you here?" Yukino demanded.
"To talk, oddly enough," Nao admitted, and in a move of good faith banished Julia, making the giant spider disappear in a flash of sparkles.
Yukino blinked, more than a bit surprised. She banished Diana, too, but kept the mirrors around. She could black a attack with them, if worse came to worse. "All right," Yukino said, "talk."
"I don't want to fight you or any of the other Hime," Nao said. "I'm out of that, and I intend to stay out of it."
"Nagi won't let that happen," Yukino shook her head, "the little creep has already manipulated me to come out here. If I don't fight you there will be others."
"The only one who actually benefits if we fight each other is Nagi," Nao pointed out. "don't give him the satisfaction."
Yukino hesitated, then nodded reluctantly. "I can't stop Haruka from causing you trouble," she said with a sigh.
"I can handle that," Nao laughed. She went to the side of the building and leaped, "Don't forget Haruka's curry bun!"
'How the hell did she...?' Yukino wondered, then with a sigh banished the mirrors. She had a errand to run, after all.
To be continued...