I'm not going to waste your time with my blathering. Not yet. That'll come at the end. I just want to say thank you to all who reviewed my last chapter. The rest of my wordy speech will come after the chapter that you've all been waiting for.

*~Tainted Innocence~*

by: Lilaclight

Chapter Three...

Plots to Kill

Two months later...

Kenji gazed tiredly at his oppressively silent wife. Ever since the miscarriage she had receded into herself, building walls between herself and her family, walls that were impossible to scale. He did not know what to do. Frustration was his daily companion as he futilely tried to reach through to her.

Worry was also his constant companion as the clear message he had received the night of the miscarriage was ever present on his mind. He did not know how they had found him but they had and the threat they represented for him and his family was one that he had hoped to avoid. Cleaning up the mess they had made had not been easy, especially with a young child in his care. Yumi had to be left with a neighbour while he called and dealt with the police.

Yumi had been traumatized by what she had seen and he alone had to comfort her when she woke up screaming from her nightmares. She had grown more withdrawn and was vehemently against the idea of replacing Jiggles with a new pup or another animal. Ikuko did not make the situation any better as she seemed to shun Yumi from the moment she had returned home. By then, the house had been cleaned and ready to be sold.

Placing the house on the market for sale, Kenji hoped to remove his family from the memories that would repeatedly cause the traumatic memories to resurface and to leave the area that they knew he resided in. The move would take place in a few days as a buyer had been found and the asking price matched. The two main ladies in his life had accepted this solemnly and no protestations were brought forward.

Ikuko turned away from her husband's piercing gaze. Although they shared the same bed, the closeness that they had once shared in it had vanished. After she had awoken to find him at her side, the first tow things she had inquired after had been her children. The knowledge that she had lost her precious little boy before he had been born had created a hole in her heart. Then he had told her that Yumi was fine.

Puzzled but relieved, she had offhandedly remarked upon how quickly the doctors had treated her burns. The questioning gaze Kenji had focused on her had her frowning. Then he had asked her what she was talking about. Relating the tale to him, she saw in his eyes disbelief and wariness mixed with his grief. He denied ever seeing any burns on Yumi and told her that maybe she had been imagining things.

Things had gone downhill from there. He proved to her that trusting him was a fault. He would not believe her word over his eyes or others. Feeling betrayed, she had turned away from him and closed her eyes as if she were asleep. Believing the illusion, Kenji had soon left to pick up Yumi from wherever he had left her. Meanwhile, a thousand thoughts were racing through Ikuko's head, all of them centered on her daughter.

The conclusion she came to was damning for the young girl who had yet to properly comprehend what was going on inside her and around her. The blame for her son's death had fallen onto Yumi small shoulders. She was more than certain that the little blonde girl that she called her own had been the cause of her accident and lack of energy and through extension the death of her son and the deaths of any other children that might have been.

Kenji did not know as yet because she had asked the doctor and nurse not to tell him but she was now barren. There would no longer be the comfort of the hope for more children to replace the one that she had lost. Letting out a bitter chuckle, Ikuko thought back on how gullible they had been to believe that Yumi had not resented the coming presence of a younger sibling. The girl had devised a surefire way to ensure that that would never happen, not unless they adopted, something that Ikuko refused to do. Not until she found a way to get rid of Yumi.

Kenji started as he heard a low, sharp chuckle that froze his insides. He was so damn worried about her but she kept pushing him away every time he tried to help. He also feared that she would harm Yumi. Ever since she had come back from the hospital, the few times that he had caught her gazing at their daughter, the open hostility and sheer hatred had shocked him to his core each time. Where had his sweet, loving wife gone?

Then a terrified shriek rose in the air and echoed through the house like that of a ghost's. Kenji sighed heavily and got up from his side of the bed. Yumi had had another nightmare and would need comforting. Bringing her to their room was not an option. The first time he had done that with Ikuko there waiting, her acid words had stung and burnt so wickedly effective that Yumi's sobs and sniffles had turned to a surprised mixed with terror silence that still weighed heavily down in his heart. He'd have to stay with her until she fell asleep and even then he could not stray far for she would wake up.

It was going to be another long night.

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Darkened room...

"He's moving. The house already has a buyer but he hasn't made any move to get a place of his own." a low, cruel voice said into the receiver.

"Hmm. That means that he's leaving the district, maybe the country." the soft grandfatherly voice floated from the speaker.

"You may be right. Recently he as made many calls to different airlines, train stations and the bus stations. Never asks about only one place so we're not sure where he's going. I think that he suspects that his phones have been tapped."

"He hasn't bought any tickets yet, correct?"

"Hai."

"He knows how to find and remove a tap so he would know that we're onto him and he's probably in a panic right now. I am correct in my assumption that you completed the earlier task that I gave your team, right? That would have alerted him to our close proximity and hopefully have him thinking irrationally."

"Yes we did. It was quite the attention grabbing message. There was no way that he could have missed it. The situation with his family has come at a rather fortuitous point in time." the henchman said, his voice dripping with vile overtones.

"Keep a close watch on him. Kill them while they are moving. I doubt that they can find a place in the short period of time that he has allowed himself. If they enter another country, their deaths will be easier to pass off as trivial."

"Yes sir. They leave in four days. We'll need more funds if we are to follow them."

"Fine. Ten thousand yen shall be transferred to the account tomorrow. Use it wisely and make sure that you get rid of Kenji. I can not allow him to live. Not with all he knows." the leader said in parting before slamming the phone back in it's place.

Hearing the click followed by the disconnected tone, Tsudan hung up and turned to his fellow mercenaries. They were an odd group that had come together a few times in the past to work on some missions. Aiden, the blonde Norwegian American who fitted the stereo type of tall, blonde, blue eyed and buff was an expert at arms and never lacking in female company. Gihatni, an Indian from the lower caste with a talent for poisons and hand to hand combat. Tsudan suspected that he might be pedophilic but his sexually preferences were none of his business. His only concern was to make sure that they got the job done.

Last and not least was the guy who scared him, Psyche. No one knew his real name and he never bothered to reveal it. His nationality was unknown although from looking at him, the mixture of features from different nationalities identified him as one of the 'mongrels', a mixture of races that had blended together so that none could be considered dominant. He was a crazed genius. That was the only was to describe him.

Calm turquoise eyes, well groomed black hair, lightly tanned skin and a slight wiry build that hid his strength, he was the most technically efficient of the group. His hacking skills were unparallel and his physical strength astounding for one of his size. At 5'10", he was the shortest of the group. What really put one off guard was the fact that he came from a rich family and his manners were impeccable. It was a shame that he had homicidal tendencies that leaned towards drawing out his victims suffering while making them lose as much blood as possible before they die.

They stayed out of each others way unless the mission was in discussion. The only thing that mattered to them was their mission. Other than that, they minded their own business and never voiced disapproval over each other's behaviour. Once they completed the mission they would once again go their separate ways.

"We tighten the surveillance on Takatori-san. As soon as he moves out, we follow. I'll give the signal to attack when the time comes. Understood?" Tsudan ordered.

The three nodded and left the room quietly, each going to his room to think and sleep. With only five hours of sleeping time left, they had to get the rest while possible as keeping an eye on both Takatori-san and his family was a time consuming activity. The thought that they all shared was,

'Soon the mission will be over.'

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Yumi woke up to find herself cradled in her father's embrace. He had fallen asleep in her bed the night before in her bed as he had often done during the past two months. Gazing solemnly down at his sleeping figure, she reached over with her small hands and shook him to wake him up.

"Chi-chi! Wake up!!" she shouted in his ear.

Kenji groaned and shifted so that he was facing the opposite direction. He grumbled a few unintelligible words of protest under his breath and fell back deeper into sleep. Yumi frowned cutely and tried to think up a way to wake him up without waking her okaa-san. She placed her fingertip to her lips and scrunched up her face in concentration.

Her reluctance to attempt to wake up her okaa-san had not always been present. Ever since she had returned from the hospital, Yumi had sensed something wrong with her. The sense of security and love that had blanketed her and kept her safe was gone. In it's place was an alarming impression that had Yumi spending as much time as possible away from Ikuko. Confusion warred with caution as Yumi could not understand the emotions that swirled around her and in her. She loved her okaa-san but the driving need to stay away from her was more powerful.

Sometimes she felt a heated gaze on her person and when she turned it would be her okaa-san glaring at her with a strong, bad emotion that Yumi was unable to place. She would then turn to her otou-san who looked sad and worried. He looked the same way that he had when she had awoken form her faint asking for Mr. Jiggles. What had happened before that was not totally clear to her as the only clear thing that she remembered was playing in the kitchen then feeling a burning pain followed by soothing darkness.

Hearing footsteps approaching from the outside, she tensed up and quickly huddled under the covers. Faking sleep, she prayed that her okaa-san would fall for the trick and leave her be. Instincts kicking in, Yumi relaxed her body and regulated her breathing to that of a sleeping person. A trance came over her, enabling her to be aware of her surroundings while at the same time one the border between consciousness and oblivion.

Ikuko awoke to the sun blazing in the sky and shedding it insufferable heat down upon her. A wave of intense animosity swept over her and she grabbed the nearest thing, Kenji's pillow, and threw it at the window, all the while wishing that it were a block of wood or metal.

Not surprised by her husband's absence from her bed, her thoughts returned to Yumi. How right her last foster mother had been. Hitsumasein Feili had been her foster mother for seven years, the seven years of suffering and abuse. Her husband had been a weak man who could never stand up to his wife even if his life depended on it. He had left young Ikuko to her complete care, not once interfering with her manner of raising the orphaned child.

Her pearls of wisdom that spewed from her foul mouth had been insults, always insults. To her and the mother that she never knew. Feili had even predicted that any child that she would bear would either die before it was born or be akin to a spawn of the devil himself. Happiness was what Feili had sought to deny her and from the way things had turned out, it seemed as if everything that she had predicted was slowly coming true. Ikuko began to tremble as her mind wandered into the past that she would rather forget.

*~Flashback~*

"Ikuko you little whore!! How many times must I show how to do this right!" screeched a beady-eyed woman who seemed to tower over the cowering child.

Her black hair was always pulled back into a painful looking bun that Ikuko had yet to see the true length of it. Her face held the look of faded beauty replaced with harsh lines and wrinkles on weather roughened skin and calloused hands. Hitsumasein Feili had a gaunt look about her and her figure appeared to be made up of skin, bones and breasts. Some might even mistake her for one beset with malnutrition when in reality that was far from the truth.

"Gomen nasai, Hitsumasein-sama. I'll do it properly next time, I promise." Ikuko pleaded fearfully from her position on the floor where Feili had thrown her with the force of the blow to her cheek. A dark bruise was already forming on the agonizingly throbbing spot.

"You're a worthless brat just as your mother was a worthless bitch who fucked anything in pants and had a dick. There're probably more spawns like you in foster care that are from her soiled womb! You're going to be a whore just like her. I can see it in you already. You'd open your legs for any man at anytime." she ranted cruelly, grabbing her belt as the rage within her mounted.

"You're cursed! You're a bastard, a sin, a stain on God's perfect tapestry of life! Never have I been more disgusted than when I first laid eyes on you. No child in your care or of your womb will ever amount to any good! They'll be worthless little bastards like you, unfit and undeserving of the gift of life. You should kill them before they cause any havoc on society. Only a contemptible thing like you could accomplish the task." she continued viciously, punctuating each sentence with a stroke of her belt across the fragile skin of the eight year old.

Her shrill wails filled the air, adding fuel to the rage that threatened to consume Feili. Her brutal lashes increased and came down harder on whatever spot that she hit on Ikuko's body as she put more strength and determination into it. She would beat some semblance of good into the brat even if it killed her, something that Feili had come very close to doing years later which had prompt the forces that be to move Ikuko to an orphanage after her stint in the hospital.

*~End Flashback~*

Tears streaming down her cheeks in torrents, Ikuko let out heart wrenching sobs for all the pain that she'd been through, for those lost years of childhood, for the loss of Kiru, and for the loss of her baby boy and husband. Nothing ever seemed to go right for her. Whenever things would look up, some malevolent being would mess everything up.

'What malevolent being? You know who the real cause of all your troubles are. It's that brat you adopted.' came a sly, wicked voice in her head.

Ikuko almost jumped out of her skin. The voice sounded uncannily like Feili's and had her fear bubbling to the surface once more.

'Think about it. Ever since she came bad things have happened. It's her fault that Kiru died. She made Kiru depend on her and when you left the final piece was in place, killing your best friend. And your son, the one that'd you can never know, it's obviously her fault. She remained unscathed by the burn while you lose so much energy that you fall and the only child that you could ever have dies before he can even be born.' the voice whispered persuasively.

As the shock and fear slowly left her system, Ikuko began to see the twisted logic as truth as she thought back on all that had happened. Her rage and hatred blinded her to the truth and all her memories of Yumi became twisted and filled with shadows that her suspicion created.

'You're right. That little bitch is a spawn of Satan.' she replied vindictively.

'That's right. And what about the rift that she's caused between you and Kenji? Who knows what they do when he's in her room. Your husband might as very well be fucking the little slut, after all, it all comes down to the little fact that she's not his real daughter.'

'I'll kill her! She's ruined everything for me. Once she's gone everything will get better.' Ikuko growled, convincing herself thoroughly that what she was about to do was right.

'Ofcourse everything will be better. It was all her fault in the first place. If you're going to kill her today, do it after Kenji leaves for work or before he wakes up.' advised the wicked inner voice.

'Now. I don't want to wait. The longer I let her live the more damage she can do.' Ikuko answered, her irrationality growing by the second.

'Do as you please. Go wake her up before Kenji wakes up.'

Nodding to herself, Ikuko obeyed the voice and got off the bed. Not bothering to change from her pajamas, she hurriedly tied the sash of her faded blue striped white cotton robe which she had donned, and practically ran out of the room. She had to move quickly if she wanted to get the job done right with no interruptions or impediments.

Walking towards Yumi's room, she contemplated how she was going to kill the brat until the perfect idea came to her just outside the door. Opening it with a sick, perverse smile on her face, Ikuko moved softly into the room and her eyes went straight to the bed. Lying there with his back to the door was her fully clothed husband. Underneath the covers at his side was Yumi, fast asleep and looking like the little innocent that she was not.

Yumi sensed as her okaa-san neared her. Terror filled her as she sensed an increase in the malevolence that her okaa-san emanated. Feeling cold hands on her body, she inwardly flinched and unconsciously tried to move away from the touch. The sudden sensation of being shook vigorously pulled her from her trance and she had no choice but to groggily open her eyes.

Staring into the grotesquely smiling face of her okaa-san, a shiver of dread traveled up Yumi's spine. Something was up. The expression on her okaa-san's face softened and changed to one of caring in the blink of an eye. Thinking that she had imagined the first look she saw, she ignored the remaining feelings of dread and instead concentrated on her mother's words.

"Yumi, honey. I know that I haven't been the best of mother's since I came back but I promise to make it up to you." Ikuko said sweetly.

"Ha-ha! Yumi love you. It doesn't matter that you weren't feeling okay." Yumi declared before hugging her mother.

"Oh Yumi, you're such a good girl. Why don't you let ha-ha-chan give you a bath?"

"Hai, hai, hai." Yumi exclaimed jumping up and down.

"Yumi, stop jumping. I don't want to wake up your chi-chi-kun." snapped Ikuko.

Yumi stopped jumping and looked at Ikuko with tearful eyes. The kawaii, wounded look was turned onto her full blast and feelings of regret began to creep into her heart, feelings that she ruthlessly squelched.

"Come along, little one. I want you nice and clean for when chi-chi-kun wakes up." she said, adjusting her tone to one of tenderness.

Together they left the room silently, Yumi held securely in Ikuko's arms. Entering the bathroom, Ikuko set Yumi down and told her to use the potty if she had anything to do before bathing. Yumi obeyed and while she was using the toilet, Ikuko filled the tub with water. Calling Yumi to her side, Ikuko helped her over the side of the tub and into the water. Once she had her where she wanted her, Ikuko allowed a brief smirk to cross her face. Soon she would be rid of the brat and everything would be okay. No more curses.

'That's right Ikuko. Kill her and free yourself.'

Well that's all for now. I hope that it was to your satisfaction. Not how I planned for it to go but that doesn't matter. I have another chapter to type up for another fic right after I iron my school uniforms which will be after I finish typing this. I have a few requests and notices for you guys though.

One, I'm considering doing another short fic called Tainted Heart. Care to guess the couple? Well, the guy Usa will be with.

Two, I need some info on a few other characters. What do the Schreint girls look like? I know who Tot is but I want her eye colour. Also, match the names of the others to their hair and give me their eye colours. I have some pics of them for reference but I can't see the eye colour and baka me had no idea of their names. Also, what is Crawford's eye colour? I've seen everybody else's except his and maybe Ken's. Can't remember if I've seen it. I know for sure that I can get the others.

Also, I need to know if Ouka is really Reiji's brat as well as a description of her and both Takatori brothers. If you can, please send me some sites that I can go to. Searching all over the net for them myself would be too tedious.

That's all for now. I'm still preparing for when I introduce the present day Weiss so bear with me and help me. I thank you in advance for your help which I know that you'll give. Have a nice day/night!

Ja ne.