Chapter Nine

The next day, Rena found herself at her job with Nanase. Nanase found herself looking around the restaurant. "For a Saturday, it's so empty here. I guess this is what the holidays do to a restaurant."

"Yeah," Rena agreed. There are only two customers in the restaurant, a couple, being served by another waitress. The two girls sat in the back room waiting for customers to sit at their assigned tables.

Nanase looked at Rena. "Come on Rena, tell me everything."

Rena looked at Nanase with confusion. "What do you mean?"

Nanase grinned. "I want to know how your date was with my brother. I want to make sure that he didn't treat you like a big jerk."

Rena laughed a little. "Don't worry, he didn't treat me like a jerk. He was so sweet throughout the entire date. Before he came to pick me up, however, Kyle and Cody came over to his apartment and they had sprayed cologne on him. When he told me that cologne made him itch, I gave him Gold Bond to cure it."

"No wonder he smelled like powder when he got home," Nanase laughed. "What else happened?"

Rena grinned evilly. "I was the one who put the Gold Bond on him."

Nanase laughed even more. "I wish I could've seen his face! Oh great, now Gold Bond will never be the same to me again!"

Rena laughed along with her.

Nanase wiped away a tear that began to develop in the corner of her eye from laughing. "So, other than the Gold Bond treatment, what else happened?"

From there, Rena told her everything that happened last night from the moment he came to her door, until the moment he left.

"You know," Nanase said after Rena finished. "There are so many jerks in this world. My brother may be anti-social, but he's a very sweet person and has so much respect for women. He's so polite that Kyle once said that it's sickening. You're so lucky to find someone like that and I hope you two get to spend more time together."

Rena smiled at her comment. "Well, thank you, but we're just friends."

"Doesn't seem like it though."

"Yeah…"

Rena looked out the window. She was going to see Guy tomorrow when he trains her at the dojo. She couldn't wait until then.


"Okay everyone!" Guy called out to his students. "Class is over now. Monday, we'll be working more on our kicks. Have a good weekend."

His students bowed to him before they started making their way to their bags over by the benches. Guy wiped a bead of sweat off by his brow and sighed little. He looked at the time. 'One o'clock,' he thought. It was time for his break.

Guy walked to the changing room, grabbed a towel, and wiped the rest of the sweat off his face. Then he heard a knock on the door.

"Come in," Guy said. The door opened. Guy turned and was surprised to see Kairi come in. "Hey Kairi, what are you doing here?"

"Well, I'm off from work and I'm bored," Kairi replied grinning. "So I figured, hey, why don't I visit my big brother here since he goes on his break for an hour."

"All right," said Guy. "In that case, let's grab something to eat and bring it back here."

"That's fine by me," the younger brother replied.

The brothers agreed to get some McDonald's a few buildings down. After ordering and waiting for their food, they return back to the dojo and sat in the back area.

Kairi took a bite out of his cheeseburger then looked at Guy. "So, tell me, what happened with Rena last night."

Guy smirked a little as he found himself thinking thinking about the Gold Bond treatment Rena gave him. "I admit… I've never been so relaxed before."

"Actually," Kairi replied. "You've been pretty relaxed ever since Rena came to your life. I'm glad to see a relaxed Guy Hinato for once."

Guy laughed a little. "Yeah. I guess I'm glad to see a relaxed me as well."

The brothers ate more of their lunch before Kairi spoke again. "Hey Guy, I have a strange question to ask you."

Guy stared at his little brother. "Yeah?"

Kairi gave him a serious expression. "Do you think you are falling in love with Rena?"

He looked at Kairi with a little shock. He didn't expect a question like that to pop up, especially this soon.

"Well," Guy began to say as Rena appeared in his mind. To him, she was a nice, smart, funny, beautiful woman. "I wouldn't call it love, at least not yet. Love is supposed to come with time. I can say now is that I do care about her a lot."

"I thought so," Kairi replied. "Even if one changes you a little bit, it does mean that you care about the person."

"You think so?"

Kairi nodded. Guy smirked a little, feeling glad that he could talk to someone like Kairi, especially since they were brothers. His other male friends, especially Cody and Kyle, would've made jokes and possibly laughed about it.

"When are you seeing her again?" Kairi asked.

"Tomorrow. I'm going to train her here."

"That's cool. I have work tomorrow, so I'm kind of going to miss out."

"And if you did come," Guy said. "I'll have to kill you."

The brothers laughed a little.


Rena came home late that night from Ming's. After closing the door behind her, she walked over to the answering machine and saw that there were two messages.

Rena pressed the play button. The first message came on.

"Hi this is The Metro City Phone Company calling for Maki Genryusai. We wanted to talk to you concerning about your cell phone bill. Please call us back as soon as possible at 555-6631."

'Oh boy,' Rena thought to herself.

Then the next message came on.

"Hey Rena, this is Maki. I'm not going to be home until about midnight. My jerk of a boss is making me work later because HE'S working late. That jerk, I can't stand him! Don't worry about dinner; I'm just going to have some bread or something. I'll see you later, sis."

Rena laughed a little. "Poor Maki." She looked at the time, which read ten o'clock. "Good thing I had dinner before coming back here. Now I'm in a mood for some cheesecake."

She placed her purse and keys down on the kitchen counter before making her way to the refrigerator. She found a piece of cheesecake and took it out. She opens a draw nearby, taking out a fork. After settling down at the table, she unwrapped the clear Saran wrap off of the cake.

"Maki will kill me for eating this, but like they say, you snooze, you lose."

As Rena took a bite of the cake, she found herself looking at the front door. She knew that Maki usually locked the bolt part of the door and then made her way down the fire escape. Rena then saw why she got in the apartment so easily.

The bolt lock was broken into two pieces.

Rena's heart began to race as she jumped up from her chair and dropped her fork on the floor. 'Oh my God!' she thought as she felt panicked rising within her. 'There's someone in my apartment!'

The young woman looked around her apartment from where she was standing. She noticed, as far as she could tell, that all of the items are in their places. Nothing looked like they were stolen.

Rena wanted to check her and Maki's rooms, but quickly changed her mind as she didn't want to take any chances that may cause her to lose her life. She slowly backed away from the kitchen and walked towards the front door. The only sound she could hear was her breathing, swearing that it was as loud as a jet's engines.

As soon as she placed her hand on the knob, the nearby closet suddenly flew open.

Rena shrieked with terror as someone grabbed her around the waist. Rena managed to smack the man hard enough to let her go. She then pulled back to take a better look at the man. He was a thin man with red hair and sunglasses. He wore a yellow cape over his green uniform-like clothes.

"Who are you?" Rena cried out.

The man only laughed and ran over to her. Rena looked around quickly and soon noticed an empty vase on the nightstand. She grabbed it and threw it at the man, who quickly dodged out of the way. The vase ended up crashing into pieces against the wall.

The man got himself close to Rena, managing to grab her before throwing her against the wall. Rena screamed for help, but the man shut her up quickly by slapping her across the face.

"We want you with us Rena," the man said, grinning maniacally. "We want you with us."


Nearby, Guy got off the subway train, soon making his way down the streets.

During his walk, he thought back on his conversation with Kairi earlier today. Could it be that Kairi may be right and that he cared for her more than he realized? Guy sighed. After closing the dojo for the right and having a quick dinner, the young man decided to go to Rena's house and surprise her with a movie night. In his right hand, he held a movie called 'The Skulls.'

When Guy saw her apartment, he realized that it was a good thing he came when he suddenly hears a female crying for help. Guy's heart jumped to his throat as he recognized Rena's screams, remembering how it sounded when he saved her the first time.

Quickly, he started making his way into the apartment. Knowing that elevators took forever, he began to run up the stairs, not stopping until he reached her floor. He saw that her door was partly ajar and barged right in.

Over in the living room, he saw a man laughing whiling pinning Rena against the wall. He immediately noticed the tears falling down her face out of fear.

Guy ran over to the man and pulled him away from her. Rena could only watch as Guy threw the man against the wall.

"What the hell do you think you are doing?" Guy demanded. "Don't you have any respect?"

The man laughed. "Why should I have respect?"

Guy threw a fews punches at the man, soon knocking him out unconscious. He stared at the man for another moment before turning towards Rena, who was sitting on the floor and leaning against the wall. More tear fell out of her eyes.

Guy ran over to Rena and sat next to her. "Rena, are you okay?" He touched her arm. He could feel her trembling with fear. "What did he do to you?"

Rena tried her best to speak through her tears. "He said something about wanting me with someone. Guy, I was so scared, I honestly didn't know what was going to happen to me."

Guy wrapped his arms around her. She buried her head into his chest and sobbed uncontrollably. "Ssshhh, it's over now. He won't hurt you again." He brought her closer to him. 'Why in the world would someone try to hurt her?' he thought. 'What did she ever do except live her life?'

He leaned down to her and kissed her forehead. As he pulled away, he noticed something on the floor just next to him. He reached over to it and realizes that it was an ID card of the person who attacked her.

'Billy,' Guy thought, feeling anger rising up within him. 'That bastard.'

Rena looked up at him. Guy quickly puts the ID card away, not wanting her to see it. "How did you know that I was in trouble?"

Guy held up the DVD. "I was going to surprise you with a movie night, but I guess the plans changed."

Rena forced a smile. "That's so sweet of you. I'm sorry I gave you a little surprise of my own."

Guy wiped the tears away from her face. "It's all right. You didn't ask for this." He looked at her seriously. "It's a good thing I'm training you tomorrow. I don't want to see you hurt again like this."

"Will you stay here with me tonight?"

Guy nodded and kisses her forehead once more. "Sure. I will."

'Maybe Kairi's right,' he suddenly thought. 'Maybe I am falling in love with her…'