The Sohma Institute
By Lady of the Ink
Disclaimer: I don't own Fruits Basket, but you knew that . . .I hope. I do own this story, and all the plot twists it contains.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Fights, Cameras, and ActionThe night shift of the Sohma Institute's security team consisted of seven men. Three of those were floating guards, making scheduled checks of all the floors. The others had stationary posts: one on the floor housing all the main offices, including Akito's, two in the checkpoint just behind the reception area, and the fourth at the back of the building by the delivery entrance. In addition to them, there was another team of guards patrolling the parking area at infrequent intervals, but they worked for another company altogether and had no contact with the other group.
It was the guards on the first floor who controlled the majority of the surveillance equipment. While one played home base, keeping in contact with the all the men on duty, double-checking their positions and lists of duties, the other was almost constantly tuned into the bank of monitors covering nearly one whole wall. As soon as his shift began, he became the eyes of the Institute. He saw and made note of everything that moved within the range of the cameras.
Unless he got distracted.
The knock on the door was soft but firm. Both men inside the small security office paused in their work to look at each other. It was highly unusual for them to be interrupted by anyone during their working hours.
The man not watching the monitors climbed to his feet just as the knocking came again. Pulling open the door, he found himself face to face with Kureno Sohma. In an unconscious reaction to the authority figure, his posture straightened and he took a small step backwards. "Mr. Kureno, sir," he stammered.
His expression unchanged, Kureno quickly got to the point of his visit. "Akito has requested you presence upstairs." He allowed his gaze to drift between the two men, letting them know his comments were directed at them both.
The guard directly in front of him swallowed at the mention of Akito. Everyone in the building knew that a visit from or to the reclusive administrator was usually a very bad sign. "Is . . .is something wrong?"
Kureno shook his head. "Nothing you need to be concerned about. Akito is having a late meeting with a member of the staff, which requires a large amount of files to be brought to his office from Records. It's a matter of some importance that needs to be handled immediately, so there's no time to wait until morning. If the two of you would lend a hand . . ."
Another glance was exchanged between the two men. The one who had remained seated spoke up. "We'd be more than happy to help out, but is it wise to leave the displays unattended?"
"Everything is being recorded, and there are other officers in the building."
"No offense intended, sir, but if something were to happen while we're away, caught on tape or not, it's our jobs on the line."
Kureno sighed silently. The headache that had been threatening all day had blossomed into a full-blown migraine. Everything had been sliding from bad to worse since morning and the last thing he wanted to do was delay long enough to upset Akito farther. "I admire your work ethic. Would it be acceptable if I stayed here until you finished? I'll make it clear that I was filling in."
Both men quickly agreed and headed on their way. Kureno sank into the recently vacated chair facing the monitors. Squeezing the bridge of his nose tightly with two fingers, he took a minute to collect his thoughts.
It had all begun with a phone call just after lunchtime. One of the floor overseers had gotten a message from his wife. She was extremely upset over something she'd learned and was threatening consequences. Kureno hadn't thought much of it until he heard the name of the woman involved - Minna Sohma.
As he was expected to do, he had alerted Akito immediately. The younger man had summoned Momiji's father to his office and they'd been in deep conversation ever since. From what he had overheard, Kureno guessed that they had now decided to look through weeks' worth of paperwork in order to find out if Minna truly had the evidence of misdeeds that she claimed she did.
Kureno found himself in an enlightening position. While he should have been as upset as Akito, he found himself hoping that Minna really did have the proof about the twelfth floor that would make it necessary for it to be shut down. It was an immoral operation from the start and one he'd only gone along with because he'd never imagined it would go as far as it had. Akito was manipulating lives without any sign of conscience, seeming to regard it as some kind of game. The numbers of lives and illegal actions were irrelevant in his quest to maneuver the pieces to the places he wanted them to be on the board.
Now, alone in the surveillance room, Kureno acknowledged that it was time to do something. He couldn't stand by any longer while such a gross injustice was being committed right in front of him. Akito or no Akito, changes had to be made. He just had to decide how to go about making them happen.
As he thought, his gaze slid over the control panel and monitors in front of him. He was acquainted with the system, having been the one to choose it after making sure that it met all of Akito's requirements. It was extensive and high-tech, covering almost every inch of the Institute's interior. The only exceptions were the bathrooms, the offices of the higher ups, including Akito, and the twelfth floor. His eyes swept over the screens, idly taking in the various rooms and hallways.
He was just about to turn away when a bit of movement caught his attention. Looking closer, he saw that the monitor in question was located by the parking area at the back of the building. While there were no obvious signs of life, a shadow was moving at the very corner of the screen. Kureno kept his gaze focused on the shadow and had his patience pay off moments later when a figure slid into view.
As soon as he recognized Kagura, he knew what she there to do. There was only one reason why she would appear so late at night and be so careful about being seen. She was going to try and get Kyou, Yuki, Haru, and Momiji out of the building.
His head tilted unconsciously to the side as he found himself trying to guess what her plan was. Going in the back way was a good start, since it had the fewest guards, but he doubted she was foolish enough to believe that was all it would take. After all, she had been smart enough to fool Akito and even him into believing she was content with the current visiting arrangement she had been allowed.
He flashed back to the night he had seen her speaking with Tohru Honda just outside of the Institute. Their conversation had been quick and so he hadn't thought too much of it. Now he wondered if it hadn't simply been a short meeting to arrange another meeting somewhere else, where fewer eyes were likely to oversee.
Kureno felt a sense of admiration and respect for his cousin come over him. She had obviously come to the same decision about taking action as he had, only much sooner. Coming up with a plan and putting it in effect, she was doing everything she could to fix what had gone awry. She was a lot braver than he was, daring to take to Institute by herself . . .
He mentally corrected that last thought when he saw a second figure step into view on another screen. Rin was dressed in dark clothes, but making no real effort to hide herself as she crossed the lobby. As she neared the security door, Kureno came to a split second decision. While he hadn't made the first move to make things right, the least that he could do was help along those who had. His current position was perfect, allowing him to help them without their knowing it. If they knew that he was there, they would inevitably question his motives and waste valuable time. Remaining behind the scenes would allow him to be of far more use than if he met them face-to-face.
Deftly pushing buttons and flicking switches, Kureno carefully erased the last several minutes of the reception and garage areas' footage. Once that was finished, he reset the programming so that the cameras were locked onto parts of their respective rooms that rendered them unable to see the movements of either girl. Another few buttons set them to be operating but not recording.
His final move was to unlock the security door, which stood between Rin and both the elevator and the hallway to the back entrance. No matter which way they went, through the front or the back, they would need a clear path through that section of hall.
His work done, Kureno sank back into the chair. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a slip of paper that had become worn and wrinkled from many handlings. It had become something like his good luck charm, making him believe that things he had thought impossible could be accomplished if he tried hard enough. The fact that the name and number on it were hardly legible didn't matter since he had memorized them long ago. Now, finally, he would be able to use them.
Sitting in the empty room, knowing that Akito's web of lies was about to collapse, Kureno smiled.
Tohru stood in the office she had come to know so well over the past few weeks. She had taken care at the beginning of her sift to remove all of her personal possessions in preparation for what was to come. Since Ms. Almont had cleared out her attention-grabbing desk, the small space seemed empty and impersonal. It was like an entirely different room from the one she had formerly known.
Belatedly remembering the reason behind her return to the area, Tohru shook herself from the startled pause that had overtaken her once she stepped over the threshold. She reached into her pocket and withdrew a single sheet of paper. As she laid it in the center of her now-cleared desk, she read over the printed words one last time.
In carefully worded sentences she had explained why she felt the need to resign from her position at the Institute. With no specifics mentioned, she said that she believed that her talents, for which she'd been hired, were no longer needed. While she regretted the action, she found it to be necessary and hoped that they would accept her decision as one that had been arrived at after much thought.
She had known even as she wrote it that it would do little good in the long run. If the Sohma family decided to make her life difficult, they had the influence and the money to do it. No one was going to side with a penniless college student over the members of one of the most powerful families in the area. She could only hope that they would be too preoccupied with the boys' escape to focus much on her part in it all.
Tohru felt a bit guilty for wishing the attention onto the Sohma cousins, but it couldn't be helped. With the plan they had all devised and set in motion, the four would quickly be out of harm's way. She wouldn't be so lucky. If Akito and those who followed his orders decided to get revenge on her for her part in it all, it wouldn't take much effort for them to wreck her life.
Sighing, she allowed her eyes one last trip around the room as she said goodbye to what should have been her dream job. From the moment she stepped outside, her life was going to change drastically. Whether that would be a good or bad thing would only be revealed when she made that first move to meet her destiny.
As Tohru stepped into the hall, she was met immediately by four different and yet similar faces. They all looked at her with the same emotion, though it was more blatant on some than others. For the first time since she had met them, they had hope.
Her decision was instantly reaffirmed. She was doing the right thing, the only thing she could do.
'Mom,' she thought to herself as she patted the bag holding her picture, 'I'm going to do it.'
While the major points of the plan had been discussed at length among the group, there were smaller details of the escape that were being left up to the person in charge of that portion of the task. It was the process of working out those details that had kept Kagura awake during the darkest hours of the past few nights.
When they had divided up the various areas that needed to be covered, the luck of the draw had landed her the delivery area. That meant she had to deal with the security guard who came with it as well. She had thought long and hard about a way to get him to leave his post and remain distracted long enough for her cousins and Tohru to slip past him. They wouldn't be in his line of vision for long, but it would be at a crucial moment.
The plan of action she had settled on worked like a charm. After ditching her "camouflage" outfit, she moved quickly to the backdoor. There was no alarm on it; a fact that she had double and triple checked right off the bat. She made it inside with no problems and soon found her way to the guard's desk.
As she had hoped, it wasn't one of the men who usually let her in for her visits. This guard was a stranger, and much younger than the ones she was familiar with. She could only hope that he hadn't seen her from afar and been told who she was. When his eyes met hers, she looked carefully for any sign of recognition. When there was none, she allowed herself a small sigh of relief.
He was in the middle of his dinner, if the sack lunch spread across the area was any indication. As soon as he saw her, he dropped his sandwich back onto the wax paper it had come out of and stood, hastily wiping his hands on a napkin.
"Can I help you?" he asked, obviously a bit flustered at the appearance of someone who was not a delivery person or another guard. Kagura fully intended to use his confusion to her advantage and so she jumped right into her story to keep him off balance.
She summoned a smile to her lips. "I hope you can, sir. You see, I was walking through that garage out there a few days ago and I seem to have lost the pendant off of my necklace. I was wondering if anyone had turned it in or if there was a lost and found I could check." She smiled again.
The man shook his head apologetically. "I'm sorry but I haven't seen any necklaces around."
Kagura laughed reassuringly. "Oh, that's okay. I wasn't expecting that you would have. I just thought that I should try. It wasn't very important, anyway, just something that my ex-boyfriend gave me." She stressed the word ex, and watched as a considering look entered his eyes. Trying to remember all the tips that Rin had given her, Kagura tilted her head down and looked up at him through her lashes. A shy smile spread across her lips as she rocked slightly where she stood.
"So, you're a security guard here?" He nodded. "Wow. That must be a big responsibility!" She lowered her voice in a reasonable facsimile of awe and leaned forward. "Is it dangerous?"
Just as she had hoped, the young man's chest puffed out in pride. "It can be," he answered, his voice noticeably deeper than it had been moments before. Kagura fought to keep her feelings of triumph from showing on her face. She took a few steps to the side, causing the guard to pivot with her as he explained the various duties he was tasked with. She nodded and asked a few more questions, all the while shifting his position until he had made a 180-degree turn. Now he was facing the door while she was facing the hall that her cousins would come down any moment.
The next few minutes were the most difficult of her life as she waited for some sign that they were on their way. The hard task was made even more challenging by the running conversation she was forced to keep up with the guard. Every time her attention locked too forcefully on the hall, she had to make herself turn back to him with a smile or nod.
She was starting to get worried. It had been almost twenty minutes since the agreed upon start time. Rin should have met up with Tohru and the boys and been slipping them down the back stairs by now. She was beginning to fear that something had gone horribly wrong.
Kagura could feel her smile grow brittle as scenario after scenario filled her mind, each one more distressing than the last. She imagined one of the other guards coming across them as they moved through the halls . . .or worse yet, Akito himself.
She had just reached the screaming point of tension when a bit of motion around the corner caught her attention. Her eyes focused on a hand as it slid into view on the wall. It was followed by an arm and a tousled blonde head that she recognized immediately as belonging to Momiji. His movements made it clear that he was looking carefully around the area before he finally caught sight of her. The smile of recognition that bloomed faded quickly once he realized who her companion was.
Trying to be as inconspicuous as possible, Kagura motioned for him to wait. He nodded in understanding and made as though to pull back.
Time seemed to slow to an agonizing crawl as she saw Momiji lose his balance. He wove slightly, managing to catch himself before he fell into view . . .but not before his shoulder slammed into the wall with an audible thump. Kagura watched the guard's head twist in that direction, his expression going from flirty to on edge in an instant. She knew she had only a few seconds to delay the disaster, and so she did the only thing that came to mind.
Jumping forward, Kagura laced her fingers through the short hair at the sides of his face, pulled his head down, and kissed him for all she was worth.
