Sorry it's taken so long for me to update this, I'll try to make it worth the wait! Enjoy!
Red Kitsune Flames: Heh, thanks! I think all this chapter is is Ayumu telling the other Blade Children (heh, blachis, I love that; it's one of my favorite things about Kanone) and Hiyono that he surrendered to Kanone, so you got your request! Yeah, it is a bit strange that they ended up together. After all, Kanone pretty much despises Ayumu, but no one ever said that boy was sane, which I am convinced by now that he is most definitely not. Hmm, terms of his surrender. I guess they really haven't discussed that yet, I'll try to get to it next chapter. Anything in particular you had in mind? Yeah, poor, poor Eyes...well, hopefully he'll get over it. He has Kanone in all my other fics, it's Ayumu's turn! Thanks for reviewing!
CeTe: Flashbacks are great! Heh, it's only bad if more than half of your fic is flashbacks, which I don't think it is. There are going to be a few in here, and they're probably going to be pretty lengthy, but they'll all have a point! Well, I can't imagine Eyes and Kanone breaking up to be a happy thing, but the rest of them shouldn't be sad. Thanks for reviewing!
A/N: In the interest of not having to remember to include everyone, this fic is going to mostly center around the three boys (Ayumu, Eyes, and Kanone). I will be adding the others in like Kousuke, Ryoko, and Rio are going to be in this chappy for sure, and maybe Hiyono and Madoka, but thier roles are going to be relatively limited. Just to let you know!
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Rio led Ayumu up to the roof, where Kousuke and Ryoko were waiting for them, "Hey, Little Narumi." Kousuke greeted, grinning at him.
Ayumu was a little suspicious of the Blade Child, but shrugged it off; he was always a little on guard around Kousuke, who wouldn't be? Instead, he turned his attention back to Rio, "Why did you bring me up here, exactly?" he wondered.
Rio looked to the others, then nodded, "We heard from Eyes that you ran into Kanone." she explained.
Ayumu hesitated, "Yeah, he kidnapped Madoka, and I went to get her back." Ayumu told them, "How much did Rutherford tell you?"
"Not much." Ryoko said, "Just that you and Kanone were having some sort of showdown."
"I take it since you're still alive and unharmed that you won?" Kousuke asked.
Ayumu hesitated, "Well...he didn't kill me." he agreed.
Then, Rio asked the question that Ayumu had hoped to avoid, "What happened?" she aked, all three of them looked at him, watiing for his answer.
Ayumu didn't know what to say. Should he tell them that he surrendered to Kanone? If he did, that would bring on a whole slew of questions, like the terms of his surrender, and why Kanone hadn't simply killed him. He figured he'd start with the basics, "He lured me to an abandoned fireworks factory." he began, "We went back and forth for a while, basically just talking." Now that he thought about it, there hadn't been too much fighting at all. Kanone had thrown a few knives at him in an attempt to knock him off balance and set off a reaction, but other than that there wasn't much contact at all.
"Wait." Kousuke said, interrupting his thoughts, "You talked?" he seemed very unimpressed. Ayumu nodded, "About what exactly?"
"He tried to convince me that I should surrender to him, and that there was no way out but death for me. He told me that I gave you all a false sense of hope that needed to be destroyed."
The three stared at him in shocked silence, "You said that you won, though." Rio finally broke the silence, "So, how did you do it?"
Ayumu sighed, and decided that it was useless to put the truth off any longer, "I said that I was still alive." he corrected her, "Not that I had won. In fact, I lost miserably, and surrendered to Kanone."
This elicited a gasp from each of the Blade Children, "What!" Kousuke shouted, "How could you do that?"
Ryoko almost smacked Kousuke for being so loud, but realized that he was right, "We all depended on you to save us." she explained to keep Ayumu from simply turning tail and leaving at Kousuke's outburst, "You proved that we were wrong in assuming that you could so that, though." she added, a little hurt. Ryoko had been betrayed before, and it had taken a lot for her to trust Ayumu. Once she had, though, she was satisfied that she had made the right decision. Now, hearing all of this, she was seriously reconsidering.
Rio shook her head, disagreeing with the others, "No, I still believe in Little Narumi." she stated, staying by her side.
"Rio, what are you talking about?" Kousuke asked, completely bewildered by the gril's actions.
"While it's true that Ayumu admitted defeat to Kanone, it doesn't mean that he's failed us." she explained, then turned to Ayumu, "What were the terms of your surrender?" she asked.
Ayumu hesitated, he really didn't want to answer that question. It's not even like he could lie to the girl, she was still putting her faith into him, and he didn't want to disappoint her, "It's not important." he assured her, "I can tell you that I don't think you have to consider Kanone an enemy any longer." he added, "At least you won't if he's telling me the truth when he says that he loves me." he thought, and looked to Rio.
Her eyes showed disbelief, "We don't have to consider him an enemy?" she repeated, "But...how is that possible if you lost to him?" While she still believed in Ayumu, she couldn't help but question these claims.
Ayumu smirked, "Just trust me." he said, then turned to leave, "If that's all, I'm going to head to class."
As the three Blade Children watched him leave, Kousuke shook his head, "He's lost it."
Through the day, Ayumu pondered several things. The most immediate was how he was going to explain all of this to Hiyono. There was no way that she was going to be happy about this, and didn't want to see that disappointed look on her face. He didn't know why, but he hated to disappoint Hiyono. Maybe it was because she put so much faith in him, and was always there to support him.Or maybe it was simply because deep inside he knew that Hiyono loved him, and that he didn't want to be the one to break her heart.
At lunchtime, Ayumu headed to the newspaper office, not wanting to delay the inevitable. Once there, he immediately saw her typing away on her computer, just like the old days when she would help him track down people. He leaned over her shoulder to see what she was doing, but couldn't make sense of whatever it was, "What are you doing?" he decided to ask instead of trying and figuring it out.
Hiyono had been so intent on whatever it is she was doing that she hadn't heard him come in or flet him leaning over her shoulder, "Oh, hi Ayumu." she greeted him, then turned back to her work, "I'm just working on a project."
Despite being the perfect student that she was, Ayumu had never once seen Hiyono do any sort of homework, which, now that he thought about it, seemed odd. She was a very smart girl, and took some pretty difficult classes, so homework should have been one of her main focuses. Despite all of that, he had never seen her reading one book or write down one problem. He just supposed it was because whenever she was around, he was always asking her to do things that might have prevented her from doing said homework. That knowledge, of course, only made his news more difficult to tell her. Sitting down, Ayumu sighed, "Maybe I could get away with not telling her?" he wondered, then shook his head, "That would never work, she'll definitely want to know what happened. Besides, I owe it to her to at least tell her, she's helped me so much."
As if on cue, Hiyono turned to face Ayumu, "Say, Ayumu, what exactly happened last night?" she asked.
Ayumu sighed, he might as well get it over with, "Kanone captured Madoka." he began.
Hiyono gasped, "He what?" she shook her head, "Why would he do that?" she asked Ayumu.
"He wanted to play one final game with me." he explained, "He figured the only way I would agree is if someone I cared about was in danger, and he chose her." Hiyono said nothing (for once), but waited for Ayumu to continue. He continued on to explain how Kanone lured him to the fireworks factory, and how he had threatened to kill him if he didn't surrender to him, "It wasn't even a threat." Ayumu corrected himself, thinking back, "It was more of a promise than anything."
Hiyono just looked at him, shocked, "He...was going to kill you?" she asked, horrified that anyone would do such a thing.
Ayumu nodded, "I ended up surrendering to him." he admitted, "After everything we've been through, that's how it ended."
Hiyono stared for a second more, "Ended? Ayumu, you can't seriously think of quitting now!"
The boy couldn't believe his ears, "What?"
"You heard me." HIyono said, standing up, smiling, "Kanone doesn't know what he's got coming. He may think he's won, but we'll come back full force this time, and make him surrender to us!"
Ayumu's eyes widened, "That girl's finally lost it." he thought, "I really don't think we need to go to such extremes." he informed Hiyono.
The latter cocked her head to the side, "Why not?" she asked, "If Kanone thinks that he's won, then he'll try to finish what he started, right?" Ayumu said nothing, "Well, he's probably got his guard down right now, he'd never expect it."
Ayumu sighed, "Well, I really don't think he'd expect it, but for reasons I don't want to tell you." he thought, "Listen, Hiyono, we really don't need to worry about Kanone anymore." Ayumu assured her.
"We don't?" she asked, hesitantly. Then frowned, "Ayumu, you're still trying to give up!" she told him.
"I'm not giving up. You don't understand, so just trust me on this, okay?"
"I don't understand because you're still hiding something from me." Hiyono informed the boy, who had rested his head back, and appeared to be asleep, "You can't go to sleep at a time like this!" she yelled.
"You're overreacting." he told her, eyes still closed, "I've got it under control." Hiyono was at a loss for words, and Ayumu opened one eye when he heard no objection. Hiyono was sitting there, a frown still on her face, looking very confused. Ayumu sighed, and sat up, "Look, I'm not worried about it, and neither should you. I was only hesitant about telling you all of this because...I didn't want to disappoint you." he admitted, looking away.
Hiyono's expression didn't change much, but she looked a little less hurt, "Disappoint me?" she asked, slowly, then put on a giant smile, "Ayumu, you could never disappoint me!" Ayumu looked up at hearing this, "I'll always trust your judgement, and if you say there's nothing to worry about, then I won't worry. I just can't help but wish you would tell me more about what's going on."
Ayumu was taken back by this, "So...you're not disappointed in me for surrendering to Kanone?" he asked.
Hiyono shook her head, "No, of course not!" she assured him.
Ayumu let out a sigh of relief, "The only reason that I don't tell you everything," he continued. Hiyono had turned back to the computer, figuring that the conversation was over. Hearing him cnotinue, though, suprised her and made her happy that he was giving her than just the bare minimum of information. So, she stopped typing, and istened, "is because I don't want you to get hurt." he told her, "I dno't want to put you in any unnecessary danger, and that's my way of protecting you."
Hiyono smiled to herself. Ayumu would never know how happy that little bit of information had made her. She turned to him, "I'm glad that's the only reason." she told him. They locked eyes for a second, agreeing that the conversation was over. Ayumu was the first to break eye contact as he leaned his head back once more, and finally went to sleep. Hiyono smiled, and turned back to finish her project.
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I know this chappy kind of contradicts the note I stuck in right before it, but it'll be the only one to do so. I had to have Ayumu tell them all what happened one way or another, and someone wanted to see all of their reactions, so I put it in here. Next chappy, I'll being Kanone and Eyes back in, and we'll get abck to Madoka and that Hunter. Until then, review!