-Katashi-

He stood in front of the tower's official entrance, waiting for someone to pick him up. He knew that he could have snuck into it via one of the handful paths that he had access to, but considering that it was his wife that called him to come here, none of them were an option and so he had to freeze in front of the big solid doors that were donning the intimidating Tenoh emblem. Eventually Sasaki opened him the door and he followed her inside.

They took the elevator to the common shared floor and Katashi braced himself for an uncomfortable conversation. As they took the smooth ride up, he noticed how all security measures had been lowered back to defaultevelsl, meaning that most likely all fights had ended.

Yumi was already waiting for them when they stepped out of the elevator and they walked together into Haruka's office. Sasaki stayed outside and closed the door behind them.

"What is the meaning of this?" Yumi asked calmly while her hands were clutching the little bag of hers so tight that her knuckles showed.

"I could ask you the same." Katashi calmly deflected as he noticed how Yumi's fists only tightened more around the handles of her small bag and he was oddly relieved that even if she had a gun in there, she wouldn't be able to shoot him so fast as that he wouldn't be able to duck out of the line of fire, that is how cramped her hands looked.

"Katashi, don't play me for a fool." Yumi pressed on but Katashi stayed silent. "First you stick around me like glue and when I actually rely on you to be around, you aren't." Yumi sounded a mixture of hurt and angry, but the biggest surprise was the disappointment in her voice that hurt him the most and which was more emotions than he had ever witnessed of her in person since they got married.

"I…" he didn't know what he has expecting that she called him for. He was half expecting her to lay new boundaries, as per usual with every uncomfortable incidence or justification of his failure to prevent the attack in the concert hall in the first place, but this? Before his head could make more sense of it and his heart would explode, Haruka stepped into her office.

"What is the meaning of this?" The blood soaked blonde asked after Sasaki closed the door behind her. Katashi spotted the rather beaten up Seiya and Taiki behind her who had been in her tow, before the door closed completely.

"Not that it is any of your business but I was asking my husband where he was and I wanted to do that in private." Yumi defended herself.

"Nothing is private from my eyes and ears in my tower. Nothing happens without my permission, so how about you let this one go and we all just call it a night." Haruka sounded exhausted and drained, but Katashi could see it in Yumi's eyes that she wouldn't just let this one go.

"He owes me the truth." Yumi insisted.

"In all matters of fairness, don't you owe him the truth, too, then?" Haruka matched her frustration.

"Don't you get involved in my marital affairs Tenoh…" Yumi voiced threateningly.

"Rich of you to say, considering I am the only one you are having." Haruka replied wry.

"How dare you…" Yumi sounded hurt and even angrier than before

"I already know…and I really don't…mind…How about …" Katashi slightly stepped in between both women and almost instantly regretted it, considering the looks he earned from both of them but he persisted "…we go home, and I will tell you whatever you want to hear, dear." Katashi attempted to lower the temperature in the room.

"But I want the truth now and we all know that we will not share the full truth in a house that my grandfather can walk into any time he wants." Yumi said determined between gritted teeth, and judging from her looks, fully expecting for the blonde to just walk away as she usually did when it came to matters between Yumi and him.

Instead, Haruka stood up tall between him and her now.

"Ok, you want the truth? The whole truth? The complete and utter truth?" Haruka looked at her challengingly.

"I do." Yumi replied with the same defiance.

"Fine. But whatever I say next stays in here and will die with all present." Haruka said so calm, that Katashi started to panic as he watched how Yumi nodded.

"How about…" Katashi tried again to intervene.

"Enough" Haruka commanded with a single raised hand Katashi fell immediately silent.

"You know what Katashi wears under the Myamoto clan symbol? The Tenoh emblem, because your dear husband is my protégée and I am his sponsor and by that his mission is whatever I tell him to do and not what you or your grandfather ever tell him to do because I own his life. You know how he earned his spot? He gave up where you were held when I was looking for you frantically and not only that, he made it possible for me to get you in time before worse could happen to you, knowing fully well, that if found out, he would be untraceable for eternity. You know what his only condition was? That you will always be safe and happy, that was his only condition to give me what I wanted." Haruka sounded pained. "This man has given every waking breath he has for you and you owe him nothing in return because he is paying for it, gladly. He gave up his name, his freedom, his future, just to be able to see you happy and he never failed you. I am the one who told him to come here and to defend my fortress while I watched you in his stead. He did well and I failed you, once again. If you want to let your anger and disappointment out on someone, that someone is me." Haruka proclaimed and earned herself a resounding slap.

"You had no right…" Yumi started her sentence but couldn't finish it as Katashi could see the fury, anger and betrayal that she felt in her eyes that stopped her from doing so as the puzzle pieces fell into place.

"Let's just go home…" Katashi almost pleaded as he carefully reached for Yumi's hand and to his surprise, he was able to lead her out of the office, leaving Haruka behind nursing her red glowing right cheek.


-Seiya-

Katashi and Yumi came out of the office, taking Shinobu with them as he waited outside of the office for Haruka. Taiki and him stepped into the office as the door was left open and Seiya closed it behind himself.

"Ouch, that looks painful." Seiya noted and signalled towards the handprint that Yumi left on the blonde.

"Could be worse…at least she used her left and not her right…" Haruka chuckled wryly before she sat down at her desk and picked up the phone as Taiki and Seiya dropped themselves into the chairs on the other side of her desk.

"Yaten, what is the overall status of the tower and the concert hall?"

"All zones are cleared, and the captives are being transported out as we speak. Watanabe sensei and Mizuno sensei have moved the patient into the clinic into the isolation room and sealed the vault. All medics are now on the clinic floor taking care of our casualties." Seiya could hear Yaten faintly reporting to Haruka.

"Anything else?" Haruka enquired.

"Kaioh-sama has requested to see her granddaughter with her children." Yaten replied hesitant.

"Of course. Tell them to give us notice when they arrive here and Taiki will take care of them." Haruka replied as she signalled Taiki to go and get cleaned up to be presentable for the Kaiohs.

Taiki just nodded, stood up and left and as Seiya wanted to follow him, Haruka signalled for him to stay.

"As soon as you get hold of Akira-ji, ask him to double check every tunnel. Oh, and good job kid, you did well." With that Haruka hung up and walked over to the medicine cabinet.

"Heard your stint into independence was rather rocky." Haruka finally addressed him.

"As you predicted, rocky. Having no backup really sucks. But you knew that." Now it was Seiya's turn to chuckle wryly.

"Give me a hand here." Haruka was taking off her jacket and shirt, revealing a long gash down her back that was still slightly bleeding.

"I am no doctor, but I am guessing this needs stitching." Seiya remarked as Haruka pointed at the open medical kit.

"It doesn't feel too bad and others need more immediate attention right now, so let's just tape it shut, in case Kakyuu agrees with you when she has tome to see me." Haruka waved off his concerns.

After he had done the best he could, Haruka sent him out to get cleaned up himself while she got changed and to meet her on the clinic floor to assist the others.

Seiya was glad to be home as he ran to the elevator and felt it taking him to his apartment floor. He relished in the smells and feels of his home and it seemed that nothing felt better than his own shower and wearing his own clothes. He briefly wondered how the Chibas were doing, but then Yaten called him back to more immediate issues and he hurried to the clinic floor, just witness Haruka alone with what looked like Michiru's mum in the hallway just around the corner of the quarantine room.

"I told you to stay away from her." Michiru's mum sounded angry and the sound of her slap against Haruka's left cheek echoed down the hall before the older woman went back into the quarantine room to her daughter.

Haruka had stayed silent and looked stoically after the older woman, her face pale and her eyes unreadable.

"Hey, at least your cheeks are now evened out." Seiya tried to joke and Haruka only replied with a melancholic smile and a light nod.

"Let's get you to a doctor, before you bleed out on me." Seiya pointed out the damp back of Haruka's shirt and she followed him silently to find a free doctor.


-Haruka-

She couldn't think or breath with so many people around her. She just wanted to get out and as soon as Kakyuu had her stitched up and pumped full with antibiotics and pain medication, Haruka slipped out of the clinic and onto the roof.

The sky was clear and dark and thanks to the light pollution from the festive lighting, not a single star was visible.

"Don't frown so hard, even if you can't see them, the stars are always there." Kumiko's voice came from behind her and Haruka turned around, just to be welcomed into a big warm hug.

"You did well kid." Kumiko looked at her with a pride that Haruka just couldn't feel herself.

"I should have seen this coming." Haruka shook her head.

"The day you can see into the future, invest in the lottery, don't invest that gift into looking into evil people's heads…it is wasted on them." Kumiko chuckled. "You did your best, that is all anyone can ask for and that is all that your parents would ever expect from you, but most importantly, that is all I ever expected from you."

Suddenly all the uncried tears that Haruka had forgotten that she had bottled away in her broke out and she could only let them flow into her aunt's shoulder.

"It's ok baby bear. Your're not alone in this." Kumiko's voice was as soothing as ever and eventually Haruka caught herself.

"Thanks, big bear." Haruka finally managed to chuckle as she peeled herself out of the tight hug. "I know you have my back."

Before Kumiko could reply with another witty response, they heard a helicopter approaching and a call came into Kumiko's phone which she answered hastily.

"Understood." Is all that Kumiko answered gravely to the call and Haruka looked at her concerned.

"Your grandfather is having another heart attack and they are coming here." Kumiko informed her niece.