Hello loyal readers!
More theme park date with Kyoko and Ren! I just had to sneak A Lotus in the Mire into this fic! The Momiji arc right now is really heating up, and I am seriously counting down the days until each update! The 20th is only 17 days away!
As for updates on my fic… I'm sorry to say, but June is going to be the absolute worst month for me. Finishing up my grad school program means that on top of 110 hours in the pediatric ER, I have to prep for my cumulative exam (7 hour-long test), cumulative problem-oriented physical, and master's thesis presentation. Not. Fun.
My goal in June is to continue writing, but to get ahead in terms of chapters I have finished and polished. I've almost come to the end of my nice little buffer of chapters, and I'd like to build it back up again. And if I can't find time to write, then I'll just be back where I started.
So enjoy this chapter! It may be the only one for June (I'm sorry!).
-x-
CH15
The ronin samurai and graceful kunoichi bowed again to the audience, who had all risen to their feet in a standing ovation. Little girls in purple kunoichi-dresses with black leggings and a black sash, identical to the young woman on stage, called out to their older counterpart. She tucked her long black hair behind one ear and waved happily to them, a broad smile on her face. Similarly, small samurai boys in navy blue hakama waved plastic swords, trying to get the attention of the ronin, who also smiled and waved.
With one final bow, the samurai and ninja slipped through the heavy velvet curtain behind them to the backstage area.
Heaving a long sigh of relief, Kyoko collapsed onto the floor, closing her eyes. She wiped the sweat from her brow with one of her leather wrist gauntlets. How had they gotten themselves into this mess!
A deep voice chuckled above her.
"Momiji-san is surprisingly very good at getting the children involved in the storyline."
Feeling a swell of pride, Kyoko cracked one eye open, about to explain, then she froze. The only reason why she was so good with crowds was because she worked with the Kimagure Unit for the PSIA's Public Relations division. As Bo. To whom Agent T had exposed some of his deepest insecurities and secrets.
"Th-thank you, Shizuma-sama…" Kyoko stuttered, instantly shooting up to sit at attention in seiza stance. Then an annoyed tic crossed her face. "As for Shizuma-sama, your sword work is quite formidable. Shizuma-sama could have gone a little bit easier on this poor servant with the ad lib, you know…"
"But that's what the audience loves!" Ren said, a mischievous twinkle in his eye. He tightened the obi that held his prop katana in place, and Kyoko watched as his gaze drifted farther backstage. "Now, I do believe we need to be going."
Kyoko followed his line of sight and sprang to her feet. In a moment, she was following her senpai out of the backstage area, tactfully weaving around scenery props and trying not to get her two sheathed ninjatou caught on anything.
Behind them, Kyoko could hear the angry middle-aged stage manager confronting a man in a blue and gray ronin costume and a woman dressed like a purple-clad kunoichi. Clearly, the manager who had mistakenly dragged the two operatives to perform in the show had finally found the original cast members. From his shouts, apparently the two had been messing around and had missed the curtain call.
Emerging from the back, bowing to a couple of other cast members, who congratulated them on their performance, Kyoko and Ren walked briskly toward the park.
Speaking softly, Kyoko murmured, "Luckily, getting kidnapped by that man didn't waste too much time."
"I agree," Ren replied under his breath as he smiled and waved back to some teenaged park-goers. The group stopped to take a picture with the samurai and ninja, before the girls and boys retreated, all individuals blushing. Kyoko knew why the girls were blushing, but had no idea what was wrong with the boys or why they kept looking at her. Maybe Agent T's power of attraction didn't stop at females, she concluded.
Ren continued. "It doesn't appear that the 'show' the cult is targeting was our performance."
"I didn't see anything out of the ordinary," she replied, perplexed. "Did you?"
Shaking his head, Agent T surreptitiously pulled out the park map and studied the timetable listed on the back. Kyoko covered for him by smiling and waving cheerily at the various groups of people who walked by.
"At 1730, there's a puppet show in the kids' area of the park," Agent T said, concealing the map once again. "We should examine the stage and seating arena before it starts."
With that, the two disguised operatives set off at a brisk but unsuspicious walk.
-x-
Fortunately, the stage manager from Hell didn't try to hunt them down again. Apparently the real actors had decided not to disappear again, allowing the last showing of A Lotus in the Mire to go on without its last-minute understudies.
After two puppet shows, a parade, and the last Lotus performance, Kyoko felt truly frustrated. They had found nothing suspicious, nothing out of the ordinary, and nothing to point them toward what these militant cult members could be up to. Eventually, the two partners decided to split up following the last "show" of the day – not quite sure where else to look.
Also, not helping her fear-laced frustration, the park had decided not to evacuate its customers after all. During their searches, Agents M and T had spotted almost three-dozen security guards, clearly a more visible show of force than normal, but the civilians stayed. Apparently some upper-echelon businessman had run the numbers and decided the risk was worth more than dissatisfied customers and bad press.
"Momiji!"
Kyoko's head snapped up to see Ren in his gray kimono top and blue hakama. She couldn't help but think that he looked dashing with his hair pulled up in the top-knot. Well… More dashing than usual for Agent T.
He finished walking quickly over to her, slightly out of breath. Kyoko knew he had been patrolling the backlot while she took care of searching the front of the park.
A light sheen of sweat glazed the edges of his collarbones that peeked through the top of his kimono. A strong undercurrent of… something raced up Kyoko's spine.
Stifling a gasp, she snapped her wide eyes back to her senpai's face. He gave her an odd look, an emotion that she couldn't quite place, before it was gone.
"I'm guessing you didn't find anything either," Ren asked, finally catching his breath.
Kyoko shook her head, eyeing the main courtyard from the side street where they had agreed to rendezvous at 2030. Crowds of guests were milling about the square.
"There was nothing inside the park, T-san," she murmured. Her voice felt heavy with worry and exhaustion.
Before Ren could respond, Kyoko heard a small, excited chorus of "Momiji! Momiji-sama!"
A handful of young girls, some dressed in miniature, mass-produced Momiji the Ninja costumes had spotted her.
Falling easily into character, Kyoko knelt before Ren, who as Shizuma, nodded curtly in her direction. With his go-ahead, Momiji quickly leapt forward, twirling her two drawn ninjatou in a flourish before landing lightly on one foot. Using her forward momentum, she spun in a tight whirl, before sinking down to kneel before the young guests, her swords now sheathed.
"Kamaitachi~!" The group of small fan girls gasped and giggled, clapping their hands with pleasure.
Only after the children's parents had taken the photo op and dragged their offspring away, did Kyoko let her smile droop into a bitter frown.
"Momiji hates that name," she said grudgingly, slumping forward in a pout.
She heard her senpai chuckle, and her heart swelled slightly in her chest. Apparently, he had been satisfied with her acrobatic performance and understanding of Momiji's character motivations. Her assumption was proven correct as she felt a soft pressure on her long-haired black wig.
With a valiant effort, the LoveMe girl squashed the blush that threatened to crest over her cheeks and neck as her… admired and respected and exaltedly god-like yet playboy senpai caressed the top of her head. Finally, he stopped and sighed.
Kyoko glanced up and saw him looking around the courtyard at the mass of people gathered. Men, women, parents, children, teens, and couples all milled around the square, laughing and enjoying.
"It's already 8:30," Ren mused, his voice muddled with confusion. "There aren't any more shows left."
Kyoko frowned. Even the legendary Agent T was baffled. "Maybe Goto-san heard wrongly. Or maybe the police already found them."
As she was speaking, the park's background music faded and an upbeat musical chime sounded over the intercom. Kyoko glanced up at the speaker on the corner of the nearest building.
"Excuse me, honored guests. Excuse me, honored guests," the polite, cutesy lady-voice intoned over the speakers. "In just 20 minutes, the Edo Land firework spectacular, Buton-kun and Kitsu-chan and the Fire Flower, will begin. Please head to Main Square by Tokugawa Dori for the optimal viewing experience. Thank you! … Excuse me, honored guests…"
The chipper recording looped again, but Momiji and Shizuma were no longer there.
-x-
"Are you sure?" Ren asked breathlessly as the two sprinted through the backlot entrance.
Trying to even her breathing as she ran, Kyoko managed, "Yes. I checked the Main Square most thoroughly of all. There were no explosive devices anywhere."
A twinge of self-doubt twisted in her gut before she shook it off. Hundreds, if not thousands of lives depended on her certainty. There hadn't been a single suspicious device or backpack or person inside the square, right up until Ren had appeared again.
Besides, if Kyoko's memory of the People of the Rising Sun was accurate, then their explosives would not be yet at the targeted site. They always prepared them beforehand at a separate location before transporting them to their final destination last-minute for minimal detection and maximal drama.
The only opportunity the LME agents would have would be to intercept the packages before they arrived. And the only place they hadn't searched completely was the back lot.
Ren cast about, spending a precious moment to orient himself among the tin buildings and piles of props before dashing off again. "This way! It's one of the only places I didn't get to search. It was off-limits due to security—"
The two jinked a sharp right around one of the buildings.
Kyoko didn't even have time to scream in fright before she had to leap and tuck into a roll to dodge the oncoming golf cart. Narrowly avoiding decapitation, Kyoko watched the small, motorized cart speed away.
The two men in the cart were wearing black armbands, and as the cart disappeared down the road, Kyoko spied one that had a blood red circle painted on it.
"T-san!" Agent M shrieked, whirling to sprint after the vehicle.
A white blur and the high-pitched, mechanical screech of brakes caught her attention. Agent T sat in the driver's seat of another golf cart. He tossed his prop sword in the backseat and shouted, "Come on! Let's go!"
He started to gun the engine, and Agent M leapt onto the passenger-side running board just before the miniature vehicle shot forward in pursuit.
As Kyoko settled into the passenger's seat, gripping the railing for dear life, she briefly wondered at her senpai's long list of nearly inhuman skills. Even though she was sure that the carts were both from the same manufacturer, Agent T was somehow steadily gaining on the cultists.
She sucked in a deep breath.
"HEY! HEY YOU! STOP RIGHT NOW!" Agent M yelled at the other driver. They were close enough that she kept catching glimpses of a highly suspicious package in the back of their vehicle. Clusters of small paper-wrapped balls ranging from the size of tennis balls to bowling balls were packed into an open box. Traditional Japanese fireworks, Kyoko noted.
But the multicolored wiring and ominous black box attached were most definitely not traditional. Apparently, after the Tokyo police had confiscated their stockpile, the cult members had had to find another source of explosives.
In accordance with people up to no good, the men in the other cart didn't stop. The chase continued. Every time Ren seemed to be catching up, the driver of the lead cart would purposely swerve around groups of park employees and stacks of crates, shaking off his pursuers.
Meanwhile, Kyoko had worked out what direction they were going.
"He's heading toward the park, T-san!" Her heart was hammering a panicky staccato in her chest.
"Probably toward Main Square!" Agent T shouted back, grunting in frustration as he swerved wildly, just barely avoiding a serious collision with the corner of a building.
Kyoko tightened her grip on the side rail, glancing between the cart in front of them and the quickly approaching main park. "The guests won't be able to evacuate in time!"
"I know!" Ren said tersely. He glanced at her. "Grab the wheel."
"What?!"
Blindly trusting him, Kyoko scooted over on the bench and grabbed the steering wheel, somehow sliding her feet under Ren's to floor the gas pedal while he shifted to the passenger's side –all without missing a beat.
She glanced over at her partner. Another panicked exclamation escaped her. "WHAT?!"
Ren had pulled a small-caliber handgun from the waistband of his costume hakama. The firearm looked dwarfed by his large hands.
"How did you smuggle that in here!" A horrified look crossed her face as she tried to sneak another glance.
"No one ever checks the coffee cup," Agent T noted as he quickly checked the gun and clicked off the safety. Kyoko thought she might have sensed a tad bit of sheepishness from him before he leaned out the passenger's side and started firing.
For a brief moment, between zigzagging around a group of terrified restaurant workers on a smoke break and trying to keep the cart steady enough for her partner to take aim, Kyoko wondered if the ammo was rubber or live.
Four carefully aimed shots later, she had her answer. It was real ammo. Two of Ren's bullets struck the rear passenger-side tire, causing the tire to burst. The golf cart lost traction on one side, beginning to waver from side to side. The cart's minor fishtailing rapidly grew more pronounced until the driver completely lost control. Like a bucking bronco, the vehicle whipped to the side one final time, flinging the driver out of his seat. Even more unbalanced than before, the cart teetered precariously on two wheels. With a loud CRASH, the cart collapsed onto the asphalt, round paper-wrapped fireworks rolling out onto the ground and trailing multicolored wires.
Dazed, Kyoko let their cart drift to a halt nearby. On the ground, the other vehicle's wheels were still spinning madly in the air, the rear tire shredded.
Agent T was already vaulting out of their own golf cart. "You check on the guy who got thrown out! I'll check on his passenger."
Still high on adrenaline, Kyoko leapt out of her seat. The driver was lying on his side, facing her. His eyes were closed and blood ran down his forehead and cheek.
She made short work of him – only stopping to check that the man was actually still breathing – before she whipped the long fabric headband from her forehead and used it to securely hog-tie his hands and feet together. He was lucky that the golf carts could only go a maximum of 25 kilometers per hour.
Kyoko had just finished doing a quick pat-down to make sure he was unarmed, when shouts caught her attention.
Off to the side of the toppled cart, Ren was facing off with the other cultist, who had drawn what looked like a hunting knife. A quick glance told Kyoko that Ren's gun lay on the ground; probably knocked away in a scuffle.
With a scream of rage and a curse, the Rising Sun member charged toward Ren, knife swinging toward the agent's head in a cold, metal arc. In that moment, Kyoko felt time freeze. She could have sworn that her heart ceased to beat. All she could think about was Ren. Her partner. Her–
Before she could scream, the world came crashing back.
With graceful ease, Ren side-stepped the first swipe, still keeping his hands up to guard in the Uesugi's mixed martial arts style. Ren's attacker must have been frightened at seeing the skill of his opponent because the next strike was wild and unpredictable. Ren had to quickly step back to dodge, but still, the man's knife slashed into Agent T's upper arm through his costume.
Ren scarcely seemed to notice, but Kyoko, hovering nearby and trying to find an opening to assist, noticed that his glare sharpened.
Finally, Ren struck back. The cultist became quickly overconfident at drawing first blood, lunging forward with the knife. In a quick sidestep pivot, Ren dodged again, this time catching the man's arm in a tight hold. With a deft twist of his wrist, Ren forced the man to drop the knife, which clattered to the ground.
Now panicking, the cultist went for a wild, wind-milling haymaker punch that both Kyoko and Ren saw coming from a mile away. Keeping his hand on the man's knife-less wrist, Ren turned sideways, using his momentum to bring his guarding hand up to knock the punch askew. His opponent's unchecked forward momentum and the solid jerk as Ren pulled downward, brought the man directly into the hard knee Ren shot up to connect with the cultist's jaw.
Yanking the disoriented assailant forward past his body, Ren landed a quick downward elbow-strike to the base of the man's skull. The attacker crumpled into a disorganized heap.
Kyoko watched Ren as silence stretched through the air, broken only by his ragged breaths. Finally, he let out a long sigh of relief and looked up, smiling at her. Unbidden, Kyoko felt the tingling pressure of tears forming at the corners of her eyes.
Then a shadow moved behind him.
"T-san!" Without conscious thought, her hands moved on their own.
Ren whirled around, only to see a third man, rolling on the floor and howling in pain. The man clutched at his right shoulder and hand, where smooth, light gray throwing knives protruded from his flesh. Blood oozed steadily out of the wounds, staining the man's stolen blue security officer jacket under his black armband. His stolen hat lay forgotten on the floor.
"Well, that explains why security had such a hard time finding them," Ren mused, bending over to catch his breath.
"If we had more time, I'd apologize to Goto-san about his jacket," Agent M said as she sheepishly stowed the rest of her throwing daggers. She strode forward to kick away the hunting knife, which the third man had picked up from the ground only moments before.
As he straightened, Ren's gaze felt heavy with questions. Kyoko fidgeted with her hands before explaining in an embarrassed wail, "Moko-san said that a young lady should never leave the house without proper protection!"
Distant shouts snapped Kyoko out of her bashfulness, and she looked up to see half a dozen police officers sprinting toward the two agents. Almost leisurely, Ren turned to pick his small firearm off the asphalt, and turned to Kyoko.
"Shizuma and Momiji, exit stage right," Ren joked with a small grin.
In response, Kyoko reached into her ninja pouch and produced a handful of smoke pellets that Momiji used during the play. Smiling, she threw them at the floor, and the two disappeared into the loud bang and thick, mysterious smoke. Moments later, when the police officers arrived on the scene, they found three injured cult members, but no sign of the enigmatic duo except heady smoke that clung to the night air.
A few minutes later, the intercom in the main park announced that with great regret, the Edo Land fireworks spectacular would be canceled due to unexpectedly rough weather. Everyone in the audience groaned in disappointment and slowly began to disperse.
-x-
Kyoko didn't know how Ren had managed it. It was blackmail, extortion, and coercion all rolled into one. For not the first time, Kyoko wondered if her normally polite and genteel senpai had been a yakuza in a former life.
She tried not to fidget too much because when she did, some body part of hers always managed to knock into one of his, providing more unnecessary physical contact than she could tolerate. However, considering her current position sitting in Tsuruga Ren's lap, fidgeting was extremely difficult to suppress.
She, Mogami Kyoko, at age 17 would die at the top of a ferris wheel by spontaneous combustion.
Without leaning too much, which would allow her back to touch his chest, the agent tried to kink her neck around to look at her partner. He was already staring down at her.
Kyoko whipped her head back around, letting out a small "Eep!" when her arm touched his. Fortunately, Ren had kept his arms to himself, merely resting them on his knees on either side of her. She inwardly cursed the maker of ferris wheel gondolas. Who the hell decided they should be such tiny, claustrophobic boxes of death!
"Mogami-san," Ren's deep voice reverberated from behind her. "Would a real girlfriend react to her boyfriend in such a manner?"
Mentally, Kyoko grumbled to herself. It wasn't her fault that they had spent their entire 'date' chasing down a trio of combustion-happy cult terrorists. So why was she the one getting punished now, as if Tsuruga-san wanted to cram all of their missed coupley moments into a 15-minute ride?
She could sense Ren's 'NG' sigh brewing behind her.
"Well, dear," Kyoko began sweetly, "Maybe we just started going out, and I don't take kindly to such a rapidly advancing physical relationship."
Her partner's deep chuckle set her grating nerves more at ease – although, Kyoko couldn't quite tell if he was laughing at her expense. Still, the obstinate man didn't let her move.
Worse, he began to absent-mindedly play with her hair. They were back in the Muse's costumes, and Kyoko felt her senpai's long fingers picking at the curls on her short wig.
Before she could react beyond the blush that was working its way up the back of her neck, Kyoko heard Ren say, "Thank you for saving me earlier."
Ducking her head to the side in embarrassment, she hardly noticed when she made contact with his arm again. Kyoko mumbled, "You've saved me millions of times though..."
Her partner merely laughed softly in his deep baritone. Then he paused a moment before replying in a thoughtful voice, "I… I might be counting on you a lot more for this upcoming mission…"
Stiffening, Kyoko felt a warm blush crest over her cheeks. "I-I'll do my best, Tsuruga-san!"
"I'm sure you will. You're always a surprise." Ren's voice took a sly upturn, and in the window across, Kyoko saw that his reflection held a boyish grin. "Like… Ceramic throwing knives sewn into a hidden pouch in your purse?"
Puffing her cheeks out in a pout, Kyoko refused to dignify his (correct) accusation with an answer.
He verbally prodded her again. "You brought knives on a date?"
Whirling her torso around to face him, Kyoko threw the accusation back at him. "You brought a gun!"
There was silence for a moment as both studied the other's expression. Then, they began to laugh.
Outside the gondola, the city lights twinkled from below, a blanket of glittering stars. Closing her eyes, she realized that she felt comfortable and safe. She trusted this man with her life.
Carefully, gingerly, as if scared of being burned, Kyoko shifted to the side and allowed herself to lean back so one of her shoulders was touching his chest. He felt warm. Her heart was beating rapidly and roughly enough to hear it in her ear drums.
However, a large thought pierced through her comfort, chaining her to reality. She could only trust Ren's good intentions, not his actual actions. Just because the man was acting romantically interested in her based on whatever characters or torturous assignments from the President... Yashiro-san and Maria-chan had said it themselves – many women fell for Tsuruga-san's acting.
Kyoko was not so arrogant or foolish to consider herself special to him. Also, according to the conversation Ren had with Bo, there was a girl he was already interested in. Even though he was deceiving the high school girl, he clearly cared deeply for her.
Also, the final nail in the coffin – things like love… romance… They just weren't for plain, boring girls like her.
So, Kyoko rationalized as she willed her stiff body to melt into Ren's solid chest, this was just part of the act. If he could act so convincingly – well, so could she.
She would not be so foolish to mistake a mask for reality. While she pretended on missions, she would resist in her heart of hearts the illusion that he actually cared about her. The locks on the box of her heart were certainly strong enough to withstand that much.
Weren't they?
-x-
Humming in satisfaction, Yukihito leaned back in his chair, stretching arms behind his head. Tilting his neck to the left, then to the right, he brought one latex-gloved hand up to pound at the knots in his upper back. After sixteen straight hours of nothing but coding and bathroom breaks, he wasn't surprised that he felt as exhausted as he did.
A quick glance around the technology workroom indicated that, as he suspected, all his colleagues had turned in for the night. His only company was the flickering, haunting glow of the bank of computer monitors. A high-pitched gurgling echoed through the room, and even though he was alone, Yashiro blushed and pressed a hand against his stomach.
Maybe he would heat up some ramen when he got back to his room. Just once wouldn't hurt, right? After all, the cafeteria was probably closed at… Yashiro checked the clock… 2 a.m.
2 a.m.! Yashiro bolted upright in his chair, a sneaky smirk curling at the edges of his lips. That meant that Ren and Kyoko had probably returned from their date by now! Giggling in a manner unbecoming of a man in his mid-twenties, Yukihito imagined how their day had gone. He wondered if Ren had made any progress.
The tech support paused, considering the persons involved. After a moment, his head fell and hung limply as he sighed.
Probably not. It was Ren after all – hot-shot super spy… and miserable failure at love. And Kyoko – the Number One LoveMe Girl – also a miserable failure at love.
A small, polite cough interrupted his gloomy thoughts. Glancing up, the hacker saw a dark-haired man approaching from the entrance of the room. He carried two steaming mugs of coffee and was offering one to the techie.
"Oh! Matsushima-san! What a surprise," Yashiro said, taking the coffee with a small bow of his head. The small mug warmed his hands through his gloves. "What's keeping you up so early in the morning?"
The mission strategist sighed and sipped his mug. "Just trying to work out the kinks in our Dangerous Mission plan. Woods-san is being quite impractical about some of her costume choices for Mogami-kun. You?"
Giddy to be able to share about his day's work with someone else, Yukihito launched into a lengthy, technologically-complex explanation about his hacking endeavors to bypass the Delta server's higher levels of encryption. He didn't notice Matsushima's eyes glaze over about five minutes in.
As the enthused hacker paused to take in a breath, the strategist leapt at the opportunity.
"Sounds interesting," the middle-aged man said quickly. "Must be a pretty tough system to crack, if it kept even someone like you out for this long."
Embarrassed at the subtle mention of his reputation as a famous hacktivist, Yashiro rubbed the back of his head and chuckled sheepishly. A deep, uncontrollable yawn cut short his embarrassment, and Yashiro covered his open mouth with one hand.
Nodding in understanding, Matsushima grinned. "The only other person busy enough to be up this late is Sawara."
"Still de-toxing that Reino creep?"
"At least our doctor has finally figured out a way to un-poison the bastard."
Before Yashiro could respond, the computer behind him beeped loudly, startling both men. With one hand grabbing at tissues to mop up the coffee that had sloshed onto his workstation, Yukihito quickly typed away with the other on his keyboard, switching to click the mouse a couple times.
Behind him, Matsushima leaned forward, trying to catch a glimpse. With an internal chuckle, Yashiro knew that the technologically-challenged strategist would have no idea what was happening on screen.
Several files of corrupted, gibberish text popped open on his screen. After scanning through them quickly, Yashiro leaned back and sighed, defeated. He had celebrated too soon; the unyielding security of the Delta servers continued to best him.
"What's that?" Matsushima interrupted the hacker's pity-party with a pointing finger. Yashiro looked at the small image icon at which Matsushima pointed. The jpeg was in the same folder as the corrupted text files.
His eyebrows shooting up in surprise, Yukihito hurriedly double-clicked on the image. Something had made the journey unscathed after all.
It was a blurry black and white photo, clearly taken from a distance with a telephoto lens. Out of focus tree branches framed the subject from the foreground, depicting a suit-clad man in a parking lot, about to enter an expensive foreign car.
Around his mid-40's, the man was of average build, with his dark hair slicked back, revealing a small widow's peak. His sharp eyes looked down behind wire-rimmed glasses as he checked the screen of his phone. One hand was poised on the open car door, as if the mystery man were checking an email before tucking the phone away in the breast pocket of his suit and getting into his car to drive away.
"Who's that?" Matsushima asked, thoroughly confused.
Equally mystified, Yashiro replied, "I have no idea…"
-x-
Japanese notes:
ninjatou: the medium-length ninja swords that you see the Momiji auditioners pick out.
Traditional Japanese fireworks are actually gunpowder wrapped in paper balls. Pretty cool technique if you google it!
I've been writing all the measurements and such in metric units (centimeters, etc) so far, because that's the measuring system that Kyoko and Ren would really use in Japan! However, I couldn't avoid phrases like "see it from a mile away".
-x-
MAILBAG:
Knight Patssier – Thanks for the praise and encouragement to continue! When I first read, "I'll be blunt", my heart kind of sank because I thought it was going to be a flame review. Lol. I in turn respect short story writers, because I feel like it's a lot easier to be verbose than concise! Just like it's easier to eat a whole dozen of donuts instead of having self-control and eating just one! As for Kanae and Yashiro, I am a big fan as well! Admittedly, not quite sure if that couple will make it into this fiction, seeing as it's going to take a while to bring just our main stars together. But remind me again as we get toward the end… Maybe I'll include something in the epilogue… ;)
Shizuhoe – Haha, are you the type to love drowning in fluff! I do admit that the fluff in these two chapters are like the bread and the action/spy-stuff is like the meat of the sandwich. Hope the second ferris wheel scene scratched your fluff-itch a bit! Thanks for the congrats! Even though it was a fake graduation (I still have many lingering graduation requirements and two months left to go), it still was nice to get the ceremony out of the way!
MWEH – Oh no! Damn you, fanfiction! And yes~! Cannot wait for Kanae to open a can of acting whoop-ass on her competition. I totally agree as well, they'll see if the main actors have any chemistry together, and I can't imagine Nakamura-sensei skipping over a gold-mine of comedy like Kyoko's rapid switch from worst-enemy to best-friend when it comes to Kanae. I think the next chapter is going to have the other Momiji contenders complaining that Kyoko cheated, but have Kimiko starting to plot to get rid of Kyoko (like she did Erika). But then there's also that huge bomb that the President dropped on Ren last chapter… Hmmmm….
Aikori Ichijou – Yay! I made someone laugh! You can't believe what a high compliment that is, since I have always considered myself pretty funny but am pretty darn sure that no one else thinks so. LOL. Sad existence, I know. Thank you so much for continuing to read and review! I know you must be busy with your own series as well. :)
Guest – Haha, hope you're still singing, because I'm loving your responses, even if you couldn't hold a tune if it had handles! ;) Thanks for the encouragement! It really helps me to keep going knowing that people are reading and actually enjoying it!