Last Alarm-Book One Chapter 40- Enemy at the Gates -Part 4, a highschool of the dead fanfic

Last Alarm

Chapter Forty

"Enemy at the Gates"

Part Four

Children begin by loving their parents. After a time they judge them.

Rarely, if ever, do they forgive them. – Oscar Wilde

For my Brother

-and-

For all victims and survivors of Child and Domestic Abuse

Location: Tokonosu City

Estate of Soichiro and Yuriko Takagi

Rear of Takagi Mansion

Time: Morning

Spring 2013

Z-Day plus Four

Among the many different types of emergency calls that I've responded to as a fireman, there were a few calls that my Engine Company was dispatched for to assist the Police Department in searching for a "Missing Child".

While most would think a call for a "Missing Person" or in this case, a "Missing Child" was a call that would have been more appropriate for a Police response only, many times an Engine Company along with an EMS unit would also be dispatched to the scene as well, to help aid the Police in scouring the last known area where the child was last seen.

More often than not fortunately, the entire incident was usually just a simple case of the supposedly "missing" child having gone to a friend's house without telling anyone. And eventually we would find the youngster sitting in a neighbor's living room innocently playing video games or eating supper with a friend of theirs from school and staring at us with a confused look on their face, not realizing the extreme anxiety they had just put their parents, and everyone else searching for them through.

Unfortunately, in a world filled with pedophiles and those who have no qualms about harming or even killing someone as innocent as a child, every call we got for a missing child was one we took very seriously. And fortunately, all the calls that my Engine Squad were dispatched to for a "Missing Child" ended up being false alarms where the child was eventually found safe and sound.

Until their parents got them home, that is.

But for some of the other guys working in nearby Police and Fire Departments, some of those calls for missing children didn't end with such a happy outcome.

And sometimes what they found was enough to make some of the guys decide to turn in their badge and never set foot on an EMS ambulance, Fire truck or Police squad car again.

Often times though, when the call for a missing child involved a teenager, we usually weren't dispatched along with the Police, because more often times than not, the usual scenario on those calls was that a teenager had unexpectedly left home usually either due to depression, or perhaps because of angry rebellion against their parents for being too strict with them, or sometimes even a romantic liaison with another teen that the parents weren't even aware of.

There are however, other reasons that a child will run away from home, and they have absolutely nothing to do with romance or teenage rebellion.

I was seventeen years old when I first ran away from home, and sometimes to this day I can still hardly believe that I even did it.

But I did, and it's one of those things that I wish I'd never done, and have never forgiven myself for.

Although few people in this world would probably argue my reasons for doing so….

It happened on one fateful Saturday mid-afternoon after not having seen my father for a month because he was working out of town, and when he did come home to be with the family, I came home to find him drunk and in his usual foul and threatening mood.

It was no surprise really coming home to find my father like that after not having seen his family for a month and to be honest; I hadn't expected anything less when he returned home.

You would think after not having seen his family for a month my dad would have been overjoyed to be at home with his wife and sons and the atmosphere around the house would have been extremely festive with dad being back home like most families after an entire month of separation.

Not even close.

My father was a carpenter by trade, and many of our friends were also in the construction trade as well. But after years of enjoying steady work with all the construction going on all around San Antonio, the recession that hit the United States in the 1980's put most of the construction companies out of business and thus forced my father and most of our friends out of work in 1986.

There wasn't much work around that time in construction so most of our friends had to travel to Louisiana, Chicago, and other states to find work.

Fortunately, my dad found a job with a construction company doing renovation work on a motel in Hallettsville, Texas about 100 miles out of town, and so my dad left and we went on with our daily lives without him.

And I have to admit, that one month in 1986 when my father was working out of town in Hallettsville, was the best month ever in my young life.

But now he was back, and so was the misery that came with living under the same roof as him.

He had only been home one day, but for me, it was enough.

And on that particular day, something in me snapped, and I decided that I just didn't want to live like that anymore.

And what also upset me that day too was that I was just about to graduate from high school the very next day. And that entire weekend should have been was a joyous time of eager anticipation and fun like most teenagers looking forward to a future filled with new-found freedom and hope of better things to come, after graduating from high school.

But once again like so many other times in the past, my father's drunkenness and violent behavior had robbed me of what little joy I had in my young life.

And today had been the final straw… or so I thought.

Angry that my father would still behave this way after not having seen his family for a month and completely ruining my graduation weekend, I finally stood up to my dad and asked him what his problem was, which in hindsight, was probably not the smartest thing to do at the time, especially since he'd been drinking.

One reason it hadn't been a smart move was because back then when I was still a teenager, if my father ever felt that I was acting out of line or if he felt the need to assert his authority as head of his household, my dad would sometimes push me against a wall and either slap or backhand me across the face since I was "older" and couldn't be whipped with a belt repeatedly until I couldn't scream anymore like when I was a child.

But lately as I grew older and bigger, I had also grown more defiant which probably didn't help things either, and so whenever he decided to slap me around, I just stood there and took it while staring him straight in the eye as he did it, without making a sound.

Most people would have probably wondered why I didn't defend myself or fight back or tell someone about what was going on.

Part of the reason why I didn't fight back when my father was beating me was because when I was standing there being a human punching bag, I was in in essence, telling my father…

"F_ck you. Do your worst, you're never going to break me." which I know pissed him off something fierce.

And the other reason?

Despite the fact that at that time he was a rotten, hypocritical, no-good-for-nothing, evil son-of-a-bitch that I both hated and feared when he was like that…

He was my father…..and despite what he did, I still loved my dad.

And the other reason I never said anything was because like most victims of abuse, I didn't want to lose my family if the authorities got involved and hauled his ass off to jail.

Or worse, I was afraid that he would somehow manage to get off scot-free from prison, and then come back and make our lives even more miserable than before.

And so my mother, younger brother, and I suffered in silence.

And to this day I still don't understand why, or how, he could have ever done those things to his family.

This time however, rather than slap me around, my father avoided my challenge to his authority and then proceeded to yell at my mother about what a poor job she had done as a mother for allowing her teenage son to speak so disrespectfully to him.

And like so many times before, my mother just stood there and took it as she always did; trying to keep the peace in the house no matter how many times my father would constantly disrupt it.

Only this time, it didn't work.

The motel project that my father was working on at the time wasn't completed yet, but since he and most of the other crew on the project hadn't been home for an entire month, they were all given some time off to be with their families, and so my dad was only supposed to be home only for a couple of days before heading back.

Unfortunately, that was just too damn long for me.

My dad loved his craft and he really was quite good at it too, and since most of our family friends were in construction as well, most of them had worked with my dad at one time or another.

And to those who knew him he was a hard worker, as well as a religiously devout man who was polite, kind-hearted, and always laughing and joking with everyone.

But at home, there was another side of my father that no one but his family ever knew, and we were all just too terrified of him to tell others about it.

And for many years we suffered in silence trying hard to keep up the charade of being a happy family, when the truth was that we were anything but.

But this time had been the final straw for me.

Disgusted and fed up at last with his bullshit I went into my room at the other end of the house and locked the door, and then I sat there quietly on my bed listening to him yelling at my mother about what a good-for-nothing son I was.

As the eldest son, I had suffered much of the brunt of my father's wrath over the years, and like most children that are abused, I took it because he was my father and despite what he did to me, I still loved my dad and always sought to try to be a "better" son for him, although it seemed that nothing I did ever seemed to please him.

The truth was though; he hadn't always been that way, because when I was a child my father had been a completely different person, a man who was calm and patient, and loved his family dearly…and it was that person that I had grown up to love and admire as a child.

But somewhere around the time I turned eight years old, my father became a completely different person, and the man I had practically worshipped as a boy became a monster that I was afraid to be anywhere near whenever I heard the sound of the metal tab of a can of beer being pulled.

The kind-hearted man that I remembered as a child who had cared for me and my brother when were sick, sad, or frightened, and whom we had loved and admired greatly,…. was gone.

All that was left was a bitter, angry man who didn't think twice about abusing his children both physically and emotionally.

And later when I entered into adolescence and was too big to be whipped into submission, my father then turned to verbal abuse as his weapon of choice, although if he was angry or drunk enough, his fist would still serve him even better.

And as I grew up, I realized that nothing I did would ever satisfy my father, and anything that I did was just one more thing for him to get pissed off about anyway, so on that Saturday afternoon I finally came to the conclusion that I just didn't give a damn about him, his opinion of me, or anything about him at all anymore.

And so without even thinking, I went into the kitchen and grabbed a couple of things I thought I would need, and then silently climbed out the rear window of my room that led out into the back yard and then jumped the metal fence surrounding our backyard, into the empty lot next door to our house.

Once my feet hit the ground on the other side, I then weaved my way through the overgrowth of that empty lot unseen by anyone until I finally emerged out onto the next street over which was called Hackberry Street.

Not hearing any more shouts of anger by my father, and realizing that I had slipped away unnoticed by him and the rest of my family, I then began walking south on Hackberry Street through the East Side of San Antonio, past slums and other notorious establishments that would have been suicide for a now homeless teenager to venture near if I had tried to slip away at night.

I had planned running away from home so many times in my head over the years that when I finally did it, the realization of what I had just done hadn't completely hit me until a couple of hours had passed, and only then did I realize that there was now no turning back unless I wanted to risk being beaten by my father.

And it was also at that same moment that I realized just how truly alone I was now, and also, just how serious my current situation really was.

Because the truth was, I was screwed.

In all my fantasies of me running away and finally being free from the dungeon I called home, I had never thought seriously about what things I would need to survive once I left the confines of my prison.

And as I stopped to reflect on what I had just done and take stock of my current situation, I realized then that all I had in my possession at the time were the clothes on my back, a kitchen knife that I had concealed underneath my shirt for self-defense, and five dollars in my wallet,….. and my school bus pass.

Even in 1986 five dollars wouldn't go very far, and what good was a knife other than getting me in trouble with the local police for carrying a concealed weapon?

And since I had nowhere to go, my bus pass was useless, and without my high school diploma I couldn't apply for a job without one, or even join the Military either since I was only seventeen at the time.

Alone and without any close friends that I could turn to and no options availablethat I could think of, I kept walking south on Hackberry Street without a clue as to what I was going to do next, until I finally found myself on the far South Side of San Antonio.

By that time I had walked almost eight miles from home, and only after it was getting dark did I make a desperate decision to go to the home of a family whom my parents had been friends with for years, who despite realizing that I had run away from home, allowed me to stay in their home that night, no questions asked.

And that night as I lay underneath a blanket, fully-dressed on the hardwood floor of their living room, there was only one thought on my mind, which was something I should have thought about before I decided to make my ill-advised flight for freedom.

"What do I do now?"

In my current situation, there was no silver-lining as far as I could see, and there was no way to sugar-coat the situation I was in.

I was worse than screwed.

I was f_cked.

I had no money, no job, no car, and no options, and from my current standpoint, no foreseeable future either.

I suppose there are those individuals with more going for them that would have been thrilled at the opportunity to able to start a whole new life and make a success of their flight for freedom and would have had a more positive outlook than I had.

But at the time, I had few friends and nothing going for me that I could think of, and I was completely clueless as to what I was going to next.

And so the very next day, I left the family after thanking them for their kindness in sheltering me and then I walked almost ten miles to the stadium where the graduating ceremony was to be held.

I really wasn't thinking clearly at that point, but at the time, I figured I might as well grab my diploma and see if any of my schoolmates could help me out of the mess that I was in.

It was a long depressing walk in the rain from Southcross Street on San Antonio's South Side, to the Joe and Harry Freeman Coliseum on the city's East Side, and by the time I arrived, I was pretty worn out from the walk.

But just as I crossed over Houston Street and began walking up the large parking lot of the stadium headed to the arena itself, I saw out of the corner of my eye my family rolling up in our car as my father drove all of them over towards me.

My heart stopped for a moment, mostly because of my fear that my father was going to jump out of the car and beat me with his fists for what I had done, or possibly run me down with the car.

But as scared as I was at the thought of being beaten or worse by my father, a part of me was glad that the nightmare of being homeless and alone was over, even if it meant enduring a beating or being crushed to a pulp underneath the tires of the family car.

But when my father drove up to me and then finally stopped the car, I was completely shocked by what I saw…..

And to this day, I'll never forget the looks that were on my family's faces as they all pulled up next to me.

My mother's eyes were red and her face was all puffy with tears, and my brother told me later that she had been in hysterics all night after realizing that I had gone missing.

My younger brother was also crying when I saw him, which was a bit of a surprise because being siblings, we normally fought like cats and dogs. But even my younger had been greatly affected by my absence, and after that day we never did squabble as much as we used to, ever again.

And my father…

The look on my father's face was what shocked me the most actually, because his face wasn't ablaze with anger like I figured he would be.

Instead my father looked stunned, as if he couldn't believe what I had done.

Yeah, what I had done.

Not what he had done to push me to this point in the first place.

That was typical though, it was always someone else's fault and never my father's.

But I didn't care at that point, I was just glad to be back with my family again and surprisingly, there were no angry words said by anyone and so after making up with each other, I graduated from high school that night.

But every time I look at those old photos of my graduation day where I'm posing with my family and everyone is smiling, a lump forms in my throat because of what I know really happened that weekend.

I wish I could say that after that, the relationship between my father and I changed forever and that things had improved around the house and we lived happily ever afterwards with a better understanding of each other.

But I can't.

My father's drunkenness and violent behavior continued a few weeks later, and rather than try to make another break for freedom after I became a little more prepared financially, or even join the Military like I wanted to…

I stayed, and put up with all of it.

And the reason I stayed?

Because even though I wanted a better life for myself free from the torment I faced at home, I couldn't in good conscience leave my brother and my mother alone with that maniac again.

Because I wasn't the only one who suffered from my father's wrath.

As my brother and I grew older, my father finally gave up on the physical abuse that he had tormented my younger brother and I with for all those years, partly because he finally realized the wrong that he had done to his family because of his drunkenness and had decided to change his life around.

And part of it was also because my younger brother and I were older now and were a hell of a lot bigger than he was in height and muscle mass too, and he knew we would have seriously hurt him if he ever tried that shit again.

And I proved it too, because one day when he was having another hissy fit, I punched my fist through a bathroom door as a warning for him to back off. Even though it was a hollow-core door, my being able to punch through it still left an impression on him.

Not an extremely mature thing for me to do, but it worked, and he left me the hell alone.

Although for many years afterwards whenever visitors came to visit my parent's house over the years, many have often asked what is the story behind the unsightly patch in the center of the bathroom door.

But even though the physical abuse was no more, our father was still a mean drunk at times. And realizing even when he was drunk that he was no longer a threat to us physically anymore, my father resorted to the only weapon he had left in his arsenal.

And so from then on we were forced to endure many years of verbal abuse in the form of threats, drunken tirades, and endless, nit-picking bullshit that wore us down both mentally and emotionally.

And because of that, sometime later I was the one who was freaking out when my younger brother left home without telling anyone, after having gotten fed up with my father's alcohol-induced stupidity.

But unlike the time when I had left home, this time things went differently … thank God.

After having gone missing after an ugly argument with our father, I finally managed to make contact with my younger brother over the phone and convinced him to meet me alone.

And later that night, we finally met in a local Coffee Shop off Austin Highway Road near Fort Sam Houston and talked things over.

It took a lot of convincing to finally get my younger brother to agree to come home with me, but in the end, he agreed and we went home where our parents were both waiting anxiously for our return.

Once again, my mother was in tears and my father….

Well, he said nothing, because he knew damn well the reasons why my brother had left and he also knew there was nothing he could say to the contrary.

And of course, the next day we were a family again, and after much discussion and sworn promises that the situation would never get this bad again, we moved on.

But things never changed, and eventually, my brother got married and moved out, finally able to find some sort of peace, or at least I hope so.

And then later I followed suit, moving right next door to him in a duplex apartment in Kerrville, Texas in the Texas Hill Country.

Eventually my father learned just how hypocritical a person he had been and finally made some changes in his life and the way he treated his family.

But now that my little brother and I were adults and didn't live at home anymore, neither of us would have to put up with his shit anyway even if he hadn't changed

And eventually, our mother finally got fed up too and one day put her foot down and decided she wouldn't put up with his crap either and started blowing him off whenever he went on a rant.

And despite all the squabbling that goes on between those two every day, they've still managed to stay married for 47 years, thus far.

And before long, the monster that my father had been was gone, and the kind man that I had always loved and looked up to, had returned….more or less.

And despite the horrible things my father did to my younger brother and I, believe it or not, we still love him and have eventually forgiven him for the things he put us through.

But he can still be a royal pain in the ass sometimes, and if you ask me, my dad doesn't know how lucky he is to have such a loving and forgiving family, in my honest opinion.

And while we are still not very close like most fathers and sons, the wounds I thought would never heal, finally have begun to.

But even though the years have for the most part healed many of those old wounds and my father and my brother do genuinely enjoy each other's company when my brother goes to visit our parents, I doubt the deep wounds between my brother and my father will ever heal completely.

And the reason I believe this is because the ones that exists between my father and I never have, even though I have forgiven him for all that he did to me.

But forgetting what happened is an entirely different matter, although I have tried so hard to do so.

But some things just stay with you, no matter how hard you try to forget them.

My father is no longer that "monster" that I hated so much back when I was a child. And now as I look at him, I feel nothing but sadness at all the years of closeness that we lost as father and son because of the ugliness brought about by his drinking.

And even though there is still a visible strain between us still after all these years, I know that the love I have for my father is still very strong, because when he had a mild stroke a couple of years ago when I was on shift, I did not hesitate even in the middle of my shift to drive all the way back to San Antonio and sit with my mother in the E.R. expecting to hear the worst.

But when we found out that what he had was a mild form of stroke secondary to a botched medical procedure he had been going through at the time, we were all so relieved that he'd pull through with only slight physical and mental impairment.

And that night, I stayed with my dad and slept in a folding cot overnight so that my mother, who has her own medical problems, wouldn't have to.

But that wasn't the only reason, because the truth was, it was my love for my father that I decided to stay and watch over him in that hospital room that long night.

And the very next day my dad was released from the hospital, and I helped my mother tend to him while he recovered from his ordeal.

My father had been fortunate, because there had been no paralysis or extreme memory loss from his stroke, and after a few weeks he was his old self again.

Unfortunately, that also included his bad temper which popped up every now and then, but was more of a grumpiness that comes with age, that none of us took seriously and have actually found his grouchiness more comical than anything else.

But for the most part after experiencing the stroke, he was a good man who took great care of my mother whenever she became ill from complications from her diabetes or fibromyalgia.

And to see him cooking, cleaning, and bustling about the house so that my mother wouldn't have to, I could scarcely believe this was the same man that I grew up with.

And I thank God that despite everything that happened, love has replaced fear and anger in our family, and even now that both of my parents are much older now and still squabble all the time and my dad still bickers at me whenever I come to visit, there is at last, a form of peace in our family

Like I said, I love my dad, and I've never tried to cry to others about what my dad did to me growing up, because in truth, I've seen many children treated far worse by people who didn't deserve to be parents.

But what happened to me and my brother has had a deep effect on us.

And to this day, I still can't stand the sound of a beer tab being pulled on a can of beer, which is why I never hang around with any of our friends when they start drinking at any of their "get-togethers".

I usually tell them that the reason I excuse myself is because I don't want them to feel uncomfortable around me because they know I don't drink. But the truth is, I feel nothing but intense rage whenever I hear the sound of a beer can being opened.

There are many in this world who'll probably never understand how a big, bad, fireman can be so quirky about the sound of a beer can being opened, especially with the reputation firemen, policeman, Military personnel and all other blue collar workers have as being heavy drinkers.

And well, I guess to most people it probably does sound pretty silly because even I feel stupid about reacting the way I do at such a simple thing.

But the sad truth is I know that the reason I act this way is because of how f_cked up I became because of the actions of that one person I used to look up to at one time, who pulled way too many of those f_cking beer tabs each day, and terrorized his family as a result, afterwards.

And to this day, I have an absolute hatred for drunks and abusers of women and children, and it's all I can do to stay focused whenever I saw the mangled victims of a drunk driver, or whenever I had to treat an abused woman or child when I was still working as a paramedic.

And as much as I've joked about wanting to get drunk after an especially rough shift, the real truth is, I refuse to drink alcohol.

And the reason for that is because I have always been afraid that the horrible side of my father that I had hated and lived in fear of during my childhood would also erupt in me if I allowed myself to become intoxicated.

And so my refusal to drink alcohol was because I wanted it to serve as a protection for the ones I loved, because I didn't want to risk even the slightest chance of doing anything to hurt my own family, the way my father had hurt his.

Because I knew that no matter how angry I ever became, I knew that I would never be angry enough to be capable of slapping my wife in anger, or of whipping my child with a belt so hard that they were no longer capable of screaming in pain as they writhed on the floor, or punch or kick my teenage son like my father had done when he was intoxicated.

And because of the hell I had went through, I promised God that if he ever blessed me with a family of my own, I would never treat them the same way that my brother and I had been treated growing up.

But I never did have a family of my own.

And for a long while I wondered what exactly I had done wrong that prevented me from being blessed with a family that I wanted so much while others around me tossed away their marriage vows and their children's lives like they were nothing.

And then I met a bunch of scared teenagers fighting for their lives all alone in a city full of blood-thirsty monsters.

And in three short days I now had two "sons" and three "daughters" in my care, with one of the girls quickly becoming my favorite among all the rest.

And to my surprise, she had returned my affection for her and had helped heal the open wound in my heart that had seemed was destined never to heal.

And for once I was genuinely happy, because now in a figurative way I was now the loving father that I had always wanted to be.

But then I f_cked it all up.

And now so many years later, the situation was reversed, and now I was the one who had driven away my own "children" by terrorizing them in almost the exact same way my father used to do to my younger brother and I almost daily.

Almost, because all I did was yell at them, even though that had been bad enough.

Because the only reason Takashi and Rei were desperate to leave was because they wanted to find their families, and there was nothing wrong in their desire to go look for them.

There was nothing wrong in wanting to find their families, but venturing alone in a city full of Infected was sheer lunacy.

And I had been trying to calmly convince them that it was not a good idea to leave, at first.

But then after seeing the guard I had stabbed with the contaminated spear being executed, and then after Saya accused me of being paid off by her parents into talking the teens out of searching for their parents finally pushed me over the edge.….. and I just lost it.

And the way I screamed at the kid's and also at Shizuka afterwards was unforgivable, and I didn't blame the kid's one bit for wanting to run away the same way I had, so long ago.

I just hadn't expected them to go through with it, and when I finally realized what they had done, it was like being hit over the head with a club.

And just like my family had been so many years ago when I had run away from home, I too had been blissfully unaware that the teens had already attempted to take flight as I casually walked towards the rear of the mansion still searching for them after having helping myself to some breakfast croissants and a gigantic mug of coffee from the kitchen.

And as I was headed towards one of the rear doors of the mansion after not having located them in any of the other rooms of the large mansion, I suddenly heard the sound of Saya screaming angrily which caused me to immediately shake my head in annoyance as I then headed towards the sound of her shrill voice, believing it was just her yelling at Kouta again.

My mind was still reeling a little bit from what had happened earlier, so as I walked towards the rear door leading out to the backyard, I slowed my pace a bit because I was still struggling mentally to figure out what words I should say in apology to the teens for my horrible outburst earlier.

And try as I might, the words were not easy in coming, and the headache that was pounding away in my skull wasn't helping things either.

Not sure of what I was going to say to the kids once I found them, I hesitated at the door a moment before opening it, and was then dumbstruck by the sight of the teens struggling in the arms of the Takagi's Security guards.

Instinctively, I quickly closed the door hoping that the guards hadn't noticed me as I reached into the folds of my bathrobe and pulled out the Colt 1911 pistol I had taken from one of the guards earlier and then peeked through the door again trying to get an idea of what exactly the hell was going on.

Even though everyone was screaming in Japanese, it wasn't all that hard to figure out what had happened by the angry looks of the guards who were obviously pissed off at the teens for struggling against them.

And from the looks of it, they seemed to extremely pissed at also having been soundly thrashed by Saeko before they managed to subdue the teens, based upon the torn clothing and bloody noses I saw.

"That's my girl." I thought to myself feeling a small amount of pride that "my girl" had royally kicked ass before she had been taken down.

Shaking my head and cursing myself for behaving like a proud papa, instead of figuring a way to get the kids out of this mess, I continued to peek through the slightly open door and tried to figure out how best to approach this situation.

And as angry as I was at the way I saw the kids being treated, it was also at that moment that my heart sank as I realized that that it was because of what I had done, that had made the kids attempt to run away.

And the real reason that they were suffering now ….was because of me.

But then as I watched as Kouta knelt fearfully on the ground hugging his guns as if someone where trying to take away his favorite toy while the other guards were cruelly twisting the arms of the other teens to keep them subdued, the last thing on my mind was trying to bring a peaceful end to the standoff and try to remedy the situation.

Because at that point all I wanted to do then was to take the Colt 1911 pistol in my hand, and kill every one of those sick bastards for hurting my kids.

But just as I was about to burst through the door and start double-tapping the guards, I forced myself to calm down even though my trigger finger was itching to go to work.

Because as much as I wanted to drop every guard there who were treating the kids so roughly, my going out there and blasting away at the guards would have only ended up in one or all of the kids being killed in a crossfire, once the guards began to grab their own weapons and began shooting back at me.

But it was all I could do to keep myself in check and not do anything rash, even as I watched the guards cruelly twisting Rei and Takashi's arms.

And as I watched the kids struggling against the guards, I then realized another ugly truth.

As horribly as the kids were being treated, I knew in the back of my mind that the guards had actually done everyone a favor by grabbing the teens, before the kid's had jumped the wall.

And as ugly as the kids were being treated, it was nothing compared to what could have happened to them outside the walls, and perhaps this roughing up by the guards had made my point clear to the teens at last.

This was not a game.

If you want to survive, you need to be smart about it.

If you don't, you'll die…..or wish that you had.

It was a harsh, cruel lesson of survival.

But even though the kids were getting a real education in how cruel the world can be, this wasn't *SERE training, and I wasn't about to let the cruelty of the guards go on any longer.

(*SERE – Military acronym for "Search-Escape-Rescue-Evade" training where military personnel are taught how to evade enemy forces or escape if captured.)

Just as I was about to attempt to rescue the kids, even though I still had no clue as to how I was going to go about it, Saya's parents suddenly came walking up, no doubt alarmed as to why the teens were being treated like prisoners by the guards.

Realizing that with Saya's parents being there that the kids were no longer in any real danger, I quickly looked for another exit so that I wouldn't be noticed by the group gathered directly outside.

And then upon finding another exit through a door on the other side of the mansion, I then cautiously made my way around to the rear, keeping myself concealed from everyone's eyes by slipping between the many trees that dotted the lawn, until I was almost upon the group.

And as I watched the group of people from where I was hiding, I took a couple of quick glances to size up how many guards there were, as well as to see how many of them were actually armed.

And after observing that every single guard that was standing there was armed either with a rifle or was carrying a handgun of some sort, I was extremely grateful that I hadn't been stupid enough to come out of the door with guns blazing.

Because as heavily armed as the guards were, I wouldn't have made but a few steps before going down in a hail of gunfire.

Even though I hadn't foolishly attempted the direct approach to trying to save the kids, I still had no earthly idea how I was going to go about rescuing them, without being gunned down in front of them.

And as I was standing there pondering on what to do next, miraculously, Soichiro had then chosen that exact same moment to order the guards to take the kids away.

Quickly taking advantage of everyone's attention that was currently focused entirely on the kids as they were being dragged away, I stepped out from behind the tree I was hiding behind and silently moved up behind Saya's parents who were standing next to a couple of their guards and their Security Chief.

Even as well trained as I had been, I didn't hold a candle to what a real commando could do as far as approaching a target silently, and it surprised me that I was still able to sneak up that close to Saya's parents without being detected by their Security personnel.

Seeing as how Andy had supposedly trained the Takagi's Security Staff, I had expected much better of them than that.

And I don't know how much Soichiro was paying his bodyguards, but if you ask me, he should have demanded his money back, because I had him and his wife dead to rights, and not a single one of those jokers had noticed a damn thing.

Even though I wasn't feeling quite as murderous as I had been earlier, I was still pretty pissed off at the way the kids were being treated, and I was about to place the muzzle of the pistol I held behind Soichiro's head and flick the safety off, just to scare the hell out of him.

But I have to admit, a part of me was hoping that he would hear the click of the hammer and then try to draw his sword…..giving me a good reason to squeeze the trigger.

But just as I was about to raise the pistol to his head, I caught a glimpse of Yuriko's face as she was watching her daughter being dragged away along with the others.

And as I looked, I noticed a tear running down her cheek, which immediately caused me to hesitate.

Up to that point, a big part of me had still wanted to open fire with both of the captured pistols I had taken from the guards earlier, and then grab the kids and get as far away from this place as possible.

But when I saw that tear falling down Yuriko's cheek, I was instantly reminded of the same sadness and anguish I saw in my own mother's eyes that day my family had found me walking towards the stadium.

And after seeing Yuriko's pain-filled look, I realized that the pain of knowing that her only child had tried to run away from home must be tearing her heart apart.

And at that moment, I felt pity for her, because she had only done what any decent mother would have done by trying to keep her daughter and the rest of the teens safe, by trying to remove all threats to the safety of her "children" whom she had taken under her wing,…including me.

But everything she had tried to do had gone terribly wrong instead, no thanks to my outburst.

And after seeing how horribly things had turned out, Yuriko, like myself, just wanted to put a stop to this nightmare and do everything she could to take everything back and make things right.

But like my mother so many years ago, Yuriko was unable to stop what was going on because she was unable to persuade her husband to calm down and listen to reason, which made the agony that she was feeling all the more unbearable as Saya began crying out for forgiveness.

And as I suddenly heard Saya begging her father to forgive her, the pity I felt for Yuriko was overcome with the rage that I felt for her husband and his lackeys as they dragged the teens away.

And the hate in my heart came back with a vengeance.

"Is this the real reason you wanted me to stay away from the kids Yuriko-san?" I said angrily as Yuriko spun around and looked at me with a shocked expression on her face, no doubt extremely surprised to see me standing there behind them, as her husband and the rest of the guards froze at the sound of my voice.

"You know, I have to admit, you really had me convinced that I was the "bad guy" here." I said not giving her a chance to reply as I noticed Soichiro stiffen angrily at the contempt in my voice.

"But the truth is, I'm not the real threat here to these kids after all, am I?" I said through gritted teeth as I then turned my attention back to Yuriko who gasped suddenly as I glared at her.

Even though my sudden presence must have been somewhat of a shock, and the angry look on my face must have been a little scary to look at as pissed off as I was, I was still a little surprised to see Yuriko looking so unnerved as if she had seen a ghost.

I didn't have time to ponder on what it was about me that was scaring her so much though, because at that moment I noticed her husband trying to discreetly move his right hand towards the left side of his body.

And when I noticed that, the alarms started going off full blast in my head that the reason he was doing that could only mean one thing, as I immediately aimed the muzzle of my pistol at him and flicked off the safety with a loud "Click".

"Don't even think about it." I said coldly as Soichiro's hand immediately froze in place.

"I don't wanna kill you, and you don't wanna be dead." I said as I heard Yuriko gasp again upon noticing the large pistol I had in my hand that was pointed directly at her husband.

"That being said, I'd highly advise all of you not to f_ck with me, right now." I said in a voice loud enough for Saya's parents and the guards standing around them to hear.

"Now order your men to let the kids go, if you please." I asked politely as I noticed Soichiro bristling at my words and purposefully making no attempts to call his boys off as I heard the sound of the lacquer on the wooden scabbard that sheathed his katana crackle as he tightened his grip on it.

"Typical egomaniac bullshit." I said under my breath thinking about how in some ways Soichiro reminded me so much of my own father, and seemed to care more about his own bruised ego than his family.

Even now with a pistol pointed at his head and all of his guards powerless to help him, the only thought that was probably going through this arrogant ass's head was,… "How dare some lowly gaijin threaten me and try to order me around?"

F_ck him, if he wasn't gonna be reasonable then I would just have to make it really clear to him who was in charge right now….. gaijin or not.

"I know what you're thinking right now." I said to Soichiro in as casual a voice as I could muster, to show him that I wasn't impressed or intimidated by him in the slightest bit.

"And while I myself have no doubts about your prowess with a sword, bub…." I went on as I lowered my voice in a more threatening tone.

"As good as you are, you're not that good." I said with a sneer as Soichiro glanced over his shoulder and looked into my face and must have then realized that I was in no mood for any more bullshit from him or any of his cronies.

"This doesn't have to get ugly, folks." I said speaking in a much calmer tone to Saya's parents and their Security staff in the waning hope that I could defuse the whole situation without having to discharge my weapon. "So if all of you would just remain calm, maybe we can settle this whole thing without things getting any nastier than they already are."

"Now Soichiro-san, please tell your boys to let the kids go…..now." I said politely without using any sarcasm as I noticed Yuriko place her hand on her husband's arm and squeeze as he looked over at her, his face still locked in a scowl.

And then after a moment, he finally sighed heavily and then nodded his head in resignation as he then ordered his men to release the kids and step away from them, his ego taking a back seat for now.

And while I was preoccupied with watching Soichiro and his Security Chief ordering their men to let the kids go, I happened to notice out of the corner of my eye that Yuriko was looking at me with that same frightened look on her face as before.

But as I turned to face her, I noticed something else in her eyes besides fear as she looked back at me.

Shame.

And in that brief moment when we both looked into each other's eyes I saw the same thing in her eyes that I have no doubt she also must have seen in mine.

The guilt we felt of knowing that this entire debacle was in truth, entirely our fault.

All we had both wanted to do was to protect the kids from getting killed.

And the reason we had done so wasn't out of a sense of duty, or pity.

We had done it because even though Saya was Yuriko's child, and Takashi, Rei, Kouta, and Saeko were not…..

All of them were "our" children, and we loved them…all of them.

But instead, our plan to keep the kids from jeopardizing their lives by leaving the walls of the mansion alone to find their families, had backfired.

And the end result was that we had driven them even further away to the point they no longer trusted us, and no longer wanted anything to do with us either.

And what was making it all worse was the fact that Saya's father was now completely absorbed with his own anger and grief over the shock of finding out that his only child had tried to abandon them after all he and his wife had sacrificed to save her.

And the look of defiance and hate that was on Saya's face as she glared angrily at her father had sent him over the edge, just like I had, a short while ago.

I have to admit, Saya had a unique gift for rubbing people the wrong way at the worst possible time.

And now Soichiro's ability to handle the situation calmly was compromised by his own feelings of hurt and betrayal, and he was unintentionally making things even worse by treating the kids like they were hardened criminals.

And despite the contempt I felt for Soichiro and his thugs, I put away my fury and the murderous thoughts of what I wanted to do to him and his Security Staff for hurting the kids, because right now the more important thing now was to calm everyone down and smooth everything over before it was too late and we lost the children forever.

And as I tried to figure out just how exactly I was going to accomplish that, I suddenly heard Saya calling out my name, no doubt curious as to why everyone had stopped moving and was now acting so strangely all of a sudden.

"Jimu-san?!" Saya said loudly in a surprised voice as she finally spotted me standing behind her dad as I then hurriedly tried to keep the pistol concealed from her view, not wanting her to freak out at the sight of seeing me holding a loaded pistol to her father's head.

Angry at her parents or not, there's nothing like the sight of a guy holding your parents at gunpoint that'll send even the most headstrong teen into a fit of panic, at the thought that her parents are about to be murdered before her very eyes.

And so to avoid making a bad situation even worse, I tried to hide the pistol from her and everyone else's view.

"Hi, Pumpkin!" I said in a cheerful voice trying to act as if everything was all hunky-dory and trying not scare her or the other kids to death as I tried to tuck the pistol into the right pocket of my bathrobe out of sight, but instead got the front sight tangled in some of the loose threads of the garment as I then clumsily struggled to pull it free.

Cursing under my breath as I was trying to pull my pistol free from entanglement, I hadn't realize that I was also unknowingly moving over to Soichiro's right side at the same as I struggled to pull the pistol free until I heard a sudden gasp and then looked up and realized that I was suddenly in full view of the teens.

And just about the same time that happened, I also finally managed to tear the muzzle of the pistol free from the robe and accidentally swung it out for all to see, as I then cursed myself for looking like a complete idiot in front of everyone.

Thank goodness Shizuka chose that precise moment to voice her concerns about the fact I was not back in my room resting, which in hindsight, did do a lot to help ease the extremely tense situation… somewhat.

But if you ask me, considering the fact that I was holding Saya's parents at gunpoint and we were all a heartbeat away from killing each other, she really could have brought it up at a more appropriate time.

"JIMU-SAN!" Shizuka screamed shrilly at me with a really pissed-off look on her face as she began wagging her finger at me as if she were an angry schoolteacher and I was a delinquent kid who had just farted loudly in class. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING OUT OF BED?!"

"AND…..AND…..AND ARE YOU DRINKING COFFEE?!" She screamed as I then realized with even more embarrassment that I had been so intent on rescuing the kids that I hadn't noticed that I was still holding a full coffee mug in my left hand.

While guns are plentiful in America and it's not at all that uncommon to see people carrying them openly, especially in a state like Texas, which is notoriously gun friendly,… the sight of a man in a bathrobe standing out in the middle of the lawn with a coffee mug in one hand and a pistol in the other would still raise eyebrows, at the very least.

Needless to say, I suddenly felt pretty stupid standing there like that.

Not wanting to look like an even bigger idiot than I already felt, I then tried to play the whole thing off as if I had planned it from the very beginning.

"Why yes "Mother"….." I said sarcastically to Shizuka hoping that everyone wouldn't be able to tell just how idiotic I felt at the time. "I do believe I am drinking coffee."

And then in order to take the kid's attention off the gun in my hand and also to spite Shizuka for trying to force me to eat that rice gruel crap earlier while everyone else was stuffing themselves downstairs with food fit for a king…

I grinned as evilly as I could, and then casually took a sip from the steaming mug in my hand and then let out a long exaggerated sigh of contentment, enjoying the irritated look on Shizuka's face, as I heard Saeko giggle at how steamed Shizuka was getting.

"And I have to say, my sincerest compliments to our hosts for their generous hospitality." I said as I saw Saya's parents stiffen in response to my taunt.

"Screw them." I thought to myself laughing inwardly at their displeasure as I then glanced over again at Shizuka and nearly spit out the coffee I had in my mouth at the pissed-off look that was plastered all over her face.

"Oh, and the stuffed pork sausage and cheese croissants were to die for." I added as I then intentionally licked my lips to even further antagonize her. "Sure beat the hell out of that crap you tried to make me eat this morning."

"I musta ate about six of them on way down here." I said barely able to keep from rolling on the ground with laughter despite the extremely tense situation around me as I heard a couple of the teens began to snicker as I then intentionally belched loudly in front of everyone just for fun.

"And since the kitchen staff had just brewed a fresh urn of coffee, I thought I'd grab a cup too while I was at it." I said enjoying the way I had managed to ease the tension somewhat, at least for the kids benefit anyway.

"And I have to say, this is truly an exceptionally fine brew." I added digging the spurs in even more into Saya parents to further irritate them as I took another large swallow of coffee and then noticed Saeko looking at me.

And then all at once things weren't quite so humorous anymore.

And as I looked at her, I realized that the hurt she was feeling was even worse than I thought, because I could plainly see the conflicted emotions going on behind those eyes.

And the guilt I felt at having hurt her so deeply twisted me up inside and all I wanted to do then was to walk over there and make everything better as quickly as I could, just to see her smile again.

"Hi baby." I blurted out before I even realized what I had just said.

"Jimu-san….." Saeko replied stiffly, her face expressionless as I felt my heart sink knowing that the real reason she was acting so coldly towards me right now wasn't because she was still angry with me for yelling at her earlier.

It was because she was afraid of allowing me to get too close to her emotionally, again.

"I'm sorry for the horrible things I said a while ago, guys." I then immediately blurted out to her and the others, as my desire to "fix" everything almost made me forget that I was still holding Saya's parents and their guards at gunpoint.

"I never meant to hurt any of you, and I can't tell you how sorry I am for what I've done." I said out loud as I looked over at Saya's parents, the anger I had still burning inside of me, for how the whole plan to keep the kids under their control had turned out.

"And from what I can see, it seems I was wrong about a great many other things as well." I said angrily as I knew that not only was I angry at the Takagi's for their part in this fiasco, but I was also angry with myself for having been a willing participant in it as well.

And as I was speaking, I noticed that Saeko was watching me closely as I spoke with a strange expression on her face, but it wasn't until that moment that I realized…..

That while Saeko was obviously hoping that I would put an end to the tense standoff, what she really wanted was the rift between me and her to be fixed more than anything.

She was looking at me the same way a frightened child always looks, after being scolded by their parents when they want to be reassured that mommy and daddy aren't mad at them anymore.

And I almost broke down right then and there, as I realized that what Yuriko and Shizuka had told me earlier about Saeko looking up to me as a "father", had been no exaggeration.

She was not of my blood, but it hadn't mattered to her, and Saeko had risked her own life, time and time again, to protect me.

Not to protect a friend….

Not even to protect a comrade, or a brother-in-arms, or even a "father figure"…..

In her heart, Saeko Busujima had been protecting her "father", all along.

And I had repaid her love by screaming at her that I was not her father, and for her to leave and never see me again.

I had broken her heart by what I did.

But now I was going to make it up to her.

The present situation however, was less than amicable, and even though I had tried to ease the tension a little by teasing Shizuka, the tension between Saya's parents, their guards and I, was still extremely high.

And even though the kids were still snickering at my teasing Shizuka, I realized that even if I could calm the situation down between myself and the rest of the adults, trying to explain to the teens that everything that we had been done to them had been done for their own good, was not going to work.

Because even though it was all true that everything that we had done was because we were only worried about them and had just been trying to keep them safe, all the kids would believe now was that we were just merely trying to justify our actions for what we did.

And I know of nothing else that will piss off a teenager more than a parent not admitting when they're wrong, because it's happened to me and my brother more times than I can count, and there was no reason to expect that these kids would react any differently.

And while it's never easy to admit to a child when you're wrong, there was no way I was going to let my ego get in the way, not if it meant losing them.

And after all we had been through together in the past few days, I wasn't about to lose my "children" again.

This time I was going to speak from the heart, and tell them the truth.

And as I looked at Saeko, I forgot all about my worries that perhaps I was getting too emotionally attached to the kids, and I also forgot all about what fears I had that perhaps my presence was having a negative effect on them.

Because the only thing that was on my mind now was letting the kids know how I really felt about them.

And especially, to Saeko…..

I only regret that I hadn't said them earlier.

"Don't worry baby girl, everything's gonna be okay now." I said as I looked over at Saeko and winked at her.

"Daddy's here." I said as I heard everyone around me gasp with surprise, including Saeko, who was now looking at me with a visibly stunned expression on her face.

But as I then turned my head to speak to Saya's parent's, I happened to notice her eyes seem to light up suddenly as if I had said something that she had desperately wanted to hear from me, which gave me renewed hope that perhaps forgiveness and redemption was still a possibility.

But while my words to Saeko and the rest of the kids had been a great relief to them, to Saya's parent's however, my words had an ominous meaning as far as they were concerned.

"Daddy?!" Soichiro said in a voice filled with contempt. "Are you attempting to sway the loyalties of the children back to you now that you've gained the upper hand?!"

"Jim, you are not their father!" Yuriko said in a voice filled with a mixture of anger and terror as she probably no doubt thought that I was about to take the kids and run. "You can't take the children away!"

"Whoa,….whoa,…whoa!" I said realizing that Saya's parents were about a heartbeat away from going completely ape shit and begin ordering the guards to start shooting at me now that they thought I was trying to take the kids and run.

"JIMU-SAN!" Shizuka screamed her voice filled with terror as well which really didn't help things to be honest. "DON'T DO THIS!"

"ALL OF YA'LL SHUT UP AND LISTEN A MINUTE WILLYA?!" I roared, trying to keep the situation from blowing out of control as Soichiro and the rest of the guards whirled around to face me, including the guards who were standing near the kids.

"Look…." I said in a calmer voice as all of the adults were glaring at me as if I were the Devil himself.

"Regardless of what you think, I didn't come down here to hold all of you at gunpoint and run away with the kids, alright?!" I said as I raised my coffee cup in the air in front of them.

"I left my room to apologize to the kids for yelling at them…" I said waving the half empty cup in front of them. "And I since I couldn't find them, I helped myself to some breakfast too, okay?"

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH MY MEN?!" The Security Chief roared looking as if he would have liked nothing better than to kill me where I stood.

"Dude, relax, they're both okay." I said taking another sip of my coffee as I kept the pistol leveled at the adults.

"I left them both hog-tied in my room unharmed, although one of them probably still has a sore throat." I said with a chuckle as I tossed the rest of the contents of my coffee cup on the ground causing everyone, including Shizuka , to glare at me with an even more murderous look than before as I heard Saeko suddenly gasp in shock.

Evidently I must have violated some Japanese taboo by throwing my coffee on the ground because everyone including the kids were all looking at me as if I had just peed on the lawn, which really wasn't helping me at all in trying to relieve the tense situation.

So much for trying to win hearts and minds.

Dammit Jim.

Ah well, I'm just a gaijin firefighter-turned-mercenary, not a friggin' diplomat….. f_ck their lawn.

"Guys?" I said looking at the teens as they looked at me nervously. "Just hang tight a minute so I can talk things over with Saya's parents, okay?"

"Jimu-san, are you sure you'll be alright?" Saeko said the apprehension she was feeling extremely noticeable in her voice as she looked around at all the pissed-off guards glaring at me.

"Don't worry, baby, I'll be fine." I said giving her a wink as I then turned my attention back to Saya's parents who were looking at me with a mixture of suspicion, as well as apprehension on their faces.

"Look folks…" I began calmly trying to relieve their fears.

"I didn't come down here to threaten anyone or cause any trouble, so before things get any more out of hand and your guards start getting itchy trigger fingers, could ya'll just tell your people to relax so that we can talk about this situation, like normal people?"

I have to admit, Saya's parents were some pretty tough customers, because neither one said a word or even blinked an eye after I finished talking.

And I realized then, to my chagrin, that in their eyes I was the enemy no matter what I said or did as far as they were concerned.

And unfortunately, that meant trying to convince them that I was a friend and was only trying to help was going to be all that more difficult to prove, because there are few people in this world who will trust anyone who says he's a friend while he's holding them at gunpoint.

But since there was no doubt in my mind that I was as good as dead the moment I lowered my weapon, I realized that I had no other choice, not if I wanted to end this situation without anyone getting killed.

Perfect …juuuust perfect.

Geez, I really wish I hadn't thrown away that coffee; I could have used another mugful or two right now.

"Look, I know to you that I'm just some worthless gaijin that has no business sticking my nose into any of your business, concerning those kids over there." I said gesturing to the teens with my empty coffee mug.

"And ya'll can hate me all you want and say all sorts of crap about how bad an influence I am to the kids and yada, yada, yada." I said as I tried to keep my composure and at the same time, watch out for any guards trying to sneak up behind me or try to reach for a hidden weapon.

"But the fact of the matter is, whether you two want to admit it or not, I just stopped you from making a really big mistake against those kids over there."

"What mistake are you referring to?" Soichiro said haughtily looking at me as if I were a worm he couldn't wait to squish.

"The mistake of thinking that by locking these kids away and throwing away the key is the solution to your current problem." I replied staring back at him with a scowl that I have to admit, didn't quite match up to his.

But then again I'm sure he had more practice making that face than I did anyway.

"Because the truth is, any illusions of control you think you have on these kids is non-existent." I said as Saya's parents both bristled at my words.

"And even worse, no matter how good your intentions are, it means nothing now, because these kids don't trust you anymore." I added as Yuriko looked over at her husband as the angry scowl on his face began to soften somewhat, as my words finally hit home.

"But they still trust me…" I added as they looked at me with looks of resentment still on their faces. "And if I can somehow reach these kids right now and make them understand that we were only trying to watch out for them, maybe I can help fix this mess we're both in."

"Otherwise, they're never gonna trust any of us again….ever." I pointed out. "And they will try to run away again, believe me."

"Trust?" Soichiro said scornfully, his pride still getting in the way of making any real progress in defusing the situation. "You think that is what is most important right now?"

"Lying to them, slapping them around, locking them up in their rooms and throwing away the key hasn't worked out too well so far, don't you think?!" I shot back sarcastically, his inability to push his ego aside at a time like this beginning to really irritate the hell out of me.

"And if that's your answer to everything every time Pumpkin misbehaves well then no wonder she's always so pissed off at ya'll all the time!" I added not caring how pissed off Saya's father got at my remark, but then realizing that trading barbs with Soichiro Takagi was not helping our situation either.

"Jimu-san…..please!" Shizuka shouted from across the lawn, no doubt afraid that Soichiro and I were about to kill each other, as I slowly calmed myself.

Although I have to admit, shooting Soichiro in the foot just out of spite did cross my mind at that moment.

"Look….." I said after taking a deep breath and then trying once again to reason with Saya's hot-headed father. "We can all just go at each other with sarcastic remarks or get real drastic and lunge at each other with swords clashing and guns blazing and we'll accomplish absolutely nothing but killing each other and then the kids will just be free to just run off again, agreed?"

"Perhaps…." Soichiro replied stiffly after a few moments of silence.

"Geez, what an asshole." I thought to myself as I resisted the urge to pistol whip Saya's father across the face.

"There's no "perhaps" about it." I retorted. "They'll run away again, I guarantee it."

"And even worse for both of you, you'll never see Saya again because she'll either be too pissed off at you to ever want to come back here again if they ever do find their families." I said as Soichiro took a step forward as if he wanted to take a swing at me as I immediately raised the muzzle of my pistol slightly as a warning for him to back down and cool off.

You gotta admit, diplomacy at the edge of a sword or the muzzle of a gun barrel, does have its advantages sometimes.

"Or worse,… she'll be dead." I said pointedly as Soichiro suddenly halted and then seemed to be heavily pondering what I had just said, although he still looked like he would have liked nothing better than to grab his katana and cut me to pieces.

"Unless that's what you really want to happen here, I suggest you calm down and let's try to work this out reasonably, like adults." I said as I looked over at Yuriko, hoping that at least she could be reasoned with.

"What are you proposing, Jim?' Yuriko asked as her husband flashed an angry look at her, no doubt upset that as "Lord of his Realm", his wife would dare to speak up without his say-so.

Thank goodness his wife was the more level-headed one in the family, apparently.

"First, I have no desire to hurt anyone here…" I said as I flicked the safety on my pistol back to "SAFE" and then lowered the muzzle, although I was being watchful for any sudden attacks from Soichiro or his guards. "So if you don't mind, I would appreciate it if you'd tell your guards to stand down and leave us alone so we can work this out."

"You really expect us to leave Takagi-dono and Yuriko-sama alone with you unarmed and helpless while you stand there holding a gun on them?!" The Security Chief interrupted all of a sudden, practically foaming at the mouth at the mere thought of being ordered to leave while leaving his "Lord and Lady" unprotected in the presence of a lowly gaijin.

I have to admit, the man was fiercely loyal to the people under his protection, but right now he was being a real pain in the ass.

"Dude, seriously, will you lighten up?" I said rolling my eyes, although I already knew that if I was going to win over Saya's parents, I was going to have to do something drastic as an act of faith to prove to them that I was not an enemy and could be trusted.

And the only thing that I could think of that would work was going to require me to take a huge gamble on my part that would end up in my death if I was wrong about how desperate Saya's parents were about how badly they wanted their daughter back.

"Yuriko-san." I said as I looked at Saya's mother, my mind screaming at me that I was an idiot for what I was about to do. "You told me that when you realized that an entire city of Infected were closing on all of us back at the condo, you made the decision to have me executed."

"Do you remember giving that order?" I asked as Yuriko looked at me without batting an eye.

"Hai." Yuriko replied her voice even.

"If the situation were to arise again that you believed you or your family's lives were being threatened, would you give the same order, now?" I asked looking intently into her eyes as she stared right back at me without blinking.

"Yes, I would." Yuriko replied her voice not wavering in the slightest.

"If you had a weapon in your hand would you be able to take the shot yourself?" I said as I smirked at her.

I had to admit, Yuriko was a tough cookie.

"In a heartbeat." Yuriko said with conviction.

"Fair enough." I said nonchalantly as I unceremoniously flipped the pistol in my hand around and handed the pistol butt-first to Yuriko as the hard look on Yuriko's face melted into a look of sheer astonishment as I held it out to her.

"Don't take this as being disrespectful because I'm handing my weapons to your wife instead of to you or your Security Chief, Soichiro-san." I said turning my attention to Soichiro as he and the rest of the guards looked at me in utter disbelief as they watched me also grab the revolver that I had taken from the other guard from out of the waistband of my hospital scrubs, and hand it to Yuriko too.

"It's just that in this particular situation…." I continued as Yuriko took the revolver from my hand. "I do believe that a "cooler head" is needed."

"And you honestly believe that I have a "cooler head" in our present situation, Jim?" Yuriko said as she then aimed the muzzle of the revolver right at me and pulled back on the hammer of the revolver with a loud "click" as I stared down the barrel of the pistol that was now mere inches from my face.

And as I began wondering to myself as to what exactly in hell had possessed me to turn my weapons over to this crazy woman, I suddenly heard every guard standing around suddenly grab their weapons and then train them on me, reminding me of the scene in "The Blues Brothers" where the two characters were about to be arrested by all the cops who had about a zillion guns trained on them.

Only, this was no movie.

"Oh shit! Oh shit! Oh shit! Oh shit! Oh shit! Oh shit! Oh shit!….." My mind was screaming as I started to realize that perhaps I should have just grabbed the kids and ran for it, after all.

"JIMU-SAN!" Saeko screamed in panic as Shizuka and Takashi quickly grabbed her just as she was about to run up to me after seeing Yuriko holding the pistol in my face, no doubt afraid that I was about to be killed right in front of her,…. and probably right.

"MAMA, PLEASE DON'T HURT HIM!" Saya yelled as Yuriko eyes widened in shock at the sound of her daughter pleading for her to spare my life, instead of screaming at her with anger, like always.

"It's okay, guys!" I yelled as I looked over at the teens, who were all freaking out pretty bad about now. "Everything's okay, we're just working out the "rough spots" right now!"

"Just stay put and keep cool, and we'll get this all sorted out between Saya's mom and dad in a minute!" I said hoping that what I was saying was not just wishful thinking.

As psychotic as handing my weapons over to Yuriko seemed, deep down I knew that even if Yuriko had hated my guts she wouldn't have really tried to kill me, unlike her husband or her Security staff who wouldn't have given it a second thought.

Because I knew that "Iron Lady" or not, Yuriko was still a loving mother who was now scared out of her mind at the thought of losing her only daughter.

And unlike her husband, she realized that if I were the only one that the kids would trust right now, there was no way in hell any of the kids would ever trust them again if I were murdered right in front of them, nor would there be any chance of Saya ever want to be near her parents again after that.

Anger and pride can cloud a man's judgment, and Soichiro was proving that splendidly.

But any decent mother will always let love for her child take precedence over anything else, and I knew Yuriko would do anything to get her daughter back, even if that meant putting her faith in me, which was why I had handed my weapons over to her in the first place.

But even though Yuriko was willing to do whatever she had to do to get her daughter back, she was the Matriarch of the Takagi House after all, and was no pushover.

And so her holding a gun to my head was just her way of letting me know that she was no "powder puff- gold digging-eye candy- trophy wife" that lazed about around the mansion all day, and so she was basically letting me know that she was a force to be reckoned with.

And also by holding the gun to my head she was also driving the point home that if I crossed her, it wasn't her husband that I needed to be afraid of.

Needless to say, her point was made loud and clear, as far as I was concerned.

Between Yuriko's iron will and Soichiro's nasty temper, no wonder Saya had turned out the way she did, which was why I found it no surprise that she and her parents didn't get along.

Heaven help Kouta if he ever really did marry that girl.

"Yes, Yuriko-san,….." I said as Yuriko held the revolver in my face. "I do believe that, which is why I knew I could trust you not to shoot me right away when I gave you those guns."

"And why is that?" Yuriko said as her eyes narrowed.

"Let's just say that I'm trusting in your maternal instincts to be the voice of reason here, Yuriko-san." I replied as I stared cross-eyed down the bore of the pistol pointed at the end of my nose.

"And unlike everyone else standing around us, I'm hoping that you realize just as I do, that the lives of those kids over there is more precious to us than shooting me in the head." I added as Yuriko looked at me for a long moment and then lowered her pistol.

"Lower your weapons." Yuriko said aloud to the rest of the guards as they all turned to look at Soichiro who silently nodded his head as they all then slowly lowered their weapons, much to Yuriko's annoyance at their ignoring her and waiting for her husband's approval.

Well, almost everyone, as I noticed that the Security Chief hadn't lowered his weapon yet. And by the way he was looking at me, didn't seem as if he was ever going to either.

"Ken-san, matte." Soichioro said raising his hand as the Security Chief froze before he could squeeze off a round.

"Takagi-dono…." The Security Chief said as he looked at Soichiro with a stunned expression on his face, probably shocked from the fact that his boss had decided against putting me down despite my threatening his life earlier.

"It would be unthinkable for this man to be killed after having willingly disarmed himself, Ken-san." Soichiro said as the Security Chief then flashed me a hate-filled look before finally lowering his pistol.

"However, that doesn't mean I won't change my mind if you don't give me one good reason as to why we should we trust you." Soichiro said looking back at me as he then crossed his arms and waited for me to reply.

"Because for the past three days, those children standing over there including your own daughter were not yours." I replied without hesitation as Saya's parents and their guards stiffened at my words.

"They were mine." I added as Soichiro and Yuriko scowled at first but then finally seemed to understand the real meaning behind my words as they both nodded their heads slightly.

"And while not a single one of them is of my blood, I protected them and watched over them as if they were my own." I said pointing at the kids who were watching us nervously. "And in those three days with death all around us and danger coming from every direction, I've become very attached to them."

"And as all of you have come to see yourself, they have also become quite attached to me." I said as Yuriko lowered her eyes.

"And while I may not appreciate being a parent as much as ya'll do, I can understand why you're so upset with the kids for trying to run off…." I said shaking my head. "Because like you, I'm also extremely upset with them myself."

"But unlike you, I know what it is that they're feeling that pushed them to decide to run away from us." I said looking back at Saya's parents.

"Oh,...and why is that?" Soichiro said in a voice filled with scorn. "From your vast knowledge and experience as a parent?"

"Because like them, I too ran away from home when I was their age." I replied calmly as Soichiro and Yuriko both looked at me with raised eyebrows, obviously a little surprised at this little revelation.

Of course, leave it to someone else to miss the entire point of what I was saying.

"So you're telling us that you were just as headstrong and rebellious as those young people are?" The Security Chief said with a scoff as I tried to resist the urge to walk up and punch him in his already broken nose. "No wonder they look up to you so much."

"Actually no, I was a pretty quiet kid when I was their age." I said trying to keep my anger in check.

"And the reason I ran away was because I was a victim of child abuse." I added as I saw Yuriko and Soichiro glance at one another. "And on the day I ran away from home, it was because I didn't feel like being beaten up by my father again."

"And by the way, kiss my ass." I said heatedly to the Security Chief as I tossed my coffee mug at him and flipped him off as he caught the mug.

"If you're not gonna help us find a solution to this problem bub, then why don't you do something really useful, and grab me a refill wouldya?" I said sarcastically to the Security Chief as I ignored the angry look he gave me and turned my attention back to Saya's parents.

"And although the reasons why those kids were trying to run away are very different from my situation back then, I remember everyday exactly what it was that finally pushed me to the point that I decided I no longer wanted to remain with my family anymore." I continued as Saya's parents listened to my words with keen interest.

"And if not for Divine Intervention, I doubt very much that I would have ever been reunited with my family again."

"So you see, I know just how important it is that we put our personal differences aside and put an end to all of this." I said as I looked over towards where the teens were nervously staring at us.

"Because whether any of you wish to admit it or not, the truth is, we're the ones who drove them to doing this in the first place." I added as I saw the scowl returning to Soichiro's face.

"What do you mean?" Soichiro snapped suddenly. "Are you seriously accusing us of making these children want to run away?"

"Take a good look at the faces of those kids over there, you two." I said in reply as I sighed in frustration at Soichiro's ever-changing mood swings.

"When I first came across them, their only desire was to rejoin their families."

"But now look at them." I said gesturing towards the teens as Saya's parents gazed upon all of their troubled faces, each of them filled with a mixture of anger, scorn, and even hate, but mostly….fear.

"Those kids are now so eager to leave this place; that they didn't even bother to wait for the cover of darkness to try to make their escape." I said as Yuriko hung her head in shame, but Soichiro just grunted and said nothing else.

"Look,…" I said quickly realizing that Soichiro's pride was getting in the way of his ability to think rationally again. "I'm not here to play the blame game, I know your good people, otherwise, you'd have never taken all those refugees into your own home or taken care of them the way you have."

"And I also know that you were never under any obligation whatsoever to be concerned with the welfare of those kids or me for that matter. But you have, even at great risk to yourselves."

"And believe it or not, I really do appreciate what you have done, for me, and for the kids."

"But I'm sure you realize by now that unless we do something to make these children understand that we really do care about them and figure out some way to regain their trust, eventually they're gonna try this little stunt again."

"And when they finally succeed, I guarantee you we're never going to see them again."

"So believe me when I tell you that right now, that what we both want as far as these kids are concerned, is the same."

"What is that?" Soichiro asked still acting aloof.

"We both want our children back." I replied matter-of-factly as Soichiro and Yuriko looked at me and then at each other for a long moment.

"Our children?!" Soichiro said with a scoff. "You are not the father of any of those children. What right have you to claim them as your own?"

"What right, have you?!" I shot back angrily as I noticed Shizuka and the teens gesturing for me to shut up. "Saya is your child, and your responsibility! But you have no legal right over the others, either!"

"That makes no difference!" Soichiro shot back as I noticed the teens flinch at his outburst. "They are merely children, and as responsible adults my wife and I have taken it upon ourselves to see to their welfare!"

"WHY?!" I said taking a stepping right in front of Soichiro and staring at him directly in the face as his eyes narrowed and I could see his grip tightening on his katana out of the corner of my eye, while Yuriko and the guards held their breath waiting for him to unsheathe his katana and cut me to pieces.

"Why?" I said in a much calmer tone letting my question sink in, as Soichiro looked at me without speaking as Yuriko and everyone else waited for him to answer.

"Because you're thinking like a father…." I said answering my own question for him. "And your wife has been thinking like a mother ever since she first found them."

"And so naturally you both decided to take it upon yourselves to take care of these kids despite the fact that they are not related to you nor are you under any legal obligation to see to their welfare."

"Just like I did." I said driving the point home.

"Has the irony of all this begun to hit you yet?" I said with a chuckle as Soichiro opened his mouth to say something nasty but then hesitated; realizing that despite his distrust and dislike of me, what I was saying was still true.

"What makes you think they'll trust us after you talk to them?" Soichiro asked with a heavy sigh, unable to argue with my logic.

"Well if my talking to them doesn't work you can always lock them in their rooms, like you wanted to." I said with a smirk. "If they're still gonna be that hard-headed about running through the streets of the city looking for their parents, I can't imagine their families would object to us hog-tying them all up and throwing away the key, then."

"Are you serious?!" Soichiro said visibly shocked at my words. "You wouldn't object to our doing that to the children if it really does come to that?!"

"Hell no, if they're gonna be that mule-headed after everything I've said to them after today, I'll even help you." I said good-naturedly as Saya's parents both looked at me with visible shock on their faces.

"Don't get me wrong, I don't believe in mistreating children." I said being serious as I looked into the faces of Saya's parents. "But as parents, I'm sure ya'll already know that sometimes even the most patient and mild-tempered parent has no choice but to discipline a child who won't listen to reason."

"And I don't know about ya'll….." I said as I looked over at Saeko who was looking at me quizzically. "But as soon as we get this whole mess straightened out, there's a certain young girl wearing a blue kimono over there whose butt is about to be introduced to the business end of a chancla, for scaring the hell out of me."

"Why should we trust you?" The Security Chief said interrupting after having been fuming quietly by the wayside while Saya's parents and I had been talking. "What guarantees do we have that you won't just take the children and leave?"

"Because I could have done that in the first place…." I replied rolling my eyes. "You think I would have gone through all this trouble to convince ya'll to let me talk the kids out of running away again if I was just gonna grab them and hightail it out of here?"

"My whole reason for being with the kids when ya'll found us at that condo in the first place was to get them home!" I said in exasperation. "And as all of you know, you're so-called "rescue team" intercepted us just as we were headed here."

"But despite how everything has turned out so far….." I continued as I looked over at Saya's parents. "The fact is, your daughter is here with you, safe and sound."

"But the rest of those kids are not yours." I said bluntly. "And that being the case, you have no obligations whatsoever concerning them."

"But because ya'll are decent people, I know you genuinely care about them otherwise they'd have been tossed out on their butts already." I added before Soichiro could blow another fuse again.

"What is your point?" Soichiro asked, his eyes narrowing suspiciously.

"You have your child, and all these children want is to be reunited with theirs." I replied hoping that what I said next would not result in me lying on the ground riddled with bullet holes.

"Right now you don't have the time or the resources to help them find their parents." I added. "For me however, there is nothing preventing me from helping them other than this hole in my head that I received recently."

"I have an idea that will solve all of our problems, but it will require both of you to trust me." I said warily knowing that what I was about to say probably wouldn't be received very well.

"What are you going to do?" Soichiro asked intrigued.

"I'm going to make the kids an offer they can't refuse." I said as I glanced over at the teens and then looked Soichiro right in the eye. "But you two are not gonna like it."

"Jim, you're not proposing…." Yuriko said her eyes growing wide as she evidently figured out what it was I was about to say before her husband did.

"Can anyone hear what they're saying?" Saeko asked as she strained to hear the muffled conversation between Saya Takagi's parents and the American mercenary.

"I can't hear a thing." Takashi replied with a frown. "They're too far away and they're also keeping their voices low, too."

"I hope he knows what he's doing." Rei said nervously as she looked at all the guards standing threateningly all around them.

"I'm sure Jimu-san has a plan, Miyamoto-san." Saeko replied calmly trying to stay positive. "We just have to trust him."

"ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?!" Yuriko Takagi suddenly shrieked in anger as everyone flinched at her sudden outburst.

"Oh shit,…..what the hell did he say to her?" Rei asked aloud as Saya's mother began shouting angrily at the American as her husband stepped in between the American and his wife as Yuriko looked as if she were about to shoot the man, after all.

"I don't know but whatever it was, it must have been bad." Saya said as she watched her father wrestle the pistol away from his wife and then hold her back as she began cursing the American in Japanese, English, and even French. "I've never seen mom that pissed off before."

"Crap." Takashi swore as it seemed that the American's attempt to defuse the situation had instead, caused it to spiral even more out of control.

"Everyone, stay next to me." Shizuka said as she gestured for everyone to stand near her like a mother hen gathering her chicks together. "Whatever happens, don't do anything to fight back, understand?"

"Sensei, I don't think…"Saeko began but then stopped mid-sentence as Soichiro Takagi barked a command to his wife who immediately stopped her stream of epithets at the American and also ceased her struggles as well.

"Now what?" Takashi said aloud as Saya's parents began to argue loudly with each other in a language none of the teens recognized.

"What language is that?" Rei asked looking over at Saya.

"Afrikaans." Saya replied with a scowl.

"Why are they speaking in that language?" Kouta asked as Saya glanced over at him with a look of annoyance.

"Because they don't want us to know what they're saying, dummy!" Saya snapped as she shook her head in frustration as if she were speaking to the dumbest person in the world.

"Whenever Mama and Papa wanted to talk about something that they didn't want me to know about, they would start speaking in Afrikaans because I don't speak it."

"Where did they learn to speak that language?" Takashi asked as the loud conversation continued between the two adults. "Did they study it overseas?"

"Yeah, they used to travel a lot to South Africa to check on their company before I was born." Saya replied.

"Have you ever tried to learn it yourself, Takagi-san?" Kouta asked as Saya whirled on the teen her face turning red.

"WHAT ARE YOU SAYING TUBBY?!" Saya screeched as Kouta cowered under her angry onslaught. "ARE YOU SAYING I'M DUMB BECAUSE I CAN SPEAK FRENCH, ENGLISH, AND SPANISH, BUT HAVEN'T LEARNED TO SPEAK THAT LANGUAGE YET?!"

"NO,…..NO Takagi-san, that's not what I meant at all!" Kouta said shrinking even lower as Saya raised her fist as if to hit him as Takashi, Rei, and Saeko glanced at each other with amused looks all of them thinking the same thing.

That Saya Takagi was extremely jealous of her parent's abilities, and was also embarrassed that her own abilities were not yet equal to theirs.

"SOICHIRO-SAN, YOU CAN'T BE SERIOUSLY AGREEING WITH HIM?!" Yuriko shouted at her husband in protest, but then stopped when Soichiro raised his hand to silence her.

"What he's saying is true Yuriko!" Soichiro replied scowling at his wife. "As risky as his plan is, there really is no other choice."

"IT'S INSANE!" Yuriko shouted as her husband gave her a look that silenced her again but made also her even angrier than before.

"Yuriko, they will attempt to run away again, you know that." Soichiro said in a calmer voice trying to keep himself in check despite the furious onslaught of his wife. "And next time, Saya-chan might try to leave with them."

"And as insane as his proposal is,…." Soichiro added. "If it results in a peaceful resolution where the children's desire to find their parents is appeased, then perhaps our own daughter's mistrust of us will be abated and she will realize that her place is here with us."

"But him taking the children out into the city by themselves to look for their parents alone!" Yuriko hissed as she was interrupted by the voice of the American clearing his throat to gain her and her husband's attention.

"A-HEM…!" The American said in a weary voice as Saya's parents turned to look at him. "If you're done with your tirade, ya might wanna listen to the rest of what I was gonna say, before you continue on with your freakout."

"As I was about to say before I was interrupted…"The American continued as Yuriko glared at the American and at her husband who seemed to be quite amused at seeing his wife having become so unglued.

"That plan wouldn't work because it would involve leaving Saya behind, and I know the kids would never agree to that because they would all rather be locked up together than be separated from one another." The American added as Yuriko began to blush from embarrassment for jumping the gun and having become so unsettled in front of everyone.

"And I know Saya would blame you two if she were left behind, so that would definitely be a no-win situation." The American said as Yuriko finally calmed down although she was still visibly upset at her husband for finding amusement in her angry tirade.

"What are you proposing then, Jim?" Soichiro asked with a slight smirk on his face.

"Like I said, I'm gonna make the kids an offer they can't refuse, and you're not gonna like it." The American said with a sigh.

"But I can't do it without your help."

"What do you think?" Rei whispered into Takashi's ear as they watched Saya's parents quietly listening to the American without interruption for several moments. And then after the American finished speaking both of Saya's parents then began talking quietly amongst themselves.

"I don't know." Takashi replied shrugging his shoulders. "At least they're not screaming at each other anymore."

"That doesn't mean we're out of the woods yet, though." Takashi said with a frown as they all noticed Saya's parents turning their attention back to the American and then nodded their heads.

"Something's happening, that's for sure." Saya said just as her father suddenly motioned for the Security Chief Yoshioka to come over and then spoke to him briefly.

There was a look of shock on Yoshioka's face as Soichiro Takagi spoke to him, and he seemed about to protest at first, but apparently Saya's father was in no mood to argue, and gave the Security Chief a curt look that stopped him cold.

Then with a visibly irritated look on his face, Yoshioka bowed stiffly to both of Saya's parents and then angrily gestured for all of his men to approach him.

"Holy shit." Takashi said under his breath as all of the guards immediately began walking towards Yoshioka, glancing angrily at the teens as they walked past, but saying nothing as they joined up with their Security Chief.

And then after a few brief words and a lot of nasty looks directed towards the teens from the guards, all them proceeded to follow Yoshioka as he walked towards the rear entrance of the mansion and followed him inside.

Now standing in the middle of the enormous back lawn of the mansion all alone, the small group looked at each other in disbelief, all of them in complete shock at the sudden turn of events.

"I can't believe he really did it." Saya said aghast as she stared dumbstruck at the three adults who were still talking quietly amongst themselves." "How the f_ck did he manage to convince Mama and Papa to let us go?"

"Saya-chan!" Shizuka snapped angrily at Saya."Watch your language! Do you want Alice to hear you?"

"Hear what, Oba-chan?" Alice said innocently as she looked up at Shizuka.

"Ack! Nothing…..nothing, Arisu-chan!" Shizuka said in alarm as Alice looked at her quizzically.

"Takagi's right…" Takashi said under his breath so Shizuka wouldn't overhear as his eyes narrowed. "What did he say to Saya's parents, that was enough to convince them to let us go?"

"Do you think they may be planning to trick us?" Rei said as she instinctively wrapped her arm around Takashi's right arm, suddenly afraid.

"That would be my guess." Saya spat angrily. "They probably just let us go so we can let our guard down and think we can trust them again."

"Takagi-san, don't you think you're being a little paranoid?" Saeko said a part of her becoming very afraid that what Saya was saying was indeed true, even though she didn't want to believe it herself.

"Hmmmpf." Saya snorted in disgust. "If you knew my parents the way I do, you wouldn't think so, Busujima-sempai."

"In either case, we need to be on our guard." Takashi said as the three adults suddenly stopped talking and then all bowed politely to each other, as the American then walked away from Saya's parents and began to walk slowly towards the group as Soichiro and Yuriko Takagi stood silently watching him.

"Here we go." Saya said bitterly. "Just like they always do, always sending someone else to do their dirty work for them."

"Saya, knock it off!" Takashi hissed angrily as the American approached. "We don't know for sure if Jimu-san or your parents are really trying to trick us, or maybe he really did convince them to let us go."

"So until we find out what's really going on here, shut the hell up!" Takashi said as Saya glared at him angrily but kept her mouth shut and sulked quietly after seeing the frosty looks given her by Takashi, Rei and Saeko as the American finally stood in front of them.

As I approached the teens, I could see that despite the fact that all of the guards were gone and the danger to the teens was past, the kids were still visibly on edge as I walked towards them.

And the ugly scowl plastered all over Saya's face was a dead giveaway that I had my work cut out for me if I was ever going to successfully win their trust again.

But as difficult as I knew that would be, it was when I glanced over at Saeko that I could see that trying to heal the deep wound in her heart would be an even harder task.

"Jimu-san…" Shizuka said interrupting my thoughts, her face filled with worry as she stepped in front of me with Alice hiding behind her. "You really shouldn't be walk_….."

"I'm really sorry for yelling at you, Shizuka…." I said interrupting her as I placed my hand on her shoulder. "You were only trying to help me, and I took my anger out on you."

"It wasn't right, and I'm sorry." I said stepping away from her and then bowing in apology.

"Please forgive me." I said as Shizuka looked at me stunned, and obviously surprised to see me apologizing for the way I had acted earlier.

In some cultures in the past it was unheard of for a man to ever humble himself in front of his wife or children if he ever did something wrong, and even in today's society, some things still haven't changed, I suppose.

And so I guess my admitting that I was wrong and bowing in apology was completely unexpected based on the shocked look that was on Shizuka's face.

But pride and ego had no place here, and now it was time to speak from the heart if I ever hoped to regain the trust of my young friends again.

"That's alright, Jimu-san." Shizuka said finally after getting over her shock at my act of remorse. "But Jimu-san, you really should go back to bed. You need to rest."

"Later Sensei…." I said as I looked over at Alice who was hiding behind Shizuka and looking up at me apprehensively, not knowing whether everything was alright now or if I was about to blow up in anger all over again.

"Right now there is something I have to do first….." I said as I bent down on one knee and then reached into the pocket of my robe and pulled out the small plastic doll that I had found in my room, and held it out to Alice.

"Goman nasai, Alice-chan." I said as I held the doll out to her. "I'm really sorry for scaring you, sweetie."

Alice looked at me for a long moment as I held the doll towards her, not quite sure as to what to do I suppose.

On one hand, even as shy as Alice usually was around me, I'm sure that she must have realized that I was not the same rage-filled man as earlier, and was not about to bite her head off if she took the doll.

But on the other hand, I had scared her pretty good with my angry outburst, and like all children who have been on the receiving end of an adult's wrath, I knew that her fear of me might linger a while, and earning her trust again would be difficult, at best.

"Arisu-chan?" Shizuka said softly as Alice looked up at her. "Daijobu desu."

"Honto?" Alice said looking back at me with a scared look as I sighed deeply, feeling more and more guilty at having frightened this little girl who had already been through so much already.

"Hai." I said to Alice as she looked at me again. "Gomen nasai, Alice-chan."

"Onegaishimasu Alice-chan,… dozo." I said to Alice again as I held the doll out to her as she then timidly stepped out from behind the school nurse and then cautiously took it from me after a little more coaxing from Shizuka and then promptly moved away from me and then moved behind Shizuka again, using the school nurse as a shield between me and her.

"Arigato ….Ojisan." Alice said timidly as she looked back at me with nervous eyes.

"Arisu-chan…" Shizuka started to say trying to coax Alice to not be afraid of me as I held up my hand and shook my head.

"It's okay, Sensei." I said looking at Alice sadly. "There's no need to force her to do anything. When she's ready to trust me again, she'll let me know."

"Gomen nasai, Jimu-san." Shizuka said as I shook my head in response and then smiled and told her it was okay, even though in my heart I knew it really wasn't okay.

I was disappointed to say the least, but I didn't blame Alice one bit for still being afraid of me. Most children at Alice's age are so eager to trust someone that whenever they feel they've found a friend, no matter whether it's another child their age or even an adult, that person is their buddy for life no matter what.

But for a child whose trust has been betrayed by that supposed friend, it might as well be the end of the world as far as that child is concerned and gaining their trust again can be difficult at best, sometimes.

But most times children are so eager for things to be just like they were before that when the hurt feelings are finally gone and they make up with their buddies again, both children will then go off and resume their playful romp with each other as if nothing had ever happened.

I had scared everyone with my angry outburst, and Alice being the "baby" in our group, had been frightened out of her mind by the way I had acted.

But hopefully her fear of me would pass soon, and even though I was saddened by the fact that she was still afraid of me, I knew it would pass, and hopefully before long we would both be able to forget that it had ever happened.

Or at least hopefully, Alice would.

But as I stood up and then focused my attention on the faces of the teen's, I knew that while they all seemed to be glad that I had stepped in to help them from the clutches of the guards, forgiveness from them might still be very difficult too.

"They hurt any of you guys?" I asked as the teens shook their heads in response, and began to reassure me that they were fine.

"You sure guys?" I asked again not quite believing them. "Those guys seemed to be treating ya'll a little rough from what I could see."

"We're fine, Jimu-san." Takashi said a little stiffly, no doubt glad that I had intervened and saved them all, but still pissed about the way I acted earlier.

"You alright, son?" I asked Kouta as he looked at me with his eyes still puffy as he looked away as if he were embarrassed to look at me.

"Hai." Kouta said quietly as he clutched the guns he was carrying even tighter as I was about to question him further to find out why he still seemed to be extremely upset.

Realizing that Kouta was deeply embarrassed at having been frightened so immensely by the guards, Saeko interrupted before the American could press Kouta any further.

"None of us have been seriously hurt, Jimu-san." Saeko replied as the American suddenly halted and then looked at her. "But our situation is extremely tense as you can see."

"Not anymore sweetie." The American said as he looked into the anxious faces of the teens. "I had a quick talk with Saya's parents, and they agreed to let me speak to all of you and see if we can work this all out."

"They did, huh?" Saya said glancing over at her parents suspiciously.

"Yes Pumpkin, ….they did." I replied as I watched Saya eyeballing her parents with that ever present scowl on her face and shook my head.

The last thing I needed now was Saya going on a rant about her parents again, and of all the teens here, I knew that she would be the most difficult to convince that her parents had just overreacted and weren't out to lock her up and toss away the key.

I wasn't sure if I could undo whatever it was that had caused Saya to have such bitterness and mistrust in her parents, but whatever I did, I had to tread carefully and not blow up at her again, like I had before.

But my thoughts about how I was going to go about convincing the teens to not attempt anything so reckless like running away again was forgotten as I looked over at Saeko and saw the sadness in her eyes as she stood there looking at me.

"Daddy's here."

The American's words that Saeko had heard him say earlier kept repeating themselves over and over again in her mind as she watched the man apologizing to Alice and Shizuka before turning his attention back towards her and her friends, as he then checked to see if any of them had been harmed.

"Daddy's here."

"Why would he say something like that?" Saeko thought to herself as she continued to watch the man as he spoke to Saya who was still very upset with her parents.

"He told me earlier that he was not my father and that I should never see him again." Saeko thought her mind reeling. "Has he really changed his mind, or was he just worried about me and wanted to make me feel better?"

"Daddy's here."

"Why did he say that?" Saeko thought as her emotions began to spiral out of control within her. "Why?!"

"Are you hurt, baby?" The American said suddenly jolting Saeko out of her thoughts as she gasped in surprise that she had not noticed that he had been standing there looking at her.

Appearing to be growing concerned when she hesitated to reply, the American then gently placed both of his hands on her shoulders as Saeko felt her heart beginning to beat rapidly as he gazed into her face.

"Daddy's here."

"No Jimu-san." Saeko said turning her head away as she felt a lump growing in her throat, as the American then suddenly threw his arms around her and pulled her to him in a crushing embrace.

And as she felt the man's arms around her, Saeko wanted desperately to return the man's embrace like that night that she had broken down in front him at the river two days earlier and give way to tears .

But despite her desperate desire to return the man's embrace and cry upon his shoulder, a painful reminder made Saeko resist that urge, despite her heart's desperate desire to fight it.

"You must learn to control your emotions at all times, my daughter." The voice of her father echoed in the farthest reaches of her mind. "Or your emotions will be your undoing, child."

"Otosan, I'm trying." Saeko thought to herself her heart swirling with emotion. "But it's so hard."

"Daddy's here."

"Jimu-san, please." Saeko said her voice beginning to crack. "You mustn't hold me this way, I'm not your daugh-".

"Hush." The American said bluntly but without any anger in his voice as Saeko stopped speaking, surprised by the man's remark as he then placed his right hand on the back of her head and pressed her head against his chest as he spoke into her ear.

"What I've done to you was without a doubt the stupidest thing I've ever done in my life." The American said in a low voice as Saeko's heart began to beat faster.

"And now I want to make it up to you, if you'll let me." The American said as Saeko felt him gently kiss her on the forehead before turning his attention back to the others.

"I realize all of you are still pissed at me." The American began still holding Saeko, as everyone listened to him with looks of distrust on their faces. "And I don't blame you."

"You came to me at a time you needed me most…. and I failed you."

"Not only that, I said some pretty horrible things to all of you, and that was completely wrong of me."

"What you saw was a side of me I never wanted anyone in this world to see, especially all of you." The man said as he looked back at Saeko.

"And I know that what I said to you Saeko, hurt you in more ways than one." The American said as Saeko looked up at him.

"I'm not going to try to justify my yelling at all of ya'll the way I did." He continued. "It was uncalled for and I'm sorry I did that."

"So let me begin by saying that I'm sorry I hurt you guys. And now I want to make it up to you if you'll let me."

"And while it is true that none of you are of my blood, we all know that has never made a difference in the way I have felt about any of you." The American said as Saeko looked at him wide-eyed as he brushed Saeko's hair lovingly with his hand.

"And especially you, baby." Jim added as Saeko could feel the wall she had built around her heart beginning to crumble.

"And as far as not being your father….." The American said to the shock of her and everyone standing around. "Well, I do believe it's time for you and I to have a little talk about that."

"And after we're done clearing the air between us,….Jim went on. "You have a very big decision to make."

"What do you mean, Jimu-san? What kind of decision?" Saeko asked confused.

"A decision on whether you and I continue from this point on with our lives as friends,….." The American replied as he looked into Saeko's eyes and smiled gently.

"Or family."

Location: Tokonosu City

Nine kilometers west of the Estate of Soichiro and Yuriko Takagi

Time: Morning

Spring 2013

Z-Day plus Four

In all respects, "It" was still alive.

But then again,…"It" also wasn't.

"It" wasn't dead in the literal sense, since dead flesh itself is scientifically incapable of being re-animated.

So in some respects, "It" could be argued in some scientific circles that "It" could still be considered as a living organism, since "It's" bio-electrical impulses still fired between the synapses of "It's" nerve endings sending signals to the rest of the body and triggering the correct motor responses it needed to perform basic forward motion as "It" shuffled blindly forward in a constant never-ending search for prey.

But what had once made "It" human,… intelligence, emotion, consciousness,….was gone.

And from the moment of "It's" being "Infected", "It" was now aware of nothing.

"It" saw nothing,… "It" felt nothing.

Because now the millions of nerve fibers in "It's" nervous system that had once carried biochemical and electrical impulses to "It's" brain that once gave "It" the ability to feel pain, heat, cold, or even the gentlest touch were now dead, as the once complex bioelectrical network that once serviced the entire body was now almost entirely focused on only the most basic of living functions.

And what basic body functions left that could still be considered as still "functioning" were a mere shadow of what the abomination that now shuffled blindly through the narrow city streets of Downtown Tokonosu was once capable of, when "It" was once a living, breathing, human being.

Gone was "It's" ability to think, to reason, to comprehend, to love, to hate, to sympathize…..or to comprehend the meaning of, much less to show,….the act of mercy.

"It" knew no more of such things.

All "It" was capable of doing now was moving forward…constantly forward.

Since the moment of "It's" being "Infected", "It" had been driven by an as yet unknown force to maintain a state of constant forward motion, with no other impulse directing "It" to do anything else but maintain the need to move constantly forward.

Because moving forward meant that inevitably, "It" would be able to satisfy "It's" other most basic and most desperate need….

The need to feed.

And as "It "shuffled blindly forward in its never-ending search for prey, "It" had only one means of locating prey, and as time had passed, "It" had come to rely heavily on the only remaining one of the five senses that "It" had left.

The ability to respond to sound.

From the moment "It" had been "Infected", and the gift of sight had been taken away forever by the effects of the Contagion, it had then been forced to rely heavily on "It's" ability to hear.

Unfortunately, at the moment of "It's" drastic "change" from life as a living, breathing, human being to the monster that "It" had been transformed into, "It's" ability to hunt had not been very successful as the air around it had been filled with a confusing cacophony of sounds that had overwhelmed the one ability "It" had left in order for "It" to "survive",… at first.

And so like the hundreds and the thousands of others shuffling around "It" on that First day of the Outbreak, "It" had begun "life" stumbling around blindly in all directions and had often mistakenly collided with many of "It's" Infected brethren in "It's" relentless search for prey.

"It" had no concept of time, nor was "It" aware of the last time "It" had last fed.

All "It" knew was the constant hunger that drove "It" forward.

And "It's" hunger was insatiable.

And although "It" did not know how long it had been since "It" had last fed, the hunger "It" now felt after three days of not feeding had been having a gradual, but still noticeable effect on "It's" body in response to "It's" desperate need to feed.

And like most things in nature whose bodies and senses gradually begin to adapt to the harsh environments the organism is forced to live in, a metamorphosis also begin to occur within "It's" body as well in an effort to help "It" in "It's" desperate struggle to "survive", as senses that had been made dormant by the Infection, were now beginning to function once again.

"It's" ability to see however, had not been one of those higher functions that had been restored, and thus "It" still moved about completely blind as it had before.

However, the once dormant ability of "It's" being able to distinguish the sounds that were "It's" prey from the many other everyday noises around "It" that definitely were not, had been restored.

And as a result, on the Second day of the Outbreak "It" no longer stumbled blindly into others of "It's" kind like so many of the other Infected who were still stumbling around blindly.

And now, unlike before, "It" was now able to distinguish the sound of prey from all other noises echoing all around, and as a result, "It's" ability to hunt had become much sharper than the others still stumbling mindlessly at every other sound being made.

However, "It's" ability to distinguish whether what "It" was attacking was prey or not, had still not helped "It" in making regular feedings possible, mostly in part to the lack of available prey after the Second day of the Outbreak.

On the very First day of the Outbreak, prey had been extremely plentiful with a seemingly never ending sea of victims running around in all directions in which all "It" had to do to satisfy "It's" hunger was to reach out with "It's" hands and grasp at any of the multitudes of screaming victims running past and then gorge on the squirming, screaming victim unlucky enough to find itself in "It's" clutches.

But then as the Second day of the Outbreak had come to pass, prey had then proven to be not quite as plentiful as it had been before on that very First day of the Outbreak, due to the Contagion having spread so rapidly throughout the city that there were now more Infected than prey.

And what prey that had been foolish enough to try to hide out in their homes or businesses in an attempt to outlast the Outbreak were now quickly being consumed at an extremely furious rate as the Infected overran every spot where even the slightest noise was detected.

And as a result of the increased numbers of Infected and the dwindling numbers of prey still hiding in the city, every time that "It" had responded to the screams of some unlucky victim that was being attacked, "It" was all too often pushed away by "It's" often larger, and more ravenous brethren who would often push "It" aside as they consumed the hapless victim, and often left nothing edible behind for "It" to feed upon.

"It" however, was not alone in "It's" inability to find prey, and before long, many other Infected who were unable to satisfy their ravenous hunger also began to display the same traits of increased sensitivity to sound and increased motor function as "It" had begun to.

And the end result was a growing number of "hybrids" with increasingly lethal abilities that were gradually developing a distinctly noticeable edge against their "brethren" in finding prey.

"It" however, knew nothing of others like itself, and so now as "It" shuffled slowly along a once busy street in Downtown Tokonosu City, with dozens of others shuffling along beside "It" who were also listening for the tell-tale sound of prey, a piercing shriek suddenly rent the air from somewhere close by from some unlucky victim that had fallen victim to one of the other Infected.

And like the other Infected around "It" who reacted immediately to the sound, "It" also stopped at the sound of the screams of the victim as it was being attacked as "It" made an effort to home in on the direction from where the screams where originating from.

And as the pitch of the screams intensified as the victim was being torn apart, instinctively all of the other Infected began to shuffle slowly towards the sound of the screams in order to feed.

All except for one.

Because now on the Fourth day of the Outbreak, after having not consumed any prey since the last few hours of Day One, the changing pitch of the victim's screams and the sounds coming from the dozens of others of "It's" kind who were all shuffling towards the same prey that "It" hungered for also, sent an entirely different set of signals to "It's" body, whose hunger was now in a state of frenzy.

And the signals that were being sent were sending the message that unless "It" moved quickly, "It" would once again miss an opportunity to feed once the other Infecteddescended upon the fresh kill, if they got there before "It" did.

And thus, unlike the other Infected who were slowly shuffling forward to their prospective meal, the response of the Infected woman wearing the tattered remains of a uniform that once identified her as a patrol officer of the Tokonosu City Police Department was not to slowly shuffle towards the sound of the screams of the hapless victim like the others around her.

Instead her reaction was uniquely different from the others as she suddenly sprinted past all the other slow-moving Infected in a mad rush to satisfy her frenzied need to feed.

Author's Notes:

I was recently asked by a reader if "Last Alarm" was on hiatus because I hadn't updated in over a month.

The truth is no, "Last Alarm" is not on hiatus, but I have run into a lot of snags this past month and because of that it took me a lot longer than usual to write out this next chapter than it normally does.

I was trying real hard to end the whole confrontation between Jim, the teens, and Saya's parents in this chapter so I could focus on the more action-packed battle at Takagi Manor that's coming up.

But after almost an entire month of trying, I had to cut the chapter in half when I realized that I was already at almost 40,000 words and over 90 pages of material and I hadn't even "polished up" the "rough edges" of the chapter yet.

Although this chapter, like all the others is only a "rough draft", I'm really trying to make each chapter that I write go more smoothly, without all the errors I used to make in the past.

I'm doing that so that way when I go back and start updating everything after "Last Alarm" is finally over, Hopefully I won't have to do a lot of re-writing.

So unfortunately, it takes me longer to finish a chapter than before.

And unfortunately it was taking way too long to write this whole chapter out and try to "polish" it up and post it as big as it was, so I decided to split the chapter in half.

But I should be posting the second part in a couple of weeks, once I "polish" that portion out.

Because of work and the everyday goings on of life it's been hard to focus on writing and I'm sorry for the long delay, but I'm still trucking along because I'm really looking forward to writing the chapters of what happens after the EMP burst.

And so because of that, I've decided to hold off updating the old chapters of my fanfic so I can focus on finishing up the Takagi Manor arc which has turned out to be a bigger project than the entire fanfic itself and is taking me much longer to finish than I thought.

As soon as I finish up this arc, I'll be taking a short break and try to update a couple of my old chapters then.

As all of you know, I've focused a lot on the relationship between Jim and Saeko and the rest of the teens in my fanfic, and that will still be an important part of my fanfic.

Basically everything up to now has been character development, but as you can see from the last part of this chapter, very quickly now the focus will be more on survival, especially as the Infected begin to go through a "metamorphosis" brought about due to the lack of food.

And of course, there's also that "other guy" for the group to deal with who's been a constant threat to Jim and the teens, who will be making his appearance next chapter, I hope.

Yeah, you know who I'm talking about.

I'll try not to be too long-winded when it comes to his part, because it's what he does AFTER the EMP strike that makes you appreciate how truly evil Shido is, rather than anything he says in the next chapter.

UPDATE 5-9-2014

I was recently asked by a reader after posting this chapter today, when I'll be getting to the EMP portion of the story and why is it taking so long.

LOL, it's only a couple chapters away folks, bear with me.

As I've said before, "Last Alarm" is not a "hack and slash" fanfic.

It's a dramatic story that will have a lot of action in it, but it's more about the people in it, and I do not want to rush the story and make it less than what I feel it should be, otherwise it would have been useless for me, in my opinion, to even bother posting it here.

And as far as how the fight at Takagi Manor goes,...

Well, I am from San Antonio, and everyone who's familiar with it's history... (besides the San Antonio Spurs, I mean) has probably heard of the Battle of the Alamo, so when the time comes for that part of the story, I got a lot of ideas of how all hell is gonna break loose.

Until then, thanks again for your patience and your support! Jim

GO! SPURS! GO!