Hello! Sorry if I took so long, I just didn't have time to sit down and write, and when I had, my brother wouldn't hand me the pc *annoying sigh*. I hate having to share things with my siblings!
I'm gonna admit I was a little bit disappointed when no one said anything about Kaoru and Reiko. I thought at least someone would be exited about it. Well, I am, so I guess it's ok... *goes to Tamaki's sulking corner because no one's interested*.
Anyways, here's the chapter, hope you enjoy!
Nagisa hurried as she quickly walked across the halls of the hospital. She had being texting with Honey, not really having anything useful to do, when Karasuma-sensei called, so she had to say goodbye and rush to the hospital. It had been almost a month since the attack, and just now the attackers were waking up from their coma.
Yeah well, so maybe Nagisa had been a bit too rough on them. But they deserved it.
"Where are they?" her voice came out breathless, but steady. The bluenette wanted answers, and the only ones who could give them to her were those guys.
The Ministry guy who was guarding the door checked her ID before stepping aside, and Nagisa nodded curtly before entering, immediately closing the door behind her.
Karasuma-sensei was already there, as well as Bitch-sensei and the Ministry's head, Horite-san. So this was really serious, huh?
"Someone wants to fill me in?" she said as she walked towards them. She nodded respectfully at her boss and senseis before looking through the one-way mirror. The room was normally used for psychiatric cases, but as the patients couldn't leave the hospital, they were moved to the room, so the people outside could watch them, but they couldn't watch the outside people. It was better than having to wait until they could be discharged.
"Ah, Nagisa. We were waiting for you," Karasuma-sensei didn't smile, but he never smiled, so Nagisa had learned to read his subtle expressions (read: nonexistent). "The last one woke up an hour ago," he handed her five files, each of them for one of the bastards laying on the beds. She looked at them, finding names, ages, blood type, personal info, and their medical history. "Do you see a connection?"
The bluenette flipped over the pages, doing a quick scan. Yeap, she sure did.
"They're all from Okinawa... fucking shit, don't tell me they're part of that junkie gang I robbed the fake file from," she could hear Horite-san whistling at the bad language, but she couldn't care less about it. It actually made a lot of sense... if one weren't to take into account how the heck those guys got her identity, and even tracked her down. Non of them saw her that day, and she didn't leave any DNA, there was just no way...
"I know what you are thinking, Nagisa. And unfortunately, we think you are right. There's a mole in the Ministry," Irina glanced back at those poor guys who had the bad luck of encountering her best student. Yes, she had taught her well.
The blond saw how Nagisa's face turned of stone. She, unfortunately, knew about being betrayed, another thing the both assassins had in common. When her blue haired student looked back at her, her eyes were empty, not showing any kind of emotion.
"Do we know who?" even her voice was emotion-less, her face blank. Nagisa didn't like to show her weakness in front of others, specially when she wasn't close with them, which was the case with the Ministry's head.
"No, but we're working on it. I also called Haninozuka Yorihisa, he'll be here any second now. Until that happens, you're free to talk to them, but no violence. The doctors said they weren't stable enough to be discharged, but we want that to happen soon, so the faster they get better, the sooner they can be moved to one of the Ministry's facilities."
"Hai," Nagisa leaved the room, ready to have a talk with the bastards who dared threatening her and her friends, her family.
Nagisa entered the room with a steady pace, her blue hair contrasting in an almost painful way against the whiteness of the hospital room. There were five beds, each of them occupied by one of those idiots who thought they could kill her. They all had different levels of... damage, sort to speak, but they were all alive and awake, if a bit dozed by the anaesthesia that was still to wear off. But one of them was conscious enough to recognize her.
"You... bitch," Nagisa decided not to take that personal, as she had, in fact, kind of paralyzed the guy's right arm last time they had an encounter.
"Nice to see you too. How's that arm?" she knew that was low, but she wasn't about to be nice. She wouldn't take the bitch-thing personal, but Nagisa could be the devil's spawn if she wanted to, and that guy had pissed her off the moment he decided it was good to attack her that day at the Haninozuka's estate.
"When I'm outta here I swear I'll—"
"You'll what? Kill me? I'll like to see you try," the bluenette smiled sweetly, taking a few more steps into the room. "You see, you messed up with the wrong girl, buddy. If you're alive right now, it's not because of my bad aim, but because my boss ordered me especifically not to kill you. But believe me when I say this: I couldn't care less if you're buried ten feet underground. So don't tempt me," the patted the guy's head like she hadn't just threatened him to kill him, and then moved on to the second one. Behind her, Kotauta Katsumoto shuddered, feeling Nagisa's bloodlust still twisting and twirling around him, like a snake before striking.
When Yorihisa entered the room, he could immediately tell Nagisa had done her thing (A.K.A. scaring the fuck out of everyone with her bloodlust). She didn't use violence, non of the interns were harmed beyond what she did to them at the tournament, but they were all close to shit their pants.
"Haninozuka-san, it's been a while," Nagisa bowed, a small smile in her lips when she saw the look of the assholes' faces. "How have you been?"
"We saw each other yesterday, Nagisa-san. But I've been good for the last 24 hours, thank you," Nagisa chuckled, and Yorihisa made the beginning of a smile. It was minimum, and it looked more like a scowl than anything, but it was there.
When he turned to see the scumbag who dared attack his house, all his face showed was emptiness. He could do a pretty damn good poker-face too.
"Who sent you, and why?" he used his best intimidating voice, but that was no necessary.
"Oh, I can tell you that right now, Haninozuka-san. These are the junkies I talked to you about, the ones stupid enough to believe a Ministry package would be so poorly guarded in Okinawa. They wanted revenge, even if I didn't kill anyone and only retrieved a fake document. They got the information with you-know-who, and found out who I was. The rest, as you already know, is history. No one died, unfortunately. Thought I could get away with the last one, but I guess I'm too good at what I do," Nagisa said swiftly, not missing a beat as she debriefed the situation to him, and he nodded in understanding.
Of course, Yorihisa didn't have a clue of what she was talking about. Junkies? What junkies? And what was all that about a fake document, and 'you-know-who'? Some Tom Riddle imitator of some sorts?
But what he did know, was Nagisa's strategy. If he looked like he knew about what she was talking about, then they would talk too.
"How did you know it was Akai? He told us no one suspected anything, that it was all right," the only woman in the group, named Himara Ichigo, looked frantically at her companions, probably to find out if someone had talked to get a better deal with the Ministry, but they all wore the same expression. Yorihisa could see how Nagisa flicked a finger towards the one-way glass wall, probably asking one of the Ministry workers to write that down. Clever.
"Well, you have your ways, and I have mine. Don't be so tense, it's bad for your leg," Nagisa threw a shameless, malicious wink, and Yorihisa got a glimpse of how devious the bluenette could be. She was perfect for the family, he thought distractedly for a second.
In the end, those idiots told them everything they knew. Unfortunately, that wasn't much to get by.
When Nagisa and Yorihisa were back at the other side of the wall, Nagisa sighed.
"Whoever's behind this's doing a good job covering their tracks," the other in the room nodded, except for Yorihisa. Hadn't they gotten a name already? "Akai has enough rank to know about me, but he's not even close to know about what I do. I have a higher rank than him, actually. Someone else told him, one of the big ones," that was a pretty serious statement, but when no one contradicted her, Yorihisa knew she wasn't messing around.
So, the Ministry had a mole placed on the higher ranks, maybe more than one. Well, that was certainly bad.
'When Mitsukuni gets a hold of this information...' Yorihisa couldn't help but to look back at Nagisa, who was chewing on her lower lip. Well, maybe she would have to tell him about that part of her life sooner than she had planned too.
Kaoru and Hikaru looked around. The neighborhood they were at was... so unlike what they had expected. First of all, the Akabanes were rich, enough to pay tuition in Ouran, and to land in class B, even A, so even if their son wasn't living at the main estate, they had more than enough to pay for a nice, better place. Secondly, after seeing Nagisa's and Haruhi's... well, they kind of thought all commoners areas were as nice as those. Evidently, they were wrong.
First of all, it was dirty. But like, really dirty. There were plastic bags all around the street, some unknown fluids that neither Hikaru nor Kaoru wanted to investigate any further, and the place in general looked like it needed an extensive clean up. The walls were mostly all graffiti and spray paint, and there were a lot of empty bottles just laying around. In fact, there were also people laying around too. None of the twins wanted to know why some of them weren't moving.
But what made them truly realize they weren't even near Haruhi's lifestyle, was the darkness. It was plain day, only four in the evening, but the air felt... dangerous. The six different locks on Karma's door only proved it. When he let them come inside his house, he looked tense, giving a glace at the car that was already leaving the street, and then around the neighborhood, probably making sure there was no one snooping.
"Make yourselves at home, I guess. I don't know what you wanted to talk with me, but... well, here I am," Karma didn't know what to think about the whole situation. The day before, just when he was getting ready to sleep after an extensive 'study session' with Asano (which means they saw a movie and criticized the actors during the whole film because, boy did they act poorly), he had gotten a text from those twins. They wanted to meet to talk about something, but Karma couldn't imagine why.
Well, there was one option, but... no, there was no way. That was so long ago they must've forgot about it, right?
Right?
The twins just nodded, looking around the apartment. It was smaller than Nagisa's, they noted, but it was pretty cleaned up. Nothing like how it looked on the outside, that was for sure. But why would he live at such a place when he had the Akabane estate? It was certainly more comfortable that... whatever that place was.
"Why the locks?" asked Kaoru, sitting on the couch, still looking around. Hikaru was wandering near the kitchen.
Karma, who had just finished with said locks, smirked, amused by the question.
"Well, do you know where we are? This is one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in Tokyo, man. I can take those idiots outside, but I like my apartment like it is right now. Tea? Coffee? I don't have any of that fancy stuff you have, but my cups match," Kaoru smiled looking down. He was just like he remembered him to be.
"Don't worry, commoners coffee's great," answered Hikaru for the both of them, and Karma hummed in response, entering the kitchen. Hikaru sat besides his brother and nodded. It was definitely him.
When Karma came back with three cups filled up with coffee, he let the tray on the table and sat down on one of the arm chairs.
"So... what do you needed to tell me so badly you had to text me at three in the fucking morning?" the redhead crossed his arms, reclining on the armchair. He had a feeling the conversation might take a while.
"I think you already know the answer to that question, Akabane," Hikaru tilted his head, and Kaoru followed suit, as Karma frowned.
"Karma," the reaction was immediate, almost an impulse. He hated being called by his last name. But he hated more what the Akabane name brought with it. What it brought to him. "How'd you notice? It's been almost four years."
"At first we didn't. You were just a vaguely familiar name. But then we asked our mother, and she told us you were the same Akabane that was heir to an international multi-billion bank chain. The same that was our only friend back in elementary schoo,." the words were meant to hurt, Karma knew it, he could see it in the twins eyes as Kaoru spoke.
"Well, I was hoping nobody would remember me, but I guess I should have known it would happen when Nagisa told me she would attend Ouran," Karma sighed. Part of him knew it would go down to that conversation when he saw the twins that day at Nagisa's club room. It was inevitable, wasn't it? "I assume you have questions. About why I left?"
"Damn right we have! You told us you would go to the Swiss Alps for holidays and that you would tell us everything about it the first day of class..." started Hikaru, a scowl quickly forming on his face.
"And then you never came back," Kaoru, unlike his twin brother, wore a calm expression. An empty expression. That, Karma thought, was even worse than Hikaru's anger.
The former assassin just stared at his old friends, now nothing more than mere acquaintances. They, alongside Nagisa, were the first true friends he ever made. And he had just abandoned them when he got the chance.
"I was going to come back, you know? I really was. But my parents... well, I barely know them. My dad and I fight every time we talk, we don't even need to see each other, a phone call's enough. My mom... she's better, but not even near better enough to make me want to stay. While we were on summer break, I... I thought about attending this middle school, Kunugigaoka. They had this extra classes I really wanted to try, and I didn't even need to attend there, I could enroll at the after classes while attending Ouran. But my dad laughed at my face and said no the moment I opened my mouth. My mom didn't do anything to make him listen. And then I locked myself in my hotel room for the rest of the week, until we came back to Japan," Karma's expression was off, like he was lost in his memories. "Two weeks before class started, I send my application letter to Kunugigaoka. And when my father found out I was accepted, and that I had withdrawn myself from Ouran, he hit me. That was the day I left the estate."
The room stayed silent after that. The only ones who knew about that were Nagisa and Gakushuu. He had never told anyone else, and no one ever asked. Her middle school friends knew he came from a pretty rich family, but never asked why he lived in a place like that one, or why he never talked about his parents. They knew how tough life could be, and were waiting for him to tell them on his own. And he would. He just... he just needed a little more time.
"He hit you?" Hikaru's voice cut the silence like a blade. The angered frown was still there, but it wasn't directed towards Karma anymore, so he guessed he was saved for the moment. "But... but he's your father, he can't..."
"That's the thing. He surely can, and he surely did," Karma smiled cynically, looking at his shoes. "Not all of us have a loving mother who always makes time for their sons even when she's busy, and a father that loves his children no matter how little time he can spend with them."
Karma craved that. A mother and a father who cared for him enough to visit more than once a year, who didn't let him live next door with drug dealers, and that at least bothered to sound interested about how his life was going while they were talking on the phone.
Korosensei had been that figure. He was the first one who truly cared, the one who always had time for him when he needed it. He was the one who taught him about making the right choices, the one who made him grow so much in so little time. He was the one who showed Karma how it felt to be loved unconditionally. Karasuma-sensei and Bitch-sensei were a good replacement, he wasn't going to deny that, but they would never be Korosensei. No one would ever be able to fill that hole in Karma's heart.
Because for Karma, Korosensei hadn't been just his teacher and his target. He had been, and would always be, the father he always wanted.
And Karma killed him.
"You could have told us. You were our only friend, and when you never showed up... well, we went back to being antisocial people. Tono was the one who dragged us out again, and he's the only reason we have friends now. But it took him months," Kaoru's voice was only a whisper, but everybody in the room got what he said.
"I'm sorry. But I... I just couldn't get back. That would meant I was just accepting my father's orders, and that will always make me sick. I'm sorry."
"You could always come back now, you know? Everybody would welcome you in Ouran, and if you're as smart as I remember, you could be in the same class as Nagisa," Hikaru said, looking somewhat hopeful.
"I'm not sure I wanna get back, Hikaru," the Hitachiins flinched when Karma got them right. Karma noticed, but decided not to say anything. "Here, where almost no one knows who I am, I can do whatever the hell I want to. That's more than I could do while I was under the spotlight. Everyone was always watching, waiting for me to make the wrong move. It was... suffocating. I already have a life here."
"That's... understandable. But don't leave again. Maybe we're not close anymore, but it would be nice to get that friendship back," Kaoru then smiled for the first time in the whole conversation, and Karma knew it would work out.
"I think I would like that too."
Yorihisa offered to give Nagisa a ride to his house. Nagisa, as she didn't really have anything better to do, and knowing everything was better than to be alone in her apartment watching a 'Friends' marathon with a whole bucket of ice cream for herself knowing her love life sucked, said yes. She could spend some time with Kasuki-san, and maybe use the dojo? That would be nice, Karasuma-sensei was still a little reticent to let her train at the Ministry, so every single move she did, even breathing, was monitored by him, like he thought she would turn into dust any moment.
'Okay, that was a bad joke. I need to stop spending so much time with Karma.' that was her life now: making jokes about Marvel movies to ser subconscious. Sushi lord, she was in trouble.
Of course, Nagisa's train of thought broke when she saw a figure standing near the house's door. The bluenette really hadn't expected Honey seeing as she got out of the car with his father.
Holly crap.
"Nagisa? What were you doing with... my father?" Mitsukuni didn't know if to be mad, confused, of just horrified. Maybe a bit of everything?
"H-Honey! I... it's definitely not what you're thinking it is," so Nagisa was panicking. Okay... this was not supposed to happen.
"Then what is it? Because you're reaction only tells me I'm right," just the thought of Nagisa being with his father... and they seemed closed, they were talking and smiling. His father never smiled!
'Maybe Chika wasn't wrong when he said there was an alien living with us...'
"No! No, that's like, too disturbing, please stop," Nagisa shook her head, trying to get the upcoming thoughts out of her mind. "No, I just ran into him when I was heading out form the Ministry, and he offered me a ride here because I wanted to talk with your mom," that was a total lie, and Nagisa really felt bad for lying. But she couldn't tell him the truth, not yet. She wasn't ready.
"Oh... oh. That actually makes a lot more sense," now Mitsukuni felt bad for making assumptions of that sorts. "I'm sorry, but I really thought you and my father..."
"No! Sushi lord, no! What is it that you have in your head to have such weird thoughts? I would never be... oh, for the love of... and with your father, of all people. It's hilarious that you are saying that, because how could I have an... affair, or something with your father... I couldn't possibly think of doing that to your family," Nagisa was actually a little hurt, but she let it go because... well, it was odd that she had stepped out of Yorihisa Haninozuka's car.
"I... I'm sorry Nagisa. I was totally out of line, and didn't think about what I said," Mitsukuni lowered his head, watching intensely at his shoes, no wanting to face Nagisa. Kami, he was a total idiot. How could he had ever doubted her at all?
"Hey. It's okay, everyone makes mistakes, don't beat yourself up for this. Just... next time, don't make assumptions and just ask, okay?" the blue haired girl lifted his chin, making him look at her. She was smiling softly, and she placed a kiss on his cheek.
"But I... I literally just accused you of sleeping with my father," he just couldn't believe it. Was she just going to forget all about it? He knew he wouldn't. Probably no one else would. But Nagisa was, and that only made her even more amazing.
"You made a mistake. That's all, don't dwell on it that much. Besides, it's not like I could be really mad at you," Nagisa dismissed the whole thing with a wave of her hand, like it was nothing.
"Why not?" what did Mitsukuni had that made him so special to her eyes? Why was he so... special?
Of course, it wasn't the first time someone did that, and it certainly wouldn't be the last. He was a part of the Host Club after all, it kind of went with his job description. But Nagisa... she actually made him feel like the most important person on Earth, and that was quite something, giving that he went to school with some of the next people who would rule the world.
Mitsukuni snapped out of his own thoughts with Nagisa's words.
"Because I'm so in love with you it's actually painful, I couldn't be really mad at you even if I tried. I mean..." Nagisa's voice died when she realized what she did. Mitsukuni was staring at her with wide eyes, his chin almost touching the stone path.
"Na-Nagisa?" Mitsukuni blurted out, still processing her words. Had she just... confessed? To him, Haninozuka Mitsukuni? Was it real? He really hoped it was, because if it was a dream he would be so disappointed.
"Please tell me I didn't say that out loud. Please Honey, tell me didn't say that," her eyes shut closed, hands clenched into fists, her knuckles white from the force with which she was squeezing her hands.
"Y-You... you love me?" the idea was so strange, so impossible, he actually had a difficult time trying to remember how to properly talk. His mind was frozen, and at the same time it was working ten times faster than usual. He could—in a recondite part of his mind, reason what was going on. Nagisa had confessed. To him. Okay, that part of him could deal with it. Bur the rest of his mind was just freaking out, not knowing what the fuck to do, because oh shit Nagisa just said she loves me, what am I supposed to do?!
So that was the reason he didn't stop Nagisa when she ran away, tears rolling down her cheeks. He just stood there still. Only fifteen minutes later he realized, he had just let go the love of his life, and that probably he had lost his only chance to tell her how he felt.
And then, he cried too.
So... a lot of things happened this chapter. We now know who the attackers were, but is seems like this is only the beginning of it! And Karma's relationship with the twins is finally revealed! Did you expected that? And Karma's background information?
But more important: did you imagine that was going to be the way Nagisa confessed? And what will Honey do now? I'm actually exited about next chapter, I'll let you know. I've been planning what's next for a while now, and I think you'll like it... I hope.
Anyways, see you next chapter!
Stay safe! Kudos!
Pato