I apologize in advance for any errors, whether spelling or grammatical that I did not catch. This was a particularly difficult chapter to write. I actually scrapped two drafts and started over completely twice. This is the third and final draft with lots of editing. I've wrote and rewrote, read and reread until all of the words are running together and look the same. I hope it all turned out okay in the end. Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoy.
By the way, thank you to SaberNymph and Krusty Cheetahs for the recent reviews. I was ready to give up and quit writing this story because it seemed no one liked it or cared to read it any longer. Thanks to everyone who reviewed in the past as well. Forgive me for not letting you know how much I appreciated your reviews and acknowledgement. Thank you to the followers as well.
So with all of that being said, on with the chapter...
"Time to go!" Mitch Garrison yelled from downstairs, projecting his deep voice through the house until the windows rattled in their panes.
"Good, God," Miyu gasped, almost dropping the half full cup of wine.
Kuki took the goblet from her. Before setting it down on the dresser, he finished off the wine. Something about the event to come set every nerve in his body on edge.
"Are you ready for this?" he asked Miyu.
She closed her eyes, inhaling deeply. When she opened them, her warm amber irises had come alight as if the wine had kindled an inner spark inside of her. Her lips stretched into a pleasant smile that helped ease his apprehension. No matter what happened tonight, she would be just fine.
"I'm ready," she stated resolutely.
"Let's go before the thunder god yells again," he joked, holding out his hand for her.
"I thought he was Captain America," she shot back.
Kuki loved her quick wit. He had missed her wry sense of humor the last few weeks as her health deteriorated. When she took his hand, Kuki squeezed her icy fingers to reassure her. He pulled her forward, kissing her lips, tasting the spiced wine on them. Lightheaded, he rocked back on his heels.
"Are you okay?" Miyu asked, her eyebrows drawing together with concern.
"I'm fine. You just have that affect on me," he said, slipping her arm through his to escort her downstairs.
"Well, well, the Princess has arrived," her father announced as they made their way down the stairway.
"Oh, Dad," she huffed, rolling her eyes.
Mitch Garrison was also dressed in one of the loose white linen outfits. Apparently this was the official ceremonial dress which made Kuki wonder if all of the women were dressed like Miyu.
He did not have to wonder long when the front door opened to reveal Eliza and three other women standing on the front porch. They were all covered head to toe in burgundy cloaks that dragged the wooden planks, the big hoods covering their faces. From under the hoods, he could see the yellow of their eyes glowing softly. The color reminded him of the color of caution lights on traffic signals. Proceed carefully.
The women turned away to descend the steps to the rock path, their hands held palms together in front of their chests as if they were praying. They began chanting as they moved forward with Eliza in the front to lead the small processional to the ritual site.
In the middle of the little village a massive bonfire burned, illuminating the night sky with a reddish glow. Women dressed in white gossamer gowns styled like the one Miyu wore danced around the fire. They waved branches of burning sage that filled the air with a white, fragrant smoke creating a cloud which gave the scene a surreal appearance.
Everyone else sat on the ground in a larger ring encompassing the fire and the dancers. An adults only affair, not a single small child or even a teenager were in attendance.
Dr. Vida Burrell sat on a pallet of blankets propped up by stacks of pillows behind her back and around her sides. She massaged her belly while talking to the woman sitting beside her. The woman placed her hand on Vida's distended abdomen then nodded giving the impression of being the midwife and that Vida was in labor. Why the woman at the ceremony if her baby was on the way?
Everett Burrell, her gargantuan husband, stood behind her. Rather than being attentive to his wife, his eyes darted around carefully observing each person in turn. When his eyes spotted the small processional walking toward the fire, he craned his neck, swaying back and forth, until he could see Miyu through the group of shrouded women.
Kuki felt Miyu tighten her arm around his, pressing his upper arm between her breasts as she pushed her body into his. He placed his hand over hers, patting it to reassure her. A shiver ran through her body vibrating him all the way to his insides. He could not be sure if she was nervous or cold. Most likely both.
The women in front of them chanted louder, their voices creating a low, static hum. More voices began to join in when they reached the group. People separated to create a gap in the circle for them to walk through before moving back to close the space.
"The circle shall remain unbroken," the two men who had moved apart said as if to undo any perceived damage by breaking formation.
The chanting transformed into singing as the others joined in, many voices combining to make a lilting harmony almost like a lullaby.
Kuki could not understand the words because they were foreign to him, most likely from an ancient language dead to the rest of the world carried through the centuries in their traditions. Suddenly he felt like an interloper as if he had stumbled across some arcane ritual not meant for those who were not part of this clandestine colony.
Breathing became difficult, the air thick and heavy. Gravity seemed to change too, pressing down on him. He felt like he was under water and drowning. The singing grew louder, deafening. Everything in his vision blurred and wavered like heat waves rising from the pavement in summer.
Miyu was pulled away from him. He reached for her, teetering uncertainly before falling to his knees. He continued falling forward, putting out his hands to land on all fours to avoid planting his face into the brown crunchy grass. Raising his head took effort but he needed to know where Miyu had been taken.
The women had removed their cloaks and encompassed her, holding hands as they continued their incantations as if performing a magic spell. Miyu attempted to break the circle but the women's arms would not budge to allow her to pass. They began to shove her like schoolyard bullies, bumping her back and forth among them by using their linked arms like a slingshot.
"Stop." Instead of yelling, the word weakly eeked out of Kuki's mouth barely above a whisper. "What are you doing to her?"
Eliza broke the circle but the remaining women held hands to mend it. She walked over to Kuki, bending down in front of him to speak.
"You should have never come here. You don't belong here. You are an outsider. We practice the ancient ways of our pagan ancestors. We are the children of the earth goddess and gods of the mountains. Your interference will not be tolerated," she hissed, withdrawing a small crooked dagger from the pouch at her waist.
"What are you doing?" Mitch demanded, coming to stand next to Kuki. He reached down to lift the floundering man to his feet, holding him up.
"He shouldn't be here, Mitch," she said, tucking the little knife back into the pouch.
"I allowed him to stay for Miyu's sake. She needs him. Go finish the ritual, Eliza," he commanded her.
Anger laced with pure hatred flashed in her eyes as she glowered at her husband. Nodding dutifully, she stood up and returned to her ring.
"What's going on? Why do I feel so weak?" Kuki asked Mitch.
"Did you drink the wine?" he inquired.
"Yes."
"Dammit. There was a potion in there to weaken Miyu, to make her body and spirit more accepting so she would not resist the cleansing."
"Are you sure about that? Sure it wasn't poison? Besides, why was that necessary?"
"I-I d-don't kn-know," Mitch stuttered uncertainly, his eyes going to his wife. "I'm afraid I don't know about these things. They're always handled by the women."
"How much do you trust your wife?" Kuki asked him.
"Well, I - "
Before he could answer, Miyu screamed. She dropped to her knees, her chin falling against her chest. She stayed in a kneeling position, not moving a muscle.
Everything stopped. All movement and sound ceased. An eerie stillness settled over the group of people. Only the pop and crackle of burning wood disturbed the ever thickening atmosphere.
Miyu slowly raised her face toward the moon. Her white skin was tinted blue from the muted light of the moon, mirroring its image like the moon mirrored the sun. Her lips slid back from her teeth revealing elongated canine teeth on top and bottom. The nails on her hands had extended into thick, black claws that dug into the earth at her knees where her fingers curled against the grass. She had not grown a snout or fur but she definitely looked like a wolf.
So this was it. This was the part of her she had been so afraid of showing him. He had seen far worse and a whole lot uglier when fighting transformed ghouls.
Kuki held his breath as her fangs gradually separated when she opened her mouth. His entire body winced in response to the loud howl ejected from her gaping maw. The sound made his insides quake and his ears hurt but he could not raise his arms to block out the noise by covering his ears with his hands.
When Miyu ceased baying at the moon, soft grunts and groans could be heard coming Vida. The midwife had positioned herself between the woman's legs. The time had come for the baby to born. Rather than staying with his wife, Everett stealthily slipped around the outer edge of the large circle.
What is he doing?, Kuki contemplated, keeping his bleary eyes on the man.
The infernal chanting started again in the small circle. Other voices joined in, the sound growing louder. Singing and chanting simultaneously, voices chasing each other in a roundabout, the words and melodies tripping and falling over one another to create a maddening cacophony.
Paralyzed, unable to move or speak, Kuki observed her body convulse before she offered another bone rattling yowl to the moon. He felt himself being lowered to the ground by her father as Everett appeared and ducked under the arms of two of the women, penetrating the ring without breaking it. A flash of moonlight glinted silver off the blade of the dagger when Everett withdrew it from the pouch at Eliza's waist.
Kuki tried to move again, to activate his kakugan. Pain sliced through his brain, making his vision darken as if a shade had been drawn over his eyes. A dull throbbing was left behind, and he was sure he could feel his brain pulsating in his skull. He fell forward, his face hitting the soft grass and releasing the verdant scent of the tender green shoots hiding underneath being crushed beneath his cheek.
Kuki blinked, his vision slowly clearing. He saw Everett pick Miyu up from the ground, her body limp and lifeless as if she were a rag-doll - or dead. He could see her ghostly pale face as the man held her against his body, her back to his chest.
Miyu lifted her head, barely able to move. Sedated by the drugged wine no doubt. Unable to offer an real resistance against the man who held a knife to her neck, she halfheartedly clawed at his arm with long black nails hardly scratching him. Everett whispered in her ear, and she grimaced.
Miyu went limp, her body sliding from Everett's grasp. On her knees in front of him, she punched him in the knee, breaking his kneecap as evidenced by the resounding crack echoing through the air. He yowled in pain, releasing a sound very much like the howl she had unleashed earlier, as he fell to the ground onto his good knee. Jumping to her feet, she was as tall as the man kneeling in front of her.
With one of his massive bear like hands, Everett slapped her, knocking her out of the ring but not breaking the bond of the women's clutched hands.
Miyu landed on her back with an audible 'oof' when the air was pushed from her lungs. She struggled to push herself up before dropping back into her prone position, sucking in air with raspy wheezing gasps.
"Stay down. Goddammit, Miyu, just stay down," Everett said to her as he crawled toward her.
Kuki fought against the crushing gravity pressing him into the grass. That damn chanting was driving him insane, creating a buzz in head that rattled his brain making it bounce around inside his skull. He placed his palms against the ground, pushing up. The muscles in his arms ached and burned. His arms shook then gave way as if an invisible hand smashed him back down into the grass.
Why the hell wasn't any of these other people doing anything to help? Maybe they were paralyzed and incapacitated like him, unable to move due to the spell being cast by the succubi forming the dark prayer circle. They might be summoning the power of their precious mystical predecessors to keep the onlookers still. Or perhaps the members of the colony willingly stood by, bound by loyalty which prevented them from interfering.
If Kuki were a normal person, he would be shocked and awed by this freaky spectacle of magic and witchcraft. Yet he already knew there were things beyond human understanding because he had become one of those things when he opted to become a ghoul. Although his departure from being a plain man came by way of mad science and hers by centuries of occultic knowledge and breeding, he still did not find himself astounded and overwhelmed by the preternatural happenings here.
"Everett! The baby's coming! Free the guardian spirit," Vida yowled, adding to the insanity of the situation.
"I'm sorry, Miyu," Everett apologized, holding the knife to Miyu's throat. The moonlight turned the tears gathering at the corner of his eyes into shiny pearls while luminescence of a brilliant blue light covered the deep black irises.
"I'm sorry too," she apologized. Her voice sounded deep, somewhat masculine, reverberating as if another voice had been transposed over hers.
Everett pressed the knife to Miyu's throat, but she kicked up her leg. Her knee hit him in the back of the head to send him flying over her to land on his belly like a seal. Rising onto all fours, spinning around on one knee, he grabbed her throat with a single hand, squeezing. Standing up, he lifted her from the ground using his one hand around her neck.
Dammit this is infuriating!, Kuki seethed inwardly, unable to move to go to her. Why the fuck won't my body move?!
Miyu's legs flailed pitifully in the air, almost comically if the situation had been different. Finally, she gathered her scattered wits, kicking forward with purpose and striking Everett in the chest. He stumbled back a few steps but did not fall or let her go.
Everett growled, the sound a deep rumbling from his chest. His lips separated showing his fangs. His long black talons bit into the tender skin of her neck. Rivulets of ruby red blood flowed down her neck as the sharp nails pierced her delicate skin.
"Everett! Kill her!" ordered Vida.
Fury erupted inside of Kuki, sending him to his feet. Pushing through the gravity threatening to compress him into the earth and the pain about to grind his brain into a pile of mush, he crawled toward her. He cried out from the excruciating pain but pushed forward anyway, each movement draining his already depleted strength.
Kuki incited his kakugan, feeling the veins rise around his eyes as adrenaline infused blood flooded the area turning his iris from slate gray to blood red and his sclera to a black as dark as the night sky above. The pain returned to savagely stab his brain repeatedly, but he didn't care. He needed to get to her. A wet warmth trickled from his nose and his eyes, and he tasted the metallic tang of blood in his mouth.
"What the hell are you doing, Eliza?!" Mitch bellowed.
"Miyu must die! It has to be done! We have to take back the guardian to protect us!" Eliza shrilled, withdrawing another dagger from her pouch.
Mitch grabbed his wife, snatching her away from the circle of women. He shook her by the shoulders, yelling her name repeatedly in her face until the hazy gray shield turning her eyes a milky, sickly yellow cleared. Suddenly it was as if the spell they had cast was shattered.
"I told you not to interfere," Eliza snarled.
"No, don't!" Kuki shouted when the woman thrust the knife into her husband's belly. He turned to assist his soon to be father-in-law. "NO!"
"Her!" Mitch yelled, pointing at Miyu. "Go to her!"
Kuki could move freely, swiftly since the pain had vanished and the crushing pressure lifted. But it was too little too late. He ran toward Everett, but he was not going to make it.
"Kill her, you stupid oaf! Now!" Vida shrieked.
Kuki lunged toward Everett as he dragged the knife across Miyu's throat. Ruby red blood appeared in a straight line across the delicate ivory skin of her tender neck.
"No! NO!" Kuki yelled, seizing the man's hand. "You bastard!"
He watched helplessly as she crumpled to the ground. Fear rushed a second shot of adrenaline through his system. Fueled by his mounting anger, he squeezed Everett's wrist hearing the unmistakable sound of cracking bone then feeling the unpleasant grinding as the shattered bones rubbed together.
Everett howled in agony making an ear shattering sound not unlike the one Miyu had unleashed earlier. Vida screamed, punctuating the confusing racket with her high pitched shriek.
"Everett! Something is wrong!" the midwife shouted over the din of noise. "The baby isn't coming."
Everett glanced down at Miyu then at Kuki.
"Take care of her. She's not dead," he stated flatly before going to his laboring wife.
Kuki dropped to his knees beside Miyu, lifting her upper body with an arm behind her shoulders. He carefully tilted back her head to examine her throat.
Although difficult to determine the extent of the wound through the blood, he could tell it had already stopped bleeding. Wiping away the blood with the sleeve of his shirt, he could then see that it was only a superficial cut. Everett had purposely cut through the skin only deep enough to nick the veins but staying away from the arteries. The man never meant to kill her at all.
"Kuki?" Her eyes popped open. Her teeth had shrunk back to their normal size. "What happened?" she inquired, blinking in confusion.
"Oh, god, Miyu," Kuki sighed in relief, pressing his forehead to her cheek as he gather her into his arms.
A scream, sharp and long, pierced the cold night air and his eardrums, sending a bone chilling shudder down his spine. That was no mere cry resulting from labor pains. The cry had been a combination of physical pain, emotional betrayal, and the resignation to oncoming death.
Then another cry filled the air: the mewling cries of a newborn child. The sound of innocence and new life cleaned the tainted air, whisking away the stench of treachery and malice, lifting the oppressive atmosphere. The clear, cool night transformed into a celebration of life and renewal like it should have been.
Miyu panted in Kuki's arms, inhaling the brisk, cleansing air still scented with the sage meant to remove all evil and negative energy. At last, for lack of a better term, the bad vibes were gone.
"Vida's dying," Mitch announced, coming to stand over his daughter. "And thankfully, you are not."
"Dad - " She began, her voice faltering when she saw the blood seeping through his fingers pressed to the center of his abdomen. "Dad! What happened?"
Kuki assisted Miyu to her feet. He silently watched as she hugged her father then checked the wound on his belly through the tear in his shirt.
"It's not bad. I'll be fine. My body is already healing. We should get you to the house," he said, pushing the loose strands of hair away from her face. "How do you feel?"
"All things considered," she sighed, looking up at him with a smile, "pretty good. I don't feel like I'm dying anymore."
"Good," he sighed, bending down to kiss her forehead. He hissed from the pain when his contracting abdominal muscles pulled at the edges of the stab wound.
"I have to go to Vida. I need to help her cross over," Miyu said.
"What? What are you - " Kuki tried to interrupt but her father placed a hand on his chest, shaking his head as he met his gaze.
"Another one of our traditions. A death rite. Like the Catholics and the blessing given by the priest over a dying person to send them to heaven," her father explained.
"Couldn't Everett perform the rite?"
"Yes, but sometimes watching poetic justice in action is satisfying. Don't you think so?"
Kuki could not disagree. He watched as Miyu went to Vida, kneeling beside her. He could see Everett stolidly sitting beside his dying wife holding their child protectively. The man had slit open the woman's belly to save his child. Sometimes unpleasant sacrifices had to be made to preserve life.
Miyu's teeth extended into fangs before she lowered her mouth to the woman's neck. Vida gasped, her half closed eyes widening into great big circles. Her yellow irises filled with terror and agony. Her mouth opened as if she intended to scream but no sound came forth. The radiant amber glow faded until all the light, her life force itself, was extinguished.
Miyu carefully lowered the dead woman back onto the pillows, covering her body including her face with the quilt that had been draped across her legs.
"Thank you," Everett murmured, holding his daughter wrapped in a hand knit pink blanket close to his chest.
Miyu nodded without saying a word, rising to her feet to walk away. Kuki did not like the expression in her eyes. Their golden light was icy, devoid of the warmth and kindness he was accustomed to seeing there. There was no remorse, no anger, no emotion of any kind.
"We should go to the house," she said, her voice as bereft of emotion as her eyes.
As they were walking away, Kuki noticed Eliza lying still on the ground. Her tousled blond hair splayed around her head like an indecent golden halo. Her head lay tilted at an obscene angle, her eyes staring unblinking at the moon. A small trickle of blood from the corner of her mouth was the only other indication that an act of impassioned violence had ended her life.
Kuki could only guess that it was Mitch Garrison himself who had killed the woman in retaliation for trying to murder his daughter. Drastic events had driven these men to kill their wives.
He gulped as he glanced at Miyu's ramrod straight back while she walked ahead of him. Could he ever do the same to her should dire circumstances arise? What would constitute such an extreme event he would have to do such a terrible thing? Hopefully he would never have to know.
"So what now?" Kuki queried as they entered the house.
"Miyu, go upstairs and take a shower," her father gently ordered her.
"O-okay," she stammered, wanting to question him but not doing so due to the firm but kind insistence in his voice.
Kuki watched her as she padded soundlessly up the wooden stairs. He assumed the man wanted to talk to him about a serious subject since he sent his daughter away so quickly.
"Come with me," Mitch said, walking toward the kitchen.
This reminded Kuki of the first night night they met. A nervous flutter made his tummy ripple, but he took a cue from Miyu and complied without argument. She had always been incredibly smart and intuitive in that respect, knowing when and how to pick her battles.
"Tonight we're going to wash off this shit and try to get past what happened here," Mitch proclaimed, as much for his own benefit as Kuki's. "We're going to get a good night's sleep and wake up tomorrow to face another day with smiles on our faces."
That statement meant a lot coming from the man who would have to explain to his children why their mother was dead. Also he somehow had the feeling Mitch would be saying good-bye to his oldest child permanently after this catastrophic event that could tear apart his colony.
"Okay. That sounds reasonable. I completely agree," Kuki said.
Mitch Garrison set out the various implements to employ the pour over method for brewing coffee his daughter favored. Obviously they viewed the meticulous, unnecessarily laborious method as calming, seeking comfort in the carefully measured steps.
At the moment, Kuki Urie took comfort in it as well having seen Miyu perform the fussy practice many times; more than he could count at this point in their relationship.
"You two should leave as soon as possible. For her safety," Mitch said, handing Kuki a cup of black coffee.
"I couldn't agree more."
Mitch sighed loudly. He took a sip of his coffee from his world's best dad mug. The weirdness and irony of it all made Kuki want to laugh, but he pushed down the urge because laughter would be incredibly inappropriate at this time.
"I don't say these words lightly, but she should never come back here. I will miss her. She is my first baby girl after all," he said, his voice echoing the sadness evident on his wan face.
"Speaking of baby girls, what will happen to Vida and Everett's baby?" Kuki inquired.
"Everett will raise her. With the help of everyone in the colony. It takes a village they say," he murmured as if deep in thought.
"What the hell happened out there tonight, Mitch?"
"Honestly, I'm not sure. My best guess would be that Vida was attempting a soul transference."
"What does that mean?"
"She was attempting to steal Miyu's very soul, her thoughts and emotions...the essence of her very being, to implant it into her child. She wanted the guardian spirit," Mitch said, refilling their cups from the decanter full of coffee.
"Yeah," Kuki muttered, burying his nose in the steam of his cup. The aroma of the coffee pushed away the nausea bubbling up inside of him. "What was the point of Miyu sucking Vida's blood to end her life?"
"She drained Vida of all the negative emotions eating her up inside. The animosity, the spitefulness, all of the things that had darkened and tainted her spirit."
Kuki gasped in astonished recognition when the flashes of Miyu's past she had shared with him through telepathy returned to him. The sight of her wolf like teeth, the wound on Kaneki's neck, the blood. She had attacked him attempting to suck out all the bad that had been instilled in him. She tried to remove the murderous intent, the blind fury, the hatred and vengeance that drove him.
Her efforts had enabled Kaneki, although only for a short time, to become the gentle and kind investigator Haise Sasaki. In that moment she had buried Ken Kaneki under layers of contrived emotions and memories. That was also the exact same moment, Kaneki had tried to kill her to prevent her from destroying him completely.
Vida, however, had been given no choice but to die. Yet in the end, it was the woman's own fault she had met such a tragic and pointless demise.
"Fuck," Kuki muttered under his breath. He then realized her father was still talking.
"She did so that Vida's spirit would not be cursed to wander the earth forever," her father was saying.
"Like a ghost?" he asked, pretending he had been paying attention instead of making a revelation about Miyu's past and her ties to Ken Kaneki. His understanding of the situation was deeper and less trifling than he put on.
"Oversimplified in terms, but yes," her father affirmed, pausing to drink his coffee. "Don't worry about Miyu. She'll be fine. Her body will heal itself. I'm sure she's up there throwing up all that bad shit now."
"What about her emotional state?" Kuki asked. "I don't like what I saw in her eyes afterward."
Mitch set his cup down on the counter, staring at Kuki.
"What did you see?"
"Nothing. That was the problem. She should have been sad. In the past, she would have cried. Guilt would have eaten her alive. Like you said, she has always felt things so deeply. Even killing a bug could bring her to tears," Kuki said.
No longer would he laugh at her when she burst into tears after smashing a roach with the newspaper. He regretted ever doing so at this time. She was never weak or silly. She simply felt too much, and sometimes those feelings became more than she could handle. But tonight she had felt nothing at all, and that disturbed him.
"She was just numb. That's all. Her mind was doing what it needed to do to save itself from insanity. Don't worry. She'll be fine come tomorrow," Mitch assured Kuki. "But in the future, she will require an anchor, a heart to return to so she can regain her emotional center. That is where you will come in. Tell me again, do you love her?"
"We've been over this."
"Remind me," Mitch insisted gruffly. "Make me believe it."
"Yes. I love her."
"Do you accept her? Every part of her? Even the parts that scare the hell out of you?"
"Yes," Kuki answered quickly and easily.
"How can you be so sure? I can see in your eyes you're still struggling to come to terms with what you witnessed tonight," Mitch accused, challenging him with his direct eye contact.
"Yes, I am still struggling to make sense of everything I saw tonight," he confessed. A lot had occurred in the short span of time. "But I love her and accept every part of her. I can say those words with all confidence because, sir, she knew everything about me and loved me anyway. She knew the monster inside of me but accepted it even before she said hello. That means everything in the world to me and is what made me love her in the first place." Kuki paused to take a steadying breath. "Yes, I'm confused and frankly, a little bit frightened because I discovered a part of her that is not so different than the ghoul inside of me. Maybe that's what bothers the most. She's not as different from me as I had once thought."
"Okay then. You are a good man, Kuki Urie. I give you my daughter to love and protect for the rest of your life."
"Are you giving us your blessing to get married?"
"It's more than a blessing, son. I'm declaring you married to my daughter, Kuki Urie...in my eyes and the eyes of her people."
"Wait...what?" His muddled mind fought to catch up with the fast moving chain of events, to comprehend what had just happened.
"Congratulations."
"Won't she be angry this took place without her consent?" Kuki asked.
"Most likely. But she'll be okay. As I'm sure you've learned, sometimes that stubborn woman needs to be pushed into doing what's good for her. I'm sure she loves you too. So what's the problem?"
Once again, Kuki could not disagree with the man. Although they had not spent much time together, Mitch Garrison knew his daughter amazingly well.
"How are you going to tell her?" he questioned the man.
"Me? But you should tell her," her father countered in a somewhat juvenile manner.
"Tell me what?" Miyu inquired, entering the back of the kitchen while dabbing her sopping wet hair with a towel.
"I'm off to take a shower," Kuki announced.
He bounced off the bar stool, abandoning his half full cup of coffee in favor of a quick retreat. He dropped a kiss on Miyu's cheek as he scooted past her.
"Your father has an important matter to discuss with you," he informed her, hurrying up the back stairs.
"What's up, Dad?" she queried casually.
"Well, baby, the thing is..." Mitch's words trailed off.
Kuki heard Miyu's infuriated scream of 'what?!' as he closed the bedroom door behind him. That was not the first time he had dropped a metaphorical bomb and ran.
Haise would have fussed at him for shirking responsibility then running away like an emotionally immature kid expecting someone else to take care of the problem. He had done just that when Urie dumped hundreds of dollars of taxi receipts on his desk expecting to be reimbursed. Urie had a valid reason for spending that money to further the investigation of a serial killer ghoul. He never did get reimbursed. And now Sasaki was gone.
Kuki leaned against the bathroom door, sighing sadly. Sometimes he missed the goody two shoes he had known as Haise Sasaki.
Thankfully, once again, Miyu had managed to survive when someone attempted to take her life. How many more times before her luck ran out? He would do his damnedest to never find out. He wanted his wife with him always.
His wife. He liked the sound of that.