A/N: Hopefully, this will help answer the question of why things are being done. At least a tiny bit without giving away to much! Thank you all for the reviews and comments though n.n
-Oxford - Wednesday: Part 15-
Ruto had been able to get them back to the hotel, but he had failed to get much further than the hotel's main lobby which was where she was at this exact moment pacing back and forth. Her mind a swirl of emotions and he only knew it dealt with how she was going to face Maria and he could only guess likely later Lory. Sadly he had failed to get her to realize that she was not much different than he was at the moment, at least in theory. He mentally sighed as he watched her along with Amanda and David who had to enter the lobby not long after they had. They had noticed her, not that he figured it would be hard to miss a girl who seemed to have a swirling darkness around her at the moment.
The fact that the hotel managers had attempted to try and move her had not gone well and the poor guy had quickly left, muttering something about little demons before making a quick beeline away from her. Ruto had to admit there was something odd about her when she was like this but he couldn't figure out what it was. He figured it was the way she looked, she didn't look like the kind girl he had come to know. Even if it was something dark like what Maria seemed to believe it could only add in protecting her. Though he did have to admit it might be better if she didn't look like that where everyone could see her, 'No it fits her somehow' he thought thinking about Lory 'Not that he would approve of this sort of being noticed or standing out.'
Amanda sighed heavily as she looked back towards Kyoko who was still pacing back and forth from filing her nails. "Can we stab whoever broke her this time?" she said quietly towards David who looked up from his phone before looking back towards Kyoko.
"Might just be better not to take her out in public." He said looking towards his phone and holding out an image with contact information of another woman, "How about her?" he said simply before Amanda rolled her eyes. "Alright then she wasn't any good," he said deleting the contact information.
"Well we can't leave her like this..." she pointed her nail file up towards Ruto who was standing just behind where they sat "and I bet Mr. Banshee knows." she said with a wave of her nail file "You really should get better control over your charge" she said turning back to her nails, "I mean you are going to be the head of Aeval one of these days." she said looking at him slightly, "If you can't stop that from happening you aren't getting my vote," she said simply.
David looked at her slightly, "We don't get a vote, we don't even get a say in our personal guard." he said with a roll of his eyes. "Besides you are forgetting Grandmother's guardian is still alive," he said looking back down at his phone.
"Yes well, I like to pretend I have a say." she leaned over looking at his phone, "Not that one, she was the worse of them today," she said with a wave of her hand she said filing her nails again. David frowned slightly "I don't care what she looks like delete her," he sighed.
David, "You know I'm regretting agreeing to this..."
Amanda, "Well it's only for another 59 hours and then we can go back to the old system if you like," she said standing up. "I'm tired of this," she said tossing her nail file towards David who caught it without looking up.
"58 hours and 47 minutes of my heart breaking so much faster," David muttered before leaning over and putting the nail file in the kit in her purse.
Amanda stood in front of Kyoko who simply moved around her while she was pacing. This caused Amanda to look towards David, "She doesn't even see me. Me!" she said putting a hand to her chest, "I mean I realize I'm only half as good looking when you aren't near me but this is so not cool." she closed her eyes "and I don't want to touch her when she's like this" she said wrapping her arms around herself as if she was suddenly cold. "Why is our little sister so creepy?" she said in Japanese before shaking her head.
"Well someone had to have the creepy gene" David replied in English. Amanda wrinkled her nose "Just be happy it wasn't one of us." he said looking at her as he leaned against the armrest of the chair his phone still in his hand. "Well... you going to do something about her or not?" he said grinning as he looked back down at the phone. "Or shall we just keep her like this?"
Amanda, "Not funny..." she took a deep breath grabbing Kyoko's arm turning the smaller girl so they were both looking at each other. Kyoko's eyes narrowed for a moment clearly not realizing it was Amanda at the moment she had been touched. The older girl shuddered at the feeling that seemed to twist around her before it quickly disappeared. "Oh, you see me now?" She said smiling fighting the urge to back away from the girl.
"Sorry Amanda..." she said looking at her for a moment, "When did you get here?"
"Seriously?" she pinched the bridge of her nose, "This is what mother must feel like with us." She sighed heavily before looking at the girl in front of her, "What has got you in this... " she motioned at Kyoko's whole being.
Kyoko looked down at herself, nothing seemed wrong to her, there wasn't any grass stains or dirt. She turned to look behind her some, no all seemed in order maybe her face was dirty or something along those lines but she doubted Ruto would have allowed her to walk around with a dirty face. Hadn't he allowed her to calm down before even leading her back to the hotel? She looked up at Amanda a look of pure confusion played across her features. Amanda rolled her eyes in annoyance as she looked towards David for help dealing with the girl.
"She wants to know what upset you," David said not looking up from his phone at either woman, he tilted his head as he looked down at the phone.
"No," Amanda said before he could get much further.
He rolled his head before dropping it back down to his phone., "You didn't even see this one."
"Still no," she said looking at him slightly over her shoulder, "Be a lot faster if you just gave me the phone." he shook his head in reply.
Kyoko looked around Amanda, he seemed to be doing something on his phone. She tried to recall if they had agreed to something but it must have been something new since she had last seen them. No the real issue she hadn't even noticed him sitting there, she should have expected it the two were rarely out of sight of each other, wasn't that the reason why David had come with them as one of the girls? 'I'm worrying them' she mentally shook her head and placed a smile on her face "I'm fine."
"Fine" Amanda shook her head, "Oh no you don't get to fine me." she said waving a hand in the main lobby, "You are scaring people with that scary thing you do."
David looked up slightly from his phone, "It's true Kyoko, you had the poor manager running away, we haven't seen him since."
Amanda tapped her foot slightly on the floor as she crossed her arms, "Besides you are going to burn a hole into this marble floor do you seriously want to pay that bill?" she said looking at her carefully. Kyoko looked down shaking her head no. "So why don't you tell us what's going on with you."
"Seriously it's nothing important," she said looking away from her, Amanda could almost see the small dark figures floating around her and had to hold in her shudder, choosing to instead to close her eyes.
"Fine if you won't tell me I'll have David tie you and hang you over the balcony until you talk," she said with a huff.
"I'm not going to do that, you do it." David's head shot up looking up from his phone at her.
"Well I can't do it, I might break a nail." she said looking at them, "and I just got them perfect."
David ran a hand over his face, "I might get killed by most of the adults!" he looked at her "and then you only will be half as good looking."
Amanda frowned with a small pout, "Fine... I'll just have to do online shopping. We will totally buy enough clothes in your size, you'll be able to try so many designer clothes, and it'll take you months to wear it all. That's if you change at least a good eight to ten times a day. Be so much fun, we will get all kinds of jewelry, and makeup and might as well redo your room while we're at it. I'll have to make sure we get a good size moving van... might need to get another hotel room just for the stuff... maybe three." The look on Kyoko's face as she went on amused David more than anything, but they both knew that the idea of overspending on things was something that didn't sit well with her.
"Why… why would you do that!" Kyoko face had paled, "You know it would be a waste!" she said panicking for a whole new reason.
Amanda, "I won't have too if you tell me what's going on with you." She said looking at her nails. "Totally up to you. I'll even get David to help pick things out… and he has no taste when it comes to things for his female self. So male." she said looking at her nails.
"That's not very nice." David muttered, "Even if it's totally true."
Kyoko thought it was the perfect time to try and slip away while they bantered again, she just couldn't deal with this right now. Well, truth be told she wasn't ready to be questioned about what was going on with her. That would only make more people upset with her and she couldn't handle it, so slowly backing away was the best call, 'maybe I can sleep in the park tonight' wouldn't be the first time she slept outside in her lifetime.
David, "She's getting away," he said grinning and Kyoko glared at him he held up his hands, "Sorry but she will only get mad at me if I didn't tell her." Kyoko could tell he wasn't at all sorry but Amanda didn't even bother to look at her.
"Guess we are shopping tonight!" she said happily as she pulled out of her phone, "I might as well get a start." Kyoko looked towards Ruto almost pleading but he shook his head no and she sighed. There would be no help getting out of this. She either tells them or accepts the fact that Amanda was going to blow way too much money, so much money she didn't even want to think about it the cost of even one of those priced designer outfits would be.
"Fine…" she sighed in defeat "just don't buy useless things."
Amanda looked at her shaking her head, "I never buy useless things, just fabulous things."
"Preach it, sister," David said fisting the air his eyes down on the screen of his phone.
Kyoko looked down at her feet before taking a deep breath, "I did something to Tsuruga that wasn't very nice… " she could tell that Amanda was waiting for more and so taken another deep breath she quickly spoke in a rush, "I treated him like I was treated in the past" she said holding her arm tightly as she looked away from her not wanting to see the disappointment or horror on the woman's face "Father and Maria are going to be so hurt when they find out."
Amanda looked at her carefully for a moment not sure how to take that statement before taking her hand. "Let's go." her eyes darting towards David and Ruto as they both followed after her.
Kyoko sat in the hotel room that belonged to Ruto and David, it wasn't much different than the one that she shared with Maria, Amanda, and Laura. She supposed the biggest difference was that they didn't have to share a room like they did. Not that she minded sharing a room with Maria seeing even in the palace she had found Maria in her bed every night. Kyoko figured it was because it was a big place and even though they were in the private quarters she feared getting lost or not being able to find anyone should she need to find them. Kyoko pulled her legs up towards her chest wrapping her arms around them hugging them tightly together.
Amanda and David sat in the two chairs across from her. They were both waiting for her to start talking but she really didn't want to say any more than she already had. How much more would she have to tell them before they too were hurt by her actions? She looked down at the top of her knees as she fought burying her face, 'Isn't it enough that they know I am no better than they are?' she said thinking about Shoutaro and the men who had been so willing to buy, use and sell her.
"Time to explain what you mean," Amanda said looking at her, her leg crossed over the other as she sat with her arms crossed in front of her chest. Kyoko looked slowly towards David who had his leg over his knee but didn't look at all as upset with her. Though Kyoko was sure that was only going to be a matter of time at this rate.
Kyoko sighed looking down at her knees again "I already told you…"
David rested his elbow on the armrest, "but we need more than that." he spoke gently and that only caused Kyoko to hurt more inside.
Kyoko held her legs tighter, "Well like I said... I did something awful." she said shaking her head, they weren't going to just accept that she supposed she had no real choice but to tell them more, not everything but she was sure in the end they were going to hate her... if not hate her be so very disappointed in her and she wasn't ready to lose her family. Still deep inside she knew this was something that had to be done. Taking a deep calming voice she looked at them. "You know that the cops are trying to build a case against me, they can't, not yet anyway. Right now it's just he said she said. I'm not filing against and he can't really file against me yet." she said softly.
Amanda "Right, Protection Command would make it very difficult for them to file and we wouldn't file because we have forced a media blackout on this already." she said uncrossing her arms so she was more relaxed. "It just wouldn't look good for the Royal Family, let alone what it would do to this fashion show for years to come."
"Yes but that's because we don't want it to actually go to trial either, I'm sure the Ankou did an amazing job making Kyoko look like she's always been here but it's not like they can get every little newspaper someone might have or some historian out there who might get called in." David replied closing his eyes, "I mean let's be honest she's only been with us a couple months now."
Kyoko nodded her head some, "Right but I need them to think they have a chance, without hem really have one... it can't trial, it can't become a real case. Settlement... that's the idea right now." she closed her eyes, "But I have to look scared like I could be in the wrong..." not that being scared of the man was an issue she was terrified of Heth but in a completely different way that she was when she thought about Shoutaro.
Amanda and David looked at each other, neither one really understanding where she was coming from, together they echoed one word. "Why?"
"Because I know what he can do better than anyone and he doesn't belong in this world. I mean I get that the world isn't perfect but him being in this world hurts too many people, people who don't have a chance to survive him. People who get so broken inside that I don't think they can ever be saved." she closed her eyes, "I was lucky, really lucky." she nodded her head some, "I survived him and I didn't break doing so."
Amanda moved forward to sit on the couch next to her wrapping her arms around her tightly as David knelt before her, "Can't you just let the Ankou handle this?" Ask Amanda a tone of worry held in her voice, "Why does it have to be you? They got people who can fight him, to lure him out."
Ruto closed his eyes, "Amanda, David. It's simple. Heth wants her already, she's the perfect bait to lure him out hiding." Not that he personally like the fact that she was doing this either. "They each either other prizes, he wants her and the Ankou wants him." He looked down at her sadly, "If it goes to trial the crown will take hit, the settlement goal is really risky too for that matter."
Kyoko looked at them, "Yet what I've learned from that woman, a lot of the time they won't go in the lawyers. Not at first, they choose to talk to settle without the lawyers present at the time. Just to get an idea of what they can get." she nodded her head, "She taught me that much about people. People are greedy and they want they want." she looked down, "They do that because lawyers aren't cheap and if they win the case or know what the actual settlement was between two parties they can't get nearly as much payout from it." she didn't really think he wanted money though, but he would likely try to use that thought process. "So that's the plan right now... and when we met in private the Ankou will appear and deal with him."
Ruto caught her eyes, he knew there was more to this plan that she wasn't sharing with him, likely wasn't sharing with anyone for that matter. It wasn't like the Ankou would appear with the snap of her fingers. They would be there yes but he knew she was already planning for the worse, just what that was in her mind based on what he knew about the man he wasn't sure. He could hope that she made it sound as easy as it sounded but nothing ever was. All he could do was be there, that was something Lory and him would have to push onto her. Right now her goal was to make sure Maria, Ren, Lory and himself weren't around. Maria, he could understand, Ren and Lory he could even to a point. Himself? Part of him knew he should stay with Lory but how could he do that when he was trained for this sort of thing?
Amanda sighed heavily pulling away from her and looking at Kyoko carefully "You are playing a very dangerous game without all your pieces on the board, Kyoko." she said leaning into her brother some as he looked at her nodding his head sadly. "Now how did you use Ren to help but not us?"
Kyoko flinched slightly before looking back down at her legs. "They are trying to prove I'm a loose woman..." she said closing her eyes.
"You didn't, did you?" Amanda looked at her in shock.
David knew where she was going with that thought, "What did you do exactly to prove you are a loose woman?
Kyoko looked down turning bright red, "I kind of kissed him."
Amanda felt like her heart had stopped for a moment she leaned back against the couch trying to keep herself almost as if she had fainted, she looked at her slightly "I totally thought..." she shook her head. "Nevermind I should have known better."
David wanted to laugh at her but the fact, 'small joys' he thought for a moment, "He doesn't know the why behind the kiss though right?"
"No…" she said softly looking down, "I'm sure he knows I am using him though." she said sighing heavily, "and Father and Maria are going to get hurt because I'm using him and they really care about him for some reason." she said hanging her head, "I mean I know he's not a bad person... but I just don't understand their attachment to him at all."
Amanda smiled some as she bolted up, "Well then that's an easy fix and it's so easy that Maria and Lory can't possibly get upset with you." she said looking at Kyoko who looked rather confused at the woman. "Ruto, call Ren. Well, actually you might need to call Keiji to get to Ren or his manager or whoever. Just get him in here asap!"
Kyoko, "Why... are you calling him in here?" she said not sure she was ready to face his anger either now that she thought about it.
Amanda "You think being the daughter of one of the biggest names in showbiz she would understand we are going to put on one hell of a performance and not much time to do it either. Well, that's not until after she tells him of course."
David smiled "Well she does live with us not him."
Amanda nodded her head, "Fair point twin, she should be a whole look more sneaker."
"I don't think I want to be?" Kyoko said not exactly sure how to take that.
A/N: Aeval - Head of the Banshee's assigned to a royal family member once the next heir takes over the crown moves on.