-Oxford - Thursday: Part 4-
"Ren-sama!" Ren smiled gently towards the small girl as she leaped for him. As soon as Maria was safely in his arms she smiled even brighter at him, "Hello Ren-sama." Her voice once again at a normal volume. He nodded towards Ruto and watched as Yashiro made his way to the man.
"Hello Maria-chan" it amazed him how much energy she always seemed to have 'Then again Kyoko when she was a child also seemed to have an endless source of energy.' He thought about Lory and his habits and mentally sighed 'Then again maybe it's in their DNA.' He stared down at the little girl in his arms 'Is this something I have to look forward to our future?' He mentally killed that thought, not fully sure where it came from nor wanting to dwell on something pointless, it had nothing to do with career, nothing to do with proving himself to not just the world to make himself better than who he was when he left Kuon Hizuri life behind four years ago.
Maria, "Did you see me on the news today?"
It was an odd sense of how much he missed hearing her speak in Japanese but then again normally the only time he got to be around Maria was when her Aunt was here and apparently, Kyoko no longer spoke Japanese. Now he was sure it was the trauma of what happened, he had heard once that such traumas could cause one to forget things. No one really spoke Japanese around her, none of her family members and the one thing he had realized during their short time together every single one of them knew it. Well, at least Laura, David, and Amanda did. When he thought about his Godmother and her two sons, the fact she seemed completely clueless to what was being said that people had to actually translate it for her worried him.
"Yes, I saw you up there." Actually, he had been slightly surprised that Maria had been allowed up there. "I thought you had to stay out of the media spotlight for the most part until you were sixteen." Well, it wouldn't have mattered if she went into the world of showbiz but from what she had said she didn't want to be a model or an actress she wanted to one day run her Grandfather's business. To help her Papa but that had been before her mother had died.
"I'm not really part of the nobles here," she said looking down slightly as she sighed heavily. "So the rules don't apply to me. If Papa becomes an ArchDuke like Grandfather then I will be. Yet that couldn't happen until Grandfather dies unless he remarries a Dutchess" her eyes narrowed at the thought. "Only Papa and Kyoko-oba have to worry about that, but I'm sure after Sho... they'll want her to marry someone noble person if not one of our onii-sans."
Ren stared at her the idea that Kyoko would marry one of her cousins, second cousins as they were shouldn't have been an issue. He knew that this was normal more so when it came to Royal families. Yet it still felt strange to him, to think that the people who she was living with, the people who were closer to her than anyone else, other than Kyo's children would likely result in a union between them. Yet it hit him as odd, "I thought her partner was Keiji."
"It is, but that doesn't mean they'll get married silly." Maria shook her head as she looked at Ren, something was different about him. She wasn't sure she liked it either. "Oba-san wants a lot of kids in the family and Grandfather wants more grandchildren..." she trailed off her line of thought. To Maria, it wouldn't be a bad idea for Kyoko to marry one of them, because then it would really make them related, not just on paper and somehow that felt really important to her. There was this small part of her that Kyoko might disappear or leave her if she wasn't forced into such a contract, just like she wanted Ren to always be around. "it wouldn't be so bad if Kyoko-oba married one the Onii-sans. Right?"
Ren had no idea how to address that he looked towards Ruto, his very mind was saying no but why would Ren Tsuruga care? That was the only thing he was having issues with, it was Kuon who had a real connection to her, not him. "I don't know Maria-chan, I think it should be your Oba-san's choice."
Maria sighed heavily as she pulled herself free from Ren, "You just don't understand" she said softly. There was truth in that, he couldn't understand why Maria wanted this, why it mattered what Sho. Then he realized that Maria had an idea what had happened. His eyes narrowed as he looked towards Ruto's masked face. The question was how much did she know? Was this just Maria's way of trying to protect Kyoko from this ever happening again? If so then shouldn't Ruto and Lory be doing something more to keep her from this little plot to lure Heth out? His head was spinning with questions.
"Where is your Oba-san right now Maria-chan?"
"She's in a meeting, we're going to go see her when it's done." She said looking at him as she took Ruto's hand. There was so much disappointment in her young eyes, likely because she wanted to say more but couldn't. So was it that he Ren wasn't supposed to know or that Ruto didn't know exactly how much she knew?
Ren smiled at her, "I see well then can you give your Oba-san a message for me?"
"No," Maria said turning her face from him as she stuck her nose up. Ren stared at her confused, his face completely blank and if he didn't know better he was sure Ruto was smiling under that mask of his.
"Why is that Maria-chan?" He tried to keep a smile on his face but it was hard seeing as she almost never denied him anything.
"I can't tell you." she looked up at Ruto "We should get going, Aunt Kyoko will be done soon."
Ren had a funny feeling that this was Maria's way of ending a conversation with him as she had changed from talking to him in Japanese to turning to English. Ruto gave a small nod of his head towards him as he walked hand in hand with Maria. There was no goodbye from her either and that was odd as well, 'Why do I feel like I just got in trouble?' He mentally sighed as he turned towards Yashiro who had hung back a bit while he and Maria were talking.
"She really does love Kyoko-chan doesn't she?" Ren stared at him for a moment "Hard to believe anyone would think Kyoko-chan was plain and boring." Again Yashiro was met with a wall of silence, "Shall I send a text message to Kyoko-chan for you?"
"You have her number?" Why that surprised Ren was unknown to him but Yashiro large smile troubled him as if he was walking into something he really shouldn't be walking into.
"Yes, I actually have most of her schedule for today if you want to know who she was meeting with right now."
"Why Yukihito either you have become a stalker or your attention aren't as pure as you claimed they were to Kyo." Yashiro sighed heavily as Ren turned from him "Anything I should be worried about?"
Yashiro looked down at his phone, "No, it seems perfectly harmless."
Ren paused looking back at him. "I meant about the fall out from the news media"
"Oh... well no, nothing too much. I mean people are still doubting the truth behind it thinking it's weird that such a statement after Sho Fuwa's interview with E!Media and then that photo." He shook his head slightly, "A lot of your fans seem to think that Kyoko-chan is using you." He said the last part quietly and Ren mentally sighed because he had figured that would happen. Yet how was he to fix it?
Kyoko's phone buzzed and she smiled kindly at the two across from her before bowing her head, "Sorry..." her words were soft but the way the energy around her seemed to set her on fire from where she sat, took Reino's breath away. Not once had he found her pretty, cute to him was even on the border but that wasn't unexpected for him, he didn't do the living. Yet there in front of him was a girl who seemed to overflow with what he could only say a dark beauty. So unnatural that if he didn't know she was indeed a living human being he would think she belonged in the otherworld.
Reino winced as he felt teeth dig into his hand, the little grudge that he had been holding onto had bitten him, drawing blood. While Miroku could not see what had caused it he did notice the blood and quickly took his hand. "What the?" His eyes turned towards Reino before moving over towards Kyoko "Is she?"
Reino pulled his hand free from his friends. "Something like that." It wasn't false but it also wasn't exactly true either. The only thing he could say for sure was that the grudge was now just out of his reach even if he had stood up. His eyes turned back towards Kyoko as she replied to something on her phone. Whoever she was talking too was causing this. Reino placed the innermost part of his palm to his lips, licking the blood that was pooling. 'They shouldn't be able to do that, pressure yes, but bitting?' His eyes trailed up back towards the little grudge that had caused the small wound as it made a snapping with its teeth 'Perhaps it's my connection to the spiritual world' but even spirits had never been able to harm him. Not enough to draw blood.
"Sorry that was important" Kyoko smiled flipping the phone over as she looked between the three of them, "As you were saying, Mr. Susumu." As the man pushed his glasses up his nose.
Reino's eyes had snapped back towards Kyoko, the energy around her had disappeared. 'That can't be normal either' his eyes looked around for any of the other grudges but the only one was the one that for the time being was supposed to be out and with him. Not that it was actually behaving itself. 'Can deal with that later' a small cage of sorts shouldn't be too much of a problem. No, the problem was the fact that she had totally seemed to switch, even when Sho there had been a lingering but he felt nothing. Almost as if he was dealing with a wall of some sort. 'Yet that can't be possible either, true some people are hard to read but I am reading her just fine.' Susumu eyes were on Reino and slowly he drew his attention back to the older man, he smiled but it was clear he was not pleased with him delaying things and not paying attention, not that Reino wouldn't be surprised by that. Kyoko was his client not him.
"As I was saying" Susumu held the contract in front of him, "You, Reino Kobayashi from here on referred to as simply Reino are being hired by Kyoko Takarada from here on referred to as Miss Takarada for your Spiritual Healing techniques. Should you not be able to fulfill the spiritual healing that Miss Takarada is hiring you for will make this contract void; this does not include if you show any lack of your abilities only if they are not up to her personal standards. Reino agrees to perform his task as a Spiritual Healer up until Miss Kyoko has returned to her Great Aunt's Leiko Takarada-Williams home in London. At which point and time your request to be paid for your time in the means of being in one of your Premiere Videos for Reino's Band, Vie Ghoul shall be set. That is of course as long as the Premiere video meets the certain guidelines and approval of Miss Takarada's father, Lory Takarada of LME and the LME guidelines. This cannot be collected before her 16th birthday nor before her debut into British Society by stated by the British Empires customs for those born to royal or noble families."
Reino nodded his head he really didn't care too much, the only reason he threw in that request was to get at Tomi for forcing him to have to enter the world of showbiz, he wouldn't be able to deny any of this because of a legal contract. It would likely allow him time to also figure out just how to use this information to get out from under his cousin. "Sounds good," he said reaching for the contract. Hating himself the moment his head was thrown into a world of numbers; 3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841971693... and it didn't seem to stop, he wasn't sure how long it took him to understand that the numbers playing in his head were the answer to Pi. The fact that the man had yet to restart overthrew him away. Even as Miroku's hand touched him.
"Are you okay?" Miroku's voice was low but he felt Kyoko's eyes on him. He nodded his head slightly, he wasn't exactly sure if he was though.
"Before you sign," Susumu said smiling some "There are few more things you need to be made aware of in this contract. For example, should you be lying about your abilities or break the contract by not using your abilities to their full potential, you will be expected to pay upwards but not limited to 2.3 Million Pounds" he pushed his glasses up again, "That would be 334,314,842.90 Japanese Yen" His eyes turned towards Kyoko and she gave a small nod of her head, "The same shall be held true should Miss Takarada fail to uphold her side of the agreement. That said there will also be expected to serve time, as we will have no choice but to assume that you did this to con someone with connections to the Royal family."
Reino's eyes narrowed slightly, "Fine" he didn't like the idea but he also knew he couldn't refuse.
"Reino are you sure?" Miroku sounded worried, it was a great deal of money about as much net worth his mother was worth actually. He also knew he didn't have to worry about it too much.
"Yeah, they're not saying it's owed if I can't perform up to the required standard only if I lie about not being able to or I'm lying in general. As I'm not a fake, I got nothing to worry about." Not to say even if he wanted to refuse he was pretty sure that Tomi wouldn't allow it. Susumu pushed the contracted over to him and he signed, followed by Kyoko and lastly by Miroku. Susumu rose from his seat.
"Mr. Susumu if you would be so kind as to let Ruto in, he's here to pick me up." She smiled holding her phone out to show him as if he would want to double check. "Yet I would like a more or less private word with Reino, without his friend." Kyoko eyes turned towards Miroku "If you don't mind of course." She wasn't really looking at Reino when she said that but Miroku who turned his eyes towards Reino. Reino was about as sure as Miroku looked, she seemed to pick it up. "I'm afraid my six-year-old niece will be joining us I do hope that isn't a problem."
Miroku relaxed almost at once at the thought of a small child in there, he patted Reino on the shoulder, "I'll be waiting outside." Reino wanted to stop him, he knew he should stop him but for some reason he found himself frozen. Yet it wasn't because of Kyoko's grudges, but something he saw in her eyes. Eyes that made him feel like he was drowning and made his heart race.
A/N: 2.3 Billion is the same as 2,994,928.90 United States Dollar [Yes the real reason why Susumu made it this much was because he doesn't believe in the supernatural abilities that Reino is said to have so he was hoping to scare him off lol]