The following week, a meeting was called in LA. Leonard Herbert showed up at the studio in a Chewbacca suit and walked into the conference room to find Ren Tsuruga, his manager, Yukihito Yashiro, and an unknown sickly-looking young lady in a wheelchair, who was attended by three men in business suits.

When Leonard entered the room, Kuon got to his feet and bowed. "Director Herbert. Thank you for agreeing to meet with us this morning." He gestured at the girl in the wheelchair. "This is my… associate, Erika Koenji."

Leonard bowed to her. "Lovely to meet you, Koenji-san." He sat down at the table. "Ren, would you mind explaining what this meeting is about?"

Kuon nodded. "This meeting is concerning Hiromune-san's ankle, or rather, who is responsible for breaking it."

Leonard sat back in his chair. "You believe his ankle was broken… intentionally?"

Kuon nodded his head and continued. "I saw Morizumi-san behind Hiromune-san on the set for just a moment. He slipped on something wet, and then after he was hurt, I saw her laughing."

Leonard sighed. "Ren, I appreciate your concern, really, but that's not really proof of anything. Morizumi-san is a lovely girl, I'm sure she wouldn't do such a thing. It could have been a roof leak or something."

The room was filled with cold laughter. Leonard looked at the girl in the wheelchair, whose laughter was chilling him to the bone. She fixed him with a soulless stare. "Lovely girls don't push people in front of cars, Herbert-san."

A cold prickle ran up Leonard's spine. "Please explain, Koenji-san."

Erika gave her story about having been pushed in front of a car and being dragged when her bag hooked under the bumper, and how she felt that it was likely Kimiko that had pushed her. Leonard shook his head.

"This is still just hearsay. I can't fire someone based on hearsay."

Kuon nodded. "We told you all of that so that we could show you this." Erika's henchmen hit play on a projector that they had set up at the front of the room. Kuon curled his hand around Tiny Kyoko in his pocket as he readied himself for what he was about to see.

On the screen, the picture started from far away, and then zoomed in, very clearly, on Kimiko Morizumi and her manager shoving a limp Kyoko over the railing on top of a roof. Kyoko's eyes were blindfolded, and it was apparent to Kuon from the way they maneuvered her that she wasn't able to move due to being drugged. His fingernails bit into his palm as he did his best to keep himself under control. Finally, mercifully, Yashiro appeared offscreen and they unhanded Kyoko, who fell safely to the rooftop. Kimiko Morizumi reached down to stash the blindfold behind her back, and that was where the video ended.

Leonard Herbert removed his Chewbacca mask in the middle of the video and stared at the screen in shock. "Is that… Mogami-san?"

Kuon swallowed his bile. "It is. I was only made aware of this incident after I told Mogami-san that I suspected that Morizumi-san had broken Hiromune-san's ankle. She, and my manager, were hiding it from me."

Leonard's eyes met Kuon's. "I can certainly understand why. How was this footage obtained?"

"I set her up. After I was removed as Momiji, I had a feeling that she would try to harm the next person who got the part, so all I had to do was lie in wait," said Erika, with a cruel smile.

Leonard shook his head in disbelief. "This is very serious, Tsuruga-san. Koenji-san, why was there no police involvement?"

At that, Erika offered him a cool smile. "Why, Herbert-san, that wouldn't be any fun, now would it?"

A few hours later, around 4:30 AM in Tokyo, Kyoko winced and covered her head with a pillow to deafen the noise coming from her phone. It seemed to work for a moment, and then the noise started again a few moments later. It was then that she woke up fully and realized it was ringing. She fumbled with it in the dark and hit the answer button.

"H-Hello?"

"Kyoko-chan."

"Kuon?" She blinked the sleep from her eyes and looked down at her phone to check the time. "It's so early."

He sighed. "I know, I'm sorry. But I had to call you. When you get into LME today, the police will be waiting to interview you."

Kyoko sat up in bed. "The police!?"

"Koenji-san showed her footage to Director Herbert. They're going to turn Morizumi and her manager over to the police, but they need your statement before they can arrest them."

A sour feeling crept into Kyoko's stomach. "I didn't realize they would be arrested."

"It's less than they deserve."

"What do you mean?"

Kuon took a breath. What he meant was that, if he had his way, he would bundle them up together and toss them off of a roof and watch Kimiko Morizumi's head smash like a gore-filled pumpkin on the asphalt below and walk away with a smile on his face. But he couldn't say that to Kyoko. He had told her no violence, and he would have to keep those thoughts to himself.

Unfortunately, Kyoko knew him well enough to know exactly what he was thinking when he gave no answer. "This is why I didn't want to tell you," she said quietly.

"Kyoko-," she hung up. A cold prickle ran up Kuon's spine as he tried to call her back. When the call was blatantly ignored, he put his head in his hands. "Goddamnit."

After Kyoko got dressed and failed to eat a proper breakfast because of her nerves, Ruto was waiting for her to take her to LME. When they got there, she was promptly taken to another room where the police confirmed that it was her on the footage and that it was not edited or fake. After taking her statement, they left and she was left sitting at the conference room table with her head in her hands.

"Onee-chan?"

Kyoko stood up and wiped her eyes on her sleeve. "Maria-chan." She gave the little girl a half-smile. "I haven't seen you in a while."

Maria came to her from her spot in the doorway and hugged her around her waist.

"Maria-chan? Is everything okay?"

"I heard Grandfather talking about what happened. Are you hurt?"

Kyoko hugged the girl tightly. "No, Maria-chan, of course not. That happened months ago."

Maria looked up at her with big sad eyes. "You're sure?"

Kyoko smiled, trying not to cry. The last thing she wanted to do was worry this child in particular about death. "I'm sure. I'm sorry that you were so worried."

Maria drew back and wiped her eyes on her pink lace sleeve. "I'm really glad. If something happened to you, I could never throw another Happy Grateful Party."

Kyoko hugged the little girl again, "Well, nothing has happened to me, and it is the season. Why don't we plan another one?"

Maria nodded excitedly. "Yes!"

Another Happy Grateful Party was just the distraction that Kyoko needed from everything from the police investigation to her hurt feelings involving Kuon. When he had called her back earlier, she had hit the ignore button on her phone, not wanting to say anything to him that she might regret later. Now she just hurt. Being that he was usually her source of comfort in times like this, it felt like a huge betrayal that she couldn't count on him now.

Their first stop in planning the party was to go and ask Lory to fund the venture once more. He had given them a quizzical look. "I didn't fund it last year. Wasn't there some old Daddy Longlegs that took care of that for you girls? That stuff is expensive, and Natsuko needs a new heat lamp. Better go find that guy."

The girls had rolled their eyes. "Okay, Grandpa," said Maria incredulously. They knew that he was likely to make an appearance as Daddy Longlegs later that week at some point. They made their way to the LoveMe room, where they found Kanae studying her English, Sho humming and picking at a shamisen while making notes in a notebook, and Chiori scribbling more venom in her burn book.

"Who wants to help plan this year's Happy Grateful Party!?"

Kanae narrowed her eyes on her best friend. "Mo. You're doing that again? Couldn't you at least change the name? It sounds ridiculous."

Chiori shook her head. "I'm starting a new show and won't have time." She continued scribbling in her book, her angry eyes turned down on the page.

"What the fuck is a Happy Grateful Party?," said Sho, and all three older girls turned their eyes on him in shock.

Kyoko's hands flew over Maria's ears. "Would you watch your mouth!?"

Sho blushed. "Shit! I mean, fuck! I mean… UGH. Why is there a kid here!?"

Maria blinked. "Onee-chan, who is he?"

Kyoko removed her hands from the sides of Maria's head. "This is Sho. Sho, this is Maria Takarada, President Takarada's granddaughter."

Sho paled. Of all the kids to cuss in front of… He smiled nervously at the girl. "Nice to meet you, Maria-chan."

The little girl narrowed her eyes on him. "That's Takarada-san to you." She marched up to him and pointed at his shamisen. "You play music?"

He stared at her, unsure of what to make of this tiny boss. "I do."

"Great, you're in charge of the music for the Happy Grateful Party. Don't mess it up."

Sho shook his head. "I'm sorry, but I'm already working on music for the InuYasha movie and writing some music for Bridge Rock. I can't do your party, kid."

Maria turned a saccharine smile on him. "Are you saying no to a Takarada?"

"I-"

"Are you sure you want to do that? Today you're writing music for a movie and an album and being asked to organize entertainment for a special industry party. Tomorrow… who knows? You might be playing that shamisen on a street corner by the train station, hoping that some foreigner will pity you and throw money in your crappy instrument case."

Sho stared open-mouthed at the seemingly innocent, frilly lace-clad, honey-blonde, bow-wearing child that had just threatened his livelihood and backpedaled. "I-n-no, Takarada-san. Of course I'll help with your party!"

Maria clapped her hands together excitedly, "I knew you'd see reason!" She skipped toward the door. "Come on, Onee-chan! We gotta round up more people!"

Kyoko followed Maria out the door, and Sho stared after them in shock. "That kid is fucking scary."

Kanae nodded. "She's spent too much time with Kyoko and the President. She'll make a great executive someday." She put her English workbook away. "Do you need help, Fuwa?"

Sho blinked at her. "Are you… offering?"

Kanae rolled her eyes at him. "Mo. Don't get too excited. I just don't want you to ruin Kyoko's party."

"Well… thanks, Kotonami-san." That's nice of her, he thought.

"Whatever. Let's figure out who's singing at this thing since you can't."

Ah, there's the insult, he thought, but he felt that the insult was less hateful and more like she was ribbing him. Maybe I'm not dogshit anymore.

The following day in LA, Kuon woke up and tried to call Kyoko again. This time, it went straight to voicemail. Kuon took a breath to calm his nerves.

"Kyoko-chan, I know you're angry with me, but I need to talk to you. I promised you that I wasn't going to do anything violent, and I have kept to that. Please just hear me out. I love you, and I don't want to lose you. Goodnight."

He hung up the phone and raked his hand through his hair in frustration. No good deed goes unpunished, he thought, as he got up and dressed for the day.

An hour later, he entered the training facility and found Koga on one end doing bicep curls, and Cedric Bennet and Kimiko Morizumi on the other. Cedric was "taking a break" and watching Kimiko run on the treadmill, admiring her flat stomach and the curves of her body in her matching sports bra and stretchy exercise pants. Kuon felt his heart beat in his eyeballs. He wanted nothing more than to grab her by her ponytail, rip her off of the treadmill, and drag her right into hell with him. Hitting a woman was not usually something he would consider, but in her case, he'd make an exception. Kuon averted his eyes from her, willing his mind to focus on Kyoko instead. Kyoko, to whom Kimiko Morizumi owed her life. He took a seat beside Koga, who put down his dumbbell.

"You alright, Tsuruga?"

Kuon took a deep breath. He could not afford to lose his temper. "I'll be fine. How's your ankle?"

Koga patted his cast. "Itchy. It's driving me nuts."

The doors at the other end of the room opened, and two police officers walked in. They approached the treadmill, and Kuon's heart rate picked up. He stood to watch the scene unfold.

"Kimiko Morizumi?"

Kimiko pressed the button to slow the treadmill. "Yes?"

"Stop the treadmill."

Kimiko stopped it and crossed her arms. "I'm kind of busy. What do you want?"

"Kimiko Morizumi, you are under arrest for the attempted murder of Kyoko Mogami."

Koga grabbed his crutches and stood up at Kuon's side, his mouth falling open. "What did they just say? Attempted murder of who!?"

Kuon watched with a sadistic smile as one of the officers moved behind Kimiko to handcuff her. She was staring at them like a deer in headlights. "I- no I didn't! I never did! I would never do that!" She turned her desperate eyes on Cedric. "Ceddy-sama! Tell them! I would never do that!"

Cedric simply shrugged. "I don't know what you would or wouldn't do, Morizumi-san. I don't know you." She watched in shock as he got up from the weight bench he had been lounging on and exited the room. When she realized that the man she had been sleeping with for months, and who knew her way more intimately than he was admitting, was not going to back her up, her pleading eyes sought another source of comfort. "Tsuruga-san! You've worked with me! I wouldn't hurt Kyoko!"

Kuon kept his hands in his pockets as he approached her. His thumb caressed Tiny Kyoko. He shook his head at Kimiko.

"I saw exactly what you did to my girl, Morizumi-san. And quite frankly," he smiled his radiant gentleman's smile at her, "I hope you burn for it."

When she realized that no one would help her, Kimiko lashed out. "You can't do this to me! I'm Kimiko Morizumi! I'm too cute to go to jail!" She fought against the officer who was wrangling her, and he pushed her bodily against the nearest wall.

"Morizumi, stop struggling or this will only get worse for you."

She let out a high pitched wail as they dragged her out the door.

Koga stared at the door, his eyes wide with disbelief. "Okay, Ren, you gotta tell me what the fuck just happened."

A few hours later, Kyoko rolled over in the guest room bed and sat up. She had spent the day before plotting and planning the Happy Grateful Party with Maria, and doing anything and everything to not think about Kuon. While at LME, she had been successful in that endeavor, mostly. Between coming up with a guest list, a menu, and designing invitations, her mind had been too busy to focus on anything else. But then she had come home, and her facade had cracked.

She knew that he would try to call her again, and she was still too angry to speak to him, so she had shut her phone off before he got the chance. She ate a small dinner, which had actually been the only thing she had eaten all day because of the stress, and took a hot shower. When she crawled into bed, however, his scent was still there. She had purposefully not changed the sheets since he left. Tears of frustration stung her eyes. It was true that he hadn't acted on his violent impulses, but the fact that he still had them made her so angry with him. He had been lucky so many times, with the punks that hit on her when she was Sestuka, with Taira Murasame, and with Shotarou. Could she really trust that he would never hurt anyone and put himself in danger ever again? She got up from the bed to go and sleep in the guest room, and had even left her Sesshomaru plush behind.

She took a deep breath and turned her phone on. One new voicemail. She listened to it and succeeded in getting angry at herself for having missed the sound of his voice. She wiped her eyes on her sleeve and trudged out to the kitchen to make herself some breakfast. She ate it standing up at the counter, too on edge to sit.

When her phone rang, she felt like her breakfast might reappear. When she saw that it was Kanae and not Kuon calling, she relaxed.

"Moko-"

"WHY THE HELL DIDN'T YOU TELL ME THAT PSYCHO TRIED TO PUSH YOU OFF THE ROOF!?"

"M-Moko-san-"

"IT'S ALL OVER THE NEWS! THEY ARRESTED MORIZUMI YESTERDAY."

Kyoko's eyes widened. It had just occurred to her that Kanae was crying. "Moko-san, I'm sorry-"

"YOU'RE NOT SORRY ENOUGH. YOU SHOULD HAVE TOLD ME, KYOKO. YOU'RE MY BEST FRIEND!"

Kyoko's eyes watered. "I-I'm really sorry. Please forgive me, Moko."

Kanae registered the tears that were choking Kyoko's voice and stamped her foot. "MO. I'm sorry, okay!? Don't cry! I just… I panicked, okay!? She tried to throw you off a roof! I can't believe you went through that alone!"

Kyoko wiped her eyes on her sleeve. "I just wanted to protect everyone."

"Kyoko-chan, no. Sometimes you need to let us in and let us protect you." Kanae sighed. "Are you okay?"

"Yes."

"Okay, good." Kanae huffed, "Don't ever do something that stupid again!"

Kyoko smiled. "I won't. I'm sorry. Will you be at LME today?"

"Yeah. You still want help with your party?"

"Of course!"

"All right, don't get too happy on me, okay? I'm only doing this to save you from yourself."

Kyoko laughed. "I wouldn't be able to function without you, Moko-san. Thank you."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. See you at work."

Kyoko hung up and mopped her tears up with a paper towel. She got dressed and ready for work. When she and Ruto arrived at LME, there was a sea of press waiting outside. Kyoko's stomach dropped. Of course they'll want to know firsthand what happened… She was relieved when Ruto drove around to a side entrance.

Kuon will be glad that I avoided this, she thought. And that thought stopped her. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and checked it. No new messages. She couldn't decide if she was relieved or hurt that he hadn't attempted to call her. She shut the phone off and swallowed her feelings. She couldn't let this cloud her judgment. She had a party to plan.

I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. I'm not feeling overly confident about this story or how it ends. Maybe it's just because this is my first long fic and I've never ended something like this before... I don't know. Really, if I'm being honest, I just haven't felt great lately. Anyway, hopefully you all think this is pretty cool and not hot garbage. XO - BO