Author's Note: Whew, I had to admit, this was much harder to write than the previous chapters, having to go step by step through all the theories they had about Tsukushi's disappearance.
Junpei makes a reappearance here! He was one of my favourite minor characters, along with Kin-san. Oooh, ooh, Amon gets a mention here too! Minor characters galore!
I might be updating a bit slower than usual now because of something called the World Cup... ;)
Disclaimer: I own nothing! Except the plot. :)
Family Planning
By Onkiu
Chapter 9: The search for Tsukushi
"Perhaps we've gone a little too far this time," said Rui, a little worried.
"Makino sure sounded annoyed," said Mimasaka.
"I think you should apologise to her for making a huge deal out of the article," added Nishikaido. "You waved it to everyone in the class, strut around showing off the article, and find it hilarious when she thought otherwise."
"Why should she be annoyed?" snapped Domyouji. "Any other girl would be pleased to be associated with me in such a widespread publication. She'll come running back to me in no time at all."
Mimasaka rolled his eyes at the warped way Domyouji interpreted events.
"Do you really think so?" laughed Rui. "She's not like any other girl."
"How many times had she run away from you and returned into your arms?" snorted Nishikaido. "Zilch. Nada."
"More like you went off in search of her," said Mimasaka.
"Whatever. She'll be coming back to me."
But Domyouji had realised how very wrong he was. Tsukushi had not come running back to him, and he was getting rather worried about her. At Rui's insistence that he should look for Tsukushi and apologise, he had succumbed.
"Fine, fine. I'll look for her. Just this once."
"Whatever," said Rui. "You always look for her. You follow her like a fat kid follows cakes."
The F4 then walked around school, peeking into every classroom to see whether Tsukushi would be hiding there. Domyouji had memorised her timetable, but it was of no help; she was not in class. She was neither in the gym, the library, or even the emergency staircase.
This was starting to trouble Domyouji, who began to accost random students about Tsukushi's whereabouts.
"No, Domyouji-san, I haven't seen her!" cried a student as he keeled over in pain when Domyouji punched the wind out of him.
"Stop that, Tsukasa! Punching them will not make Tsukushi return to you!" said Mimasaka, stepping in and saving the poor kid. "Why don't you try ringing her instead?"
Domyouji pulled out his phone and dialled. But she did not pick up. He dialled over and over, but still, she did not answer his call. That was rather uncharacteristic of her; even if she had decided to storm out, she would usually not ignore people like that.
"She's not picking up." said Domyouji flatly.
"She must be really angry to ignore you like this," said Nishikaido helpfully. "Obviously, she's pis-"
Domyouji shot him a very dangerous look that instantly shut Nishikaido up. He was bordering on murderous. Domyouji stalked off and looked as if he was going to go on a rampage beating up random Eitoku students when Rui stepped in and suggested, "Why don't we ask Sakurako or Kazuya? They might have some clue..."
To their dismay, neither Sakurako nor Kazuya had seen Tsukushi since the morning.
"Wasn't she with you guys?" said Kazuya, sounding a little hurt that his beloved Tsukushi would choose money over him.
"She was, but not anymore," said Rui. "She was getting very annoyed with us because we laughed so much about the Procreation Sensation article. Perhaps we went a little too far with a joke at her expense."
"Knowing Tsukushi, if she doesn't turn up in a few hours, she may have run away again," said Sakurako snidely. Mimasaka shot her a warning look not to elaborate any further - Domyouji's eyes were very blank and lifeless by now, shadows dancing darkly over them.
"Gee, thanks for your help," said Nishikaido, rolling his eyes. "Like knowing that she ran away is really going to help us find her."
"When Tsukushi runs away, she always runs to someone she knows, right?" stated Sakurako. "Why don't you try the most obvious people?"
"Like?" said Nishikaido. "Clues, man, clues."
"Yuki-chan? Her mother and father? You know, she has run off to both of them before."
Nishikaido called up Yuki, and Rui called her parents. Neither of them had heard from Tsukushi, and they were equally surprised by her sudden disappearance. Yuki even offered to call up Tsukushi's junior high school friends to see if any of them had heard from her.
"Nope. Yuki hasn't seen her," reported Nishikaido.
"Nor her parents," added Rui.
"Useless commoners," muttered Domyouji darkly. Whether he was referring to Tsukushi or to Yuki and her parents was beyond them.
"Perhaps Shigeru kidnapped her again," suggested Mimasaka.
Sakurako called up Shigeru and asked if she had kidnapped Tsukushi again. Shigeru, however, vehemently denied it, and at Domyouji's request, she had went around Eirin looking for Kin-san. She had informed them that Kin-san was rather surprised by the news that Tsukushi could not be contacted, and had offered any assistance he could give which Domyouji, being a very proud man, had refused.
"She may also be staying with other people," said Sakurako. "She stayed with that Domyouji look-alike before, right? She might have sought his assistance again."
Domyouji thus swallowed his pride and called up Kunisawa Amon (after obtaining his number from a phone book). Amon had simply stated that she was not with him; after all, she wasn't his girlfriend now, was she?
"Tsukushi's not the type of girl to just run off to any old guy," Amon had said, and Domyouji saw the truth in his words.
"Maybe she's simply at home," said Rui, "And left her phone somewhere so she couldn't hear it."
Domyouji called up Tama; yet again, they had hit a dead end. Tama had not seen her all day, and nor had the other servants.
It was really worrying now them now. Tsukushi was not answering her phone; nor was she hiding with someone she knew. Could she really be that angry with them? Or maybe...
"Maybe she was kidnapped," whispered Rui. He had just verbalised their worst fear.
"But, by who?" said Nishikaido. "Shigeru denies it. Could it be -"
"Him. It's that model kid again, isn't it?" growled Domyouji, rising up. "I'm going to kill him."
"Wait! Tsukasa! You don't have any proof!" said Mimasaka, trying to restrain him. But it was no use; Domyouji shoved him out of his way. The F3 tried with all their might to restrain him, but to no avail; Domyouji got Oribe Junpei's whereabouts by beating some poor kid senseless. It was then that they found Junpei passing by in a corridor outside the music rooms.
"YOU!" shouted Domyouji, striding forwards quickly and cutting into Junpei's path. "You're up to your pathetic tricks again, aren't you?"
"What are you talking about?" said Junpei smoothly, unperplexed by the fact that Domyouji suddenly sought him out. "Make some sense for once in your life, will you?"
"You know what I'm talking about," whispered Domyouji dangerously, grabbing Junpei's collar and slamming him against the wall of the corridor. "You kidnapped her again, didn't you?"
By now, a crowd had gathered to watch the confrontation between two of the Eitoku girls' favourite boys - the leader of the F4 versus the alluring fashion model. Nishikaido, Mimasaka, and Rui stood there helplessly, torn between stopping another senseless beating and letting Domyouji get his revenge from the last time Junpei had betrayed Tsukushi's trust and beaten Domyouji up.
"Why, perhaps you should get it into your head that she ran away from you? Just because she's not with you doesn't mean someone took her from you," grinned Junpei menacingly.
Domyouji's eyes widened, but then they squinted back in anger as Domyouji slammed his fist against Junpei's face. Junpei stared back coolly at Domyouji as he wiped the blood from his nose with the back of his hand. Some girls had screamed and covered their faces at that sight.
"Do you really think that she would love someone who bullied her and made her life at school so miserable?" continued Junpei, adding fuel to the fire. He was laughing now, despite the fact that the blood was dripping down his shirt. "Who'd need to kidnap her from you when she would run away herself? I'm not surprised at all that she's disappeared."
"You're asking for a beating," whispered Domyouji, slamming Junpei's head against the wall repeatedly as he slumped over in pain.
"Don't listen to his taunts! They're not true!" said Nishikaido.
"Who was the one who red-tagged her? Who was the one who gave her all those physical and emotional wounds? And who is it now that is causing her all this misery by making up stupid stories about her in magazines? Who is the one that ruined her future by making her a teenage mother? You and her, childhood sweethearts! Don't make me laugh..."
"Kid," warned Nishikaido, "If you know what's good for you, you'd have the sense to shut up."
"You don't like it when people say the truth?" said Junpei. "You F4 freaks really are the dictators of Eitoku - suppression of truth now, eh?"
"Just tell us if you were stupid enough to kidnap her again," snapped Mimasaka. He was getting rather impatient with Junpei's mind games.
"Why should I?" smiled Junpei serenely. "If you were smart enough, you would've picked up it up from what I said."
"He said he didn't kidnap her," said Rui.
"Like I said, who needs to when she'll run away from you people, the ones who caused her pain?" snickered Junpei. "I would never hurt Tsukushi a second time by doing that again; she doesn't deserve this crap like you people do."
"Don't talk as if you are Makino's guardian angel!" yelled Domyouji, "Who was the one who used her, who pretended to be her friend just to beat me up? Don't you dare act as if you never hurt her. This punch," he said, smashing his knuckles into Junpei's face, "Is for all the hurt you caused Makino. And this punch," he continued, smashing his face again. "Is for all the pain you caused me. And this," he added, slamming his head repeatedly against the wall, "Is for pretending to be Tsukushi's avocado!"
"You mean advocate, right?" added Mimasaka wearily.
Junpei's eyes closed as he slid down the wall. His shirt was covered in blood, and his face was bruised. His tie was on the floor from when Domyouji grabbed him again.
"Let him be," sighed Mimasaka. "Don't waste any more of your time and energy on tripe like that, he's just purposely pulling your strings."
He pulled a heavily breathing Domyouji away from Junpei, and the F4 began to leave. But before going, Rui had turned to Junpei and said in a cold voice, "You seriously asked for the beating yourself. You should never have angered him so much when he was already so murderous."
"You think you can just beat anyone up whenever you felt like it," laughed Junpei snidely, still refusing to give up.
"You should just be grateful that he didn't decide to red tag you," warned Rui. "Yet."
The F4 made their way back to their usual table in the cafeteria, although everyone seemed a little more afraid of them as usual. The news of Junpei's beating must've spread throughout the school; or maybe it was simply the blood on Domyouji's hands that was scaring them.
"So, it wasn't that wretched model," said Nishikaido. "Who else could it be?"
"Mother," whispered Domyouji hoarsely. "I bet it was that old witch again, up to her usual tricks!"
He got up again and stormed out the school gates.
"Tsukasa! Tsukasa!" cried Mimasaka, as Nishikaido and Rui ran after him, trying to catch up with Domyouji. "Where are you going?"
"I'm gonna beat the truth out of Nishida." said Domyouji.
"Wait! You can't! He's not going to tell you anything!" said Nishikaido.
Rui was following them silently when he noticed something lying on the ground.
"Isn't that... Tsukushi's bag?" he said, and walked over to it and picked it up. "Hey, Tsukasa. Stop."
Domyouji, Mimasaka and Nishikaido stopped their bickering and turned around. Tsukushi's bag was indeed in Rui's hands.
"What - isn't that Makino's bag?' said Domyouji.
"What's she doing, leaving it on the ground like this?" said Nishikaido.
"You know, it's rather unlike her to leave her only worldly possession lying on here," said Rui. "There's something odd about this. I highly doubt that Tsukushi would just throw her bag off and leave it here."
"I bet that old witch kidnapped her," insisted Domyouji. "Funny that this should happen right after the article was released. I'm going to beat Nishida up."
"No! This is a matter for the police!" cried Mimasaka, holding him back before he beat anymore more people up. "Besides, you don't have any proof either!"
"Let's ask around to see if there are any eyewitnesses who can solve the mystery as to why Tsukushi would leave her bag lying here," said Rui sensibly.
After asking a every student passing the school gates for a while, they had indeed pieced together the puzzle. Tsukushi was indeed drugged and dragged into a car not unlike Domyouji's car. When they were asked why no one did anything to help her, or why this incident hadn't spread through the school like wildfire, or why no one had called the police, they students had all unanimously given this one reply - they had thought it was Domyouji-san kidnapping his own girlfriend.
"We've seen you do that before," said one student. "We assumed it was you again, so we thought it was quite normal. That was why we didn't help her or called the police."
"Because, if we interfered," added another student, "We would've been ...um.. beaten up by you..."
The past was catching up with the present. Domyouji felt like kicking himself for doing such stupid things in the past. He wished he had never forcefully taken her to his place for a makeover.
"It's quite the norm to see Makino being kidnapped," added another student. Domyouji didn't need any reminding about this, and so he proceeded to beat that kid up.
"Did you see who kidnapped her?" said Rui, stepping in.
"No," gasped the poor kid, nursing his arms. None of the other people did. All they had seen were some men, dressed in black suits, looking very much like the Domyouji family spies, jumping out of the car and grabbing her; that was why they assumed it was Domyouji who was behind all this.
"We'll have to report this to the police," said Mimasaka. "You can't handle this on your own - you don't even know who did it."
"Mother did!" insisted Domyouji.
"You have no proof." said Nishikaido. "Look, we'll report her as a missing person for now, okay? Even though it hasn't been twenty four hours yet, I think this bag may be enough proof. The police have an extensive network, and with them on our side, it'll be much easier to track her down."
This finally convinced Domyouji to seek the help of the police, and a while later, they were sitting on the hard wooden benches as they waited for their turn to be served. They were soon called up, and as Domyouji was about to make his statement and show them Tsukushi's bag, his phone rang. He pulled it out excitedly, and to his delight, the caller was Makino Tsukushi.
"Makino?" whispered Domyouji half excitedly, half angrily. "Where the hell are you? I was so worried, I -"
"Domyouji Tsukasa," replied the male voice. This was not Tsukushi at all. "Your girlfriend and your child is in our hands. You have forty eight hours to comply with our requests, or we will kill them."
Next Chapter: Who kidnapped her? Is Tsukushi safe? And for what?
I'm so sorry to have to do something like this to Junpei; I had rather liked him as a character.
I've run out of a backlog of chapters; I'm gonna have to get off my lazy bum now and write Chapter 10.