The forever piece
Chapter 8: Akane Hoshi

"I'm so happy you agree to help us Maka-sama." Noah says with a big smile on his face. "What you need to do first is to approach the Hoshi family and convince them you are who you are. If you do that then you will be the one in charge of the paddy fields. When you are that, you can back the Hoshi family back off. It is you who are their superior. Not the other way around. If they don't have the fields to keep watch on, then they won't have anything to do at the fields."

I nod understandingly. "So what I need to do is take control over the fields, then I fire them?"

Gopher nods excitedly. "Yeah! Then you can better the conditions here for us like you did at the publishing company!" Gopher stands up from the table and he grabs my hand again. "Come on! I will show you the way to the family Hoshi's house! You will give them a run for their money!"

Soul quickly growls a little and separates our hands again and grabs my hand. "Gopher." He says a little threateningly. "She is my fiancée." I must say, it is something with an overprotective Soul that I like very much.

"Okay! You already told me that already!" Gopher says innocently and starts to walk off to show us where this Hoshi family lives. Such an innocent person. He reminds me a lot of Patty. He doesn't really understand the possessiveness Soul has toward me. He doesn't understand how me only being his is and holding hands is definitely Soul treasures. At one point he had told me that holding hands with me was enough for his pulse to raise and his feelings to fire up. I had actually checked his pulse and it did increase. That was something that had brought Soul and I closer because now we can't be away from each other and when we are around each other, do to hold hands or stand really close to each other.

Soul sighs and shakes his head. He wraps his arm around my shoulders and holds me really close to him. We follow Noah and Gopher to the family Hoshi's house and my eyes widen as soon as my eyes set on it. It is an even larger house than what Kid and Liz has! It looks like a Japanese palace for royalty. How do they even afford to live here? Oh wait. They get all the money from the paddy fields and they give them minimum wage. Of course they will afford to live in a freaking palace!

"Damn..." Soul says and his eyes are. They must be just as wide as mine. "Are they living in a freaking palace for royalty?"

"Oh no!" Gopher says while we walk toward the palace. "Or actually, yes." Gopher says embarrassedly while he rubs his neck. "It was an old palace but then the Hoshi family bought it and renovated it."

Noah sighs and shakes his head. "We are here. We can't follow you anywhere closer. On the gate you will find a phone and you will call and ask for Akane Hoshi. He is the one who is running the paddy fields and the whole Hoshi family. He is the guy you will be talking with."

I nod and smile toward them. "Okay. Thank you for helping us."

Noah and Gopher wave at us before they walk back toward the shed-like house.

Soul squeezes my hand. "Let's go and see this Akane dude. You are going to get the paddy fields back and you are going to succeed."

I smile back with determination sparkling in my eyes. "Oh yes. We will do it together."

We walk up to the gate and there is the gate phone Noah was talking about. Since it was written in Japanese we just had to choose randomly which one we were going to call. We accidentally called some person named Clay Sizemore and he seemed to be close to Akane since he said he would bring him and come and meet us at the hall. The door opens and through a very large and very beautiful traditional garden. There was sand with beautiful patterns in it along with cherry trees blossoming. We soon reach the front door where a man with blond hair and blue eyes waits for us.

"So you must be Maka Albarn." He says in English. "We have heard much about you."

"Where is Akane?" I ask and he chuckles.

"In his office. He is waiting for you there." Clay turns around while he keeps his hands in his pockets. "Follow me. I will take you there." Soul and I follow Clay. I notice Soul moves closer to me in a protective way. He must have a bad feeling about what is going to happen. Honestly I don't have a bad feeling but I do know they won't just let me take over the paddy fields on one day.

We reach a large black door and Clay stops in front of it. He knocks before he opens it. The door must be very sound isolated because I can barely hear what he is saying. Clay pulls away from the door and turns toward us. "Akane can see you now." Clay holds the door open for Soul and I and we walk inside. It is a very large and very luxury office. In front of us a few feet away sits a man with dark hair and bangs covering his left eye and glasses. He wears a neat suit.

"So you are Maka Albarn." He stands up from his chair. "You do look like yourself from the news article." He walks up to me and offers me his hand. "I'm Akane Hoshi."

I grab his hand and shake it. "Maka Albarn."

He releases my hand and holds it toward Soul. "And you are?"

Soul grabs the hand and I can see he squeezes his hand a little too hard. "Soul Evans. I'm Maka's fiancé." I kind of like the fact Soul shows off who he is to me and shows I'm his woman. I like it being labelled as his.

"Soul Evans. Ah, that's right. You were the lead singer in Eaters and Maka won the lottery and got to tour with you. So that is how you two met." Akane smirks wide. "I thought you were going to be with that Arachne girl. You seemed to have a thing for her."

My eyes widen. How does he know about that?

Soul's eyes narrows and so does his eyebrows. "How do you―" He grits out through his teeth and I grab his hand and shake my head. "I mean," Soul clears his throat. "It isn't many people who knew about it. How come you knew about it?"

Akane chuckles and he crosses his arms. "How did I know?" he smirks wide. "I am the leader of Hoshi family. I need to keep an eye on the heir of the Albarn family and everyone around her. I wouldn't be a good leader if I didn't do that. After all, she is the only one who can take over the paddy fields now."

Okay, this is downright creepy. "Have you kept an eye on me all this time?!"

Akane nods without even showing a shred of shame. "Of course. I need to keep an eye on you. You remember that little girl who was deaf? I think her name is Angela."

My eyes widen. Angela. She is the little girl who was deaf. I met her when I was touring with Soul. She was alone backstage and I ended up talking with her to then save her from being crushed by bricks.

"Yeah, well, her father's name is Mifune and we asked them to travel to the USA and spy on you. They managed to get a lot dirty on you since he was always on every stage and spied on you even though you didn't see them."

"You used a little girl to spy on us?!" Soul hollers and now I think Akane has set him off big time. "How could you use a little child to do your own bidding! That is absolutely disgusting!" Immediately I get in front of him and put my hands on his chest. He was going to hit Akane since he took a step forward before I got in between him and Akane.

"It's not worth it." I look into his eyes and I try to get Soul to calm down. "I know it is a horrible thing to do but hitting him won't make anything better." I cup his face but his features stay tense as he looks into my eyes. "Calm down. You are better than this." Soul's eyes soften and so is his face. I smile and stroke his cheeks. "See? You are a great person." Soul places his hands over mine and smiles back.

"Maka has always been your strength and weakness. When Asura kidnapped her and attacked her, you were determined to find her and protect her. She is the reason you grew stronger that day." Akane smirks and he leans against his desk. "And she is the reason you almost broke down. You were so tormented. If someone ever wants to bring you down they should definitely go through Maka in order to get you."

Soul growls loudly and bares his razor teeth. "You piece of shit! I'm going to tear your head off!" Soul starts walking around me and his eyes are set on Akane.

"Soul!" I yell and wrap my arms around his waist. I'm not as strong as Soul so I have to do everything I can in orders to keep him away. "Stop it! Don't let him get inside of your head!" Soul keeps struggling to get away from my clutches my I know if I do, he will end up hurt. "Please! Stop!"

That seems to do it since Soul stops struggling in my arms. He breathes heavily through his teeth and his muscles are still tense. "I haven't been in this room for even fifteen minutes and I hate his guts already."

"Then let's go home for today." I cup his face again and force him to look into my eyes. "He doesn't deserve your time." I turn around toward Akane. "You are playing a dirty game. I'm here to make some changes at my paddy fields. I'm going to come back tomorrow and then I'm going to take care of my workers. I will see you tomorrow Akane." I don't even wait for a respond from him. I grab Soul's hand and I drag him out of the room. Clay waits for us outside of the office and leads us back out of the palace. Soul stays close to me and his nails dig into my shoulder. Something is definitely on his mind.

"Thank you." He whispers into my ear while we walk back toward our hotel. "You know, for snapping me out."

I smile and kiss his cheek quickly. "Don't worry about it. You are better than him."

Soul stops me and he pulls me close to him. "What if I'm not as good as you think I am?"

I cup his cheeks again and I smile gently toward him. "You have exposed and given me your heart. I know exactly the kind of man you are. You are the good guy. You aren't like Akane. You are far from being like him. You would absolutely not under any conditions manipulate a deaf child into spying on someone. You don't play mind games like he just did."

Soul looks away from me with a heartbroken look on his face. "It doesn't feel like I am that different from him."

"Hey," I grab his chin and force him to look at me. "Don't compare yourself to him. If you were like him then you would bet I wouldn't be here right now. I wouldn't have been with you at all. Then you would have just been another Asura in my life." I wrap my arms around his neck and pull him toward me. "I love you Soul. You are a good person. You have such a large and kind heart." I inhale his scent. Spices and mint. That is Soul's scent alright, so strong but so fresh at the same time. It makes me feel so safe. "That is why you are the only person I can see myself being with for the rest of my life."

Soul wraps his arms around me and hugs me tightly. "I love you too and I have known for a very long time you are the one. We may not have had the steadiest relationship like Liz and Kid, or the strongest relationship like Kami and Sprit, but I do know you are god damned the best woman I know and I want you badly in my life. Without you I would be colorless."

My mama and papa had a very incredible relationship, ours might not have started off as steady and strong as theirs, but I know our will one day be as strong as theirs. My love for Soul won't ever waver, it will only heighten.