"Mori-sempai…Kin…" the sound of Haruhi's voice broke me out of my haze of shock and anger. Katherine…gone? Just like that, but how? Where is she? I have to find her!Tamaki announced grandly,
"Guys, we're going after Honey-sempai and Kitty-sempai!" I turned to fuel my rage at him by shouting furiously,
"You'd better be able to find them! This is your fault, for inviting us on this ridiculous trip in the first place!" Tamaki flinched and then declared,
"The pool is the shortest way, charge!"
"What that way is…" Kyoya exclaimed, however everyone had already sprinted after Tamaki in the direction of the pool, screaming excitedly. I paused and asked,
"What Kyoya?" He shrugged, standing by the current pool with his arms crossed casually and replied impishly,
"They'll discover for themselves in a moment." I frowned, wondering what he could possible mean when I heard Tamaki and the twins scream,
"There are alligators swimming there!" From behind them I could see a group of impossibly large, hideous alligators, lazily snapping their jaws at Tamaki and the twins. I stepped back instinctively, even though the alligators weren't chasing them back to where Kyoya and I stood. I thought they were trying to model this park after the South tropics, and I don't believe alligators are native to that part of the world…wait, shut up internal thoughts, lets focus on getting Ellie back and then you can babble about alligators. Kyoya and I watched in irritated silence as Tamaki stopped for a moment then screamed again,
"Okay, the pool is out. Let's take this route!" He gestured widely and the entire group sprinted off again, I didn't even bother to follow them, this was becoming completely pointless. If I hadn't been so worried I would have been laughing hysterically at the sight of Tamaki running rampantly around the park dodging alligators as the twins exclaimed,
"They're here, too!" The twins dashed back out of the section of the park they had just been in, to be rejoined by Haruhi as she shrieked,
"And here, too!" The entire group ended up standing back with us, all of them panting as Kyoya looked on impassively and I attempted to burn Tamaki's flesh off with my glare.
"Why are there alligators, here?" Haruhi asked in bewilderment.
"Beats me." Tamaki replied. Kyoya titled his head slightly, considering, and then responded,
"Those pools are the tropical animal area. I guess it is dangerous to let the alligators run loose. Although, it's the current pool's switch location that's the problem here," as he spoke he skimmed the pages of his notebook with his eyes, his voice clinical and unfeeling, "I'll have to speak to the designers. I have to thank you. I've gotten some good data here."
"You what?" Everyone exclaimed, besides Mori, Kyoya and I. Instead I burst out in amazement,
"I knew it! You didn't agree to this just because of Tamaki's powers of persuasion, you had something to gain from this whole trip! This wasn't some exclusive pre-opening access by the Host Club to this theme park, but a test run in order to ensure that this park would make real profits when it opens to the people who actually pay. And that's what you've been writing in that notebook the whole time, data to repeat back to your engineers and accountants?" My sense of injustice was almost throttling me, my voice dropped lower and I could hear some of the Hosts gasp as I said quietly, threateningly to Kyoya, "And Ellie and Honey-sempai were part of your test run, and it went wrong, and they could be hurt out there. But hey, as long as it's not someone who is actually paying you, because the only people you care about are the ones you profit from, then I guess everything's ok."
Kyoya stared back at me blankly, his face betraying no trace of emotion. Maybe I was imagining it, but I thought in his eyes I could read something like guilt. My tone grew even sharper and more commanding, "You know everything there is to know about this place Kyoya, you can be the one to lead us in our search for Ellie and Honey-sempai." I paused, bit my tongue, and then forced out the words, "Please Kyoya, please." The Hosts gasped again and I was tempted to stick out my tongue at all of them. They were acting like we were on some kind of soap opera.
Kyoya nodded briefly, his eyes meeting mine for a split moment and then he dropped his gaze and said,
"There was no need for that Miss. Kin. I would have helped you out anyways." I shrugged and a small sad smile caught my lips.
"Maybe you would, maybe you wouldn't have. I wanted to yell at you anyways." He looked at me sharply and then walking away led the Host Club to a map pasted up to a board on the side of the walkway. Pointing he said,
"This is Tropical Aqua Garden's area map. This is our present location. To get to this point, where I predict Honey-sempai and hopefully, Kitty-sempai got carried away to, we will need to go through the jungle area in the southern block. That's a range of about 800 meters." Haruhi gestured to a number of blank areas on the map,
"There seem to be a lot of indeterminate areas in this jungle along our way."
"Those zones are still under development." Hikaru shuddered and said,
"There could be things in there even more dangerous…"
"…than alligators." finished Kaoru. Tamaki struck another pose and declared,
"All right, this is a survival mission! We have to safely penetrate this jungle area, and rescue both Honey-sempai and Kitty-sempai!"
The entire group and I headed into the densest area of the park, where the trees were winding and tall, vines draped down to the earth, and shadows fell thickly across the path. Animals made strange calls to one another across the forest and I walked along, clenching and unclenching my fists, wondering where Katherine was. Tamaki remarked,
"This has all but become a real jungle in here." Haruhi nodded and commented,
"I've been hearing lots of strange animal calls."
"You don't think that those animal sounds," said Hikaru,
"…could be the real thing, right?" finished Kaoru. Kyoya replied, his tone slightly ironic,
"I'm not too sure. In all of the work we do, we tend to strive for authenticity whatever the cost." I could feel Kyoya's eyes on my back as he said that, and I knew he was expecting me to make some clever response. I couldn't though, now that we were in the jungle with shadows swarming around us I could barely think of anything else but just imagine Katherine, alone and frightened and harmed, and me not there. She better not be alone, Katherine can't be alone, she would have a complete breakdown. Wait, Mitsukuni grabbed her at the last second, hopefully he's with her. He had better be with her. My thoughts were broken as for the second time that day Mori-sempai slipped on a banana peel and went colliding into me. We had been standing in the front of the pack together, each of us watching the forest for Katherine or Honey and now we collided, crashing to the forest floor, limbs flailing. Mori-sempai once again pulled me on top of him so he landed first and I was unhurt. If Takashi had landed on me and crushed me to the ground I would have had a minor implosion. Instead him and I lay there briefly, neither of us thinking it worth moving. Tamaki and Haruhi came over to help me to my feet and Hikaru commented,
"Mori-sempai…"
"…is acting about as clumsy as you, boss. And why does he keep crashing into Kin?" Kaoru finished. Takashi shrugged and muttered,
"I'm not trying to. Sorry Kin." I nodded and replied, not even sure of what I was saying,
"Its fine." Suddenly a shroud of dark clouds drew tightly over the canopy of trees, concealing the sky in a sheer wall of black thunder clouds.
"Whoops, it must be squall time." Kyoya remarked, and the group hurried over to a wooden pavilion built beneath the trees to wait out the rain. I sat just outside the pavilion, cross-legged on the ground, my face turned upwards to the sky. Within moments the clouds shattered and rain rushed to meet the earth, drenching me in a complete curtain of water. Droplets broke against my forehead and rolled across my body, soaking my hair in an instant, seeking into my lips, my skin, my clothing. I drew in a deep gasp of air and released, the tension escaping my body and pouring itself into the earth to join the rushing water. For a few moments I couldn't even breath, only taste the falling rain and feel as if I was part of it, just escaping this world and changing it for another one. I stood and entered the covered pavilion, combing my fingers through my soaking hair, my eyes bright and my mind cleared and focused. As I walked in I ignored the strange looks I was receiving from the Hosts for sitting out in the rain and listened as Haruhi said,
"Mori-sempai is awfully close to Honey-sempai, isn't he? And Kin, you're really close to with Kitty, right? Are they childhood friends or something?" I leaned on the edge of the wooden wall that surrounded the pavilion and preoccupied myself with smoothing out my long, tangled hair, listening to the conversation.
"You mean you don't know?" Hikaru said incredulously.
"Mori-sempai and Honey-sempai are cousins," declared Kaoru. I raised my eyebrows slightly, thinking Really? I guess it makes sense considering how well they know one another. So that means that one of each of their parents are brother or sister. "Though we don't know much about Kitty-sempai and Kin…" Oh goodness, am I going to have to try and explain the relationship between Ellie and me? Luckily, Haruhi said in surprise,
"Huh? They're relatives?" Kyoya chimed in next, eager to share some of his endless wealth of knowledge,
"The Morinozuka's have been serving the Haninozuka family for generations." My eyes widened slightly in surprise, Honey and Mori were master and servant? I chuckled slightly, trying to imagine the mild-mannered, eager to please Honey ever ordering the strong and silent Mori around. Hikaru continued the story,
"Although, two generations ago, they became relatives by marriage, and the families' master-servant relationship has long since faded away." Kaoru continued, a hopelessly romantic look on his face,
"Even so, Mori-sempai has always accompanied Honey-sempai." Tamaki concluded the story, gazing happily at Mori-sempai, who was looking at out the rain, his mind obviously on Honey and not on what these fools were saying, "It must get his blood going, the blood of the vassals of yore, which flows through Mori-sempai." I scowled at this ridiculous statement, which was a complete fantasy. Can these fools actually believe that those 'vassals' were born to be servants? That they take some pleasure out of fulfilling their place in life by serving the rich, who delude themselves into thinking that by making these people their servants they are fulfilling some divine order? Fools.
"What a great story!" exclaimed the twins as once, "I'm touched!"
"That's what you call a great story?" said Haruhi, scowling. I nodded in agreement, absent mindedly figuring my hair, picking apart the brown threads.
"Hey what about you Kin?" Hikaru asked, making everyone's gaze in the pavilion settle on me. My fingers froze on my wet hair, and I swept it behind my shoulder, looking the twins in the eyes and answering,
"What about me?" Hikaru signed and elaborated,
"What about you and Kitty-sempai?" Kaoru finished the statement,
"The two of you are close, but why?" I signed and flicked my eyes upwards to the top of the pavilion, trying to decide how to answer that question without giving away anything about myself that I didn't want to give. My skin was prickling from having all the eyes of the Hosts on me. I said,
"Well, without going into detail, we have been friends for a long time. Ellie is the type of person who puts others before herself; she doesn't really take care of herself." I looked down now, looking back into my memories, "So I take care of her…somebody has to…her father is often away on business, and her mother is almost always at the bakery…" My voice trailed off. Haruhi titled her head slightly as she looked at me, then asked,
"I've also been wondering, Kin why do you call Kitty Ellie?" I grinned at that memory, replying,
"Oh, well everyone always called her Kate. She always hated it and so I call her Ellie, which comes from her middle name, which is Elenora." The Hosts smiled at me slightly and nodded. Haruhi then stepped forward and declared to both me and Mori-sempai,
"Mori-sempai, Kin-sempai, it'll be all right. I'm sure that Honey-sempai is safe. He's tougher than you might think, and if he gets hungry, there are a lot of bananas in the trees. Also, Honey-sempai would help Kitty-sempai out." I smiled, some of my anxiety lessened by Haruhi's statement. She's right; if Honey is with Ellie he'll make sure that she's ok. And even though I keep forgetting, Ellie is a lot tougher than she looks too. The twins twisted to look at the both of us and said in unison,
"Hey now…" Tamaki completed their words,
"How are they going to respond to that?"
"Yeah," Mori muttered shortly, his eyes flicking to focus on Haruhi.
"Thank you Haruhi," I said with all the warmth I could muster while still being incredibly worried. Tamaki ruined my moment though by stuttering,
"D-don't tell me Mori-sempai is out for my spot as Haruhi's daddy, too!" I rolled my eyes, Who ever told him that he was Haruhi's daddy? Oh right, he told himself…
"No, nobody is after that," Hikaru uttered teasingly,
"Not that silly in-law position." Kaoru joined with his twin in teasing Tamaki. They joined to tease him but I shifted my focus to Kyoya, who had whipped out his cell phone and was holding it to his ear.
"Hello it's me," Kyoya said sharply. He listened into his phone then said, "Oh, we've got a somewhat troubling situation…" He turned away to speak on his phone and the sound of the rain drowned out anything I could hear of his conversation. Kyoya closed his phone and turned back to us to say,
"My family's private police force is going to look for Honey-sempai and Kitty-sempai in the jungle. We should probably head back towards the main complex." I narrowed my eyes at him and said pointedly,
"I'm not leaving till I see that Honey and Ellie are completely safe." Mori-sempai walked over to stand beside me and he said,
"I'm not leaving either." Kyoya shrugged and replied coolly, clearly not pleased with what we had said,
"As you wish Miss. Kin, Takashi." I glanced up Mori-sempai and he nodded down at me once, together we turned and left the pavilion, the rain had ceased a few moments ago. We walked back onto the path together and Takashi paused for a moment, and then began to walk in the opposite direction of where Kyoya had predicted Honey and Kitty would be. I stopped and peered into the forest, trying to determine where she would be. I found that my instinct, my senses all pointed to where Takashi had already begun to walk, in the opposite direction of Kyoya's prediction. I darted over to where Mori-sempai was, following him down the pathway. From behind us I heard Haruhi call out,
"Mori-sempai, Kin-sempai, it's not that way. Honey-sempai and Kitty-sempai are in the other direction." Mori and I continued to walk, calling back to Haruhi,
"No they're this way!" Haruhi exclaimed at us,
"Just a minute! It's too dangerous for just the two of you to go! I'm coming with you two!" Takashi, Haruhi, and I headed into the thick of the jungle. I am a fairly athletic person so I leapt over the felled trees and moved through the dense forest with ease. I flicked the bugs away from my face and focused on moving through the tangled brambles and hanging vines of the jungle. While Mori and I moved with ease, Haruhi was stumbling and shrieking behind us. Mori and I both stopped and glanced at each other. I rolled my eyes and muttered,
"She should have stayed behind." Mori-sempai nodded slightly, then turned and said,
"Haruhi…" He picked her up and held her in his arms as he moved through the forest. Hmmm… I wonder if he would have picked me up with I was having issues. Probably, but then again I'm not having trouble and I don't really want some guy to carry me so I'm good. Takashi, Haruhi, and I emerged into a clearing surrounded by a thicket of woods. As we entered the clearing Takashi froze in front of me, I moved around him and my jaw dropped. There was a group of heavily armed men standing in the clearing, all of them wearing black armor and flap jackets, helmets concealing their faces. Their weapons were trained on us. I gasped; it was like a tiny army in the woods was facing us. Wait; is this…Kyoya's family's private police force? Oh great.
"Target confirmed," said one of the policemen. Another one shouted into a walkie-talkie.
"The target has been captured by a suspicious man and woman." I looked at us, what in the hell were these people talking about? Then I figured it out, they thought that Haruhi was a little boy, Honey I guess? And I and Takashi were his kidnappers. "Now taking subject into custody." The man gestured his weapon at Takashi and bellowed, "You there! Let the boy go, or we will resort to using force!" My heart pounded, my hands clenched into fists. Who do these ridiculous policemen think they are? Haruhi said in a panicked voice,
"Oh hold on!" Suddenly one of the policemen attempted to snatch Haruhi out of Takashi's arms. He growled deep in his throat and he violently struck the man, who went flying through the air away from him and Haruhi. The policemen moved towards me and I moved back towards Takashi, preparing myself to fight. The policeman shouted,
"The man is resisting! Ready to fire warning shots!" I gasped, that wasn't fair! Suddenly a familiar voice sounded through the air,
"Takashi, Haru-chan, Kin, move!" I looked up to see Honey, gripping a vine and swinging through the air from the trees into the clearing. I leapt to the side and watched as Honey smashed in one of the policemen's helmets with his fist and then released the vine. I smiled slightly, moderately impressed as Honey flipped in the air and landed neatly on his feet, a thunderous look transforming his face into an expression I had never seen.
"What do you think you're doing, pipsqueak?" shouted one of the men, turning to point his gun at Honey.
"No matter, get this one too!" A policeman said, and Honey then hurled himself at the soldier and threw him to the ground. One by one the policemen charged Honey and Honey beat them silly, and then deposited them on the forest floor. I watched Honey, wanting to join in the fight but knowing I wasn't really needed with Honey around. Soon I became slightly bored, wanting Honey to get this over with so I could go find Katherine. Speaking of Ellie, I began to glance around the trees, hoping to catch a glimpse of her somewhere. I saw a flash of color in the canopy of one of the trees, but didn't look at it directly. If it was Katherine I would know soon enough. Honey finished and declared,
"Don't go being so reckless. Picking on my friends is a no-no." Around Honey lay sprawled all the policemen, each of them bruised and beaten with their bodies twitching. I was grateful to see none of them were openly bleeding. For a moment we stood like that, Takashi and I quietly watching Honey as Haruhi stood gasping, completely astounded that Honey was so powerful. Then Tamaki, the twins, and Kyoya burst into the clearing, running towards us. Tamaki exclaimed in fear,
"Haruhi! Haruhi, are you all right?" I laughed slightly; he didn't even ask if Takashi or I were ok? Then, given the fact that both Takashi and I were pretty tough individuals he probably didn't need to. Honey turned towards us and said,
"Hey it's Tama-chan!" The twins paused and Hikaru said,
"Oh wow…" Kaoru completed the sentence,
"Honey-sempai! You okay sempai?"
"Haruhi!" Tamaki shouted again, and running over wrapped his arms around her, "I was so worried about you." The twins kneeled down to prod the bodies of two of the comatose policemen, Hikaru remarked,
"Not sure what happened here, but they seem okay, they're alive." Kaoru nodded and answered,
"Well, Honey-sempai was the one who did this, right? Then he must have been holding back." Haruhi gasped once again and asked,
"Huh? What do you mean by that?" The twins tilted their heads and replied,
"Huh? You don't know? The Haninozukas have been famous for their martial arts for generations. They're instructed not just the police and the SDF, but overseas military forces as well." Kyoya calmly finished the statement,
"In particular, Honey-sempai has been called the dreadnaught of the Haninozuka family, for as long as it's been around, and by the time he was in middle school, he was the national champion in both karate and judo." Honey released an adorable smile in response to that statement. Tamaki then spoke,
"Incidentally, Mori-sempai also became the national champion in kendo, when he was in middle school." For a moment we all stood in silence. Then Haruhi asked,
"Hey where's Kitty-sempai? We though she would be with you Honey-sempai…" Honey looked around in confusion and answered,
"I don't know, she was with me a few minutes ago…" I looked up to where I had seen the flash in the tree, and sure enough Katherine was perched on a tree branch, looking down with the wild smile on her face. She's been there, wondering when we would notice her gone. Normally I would have let her have her fun, but it was time for her to come back to us.
"She's in the tree. She's been there I whole time." I said calmly, fixing my eyes to Katherine's. Katherine stood upon the tree branch, balancing her small frame with ease. Tamaki shouted up to her not to jump, that they would come get her. I smiled to myself; did they really think that would work? Katherine made a small leap off the branch and curled her body into a flip, landing smoothly on her feet. She looked at me and complained,
"Kin…you just had to ruin my fun, didn't you?" She stuck her tongue out at me and muttered, "I still have no clue how you do that…" I smirked in response, I knew she was thinking of the fact I can always know where she is.
"H-how did you d-do that?" stuttered Tamaki at Katherine. I knew if Katherine answered she would have begun to ramble about her childhood and her dancing, so instead I said sharply,
"Don't be stupid Tamaki. Kin is a dancer and she has the best reflexes I've ever seen."
"Hey Honey-sempai, Kitty-sempai, how did you guys find us?" asked the twins.
"It wasn't hard," replied Honey, "It didn't take us long to reach the end of the current pool, so we decided to go looking for everyone." The policemen began to prostate themselves in front of Honey and apologize to the 'great Haninozuka Mitsukuni'; however I paid them no attention as I was once again lost in my thoughts. Why weren't the police men looking for Kitty as well, and why didn't Kyoya let them know that Takashi and I were out in the jungle? Is this some kind of revenge Kyoya is taking on me for refusing to stay behind while the police men were out looking? Does this go back to me yelling at Kyoya about him using us to take down test data? Or was I not Kyoya's target at all? Was he in fact testing whether Takashi could take care of Honey as well as he believes? I don't know; it's impossible to guess Kyoya's motives because Honey ended this fight before it had even begun. When I tuned back into reality Honey was patting Takashi on his head and saying,
"Takashi, you did very well protecting Haru-chan. You didn't get lonesome without me around right?" I smiled, that sounded like something Katherine would say to me…
As we walked back to the main complex Hikaru commented,
"You know, maybe next time we should go the beach…"
"…the beach would be nice." I smiled and I could feel my face light up, the beach meant the ocean and I loved the ocean. Tamaki said dismissively,
"You idiots, Haruhi wouldn't be interested in that." Haruhi challenged his statement,
"I might not mind going to the beach. This obviously artificial location may not be any fun, but the beach would be nice. It's pretty there."
"Also Kin and I love the beach! It's calm and relaxing there…" chimed in Katherine happily. Tamaki declared,
"All right, you got it! Next, we go the beach!" Honey, perched on Takashi's shoulders, spoke to Takashi happily,
"We're all going to the beach next. That will be fun, huh?" Takashi looked up and replied simply,
"Yeah." Katherine giggled as she watched Takashi and Honey. Looking up at me she said,
"That would be fun and exciting wouldn't it, Kin?" I smiled softly down at Katherine, glad to have her back at my side, and replied,
"Yeah Ellie, that'd be awesome."
We all went home after that, and I slept over at Katherine's house once more as her mother was out at the bakery.