Chapter 19: Dinner Disaster Part 1
Dark-Flame Alchemist: Next chapter up! :D Thanks to BleedinLuva1123 for reviewing last chapter!
Karai: You finally got your lazy self to upload this chapter when you could have done it earlier in the week… *crosses arms before shaking her head in shame*
Dark-Flame Alchemist: yes, yes I did. Now explain to me why you are here when you should be inside my head…
Karai: *shrugs* No reason… besides the fact we decided to show ourselves since you didn't bother to.
Dark-Flame Alchemist: *sweat drops* ok… this is all awesome… I guess… but we really need to start the chapter so I'd appreciate it if you would do the disclaimer since you are here anyway.
Ayano: *appears* Hey! Why can't I do it?
Kazuma: *appears* Ayano, if you ever want to do the disclaimer, you need to stop all… this. *referring to her whole being*
Ayano: *frowns* you just gestured to all of me…
Karai, Kazuma and Dark-Flame Alchemist: Yes.
Ayano: *growls* whatever; just get it over with already! I don't need you guys doing a reference from How to Train a Dragon!
Dark-Flame Alchemist: Ah, that was a good movie…
Karai: Anyways… Dark-Flame Alchemist does not own Kaze no Stigma and hopes you enjoy this chapter.
Karai's Point of View
It's been a month and a half since Kazuma and I started going out. When Father heard the news of our relationship, he was ecstatic and was glad that we weren't fighting anymore and so did Uncle. Also, my wound had finally healed after two weeks so I was all good to fight.
Other than that, things didn't change as much besides Kazuma and I getting close which sometimes annoyed Ayano, but she has gotten used to us being together, sort of. She would use the advantage to complain to me whenever she was angry with him over something and expected me to do something about it. I tell her most of the time to just let it be since it is over little things.
Tonight, I was going to stay over at Kazuma's after finishing up a solo case late at night in the city which I had just completed not too long ago. I was too tired to go all the way back home and I really didn't want to stay at a hotel room.
Kazuma already knew since I asked him in the morning and of course, he was fine with it. Ichiru was making fun of me, saying that we're going to end up doing things, but I assured him that we weren't going to do any of that after whacking him upside the head.
I entered the building that he was staying at and went to the front desk where the receptionist was.
"Excuse me, but which room is Kazuma Yagami's?" I asked.
"Mr. Yagami is staying up at the penthouse. I'm glad you're more polite than that other girl who was yelling at me where he was staying a few weeks ago," the receptionist mentioned.
'Ayano…' I thought, shaking my head before bowing, "Thank you so much and I'm sorry for my sister's rude behavior."
"It's all right. I've seen worse than that. Have a good night," he replied, waving a hand off.
I smiled, "You too," I said before going to the elevator to the top floor. Once the doors opened, I stepped out and knocked on the door.
Kazuma answered, dressed in his sleepwear which consisted of blue pajama pants and no shirt on, showing off his bare chest. I blushed a bit.
He smirked, "Like what you see?"
The blush went away and I rolled my eyes at him, "Shut up," I replied, going up to him and lightly punching his chest.
He chuckled, pulling me towards him by grabbing my hips before leaning down and giving me a kiss. I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed back.
We pulled away and he smiled, "How was your mission?" I rested my head on his shoulder, "I'm exhausted; it's late and I just want to go to sleep…"
"Is that all you want to do?" he asked, like he was implying something.
"Yes," I muttered.
"All right, come on," he replied before he led him to his bathroom. I wasn't paying much attention to how the place looked like since I was focused on going to bed. When we got there, I walked in and placed my bag on the toilet. I felt eyes watching my back and turned around to see Kazuma leaning on the doorway with crossed arms, like he was waiting for something.
A stress mark appeared on my head, "Do you need something?"
"Nope," he said with a smirk.
I tilted my head and gave an annoyed smiled, "Then can you leave so I can get changed? Or would you like me to slam the door on your face so that you get the message."
He gave in and put his hands up in defense, "Ok, ok… if you need help, just call me," he said before closing the door behind him.
I just shook my head, smiling, before getting changed into a black tank top and white pajama pants. I placed the dirty clothes I was wearing in another bag and put that in my main bag. After I finished up brushing my teeth and whatever else I needed to do, I put my bag on the side with my boots.
I walked out of the bathroom and closed the lights before closing the door. Kazuma was already in the bed, sitting up with his lower half of his body under the covers. When he saw me, he smiled and patted the empty side of the bed, gesturing me to go in with him.
I smiled and climbed in before snuggling up next to him with his arm around me, "Thank you for letting me stay over."
"You're welcome. Besides, I wouldn't let a chance like this slip up, now would I?" he cheekily said.
I shook my head, "Yeah, yeah… so I heard from Ayano that you pissed her off again?" I stated before looking up at him. I may have wanted to sleep already, but I wanted to talk to Kazuma a little first before I did.
He sighed, "When do I ever not get her upset?" he replied, stroking my hair.
"She said that you were taking a nap on your last case and left her to defeat the yoma on her own," I mentioned.
He shrugged, "Well, I knew she could handle it, so I left her to it. Besides, you know her. She doesn't know when to make up her mind whether she wants my help or not."
I nodded, "You're right, but… could you try to get along with her when we go to the business dinner in two days?" I asked him.
"You should be telling that to little miss hot-head, but I'll do my best," he said, sighing before he looked down at me.
I smiled and leaned up while he leaned down and we shared a kiss. We released and I went back to laying my head on his chest with my arm over him.
"So what's this dinner about again?" he asked.
I rolled my eyes, "One of my family's clients wants to discuss about a previous mission I had concerning them. They said I could bring up to two guests so I'd thought I'd bring you and Ayano."
"And why are you bringing Ayano too?" he asked, probably thinking that I was crazy for thinking up such a plan.
"Well, if she is to become head of the Kannagi family, she should start learning how to go to such meetings. It will be a good experience for her. Father even agreed," I explained.
He nodded, "That makes sense, but those events are so boring." I could tell that he wasn't looking forward to it.
I chuckled and looked up at him, "Don't worry, it shouldn't be too long. I arranged another table for afterwards. These clients that we are meeting usually only stick around for appetizers and I thought it'd be a waste for such an expensive restaurant if we had done the same."
"Good; at least we'll spend some time together, even though Ayano is there too," he said with satisfaction, yet annoyance.
"Yeah… we do still need to go on a date with just the two of us. It sucks that we've been busy for the past few weeks," I said, sighing.
"We will in time. Now let's get some sleep," Kazuma replied, "You did say you were tired."
"You're right, my eyes are drooping," I softly said as a yawn came out.
Kazuma released me and leaned to his right to turn off the light before we went back to the same position. He kissed my forehead and placed his chin on top of my head that was on his chest, "Night."
"Goodnight," I said before falling asleep quickly.
~…~
It was the night of the dinner. Ayano and I were headed for the restaurant in my limo while Kazuma was going to meet us there.
Ayano was wearing a pink sleeveless dress that went down to her knees and connected to her neck with a flower just below. She also had matching fingerless pink gloves that went a little past her elbows and pink heeled shoes. Her hair was still the same like she always kept it.
As for myself, I was wearing a silver sleeveless dress that went up to my thighs, black fingerless gloves that went up to my wrists and black high-heeled shoes. My hair was up in a messy bun and I also applied some makeup. To match my outfit, I also had my small silver hand purse that contained my cell phone, wallet and other necessary stuff.
"Onee-san."
I turned my head from facing the window to see what Ayano wanted, "Yeah?"
She smiled, "Thank you for bringing me with you."
I nodded, "It's no problem at all. You're welcome."
"I just wish Kazuma wasn't there. He is so annoying," she stated with a scowl.
"Ayano…," I said, giving her a serious look.
"I know. I'll try not to lose my temper," she said, sighing in defeat. The car suddenly stopped.
The employee outside opened the door and I stepped out first before Ayano did. I smiled at the one who opened the car door, "Thank you." He just nodded.
"Hey."
I turned to see Kazuma standing there, smiling at me. He was wearing a formal suit and kept his usual hair style.
I smiled, walking up to him to give him a quick kiss.
"You look amazing," he complimented me.
"You don't look too bad yourself," I replied.
Ayano, who was standing not too far from us, cleared her throat, "Can we go inside already? I don't want to stay out here and watch you guys being all lovey-dovey, if you don't mind."
"I hope you're hungry," Kazuma said to Ayano.
"I am, thank you very much," Ayano said arrogantly, "And I'm still mad at you, so since you're paying, I won't forgive you unless I order anything I want, no matter how expensive."
He sighed, "Anything you want…"
"Are you sure you want to pay the whole bill? The reason we're here anyway is because of me," I asked, concerned, "I could pay for half."
"Don't worry about it; it's fine. You invited us and made the reservations so I'll pay the bill," he answered me. I nodded, knowing that he wasn't going to change his mind.
Kazuma then held an arm out to each of us. I gladly looped my arm to his right while Ayano was a bit skeptical at first before going to his other side and holding onto his arm. Soon, we were off to enter the building.
We walked into the elevator until were at the top floor where the roof was which consisted of a mall. We kept on moving until we were at the restaurant and I told the waiter the name of the client.
He led us to a round table that seated eight people, with three spots left for us. I greeted everyone there and introduced Kazuma and Ayano before we sat down. The meeting immediately began.
Twenty minutes later…
After the meeting had ended and I said my goodbyes, I informed the waiter of my other reserved table and he led us there. It was a rectangle-shaped table with four chairs.
Kazuma sat on a chair next to the window with me sitting across from him and Ayano right next to me.
After giving our orders, I leaned my elbows on the table, resting my chin on my hands before looking at Ayano, "So what did you think? Besides the fact that it was boring," I curiously asked.
"It was… interesting. I never knew how these sorts of dinners were like since I've never attended them before," she answered, "You handled yourself pretty well though."
"Yeah, I got used to it," I replied, shrugging, "You just need to practice."
Kazuma let out a yawn, "That talk made me want to take a nap. How about we change the subject?"
Ayano, remembering that she was angry with him in the first place, looked like she was going to snap at him, but I gave her a look telling her to calm down. She did.
I then turned and faced Kazuma to give him a look as well, causing him to shrug like he didn't do anything wrong. I just rolled my eyes. Our meals and drinks came soon after and we started eating.
The water came back a few minutes later and held out a wine bottle in front of Kazuma, "Chateau Mangot, 2003."
"That's fine," Kazuma replied before looking at me, "You want some?" I nodded and gave him my glass. The waiter poured wine in our glasses before leaving our table.
Kazuma handed me my glass back. I swirled it before taking a sip. I smacked my lips, checking out the taste. I gave a satisfying look, "Hmm, not bad," I said before taking another sip.
"Hey, you want to try a glass of wine?" he asked Ayano.
"What? No way! You know I don't drink," she replied, turning her head to side.
"Oh yeah, no booze for you. I forgot… you're not old enough yet."
I sighed and took a sip of my wine; suddenly I felt this odd presence in the area and looked over at Kazuma who was looking at something in the ceiling with a worried look. I turned to see a dark aura disappearing.
'Oh great… of all the times…,' I annoyingly thought. I decided to go find it myself. If Ayano took care of it, then she would probably damage the place.
I stood up, "I'll be right back," I replied, looking at Kazuma who knew what I was going to do. He nodded, "Be careful."
"Uh Kazuma, she's just going to the restroom. You make it sound like she's not coming back or something," Ayano stated before taking another bite of her food.
I rolled my eyes and laid one of my hands on top of Kazuma's, "I'll be fine," I assured him before pulling my hand away and pushing my seat in. "You two behave," I said, giving them stern looks before leaving.
So on I went, trailing after the aura that was disturbing this building. I was wondering what I was going to do when I did find it, considering that there were people around.
Screams and shouts could be heard. Looks like I didn't have to think about it at all, because suddenly, people started rushing out of the area until there was nobody around.
"Well, that's one thing I don't have to worry about. I hope Kazuma and Ayano are fine," I said to myself before concentrating to sense where the dark aura was. Once I targeted it, I swung my hand to the side, materializing Kaito Enraiha, before I left to go get the aura.
As I was running, I saw the little devil zoom past me until it went over the railing and down to the level below me, "I got you now," I shouted before grabbing the rail, going over it and letting go before I started falling down down. I then hovered into the level where the evil aura was and ran after it. I swung my sword and shot several fireballs; small ones, though, so that it wouldn't do that much damage to the place.
From my multiple attacks, I was only able to graze the aura once. I growled. This weak enemy shouldn't even be taking this long and here I am running around.
Suddenly, it turned a corner. I slid to a stop to halt myself before turning in the direction it went. It did it again, causing me to do the same.
'Damn this thing is fast! It's causing me to go around in a damn circle!' I thought while continuing to go after the dark aura. It was like taunting me. Before I knew it, it went out of the level and up to the one that I was originally at. I was about to do the same, when I saw some more people running down the stairs, causing me to stop. Oh great, it looks like they didn't leave yet like those other people did earlier.
All of a sudden, some of the men who were wearing helmets, gloves, masks covering their mouths and glasses started shooting at the ceiling with their guns. Everyone stopped and covered their heads, bending down.
'This is not good…' I thought before de-materializing Kaito Enraiha for now so that I wouldn't draw attention to myself since not that many people know about magic users.
One of the guys, who I presumed was the leader, started yelling, "All right, I don't know what was going on in there, but now that that's out of the way, I want you guys to go towards the wall and put your hands up so that me and my guys can finish what we started." 'Nice grammar by the way…' I thought, rolling my eyes.
The people started doing what he said, with his guys ushering them to move along while I just stood there. One of the men noticed me, "You there! Do what he says!" he ordered. I just stood there with crossed arms, not budging.
He growled and walked towards me until he was in front of me and held his gun facing me, "I don't want to have to use force on a hot piece of meat like yourself, but I might have to if you don't comply with our demands."
I slowly took a few steps towards him before doing a sudden spin kick to knock the weapon out of his hands, causing it to fly down to the first floor. He was shocked, yet pissed, "Why you little-!" he started to say, but I brought my knee up and hit him where it hurts, causing him to bend down and leave his neck vulnerable. I hit it instantly and he got knocked out. I bent down to speak to his unconscious body, "That's for calling me a piece of meat."
"Hey you! What did you do to him?"
I turned my head to see all of the guys looking at me now, all four of them, including the leader. They all directed their guns in my direction. I materialized Kaito Enraiha and went into battle stance. I wasn't really supposed to be doing this, but I had no choice right now since I had no other weapon to use and I had to help these people right away.
"What the hell?"
"Who is she?"
"Oh my god! It's a magic user!"
"A what?"
They all didn't know what to make of me, considering only one of them knew what I was. Even the hostages turned their heads from the wall to see what they were talking about and were surprised.
The leader smirked, "Don't worry men; we can take her down, even with her hocus-pocus."
I snorted, "Don't underestimate me. Now if you guys don't want me to whoop your asses and let you guys get sent to jail, I suggest you release these people and be on your merry way."
The leader paid no heed to my words, "Men, after her!" They all charged for me. I sighed, "I really don't have time for this," I muttered to myself before running towards them.
They tried shooting at me, but I swiftly dodged all the bullets before shooting small fireballs at their feet to distract them. Too busy trying to get the flames out of their shoes, I was able to knock another of them out. I turned around so that I was facing the remaining two.
They quickly turned towards me and started firing. I rolled to my right before grabbing the railing and jumping over the edge. I hovered onto the other side and started running to my left to dodge the bullets.
I hid behind a pillar for a few seconds to de-materialize Kaito Enraiha before running and throwing fireballs on their side as they shot at me until I got to the next pillar. I heard a shriek and a splash when I was doing that, meaning that there was one more left before I faced the leader.
I took a peek from where I was and glanced down to see the fallen guy floating in the fountain, but I couldn't see where the last guy was. When I turned my head back, I felt a small pain as a bullet grazed my cheek. I put a hand to it and saw a little blood. Quickly, I removed myself from the pillar and turned to face the last guy who was now on the same side of the level that I was on, smirking at me since he was able to catch me off guard.
Wanting to take the guy out quick, I ran in his direction, putting up a fire shield to disintegrate the bullets. He just kept on shooting while I was running.
At some point, his gun ran out of ammo and he tried to reload as fast as he could, but it was too late. I smirked before jumping and doing a spinning kick in the air before knocking him into the wall. He didn't move.
I materialized Kaito Enraiha once again and walked in the direction where the leader was until I was at a good distance from him with my sword at hand. He continued to point his gun at me, fear starting to get to him. The hostages remained near the wall, watching us.
"Give it up. I already took down your group. Do you really expect to win?" I asked him, curious with what he was going to do next.
He growled and pulled a smaller gun out with his free hand, facing it at the hostages who were scared out of their wits as he continued to point his main gun at me, "I might have a chance," he replied before putting an arm around a random woman and placing the gun to her head, "What are you going to do now?" he smirked under his mask.
I scowled, "Now that's just playing dirty."
He shrugged, "We all need to do whatever it takes to survive. Now, put away your weapon and put your hands behind your head."
Not having a plan what to do at the moment, I complied and de-materialized Kaito Enraiha before positioning my hands behind my head.
He smirked, "Now, I want you to- UHH!" he shouted before crashing into the ground, unconscious. The woman he took hostage went back to her husband, sobbing with happiness that she was alive. Standing there was some guy smirking down at the fallen leader after knocking him out, "That's no way to treat a lady."
I just stared at the guy, surprised as he turned his onyx eyes towards me, "You all right there, Miss?"
Dark-Flame Alchemist: Cliffhanger! The next part of chapter 19 will be up in two weeks! By the way, do you think I should allow characters to talk in the chapter and do the disclaimer or not?
Karai: I think you should.
Kazuma: It would be more interesting to read than those boring author notes you put up. I even fall asleep reading them.
Dark-Flame Alchemist: You what? *growls before sighing in defeat* you're right… I do make them long sometimes… but they are usually important or else I wouldn't write them in the first place.
Karai: just try it out for now.
Kazuma: if it doesn't work, just don't add Ayano.
Ayano: Hey!
Dark-Flame Alchemist: all right then… now finish this so we can go already.
Karai and Ayano: bye everyone! Don't forget to review!
Dark-Flame Alchemist: Kazuma… why didn't you say anything?
Kazuma: because I'm too cool for that...
*Karai and Ayano glare at him*