So that young lady was Hanna Nole. She was much lovelier in person than I could have imagined, Akisame thought as he watched the girl and Niijima walk through the front gate and disappear completely before bothering to step around the corner where Miu sat gathering up the tea cups and sighing, and asked in a deceptively curious tone. "Why Miu, did we have company?" As he walked over to the blond.

Miu's head snapped back on her neck at the sound of his voice and she looked up at him with a slightly startled expression on her face before she flushed and started stammering, "W-Well y-you see there was a c-classmate-er a girl f-from school and-" He held up a hand, indicating silence and dropped down to a squat across from her and said simply,

"Tell me everything you know about her."

Miu blinked at him and opened her mouth and started talking...

(******************************************************************************************************************************)

Three days later-

Akisame stood in front of the fogged over bathroom mirror looking himself over. After five grueling days of no sleep and little rest, he'd finally come to a decision. Hanna Nole was the most suitable bride for him. And it wasn't just because of the connections that he wanted to marry her. There were the other things he'd wanted as well.

But then after seeing her the other night, sitting on the dojo porch speaking to Miu- something else had struck him. The girl wasn't just the perfect bride for him. No, the very presence of her had awakened something deep down inside of him. A deeply buried longing that he had ignored for far too long. And after the other night he had been unable to do anything to push it aside.

Hanna Nole, was a damaged young lady. Probably for good reason if any of what Niijima had told him had any grain of truth to it.

And as her future husband and the father of her future children- he could do nothing less than protect her from any and all of the demons that plagued her. Which was why he was taking the initiative. Today he would go and meet the girl face to face after school and ask her to spend some time with him for an impromptu date of sorts. So he could get a good feel for her personality and calculate whether they would do half as well together as he believed.

Using his hand he wiped some of the fog away from the glass and studied his features for a moment with his pale eyes and used the tip of his tongue to lick his lips.

Due to the serious nature of today's plans, Akisame had showered, trimmed his dark wild brown hair so that the front was longer than the back and combed it all so that his hair was back away from his face with the exception of a few dark strands that fell here and there. He had shaved his mustache, something he'd taken some pride in for many, many years and after several heartbeats sighed.

He looked like a hitman, but well, his mustache would grow back...inevitably. And hopefully by then he'd be a happily married man. Until then though, he supposed he'd just have to put up with it.

Turning away from the mirror, he reached out and grabbed the two sets of clothes he'd set aside for today and carefully weighed his options. Should he wear the casual clothes? The jeans and pale blue and green plaid shirt. Or should he wear the formal outfit? The black suit pants and jacket over a white shirt with a pale greyish blue tie.

He hadn't worn either outfit in forever. And he really meant forever.

After several minutes of careful deliberation, he set the dress suit down. Leaning more towards the jeans and plaid shirt since they would be a bit more comfortable and (god forbid) if the worst should happen and they got mugged or something then he would be able to move more freely to defend himself and Hanna.

So casual wear it was.

He dressed slowly, carefully, wanting to take his time so that he could alter his appearance slightly if he started to look a little too intimidating. And in the end, he wound up leaving a few shirt buttons undone and rolled his sleeves up to his elbows to give him a more relaxed appearance before grabbing up his wallet and heading for the bathroom door so that he could leave.

If he kept wasting time in here then school would end before he had the chance to do anything.