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Without further ado, I give you chapter 6
Xoxo Lexi1989
MIKAN'S POV
DUSK
'I don't know what came over me. I panicked. I had just kissed the man I love. And he was getting married to my best friend in a month. I am a terrible person. I don't know if I can face them knowing what I have done was unforgiveable. He said he loved me. Well, the old me. And yet he kissed me back when I listened to my heart instead of my brain and ambushed him.' I took out my phone and hit speed dial 2.
"Amanatsu?" the voice on the other end was surprised.
"You-chan. I need your help." I am crying now.
"What's wrong? Why are you crying? Where are you?" He sounded worried.
"Can you come get me at—" I looked around the surroundings. "I'm at the park near my old place." In my haste to hide and run away, my feet had unconsciously taken me to a secluded park near my old apartment. Way back then, before I became Crimson Rose.
"Okay. Give me 10 minutes. Does Shiki know where you are?" Of course he would ask about Shiki.
"No. If he calls, please don't tell him where I am."
"Do you have your tracker on? You know he will ask me to find you anyways." I thank God I decided to leave that bracelet behind today. I felt that I didn't need it.
"No. I left it at the apartment."I hastily said.
"Good, it will buy you time. Wait for me." Then he hung up.
"God help me." I whispered out loud.
Youichi Hijiri answers the phone mid-ring.
"Is it done?" the female voice on the other end asks.
"Yes. She's alone and the tracker is not on her." He said curtly.
"Good.. You have an hour before the pick up." She promptly hangs up.
The phone rings and Youichi glances at the caller id then answers it yet again. 'Just in time.'
"Hijiri here." He says onto the phone and he hears Shiki's panicked voice.
"Hijiri, try to track her. Something happened and I lost her. Her papers are not in the apartment." He said. 'No shit Sherlock.' Youichi thought. He looked across the room he was in to a small duffel bag and briefcase he had. Inside were Mikan's passport and other important documents. He had snuck in to Eastown Apartments earlier to get them.
It was a stroke of luck that Mikan didn't wear the tracker bracelet that day. She had told him a couple of days ago on the phone that she felt she didn't need it. And he didn't discourage her from doing so. That was part of the plan.
"You know I'm not in front of a laptop right now, give me a minute Shiki-san." He said. He was in fact in front of a laptop. He just made it to annoy the man. He made a show of typing on the keyboard hard so that Shiki could hear it and then said "She's in her room. That's the location it's showing me."
"Well wonderboy, obviously it will show she is here because her tracker is here. She left it here." I decide to overlook the 'wonderboy' remark.
"Should I tell them that she's missing? They'll be furious, you know. Plus I'm not in town. I won't be able to get back easily. " He asked referring to Kazumi and Narumi.
"Don't alert them. They don't need to know. Yet. Let's see if we can find her by sundown. Then we will discuss what we need to do." That's new. Ever since Mikan had confided to Shiki that night at the hotel, Shiki had to meet with Kazumi and Narumi. He was explicitly told to call whenever anything of significance happens. He files that as a mental note and gets ready to meet Mikan.
"This is gonna be a hell of a long day." He muttered under his breath. He packs up his laptop, and shoves it into the duffel bag. He grabs the duffel and the briefcase before tossing the small cellphone on the bed. He locks the door to his apartment of 2 years. He runs into a convenience store and purchases another small burner phone. He dials a number from memory and makes a short call.
"I'm on my way to her." He knows there will be no response and hangs up. He then makes his way to the park where Mikan is waiting for him.
Mikan is sitting on a bench in the park when she heard some rustle in the bushes behind her. She turns around and her eyes widen to see a familiar face wearing a menacing scowl. He was accompanied by two bulky men in masks.
"Y-you…" her voice was trembling.
"Surprised?" He asked her. He took two steps towards her while she took two steps back.
"How did you find me Shiki?" she asked.
"I'm not as stupid as that boy to not put a tracker on you at all times." He fingers the small ring on her finger. She recalls he had given it to her shortly after her confession of her true identity. That it was his promise to always protect her. But gone was his soft, fatherly expression. His face now was unrecognizable. The evil glint in his eyes made it evident.
"Why a-are y-you do-ing this?" She asked. Her voice trembling as the tears threatened to fall.
"You don't need to know." He held a cloth to her face. She passed out on the ground in seconds. He knelt down and brushed the hair from her face. Then he took the cellphone from her pocket. He gestured to the two guys who picked her up and carried her to the waiting unmarked van parked across the street from the park.
Shiki threw the cellphone on the ground and smashed it with his foot. He strode quickly to the van and they sped off to their destination.
Youichi had circled the park 2 times looking for her. On his 3rd round, he saw the smashed cellphone on the ground.
"SHIT!" he shouted. He reached into his pocket for the burner phone.
"She's gone." He said. He waited for the voice to answer.
"What the fuck do you mean she's gone?" He cowered at the sound of her icy tone.
"I found her phone on the ground, smashed to pieces. Whoever it is, they got to her first." He could hear typing in the background, then a series of beeps.
"You were supposed to be her security detail." She said coldly.
"I know. I'll see what I can dig up on the nearby security camera footage."
"No need. I'm running them now. You need to come in." She was sounding rushed now.
"Where?" He didn't know where to go to get to her. They had never met. Only spoke through burner phones.
"I already have chopper 1 on the way there to you. You'll know it when you see it." She hung up on him then.
He waited for about half an hour when the sound of whirring chopper blades invaded the silence of the park. He knew there wasn't a flat patch of grass big enough for a helicopter to land on in this place. He jogged quickly, following the sound of chopper blades. He saw it faintly in the darkness. A rope ladder is thrown down and he climbs up quickly. He is surprised to find Narumi and Kazumi in the chopper. Narumi looked tired like he hadn't had a good night's sleep for more than a month. Kazumi is tight lipped and glaring at him. He takes a seat across from Narumi and secures himself with the seatbelt. Narumi passes off a headset to Youichi and sets him on the same channel as Kazumi and himself. Youichi braces himself for a string of curses that he expects to come from Kazumi but is greeted with silence. Kazumi's glare however, was still directed at him.
"I'm sorry." Youichi started the conversation.
"I had expected so much from you Hijiri" Youichi winced when Kazumi used his last name. The venom in his voice was clear. He was furious.
"Imagine my surprise when I am told that aside from Shiki Masachika, somebody else knows of the identity of my niece." He now glares at Narumi. "and then I get a call from a certain young woman providing me information. Information that only you two would know." He turns back to Youichi with a vengeance.
"I already said I'm sorry. I felt you were too harsh on her. I wasn't in it for the money. Well, maybe a little. But I cared about her too. She's like the sister I never had. Like family I never had." Kazumi's expression softens slightly at the mention of family, but again changes to a scowl.
"I swear if something happens to Mikan…." Kazumi started.
"She'll be okay. We'll find her." Youichi interrupted.
"You'd better pray that be the case." Kazumi turns his headset off and massages his temples. The turn of events had turned into a nightmare.
They endured the rest of the ride in silence. Not knowing where their destination was. Narumi was dozing as he was dead tired. Youichi was looking out the window trying to find an idea of where they were. Kazumi just had his head in his hands his expression full of worry. Youichi came alert when he felt the helicopter descending. He peered out the window and could see desert for miles. Then suddenly they were at the Grand Canyon. The helicopter was descending until it reached an opening in an obscure part of the gorge, far from the main waterways and roads. The pilot expertly maneuvered the helicopter sideways, as if executing parallel parking with a car. They were enclosed in darkness for a full minute while the helicopter blades shut off. No one dared to bate a breath. Then lights came on on the sides of the cavern leading to a deeper dwelling inside the opening.
"Please disembark from the aircraft and follow the lights. She will be waiting there for you." The pilot said as he opened the helicopter and assisted the three passengers step out of the helicopter.
Narumi and Kazumi stepped down first each bringing briefcases followed by Youichi who was bringing Mikan's duffel and his own briefcase. Kazumi paid close attention to the lights, noticing that every light they passed would shut off and then another would light up just a few metres away from where they were. They walked for a good ten minutes before they reached a steel doorway. Youichi looked around and found no way of entrance. There was no handle, no keypad to put in a code, no slot or opening they could pry. He scratched his head looking at his companions.
"I got nothing." He said.
Narumi pointed to a small pinpoint of light just above the door. It looked to be a small camera. Youichi waved his hand in front of it. The door opened and they walked in. The room was filled with the latest computer equipment, GPS tracking, things that you could only see in fabricated spy movies. But the difference with the movies and from where they are is that here, the equipment was all real. There was a big screen in the middle of the room and a lone large office chair. The person in the chair swiveled around.
"It took you three long enough."
Then Narumi, Kazumi, and Youichi came face to face with Hotaru Imai.
Sooooooo surprises and a sort-of cliffhanger if you guys didn't think of it yet while reading LoL.
I was at work when this suddenly popped into my mind.
*PLOT TWIST* I know everybody or almost everybody was thinking that Mikan was with Hotaru.
RavenAcA3 – Allychan! This will give you a gist of what's happening, not all of it though, but I think you guys may already have an idea.
Derp1Derp2 – She sort of did, after the reveal from the previous chapter, but you know they didn't get to her in time.
Anilissa – Anilissa-chan! I know, Natsume and Hotaru are geniuses in their own right, but I figured it would be a lot less thrilling if they are able to figure it out right away ;) and we now know Hotaru's around. But the question is, where did Shiki take Mikan?
chewybillabong – better hold on to your seat, coz the ride is just beginning ;) and yeah Hotaru was supposed to be with Mikan but I decided to make the story more exciting XD
Nikinora96 – Shiki really is a partypooper huh? LoL We're not used to Shiki and Himemiya being the bad guys in the manga so I decided to twist things up a bit ;)
frozenbutterfly – I know right! And you don't have to wait any longer! Here ya go, enjoy!
Shoutout to my friend xNatsuMikanx – Thank you for all the encouragement. Enjoy the PLOT TWIST! LoL
Also to KitsuneSenpai18 – Thank you for your kind words :)
A very big thank you to everyone who followed, and set Sakuras & Swords and Crimson Rose to your favorites.
An even bigger thank you to those who followed and set me as a favorite :D
Be sure to check out my latest fanfic 'Delicious Taboo' (it's something different and it's M rated [fair warning given])
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Xoxo Lexi1989