Four: Well, shit…

Shizuru once again throw herself into her work to keep her from slipping into depression over the lost of her new love. The distant relatives once again wanted her hand in marriage, and Shizuru wanted nothing more than for them to stay away from her. But plans and plots, few of them wanted to take things further to seriously have a foot in the Fujino's fortune.

"Yo, forgot to give you this…" Nao said one fine evening and handed Shiziru a, envelop.

"Ara, ara… is this a love letter of yours?" Shizuru asked teasingly though she wanted nothing more than to be left alone.

"Pff… not a chance," Nao snorted, though knowing the woman was just masking her pain.

Once Shizuru finally ready for bed, she sat down on her bed and looked at the simple envelop for a long moment before she opened it. Inside was a plain piece of paper, written upon it was ink as blue as her current feeling, though she had to wonder if it's a bad joke devised by Nao or Haruka as the writing can't be considered to be neat or even fluent of the language. However, the content was sweet and tender that draw tears to her red orbs.

Shi-chan,

If you're reading this, then I certainly am in a lot of troubles. However, you should never let anything get you down that you overwork yourself. No matter what, should you close your eyes and let sleep come to you, I too will come to you my lovely Shi-chan.

It was short, yet tender and genuine. The thought of seeing Mikoto again brought pain to her chest, yet she wanted so much to see the girl again even if it's only in her sleep. So Shizuru did her best in letting sleep comes to her, and the moment sleep embraced her did she felt Mikoto's calming voice telling her that everything will be okay. It was a feeling that Shizuru doesn't ever want to wake from, but that is not the case.

The next day, Shizuru felt a little bit better. She attended a business meeting, hosted a light dinner with promising business partners. By the time everything was settled, Shizuru was quite tipsy as she got into the limo and the family's driver started the car. The drive didn't remained smooth for long, the limo stopped suddenly and the next thing she knew she was bound and gagged by masked men. One of them knocked the driver out and took decided that they will take her away from here.

All the while, Shiho was sitting in her office going through security videos when she noticed the bug she tagged on Shizuru's phone suddenly went dark on her. The young agent cursed herself as she worked on activating other bugs she managed to tap without the latter's knowledge. By the time she managed to get one on, the location it is at worried her, and so she called on Nao to go there right away to make sure that everything is alright. After all, Shizuru is still quite distraught of the news of the person she recently fallen for was missing. Though if she ever decided to end her own life, telling the driver to take her to the dock was just out of the question.

At the docks, away from prying eyes, the masked men pulled Shizuru out of the car; they took her to an abandoned warehouse. There, they took turn doing horrible things to her while one of them stood by with a camera. By the time the first one managed to undo her panty, Shizuru lost conscious from the rage, pain and shame of what is becoming of her.

"Come on guys, this should do it. I'm sure that one of you would knock her up, and when that happens, you guys can jump in and take credit by wanting to be the father to a child of unknown father. Worst case, demand DNA test of the child and voila!" a feminine voice of the one with the camera said and the others laughed heartily at the thought.

But before anyone else could say anything, the sounds of motorcycle's engine caused them to scattered like rats. Nao cursed herself for getting there late when she saw the state Shizuru was in, Mikoto says nothing as she scooped the unconscious heir of the Fujino's fortune up and rushed out to her car. Without delay, she called up the young doctor not caring about the time. Then she and Nao headed straight for the newly owned private clinic run by Yukino. There the doctor greeted them but asked no question upon seeing Shizuru on Mikoto's arms.

"I want a thorough clean after a thorough swap to get any and all DNA possible from whoever did this to her. I want to know who they are," Mikoto said coldly as Yukino nodded her head as she shooed the second shift staff there out of the room along with Nao.

"She's fine, and I sedated her before I did the swap, checked on her health. She's healthy but will never have kid. I will ask Munakata-san to run the list of DNA I got from the cleaning. What monstrous people…" Yukino said tiredly as she stifled a yawn since it was one in the morning.

"Fuck that, they're causing my girl grief, they're dead…"

"No, not yet I want to make them suffer for what they'd done to her. Take her home Nao," Mikoto cut her friend off before the red head could finish her thought.

"I am so sorry for failing you, Fujino-sama!" Shiho said as she bowed deeply at Shizuka.

"Ara, ara…"

"I will not take any further payment for one year as my apology for failing you," Shiho said firmly once she makes up her mind.

"Ara, there's no need to be so harsh on yourself, Shizuru is safe to say the least…"

"No, I failed at my job so I must be punished for it." Shiho cut the elder Fujino off.

"Very well, six months of suspended pay rather than one year." Shizuka said as she found it to be rare for anyone to take such harsh action over a mistake.

"Fujino-sama, I have a friend of-sort wanted to meet you in private." Shiho forged on once she knew that the elder Fujino is okay with it.

"Oh? Why? Pray tell," Shizuka asked.

"I'm her protégé when it comes to the fine art obtaining the desired evident against a target, furthermore, you met her before and she offered to help." Shiho replied.

"Ara, ara, I doubt my office would suffice." Shizuka said after a moment of thinking.

"Shall we take a walk?" Shiho asked, though Shizuka noticed her question filled with hidden meaning.

"Ara, ara, a walk we shall take," Shizuka said as she got up with a smile that merit curiosity and suspicion.

So the two went for a walk; a walk that led to a hidden area away from prying eyes, and deep underground. Once Shizuka situated herself on a nice couch, in stepped a familiar figure that she recognized right away to be the dealer she met on the cruise trip with her beloved granddaughter. The girl dressed casually in fit jeans and a t-shirt. Shiho introduced the raven haired tomboy as Mikoto, and Shizuka can't deny the girl's cool and polite manner.

"I'm glad you agreed to meet me Fujino-san," Mikoto said as she sat down on an armchair across of Shizuka.

"I don't suppose you're the one playing dead while my grandchild sulking over you and here you is." Shizuka said as her voice laced with displeasure. "I may be old, but that doesn't mean I will let anyone hurt my grandchild's feeling and gets away with it." Shizuka added.

"I have no intention in hurting Shi-chan's feelings, but I will not stand by when she's in so much pain because of me. Nobody messes with my girl," Mikoto nodded her head and her voice turned ice cold towards the end.

"Ara, ara, maybe you're worth her love after all," Shizuka chuckled at Mikoto's words.

"Shiho will be working on locating the true perpetrators behind the recent mess, and I wanted to talk to you about a possible marriage proposal. In a few days or a week's time, my grandfather will come to the Fujino Estate to discuss marriage between Shi-chan and his long lost granddaughter. It will be a shock for her should you accept the proposition, but for the time being I will ask Dr. Kikukawa to give her low dosage of sedation to help her sleep at night. I would like to keep watch over her to make sure that she gets some sleep." Mikoto said laying out her offers to right things for the elder Fujino.

"Anyone who wronged her, I want them gone regardless of their relation to the Fujino's bloodline." Shizuka said after a long moment of going over Mikoto's offer in her mind.

Everything got settled with that meeting; Shizuka soon got a call from an old friend talking about his granddaughter wanting to wed her beloved granddaughter. Both being from wealthy family, Shizuka saw no reason to decline her friend's position and she felt that this must be what Mikoto told her about as well. Ever since the incident, Yukino prescribed light sleeping pills for Shizuru, but in truth it was light sedation pills that will let Shizuru sleep without having nightmares about the unfortunate incident that occurred to her just a few days ago. What she didn't know was Mikoto coming to her room via a secret passage to lulled her to a dreamless good night's rest only to be gone before she wakes the next morning.