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Disclaimer: I do not own Skip-Beat!
Chapter 17: Crisis ~Saena and Marina~
Kyoko was a complete wreck at the moment. And there are just so many reasons for her to be in such state - at least, her self-justified ones.
First, she was in the middle of a guilt trip for letting the dear little Natsuno get hurt in her stead. She could not fathom why no one blamed her for the incident, especially Yoshimoto, who was currently busy soothing his son. Hearing the boy wailing in pain while being treated broke her heart, and she repeatedly blamed herself for letting him open the damned box.
Second, she was scared out of her wits after she had been shown the card the police had retrieved from the hellish gift. She knew a lot of people did not like her - she had never had even a friend before she got into LME, thanks to a certain someone - but she had never imagined that someone harbored a hatred deep enough to want to harm her to such extent - except for the one incident with Chiori, of course, and they had made amends for that.
The small part of her heart screamed that this was related to her mother, but Kyoko just did not want to admit it.
Third, she absolutely hated it when she inconvenienced others. Just like this moment, where all of her friends and families - including Kuu and Julie - flocked together and crammed themselves in Ren's living room right after he had told them about the incident. Kyoko knew they did that because they cared about her, but she was not that important for people to worry about.
Ren noticed her discomfort, and with a sad expression on his face, he gathered her into his warm embrace, ignoring Kento's pointed glare at him.
Meanwhile, Julie was screaming her frustration out about the matter near Marina, who was just as displeased as the American woman was. Facing them, Kisaki pinched and massaged the bridge of her nose tiredly.
"And why can't we demand them to issue a restraining warrant for that crazy bitch?" the blonde woman growled menacingly, so angry that she forgot that not everybody in the room understood English perfectly.
Luckily for her, Kisaki understood her and did not need Lory to translate for her. "As I said before, Mrs. Hizuri, we lack concrete evidence that can pin Mogami Saena as the culprit-"
"What other evidence do we need?" Julie demanded impatiently. "It's clear that this is her doing!"
"For the love of the Lord, Julie, I need you to calm down!" Lory finally snapped. "I know that we're all worried about Mogami-kun, but-"
Kuu abruptly stood up with a deeply flushed face. "Boss, this is our daughter we're talking about! How can you tell us not to worry?"
"For your information," the flamboyant president dead-panned with a roll of his eyes, "Uehara-san here is your daughter's real father and he looks not that worried at all."
And Lory was speaking the truth. During the time when Julie chattered in rage, Kento had not uttered any word out. Instead, he just sat next to Seijuro on the couch and had only been glaring at Ren.
As to be expected from a person whose mind had not been following the conversation, he was startled when his name was mentioned by Lory. "Ah... Huh?"
Seijuro sweat-dropped and smacked his cousin on the back of his head. "Right when everyone is serious, you just went ahead and daydreamed..." he growled.
"Sorry," Kento mumbled. "I just find it hard to accept the possibility that Saena might be the culprit."
Kyoko was glad that she was not the only one.
"But then, looking at the situation, I can't deny that that's the only possibility."
She felt like she was plummeted down in an instant.
"What I am not able to understand," Marina said, "is how Saena knew about the party, and how she slipped in to put the box among the other presents."
Kisaki suddenly smiled sheepishly. "About that," she mumbled.
The ghostwriter arched one of her eyebrows up enquiringly. "'About that'?"
"I think you can blame my idiot husband for Saena knowing about the party," the lawyer continued. "He's been investigating Kyoko-san for the past few days, requested by a Mogami Saena."
"You cause me to despise your husband now," Marina grumbled heartily. "But still, she was not supposed to be able to come into the hall. Only guests with invitation are allowed."
Lory let his fingers to play with his new goatee. "I'll have an investigation done on the staff we hired yesterday. And Kisaki-san," he looked at Kisaki, "please have your husband refrain from what he's been doing for Saena, or else I can report him to the police."
"That is a bit too much, isn't it?" Seijuro commented with an uneasy grin. "The poor man's just doing his work. Anyway, I am more interested to another thing I noticed."
"And that is…?" Kisaki enquired expectantly.
The older Akatoki frowned deeply. "I'm concerned about the 'sight' part… Why did the sender specifically said, 'I hope my present gets nicely into your sight'?"
"It is as if she wanted to eradicate Kyoko-san's ability to see," Marina added, agreeing with her brother. "But then, what is the reason for it?"
Julie huffed and mumbled furiously under her breath, and Ren had to grimace when he caught the foul curses out of his mother's lips. Now he remembered never to piss the American woman off.
"And even if we are sure that Mogami Saena is the culprit – and I'm continuing from where I was before I was cut off, thank you very much – we still don't have enough evidence to back us up," Kisaki said matter-of-factly. "First of all, there is no name written on the card. Saena's name has never been mentioned to the media, although practically everyone knows that Kyoko-san's estranged from her mother. Anyone can do something like sending a card with corrosive and use a black sheep to cover his tracks.
"Also, there's no fingerprint found on the card and the box, except the ones of Tsuruga-san and Natsuno-kun. We have no evidence to claim that Saena is trying to harm her daughter for the court to issue a restraining order, or to help us win the custody of Kyoko-san and the violence case."
Seijuro asked, "What about your husband?"
A vein popped out on the lawyer's temple. She snarled, "Please don't mention anything about him at the moment. Or preferably, for the rest of my life. I don't want to have anything to do with that idiot of a man any longer."
"Well, he might go into a guilt trip once he is notified of what has happened to the girl he was snooping around," Kuu suggested helpfully with sly gleam in his eyes. "Now, onto the next problem: how are we going to protect Kyoko?"
"I, too, absolutely do not wish for Kyoko to be in the vicinity of that mad woman," Marina retorted. "What about hiring bodyguards?"
Kyoko sprung up from her seat. "Marina-san, please! There's no need for bodyguards!"
"Princess," Ren sighed wearily. "You could've been injured that time!"
"But–"
"Mogami-kun," Lory spoke up. "Please. Just this once for the sake of our peace of mind."
Kyoko was horrified. "Definitely not!"
"Kyoko," Ren butted in. "I thought having bodyguards is one trait of a rich young lady?"
"Not. Only damsels in distress are like that," Kyoko retorted in monotone before sighing. "I just don't want to be seen as weak and spoiled, with all the already spreading rumors and all. I feel that having a bodyguard with me 24/7 will make matters worse."
"Actually, that's a good point," Seijuro said. "But, Kyoko-chan, I seriously fear for your safety. If you're so repulsed with the idea of having a bodyguard, can you propose something that can put us at ease?"
The reply was rather blunt. "Nothing. Other than me being in the crowd as often as possible, there's nothing else I can think of. But Yoshimoto-san will be together with me during my work, and I can always hang around the other casts and crews. Having bodyguards will only distance me from them and make me the centre of attention."
"Well, I can't always be together with you. Dressing rooms, for example," Yoshimoto reasoned, his arms enveloping sobbing Natsuno in his warm hug. "In fact, I think dressing rooms are the most risky."
"And the easiest to solve," Marina added. "And to think of it again, hiring bodyguard is a waste of money if Kyoko-san does not go out into the public a lot. So far, Yoshimoto-san has made sure that she stays in our protection."
Kyoko gasped. "Does that mean I will get fewer jobs?!" she shrieked.
"It's not like that, Mogami-kun," Lory assured the girl. "We're just making sure that one of us is going to be with you during your work. And you're going with us to the court for the hearing for the next two days, anyway."
She frowned and huffed. "I hate inconveniencing everybody," she muttered grumpily.
"Are you kidding?" Kuu cried. "Kyoko, there's no way in hell you're inconveniencing us! You're family!"
"And family defend each other," Julie confirmed with a fierce nod. "Besides, I can't wait to see the damn woman and sock her in the face again."
"Agreed," Marina mumbled before she and Julie did a little toast with their water-filled glasses.
She felt a pain in her chest when she saw her mother slumping on the desk, pinching the bridge of her nose and sighing wearily. And of course, as usual, the woman ignored her all the same.
Mom is just tired, she forced herself to think. May be I can do something to help…
With that, she reached for her mother and tried to grasp the hem of the woman's sleeve, only to no avail as she was quickly glared at with a pair of menacing black eyes and her hand was slapped away. She flinched and instantly pulled her hand back.
"What are you looking at?" the woman snapped. She trembled when her mother stood up from her seat. "You must be laughing at me for being a pathetic, aren't you?"
"No, Mom, I–"
"Shut up!" the woman backhanded the frightened girl on the face. "Don't look at me like that, especially with those eyes! They're so disgusting they give me the creeps!"
Kyoko woke up with a start and bolted up on her bed. She felt her chest constricting, and she quickly realized that she was hyperventilating. Her body was covered in cold sweats that soaked her pajamas.
She reached for her glass of water on the bedside table, but her hand was trembling so much the glass fell down with a loud crash.
Hurried footsteps were heard and the next moment, Marina appeared at her door, looking concerned. She gasped loudly when she saw Kyoko.
"Kyoko-san!" she cried out before striding towards the bed and sitting next to Kyoko. "What happened? Your face is so pale!"
The chestnut-haired girl tried to tell her aunt that she had been just having a nightmare, but she did not have any oxygen in her lungs. She could only squeak.
Marina reached for Kyoko's back and rubbed soothing circles on it, relaxing the girl. She then drew her into a light hug. "Do you feel fine now?"
"Thank you," Kyoko whispered, not feeling confident with her voice at the moment.
"What happened?"
"A nightmare," the girl whispered. "Or rather, a bad memory from when I was a child."
"About Saena?"
Kyoko flinched before sighing, leaning into the woman's embrace. "I think I know what the meaning of her gift is."
Marina leaned back to look at her face enquiringly.
"She doesn't want to see my eyes."
Kisaki sighed as Marina told her Kyoko's story. Both of them were in the waiting room, waiting for the hearing to start. "Just because she didn't want to see the girl's eyes–" the lawyer chocked. "Marina, is this really possible?"
"Nothing is impossible for a woman such as Saena," the ghostwriter replied glumly.
"Where is she now?"
"She is with Tsuruga-san. I sent her to stay at his apartment last night. Judging from the view of perspective that prioritizes her security and wellbeing, Brother and Kento both agreed with me, albeit grudgingly, that that was the best course of action we could do. She is not coming to today's hearing, if that answers your true question."
Kisaki pinched the bridge of her nose. "She's under house arrest, huh?"
"I will not exactly say that it is house arrest, as she is not at my residence."
"Okay!" The brown-haired woman flailed her hands up in exasperation. "'Confined'! That's the term, and I won't have you say otherwise!"
Marina only giggled at her childhood friend.
"So, is she allowed to come to the hearing tomorrow?" Kisaki asked with growing hope in her eyes.
"I think so," the Akatoki lady mumbled. "It should be safe tomorrow, with all of us present in the court room and the security ready."
"Good," the lawyer sighed in relief. "Or else I don't know what else to do to let Kento win the custody."
They were silent for a moment, before Kisaki asked her best friend something that had been bugging her since the time she had been informed of the case. "Marina-chan, why exactly do you not like this woman?"
Marina raised one eyebrow in confusion. "Which woman are thou speaking of?"
"Come on, you know who I'm talking about."
"If it is Saena thou are speaking of, then repeating the reasons I loathe her is not necessary. I have told you already."
Kisaki frowned. "Because of that thing between her and Kento-kun? Marina, seriously, your dislike of Mogami Saena runs deeper than that."
The ghostwriter sighed in defeat. "I will admit that that is not the only reason why I detest Saena."
"What happened?"
Marina sighed again before beginning her story. "It started about one year after Kento and Saena began dating."
"Marina-san is sterile?" Kyoko repeated in disbelief, her golden eyes wide. Next to her, Ren looked surprised himself.
Seijuro only made a small nod. "She didn't use to be like that, though. You see, one year after she started college, Marina got engaged."
Kyoko suddenly squealed. "Marina-san got engaged in such a young age? That's so like a princess!"
I know she would say so, the Akatoki snickered inwardly. "Can I continue? Well, I suppose it was only predictable as she and Naoya had already dated since their high school years, and our parents had already given their consent for their relationship.
"At that time, Kento and Saena had just started dating. You know that Saena's basically a hard-working person, and of course people, including the three of us, saw that as a good characteristic of hers. But I guess we were blinded by her story of her family situation."
"Do you mean the mention that she was very poor and had to struggle to maintain her scholarship?" Ren asked to clarify.
"That one," Seijuro confirmed. "Wow, you sure have a good memory, Tsuruga-kun."
The brunette actor smiled. "I'll take that as a compliment."
"Anyway, because of that, we overlooked something that apparently had been her true nature," the older man continued. "Saena was always craving for accomplishments and strongly competitive towards others, and in the unhealthy level. I know that Kento might deny this, but it's true; at least that's how I see it.
"And I don't know how it started, but Saena started viewing Marina as a rival. Things then just went badly between them, because Saena would do anything to prevent Marina from achieving something. There was this one time when Marina's manuscript for a children book competition was suddenly missing. We knew it was Saena, though we had nothing to prove that."
Kyoko's hands balled into fists. "What happened then? I mean, about the competition?"
Seijuro grinned. "Marina rewrote the whole story in an ungodly speed, and then sent it to Fumiyo-chan, her illustrator. They bagged the trophy without anyone scoring closely. I wish you could see the look on Saena's face the moment Marina and Fumiyo-chan received the trophy on the stage; she could star successfully in a blockbuster horror movie.
"But it didn't stop there. One year after the engagement, Marina got pregnant. She and Naoya were so happy about that. Why not? They loved each other and planned to get hitched, anyway. Three days later, Naoya died in a car crash."
The chestnut-haired girl covered her agape mouth with her hands as she gasped. Her uncle continued grimly, "There was evidence that the brake had been tempered, but no other clues that could point out who the culprit was. Of course Marina got distraught, but she was still strong for their unborn child.
"A day after Naoya's funeral, she and Saena had a talk on the roof of the university's building. I honestly don't know what happened that time. I just heard someone screaming that someone had fallen from the stairs. When I got there, Marina had been bleeding heavily.
"She lost the baby."
"I suffered from heavy internal bleeding from my broken ribs, and one of them apparently punctured the wall of my womb, damaging it. They had to remove it," Marina finished.
Kisaki was speechless as she tried to make sense out of her friend's story. When she finally found her voice, she croaked, "But that's no reason to despise Mogami, right?"
"That time I would let the matter go as an honest accident, if I had not seen her smiling when she saw me falling down the stairs."
"But then that means–"
"That she was the cause of my inability to have children? That is exactly it."
The door was knocked and the bailiff peered over. "It's time, Kisaki-san."
Kisaki slapped her cheeks lightly and rose from her seat, followed by Marina. "Well, here goes."
Surprise could not describe what Marina was feeling perfectly when she saw Kyoko and Ren sitting behind Lory, Kuu, and Julie in the courtroom. "I did advise you to not come, didn't I?" she asked.
"You did; I didn't listen," Kyoko replied determinedly. "Look, I know you're worried about me, but you can't just keep me away from meeting her. Meeting her will be just inevitable for me; it'll bind to happen sooner or later, anyway."
"But still–"
"Marina," Kento, who sat next to Kyoko, cut his cousin off. "She's an adult already – she can make her own choice. Just let her be, stop being a mother hen for a moment, and focus on the hearing, okay?"
The sound of gavel banging startled them all, before the booming voice of the judge echoed throughout the room. "Be seated. Court is in session."
Marina and Kisaki quickly scampered to their designated seats with faces flushing in sheepish embarrassment.
"Today's schedule is to hear about the violence reported to be conducted on Mogami Saena by Akatoki Marina," the judge read from the papers before him. "I gather that both the defendant and the plaintiff are present?"
"Pardon me, Your Honor," a man in suit sitting opposite them stood up slowly. "I am sorry to say that my client, Mogami Saena-san, is not able to be present at court today due to some health problems."
Marina's eyes widened in surprise. She glanced at Kyoko and Kento, whose faces mirrored hers.
Additional Disclaimer: I do not own Kisaki Eri; Aoyama Gosho does.
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