You've asked for it, so here it is. I hope you enjoy it.
Yoshi I just love this "The big reveal coming up! Who killed the Sho voodoo doll? It was...Bo the Chicken, in the LoveMe room, with Queen Rosa vase! Ren: It's always the Chicken..." I laughed so hard that I spilt my pop all over my laptop.
And now without further ado, the answer to the mystery!
Note: I do not own Skip Beat!.
Lory sat on the edge of his desk and surveyed the four people in his office. He was happy to see that his favorite LoveMe member sat next to the tall actor willing letting him hold her hand, but he was not happy about the circumstances that had brought them together.
"First I would like to say that I am glad that you are ok Kyoko-chan, and to thank Saunders-san for keeping you so." Catherine started to object, but Lory raised his hand and she fell silent again. "If it was not for your forethought and quick thinking, things could have been much worse." Ren squeezed Kyoko's hand and Yashiro patted Catherine on the forearm. "Next, congratulations to all of you." Both couples looked at Lory not grasping what had happened. "When this is over I will throw you both an engagement party." Ren chuckled as Kyoko gasped, and Yashiro sat in stunned silence, but it was Catherine that answered for all of them.
"Sir, I think you are mistaken, no one here is engaged." Lory smiled at Catherine's protest.
"I have faith in you." Lory ignored the shocked expressions and snickers as he turned to collect the real reason that the entertainers had come to him today
"When the rumors started, I got a team of detectives to see if they could find out where they were starting from so we could put a stop to it." Lory turned serious as he changed the topic. "At first we thought it was someone trying to damage your career, but we could not see how, with the types of things they were saying. It only served to aggravate a certain singer's fans." The air around Kyoko grew cold as she thought about the root cause. Lory swallowed and went on. "It wasn't until you were pushed into the street that I realized that we may have a larger problem then we first thought." Lory pulled the official looking document out of his folder and looked at it. "After some in depth research into why someone would want to cause Mogami-san harm, we came across this." Lory handed the paper to Kyoko. She scanned over the document in confusion.
"What is this?" She was unable to make sense of the confusing legal wording. Ren read the paper over her shoulder.
"Is this a life insurance policy?" Ren scanned as much as he could see of it.
"Yes," Lory sighed. "Paid to date." The confusion still showed on Kyoko's face.
"If something should happen to you," Catherine explained, "the beneficiary of the policy will get… how much?" She turned to Lory.
"164 million yen." Lory supplied the number. Kyoko dropped the paper and gasped at the number that topped $2 million. Ren wrapped his arm around the shocked girl. Lory picked up the paper and slid it back into his file. "Right now the policy reads that the money goes to the 'next of kin or estate there of'." Kyoko turned this over in her mind, she could only think of one person that could qualify as 'next of kin'.
"So if I die, my mother gets 164 million yen?" Unease slipped into Kyoko as she started to connect the dots. She knew her mother could not stand her and had abandoned her to the Fuwas, but going as far as to kill her for money was just too much to believe. "There's no way." Kyoko waved the possibly away.
"I didn't think so either." Lory went on. "That is why we did not tell you until now." Lory laid the file back onto the desk. "We were unable to identify the person that threw the brick and the hooded figure could have been anyone that accidently knocked you over. What blew a hole in our idea at first was that accident. The detectives located the car that caused it and found that it had been stolen by some teenagers out for a good time. Unfortunately that was a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time." Catherine let out a snort at the irony and shook her head.
"Then there was the snake incident." Lory shook his head. "I was really hoping that the police would come up with something to confirm my theories, but they were unable to find any useful information. Without a sender, I had no way to know if it was just another psychopath trying to injure someone in the limelight, or not." Lory rubbed his head as he felt the tension headache creeping in. "Yesterday's attempt confirmed my fears that someone had designs on Kyoko's life."
"If you thought Kyoko was in danger, why didn't you do something to protect her?" Ren bristled with anger.
"Hello!" Catherine waved at the unthinking actor. "What am I Chop Suey?" Yashiro stifled a laugh at the girl. Lory shook his head.
"Hizuri Kuu sent Saunders-san to keep Mogami-san safe, and she has done an excellent job until now." Ren felt a little shame as Lory pointed out the fact that he had forgotten. Catherine's light hearted ways made it easy to forget that she was security.
"I meant more." Ren blushed as he tried to amend his statement.
"And what would you have liked me to do?" Lory crossed his arms and looked at the actor. "Lock her up?" Ren considered it for a moment. Lory continued as the actor thought. "I believe Kyoko's mother started the rumors in hope that one of the mad fans would take care of the girl for her." Kyoko almost cried at his words, but he continued with his speculation. "Or to hide her attempts on Kyoko's life." This time silent tears did drop from the girl's eyes. Ren held her closer, but there was no way to protect her from the awful truth. Lory hated to do it, but he went on. "With the widespread animosity, it makes it really hard to track down one person out to do harm."
"So what can be done?" Yashiro broke into the conversation.
"Well, at this time, not much." Lory admitted. "As the policy is written now Kyoko is named as owner with her mother as co-owner until she turns 20, so she will be able to change it at that time by herself, otherwise both parties have to be present to change or cancel it, and as long as the payments are made. If something happens to her that cannot be linked back to her mother, she will get the payment in full." Kyoko hiccupped at this news.
"So what do I do now?" Kyoko cried as Ren patted her.
"I have had a team of lawyers working on many angles." Lory started. "They checked into ways to get your guardianship taken away from your mother, but without a recorded history of abuse, there is no case there."
"But she was abused." Ren protested. "She was abandoned by that woman to the Fuwa's Ryokan!"
"I know that." Lory answered. "But they never sent her to an orphanage or applied for custody, so she was not legally abandoned." Ren huffed at the legality of his statement. "And if we push that issue, her mother may just show up and demand that we give her daughter back. Do you want that?" Ren and Kyoko both shook their heads at this suggestion.
"We can't just hide her away till she's twenty. What about her career?" Yashiro leaned forwards to think about the problem. New tears came to Kyoko's eyes as she faced the real possibility of not being able to work till she turned 20.
"There is something that can be done when she reaches 18." Lory looked at his nails before looking up to the hope growing in the talent's eyes. Catherine closed her eyes and hung her head, she knew what the man was going to say, and she expected Kyoko to not take it well.
"What?" Kyoko sat up at attention seeing a possible way out of the situation.
"You can change your 'next of kin'." Lory explained. Yashiro let out a loud squee at the implications those words held. Not understanding Yashiro's joy at this, Kyoko turned back to her boss.
"How does one do that?" She asked.
"You get married." Catherine looked up at the girl and supplied the answer. Kyoko solidified as the full extent of her options pressed down on her. She could either hide until she turned twenty, at which time her career would be ruined, or find someone to marry her.
Authors Note: Kudos to Sumi031885! You had it right from the start.
To Lapis-Oblige. I appreciate that you apologized for the comment that was made and that you wanted to help me grow as a writer, but it you need stop and think about what you said. How can it help me grow? Ok, so the main character is not from the manga, but it's not like she ever does anything without at least one of the manga characters with her. And there are chapters that do not contain her at all. Also to be told that your story peeked at chapter 6 and went downhill from there is devastating. Especially to someone who has never written anything before. I have lost sleep turning the story over in my head and have worked hard to make it as believable as possible. I almost scrapped the whole thing when it was pointed out to me that 20 was legal age in Japan because I could not find a way to get to the end that I needed without throwing this fact out. It really tore me up because I wanted to stay as close to real life as possible. I've tried to add things to the story that support Catherine claims. Is it so hard to believe that someone that knows three navy sailors (two of which are related to her) to not have other military connections? Ok, so I have stretched reality a little, but when have mangas ever followed the strict rules of the real world. Oh and the Kevlar thing, I even went to the trouble to supply facts to back up the story, scientists are working on better and lighter forms of the material. It's just not ready for real world application yet. And guns, it you had waited just a little more, you would have seen that it was not just some random fan trying to hurt her. And even if something is illegal does not mean that you can't get it. I do appreciate constructive criticism, but if you're going to point out a problem with the story, even if it is plot line based, you need to offer suggestions on how it could be better. Please, if you have some suggestions that would be helpful, I would love to hear them. I do read every comment and take my audiences opinions very seriously.