Ayano's POV:-

As I left the meeting-room, I felt him decent to my height and float next to me as I stomped across the courtyard and onto the public pavement . Then he made himself visible behind a tree and walked beside me as I trekked towards the forest as fast as I could without attracting too much attention .He kept up with my pace with ease.

" Well !.. That went well"

I snorted at his optimistic attitude(Seriously ,this dude could see the good in a forest fire . He says that it allows the earth to create life from nothing again).

" Yeah, I lost my temper, nearly cut Kazuma's head off,almost accidentally barbecued Kirika and I took advantage of the guilt my dad has since Kirika gave him those files to get him to let me leave,IN WHAT INSANE PLANET DO YOU CALL THAT GOING 'WELL'?"

"It's a nice planet called earth , it's weird that you don't know it,..cause...you know.. you live there.."

I couldn't help but crack a smile , he always knew how to cheer me up.

"... And besides, first of all, you always lose your temper, its kinda your 'thing', secondly, nearlys and almosts don't count and finally, that old man of yours deserves it, if it were up to me, I would make him suffer so much that..."

" Just remember one thing Taichi..."

He turned his sky-blue eyes towards me.

"... if you hurt my dad at all, I .. . . and I don't care if are my best friend."

His eyes showed a familiar fear, he knows that I don't kid around when it comes to my family,.. my real family anyway, the others can go stab themselves for all I care.

" I know and we're out of that Kazuma guy's range."

" Great ,let's run"

"Where are we going?"

"To the training grounds, I gotta let out some steam."

" Yes. Mam."

Kazuma's POV:-

I left the meeting-room and headed straight to the skies so that I could clear my head. Jugo filled me in on the current goings of things here while also stating that Ayano's the only one who has the right to tell me what happened to her in the past .

'Okay then ...So in 4 years, Ren became the kannagi heir and got enrhiha, Jugo's discovered that Ayano's keeping things from him, things he doesn't feel he has the right to tell me about, Ayano's been training Ren to control enrhiha and has also been busy with ...stuff but no one knows what stuff and she's also been taking solo missions and accompanying Ren on his missions...and for some reason I can't be Ayano's bodyguard anymore... and I'm pretty sure it's not because of her renouncing her title or her hatred of me'.

I let out a sigh and set out towards Kirika's unit's headquarters , maybe she can give me some answers.

At Kirika's unit's headquarters :-

"I'm sorry Kazuma but I ...can't tell you"

"Can't or won't ?"

She turned towards me with a look of slight sympathy .

"... Both"

I sighed.

"Jugo told you not to, didn't he?"

"Yes ...but he asked ,not told and even if he didn't ,I still wouldn't have told you".

"Why not?"

She faced me with daring eyes and I braced myself for her reply.

" Kazuma, remember when Bernhart tried to summon Belial and you went crazy after you saw Lapis..."

I replied through clenched teeth.

" Yeah, What about it?"

She breathed out and continued carefully

"... I was forced to look for a way to stop you and so I shared your past with them . When you found out that they knew about something that...personal, How did you feel?"

I looked down and my bangs covered my eyes , I knew what she meant . It was my past, my life ...and my decision whether or not to share it with them ...whether or not I wanted them to know what I had gone through and ...what I was.

'...she never told me that as she feared it would upset me '

'The events that occurred after Kushina ...left...were kept from me...by Ayano'

I understood what she meant. We all have our secrets and it should be our decision whether or not to , then why...

Kirika noticed my expression and and knew what I was thinking and paitiently waited for me to ask .

" What happened ?... what made you bring out her past after so many years?"

Did she go berserk too?.

She looked at her phone trying to concentrate before answering.

"...nothing actually...and I didn't find this information .It was given to me"

"By who and ...why?"

"It was when Ayano renounced her title .Too many things started happening at once. She passed the test to undertake solo-missions and was allowed to do so. She refused to take anybody as a partner except Ren. She started coming back home late and began to disrespect the kannagi elders... It was as if she just lost interest in being a good clan member. On the other hand, there were less property damage reports,she started getting higher grades and her skills seems to have improved greatly as well, but she refuses to spar with anyone as elders who first supported the decision of making Ren the next heir, ...which were practically everyone, suddenly regretted letting her out of their control."

".control?..."

She nodded... And then continued.

"Jugo seemed upset for a few days after Ayano announced her decision but he never tried to stop her . While everyone was becoming shocked at her sudden increasing progress , he simply treated it as if it was completely normal..."

She paused as if debating whether or not to tell me . Finally she continued with a warning look that was something along the lines of 'This isn't your fight . Don't try to make it your fight' .

" Listen Kazuma , I work for the kannagi's and I do what they tell me to so when they told me to track Ayano ,I did so ,when they told me to find out who she was hanging out with, I tried to do so..."

Tried?

"...and in the process I started looking into her past."

" ... And?"

".. and someone from her past found out and sent me some very secretive kannagi files ...thinking that I would use them as leverage to blackmail Ayano into doing what I want in return for me keeping it from her father."

I tried to swallow everything . Just what the heck happened to her?.

"How?..."

"What?"

"How did you know that the person wanted you to use it as leverage?"

She got up and closed the door . Then she went to the office cabinet and pushed it to the side and took a key from behind it. ( Well ,that's original).After returning the cabinet to it's original position, she went to a picture-frame on her desk and inserted the key into it's base and turned.

*click*

She put her hand under the rim of her desk and pulled to reveal a secret drawer. She took a letter from inside it an placed it on my lap as if it was poison.

"That's the note I got along with the files."

Without a word ,I opened the letter and read it.

(Hey honey,

I heard that you've been looking into the little red-headed b*tch's life story, digging for some good dirt. Well baby I've got a treat for ya. The files I sent ya may not look like much or maybe it looks like too much .but I can tell ya that brat would do anything to keep her precious papa from finding out .In return for this juicy leverage, cause her pain-filled expressions are just delicious ,just give her some extra torture for me and take some pictures.

P.S:-Don't tell her how ya got this.

P.P.S:-Make her cry.).

That second ,one thought rang through my head. Not 'who is this?' or 'what does he know?' It was a simple thought

'I'm going to hunt down and kill this bastard'.