If it were physically possible, my jaw would have hit the floor. Of all people, he was the last person I thought who'd come here. "Arata!" I called him in surprise.

He smiled at me, a little bit insecure. "Good evening, Haruhi-sama."

"What are you doing here?" I asked, standing up from the bed.

"Aneko-sama told me to help you escape." He explained, I saw the unconscious body of one of the cops lying at his feet. I frowned, I felt a bit disappointed that he didn't come on his own behalf.

"I don't need your help." I stated, shocking him slightly.

"But… How else are you going to escape?" he asked.

"Not."

Arata frowned. "What do you mean 'not'?"

I suppressed the urge to sigh. "I'm not going to escape."

"Haruhi-sama, I know you are a smart person but staying here is beyond stupidity." He scolded, I didn't like the intonation in his voice. I don't like being scolded. Moreover, he had kind of insulted me right now, hadn't he? I scowled.

"Whether I want to escape or not, is up to me, isn't it?" I said. "I don't need your help since I've already come up with a plot on my own. And since you seem to know that I am a smart person, you should just leave me be."

Arata didn't seem convinced. "But what if your plot fails?"

"It won't." I said, Arata's eyes narrowed, he must have noticed that my words lacked confidence.

It's true that my plans could fail, I could only hope that they won't.

Seeing as I wouldn't give in, Arata tried something else. "What about your friends from the hostclub?" he asked. "Don't you want to go see them? They are really worried, you know."

For a moment, I almost took the bait. "They… They will be fine. My plan will work and it will be only a matter of time before I see them again." I said, my chest tightened in pain at the memories of my horrifying nightmares. I shuddered at the mental image of their blood leaving their motionless bodies. Arata noticed and stepped closer.

He wrapped his hand around a bar of the cell door, that separated us. "Haruhi-sama, just let me rescue you."

I hesitated for a moment but shook my head.

"Then could you tell me that plot of yours?" he asked. Again I shook my head.

He sighed. "Then at least tell me if there's anything that I can do for you to help?"

"Could you give a message to Aneko?" I asked. He seemed slightly surprised but nodded.

"Tell her that Kazuma-sama is telling the truth and that he is an acquaintance of me. Also tell her to help him and that he knows what he is doing." I locked eyes with Arata. "If she truly regrets trying to kill me then she will have to prove it by helping Kazuma-sama."

Arata slowly nodded and didn't ask anything about the message. "Is that all?"

I nodded. "That will be all."

Arata got ready to leave but hesitated. "Are you sure you don't want me to help you?"

"Trust me, Arata, I know what I'm doing." I said and showed him a little smile. "Trust me."

His eyes grew big, for a moment he stood there, frozen, and then nodded. "Of course."

…

Another two days passed. After Arata left, there was some tumult when the morning shift found their colleagues unconscious. Apparently Arata had hidden a couple of bottles sake so that they would think their colleagues had passed out because of the alcohol.

They were probably going to be fired because of this but right now I couldn't care less. I had been restless the past two days and now finally the day came that the police would bring me to the court. Since I was a princess, a traitor or not, there were more guards than usual.

Not because they feared I'd escape but rather that some crazy Aneko-lover would hate me enough to try and kill me. I felt surprisingly calm when I entered the building. My guards led me to a separate room where I could wait for my lawyer. Quite ironic to think that I, who wants to become a lawyer, needs one now. My lawyer was a friendly man, capable of his work but we both knew he wouldn't be able to help me like Kazuma-sama and Aneko would.

The door opened and my lawyer and Kazuma-sama stepped in. They both sat down.

"Haruhi-sama," My lawyer said. "I understand now why you didn't inform me of your plans."

I looked up at Kazuma-sama. "You showed him the video?"

Kazuma-sama nodded and took out his phone. "Yes, I thought that was for the best. Do you wish to watch the video too, before we show this to the court?"

I shook my head, I didn't want to see it again. My dreams already replayed Aneko's murder often enough.

My lawyer sighed and smiled. "I'm relieved that you are indeed innocent, Haruhi-sama. It is certain now that we will be able to win this case."

There arose some noise from behind the door, half-jokingly I thought it might be Arata again who created the ruckus but when the door opened my jaw hit the ground again.

"Haru-chan~!" Mitsu-niichan yelled, jumped and caught me in a bone-breaking hug. The chair I had been sitting on fell over.

"Mitsu-niichan!"

"Honey-senpai! Let us hug her too!" Tama-niichan complained.

It was Kyo-niichan though who helped me up while Mitsu-niichan still clung to me. Taka-niichan tried to pry him off, without success.

"If it were me I'd go farther than hugging." Hika-niichan commented. Tama-niichan shot him a glare which made the twin just laugh. Kazuma-sama and my lawyer looked at the scène with a mix of shock and amusement.

Kyo-niichan shook both their hands. "Thank you for helping out Haruhi, we will see that you will be rewarded for your help."

"No need to reward me, I was only fulfilling the requests of my future queen." Kazuma-sama said.

"You had plotted this, Haruhi?" Kyo-niichan asked, pushing his glasses up.

"Of course she did! Kyoya-kun, you should know that Haru-chan is really smart!" Mistu-niichan replied. Taka-niichan had finally managed to peal off me but now the boy was clinging to his arm.

"As expected of my daughter!" Tama-niichan grinned proudly.

"She's too smart to have an idiot dad like you." Kao-niichan remarked.

Tama-nii pouted. "Mommy~! Kaoru called me an idiot!"

I could see Kyo-niichan almost roll his eyes. "Well, none of us can deny that."

"Mommy~!" Tama-niichan cried.

I finally got to write a chapter with the hosts again! Yay!

To helpmewoofy11: I'm still going to write seperate endings, one for each host and one for Arata. But I don't know yet whether I should go as far as kissing and confessing or not. If you have a request for a certain host I might include it :)

I hope you enjoyed the chapter ^^