Confrontation Is Never the Solution

Tsurugi's lips pursed as Hakuryuu started raving.

"I cannot believe you would actually do something like this!" Hakuryuu spilled the words from his mouth, "I mean, I knew you were stupid, but not this stupid!"

Kurumada frowned, "You don't have to be mean while you're at it."

Hakuryuu sighed, "I'm sorry, guys... it's just that- the mistress is going to fuck us."

"Well, that's not good for my imagination," Kuruma stated as he wrinkled his nose.

"True, I'm pretty sure we don't like envisioning a night with her sandwiched between us." Nishiki agreed.

"You fucking idiots." Hakuryuu cussed at the same time Tsurugi let out a laugh.

"But, seriously, dude... her name's Amaterasu? And why did she run this house when she was like, seven?" Kurama asked. Kurumada nodded beside him, ready to agree and back Kurama up to whatever he's saying.

Hakuryuu sighed, "It's hard to explain, all I know is that; there's a big-shot organization that controls her and she can possibly be one of the most dangerous threats to this house."

"A threat? But she owns this house." Nishiki asked.

Tsurugi immediately remembered Natsumi saying something quite similar... that the mistress was a failed experiment, an unlucky person who wasn't good enough. A part of Tsurugi wanted to understand her, that she should take her time in explaining... and another part wanted to squeeze every secret out of her.

"I'm going to let this pass... just don't do it again!" Hakuryuu scowled.

The day after, Kairi looked bored as hell, picking on the moon print on her shirt.

To be fair, she was waiting for hours just to see the stars fade away from the skyline. She woke up at three o'clock in the morning just to do this. It didn't matter to her, she always liked staying up late.

Once the last of the stars were gone, she stood up and pulled out her two daggers. She sliced the nearest tree branch and watched it fall.

"That's not really nice to Mother Nature," a voiced piped up.

She looked up to see Hakuryuu staring down at her.

"Hello...?" Kairi bobbed her head in question.

"I see, you're practicing... you want to show me what you've got?" Hakuryuu smiled at her.

Kairi stared down at her daggers and stated, "Okay, I accept."

Hakuryuu grinned and pulled out a knife, not much longer than Kairi's, but definitely sharper. Kairi was quite impulsive, but she stood firm on her decision.

Then and there, they battled.

Kairi acted like herself, slashing and stabbing whenever Hakuryuu was near. Hakuryuu, however, was doing the opposite of what she's doing. He was actually using other parts of his body to kick her and then slash her skin. His routine went on for a while and Kairi caught up with it. When Hakuryuu was about to kick her legs, she grabbed his leg and flipped him. Kairi now slashed his shirt, leaving a diagonal cut.

"Good, but not good enough," Hakuryuu commented and tripped Kairi. He went on top of her and pointed his knife at her throat.

"I surrender," Kairi croaked.

Hakuryuu laughed heartily and helped Kairi stand up. He stated, "Come, let's go to the house, we could use some patching up."

"Yeah..."

"And I could teach you willingly, Iwasawa, just call." Hakuryuu grinned.

"Kai... I thought I told you to call me Kai." Kairi requested.

Hakuryuu looked at Kairi in surprise that she still remembered that day, but stated, "Okay."

Miya's morning wasn't really bad, though she can't say it was good either.

It started with her rolling out of bed, literally. That made her land with a thud just beside her bed and she felt that she just broken every bone in her body.

Regardless, Miya stood up and walked to the kitchen to eat something.

"Good morning, Miya," her grandmother greeted.

"Good morning, gran..." Miya yawned.

Her grandmother handed Miya a bowl of oatmeal before drinking her own tea.

"Thank you for the food." Miya stated and then ate.

Somehow after eating, Miya was walking outside and into the supermarket. Turns out, they were kind of in a shortage of food and her grandmother asked her to get some ingredients for their lunch.

As much as Miya still didn't want to go outside (as her fever just stopped), she didn't want to let her own grandmother go do the grocery herself. So, she put on her blue sleeveless shirt and her indigo jacket (with a hoodie, just in case). She also threw on her dark blue pants and her black boots.

While she was picking out some vegetables, a boy bumped into her.

"Whoops, sorry."

Miya almost dropped her basket. Embarrassed, she clutched the basket and grinned apologetically at the person who bumped her. She said, "I'm sorry, too. It's partly my fault."

"Oh! Miyazaki-san! How are you?" the boy who bumped her beamed.

Turns out, it was Amemiya. Miya smiled at him, "Amemiya-san! Good to see you, are you having fun in our summer break?"

"Well, the mistress does ask us to do tasks quite often. But, you know, it's what we asked for, anyway." Amemiya replied.

"What do you mean? Did you sign up for this? I thought you guys were only being forced." Miya wondered aloud.

Amemiya scowled and stated, "No. Where did you get that idea?"

The coldness of Amemiya's voice made Miya flinch, but she kept calm and merely picked out the vegetables her grandmother needed.

"Are you going to cook for your family?" Amemiya asked.

"Nope, my grandmother just asked me to pick out some ingredients." Miya replied.

"Oh..."

Miya hesitated for a moment, looking at Amemiya's blank face. She wondered what happened to Amemiya; why was he so touchy about the mistress? Does he have a crush on the mistress?

The thought made Miya's heart churned. Regardless, she asked Amemiya, "Do you want to eat lunch with us?"

Amemiya looked quite surprised (like Miya) as he stared at her. He asked, "... are you sure?"

"Why not?" Miya shrugged, "The more the merrier, am I right?"

"Are you really sure? I don't want to bother you, if you really don't want me inside your house." Amemiya explained as he continued to stare.

Miya did not want Amemiya to go, she simply said that because he looked quite famished. Looking at Amemiya now, Miya noticed that he wasn't really quite hungry. Where did she get that idea?

In the end she stated, "Yep, I'm sure."

When the two went inside Kogarashi Manor, Matsukaze was about to go outside and practice soccer. Matsukaze and Amemiya immediately acknowledged each other, conversing about soccer (not much of a surprise here).

"Miya; Is Amemiya here to eat with you guys?" Matsukaze asked.

Miya nodded and replied, "Yeah, he is. I assume you are going to go and play soccer?"

"Yeah, me and Shinsuke are going to practice." Matsukaze grinned, then fidgeted.

"Are you okay, Tenma?" Miya asked, noticing the sudden twitch in Matsukaze's body.

Matsukaze looked nervous, but asked, "Are you two dating?"

The two blushed, quite red-faced (though, their face would look more like a tomato once they walk in and find Miya's grandmother asking the same question).

Sato walked at a slow pace, just to see the view of the amusement park.

She loved it, more than anything. Her friends know it, I know it and you now know it.

Maybe, maybe it was her way of being happy, just staring out at the silhouette of the big amusement park. Sato was having quite the shitty day: with her siblings being praised by her mother and father. This led her into thinking that she was ordinary, not quite special as her siblings are.

Trudging on the sidewalk, a voice called out to her. "Sato!"

Sato turned to the person who called her and... "Hyouga?"

Yukimura cracked a grin at her and said, "Just walking, huh?"

"Yeah. What brings you out here?" Sato asked.

"Nothing of some sort. But I'm glad I did went out. Firstly, the computer is destroyed completely and secondly, I saw you. Let's hang out!" Yukimura stated.

Sato's heart fluttered as he said that and nodded, "Okay."

"You like amusement parks, yeah? Let's go." Yukimura held out his hand.

Sato took it, with an air of uncertainty. She asked, remembering something, "Why do you work for the mistress?"

"Why do you work for her?" Yukimura sighed.

"I... I- we don't."

"Then that's my answer." Yukimura grinned in triumph and pleaded, "Can we not please talk about that? At least, let's- let's just ride roller coasters and other awesome stuff like that."

"...okay..." Sato sighed, giving up on the topic. She, however, wanted to know more about the mistress and how she managed to recruit people... like Yukimura- her Hyouga.

Yukimura sighed and stated, "I'll buy you a hot chocolate, if you want."

"And?" Sato asked hopefully.

"Well, I'll try to win some plushies by the crane machines. Though, are you sure you need another?"

"Yes, I need it."

"You know, you're room is full of plushies, already... are you really sure?"

"Yep." Sato hesitated, but said it anyway, "Please?"

Yukimura chuckled and ruffled Sato's indigo hair, which was tucked into a bun. He commented, "You're so sweet, it's cute."

The two walked inside the amusement park.

Ai silently shuffled her feet on the wooden floor. Today, her hair was pulled back with her black headband. She wore her plain white shirt with her black cardigan. Along with that, she decided to throw on her short jeans about past her knees and black flats.

"Oi, kiddo. You're not gonna go to the hospital today?" a voice startled her. She squinted her eyes and realized there was a figure in front of her, leaning on the wall.

Ai squeaked out a greeting, "Good morning, Kariya Masaki-kun."

Kariya rolled his eyes as he fell in step with Ai. He asked, "Where are you going?"

"Just to Inazuma Tower. There are a lot of animals there, I wanted to pet them. There was this other day where I found a little Labrador out there. I thought it was lost and was considering taking him in. Though, I found out he has an owner through his collar. Turns out, his owner was looking for him, too."

"You're talkative today." Kariya chuckled.

"A-ah." Ai stuttered and blushed, "S-sorry."

"It's fine." Kariya shrugged, "I like you better that way. You're eyes lit up and you have that smile... ah, I should stop. Sorry about that."

"Thank you." Ai said.

Kariya grinned, "Want to eat some bean paste before going there?"

Ai frowned and asked, "Would you give me a sour one like last time?"

The two wistfully remembered the day Kariya 'accidentally' switched Ai's bean paste into a sour one. Kariya was laughing quite loud as Ai was doing everything to put out the substance on her tongue.

"It was quite funny. But, no. I think you're going to hate me after."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"I don't like that. As much as possible, I want you to like me."

Ai blushed deep red as she said, "Oh."

Kariya has now just realized the consequences of his actions and apologized, "I- I mean not in that way! I- d-don't like you in that way! Y-you're n-not attractive for me... I-I mean, you a-are, but y-you're not my type a-and... I-I'm really s-sorry! Gosh, you must hate me now...!"

"I don't, Kariya Masaki-kun." Ai smiled at him.

Kariya swallowed as he processed what just happened. "U-uh."

"In exchange for that, though, you must watch with me some Love Live! It's about idols and such... okay?" Ai asked.

Kariya smiled and stated, "As long as you forgive me."

"I couldn't get angry at you, Masaki."

And Kariya was left to ask himself why Ai called him by his first name.

Kari simply sat down at the far corner of the bakeshop, as she wanted to eat her freshly baked cream puffs at peace. Kari always loved eating pastries inside shops. It was a miracle she still had money to spend for pastries.

She scrolled through her phone, finding a perfect song to help her mood. Once she picked out a song, she hummed silently as she ate her cream puffs. Occasionally, she tapped her black and white Converse on the floor, synchronizing with the beat.

Then, the front door of the bakeshop opened. There was a little bell that was hanged up, and it signaled that there was a person coming in the shop.

Kari glanced at the boy. Her jaw dropped as she realized he looked quite familiar... as if she saved him one day...

"Crap," the boy hissed as he dropped his coins.

Kari let out a gasp. The boy looked up and raised an eyebrow at her, wondering what happened to make her gasp.

"Uhm- sorry," Kari blushed and faltered. She smacked herself, what am I doing?

The boy walked up to her and sat down right in front of her. Before Kari could say anything about it, he chuckled, "Fujisaki Hikari, right?"

Kari asked, "How do you know?"

"Uh, I believe you met me-"

"Oh, you're Ibuki-san!" Kari spoke loudly. Embarrassed, she turned off her phone and chuckled nervously.

Ibuki laughed and asked, "What were you listening to?"

"Some love songs. I thought it went well with the scene." Kari stated.

"You're a music enthusiast?" Ibuki asked,

Kari nodded.

"Well, how about we go to a trip to the music shop? I always go there, but it's not the one on the main street." Ibuki smiled.

"Oh, where then?"

"You'll see." Ibuki grinned and held out a hand.

Kari held her breath, but took his hand anyway.

And that left a series of tingles throughout her body.

Eri liked playing soccer. Especially, somewhere where there was a flat surface and practically no one was there.

She grabbed the ball, but thought twice about it. She wore her white skirt as always, some knee-high brown boots, and aquamarine sweater and an orange scarf. Not exactly the best clothes for sports.

Eri kicked off her boots and used her bare feet to actually play some soccer, imagining scenarios like this and like that.

After a while, she stopped and glanced at the sky, noticing it was about to rain. Quickly, Eri wore her boots and ran to a nearby building. The building she chose was a bookstore, and she was glad at that. Eri loved reading a variety of books.

Just as soon as Eri flipped a random book she chose, the rain started pouring. Some people ran, and others just simply walked with an umbrella. Not one person decided to go inside the bookstore to at least dry themselves. For that, Eri was glad.

The bookstore was empty with people, save for the fact that the teenage boy behind the counter, chewing a bubblegum. Until, a person decided to open the door and walk inside.

Eri glanced at the person who walked in. A young man with short brown hair stood beside the door. Eri swallowed as she realized it was Shindou Takuto, a person who had helped her with the library incident.

Shindou, apparently, noticed her too, since he walked toward her. He waved at Eri and said, "Hello."

"Do I know you?" Eri snapped, not wanting to see him.

"Well, I did save you when you fell from the shelf." Shindou chuckled, "Yes, you should know me."

Eri glared angrily at Shindou as she stated, "Well, I don't, and get out of here, would ya?"

Shindou raised an eyebrow at her and asked, "Is that how you treat people who saved you? Didn't your parents thought you anything?"

"They're dead, so I never learned anything." Eri snapped. She didn't know what made her say it, since she was quite wary of people and obviously was distant towards everyone. Apparently, what Eri said worked because Shindou looked like he did not know how to reply to that.

"Oh." Shindou was silent for a moment.

Eri, knowing the conversation was already over, moved away from Shindou.

"I'm sorry-" Shindou started, but Eri cut him off.

"Yeah, that's what they all say." Eri growled and walked off.

Shindou continued, "You didn't let me finish. I was apologizing because I was quick to judge you and that I must have touched a sensitive topic."

Eri realized that Shindou was quite the good speaker, obviously calming any person. Eri immediately wanted to get away from him, knowing he acts differently than Eri. A person who did not share the same thoughts as her.

She always read that on a fiction book; a girl and a boy who were complete opposites can always end up changing one another. In the end, the two of them would... fall in love.

Blushing, Eri turned to a shelf of books and began looking at the titles as she said, "Oh. Okay."

"Am I forgiven then?" Shindou asked.

"Yes. Now, can you go?" Eri quickly told him.

Shindou smiled and stated, "But it's raining outside."

That's how Eri got stuck with Shindou for the rest of that afternoon.

Ru looked out to the window, eyeing the raindrops that slid down.

Yawning, she kicked her feet up on the empty seat next to her. She was on a train and, supposedly, she was about to head to the market to buy some food, just so her mother won't shout at her again for not having food. Like it was all Ru's fault.

Ru always envied the other family for being so perfect and do not give each other the cold shoulder. Her family was practically one of the most broken one she knew. Clearly, since they didn't like each other's company.

Clutching her bag, she put on her hood with the cat ears, and proceeded to wait for the conductor to tell them to go down.

Once the conductor told exactly just that, Ru walked out of the train and trudged on towards the market.

"Hey, hey!" a guy grabbed her shoulder.

Ru looked back at the stranger, alarmed. The funny thing was, one dagger was already pointing on his stomach before Ru could process that she was the one who did that.

"Sorry, I won't do that, again!" Kishibe chuckled nervously as he raised his hands up in surrender.

Embarrassed, Ru kept the dagger and apologized, "Sorry. I thought you were going to kidnap me or something."

"Eh, it's fine, but please don't do that again."

"I am sorry." Ru told him as she walked away. Kishibe fell into step with her, casually brushing his arm with hers.

They were silent for a moment, before Kishibe decided to ask, "Where are you going?"

"The market." Ru replied.

Kishibe eyed her and asked, "Without an umbrella?"

"Yep." Ru nodded and explained, "I mean, I always have my hood here to-"

"Nope." Kishibe cut Ru off and pulled out an umbrella (from nowhere, if I may add). "Let's share mine. I'll help you carry."

"It's fine! I mean, you might be busy or something."

"It's all right, it's not like that meeting was important anyway. So, you'll let me help you, right?"

Ru pursed her lips and asked, "Why do you badly want to help me?"

Kishibe paused, wondering the same thing. Instead of looking for an answer, Kishibe decided to say, "You helped us escape that headquarters where we were trapped. I mean, it's like my thanks to you."

"Just for the record, I was actually trapped with you. But, fine, if you really want to."

Kishibe grinned at Ru.

The moon on the night sky looked beautiful.

"I swear, the mistress might be exploding today," a maid gossiped.

Another maid raised her eyebrows, "What? Why?"

"Well, she's like entertaining some guests in her room. And those guests don't look happy."

One maid piped in, "Well, you know the mistress, she's a sucker in making people happy and also strict in discipline."

"Damn right..."

One butler shouted at the maids who were gossiping, "Get to work, ladies!"

What the maids said were true, though. The mistress was being confronted that night by (who else) Tsurugi and his gang.

"Amaterasu, huh?" Tsurugi scowled.

The mistress glared coldly at the four of them. Nishiki, who was once on the side of the mistress, was glaring her down.

"Why do you know?" the mistress asked.

"We saw it in your files. Look, why are you really here? And why are we all here?" Tsurugi asked.

"I told you, the four of you are gifted," the mistress gritted her teeth.

Kurama shook her head and asked, "Why did you bring the girls then? They are certainly not gifted."

"Because they're not," the mistress replied.

Kurumada shouted, "We're not into games, lady! Just ANSWER!"

The mistress sighed, "I am not ordered to answer those questions. My lips are sealed tight, Tsurugi, Kurama, Kurumada and Nishiki. Even your powers will not change a thing."

"Powers?" Kurama whispered to Kurumada. Kurumada simply just shrugged at him.

"Now, get out of my room," the mistress scowled.

Nishiki snorted and asked, "Why are you being difficult?"

"Because I don't want to!" the mistress yelled. Immediately, everything in the room started floating, with hints of blue electricity flowing through them.

Kurama and Kurumada had their jaws dropped. Nishiki simply tried to protect the four of them, just in case the objects started sailing towards them. Tsurugi, however, stared at the mistress' silhouette.

"You cold just tell us and everything will be over." Tsurugi stated.

He felt the mistress' gaze on him. The objects were already started moving in different directions, while the mistress remained in the same position.

Tsurugi needed another push. He used his powers to make the room cold as ice, not noticing his friends' behavior. However, what he did worked, the mistress ran up to him and was tempted to strangle him, but that didn't matter, the mistress knew that it was Tsurugi's objective to see her face.

The mistress looked beautiful, as if her face was sculpted by angels. Her complexion was smooth and fair, save for her cheeks who were too rosy. Her honey blonde hair, however, was one of the straightest and shiniest hair Tsurugi has ever seen. Her eyes, however, were pure white, as if she was a blind man.

Tsurugi released a breath he did not know he was holding.

The mistress sighed and pushed the four out of the room in one swift. The door closed and the sign on the door faded into nothing.

"She looked beautiful." Nishiki stated.

The four of them agreed with such a statement.

And Tsurugi added, "She looked just like Afuro Terumi."

Helloo! Sorry for being really late! D:

I hope this is all right, though! Excuse the mistakes.. :)

So, now you know something about the mistress! What do you think?

Review and share your thoughts about this chapter. :)