Hello everyone, I'm back! This is the second to last chapter, let's make the most of it!
Many thanks to SoullessSky for following and Tina Vainamoinen for following and favoriting, you rock!
My two reviewers rock too! To my best friend viexon: shut up. XD
To the wonderful Gadget: thank you for reviewing, yes, the Green King will get a story too... eventually.
Enjoy guys, I own nothing!
Chapter 4: Worry
When Erica got home she was practically bouncing, even though she had never 'bounced' anywhere in her life. She didn't think she'd ever felt this good. He loved her, Kouske really actually loved her!
Kouske wanted to have Erica and Kouyuu around for dinner later so the two males could officially meet, Erica was going to bring it up with Kouyuu right now. She really hoped they got along, she didn't see any real reason why they wouldn't, Kouyuu and Kouske were two of the sweetest people she had ever met, but she was still nervous.
But actually nervous in a good way. This was something to look forward to.
Erica had just got off the phone with Bandou, "I told him," she'd said the second the older woman picked up the phone.
"What?" Asked a bleary voice on the other end, "told who-oh!" The sound of comprehension dawning on her friend.
"Yes, oh!" Drawled Erica with a roll of her eyes, but she was smiling.
"Give me a break, I've only been awake for half an hour," said San-chan with a yawn, despite the fact that it was nearly five in the afternoon, "so, I take it that it went well," it was phrased as a question but it actually wasn't, there wasn't any doubt in San-chan's mind that it would have gone okay. "You're lucky, you know that?" She asked quietly.
"Yeah, I know," said Erica honestly, "and I wasn't worried, I was just... nervous." That was a lie and she thoroughly expected San-chan to call her on her bullshit.
She wasn't disappointed, "you're a lying piece of crap Solt," was the black-haired woman's immediate response, making another smile break across Erica's face.
"Yup," she agreed.
They chatted amiably about small things and hung up once Erica reached her building. Erica climbed the stairs (she was on the second floor) feeling as though the sun itself was nesting in her chest.
The minute she saw her door she knew something was wrong, the door wasn't shut or just ajar, it was wide open, the inside light was on.
Kouyuu should have gotten home before now but he wouldn't have left the door open, not an option, even before Erica cautioned him he'd had stranger danger imprinted on him rather heavily, there wasn't a chance he'd have been that negligent, especially if she wasn't home.
She ran up the last few steps, all of her senses kicking into high alert, she was probably overreacting and everything was fine, but until she was sure that was true she was going to stay on edge.
Erica peered around the open door and saw nothing; there was no one there, "Kouyuu!" She called, no answer. "Kouyuu!"
Her heart stuttered.
She moved from the living room to check her bedroom and Kouyuu's, the bedside table was knocked over in her foster son's room, the lamp smashed on the floor beside it.
Erica's blood ran cold.
Her vision greyed and she felt like she was going to faint, her hand instinctively went to her stomach and she sat down on the bed, hard.
This was probably just an accident, Kouyuu was thirteen and not quite grown into his body yet, he knocked things over all the time, it wouldn't really surprise her if that was what happened here.
Then where the hell was he?
Erica's hand fumbled with her phone as she cursed her own stupidity, she pulled out her phone and hit Kouyuu's number, her phone rang, so did the one under the bed.
With slight difficulty Erica knelt and retrieved her son's cheap phone from under her bed, her hands trembled; she sat down on the floor.
Erica used her own phone and called Bandou again, "Um, San-chan... i-is Kouyuu... with you, by any chance?"
On the other end of the line San-chan felt a chill shoot up her own spine, "no. I haven't seen him since last time you two came over, was I supposed to?"
"I-I can't find him, I came home just after we got off the phone and th-the door was wide open," despite her best attempts to stay calm Erica was stuttering and her heart was clenching in terror, she felt clammy now and with it she was beginning to feel ill.
For all of San-chan's many faults, she was practical, "sit down," she ordered calmly.
"I am sitting," said Erica.
"Then lie down," obediently Erica walked on shaky legs into her own bedroom and lay flat on her back on the bed, she couldn't help the small sarcastic smile that played across her lips, "happy? Now could we please focus on my missing son?!"
"Are you sure he's missing? Could he be staying at a friend's house or something?"
Bandou's question made sense but Erica immediately shook her head anyway, even though she knew the black-haired woman couldn't see her. "Not without calling or texting me first."
"Well can you think of any reason he would have left willingly?" San-chan asked.
Erica's voice shook, "no."
"Well can you think of any reason he would have left unwillingly? Anything that could've happened to him? Anyone who might have t-taken him?" San-chan heard her own voice crack and she was sure Erica heard it too.
"His old gang," said Erica at once, "I mean the one his parents were with, they were pretty mad that I took him and there was this one guy who kept finding us and he knew where Kouyuu went to school and oh my God why didn't I take better care of him I should have known this would happen and-"
San-chan cut her off now that Erica's voice was getting hysterical and her words were running together.
"Calm down, we'll figure this out," despite the severity of the situation San-chan couldn't help but dwell on how much her friend had changed in the last few months.
Now she was truly a mother through and through.
"Yes, because we're so well known for our ability to plan and execute those plans flawlessly," Erica's voice was practically dripping with sarcasm and San-chan rolled her black eyes behind their lenses, okay, how much she had changed in some ways. In others she was exactly the same.
"So what do we do?" Asked Erica.
"Have you called the police?" Asked Bandou logically.
"The... police?" Erica wanted to slap herself in the face, she hadn't even considered calling the police, that said something about their current way of life.
"No, I'll do that now," she said.
"Good, I'll check Kouyuu's school, call Kouske and have him meet you at your apartment, call the others too if you have to."
"Okay," they both hung up without saying goodbye.
Before she called the police Erica used Kouyuu's phone to call Hotaka Fukuoka, Kouyuu's closest friend and the only one he frequently hung out with outside of school. He told her he hadn't seen Kouyuu since they'd gone their separate ways walking home. Erica hadn't expected him to say otherwise but losing that brief, irrational stab of hope hurt like Hell and left her more panicked, Erica gritted her teeth and reigned it in. She told him Kouyuu was missing and requested he ask around their circle, he agreed and she thanked him and then hung up.
Fingers trembling, she dialled the police.
When a voice on the other end of the line answered Erica hesitated, not because of her natural distrust of authority (helped in part by Scepter 4), but because she actually had no idea what to do or say.
"H-hello?" Erica tried, that seemed like a good start.
She told them what had happened.
"Daiki," Tatsuya Enomoto of Scepter 4 caught the sleeve of Daiki Fuse, her co-worker and boyfriend of almost six months.
He looked back at her, noticing the worried expression in her olive green eyes, well, Tatsuya always looked slightly worried about something (usually Hidaka) but now he knew something was genuinely bothering her.
"What's wrong?" He asked, setting a sheaf of papers down on his desk.
Enomoto held up the headset she'd been wearing a second ago, "a woman just reported her younger foster brother missing, it seems fairly straight-forward but the woman calling said her name was Erica Solt."
"Hmm," Daiki frowned, that was the name of one of the late Red King's inner circle, and if he remembered correctly they did have information that one of them had taken in a young teenager, Lieutenant Awashima had helped the bartender second-in-command, Kusanagi or whatever his name was, set it up.
Fuse sighed, "what are the chances it's a different Erica Solt with a different foster brother?"
Enomoto smiled, "this is HOMRA we're talking about."
Fuse sighed even harder, "so no chance, I thought so."
She nodded, "I checked, she's with Homra.
He offered her his hand and she took it, rising from her chair.
"We don't have anything that really needs doing so we might as well check it out," Fuse said, they put away the things they had been using and headed for the door. "Even if it's not technically our job I feel morally obliged to look into this. I wouldn't trust HOMRA to take care of a fake potted plant."
Erica was just leaving to meet up with Kouske and San-chan when two of the Blue's, one male, one female, walked up to her. Erica sighed through her nose, she really did not have time for this!
It was okay, they probably didn't know who she was and would just walk straight by her.
They stopped, "Erica Solt?" The male asked.
Damn, why couldn't anything just go her way right now?!
"Why do you want to know?" She asked.
"Because you just reported your foster brother as missing, we'd like to help you find him." The man replied.
Erica jerked back, how the Hell did they even know about that?!
Oh please, they were Scepter 4, they knew everything.
Well, jungle would probably beg to differ, but Scepter 4 knew almost everything.
"Why would you two want to help me?" She demanded suspiciously.
"Scepter 4 is responsible for dealing with Strains and clansmen, you qualify as both." The male said, he had brown hair with a greenish tint that was cut scruffily down to the back of his neck with two long locks framing his face and grey eyes. His female companion was a couple of inches shorter with jet black hair pulled into a ponytail, also with two long locks on either side of her face and olive-green eyes behind thick lenses. They both looked vaguely familiar, Erica was sure they'd been there during the 'Ashinaka High School Incident,' maybe she'd even fought one or both of them, before she'd become possessed by the Colourless King, that was, she hadn't done much fighting after that. Erica shuddered at the memory.
"And how the Hell do I qualify as both?" Erica growled, her already frayed temper beginning to wane once again, she didn't have time for this, these two were in her way! Her son/brother figure was missing! She didn't have time to deal with these stupid Blues!
However, if they were offering help, Erica couldn't just turn her back on them. For Kouyuu's sake she needed all the help she could get.
'Beggars can't be choosers,' a saying Mr. Kusanagi had once quoted, it applied to her situation now.
"A 'Strain' is the definition of a being who possesses supernatural power without receiving it from a King, or an ex-clansman who no longer follows a King, you qualify as the latter," the male said bluntly, Erica's hands balled into fists. So, they thought she and hers unattached to a King, did they? Mikoto might be gone but they still followed him!
Seeing Erica's anger the woman stepped forward, placing her hand on her companion's arm, "please, we don't know what's happened to your ward, he may not have much time, we can argue later but for now, please just hear us out, we only want to help."
Beggars can't be choosers, Erica's mouth tightened, "fine." Then, even though they were simply doing their job and would probably rather be miles away she grudgingly added "thanks."
Quickly Erica told them everything, her meeting Kouyuu, the incident at his school, his teacher being a Green Clansman. And she didn't miss the way both Blue's spines stiffened when she said the word 'jungle,' looked like the rumours were true, the Blues and the Greens did not get along.
When she finished, the pair looked at each other.
"Hmm..." said the woman, touching her chin thoughtfully, "we have been having a lot of trouble with jungle lately. Low-ranked members who don't know their King's true goal, however..."
"It's more likely that the previous regular gang is the cause of this, assuming it isn't a completely unrelated abduction." Her companion finished for her.
Erica felt nauseous and she almost swooned at the word 'abduction.'
The blue woman saw this too and tentatively, as if she was afraid of being burnt (which she probably was), she reached out and covered one of Erica's clenched hand's with both of her own. Erica flinched, but allowed the contact.
"Come on," the Blue said gently, "let's go meet up with your friends and we'll co-ordinate what we need to do, everything will be okay."
Bandou ducked under a crowbar, barely looking she sent the guy flying with a sweep of red fire, this situation, these gang members, reminded her of the time one of Shouhei's friends had been kidnapped and he had tried to rescue her with San-chan's help. Things had turned out okay then but this time Bandou hoped they turned out better.
She didn't have her clan to help her anymore after all.
She reached the last room, the main room of the abandoned warehouse and yanked the door open. She gasped.
Both their swords drawn, Fuse parried an attack from a fire-covered aluminium baseball bat while Enomoto rammed the hilt of her blade, Tatsuya's sword, into his ribs. When the Green Clansman doubled over Fuse used his own sword, Steel, to knock him out. The two continued onwards.
"I thought the Green's didn't have a headquarters for regular clansmen, at least not in the same way we do or HOMRA did," Fuse said, ducking under another attack.
"I don't think this is even theirs, I think we've been set up," said Enomoto, swinging her blade, a trail of blue fire followed the metal.
"Yeah, I think you might be right," Fuse agreed.
"I can be right occasionally," said Enomoto, the ghost of a smile on her lips.
The two made it inside the building and stopped dead at what they saw.
Kouske held Erica's hand tightly in his as they approached the door of the severely run-down and neglected house, "just stay behind me," he said and she nodded.
They reached the door and Kouske appeared to reach for the old-fashioned door knocker, then red fire surrounded his hand and blew the door open, it stayed attached to its hinges but only because Kouske wanted it to, they didn't want to risk any potential innocents, let alone Kouyuu, but the sound of the door smashing against the wall sent three men running, all with guns.
Despite his warning to stay behind him and her subsequent agreement, Erica found herself stepping forward.
"I'm here for my son," she said, her barely-controlled rage an undercurrent to her every word. Her own sanctum swirled up to cover her body. All three of the men drew back.
Two more men entered the room and Kouske gasped when he saw who was with them.
Erica felt all the blood drain from her face.
Back at Scepter 4 Headquarters Himori Akiyama glanced at the empty seats nearby, with puzzlement. "It's Kamo's day off but where are Enomoto and Fuse?" He asked no one in particular.
Andreana 'Andy' Domyoji looked up from her keyboard, "they left a little while ago, they were saying something about an emergency call to the police and the Red Clan."
Himori frowned, since the death of their King the Red Clan had been laying low, so why...?
"Did the Red Clan make the emergency call or was the emergency call made because of the Red Clan?" He asked.
Domyoji shrugged, "dunno," but Akiyama had a bad feeling about this.
"Can you see where they are now?" He asked the redhead. Andy minimized what she was doing and then tracked Enomoto and Fuse's PDA's. Her cheerful attitude flew out the window when she saw where they were.
She and Himori glanced at each other for a second then wordlessly sprinted for the door.
They had to save their Clansmen before it was too late.
Done! Let me know what you think guys, next chapter is the last chapter, bye!