Helping Masaya
Right after helping Minami, Reina kept a watch out on Masaya Kataoka from episode 11 of the anime. She remembered how the Kataoka family was ruined due to Masaya's carelessness of trusting a crooked journalist named Tadashi Inagaki. So far nothing had happened yet. (I don't know how long apart it was from episode 10 and 11 so I decided to have Reina do this one right away)
"Who are we helping now Reina-san?" asked Wanyuudou. "We are preventing a very careless boy from making a very big mistake" said Reina. She explained to her companions about Masaya trusting Tadashi too much and telling him about his family. Then she told about how Tadashi was one of those crooked journalists who made up lies about people in the papers, and he didn't care about the people's unhappy results. "Oh so he's like that Okochi guy we took down years ago" said Ren. "Exactly" said Reina. "So that Masaya boy has no idea that journalist is a liar and will be using him?" asked Hone Onna. "Masaya is a young kid; he can't tell the difference between people you can trust or not yet," said Reina "oh and there's another thing we need to help Masaya with". She explained about Masaya's so called friends from episode 11. "That boy has no idea those other boys' only hang around him for his money". "Oh dear that sounds familiar" sighed Ren, having heard this before. "What do you want us to do?" asked Yamawaro. Reina had a plan. "Ren I need you to keep an eye on Tadashi, Yamawaro keep an eye on Masaya and keep him away from Tadashi if he gets close to him," she said "Wanyuudou I have a big job for you". She handed him a tape recorder. "I want you to make those boys admit they are only being friendly with Masaya because of his money, Masaya needs to hear about that for his own good". "I understand" said Wanyuudou. "Hone Onna you are coming with me; we are going to visit an old friend" finished Reina. "Oh?" said Hone Onna.
To Hone Onna's surprise, Reina had brought them to Hajime's house. "Hajime knows Tadashi so we are going to ask him to help us" explained Reina. Hone Onna understood. Reina pressed the door bell and Ayumi answered the door. "Long time no see Ayumi" said Reina. "Reina how are you?" said Ayumi, remembering Reina. "We are good thank you," said Reina "how have you been doing Ayumi?" "Wonderful thank you" said Ayumi. Ayumi invited Reina and Hone Onna into the house and gave them some tea. "How has life been for you and Hajime?" asked Hone Onna. "Alright in its own way," said Ayumi "Hajime still works as a journalist and I work too, but we have been happy especially with Tsugumi around". "I take it you remember what we told you before about always telling Hajime your true feelings and no bottling them up nor beating around the bush?" said Hone Onna. "I did," said Ayumi "thanks to you two I feel like I can tell Hajime anything about my feelings and such, and I make Hajime listen to what I have to say". Reina and Hone Onna were happy they sorted out Ayumi and Hajime when they did. "Listen Ayumi the reason why we are here is because we need Hajime's help with something" said Reina.
Reina asked Ayumi if she knew the journalist Tadashi Inagaki. "I've heard about him," said Ayumi "Hajime told me he used to work under him, but he left because he didn't like Tadashi's ways of journalism, especially since Tadashi liked to make things up instead of telling the real truth". "That's exactly why we needs Hajime's help;" said Reina "Tadashi plans to make up lies about the Kataoka family, which will ruin them for good". "That's awful, I'll tell my husband at once as soon as he gets back from work" said Ayumi. "Thank you Ayumi," said Reina "tell Hajime to meet us at the café this evening and I'll tell him what's happening there". Ayumi understood and Reina and Hone Onna left the house.
Reina and Hone Onna met up with the others. According to Yamawaro and Ren, Masaya had not met up with Tadashi yet. So Reina had plenty of time to save the Kataoka family before Tadashi did anything. "Did you get what I asked you to get for me Wanyuudou?" asked Reina. "Yes, those boys directly told me they only hang around him because of his money," answered Wanyuudou "and they also admitted that if Masaya had no more money, then they would see no point of being his friend anymore and never do anything to help him. Those boys are real jerks". Reina agreed. "Wanyuudou, can I ask you to go undercover as Masaya's father's friend and tell Masaya about this?" asked Reina. "Of course Reina-san" answered Wanyuudou. Reina handed Hone Onna a tape recorder. "Hone Onna I want you to get Tadashi to admit his bad habits and what his plan for the Kataoka family is;" she said "Tadashi likes to drink and hang around women when he's not working. To defeat this guy we will need to play dirty again". The companions understood; having done this before.
That evening Reina met up with Hajime at the café. (The same one in the anime where he always hanged out) "Thank you for meeting up with me Hajime" said Reina. "Not at all," said Hajime "Ayumi told me about what's happening with Tadashi. I never liked how that guy made up lies about people in his papers, which is why I stopped working for him". "Tadashi's bad journalism is the reason why I need your help;" said Reina "I need your help of exposing Tadashi's terrible deeds by writing about it in an article". "What?" said Hajime. He didn't expect this. "Listen," said Reina "if Tadashi succeeds on writing an article, full of nothing about lies, about the Kataoka family, that family will full to ruin big time which will make them lose everything they have. Then Masaya Kataoka will want to get revenge on Tadashi by murdering him. Do you want that to happen might I ask Hajime?" Hajime flinched and then said he didn't. Like in the anime, Hajime didn't like the idea of people getting revenge with murder and such. So he agreed to help Reina by writing an article about Tadashi's bad deeds. "Meet me here again first thing tomorrow morning, I'll have evidence ready for you by then" said Reina. Then she left the café, leaving Hajime alone in thought.
Reina met up with Yamawaro, Ren and Wanyuudou. Hone Onna was still getting dirt on Tadashi so she hadn't returned yet. "Did anything happen yet Ren and Yamawaro?" asked Reina. "No that Tadashi guy hasn't met up with that Masaya kid yet; he's busy with something else right now" answered Ren. "Same with Masaya" answered Yamawaro. "Good so nothing's happened yet" said Reina, relieved they got there in time. "I told Masaya about his friends and they're true feelings," said Wanyuudou "he didn't take it well". "What happened?" asked Reina. "Well at first he didn't believe me when I told him about his friends only being his friends because of his money," said Wanyuudou "but when I played him the tape recording of what his friends told me, he went into a bit of a shock after knowing what his friends really thought of him". Reina sighed. "It's as I said; Masaya still can't tell a difference yet between real friends or fake" she said. "That's not all," said Wanyuudou "I gave him an explanation about people can be like around rich people; people pretending to be friendly towards you just to gain something out of it, how it's easy for the rich to get scammed and tricked by those who want to do business with them, but not really, and how people, whether it be man or woman, only liking your money and not you. Masaya is clearly naïve about the outside of the rich world". "I think you better talk to Masaya again Wanyuudou; he will clearly need some comforting after we pull this quest off" said Reina. "Yes" agreed Wanyuudou.
Just then Hone Onna turned up and she looked really annoyed. "What happened Hone Onna?" asked Reina. "Oh you were right about that man being a drinker Reina-san," said Hone Onna "that man reeked of alcohol while I was gathering dirt on him". "So I take it you were successful on your part?" asked Ren. "Of course, that man couldn't resist my beauty" boasted Hone Onna. She handed over the tape recorder to Reina and Reina played it. It revealed Tadashi's plan to trick Masaya into revealing his family secrets to him and his plan to make up stories about Mr Kataoka. It also revealed his cruel nature of not caring about his victims' feelings nor their ruins and such. "This will certainly bring that journalist to shame once everyone finds out" said Ren. The others agreed. "Wanyuudou I need you to tell Mr Kataoka about this; he and his family will have to know, especially Masaya" said Reina. "Understood" said Wanyuudou.
The next morning Reina saw met up with Hajime in the café again, and she gave him the tape recorder of Tadashi's plans. Hajime did not like what he heard on the tape. "Now you understand why we have to expose Tadashi's lies?" asked Reina "one day it will be the Kataoka family, the next day it will be another family". Hajime understood alright and he agreed to write the article about Tadashi and his bad journalism. "Thankyou Hajime" said Reina, happy to have Hajime's help. Hajime felt this was going to be the biggest story he had ever written as a journalist.
Tadashi had a nasty surprise the next day. Everyone in town had read the newspaper which held the article that Hajime wrote about him. Hajime wrote all about Tadashi's bad journalism; how he used trickery to get information, how he liked to make up lies about people, especially politicians, and how he didn't care about people he wrote about felt. Since Tadashi's secrets were out, he got harassed by people a lot, and mobs tried to get into his office uninvited. There was nothing Tadashi could do to fight back this time. Worse still, by order of Mr Kataoka, Tadashi got arrested by the police. Wanyuudou told the Kataoka family about what Tadashi planned to do and of course it made Mr Kataoka furious. So this time Tadashi was ruined instead of the Kataoka family.
Hajime got questioned by the police too, but he wasn't in trouble because he told the police about all he knew about Tadashi, and how and when he stopped working with him in the past. He did feel a bit guilty about tattle-telling about Tadashi, but since Tadashi was stopped from making up lies of other people it made Hajime feel better.
Reina went to visit Hajime at the café again. "Is everything alright Hajime?" asked Reina. "Yes, thanks to my story about Tadashi I earned quite a big bonus for my salary," answered Hajime "I still feel emotional from having to go against my old boss like that". "Just be glad your story got Tadashi arrested, otherwise what I warned about to you before would have become a reality" said Reina. Hajime had to admit; he didn't fancy the idea of Masaya murdering Tadashi because of him making up stories about his family. "You did the right thing Hajime, trust me" said Reina. Hajime couldn't help but feel that Reina was right, again.
In the aftermath Tadashi was sentenced to prison for twenty years and banned from journalism for life. As for Masaya, he decided to enrol into a boarding school to learn to be independent. After learning the truth about his ex-friends and what Tadashi tried to do, he decided to learn to be independent to know more about the outside world and his parents agreed it would do him some good. Wanyuudou gave Masaya some advice about to be aware of people who work with magazines and newspapers and to be careful of trusting strangers. Masaya agreed to learn more about people for the future.
So in the end the Kataoka family could live happily forever without Tadashi ruining it.
Hope you like how Masaya was sorted out. I thought I'd use Hajime Shibata in this chapter because I thought using another journalist would help out more.