-Faith, Love, and Forgiveness - Chapter Twenty-two: Intervention-
Boshinimari-Tsykoya - Zushi - The next night
As expected, Yuka's parents made it to Kaeda House around noon the next day and insisted on taking everyone to dinner that evening. Though everyone else was fine with something local, Yuka's parents wanted to try some new restaurant that had just opened in the nearby city of Zushi. It had hundreds of 5/5 reviews, and was apparently extremely popular.
Despite being only fifteen km away, traffic made the trip take almost an hour.
Boshinimari-Tsykoya turned out to a Teppanyaki-style of restaurant (what the West called "Hibachi") and while far from fine dining, it was considered a big step up from somewhere like Tokuyashi's Pizza.
It also turned out to be one of those restaurants that allowed their Chefs to be rude as hell to diners. When the seven of them walked in, one of the first things the hostess said was, "Just so you know, this establishment encourages it's Chefs to be verbally abusive to patrons. If he yells at you, or calls you something insulting, or makes fun of you, don't take it seriously."
At the moment, the seven of them were seated around the griddle, waiting with other patrons for their Chef to arrive.
"I can't believe that little bitch actually tried to get you arrested!" Yuka's mother ranted.
Lucy took a swallow of her iced tea and set the glass back down. "I'm over it. Her friends were only going along with it because they didn't want to be evicted."
"Oh, that reminds me!" Yuka spoke up. "Meyumi called me earlier to say thank you again for letting them stay over last night."
"How are they doing?" Kouta asked.
"Well, Mega-Bitch made good on her threats. When they left Kaeda House, they went to their apartment to pack, but the locks had already been changed, and all their belongings had been dumped outside by the sidewalk."
"And it rained all morning... lovely." Yuka father sighed.
"I feel bad for them..." Mayu admitted. "They got dragged into all of this for no other reason than their friend being so jealous of Nyu."
"I don't blame her. Lucy looked incredible dressed up, but she just looked like a skank." Nana added.
Yuka nodded in agreement. "Even the people on stage were talking about her."
"The skank?" Mayu asked.
"Not her, Kaeda." Yuka replied.
"What did they say?" Yuka's mother asked.
"'Could we please not talk about this?" Lucy asked with an embarrassed blush.
Her makeshift family, as well as Yuka's parents broke out into teasing laughter. This was yet another trait of Lucy's that made them so admire and love the pink-haired girl: Humility. She knew people considered her extremely beautiful, but she never tried to flaunt it, or use her looks as a way of getting something she wanted.
Unless what she wanted was sex with Kouta, in which case yes, she absolutely did.
Kouta reached over and gently squeezed her hand. "We're not trying to embarrass or make fun of you. I hope you know that."
"I do." she smiled, squeezing his hand back.
As much as she loved her daughter, and despite the fact she'd never say it outloud, watching the two of them had convinced Yuka's mother of what even Yuka herself had been forced to admit: Kouta and Lucy were meant for each other, and there was simply no getting around it.
As their server was checking on them, the Chef finally arrived with a cart full of ingredients. It was then they learned that, instead of taking individual orders as usual, this restaurant would instead load carts with a huge selection of ingredients, have Chefs list them outloud, and let patrons decide which ones they wanted.
Unable to resist, Nana asked what happened if someone didn't like any of the ingredients on the cart.
"You go hungry."
The room erupted in laughter, and Kouta watched his girlfriend smile and laugh like it was the most natural thing in the world to her. It was a sight so beautiful, he didn't even realize he was staring until Yuka elbowed him right in the stomach.
"Quit gawking at her, Kouta! It's rude!" Yuka scolded, eliciting even more laughter from everyone.
Until that moment, Lucy didn't even know he was staring at her. It was flattering to know that her boyfriend couldn't keep his eyes off of her, and both of them blushed when they looked at each other. It certainly didn't help when one of the other patrons told them how cute they looked as a couple.
Thankfully, the Chef started listing the ingredients he had, and this diverted their attention from Kouta and Lucy, to him. Every now and then, Nana would catch the two of them smiling at each other, which in turn made her smile. The love those two shared had to be seen to be believed.
And even then, it was still hard not to be skeptical.
"Egg? Who want egg? You? Ok... anyone else? Who want chicken? You, you, you, and you? Ok... Beef? One, two, three... you too? Ok... You're all get rice, ok?"
"Umm... I didn't really want rice, I wanted noodles." one of the men spoke up.
"You get rice."
"Why can't I have noodles?"
"Because I say so, that why."
"But-"
"SHUT UP! YOU GET RICE!"
The entire table erupted with laughter as the man hastily back-peddled. "Ok! I'll take rice!"
The chef nodded in approval and continued.
"Carrot? Ok... Pork? You want pork? Ok... Ginger? You, you, and you? Oh, you too? Ok... Who want fish? Two... three... four... fiv- Hey, where you going?" he asked Nana as she stood up.
"To the bathroom."
"No. You sit down."
"It'll only take a minute!"
"Sit down! You go when I finish."
"But I really have to pee!"
"NO!" the Chef yelled at her. "You sit down and hold it like big girl!"
When everyone started laughing again, Nana sheepishly sat back down.
The Chef grunted and gave her a nod. "You pee on chair, I stab you!"
Nana wasn't really sure if he was serious or not, but just in case, she decided not to risk it. He read the rest of the list off, and after almost thirty agonizing minutes, he finally looked at her and gestured to the door.
"Go pee. You hurry back."
Everyone began laughing again as Nana practically ran for the bathroom. When she returned, the Chef asked her if she washed her hands. When she said yes, he made her hold them out so he could smell them.
"No. Do again."
"Do what again?"
"Wash hands."
"But I just washe-"
"STOP ARGUE AND DO AGAIN!"
The Sipelit, now convinced the man was bat-shit crazy, quickly obeyed. This time, he smelled them and nodded to the flustered purple-haired girl.
"Ok, you sit down and eat."
The Chef put all of the ingredients on the griddle and began cooking. As they waited, Kouta felt Lucy's hand on his, and smiled at his fiancé.
"I love you." she quietly said.
When he replied in kind, the lovers leaned in and kissed. Their lips had barely touched when they heard the Chef yelling. The next thing they knew, he was soaking them with water from a plastic squirt bottle. The room roared with laughter as Kouta and Lucy looked at each other in shock.
"What you think this is, Rabu Hoteru?! You EAT, not have sexy time! Sexy time come later!" he yelled as the couple used napkins to wipe off their faces. Kouta was at first worried how she was going to react, so it came as an immense relief when she blushed and laughed with everyone else.
The Chef looked at them with a slight, short-lived grin before he turned his attention back to cooking. Before he was done, every single diner at their table had fallen victim to one of the Chef's explosive, yet hilarious outbursts.
Thirty minutes later
After the cooking was finished, their Chef diligently scraped and cleaned the griddle as they ate. When he was done, he bowed, thanked them for being "good sports", and left the room.
"I'm sorry, honey, but that was hilarious!" Yuka's mother told Lucy. This, of course, triggered a laughing fit from everyone, which then in turn, triggered an embarrassed blush from Lucy and Kouta both.
"For what it's worth, I thought the way you two handled it was pretty impressive!" one of the men admitted.
"Thank you." Lucy smiled.
Her smile brightened when she felt Kouta slip an arm around her waist, and she immediately moved a little closer and happily leaned against him.
"Is this somewhere you'd like to visit again?" Yuka's father asked everyone. They all said yes, if for no other reason than to watch the Chef troll the ever-loving shit out of the other diners.
Now that they'd eaten there themselves, the seven of them understood why the restaurant was so ridiculously popular.
On the way home, Lucy fell asleep leaning against Kouta. Nana smiled as she watched Kouta gently stroke the sleeping girl's face and run his hand through her long, pink hair. There was a time when even touching her would awaken the older Diclonius. The "old Lucy" would never even get in an SUV with anyone except Kouta, much less relax enough to actually fall asleep!
It was a testament to how far the pink-haired girl had come since her return to Kaeda House.
As the car in front of them started through the intersection, a speeding delivery truck ran the red light and T-boned it so violently, it caused a roll-over. Had Yuka's father gone another one or two meters, the speeding truck would have hit them too.
Jarred awake by the accident, Lucy opened her eyes in time to see the car violently roll over, nearly hitting one of the cars coming from the opposite direction. It rolled twice, eventually coming to rest upside down.
"Shit! That was close!" Kouta said in amazement. Even from inside the vehicle, on the far side on the intersection, they could hear somebody screaming for help. Without hesitation, Nana opened the door and ran through the intersection towards the overturned car.
"Nana! Where're you..." Yuka asked, but the Sipelit was already gone.
Unsurprisingly, Mayu was right behind her.
When Nana made it to the wrecked vehicle, she was horrified to say the least. The driver, a middle-aged man, was covered in blood, but still alive. Two children lay in the backseat, one of which was awake, but injured. The other one was unconscious, but breathing.
"My wife..."
Realizing he was the one who was screaming for help, Nana got on her hands and knees and crawled partway inside the car.
"My wife... help my wife."
"Umm..." Nana looked around, wondering if the man was in shock. "I'm sorry, but I don't see your wi-"
Interrupted by a woman's moans, Nana crawled back out and ran to the passenger side just as Mayu reached the car. The man's wife had been ejected, and was pinned underneath the car. How the woman was still alive, she didn't know, but she wouldn't be much longer unless she got her out of there fast.
While Mayu hurriedly called 119, Nana was desperately (but futilely) attempting to raise the car with her vectors.
Back in the SUV, Yuka's parents looked at each other in confusion.
"What in the world is she doing?" her father asked.
"I think she's trying to lift the car with her vectors..."
"Oh, God... What if someone's stuck under there?!" Yuka asked fearfully.
The moment she heard Nana screaming her name, Lucy jumped out of the SUV and ran over to help her, with Kouta following her a few seconds later.
"Lucy, help me! I can't lift it by myself!"
"I'll pull her out!" Kouta volunteered.
Lucy gripped the car with her vectors, and together the two Diclonii were able to pick the ruined vehicle up enough for Kouta to carefully pull the injured woman out from under it. She was alive, but for how long was anyone's guess.
By now, a woman who identified herself as a nurse had come to help them pull the rest of the family out of the overturned car. By the time all three of them were out, both Diclonii, Kouta, and the nurse were all left with minor cuts and scratches, and sirens could be heard approaching.
Thirty minutes later
Sitting side-by-side in the back of an ambulance, Kouta and Lucy held hands as EMT's treated their injuries. The nurse, ironically, worked at the same hospital the family was being rushed to, and had gone with one of the ambulances. Nana's injuries were mostly to her prosthetics, so she didn't really need much in the way of treatment.
Mayu herself wasn't cut or scratched at all, but like Nana, was sitting nearby as Kouta and Lucy were being patched up.
A few police officers had come over and were taking statements from the four of them.
"We heard from the hospital a few minutes ago. Unfortunately, one of their children didn't make it through surgery, and both of the wife's legs have to be amputated above the knee, but at least she'll survive." an EMT told them.
"Another five minutes and they'd have lost her, too. You guys are heroes." one of the cops said with a smile. Once the police were finished, Kouta squeezed Lucy's hand gently, looking her in the eyes as he told her how proud of her he was. Before she could get even one single word out, Kouta cupped her face and kissed her deeply on the lips.
Mayu and Nana both smiled as Lucy wrapped her arms around him and happily kissed him back. The EMTs, a bit amused and more than a bit touched by the couple's obvious love for each other, stood there and patiently waited a few seconds before finally interrupting so they could resume treatment.
As they were finishing up , Yuka and her parents knocked on the ambulance's rear door. They had tried to come over to them earlier, but were stopped by police. With the family on their way to the hospital, they finally relented and let them through.
"Are they alright?" Yuka asked.
"They got cut up from the broken glass, but they'll be fine." one of the EMTs replied.
"I gotta tell you, it was nothing short of a miracle these two were here when it happened. If they were humans instead of Diclonii, that lady would have been dead long before we got that car off of her."
"Hey, what about the other driver?" Yuka asked.
"That ass-clown doesn't have a scratch on him." one of the EMT's said. "His blood-alcohol was more than double the legal limit, and this was his third DUI. He'd be in deep shit even if all he hit was a tree, so you can imagine how bad it's going to be now that he killed someone."
"Foolish humans just never learn." Lucy muttered quietly.
"Excuse me!"
Everyone looked over to see a woman who was apparently being followed by a man holding a camera.
"Can we get a statement from one of you about the incident?"
"How the hell did she get through?" one EMT asked the other.
"What can you tell us about the victims? Are there any fatalities?" the woman asked.
One of the EMTs waved over one of the police officers. Judging from the look on his face, it probably wasn't the first time she'd done this.
"Why are you bothering these people? They've been through enough, they don't need you harassing them."
"Why is that girl all cut up? Was she involved?" the woman asked.
"None of your damn business, that's why!" Yuka's mother answered. Lucy could not help but smile at the woman's answer. Though she was at first hesitant about her daughter living with the two Diclonii, time and experience had changed her mind. Like Yuka, she and her husband had grown to hold them both in extremely high regard.
"I'm an investigative journalist, thank you very much! If she's involved, people have a right to know!"
"She's cut up because her, this man, and those two girls there pulled that family out after a drunk driver blew a red light and crashed into them." the EMT told her. The cop nodded his head in confirmation, "There's your statement, now get the hell out of here."
When the "journalist" started accusing Lucy of being responsible for causing the accident and the police officer of trying to blame an innocent man ("You don't want us here because you're sleeping with that girl and you don't want your lover to go to jail!") the cop called backup and forcibly drug the woman out of the accident scene.
"What a bitch..." Yuka commented.
"She works for a tabloid called the "People's Paparazzi". It's basically just a bunch of gossip and conspiracy theories. It's far from reputable, to say the least."
It only took a couple more minutes for the EMT's to finish with Kouta and Lucy. Soon, they were all back in the older couple's SUV, headed back to Kamakura.
Kaeda House - One hour later
After everyone retired to their separate rooms, Kouta received a text from Lucy that simply asked, "Is it sexy time yet?"
Yes... it certainly was. Five minutes later, he slipped into his girlfriend's bedroom. Soon, the horny couple were finding out what sex while spooning felt like. It was nice, sure... but it wasn't a position they'd be using frequently. If she was being taken from behind, old-fashioned doggystyle was much more pleasurable and far less complicated.
It did have at least ONE redeeming feature: Subtlety. As long as they were very discrete and covered by a blanket, the other residents would be none the wiser.
Unless somebody got suspicious and yanked the blanket off, that is.
After "sexy time" was over, and the lovers were cuddling nude in Lucy's futon, the pink-haired girl's thoughts turned to the night Aiko was shot while trying to protect her.
To this day, she still didn't know how the hell that man actually managed to sneak up on her, or why she couldn't block the shot despite having successfully stopped dozens of bullets only a few moments earlier.
All she knew was she had failed, and now an innocent girl was dying because of it.
"What good is having these powers if I can't even save the life of a single person?"
At the time, she whole-heartedly believed that all her vectors were good for was taking lives. Now, for the second time, she had used them to save lives instead.
And strangely, she got far more enjoyment out of that than she ever did taking them.
"I CAN save lives with these powers..." she whispered.
"Did you say somethin'?" a half-asleep Kouta yawned.
Lucy just shook her head, smiling as she fell asleep in his embrace.