| Fan Fiction |
by shattered teardrops
“Wait… It’s a little dark…” Miharu stood by the edge of the hole created by Ryou. She was holding Ryou’s celphone and was trying to take a picture; trying being the keyword. The whole place was dark with the exception of a nearby lamp post, but that wasn’t enough to provide enough light, and even if there was a flash on Ryou’s phone, it wasn’t enough to fully-illuminate Ryou, who was already lying down.
“Oi… Be careful…” Ryou casually reminded.
“Hmm… I’ll just adjust the camera a bit… Wai- Ahhhhhhh!!” Miharu’s left foot suddenly slipped down the edge, causing Miharu to slide down the hole and straight towards Ryou, who was already lying down. And as if things weren’t a bit complicated already, Miharu fell ON Ryou, her face buried on his chest and her knee… inconveniently landed on where the sun doesn’t shine.
“Ow!” Ryou groaned, more of the fact that Miharu unconsciously hit a very sensitive spot with her knee, rather than because she fell on top of him. It took a bit more than a minute for him to recover from the sudden jolt of pain that hit him in the groin. He didn’t want his family jewels to rendered useless at such an early age in his life. Thanks to Miharu, he might just not be able to bear off-springs. Not that he was planning to make one soon.
“Ah! Gomen nasai!” Miharu quickly pushed herself up but as soon as used her left arm for support, pain immediately shot through her shoulder. Her face inwardly cringed but she still pushed herself up. The pain was too much although she was gritting her teeth to keep everything hidden.
Struggling, Ryou sighed and soon noticed that Miharu was holding her shoulder in place. Without any warning, he took her by his other shoulder and pulled her to stand up. He didn’t waste any time and immediately took out his celphone to call Reiko, who, at the moment, was busy completing her own set of challenges.
“Hello?”
“Cancel the challenges.” Ryou ordered.
“Nani? Why?” Reiko wondered.
“Just… because. Contact the others and cancel it.” Without much thought, he clicked his phone off and looked at Miharu, who was still silently battling with the pain on her shoulder. “I shouldn’t have dragged you into something like this… What was I thinking?” Ryou loudly asked himself as he took Miharu by the waist and lifted her up from the hole where they fell.
“What do you mean?” Miharu asked.
“Nothing. The challenges are cancelled so we don’t have to do this.” He shrugged and pulled himself up from the hole. Upon standing up, Ryou brushed himself off of dust and went towards where his big bike was parked. “I’m taking you home.” He announced.
“What?! Why?!” Miharu reacted quite violently as predicted. “Hey! My first challenge took a lot of effort on my part! You can’t just cancel it now!” She complained.
Ryou looked at her straight into the eye and sighed. After which, his line of sight immediately darted towards her injured shoulder. “I shouldn’t have started this. We can always do this some other time. Just not right now…” He explained with a steady voice. “You’re bleeding.” He stated.
There was a blotch of red on Miharu’s white dress, specifically on her injured shoulder. It didn’t take a trained doctor to say that her wound was bleeding. It must have been caused by the pressure when Miharu used her left arm when she fell down the hole. Miharu immediately covered up her left shoulder with a hand.
Miharu inwardly groaned upon the knowledge of her bloodied shoulder. “Shin will kill me for this…” She muttered and shifted her eyes back at Ryou. “I can still go on with the challenges…” She declared stubbornly.
“I will not have that. Like I said, we can always have this some other time.” He looked intently into her eyes, letting her know that he wasn’t too keen on letting her finish the challenges. He was in command and he didn’t hesitate to let her feel his authority. “You can beat me at any other time… just not now…” His voice softened as he spoke again.
Ryou turned his back in Miharu and got on his bike, but before he could do so, Miharu just had to shout at him in an irritated tone. “Stop treating me like a baby!”
With a tired sigh, Ryou looked back at her. “Then stop acting like one!” He met her ferocity with a rage of his own. He knew that she was getting irritated with him, but he couldn’t help with that. His utmost priority is her well-being and health first. Even if it got him to her bad side again. He wasn’t going to let her bleed just for this stupid challenge!
“So what if I have a bleeding shoulder?! I can still beat you head on!” Miharu gingerly insisted.
Ryou was getting irritated with Miharu as well. She was being a little too hard to handle, especially if she had her eyes set on something. And at that very moment, she wanted to beat him at the challenges. She was mightily pissed off because he suddenly called everything off. But he wasn’t too keen on letting her have her way with him. She was bleeding and clearly, she was hurting. He just wouldn’t allow this foolish game to endanger her.
Without another word, Ryou placed a hand on Miharu’s injured shoulder blade. “You say you can still proceed with the challenges at this state?” Ryou asked with a mocking tone.
Slowly, he tightened his grip on her shoulder and watched her try to control her facial expression in order not to wince in pain. He knew he was hurting her. He knew that if the challenges went on, she would probably be rushed to the hospital for blood loss. It was better to demonstrate what could possibly happen to her; arguing against her would take all night. He abruptly let go of her shoulder as he saw that her face was beginning to contort in pain.
“See what I mean?” He casually shrugged it off and got on his big bike.
“I hate you, you know that?” Miharu declared but this time, there was no hint of acerbity or hate on her voice. Whatever was discussed between her and Ryou that night certainly did clear up a lot of things. She was able to somehow understand just what kind of hell he has gone through. And for all it’s worth, Ryou may have put himself back on her good graces… for now.
“I perfectly know that… Now, let’s get you to the hospital…” Ryou lifted Miharu’s helmet and offered it to her, seemingly unaffected by the crimson-eyed Princess’ public declaration of abhorrence towards him.
Miharu hesitated to take the helmet and stared at Ryou’s eyes. “Not the hospital. I’ve been there for days… And my Father would probably come flying if he knew that I was in the hospital again.” She explained with a hint of pleading in her voice. “I don’t want to be a burden to him. He’s got a freaking whole country to take care of…” She shrugged.
Ryou sighed. “Fine. I’ll take you home.” She could be a stubborn little brat at a lot of times but Ryou knew that she also cared for the people around her. She cared for them much more than she would openly admit herself.
“Not home either.” Miharu replied, looking a bit tense. She remembered that Shin could come barging into her room at any time he wished. He would probably reprimand her about her wounded shoulder. He was only a bodyguard but as far as Miharu was concerned, Shin has got her Father listening to his demands. If he knew what Miharu had gotten herself into, he wouldn’t hesitate to report it to her Father, and that would eventually mean the end of her freedom.
“Why not?” Ryou asked, a bit amused why Miharu didn’t want to come home yet.
“My house has… um… hidden cameras. If they see my shoulder all bloodied, my Dad would eventually find out about it.” It was partly true… That her house was all bugged up, thanks to Shin. Either way, going to the hospital or going home would only alert her Father. And she just didn’t want that.
“Then where?” Ryou asked again.
“Anywhere…” She replied with an intent expression on her face.
-oOo-
“HA? WHY? Oh, why would you cancel the challenges?!” A heavily dressed up Taiki began talking animatedly on his phone inside a cosplay café filled with… female cosplayers. YES, female cosplayers dressed as cat girls, who were all serving a bunch of sex-crazed dirty old men who, apparently, were either pedophilic or just plainly weird.
Taiki’s first challenge was to dress up like a female and serve as a hostess in a cosplay café where waitresses and hostesses wear cosplay costumes to the liking of their customer. Apparently, the theme for the night was cat girls. He was forced to dress himself up in a skimpy cat girl costume, put on a long blonde wig and paint his face with make-up. What was harder than this, was the fact that he had to act all flirty and cute in front of a sixty-ish old man who immediately adored him upon first sight, not knowing that underneath the cat girl costume was every inch a male.
Taiki had just accomplished his first challenge; it was to successfully lure a customer to spend ten thousand yen on him alone for the night as his hostess. It took every drop of Taiki’s cuteness and persuasion to get the men to spend much money, not to mention that, Taiki was trying his best not to puke while doing his challenge. Seriously, being in a room with a drooling dirty old man trying to get his hands on you was every bit of a challenge.
“Shin-kun~~~!” Taiki pouted as he rushed out of the cosplay café, not even bothering to change his costume first. Shin was caught shell-shocked and surprised upon the sight of a strange cat girl, who sounded very much alike Taiki. He wasn’t able to recognize Taiki at first. It was the childish pout and the petty tantrum-throwing that eventually gave him away.
“T-Taiki?” Shin asked, sounding unsure.
“Did you receive Reiko-chan’s message too?” Taiki asked with an obviously upset expression on his face. “She said the challenges are cancelled!” He wailed while throwing a fit. “I just completed my first challenge! Did you know I had to sit and chat with a dirty old man while trying to dodge his perverse tricks in an attempt to deflower my pristine and pure body?!” He asked with an exaggerated horror written all over his face.
“What?”
“Oh, the horror, Shin-kun! The horror! Now I understand how it is to be touched by a pedophile~! Oh, how horrible!” Nakashima Taiki apparently, was so busy wailing how awful his challenge was. He didn’t even hear Shin’s question.
Shin sighed. Relying on Taiki for some sort of information will only get you side-tracked, he decided. Instead, he took out his phone and checked for messages. There were two messages on his phone; the first one was from Kazama Reiko, informing him of the cancellation of the challenges because of unforeseen circumstances. The second message was what made him a bit more agitated than he already was. The second message was from Miharu.
I wont b comng home 2nite.
Sumthing came up.
I’m safe. Trust me.
See u at school tomorrow.
Sender:
Miharu
“Damn it…” Shin cursed. It was bad enough that he had to be stuck with Taiki; worse, Miharu had to be on her own for the night. Who knows what happened to her and where the hell could she be in the middle of the night? Where the hell was she going to spend the whole night, anyway? Shin trusted her, but she was reckless hot-headed. Something might come up and he wouldn’t be there to do anything about it. He trusted her… but he couldn’t help but worry.
Without any second thoughts, he dialed Miharu’s number on his phone and called. He should at least know where she was going to spend the night and with whom. That was one of the more important details he had to know in order to judge for himself whether she was really safe or not. For the past months that he had been with Miharu, he had been certain only of one thing: the girl was a walking disaster. She would butt in at things that didn’t concern her. And that only brought her trouble. Which, for him, also meant trouble.
“Come on… Pick up…” Shin chanted like a mantra.
“Hello?” Finally! Miharu’s voice rung on the other line.
Somehow, Shin heaved out a sigh of relief. She sounded okay somehow and that in itself, assured him even for a bit that she wasn’t in some any sort of trouble. “I-It’s me…” Shin didn’t quite know what to say. He called her to check if she was fine. He didn’t think of what to say to her.
“I know…” Miharu replied. “You received my message?” She asked.
“Yeah, I did… The challenges were cancelled according to Kazama-san…”
“I know… So, um… I’m not going tonight.” Her voice sounded a bit tense.
“Why? Where are you? Who are you with? Where are you spending the night?” Somehow, all the buried questions inside his head; the ones that he wanted to ask her, all came forth one by one without any pause. He didn’t want to sound like a worried Father but in the end, Shin knew he just sounded like one. And to top it all off, he just ranted on the phone with a bunch of nagging questions. Other than sounding like a Father, he seemed much more like a jealous boyfriend if Miharu saw him at that very instant.
“Whoah… Slow down with the questions…” Miharu replied, trying to steady her voice.
She was currently seated on Ryou’s bed when Shin’s call came. Ryou had momentarily gone out to get the first aid kit in order to treat Miharu’s wound. She was quite a bit hesitant to tell Shin that she was spending the night at Ryou. She didn’t exactly know why she was hesitating to tell the man her exact whereabouts. He had the right to know, of course. He was her bodyguard. But somehow Miharu felt that Shin might not like it if he knew where she was.
“Why aren’t you coming home tonight?” Shin calmly steadied his voice.
“I’m going to stay at a friend’s house… We, uh… Have some things to sort out.” She lied.
“Which friend?” Shin asked next.
“Just a friend…” She tried to reason out, hoping that Shin wouldn’t ask anymore. Apparently, Shin was far more persistent than she wanted him to be.
“You know, you still have your earring and your celphone has a tracking device. Even if you don’t tell me where you are right now, I can always trace it and check the records to know who exactly, is this friend of yours whom you’re spending the night with.” Shin threatened, his expression gone awry and persistent. There must be some logical reason why Miharu wasn’t coming home that night. Something must have happened and Shin wanted to know what exactly it was.
“I-I’m…” Miharu closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Fine. I’m at Ryou’s house… Happy?”
“Ecstatic.” Shin replied but his expression hinted otherwise.
How could he be ecstatic when Miharu was inside the house of the person she deeply abhorred? Miharu surely wouldn’t go there willingly. She wouldn’t, would she? She hated the man and she has been more than willing to show just how much she hated Ryou on several occasions. So why was she going to spend the night at his house? Questions kept circling around Shin’s head… but the answers were far from his grasp.
“What exactly happened?” Shin asked again.
He heard Miharu sigh on the other side of the phone. “Like I said… We have lots of things to discuss… I can’t tell you everything, but trust me, I’m going to be okay. I can handle this by myself… I’ll see you at school tomorrow.”
“You, I trust. Him, I’m not so sure… Contact me if anything untoward happens, alright?” Surprisingly, Shin’s voice sounded calm and composed although his expression was deeply rigid. Oh, he didn’t like it one bit that Miharu was going to spend the night at her ex-boyfriend’s house. She was a female and Ryou was a male. They’re together for one whole night. Who knows what they could be doing?
The logical side of Shin told him that Miharu was a woman unlike any other. Ryou couldn’t probably even lay a finger on her and he would probably have his family jewels off in no time. But his irrational side was raging chaos inside his chest. For some reason, unexplainable anger was beginning to boil inside him. And somehow, Shin just had to release whatever anger that was bugging him at that very moment.
“Shin-kun…? What’s wrong?” Taiki eyed Shin.
“Since the challenges are cancelled, I’m going. You can take care of yourself from here on, right?” Shin asked.
“B-But…! I mean… It’s already dark… and… and I don’t know if…” Taiki seemed scared as soon as Shin hinted that he was going to leave him.
“Nakashima-kun, you’re a grown man now. Can you please grant me a favor? Grow up.” Shin nonchalantly declared and got on the motorcycle he got from his previous race. Without another word, he sped off, leaving Taiki, who was still dressed as a cat girl.
“Meanie!!!” Taiki guffawed as Shin was leaving.
Shin made a few phone calls as soon as his head had calmed down. Although, he must admit, there was still that unexplainable queasy feeling in the pit of his stomach that he simply cannot put down. He called Kazama Reiko first to confirm the cancellation of the challenges. And next, he informed Lt. Nakamura that Miharu wasn’t going to be home that night. He didn’t need to explain to her that they weren’t together. Lt. Nakamura had been monitoring their locations ever since the night began. He also asked her to send someone to bring Falcon back as she was the only one with Falcon’s duplicate keys.
After making the necessary calls, Shin decided against going home that night. For one, sleep was out of his options. The mere fact that Miharu wasn’t safely tucked in bed in a house under his protection made him all uneasy. Sleep would definitely not come. It was better to spend his time on more productive things. With these thoughts in mind, Shin readily drove towards the main mansion of his supposed-to-be Grandfather, the current clan leader of the Crimson Gang, Saitou Ryuuchiro.
As soon as he passed through the vast gate of the Saitou mansion, several guards showed their respect by bowing low as he passed. It’s been a few weeks since he was introduced as the heir of the Crimson Gang. His new position was obviously met with doubt and disagreements among the members of the clan. Saitou Hideki, Kenta’s Uncle and formerly declared as heir, was particularly against him. Shin knew that his sudden appearance hindered the man’s ascendance into power, but that was the least of his concerns.
It didn’t take anything much more than a certified blood and DNA test to prove that Shin was the heir. Of course, these documents were under Shin’s name, although the person who was tested was actually Miharu. It was quite a helpful twist of fate that Miharu was hospitalized, hence, testing her without her prior knowledge didn’t pose as a problem at all. Once the doubts had been settled by the partly falsified documents, Shin was welcomed like a king within the clan.
Shin quietly made his way towards the training room, a room filled of different kinds of weapons, punching bags, trainers and other equipment for battle. It was his favorite room within the Saitou mansion because it was quiet, it looked traditional and somehow, it gave him a sense of calmness whenever he meditated in there. However, for that night, Shin discovered that the room wasn’t solely occupied by him, as he found the his supposed-to-be Grandfather seated at the center of the room while meditating. There was a tray of kettle and tea which remained untouched beside him, indicating that he might be waiting for someone to come.
“Gomen nasai… I thought no one was here, Ojii-sama.” Shin bowed apologetically, keeping in mind that although Saitou Ryuuchiro looked like an old man, he was actually the clan head of a vast yakuza clan.
“Come in… Join me for some tea…” Saitou Ryuuchiro’s voice remained calm and rather passive as he invited Shin for tea.
“Uh, hai…” Shin obligingly agreed, placing himself across the elderly clan head. He carefully picked up the tray of kettle beside the elderly clan head and placed it between them. After which, he poured some tea into Saitou Ryuuichiro’s cup, and consequently, into his own.
“You’re wearing those colorful eyes again…”
“Ah… Contact lenses, Ojii-sama.” Shin lied. Truth was, he just forgot to put on a set of ash brown lenses to cover his real eye color. “I’ve been used to wearing them…” He added.
“I noticed… Somehow, it makes me wonder if you’re really trying to hide the true color of your eyes.”
“That…” Shin sighed. “That maybe part of the reason as well, Ojii-sama…” He remembered Miharu upon the mention of hiding eye colors. She had been keeping her real eye color underneath her creepy crimson-colored lenses.
“Oh? Can you tell why then?”
“The eyes… They hold so much emotion in them. It’s easier to cover them up than just simply let other people see them. Emotions can be used against you, and for me, only a selected few should be allowed to see my eyes underneath the lenses.” Shin remembered the first time Miharu showed her real eye color to him. It was a brief interaction between them. She simply looked up to him with her ash brown eyes. And in those very brief seconds, Shin found himself lost within her orbs.
“I agree…” Ryuiichiro took a sip of his tea and looked contemplatingly into the distance, as if reminiscing age old memories. “Your mother had very beautiful eyes... She took her eye color from her mother, my late wife, Michiko. I’m so glad your eyes also took after your mother… Somehow, I feel as if a piece of your mother and my late wife has remained with me…”
“Ano… Ojii-sama, if you don’t mind, what was my mother like?” Shin asked.
“Oh, she was pretty stubborn.” The elderly man’s tone easily shifted into a jolly one as he talked about his only daughter. “Kaoru was every inch a tomboy when she was just a kid. She practically grew up with a mansion full of men! She was strong and independent… Perhaps, too independent that she rebelled against me.” It was then that the elderly man’s lips turned into a thin line. “I regret that I lost my only daughter without telling her just how much she meant to me…”
“Who killed her?” Shin could not help but ask. Kenta was able to tell her the general flow of the story where Kaoru rebelled because of an arranged marriage against her will, but more than that, he was curious about what really happened during that time.
“We have too many enemies to know for certain just which one murdered her…” Saitou Ryuuichiro explained. “But all of them have been wiped out…” He added without a change in tone or even a hint of remorse in his voice. It was creepy how he was able to declare such a sentence so casually.
“Wiped out?” Shin repeated.
“It was difficult time… As a long-existing clan, we had other groups who dared to challenge us. I guess, upon the news of my daughter’s death, I allowed my men to go on a rampage. I didn’t know who exactly killed her so I thought, why not kill them all?” There was a small smile playing along the elder man’s lips. “I wasn’t thinking straight at that time…” He mused as he stared straight at Shin. “You don’t seem surprised hearing this…”
“It’s part of who we are…” Shin replied, letting his eyes penetrate into the elderly man in front of him.
“True. So tell me, Shin… Have you ever killed a person?”
Shin gulped. The truth? Yes. But the man who had killed a General back in the US was a soldier named Hara Shinichi. Not Fujiwara Shin. “Iie… But I assume I’ll have to kill sooner or later, am I right?” He asked, his voice no more than a brief whisper.
“Shall we start now then?” Saitou Ryuuichiro slowly rose up.
“Start? Start what, Ojii-sama?”
“The killing. YOUR killing.”
-oOo-
When Miharu opted not to go home, she didn’t expect that Ryou would actually bring her to his home instead. To add up to everything unexpected for that night, Ryou told me Miharu to sneak inside his room. Even Ryou had to sneak inside his own house! Since Miharu was in no position to complain, she simply obliged. As she sat by Ryou’s bed, she realized that after everything that happened two years ago, this was going to be the first time that they’ll be spending a whole night together. She didn’t quite like the thoughts that this fact was bringing into her head…
Suddenly, a shirt came landing on Miharu’s face. “Go change.” Ryou said… more like ordered.
With the help of Ryou, she had just replaced the bandage on her injured shoulder. She previously insisted that she could take care of her wound by herself, seeing that Ryou would have to see a considerable amount of her skin if he were to bandage her up. Apparently, one hand wasn’t enough to bandage her shoulder well. In the end, her protests fell into deaf ears as Ryou obliged himself to secure her injured shoulder with bandages.
“I’m going to be fine in this dress.” Miharu stated. “It’s not like I’m planning to sleep anyway. I’ll just… stay here until morning and then, I’ll be going.” She added.
Ryou sighed. “Here we go again.” He muttered under his breath. “You look like sh!t in that dress. It’s even bloodied, not to mention the fact that it’s dirty with soil from the cemetery. In this situation, it’s only common sense to take a shower or to change into clean clothes. Now, since you can’t shower because you can’t get your shoulder wet, the least you can do is change into a clean set of clothes.” He explained as if he was talking to a girl with a mental-capacity of a five year old.
“I said I’m going to be okay…” Miharu insisted as she fiercely met his eyes.
“You’re in my house, in my room. My territory, my rules. You have to choices. One, you willingly change into those.” He said, pointing to the fresh set of clothes. “Or two, I personally take off that dress and make you change into those. What do you say?” Ryou grinned while crossing his arms across his chest. “I’m more than willing to administer option number two if you won’t change. You don’t even stand a chance even if you struggle because you’re injured.”
“I hate you.” Miharu cursed and with heavy footsteps, she made her way towards the bathroom to change.
“Love you, too…” Ryou replied with a smile.
To Be Continued…
Date Written: April 21, 2010