Where I Belong (part 4 of 4)

PARADISE

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Treading alone under the starry heavens, upon a street lit by lamp poles that must have survived from the Second World War, Misono Madoka wondered for the thousandth time whether it was a good decision to leave Saitama on an express train and return to Tokyo. True, the business meeting between Hakusensha, represented by Madoka and her elderly supervisor, and another firm had concluded two hours ago, which meant that she could go wherever she wanted. But... her supervisor had insisted that she stay and take advantage of all the service that the first class hotel they were staying in had to offer, all expenses paid by the gray-haired lady herself. Yet, despite her supervisor’s gracious offer, despite the fact that it was by no means safe to travel alone at night, she had hopped on the earliest express train bound for home.

‘Mariko.’ Her daughter’s name floated across her mind. The child was the reason Madoka risked the displeasure of her supervisor, something she had tried her very best to avoid during the last ten years. Still, it wasn’t as if she had a choice. Mariko was all that she had left in this world, the only treasure that her beloved husband left with her when he was killed in that nasty car accident. Madoka simply didn’t have the heart to leave the child home all by herself two nights in a row. What if she fell? What if someone broke into the house before she could call for help? What if...? Madoka forced herself to stop thinking about what could happen to Mariko when she was away. The more she did, the more anxious she would be, and the more stress would be placed on her already fragile heart. It would be a great irony if she suffered from a heart attack and died here on the street even when her daughter was safe and sound.

Yet... even though she had commanded herself to be calm numerous times during the walk home and assured herself equal amount of times that the Gods wouldn’t be giving her, someone already swimming in an ocean of hardship, more problems to deal with, Madoka found her eyes fixed at something lying just a little bit beyond her doorstep. There was no light in the house except that of the silver moon reigning on high... yet she was dead sure she was looking at a pair of white sneakers belonging to a person she had come to dislike very much despite their short period of acquaintance. Those were Shouji An’s, there was no doubt about it. Her heart stopped, her blood ran cold, and her hands clenched into fists. What the hell was the damn girl doing in Madoka’s house in the middle of the night? And where was she? Why was she not in the living room, the only place in which she was permitted to stay whenever she made one of her annoying visits?

Suddenly feeling suffocated, she walked toward her daughter’s room, the door to which, she noticed immediately, was left ajar. From the small opening, a very dim light was spilling out into the hallway. It was barely brighter than the light of the crescent moon outside… but it was more than enough to let Madoka see that her daughter wasn’t alone on the bed. The child, most of her body except her head covered by a thick blanket, was snoozing soundly next to Shouji An, who also seemed to be immersed in a deep slumber. When Madoka’s eyes fell on the floor near the bed, she saw a small pile of clothing articles the content of which suggested to Madoka that the two persons on the bed were wearing nothing but their skin.

As if struck by a steel hammer, Madoka staggered backward and had to put a hand on the wall to steady herself. Slowly, with her mind devoid of thoughts, she dragged her body, which currently seemed to weigh at least a mountain, to the living room and sat down heavily on the old couch. There, she pulled out her medication box from her bag and hurriedly swallowed a few tablets. Then she buried her face in her hands and feel her whole self shaking in a hurricane formed by feelings of anger, disappointment, and regret.

She was angry at herself for creating such a window of opportunity. Had she tried a little bit harder, she could have got out of the business trip with her supervisor and none of this would have happened under her roof. She was disappointed at her daughter, to whom Madoka devoted all her time and effort, for having committed such a twisted act of perversion. Had it been a man, Madoka could have found it in her to forgive and forget... yet this was a girl her daughter had brought to her bed, a girl three years her junior. And of course, she regretted that in spite of her love for her daughter and her reluctance to hurt the child, Madoka was going to make sure that Shouji An stayed out of Mariko’s life forever.

The more she thought about it, the more Madoka felt that her newly made decision was right. Her daughter deserved better than a brat who had nothing better to do than seducing other women. She only wished that she had come to this conclusion a couple of months ago, when she first found out about her daughter’s true relationship with Shouji An. Had she realized what kind of horrific road her daughter was walking down at that time, had she realized that everything would come to this, she would have been firm and resolute and nipped the danger in the bud.

Still... it was not too late to right her wrongs now. Of course, she was fully aware that she was about to crush Mariko’s happiness with her own hands… yet she wouldn’t let the knowledge impede her. In time, the child would realize that all that Madoka did was for her sake. One day, when Mariko was finally married to an upstanding man and had children, she would thank Madoka from the bottom of her heart.

Determined, she rose to her feet and walked back toward the hallway. She stopped abruptly, however, when the door to Mariko’s room opened and admitted Shouji An, whose lower thighs and legs were visible beneath her long T-shirt, whose face was wild with embarrassment, whose mouth was hanging open in the dimness of the bed lamp’s light, whose eyes were filled with shock and fear. The seventeen-year-old appeared to be looking at a ghost.

Peering into the room, Madoka was infinitely relieved that her daughter hadn’t woken up.

“Oba... san?” Shouji managed in a tight voice.

“Evening, Shouji-san,” Madoka replied coolly. It was a good thing that the brat came out of the room on her own. This way, Madoka didn’t have to walk into the room, drag her out of the bed, and risked an episode of drama with her daughter, which surely she had no need of. “Why don’t you... put on some more clothes,” her eyes regarded the seventeen-year-old with unconcealed distaste, which made her flinch and blush crimson, “and come back here? We’ll go to a coffee shop nearby. I’d like to have a talk.” She added when Shouji turned toward the entrance to Mariko’s room, “And please, don’t wake my daughter.” She gave no reason... but from the girl’s expression, pale even in the dim light, she understood.

“I’ll... be right back,” Shouji mumbled and walked into the room with her tail between her legs.

Madoka returned to the living room, picked up her bag, and waited for the brown-haired girl at the door. A few minutes later, the brat emerged, her face as uneasy as ever. Neither muttering even a word, they left the apartment, took the elevator down to the lobby, and walked out the automatic sliding doors of Kanagawa Place. When they made a left turn immediately afterwards, they found themselves in front of a small but nicely decorated coffee shop, which was mounted with a glaring neon sign that read “Starbrooks”. This place was where Madoka stopped by every morning, sat down, and blissfully enjoyed the exquisite smoothness of the shop’s specialty drink before she subjected herself to the merciless grinding machine that was her job.

“Misono-san!” the shop owner, a plump woman who was about half a dozen years older than Madoka, exclaimed the moment she pushed open the glass door. “What are you doing here at this time?” She glanced at her wristwatch. “When I’m about to close down, no less!” The other employees, all of whom Madoka had known for the last ten years, stopped their cleaning and moping and looked at her, appearing equally surprised. Some raised their hands and waved to her. She addressed them each with a warm smile before she turned to the owner.

“I’m sorry, Inoue-san,” Madoka said, feeling a little bit more peaceful under the cool light cascading down from the halogen tubes hanging on the shop’s ceiling. The sight of this familiar place and those familiar faces always had a soothing effect on her. “I just need a place to sit down and discuss something with my companion. It won’t take long. Can you... settle us down somewhere quiet?”

Inoue-san arched an eyebrow at her questioningly, but when the woman received no answer in return, she nodded and gestured her hand toward a corner in the back of the shop, where a table just for two sat solitarily without any attendants hovering nearby. And if Inoue Ritsuko was the woman Madoka had known all these years, she would make sure that no one would come within twenty feet of that table while they were talking.

“Do you want something to drink, Misono-san?” the shop owner inquired.

“Just a cup of tea, thanks,” Madoka answered.

“Kiddo?” Inoue-san glanced at Shouji, who was standing at the threshold and looking at the interior of the shop with troubled eyes.

“Uh, I’d like a glass of water, I think,” the brown-haired girl muttered uneasily, sweat beading on her forehead despite the cold weather.

“Okay.” The plump shop owner nodded and smiled.

Under the bewildered gazes of the shop’s employees, she proceeded to the corner quietly with the seventeen-year-old brat following on her heels. Once they had settled down, one facing the other across the table, she realized that Shouji was being frightened out of her wits. Perhaps it was Madoka’s cold, sharp stare. Perhaps it was the unfamiliar surrounding. Or perhaps it was both, she didn’t really care. Although, she reckoned, it was a good thing that the kid had already been pushed out of balance. The more scared Shouji was, the easier it would be for Madoka to achieve her purpose.

“Oba-san...” the brat began.

“Misono-san,” Madoka corrected, her voice cold and hard. The kid’s complexion went even paler than the moon shining bright beyond the glass window. Outside, the empty alley it looked over appeared decidedly dark and ominous.

“Misono-san,” Shouji managed in the end, “you came back early.” Then she stopped. Madoka suspected that it wasn’t what the girl intended to say at all.

“Isn’t that a good thing?” she said. “If I hadn’t, I would never have known what kind of despicable acts you two were engaging in when I was away.” Her voice was low lest it carry to the wrong ears, but she made sure that it conveyed her displeasure and anger as best it could. Shouji’s involuntary wince was proof that Madoka had succeeded.

Silence ensued while the brat dropped her gaze to her lap and started plucking at her sweater.

“Refreshments, anybody?” said the kind-faced Inoue Ritsuko, who was approaching with a tray in her hands. With a grace that not many people would expect from her slightly stocky figure, the woman put down a cup of tea in front of Madoka, a glass of water in front of Shouji An, and a dish of cookies in the middle of the table. After that, she silently retreated toward the register, from where sometimes she would look in their direction with a face painted by sheer curiosity. Of course, anyone would wonder why Madoka wasn’t home at this moment to care for her paraplegic daughter, but here, talking to a stranger who seemed to be trying to shrink herself on her seat.

“Did your father know of this?” Madoka asked, her voice growing no warmer, her tone no less sharp.

“He doesn’t,” Shouji replied, eyes still on her lap.

“Go figures,” Madoka said. “I can’t imagine any parent would give his child permission to...” she paused, trying to find a way to state the fact in an acceptable manner. She couldn’t find any, as the mere recollection of what she had seen in Mariko’s room made the flame of anger roar from the pit of her stomach. Madoka managed to keep her hands on the table, but she failed to stop them from trembling. The brat in front of her noticed, and her face went even paler than before, if that was possible. Yet... a light of defiance shone in her deep blue eyes. That, of course, did nothing to bring peace to Madoka’s lethal mood.

“Who started it?” she demanded.

Shouji gave her an odd look, remained quiet for a few seconds, then spoke up, “I did.”

Unable to restrain her anger, Madoka reached across the table and slapped the insolent brat. The sound of her hand landing on Shouji’s cheek suddenly turn the atmosphere of coffee shop, which was extremely noisy just a second ago with people cleaning up every corner except theirs, into that of a graveyard in the dead of night. She wasn’t looking, so she didn’t know whether everybody in the shop was looking at them. Yet, she knew for a certainty that they were. She could feel their questioning eyes on her. She could almost hear the thoughts revolving in their heads. Only fleetingly did she consider explaining this episode of drama to them afterwards.

“How dare you?” Madoka hissed while the seventeen-year-old stared ahead, her eyes widened in shock, her right cheek imprinted with a large reddening mark in the shape of a hand. “Don’t you have anything better to do than dragging my daughter along your twisted path? Why didn’t you keep your sick obsession to yourself and leave Mariko alone?”

“Sick obsession?” Shouji repeated, her words holding no heat even after being struck. Her voice, quiet and low, contained only agony and sadness. “What’s so sick about me loving her?” If she thought she could invoke Madoka’s sympathy, though, she was dead wrong. All Madoka ever harbored toward her was hostility and distaste.

“The fact that you are of the same gender, is there anything else?” Madoka snapped. “Normal girls don’t go after each other like dogs in heat.” She gave the seventeen-year-old a disgusted look. “If you can’t understand something simple as that, you’re much more of a dimwit than I expected.”

“You mean you’ll never approve unless Mariko’s partner is a man?” If Shouji was offended, she hid it well. Strangely enough, however, apprehension was slowly withdrawing from her like a tide ebbing from the beach, leaving behind a sense of composure that was forming across her face. Fear was suddenly nowhere to be seen in the brat’s blue eyes, which were now gazing at Madoka with a feeling that she could only name... pity and exasperation. Madoka’s hand itched to slap that look off Shouji’s face, but she stopped herself in time. It was shameful enough for to have hit the kid once, and she was already regretting it for having let her temper get the better of her, so she wasn’t going to make the same mistake again.

But oh Gods... how much she wanted to....

“Isn’t it obvious?” Madoka answered roughly.

“Why does it have to be a guy, Misono-san?” the seventeen-year-old said, her voice dead serious. “What is it that he can give her that I cannot?”

“Stability!” Madoka declared. “Look at you, you’re just a brat who has to rely on her father’s money to live. She needs a man who can support her financially for the rest of her life.”

“Men aren’t the only ones who can do that,” Shouji countered. “You’re right. I currently don’t have a yen that I can call my own, but it’s not going to stay that way forever. After I’ve earned my degree, I will find a job and make enough money to provide for both of us.” She locked eyes with Madoka, her expression growing firm. “You are no more of a man than I am, Misono-san, yet weren’t you the person who has raised Mariko to be the respectable woman she is today? You of all people should know that not many men have the willpower and the patience to accomplish what you’ve spent the last ten years doing.”

Words died in Madoka’s throat.

“I’m aware that we being together will turn us into the target of people who despise what they refuse to understand,” there wasn’t a hint of mockery in the seventeen-year-old’s tone, yet it still made Madoka’s blood boil, “but Mariko and I are willing to take the risk. As long as she still loves me....”

“She doesn’t! No matter what you may choose to believe, she doesn’t love you!” Madoka broke in scathingly. Shouji An was nothing but a seventeen-year-old who knew nothing about the world. Madoka surely wasn’t going to let the girl bandy words with her and win. Especially not when the stake was the future happiness of her daughter. “Because of her condition, she’s emotionally insecure and vulnerable to your advances. That’s how you’ve managed to intrude so deeply into her life!” Her voice’s loudness started to grow out of control. “When Mariko regains the ability to walk, she’ll realize that she has options! She’ll see that she can find a man who will....”

“Are you even aware of what you’re saying, Misono-san?” The brown-haired girl stared at her in utmost incredulity.

“What?” Madoka fired back, her voice echoing loudly in the shop.

“You’re her mother, yet you don’t understand her at all,” the brat challenged. “Mariko has never been so weak-willed she has to cling to someone else for emotional comfort!” Her words were sharp, her eyes burning, and her fists clenching atop the table. Anybody would have agreed that Shouji An had taken what Madoka said as a personal insult. “Options when she can walk again? Are you serious? Mariko has always had options. Or do you honestly believe that she can’t find a man for her romantic interest because she’s on a wheelchair? You have no faith, don’t you? You think that there’s no one on Earth who would choose your daughter if they knew they would have to care for her for the rest of her life the way you did during the last ten years, don’t you?” Shouji shook her head in disappointment. “Why don’t you ask yourself whether you want Mariko in the care of someone who can only love her when she’s able to walk?”

Madoka’s blood ran cold. Yet, after a while, the flames of anger once again raged in her heart.

Abruptly standing up, Madoka grabbed her cup of tea and hurled its content at the seventeen-year-old’s face. Afterwards, she slammed the cup upon the table and shrieked, “I will give you your last warning, Shouji-san. Do not come near my daughter ever again. If you do, I’ll call the police!”

Then she hurried toward the entrance, not bothering to say goodbye to her friend Inoue Ritsuko, whose face was strangely unreadable as she looked at Madoka storming out of her shop.

***

Slipping away from the backdoor of the Starbrooks coffee shop, Shouji Ichitaka smiled softly to himself. Finally, he had found a way to deliver his Gods-damned daughter into Minamoto Iriya’s hands without having to deal with the brat’s bodyguard. Who could have thought that he could have missed the solution to his dilemma had he given up and gone home a couple of hours ago? It was providence, he was sure. Silently, he offered a prayer as his token of gratitude to all the powers that were then slipped into the darkness under the vast heavens.

***

Not really paying attention to the cool liquid that was dripping from her face, Shouji An merely stared forward at the empty chair left by Misono Madoka, mother to the woman she loved. Her head was void of thoughts and her hearts, emotions. She felt dazed. She felt stunned. She felt as if the world was spinning rapidly around her. She thought she was about to throw up.

“Are you okay, kiddo?” a female voice said and made An raise her head. The woman who had greeted Madoka when they entered the shop was standing by the table, her hand holding a clean towel, her round face radiating warmth and kindness. Not asking for An’s permission, Inoue-san, she seemed to remember that it was what Madoka had called the woman, bent over and gently dabbed the fuzzy cloth at An’s face. “I’m sorry Misono-san... did this to you.” An stared. It had been years since her mom died... but if that blessed lady was still living today, she would look at An with the same motherly expression. She felt moisture gathering in her eyes.

“I’m... fine,” she lied.

“I heard her name you Shouji-san,” Inoue-san continued as she sat down on the other chair. “Is your given name An, by any chance?”

“How... do you know?” She went wide-eyed at the kind-faced lady.

“I heard about you from Misono-san’s daughter,” she explained. “I visited her frequently when her mom’s off to work, you see.”

“Ah,” was the only response An could come up with.

“You are... Mariko’s girlfriend, weren’t you?” Inoue-san said quietly, her hands folded on the table’s top. “I’m sorry I overheard your conversation... but Misono-san’s voice was very loud toward the end.” She grimaced.

“Yes.” An nodded, uncertain as to what was going to happen. Based on the friendly manner with which they treated each other, this woman... seemed to be Misono Madoka’s close acquaintance. Did they... happen to share the same view about her and Mariko’s relationship, too? She eyed the glassful of water standing near Inoue-san’s hands uneasily. Being splashed with liquid once this evening was more than enough. She wondered if she should just excuse herself and leave before the shop owner had a chance to reach for the glass.

“Don’t give up.”

“I beg your pardon?” An’s head snapped up. That wasn’t what she expected to hear.

“No matter what happens, kiddo, don’t give up,” Inoue-san repeated gently. “Misono-san is a tough nut to crack, but don’t let her intimidate you.”

“Why are you telling me this?” An asked, surprised. “I thought you were... her friend.”

“I am.” The plump woman gave her a rueful smile. “But that doesn’t mean that I agreed with whatever she said. She was very... unpleasant to you, I must admit.”

“It’s... okay,” An muttered. “I kinda expected it from the very beginning. I knew she wouldn’t accept me. Didn’t know that it would have gone... so badly, though.” The more she talked, the more bitter her voice grew. So much for trying to keep their relationship in the dark. So much for waiting for a convenient opportunity to tell Madoka. So much for wanting to spend the last two weeks with Mariko in happiness before she flew away to America and left An back here for one full, torturous year.

A tear leaked from a corner of her eyes and rolled off her cheeks. Before she knew, she was already sobbing uncontrollably in her hands. How was she supposed to live through the next two weeks, during which she couldn’t even see Mariko’s face? This... was not meant to happen.

At that moment, her cell phone suddenly rang from within her pants’ pocket. The ring tone identified the caller as her beloved girlfriend. Wiping her tears with the sleeve of her sweater, she pulled the device out and answered the call.

***

“Where did you go in the middle of the night, An?” Misono Mariko, sitting on the bed with the blanket wreathing around her body, asked worriedly when the door to her room opened. To her shock, the one who entered was not the girl who had shared her bed just a couple of hours ago before she fell asleep, but her mother, Misono Madoka. She was standing at the threshold, face grim, lips thinned, eyes filled with unspeakable rage.

A terrible chill wrecked Mariko’s body apart. When did her mom return? Was she the reason to An’s sudden disappearance? What did she do with her?

“She went home,” her mom announced frostily. “And she’s not going to see you ever again. I’ll make sure of that. Goodnight, Mariko.”

Madoka slammed the door shut.

Trembling, Mariko reached for her cell phone and dialed her girlfriend’s numbers.

“Mariko?” An’s voice cracked painfully on the other side of the line. The high school freshman spoke only one word... yet it was more than enough for Mariko to realize that An had been crying before she picked up the phone. She sensed her heart clench inside her chest. An wasn’t a girl who shed her tears easily. Madoka must have done something terrible to the girl to have made her cry like this.

“Where are you, An?” she asked anxiously, hand gripping her mobile wireless. “Are you okay?”

“I’m... in the Starbrooks coffee near your house,” her girlfriend answered with the same tattered voice. “And... I’m okay.”

Mariko heaved a sigh of relief. She knew everybody in that coffee shop to be decent, hardworking people, especially Inoue Ritsuko-san the owner, who always bought Mariko something every time she visited. If An was there with them at the moment, she should be in good hands.

“What happened?”

There was a moment of silence on the phone before the Touyou Eiwa freshman’s voice returned, “When some strange noise in the house woke me up in the middle of the night, I left the room to check it out. Then... I saw your mom. She asked me to go with her to the coffee shop and have a talk.” An stopped abruptly.

“Tell me everything, An, please,” Mariko urged.

Her girlfriend complied.

“I’m sorry about what she said,” Mariko said quietly afterwards as agony and disappointment surged in her every vein. She never imagined that something so... hurtful could come from the mouth of Misono Madoka, the mother she so dearly cherished. Neither did she expect the situation to have deteriorated this badly just two weeks before her flight.

“It isn’t your fault,” the high school freshman replied. “It’s mine. I said something terrible to your mom. I made her angry. If I hadn’t lost my head, perhaps there was a chance that I could persuade her. But I just had to screw everything up.” She sighed deeply afterwards, sounding on the verge of tears again.

“An,” Mariko called her lover’s name softly. “Will you listen to my selfish request?”

“Sure.” Somehow, Mariko detected fear in that one single word. Maybe An was afraid that Mariko was proposing a break-up. She’d be surprised.

“I know it’s not right doing it over the phone, especially under this circumstance, but I don’t think I will ever get the chance to see you face to face anymore,” Mariko murmured, sensing her heart picking up the pace. “But when I come back here from the States, no matter the result of my treatment, will you... marry me?”

Deafening silence followed.

A few years back, when the Civil Rights groups heavily pressured the government to follow the example of other progressive countries in the world, the latter had no choice but to acquiesce to the former’s demands. That had been when the name and the benefits of “marriage” were extended to virtually all citizens regardless of the gender of the person they chose for a partner. Madoka didn’t sit very well with that. She thought of the government as spineless and always showed her disgust whenever the TV or the newspaper mentioned the issue.

“You don’t want to, An?” she continued after several minutes of no reply from the one she loved.

“Of course I do!” An’s voice echoed through the phone, mingling with wonder and disbelief. “That’s what I’ve always wished for. But... but... your mom....”

“Has no say over this matter,” Mariko assured her. “I’m an adult, and I have the right to choose my life partner. And that person... is you, An.” The threat Madoka delivered An was empty and she knew it. The police couldn’t do a thing unless they had Mariko’s approval, which they were never going to get.

“It’s not that, Mariko,” An’s voice said. “Are you aware of the effect this would have on your mom?”

“I know it’ll break her heart,” Mariko admitted, sighing.

“Then why...?”

“What is the other alternative? Breaking your heart and mine by abandoning you? That’s one decision I can’t make. I simply can’t imagine spending the rest of my life that way, An.”

“Why are you telling me this, Mariko? Why did you ask me to marry you out of the blue?”

“Because I want you to know that no matter what happens, no matter how hard my mother tries to take you away from me, I will never stop loving you or wanting to stay by your side,” she whispered. “So don’t be afraid, ne.”

“Mariko...” An sobbed on the other side of the phone.

Mariko was eternally grateful to Madoka for having given life to her, loving her, and caring for her during the last ten years. Yet... that fact didn’t mean that Mariko was willing to sacrifice her love for An just because her mom failed to understand that the Touyou Eiwa freshman held in her hands Mariko’s heart. Besides, it wasn’t as if she were going to leave Madoka for good in any case. Mariko was more than determined to become the bridge that brought her mom and An together. She refused to believe she couldn’t make Madoka change her mind. In fact, she fully intended to achieve her goal during the time she was going to spend in America. If the Gods were willing, a year from now, the three of them would be able to live happily under the same roof.

She told her girlfriend as much.

“Are you sure you want to do this, Mariko?” An asked, her voice trembling more violently than ever. “If worse comes to worst, the relationship between you and your mom would be destroyed.”

“I... am willing to take that risk,” Mariko said. “I love you too much to live without you now, An.”

“Same with me... Mariko....”

“Then wait for me?” she said, sensing tears welling in her eyes, hearing her voice break. “Just one year, and I’ll be back to where you are. Then I will never leave you ever again. I promise.”

***

“Did something good happen?” Inoue Ritsuko observed while settling down again upon the chair opposite that of the brown-haired girl, who had just hung up. She had inconspicuously taken her leave when she realized that the person who called the poor kid was none other than Misono Madoka’s daughter so that they could have a moment together. “You seemed much happier than before you picked up the phone, kiddo.” That was an understatement, actually. Ritsuko would wager all the money in her safe that if she were to give the tomboy all the gold in the world, she still wouldn’t be able to produce such a wondrous expression on the girl’s face.

“Mariko... she... proposed to me,” Shouji An said, her wet blue eyes filled with an indescribable joy no sunlight could possibly outshine. “She said she would like to marry me when she gets back from the U.S.” As soon as she was done, she gave a violent start and took up a study of her sweater. An probably didn’t know it herself why she disclosed something so personal to someone she barely knew for fifteen minutes.

“Ah! I’m so glad for you!” Ritsuko exclaimed, astonished.

“Thank you,” An murmured gratefully.

‘The Misono kid was bold, gotta give her that,’ Ritsuko mused to herself. She had always thought that Mariko was the kind of character who was easily influenced by her parent, who worshipped her mother and would never even think of doing something that the latter didn’t wish her to. Turned out that it was a terrible misconception. Misono Mariko, based on what Ritsuko just heard from the teenager Shouji An, was steel hidden under a layer of cloth. In that, she resembled Inoue Mizuki, Ritsuko’s child.

Misono Madoka was never aware... but the truth was... Mizuki was now married to her childhood friend, a young woman whom she had known her entire life. They lived in the same neighborhood, they went to the same schools, they participated in the same club, and they found jobs in the same company after graduating from college. Of course, Ritsuko, like any parents, had the surprise of her life when her daughter and her friend came back home one day to ask for her blessing. Ritsuko reacted very violently at first and refused to give the children what they wanted. As a result, she was infuriated when the two of them went ahead and married each other without her approval. Yet... in time, her anger waned, and she learned to accept the fact that one didn’t have to be a man to make Mizuki happy. They reconciled... and Ritsuko even grew to love the person her daughter had chosen the way she loved the latter. Now, they would return every weekend to pay her a visit, take her out shopping, and spend their precious family time together.

Fully aware of Misono Madoka’s feelings toward such a touchy issue, Ritsuko never discussed it with the woman. She didn’t hate the middle-aged office lady for that, though. Despite being sadly mistaken about “how the world should be”, as Madoka would say in her own words, she was one of the most respectable parent that a kid could possibly want, and Ritsuko admired her for it. Besides, Ritsuko knew what the other woman was going through, having walked that road herself, so she sympathized with Madoka and hoped that her friend would soon realize that it was always a mistake trying to decide whom her daughter could love.

“Well now, since everything seems to be working out alright for you, why don’t we do a little bit of celebration before I close down? Would you like my shop’s specialty cake, kiddo? On the house, of course.” She gave An a smile and prayed with all her might that the Gods above would grant this poor girl sitting in front of her the abundant happiness that they had bestowed upon her own kid.

***

“So, that’s what happened,” Mitsuki Kanae concluded and drank the rest of her orange juice. It was a beautiful Monday afternoon, in which she didn’t have to go to school due to a national holiday, and she was sitting at a table for two in a Chinese restaurant in Shimokitazawa Mall. Opposite her was Kozuka Hiroyuki, the once captain of the Crimson Knights in The World, a lean young man with short straight hair and a face that demonstrated very well what kind of personality he had. He wasn’t exactly hunk-handsome , yet Kanae was willing to bet that the girls in her class, who spent most of their time dreaming of meeting a mature and reliable guy, would totally fawn over Hiroyuki. His dark eyes were sharp, his expression solemn, his mouth seldom not thinned in a straight line, and his square jaw usually set with grim determination. ‘Perfect for military recruitment,’ she thought.

Since their unusual encounter at Hiroyuki’s par-time job two weeks ago, Kanae had been visiting the video store almost every afternoon after class. One reason was that the place had a great collection of movies, many of which she never watched. The other reason, well, she was bored, and Hiroyuki was nearby and... convenient. Despite his seemingly dry appearance, he was actually an interesting man. Having worked for the video store for the last five years or so, he had met many kinds of people and accrued a staggering amount of funny anecdotes, which he freely shared with her and made her laugh.

Well... sure, they didn’t really have good history with each other in The World, and more often than not their differences in personal belief pitched them against each other in fierce debates in which neither wanted to yield. Sure, sometimes she experienced a very strong urge to look for something sharp – or blunt, depending on how murderous she was feeling at that moment – and hit him with it. Yet, for some unknown reason she was rather... fond of the man’s stubbornness, rigidity, and antiquated idea of honor and chivalry. To her... Hiroyuki was a refreshing change. She had to admit that if she had a choice, she would rather hang out with him instead of her classmates.

‘Heck, who would want to do that with those mindless boys and girls?’ she mused.

“I used to think that Lady Subaru’s feelings toward Tsukasa would chance into friendship now that she knew that ‘he’ was a girl in reality...” he paused and looked at his cup of black coffee, then continued, “so I never expected her to....” He stopped and sighed, appearing rather depressed.

Kanae knew why. It wasn’t difficult at all, really, to know what kind of feelings Kozuka Hiroyuki harbored toward his once liege lady in The World. Personally, Kanae thought that although those bordered on the romantic, they leaned more toward idolization and respect. The news that the once leader of the Crimson Knights had found her happiness else where should be hurting him a little bit... but the pain should go away soon. It wasn’t as though the man was head over heels in love the way Mariko and An were anyways.

“But in any case, if what you said were true...” Hiroyuki said after a while.

“It is true,” Kanae interjected.

“If what you said were true,” the twenty-three-year-old repeated, his dark eyes twinkling. Sometimes Kanae was under the impression that the man liked to poke fun at her both out of meanness and amusement. She suspected that the former was his main motivation, though. But oh well, it wasn’t as though she didn’t give him hell during the last two weeks with her cruel taunts and jokes. “Then Lady Subaru is in a tight spot right now.”

“Right.” She nodded. “Seems to me that her mom’s serious about the whole business.” Today was Madoka’s last day at work. According to what Mariko told her on the phone earlier this morning, Madoka was going there to submit her resignation letter and bring her belongings home. Technically she didn’t have to do that until the day before she boarded the plan with her daughter, but she did it nevertheless. Mariko said her mom claimed that she wanted to have enough time to prepare for the upcoming trip. Kanae knew better than that. The office lady only stayed home because she needed to check on her daughter and made sure that Shouji An wouldn’t have a chance to get near her girlfriend, that was it. Misono Madoka was determined to destroy her daughter’s happiness, it would seem.

However, for all her tenacity, Misono Madoka made one mistake. When she went to work this morning, she had entrusted Mariko to her old friend Inoue Ritsuko, owner of the Starbrooks Coffee Shop next door to the Kanagawa Place building. If Madoka thought that in so doing, she could prevent Mariko and An from seeing each other, she was dead wrong. As soon as she left, the shop owner phoned the high school freshman and even arranged a small room in her shop so that the lovebirds could spend quality time in private. If the Gods indeed existed, this probably was their doing. Now if they would just brainwash Mariko’s mother so that the woman could accept An, Kanae would seriously consider paying a visit to her local Shinto shrine every weekend.

“Mitsuki,” Hiroyuki said suddenly. Despite the fact that she had insisted him to call her Kanae, the man always addressed her with her family name for some reason. After a while, Kanae gave up and let him call her however he wanted.

“What?”

“I’m going to see Lady Subaru’s mom. Want to accompany me?”

Kanae blinked. “Why?”

“I’m going to talk her into accepting Lady Subaru’s relationship,” he declared, his voice firm, his eyes determined.

“Well, I know you are eager to help but... what gave you the notion that Misono Madoka is going to listen to a complete stranger?” Kanae asked curiously.

“Nothing.” The man shrugged. “I’m just more of a “Do-it” kind of person. Rather than sitting here and pray, I like to take matters into my own hands and deal with them. Besides, you’re her friend, Mitsuki. Do you really want to stay on the sideline and watch Lady Subaru suffer?”

“No,” Kanae answered immediately.

“Good, then come with me. We’re going to change Misono-san’s mind.”

Peering at the tall, lean man sitting opposite her, Kanae couldn’t help but wonder as to where the man found his confidence. The answer came to her in a flash. Of course, Kozuka Hiroyuki was terrifyingly similar to Misono Madoka in some aspects. They both adored Misono Mariko. They both tried to monopolize her, and in a way, they both attempted to choose whom she should be acquainted with regardless of what she decided. If there was one person in this world who understood Madoka, it would be none other than Hiroyuki. That was why the man seemed so certain that he could persuade the stubborn woman.

Kanae only prayed that they were going to succeed.

***

Misono Madoka was sitting at her desk, the three sides of which were walled by thick plastic screens that separated her from the rest of her coworkers, and trying to finish her final share of paperwork when her monitor flashed to life and displayed the dour, triangular face of a young woman. Although she had no idea who this stranger was, she recognized the background behind her back, though. It was, without a doubt, the wall behind the reception desk on the lobby of the Hakusensha building. She walked past it every day.

“Misono-san, I presume?” the woman inquired, her voice sourer than vinegar and barely more enjoyable than the sound of fingernails scratching on a chalk board. Madoka could only wonder how such a person as unfriendly as the one on the screen could be appointed a receptionist post. She would most likely chase all the visitors away the moment she opened her mouth and spoke. Compared to her, the lively young man who worked in the evening shift, who always had a smile on his face as soon as he saw anybody, was much more suitable for the job.

“Yes,” she answered. “How may I help you?”

“You have a visitor, ma’am. Shall I send him up to your floor?”

Madoka frowned. Ever since she started working here, she had never had a visitor. She had no living relatives, and her in-laws, an old couple who didn’t want anything to do with her and her paraplegic daughter, hadn’t given her a phone call or a letter in years. Who could it be? And why did it have to be now, on the very day she handed in her resignation letter?

“Did he give a name?”

“Yes.” The receptionist nodded. “He said his name was Shouji Ichitaka. Plus, he claimed to be the father of a girl you know.”

Madoka’s hands tightened into fists. What in Heaven’s name is Shouji An’s father doing in her workplace? Was it because of what happened between the brat and Madoka yesterday? Did he come here to complain, or beg for Madoka’s acceptance on his daughter’s behalf? Madoka surely wasn’t going to give him a chance.

She was about to tell the receptionist to send the man away when a different name popped up in her head and made all her movements freeze. Shouji Ichitaka, she realized, was not what Shouji An’s current guardian called himself. According to her daughter, the brat was living in the care of a novelist named Sakuma Ryo, who adopted her to.... ‘Save her from an abusive biological father,’ she finished mentally and very nearly gasped aloud. She was offended by Shouji An’s very existence, but the maternal side of her felt pretty much the same way about the fact that the girl had been subjected to all sorts of verbal and physical violence by a beast clothed in a man’s skin. What could that same beast, whom the court forbade to go near his daughter, possibly want with Madoka?

“Send him away! Now! Call the security if he refuses to leave!” Madoka commanded, her stomach roiling with disgust.

The receptionist blinked in surprise. “Pardon me, Misono-san, but the visitor also claimed that you would be interested in what he had to offer. Oh, and he gave me a piece of paper and asked me to fax it over. Will you accept it?”

Her eyebrows knitting in confusion, Madoka stared at her monitor for a full minute before she nodded and said in a dry voice, “Yes, please.”

Thirty seconds barely passed before her fax machine spat out a sheet of paper filled with lines of characters written in a crude and unruly penmanship. When she finished reading the thing, her heart was pounding madly in her chest. Quickly rearranging the stuff on her desk, she stood up, grabbed her coat, and walked hurriedly toward the elevator. The man was right; Madoka was definitely interested in what he had to say. Shouji Ichitaka just proposed to solve her dilemma, after all.

***

Shouji An was sitting on a small couch in a small and scarcely furnished room, which the employees of Starbrooks Coffee Shop went in during break time to relax before they continued working, which was empty right now except for her and the young woman nestled in her arms, when her cell phone decided to ring and disturbed their quiet time together. Grimacing in irritation amidst Mariko’s melodious and crystalline laughter, An pulled out the device from her coat pocket and attempted to turn it off. She only had a little less than four hours to spend with her girlfriend before Madoka returned and brought her home, so she really couldn’t afford any kind of distraction now. Before she could press on the power key of the phone, however, her eyes fell upon the LCD screen and found a set of numbers that she was intimately familiar with. A lump of something rose in her throat and nearly suffocated her.

Staring at the small screen the way a fox would a hunter’s rifle, ears not exactly registering the ring tone, An felt herself reeling into the realm of her memories, back to her life’s darkest days, which was triggered by her mom’s death. Her reverie was so strong, so engrossing, and at the same time so terrifying that only a few minutes after the phone had stopped ringing could An snap out of it and found her arms trembling slightly around the woman she loved.

“Is there something wrong, An?” Mariko asked.

Before An could answer, though, her wireless rang one more time and then went silent, indicating that a message for her has arrived. Truth be told, the only thing she wanted to do at that moment was to throw the phone into the trash basket and pretended the thing never existed... yet her gut was telling her that there was a reason why that message was sent to her, and that unless she opened it, she would regret it for the rest of her life.

She decided to be brave and view the message.

When she was done reading the words, she felt as if life had been sucked out of her. Her whole body went cold.

“An, you looked so pale,” her girlfriend said worriedly. “What happened?”

“Nothing much,” she answered. “A friend left a message and told me to call her back. She wanted to ask me a few questions about the homework we’re going to turn in tomorrow.” She had no clue how she could sound so calm, how her voice didn’t tremble, and how her body wasn’t shaking, while fear surged violently along her every nerve. She only hoped that her face didn’t belie her true emotions. It would not do for Mariko to realize that An was lying. It would not do for Mariko to know what was going on.

“Ah,” Mariko said, suspicion evident on her face. Still, she only fell silent afterwards, her amber eyes intent on An as though urging her to tell the young woman the truth.

“I... I’m going to call my friend,” An muttered uneasily. “I’ll be back in a bit.” She carefully untangled herself from her sweetheart and put the latter onto the sofa. Then she stood up and walked toward the door to the room. Before she could leave, though, a strange feeling rose in her heart and forced her to take one look at the blue-haired woman, who was gazing worriedly and longingly at her. An walked back to her girlfriend, placed a soft kiss on her lips, spun on her heels, and walked hurriedly out of the room.

Treading along the small, empty hallway leading toward the backdoor of the coffee shop, An wondered fleetingly whether she would be able to see Mariko ever again.

***

“Misono-san isn’t here?” Kozuka Hiroyuki blinked at the grim-faced woman sitting at the humongous reception desk in the lobby of the Hakusensha building. “Did she go home?” Next to him, the fifteen-year-old Mitsuki Kanae was standing very still, her eyes, which were glued at the polished granite wall behind the receptionist back, telling him just how disappointed... and relieved she was feeling at the moment. Of course, eager to help Lady Subaru and her friend as she was, a teenager like her couldn’t help but be daunted by the task of facing an adult who, apparently, didn’t care much for reasons.

“I don’t know,” answered the woman with the sour voice. She seemed to be straining herself to remain civil to the two people standing in front of her desk. Not that her attitude had been much better when they first showed up, though. While normal receptionists would flash welcoming smiles and gush out greetings at their guests, this one had simply raised an eyebrow at him and Mitsuki before asking them in a not-quite-polite-but-not-exactly-rude-either tone whether they had any business with Hakusensha.

Hiroyuki frowned. He terribly disliked those who simply couldn’t do the job that they were expected to. While he was still the Captain of the Knights in The World, he did everything in his power to enforce discipline and make sure that such people were properly straightened up. He suspected that unless the higher-ups of Hakusensha were a bunch of incompetents, this woman was in for a rude awakening very soon.

He sighed. Since the receptionist appeared to be quite insistent on being uncooperative, he guessed there was nothing he could do.

“Let’s go, Mitsuki,” he said to the fifteen-year-old. “It’s better to come straight to Misono-san’s house.” Maybe he should call in later to file a complaint against this unresponsive receptionist.

“Sure.” The dark-haired girl nodded. The grim-faced woman seemed infinitely relieved.

“Excuse me, young man,” a warm, friendly voice spoke behind Hiroyuki. As he and his companion turned around, he found himself looking down at a gray-haired lady who stood a head shorter than him. The newcomer, whose elderly face brimmed with the same kindness that he used to see on that of his late grandmother, was looking at him and Mitsuki both with a smile on her lips. Her eyes and facial expression, surprisingly, reflected the wisdom and clarity of a mind age hadn’t managed to touch.

“Yes, ma’am?” Hiroyuki bowed to the elderly lady with respect. Mitsuki Kanae did the same.

“You were looking for Misono Madoka-san?”

“Yes.” Hiroyuki replied, his eyes finding the nametag on the elderly lady’s Hakusensha uniform. It read Shimura Kikuko.

“I’m her supervisor,” Shimura-san said. “I saw her leave just about two hours ago. She left her belonging here, so I would say that she hasn’t come home yet. Although...,” she gave her lips a thoughtful tap, “it’s highly usually that she hasn’t returned from her one-hour-break yet. Misono-san is a very hard worker, you see. We really regret her resigning today, but she’s a mother, and she must do what she must for her daughter.”

“Ah,” Hiroyuki muttered noncommittally. Mitsuki Kanae, however, was looking uneasy again. He wouldn’t blame her. In The World, she might be a Heavy Blade who spat in the face of danger, but in the real world, she was just a little girl.

“Do you have urgent business with Misono-san?” Shimura Kikuko-san looked at him and Mitsuki both.

“We do.” Hiroyuki nodded. It was best that they find Misono Madoka and talk to her now, when lady Subaru wasn’t nearby. He didn’t want to discuss this matter at his former leader’s house lest they put her in a tight spot. Being trapped between her friend and her family was by no means a good thing.

“Gotou-san,” the supervisor turned to the rude receptionist, who was eyeing the former with great unease. Hiroyuki could guess what the woman was thinking. Since Shimura-san knew that they were looking for Misono Madoka, it was possible that she had been observing them all along. In that case, she must have witnessed the receptionist’s behaviors.

“How may I help you, Shimura-san?” the woman squeaked.

“I believe that a man came for Misono-san, correct?” The firmness in the supervisor’s voice, which wasn’t there when she spoke to Hiroyuki, confirmed his suspicion. Yes, she saw everything alright. “What is his name?”

“Shouji Ichitaka, ma’am,” the Gotou woman answered hastily.

“Shouji... Ichitaka?” Hiroyuki repeated, blinking. “Shouji?” He looked a question at Mitsuki Kanae, whose body had gone deathly still, whose face was as white as a sheet of paper. “What’s wrong, Mitsuki?” he asked.

“That’s... that’s the name of An’s dad!” she said, horror stark in her voice.

It took him one full minute before he could recall what kind of lowlife Tsukasa’s father was. His fists clenched. What in goodness’s name could that man want with Misono Madoka?

“We’re leaving,” he told his companion.

“What is the matter, young man?” Shimura-san said, her eyes regarding him curiously.

“Nothing, ma’am,” he replied quickly. “Thank you for all your help.” Then he grabbed his young companion by the wrist and dragged her out of the Hakusensha building.

When they got to the nearest empty alley, Hiroyuki let go of Kanae and commanded, “Call Lady Subaru, right now. Tell her to phone her mom and ask where she is.”

“Okay.” Hand trembling, the fifteen-year-old took out her wireless and punched the dials. Ten seconds later, she began to speak hurriedly, “Mariko? Hey, I have a favor to ask. Will you...? Eh, why do you ask me where An is? I thought she’s been by your side since the morning.” She paused, face growing paler by the minute. “She left... without telling you an hour ago and... hasn’t come back or answered the phone? Even Satou-san didn’t see her leaving?”

A horrible feeling enveloped Hiroyuki’s heart and froze his internal organs. According to what Mitsuki Kanae had been telling him about Tsukasa and Lady Subaru, they were inseparable when they were together. If the Wavemaster suddenly snuck away in such a stealthy manner that their bodyguard didn’t even notice... there had to be something wrong. And besides, he had a feeling it was no coincidence that Tsukasa went missing at the same time Misono Madoka did. Every fiber of his existence rang in alarm.

“Calm down, Mariko, I’m sure there’s nothing wrong with her,” Kanae said. She didn’t sound sure at all. “I said calm down....” He sighed. The girl was in no position to tell other people to keep calm when she herself appeared to be on the verge of panic. This surely was going nowhere, he thought.

“Sorry, Mitsuki,” Hiroyuki muttered as he snatched the phone from the junior high school student. “Lady Subaru? It’s me, Silver Knight,” he said into the device.

There was a moment of silence on the phone. “Silver Knight? You know Kanae offline?” She sounded shocked. He flashed his companion a look. Apparently the girl never told Lady Subaru that they had started hanging out with each other two weeks ago. To his surprise, the girl looked away, seemingly mightily embarrassed and muttering something under her breath.

“That’s not important at the moment, Lady Subaru,” he said. “Please, be quiet listen to what I have to say.” He didn’t like giving orders to the person who once commanded the whole Guild of Crimson Knights... but in this situation, in which the disappearance of her lover had taken away her composure, he had to overstep his bounds and take charge.

“Okay,” Lady Subaru’s voice answered.

“Mitsuki mentioned in passing once that the phone Tsukasa’s carrying has a GPS device, right?” Kanae pounded a fist upon her palm.

“Yes.” Kanae’s phone didn’t allow real-time video transmission, yet Hiroyuki knew that his former leader had to be looking the very same way the fifteen-year-old was at the moment. Under normal circumstances, he was sure that Lady Subaru would have remembered that locating the missing Wavemaster would be a piece of cake.

“Well then, I’m going to hang up now. After I do, I’d like you to first call An’s adoptive father and tell him to look for Tsukasa. Oh, another thing, would you tell me your mother’s phone number? I would like to talk to her,” he added in the end as if an afterthought. His voice was perfectly guarded and neutral, so he didn’t think that Lady Subaru would suspect that something wrong had happened to Misono Madoka.

“Is it about me and An?” the former Guild Master of the Crimson Knights asked quietly. “I thank you for your concern, but you don’t have to do that, Silver Knight.”

“Please, allow me to do something for you, my Lady,” he insisted.

Another moment of silence came, then when Lady Subaru’s voice returned, she told him her mother’s number. After that, he hung up.

“Why didn’t you tell her the truth?” Kanae asked, her dark eyes riveting on him.

“She doesn’t need to know until we’ve learned where her mom is,” he replied. “For all we know, Misono-san could be in her workplace right now.” The last thing they wanted to do was scaring Lady Subaru even more by telling her that her mom had gone off with a shady characters like Shouji Ichitaka.

“You know what, you’re awfully calm, Hiroyuki,” Kanae said as she eyed him up and down as though she was seeing him for the first time in her life. “Very reliable, too.” A smile crossed her lips.

Not knowing what to say to that, he gave back her phone, took out his own, and dialed Misono Madoka’s phone numbers. When he hung up after the fifth redial, he saw in the fifteen-year-old’s eyes the fear that must have been mirrored in his own.

***

Misono Madoka was sitting stiffly on a wooden chair, her hands tied by a rope behind her back, and feeling incredibly stupid beneath the tall roof of a large but empty warehouse. During the last ten years of her life, she constantly found herself weighing her every decision very thoroughly and carefully, as she knew that one wrong step would lead her and her dear daughter to their undoing. Yet, for the first time since her husband’s death, she succumbed to a terrible folly that landed her right into the middle of a trap. Most ironic of all, she would have realized that she was walking into one had it not been for her hatred against Shouji An and her insecurity as to her daughter’s future. She didn’t know how Shouji Ichitaka learned of it... but the man was undoubtedly aware of her weakness, of which he had successfully taken advantage.

Madoka scowled darkly at the unshaven man standing just a few feet away from her chair, his eyes glued at the entrance to the warehouse, his foot tapping impatiently on the ground. He looked every inch a thug.

“Shame on you, Misono Madoka, to have been deceived by such a man,” she muttered under her breath.

Despite having warned Shouji An to stay away from her daughter, Madoka knew better than anyone that hers was an empty threat. Also, she realized that her control on her daughter’s life was being weakened by the fact that in less than two weeks, they were going to fly to the U.S. and begin Mariko’s treatment. Since the success rate was miraculously high, Madoka was sure that when they returned to Japan a year later, her daughter would have already regained the ability to walk. And once that happened... Mariko could do as she wished and toss all Madoka’s advices out of the window. Of course, her daughter had always been a sweet kid who listened to and obeyed whatever Madoka said... but who knew what a young woman would do for love? What Madoka had planned to accomplish during the one year they were going to spend in California was trying to make her daughter forget about Shouji An. She had hoped to find the girl an upstanding Japanese husband there, too.

Yet, she had an inkling that she wasn’t going to succeed. Perhaps that was because she knew how faithful and passionate her daughter was. If the one she truly loved was indeed Shouji An, it wouldn’t matter how long she had to wait, she wasn’t going to stop loving the damned brat and fall for someone else. It was the sole reason why Shouji Ichitaka’s words were so tempting... why his offer was so appealing... and why Madoka had jumped head first down the cliff without so much as a second thought. She was desperate. She had hoped to believe that the man could get rid of her burden. And she was wrong.

The first thing that Shouji Ichitaka had done after meeting her in the Hakusensha Cafeteria was telling her that they couldn’t possibly talk in such a crowded place and suggesting that they went out to another one that was more... private. In her desperate state, she had agreed without a second thought. When they arrived at an empty alley near her workplace just about five minutes later, Shouji chopped the edge of his large hand against the nape of her neck and knocked her unconscious. Even now, after the Gods only knew how long, it still hurt. Looking back, she couldn’t help but curse herself yet again for being careless. She knew the man who had come for her was a rotten human being... yet she had dumped all caution down the drain as soon as she thought he could solve her problem.

He couldn’t, she realized. Not with what he had in mind. It was a doomed plan to begin with.

“She’s not coming,” Madoka said suddenly. “Don’t bother waiting.”

“Oh?” Shouji Ichitaka turned to her, a sneer twisting his lips. “I beg to differ.”

“Why do you think your daughter would do as you want just because you abducted me? I hate her, and she hates me. She’s jump up and down in joy the moment I die. Give it up and....”

“Let you go?” Shouji broke in. “No chance in hell.”

“Why not?” she argued. “What’s the point of keeping me here when you know that I’m useless to you? If you release me, on the other hand, you can get out of this mess. I will even promise not to tell anybody about this and pretend it never happened.”

“I keep you here because you will serve my purpose, woman.” The man snickered. “The brat will come, I know it.”

“How many times do I have to explain to you before you see that...?” Madoka said in exasperation.

“Oh don’t waste your breath,” Shouji Ichitaka cut in again. “I’m fully aware of the hostility between you two. And I don’t doubt that she hates you as much as you hate her. But you don’t know my daughter, woman. I do.”

“What do you mean?” she demanded.

“She’s the type that will do anything for the one she loves,” he said. “And that’s not going to change, ever. I’ll let you know something about An. You see, I have always hated that brat since the day she was born. I tortured her anytime I wanted to, yet she never fought back. The brat simply sat there and took the blows almost meekly. Heck, she didn’t even talk back to me even once. Another kid would have tried to run away or maybe planned to kill me. But she didn’t. Can you guess why?”

Madoka fell silent at the question.

“It was because of her mother!” Shouji laughed. “The brat loved her mother to the point of worship, and the woman loved me. Do you see the parallel, Misono Madoka?”

She did. She didn’t want to, but she did. And it turned her stomach upside down.

“Same thing here,” he continued. “Whether you refuse to see it or not, the brat loves your daughter. And for that, she’ll do anything to keep you alive. She’ll come here, I can bet my life on it.”

“What do you plan to do with her and me?” Madoka asked, trembling.

“Her? Well, I guess there’s no harm in telling you.” Malice flashed in his eyes. “I’ll ship her to CC Corp. and let them turn her into a lab rat. As for you...” those eyes fell on her, sharp and harsh, “I’ll kill you and dump your corpse in the Tokyo River.”

Her heart stopped beating as she stared at him in fright.

“What? Do you really expect me to let you live and expose me to the police? Don’t be naïve.” The man drew from his trousers’ pocket a thin object that was half a hand in length. As he pushed his finger on a button near one end, a small, gleaming blade swung out with a dry click. Even at a distance, Madoka could still see that the thing’s edges were very sharp. Cold sweat trickled down her back. “But hey, don’t worry. I’ll make it as painless as I can, I promise.”

“Let her go, dad,” Shouji An’s voice said briskly and made the man spin on his heel. The girl was standing at the entrance of the warehouse with a sweat-drenched face. She appeared to have run hard. “Don’t drag other people into our family affair.” Madoka didn’t know whether she should feel relieved... or ashamed at the younger Shouji’s appearance.

“And what makes you think you can give me orders, brat?” Shouji Ichitaka said menacingly, his knife turning in his hand and catching the light of the late noon sun pouring in from behind An’s back.

“Because you need me to sign something, don’t you?” the brown-haired girl said in resignation.

“How did you know that?” the man eyed at his daughter suspiciously.

“I heard you mention CC Corp,” the girl replied. “Doesn’t take a genius to figure out that you must have been under that Minamoto woman’s order. There’s only one thing that she wants from me.”

“Sharp, aren’t you?”

“Let Misono-san go, and I’ll sign that contract for you.” Madoka blinked. What Shouji Ichitaka told her earlier about his daughter seemed to be the truth. Shame overwhelmed relief. Could it be that Shouji An loved Madoka’s daughter so much that she was willing to become a lab rat to save a woman who had insulted her, slapped her, and tried to separate her from the one she loved? She found her relief suffocated by shame.

“Why should I?” The man smirked dangerously.

“Because it’ll do you no good.” Deep blue eyes regarded the sharp blade calmly. “Think about it, dad. If she dies, the police will trace her death back to you sooner or later. Minamoto Iriya won’t protect you.”

The knife turned in the elder Shouji’s hand again, only this time, it went much more slowly. The man, eyebrows burrowed together, lips compressed to a thin line, seemed to have been taken aback by his daughter’s boldness. Madoka wasn’t surprised that he did. After all, according to what he told her just a bit ago, Shouji An never talked back. Obviously, nor did she make any sort of counter-demands when being threatened.

“On the other hand, you’ll be free of the burden if you release her,” Shouji An continued. “It’s not like the cops would believe her if she came to them. Not if I signed the contract willingly.” The girl turned to look at Madoka, her deep blue eyes tinged by sadness. “Besides, you know how she feels toward me, don’t you, dad? I doubt she’s going to do something like that for the one she hates.” Blood rushed to Madoka’s face. The teenager’s words weren’t too far off the mark.

“You’re right,” Shouji Ichitaka said finally. He pulled from his pocket a folded piece of paper and tossed it at his daughter’s feet. “Sign it, and I’ll let her go.” Madoka’s heart leapt up her throat.

Sighing, Shouji An fell down on one knee and unfolded the piece of paper quietly. Madoka opened her mouth... and then closed it firmly when she realized that she didn’t know what to say.

“Done,” An muttered once she had printed her personal seal at the bottom of the contract. “Now, uphold your end of the bargain, dad.” The only emotion that Madoka could sense in the seventeen-year-old’s voice was resignation. The only emotion that she could feel in her own heart was shame.

Not saying a word, Shouji Ichitaka cut the ropes tying Madoka’s wrists, grabbed her collar, and roughly pulled her to her feet. Pain fastened around her neck and butterflies swarmed her vision.

“I don’t think I’ll ever find out what mom saw in you, dad,” she heard Shouji An comment in a dark, disapproving tone.

The elder Shouji scoffed at his daughter’s remark and turned his attention on Madoka. “You’re lucky, woman. Now get out of my sight.”

Trembling, Madoka walked slowly toward the entrance. When she reached it, Shouji An stepped aside to let her through.

“Please, tell Mariko I’m sorry,” was what the girl whispered before Shouji Ichitaka roughly, pulled his daughter inside, pushed Madoka outside, and slammed the doors shut. She didn’t believe she could ever forget the tears that were silently falling down the brown-haired girl’s cheeks and the look of unspeakable agony that stained her deep blue eyes.

***

“Now what are you going to do, dad?” Shouji An asked quietly as she studied her biological father, whose attention was on the sheet of paper that he had yanked from her hand. Never in her life did she see him so happy. Never in her life did he disgust her more. To think that he would sink to this level. To think that he was willing to sell his own daughter to a company he knew would turn her into a lab rat. Yet, despising him as she was, she could hardly pay him more attention. Her heart right now was only occupied by regret and pain. Although she no longer cared what was going to happen to her, she sensed her heart clench when she thought of Misono Mariko, the woman who had proposed to her and promised to stay by her side until death tore them apart.

Ichitaka lifted his eyes from the contract, folded it over, pushed it into his pocket, and said coldly, “I’m going to deliver you to Minamoto.” He grabbed her by the wrist. Ignoring the tears soaking her cheeks and the jolt of pain caused by her father’s iron grip, she let herself be dragged toward a rusty metal door at the far end of the warehouse, which creaked open at a push to reveal a small cargo truck parked just a few feet away.

‘So that’s what he’s going to use to ship me off to CC Corp,’ she thought. Images of Mariko flashed again in her head. Her adoptive father had told her that the victims to the Revolutionists’ experiments only suffered a short comatose and a long period of muscle disablement... yet An doubted those things would be all that would happen to her. She could only wonder if she was still alive one year from now, when her sweetheart returned from the United States. She hoped she was.

“Get in,” Shouji Ichitaka growled. The man was standing at the rear of the truck, his hand holding the door to the cargo compartment. There was nothing inside. A lump rose in her throat. It was surely going to be one dark and bumpy ride. Since her biological father seemed more than eager to deliver his shipment, he was definitely going to drive as fast as he could. And that... ought to get An’s stomach rolling during the trip.

“Where are we going?” she demanded.

“You don’t need to know,” the man answered harshly. ‘He never changed,’ she thought. His eyes still glowed with murderous intent whenever he looked at her. had it not been for the fact that he needed her alive for Minamoto Iriya’s sake, he would have strangled her long since. Not that he hadn’t tried to do that when she was still living with him... of course. Her hand rose to touch her throat. It had been several years at least... yet she wasn’t going to forget the day he nearly killed her in his drunken state. The Gods must have tried to protect her that day... for the man suddenly tripped on an empty beer bottle, banged his head against the wall, and was knocked unconscious.

“Fine,” An muttered and climbed inside the compartment. It was cold, and fright was all she felt as the darkness around her intensified and solidified, as the waning sunlight withdrew from the narrowing opening of the closing doors. Feeling like a grape about to face the winepress, she fell to her knees and readied herself to be embraced by the darkness.

Suddenly, a cracking sound slipped into the darkening compartment just a spit second before the doors could close down completely. Then they stopped. Surprised, she crawled a bit closer to the thin opening and peered outside. Then she gasped.

Down on the ground was Shouji Ichitaka, who was lying unconscious on his stomach. Towering over him was the trembling figure of... Misono Madoka, who was holding a thick length of wood in her hands. The woman, panting heavily, was looking at An’s biological father as though wondering whether she should whap his again just in case. Apparently she decided against it, because she tossed the thing away. She still eyed the man lying at her feet uneasily, though. If An didn’t know better, she would have thought the middle-aged office lady was looking at a snake poising to strike.

“Misono-san...” An said slowly as she got out of the compartment. Not that she ever expected someone to come to her rescue... but even if she did, she would never thought that someone would be Misono Madoka, the person whose freedom An just traded with her own.

Not answering her, Mariko’s mother bent down and searched Ichitaka’s trouser pocket. A second later, she pulled out her hand along with the contract, which she tore into pieces while her mouth twisted in disgust.

“Misono-san... why....” She found herself unable to continue due to the shock and amazement she was feeling inside.

“Don’t read too much into it,” Madoka snapped, appearing no friendlier that she was before. “I just hate this bastard too much to let him get away unpunished.” Those amber eyes, blazing like fire in the light of the late noon sun, rounded on An. “And I don’t want to owe you any favor. Nothing has changed between us, you got that?”

“Ah, okay,” An said uneasily and stepped one step backward. She didn’t doubt for one second that Misono Madoka meant every word she said. “Uh, anyway, we should get out of here and call the cops.... LOOK OUT!” An screamed at the same time she lunged forward and hurled herself at her girlfriend’s mother.

***

Rage flared in Misono Madoka’s heart as she felt Shouji An’s body crashing against hers and knocked it to the ground.

“What in Heaven’s name are you trying to do, Shouji?!” she snarled at the girl who was lying on top of her. Strangely enough, the only response she got from the brat was a soft but painful cry. Looking more carefully, she found her breath caught at the sight of the blood that was flowing out from a wide gash on the seventeen-year-old’s waist.

“How dare you do that to me, damn woman?” bellowed Shouji Ichitaka, who stood above them, eyes red with murder, hand clutching a bloody knife. In an instant, she got it. The despicable man must have regained consciousness while she was talking to his daughter. And he must have tried to murder her for having spoiled his plan. Of course, he would have succeeded without Shouji An pushing her out of the way and ending up struck by her own father instead.

Horror rose in her as she stared transfixed at the blood dying her own clothes red.

“Why do you have to do so much for me... Shouji-san...?” she asked with a trembling voice.

“Because Mariko... will be very sad... if something happened to you...” the girl murmured weakly before she fell unconscious. Madoka felt tears welling in her eyes.

“I’ll kill you both!” Shouji Ichitaka roared in his mindless rage and raised his knife overhead. Frightened to death, Madoka could only look at the sharp blade that was approaching, ready to plunge into her heart.

“Freeze!” someone shouted in the distance and stopped Shouji Ichitaka in his track.

Turning her head, Madoka saw a crowd of people running toward them. Many of them wore the uniforms of the Tokyo Police Department. At least five of them were holding guns in their hands.

“Damn it!” Shouji Ichitaka cursed loudly before he climbed hastily into the truck and sped away.

“An! An!” A middle-aged man, whose build was tall and wide, knelt down next to Madoka and gingerly examined the seventeen-year-old. “Someone calls the ambulance! Hurry!” he cried afterwards in agony. He sounded as though he was the one who was hurt.

“Is An okay, Ryo-san?” a teenage girl, who was accompanied by a young man, asked in a shaky and tearful voice as the policemen around her either screamed into their walkie-talkies for an ambulance or directed other people to give chase to the truck.

Suddenly, Madoka’s brain registered the name. Ryo. This man had to be Sakuma Ryo, Shouji An’s adoptive father.

“I don’t know, Kanae,” replied the man gravely as he took the unconscious seventeen-year-old off Madoka and laid her on the ground the way he would a fragile egg. Then he ripped his outer shirt into pieces and tried to hold the blood in. He didn’t seem to be succeeding. “If the ambulance doesn’t get here on time... An may just die from severe blood loss.”

Hearing that, Madoka felt her self-restraint shatter. She buried her face into her hands and wailed as much as she did the day her husband died. It was all her fault that everything had to come to this. Had it not been for her stubbornness and homophobia, Shouji Ichitaka wouldn’t have found his own daughter’s weakness and manipulated it for his own again. Had it not been for her, Shouji An would have never been hurt. If the girl died, Madoka would regret it forever... and her daughter would hate her for the rest of her life.

***

“Answer me, damn it!” Shouji Ichitaka bellowed into his cell phone after the second ring. To his left, the calm surface of the Tokyo River gleamed like a mirror in the light of the setting sun. To his right, trees and tall buildings raced backwards more and more rapidly as he pressed the gas pedal as hard as he could. He had to find a way to get out of here. And Minamoto Iriya might just know how.

“Shouji-san?” the voice of the woman spoke calmly.

“Thank goodness you’re there.” Ichitaka heaved a great sigh of relief. “Please, save me. The police are on my tail and....”

“Save you?” Iriya coldly cut him off. “You must be joking, Shouji-san.”

“What?!”

“The truck has surveillance cameras, so I saw everything,” said the CC Corp. woman. “I never told you to hurt anyone, and you just had to go and wound An.” Her voice grew more heated with every word she spoke. “You landed yourself into this predicament, so get out of it on your own.”

“You can’t do this to me!” he roared into the speaker. “I did everything for your sake!”

“No, sir, you did everything for your own sake,” replied Iriya.

“Listen, woman,” he snarled. “If you don’t get me out of this trouble, you can be sure that the police will learn about you and your company’s involvement.”

“They cannot do anything to me, I assure you.” If the woman wasn’t smiling on the other side of the line, Ichitaka would eat his boots. “They have no proof.”

“I am the proof!”

“Only if you can speak to them.” Iriya’s voice grew so cold that it sent shivers slithering down his spine. He trembled. “I think I know just the perfect way to silence you.” The safety locks on the truck suddenly clicked into place as the glass windows rose up and blocked every exit. Fear wrecked his body apart.

“You’re trying to kill me!” he cried, switching his foot onto the break pedal and tried to slow the vehicle down. To his shock, the thing only sped up.

“Not trying,” replied Minamoto Iriya. “This is goodbye, Shouji-san.” She hung up.

The steering wheel twisted in his hand and hurled the whole truck to the left. In a loud crashing sound, the vehicle leapt into the Tokyo River. When a light on a dashboard went red, the whole world burst into flames. He screamed.

***

Sighing in frustration, Minamoto Iriya took her eyes away from her laptop and leaned back against her chair, one of her hand raking her hair, the other one clutching her forehead. Another failure. Now what should she say to her comrades in the organization, who had been looking forward to her victorious return? Gosh, but worse of all, Shouji An, the key to dealing with the disobedience of the Morpheus System, the collection of Morgana’s fragments, was going to die unless she was taken to the hospital on time. And if she drew her last breath.... Iriya shivered. The dream of the Revolutionist might never be fulfilled.

“Minamoto Iriya,” a strange voice echoed in the room and startled her. “So you are hiding in the Grand Central hotel. Very brave of you indeed.” She gave a second start when she realized that the voice was coming from the speakers of her laptop, the screen of which had gone pitch black.

“Who are you?” she demanded.

“I am Helba,” the voice answered. “I’m sure you have heard my name.”

Iriya had. Helba was the famous hacker who had sided with Kite and his companions in the war against Morgana. She drew a sharp breath and thought that all her internal organs were turning into ice. How long had this hacker been on her tail? And how did she find Iriya?

“I have been trying to track you down for a while now,” Helba continued. “You Revolutionists have been very careful in erasing your traces. But, I finally caught you.” The woman’s voice took on a sharp but satisfied edge.

“What do you want?” Iriya tried to be calm and addressed the threat in a rational manner. She barely succeeded.

“Eliminating a threat to The World and its Players,” Helba announced, “which means you and your petty organization. That is all I’m interested in.”

Despite her fear, Iriya laughed. “You are just a little hacker. What gives you the notion that you can harm a hair on our head?”

“Your computer isn’t the only one that I’ve managed to hack into,” the hacker said. “I will have you know that the mainframe at your headquarters shared the same fate.”

“You’re lying!” Iriya suddenly found it excruciatingly hard to breath. It had to be a bluff. It had to be! They had the most talented computer scientists working for them at headquarters. She refused to believe that one hacker could infiltrate into their digital fortress!

“You shouldn’t be so sure,” Helba said, her voice racked with amusement. “Why don’t you call them up and ask how they are doing?”

Iriya never hesitated before she pulled out her cell phone and dialed headquarters’ numbers. Ten minutes passed as she waited for someone to pick up the phone, redialed, waited, and then redialed again. The result never changed. The dull ring tone was the only sound that answered her.

“It can’t be,” she muttered in disbelief as she let go of her cell phone and see device crack open on the floor. At headquarters, there was always someone waiting to answer calls from her. The fact that none did, meant that... perhaps what the hacker said was the truth. Shivering, she turned her attention back to her traitorous laptop.

“They are all in the police custody right now, in case you are wondering,” Helba said. “I’ve turned in all the secret documents I downloaded from your mainframe to the Ministry of Cyber Regulations just a few hours ago. You wouldn’t believe how quickly they acted, really. I guess they have been waiting for an excuse to lay their hands on CyberConnect for a long time.” The woman stopped to laugh. “The larger a tree is, the more winds it catches, don’t you agree?”

“You!”

“Oh, and by the way, I’ve recorded your conversation with Shouji Ichitaka before he died. You can be sure that it will be used as evidence against you in your trial.” Her voice hardened. “I never expected you to kill him, though, so I couldn’t react fast enough to save him. I would have liked it much better had he served the rest of his natural life in prison instead.” Suddenly, her voice softened to almost a whisper, “This is goodbye, Minamoto Iriya.”

Silence followed while the screen of her laptop brightened into life again. After a full minute of sitting in her chair in a daze, she sprang up to her feet and gathered her belonging. Before she could stuff everything into her suitcase, however, the door to her room was blasted open.

“Minamoto Iriya, I presume?” A burly man in a dark blue suit stepped inside, his hand holding a police badge. “I am Captain Kuroda from the Tokyo Police Department. You’re wanted by the Ministry of Cyber Regulations. I now place you under arrest. Be aware that anything you say from this moment on may be used as evidence in court. You have the right to remain silent.”

Iriya crumbled to her knee. For the first time in her life, she felt lonely... and afraid.

***

When Shouji An came to, she was lying on a white bed in a white room with white curtains stirring gently in the night winds. Outside her window, the full moon was shining amid a starry sky. Inside, there was her girlfriend, a being that was just as dazzling, sitting on her wheelchair by the bed, her hands holding An’s left very tightly. No one else was in the room.

“Are you feeling okay, An?” Mariko said worriedly when she noticed that An had woken up. That was when she noticed the moisture in her girlfriend’s amber eyes. “Don’t move. Your wound is still tender. It may open again.”

“I’m okay, I think,” she replied. Move? She didn’t have enough strength to lift a finger.... “How long have I been unconscious?”

“A few hours,” her sweetheart answered. “I was scared to death, An. The doctor said that you lost so much blood you could have died.” Her voice was shaking violently toward the end, and her hands held An’s more tightly than ever. She seemed on the verge of tears, too.

“I’m sorry I worried you, Mariko,” An said, feeling moisture gathering in her own eyes.

“I’m just glad you’re okay now, An,” the young woman said. “And... thank you for protecting my mom even after all that she’s done to you.” She leaned over and gave An a light kiss on the lips.

“You’re welcome.” An felt herself blush. “Is she okay, though?”

“She is.” Mariko nodded. “She’s sitting outside right now, talking to Ryo-san.”

An blinked. “My dad? About what?”

“I have no clue.” Her girlfriend gave her a rueful smile. “Why don’t you ask him later? He may tell you. Oh, Kanae and Hiroyuki are outside too. They were here went you were still sleeping, and they just left to get some coffee. I think they intended to stay here until you woke.”

“Hiroyuki?” An raised an eyebrow. “Who’s that?”

“Ah. That’s Silver Knight’s real name.”

“Silver Knight?” An repeated in amusement. What was that rigid, inflexible former captain of the Crimson Knights doing here?

“Apparently, he and Kanae had been meeting up regularly behind our back.” Mariko winked at her. “I asked Kanae why she didn’t tell us, and she said she was afraid that I would tease her. But I think she likes him, whether she knows it or not.”

An laughed softly at the revelation. To think that Silver Knight and Kanae of all people would come together when they acted like dogs and cats around each other in The World. She stopped and winced shortly afterwards, though, as her laughter appeared to have excite her wound a little bit.

“Careful,” Mariko said as her hand gently stroke An’s head.

“Okay,” she murmured happily in response. Then suddenly, a thought struck her. “You said your mom was outside?”

“Yes.”

“Then... why did she let you stay in here with me?” An said slowly. “I thought she....”

“You saved her life, my love,” the blue-haired woman whispered. “Do you think she was so heartless that she would try to separate us again? She was sorry that she treated you badly before, An. She told me that.”

“Then... then...” An stuttered, unable to believe what her girlfriend just said, “she is okay... with me and you now?” Tears welled up in her eyes again.

“Of course,” Mariko replied gently. “It still makes her a bit uneasy, I think, but she’s accepted you as my girlfriend. And that’s all that matters, ne?”

“Yes. That’s all that matters. Thank goodness,” An said, feeling hot tears rolling down her cheeks. Quietly, Mariko dabbed at them with her sleeves. She would have kissed An again, too, had someone not knocked softly on the door.

“I heard you talking,” the voice of An’s adoptive father said. “Has An woken up, Mariko?”

“Yes, come in, Ryo-san,” her sweetheart answered.

The door opened and admitted Sakuma Ryo, who was grinning more brightly than ever before. An blinked. What made the man seem so happy? Even Mariko was staring at him in surprise.

“How are you feeling, kiddo?” Ryo said as he pulled out a chair from nearby and sat down next to the bed.

“I’m okay. What about you, dad? Did you win a lottery when I was sleeping or something?”

“Something like that.” The novelist nodded, his huge grin unfaltering on his lips. “I have bad news and good news. Which one do you want to hear first?”

“Bad news!” An and Mariko said at the same time.

Ryo looked at each of them in great amusement before he nodded and said, “Well, you will have to stay here until tomorrow night for further checkup. It means that you’ll need to ear the horrible hospital food that they serve in here.”

“What kind of bad news is that?” An scoffed.

“You don’t have to worry about that, Ryo-san.” Mariko gave the man a smile. “I’ll ask my mom to prepare food for An. I don’t think she’ll refuse.”

“Okay then. Now for the good news. You are to stop going to class in Japan for one year, An.”

“Eh?” An frowned. “What do you mean I am to...?” She stopped abruptly as what her father said hit her like a club. Japan. One year. Mariko took a deep breath, her eyes transfixed on Ryo’s face, which looked like a child at his birthday party.

“Well, I didn’t say you could stop going to school per se,” the novelist said, obviously enjoying himself. “You are, however, to participate in a Student exchange program with a high school in California.”

“But... but how...? I thought you didn’t have the money for me to go to the U.S.” An mumbled breathlessly.

“I didn’t. And still don’t. At least not yet.” Ryo winked at both of them. “But a kind lady has agreed to let you go with Mariko there by giving up her own spot. Can you guess whom?”

“My... mom?” Mariko’s eyes were as wide as they could be. And her mouth was hanging open. An, on the other hand, was at a loss for words.

“Apparently, you moved her greatly by saving her life, An.” Her father smiled broadly. “She didn’t say that, mind you. I think she’d die before she admits it. What she did say, however, was that she feared she might not find a job one year later, when she came back from the U.S. That was why she needed to stay in Tokyo and kept working, was what she also claimed.” Ryo rolled his eyes. “Oh, and she has a message for you. ‘If you don’t care for my daughter properly when you’re in California, I’m going to skin you when you return.’” He laughed at that.

When Mitsuki Kanae and the man named Hiroyuki came into the room a few minutes later, they found An crying like a baby in Mariko’s arms while her father was sitting uncomfortably on his chair. Between her sobs and her tears, she thought that the wound she took in Misono Madoka’s stead was worth it. If she had had to take a dozen more, it would still be worth it. The Gods standing witness, she would hand over everything she ever owned just for the possibility that she didn’t have to be separated from the one she loved. Oh, how she had prayed every night for a miracle.

An never thought that she would get one. And certainly, nor did she expect that such miracle would be handed to her by someone who she thought would hate her until the end of time.

***

Standing outside of the room, the door of which was left ajar, Misono Madoka silently listened to the sobbing sound echoing out from inside. Even her own daughter was crying. Yet, the tears that she shed were happy ones, and those were what convinced Madoka that her decision was correct. She didn’t want to, couldn’t, admit it, but Mariko needed Shouji An more than she needed Madoka. She sighed. Besides, although the seventeen-year-old was still young and inexperienced, there was no doubt that she would do everything in her power to keep Madoka’s daughter safe.

Sighing again, she stepped away from the room. Now she needed to call her supervisor and beg her to pretend that Madoka never handed in a resignation letter. She hoped that she could cook up a reason good enough to convince the elderly lady.

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Two years later.

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“An, where do you want to put the bookcase?” Mariko said as she rose to her feet and tried to get a good look around their modest apartment. Moving boxes were all around the places, and they had taken up so much space that she found it rather hard to walk around. She only wished they had paid a little bit more attention before they dumped everything into the living room. “An?” The nineteen-year-old was nowhere to be seen. Mariko only wondered where the girl went.

She walked to the bedroom and found her sweetheart there, sitting on the bed with her cell phone propped against her ear. The conversation, whoever it was with, was already over, though.

“Okay, I’ll see you tomorrow, dad,” An said. “You take care too. And don’t use the microwave too often, or I’ll throw the thing away when I see it next. Bye.” She hung up.

“Dad called?” Mariko murmured softly as she settled down by her spouse’s side on the bed. Behind them, above the headboard, on the wall was the picture of their wedding day. She got to admit, she never appeared happier in her life. Although... she kinda wished that she didn’t wear her wedding band to college. That way, her classmates would never have realized that she was married. Those relentless people kept on teasing her and wanting to meet An so that they could tease them both at the same time. It took a great deal of effort just to fend them off.

“Yes.” An nodded and put her head on Mariko’s shoulder and her arm around Mariko’s waist. “He wanted to know if we needed any help. You know, with us moving out and all.”

“He could have called a few hours ago, when we were actually carrying those heavy boxes,” she joked as her hand brushed her lover’s hair, now shoulder-length, affectionately.

“He would have come if he could.” An laughed. “But he couldn’t. He got an appointment with the publisher, you see.”

“Ah, for his newest novel?”

“Yup.”

“His other ones are selling really well, aren’t they?”

“Considering that he just bought B.T. a new BMW... I would say yes.” An giggled.

Sakuma Ryo-san, when he knew that they were moving out, had offered to help them financially so that they could have a house of their own. They refused because they wanted to build everything with their own hands. Besides, this was their sanctuary. It wasn’t right to borrow someone’s money for that. It was indeed a good thing, though, that the novelist took no offense and respected their wish. He was truly a good and understanding dad. Her biological one was like that, too, before the accident robbed him from her and her mother.

“Mariko, I learned something very interesting when I was talking to dad just now.” An sounded terribly amused.

“What is it?”

“Can you guess who was it that got you the treatment offer from the charity organization in the U.S?”

“Tell me. I’m bad at guessing games, An.”

“B.T.!” The brown-haired girl giggled.

“For real?”

“Yes! It was a slip of the tongue on dad’s part. Apparently, B.T. forbade him to tell us. Oh, she was also the person who gave him the VIP passes to LaQua.”

“That sounds just like her.” Mariko smiled. Yes, it was indeed B.T.-like to do a good deed without taking credit for it. She would need to thank her later. Treating her to dinner, or lunch, someday, perhaps.

“Oh, and before I forget. Mom called just before dad did,” An announced. “She asked us to come over later tonight to have dinner with her. She thought we’d be too busy to cook, so she would do that for us. I accepted her invitation, by the way.”

“Good thing that you did.” Mariko laughed. “I’m too tired to cook now.”

Misono Madoka, Mariko and An’s beloved mother, was now doing quite well in her career, too. Since her supervisor’s retirement about a year ago, she had been appointed to hold the same post. With that, she now no longer had to work nights and days for a meager monthly salary and had much more time to do the things that she loved. Which, interestingly enough, involved taking a night-time Flower arrangement class at Mariko’s college. Madoka seemed to be having a lot of fun these days, so Mariko was very happy for her.

“What time did she say we could come by?” she asked.

“Around eight,” her sweetheart answered.

“Hmm, two more hours to go.” She eyed her sweetheart mischievously. “What do you think we should do to pass the time?” Even as she spoke, she gently lowered the nineteen-year-old to the soft mattress, which happened to be Sakuma Ryo-san’s wedding gift, and pinned her hands on either side of her head.

“Um... go back to unpacking?” An swallowed. Her breathing was uneven, and her face, under the fluorescent light tubes hanging on the ceiling, was very red.

“Bad idea,” Mariko said with a smile. She took one hand away to use it to unbutton her lover’s collar shirt. She intentionally drew her palm across the girl’s heaving chest, too, and elicited a soft cry from her in the process.

“I thought you were tired,” An whispered, her mouth slightly opened as though inviting kisses.

“Too tired to cook. That’s what I said.” Mariko laughed softly into the crook of her sweetheart’s neck. The girl could only whimper aloud. She fell quiet, though, as soon as Mariko claimed her lips and gave her a kiss that seemed to burn herself inside out. Now that they had their own place, their life as a couple truly began. This small apartment, their sanctuary, their shelter, their home sweet home, where she and An were going to spend the next stage of their life together, was where she and her heart belonged. As long as An continued to love her and stay by her side, this world would always remain her paradise.

**************************************************************************************

THE END.

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