Ai sighed tiredly as she rounded a corner in the alleyway. Thank goodness, she managed to lose that lunatic. She didn't know what he wanted but she also didn't want to wait to find out either.
After telling Hayama that she needed to go to the restroom, Ai made a full sprint and left the restaurant. Hopefully, he had some money on him?
Ai immediately shook away her thoughts. Why was she feeling sorry for that lunatic? Deciding not to dwell on the matter any longer, she made her way back home steadily.
Out of a sudden, a commotion caught her eyes. Many groups of military men were rushing about on the streets as they went around the shops asking for something. They were holding some sort of scroll and asking the shopkeepers if they had seen the person on the scroll.
Ai took a look at their military insignia. It showed a red dragon on a black shield. Wait! Isn't that the emblem of Omaru Defence?! Why are the defence forces in the city?!
In Shinto, there were two types of military services. One was used for internal affairs and acted as police for people of Shinto and they were led by Yamato Magistrate. The other one, which was led by Omaru household, was called Omaru Defence and they were the external defence forces of Shinto.
Gnawing her teeth, Ai wondered. The defence forces rarely appeared in the city and were often assigned to guarding the borders. Yet here they were. Something fishy is going on.
As Ai pondered on that thought, a wind blew and she caught a glimpse of what was on the scroll. Holy smoke, it was a painting of herself!
Being shocked silly, Ai wondered why were they looking for her. Was it because she disappeared last night? Or did she somehow offend the Omaru household? But employing the army to look for a missing girl? That seemed a bit... extravagant. Ai is not a criminal! (Author: But she is a smooth criminal! Annie are you okay?)
Though curious, Ai wanted to find out what was going on before getting caught so she made a move to walk away. Just as she was about to, her eyes collided with a pair of familiar cyan blue eyes.
"Where are you running off again, Ai?" Akiyo asked with slight amusement in his voice. He just found her and the lady was trying to escape once more.
Hearing that, Ai had no choice but to face the reality so she slowly turned around. Akiyo was looking at her with an amused expression while the rest of the soldiers ceased their actions and turned to look at them.
With every eye on her, Ai felt sweats forming on her forehead as she desperately racked her brain on what she had done wrong. Yet she wasn't able to come up with anything so she decided to ask Akiyo helplessly, "Akiyo, what's going on?"
Akiyo smiled softly at the vexed girl and gently reached out to smoothen her brows. Ai was subconsciously frowning.
"Well, since you disappeared last night, things turned chaotic at the ball so we had been out looking for you. So where did you go?" Akiyo asked as he held Ai's hands in his, while subtly checking out her body if she had sustained any injuries.
Even though Akiyo had said this, the truth was that there was almost a bloodbath last night. A few hours after Ai had left the ballroom, Kit went out to check on her. Yet the boy had come back empty-handed with almost a crazed look on his face. He mumbled continuously that "Ai is gone" while his eyes frantically looked around the room as if looking for something or someone.
Seeing that, Shion Hozaka immediately walked over to Jin's table, flipped it and grabbed his brother by the throat until the latter was dangling in the air. The scene was downright brutal and even a trained general like him got the chills. Though he and his brothers were especially skilled in martial arts, being generals of an army, they were caught off guard by surprise and Shion Hozaka was a large man with substantial inner strength.
Miko Yamato had screamed and yelled at Shion Hozaka to let Jin go, but the young master of Hozaka ignored her and gritted out four words that made Jin exploded with anger.
"Where. Is. My. Woman?"
Finally snapping out of shock, Jin grabbed hold of Shion Hozaka's arm and twisted it, freeing himself from the vice-like grip of the latter.
"How dare you call her your woman! You are courting death!" Jin yelled. His face red with anger and hatred.
Akiyo had enough of watching them from the sideline so he had redirected their attention by telling them that they should instead try to find Ai now before anything happened. Immediately Shion Hozaka left without saying any words. Looking around the room, Akiyo realised only he, Jin and Miko were present and the rest of the people had left the room.
Seeing his brother in anger, Miko Yamato had stepped in and told Jin that she would ask her father to help assist in the efforts in finding Ai.
Though Jin had agreed and thanked her gratefully, Akiyo didn't trust her words. According to Ai's story, this lady was not someone to place his trust to and hence, he immediately rode a horse to the borders to brought back some of his soldiers. He was still a young master of Omaru household and second-in-charge general to the Omaru Defence. It was pure luck that he found her before others did and he couldn't be happier to find her safe.
Back at present, Ai felt guilty for causing so much trouble and bowed her head apologetically.
"I'm sorry, I had too much drink and needed a rest so I went to the nearby inn." Ai apologised, leaving the part of Hayama since she didn't want people to misunderstand.
Akiyo shook his head and caressed her hands gently, "It's fine as long as you are safe, let me escort you back".
Just as Ai was about to nod, another presence suddenly appeared and grabbed her into a tight hug. Seeing the familiar military insignia on the person's chest, Ai immediately struggled to break free. There were only two people in Shinto who could wear that badge on their chest, one was Akiyo and the other was his brother, Jin.
"Why are you resisting so much? I only embraced you because I was worried about you." Jin said with a frown on his face as he pulled away to stare at Ai. The lady didn't have any problem with his dumb brother touching her and he only hugged her, she started to wiggle away like a worm on salt. He was not happy!
Ai glared at Jin with hatred in her eyes. He was the cause that made her get drunk, why is he acting all concerned and warm now.
Shrugging away his arms, Ai moved to step away. She didn't want to deal with Jin and her headache from this morning was getting worse. But Jin was hurt by her coldness. Everytime that he tried to get close to her, the lady only had negative reactions: anger, repulse, disgust and indifference.
At the corner of his eyes, Jin saw his brother reaching out to follow Ai and a wave of irrepressible anger rose inside him. Out of anger, he grabbed Akiyo and threw him on the ground. The force he used was not too violent but enough to seperate the two.
Suddenly, Jin found himself being pinned against the wall by Ai. Her hands tightly gripped his already injured neck as her pale golden eyes glared at him hatefully.
"How dare you! He is your brother! You are too vicious!" Ai yelled as her grip on Jin's neck tightened.
"You are too vicious! You are too vicious!" the words rang in Jin's mind as his vision started to overlap. It was a scene with the same words. Only that the words were said by him to Ai, who was on the floor with tears streaming down her face. He was clutching Miko in the embrace as he repeated those words in a similar manner. What? What was that?
Seeing that Jin had not responded to her, Ai released her grip on him. She had noticed the large bruise on his neck and wondered how he had gotten it. Shrugging away her thoughts, she moved to help Akiyo on the floor.
Akiyo looked severely injured as he looked back at Jin with a wronged expression. The expression revealed his unspoken word: Brother how could you do this to me?
Ai felt her heart clenched as her hatred for Jin grew exponentially larger. How can he be so cruel?! But as she helped Akiyo off the ground, she did not see the glint on his eyes as his lips curled into a triumphant smile. He had been long observing everything and was truly tired of being put aside. He noticed how Kit Koyozoki played the victim role and inevitably secured a place beside Ai. So when the opportunity arose, he merely utilised it to his advantage. Well... sorry, big brother, it sucks to be you.
Soon, the duo left the scene without looking back as a certain pitiful young general watched with tears streaming down his face.
Just as the duo reached the premise of Shizuka Household, they heard loud noises as if some sort of arguments was taking place, followed by a pained yell.
Shocked, the duo immediately hastened their footsteps. The scene that awaited them, Ai had never expected in her life. Kit had Tamaki lay face down on the ground, with the latter's arms forcibly twisted behind in an unnatural angle.
Suddenly Kit roared in Tamaki's face, with his veins popping out, "You twisted bastard!! Where have you taken Ai?!"
Holy S***! Wha...what happened to her little kitty and his usual adorable demeanour?! Kit had never, she repeats, never raised his voice in such manner and why does this kit look like a walking steroid on strike? What the...
Visibly angered that Tamaki wasn't answering him, Kit applied more pressure and pressed him down on the ground to the point that Tamaki looked like he was kissing the ground.
Ai immediately shouted to put a stop to it before things escalated. Hearing that, Kit abruptly whipped his head around and dropped Tamaki on the ground like a rag doll.
Kit first noticed Ai and relief flooded into his eyes, before noticing Akiyo's arms on her shoulder and immediately walked over, his eyes blazing like fire.
Pushing Akiyo aside, Kit gripped Ai's shoulders and immediately questioned, "Where have you been?!"
Akiyo, who had been pushed to the ground second time in a day, glared hatefully at Kit. True, most of his injury was self-inflicted but still, he was fucking injured!
Paying no mind to it, Kit repeated his question, "I said where have you been?!"
Snapping out of her shock, Ai gave out her automated answer, "Well... I had too much drink and needed a rest so I went to the nearby inn".
Hearing her reply, Kit's expression slightly softened but immediately retorted, "Even then you could have looked for me and asked me to bring you there! I was looking for you for ages!"
Ai didn't reply but smiled and lightly patted his head. Well, she didn't know what to reply to that and sometimes a smile is the best answer to get you out of unexpected situations.
In this situation, that seemed to have worked since Kit immediately softened and leaned into her touch like a big overgrown cat.
Just as she thought she had avoided the disaster, a flurry of black immediately rushed over and tackled Kit by his waist. Now with Kit on the ground, the flurry, who she noticed as Tamaki, rained punches down on Kit.
What's with the whole violent scenarios?! She had only disappeared the one single night and the whole world seemed like it fell into a lawless apocalypse!
Sighing once more, Ai reluctantly pulled Tamaki away. That little stinky bug was panting and crawling to break free to punch Kit more as she restrained him.
"Enough, Tamaki" Ai whispered, she did not have enough strength left in her to handle this and she was soon about to faint.
Tamaki noticed Ai's pale face and the first time she addressed him by his first name. He blushed slightly that it temporarily eased him out of his fury. Last night, he was out and about searching high and low for Ai and he couldn't find her. He had especially felt responsible since Ai had disappeared from one of his establishments, and thus sent out his minions to find her as well. But with no avail, Tamaki had come down to Shizuka household in case Ai would be back here.
But just as he reached, he was ambushed by that rabid dog of her. He didn't expect that kid to be extremely strong, as he was immediately being pushed to the ground. Tamaki had martial arts training but this kid, his martial arts was on a different level.
Tamaki was helpless with his arms being twisted behind until the lady of his affections came to his rescue. But he was badly humiliated and he couldn't let this go so he tackled the kid and vented his anger.
Suddenly, the arms that were restraining him loosened and Ai fainted. Catching her before she landed on the ground, Tamaki felt an emotion that he had never encountered before. Concern.
Glaring at that stupid kid with the bruised face and the other useless loser on the ground, Tamaki immediately lifted Ai and walked into the Shizuka household. The servants better fucking bring me the best physician!