kurosawa87: Hehe it was slightly awkward but then again it is their wedding so they can do whatever they want
mayuki_daisuki: Well Yuki’s character has chaned a bit since the beginning lol and I’m happy that you want more but that was the epilogue so it’s the last ever chapter of the story… Sorry to disappoint
Hikari_043083: You’re right about the pair being initial strange but then again I always felt like they could be a pair, the competitive battle between them on the pitch and the sole love for football meant it wouldn’t be ridiculous an idea, and Jurina deserves closure for making such a bold decision over Yuki.
Plus this update proves you are at least 50% and thank you so much for your flattering words but I am not worthy
A/N: Sorry for the late update people, no excuses I was just a little slow and lazy this week ;^^ Anyhow there’s a few big exciting revelations in this chapter, some sad and some nice ones, and also the return of Mayu. Again thank you all for taking the time to read this story. Really appreciate it.
Chapter 6-Hostage-
Heavy, Jurina must’ve crawled on top of me. Again. I didn’t bother to try and get up; I just decided to continue to lie beneath her.
“Rena-chan…” Eyes still shut Jurina began to cutely mumble in her sleep. “Rena-chan I’m sorry…” Huh? What could she be apologizing about? Was she maybe dreaming about the ‘thing’ that happened yesterday? My mind was still flummoxed from exactly what happened then. Did I actually enjoy the kiss? That can’t be right. There’s no way that I’m developing feelings for Jurina. I just need her to work for me; she even said herself that she would help me take my revenge. It doesn’t matter about what happens to her after that’s done.
“I’m really sorry Rena-chan… I, no Yuu-chan…” Jurina’s muttering started to become more erratic and confusing. I could feel small beads of sweat dripping from her hair onto my neck. It must be a similar nightmare to last time but just what is it that she’s seeing and why am I in it this time? After taking several hits from her flailing arms I decided enough was enough and lifted her off of me to escape from the sofa. I went into my room and changed in to my usual fighting clothes a sleeveless top, trousers and trench coat; all of them pitch black in colour. When I returned to the room with spare clothes for Jurina she seemed to have calmed down so I decided that it would be safe to leave her here and placed the clean clothes on a table then exited out of my apartment.
Getting out of the lift I dialled Mayu’s number on my mobile. After several rings Mayu finally picked up.
“Hey Rena what are you doing calling me in the morning?” Her yawning told me that she had only just woken up.
“Hey Mayu I need to talk to you right now. I’ll be—”
“Far more polite the next time I wake someone from their sleep.” She was clearly angry and mocked me by imitating my voice.
“Whatever. Just make sure you’re ready. I’ll be at you bar in ten minutes.” I returned my phone back to my pocket and marched on down the streets to the rendezvous point.
・・・
“Late.” Mayu had a bemused look on her face as she sat on the counter. She was staring at her hand as she irately rubbed her fingers together.
“Thirty seconds, Mayu that’s it.” I was just as annoyed at her constant complaining about wasting time so I figured I would just wind her up even more. “And you should be thanking me; instead of wasting time sleeping you can do things now that I’ve woken you up.” She just hopped off and turned her back to me grumbling.
“Hmph whatever, just get on with what it is you want to talk about.” She pulled out a seat for herself and kicked up her feet, resting them atop the table. Uninvited I helped myself to a drink and sat at the counter.
“I want to know more about Jurina.” Mayu just mockingly laughed at my request and rocked back on her chair.
“Haha you’re talking about your new sidekick right? You two looked like a really cute couple yesterday at the theme park. Did you kiss at the top of the Ferris wheel?” She shut her eyes, puckered up her lips and leant toward me.
“Hey cut the crap.” I shot a glare across to her. “How do you even know about the date yesterday?” In reply Mayu just let out a dismissive tut and started tapping the side of her head in slow motion.
“You should have realized by now that everything that happens in this city goes through this mind. Then again I just thought you were dragged out by Jurina; I didn’t realize it was a date.”
“N…n-no it wasn’t a date!” She had finished her sentence with a cheeky little wink sending blushes to flare up my cheeks.
“But you just said it yourself.” Her smug face just continued to mock me as I flustered around. Dammit, she’s completely drawn me into her pace. I’m meant to be getting answers from her but instead she’s just toying with me, fooling around in order to fuel her boredom.
“J-just stop screwing around and answer my question dammit!” I slammed my glass on the counter trying to regain some sort of authority in the situation. It didn’t make much of a difference. Mayu remained cool smiling at me while twiddling her thumbs, waiting for me to phrase my question in a more polite manner. “Please can you tell me more about Jurina or more specifically exactly what is your relationship with her?”
“My relationship with her?” An eyebrow was raised at these words causing a sense unease to come over me. “What are you jealous about the fact that I’ve known her for longer? If you want me to stop talking to her then I can do that at any time for you.”
“That’s not what I mean!” Why did everything have to be so awkward and difficult? “I’m talking about the past that you share with her. How exactly did you guys meet?”
“So Jurina’s already told you about our partnership, huh?” Mayu rolled her eyes at the thought of her fun being over. “So I’m going to take a guess that you know about her dad’s death.” My head slowly rocked forward to acknowledge her comments. “Well I was also there at that station. I watched her franticly clawing at the rubble, trying to save her dad but she was too late. By the time she found him he had already passed away and she couldn’t move the body so she took his gun from him and then broke down into tears. At this point I was already working along with my father, gathering information and selling it off to whoever paid for it. In fact I had made several dealings with the group that caused the train bombings so when I saw the girl completely devoid of life I decided to give her a reason to live. Though I never thought that she would be able to destroy the entire group in a night, she truly was a demon back then and still would be if it weren’t for that…”
There was a scary glint in her eyes as she reminisced about the past. Seeing her with a serious expression wasn’t anything new but the intensity of her look this time seemed to make the air in the room thinner. It felt like she was harbouring resentment towards Jurina’s change and it was all overflowing drawing in the shadows in the room to surround herself in a pitch black aura.
“So you must know about Yuu-chan then.” Mayu let out a piercing hiss at the mention of that name, sending a shiver down my spine.
“Yeah I know of her, she’s the very last person Jurina killed before she became pitiful and soft.” Everything suddenly became a blur. I couldn’t believe the words that had just come from Mayu. How could it be true? Why would Jurina have done such a thing? My body lost all its functions and I just sat there, in silence, shaking and unable to speak. Suddenly a shrill tune rang out to fill the room and Mayu reached into her pocket for her phone.
“Watanabe speaking… Oh Jurina it’s you!” Mayu noticed my reaction to hearing that name and began to smirk as she continued to chatting. “Yeah Rena’s at my place right now. Huh, you’re at the abandoned train station?”
Without waiting to hear the rest of the phone call I dashed out of the bar and started sprinting down the street. With the wind rushing by I attempted to regain some sort of composure and piece together the information that I just received today. From everything Jurina said I couldn’t believe what Mayu had just said was true, but then again why would Mayu lie about such a thing? Both of the girls were full of secrets and neither of them intended revealing it all any time soon. Every single answer to a question just brought forth more questions and added to my confusion. This had just become another game of cat and mouse for the truth, much like my failing attempt at getting revenge for Yuki. As I continued to run down the streets my fists clenched at the thought of receiving another ambiguous answer, Jurina better be straight with me when I find her.
・・・
Upon arrival at the derelict buildings I began to search for Jurina in them. Then out of nowhere a cat landed on top of my head and let out a lazy meow.
“Train where are… Ah, Rena-chan!” Following the sound of the voice I looked up to see a dangling Jurina waving at me from the roof structures. She dropped down revolving multiple times before astonishingly bouncing back up off the ground and gracefully landing on her toes.
“Jurina, why are you wearing your clothes again? I specifically looked out a clean change of clothes for you.” Even though I had left her fresh clothes she had returned to wearing her usual dirty rags which were made to be even filthier from roaming around the rooftops of such a run-down place.
“Well I didn’t want to ruin any more of your clothes so I decided it would be better off to go back to wearing my own.” She began to dust herself down causing dirt to puff up into my face.
“Ugh watch what you’re doing otherwise you’ll still get my clothes dirty.” Coughing and spluttering I waved away the black smoke that was floating towards me.
“Hehe I’m sorry about that.” The playful wink and poking out tongue that followed suggested that she was in no way apologetic about her actions. “I promise not to do it again.” Noticing my slight twitch of annoyance Jurina switched to feign a puppy begging for forgiveness. Desperate to avoid any distraction from her adorable gaze I tightly grab her wrist and spoke in as stern a tone as I could muster given the circumstance.
“Look, stop playing around for now. I need to ask you something. Something important to do with your Yuu-chan…” Jurina tried to draw away from me at the mention of that name and an awkward silence descended between the two of us. “Jurina did you kill—” Suddenly the sound of a barrel falling echoed throughout the hall.
“What the heck?” As I turned I saw a deranged man emerge from the shadows and charging straight towards me with a knife flailing in his hand. “Crap!” Instinctively reacting I reached into my jacket for my gun but I was far too late.
“D-don’t move!” The cold iron edge being pressed up against me was trembling as the owner of the knife stammered over his words. “If you try something funny I’ll slit her throat!” Fearing for my life, cold sweat started to pour down my paling face. Images of the day Yuki was killed started flashing through my head, the serene expression that she had as she was held hostage. What on earth was it that made Yuki so calm?
“I told you not to move!” Jurina had her gun aiming straight at us and was staring into my eyes. However something was different, it wasn’t her usual confident gaze but a rather more timid stare. This was the first time that I had witnessed any sort of doubt and fear in Jurina. Her hand was shaking as much as the blade of my captor, which now had a small bead of my blood on the tip, as it pricked the side of my neck. My breathing became more erratic as the barrel of the gun became more unstable as it remained trained on to me. Jurina mouthed a few words as she shut her eyes and tightened her grip on the trigger.
“Arrggghhhh!” A searing pain tore through my leg causing it to give way and become a dead weight. After being discarded by my captor I collapsed to the ground writhing around in agony clutching onto my knee as blood came gushing out from it. Jurina fired several more shots in order to halt the crazed attacker but she failed to hit the target once and he escaped out of the building.
“Rena-chan, I’m so sorry!” Tear drops were overflowing from her face as she uncontrollably sobbed in a fit of anguish. She bit into her jacket and ripped off one of the sleeves, tearing it apart and wrapped it around my wound. “Thi-this is just like with Yuu-chan. I-I tried saving her b-but I…” Giving up on words Jurina just reverted to uncontrolled bawling and incessant howling. Fighting to overcome the pain I put my arms around Jurina and brought her closer to me so that she could have a shoulder to cry on. After we sat there for a while Jurina’s tears were starting to ease off but the pain in my leg was still not allowing me to stand.
“I-I better get you back to your apartment.” With her breathing more controlled she hoisted me onto her started heading out of the station. Learning about the truth behind Yuu-chan’s death just filled me with more confusion and sorrow. It was yet another tragic answer which resulted in more questions. How could anyone have the mental capacity to survive after suffering from so many traumatic events? Any normal person would have given up on life by now, but Jurina continued to fight on even with the guilt of murdering someone important to her. There has to be something that drove her to continue living but just what is it that gives her the strength? Could it be…me? That would explain some things but there was no previous encounter between us until recently and she refused to answer any question regarding her feelings towards me.
Still if I am the one giving her the strength to live then maybe I should help her even more. She deserves to be able to have someone to rely on and not just fight on by herself. Also having her company is something that I’ve begun to truly appreciate; the burning desire in my heart, for Yuki’s revenge, was starting to dwindle and fade away. Not to mean that I had given up, it’s just that Jurina’s existence meant I had other things to think about and it made me question whether Yuki would actually want me to do such a thing. As for supporting Jurina, well it didn’t have to be much, just the occasional gesture of encouragement like a small reward of milk or maybe even…
“Finally we’re back.” Jurina let out a tired sigh as she opened the door to my apartment and walked towards my room. Slowly approaching my bed she gently lowered me down but I couldn’t help but let out a wince at the pain of having to move my leg.
“Ah, I’m really sorry Rena-chan it must still be really painful…” There was a very telling look of guilt on her face and she was dangerously close to bursting into tears again.
“Hey you did save me right? In fact I have something for you.” Reaching out I placed a reassuring hand in her shoulder and brought her closer to me.
“Huh, what is it Rena-chan?” Right as Jurina finished her sentence I leant in to her confused face and softly combined our lips. Though she was initially shocked Jurina soon tried to reply to the kiss.
“Woah, don’t get too ahead of yourself. You did still put a bullet into my leg.” Blushing I pulled myself away before the kiss got too deep and left Jurina frowning, unable to contain the disappointment of being separated.
“Mou, fine then…” As Jurina tuned away pouting, my finger started to unconsciously rest on top of my lower lip. Without really thinking I stretched out, grasped a hold of Jurina and spun her around in one fluid motion. Forcing myself onto her we began to engage in yet another kiss but this time I allowed Jurina to return the favour. I became lost in the intense contact between us, hands frisking around exploring each other’s body. There was no more denying it this girl was no longer just a partner to me, she clearly means a lot more to me now, just as important as Yuki once was.
Simultaneously two sounds rang out from between us and we detached ourselves from each other. At the same time we took out our phones to find a message from Mayu.
“Help. Warehouse 1, the port. Now.”
TBC