6:40pm
“Come my dear, you are a born actress, you were absolutely perfect,” Himaga
beckoned his star to come closer, “I have a gift for you.”
She grinned seductively, and strutted towards the middle of the room where he was sitting, she lifted one leg deftly and draped it across his lap, adjusting herself to sit between his legs, and wrapped her long slim arms around his neck, arranging herself against him. The black lace short dress revealed her sheer ruby colored underwear, offsetting against the deathly pale color of her skin, her usually auburn eyes glowed red the moment she came into contact with Himaga, her hair, previously drawn into a tight bun to give a conservative impression to the media, loosened by itself, snaking its way to touch her shoulders.
Her eyes widened at the dark velvet box that was offered, but she did not move as she waited for Himaga to open it, her eyes glowed even brighter as she saw its contents as though knowing the hidden treasures of the gift. She closed her eyes as Himaga took the simply cut ruby earrings out and pressed them into pierced holes that were previously absent, a surge of energy coursed though her body, she shuddered in pleasure, knowing the meaning of the gift. Her eyes opened and she smiled at Himaga, her eyes became steely red, her auburn hair lengthened to touch the ground, she ran her fingers across her hair as she reached down behind her, showering herself in a curtain of reddish brown. “They’re magnificent,” she purred into his ear.
He laughed deeply, feeling her breath blowing into his ear and her kisses on the side of his neck, he knew that he had her body, mind and soul, but he was only interested in her soul. By taking her soul, he had released an animal that had previously been caged by fear – he had taken her understanding of fear away. Standing abruptly, he dropped her hard onto the ground from where he had been sitting, ignoring her, he walked away, he stopped however once reaching the doorway. Pointing one finger at the crystal chandelier hanging above her, the golden chains snapped and fell to the ground beside her, crystal shards dispersed around the floor leaving Seira to groan in ecstasy, being devoured by the ‘delicious’ feeling of blood.
8:09pm
As the car silently cruised past the modest homely streets and another
set of traffic lights, she saw a small ramen shop disappear from her sight.
Somehow, that ramen shop had seemed a lot grander, larger than it was now.
Her shoulder muscles tensed involuntarily as reality downed upon her and
she finally realized that she would be stepping into that house again.
Since leaving that house seven years ago, she hadn’t looked back, she didn’t
want to; memories were always too painful to dwell upon. Yet here
she was now, the proximity of basis of those memories drawing closer by
the second, she was less than ten minutes away – she knew, because as a
young child, she would pretend to fall asleep at this point so she wouldn’t
have to walk into the house, but be carried in. She would now have
to face those memories, and that man that she held no esteem for, that
man she was repulsed at, that man who was the center of those agonizing
memories.
“You’re fidgeting.”
Rei sat straight at his sudden comment, but without turning to face him, she said calmly as though she had eyes at the side of her head, “so are you.”
She felt him smile as he moved to clasp his hands together, “you’re right, maybe I am nervous, to prove that I am worth keeping, I have to prove myself all over again.”
“One of my most vivid memories of him in that house was him hitting me.”
“Things change.”
“Only because he knows that I will retaliate.” She replied bitterly.
“You have a lot of preconceptions about him – maybe things are different now.”
“Maybe pigs are flying – I don’t trust him, if I could, I would erase every single memory I have of him from my mind.”
“I’m sure that he meant no harm.”
“I remember the closest thing I would get to a hug was him carrying me – and only because my mother couldn’t, I remember faking to be asleep every time we drove home in the car so that he would have to carry me.”
Kenta chuckled, “I used to do that as a child, only my father always knew when I was faking it, and he’d tickle me, so that I’d get up.”
Rei didn’t respond, and the car once again grew silent as it turned the final corner into the short street; in a moment, they were in front of a small humble abode that had once been her home. A young man in a dark suit wearing a transit radio opened her car door as soon as the car came to a stop; Rei stepped out, murmuring her thanks to the security guard she surveyed her surroundings. Little had changed in this middleclass neighborhood, she wondered if the old lady next door was still there as she noticed a similar ornament that was handing from the same window. The four room house was externally almost the same as she remembered it, except perhaps the security guards that guarded the grounds, the street, and the roof… she sighed, there would be little privacy in the house.
Not that she had expected much privacy; for some strange reason her father had chosen to base his quarters and election work from this small neighborhood, he decided to travel daily instead of living in the city to shorten the traveling time – she could only guess it to be an electoral strategies to show that he was still a normal man. She sighed again as she was ushered into the house by the guards that had now clustered around her, she felt like an animal, a sheep in a crowd that was being chased by sheepdogs and pushed by the rest of the sheep; having no choice but to go forwards into an enclosed area that she didn’t want to enter.
She blinked her eyes several times when she went in, she couldn’t believe the strong bright lights and the electronics that filled the narrow hallway. Whilst the house may continue to look like its old self, the inside was almost like a space station, or like the teleportation room that the senshi had been in when they tried, unsuccessfully, to get Ami out of the Kuriverse.
“Minister Hino is in his study, Miss Hino,” one of the older, obviously more senior, guards said as he pointed the way to her father’s old study.
It was the same doorway as before, but even before she opened the door she knew that it would no longer be the common workstation that was before; it would be an extension of the technological mess that had invaded the hallway. The guard hurried before her to knock and open the door for her, as she entered, she knew that her guess had been correct.
“You’re late,” was the only acknowledgement she got from her father, “I have an appointment at nine tonight, I am a busy man.”
“Excuse me for disturbing you.” Rei turned on her heels and began to leave.
“Matte! (Wait!) We will have dinner in five minutes, get changed,” he spoke curtly and waved her to leave; Rei didn’t bother to answer and stormed away.
8:10pm
“Good work today people, keep digging, trail them, what ever it takes,
I want more of this,” he pointed to the newspaper front page, “and less
of this,” he pointed to another picture, a picture of Inouye Kenta and
Hino Imaruru raising their arms in victory. “Now, you,” he gave a
quizzical look at one of the men at the table, “what are you doing again?”
“I will be making sure that the Aki Seira’s tearful story goes out on the front page in front of Imaruru’s conference, and try and put a favorable slant on the Aki story.” He repeated obediently while busily scribbling down the telephone numbers of people who would be able to help.
“Try?” the man standing at the head of the table raised his eyebrows.
“No, Taki-san,” corrected the man apologetically, “I will.”
“Good,” he nodded his head, “yours will be the most important. Any questions?” he looked around, there were none, “we’ll meet in the morning at 6:15am sharp.” He sat down into his high-backed leather chair and watched his personal staff file out of his office like dutiful dogs. He closed his eyes and reflected on this extremely good day that he had had, Imaruru was a fool for not accepting Kenta’s resignation, all the better for him though, he could now honestly see himself, Taki Kyoni, standing at parliament and swearing in for Prime Minister. He smirked, the campaign was going remarkably well, it was as though the heavens were smiling down on him – Seira’s tears, Kenta’s idiocy, Kyoru’s inside information… there was no doubt, he would win.
8:11pm
“Mama?” Seira entered the room slowly; she stared at her mother, jumping
on the bed like a crazy woman, her gray hair in disarray, and her eyes
unfocused. The older woman using her dark powers erratically to destroy
the decorations of the room as she saw fit, and waving her arms frantically
above her head.
“Oh! Come join me my child!” She leapt off her bed, and pulled her daughter towards her, fling herself around dizzily, she used her night-coat as her cape flying in the air, “what fun it is to fly, oh watch me fly!!”
Seira watched her mother’s acts stonily, with an air of detachment, while
she still called her mama; she was no more than the beggars at the corner
of the street. The kind, woman who had tried, albeit unsuccessfully,
to shield her young daughter from the harsh punishing of her father, was
no more in her daughter’s eye, she was an uncontrollable maniac, a burden
on the operation of Himaga-sama. Both women had been calm, collected
women, a wallflower in the family’s run of politics, never saying much,
but held the traditions of a model female. Under Himaga’s influence,
Seira became a woman unafraid of using her sexuality when she had lost
those chains and bounds; her mother had lost the screen of rigidity and
properness that protected her lack of sensibility and intelligence.
Seira took her mother’s hand and dragged her towards the window, her mother
only resisting because she could no longer pretend to fly. Seira
then coolly and determinedly opened the large window; she lifted the older
woman to above her head and smiled wickedly, “now let me teach you how
to fly.”