Hello my sweeties,
Well guys you have all been simply amazing!
What a response!
I'm amazed I'm not dead with you guys hating the cliffies :P
But we have got here and now I want you to...
Enjoy.
Neh xxx
I do not own Skip Beat!
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Setsu heard the cry from her father, but she already knew the car would be coming for her. How could she not? It was one of Kyoko's talents, simple understanding in a crisis. It didn't come out often just when needed. Like at the Curara commercial auditions in that single moment when she had made up a new scenario on the spot. Or when she had been acting for the chance to join the acting school with swapping the script lines between the two characters.
It was something Kyoko could do almost without conscious thought, that single moment when everything became clear to her. She had known all along the car would not aim for Cain. Why should it? How can you hurt someone when they are already dead? Kyoko knew it would be her all along, she told the others differently, but she knew it would be her.
The driver of the car was trying to hurt Kuon, trying to break the man he blamed for everything. There were more ways to truly kill a man. Taking away the thing he cared for most was one of the cruelest.
"SETSU!" of course she heard her name cried out in terror as she turned her head towards the car. It was so close now she could already imagine how much this was going to hurt.
God I hope this works. If not I'm sorry. Kyoko thought as she watched and waited for the correct moment. It was vital she do this right. Her breathing steadied as she stared at the driver of the car. She would let him know exactly what he was doing and exactly who he was doing it to. Even as that sneer faltered at the fact the woman before him was not even attempting to move Kyoko stared at him.
It all happened in slow motion for Kyoko as at that exact second she threw herself onto the hood of the stunt car. She made sure her body kept up the rolling momentum which allowed it to carry her up and over the car. She smacked the ground soundly as she rolled out of the impact just as she had seen the stunt professionals teaching all those actors and actresses so many times.
It hurt of course. The wind was knocked out of her. As the car skidded off to the right and into the crash barrier Setsu steadied herself and took in gasping breaths to replace the air that had been forcibly knocked out of her. And as the driver's door opened Kyoko took that final push, springing up and forwards like the panther so many men had compared her to. Kyoko was upon the young man who was trying to escape almost instantly.
"Oh no you don't!" Kyoko cried tackling the taller and bigger built man to the floor with her full body weight. Even the shock of seeing the woman they had been almost sure would have been killed by such a fast impact up and running didn't stop the people racing towards the scene. And as Calvin pulled his daughter away and into the safety of his arms Cain was upon the man who had almost killed his most beloved person.
"CAIN STOP!" Kyoko cried as she tried and failed to push away from her father's strong grasp. It was almost like the scene with Murasame all over again. Kyoko thought as she watched the fuming man dangling her would be killer off of the side of the Tokyo bridge.
"Cain," Kyoko said again, knowing that her tone of voice was not Setsu, but knowing she needed to stop the man.
Sayuri grabbed her husband's arm having arrived like so many others who were standing back watching the wrathful daemon, who seemed to have overtaken Cain Heel.
If they had thought Cain was scary before this incident, there was now a sudden thought that maybe Cain Heel could be more in lines with Death himself. BJ was but a child's nightmare compared to the man that stood before them.
Sayuri's touch had done as intended. Kyoko pushed away from Kuu's arms and turned back towards the petrified man grasping for Cain's clothing before she turned to the man she knew and loved so dearly.
"Thats enough, Nii-san. Bring him back," Kyoko's words were soft and controlled. No one would believe this young woman had just been flung almost 8 feet by a speeding car intent on killing her.
"Nii-san. Please." She could see the man was not only terrified now but also about to pass out.
Cain's hand around his throat was crushing his Adam's apple into his windpipe and slowly he was suffocating to death. Perhaps this was why the man had yet to start begging for his life.
As Setsu's small hand went to his shoulder, Kuon's head cleared. Like a terrier flinging away a dead rat he tossed the man back over the railings and on to the hard dark concrete.
"Setsu?" Kuon whispered as he turned towards the woman he loved more than anything and gently took her face cupping it gently with his large hand.
"I'm here, Nii-san. I'm fine," she whispered as she entered the place between his arms she wished to never leave again.
"Yōji Shen!" Director Konoe screamed as two of the stage crew restrained the young crewman who had been working for him since the start of Tragic Marker. The young man who had seemed so nice and so friendly. The young man he had sent to collect the Heel siblings on more than one occasion, the man he had trusted.
"What the hell did you think you were doing!" Konoe was beyond enraged as he watch the two senior Heels embrace their children checking once more to make sure their daughter was ok and unharmed.
As Murasame watched on he almost wanted to be sick thinking this was the man who he had thought of as a friend. The man who had been the first to point out how mixed blood seemed to make people think they were better than everyone else and laughed and encouraged him in his treatment of the Heel siblings.
For it was true. The man now being restrained had been the whispering voice in so many different ears and had so many stories and rumours to share. Rumours he had always heard somewhere else of course. So none had ever thought to question the man when they heard others talking about it also.
"I ALMOST HAD YOU! I ALMOST SHOWED YOU FOR WHO YOU ARE CAIN HEEL!" Shen cried as he latched his eyes onto the taller man still holding the tiny woman.
"I ALMOST SHOWED YOU WHAT IT FEELS LIKE TO LOSE EVERYTHING! JUST LIKE YOU DID TO HER!" Kuon looked at the man screaming at him as Kyoko snuggled closer into his chest.
"You don't know what you're talking about, Shen. Or should I say Shane?" Kyoko asked softly as she slowly pulled away.
His arms wrapped around her did not allow her more than a step away. Still she turned slowly and stared at the man who had been trying to kill her only minutes ago.
"YOU DON'T KNOW HIM! YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT HE HAS TRULY DONE!" Shen shouted.
The fear that had flashed through his eyes at the sound of the name Shane did not go unnoticed by the watching crowd.
"I do, Shane," Kyoko said as she turned to face the young man before her.
She felt Kuon finally freeze up in understanding and placed a loving hand on his own and comforted him with her presence. She would not leave his arms when he needed her so badly, but she would stand up for the man she loved and confront his fears with him.
"I know the man beside me and know I love him, but do you?" Kyoko's voice was calm and even.
She didn't need to look at Kuon to know he was now staring at her as his eyes shined with hope even if he didn't speak. "Do you truly know anything anymore Shane? Or have your eyes been clouded with hate for so long you have lost the ability to truly see?"
The crowd standing around was suddenly startled by the sound of a helicopter coming in fast and low aiming for the bridge itself. People wondered if it was perhaps the police as the chopper landed as close as possible without becoming a danger to the people standing around.
"Do you see that Shane?" Kyoko asked. Her eyes had not moved from the young man before her. She had been the only one not to even look for a millisecond towards the helicopter as four figures emerged from the doors and began running towards them all. Three of the incoming people were dressed in S.W.A.T uniforms the fourth was a woman. "Look carefully Shane, or have your eyes closed even to her?" Kyoko asked again softly as Shen looked at the oncoming people like he had just been told he was about to receive the death penalty.
The two men that had been restraining him with some difficulty suddenly found a limp figure in their arms as his eyes looked on the female figure surrounded by the S.W.A.T team. He wasn't the only one who suddenly found his knees weak though as Kuon looked upon the woman he had last seen flinging him a broken wristwatch calling him a murderer.
"Tina..." came the whisper from his lips as Kyoko literally squashed herself backwards into the man behind her, offering him comfort and support in the only way she could in that moment.
"Shane" came the soft and caring voice as the chopper's rotors finally shut off completely.
The entire area was silent so the word carried as the man who had been softly lowered to the floor was guarded by two heavily armed S.W.A.T police.
The other stood beside the woman who had spoken.
"Is that really you Shane?" Tina asked as she looked upon her brother she had not seen in almost four brother who had run away from home saying he was unable to watch his sister break apart over a man who had never been punished as he saw fit for his crime. "Shane?" Tina asked again as the man seated on the floor let out a large sob.
Tina closed the remaining gap and hung on to her brother like she was scared he would disappear if he didn't.
"EVERYONE BUT THOSE INVOLVED PLEASE MAKE YOUR WAY BACK OVER TO THE SET!" Konoe cried as he watched the police cars approaching over the bridge with sirens and lights on full blast.
No one asked they just did as the director told them. It was what showed his true skill as a director that he was listened to without further question as the people surrounding them turned away and walked back over to the set and talked amongst each other.
They knew they would have to stay and be questioned, but for now the armed S.W.A.T team and the police were dealing with this. It took only a few moments for the scene to clear of everyone but the Heels, the S.W.A.T team, and the two people now sobbing on the floor. The helicopter pilot who had stepped out and stopped the police from approaching closer now walked with them.
"I don't understand," Kuon almost whimpered as he held Kyoko tightly to his chest. His mother and father on either side of him held him as tightly as he held Kyoko.
"He ran away from home not long after you left Kuon. He couldn't handle watching his sister slowly fade away in her grief over Rick." Kyoko felt Kuon's arms tighten around her and she didn't wince even as it hurt, only held Kuon's hands tighter herself.
"He left and he disappeared. No one knew where he went or what happened to him. But it seems he was here all along Kuon. I don't know if he was looking for you knowing this is where your father came from or if he had just run as far as he could, but here he has been for four years.
He missed it all,Kuon. Tina's wedding, the birth of her first child and his nephew's first birthday. But do you want to know the most important thing that you both missed?" Kyoko was speaking still in that calm and gentle voice as her question registered in Kuon's head.
She turned slowly to face the man holding onto her and looked up into his tortured face.
"You both missed the day Tina realised it was no one's fault. You both missed the day Tina came to terms with the choices Rick made and the outcome it had. You both missed the day Tina moved on with her life and decided that the best way to remember Rick was not to think about the loss of one amazing life, but to live for that amazing person. To live not only for herself but for the man she loved who chose to die for the person he loved. Tina never truly blamed you Kuon.
But it is human nature to try and blame someone and you were the person there. You were the person that was there in that moment when she needed to scream and shout, when she needed to release all the pain inside. But you were also the one that made her understand that a life not lived to the fullest is a life wasted Kuon."
What could Kuon say to those words? What could Kuon possibly say or do? So when he didn't say anything Kyoko continued.
"She knew where you were, Kuon. Tina knew what you were doing all this time and she never once thought you needed punishment. Do you know why, Kuon?" Kyoko asked softly. This time the man before her shook his head.
"Because she knew you were punishing yourself enough. She knew you were punishing yourself too much. I called Tina, Kuon. I called her and I begged for her help after I realised who Yōji Shen was. It was all in his name. 'Second child' Shen, or if we looked for its closest translation Shane. He was Tina's younger brother, the second child of the family. He chose his name well don't you think?
You know what though, Kuon? I never had to beg Tina. I never even had to tell her the problem or what was wrong. All I had to say was Kuon needed help and she was willing to be here instantly. She dropped everything to be here for you, the young boy she had wronged so terribly. The young boy who had not deserved her harsh comments or words spoken in pain and anger, fearful of what the future held."
Kuon's eyes were full of tears as he stared down at the woman before him, the woman he loved more than life itself as another voice called out to him.
"Kuon?" It was soft and full of emotion but carried to them across the small distance she had not yet traversed.
Kyoko looked over her shoulder and smiled at the woman who stood there wringing her hands together. Kuon's arms were limp as Kyoko gently stepped to the side and stood just to the side before her father and placed her hand on his lower back. With a gentle smile to the people she had called family for almost two weeks, they gently pushed Kuon forwards towards what they hoped would be a happier future for them all.
"Tina?" Kuon could hardly speak through the tears as they came together in a powerful, comforting hug. They stood there and cried, holding each other in their joined grief. Neither of them needed to speak, though Tina still sobbed out how sorry she was as Kuon echoed her words.
"YOU BLOODY KNEW THAT WAS GOING TO HAPPEN!" A new voice screamed as Kyoko turned towards a terrifying sight.
Kuu and Julie couldn't help but smile as Kyoko froze in pure fear at the sight of her two best friends standing before her with their hands on their hips scowling menacingly.
"Moko-san... Chiori-Chan..." Kyoko tried as two bodies propelled themselves in a very Kyoko type way into a giant three way embrace.
"Never. Ever. Do. Anything. Like. That. Again!" Kanae said through her tears as she hugged Kyoko tightly.
"We thought we had lost you!" Chiori sobbed as she clung to them both tightly.
"I'm sorry." Kyoko sobbed too as her own tears finally broke through and she held onto her two lifelines she loved dearly as Kuu, Julie, Kuon and Tina watched on and smiled.
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Well guy's... there you have it
and even though I hate to think this story has come to this point
it has done so, the only chapter left will be the epilogue.
So I hope you will join me there.
thanks for reading
Neh xxx