Chapter 95 - Cause And Effect

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*Clack*

"The hell?…" Fumio tosses his phone on the outdoor table in front of him out of irritation.

"What's wrong with you?" Kotone asks, stopping the phone from sliding off the table.

"Nothing." Fumio simply shakes his head as he turns his attention to the training yard to continue watching Yoshiko and the children training their kata.

The two are currently sitting together at Gin and Yoshiko's shared patio, having tea at the patio table.

They themselves were training just until a few minutes ago and are now taking a break from their training.

"Look at Konan. Is it just me, or she's daydreaming while doing her kata?" Kotone asks.

"…" Fumio did not hear her question however.

She then looks at him and sees that Fumio's head is somewhere else.

"Hey." Kotone snaps her finger near Fumio's ear.

"Hm? What?" Fumio asks, wakened from his daze.

"Okay. There's clearly something going on. Something's off with you since last night. And tossing your phone so carelessly doesn't seem like you." Kotone asks.

"It's just…" Fumio hesitates, before deciding to share.

"My sister. She was supposed to set up a lunch date with me for today, but I can't reach her phone. She's not answering her text either."

"Aww… You miss her so much?" Kotone teases him.

Fumio scoffs.

"It's not that. Since March, we've been meeting every last day of the month, like today. It's her turn to reserve a place for us, and she was supposed to tell me the meeting place yesterday… It's weird. I can't even reach her KokoTalk." He explains.

Kotone's eyes go wide.

"Then why aren't you looking for her right now?!" She exclaims in panic.

"Whoah." Fumio is startled by the outburst.

"Calm down. She's a C-Class superioris. She can take care of herself."

"Calm down?! You're too calm!" Kotone tries to reason.

"Fumio. Last time I checked, you are able to call her anytime. So, there must be something that's making her unreachable."

Fumio finds Kotone's argument valid, but he shakes his head.

"It's just… What if she just doesn't want to see me? I'd uh… rather not confirm it."

"Was there anything she said that made you think that?" Kotone asks.

"Not really."

"Good. Then go. Go look for her. At worst, it'll just be a sibling spat. But what if she needs you?" Kotone kicks Fumio's leg.

"If you won't go, I'll ask Xoz to torch your ass out of here." She adds a threat.

"Fine… Fine." Fumio stands up and takes a deep breath to pump himself up.

He has made up his mind.

"Will you be fine?" He asks Kotone.

"Yes. It's been more than a week since Kichirou-san went out. So, whatever he has with the demons, we can rest assured that he still has them on a leash even while he's away." Kotone assures him.

"Okay then. I'll be back as soon as I can."

"Take your time. I want to be king of the hill too!"

<><><>

Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture.

Hasegawa Clan Compound.

A quarter an hour later, under the invisibility seal in his kimono, Fumio bypasses the security check at the compound gate, and easily enters the compound undetected.

He then takes a slow stroll towards the center of the compound to think about how to start looking for Sayuri.

On his way, he sees the street heading to his family's house. Before he realizes it, he is already walking the street.

A few minutes later, he arrives at the gate of his family's home.

He sighs.

The wooden gate, the walls, the vines decorating them, still look the same the way they looked the day he walked out on his family.

Not wanting to use the gate to enter, he jumps up and reaches a second-floor window which belongs to his parents' room. He takes a peek inside the room and finding no one, he slides open the window, and enters.

"sssss…" He immediately smells the scent of his parents in the room, making him smile bitterly. He did not expect that just the smell alone makes him nostalgic.

He then proceeds silently to the next room, which is Sayuri's.

To his disappointment, he does not find her, her work laptop, or her phone.

He then descends to the first floor.

As soon as he steps off the stairs, he is startled seeing his mother kneeling on the living room floor, busy doing something at the tea table.

He knocks his forehead, as he forgot that even when he was still in the clan, his mother always spent the majority of her time in the house, living comfortably as a housewife who has a servant assisting her with the affairs of the household.

He looks around and enhances his ears, and finds out that the servant is nowhere nearby, figuring they might be out on an errand, to his relief.

He then looks at his mother again and he cannot help but notice that beside her, right under the table, are crumpled pieces of paper with ink blots in them.

Then, his mother's hand moves in a position where he can see it over her shoulder.

He gets interested, seeing her hand holding a brush.

'Calligraphy?' He never saw his mother write something with ink and brush, so he walks silently behind her to take a look at what she is writing.

The next moment however, his eyes widen at what he is reading.

===========

Gorou-sama.

On behalf of my child, Sayuri, I apologize. I also ask you to forgive me for this presumptuousness.

I know, I am but powerless housewife, but as a fellow parent, I hope you understand my desperation. I know that there is no excuse for what my daughter has done to Hideki-sama, but I ask you to please, be lenient on her punishment...

===========

Fumio does not have to finish reading the letter to know that something serious went down that involved Sayuri.

He silently steps back, and goes on to exit the house where he entered it.

Judging on what he has seen, he figures that Sayuri must have done something bad, at least to the eyes of the clan. He only has one place in mind where Sayuri might be.

<>

A few minutes later, Fumio is looking down at what looks like a road descending to an underground parking lot of a building. He knows however that it is the entrance of the clan's jail.

He has never really seen the interior of it, and never hoped to be inside it for whatever reason, so just thinking about Sayuri being in it makes him very anxious.

He the descends to the entrance and he finds a lone guard, guarding the metallic main door. Luckily for him, the guard is just a few breaths short to nodding off.

Fumio creeps up to the guard and while doing so, he takes out a small container of sleeping powered, which he himself cooked up based off of Red's recipe. He then grabs a small pinch of the powder and flicks it to the guard's nose.

Not soon after, the guard is stretched over on his table, lightly snoring.

He takes the guard's access card and ID, and enters the jail's doors.

Unlike the Oonishi's demon prison, the clan jail's security is nothing, with not even a security camera. Perhaps it is because there is no incentive for the clan in making the prison high security, and that they are satisfied as long as it can hold prisoners.

It is also not hard for Fumio to find his sister's cell. Unlike the Oonishi Demon Prison which can confine tens of demons in it, there are only ten cells in the Hasegawa jail. And in those ten cells, only two are occupied, and Sayuri is one of them.

Looking at his sister, staring emptily at the air of her jail cell with her reddened and sleep deprived eyes, breaks his heart.

"*sssss*" He takes a deep and long inhale as he thinks about what to do next.

Sayuri meanwhile, heard Fumio's breath sounding so loud in the silent facility, and, "Who's there!", she calls out.

Fumio takes a few seconds to consider his next actions, before releasing his breath. He switches on his disguise and takes off his invisibility, showing himself to Sayuri.

"Sayuri-san…" He greets.

"…" Sayuri is stunned at the sudden appearance of the stranger.

"W-who are you?"

"Who I am isn't important. Your brother has asked me to look for you." Fumio gets into his Fukashi character.

"My brother? Yuuki?" Sayuri asks.

Fumio feels a small pang in his heart.

"No. Your younger brother, Fumio-san. You missed your lunch, so he got worried." Fumio says.

"I-I see." Sayuri is beyond surprised.

"How did you get in here?" She asks, still stunned at the situation.

"Just some tricks." Fumio does not want to explain.

"What brought you here, Sayuri-san?" He asks instead.

Instead of an answer, he receives a weird look from Sayuri.

"Please go back. Tell Fumio that I'm fine." Sayuri simply dismisses Fumio.

"Just tell me why you're locked up, Sayuri-san. Who knows? I might be able to break you out if I don't find your confinement here, just." Fumio asks.

"I deserve this punishment, mister. So please, just go. I don't want to involve Fumio." Sayuri insists on sending Fumio away.

Fumio gets frustrated, but racks his brains anyway.

A few seconds later, "Sayuri-san. I'm not the type to rip off my clients. Fumio-san paid a fortune for the down payment. He probably sacrificed his mortgage. I'm not going to report back to him with a lie." Fumio comes up with a convincing lie.

Sayuri meanwhile, feels guilty at Fumio's 'sacrifice'.

"What do you want to know then?" 

"Just tell me the whole story." Fumio asks.

"Okay…" Sayuri does not want to waste Fumio's money so she feels that she might as well tell the stranger.

"Hideki used to have High C-Class to Low B-Class bodyguards until he was kicked out 5 years ago. But since he returned to the clan as a cripple, his guards were downgraded to my tier, Low C-Class. I don't know what happened, but his guards since he came back either quit, or were fired, until there are no other candidates left for his bodyguards, but me." 

She pauses to let Fumio keep up.

"You became his bodyguard." Fumio says, knowing how the clan works.

"Yes. But…" Sayuri sighs and Fumio sees the pain in her eyes.

"For months… he… took advantage of me. He kept touching me when no one's looking. It was… it was… difficult." She cannot express fully what she felt just with words.

Fumio at this point is fuming.

Sayuri however interrupts his anger by continuing her story.

"Then, last week. I don't know what got to him, but he tried to stab me, maybe even tried to kill me, when I slapped his hand away. I don't know what happened to me too. My vision turned red, and everything was a blur. When I realized what I was doing and stopped, his face was already bloody, and I've already broken his nose, arms and some ribs. Thankfully, it wasn't too late, or I could have killed him."

"So… Where is Hideki right now?" Fumio asks, barely containing his anger.

"Hospital, the last time I heard. But having a superioris doctor in the clan's reach, he's probably all healed up." Sayuri frowns.

"And what did Gorou and the council decide to punish you with?" Fumio asks.

"I… Don't know yet. They're still probably deciding. I don't know what the verdict is going to be, but I can only hope that some of the elders will be on my side. They seemed to believe my claims." Sayuri states plainly, but Fumio can see worry in her eyes.

Fumio hurriedly supplies spiritual energy to his brain, fearing that he might do something stupid. This provides him clarity, and with that clarity, comes guilt.

"I heard that Hideki seems to believe that it was Fumio-san who crippled him?" He asks.

"Yes…" Sayuri nods.

"And he probably vented his anger towards Fumio-san … to you…" Fumio sighs, realizing that Sayuri ending up in jail rooted from his actions.

Sayuri immediately figures what Fumio is insinuating and, "I-It's not his fault.", defends Fumio from Fumio.

"Hideki was screwed in the head in the first place."

"But why didn't you say anything to your father? To the clan?" Fumio asks.

"Even though Hideki has become harmless after his powers were taken away, He had become pettier and sneakier. That makes him dangerous in another way. He made sure that I didn't have a way to gather proof of his actions." Sayuri can only helplessly sigh.

"Don't worry, Sayuri-san. I'll find a way to help you.." Fumio can only promise, but he does not know where to start.