Chapter 320 - All of you bully me

"You know, it's the end for you." Rie says to Takeuchi Seiji calmly, "You won't be able to get away with this."

Takeuchi Seiji hasn't answered any questions. He has been checking something on his phone. Then, he tsks. "They are asking me to let you go."

"You should let me go." Rie smirks, "if you want to live."

"I have blood cancer," Takeuchi Seiji reveals suddenly. "I won't live long, but I want Touya to live."

She has expected that. Rie wonders if anyone has noticed her disappearance. Her car is on the road. Someone must have reported it. Will Kiyohira be able to find her? 

"I won't ask for your forgiveness."

Rie eyes the man. "I won't pity you because you got cancer either. I think that you deserved it. Out of all the cruel people I have met. I think that you are still the cruellest one."

After a long silence, Takeuchi Seiji admits, "I might be."

"Let me go." Rie warns him, "If you are caught, you won't be able to get away. If you let me go, I will help Touya and you."

Takeuchi Seiji's eyes quiver for an instant. Then, he looks down at his phone. All of a sudden, he gets up and steps toward him with a knife.

"Will you kill me?" Rie laughs. "Can you even kill me?"

"Do you think that I can't?" He points at his wife's body. "I will do anything for Touya."

"Try then." Rie c.o.c.ks her head and smiles at him. "Do your best."

Takeuchi Seiji's hands shake when he looks into her brown eyes. In her spot, he sees a young Rie, the eight-year-old child he left behind all those years ago. His body turns stiff. He takes another step toward her. The knife from his hand slips and falls on the floor. Startled, he takes a step backwards.

"You can't kill me." Rie states solemnly, "because you used to be my father once."

He takes deep breaths, staring hard at the knife.

"The guilt plagued you all your life, but you kept telling yourself different reasons." 

Takeuchi Seiji closes his eyes. "The Consortium will kill my son."

"They won't if we interfere." Rie whispers, "Release me now."

He covers his face with his hand, trembling. "I hate you so much."

She doesn't respond.

"I ruined everything. My first family. My second family." He cries, "Today, my son is a killer and my wife is dead."

"Ex-wife," Rie corrects him.

"Rie!" He shouts at her. "She died because of you!"

"Really?" Rie looks at him with disbelief. "You could have stopped her from killing me without killing her."

He pinches his lips together.

Rie flexes her wrists. Her hands are not in Takeuchi Seiji's sight. In fact, she had undone the ropes around her wrist long ago. Ankles are left. But she can't go for ankles just yet.

Just then, his phone vibrates. Takeuchi Seiji picks up the call. He doesn't speak but only listens. Then, he heads toward the exit.

After a minute, Rie is alone. 

She struggles to remove the ropes around her ankles. The ropes are too tight. "Ugh!"

A pair of hands grab her hands. "Let me."

Rie raises her head and meets Kiyohira's eyes. "You took so f.u.c.k.i.n.g long!"

"I am sorry." He undoes the ropes calmly. "I came as soon as I found you."

"Mother, why do you follow strange people?" Yuta points at the corpse. "I saw how you talked to that weird woman and followed her on the dash cams."

Rie puckers her lips. "She told me she was in trouble."

"Even idiots know that they should call the police." Yuta scolds his mother, "You shouldn't trust anyone except for Father, Uncle, and I."

"Alright, I will do everything that you say from now on." Rie grabs Yuta's shoulders and pulls him closer. She scrutinises his face. "I wasn't worried. I knew that you would find me."

"Actually, Father found you." Yuta says to her, "He looked into Takeuchi Touya's family whereabouts. Then, he tracked Takeuchi Seiji's phone. He also found your car and saw what happened in the cameras. We trailed you. It wasn't that hard. Since it was dangerous, we sent a message -- that looked like a message from Consortium -- and asked Takeuchi Seiji to come out of this building. He could become violent if we had arrived suddenly. Father and I worked as a team today."

This isn't the father and son bonding time that she wants between them, but she has to admit that their family cannot be like other normal families. Rie glances at her husband who is watching them with a smile. "How is Takeshi?"

"I received Ren's text. He is fine. I told them that you are also fine. Takeshi will leave on his honeymoon with Iori tonight," Kiyohira tells her. "As for Touya, he is in a good place."

"He will meet his father soon," Yuta smirks darkly. He rubs his hands. "I can't wait to… It's been so long since I --"

"Since you what?" Rie interrupts Yuta before he can finish.

"Since we played games." Yuta laughs awkwardly. He can't say, but he will blackmail his father into letting him into that place and torture those two bastards later -- or he can just sneak in there. Who can stop him? "Mother, let's go home quickly. Aerie and Sho must be worried."

After thirty minutes, the Kamiyama family unites at the Kamiyama Villa. Kamiyama Kiyohira finds out that his wine collection has been attacked by Ren and Chiyo.

"Where are they?" Kiyohira smiles at his brother. "Ren must pay today for drinking my precious wine. I saved it for Rie."

"They are in the guest room." Takeshi whispers to him, "It's locked from inside."

"Oh." Kamiyama Kiyohira doesn't know what to say.

"Oh my god! Ren has a woman now!" Rie exclaims. "My best friend will have a human wife, not waifus."

Iori lets out a laugh. She hasn't predicted this either. Well, she does know a thing or two about Ren and her sister. "I think she likes him a lot."

"That's even better." Rie claps her hands. "We can have a double wedding."

"After our return from the honeymoon," Takeshi tells her. "We are leaving right now."

"We were waiting for you to come back." Iori continues, "We already said goodbye to Aerie and Sho before they fell asleep with Sho while waiting for you."

The children don't know about what happened today. It should stay like this. Rie hugs Iori and Takeshi. "Have a good honeymoon."

"Make sisters for me," Yuta reminds his uncle. 

"I will." Takeshi holds Iori's hand. "You will get an army."

Iori clears her throat as her face turns red. Rie and Kiyohira burst into laughter. 

After Iori and Takeshi are gone, Yuta says to his parents that he will check on his siblings since he hasn't seen them all day. He goes to Aerie's room and sees them sleeping together on the bed.

"I don't regret taking a chance on you, Aerie," Yuta mutters, "but I hope that you don't disappoint me." 

He isn't the same cold-blooded assassin. Neither Mira, Aerie, or he can be the same person who they were in another life. His parents have lived. He has a younger brother. His uncle is happily married to the love of his life and working on creating an army for him. His mother's best friend is also alive and he has found a woman who might become his wife. 

Many bad things will happen. But they can face it all together. He will become a better person for his family. He is sure that Aerie won't become Valerie Kang. 

His heart pangs when his mind reminds him of stormy grey eyes. Mira. Where is she right now? In the future, they will be enemies. 

They have made their choices. They can only follow through it if they can't change their minds. 

***

[12 Years Later]

The cherry blossoms float in the air, trailing along with the breeze. 

Sitting on the bench, Rie looks at her husband who is reading the newspaper. Although both of them in their late 40s, he still has his abs while she is somewhat chubby. He keeps feeding her as if he wants her to become the fattest person in the world. However, he makes her spend all the calories at nights like the newly-weds. She shakes away the thoughts and sighs. 

"Why are you sighing?" Kamiyama Kiyohira questions her.

"I miss them!" She sniffles. "It's been so long since they called me."

"It's only been two hours." Kamiyama Kiyohira puts down the newspaper. After graduating from high school, Aerie wanted to study music in E Country. Yuta followed her. Honoka, Aerie's best friend and Yuta's self-claimed bride, also went along with them. "They are in class."

She lets out another heavy sigh. 

"Sho is here." Kamiyama Kiyohira reminds her, "Pay him more attention."

"He wants me to play chess." She sobs. "I always lose to him."

His youngest son has inherited his talents. Sho is good at chess, languages, mathematics, and he is always the top in his class. But his youngest son has a cunning side of his wife. Kamiyama Kiyohira smirks at her. "So, there is a game you are bad at."

"Don't be smug." She makes a face. "All of you bully me."

"Because we know that you will bully us back the moment we stop," He replies.

She folds her arms unhappily. "I want to visit Yuta and Aerie."

"We can take the jet tomorrow." Kamiyama Kiyohira removes the cherry from her hair. "Should we take Aki?"

Twelve years ago, Takeshi and Iori spent five months on a cruise for a honeymoon. When they returned, she was already pregnant with twins. They had twin daughters. After a year, they had another pair of twin daughters. After another two years, they had a son. 

And not to anyone's surprise, Yamashina Chiyo also found out that she was pregnant. Ren proposed to her right away. Yamashina Chiyo was reluctant at first, but Ren made her believe that he did want to marry her, albeit he won't be a house-husband since he loved designing games and coaching esports teams with his friend, Rie. 

The odd pair complements each other. Chiyo is very accepting of Ren's love for games and anime. She was even fine when he wanted to name his son after his favourite anime character, Aki. 

Aki is very close to Sho and Yuta. In fact, he went on a hunger strike when Yuta announced that he would go to E Country. Yuta had to coax Aki a lot with promises and gifts to stop his hunger strike. Aki will be happy if Rie and Kiyohira take him with him to visit Yuta and Aerie. 

"Sho will also come," Rie murmurs. 

Sho is attached to Aerie, but he has a love and hate relationship with Yuta. The brothers fight like madmen whenever they are inside games. Sho has also started an anti-fan page for Yuta's gaming ID. 

So, it's decided that they will visit Yuta, Aerie, and Honoka tomorrow with Sho and Aki. Rie fidgets with her fingers. She knows why Yuta had decided to follow Aerie. Although the Consortium has been quiet for twelve years, they know that they are still out there.

Twelve years ago, Declan Hale disappeared.

The disappearance came after his elder sister visited J Country. Even her whereabouts are unknown. Mira hasn't been seen either. 

Aerie's sudden decision to study in E Country also came as a surprise. But Rie guessed that she was contacted by the Consortium. 

The game will start. 

"Trust." Kiyohira squeezes her hand. "We can support their decisions. If they fall, we will interfere and help them. We will do everything that we can together as a family. Our children will come out of it safely."

The gaps between her fingers are filled with warmth. Rie puts her head on his shoulder and closes her eyes with a smile. She believes in him and their children. 

___The End___