The Impossible, 2/2
The Impossible, Part Two
Reiko finished her book, though she’d skimmed the last several pages and hadn’t absorbed much of what had happened. She was doomed, stuck in this stupid fantasy of her own creation. Where she and Kageyama were ordinary and where she had no reason to hide her shifting feelings.
Going through her book stack, she couldn’t find one that would change her tune. Not even her mystery books, the ones with the potential for a “the butler did it” resolution, could satisfy her. Things grew more unsettling when Kageyama knocked on her door to announce that dinner was served.
He was uncharacteristically silent as he bustled about the small room, putting down her utensils and placing a bowl of soup down. When he held her chair out, he seemed to be fixated at some point on the wall, looking anywhere but at her as she sat down. This was all her doing, she knew. He’d probably woken with that blanket covering him, and he’d known that she had done it. Though it was his job to take care of her, their roles had been briefly reversed. Reiko had only wanted to keep him from catching cold, but from Kageyama’s strange demeanor, he seemed to be embarrassed or ashamed of himself. And then he may have discovered the plate of sandwiches. In his own mind, he’d broken some rule, allowing his lady to be subservient to him. It was just a blanket, just a sandwich on a plate, truth be told, but the air in the room was charged now.
She picked up her spoon, hoping she sounded indifferent. She would not apologize for taking care of him when he’d been too exhausted to take care of himself. “Are you joining me for dinner or what?”
“No, my lady.”
She tried the soup. Despite the humble kitchen, it was as delicious as anything he’d have made for her back at the house. “Did you sleep well?” she asked, kicking herself mentally for it.
“I did, my lady. Thank you.”
Throughout the meal, his answers remained short, simple. Formal and polite. He was in such strange spirits that he didn’t even tease her. When she dropped her fork, something that on most days would earn a “How clumsy!” comment, he merely picked it up and fetched her a new one.
She moved back to the DVDs when dinner was over, frustrated with the distance that had grown between them in the matter of an afternoon. Reiko supposed it was for the best. If Kageyama acted informally with her, it might give her all the more reason to give in to what she was feeling. If he was a butler and a butler only, she could retain her dignity. Soon they’d be back in the house with cases to solve. Kageyama would be himself again, too, and they could put this strange situation behind them.
Reiko was discovering that it was much easier to be annoyed with Kageyama than to have romantic feelings for him. It was easier to say “You’re fired!” and “Fetch the car already!” than to imagine asking him for something like a hug. She would be running the Hosho Group someday, for goodness sake. She couldn’t be this indecisive, this caught up in silly feelings. But still, when she pressed play on the DVD and moved to settle in on the couch, there was Kageyama at the sink scrubbing the pots and pans, looking a million miles away. And it hurt.
“I’ve selected a comedy,” she announced airily, hoping to snap him out of his funk. “You can’t ruin this for me.”
“What if I know the punchline to the joke?” he called back, his voice not as arrogant as it might have been.
“Keep it to yourself then!”
“Very well.”
He insulted her at first by turning one of the dining chairs around to sit in, but she thumped the couch cushion beside her with her fist. “You’re an eyesore, I keep seeing you in the corner of my vision. It’s annoying, Kageyama. Sit over here.”
Reiko knew she was going a little overboard, but Kageyama seemed to respond better when she was being a spoiled brat and not someone fixing him a plate and tucking him in. He dutifully sat beside her, though he didn’t seem as relaxed as he had the previous night when he had a movie mystery to solve. Despite the movie being rather humorous, neither of them let out much more than a chuckle.
Near the midway point of the movie, Kageyama’s pocket started ringing. He bounded off the couch with alarming speed, answering his phone with a rather curt “This is Kageyama speaking on behalf of Hosho Reiko-sama.” Before she could listen in on the call, which was obviously about the case, he’d slipped out the apartment door to talk in the hall. She rolled her eyes, sighing.
When the minutes started ticking by, she paused the movie, feeling his absence acutely. Perhaps this would be it then. This odd little experiment would end, she could get back to her fine clothes and jewels and Kageyama could get back to his own normal role. The limousine and his insults and his room at the other end of the hall. Everything would be right and proper again.
He returned a short time later, inclining his head in apology for her having to stop the movie. “That was Inspector Komoto. Sada Takanori-san turned himself in as the hacker. The police confirmed it and tracked the Internet activity from his home. It’s over.”
She perked up at that. Sada-san the suspected embezzler? “He did all this because of his mother’s death? The hacking, the threats?”
“Grief affects us all in various ways, my lady,” Kageyama said, though there was a smidgen of hesitation in his voice.
She stood, abandoning the remote control for the TV. “Can we pack up now then? They have him in custody, and since he’s confessed, it’s doubtful anyone will continue the threats. If he’s showing remorse for his actions…”
Kageyama shook his head. “We’ll stay here another night.”
“Why?” she protested, barely keeping herself from stomping her feet and disturbing the floor below. “He turned himself in.”
“Something’s not right about this, my lady. Kunitachi has the all clear, and Kazamatsuri-san is returning tomorrow, but I…I don’t believe the right person has come forward.”
Reiko rolled her eyes. “Kunitachi has the all clear! That means we can leave and you can go nose about as much as you want! Don’t you want to go prove them wrong?”
He finally met her eyes with utter seriousness. “If they’re wrong about Sada Takanori, then it means you’re still in danger.”
“Then we’ll investigate together! You and me. You can protect me all you like that way, but we can still get out of here. I’m getting cabin fever, Kageyama, and I know you are too…”
“I’ve doubled up on security at the house. Come morning, I’ll speak with the police again and if your father agrees to it, we’ll leave.”
“Why don’t I get a say at all?” She stepped forward, grabbing him by the arm and giving him a shake. Usually when she lashed out he was in a jacket, not a thin t-shirt. Her fingers instead wrapped around warm, bare skin, and she could see his face flush at the contact. “If the Tokyo Metropolitan Police have the man in custody, nothing is going to happen!”
“My lady…”
“Don’t you want to solve this properly, Kageyama? You’ve already been listening in on the police frequency and doing goodness knows what else behind my back. You’re probably going mad in here!”
“Of course I want to solve this,” he replied, looking to his feet.
“Then what is your problem?”
He pried her fingers off of him, still unable or unwilling to look up. “I would never solve a mystery again if it meant keeping you safe. That is the priority, and that will always be the priority.”
She could barely speak, feeling a little dizzy at the seriousness of his words. “Kageyama…”
“Please,” he begged her, pressing his hand to his heart and bowing his head. “For your own safety and because of my foolish conjecture about the culprit, please remain here one more night.”
She wanted him to lift his head, to meet her gaze. She’d spent the better part of the day scolding herself for letting her irrational feelings take hold, but Kageyama’s actions seemed rather intense themselves. Reiko was a trained police officer, but she was being kept here under lock and key. All of this under her “father’s” orders. But how much of those “orders” had come as a result of Kageyama’s suggestions? How much of this confinement was due to Kageyama’s own wish to see her safe? What exactly did Kageyama feel for her, that he’d go to these lengths to keep an eye on her? Perhaps it was wishful thinking on the part of a woman trapped in a small apartment, but it seemed like much more than a butler’s usual concern.
“We’ll leave at once in the morning?”
“Certainly. Provided it’s safe.”
She bit her lip. “I want to work. I want to get back to normal.”
“I know very much that you do, my lady. And I’m sorry.”
She shifted her weight to her other foot. He was still standing with his head bowed. She had only to ask for him to raise his head. She had only to ask, but she was almost afraid of what she might see in his eyes. She was afraid that she was not alone in these feelings, and that would only complicate things further. It was easy to dismiss her own feelings, but if these two hidden days were bringing a shift in even Kageyama’s feelings…
“Please finish the movie if you want. I think I’ll go wash up and then rest.”
“Good night. Pleasant dreams,” Kageyama said quietly.
She had her bath and then slipped back into the bedroom, changing into her pajamas. She managed only half a dozen pages in the new novel she was reading before her eyes grew itchy with sleep.
It must have been the middle of the night when Reiko woke from a strange dream, her own tossing and turning waking her up. Whatever the dream might have been about slipped away, but she nearly gasped in surprise when she heard the sound of a second person breathing in the room. She turned over, peering over the side of the mattress only to find the shadow of Kageyama sitting on the floor, his back against the bed and something like a small pillow in his arms. She hadn’t even heard him sneak in, and if she fell back asleep, it was likely she’d wake and he’d be gone as though he’d never been here.
She stayed there at the edge of the bed, brain swirling with confusion and affection and sadness all at once. What was he doing here? Why, when he had a room of his own? Why, when nobody could actually get in? Despite herself, Reiko rested her hand at the very end of the mattress, maybe an inch or two from stroking her fingers through Kageyama’s hair. Close, but not too close to wake him and dispel the strange magic, the bubbling feelings his presence produced in her.
He was so close now, but tomorrow would change things back. And wouldn’t that be better?
-
As expected, Kageyama left no sign of having slept at her bedside when she woke. The small clock on the bedside table read 9:27 AM, and Reiko was astonished that she’d slept so late. Usually Kageyama woke her to serve breakfast much earlier. Opening her door and moving out into the apartment, she saw that his bedroom door was open and the room was empty.
“Kageyama?” she asked the quiet apartment, thoroughly confused. She took a quick glance at the vase of daisies on the table, frowning. Maybe he’d slipped out to buy more, a seemingly simple thing he didn’t really have to do. He’d left no note behind (rude) and no breakfast to be reheated (doubly rude). Reiko fumed, fumbling with cabinets and looking hastily through Kageyama’s room. Her cell phone was still nowhere in sight, and he’d dared to leave her alone.
Angrily, she grabbed the remote control for the television and flipped on the news. Some handsome chef was just finishing up a dish, drizzling some mozzarella and tomatoes with olive oil, and then attention was given back to the studio. They were about to go live to a press conference at Kunitachi Police Station! And here she was, stuck in this apartment.
The reporter was standing in the driveway of the station with several others. A podium was set up, and it seemed like Superintendent Takemoto and Inspector Komoto were ready to speak. Komoto approached the microphone first, and explained that Sada Takanori had confessed to hacking the Tokyo Metropolitan Police database and was deeply sorry for his crimes, both the threats against the police and for the embezzling of funds that had landed his mother in the questioning chair at the Kunitachi station to begin with. Then Takemoto took over, explaining that Sada was in custody downtown after his confession before opening things up to questions.
Reiko watched, wishing she could be there to support Kunitachi, when she spotted a suspicious looking fellow in the far left of the crowd of reporters. He was holding a small tape recorder and seemed to have a press pass on a lanyard around his neck, but there was no mistaking that stupid baseball cap.
“How could you be there without me?” she shouted uselessly at the TV, now that she’d spotted Kageyama there in the crowd. What a silly disguise! “What’s wrong with you?”
Perhaps he’d gone to speak with Takemoto in person and hadn’t expected the press conference to slow him down. Served him right, Reiko thought angrily. But eventually Reiko saw Kageyama raise his hand to ask a question, and Takemoto didn’t seem to notice that Kageyama was the same person who’d been assigned as her protective detail. She wanted to scream at her boss for falling for it. Did Kageyama really not stand out to these people?
“Hello there, Asahikawa Daily Mail. Superintendent Takemoto, are you absolutely sure you have the right man?”
Takemoto looked over at Kageyama rather curiously, and Reiko nibbled anxiously on her thumbnail. What the hell was Kageyama doing? And the Asahikawa Daily Mail? What kind of ridiculous cover was this? “Of course, we’ve extracted a full, detailed confession from Sada-san and…”
“I’m sorry, Superintendent,” Kageyama rudely interrupted. “But are you an idiot?”
“No further questions,” Komoto butted in, waving off the cameras.
“Kageyama, what the hell are you doing?” Reiko squealed, seeing the other reporters chuckling merrily at the Asahikawa Daily Mail reporter’s expense. And yet Kageyama moved forward, holding out his tape recorder.
“If Sada Takanori’s guilt is so certain, and he’s a genius computer hacker who can infiltrate the Tokyo Metropolitan Police database with such ease, then can you explain to the assembled press here how that’s possible if Sada-san can barely type his own name on a computer?”
The reporters’ chuckling quieted down. What in the world did Kageyama mean?
“Superintendent Takemoto?” Kageyama asked again. “Would you care to clarify the department’s position?”
And then it was a madhouse. Reiko watched Kageyama and his Yankees cap slip back into the crowd as the other reporters rushed forward. The reporter from the TV station Reiko was watching started elbowing her way to the front aggressively. “Is it true?” “Please tell us what Sada-san can and cannot do with a computer!” “Is this all one big coverup?”
Reiko was ready to pull her hair out at Kageyama’s audacity, especially when she saw him turn and wink at the camera from the news program she was watching. The nerve of him. And then there was the crowning achievement. The reporters parted as a familiar white convertible came roaring into the driveway. While Komoto tried desperately to reassure the crowd that the police had the right man, the reporters flocked over to Inspector Kazamatsuri’s car.
With a new tan and a reassuring smile, he hopped out of his vehicle and waved to the crowd. He looked much more confident than he had before leaving for his “business trip” to Manila, so Reiko was fairly certain he hadn’t gotten much “business” done while he was away. But then again, given the stress he’d been under, she didn’t have much reason to blame him.
“Now now now,” Kazamatsuri told the assembled crowd, thoroughly upstaging the Superintendent and downtown team. “I’ve just uncovered the truth of this case, and I’m here to share it with you all!”
Or more like Kageyama had slipped a message to him in some way. Maybe he’d even signed it with Ho Shourei’s name, just for Kazamatsuri to believe it all the more.
“The real culprit is not Sada Takanori. In fact…”
As the crush of the crowd seemed almost about to engulf Kazamatsuri, Reiko had lost Kageyama. The news channel she was following had zoomed in on Kazamatsuri, just in time for his big reveal. So when the panicked screams started a moment later, she didn’t know what was happening. The reporter herself was stumbling around, bumping into Kazamatsuri’s car.
Reiko held out the TV remote with shaky hands, switching to the next channel. The same panic, the same chaos. She switched channels again, her own fear rising. All the stations were tuned to the press conference, but Reiko only needed to hear a few words before dropping the remote and racing for her bag.
“Someone’s been stabbed here! Someone’s been stabbed!”
Taking the time to grab her purse, checking her wallet, she put on her shoes and raced out of the apartment in horror. What had happened? What the hell had just happened? Was Kazamatsuri hurt? Takemoto? Someone else?
Where had Kageyama gone? She’d lost him…
She jabbed the button for the elevator, only to realize there was a small keypad beside it prompting for the code Kageyama hadn’t even trusted to give her. “No,” she complained, wishing she’d paid closer attention. “No, you can’t leave me locked in here!”
Giving up, she looked to the stairwell. It wasn’t locked and she hurried through, although she realized as soon as the door closed behind her that she was required to enter a code to get onto any floor, the same as the elevator. Reiko refused to let her panic overtake her. She was smart, she could do this. Down the steps she hurried, wishing she’d opted for sneakers instead of heels. At least she was going down and not up.
Figuring she’d come up with a strategy when she reached the ground floor or the garage, she was ridiculously grateful when a man pushed open a door on the sixth or seventh floor. Much as she was technically supposed to be hidden, she waved the man down with something halfway between a scream and a “please wait.” To Reiko’s surprise, the man waited in the doorway for her to get down to him. By then, she had her badge out of her bag.
“Tokyo Metropolitan Police, please let me down in the elevator. It’s important!”
The man glanced at her badge for only a moment before holding the door wide and letting her in, punching in his elevator code. As she hurried inside, the man was still staring at her. From his jacket and the broom she just noticed in his hand, he was probably building maintenance. She shouted a hurried “thank you!” just as the doors closed.
She was on the complete other side of town from Kunitachi, but she didn’t care. The more she thought about what she’d seen on the TV, the way she’d seen Kageyama disappear from sight, the more Reiko worried that it might be Kageyama who’d been injured. The thought of him hurt, the thought of him stabbed, made her pace the elevator like a caged animal.
“Idiot, idiot, idiot,” she mumbled to herself, waving her hand in front of her face to try and stay calm, to not give in to her fear. To not cry at the thought of Kageyama being gone, her last image of him being that stupid wink at the camera. He was always insulting her intelligence, and now he’d gone and thrown himself in harm’s way. Now who was the idiot here?
She raced out of the apartment complex, hurrying for the street. It was a residential street, a few blocks from a main road, and Reiko was happy for all the time she’d spent in the academy working on her sprinting. Even if she was a little clumsy in her shoes, she made good time, managing to get to the street and flag down a cab in less than a minute.
Out of breath, all she managed to get out was “Kunitachi…police…” and flashed her badge again. The taxi tore away from the curb with speed, but Reiko knew it was going to take ages to get there. With no phone, no means of communicating, she waited until she got her breath back before apologizing to the driver.
“May I please borrow your cell phone? I’ll be checking the Internet and then making a call, if that’s alright?”
Clearly remembering her police badge, the driver handed his phone over with shaking fingers. She quickly searched through news headlines, but there were no updates. Whatever happened at Kunitachi station really had just happened. She saw brief mentions of “an attack” and “an incident,” but nothing further. She dialed the number for the station’s help desk, but it rang and rang until it prompted her to leave a message.
She gave the driver his phone back, trying not to give in to her fears. But as the minutes ticked by and the taxi inched its way along in the mid-morning traffic, it grew impossible.
Please be alright, she prayed in her heart. Please, Kageyama, be alright.
-
It was just over an hour later when the taxi finally pulled up. She reached inside her wallet and pulled out a small wad of bills. “Just keep it,” she shouted, and even as the taxi driver protested, she was already out the door and racing down the sidewalk.
The entire area was cordoned off, officers everywhere, but she found a familiar face waiting at one of the police tape lines. It was the young patrolman who’d escorted her before. As she ran up, breathing heavily and noticing for the first time that she’d run out of the apartment building in her pajama bottoms and a t-shirt, her hair loose and still messy from sleep but wearing high heels, Reiko wondered how she’d managed to get the man at the apartment and the cab driver to even believe she was with the police. She probably looked like a crazy woman.
The patrolman, however, recognized her immediately, not bothering to check her badge. “Hosho-san,” the young man greeted her, face serious. “Are you okay?”
“No, I’m not,” she admitted, doing everything but looking down at the teddy bear pattern on her pajamas. “Can I get inside? What happened?”
“There was a stabbing…it was the strangest thing…”
“How many people were hurt?” she asked, desperate to get around him and into the station.
“It was the real hacker, he tried to get Inspector Kazamatsuri but…”
“I’m invincible!” came a voice from behind the patrolman. Reiko’s heart leapt at the sight of Kazamatsuri in his white suit, looking none the worse for wear save for dark circles under his eyes. At the sight of her, his lip curled in disgust. “Did you even look in a mirror when you left the house this morning, Hosho-kun? You’d better come inside.”
“Keibu…” Reiko murmured, the patrolman lifting the crime scene tape to allow her onto Kunitachi station grounds.
Kazamatsuri looked to be in fine spirits despite everything, patting her shoulder and shoving her toward the station. “He took a swing at me, but it’ll take a lot more than a butter knife to take out the heir to Kazamatsuri Motors!”
“Who was injured?” Reiko asked, trying to keep from screaming. If Kazamatsuri really was the target and he was fine, then who had been hurt? There were officers everywhere, crime scene techs surrounding Kazamatsuri’s car. “What happened?”
“Well since you must have been sleeping, Hosho-kun, I’ll tell you.” He rolled his eyes, seeming irritated that she’d missed his big moment. “There I was, about to tell the media about the true hacker, the real threat, when he comes racing at me. Of course, I saw him coming from miles away, super vision that I have, so I easily avoided injury. It’s of course unfortunate that someone was hurt, but even when they were taking him away in the ambulance, he waved to everyone. Got a big cheer too! He’ll get all the glory, unfortunately, seeing as how he brought the hacker down, putting himself in front of the knife like that…”
Reiko was shaking and nearly broke down on the station steps. “Who?” she interrupted, unable to take another step. “Who was hurt?”
Kazamatsuri sighed. “That headquarters cop, Komoto. I tell you, Hosho-kun, those downtown types will do anything they can to meddle in our business. He’ll be fine, of course, it was just a graze, but talk about overdramatic…”
Kageyama hadn’t been hurt. Kageyama was fine, she realized, but still her heart was in overdrive, racing enough to have Kazamatsuri staring at her in confusion.
“What’s wrong with you, anyway? Aside from everything I’m looking at right now…”
“What happened to the reporters? The media who were here for the press conference?” she asked, trying to smooth her messy bed hair with her fingers. “After an incident like that…”
“Right, right,” Kazamatsuri said, holding the door for her. “Standard procedure, they’re all here giving statements. And now that you’re finally here, it should move faster. Why didn’t you answer your phone anyhow?”
They entered the station, and everywhere there were reporters and camera crew people, Kunitachi officers jotting down everything they’d seen during the runaway press conference and attack. She ignored Kazamatsuri’s continued bragging about having solved the case so easily, her eyes desperately scanning the squad room. Finally, she saw the New York Yankees cap in the rear of the room and took off running despite Kazamatsuri’s complaint.
He looked up when he heard her coming, having been seated at an empty desk in the back to wait for his statement to be taken. Baseball cap, glasses, t-shirt, jeans, and sneakers. He tipped the hat up, his eyes widening at the sight of her. And not just because of what she was wearing.
“My lady…” he choked out.
She stood her ground, knowing that she was crying, but she wouldn’t hide it. “I want to hit you so hard right now. So hard.”
He was surprised to see her. Was he completely stupid? Did he think she’d just sit quietly in the apartment and wait for him to return? “How did you get here?”
“That’s not important,” she said, wiping her tears with the back of her hand, quaking with anger. “How could you? Kageyama, how could you?”
He slowly got to his feet, meeting her eyes. “I’m next up to give a statement. It won’t take long, and then I’ll bring you home…”
“Asahikawa Daily Mail?” she hissed at him. “You could have been killed!”
“You can’t do this here,” he chided her quietly, suddenly bowing his head.
Reiko turned to see Superintendent Takemoto had approached. He put a hand on her shoulder. “Let me debrief you, Hosho-kun. And then our…reporter friend can get you settled back in at home.”
She followed her superior officer, looking back over her shoulder to see Kageyama sit back down with what almost seemed like relief.
-
Sada Masahiro, the twenty-four year old son of Sada Takanori. Unemployed, unsociable, and in the absence of his mother, he’d turned to his grandmother Sada Kuniko for love and guidance when the world seemed unwilling to offer him any.
His father was a crook, of course, relying on his son’s computer prowess to slowly steal sums from his company. And Sada Masahiro had been very good with computers. Very good. His grandmother hadn’t known a thing about it, an innocent pawn in everything. She hadn’t deserved to die, and when she did, Sada Masahiro seemed more willing to put the blame on the Kunitachi police than on his criminal papa.
Superintendent Takemoto explained all of this with a calm that astonished Reiko, given how confident the police had apparently sounded about Sada Takanori as their culprit. “We owe it all to Kazamatsuri-kun,” Takemoto admitted. “The realization apparently hit on his flight back from Manila…”
Or more like Kageyama had managed to send him his own suspicions about Sada Masahiro, and Kazamatsuri had easily gone along with it. Sada Takanori had only turned himself in to keep his son from being arrested. Having lost grandmother and father both in such a short time, Sada Masahiro had finally left his computer and shown up at Kunitachi to exact his revenge.
Sada father and Sada son were both in custody now, and neither would be leaving prison any time soon. Most of the copycats and followers had been arrested in connection with Sada’s posted threats, and the tide had turned. Upon discovering their hacker hero’s criminal background, helping his father to steal, the movement online seemed to falter.
Reiko took all this in with as measured a demeanor as she could manage. If Kageyama had suspected the grandson, he’d never told her about it. In the interviews, the signs had been there though. The shut-in son who claimed to have no idea what his father was up to. He’d been sitting in his darkened bedroom, watching a cartoon on his computer. That man, the master hacker, had played them all. It seemed only Kageyama had seen through him, even if he’d only heard about him through Reiko’s own recollections.
“Did Sada-san, the father, not really know anything about hacking?”
“As your friend recklessly mentioned, Sada-san knew next to nothing about computers, but a confession was a confession, and the son had been ruled out. An alibi that ended up, of course, being faked with the help of computers.” Takemoto sat back in his chair, sighing. “We wanted it to be over, just wanted to get back to normal. The more downtown interferes…”
“…the less we have to do,” Reiko finished for him. She aimed for downtown headquarters someday, perhaps a squad of her own, but for now, she’d work her way up with no help from anyone…save for Kageyama of course.
Takemoto cleared his throat. “We’re keeping protective details for at least a month, but your circumstances will probably remain unchanged.”
“I’m going home,” she rudely insisted before he’d even finished speaking.
The older man cracked a smile. “Yes, you can go home. And again, you have nothing to fear. Your secret’s always safe with me. If Kazamatsuri-kun knew, I’d never hear the end of it, and I’m trying to make it to retirement in relative peace and contentment. You’re dismissed, Hosho-kun, please report in for your usual shift tomorrow. Back to what you do best.”
“Thank you, sir. I appreciate all your efforts.”
Dismissed, Reiko headed back into the squad room, trying to stay along the wall and in the rear so nobody took the time to stare down her strange attire. Kageyama found her first, still in his stupid cap. “I’ve been cleared to go,” he said. “I’m happy to take you directly to the house, provided it passes my security inspection…”
She hesitated for a moment, staring needlessly at the curve of his shoulder, the skin visible near his collar, the line of his jaw. He’d be back in his proper attire quite soon.
She’d almost lost him.
Reiko shoved her feelings down. “The safe house needs tidying, and I’ll pack up my underwear myself this time, thank you. We’ll return there first.”
His bow was more subtle in their mixed company. “Of course. As you wish, my lady.”
-
The drive was a quiet one, their last together in the smaller car. The limousine had been parked at the house garage, and Kageyama would probably spend the rest of his day washing it before working with the security team and updating her father on the situation. Kageyama the butler would return in full effect: proper, hardworking, and considerate. Distant.
The stranger she’d lived with the past few days, the not-quite-but-very-much-still Kageyama, would be departing soon. That was the person she’d fled the apartment for, ignoring everything else in favor of reaching him, ensuring he was alright. It hadn’t been Kageyama the loyal butler she’d been chasing, and she knew it. It was the Kageyama who spoiled movies, slept by her bedside, told her he’d never solve a mystery again if it meant keeping her safe. That was the man she’d dropped everything for without hesitation.
And he would soon be out of reach.
They pulled in to the parking lot, ascending in the elevator to the top floor. Thankfully they didn’t encounter anyone who’d seen Reiko come running by in pajamas and heels, angrily flashing a police badge. The door was unlocked and the TV still on just as she’d left it - the remote control she had dropped to the floor, knocking off the back cover and dislodging the batteries.
“There was no breakfast,” she said softly when they were inside their small space again with the door shut. “And it was late. You weren’t here so I didn’t know what to do.”
He was crouched down, picking up the batteries and fixing the remote. “I deeply apologize. When I caught wind of the press conference, I put things in motion rather quickly. I did that without telling you, and in doing so, I erred greatly. Because of my rash actions and failing to anticipate that Sada Masahiro would show up for one last swing at Inspector Kazamatsuri, I might have compromised your safety. I’ll be telling the master about these mistakes, and if he feels my judgment was poor, I am prepared to tender my resignation.”
She stood there in the tiny kitchen, still in her pajamas, unable to think. “My safety?” she managed to whisper, so quietly that he turned around to look at her.
“Of course,” he replied, taking off his baseball cap to look at her properly. “You could have been hurt on the way to Kunitachi. You might have been foolish enough to leave without your wallet or identification. You might have not watched TV at all and instead burned the kitchen down attempting to make breakfast…”
“Kageyama…”
He chuckled bitterly, shaking his head. “…or not. Again, I should not have acted without telling you, and for that I am sorry.”
She stepped closer, hands balled into fists. “You could have died.”
He stood, straightening up. “I would have dodged a clumsy attempt like that.”
“How was I to know it was clumsy?” she cried, raising her voice. “How was I to know anything? All I saw was you on the TV, winking and patting yourself on the back for your usual cleverness. And then it all went crazy, and you could have been hurt. You could have fallen, been trampled on by those reporters. Kageyama, you could have died!”
“I wasn’t hurt. I didn’t die.”
She reached out, grabbing hold of his arms. She wanted to shake him or push him out the window, but despite her desire to give him a well-deserved thrashing, she leaned in before he could protest. Her arms wrapped around him tightly, and she gave in to her tears. Reiko didn’t care one bit if his ugly t-shirt was stained from them, nor did she care about propriety. He seemed to freeze in place, unsure how to proceed, but he patiently allowed her to cry herself silly.
Everything, every little annoying emotion that had been clogging her up the past several days came spilling out. The online threats. The safe house situation. The romantic feelings for Kageyama that had preoccupied her mind, and the heartbreaking feelings for a Kageyama who might have been lost to her forever. Reiko clung to him as tightly as she could, as though letting him go might allow him to vanish into thin air.
“I’m sorry,” he eventually began repeating over and over as she sobbed, as though all of his usual smart remarks had fled him. Had she ever been so upset in front of him before, so lost? She didn’t know how long they’d been standing there in the middle of the room, but his attitude softened and she felt his arms come around her. He merely clasped his hands behind her back, encircling her protectively as she refused to let go.
“If you resign,” she choked out, sniffing. “My god, Kageyama, if you resign I’d…I’d…”
“…fire me?”
A fresh round of tears threatened to spill. She was surprised to have any left. She was equally surprised when she responded to his lighthearted quip by tilting her head up and kissing him.
He immediately broke contact with her, trying to push her away, but she held firm. “Don’t,” she begged him, fingers twisted up in the fabric of his t-shirt. She was surprised by how right it had felt, tasting the warmth of his lips for the first time. “Please don’t…”
“It’s impossible,” he whispered almost harshly, though that didn’t stop him from pulling a handkerchief from his pocket and dabbing it gently against the tear tracks on her face. The tenderness of this motion only made her want to kiss him again. “You’ve been under a great deal of stress, my lady, some of which I have exacerbated with my actions. Let’s pack up here and return to the house.”
“I’ve wanted to do that before today,” she admitted. “Before your ill-advised venture into journalism, I most certainly wanted to kiss you. This wasn’t all from stress…”
His cheeks reddened, withdrawing his handkerchief. She could only look into his eyes, but he was probably twisting and tearing the fabric between his fingers, unsure how to proceed. His employer’s daughter, the mistress of the Hosho house, had just kissed him - and that after he’d already broken protocol and allowed for her to hug him. His heart was probably about to explode. Now who was undergoing stress?
Kissing him though, Reiko had just discovered, had felt so wonderful - so simple a thing, a peck on the lips, and yet everything had changed. She felt liberated from the torment she’d put herself through, denying what she truly felt or dismissing it as an impossibility just as Kageyama had. Life without him by her side, whether he was teasing sharply or offering comfort, that was the true impossibility.
“I care about you,” she told him. “You said you’d give up solving mysteries to see me safe, even though nothing seems to give you more joy than that. How can you be so willing to sacrifice that happiness for my sake and still say this is impossible?”
He was struggling very hard with his words, wrestling with himself. “I cannot properly serve you if I’m giving in to selfish whims.”
She stayed firm. “You seem to be able to manage a great many things with no trouble. The house and the staff and my schedule and my safety and solving crimes and things Papa needs done and…”
“My lady,” he interrupted. “I cannot put my own feelings before yours. And you are truly idiotic to think I would…”
“But if our feelings are mutual then…”
“I’m certain that they are not,” he said abruptly.
This stunned her, made her stomach twist in knots. “You…you don’t…”
He used his handkerchief to clean his glasses, avoiding her gaze.
“On normal days, you fire me an average of 6.7 times. I keep a tally for my own amusement. On normal days, I prepare breakfast, drive you to work, and then listen dutifully to you in the evenings. Your work is your priority, but now that you’ve been cut off from it, from the happiness and satisfaction it brings you, you have had more time to give over to fanciful thinking. You’ve been trapped here, as you’ve stated repeatedly, in close quarters lacking in privacy. We have spent nearly every waking moment together, so in light of that abrupt change in environment, the lack of boundaries between us in this small apartment, it is only natural that you’ve started to grow curious about me beyond my position. Since the start of my employment, you have not otherwise been on a date or engaged in any romantic encounters. Between that and your fears this morning about my safety…”
She narrowed her eyes, pointing angrily at him. So it wasn’t even about what he felt, but what she did? He didn’t even believe she was feeling what she knew she was feeling? “You think I’m not serious!? You think I don’t even know my own heart?”
He pursed his lips. “I think that we’ll leave this place, and come morning you will see things differently. You will think of me only as Kageyama, your butler, once more. As is proper and expected. And I would be honored to continue serving you, if the master does not take issue with my actions the past few days.”
What was he doing? What was he saying? It felt like a door had just been slammed in her face. But the days and nights together, how he’d cared for her, how he’d given up his own comfort to see her safe…it was abnormal for a mere butler. For goodness sake, he was seeing her in his dreams, addressing her whether he was awake or not. Whether he’d give in to them or not, Kageyama’s feelings seemed to go way beyond his actual duties and expectations.
It was Reiko who was suspect. Reiko who was lacking in seriousness. Did he think she liked him the same as a new purse or something? Did he really think her feelings were that fickle? After everything they’d been through? He couldn’t even wrap his head around the thought that she truly…loved him?
Her heart crumbling, her anger slipping away, she moved away from him. Only minutes before she’d been in his arms, cherishing every second, knowing he hadn’t been taken away from her. And not just because then someone new would have to be hired to chauffeur her around. Reiko wasn’t like that, and he seemed unwilling to see that.
“I’ll pack my things, and we’ll go home,” she said, her voice nearly cracking. She closed the bedroom door behind her, saving her tears for her pillow rather than for Kageyama to see this time.
-
The staff had yet to return despite Sada Masahiro’s arrest. Kageyama was going to give them a full week’s vacation, just so everything might be settled down and forgotten by the time they returned. It was overboard, Reiko thought, but apparently her father had agreed. Kageyama had said nothing about resigning, so she assumed her Papa had kept him on.
The house had never seemed so empty. After being in such a small space, the Hosho mansion seemed almost a cavernous waste of space. Of course, it was the grandest home in Japan, but there were so many rooms now. Her own bedroom made her feel tiny, insignificant.
The drive home had been uncomfortable and awkward, Reiko refusing to speak with Kageyama even as he’d tried to make stupid small talk about the estate gardens or the menus he was planning for her now that he had the full kitchen at his disposal once more. She’d shut herself up in her room, wondering what to do. At least she’d have work again starting tomorrow, solving other people’s problems instead of her own. Kageyama doubted her sincerity, doubted the depth of her feelings, and for that, Reiko was lost.
She took her dinner on a tray in her room, dismissing him with a wave of her hand. She couldn’t look at him without remembering his cynicism from earlier that day. His total and complete rejection. He hadn’t even said “My lady, I don’t feel that way about you.” He’d only said it was “impossible.” He’d turned everything back on her - on her position over him, on the maturity of her feelings.
It was the middle of the night when she woke, having been tossing and turning, equal parts annoyed and humiliated. She’d left half her dinner behind, dumping the tray in the hallway earlier that night and keeping her door shut. She was hungry, and though she could easily call Kageyama to fix her something, she didn’t much want to see him yet. Thankfully he hadn’t been rude enough to lock her door, and he was not sitting outside it. In her slippers, she headed down to the kitchen.
Thinking of the snacks she could prepare without Kageyama knowing she’d been there, insulting him by fending for herself, she failed to notice the red security laser line at the base of the staircase. She so seldom left her room at night, and she was usually a solid sleeper. Having tripped the invisible line, a noisy alarm and blinking lights went off, startling her. She screamed in surprise, clinging to the bannister. Her father’s stupid lasers!
“My lady!” In moments, she heard noisy footsteps charge down the upstairs hall and then thump down the stairs. He was in the same t-shirt and shorts he’d worn back at the safe house. “My lady!”
She plugged her ears, trying to drown out the sound of the alarm. The lights came on in the room properly, and she saw Kageyama, eyes crazed and breathing heavily, looking around with his baseball bat in his hands, ready to take out anyone who might wish to harm her. He’d come running so quickly he hadn’t even worn his glasses.
“Turn it off!” she shouted at him. “Turn it off already!”
Seeing her there, crouching in fright beside the staircase but unharmed, he raced from the room. Soon the alarm was off, the system deactivated for the moment. She heard knocking at the front door, and she eventually heard Kageyama open it, speaking with the private security team, dismissing them. “False alarm,” she heard him say.
Once the door was shut and locked again, the rest of the mansion secured, Kageyama looked slightly less absurd when he came back to the staircase. She was sitting on the steps, embarrassed.
“I just wanted a snack,” she admitted. “I forgot about the lasers…”
He sat down beside her with a heavy sigh. “That was stupid of you.”
She grinned, pushing a strand of hair behind her ear. “I’m sorry.”
“I thought…” Kageyama started, but clammed up soon after. He looked down, shaking his head.
“What?”
“I thought something had happened to you,” he admitted. “That you might have been hurt, that someone was trying to kidnap you…”
“It’s been quite a day,” she said quietly. “Now you know what my morning was like during your own moment of stupidity. Minus the kidnapping.”
“You do foolish things all the time, so I don’t know why…” There were dark circles under Kageyama’s eyes, uncertainty in his voice.
She turned to look at him, seeing him in profile in the dim hall lights as he sat beside her. He was deeply upset, and all she could remember was how he’d said “I’m sorry” over and over that afternoon, lost for words. “Kageyama, it was a silly mistake. You can still fetch me a snack, if you wish, since surely you know where the lasers are better than me.”
“I shouldn’t have doubted you,” he said bluntly. “Hearing you scream like that, I couldn’t bear it…”
It had only been a scream of surprise, no blood-curdling “Help, I’m being stabbed” noise or anything. And yet it had hit him so hard. He’d assumed her feelings were a sudden result of her confinement, his place in harm’s way. Now he’d been tested similarly. What was it he was feeling?
“I couldn’t bear the thought of something happening to you,” he continued, so quietly she almost missed it. “Not as your butler, but as something much more. It was only for a few seconds, I assure you, but if you were gone and I’d never…”
“What happened to ‘it’s impossible’ and me seeing things differently back at the house?” she asked him. “Was it easier for you to just think of me as a silly girl who couldn’t possibly…” She frowned. “A silly girl who couldn’t possibly be in love with you for real?”
He perked up a bit, especially when she held her hand out and twined their fingers together. He didn’t bother to shy away this time, to shut her down. He wouldn’t say it out loud though, wouldn’t confess the truth of his feelings, not yet. “It’s still impossible, regardless of what we feel.”
“That was what Papa said when I wanted to join the police academy. And then when I finished and wanted to work out in the field, to be a proper investigator. It’s too risky, too dangerous. Or in his mind, it was something I simply shouldn’t have wanted. I have money and jewels and clothes, everything I could possibly need, but still I wanted that job, I wanted to get out there. He doubted what I felt,” she told him. “He didn’t believe I wanted it as badly as I did.”
“But you did.”
She squeezed his hand. “I did. I can be serious, Kageyama. About the things that are important to me. The things I’m willing to work for, no matter how impossible.”
“Why go for the impossible, though? When you might have anyone else to adore you?”
The almost easy way he’d said ‘adore’ sent a shiver of pleasure through her. Did he love her? Did he adore her? “I deserve the best, Papa’s always said so. And I’m quite capable enough of determining what that might mean.”
“It would be thoroughly inappropriate.”
“Says the man who interferes in police investigations. Talk about inappropriate! I could rattle off a dozen paragraphs of the police code that you violate on a day-to-day basis. First, eavesdropping on all my interviews. Second, using private funds from the Hosho Group to intervene in official police business. Third, unauthorized visits to crime scenes. Fourth…”
This time it was Kageyama who acted first, leaning over to kiss her, resting his hand so gently on her cheek. She shut her eyes, basking in the attention, the surprisingly passionate kiss of a man she’d once been convinced could have been a robot. He’d probably harbored these feelings for a while, hiding behind his position and his loyalty, but just like Reiko, he had finally given in to what made sense in his heart. It wasn’t every day that those sorts of mysteries, those challenges and uncertainties, could be resolved.
He broke away from her before he got carried away, scratching his head in frustration. “I’m sorry…if that was unsatisfactory…”
She gave him a little shove, chuckling. “This is all fairly new for me too, Kageyama. But I’m willing to try.”
He was utterly serious when he spoke next, and it made her smile. “I will try to be what you deserve, my lady.”
“I’d expect no less from you.”
He rose to his feet first, holding out his hand to help her up. She was reluctant to let go, tired as she was and still snack-less. Tomorrow would see the resurgence of Kunitachi, Reiko could just feel it. Kazamatsuri could make his stupid predictions, Reiko could spend the better part of her day interviewing people who hadn’t seen a darn thing relating to a crime, and it wouldn’t matter. She’d fight hard at her job no matter what, and now she had something at home to work at just as fiercely.
Kageyama escorted her carefully up the stairs, bringing her to her bedroom door. She felt almost like she was floating, knowing it wasn’t just from being tired. When he made to bid her a good night, she stole another kiss from him instead, wrapping her arms around his neck and showing him just how excited she was to start something new.
“I’ve missed your bow tie. Wear it for me tomorrow,” Reiko said, standing in her doorway.
He bowed to her, hand to his heart. “Of course…”
“…and if I see that baseball cap again, I’ll set fire to it.” When his eyes widened, she only blew him a kiss.
“Sweet dreams,” she said, shutting the door.
Reiko finished her book, though she’d skimmed the last several pages and hadn’t absorbed much of what had happened. She was doomed, stuck in this stupid fantasy of her own creation. Where she and Kageyama were ordinary and where she had no reason to hide her shifting feelings.
Going through her book stack, she couldn’t find one that would change her tune. Not even her mystery books, the ones with the potential for a “the butler did it” resolution, could satisfy her. Things grew more unsettling when Kageyama knocked on her door to announce that dinner was served.
He was uncharacteristically silent as he bustled about the small room, putting down her utensils and placing a bowl of soup down. When he held her chair out, he seemed to be fixated at some point on the wall, looking anywhere but at her as she sat down. This was all her doing, she knew. He’d probably woken with that blanket covering him, and he’d known that she had done it. Though it was his job to take care of her, their roles had been briefly reversed. Reiko had only wanted to keep him from catching cold, but from Kageyama’s strange demeanor, he seemed to be embarrassed or ashamed of himself. And then he may have discovered the plate of sandwiches. In his own mind, he’d broken some rule, allowing his lady to be subservient to him. It was just a blanket, just a sandwich on a plate, truth be told, but the air in the room was charged now.
She picked up her spoon, hoping she sounded indifferent. She would not apologize for taking care of him when he’d been too exhausted to take care of himself. “Are you joining me for dinner or what?”
“No, my lady.”
She tried the soup. Despite the humble kitchen, it was as delicious as anything he’d have made for her back at the house. “Did you sleep well?” she asked, kicking herself mentally for it.
“I did, my lady. Thank you.”
Throughout the meal, his answers remained short, simple. Formal and polite. He was in such strange spirits that he didn’t even tease her. When she dropped her fork, something that on most days would earn a “How clumsy!” comment, he merely picked it up and fetched her a new one.
She moved back to the DVDs when dinner was over, frustrated with the distance that had grown between them in the matter of an afternoon. Reiko supposed it was for the best. If Kageyama acted informally with her, it might give her all the more reason to give in to what she was feeling. If he was a butler and a butler only, she could retain her dignity. Soon they’d be back in the house with cases to solve. Kageyama would be himself again, too, and they could put this strange situation behind them.
Reiko was discovering that it was much easier to be annoyed with Kageyama than to have romantic feelings for him. It was easier to say “You’re fired!” and “Fetch the car already!” than to imagine asking him for something like a hug. She would be running the Hosho Group someday, for goodness sake. She couldn’t be this indecisive, this caught up in silly feelings. But still, when she pressed play on the DVD and moved to settle in on the couch, there was Kageyama at the sink scrubbing the pots and pans, looking a million miles away. And it hurt.
“I’ve selected a comedy,” she announced airily, hoping to snap him out of his funk. “You can’t ruin this for me.”
“What if I know the punchline to the joke?” he called back, his voice not as arrogant as it might have been.
“Keep it to yourself then!”
“Very well.”
He insulted her at first by turning one of the dining chairs around to sit in, but she thumped the couch cushion beside her with her fist. “You’re an eyesore, I keep seeing you in the corner of my vision. It’s annoying, Kageyama. Sit over here.”
Reiko knew she was going a little overboard, but Kageyama seemed to respond better when she was being a spoiled brat and not someone fixing him a plate and tucking him in. He dutifully sat beside her, though he didn’t seem as relaxed as he had the previous night when he had a movie mystery to solve. Despite the movie being rather humorous, neither of them let out much more than a chuckle.
Near the midway point of the movie, Kageyama’s pocket started ringing. He bounded off the couch with alarming speed, answering his phone with a rather curt “This is Kageyama speaking on behalf of Hosho Reiko-sama.” Before she could listen in on the call, which was obviously about the case, he’d slipped out the apartment door to talk in the hall. She rolled her eyes, sighing.
When the minutes started ticking by, she paused the movie, feeling his absence acutely. Perhaps this would be it then. This odd little experiment would end, she could get back to her fine clothes and jewels and Kageyama could get back to his own normal role. The limousine and his insults and his room at the other end of the hall. Everything would be right and proper again.
He returned a short time later, inclining his head in apology for her having to stop the movie. “That was Inspector Komoto. Sada Takanori-san turned himself in as the hacker. The police confirmed it and tracked the Internet activity from his home. It’s over.”
She perked up at that. Sada-san the suspected embezzler? “He did all this because of his mother’s death? The hacking, the threats?”
“Grief affects us all in various ways, my lady,” Kageyama said, though there was a smidgen of hesitation in his voice.
She stood, abandoning the remote control for the TV. “Can we pack up now then? They have him in custody, and since he’s confessed, it’s doubtful anyone will continue the threats. If he’s showing remorse for his actions…”
Kageyama shook his head. “We’ll stay here another night.”
“Why?” she protested, barely keeping herself from stomping her feet and disturbing the floor below. “He turned himself in.”
“Something’s not right about this, my lady. Kunitachi has the all clear, and Kazamatsuri-san is returning tomorrow, but I…I don’t believe the right person has come forward.”
Reiko rolled her eyes. “Kunitachi has the all clear! That means we can leave and you can go nose about as much as you want! Don’t you want to go prove them wrong?”
He finally met her eyes with utter seriousness. “If they’re wrong about Sada Takanori, then it means you’re still in danger.”
“Then we’ll investigate together! You and me. You can protect me all you like that way, but we can still get out of here. I’m getting cabin fever, Kageyama, and I know you are too…”
“I’ve doubled up on security at the house. Come morning, I’ll speak with the police again and if your father agrees to it, we’ll leave.”
“Why don’t I get a say at all?” She stepped forward, grabbing him by the arm and giving him a shake. Usually when she lashed out he was in a jacket, not a thin t-shirt. Her fingers instead wrapped around warm, bare skin, and she could see his face flush at the contact. “If the Tokyo Metropolitan Police have the man in custody, nothing is going to happen!”
“My lady…”
“Don’t you want to solve this properly, Kageyama? You’ve already been listening in on the police frequency and doing goodness knows what else behind my back. You’re probably going mad in here!”
“Of course I want to solve this,” he replied, looking to his feet.
“Then what is your problem?”
He pried her fingers off of him, still unable or unwilling to look up. “I would never solve a mystery again if it meant keeping you safe. That is the priority, and that will always be the priority.”
She could barely speak, feeling a little dizzy at the seriousness of his words. “Kageyama…”
“Please,” he begged her, pressing his hand to his heart and bowing his head. “For your own safety and because of my foolish conjecture about the culprit, please remain here one more night.”
She wanted him to lift his head, to meet her gaze. She’d spent the better part of the day scolding herself for letting her irrational feelings take hold, but Kageyama’s actions seemed rather intense themselves. Reiko was a trained police officer, but she was being kept here under lock and key. All of this under her “father’s” orders. But how much of those “orders” had come as a result of Kageyama’s suggestions? How much of this confinement was due to Kageyama’s own wish to see her safe? What exactly did Kageyama feel for her, that he’d go to these lengths to keep an eye on her? Perhaps it was wishful thinking on the part of a woman trapped in a small apartment, but it seemed like much more than a butler’s usual concern.
“We’ll leave at once in the morning?”
“Certainly. Provided it’s safe.”
She bit her lip. “I want to work. I want to get back to normal.”
“I know very much that you do, my lady. And I’m sorry.”
She shifted her weight to her other foot. He was still standing with his head bowed. She had only to ask for him to raise his head. She had only to ask, but she was almost afraid of what she might see in his eyes. She was afraid that she was not alone in these feelings, and that would only complicate things further. It was easy to dismiss her own feelings, but if these two hidden days were bringing a shift in even Kageyama’s feelings…
“Please finish the movie if you want. I think I’ll go wash up and then rest.”
“Good night. Pleasant dreams,” Kageyama said quietly.
She had her bath and then slipped back into the bedroom, changing into her pajamas. She managed only half a dozen pages in the new novel she was reading before her eyes grew itchy with sleep.
It must have been the middle of the night when Reiko woke from a strange dream, her own tossing and turning waking her up. Whatever the dream might have been about slipped away, but she nearly gasped in surprise when she heard the sound of a second person breathing in the room. She turned over, peering over the side of the mattress only to find the shadow of Kageyama sitting on the floor, his back against the bed and something like a small pillow in his arms. She hadn’t even heard him sneak in, and if she fell back asleep, it was likely she’d wake and he’d be gone as though he’d never been here.
She stayed there at the edge of the bed, brain swirling with confusion and affection and sadness all at once. What was he doing here? Why, when he had a room of his own? Why, when nobody could actually get in? Despite herself, Reiko rested her hand at the very end of the mattress, maybe an inch or two from stroking her fingers through Kageyama’s hair. Close, but not too close to wake him and dispel the strange magic, the bubbling feelings his presence produced in her.
He was so close now, but tomorrow would change things back. And wouldn’t that be better?
-
As expected, Kageyama left no sign of having slept at her bedside when she woke. The small clock on the bedside table read 9:27 AM, and Reiko was astonished that she’d slept so late. Usually Kageyama woke her to serve breakfast much earlier. Opening her door and moving out into the apartment, she saw that his bedroom door was open and the room was empty.
“Kageyama?” she asked the quiet apartment, thoroughly confused. She took a quick glance at the vase of daisies on the table, frowning. Maybe he’d slipped out to buy more, a seemingly simple thing he didn’t really have to do. He’d left no note behind (rude) and no breakfast to be reheated (doubly rude). Reiko fumed, fumbling with cabinets and looking hastily through Kageyama’s room. Her cell phone was still nowhere in sight, and he’d dared to leave her alone.
Angrily, she grabbed the remote control for the television and flipped on the news. Some handsome chef was just finishing up a dish, drizzling some mozzarella and tomatoes with olive oil, and then attention was given back to the studio. They were about to go live to a press conference at Kunitachi Police Station! And here she was, stuck in this apartment.
The reporter was standing in the driveway of the station with several others. A podium was set up, and it seemed like Superintendent Takemoto and Inspector Komoto were ready to speak. Komoto approached the microphone first, and explained that Sada Takanori had confessed to hacking the Tokyo Metropolitan Police database and was deeply sorry for his crimes, both the threats against the police and for the embezzling of funds that had landed his mother in the questioning chair at the Kunitachi station to begin with. Then Takemoto took over, explaining that Sada was in custody downtown after his confession before opening things up to questions.
Reiko watched, wishing she could be there to support Kunitachi, when she spotted a suspicious looking fellow in the far left of the crowd of reporters. He was holding a small tape recorder and seemed to have a press pass on a lanyard around his neck, but there was no mistaking that stupid baseball cap.
“How could you be there without me?” she shouted uselessly at the TV, now that she’d spotted Kageyama there in the crowd. What a silly disguise! “What’s wrong with you?”
Perhaps he’d gone to speak with Takemoto in person and hadn’t expected the press conference to slow him down. Served him right, Reiko thought angrily. But eventually Reiko saw Kageyama raise his hand to ask a question, and Takemoto didn’t seem to notice that Kageyama was the same person who’d been assigned as her protective detail. She wanted to scream at her boss for falling for it. Did Kageyama really not stand out to these people?
“Hello there, Asahikawa Daily Mail. Superintendent Takemoto, are you absolutely sure you have the right man?”
Takemoto looked over at Kageyama rather curiously, and Reiko nibbled anxiously on her thumbnail. What the hell was Kageyama doing? And the Asahikawa Daily Mail? What kind of ridiculous cover was this? “Of course, we’ve extracted a full, detailed confession from Sada-san and…”
“I’m sorry, Superintendent,” Kageyama rudely interrupted. “But are you an idiot?”
“No further questions,” Komoto butted in, waving off the cameras.
“Kageyama, what the hell are you doing?” Reiko squealed, seeing the other reporters chuckling merrily at the Asahikawa Daily Mail reporter’s expense. And yet Kageyama moved forward, holding out his tape recorder.
“If Sada Takanori’s guilt is so certain, and he’s a genius computer hacker who can infiltrate the Tokyo Metropolitan Police database with such ease, then can you explain to the assembled press here how that’s possible if Sada-san can barely type his own name on a computer?”
The reporters’ chuckling quieted down. What in the world did Kageyama mean?
“Superintendent Takemoto?” Kageyama asked again. “Would you care to clarify the department’s position?”
And then it was a madhouse. Reiko watched Kageyama and his Yankees cap slip back into the crowd as the other reporters rushed forward. The reporter from the TV station Reiko was watching started elbowing her way to the front aggressively. “Is it true?” “Please tell us what Sada-san can and cannot do with a computer!” “Is this all one big coverup?”
Reiko was ready to pull her hair out at Kageyama’s audacity, especially when she saw him turn and wink at the camera from the news program she was watching. The nerve of him. And then there was the crowning achievement. The reporters parted as a familiar white convertible came roaring into the driveway. While Komoto tried desperately to reassure the crowd that the police had the right man, the reporters flocked over to Inspector Kazamatsuri’s car.
With a new tan and a reassuring smile, he hopped out of his vehicle and waved to the crowd. He looked much more confident than he had before leaving for his “business trip” to Manila, so Reiko was fairly certain he hadn’t gotten much “business” done while he was away. But then again, given the stress he’d been under, she didn’t have much reason to blame him.
“Now now now,” Kazamatsuri told the assembled crowd, thoroughly upstaging the Superintendent and downtown team. “I’ve just uncovered the truth of this case, and I’m here to share it with you all!”
Or more like Kageyama had slipped a message to him in some way. Maybe he’d even signed it with Ho Shourei’s name, just for Kazamatsuri to believe it all the more.
“The real culprit is not Sada Takanori. In fact…”
As the crush of the crowd seemed almost about to engulf Kazamatsuri, Reiko had lost Kageyama. The news channel she was following had zoomed in on Kazamatsuri, just in time for his big reveal. So when the panicked screams started a moment later, she didn’t know what was happening. The reporter herself was stumbling around, bumping into Kazamatsuri’s car.
Reiko held out the TV remote with shaky hands, switching to the next channel. The same panic, the same chaos. She switched channels again, her own fear rising. All the stations were tuned to the press conference, but Reiko only needed to hear a few words before dropping the remote and racing for her bag.
“Someone’s been stabbed here! Someone’s been stabbed!”
Taking the time to grab her purse, checking her wallet, she put on her shoes and raced out of the apartment in horror. What had happened? What the hell had just happened? Was Kazamatsuri hurt? Takemoto? Someone else?
Where had Kageyama gone? She’d lost him…
She jabbed the button for the elevator, only to realize there was a small keypad beside it prompting for the code Kageyama hadn’t even trusted to give her. “No,” she complained, wishing she’d paid closer attention. “No, you can’t leave me locked in here!”
Giving up, she looked to the stairwell. It wasn’t locked and she hurried through, although she realized as soon as the door closed behind her that she was required to enter a code to get onto any floor, the same as the elevator. Reiko refused to let her panic overtake her. She was smart, she could do this. Down the steps she hurried, wishing she’d opted for sneakers instead of heels. At least she was going down and not up.
Figuring she’d come up with a strategy when she reached the ground floor or the garage, she was ridiculously grateful when a man pushed open a door on the sixth or seventh floor. Much as she was technically supposed to be hidden, she waved the man down with something halfway between a scream and a “please wait.” To Reiko’s surprise, the man waited in the doorway for her to get down to him. By then, she had her badge out of her bag.
“Tokyo Metropolitan Police, please let me down in the elevator. It’s important!”
The man glanced at her badge for only a moment before holding the door wide and letting her in, punching in his elevator code. As she hurried inside, the man was still staring at her. From his jacket and the broom she just noticed in his hand, he was probably building maintenance. She shouted a hurried “thank you!” just as the doors closed.
She was on the complete other side of town from Kunitachi, but she didn’t care. The more she thought about what she’d seen on the TV, the way she’d seen Kageyama disappear from sight, the more Reiko worried that it might be Kageyama who’d been injured. The thought of him hurt, the thought of him stabbed, made her pace the elevator like a caged animal.
“Idiot, idiot, idiot,” she mumbled to herself, waving her hand in front of her face to try and stay calm, to not give in to her fear. To not cry at the thought of Kageyama being gone, her last image of him being that stupid wink at the camera. He was always insulting her intelligence, and now he’d gone and thrown himself in harm’s way. Now who was the idiot here?
She raced out of the apartment complex, hurrying for the street. It was a residential street, a few blocks from a main road, and Reiko was happy for all the time she’d spent in the academy working on her sprinting. Even if she was a little clumsy in her shoes, she made good time, managing to get to the street and flag down a cab in less than a minute.
Out of breath, all she managed to get out was “Kunitachi…police…” and flashed her badge again. The taxi tore away from the curb with speed, but Reiko knew it was going to take ages to get there. With no phone, no means of communicating, she waited until she got her breath back before apologizing to the driver.
“May I please borrow your cell phone? I’ll be checking the Internet and then making a call, if that’s alright?”
Clearly remembering her police badge, the driver handed his phone over with shaking fingers. She quickly searched through news headlines, but there were no updates. Whatever happened at Kunitachi station really had just happened. She saw brief mentions of “an attack” and “an incident,” but nothing further. She dialed the number for the station’s help desk, but it rang and rang until it prompted her to leave a message.
She gave the driver his phone back, trying not to give in to her fears. But as the minutes ticked by and the taxi inched its way along in the mid-morning traffic, it grew impossible.
Please be alright, she prayed in her heart. Please, Kageyama, be alright.
-
It was just over an hour later when the taxi finally pulled up. She reached inside her wallet and pulled out a small wad of bills. “Just keep it,” she shouted, and even as the taxi driver protested, she was already out the door and racing down the sidewalk.
The entire area was cordoned off, officers everywhere, but she found a familiar face waiting at one of the police tape lines. It was the young patrolman who’d escorted her before. As she ran up, breathing heavily and noticing for the first time that she’d run out of the apartment building in her pajama bottoms and a t-shirt, her hair loose and still messy from sleep but wearing high heels, Reiko wondered how she’d managed to get the man at the apartment and the cab driver to even believe she was with the police. She probably looked like a crazy woman.
The patrolman, however, recognized her immediately, not bothering to check her badge. “Hosho-san,” the young man greeted her, face serious. “Are you okay?”
“No, I’m not,” she admitted, doing everything but looking down at the teddy bear pattern on her pajamas. “Can I get inside? What happened?”
“There was a stabbing…it was the strangest thing…”
“How many people were hurt?” she asked, desperate to get around him and into the station.
“It was the real hacker, he tried to get Inspector Kazamatsuri but…”
“I’m invincible!” came a voice from behind the patrolman. Reiko’s heart leapt at the sight of Kazamatsuri in his white suit, looking none the worse for wear save for dark circles under his eyes. At the sight of her, his lip curled in disgust. “Did you even look in a mirror when you left the house this morning, Hosho-kun? You’d better come inside.”
“Keibu…” Reiko murmured, the patrolman lifting the crime scene tape to allow her onto Kunitachi station grounds.
Kazamatsuri looked to be in fine spirits despite everything, patting her shoulder and shoving her toward the station. “He took a swing at me, but it’ll take a lot more than a butter knife to take out the heir to Kazamatsuri Motors!”
“Who was injured?” Reiko asked, trying to keep from screaming. If Kazamatsuri really was the target and he was fine, then who had been hurt? There were officers everywhere, crime scene techs surrounding Kazamatsuri’s car. “What happened?”
“Well since you must have been sleeping, Hosho-kun, I’ll tell you.” He rolled his eyes, seeming irritated that she’d missed his big moment. “There I was, about to tell the media about the true hacker, the real threat, when he comes racing at me. Of course, I saw him coming from miles away, super vision that I have, so I easily avoided injury. It’s of course unfortunate that someone was hurt, but even when they were taking him away in the ambulance, he waved to everyone. Got a big cheer too! He’ll get all the glory, unfortunately, seeing as how he brought the hacker down, putting himself in front of the knife like that…”
Reiko was shaking and nearly broke down on the station steps. “Who?” she interrupted, unable to take another step. “Who was hurt?”
Kazamatsuri sighed. “That headquarters cop, Komoto. I tell you, Hosho-kun, those downtown types will do anything they can to meddle in our business. He’ll be fine, of course, it was just a graze, but talk about overdramatic…”
Kageyama hadn’t been hurt. Kageyama was fine, she realized, but still her heart was in overdrive, racing enough to have Kazamatsuri staring at her in confusion.
“What’s wrong with you, anyway? Aside from everything I’m looking at right now…”
“What happened to the reporters? The media who were here for the press conference?” she asked, trying to smooth her messy bed hair with her fingers. “After an incident like that…”
“Right, right,” Kazamatsuri said, holding the door for her. “Standard procedure, they’re all here giving statements. And now that you’re finally here, it should move faster. Why didn’t you answer your phone anyhow?”
They entered the station, and everywhere there were reporters and camera crew people, Kunitachi officers jotting down everything they’d seen during the runaway press conference and attack. She ignored Kazamatsuri’s continued bragging about having solved the case so easily, her eyes desperately scanning the squad room. Finally, she saw the New York Yankees cap in the rear of the room and took off running despite Kazamatsuri’s complaint.
He looked up when he heard her coming, having been seated at an empty desk in the back to wait for his statement to be taken. Baseball cap, glasses, t-shirt, jeans, and sneakers. He tipped the hat up, his eyes widening at the sight of her. And not just because of what she was wearing.
“My lady…” he choked out.
She stood her ground, knowing that she was crying, but she wouldn’t hide it. “I want to hit you so hard right now. So hard.”
He was surprised to see her. Was he completely stupid? Did he think she’d just sit quietly in the apartment and wait for him to return? “How did you get here?”
“That’s not important,” she said, wiping her tears with the back of her hand, quaking with anger. “How could you? Kageyama, how could you?”
He slowly got to his feet, meeting her eyes. “I’m next up to give a statement. It won’t take long, and then I’ll bring you home…”
“Asahikawa Daily Mail?” she hissed at him. “You could have been killed!”
“You can’t do this here,” he chided her quietly, suddenly bowing his head.
Reiko turned to see Superintendent Takemoto had approached. He put a hand on her shoulder. “Let me debrief you, Hosho-kun. And then our…reporter friend can get you settled back in at home.”
She followed her superior officer, looking back over her shoulder to see Kageyama sit back down with what almost seemed like relief.
-
Sada Masahiro, the twenty-four year old son of Sada Takanori. Unemployed, unsociable, and in the absence of his mother, he’d turned to his grandmother Sada Kuniko for love and guidance when the world seemed unwilling to offer him any.
His father was a crook, of course, relying on his son’s computer prowess to slowly steal sums from his company. And Sada Masahiro had been very good with computers. Very good. His grandmother hadn’t known a thing about it, an innocent pawn in everything. She hadn’t deserved to die, and when she did, Sada Masahiro seemed more willing to put the blame on the Kunitachi police than on his criminal papa.
Superintendent Takemoto explained all of this with a calm that astonished Reiko, given how confident the police had apparently sounded about Sada Takanori as their culprit. “We owe it all to Kazamatsuri-kun,” Takemoto admitted. “The realization apparently hit on his flight back from Manila…”
Or more like Kageyama had managed to send him his own suspicions about Sada Masahiro, and Kazamatsuri had easily gone along with it. Sada Takanori had only turned himself in to keep his son from being arrested. Having lost grandmother and father both in such a short time, Sada Masahiro had finally left his computer and shown up at Kunitachi to exact his revenge.
Sada father and Sada son were both in custody now, and neither would be leaving prison any time soon. Most of the copycats and followers had been arrested in connection with Sada’s posted threats, and the tide had turned. Upon discovering their hacker hero’s criminal background, helping his father to steal, the movement online seemed to falter.
Reiko took all this in with as measured a demeanor as she could manage. If Kageyama had suspected the grandson, he’d never told her about it. In the interviews, the signs had been there though. The shut-in son who claimed to have no idea what his father was up to. He’d been sitting in his darkened bedroom, watching a cartoon on his computer. That man, the master hacker, had played them all. It seemed only Kageyama had seen through him, even if he’d only heard about him through Reiko’s own recollections.
“Did Sada-san, the father, not really know anything about hacking?”
“As your friend recklessly mentioned, Sada-san knew next to nothing about computers, but a confession was a confession, and the son had been ruled out. An alibi that ended up, of course, being faked with the help of computers.” Takemoto sat back in his chair, sighing. “We wanted it to be over, just wanted to get back to normal. The more downtown interferes…”
“…the less we have to do,” Reiko finished for him. She aimed for downtown headquarters someday, perhaps a squad of her own, but for now, she’d work her way up with no help from anyone…save for Kageyama of course.
Takemoto cleared his throat. “We’re keeping protective details for at least a month, but your circumstances will probably remain unchanged.”
“I’m going home,” she rudely insisted before he’d even finished speaking.
The older man cracked a smile. “Yes, you can go home. And again, you have nothing to fear. Your secret’s always safe with me. If Kazamatsuri-kun knew, I’d never hear the end of it, and I’m trying to make it to retirement in relative peace and contentment. You’re dismissed, Hosho-kun, please report in for your usual shift tomorrow. Back to what you do best.”
“Thank you, sir. I appreciate all your efforts.”
Dismissed, Reiko headed back into the squad room, trying to stay along the wall and in the rear so nobody took the time to stare down her strange attire. Kageyama found her first, still in his stupid cap. “I’ve been cleared to go,” he said. “I’m happy to take you directly to the house, provided it passes my security inspection…”
She hesitated for a moment, staring needlessly at the curve of his shoulder, the skin visible near his collar, the line of his jaw. He’d be back in his proper attire quite soon.
She’d almost lost him.
Reiko shoved her feelings down. “The safe house needs tidying, and I’ll pack up my underwear myself this time, thank you. We’ll return there first.”
His bow was more subtle in their mixed company. “Of course. As you wish, my lady.”
-
The drive was a quiet one, their last together in the smaller car. The limousine had been parked at the house garage, and Kageyama would probably spend the rest of his day washing it before working with the security team and updating her father on the situation. Kageyama the butler would return in full effect: proper, hardworking, and considerate. Distant.
The stranger she’d lived with the past few days, the not-quite-but-very-much-still Kageyama, would be departing soon. That was the person she’d fled the apartment for, ignoring everything else in favor of reaching him, ensuring he was alright. It hadn’t been Kageyama the loyal butler she’d been chasing, and she knew it. It was the Kageyama who spoiled movies, slept by her bedside, told her he’d never solve a mystery again if it meant keeping her safe. That was the man she’d dropped everything for without hesitation.
And he would soon be out of reach.
They pulled in to the parking lot, ascending in the elevator to the top floor. Thankfully they didn’t encounter anyone who’d seen Reiko come running by in pajamas and heels, angrily flashing a police badge. The door was unlocked and the TV still on just as she’d left it - the remote control she had dropped to the floor, knocking off the back cover and dislodging the batteries.
“There was no breakfast,” she said softly when they were inside their small space again with the door shut. “And it was late. You weren’t here so I didn’t know what to do.”
He was crouched down, picking up the batteries and fixing the remote. “I deeply apologize. When I caught wind of the press conference, I put things in motion rather quickly. I did that without telling you, and in doing so, I erred greatly. Because of my rash actions and failing to anticipate that Sada Masahiro would show up for one last swing at Inspector Kazamatsuri, I might have compromised your safety. I’ll be telling the master about these mistakes, and if he feels my judgment was poor, I am prepared to tender my resignation.”
She stood there in the tiny kitchen, still in her pajamas, unable to think. “My safety?” she managed to whisper, so quietly that he turned around to look at her.
“Of course,” he replied, taking off his baseball cap to look at her properly. “You could have been hurt on the way to Kunitachi. You might have been foolish enough to leave without your wallet or identification. You might have not watched TV at all and instead burned the kitchen down attempting to make breakfast…”
“Kageyama…”
He chuckled bitterly, shaking his head. “…or not. Again, I should not have acted without telling you, and for that I am sorry.”
She stepped closer, hands balled into fists. “You could have died.”
He stood, straightening up. “I would have dodged a clumsy attempt like that.”
“How was I to know it was clumsy?” she cried, raising her voice. “How was I to know anything? All I saw was you on the TV, winking and patting yourself on the back for your usual cleverness. And then it all went crazy, and you could have been hurt. You could have fallen, been trampled on by those reporters. Kageyama, you could have died!”
“I wasn’t hurt. I didn’t die.”
She reached out, grabbing hold of his arms. She wanted to shake him or push him out the window, but despite her desire to give him a well-deserved thrashing, she leaned in before he could protest. Her arms wrapped around him tightly, and she gave in to her tears. Reiko didn’t care one bit if his ugly t-shirt was stained from them, nor did she care about propriety. He seemed to freeze in place, unsure how to proceed, but he patiently allowed her to cry herself silly.
Everything, every little annoying emotion that had been clogging her up the past several days came spilling out. The online threats. The safe house situation. The romantic feelings for Kageyama that had preoccupied her mind, and the heartbreaking feelings for a Kageyama who might have been lost to her forever. Reiko clung to him as tightly as she could, as though letting him go might allow him to vanish into thin air.
“I’m sorry,” he eventually began repeating over and over as she sobbed, as though all of his usual smart remarks had fled him. Had she ever been so upset in front of him before, so lost? She didn’t know how long they’d been standing there in the middle of the room, but his attitude softened and she felt his arms come around her. He merely clasped his hands behind her back, encircling her protectively as she refused to let go.
“If you resign,” she choked out, sniffing. “My god, Kageyama, if you resign I’d…I’d…”
“…fire me?”
A fresh round of tears threatened to spill. She was surprised to have any left. She was equally surprised when she responded to his lighthearted quip by tilting her head up and kissing him.
He immediately broke contact with her, trying to push her away, but she held firm. “Don’t,” she begged him, fingers twisted up in the fabric of his t-shirt. She was surprised by how right it had felt, tasting the warmth of his lips for the first time. “Please don’t…”
“It’s impossible,” he whispered almost harshly, though that didn’t stop him from pulling a handkerchief from his pocket and dabbing it gently against the tear tracks on her face. The tenderness of this motion only made her want to kiss him again. “You’ve been under a great deal of stress, my lady, some of which I have exacerbated with my actions. Let’s pack up here and return to the house.”
“I’ve wanted to do that before today,” she admitted. “Before your ill-advised venture into journalism, I most certainly wanted to kiss you. This wasn’t all from stress…”
His cheeks reddened, withdrawing his handkerchief. She could only look into his eyes, but he was probably twisting and tearing the fabric between his fingers, unsure how to proceed. His employer’s daughter, the mistress of the Hosho house, had just kissed him - and that after he’d already broken protocol and allowed for her to hug him. His heart was probably about to explode. Now who was undergoing stress?
Kissing him though, Reiko had just discovered, had felt so wonderful - so simple a thing, a peck on the lips, and yet everything had changed. She felt liberated from the torment she’d put herself through, denying what she truly felt or dismissing it as an impossibility just as Kageyama had. Life without him by her side, whether he was teasing sharply or offering comfort, that was the true impossibility.
“I care about you,” she told him. “You said you’d give up solving mysteries to see me safe, even though nothing seems to give you more joy than that. How can you be so willing to sacrifice that happiness for my sake and still say this is impossible?”
He was struggling very hard with his words, wrestling with himself. “I cannot properly serve you if I’m giving in to selfish whims.”
She stayed firm. “You seem to be able to manage a great many things with no trouble. The house and the staff and my schedule and my safety and solving crimes and things Papa needs done and…”
“My lady,” he interrupted. “I cannot put my own feelings before yours. And you are truly idiotic to think I would…”
“But if our feelings are mutual then…”
“I’m certain that they are not,” he said abruptly.
This stunned her, made her stomach twist in knots. “You…you don’t…”
He used his handkerchief to clean his glasses, avoiding her gaze.
“On normal days, you fire me an average of 6.7 times. I keep a tally for my own amusement. On normal days, I prepare breakfast, drive you to work, and then listen dutifully to you in the evenings. Your work is your priority, but now that you’ve been cut off from it, from the happiness and satisfaction it brings you, you have had more time to give over to fanciful thinking. You’ve been trapped here, as you’ve stated repeatedly, in close quarters lacking in privacy. We have spent nearly every waking moment together, so in light of that abrupt change in environment, the lack of boundaries between us in this small apartment, it is only natural that you’ve started to grow curious about me beyond my position. Since the start of my employment, you have not otherwise been on a date or engaged in any romantic encounters. Between that and your fears this morning about my safety…”
She narrowed her eyes, pointing angrily at him. So it wasn’t even about what he felt, but what she did? He didn’t even believe she was feeling what she knew she was feeling? “You think I’m not serious!? You think I don’t even know my own heart?”
He pursed his lips. “I think that we’ll leave this place, and come morning you will see things differently. You will think of me only as Kageyama, your butler, once more. As is proper and expected. And I would be honored to continue serving you, if the master does not take issue with my actions the past few days.”
What was he doing? What was he saying? It felt like a door had just been slammed in her face. But the days and nights together, how he’d cared for her, how he’d given up his own comfort to see her safe…it was abnormal for a mere butler. For goodness sake, he was seeing her in his dreams, addressing her whether he was awake or not. Whether he’d give in to them or not, Kageyama’s feelings seemed to go way beyond his actual duties and expectations.
It was Reiko who was suspect. Reiko who was lacking in seriousness. Did he think she liked him the same as a new purse or something? Did he really think her feelings were that fickle? After everything they’d been through? He couldn’t even wrap his head around the thought that she truly…loved him?
Her heart crumbling, her anger slipping away, she moved away from him. Only minutes before she’d been in his arms, cherishing every second, knowing he hadn’t been taken away from her. And not just because then someone new would have to be hired to chauffeur her around. Reiko wasn’t like that, and he seemed unwilling to see that.
“I’ll pack my things, and we’ll go home,” she said, her voice nearly cracking. She closed the bedroom door behind her, saving her tears for her pillow rather than for Kageyama to see this time.
-
The staff had yet to return despite Sada Masahiro’s arrest. Kageyama was going to give them a full week’s vacation, just so everything might be settled down and forgotten by the time they returned. It was overboard, Reiko thought, but apparently her father had agreed. Kageyama had said nothing about resigning, so she assumed her Papa had kept him on.
The house had never seemed so empty. After being in such a small space, the Hosho mansion seemed almost a cavernous waste of space. Of course, it was the grandest home in Japan, but there were so many rooms now. Her own bedroom made her feel tiny, insignificant.
The drive home had been uncomfortable and awkward, Reiko refusing to speak with Kageyama even as he’d tried to make stupid small talk about the estate gardens or the menus he was planning for her now that he had the full kitchen at his disposal once more. She’d shut herself up in her room, wondering what to do. At least she’d have work again starting tomorrow, solving other people’s problems instead of her own. Kageyama doubted her sincerity, doubted the depth of her feelings, and for that, Reiko was lost.
She took her dinner on a tray in her room, dismissing him with a wave of her hand. She couldn’t look at him without remembering his cynicism from earlier that day. His total and complete rejection. He hadn’t even said “My lady, I don’t feel that way about you.” He’d only said it was “impossible.” He’d turned everything back on her - on her position over him, on the maturity of her feelings.
It was the middle of the night when she woke, having been tossing and turning, equal parts annoyed and humiliated. She’d left half her dinner behind, dumping the tray in the hallway earlier that night and keeping her door shut. She was hungry, and though she could easily call Kageyama to fix her something, she didn’t much want to see him yet. Thankfully he hadn’t been rude enough to lock her door, and he was not sitting outside it. In her slippers, she headed down to the kitchen.
Thinking of the snacks she could prepare without Kageyama knowing she’d been there, insulting him by fending for herself, she failed to notice the red security laser line at the base of the staircase. She so seldom left her room at night, and she was usually a solid sleeper. Having tripped the invisible line, a noisy alarm and blinking lights went off, startling her. She screamed in surprise, clinging to the bannister. Her father’s stupid lasers!
“My lady!” In moments, she heard noisy footsteps charge down the upstairs hall and then thump down the stairs. He was in the same t-shirt and shorts he’d worn back at the safe house. “My lady!”
She plugged her ears, trying to drown out the sound of the alarm. The lights came on in the room properly, and she saw Kageyama, eyes crazed and breathing heavily, looking around with his baseball bat in his hands, ready to take out anyone who might wish to harm her. He’d come running so quickly he hadn’t even worn his glasses.
“Turn it off!” she shouted at him. “Turn it off already!”
Seeing her there, crouching in fright beside the staircase but unharmed, he raced from the room. Soon the alarm was off, the system deactivated for the moment. She heard knocking at the front door, and she eventually heard Kageyama open it, speaking with the private security team, dismissing them. “False alarm,” she heard him say.
Once the door was shut and locked again, the rest of the mansion secured, Kageyama looked slightly less absurd when he came back to the staircase. She was sitting on the steps, embarrassed.
“I just wanted a snack,” she admitted. “I forgot about the lasers…”
He sat down beside her with a heavy sigh. “That was stupid of you.”
She grinned, pushing a strand of hair behind her ear. “I’m sorry.”
“I thought…” Kageyama started, but clammed up soon after. He looked down, shaking his head.
“What?”
“I thought something had happened to you,” he admitted. “That you might have been hurt, that someone was trying to kidnap you…”
“It’s been quite a day,” she said quietly. “Now you know what my morning was like during your own moment of stupidity. Minus the kidnapping.”
“You do foolish things all the time, so I don’t know why…” There were dark circles under Kageyama’s eyes, uncertainty in his voice.
She turned to look at him, seeing him in profile in the dim hall lights as he sat beside her. He was deeply upset, and all she could remember was how he’d said “I’m sorry” over and over that afternoon, lost for words. “Kageyama, it was a silly mistake. You can still fetch me a snack, if you wish, since surely you know where the lasers are better than me.”
“I shouldn’t have doubted you,” he said bluntly. “Hearing you scream like that, I couldn’t bear it…”
It had only been a scream of surprise, no blood-curdling “Help, I’m being stabbed” noise or anything. And yet it had hit him so hard. He’d assumed her feelings were a sudden result of her confinement, his place in harm’s way. Now he’d been tested similarly. What was it he was feeling?
“I couldn’t bear the thought of something happening to you,” he continued, so quietly she almost missed it. “Not as your butler, but as something much more. It was only for a few seconds, I assure you, but if you were gone and I’d never…”
“What happened to ‘it’s impossible’ and me seeing things differently back at the house?” she asked him. “Was it easier for you to just think of me as a silly girl who couldn’t possibly…” She frowned. “A silly girl who couldn’t possibly be in love with you for real?”
He perked up a bit, especially when she held her hand out and twined their fingers together. He didn’t bother to shy away this time, to shut her down. He wouldn’t say it out loud though, wouldn’t confess the truth of his feelings, not yet. “It’s still impossible, regardless of what we feel.”
“That was what Papa said when I wanted to join the police academy. And then when I finished and wanted to work out in the field, to be a proper investigator. It’s too risky, too dangerous. Or in his mind, it was something I simply shouldn’t have wanted. I have money and jewels and clothes, everything I could possibly need, but still I wanted that job, I wanted to get out there. He doubted what I felt,” she told him. “He didn’t believe I wanted it as badly as I did.”
“But you did.”
She squeezed his hand. “I did. I can be serious, Kageyama. About the things that are important to me. The things I’m willing to work for, no matter how impossible.”
“Why go for the impossible, though? When you might have anyone else to adore you?”
The almost easy way he’d said ‘adore’ sent a shiver of pleasure through her. Did he love her? Did he adore her? “I deserve the best, Papa’s always said so. And I’m quite capable enough of determining what that might mean.”
“It would be thoroughly inappropriate.”
“Says the man who interferes in police investigations. Talk about inappropriate! I could rattle off a dozen paragraphs of the police code that you violate on a day-to-day basis. First, eavesdropping on all my interviews. Second, using private funds from the Hosho Group to intervene in official police business. Third, unauthorized visits to crime scenes. Fourth…”
This time it was Kageyama who acted first, leaning over to kiss her, resting his hand so gently on her cheek. She shut her eyes, basking in the attention, the surprisingly passionate kiss of a man she’d once been convinced could have been a robot. He’d probably harbored these feelings for a while, hiding behind his position and his loyalty, but just like Reiko, he had finally given in to what made sense in his heart. It wasn’t every day that those sorts of mysteries, those challenges and uncertainties, could be resolved.
He broke away from her before he got carried away, scratching his head in frustration. “I’m sorry…if that was unsatisfactory…”
She gave him a little shove, chuckling. “This is all fairly new for me too, Kageyama. But I’m willing to try.”
He was utterly serious when he spoke next, and it made her smile. “I will try to be what you deserve, my lady.”
“I’d expect no less from you.”
He rose to his feet first, holding out his hand to help her up. She was reluctant to let go, tired as she was and still snack-less. Tomorrow would see the resurgence of Kunitachi, Reiko could just feel it. Kazamatsuri could make his stupid predictions, Reiko could spend the better part of her day interviewing people who hadn’t seen a darn thing relating to a crime, and it wouldn’t matter. She’d fight hard at her job no matter what, and now she had something at home to work at just as fiercely.
Kageyama escorted her carefully up the stairs, bringing her to her bedroom door. She felt almost like she was floating, knowing it wasn’t just from being tired. When he made to bid her a good night, she stole another kiss from him instead, wrapping her arms around his neck and showing him just how excited she was to start something new.
“I’ve missed your bow tie. Wear it for me tomorrow,” Reiko said, standing in her doorway.
He bowed to her, hand to his heart. “Of course…”
“…and if I see that baseball cap again, I’ll set fire to it.” When his eyes widened, she only blew him a kiss.
“Sweet dreams,” she said, shutting the door.