The Wind Sees Daisy – Chapter 25

This is a fanfiction by Doughnut Gunso.

Hayate took over Mr. Kazami from Kyosuke, and sent Kyosuke to the ball room, where Maria could watch over him (“No problem. I will watch him very closely!” said Maria sweetly). Hayate helped Hinagiku to lead the Kazamis to a comfortable guest room, and served them with nutritious soup. The Kazamis ate like they did not care about the temperature of the hot soup. It seemed that they had not had a proper meal for so long.
They fell asleep very soon after the meal. Hayate and Hinagiku left the room and closed the door behind them very quietly.
“I’ll ask for the family doctor to give them a body check, Hinagiku-san,” said Hayate. “Not to worry, our family doctor is…”
“The best in the world,” Hinagiku finished the sentence for him with a smile. “No doubt about it.”
“Yes, so… your parents are going to be fine.”
Hinagiku did not respond, and kept looking at the floor. No matter how much reassurance she had received, she couldn’t really stop worrying about her parents, until she was absolutely sure that they were fine.
Hayate did not know what else to say either. He tried very hard to think of what to say and do, but nothing came to his mind. Suddenly, Hinagiku’s cellphone sent out an alert. She checked her cellphone and saw that it was a message from Athena: “Job done. Enough evidence. At police station.”
“What is it, Hinagiku-san?” asked Hayate, somewhat relieved that he could find something to say.
“It’s Athena. She had found enough evidence at Deep Field Weaponry to turn the Fukadas to the police,” said Hinagiku as she showed him the message. “I guess we have to take Fukada-kun to the police station as well.”
“Not tonight, Hinagiku-san,” said Hayate firmly. “We can do that tomorrow. For now, you need to eat and sleep.” He paused and thought for a while. “Not to worry, we can leave everything to A-tan. Trust her,” he added.
Hinagiku raised an eyebrow. “I am sure she would not be very happy with you, Hayate-kun.”
“Why?” asked Hayate, who had got no clue at all.
Hinagiku rolled her eyes. “Well…” she began, not entirely sure if she should point it out to him without Athena’s permission. “Let’s just say that you shouldn’t leave a girl to do these things on her own, because no matter how capable she is, she would still get upset.”
“Why would she get upset if she is capable?”
“Well, that is…” Hinagiku sighed and shook her head. This guy really was unbelievably dense. “I am not answering this question for her. You better ask her in person.”
“Hey! Please tell me, Hinagiku-san!”
“N. O. No!” Hinagiku said and stuck out her tongue at him. Hayate felt his heart skipped a beat.
“Well, Hayate-kun. Is Miki’s birthday party over?”
“No, not yet,” said Hayate. “Do you want to come to the party – again?”
“Yes, sure, but first I would want to wash my face properly,” said Hinagiku. “By the way, may I borrow a skirt? You see, mine is torn already…”

*

Hinagiku entered the ball room to meet up with everyone, but she did not tell them where she had been. She went straight to Miki, who began blushing upon seeing her.
“Hey, Miki,” said Hinagiku. “Did you have fun?”
Miki did not answer her question. “You are late, Hina,” she said instead.
“Well… yes, I am sorry,” said Hinagiku, and she meant it.
Miki turned her head away. “It’s fine. You have already given me a very nice birthday present, so I’ll forgive you this time.”
“Thanks, Miki,” said Hinagiku brightly.
“Speaking of the birthday present…” said Miki as she rolled her eyes. “You sang very well, Hina. I guess I have to share this video to the others.”
The smile on Hinagiku’s face disappeared. “S – share, you said? What do you mean, share?”
“I mean, I will upload this video to YouTube,” said Miki simply. “Imagine how many hits you would receive, Hina. You are going to be popular.”
“N – no! You can’t do that, Miki!” said Hinagiku, who was horrified but yet blushing. “I am begging you, Miki! Don’t do it!”
“Why not, Hina?” asked Miki. She certainly enjoyed toying Hinagiku. “Don’t worry. Justin Bieber became well-known because of YouTube. I am going to make you a Hina Bieber – or Justin Hina, if you prefer that. Anyway, you are going to be a superstar.”
“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!” yelled Hinagiku. She felt miserable, but everybody was laughing.

*

Athena summoned Hayate and Hinagiku to her office on the following day. It was a Saturday, so only a few students went to school for club activities. Hayate could see that Athena did not look happy at all – Well, she did smile to Hinagiku, but her eyes became icy cold and her face stony whenever she looked at him. “A – A-tan?” Hayate began, very uncertainly. “Are you mad at me?”
“Give me a reason why not,” said Athena with a deliberately cold voice, “after you have left me to report everything to the police on my own.”
Hinagiku gave Hayate a what-have-I-told-you look.
“I am sorry! I am sorry! I am very sorry, A-tan!” Hayate kept apologizing and bowing to Athena. It was a scenario which was so familiar to Hinagiku, but only this time she wasn’t on the receiving end of the apology. Hinagiku forced herself not to laugh at Hayate.
“That is enough, Hayate,” said Athena as she gave a final glare at Hayate. “Anyway, the police have already opened a file for this case. They will investigate into the matter, and if I am right, they definitely would be guilty for illegal entrapment.”
“Good,” said Hinagiku with a nod. “Tell me more about your adventure, Athena.”
“Well, the infiltration was easy, because it was actually a trap set up by Sanzen’in Mikado to hold me back from helping you, Hinagiku. The guards all gathered above us while we were saving the prisoners, and it really was not easy to get out of that building.”
“So how did you do it, Athena?” asked Hinagiku, worried if Athena had hurt or even killed the guards.
“Well, I planned to fight our way out of that place at first,” said Athena. “But then I came up with a much simpler idea: I asked Machina to transform into his snake form, and he scared all the guards away.”
Both Hayate and Hinagiku laughed. “That was brilliant, Athena!” said Hinagiku.
“Surprisingly it also helped me to get away with a charge of trespassing,” said Athena. “We have destroyed all the CCTV cameras and tapes, and the police simply could not believe in witness statements which say that I entered the building and transformed into a snake. They are more ready to accept my story that I was invited into the building, and was later trapped.”
“Oh I see…” Hinagiku responded. She actually thought that there was a major miscarriage of justice in this case, but she could not say it out to Athena. After all, why would she want her friend be prosecuted?

*

The Kazamis looked a lot better than before, although they still found it difficult to walk on their own. The doctor reported that they were suffering from severe malnutrition, which greatly ruined their health, but fortunately that was all. The road to recovery would be hard and long, but if they were properly nurtured, hopefully there would be no permanent damage.
Hinagiku and Yukiji visited their parents in the afternoon. It was their first ever family gathering after 10 years, but Mr. and Mrs. Kazami announced their decision which could suggest that the family would remain separated for another long period.
“What did you say?” asked Yukiji. “Did you just say that you are turning yourselves to the police?”
“Yes, I did,” said Mr. Kazami with a weak smile. “The Fukadas might have entrapped us for so long, but the fact is that we have stolen money from them. There is no way we can run away from this. We have to turn ourselves in, or we will forever be living in shame.”
“But…” began Yukiji, “but what about Hina? She had risked her life to rescue you, so that we can be together! Why are leaving us again?” She paused and took a deep breath, as she found it hard to keep her emotions under control. “I could be fine, but you have to consider how Hina feels!” she continued.
Hinagiku sat quietly without making comment. Her eyes were red and watery, though.
“Come to think of it, the Fukadas are going to be arrested! There is no evidence to suggest that you have stolen money from them! If none of us mention it, nobody would ever know that you have – ”
“Onee-chan, please stop,” said Hinagiku finally, interrupting her sister.
Yukiji was shocked that Hinagiku had just told her to stop persuading their parents to stay. “Hina?” she asked.
Hinagiku looked up at her parents. “Dad, mom, I know you are making the right choice. I support you, I really do,” she paused as she fought back the tears in her eyes. “But as Onee-chan has just said, it means you are leaving us again. I – I don’t want that.” She had finally lost control of her tears. “I don’t want it, but I understand. I understand…”
Mrs. Kazami took Hinagiku’s hand. She could feel her daughter trembling. “Don’t cry, Hina-chan,” she said, but she was also close to tears. “It could be a bit of a long wait, but there would be one day we finally come together as family. As long as we love each other, we are family no matter where we are!”
Hinagiku held her mother’s hand a bit tighter. “We will wait for you, dad and mom,” whispered Hinagiku. “We will visit you whenever possible. We will introduce dad and mom – Mr. and Mrs. Katsura, I mean – to you.”
Mrs. Kazami smiled. “And after we have served our sentence, the first thing I would do is to buy you a new hairpin, Hina-chan.”
Hinagiku touched where her hairpin used to be. “As my birthday present,” she said with a warm smile.

*

The police arrived in the evening to take Fukada Kyosuke away, as he was accused of kidnapping and illegal entrapment. Kyosuke did not resist. He went with the police with his head down, not talking to anyone at all.
“Unfortunately there is not enough evidence suggesting that Mikado was behind all this,” said Athena, who had also arrived at the Sanzen’in Mansion. “Maybe that’s why he hired the Fukadas in the first place: to make sure that he has a way out even if he fails.”
“Well, it’s not really a matter for me, I guess,” said Hinagiku as she shrugged. “Now that Shirosakura is gone, he should have nothing more to do with me.”
“You are wrong, Student Council President,” said a voice from behind. Everybody turned to see Isumi. “For your information, I come because Nagi invited me to read her new manga today,” said Isumi before anyone could ask her the very obvious question. “I am not lost today.” She looked very proud of herself.
“Isumi-san…” began Hayate, sympathetically. “Milady invited you to come yesterday.”
“Saginomiya-san,” said Hinagiku, before Isumi started to struggle to understand she had wasted 24 hours to find her way here. “What do you mean, I am wrong?”
“Shirosakura is not gone, Student Council President,” said Isumi, changing to the new subject without difficulty. “It is living inside you, feeding on your sense of justice to return to full form and power. When you face another situation which requires you to do justice with it, it will come back to life again.”
Hinagiku found it very difficult to let this piece of news to sink in. “Wonderful,” she said simply.

They saw it as the police car took Kyosuke away. Hinagiku suddenly felt her heart ached as she realized that there was yet another person she would not be seeing again for a long time. “I still find it hard to believe that it was him,” she said. “I mean, he was not exactly a nice person, but I never thought that he could be so twisted.”
Athena held up her hand. “Whatever I said to you about giving him a chance, I take it back.”
“You like him,” said Hayate suddenly. He had no idea why he had decided to say it. “Don’t you, Hinagiku-san?” he further asked, as if he wanted to make it sound like he was sure about it.
“Well, he was a friend,” said Hinagiku, and everyone was sure that she did not know what Hayate was talking about. “I was quite scared when I thought that he might have been dead, so I think I like him.”
“No, I didn’t mean that, Hinagiku-san,” said Hayate, who was a bit impatient with her dumbness. “I mean… do you want him to be your boyfriend?”
Hinagiku turned to look at him. “No,” she said simply. “I never liked him that way.” Hayate kept staring at her, suggesting that he did not believe in her. Hinagiku had no choice but took a moment to reconsider her statement, as “Oh, all right, I could have wanted to really give him a chance, but he blew it for himself, didn’t he?”
“Really?” asked Hayate suspiciously.
“Well, let me tell you something very obvious to see, Hayate-kun,” Hinagiku said as she leaned towards him. “I never ever thought of calling him ‘Kyosuke’.” She didn’t know if Hayate realized the importance behind her words: Hayate remained the only boy she had called by his first name.
“And what do you think he should call you, Hinagiku-san?” asked Hayate.
Hinagiku smiled and made her reply: “Katsura.”

THE END