To everyone out there that reads this particular chapter, if you are the squeamish type and don't like romance, then you might want to skip this episode; there is a romantic scene in here. I have to also thank a very special young lady in my life that helped me put this story together. Crissa, my heart, my soul, I thank you.

-- Tigrr

Chapter 2

                This mission went a whole lot better than I had originally anticipated.  Not only did we get the needed information, but to add to that, neither one of us got hurt, which is always a plus.  I know that my life insurance company has been livid in the fact that what I do could have them paying out a large sum of money to Kioyuka, since I do have her and my unborn child as my benefactor.  All of these thoughts run through my mind as I am headed to the hospital to visit Kenji.  I guess I’m just ready for the Magical Girl threat to be over with.  Maybe I should have Kenji take a look at that data we found before I turn it over to Solaris.

                “Hello!!!  Earth to Inoba!!!  Wake up.  What on earth was on your mind?  You normally don’t space out on me when you drive.”

                “Huh?  Oh.  Sorry about that.  It’s just that it’s something about that information that we got that’s had me real curious.”

                “Like what, pray tell”

                “I’m not sure… but it’s something.”

                “Well don’t dwell on it too much cause we’re here.”

                We pull into the hospital and Shadow and I are just talking about my plans for the wedding and honeymoon.  He still objects to me leaving the country for that, but he’ll just have to make due without me.  We get to Kenji’s room and we hear a loud noise coming from inside.  It’s mostly a lot of screams and shouting.  Of course being as careful (and paranoid I might add) with hearing this sort of thing, we get to either side of the door.

                “Standard kick in and cover?”

                “Yeah… but this time, you go in first Inoba.”

                I kick the door in on three and looking in, I see JT and Pastor Bill holding down Kenji while the doctor tries to administer a shot.

                “NO… HE’S A BUTCHER!!  DON’T LET HIM NEAR ME!!  HE’S GONNA KILL ME!!”

                Pastor Bill and JT look over to us, as the door swings open quickly.

                “Bout time you two got here!  Help us hold him down,” Bill said.

                “Why haven’t you hit him with your cross yet?” I asked.

                “Cause he’s been doing this for the past 20 minutes and it’s taken JT and I just to keep him settled down.”

                Looking over at Kenji, I am kinda amazed that even JT is having a hard time holding him down.  I guess when fear kicks in, that adrenaline rush can be nasty.

                “I’ll take care of this.  Just make sure he doesn’t go anywhere.”

                I walk over towards Kenji and punch him in his face, knocking him out.  Everyone just looks at me in shock.  Mostly because they can’t believe that I did that.  It’s a necessary evil sometimes to punch people.  Besides, that was also for having all that porn stuff on the computer and making me waste even more time to erase all of it.

                “Ok doc, he’s all yours.  How is he, by the way?”

                “He should be out in two days.  His recovery rate has been going very well.  He should be back on his feet in no time.  It’s just one thing,” the doctor replied while administering the shot.

                “What’s that, doc?”

                “Tell him to stop flirting with all of the nurses in here.  Some of them are married!!”

                “I’ll see what I can do, but no promises.  Thanks doc.”

                “Not a problem, Inoba.”

                The doctor leaves us in the room.  While we wait for Kenji to wake up, I discuss the evening’s events with everyone and my concerns for the information.  They do agree with me on some of the points.  Fifteen minutes later (I musta hit him harder than I thought), Kenji finally wakes up and has that glazed-over look on his face.

                “Inoba, why’d you hit me?  I can’t believe you did that.  And did you erase my pictures from the laptop?  Cause if you did, then you’re gonna be in big trouble, cause I didn’t make a back up of any of those.”

                “Shut up!  I hit you cause you wouldn’t let the doctor do his job, and yes I did erase those pictures from the hard drive cause I needed to free up space to get the information from Grey.  Do you have a problem with that?  Cause if so, I can add more time for your hospital stay.”

                “Ummm… no I think that about covers everything.”

                “It’s a good thing you did Inoba,” Pastor Bill replied.

                “What, knock him out or erase the pictures?”

                After he thought about that for a brief second, “Yes.”

                It’s time for another break for me to explain Pastor Bill and JT.  Pastor Bill showed up to the office one day after saying he was sent to us by God to help us cleanse the world of the evil demonic creatures, and to convert the entire populous island of Japan to Catholicism.  Now the first part of that, I thought wasn’t too much of a bad idea, but the second part… well I still think the man is nuts.  After a while, he’s been a big help through out the whole thing.  He left for a while to participate in some sort of race across Japan, but he said he never wanted to speak of that again, so I left it alone.  He definitely outclasses me in driving skills, mainly cause he has a Lamborghini Diablo in the Catholic Priest colors (black with a white stripe going down both sides) and a license plate that says ‘Blessed’, go figure.  Plus he’s going to perform the ceremony for Kioyuka and my wedding.  Then there’s JT. 

JT lived in the same neighborhood as Shadow and I.  He’s older than us, but he actually hung around us more so than an upper classman should have.  I guess all that stems from his abusive up bringing…but I don’t know all of the details.  A few years later after he graduated from high school, he left and went into the military.  I later found out what happened to him, cause when he returned, he had some powers & abilities that I’m still in awe of.  Apparently our Japanese military were running a secret project and JT was a guinea pig.  Things happened, he went off and he’s here today.  I do know the full extent as to what happened…. but I’m leaving that as classified information.  He also commands the Super Deuce.  This is a very highly modified Deuce and a Half Cargo Carrier that we have turned into a mobile command center. 

The original Phen had the order and started working on it.  But something happened where he disappeared and a new Phen took his place.  She continued the work, but she changed up the plans, which royally pissed me off, cause I paid out of pocket some serious cash to have that done and this heifer gonna screw that up?  Oh no.  After a couple of missions with it, I took it back to her and told her to redo the whole thing since it was her fault for messing with the original order.  So that’s back in the shop right now being taken care of.  If she keeps this up then I’ll have to find someone else to get my equipment from.  And that’s gonna be a headache and a half to deal with.  So that’s their story.

Now back to the present.  We all have fun and discuss a few things and generally have a good time all around.  After a while, visiting hours are over and it’s time to leave.  I have everyone leave out ahead of me and I linger back in Kenji’s room for a second.

“What’s on your mind, Inoba?”

“I want you to go through that file that we found and give it a complete and thorough read over.  Let me know what information you find on it.”

“Gotcha!  Anything else you need me to do?”

“Yeah…. stop flirting with the nurses.  The doc told me what happened and it’s getting a bit annoying to them.  Besides, some of them are married.”

Kenji lets out a deep sigh.  I knew he didn’t like that part.  So to make sure he didn’t flirt with anymore nurses, I told the head nurse to make sure that only male nurses check in on him for the rest of the time he’s here.  She breathed a sigh of relief and kissed me on the cheek as a thank you for the help.  As I head towards the elevator, I just smirk to myself cause I know that Kenji’s gonna be going out of his mind.

As I head back home, the idea crosses my mind to get Kenji and Shadow their own vehicles to drive…and I figure for those two, a motorcycle would work out great for them.  So I’m gonna go see the Phen tomorrow about getting a couple of modified bikes.  They should be pretty happy with that…. plus I won’t have to worry about driving those two around anymore.  And of course, I’ve gotta add my own few modifications to them as well.

I get home and I notice that almost all the lights are out.  I know that should not be right because I at least left a bedroom light on.  I pull into the driveway with the lights off and slowly creep my way to the front door.  It’s still locked…so I figure that Kioyuka is home and I have nothing to worry about.  I walk in the house and notice all of the candles lit up around the dining room.  I must say, it looks absolutely amazing…and then I see Kioyuka waiting for me in a stunningly gorgeous dress and holding two glasses that I know aren’t any sort of alcohol.  That smile of hers that I’ve come to know and to love so much is on her face.  I feel kinda naked just wearing my usual casual clothes while she stands there in that evening gown.

“Kioyuka…. Wha-what’s all of this for?  I mean, I’m not even properly dressed for this.”

“It’s simple Inoba, I know you been working very hard to get everything together for us to have a nice life, and I just wanted to do something to show you how much I appreciate what you’ve been doing and to show you how much I love you.  So I put this dinner together cause we haven’t had as much time to be alone together.  As far as getting dressed is concerned… I got you something that’s waiting upstairs.  So you go get cleaned up and dressed, and come back down here to have dinner with your loving fiancée that’s going to become your wife.”

This was more than I had anticipated, but it was a nice surprise nonetheless.  I go upstairs and I see that she already had some bath water drawn and waiting for me.  I can actually smell the faint yet nice odor of jasmine in the air with all the candles going around the tub, and some rose petals in the tub (very nice touch I might add).  After I put the guns and stuff up, I get in the very warm bath and let the water just relax my tired aching muscles.  After about fifteen minutes of this relaxation, I hear Kioyuka calling me from downstairs.

“Hey!  You ok up there or did you drown?”

I look over to the side and hit the button for the music to play.

“I’m almost ok…. do you think you can come up here and help me out?” I reply back.

“On my way, just give me a second”

“One!!”

“Very funny mister.  You won’t be so comical when I get up there.”

I knew she had said that as a joke… I sometimes forgot how light-footed she could be, even in her current state.  I turned my head slowly towards the door and I saw her standing there with the bottle of sparkling cider and the two wine flutes in her hands.

“Mind if I join you?”

“None at all.  In fact, I was hoping that you would, my love.  Hand me those and you hurry up and get in here.”

She smiled that seductive smile that always got to me and slowly undressed and joined me in the tub.  When she was fully in, I slowly kissed her shoulders and began to give her a nice and soothing massage.  She leaned back into my body and I heard her sigh as she tilted her head back to kiss me.  From there, that led to a very passionate evening of love making between Kioyuka and myself.  Needless to say, we never got around to eating the dinner that she had prepared for us, but the dessert was even better by far.

The next morning, I get a call.  If I had been in my right mind, I would’ve let the voice mail pick up…. but after seeing Kioyuka sleeping soundly and peacefully, I figure I’ll let her rest.

“Hello?  Can I help you?”

“Inoba, where are you…. Are you ok?”

Still groggy from waking up…and last night I might add, the voice doesn’t register just yet.

“Who is this, and why are you calling this early in the morning?”

“INOBA, it’s your best friend in existence you moron!!!  And what the hell do you mean by early?  It’s freakin 10 o’clock in the morning!!  You never sleep in this late unless you… you and Kioyuka didn’t do what I’m thinking you did…did you?”

“Doesn’t matter, I’m not gonna tell you if I did or didn’t…. none of your business…. so what do you want?  Is it about a job or what?”

“Yeah whatever, man.  Since you weren’t here at the office, I’m just checking to make sure you’re still alive and nothing happened to you…. but obviously something DID happen, or else you wouldn’t be soundin like you do right now.”

“Whatever Shadow… I’ll be in the office soon.  I got a couple of stops I’ll be making before I get in.  I’ll see y’all soon.”

I hang up before he could get another word in, or else he would have bugged me all day.  As I start to slide out of the bed, I feel Kioyuka’s arm pull me in tighter to her body keeping me from getting up.  I give her a reassuring kiss and she opens her eyes and smiles at me.

“Good morning my love.  Did you sleep well?”

Kissing her and hugging her to me gives her all the answer she needs.

“I’ll take that as a yes then.  What time is it?”

“It’s about ten o’clock, and I’ve gotta get going.  You gonna be okay today?”

“Mm-hmm, I’ll be fine, Inoba.  You just be careful and come back to us safely ok?”

She puts her hand in mine and pulls it down to her stomach where I can feel my child kicking.  This brings a big smile to my face and to hers as well.

“I guess he want you to come back home safe, too.” She said.

“Or she, but I will do my best.  You know that I love you so much, Kioyuka?”

“Yes, Inoba, I do… just as you know that I love you so much.  Now get going, I’ll be starting my day in a few minutes as well.”

After I get cleaned up and get out of the house, the first stop I make is to the Phen’s to see about getting a couple of motorbikes.  I get there and it’s quiet.  All of the equipment is here…but no one’s around.  This can’t be good.

“Hello!  Anyone here?  Hello?”

I hear a sound coming from one of the back rooms that appears to be the sound of a small engine.  I’m slowly making my way back there when the door suddenly flies open and a little man goes flying through the air and into a mattress. 

“Well… seems like I’ll have to re-adjust the nitro-fuel injection system.”

“Umm… are you ok?” I ask as I help the man up.

“Oh yes, yes, yes…I’m fine.  You wouldn’t happen to be Inoba would you?”

“Yes I would actually.  Are you the new Phen?  What happened to the girl that was here?”

“Well she became too much of a problem.  When she filled orders, she would change things here and there on her own whim and that was upsetting our clients.”

This guy looks to be about 30 years old or so…about 5’4, kinda lanky, like he hasn’t eaten in a couple of years, very mousy hair, thinning around the top.

“I know I was one of them.  I had a mobile command center order and she shrunk it down.  Needless to say I was highly pissed.”

“Ah yes.  Well because of that, you will not be charged for the remodeling work.  She cost us a lot of money in redoing orders.  So she was… dealt with… very nasty, indeed.  Now, Mr. Inoba what can I do for you?”

“Well I’m looking for some new vehicles.  I want two motorcycles, both fast and powerful.  And highly modifiable of course.”

“Of course,” he replied.  “So what exactly did you have in mind?”

“Let’s see.  I was looking for something along the lines of those new Suzuki street racers that came out last month.  Got anything with that type of flavor?”

“”Hmmm…as a matter of fact, come around back.  I got a couple that I just got finished working on.  The guy that originally ordered them backed out and so I’m stuck with them.  Although if they’re to your preference, then you can take them with you today.”

“Well let’s see what you got for me.”

He took me around to the secondary garage area and the bikes were very nice indeed.

“As you can see, Inoba, they are fully stocked, locked, and ready to roll.  I’ve also added in a few weapons such as machine guns on either side, a small rocket launcher, oil slicks, and of course Nitros.  They are also equipped with armor plates to help protect the driver.  And when necessary, a defensive barrier surrounds the rider to help add into that protection.  With the heavy motor that they’ve been equipped with, the roll bar in the back helps to alleviate some of the weight and power problems.  This sucker pushes a good 6495cc of power with a max speed of 200 mph.  However, when the Nitro kicks in, you can add another 80-90 mph to that rating.  The cooling system is top of the line liquid-cooled with ball bearing copper heat dissipation.  There is also the matter of the newly developed I.B.C.S. that was recently developed to help in keeping the engine and brakes from overheating when the Nitro system kicks in.  And I know you’re wondering so I’ll tell you.  I.B.C.S. means Ice Break and Cooling System.  Essentially that means when the nitro’s are on then the normal breaking system could possibly melt.  So to help alleviate that problem when stopping with the nitro system on activates the Liquid Icing System to help keep the brakes and engine in control. ”

When he looks back over to me, he grabs a chamois to wipe the drool from my mouth and laughs.

“I take it that you approve Mr. Inoba?”

After composing myself and regaining senses, “Yes… yes I do approve.  It’s just one more little adjustment I would like to ask for you to install on them.”

“And that would be?”

“Well if you’ve seen the notes from my Expedition and the Deuce, then…”

“Ah yes…. that was a very wonderful job the original Phen did on your Expedition.  We always keep records of each vehicle modification that we do.  I take it that you want to have that feature added in to these two as well?”

“That’s why you’re the Phen… you know my tastes perfectly.  How long will it take you to get these finished up and ready to run?”

“Come back here after midnight and they should be ready.  Also, I have a new toy you might like to add to your collection.”

“What is it?”

He grabs a rather large box off the shelf and places it on the floor.

After opening the box and pulling out the gun, my eyes immediately glass over.

“This, Mr. Inoba, is the Iron Horn 20-millimeter assault rifle.  It’s gas-operated with semi-automatic ten shot magazine with rotating bolt.  This sucker has a recoil-reducing muzzle break with high explosive incendiary rockets.  I just got it in last night.  And it is gun-mount ready.”

“Add that to the bill and I’ll go ahead and pick everything up tonight.”

“Wonderful… so I’ll see you tonight and I’ll add everything up & have a cost-listing for you.”

“Alright, I’ll see you then.”

Ah…new toys for me to play with.  I love this place!!!  Time for me to head to the office and go over the finances to see what I’m working with as far as money goes.  And I also gotta add this job payment into the system.  You know folks; it’s tough running a business, but lots of fun.  I get a few stares as I drive down the streets of Tokyo getting to the office.  It’s mainly cause for one thing; most people have never seen an Expedition with heavy armor such as this, and second, when I pull off from the stoplight, it’s usually a slight delay for most cars to start up again…but not for me.  I get instant reaction time from the engine.

I get to the office and everyone is pretty much there waiting for me to give them some kind of report as to what’s going on.  Well there’s not much to report, other than what they already know from what I told them last night.  So while Shadow starts throwing darts at the dartboard, I start going through the books to see how we’re doing financially.

“Oh my damn…. I don’t believe this.”

“What is it?  Are we broke, do we gotta get regular jobs or what?

”You’ve never had a regular job before in your life, Shadow… but there is a problem.  While going through the books, I see an outstanding debt that has yet to be paid to us.  According to this, it’s almost a year old.”

“You’re joking.  I thought we had everything taken care of as far as money goes.  Who’s the debt from?”

“You remember that Gaijin that worked with us for a while… Leon or something?”

“Yeah.  What about…. Oh!!  You mean he hasn’t paid the other half of that million dollars yet?”

“That’s exactly what I’m sayin.”

“I knew I didn’t like him for some reason.  Where is he so we can go get our money.”

“Hello!!  Didn’t you forget we sent his ass packing back to the United States a couple of months ago?  I can’t believe I actually forgot about that payment.”

“Oh yeah… so what are we gonna do about it?  Since he’s not here and all,” is what Shadow started to say.  “Inoba get that grin off your face.  I know what you’re thinking and I don’t like it already.”

“Oh really?  So what am I thinking, then?  Come on and tell me.”

Just as he was about to answer, the phone rings.

“Hello?  MGH, how can I help you?  Oh hey Kenji, how’s things…. mm-hmm…mm-hmm, oh you don’t say.  They switched you to all male nurses?  Man, that’s gotta suck.  Right…. Right…  ok.  The doctor said you could be out in a couple of hours?  Ok, I’ll be there to pick you up then.  So have you found out anything on that data as of yet?”

“This stuff is absolutely a nightmare to break through.  Quadruple 1024-bit encryptions, sixteen ghost doors, and twenty-five double binary code sequences.  This stuff is gonna take a lot longer than I thought.  Got any suggestions?”

“As of right now, just do the best you can.  I also left an empty hard drive there with you last night.  Make a copy of that data onto that hard drive so I can go ahead and get that to Solaris and get paid.  Hold on a second.  What is it Shadow?”

“Let me talk to him.”

“Ok, Kenji, go ahead and make the copy and when I pick you up have that hard drive ready cause we’ll go ahead and make the drop off.  Hold on a second, Shadow wants to talk to you…. I’ll see you in a couple of hours.  Here ya go Shadow.”

“Yo Kenji!!!  What’s goin on, man?  Yeah…. mmhmm, really?  Yeah I know…  but yo, check this out, I got you hooked up, man.  Yeah, she cute as hell, too man.  Body type?  I’d say a good match for Yuka…. I figured as much.  Yeah, I’ll be meeting up with her and her friend tonight.  Since you’re gonna be getting out of the hospital today, you can get a chance to meet up with us…. I’d say around 11 or so.  Ok, cool.  See you then…. aight.  Later.”

“I hope you two have fun tonight, but I’d advise you to make sure you get enough rest, cause we’ll be in the air by tomorrow.  The three of us are going… I’d like it if Bill and JT keep things running here and knowing how things are, I think you’d be able to find something to do.”

“Umm… Inoba, why don’t you want us there?  I mean, don’t you think you’ll need your big gun with you?”

“As much as I’d like to have you and Bill with me on this, JT, I think it would be better if I took these two with me.  Besides, would you rather I leave Kenji and Shadow here to run things?  Cause I know that you’d be able to take care of MGH in my absence.”

“Good point, so how long are you gonna be gone, and have you told Kioyuka as of yet?”

“Not sure as of yet…. it might take a while.  Kioyuka will know about it soon enough.  I’ll tell her after I pick up Kenji.”

“You know…. I might be able to get in contact with my cousin who lives in Atlanta, GA.  I haven’t seen him in a long while anyway.”

“You have a cousin in the U.S.?  How come you never told me?”

“You never asked.”

“Hmm…  cool.  You do that and I’ll start making the arrangements for our trip.”

I know this was all a bit sudden to be making a trip to the United States like this.  But this guy screwed me out of a lot of money.  Last time someone did that, well lets just say he uses a wheelchair to get around now.  I know I’m never gonna hear the end of it from Kioyuka.  She’s gonna be royally pissed that I’m taking off so sudden like this.  Also, I’m kinda glad that I did put a tracer in his bag, and knowing that he’s not the brightest bulb in the bunch, he never checked it.  So finding him won’t be much of a problem. 

Since there wasn’t that much to do for the next couple of hours, I make a trip to my favorite place to relieve stress.  From the looks of things, they decided to add in a Laser Tag Arena.  Oh I love this, and since it’s opening day, I decide to join in.  I got on with a couple of groups to battle, and in every single match I took place in; I never lost a single life.  Everyone just looked on in shock as I won first place in all six matches.  When it was time for the next round to begin, I had to decline cause it was about time to pick up Kenji.  They asked me to take place in the large tournament that they’re sponsoring in a couple of months.  I didn’t make any promises, but they really wanted me to join in.  I just might have to do that, but bring Pastor Bill in with me on this, cause I think he’d have some fun with this.

I get to the hospital and Kenji’s outside waiting for me with a couple of the nurses talking to him.  He sees me pull up and he finished getting their phone numbers, packed up his stuff and got in.

“Hey Inoba!  What’s been going on?  Thanks for picking me up.  I made a little headway with that file, but it’s still gonna take a little more time to crack into it.  So where are we headed now?”

“We’re going to get paid.  Let’s get this to Solaris ASAP, cause we gotta start getting things ready for the trip.”

“Trip?  What trip?  Where are we going?”

“You remember that Gaijin, Leon?”

“Ah yeah…. what about him?”

“Well he owes us a large amount of money, and so we are going to America to collect it.”

“Dude, are you serious?  Oh yeah, I finally get to see what America is like.  I heard that they have some very pretty women there.  I wonder what American women are like…”

“No time to daydream.  When we drop this off to Solaris, I’m gonna ask him for a special passenger and cargo plane to get us there without much problem.  Besides, I don’t wanna take a commercial flight for this.  Also, later on tonight, I got some equipment to pick up for you and Shadow.”

“Oh really?  What’d you get?”

“You’ll see in the morning.  As far as now, let’s get this to Solaris.”

Kenji and I talked along the way to Solaris’ office, and we came up with the fact that this file is so heavily encrypted, that someone has something to hide.  Exactly what that is, we’ll find out whenever Kenji can get the codes broken.  We get stopped by the security guards wondering who we are and what business we have here.

“Excuse me sir, may I help you?”

“Umm, yes, this is Inoba with business with Solaris.  Is he in?”

“Inoba?  Let me check this out.  No you’re not on the list anywhere, so I’m going to have to ask you to leave these premises as soon as possible.”

“Kenji, did he just tell us to leave?”

“Inoba, calm yourself down, you don’t need to take this place out.  Um, Mr. Rent-A-Cop, sir can’t you just call us in?  I mean come on; we’ve been here many times before.  So can’t you just let us in?”

“No sir, I can’t.  I’m going to have to ask you to leave here right now, or else I’m going to have to call the police.”

I’m trying very hard not to hurt this guy, and Kenji can see that very clearly and he gets smart and keeps his mouth shut.

“Do me a favor and call your Supervisor.  Cause I don’t wanna see that anyone get hurt right now.” I calmly say to him as I possibly can.

“Alright, then… you want me to call my Supervisor?  Fine, let’s!” he picks up the phone and dials the number to his Supervisor’s office.  “Yes sir, I have an Inoba here.  He says that… yes he is in a Black Expedition.  Hai…. Hai… but sir… Hai… I understand.  I’m sorry about the delay sir, I’ll let you through right away.”

“That’s what I thought.  Oh, and junior, if I were you, I’d start checking the want ads for a new job.”

Damn, I hate rent-a-cops.  We get inside and we get to Solaris’ private office.  I’m probably one of the few people that can get easy access to this guy while everyone else has to wait for weeks to get even an appointment with him.  Various people greet us as we walk through the hallways.  We get to his office and he has us waiting all but five minutes.

“Inoba, you surprise me yet again.  I did not expect to hear from you so soon.  So did you complete your mission?”

“Hello Solaris, and yes we have the data on this Hard Drive.  I’m sure that you will find it intact and unharmed.”

Break time again, people.  You know that anytime I do this, it’s to give an explanation of someone.  Solaris is pretty much this several thousand-year-old powerful man that runs a multinational business conglomerate.  That Phoenix Sword of his is badass and hates Lucy as well.  But I don’t like either one of those swords, personally.  He started hiring MGH to help deal with the crisis that we were dealing with.  It got to a point where he pretty much hired us on a permanent basis.  Heck it came with benefits, Health, Dental, and even a retirement plan.  But we are still a totally separate entity from his company, cause other companies can still hire us out.  He’s saved our ass on a couple of occasions and vice versa… his ever going battle with Grey, we’re involved with this as well and since he’s been the main problem for us, we’re looking to take him out as well.  That’s pretty much him in a nutshell.

“Thank you so much Inoba.  Did you run into any problems getting that?”

“No, not really, just a minor annoyance in a magical girl that got a bit snippy, so we had to… SNAP her back to reality.”

“Excellent work, the usual pay and a half will suffice?”

“Yes, that will be fine.  Solaris, I need to ask a large favor of you.”

“I will go ahead and transfer the wire to your account.  And what is this favor you ask of me?”

“Kenji, give him the drive.  I need to get a hold of a passenger / large cargo plane.  We have to make a business trip to America, and I need a transport large enough to get us there and also carry my Expedition and also carry other necessary equipment as well.”

“Thank you very much for your work, Inoba.  Hmm… I believe I do have something along those lines.  How soon do you need to get the plane?”

“Two days at the most, but if not, sooner if possible.  Is that gonna be a problem?”

“Hmm… no I don’t think it will.  You are giving them enough time to get everything prepped and ready.  So I think two days will be sufficient enough time.  Let me make the call, and they’ll start preparations.  Once I get the confirmation status, then I’ll get in contact with you to let you know where to be.”

“Thank you, Solaris.  We got some more errands to run, so we will talk to you later.”

“Good-bye Mr. Inoba.”

We leave out of the office and I can tell Kenji is very excited to be going to America.  Well so am I, for that matter.  But I have to keep a calm and cool demeanor in all of this.  Cause if we actually find this guy, I don’t know how we’re gonna get the money from him.  To compound with this is the fact that weapon laws are totally different between the two countries… but then again, I think that’s gonna be no real hassle at all.  So Kenji and I get back to the office where they decided to have a little surprise party for Kenji’s homecoming.  I didn’t know too much about this either, but it’s all good.  I let everyone know that we’ll be leaving in two days for America.  Sea and JT are sitting together having a good time and I pull Kioyuka off to the side to talk to her about this trip.  She’s not too keen about me going, and I can’t let her travel like this, but it’s something I have to do.

“Baby, I know you don’t want me to go, but this is something that needs to be done.  I will do my best to get back home to you as soon as I can… cause I’m not sure how long we’ll be there.  But I will make a note to call you every day that I’m gone to assure you that I am doing ok.  Is that fair enough?”

“I suppose, Inoba.  But I have a bad feeling about this trip.  Something’s not gonna go right, I can feel it.”

“I know… but you have to believe in me.  You know what I’ve gone through with this…. and I’ve always found a way to get out mostly unscathed.  Besides, I have two very good reasons for me to come back home.”  I lift her chin to look into her eyes, which are welling up with tears.  “You and my child are my world and my life.  You are the only reason I live for now.  I made a promise to you years ago that I would always make sure to come home to you, and that is a promise I intend to keep for all eternity.”

The tears were freely flowing down her face and I couldn’t help but shed a few tears myself.  After the party ended later on that night, I asked Sea and JT to drop Kioyuka off at home so I can pick up the new equipment from the Phen.

“Hello!  You in here?”

“Pull around back, Inoba!!  I got everything on a ramp ready to roll.”

“Thank you so much…. cause these are definitely gonna be needed for where I’m going.”

“Where you headed?”

  “Atlanta.”

“In America?  Why?”

“Unfinished business.”

“I can see that you’re not gonna be talking any more than that, so I’ll let it be.  But look, if you could do me a favor while you’re there, I’d be most appreciative.”

“You mean getting large payments of money from me isn’t enough?”

“This is something simple.  All I need you to do is to pick up a couple of items on this list for me while you’re there.”

He handed me the list with the paper on it.  I look back at him with a very curious look on my face.  “What do you want this stuff for?”

“Oh, just some things to add to my collection.  Besides, if you bring me back that stuff, then the next vehicle mod you bring in will be free.”

Now how could I pass that up?  I make the necessary payment transfers and hook the jack onto the Expedition.  I get back to the base and drop off the bikes and then head home.  I go inside the office and talk to Pastor Bill to let him know that I won’t be in the office for the next two days until it’s time to leave for America.

“Why all of this, Inoba?  Why are you cutting everyone off all of a sudden like this?”

“Mainly it’s for Kioyuka’s well being.  She doesn’t like the fact that (a) I am going on this trip to America, and (b) we haven’t spent a lot of time together for the past few weeks and I’m making that up to her somewhat.  Just let everyone know that I’ll be out of pocket for that time and I’ll see them when it’s time to leave.”

“Understandable.  And I will take care of everything here.  Don’t worry; you’re definitely leaving MGH in good hands with JT and me being here.  Besides, I know you wouldn’t want to leave those idiots here to run things.  They’d leave us bankrupt within a matter of hours.”

“Thank you, Bill.  I owe you a lot.”

“No you don’t.  The only one you owe is Kioyuka.  And I know that she is at home waiting for you, so why don’t you go to her right now.”

“I will.  Thanks again, Bill.  I really do appreciate everything you’ve done.  I’ll see you guys in two days.”

With that, I head home, knowing that I have a long two days with my fiancée and child.  Right now, those are the only things on my mind and nothing else right now even matters to me.  I know I’ve been away from her for too long, and so does she.  I don’t know why she even decided to put up with me for as long as she has.  But I’m thankful that she has.  If anything ever were to happen to her (and a few months ago, something almost did) then I know that the world would not be very safe from my anger.  All in all, she is my heart, my soul, just everything to me.  I would not give her up for anything in the world, and I would not hesitate to give my life to protect hers.

I get home, and Kioyuka is sitting on the couch still crying.  I go over to her and just hold her in my arms, never to let go of her.  For the next two days, I belong to her and her only.  Nothing matters at this point except us, and that’s how it is going to be.