"I'm here." Kira walked into the lounge the morning after, looking to speak to all the bidders. "Good, everyone's here..." she mutters as she closes the door behind her. "What do you mean?" Baba asks, staring at the assassin.

"I need to talk to all of you." she remarks, and Hikari turns to her with a grin. "Even me?" "I don't really care about your safety so no, not really. I just need to talk to the people who deserve my protection." she replies.

"Grr... Whatever, I'm staying here." she growls, plopping onto the couch beside Ota. "Just continue, Kira." Soryu orders and Kira releases a sigh before finally speaking. "From now on, I need to watch over some people. Starting with Ota and Soryu. They're the ones in need of protection right now." Kira reports.

"Why me and Soryu?" Ota cocks his head to the side, staring up at Kira. "No questions needed. Just listen to my instructions and follow what I say from now on. And Kisaki, I don't want any unnecessary trouble to get me killed so I want you to either take a break with blondie here, or you take care of her. What'll it be?"

"Of course he's going to bring me along." Hikari says confidently, latching onto the artist's arm. "However you want it. But I am not responsible for your death so yeah." Kira shrugs but what Ota says next shocks her.

"Hikari... I'd rather you stay behind for now... I really don't want to cause you anymore trouble." "What?! But..." she complains quietly. "It'll be fine... I don't want to get you hurt." Ota says quietly, trying to calm down a squabbling Hikari.

With one glance, Kira knows Ota's restless. Bags hang under his eyes and his hair was messy as if he was too tired to even do anything. Baba stared at the model and artist before whispering something in Ota's ear, to which the blonde nods to. Baba stares at his best friend worriedly before finally looking away.

"But anyway, for your protection, I'll be following you around wherever you go, mostly Ota since Soryu can protect himself. But both will be staying at my cabin until I get rid of the people after you. We're leaving tonight. Be ready."

"But Ota...! She's going to take you for yourself! Don't you see her tactics here?!" Hikari screeches from the side. "I... I gave up on him a long time ago. I don't need him anymore." Kira pauses before answering in a steady voice before turning away from the group .

"I'm going to get me cabin ready. You both better be packed by midnight. We leave." she says strictly and leaves, only to have Mamoru, surprisingly, chasing after her.

~*****~

He managed to slip into the elevator the moment before it closed. Kira didn't question anything and crossed her arms over her chest, sealing her mouth shut. "You okay, Kira?" that caught her attention, most likely since he never calls her by name.

"I... I honestly just don't know anymore. My emotions are just in a huge turmoil and I just can't think straight. I feel like everything around me went so wrong after Hikari-" she realized she had said too much and her hands flew to her mouth, covering it.

"Hikari...? Why'd you bring up that girl?" Mamoru asked, gazing at the author intently. Kira stayed silent and once they arrive at the lobby, Mamoru followed her into a sleek black car. Mamoru occasionally glanced at her, still waiting for an explanation. 

Once the pair drove a few miles out of town, Kira breathed a sigh. "Fine, just stop staring at me. I'll tell you when we get there."

The detective nodded with a small triumphant grin. "Anyway, why'd you come with me? You're gonna get in trouble if you keep following me around like this."

"And ya think I can't protect myself?" he challenged with a smirk but Kira replies with a small laugh. "No, it's not what I meant. I just don't want anymore people I love to get into even more trouble. Even without threats... I'm already a danger myself."

"Why'd you say that?" "Just... that's something I can't answer. But anyway, I'm here because of Soryu or I would've left a long time ago. That's the other reason I left for France a month ago." 

"You do know we can protect ourselves, right? You don't need to worry 'bout us." the detective but Kira bites her lip before answering. "But you can't protect yourselves from me."

Those words left Mamo speechless and he was quiet for the rest of the ride.

~*****~

They soon arrive at a small cozy cabin ways out of town and Kira leads the detective inside. "Welcome to my base, you can make yourself at home. It's rare that I actually have any visitors here..." she mutters as she opens the cabin door.

"This is your base? Pretty small." the man complains, looking around. "Oh, Mamo... I thought you'd know by now." After a few actions, Mamoru's eyes widen when a door opens hidden in the wall. "This is my base." she says and walks in.

"It's made of..." "Yeah, steel." "Why?"

"It should be impenetrable, I don't want any intruders now do I?" "True, I guess." Mamoru stomps out his cigar on an ash tray near some computers in the steel room. "Anyway, I got some work ahead of me. There's a guest room beside my bedroom over there, ust use it. There's a fridge with some food there, a TV, a waterbed and Wi-Fi of course." she grins and beckons Mamoru into a bedroom with the promised items, and it was wider than he expected.

He quietly stood by the closed door and heard shuffling in the other room, some papers and someone click clacking away on a keyboard. He heard some indistinct mumbles of complaints and agitation before he finally decided to take a nap.

In the other room, Kira was complaining as she did her work but after a mis-click, she opens up an old file. Forgotten, and with her curious attitude, Kira clicks on it to reveal various pictures of Ota and her when they were together.

Her work forgotten, she scans through each one, with each and every picture a memory. The file stops at only one video. She plays it and the soft melody of the piano fills her ears, joined by her singing and Ota's.

She hangs her head as pictures of Hikari and Ota flash through her mind. The song ends and her tear fall freely, dropping onto the board's keys.

As she sobbed quietly to herself, she didn't notice the detective watching through a gap in the door as he listened to her words.

"After all this time... I still miss you everyday."

~*****~

A/N:

Hey guys! Sorry I haven't updated anything this morning, I had to refurnish everything in my bedroom and couldn't type anything. My back hurts and I have a really bad fever but I'll still do my best to get the chapters to you guys quickly.

I hope you enjoyed reading this and as always, I'll see you in the next chapter!

Ciao!

~DarkAngel