Chapter 18: Two Suns in the Sunset
"In my rearview mirror the sun is going down
sinking behind bridges in the road
and I think of all the good things that we have left undone
and I suffer premonitions, confirm suspicions, of the holocaust to come.
The wire that holds the cork that keeps the anger in
gives way, and suddenly it's day again.
The sun is in the east even though the day is done,
two suns in the sunset could be the human race is run.
You stretch the frozen moments with your fear,
and you'll never hear their voices,
and you'll never see their faces,
you have no recourse to the law anymore,
and as the windshield melts my tears evaporate
leaving only charcoal to defend.
Finally I understand the feelings of few, ashes and diamonds,
foe and friend, we were all equal in the end."
Floating...she was floating, harbored on wings that
she didn't know existed. Her thoughts seemed to evaporate, and
that feeling inside of her escalated, until she felt the irrepressable
urge...to laugh, and she did. It was a strange sound in the darkness
like she was laughing into a void that only managed to adapt to the
sound of her laughter and swallow the dry desperate pitches of her
madness.
From beside her, Rei's form stirred, but it was well past midnight,
and the moon had long since been obscured by the clouds and Minako
was left alone with her thoughts. She had always liked it alone in the
darkness where light was absent so you felt the other presences in
the room next to you. She wondered briefly...if Rei could see them.
The spirits, the fates, and she wondered why she could feel them
around her now as if their energy was making the hair on her arms
stand straight up. She thought of Motoki and Makoto, what lay ahead
for Makoto, and she thought of the wedding, and then she thought of
trivial things, things that had no end, and no beginning. Her thoughts kept
trying to fill up the spaces in her head and in the air, but they only filled
so much until all died away, and the silence resounding pressed on her
ears.
Did Rei ever see the things she saw while looking into the fire?
Could Rei look through her eyes, and see...hear what she felt, or was
Rei just as clueless about the future, maybe that's why Rei stared so
long and hard into her sacred flame...to find answers, but all that came
to Minako's mind as fast as her brain could process them, the questions
and answers evaporated just as they had come. She tried to huddle back
into the warmth of Rei's arms, but to no avail it proved to only dampen her
fleeting emotions as even the warmth of someone next to her, refused to
quiet her pyschoanalyzing.
Gently kissing the soft skin underneath Rei's chin Minako contemplated
if this...consumnation of love changed anything, did it mean that she was
tied here for good? Or was it just...something that had to be done, to clarify
that this relationship was more than just "friendly"? Or was it to satisfy an
ache for flesh? Minako loved...but she could not feel this love. Love was
happiness, it was a bed of roses, it was...contentment, and it was joy, if
love was all these things what could you call a love that didn't feel much
like happiness? That didn't feel much like anything, but Minako wanted to
keep this, nothing much that she owned was really ever hers, and Rei...well
Rei she could say was hers for awhile and she wanted to keep that, until
the madness came crashing back down. From the eyes of the outside
their relationship could be seen as skin-deep, their eyes seen as alluded
by beauty, and their senses stained by the unsatiable pleasure of the
flesh, but she knew that few knew her better than Hino Rei. There was a
part of her that let loose around the fiery miko, a part of her that never
felt anymore free, and thinking of this Minako closes her eyes fighting
insomnia.
She can't think about tomorrow because she wants to live for the
moment, and she thinks...recklessly, but she does think it that if she
were to die tomorrow it would be a fitting end, that she prefers to
die at the climax of happiness when no other time could get any better,
that's what she thinks, but what she thinks doesn't matter as she
feels outside forces intervening. Nobody should ever find true love,
nobody should ever know what it felt like to take such responsibility
for a heart, especially of one you never dared to hurt, but could do
nothing else but that. Strange, the emptiness in her belly seemed to
have deepened and caved in since last as she wet her lips with her
tongue and rolled her eyes to eye the ceiling above her, and she glared.
It was only then staring at the ceiling did she partake in augmentation
of the common phrase, one that she rarely used, but found suitable in
her situation.
'She hated everything.'
-
Turbulence was all that Minako had in mind as she pressed her foot
down hard on the accelerator of her hunk of junk car that was usually
only meant to look pretty, and not go very fast, but right now speed
was what Minako needed. She watched from the corner of her eye
as the sun's rays kissed every lock of hair on Rei's head that blew
carelessly into the wind despite the miko's constant protesting hands
that tried to get her hair into a semblance of order...she really was
beautiful when she was angry. Too beautiful, it made others not know
when to stay away, and it made Minako shudder involuntarily and huddle
into her seat seeking safety from the miko's fire.
Keep breathing...
The thought ran through Minako's head like a brush fire, it eliminated
her common sense and her thoughts were now filtered in undiluted glory
before her eyes as the plans for the day made a satisfying flop in the
back of her mind, and she still...Minako wasn't sure if she could sleep
ever again after the night they had, she didn't know if it was okay to
trust herself to even speak casually to Rei without inflicting more brain
damage on herself, and she was sure, as sure as she knew how the
sweetness of milk spoiled when left out in the open, she was sure the
dreamscape of safety would spoil if left unattended.
What changed the name of the game?...
The reason why she had awoken Rei with a kiss, with her lips and
with her tongue instead of going out into the hall to greet Artemis and
have her early morning breakfast, the same reason why she stopped
trying to be pathetic the day after.
You clearly knew who was wanting who...
No!...she wasn't using Rei, it was love. That word
held meaning to her, and she clung onto it like a man adrift at sea clinging
to his lifesaver, she needed the clarity. Her recklessness had driven her,
but what caved in substituted for lust and want, and she had gotten
everything. She had the heart and soul of the fiery miko, and she had
indulged in the time of the day with the miko, and shared her fears and
doubts, but there was still a place where Minako didn't want to take the
miko, didn't want to take the risk of that. The prospect of losing to Minako
was always a greater fear than meant to be, and the losing part well...
it wasn't as disappointing as she thought it was, because she had always
been anticipating losing from the start.
You said it to yourself...that you weren't happy...
That's right. She wasn't happy, but she wanted to make Rei happy, if
only for a small moment where the outside could be looking in, and they
wouldn't mind. When the trials of tomorrow would be like footprints at
the beach where you would only have to look away for a second before
your own footsteps were washed away by the waves. Slowly, Minako
saw the streetlights signaling her car to a stop as Minako spared a glance
at Rei who looked flustered with her hair askew, and Minako felt a small
smile gracing her lips.
"Feel like the beach?"
-
Seaglass...
She had loved them when she was a child, and that awe-struck feeling
of finding one carried to her adolescence, and well into her adult life now as she
searched the sand for sea glass with Rei walking slowly by her side curious to
her motives. She remembered well how many days she had spent carefree
across the beaches in nothing but a summer dress even in the winter to play
in the waves, and catch various seashells pressing each one to her ear hoping
to hear the sound of the sea in it, and just receiving an earful of seawater for
her effort. Minako chuckled fondly at her childhood foolishness, at her believing
the myth that seashells would harbor the sound of the sea in them, and she
wondered briefly what it would be like to just walk on into the sea. Would it be
as endless like it looked? She wondered if anyone had ever done that...just keep
walking to try and find an end to the sea. Was there an end? Or was the sea
like sorrow, high tide some days, and low tide the others? Minako felt...
isolated here by the seaside, and just to make sure she turned around to gaze
at Rei who had been silent at her side for quite some time.
You love her...
That thought the only thing that was on her mind as she reached for Rei
and nudged playfully.
"Why are you so silent?" the question was out of her lips before she
had a time to taste how it would sound in the air, and her voice to her seemed
foreign, and feeble almost.
"I was just enjoying the moment," Rei replied back shortly as she gazed
at the wispy clouds that played about the azure sky.
The sky would've been a perfect reflection of the sea if not for the
marauding clouds in the distance painting its canvas, but Minako slowly slid
out of her shoes and socks, and dipped her foot slightly into the cool water.
She shivered all of a sudden as a chill took over her, and she recoiled slightly
from the water, and instead she watched as Rei took off her sandals and
walked straight into the water soaking up her pant leg.
Reckless...
But Minako joined Rei anyway as she also dipped her two feet into the
water, and felt the sand squelch inbetween her toes, and she sighed in
contentment as the sand cushioned the soles of her feet.
"Looks beautiful, huh? In Kyoto the mountains would collect clouds like
little cotton balls around the tips, and they would form such a mist the first day
there I thought the clouds were going to hide the sun away," Rei spoke to her
as they basked in the glow of the afternoon.
Rei had never spoken to Minako about the scenery of Kyoto, Minako had
just assumed Rei thought that scenery wasn't important due to her mission to
enhance her skills, but it looked like Rei just withheld the sentimentality about
the mysterious ethereal beauty of Kyoto from their talks. This was simple talk
Rei was trying to engage Minako in, and it was a relief actually to know that
they were transitioning into a much easier style, not the one where the only
time they ever talked was when something needed to be said to argue.
It's too peaceful...
"It's too beautiful, too quiet, too serene, it's not for the likes of me.
Usually I have replicas, calenders and posters given to me by fans
adorning my room, it's a substitute for the real things, and I've grown
accustomed to looking at beauty through a piece of paper that this seems
too real. I guess I know now where my eyes can see through and where
my eyes can only appreciate and perceive," she spoke her thoughts once
again deflating the good air between them.
She knew it wasn't right to put down a natural beauty, but it was
what she felt, if she didn't speak her mind around Rei she doubted Rei
would've ever had fallen for her in the first place.
"Sorry for being metaphorical," Rei apologized quickly as her eyes
darted worriedly towards Minako.
"You shouldn't feel sorry for that, I thought you didn't care what
others thought," Minako replied curtly.
"I don't...I don't give a damn about other people, but I give a damn
about you," Rei replied with a passion glowing in her eyes.
"I know you do," Minako agreed as if that was the end of the
conversation.
"I don't like it when our conversations fall flat like this, and I
don't like it that you're so distant after all we've been through...didn't
yesterday prove anything to you?" Rei pursued the subject vehemently.
You were just waiting on an argument...
This was what she had missed in the air so far...that same spark they
got from having their words clash against each other, and it was a weird
way of looking at it, and yet it was simple in the fact that they needed this
attraction.
"Yes it did...making love can always substitute for conversation, easily," Minako
replied breezily as she picked up her shoes and walked slowly paralell to the
seaside with her arms outstretched.
Rei couldn't help but feel scandalized by Minako's careless remark, and
she tried to steer away from the bitter feelings that arose, and tried to concentrate
at least on following Minako.
"You act like it already has," Rei called to Minako as she ran to catch up
and was surprised when Minako turned back to her with an almost bittersweet
smile on her face and a faraway gaze.
"Who's to say it hasn't already?"
That froze Rei to the spot as Minako turned away, and kept walking away
as the wind blew her hair slightly to the left as Rei gaped...standing still where
she stood with her mouth full of the sea air. Clenching her fists Rei ran after
Minako, or tried to in her sandals as Rei cursed under her breath at Minako's
habit to always break a mood with her curbed enthusiasm, and pessimism it
made Rei question was it worth it, but already answered her question as she
ran off after Minako only to find herself slipping a little as she tripped upon
something her sandal slid on, and haphazardly stuck her hand out into the
sand to steady herself.
Whipping her head wildly about Rei looked underneath her sandal and
found that what she had slipped on was nothing more than a piece of smooth
and round seaglass. It was about the size of her thumb and ruby red, figures...
the most beautiful thing on the lumpy sand was a piece of broken glass that
some litterbug threw, and now the sea had turned it into something strangely
beautiful, and yet - Rei picked up the piece of seaglass and threw it back into
the waves that crashed against the shore - she hated the sea. She had
always imagined something to be hidden beneath the sea's murky depths,
and no matter what wonders the sea birthed from it like seaglass, seashells,
and starfish Rei still felt uneasy about the sea, and now she blamed the sea
for making her spout metaphorical nonsense when Minako had looked so
at peace against the backdrop of the seaside.
The sand was lumpy against her bare feet as Rei jogged to Minako's
side and caught up with her and looked her in the eye.
'This is different from Endymion and the Princess's love..." Minako thinks
as she feels Rei's touch against her arm and the familiar eyes that probe her
face often times to try to decipher what she is thinking and feeling.
"Why are you like this?" Rei asked hurt.
"Our love is so different Mamoru's and Usagi's love isn't it? What they
have is called love," Minako replied ignoring Rei's question.
"There are different kinds of love," Rei argued stooping down and putting
back on her sandals.
"From the way it is now it's like there's only one kind of love, and everyone
is happy aren't they? Why can't we be like those other couples?" Minako argued.
"What's wrong with different? Different is good. I thought you didn't
want to be like one of those corny couples who run skipping down a grassy
field, and braiding garlands into their hair," Rei shrugged wishing Minako would
just get to the point about what she was so bothered about.
"I don't want us to be like those couples that argue all the time either.
The ones that are totally miserable with each other," Minako replied tersely.
"You don't want one thing, but you don't want the other either, what
is bothering you?" Rei groaned exasperated.
"Nothing."
It was probably nothing's fault too that they strode down the beach feeling
less exuberant and excited, and more gloomy, and confused on Rei's part than
anything, and pretty much it was "nothing's" fault that the drive home was
longer than Rei had remembered, and the silence seemed more like muffled
sounds than actual silence. She wished she could've said something romantic,
or spontaneous, at least something that would produce a different outcome
than this. It was so routine...they got mad at each other, argued and felt sorry
for themselves and each other, and yet they refused to speak up until they
had to.
Minako sat rigid in her seat as she revved up her car, and pursed her
lips in self-reflective anger as she backed up the car from the seaside, and
they rode glumly in silence. Today had been ruined...just by one remark, one
misconception birthed to another, and it had just ruined her mood.
-
"Your tie is out of place...Hino-san," Ishiida's voice rang clear through the
dusty office full of cabinets upon cabinets of misinformation, and politics, all of
which was played on hand in the past but now were uselessly cluttering up
space, and he still did not understand why Hino-san had never cleaned out his
office in over years.
Senator Hino nodded curtly as he adjusted his tie and straightened out
meticulously the wrinkles in his suit and he seemed to have an unreadable
expression on his face. Black suited him, Ishiida thought as Senator Hino
walked towards him almost off-balance as if one part of him was weightless
and the other was not, and yet Ishiida smiled in assurance.
"Shall I cancel your appointments?" Ishiida asked like any old secretary.
"Yes," Senator Hino replied and made a bee-line to the door of the office
until Ishiida who could not contain himself any longer stopped him.
"Do you think it is right?" the question rang in the air seeming to transform
the room into a living and breathing organism.
"It matters not," Senator Hino replied almost robotically as his voice
seemed to have a tired edge to it as if he was weary now of having to answer
questions that contradicted each other.
"It matters to her," Ishiida pushed once more trying to appeal to the
Senator's good side a side he knew still existed.
"Sometimes you must give up what it is you love. It's a sense of duty
and responsibility, Ishiida. Once you are in my place you will understand, but
you believe that love should win over all and I respect that, and it is true, love
should win, but that doesn't mean it will," Senator Hino gravely stated closing
his eyes and swallowed almost by habit.
"You are under the heel of a monster, Hino-san," Ishiida cried desperately
as he clutched worldlessly at his daily planner.
There was no answer to Ishiida's accusation as the slamming of the
door was evident in the stark and gloomy office, and Ishiida bowed his head in
anger, and humiliation at not being able to be of any help. Ishiida cursed himself
for not catching up to Kaijou's game fast enough, and his footsteps resounded
hard in the room as he stooped to the cabinets finding them utterly devoid of
any solution to an emotional dilemma, a tug of war of morality.
-
The outline of the Hikawa Jinja snaked into her view, and still
she felt like she was teetering on a line knowing what to say, but was afraid
to say it. Thoughts inclined to each other and each memory dipped into another,
and it seemed like everytime they had an argument some part of Rei would snag,
and trail along with her as she walked and as she thought. The car Minako had
rented had been idly put back into it's correct station without much of a peep
from the media since Minako had gone through the trouble of sneaking around
the backway, and now they were strolling casually down the lane of cherry
trees, and rampant thoughts were on the loose.
She had the urge to sit and quell her thoughts by the sacred fire again.
She found revelation and calm when she could say to herself that she knew
it all along, and many were the days she had vehemently told her senshi friends
"I told you so", she wished she could do it now. Their love was so different from
the one Mamoru and Usagi they all had their own tragedy to go through, but it
didn't make the feeling any different did it? When Rei was around Mamoru and
Usagi their relationship seemed...serene. A peaceful kind of calm that Rei admitted
quietly to herself that it was love, and that she yearned for it in her own way, and
pursued it nonetheless in her meditation. She wanted it to be...a quiet kind of
understanding, a kinship. Someone who would understand on some level and
was on the same page and if Rei were to admit to herself now she could've
seen that she was in fact lonely in the past.
Trying to convince herself that being alone was the only way to make
you strong worked for awhile, but it soon died away once she witnessed true
power...love at its best, either to destroy or create their very lives had tipped
to the balance and prowess of love. What it could make one do, and how much
one could sacrifice for love, and the senshi had showed her that, especially
Usagi. So maybe she had a bit of a biased view on what love should be, but
it wasn't like she didn't bend over backwards to help Minako, and the kami
knew she tried. She put herself into it to bring Minako back from hell and down
to earth, and Minako was improving, but patience had never been one of Rei's
virtues and it seemed to her that Minako wasn't improving enough.
"Your father is here," Minako's voice interrupted Rei's train of thought, and
just the mention of her father brought her head snapping up to full attention.
"What?" Rei didn't mean it to sound so biting but it really was what she
felt. "Why is he here?"
"Business," Minako confirmed quietly and Rei wondered briefly how Minako
knew that her father was on business, but one quick look over Minako's shoulder
and Rei too knew that it was only business that brought her father back to her, it
had always been only business.
Hell, he had considered years ago that visiting her mothers' grave was
just business that he had to do, and it brought a feeling of disgust to see him
treat everything like politics.
"That'd be the only reason of why he is here at all," Rei replied coldly
as she stopped Minako's walk to the shrine with a touch of her fingers against
Minako's wrist.
"..."
"Minako...!" Rei started. "You said...that there was only one kind of love
you say, and that was Mamoru and Usagi's love, but I don't agree with you...
if you believe that then what has our...relationship been to you? What does it
mean? What is it called if not love?"
Rei tightened her grip on Minako's wrist as she waited her answer she
didn't know it but she was holding her breath. She was hoping...that Minako would
just shut up and ignore her question. She felt like she didn't want to know what
Minako thought about anymore, she no longer felt the novelty of knowing Minako's
thoughts, but she was the one that had asked the question prompting an answer.
"Codependency."
Smooth and an utterly ruthless answer that caused Rei to take a hesitant
step backwards as if Minako didn't seem like someone she knew as if Minako was
a different person now, but the sight of her father up the stairs gazing solemnly
down at her made her legs move almost robotically in sync with Minako's and
Rei soon found herself face to face with the man she had thought she would
never have to see again...not face to face, usually she just saw him on the
television screens, or on the news.
"What are you doing here?" Rei asked curtly knowing the answer
before Senator Hino even replied this was all too routine.
"Business," Senator Hino replied like rehearsed but he added something
to it. "With your...lover."
Rei's eyes widened momentarily and it clicked. The public knew or had
a vague clue but she couldn't see her and Minako doing anything that would've
tipped anyone off.
"I don't have to explain myself to you," Rei retorted clenching her fists on
the invasion of her privacy.
"I'm not telling you what to do, or who to see...I just want to talk to Minako
that's all," Senator Hino replied calmly.
"It'd be better if we had a quieter place," Minako replied nonchalantly as
Rei by her side did not stay still.
"I suggest Rei stay here though," Senator Hino cut in without even a
passing glance at Rei which was bitterly noted for her part.
"It's not my decision whether she goes or stays," Minako replied with the
same finesse and they both looked at Rei in question.
"Don't worry...I won't impede on your conversation," Rei replied sarcastically,
and turned on her heel and walked past her father without even a passing glance
either, both determind not to let down an inch while in each other's presence.
Keeping an eye on Rei's retreating back Minako let the ghostliest of smiles
cross her face and asked in good humor, "Daughter much like you?"
"Only her stubborness," Senator Hino replied his shoulders more relaxed
now since Rei was gone and there was contrast between Senator Hino the
father...and Senator Hino the man.
"I can tell. I don't know if I've ever known you to make house-calls, I
usually associate Kaijou to doing your dirty work to appease to you," Minako
took control of the conversation effectively as Senator Hino led her to a black
car in the subued background of the shrine where no one would notice them
come and leave.
"Kaijou does what he wishes. It's better to talk in my office for such
things," Senator Hino said as he opened the door politely for Minako as she
clambered in.
"And what sort of things are meant for the office?" Minako asked smoothly
as she looked up at Senator Hino from the back car seat.
"Many things," Senator Hino replied tersely as he shut the door swiftly, and
got into the passenger side of the car, and instructed his hired driver to drive.
Minako breathed a sigh in the back of the car to herself as the scenery
passed by the cloaked windows of the car in fast-forward as she saw the
familiar trees that she and Rei had passed by not awhile ago. She was thankful
for Rei for leaving it made things easier, and it made Senator Hino more relaxed
more willing to bend and compromise, and that was what she needed now. A
kindred spirit. With her face pressed against the windows she noticed out of
the corner of her eye Senator Hino staring at her from the rearview mirror and
she smiled slightly.
It was an almost cordial affair that they made their way into the office
without interruption as Minako spared a passing glance at Senator Hino's
overworked but loyal right hand man Ishiida, and she noticed his glance at
her almost a look of surprise, but then he occupied his eyes once again with
the documents his nose was always buried in. Bringing her eyes to attention
to Senator Hino's figure she entered his stark and musty office and he shut the
door discreetly on the outside. The shuffling of their feet were more evident
now as Minako took a seat in front of the huge mahogany desk that Senator Hino
was always sitting behind, and watched as he slowly lowered himself into his
chair, and breathed out heavily. The silence was palpitating as they both watched
each other unabashedly waiting for the other to give, but Minako kept at this game
until the old Senator got tired of this game, and opted for straight-forwardness.
"You are aware that this is not easy for me...but it is for the good of everyone
as you will see," Senator Hino tried and failed in convincing Minako of anything but
his reluctance.
"Senator Hino I know the consequences, and I know what it is you that you do,
and what your business has gotten you into. You don't need to lie, or try to better
things for my sake because sooner or later reality will drop down on us like animals,
and we shall unless we don't accept and adapt to it soon enough the reality will eat us
alive," Minako attacked the subject with startling efficiency as she matched Senator Hino's
weakness with her ruthlessness.
"Then I hope that you will not question my integrity, and sincerity to my daughter
then," Senator Hino replied groping around in his desk drawer for something.
"I never have," Minako answered her eyes levelling with the Senator's.
That's when the Senator seemed to lose his cool and he fumbled with
the tape recorder and until it made a metallic clink against his desk his eyes shifted
spasmically to the walls. Minako reached over hesitantly then grasped the plastic in
her hands and studied it, and immediately she knew, she didn't know how but she
knew just like all the other times. Minako let out a soft sigh, and clicked the "play" button,
and as Sai's trembling voice filtered through Minako closed her eyes in a brief show of
pain before she fixed up her face to a more placid state, and listened intently as well as
Senator Hino who regarded her with curiosity.
"You see...it is not I...I am not to fault for this tape. Whatever you decide to do is
business entirely," Senator Hino stammered after the tape was done with its message,
and Minako knew that he was trying to shift the blame, and she couldn't have minded,
it would've done her no good.
"Of course. I understand," Minako replied trying to coax the Senator back into a calmer
state.
"That's the problem, nobody else does, no one. Not even Ishiida the man that has
been by my side for years, not even my own daughter, and not even Kaijou! Between
love and duty, and pride and business. Between...family and work," Senator Hino at the
last of his breath sat down hard and his eyes were glazed almost as if he was still
dreaming.
Minako couldn't have said anything to make it better, or try to lessen the burden
because she was carrying one just like the Senator's, and if she were to help him
they would've drowned each other to keep themselves afloat.
"But...you understand don't you? The spaces that there are between friends and
utter strangers. You know why...why there are some people who choose duty over love,
there are those who will give up happiness and no one knows why, but you and I do," Senator
Hino breathed his clenched fists slowly opening as he took deep calming breaths to slow
himself down.
The Senator was desperate for justification, for someone to tell him that he was right,
and the moral wrong that he felt was brimmed from jealousy.
"I've been carrying around a guilt for a long time and I think now I'm ready to shed
that guilt away. So who is guilty is up to you to decide, and who is innocent it would be
a shame to expose them, but I leave it to you if you want me to leave your daughter
or stay with her. You are after all...her father, aren't you?" Minako replied smiling slightly
as the Senator squirmed in his seat.
Senator Hino was short of breath as he cleared his throat and reached inside his
desktop drawer and pulled out his pills.
"I don't think the pills are going to help you this time," Minako spoke with a taint
of irony in her voice as she remember a few days ago she was like that just as well.
"I don't know...what are you talking about?" Senator Hino replied cracking his knuckles
as he concentrated on the little hairs on his fingers.
"The only way for Kaijou to dig that deep into my past would be with you backing him.
You can stop him. You made him, and you created him, and you have defended him up till
now. He's been only made worse by your selfish indulging. You've forgotten all about your
real flesh and blood, and if you ever hope to continue on being a father to Rei because
she still wants you to be her father you will help me!" Minako pressed her issue her brows
creasing in concentration.
Senator Hino's mouth hung agape at Minako's act of rebellion against the odds against
her and his throat suddenly went dry as he knew Minako had seen through Kaijou and him
easily.
"I gave up on her you should know long before I had ever met Kaijou," Senator Hino
replied coldly and bit his tongue gently as Minako withdrew her stance and she looked
at the Senator in disappointment.
"If you were really her father you would've never given up on her, ever."
And with that Minako welcomed herself out of the Senator's office.
-
authors notes: I'm sorry for the time it took to update, but my internet connection
refuses to obeys me, and on its own accord it isolates me from the internet for
long periods of time so updates will be very sparse until I can get my computer
out of the dangerzone, and more stable.