.

Suzaku had been confined for a few days after his blunder. It was only because of the situation and his recent contribution did Shishio take it a little easy on him. He still had some use for this foolish nephew of his so it would be ideal if he was released.

"Thank you, Uncle" Suzaku looked ashamed as he faced Shishio. He knew that he had gotten off lightly after the serious situation he placed the family in. He was sentenced to spend his time in school as a secondary punishment. He was still a student who carried the Kurogane name and still had to maintain his dignity.

"Considering your recent contributions, I would be an ungrateful and cold hearted uncle if I didn't give you some kind of reward" Shishio did not neglect to inform him of the reason he got off lightly. "Just keep a low profile and let me take care of the situation. Also, steer clear of the Muimina family for now. The situation between our families is a little tense since our hands are tied because of your recent action"

"What do you mean, Uncle?" Suzaku had been totally confined for a few days so he had no idea what had been happening no matter how big the news were. All he had to do was to catch up with his studies.

"Don't be too startled but…" Shishio told this nephew everything including Ringo's sudden disappearance before leaving the boy to the team tasked to escort him to Sacred Forest Academy. There were still a few more days before summer vacation begins as the teachers still needed to hand out everyone's summer homework.

Suzaku was stunned still. He didn't know that things could change so much after just a few days. He had remained quiet and motionless as he was taken to Sacred Forest Academy where the students were looking at him with somewhat pitiful looks. His engagement with Ringo hadn't been a secret because they would usually flaunt it so her disappearance made him look like some lost sheep.

"Don't disappoint me Suzaku" Shishio muttered to himself as he sat in the driver's seat of his own car that was observing the oncoming vehicles. A van he was familiar with due to reports didn't take too long to show up afterwards.

Kazuya got down the van with Tomoyo and both of them immediately felt something amiss. They looked at each other before trying to look around to find out what was different today. This was Shishio's first time seeing this son of his but aside from the girly look that was obviously Kyouko's handiwork, he was impressed that the boy's senses was actually sensitive enough to perceive something amiss.

"So that's the child you had with that bitch huh…" Nagisa who had been sitting in the passenger seat didn't cover up her feelings and looked at Kazuya with displeasure. She couldn't deny that Kazuya had resembled her husband even more than he did through the photographs so claiming that he was a child from another man would have been a fruitless effort.

"Don't look at him or he will find us. The boy's senses are actually that impressive at his age. Truly a wonderful discovery" Shishio was thoroughly impressed and moved his gaze towards his nephew instead.

He was even more convinced that Kazuya would see things his way. Shishio, like most of the young masters of the main family had been trained by different people when it came to different subjects. This included martial arts. He was praised by many masters and he had been told that he had a peculiarity that made him sensitive towards the people around him.

Of course, since the concept of internal energy was only vague, with Shishio's pride, he had categorized it with himself as the main example and tried to develop it. This was why he had survived the many threats that he had encountered whilst he was overseas. His father had trusted him with the most difficult and riskiest tasks because of this special trait. So his son inheriting the same thing convinced him even more that Kazuya would be the perfect person to stand by his side when he finally takes over the seat of his father.

"It's gone…" Kazuya muttered. The strange feeling that he couldn't explain faded. He didn't dwell on it much since it felt somewhat like affection rather than hostility.

*tug tug* Tomoyo started tugging on his sleeve because she wanted to move on to the building after her gaze landed on Suzaku.

"Hmm?" Kazuya shook off the strange feeling and let Tomoyo pull her towards school. He already knew Suzaku was there but didn't pay him any attention because the strange feeling did not come from him. He wrote off the weird sensation to the weird stalker girl that was probably looking at him from somewhere again. The girl had been getting quite good at playing these hide and seek games as Kazuya would neglect to detect her unless he was looking.

The robot girl's actions, though not that unusual in Kazuya's eyes, were strange to everyone else. The name, robot girl, stuck because of her robotic nature and her loyalty towards her owner. This was something she had not done before so it immediately attracted attention.

"That's…" Suzaku who was slowly moving noticed the shift of attention and immediately recognized the duo. He suddenly got struck with the memory of their last encounter with this boy. The words he uttered that day fit the current situation.

Shishio informed Suzaku of the information that he didn't reveal to Budou. Domyouji Kuuga was most likely the one found in the body bag that was picked up at the Muimina family's warehouse. Ringo told him about the trip she took there and was going to tell him about why she had been in a really good mood when they met the next time but he was suddenly confined because of what he tried to pull with Kazuno Mei.

Suzaku didn't know what happened but he was sure that it was not Ringo that killed Kuuga. She may have seemed cold hearted to others but she was not the type to have someone eliminated, especially someone who she had associated with. It made more sense to him that Kazuya had something to do with the current situation because he had already hinted what his uncle only recently learned.

He shuddered at the thought of losing his best friend and future wife. So if he could do anything, he would do whatever he could to make sure that Ringo came out safe and sound. With that in mind, his sluggish movements turned into determined ones as he rushed to catch up with the only person he knew had some kind of information regarding the situation.

Kazuya noticed the hostile person approaching and whispered something that only Tomoyo could hear. He was not the only one who noticed Suzaku as Shishio oversaw the situation and was glad that this nephew of his had finally started acting as he was intended to.

"Kouzuki Kazuya!" Suzaku threateningly grabbed Kazuya's clothes and tried to use his height advantage to pull him up from the ground.

.

In a dark room located in an undisclosed location. A girl was locked inside a dark room whilst being strapped to a crude yet sturdy wooden chair. This was a special chair that not only bound her arms but every single finger of hers had a special slot. This chair had initially been for full grown adults but some of the strangers that took the girl had gone through the trouble of changing it to fit her especially.

She had been in this place for more than a day. The darkness made her lose all sense of time and she no longer looked like a spoiled and pampered princess of a large and illustrious corporation. This was the current situation Muimina Ringo was in.

Akabane Isshin had just arrived and entered the observation room and immediately frowned after seeing the current state Muimina Ringo was in. He was the only person who was allowed to bear witness to this because he was the only person who had a thorough understanding of how their world worked.

"This…" seeing the missing finger and the frostbitten hand of the girl. Even Isshin began to question his friend's sanity. "Why is she still alive?"

Gakuto didn't speak but instead showed part of a replay when Ringo was being interrogated for killing his grandson. It was common for culprits to deny what they are being charged for so they made up several excuses. Ringo's excuses were even more absurd because she claimed that it was Kuuga himself who wanted to meet in their warehouse.

"Preposterous!" Isshin dismissed it immediately. "I've seen both the autopsy and the forensic reports. Your grandson was even tightly grasping strands of that girl's hair. Though it may be true that she didn't pull the trigger, even the specialist said that it wouldn't have been possible for it to be planted on his body afterwards" Gakuto agreed with this because both of them had praised his grandson for being clever enough to lead them to the right person.

From the forensic report, Kuuga had suffered two gunshot wounds to the head. One was towards the side of his head which matched the splatters on the scene they found. The killing blow however had taken someplace else where the second shot had been fired directly in the middle of his head. From what they could tell, Kuuga had been taken from his office and then later killed off before he was dumped inside the Muimina family's warehouse to be disposed of when the commotion died down.

"I'm not naïve enough to believe a story made up by an immature brat that's as good as dead but you know as well as I do how it feels to have a feeling that something is wrong" Gakuto turned the replay off and turned towards his friend.

"Don't tell me your gut is still pointing towards your initial suspicion of old Kou's grandson?" Isshin understood what his friend meant but both of them knew that this feeling wasn't a hundred percent accurate. "Jirou already told me about this and I share the same opinion as him. That is an absurd theory. Though they both harbored killing intent towards that grandson of yours, it had been the same killing intent which he projected towards all the members of Dokuro group yet only Dokuro Domon died in his hands"

"I know…" Gakuto knew all of it. He was only holding onto the theory because of his gut feeling because Kazuya's alibi had been perfect. Even the people he had at his command was limited to Jirou and Komori's people so he couldn't have asked anyone else to do it for him especially after only discovering his grandson's connection to him on the same day.

"Let me remind you. It was also due to Kou's grandson that you were able to take this girl into custody so easily. The devices that the Dokuro group used to block devices from sending any information out of a certain area were reproduced by the company he was protecting and given to your group. He may have had an ulterior motive of punishing the people behind the attack but he had no reason to help you for the cause you declared" Isshin lectured.

"Stop lecturing me about that. I know how much of a help that fierce boy has been!" Gakuto was irritated. It was even Kazuya who mostly formulated the plan to take Ringo without anyone noticing.

"Don't worry my friend. I think I understand" Isshin put a hand on his friend's shoulder to comfort him. "You've been so proud of having all grandsons and looked down on us who had granddaughters so now we, having the perfect fierce candidate that we can leave our clans to makes you regret for being smug all these years right?" Isshin gave a smug look.

"BUZZ OFF!!" Gakuto swatted away the arrogant hand placed on his shoulder. Though his friend was fooling around, he actually took those words to heart and wondered. "(Is my judgement really being clouded because of how I admire the boy?)" he couldn't completely deny it. If Kazuya were to lead a group that dabbled in the underworld, there was no doubt that even without their help, he would be a force to be reckoned with. His senses might have been acting up because of this so he was stuck deep in thought.

"Regardless… this girl might have been responsible for Kuuga-kun but you know as well as I do that she is still but a child. I advise you to put her out of her misery now so you can focus on finishing what you started" Isshin advised. No matter if Ringo was alive or not, their purpose of dealing a heavy blow to the Muimina Budou's mental state had already been effective. It was only a matter of time before the act moved on to the climax.

Ringo had already given up hope and had been muttering "just kill me" to herself over and over again. It wasn't until Gakuto and Isshin entered that she started saying it in a weak yet loud enough voice for them to hear. She had enough and had given up on life. No matter how she denied it, she understood that she had been framed to the point that even her hair was somehow in Kuuga's possesion.

This was an elaborate trap that didn't allow her to have many options. It was her words against all the evidences that pointed towards her and her family. She didn't know who did it or why but none of that mattered anymore. She wanted to die, she wanted to become a ghost so that she could uncover this mystery herself and haunt whoever did this to her.

"Any last words, child?"

.