Chapter 9

Heart to Heart Interrogation

Felix opened his eyes and found himself on the couch inside Natsumi’s penthouse. There was a loud, ticking noise there that he hadn’t completely taken notice of before. The clock’s hand had reached midnight. As he tried to get up, he suddenly felt the sharp pains all over his body and let out a sharp groan.

“I wouldn’t get up so quickly if I were you.” Natsumi yawned with a muffled voice, her face buried in her arms atop the table.

“Natsumi… what happened to the sniper?”

Natsumi stretched out her arms and squealed, “You don’t remember? You literally kept running until you collapsed. I took a break to vomit, and then I got a cab to drive us in circles to make sure he lost us.”

“Were you the one who bandaged me up?”

“I had someone come over to stitch you up. I wanted to take you to the hospital, but… I was too afraid to go outside again, and I really didn’t want to be away from my bodyguard. Sorry if that sounds selfish.”

“I see… More importantly, how are you feeling?” He asked.

“A little shaken up, but I’ll manage. On the plus side, I now know why they called you Black Cat…”

Felix looked over to the table where he saw his vest and bloodied shirt, torn with holes.

“I saw you get shot and bleed out, but according to the nurse, you just had a few minor bruises.”

“The concert hasn’t even begun yet, and already I got myself shot.” He scoffed.

“Sorry.”

“What you should apologize for is fake-shooting me earlier.” Felix scolded while he looked over his arm, in search for a wound that wasn’t there.

“Right… sorry.” She held back a nervous giggle before falling silent once again.

He remembered Maria’s words.

Nothing leaves a scar on us, huh?

As he silently lied on the sofa, half-asleep, the sudden crackle of oil slowly made his eyes open again.

“Huh?”

A mild, meat-filled fragrance begins to fill the room, Natsumi spoke, “Aren’t you glad? We’re not wasting the food here after all.” She snickered. “I’m heating some water, you want anything?” She added as she put on the kettle.

“Coffee, actually.” Felix chuckled as he got up, “Do you need any help?”

“It’s fine, I got it.”

As Natsumi reached for coffee on the shelf, she let out a soft whimper. “Hng...ngg!”

Unbeknownst to Felix was the sharp sensation she suffered, as her arm had gotten sore from having been violently tugged around.

Natsumi placed the pot in the center of the table and pulled her seat closer.

“Come on, food’s ready.”

After changing into a gray shirt, Felix stood up with a sharp sting in his chest. He walked towards the kitchen and sat on the chair next to where the bullet shells had still laid.

“Here, it’s time to eat.” She clapped her hands together.

Felix let out a bothered look upon hearing the last few words. As she notices the change in his expression, the popstar pouts and asks; “Mhm, what’s with that face?”

“It’s just weird… that everyone I encountered so far just seems to speak in English.”

She pointed her chopstick toward him “Well, you don’t exactly look very American yourself.”

“I’m Chinese…” Felix answered.

“And yet we’re both speaking English.”

Felix exhaled and rolled his eyes, waiting for her to get her share. Natsumi reaches her chopsticks for the pot, she suddenly reflexively pulls it back in as it starts to spasm.

“What’s wrong?” He asked.

“My arm’s… still a little sore after that guy kept pulling me around.” She explains as she glances over reddish marks on her arm that left from the struggle.

Clutching the still aching wound on his chest, Felix’s eyes lower slightly.

“I’m sorry.”

“For saving me?”

“For not protecting you properly.”

“You’re the one who got shot. How are you even still alive?”

He tilted his head, “Bullet-proof vests are standard issue, I thought you would’ve known that.”

“But didn’t you say I would’ve killed you earlier if I’d used a real gun?” She jokingly commented.

“I said you would’ve shot me, likely my arm and back.”

“Guess I should’ve aimed for the head.” She jokingly remarked.

“I do have some defense for that now.” Felix shrugged in reference to his new white mask.

The two sat in silence as they ate. The clinking of chopsticks on the porcelain plates were the only sound from the wide penthouse sweet that the two had soloed. That was until the kettle let out a whistle that gradually turned louder.

Natsumi stood up from the table, “Hot water’s ready.”

Before Felix could stand up, Natsumi gestured for him to stay and sit in wait while she prepared it for both of them.

“Would you like some creamer with that?”

“…Two creams, three sugars.”

“Ah, mhm… You’re serious? You got it Cap’n China.” She pouted in response after hearing Felix’s words.

“Captain… China?”

She prepared the two mugs, the soft steam flowing out of both of them.

The only sound that could be heard were those of chopsticks, and the stir of a spoon against the porcelain mugs

“You know, from the comics? A reference to Captain— You know what? Never mind. Just... Here’s your coffee, princess.” Natsumi stopped as she realized the futility of explaining.

As Felix took the mug, he noticed a soft, sweet scent waft toward him.

“That smell… I thought you were gonna have coffee?”

“I changed my mind, coco’ll help me sleep easier. I didn’t know you had a sweet-tooth, though.”

“We just met, there’s a lot of things you don’t know about me.”

“Well, we’ll have to fix that.”

The winds outside grew loud, but couldn’t penetrate against the windows of the penthouse suite Natsumi had been staying in. Felix continues to eat. The young pop idol takes a sip from her hot coco, staring into the distance. There was a long pause between them as Felix was already eating the reheated food.

“Earlier you said that an Elite Agent would’ve killed me, and yet you didn’t. Why’s that?”

“Sounds like you have a death wish.”

“Psh, have you not met my generation?” Natsumi snickered.

Felix sighed, “You’re the heiress to Obsidian Industries. A bodyguard killing their own charge is pretty bad.”

Besides, I have a feeling that there’s more to them assigning me to be your bodyguard than meets the eye.

“Nah, none of the pesky formalities, there must be some other reason. You could have easily killed me when you retaliated.” She stared at Felix with a curious expression.

Felix was taken aback. He stared down quietly as he pulled together his cluttered and disarray thoughts. Both of his hands let go of the mug, his eyebrows curled slightly. In the brief pause between his words, the memory of the Winter Corporation’s heiress suddenly flashed in his eyes.

“…Will you be able to protect them? Will you be able to take their hand if they reach out to you?…”

Those were questions his silver-haired sister asked.

Simple questions that echoed in his heart as he recollected the shocked expression on the girl he saved from when he met his sister.

His eyes focused on his palms as he looked for an answer, while Natsumi stared curiously, waiting for his response.

Suddenly, for a split second, he remembered a hand reach out to him from golden fires. But he could not see beyond the fire.

— A tiny drop of blood began to slide down his nose.

The blonde girl slammed her hands on the table as she yelled in shock, “Felix, are you okay?!”

“Ah, mhm, yeah…” He was snapped out of the deep thought and wiped the blood off his nose. The agent’s lips quivered slightly, there was a very brief moment of hesitation. “I didn’t want… to hurt a young girl.” His voice dripped with sentimentality. He did not know whether his answer was what he wanted to say, but it was the only answer he found.

Her mouth once again gaped open at his response, three seconds pass before her expression changes to a wide smile. “What’s with that?” She broke out in laughter.

The agent’s kind expression quickly changed to one of annoyance, “You’re pushy, you know that?”

“You have some deep baggage.”

“Gross, what are you, some sort of therapist?” He mimicked her comment from before in a mocking tone.

“I’m just being kind to my friends… and… I thought that. Maybe if I had an Elite Agent protecting me, another person wouldn’t have to die.”

There was a small pause before Felix replied, “Is this a frequent occurrence?”

“Only on occasion, and never twice in a row. But… never like this.”

“I see. So that’s why you tested me earlier.”

Without words, she just smiled at him. Felix closed his eyes and took another spoonful from his plate.

“So, about that sweet-tooth.”

“Is there a point to these questions?”

The young idol smiled and placed her head on her palm, “I wanna get to know more about my bodyguard. Makes him more trustworthy.”

She looked at him solemnly, her eyes glistened with determination while the steam streamed out of her mug, dissipating in the still air.

“I— I see.” He responded, “It’s not refined, but… I can see you’re doing what you can to become a suitable leader in your own way.”

Felix scratched his cheek and answered her question, “It’s the way my mentor used to make it.”

“…you mean Luna Aster?”

Taking a sip from his coffee, Felix looks to the side, purposely ignoring the question.

“You got the Aster from her, but where did the Felix come from?”

Felix groaned as he put down the mug, “You are annoyingly informed.”

“That I am. I’m the heiress after all, I need all the information I can get. Siscon, huh? No wonder I couldn’t get through to you.”

“Siscon?” He asked, unfamiliar with the term.

“Nothing. What about ‘Felix?’”

“Felix… is a memento from the day I went through hell.”

“Sounds dark, tell me more…” She said as she parched her face on her palms atop the table.

“I would, but everything from that day is pretty much a blur. I only… see it in my nightmares.”

“Pretty morbid. You sir, have many layers.”

“If this is an interrogation, you’re not getting any more info.”

“This is an interview, not an interrogation.”

“Well, what about you?”

“So, you wanna know more about the cool and sweet Yumiko Sakurazawa of Starry Sweethearts!” She loudly announced, standing up from her seat, making a peace sign between her eye.

“What exactly do you know?”

“About what exactly?” She responds, sitting back down.

“Well, for starters… why didn’t you decide to go with your friends earlier?” Felix paused mid-sentence as he tried to formulate a question for her.

“They… um… they know not to come near me when I tell them I’m getting a new bodyguard.”

“That... says a lot. So what happened?”

Natsumi turned to the side with a nervous expression.

“Sensitive question?”

“There’ve been… problems. It’s happened before, a stalker pretended to be my bodyguard. Held me at gun point and tried to use me for ransom…he said to give back what we owe…” Natsumi placed her hand on her chest before taking a deep, sharp inhale.

“…I see.”

“They’re already at risk associating with me. I don’t think they can handle some of the things that I’ve been through.”

She looked at his solemn expression, a glowing blue that stared quietly at her.

“But the Director told us about you. The espers. How you had gifts. How you were meant to protect people.”

“Gifts… huh?”

Upon seeing Felix’s reaction, she takes a big chug from her hot chocolate and slams it on the table. The popstar wipes her eyes and pops up a bright smile, declaring;

“N-no need to get so gloomy, you’re with the cool and adorable Yumiko! Allow Yumiko to make your heart flutter with Yumi-Yumi-k—”

“Stop.”

“Buzzkill.”

“Well then, not as Yumiko Sakurasomething, but as Natsumi Sakurai, the heiress of Obsidian Industries, what do you know about the alliance of the twelve agencies?”

“I try my best to gather any and all intel I can get about the twelve agencies. No matter how much papa tries to hide it from me, I’ll have to face it on sooner or later, as someone who will eventually be the head of one of the most massive corporations there are. So I have a number of robins giving me info.”

“And they just give you the information you want?”

“It takes a lot of working around, besides, an idol’s charm, remember?”

“Ever thought about becoming an interrogator?” Felix jested.

“They’re not so dissimilar.”

“So what do you know about the alliance?” Felix asked in a serious manner.

“That on the surface, they appear as normal corporations. But there are espionage groups that they keep the peace in the silence and the shadows, and that they rely on favors between one another in order to promote trust.” She answered in a somber tone with a calm, steady stare.

“What else?”

“That Elite Agents like you… men and women who are forgotten, or have never been known to the world, “People who don’t exist.” Act in service for mankind’s benefit.”

“Mhm… and?”

“That… you were a human experiment. I don’t know the specifics of Project ASTRAEA, so other than criminal activity. Not much.”

“You got the gist of what we do. I won’t get into the nitty-gritty. Any robin could probably tell you what I can.”

She spun her finger around the table as she continued, “The truth is... I’m not sure if I can handle the position of being the next head. And I think it’s inhuman what they did to you. I don’t think I can stomach it. Or everything else. But it’s eventually gonna come to me, so it’s best to be prepared now.”

“When that happens… I’ll do my what I can to keep you safe.”

She smiled, “Is that so? Then, I should get to bed. It’s way past my curfew. Besides, the new character was released earlier.”

“Character?”

“Yeah, for a game called Grand Knight’s Order. Anyway, good night.”

“Good night.”

“I’m heading to my room now. By the way, what sort of music do you listen to?” She asked with an enthusiastic smile on her face.

“I don’t really listen to music, I only really know a few classical pieces.” Felix answered with his palm on his chin, thinking out loud.

“Dreary. Well, good night... and thank you.”

“Good night.” He waved awkwardly.

With those words, Natsumi goes to her room, her eyes stuck to the screen as she mumbled her way towards her room. The clock was at one-thirty-eight at the middle of the night, and Felix was left to drink his remaining coffee alone and in peace.

“The real mission starts now.” Felix whispered to himself. He pulled out his phone, and spoke “Hello chief?”

“Do you have anything to report?”

“I do, but before that, I have a request.”