Third Year Rumble (Fanfic)

Chapter 9: Deadly Valetine's

Today's last class, PE, was finally over and another school day had come to an end. Harima had just finished changing back to his uniform and was on his way to class to get his things and head home. About halfway there he stopped and glanced out of the window for a bit; it wasn't raining today but the sky was heavily laden with dark clouds which obscured the quick-fading light even more. A typical winter day; cold and bleak, just like his mood. Only this time it wasn't his own problems getting him down, but someone else's.

Almost two months had passed since that memorable outing with Ojou – it was winter then too but it hadn't felt like winter at all. Although cold, it was sunny; but above all it was her presence warming him up and making him forget his troubles. After that day he was more than willing to see her again and get to know her even better, and he knew she wanted that too. Unfortunately, Fate had other plans.

A few days after the weekend they spent together the school closed for winter break, and a couple of days afterwards Eri got a phone call from her father. At first she was really happy to hear from him – neither of her parents had called her for several days now – but when she heard what he had to tell her she wasn't happy at all.

Apparently her father was in the middle of negotiating an important business deal at the moment, something about contracting the construction of a cruise ship – she had heard Nakamura mention it a couple of months ago but she had a lot on her mind at the time and hadn't paid much attention; it wasn't anything unusual anyway, her father was always in the midst of some project or other. But it seemed that this time he had a hard time closing the deal because there were other corporations competing for the contract as well. Eri, however, still could not understand what all this had to do with her – it wasn't like she was involved in the project in any way. When she asked her father about it, for several moments he was awkwardly silent, as though he didn't know how to get to the point; then choosing his words carefully he started explaining the situation to her.

"It seems that…not all of our competitors are fighting fairly for this deal, Eri," he said slowly, with evident stress in his voice. "There are some who would stoop to underhanded tactics to get this contract."

"Father, please, explain yourself; you're scaring me," Eri said, seriously worried by his tone of voice. Her father however was still hesitating and it took quite some time to get him to tell her what was going on. Apparently some indirect rumors had reached her father, according to which one of his rivals intended to have his daughter kidnapped in order to force him to back out of the deal.

"And you don't know who would do such a thing?" Eri asked, alarmed; brave as she was, it was impossible to hear that someone was out to kidnap her and act like it was nothing. "I'm…not entirely sure," her father said. "I do have some suspicions, but as you can understand a man in my position cannot make groundless accusations; that would discredit both the family name and the group. Besides, the police cannot take action before a crime is actually committed. Therefore the only thing to be done is to make sure you are kept safe until the deal is closed."

So, to ensure her safety during that time, her father instructed her to limit her outings as much as possible and whenever she did go out to have Nakamura with her at all times. Moreover she was not to go to school alone anymore – until then most of the time she went there on foot – but to have Nakamura take her in the car in the morning and then pick her up as soon as classes were over.

"I realize all this is very hard on you, Eri," her father said after finishing with his instructions. "I'm very sorry to impose such restrictions on your freedom, but it is necessary for your safety. You understand, don't you?"