Hayasaka and a Butler Need to go on a Date

Ai and Shinzo Face the Facts 3.3

The road going to the mountains was scenic and beautiful. Despite the hot summer, where they're going to, heat wasn't going to be much of an issue. They could see pines, tall and stoic, swaying their leaves only at the cold wind.

Scaling above and trailing through it was the highway, and here the convoy from the Mansion was found, heading to the Shinomiya ancestral home.

Jitaro looked at the window, half immersed at the landscape. "Reminds me of the trip to Europe one time," he muttered. "Cold air, pleasant air with good trees. Can take away your problems at the moment." Then he recalled the destination. "Of course, that won't help with the event we're going to attend," he turned away from the passing view.

"Could we skip this?" Shinzo asked.

"Yeah, tell that to the old man," he suggested.

The two were inside one car. Just behind them was Kaguya's and Hayasaka's car. The faint thrum of the engine and the rolling wheels from outside could barely be heard, giving them that perfect ambient noise of a car ride with all the sound of it turned to the minimum. Escorting them were other black-painted cars, as dark as space without the stars and heavenly bodies. Inside them the two knew: armed guards and men belonging to the business.

"Almost feels like we're Yakuza," the two thought at the same time.

A bit overkill? Not really when the one they're escorting was the sole heiress to the whole conglomerate. And the boss of it, the father of Kaguya, spared no expense in her education as well as in her security.

Shinzo never wanted to think about the head of it all, and this was coming from his master. For some reason, though he was the head of it all, he dared not mention his name until it was needed.

"Wondered about it back then," he thought. "Didn't get the reason of it at first: fear, respect, or even a mix of both? Whenever I tried to ask about it, Jitaro would slyly shift the topic to something else, like the latest mission.

"An air of mystery always surrounded Mr. Shinomiya, but that was not my kind of taste, the only name in my list of profiles to skip over."

Of course, he did not dare to ask Hayasaka about it, and much more to the heiress herself; Kaguya. He never saw him in person. And because of that, with the special opportunity given to him, he might get to see who this man was.

The man who ruled his family and companies with an iron fist. And if not? Something stronger than iron.

He reclined deeply in the seat, made of soft leather and comfy to feel. He could spend in a chair like it for hours if he wanted to, especially after a long day's work when your bones and joints were worn and near-dead.

"Have you been to the ancestral home before?" Jitaro asked.

"Not really," he replied. "Heard that it's a pretty secluded place."

"Far away from society and away from anyone, just the way he likes it."

"Who?"

"Kaguya's father," he answered. And just as he noticed before, he shifted the conversation. "Partly good place, I'll say. Takes me back somehow to those old mansions and houses back in the day. Feels like you're walking through one of those old photographs."

"Well, aint it a pleasant place."

At this, Jitaro didn't reply. He shifted his shoulders for a bit. "Yeah, you could call it like that."

"Jeez, parents can be so tough," he noted in his head. "The Head is out of the question and was pretty much treated like his name's Voldemort. Good thing other parents aren't that so cold with their children, like Mrs. Hayasaka with her daughter." Then he recalled a small detail.