Kokoro no X (I) ~EDITING~

Eighteen

A/N: This is it. The final chapter. I hope you guys enjoyed reading this as much as I did writing it! Hooooooollly crap this was so fun. I'll see you guys in book two!

Enjoy this chapter.

-Parker

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A droning ring, on and on. It sounded like an alarm. Annoyed, she snatched the phone off of its stand and nestled it between her shoulder and her ear. Her long, black hair got caught between the ugly tan bit of plastic and her perfectly chiseled, pale white face.

"This is Akiyama." Her voice rang with impatience. "What do you want?"

An overly cheerful voice came through. "Akiyama! It has come to my attention that a member working under you has failed to complete their mission. Akarimoto, right?"

She hesitated, then answered slowly, cautiously, "Yes? What about her?"

"I'd like to assign you to her place. She failed in killing Fujimoto and Akiya-"

"Don't. Say his... his name." Akiyama's teeth clenched, grinding against each other. Her voice became a low growl as she continued, "He has nothing to do with me."

"...Okay, but she still failed in killing all three of them. The higher-ups have talked about it, and they want to send you in in Akarimoto's place. Will you-"

"I'm not going anywhere near that damn city with that monster still alive!" Her body grew tense as the man went on.

"They still need you there. Ikeda and Nagai quit, right? Something about the younger one's band, Forever Somewhere or something. So you're the only one left in the branch that controls that area who can do it."

"You can send Ryuu in there."

"He's just a kid! Besides, he knows who Ta... er, the Killer Boy is to him. He's only a kid." Akiyama sighed. "You can't tell him to do that, Maiko."

"I can't believe I'm about to say this, but... Since Ryuu is my son, and I do feel bad for him, I'll go."

"Great! Then-"

"But I'm taking Ryuu with me. He's bound to come across this kind of cruelty later in his life, so why not expose it to him now? The younger they are, the more likely they are to imprint from it, right?"

"...R-Right. I'll... call the travel branch, then."

Maiko suddenly smiled, and laughed into the microphone. "Only the best for me and my little Ryuu!"

The man laughed back. "Sure thing!"

A click.

Maiko whirled around in her chair to face a small, white-haired boy who stood just across the dimly lit room. "I don't care what they say, you're going in there and killing him. I don't want to even touch him."

The young boy nodded. On the outside, his face was stern, but inside... he was spilt. Either he obeyed his mother, who was the only family he had ever known his entire life, or he could save the Killer Boy's sanity and betray Maiko. Then again, he had only met him once, so... The answer was simple.

Kill the killer, and save the savior.

It was that simple, right?

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"Ugh, this little town is so, so..." Maiko's foot tapped the air impatiently.

"Quaint?" Ryuu suggested, still staring out the window in awe.