Protection{Yuuyoi}

Who Was She, Really?

"I guess I should start by introducing myself" The lavender-haired woman stood up straight and clasped her hands behind her back. " I am Shinoa Hiiragi of Hiiragi & Co. , a company you will not be familiar with, and this " She said signalling to the man behind Yoichi " is my associate Yuuichirou Hyakuya"

"Shinoa, I don't think it's safe to give him our real names" Yuuichirou practically hissed " Since we still haven't confirmed whether or not he's working for them"

Shinoa simply laughed at his query "I thought he could have been a potential threat, but..." She looked Yoichi up and down again "He doesn't look like he could hurt anyone. Nevermind us" The sound of the door, behind them, shutting echoed through the room.

"I wouldn't doubt him Shinoa" Another voice joined the conversation. Yoichi recognized it as the voice that had spoken to him in the car, claiming they were here to 'protect' him. He felt the colour drain from his face. Two people were in that car. Two people ready to restrain , or even kill, him if he made any attempt at escape. The voice continued, even though it had a somewhat playful tone, it sent shivers down Yoichi's spine. " He managed to slip right out of Yuu-chan's grasp. In fact, if he hadn't backed himself into a tree we might have never got him" Yoichi mentally kicked himself. If he wasn't so clumsy he could be in a police station right now filing some report, instead of being surrounded by threatening people trying to suss out whether he was a threat to them.

"Well, if he's that clumsy then he's surely not capable of much," Shinoa said in a mocking tone. She looked him over once again" You did check him for weapons, right?"

" Of course, we did" The voice answered " He doesn't have any weapons"

"Or anything that could potentially be used as a weapon," Yuuichirou said, sounding disinterested.

"So he's really just a normal civilian" The small woman let out a breath, that could have been mistaken for a sigh of relief "That makes things a lot easier" She turned to Yoichi "You aren't going to try and hurt us are you, Mr. Saotome?"

Yoichi gave a slight shake of his head. He felt afraid to move under the three piercing gazes on him.

"Well, I guess I should start explaining your situation to you" Shinoa slipped into a small brown chair and signaled to the one in front of her" If you'd sit down Mr. Saotome, I can begin" Yoichi walked over to the chair, in a way he hoped didn't raise any suspicion. He could still feel their eyes clinging to him intently. He'd always hated being the centre of attention and now he was slap-bang in the middle of the wrong type of attention.

He sat down , bunching his hands at the hem of his blue sweater. Shinoa threaded her fingers below her chest, giving him a pleased look. " You're familiar with Tomoe Saotome , correct?"

"Yes, she's my sister" Yoichi replied, wondering how his dead sister was relevant to any of this. " But she's been dead for a year"

" We are aware that Tomoe Saotome is indeed deceased but do you know why she came to be that way ?" Shinoa gave him a witty smirk "You were the one to identify her body,no? I'm sure you noticed some irregular wounds on her corpse" He thought back to the day he'd been called in to identify Tomoe's body. He remembered falling to his knees, after seeing the tarnished flesh of his sister's body, and choking out through his tears that 'Yes, that's Tomoe'. He remembered the cold, uncaring faces of the policemen , as they wrote something down.

"Yes, but those were-" Yoichi started only to be stopped by Shinoa.

"Unfortunate indicators of violence" She sat back further in her chair "She died because she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. That's what they told you, right? She was just got mixed up in some gang violence, completely unrelated to her."