To the End.

Chapter Eleven

Kazuki found himself walking down a busy sidewalk in the middle of Harajuku with Shioko attached to his arm. They had been talking to one another for a month, and so far everything seemed to be going well. She didn't suspect a thing, and he was acting as normally as he possibly could. He took her out on dates and surprised her at work with simple little gifts such as flowers or chocolates --the typical things that men did to keep a woman happy. It wasn't until the beginning of the next month did Shioko tell him she had always wanted to go to Tokyo, and figuring it was the perfect opportunity to show her just how good of a 'boyfriend' he could be, he paid for the two of them to take the drive and stay for a week in the busy town. It wasn't a place that Kazuki typically liked, but he was doing what he had to. That's all it was.

Shioko looked around at the brightly colored clothing the people walking around them were wearing. The fashion was definitely different than what she saw in Osaka. Tokyo was a fashion goldmine, and Harajuku was always booming. There were so many stores and restaurants with cute themes. It was like some kind of fashion paradise, and she was eager to start shopping. The only problem was she didn't have enough arms for all the bags she knew she'd end up with, and she was sure Kazuki would eventually get tired. She suddenly pointed to a store in front of them before she looked at Kazuki with a smile stretched across her face.

"I see an oversized Donald Duck shirt, and my senses are telling me I need it."

Kazuki could only look at her with an expression of amusement. Shioko was clearly just like every other girl who had an interest in fashion and Disney. It wasn't unusual to see someone in Harajuku walking around with Disney-related clothing, despite being adults. It was something Kazuki would never be caught dead wearing, but Shioko was clearly interested in it. Kazuki's only opinion was that it was childish and people needed to grow up, but he wasn't going to voice that opinion. After all, he still needed to look like the perfect boyfriend before he unleashed all his craziness on her.

"If you want it, let's get it." He wasn't exactly happy with the fact he was wasting his own money. It wasn't like Shioko would be wearing any of those clothes or accessories for long. In the end, wouldn't they up at some thrift store or something?

Before Kazuki even had a moment to move on his own, his arm was tugged and he was forced to walk. Shioko pushed through a crowd of people, tightening her grip on Kazuki's arm. It was for the best because he'd surely lose her.

Once they entered the store, Shioko had grabbed the beforementioned shirt to make it known that it was hers. The shopping didn't stop at that one shirt, much to Kazuki's dismay. More and more shirts were grabbed, and Kazuki had to carry all of them while still holding onto all the bags from the previous stores. Maybe taking Shioko to Tokyo was a terrible idea. Not only was it costing him an arm and a leg, but his arms were beginning to get tired. He couldn't express his thoughts of tiredness because wouldn't that make him look stupid or weak? He didn't want to be one of those whiny guys. That wasn't going to get him anywhere.

"Kazuki." His head turned to look at the girl who was looking between two different shirts with a look of confusion on her face. "Which would look nicer on me. Pandas or lions?"

He really wanted to ask if it really mattered, but he actually took a minute to look between the two items of clothing and picture her in them. "Pandas are cuter." The shirt was white with a panda's face on the front, while the other shirt was covered in little lions. The latter looked too busy and tacky. "Go with the pandas. Cute needs cute."

After a look of satisfaction and twenty minutes of being dragged around the store, they finally stood at the check out counter. The total cost was ridiculous, but Kazuki's face never showed a hint of irritation as he handed over his card and watched as the cashier swiped it. With more bags added to the load, he walked out of the store with Shioko.

Kazuki was happy the minute they arrived back to their hotel. All the bags were placed on the floor near the wall next to their luggage before Kazuki was finally able to get off his feet. He sat down on the edge of the bed while Shioko began rifling through the bags of clothes. 'Is she going to try on everything and make me tell her if it looks good?' He thought to himself while he laid back against the pillows. He really hoped that wasn't going to be the case because he didn't want to lie to her and give her confidence, only for her to step outside and have someone tell her she looks stupid. Kazuki was already thinking up an excuse to use if that actually happened. But why was he doing that? It wasn't like she going to live that long.

He snorted to himself, and Shioko looked at him with a pout.

"What?" The girl crossed her arms with an offended expression on her face. Kazuki mentally slapped himself for getting too into his thoughts.

"I was just thinking about Donald Duck since he's on one of your shirts. You know, his behavior and stuff." He lied, hoping that she would believe him or understand what he meant. He really didn't want to go into detail about the character because he actually didn't know what he was talking about. What was Donald Duck's behavior that he found so funny? Sure, he'd watched Disney shows as a child, but his mind was drawing a blank when it came to what Donald did.

Thankfully, Shioko's pout disappeared and was replaced with a smile. "You're right. He's a funny character." She turned back to the bags, and Kazuki let out a tiny, inaudible, sigh of relief.

'Quit being stupid, Kazu.' He thought to himself as he closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the headboard of the bed.

This wasn't going to go on much longer. On the outside, he looked like he enjoyed her company, but she was the most annoying person he'd had to spend this much time with in a long time. It didn't matter how cute she was. He never had any real intentions of being her actual boyfriend or caring about her. The plan was simply to get her to trust him so she didn't expect him to turn on her.

She was going to get a rude awakening once they arrived back home to Osaka.

---

Back home in Osaka, the police were busy looking through the information on yet another missing person by the name of Saionji Naora. Her landlord had called the police after he had gone without rent for months. There was no word from the woman, and the landlord was becoming angry. She failed to pay her rent, and every phone call he made was never answered. Since he wasn't able to get a hold of her, he made the decision to make it the police's job. If they had to knock down the door in order to get his money, that was fine with him. Except the police couldn't speak to her either.

With the permission of the landlord, they had forced their way into the home. Everything was in place as if the woman had simply stepped out with intentions of returning. There was no sign of her anywhere, so the police just assumed she was running some kind of errands and would return. Unfortunately for the landlord, Naora never came back. Once again the police made their way into the apartment where they were able to look around and came across a small phone book. Inside were neatly written names and numbers. When the police called all the numbers written down as family, they came back with no information aside from the fact none of them were able to reach the woman either. Naora was marked as yet another missing woman, and they quickly wondered if her disappearance was connected to the other missing woman, Tayama Kaneko.

As a policeman flipped through the pages of the phone book, one name stood out to him. There was only a first name and a number, and it was the last name written in the book, which struck the policeman as strange. The name was Kazu, and the number matched the number written on the piece of paper that now sat in a folder of evidence they had received from Kaneko's belongings.

"Chief." The policeman waved over the chief before pointing at the name. "I think it's safe to say we've made a connection between both missing women."

A/N - I apologize for such a long wait! I've been so distracted lately, and I really didn't mean to go so long without writing. I'll try to keep updates consistent from here on out.