Chapter 18: Two Suns in the Sunset

"In my rearview mirror the sun is going down

sinking behind bridges in the road

and I think of all the good things that we have left undone

and I suffer premonitions, confirm suspicions, of the holocaust to come.

The wire that holds the cork that keeps the anger in

gives way, and suddenly it's day again.

The sun is in the east even though the day is done,

two suns in the sunset could be the human race is run.

You stretch the frozen moments with your fear,

and you'll never hear their voices,

and you'll never see their faces,

you have no recourse to the law anymore,

and as the windshield melts my tears evaporate

leaving only charcoal to defend.

Finally I understand the feelings of few, ashes and diamonds,

foe and friend, we were all equal in the end."

Floating...she was floating, harbored on wings that

she didn't know existed. Her thoughts seemed to evaporate, and

that feeling inside of her escalated, until she felt the irrepressable

urge...to laugh, and she did. It was a strange sound in the darkness

like she was laughing into a void that only managed to adapt to the

sound of her laughter and swallow the dry desperate pitches of her

madness.

From beside her, Rei's form stirred, but it was well past midnight,

and the moon had long since been obscured by the clouds and Minako

was left alone with her thoughts. She had always liked it alone in the

darkness where light was absent so you felt the other presences in

the room next to you. She wondered briefly...if Rei could see them.

The spirits, the fates, and she wondered why she could feel them

around her now as if their energy was making the hair on her arms

stand straight up. She thought of Motoki and Makoto, what lay ahead

for Makoto, and she thought of the wedding, and then she thought of

trivial things, things that had no end, and no beginning. Her thoughts kept

trying to fill up the spaces in her head and in the air, but they only filled

so much until all died away, and the silence resounding pressed on her

ears.

Did Rei ever see the things she saw while looking into the fire?

Could Rei look through her eyes, and see...hear what she felt, or was

Rei just as clueless about the future, maybe that's why Rei stared so

long and hard into her sacred flame...to find answers, but all that came

to Minako's mind as fast as her brain could process them, the questions

and answers evaporated just as they had come. She tried to huddle back

into the warmth of Rei's arms, but to no avail it proved to only dampen her

fleeting emotions as even the warmth of someone next to her, refused to

quiet her pyschoanalyzing.

Gently kissing the soft skin underneath Rei's chin Minako contemplated

if this...consumnation of love changed anything, did it mean that she was

tied here for good? Or was it just...something that had to be done, to clarify

that this relationship was more than just "friendly"? Or was it to satisfy an

ache for flesh? Minako loved...but she could not feel this love. Love was

happiness, it was a bed of roses, it was...contentment, and it was joy, if

love was all these things what could you call a love that didn't feel much

like happiness? That didn't feel much like anything, but Minako wanted to

keep this, nothing much that she owned was really ever hers, and Rei...well

Rei she could say was hers for awhile and she wanted to keep that, until

the madness came crashing back down. From the eyes of the outside

their relationship could be seen as skin-deep, their eyes seen as alluded

by beauty, and their senses stained by the unsatiable pleasure of the

flesh, but she knew that few knew her better than Hino Rei. There was a

part of her that let loose around the fiery miko, a part of her that never

felt anymore free, and thinking of this Minako closes her eyes fighting

insomnia.

She can't think about tomorrow because she wants to live for the

moment, and she thinks...recklessly, but she does think it that if she

were to die tomorrow it would be a fitting end, that she prefers to

die at the climax of happiness when no other time could get any better,

that's what she thinks, but what she thinks doesn't matter as she

feels outside forces intervening. Nobody should ever find true love,

nobody should ever know what it felt like to take such responsibility

for a heart, especially of one you never dared to hurt, but could do

nothing else but that. Strange, the emptiness in her belly seemed to

have deepened and caved in since last as she wet her lips with her

tongue and rolled her eyes to eye the ceiling above her, and she glared.

It was only then staring at the ceiling did she partake in augmentation

of the common phrase, one that she rarely used, but found suitable in

her situation.

'She hated everything.'

-

Turbulence was all that Minako had in mind as she pressed her foot

down hard on the accelerator of her hunk of junk car that was usually

only meant to look pretty, and not go very fast, but right now speed

was what Minako needed. She watched from the corner of her eye

as the sun's rays kissed every lock of hair on Rei's head that blew

carelessly into the wind despite the miko's constant protesting hands

that tried to get her hair into a semblance of order...she really was

beautiful when she was angry. Too beautiful, it made others not know

when to stay away, and it made Minako shudder involuntarily and huddle

into her seat seeking safety from the miko's fire.

Keep breathing...

The thought ran through Minako's head like a brush fire, it eliminated

her common sense and her thoughts were now filtered in undiluted glory

before her eyes as the plans for the day made a satisfying flop in the

back of her mind, and she still...Minako wasn't sure if she could sleep

ever again after the night they had, she didn't know if it was okay to

trust herself to even speak casually to Rei without inflicting more brain

damage on herself, and she was sure, as sure as she knew how the

sweetness of milk spoiled when left out in the open, she was sure the

dreamscape of safety would spoil if left unattended.

What changed the name of the game?...

The reason why she had awoken Rei with a kiss, with her lips and

with her tongue instead of going out into the hall to greet Artemis and

have her early morning breakfast, the same reason why she stopped

trying to be pathetic the day after.

You clearly knew who was wanting who...

No!...she wasn't using Rei, it was love. That word

held meaning to her, and she clung onto it like a man adrift at sea clinging

to his lifesaver, she needed the clarity. Her recklessness had driven her,

but what caved in substituted for lust and want, and she had gotten

everything. She had the heart and soul of the fiery miko, and she had

indulged in the time of the day with the miko, and shared her fears and

doubts, but there was still a place where Minako didn't want to take the

miko, didn't want to take the risk of that. The prospect of losing to Minako

was always a greater fear than meant to be, and the losing part well...

it wasn't as disappointing as she thought it was, because she had always

been anticipating losing from the start.

You said it to yourself...that you weren't happy...

That's right. She wasn't happy, but she wanted to make Rei happy, if

only for a small moment where the outside could be looking in, and they

wouldn't mind. When the trials of tomorrow would be like footprints at

the beach where you would only have to look away for a second before

your own footsteps were washed away by the waves. Slowly, Minako

saw the streetlights signaling her car to a stop as Minako spared a glance

at Rei who looked flustered with her hair askew, and Minako felt a small

smile gracing her lips.

"Feel like the beach?"

-

Seaglass...

She had loved them when she was a child, and that awe-struck feeling

of finding one carried to her adolescence, and well into her adult life now as she

searched the sand for sea glass with Rei walking slowly by her side curious to

her motives. She remembered well how many days she had spent carefree

across the beaches in nothing but a summer dress even in the winter to play

in the waves, and catch various seashells pressing each one to her ear hoping

to hear the sound of the sea in it, and just receiving an earful of seawater for

her effort. Minako chuckled fondly at her childhood foolishness, at her believing

the myth that seashells would harbor the sound of the sea in them, and she

wondered briefly what it would be like to just walk on into the sea. Would it be

as endless like it looked? She wondered if anyone had ever done that...just keep

walking to try and find an end to the sea. Was there an end? Or was the sea

like sorrow, high tide some days, and low tide the others? Minako felt...

isolated here by the seaside, and just to make sure she turned around to gaze

at Rei who had been silent at her side for quite some time.

You love her...

That thought the only thing that was on her mind as she reached for Rei

and nudged playfully.

"Why are you so silent?" the question was out of her lips before she

had a time to taste how it would sound in the air, and her voice to her seemed

foreign, and feeble almost.

"I was just enjoying the moment," Rei replied back shortly as she gazed

at the wispy clouds that played about the azure sky.

The sky would've been a perfect reflection of the sea if not for the

marauding clouds in the distance painting its canvas, but Minako slowly slid

out of her shoes and socks, and dipped her foot slightly into the cool water.

She shivered all of a sudden as a chill took over her, and she recoiled slightly

from the water, and instead she watched as Rei took off her sandals and

walked straight into the water soaking up her pant leg.

Reckless...

But Minako joined Rei anyway as she also dipped her two feet into the

water, and felt the sand squelch inbetween her toes, and she sighed in

contentment as the sand cushioned the soles of her feet.

"Looks beautiful, huh? In Kyoto the mountains would collect clouds like

little cotton balls around the tips, and they would form such a mist the first day

there I thought the clouds were going to hide the sun away," Rei spoke to her

as they basked in the glow of the afternoon.

Rei had never spoken to Minako about the scenery of Kyoto, Minako had

just assumed Rei thought that scenery wasn't important due to her mission to

enhance her skills, but it looked like Rei just withheld the sentimentality about

the mysterious ethereal beauty of Kyoto from their talks. This was simple talk

Rei was trying to engage Minako in, and it was a relief actually to know that

they were transitioning into a much easier style, not the one where the only

time they ever talked was when something needed to be said to argue.

It's too peaceful...

"It's too beautiful, too quiet, too serene, it's not for the likes of me.

Usually I have replicas, calenders and posters given to me by fans

adorning my room, it's a substitute for the real things, and I've grown

accustomed to looking at beauty through a piece of paper that this seems

too real. I guess I know now where my eyes can see through and where

my eyes can only appreciate and perceive," she spoke her thoughts once

again deflating the good air between them.

She knew it wasn't right to put down a natural beauty, but it was

what she felt, if she didn't speak her mind around Rei she doubted Rei

would've ever had fallen for her in the first place.

"Sorry for being metaphorical," Rei apologized quickly as her eyes

darted worriedly towards Minako.

"You shouldn't feel sorry for that, I thought you didn't care what

others thought," Minako replied curtly.

"I don't...I don't give a damn about other people, but I give a damn

about you," Rei replied with a passion glowing in her eyes.

"I know you do," Minako agreed as if that was the end of the

conversation.

"I don't like it when our conversations fall flat like this, and I

don't like it that you're so distant after all we've been through...didn't

yesterday prove anything to you?" Rei pursued the subject vehemently.

You were just waiting on an argument...

This was what she had missed in the air so far...that same spark they

got from having their words clash against each other, and it was a weird

way of looking at it, and yet it was simple in the fact that they needed this

attraction.

"Yes it did...making love can always substitute for conversation, easily," Minako

replied breezily as she picked up her shoes and walked slowly paralell to the

seaside with her arms outstretched.

Rei couldn't help but feel scandalized by Minako's careless remark, and

she tried to steer away from the bitter feelings that arose, and tried to concentrate

at least on following Minako.

"You act like it already has," Rei called to Minako as she ran to catch up

and was surprised when Minako turned back to her with an almost bittersweet

smile on her face and a faraway gaze.

"Who's to say it hasn't already?"

That froze Rei to the spot as Minako turned away, and kept walking away

as the wind blew her hair slightly to the left as Rei gaped...standing still where

she stood with her mouth full of the sea air. Clenching her fists Rei ran after

Minako, or tried to in her sandals as Rei cursed under her breath at Minako's

habit to always break a mood with her curbed enthusiasm, and pessimism it

made Rei question was it worth it, but already answered her question as she

ran off after Minako only to find herself slipping a little as she tripped upon

something her sandal slid on, and haphazardly stuck her hand out into the

sand to steady herself.

Whipping her head wildly about Rei looked underneath her sandal and

found that what she had slipped on was nothing more than a piece of smooth

and round seaglass. It was about the size of her thumb and ruby red, figures...

the most beautiful thing on the lumpy sand was a piece of broken glass that

some litterbug threw, and now the sea had turned it into something strangely

beautiful, and yet - Rei picked up the piece of seaglass and threw it back into

the waves that crashed against the shore - she hated the sea. She had

always imagined something to be hidden beneath the sea's murky depths,

and no matter what wonders the sea birthed from it like seaglass, seashells,

and starfish Rei still felt uneasy about the sea, and now she blamed the sea

for making her spout metaphorical nonsense when Minako had looked so

at peace against the backdrop of the seaside.

The sand was lumpy against her bare feet as Rei jogged to Minako's

side and caught up with her and looked her in the eye.

'This is different from Endymion and the Princess's love..." Minako thinks

as she feels Rei's touch against her arm and the familiar eyes that probe her

face often times to try to decipher what she is thinking and feeling.

"Why are you like this?" Rei asked hurt.

"Our love is so different Mamoru's and Usagi's love isn't it? What they

have is called love," Minako replied ignoring Rei's question.

"There are different kinds of love," Rei argued stooping down and putting

back on her sandals.

"From the way it is now it's like there's only one kind of love, and everyone

is happy aren't they? Why can't we be like those other couples?" Minako argued.

"What's wrong with different? Different is good. I thought you didn't

want to be like one of those corny couples who run skipping down a grassy

field, and braiding garlands into their hair," Rei shrugged wishing Minako would

just get to the point about what she was so bothered about.

"I don't want us to be like those couples that argue all the time either.

The ones that are totally miserable with each other," Minako replied tersely.

"You don't want one thing, but you don't want the other either, what

is bothering you?" Rei groaned exasperated.

"Nothing."

It was probably nothing's fault too that they strode down the beach feeling

less exuberant and excited, and more gloomy, and confused on Rei's part than

anything, and pretty much it was "nothing's" fault that the drive home was

longer than Rei had remembered, and the silence seemed more like muffled

sounds than actual silence. She wished she could've said something romantic,

or spontaneous, at least something that would produce a different outcome

than this. It was so routine...they got mad at each other, argued and felt sorry

for themselves and each other, and yet they refused to speak up until they

had to.

Minako sat rigid in her seat as she revved up her car, and pursed her

lips in self-reflective anger as she backed up the car from the seaside, and

they rode glumly in silence. Today had been ruined...just by one remark, one

misconception birthed to another, and it had just ruined her mood.

-

"Your tie is out of place...Hino-san," Ishiida's voice rang clear through the

dusty office full of cabinets upon cabinets of misinformation, and politics, all of

which was played on hand in the past but now were uselessly cluttering up

space, and he still did not understand why Hino-san had never cleaned out his

office in over years.

Senator Hino nodded curtly as he adjusted his tie and straightened out

meticulously the wrinkles in his suit and he seemed to have an unreadable

expression on his face. Black suited him, Ishiida thought as Senator Hino

walked towards him almost off-balance as if one part of him was weightless

and the other was not, and yet Ishiida smiled in assurance.

"Shall I cancel your appointments?" Ishiida asked like any old secretary.

"Yes," Senator Hino replied and made a bee-line to the door of the office

until Ishiida who could not contain himself any longer stopped him.

"Do you think it is right?" the question rang in the air seeming to transform

the room into a living and breathing organism.

"It matters not," Senator Hino replied almost robotically as his voice

seemed to have a tired edge to it as if he was weary now of having to answer

questions that contradicted each other.

"It matters to her," Ishiida pushed once more trying to appeal to the

Senator's good side a side he knew still existed.

"Sometimes you must give up what it is you love. It's a sense of duty

and responsibility, Ishiida. Once you are in my place you will understand, but

you believe that love should win over all and I respect that, and it is true, love

should win, but that doesn't mean it will," Senator Hino gravely stated closing

his eyes and swallowed almost by habit.

"You are under the heel of a monster, Hino-san," Ishiida cried desperately

as he clutched worldlessly at his daily planner.

There was no answer to Ishiida's accusation as the slamming of the

door was evident in the stark and gloomy office, and Ishiida bowed his head in

anger, and humiliation at not being able to be of any help. Ishiida cursed himself

for not catching up to Kaijou's game fast enough, and his footsteps resounded

hard in the room as he stooped to the cabinets finding them utterly devoid of

any solution to an emotional dilemma, a tug of war of morality.

-

The outline of the Hikawa Jinja snaked into her view, and still

she felt like she was teetering on a line knowing what to say, but was afraid

to say it. Thoughts inclined to each other and each memory dipped into another,

and it seemed like everytime they had an argument some part of Rei would snag,

and trail along with her as she walked and as she thought. The car Minako had

rented had been idly put back into it's correct station without much of a peep

from the media since Minako had gone through the trouble of sneaking around

the backway, and now they were strolling casually down the lane of cherry

trees, and rampant thoughts were on the loose.

She had the urge to sit and quell her thoughts by the sacred fire again.

She found revelation and calm when she could say to herself that she knew

it all along, and many were the days she had vehemently told her senshi friends

"I told you so", she wished she could do it now. Their love was so different from

the one Mamoru and Usagi they all had their own tragedy to go through, but it

didn't make the feeling any different did it? When Rei was around Mamoru and

Usagi their relationship seemed...serene. A peaceful kind of calm that Rei admitted

quietly to herself that it was love, and that she yearned for it in her own way, and

pursued it nonetheless in her meditation. She wanted it to be...a quiet kind of

understanding, a kinship. Someone who would understand on some level and

was on the same page and if Rei were to admit to herself now she could've

seen that she was in fact lonely in the past.

Trying to convince herself that being alone was the only way to make

you strong worked for awhile, but it soon died away once she witnessed true

power...love at its best, either to destroy or create their very lives had tipped

to the balance and prowess of love. What it could make one do, and how much

one could sacrifice for love, and the senshi had showed her that, especially

Usagi. So maybe she had a bit of a biased view on what love should be, but

it wasn't like she didn't bend over backwards to help Minako, and the kami

knew she tried. She put herself into it to bring Minako back from hell and down

to earth, and Minako was improving, but patience had never been one of Rei's

virtues and it seemed to her that Minako wasn't improving enough.

"Your father is here," Minako's voice interrupted Rei's train of thought, and

just the mention of her father brought her head snapping up to full attention.

"What?" Rei didn't mean it to sound so biting but it really was what she

felt. "Why is he here?"

"Business," Minako confirmed quietly and Rei wondered briefly how Minako

knew that her father was on business, but one quick look over Minako's shoulder

and Rei too knew that it was only business that brought her father back to her, it

had always been only business.

Hell, he had considered years ago that visiting her mothers' grave was

just business that he had to do, and it brought a feeling of disgust to see him

treat everything like politics.

"That'd be the only reason of why he is here at all," Rei replied coldly

as she stopped Minako's walk to the shrine with a touch of her fingers against

Minako's wrist.

"..."

"Minako...!" Rei started. "You said...that there was only one kind of love

you say, and that was Mamoru and Usagi's love, but I don't agree with you...

if you believe that then what has our...relationship been to you? What does it

mean? What is it called if not love?"

Rei tightened her grip on Minako's wrist as she waited her answer she

didn't know it but she was holding her breath. She was hoping...that Minako would

just shut up and ignore her question. She felt like she didn't want to know what

Minako thought about anymore, she no longer felt the novelty of knowing Minako's

thoughts, but she was the one that had asked the question prompting an answer.

"Codependency."

Smooth and an utterly ruthless answer that caused Rei to take a hesitant

step backwards as if Minako didn't seem like someone she knew as if Minako was

a different person now, but the sight of her father up the stairs gazing solemnly

down at her made her legs move almost robotically in sync with Minako's and

Rei soon found herself face to face with the man she had thought she would

never have to see again...not face to face, usually she just saw him on the

television screens, or on the news.

"What are you doing here?" Rei asked curtly knowing the answer

before Senator Hino even replied this was all too routine.

"Business," Senator Hino replied like rehearsed but he added something

to it. "With your...lover."

Rei's eyes widened momentarily and it clicked. The public knew or had

a vague clue but she couldn't see her and Minako doing anything that would've

tipped anyone off.

"I don't have to explain myself to you," Rei retorted clenching her fists on

the invasion of her privacy.

"I'm not telling you what to do, or who to see...I just want to talk to Minako

that's all," Senator Hino replied calmly.

"It'd be better if we had a quieter place," Minako replied nonchalantly as

Rei by her side did not stay still.

"I suggest Rei stay here though," Senator Hino cut in without even a

passing glance at Rei which was bitterly noted for her part.

"It's not my decision whether she goes or stays," Minako replied with the

same finesse and they both looked at Rei in question.

"Don't worry...I won't impede on your conversation," Rei replied sarcastically,

and turned on her heel and walked past her father without even a passing glance

either, both determind not to let down an inch while in each other's presence.

Keeping an eye on Rei's retreating back Minako let the ghostliest of smiles

cross her face and asked in good humor, "Daughter much like you?"

"Only her stubborness," Senator Hino replied his shoulders more relaxed

now since Rei was gone and there was contrast between Senator Hino the

father...and Senator Hino the man.

"I can tell. I don't know if I've ever known you to make house-calls, I

usually associate Kaijou to doing your dirty work to appease to you," Minako

took control of the conversation effectively as Senator Hino led her to a black

car in the subued background of the shrine where no one would notice them

come and leave.

"Kaijou does what he wishes. It's better to talk in my office for such

things," Senator Hino said as he opened the door politely for Minako as she

clambered in.

"And what sort of things are meant for the office?" Minako asked smoothly

as she looked up at Senator Hino from the back car seat.

"Many things," Senator Hino replied tersely as he shut the door swiftly, and

got into the passenger side of the car, and instructed his hired driver to drive.

Minako breathed a sigh in the back of the car to herself as the scenery

passed by the cloaked windows of the car in fast-forward as she saw the

familiar trees that she and Rei had passed by not awhile ago. She was thankful

for Rei for leaving it made things easier, and it made Senator Hino more relaxed

more willing to bend and compromise, and that was what she needed now. A

kindred spirit. With her face pressed against the windows she noticed out of

the corner of her eye Senator Hino staring at her from the rearview mirror and

she smiled slightly.

It was an almost cordial affair that they made their way into the office

without interruption as Minako spared a passing glance at Senator Hino's

overworked but loyal right hand man Ishiida, and she noticed his glance at

her almost a look of surprise, but then he occupied his eyes once again with

the documents his nose was always buried in. Bringing her eyes to attention

to Senator Hino's figure she entered his stark and musty office and he shut the

door discreetly on the outside. The shuffling of their feet were more evident

now as Minako took a seat in front of the huge mahogany desk that Senator Hino

was always sitting behind, and watched as he slowly lowered himself into his

chair, and breathed out heavily. The silence was palpitating as they both watched

each other unabashedly waiting for the other to give, but Minako kept at this game

until the old Senator got tired of this game, and opted for straight-forwardness.

"You are aware that this is not easy for me...but it is for the good of everyone

as you will see," Senator Hino tried and failed in convincing Minako of anything but

his reluctance.

"Senator Hino I know the consequences, and I know what it is you that you do,

and what your business has gotten you into. You don't need to lie, or try to better

things for my sake because sooner or later reality will drop down on us like animals,

and we shall unless we don't accept and adapt to it soon enough the reality will eat us

alive," Minako attacked the subject with startling efficiency as she matched Senator Hino's

weakness with her ruthlessness.

"Then I hope that you will not question my integrity, and sincerity to my daughter

then," Senator Hino replied groping around in his desk drawer for something.

"I never have," Minako answered her eyes levelling with the Senator's.

That's when the Senator seemed to lose his cool and he fumbled with

the tape recorder and until it made a metallic clink against his desk his eyes shifted

spasmically to the walls. Minako reached over hesitantly then grasped the plastic in

her hands and studied it, and immediately she knew, she didn't know how but she

knew just like all the other times. Minako let out a soft sigh, and clicked the "play" button,

and as Sai's trembling voice filtered through Minako closed her eyes in a brief show of

pain before she fixed up her face to a more placid state, and listened intently as well as

Senator Hino who regarded her with curiosity.

"You see...it is not I...I am not to fault for this tape. Whatever you decide to do is

business entirely," Senator Hino stammered after the tape was done with its message,

and Minako knew that he was trying to shift the blame, and she couldn't have minded,

it would've done her no good.

"Of course. I understand," Minako replied trying to coax the Senator back into a calmer

state.

"That's the problem, nobody else does, no one. Not even Ishiida the man that has

been by my side for years, not even my own daughter, and not even Kaijou! Between

love and duty, and pride and business. Between...family and work," Senator Hino at the

last of his breath sat down hard and his eyes were glazed almost as if he was still

dreaming.

Minako couldn't have said anything to make it better, or try to lessen the burden

because she was carrying one just like the Senator's, and if she were to help him

they would've drowned each other to keep themselves afloat.

"But...you understand don't you? The spaces that there are between friends and

utter strangers. You know why...why there are some people who choose duty over love,

there are those who will give up happiness and no one knows why, but you and I do," Senator

Hino breathed his clenched fists slowly opening as he took deep calming breaths to slow

himself down.

The Senator was desperate for justification, for someone to tell him that he was right,

and the moral wrong that he felt was brimmed from jealousy.

"I've been carrying around a guilt for a long time and I think now I'm ready to shed

that guilt away. So who is guilty is up to you to decide, and who is innocent it would be

a shame to expose them, but I leave it to you if you want me to leave your daughter

or stay with her. You are after all...her father, aren't you?" Minako replied smiling slightly

as the Senator squirmed in his seat.

Senator Hino was short of breath as he cleared his throat and reached inside his

desktop drawer and pulled out his pills.

"I don't think the pills are going to help you this time," Minako spoke with a taint

of irony in her voice as she remember a few days ago she was like that just as well.

"I don't know...what are you talking about?" Senator Hino replied cracking his knuckles

as he concentrated on the little hairs on his fingers.

"The only way for Kaijou to dig that deep into my past would be with you backing him.

You can stop him. You made him, and you created him, and you have defended him up till

now. He's been only made worse by your selfish indulging. You've forgotten all about your

real flesh and blood, and if you ever hope to continue on being a father to Rei because

she still wants you to be her father you will help me!" Minako pressed her issue her brows

creasing in concentration.

Senator Hino's mouth hung agape at Minako's act of rebellion against the odds against

her and his throat suddenly went dry as he knew Minako had seen through Kaijou and him

easily.

"I gave up on her you should know long before I had ever met Kaijou," Senator Hino

replied coldly and bit his tongue gently as Minako withdrew her stance and she looked

at the Senator in disappointment.

"If you were really her father you would've never given up on her, ever."

And with that Minako welcomed herself out of the Senator's office.

-

authors notes: I'm sorry for the time it took to update, but my internet connection

refuses to obeys me, and on its own accord it isolates me from the internet for

long periods of time so updates will be very sparse until I can get my computer

out of the dangerzone, and more stable.