If this is some sick joke, that person won't live to see the next sunrise. I think as I stare at them with a blank face, what do these people want with me? I've never even seen them before, not even in dreams. All sorts of thoughts cross my mind, but my face betrays nothing. At least I thought it didn't.

"We brought her." one of masked man said. I then remembered to blink.

I see a man sitting crossed-legged on the couch. His dark blue eyes are piercing, he pushed a piece of his bangs back into his sapphire black hair while staring at me; another man, which is the rude one, had brown hair and a few gold highlights, his hair looked like mine. His brown eyes give off a cold glare.

"I bought you."  He stated bluntly. I remain expressionless and silent.

The other two who brought me here took off their masks. "Ota Kisaki...." I mumble. I'm not an arts person, but this Ota Kisaki is all over magazines and commercials and interview shows on TV, it's hard to not learn his name. It's hard to go on two web pages without seeing his face all over them.

"Wow, the first thing you say is my name!" he smiled at me, I return nothing. Kisaki had dirty blonde hair and yellowish gold eyes. He was the only one wearing casual clothes.

"You're stone-faced, aren't you?" the other man who took me up said. He was wearing a red suit, a top hat, and a silver tie. His light brown hair reached to the bottom of his neck.

"She looks like you, Eisuke." The one that had a piercing gaze says with a slightly shocked and amused expression.

I frown and tilt my face upwards. But he does look like me, I mean, I do look like him.
"Soryu's right. What do you think, Baba?" Kisaki asks.

The one with light brown hair whose name, apparently, is Baba, walked up to me and grabbed my chin. I scowl as a reaction. He studies my face, at least he tried to.
I grab his arm and push him towards the wall, saying, "don't touch me."
"Ow!" he let out.

"Explanation." I say simply as I turn to the other three men, who were all visibly shocked.
The brown hair quickly recovers and says, "I bought you in a underground black market auction. Now I own you."

"But I'm not an object, you can't own me." I say to him, matching his cold tone. 

"Anything can be for sale at that auction," Baba says, "all sorts of illegal things can be bought there. If there's someone who can buy it, we can sell it. There are no rules."

"This isn't the first time that a person's been auctioned off." Ota adds. Then shuts his mouth when Baba and Soryu shot him a glare.
Eisuke put a hand to cover his face for second, but he quickly regains his composure.

"A black market auction?" I ask, pretending I didn't hear Kisaki mumbling about when my mom got sold here, "Aren't you afraid I'm gonna report this to the police?"
"Soryu, you see a cop anywhere?" Eisuke says. "Yeah, right over there." Soryu says as he turns his attention to a man standing by the window smoking a cigarette. I follow his gaze. And spot the worn-out looking man.

"Damn it, doesn't just blow my cover like that!" he said. He's a cop? Looks more like a well-dressed hobo to me.
Ota: "Better now than later. Right Mr. Detective?"
"Grow up, Kisaki." he said with a annoyed expression on his face.
"There you go again, always acting like you're the only adult here." Ota sighs.

Detective? I raise my eyebrows.

"Anyway, you're coming with me." Eisuke stands up, and walked towards me.

"Wha--what're you--" I stumble while taking steps back. He crouches down in front of me and throws me over his shoulder. 

"Hey!" I yell while my stomach hits his shoulder, I pound my fist onto his back to try to get him to put me down, but he doesn't even flinch.

"Shut up." he says and starts going up the stairs.

"Good luck." Baba says and blows me an air kiss.

~~
There's a huge room at the top of the stairs that takes up the entire floor.

He heads straight to the bed, and tosses me down on it. I sit up on the bed and glare at him. 

"What do you want?" I growled. But he just stared at me with cold eyes. He puts one foot on the bed, crouches down, and grabs my chin pulling me towards him.

"I bought you, got it?"

His face is really handsome despite his age it's almost mesmerizing, but his cruel smile cuts harshly into me. I would be thanking god everyday if my dad wasn't someone like him. I think as I take on his gaze.

Eisuke's POV
I watch her as she walk in. I got ready for the same reaction I received from when Arian first got here, it's going to be hard to explain everything to her. But she just stared at us for a long period of time. She doesn't say anything more than ten words at a time.

I can somehow tell she is panicking, but she shows no sign of waver on her face. She's good at hiding her emotions. You don't find kids like that every day.

I look at her with my usual piercing gaze. She doesn't show any signs of backing down, she takes on my gaze directly. She has Arian's eyes. I think as a stare at her. She does look a lot like me.

"At least let me call my mom so she'll know I'm alright." she says in a while. I nod at her after eyeing her for a second. I see her flip through her contacts, to a number labelled as 'mom-Arian'.

My head shook. Nope, no, anybody could be named the same thing. But I couldn't help but think this girl's age is the exact amount of years Arian has left for.

"Hey mom... yes, I'm alright. I don't think I'll be going back tonight, I got so--" she started, but I quickly snatch her phone out of her hand and shut it closed, cutting the conversation.

"You are not to tell anyone about the auctions." I say to her, "or you'll be wiped off the face of this planet, understood?"

She bit her lip, then nodded.

Arian's POV

"Akemi! Thank god, i was so worried! Are you alright?" I ask urgently through the phone.
"I got so--" she started, but got cut short.

"Hello? Akemi?" I ask repeatedly, but she hung up without warning.

So--sold?  I know that feeling all too well. I have to know where she is.

She's at Tres Spades. I track down her phone, and found her at that area. She had to be at Tres Spades. That means she must've met Eisuke. Depending on first impression, she probably won't like him.

Akemi's POV
I hate this person!
He's cruel, mean and selfish!

The next morning, I got up. I chose to sleep on the couch rather than on another bed in the same room. I made myself a cup of coffee, put lots of milk and three cubes of sugar in it. I made enough for two cups. I poured them out into two cups and set them both on the table.

Now, I need to get a laptop and log on for school. I think, then wander around the living room while enjoying my coffee. Then, I hear the back door opening and he walked out. He saw the cup on the dining table and readily took one.

"Hey!" I protested, but he already took a gulp. He had a very shocked expression on his face. 

"Did you make this?" he asked. 

"Yes! And I was going to drink it!" I walk up to him. He's a head taller than me, I had to look up. Well, of course, he's a grown man and I'm still a growing girl.

~~
"We don't even know your name, yet." A little bit later, when everybody was having breakfast in the lounge, Baba asks me.

"Akemi." I respond plainly without further elaboration.

"And how old are you?" Ota asks then.

"Seventeen years."

"Shouldn't you have school?" Soryu asked. 

"I take online university."

"University?" Baba asks.

"My mental age is 29, I have no problem keeping up with university." I say to them.

"So we've got a genius here." Ota comments. 

I just remembered, "speaking of school, I really need to sign in, today's a school day."

Eisuke handed me a laptop, I take it over. I speedily log on and checked our homework for today.

Spend the day with your father and write an essay about your day. Requirements...

"What the hell." I curse out loud, this is the first time it's assigned something like this.

The others peeked at my assignment.
"If you are to do that, you can't speak anything of the auction." Soryu says to me. I swallow and cast my eyes away.

"What's wrong?" Ota asks.
"I don't even know who my dad is." I say with a mocking tone in my venomous voice. Then stood up from the table and shut the laptop, "I'm full."

Arian's POV
I flip through my things and found the key card. It's the key to the penthouse elevator. I've always kept it, and I hope they haven't changed it. For all these years I've done a surprisingly good job of hiding it from Akemi.

It's about time I go back for Eisuke.

Eisuke's POV
The coffee she made tasted exactly like the kind Arian used to make me. It was just the right amount of sugar and milk. 

She went upstairs, the most hurt expression she's ever shown to us.
"Poor girl, doesn't have a dad." Baba says. I stood up, and staggered over to the couch. 

My head aches, why is the name 'Arian' written as 'mom' in her contacts? Sure, anybody could be named that, but....

The door to the lounge opened, all of us look towards the direction. Only to see a slender woman enter hesitantly. She looked directly to me. "Eisuke...." she whispered.

"Arian." I gasp as I recognize that voice anywhere, I quickly stood up and walked to her.
"Eisuke, I'm sor--" before she could say anything more, I pulled her into and embrace.

"A-Are you not angry...?" she attentively asks.
"Of course I am," I say with a smirk, "but this comes first."

And I kiss her on the lips.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Another editing ~ Hopefully I can get more of Eisuke's done today.

May 14, 2016

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