A short chapter, but a prelude to more of a focus on Genzo. There won't be much sex in that chapter, so this one will have to do. Please do leave comments. I tend to take that as a sign that I should continue writing.
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Entering the Shinjuku flat, Noboru quietly closed the door behind him as Angela exited her sister's room. Putting a finger to her lips, she whispered, "She's still a bit jet lagged and just fell asleep." Coming closer, she saw the perturbed expression he wore and felt uneasy. "What is it? What's wrong?" Her discomfort grew when he walked wordlessly to her and took her in his arms. "Okay, now you're really scaring me."
"Kaori is dead."
She wasn't sure if he'd said what she thought he had. "What?"
"[Shinjata]. She is dead, Angela," he repeated.
Stunned, she sat speechless for a moment, thinking back to only a few days before when she had nearly clawed the woman's eyes out. It didn't seem real that she was gone. "What happened?"
Leaning his chin on the top of her head, she heard him sigh, "The infection caused a mutation that apparently killed her β Ryuzo mentioned something about an autoimmune process, but the details escape me."
"How could something like that work so fast?" Remote memories from medical school told her that autoimmune diseases took years to develop, and Kaori was dead in only a few days?
"I do not know. Ryuzo is looking into the matter. I trust that we will have some answers shortly." He stopped speaking for a moment. "This has never happened before. I simply hope that for the moment this means that Saburo has failed in whatever his design was to harm us." Rubbing her arm soothingly, he added, "Tend to your sister. We will do our best not to think about this right now and in a few days, we can spend some time alone together, if your sister is alright with that."
"Okay." She hugged him and tried to put Kaori out of her mind.
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shinjata: died (Japanese)
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Linnsa awoke and looked at the nearest clock which read 5AM. Her sister was snoring softly next to her. As she shifted her position, Angela sleepily blinked a few times and looked her. "You okay, Linnsa?" she asked softly as she stifled a yawn.
Looking into her sister's eyes, Linnsa was momentarily stunned as she had forgotten that her sister now had lavender irises. "Oh, uh, yeah, I think. I was really tired, I guess."
Angela propped herself up on one elbow. "You want to talk some more?"
"Yeah, I would." Getting comfortable again she sighed. "So, are you guys, like, going to get married? I mean, you've only known him a couple of months, how do you know that this is for the long term?"
"I know it seems so sudden, but he really does just want me as I am. It's nice not to feel like I have to change. I can always just be myself around him. I've never had that before. I can't explain it better than that." Laughing, she mused, "He even knows I belch like a sailor and he doesn't care."
Linnsa smiled. "So how are you going to break the news to Mom and Dad? You know how picky they are."
"I figure I'll introduce them to the idea slowly." She chuckled. "Not as if Nobu and I have to worry about time." Her sister's expression suddenly became sad. "What?"
"How are you going to explain your extended life span to Mom and Dad? I mean, they're bound to notice that neither of you are aging. And the rest of the family? It's going to be hard to keep this a secret."
Her sister had a point. She hadn't really given much thought to how she could integrate her new life into her family's. "I guess after a while, Nobu and I may have to disappear. Fake an accident or something maybe?"
"That's going to really be hard on Mom and Dad," Linnsa observed sadly. "And that means that I would have to go along with it and not see you anymore. Won't you miss them? Not only that, you'll be alive and watch all of us die off."
"Well, you could live a long time, too. I can help you with that."
Sighing, Linnsa shook her head. "I'd never want to live forever."
Angela felt the sadness from her sister and hugged her. "Look, I don't know what's going to happen, but I don't have to worry about it right this second and I don't want you to worry about it either. You have your own stress to deal with."
"So tell me about this, what's his name, Saburo? He's the reason we're stuck here, right? I mean, how scared should we be really?"
Unsure of how much of the truth she should tell her, Angela didn't want her sister to be scared in addition to being depressed. "He hates Nobu with a passion and apparently he knows Nobu's soft spots. If he knew about us, he'd use it as a way of getting to Nobu and he knows it. He worries about me, and now you, all the time. That's why Genzo's here." She grinned. "He's quite the badass, in case you didn't know. As long as we're here, we're totally safe."
"I don't think I like the fact that this relationship is so dangerous," Linnsa complained with a frown.
"I know. I hated it too, at first, but I can't imagine not being with him anymore. I trust him and given time, you will too. He's a really great person."
Linnsa had never really approved of Angela's boyfriends in the past and Angela knew this. "Are you sure he's not just some playboy like the others? I mean they really didn't treat you well."
"You saw how he is with me."