Mao got up that morning and headed towards school on her bike. A little bit after she left, Jun came around the corner in his car. He stood outside of the door waiting for Mao to come out. Soon Misaki came out. Jun bowed to her.

"I came to pick up Mao." Jun said.

"She already left this morning on her bike. I think she's in school right now." Misaki said. Jun nodded.

"Arigatou." Jun said and ran into his car and sped off. Misaki watched the car drive off.

Shun and Erika rode the car together to school. Shun just kept staring out of the window. Erika turned her head away and looked out hers. Then she saw Mao. She sat up straight as two cars parked in front of her. 

Mao was riding her bike and suddenly two cars stopped in front of her. She stopped the bike and almost flipped.

"Watch where you are driving! This is a passenger lane!" Mao yelled at them. Eight guys in black came out ofthe car and looked at her. Mao got off her bike and was surprised at the eight guys. She backed up as they came forward. "What do you want?"

"Inoue Mao?" One of them asked. Mao nodded. "Come with us or else."

"Or else what?" Mao asked. The guys looked at each other and two of them motioned their head. Suddenly Mao was being grabbed by the arm. "What are you doing?" She kicked one of them off and flung the other one on the ground. She ran for it. She ran towards the other street where there were a bunch of people but the eight guys followed her. Shun and Erika's car stopped at the red light and waited for it to be green. Erika saw Mao running from some people and she sat up again in surprise. She placed her bag down and Shun looked at her. She opened the door when Shun grabbed her arm.

"Where are you going?" Shun asked.

"Um... I saw something that I wanted to buy for my parents. You go to school before me." She said.

"No, we'll wait here for you." Shun said.

"I will come to school. I promise." Erika said heading out of the car. Shun shook his head and headed to school.

Jun was driving around to school, when he saw a bike in the middle of the passenger lane. He had doubts that it was Mao's but shook off the thought.

Mao ran through the Alley and came to a dead end. She turned around to see herself surrounded by the guys. They tried to grab her but she kept kicking them off. Erika found them and kicked one in the back as he was holding Mao's arm. Mao was surprised to see Erika beside her. Erika grabbed her hand and they ran off together. They looked behind them to see the guys coming after them. They turned a corner and soon they came to another dead end. Erika turned around to slapped. Erika let go her hand fell down. Another guy came and held down Erika. Mao ran to him and tried to pry him off of Erika when she was knocked out.

"I...Inoue-chan." Erika said weakly when everything went black.

Shun was in homeroom waiting for the bell to ring. He looked at Mao's seat and noticed that she wasn't there that day. After homeroom, he walked to Erika's class and waited for her.

"Excuse me, are you looking for Toda-chan?" A teacher asked. Shun nodded. "She wasn't in homeroom today. Do you know?"

"You mean she didn't come to school?" Shun asked. The teacher shook her head.

"Not that I know of." The teacher said. Shun thanked her and walked towards the front gates. There he saw Jun.

"What are you doing here?" Shun asked. Jun stood from his car.

"I came to see Mao." Jun said.

"Too bad for you, she's wasn't in class today." Shun said.

"She didn't come? Her mother said that she rode her bike to school." Jun said. Shun pointed to a spot.

"Look there, that is her parking spot. Do you see her bike there?" Shun asked. Jun shook his head. Shun headed out. Jun held him back.

"Where are you going?" Jun asked.

"To find someone." Shun said.

"Get in the car. I have to look for Mao too." Jun said. Shun couldn't refuse at the end. He got into Jun's car and they drove back down the road. They asked everyone around them and no one knew. They sat down at a bench.

"Where could those two have gone?" Shun asked. Suddenly a middle school girl came up to them.

"Are you two looking for two girls?" She asked. Shun nodded. "Well I saw two. But it looked like they were being chased. They ran past me."

"Were they wearing high school uniforms?" Shun asked. The girl stopped for a moment then nodded. She pointed in a direction.

"One of the girl's bike is down this road. I saw it this morning when I came. I remembered the bike because it's brand new and was just on sale. I saw her riding on it." The girl said. Shun and Jun thanked her. They walked to the bike.

"This is Mao's." Shun said.

"How do you know?" Jun asked. Shun pointed to a necklace dangled on the bike.

"That's what I gave her for Christmas." Shun said taking the necklace.

"How are we going to find her and your friend? This is a big city." Jun said. Shun then realized something.

"Let's go." Shun said running back to the car. Jun just followed behind.

Meanwhile.....

Erika kicked around as her arms were binded by ropes. Mao was the same except for the fact that she was knocked out.

"Let us out!" Erika yelled banging the hard steel door. "Yah!" There was no response. Mao started to shake.

"W...Where am I?" Mao asked looking around. She looked around the room and saw Erika. "What is happening?"

"You're awake? Thank goodness." Erika said as she laid her back against the wall.

"Where are we at?" Mao asked frantically.

"Sh.." Erika said. "Don't worry, we won't die. Well at least not for now."

"Do you know where this is?" Mao asked her. Erika shook her head.

"I wish. They blindfolded me and the next thing I knew, we ended up here." Erika said. Mao sat back down with her back against the wall. "But don't worry. While I was blindfolded, I remembered one of the guys talking about a spring here. I..."

"Why did you come?" Mao said cutting Erika off. Erika stopped and looked at her. "Why did you come help me? Aren't we rivals?"

"In what way?" Erika asked.

"Well, you know... like.. um..." Mao started blabbering.

"Oh~ you mean Shun?" Erika asked.  Mao stopped and nodded. Erika gave a slight smile. "He was my ex-boyfriend."

"Ex?" Mao asked. Erika nodded.

"I left him years ago and came back. I get how he feels. I didn't do it intentionally, but then after I left, I found out that I couldn't live without him." Erika said giving a smile. "I realized that I loved him. But seeing that I came back, I find himself engaged into another relationship with another girl."

"And that girl was me." Mao said. Erika nodded.

"I at first thought why would he fall for you. But then I realized that he fell for your fighting spirits." Erika said. "I feel really stupid. Talking about my ex with his girlfriend."

"Actually I don't even know if I am his girlfriend or not." Mao said.

"What do you mean?" Erika asked.

"After your incident and you landing in the hospital, we kind of distanced away from each other. We never said that we broke up or anything nor did we say that we were girlfriend and boyfriend." Mao said. "I guess a "no man's land"?" Erika smiled. Suddenly the doors opened. Mao and Erika looked at the shadow that walked in.

"My, My, what do we have here? Two high schoolers?" A 50 year old guy in white said walking in. He turned to one of the guards. "Two?"

"Sir, it was intentionally only Inoue Mao, but another fox interfered. Having her seen our intentions, we couldn't let her get away with it." The guard said. The man nodded. He walked up to Mao and grabbed her chin.

"How's Ikki-san?" The man asked.

"I...Ikki-san?" Mao managed to ask. The man nodded and then let go of Mao.

"Don't tell me, you don't know how your father is doing." He said.

"M...My father?" Mao asked. The man nodded again and then laughed.

"I see. Now I know why they hid you so well, my dear." The man said.

"My dear?" Mao thought. Erika made a puking face behind his back. "What century are you in?"

"Don't you dare talk to your grandfather like that." He said to her. Mao was surprised at hsi sudden rise of voice.

"G...grandfather?" Mao asked. The man calmed down.

"My name is Nakazawa Jun. [Jun Inoue]. Your father's father in law aka your mother's father." He said.

"My mother?" Mao asked. Nakazawa turned around towards the guards.

"You sound just like your mother. Clueless and braindead." He said.

"Dont' insult my mother." Mao said.

"Um... excuse me. Forgot me?" Erika said at the corner. "This is a family reunion and how am I dragged in all this?" They looked at her. They ignored her.

"Well, if your mother hadn't ran off with that man, then there wouldn't have been a problem." Nakazawa said ignoring Erika.

"Well I'm sorry that she fell in love with my father!" Mao shouted  back at him.

"Dont' raise your voice at me!" He said.

"Then don't blame my family!" Mao shouted. They just kept arguing. Erika looked at the guard.

"Is your boss always like this?" Erika whispered. The guard nodded. Her and her grandfather turned their backs on each other and huffed in anger.

"I don't time for this. I only came to tell you that there is no way, your family is going to come and get you." He said.

"Why do you hate my father so much?" Mao asked turning around.

"It's because of him, that I lost everything." Her grandfather said.

"And by everything, you mean my mother." Mao said. Her grandfather turned around.

"Your father was just a mere servant in our household. After your grandmother died, your mother started to rebel against me. And soon she wanted to marry your father. I refused and intended to destroy his life, until that is you came into this world." He said. There as a mere silence when suddenly in came Shun and Jun. They fought through the guards and stood at the doors huffing and puffing.

"Shun." Erika said.

"Jun." Mao said.

"Mao!" Jun called. Her grandfather grabbed Mao and held a knife up to her face.

"Come any closer and I will cut through her face." He said pointing the sharp knife at Mao's face.

|To be continued|