You Will Only Be Mine-Chapter 343: Dusk

"As if today, both of you are suspended from the VEO for two whole months."

"What?"

I was standing in the room with James as this bombshell of a statement was dropped on us. I did expect something like this but still, a two-month suspension is too severe of a punishment. Also, why was Ai given that suspension? I was the only one who disobeyed direct orders from James, Ai did nothing wrong.

I clenched my fist and took a deep breath calming myself. My eyes fell on Ai seeing her hiding herself behind me from James. I don’t know if this was out of self-defence or fear but for some reason the entire time since the morning, she has gotten a lot clingier to me. It wasn’t something that bothered me but thinking that we made some progress with Ai to not just obsess over me and open up to even more people was all for nothing.

"Wait here James, I understand you want to suspend me, but why Ai?" I asked and he glared at me. Yeah, he was very angry with me trying to put up a rebuttal. He let out a long sigh and rubbed his forehead. "She is lucky that she is not considered as a rogue and killed off."

"What do you mean?" I asked worried about what actions might have been taken at Ai. She grabbed my t-shirt and I felt her breathing getting ragged. I moved my hand behind to place it on her back to keep her calm.

"Well, if you don’t know, Tsubaki here was not only under the suspicion of abandoning her duties and running away, she also attacked some pursuers the VEO sent to bring her back who came back in an appalling state. To top it all, the little bar she entered, not to mention with multiple eyewitnesses present had some human casualties," he explained and I was taken aback by what he just told me. During this time, I was not conscious and the moment I got up, I asked Akira to find Ai and take me where she was but to think all that happened, it was beyond what I expected.

"B-but I didn’t kill any of them…" Ai mumbled and we all looked at her which made her hide behind me again.

"What is it that you said?" James asked in a more assertive tone.

"She said she didn’t kill any of them," I repeated what she said.

"She is lucky that she didn’t. The forensics department luckily didn’t find any tracks of her fingerprints or DNA in any of the victims which was why I was somehow able to get her off the hook," James explained. Wait, so he was defending her? "The other officials really wanted to expel her and treat her like a target to hunt her down which I can’t allow to happen."

"James…"

"Don’t get me wrong," he looked at me sternly, his voice still full of anger. "The only reason I defended her was because she was under my command and they didn’t have proper evidence against her. I like to treat my subordinates justly but that also means if there was any solid evidence against her, I would not have done what I did. Take this as a warning for next time."

"I…see…"

"And now you, Shiba Kazuki," he brought his attention back to me.

"Wait, I thought we were done with my punishment," I said taking a step back not understanding what he was about to bring up.

"I am repeating this because even after me saying this again and again about this, you went on a very dangerous mission where let’s be honest, you just survived due to mere luck," he scolded. "It is about time you understand that disobeying your superiors is taken and dealt with very seriously here. You could have very easily compromised the mission due to your incompetence."

"But Meme was the one who invited me- "

"He is dead."

"What?!" I shouted banging my hands on the desk. James looked at me and I took my hands off the table. "Wait, but it doesn’t make any sense."

"After you and Tsubaki had your encounter with Dominic, the other two teams also came face to face with them," he said and paused for a second. Wait, don’t tell me it gets worse. "Only the twins returned."

"What…"

He leaned back on his chair and rubbed his forehead again. I could clearly see the dark circles under his eyes so it is not wrong to believe he didn’t get much sleep lately. My eyes fell down to the floor and I clenched my fist. So, you are telling me out of the seven people who went on the mission to get Ai back only four of us returned? Not to mention two of them being S-rank hunters. Don’t mess with me, just how strong is this bastard?

"Sigh, look here Kazuki," James called out to me and I looked up to see the look on his face being more relaxed. "Don’t blame yourself for this because of this. I got a full report from the twins and it looked like whatever transpired had none of your involvement to blame for."

"Okay…" I mumbled.

"Now, before you leave, submit your weapons over to Ama, but you have to come here once a week to get checked by her. That’s it, dismissed" he said and I turned around. I looked at Ai only to see a worried expression looming over her face, I forced a smile at her the best I could and stepped out of the room.

I started walking down the hallway towards the elevator. No matter how hard I tried, nothing more hurt me than knowing that I just lost more people.

Yuna, Meme and Hotori-san.

Losing Yuna was already a big shock for me and it was kind of at the back of my mind this entire time mostly because I had to look for Ai but knowing about them too just reopened the wound. I started to feel compelled to go see Akito and Haruto and I just realized that I forgot to ask James where they were. I wanted to turn around and go back but I was left too confused. Nothing was making sense right now. No matter how hard I tried.

I am currently suspended from the VEO along with Ai, the sister I thought was dead met me again and she died again before my eyes and now Meme and Hotori met the same fate. This is too messed up.

"KAZU-KUN!!"

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"AAAAH!! Huh?" I turned back seeing a worried Ai holding onto me.

"I was calling you so many times, why didn’t you respond earlier?" she said, some tears welling up in her eyes. Huh? Wait, why is she crying? "Please don’t do that again."

"I’m sorry, Ai," I said and grabbed her hand. She looked a little more relaxed and clung to my arm. It is starting to worry me now seeing Ai getting like this. It was almost like she had become a little girl scared of anyone she was unfamiliar with.

"Kazu-kun, who is Meme?" she asked. Oh right, she doesn’t even know them.

"The mission for rescuing you was not something I was allowed by James to be in," I started to explain. "It was given to two S-rank teams. One of Meme and Hotori-san, and the other of two twins names Akito and Haruto."

"Oh, okay," she said calmly and I looked at her not seeing a change in her expression.

"Wait, Ai, does this now bother you?" I asked her and she looked at me confused. "Those two who passed away were there to come to rescue you."

"Yes, but they were not the ones who rescued me," she replied as if it was something not to think about more and I was a bit shocked by her calmness. "I mean, they didn’t really rescue me, right? You and Akira did."

"What? B- "

Before I could say anything, the elevator door opened before us, and in front of us appeared Natsumi-san along with Iwaguchi-san. "Flirting in broad daylight, do you two don’t feel embarrassed?" she asked.

"Welcome back Natsumi-san," I replied, relieved to see that she was okay. "How was the mission?"

"It went well, did you cause any trouble when I was gone?" she asked and I froze in my place conflicted in what to say. I know if I told her the truth, I will face the wrath of the devil but if I lie and am found out by her later, I will face the wrath of Natsumi-san. It is better that I say the truth and not hide anything.

"Well…things happened and Ai got captured by Dominic…" I started to explain everything. She stood there with Iwaguchi-san listening to me intently and I made sur not to lie anywhere or miss any detail. On the other hand, Ai was standing behind me having me shield her from Natsumi-san. I am worried seeing her act this way because this was the first that I am seeing if this went on, having her go to school and continue with her daily life will be hard.

"And that brings us here," I said.

SLAP

As expected.

"How dare you!" Ai shouted and jumped at Natsumi-san.

Not expected!

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