Kagaku Ninja-Tai Gatchaman Fan Fiction ❯ The Timepiece ❯ Fate ( Chapter 2 )

Chapter 2

Jun got out of her Sunday dress and casually tossed it onto their bed. She then walked into the closet to choose a casual outfit for the rest of the day. After pondering on it for a while, she donned on a white turtleneck pullover and a pair of dark green corduroy pants.

Ken was leaning against the doorway watching her all the time.

"Juni, I am really amazed with you, after all these years and two kids, you still look the same as when we were serving on the team."

Jun chuckled at her husband's obvious flattery.

"Not as good as you, honey" Jun laughed, walked over and smoothed back his few silver strands. She leaned in and gently kissed those ghosts of new wrinkles on his forehead. For a man of over forty, Ken has kept his body in an excellent shape; all the muscles on his hard, lithe body were as well-defined as they were twenty-some years ago. Jun smiled. No wonder so many young girls were still drooling over him.

"Save for a bit of gray hair which makes you look even more charming, you still look every bit the same Gatchaman as you were before."

Ken smiled at his wife and gently pulled her into his warm wide chest. Wrapping his arms passionately around her tiny waist, he leaned in and rubbed his cheek against her hair. He then cupped her chin, tenderly lifted it up so that they lips softly brushed against each other.

"Ken?"

"H'mmmm, babe?"

Jun pulled away from him slightly to look into his sky blue eyes. "So you have finally given Yuki that timepiece? It's a curse, my love." She asked, but it was more of a statement then a question.

Ken nodded and said "I have to, Juni. The time has come."

Silence.

The atmosphere in the room seemed to have suddenly turned gloomy. Jun turned away and walked over to the window. She watched the large fir tree outside swayed mildly with the wind, as if trying to shake off the snow that had accumulated on it. A few neighbourhood children were skating on the lake bordering their backyard. Ken followed her steps, coming up behind her and wrapping his arm around her shoulders. Ken pressed his nose gently into her hair, savoring it's sweet scent of Jasmine.

"Ken, do we have to do it? It's so cruel." Jun murmured watching the skating kids.

"Juni, I have no choice. God only knows how many times I have tried to interfere. Not once had I succeed. We have everything. Basically everytime. God, I have tried to dissuade her from studying Medicine. I even tried to persuade her to major in Music instead. But you saw how she was like. It had been like a mission for her to be a doctor. There was no dissuading her. Absolutely no way to do so." Ken replied with a sigh, reluctantly removing his face from Jun's hair to speak.

Jun sighed and nodded, "I still remember the temper tantrum you threw when you knew that she had applied, behind our back, for that Research Officer post with the ISO. But can they not send somebody else?"

Ken slowly turned his wife around to face him, "We have tried… more than once. I just don't have the heart to send more of those brilliant young officers to their deaths. And it is not right. We cannot do it to them just because I want to preserve my beloved daughter. It would not work, Juni. Ever since that day when she was four, and she came home from the playing in the snow and told us with such determination that she was to be named Yuki, we knew she was the one."

Jun turned back towards the window and sighed deeply. Her heart was heavy for she knew that an enormous ordeal lied ahead of her precious daughter. She could not help as the tears that had collected behind her lashes started to run down her face.

"Is there really no other way, Ken? Absolutely none?" she asked, desperation evident in her shaky voice.

Ken could see her shoulders trembling and held her tightly, "Juni, please, I feel just as bad. But if there is anything that cannot be changed, it's history. That is her fate and she has to live it herself. We as parents can only do so much."

Jun could no longer hold back her tears, she buried her face into Ken's wide shoulders and wept heart-wrenchingly.

Ken closed his eyes to hide the pain he was feeling. She, Yuki, has been his most precious gift from God. Her birth had led him to fully understand the meaning of life and his mission as a father. Knowing exactly what she would have to face, but knowing that he was totally out of power to help her drove him crazy.

"Can we not at least warn her in advance?" Jun looked up at Ken through her tears.

Ken lifted his glance off her tear-stained face and looked out of the window, his body stiffening with grief. "I am afraid not, darling. You know just as well as I do that the identities of all the ex-KNT members must be kept confidential."

Jun detangled herself from his arms, feeling exceedingly upset. She crossed her arms in front of her breast and held herself tight. Looking out of the window again, she asked in a barely audible voice, "Not even our own daughter?"

"Not even our own daughter." Ken replied sadly but firmly.