Hello again! So, here it is: the sequel to Vengeance is Sweet... Unless You're on the Receiving End of It. Hope you enjoy!

Konnichiwa! Or Should I Say Sayonara?

Chapter One: Japanese Culture in Santa Barbara?

"Mangas are ten times better than comic books!"

"What? Are you serious? Comic books beat mangas hands down."

Shawn rolled his eyes and put his hand to his face. Why were his cousin and his best friend such geeks? "Guys, I really don't think that this is worth fighting over. I mean, they're both just glorified picture books."

"They're not picture books!" Both Isabel and Gus said at the same time.

Shawn rolled his eyes as Isabel and Gus continued to argue. "Mangas actually have literary value," Isabel argued. "They have plot lines and interesting characters! Comics are just about muscular men in tights and equally muscular and busty women! There is no plot, the characters have few redeeming qualities, the artwork s usually hideous, and it's the same situation in eighty different issues.

"That's not just what comic books are about!" Gus replied. "And mangas aren't that great; they just involve scrawny teenagers and busty girls in school uniforms!"

"That's a lie! Granted, there are a few that only have that, but there are mangas that are actually worth reading for more than just the art! Comic books cannot say the same," Isabel said scathingly.

"Just give it a rest, will you?" Shawn pleaded. "Do you guys have any idea how incredibly dorky this conversation is?"

"Shut up, Shawn!" They said at the same time again before turning to argue once more.

"Comic books are ridiculous, end of story."

"Comic books are an important part of American culture!" Gus argued.

Shawn rolled his eyes for what was probably the millionth time. He had no idea there was such a huge difference between American comic books and Japanese culture.

"That's a joke!" Isabel exclaimed. "Besides, even if they were an important part of American culture, that still has no relevance to the argument because mangas are an integral part of Japanese culture."

"But we're in America, not Japan!" Gus retorted. "Why should it matter if mangas are 'an integral part of Japanese culture?'"

Shawn rolled his eyes again, wondering if they would ever stop arguing about the difference of graphic novels.

"Izzy! Wake up!"

Isabel groaned, pulling the blankets over her head. She glanced at her watch and growled lowly. "Shawn!" she exclaimed from under the blankets. "It's four in the morning!"

"We've got a case! Come on! Get up!"

"We have a case at four in the morning?"

"Yes, Izzy, we have a case at four in the morning!" Isabel curled in on herself when Shawn pulled the blankets off of her.

"I really need to get an apartment," she murmured to herself. "Okay, Shawn, okay; I'm up." She ignored her cousin as he started dancing in victory. Grabbing her duffel bag that held her scanty wardrobe, she went to the bathroom to change. Sighing, Isabel pulled on a pair of jeans, a fitted t-shirt, and a thin, dark hoodie. Running a brush through her hair, she tied it into a messy bun to keep it out of her face.

"Okay, Shawn," Isabel said, leaving the bathroom. "What's this cased and why can't it wait for a suitable hour?"

Shawn gestured towards the door and he and Isabel left the apartment. "They just found the body of a college student. There are some things that don't add up at the crime scene, so the Chief called us in to take a look."

Isabel shook her head as she got into the passenger seat of her car, handing the keys over to Shawn. "I was hoping that Gus was joking when he said you would rope me into cases whether I was on Psych's payroll or not."

"Aw, come on, Izzy!" Shawn groaned as he pulled the car out of its parking spot and directed it down the street. "I need you! I need the All-Star Chuck Taylor's and the oversized hoodie. Besides, there's no way I'd be able to get Gus out of bed at this hour."

Isabel rolled her eyes and leaned back, trying to resist the urge to fall asleep. Luckily, the crime scene was fairly close. She was surprised, however, when Shawn pulled up to a nice, one-floor house. Had it not been surrounded by yellow tape and police cruisers, she would not have believed it to be the crime scene.

"You said the victim was a college student? How does a college student afford a house?" Isabel asked.

Shawn shook his head in disbelief, handing the keys back to Isabel and getting out of the car. When they entered the house, both Shawn and Isabel noticed that there were nearly two dozen pairs of shoes all sitting in the doorway. Isabel noticed that there were two different sizes amongst the shoes. Even stranger, the doorway was below the first floor of the house, two steps to the right of the door.

Upon seeing this, Isabel's eyes widened in recognition and she nodded to herself. Shawn led the way up the steps and followed the voices of the Chief and Lassiter. When he reached the end of the hallway, he looked around in confusion when there was no door to open.

"Okay, why are there no doors?" he asked in confusion.

Isabel rolled her eyes and reached past her cousin, sliding open what appeared to be a wall with her sleeve over her hands so as not to compromise any evidence there might be. Shawn bit his lip and looked sheepish. They entered the room to see Juliet backing away from the door and Chief Vick and Lassiter standing around the body of a young woman with dark hair lying on her stomach.

As Shawn studied the young woman's body, Isabel focused on the room. She saw that there were no lamps; the only light came from the dim, overhead fixture. There was a futon mattress in the corner with a single blanket and a pillow on it. She also saw that the walls appeared to be hand-painted. The image of a village upon a hill was painted simply with only the outlines visible in black ink. Also on the walls above and beside the village was Asian calligraphy.

Shawn, meanwhile, saw that the victim wasn't wearing shoes. It looked like the cause of death was a blow to the back of the head. He could see that an apron was lying over a desk under the window with a nametag that read 'Katsue' with the same Asian calligraphy that was on the walls under the name. The strangest thing, however, was how the pool of blood lay. The blood began at the futon mattress and trailed all the way over to the victim. Shawn also noticed a few droplets of blood near a wall behind the detectives that could be another sliding door and two larger pools of blood near to the door.

"Ah, Mr. Spencer," the Chief greeted. "Glad you could make it."

"My pleasure, Chief," Shawn said charmingly. "What have we got?"

"Our victim is…" Karen looked at the folder in her hand before attempting to pronounce the foreign name. "Cat-sue-ee Davis –"

"Katsue," Isabel corrected, pronouncing it 'kah-sue-ay,' putting only the slightest 't' in it. "It's pronounced Katsue."

The Chief blinked, but continued. "Katsue, then. She was found by her friend…" The Chief trailed off once more at a foreign name. "Ms. Spencer?" She handed the folder to Isabel, who looked at the name specified.

"Kurokkuso Yasu," Isabel read flawlessly.

"How do you know that?" Lassiter asked incredulously.

"I enjoy studying cultures," Isabel defended. "The Japanese language is especially interesting. The origin of the friend's name is quite intriguing. 'Kuro,' of course, is black. 'Kuso,' I assume, is referring to the word 'fenikkuso,' because of the extra 'k,' which means 'phoenix.' Of course, we wouldn't know for sure unless we looked at the kanji."

Shawn, Chief Vick, Juliet, and Lassiter all stared at Isabel in disbelief. "You speak Japanese?" Lassiter asked incredulously.

Isabel laughed. "I wish! No, I only know a little bit; probably not even enough to get me through the simplest conversation."

"Anyway," Chief Vick continued. "Ms. Davis was found by her friend an hour ago. Forensics hasn't been here yet, so don't touch anything. There doesn't seem to be a murder weapon. Any help you can give us would be welcome, Mr. Spencer."

Shawn nodded absentmindedly. After a few moments, he focused on the blood once more. He closed his eyes and jerked his body. "I'm sensing something… I sense evidence behind you, detectives," he said. They turned and Juliet slid open the door, revealing a closet. Inside the closet was a lamp, the base of which was covered in blood.

"It's the murder weapon, Chief," she said, picking it up with her gloved hands.

"I can see it happening!" Shawn exclaimed. "The victim knew the killer. She turned her back and BAM!" He exclaimed, pretending to strike Isabel in the head. "Knocked to the ground. She wasn't dead yet, though. She crawled across the room and WHAM!" he said, pretending to strike his cousin again. "She was dead. The killer ditched the lamp in the closet and ran out. But Mr. – or Ms. - Killer stepped in some blood – it's there, by the door."

"If that's from the killer's foot, then why isn't there a tread pattern?" Lassiter asked in his usual cynical manner.

"They took their shoes off," Isabel said simply. Once more, the four other people in the room turned to look at her incredulously.

"What do you mean, Ms. Spencer?" Chief Vick asked.

"Shawn said that the victim knew the killer. If she knew the killer then the killer knew that it was Japanese custom to take off one's shoes when in another's house," Isabel explained. "The footprint doesn't have a tread pattern because the killer was wearing socks." After a few moments, Isabel turned to Shawn. "Can we go back to bed yet? I'm exhausted."

"You may go, Mr. Spencer," Chief Vick said. "Thank you for the help. We'll call you if we get anything."

Isabel sighed and grinned, literally having to pull Shawn from the room. "Come on, Shawn, I need to get some more sleep. It is much too early to be functioning."

Please review! Oh, and I had to put in the argument between Izzy and Gus - it's the same sort of argument I have with people everytime they call a manga a comic book.