Welcome back to the world of Stubbs. Thanks to the people who review, Hope you enjoy this chapter.

Another chapter written on a train trip (Normally the trains are quite good in England but this 5 hour trip I could have driven in 2:30. It's just taking the mikky! Commuting sucks)

I don't own Ken, nuff said.

-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-

The light seeped into Sano's house like a tide slowly illuminating the gloom. I had slept with my back to the wall in the living room while Yahiko still occupied the couch. I checked the time, 6:30am. Too early for Sano, but I rather liked the morning. Everything is new and fresh, at least normally. Looking around my current situation in Sano's house I suddenly felt unclean It was just as much of a mess as when I first arrived.

I tried not to stretch too much, the wound in my shoulder hurt like hell and lightning bolts were still being sent up my leg.

On the hole, it could have been a lot worse. I decided that it was time for a shower as it must have been at least a week since a proper wash. As I wandered around the house trying not to wake anyone, I reflected on my own house. It wasn't far from my recently abandoned bar. It was a nice place, had a huge shower and excellent wash room, you could never be too clean. It was on of those many habits that I could not get rid of from before.

I found the bathroom in much better condition than the rest of the house. All of the nagging Megumi must have applied to Sano must have had effect. I glanced in the mirror as I turned the shower on. It had been a week and a day since I had been shot. My red hair was clearly showing at the roots. I might as well wash the die out. It would be interesting to find out what Sano thought. He'd never have seen me without black hair.

-- -- --

I stepped out of the shower as the water began to run cold (I felt slightly guilty about running the hot water out) and rewraped my leg. It was still a mess of reds and blues but it was healing nicely. Another week and the stitches could come out. I reflected that it was nice to have someone else stitch me up instead of myself.

My shoulder was another problem. I couldn't wrap it properly to support it without reopening the wound. I'd have to have help. I used to just leave wounds open under my clothes or put a weak wrapping around them as needed. Being younger and more resilient meant that it worked. Being older and wiser now. I went to wake Sano.

-- -- --

We had a moment when Sano woke up. He didn't like the red hear at all. Actually he said, "Who the hell are you!" followed up by a "I'll kill you for coming here." That was until I backed out of the room not quite crying out "Sano it's me, it's me!" The way he kept staring at me for an hour after that made me uncomfortable.

"You know my hairs red" I said as he re-wrapped my shoulder

"I know that but it's still a shock to see it" Sano replayed as finished with a knot. "It all never really clicked, if you know what I mean."

"I can understand that" I replayed, feeling lower than usual.

"So, what's the plan for today?" he said in a much livelier tone, effectively ending the discussion.

"Let's wake Yahiko up first and find out what happened to your friend, then we'll see."

-- -- --

Yahiko's only comment on my hair was "Wasn't it black last night?" He had a bruise right across his forehead, the frozen peas last night had reduced the swelling but it still looked painful.

"You talking about Joe-san last night? You said she didn't come home." Sano said, as direct as ever.

"She said she was going to see someone. She wouldn't tell me who but I think it has to do with these people who showed up last week." He said.

"Who came last week?" Sano asked leaning forward.

"Two guys one tall and well built the other was a short man, quite fat. I don't know what they said but Karou practically chased them off the porch, She wasn't happy and didn't speak to me, I think she tried to ring you, or someone. She gave up and carried on with the day. After that, she appeared to be running on auto pilot for the rest of the week. Then she left and didn't come home last night" Yahiko said, his glance shifting from Sano to me and back again.

"I think the best course of action would be to go over to her house and see if she came back, if not we can go from there" I offered. "Sano, if you could ring Megumi's mobile and find out if Miss Karou has called her it would help."

"Why do you care?" Yahiko asked.

"She's a friend of Sano's and so are you, I'm just helping out a friend" I said. And for the first time, I felt good about myself.

-- -- --

We all piled into Sano's car for the trip over, but it wasn't a long ride. About five minutes later we pulled up to a Dojo on the border of Sano's neighbourhood. It was old but well kept, It needed a fresh paint job and some woodwork, but the garden was neat and well cared for and the windows were clean. It was a strange sight sat in the middle of the city next to a train line and yet, on the whole, quite a nice place.

Yahiko let us in the front door. The main corridor was sparse, you couldn't tell that anyone lived here the corridor was a traditional Japanese design, apparently in keeping with the dojo it's self. But Yahiko led us through this to the back where the house which was considerably more modern and American.

The house area definitely looked lived in, not as in Sano's mess lived in, but a homely. It was considerably nicer than my bland art deco flat. Nothing seemed out of place as yet. Yahiko went to check the answering machine while Sano called Megumi. I wandered around the house and towards the back door.

Nothing seemed out of place until I glanced across the back garden. "Yahiko" I said, "Do you ever jump the back wall to exit this place?"

"No, why should I, we back onto a railway line." Came Yahiko's reply.

"Then someone has been spying on your house." I said, "In fact, someone may still be there." I muttered to myself as I watched more carefully.

The back wall to the garden had scuff marks up to a row of trees that ran along the railway. If I looked carefully into the foliage in one of the trees I could just see, yes, there was a man up there. He wasn't a pro, If he was, he would have been in the top floor of the building across from us over the tracks. That would give a view over the trees and wouldn't have been given away by the flash of his binocular lenses. I went to find Sano.

"What do we do about him" Yahiko asked. His voice full of suppressed anger and fear.

"We get him, and we make him tell us what they did to Karou." Sano said thumping his fist into his palm.

"A good plan, but how do you intend to do it?" I asked, without any enthusiasm, I was still eyeing the scuff marks on the wall, If you were staking out a place you wouldn't go inside unless it was for intel. That meant bugging equipment. But you still needed to watch who was in the building, that meant they had no cameras in the house, only mikes.

It also meant that everything Sano was currently planed was useless. I cut Sano off in mid rant and gestured for both of them to follow me.

"What is it" Yahiko asked, puzzled at my sudden change in demure, "I'll tell you two in the car"

As we reached the car, I opened the door for Yahiko to get in and motioned to Sano.

"The house was probably bugged," I told him, "If I get this guy, is there anywhere around here we can interrogate him? Somewhere not associated with anyone of us, like a quarry or a wood?" We need the right atmosphere or this won't work."

"What are you on about!?" Sano growled, "We can't torture him!"

"I'm not going to!" I replied just as hotly "But, if we don't get this right, then he won't say anything and we've exposed ourselves for nothing!" I explained. "The worst outcome we can have is he wakes up recognises us and says nothing. So we do everything to ensure that doesn't happen. That means, neutral ground, masks, props, and also keeping him disorientated and wrong footed all the time."

Sano lent back over the car. "You've done this sort of thing before, haven't you" he said in a far away voice.

"No I haven't" He looked at me "I never kidnapped anyone. It wasn't my job." I said, hotly, "but I do know about intimidation, and I listened when others thought otherwise." I said quietly.

"Now are we doing it my way, or are we doing it the way they heard already in the house?"

That swung it, It was my way, we both agreed that it would be best if Yahiko wasn't there, we told him that it was because the spy would recognise him instantly as he had been under surveillance.

The plan was complicated, but then it had to be, I would stay here and "retrieve the package" so to speak, while Sano dropped Yahiko at home, picked up a few items and drove back here. We would then drive the "hopefully" unconscious spy to the forest outside of the city, about 5 miles away. And use an old trail Sano knew to take us off the beaten track.

"Remember," I said as he was about to pull away "When you come back we say nothing until we get to the spot, Silence is a lot more scary than threats."

I was left alone. Now all I had to do was sneak up on a guy in a tree and knock him unconscious using nothing but what I had on me. I stood for a minuet. I hadn't really thought this part through. I glanced around me thinking I wonder if I could find a half brick, I had about 15 minuets before Sano came back and started looking.

I had given up on the half brick idea and was making my way around the outside of the property to the tree line behind. If I could get up into the tree without him seeing me it would be easy but if he saw me, then it would get interesting, just because he couldn't spy didn't mean he couldn't fight. That would slow me up considerably, and may mean that the plan would fail completely.

I spotted my target from my new hiding spot in the tree line, he was starring intently at the house through binoculars. On his lap lay a CB radio and at the base of the tree was a food bag. It was all a bit amateurs, like he was bird watching or something. Having been stalked by some of the best I couldn't resist a slight smirk as I moves silently to the base of his tree.

Usually I would be up the tree faster than he could move but with a healing hole in my leg I had to be more careful. I had planed to clime up there and smack the back of his head, not to dissimilar to the blow to Yahiko last night. When he put down his binoculars!

I flattened myself to the tree. I could here him moving around, thoughts raced through my mind "Had he seen me?" "Had Sano arrived early?" But mostly, "What the HELL IS HE DOING!" He continued banging, scraping bark and cursing until I heard a thump, He'd come down! That made life easier, and harder, I didn't know where he was but it would be easier for me to render him unconscious.

I peeked around the trunk, the man had his head down in his food bag. It was now or never.

It was a sweet blow, he went down like a lead balloon. Now all I had to do was wait for Sano, Glancing at my watch, that was about 5 minuets. I removed the man's binoculars from around his waist and bound his hands and used his own belt for his legs. He had a wallet as well as a phone about his person, I pocketed both, removing the battery from the cell phone as I did. There was no point taking risks in guessing who this guy worked for

I watched Sano's car roll up from the side of the house. Checking our prisoner was still asleep, I went to meet him.

"You got him?" was the first words out of his mouth, "yep, you got the blindfold?" I asked in return. "Of course and the ski masks from before."

I told Sano to bring his car around the back and reminded him that from then on we didn't speak no mater what the man said, I hoped he would remain unconscious until we got to the wood, but I had my doubts. To be safe I put the ski mask on as I went to pick up sleeping beauty.

Five minutes later we had the man, blindfolded and secured, in the back of Sano's car, we had him sat behind the passage seat. I road next to him to be safe as Sano drove.

We didn't make it to the forest went the man woke up.

There were the predictable questions such as "Who the hell are you?" and "Were are you taking me?" With no answers coming form me or Sano when started to panic. He started to threaten "Do you know who I am, who I work for!" He started to struggle against his bonds, I couldn't allow that so I thought I'd get a head start on the interrogation.

I sized his neck in one hand and whispered. "Be a good boy, and sit still, we don't want to have and … accident do we?"

The got him really squirming looked left and right trying to see through the blindfold, he was panicking now. We had left the city now and were heading into the forest. I guessed we were about 5 minuets away.

As the road in the forest got rougher the man started talking again,

"I'm Nishi! I'm with the Satsujin! Now you know what trouble your in!" This seemed to give him more confidence. He carried on "If you're looking for the bitch we have her, she should have accepted the proposal our lord offered! Now she'll have to serve us!"

I couldn't believe our luck, we wouldn't have to do a thing just wait for him to tell us everything.

The car came to a stop and Sano got out. I glanced around the site, It was exactly what I was looking for, secluded and generic. I wondered how Sano knew about this place. We dragged the man out by his arms and pushed him up to a tree, while Sano held him, I used rope from the car to lash the man to the it.

Sano motioned to the blind fold, but I shook my head. The man was whimpering again. I picked up a stick from the floor and gave it to Sano. And made prodding motions with it. I took a few steps back to make my voice seem further away. And asked, "Why were you spying on that house?" the man looked confused. Sano looked at me I pointed to my side under my rips and gestured for him to poke him.

The man practically levitated when the stick touched him. "Don't make me ask again or my companion will have to do something drastic, I don't like guns personally, They make too much mess and blood is so hard to wash out. But, then again, they such an affective tools." I gestured for Sano to poke the man's knee. "It's amazing how sensitive the knees are to damage." I said. "Now, who do you work for?"

"Agh, I work for Gohei! Hiruma Gohei!"

"And who is he?" I asked.

His voce became low as he laughed, "They call him the Battosai. Now do you see what trouble your in!"

-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-

What did you think?

My thanks to all the people who've read this up to now and extra to those who reviewed.

Point out the mistakes, comment on what you like, generally say something, I'd thank all reviewers personally but writing this on trains means I can't check who's reviewed as train's are not wireless yet. Which is a shame.

Until next time!