He couldn't see anything through the darkness, but it was obvious their attacker wasn't just wandering around blindly in the dark. He had been forcefully shoved onto a metal shopping cart with wheels, something that bothered him greatly, but he had to keep it in, he supposed.

"W… Where are we going?" Makoto dared to ask. The voice giggled, and then nothing more.

Eventually, they arrived in a room, since the voice had stopped to go in front of him (judging by the footsteps) and open a door, since there was a click. The moment the door had opened, a horrid stench flooded his nostrils and Makoto instinctively shrunk back. 'W-What in the name of Arceus is that?!'

The voice giggled once more, pushing the shopping cart he was in inside. "Smell too bad for you, little boy? Don't worry, you'll be dead as well soon, so you don't need to worry about yourself smelling bad."

The hidden implication in her words sent a shiver down Makoto's spine. He knew he had to swallow his fear, though, so as to extract as much information as possible. Even if he died, he might be able to leave a clue for Kirigiri-san once she came in here… he had to do this for her sake. The voice had called her a detective, right? She was smart, he knew that. She could decipher anything he left her, no matter how vague it might be.

A light flicked on all of a sudden, and Makoto quickly shielded his eyes from the light source. A flickering fluorescent lamp shone above him, and after a while, he removed his hand from his eyes, getting used to the burst of light. The boy carefully shifted himself to a more comfortable sitting position, as his back had started aching.

Looking around, it looked more like an office room than a normal room; it seemed clean, ridiculously clean, looking very practical with a single chair in front of a white table, then another chair behind the table. Things were neatly arranged on it, such as notepads, pens, ink bottles, and the like. A computer was in the center of the table, along with a keyboard and a mouse.

Their attacker had come into view as well, as she had strolled over to sit down on the chair behind the table. She carelessly swept the computer and other things obstructing her view from Makoto, then smiled unnervingly at the brown-haired boy. The girl, in all her twin-blonde-pigtails glory, giggled once more.

"Ah, so you can finally see the beautiful me, can you?" she asked, reaching over to tickle his chin. Makoto attempted to jerk away, but the small size of the shopping cart prevented him from doing so. "Don't worry, it's not me who's going to kill you. It'll be my darling disappointing sister… once she returns from decapitating your dear detective friend, of course!"

She let out a resounding laugh that vaguely sounded like 'upupupupu!'. Makoto's eyes widened to the size of saucers; decapitate… Kirigiri-san? Why? And this crazy woman had a sister? He couldn't possibly stand a chance against one of them, least of all two!

"Oh, but, that's not your main concern. What your main concern should be right now is your very own life!" she announced. "Sis'll kill you later on. So just answer my questions for now. First! Did you know Sasaki?"

"Um… not really, no…" came his hesitant answer. Perhaps they had something to do with the strange occurrences in the Johto region…

"Second! Why'd you come here if you didn't know Sasaki personally?"

"I was asked to run an errand…"

"Third! … By who?"

"The professor of the Johto region, Wakahisa Patchouli-san."

"Fourth! Why?"

"Well… according to her, Sasaki-san had sent an e-mail to Patchouli-san. It was full of grammar mistakes and other internet slang that Sasaki-san never uses… as well as a lot of exclamation marks."

"Ooh, I believe that's me!" She giggled. "Fifth! Why is your dear detective with you?"

"I met her on the way here… she said she was heading to Sasaki-san's house as well. And, she had an umbrella. So I thought, I might as well, right?"

"Sixth! Do you even know this detective?"

"Not really… she's okay, though, and she doesn't seem like a bad person."

"Wow, you're a bit too trusting for your own good, y'know? Seventh! What are your Pokemon?"

"H-Huh?" The unexpected question caught Makoto off-guard. "Um… A Treecko and an Eevee…"

"Weak," she muttered. "Eighth! Are you ready to die a pathetic death?"

"W-What?!" the boy quickly tried to scramble away from her, but he only succeeded in pushing the shopping cart he was in a few inches back. "Are you-"

"Junko-chan, I lost sight of the girl," came a sudden monotone voice from the doorway. Makoto yelped and turned to face the source, which turned out to be a freckled girl with short, black hair. "I believe she ran off into a room. She either didn't turn on the lights or blocked the door with some furniture, for I couldn't find her."

Thank Arceus, Kirigiri-san was still alive, Makoto thought, sighing in relief. That meant that she could escape soon. They've only been together for two or so hours; she wouldn't come after him… right?

Well, he hoped so.

"Ehhh?!" The girl – Junko, was it? – whined. "How booooring! Did you even check all the rooms?"

"I couldn't see, Junko-chan." She bowed. "I apologize. I don't have a Fire-type Pokemon with me, so I couldn't see through the dark like you can."

Junko pouted. "Uuuugh. You're so disappointing I don't even feel the despair I'm supposed to feel when I look at you. Whatever. Go feel your way and search the rooms, why don't you?"

Makoto was sure the girl's sister had flinched – even just the slightest bit – before nodding mutely and exiting the room.

"U-Um, who was that?" he asked hesitantly.

"Big sis Mukuro, duh," Junko replied casually waving it off. "Buuut she's none of your concern for now, unless you were attracted to her gunner charm." She turned to look at Makoto with a grin and a pair of narrowed bright blue eyes. "… You… aren't, are you?"

"O-O-Of course not!" the boy replied instantly, flustered. "B-But like you said, that's not important right now, right? A-Are you going to ask me any more questions…?"

"Hmm." Junko eyed her fingernails. "Not particularly, no."

"Ah… then…?" Makoto anxiously waited for a reply.

Junko giggled. "Just because I don't have any more questions for you doesn't mean I'm going to let you go. What if you go ahead and try to save your dear detective? Then once both of you are safely out of this place-" the blonde made a big flourish of her hands. "Boom! You'll go off and tattle about this to everyone! Now, I wouldn't exactly like that, would I?" She waved her pointer finger in front of Makoto's face, making the boy flinch. "Nope! So, you just stay still in that shopping cart of yours and wait 'till darling Mukuro comes back."

As if on cue, a loud crash resounded from outside, followed by the scuffling of feet and more crashes. Makoto desperately tried to maneuver the cart he was in nearer to the door, but the blonde was blocking the door from him in a flash. Makoto blinked confusedly, then tried to scramble away in fear.

Junko stared down at Makoto, vocally mulling over her choices. "I wouldn't want you to try to escape… but then you wouldn't be able to feel as much despair as you should be… oh well."

In a single fluid motion, she pulled open the door and thrust Makoto through the darkness. The boy, who had gotten so used to the light, had to blink several times to adjust. He quickly turned around, afraid he might be decapitated by 'Mukuro', but even after locating the doorknob, it was locked firmly.

Every so often, bright plumes of blue fire – blue, he thought, that blue fire must be Kirigiri-san's Cyndaquil! But… blue…? – would shoot out from somewhere, and the location differed every time. Once, it came from the right, but another few seconds passed and the fires seemed to have come from the left.

'Mukuro-san must be really strong,' he thought to himself. 'Kirigiri-san just started out as a trainer… and her Rin shouldn't be all that strong either. I should help somehow… but… well, how…? Kyon and Kimori aren't in fighting condition, and if I release one of them, there'll be a light and it'll draw attention to me… what should I do?'

There was a sudden glint right in front of him, and Makoto vaguely registered something moving in the dark, but he felt a sharp blade against his throat before he knew it. He sucked in his breath, paralyzed – a sword, a knife, or maybe just a shard of glass? Or…

A Pokemon?

"Detective, I'm afraid to say your friend has been held hostage by my Scyther. One false move, and his head will be off." Came a voice that Makoto knew well; Mukuro's. It was cold and icy, and void of all emotion. All movement seemed to have stopped entirely; or perhaps Kyouko's footsteps were as soundless as wind.

No… even wind made a sound.

There was a blaze of fire that engulfed the entirety of an unknown being beside him, and a screech of agony filled the air. The fires reached even to the blade held against his throat, and Makoto scrambled away via rapid turning and twisting of the cart he was in. From the sudden light, he could identify the Pokemon that had been next to him; a green praying-mantis-like bug commonly called a Scyther. He could faintly make out the reflection of a shocked Mukuro, before that expression quickly twisted into anger.

Before another stream of fire could come from anywhere, Mukuro had disappeared into thin air, leaving her ablaze Pokemon behind. Makoto, who was (of course) worried for the poor Scyther, attempted to move towards it and pat out some of the flames. The Scyther, who couldn't do much but flail around blindly by now, relented and allowed the stranger to remove some of the burning fires from its body. After a bit, the flames had died down some, leaving only flickers around the floor the Scyther had been standing on. These were enough to allow some light, and the Scyther stared down at the nervous Makoto.

It stared. Makoto cautiously stared back.

After what seemed to be an eternity, it grunted and rushed off to join the fight, where more plumes of fire had started erupting, engulfing almost everything in the room in flames. The flames provided light much like lanterns, and Makoto carefully neared the battlefield some. He could clearly see Kyouko jumping around on television sets and tables, anything that could hold her weight, with Rin on her head, shooting streams of fire from his mouth, his back ablaze. Mukuro and her Scyther weren't as physically close and Mukuro fired shots from her guns, which Kyouko always seemed to just narrowly avoid. The Scyther, on the other hand, chased them around and attempted to lure them to getting closer to its trainer.

Makoto winced; he had entirely forgotten about the hand he had used to pat out the flames. It burned horribly in his palm, and he gritted his teeth, futilely trying to bear the pain.

When he glanced down at it once more, the pain had subsided slightly, and a strange mark was etched on his hand. It looked like some kind of blue, glowing pentagram, with an eye-shaped symbol in the middle. The pentagram and the eye wasn't exactly small, either; it stretched out to encompass almost his entire left palm, reaching the base of his fingers. It would shoot out a sting of pain every now and then throughout his whole left arm, but it didn't hurt that badly before eventually fading away.

'What… is this?' he thought to himself. 'Best to ask Kirigiri-san about it later… what's important now is to help her out somewhat.'

Before Makoto could retreat a bit more to think about anything, though, he was suddenly face-to-face with Mukuro's intimidating expression, light violet eyes and freckles and all. Her face was so close to his that strands of her black hair brushed against his face.

"I have strict orders not to let anyone out of this house alive," she hissed. "I… thank you for saving my Pokemon, but that does not mean you are an exception to anything."

A bright plume of blue fire erupted from behind Mukuro, and the woman easily avoided it. Makoto ducked instinctively, letting the fires pass through the hallway harmlessly. Mukuro looked back towards the source of the fire, where Kyouko stood emotionlessly.

Mukuro readied herself in a battle stance and was just about to continue the battle when a hidden loudspeaker crackled into existence. All three of them (five, if you count their Pokemon) halted in their tracks and listened, Mukuro especially. She was absolutely shock-still.

There was just static for a while, but soon, a voice started to come in clearly. It was feminine, and while the static prevented both Makoto and Mukuro from recognizing the voice properly, it was clear who was speaking.

"Say, sis?" Junko's voice echoed.

"J... Jun... ko...?" Mukuro whispered, her voice barely more than a breath.

"I was always thankful to you, sis, I mean it. You went through all that trouble trying to kill the detective and her friend all for me."

"… Junko-chan?"

"I'm really sorry. I was being too harsh with you a while ago. I even set your Pokemon on fire, and now I'm making you do something horrible. Even though I know how you feel about your Scyther."

"I-I don't…"

'Junko-san… was the one to make Mukuro-san's Scyther go on fire?' Makoto thought in surprise. 'But then those flames were blue… did she simply redirect one of the streams of fire?'

"Don't force yourself. You might not realize it, but it was really obvious. You delayed fighting with both the detective and her friend because they both already had the upper hand on you. You even gave Sasaki a painless death."

From just the voice and the words from the loudspeaker, it sounded like a sweet, innocent girl teasing her older sister. But that was exactly why Mukuro was slowly falling into despair.

"But you know, you might be lackluster and disappointing, but I love that about you, too."

"…" The woman, who had shown absolutely little to no emotion ever since Kyouko and Makoto had seen her, trembled, her composure slowly breaking apart.

"I love you."

The loudspeaker crackled, reducing the rest of the message into static.

There was silence. The only noise in the house was the flickering of flames.

And then everything started crashing down.

I'm cracking out these chapters faster than I eat. Don't worry, guys, I'll get to work on PMD: Gates to the Future soon enough. Promise. I think tomorrow at my fastest speed. Or, you know, maybe a year later. Who knows.

So! Junko and Mukuro come into the scene. What will happen now? owo I don't really know either! Ehehe.

Reisu, 29/12/13