Chapter 6

"Serebryakov-san, it is nice to finally meet you," Keiichi Izawa said as Nico entered. He was young for a family head, in his early thirties. He wore a suit and tie, and could have passed for a regular salaryman, in not for the hardened look in his eyes. The very way he held himself told Nico of his confidence – and that he was dangerous. She reckoned that he was a skilled fighter, though whether he was skilled with words would have to be seen.

"Izawa-san, please, 'Meiko' is fine. I know my family name is hard for many to say." Nico knelt on a cushion opposite where Izawa sat. Honoka was stood behind her. Around Izawa there were a half dozen Yakuza members. They were not visibly armed, to most peoples' gazes, but Nico's quick scan caught that three of them had pistols in their suit jackets. Unsurprising.

"Very well, Meiko-san. May I ask then, what does the Mafia want with us?"

'Meiko Serebryakov' was the half-Japanese daughter of a Russian mafioso, who lived in Japan. She had attended various high-class Japanese schools and one of its top universities. Currently, she was working for her father's family to learn the ropes of the business.

"Cutting to the chase, good. Well Izawa-san, we were going to ask for you to investigate some… targets we wanted acquired. However, news from yesterday has led to the family being a little… cautious about this job request."

Izawa looked angry, "What do you mean?"

"The Nishikino fiasco. You couldn't capture one girl? And fourteen of your people were taken in by the police?" 'Actually twenty-three' Nico thought, 'But best not to show how much we really know.'

"There were extenuating circumstances..."

"Really?" Nico raised a blonde eyebrow. "What would those be?"

"There's this group – we don't know much about them. They show up every now and then and interfere with our jobs."

"Oh, so what do you know about them? How many are they?"

Izawa gritted his teeth at the question, "We think there are around ten of them total."

'Wow, right on the money, now at least,' Nico thought as she placed a hand over her mouth and faked suppressing laughter. "Ten? And they give you that much trouble?"

Izawa glowered and his men glanced between each other. "Are you making fun of us?" Izawa asked, rage in his eyes.

"Oh no, no… you're doing that yourselves."

"Why you..." one of the men reached for his gun.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Nico had stopped faking laughter and glared at the man reaching for his gun. "Or my friend will kill you before you've drawn that gun."

The man looked over at Honoka, who had been standing casually, as though uninterested. Now she was stood ready, her right hand within her own suit, clearly near to her weapon.

"You…!" The Yakuza looked as though he was going to respond to what he saw as provocation.

"Stop!" Izawa said, looking at his underling. "The Russians have long memories… and a penchant for revenge."

"So glad you understand your position," Nico said as Honoka relaxed a little behind her. "Now, I'm sure you can understand that, given your current situation, we can't just hand out work to you."

"Fine, you want to see we can produce results. We actually have someone on the radar right now. Nobody super important, but its a woman who decided to dig a bit too far."

"Oh? Find out about you did she?"

Izawa nodded, "Well, she found our trail, in spite of the police trying to keep it quiet. We were thinking she could be useful."

"Assuming you can persuade her to work for you," Nico said.

"Oh that won't be a problem. If she won't, she has a little friend we can make into a proper 'working girl'."

Nico kept on a mask of indifference even as she felt bile rise in the back of her throat. Holding off the urge to tell them of her disgust, she replied, "Well, who is she?"

"She goes by 'Idoliser' online – she used to cover idols, before she turned to conspiracy chasing. We're looking into who she really is. Shouldn't take too long to find her, I've got some wiz-kids on it."

"I see, we shall watch. Assuming they are just two normal women, it shouldn't be much trouble for you, I hope." Nico smiled an empty smile. "Now, I had best be off. Let me know how it goes." She stood and bowed slightly before she and Honoka were led out of the building.

Honoka held open the door and Nico climbed in. The sun had set while they were inside, and all around them the light was all artificial. Honoka climbed in after Nico, and the car swiftly departed.

"You get all that Fortuna?" Nico asked.

"Every word Fairy."

"Good, I'm sure Swan will enjoy it." Nico leaned back as the car sped away.

"That was pretty quick," Honoka said as she relaxed in her own seat.

"They were pretty on-edge, not surprisingly. They probably wanted us gone as soon as possible."

Nico stared out of the car window, her thoughts drifting away from the encounter. They settled on a certain redhead and a soft smile formed.

A giggle startled Nico out of her thoughts and she looked round at the source. "Something funny Honoka?"

"Just never seen you so starry-eyed before. Thinking about your girlfriend."

Nico rolled her eyes, "Oh come on, you go totally gaga over yours, at least allow me to think about mine."

Honoka smiled, "I'm not complaining. I'm happy for you."

"Fairy's just stubborn Mochi."

"Hey!" Nico glared at the back on Nozomi's head for her comment, earning her smiling eyes in the car's mirror. She sighed and leaned back again. The teasing was unsurprising.

It was worth it though…

When Nico opened the door to her room, she was greeted by the sight of Maki asleep on the desk. A book lay nearby – clearly she had been reading while waiting for Nico. Nico glanced at the clock – 11PM. Between driving around to throw off any tails, meeting with Eli to discuss the results and other aspects of debriefing, it had taken Nico a while to get back.

Maki, on the other hand, must have been exhausted from her full day of training. But the silly woman had stayed up to wait for her. 'As I thought...'

"Idiot," she muttered to herself as she stepped over to Maki, gently shaking her. Purple eyes fluttered open and Maki slowly raised her head, looking up at Nico.

"I'm home," Nico said.

"Welcome back." Maki blinked a few times, staring up at Nico. "Why is your hair like that?"

Nico giggled. She had removed her coloured contact lenses, but had yet to deal with the dye in her hair. "Disguise, I haven't had a chance to remove the dye yet."

Maki rubbed her eyes, "Will it come out easily?"

"Special formula. Stays fine in water, but we have a chemical to remove it easily. Don't ask me how it works." Nico looked away briefly, "Would you… mind helping?"

Maki nodded slowly. The pair entered the bathroom and Nico handed her a bottle of clear liquid – it could have been water at a glance.

"Just run it through my hair and make sure it all gets covered, 'kay? It's not dangerous at all, so you can use your hands to get odd bits if you need to." Nico explained as she untied her hair, letting the blonde locked fall down her back. Maki rarely remembered how long Nico's hair actually was, given it was almost always tied up.

Nico bent forward over the sink, pulling her hair up and over her head so it lay in the sink. Maki slowly started pouring the liquid through Nico's hair. The chemicals smelled of something very clinical, a familiar smell to the trainee doctor.

The blonde colour started running in the chemicals, flowing out of Nico's hair, leaving the black strands Maki was familiar with. After getting most of the colour out, Maki ran her hands through the strands, covering the last parts, washing out the colour. She felt Nico shiver slightly as her fingers ran along her scalp.

It took only a few minutes, to Maki's quiet disappointment, to remove all the colour from Nico's hair. Nico then stood up and smiled, "Thanks… I think I'll take a shower to get rid of the smell."

"Okay..." Maki was about to leave when Nico tugged at her shirt. Maki looked around to see Nico looking at her feet, then glancing at the shower, then at Maki. Maki smiled and nodded slowly.

Eli was surprised when the door to the control room was opened. It was nearly midnight – most of the others would have returned to their rooms by now. Kotori was due to take a shift from about 4AM, as someone always had to be available in case of emergency, but until then she had expected nobody.

When she looked around, she saw the short brunette controller of A-Rise, Tsubasa.

"Evening Eli," the woman said as she stepped in. She held a thick file under her arm. "How's life?"

"Interesting," Eli replied. "I take it you've got some results on 'Idoliser'."

"Plenty," Tsubasa offered the file to Eli, who opened it up and started reading. "We found a few of her older pieces, before she was properly careful with hiding her identity. An IP check, running an address check and there you have it."

Eli nodded, "Hanayo Koizumi… and this 'Sora' girl is Rin Hoshizora… well I can certainly believe that one."

"They never originally intended to be top secret, so..." Tsubasa shrugged.

"So how long do you reckon it'd take someone else to find this?"

"Well it took us a little bit of luck and ten hours, so… I'd say it will be a day or two if they're decent."

"Good… that gives us some time."

"Oh?" Tsubasa raised an eyebrow.

"Izawa is planning to get the pair. 'Serebryakov' found that out earlier."

"Oh, well..." Tsubasa sighed, "I suppose you want us to keep tabs on them?"

"Yes."

"Sure, no problem. Those guys aren't exactly subtle."

"Thanks," Eli continued flicking through the report. "You guys found everything on her..."

"Favourite food is on page twenty-seven," Tsubasa replied with a grin. "White rice by the way."

Eli rolled her eyes, "Well if we need to set a trap for her, I know what to use as bait then."

"You never know. Was everything alright with today's mission by the way?"

"Yeah, no problems. Honoka should be back in her room by now," Eli replied, knowing what Tsubasa really wanted to know.

"Well, I might just go drop in then."

Eli chuckled, "You've earned a break. Good work with this."

"Any time Eli. Anything else you need?"

"Not tonight."

"Not from me at least," Tsubasa grinned.

"I have the first night shift, so I'm not get any relaxation tonight," Eli replied, blushing slightly. "But haven't you got someone to see?"

"Yeah. Well, g'night."

"So how was your first day of training?" Nico asked. She and Maki were sat next to each other on the bed, having finished their shower, with Maki gently combing Nico's hair.

"Tiring. The three hour exercise regime in the middle was a bit of a shock to the system."

Nico's frame trembled with laughter at that. "No surprises there. Umi does love her exercises, and I can't imagine you've done many up 'til now."

Maki pouted a little but did not deny it, knowing that Nico was correct. "How did you find it when you started?"

"Not too bad, but I'd been doing exercises as an idol for years," Nico shrugged. "I guess these were different, but I had the stamina down at least."

"You were a natural with the guns though, right?"

Nico took a moment to answer. "We all reacted quite differently… Eli and Nozomi were still getting over what happened the first time they held guns." Maki's hand froze, the comb hovering in mid-air away from Nico's head. "I… was strangely okay."

Nico turned her head and glanced at the comb before turning back. Maki shook herself and started combing again. "Was it hard to get over it?"

"I'm still not, not really. Sometimes when I close my eyes I still see hers staring at me. It comes and goes. You never forget the first person you see die. You know that right?"

Maki's breath hitched. "Yes..."

"Who was it, if you don't mind me asking?"

"A&E patient, an old woman who fell down the stairs. She hit her head… brain haemorrhage. She made it to the hospital, but died before we got her to the operation room."

"I see." Nico took a deep breath, "You know you'll see more people die, right?"

"I know I may have to kill them."

"That's good resolve..." Nico replied dryly. "But are you prepared to do it?"

Maki bit her lip, "I don't know."

"Of course not. I killed in hot blood the first time. After that… it was easier."

"I am in blood stepped in so far..." Maki muttered.

"What's that from?"

"Macbeth, Shakespeare."

"Haven't heard it before. He as famous as me?"

Maki laughed at the comparison. "Even in Japan, probably yeah."

"These days I'm not surprised. I'm near enough forgotten after three years..."

Maki sighed as she put down the comb, finished with her labour. She reached out and hugged Nico, pulling her back. "I would never forget you. Assuming no mind-affecting drugs are involved."

A little chuckle was her response. Nico turned herself in Maki's arms and kissed her.

"I should hope not," Nico replied in a whisper as their lips parted, before they quickly pressed together again.

A/N: There, have a thing, hope you liked it.

Not much happening in this chapter per se, but... such is the way of intermediary chapters. It is a thing, it suffices, huzzah! I wrote it all today, having spent all week playing through Fatal Twelve - a visual novel I can highly recommend (it's like Future Diary, with less predicting the future and more lesbians).

Anyway, hope you enjoyed, reviews etc are always appreciated... see you next time.

'Til Eternity Ends

E.D.