Back for more, eh? Thanks for reading this far and I hope you enjoy this extra-long chapter.

And a Happy New Year to you all!


Episode 11:

The happy newlyweds were sleeping soundly when hurried knocks came at the door. Rising slowly, Yuki got up and stretched, Yuto's shirt riding up as she did so.

She walked to the door slowly as the knocking continued. When she opened it, it was only to receive a knock on her own head, and she clutched it. Sleepily she murmured, "Ow, meanie. I'm not a door."

Chuckles could be heard as she blearily looked outside. She rubbed her hand that was covered by the sleeve of the shirt in her eye, yawning.

She thought she heard one of the men before her say "cute" but couldn't be sure.

"Can I help you... Masumi! I haven't seen you in a while. Have you come to try my cooking? I know I told you to come by when I got better but I haven't actually improved all that much yet. Unless you're looking to try dating mom again?"

This time snickers could be heard. "My life is over." The man named Masumi Nishijima groaned into his hand. He brought his hand down, "No, I'm not here to taste your cooking, and this isn't even your house, so why would I be here for your mom, anyway?"

"Actually, I think this might be. I might be a little fuzzy, but I seem to recall signing a wedding certificate yesterday. So if you'd be so kind as to go away, I was enjoying a pleasant night's sleep with my husband. And yes, in case you're wondering, my mom okayed it. Heck, she was at the wedding." This was was further proved when the cuff of her shirt slipped down to reveal a shiny silver ring on her finger.

And with that she closed the door and wandered back to her room, loudly cursing out hungry no-good detectives who have no sense of proper times to meet people.


POV Change: Nishijima

He blinked, "Did we just get blown off?"

"Looks like it. Hey, do you think she'd let us try her cooking is we asked nicely?"

Masumi's hair oddly stayed in place as he banged it against the now-closed-again door, the snickering only got louder as he did so, the other detectives with him openly laughing at how he got the door to the face by a teenage girl.

After a moment, the door opened again, although this time they saw a pair of demonic pink eyes staring at them through the darkness. More than one of them gulped and took a step back at the ferocity of the glare.

"Do you mind? My Hana is trying to sleep and you all are making so much racket that I'd imagine that houses on the next street can hear you!"

Seeing this as his chance, and knowing the kid didn't have anything embarrassing stories of him, cleared his throat, "My name is detective Masumi Nishijima of the Sakurami precinct, and..." but once more he found the door slamming in his face.

"Not interested, go bother someone else." This time as the voice disappeared they heard him grumble about incompetent policemen who keep disturbing his precious Hana's sleep.

Now, Masumi was a rather upbeat guy, and he loved a good romance novel (not the raunchy kind, mind you, he just loved the fluff) but there was only so much he could take in the middle of the night on a murder investigation when both his suspects were slamming the door in his face. Although he doubted Yuki was involved, she was too softhearted to kill someone and she didn't know anyone outside Detective Kurusu who had a gun. Ms. Amano certainly didn't own one.

His brown eyes snapped open after a second round of head-banging, "Alright, that is it!" He kicked the door down with a bang and charged inside. It didn't take long to find the duo as they quickly emerged from their room, Yuki blinking at him in surprise, "Masumi? Was there something you needed? It is awful early you know. Wouldn't it be better to come back later?"

Opening his mouth, he paused. Kurusu had said he wanted them within 24 hours, and it hand't even been three since the warrant was issued. He sighed, "Fine, I guess this can wait, but we'll be back in the morning to pick you two up, so be ready."

And after getting a mumbled promise to be ready they were gone, although he could swear he heard the pink-haired boy swear revenge for his Hana's lost sleep.

He shuddered. Something was terribly wrong with that kid.


POV Change: Normal

The next morning, the Gasai's were up and ready as promised when the police arrived again. Thankfully it was a far more reasonable hour this time, although Yuto still glared at them for the night's troubles. They busted the door down and didn't even bother to fix it!

Seated on a couch in the waiting room next to two sets of doors, Yuki was leaning against Yuto tiredly as she yawned, still not fully awake yet due her body being deprived of much-needed sleep. Weddings take a lot out of a person!

"Wish they'd clue us in about what's going on," Yuto grumbled. "I know it has to do with an investigation, but this is still ridiculous. And they still haven't fixed my door!"

She giggled tiredly, "Oh Yuto." Yuki looked around slowly, eyes taking in all the detectives standing around them, some with narrowed eyes, and she shivered. "Did we do something wrong?" Tears formed, and in an instant the environment went from hostile to awkward. After all, no honest man likes to see a woman cry. In fact, the men standing around them suddenly found excuses not to be, and quickly vacated the hallway, leaving them by their lonesome.

Moments later Nishijima came out of the interrogation room and walked over to them. He looked confused as to why none of the other officers were around, but shook his head as he looked down at them on the couch. "Ms. Amano," he started.

"Gasai."

He blinked, "What?"

"It's Gasai, not Amano. I thought I told you this last night?"

This time it was Yuto's turn, "You mean knew?" The flabbergasted look on his face was adorable.

She giggled again, "Of course I knew, why do you think I didn't ask why mom was there or why we signed that paper? Did you think I didn't know? I mean, I knew about it long before Akise told you, my mom did get married there after all ("although I didn't know that til yesterday," she mumbled) and I did a lot of research on it. And I may have accidentally dropped the brochure in front of Akise as I was leaving school a couple days ago."

Masumi and Yuto just stared at her gaping, eyebrows hiding in their hairlines with how surprised they were. They never realized she could be so sneaky.

Shivering slightly as he remembered a similar encounter with her mother (and slowly realizing that it had apparently her cunning had been passed down), he continued where he left off, "Well, Mrs. Gasai, it looks like the first person for Q&A is you. I know you probably didn't do it, but it's standard procedure."

Yuto stood up suddenly, eyes clouded over, but before he could take more than a couple steps Yuki grabbed his arm, bringing him to a halt. He looked back at her questioningly, "We're at a police station, and we're just a couple of kids. What's the worst they're gonna do? Besides, when would I have had the time to kill anyone? The only weapon I've ever held is an axe and I only had that during the Omekata incident. And even then I never actually hit anyone with it."

Yuto's eyes cleared up, "Well, if you say so."

Nishijima blinked at her frank statement, wondering how anyone could be so blase about their past when being suspected of a crime. Especially when talking about possible murder weapons, although he did hear from the chief that he had been watching the whole thing go down and while the kid did swing the thing around like a woman possessed, it never actually hit anyone.

He remembered feeling love in the air when he heard it as he remembered the leader of the cult announce her little "fire sale" and felt pride well within him that a woman would go to such lengths for the man she loved. Well, girl and boy in this case, but still!

She was lead to the room where Kurusu was waiting for her, and walked inside, the door closing behind her. He was sitting on the other side of the table, cleaning his gun. He also had a spray can, some bullets, and a couple other things she couldn't identify in front of him.

"Hello, Detective Kurusu."

"Pull up a chair, Yuki. Let's have a chat," he said as he continued to clean his gun.

Deciding to start things off on a cheery note, she smiled at him, which caught him off guard due to the serious atmosphere he was trying to cultivate. "You know, you should go home more often."

"What?"

"You're wife misses you, you know? And I'm sure she'd love it if you took some time off to see her."

"When did you talk to my wife?" His tone was suspicious with a hint of venom.

She blinked, confused at the harsh reaction, "Yesterday at the Sakugami Hotel. They were holding Wedding Trials so Yuto and I went there to try it out." She snickered at her own pun.

Kurusu appeared to be caught flatfooted if the flabbergasted expression on his face was anything to go by as he tried to come up with a way to wrest control of the conversation back, even if he never had it to begin with. Shaking his head, he opened his mouth to try again when she threw another curve ball.

"I know it's hard to be a homicide detective, but breaking down a newlywed couple's door in the middle of the night isn't appropriate, no matter if they are suspects. What if we'd been naked? And I don't think my mom will appreciate me being taken in, either."

He sighed, he knew he was going to regret asking, but it didn't seem like she was going to stop anytime soon if he didn't. That and he didn't want to open the other can of worms that he knew would burst if he talked about their modesty or lack thereof in middle of the night. "And why should I care about your mother's opinion?"

"Because she's Rea Amano and apparently she's rather well-known around these parts."


POV Change: Kurusu

He froze. Shit, I forgot about her mother! While most people would be panicking in this situation, the young girl had to do a name-drop. And a rather effective name-drop at that. And while he wasn't sure about the newlywed part, he knew that if someone's daughter, especially one with Rea Amano's reputation, just had a great day only to have the evening ruined by some overeager cops, they'd be pissed.

Heavens knew his wife was the same way.

"Eheheheh." He chuckled awkwardly, sweat pouring down his face, "Well, um... I think that's all for now. You can go."

And there went his perfect strategy to get rid of two Diary users at once. Dammit! Why did she have to have such an influential mom?! Sure his kid was dying, but it wouldn't matter if he got locked up himself! Then he would be easy pickings for the others and his Diary would be out of his protective radius, as well as useless.

She stood up with a smile, "It was good to see you again, detective. I hope you find what you're looking for."

And with that she walked out of the room, the door closing behind her.

Kurusu scowled. How the hell had he just gotten manipulated into letting a Diary user go? He had a vested interest in winning now, but it seemed lady luck was still on Yuki's side as she managed to defuse what would have become a dangerous situation for her in her favor.

"Nishijima! Bring in the boy!" He yelled down the hall. He scowled, if he couldn't get the girl, he'd at least take out her protector. He was the real danger anyway.


POV Change: Yuto

The pink-haired husband of Yukihana looked down at his Diary in surprise. At first it had said Kurusu would try to kill her, but then it crackled and changed to say that she would walk out unmolested. He didn't like this. Hana walked by him to the couch with a smile, grabbing his hand and squeezing it gently before he was lead to the interrogation room by the brown-haired detective.

Like Hana before him, he sat in the chair on the opposite side of Kurusu, who was finishing cleaning up his gun and loading rounds into it.

And once again like before, he opened his mouth to speak but unlike before Kurusu wasn't having any of it.


POV Change: Kurusu

He slammed his hands on the table with a bang, "No! You do not speak! You will listen!" the holder of the Investigation Diary snarled almost manically. His eyes were wide with a crazed light as he stared at the kid, daring him to speak. When he didn't, he sat back in his chair with a nod.

"Now, I would have started it more genially with your little girlfriend," he began...

Only for Yuto to spoil it for him, "Wife."

He blinked, then he banged his head on the table as he remembered the girl saying they were newlyweds. He had thought it was just a couple kids playing house or something, but considering how many times the wedding trial had become wedding fact he should have guessed someone like Yuto Gasai would take advantage of it to tie her to him in a more permanent fashion.

The door was pushed open right then, Nishijima barging in with his gun drawn, "Sir, is everything alright? We heard a lot of shouting and banging and became worried."

He looked up at him blearily, his head showing the remnants of his act of banging his head against a metal table.

Considering the timing, the kid would have had to have supernatural speed and strength to overpower Kurusu enough to bang his head on the table as well as get get back into his seat without it making a peep.

Nishijima sighed, "Sir, I understand you wanted to question them, but considering the circumstances..."

The chief inspector waved with his hand, "He can go. Get him out of here."

Just great, there went that idea. How was he supposed to save his son now? Damn that imp!


POV Change: Yuto

As he was being led back to Hana, Nishijima asked him something, "So, what was that all about? Do you know why he reacted that way?"

He tilted his head in confusion, "Not really, all I said was that Hana and I are married and then he... What are you doing?"

Said man was banging his head against the wall. Yuto patted his back awkwardly, "Um, there there?"

"You're not very good at this, are you?" Masumi said blandly.

The pink-haired teen shook his head, cheerily replying, "Nope."

He was was lead back to the waiting room where Hana was sitting on the couch looking miserable along with a female detective while a bunch of officers ran around like headless chickens trying to make them feel better and failing miserably.

Both males blinked at the odd scene.

She looked up when she heard footsteps and visibly brightened, the tears on her face magically disappearing as she moved to his side and hugged his arm between her breasts, "Yuto!"

The other men all sighed as one and slumped to the floor, some resting their backs on each others as they tried to regain their energy. The female on the couch looked like her favorite toy had just been taken away.

"What happened?" Nishijima demanded, looking at the only person other than himself and Yuto still standing (the female officer didn't count).

She looked up at him with big, sparkly (?), tear-filled eyes as she recounted what happened.

_/\_/\_/\_/\_
Flashback: 10 minutes earlier

After Yuto was escorted to the interrogation room, Yuki felt lonely. She was, after all, in a police station being accused of a crime she didn't even know the first thing about.

She started to tear up, and, remembering her mother's stories about how men fall apart when girls cry, proceeded to do just that. The first man who saw the shiny drops of liquid roll down her cheeks was a relatively young man by the name of Haruto Furosawa. He blanched immediately as he recognized what was coming, and tried to stop it.

"No, no, please don't cry!"

His words drew the attention of all the other men in the area along with the lone female on duty. The woman, sensing what the girl was doing, shared a wicked smirk with her before joining her on the couch, and soon enough they were both bawling as the men ran around getting them anything they wanted. Coincidentally, the woman had purple hair done up in a ponytail and purple eyes hidden behind glasses.

Yuki obviously knew who she was, but decided to ignore it in favor of manipulating... sorry, guiding the weak-willed males... Oh blast, there I go again. Slip of the tongue, really. I meant strong, chivalrous men.

_/\_/\_/\_/\_

Flashback End

"And then you showed up and all the fun ended." The pout on her face only gave further credence to their next thought.

Yuto and Nishijima looked at the girl holding the pinkette's arm, and then back at each other. Opposing looks overtook their faces as everything they had heard finally processed.

This girl is evil!

My woman is brilliant! I'll never have to worry about her if she keeps this up.

I'll leave you to figure out who thought what.

They were escorted out of the building faster than they could blink, the men shoving Yuto out and then plopping Hana into his arms and saying, "She's your problem now!"

And promptly shut the doors in his face.


After going home (well, Yuto's at any rate) they promptly changed and fell asleep, the events, while not as harrowing as they could have been, still taking a lot out of them.

They found themselves at the hospital later because Rea was follow-up appointment after getting her head checked due to the knot Yuto gave her chasing Houjou.

They were just leaving when Hana stopped, her nose sniffing the air. "I smell something."

"It's not me. I showered before we left." They had made a pit stop at Yuki's house before heading off.

Hana waved a hand negligently in his direction, "Not that kind of smell. I smell donuts."

If there was one thing Yuto learned during his brief time married to her, was that she loved donuts. The fact that she had had a box of them in her arms and crumbs all over her face when he came back from the very brief interrogation with Kurusu only emphasized this.

Hana looked in the direction of the scent and was surprised to find Mrs. Kurusu walking toward the hospital. She nearly walked up to her, eyes clouded over when Yuto grabbed her and hid in a corner of the lobby just in sight of the entrance but at such an angle that no one entering the building could see them. His hand covered her mouth and kept her pinned to his side as she tried to approach the woman holding a box of her favorite food/treat.

When the woman was out of sight, opting to use the stairs instead of the elevator, Yuto found his curiosity piqued, and so chose to follow the woman, keeping a firm hand on his wife so she didn't charge ahead and announce their presence too early.

After going up a couple flights of stairs she was finally able to control herself enough to ask a question. "What's she doing in the hospital? She obviously isn't visiting her husband, she's too calm for that."

"We need to get to the bottom of this, come on." Yuto moved on ahead, walking determinedly down the hallway. But it was then that his phone crackled, and he turned around in a panic, "Hana, look out!"

The windows blew out, the broken glass sticking out of the walls and floor.

"What're you made of, that you're still in one piece?"

Yuto's eyes were open in a flash, "What the hell are you doing here?" The last place he had expected to run into Uryuu Minene was a hospital. A wide hole in the floor separated them.

"Oh come on, is that any way to kick off a reunion?" her mocking voice was as irritating as always. She was dressed in a nurse's outfit, her long purple hair done up in a ponytail, and had an eye patch over her left eye. Yuto felt a grim satisfaction that it was Hana that did that. Of course it was at that point he noticed a familiar-looking pad connected to her waist. And something else.

Yuto seethed when he saw Minene had an arm around Hana's neck, "Yuto, look out!" The detonator in Minene's left hand drew his attention for a split second before focusing on his woman once more.

"Ninth!"

"I got to hand it to you, your timing's dead on. I was getting bored out of my mind. Let's blow up the boy-toy first, shall we? Nothing personal, this is a girl's only event and we don't want you feeling unwanted, do we?" The purple-haired terrorist smirked evilly as she rubbed her cheek against Hana's, raising the detonator to her other cheek as she did so.

It was then that he noticed Hana had a piece of glass sticking out of her side, and a whole new feeling welled up inside him. For all that he had seen her hurt, it was never like this.

She whimpered in Uryuu's arms, leaning heavily against her as her strength flagged. Her hand slipped, brushing the pad that also acted as a detonator for an explosive that went on immediately behind them, creating a little island in the middle of the hallway.

Minene was shocked at the unscheduled detonation and looked at her captive furiously, "What the hell's the matter with you? Are you trying to kill us both?" When she got no response, she released her temporarily and spun her around, intent on shaking an answer out of her when the girl immediately sank to the floor, a pained look on her face, and the older woman saw the glass shard in her hip. "Oh shit!"

Yuto looked around and saw a ladder nearby and spread it across the gap, creating a temporary bridge. "Bring her over, now!" While he didn't want to, he knew had to put his faith in Minene to bring his love safely across.

Before Ninth could do anything, though, her phone rang, and Fourth's voice came out of it, although he couldn't pick out the words. Yuki looked distressed as she listened to the detective though, and in that moment the alliance between them officially ended.

"What?" That one word was filled with so much irritation at being interrupted that he could almost see it oozing.

Hana tried to crawl away but Uryuu kept a firm grip on the girl, "Quit squirming! You'll upset the shrapnel."

Kurusu's voice came out again, his tone holding the same anger he had experienced earlier in the day. Minene did not look pleased, "I'm buying you time!" She exclaimed in frustration.

Hana kept squirming however as Kurusu kept talking, but Minene never let her go more than an inch in any direction. Her face only grew angrier as the man she apparently allied with went on, before his last words were shouted out, "...if you double-cross me you're dead!"

"Fuck you!" And with that she hung up. "'Kay, that felt good." She stood up then, holding the injured First in fireman's carry and walked toward the laid-down ladder before a crackling sound filled the air, and Yuto didn't have to be a psychic to know what it said.

The woman walked across the ladder with a grim expression, "We're doing this. Not that it matters now, Fourth will be here any minute. There." She, with a gentleness Yuto hadn't thought possible, lowered Hana to the ground.

Yuto was there in a flash, and was reaching for the glass to pull it out when a slender hand stopped him. He glared at Uryuu. "Don't. If you take that out now she'll die. We don't have the tools necessary to staunch the blood flow that'll happen if it's removed."

Grumbling, but, bowing to the escape-artist's superior medical knowledge, he didn't remove the glass. Raising his hand to Yuki's pale, sweat-covered cheek, he cradled it, "We'll get through this, and you'll be all better. Okay? Trust me." She nodded weakly.

Ninth walked past them with determination in her step, "Come on, we need to try and even the odds."

Yuto hefted Hana into his arms before following.

Navigating the halls, they came to a stop in front of room 413. "What's in there?" he asked with narrowed eyes.

"The reason Fourth pulled the plug on your little alliance." She pulled the door open and walked inside.

Naoko Kurusu looked up from her child's bedside at the noise, and smiled slightly at the sight of the couple from the other day, "Your the young couple from the wedding expo." Her eyes then caught sight of the glass sticking out of Hana's right side and gasped, "What happened?"

Minene ignored her and leaned against a table by the wall. "Kid's name is Yoh. Few weeks ago the doctors said he only had 3 months to live on the outside. The prognosis gave Kurusu second thoughts about the game, and now he wants to be god."

His eyes narrowed in suspicion, "How do you know all this?"

"Because I made a deal with him. He burned my dossier in return for a favor." The woman then callously turned around and took a donut out of the box sitting on the table behind her, "Of course, that's all off the table now. Only way out of this is for us to team up. Use his family against him."

Hana seem to come alive at that, "No!" She struggled in Yuto's arms, ignoring the pain in her side as she moved, "We aren't terrorists! We don't take hostages!"

"Stop moving! You'll upset the glass."

Mrs. Kurusu didn't exactly like what the purple-haired woman was saying, but a child needed help, so she stood up, "Here, she can have my seat."

Yuto smiled at her appreciatively and did just that, gently lowering his wounded wife and making sure the shard wasn't dislodged as he did so.

Minene walked up to them, holding out the box as she munched on a donut, "Chow down, you're going to need the energy."

Hana refused, "Th-those aren't for u-us," she wheezed out, her tortured lungs heaving in protest.

"You're bleeding out and you're worried about that?"

Naoko smiled sadly, "I don't think I could eat them now, and Yoh obviously can't have them, so please don't hold back on my account."

And with that she plucked a donut from the box and put it in Yuto's hands, having seen how close the two of them are and trusting him to feed her.

He knelt in front of Hana, "Come on, sweetie, you need to keep up your energy."

She looked at him weakly before slowly opening her mouth, not having the energy to lift her arms. As she chewed, Mrs. Kurusu looked around the room with Minene to see if they could find something to halt the bleeding, but all they had were a pare of needles and thread from the elder Kurusu's purse.

Minene grimaced, "This is going to hurt a lot, and we'll have to be quick about it. Second! Hold her while I pull it out!"

Hana's head lolled as Yuto held her steady, whispering words of encouragement as the glass was pulled out inch by inch, a cloth pressing up to the wound as more blood poured out. The only reason she didn't bite her tongue off from the pain was due to stuffing a cloth in her mouth.

As soon as it was out, Minene got to work, having experience sewing herself up in situations where doctors weren't available. It wouldn't last, but it would hold up long enough for a professional to stitch it up.

"Oh and by the way, this truce of ours will end as soon as Fourth's out of the picture."


POV Change: Kurusu/ Fourth

A helicopter flew over the hospital, searchlights combing the sides of the building in an attempt to find Minene (and Yuki and Yuto, but they didn't know that yet). Several cop cars and buses pulled up, policemen and SWAT exiting and setting up a perimeter around the building. And then a blue car drove into the parking lot.

The car pulled to a stop in front of the hospital. Stepping out, he glared up at the windows where he could vaguely see a head of pink hair through the window that he knew led to his son's hospital room. He then clutched his bandaged forehead in pain as his self-inflicted injury pulsed. He growled, "Those kids are gonna get it."

"What was that, chief?" Nishijima asked, getting out of the driver's side.

Wincing, he remembered that as his plan hadn't actually worked, the kids weren't the ones being chased. Thankfully, Minene had decided to switch sides and now he could go after her and the kids at the same time calling them accomplices.

"Oh nothing."

But for right now, he'd have to bide his time. Oh, how he wished that girl hadn't spoken first.


A/N: And another done! Thanks for reading and see you next week!