Chapter 11: Do They?

The room where we found Mori-san was exactly what one would expect from the leader of the Port Mafia.

At the very top of the building, dimly lit, furnished in an expensive and somewhat gothic fashion; it was a little too much and a little empty at the same time.

Mori-san was elegant, with a black suit and a red scarf, he looked regal and deathly, exactly what I would have expected; but he was also holding a frilly dress and chasing after little blonde girl. Exactly the opposite of what I expected.

"Elise-chan" He was calling. "Just try it on"

"No" she answered blatantly.

Nakahara-san stood straight, as if the sight was not strange at all, Kyouka-chan and I followed suit, as if we weren't terrified t all.

When Mori-san finally saw us, he stood straight and smiled sheepishly. The little girl, Elise-chan, scurried closer to him and hid behind his back, only peering over at us with suspicion on her eyers. Was is possible that after everything we would be caught by a child?

"Ah, the Weretiger" He said, "and this girl is…?"

"That´s Izumi Kyouka" Nakahara-san explained, "the girl that Kouyou brought in."

"Demon Snow" Mori-san said. "If I'm not mistaken."

"That is correct." Answered Kyouka, keeping all emotion out of her voice, somehow managing to leave behind the fact that we had just killed a person, a doctor. "I have assisted Atsushi on his mission."

"Is that so?" Mori-san moved to sit on a red chair behind a mahogany table. "Now, I understand that you had an encounter with the Unnamed brothers." He clasped his together below his chin and rested his head while Kyouka-chan and I told him what we had seen. That's when I finally heard what Kyouka-chan had been through during our encounter with th unnamed brothers.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Izumi Kyouka was not the kind of girl who spent time in the outdoors. She liked the city better, and its outskirts the best. Being surrounded by trees had always been unnerving to her; the unending green blanket enveloping everything, the mysterious sounds, the textures and the dangers, it was too infinite, too powerful.

She had been confused, not particularly scared about the change in her surroundings or her clothes, but certainly very alarmed by the raging woods raising around her. One minute she had been launching at an unnamed man in a house that did not exists, wearing her red kimono, dagger at hand, and then she was standing on a small dirt path, a revolver were her dagger had been and a white dress instead of her kimono. She realized there was a red cape, no, a riding hood, over her dress.

Kyouka looked around for a minute, the trees themselves seemed to hum with life. She soon realized she was lost. She began to wonder where she was, but the more she thought, the more her spiraled into confusion and then she wondered, who am I?

While she looked around hoping to find some clue, a set of yellow, cat-like eyes shone amongst the trees. He stepped out and it was a cat, or something like it, a tiger, or man who was somehow also a tiger. His shape was that of a man, but he was also covered in white and black fur, his hands were sharp clawed paws, and yet they looked so soft. He was by all means a beast, but something inside Kyouka told her he was trustworthy.

"Do you know where we are ?" She asked.

"Inside the forest of course." he answered. "Where are you going with that gun?"

She looked down at the revolver and wondered. "I think I have to kill somebody." this seemed quite logical to her. "Or else and everyone else will be mad at me, they won't feed me anymore if I don't get my job done."

She stood like that, trying to remember who she was and who she was supposed to kill until she looked up to the tiger's eyes and remember.

Atsushi

Her new friend was trying to deal with the unnamed brothers all by himself.

"I´m sorry Mr. Tiger, but I have to help a friend, I must leave." She spoke fast, a hint on despair tinting her voice. "Do you know a way out perhaps?"

"There is no way out."

But there had been, Kyouka had been set free just to find a very alarmed Atsushi. After the forest, she had betrayed the Mafia, helped an enemy/ally ecape, then (accidentally?) betrayed her new and only friend, and killed a doctor.

All in a day's job.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

"So you were trapped inside the story?" I asked "As if you'd become a part of it?" What Kyouka-chan described sounded an awful lot like the Red Riding Hood story I had been given. I didn't say this, though, because I wasn't sure I wanted Mori-san and Nakahara-san to learn more about me, Kyouka-chan, or even about the unnamed all, it wasn't just one book, but a series of them that allowed the Brothers Grimm to do things we couldn't even begin to imagine. If the Mafia got ahold of even one of them, there was no saying what they, what we, could do. But also, I wasn't sure could could deal with the brothers at all.

Kyouka-chan and I had been completely defenseless against them. Maybe we weren't the most powerful members of the Mafia, but we had been trained, we should have been able to do something, but we were just puppets, the brothers had controlled the encounter.

"The more time I spent inside the book, the more I became a character and forgot who I was." Kyouka-chan said. "In some ways it was a lot like real life, but distorted, I was still an assassin, I was still under the command of Kouyou, Atsushi was still a man-tiger…" She broke off. "But it was…. I don't know how to explain it…." she looked up, as if trying to peer into her memories. "It was like that story was overriding my real memories."

"This must be another ability granted by the book." Nakahara-san reason.

"The books" Corrected Mori-san. "From what Atsushi-kun describes there were lots of them. Tell me boy, did they use only one of the books, or did everyone of them grant them a different ability?"

"I think they used more than one." I answered. "But honestly the memory is fuzzy at best, besides, after what Kyouka-chan described I don't think we can trust anything that happened in there, wherever we were."

Kyouka-chan took a step towards me. Her black shoes clicking against the marble floor.

"This is all very useful information." Was the leadof the Mafia praising us? "Anyways, you kids have a job to get back to." Said Mori-san. "Atsushi-kun should go back to the Armed Detective Agency and Izumi-san will keep finding ways to support you from a safe distance."

"M-Mori-san." I staggered, unsure of weather it was okay for me to address him directly. "At this point surely Ranpo-san from the Armed Detective Agency has investigated Yosano-sensei's disappearance." Her death "So surely he must've figured out my true allegiance."

"To be fair I don't think even you have figured out your true allegiance, Atsushi-kun." He answered. He knows what we were planning.

Kyouka-chan grabbed my hand in a sudden protective gesture. "But there will be plenty of time for that." He smiled, unbothered by the tense atmosphere. "Edogawa Ranpo-san will not be a problem"

I gulped. Kyouka-chan squeezed my hand. What is that supposed to mean?

"But they know about Atsushi already." Kyouka-chan spoke up. "Surely sending him will result in his death."

"They know" repeated Mori-san "Do they really?"

Nakahara-san chuckled. "Don't worry brat, we're not sending you on a suicide mission." He told me.

"The Black Lizard already took care of it."

Before I could ask exactly what they meant, or more specifically if Ranpo-San was death, Kyouka-chan's phone went off, both Nakahara-san and Mori-san gave her a knowing look, and she left after making a slight, polite bow, ready to kill again.

Hello internet!

It is I, the slowest fanfic writer ever. Sorry for taking so long and thank you for sticking up with this story.

As always, I'm grateful for any commentaries.

See you next chapter,

-Shikakku