Embarrassment 24: Spotted

"I give up," Yukio said, slamming his bottle down onto the table angrily. "Two weeks. For two weeks now, we've been hunting this stupid family down. We've circled this city three times, and for what? Nobody seems to know of the Maaka family anymore. It's like were chasing ghosts here... Waiter! How long does it take you to bring me another god damn beer!"

"Just a moment, Sir," the waiter said before running off to the kitchen.

"You should really calm down with the beers, brother," Keitaro said, leaning back in the booth and resting against the wall. "Maybe if you didn't pull a gun on the Usui boy, the Maaka's wouldn't have gone into hiding."

"And what about you little brother? You haven't done much to help look for those vampires. Why don't you use your so called amazing abilities and track the demons down?"

Keitaro snickered lightly. "You know I can't do that."

"Then what good are you to me?" Just then, the waiter came up behind Yukio holding another two beers in his hand. Unfortunately, he startled Yukio. Without warning Yukio swung his arms out catching the waiter in the gut, causing the man to drop to the ground and drop the beers. Yukio just stared at him. "You stupid boy. You should know better than sneaking up behind me. You should be lucky I didn't kill you."

The few people that were at the bar just stared, wide eyed, as the waiter struggled to his feet and cleaned up the mess. Keitaro just watched silently as the man walked off. Of course he felt sorry for the man but he wasn't about to show a weakness in front of his older brother. Yukio always had an aggressive nature. Keitaro had learned the hard way to stay out of his way.

"I think I'm just going to call father and tell him the mission was a failure," he said, pulling out his cellphone and dialing the number.

"You go ahead and do that. Then I won't have to be the one who gets..." Yukio trailed off. He had happened to be looking out the window when he saw somebody standing at the stoplight just a few meters away from the bar. "I'll be damned. Hold on a second, Little brother. What color was the hair of that half-vampire demon that we're looking for?"

"Purple. Why?"

Yukio grinned evilly. "Look."

Keitaro glanced out the window to where Yukio was pointing. Walking across the crosswalk was a girl with long purple hair. Little Kanon was going right past the bar.

Dammit, Kanon, Keitaro thought to himself. You couldn't have waited just five more minutes. I warned you that the next time I saw you, I would have to kill you. You're leaving me no choice.

"See, Little brother," Yukio said, snickering. He stood up. "You throw in the towel way too easy. Wait long enough and your prey comes to you."

Without even motioning for his brother, Yukio grabbed his things and headed for the door. Sighing, Keitaro payed for the beers, grabbed his jacket, and chased after his brother. Kanon wasn't far ahead of them, so they stayed out of sight. If all went well, the young girl would lead them right through the vampiric barrier and up to the Maaka's front door. It didn't seem very hard to hide from her. She seemed so preoccupied with somebody else though the Cross brothers didn't see who it was. At the corner of every block, Kanon would stop for a moment and speak to the air before continuing on. The entire time, Keitaro just wished she would lose them. He still didn't feel right taking down a vampire who hasn't committed any crimes yet.

"How much farther is it to this library, Papa?" Kanon asked her father.

"Not much further. You'd be pretty surprised to find that the vampiric library is hidden underneath the public library."

"Are you sure? I've been to the library many times and never saw this library."

"You've never been there at night, though."

It wasn't much longer before Kanon reached the public library. During the day, the large marble building with the two shisa statues sitting on either side of the large, wooden double-doors always had a very comforting and secure feeling about them. However, in the moonlight there was a very unsettling feeling about this place. Kanon was starting to have second thoughts about any of this. The library doors were locked, though there were no surprises there.

"Papa are you sure about this?" Kanon questioned, turning around to face Kenta. She was surprised to see him standing over by one of the walls next to an open window. Kanon understood what he wanted her to do but just didn't believe it. "I can't just break into the library."

"This is the only way. Kanon, I promise that you won't regret this."

Kanon didn't want to question the motives of her own father. But something was different about him and it was very noticeable. But she loved her father more than anything in the world and never had a thought in her mind that he would ever betray her. With that thought glued into her brain, she walked over to the window and climbed in. Meanwhile, Keitaro and Yukio were standing behind a tree just watching as she disappeared within the dark library.

"Why the hell would she break into a library in the middle of the night?" Yukio wondered.

"Maybe she want's to check out a book," Keitaro replied sarcastically.

"Don't be stupid. Well this sucks. I was hopping the little runt would lead me to the vampires. Forget this. I'm not going to let the demon get away from me this time."

"Wait a second," Keitaro said. "You're going to attack her now. I thought we were going to follow her to the Maaka's barrier. If we take her out now, we'll never find the rest of the Maaka family."

"So what. We've got the dumb ass cornered. And why do you care if I take the little girl out now? You haven't shown much care for this mission since it started..." Yukio paused. "Wait. Don't tell me you have feelings for the freak."

"What?" Keitaro asked angrily. "Don't even joke about that."

"Well, if you don't want to kill her, you can just wait out here. But I'm going in there and taking my prey out. Later, Little brother. You can explain to father why you don't want to do your mission."

Yukio pulled out a pistol from his belt and ran over to the window, showing off by diving through the window. Keitaro just watched him go with a look of discontent in his face.

"Dammit," was all he said.