A/N: Well. Now you know what I've been planning. From this point forward, there will be little characterization filler that doesn't have to do with the plot. Sure, people's feelings on the matter, but beyond that, it's smooth sailing from here on into the end. So… Let's earn our "drama" label now, shall we?

---

Jun nodded his head and tapped his hands on the steering wheel as he navigated the darkened streets from the recording studio back home. A shit-eating smile brightened his face as he mouthed the words to the free CD he had received from Kano Anzai, the lead vocals and guitar for Subtracting Worlds.

There had only been two of the band there that evening, but as Anzai had explained, he and Umeko, who was back-up vocals and guitar, hated each other's guts. That was why they usually failed to agree on songs or even to be seen together unless they were practicing or playing. Umeko had apparently broken up with Anzai to be with their bass player, a stick-in-the-mud named Kumagae Hidekazu. Jun had to just sit and absorb their dynamics before they even asked his name. Umeko had hit Anzai on the head and pushed him under the desk before introducing herself to Jun. She apologized that her boyfriend and her brother, Kiyomitsu, drums, weren't in, but they thought it was a wonderful opportunity since Umeko and Anzai were in and not throwing things at each other. Jun had had the fleeting idea that Umeko and Anzai didn't get along in the same way Itsuki and Gai didn't get along, which was actually very well.

Umeko had taken his portfolio and sat on his lap. "So, let's see what you have here, sweetie." She had skipped right past his resume and such went straight to the songs. Her slanted blue eyes had scanned the page, her whole body bobbing as she read the words. Jun had turned a red that, once again, rivaled his nanocontroller. But it was only a mere minute before she had leapt up and ran to Anzai's side, tugging on the sleeve of his shirt. "Hey, hey, read this one. It's kinda surreal, but…"

Anzai's amber eyes had read much slower than Umeko's, his lips moving as he read. Jun had squirmed, uncomfortable as the two guitarists read his words. It had been a song that Jun had just thrown in for laughs, called "Here and There". Umeko had been right, it was a very surreal song, and one that could have a whole bunch of different meanings.

Anzai's eyebrows jumped as he read the last line, and he had stared at Jun incredulously. "Jesus Christ, that's what you are."

"Um, no?"

Umeko bounced in front of where he sat. "It's absolutely perfect! Not straightforward, not giving away what the main idea is, and let's the listener figure it out for themselves!"

"When can you start, Aoi-san?"

Jun had scratched the back of his head. "Um, whenever you want me?"

And thus Jun got all the details worked out with the leader and back-up of Subtracting Worlds. His band. Jun had a job. And a job he had wanted for a very long time. It didn't matter if they were just local. He was a songwriter. This had to be the absolutely happiest day of his life.

Jun turned the car off after parking in the driveway. He opened the car door and exited, practically spinning as he searched his keys for the house door. After opening the front door, he pushed the button on his keys that locked the car before closing the front door behind him. Surprised by how dark the house was, he glanced at his watch. Well, no wonder. He had left almost three hours ago. Yurika had said she would stay up, but Jun was glad she had decided not to. She had to take a Jump shuttle to Hiratsuka and go through her weekly Jump tests later that day, as it was about one in the morning now.

Jun switched out his shoes into slippers and headed straight for their bedroom. But as he rounded the hall, he saw that the light was on in there still. Yurika wouldn't still be awake, would she? She must have just fallen asleep reading. Jun hoped so at least. He didn't want her half-asleep tomorrow while attempting to Boson Jump. They could end up somewhere like Ancient Jupiter if such a thing was to happen. Jun grasped the handle and opened the door, ready to scold Yurika if she was still awake before he would excitedly and ecstatically disclose his victory.

But he never got the chance. As soon as he had taken a step into the room and actually looked about, his hand fell from the handle. His heart skipped a beat, and began racing to catch back up with itself. His eyes grew wide in shock as his breath became erratic. He couldn't feel his legs. It, it couldn't have been, could it?

"No…" he breathed out slowly, his head beginning to shake without his knowledge. The back of his head, where his neck and head met, ached as his eyes began to feel a bit heavy and wet. He took several deep breaths to try to convince himself that this was all just a big joke. "It… It's not possible…" His hand, shaking, covered his mouth slowly.

The room, for the most part, was untouched. Most of their belongings were still in their perfect positions, the thin layer of dust on their surface still evenly coated. But most of the carnage was in the area of the bed. The red sheer curtains had large, dark stains upon them, hiding some of the view of the destroyed, blood-soaked bed. But the curtains did not hide the body sitting up on the bed. It was undeniably Yurika, dressed in the same pink and red nightie he had left her in. Though the nightie was even redder than it had been before, dark on the chest, yet lighter as it trailed down to her stomach, where her hands rested limply.

But that was certainly not the first thing Jun noticed. But it had solidified that what he had first saw was real. After all, there was no head attached to the gruesomely torn neck at the top of the body, no head resting against the back of the headboard. Yurika's head was, in fact, suspended from the ceiling fan Jun had asked her to turn on three hours prior, hanging from her blood-streaked blue-violet hair tied in a fierce knot over one of the blades.

Jun coughed and gagged as the thick smell of iron finally reached his senses. He forced the contents of his stomach to stay where they were as his eyes grew hazy from tears. Had they come from the sight, or the smell? Jun still did not believe that Yurika, Yurika was… He fell to his knees and stared at their tile flooring. It was impossible. Yurika couldn't… who could have done this?

Jun jumped as he realized that this wasn't something that had just happened to Yurika. Someone did it. Eyes wide and leaking over, he ran out of the room and grabbed the phone in the kitchen. His quaking fingers were quick to dial the emergency dispatcher's line. He attempted to stop the overflowing of his eyes as he pressed the receiver to his head. He started to hyperventilate as he heard it ring once. Twice. Then he heard a nasal operator's voice, as if bored and ready to go home. "What's your emergency?"

Jun struggled to get a hold of his voice. "M-my fiancée, she… she's been, been murdered. In… In our house. I… I found her."

Obviously the panic he was experiencing had permeated his voice, because the sound of ennui left the dispatcher's voice, going into full command. "Now just calm down sir. I've got a tracking on your address and I'm sending the authorities over there as we speak." Her tone drifted from commanding to very comforting. "Now, sir, where are you right now? Are you in the house?"

"Yes. In the kitchen." What the fuck did this have to do with anything?

"Okay, are you on a cord phone?"

"No."

"Sir, I want you to get out of the house, preferably into the front yard. We don't know if they are still in there or not, and we have no way of checking until the authorities get there. All right?"

The dispatcher didn't have to tell Jun twice. With a glance down the hallway, he quickly exited the house through the front door, not bothering to change his shoes. To think that he had just entered the house through this door as happy as a lark. "Okay. I'm… I'm outside."

"Okay. They should be arriving any time now. Just sit outside and don't go anywhere else. Now, I want you to stay on the phone with me, okay, sir?"

"Okay."

"Now, can you tell me your name? My name is Brenda Kayla Clements, but you can call me Brenda."

"…Aoi Jun."

"Ah, so you are Japanese? I was born in America but I came here as a child. Have you ever been to America ?"

"Yes. To visit my friend's mother and another friend's grandmother."

"Was that an awkward trip?"

"Not really."

"What are your friends' names, Jun?"

"The one with the mother in America is named Izumi and the one with the grandmother is Hikaru." Jun knew what the woman on the phone was doing. Trying to keep Jun from getting anymore into hysterics than he already was. It was a nice gesture, but probably protocol.

"Do they live in Tokyo as well?"

Jun didn't answer, but he stood as the police cars both came up to the front of his yard. "The cops are here."

"Oh, good. Let me talk to one of them."

Jun walked away from his house to one of the cars, where a female officer came out the driver's door. Jun held the phone out to her. "The dispatcher, Brenda wants to talk to you."

The officer smiled at him and took the phone from him. "Okay, what do we got? …I see. Okay. Yeah, I'll call for reinforcements if I need them. Bye, Brenda." She gave him the phone back and he hung it up. "Where did you find her?"

"In the… in the bedroom. It's… it's at the end of the hall." Without Brenda's comforting, nasal voice to talk about things other than the fact that Yurika was… decapitated, Jun felt his breathing quicken again. He began to fidget, his hands shaking as he tried very, very hard not to cry. The officer looked to her passenger, a young man about Jun's age, and gestured to Jun. She then, along with the driver of the other car, approached the house.

This new officer took out a notebook and opened it, taking a pencil off his ear. "Okay, Aoi-san, I'm really sorry we have to do this, but it's just to make sure everyone has reason to believe you didn't… you know."

"I… I didn't kill Yurika!" Jun's eyes grew wide and he started hyperventilating again. He could never do such a thing to his Martian goddess. He loved her with his whole being, even when she didn't love him back.

"I know, I know. We just want people to know it too. So, when did you last see… Yurika, is her name?"

"Yes… Around ten this evening. I… I got a call for a job interview then, and I had to get down to the recording studio right away."

"A job interview, this late? Wait, you said recording studio. Never mind." He wrote this down on his little notebook. "Okay, she was your… fiancée? Did you leave angry at each other?"

"No. She had wished me good luck. We were both, very excited, and happy. Happy, dammit!" Jun covered his eyes with the heels of his hands and threaded his fingers in his hair. "I didn't kill her."

"I know, it's okay. Just… answer our questions so we can make sure we can get the right guy. Who was giving this job interview, and where was it?"

"… Kano Anzai and Umeko Johnson. It was at… the Animal Studio. I was there until about one this morning." Jun let his hands fall and his head bend down to stare at the ground.

"Okay. Thank you… Jun? Right? Now, I want to ask you some things about your fiancée. Did she… have any enemies?"

"No!" Jun shouted. But as he realized the truth, he sat down on the ground. The officer joined him. "Well… I wouldn't call him an enemy. They fought a lot, but he's my best friend!"

"His name, please?"

"…Tenkawa Akito. But, but… Yurika's old girlfriend, she had cheated on Yurika with HER old girlfriend… Erina Kinjo Won and Onikirimaru Kaguya. But there really shouldn't be anyone else."

"Thank you. I know it's hard." The male officer looked up as the female from before came back. She looked winded and smelled slightly of vomit. "Call for reinforcements. They aren't here, but it's another one of the Jumper murders. She was decapitated."

The male officer paled and reached for the radio at his belt. He spoke into it in an array of numbers and letters that Jun couldn't bear to attempt to decipher. The female officer laid a hand on his shoulder. "It's been a long, hard night for you. I know. I'm sorry. But I'm afraid you can't stay here for a while. Do you have anywhere else to go? If not, we can, you know, make arrangements."

For the first time all evening, it was clear what Jun was going to do. He held his hands together in hopes of stopping the shaking as a new set of tears pooled up in his eyes. "I have somewhere to go."

---

The ringing phone erupted Akito out of his rather odd dream where running coaches were pouring out of his legs and yelling at him for a broken phone. The phone bit, of course, he refuted with the sound of said ringing phone. "It's just fine," he mumbled, before realizing that that really was the phone ringing. He untangled himself from his still snoozing boyfriend's limbs and stretched. "Motherfucking Hikaru, answer the damn phone…" He then reached off to his right and picked up the receiver. "Moshi-moshi?" He rubbed his eyes and, in the blurred vision he had without aid, noticed that it was around one-thirty in the morning. He groaned loudly. Whoever was calling better have had a good reason.

"…Akito? Is that you?" The soft voice brought Akito into full alertness. There was no denying that voice. It was Jun. But he sounded so small and soft, he could have been right there, whispering from across the room.

"Junny? Wh-what the hell are you calling so late? What's wrong?" Akito sat up in bed, the blankets and sheet pooling at his waist. Gai still hadn't made a move, something Akito glared at him for now.

"Akito… I need you to come and get me." Well, that made no sense. Jun had a car. But as Akito heard a sob from the receiver, he realized that it wasn't a good time for Jun to be attempting to drive anywhere.

"Sure, okay. Where are you? What's happened, Junny? Are you okay?"

"No…" Another sob, and then the tears were audible in Jun's voice. "I'm not okay, Akito. I'm here, outside my house. Yurika… she… she…"

"She didn't. Don't tell me that bitch kicked you out, because I swear to Aqua–"

"She's dead, Akito!" Akito's words died in his mouth. What? Yurika was… dead?

"What?"

"She was murdered in our house, Akito!" Jun's voice cracked again and the sobs were more apparent, as opposed to just audible some of the time. "I came home and found her dead. Flamma, I need you to come and get me!"

"Okay. I'm gonna come and get you." Akito hung up the phone and turned the light on, which woke Gai up before flinging off the blankets and running to the closet, ripping down a pair of pants and the first shirt he could find, which was one of Gai's.

Gai sat up in bed and rubbed his eyes. "Ugh… what? What…" He looked at the clock. "What the fuck are you doing rushing around at fucking one-thirty in the morning?"

"I need to go get Junny. Now." Akito got dressed quickly, hopping about to pull on the pants.

"What? Why?"

As soon as Akito was fully dressed, or as fully dressed as he was going to get in the adrenaline rush he was experiencing, he turned to his boyfriend and answered, with a straight face. "Yurika is dead. Murdered."

Gai blinked quickly. "What…? How?"

"He didn't say, but I have to go." Akito left the room quickly. With a quick glance in Hikaru's dark room, he growled at how dumb he was. Hikaru wanted to be up early tomorrow to go visit the Tokyo Pentakami Church . Akito shook his head and, instead of heading for the stairs, he entered Izumi's room without knocking and turned on the light.

Izumi, startled, looked around quickly with narrowed eyes, until she saw Akito standing in her room. "Yes, I know it's one-thirty. I need you to come with me."

"What? Why? What's going on? Where're you going?" Izumi pulled the covers off her body, obviously sensing Akito's urgency.

" Tokyo . We need to pick Jun up."

Izumi stripped out of her nightclothes without a thought and pulled on the clothes she had planned to wear later that day. "All right. But what's going on? Did Yurika get sick of his puppy-dog mannerisms and kick him out, or what?"

"Yurika has been murdered."

Izumi stopped dressing for a moment, the turned to look over her shoulder. "Are you serious?"

"More than. I need you, Izumi. Jun needs you. You know how to deal with this a little better than I do." Akito pleaded with her. Akito may have been the closest to Jun as all of them, but Izumi was a close second, and with her experience in losing lovers to death, she was required.

"All right." She fastened her skirt onto her body and practically dragged Akito out of her room. "We need to get going now, then."

---

It had taken an hour of more police cars, yellow crime-scene tape, and being moved to different parts of the property before Jun saw the tell-tale black SUV pull up across the street. There was no room for it in front of his house, obviously. But as the front doors on both sides opened quickly and the first two people Jun had seen since he came home that he knew came out, Jun couldn't help but feel some degree of relief all over his shattered emotions.

With his door being closer to Jun's house, Akito was the first to reach him, running out of the vehicle and across the street. Akito wrapped his arms around Jun as tightly as he could, and the embrace was quickly matched. Relief overwhelmed Jun's senses and he felt a fiftieth round of tears burning in his eyes. "Akito…"

"I know. It's okay. Me and Izumi, we're gonna take you home, all right?" Izumi reached them then. Jun saw her and straightened slightly, feeling as though he didn't deserve to be distraught. But she wrapped her arms around the two of them, resting her head on Jun's.

Apparently they had been noticed, because the young man that interrogated Jun came over. "Excuse me, but this is a crime scene. No onlookers."

Izumi was the first to recover. "We're his friends. He called us to come and pick him up. We're going to take him to his previous residence." The acid in her voice was enough to melt through several floors, and its effect was not lost on the man. With his knees practically shaking, he took out his notebook.

"Okay, that's all right. We told him to do that. We just need your names, contact information and such. And, uh… That one over there wouldn't be Tenkawa Akito, would he? We'd like to ask him some questions."

"No problem. That is him, yes, and I am Maki Izumi. We live at Yamada Manor in Kawasaki . You can't miss it. And our phone numbers are all the same and listed in the phonebook. Either under my name, his name, Jun's name, Yamada Jiro, Kazamo Itsuki, Subaru Ryoko, or Amano Hikaru."

The officer hastened to write these names down. "All right. Could you ask Tenkawa-san…"

Izumi nodded, then tapped Akito on the shoulder. Once she had his attention, she whispered something in his ear. With narrowed eyes, Akito reluctantly let Izumi wrap her arm around Jun's shoulder and turned to the officer, pushing his glasses up. "Yeah?"

"Where were you between ten and around one?"

"Let's see… I went to bed at eleven after watching some TV… and I was sleeping after that. I was at home the whole time."

"Is there anyone that can confirm this?"

"My boyfriend, G –I mean, Yamada Jiro."

"You faltered."

"Yeah, his nickname is Gai, and I call him that all the time."

"Aoi-san stated that you weren't exactly on good terms with Misumaru-san?"

"Not really. I'm an ex of hers, you see, but we have recently decided that fighting was useless, and we just figured tolerating each other's presence was fine. Besides, whether she called me childish or not, I wouldn't have killed her. Ever. I knew her when I was little, for Aqua's sake!"

"All right. Just trying to narrow down the suspects. You understand, right? Just trying to do my job."

"I'm sorry. I… It just pisses me off that someone would do such a thing. Kill Yurika…" Akito looked away, then over his shoulder. Izumi kissed Jun at his temple. Akito looked back to the cop. "Can we go now? I'm sure you guys know where we're going."

"Right. All right. I think we've gotten all we need from you guys, so you're free to go." He fumbled in his pocket, and pulled out a card, handing it to Akito. "If you think of anything else, or if he does, or anything, call us. We'll appreciate it."

"We will." Akito then turned to Izumi and Jun. "You okay, Junny?"

"No."

Izumi nodded. "Which one of use would you rather sit with on the way home, Junny?"

"…Akito." Izumi nodded. It was obvious she wasn't offended at all. She took her arm off of Jun's shoulders so Akito could place his there. Then she headed for the driver's seat of the car that she had just been driving. Jun looked at the house once more, over his shoulder. He took several breaths before glancing back at Akito. Akito smiled softly at him, squeezing his shoulders as they started across the street. Jun rested his head on Akito's shoulder and closed his eyes, letting his best friend lead him.

Once they were both in the back seat and Izumi was heading back to Kawasaki , Akito allowed himself to think. The rush and urge to get Jun was over now that Jun was with them, his head still resting on his shoulder. Akito patted the dark blue tresses softly. Someone had killed Yurika. Yurika was dead. It was such an odd thing to hear, or say. But it was true. No denying this one. Jun's head was practically on fire, it was hot. Akito allowed some of his own power to cool down the overheating man. Jun didn't ever get this upset. Enough to burn things, yes, but the only other time he was this upset was when he was pissed off at Magus-Akatsuki for hurting Yurika. That had resulted in Akatsuki's death. But Jun had been angry then. Uncontrollably so. Now… even if Akito was extremely pissed off at whoever decided it was a good idea to off his childhood friend and ex-girlfriend, Jun wasn't. Jun was in an all time state of low.

And there was the little problem of who actually did it. Akito gritted his teeth together as he continued to run his fingers through Jun's hair. Whoever did it was going to pay, miserably.

---

"Good morning, I'm Anastasia Ball."

"And I'm Andy Suarez. In this morning's top story, a new addition to the string of brutal murders of prominent societal figureheads was killed late last night in Tokyo , giving forensic psychologists something to scratch their heads over."

"Around midnight this morning, Misumaru Yurika, former captain of the ND-001 Nadesico, was killed in her home by what authorities believe are the same murderers that killed Kusakabe Haruki, Aqua Crimson, and Mythos Entrada. Drew Evans, who has been following this story, joins us live at the scene. Drew?"

"Thank you Anastasia. Behind me is the home of the late Misumaru Yurika and her fiancé Aoi Jun. As you can see, forensic investigators are still looking into any clue that could possibly point in the right direction of who has been behind these awful murders. Due to the graphic nature of the following tape, parents and squeamish viewers are advised to take discretion."

"It was like something from a horror movie. Most of the room was untouched, but the bed was a complete wreck and covered in blood. And the ceiling fan!"

"Lieutenant Paulette Luella James was the first on the scene."

"Honestly, I don't know what they did with those other guys, but you really need to sit down and think when you see someone's head hanging from a ceiling fan."

"That was how Misumaru was found early this morning. Her decapitated body was found by her fiancé, Aoi Jun, who was returning from an interview late last night. He was unable for comment, but officers at the scene say that he was in a state of utter shock and grief over the loss of his to-be wife."

"But at this point, the question is who did this. The fact that there was absolutely no sign of forceful entry and the brutality of this killing is why it is being grouped with the other three. Anastasia."

"Drew, I think all our viewers are wondering if the police have any leads at all, whatsoever."

"They do have quite a few leads to investigate, but it is proving difficult. With the information that it was a Jumper that came in and killed Misumaru, and the fact that that Jumper was, most obviously, a Martian, all three Martians left, Doctor Inez Fressange, Onikirimaru Kaguya, and Tenkawa Akito are all still considered suspects for this crime."

"Uh, Drew, most people were under the impression that it was Misumaru that was aiding in the other killings, due to the fact that her magical and Jump signature were present at all scenes. How does this change the authorities' focus?"

"Obviously, this wasn't a suicide, so the killer is most definitely not Misumaru Yurika. There is no word if an apology will be issued to her father, Admiral Misumaru Kouichiro, from Ninlan at this time. However, signature readers are being called in to identify any magical or Jump signatures within the room or anywhere else in the house for that matter."

"All right, thank you Drew."

"And the most likely reason that an apology hasn't been issued from Ninlan is the fact that both the Emperor and Empress of the planet are on Earth, and in Japan , no less. They have come early for the nation's inauguration to the System Alliance, as they have been bid permission to join due to their wise choices regarding a rise for independence within their own nation. Cordell Strong has the story."

---

Jun slowly opened his eyes to a rather bright room. That's weird. Jun had been under the impression that they had put a blanket up to block off most of the light so they could sleep longer. Oh, it must've fallen down.

Instead of getting up, Jun stared at the ceiling. It was… a lot higher than he remembered it. Where was the ceiling fan? And that post… where were the poles those posts held up? The red curtain surrounding their bed? Where was all of it? Jun just mentally shrugged and stretched his arms out to the sides, feeling for Yurika.

All he found was cold sheets. Oh, of course. Yurika had Jump Tests on Sundays. That's where she was. Jun rolled to his left so he could check out the clock to see what time it was. But there was no table on that side. Only a rather large plant. That's funny. Jun didn't remember them having a large plant over there. Just a nightstand and a standing lamp.

Click. Everything from the night before flooded into his brain. The phone call, the interview, saying goodbye to Yurika for the last time, coming home to find her head strung up on the ceiling fan, calling the police, calling Akito, coming home, going straight to bed to worry about nightmares as the sight of his lovely Yurika decapitated and her chest a gory mess stayed in his thoughts. Everything came back to Jun like an incoming train. He rolled back to his back and closed his eyes, resting his left hand on his forehead. He let out a single sob as his mouth contorted into a sad grin and he tried to cry. All of this, he needed to release it so much. He couldn't bear to hold in all this pain and suffering. His Yurika was dead. Never to live again. He would never hear her voice or see her smile ever, ever, ever again. It was over. His time with her was over before it had even truly begun.

He hadn't even realized how hot it had become in his room until he felt his hand slide off his head from the sweat that had formed between the two surfaces of skin. Jun took a deep breath and tried to control himself, flinging the sheets and blanket off himself and shoving his feet into his slippers. Wiping the sweat off his neck, he tried very, very hard to get a hold of his magic again. He didn't want to burn down the whole guest house.

Or did he? It would have made him so relaxed to do so. To just let go, and let his magic do the talking. He wanted a release, and this was so easy to do. He had it all built up inside anyway. He just needed to let the floodgates down, and away it would go. Simple as that.

But he couldn't do that. It would be so easy. But… he couldn't. This was all he had now. He didn't have Yurika. He didn't have his house. He didn't even have his clothes. He was still dressed in the same thing he wore to the interview. He pulled off his band shirt, which was quickly becoming rather sweaty itself. But Jun felt a breeze at his back, a breeze that he knew well. He looked over his shoulder tentatively, then turned. Hikaru stood at the top of the stairs leading into the room, her hands fisted at her hips and a frown distorting her face. She shook her head slowly before holding her arms out to him. "Come here, darling."

Jun didn't need to be told twice. He walked straight over to the redhead and rested his forehead on her shoulder. He really had to bend down to do so though, with her being so short. She wrapped her arms around his bare torso and squeezed him tightly, patting him on the back. "There, there, Junny. Hey, you know what?" She pulled him away so she could look into his face and give him an award-winning smile, one everyone in the house knew meant she was really sad. "We got some clothes for you downstairs! Of course, they're Akito's, so they probably smell a little funny, but no harm done, right?"

Jun, despite feeling really, really bad, gave her a very small smile in return. "Right."

Hikaru grinned and took his hand, leading him down his own stairs to where the TV was already on, but showing some rather dumb looking cartoons, not the news or anything like that. Some jeans and a t-shirt were laid out on the couch, which were obviously the clothes Hikaru had been speaking about. All the windows were uncovered and the room was very sunny and bright. Jun couldn't tell if this was all Hikaru's doing, a purposeful scene, or something that was just coincidental. Jun was even beginning to feel a little better as he picked up the shirt and stared at it for a moment before pulling it over his head.

But almost as soon as he got the shirt over his head, he felt the calming feel of the room have a small hint of anger in it. It was only then that he noticed that the breeze that was so perfectly Hikaru that he felt earlier was still about, probably the reason why he was feeling a little better. But he got his head through the neck hole of the shirt to see Hikaru stomping over to the door to the deck, where Akito stood glaring at Hikaru.

'What the hell?' That didn't seem to make much sense. Jun listened the best he could to Hikaru and Akito. Anything to get his mind of the images that were in his mind. Hikaru's attempts to keep things calm and collected weren't going to go well for the next few minutes, he could tell.

"I thought we had Gai trying to keep you in bed or in the parlor or something!"

"Hikaru, I need to be in here, okay?! I'm Junny's best friend and for Aqua's sake, how are you so sure you could stop him from burning down the whole guest house? It's already hotter than hell in here!"

"I'm working on fixing that. Just because you're ice doesn't mean that you're the only one that can prevent such a thing."

"Then let Izumi in here or something! I know she can counter it too, and she'll probably be a better help than you are!"

"Keep your fucking voice down, Tenkawa. In case you couldn't tell, Izumi has her own little crisis to deal with right now. I know why you're in here. We are ALL hurting 'cause of this, okay? And… I know you're looking for something to make you feel like you're doing something. You and Junny were the closest to Yurika, even if I did share a room and a bathroom with her for a long time. But seeing you and talking to you ISN'T going to help Junny. It's going to keep him focused on it. We don't want him to be hurting now. Not until he gets a little more used to the idea. How the fuck do you think I was able to help Izumi from being suicidal after Ken died? Some of us may have been closer to the situation than others, and some of us may have been closer to Yurika, but no more than Junny. Junny needs someone to help him through the worst of it, not to make it hurt more because that same person is hurting as well."

"So you're saying you don't care about the fact that Yurika is fucking DEAD?"

"No, I'm not saying that at all. I'm saying that I can put that away until it's necessary. Right now, I can keep Jun in a good place, keep his mind off the idea itself until he can get used to the sudden change in his life, and if something goes wrong, we both know I'm strong enough to stop him from even attempting a mass bonfire."

Jun couldn't hear anymore, but it was only a few seconds later that the cold feeling behind him left, and the slight anger in the air dissipated into a lazy calm that sedated him slightly. Hikaru joined him back on the couch. "You need to change your pants, Junny."

"I can't. His pants are too small."

"Hmm. Maybe we can get Gai to bring us some of his pants, okay? They may be a bit longer, but I'm pretty sure Gai has a bigger waist than Akito." Hikaru smiled again, and Jun couldn't help but mirror it. He laid his head in Hikaru's lap. Hikaru didn't seem surprised at all. In fact, she ran her hands through his hair softly, brushing it out.

"Are you really trying to make me forget?"

The hands in his hair paused, but continued their work on his somewhat dirty blue locks. "No. I'm trying to keep you from forgetting. Hopefully, it'll work better than with Izumi. You see, she depends on having someone in her life to stay happy. I don't want you to be like that. I want you to get used to the routine of living everyday, even if it's without her, without you having to see what you saw every time you close your eyes. Does that make sense?"

Jun nodded. "A little. Enough, that is." He fell silent again and watched a kid onscreen throw a car. "So… you know what it looked like?"

"They said on TV."

"Oh. What else did they say?"

"They have a couple leads, but it's just them following through with investigating all the Martians again. Of course, they called here a few times to check into Akito's alibi, but they're just going to keep a light surveillance around here. As upset as Akito is about the whole thing, nobody really believes he did it. So, they called in the best of the best to check the signatures at the house."

"The best of the best?"

"They said their standard signature readers couldn't interpret all of them, since there were so many spots. They had to call in a master. Lucky for them that one is visiting right now."

---

It was such horrible news to wake up to, especially after just arriving in Tokyo for a week before the inauguration ceremony. Rika-chan was murdered in her home. Rika-chan, dead. One of the people she had been planning on surprising with a visit. Minato already knew they would be in town. So that was why Minato had been the first person Megumi contacted once she heard the news that morning.

"Hi, Meg."

"Oh Gods, Minato, are you watching the news?"

"Unfortunately."

"Why? What did Yurika ever do to deserve this, Minato!?"

"She didn't. That's what's so horrible about it."

"You're so calm, Minato… How? I'm going to burst into tears any moment now. How can she be dead?"

"I'm not calm. I'm trying not to freak out."

"Who are you talking to, Minato?"

"Look, Meg… I gotta go. Yukina… she doesn't know yet."

"Gods above. I'm going to come over as soon as I can."

But of course, that didn't happen. No sooner than Megumi got off the communicator to Minato than she received a telephone call from Tokyo 's Finest, stating that they were absolutely stumped when it came to the sheer complexity of the signatures at the crime scene. They were sympathetic that Yurika was one of Megumi's best friends, but they mentioned that it might help if she came to help out.

And, of course, Megumi's sense of duty had overridden her senses and emotions. This is how she had found herself, along with a rather grumpy Rumiko, standing in front of the house she had been planning on storming that same day, only with Minato instead of Rumiko in tow and with a much hollower of a purpose, rather than supporting the efforts to find Yurika's killer.

"I honestly don't know what to think anymore. Crimson is killed and everyone's eyes go to Ninlan. Mythos is killed and my, along with many others', eyes turn to Yurika. Now, Yurika is dead… Is the next suspect going to be condemned to death?"

"I don't know." Megumi was regretting her agreeing to this. It was true; she was one of the few master readers when it came to signatures. She had excelled in the field so much that it just made sense that, with her in town, Tokyo would beg her to come in when their own readers couldn't decipher them. But did she really want to do this? The scene of her former captain Yurika's DEATH? Megumi took a long breath and looked to her husband. He glanced back at her and pushed some of his escaping hair behind his ear. With raised eyebrows and a small frown along with a glance at the house, Megumi knew he was asking her the same question she was asking herself. She nodded slowly. "Let's go."

Walking into what was, apparently, Yurika and Jun's house was not unlike walking into a stranger's house. Megumi had never seen the place before this, and she was certain that if Jun decided to come back and live here (unlikely), she probably wouldn't visit. The décor was both subdued and crazy, the perfect depiction of the obvious excitement and commitment that they shared. Just looking at the furnishings made Megumi want to weep. It was obvious that they had big dreams, but they were also so in love. Jun deserved Yurika, and Yurika finally wanted him. Not once did Megumi see so much good in some of the gossip she had been hearing from Minato. They could have had such a lovely future together and spawned so many little Yurikas and Juns to populate Earth. But… it wasn't meant to be. Yurika was gone. It may not have hit Megumi yet that she would never see her friend again, but it certainly was run home that already one person's life was ruined by this, one still among the living.

"I don't know about you, but maybe we should start where we know the killers were. It's no point looking into all these spots if we don't know what we're looking for when we search for the Teleportation spot." Megumi was jarred from her thoughts as Rumiko glanced about the living room and dining room areas. Megumi quickly closed her eyes and called up the feeling of the old spell Rumiko had cast on her eyes to see signatures. The tingly, asleep prickling upon her eyelids again, she reopened them, and gasped. So THAT was why they needed a master reader. The whole house was practically swimming in silvers and reds. Yurika and Jun must have been pretty open with each other for their emotions to imprint themselves so onto their surroundings. Either that, or they were shooting their magic right and left, but Megumi doubted that, as there were very few singe marks on their belongings. Yurika had a habit of getting into other people's heads to talk to them or trying to hear what they were thinking. Yurika barely ever used her magic to control anyone, but she had a tendency to use it pretty much all the time at a lesser degree.

But Rumiko had a point. They could be checking all these signatures all day, and the killers may have never come through there in the first place. There wouldn't be a way to know until they could differentiate between whoever had intruded, and those who had resided here. Megumi nodded, pointing down the hall "Bedroom, right?"

"Right. End of the hall, they said." Megumi nodded and followed Rumiko down the hall. Even though it wasn't lit along the hall, it practically glowed from all the always moving silvers and reds. Certainly such signature concentration in one place couldn't be healthy.

"Hey, Rumi? What sort of thing could come out of so many imprints and signatures? This doesn't look like a very good thing, as much as there is."

"I'm not entirely sure, but I think that, since magic is working with Bose and retrospect particles, we could very possibly be standing in one big Teleportation Field right now."

"I was afraid you'd say that."

"I didn't want to, you know. But it would explain how they got in here. We should probably mention it."

"It IS the last piece that connects this one to all the others."

"Exactly." Rumiko stopped in front of the bedroom door. Megumi couldn't tell, but as tense as his shoulders got, she had the impression that he really, really did not want to do this. But he simply rolled and stretched them before turning back to Megumi. Megumi was glad he was still willing to go through with it. He didn't bring paperwork to apologize to Yurika's father as the Emperor of Ninlan, but maybe continuing help in the investigation of this string of serial murders would show more than the trip to Sasebo they were planning once they were done here. "You ready? I don't know how bright it's going to be in here."

"I'm ready even if it's like staring into the sun, Rumi." Rumiko nodded and opened the door, sighing. He held it open for her to go in. Rumiko was a mage, yes, but Megumi had a lot more practice when it came to signatures, especially when Rumiko went down on account of Magus, way back… a year ago? A mere year ago? It had to be more. Megumi stepped into the room, which was brightly lit from sunlight and the ceiling fan light, but also from signatures that were even more concentrated than the ones in the front rooms and the hallway. Quite a bit more red than Megumi expected at all. It was enough so that the room was a few degrees hotter than it should have been, even with it being the beginning of July. But it was mostly drowned out by silver, silver, silver.

Megumi narrowed her eyes to lower the intensity of the glow, and actually took a good look at the scene. Particularly at the bed, where they had said Yurika was when she died. Megumi totally ignored the magical residue as her blue eyes focused directly on the bed. The sheets and covers where red, but they were some patches, mostly on the farther side, that were much darker than the rest. The headboard was absolutely bathed in dark red blood, so much that Megumi was certain that she was not just imagining the smell even while standing at the door. 'That was where she was killed… and that's where they cut off her head.' Her eyes trailed away from the farther side and to the closer end. Another large dark patch. 'And that was where her head was hung for all to see.'

Megumi gagged, and she felt arms around her waist in an instant. Megumi could feel his arms trembling, or was that her stomach? Her eyes blurred and quickly came back into focus as the tears overflowed just as quickly as they had filled her eyes. There was no denying it now. None whatsoever. Yurika was dead. Killed. Murdered in her very own home. A place where she was supposed to feel safe. She was never coming back. Her body was at the coroner's, her spirit, only the Gods knew where. She was dead. Rumiko pressed his chest against her back. She could feel the hair that had come loose from his makeshift ponytail against her neck, his breath on her shoulder. She could feel the rumbling in his chest as he began to speak softly to her. "Megan, I'm so sorry. We never should have come here. I'm so sorry."

Suddenly, Megumi knew exactly where Rumiko had been coming from when Mythos had died. Rumiko had gone out for blood and wouldn't let even the Lennon issue stand in his way. Mythos had married them. Mythos was the former Emperor. Mythos had been one of Rumiko's most trusted advisors, and one of his closest friends. And now the tables were turned. Megumi quickly wiped her cheeks and cleared her throat. "No. We have to do this. We owe it to her." Her voice was hoarse, as if she had been screaming. Had she been? She pried Rumiko's arms from her waist and turned to face him. She was certain, on account of his paled, strangled visage, that she seemed a bit too intense for his tastes. She tended to do that when it was time for Rumiko to face facts. He nodded slowly, conceding.

The two of them got to work right away, Rumiko checking all the reds to narrow it down some while Megumi started with the different patches of silver she didn't ever seem to run out of.

---

The morning had seemed to start out fairly well. It was a bit windy out, and there were a few clouds in the blue sky, but it was a fairly nice day in Peaceland when Ruri had awakened Omoikane before dressing so she could read the news with him. After finding no email in her box, and nothing very exciting in regards to computers, and after reading her daily comics, Ruri read the headlines. Suddenly, the day seemed much darker, as if all the clouds in the world had come into the formerly-Danish sky, even though it was still as clear as ever.

The news that Yurika had been killed during the night was important. Very important. Particularly to Ruri. This was why Omoikane had fully expected Ruri to be sobbing and crying after he read it as well. But… he was confused. She simply pulled out of him, took a deep breath, and stood, stripping out of her pajama shirt and digging in her closet as if it were any other day. As if they hadn't just read that their former captain was dead. Omoikane kept quiet though. Ruri was sometimes a mystery, even to him, as to what she was feeling. One could only trust what she expressed. But did she really express apathy towards this tragedy? Disinterest?

Oh no. She was in fact, very interested. The dress she had chosen for the day told that loud and clear. Chinese-style, silk, short-sleeved, and reaching to her feet with a slit that exposed much of her right leg, it was almost completely black, with the trim, clasp, and embroidered flowers in a striking white. Pentakami mourning colors for someone like her. As she dressed, Omoikane felt the unnerving desire to say something. Anything. Blinking behind the thick frames of his color-mixing glasses, he bit his lip and held out his right hand, reaching out for his keeper. But he only had the chance to take a single step towards her when there was an abrupt knocking on the door. "Your Highness? Are you abed?"

Omoikane glanced back at Ruri, frowning and trying to look as sympathetic as possible. She merely sighed and clasped her shoes. "Tell Alfred to go away, Omoikane."

The first words she had spoken since reading about Yurika, and Omoikane was given an order. Quite disconcerting. But Omoikane was not one to vex his master. Almost against his will, he found himself marching to the door that lead out of Ruri's bedroom and opening the door enough so that he could block all vision into the room with his body. He was fairly sure he could see a small twitch in Alfred's cheek. Omoikane didn't even question as to what that meant. Alfred seemed completely obsessed with the image that the children projected. He wasn't cruel like Gwynth could be, but he did tend to have his priorities a bit out of order. Omoikane almost expected him to say something about his pajamas and disheveled hair, or about how late Ruri had slept (though it was only seven in the morning) when the stiff lip actually frowned. He lowered his voice, "Is Her Highness awake?"

"Yes."

"I see. I'm afraid… I'm afraid there is some bad news."

"She already knows." It was so easy to not have any inflection. No one expected him to be sad about Yurika's death, or even angry about it. So he didn't feel guilty about only being concerned about Ruri, rather than be sad about Yurika's murder.

"I see." Alfred seemed to frown deeper, her wrinkles becoming more prominent on his face. He tilted his head to see above Omoikane's. "Your Highness? Are you all right?"

"Ruri-sama wants you to go away."

He seemed surprised to hear such words from the robot in front of him, but he didn't seem like it long. "All right, then. I will be up to announce when breakfast is ready. But Her Highness would not be expected if she does not wish to join. His Majesty understands that Her Highness aches for her friend and former captain." With a small nod of the head, the old "nanny" of sort continued down the hall.

Omoikane bit his lip as he closed the door, looking back at Ruri. She simply sat on her bed, her hands clasping in her lap, her back facing the door. Omoikane didn't feel her in his head at all. So why was she so insistent that Alfred leave if she didn't want to even talk to Omoikane? He didn't need to connect to her to know that she was probably very distraught. Omoikane knew how important Yurika was to her. But Ruri… Ruri had grown out of agonizing silences and hiding her feelings behind general annoyance and impatience. This wasn't like her now.

Omoikane walked back to her bed and knelt beside her on the floor. He tilted his head to look up at her as she tied her hair up in black ribbons, his glasses falling down his nose a bit so that Ruri seemed to be in a somewhat lavender haze as he saw over the thick black frames. Once she finished tying up her hair in her usual ponytails, Omoikane attempted to dare it. He rested his hands on hers, placed back into her lap, and prodded Ruri's security wall. 'Open, open, open, please,' he chanted, but it never happened. Ruri separated their physical connection. Omoikane was brought back into the physical world quickly.

Ruri frowned and closed her eyes, pointing behind her at the door. "Tell him to go away too."

Omoikane looked past her to realize that another person was knocking on the door. "'Neechan! Come on, 'Neechan, I know you're awake!" Omoikane frowned deeply and found himself at his feet and at the door before he ever realized that he had been walking in that direction. He opened the door for the second time that morning to see Ariko pounding on the door, still dressed in his own pajamas and robe. He looked somehow both relieved and worried that Omoikane had answered the door. Of course, Omoikane did usually answer the door to screen out unwanted visitors, but that wasn't the point. "Omoikane, is 'Neechan all right? I know she knows."

"Who ELSE did Alfred tell?" asked Omoikane, feeling a bit of frustration in his normally mechanically-flat, childish voice.

Ariko appeared a bit taken aback by Omoikane's outburst. "Just me, I think. Since we actually knew her and all. I mean… I know 'Neechan knew her better than I ever did… she always just Kanchou for me, so it isn't as personal as it is for her…" Ariko didn't appear to know what he was saying.

So Omoikane said it for him. "Ruri's taken out her mourning." Ariko looked both a little shocked and mostly in horror. "I'm going to talk to her. Besides, she wants you to go away. She doesn't want to be disturbed." Ariko looked a bit like a fish, and under any other circumstances, Omoikane would have giggled at the comparison.

But the prince frowned and nodded. "Okay. Just… let her know I'm here for her. And, uh… I'll be calling Yukina later. Minato might have more details, if she wants them."

'Gods, no.'

"No." Ariko nodded and turned back towards his room, walking down the hall without saying a word more to Omoikane. Omoikane let out a sigh of relief and shut the door again. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you didn't want to talk to your family at all."

Ruri could be absolutely frightening at times. In previous years, this would have been when she cracked one of her enigmatic smiles that soon became something people depended on in awkward moments. Now, there was no soft, mysterious smile. Just a small snort of a humorless laugh and a pale finger lifted up and pressed it to her nose. Right on the button. This gesture of indicating that Omoikane's guess was right, while apparently harmless, scared Omoikane greatly. Such a simple sign, yet used in such a complex time to something that was anything but childish, something even morbid. Denying familial support when she could use it the most.

Omoikane bit his lip and, in movements that were far, far too smooth for his normal, not terrified state of mind, walked back to his position by the bed, knelt by the side of the bed in a position of submission. Only now, his head was bent down to look at his synthetic hands in his lap. He looked up quickly to Ruri, feeling a bit confused at her choices that morning. "Why?"

He didn't actually receive an answer. Instead, Ruri held out a hand to him, the one closest to him. Omoikane wasn't dumb. He knew what that meant. He slowly slid his hand into hers and let down all his barriers for Ruri. It took less than a second, but it seemed so slow, Ruri entering him. Omoikane wondered, absent-mindedly, if the sated feeling he tended to have in this state was anything like human sex. They used the same terminology, after all.

This thought train was derailed as familiar images flooded Omoikane's mind's eye. All those other children in La Homaro Instituto dreaming of their parents as Ruri dreams of splashing. Ruri never really able to talk to them of anything. Ruri's adoptive parents, the Hoshinos. Nergal had assigned her that family. It was loveless, but not cold. They had trained her to be the best, the very best, even though there wasn't any like her previously. Even when Mr. Bros and Mr. Hory had shown up on the doorstep with compensation money to buy back the custody papers so Ruri would be Nergal's property. And none of this ever fazed Ruri. It was business as usual. Her calm, nearly stoic voice cut through the dreamlike images that Omoikane knew so well, that he almost yawned for effect. "I never used to be close to people."

"I do believe that's quite the understatement, Ruri-sama."

A hum. More memories overwhelmed Omoikane's amusement at the short statement. Many from La Homaro Instituto, many, many more from the Nadesico. It took less than a second for Omoikane to know what was going to happen, and he braced himself. "BAKA!" All the different Ruris in all the different memories said together, forming a loud shout that would never have actually been emitted by the girl in question. Ruri only grumbled it under her breath or said it plainly. She never shouted at anyone. "Before… I never really considered people as anything but idiots."

Yurika. Akito. Hikaru. Izumi. Ryoko. Megumi. Minato. Mr. Bros. Mr. Hory. Uribatake. Gai. Itsuki. Akatsuki. Erina. Jun. Miss Fressange. "And… I even thought that the Nadesico's crew was that as well. They did fit the bill, of course. But over time, I came to love them all. Those my age," Ariko, Yukina, "and those… much older." Uribatake. Minato. Akito. Hikaru. Yurika. It froze on Yurika for a minute and Omoikane felt his throat shift as he involuntarily swallowed. Ruri had swallowed and the action moved to him. Not a large difference from normal. Omoikane felt his face grow hot, as if the interface beneath the rubbery skin was overheating. His eyes felt a little heavy as well, and his nose seemed to feel full. Omoikane knew this feeling: Ruri was on the brink of tears. He struggled to pull her out of him, but she held on tightly, not letting him go.

Instead, the memories changed into that one day in Peaceland after another fight with Rachiku. Ruri stuck her head out of her door. "Yurika is more of a mother than she ever will be!"

"I truly believed that when I said it. I still believe so, but that isn't surprising. My biological mother shuns me for what I am, for what makes me great. Yurika… she somehow was a key factor in my opening up. She showed me and everyone else…"

Yurika squealing over Akito, sobbing because Megumi was mean, truly happy to be doing her job, considering sacrificing her life to end the war. Omoikane felt his resolve slowly fade. This woman was dead. This absolutely beautiful, honest, true woman that was their captain was no more. Someone stabbed her three times in the chest and chopped off her head. All those smiles and tears were the only ones Yurika would ever shed again. Living on… only in memories. She would inspire no more of those, either. "She showed us all… that it was perfectly all right to show your emotions on your sleeve. That you could really win out if you went with your heart, rather than your head. But…"

All images disappeared, with only Ruri standing in the bright white light. Omoikane squinted into the blinding light, and, feeling a bit dumb for not doing so earlier, darkened it a bit, turning the white to light blue. Ruri watched the white be covered by the slight shade, and nodded. This was his meeting her inhabitance of his mind and body. That was her consent for him to enter her as well, intertwining them on a whole different level than any married couple in the real world could ever hope to achieve. This was digital and mental, emotional and total, until the lines between Ruri and Omoikane blurred so much that it was hard to tell where on ended and the other began, or which body they were in. And yet, they were connected in the physical world only by held hands.

Surrounded by the muggy, thick feeling of Ruri's consciousness, Omoikane sighed. He was just as much in her as she was in him. The feeling supported him from falling, but also filled everything on his insides. It was like drowning, only without the painful oxygen-deprived feeling humans felt when they experienced the event. Now he would be able to ask her anything and know, rather than be met with long silences. His first question was easy. "How do you feel about Kanchou's death?"

The answer, at first, was completely incomprehensible. Since he could feel and hear each and every thought Ruri had, it was as if she was duplicated a million times, and each duplicate was talking at once, all trying to be heard over the others. Unhappiness. Horribleness. Loss. Apathy. Fright. Paranoia. Pensiveness. Despondency. Hopeless. Like I'll never smile again. Like I've lost everything. Like I will never cry again. Like my life is over.

Finally, they all stopped chattering and one solid statement was made, louder than all the others, because it was truly Ruri's organization of all these thoughts at once. "As if Yurika took any happiness I had and ever could have to her grave." Omoikane nodded. This was probably the best way to say all that her head had screamed at them both. He didn't have the chance to say his next thought. Unlike Ruri, his thoughts weren't so scattered before he said them. He wasn't human, and his thought processes were much, much more straightforward. He wasn't even sure if he should bother asking this question, he felt it so redundant, when the voices representing Ruri's thoughts came back, clucking and squabbling about their own answers, as if fighting to make it into the final answer. Love. Respect. Adoration. Covetousness. Friendship. Because she was above us. Because she was everything we ever wanted to be. Because she was normal. Because she was kind. Because she saw past the exterior. Because she loved us for us. Because she followed her heart. Because she followed what she believed in. Because she was never anything more than herself.

Silence. Then the loud voice of the true Ruri. "Because Yurika was the one I looked up to. There is no denying, Omoikane, that I am sad. In all honesty… I don't know what I'm supposed to do with her being dead." My idol. My mentor. The one person I loved more than my family. The one person who would have taken me in at my mere request. Our mere request.

What now? What's left? What can we do? "I don't see many options left, Omoikane." Do what you know. Do what feels right. Feels better. Established. Worked before. Do it again. "I'm afraid I must go back to the way I was before." Cold. Heartless. Sarcastic. Bitch. Stoic. Emotionless. Flat. Honto, baka baka.

Omoikane pulled out of Ruri before she could even formulate that into a plain thought, ripping his physical hand away from Ruri's, severing their connection. Normally, Ruri would still be able to enter him, but the shock of the sudden separation forced her out. He stood, his legs shaking a bit as the feeling of being in the real world surprised him. Following through with her plans, there was no change to Ruri's face. Her mouth was still a firm line and her eyelids were in a rather normal position: not squinting in confusion or widened in shock. Though it was hard to miss the twin trails of wetness down her cheeks where that feeling of crying had disappeared. It had disappeared because it had dissipated with those two tears. But it wasn't enough to stop Omoikane from speaking out.

"I absolutely object, Ruri-sama!" No reaction. She must have expected this reaction. "You've come so far in being honest with your feelings and dealing with them up front and now you're going to revert back to the way you were before? That's completely backwards, Ruri-sama! That… sincerity you gained while on the Nadesico… that was NOT you regressing into something childish. That was how you were maturing, Ruri! Becoming more of an adult because you didn't just push your emotions away, because you dealt with them. No… you going back to that is regression. I won't have it!"

"The bonds I've made with people may have helped in my emotional growth, but how can you call this," she patted her chest, "this sadness I feel something good? I don't care. If being friends with people and loving them is going to be answered with them being ripped from me, I'm better off pushing them away."

"Kanchou would never have wanted you to go back into your shell, Ruri-sama. Certainly not because she was killed."

Ah, there was that old emotion. Her silver eyebrows twitched, and her right eye squinted harshly. That line of a mouth bent into a frown. Then her left eye narrowed to match the other. "And just what would you know about Yurika?"

"Obviously more than you!" he shouted, clenching his fists and holding his arms down, frowning deeply. Omoikane couldn't show emotion as well as Ruri could, so he had to make do with what he had. "How could you possibly think that going back to being a heartless, emotionless shell of a person is the will of someone that did nothing but love you? And Kanchou loved you, Ruri! And she wasn't alone. What about those left living, Ruri-sama? What about those that still care for you and are still among the living? Are you going to punish them by not being as big as you really are, by retreating back to how you were when you were little?" Omoikane shook his head quickly and walked to the other side of the bed. He sat down on it, his feet above the floor as he rested his elbows on his knees, propping his head up in his hands.

There was only a short moment of silence before Ruri spoke again. It was a thick, tense pause, particularly because of how much Ruri and Omoikane knew each other. But even Omoikane was surprised by her answer. "Omoikane, you are not a living thing. You are a robot."

Omoikane was not physically equipped to show much emotion. So only his leap from the other side of the bed to his feet properly expressed his outrage. Ruri's statement was brushing him off, making him no longer matter. Omoikane didn't mind that. What he did mind was that it wasn't just him that was being brushed off. In that single sentence, for him, about him, she had basically said that everyone else didn't matter. "I didn't just mean me, Ruri!" he shouted, obviously surprising Ruri. Despite her vow to not show emotion, the flutter of her eyelids and the widening of her eyes, not to mention that slight jarred motion she made, gave it away as if she hadn't just said she wouldn't do so. And while it didn't calm Omoikane to see her break her own decision, it did put him in a more articulate state of mind, one not plagued by him own emotions. "All those people you named earlier, all those you're close to… Uribatake-san, Tenkawa-san, Amano-san, Haruka-san, Ariko, Yukina, Doctor Fressange, and everyone else… They all love you too! How can you be so cruel as to push all of them away, especially at a time when all of you need to band together? When you need each other the most? You still have all of them, and you want to throw them away just because one was taken from you? I won't stand for it, Ruri-sama. If this is what Kanchou's death is going to do to you, I will hunt down the killer's myself! I've watched you grow and change for the better too much over all these years to let you revert back to what you were before. I won't have it!"

"Oh? And what makes you think that you have a say in what direction I take my life or state of mind?"

"Only the fact that you have been my master for almost ten years now, Ruri! What you do affects me directly, whether you want to accept that or not."

"It doesn't matter anyway. You're just a robot, a computer program implemented into a body built by Uribatake-san. You don't feel things the same way that humans do."

If Omoikane was capable, he would have burst into tears. "Just because… just because I can't show it as easily, doesn't mean that I don't feel things. I can feel anger. I can feel sadness. I can and do feel pain, Ruri! I feel! It doesn't matter if I was made or born. I feel pain every time you push me away. I feel sad about Kanchou being murdered. I also feel love for you and all you ever do is make me jump through hoops for even the slightest possible chance that you will ever even look at me –"

Omoikane's tirade was cut short by one thing he never actually expected to ever happen, let alone during an argument. Of course, he never expected him and Ruri to have an argument, but that was beside the point now. The point was that Ruri was kissing him, one thing that Omoikane had never thought would happen at all, but he secretly fantasized about, once or twice.

It was a simple kiss, her lips on his synthetic ones, but for two people could be fully connect by just holding hands, it was above and beyond what Omoikane had ever imagined. She gave him every single sense she felt in that kiss: his rubbery lips, the slight scent of plastic, the somewhat and somehow burnt taste his mouth had. But this was short-lived; the nice feelings the kiss gave Omoikane dissipated as quickly as the kiss came. The intimate touch was so, so much more than simple hand holding. He could feel everything that was Ruri, every emotion, every sense, every feeling. Not just her thoughts anymore. Everything. So Ruri's old sense of sadness was more than just a few arguing thought trains. It was multiplied ten-fold, and Omoikane felt like he would die. This wasn't organized into words at all. Images, sensations, everything was just so much MORE.

Ruri slapping her mother, the queen, until her mouth and nose bled. Ruri hitchhiking on the side of the road and climbing, willingly, into the passenger side of a truck, knowing full well the driver picking her up intended on raping and killing her. Ruri, several years older, passed out on somebody's stained carpet from drugs and alcohol. Ruri, stick thin and in a hospital gown, sitting in front of a doctor that was saying all sorts of incomprehensible things to her as she stared off into space.

The images were so absolutely horrifying to Omoikane that any feeling that the first kiss they were both sharing was a good thing was gone in a snap. But he didn't pull away. He couldn't bring up the strength to. He already wanted so very much to cry. But he couldn't. All he wanted to do was give into this sorrow, compounded with his frustration, angry, and sadness toward all of the events of that morning already. But he couldn't. He was not physically able to.

Those pictures stayed with him as Ruri pulled away, clouding his vision. But it was the sudden loss of her that caused him even more despair, and he bit his lip deeply and found himself unable to look away from Ruri's eyes. They were cold, determined, hard… and yet comforting. She was still alive. She was still in a good place. She wasn't dead, dying, or violently torturing herself or others. Omoikane's state of mind was nothing, as long as Ruri was all right. Was that her intent in the first place?

"These are the worst of the alternatives. But you see what happens when someone like me gives into bad emotions. I can show happiness. I have learned that happiness is a good thing. But sadness and pain is not, and can lead down so many bad roads. I can't just smile and push it away. But I can make it not matter to me. I've done it since I was little. And right now, that is my best option. You understand, Omoikane."

A statement. Not a question. But Omoikane nodded dumbly regardless. Ruri gave a short nod back, then began to gather her pajamas to put them into the laundry chute. "As for the others, I believe they will understand as well. I have been changing out of my old habits, but something like… my dearest maternal figure being taken away from me, I have no choice. In this environment, I have no choice. I have to hold my head, not cry, and just call everyone an idiot. Even if Yurika didn't want it that way, even you see that it is my best choice now, so that I can go on. Yurika would want me to at least do that."

Again, Omoikane nodded dumbly. He had no choice. She had no choice. While she had been swearing to no longer give into her emotions, she was, in a way. Giving into her sadness to not cause more. It was the best result, in the end, even if he didn't like it.

Ruri walked to her bedroom door, and turned to look over her shoulder. "I'm going to go to breakfast. Even if they do not expect me, I need to do something. Come with me."

Omoikane didn't just come, he ran up to her and wrapped his arms tightly around her waist, burying his face into her back. No matter what he did, he couldn't get those pictures to leave him, and for that, he wouldn't dare let Ruri leave his side. He no longer cared about the others now. Everything depended on Ruri's survival in these dark times.

And while these were dark times, Omoikane had no desire for them to be darker.

---

Megumi rolled her head on her shoulders, reaching high into the air at nothing and squeezing her eyes shut tight. Then, with a sigh, she relaxed fully and completely; even her eyelids loosened, though she kept them closed. She was tired. It felt like she had been working for hours. In her mind's eye, swirls of red and silver drowned out any comforting darkness she could have found in shutting her eyes. The impressions of all the scenes she had witnessed during her search blended together into an incomprehensible film. Sex. Death. Toilet paper.

After a moment of resting in her knelt position, Megumi slowly pulled herself to her feet, gasping as her knees popped loudly. She cracked her fingers and rolled her eyes around behind their lids. While her body ached, her eyes ached more. Examining all those signatures… it really took a toll. And for what? Nothing. Megumi had found absolutely nothing to even suggest a Jumper had been in the room in the past twenty-four hours other than Yurika herself and Jun. And while most of Jun's signatures were of a great variety of things, from sex to clogged drains, Yurika were more specific. They either had to do with sex itself, Jun, or the murder. But the ones focused on the murder were useless. They were nothing but sorrow and despair, and cries of pain. No faces, no "I can't believe this person is doing this to me", nothing. The killers had to have just caught Yurika off guard.

In the first few hours, Megumi was still in distress. She had been researching into who could possibly be the one who killed Yurika. It was still so horrible and new of an idea that she could barely think straight. But as time passed, Megumi had become more and more used to the concept, and it became less of something to do for Yurika, and more of an act of revenge. All that looking into Yurika's thoughts in her signatures hadn't erased her from Megumi's mind, but it had established why Megumi was here, doing this in the first place. Not because Yurika would have wanted it. Not to apologize to her father. But because Yurika was her old captain and no one messed with that.

So Megumi was less sad now. If anything, she was angry. Stopping at the door of the bedroom, Megumi turned at looked over the room again, worn out, but still angry. "Nothing here," she whispered harshly, nearly hissing. "Absolutely nothing. Those killers of yours were smart, Yurika, but we'll get them. Nobody does this to our own and gets away with it. They better watch their damn backs." And with that, Megumi left the room, shutting the door behind her.

Oh her way down the hallway, she nearly ran into Rumiko. She stopped suddenly and he let out a deep breath, clutching his chest. "Magus, Megumi. I didn't expect you. I was just coming to see how you were and how things were going."

"I see. Well, I'm done. Checked everyone single signature in their bedroom."

"And?"

"Nothing. Not a face, not a name, not a clue. These people are geniuses, Rumiko. I couldn't even get a single hint out of Yurika."

Rumiko hummed, then turned and headed out for the living room. Megumi followed, her mouth set into a firm line. That wasn't exactly the reaction she was expecting. She had expected Rumiko to swear, or to be upset that they had been eluded again with nothing but Yurika's touch in the whole thing. Rumiko was a stubbornly passionate person, and even occasionally passionately stubborn. Something had to be up for him to not be so upset that she couldn't find anything.

"Luckily, for us," he interrupted her thoughts, "they aren't smart enough to fool this fox here." He tapped his temple as the entered they living room. Yet, he continued to lead her into the kitchen and dining area before he stopped and turned to face her. "They've been getting sloppy."

"You found a signature?!"

"No. I found the Teleportation spot."

"Where? How?"

"Well, after a couple of hours, I realized that just dusting over the signatures out here was going to take ages with little to no results. But rather than go and interrupt you, I decided to look into the particles themselves in the signatures. After a while, I noticed that some of them looked different from the others. Because some of them had been used. They didn't, or rather wouldn't show the origin or destination of either Teleportation, but they had been used for a Teleport. I can't describe it. But it's right here." Rumiko pointed downward, to his left. It looked just like the rest of the house, covered in signatures, but it was a spot concealed by a wall, rather than a window or glass door like the rest of that particular wall. And although Rumiko could be wrong sometimes, Megumi was too exhausted to question his own findings. Hey, it was more than she had found.

"And there aren't any strange signatures on it?"

"No, there isn't."

"Then how do you know…"

"Because there weren't in any of the other places. I did a lot of research before this incident, Meg. I know. But because there isn't one, maybe the actual culprit isn't all that hard to pinpoint as we thought."

Megumi didn't understand. "I don't follow. How can it not be?"

"Well, gee, Meg. Who in our world today knows the most about Teleportation? Who pioneered the Jump Shuttle? Who could possibly have figured out how to cover up a Teleportation signature?"

Even Megumi's tired, incensed mind couldn't deny the name Rumiko was alluding to. With a regretful sigh, she posture loosened, as if letting go of a great burden. "Nergal," she answered, knowing full well it was redundant. They both knew who they were talking about.

"Exactly. And I'll give you three guesses as to at least one of the people involved, and the first two don't count."

Megumi nodded slowly. It was so obvious. Why hadn't they even thought to look to Nergal before? Oh. Because they were busy blaming Yurika. Megumi's heart began to race. They had suspected Yurika, and now she was dead. If they… "Rumiko. I think we should keep this quiet."

"Why?"

"Because… we don't even have a motive. Unless we are one-hundred-percent, absolutely sure… think about what we could be doing. We could be sentencing someone from there to death. We could wake up tomorrow with the news that Makibi Hari or Prospector or Doctor Fressange is found dead in their home, with no signs of a break-in. Rumiko… do we want to do that to them?"

"They can't be trusted, Meg. You've said that yourself."

"I know. But we need more proof. We can't base this on a hunch. I'm pissed off about Yurika being killed. I was pissed off about Mythos, too, Rumiko. But… we don't need more names we know and love added to that roster just because of association."

Rumiko looked away, but he seemed to not be angry. At least, not angry with her. He just seemed angry that things weren't going his way. "Gods damn it all. All we can get are hunches, but we can't use those. You're right about that. But that's all they're giving us. They are geniuses."

Megumi frowned. "I was afraid you'd say something like that."

---

She had been their captain. A golden girl. She had been a natural leader that was born to smile. She had had plenty reason to not do so. But still, she did. She had. But now… she wouldn't anymore.

That couldn't have been all there was to it. That couldn't have been all Itsuki thought about Yurika and her tragic passing. Not with her girlfriend merely feet away in a state of great distress. Not that Itsuki had heard the words come out of Ryoko's mouth. It didn't take a particularly bright person a week to realize that Ryoko wasn't a linguistic individual. And it didn't take Itsuki sleeping with Ryoko to realize that she didn't like to talk about her problems. Well, not the big ones, at least. The stupid, little, trivial things, Ryoko could talk about those. No problem there. But this… no matter what Itsuki thought personally about this situation, there was no way in a cold hell that it would be trivial for Ryoko.

So, instead, Itsuki sat in the gym, her arms wrapped tightly around her torso to fight against the biting cold of the air conditioner, watching her girlfriend pummel the living shit out of her punching bag. It had become hers when she pounded it badly when she realized her father had married Jun's mother. Another time when talking wasn't really for the tomboy. So now, instead of saying a word, Ryoko danced the warrior's dance, feet shuffling and hands placing lethal blows to the hanging bag as if it was a human, a robot, or something else entirely. But exactly what sort of emotion was pulling Ryoko's strings, Itsuki had no idea. Was Ryoko angry? One may say that it was an obvious observation. But it wasn't. Ryoko could do this when she felt nervous, sad, angry, or any other bad emotion she could possibly feel. And was Ryoko sad? Ryoko was going to be Yurika's Assist in her wedding come November. Ryoko was going to walk Yurika down the aisle from one of the room in the Church to the altar, kiss Akito to show that she was giving Yurika her permission to marry Jun, and dance at their reception. She was going to be very close to her stepbrother and his wife in the years to come. She was going to be the aunt at Yurika's first child's birth, and every child after that. It would have made complete sense for her to be upset.

But Itsuki couldn't figure it out. Was Ryoko angry, or sad? Did she want to chase down Yurika's killers and make them suffer, or was she mourning the life that was taken so cruelly? It was a valid question, and not one Itsuki had the answer to, surprisingly. She would not know for herself until Ryoko started to talk to her. And that probably wouldn't be for a while yet.

In any case, Yurika had been Itsuki's captain too! Itsuki may not have been on that Nadesico as long as Ryoko had, but she still served in the war under Yurika for the duration of the war. But… Even Itsuki wasn't sure of how she felt about hearing of Yurika's death that morning. While Yurika had been her commanding officer while she was on the ship, Itsuki never really got close to her like most of the rest of the crew. Itsuki didn't think she even spoke to Yurika any more than was needed. Even while Yurika was living under their roof, she didn't talk to her that much. Itsuki didn't know why. It's not like they had nothing in common. Both of their parents were well known. They both had taken Strategic Simulation Training. They were both Jumpers. They were both mages under Magus's influence. But… they just never talked.

Yurika did, however, talk to Ryoko. A great deal, even. Itsuki wasn't jealous of what they had. But Itsuki did feel a bit of remorse for never really getting to know Yurika. And as a result, she didn't know what to say to Ryoko to ease any pain she was feeling, because Ryoko had been close to Yurika, and she had not.

Ryoko didn't ever seem the type to make many friends. She had a temper and a chip on her shoulder like no one would believe. But she always did have friends with her, and no matter what, they were never taken from her. She had had Izumi and Hikaru all throughout her childhood. For a great deal of the war, Ryoko had Yurika. Even now, Ryoko also had Akito, her stepbrother, Jiro, and Itsuki. Ryoko was actually rather popular. But even if she had a full deck of friends, she valued them all, even Yurika.

And that was primarily why Itsuki couldn't aid Ryoko. The only ones that could would be those close to Yurika, that knew her and loved her. And they already needed help themselves. It was a dirty paradox.

Itsuki's thought processes were derailed upon seeing Ryoko collapse in a heavy panting, her limbs spread. Itsuki leapt to her feet and went over quickly, falling to her knees by Ryoko's side. "Are you all right, Ryoko?" she asked nervously. It was a stupid question, but she had to ask it. Itsuki didn't know what else to do. She felt absolutely helpless.

Ryoko shook her head quickly, her two-toned hair soaked in her sweat and sticking to her face. She covered her eyes with a tape-wrapped hand and let out a single sob. "Itsuki…" she cried hoarsely, her voice cracking. "We were supposed to go to their house tonight, Itsuki. For dinner. Dinner, Terra-dammit! We were going to go and we were all going to be great friends… You could have helped Jun with his music, Itsuki. Me and Yurika could have worked out wedding details. We could have done all of that, Itsuki, but they took that from us. How could they take that from us? How could they take all that happiness from me, Itsuki?"

Itsuki shook her head somberly. She didn't know. Seeing Ryoko so devastated was heartbreaking. All Itsuki wanted to do was cradle Ryoko in her arms until she would stop weeping. She… Magus, she wished nature had taken Yurika's life instead, if Yurika had been so destined to die. Because at least them Ryoko wouldn't have anyone to blame. And the fact that there was someone to blame… it was scary. Everyone had expected Yurika to be found guilty of the previous murders. But there was no way she could have done that to herself. This was a million times worse than Ryoko losing her mother to disease. A million times worse than Itsuki and Jiro losing their parents to war. That was chance, fate, nature, even. This… this was humanity acting against itself. Not bigwig government types throwing a hissy-fit. Someone had wanted Yurika dead. Why?

Could those killers be trying to make those involved with the war and the slaughter on Ninlan pay for their crimes? If that was the case, who could possibly be safe? Certainly not developers of missiles and robots. Certainly not master Jumpers. And most definitely not robot pilots. None of them, not one of them was safe.

Itsuki felt her own tears well up in her eyes. She bit her lip and shook her head, trying to make them go away, but only making them spill over. She wasn't all that sad. But what she was was probably ten times worse. "I'm scared Ryoko," she stammered softly. "I… I really am."

---

Akito had learned a lot from How Mei over the years. One such thing was the ability to, no matter how many things were popping, sizzling, frying, boiling, or rising, sense when someone had entered the kitchen only as they are opening the door. And so, with a quick toss of his sausage from skillet to strainer, Akito growled under his breath. "Look, I'm not done yet. If you just wait fifteen more minutes, food will be done and you can eat like the savages you are!"

"I'm not in here looking for food, Akito. I'm in here to talk to you." Soft, sorrowful, and somewhat deep, threatening to squeak out if he dared to raise his voice an octave. Gai.

Akito set his mouth into a firm line and threw the sausage back into the skillet. "Maybe I don't want to talk."

"Akito, don't be like this."

"Be like what!?" Akito turned his head and, accidentally, his whole body as well. His waist knocked the pan out of his hands and off the stove, hitting the floor with a clang and spreading sausage and broth across the tiles of the kitchen floor. Akito leapt back, kicking his feet out of his slippers so they wouldn't get wet. "Son of a bitch!" Akito swore, pushing his fingers through his hair and turning around, shaken.

Gai just calmly reached for the paper towels and began to clean up the mess. Akito knew that the mixture had been hot, but Gai made no sound to indicate that it was hurting him in any way. Akito let his hands fall and turned back to see his boyfriend turn off the fire on the stove and place the pan into the sink. The mess hadn't taken him long to clean, though the floor wouldn't be truly clean until someone gave it a once over with a mop. But frankly, Akito didn't care at the moment. He sighed deeply, his whole body limp. He was exhausted, mentally and emotionally. And this… this was the last straw. He would have to start dinner over again, and he honestly didn't think he had the strength to. "I'm sorry," he whispered, ashamed of his mistake. He didn't like to make mistakes like that.

"Hey, no big deal. We can just order out; I had planned on it anyway. Why were you cooking?" Gai had come up behind Akito and placed his hands on Akito's cheeks. He trailed his hands down his neck and his shoulders, giving his arms a good rub before Akito answered. Akito knew he was trying to be comforting.

"So I wouldn't think." Akito leaned his head and body back, letting his head rest on Gai's shoulder at an odd angle.

Gai answered this movement by wrapped his arms around Akito's waist. "I know. I just got off the phone with Misumaru-san."

Akito stiffened at the mention of Yurika's father. "What did he say?"

"He's pissed off, and really sad. He actually called to talk to Jun, but I had to tell him that Jun is just as devastated as he is."

Akito hummed. He had spent all day just going through the motions, and trying his best to not think of Yurika. But he really didn't want to think about it. He hadn't let himself do so since he got that phone call from Jun early that morning. And he wasn't going to start.

Upon remembering that Gai had come into the kitchen to talk to him, Akito pulled Gai's limbs off him and sighed, walking over to the refrigerator and throwing it open. "Do we have any broccoli left?"

"Akito, I just said that we'll get delivery. You don't need to cook."

"Yes, I do!" shouted Akito, clenching his hands into fists and slamming the refrigerator door closed. He spun around, his eyes cold and hard as he glared at his boyfriend. Already he could feel the room get cold. "I need to, okay? Even if no one eats it, I don't care! I just… I need to do this, dammit!"

Gai wasn't taken aback by this outburst. Apparently, he had seen quite a few of Akito's upset moments, and wasn't put off by this latest one. "Why? Why don't you want to talk? I know she was important to you."

"Important, hell." Akito felt his voice crack and shook his head, forbidding himself to cry. "She was important to me. She was the first fucking friend I ever had. She was my first girlfriend. She was my first fucking kiss. She was important to me. That's a fucking understatement." And after all his work to not think about Yurika, here he was, saying things. He didn't even know what he was saying. "And all I want to do is either help Junny or cook, because then I won't have to let my brain think about her and how much I feel so guilty. She wanted so much to be friends, and I never let up. I never let her in again. Once we broke up, that was it and I wasn't going to be nice to her anymore. Aqua… I was so petty. Stupid. And I… I don't want to fucking sit here and think about how she went to the fucking grave thinking I hated her. And I don't, Aqua!" His own personal resolve crumbled, and his eyes spilled over, created two icy tracks down his face.

Akito was turned against his will and trapped into Gai's chest. He squeezed his eyes shut and hugging his boyfriend back. He felt rumbling in Gai's chest against his ear, and only half-heard what Gai was saying. "I don't think she thinks that."

Akito let out a small, sarcastic laugh. "'Thinks'? You talk about her as if she's still alive."

"She is, if only in our memories."

"Cut the sentimental bullshit, Gai. Besides, all I have are mostly bad memories of her anyway."

"At least you have some. Yurika was a powerful figurehead, Akito, and many will mourn her without knowing her, or her tendency to wear sweaters in painfully hot weather."

Akito frowned. "You know, I still don't feel one-hundred-percent."

"I don't expect you to. But I would like to see at least something of a smile. That'll make ME feel better, at least…"

Akito let go of Gai somewhat, his hands still on Gai's hips. Akito knit his eyebrows and turned his lips upward at the corners, into something of a sadistic smile. It was a heartless smile, with no feeling in it. To fix it, Akito opened his mouth a bit, smiling sadly with teeth. He knew it looked horrible, but he didn't want to smile. Not the day after Yurika was killed.

Gai sighed and trailed one cold path the tear tracked on Akito's cheek. He shook his head. "It's a start."

---

On any other Monday, Viktor would have been mostly preoccupied calculating how much money was needed to pay off the employees' expense reports, granted that they even turned them in. Then, he would have to read over all the requests for more funding, like the Jump Research Department, or the Computing Department, and figure which needed it more, and how much they could spare. Then he would have to go through the commissions sent in, pick out the ones he thought would be the most profitable for the company, and send them upstairs. This took several hours every Monday, and set up the work for most of the rest of the week. But only on a usual Monday, which this certainly was not.

Viktor had not seen or spoken to any other former Nadesico crew since reading the news in the paper yesterday morning, and he didn't really think he was up to it. But, as he was a complete workaholic, he couldn't not show. So, as he passed by the security desk upon entering the building, he kept his head down and walked quickly, as if he was infiltrating the building. But nothing ever got past Goat. Viktor knew Goat saw him push the button on the elevator to go up to his office, but he silently thanked him for not coming over or even saying anything.

Viktor, along with various faceless executives, secretaries, or mailroom boys, traveled several floors up to the Accounting Department. He left the elevator and walked briskly to his office, a nice corner thing with a great view of the city. Though that view was somewhat skewed now, the light rain sliding down the window in tiny streams. With a small nod to his own secretary, he pushed his door open, intending to shut the blinds as soon as he entered. He was already down enough without a gray day to make him feel worse.

But he never got to the blinds. Because as soon as he took hung up his umbrella, he noticed that he already had a folder on his desk. He always left his desk cleaned off when he left for his home. Someone must have come in and placed it there, and only a few people had the keys to his office.

But Viktor didn't ask Laurie who placed the folder in his office. With the list of people with access being so small, Viktor knew he could figure it out himself just by checking it over. So he sat down in his chair unceremoniously and looked it over. It had a bright yellow note attached to the front, and it was that note that made it easy to see who it was from. Thick, black pen strokes, and a mixture of both small and exaggerated lettering: Erina's handwriting. Viktor sighed and readjusted his glasses, actually reading the note.

"TOP PRIORITY! All information on Misumaru Yurika, her time at Nergal, religious alignment, last requests, and will. Misumaru's funeral plans in my office ASAP!"

Of course. It made sense. Yurika had stayed a Nergal employee after disembarking from the Nadesico. She had been an Experimental Jump Subject, and standard procedure was that Nergal employees were given free funerals, paid for by the company. And since he was the main person who handled Nergal's finances, it made sense for him to have this folder. He was even mildly ashamed that he didn't realize that from the get-go. But he didn't really like having this specific task before him. It was going to almost take all day. With a sigh and a quick rub of his temples, he pushed the intercom button. "Laurie, could you come in here please?"

It only took a moment for the older woman to enter. "Yes, Mr. Bros?"

"Could you send off the expense reports and funding requests to Rhoda and Koichi for them to work on? Something's come up and I can't do it myself."

"Of course, Mr. Bros," she said quickly, coming over to take the necessary files and papers. "May I ask why?"

Viktor held up the thick folder on his desk. "Misumaru Yurika's funeral information," he explained.

Laurie gasped and grasped at her collar. "My lord. That poor girl! Wait, wasn't she…"

"Captain of the Nadesico, yes," he answered, annoyed. "And a Boson Jump Experimental Subject. That's why WE'RE doing her funeral. She was murdered this weekend."

"Good god. Well, I'll leave you alone then. You obviously have a lot of work ahead of you," she turned on her heel and made her way out of his office.

"Thank you, Laurie." God, his secretary was annoying at times. But after a deep breath, Viktor calmed himself. He needed to focus. This was important. Usually, some of his flunkies like Rhoda or Koichi took care of funeral or wedding files. But, as this one was Yurika's, Viktor was half-glad he was allowed to do hers. Half-glad… and half-tired. Just looking at the thick folder made him weary to the bone.

Despite all of this, it was still work that needed to be done, and Viktor was not one to just let work sit around. He opened the folder, grasping a pen to make any notes as needed in his quest to find out how much Yurika's funeral was going to cost.

The first page was just basic information. Name, date of birth, place of birth. Last residence, last occupation, next of kin. Salary, benefits, insurance information. Even a somewhat outdated photo of when Yurika was still Captain of the Nadesico. As most of this was either common knowledge or irrelevant, Viktor continued on. The only thing he needed, really, from that page, was Admiral Misumaru's contact information, as he was Yurika's closest living relative.

Yurika was a follower of the Pentakami religion, and though she wasn't active, it mattered to her when Akatsuki had died. It didn't take a piece of paper in Yurika's file for Viktor to know that Yurika had changed religions last year upon their discovery of Ninlan. And Viktor HAD been present at Akatsuki's funeral. And while the weddings were ornate and highly detailed, the funeral was not. It began as a gathering in the church, a gathering of those close to the deceased. Those that knew them best would speak, describing their relationship, the deceased's personality and mannerisms, and maybe tell of several memories they had of the deceased. Then the current priest or priestess would formally bid goodbye to the deceased, and the attendees would go to the cemetery or place that the remains were kept and silently give their own, personal goodbyes. It was so simple to do. The only thing they needed o be set up were the guests, where Yurika's remains would be taken care of, and if there was a Pentakami Church in the area.

But first things came first. Viktor typed in the number to contact Yurika's father into his call projector, which was larger than, but worked just like the wrist communicators they used on the Nadesico. It took only a moment for a window depicting the visage of Admiral Misumaru Kouichiro appeared. The past previous times Viktor and Kouichiro spoke weren't always tea and cookies. The first time, Kouichiro was demanding ownership of the Nadesico. The second time, the Nadesico had mutinied. Since then, it had been merely business concerning either Nergal or Yurika herself: UEAF orders for battleships ad just where Yurika was living NOW, and the like. Never very positive things. And this call would be no different.

Viktor tried to stay at least somewhat optimistic about this. "Well, hello there, Admiral Misumaru, and how are you this morning?" Viktor inwardly winced at his own cheerful tone. He was just as sad as the next guy about this. But he sure didn't sound it.

"Not well, as I'm sure you're aware." It was a curt response, and one that was well, considering Viktor's previous voice inflections. He mentally turned down the optimism. He was her father, for god's sake. To show sadness would be respectful!

"Er, yes, well… That is precisely what I'm contacting you about. You may be aware that it is Nergal policy to orchestrate free weddings and funerals for all employees, and Misumaru-san WAS an employee of Nergal, even after her time on the Nadesico."

"That's very kind of your company, however, I think–"

"Admiral, the average funeral costs over six hundred thousand yen. Regardless of whether you can afford it or not, this is one of the ways we thank our employees' families for their time spent here. We don't like grieving families to be bogged down financially by this. That's why it's our policy." Viktor gave a smile. "There is nothing for you to worry about, sir. We have her requests and religion's customs on funerals. We will make it flawless and we will schedule it to be right after the coroner is finished with her body. What we DO need is your permission to go ahead and make arrangements." Sometimes, Viktor scared himself with his marketing skills. Kouichiro looked like he was really considering it.

"All right," Kouichiro consented, obviously a little put out by the offer, "but on one condition."

"Certainly."

"You understand that this is a very hard time for me. Not only have I lost her mother, but I've lost my dear Yurika. But her mother was buried in the same cemetery as the rest of my relatives. I'd like for… Yurika to be buried there a well."

"Done. Just tell me where it is, and we'll have it done."

"The cemetery at the Asama Temple , in the Chichibu Mountains ."

"Outside of Tokyo , right?"

"Right."

"All right. That's feasible. Thank you very much for your time, Admiral."

"It's fine. And I really don't mind if it is a Pentakami ceremony, Yurika would like that."

"With all due respect, sir, we were going to go through with a Pentakami funeral, even if you demanded one of your own religion. Only because we know personally that the Pentakami religion meant a lot to Misumaru-san."

"Good."

Not a response Viktor was expecting, but he recovered quickly. "I'm very sorry about your loss, and I will give you all the information concerning the funeral as it comes."

"Thank you very much, Mr. Bros. I'll be waiting."

"Goodbye."

"Goodbye."

It had been intense, but it was over. Viktor sighed in relief and slumped in his chair. All right, so now Nergal had full permission and a location to be centered in. Now they needed someone to conduct the ceremony before Viktor could figure out guest lists. And the only Pentakami Church in the area was headed by Goldspring Othinakothe, a priest sent from Ninlan directly to Tokyo . Viktor inputted the number of Tokyo 's Pentakami Church and waited for another face to appear.

What appeared was just a small, sparsely decorated office. Viktor looked around a bit, and came to the conclusion that no one had noticed the window open. "Hello?" he called out, hoping someone was at least within earshot.

"What on Earth… Oh!" A man dressed in all red and orange came into view and sat before the window. He had droopy, dark eyes, dark gray hair that circled his forehead like some sort of clamshell hat, and a rather large nose and mouth. He tilted his head to the side, and Viktor realized that this may have been the man he was looking for. "Hello…"

"Greetings. You wouldn't be… Goldspring Othinakothe, by any chance, would you?"

"Yes, I would. And you are…?"

Viktor pushed up his glasses. This call shouldn't be this awkward. "Viktor Bros, Head of Accounting and Finances here at Nergal Heavy Industries. Have you heard of a woman by the name of Misumaru Yurika?"

Goldspring let out an incredulous laugh. "'Heard of her'? I can't seem to hear enough of her! You know that our services yesterday were brought to an early end, because the local authorities showed up to ask questions? Honestly, I had not heard so much about this woman since the Nadesico landed!"

"Well then, this shouldn't be that difficult. I'm not looking for information on the case. I'm looking for… funeral services."

"For Misumaru?"

"Yes. She followed the Pentakami religion and we want to honor her the way she would like it."

"Absolutely. I'll do it myself. When would be a good time to schedule it?"

"I'm not entirely sure yet. Whenever the coroner is finished investigating her body, but that shouldn't be too much longer. Also, we need to have her buried at the cemetery at Asama Temple . All of her family is buried there."

"Shouldn't be a problem. It's not too far from here. Give me a call as soon as you have a date, and I'll make arrangements. Do you have a guest list yet? And how much money are you willing to spend?"

"Whatever it takes. And no, I'm afraid not. I'm just making the initial arrangements. You understand, Lord Othinakothe?"

"Of course! And please, just call me Goldspring, Mr. Bros. Flamma is not one to take formalities to heart."

"All right, Goldspring. Thank you for your time, and I will get back to you as soon as I have the date from the coroner."

" Thank you , Br. Bros. We'll be in touch. Goodbye."

"Goodbye." Two down, many more to go. Viktor sighed as he looked up the coroner's information in Yurika's file. It was going to be a very long morning.

---

The day was undoubtedly gloomy, as was appropriate for the first day back in the office since hearing the news. But it wasn't EXACTLY the first day back for Erina. She was here late into Saturday night, hosting a party with Kaguya that resulted in a commission Nergal and Asuka had been dying for: a complete overhaul of the UEAF battleship computers and an order for no less than fifty more Phase Transition-powered battleships for the UEAF as well. It had gone over well and the night was a success. Or at least, it was CONSIDERED a success until news came the next morning that Yurika had been killed. It wasn't too much of a shocker, really. In the latest string, Erina was surprised that they hadn't caught on to the pattern yet. If they had, there would have been a great amount of guards and police officers swarming all over that house. But there hadn't, and Yurika died because of it. The incompetence of the world's police force was really embarrassing.

But beyond that, Erina had come in Sunday morning and spent all day organizing everything there needed to be for Yurika's funeral. She had no idea when the coroner would be done with the body, but she had minions to figure things out like that. And it was Nergal policy put into play by her cousin Nagare, and to follow through would be what he wanted, especially since Nagare and Yurika had been lovers once.

Erina wasn't jealous; she really wasn't. Of course, that's what she swore all of the time, every time. Nagare had Erina chose the captain of the Nadesico herself, and choose she did. Top of her class, Yurika was perfect. Of course, it did help that Erina had found her easy on the eyes. But that had been before she had met the girl when they both decided to join the crew of the Nadesico. Yurika was, simply put, infuriating. In the Akito-obsessed state Yurika was during the war, Erina would have been glad to hand her over to her cousin. HE could deal with her. Besides, Erina had Inez, and Inez was capable of rational thought that wasn't pink and flowery.

But when the Nadesico was missing for all that time, Erina had been worried. About her cousin, about Inez, and about Yurika. Soon, news had come about the events that had taken place on Ninlan. Nagare was dead by Aoi's hands. Nagare and Yurika had slept together on numerous occasions. Inez was now with Maki and had been in a coma prior to the Nadesico's departure. Not all good news, obviously, for Erina. But time had passed, and passed quickly. The Treaty of Mars was signed, ending the war. Ninlan was becoming a nation of its own in the world. The Gardenia was finished and crew chosen. And then, the Nadesico was found.

Things had happened, and Erina was certain that any possible relationship with Yurika was lost. That was why she had been with Kaguya. Kaguya was higher in society than Yurika, but came from nearly the same background. In essence, Yurika and Kaguya weren't all that much different. The big difference was that Kaguya had an ego on her, whereas Yurika did not, or at least not one as large. Though, Erina had to add with a wistful smirk, Kaguya's ego had been draining slowly with her time at Nergal, which had fused with Asuka soon after they had started going together.

But when the Nadesico had returned to normal space, Erina was a little happier to see Inez, rather than Yurika. Whether she was with Kaguya or not, Inez was her first love, and Erina still loved her to this day. Erina had even soon broken up with Kaguya to entice Inez. But the Martian doctor had not followed through. Erina didn't understand what Maki did to gain Inez's affections so, but she wanted to break that spell. Erina would admit it, she had USED Yurika to get to Inez. Erina had hooked up with her, only to show Inez that Erina could have any woman she wanted: straight, lesbian, Earthling or Martian. But there wasn't anyone Erina wanted more than Inez. Erina may have chosen Yurika for the Nadesico, but that was mostly on skill. No way had she ever fallen for such a ditz.

But, as such things went, Erina found herself with Kaguya again. THAT one she couldn't explain, even now. It wasn't to get to Inez, it wasn't for the sex, it wasn't for love, and it wasn't even for power. Or was it? Nergal and Asuka had fused, and if Erina could control the CEO of Asuka, she could control the whole company, in both parts. Twice as much command with very little work. But Erina couldn't make herself believe that, no matter how power-hungry she could be. And there was one reason for that. Erina felt her dominion over everything that was associated to her crumbling.

She had the company. She had her employees at her beck-and-call. But this had gone too far. Erina had to spend more and more time making sure that everything she did was justified, much more time than actually doing things. She hadn't been to witness a Jump Experiment in months. She hadn't seen Lapis or Hari in ages. Magical Princess Natural Laichi was three weeks behind in production. She had only recently come to the discovery that Inez had been holding her own Jump Experiments with Hari, and she had been doing it for quite some time. And now, the one person Erina had the most influence over had been killed.

But still, Erina was surprised. Not at all. And it hadn't surprised her that the authorities still didn't believe that she had been busy with a business party Saturday night, even though everyone had been there. Erina was sure that, with all the clout she did appear to have, no matter how much of it was true or not, she did fit the bill for public enemy number one. Especially since the discovery that the Jumper involved with the killings was a Martian. That left four names, and now one of them was dead. Tenkawa had no reason to kill any of them, so Erina, in close cohorts with Inez and Kaguya, those left, was the perfect suspect.

And that's how things stood now. Outside, in the dripping rain, two cop cars were pulling up the driveway to the entrance of the main building. Erina just sighed. Nergal was always at fault. During the war, the UEAF hated Nergal because they had their own agenda and a bigger and better ship than them. After the war, Nergal was just a slimy company that did a lot of atrocious things, including but not limited to the coup on Mars twenty years prior and the cover-up of the Jupiterians. Never mind that the UEAF was involved as well. And now, with Nergal picking up other companies like Asuka and the Crimson Group, they were most definitely responsible for the brutal attacks.

"Let them come," Erina whispered, closing the blinds on the window. She relinquished any sort of responsibility for this long ago. She had no control over what was happening anymore, and there was nothing she could do about it.

"Miss Won," came Goat's gruff voice from behind her. Erina knew he had opened a communications window, but she did not turn. "The specialists looking into the Jumper murders are here. They have a warrant."

"Let them do what they came to do," she answered, finally turning. There was no fear in her face, something that may or may not have been comforting. Goat nodded once and then the window was gone. Erina stood straight and tugged the bottom of her burgundy sports jacket. She was not afraid. There was nothing to be afraid of. They were incompetent, as they had already proven, so there was nothing to be worried about at all.

But she was not surprised either.

---

Inez had just been collecting her things to go home and get ready for the next day's Jump Experiment with Hari when the door into her office and laboratory opened. Inez looked up over the frames of her glasses and smiled at the familiar face of Goat at the door. She reached up to take her glasses off and greet Goat. He normally didn't come down to her floor, because there were never any problems. She was surprised to see him now, and knew he wasn't there for a chat. Goat wasn't like that.

But she was a little put off by how his eyes became downcast so quickly. Staring at her floor, he pushed the door open more, holding it open for someone behind his large body. There were two people Inez hadn't seen before then, having been obscured by Goat. One was a tall woman with short white hair, the other a menacing dark man almost as big as Goat himself. Both were dressed in brown business suits and Inez was sure she had seen a flash of a gun at the woman's hip.

It was that sight that made Inez straighten her posture. She wasn't even sure she had a gun, but if she had, and Goat let her in willingly, they had some not-so-nice business with Inez to attend to. She felt a shiver race down her spine in fear. She, afraid? Impossible.

The woman took off her sunglasses, reached into a coat pocket, and showed her badge. Tokyo Police Department. They had come from a long way. "Doctor Fressange, I am Detective Uraba, and this is Detective Onenalit. We are here to place you under arrest for the murder of Misumaru Yurika." Detective Onenalit held up a paper that was most obviously the warrant for Inez's arrest. "We'd advise you to come calmly so that we will not be pressured to use force."

Despite her heart pounding in her head, Inez merely raised a blonde eyebrow. "Really." She swallowed once and blinked, trying to regain her bearings and understanding of the situation. "Well," she said with a deep sigh, "I suppose I have no choice." She held her hands up, palms skyward.

Detective Uraba looked to her partner and nodded her head at Inez. She then nodded once to Inez. "A wise decision, Doctor."

"I would hope so."

Detective Onenalit moved behind her with a pair of handcuffs. "Hands behind your back, please," he rasped out, using his voice for the first time since appearing in the door. Inez nodded and did what she was told. As Detective Onenalit fastened the restraints on her wrists, Inez kept her chin up. She may have been worried now, but she was not entirely surprised. One did not work at Nergal without being worried of arrest or police investigation. No one trusted Nergal anymore, and they had no reason to. Especially not now, Inez knew. Terra, did she know.

Detective Uraba nodded, satisfied. "All right. We're going to have to take you to the train station. We're not authorized to let a high-priority suspect of a Jumper onto a Jump Shuttle. You understand."

No. "Yes."

"Well then. Onenalit, let's go." Detective Uraba turned on her heel and walked down the basement hall to the elevator. Detective Onenalit grasped Inez's upper arm in a massive hand and lead her out of her own laboratory. As they passed Goat, he kept his eyes downcast. Inez frowned. He must honestly think Inez was involved. It was then that Inez realized how much she knew that others didn't. She was under the impression that everyone who worked at Nergal knew what had happened. Why. What was going on.

Exiting the building was uneventful until reaching the main floor. It was then that all three of them were stopped by a shout. "INEZ!" Inez bodily stopped and turned to see over her shoulder. The two detectives did as well, noting that it was Erina who ran down the curved stairway from the second floor. Erina slowed before reaching then, panting. "What is going on here?"

Detective Uraba turned completely. "We have a warrant for her arrest, Miss Won. Doctor Fressange is the main suspect in a high-profile case. I'm afraid we have to take her."

Inez wasn't completely sure, but something was different about Erina. Before the detective spoke, Erina seemed pissed off. Now, she was just… frightened. Like someone had just told her she was going to die in twenty minutes. She took a deep breath and swallowed. She bit both her lips together, as if she had just finished applying her lipstick and turned to Inez. "God. Don't be found guilty, Inez."

"I won't." Inez gave a reassuring smile before having her shoulder pushed lightly by the large male detective. Inez got the message; time to go. Inez nodded and the three of them left Nergal Headquarters and a devastated Erina on her knees in the lobby.

---

TBC…

---

A/N: Sorry it took so long to get out. I found writing this to be really depressing, so it was difficult to get through. But, for the record, this chapter is done with what I think is a doozy of a cliffhanger. Anyway, there shouldn't be too many chapters left in this fanfic. I mean, there are three weeks in the story left until the end, and while it will be an eventful three weeks, we've gone through a month in a chapter before. I'm looking at maybe… three more or four more until the story comes to a close. But for now… I'm afraid this will be the last chapter of IyM until at least December. Hey, I got NaNoWriMo coming up! Not to mention finals and stuff… But anyway. Loved it? Hated it? Thought it was sick and twisted? Leave me a review or drop me a line. See ya!