Zoi grinned in childish pleasure as he peered down from the building he was currently hiding out on the roof of. He loved his girlfriend, he really did, but he hadn't had a good stakeout since he'd met her. He didn't really count the incident with Rei and the tree. He hadn't had any of his ... special... toys with him that day.

Today he was getting to indulge all of his nosey desires. The others were still shocked at just how prepared he was for this on short notice...

"Is anything happening yet? I'm having trouble with this gizmo here. I can't see a thing." His black-haired companion complained. Doctor the guy may be, but he had no idea what to do with the high-tech electronics Zoi had given him.

"You got it on night vision somehow. All it'll show is a blur of light." He reached over and flicked the switch back to the proper setting. "Amateurs!" He sighed gustily.

Mamoru glared at him, but remained silent. A good thing, as too much activity would likely attract the attention of their prey. Both of them settled down to continue their surveillance, ignoring the discomfort of laying down on their stomachs on the rough surface. Zoi missed having his usual trouble partners with him, but there was a good reason for all of it.

Neph and Kunz, as the most physically imposing, were hiding out around opposite corners, waiting to rescue the bait, should something happen. Jad was excluded from the entire exercise due to his hot temper. Ami and Mako were distracting Usagi. Rei was blissfully unaware of the felonies currently being committed in her name.

Minako was the bait.

And Sumiyoshi was her prey.

Oddly enough, it was Kunzite who had planted the seed for this entirely non-law-abiding plan. Though Zoi doubted he had expected this to come of it. He had just seemed to be his usual snarky self when he'd said, "Maybe we should just sic Minako on him. That oughta be punishment enough." None of the guys were quite sure why he was that grouchy at the sweet-yet-maybe-not-so-innocent blonde. Zoi surmised it had something to to do with the dinner party the night before, but no one was sharing details.

Anyway, that wasn't important.

What was important was that Minako was planning on 'accidentally' running into Sumiyoshi and gang on the street below, then was going to attempt to elicit an accidental confession from him. So far his father's influence was keeping Rei and Jad's offensive front from gaining ground at more than a crawl. That wasn't fast enough for any of them. Thanks to the efforts of Usagi, there were plenty of people privately denouncing his deprivations, yet a slight push was going to be needed to bring that simmer to a full boil.

With luck, that push would come today, from his very mouth.

He was brought out of his musings by action down below. With malicious glee, he made sure the cameras and microphones were all working and recording. It was showtime.

Minako smiled sweetly as she oh so casually strolled down the street. She paused often to respond to the friendly overtures of those around her. Out of the corner of her eye she saw her prey turn onto the street, his lecherous gaze giving her a once-over before he sauntered towards her. She let her eyes briefly alight upon him, growing slightly wide in artful awe.

She resisted the urge to smirk as he grew more confident from her obvious recognition and (apparent) approval. His saunter became a swagger as he moved with more purpose towards her, his entourage following with barely suppressed snickers and some surreptitious elbow nudging. Internally she grinned, knowing well that she'd won the first round before he was even aware they were duelling.

Not that he was supposed to know they were duelling.

She let a delicate maidenly blush rise to her cheeks, implying that she was feeling honoured by his notice. He noticed, and responded with a smirk.

"Hello, miss. Do I have the honour of addressing the teen idol Minako Aino? Now, now, no need to blush. Such a beauty as yourself must be accustomed to being recognized..." He let the sentence trail, obviously expecting her to pounce on the chance to make a good impression on him.

Minako scooped it up, despite all her reflexes and instinct telling her to get as far away from him as fast as she could. She let the colour rise a bit in her cheeks (let him think it was from pleasure. He'd learn it was from temper only after it bit him in the ass) and answered in a hesitant, cloyingly sweet voice. "Well, yes, but never from one such as yourself. How could anyone with possibly confuse you with a regular fan? You're so..." She trailed off, as if she couldn't think of a word that would actually describe him. She clutched her hands before her, carefully using her forearms to emphasize her bust, her hand movement giving him the perfect reason to look down at her breasts.

He didn't waste the chance. Minako felt slightly slimy just from his gaze, but forced herself to put up with it for the sake of her friend and cause. The clenched hands served another purpose. Minako felt she was less likely to punch him out with her hands otherwise occupied.

"Manly? Impressive? Cool? Desirable?" Minako almost ruined everything then by snorting, as the pompous idiot attempted to fill in her blank.

She giggled then, a very silly little sound. "None of those quite do you justice." She replied, glancing down as if bashful, then back up at him. He was obviously preening before her. "Though I can't imagine you need me to tell you that. Surely every girl you meet thinks the same way..." She batted her eyelashes at him, sweet as she could be.

One of the males in the entourage blatantly snorted at this, before holding a hand to his ribs with a slight wince. It had been long enough since the fight that the only real visible sign of the fight Minako knew they'd been in was a brace on Sumiyoshi's hand. Most people would assume it was from a wrist injury, but she knew better. It was holding his carpal bones in place. She was glad to see proof that the rest of them were still dealing with the aftermath of the fight. They deserved that and more.

She didn't let any of this show on her face, though. Instead, she looked at the wingman as if she was worried about him. "Are you alright? What happened?"

He just waved her away as Sumiyoshi spoke, obviously annoyed at being upstaged for even a moment. "He's fine. It's just an injury from before."

She let relief show on her face for a moment. "Oh, that's good." Then she scrunched her face up cutely, as if thinking was hard for her. "But why did he react like that? Don't tell me there's actually a girl out there that doesn't notice your..." She waved her hand about expressively. "... Presence. Aura. You know."

He grinned almost feraly. She could see that she had him hooked. Apparently he couldn't resist the chance to tear a strip from Rei, even though she wasn't there. "Well, there was one girl... I'm afraid she got in with a bad crowd, and her mind was poisoned against me by the guy she's with. He's always been jealous of me, and violent to boot. She was the sweetest thing back during high school. Then he sunk his claws in her and that was it. Now she's a lost cause of the highest calibre, loose lipped, rebellious, trouble-making, and with all the morals of a bitch in heat. And at that, she's better than her violent asswipe of a boyfriend. I attempted to steer her back to the proper path for a young lady, but she was too far under his control. Really, it's rather heartbreaking for those that saw her earlier promise. But," he sighed dramatically, "Some things you just can't fix."

She made appropriate cooing noises over his supposed nobility, inwardly seething. She knew the only reason he didn't totally chew Rei out was that he hadn't lost sight of his current goal, seducing her. However, she had enough to make her case. Enough people who were currently simmering knew Rei, at least by reputation, that this would be known as a lie. She signalled Zoi carefully, without letting the men around her notice a thing. Quickly, though not quickly enough for her temper, her phone rang. She apologized to Sumiyoshi profusely, explaining that she needed to take the call.

In reality, the call was only from Mamoru. None of the guys knew that, however, so she was able to pass it off as her agent, reminding her that she had somewhere to be. She left quickly, though not fast enough to avoid having to give her number to the creep in front of her. That wasn't a real problem, however. She knew the rejection hotline's number by heart, having given it to enough self-important blowhards to fill an auditorium by now.

Once safely away, she couldn't resist the impulse to punch the wall near her. It made her hand sting, and didn't do near enough to dispel her temper.

She decided to head home. She had been planning on overlooking the footage with the others, but she was to wound up for that. She trusted the others would use it intelligently. After all, Mamoru was there. He'd keep them under control.

She hoped.

Happy Valentines, you all! Next chapter will discuss the party, but not in detail. For those of you that have never heard of it, you really should go check out Four Kings Hell. It's hilarious. It's a fan-comic, by the way.