[A/N]: *cough* So... hello there. Long time no see, eh? :'D *hides* Sorry for the long wait, a lot of things have happened (such as National Novel Writing Month in November, and then the release of Dragon Age: Inquisition, and the constant nagging of people not liking this story, etc etc) but the review I got today kind of snapped me out of it, so I edited this chapter and here it is! Can't give up now that we're so close to the ending, now can we? So please do enjoy.

Song "Deal with the Devil" belongs to Pop Evil.

Deal with the Devil
I'm still here with a fire burning, burning inside.
If you want to burn, light it up, light it up, let it rise.

The next two days passed by in relative quietness. The boys continued going out to look for the culprit, and now that they had watched Tatara's footage as well, they had an image to go by too. That made them all once more fired up and willing to go out and search even more. After all, being able to put a face to the murderer was a big help in finding said murderer.

You had paid Izumo back everything that you had owed him, and had wanted to join him behind the bar again. The bartender, however, had refused your request, telling you that he didn't like you doing, well, anything just yet. When the nurses had told you that you had to take it easy, however, you doubted that they meant you were to sit around all day doing nothing.

So it came as a huge relief to you when in the end, he relented and allowed you to at least walk around the block outside with Frank, to which you had persuaded him by claiming that the poor mutt needed to get out a bit. He had done nothing but sit inside since Tatara's death, and though you had used this to secure your escape from the bar, it had genuinely worried you as well. It seemed to be working, though, for the dog was now trotting ahead of you, excited to be outside again. Perhaps keeping him in the bar hadn't been such a great idea, after all.

Digging your hands into your coat pockets to shield yourself from the December cold, you looked up at the surprisingly blue sky and wondered how it could look so warm outside, yet in reality be so cool. You asked yourself if you had never truly witnessed winter as it was seeing as a certain King practically radiated heat, expelling any cold that might have thought of pestering them.

Your thoughts wandered off and you asked yourself what Mikoto was doing right now. Not that there was a lot that he could be doing in his current situation, or anything. Was he sleeping in this moment, or was he awake? Was he thinking of you? Or perhaps of Tatara? Of the murder? Most likely. You were sure that Mikoto was plotting ways of exacting his revenge, or something.

But still... Did he miss you just as much as you missed him? You smiled to yourself and shook your head a little as you murmured, "Of course he does." Thankfully the street was mostly devoid of people looking at you as though you had gone crazy, talking to nobody in particular as you were. Frank looked back at you, though, having heard your voice, and he cocked his head to the side. You shook your head again at him, as if the dog would be able to understand that gesture.

Your fingers brushed against the cell phone that you had stashed into your pocket. Since your own phone had suffered a painful death, you had been forced to borrow one from one of the boys after Izumo had told you that it was best for everyone to be able to get in touch with each other if need be. Rikio had been the only one who had a spare at the moment and so that was the one you were allowed to use right now. You considered attempting to call Mikoto and see whether you would be able or allowed to get through to him, but just as you were about to dig it out of your pocket, it began to tremble beneath your grasp.

A text?

You knit your eyebrows into a concerned frown as you flipped the device open, fearing that someone might have gotten into trouble again. The content of the message, however, was nothing like what you had expected. Your brows now shot up as you read the text over and over again, just to make sure you had gotten it right.

You didn't know how long you had been staring at the screen of the phone, but Frank's barking snapped you out of your stupor. At the same time, the sound of a motorcycle's engine revving came from behind you. Looking up just in time, you saw Rikio race past you on his bike, holding up a hand in a gesture that was supposed to make you stay put or something.

The sight of that face on the screen that you held in your hand, with its locations given in the mail, together with the sound of Frank's barking, agitated you. So much, in fact, that you found yourself incapable of thinking straight or just rationalising that it would probably be best for you to remain in the bar. But the guy killed Tatara! How could they expect you to stay behind while they took care of him? They shouldn't have sent the text to you, then.

"Like hell I am!" you shouted at the shrinking back of Rikio, ignoring the frightened stares you were now receiving from confused passers-by that hadn't heard you talk to yourself before.

You began to sprint after the motorcycle as fast as you could, given the state of your legs. It turned out to be more of a kind of hopping, somehow trying to keep most of your weight off your bad leg while still retaining at least some speed. When that didn't work, you bit on your lower lip and pushed yourself to run through the pain. You felt like it would take ages for you to get there, but so be it. There was no way you weren't going to be there when they apprehended that bastard.

In the meantime, Misaki, who had been closest to the scene, was nearing the murderer on his skateboard. When the evildoer had spotted him, barely dodging a blow from the vanguard's bat, he almost at once dashed off in an attempt to escape the boy. It didn't take long for Rikio to arrive as backup with his motorbike, having picked Shouhei up on the way down there. They went in for the attack as well, though unsuccessful. When straightforward hitting didn't work, they tried to corner him, but when the culprit noticed this, he quickly fled into a nearby alley. Izumo had arrived in said alley but a few moments ago and now leaned against a wall, standing in the path that Tatara's murderer wanted to take to escape his pursuers. As he neared the bartender, the latter took his burning cigarette from between his lips and flicked it into the air, subsequently creating maybe one or two dozen fireballs that he directed towards the fleeing boy, who could only stand and stare.

Just before they hit their target, however, a stranger fell from the sky, landing in front of HOMRA'S quarry and deflecting every single fireball with his sword to hit the surrounding buildings instead.

It was in this moment that you arrived as well, panting heavily from having run all the way while still not in your usual condition. At noticing your presence, both Rikio and Izumo shot you a look that told you that you were unwanted. You replied by flipping them off, and mouthing the insult to go with it, your anger obvious on your face.

Misaki, on the other hand, had been just about to charge at the newcomer, who responded by using what looked to be his aura. A colourless hand appeared as if out of no where, grabbing the skater by the head and pulling him in the direction of his attacker who then proceeded to slam his elbow into the boy's stomach. Just as he fell to the ground, and before anybody could do anything, the murderer and his protector began to glow a familiar green colour as the latter pulled the former against his chest and raised his arm into the air. Both of them looked rather surprised at the change. It didn't faze them any further, though, and the culprit's saviour used his colourless aura once more to narrow the space around him and then to widen it again. The force pulled himself and his companion into the air, shooting them away from the scene.

Just then, none other than Ayame appeared from out of another alley, only to stand in the spot that had just been occupied by Tatara's murderer. She spread out her arms as she faced HOMRA and a barrier appeared around her. It went so high into the air that it soon became impossible to fire any more attacks at their fleeing target.

"Stop!" she shouted, looking absolutely terrified.

The expression she wore on her face was mirrored by those of the HOMRA members staring at her in surprise. Misaki's mouth had even dropped open, and so he was now gaping at who he had considered to be a companion, but he was beginning to doubt that. Several other emotions ran through his body - shock, confusion, anger, betrayal.

"Why?!" he yelled at her as he began to rush towards her, but Izumo stopped him by throwing an arm before the boy, which earned the bartender a scowl from the vanguard. He merely gave the boy a cool stare, who in return grit his teeth together in an attempt to calm himself down, though it didn't look to be working.

In the meanwhile, you had managed to sneak forward and now stood next to Izumo. He had been too busy with holding Misaki back that he noticed your arrival too late. When he did, however, you had already passed him and had crept out of his reach. You stopped until you stood in front of Ayame, keeping the distance between the two of you large enough so that neither of you could attack the other. Though you doubted that either of you would try such a thing... right?

As you stared at your friend - could you really still consider her as such? - Ayame averted her eyes and instead decided to look at her shoes, never lowering her arms to her sides. She didn't say anything and neither did you, but at least you had the dignity to look at her, you mused to yourself. You at once scolded yourself internally, telling yourself that perhaps you should listen to what she had to say before condemning her. Something that was rather difficult to keep up when you thought of how she had helped her husband's murderer get away.

"Why are you protecting him? Isn't he the one who killed Tatara?" you finally asked her, voicing your thoughts and finding that you were a bit curious as to why. You kept your voice low in order to maintain at least some form of privacy between the two of you, though you weren't sure whether the others could hear you anyway.

At hearing your words, Ayame shook her head in a wild, almost desperate manner. She had been holding her breath, something that became obvious when she slowly exhaled. You noted how her lower lip quivered and her eyes began to fill with tears. Something big must have happened for her to protect the man who supposedly had caused all this pain to her, but what?

"He didn't do it. He's not the murderer," she then whispered, still not looking up from the ground. The others couldn't hear what she had said, but it felt like a stab in the gut to you and all promises of listening to her side of the story disappeared.

How could she feel like this? How could she possibly protect the man who had killed her husband, the father of her child? Had she fallen this low? Or were you perhaps afraid to believe her, because knowing that you had gotten the wrong person would set HOMRA a step back in their search for revenge? Because then you would have to wait even longer before you could do something with all this anger and hate that filled you? You weren't as kind and soft-hearted as Ayame, after all. None of you were. Which was why she had connected with Tatara in the way she had, after all.

"I had found him long before you did. I had been there, for God's sake, of course I knew what he looked like. And everyone had been so busy with running around the city, I could easily slip away without anybody noticing and had managed to find him myself. It isn't very difficult if you're not Yata-san and screaming and chasing him. I followed him and eventually did confront him... He knew nothing about it, and I believe him. Not because I want to believe him, I know you're thinking that right now, but because he's telling the truth and I don't want anyone else to die because of all this," Ayame finally replied while she dropped her arms and tried to clean her glasses from the tear drops staining it.

She had said it loud enough for everyone to hear it, but as she had expected, nobody believed her. Nobody wanted to believe her, as she had said. You, however, wanted to think that she was telling the truth. You wanted to believe she was right. That this was all some misunderstanding and the real killer would actually act like a bad guy, someone they would enjoy killing, instead of some wimp who ran at the first sight of trouble and had to be saved by others. You didn't want someone like that to be the one who had managed to kill your precious Tatara. It wasn't easy to just change your thoughts about all this, though, so you couldn't convince yourself that she was telling the truth. You shook your head at her to convey your feelings in silence.

"Are you crazy? That guy killed Totsuka-san!" Misaki cried out and thrashed around in Izumo's grasp. The others moved to his side, and though they tried to hold him back, their eyes were filled with the same emotions of betrayal and suspicion as they continued to watch the Strain.

Hurt was displayed on Ayame's face at the reactions she got and she clenched her hands into fists. For the first time in a long time, if not for the first time ever, HOMRA saw Ayame mad. It was not a look that fit her.

"I don't care what you think. I'm going after him to protect him, and I'll make sure you don't lay a finger on him," she snapped at the surprised group before turning around and stalking off.

"But what about the baby?" you murmured. It had mostly been to yourself, but it wouldn't have surprised you if everyone had heard it. Ayame, though, had heard the words you had spoken loud and clear, for she wheeled back around to stare at you in disbelief.

You offered her an apologetic look, as though it were a crime to have watched the whole footage of that video instead of just the part of Tatara being killed as the rest had done. They hadn't wanted to make it any more painful than it already was, after all. Ayame squinted her eyes at you, shook her head and held her hand up for a moment. It began to glow that familiar colour of green before she spun around once more and disappeared.

The last thing you remember was seeing particles of green that had suddenly become visible around your aura and body as they extracted themselves from you and drifted after their owner. After that, a wave of exhaustion crashed on top of you. Everything that had happened until that moment became too much for you to bear, and all went black as you fell to the ground.