K: Tales of Midnight

Chapter Ten: Answers

He caught up to her halfway down the hall, snatching hold of her arm. "Wait," he said.

Kiyoka turned, eyeing him. "Can I help you?"

"We need to talk."

"So talk – Or… " she pointed in the direction of Operations. "Shouldn't you be in there, overseeing things with Jungle? You know, you only have about fifteen minutes before it locks you out again."

"That's more than enough time," he said. "I ran one of my own programs. It'll sweep the network and ping out alerts as it finds the information we're looking for – like lighted arrows." He let out a minor scoff. "I made it so easy, even those guys could do it."

Kiyoka rose a single eyebrow, languidly impressed. "Smart," she said. "So what do you want with me?"

"Not here," he said, and whisked her down the hall, tossing her inside an empty conference room. "No one'll hear us in here," he said, locking the door behind them.

The space was dim, the window shades half closed, a dull grey blanket shadowing the scene.

Kiyoka peered about the place, then twirled around to face him. "Cozy," she said, tipping one coquettish brow.

"I want to know," he ordered, stepping firmly toward her. His voice was brusque, edgy.

"Know what?" She asked, her tone a flush of innocence.

Fushimi's eyes narrowed. "You know damn well what," he said, advancing with a greater stride. This time, she retreated out of instinct, bumping into the oval conference table behind her. Unconsciously, she peered down sideways at it, then gasped back as she turned to find Fushimi towering over her, staring fierce blue eyes at her. "Why are you doing this?" He asked, his voice a fluid echo in her ears.

Kiyoka stared back, wide-eyed. "You mean Reisi didn't tell you?" She asked, genuinely puzzled.

"Like he ever says anything important," he shot back. "I bet in this case, he convinced himself it wasn't his place to tell me." He scoffed off to the side. "What a pain." He turned back to her. "So I'm asking you," he said. "Of all the people you could have picked on, you chose to pick on me. You could have done what you needed to do any way you wanted, yet you did it with my help – not that I felt particularly helpful at the time," he added pointedly.

"And what about now?" She asked, tilting her head playfully. "Do you feel helpful now, Sashimi?"

His scowl deepened. "I wouldn't be asking if I did."

Searchingly, Kiyoka held his callous stare, seeing in his face a weighted fervency behind it. "Okay, then," she said at last, her teasing mood diminishing to seriousness. "I did choose you. I chose you because I needed someone specifically on the outside – someone on Reisi's side, I mean – to use as my contact. Think of it as having a handler – someone I can report to whenever I have information."

"Correct me if I'm wrong, here," he cut in, "but typically handlers are aware of their contacts. And yet, you failed to implement that basic line of protocol."

Kiyoka blinked, confused. "Surely you would have realized –"

"Yeah, I know. If anyone knew, it might have compromised your mission," he said with mock gravity. "That's why you chose not to tell me. But that's not what I asked you. I asked you why you picked me. Over everyone else, what was so important that you needed me?"

Kiyoka stood there, silent, thinking, as it were, on how to answer. Most likely to Fushimi, she was searching for some lie that she could spin, or else a way to redirect the issue so she wouldn't have to answer him at all – or maybe, just maybe, she was looking for some lewd remark to change the mood and make him mad all over again. But instead, to his bewilderment, she caved against his growing stare, heaved a sigh, and sat down on the table, resting both her palms along its edge.

"You were in the perfect position," she confessed. "You were close enough to Reisi that you were always at the scene of any incident, being his eyes and ears, working with his trust. Therefore any messages I gave you, you could give to him directly. Yet you were also far enough away from him that you weren't expected to be at his side continuously, to follow his every command. You were…neutral, I suppose? You acted, knowing he had picked you specifically to work for him, which meant also that you were free somewhat to do what you wanted. In short, you were your own person. You did what you wanted, regardless of rank and regardless of what anyone thought. And from the perspective of others, that sort of behavior doesn't really give off the impression of a person of heart-wrenching loyalty." She crossed her legs, her tone conversational. "That was somewhat ideal for me."

Fushimi cocked his head, understanding flooding in. "So you picked me because I'm a traitor."

Kiyoka pursed her lips, nodding. "Partially, yes," she said, taking in the momentary tightness in his face. "And also because I knew that Nagare wanted you."

These were not the words Fushimi hoped to hear. Ever. Grimacing, his voice fell with disgust. "That guy and his creepy fascination can go to hell."

Kiyoka grinned, chuckling at him. "For your information," she said, "it was that 'creepy fascination' which made it so easy to find time to interact with you."

Fushimi made a face. "Lucky me?" He added mirthlessly.

Kiyoka's grin turned mischievous. "No. Lucky me," she said. "I was able to use Nagare's desire to keep tabs on you to purposefully craft my movements so they collided with yours," she explained. "That way, every time I 'ran into you,' she said in air quotes, "I'd secretly pass on information to you while masking the interaction as a topic of fascination with Nagare. I'd report back to him with all kinds of updates on how you were doing - things like how you looked: healthy or unhealthy; Your latest pieces of tech, from miniature bombs to universal keys, etc.; what kinds of soda you liked; if you were happy. Stuff like that."

Fushimi clicked his tongue. "Gross."

"Maybe. But it created a nice window of opportunity for me," she replied. "Like you, I then had the freedom to see you more or less when I wished, and to do so without suspicion."

At this point, she leaned back comfortably on her palms, peering out the window to the overcast sky beyond. A heavy rain had since begun to fall over Shizume, batting against the window panes. "But there were other reasons, too, you know," she added, her tone heartening. "Other reasons why I chose you," she clarified, turning back to see him staring fixedly at her.

"What other reasons?" He asked, brow furrowed as though debating whether or not he wanted to know the answer.

Kiyoka studied him, this time finding something of alarm, a racing heartbeat, hidden in his usual cool arrogance. She could tell he never knew what she was going to say next, and the idea of that scared him.

"I was…curious," she told him, suddenly self-aware. Peering at her fingers splayed out on the table, her voice fell to a softened, almost-whisper. "Curious about the only other person Reisi cares for." Cautiously, she shifted her large eyes at him in time to catch his startled features frowning down at her.

"Me?" He asked, blinking disbelievingly at her.

Kiyoka kept her sinewy gaze on him, silently confirming what he wanted to ignore, then shifted her eyes back in the direction of the window. "Not because I was jealous or anything like that," she said, shaking off the transitory nature of so trivial a concept, then blinked her eyes heavily, frowning in the midst of some internal struggle warring not too far beneath the surface of her thoughts.

"I'd never been cared for before," she revealed. "So when Reisi came along, it was an entirely new experience for me. What's more, when I found out that I wasn't the only object of his affections, I was interested to know what you were like, and…" again, she seemed reluctant, turning to the side. "And if you were anything like me," she said, smiling in the midst of her slight shyness.

"I wondered if Reisi saw in you the same things he saw in me," she continued, "and if that was why he cared for you too." Turning back to look at him, she found him staring deep into her eyes. Some part of what she said had struck him and he couldn't help but feel it. "I had to know," she said in something of a plea, then smiled again in spite of her self. "You don't realize it, Sashimi," she said. "But the way Reisi looks at you…" she shook her head, gazing at the ceiling, then down again to meet him eye-to-eye. "It's the same way he looks at me – that look of…" she thought for a moment. "Pride, I guess? It's like nothing I've ever felt before." Staring on in earnest, her tone grew meaningful. "You know what I'm talking about, don't you?"

Fushimi did know, only he never really put it that way before, or if he did, he thought it wasn't real. Always, he assumed that Munakata was just toying with him, hiding something sinister behind a pleasant face. But then there were these moments. Fushimi couldn't pinpoint how he knew, maybe in the way he felt unsettled, though strangely not in a bad way. It was more unusual than anything else, like all the air had been sucked out of the room, but instead of leaving him cold, unable to breathe, it left him warm, settled, waiting without pain for the air to come back in, and both anxious and excited for its return. It was that feeling, that pull of anticipation, that he'd hardly ever felt before, and the force of it was like a blinding light cast suddenly over him, when all he ever knew was how to live life in the dark. Yeah, he knew what Kiyoka was talking about, and now, she knew it, too.

"I wanted to tell you everything," she said, breaking down another wall. "But Reisi…"

"He wouldn't let you," Fushimi finished for her, his surly tone diminishing.

In turn, an air of solidarity sprang up in her, partnered with an inkling of relief, as though somehow she needed him to understand and feared he never would, yet when he did, it ushered out a weight she finally realized she had harbored all that time.

"Reisi knew that any risk, however slight, would put me in even greater danger," she conveyed to him. "He would have taken on your role himself if he could, but he knew the dangers of that as well. In the end it was I who suggested it be you." The way she said this was curious to Fushimi, as though her purpose wasn't in exploiting him, but rather just the opposite.

"You should have seen his face," she went on, thinking back serenely. Then, recalling the full memory, she laughed. "Reisi didn't think I'd even heard of you. He didn't know that, while I was recuperating in one of his safe houses after he'd found me, I was also doing my research; nor did he know that whenever he came to visit, I'd overhear his phone calls with you when he thought I wasn't listening. Over time, I began to notice something," she said, drawing in Fushimi's curiosity. "He seemed to take more of an interest in you than anyone else – even more than his second – that high-and-mighty Ms. What's-Her-Face." She rolled her eyes deliberately.

"I remember it well," she went on, clearly nostalgic. "He would call you all the time and I'd watch the way his face would light up." She smiled pleasantly at him, as though, for the first time, she was viewing him honestly. "I was completely captivated by it," she said with startling frankness. "That's how I knew you were someone he admired, someone he cared for."

Fushimi, growing antsy by this declaration, stopped her with a cautionary hand out in the air. "Yeah, okay, I get it."

Kiyoka posed a knowing grin. "The attention jars you, doesn't it?" She asked, and when he stared a blatant realization at her, she said, "It's alright. It jars me too. To be honest, I don't think I'll ever get used to it. Bad attention, yes. I've lived with that my whole life. But as soon as someone's kind and actually treats me like a living, breathing person, I get all warm and don't know what to do with myself – particularly my hands," she added, waving both hers in the air. "I never know what to do with them." She bared her teeth in a fun-loving chuckle, which was not so fun to Fushimi, her own attention causing him to shrink back into his usual brooding self.

"You think this is a joke," he said, not entirely sure if he meant it.

Kiyoka, never phased by his abrupt dips into utter rudeness, gripped the table's edge once more, leaning out to crane her neck and peer at him with something of a twinkle in her eye. "Isn't it better to laugh because the world is kind than cry because it's cruel?"

Fushimi made to answer her, but only got so far as opening his mouth before he shut it once again.

Kiyoka nodded, pleased by this, then sat up with her shoulders back. "In the end, Reisi was quick to say 'yes' when I told him I wanted you in on the mission. He agreed that you were the right choice." Tapping out her fingers in a walk along her knee, she made a point of keeping her eyes centered down on them instead of Fushimi. "There was just one condition, though. One price for allowing me to have my way." Her fingers started tapping in a slower, languid motion. "Until he saw that, in no way, it hindered both my mission and my life, I was to say nothing about it to you," she said, stealing one quick glance at him to find his features tense, frustration and annoyance seeping back into his face. "Obviously, that made relaying information that much more difficult," she noted. "I had to be all cryptic about it just in case anyone was watching. But you're smart and so is Reisi. I knew I could rely on you." She heaved a little sigh. "So I did as Reisi asked, and willingly too. The man gave me everything," she added, somewhat helplessly. "I could afford to give him this."

"He sent you to Nagare – back into the world he'd only just rescued you from," Fushimi pointed out, unconvinced, but Kiyoka frowned, her face sincere.

"That wasn't his choice," she explained, shaking her head. "It was mine."

"Yours?" He blinked. "You mean…?"

"Reisi didn't want me to go," she confirmed. "Sure, he knew how advantageous it would be if I did. He even planned for it initially. But when it came down to asking me, he choked. I think that's when he realized he had gotten too caught up in his feelings for me."

Fushimi cast a watchful eye to her. "And what is it that he feels, exactly?" He asked her probingly. "What are you two to each other?"

A whisper of a smile, blossoming to a full-fledged grin, escaped her as she issued out a teasing laugh. "Are you jealous, Sashimi?"

Catching himself from turning a deep crimson, he clumsily blurted out the word, "Hardly." Then, calming down, he added in more pointedly, "I've just never known the Captain to let his personal feelings get in the way of his mission."

"Guess I'm just lucky that way," she shrugged. "But to be fair, we both are."

Fushimi made a partial shake of his head, leering skeptically at her.

"And still you wonder why I was so curious about you," she crooned. "Still you haven't a clue."

"Say what you will," he countered. "But the Captain's never compromised his precious ideals over me."

Kiyoka popped her brow, scooting back against her palms and peering to the side. "If you say so." She flicked her stare back purposefully, and for a moment, he was captured by it, wondering at it, wanting to ask her what she meant and what she knew, then having to remind himself that, no, he didn't care.

"I do say so," he said at last, steeling himself firmly so she couldn't see how close he came to thoroughly questioning himself.

But she didn't back down. Not yet, at least. Still, she kept him locked within her gaze, and as she looked, really looked, his own stare nearly buckled beneath hers.

"Alright then," she announced, backing off the second that he thought he couldn't take it anymore. "So where were we?"

Fushimi was so distracted, heaving an internal sigh, that he had to stop and think. "You wanted to fill me in on your plan but the Captain's overprotective streak cut into that," he finally answered, crossing his arms gracefully in an effort to compose himself.

"Right," she said, relaxing herself back along the table. "He had his reasons, so I didn't argue with him. I knew that what he was doing was all in order to help me, and to be honest, I needed all the help I could get. Even with my feigned background in the Underworld, my carefully curated resume and my Imperium-induced power," she waved leisurely, "not to mention my black aura – which no one seems to know the origin of – gaining Nagare's confidence was incredibly difficult to do. Nevertheless, I –"

"Back up," he said, drawing one hand up to wave at her. "I thought your black aura was just from being a Strain."

Kiyoka shook her head slowly. "My aura came to me later."

Fushimi's eyes shot open wide. She's a double aura-wielder…like me? He found himself in awe. No one else that he had ever heard of had access to two auras. But then the connotations started surfacing. The reason why he had two auras instead of one, came flooding in. Is she also…? "So you're telling me that you were with another King before the Captain?" He hurled out, something like anticipation mixed with fury and excitement riddled in his voice, but Kiyoka shook her head.

"All I remember was sitting alone in my cell one day – at Ignatius Banks, that is. I was sleeping. Then the next thing I knew, the entire building shook with this giant boom like an earthquake." She rattled her hands out before her for effect. "And all of a sudden, a wave of black power – this aura," she said, gesturing to her core, "came shooting through the walls, straight into me, like it was looking for me. It settled into me and just stayed there, coursing through me in a way that made me feel like it was made for me." She paused, thinking back on it. "I think that's why I never felt afraid of it. I just let it in. I guess I thought that one day it would save me." Chuckling, she drew her fingers up to slide a section of her hair behind her ear, bashfully enjoying herself. "I guess, in a way, it did. I'm certain it was this aura that made it possible to survive the Imperium Procedure. It gave me the strength I needed to push through it, which is why I find it pointless to try testing the Imperium Procedure on regular strains," she added scornfully.

"They'd have to have an aura first – on top of being a Strain," he surmised.

She nodded.

"Does Nagare know this?"

Kiyoka rose her shoulders in a shrug. "If he does, he didn't learn it from me."

"And you have no idea where this aura came from?"

She thought for a moment. "At first, I thought that maybe it was just another experiment – one that Ignatius Banks tested out on me. But on top of the fact that no one even seemed aware that it had happened – they never came to question me about it – I also realized that it's not scientific in nature. Compared to my Imperium power, it's too natural, too organic."

"You think it came from the Slate?" He asked, enraptured by this sudden new enigma.

"That would be my guess, yes," she answered. "But until I can find out how I got it, and from who, I'll never know for sure. I mean, aren't there only supposed to be seven auras that belong to seven kings? If that's not true, which, judging by me, it isn't, that would mean…" she shook her head, trying to process an answer.

"I imagine that's another reason why Nagare took you in," Fushimi commented. "Aside from having completed the Imperium Procedure, wielding an aura no one's ever heard of seems like just the kind of mystery that guy'll do anything to get his hands on."

Kiyoka pursed her lips, nodding in agreement. "I was his own personal curiosity," she admitted. "Naturally he was going to use me. But getting him to trust me?" A tiny scoff escaped her. "That was a whole other issue. To this day, I still don't think he ever did. Sure, he valued me, but not because he cared for me. When you've lived as I have – which, I imagine you have, in your own way – you find that everyone tries to use you. Therefore, it makes it easy to see when someone's not."

Ruffled by this surprise attack of understanding, Fushimi found a gentler voice he didn't know he had. "You mean the Captain," he said, nearly as a question, and she nodded.

"Knowing what it's like to be truly loved for the first time," she said, "that feeling stands out. It's how I was able to pick through Nagare's lies and know that what he really cared for wasn't me but my power and his ability to use it. So that's exactly what I let him do," She smiled, her face a twist of cunning and delight. "However, there was a complication."

Fushimi looked a question, urging her to continue.

"Early on, I suspected that Nagare was using my blood to conduct experiments in his search to find the serum, which meant he had a lab somewhere that he used for this purpose. This was the same lab I assumed he was taking all those test subjects we 'freed' from other labs." She blinked emphatically, her own revulsion sliding to the surface. "My reason to suspect that he had such a facility was because the one I was given access to didn't have anything beyond Imperium testing. And believe me, I checked. Many times. That's how I knew he was keeping secrets from me, that he didn't fully trust me, despite the fact that I was his first ever J-ranker. Of course, that didn't surprise me, but I acted like it did."

Fushimi 'humphed,' amused. "Did that work?"

"What do you think?" she smiled. "I made him believe that I wanted to be an 'active' part of his research, not just the blood donor – another numbered variable in his plan. All I wanted was to 'prove myself,'" she said, feigning sincerity before rolling her eyes.

"Wow, and he bought that?" Fushimi asked, eyebrows lifted high into the air.

"Clearly you don't know the extent of that guy's ego," she replied. "I said exactly what he wanted to hear. And he responded, saying he had a way for me to do just that."

Fushimi cast a sudden, knowing look at her. "The Crosswalk," he said.

"The Crosswalk," she echoed.

"Not that I particularly care," he went on, "but people could have died."

"You're right, they could have," she stated matter-of-factly. "And, if we're being honest, I was prepared to let that happen, fully relying on Reisi and his resources to make sure it didn't. I had no idea that Nagare would order me to reverse the algorithm's effects, so I guess my non-worrying was justified," she flitted regally.

"Yeah, how did you do that, anyway?" Fushimi asked, and Kiyoka donned a cat—like grin.

"Yet another mystery behind my power," she rang out airily.

A fiery light sparked in Fushimi's eyes. "You mean Imperium can move things backwards? Reverse things you want to undo?"

"Not Imperium," she corrected him, setting a hand on her chest. "My aura. Believe it or not, it's not all fire and brimstone. It's also a healing aura."

This was not what Fushimi was expecting. Sure, he could have gotten behind the idea of somehow altering the structure of animate and inanimate objects, but to go so far as to think of it as 'healing?' Her? Forgive him if he didn't fully believe it. Cynical, he narrowed deeper, intense eyes at her. "So then hypothetically, couldn't you just use your aura to heal yourself from the aftereffects of Imperium?"

"You'd think so, wouldn't you?" She answered unexpectedly. "But the Imperium Procedure wasn't formed from supernatural elements, and only supernatural forces can be undone by my aura. If I were to get hit by a bus, for example, my aura wouldn't save me. But if I was struck by an aura, or say I was stabbed by a blade imbued with an aura – Like, oh yeah! That one time when you actually did that." Her face fell instantly flat. "In those instances, my aura is able to reverse the blade's effect. And seeing how most wounds in our world are wrought from the supernatural – my own case in point – you can see how my aura might be a handy thing to have."

"And I'm sure Nagare capitalized off of that every chance he got," he uttered flatly.

"He did. As a matter of fact, one of his other experiments has been to try to find a way to duplicate that power. Seeing as how I'm not a king, I couldn't just give it to him. So he was trying to find another way to have it."

"Why am I not surprised by how sinister that sounds?" He asked, meriting an outstretched palm in signal of her mutual agreement.

"One of several reasons why he encouraged me to finish writing the Kawaguchi Algorithm," she finished.

"Ah yes," he chimed in again, his voice devoid of pleasantry. "Let's not forget the one thing Nagare should never ever have, which he now happens to have, thanks to you." This time, it was he who splayed an open palm in her direction.

Kiyoka blinked a pricked expression, fidgeting in her place. "Rude," she mumbled, mock hurt in her voice. "And also incorrect."

Fushimi's air of skepticism returned. "How?" He asked. "Are you saying Nagare doesn't have the Algorithm?"

Kiyoka's lips curled upward slightly, her green eyes glinting. "That's exactly what I'm saying."

A sudden burst of defiance rose up in Fushimi, striking through the practically non-existent boundary surrounding his anger. "And you didn't think that was worth sharing?!" He blurted out, indignant.

Kiyoka shrugged. "Not really. So do me a favor and don't tell anyone, will you?"

Fushimi looked about ready to pop. "You're not serious."

"Actually, I'm very serious. Because you see, Nagare doesn't currently know that he doesn't have the Algorithm. He only thinks he does, and I'd very much like to keep it that way."

"How could he think he have it but not?" He asked, his wheels visible turning over this new Rubik's Cube of a thought. Then his eyes fell into slits, suspicion in his tone. "What did you do?" He uttered low and clearly at her.

Kiyoka shot a snide look at him, wrinkling her nose. "You don't have to sound so accusatory. He is our enemy after all. Therefore, wouldn't whatever I did be a good thing?"

"Okay then," he granted her. "Please do share with me how you were able to swing it so that the master of deception was fooled into thinking he had something he doesn't actually have."

Instantly, Kiyoka's features softened and she sat up, looking pleased. "That's better, I feel a just a little bit more affirmed."

"Well?" He pressed her.

"Alright, alright," she waved at him. "When I built the algorithm in the first place, I thought it'd be a good idea to write in some parameters on who's allowed to access it and who's not. I couldn't very well have just anyone logging in and spreading who-knows-what to anyone and everyone on earth. That would have been fairly stupid of me."

"So you rigged it so that only certain people have access to it," he said more as a statement than a question.

"Not 'certain people,'" she corrected him. "One person."

Fushimi stared, waiting for an answer. Kiyoka stared back, eyes bright and canny. "You?" He said, stunned, at which she formed an open grin.

"Ta da!" She uttered musically. "Clever, wasn't it?"

It was. It was very clever.

"I think now you have an even bigger target on your back," he said rather than praising her.

Kiyoka, in response to this, relaxed her shoulders in a disarming gesture, gazing out with wide, intrinsic eyes.

This action caught him off-guard and he shifted his own eyes from side to side, not quite comprehending what was happening. "What?" He finally asked her in a mild head shake.

"Awe, Sashimi," she smiled, honey in her voice. "Are you worried about me?"

Astounded at his own actions, and even more frustrated at her for pointing them out, Fushimi jerked away from her. "What?" He spouted angrily. "No! Will you just – can you please be serious for once?"

Kiyoka blinked a couple times. "But I am being serious," She answered, conveying a bewildered look.

Fushimi riled, wanting to boil over, but his lack of a comeback made it impossible. Instead, he groaned a hefty scoff and turned away, pinching fingers up against a tightly knitted brow. "Are you sure you didn't pick me just so you could annoy me?" He asked, a sound of desperation in his voice.

"Probably," she said, and he craned his neck to look at her, legs crossed, her feet dangling off the table as she looked on pleasantly.

Fushimi shook his head, brushing off the futile urge to continue. "Whatever," he sighed, and began to pace before her, thinking. "So if we back up to –" he wove a hand out in the air – "what we were talking about before."

"You mean my brilliant plan to make myself the sole accessor to the Kawaguchi Algorithm?" She posed.

"Yes. I mean no. I mean…" He shook his head, flustered. "You know what? Sure, whatever. So let me get this straight. You designed it specifically so that you are the only one who can go in and use it the way you did at the Crosswalk, correct?"

"Correct," she nodded.

Fushimi kept on pacing. "Therefore, my only question is…" He stopped and turned to face her, his coattails flapping up against his knees. "How were you able to do that? Even an algorithm can be hacked."

"Not when the algorithm is specifically engineered with supernatural elements that bind it to its host," she chimed in happily.

Fushimi, having paced again, came once more to a halt. "You linked it to your aura," he surmised. "You're horribly dangerous, terrifying, one-of-a-kind aura that no one can figure out the origin of," he added, his eyes sparkling.

Kiyoka pointed one long finger at him. "The very one," she said, pleased. Even Fushimi couldn't help but nod his own approval at this crafty bit of news. But then he turned again to his inherent skepticism. "Are you positive that Nagare hasn't found a way to replicate it?"

Kiyoka sighed, slumping from his quick fall from excitement. "The only way to do that is with the Algorithm, which only I have access to," she reminded him. "So, all in all, I'd have to say no."

"But he is still working on the serum – now that you've depleted his stash, which, just out of curiosity," he asked, "how much was he able to make before you…" he rose one hand and splayed his fingers, mimicking an explosion.

Kiyoka thought a moment. "To be honest, I wasn't exactly in my right mind at the time." Her mouth tweaked sideways, something of a 'whoops' conveyed, as though the thing were far less grave and much more understanding when the lives of many teetered on the line. "When Nagare finally showed me the lab with the serum, my powers were on overload. I couldn't really process minute details anymore," she confessed. "Imagine being drunk but also exceptionally tired. Your senses start to blur a bit."

Fushimi squinted lightly in response, retrieving, as it were, a memory from that day. "So that's why you were acting so much weirder than usual that day at the Crosswalk," he realized, finally putting two and two together."

"Wow, really?" She replied, her tone hard. "I was practically dead, Sashimi. You didn't see the toxic waste seeping out of me, making me insane? The very waste that Nagare and that psycho Douhan put in me?"

Fushimi paused, distracted. "I thought Douhan gave you the overdose of Imperium after the Crosswalk."

"Yeah," she said with attitude. "But up until then, it was still standard procedure to be injected with higher doses than normal – if you can really call any of that 'normal,'" she grumbled. "Particularly when Nagare had me going off on assignments or when I was back doing jobs in the Underworld, I was taking it constantly. But when taken more than directed (which I was doing), and at higher doses (which I was also doing), the after-effects start to become a bit more… intense – to say the least. As does the addiction. So by the time Douhan gave me that hyper-dose, I was already so doped up, I didn't even realize what was happening. All I knew was that I needed to get back to the lab, free the prisoners, and destroy the serum before Nagare got any further with his research. There was just one slight hitch, though. When I got there, the prisoners weren't there."

Fushimi flicked a finger in the air. "Hence the raid by the Lieutenant after the fact," he said.

"Yeah, that was supposed to be me," she conceded. "But things got…complicated. I found out the prisoners were being housed at a separate facility, which I was able to find out the location to. But the serum was at the lab I was currently at. So I took my chances, blew it up, intending to free the prisoners right after. Yet in the process of doing so, something went wrong. My power went haywire," she said, flitting out a hand into the air as though the details were still hazy in her mind. "I couldn't control it anymore. It was like it was trying to act out on its own. That's when I realized (incorrectly at the time) that I'd been poisoned. I didn't have enough time, nor enough energy, to free the prisoners on my own at that point. It would have been too dangerous. For them and for me."

"So you came to get help."

She hummed a 'yes.' "I knew I needed to tell Reisi where the prisoners were. I truly thought I was dying. But when I got to Scepter 4, I was so far gone, I barely made it past the entrance."

"I remember stopping for a rest at one point, and that's when I saw your door. Your name was written on it. So I figured if I couldn't get to Reisi directly, the next best thing would be to get to you. I knew I could trust you to make sure the information got to him and…well, you know the rest."

Fushimi crossed his arms, having stood in silence, thinking all the while as she spoke. He strolled up to the window, fidgeting the blinds, opening them fully, then closing them, then turning them to how they were, half closed. "There's just one more thing I can't understand," he said at last. "Why go through all the trouble of giving Nagare everything he wanted? Even if you were just going to take it away, why give it to him in the first place? Were you only doing this to find and destroy Imperium test sites, to free their test subjects, and shut down the whole operation? Because that all seems rather secondary to me."

"That's a fair observation," she said, at which, Fushimi turned a sidelong glare at her.

"Thank you, I'm so glad you approve. I'm right, though, aren't I? There's more that you and the Captain aren't telling me. Something else you're planning."

"Yes," she said, her face a sober picture staring back at him. "There is something else. Something bigger even than discovering what Nagare's grand plan is and finding a way to stop it."

His interest piqued, feeling like, at last, he was getting somewhere, Fushimi left the window, strolling back up to her seated form. "So, there really is something more important than keeping a grade A psychopath from finding a way to give the entire world supernatural powers superior to our own, and you and the Captain have figured out what that is?"

"As a matter of fact, yes," she said.

A bolt of heat shot through him and he tipped his features slightly to the side, leaning in to fix an ardent stare at her. "Enlighten me," he said to her, his heart rate quickening.

Kiyoka nudged in close until he felt her breath brush up against his lips. He didn't budge, nor did she, because it was no longer a challenge at this point. Strangely, in that moment, a neutrality had found its way between them, some common ground just big enough for both of them to stand on without fear of falling off.

Fushimi's eyes were strong, penetrating, reaching out to hers; Kiyoka's were the same, clear and smooth and calling out as well, finding him as he, in turn, found her.

Holding his gaze poignantly, a bit of her old craftiness returned, this time to his own gratification, at which point, she declared to him, "We're going to kill Hisui Nagare."

Chapter Eleven: Midnight