A/N: Welcome back, dear readers and lurkers. Finally, I have posted the long awaited chapter. I am sorry it is late. The three or four of you still reading at this point have been dying of suspense, so please, sit back and enjoy.

CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

Kiba and Team 8 in Water Country: 3

Ink and paper; the ink a wet tang with hints of flower and plant matter which flowed to his nose as if on a smooth wave. Sai's here? His focus shifted from the flattened, scraggly bush. The scent's angle was too distant to get another whiff; he needed the breeze to bring it to him again. And a few minutes later, it did, and yes, Sai's ink scent was on the wind.

Inexplicably, Kiba's heart throbbed with joy and anticipation.

The ink came nearer, nearer, a huge clot of it from over the channel. Joyful flames in his chest overheated him. He had to open his mouth and pant, a quick, huffing in-out-in-out of air to circulate the oxygen and cool his system. Sweat had broken out along his spine, his chest, his forehead. Droplets of perspiration dribbled along his throat. He suppressed the desire to sprint to the shoreline and hail his captain, whom he'd not seen in days, had not known his location for days, but he was well trained and gestured to Rojin to come over.

"Hm? What is it?" Rojin asked.

"Our captain's approaching over the channel," Kiba said.

Rojin squinted across the water. Crow's feet creased from the corner of his eyes to his hairline. "Is he? I don't…"

"Look up."

A black fleck had materialized in the sky from the direction of the main island, and with each passing moment, the fleck took shape, became bigger, formed into a large white hawk with thick black outlines. On the hawk's back was another black figure, hair teased in the wind, skin as white as rice paper. Rojin stared at the rapidly approaching hawk; the others had seen Sai and stood in a loose line beside Kiba and Rojin. Sai swooped closer. When he was within range of the dock, he jumped from the hawk's back, landing with a quick thump on the wood. At the same time, he dismissed the imitation hawk. Black ink hit the water like a fusillade.

He was as Kiba last saw him, wearing the Konoha-style flak jacket, black long-sleeved shirt and trousers, the scroll bumping along at his hip. The dark olive and gray camouflage cloak swirled about his legs was new. He glided across the dock, his movement graceful and calm, purposeful, and he had a pleasant smile plastered on his face as though he'd returned from a short outing and was home for dinner. The excitement and thrill inside Kiba twisted around into fury. The anxiety had been real the last week, a heavy burden along his shoulders. So he thinks he can just walk back onto the mission, easy-peasy without a lick of consequences?

Kiba exploded. "Where the fuck have you been? Eh? Spit it out!"

"I-"

"I don't wanna hear excuses!" Kiba's holler drowned out Sai's attempt to explain. He grabbed the front of Sai's flak jacket and brought him to his toes with a rude yank. While he continued his rant into Sai's face, he gave him a shake for good measure. "I was worried sick about you! We thought you'd been killed. We looked everywhere for yer sorry ass!"

Sai's smaller white hands covered Kiba's fists clenched in the rough material of the vest. His touch burned Kiba. "You were...worried?"

"Yeah, I was. We all were."

"Oh. I'm sorry I worried everyone. I didn't mean to." Sai's placid demeanor had an unwanted, dissipating effect on Kiba's anger. He released the flak jacket with a gruff harumph as Sai continued his explanation, entirely unruffled. "I saw an opportunity to chase after Ino and I took it, but I lost her trail."

"Why didn't you send us a message? We would've come to you."

"My movement was unpredictable and frequent. To wait for you proved impossible and, ultimately, futile as Ino evaded capture once again," Sai replied. "I had stopped at the Office of the Mizukage to announce my presence in Water and to send a message to Shikamaru. I was told you were at Sorutotaun, investigating a battle, so I flew to meet you."

"Your presence is most welcome," said Rojin. "We have experienced a couple setbacks. But first, allow me to introduce our team." Rojin went through the introductions, and when he mentioned Tensai, he added, "Tensai is one of our best detectives. She's gone missing, as well as the Sea Queen, our vessel. We'd better relate everything to you in a coherent manner."

Rojin summarized their arrival, the ambush on them out in the salt flats, the gold frame in the rubble of the collapsed warehouse, and other pertinent details. Sai, as he did, absorbed the information with a tranquil set to his features. He asked for specific information once in a while, but otherwise, he let Rojin narrate the information to him without interruption. Rojin also mentioned Takahino and the Yamanaka cousin in the brothel, but as the battle with the jaguars had drained the squad's energy, their priorities had shifted to survival.

"Kiba, Hinata, are Takahino and the other Yamanaka where they were last night?" Sai asked.

Hinata and Kiba both told him no.

To Kiba's infinite (and secret) relief, Takahino and Hikarino had fled in the early hours of the morning. As Kiba was on patrol at the campsite, he neither had the time nor the inclination to chase after them, nor did he feel the need to raise an alarm as the squad was too fatigued to enact a capture mission. Besides, he was their only guard while they recovered. If he left, his allies would be asleep and unguarded, an opportunity ripe for any villain to take advantage of.

"I see. We will deal with their escape later. Tensai takes priority," said Sai to Rojin. "We ought to track her before the trail runs cold. Could she have taken the Sea Queen to transport the gold frame to a different location?"

"I don't like to say it, but yes, that is my guess. A single individual can sail Sea Queen, and Tensai has the experience to sail her. But I can't imagine where she'd go with the frame. Tensai isn't a thief...she's too much of the researcher. She wouldn't steal."

"Until proven otherwise, we'll operate under the assumption Tensai is aboard the Sea Queen with the frame. An individual or a group of them may have forced her. We'll split up and search the Isle of Salt first for the vessel or any sign of her. One pair can fly across the channel to the nearest dock. Should we come up empty-handed, I'll send a report to the Mizukage's Office." Sai glanced at the sky. "We have several hours of daylight left. Let's move out."

No one argued with Sai's plan. Kayu was still weakened from chakra exhaustion, so Shino volunteered to remain with her at the campsite. Sai drew out three ink hawks from the parchment, the rapid and deft strokes quicker than a wink across the parchment. Rojin and Mako gawked a little with Sai's jutsu, but despite their surprise, they willingly boarded one of the hawks with Hinata. At first, Sai said he'd fly alone on a separate hawk, but Kiba and Akamaru hopped aboard Sai's hawk and flat-out refused to step off. Rojin, Mako, and Hinata headed to the eastern end of the island; Sai, Kiba, and Akamaru searched over the western coast.

Blue surrounded them, isolated them. Blue skies, blue seas. Not a cloud in the sky. Kiba was to Sai's side, and a patched tear in the sleeve toward the shoulder was apparent. The black thread didn't quite match the black shirt material. "Are you okay, though? I mean, you were gone for a long time. Did anything happen we should know about?"

"I'm fine. Ino didn't hurt me or hypnotize me again. I had…a bit of bad luck. Otherwise, I would've caught her."

Kiba studied Sai's profile. "You can tell me if something's wrong."

Sai's black eyes flicked over at him, in surprise, Kiba's nose told him. Kiba had commented for no other reason than a blind fire in the dark, a poke, a prod at the mystery in front of him. Sai's reaction may indicate a secret lurking around the corner. Worse, his nose itched with suspicion. Naturally because Sai was Root-bred, he had secrets, but why have a secret in this specific context? To press Sai further would reveal his line of thinking and warn away Sai from the topic, so Kiba chose to bide his time.

They had no luck on the western coast of the isle, but across the channel in one of the larger marinas, Kiba's keen eyesight picked out the Sea Queen from a cluster of other boats. They landed and examined the boat. Neither Tensai nor the gold frame were aboard, but she had been on the vessel, and when they asked the marina manager about the Sea Queen's arrival, he confirmed a woman of Tensai's description had docked her boat late last night. Several other people had been aboard with her. They had taken a large, heavy object off the boat, and as it was wrapped with canvas, the manager couldn't specify the object. The group loaded the frame on a wagon and headed toward the town center. All of it happened at the beginning of the day. None had returned.

"Does Swift Emperor Shipping have a facility nearby?" Sai asked the manager.

"Swift Emperor does have private land northwards. The road through town will take you where you want to go."

Sai asked a few other general questions of the manager before thanking him.

Kiba and Akamaru sniffed at the road. How was Tensai associated with the Yamanaka? Why? "Yep, I smell various Yamanaka scents. No Ino, though. Tensai's scent is mixed in. Follow me."

Kiba and Akamaru used their noses; Sai let them take the lead. The road cut through the center of the village and into a lush green countryside. Tensai's scent trail didn't veer from the roadway except for a turn on a sideroad into dense, luxuriant forest. As they traveled further, the living and dying vegetation became tinged with a salty overtone. The road would take them to the ocean. Trees and shrubs cleared ahead of them. Kiba, Sai, and Akamaru dashed into cover overhead, hiding among the clustered leaves. Along the edge of an isolated beach was a compound with a barred fence around the perimeter. On the far side of the compound was a wharf with several landings for ships. The Swift Emperor jaguar was prevalent on the building sides.

"There are loads of scents, but Tensai and the Yamanaka scents are recent and go straight into the compound," Kiba told Sai. "I can't smell anyone or anything else on the property. Why didn't she sail the Sea Queen here? It's obvious she didn't resist the Yamanaka when she docked at the marina, so why was the frame transported over land?"

"A trap for any tails." Sai unrolled his scroll and his ink brush illustrated various birds, mice, and other small creatures, all of which fled off the paper and disappeared to the forest floor. "We'll do reconnaissance and report back to the Kiri shinobi."

Sai and Kiba remained in the treetops for an hour while Sai's forest critters explored the compound top to bottom. After they reported to him, he said, "The place seems abandoned, but we shouldn't risk an infiltration without back-up. A lot of areas could be used for an ambush."

Kiba hesitated, snagged his lip with a canine. Takahino had said the gold frame was a portal, and the Yamanaka clan had traveled through them into the warehouse where Takahino was with Hikarino. As crazy as he thought Takahino's story was, Takahino had told the truth or what he perceived to be the truth. The information was valuable, but Kiba's knowing it proved to be an issue. Without revealing his source (and providing proof of Takahino's credibility and reliability), it was unlikely Kiba'd be able to convince the others of this possibility, but maybe Sai would take his word for it.

"Kiba?" Sai's gaze was as penetrating as Ino's.

Unsettled, Kiba leaned to scratch Akamaru's neck. "Yeah, we should head out."

"You seem unsure."

"Well…" A long moment of silence stretched between them as Kiba grappled with what he knew and how he should share it. Sai waited, motionless, as Kiba vacillated. "I have to tell you something, but I can't tell you how I know it. You'll have to trust it's reliable information. No questions."

"I won't ask questions. I trust your judgment."

Kiba hesitated. In all likelihood, Sai might suspect the origins of the information, but Kiba had to take the risk and share the valuable information. "The gold frame functions as a portal to link together two places. While Tensai was alone, someone could have activated the mirror, come through, and taken her hostage. The frame itself was heavy as fuck. Unless she used a clone or has freaky Sakura-strength, I don't think she could wrangle the frame onto the Sea Queen alone."

"Interesting." Sai's features were neutral. He did not question Kiba further about the mirror. "With the use of Yamanaka mind techniques, I think whoever is in charge orchestrated the removal of the gold frame from Sorutotaun as you suggested. After transporting it to this place, the employees could've evacuated on a ship at dock or on the roadway further into the island. We have no way of knowing the number of existing frames or whether they can be transformed into other objects."

Kiba figured he'd get more of a reaction, because portals through space and time, but Sasuke's dojutsu had a similar power to open portals, so not so much a big deal. As Kiba looked at Sai, just a general look, Sai shifted. The warm weather had caused Sai to remove the heavier cloak and pack it away. By happenstance the sunshine hit a thin, gleaming thread on Sai's black shirt sleeve. A hair? The end dangled out of the vest's arm opening. Curious, Kiba snagged the hair and tugged it; the hair gave. He pulled, pulled, pulled. The hair was long, three feet or more in length and platinum blonde. Only one person he knew had blonde hair three feet or more in length.

"Did you duel Ino while you were away from us?" Kiba asked. He tried not to sound offended or intrusive.

"No, we didn't have contact."

Kiba showed Sai the long blonde hair. "Are you sure? This is Ino's hair. How'd it stick to yer shirt without contact?"

"It might've fallen on me while we were in Yu," Sai said. Kiba's nose detected the faintest spike in Sai's chemicals. A lie? Not the usual telling shift if it was. Then again, Sai wasn't a normal human. "We should tell the others of our discovery. I'll fly us back."

Why was the hair under yer vest? Kiba held his tongue because on occasion, Ino's hair had shed on him and his clothes, including under his flak jacket. When Ino's hair was under his flak jacket, it was there because it had clung to the shirt with the jacket off and had been kept in place when he put it back on. When would Sai have had the chance to take off the flak jacket and also be close enough to Ino for her hair to shed on him? No way the hair stayed on him since Yu, but maybe it did. And maybe between his disappearance outside Yu and now, he had a chance to be near Ino. If so, why would he lie? However, Kiba would give Sai the benefit of the doubt and let sleeping dogs lie.

In silence, they three flew on a return trip to Sorutotaun. By the time they arrived, dusk had soared forward on soft, pale blue wings. Hinata, Rojin, and Mako had already gathered at camp. Kayu was ambulatory and less pale than when they'd parted company earlier in the day, and she was cheerful enough to exchange a few jokes with Kiba. Hinata's team didn't see hide nor hair of Yamanakas or jaguars on the Isle of Salt. Kiba and Sai's report caused the most interest and discussion. Should they investigate the compound tomorrow or should they wait for further guidance from the Office? Sai, for his part, wrote a couple reports and sent them out, one to Shikamaru and a second to the Mizukage's Office.

They passed an uneventful night on the beach in Sorutotaun. Kiba kept an eye on Sai, who acted with his usual reticence, but Kiba knew Sai had a lot of thoughts he didn't outright express. The next morning, Rojin announced he had decided they should investigate the Swift Emperor Shipping compound on the main island, so they broke their camp and Sai flew them to the compound. As it had been the day before, nothing stirred on the land. The team formed three squads: Kiba, Sai, and Akamaru; Shino, Kayu, and Hinata; Mako and Rojin. Kiba swore he and Akamaru would stick to Sai like glue.

Sai and Kiba held their position while they waited for the other two squads to circle around to opposite points on the compound. Their scents left vaporous trails on the ground and in the air. Everyone was well within his scent radius, so he was easily able to monitor everyone. Though each squad was out of line of sight from the other, Kiba and Mako had sharp noses, and Hinata had her dojutsu. Once Rojin and Mako started toward the compound, Kiba signaled Sai and Akamaru; Hinata, Shino, and Kayu moved simultaneously. The three squads had their designated zones to investigate. Multiple structures and offices were searched, but no one and nothing was left. The whole place was empty.

The three squads converged after they cleared their respective zones. No sign of Tensai, the gold frame, or any Yamanaka, though Kiba smelled their tracks on the wharf. The offices had not a single scrap of paper to indicate a timetable or shipping route. They found a space where file cabinets had been removed. Except for the missing file cabinets, everything personal had been left as it was. Women's purses were left in desk drawers. Half-eaten lunches and dishes of food from the buffet gathered flies in the cafeteria. Casual clothes and shoes had been left in the lockers. In the warehouses, boxes and packages were in a scattered pattern on the floor as though set down after a few steps from the shelf. Not a single clue revealed the Swift Emperor Shipping employees' fates though dozens of scents lingered inside the offices and structures. After a brief conference, the team determined they'd question the villagers for any further information, but after two days, when they boarded the Sea Queen, they boarded none the wiser. The employees had vanished, and with their vanishing, any memory of them had evaporated. For Kiba, the whole situation was creepy as fuck.

"Nothing we can do but report to the Mizukage," said Rojin. "We've exhausted our leads on the Isle of Salt and at the Swift Emperor Shipping compound."

Kayu was the most upset over the decision. "We can't leave Tensai! She'd never leave any of us!"

"You're right. Tensai would never leave any of us, but we have no idea where she is. Until we have some clue, any clue, we have to be patient and bring in additional help. Understand me, I'm not giving up on her. We'll find her, wherever she may be, but for now, we need to regroup and get a new angle on the situation."

Kayu's face collapsed, her eyes watery, but she didn't cry like Kiba expected her to. She spun on her heel and busied herself with the Sea Queen and no one interrupted her fussy adjustments to ropes and sails. Their voyage to Kiri was uneventful. It was early afternoon when they stepped foot into the Hidden Mist Village, sounding, smelling, and looking the same as they left it several days ago. They didn't dawdle and traveled across the roofs to the Office of the Mizukage. They were welcomed, but the news of Tensai's disappearance depressed the mood. Sai received a message from Shikamaru which caused him to have a hurried and hushed discussion with the Mizukage's Chief Aide.

Kiba listened in while he milled around with Shino and Hinata. He had zero shame for eavesdropping. Hey, if they didn't want to be overheard they shouldn't have had the discussion in a public place.

Chief Aide: What's so urgent?

Sai: I must leave immediately to complete a new mission objective.

Chief Aide: Tensai is missing and you plan to up and leave? You have some nerve! We accommodated your team to investigate the battle in Sorutotaun, a battle between a clan from your village who we have allowed to run amok in our country without consequence. The least you could do is stay and assist us in the disappearance of one of our own.

Sai: Yes, your points are valid and I acknowledge them. You have my sincerest apologies, but our new objective is imperative and time sensitive. No time can be wasted. Two of our current team will remain, and a fresh team can be sent from Konoha for further assistance.

Chief Aide: Tch. Better than nothing, I suppose.

Sai: Once we have completed this new mission objective, we'll return and continue our investigation into the Yamanaka clan's whereabouts. You have my word.

Chief Aide: I could order you to remain in the country.

Sai: You could order me, yes, but you'd be unable to enforce the order.

Chief Aide: Are you nuts?

Sai: No, determined and skilled. I'll return in a few days' time.

The chief aide's face was creased into a thunderous scowl as Sai stepped away, impassive, and regrouped with Team 8. He said nothing about the tense conversation he'd had and instead, told Kiba and Akamaru to follow him and for Hinata and Shino to remain in Kiri with Rojin and the others.

They flew the rest of the day, landing in Hinokoku in the latter hours of the evening and camping outside the city perimeter in the forest for the night as they agreed to stay as discreet as possible. Sai explained how their arrival and residence at an inn might be cause for chatter, and because gossip traveled fast, they wished to avoid any unnecessary attention. Takeshita was connected to Miyazato, and since they were in Hinokoku expressly about Miyazato, it was best for no one to see them and report their presence.

They were awake and on the move before the sun rose. Three figures like black ghosts, silent and swift, blurred the air as they dashed to their destination. The city was in a hush, the businesses between shifts, the streets deserted, at a time when infants wailed for a mother's breast. During this suspended time, Sai, Kiba, and Akamaru arrived at an upscale apartment complex, where Sakka Maikeru resided.

But it was not to be a pleasant encounter. In fact, they had no encounter at all since when they pinpointed the correct apartment, yellow barricade tape crossed the front door. The front door was not a door; it was a piece of plywood nailed to the frame. Sai gestured. They slipped around back and located the appropriate terrace where glass doors were similarly taped. With a grim frown, Kiba slashed the tape with his nails and stepped in, a shinobi lantern in hand. Harsh light threw the ruined, blackened interior into lively shadows. Kiba listened for any movement in the vents, outside the front door, and above and under them. Nothing moved except the neighbors who shifted and snored in their beds.

Behind him followed Sai. Akamaru was in position outside, watching their rear. The smoke and ash choked the air. A recent fire had licked the interior, but had not raged out of control. It had not collapsed or consumed the walls, ceilings, or flooring of the entire apartment. Firefighters had axed the front door into a million splinters. Water dampened along the flooring where it had been sprayed.

"Dammit. He beat us to it." Kiba referred to Miyazato and Sai said nothing to the contrary. "How'd he get to yer contact so fast? Not even we knew until yesterday."

"Perhaps Sakka was careless. Let's see where the fire originated."

Though the apartment was damaged, the worst of it was in the bedroom. Kiba waved Sai along a short hall. Under the acrid burnt crispiness was a hint of charred meat. A hot, intense fire had blazed at a constant temperature in this room. The bed and the bedroom furniture were heaps of ash. Some metal bits and pieces had melted and charred, but scorch marks boiled black marks up the walls, peeled away the paint.

Kiba gestured. "The fire was started here. Looks like a fire jutsu killed our journalist."

"Hm." Sai stood at a space where the bed had once been. "We'll confirm our suspicions with the local police and return when it's light to search for anything the fire may have missed."

"We could, but we shouldn't waste the time." Anger and worry and frustration flared, and Kiba raked his hands through his hair. "We can see the place was ransacked before it was torched. We ought to head to the Office and give our report. And afterwards, we should put our heads together and figure out where Ino's gone. She's the key to everything."

Sai studied the black blasted area, an obvious indication of a fire jutsu, and turned to Kiba. "I agree. However, we must be thorough and confirm our suspicions. Once we have definitive proof of Sakka's fate, we will return to Kiri for Hinata and Shino and all of us will report to the Hokage's Office."

"Yeah, fine."

And so, when the sun lifted itself in the eastern sky, Sai and Team 8 entered the police office. The local authorities were cooperative. Their reports did confirm Kiba and Sai's suspicions of a fire which had taken Sakka Maikeru's life while she slept yesterday. Her neighbors had reported the smell of smoke, so the timeline was in order. Sai sought and received permission to search through the apartment for anything the fire investigators missed and suggested the police put in a request for Konoha to send a separate team as a shinobi may have caused the fire and as he and Kiba were on a different mission, they could not be sidetracked. They returned to the apartment and kicked around for additional clues, but left empty-handed. Stymied, they left Hinokoku headed to Kiri to regroup with their team.

Miles away in the heart of Konoha, in the dim basement of the Konoha Daily News Office, in the lower level nicknamed The Stacks, Nesshinna Dokusha bobbled a saucer and teacup on the peak of four or five volumes. A considerable layer of dust coated the top book, unnoticed. He was deep into a family history of the Hyuuga clan, pilfered years ago from the estate, when the echo of footsteps signaled someone's approach.

After his foray to the Office of the Hokage, Dokusha had not heard or seen any further information relevant to Sai's last visitation about the Yamanaka clan or Miyazato Seiichi. He'd kept his head down, though, and stayed within his preferred perimeter, so he might have missed any goings-on.

"Nesshinna, are you in?"

Ah, the boss himself in The Stacks. "Yep. Over here."

A aged man of medium size and weight with a hairless pate stepped from the gloom of The Stacks. Affectionately called Monk by the staff, he carried a waterproofed box in his arms. "You've got a package. I took the liberty of signing for it. I hope you don't mind."

"Not at all. A package, eh? Very unexpected." Dokusha sat forward, his dilapidated chair creaked, and began a quick tidying up of his area. "Place it on my desk. Some tea and a nibble?"

"Yes, thank you," said Monk. "I do enjoy a good tea."

Their decades-long relationship had been founded on mutual respect and a work ethic almost obsessive in nature. Dokusha rose and set about serving the fresh-brewed black tea- -cultivated on the high plateaus of Wind- -in the chipped teacup he reserved for guest use. When he had stirred the right amount of cream and sugar into the tea, he pulled a box of biscuits from a drawer. Tea and 'nibbles' in hand, Dokusha returned to the littered desk. Monk had set the box prominently in the center.

"I see you're curious." Dokusha chuckled and handed his guest the doctored tea. He lifted a kunai from where it was discarded in a drawer and with clean, precise cuts, separated the packing tape from the top of the box. Inside the box were wads of brown recycled paper. Another wrapped package lay amidst the packaging, which Dokusha removed, and putting the bigger of the boxes on the floor, set this new package on his desk. Brown paper swaddled something of rectangular shape. "Could it be a book?"

"Looks to be." Across from him, Monk was thoroughly interested. "Go ahead, open it."

Dokusha frowned. "But I didn't order a book."

"You didn't?"

"No."

Puzzled, Dokusha undid the wrapper which had been folded and taped on the short ends, and as he opened the flaps of the paper, he saw it was, indeed, a book. A quite rare book, one of which he'd only seen in his younger years in Hinokoku, a book owned by Sakka Maikeru, his old friend and acquaintance. They had cooed over this rare edition of A Romance on the River, had touched the pages with reverent gloved fingers, and read the badly set type. A Romance on the River was the first chapter-length novel printed using the newly created printing-press. Maikeru's copy was believed to be the first copy off the printer in the whole of Fire.

"Oh, my." Dokusha didn't dare breathe as one puff of air could very well disintegrate the book. "Let me put on some…"

For fragile documents, Dokusha had a pair of "reading gloves". He donned them and as he did, the thought occurred to him to question why Maikeru would part with a valuable and prized possession such as the first edition of A Romance on the River. And the answer his brain supplied him left a bitter taste in his mouth. The book was perhaps symbolic of a catastrophic event which would have threatened Maikeru's estate or her life. Dokusha clenched his jaw. No, I'm imagining things. Not Maikeru. She's too smart, too cautious.

"Dokusha? You look pale."

"Shall we examine the contents?" Dokusha said. "I really should dust my area more frequently."

Dokusha, cotton gloves snug on his hands, with all the care and gentleness of a new father with his newborn child, opened the front cover of the book. Nothing yet. Page after page he flipped with a light and feather-soft finger until the fifth chapter of the book. Wedged into the binding was a photograph. Monk was silent, and in the stretch of silence, Dokusha comprehended the photograph. With the musty, papery atmosphere of the stacks close around them, Dokusha collapsed into his chair. The ancient metal springs groaned, but Dokusha did not pay it attention. It was then that Dokusha was certain why his old friend had sent the book and the photograph.

"What is it?" Monk asked. He'd stood and come around the desk to rest a hand on Dokusha's shoulder. Monk's eyes were sad, pitying.

"Maikeru's dead." The two words somehow escaped his choked throat.

"How can you be certain?"

"This photo, the book...Maikeru must've guessed she'd run out of time."

He lifted the photograph to look at it as Monk stood at his elbow. In the staged photograph, a woman in her thirties stood beside a boy about ten years old or so. Though Dokusha did not recognize the woman or the style of the stone house behind them, the young boy was Miyazato- -the same up-tilted eyes, the same white streak of hair touched upon a rounded cheek, the same smooth forehead. But for all the similarities the young Miyazato shared with his contemporary, Dokusha noticed a friendliness, an openness to the young boy's face which was nonexistent in the elder Miyazato. The youth's mouth lacked a certain hardness. How did you come across this photo, old friend?

"I saw writing on the back," said Monk. "Take a look."

Dokusha rotated the photo. In Maikeru's hurried, slanted handwriting was a single line: Keep safe for our mutual friend if I can't. He repeated the line to Monk, who expressed his concern with heavy gray eyebrows.

"She did know her time had come," Monk whispered. He hobbled to the second chair and sat, limp. Like Dokusha, he'd admired Sakka Maikeru for her experience and canniness in a dangerous field, made even more dangerous because of her gender.

Dokusha's hand shook, and before he dropped the photo, he set it on the pages of the book. "Who? And why? How? I can't believe it. Maikeru is...she was the best of the best." His thoughts whipped in a fury in his mind; the old restlessness, the old ambition reared like a mossy dragon in his chest. "I must find out what happened and why. I have to understand it. She might've left clues or documentation, anything could help. Let me go to Hinokoku. Let me poke around."

Monk nodded, but his lips were thin, his serene face grave. "I think we should first gather our thoughts. Right now, we only suspect Maikeru was killed. If she is indeed dead, we'll hear about it soon enough. Once we that informatino is certain, we can make further plans."

"Yes." He couldn't comprehend it. "Yes, of course."

The next day, Monk shared a message from the Hinokoku Chronicle's editor-in-chief. Sakka Maikeru had died in the early morning hours three days ago. Currently, police are treating her death as a homicide. Monk and Dokusha shared a meaningful look, and then over a fresh pot of tea, they began to plan.

A/N: Hope you enjoyed! See you in the next chapter.