Heishin shifted in his seat as he waited for Arei to return, he was surprised that she was able to finish the job so quickly...much less finish the job at all.... No matter, it didn't change his plan, against an opponent like Shinmori Aoshi and the Oniwaban group she could not have come out without being severely injured. Heishin snickered to himself, it was likely she couldn't even lift her sword, he would simply kill her, and then say she died from blood lose, it was a simple plan, but it would work.

Heishin closed his eyes as he heard foot steps coming, he continuously had to remind himself that Suzaku stood towering over him, and Genbu waited in the far corner of the room for what he thought would be the perfect time to attack. If Arei was able to kill Aoshi that ment she was a more capable fighter then his two remaining Sushin.. Heishin ordered himself to shut up, he was becoming to paranoid, she had just fought against Aoshi, she would be horribly.... The door slowly opened and Arei slowly stepped into the room, glaring at him.

What? She just fought AOSHI! Shinmori AOSHI! How is it the only thing she's coming back covered in is WATER??? Heishin tried to recover himself, but once he made eye contact with her he knew... she intended to kill him. Heishin reached out to Suzaku pulling on his sleeve, he couldn't bring himself to say anything... Suzaku stepped forward, pulling his dual Kodachi's out of his sleeve, and placing them in a defensive stance. Arei rested her arm laxly on her still sheathed swords, not seeming to consider Suzaku a threat. They stood there watching each other, Suzaku with his giant grin plastered across his face, Arei staring back almost blankly. Suzaku's grin widened, showing off his razor like teeth,

"Thanks..." Arei said simply, and then quickly jumped to the side, barely dodging Genbu's extended staff. "you two were Genbu and Suzaku right?" Arei said looking them over, she didn't get nor expect a reply, so she continued "The problems you guys have a simple, Genbu you rely to much on finding an way of fighting that I won't be able to adjust to, but that would require you living long enough to figure one out. Suzaku, you expect me show off some special skill of mine, but that would be wasted on someone like you." Both of the Sushin's grins were quickly wiped off their face, and replaced by a much more solemn expression, obviously they hadn't counted on her knowing so much about them.. foolish of them to think. Arei had observed them all fight before, revealing their easily seen through tactics to her,

Arei rushed forward at the two of them, swords being held down at either side, Suzaku moved to counter her attack, bringing his Kodachi's down at her. The fighters swords locked mid way, bringing them to what seemed to be a stale mate, almost at once the two broke away from one and other. Arei was quick to recover, and ran forward past the larger man, swords cutting into his side. Suzaku bent forward grasping his side, the blood quickly ran over his hand covering it almost completely. Heishin glanced over at Genbu who, like in his fight with that boy didn't seem to plan on acting until the end


"WHY AREN'T YOU DOING ANYTHING??" He seemed to screech, Genbu glanced over at him for a moment then looked back at his brother and Arei.

"I haven't observed her fight enough yet to be able to do any good..." Genbu admitted, "Suzaku has no intension of being able to winning in this fight Heishin sama, he is fighting her so that I might find a way to do so." Heishin felt his blood run cold... even his Sushin were admitting defeat to her.. yet they had just begun fighting. Heishin came back to reality when he saw Arei run her sword straight into Suzaku's back, blood trickling down her sword from it. Arei removed her sword and slashed it through the air, the blood on it

landing on the ground. Arei did the same to her other sword, she didn't like having to bother with cleaning blood off of them after the fact. Arei glanced over at Heishin, he seemed petrified in his seat, she shook her head laughing a bit.

"You really should learn to mind your own business Heishin, I would assume Enishi sama would have taught you that" Arei tapped her face where Enishi had struck Heishin, the discoloration was just now starting to fade. Genbu took her wide open stance as an opportunity to strike, he charged her bringing his staff in on the side, he was to late once again, Arei jumped out of the way before he was able to hit her, causing him to over step his attack. Arei drove one sword into his staff arm, and the other half way into his throat, Genbu opened his mouth as if to speak, but feel to the ground, dead. Heishin made a move for his gun that he had stored in a hidden compartment at the bottom of his seat, but found himself staring down the blade of Arei's sword...

"Explain something to me Heishin, you first kill Aoshi rather then let me--"

"For once you've made a mistake Arei-san" Arei froze suddenly not moving her sword from Heishin as she slowly turned her head to see the owner of the voice she had heard many times before,

"Aberu.." One of the few people both Enishi and her put trust in, in the syndicate; she realized that she hadn't seen him at all since Enishi's disappearance, but as usual he had his head set up in a rather odd fashion, all of his hair was tied back in a bun, besides one section in the front which fell casually over his right eye.

"You see it was actually us, no, more correctly this man behind me, Kyoujin, who killed Shinmori Aoshi." Arei hadn't noticed them, but behind Aberu stood two men. Kyoujin, who he had been referring to was held up by one other man. Both of them had a generous amount of blood covering their upper body, and trailing down at points. On further examination, she realized that little of the blood belonged to either of them, likely most of it was from Aoshi. In fact one who was standing didn't seem to have any blood on him that was his own. Kyoujin gripped his stomach and seemed to be having trouble breathing. Arei looked at Aberu perplexed, she still didn't understand "Ah it's a long story Arei-san, but as I hate to drag things out when it's not necessary, we're taking over the syndicate."

"WHAT? YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE HELPING ME!!" Aberu narrowed his eyes at Heishin, who had made the rude exclaimation.

"You're ruining Enishi-sama's work by being alive Heishin, something we intend to remedy soon enough." Aberu looked back at Arei, who didn't seem too pleased with the little information she had told him
"Not good enough?" Aberu questioned, and sighed scratching his head for a moment.

"We killed Aoshi for revenge, we consider the loss that the syndicate took to be to much dishonor to stand, you aren't part of this little group or else we'd have let you kill him. Besides, we needed somebody to kill Heishin's guards, I figured that you'd rush back here to kill him." Aberu paused seeming to laugh in embarrassment "Actually, they were really more intimidating looking compared to Aoshi, so we decided to go with him, none of us like to fight monsters such as they" he said gesturing the dead bodies of the guards. Aberu raised his hand to silence Arei when she looked to be about to speak "I know you won't mind us doing this, but... but we agreed not to search for Enishi-sama." Arei spun her sword around in her hand and stabbed it through Heishin's hand into the chair's armrest. She figured that would be enough to hold him, she didn't want to have to bother watching over him and listen to Aberu. She crossed her arms, waiting for the talkative Aberu to continue.

"Enishi-sama doesn't want to be found Arei... after his loss against the battousai, he likely doesn't want to come back here... his entire life was based around revenge Arei, it's likely he feels the last ten years of his life have been a comple..." Arei closed her eyes and shot her fist out at Aberu, striking him across the face with an audible thud, she didn't want to listen to the same speech over again.

"Aberu..." Arei said his name chuckling a bit "I would have hoped you could put more faith into Enishi-sama, he's not some pathetic wimp like you seem to think he's become." Arei began to shake violently, she had been able to ignore any anger at the world she'd felt so far, but it was finally starting to creep through "I refuse to let someone who doesn't intend to find Enishi-sama take control of the syndicate." When Arei opened her eyes she was shocked to see that Aberu was smiling at her, but his eyes betrayed him, seeming to be on the brink of tears.

"I wish… I wish I could have your faith in Enishi-sama Arei…" Aberu reached into his kimono and pulled out a letter, "This letter was addressed to Sukau Yatsuru from Enishi sama, it just arrived recently…" Aberu paused seeming to have trouble telling her "it said not to find him… and that Yatsuru was to be in charge… Arei-san…" Aberu sighed, trying to find the right word to say, when he noticed a movement behind her. "AREI-SAN!!" A shot range out across the room, Arei stood motionless for a moment, and then fell to her knee's coughing excessively.

"THAT'S ENOUGH!!" Heishin whined, waving his gun from one body to the next, he had actually been man enough to pull the sword out of his hand, Aberu noticed with surprise. "I CONTROL THE SYNDICATE!! NO ONE ELSE COULD POSSIBLY DO AS GOOD AS I AM!!" Aberu stared at Heishin blankly giving him a very unsettling feeling.

"Kyoujin..." Aberu said simply. With that Kyoujin snapped his hand up with a deft flick of his wrist, launching a thin needle that stuck into Heishin's neck "Hmm… Amazing shot, especially with all the injury that you've had to sustained." Aberu walked forward kneeling down besides Arei, letting her rest against his shoulder "You see Heishin, your problem is that you aren't a fighter yourself, it takes someone who understands how to fight to properly command a group as large as this, that is why Yatsuru-san is best suited for this job." Heishin dropped the gun, and grabbed his neck, he could barely breath… he didn't want to die like this… he couldn't die… he still had so much to achieve… so much…

"Finally" Came a voice behind Aberu. Natsurou, the man supporting Kyoujin spoke up again "I was getting impatient with that guy." Aberu looked at the man smiling a bit, which made him slightly uncomfortable, even when smiling the man always looked as though he had something planned, something that he couldn't stop.

"Go tell Yatsuru… sama that Heishin has died."

"Wait.." Kyoujin spoke up, he was stilling having trouble breathing "what about that girl?" Aberu looked her over, she was in bad shape, the bullet had punctured deep into her side, he wasn't sure if any organs were hit or not, but he always hoped for the best.

"Just leave her to me." Kyoujin didn't look too satisfied with that "Oh don't worry, she's not a threat anymore, besides this entire building is on our side now, she's smart enough not to try anything"

"Hey if you want to stay here that's fine with me, but you'd have to stand on your own pal." Natsurou said kind of amused "but since I'm your legs right now, you don't really have much of a choice." With that Natsurou practically dragged Kyoujin out of the room. When they were gone Aberu looked down at Arei, placing his hands on her face and pulling it up to his.

"Don't die Arei-san, I'm going to take you to a hospital, don't you come back, and don't look to seek revenge. I know that Enishi is the only one who's ever bested you in battle, and that he means more to you than even your family, but Yatsuru is very competent, and I cant help but think you'd loose against him, strong though you are. I can't have you getting killed." Arei barely had her eyes open, she was on the brink of passing out from the pain, it was worse then he thought, "It's ok Arei-san, this way you'll be able to find Enishi-sama won't you?" With that Aberu lifted her off the ground, holding her in his arms, he was glad Enishi sama had shown him the secrets of the entire building, he knew all the ways it had to offer him, and he'd have no trouble leaving the building quickly.