A/N: Next chapter here. Getting chapters for this story out at a nice pace. Yay. I already know what's happening in the next one, too. Anyways, this is still building plot. Things will start to make sense in time. For now...enjoy Osamu sitting on the Kaizer's lap like a good little lapdog and Koushirou being a bad boy.

"What's his name?"

"Jyou."

The red-haired young woman handed her partner a picture of the man.

"What's on his head?"

"Big bucks. They want him for ten thousand."

"Ten thousand? That's a crapload of money for a low-life preacher."

"The girl he took was the daughter of a rich man. She's also incredible attractive and has many rich suitors waiting for her to come back and marry one of them. He's in a hurry to have her back and make her a wife. That's why the reward is so high."

"Rich men mean big money. So we're in?"

"Of course we're in," Sora smirked, standing up from where they were crouching huddled together on the ground. "And I have a good idea where we're going to find him..."

"How do you know?"

"Let's just say I have friends in high places."

Jun raised an eyebrow and shrugged. The bounty hunter didn't care much for Sora's high-placed friends. She just wanted to get that blue-haired head and get paid.

Sora, however, had other reasons for wanting to go after this particular man. She knew the pair better than she was letting on to her partner. She wanted that bastard to bring Mimi back to her at once, and since she doubted he was going to come back, she'd just have to go after them herself.

~ ~ ~ ~

"I told you we should have gone right!"

"Shut up, Tai!"

"I think I see something."

Yamato and Taichi turned to look at Takeru, who was peering through the trees to what seemed like open space. After several hours and one night of being lost, this was a very welcome sight. The three of them began sprinting, tripping over each other in their haste to make it out of the forest.

They reached flat land which, when Takeru bothered to look down at the ground instead of at the humongous place in front of him, was made up of neatly-cut green grass.

"What the hell is this place?" Taichi asked under his breath.

Yamato shook his head, chin tilted up, eyes wide and looking over the humongous wall that seemed to be the side of a giant building.

"Let's find out," Takeru said with a grin, and he began walking the length of the wall, which he was sure had to be the side of some kind of castle or mansion.

Since they didn't have any other plan, Yamato and Taichi followed at his heels.

~ ~ ~ ~

Wallace sighed, and when his head drooped slightly, he heard the jingling of the bells dangling from the satin cap he wore on his head. He poked at the ground before him with his joker's cane. He didn't know how he'd let himself become the court jester, but apparently he did a much better job of telling jokes than Osamu ever did. Osamu had been moved up to the position of Kaizer's Advisor.

He currently sat next to the throne, on the ground, and was vaguely aware of the Kaizer tugging gently on one of the flappy ear-like things hanging from his jester's hat. The jingling sound was starting to get to him.

"Would you stop doing that?"

"I'm bored," the Kaizer complained.

"You don't think I am?" Wallace asked sarcastically.

"I could order us some pizza," Osamu offered from his place on the Kaizer's lap.

Wallace did not want to know how long the Advisor had been sitting there.

"That'd be nice," Wallace muttered.

"Hmm," the Kaizer said.

Osamu guessed this was an affirmative and he got up, ignoring the Kaizer's groan about his weighing too much, to find the castle's main phone.

"I wish we had visitors more often. Visitors that aren't German," Kaizer added as an afterthought.

"Tired of us already?" Wallace joked lightly. He paused. "German?"

"You don't know the whole story, do you?" the Kaizer asked him, looking over the side of his throne and down at him.

"Story?"

"You see, I made a bet with these German rulers when they were visiting once. It was during the World Cup. I bet that Japan would beat Germany because we are so better at playing footie than they are. They accepted the bet. If I won, they'd have to send me tons of Germans to come and be my servants and work for me around the castle. If they won, they wanted me to change my title from King to Kaizer, which is their word for it, I guess, and I would lose all of the servants I had at the time to them. Obviously, they won."

"So that's why it's just you two all alone here?"

"Yeah, that's why."

"Why didn't they take Osamu?"

"Uh...well, I included in my bet that they could have everyone but him. He's, erm, special. I can't lose him."

"Right."

Wallace raised an eyebrow at him. The Kaizer busily inspected a piece of fuzz clinging to his sleeve. Osamu returned saying the pizza delivery guy was on his way.

"Great!" the Kaizer said quickly. "That's great. Pizza, good. I'm hungry."

"Yeah, me too," Wallace said, looking away uncomfortably.

The Kaizer coughed.

Osamu looked back and forth between the two of them and narrowed his eyes at the Kaizer. "Did I interrupt something? Want me to leave you two alone?"

"No, it's okay!" the Kaizer cried just as Wallace said, "No, that's quite alright, stay."

"Okay..." Osamu said, walking to the throne and sitting on one of the surprisingly cushion-like arms.

The Kaizer grinned an I'm-too-cute-to-be-upset-with grin at him. Osamu sighed and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "I won't ask."

"Okay."

There was a long silence. The Kaizer coughed again. Wallace rubbed the back of his neck. Osamu stared at the ceiling.

"So...the castle has been boring the past few days."

"It certainly has. The last time you did anything at all was when you found that tavern of drunken weird people and paid them all to go destroy the nearest Indian village, and that was two whole days ago."

"Yeah."

"Which village did you attack?" Wallace asked, turning to him. "I can't remember."

"It was some small Indian village no one had really known about," the Kaizer said, waving a hand dismissively. "No one will care. Their chief was a kid, anyways. Couldn't have been prospering much."

"Kids can be chiefs?" Wallace asked, knowing next to zilch about Indian villages.

"Well, if the previous chief dies early, then I suppose they have to," the Kaizer replied. "He wasn't that little of a kid. He was around seventeen years of age. I wonder if anyone survived that attack?"

"I thought they all escaped into the woods."

"No one escapes my attacks," the Kaizer said flatly.

Osamu blinked and sat up straighter, quickly correcting himself. "Er, of course no one survived."

"I thought as much."

Wallace rolled his eyes at them both.

Someone knocked on the castle doors.

"That was fast," Osamu said. He got off of the throne arm and walked to the front door. He pulled back the large, heavy wooden door with a smile.

He stared a while at the three boys standing outside. One was a brunette and the other two were blonde.

"Since when do pizza boys have to travel with two companions?" Osamu asked them, raising an eyebrow. He looked them over. "And where is the pizza?"

~ ~ ~

"Shh."

"Don't you dare 'shh' me," Miyako hissed at Daisuke.

They were still creeping through the cave. The light was getting brighter every few steps.

"I think I hear someone."

Daisuke turned to look at Miyako, raising an eyebrow. That voice didn't sound like any of them. He turned to look at Jyou and Mimi behind them and Jyou shrugged at him. The cave was inhabited after all. They snuck up to a corner and Daisuke carefully peered around it. He came face-to-face with spiky red hair and large dark eyes. He screamed and the other person screamed as well. Miyako screamed as a result, which stirred Mimi, and she began screaming as well.

"What?! What is it?!" Daisuke heard another new voice asking from somewhere beyond the person standing right in front of him.

"Who are you?" the person asked him.

Daisuke blinked. "Who are you?" he countered, regaining his composure and blushing a bit at having been scared like that.

"I asked you first," the guy said dryly.

Daisuke looked him over. "Daisuke," he said shortly, holding a hand up.

"Koushirou," the person replied. He looked down at the hand. "I don't shake hands."

Daisuke lowered his, narrowing his eyes.

A short boy with small, deep green eyes walked up behind Koushirou. "Kou?"

Koushirou looked back at the boy and smiled, beckoning him over.

"This is Iori," he said, putting an arm around the boy. "He found me earlier today."

"He found you?" Daisuke repeated, eyebrow lifting.

"Well, he tripped over me," Koushirou corrected himself.

Iori laughed quietly. He hid it behind a hand, as if he thought it was impolite to laugh in front of people.

"Oh, I forgot," Daisuke said, as he felt Miyako poking his side insistently and clearing her voice. "These are my friends, Miyako, Jyou, and Mimi."

"Is she okay?" Koushirou asked, pointing at Mimi and looking a tad bit concerned.

"Yeah, she's fine," Daisuke said, waving it off. "Got any food?"

"You just ate!" Miyako screeched at him.

"We have about a hundred dollars in doughnuts," Koushirou said with a sneaky grin, upturned nose and all, as if he'd done something he wasn't supposed to.

"That sounds so good," Daisuke said, mouth watering. "Show me to the doughnuts."

Iori said, "They're over here," and Daisuke followed him to the back of the cave, where the fire was. Miyako huffed a few times before looking over, rolling her eyes, and following them, asking for them to toss her a chocolate doughnut.

Koushirou stared at Jyou for a while, blinking and looking him over a few times.

"Hey," he said quietly. "Heyyyyyy," he repeated, drawing the "y" out for an unnecessarily long time. "I know you."

"You do?" Jyou asked, immediately sounding nervous and edgy.

"Yeah, I'm s'pposed to arrest you," Koushirou said matter-of-factly.

"What?!" Jyou cried, eyes widening more than they should be able to.

"Eh, don't worry. You're fine," Koushirou said, waving his hand. "Iori and I have had a long talk while we've been in here, and I've decided that I'm tired of being overlooked at work. They don't appreciate me much there."

"So you aren't going to arrest me or turn me in or tell anyone I'm here?" Jyou asked hopefully.

"Nah," Koushirou said, a sudden light coming to his face. "I'm going to do just the opposite. I'm going to help you."

Jyou blinked. "What?"

Koushirou laughed to himself and a shiver ran up Jyou's spine. That wasn't joyful-sounding laughter.

"Come and have a few doughnuts before they all disappear. I want to have a talk with you."