"Each of the roads that you meet on the way,
Everybody's got their own principle
Mine is to live me mine and change, and fight those timid feelings
Instead of being alone, sometimes company is just as good."
Yamato Ishida—"Negai Kanaeru Kagi"
(Translated by Yoakedesu)

With Broken Wings
Chapter Fourteen: "Negai Kanaeru Kagi"

Angered—no, infuriated—at Kouji's escape from New York the previous week, Kouichi sat in his study, trying to devise a plan. Sunlight streamed in through his open window, glinting off of a gilded cage beside it.

Sakuyamon was too conspicuous, he realized. I need an agent that he won't notice—someone or something so commonplace it's ridiculous. But this has to be enough to cause a threat if need be. As he sat there, pondering the answer, a seagull flew past his window, screeching as it searched for food. Annoyed, he closed the curtains, blocking out the noise. He needed to think.

-------
It was four o'clock when the Trailmon emerged from the Digital World in a specially hidden Resistance station in Melbourne, Australia.

"Right on schedule," thirty-two-year-old Chance Rockwell observed, stamping out his cigarette. He normally hated wasting one like that, but the person he was supposed to meet had a chronic breathing disorder that manifested itself at some of the most inconvenient times.

Finally, the passenger walked out in a pacific blue tank top and black nylon shorts. He was not at all what Chance expected. Tall and very thin, the boy was obviously an escapee from the Kaiser's slave camp, but no other slave had looked that deprived of food. His skeleton was visible through his skin and thinly dispersed muscles. And according to his file, he'd been out of that prison for three years, leading Chance to wonder just how many consequences were permanent.

Another thing that surprised Chance was just how little this boy looked like the infamous ruler of both worlds. He'd been briefed that this boy and the Kaiser were identical twins, but they didn't seem to be identical to him. The Kaiser was muscular, fair-skinned, and had dark shoulder-length hair that he preferred to wear unaccented. This person was lean with a light tan fading from several weeks in New York. His hair was longer, and kept out of his face via a ponytail in the back. He had his bag slung over his shoulder and his hands stuffed into his pockets. The look on his face expressed confusion. Chance walked up to explain.

"Chance Rockwell," he introduced, holding out his hand. "I'm here on behalf of Brad and Calliope Portman."

The boy removed a bandaged hand from his pocket and shook Chance's outstretched hand. "Kouji Minamoto."

"I suppose you're tired," he guessed, detecting fatigue in his voice, "so we'll head for the institute now. I'll show you around before Brad takes you to your dorm. Just pray you get there before Calliope sees you." Inwardly, he shuddered. Brad was a great kid, but Calliope was a different story entirely.

-------
Thirteen-year-old Brad Portman removed himself from the water and walked halfway across the beach to get his towel. Sixteen-year-old Calliope Portman was aimlessly sunbathing as far away from the water as possible. Why "aimlessly"? Well, despite the fact that she wore a black bikini with an orange wrap, she had a huge straw hat covering her head.

"For someone who used to be terrified of the ocean, you can't seem to stay away from it," she commented.

"That's more than I can say for you," he replied, picking up a towel to dry his hair. However, when he did so, he dropped a wristwatch to the sand, not realizing that it had fallen.

"What do you mean by that?"

In his usual silent manner, he ignored her without letting her know that he had. "What time is it anyway?" he asked.

Calliope picked up her watch from where it had fallen. "Four-thirty."

"What?" Brad half-shouted. "We were supposed to be back at the institute in time to pick up Kouji!" He slipped his feet into his sandals and began running as he pulled a red-and-blue striped shirt over his red swim trunks. As Calliope approached with her towel, he groaned. "I hope Chance didn't mind meeting him." Another groan. "Why didn't you tell me it was so late?"

She blinked and stared at him as they made their mad sprint. That was the most he'd ever said to anyone in years, not to mention the angriest he'd ever gotten. She'd begun to think that anger was completely out of his repertoire.

Chance was giving a young man a tour of the institute when they arrived. Chance had a slightly annoyed look on his face while the newcomer looked rather confused.

"Gomenesai, Chance," Brad apologized, bowing deeply. "We didn't realize it was so late."

"It's all right, Brad," he assured, "but I'll assume it was Calliope again?" The boy did not answer, which affirmed his suspicions. "Kouji, meet Brad and Calliope Portman. Aside from them, you won't have to worry about any assumed names; they take too long to come up with, and no one remembers them anyway. Isn't that right, Miya?"

Calliope turned bright red in anger. "I'm sorry, okay!"

"I told you not to come up with a difficult name," Brad reminded. "You shouldn't have decided on a Greek muse."

"Just shut up!"

"Anyway," Chance interrupted, "if either of you cares, this is Kouji Minamoto."

Calliope stared in shock. "You mean that's him?" Already, Brad was rubbing his temples in order to prevent a migraine. "But the Internet footage was completely different, and he was supposed to be a halfling!" She clapped her hands over her mouth, realizing that she had just said the most offensive word any human-Digimon hybrid could ever hear.

"Now you've done it!" Chance scolded. "Brad, show Kouji to your dorm. You'll be bunking together. I have to talk to Calliope about her habit of getting into trouble."

Brad sighed in embarrassment at his partner's latest deed. "Come on, Kouji," he urged in the calmest, most reasonable voice he could muster under the circumstances.

The dorm was a lot more comfortable than Kouji expected it to be. It had a small kitchen with an oven and stove in addition to the normal dorm commodities. While Kouji unpacked, Brad sat down on his bed and began polishing a wooden kendo sword.

"Can I ask something?" Kouji questioned.

"Go ahead."

"Is Calliope your sister, or do you just have the same name?"

"No!" Brad denied. "Trust me, the surname is just a coincidence—well, not really. When we were coming up with our codenames, she couldn't think of a surname, so she used the one I had. It's bad enough she chose a name that took her a whole week to pronounce, but then she had to use a name I was. She may have been an older sister figure once, but ever since we were told of this mission, she's just gotten ridiculous."

"How so?"

"She has a very bad habit of falling in love with the first guy she sees—probably you included. Let's see, there was the new guy in our apartment complex—luckily he had a girl he liked; there was the star athlete of a rival school across town, but he turned out to be a jerk; there was one guy who actually learned to tolerate her—not a clue how it ended, but it did; and there was the jerk again, but he managed to let her down lightly. Then there was another guy—someone who really loved her, but he was so devastated by his mother's death that he couldn't continue the relationship. After that came our resident genius, but that one wasn't going to last after the fighting kept up. Oh, and then there was Chance and the interesting name slip." He laughed momentarily. "Believe me, if we were related, I'd have traded this bamboo sword in for a steel one a long time ago." It was an innocent comment, but it sounded forced, like he didn't want to think about inflicting harm on anybody.

"How good is your kendo?"

Brad placed his polishing rag aside and looked at the shine on the wood. "Intermediate. But Hida-sensei continues to give me lessons back home."

"Iori Hida?" Kouji guessed, recognizing the name.

"No, his grandfather. Sensei's been teaching us for as long as I can remember."

Chance opened the door and walked in. "Sorry to be disturbing you."

"It's all right," Kouji assured.

"Just wanted to make sure you weren't at each other's throats. Sometimes Brad can be more dangerous than he looks. Oh, I read Ki's report on your most recent battle with the Kaiser. Very impressive."

Kouji instinctively began rubbing his hands, almost as though to speed the healing. Brad saw this and placed his sword aside.

"You look pretty tired, so I'll let you rest," he decided. "Come on, Chance! Let's go!"

Kouji wasn't entirely sure what was going on, but he took this opportunity to recollect his thoughts before he fell asleep. Calliope reminded him of Sakiko a lot, only this girl was more of a helpless romantic than a hopeless one. Though Calliope wore that hat to conceal her hair, he had seen that she had brown eyes that were normally covered by glasses—contacts most recently. Brad, on the other hand, was the exact foil to her. He was very polite and serious, but he'd apparently learned how to crack a joke every now and then. He seemed to be very thoughtful, and much older than his thirteen years. Like Tomoki, he had brown hair and green eyes, but Brad's features were darker. And like with the cases of Ki and Kouji, a pain behind his eyes suggested a rough childhood that he didn't want to relive. There was so much more complexity to the latter than to the former, but as he fell asleep, Kouji suspected that both would surprise him shortly.

"What was that all about?" Chance asked Brad.

"That last battle with Kouichi took more out of him than what we can see," he answered. "Something terrible happened—something so terrible, he can't even begin to describe it." Just like it did to me, he compared. Involuntarily, he shivered as he remembered the feeling of a leaden, dying body on his shoulders. He'd seen far too much death in his young life.

"So," he began, changing the subject, "where's Calliope?"

"I told her to do something that won't get her in trouble," Chance replied. "I think she's in her room."

Brad groaned. After all these years, he knew that only meant more trouble. "We'd better check on her."

Sure enough, when they reached the hall to her dorm, the smell of smoke drifted toward them. Panicked, they ran to its source—Calliope's room, where else?—and desperately tried to break down the door. Getting his wits together, Brad checked the doorknob, finding it unlocked. Once they opened the door, they found Calliope spraying a fire extinguisher at an unidentifiable substance that appeared to have once been food.

Brad groaned once more. "What happened?"

"I felt bad about what I said to Kouji, so I tried to make up for it."

This time, Brad didn't groan, but sighed in exasperation while Chance informed, "Right now, he's asleep, so you can apologize in the morning." They began to walk out, but Chance turned around with a warning: "And no more cooking experiments!" Brad walked away without once turning back, thanking the Three Great Angels and the Four Holy Beasts that he was an only child.

-------
The sound of ringing awoke Izumi Orimoto at six in the morning. Not wanting to wake up half an hour before necessary, she reached over and knocked the ringing object to the floor. When the noise didn't stop, she placed her head under the pillow, trying to drown out the sound. For a moment, she envied how Kouji had spent the month of January, most of February, and part of March in complete silence—

Kouji!

That was right! The ringing had to be a phone call from him!

Clarity replacing her early morning daze, Izumi picked the cell phone off the floor and quickly answered it:

"No, no, no, don't hang up yet!"

"Izumi, I didn't wake you, did I?"

"Oh, no. I've been up for hours," she answered, sitting up from her leaning position toward the floor. "You didn't just wake up, did you?"

"No—it's seven, so I've been up for a couple of hours."

"It's six here. You must be close."

"I don't know what you mean by 'close.' It's spring where I am."

"Oh, well, I guess it isn't too close. Are you okay? You sound tired."

"Long trip. I just got here yesterday."

"Is that all?"

"You know me inside and out, don't you?"

"Same way you know me." There was a brief silence. "So what is it?"

"I'm getting sick of drifting. I keep following one dead end to another, just trying to keep Kouichi from finding me. After the next mission, I'm heading for Hong Kong."

"Why not after this one?"

"Ki has only one agent in Argentina, and he apparently hasn't been able to fight the same since the Chosen's final battle. I don't think there's going to be anything there, but Ki wants us to check. So I'll be back soon, I hope."

"I can't wait."

"Me neither. I'll try to talk to you later, Izumi."

"Later." She hung up and placed the phone on her nightstand. This was just the wake up call she needed.

-------
Brad was meditating on the basketball courts, enjoying the feel of the sunlight against his face. The sunshine had a healing effect, warming his body while burning away the cold fear that had possessed him for so many years. He took in a breath, seeming to inhale the rays of light as a shadow passed over him.

"Sorry." It was Kouji. "Chance and I were going to play a game. I didn't mean to disturb you."

"No, it's okay," Brad assured, opening his eyes. "In fact, if you have a minute, I'd like to ask you something—if it's okay."

Kouji sat down. "Why wouldn't it be?"

Brad watched a red bird fly by as he carefully worked out his question in his head. Unfortunately, there would be no way of avoiding causing pain for either of them. "Do you remember people named Ai, Yuuki, and Amistad?"

"Ai and Yuuki I remember," he answered, "and I think I know who Amistad is. Why?"

"They're the ones that came on a scouting mission to try and find you. Thanks to the visions of a person whose name I won't say, we were able to know about Cell 24. We know that you were locked away in a cold dark place for a long time."

Kouji nodded. "It still hurts to this day."

"And it should…well… It does for me. I was locked away for a long time as well, and I still haven't dealt with it. I was hoping you knew a way to try and move on."

He was silent, staring at the same scarlet birds. Understanding that he'd treaded on sensitive territory, Brad stood up and began his kendo practice, leaving the question forgotten. He slashed gently when birds were around, avoiding hurting them, but his other advances were fiercer. Like Kouji, he was fighting his past and desperately trying to win.

"You don't," Kouji finally replied. "There's no way to move on. But you put your fears to your advantage, never allowing yourself to take advantage of what you could no longer have." He glanced up at the sky, noting the sunbeams that passed through the clouds. "I remember the first days after I left Cell 24. My family, Takamoto, and Izumi had all been placed in a house in the settlement, but I don't remember being inside for days. My parents, stepmother, and sister were all trying to adjust to the light and new surroundings, but I was spending most of my time outside in a hammock Izumi and I had helped Takamoto put up in the backyard. Half of it was concealed by a shady tree, but I always stayed in the illuminated area. I'd been in the dark cell for so long, I couldn't let myself be in it any longer." He suppressed a laugh. "I even slept out there the first few nights, just staring at the stars. The feelings of sunlight warming my face and moonlight blanketing me in a soft serenity were something I needed to embrace then."

Brad had paused his kendo throughout the entire account. Finally, he looked down at the handle of his sword. "I spend as much time as I can in the sun as well," he admitted. "I think of it as banishing the darkness that kept coming to claim me. I swim to wash away the feelings of despair, and I use kendo to fight against my fear."

Kouji got up as he noticed Chance heading for the farther court. "We all recover in different ways. It's just something that can't be taught to anyone." Understanding it finally, Brad nodded his agreement.

-------
Calliope ran out of her dorm, pushing past her roommate, Kelly, who had spent the past ten minutes trying to wake her. After another ten or so minutes of worrying about where to find Kouji so she could apologize, she was oh-so-kindly informed by Kelly that he and Chance were playing basketball out on the courts. She shouted a quick greeting to her friends Whitney, Alisha, and Melissa before nearly tripping over a red bird at the basketball courts.

"Watch out for the birds," Brad informed, slashing away with his kendo sword. "They're everywhere."

"Yeah, I noticed," she snapped.

"Overslept again?" he guessed.

"Hmm, let's see: it's two in the afternoon, I was up all night at Kelly's party—what do you think?"

He ignored her anger and made another slash at an invisible opponent. "Just apologize. Do nothing more."

"What?" she exclaimed. He brought his bamboo weapon to his side and looked at her.

"I've known you all my life," he explained. "I always know when you've fallen in love. Think of Kouji as our ally, and no more. He has someone he cares about already, and from the little he told me, the last thing he needs right now is someone else's feelings to worry about."

Several Japanese curse words loudly escaped Calliope's mouth. While Kouji and Chance dropped the ball in response to the loud outburst of profanity, Brad stood still, completely unfazed. Deciphering through the vulgar language, he managed to get out the words "What do you mean?" despite the Swiss cheese her comment had become after editing the profanities from it.

"Just leave him alone," he warned, making eye contact. Emerald green pierced through brown, causing a slow shiver to go up Calliope's spine. "This war will have the most severe ramifications on him, and him alone. If all our information is correct—and it should be—he will have to kill his own brother. Don't add on to the guilt he'll feel later on." A haunted look drifted across his eyes as he said that, but he shook it away. "Understand?"

"Yeah," she replied.

"Now," he continued, taking his kendo sword, "if you want to apologize, wait a few minutes. We'll be exploring the coral reefs to see if Kouichi's base is there—remember, Ken hid his in the ocean for a while. You can come with us if you like, unless you're scared."

"What do you mean by that?" she demanded, but he simply ignored her and left. She took in a breath and held it in anger. How was it that he always knew how to set her off?

-------
Calliope sat on the dock, watching the others dive. She had no desire to enter the water, but she refused to give her reasons. The cool ocean breeze blew a strand of her carefully concealed hair out from under her hat. Momentarily, she removed it and forced her hair up to be better covered. As she placed the straw headpiece back on, she could hear a familiar voice behind her:

"If you were so worried about your hair, you should have cut and dyed it."

"Well, you didn't," she responded rather coolly.

"Well, sometimes my appearance comes in handy," he commented.

"So which identity did you choose today?" she asked.

"Today, I'm Ki. Tomorrow, who knows? I'll only know when it gets here." He walked up closer, wearing the white hat he'd donned at the school and at the hospital. "Nothing, I take it."

"They say 'no news is good news,' so I guess we've had nothing but good news lately."

"I doubt Kouichi's here," Ki admitted. "And I doubt he's anywhere in the Southern Hemisphere, but…"

"Your problem?"

"I got a call from Argentina. The freighter left more than a month ago, with no word given to me. It sounds like Kouichi's doing. Martinez booked a jet and promised to fly them down, but Kouji has to meet him by ten o'clock Friday night."

"So what is he supposed to do until then?"

Ki sighed. It had been a long time since he and Calliope had broken up, and she'd never been hard on him for it—until now, that was. "You'll just have to come up with that on your own." He turned to walk away, but a cardinal pulled a kamikaze on him, forcing him to duck wildly.

"I swear those birds have been stalking me," Calliope declared, laughter evident in her voice. Ki laughed momentarily at that, and then stared suspiciously at the waters beyond them.

"Be careful," he cautioned. "Something's not right here."

-------
Izumi walked home from school, accompanied by Sakiko. The two girls were in vast contrast to each other. While Izumi wore a light blue Chinese-styled top with a pair of khakis, Sakiko wore a black lacy blouse with the blue plaid skirt from Izumi's school uniform. The one thing that could be considered alike was their hairstyles: Both girls wore their hair down, except Izumi had a morning glory comb in her blond hair to keep it out of her face, and Sakiko wore her brown-and-purple hair alone, the purple highlights looking like flames that were trying to consume the brown.

"Are the others always this late?" Sakiko asked, noting that the remaining three Chosen still hadn't joined them.

"As long as I've known them," she replied with a sigh. Once the three stragglers were in sight, her phone rang. "Hello?"

"Izumi, I hope you're not still in school."

"No, Kouji. We just got out. In fact, Sakiko and I were waiting for three people who were taking forever to get out of their remedial classes. Is there something wrong?"

"No, it's good news for once. I'm coming home soon."

"Really? When?"

"I don't know—maybe a few days. I'm headed for the next location Friday night. The last one will only take a day or two unless something goes wrong."

"Good. I can't wait."

"Neither can I. Till then."

"Till then." When had they stopped saying goodbye? As Izumi switched off her phone, Takuya turned to her.

"Kouji?" he guessed.

"Yeah. He's headed for the next stop on Friday. After that, he's coming back to Hong Kong."

"How well can he fight?" Takuya questioned.

"Pretty well. Why?"

"Kage's been getting pretty anxious lately, keeping a harder watch out for Imperials. He thinks we're nearing the finale."

"Finale?"

"The last battle. Kage's basing his theory off of reports he's received and information from Ki, if he's right."

"He's been right all those times before. He's been keeping one step ahead of Kouichi."

"Which is what worries me. How does he know? And how could he?"

For a moment, something Kouji had said rang in Izumi's ears: "For all we know, Ki could be Kouichi…"

"You don't think he's an Imperial?" she defended. "He would have handed us over if he was!"

"I wasn't saying that. Just hear me out: If he has all these agents and informants, then why hadn't Kage known about him beforehand? Why hasn't the Resistance heard of him before?"

"Well, Kouji said he's from another world…"

"But then why come here? If anything, the Chosen should be here, not him. And why does he know us so well? How can he?" Izumi was silent for a while.

"I don't know."

"I'm not saying I don't trust him. Ki's trustworthy—there's no doubt about it in my mind. But he also hasn't been entirely honest with us, and there's no doubt in my mind about that either. That is something we must be wary of." It was one of the few times Takuya was ever truly serious about something, and it was all too unsettling.

-------
"Kouji?" Calliope called. "Can I come in?"

"The door's open," he informed. Inside, he had packed all but enough clothes to last him till Friday. As Calliope watched, he carefully placed a framed picture in his bag.

"May I see?" she asked. He handed it to her, allowing her to see a blonde girl with aqua green eyes. "Who is this?"

"Izumi."

Calliope felt her heart sink. "Your girlfriend?" she managed to ask past the knot in her throat. He nodded. Her heart sank even lower, and the knot in her throat tightened.

"Brad said that you might have that reaction," he informed. "I'm sorry, but I had to tell you."

"It's okay," she assured, gathering her pride to fight her disappointment. "You still have four days before you have to leave, and you'll have to face Kouichi sooner or later. Brad's great at kendo, and I know your specialty is saber techniques. Maybe he can train you so you can fight him better. That'll be a surprise for Kouichi! And maybe you'll master other fighting forms too…" Her words trailing off into nonsensical jabber, she opened the door to see Brad standing outside. The look he gave her was not piteous, but compassionate all the same.

"Kouji, training till dinner okay?" he checked. "We've got some leftover fried rice in the fridge. I know that leftovers are unusual for the Japanese, but if I can adjust to it, you should be able to."

"That's fine. I'll join you in a minute."

Brad and Calliope walked out, each heading in a different direction. Choosing to ignore her earlier heartbreak, Calliope decided to grab her bikini, a swim cap for her hair, and a towel. Hey, she was at the beach. Why shouldn't she enjoy it? Besides, if she drowned, that lifeguard was pretty cute…

-------
"All right, I know you're skilled at Western swordplay, but Eastern is a completely different game," Brad explained. "In your trial exercise, I saw that you know basic Asian styles, but most of your attacks were European."

"What do I have to do first?" Kouji questioned.

"We'll begin with blocking, as your defense really needs work." He lifted his bamboo sword and aimed at Kouji's right shoulder. The student spotted the movement and blocked with his sword (actually, a broom handle they'd sawed off). Having fooled him, Brad struck at his real target—the neck—bringing his weapon to a halt at the Black Ring.

"You weren't watching," he observed.

"But I…"

"You were concentrating on the weapon, and not on your opponent. If you'd watched my wrist, you'd have seen the slight flipping movement as I reversed my sword to strike at your neck. The blade of a knife isn't the only danger; the blunt edge can also be deadly. Who knows? A katana can be double-bladed or reverse-bladed." He brought the wooden sword to his side. "And don't let your attention wander. Keep your mind solely on the fight." He then turned around to walk back and resume his fighting stance; but, without turning, he slashed at Kouji's knee. This time, he was ready. He swung his makeshift kendo sword and disarmed Brad.

"You couldn't fool me that time," he informed.

"Good," Brad replied. "Now, if you'd be so kind, get my sword."

As Kouji bent down to get it, his young sensei poked him in the back with a butter knife.

"Never turn your back on the opponent, and always assume he has more than one weapon," Brad advised. "If this was real, you'd be dead now." He withdrew the other weapon. "And a word of advise: Never reach for your opponent's weapon. I know they do it all the time in the movies, but your enemy will know the weapon better than you, and it could be a trap. There could be something concealed on the hilt. You wouldn't know until poison or something injected into your bloodstream. By then, it would be too late."

"How do you know all this?" Kouji asked.

"Hida-sensei taught me, as did the Chosen. They wanted to get my mind off…my mind off…" He choked again, "my mind off a bad experience. Everything I learned stayed with me."

Hours of defensive techniques passed, leaving both teenage boys drenched with sweat. Brad didn't even pause until he was one hundred percent satisfied with Kouji's performance. Finally, at seven forty-five, he brought their practice to a halt.

"Good," he complimented. "But don't let your emotions blind you when you fight. Your enemy can use them to his advantage."

"I'll try."

"No. Don't try. You have to be able to do this, or else you and everyone you love will die."

They went over to a shower station and rinsed the perspiration off their bodies and clothes. Back at the institute, they changed into clean, dry clothes and washed up for dinner. As he towel-dried his hair, Kouji happened to notice an odd pattern in Brad's hand washing: scrub, rinse, more soap, and then repeat the cycle.

"Is something wrong?" he checked.

"Huh?" Brad questioned. He looked down to see his hands were raw from the washings. "I guess my mind was wandering." He grabbed a paper towel and began drying his hands as roughly as he'd washed them. "Come on, let's eat."

-------
The next day's practice was double weapons. The day after was even harder: offensive and defensive strategies in a worst-case scenario. But on Friday night, Brad pulled out all the stops.

"I warned you never to take an opponent's weapon, but there are times when an opponent will be foolish enough to take yours, as you know." He then produced the two Licht Siegers he'd somehow removed from Kouji's bag. "Let's see how well you know your weapons." In two swift, Z-like shapes, he activated the sabers and began the training exercise.

Kouji had last fought under these conditions while under Kouichi's control. Now, he could fight freely, without being forced to act as a puppet. This was his battle now, and he had the advantage. Brad's fighting style was much different from Ki's, as he used the Japanese art rather than the European, so he was a very worthy adversary. Brad found that Kouji knew his weapons very well—as well as can be expected for someone who used them for three or four years. He would have to try something different, so he connected the two sabers into one double-bladed weapon.

It was as close as Kouji would get to a battle with Löwemon or Sakuyamon, and the change of weapon design did not flaunt Brad at all. His techniques remained flawless and difficult to predict. The more Kouji blocked, the closer he came to his own defeat. Yes, this was it: the psychological technique Kouichi practiced—the more he searched for an attack, the less attention he'd give the attacks coming at him. Clearing his mind of all other thoughts and emotions, he watched Brad's movements, keeping his own to a minimum. Cautiously, he searched for any weakness that he could exploit. Finally, it became clear that he was hiding all weak points too hard for anyone to observe. He was forced to wait for Brad to tire.

Brad too was aware of this. While Kouji kept his movements to an absolute minimum, he conserved the most of his strength. This was another tactic an enemy could deploy. Calliope came out with Kouji's bag and the warning to go when a loud gunshot sounded on the harbor. Red birds flew away from the sound, following the fearful instinct to flee from danger as Chance Rockwell emerged from the shadows, holding a large black shotgun.

"You three should have realized there was something wrong," he informed. "You should now better than anybody that a smile can conceal a killer. Now, come along, halfling. The Kaiser's waiting for you."

"A mercenary?" Calliope whispered as though she didn't believe it.

"Yes, Miya," he answered. "And thanks to your little revelation because of your crush, I know just who you two are. What a wonderful surprise for the Kaiser when I bring him Minamoto." Suddenly, there was the sound of a click from a gun with a silencer, and Chance's dead body fell into the water. Behind him stood a weathered Latino man and a bronze-skinned teenage boy with reddish-brown hair. Immediately, both Brad and Calliope breathed a sigh of relief.

"Kouji Minamoto?" the man checked. The Australian team nodded. "My name is Martinez."

"Save the introductions for later," the teenager urged. "We have to go!" Kouji took his bag and ran after them. "Next stop, the real down under! Antarctica, here we come!"

Gomenesai: I'm sorry

Sorry if this sounded a lot like G Gundam, but I needed something for the training. I owed my friend Kelly a cameo for coming up with a cool outfit for a character in the final chapter. So while I was at it, I gave a couple of my other friends some appearances. The whole thing about the sunlight was from The Pretender, when Angelo escapes and he and Jarod comment on how much they enjoy the sunlight after being locked away in the Centre.