DISCLAIMER: Don't own Lupin III, but I do, however, own most of the original characters in this fanfic. So, there!

Howdy!

Glad you guys liked the first chapter so much! That makes me happy! Yeah, I've been working on it a while… Tee hee… Well, I hope the last chapter gave everyone a lot of surprises, and I hope to keep surprising everyone with the upcoming chapters… As always, questions, comments, and suggestions are always appreciated!

Chapter Two

A Little While after: Shot in the Dark

''Cos I'm the Taxman,

Yeah, I'm the taxman,

And workin' for no one, but me,

Taxman,'

--The Beatles, 'Taxman'

Goldman's School for Accounting, San Francisco, California:

"Schimmel?"

"Here!"

"Jacobson?"

"Here!"

"Wishachnitz?"

"Here!"

"Zenigata?"

"He—Oh, just one second—Oh, oh, this is bad… Can someone get a—Crap, crap, CRAP!" a blonde-haired Asian yelled angrily as he watched the ink from his broken pen travel to other papers along the long table. The other pupils glared upward at Max Zenigata, who was desperately trying to avoid eye contact while cleaning the mess.

"Zenigata, I'd like to speak with you privately in my office…" sighed Mr. Goldman, who had been watching the class's performance that day. He had been warned about one student in particular. That student was Max Zenigata, the only man in the school who would go back and forth cursing in Yiddish and Japanese. Hearing him in the hall was unmistakable.

Max looked upward and gulped hoarsely. When Mr. Goldman wanted to see someone, usually that person was never seen back in class again.

"Y-Yes, Sir," Max said, trying to hide his nervousness. After cleaning up the ink spill, he meekly walked down to Mr. Goldman's office, and anxiously awaited to be allowed in by Goldman's secretary. He nervously seated himself in the chair across from Goldman when he finally entered. Goldman sighed heavily as he seated himself at his desk, and opened Max's file, and then scanned it, occasionally looking upward at Max in a mixture of pity and disbelief.

"Max, it's come to my attention that—"

Max jumped out of his chair before Goldman could finish, and began to speak furiously in his defense, "Mr. Goldman, I'm so sorry! I know I haven't quite mastered accounting yet, but I'm sure with a few more lessons, I'll be able to—"

"No, Max."

"What?" Max sunk back in shock.

"I'm referring you to the offices of the International Police in—"

"INTERPOL!? You're referring me to INTERPOL!?" Max shrieked.

"Your father worked there, and retired with full honors, from what I understand. It even says here you went to the police academy, and passed. It also says you trained to be a Rabbi, and you dropped out of that. Something about an incident at a bris?"

"I, uh…. The Johansens' love their daughter, though!"

"They loved her more when she was still their son," Goldman retorted, closing the file, "Max, why are you here? You could be a successful police offic—"

"No, no…" Max laughed, "No way, am I going to be a cop. No way, no how!"

"All right, let me put this another way," Goldman sighed, and put his reading glasses on, "You're terrible at anything other than police work. You're like the eleventh plague upon any sort of work that's vaguely Jewish. It's like you didn't quite get that gene from your mother… But you sure do have your father's personalit—"

"Sir, if you excuse me, I do not have my father's personality!"

"You also have a tendency to not let people finish what they were saying," Goldman finished.

"I…."

"Here. Here's the paper. You go home, maybe talk with your parents, and sort it out," said Goldman, "I hope everything works out for you, Max. Let me know how you're doing. Take care, now."

"Yes, Mr. Goldman. Thank you very much," Max muttered quietly as he took the piece of paper and slowly walked out of the office and into the hallway. He waited until he was almost out to start wailing.

"I suck at everything I do except the thing I HATE! He told me I was a bad Jew! My principal, just told me, I sucked, at being a Jew! Well, I am only half, but that's besides the point! I hated police school, and I only went there to make Mom and Dad happy! It's not my fault I got an 'A' in everything in there! It's not my fault I got nervous and my hand slipped at the Johansen's bris! Mr. Johansen had TWO boys, already! Oh, Lord, what am I gonna do?" Max moaned.

"Quit bitchin', for one!" a student yelled back. Max jumped in surprise, and then sighed heavily. With his head hung, he exited the accounting school with the address of INTERPOL written on a sheet of paper in his pocket. Later that night, after speaking with both of his parents, Max Zenigata hopped on the first plane to Paris, headed towards the offices of INTERPOL.

A Restaurant in the Bahamas:

"Well, Odori's had her fill of liquor," mumbled Fuji as she noted the snoring samurai, whose head was down on the table.

"She never could hold it…" Ryo added as she fiddled with her gold-chain necklace.

"So, Ryo, tell me—What do you think about the plan? You rarely lie to me, and you're one of the more level-headed ones here," Fuji inquired.

"I think you're out of your mind, Fujiko," Ryo replied as she leaned forward in her chair.

"I knew you'd say that," Fuji smiled, "You and your siblings—Eternal optimists."

"You and your brother—Eternal opposites," Ryo retorted.

"I'd rather keep Ari out of our conversations. I'd like to keep my meal, thanks," Fuji replied, "Hey, where are Yukiko and Toshiro? They just walked out and left us!"

"Well, they went to the balcony, and then they came back, and Toshiro said something about going to the beach to walk…." Heiji replied, "Looks like Toshi-san's going to have a little bit of fun in the Bahamas. Nice little moonlight walk… I swear, he's all work, all girls."

"What!?" Ally rose from his seat, "What do you mean?"

"Toshiro has had a crush on Yukiko for years! Don't you remember that, or were you hit in the head with the hockey puck a few too many times?" Heiji said.

"Oh my God! What if he's trying to take advantage of my sister! That lousy S.O.B.! I've gotta go save Yuki!" Ally yelled, and then bolted out of the restaurant.

All of the remaining members sat there, in stunned silence, until Fuji spoke, "You know, I think it's possible that Ally does have some form of brain damage…."

Outside, on the Beach:

"Why'd you take your shoes off? You wear sandals, anyway!" Yukiko laughed.

"I like the sand," Toshiro answered, "I miss the beach, sometimes. Julia and I rarely got out to it."

"How is Julie, anyway? I don't hear you talk about her, much," said Yukiko. She noted Toshiro's features, and how they darkened when she spoke of Julia, "Toshiro, is something wrong? Did somethin' happen?" She laid a hand on his back, and looked up from her hat empathetically.

Toshiro looked upward at Yukiko, "She—"

"You get your paws off of my sister, you creep!" both heard. Yukiko watched in horror as Ally tackled Toshiro, and both fell into the ocean.

"Ally! Stop!" Yukiko shouted, and pried Ally off.

"Yuki, he didn't do anything, did he?" Ally inquired frantically.

"What!? No, of course not!" Yukiko replied, "Ally, he's not some kind of pervert!"

"That's not what I heard…" Ally answered, crossing his arms and looking downward at Toshiro, who was resting on his elbows in the shallow ocean water.

Yukiko held her hand to her head as she felt a headache come on, "Ally, just go…."

"Yuki, I—"

"GO!" snapped Yukiko angrily.

"I… I think I oughta go," Ally stuttered a he looked nervously at the glared Yukiko gave him. He backed up a few paces, and then took off running back into the restaurant.

"That little creep!" Yukiko growled.

"Ah, he meant well," Toshiro replied as he rose from the sand, soaking wet. He stood there a few moments, a strange look on his face.

"Hey, uh, what's up?" asked Yukiko. She watched as Toshiro reached into his shirt, and retrieved a still-flopping fish. Yukiko laughed loudly, and Toshiro quietly threw the fish back into the ocean. Toshiro slowly walked onto the beach, and Yukiko smirked, removed her jacket, and laid it over his shoulders. Toshiro looked at Yukiko in a mixture of confusion and shock.

"It's a little bit of a role reversal, but you look cold," Yukiko smiled. Toshiro sneezed, and Yukiko shook her head and laughed, "Let's get you into the hotel room, okay? Hopefully there aren't any other fish in your shirt, or pants, or whatever…."

"My pants? God, I hope not!" Toshiro gulped.

Yukiko laughed, "I missed you, you know that?"

"I figured," Toshiro sneezed again, and Yukiko reached over into one of her jacket pockets, and pulled out a red handkerchief.

"I wear it as a little touch of color," she laughed.

"I thought that was so the blood didn't stain as badly," Toshiro retorted, and then sneezed again, "I hate the saltwater…"

Later, the Women's Hotel Room:

"Hey, Yukiko, I wanted to talk to you…. About Toshiro…" said Fuji as either woman lied on their queen bed. Ryo was next to Fuji, finishing a crossword, and Odori was lying on a tatami mat on the floor, carefully polishing Zantetsu, which her father had given her in order to give the blade practice. Goemon tended to use the blade less and less, but this was not of his doing. Odori had an icepack on her head, due to the fact that she had an oncoming headache from her downing of almost a quarter bottle of sangria.

"What about him?" inquired Yukiko.

"He… He was really weird when I talked to him about this gig… He really didn't want to go, until I told him that the Rat Clan was involved…" said Fuji.

"Well, Toshiro's real mother was part of the Rat Clan," Odori reminded them in her still half-drunken tone.

"I know, I know… Could that be it?" Fuji wondered, "I don't know, but there's something going on with him…. Somethin's wrong…"

"Yeah, I felt it, too," Ryo admitted, "Especially when anyone mentions Julia to him…"

"Well, maybe they had a fight," Yukiko shrugged.

"I don't think it's that… I honestly don't," Fuji admitted, "Well, we're goin' to New York, anyway. That's where some of the head Rats are, now…"

"Right around his neighborhood, too," Ryo added.

"Whaddya mean? They'd hang out in a dump like his neighborhood?" Yukiko frowned, looking upward from her fedora.

"They moved up a while ago! Right, Dori?" Fuji asked, looking downward at Odori.

"My head feels like it has a dagger stuck in it…" Odori muttered.

The Men's Room:

"You sure you want to take the floor, Toshiro?" Heiji asked worriedly, "You haven't slept on a tatami mat in years, have you?"

"Sure I have! Whenever I passed out in the doorway after New Year's," Toshiro mumbled as he unrolled the mat.

"You're going to hurt your back," Heiji warned. Both looked over as they heard a clicking noise, and saw Ally on his bed, in his hockey jersey and pants, cleaning his sniper rifle. They both watched nervously as Ally looked through the seeker of the rifle, and smiled in satisfaction. He laid the gun down in its case, and then went to cleaning his Colt .45. Ryo had brought most of the guns, but had given them to Ally to clean. He by far did the best job cleaning them, although he himself preferred hand-to-hand combat. He also was an accomplished sniper, however, and carried about a Smith & Wesson, just in case.

Ally turned, and smiled, "How're you boys doin' this lovely evenin'?"

"Fishy," Toshiro replied curtly.

"I'm… Gonna go work on a program I've been developing…" Heiji said slowly, and rose from his bed over towards his computer equipment.

"And I'll clean Izanami and Izanagi," Toshiro added, referring to his two swords. He unstrapped the dual sheathes from his back and retrieved his sword cleaning kit.

"You named them?" Ally inquired, looking upward from his Colt.

"After the Shinto gods… Get in touch with your culture…" mumbled Toshiro.

"You shoulda named them Rudy and Donald—After the New York gods," Ally replied. Toshiro paid no attention to him, and unsheathed the 'female' sword, Izanami, first.

"I clean her, and clean her, and yet she always has a shadow on her…" mumbled Toshiro bittersweetly. He discontinued his polishing of the sword, sighed, rose, and walked out to the balcony. Heiji looked upward from his computer, frowned, and followed Toshiro out.

"Those two…" Ally mumbled to himself as he clicked the trigger on the Colt and spun it around his trigger finger a few times. He stood, walked over to a nearby window, and looked downward. A smile slowly crossed his face as he saw squirrels scampering about in a nearby park. He looked back at the sniper rifle in the violin-like case, and walked over to his bed. He snapped the case shut, and whistled as he exited the room. The opportunity was too good not to take.

"Hey, Toshiro, what's up, Bro?" asked Heiji in concern.

"It's… Heiji, are you still mad at me?"

"For what?"

"For not coming back, when…"

"Dad? Well, kinda, I'll admit… Odori's still kind of mad at you about that…." Heiji admitted. He turned to Toshiro, "He had a heart attack, Toshiro! Right in the middle of a heist! We had to work with Jigen and Lupin to bail his ass out of the hospital, where they had him under lock and key! He almost died in the middle of that!"

"What's his opinion of what I've done?" asked Toshiro.

"You're a samurai, and you guard the one you swore to protect. You swore to protect the city, so…" Heiji shrugged, "Why'd you come back now, though? Is it Yu—"

"No," Toshiro shook his head, and closed his eyes, "It's… It's not that… I just need some alone time, all right?"

"I—Okay," Heiji nodded, "You take your time, all right?"

"Yeah," Toshiro replied quietly, and watched Heiji exit. He looked outward at the expanse of dense tropical forest, and frowned. He missed the city a great deal… He missed his apartment, his birds, his friend and confidant… But not everything would be the same when he returned home.

"The Rat Clan…" Toshiro growled, and clutched onto the handle of the balcony, "They'll all pay… Especially her… I thought I could trust her, of all people! Julia, I'll never forgive her for what she did to you… I can't trust anyone, it seems…"

Suddenly, a few shots fired, and Toshiro jumped in startled surprise. Without giving a second though, he jumped to a nearby balcony, and managed to make his way down to the final balcony, where he was greeted by a nasty surprise. He heard yelling in the hotel room, and Toshiro was convinced this was where the shots also originated. The daring samurai burst through the glass door without thinking, and there was an ungodly scream seconds later. He had just mistaken the newlywed couple for the source of the gunshots. This was far from the truth.

"PERVERT!" the new wife screamed.

"Ow, ow! Dammit, lady, watch it!" Toshiro yelled as he exited the hotel room, "Sor—Sorry, Ma'am… Sir…"

"Come here! I'm not done with you, you cross-dressing peeping Tom!" the new husband shouted, and began to run after Toshiro.

Later:

"What in the hell happened to you?" Heiji mumbled.

"I got the crap beaten out of me with a stiletto heel…" Toshiro replied, "I'm not having a very good night…"

"Why don't you come in and rest? Ally's sleeping now… He mumbled something about squirrels when he came in, then got ready for bed, and passed out! It must be nice to be able to fall asleep that easily…"

"Hn… I'm going to follow his lead," Toshiro replied as he walked in, "Nothing else can happen to me if I'm asleep."

"Famous last words," Heiji chuckled in response.

Both prepared for bed, wished one another a good night, and prepared for what they thought would be an eventless sleep. They were wrong.

The windows to the hotel room slowly opened, and figures dressed completely in black scuttled into the room, and around the men. The story was the same for the women's room.

One of the figures silently removed a knife from a hidden pocket, and leaned inward to Toshiro. He raised the knife over the young man's chest, and went to sink it in. But it was stopped by two swords crossed over one another in an 'X' pattern. Toshiro smiled, shook his head, and jumped up. This disturbance awoke Heiji quickly, but not Ally, who was determined to sleep.

"How the hell can he sleep through this!?" Heiji yelled as he smacked one of the black figures in the side of the head with his laptop computer.

"Check the girls!" snapped Toshiro. Heiji nodded, jumped off and over one of the black-cloaked figures, and ran into the other room. Toshiro, meanwhile, tried to fight off the ninja-like figures by himself.

"Wake up!" Toshiro demanded Ally. Ally answered with a loud snore, and a slight shuffle in his bed, "Get the hell up, now!" Toshiro yelled as he backed against a wall, surrounded by the ninjas. He drew both swords, and the ninjas backed up slowly, but did not pull their own weapons back. Toshiro spun the two swords in defensive patterns as he scanned for an escape. Ally continued to sleep as one lunged for him, and Toshiro quickly guarded his own neck with one of his blades. He threw the ninja back, and he rolled over Heiji's bed and onto the floor. His sword landed inches from the sleeping Ally, who finally awoke when the blade fell in front of his head. Ally sprung up in bed, and looked over at Toshiro.

"What the—Why didn't you try to wake me up!?" Ally demanded.

"I tried—Boy, did I try," Toshiro replied as he made his way through the circle of ninjas with his swords. Three ninjas fell down in pain. One jumped up, and revealed throwing stars, but was quickly blown back by the bullet of a 45. Colt Executive. Toshiro looked over at Ally, who was smiling at his handiwork. A ninja tried to jump Ally from behind, but the Jigen family member heard the attacker, and drew his gun over his shoulder, and shot.

Toshiro, after snapping out of his stupor, continued to fight the ninjas, until there were none. The two then ran over to the women's room, where they were having their own difficulties. A ninja fell back into Ally as he entered, and he and Toshiro looked upward at the fighting Odori, Ryo, Fuji, Yukiko, and Heiji

Although Odori possessed Zantetsu, she also possessed a massive headache from a massive hangover, and was having trouble with judgement of distances. When she went to splice one ninja, she instead slashed the nightstand in half.

"This is the last time I drink out of the house!" she growled angrily as she gripped the handle of the blade.

Yukiko was having great success with keeping more ninjas from entering the compound by fending them off with her ever-faithful Combat Magnum. Heiji had a blade that he usually carried with him, and was using this to fight off the ninjas. But it was clear that hand-to-hand fighting was not the Ishikawa boy's strongpoint. Ryo and Fuji watched one another's backs as they fought off their own enemy. Ryo would fend off anyone trying to attack Fuji while Fuji did the same for Ryo. Toshiro and Ally joined the fighting, and soon all of the ninjas were either lying on the ground in the hotel room or lying on the ground on the concrete.

"Hello, room service?" Fuji inquired as she picked up the phone to the room, "Yeah, uh, could we get the manager up here? We've had a slight accident in two of the rooms… What? Oh, stains… Yes, I'm sure they will, too… Ur, eventually. Bye," she chuckled uneasily, and hung up the phone. She would pay the manager of the hotel handsomely to keep the incident quiet and follow her instructions on disposing of the trash.

"Who was that?" asked Heiji as he poked a body.

"That's the mark of the Rat Clan," Odori responded, nodding towards the symbol on the back of one ninja's gi.

"Yuki, lend me a cigarette," Ryo begged.

Yukiko looked at Ryo, stunned, "What do you mean? I, I…"

"We all know you have them… Hand 'em over," Ryo ordered tiredly. Yukiko lifted her white hat off of her head, and Toshiro realized, as she dug for the cigarettes, that this was the first time she had been without her hat since they had met one another again. Ryo shakily lit a cigarette, and shook her head as she surveyed the strewn out bodies. "Jesus… I thought we were supposed to be discreet… This is far from…"

"So were they," Toshiro replied.

"Hey, Toshiro, ain't you half Rat?" Ally inquired suspiciously. Toshiro's eyes opened a fraction, and he slowly turned to face Ally, whom, despite trying to look cool, could not help but seem untrusting of the samurai.

"You're not saying I had anything to do with this, are you?" Toshiro inquired.

"Nah, nah, I'm not. I'm just wondering if maybe you knew a few, that's all," Ally shrugged in response.

"I haven't had anything to do with the Rats since I was a baby, and if you ever even breath a word of them to me again, I'll make sure you won't be saying any words, much less breathing, for a long time!" snapped Toshiro.

"Where are you going?" Heiji inquired.

"Out," Toshiro snapped in simple response as he went to open the door.

"You know, Toshiro, it is sort of weird, how they knew we were in the Bahamas. I chose this place so they wouldn't find us," Fuji admitted. Toshiro looked at her in disgust, and stormed out of the hotel room.

Yukiko rose from her seat, and looked around angrily at the others, "I don't believe ANY of you! They tried to kill him, too, you know! We shouldn't go jumping to conclusions!"

"Yukiko, he's been acting fishy, ever since he got here," Fuji replied.

"That's because someone had the bright-ass idea to throw him into the Caribbean!" Yukiko yelled in response, glaring at Ally, who shrunk back in response to his sister's cold glare, "And you two are his brother and sister! It's like I'm the only damn person here who'll defend him!" she huffed, and also exited the room.

And stood there in silence, and Fuji coughed uncomfortably, "We ought to start packing for the morning…"

"Yeah," the others nodded, and turned as they heard footsteps down the hall.

"There are dead squirrels all in the park around the hotel! Did you see it?" whispered one maid to another.

"No. Was it a cat?" asked the other.

"If a cat could shoot it with a gun, sure!" the other snapped, and then opened the bedroom door, and found the Lupin gang, along with all of the bodies, in the bedroom.

"We're filming a horror movie," Heiji explained, "Ur, Blair Witch 3: Blair Witch Beaches…" said Heiji reassuringly. Both stunned maids nodded numbly, and slowly closed the door again.

"Way to draw attention away from the scenes of death, Heiji-chan," Fuji laughed, and folded her arms behind her head.

"You know, if I had it my way, the Blair Witch 3 would be set in space…" said Odori.

"Please tell me it's because you're still drunk…" Ally muttered.

"And please tell me those dead squirrels aren't of your doing, Ally," Fuji added.

"I, uh… Gotta pack…" mumbled Ally.

"Someone going to check on the lovebirds? Someone other than Ally?" asked Fuji.

"They'll be okay," Ryo reassured Fuji, "Yukiko hurts any man who tries to make a move on her…"

"Have they ever?" inquired Heiji.

"Well, er, no… But…" Ryo sputtered.

"Never mind," Fuji sighed, "Let's get ready. Tomorrow morning we head to New York, and steal that scroll from the Rat Clan…"

"I hope they're okay…" Heiji said to himself in concern.