Echizen looked straight at Mizuki and challenged him, "Let's go watch those surveillance tapes. You'll see I'm right."

"You're on!" Shouted Mizuki, "Let's do it here and now! I say we go clear this up!"

So they set off to Mizuki's pet store. Halfway there, Momo had an internal conflict between wanting to watch the tapes, and wanting to swing by WacDonald's. Eventually, his stomache won the battle.

"Hey, guys, I think I'm gonna stop by WacDonald's. Anyone want anything?"

"Yeah," Snickered Atobe, "Ryoma and Jirou want a plate of spaghetti they can slurp together."

"Hey! Cut it out! That isn't funny! Oh, and Momo-senpai, can you get me 2 double cheeseburgers?"

"Yeah, Atobe-buchou," Jirou stared at the ground, "WacDonald's doesn't even sell spaghetti. That was a stretch."

"Sorry, I was just trying to lighten things up. Dorks."

Turning to Momo, Jirou smiled, "Yeah, can I have a milkshake?"

"Me too." Chimed in Mizuki.

"I don't eat WacDonald's." Said Atobe off-handedly, when he was inquired of.

"Well," Suggested Mizuki, "When we get to the pet shop, you can have your choice of cat food, dog food, bird food, or lizard food."

They all laughed.

"Okay, okay, I get the point. I'll take a chicken salad and lemonade, thanks."

Meanwhile, Fuji Yuuta was walking through the park, (it was St. Rudolph territory after all), when out of a nearby bush, Inui mumbled, "Ii data…"

"Inui from Seigaku! What is he doing, that creepy old guy?"

"According to my calculations," Inui said as he popped his head out of the bush to answer Yuuta's rhetorical question, "I am only 7 months and 16 days older than you are, and furthermore," He pointed in the direction of 5 arguing figures on the nearest tennis court, "I'm getting data for my tennis matches."

"Whatever." Mumbled Yuuta as he wandered off.

Suddenly Yuuta's cell phone was spouting the theme song to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

"Hello!"

"Hello Yuuta!" Great, it was his brother, Syuuske.

"ahh… yeah, hey aniki." Why did he insist on calling him for no reason?

"Sis baked you a pie; a blackberry one."

"Okay… whatever. Yeah that Inui guy from your team is over here being a weirdo."

"Spying?"

"Yeah."

"Sounds like Inui. Don't worry about it." click

Yuuta briefly walked within hearing range of the 5 figures standing on the court, but as soon as he heard the words 'naked lovebird' flipped a 180 and walked the other direction. He didn't need to be accused of that sort of thing. No one needed to know that he had seen Mizuki there…

As soon as Fuji hung up the phone with Yuuta, he phoned Inui.

"What's going on?"

"Something big… it appears Echizen, and his co-worker Akutagawa Jirou from Hyotei are in question about their activities during work."

"What kind of activities?"

"16 and 17 year old boys alone in a store? Use your imagination. Anyhow, it appears that they are headed to the pet store right now to check the surveillance tapes. I think we should call Tezuka and get down there."

"Right." click

Inui immediately phoned Tezuka.

"Tezuka, big news, it seems that you should watch some video tapes in which Echi-" click

Dang, thought Inui, He hung up on me even faster than normal! He called back, but Tezuka didn't answer. On purpose.

So Inui quickly redialed Fuji's number.

"Hey, can you call Tezuka and tell him? I'm having that one problem again."

Fuji laughed.

"Don't worry. I'll get him down there."

Inui could have sworn Fuji was so sure of himself, that he winked. What a scary kid, he thought to himself.

So Fuji called up Tezuka.

"Oy, Tezuka."

"Hello, Fuji."

"I just found a slight problem with one of our team members that maybe you should be aware of."

"Oh?"

See? Thought Fuji, it was this easy to get Tezuka's interest. Really, what did Inui have problems with?

"Yes. It seems Echizen is a suspect for something, though I don't know for what yet."

"A suspect? Did he commit a crime?"

"I don't know. All I really know is that whatever it was happened while he was at work. They are going down there right now to examine the evidence. He could be in a lot of trouble. I think maybe we should be there. He may need our help."

"Okay. I'll be there in 5 minutes. Want me to pick you up on the way?"

"That'd be great."

Tezuka was easy to manipulate if you just knew how to do it, thought Fuji, who proceeded to cross his legs and relax until Tezuka came to pick him up.

Momo hurried into WacDonald's. Oh man, I just want the left side of the menu! As he waited in line, he spotted some familiar shorties that had also come to eat. His Kohai! "Oy! Ichinen! Over here!"

"Momo-chan-senpai!"

"Hey, how goes it?"

"Nothing much. We got hungry after playing 5 straight games of Go." As much as Momo had on his mind, the thought that popped into his head just then was that all through his junior high years, he had never thought Horio would ever get a deeper voice. Then again, nowadays, he was bragging about his two years of Go experience, so some things never did change with that kid.

"Momo-chan-senpai? Is there something wrong? You look bothered."

"Err… sort of…" As he failed to stifle a snicker.

"Oh my gosh, you know something funny! Spit it out Momo-chan!"

"Well…" Momo had to be careful on this one, "You didn't hear hear it from me, and we really don't know for sure yet, but…" He lowered his voice to a whisper, "We think Echizen may have done something… questionable with another boy."

…and the Ichinen's eyes had never been wider.