Crawford sprinted across downtown Tokyo, brushing past people, running red lights. Cars honked, people shouted, but he ignored them. As Nagi's school came into view, he started to hear screams. Behind him, police sirens wailed-too far away, Nagi would be dead before they got there. He pulled out a gun from the inside of his jacket, taking aim as he ran. He could see where the truck was, people with their faces covered were spilling out if it, shooting all around them, but focusing on Nagi.

Where was Nagi? Crawford caught sight of the boy-then his heart gave a jolt as he saw the huge man standing behind the telekinetic with a gun pressed to Nagi's head. Crawford knew that Nagi had a shield up, but it was useless if the man fired right then. He saw one of the men shoot a sedative-Nagi slumped- the shield was dropping- Crawford moved.

He lifted his arm, bringing his gun to eye level, and shot the man's hand off. As the man screamed in pain, he let go of Nagi, who slumped to the ground just as the bullets that would have killed him whizzed over his head, hitting the shrieking man. He was dead within seconds. The gunmen shouted, then started running towards Nagi's unconscious body on the ground. Crawford reached Nagi, threw the boy over his shoulder, and ran.

Bullets were hissing past him, over his head, to the side, too close for comfort, but he dodged best he could and kept running. One hit his leg-he barely felt it. Buildings and people whizzed by them. Where was the hospital, where was the hospital, where was the fucking goddamn hospital-

BANG!

Crawford's torso was shoved forward with the force of the shot, he could see the blood trailing the bullet, but he couldn't stop now. Gasping for breath, he turned around and shot at the men chasing them, ignoring screams and shouts. Three shots, three down, Crawford started to run again. Nagi's light frame was cradled against the man's chest, protected from errant bullets. Finally, a white building came into view. He dashed into the lobby, men were at the door-shots-glass breaking, and a white figure in a blue vest springing past him, towards the men-distantly noting a person with orange hair leap up from his seat-

Brad! What happened? Are you-

Get the boy, Schuldig.

Schuldig grabbed Nagi's limp form as Crawford collapsed on the hospital floor. There were nurses and doctors running in, frantic, putting the precognitive on a cart and wheeling Brad away.

Farf took Nagi's body from Schuldig. The redhead gave him a grateful look, then raced after the American. A doctor approached Farf timidly.

"Ah, if you please, sir, we, uh, should really have him treated with the other one."

Farf stared at him for a minute, then reluctantly surrendered. He followed them as they took Nagi into a room with all sorts of machinery, and then they told him that he had to wait outside, so he sat outside the door, absentmindedly playing with a knife. Weiss came running up to him.

"What was that all about?" Ken asked.

"Kritiker did that." Farf replied. There were expressions of shock on every face. Omi swallowed.

"How-"

"They drove an armored truck to Nagi's school, planning to eliminate him first. Brad foiled that plan." Weiss turned to see Schuldig walking towards them, an angry look on his face.

"How do you know it was Kritiker?" Yohji asked. Aya just looked at the German.

"I looked through Crawford's memories of it, and I recognized Manx." Omi's eyes widened.

"No!" Schuldig turned to him.

"You want the mental image? I'll send it to you guys. Have a look for yourself."

Yohji sat down abruptly as images and colors flooded his mind, finally solidifying into defined, recognizable shapes.

Lurching forward-must get to Nagi before they do-

Shouts were echoing, and somewhere-a splash of deep red hair- lipstick-

Yohji turned, still in the memory, and saw a face. Shock flooded through him. That was unmistakably Manx.

A smirk on lipsticked lips as she watched the scene, turning into annoyance as she saw Crawford getting away-

And then he was on the floor of the hospital, gasping as if he'd just taken a dip in a lake. His head was spinning, and he saw that the other members of Weiss were not better off than him. Omi looked green, and Aya was holding his head in both hands. Yohji looked up at Farfarello and Schuldig.

"We believe you."

Schuldig sighed.

"Now all we can do is wait for them to get better. I'm not going anywhere out of the city without Brad or Nagi." Farf nodded in agreement. His one golden eye looked at each of them in turn.

"We will have to run."

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"What d'you think he meant by that?" Ken asked around a bite of his chicken sandwich that was his lunch. Omi looked at him.

"What do you think he meant? We're obviously going to flee. We cannot stay in the same place anymore."

"Yeah, but Kritiker will always be on our cases if we just keep on running from them. Don't you think it's better to stay and fight, so we can finally either die or be rid of the looming threat forever? I know I would prefer that to constantly being pressured to escape, to find someplace no one could find you, and constantly live with the fear of Kritiker."

Omi was surprised. Ken actually had a pretty good point.

"I'll ask him what he meant, then." he said thoughtfully. Ken took another bite of his sandwich.

"Yeah, mention it to the telepath, too."

In another part of the hospital, Aya walked along the corridors. He remembered all the times he'd visited his sister in places like these, all sterile white and doctors and nurses. Now his sister was going to college in another city. He sighed and ran a hand through his red hair. Time passed so quickly…

"Whatcha angsting about this time, Ayan?" Aya jumped as Yohji clapped his hand down on Aya's shoulder.

"Hn."

Yohji pouted.

"Naaa, Ayan…talk to me. I'm going insane here!"

Aya sighed again.

"There's nothing to talk about, Yohji."

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"Crawford-san has two bullet wounds, the one in his chest is very serious. We might have to wait a few days before he can sit up. The one in his leg is less serious, the only pressing problem being the amount of blood he lost in running so hard on it."

"Thanks, doctor. And Nagi?"

"The boy was given a powerful sedative, your companion Farfarello has already seen-"

"It's like the ones ye give me sometimes, when you say I go crazy."

"Ah, yes, but there seems to be a different component in it."

It's blocking his telekinesis. Farf sounded angry at the idea.

Thanks. Schuldig sent back.

"It's impeding his recovery. But we've found that talking to him helps lessen the amount of the x drug that is so troublesome, apparently either sound waves or emotion can break it down. So we've been talking to him as much as we can."

A beat.

"Can I see him?" Farf asked.

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accolay: Okay, another chapter. Disclaimer:Not mine.

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