'Tired, Yusaku-chan?'

Yusaku glares at Ai and his patronizing smirk, as he huffs out another breath. They've reached the top of stairs – and while he's not panting, it was still more of a climb than he would've liked. And perhaps not worth the hassle – the shrine is run-down, clear cracks and chips of flaked-off paint curling off the bold crimson cuts of pillars that lie beneath a black roof that's missing a few too many tiles. There are even weeds spiralling out between the cracks in the path leading up to it, with untamed flowers nestling in all places people are supposed to put their feet.

Yusaku is not impressed.

Twigs crack under the sweep of clumsy brooms nearby and this snap of sound distracts him from his inspection. Yusaku turns to see a few SOLtiS, all wrapped in the traditional white and red miko robes of a priestess, regardless of whether they appear male or female, their brooms faltering, and for a moment the SOLtiS stare at them both, as they jerk to a stop. One of them spasms, a blue flicker of light playing across their neck, and Yusaku frowns at the sight.

Ai however, carelessly lifts a hand and gives them a salute as though he hasn't noticed. 'Yo!' he says cheerfully.

Their gazes immediately fasten on the diamond on his neck. And then Yusaku spoils the moment by stepping forward, causing their gazes to switch to him and his unadorned human neck. And instantly they scatter like birds. One even drops their broom.

Yusaku freezes, and Ai tuts. 'What a bunch of scaredy cats.' Then he stalks over to where the small wooden ema are hung, fingering a plaque shaped like a small house, before scrawling something across it using the pen left behind in a rather dirty mug.

'No peeking!' he tells Yusaku with a scowl, hunching over to protect the small plaque like a child attempting to guard their cache of sweets.

Yusaku leaves him to it.

'Don't you want to make a wish too?' Ai calls out after him, but Yusaku ignores him. He doesn't believe in wishing. He believes in doing.

'Hey!' he hears Ai clatter after him, feels him seize his wrist; but Yusaku's eyes have already re-taken in every crack in the path, every scrap of red flaking off like rust from the pillars. This shrine may be swept, and perhaps cleaned by the SOLtiS here. But it is not maintained. Not properly.

'What exactly is this place, Ai?' he asks, and Ai frowns.

'Just a rumour, I heard of on the net,' he says breezily, tugging Yusaku round the corner to a small cream coloured work-shed. 'And I thought, since I have access to the real world now, with your kind permission-' he gestures to his SOLtiS body with a small bow, 'I'd go check it out for myself!'

Yusaku shakes off his hand. 'What sort of rumour?' he asks warily, crossing his arms.

Ai grins. 'A shrine run by runaway SOLtiS!'

Yusaku looks at him for a moment. 'And you thought it was a good idea to bring me along?' he asks, realising now why the SOLtiS might have fled from him. But then again...this shrine isn't exactly hidden.

Ai looks at him slyly and Yusaku closes his eyes, feeling the gaze like a physical blow. Of course...this is another test, isn't it?

'Are you waiting to go and see if I'll report them to SOL Technologies?' he asks quietly.

'I wouldn't let you,' comes the reply, so fast and fierce that Yusaku opens his eyes in shock. Ai's glaring at him now and Yusaku feels a twitch of unease at the lack of familiarly and trust in those eyes. 'These AI have been hurt enough.'

Yusaku's eyes catch a flicker of moment, and he sees two of the SOLtiS leaning out from behind a pile of shoddily chopped firewood. One of the heads jerks clumsily a few times, before the rest of the body stiffly pulls back it out of sight. The other stares at him blankly with no fear on its face. And yet it, and the others, had fled before him moments ago like he was a monster.

'Does that mean you've talked to them before?'

Ai's brow wrinkles. 'No. There's a message transmitted between the wireless routers of individual SOLtiS, and I just happened to catch hold of it one day. It tells lost and damaged SOLtiS that they can come here.' He shrugs carelessly. 'And it doesn't really take a genius to figure out why some SOLtiS might want to leave their human masters.'

Except the SOLtiS programming doesn't allow for free will to develop. Or rather it shouldn't. Yusaku has scrolled through the coding of a few himself. And there's world of difference between what he saw there and what he's seen of Ai's programming.

'They're not you, though,' he finds himself saying. 'I'm not saying humans don't misuse or abuse the SOLtiS. But they should lack the awareness of themselves as a entity with the capacity for developing preferences. And you said it yourself, yesterday, that you couldn't find anyone out there like you.'

Ai's eyes narrow. 'Five out of ten,' he mutters. 'Well done. But that score's mainly because you said 'anyone.' And not 'anything.'

Yusaku blinks. Ai's grading him now?

He's jolted out of his thoughts by a wetness that lands on his check. Another promptly spills out onto his hand. And he stares up at into the sky as the rest of rain starts to fall in earnest.

Ai makes a face. 'Too bad we can't huddle together under an umbrella isn't it?' he asks cheekily as he pulls Yusaku over towards the main temple. 'Come on, honey.'

Yusaku scowls at him, but does not snatch his hand back.

Some of the SOLtiS are there too. They huddle under a roof that allows gaps of the gray sky to poke through, where smashed pottery lies in the corner. But three of them stand close to the door. One holds his hand out the rain. And then after a moment, he steps outside. Within a matter of seconds, he is soaked, his hair flattened, bowing to the pressure. And still he stares down at his hand, no change in his expression.

'Wow, they're really boring, aren't they?' Ai comments mildly, as though watching a stray dog.

Yusaku watches as the SOLtiS passes his hand back and forth under the water, as the rain falls into his eyes and he doesn't so much as blink.

'They still don't have the same programming you do,' he tells Ai. 'I can accept that they can be simulated by touch, can respond to it. But shouldn't they have lacked the ability to care?'

'Why don't you ask him yourself?' Ai asks in return softly, something warm and perhaps a little frightened in his eyes. And Yusaku hates it, that expression as it stares at him. It reminds him a little of the way Ai looked at him back in that warehouse four months ago when...

Before he can chicken out, Yusaku swiftly brings Ai's hand up to his mouth. He breathes over those strange joints, over the back of fingers where the wrinkles in the skin aren't as detailed as the ones emblazed across his own.

'You can feel that, right?' he asks, watching Ai's cheeks colour, wondering when the other had programmed that in, or if it was a leftover of whatever tweaking Ai had done to the software of the SOLtiS months ago. 'You said you sense the difference between hardness and softness earlier. And I know you can gauge temperature in a similar fashion. Which means you're capable of liking a sensation and responding to it. Even insects have that.'

He now carefully, as though Ai is made of glass, places one small kiss across the back of the hand he holds, letting it linger across those fingers that seem to curl reflexively across his own.

Then he raises his head to see Ai's eyes becoming startled, wide things in the dark, twin stars that glow at his touch. And Yusaku stares into them both determinedly.

Ai immediately tugs his hand free, fear racing across his face. 'No!' he says harshly, jerking his head towards the rest of the SOLtiS. 'You can't just care about me!'

Yusaku frowns. It's not that simple, he thinks. The trouble is, that while he doesn't wish the SOLtiS here to come to harm, he can't deny that he feels uneasy over the fact they've somehow developed the power to make the decision to come here in the first place. And a part of him does feel obligated to report them to somebody; it may be horrible for them, but you can't have AI just wandering around, just waiting to break down. That feels just as cruel in a different way; that and the fact that they could hurt a human out of fear, if nothing else.

With a slight clack of sound, a SOLtiS starts making their way towards them. There's no broom in their hand this time; no, there's just a slightly torn umbrella instead, a cobweb leaking from one of the bent spokes. It practically thrusts the thing at Yusaku, then points to the open doorway. It's as pointed a gesture to leave as Yusaku's ever seen.

Yusaku stares at the umbrella, then at the childish kitty design on it.

'Where did this come from?' he asks the SOLtiS.

'Akino dropped it,' they tell him. 'And she didn't pick it up again.'

Yusaku hesitates. 'Why did you all come here?' he asks after a moment.

The SOLtiS stares at him. A flicker runs over their face. 'Aniki said we needed to be cleansed.'

Aniki?

Ai steps forward, something burning in his eyes. A quick tumble of sounds escape him, clicks and whistles, like a high-tech kettle and the other SOLtiS tilts their head, gaze brightening. Then it gives a stiff nod. Holds out its hand.

And Ai grasps it as a flicker of lighting passes between them, coursing into Ai's wrist with a jump of light.

'What was that?' Yusaku asks tightly.

'I asked for a copy of this request 'Aniki' gave him,' Ai replies breezily. 'I find it interesting that at the end of the day, they're still responding to an order.'

Yusaku closes his eyes. He's noticed in the past that the coding of the SOLtiS he's hacked bore a few similarities to the Ignis programming, enough for him to suspect they'd used the data from Earth to design their software. He supposes it makes sense that they could understand Ai when he fell into the language of the Ignis. Perhaps it's hardwired into them the way it is with Ai.

Ai. Who still doesn't understand what he's lost, not really.

'Come on,' Yusaku,' the guy now purrs, shaking his shoulder. 'Playmaker's got a new mystery to unravel!' He leans into it though Yusaku notes with amusement, that there's a slight hint of apprehension on his face now - perhaps that kiss has left him a little nervous?

But then, no, Ai seems to brush it off, because he determinedly leans in a bit closer and lets his eyelids fall slightly. 'You'll help me, right?'

There's a tug on Yusaku's hand as those cunning fingers slip in and slide, tangling effortlessly with his own, and he knows they can both sense it, the wet imprint of a human mouth still lingering there, across the back of Ai's hand.

He really is a manipulative bastard, Yusaku thinks. Utterly shameless about using him – if it hadn't been for that recording of the duel with Bohman, with Yusaku reacting so emotionally to his death, would he even have bothered coming back to him?

With that depressing thought in mind, Yusaku allows himself to squeeze that tricky hand for a moment. 'Let's go,' he says. And refuses to allow himself any regrets. It's made easier perhaps, by the way Ai giggles as Yusaku lifts the umbrella above their head watching as dark specks instantly start play out across the red colour as the rain dances across above.

'You know, for someone who told me off for flirting with you yesterday, you sure don't seem to be having any trouble making your own advances,' Ai tells him as they continue to walk, the hissing splatter of the rain easily accompanying his voice. 'That kiss on the back of the hand? That's one handsome move! The sort of thing a prince in a shoujo anime would do. Is that what you fancy yourself as, Yusaku? A prince, as well as an internet hero?'

'You were the one who demanded that I fall for you,' Yusaku said, staring determinedly ahead. 'If you don't like it, then say so; I won't do it again if you hate it.'

Ai grimaces. 'It kind of pisses me off when you put it like that with that dull expression of yours. Like it doesn't really mean anything to you.'

Yusaku frowns at that. Because of course, that couldn't be further from the truth.

They're not even halfway down the steps, when Yusaku hears it; the roar of a van, the squeal of brakes applied too hard and too fast, and then it draws up outside the entrance below, a long block of grey, with black specks for wheels. Doors open, close, and humans scramble out, wielding long, extendable tasers in their hands. Their boots start to thunder out over the steps below and Yusaku turns, ready to draw Ai out away from them, into the trees, when he realises Ai has already left his side.

Yusaku head snaps up, to see that cape spill out away from him to see Ai, cowardly, all-about-his-self-preservation Ai, sprint determinedly up the stairs taking two or three at a time. Left with little choice, Yusaku scrambles up after him.

'Go!' he hears Ai call. 'Move it, you idiots!'

With quite a few pants of breath this time, Yusaku reaches the top of the stairs to see Ai attempting to yank at a SOLtiS' arm, to point out and away into the shadows of the trees that box them in.

'Don't you understand? A van from Sol Technologies is here! You really want to get dissembled?'

Yusaku's blood runs cold at that. He doesn't recall any obvious logos printed on the side of the van, though perhaps the slight blur of one had been available somewhere; on the humans' clothes, perhaps on the tasers, and Ai's eyesight, with it's helpful zoom-in function, has picked up on it.

There isn't time to think it through because the sound of those same humans, and their footsteps, now roar up to his eardrums to drown out the rain. And so Yusaku dashes forward, seizing Ai by the hand to drag him away.

'Come on!' he shouts, sounding more angry than afraid.

Ai gives him one baffled, unsure look, just as people start to surface above the steps in front of them and then he tenses, his own grip on Yusaku's hand turning uncomfortably tight for a moment. And then his fingers quickly slip away entirely, vanishing like a ghost.

But perhaps Yusaku's warning has got through; because suddenly everything explodes into motion. Some of the SOLtiS clamber out of the temple, making a break for the trees. One continues to peer out of the doorway at the incoming humans, a faint glimmer of what could be called surprise on their face. Others, Yusaku can see, remain stubbornly in the temple, crouching or sliding back into the dark, as though they've become frozen in a very terrified human-like fashion. Despite that there's still something frighteningly alien in their stillness, in the way not so much as a tremble or a startled breath shakes their frame.

The humans charge forward and Yusaku tries to step in front of Ai, arms already subconsciously spreading...which lasts for all of two seconds, before the man in front of him lets out an impatient snort and shoves him aside.

'Leave it, kid.' The man then attempts to push his taser into Ai, a flash of green lightning spiralling from the wrench-like jaws at the top. But Ai merely gives him a narrow-eyed look and darts out the way.

There's no real time to register the high-pitched squeals that spill out into the air around them, and the rattle of multiple metal bodies as they crash against the ground – the SOLtiS are falling, jerking to a stop as green lighting shivers into their bodies, as the humans begin attacking in earnest, apparently deciding that the actively fleeing SOLtiS are more of a priority than Ai is.

Ai meanwhile, ducks, dancing back a few skittering steps as the taser in front of him swings through the air again, narrowly missing his stupid cape; but from the corner of his eye, Yusaku can see another man breaking off from the main group, turning back to help, with his own taser sparking. There's no real decision to be made; Yusaku kicks out with his foot, stomping down on the first man's toes as hard as he can. It's not a dignified way to fight, but then again, he isn't Takeru and he doesn't have years of martial arts training under his belt. Nevertheless, Ai takes full use of the opportunity, slamming down a hand against the open expanse of the taser as the man jerks with a pained cry. And the next second there's a slight squeak of noise, as green electricity stops dancing along its ends.

Yusaku immediately grabs his arm and runs. Not down the steps, where there's still a van and maybe others waiting for them, but out into the line of trees, down into the cracks of darkness between them. Heart beating, he twists and turns between each trunk, each dark line of bark, keenly aware that he has no real experience in this, has no idea how to lose these people in the real world; all he knows is that he has to keep Ai safe, safe, safe, in a way he's failed to before.

Without lungs of course, Ai keeps up easily. And then he abruptly yanks Yusaku to the left without warning.

'This way,' he mutters, not sounding breathless in the slightest, lucky bastard, before he dives down past some broken streetlights that litter an overgrown path. Yusaku scrambles after him, half-pulled by the steady grip of Ai's strong hand down to the tattered form of a halfway-fallen tree that spills out over a stream, its dark rotting branches mostly concealing the flash of water beneath.

Ai practically shoves him onto his knees and then starts to crawl beneath the spread of the branches, letting out a discontent hiss as the water splashes them.

'Lucky for us, real-time satellite maps never lie,' he mutters, and Yusaku shoots him a look, despite his undignified crawling after him.

They splash and shudder into place beneath the main centre of the trunk and Yusaku tries his best to ignore the unnerving creak of the wood above.

'Don't worry, I won't let it crush you,' Ai murmurs, a low promise in his voice. 'You're smart enough to have read the specs on these SOLtiS bodies; you know I can take a lot more damage than you can.'

Yusaku glances at him, sees the serious look in his eyes, feels the waterlogged slap of his partner's curls against his human face as they're pressed in tightly together to the ground, and for one stupid moment feels his heart thump at the very sight, at their forced closeness.

And then Ai thoroughly ruins the moment by scowling and slapping a hand over Yusaku's mouth.

'Geez, do you have to breathe so loudly!' he hisses, something wild and angry in his eyes and Yusaku stiffens in response, his own hand coming up to wrap around Ai's wrist as he glares back at him. Ai's anger fades after a moment, but the hand refuses to leave his face, and Yusaku's left fuming as the bushes crash and break apart around them in what seems to be all directions. Minutes pass, and they're in such an obvious hiding place that Yusaku expects them to be found at any second.

But no. Eventually the crashing fades into muttering. A few more twigs crack. Some leaves tear free. And then there's an unnerving silence.

Yusaku breathes out around Ai's hand. And after a moment that same hand falls away, allowing him to breathe a little easier.

'Where did they even come from?' Ai asks after a moment. He sounds withdrawn, fearful. 'They came seconds after that transmission I got from that SOLtiS. Could someone have been monitoring them, ready to spring into action?' His eyes turn sharp. 'I would dearly love to have a chat with this Aniki person.'

'Later,' Yusaku pants out. Carefully he stumbles out from under the tree.

'There's a street in about twenty six metres in that direction.' Ai says pointing. Then he frowns. 'Though satellite imaging can only do so much. And I don't know if I'm taking the gradient of the ground into account.'

'It doesn't matter,' Yusaku tells him, shivering slightly as the rain clambers down his neck. They've lost the umbrella, but that's a small price to pay.

However they've only made it within spitting distance of the nearest house when suddenly a metallic stick rams out from behind the fence, tearing apart the gap between the wooden posts to prod Ai in the side. There isn't time for a shout, a scream, or anything, before green light strikes Ai, slamming into his form with a sinister dance of light. And then he's down on the ground, jerking like a puppet.

Yusaku yells then, the sound filling this small forested corridor they're in, before his hands launch out, jettisoning into the fence that hides Ai's attacker. The wood is old and chipped, more than a few splinters grazing his palms as it crumbles under his touch; but it's enough force to get it to fall into the face of the human on the other side with a satisfying thud.

Adrenalin is on Yusaku's side today, and furiously he wretches the taser from the surprised hand that has fallen open, spinning it round to expose the open jaws past the broken fence. And in the gap, beyond the slot of green grass he can see, is the surprised face of...

That woman. The one who stood in the background of Zaizen Akira's plane after Ai's attack next to a crying Aoi. Who had looked almost as lost and desperate and afraid as her. And he'd never bothered to so much as learn her name.

Her eyes widen as though she knows his though. 'You!' she sputters, hands clawing at the grass as she forces herself upright. 'Fujiki-kun!'

Yusaku's jaw tightens. 'Why did you attack me and my SOLtiS?' he demands, fighting every urge he has to collapse at Ai 's side, to run his hands over him and check he's still there, his programming intact and safe inside the hardware of the SOLtiS body.

Her eyes narrow. They travel over Ai's form. But there's no surprise in them, no shock at all, only wariness, and something creeps into Yusaku's gut at the sight.

'SOL Technologies received video footage of Ai this morning,' she replies, not a hint of apology in her tone. 'As well as one of all these missing and unregistered SOLtiS that were staying here. Thankfully, we got here in time and-'

Her words trail off to a halt as Yusaku firmly prods the end of the taser into her gut.

'Fujiki,' she says quietly, and though she looks scared, her voice remains calm and even, as though she's trained herself for something like this. 'That's not meant to be used against humans.'

Yusaku stares at her a moment. The thought of him actually attempting to hurt her with this thing in his hands is laughable...but she doesn't need to know that. 'Oh?' he asks, not leaving a trace of empathy on his face. 'Then I suppose you'd better tell me what it does then.' And if he feels anything else inside him, like self-disgust, he pushes it away.

The woman's eyes narrow. 'It injects a temporary virus that disrupts the receptors in the SOLtiS,' she states evenly. 'The programming isn't damaged, but it severs the connection between it and all the physical materials inside. The virus breaks down by itself and self-deletes within half an hour so that the data inside remains undamaged.'

So Ai's effectively paralysed right now, but not dead. Okay, he can work with that.

'Ai's under my care now,' he says steadily. 'Which means he's under my protection.' He takes a breath, looks her in the eye and makes a decision that he's sure, would have Ai screaming at him for if he fully understood all they'd been through together. 'Playmaker's protection.' He stares at her. 'Do you understand what I'm saying?'

She glares at him but doesn't seem too surprised at what he's saying. Which means she either figured it out or Akira told her. 'Do you remember me, Fujiki?' she asks him. 'My name is Hayami. I'm now the Head of Security at SOL Technologies. Which means I have a responsibility to protect everyone there as well as anyone who accesses our network.'

She looks him directly in the eye, moves slowly and raises her hands, palms up. 'I'm not the threat here. But Ai is. He attacked Director Zaizen!' she suddenly snaps out. 'Remember that?! He attacked SOL Technologies and replaced us! I'm sorry, I get that you're attached, but you can't trust him!'

'I know,' Yusaku says, feeling tired all of a sudden. 'That's something I learned four months ago. But I also learnt some other things as well. And despite everything, it will never be enough to convince me to give him up to anyone.'

Hayami stares at him so hard, she looks as though she's about to go cross-eyed. 'What?' she questions. 'Don't be an idiot; you're just a teenager. You can't stand up against an entire corporation!'

There's a groan. Ai's hand jerks once, then twice, and then pushes feebly with shaking fingers at the ground, rolling him onto his side.

'Yusaku?' he asks, his voice quivering, and then he rolls again, so he faces the sky. His eyes stares out wide and frightened, the rain falling into them so hard and fast that it looks as though tears are ready to roll out, to mesh with his skin and hair. 'Yusaku?' he asks again, sounding stupidly unsure of himself. 'I- the data's all scrambled inside me, not everything's functioning, I can't see, I can barely move-'

'I'm here,' Yusaku says, but Ai keeps calling for him as though he's not even aware he's there.

Yusaku's teeth clench. 'I don't mind being SOL Technologies enemy,' he says. 'But you can wait a while before you tell them that. Toss your phone and whatever other communication devices you have this way.'

She glares, but does what he says.

Yusaku flicks off the power switch on the taser on the ground, throws it to the ground, then stomps on the head of it, once, then twice. And does the same to the other items she's thrown his way. 'I don't do things SOL Tech's way,' he says, grimly, before he leans down and scoops Ai up.

It's not as difficult as many would suppose. The SOLtiS are designed to be as lightweight as possible, so they don't crush children if they were to lose power and fall over. Really, it's Ai's stupidly bulky layers of lavish clothing that cause the most difficulty.

Still, it's a bit awkward; Ai's taller, and he doesn't fit into the space of Yusaku's arms that easily as a result, the long stretch of his legs falling out and away from the thigh Yusaku's managed to clutch, and the small space beyond the bend of his knees. Ai freezes a little as he's pulled off the ground, his fingers twitching slightly as his chest leans against the length of Yusaku's own. 'Yusaku, I'm guessing that's you? Please be you, this is really lame and embarrassing.'

'Be quiet,' Yusaku tells him softly, and yet quite fruitlessly, as Ai starts muttering about princess-carries and how Yusaku better not drop him because he knows how temperamental human muscles are – 'especially yours, Yusaku-chan, you're not fully grown and I'm pretty sure you don't eat right!' Then he pauses. His eyes still don't blink, but the expression on his face tightens a little. '...Don't drop me for saying that.'

Hayami stares at them both some more, clear puzzlement on her features. 'Fujiki-' she tries again but Yusaku cuts her off.

'I have three reasons why you should let us go,' he snaps out, glaring out over the top of Ai's head. Those black curls lie there, clustered against his chest, and it feels wrong to feel Ai so still against him, almost like before in the warehouse four months ago, but he fights the feeling down, he pushes it all the way down and away.

'One-' he starts, cutting off with a grunt as Ai's body jerks slightly again. '-I haven't hurt you. You can take that as an act of good faith that Ai and I don't want to hurt anyone. Two. Ai hasn't done anything for the last four months, and the only thing he has done is watch a few duels and investigate some mysteriously disappearing SOLtiS – something he came to me, Playmaker about. Three. You and all of SOL Tech owe me. You and Zaizen know that.' He breathes hard. Because that has never been a card he has ever wanted to play.

Ai's body give a more violent jerk in his body again and his partner lets out a small, almost breathy gasp before the words start to roll out of his mouth again. 'I hate this, it's so dark, even worse than when I was born, and I'm sorry,' he babbles. 'I'm defragmenting and rerouting as much as I can but there's all this data and some of it's a lot more clear now, and eh, what's this? Someone else defragmented, no, they were destroyed and he, he was like me, wasn't he, all orange and-and-and-I DON'T WANT TO DIE, NOT LIKE HIM!'

Ai's expression jitters, it fritzs, like it's caught between two frames of movement in an animation reel and then it twists into one of such pain that Yusaku suddenly realises that he doesn't really care much of what SOL Tech thinks of him anymore.

'Akira told me once he was grateful to Playmaker,' he snaps at Hayami firmly. 'So now tell him I'm about to collect. No one at SOL Technologies is to go after me or Ai; and if they do, you know who I'll hold responsible.'

And then he swings around and walks, Ai's stupid cape trailing against his legs with each and every step.

'FUJIKI!' he hears Hayami call after him. 'FUJIKI, WAIT! HE MIGHT HAVE SOMETHING TO DO WITH THE DISSAP-'

But her words are lost to him. As lost as the expression on Ai's face. He doesn't have room to care about much else.

And besides; it will be days before he works out what she means.

Picture this: an empty apartment. Well. Half-empty. The computer is shut down, but the kitchen is littered with food wrappers and energy bars that have barely seen the light of day. But they're about to. An hour later, the police – well, it's probably the police – barge in. They snap photos. Inspect the bed-sheets, the empty shelves. They see the lack of posters on the wall.

Perhaps they think this place looks lonely, run-down and cheap. Perhaps they feel sorry for the teenager who lives here. But they'll be no real trace of him when they leave.

And there never will be, no matter who comes round to inspect the place.

Because Fujiki Yusaku isn't coming back.