Disclaimer: (drools over Searchman chibi on back of vol. 8) Oooooooooh…(blinks) Oh, I'm supposed to do the disclaimer? O-okay…(holds up manga and points to chibi Searchman-sama)

…I DON'T OWN HIM! T-T

A/N: OMG OMG OMG

Searchman-sama: Let me guess...

OMG OMG OMG!

Searchman: You ate your bunny.

BUNNEH!

Searchman: She's hyper. Anyway, read the story. Just so you know, you're all going to really start hating Sai ina little bit. I mean, if you hated her before, she's a royal bitch now.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

"Is he ready, Sai?"

"Ready as we'll ever be."

Lan stumbled toward Sayuri, albeit weakly; pushing yourself up a steep hill on skates was one thing he never wanted to do again.

Sayuri pulled off her backpack, the one that matched Lan's perfectly, and started rummaging through it, pulling out random pieces of equipment that looked very, but slightly, familiar. She snapped some of the pieces together, and when she pulled out a scope, it hit Lan what she was doing.

"Wh…why…are you…putting a…a gun together..?"

Sayuri looked up briefly, then went back to her gun. Once it was put together, she stood up from her kneeling position and swung the gun around experimentally in a circle. "Good, good…" she whispered. Then she practiced taking aim through the scope, and to Lan's horror, pointed it at Chaud.

"Taking aim…" Sayuri said breathily. "…and…" She jerked the gun up quickly. "Boom."

"What are you going to do, Sai? You're not gonna--"

"Oh, but I am. Don't worry, it won't kill him, just…" she frowned, "…tranquilize him."

"But…why? I thought--"

"Obviously you thought wrong. You haven't forgotten the Blaze kid for what he did, right? Well, neither have I. He deserves what he's about to get." Sayuri snapped. She then pointed the sleep gun back at Chaud, this time placing her eye directly against the scope to get a better aim.

Lan saw what she was doing, and that Chaud was too far away to call out to. "Sayuri, you can't do this! He doesn't deserve it! He was confused, he didn't know, he--"

"Will you just…shut up! You're breaking my concentration! If I hit him in the neck, he'll die for sure. I'm aiming for his arm. You want me to kill him? Keep talking, and I'll miss. Be quiet, and it'll hit where we both want it to." Sayuri growled, slowly moving the tranquilizer over to keep in line with Chaud. She stopped when she noticed Sapphire pop up in her own PET.

"Mama wants a show this time."

Sayuri dropped the gun beside her bag and picked up the PET instead. "She does, eh? Well, we'll give her one." She set the device down again and returned to her bag, pulling out an identical bullet, but purple this time. She took out the first, white one, and replaced it with the new one, cocked the gun and aimed once more.

Lan was confused. "Your mom…isn't she in the hospital?"

Sayuri didn't budge from her aiming position. "Yup."

"And what did she mean by a show?"

"Let's just say that this new bullet is poison filled. Not only will he die eventually from it, but you'll get to watch him be tortured."

Poison bullet! "Sai…you gotta stop this! Stop it now, before anything happens to Chaud!"

Sayuri sighed and set the gun down one last time. "You're mad at him. Why do you care what happens to him? Besides. If he had told you what I told him, like I was trying to make him, you would be gone by now and this…this wouldn't be so hard for me." She picked up the gun and aimed it again. This time Lan fell silent, only staring blankly into his PET, silently asking Megaman for help.

Sayuri's hand tightened on the trigger, ready to fire, when Lan noticed Chaud had stopped. This is my chance… he thought, getting up on his feet. He cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted, "Watch out, Chaud!"

Chaud didn't seem to notice the warning. He was on his knees, and his body was trembling from what Lan could see.

"Bingo." Sayuri said with a smirk. Then she fired.

The thin, glass bullet whizzed through the air, heading straight for Chaud. Tears had already pooled in Lan's eyes as he realized that Chaud was too weak to dodge it now, and he too fell to the ground.

Chaud shook his head a little. That voice…Lan…is that… was his final thought, as Chaud collapsed, unconscious, right to the ground. The bullet landed not even a centimeter from his arm, but not before going straight through it. Sayuri was right; it hadn't missed.

"Chaud!" Lan cried, pushing himself as hard as he could down the hill one last time, stopping right before Chaud. He crouched on the ground next to him, and put his hand on his face. It was still warm.

He's still…

"…Lan?" Chaud moaned. Lan gasped and took his hand away, and stared at Chaud.

"He's got 3 hours, if he's lucky enough to have slow blood flow. If he's not, he's got 2. You want to save him? Get him to the hospital." Sayuri had crept up to the pair of boys soundlessly, carrying all three PETs, and handed the two that weren't hers to Lan.

Lan didn't need any more prompting, as he lifted Chaud up onto his shoulders and skated away furiously, looking back only to shoot Sayuri a look of hatred and sadness for what she had done.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

You see? This is proof of how much I love torturing the subjects of my stories. I've very nearly killed Chaud, was about to make Lan break down in tears again but decided not to because I couldn't handle it, and soon (spoiler spoiler spoiler)! OMG! Isn't that so (is bricked) ?

-kthxbai.