DISCLAIMER: I don't own Lupin III, but I made a ten-pound Jell-O snack, once. I'm now still barred from making gelatin of any sort to this day.

Eck, please tell me it's not already close to back to school again!

Well, not for a lot of people up north, but the closer to the south you get, the sooner it starts, you see (yes I'm a southerner—Those who make redneck jokes will be shot on site, so be forewarned). Sorry that this took so long to come out with; I really have no decent excuse this time. But thanks to everyone for the reviews, and I hope that you enjoy this long-coming chapter (The next one'll come out sooner—I promise!).

Fun Fact of Boredom: Odori and Ally were actually added last while working on a lineup for this series. Originally there were only five Lupin IV gang members, and this is still seen on some early sketches. In other early sketches Heiji is seen also wearing a gi in addition to Odori and Toshiro. This was a little bit overkill on the tradition samurai, though, so it was changed.

Chapter Twenty-One: Runaround

Paris:

At the sound of the screeching, Max rolled over and turned to Leo, "Your turn…."

"Didn't I just do the two 'o clock feeding?" Lupin muttered, throwing a blanket over his head and turning away from Zenigata.

"Yeah… And I did the three o' clock… It's four in the morning…." Max muttered and nudged Leo and little. "Your turn…"

"How much can one baby eat?" Leo sat up in bed, threw on a light kimono and trudged into Avery's room. He smiled as he looked down at the little boy and lifted him up, and suddenly grew aware of someone else in the bedroom. He reached above the doorway in Avery's room and pulled out a handgun. "Who's there? Come out or I shoot!"

"Ha… You'd never shoot me…" Fuji smiled as she stepped out of the shadows, holding a shiny package. "I came to drop off my nephew's birthday gift… I thought it'd be only right to come in person! Brought something for Dako, too, but I already left that in her room."

"You caused enough trouble with that one poor kid who you thought could be mine—Don't you think you should, like, be avoiding me now?" Leo inquired as he began to walk out to the kitchen. "Tea?"

"Eh, no, I can't stay long… My flight's in another hour. I just came out to say hello to Ari, Jr."

"Well, we changed it to Arsène Avery, but we're all used to calling him Ave by now, so that's what he goes by…" said Leo as he reached for a bottle in the refrigerator and closed the door with his foot. He yawned as he sat down in the kitchen chair, and looked upward at Fuji tiredly.

"You look exhausted…" Fuji said with a slight tone of worry. "That kid really take it out of you?"

"He cries so much it's unbelievable…" Leo said as he leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. "I can't help but wonder how much Mom and Dad went through with us when we were born! I mean, there's only one here and he's about ready to kill me!"

"I'll take care of him for the night," said Fuji suddenly.

"Ha… You with a kid… That's rich… What about your flight?"

"Screw my flight! I can always catch another! Now let me hold him for a little while," Fuji motioned for her brother to hand her the baby, and Leo rested his chin on his palm, and was near sleeping on the hard wooden table. Fuji shook him awake, and Leo jumped and blinked a few times in surprise.

"How long was I out?" he asked, turning to his sister with a new alertness.

"You go to sleep, I've got this," Fuji instructed her brother.

"Yeah… Sounds good," Leo yawned and stretched, and shuffled back into his room. "Thanks, Fuji…"

"Yeah, yeah… Come on, Avery, let's go watch some cable!" Fuji lifted up the baby and led him in to the living room, and sat down with him on the couch. Avery happily sucked upon his bottle while Fuji flipped through the channels, thinking back to the group who still was unaware that she had even left them behind.

"Your Uncle Heiji'll probably love you… He really likes kids," Fuji said to Avery quietly. Avery looked upward at Fuji and yawned, and she gave a small laugh and led him into his room. "Your dads need a new apartment, desperately."

Tokyo, Japan:

"Why'd he bring us again?" Ally whispered to Toshiro as both walked a few paces behind Heiji, who looked about the city, quite determined on find some yet unannounced object.

"I don't know… Could have something to do with you taking us to the gun show… Or the fact that Fuji skipped out on us…" Toshiro replied. "He doesn't look mad, though, does he?"

"Nah—He's smiling, and it's scaring me a little… I know I still hate you, but if he goes crazy and goes to kill you suddenly, I'll save you. I'll expect the same from you in return, although I think your chances of getting killed are a lot greater."

"Deal," Toshiro whispered.

"This is the place," Heiji stopped and faced a small jewelry store.

"You, eh, know that they don't sell like computers or anything here, right, Heij?" Ally inquired as he scratched his head.

"I know," Heiji replied as he opened the shop door and a glass bell sounded. "You two want to wait out here?" he inquired as he stuck his head out of the shop.

"Yeah," Toshiro said quickly, answering for both himself and Ally in unison.

The two waited, somewhat uncomfortably, as Heiji took his time in the store, finally exiting about twenty minutes later, when Toshiro had begun to name off the different birds he saw flying about the city and Ally thought of different methods of murdering Toshiro and making it look accidental. Throwing him in front of a subway seemed to be his best bet, currently.

"What in the hell were you doing in there, anyway, Heiji?" asked Ally. "You don't even wear jewelry. Well, there's that jade Buddha around your neck, which I don't understand you wearing because I don't think you've ever even been in a temple…"

"It's because it's my mom's and I didn't go in there for me…" replied Heiji, tossing a small box to Ally. Jigen fumbled to catch it, and Toshiro gave a chuckle.

"I can see why you don't play baseball…"

"Your teeth are set to meet with my fist any second now," said Ally severely as he looked upward at Toshiro, unamused by this crack at his coordination. Ally opened the small box and blinked a few times, almost not believing what he saw. But, yes, there it was—A ring.

"Please tell me that isn't for Ally…" Toshiro said as he leaned down to get a better look of the diamond.

"Heh, I've already got a ring on, and it ain't leavin' anytime soon," Ally said as he tossed the ring back to Heiji. "You think she'll go for it?"

"I hope so…" Heiji stuck his hands in his pockets and looked back at the two. "I used most of what I made from the last heist to buy it!"

"Yeouch! How the hell much was this rock?" Ally yelped as he stopped in the middle of the street, next to the tall samurai.

"It pains me to even say the number aloud, or even think about it," Heiji gave a chuckle and pointed to where to a nearby subway. "How's that look, guys?"

"All of those perverts on the subs think I'm a really tall girl," Toshiro responded with a shudder. "They're worse than the New York ones! All that's on those are the homeless people, and they recognize me a lot of the time…"

"Okay… We'll take a taxi, then," Heiji smiled as he waved down a cab and climbed in, Ally and Toshiro following him into the back.

"Something our fathers definitely wouldn't have done, number twelve," said Ally with a mutter as he tried to make himself comfortable in between the two Ishikawas.

"Well, it was also a rarity that pregnancy wasn't followed by marriage," said Heiji. "Speaking of which, Toshiro…"

"We're talking , we're talking! You don't have to marry someone right away if they're pregant… Yeesh, gimme a break!"

"Especially if they're you…" Ally muttered, rolling his eyes and shaking his head. "Expect my dad on your doorstep after she tells him, by the way."

"Yes, I'm awaiting him with open arms…" Toshiro gave a small shudder; perhaps marriage wouldn't be so bad, in this instance. It was between that and coming face to face with a magnum in the early hours of the morning.

"Hey… Guys… This ain't the way to our hotel…" Ally muttered as the taxi took a turn into a small alleyway. The taxi driver stopped the car, and turned around, gun in hand.

"…I hate these types of guys…" Toshiro said with a sigh.

"Gimme your money!" the taxi driver shouted. "Hurry, hurry—Quick!"

"Yeah, yeah, we're coming," Ally reached slowly toward his back pocket, to the small gun he kept, but all were caught off guard by a sudden bumping atop the roof of the taxi.

"…What the hell was that?" Toshiro wondered aloud. There was another period of silence… And then a blade suddenly slashed through the roof of the car, and right between Ally's legs, missing anything vital by inches.

"Gya!" Ally scooted back against the seat of the car, and the taxi driver looked upward at the roof, which continued to make low thudding noises.

"Gimme a sword…" Heiji said to Toshiro quietly. The samurai nodded, and passed Heiji his smaller blade, Izanami.

"Who in the hell are you working with?" the taxi driver demanded as he waved his pistol in front of Ally's face.

"I almost got an instant neutering and you're asking me who they are? I don't have a friggin' clue!" Ally shouted in response.

A white smoke began to fill the area around the cab, and the glass behind the three men was shattered. Toshiro quickly turned around and held up his sword sheath, a sai missing impact with his skull and landing in the wood of the sheath.

"Let's get the hell outta here!" Ally shouted.

"I second!" Heiji replied as he opened the door to the cab and tumbled out.

The cabby took off before Toshiro could escape the vehicle, screaming, "You bastards are crazy!" Ishikawa looked upward and saw a black-cloaked figure looking back down at him, the intent to kill Toshiro apparent by the fact he held a sai in either hand. Toshiro scurried back into backseat of the cab, barely missing a beheading. The cabby shot a few times, but in vein. The ninja had escaped just as he turned out onto a major road.

Or so a too-soon calm Toshiro was led to suspect. The hole in the roof from the sword suddenly opened via a deafening explosion, and Toshiro was quickly pulled up onto the roof of the cab, while the would-be robber of a cabdriver continued to veer in and out of traffic.

"Now, die, Goemon!" the ninja shouted, and jumped off of the trunk and onto the top of a large semi. "Come and get me!"

"If you insist," Toshiro grasped his sword with his mouth, and lunged from the taxi, and onto an unsuspecting red car, and finally on to the semi. The ninja pulled out several metallic stars and threw them with ease, but Toshiro tucked and rolled, and the stars instead cut loose a billboard, causing it to collapse right in the middle of the intersection and as a result cause numerous cars to shriek to a halt. The semi wasn't spared; it screeched its brakes, and Toshiro, unprepared for the sudden stop, tumbled down onto his back. The ninja took this opportunity to run for him, but Ishikawa, knowing of no other alternative, rolled off the right-hand side of the road, toward the sidewalk.

The ninja smiled beneath his mask, believing Ishikawa to be a coward, and jumped off of the top of the truck, and into the blackness.

Toshiro, meanwhile, continued to cling to dear life on the side of the truck, which fortunately had ropes from a tarp covering the top, and gave him the ability to hold on until he felt it was safe enough to jump. He landed in front of a noodle stand, and ordered a large bowl of tempura.

Ally and Heiji had managed to find a still slightly shaken Toshiro, who had mainly stayed by the noodle stand in an attempt to blend in. This wasn't easy for a man who was a foot taller than anymore else in the city, had red hair and wore a traditional gi.

"Where in the hell were you?" Ally snapped. "We had like eight friggin' ninjas on our asses!"

Heiji tossed Toshiro his sword and ordered from the stand. "You couldn't have found your way back if you had tried, could you?"

"Not in the least," Toshiro admitted as he sipped from his bowl of noodles and fumbled with the chopsticks that were quite foreign to him nowadays.

"What's that mean?" a confused Ally inquired.

"I'm illiterate to the Japanese written language," Toshiro admitted.

"What! You mean you don't know how to right a single word?" Ally yelped.

"I can't read it very well, either," Toshiro admitted. "I speak it normally, though. I had to speak it a lot growing up… But there was never a great need to write or read it when I grew up in America."

"Jeeze…." Ally shook his head and leaned against the stand. "You have any idea who was after your ass this time? You probably have about as many enemies as Fuji…"

"He was wearing a crest, but I couldn't make it out," Toshiro shrugged. "He called me 'Goemon'. I'll willing to bet…"

"Willing to bet…?"

"Well, the man who… Who killed Julia all of those years ago… He promised that he'd be back for Yukiko… Now that she's going to have a baby he's probably pushed murdering us to the top of his schedule."

"A man? Toshiro, that was about nine men… One of whom knocked out one of my back friggin' molars! I need to get this taken care of before I go back to Cagliostro…" Ally muttered as he revealed a tooth from his pocket.

"You really are a mess. That scar and now the tooth… You need to hurry up and get married before you get too ugly," Heiji said in a chuckle.

Ally set aside his noodles and put up his fists, "Say that now, you fat son of a—"

"Would you three at least pay up before you go knock the crap out of one another?" the chef asked tiredly. Toshiro smiled and laid out several bills upon the counter, and the three began a walk toward their hotel, which seemed to be the best alternative now.

Ryo, Yukiko and Odori had gone out, however. Namiko was asleep in Odori's arms, and Odori looked downward at the little girl and smiled, and then gulped as she saw a poster which reminded her of her promise. Namiko was getting older now, and she was running out of excuses not to turn her over to her father and stepmother. In the beginning she hadn't even considered forming an attachment to the baby, but now separating her from Namiko was near impossible.

"How about in here?" Ryo pointed to a small clothing store, and Yukiko looked upward with some uncertainty. "Well you can't keep wearing a suit when you're pregnant… It'll get a little uncomfortable…."

"I'll wear them until can," Yukiko responded as she placed her hands in her pockets and looked up at the happy, cheery sign. "I'll get the stuff from Italy, like where I get my other clothes…. Japanese fashion is too bright for my tastes."

"Fine, fine… Damn you're picky…." Ryo shook her head and stopped dead. "Oh my God you're kidding…"

Victor Lupin nodded his thanks to the vendor, and then looked over at Ryo with a smile. Ryo rolled her eyes and quickly turned away, hoping to remain unnoticed.

"Ryoko!" Victor called, and ran to catch up with her. He met with the barrel of Yukiko's gun and the sharp side of Odori's blade, however. Both weapons hovered dangerously close to his body.

"Guys, it's fine," Ryo sighed, shooing the two women aside and taking a step forward toward Victor. "What the hell do you want, Victor?"

"We haven't seen one another in a while, it seems…" Victor took a bite of the ice cream cone he had purchased and then offered it to Ryo, who declined.

"With reason," Ryo snapped, folding her arms across her chest. She looked over her shoulder at Yukiko and Odori, "Do you think you two would mind going on without me? I'll deal with him…"

"I'm so sure…" Odori muttered and walked into the maternity shop, Yukiko following her quickly, never taking her eyes off of Victor and Ryo.

"You aren't here by accident, I'm guessing," Ryo failed to leave her guarded position, and frowned at the thought of Victor continuing to stalk her.

"I wanted to know if you were free this evening," Victor smiled and tossed the ice cream cone aside. "I'm in town with nothing in particular to do… From the look you're giving me you're still not sure if you can take me at face value, I assume…"

"Damn straight," Ryo muttered, not bothering to make eye contact with Lupin.

Victor smiled, stepped closer to her and grasped her arms tightly, "You're not looking at me because of who I look like… Well, he's definitely gone now, Ryoko… Don't you think it's time you moved on…"

"Not with you," Ryo snapped.

"You're just like your father… When's the last time you even had a good man, huh? It must be years… I've never seen you around with anyone."

"And how in the hell would you know this!" Ryo broke out of his grasp and glared icily at Victor. "I want you to quit spying on me, all right? It's friggin' creepy!"

"You need someone to look after you…" Victor responded. "What are you doing tonight?"

"Buying mace," Ryo snapped, and began to venture in to the same store which her sister and Odori had wandered in to only moments ago. Victor quickly took her by the shoulder and turned her about to face him. "Get…. Your damn hands… Off of me, now."

"It must hurt to see him leave you for a guy… But at least you don't have to ask yourself 'what does he have that I don't'. It's rather self explanatory…"

Ryo growled, lunged forward and grabbed Victor by the shirt collar, bringing Lupin down to her level, "You better pray that you were talking about a menorah…"

"You can call it that…" Victor removed Ryo's grip from his neck and frowned, rubbing the back of his neck. "Why do you bother with Ari, anyway? That little Nancy's got a screw buddy and two little brats… And yet you still keep this lit-tle flicker of hope that he'll drop it all for you; don't deny it."

"Would you just shut up?" Ryo growled.

"…I want to take you out tonight…."

"That's rich. Does every date come with an insult?"

"I'm serious… Please? I promise nothing funny…."

"The only way that could happen is if you dropped your pants. Where to?"

Victor tried to ignore this jab, and moved on to Ryo's question, "A steakhouse… It's on a boat…"

"With my luck it'll crash and we'll be stuck on an island together… I'll go, but only for the free meal…"

"Sounds good… And perhaps I'll end up convincing you that I'm not the complete bastard the papers make me out to be."

"The papers don't need to tell me that you're a complete bastard…. You hailing a cab?"

"I brought my own vehicle… I don't trust taxi cabs…"

"I'm driving…"

"I rather you didn't…"

"Good—Then I'm definitely driving," Ryo smirked and reached in to Victor's pocket, pulling out his car keys and holding them up to his face. "Now where is it, hrm?"

"Over there," Victor pointed over her shoulder at a red Porsche parallel parked outside of a flower shop. A small amused smile came over Ryo's face, and she approached the car and seated herself in the driver's side. Almost as soon as Victor stepped in she started up the car, peeling out into traffic expertly.

The restaurant was indeed on a ferry, and the waiters seemed to know Victor by name, although it was pronounced with a Japanese accent. Victor made sure to push in Ryo's seat for her, and then he seated himself and glanced over the menu. He removed a pair of reading glasses and sighed after a futile struggle to read the fine print, and he looked over the paper at Ryo's suddenly renewed expression of surprise.

"…What?" Victor inquired, and then caught glance of himself in a nearby hanging mirror, and glared. He knew exactly who he looked like with the reading glasses, and he swallowed hard and resumed reading his menu. "…I think I'm going to get the fish…"

"I… I'm sorry, I can't do this," Ryo raised her hands and tossed down her menu upon the table. She rose from her seat and took another sip of her wine. "Listen, I'm sure that at least at some point we could've gotten along, but, I just can't do this. I'm sorry, Victor."

"That's a new one," Victor said, raising an eyebrow.

"Five seconds without the smart ass comments, please?" Ryo snapped. "I've got to go…"

"Ryoko, wait!" Victor began to run after her, but crashed into a waiter, and ended up on the floor, covered in lasagna. "My damn luck…"

Ryo made it just before the ferry was about to set sail, and strolled down the sidewalk, back towards the hotel. She placed her hands in her pockets, and felt the Porsche keys still in one. "I'll just give them to him next time I see him, because I know I will…" she muttered.

"Okay, where's Fuji?—You both are under arrest!" Ryo gasped as she recognized the voice, and she spun around and saw Ari standing behind her, wearing his usual warm smile.

"I… Ari? Wh-Why aren't you in France with the baby?" Ryo asked as she took a step forward and smiled.

Ari gave a small, familiar chuckle and scratched the back of his head, "Max and I are visiting relatives…. I saw Fuji earlier and made her tell me where you were… Then I just kinda followed you from the baby shop to here… You want to go for a walk, my treat?"

"Well, yeah, definitely!" Ryo nodded. Ari extended his arm and linked it with Ryo's, and she smiled and leaned her head upon his shoulder.

After walking for some time in the silence, Ari seated himself on a park bench, and Ryo soon followed, still leaning on him.

"You remember when we went to the Spring Festival here?" Ryo said with a nostalgic smile. "You bought that stupid Nôh mask? We went with Ally, and Heiji… Fuji was in town, too, but she had a date to keep…"

"How couldn't I forget?" Ari smiled and placed a hand over Ryo's. Ryo removed her head from Ari's shoulder and kissed him with no protest from Lupin. He smiled and gave a small laugh as she broke away from him, and he embraced her in return. "I missed that a lot…"

"I do, too," Ryo whispered. "…Ari?"

"…Hrm?"

"We never went to a Spring Festival in Tokyo…" Ryo broke away from him and sighed. "You can take off the jacket, Victor… I know you despise purple…"

"How'd you know?" asked Victor as his voice dropped to its usual tone and he removed the purple blazer and then brown contacts, revealing his naturally blue eyes.

"Fuji called me from France two hours ago… She either took a hell of a flight or she's got some kind of time machine she's yet to tell me about…"

"…It wasn't a maneuver to get into your pants or anything. My apologies for causing you any distress…." Victor sighed, removed his reading glasses and placed them in his shirt pocket. He placed his hands beneath his head and closed his eyes as he leaned back upon the stone bench.

"It's okay… I kind of get what you were doing, in a weird way… You just wanted to give me Ari for an hour," Ryo sighed. She was back to her melancholy tone and expression by now. Victor opened one eye to look at her to almost try to see if the sincerity was natural, or she was getting ready to shoot him. She looked extremely sincere, so she was either being honest or an exceptional actress, Victor thought to himself as he laid his hands on his thighs and allowed them to rest there while he spoke to Ryo.

"I suppose you caught me…" Victor sighed and dropped his head a little. "Still… You deserve someone who won't hurt you like my cousin and myself have done… I've screwed over your gang so much in the past it isn't even funny…"

"Yeah, but with your dad, all things considered, you turned out okay… I mean, what kind of sadist kills his brothers and sisters, anyway?"

"I suppose every great king has some madness behind him, and my father deserved to carrying on his father's legacy…. Not that hackneyed old twit… He simply viewed it as steps to get ahead…"

"Yeah, but Napoleon was considered a great leader, too, before he was banished to an island… Kind of like your dad was…"

"Napoleon was a fine man, close to a god."

"I'll bet you wouldn't have said that if you had lived with him…" Ryo sighed and fumbled with her bracelets a little before clearing her throat and continuing to speak with Victor. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but do you still want to go out?"

"I'm afraid I can't… I lost my car keys…"

Ryo smiled and held up the keys, and Victor blinked a few times in surprise. He hadn't just been trying to be cute, after all. He had really forgotten about her having them.

His smile faded, however, when he saw someone in a great distance… A jogger in all black on a Tokyo summer night was odd, the fact that he carried a sword, even stranger. "Get down…" he whispered to Ryo.

"What… Are you… You son of a bitch, you really don't change, do you?" Ryo snapped angrily and rose from the bench, glowering at Lupin. Victor quickly grabbed her by the arm and threw himself down to the ground with her, and Ryo barely missed the blade. She turned around in wide-eyed shock, and before she could register the ninja, Victor had already fired a shot.

The ninja ducked, and hit Victor hard in the throat. Victor went down, coughing and struggling for air, and now Ryo drew her gun and fired a shot. The ninja dodged this with his sword, and aimed to kick Ryo. She turned about and kicked sand in his eyes. She stepped down hard upon her sandal, which released a blade, and while the ninja briefly wiped his eyes, she kicked and slashed him across the hand he held his sword in. He dropped his sword momentarily, and before he had the chance to pick it up, Victor had grabbed it and rose, although still on shaking feet. The ninja released and powder that sent both into a coughing fit, and they had to quickly run from the cloud of gas, before they suffocated.

The ran to the car, Victor occasionally lagging behind, but trying to hide the fact that he was in the middle of a major asthma attack. By the time they reached the car, he was gasped like a fish out of water.

"Oh, God, don't you go dying on me!" Ryo opened the passenger side door and began to search through the glove compartment. She finally found an inhaler (amongst numerous things she'd preferred not to have seen, such as a woman's bra) and placed it in Victor's mouth. After a few puffs he relaxed some and was able to use the inhaler on his own.

Ryo slowly walked over to the driver's side of the car, still looking at Victor with a sense of worry. He was quiet as she began to drive, merely looking straight ahead silently with a tired expression that hid his dashed pride.

"…You didn't tell me you had asthma…" Ryo said quietly.

"…It seems it was a latent disease that's only come to light in this generation…."

"I saw you had cigarettes in there… If I see you ever smoking one of them, or near one of them, I'm going to give you a kick so hard in that place you don't want to be kicked in you'll go into a coma."

"Eh, deal, I suppose."

"No deals—This is me telling your ass that I'm not losing another Lupin. I feel almost like a plague upon the family…"

"You're no worse than the Mines."

"Oh, that makes me feel much better…"

"…Um, all the same, thank you…." Victor cleared his throat and grew visibly uncomfortable.

"I don't know if they were for you or me, so you can stay in our hotel tonight. I'll hide you from Odori. Fuji's out, so I know just who you can bunk with…"

"Who?" Victor inquired, blinking a few times and wondering if this was some sort of trap.

Later, a Tokyo hotel:

"No," Heiji repeated sternly. "No, no, no, no, no! Why can't he bunk with Ally?"

"Heiji, please, do this for me! I've never asked you for a single thing!" Ryo clasped her hands together. "And if he bunks with Ally, Dad'll find out and then everybody'll know!"

"Why am I sensing I'm not well liked in any of the Lupin family?" Victor said to himself.

"Hey, I already got assaulted tonight, the last thing I need is for this SOB to smother me in my sleep," Heiji snapped, pointing to Victor. "I don't trust him, and why you brought him here is a mystery to me…"

"You just need to make she Odori doesn't find him…" Ryo smiled pleadingly at Heiji. "I'll put in a good word with Fuji for you…"

"I don't need that…" Heiji grumbled.

"Wow, you really are the Fujiko character here," said Victor as he watched Heiji stand his ground.

"What in the hell's that supposed to mean?" Heiji growled.

"Nothing," Victor held up his hands and spoke meekly.

"Heiji, please, do this for me… I've had a rough year," said Ryo tiredly. She sighed heavily as she watched Heiji's unwavering expression. "What the hell do you want—Come on, Heiji, if this were Fuji, you'd do it for her…"

"That's because he probably screws her, too…" Victor said with a sly smirk.

"Well, I draw the line there," Ryo sighed.

"…Okay, Ryoko, I'll do this, but I'm not going to be happy about this, and you owe me big time…" Heiji said with a roll of the eyes, motioning for Victor to enter his room. Heiji closed the door behind Lupin, and cornered Ryo into the hall. "Why in the hell is he here, anyway?"

"We got attacked tonight…" Ryo explained, "He tried to save my life and nearly died in the process of it."

"What? You, too? Let me guess, by ninjas, right?"

"Um… Yeah… You guys met them too, I'm guessing?"

"Yup," Heiji nodded. "They were after Toshiro, though… Why in the hell did they go after you and Victor? Toshiro says that they're after Yukiko…"

"Maybe they were distractions… Crap, are they even home, yet?" Ryo gasped and placed a hand over her open mouth. "I left Yukiko with Odori and Namiko!"

Heiji's almond eyes became round, and he too suddenly gave a worried expression. He turned around to use a phone, but was stopped by the site of a still-panting Odori and Yukiko. Jigen was sitting upon the ground, her fedora pressed over her eyes. Odori's red gi, upon further inspection, was soaked in some sort of liquid. Namiko wasn't covered in any of the liquid, but she still looked shaken. From the coppery smell Odori gave off, it didn't take a genius like Heiji to figure out what had happened.

"They tried to grab Yukiko while I was fighting them…" Odori said as she leaned against the hotel wall. As she moved her hand, much to Heiji's horror, she left a red handprint. "We escaped, though."

"So I was right," Ryo looked past Odori at her sister, and kneeled down beside Yukiko.

"What, they attacked you, too?" Odori turned around to face Ryo. Heiji took his niece and embraced her tightly, whispering something reassuring to her while he rocked her back and forth.

"They got all of us," Ryo responded as she placed a hand upon Yukiko's shoulder. "Yuki, are you okay?"

"I can't friggin' have this thing if it's going the mean everybody's lives are in danger…" Yukiko said with a shake of the head. "Toshiro'll give me hell for it, but I just can't have it…."

"What? What are you—Yukiko, you're not serious!" Ryo gasped. "You can't do that… It'll break his heart, Yuki, and Toshiro's had more of that in his life than any of us. If you get rid of it you'll just be helping them!"

"Plus I'll kill you if you do that, Yukiko…" Odori said calmly.

Yukiko shot Odori a wicked glare and spat, "Like you never thought about it? At least the guy who got me pregnant wasn't married!"

"Are you trying to call me some sort of cheap whore?" snapped Odori. "I just saved your life, you ingrate!"

"Back off, bitch, before I kick your midget Korean ass…." Yukiko said slowly. Odori went to draw her sword, and Yukiko her gun, but Heiji quickly grabbed his sister, and Ryo grabbed hold of Yukiko's hands.

"I've got to get out of here…" Yukiko broke free of Ryo's grasp and rose. "I've got to go…"

"You aren't going anywhere…" Yukiko's stomach sank as she heard Toshiro, in an unusually angered tone. He stood in the doorway of his room. Ally was across the hall, his door also opened. Jigen said nothing, however, and his eyes sifted nervously from Yukiko to Toshiro and back. Victor had also opened his door to see what the yelling was about, and Odori had to do a double take when she saw him.

"I can go wherever the hell I want, Toshiro," Yukiko said as she adjusted her fedora as she usually did when preparing for a fight.

"You were almost kidnapped by someone who, if catches you, will kill you, baby or not," said Toshiro with a snap. "He did it to Julia and the baby, and he'll do it to you, too."

"You know, I didn't sign up for a bunch of assassins to get on my ass when I hooked up with you," Yukiko snapped. "I didn't sign up for a kid, either, and now look at me! I don't want a baby, and I never wanted one. I'm only keeping it because you already lost one!"

"If Fuji were here, she'd rain down upon you like the fires of hell," said Odori in a quiet seethe.

"Drop the bushido BS for three seconds, Ishikawa," snapped Yukiko, holding up a hand in motion for Odori to quit the long speech she would've probably gone into had she been allowed to continue. "This is between me and Toshiro." She turned back to Toshiro and gulped hard, "This wasn't happening before, when we were still dating."

"What in the hell does that mean?" Toshiro asked, a little afraid to ask but going ahead with the question, anyway.

"Maybe we need to take it back a step or two," Yukiko removed the silver band on her left hand and placed it in Toshiro's. "I've got to get to sleep…"

"What the hell?" a stunned Toshiro muttered. He nodded and laughed a little, "Ohhh I get it… This is your way out!"

"What?"

"You've been nervous about this for months. All of this time and you still can't even commit to a board game!" Toshiro said. "I don't just go around asking people to marry me, you know. I gave up a lot to be with you, damn it, and it's time you gave a little back! I've got another life, unlike anybody else here! I don't rely on this to just let myself know I'm alive."

"Well, I—" Ally began, and was quickly quieted by Toshiro.

"Shut up for once in your life, you psychopathic Bruce Lee knockoff!" Toshiro shouted, and slammed Ally's door, nearly trapping Jigen in between the doorway and door. Ally, who was on the other end, silently backed away from the door and towards a phone. He dialed the phone, and waited.

"Hello, Carmen? Oh, I was just thinking about you… Wow, that early, huh? Um, I'm sorry… Yeah, just wanted to call and say I loved you," Ally said, trying to distract himself from the fighting outside of his door.

Odori had soon grown disgusted of this and retired to bed, as did Heiji, who went into his room and watched a game of soccer in silence with Victor. Ryo shook her head and rolled her eyes, and decided to let Yukiko and Toshiro have at it. They had to get to sleep at some time.

The two had no idea how long the fighting continued, but it covered everything that annoyed one about the other, everything they had held back on in the past twenty years. Yukiko finally went to throw a punch at Toshiro, just to shut him up, but Toshiro stepped aside, and Fujiko Lupin, who had just arrived home from her midnight flight to Tokyo, crashed onto the floor, sporting a new black eye.

Both looked downward at the K.O.'d Fuji in stunned silence, and after a few moments Toshiro nudged her with his foot ever so slightly.

"Well, she's alive…" Yukiko said with a shrug.

"We should go get her some ice…" said Toshiro, lifting up Fuji and carrying her into his and Yukiko's room while Yukiko held open the door.

Toshiro laid her upon their bed while Yukiko went to preparing an ice pack, and after lying it upon her eye Yukiko seated herself across from Toshiro, who was staring at the fireplace. The odd thing about the fireplace was that it contained no fire, currently. He was just looking at something to avoid eye contact with Yukiko.

"Listen, I…. We both said a lot of stupid things…" said Yukiko as she cleared her throat. "I just got freaked out, is all."

"You have a right to," said Toshiro quietly. "I'm sorry for all of this… If I could rewrite anything, I wouldn't be some bastard clan pact in limbo."

"You're not just some kind of friggin' pact! Goemon never thought about you like that, and neither did anybody in the Lupin gang! The only ones who looked at you like that were your grandmother and your mother, and they're both evil, anyway."

"My grandmother was…. Only ignorant… I do owe her some kind words, though. The woman did raise me as he own. My mother is still too traditional in her beliefs. I know our relationship's strained, but I'm not losing any sleep over it."

"Yeah, let's make this one actually like us," said Yukiko with a chuckle as she rested her hand upon her hand and smiled. "Promise now that neither of us will fake our deaths or let our parents raise it."

"Faking a death is a pain in ass, anyway," said Toshiro in a mutter.

Yukiko lifted herself from her seat, walked over to Toshiro and kissed him, "We'll just have to face those bastards, then. I don't care who they are; you screw up my kid you screw with Yukiko Jigen."

"Soon Ishikawa."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever…"

Fuji came to during this, but neither seemed to take notice. She removed the ice pack and sat up in the bed. "Damn, I had a three way and kept my shoes on? I must be better than I think…"

Yukiko looked over at Fuji, and then at Toshiro, "You want to explain to her what really happened?"

"Er, we'll leave it until the morning… We'll just let her find out who Heiji's bunking with now," Toshiro answered. "It ought to be sickly amusing."

"Yeah, more fun than watching your pigeons preen themselves."

"Don't pick on them; they're family."

"Could someone tell me why in the hell my face hurts?" Fuji asked. "Someone just tell me what the hell's going on? That'd be a good start…"