A/N: Yosh, yet another chapter rewritten. I added some stuff to this chapter. I hope you like the changes. :)

Chapter 12.

Jodie was crying. She cried and cried non-stop for a long time before calming down. James offered her meager word of comfort while Tsukiko remained quiet. The girl glanced out of the car window, trying to hide her face and the fact there was a slight tug of a smile on her lips. Luckily her hair could hid at least part of her face thus hiding the fact she wasn't upset at all. And due the fact she wasn't upset, Tsukiko also noticed the motorbike and its driver who drove past the car, checking the situation. Tsukiko bowed her head and hid a smirk. This time from the woman driving the motorbike. It seemed that her intruding to the storyline hadn't changed the main Plot after all. It was a relief.

Vermouth drove past the Police Station. As she had expected, there was a car parked right in front of it. The assassin saw a woman's figure inside the car, leaning against the steering wheel with her shoulders shaking and most likely crying.

"There is no need for two Silver Bullets. Only one is enough…" The woman thought, before turning her attention on the back seat. There was an addition that Vermouth hadn't expected. It was a young girl, sitting on the back seat and looking out of the window before hiding her face. But what little she had managed to see of the girl's face, indicated that the girl wasn't seem upset or sad at all. Absolutely the opposite in fact: the girl was slightly smiling to herself.

"Who is that girl? What is she doing with the FBI?" The woman pondered as she continued driving. "Have I seen her somewhere before?"

When she was far enough from the police station and the FBI agent's car, did she finally slow down. That girl had certainly caught her attention and Vermouth really wanted to know who she was.

"Wait a moment… Is she that girl from back then?" She thought aloud. "But that girl didn't have glasses…"

Vermouth sat on the back seat of Gin's Porsche as they were driving away from Beika district. She had just told him not to suspect Môri Kogoro without any proofs and made sure in that Agency would be safe for a while.

They turned around a corner, Chianti speeding in front of them when they saw a young girl crossing the street and checking the time from her wrist watch.

"No good…" Vermouth thought as the girl stopped and turned around. She was like a rabbit in the light beam. Frozen still and her eyes widened like she had recognized something rather than realizing she was in danger. The woman bit her lip as she saw Chianti's Viper hitting the girl and making her fly like a ragdoll. The girl fell to the curbside and afterwards didn't move at all when Vermouth peeked carefully towards her direction from the Porsche.

"Such a bad luck…"

Vermouth frowned. It was possible that the girl was same than from back then but all the same she wasn't sure about it. And there were some things that bothered her. The girl's expression had been a pure surprise, not fear or anything like that. She had recognized them and likely couldn't believe it. But how and why were the questions here. The other thing was that girl in the car with the FBI. Her smile that she hid quickly was something opposite than anyone would expect from a person who associated with the FBI. After all one of the agents had recently died.

"Or then she simply wasn't that close to Akai. Hmm… I think it's safe to to assume those two girls are the one and same. But otherwise I'm lacking information." The woman smirked then and speeded up again. "This is getting interesting…"

From the roof of the building opposite to the Metropolitan Police Station, a slight female figure was watching the traffic in front of the entrance of the station through binoculars. Especially she followed the girl first exiting the silvery Mercedes and answering her phone. Once the girl ended the call, did the woman pick her own phone. She scrolled her contacts and called then one.

"Moshi, moshi?"

"Konbanwa, Hibiki."

"Aa, Saya. Any news?"

"Hoshi-chan is safely out of the hospital and-… Oh!" The woman, Saya, peered through her binoculars once again when she saw a motorcycle speed by. The platinum blonde hair of the driver was what attracted her attention and from the movements of the driver's head, she could see that… "Vermouth has spotted Hoshi-chan."

"I suspected as much…" The person at the other end, Hibiki, sighed. "I'm thinking that she will eventually make contact with her."

"Will is be safe to Hoshi-chan?"

"She will live." The male voice answered with a sigh. "Kami, this is going to be grueling… Well, at least I can tell baachan that Hoshi-chan is safe and sound and awake. If not for anything else but making sure that a missing person report isn't filed in…"

"I see… How's...?" Saya paused but took then a deep breath and continued then. "How's our Silver Bullet?"

"He's fine. Stashed at one of Yamato's hideouts temporally… Are you coming home today though?"

"Nah… I'll check in to a hotel. See you tomorrow."

"Right… Oyasumi nasai, Saya-nee."

"Oyasumi nasai, Daiki-kun."

"It's Shugo. Shugo. I was Daiki only once ten years ago and back then you didn't even know me."

"Whatever you say." Saya laughed and hung up. She looked down at the street and noticed the car was beginning to drive away. It was time for her to take her leave too.

Around half an hour later they finally drove in front of the building Jodie lived in. And even though Tsukiko already knew what the building and everything around it should look like, she was still amazed. Everything was so different when seeing it for real, not only in manga or in anime. And being in Japan in general was much different than in Europe.

Tsukiko followed Jodie to the floor the woman's apartment was. It was pretty quiet there but since it was already late evening, it was understandable. Jodie opened the front door of the apartment and let Tsukiko step in first. A pair of slippers was found from the side cabinet for the girl and then they continued the way to living room. All this happened without the agent saying a single word to the girl.

"I guess she is really upset… Well, it shouldn't surprise me. After all, she was Bakai's girlfriend before he infiltrated into the organization…" Tsukiko thought but then spoke up: "Jodie-san, I do understand that you are sad and upset currently, but you can't just lock up yourself and stay silent all the time either."

What that girl didn't say was obvious ("I'm here. You offered to look after me. Woman up!") and also made the woman look at the girl with surprise and a tinge of embarrassment.

"Yes… I guess you are right. My apologies…" Jodie scratched the back of her head with her left hand and sighed. Then she led Tsukiko to a door in the end of the corridor where a guestroom laid.

"This will be your room during the time you are staying here." The woman explained as she opened the door and clicked the lights on. Tsukiko stepped in and looked around. The room hadn't been used for a while(if ever) and thus there wasn't much of anything. Just the necessary: a bed, a desk with a chair, a drawer for clothes and simple curtains in front of the window right above the desk.

"It's just fine. Thank you once more, Jodie-san." She smiled sincerely, turning to look over her shoulder at the woman.

"It's pretty late now. I guess we can clean up here tomorrow. I let you borrow some of my clothes for the night and tomorrow so we can wash yours soon." Jodie said. Tsukiko nodded without saying anything. She wasn't even sure what else she would've said.

The next morning dawned with sunlight peeking from in between the curtains, waking up Tsukiko. The girl felt extremely relaxed. Despite sleeping in a new place, she'd slept much better than back at the hospital. Maybe that was a sign that she was getting used to this world. Or then it was simply the absence of stress caused by the Organization lurking nearby ready to strike.

Tsukiko got up from the bed and walked to the kitchen. Jodie was already there, making breakfast. At the sight of the woman, the girl snickered a bit, making her turn around.

"Oh, you are already awake, Okiya-chan." Jodie smiled at the girl. "Did you sleep well?"

"Yeah, pretty well." Tsukiko answered, her voice full of mirth. And naturally Jodie took a note of that.

"What's so funny?"

"We have identical pajamas." The pajama that Tsukiko had borrowed from Jodie was nice one. Even though it was a bit over-sized at the chest area. But as long as it didn't have any buttons to struggle with, it didn't really bother Tsukiko.

"Well, I have a habit of buying similar clothes if they fit well. It's sometimes quite hard for me to find well-fitting clothes from here."

"It's because of you height, right? Since you are American, you are taller than Japanese women generally are." Tsukiko guessed, gesturing with her hand Jodie's approximate height a bit above than her own head. "Good, she already seems a bit brighter than yesterday… Or then she is faking it because I'm here…"

"That's correct! I have to say that you seem quite tall too for your age. I remember when I was teaching English at a high school for a while and the all the girls were quite a bit shorter than I… While you are almost the same height."

"I'm almost 170 centimeters tall." And when Tsukiko thought about it… Didn't Ran say in the Golden Apple case that she is 160cm tall? That's make her almost ten centimeters taller than the karate champion!

By the counter Jodie sighed then.

"Okiya-san… What brings you here? I mean no one has tried to contact you…"

"I kind of ran away from home…" Tsukiko said bluntly. She knew what the agent wanted to know so she had come up with one last night. It was… relatively good in Tsukiko meager opinion. At least enough to push off suspicions for a while. And now was the time to test it. Would Jodie believe it?

"Ran away from home?"

"Well, kind of… My parents are travelling around the world all the time because of work. We haven't spoken to each other much lately." The girl began. "So because they also have a lot of work they are doing abroad, they think it's easier to work and have nice time together at the same time. Or that's what they said to me and my brother before leaving. Obviously they are in no hurry back…"

"You have a brother too? Then why hasn't even he tried to contact you?"

"He is already an adult and isn't living home anymore. He has been off for years." Tsukiko continued, hoping that Jodie wouldn't make the explanation any more complicated with all those questions. "I was coming to see him before he was moving to yet another apartment and also to help him a bit in the move. But because I didn't inform him beforehand that I was coming he can't exactly worry about me."

"Are you going to meet him soon then?"

"Nope, he forgot to tell me his new address and he also has a weird habit to change his cell phone number after changing his place of living. I was meant to get both of them when meeting him." The girl shrugged and added mentally. "At least when he is changing his identity…"

"That's what he did anyways when he moved from home to Tokyo…" Tsukiko ended the explanation. Jodie looked like she'd understood the girl's situation and why exactly she didn't fancy going home anymore.

"What's your brother's name?"

"Okiya Subaru." Currently Tsukiko didn't have any other choices for an answer. Not if she were to maintain her cover even after meeting with the man. But she was sure the things would turn out well. After all he didn't really have chances to refuse the idea. Not when Tsukiko had that recorded conversation. But she had to wait until the October the 6th when he would move to the Kudou house. More time for him to get used to his new identity…

The two females ate the breakfast in silence and afterwards cleaned the guest room. Jodie seemed to enjoy when she had something to do instead of wallowing in sad thoughts. They promptly cleaned the entire apartment together once Jodie really got going. Well, with the agent being away for a while because of the case at the hospital and having no time to clean, it was about the time to banish all the dust balls away from the corners. And Tsukiko had to admit that some normalcy did some good for her too. Even if it was cleaning.

"Okay, let's go out now!" She informed Tsukiko after they had finally finished. The girl blinked in surprise.

"Where are we going?"

"To the mall, of course! You need some new clothes. You can't wander around in those very same clothes all the time." Jodie ruffled Tsukiko's hair when passing the girl. "At the same time I can show you places nearby so you know where is anything. I doubt you've looked around much when visiting your brother before."

"Not much, no."

Never could have Tsukiko believed that a whole day – a whole 'normal' day – with Jodie would be so tiring. And spent mostly shopping. They went to three different malls to find clothes for the girl. And money wasn't a problem. Thankfully Jodie had a good taste and eye for clothes and found quickly good-looking and fitting clothes for Tsukiko. Only once Tsukiko had to intervene and say no when Jodie suggested a miniskirt but that was only in the beginning.

Jodie paid it all. It was more clothes than Tsukiko would've chosen herself if she were shopping alone but… Apparently the woman was taking her role as the girl's guardian seriously.

"You don't really care about girly clothes, do you?" Jodie asked Tsukiko on the way back.

"Well, I don't really know. I think I'm sort of a tomboy but my okaasan has always said that I'm not. I do like skirts but they must not be too short and I prefer leggings underneath them. The same goes with shorts: not too short. But I still feel the most comfy in long jeans." Tsukiko pondered. "But I still can't stand any lace or frills or certain shades of pink. It's just not me."

"Well, if that's the case, we got good clothes for you…" Jodie smiled and the girl smiled back.

"Hm? Do you have something in your mind?" Tsukiko asked then, noticing how the woman had trailed off. "You look like you want to say something."

"Well, I was just thinking… should you go to school. After all you are in that age and have just spent over five months in coma. If you are out of school you will fall behind really badly." Jodie didn't look at the girl when she said that. Tsukiko adjusted her glasses absentmindedly but nodded.

"I understand…"

"But if you are living with me I guess you can go to the same school you have been. If I understood right your home isn't in Tokyo…"

"I'm from Kyoto. Okaasan's family if from there." Kyoto belonged to the Kansai area which had a distinguishable dialect. Meanwhile back in her own world, Tsukiko's mother's family was from Savonia area which also had a recognizable dialect in Finnish. If one were to compare them, both Kansai and Savonian dialects were often linked to humor… And while Tsukiko couldn't be sure how much her speaking habits translated into Japanese (she didn't really need to think about grammar and such things when speaking, just like she didn't need to when speaking Finnish, her mother tongue), if she ever slipped to Kansai sounding wording like she sometimes did to Savonian, at least she had a backdoor to use in case questions arose. "I agree with you, Jodie-san. I also think that I should go to school…"

"How old are you?"

"Sixteen, freshman in high school."

"Oh, that's good. I know a good school you can go to. Its name is Teitan High. That's the one where I was an English teacher."

"Teitan… tantei…" Tsukiko mumbled, tasting the name, like she hadn't ever heard of the place before. "Why were you teaching there?"

"It was related to the case here… I was undercover for reasons." Jodie explained vaguely. Tsukiko just nodded and didn't ask more questions about it. It was obvious for the girl why the agent didn't want to elaborate that case. It contained a showdown with Vermouth and the only reason Jodie was still alive, was Akai's involvement.

"Right, now we have to buy you a school uniform."

"A school uniform?"

"Haven't you used one before?"

"No, I haven't. It was a private school I was before. Pretty boring and tiring place, especially when you could see from the clothing what was your social status. I'm just happy I don't have to go there." Tsukiko half-lied with a smile. The school she used to go back home was half public and half private school. Besides school uniforms weren't used in schools in Finland. And the thing that actually tired Tsukiko in her previous school was the junior high students in the same building.

"Well, this'll be a nice chance then. A bit different situation." Jodie smiled at me again. She had smiled a lot during that day. Good.

Picking a school uniform was done quickly. There surprisingly wasn't any hassle because of Tsukiko's height and thus a blue blaser-and-skirt combination, a green tie, a yellow vest-thing and a white shirt, accompanied by a pair of black knee socks and brown loafers.

"I can use black cotton stockings on winter, right? So I won't freeze to death?" Tsukiko asked nervously from Jodie as they were picking indoor shoes for her from another shelf. They still needed a short sleeved white shirt for summer period. And more socks.

"Yes, you can. Teitan allows it as long as the stockings won't have any pattern in them or are see-through." The woman assured her. "Monday will be your first day in Teitan High then. I'm going to make the call today. They might give you some tests on the morning but I'm sure you'll do just fine."

"Sounds good."

"I hope you'll get some new friends once there."

A/N: Alright. As you can see, I'm introducing Saya earlier. Who she is then? Well, she will eventually appear again but not for a long time. :)