Patrick practically dragged himself down the urban alleyway in old Kumamoto, exhausted from what had been now a day and a half of painstaking interviews with every liquor and convenience store on the list that Chairman Isuki had given him. For most of yesterday and now most of today, Patrick had done in-person visits to every store seeking information on just who had bought the ramen packages later found in the cult's safehouse in Boston.

Out of thirty-five possible distribution sites, Patrick had visited thirty-two and out of those none of them led to any further progress on the case. Nearly all the stores he had traveled to were small, often "mom and pop" storefronts that were heavy on alcohol sales and light on record keeping. He had encountered a wide variety of humanity among those thirty-two stores as well, ranging from heavy bearded and tattooed thugs that were running stores as organized crime fronts, down to one tiny shop inside of a train station run solely by an eighty-five year old woman who still remembered her American boyfriend from the post-war occupation in 1946 and who doted on Patrick with lunch and an endless supply of tea while he slowly perused her video records of the storefront all to no avail. Several of the shops were not even run by ethnic Japanese but often foreign immigrants just trying to get by. But none of them reported a high-volume purchase of Kumamoto Savory instant ramen nor seeing any of the now-dead terrorists buying them.

The whole effort to Patrick seemed pointless and he was beginning to lose hope. Rei had less than 43 hours before her stabilizer would run out, and he was nowhere even close to finding her. The shop in front of him looked like most of the others: a somewhat unkept storefront that looked old and not well maintained, this particular one named "Out of This World Liquors" with a giant neon light on top of UFO and "Grey" style aliens lit up in white and green.

Patrick shuffled through the doorway as the electric sliding door chimed and came open and looked for the sales counter. The shop was quiet, with no customers milling about and only a teenaged stock boy with a giant amount of meticulously sculpted and gelled black hair on his head who was sweeping the aisles. At the far end Patrick saw a frumpy, fifty-something Japanese woman who was grossly overweight, wore a black apron over a green sweatshirt with an oversized red wool cap on her head over a bowl-haircut, and who looked incredibly bored to be there.

This doesn't look promising, Patrick thought as he approached the clerk. Patrick himself wore a business suit and looked quite definitely out of place in the run-down establishment.

"Hi," he said cheerfully to the woman at the counter. "Can you help me?" The clerk just glared at him without saying anything.

"Um, I'm an investigator with the Alliance Security Service," said Patrick as he pulled out his badge from his coat pocket. "I need to ask you about a possible purchase made between August and October of last year."

"Excuse me?" said the clerk.

"Yeah, it's um…well, we're looking for someone who would have bought a large amount of Isuki Foods Kunamoto Savory instant ramen, possibly from your store."

"Why the hell do you want to know that?"

Patrick was tired after another long day of canvassing shops and wearily tried to explain further. "It's possible that the buyer was part of a criminal network that we're investigating."

The clerk leaned up to him. "You're an agent, yeah, and you're investigating people trafficking in instant ramen?" She then leaned back and laughed hard at Patrick.

"Look, this is serious!"

"So, kid," the clerk went on. "Where did you get that badge? A costume shop? You expect me to believe that you're a cop and you're not even shaving yet! How old are you, seventeen?"

Actually yes but I'm not going to suffer fools today. "I assure you that this is all real."

The clerk went on with her insults. "I mean what the hell? You're all dressed up and you're asking about some investigation into ramen? If you wanted free food why didn't you point your toy gun and badge at me and then say you're making a booze inspection so you can help yourself." She laughed again. "Give me a break, Secret Agent Boy. If you want me to give you free beer you can forget it."

"I'm not here to trick you out of alcohol, ma'am."

"Look, Secret Agent Boy, just turn around," she said as she twirled her fingers at him, "and get out of here."

I'm so tired. Screw it. Patrick leaned in on the counter and shoved his badge in the clerk's face. "Look, lady," he said in perfect if very informal and angry Japanese. "This is a real badge, issued by a real law enforcement agency that has a real treaty with Japan to let me really come here and really investigate your shop. You're not in any trouble, we just want to see your sales records for three months in last year and then I'll go. Easy, right?"

"What the hell?" the clerk angrily shot back. "What's so important about a bunch of ramen?"

He tried to explain further. "Terrorists were caught in the USA with this ramen. If we know where they bought them we can find out who sent them there."

"So, you think that we're selling ramen to terrorists? This shop?"

I'm wasting my time here. "Who cares what you think! Look, just show me your sales records for last year and I'll be out of your hair."

"You really think I keep track of each and every instant ramen package that comes in here? We get millions of customers at this store. I don't have time to write down each time they buy a pack of noodles."

"I'm not looking for someone who bought a pack of noodles. I'm looking for someone who bought boxes of noodles, at least three or more, at one time."

"Which ones? Kumamoto Savory? That flavor's crap! Who the hell would buy three boxes of it?"

"Not bought," a voice came from behind Patrick. "Stole."

Patrick turned around and faced the teenaged stock boy with the broom. "Excuse me?"

"Those ramen packs weren't bought by someone," the boy said. "Someone stole them." Patrick turned around and approached the stock boy.

"You know who did it?"

"Yeah. She used to work here." Patrick turned again to the clerk, who had the look of recognition on her face. "Oh, yeah. That little bitch. We canned her ass out of here last year when she started making off with food from the shop."

"Does she have a name?"

"Kaori," said the stock boy. "Kaori Umamoto." Patrick immediately pulled out his mobile phone and went to the stored photos, showing the boy one of them of the body of the terrorist in Boston.

"Holy crap!" he said in horror. "Is that guy dead?"

"Have you seen him before?, Or maybe these others?" Patrick went through a spread of photos of the dead cult members with the kid.

"I don't recognize the others, but I know that first guy."

"Who is he?"

"Kaori's brother. He came here once last year, really scary kind of guy."

Bingo! "Do you know where I can find Kaori?"

"I haven't seen her since she was fired." Patrick turned again to the clerk. "You have a file on terminated employees, right?"

The clerk was still obstinate. "I wanna see a search warrant."

Patrick was about to rage on the clerk for being so obstinate but the stock boy beat him to it. "Oh, come on Shinko-san! You know she was in trouble! You're a heartless bitch, you know that?"

"Oh, fine. I'll go get her file." Shinko the counter clerk left to go to the shop's office. Patrick smirked at the boy, considering himself lucky to suddenly have an asset. "Did you know her well?"

"Not really. She was an orphan, worked part time because she dropped out of school. I think they had a small apartment by the rail station." Patrick was about to ask more questions but his phone buzzed and he pulled it up to read it, seeing a text message on the lock screen.

URGENT GO TO SHIN KAGOSHIMA CITY MAESTRO AND PRINCESS IN TROUBLE. KAJI.

"Oh, no," Patrick whispered under his breath. "Hey, kid?"

"It's Luchini," the boy said his name.

"Luchini-kun, what's the fastest way from here to New Kagoshima City?"

"It's like two hours by car," the teenager replied. "Maybe less if you know how to drive the mountain road."

Patrick looked out the front door and saw a fancy Kawasaki motorcycle parked right in front of the shop. "Whose bike is that?"

"Um, it's mine."

"Can I borrow it?"

"No way, man! That's like my pride and joy."

Oh, I know how to fix that. Patrick reached into his walled and pulled out a wad of 10,000 Yen bills. "Can I rent it at least?"

When Shinji came to he found himself in what looked like an ordinary office, a small room with desks and tables and with blinds pulled down on all of the windows. He was tied to a chair with his hands held behind his back by handcuffs, and with his feet bound by rope. Moving his head back he bumped into Asuka's head, as she had been tied and handcuffed to a chair that faced back to back with him. Strangely, neither of them were gagged to keep them quiet.

"Asuka," Shinji whispered. "Asuka?" There was some movement and then Asuka snapped at him. "About time you woke up!" she whispered back.

"Where are we?"

"Hell if I know."

"Did you see who took us?"

"No, just that we ended up here. I think we're still in Shin-Kagoshima though." She motioned her head and Shinji looked on the wall of the small office, seeing a poster for a local music event within the city.

"Who's doing this?" Shinji asked.

"The people who invited us here, Baka! I knew this offer was too good to be true." Asuka started to squirm a little behind him.

"What are you trying to do? They've got handcuffs on us, not just rope, so you can't just untie yourself." Asuka paid Shinji no mind and wriggled her feet out of the ropes that had previously tied them, slipping out of her shoes in the process.

"I need you to do something for me," she asked.

"What?"

"Back behind my head I've got some hair pins. I need one."

"What do you want me to do? I can't reach that far."

"Think you can use your teeth?"

"I'll try." Shinji turned his head and tried very hard to move his mouth to the nape of Asuka's neck. Had they not been tied up, it would have made for a sensual experience.

"Don't get carried away," she scolded in a whisper.

"I won't, I'll…" Shinji strained some more and tried to extend his head as far around as he could. Finally seeing two small hair pins at the base of Asuka's head, he tried to grab one first with his mouth, and then with this tongue.

Asuka took a deep breath as her hairs stood on end from the feeling of Shinji's tongue on her skin. "Even now you're sukebe!"

"Shut up, will you." Shinji through some very deft tongue maneuvering managed to get a grip on one of the tiny hairpins and pull it out of Auska's hair. A very faint tinkle sounded as it dropped to the ground.

"Oh, crap. I dropped it." Before the two of them could argue further the door to the office opened, and inside entered a Japanese man who looked about fifty, with neatly combed hair and a black polyester jacket over a business style shirt and tie and slacks. "Well, I see our guests are awake."

Asuka quickly shoved her feet close to the chair to ensure the visitor didn't discover she had untied them from the rope. "Who the hell are you?" she said to him. "Did you do this to us?"

"Surely you don't recognize your host," the man said with a smarmy voice. "I hope the others didn't harm you but we have at least make sure you can't fly away from here."

"What do you want from us?" asked Shinji.

"From you, nothing." The main said. "But someone else is very concerned for your safety. So please, remain our guests for the time being and we'll be sure no harm comes to you."

"You call this keeping us safe, you asshole?" Asuka growled.

The man pulled out a ballpoint pen and twirled it as he spoke. "Let's just say that keeping you here ensures someone else's cooperation," he said. "Although frankly having two Evangelion pilots in my possession certainly strengthens my position, as you both have friends who would do anything to ensure your safe return to them."

Shinji took a good look at the man now standing over them and tried to remember where he had seen him before. It didn't take him long. "I know you!" Shinji told him. "You're the Jet Alone guy!"

"Ah, yes," the man replied. "The Jet Alone Guy. Yes, I was known for quite some time as the 'Jet Alone Guy,'" he said in a melancholy voice. "At first that was a title of honor. I was the man who had constructed the first true autonomous combat robot in the whole world. I was at the pinnacle of Japanese technology, celebrated by millions. But then your father," the man pointed to Shinji with his ballpoint pen, "destroyed that dream."

"It wasn't my dad's fault your robot went bonkers," defended Shinji.

"Oh but it was, my dear boy. Him and that ice queen scientist he was having the affair with intruded into our computer system, hijacked Jet Alone and sent him running amok, then conveniently sent you to go and get it under control with his Evangelion."

"My life wasn't the same after that," Tokiwa plodded on. "We knew what NERV did to us, but we couldn't prove it. So everyone assumed that Jet Alone was just an expensive pile of walking junk. And in the matter of a few days my life plunged from heaven straight into hell."

"But now," said the man with a smile on his face. "Now they know better. Now everyone knows exactly what Jet Alone is capable of."

"So what does that got to do with us?" said Asuka. "We're just the pilots. We didn't do this."

"Frankly I could care less," said the man. "But others see you as valuable and so here you will remain, in my gentle care."

I think I understand now what's really been happening. "Well, in that case," Shinji said, "can you at least take care of my cello?"

"Oh, of course!" said the man, his eyes brightening up. "I should say, I rather enjoyed hearing you play. Perhaps you could do so again for me in a more…intimate setting." Turning around, the man went to a closet inside of the office and pulled out Shinij's cello case. "Do you see?" he asked as he opened up the case, displaying the polished wooden cello inside. "In perfect condition."

"Oh, but the strings are messed up," Shinji told him as he shifted his eyes towards Asuka. All it took was a single glance from him to her for Asuka to understand what was actually on his mind, and she started to prepare accordingly.

"I really need to rosin up and tune the strings," Shinji explained. "If it goes too long without doing that they might get damaged and sound would come out pretty bad."

"Oh, we'll, I'm sure someone here could help you…."

"I wouldn't trust anyone. That thing's like my child you know," Shinji told him, trying to be re-assuring.

Tokiwa pondered. "What would it take?"

"I just need about five minutes and that's all. I promise, no trouble."

The man made a frown as he considered what to do. Looking Shinji over, he didn't think he'd be able to put up much of a struggle anyway, consider that while the boy was tall he was also skinny and slightly built. "I suppose it would be alright. But I want my private concert at the first opportunity."

"Sure, this won't take long." The man then pulled a key out of his pocket and then reached over and behind Shinji and unlocked his handcuffs, but left Asuka's pair on. He then reached down to the floor and loosened the ropes that tied Shinji's feet. Shinji then stood up from the chair, rubbing his wrists.

"Very well," the man waived Shinji to the cello and he promptly went to the open case. Shinji turned his back to the man and then bent over into one of the compartments next to the instrument. "Oh, mister."

"Yes?"

"If you want to watch I can show you something very interesting."

"Really, what is it?" As the man bent over Shinji carefully took hold of the bow, knowing he'd only get one opportunity.

"Just right over here," Shinji told him and the man moved closer, moving his head just over Shinji's shoulder. "What am I looking for?" Behind him, Shinji felt the movement and saw a red blur out of the corner of his eye.

"This," said Shinji and with all of his force jabbed the bow in his right hand directly into the man's eye. "OW!" shouted his captor as he brought up his hands to his wounded left eye but before he could do anything else, Asuka, who had slipped her ropes tied around her feet, held her handcuffed wrists above her and came down hard on the man's head with her combined hands in a punch. Shinji then kicked the man in the chest and he came crashing down onto the floor.

Searching for anything else she could use, Asuka used her still-handcuffed hands to pick up a desktop computer monitor and toss it hard against the man's head. His head fell back and he drifted into unconsciousness.

"Good job," Shinji told her.

"Forget that, just give me the damn key." Shinji then reached into the man's trouser pocket where he kept the key to the handcuffs and then promptly unbuckled Asuka's pair. She shook her hands free and tossed the handcuffs to the other side of the room.

"They're probably coming now," she said and they both prepared for the outside guards to enter, as Shinji took the cello out of the case and held it by the tongue while Asuka grabbed the cello case itself.

The door slammed open and as two large black-suited men entered both Asuka and Shinji swung away. With the cello case Asuka clobbered one guard on the head, pounding several times until he collapsed onto the floor, bleeding from a wound on his forehead. Shinji raised his cello and sent it crashing on top of the other guard, the body of the instrument plunging right through the man as Shinji hit him hard on the head and pushed the large cello until it reached his chest. The second guard fell backwards, his arms unable to move as they were now held by the destroyed cello's wooden frame. He was still conscious until Asuka kicked him in the face and then his eyes rolled upwards.

"I'm surprised you wrecked your own cello, you really do treat it like your baby," Asuka commented.

"It's the one my uncle gave me," Shinji told her. "I'm surprised it managed to last this long anyway."

"Get his phone," Asuka ordered and Shinji promptly went back to Tokiwa and pulled out a large mobile phone from his jacket pocket as Asuka scrounged both unconscious guards for weapons, coming up with two automatic pistols and several clips. Shinji tried to unlock the phone but was unable to. "Not letting me in," he told her.

"Just keep it, Kaji will need it later," she replied and then handed him a pistol. "Then I guess we're shooting our way out of here."

With pistols at the ready, Asuka quietly opened up the office door to peek outside, seeing only a long hallway of what looked like a very non-descript office building corridor. There was no one else outside. Motioning to Shinji to keep quiet she slipped out of the doorway and into the hall, with Shinji close behind.

Unsure of which way was out, Asuka chose to go to the left and she quietly led Shinji down the hall. With bare feet she made little noise but Shinji still had his shoes on and they echoed down the hallway.

"Can you take those things off," she scolded in a whisper. "They can hear you walking on the next floor."

"Sorry," he said and then he sluffed off both shoes, struggling to keep up to Asuka as she continued down the hall. She reached nearly the end and saw a doorway leading to a staircase, giving her optimism that they could be out of the building soon. Auska turned around and motioned for Shinji to come towards her, and just as she reached for the handle the door flew open. Another large Japanese man in a black suit came through the doorway.

"Prisoners have escaped!" he shouted and immediately drew out a steel baton from his jacket pocket. Asuka did a roundhouse kick and struck his hand, forcing him to drop the baton, but she lost her balance and came down hard, dropping her own pistol. The man was about to strike at Asuka with his fists when Shinji fired, hitting him twice in the chest. The guard fell on his back to the floor and didn't move. A second later a loud alarm sounded all throughout the corridor and Asuka picked up her gun, scrambled off the floor, and ran the opposite direction.

"Not that way out," she told Shinji as she passed him at a run. Shinji trailed her, keeping a careful eye on the stairway door to see if they would be followed. Within a few more seconds the door opened again with two more men coming towards them, and Shinji stood and again fired. The two guards dove around hallway corners for cover.

Asuka reached another doorway at the opposite end that, like the first one was a door to a staircase. She grabbed the handle and swung the door open and then saw another group of three men rushing up the stairs. This time she aimed her pistol and fired into the group as they came up the steps towards her, placing several rounds into the guards and then bounding back through the doorway.

"Not that way either!" she called out as she rushed back to Shinij. He was now hiding behind another corner, and trading shots with a second team of two guards at the far end. Auska dashed around and joined him, dodging bullets as she did so.

"Great going," she said to him. "There's no way out of here."

"You're the one who went bounding for the staircases," he argued. Asuka was about to shout back until another round of bullets hit the wall next to him and they ducked for cover.

"How do we get out of here?" Shinji asked.

"How many bullets you got left?"

"Finished two clips already," he said "down to one."

Asuka turned the corner and blasted several rounds at one of the encroaching teams of guards, keeping their heads down.

"We have to blow our way out of here," she told him. "Choose a way, left or right?"
"How would I know?"
"Just choose, dammit! You've got a lucky side, don't you?"

"Um, right I guess."

"Fine, left then."

"But I chose right!"

"Your luck's not that great," she said with a smirk and then went to the left, pistols blazing in front of her. As she ran down the hallway at full speed Shinji followed her, turning around and firing behind them. Both of them went as fast as they could, hoping to force the guards to duck and then not block their way as they whizzed past and towards the staircase. They ran past two guards who were crouched down trying to avoid being shot and got within ten feet of the staircase doorway until it again opened, this time another black-suited guard with a submachine gun exited, and he sprayed gunfire all over the hallway. The two former pilots dove for cover.

"Told you go right," Shinji scowled. Asuka didn't answer but instead fired towards the shooter until she ran out of bullets. Shinji did the same and he also went through his last clip. The sound of the pistol's empty magazine clinked as it landed on the floor.

"Oh, no" said Asuka. "I think both of our luck's finally run out." She looked at him with a sheepish grin and Shinji returned it, not knowing what to expect.

There was a roar of more gunfire and both Shinji and Auska kept their heads down. Shots were fired in all directions and both of the pilots huddled together on the floor, staying close and hoping to avoid the torrent of bullets. Then suddenly the shooting stopped.

In unison the pair rose their heads and looked around. The hallway was filled with black-clad bodies, with one figure in the distance standing on the left end of the hallway, and another figure standing on the right side.

"Well, hello there!" Mari called out cheerfully. "Fancy meeting you here, rookie!"

"Long time no see, Lusty! I got a call and came over," Patrick shouted back. "I see you're back in fine form."

"Just like old times, eh!" Mari was wearing a pair of green coveralls and carried an MP-5 submachine gun as she walked down the hallway towards their now rescued charges. Patrick made his way towards them as well, also carrying an MP-5 and still dressed in his business suit although with a flak vest fitted on top of his shirt.

"You guys okay?" he asked Shinji and Asuka as they picked themselves off the floor.

"We were doing just fine," said Asuka in a huff. "Another few seconds we would have been out of here and saved you all the trouble."

"I see she hasn't changed much," quipped Mari.

Shinji was more considerate. "Thanks, guys, You came in the nick of time."

"I got a message from Kaji, said you might be in trouble. Ran into your security detachment outside, they're still okay but they were searching the other end of the building for you."

"That's a relief," said Shinji. "Is this all about Rei?"

"We think so," Mari said.

"But why take us?" asked Asuka as the four of them made their way to the office where the pair was at first held. "We're not pilots anymore!"

"Leverage," said Patrick. "Somehow they got Rei to cooperate, I'm pretty sure having you in their custody was insurance for that."

The group entered the office and saw the still-unconscious three men lying on the floor. Patrick shrugged. "Not bad work, considering you're no longer…"

"I'm still an agent," Asuka finished for him, "just on assignment." Shinji turned to her in surprise. "You're…you're an Alliance agent?"

Asuka frowned at Shinji. "What, you think I just went to cooking school last year?"

"She's in reserve, but still passed the same course Pats and I did," Mari explained as she started to apply new handcuffs to all of the unconscious opponents in the room.

Shinji was still overwhelmed in surprise. "I had no idea. I thought you wanted to leave all this behind?"

"I did," Asuka explained. "But then who's going to keep you out of trouble, baka?" She playfully bonked him on the head.

There was an electronic beep and Patrick picked up his phone, using the real-time chat to talk to the others at the Alliance. "This is Puzzle. Subjects one and two are safe. We have Shoji Tokiwa in custody."

"Great work," said Kaji over the line. "Any sign of Angel?"

"No, but as mentioned I've got a lead on our shooters in Boston. Will follow that up as soon as we drop these guys off."

"We've sent air transport for the two subjects to return to us," Kaji said. "Keep in pursuit." He then hung up the phone.

"How about you?" Patrick asked Mari. "Where you've been all this time?"

"Deep cover, within Lilith Cult," she explained. "That's how I came to be here. They were running this op to take our two pilotmates and I got volunteered to help. I've managed to slip away to help you out, but I need to join the others before they escape from here. If we're lucky they'll take us to their main hideout."

And to Rei. "If you find her before I find her," Patrick told Mari, reaching into his shirt pocket and pulling out a syringe with glowing orange liquid. "Use this."

"Will do," Mari said as she took the syringe. As she smiled at the others, Asuka sniffed something out of place with the girl.
"What?" asked Mari as Asuka's approached her and gave her a good bloodhound-type sniff all over her head.

"Why do you smell like rice vinegar?" she asked suspiciously.

"Oh, I was serving up dinner just a little while ago," Mari said with a smirk on her face. Asuka's expression went from zero to furious in less than a second. "You did WHAT?!" she screamed.

Before Asuka could do anything else, Mari reached out with both of her hands to Asuka's face and planted a kiss right on her lips. The move was completely unexpected, and Auska found herself standing there, her arms waiving in mid-air as a shocked Shinji and Patrick looked on.

"Bye for now!" Mari shouted as she broke off, turned around and dashed down the corridor. Asuka quickly shook off the surprise attack, shouting obscenities in three languages towards the running girl.

"YOU HUSSY! KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF OTHER PEOPLE'S PROPERTY!" she yelled in English. But Mari made it to the staircase doorway and slammed it behind her, a huge grin showed on her face as she did so. Asuka put her hands on her hips and blew her hair up in disgust. Then she turned towards the others.

"And you…." Asuka glared daggers at Shinji, "you LOOKED at her naked bod!"

"I didn't know it was her!" Shinji defended.

"Oh and you looked anyway, didn't you? You hentai asshole!" she pounded Shinji with both fists, having to reach up on the balls of her feet as Shinji was much taller than her now. Shinji did his best to avoid the punches, but they came hard and fast.

"How dare you? You're just another pervert!"

"I WAS HUNGRY!" Shinji blurted out.

"Oh, I bet you were!" The statement was followed by another attempt at a beating but this time Shinji managed to turn around and make for the other end of the hallway at a full run, with a furious Asuka close behind him. Patrick watched from his position leaning against the hallway as one chased the other, completely oblivious to the mortal danger they had just escaped from. He couldn't help but laugh.

Luckily I managed to get another chapter done and done quickly and I'm working on setting a faster pace in order to finish the story. I'd guess we're about six chapters left.

Borrowed some material from Businessmen vs Aliens (Japanese comedy tv show) for this chapter.