On Sunday afternoon, Kirie leaves the loft for the first time in a over week, taking a short walk on her own to stretch her legs. Although it's overcast, the day is warm (a good thing, as she hasn't yet replaced the coat ruined in the shooting); May is in full swing and she's looking forward to summer, her favorite time of year.

She purposefully walks a few blocks away from the tall apartment building, coming to a corner shop with magazines in the window, and breathes a sigh of relief when she doesn't recognize any of the faces on the cover. Maybe, she hopes, they'll both be out of the news now.

She wonders, as she heads inside for a coffee and a pack of cigarettes, if it's unrealistic for either of them to hope for a normal life. As far as Eyes is concerned, she knows he's certainly done some things he isn't proud of, but even so - for making it as far as he has, and for doing what he has to change the world through music…

She may not get it, what he wants to do, but she still thinks he deserves to be a little selfish.

As for her, her involvement had been strictly observational. She knows she's made it more complicated, especially now that she's appeared to have chosen a side… but she can't see any other direction to go in.

After all, the Blade Children - and Ayumu, too - they don't need to be in pain any longer. They've fought enough, and if there's something she can do to keep them from being disturbed, then she'll do it. It's reckless, but she'll do whatever she can.

She's sure, she thinks as she begins to stroll aimlessly up and down the sidewalks, that there have been more difficulties endured by the Blade Children than she knows about. But she's coming to know the challenges that Eyes has faced, bit by bit, and it's helping her understand.

And the more she understands about all this, the more pieces of his mask seem to crumble and fall away. And she knows she's letting her own guard down, but it's not like it's a bad thing. She trusts him - so what?

Still, she thinks, she doesn't want that to lead to anything stupid. Trust is one thing, sympathy is another, but beyond that…

Maybe there's a possibility for a friendship here, she muses, fishing her lighter out of the back pocket of her jeans. Or would that just make everything worse?

But things already seem to be changing, and so she suspects that no matter what she thinks or decides, it's already happening.

Damn that bottle of wine.

"Would you care to listen to a piece I have composed?"

When Kirie returns to the loft, Eyes is seated in front of his piano, leaning forward to scratch notes on a sheet of lined paper, his dark-rimmed glasses pushed up on his forehead. The expression on his face is oddly intense, and he'd asked the question the moment she'd walked into the living room - definitely unusual.

"I guess," she responds. "Why?"

"I recall you claiming to hate piano music." He puts down his pencil and reaches up to slide down his glasses. "And I have decided to convince you that it is worth appreciating."

"Oh. Right." She crosses the room to the piano and settles down on the edge of the ivory bench, crossing her legs with a sigh. "Well, don't expect me to change my mind, but if you need an audience, I guess I'm your only option right now."

She sees his lips curve slightly, as if he's trying to suppress a smile, but he doesn't respond before turning back to the keys in front of him.

And then he plays.

Kirie's first thought is that, up close, it is much easier to see how quickly Eyes moves his hands and fingers. She'd been able to appreciate his talent from a distance, of course - but seated on the bench beside him, she can see the exact movements he makes to reach every key, the stretches made for every note, the precise way he places and lifts his wrists, over and over, with the pace of the music.

And the song itself isn't like the ones she's heard time and time again, the stale Beethoven symphonies or Chopin nocturnes. It starts slow and builds a melody between both of his hands, becoming rapid, stronger, almost vibrant. Here, beside him, she can feel the vibrations of the strings inside of the piano, hear a clearer, stronger tone from each note.

Okay, so she's sort of getting it now - why he has so many fans, why people like this music so much. It's not bad. But this, this song, the way he is almost effortlessly building up an emotional swell of melody before reducing it to a simple, soft thread of notes, is so much more than the rehearsed and rehashed pieces he's played in concert halls.

It's almost… beautiful.

Actually, no. It is beautiful. This goddamn piece of music is beautiful.

She's opening her mouth to tell him so when she hears her phone ringing from somewhere across the loft, an annoying little chirping sound that she's assigned to one specific caller. Her expression must change immediately, because Eyes abruptly stops playing, arching an eyebrow at her. "I assume you will want to answer that…?"

"I - no. It's probably not important. Keep playing."

"Kirie."

"Ugh. Fine." She slides off the piano bench and crosses the room, retrieving her cell phone from the edge of the kitchen island just before it vibrates off onto the floor. "It's still the weekend, you know," she greets the caller as she answers, hoping she sounds as irritated as she feels.

Narumi Kiyotaka's spirit refuses to be dampered. "Oh, but Kirie-chan, I just couldn't wait until tomorrow to talk to you!"

"Cry me a river." She rubs her forehead, leaning back against the marble countertop with a loud sigh. "What do you want? Seriously, I'm coming back from leave tomorrow morning, and my arm has been fine anyway, so - "

"We have a problem." The tone of Kiyotaka's voice has changed immensely, and at the sound of his suddenly serious tone, Kirie feels her eyes grow wide. "I normally wouldn't contact you on the weekend, but I was called in today, and so…"

"What's going on?" Eyes must have caught a glimpse of her expression - she sees him standing, a look of concern on his face. "Did something happen with that Hunter? The one who shot at us?"

"Yes. But - no. It's…" Kiyotaka releases a sigh of his own. "I think it would be best to explain in person. Are you able to come to the station in the next few hours?"

"This really can't wait until tomorrow?"

"No, I think not. And if you could also bring that Blade Child of yours with you…"

"Since when is he my - " Kirie literally bites her tongue. "Fine. We'll be there in a little while. But this better be for a good reason."

"Unfortunately," he responds, "it is."

She makes a face before snapping her phone closed. Eyes has crossed the room to meet her by now, and she looks up at him for a moment before shaking her head. "Get your coat," she says, "we're going to the police station."

"... what?"

"So you're saying he couldn't have been the shooter?"

"That's right."

"Then who the hell shot me?!"

"I'm told that's still being investigated."

"Oh my god." Kirie slumps forward, her forehead banging so hard into the one-way glass that the suspect sitting on the other side jumps in his chair, looking around the room for the source of the noise. Beside her, Eyes looks only slightly less perturbed, but his attention is instead fixed on Narumi Kiyotaka, who is currently trying very hard to force a smile.

And he's not doing so well, Kirie notices. Because it's probably pretty hard to smile, with Eyes Rutherford looking like he wants to straight up murder you and throw your corpse into the ocean.

"Explain," Eyes says - rather, demands - "how this happened."

"Of course." Kiyotaka eagerly turns away from the gaze of the Blade Child, gesturing to the figure of Coen Smit sitting alone in a interrogation room, still looking around with wide eyes (and apparently not realizing that the mirror in front of him is actually a window). "When this gentleman was taken into custody, he insisted that he had been framed for the attempt on Eyes Rutherford's life - " He pauses for effect. " - and set up by none other than the investigator named Narumi Kiyotaka."

Kirie lifts her head. "How does that even make sense?"

"Of course, to the untrained eye, it seemed like a bogus claim. A witness saw a man with black hair perched atop the Mizuho Financial Building with a rifle. You were able to give me the location and name of Coen Smit, who was apprehended with a weapon approximately two blocks east of Waseda Station only ten minutes after the shooting." Kiyotaka shakes his head. "And even when Smit-san began refusing to cooperate with the investigation, only stated that I was responsible for his being framed, it still seemed an open and shut case."

"But you're saying it's not."

"Our detectives found that the caliber of bullet used to fire upon you - " Kiyotaka gestures to Kirie - "and the one in Smit-san's gun were the same, but the shooter's gun left markings on its casings that his would not. Furthermore, there was no gunpowder residue on Smit-san's hands or clothing, nor any other signs that he had fired a gun within the last several days. And he was armed, when he was apprehended, but the gun had never been fired. It had only just been purchased recently."

Kirie opens her mouth, shuts it, and opens it again. Eyes speaks instead, frowning. "Then how is it that this man was found to be at the place of the shooting? He has already shown that he has knowledge of the Blade Children, and so…"

"Yes. About that…" Kiyotaka looks at the dark-haired man inside the room for a moment. "Coen Smit was, in fact, a Watcher. I knew of him. But I never met him. He traveled between the Netherlands and Japan - "

"He wasn't lying?" Kirie interrupts.

The tall man shakes his head. "He told me about his intrusion into your apartment. I explained he was very lucky to be alive."

"Damn right," she mutters.

"But the situation, as it was on the day of the shooting, and even before that…" Kiyotaka shakes his head again, slowly this time. "Smit-san was set up, and by a very dangerous person, it seems. He was led to believe that I was communicating with him via email for several months, giving him instructions on when and how to leave the Netherlands to return to Japan. The person posing as Narumi Kiyotaka contacted him to ask for help with the threats on your life." With this he gestures to Eyes. "He was led to believe that he was needed as a kind of… hero."

Kirie rubs the back of her neck, feeling tired of all of this and just wanting a hot bath and glass of something alcoholic. Maybe two glasses. "And he snuck into my apartment because…?"

"That, it appears, was out of genuine concern for your well-being. He knew of you as another Watcher and felt it would be best to collaborate." Kiyotaka folds his arms together. "After the investigators informed me of their findings, I had the opportunity to speak to Smit-san face-to-face this afternoon. Everything he claims can be proven - even the emails he speaks of exist on his laptop. Which, of course, he has only shown me privately. The lack of evidence with the weapon was enough to call for his freedom."

"So he's going to be released, then?" Kirie looks up at the detective. "Can we talk to him?"

"Not yet." He shakes his head. "Tomorrow is when I expect him to be officially cleared of all wrongdoing. Until then, he is still officially a suspect in your shooting, and so communication with you is prohibited." A smile tugs at the corners of his mouth. "Technically, so is discussing the details of this case with you, but I suppose I have done worse things."

Eyes mutters something under his breath that they both pretend not to hear. "Well, then," Kirie says, looking again at the black-haired man in the interrogation room before turning her back to the glass, "what happens now? This means there's still a Hunter out there, doesn't it?"

"Yes," Kiyotaka answers. "A Hunter who felt it necessary to not only threaten both of your lives, but also impersonate me in an attempt to have a Watcher framed for murder."

"Great."

"Do you have any concrete leads on the true shooter?" Eyes removes his glasses to polish the lenses on the edge of his coat sleeve, a frown creasing his features. "My driver offered his testimony, and you mentioned shell casings being recovered from the scene, correct? There should be enough to at least perform an investigation based on these items."

"As far as I am aware, there are no leads. We found Smit-san so quickly, right by the sight of the crime with a gun in his bag, and matching the description given…"

"It was well-planned." Kirie nods at Kiyotaka. "I get it. And I didn't have any reason not to think it was him. We were all played here, from start to finish."

Eyes slides his glasses back on his face. "Then the true Hunter knows that their plan has failed - first to kill me, then to frame another. And…"

"And," Kiyotaka finishes for him, "he'll be trying again soon, surely."

The three of them look at each other, standing together quietly in the hallway of the station, and all Kirie can think about is the dream she had, the dream where she watched as Eyes Rutherford was gunned down in front of her, about the pools of blood spreading across the pavement as she stared, helplessly -

She won't - can't - let that happen.

"Hey."

Eyes looks across the darkened backseat of the town car at Kirie. It's late; they're on their way home from a dinner at a small restaurant by the police station, just casual enough for Eyes not to be recognized (or at least not talked about, if he had been). They'd been silent nearly the whole time, and their ride has been quiet, too, despite the driver's awkward attempts to get them talking about the weather or their choices in food.

But Kirie has just remembered something she wanted to say, even if it's not related to anything else going on. Maybe, she hopes, it will inject a little sanity back into this sudden chaos.

Eyes doesn't respond, but she sees him watching her, so she keeps speaking. "That song you played earlier," she says, "the one on the piano… it wasn't bad."

"... I see."

"I mean - it was more than - not bad. It was good." She looks away, rolling her eyes at her terrible choice of words (and glad he can't make out much of her face in the dark). "You said you wrote that, right?"

"I did."

"Does it have a name?"

"Not yet." His voice is softer now, as if he's let his guard down a little. "I haven't yet finished it."

"Well, if you want to play it again when it's finished, I guess I can listen." She crosses her arms. "Maybe it'll take my mind off of some of this other bullshit."

"I will remember that." He pauses. "Thank you, Kirie."

"... yeah. Sure."

Sanity or not, she thinks, it's still worth saying: I'll listen to it again.

And she will. Because she's not sure what else she can do, right now.