Disclaimer: Horst and Karina characters are based on the concept by E. F. Russel. All other characters belong to Sunrise.

Despite still being a little pale, Karasuma rejected hospitalization harshly. Medics had found no obvious danger to her life, but tried to insist on Karasuma going through the full check, then, seeing her stubbornness, recommended her to do nothing but rest for several days. Karasuma, however, had already figured that a cup of coffee at Harry's... well, tea this time, was all the recovery she needed.

"Ms. Karasuma," Master greeted her. "Mr. Kaider has been telling me about a terrible thing that happened to you today. I'll give you some of my very special tea. Good for your heart."

"My heart is ok," Karasuma protested, clasping her hand to her chest mechanically.

"And I wonder why..." She added thoughtfully, turning to look at the german.

"I stopped him before he could finish the job," he shrugged. "Guess he only slowed down your heart, and you were able to recover on your own later. That would be the most logical explanation."

"It stopped completely," Karasuma said, taking a sip of the tea that Master had just brought her. "I could feel it."

"You weren't in position to feel pretty much anything, don't you think?" Kaider noticed ironically.

"Yet I did," she repeated stubbornly. "I knew exactly when it stopped. I was in the darkness, in the middle of nowhere, for an impossibly long time."

She was silent for about a minute, just sipping her tea and looking at the counter. Master was nowhere in sight, as if he could read people's minds to tell when he was needed and when he was not.

"And then I saw it," she said quietly.

"What?"

"A butterfly... with shiny eyes. It reached out to my heart, and my heart came to life."

"And Doujima calls me creepy..."

"It was you, wasn't it," she questioned, looking straight into his shining eyes.

"I find it a little insulting to be associated with an insect," Kaider smiled. "Even if it was only in your hallucinating mind."

"All right," Karasuma conceded. "Even if I'm wrong and you're right - you've still saved my life."

"It's nothing, just... trust me a little more next time we work together, will you?"

"Right. It was my fault really," she sighed and tried to lighten up the mood. "I'll buy you a drink, as an apologize."

"That's not necessary," Kaider chuckled. "But there is a favor you could do me."

"Whatever," Karasuma nodded readily.

"Tell me about those I've replaced. Tell me about Amon and Robin."

"I don't like his story," Doujima complained. "Something doesn't feel right about it."

"Well, the witch is pretty much dead now and Karasuma had been out for the most part of the action, so we only know what Kaider told us," Sakaki reasoned. He couldn't understand why Doujima was worried about her partner. The job was done and everyone stayed alive, after all.

"And his power is scary," Doujima went on, not listening to Sakaki. "No surprise he's been told to keep it secret.

"What was it like?" Sakaki asked, surprising even himself with the question.

"You mean the kiss?" Doujima specified, not looking into his eyes.

"No, not that," he said quickly, blushing at once. "Being under his control."

"Oh. I didn't feel like that at all. Actually, I was absolutely sure that I was acting on my own accord."

"Right," he waved it off. "As if you would ever kiss me on your own accord."

"Of course I'd never kiss a bore like you on my own accord.", Doujima laughed and headed to her desk.

"Doujima," Michael called her as she was walking past him. "I couldn't hear what you two were talking about... Why did you have your fingers crossed behind your back right now?"

And once again, Michael Lee was told that it was none of his business.

"Anyway, they're probably both dead by now," Karasuma finished her story.

"But you don't actually believe that," that was a statement and not a question.

"I don't know," she said, contemplating this for several seconds. "Maybe I'm just deceiving myself. Doujima is probably being most objective on the matter."

"She is saying they couldn't have survived, but she is doing so only to conceal her own doubts."

"How can you know that?" Karasuma asked in surprise.

"Let's say I'm pretty good at reading between the lines..." Kaider grinned.

Karasuma checked her watch.

"Well, it's time to get back to work. You coming?"

"You go ahead. I need to think."

"About what?"

"About whether I'm doing the right thing here," he said thoughtfully.

"Oh, come on!" Karasuma said distrustfully. "It seems you're a good hunter, and you've saved the day earlier. Why the doubts?"

"It's not my abilities but my goals that require consideration," Kaider explained. "Don't worry, I'll make the right decision."

Upon arrival to Raven's Flat, Karasuma noticed Doujima looking over Michael's shoulder.

"No relatives with any signs of craft. Nothing at all..." Michael commented, his fingers flying all over the keyboard.

Karasuma came close to take a look at the screen.

"Doujima!" she said, exasperated. "Don't you think it's a little unethical to spy on your partner like that, even more so by talking Michael into doing that for you?"

"Oh but I have the right to know who I'm working with, right?" Doujima reasoned. "And this guy is giving me creeps, so if I had to choose between rules and curiosity..."

"Hey, that's my excuse!" Michael protested. "Get your own!"

Karasuma was about to tell them both to quit it, but Michael got excited all of a sudden.

"Look at this - he got into a car accident back in Germany six months ago. This one was real bad. Cardiac arrest, reanimation... It was quite a miracle that he managed to stay alive, according to the medical records. Headquarters believe it had been this accident that caused his power to awaken. They had his co-workers interviewed, and all of them claim Kaider had changed significantly."

"I've never heard of such things happening before," Karasuma said, puzzled.

"Let's check out the hospital server, maybe we can find a clue there... Hmm, this is getting interesting. His parents died five years ago, and he has no close relatives at all. Except for a couple of his co-workers, only one person visited him in the hospital. Right now, all I have is the name. Karina Weber."

"A girlfriend?" Doujima asked curiously.

"Could be his girlfriend. Could be his childhood friend. Could be his parents' friend..." Michael began losing interest now. "It's too hard to tell from the name, you know, and I don't see any reasons for digging deeper than that."

"Good point," Karasuma agreed, happy to see some common sense finally breaking out. "Checking out his private life is a little too much."

"The lights are on. Looks like you've forgotten to turn them off this morning," Doujima noticed, pulling over near Kaider's apartment.

"No, I haven't," Kaider shook his head thoughtfully.

"But I thought you live alone."

"So did I... It looks like I have a visitor now, though."

"Oh," she worried. "Want me to go in there with you? Or call the police?"

"That won't be necessary," Kaider smiled. "I know who the visitor is. "

"Well... I guess it's ok, then," she said hesitatingly. "Want me to pick you up in the morning?"

"Judging from what I've heard from Mr. Kosaka, the time of day you call morning is hardly suitable for me. Anyway, I was going to take a walk. The park nearby is a lovely place, especially when it's too early for anyone else to be there."

As Kaider got out of the car and went inside, Doujima looked at the window of his apartments once again and saw a female figure in there. That's strange, she thought, driving towards her place now. Is it possible to get a girlfriend on the second day of being in the country? Or has he brought someone along with him? But he said he hadn't expected anyone...

Doujima pulled over, even though her apartment was still a couple of blocks away. Despite being called slacker quite often, she had learned a lot from being both a Solomon agent and a hunter. And now, her instincts were telling her that something was wrong here. Kaider's reluctance to describe his powers, his behavior during the hunt, this mysterious visitor... He was hiding something from STN-J and even herself, his partner. Well, the one who doesn't trust doesn't deserve trust, she said to herself, picking up her cell phone and dialing the number that wasn't even in her address book.