Neither Crawford nor Saijou Takatori would have appreciated being likened to each another. To Saijou, Crawford was a gaijin thug with far too high an opinion of himself. Crawford thought of Saijou as a fourth Elder, luckily without psychic assistance.

Nonetheless, Saijou hung up the phone on Reiji Takatori with an expression much the same as Crawford did, allowing for the fact Crawford was young and good looking, and Saijou very far from either.

He looked around his room with less satisfaction than usual. It was large, and equipped for what its inhabitant thought of as sensual indulgence. Power. Sometimes sexual, but those toys were very few among the tools for controlling, and simply hurting, people. A stranger might not think Saijou's bedroom improved by its bright lighting.

His elder and more foolish son couldn't be persuaded that his own personal little recession meant that in the coming power struggle, Shuichi would have a fair chance. For a minute, Saijou looked like a snake trying to pout. He didn't like fair chances. Fair chances meant the whole Takatori empire might be used up as the two brothers fought for it. Nor did he like the idea of Shuichi winning. His younger son was, to Saijou, a wuss. He'd let Kritiker go to waste and might even relinquish its power into non-Takatori hands.

There seemed only one thing to do. Weaken Shuichi's power base so Reiji was still much the stronger. It must end in Shuichi's death, but Saijou had accepted that before his sons were adults.

In the old days he would have sent a discreet messenger. Even killing him afterwards wouldn't have made it very safe. Now he'd do the same work, safer, with a few words on the internet.

Reaching for his laptop, Saijou began working on his son's murder.

The briefing started with Ken bursting into laughter.

"I am sorry, Manx-san," said Omi. He didn't look all that serious himself. "But when I remember the fuss Persia-sama made about poor Yuushi-kun..."

"Yeah." By long practice, Yohji managed to grin around his cigarette. "Check the orphanages, hospitals, homes for old people. That's where these sort of hardened villains hang out."

"That reminds me, Yohji-kun. You haven't been to visit Momoe-san all week."

Manx looked at Asuka, rather pleadingly. Though she was the last comer, sometimes she was more professional than Yohji and Ken together. Asuka looked back without sympathy. Manx wasn't hoping for sympathy, but she didn't get belief either. Asuka said, "It's understandable Persia, using assassination regularly, should be so ready to see assassins."

Manx told them all, "If Yuushi-kun – I mean Knight – had been an assassin, he would have gone after Persia. These guys are assassins. They're Weiss Two." An understandable spurt of temper. "They've been pros a lot longer than you have."

In Manx's opinion, of Yohji's many annoying attitudes, one of the most annoying was the 'adult among children' one. "So they're visiting Tokyo. Manx, why think they've come on business? And if so, Persia is their target?"

"They visited their old Persia first." Manx had expected to need longer to explain, but Omi looked at Ken and he subsided. She just said, "He had bodyguards." No need to go into that, either. Manx felt serenely contemptuous of a man who'd train little girls to be his concubines. She didn't want to think how they were trained killers as well. "One of them survived long enough to tell us Weiss boasted they'd take out our Persia, too." She hefted the folders. "So, can I start the briefing with no further comments from Siberian?" Kritiker had put a lot more effort into this briefing than normal, but the buff folders were still thin.

Azami's weapon of choice, the violin, almost started Ken off again. As well, the others looked at Manx a bit suspiciously. She tapped the relevant paper emphatically with a crimson nail. "Don't let that put you off guard or off balance." She turned to Omi. "It's for the same reason Persia always has you dress so young. That's just the sort of reaction Weiss' – Weiss Two's – targets are meant to have. Azami's violin is a functional bow. From their earlier reports we think he might be able to produce strange effects with sound."

Omi asked, "Ultrasonic? Subsonic?"

Manx shook her head, quite relieved when Asuka said, "With Ayame's bladed boomerang, and Rinzou's – he kills with cards?"

"Think of them as shuriken."

"No impact weapons, then. That will limit them."

Yohji said, "In close quarters, Kenken could take care of the lot himself, if he can stop laughing long enough." Ken said something about artistic pretensions.

Asuka left them to it. Quickly flipping through the folders, "There are no Tokyo friends or relatives here. What about agents they've worked with?"

"Kritiker doesn't like agents making personal friends of each other." Manx frowned at them all. She spoke reluctantly, "They have worked with a couple of Tokyo based agents." Who wouldn't have given them one crumb of information they weren't meant to, and there was no computer expert in Weiss Two. Except Manx had seen Yohji and Asuka learn an amazing lot without computer aid.

Respectfully, Omi gave her a little time. Then he said, "The agents will be no use to Kritiker dead, Manx-san."

"The higher ranking is Takaoka. She's working undercover at the moment. I'll warn her not to return to her home. The second is Nobukuni. He's a bit of a loner, but works well with Takaoka, and is her usual partner."

"Do they see a lot of each other in their off hours?" Yohji spoke without his usual innuendo.

Manx shook her head. But then, they knew enough not to tell her if they did. After giving the address, "I suppose I better go with you to introduce you..."

"Manx," said Yohji patiently. "We're not inviting him to a birthday party. We're just going to watch him. If we spook him, all the better."

By the time they got to Nobukini's flat it was full night. But not a Weiss night. The clouds hung too low and dark to give hunters any glimpse of moonlight. Rain they were used to hunting in, but the weather looked to be working up to a proper storm, crippling to Omi and Asuka's bows.

Kritiker didn't pay its agents well. Kikuji Nobukini, codename Botan, lived in a small, cheap flat, in an area where he'd be on the alert as a matter of course.

Which meant the open door wasn't because he'd popped out to borrow a cup of sugar.

The cold winter wind blew it wider, with a sharp shriek of rusty hinge. Asuka would have bet Botan left those hinges noisy on purpose, in case of intruders.

Ken was gathered to dive through, fast and far and at an angle. Yohji and Asuka were in their customary places. He glanced towards Omi for the okay.

Someone said in a sharp nasal voice, "Come in, Weiss. We're not interested in fighting you today."

Ken jumped in anyway. Omi snapped, "Hold it, Siberian!" He thought to close the door after them.

Inside the room, the four Weiss stood looking at two Schwarz. Schuldig was seated on the couch, eating chocolate cake, and dropping crumbs. Ran was leaning against a wall, arms crossed. With them was a stranger. Tall, dark, ruggedly handsome, he sat beside Schuldig and puffed cigarette smoke at him.

Schuldig waved the slab of cake at them. Half of it fell on the floor. "Nobukini here knows a damn good baker. Want a piece? Well, maybe you're right. Don't want to spoil perfection." He leered at Asuka. For Schuldig, it was an amiable leer, but the three elder Weiss took a concerted step closer.

"Stop wasting time, Schuldig." Ran's flat tone didn't give any clue as to how he regarded this meeting.

"Yeah, right." Schuldig finished off the cake in one go. It should have choked him, and it would have saved everyone a lot of trouble if it had, but after a struggle he got it down. "Look, this isn't my idea. It's Ran's. Ran thinks Aya's little friend Omi should know something, and I'm the right one to tell him." Weiss was a bit reassured by this. Ronin was the most normal member of Schwarz. On the other hand, Schuldig's grin wasn't reassuring at all.

Ran said, "In private."

Ken said, "No way!" Asuka wondered which redhead to tackle first.

"It's not the mission." Ran closed his mouth and let Schuldig do the rest of the talking.

The older man looked pleased to. "That means it's personal." He looked meaningfully at the other three Weiss and the owner of the flat. "The rest of you can go. Help Botan find his partner."

Botan spoke in a deep smoker's voice. "Agent Angelica is better off not being found."

For a minute Schuldig's face looked thoughtful, almost peaceful. "Agent Angelica, also calls herself Kyouko Takaoka. You first met her in the Diamond Bar, when the man Weiss call Persia, Galen calls Sage, was putting the Galen Team together. She was wearing a pale green gown, and it reminded you of your daughter's favourite dress, so when she took her first high risk undercover - "

Botan growled. Ran rested one hand on the back of the sofa, just a few inches from the back of Botan's neck. Botan subsided. "So you have Angelica."

"No. I read your mind." He smirked at them all. "Yes, it could be the trick you all think. I could do a lot of telepathy, and you'd think it all tricks." He stood up and walked toward Omi. Ken tried to get between them. It was Omi who urged him aside. "Or I could do something which couldn't be a trick." He looked into Omi's eyes.

Omi cried out, "No!"

No one should have been able to dodge Siberian's blow, but it hit thin air. Indeed, it barely missed Balinese as he came at Schuldig from the other side. Drawn too fast to see, Ran's katana blade shielded Schuldig from arrows Asuka had fired reflexively.

The two Schwarz jumped back together, a folded white paper in each of their faces. Asuka thought the smoothness with which they moved together the most impressive trick yet.

Omi said, "That's enough." He swayed a little, and it was Botan, less set to fight, who was the one to support him. "Yes, I'd say you're a telepath. Is this," he touched his forehead gently, "real?"

Talking about his profession, Schuldig was matter-of-fact. "I've only given a small nudge. Those nightmares since the kidnapping case are real memories, and they would have grown anyway. Ran thought they were growing too slowly." The other Weiss looked at Omi with surprise. They hadn't known any of this.

Omi was looking at the two Schwarz. "And why should it matter how fast I remember?"

Ran said, "That's what you might want to hear privately. Or just with Hidaka to help."

Omi thought. He shook his head decisively. "No. I don't want to keep secrets from my team."

Ran looked at Botan. The older agent looked back. Omi set his jawand said, "It's his life which could be at risk."

"It isn't," said Ran. But he went back to the same position he'd been in when they'd entered the room.

Schuldig said, "The kidnappers who took Shota and the rest were just out from prison from another, very similar, offense. The records say among the victims in the earlier case was the son of our employer, Reiji Takatori. He refused to pay the ransom. Officially, Mamaoru Takatori is dead. In fact, he was saved by his uncle for his uncle's use."

Asuka thought it was like watching a road accident. Ken moved forward to shut that poisonous mouth. Ran lifted a hand. There was no blade in it, but the gesture drew Ken's attention to his eyes. They stopped Weiss' Siberian as surely as a gun.

Even Yohji gave Omi time to digest , like Asuka, he remembered Omi's bright hope of finding his family some day.

Whatever he felt about any of this, and it was a lot for even Omi to comprehend, he kept his face and his voice calm. At last he said, "You think I'm Mamoru Takatori?"

Ran said firmly, "That's a fact you'll have to live with."

"This is important to me. But why all this to tell me, and why now?"

Schuldig said, "Ouka." He shrugged. "I'd say if you two don't know about it, what's the harm? But Ran here..."

Botan said, "Shut up!" He put out his hand to Omi again, who didn't notice.

Omi tried to smile, not quite as pleasantly as usual. "Now, that proves you're lying. Manx would – Manx was - " He closed his eyes. He would remember Manx was in Persia's confidence. Oddly, it was Ran he asked. "Manx would have told me, wouldn't she?"

Schuldig opened his mouth. Ken, Botan and Asuka glared at him. Yohji looked over the tops of his sunglasses at the door. Even Bombay had forgotten the importance of watching their back. Yohji hadn't.

Ran said, "Manx has always let Persia do what he wants with you." From Ran's tension, Ken thought he found this as difficult as he would himself. "I'm not a telepath, but I think they would have decided it wasn't important enough to disturb their plans for."

Everyone looked at Schuldig, even Ran. "Hey! I don't enjoy rooting around in Takatori minds. Present company excepted."

Asuka stated, rather than asked, "You're here to delay us, aren't you. These things are important to us, but why tell us now?"

Schuldig gave her another smirk of admiration. She was proud of Yohji for not rising to the bait. "Close, but not quite. And just to prove it, we'll let you get on with serving – sorry, I mean saving - Persia. Remember Takatori Industries is here to serve you." Firmly grasping his wrist, Ran dragged him away after he'd whistled the first few notes of their annoying little jingle.

Asuka rolled her eyes. Probably it was a good thing Schwarz weren't proper enemies, but sometimes she thought it would simplify things if they could just fight. She took out her cell phone and pressed a number, "Manx. Botan is unharmed."

Manx' voice said coldly, "Can I speak to him?"

Asuka hadn't really noticed before how little Manx trusted them. And there she'd assumed this restriction was for if they were captured. Assumptions...

Still standing close to Omi, Botan accepted Asuka's cell phone and began soothing words to it. His eyebrows rose. "Weiss Two? Not a sign." He listened and began frowning. "It's Ayame who enjoys the work. He'll go after your female staff, saying it's for interrogation or something. Hey?" He handed the cell phone back to Asuka, saying, "It looks like Weiss Two found Kritiker first. I know where the headquarters is. You?"

Omi looked at them. Hardly hesitating, "Under police headquarters."

Yohji said, "Of course. Where else?"

Ken said, "Why the hell should we lift a finger for either Manx or Persia?"

Omi looked unhappy, but determined. It was Yohji, always less personal about the team, who said, "We're not Weiss because we're friends with Persia and Manx."

As Kenwas still frowning, Botan added, "It's not just Manx and Persia. There's a lot of people in Kritiker headquarters who don't deserve to be targets."

Omi directed them more precisely to find the entrance as they raced downstairs. Botan was still at their heels. He told them, "I'm coming."

The police building was floodlit, and several streets around it. Squads of armed and flak-jacketed men were patrolling the streets, occasionally letting off a round at some shadow. Asuka asked, "Is there a back door?"

Omi said, "Might be several. I don't know them."

Weiss looked at Botan, who shook his head. "But won't Weiss Two be either dead or escaped by now? The guys are good, but I don't think they can take on all that."

Used to it from the other side, Yohji shrugged. "They'll only have to face a fraction of this force at any time. Looks to me as if they're concentrating on guarding the legit building."

Omi took out his cell phone and dialed again. He held it up for them all to hear. First there was no voice, but automatic shots. Then Manx' voice, out of breath, "Left the entrance open. Hurry, Bombay!"

Weiss looked at the floodlit building. Yohji asked, "Any chance of a power cut?"

Omi said, "Take too long." Asuka, at least, braced for a head down charge. "But all we have to do is blind them. If not with dark, with light. Botan, do you value your car?"

"It's a rental."

"Balinese, for once I want you to drive Kudoh-style. Siberian, Ocicat. Back seat and low." Botan piled in behind them. Once they were set and the engine revving, "Everyone, close your eyes." Even through her eyelids, Asuka saw light blaze.

Kudoh must have started driving with his eyes still closed. Someone shot at them even before the first blinding flare eased. No one in the car was quite hit, but Asuka was sure the armed police must have hit quite a few on their own side.

At about the fourth final-sounding crash Yohji said, "Entrance one fifty degrees, five feet." The wrecked car screened them as they piled in and through what looked like a small ventilation outlet, but swung out with its surrounding concrete. The empty top of a lift shaft faced them. The door behind them began to swing shut again.

Asuka aimed a torch beam for Yohji to attach the end of his wire to the machinery at the top of the shaft. He said, "Going down!" Ken held the door open with his shoulder long enough to give the rest time to start down, and steadied the uncertain Botan when it was his turn to abseil down into the pitch dark. Asuka figured the climb down over thirty feet.

The bottom was the roof of the lift. Omi had got through a lot of lift roofs in his time, but his hands were shaking hard. Asuka said calmly, "Tsukiyono or Takatori, you are Bombay." Omi looked at her, then at them all, and nodded.

Breaking through was quite easy, after all.

Normally, they'd have called the narrow, metal-lined corridor dim, but they blinked for a moment as they took time to weigh its sharp bend and dark, open doors. A dead man lay in the foyer, neatly if bloodily beheaded. If there ever was a place for a cautious advance, this was it. Then a woman screamed. Ken ran towards her at full speed.

Full speed turned out to be the right method. When they came to a set of cubicles, all three members of Weiss Two had cornered several women at one end. Azami and Rinzou were on their feet, weapons poised. Ayame was crouching over a woman lying on the floor. His body screened some of her, but Weiss could see her red hair, and red jacket, and long, blood-streaked legs.

Still in the lead, Ken charged toward them. Several arrows had pierced Ayame by the time he reached them. He turned on Azami, who had leaped back and was drawing his violin bow with a deep note that set terror in Asuka's bones. Before he could draw fully, Ken almost casually disembowelled him.

Slightly to one side, Rinzou had time to let fly steel cards. Ken grabbed the one aimed at him and crushed it. The second cut Yohji's wire as it looped toward Rinzou. Yohji snapped it off and pulled another length from his watch. The third slammed into Asuka's right wrist. If her leather glove hadn't been reinforced it would have sliced her hand off completely. As it was, she dropped her crossbow with a curse, though she caught it again with her left hand.

Arriving last, Botan was just in time to see Rinzou throw a card at Omi. Botan tried to shield Omi with his body.

This also shielded Rinzou from Omi. Asuka tripped Botan with her crossbow stock. Omi already had an arrow on his string, and he fired at the same time as Rinzou. The arrow pierced the death card and carried it back to nail it over Rinzou's heart.

Between Weiss Three's entry until Rinzou's death had taken less than twenty seconds. Asuka was almost disappointed at how easy it had been. Still, four to three...

Manx was still alive. Looking at what Ayame had done to her, Asuka knew she couldn't last long.

Omi knelt beside her. He reached out to comfort, but it looked as if any touch could only hurt. "Manx-san, hold on! We'll get a doctor."

Manx looked at him. Then she looked through him, ignoring him for something in her mind. "Shuichi, ai - ai shiteru -" So she died.

As far as Asuka was concerned, that made her a fool as well as a bitch.

For Omi's sake, she let a few moments pass in silence. Then she moved forward and asked the other women, "Is there anyone here who could use a doctor?"

"No." A mousy-pretty, little brown-haired woman was the first to speak. Seeing a flash like steel in those big dark eyes, Asuka thought she might be as tough as Manx when needed. "Kitada-san rallied the secretaries to cover Sage's retreat, but she put herself between us and the sadist."

Yohji sounded almost disappointed when he asked, "So Persia's safe, then?"

"His bodyguard is the best fighter in Kritiker. Shion will take care of him."

"It's a mystery," Schuldig said, not for the first time. He was enjoying this. "The head of Kritiker has vanished into thin air. Has he reformed and entered a Buddhist monastery? Is he forming an even more elite group of even more strangely armed assassins? Not even Essett's most prestigious Oracle – ow!" He rubbed his ankle and glared at Ran.

His lover thought at him, Crawford will take it out on Silvia later.

Schuldig heaved a martyred sigh but kept quiet. He'd been proud of being able to appease Ran's qualms while turning Weiss Three against Persia. It had been fun, anyway, even if it had all proved quite unnecessary. And it might still come in useful. Crawford hadn't had to smirk at him like that. He felt entitled to a little payback for that smirk. Crawford's not knowing any more about Persia's whereabouts than anyone else was a rare, rare opportunity.

Anyway, he'd got a good bakery out of it.

Crawford said, "It's a pity Kurasuma's holding Kritiker together so well, but he's a lightweight. The Essett agent Nakatsugawa should have no trouble taking over whenever we want."

Silvia suggested, "Takaoka?"

Crawford looked at Schuldig, who said, "She's taken over as Weiss' liaison, but she's more of a field agent than Manx was. I think Birman will have even less influence over Kritiker policy than Manx did."

"It's a mystery," said Ken.

Omi looked at him quizzically, "Persia – the old Persia's – disappearance?"

"Well, that, too. But I was thinking of the mysterious disappearance of Omi Tsukiyono." Ken circled half way around Omi. "He walks into a shop and out comes this young gentleman. Mamoru Takatori, I presume?"

"No! I am not a Takatori!" For once, Ken thought before he spoke. Omi might have guessed what he was going to say. They'd been friends for a long time. "I know. Persia thought up calling me Tsukiyono. But there were Tsukiyonos of Tsukiyono Castle before there were Takatoris. I don't know what they were like but they weren't Takatoris." He smiled back at Ken's grin.

Omi straightened his jacket the last millimetre. "These clothes were Ouka's idea." Ken winced. He was glad Omi still had Ouka. Indeed, they were more secure together as brother and sister. But that made Ouka Ken's sort-of-sister. He had a feeling Ouka as sort-of-sister was going to make interesting times. "I'm going to talk to Botan about tracing missing persons. Ouka thought he'd take me more seriously if I dressed as an adult."

Plus, learn if Botan was interested in Omi, or just schoolboys generally. It worried Ken to find he agreed with Ouka.

Though, looking at the quietly elegant young businessman, Omi Tsukiyono, Ken was fairly sure of the answer.