Sakura thought she was in good time to catch Ken before the end of his shift, but he had swapped it in order to have soccer coaching at a more convenient time for one pupil. For once, Asuka was sharing the shift with Omi. "Yohji's just going to visit to Momoe-san at the old folks' home," said Omi. "Would you care to go?"

It was a rather pro forma invitation, but Sakura accepted. Her own home was sometimes even lonelier when her parents were there.

Set into its own gardens, the old folks' home was definitely one of the better ones. Yohji said its receptionists knew the Koneko staff by sight, but he found himself called on to introduce both himself and Sakura. "Tomoe?" said one of the nurses. "You'll be looking for Tomoe-san, then?"

Another Tomoe? Sakura couldn't help wondering.

The visit to Momoe-san passed well. She was in a small, sunny living room, and she greeted them from the middle of a crowd of friends.

Once he'd been press ganged into the visit, Yohji was outrageously charming, flattering not only Momoe-san, but her friends as well. Sakura thought it was a bit much, flirting with Momoe-san, especially since her newly rediscovered old boyfriend Tokura-san was there. Tokura-san took his revenge by flirting with Sakura.

Eventually, Yohji refused an invitation to dinner with convincing regret. "My wife keeps me on a short leash, and I promised I'd be home for dinner." As they were leaving, he invited Sakura to dine at the Koneko.

Sakura would have liked to, but was fairly sure she'd already used up this week's allowance of invitations. She smiled back, and said she'd like to look in on this other Tomoe.

Tomoe-san wasn't sitting in a lounge with friends. Whether she was older than Momoe-san, she looked much frailer in bed. Her small bedroom looked even smaller from everything which had been crowded into it; old furniture Sakura suspected might be valuable antiques, overloaded with papers and photos she was sure couldn't be valuable at all. Not that all her stuff was old, there was a shiny new home entertainment centre, with all the extras.

Seeing the old lady huddled among the blankets, Sakura expected a short conversation, the old lady feeble in voice, and perhaps in mind. But alert, dark eyes opened and glared at her. She looked at Sakura more as a crow would than a human being. "I suppose they sent you to find out how much I know."

Sakura said, "Um, no."

"You just tell them I know enough. And if anything happens to me, they can be sure they'll be sorry." She paused only to draw a harsh, laboured breath. "You think you've got me trapped, don't you, and you can kill me at your leisure? I'm ready - "

Sakura blurted, "I'm sorry I bothered you." And fled.

The fangirls hadn't given Asuka a signature flower, though one or two of Yohji's most ardent had offered unflattering suggestions. Yohji made up for it by making hers whatever was the best in season. At the moment it was snowdrops, glowing like pearls on her black hair. As Sakura entered Asuka was scolding him for using all the best of the shop's stock for her wreath.

He defended himself. "I paid for it."

"Retail price, I bet. We're only shop assistants, we can't afford this sort of thing."

"Right. Hello, Sakura."

"Hello." Sakura walked up to the counter and looked them in the eye, trying to look grown up and business-like. If only she had a couple more inches. "I would like to hire the firm Kudoh and Kudoh."

She expected an initial brush off, disbelief. Not the brief flash of wariness in their eyes.

Yohji said, "The last time we hired out was a disaster."

Asuka said, "But I don't suppose Asuka wants us to go up against Riot."

"I don't know." Sakura told them about the old lady named Tomoe. "I'm afraid I ran."

"I would've run. too," Yohji assured her. "And I bet I can run faster than you."

Sakura wasn't so sure about that. Her running coach was very encouraging. "But later I thought, just maybe the doctors didn't know about her fears. So I rang the next day to ask. And she was dead."

Asuka acknowledged it with a nod, while Yohji tried to look sympathetic. "You know, that doesn't have to be murder. Old ladies get fancies, and old ladies die."

"I know. I've been telling myself that for days. But there's one thing. She had a new home entertainment centre. Would they have bothered to get someone on the point of dying one?"

Yohji nodded, with an appreciative smile. "But even if they didn't expect her to die, there could easily have been some blood clot..."

"That's what they said about my sister." Sakura found she was clasping her hands in supplication, and again tried to look grown up. "I know it's probably imagination, but as professional detectives, you're bound to look at things objectively, aren't you?"

Yohji looked amused. "I don't think that's in the code of conduct."

Asuka said, "We'll take the job. Junior discount."

Sakura dimpled. "Thanks very much! And...you will be careful?"

When he was sure Sakura had left the shop and was out of earshot, Yohji wilted against the counter. "Why on earth are you taking the kid's money?"

"I'll find an excuse to return most of it. You really want her running around asking the police, and God knows wh,o questions about our targets? Sakura's the sort to go to the press to stir up as big as stink as possible. We'll tell her she was mistaken."

"I'm sure that's against the PI's code of conduct."

"We're not PIs any more." Both Kudohs checked the door before she went on. "The hit goes tomorrow night. Then we can say we're sure the home's being run according to Hippocrates."

"She'll accept that?"

"With a nice fake report, she will."

Yohji grumbled, "Or maybe we could just hire Sakura, instead of Kritiker's network of informants. They didn't come up with much more information than her, and she's been on the case less than a week."

Yohji hadn't looking forward to writing the fake report for Sakura. Disoriented in darkness, flat on bleach scented carpet, now he thought perhaps it would be easier than Omi's true report to Persia. The trouble was, Weiss couldn't just charge into an old folks home, maybe burning it down to make sure.

Omi had got the dark beasts neatly penned into an operating room. Things should have been over in minutes.

But while Weiss had been killing most of them, someone had destroyed the lighting. A couple of survivors had betrayed their position by their panicked breathing. Which left one, whose knowledge of the terrain might lead him to escape Weiss. At one end of the room, Omi had lit his little pencil torch. It was chosen for how little light it would scatter, so Omi was having to search the long room almost inch by inch. Yohji considered doing likewise, but that would mean his hands were occupied, and he'd probably only get a very brief chance at the target.

If they'd reacted a bit quicker...If they had a team member who was quick enough to keep up with Ken's impulsive charges, but long headed enough to know what to do with them...Yohji decided he was wasting time. He poked his head around a corner and cracked it into a wall.

He forgot the pain when he heard a pair of feet which didn't belong to a teammate, running flat out. They were behind him, which meant the door was opposite from where he'd thought.

Ken didn't bothered with geographical speculation. He dived straight for the footsteps. Yohji could tell from the spectacular crash of his colliding with trays of equipment.

Yohji grabbed for his torch, hoping Asuka could shoot the target if he lit him. Before he'd touched it, he heard the sound of the door opening. The faint whisper of arrows came from two directions. The odds were against even Bombay and Occicat. But Yohji heard the familiar little exhaled grunt, which meant not only a hit but a kill.

He lit his torch and threaded his way, through bodies and trashed surgical equipment, to join the others at the door. No wonder Siberian had crashed into something, he'd done well to get as far as he had. He asked, "Think anyone heard us?"

"One person did." Omi's little torch beam spotlit the target's throat. Not an arrow, but a shuriken.

Asuka asked, "Who?"

Omi said, "A veteran Kritiker agent who lives here."

Kudoh had explained the patients in the nursing home would be upset if the murders were publicised, so it had been done very quietly, but there were new faces in both top management and the workers. Sakura knew the case was settled, tidy and satisfactorily.

But on a deeper level she also knew there was something wrong. At unexpected times, her nerves jabbed. She was being watched, she knew that.

Sometimes she could have sworn it was by a pair of eyes more like a crow's than a human's, even if they were set in a human face.

Yohji looked unusually sincere, but Ken knew the older man was better at bullshit than he was at detecting it. "So, I left out a few things, like Weiss, and Momoe-san's identity, and just how many were involved. But my report to Sakura was actually quite true. And she doesn't believe it."

"She believes you well enough."

"What's she worrying about, then? I thought it was a very satisfactory resolution." He confided, "I particularly liked the bit about the fragile old lady being drugged at the time, so she won't remember what happened."

"I'm sure it was a work of art," said Ken. "Sakura is pleased about that. But the old lady who died... I think she feels guilty about that. She says she feels her eyes on her. I suppose she did die? She could have arranged it to look..." His voice tailed off at Yohji's pitying look.

Yohji said briskly, "It's Sakura's imagination. She's a very responsible girl. She even feels a bit responsible for her elder sister's death, and I guess this reminds her."

Still, it was the time Sakura should have been in after school. She wasn't. Ken started feeling uneasy.

Yohji slapped Ken's shoulder. "We've sleeping in, tonight, so you can pop in tomorrow, before school. But you're not getting out of your shift that easy."

Asuka said, "Ken, we tease you about Sakura being your girlfriend. I'm not sure how serious you are, and I don't think Sakura is either."

Ken thought about how Sakura's face brightened when she saw him, and how he felt himself warm in response. "She makes me happy, and I want to make her happy."

"Then get a large box of expensive chocolates, and tell her."

Yohji frowned, "Kid..." He trailed off with relief as he saw Ken glance at his watch. "It can wait till later."

Ken bought the chocolates. The most expensive the confectioner had.

Overflowing with good intentions and chocolate scents, Ken arrived at the Tomoe house at first light. He knocked at the front door of the Tomoe house. Of course, she wasn't at home.

And of course, all doors were locked. Ken might not have the Kudoh expertise, but he breezed through the civilian locks. He looked around all the clean efficiency and decided he'd seen homier motels. No wonder Sakura hung around the shop as much as she could.

There was a whiteboard on the kitchen wall. The long list of household duties and overseas phone numbers had as the bottom item the name of a well known Nichiren temple, with the word dawn.

Ken looked at his watch, decided he might make it, and ran for his bike.

The temple was beautiful, and historic, and surrounded by lots of little shops. As he pressed into crowds and close walls, Siberian moved uneasily under his skin.

Despite his ceremonial silks, the temple doorman had the air of a hotel receptionist. He recognised Ken's description. "The Tomoe party, yes. The elder Tomoe was very – nervous. She insisted the younger receive cold water purification." Both men looked at the wind dappled late winter sky.

With a courteous smile, he handed Ken a mimeographed floor plan, pointing out the directions. As soon as Ken was out of sight, he pulled a cell phone out from his medieval silks.

Ken found he didn't need to follow the directions for long. Soon enough, he heard a loud female voice, as unlike Sakura's as possible. Ken couldn't make out much from her rant, except she was hostile. He picked up speed. When he approached the fountain in front of the Shinto annexe, and actually saw what was happening, he ran.

Sakura was backing away from a large, loud, middle-aged female, who was waving her arms. There was a smallish, elderly priest trying to hold her back, but every time he got a grip on her, she threw him off, apparently not even noticing. He stood back and, picking a green branch from the floor, began reciting mantras.

Ken got between her and Sakura. Just seeing him seem to enrage her. She pulled out a knife.

He grasped one forearm. He expected to be able to hold her easily, but she was frighteningly strong. The smell of anger and madness rolled off her. It woke Siberian's killing rage, and he snarled at her. Jolted out of her own madness into fear, she struck at him wildly with the knife blade. Ken would have dodged it easily, but Sakura managed to grab her wrist. The blade veered, gashing his side.

The madwoman jumped away, not even noticing Sakura, who was still clinging determinedly to her wrist. Siberian followed them, knocking them both into the fountain to get at the older woman.

Ken came out from the water, and blinked in confusion. His anger didn't normally switch off as easily as this. Siberian wouldn't have gone permanently, things weren't that easy. But he seemed to have separated a little. Surely a few Buddhist prayers wouldn't cure even a Buddhist so easily.

Perhaps it was the Christian who'd been helped, reminded of baptism.

Also confusing was the fight. Sakura seemed to have doubled. No, tripled. Among the sprays of water were three young girls fighting the madwoman. He said, "No, girls. You'll drown her."

"Good thing!" said Ouka. But perhaps she didn't quite mean it. The three of them drew back. Sakura had the knife.

Several large, brawny members of the staff, who'd been hanging around, neither useful nor ornamental, rushed in to collect the strange woman. They bore her away, seeming experienced. One reached for Sakura, too. Ken grabbed his collar and shook briefly.

Though he did feel like grabbing and shaking Sakura himself. He managed not to shout at everyone. "This is not the right treatment for a dangerous lunatic."

Ouka protested, "We didn't know she was violent!"

Sakura said, "She was having me purified." She walked toward Ken and the others backed away, a little. "We knew she was crazy, but we thought it might make her feel better. Her mother was one of the nursing home victims. So I let her read the Kudoh report. She didn't believe it." Ken twitched guiltily. "I mean, she believed it as far as it went, but she always has to think there's something behind things."

Ken said, "Those doctors killed their patients for their money, and fake expenses."

"Yes, but Tomoe-san, both Tomoe-sans, thought there must be a reason for them to act like that. After all, most doctors don't. She thought they'd been taken over by hungry ghosts."

"But why purify you?"

"It seemed to her mother, and her, they'd sent me to her. I don't believe in this stuff, of course, but she'd just lost her mother. If it made her feel better..."

Ken reached out, then thought better of it. "If you were a couple of years older, I'd kneel at your feet and ask you to marry me."

Sakura looked up with glowing eyes. They'd drifted closer together than he'd realised. "I can wait."

Ouka suggested, "Ask her anyway."

Ken jerked back. With this audience, Romeo in the balcony scene would have lost his nerve and started babbling of soccer averages. "Don't you have anyone else to pester?"

It was Aya who said, "Honestly, Sakura could do with someone. She's got this opening in a good university overseas..."

The voice broadcasting over the airport was loud and enthusiastic. Anyone who already knew what it meant to say, might have understood the words 'Air France'.

Yohji and Asuka couldn't miss who they were after. Shaggy brown hair, orange sweater around his waist, and Sakura clinging to his arm. They walked over to the pair, Yohji sure of his argument.

As it was, "You should get a better quality wig, Ran."

Ran took off the brown wig, which was slipping already, and looked at it. "Does the job."

Asuka said, "I suppose if we had the plane stopped and searched for suspected terrorists, we wouldn't find any better variety of Hidaka."

"Seeing is believing." Ran smiled his faint smile. "Or you could stop all traffic in Narita, foreign and domestic."

Yohji looked around the wide, blue, unlimited sky. "I'm never going to know, am I?"

"I hope not."

Asuka just had to know. "Were you actually going to fly off to France?"

Aya-chan assured her, "I brought my toothbrush." The Kudohs looked at her thoughtfully. She looked at them reproachfully. "Honestly, how could you?"

Yohji asked warily, "You mean - "

Ran said, "Helping the flower shop owner insist on that unfairly long notice. Could have ruined Ken's life."

Yohji looked at him, then at Aya.

Asuka said, "He convinced me. We're not in this business for friendship."

Aya said indignantly, "Ken didn't know that! He trusted you!"

Yohji said to Ran, "And you and Ken are such good friends."

"Good enough." A few minutes later, when Aya was distracted by some Christian nuns, Ran told him softly, "You might be willing to risk Asuka, I'm not going to risk Aya."