Rustling of chocolate papers. "Okay I take the last strawberry?"

"I like liquorice better. You're sitting on my magazine. Anything new?"

"He's got an PhD in boring." Slipping in an new cassette, "Have you heard this new one?"

Ouka and Aya were on stake out.

It wasn't illegal, as Ouka was careful to rehearse for her mother. They'd hired a small greenhouse on the roof of the second tallest building in the neighbourhood, borrowing a few horticultural props from Omi to make it look less unconvincing. They'd also brought in a few home comforts from their own bedrooms. Plus, in July, the sun umbrella and ice box were practically necessities.

If the landlord didn't know what they were using it for – he probably thought they were using it to grow pot – they hadn't actually lied to him.

Besides, it was a matter of clear and urgent need. A defense lawyer who killed inconvenient witnesses, and Midori was a witness.

Ouka ignored the nagging worry the cops might be right, and Midori was just a teenager trying to get attention. Botan certainly thought so, but Botan could scarcely be expected to be fair to a girl who was blatantly chasing his Omi.

The very reason she and Midori disliked each other was grounds for believing her. Both she and Midori were alpha females. Indeed, Midori chasing Omi reminded Ouka of herself, before she'd had a good brother. Although, Ouka was sure she wouldn't have chased Omi if he'd been obviously happy with a lover. Almost sure. Ouka knew she'd never have stooped to slanders to attract Omi's sympathy, so she thought it unlikely Midori would.

Also, as she was the first to admit, it was kind of nice to impress Midori. And send her out on errands.

The last thought was prompted by the sight of Midori darting across the roof, in a manner furtive enough to draw anyone's attention. She was at the same time juggling one super-size pizza, three milkshakes, and enough pocky sticks to build a medium sized house. "Has he done anything?" she asked the other two hopefully.

Aya took a quick glance through her binoculars to make sure. The little greenhouse was an excellent vantage point to watch the penthouse of the tallest building in the neighbourhood. It was very hard to miss Kinugawa's office. Blatantly against all earthquake regulations and commonsense, a large part of it was a perspex balcony jutting over the street. Shameless, selfish, and exhibitionist.

Ouka told herself her father wasn't that bad.

More important, the girls' vantage point overlooked the parking lot behind the building. They'd been taking down the names, numbers, and times of everyone who parked there. Most of them, of course, had nothing to do with Kinugawa. Even more of them would say they had nothing to do with Kinugawa.

Ouka's hand hesitated between pizza and milkshake. Aya was taking a long time to say 'no', wasn't she? She looked at her friend.

Aya was frowning. To herself, "Where did you come from?" She held on firmly to the field glasses, as both the other girls snatched at them. "Two guys, or is it three? They seem to be filling in forms. And there are photos, and all sorts of papers."

"Perhaps I'll recognise one of them," suggested Midori cunningly. Though once she'd admitted she didn't, she made no attempt to return the binoculars. Ouka practically had to use physical force to get her turn.

"One of them's phoning!" Ouka again mourned the strange way their phone bugging equipment had been found immediately. Just as with Crawford. They'd followed all the instructions, too.

It was Midori who spoke for all of them. "If only we could get close enough to listen."

Someone else spoke. "Actually, they're only phoning for pizza."

The three girls stayed still under the steady eye of a gun. She noticed it even before she noticed that it was Kinugawa who was holding it. She felt unlike herself, frozen and helpless. Thinking was like wading through rough water.

Aya made to step sideways, to get at Kinugawa from an angle. The man's attention focused on her, and she stopped, raising her hand to her head. Ouka felt the pall of despair lifting and gathered herself. Kinugawa looked back at her. Both Aya and Midori blinked, as if waking.

Kinugawa blinked himself. Then he raised the gun to remind them. "Those are wannabe lawyers. They're filling in a nice arrangement of forms to apply for a job as my assistant. Even if it occurs to the police I'm a suspect, they'll be prepared to swear I was just in the next room, and could never have had time to go to another building, take a private lift to the roof, shoot three people, and traipse all the way back again."

Ouka had occasionally wondered why story villains took the time to explain their plans to their victims. Now, looking into Kinugawa's oddly bright eyes, she suspected it was because he had to tell someone. Even his unsavoury clients were unlikely to admire the killing of three schoolgirls.

She was responsible for their being in this fix. To bring his attention to her, she said, "My father won't be satisfied with anything less than the truth."

He looked at her, saw what she was doing, and amused at it. He sneered. He opened his mouth to speak, and screamed instead.

Already set for it, all three girls jumped toward him, before they saw it wasn't needed. His right arm hung helpless, the elbow snapped right around. Aya's brother, Ran, was standing behind him.

Ran punched his head too quickly for her to follow. The weight which had slowed her thinking vanished. Ran's deep voice said, flat and toneless as she'd never heard it, "Just in case you were thinking of running..." something bright gleamed in his hand, at Kinugawa's leg, before it came away red and Kinugawa staggered, blood running down his leg.

Aya said in a thin, high voice, "Ran-niisan!"

Ran said to her, "He was going to shoot you." To all three girls, "If Kinugawa goes to a court of law – well, he knows all the legal and illegal tricks. Crawford thinks Takatori should have him. Crawford was the one who warned me you were in danger."

For once Ouka was speechless. Midori asked, "How is Kinugawa-san - um, Kinugawa - going to get there?"

"He'll manage." To Kinugawa, "Won't you?" using the disrespectful form of you.

The men looked at each other for a moment. Ouka had the idea they were communicating in some mysterious, masculine way. Then Kinugawa nodded and took off his tie. When Ran lifted his knife again, Kinugawa said, "If I don't staunch it, I'll bleed to death. Is that what you want?" Whatever Ran wanted, he let Kinugawa stop the blood flow.

Grey faced, Kinugawa scrambled across the roof to the lift. Ouka wondered if her friends shared her impulse to help him. Aya looked unhappily at Ran, who was looking implacable. Ouka was glad her brother wasn't like that.

Once they'd got down to the street and bundled Kinugawa into the boot of Ran's second hand Toyota, Midori began to look a bit queasy. It made Ouka realise she was a bit queasy herself. She wondered how to reassure the other two.

Aya-chan said, "Midori, when you tell Omi about this, you won't have to tell him about Ran actually hurting Kinugawa, will you? You can just say he took his took his gun away."

Midori perked up at the thought of Omi. "Sure. That did happen, after all. Can you drop me off at the shop?" To these girls, Tokyo had one main shop.

When they'd seen her safely inside and chattering at Omi, Aya answered Ouka's reproachful look. "Okay, it wasn't kind to Omi. But do you really want her to know more about what happens to Kinugawa-sa-? You two aren't exactly friends, you know."

Remembering Midori at her worst, shocked her with a sudden stab of anger. Ran frowned and glanced backward toward the boot, and the anger disappeared suddenly. She blinked, focusing on the present, and saw they weren't heading directly to Takatori Towers. She looked round and saw Ran was drawing up behind a funeral home.

Almost as if he sensed it, there was a flurry of activity in the boot.

Aya-chan asked unhappily, "Is this where...Are you actually going to kill him, niisan?"

Ran parked. "Takatori invoked the privileges of rank. He wants to speak to the man who came so close to shooting his daughter."

When Ran dragged Kinugawa out of the boot, the lawyer looked so like a cornered rat, Ouka half expected him to bite Ran. Then she heard her father's voice and ran into his arms.

It should have been the happy ending. Briefly, Ouka wished Ran had killed Kinugawa, quickly and humanely, of course, so her father wouldn't be looking at him like that.

Takatori gave his daughter a final hug and let her go. "I need to talk to this Kinugawa-dirt in private."

Ran advised, "Keep a few guards. Armed." To the girls, "Silvia's brewed you a pot of tea. Sweet tea's just what you need, now. Then we can take you home."

Tea with her father's bodyguards, or at least with Crawford, was not something Ouka felt like right now. But it probably would help Aya-chan.

Crawford had requisitioned an overly air conditioned office, furnished in black, and faintly reeking of ash. Here the undertaker spoke with the families of the dead. It was not the sort of place to give the impression of a happy ending. Nor did the faces of Schwarz.

Crawford was behind the desk, of course. He focused his tiger-eyed attention on Ouka. "Unknown to your father, there's a one way intercom between this room and the one where he and Kinugawa are speaking. I've no more idea than you what he's going to say, but I think you should hear it." Aya-chan opened her mouth, and he shook his head at her. He pressed the button.

Ouka didn't want to hear her father talking like that. It wasn't so much the obscenities. It was he could threaten such horrible things. Aya's brother had just reacted in hot blood, after all. But her father sounded so normal. She found herself gripping Aya's hand for reassurance.

Reiji Takatori seemed to be running low on breath, and Kinugawa's richer voice overrode him easily. "You'll do none of this. On the contrary. If I need it, you'll help me take care of Midori. I represent Essett, and they're the people who are going to make you the ruler of Japan, as long as you live. Want to face Fujimiya without Essett backing?" It took Ouka a second to remember he was talking about Aya's mother.

Reiji spluttered a bit more. They said something about Masafumi Ouka didn't understand, and then something about money. Ouka understood that all right. Kinugawa seemed to know Takatori's magic word, practical. Takatori said, "My daughter won't stand back and let Midori be killed."

"If she loves you, she'll do what you tell her. If she doesn't, it will be her own fault."

There was no protest from her father. Aya threw up her head and almost snarled, "That's enough!" She eyed Crawford, as if wondering where to start cutting. Silvia was watching both Fujimiyas tensely.

Schuldig was watching Ran. The shifting lights of his eyes were harder to read than Ran's impassivity. For once, he tried to calm things. "We've warned Omi. His contacts'll help hide Midori."

Crawford said to Aya, "I killed your father on Reiji Takatori's direct order."

Ouka tried to stand up with Aya, but they were both held into their seat by something invisible, far stronger than they were.

Crawford said to Ouka, "I haven't retaliated to your harassing me, and I could have. I could have ended it. My warning saved your lives."

Aya-chan's fingers curled as if she'd like to claw. She managed to move her head enough to glance sideways at her brother. Schuldig grabbed his shoulder and looked into his eyes.

Crawford said to Ran, "It will be safer for your sister, both sisters, if she stays out of Takatori business." Crawford looked at the girls again. "Wait in the car. I better remind your brother of a few things."

Ran nodded to Aya. Ouka was still too numb to do anything but let her friend steer her to the car. When they were sitting in the back seat, she leaned against Aya. Neither girl said anything.

They hadn't long to wait. Ran slid into the driver's seat, half his face showing a new bruise. Speaking as clearly as he could, he said, "I suggest you keep away from your mothers' house. When Kinugawa can't find Midori, he'll be after you to tell him where she might be. Is there somewhere your father doesn't know about?"

Surely her father wouldn't actually tell Kinugawa? Ouka tried not to cry like a little kid. Aya said, "Honjou-san's." She was glad to hear Ran knew Honjou, and where he lived. She turned her attention back to Ouka. "I cried lots when I lost my father."

Ran dismissed Schuldig's suggestion checking up on his sister's friends was rather stalker behaviour, in order to check his memory as to how she'd met Honjou. Would Kinugawa or Takatori know about it?

Certainly not Takatori. And Honjou would be low on Kinugawa's list. For all Ran knew, Kinugawa believed Honjou had been knocked off by Persia a year ago.

He automatically checked for a tail as they left the central city. His cheap little car became more and more conspicuous.

Ran had never actually seen the place, and he wondered if he'd got the address wrong. The address was a big, English mansion. It look like the British Embassy. It even had a butler, disappointingly Japanese. Ran looked suspiciously at the butler.

The butler looked suspiciously back. Then he frowned properly and hurried toward the car's back seat. "Ouka-san! Aya-san! What's the matter? How can I help?"

With a final blow of her nose, Ouka got out of the car and braced herself. Sometimes Ran thought her self confidence came from ignorance, but it looked as if she was prepared to back it up. "Nothing's changed, Suzuki-san. I've learned something, but it is better to know than not to know." She proceeded into the house, blue head high. Ran though she'd earned it.

Suzuki scowled at Ran. Ran ignored him and said to his sister, "Let me get Kaasan." He knew Ouka wouldn't want to be mothered, but he wasn't sure it would be a bad thing.

Aya shook her head. "Honjou-san will take care of us." She turned and smiled at a tall blond man in white approaching. Feeling jealousy he knew unworthy, Ran examined him.

He approved. Honjou put the girls before him. "Aya-chan?"

Following her friend, "We'll be fine. Can we have the bedrooms we had before?" Over her shoulder, "Take care of Ran."

Honjou looked at him. Ran hadn't known he had amber eyes, warm and keen. Ever since Schuldig had decided to play, Ran had tried to keep all his emotions frozen. He didn't like the way this good looking young man made him feel. He scowled at him. "I'm all right." Honjou touched the side of his own face and lifted an eyebrow. "Nothing compared to Ouka."

"What's wrong with her?"

"She's found her father values money and power more than her life."

"Damn," said Honjou helplessly. "Still, I can't do anything about that, except give her space to grieve. I can give you an ice pack."

They didn't go into the kitchen, as Ran was expecting. Instead they went into a plush little living room, English as the exterior. Much time spent in this sort of surroundings, and a guy could learn to think of England as a safe home.

Suzuki fussed around, getting an icepack and being called Bellwood by Honjou. He gave the icepack to his employer, who reached for Ran's shoulder to steady himself. Ran flinched. Then hoped that flinch hadn't told Honjou more than Ran would have liked.

Honjou said, "You can hold it yourself, if you'd rather. How did she find out?"

"Crawford showed her."

Both Honjou's eyebrows went up. He could hardly have avoided hearing about Crawford. "Why should he care?"

"He didn't want both Takatoris after him."

Yuushi tried to hide a smile. "I'm a fan of Ouka's, but I wouldn't have thought her the more formidable of the two."

"She's not for sale."

"True enough." For a moment, Honjou watched Ran holding the icepack to his face, while Suzuki buttled around offering drinks. "Cocktails?"

Remembering the sophisticated American drinks Crawford liked, Ran said, "Sapporo."

Honjou looked a little disappointed. "Bellwood knows all sorts of fancy cocktails. And we've good wines, too, grape and rice. Or - "

"Your Sapporo, sir," said Suzuki.

Rearranging his icepack distracted Ran. Then he realised Honjou was talking about abusive partners. To him? Ran said, "You have the wrong Schwarz. This was Crawford, not Schuldig." He thought about Silvia. He wished there was something he could do for her. He wished there was something he could do for himself. He spoke firmly to Honjou, reminding himself. "There's nothing you can do. Please don't try. Crawford might not be the arch villain Ouka liked to think, but he's not a nice guy."

"I've got connections."

"Kritiker won't let you drag them into a war over this."

Honjou froze for a moment. Then he shook his head. "Thanks for the warning. But I wasn't thinking of Kritiker. I help at an orphanage, and we work with agencies like women's shelters...I mean..."

More to himself, Ran said, "Silvia loves him. At least..." he frowned. How could she miss seeing what using her was doing to him? Crawford was getting more and more self indulgent about his displays of bad temper. Even Schuldig was worried.

Not about the occasional blow. By Rosenkreuz standards they were nothing. But Crawford's grand visions of his demon's paradise seemed to have narrowed, showing only him, not the team.

Suzuki left them to their drinks, saying he would inform Mrs Fujimiya and Sakaki of their daughters' stay. Honjou looked at the beginnings of sunset and offered a bedroom. Ran stiffened. Honjou said hurriedly, "As a guest. Just to sleep."

A night alone would be such a break. Even worth admitting, "I'll have to ask permission." Honjou didn't say anything. Ran scowled. "That's the way it is."

"You'll be welcome as a guest. Bellwood does Japanese cuisine, European, he's got a few Indian dishes he'll try out on you if you don't watch out." Honjou looked at the beer in Ran's hand, and grinned. "He'll even serve hamburgers, if that's what you want."

Ran smiled back hesitantly.