First of all, I'd like to say thank you to all of you who reviewed, and everyone else who is reading this story. At long last, I have finished Part II, the middle section. The next one will be the last, so I'll be taking a little longer. It'll be pretty long, though. As always, your reviews are welcome and highly encouraged. I hadn't expected to recieve 12 reviews for a first chapter, so I was assez contente when I read each of them.

Disclaimer: I don't own D N Angel. I do own this alternate universe, though. I also own all of your happy reviews! Whee!

PART II

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"These are classified reports that cannot be released to the general public," the uniformed man sitting before her related in monotone. "You must hereby relinquish all copies in your possession to the police immediately."

Riku sighed. Just when was starting to get interesting, They had to step in. It was always like this. It wouldn't surprise her if They were actually "watching over" her. In fact, They'd probably done that since she left the police force. How else would they know she was "secretly" working on the Dark case? Satoshi would have known something was up, but he wouldn't go so far as to assume that she had stolen- er, borrowed those documents. In any case, she wasn't about to give up her resources to easily. Risa had spent a good ten minutes of hard work to find those. There it was: another reason the police were outdated. "Stupid freaks…" she mumbled under her breath.

"I'm sorry; what was that?" It was that darn monotone again. The police could really do better in their public relations positions choices. That would certainly make all the difference.

"I didn't say anything. Oh, about those reports: I'm sorry, but I no longer possess any copies of them whatsoever. A particularly strong virus happened to worm its way in and, well, you can figure out the rest. That wasn't a very prideful moment for me, let me tell you. It corrupted many other files that I had thought were properly encoded against hacking in general." Riku smiled fakely, hoping he would buy it. She knew he would; it was what she'd been trained for, after all. She then dismissed any ideas of printed copies with a comment about some accidentally spilled coffee earlier that morning. With no other apparent holes to poke at, the man reluctantly left, his back turned to her radiantly shining "theater face." There was no way that she would give up any information she had to Them.

As her sparkling-clean glass door swung shut behind the intelligence officer, she caught sight of a suspicious shadow in the corner of the window next to the door.

So it was him… Satoshi…

Of course, he would do this, just to get back at her. She was the one who'd ended their relationship, wasn't she?

Riku rubbed her forehead with her hands. It wasn't like her to think about such things for so long. Now that the boring man had left, she had more issues to take care of, such as hiding her tracks. It was true that sometimes, detectives have to act like criminals to catch them. But, as many of her colleagues would agree, that was part of the fun. On the other hand, though, it was no fun if you were caught.

"Risa, would you run a checklist on our security systems, please?"

"Right away," came the answer. Riku could hear the small sounds of keys being pressed on Risa's keyboard. Almost immediately, her assistant read off a short list of needed upgrades. "The tracking system needs to work faster, and the firewalls need to be reinforced."

"Is that it?" When she received the confirmation, Riku continued. "Then go ahead. There's no use in trying to save money anymore, is there? We've been past that stage for quite a while now."

--

Daisuke slipped around the circular wall support, which was one of many in the main display hall of the museum. He still had some kinks to work out of tonight's plan. That pesky security camera was turned in just the right angle to cut off his preferred escape route: the high window. He quickly scanned the windows again, trying to find at least one that wasn't in range of the camera. Finding none, Daisuke cursed. This would be the first time that he wouldn't be able to use what had baffled police in the past: his black wings.

He was quite fond of those wings. Each feather held a special memory for him, tied to a significant place or event.

He remembered the first one he had gotten. Daisuke had been five years old at the time. The day he had met Toto-chan, his preschool playmate, a mysterious black feather had appeared on his pillow. As he'd reached for the strange object, he had heard a voice whispering in his ear.

"Kono wa kimi no kuroi tsubasa desu…"

As if compelled by some other force, Daisuke had taken the feather and hidden it in a desk drawer. The next one came a few weeks later, when he had gotten a pet rabbit for his birthday. When he had moved its cage into his room, the feather appeared on top of the metal bars, seeming to just pop into existence. This time the voice said something a bit different.

"Sore wa kimi no sadame desu…"

Over time, the feathers had piled up, and one day, they formed themselves into a pair of wings. He had watched in amazement as his store of what were essentially memories changed into its new form. One last time, he heard the voice, the voice of… his wings…

"Kimi wa DARK desu. Massugu ni mirai e ikiru."

Since that day, he had begun to steal, small things at first, but soon moving along to bigger heists. It was not too long before he encountered the delightful challenge of stealing famous pieces of art. He'd warmed up to the task quickly, devising flawless strategies and lifting masterpieces from all over the world. Then, he'd returned to Japan.

He had not been to Japan since his parents had moved to America, taking him with them. It had long been a suspicion of his that he stole art because he himself was an artist. In America, he had taken or been forced to take an abundance of art classes. At the age of seven, it had been Basic Painting. Then, he'd moved along to Intermediate, and even Advanced. Along the way, he'd also studied sculpture and clay. Each class had furthered his interest, as did his classmates' approval.

The ornate clock in the museum struck two o'clock, jarring Daisuke out of his thoughts and back to the present. Time was running out. It was a good thing he worked well under pressure.

--

"Well, I think it's been long enough," Riku said. She and Risa had been waiting for hours now, to be sure Satoshi's henchmen weren't still hanging around. What did she do to deserve him stalking her? Ok, she knew the answer to that one: she went out with him in the first place. But she didn't know it would turn out like this! Really, you'd think a grown man wouldn't act so childish. Sometimes, her life was just so frustrating.

Risa tapped a few keys on her keyboard in answer. "Yes, I think we can close up now." She flipped the cover of her laptop down into the "off" position. The click was audible in the quiet room. Risa began to straighten up her desk as Riku did the same on her side. For a while, the only sounds were those of shuffling papers.

Riku glanced at the clock. It read 8:51 pm, 21 minutes after they were supposed to close. Tonight, she would have to look over her notes from that murder case again. Monday nights were always boring.

Wait. Today was Monday? But that meant…

She rushed out of the office, grabbing her jacket on the way out, leaving Risa to lock up. It was already dark outside, the streetlights just turning on. Her feet pounded the sidewalk as her figure was washed by pools of yellow light over and over again. How could she be so careless? Today was the day Dark would appear at the National Art Gallery!

Panting, she skidded to a stop. She leaned against a pillar in front of the Art Gallery, trying to catch her breath. Her watch displayed… Huh? Her watch was gone! Riku spent precious minutes trying to find her timepiece before remembering that she had been in the middle of dismantling it and reconstructing it out of boredom earlier. Then, she'd just left it. On her desk. Back in the office.

"Dammit! Out of all the days I take my watch apart, why did it have to be today?" Shaking her head, she ran inside, hoping she wasn't too late.

The giant clock mounted on the far wall of the Gallery struck nine, reminding her that she could have just come inside first. Riku rubbed her eyes. She really needed to get some more sleep. A loud click-y sound echoed through the hall, and she thought it was Dark before the voice on the intercom began to speak.

"The National Art Gallery is now closed. We would like to thank each of you for visiting today. Please make your way to the exit. The security guards will be locking each exhibit in ten minutes. Again, thank you all for coming."

The larger lights flicked off, leaving just enough light along the sides to guide people to the exit. It was then that Riku noticed something strange. The Shirahime no Tsuki sculpture directly across the hall began to glow. Its marble surface shone a pure, blinding white. Riku raised her arms to her eyes to block the light. At that instant, a dark shadow swept across her vision, and when she looked up, the statue was gone.

Gone! Dark had struck again!

She rushed up to the display area, where it had been fenced off around the base. Now, a section of it had been knocked over, and there were a few drag marks in that direction. Judging by the visible evidence, Dark had escaped to the right and down the hall. But Riku wasn't so sure. Supposedly, no one had ever caught Dark, which meant that he was too smart to leave a trail like this. So where could he have gone? Riku tried to visualize the crime in her mind.

He would have moved the statue over, and then picked it up, so as to avoid any other marks on the ground. But then? She scanned the surrounding area, but they were spotless as well. There was no sign of anything there. So, he could have left that way, but there could also be other possibilities, such as…

Riku raised her head to the ceiling. A window there seemed to be missing its glass panes. He could have left that way, but… A swiveling motion on the wall caught her attention. A security camera was mounted there, its red light continuously blinking. The camera's vision would cut right across the window! There was no way Dark would take that route; his freedom depended on his anonymity. The description she had read came from witnesses' sightings, not from any concrete source.

She could say for certain that Dark did not escape through the main entrance. There were too many people, and she would have felt the rush of air if he'd passed her. So now, there were only two or three directions left. If she could eliminate just another one…

A hand fell on her shoulder. "What are you doing here? We've asked all the remaining patrons to exit the Gallery immediately. You should leave now," issued the gravelly voice of a security guard. She turned to look at him; surely he would know who she was. "I'm-" she began, but the man's partner ran up to them before she could finish.

"Do you know who that is?" he asked, almost frantically. "She's Harada Riku! The lady who's been titled the most successful detective of all time! You can't tell her to leave!"

Riku smiled as the first man looked at her incredulously. "After all," she added, "what if I'm Dark? Or one of the other people you've asked to leave?"

"Uh, duh…" the man spluttered in the shadow of her radiant smile.

"That's what I thought. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some work to do." She turned back to the scene of the crime as the man's partner pulled him away. She was running out of time. Dark was running away with the Shirahime no Tsuki while she stood here dawdling. There was only one right answer…

Riku squeezed her eyes shut and decided to trust her instincts this time. Dark went… this way! She ran down that path with a sinking feeling. What if she had chosen the wrong way? Then, Dark would have escaped and she would have failed. But there was no time to think about that now. Blindly she ran on, fueled by a sense of urgency.

-Merodi-chan, 3.14.06. Happy Pi Day!