The hangar where the Hawk was kept in drydock had once been one of the best places in the world for Takao, but now, every visit just reminded him that instead of enjoying some well-deserved shore leave until the Hawk was refitted and ready for launch, he was permanently removed from her roster and she was classified as in retirement, and if the top brass got their way, neither of them would ever serve again.

That was depressing.

The hangars seemed less crowded than usual, with the removal of the airships attached to the ships in the Victory's convoy in preparation for her departure, until Takao crossed a pile of boxes and beheld the Hammer, one of the personal airships belonging to the Murasakibara fleet. It was painted in their family colours of purple and green, and built for speed and comfort. The Murasakibara clout must have gotten it into the Fleet hangars for a top-speed check-up, since Takao couldn't see anything wrong with it and couldn't imagine someone attacking a Murasakibara without inciting a civil war.

His poor Hawk looked like a rowboat next to it, hanging in her traces with rust and gunpowder stains on her balloon, but six months ago Takao would have bet her speed in the sky against anything short of a dragon in full flight. At least this time she didn't have her engines spread all over the floor, though maybe that was because the Hammer took up so much damn room there was no space for anything else.

"Takao!" Tae hailed him from the landing. He lifted his hand and waved to her. It was nice to have a hookup among the mechanics. And for other things, obviously. "I have your stuff!" she called. "My brother says you owe him big-time for this."

"All that money for the rush job wasn't enough?" Takao said. "'sides, it was Shin-chan, not me."

"He was up all night," said Tae, coming down the stairs. "He says he blames you for introducing that j-e-r-k to him."

Takao sniggered. "Can't be helped," he said. "Ootsubo-san does good work. Midorima recognized that."

Tae nodded, full of pride in her elder brother. "I'll be right with you, I'm just waiting on that," a wave of her hand indicated the Murasakibara airship. "He said he'd be out soon."

Takao nodded and made small talk with Tae- about the job it had been rushing around with the dignitaries leaving after the conference, about most of the senior mechanics still being out going over the Victory so it would be ready to leave at the drop of a hat, about how Miyaji-san really, really needed to get laid, he'd been super touchy lately- until the hatch at the bottom of the Hammer's cabin opened.

Murasakibara Atsushi swung down from the cabin- he was so tall it was more of a drop than a jump- and walked towards them, cleaning his hands on his shirt. It was already covered in oil stains and dirt, but Tae and Takao both winced.

Tae came from a tailoring family; she would have a much better sense of what Murasakibara's clothes cost than anyone here. Takao had picked up things from the rich kids he had met in his short but beautiful time as a commissioned officer. He now owned two, maybe three nice shirts, and none of them anywhere near as nice as that one. To add insult to injury, Takao had counted and the youngest Murasakibara was even younger than Shin-chan, only fifteen this year.

"Tuning's okay," Murasakibara said to Tae. "Call in the cleaners again for the engine rooms."

Tae summoned a tight smile and nodded, which turned into something much more genuine when Murasakibara admitted, "Output values higher than ever without adjustment, the installation went really well. Our parts would be better though."

"Well, when your family starts manufacturing those parts, you send them to me and I'll be sure to put them in," said Tae.

Murasakibara sniffed and started towards the Hawk. "You said you put the same kind of engine in this one," he said. "How's it look?"

"That's a different prototype-" started Tae, then winced as Takao looked at her.

He put his hands up, fighting to smile. "Sorry, is this top-level secrets?" he said. "Should I go?"

Murasakibara looked at Takao, finally registering that he wasn't a mechanic here, probably because the Lieutenant looked, and had endevoured to stay, clean.

"You probably wouldn't understand it anyway," he said.

"I used to fly that thing, you know," said Takao, stung. "I know my way around an engine."

Murasakibara looked at the Hawk. "That thing can still fly?" he said.

Takao's eyes crossed. This spoilt rich brat- "If I could still fly it," he managed. "Tae, I think I'd better just get my stuff and go, Shin-chan will be wondering where I am. The Commander asked for this personally, after all."

"Oh, you work for Akachin," said Murasakibara, successfully one-upping Takao without even trying. Then he lost interest, walking towards the smaller airship.

"Give me a moment, Takao," Tae said. "Murasakibara-san, you can't touch it without clearance, okay? We're not even sure of the full details here, you shouldn't- there he goes." She threw up her hands as Murasakibara hoisted himself into the Hawk. "It's been like this since the Hammer came in. If I only had to deal with people who worked for him, it wouldn't be so bad." She gestured for Takao to follow her and walked towards the back of the hangar. "He references things even the head mechanics haven't heard of yet and they all can't stand him."

"Ha!" said Takao. That sounded familiar.

Tae dug the bundle of clothes out from her locker. "Here you go," she said. "Taisuke said he didn't know if they'd all work out as complete outfit but at least he managed to have the coat, the pants and a few shirts altered in time."

"Great, great," said Takao.

Tae laughed. "He said he worked so hard on these- oh, Takao, it was so funny- that these would be clothes fit for a prince!"

.0.

The hole in the wall that Mitobe's family ran probably wasn't the best place to interrogate mysterious strangers, but since it had a private room, nominal free flow of rice crackers and Hyuuga was mostly certain that no one could listen in on them there over the sound of Mitobe children numbers 6-9 yelling at each other, it had won by default.

Riko crossed her arms. "So," she said. "You know Teppei?" She didn't look her usual self; she hadn't been sleeping. Riko had been pretty torn up about having Kiyoshi in a jail cell- not to mention that Hanamiya Makoto, who had kidnapped her before, was on the loose, again, and it was no wonder she was holding on with her teeth. Her father had warned her that she'd long ago decided not to be involved in his politicking, which left her gnashing her teeth and chasing down the police captains between being debriefed by Fleet Officers.

"Is it true he's one of the Mukan?" said Hyuuga, interrupting Reo's reply. "Aren't they just some hippy radical group out in the Earth Kingdom? What does that have to do with us?"

"The world does not begin and end in Republic City," said Reo. "Though I appreciate that it can seem that way." He turned away from Hyuuga and gently addressed the rest of the group. "A lot of what you've heard is most likely exaggerated or untrue. We aren't all crazy environmentalists, and we're not murderers and saboteurs."

He looked around at all of them, his eyes liquid and warm.

"What is true," said Reo, "is that Teppei used to be one of us."

Hyuuga tried to relax the tense muscles in his jaw before his teeth shattered and he was forced to drink Riko's curry for life. Kiyoshi. This was for Kiyoshi, with his stupid smile and his sharp eyes, and that way he had of packing himself away as though he didn't matter. "We figured it might be something stupid like that."

Not true, Mitobe felt. They had always believed in Kiyoshi.

"He left us over a year ago," said Reo. "He joined because- well, you've all heard of the Bonsai project?"

"A giant mess?" said Hyuuga.

"An undertaking by a coalition of Water Tribe, Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom plutocrats," said Izuki thoughtfully. "They were going to create new cities out in the deserts, to build the infrastructure of the future today. Resources would be…" He looked at Reo. "Extracted with more efficiency and less environmental impact than ever. It was the future."

"Yes," said Reo, holding his gaze. "It was going to be a lot of things."

Koganei crossed his arms. "But that project ran into a lot of problems, right?" he said, screwing up his face. "Terrorist attacks, equipment failure, spirit raids, strikes, bandit attacks, natural disasters…"

Riko shifted. "Dad would complain about those problems," she said, her voice distant. "Things that never made it into the papers. Money went missing on automatic, gains just… never materialised."

"The losses rarely made it into the papers," said Reo, letting steel into his voice. "People driven out of their homes, criminal oversight and negligence, so much corruption that it could have been straight out of the days of old Ba Sing Se… and all outside the boundaries of the known Earth Kingdom jurisdictions, so no one would ever see justice done. Teppei and I… connected, because we thought we could make a difference."

"Then let me guess," said Riko. "When it came time to making a difference, things got more and more different, until… until what, Uncrowned?"

"Something like that," said Reo. "As the movement grew, Teppei began to feel that he couldn't stay true to himself and to our spirit."

"But you do?" said Izuki.

Reo looked down. "I've seen… more of the world since then," he said. "It's not pretty, and it's not nice. But things have to be done, anyway. I respect Teppei for his choices and his determination- but they're not my choices, just like my choices aren't his." He looked up, and his eyes met Hyuuga's. "Regardless, believe me when I say that I'm here much more on Teppei's behalf than ours."

Hyuuga pulled his gaze away and snorted comprehensively. Pull the other one.

"Teppei was one of the core- no, one of the founding members of the collective," said Reo. "His fame made him a target. We… have our own contacts, in Republic City. They think that he still knows something about us. They think they can get him to sell us out if he's… encouraged appropriately."

"Torture," said Riko cooly. "You think they'll torture Teppei to find out what he knows about the Mukan."

"It's a possibility," said Reo. "Commander Akashi is not a forgiving man, and it's well-known that the Fire Nation has been calling for greater force in dealing with their detractors for years, led by the Firelord. It's a pity, when I think about what a lovely boy Sei-chan was."

The silence that ensued was just awkward enough that Reo was able to shake himself out of his reflective silence- jangling as he did so- and lay out a simple plan for removing Kiyoshi from harm: find him and break him out.

"And then we escape Republic City," said Reo. "On my Beauty."

"Aren't the authorities watching the harbour?" asked Izuki. "That was how they almost trapped the smuggler's ships which Hanamiya escaped on, wasn't it?"

"They might well be," Reo allowed, but he smiled, a rueful, wicked, charming smile, which Hyuuga instantly distrusted. "Beauty is up in the mountains and can outfly anything the fleet currently has in service. Skeleton crew, all my best men, and I work on her myself." He bit his lip. "But we've heard that Victory will be leaving Republic City soon, which is going to be our best opening. The longer we wait, the more trumped-up charges they're going to bring against Teppei."

"And, again," said Hyuuga. "You're just doing all this out of the goodness of your heart."

Reo looked at Hyuuga, and Hyuuga was confronted with the disquieting sense that he wouldn't even know if this guy was lying to him. "I think it's a crying shame that they'd imprison a man like Teppei for a crime he didn't commit," said Reo, quietly.

Mitobe stirred. He wanted them to help him? Was that why he'd approached them?

"I thought that you might be able to," Reo corrected them. "But not the way you're thinking. I was hoping to pick up information, background on Teppei's activities. We already have a plan. Involving normal citizens isn't part of it. As far as I'm concerned, you're not involved at all."

Hyuuga twitched.

"Frankly," Reo added, brushing his hair out of his eyes. "You would just get in our way."

.0.

Since Kise was still on some kind of bullshit lockdown, Tetsu had vanished into thin air, and Kagami had gone with his brother who knew where, Aomine had been stuck with finishing the shopping by himself and then wandering back to an attic with only Nigou in it. He was staring at the ceiling thinking about maybe having to get up and cook for himself when there was a noise. Aomine sat up. Kagami had some nerve just leaving for hours like-

The attic windows rattled as Kise clung to the outside of the building trying to get inside. The latch, never too steady, finally gave way, and Kise, grumbling vivid obscenities, climbed in.

"What," said Aomine, lying back down. "It's you."

Kise looked wounded. "Aominechi, we haven't seen each other in a week!" he said. "That's all you have to say to me?"

"Keep the window open, it's stuffy in here," responded Aomine. He sat up again and stared in disgust as Nigou, who had watched the housebreaking with a complete lack of interest, threw himself onto Kise, licking his face and purr-yipping in pleasure.

Kise rolled his eyes, picking the lion-dog up in his arms and burying his face in Nigou's thick mane. "Where's Kagamichi?" he said. "Midorimachi said he was still enforcing bedrest on him."

Aomine scowled. "He got called out by his brother."

"Ah," said Kise. He held Nigou a little tighter, thinking it over while the lion-dog panted happily. "You... met him?"

"Yeah," said Aomine.

"Are- are you okay?" said Kise, climbing up the frame to peer at Aomine's face.

Aomine contemplated this question.

"What the hell is his problem?" he said, finally.

Kise flopped himself down on the rolled-up sleeping pad. "I don't know," he said. "He's a bit- Akashichi is- intense."

Aomine grunted.

"Kurokochi left me," Kise said, as though Aomine cared. "I thought he would be here, I asked Midorimachi and he said that he hadn't seen Kurokochi since he left him this morning. He just left me there! He didn't say goodbye or anything."

"Maybe he was sick of being on that stupid island," said Aomine. He was sick of being in this stupid room.

Kise slumped down and said, "Maybe I missed him and left him on the island."

Aomine snorted. It was possible, just not likely. "Then he'll be back at night like usual." Tired as usual, and close-mouthed about what was going on with Aida and Kiyoshi, with Satsuki and with Kise. Kise tickled Nigou's stomach and Nigou let him until the lion-dog rolled over and began to growl.

Kise lunged off the sleeping platform and grabbed for his glider. Aomine went absolutely still. Nigou wasn't facing the ladder, there wasn't more water in the attic than the stale bucket of water in the corner-

Huge wings flapped, blocking out the sun from the windows facing the bay. The dragon from this morning landed on the Arena, shaking the whole building.

"NOT ON THE ROOF," they heard Kagami roar, but the dragon's only answer was to snort steam and lean over to look through the window, tapping on the glass with it's long curving claws until Kise walked over and pushed it open. "Raku!" said Kise, sticking out his head.

Long coils shifting and making the roof creak alarmingly, the dragon let Kagami down and he climbed into the attic with Kise's help.

Kagami patted the dragon's snout and said, "Go away, traitor."

Kise waved to the dragon. "Bye Raku!" he said. "Say hi to Akashichi."

Aomine and the dragon snorted in unison, and the building shuddered as it launched and flew away.

Kagami snarled an inarticulate noise, walked over to the bucket, and stuck his head in, raising a cloud of steam. He sat back on his heels and wiped the water off his face with his shirt.

"Bad day?" said Kise sympathetically.

"How'd you stay with him a year and not kill him?" said Kagami. "No, I mean, kill yourself."

"It would probably be easier to kill myself," said Kise. "I thought you were hiding from him- I mean, if he knew where you were before this, why did he-"

"Raku always knows where I am," said Kagami. "It's how he found me before. I can't believe he had Alex bring him from the mountains just for this."

"Before?" said Kise.

Kagami looked resigned. "We've had this fight before," he said. "I'm not going back."

Yet, thought Aomine. "Get something cooking, then," he said. "I'm hungry."

"Have you just been sitting here all day waiting for someone to feed you?" said Kagami, exasperated.

"Maybe," said Aomine. He was kind of uncomfortable, now that he thought about it. He climbed off the sleeping platform and checked the bucket to see if there was still water left to wash his face in.

"I can only make something really quickly then I have to go," said Kagami. He looked sideways at Aomine. "I just came back to say I'll be out the rest of the evening."

Aomine stared back.

"Doing what?" said Kise.

"The thing to close out the conference party schedule tonight," said Kagami. "Alex is going to be there." They both stared at him. He took a deep, calming breath. "That asshole is threatening to cut off my accounts if I don't go back."

Aomine thought about that. "Fuck him," he suggested.

"He also wants to throw you guys into jail," said Kagami, "I mean, I don't- shit," he said, cutting himself off. "Alex thinks he'll calm down a little if I show up and play nice for a couple of hours. I don't know. But I might as well try it."

"I can go too," said Kise. "I mean, I have a standing invite to all these things, I can be there. We'll go together." He looked at Aomine, jerking his head meaningfully. "I bet we can get plus ones, you're only royalty. Aominechi can come too!"

"I can't go, I don't have anything to wear to your stupid party," Aomine protested, still caught up in wishing it was easy to walk away. Then his brain processed the rest of it. "What? What?"

"There'll be food!" said Kise. He crouched next to Aomine, and put his arm around the waterbender. "Master Alex is way hot, too- she's a really great firebender, she's who they wanted to teach me before Akashichi stepped in. She taught Kagamichi, right? I bet you'll love meeting her. And she has got boobs out to-"

Kagami rolled his eyes and grabbed the bucket. "I'll fill this up and leave a note for Momoi and Kuroko," he said. "We can deal with the clothes thing."

"He should cut us loose," said Aomine, once Kagami was down the ladder. "He should just go, and we wouldn't-"

"No, Aominechi," said Kise. "This isn't- how much do you remember about the night in the cove?"

"There were bloodbenders," said Aomine. "Everything hurt a lot. You went all glowy and Mako got away on the back of an Air Bison."

Kise hesitated. "Yes," he said. "But he also- there's reason to believe that Kagamichi might be a target for being the prince. Akashichi might just want Kagamichi safe while he-"

Aomine cut him off. "What do you want," he said, tiredly.

"He's the one who needs to be taken care of," said Kise softly. "He's the one who has to be watched. Not a lot of people even know who he is or what he looks like, but now that Hanamiya asshole does, and he's still out there. I'm going away soon, so it's all on you. You have to look out for Kagamichi, while I'm not here."

.0.

Kagami held out the scarlet silk coat, gorgeously embroidered with flame patterns in black and gold. "This is what you want me to wear?" he said. "Why don't you just put a sign saying 'fire nation royalty' on my back and send me out wearing that?"

"That would lack subtlety," said Midorima, looking put out. "Besides, anyone can wear dragons and red clothes."

"Ascending dragons, the trailing ash pattern and so much gold thread someone could metalbend this?" Kagami squinted. "And the collar on this shirt cut so that everyone can see my necklace, that's classy. That's real classy."

"It was the best we could come up on short notice," said Midorima, crossing his arms. "You may not be aware, but you are unusually tall and it is often difficult to find clothing suited to your size."

"You're taller than I am," pointed out Kagami. "How're yours?" He called to Aomine. "See anything you like?"

"I can't believe you're giving a criminal access to my wardrobe," muttered Midorima.

"I can't believe you ratted me out to him," said Kagami.

"I can't believe you've got all this money and your clothes are so boring," said Aomine. "How's this?"

Midorima looked scandalised. "Those are underclothes," he said. "You're supposed to wear them UNDER full trousers!"

"You're wearing striped fur with a green shirt and orange buttons," said Aomine.

Midorima swelled in indignation. Kagami rolled his eyes, swapped his white shirt with the black one Aomine had picked out, and said, "Go put it on and see," ending the argument.

"I don't have a dressing room, he'll have to change here," said Midorima.

"You people have rooms just for putting clothes on?" Aomine said, as sarcastically as he could manage. It wasn't much, given that he couldn't stop stroking his fingers over the fine material and tiny stitching.

It was so… so nice. Aomine was getting better about not having money, but he still couldn't believe that Kagami had given this all up and didn't seem to care if he never got any of it back. Midorima talked as though he was only temporarily tolerating these circumstances- the fanciest house Aomine had ever been in- out of necessity and considered the attic a festering rathole; on the way over Kagami had kept on saying 'after this', as though he holding onto going back to the attic tonight as a lifeline.

"He is worried, you know," said Midorima, quietly, as though Aomine was deaf or something.

"Yeah, worried it's going to leak out that there's no heir," said Kagami. "Worried- sorry, concerned- they might actually have to talk about me in public."

"Of course they're concerned, do you have any idea some of the rumors that have claimed to have the second Fire Nation Prince at the center of them? Or someone masquerading as one?" said Midorima. "Obviously you wouldn't be scamming villagers or stealing from wealthy idiots, but do you think the public knows that? Do you think someone who wants to attack you will know or care?"

"He's tried that line on me before," said Kagami. "He only cares now that it's about his reputation. People don't even know who I am, how can they come after me?"

"He's worried about your safety," said Midorima. "He doesn't want you hurt or dead, can't you at least accept that?"

"That's not the same thing as giving a damn about me," said Kagami. "Keep your nose out of it."

"Fine," said Midorima, picking up his inexplicable box of pickled herring. "I've only known both you unreasonable firebenders for fifteen years, I'm sure I have no input here."

"So am I," said Kagami, with an air of finality. "Aomine, you done?"

"Guess so," said Aomine. Kagami did not have his life together. "How's it look?" He'd picked out soft white pants, very simple, and tried on the white shirt Kagami rejected. It really did cut to a deep neck-revealing V, but Aomine was very proud of the choker he'd brought along to wear: a full set of Polar Bear Dog teeth, gleaming ivory. It wasn't shiny or valuable, but it was his.

Kagami made a pleased noise. "That's good," he said. Aomine tried to look at Kagami as a stranger would, size him up too, but he still looked like Kagami, even in black and red and gold.

"You look like a poorly-made snowman," said Midorima, ruining the moment. He frowned, leaning in to examine Aomine's choker. "Is that-"

"Yeah," said Aomine, shrugging. "Hunted it myself prowling around the village a few years ago. Sold the fur, but kept the teeth." That money had bought Satsuki her battle-fans, beautifully sharp metal in silk sleeves.

Midorima hmmed. "Not bad," he said, grudgingly. "Lieutenant Takao will be coming around soon, we should be ready."

"You bring him everywhere?" said Kagami.

"If he's going to spend his time following me around, he might as well make himself useful," said Midorima loftily. "He's getting us a car."

Aomine perked up. He liked cars.

"It's down the street," said Kagami. Kagami was a spoilsport. "We could walk there faster than we'd take to climb into the car."

"It's not at the embassy," said Midorima.

Kagami closed his eyes. He gave off the strong impression of a man whose self-control was creaking under immense strain. Aomine wondered if Commander Akashi did the same thing, or the Fire Lord. "Where is it, then," he said.

"The Republic City Four Elements," said Midorima. "The Imperial Penthouse Suite."

.0.

The party was in full swing by the time Commander Akashi entered the room.

He was accompanied by Master Alex Garcia and his ADCs for tonight, a non-bender whose sword belt dangled empty and a nervous firebender who looked like he was about to sweat right through his dress whites. The non-bender looked dead-eyed and the firebender looked about sixteen: Akashi couldn't even be bothered to pretend to take the threat against his life seriously. Kise knew for a fact that they'd offered him a squad to escort him at all times.

"He's just wearing his uniform," said Aomine, disappointed. He had flat-out refused to pick up Nigou, sitting sadly by their legs, in case he got fur on his borrowed clothes.

"He always does," explained Kise. "He doesn't want special treatment because of his birth."

Murasakibara's friend, blue-eyed and beautiful, greeted Akashi gracefully as the Commander's party disembarked from the elevators. Akashi, usually polite to a fault, caught sight of Kise and swept right past his host, leaving the man to shrug and turn to greeting a barely dressed and very fashionable Alex Garcia.

"Yeah, if he never talks about it, no one would ever know," said Kagami sarcastically. He picked up Nigou in one hand and took hold of Aomine with the other. "We'll go meet Alex."

"Watch the shirt," said Aomine.

"That's my shirt," pointed out Kagami.

"Watch your shirt," said Aomine.

Kise sputtered, watching them go. "Doesn't Akashichi want to talk to you-" Akashi and Kagami passed by each other, backs straight, eyes front, as if the other wasn't even there. "-guess not," muttered Kise.

Akashi advanced on Kise and gave the younger boy a Look. It said, you are here, and I can't throw you out the window, but You Will Regret This.

Kise twitched. "I- I-" he stammered.

"I've received a report from Officer Momoi about her part in the Red Monsoons incident and her account of meeting Taiga," said Akashi. His voice conveyed absolutely nothing. He watched two tall figures in an alcove, Kagami eating steadily as he introduced Aomine and Nigou to Alex.

"Er, yeah," said Kise. "He didn't tell us who he was until later. They wanted to travel a bit, so we all went together! We couldn't afford passage to Republic City on their savings, or to stay in the port, so he topped us up and told us where the money came from. Then we all came to Republic City and became the Lion-dogs."

"Did you know his identity before that?" said Akashi.

"I guessed," said Kise. The Avatar raised his eyes to the Commander's, even though he topped his former teacher by a head. Kise couldn't say why he'd suspected it, even before Kagami had emptied his accounts to bring them to Republic City. Kagami could have been any sixteen-year-old runaway firebender from a wealthy family, and it wasn't like Kise hadn't come across any fake princes, travelling the United Republic and Earth Kingdom with the Victory.

They didn't even look alike.

"You didn't tell me that you'd met Taiga in Kiyoshi Island," said Akashi.

"You didn't tell me your brother was travelling," said Kise.

Commander Akashi almost appeared bored. You had to know him very well, which Kise was almost sure he did, to notice that he was furious. "You didn't tell me when I returned that he was here and that you were brawling with him for money." Ah. Yes, furious.

"I tried to tell you about our pro-bending team," pointed out Kise. "You weren't interested."

"Don't prevaricate," said Akashi. "You had no intention of informing me that you'd had contact with Taiga at all."

"I didn't know you cared," said Kise, recklessly, and Akashi's eyes flashed at him. Kise took a big gulp of his drink and wondered which of them the hotel would charge if Akashi immolated him right here. "Not that it's any of my business," he mumbled, into the tangy fruit juice. "I mean, you could be talking to him right now, or you could have visited him while he was getting better, or in the attic, like Midorimachi did..."

Akashi's eyebrow had lifted. "You are going to lecture me on brotherly feeling?" he said.

"When is the Victory leaving?" said Kise, feeling they were on shaky ground there. "I haven't heard anything on the island, but I'm all ready to go whenever."

"You are correct in one surmise," said Akashi, turning his head. Kagami had somehow dropped Nigou down Alex's shirt, and the ADCs had been recruited to steady her and go down after him. "My and my brother's affairs are no concern of yours. I am leaving tomorrow morning. You are not coming with me."

Kise's mouth fell open. "Because I didn't tell you about Kagamichi?" he demanded.

"No," said Akashi, witheringly. "I was never planning on bringing you. You would be too much of a target and a liability. It was a mistake for me to return to Republic City in the first place, I created this opening for them. When I bring the Victory back north, the fleet will stamp out all traces of the Mukan organisation, and they will go back to being a group of quixotic malcontents singing protest songs and staging hunger strikes. We don't need you tagging along for that."

Kise gaped. "But-" he said. "But I could help! You know I'm a target, you know they'll want me too-"

The Commander looked deeply unconvinced. "If your best argument is that you'll make a more desirable piece of bait, you might as well stay in Republic City and draw them into the arms of the police force and the remaining investigative members of the Fleet. Commander Shirogane will be returning with Emperor as scheduled in the evening, and he will take over handling matters here."

He flicked his gaze back over at Kagami. "I'll deal with Taiga after that," he said. "Feel free to continue making him- indeed, both of us- none of your concern."