FIVE

It is getting a chilly outside as we race down the steps and onto the street. We want to be quick and cover as much area as possible, but we don't want to attract attention, which might be impossible, considering we're two fairly young girls wandering around the streets of Los Angeles, in what is rapidly becoming night. About the only worse flag we could set off is if we got out the map and started studying it, thus looking lost and vulnerable.

We take the left-hand path as we leave the safety of the lights around the apartment. The theory is that we will loop around and come back, eventually. We make small talk on the way around; or rather Minako tries to drag information from me about Harris. It does serve as a distraction to prevent us from dwelling on the fact this may well be a fruitless search. There are only two of us and LA is very large. There are so many areas the youma could be that we are not. Artemis keeps a few feet ahead of us down in the shadows along the edge of walls.

"Are you sure?" Minako is saying.

"Yes, I'm sure," I answer, "What I mean is: he is nice, and has been very helpful, but…"

"Most men usually won't be willing to do so much nice stuff for a person if they weren't interested that way," she counters.

"But that's not the sort of thing I have time for."

"You made time for Urawa-kun."

It's all I can do not to laugh at that one. If Urawa hadn't been psychic the relationship, or whatever it was probably wouldn't have worked nearly so well. I do have fond feelings for him, still, that I can't deny, but I never quite understood what those feelings really meant. I liked having him around. I like talking to him. I miss the fact that we haven't spoken in a while but despite what everyone seems to think nothing like that ever happened between us. The most he got was a peck on the cheek when he was leaving at the station and we hugged.

I didn't officially even get to tell him I was going to the States, but knowing him he knows anyway…and that still is a little creepy, "No, not really. He mostly just agreed to fit around my schedules and managed to pop up at convenient lulls. We haven't written to each other in over a year."

Minako gives a slightly frustrated sigh, "I think you're trying to change the subject," she says.

"We have more important things to worry about. A relationship of that nature would have been difficult with just my work schedule alone, add this on top and there's just no point."

"That's really the sort of thing you should let him decide."

"Surely if he was interested he would have mentioned that before now." I can hear myself sounding irritated. My voice is a lot more clipped and snippy than I had intended.

"Maybe he's nervous," she says, "Asking out a smart, beautiful, intelligent, caring, foreign woman…that has to be a bit intimidating for a person. Alternately and I hate to say this, you might have totally missed it. You're pretty oblivious to that sort of thing, Ami-chan."

I scramble for some means to change the subject, "What about you?" I ask.

"What about me?" she turns back towards me. I had stopped to try and shake the irritability out of my head, and let things slide.

"I mean…what have you been doing? We kept Harris busy with anecdotes of the concert and everything, and then with all this I never got the chance to ask what you've been up to or if you've seen any of the others recently?"

"I've done a little modeling," she explains, "I've been spending some time in Europe, as you may have guessed. I have a sister, apparently," she shrugs, "Boss-san and I talked Rei-chan into working a little again. She and I did a modeling stint together in New York. She might actually still be out there."

I'm not able to say anything for a moment. My brain can't quite fathom the idea that Rei was talked into that, "You and Rei-chan?" I ask her.

"Well, it's not like that," Minako remarks.

I blink at her for a moment, "What's not like…?" but my answer is cut short, by the sounds of someone screaming and yelling.

Artemis follows suit, thundering back towards us down the alleyway, shouting and we tear off quickly in the direction of the noise before we're even able to think about what we're doing properly. Instinct. Pure and simple. Which, of course, for some reason over-writes that one portion of the brain that points out we should henshin, until Artemis shouts that at us, also.

Around the corner, we're almost on top of the source of the problem, before we do so. That blanket of warmth and power, wrapping around from head to toe, energizing…sharpening…and jolting back to reality all in the space of a few seconds. Blinking for a moment, not quite recognizing Venus next to me, golden hair, shining in the reflection of car lights zipping down the nearby bridge, as we stand below in the alley. It's been so long since I last did this, and there were times I didn't even think that I'd be able to any more or would have to ever again. I'm latently hoping that we didn't just give a homeless person sweet dreams, or nightmares.

"Quickly," Venus remarks, and we run again, around the corner.

I can just make out a woman being held against the wall of the alley, by large strong hands. The owner of the hands is in shadow, growling something unintelligible, and the woman is struggling and kicking, and thrashing her head around to try and prevent them from touching her face.

"Something seems strange here…" I say.

Venus nods.

Artemis crouches down in the shadow of some boxes.

"Let her go!" we say in unison.

There's some kind of response from the alleyway. This adds to the unusual factor. It almost makes sense, something rare in youma. I feel my spine grow cold, and it's not just the short skirt in the strange climate.

The woman twists her head towards her and her eyes don't seem to be able to focus on us.

"I don't see you letting her go!" Venus continues. I can feel the air around her humming at a higher vibration as she twists her hands in a silent power command. The bright beam cracks over the top of us illuminating the alleyway ahead brilliantly for a fraction of a second enough for us to see that this is not a youma, but some other kind of assailant. Shocked by the brilliance he lets go of the woman moving his hands to shield his face and stumbling backwards into the opposite wall.

I pelt him with a small amount of hail for a few moments as we push forward hoping to force him back away from the woman. He seems to think better of attacking and stumbles away down the alley.

"Mercury!" Venus says, switching back to Japanese, "You check her. I'll make sure he's gone."

I nod, and move towards the woman, who is understandably in shock, but is rather incoherent for other reasons, not quite apparent. I check her over hoping to assess if he'd injured her in some way before we got there. Her hair is streaked with red and blonde and black. She has make-up on but especially around the eyes it's smudging. Fake nails, some of which are broken off and bleeding. Her head lolls as I try to talk to her, about the only thing I manage to make out is that she apparently likes my hair. She won't tell me her name, or anything else useful, but she does know some very colorful language.

"Is she alright?" Venus comes back fairly quickly lamenting the maze that is the alleyways around here.

"She needs a hospital…" I relent.

"He hurt her?"

"She's on drugs," I remove my hand from her forehead and put my glove back on.

Venus disappears in shimmer and Minako pulls out her cell phone, "Is it 911 or 999 here? I can never remember."

An hour later we're talking to police and medical professionals at the hospital I work at. The woman is very close to overdose and has minor injuries. Speculation is that the man was probably her pimp, or a disappointed client. We're telling the slight fabrication that we heard the screaming, and came running to find the man disappearing and the woman on the ground. We're thanked for vigilance but cautioned that it's not safe for the two of us to be wandering around so late at night ourselves, and to take more steps. The policeman suggests 'mace'. Minako explains to me quickly, in Japanese, that he does not mean the medieval weapon, but some sort of repellent spray. They call it 'pepper spray' in some of our textbooks I realize, particularly nasty if it hits you in your face.

"Maybe we should limit our patrols to during the day?" Minako remarks, as I take her down the corridor to see the first girl, given we're there anyway, "It'll be safer…and they don't seem to care what time of day it is when they attack, at least they didn't used to."

I chew on this, "I won't be able to help you much," I point out.

"I did this for months in England with no one but Artemis, and not nearly so strong power wise back then for a while," she counters, "and I do at least have Artemis with me here."

"I can help if I have a day off…" I say, even though she's shaking her head, "I don't want this to ruin your vacation…and it's my place to help as much as it is yours."

She snorts, dismissively, "Better impede on my vacation than ruin your career."

"Amy!" I look up to find one of the reception people in the doorway, "Dr. Cassien said you might still be here. Large group being brought in. Can you help?"

"Go, go," Minako urges before I can ask her if it's alright, or apologize.

I find myself grabbing a random white coat from the break room on the way, and following him out into the corridor, "What is it? Car accident? Shooting?"

"We don't know. Details are very sketchy…" We make it back out to the area that is sometimes triage, just as the ambulances arrive.

Seven people are brought in, most of them unconscious, a couple injured, one semi-coherent, but rocking and mumbling.

The reports come filtering through from the few not injured or catatonic friends who arrive shortly after the ambulance that they were coming back, in a group, from some kind of bar towards the university, when something attacked them. I find my heart up in my throat again at that word 'something' not 'someone' or 'some gang' but something. Several of them tried to fight it, but were thrown around like rag dolls. The police do not seem thrilled by the 'it' qualifier, and press for more details, apparently feeling they're trying to cover for someone, or cover themselves.

We wind up having to ask one of the police officers to leave the exam room because of the attitude he was manifesting towards the patient, who was already severely traumatized. Given everyone's description of the 'thing' is fairly similar, finally the police relent and decide that the attacker was wearing some kind of Halloween costume and on PCP.

I feel my stomach sink. It's not that I wish we hadn't saved the woman because the man would more than likely have killed her and these people will hopefully survive…but that our youma out there, attacking groups of people now, and we're no closer to finding out where or what it is. Just that it's definitely here.

I make sure I know exactly where they say they were attacked, so that we can add it to our map. Cassien ushers me off shift at almost 9 a.m. when it becomes apparent we really can't do anything about the victims lack of consciousness. I find Minako asleep on a cot in the back room snuggling her phone.

Waking Minako is fairly easy, just the presence of my hand about to touch her shoulder and her eyes open and she blinks up at me, "You're done?" she asks, half in English, half in Japanese.

I nod, "They've told me to go on home, and take the rest of the day."

"Ami-chan…" Minako chides, "You're the only person I've ever met who can make free time seem like punishment!"

I flush.

"Come on, come on. Let's go out for breakfast. My treat!"

I know better than to protest, because I don't have the energy for another argument, and another round of platitudes. Minako seems to know the area better than I do even though I've been living here for almost a year. I remember hazily that she has been here before while shooting…something…and she and Artemis were also running around here the past few days with a map and everything. She finds a fairly quiet restaurant. The sort my mother would call a 'hole in the wall', but just the smells coming out of the door and down the street are enough to make me ten times as hungry than I was already.

We sit down in a booth, and Minako orders us both coffee. I lean on the table and massage my temples. We both strategically avoid talking about anything for about five minutes, until the coffee arrives and the waitress agrees to wait for one of us to signal her before coming over to take the order.

Minako says, "So…"

And I answer, "Yes…"

And we lapse back into silence again, drinking.

The waitress comes over and fills our cups with more of the steaming brown bitter liquid, "If you guys are interested I can have the chef just whip up some of the all around breakfasts." she says, "Looks like it's been a long night. Hows about I bring some chocolate chip muffins over for you to get started on…?"

We both agree that whatever it was she just said would be an absolutely excellent idea, wonderful, and she disappears humming to herself and randomly attacking other people eating in the restaurant with refills of coffee as she goes.

I try not to rest my head down on the table. It has a plastic protective surface resting over the blue and red checked cloth on it but that's decidedly sticky, even though the waitress wiped it down for us before we sat.

"Did we actually learn anything we didn't know?" Minako asks.

I sigh, and circle my wrists around to pop them, "What little I heard from the victims talking it is a youma."

"Hm-mmm," she says, muted, massaging her own temples, "and it's strong…" she sighs.

"Well…it's been going on unchecked for…" I shake my head, "actually I thought I heard one of them say they someone came and helped...but..."

The waitress returns and checks how we like eggs cooked, and sets the muffins down, "What is wrong?" she asks, "Did somebody die?"

"Not yet," Minako answers.

The waitress shrugs and disappears.

"So…" I say.

Minako looks up. She picks some of the chocolate chips off the muffin and sucks on them slowly, thinking.

"Who were you talking to on the phone?"

She raises her head. The look is innocent but devilish at the same time, "What makes you think I was talking to someone?"

"Well, now I also think you're plotting something…" I point out. I act offended, but the distraction is welcome. Anything to not think about the youma for a few minutes.

"Ah, well, you'll find out soon enough."

"As long as it's not Harris," I remark before I can stop myself.

Her devilish smile widens, and I realize what I said, "No," she says, "You can rest easy on that score, for now. You'll find out."

I've only eaten the bottom off my muffin when the waitress brings out the breakfasts she was speaking of: scrambled eggs, or omelettes, sausage, bacon, hash brown potatoes, and three pancakes each. She also sets down bowls of fresh fruit, melon, grape, pineapple, orange and strawberries.

Minako eats her strawberries first, dipping them in the cream on the pancakes. I opt for the bacon, instead, eating with my fingers for a while to avoid clumsiness with the knife and fork.

"Maybe we should have gone to your flat…" Minako says.

"It's okay," I say, "Would people really care what we talk of? (Besides we can just talk like this)."

"No," she says, "Probably not. Especially now. (But there's plenty of leftovers there and I probably have a very sulky cat, given we couldn't leave a window open for him, lest we come back to an empty place.)" she checks the time, opening and closing her phone.

I excuse myself to the bathroom.

When I come back she's had the leftovers boxed and is answering a text message, "Ne" she says, "(Did you try to get hold of anyone else about this? Or at all?)"

I explain about trying to call Usagi-chan and getting no response at all, not even voice mail. After that, I confess, I didn't try anyone else for fear of disappointment.

"You're something else," she says, in English, as I pick up my box and eat the muffin cap. We cross the restaurant to the door, only a few short paces.

"I didn't even think the phones worked." I try.

"Even an elementary scientist knows," she points out, "that you try something at least three times to check results."

I say nothing given she's completely correct.

Artemis is waiting somewhat dejected on the windowsill. He explains he had to hiss at a perfectly nice young woman to avoid being taken home with her. Minako teases him but seems very grateful. I let everyone in.

"How long were you planning on being here anyway?" I ask Minako, unasked questions about hotels and keys hover between us baited and ready.

"As long as it takes," she answers, "There really aren't any set plans." she opens Artemis a can of salmon and he jumps up on the counter, muttering a little.

I pull open the curtains.

"Should we call the others then? If you and I pool surely we could get them here?"

"You need to shower and sleep or sleep and shower." she counters, "Then we can worry about everything else."

"But…" the protest dies on my lips, and Minako ushers me to bed. She promises to wake me in a few hours so that I can finish the last of my breakfast, or eat something else.

I don't remember what I dream.

Three and a half hours later Minako knocks on the door. I've been awake for a few minutes, blinking out in the day haze of the light peeking through the edges of the blind in the bedroom, trying to wrap my brain around the fact that I'm not on a cot in one of the back rooms of the hospital.

"You're up?" she asks, knocking again, softly.

"Hai," I answer, still not quite sure how I got there.

I go and shower, and come back. Minako is ably heating things up in the microwave. Artemis is curled up asleep on the windowsill, bathed in sunlight. He rolls and stretches almost falling off the sill, but just managing to stay on.

"Feeling better?" she asks.

I nod, as she offers me a plate of pancakes, and we sit down at the breakfast bar again, "Calling people?" I ask, "Should we?"

My phone starts chiming Sakura Fubuki.