"Britney!" Clover and Sam yelled out, pleasantly surprised. They ran over to her. This was a pleasant reunion to the two girls, remembering the last mission they had together.

"Britney!?" Alex yelled out in shock. A deep feeling of envy was starting to rise up inside of her at the sight of the blue clad Spy. Unlike her friends, Alex recalled the last mission they had together, feeling as if Britney was going to replace her again.

"Hey, long time no see," Britney beamed.

"Who's the cutie," spoke Takada, earning a glare from Clover and Ichijyo. He sweated, "Um…I mean…great to have you onboard!" He thought to himself, 'Don't screw this up, Takada.'

"With Alex and Ryuki off this case, I asked Jerry to send Britney here to assist us," Ichijyo informed them, "And I'm coming along as well."

Sam and Clover blinked.

"What?" Ichijyo questioned, annoyed by their looks.

"You're coming along?" Clover asked skeptically, "As if!"

"I am capable of going on missions, Clover. I just usually get stuck with all the paperwork." Ichijyo hissed.

"That's true," Takada agreed. "Before Tazuka here joined, old snake-face here always went on missions since three operatives are usually needed in a team."

Ichijyo took offense to Takada calling him snake-face but managed to calm down a bit. He would get his as payback later."As I was saying, I am coming along with you on your mission, so I suggest that you all would follow my orders."

Clover frowned. She really didn't feel like working with Ichijyo. Britney picked up on this and decided to lighten the mood.

"Oh, come on, Clover. Cousin Ichijyo isn't so bad!" Britney said pleasantly. Everyone gawked at both her and Ichijyo when they heard this. Ichijyo palmed his face grimly. He'd wanted to keep that information a secret but Britney was proud to announce it.

"COUSIN ICHIJYO!?"

"She's from my mother's side of the family," Ichijyo elaborated. "We've known each other for years." He gave Britney a tender smile, "Beat me at Chess one time too."

Britney winked at her cousin, "That's right, cousin."

"OK, this is a lot to take in," Takada said, eyes wide. It completely blew his mind that someone like Ichijyo could be related to someone so…normal looking. "You two are related?" Britney nodded. Ichijyo just shrugged.

"And I didn't even see this coming, and I'm a precog," said Tazuka. His visions hadn't prepared him for this.

"Hai, hai," Ryuki nodded, surprised by the revelation. He always expected any other relatives of Ichijyo's to be dark and a little unusual. Then again, they'd met his sister and were surprised to see how different the two siblings were.

Alex frowned as she crossed her arms. She liked Britney, but not so much. The girl was just so perfect and even nearly replaced her on her team. But, to be fair, she'd wanted to quit for messing up a lot, but why did they have to call Britney. Now what was Alex supposed to do? She then glanced at Ryuki and smiled, remembering why. Maybe having Britney take her place just this once would be OK.

"Well, now that we have that settled, let's go," Ichijyo said.

"Very well," Emiko nodded. "Ryuki-kun, let's go home."

"Um, okaasan," Ryuki said, "About that, can I suggest something?"

Emiko smiled tenderly, "Certainly."

"I can't believe your mom let you stay here," said Alex as she and Ryuki went up the stairs to his room. They were back in Beverly Hills and at the Riders' villa. Both had gotten out of their uniforms and into their civilian clothes. Alex had on a sleeveless red blouse that showed a bit of midriff and stylish pants. He was wearing a short sleeved black T-shirt with a dragon on it and blue jeans. Alex noted that a majority of his wardrobe was accessorized by dragons.

"She's not the only member of this family that can be persuasive," said Ryuki. He'd also attempted his own version of the infamous 'puppy-dog-eyes' and his mother had caved. "And, she loves me too much to deny me anything."

"You must get a lot of presents," said Alex.

"I don't usually use it unless it's an emergency," Ryuki shrugged. "I usually do it so she allows me to go on dangerous mission. It nearly didn't work when I wanted to join Smart Brain since it was too dangerous."

"My mom would kill me if she found out I was a Spy." They now stood in front of his door and he opened it up. "Well, here we are."

Ryuki asked Alex, "Are you alright with being off the case? I know you love adventure."

"There are things I love more than just adventure," Alex replied. Ryuki's cheek went red. Had she said 'love'? "And, well, you need to be taken care of."

"I think okaasan has that handled," said Ryuki as he looked out the window to see the 2 bodyguards posted outside the house. "Okaasan, must you bring along the bodyguards?" The bodyguards were women dressed in black and sharp business suits and wearing sunglasses. They were all very physically attractive. The truth was that their family had a whole army of bodyguards.

"I think it's sweet that she'd go to such length to protect you," said Alex.

"I can take care of myself," he insisted, frowning while producing a small fireball before extinguishing it. "I'm not a baby anymore."

"I know you're not, but you're also her only son so she wants to keep you safe," Alex explained. Ryuki sighed.

"And I can't fault her for that," Ryuki smiled. "Okaasan is okaasan, after all."

"And she's cooking down in the kitchen," said Alex, a little surprised. "I thought she was gonna bring her cook here."

"Okaasan prefers to cook herself when she's not busy. She did that a lot back with…" Ryuki trailed off, letting the sentence hang.

"What's wrong?" Alex asked.

"Sorry, I was going to say otousan, but…" Alex patted his shoulder.

"Still hurts?"

"A little. The fact is that I'm afraid I may start forgetting what he looks like." He gestured to his wall of photographs and gestured to one old faded one, "All I have is this old picture of him."

Alex walked over and looked at it. "Wow, you really do look like your dad." That was true. Aside from the color of the hair, Ryuki and Kyousuke looked eerily similar. "So, your eyes come from your dad."

"Okaasan tells me that too," said Ryuki, smiling a bit, "And I got my hair color from him."

"His hair's black," Alex pointed out.

"But not the bangs. It's a recessive family trait."

"Oh," Alex accepted. Ryuki was a natural redhead then.

"Well," Ryuki said as he put down Alex's bag, "We should go downstairs to see how okaasan is doing."

"Right, let's go," Alex said as she took his hand and pulled him towards the door. He smiled at her.

"Why are we back here again?" Clover asked in disgust.

"We've already been here," added Takada.

"Picking up where you all left off," said Ichijyo coldly.

The Spies and Riders were once again in front of Sunshine Electronics. This time, however, Ichijyo and Britney had come along in place of Alex and Ryuki. Like the other Riders, Ichijyo wore a black jumpsuit, with purple gloves and boots.

"Like we had a choice," Sam spoke up. "Ryuki got hurt."

"Which is why we need to look for more clues," said Ichijyo. "You must've missed something or even nearly found something which would require the criminal to show himself and blind Ryuki." He walked forwards but stopped in mid-step. He looked over his shoulder at the others, "Well? Are you coming or are you all just going to stand there and do nothing?"

Takada and Tazuka followed while the girls hung back for awhile. Clover bristled, crossing her arms, "Geez, what a jerk."

"Oh, Cousin Ichijyo isn't all bad," Britney defended. "He can be nice too, y'know?"

"Sorry, Brit, but I can't see him being nice," Clover said sorely. "He did ruin my hair."

"He told me," Britney nodded, "And forgive me, but I kinda laughed."

Clover fumed and let out a, "Hmph!" before following after the guys.

"That bad, huh?" Britney asked Sam.

"Remember, Clover takes her appearance seriously," Sam informed Britney.

"OK," Britney nodded, "So, what's new? You both seem really chummy with Takada and Tazuka."

"Well…" Sam played with her hair, "Tazuka and I are kinda dating. Same with Takada and Clover."

Britney confessed, "I'm jealous. If Ichijyo wasn't my cousin, I would so date him."

Sam gave Britney a deadpan look, "You would, huh?" She couldn't believe it.

"Well, I used to have this huge crush on him, but we were cousins so it might've been really awkward," Britney added sheepishly.

Sam had to agree. Ichijyo was good looking, but his attitude left little to be desired. "You really like him, huh?"

"He's family. Plus, what's not to like about him? He's really smart and even if he doesn't show it much he does care about others. Why do you think he wanted to join us in this mission?"

Sam never thought of that. "We should follow them," said Sam.

"Right, let's go."

A pair of glowing eyes followed as the Spies and Riders entered the factory.

"Oh, Ryuki-kun, Alex-chan," said Emiko with a wide smile as she set the table. "I'm almost done with dinner." She had on an apron over her usual clothes.

Ryuki sniffed the air, "Smells good, okaasan."

"It does, doesn't it?" Emiko said as she walked over to her son. She then pinched his cheeks, "Anything for my little Ryu-chan." Alex giggled. Ryuiki moaned in embarrassment.

"Okaasan…" Emiko released her hold on his cheeks. "Not in front of Alex-chan."

"Alright," Emiko sighed. "Oh, by the way, this just came in the mail." Emiko picked up a small sand colored envelope from the table. "It looks like it's for you."

"A letter for me?" asked Ryuki as his mother handed him the envelope. "Wonder who's it from?" He inspected the envelope. No address, just his name, and no stamp. It looked like it'd been slipped into the mail along the other letters and not by a postal worker.

"Open it and see," Alex insisted as she looked over his shoulder. He smiled at her and shook the envelope. His eyes narrowed in suspicion. There was something inside.

"What's wrong, Ryuki-kun?" Emiko asked.

"There's something inside this envelope," he said. He tilted the envelope and a pair of pink butterfly hairclips dropped into his hand. His eyes widened in recognition. He knew those hairclips.

"Hairclips?" Alex blinked in confusion, "Who would send you hairclips?" But then she felt Ryuki trembling. "Leo? What's wrong?" Her voice was filled with concern.

"Ryuki-kun?" his mother asked, worried too.

Ryuki reached inside the envelope and pulled out a note. On it were three ominous words:

I HAVE HER

The note included the drawing of a scorpion.