So Daisuke's life of publicity began.

Well, I wouldn't call it a new life. Hardly. Becoming Dark was a new life. This was kind of just like becoming popular for a day. New record! Click glasses!

But even in all of it, Daisuke didn't lose his head and, to his dismay, Dark was not forgotten. Apparently, the mysterious unicorn was still doing its rounds at night, taking girls away from their families. Where could it find a big enough place to house girls in their jammies? That was the question Daisuke had been asking himself. Certainly it wasn't killing them (this is a K+ rated fic!), but it was rapidly becoming a bigger problem. Takeshi, however, was hoping it would take Wendy.

"Daisuke…? Daisuke, are you awake?"

"Huh?" Daisuke had been thinking deeply, which required all of his concentration. Hey, thinking deeply takes practice.

"Yo, dude, the great Satoshi is trying to get your attention. Be more grateful," Takeshi scolded, yanking Daisuke out of his chair. Daisuke stumbled forward towards Satoshi.

"Greetings, Daisuke," said Satoshi. "Should we… how you say… talk in private?"

"Uh, okay," said Daisuke, somehow not liking where this was going. He felt awkward, having not conversed with Satoshi since chapter two.

"I've asked your rather vexatious chum all he knows about Dark," Satoshi explained, "but to my dismay, I have found out almost nothing of interest and all of it I knew already. But tell me... what do you know?"

"Everyone always asks me about Dark," Daisuke stated, wondering if he was being conspicuous lately. Or maybe his mom was shouting a little too much out the window again. "I don't know anything, though. Seriously, I wouldn't know anything, even if he were right inside my head."

"Interesting wording," Satoshi said in a very Snape-like voice. "I must be off. Ciao, Daisuke and Harold."

"WHY?! Why couldn't you name me Harold, mom?!" asked Takeshi, crying to the heavens on his knees.

'I'm suspicious of that Satoshi guy', Dark thought allowed. Dark is his thoughts though! Confusing…

Daisuke sighed. 'No, I've been too conspicuous.'

'He's prying. I don't like him, Mr. Too Good for Natural Hair Colors.'

'You wanna know what the difference between you and me is?'

'You're short and I'm tall?'

'No!' Daisuke growled. 'You're too egotistical and it gets you into trouble. Which means I get in trouble, too, sometimes.'

'Name one time, I dare you!'

'Oh, how about when I poisoned you and when you almost got caught trying to look cool for the camera people?'

Dark shut up after that and didn't speak for the rest of the day, to not Daisuke's dismay.

"Riku… hey, Riku… POKE!"

"AAHH!" Riku woke up and bonked her head on the bunk bed the twins shared.

"Geez, sis!" she growled. "What was that all about? And what time is it?"

"Late at night, but you have to see this! Come to the window, hurry!" said Risa, beckoning her sister. Riku raced up behind her.

"What is that thing?" she asked in awe.

Outside was a glowing creature with four legs and a longish neck. It was just walking around the block like it owned the place, making small, sweet noises and swishing its long mane.

"No duh, sis, it's the unicorn! Didn't you ever watch Mi Pequeño Pinto?" asked Risa. Riku shook her head. "Man! Deprived of a childhood much?" Risa started shaking her head side to side slowly. "It's so... p r e t t y…"

"Risa…?"

"M u s t g o p e t t h e p r e t t y…"

"Risa… Risa…! Risa!" Riku shouted. She tried to grab her sister, but her sister just pulled her with her. "What are you doing, you moron?! Stop!"

Riku pulled on her giant hoody over her pajamas.

"Hmm… I've gotta get help… but from who?" she asked herself, hopping on her bike and peddling away.

Ding-dong! Riku rang the doorbell of Takeshi's house. Shouting came from within.

"Someone answer the door!" It was unmistakingly Takeshi.

"Why can't you ever get it?" A child's voice shouted back.

"I'm supposed to be asleep!"

"So am I! Especially me!"

"Well, get it anyway!"

"Fine, stinky head!"

A young girl answered the door and stared up at Riku.

"Who're you?" she asked, in her pajamas with a squirt gun in her hand.

"Uh, yeah," said Riku, eying the squirt gun. It was filled with an orangish liquid that was probably apple juice. "Listen, I need to talk to your older brother."

The girl took the mail out of her mailbox. "You don't want to talk to my brother."

Riku blinked, then said sternly, "Yeah I do."

"No you don't. Here, take this." The girl gave her the squirt gun she was holding.

"Um… thanks. But why?" Riku asked, turning it over in her hand.

"Duh. Don't wanna get captured by the unicorn." Then she leaned in and whispered, "Apple juice is their weakness. I took a bath in it and the unicorn passed this house."

"Oh… I see…" Riku pocketed the squirt gun, deciding she would just throw it away later. "How'd you figure that out?"

"I'm in fourth grade, I'm not dumb. I can do two backwards somersaults in a row and I know all the planets and plus, I count backwards from a hundred while hanging upside-down. Wanna see?"

"Uh, no… I'll pass," Riku said, barely paying attention to the nine-year-old. "Can I please see your brother now?"

"No."

Riku's eye twitched. "Why?!"

"He's supposed to be asleep. Goodbye." The little girl shut the door.

Riku looked at her watch. Two a.m.

'Then why was she awake...? Why'd I even come here?! Of all places! What's wrong with me?! What could Takeshi do?!' Riku sped off in the opposite direction.

Satoshi was pacing back and forth in one of the many empty rooms in his large mansion. He wasn't lost tonight. Okaaay... maybe a little lost. But tonight, he was thinking of how to capture Dark once and for all.

"Hmm… I must think of a brilliant plan," Satoshi said to himself. "I've tried and tried to capture Dark and prove who his human form is! But try as I might, I can't!" Satoshi sat down in the weird chair with one wing and the other that looks like a tree branch. "I hate to say this, but… I need back-up."

'Ask, and ye shall receive.'

"I didn't mean you." Satoshi growled. "Ever wonder why I talk to myself all the time? Because I used to talk to you. But then I started ignoring you and my life has been better."

'Don't be that way! Come on, you need me just as much as I need you. Whaddaya say? Can I help you?'

Satoshi sighed. "Well, I suppose-"

'Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy! Thank you! You don't know how boring it's been, just sitting in the dusty corners of your brain!' Ooh, brains have corners?

"Indeed," Satoshi said, grimacing. "But I only need your help a lit-"

'You know what? I'm feeling a theme song coming on!'

"For pity's sake, please don't sing-"

'Nope, too late, I've already got it!

Satoshi and Krad are partners in crime!
We'll defeat that weird kid and Dark any time!
Saving paintings is what we do!
And you can bet we're good at it, too!'

"That was the worst song I've ever heard," Satoshi said angrily. He was covering his ears, like that would do any good. "You have to help me, because you don't even let me have a life. I only want to stop Dark so you'll stop bothering me."

'Aww... that's really egomaniacal of you.'

"You don't even know what that means," Satoshi argued. "I also hear that Dark's possessed a unicorn to steal young female children."

'Why can't you just call them 'little girls' like a normal person?'

"Silence. We have to go stop him. And get rid of him. Once and for all. Understood?"

'Yeah, yeah, yeah… te mea, te mea.'

"What?"

'Don't ask…'

And they set off out of the giant mansion… but first they had to find the door.