"Base, this is car nine…oh, fuck…car nineteen, do you read?"

"Matsumura? This is Captain Sasaki, please state your position."

"Chiyoda-ku, san-chome, on the canal…officer down, repeat, officer down...she…oh god…fucking Tsuji…she stabbed him a hundred times! I think he's d-dead! Got me pretty bad, shot me in the gut…girl's a fucking demon…the whole world's spinning…Captain…"

"Stay with me, Matsumura. Where's Fukui?"

"She…took him…probably dragged him back to the hell she came from! Who the fuck is this devil girl?"

"Stay where you are, Matsumura, help is coming…"

"Shit, I aint going anywhere!"

"Captain Sasaki, this is Lieutenant Hori in Ochanomizu. We stopped two cars full of goddamn Toyoda soldiers. They're mad as wasps and armed to the teeth, please advise."

"Hori, say anything to placate them, don't let them move. Do not take them in, repeat, do not take them in. Promise them anything if they'll just step down."

"I'll try, but…"

"Base, this is car thirty-seven. Possible sighting of Fukui on east Kanda-douri…he's with a girl."

"Captain, I'm hurt real bad. I don't know how much longer…I told that fucking idiot not to stop…"

"Matsumura, stay calm. You're not going to die."

"Base, this is car thirty-seven. Lost visual contact with Fukui, please advise."

"All units, calling all units. This is an APB for Masayuki Toyoda, Akira Fukui and Natsumi Kodo. Toyoda is to be detained but not charged. Natsumi Kodo is traveling with Akira Fukui, is armed and extremely dangerous. If sighted do not, repeat, do not engage. Over and out."

Sasaki fell back in his chair, trembling from head to foot. His nose was gushing, and he blew it violently several times. Prentiss stood solicitously over him.

Hotch and Rossi entered with a swift, professional gait, both armed.

"We'll help however we can," said Rossi.

They had never seen a man so powerless. Sasaki stared at his hands, moving his fingers slightly, the twitching of a dying animal.

"There is nothing we can do," he said. "It's up to the patrol officers to find them."

"Natsumi Kodo is probably in the middle of a full psychotic break."

"Well, I warned them not to approach her. Once she is sighted, we'll send in a SWAT team. She might have killed a cop…if they knew that, they'd shoot on sight."

"It will be all right," said Prentiss, soothingly. "We'll find them."

"It's worse than that. Toyoda is on the warpath. He must have been hijacking our scanners. He's an old-fashioned yakuza. Usually he's not much trouble, but when it comes to violence, his soldiers are a living nightmare. They attack until they die. When he fought the Yamaguchi-Gumi in eighty-nine, twenty-six men were killed."

Reid had been thinking. He was slowly shaking his head. "No. There is something we can do."

"Spence," said Morgan, "if Kodo has broken down completely, there's no predicting her behavior."

"I'm not sure about that. She's psychotically violent, but taking Fukui shows her delusion is still operative. She's moving toward her endgame…and the term has never been so literal as in this case."

"Night Train?"

"Correct. The victims were fakes, and got Bad Endings. Only she deserves the good ending-the Perfect Ending."

"Which is?"

"A confession of love and a marriage proposal. If she can't have it, she'll kill herself and Fukui."

"Where, Reid?"

"The roof of their high school."

"There are four junior and senior high schools in the area…" Sasaki began. His phone rang, and he jumped. "Hold on…" Then as he listened, and his other hand tightened into a fist. "It's Toyoda. He wants to speak to you, Agent Morgan."

He tossed the phone to Morgan, and a moment later Toyoda's gravelly, almost demonic voice emerged: "Put a gun to that fairy Sasaki's head and tell him I'll handle this."

"I can't do that, Toyoda. You're in the wrong here. You need to tell your men to stand down."

"The hell I will! The Toyoda crew never lost a fight in forty years. I'll fight the cops too! They used to respect us, but this nancy-boy thinks he can get away with anything."

"Innocent people will get hurt. I thought you wanted to protect this city."

There was a long pause, and in the silence, anger seemed to curl like steam from the mouthpiece. "Yankee, swear to me on the grave of your mother, you will put a bullet in the heart of that dickless pervert who got the drop on my best man. If he could handle Ryo, he could cut down a hundred cops."

"Toyoda, Fukui isn't even our suspect. He's innocent. It's a woman we're looking for."

Another silence. Finally Toyoda said, his voice an outraged squeak: "A woman?"

"You didn't know that, did you? You've been listening to the police scanner, but you were so mad you didn't process that information. Face it. This isn't your job. Now the police have two cars full of your guys with enough illegal guns to put them away for life. Be sensible, and maybe you can walk away from this without losing any more than you already have."

A third pause, and beads of sweat stood out on Morgan's forehead.

Toyoda hung up without saying another word.

"Nicely done," said Hotch, mildly.

Morgan managed to smile. "Thanks, chief. He didn't make any promises though."

"I think you got through to him. Garcia?"

"Sir, of the four schools, Takamori junior high is closest to the scene of Fukui's abduction…but Nara Preparatory School is larger, and in this analyst's humble opinion, more likely to be known to Little Miss Kodo."

"Show Reid the pictures. Does one resemble the school from this video game more than the other?"

Reid leaned in, and the glow of the tablet showed the toll the past few days had taken on his face. "Nara Prep," he answered without hesitation. "It's almost uncanny."

"Less than fifteen minutes away," observed Hotch. "She must be there already. Sasaki, you'll need the largest force available. Snipers, helicopters if you have them. If they escape, we might not be able to keep Toyoda in check, and we could be looking at outright street warfare."

"No need to tell me that," said Sasaki, grimly dialing.

"Look at all the pretty stars."

They stood at the edge of the roof. The drab, square school buildings, the bare exercise yard underneath them, and the open night sky, felt hollow and unreal to Fukui, like a lunar field.

Natsumi's head was tilted back, and the moonlight gathered in the delicate hollow of her throat. Her eyes sparkled in the moonlight. She was covered with blood. It had caked on her school uniform into one foul-smelling sheet, and clung to the pleats of her skirt, the folds of her loose socks, and dribbled down into her little patent-leather shoes. In one hand she held the linoleum knife, its blade and handle completely red. In the other she held the air pistol, pressed into Fukui's back.

"When I was little," she said, "I used to try and count them. But, I always lost track. Do you think anybody lives up there? Do you think, maybe…that's where people go when they die?"

The air was chilly and wet. Her breath misted as she spoke, forming minute curls in the air around her perfectly made-up face.

"I don't know where people go when they die," said Fukui. "Natsumi, p-please. Put the gun down."

"What are you talking about, Yuusuke-kun?" she asked, perfectly innocent.

"Natsumi. Listen to me. I'm not Yuusuke-kun. It's me, Akira. I want to help you."

"But you've already helped me."

"It's worse this time. Much, much worse. Natsumi, don't you remember hurting that man?"

Her voice lowered slightly: "My name isn't Natsumi. It's Rei."

"You're very sick."

"Don't be silly. I feel better…better now than I ever have. Because I'm here beside you, and this moment will last forever. Don't you think so?"

Fukui's voice sank to a miserable whisper: "Please. I'm sick too, but there are doctors, pills that can help…"

She gave a high, brittle laugh. "There you go again, about those pills! But you were fine, once I found you. I looked everywhere…and finally I found you. I cleaned you up. I took you home."

"Yes. I felt better. I b-believe…you really do care for me. Just like I care about you…"

"Yuusuke-kun," she said abruptly, and with a frisky half-turn, pressed her body against his. The stench of blood pressed into his nostrils like two dull knives. "Kiss me."

He stared into her eyes. Blood had dried on her smooth white cheek, the same shade as the lipstick on her small, pouting mouth. Inside that mouth was a dark hole from which senseless words poured out. He started to cry. Trembling, he reached up and put one hand on her face. She shut her eyes.

Blinding light splashed over them. A deafening thrum of rotors as the helicopter descended like a predatory nocturnal bird, blocking out the sky. She shrieked and clung to him, and the linoleum knife cut an agonizing gash in his shoulder. Tears still in his eyes, he gaped up at this fantastic apparition.

"Fukui-san!" came a voice from a megaphone.

A scrawny, light-haired man was leaning out, the wind from the rotors lashing his trenchcoat around him.

Fukui managed to wipe his eyes and blinked, gasping: "Doctor Reid…?"

Reid held out a small, rectangular object. Fukui could hardly make it out against the blinding searchlight. But he'd seen it before, many times. A box with the image of a subway train retreating into a cold winter night.

Then the knife was at his throat. "Get away!" screamed Natsumi. "Get away from him, he's mine, mine, mine!"

The helicopter slowly ascended, and the air blasted them. Fukui shut his eyes. He tried to remember.

The door to the fire escape opened. Hasekura emerged, draped in an overcoat; he bent to straighten the pleats of his trousers, pulled on his collar, and breathed hard several times. Sasaki walked briskly up, looking shocked.

"Sir, what are you doing here?"

"Don't be ridiculous, Hajime-kun. You've made a complete mess of things. And to think I was commending you only an hour ago."

"With all due respect, superintendent, this isn't your jurisdiction…"

"Silence!" His cheeks flared. Like a bird, he drew himself up. Sasaki stepped back. "This situation needs a man in charge, not a boy. What's this I hear about you requisitioning a helicopter?"

"Doctor Reid had an idea…"

Hasekura looked past him. A cluster of officers knelt on the metal fire escape, including a sniper, bent motionless over his gun. Hotch and Rossi stood like soldiers at attention. Rossi was holding a pair of binoculars. Hasekura snatched them away from him.

"Hey!"

He peered for several moments at the school roof across from them, everything lit an eerie silver. Two figures stood close together. The helicopter circled back towards them.

To the sniper Hasekura said: "Do you have the shot?"

"Negative, sir. I'd risk hitting him."

There was a lengthy, tense silence. Hasekura seemed to be thinking. His brows were clenched, and his breathing grew heavy and slow. Forgetting the theft of the binoculars, Rossi tapped his shoulder and asked quietly: "You alright?"

"They've separated, sir," announced the sniper.

"Take the shot," said Hasekura.

"Don't take it!" Sasaki immediately cut in, stepping forward.

The sniper flinched; the barrel of the gun made a half-circle in the cold air.

"Sir...?"

"He has no authority here," said Sakaki, confident and angry. "Don't listen to him."

"A federal officer always has authority!"

"Not without signing papers. You can't just step into the middle of my operation and take over, and, with all due respect, I think your judgment is exceedingly poor."

Hasekura stood over him, working the powerful muscles in his neck. His arm was tensed. Hotch stepped between them.

"Get out of my way!" Hasekura yelled in English, and they grappled briefly.

"Superintendant, this is highly unprofessional!"

"Hajime, you mean to tell me these foreigners have jurisdiction here while I don't! So help me, boy, I'll snap you like a dried fishcake!"

"I will have you cuffed for reckless endagerment!"

"Take that shot!"

The sniper looked like a terrified child. Whatever he did, his career might be over, which was to say nothing of the consequences on the other end of the barrel. But he was saved momentarily; Fukui and Natsumi had drawn close again.

"Yuusuke-kun..."

Fukui gripped her around the waist. He clutched her body to his, even as the knife pressed his side. Fresh blood was trickling from his shoulder, but he grit his teeth and spoke:

"Rei. I-it's alright. It's alright now. They won't come back."

Her face melted with relief. She clung to him. "I was so scared!"

"It's alright. It's alright. Listen to me...there's something I need to tell you, something I've wanted to tell you since the day we met."

"Yuusuke-kun."

"I love you. You're my perfect angel. I might as well have been dead before I met you. You brought me back to life."

Now she started to cry. Beautiful, pearly tears traced their way down her cheeks, diluting the blood, and her hand loosened around the knife. Fukui reached out one finger and, slowly, with infinite care, brushed each tear away, until his finger was wet and red. Then he traced it along her lips. Then he kissed her. He tasted blood. He patted her heaving shoulders.

"The people we've lost," he whispered in her ear, "we'll see them again. Because life is stronger than death. It doesn't matter if people go to heaven, or hell, or the moon, or a star a million miles away. If we love them, we'll see them again...just like I love you."

There was a rattle as she dropped the knife. A soft click as the gun followed.

"Will you marry me?"

Natsumi's voice was gone. She nodded, once.

Fukui's own eyes were dry. He took her hand, drew it between them, held up an invisible ring, and slid it gently onto her outstretched finger.

Sasaki held the binoculars. The moment the gun left Natsumi's hand, he pumped his fist and yelled joyously in English: "Clear!"

The officers clapped and cheered. Laughing, Rossi grappled Hotch in a bearhug. The sniper lowered his gun.

Hasekura said in a cold voice: "Officers, arrest this man."

Relief immediately gave way to confusion as they looked around. One by one, they realized he meant Sasaki.

Timidly one of the uniformed cops asked: "Superintendent...what for?"

"Insobordination."

No one moved.

"Now! I've had enough of this incompetent child."

Detective Kimura stepped forward. He spoke clearly: "Captain Sasaki is the finest man I've had the honor of serving under."

With a wild curse, Hasekura knelt down and wrested the gun from the stunned sniper's hands. He held it clumsily, raised it to his shoulder and took aim at the school roof. Hotch lunged for him. Sasaki was faster. He grappled the larger man around the shoulders, the gun barrel pitched crazily, and they fell on the fire escape with a huge whanging crash. The gun fired.

The sound echoed across the roof like the midnight chime of a clock. Natsumi looked up, while Fukui swung his head around in a panic. He brushed both their bodies madly, searching for a wound. She pulled away from him.

"It's alright! It's alright!" he repeated, but his voice was now thin and lacked conviction. He looked to the fire escape, where a struggle seemed to have broken out. When he looked back to Natsumi, she was facing the black sky.

"Yuusuke-kun," she said, her voice very faint now. "Tell me something."

"Wh-what?"

She slowly raised both arms, holding them out like an angel.

"What!"

"Do you think we killed ourselves that day, six years ago?"

Then she fell. All sound was lost in the roar of blood in his ears. He moved very slowly, and the world around him shifted and grew dark.

"Natsumi!"

He reached out for her, but she was already as far away as the stars overhead.