Chapter Four

She didn't want to wake up. Kyoko just wanted to stay in bed, curled around Yuma whose back was finally healed while listening to her steady heartbeat. Last night had been close; way too close.

In the end, she had to use every grief seed they had. Not only on Yuma, but herself too. She had begun to despair while watching Yuma like that…barely alive.

The moment Yuma dies…I'm going to become a witch.

So she made up her mind to never let Yuma die before her. That should be simple enough. So long as Yuma doesn't go off and fight on her own again.

While Kyoko may seem hard-headed, she was actually very self-aware. At the rate she was going, she was going to become a witch anyways. She was using way more magic recently to keep her up and going, despite everything that was happening. If she hadn't had magic, she probably would have just had a mental breakdown and been done with all of this shit.

"Don't pretend you care about every person you pass on the street either."

Miyamoto's words were bouncing around her head since the girl who looked like Mami went through the entire magical girl hope to despair to destruction cycle in fifteen minutes. That poor stupid girl inadvertently became the sacrifice Kyoko needed to sustain both Yuma and herself for another night. If she had taken a few extra minutes to explain the full truth of magical girls to her, could she have saved both of them?

There was a disgusting part of her mind that was glad she didn't because it made sure both she and Yuma lived another day.

"Ky…Kyoko?" Yuma sounded like she was in pain. But she was finally awake. Realistically, sixteen hours of sleep and recovery was remarkable considering what she had gone through, but it was long by Yuma standards and way too fucking long by Kyoko's.

"Good morning, dummy." She wanted to say something much worse. To give Yuma a piece of her mind and chew her out for worrying her so damn much. But even she could recognize that now wasn't the time to do this. That shit storm will happen tomorrow…assuming she could hold off that long.

"What happened to the witch?"

"It's still out there. I couldn't beat it and get you out of there."

"What about those people? There were people stuck inside."

What about those people? What was she going to tell her? That three of them were suffocated by the familiars while Kyoko saved another who became a magical girl to save her friends, found out she was too late, and became a witch who was then hunted by Kyoko? That seemed like a lot.

"I didn't see anyone else in there. I just saw you on the track with a ripped open back and broken spine." She started to choke on her words. Fuck, not now, not now. She had impressively not cried once last night, but saying it out loud did something to her.

"I'm sorry. I'm really sorry. I didn't think-"

"Of course you didn't! Otherwise you would have waited for me or called me or something. You know you can't find well on your own!" Kyoko snapped angrily. It was a bad habit of hers to resort to anger when she couldn't process her feelings properly.

Now Yuma was crying.

"I just…I just…."

Kyoko took a deep breath and sighed.

"Don't worry about it. Not now, ok? We've both been through a lot, so doing this now is just going to drain both of us. We'll talk about it when you're better. How was your time with your friends? What did you guys do?"

Yuma blinked at her.

"Huh?"

Kyoko was starting to see red again. If you lied about that, so help me…

"You went out with your friends from art club. I was wondering what you guys did." Her tone was warning Yuma to choose her next words very carefully.

"I'm…I…" Don't tell me. I don't want to know. Lie to me now, please lie to me now.

"I just wanted to be useful…" She whimpered quietly, eyes downcast. "I thought I could start getting grief seeds on my own for us so you could focus on those things you need to do for your first family that you won't tell me. If you don't tell me, how am I supposed to help?"

Kyoko buried her face in her hands and tugged on her hair. Somewhere deep down, she had known that Yuma had gone out witch hunting alone. And it was for as stupid a reason as to help her.

She had to explain what was going on.

"Yuma, please listen to me. The problems I'm having have nothing to do with you or witches. I need money; a lot of it. That's what I'm dealing with. There is nothing you can do."

"How much do you need? I can get a job!"

"No, you can't. That wouldn't do much Yuma…I need eight billion yen."

Kyoko had never seen Yuma's eyes get that wide before.

"What did you do?"

"Nothing! That's exactly the problem."

"Huh?"

"It's my Dad's church. The city is basically calling it out for being a shit hole. They say I can either fix it or sell it to them and they will fix it…or tear it down." Kyoko had been hearing a lot of rumours about trying to revitalize the Old Industrial District but building nice new condos and a huge shopping mall to attract residents of Kazamino and New Mitakihara. "I can't let that happen. My Dad worked too hard for his church."

"He didn't seem to care that much when he set it on fire. And before you think of hitting me, remember I'm hurt." The sassy side of Yuma is out again; Kyoko's least favourite side. She was so cute when she was younger. In some ways, all of the years of abuse led to a desperation to be a 'good girl', and she was adorable when she was good. Now that she's not abused, she gets sassy.

Kyoko hit her softly with a pillow. Well, softly by their standards.

"He went insane, and I drove him there. When he was sane, that church meant everything to him. I want to remember the sane him. It's what he would have wanted."

Yuma looked away to the ceiling. She wasn't going to win this; they both knew it.

"I'm hungry."

"Me too."

For now, agreeing on that could be enough.

She didn't want to wake up, but her family didn't give her a choice.

"Rise and shine Fuzz!" Her Dad said way too loudly and way too happily for…noon.

Well then.

"Thank you so much for coming over last night Ayumi. I have no idea what happened but she was terrified and I couldn't stand the thought of leaving her alone." She heard her mother say outside the door.

"Some things happened last night that I cannot tell you due to confidentiality, but believe me Miki-san, I would have been much more concerned if Sayaka was not terrified. We are going to be increasing our security for our undercovers and their families, so you can rest assured that everything is fine." She sounded so professional. Sayaka came out of her room and told her that.

"I am dealing with sensitive family matters, of course I am professional." The moment Sayaka's parents turned away, she gave Sayaka the finger. Sayaka grinned in return.

Ayumi was a fun one. She had dark pink hair with a style very similar to Sayaka's, but longer. Her eyes matched her hair exactly, making her a bit funny-looking. It made Sayaka happy that she was not the only one with strange hair on the force though.

"Well, we brought breakfast if you would like to join us." Fumiko smiled, holding the unopened box of donuts from Thursday. Sayaka was glad to see she hadn't thrown them out in a fit of determination to become a size 2 in three months.

"I'll take one, but I should be on my way. I'm on duty in two hours. Thank you very much for your hospitality. Sayaka, if you need any protecting" she nodded down to the bag where there were still two unopened wine bottles, "just give me call."

Her family in general had a nice chat right after Ayumi left. They asked her what the hell was wrong, of course, but she didn't go into details. A good night's sleep did her a lot of good.

Finding out that her parents had spoken to Ryo from his home phone this morning did not do her as much good.

"You called my boss?! How the hell did you even get his number? I don't even have his home phone number!"

"He called us. The emergency operators knew you and were very concerned. They asked if we would be alright with them passing our number onto him, which of course we were fine with."

"Oh god, what did you say?" She was freaking out. What kind of self-respecting cop had their mother call their captain?

"I said I was very worried about what this undercover mission was doing to you and that it clearly would not be good for you where you are in treatment."

"Mom, are you trying to keep me from ever getting a promotion? Because you're off to a fantastic start there."

"Your health comes first. If you're out there as a captain of the police force and using or living in your old room until you're fifty and unemployed but healthy, so help me I will force you back into your old room!"

Sayaka groaned and buried her face in her hands.

"What did he say?" She asked with fear, not looking up.

"He said he understood our concern, but was confident in your abilities. He also said you have been amazingly successful in your role and he looks forward to helping your professional development in the future. He also said that you have been clean for almost two years, so we are overreacting." Her mother's tone clearly implied that she thought he was an idiot. "I told him to come to some of our addictions awareness month events because he clearly does not understand what you are going through." She concluded pompously.

"Mom!"

"Fuzz, an addiction is a disability." Her father began. "As such, they need to take reasonable precautions to ensure you are kept safe and able to work. It sounds like this assignment isn't doing that." She hated the 'addiction is a disability' speech.

"A disability is something you can't control. My addiction was because I fucked up. It was my choice and I am not going to make that stupid choice again!"

"You don't seriously believe that, do you? We have been through this over and over again! It's a-"

"A neurological disease, I know, I know!" She cut her father off. "Can we not talk about this anymore? We're just going to get mad at each other. Seriously this week has already been really, really hard for me. I just don't want to think about it." She stuffed a chocolate donut in her mouth so they couldn't make her talk anymore.

Her mother was silent. Her father's face was beet red, and she couldn't tell if he wanted to cry or scream at her.

"I don't know what you're doing, but I think we would both really appreciate it if you would consider backing out Sayaka." Kenji said softly. The fact that he used her actual name sent tremors down her spine.

"I understand. Thanks for your support guys. I mean it."

"Is that all you're going to say?" He asked.

"Yeah." The defiance in her tone would have been much more dramatic if she wasn't speaking with a donut in her mouth.

"Then we're leaving. I think we all need a bit of time to cool off and think about what's been said and what's happening. We've seen you self-destruct before Sayaka. It nearly killed us, and it damn near literally killed you. Please; don't make any of us go through that again."

They left the box of donuts behind and closed the door. Sayaka pulled out the vodka she hid under the bathroom sink.

Just as she was about to take a swig, she looked at her reflection. Her hair was a mess. Her eyes were splotchy from crying. And oh dear god, what did Kyoko do to my neck?!

It was 12:30 pm on a Saturday.

She poured the vodka down the sink, threw out all of her bottles, and called Hitomi to see if she wanted to hang out earlier.

Kyoko watched as the witch's barrier around her collapsed. It wasn't the race car witch, which she now had a personal score to settle with, but it was a nasty looking teddy bear…thing. She suspected this witch was born of a younger girl. Most of the cutesy ones were.

One grief seed wasn't a particularly good haul for the night, but it was better than nothing. She had stumbled upon two strayed familiars; one for this witch and one for the yellow lollipop witch from yesterday. The familiar for the lollipop witch was one of the little red jumping Kyokos. She killed it for the hell of it.

She called off work for personal reasons. She wouldn't have been able to work well after what happened to Yuma. Besides, evidently everyone there already knew she had a little sister she was raising.

Why am I fucking everything up now? It seemed like everything was going to be ok for six years.

Six years. She had been with Yuma for six years and they had never had any serious problems. They had the routine psychological disorders and fears of abandonment, which surprisingly were not nearly as problematic as they sounded. Maybe part of why she and Yuma worked so well together is that they were both just as terrified as being alone and willing to only focus on looking after the needs of the other.

But Kyoko didn't want Yuma to look after her needs. Yuma should be able to be a kid, she thought.

She didn't really take Yuma's thoughts into consideration though, did she?

Thunder boomed overhead and it started to drizzle. Then it started to pour. Kyoko walked along without an umbrella. Her hoodie wasn't warm enough. She ignored it though.

Her stomach growled. She ignored that too.

She ignored the condition of the church. She ignored Yuma. She ignored her surroundings. And now she was ignoring herself.

Of course everything was going to come tumbling down eventually.

It really made sense, all things considered. Kyoko was stunned that she lived this long. She never made a long-term plan. The only planning she had really done was putting a life insurance policy in place that made Yuma the benefactor of a hefty sum of cash. Why would she have paid careful attention to all of those details?

She even ignored the person right in front of her. And promptly bumped into them.

"Watch it!" She yelled unnecessarily. Really, it was at least as much her fault as this poor soul's. But she was pissed and this didn't help.

It was nice that she bumped into them though, because she was temporarily under an umbrella.

She actually took a moment to look at the person she just yelled at.

Aw shit…

"Ah, I remember you. Sorry officer. I'll be more careful next time." She couldn't remember the officer's name, but she remembered the weird blue-haired chick giving her a ticket for 1,000 yen.

"Oh, it's nothing. I'm not on duty right now, and even then, bumping into a cop who isn't watching where they're going and getting ticked off isn't illegal…I don't think." Her voice sounded odd. She didn't remember it being that squeaky. Maybe she had a lower, more authoritative voice when she was actually working to give her a sense of importance. The thought made her laugh internally. She did the same thing a lot, didn't she?

"Well, even then, I'm sorry for snapping. I should have watched where I was going."

"I'm sorry for giving you a ticket for 1,000 yen. It was supposed to be 10,000 but I was in a rush and messed it up."

They stared at each other.

"You're apologizing for giving me too small of a ticket?"

"No! Well, I'm glad I didn't give you a big one. I didn't want to give you one at all but I had to. I just think that a 1,000 yen ticket is a bit…well…"

"Ridiculous?"

"Yeah." She looked away and laughed nervously.

"This might sound weird, but I'm glad I got to apologize for that." She said meekly. Huh? This girl's weird.

"It's fine. I was actually able to pay off this ticket." She shrugged. She could pay off most of her tickets, but she didn't want to pay this one off because then she would have to pay all of them off. She had to admit, she felt like a bit of a deadbeat not paying off 1,000 damn yen. I've got bigger things I need to worry about though.

"Do you not have an umbrella? You're drenched!" She just noticed? And now her voice sounds more normal again. Why was she squeaking before?

"Nah, I don't need one. I'm going home now anyways."

"Is it far?"

"Well…" Yeah, it's going to be an hour walking at this rate. She didn't want to jump the skyline with lightning around. "It's a bit of a walk, but I'm fine."

"Here." The cop said, thrusting the handle of the umbrella into her hands. "I live close by and I'm going somewhere close by. I have another umbrella anyways. You can use this one!"

"No, thanks. I'm fine. I really don't need your umbrella." She tried to hand it back, but Blue refused to take it, leading it to falling on the sidewalk.

"Well, I don't need it either. So you can either have it or it's going to stay there. Maybe someone who does need it can pick it up. Have a good night Ky-…Kiko was it?"

"Good memory. It was Kyoko. And thanks for the umbrella, I guess…oh wait a minute! Do you have my IDs?" A flash of recognition came across the girl's face.

"Oh shit I forgot about those…I actually never filed the report. They're still in my desk. I haven't been to the station much."

"Could you get those back for me? Listen, a lot of things have been getting really fucked up in my life right now. Those IDs can't fix anything, but it can at least make it a bit better." She wasn't (really) trying to guilt trip Blue at all. It was just the honest to god truth. Blue looked profoundly uncomfortable.

"I don't know…"

"I understand you have rules and all. And you have to abide by them because it's your job. But…" What am I doing? Hell, I can use a bit of magic for this! When am I ever going to see this chick again? Kyoko grabbed Blue's arm, and stared into her eyes"it's going to hurt me more by not having these IDs than anyone would gain from them being reported, right? I've been having some real hard times recently, and this would make things just a bit better for me and my sister. Please, if there's anything you can do, it would do so much for us…for me."

Her eyes were pulsing. Blue's pupils were dilating. It was working, she could feel it. A portion of this girl wanted to help her out.

"Okay. The station is just two blocks over. I can run in and get them quickly for you."

"Thank you so much! You're a diamond in the rough, you know that?" She grinned. The girl blushed and looked away.

"Thanks, I guess."

They shared the umbrella, walking very closely together. The girl was wearing a scarf pretty loosely, so she could see her neck was riddled with bites and hickeys. Maybe she just needed to get laid to get that stick out of her ass.

"You should wait out here. I'll try to be in and out as quickly as possible."

"Thanks again Blue!" She grinned, waving as she slinked behind the corner. She pulled out a stick of pocky and munched on it smugly.

Now she just had to wait and at least something would be going alright.

Sayaka could feel her personal barriers crumbling around her. She honestly had no idea why she had such a change of heart so quickly, but it felt so right. She'd been the bad guy for so damn long, it was nice to be doing something nice for someone else for a change. Besides, Kyoko really seemed like she deserved a break. She's been really helpful to me at the club too, so really the force kind of owes her one...

No one was at their desk in her department. Of course they weren't; it was 6:00 pm on a Saturday. Everyone else was probably at home with their families. Families that wanted to talk to them. Families that thought they had sense.

She shook her head to shake out the thought. She didn't need this now. She could vent about it at Hitomi's anyways.

The IDs were at the top of her "to do" pile in her "to do" drawer. It was a lucky thing it was against policy to leave open files on their desks or someone probably would have noticed the identical photos with not identical names.

"Miki? Is that you?" Shit! She jumped a bit in her chair. Ryo was behind her.

"Heya boss! How are you?" She sounded chipper. Way more chipper than she was to actually see him.

"Good, I'm good. What are you doing here?"

"Just getting caught up on the paperwork for a few files from before I took on the assignment. I may be focusing on something else more full-time now, but that doesn't mean I should shirk on my other duties, right?" Maybe if I look and sound eager enough, it will combat everything my parents told him on the phone yesterday…She was still in horrified disbelief that her parents had actually called her boss.

"Well, I'm certainly glad and impressed to see that you are still so engaged and enthusiastic! You've got the great makings of a cop Sayaka. Please never let anyone, especially your family tell you otherwise." He patted her on the shoulder in what seemed like a paternalistic way. Oh god this is terrible.

"Uh, yeah. Thanks. I was a bit freaked out last night, so I overreacted and they overreacted and it went downhill from there. I'm really, really sorry that you had to get caught up in that." She rubbed the back of her head, looking away from him sheepishly. Ryo kept his hand on her shoulder and squeezed, which somehow made her look him in the eyes.

"I don't mind at all. I know how scary undercover work can be with big dogs like the guys you're dealing with. I was like that too. It's human. But I believe in you Miki. You can do this. You can get them. And I won't expect anything less than your best, just like you're giving now. Your files can wait until Monday. Go home." Oh god…a pep talk. I just got a pep talk.

So she got the fuck out of there like he ordered her to do, sneaking the IDs into her pocket.

"Hey, did you get-" Sayaka cut her off by handing her the IDs. "Sweet, thanks!"

"No problem. I need to go. Have a nice walk home. Don't get too wet." She scurried off. She didn't want to be anywhere near Kyoko or Ryo right now. She just wanted to vent to someone in a safe place.

She ran away. She had to get to Hitomi's place quickly. She felt like she was going crazy.

She ignored the way Kyoko yelled after her. She just wanted to get out.

What the hell was her problem?

Kyoko shrugged it off, just glad that she got the IDs back. After everything that had happened, she had almost forgotten about them; but realistically she was going to need them for getting the church repaired. This was one less thing she had to worry about.

Blue's weird, but she's alright.

The walk back with the umbrella was a lot nicer than before. It even felt less gloomy.

She decided to pick up some sushi for her and Yuma from a convenience store. She didn't pay for it, naturally.

She was starting to feel more like her again. The street rat survivor that was good at making it against all odds. She smiled to herself. It was small but it was there.

She was feeling a little bit better.

What the hell is my problem?

She was so grateful when she reached Hitomi's apartment. She needed this.

"Sayaka! Welcome! I'm sorry Kyousuke isn't here yet. He had plans, but he should be here in an hour or two."

"Tell him not to come at all. I just want to talk to you. I'm sorry, but please. Just tonight." She loved Kyousuke's friendship, truly, but there was something about it that just did not make her feel right about divulging all of her secrets and troubles. There was a frustrating part of her that was always trying to impress him.

She had that with Hitomi a bit too, more out of envy than anything, but she was better at ignoring that.

It was rare moments like these that she missed Nakazawa. When they got high, they would talk about everything, including their worst sides. He told her about how he pushed a classmate down into the monsters to save himself, even though they may have both gotten away if they ran fast enough. Sayaka told him about how she had foolishly led her best friend to her untimely death, as a huge piece of wood from god knows where shot through her.

And they didn't hate each other for it.

Hitomi obliged.

"It's because it's the anniversary soon, isn't it?"

"What?" She had no idea what she was talking about. Her coming clean anniversary? That should be a good thing.

"Next week. It's going to be six years since that day…the day Madoka and everyone died." Sayaka gasped and thought about it. She was right. Next Wednesday, it was going to be exactly six years since they died. The Wednesday after that would be the anniversary of the Storm.

Maybe that was making all of this worse?

No, everything was bad anyways. This is just another thing to think about.

Sayaka groaned and put her head in her hands.

"I completely forgot. Now I've got that to think about too."

"I'm sorry Sayaka. I assumed that was what you wanted to talk about. I have been having other problems too, so I don't mind if we talk about other things instead…" Ah hell. Sayaka knew that tone. It meant that Hitomi had something she wanted to talk about, but wanted Sayaka to pressure her to talk about it so she didn't feel like she was complaining too much. She peeked an eye out at Hitomi from behind her fingers.

"It's Kyousuke!" Didn't take long to crack this time. "Things are changing in our relationship and I have no idea why. He just seems so unhappy. He doesn't come over as much as he used to. We haven't had a proper date in months! When he does come by, it's like it's just for sex. He only came over on Wednesday, had sex that lasted twenty minutes, and left right away. I don't know what's wrong!"

That sort of just sounded like regular busy Kyousuke to her.

"Hitomi, Kyousuke's kind of an idiot sometimes. I'm sure he didn't mean that personally. I would talk to him about it if I were you. Maybe he's gotten a bit too comfortable and doesn't feel the need to put in any effort anymore. Remind him! Tell him it's time for a date." She was forcing herself to be as nice a friend as possible. She really wanted to say 'My problems are way freaking worse than yours, you don't know anything!'

"I don't want to be a pushy girlfriend... I already say he has to come all the way over here all of the time…."

Oh no you don't!

"Well, that's too bad. I guess he won't know it's a problem and it's just going to get worse then." She shrugged, dismissing the subject coldly.

"Sayaka, please! You're so good at talking to him. Could you please just remind him for me? He always listens to you!"

"Hitomi, I honestly have a lot of other things going on and I really don't have the energy to be a mediator today."

"It will be quick, I promise! This has been on my mind for so long now. I'm so afraid I'll say something wrong and he'll break up with me. Please Sayaka! I don't want to be alone…not that way. Not next week, at least." Oh for fuck's sakes.

"Fine." She dialled his number. She wasn't happy about it but she did.

"Hi Sayaka! I thought Hitomi didn't want me to come over."

"She does and she doesn't. I don't know. She's feeling sad. That's bad. She wants a real date night. That will make her feel better. That's good. Do you understand?"

"Sayaka!" Hitomi exclaimed horrified. You want something done, do it yourself woman. I've had a shit week. You were warned.

"Uh, yes I do. Sayaka, is everything ok?"

"I don't know. Talk to Hitomi."

"Not with Hitomi, with you. I always appreciate it when you help us out, but you're usually a bit less…blunt about things, I suppose?"

"I have had the shittiest of shitty weeks and I came over here to bitch about it and I was told to play mediator instead. I'm fucking pissed Kyousuke!"

"Sayaka, I'm sorry! I should have listened to you first. I was just so stressed and I put that before your needs. I'm very, very sorry." Hitomi tried to calm her down.

"Stop pulling your conflicts and resolution class bullshit on me Hitomi! I don't want to hear it!" She screamed. She was unravelling.

"Sayaka, stay there, ok?" Kyousuke prompted.

"What, are you going to come over and make it better Kyousuke? Tell me, how are you going to make my problems better? No one can help me! I fucked myself! I fucking hate my fucking life!" She was starting to pull at her hair.

"I don't know how to help you when you get like this." Kyousuke sounded nervous. "Is there anything I can do to-"

"NO! THERE'S NOTHING ANYONE CAN DO!" She screamed and hung up; no point getting him involved in this to. She was I-give-up-on-the-world crying. The worst kind of crying. She had cried way too much over the past few days.

She flopped over on Hitomi's couch, smothered her face with a matching throw pillow, and cried some more. She had a bad feeling she was getting snot all over her face, but she didn't care. She sat like that, sobbing and whimpering for a few minutes.

Her phone rang again a few moments later. It was an unknown number.

She had a suspicion she knew who it was…and she wasn't going to go down that road today. She ignored the call. Though it was very thoughtful of Kyousuke to get Nakazawa to call.

She felt something large and cold get dumped in her lap and a light box plop on her chest. She looked down to see a tub of ice cream and a box of tissues.

"I don't know what else to get you." Hitomi said awkwardly, holding two spoons.

"Don't worry, you chose perfectly." Sayaka sniffled and smiled softly in apology.

Things got better after that. The next two weeks passed like a breeze compared to the week from hell.

Yuma healed perfectly and was back to fighting witches with her. From what Kyoko could tell, the dummy learned her lesson and wouldn't go running off on her own again. She thought she should ground her anyways as punishment.

"I'm taking away your tablet for a month." Kyoko decided.

"No! I need that!" Kyoko rolled her eyes at her dramatic response. Teenage girls…

"For what? To find good cat videos online?"

Yuma's fists were clenched and was clenching her teeth.

"You're just being a cunt, Kyoko." She snarled. Kyoko paused.

"Excuse me?" She said calmly with an eyebrow raised. This was a chance for her to take that back. Kyoko was not bothered by a lot of words: bitch, cow, motherfucker, cocksucker, slut, whore, and more. But that word…that word was reserved for the worst of the worst like Miyamoto Suki.

"You're being a cunt, Kyoko. I had my back ripped off and spine broken. Isn't that enough?" Kyoko had had enough sass. This girl needed to be taught a lesson.

"It's decided. No tablet for three months." She hissed. Yuma gasped. That's right; Kyoko knew how to hit where it hurt; Yuma's still just a teenager after all. "I'm putting it in a place you can't find it. It'll be safe, don't worry." She reassured.

"What if I need it for art club?"

"You can use one from the school. That art club supervisor of yours is a sap. I'm sure you could swing something to get her to help out."

Yuma stormed into their shared room and slammed the door. Kyoko rolled her eyes .

"With that attitude, you should be more worried about whether or not you're going to go to New York!" Kyoko yelled with no malice in her voice.

"I'm not going anyways!" Yuma yelled back with lots of malice in her voice. Kyoko shook her head and walked out of the apartment. This kid needed some time to calm down.

See? She had this whole semi-parenting thing down.

Kyoko did indeed know the perfect place to hide it. The apartment would be a stupid place to leave it; Yuma would be able to find it and use it while Kyoko was at work. And Kyoko would come home and Yuma would pretend to have been a "good girl" and left it in its place. Kyoko wasn't that naïve.

Leaving it at work would be stupid because let's be real: someone would steal it.

That left one good place she could put it that she had at least moderate control over: the church.

They weren't evicting her yet.

Kyoko walked around through the rooms of her childhood home. This was the first time she had ever gone in since the fire for a reason other than to reminisce. It was kind of cool trying to find good hiding places instead like when she and Momo would play.

Junkies are going to get it here.

Like they had gotten everything else. Ok, so maybe the church wasn't a good idea. Was there any place the junkies hadn't found? Maybe I should just try to find a clever place in the apartment…that storage closet is pretty messy so maybe she wouldn't be able to find it in there if she tried.

Then she had it.

Not one junkie had found the church storage room yet!

She used a bit of detection magic to see and find that indeed, no one was around her. She slinked down the hidden stair case and flicked on the light, which was miraculous that it still worked. Seemed like nothing else in this pit did.

The incredibly crowded storage room was filled with good hiding places. Realistically, Yuma wouldn't think to come look for it here. Heck, she probably didn't even know this room existed either.

One shelf in particular came very close to reaching the ceiling…it was only a few centimeters below it. Had the wooden platform not been underneath it, it would have been a more reasonable distance away. Had the wooden platform not been underneath it, the goods on the bottom shelf would probably be disgusting and moldy too.

The small distance between the ceiling and top of the shelf was the perfect little space to fit the tablet in. She placed it there, jumped a bit, and pushed it further. Further than she intended to.

Shit. I'm totally gonna have to climb this thing to get it out.

Well, she would cross that bridge when she came to it. Besides: planning ahead wasn't really her thing.

Things got a lot better after that. She really needed a good cry and (unfortunately vague due to professional confidentiality) bitch session with Hitomi. It didn't make any of her problems go away, but it did help her cope with them a bit better.

She reconciled with her parents quickly enough. She told them that she talked to Ryo and they would pull her off the assignment at a moment's notice.

She was finally honest with them and told them what was going on in as much detail as she could.

"Guys, the thing is I got a huge lead on some really, really bad people that the force has never been able to get a lead on. These people are part of the reason why thirty-five percent of the city's addicts go missing…a bit part of it. I can stop this guys! I can get justice for all of those people who were stolen! I can protect all of those who might be stolen in the future if they aren't put away! This is really important! We've never been this close to them before and we may never get this close again. That's why I can't just back out."

Her parents were skeptical but decided to back down, thank god. Reconciling also made it way easier to get them caught up on their rent and some of her Mom's laundromat payments.

She also apologized to both Hitomi and Kyousuke for her lovely little breakdown. Kyousuke came up with the idea of going for a walk in the park the next Saturday.

A walk in the park meant that he would hobble on his crutches for as long as possible, then he would sit down in the wheelchair that Sayaka would push beside him.

He could usually walk for about ten minutes.

"So" he panted. They'd been walking for about five minutes now, so he probably didn't have much longer. "Hitomi told me a bit about your work." He took a few seconds to stop and breathe. He winced and moved forward. "Are you sure you're going to be ok?"

"Yeah, I think so. I can drop the assignment at the drop of a hat, and they won't punish me for it. Besides, this is a chance to really do something impactful. It's pretty cool!" Sayaka smiled.

They stopped again, for about two minutes this time for him to catch his breath.

"I'm really glad to hear that Sayaka. You've come a really long way, haven't you?" He tried to smile. He was exerting himself too much. They were at nine minutes now, including the two minute break.

"I really think I have, so thanks Kyousuke. That means a lot to me."

He nodded, giving a signal that he couldn't talk anymore. They were just going to keep moving for a bit until he crashed. Sayaka was walking at about a quarter of the speed she usually walked, but made no complaints.

He was shaking hard at fourteen minutes, including the two minute break. He collapsed into the wheelchair then.

"That was a whole extra two minutes! Way to go Kyousuke!" Sayaka beamed at him. He smiled, and went back to panting. She pushed him forward after that, trying not to start too quickly so as not to embarrass him.

"Can we…" Pant "go" pant "there?" He asked, pointing to the fountain. This time, there was a picnic blanket with paintings and drawings strewed across it. A young green-haired girl was there sketching an elderly couple that was smiling for her.

She turned around and smiled, saying she would be with them shortly after she finished this sketch.

Kyousuke was admiring the artwork. Sayaka was gaping because of two things.

Firstly, this girl was definitely Kyoko's little sister. She would recognize the young greenette from anywhere. Sayaka couldn't shake the feeling she knew her from somewhere else too though.

Secondly, the art work…it was so much like that day at the school; the day slightly over six years ago now. The checkered patterns, the strange monsters, it all looked exactly like it.

"This is fascinating, don't you think Sayaka?" He said with heavy breaths. "It really captures the dark sides of humanity. Uh… is that what you were going for?" He asked the girl…Yuka, was it?

"Yes! I'm impressed you got it so quickly. Are you an art connoisseur?" She asked politely. "All done! I am very sorry I couldn't do something in colour to email you…my tablet is currently out of commission."

"Oh, it's no bother dear. This sketch is beautiful anyways and we love it as it is." The elderly woman smiled.

"If you would like to come here again next week, I could get it coloured in for only an extra 6,000 yen? Or I could even make it into a painting for you for an extra 25,000."

"A painting would be lovely! Here you go miss." The elderly man handed her 25,000 yen on the spot. "We look forward to seeing it."

They exchanged numbers and were off. She put the sketch in a binder.

"I'm sorry for the wait. Are you a connoisseur, sir?"

"Well, I might call myself a bit of one." He smiled bashfully. This girl's good…almost as good as her sister. "My father is a museum director, so I grew up surrounded by the arts."

"Oh wow! Do you do any art yourself?"

"I used to. I played the violin."

"Why did you stop?"

"I was in an accident that crippled my hand. I haven't been able to play since." He stared at his hands, seemingly without expression. Sayaka knew better. "That's why I find that painting quite interesting."

Kyousuke was pointing to a picture of what looked like a painting of a cardboard woman with big hands in front of a bunch of destroyed cars. It had taken Sayaka years to understand and appreciate classical music. It would take her years more to understand and appreciate art.

"I'm really sorry to hear about your hands…" She said sympathetically and with a hint of something else in her voice; almost like interest and curiosity? Nah, must be my imagination.

"Thank you. How much for that painting? And maybe the checkered one with the dancing bear? I think Hitomi might like that."

"Don't get that for Hitomi." Sayaka interjected. Kyoko's sister looked at her confused, seeming to study her. Shit, that was so, so rude to say to about a thirteen year old's work.

"It's very nice but that one might bring up…bad memories from the school from six years ago. Trust me on that. Maybe something a bit less abstract?" Sayaka suggested.

"The Mitakihara Middle School attack? You were there?" She asked surprised.

"You know about that?" Sayaka was stunned. This girl must have only been six or seven when that happened. The girl quickly looked away and shrugged.

"It was all over the news. I remember thinking it was weird that so many people just disappeared. I never understood. Was just curious is all."

"I was there and I still don't get it…" She was very aware of how strange she was starting to sound. She was a bit bewildered that the girl wasn't asking more questions. Most people tried to grill her for hours for details, especially if they had a morbid curiosity like this girl claimed to have. "That one looks great, Kyousuke! The one of a church with all of the sakura trees."

"That is nice. I bet Hitomi would like that too. How much for both paintings? The one with the hands and the church?"

"How about 40,000 for both?"

"Sounds perfect." Rich kid. "I just need to go to the ATM."

"There's one a five minute walk away at the convenience store that way." She pointed to the left. "I've been giving people directions there all day."

They got the paintings. Sayaka also commissioned a chibi version of her in an officer's uniform, at Kyousuke's insistence. It wasn't pricey and was admittedly pretty cute. She decided she was going to put it on her desk on Monday.

Monday…where she was going to have to report that nothing significant happened the week before.

The crooks were surprised that no cops showed up on the Tuesday shipment. Kurosawa was furious that they wasted that opportunity. He and Watanabe screamed at each other. Then they weren't in for the rest of the week.

They knew that the undercover was an undercover though. He and his family disappeared, but according to them, they had no idea where they went, nor did Kurosawa particularly care. He was going to hire somebody to screen his operations for rats, he said. That was about it.

The second week was almost fun; she had a great time with Kyoko, who she wanted to help out in any way she could; she needed to keep a close relationship to get an in after all. There was something about helping her get those few extra yen in tips that just felt good. They were even starting to joke around, almost as friends.

She wondered if this next week was going to be more like the first or second week.

She really hoped there was going to be a pattern and everything would just calm down. Permanently.

She doubted it though.

Kyoko had been planning this all week. It pained her, but she brought Yuma in on the job.

"They want you to hide ten bodies in one night? Are they crazy?! Don't they know how much work you have to put in to just hiding one?"

"Of course they don't. What am I going to tell them? 'Hey guys! I'm a magical girl that will someday turn into this monster called a witch. But in the meantime, I can feed the bodies of your enemies to other witches!'"

"Good point. If I help you with this, can I get my tablet back sooner?"

"I think I read somewhere that the key to good parenting was consistency, so I will be consistent and say no. I'll get you icecream after though."

"Fine. But what's the plan?"

"Tomorrow night the client is going to give us a car to get to the ten locations. We need to get to these locations at these times." She pointed to the army time locations on the page. "After, we leave the car at the docks and go home."

"These places are pretty far apart Kyoko. Even just picking up the bodies and driving to the next place, that will be tight. How are we supposed to get a witch to move that quickly with us?"

"Easy. We find the right witch. I bet the race car witch likes to race. We find her after work tonight, use a tracking spell, use her tomorrow, and kill that bitch. Shall we?" Kyoko grinned.

Sayaka had been planning this all week. She was going to put on an amazing performance tonight that was going to wow both Fusao and Kyoko. She even put in extra hours on the pole to practice.

After her success her first shift, she got a Friday night stage time: the most coveted time aside from Saturday night.

Ever since the day in the rain, she tried harder and harder to impress the redhead and get them more tips. It was easier to ignore everyone else in the room when they did their shows. A lot of the time, they didn't even really have any sort of sex. They just made out or touched each other a bit. She still didn't like having other people there, but she was being helpful and developing a 'professional' relationship. And she was getting extra money to help her parents, so it was all worth it. Everybody wins.

It made the whole assignment a lot easier. The new challenge was being able to focus on both Kyoko and the clients, who were not even there a lot of the time. She figured that they did not have any urgent business to attend to this week. She didn't mind as she should have.

One time, embarrassingly and oddly enough, she had dreams of Kyoko finding her in a train station in her old Mitakihara Middle School uniform and hair and kissing her. It wasn't even a sexual kiss, but more desperate. Another time, she had a dream they were literally trying to kill each other in an alley with swords.

Her mind wandered to Kyoko more often than not, both when she was awake and asleep.

Sayaka wasn't sure what those dreams were trying to tell her. She figured she shouldn't read too far into it though. The dream-reading shit was more Hitomi's thing than hers.

Everything was ready. They could do this. How difficult could it be?

Work went by smoothly yesterday. Rin had seemed much more relaxed, which had made shows easier, and much more enjoyable. She didn't even have to think about things.

She could focus on the big job tonight.

"How are you feeling, kiddo?" Yuma rarely actually played an active role in her side jobs. This time, she would: she was going to be witch bait for the same witch that tore her back to shreds…disturbingly close to her soul gem.

"Great! I'm ready!" She grinned ear to ear. Yuma had been babbling about this all week (more about wanting to get payback). Kyoko had never seen her so excited before. She was surprised by how little Yuma was bitching about the matching outfits; black hoodies with the hoods up and blue jeans. They looked like a couple of punks. She suspected Yuma might have found it cooler that they were matching than she was letting off.

She had picked up the car already. It was a sexy small black car: a Mercedes Benz. She had no idea why Kurosawa would have given her such a nice car to drive for such a dirty job. Were they trying to get noticed?

She ignored the thought, enjoying the (heated!) leather seats. The car had so many gauges and buttons, she felt like she was in that time machine from Back to the Future…but sexier.

She really started to think that telling Tomi and Kurosawa that she didn't technically know how to drive would have been a good thing to do.

She played those driving games at the arcade though; how different could they be? Right pedal is gas, and left is brake. Use the wheel to steer. Don't hit shit. Easy enough.

The car had a sunroof, which was useful. After fiddling with some buttons they got it to open. Yuma would stand in the car and send back shock waves whenever she had to if the witch started to catch up.

Kyoko really hoped this would work.

"Ready when you are." She said from the backseat. Kyoko found something adorable about the fact that Yuma actually put on a seatbelt.

"Alright, let's do this!"

They had a GPS that Kyoko had plugged in with the addresses ready to go. Kurosawa really was having her go all over Kazamino, starting on the upper east side of town.

So naturally, the race car witch was cruising around New Mitakihara...which was to the west.

Kyoko muttered some curses to herself and they were off.

Everything was ready. Sayaka had made the dip and bought all of the chips to bring over to Hitomi's for the traditional weekly hangout; otherwise known as "third-wheeling Hitomi and Kyousuke's date night".

Well, that's what it became in the last year or so. Before, Hitomi and Kyousuke were together all the time, it seemed. It was sickening sometimes. At the beginning it was because of young love, and afterwards it was because Sayaka and Nakazawa were off doing other things and they didn't have any other close friends. Our bad.

Now, according to Hitomi, they only saw each other about twice a week; one time for an evening with Sayaka there and another for an hour for sex.

Hitomi fretted to Sayaka constantly about their relationship (at least it felt like she did). Kyousuke didn't seem to notice anything was going on.

And when they were all together, Hitomi would usually make one or two passive aggressive comments that went right over his head. But not Sayaka's.

So she brought food as a way to not have to talk when need be.

Now that's certainly not to say that she didn't like their hangouts; it was usually the highlight of her week. But she could live without the relationship drama thrown in there.

The sky train ride to Hitomi's was also a highlight. She plugged in her music player, listening to classics like Chopin and Mozart, reminding her of the concerts she and her parents went to when they could pretend to have money. She closed her eyes, a ghost of a smile forming on her lips as the violins and pianos serenaded her into a peaceful haze of nostalgia.

The train car jerked a bit, as it always did at this bend. It was also her signal that the stop for Hitomi's home station was next.

Her eyes snapped open, looking into her reflection in the window across from her, along with a set of red eyes being reflected right beside her.

She whipped her head to her right; of course nothing was there. She blinked a few times. She shook her head.

Guess my imagination's getting the better of me.

This was going to be worse than Kyoko thought. They found the witch cruising around the Mitakihara marina. It was unsettling; the witch was just puttering along like it was going for a Sunday drive. Kyoko worried that they wouldn't be able to make it go fast enough to get them back to Kazamino in time.

She pulled up, right to the edge of the barrier; the front half of the Benz perched in the entry way to the shallow labyrinth was the back was on regular cement.

From this view, Kyoko could see that the witch was not the car itself; the witch was actually a faceless driver inside the car; it looked exactly like its eerily still and quiet crowd of familiars.

Kyoko experimented and revved the engine.

All hell broke loose.

The familiars roared as the witch raced right at them. Kyoko reversed to the left as quickly as she could, missing a collision by an inch.

"Kyoko, be careful! This is a really nice car!" Yuma scolded behind her.

"It's not my fault they were dumbasses when they picked out which car we should drive!" Kyoko hollered while setting the car in the right direction, trying to keep up with the witch.

She had never seen a labyrinth like this before. The stands with the familiars seemed to levitate in a hot air balloon after they went so they could follow better. They were not getting a single civilian caught up in the stands. They were barely watching the race; they were just cheering. They were holding up signs with crude drawings of Kyoko and the Mercedes.

The familiars were cheering for her and the witch wasn't even trying to kill anybody.

If she were willing to let her mind wander, she would have imagined what this girl would have been like when she had still been alive.

If.

Kyoko faintly registered at the back of her mind that she should count her blessings that they were not going to kill half of the pedestrians in Mitakihara and Kazamino tonight. The streets were also thankfully mostly deserted along this route. As it was, she had to work on guiding the witch to the right destinations.

"Turn right in 100 meters." The courteous voice of the GPS reminded. Kyoko was going 130 kilometers per hour in a 60 zone.

"Son of a bitch!" She yelled, stomping on the brakes and skidding to make the turn. Yuma shrieked in the backseat, barely restrained by her seatbelt.

"Approaching destination on your left in 250 meters." They were in a shadier part of Kazamino, near Tomi's. The guys planning this must have thought they were doing her a favour starting near her work. Asshole pricks.

This posed another challenge.

How the hell were they going to get the witch to stop?

Kyoko screeched to a halt, narrowly avoiding being rear-ended by the witch (which had been considerate enough to swerve to avoid hitting them).

"Yuma, watch the car and keep the witch at bay!" Kyoko shouted back. She didn't have to though. The witch was trying to attack the car, and Yuma was already firing shock waves at it, knocking it back.

The labyrinth was starting to descend from the sky, transforming the world around them into the track. This was almost too perfect; the pandemonium would help her sneak in, get the bodies, and sneak out.

Something had to go wrong.

Running into the building, nothing seemed overtly amiss until she saw a door that had a number of holes in it.

Bullet holes.

She braced herself, knowing it was going to be worse than a scene out of a slasher movie in there. It's not like she'd never seen a dead body before. Hell, she'd seen and hidden plenty. Stab wounds, beaten, drowning, burned, electrocution, even an acid victim; but the ones that had been shot, especially at close range were one of her least favourites.

While she didn't always show it, she really was a spiritual person; growing up with a preacher for a father will do that to you. She did believe in souls, but she thought it was the head, more specifically the brain that housed them, not the cardiovascular pump called the heart.

So seeing brains splattered along walls and furniture was always disconcerting to her. Literally splattered; no one seemed to realize how accurate a word 'splattered' is to describe it until they had actually witnessed a murder or suicide scene for themselves.

She opened the door, which didn't make a sound.

Holy shit.

Kyoko had been under the impression that there would be one body in here; they were killing one at each location.

This looked like it had been a freaking family reunion. There were a dozen bodies in here.

She heard a gargled whimper coming from the far wall.

There was a young woman's body there. Was the woman still alive? Looking at the back of her head, she would have assumed not.

Kyoko turned over the body, seeing a little auburn-haired boy no older than eighteen months curled against her mother's breast. He wouldn't look at Kyoko; he just clung to his mother's shirt, eyes squeezed tight, body shaking and continued to make that sound.

Kyoko noticed all of the blood on the front of the mother's periwinkle shirt, but it had looked like she had been shot from the back.

Kyoko's eyes widened in realization. Oh please God no.

While it pained her to do this, she wrenched the boy's body away from his mother. He tried to cry harder, but he just couldn't.

The little boy had two bullet wounds; one in his stomach and one to the right of his heart; probably his lung.

It was a cruel miracle that the boy was still alive at all.

"Ma….ma…." He spluttered out, trying to weakly reach for her body. Kyoko held him tight.

"Not right now. Not right now." She was ready to pull out her spear; give him a quick, merciful death.

Ah fuck it.

She got up and ran for the door with the boy.

"Yuma!" She yelled as she got outside, where the labyrinth had completely descended. This kid's going to need some serious therapy if he remembers any of this shit.

"I'm a little busy!" She yelled back in a surprisingly pleasant manner. She was throwing shockwaves that was making the witch's car flip backwards, but not actually damaging it at all.

"Let's trade! Heal the kid and I'll fight the witch!"

"What kid?!" She yelled back, looking at the terrified, pathetic bundle in her arms. "What the fuck!?"

Kyoko faintly realized that she probably shouldn't swear as much in front of Yuma as she does.

"I know. Just help him!" She thrust the boy into Yuma's arms, who immediately set to pulling out the bullets and healing him.

Kyoko jumped at the witch, thrusting her spear through the windshield. She didn't want to kill the witch, but she wanted to freak it out; she deliberately missed its head by a few centimeters.

"Kyoko, what do you want me to do with him?" Yuma asked from where she was sitting on the Benz's cracked (!) windshield. The little boy was evidently breathing better and significantly less pale than before. He was observing Kyoko and the witch with wide, curious eyes. His eyes were still puffy from crying.

Kyoko was about to instruct Yuma to put him back in the house…until she remembered all of the bodies in there. She wanted to avoid exposing Yuma to that life as much as possible. Having one of us royally fucked up is bad enough…

"Trade! Give me the kid, you keep the witch back! Don't break the car!" She yelled, suddenly grabbing the kid and darting for it. Yuma comically stumbled off of the car to fight. Kyoko might have laughed if their lives weren't on the line.

All of the sudden movements were scaring the boy. He started to cry again.

"Oh shut up you little brat! I just saved your sorry ass!" She snapped. He hiccupped, looking up at her. She sighed. This kid probably didn't understand what was going on, but he was definitely having a worse night than her. She dug around her pockets and found a stray chocolate bar, opening it and giving it to the child. He seemed happy.

"Oko!" He chirped. She realized he was trying to say her name. She couldn't help but smiled fondly.

"I've already sucked one orphan brat into my mess; I can't suck you in too." She jested softly, ruffling his hair. She snuggled against her chest while munching away on the kit kat bar.

She found a room with a crib in it; she felt it was safe to assume this was his. The room was quite barren though; the walls were dull, there were no toys, and the crib didn't even look safe. She noticed a suspicious bag of white powder in the corner.

"Maybe it's not the worst thing in the world that you're going to have to get a new family, huh?" She asked while putting him down. He looked up and her and started to cry.

"Oko, no go! No go Oko!" He pleaded. Her heart melted a little, but she really had to go. She did the first thing she could think of.

"As I went down to the river to pray, studying about that good old way, and who shall wear the starry crown. Good Lord, show me the way." She started to sing the familiar melody her mother used to sing to her before bed. She used her enchantment magic to put him to sleep faster, ensuring he would have good dreams.

"O sisters let's go down, let's go down, come on down, o sisters let's go down, down in the river to pray" She finished, more for herself than for him who had fallen into a deep slumber after the first verse.

"Have a better life than this kiddo." She said softly, gently stroking some of his hair out of his face. Her magic really knocked him out, so she took off his blood-soaked shirt quickly. She was already behind schedule as it was. She created a temporary barrier around him; it should only last an hour or two, but it would make sure that the guys who were cleaning up the bodies downstairs wouldn't find him.

She ran downstairs, used a diamond lattice to tie all the bodies together and threw the bodies to the familiars. They were all swallowed by the crowd quickly.

"Get in loser, we need to go!" She shouted to the orphan brat she did drag into her mess. She had more messes to drag her into, after all.

This was going to be worse than Sayaka thought. Much, much worse.

Not only was Hitomi already pouting in a corner, but there was an additional guest on the couch she was not expecting…

"Heyyyyy Sa-ya-ka!" Nakazawa said with a big, dopey smile. But not dopey in a cute way; more like "doped up on some unknown substance" sort of dopey.

"What the hell guys?" Sayaka asked incredulously, looking mostly at Kyousuke.

"I thought I had mentioned that this was a bad idea. I suppose I didn't speak loudly enough." Hitomi said in a way that sounded casual and pleasant, but clearly implied that yes, she had spoken loudly enough and was just ignored by her boyfriend.

"Oh come on, this is great! It gets us all back together again, just like in high school." Kyousuke smiled pleasantly.

"Before or after the whole, you know, almost dying from overdose bit?" Sayaka was trying to sound chill…but it was not working at all. She could recognize that.

"Good question." Nakazawa nodded sagely from the couch. He was clearly looking at Sayaka's chest. Old habits die hard, I guess.

"But that's in the past now, right? You haven't used in two years!"

"That's not really how this works Kyousuke…" She hated saying that. She wished he was right; she feels like he should be right. But, as she has been reminded time and time again, her dumb decisions have altered her fucking brain chemistry and she messed herself up; badly.

It was a choice before, and now it will never be one ever again.

"Can I talk to you for a minute, Sayaka?" Kyousuke asked. "Alone?" He made a motion with his crutch to Hitomi's bedroom and started hobbling there. She followed dutifully. She ignored the way Nakazawa watched her follow him. He wasn't checking her out or anything; it was more like he was watching the way she followed him with disdain. Which he probably did.

Nakazawa, though he would only admit it when he was really, really high, had been envious of Kyousuke for a long time, though they had been friends since Elementary School. Kyousuke always did better in class and of course was a freaking music prodigy. Kyousuke was also more handsome and came from a wealthier, more respected family.

The funny thing is that Nakazawa was never far behind; he got A's while Kyousuke got A+. Nakazawa's family lived in a four bedroom house while Kyousuke's had five. Nakazawa was a cello player in the city's youth orchestra while Kyousuke was the solo violinist.

Then Nakazawa was there for the Middle School attack while Kyousuke was injured in the hospital.

Nakazawa had always been very impressive; just slightly less so than his closest friend. That was true until Nakazawa fell into the wrong crowd, along with Sayaka.

It had all started with Nakazawa's older cousin offering him a gram of marijuana to calm down after he had another trauma-induced meltdown. Nakazawa took it and he liked it. Then he and Sayaka did it together. Then he and Sayaka did other activities together that some would argue should be held off until college, marriage, or death.

It was perfectly awful timing that Nakazawa's cousin's dealer offered the first pill of ecstasy on the two-year anniversary of the attack. Nakazawa bought two; one for each of them.

It was the best sex they had ever had. They could almost forget about what had happened exactly two years before. So they kept using it.

Then they tried acid. Then they tried heroin ("How bad can it be to just do it once? Everyone talks about it all the time; we can handle ecstasy just fine, so how much worse could this be?") and cocaine, and later on meth.

And then neither of them could stop.

Kyousuke closed pushed the door closed with his crutch.

"You know how I feel about this Kyousuke. How could you invite him without telling me?" Sayaka asked, genuinely hurt. This was guaranteed to be a bad night, especially for her and Nakazawa. She had no doubt that he only came because Kyousuke said she was coming. Nakazawa had begun to resent Kyousuke, eloquently known as "golden boy" (on good days) in recent years.

"His family has been worried about him for years. I've been worried about him for years. He goes weeks at a time without talking to anyone. We're always worried he's going to wind up dead or missing. I had been terrified of that for you too for years, but you broke out of it!" She knew where this was going and she didn't like it.

"Kyousuke, it's not that simple – "

"He likes you, and listens to you. I think he even loves you. He won't change for us, but maybe he'd change for you. You also went through what he needs to go through; you're a good influence! His family always tries to get me to help him, which I try to do but he doesn't listen to me because I'm not like him anymore. You were though, so –"

"Kyousuke, I had to cut him off because he's a bad tie. The most likely thing to happen is that I'm going to relapse and we'll all be at square one."

"You're stronger than that though." He looked at her with an expression that had something like pride in it; it made her heart flutter a bit. But she had to look out for herself.

"No. No I'm not. I'm really not. Not yet, at least." She sighed. "I can't be some sort of idol or hero for him."

They stared at each other, Kyousuke's disappointment bringing her further down than she was feeling even two weeks ago.

"I think you let your parents and the others tell you you're weaker than you are, and you believe them." He struggled briefly to open the door and didn't look back at her. She winced.

Nakazawa was putting his coat on.

"Where are you going?" Kyousuke tried to hobble faster. "We haven't even started here yet!"

"No, but we're finished." He said very soberly. He opened the door and turned to leave.

"Don't go, Nakazawa." Sayaka interjected. He stopped in the doorway. "Please stay. I want you to stay." She said quietly; she wasn't sure if she meant it or not.

He turned around and looked at her eyes. She hated it when he did that; they knew each other too well so he'd probably be able to tell whether or not she really wanted him there. They knew the other better than they knew themselves.

Or at least they had.

He closed the door and took off his coat.

It was only that first stop that had been awful so far. Every other one had been pretty straight forward with one to four bodies. None of them were kids.

They were approaching the ninth stop. Things were almost going well for them for a while. Then the witch and familiars stepped up their game.

BUMP!

"Goddamit Yuma, keep those fucking things away!" Kyoko yelled back to the girl who probably couldn't hear her. Her torso was completely outside the sunroof.

The familiars were throwing things that looked like tomatoes and rotten food, but hit like bricks and smelled like something much, much more foul. They appeared to be aiming for the witch though, which would have been nice if the witch wasn't being more persistent in trying to knock them out; it nearly had while they were going under an underpass.

Needless to say, the car was no longer as sexy as it was when they started. The back bumper was completely gone (luckily with no license plate to identify it as theirs) and the fender was inverted; the trunk was destroyed to say the least. The front of the car had been hit by a rotten zucchini brick, seriously denting the front right part of the car and destroying that headlight. The car was also starting to make funny sounds as they drove.

"I'm tryING!" She shrieked at the end. Kyoko looked in the rear view mirror and saw what was going on; the familiars had thrown down a rope from their sort of hot air balloon and was trying to drag her out of the car.

Oh no they fucking don't!

Kyoko focused her magic as hard as she could to create a decoy of her on the damaged back of the car. It came out perfectly, and cut the rope with its spear, but disappeared immediately after. Kyoko was getting better at being able to materialize them, but she couldn't hold them up for long, particularly if she was trying to concentrate on something else too.

"Thanks!" Yuma chirped happily in the back seat. Kyoko materialized her own lance, with the head of the spear in the front and the shaft shattering the back windshield (it was on its last legs anyways). She made a diamond lattice to connect Yuma's waist to the shaft.

"Watch yourself! I can't do too much at once." Kyoko growled out. She wasn't really made at Yuma…she was just mad.

The pay-as-you-go phone rang a generic tone. She didn't need a specialized one to know who was calling. Only one person had this number.

"Tomi, I'm a bit busy right now." She gritted out. She knew exactly what he was calling about, and so she didn't appreciate the oncoming lecture.

"Don't say my name! According to the GPS, you are behind schedule. And where the hell have you been going?! Are you trying to get caught? For fuck's sakes, you're going forty kilometers over the speed limit right now!"

"Turn right in 200 meters." The GPS politely informed her.

"Kyoko, do you have an extra grief seed? I don't know how much longer I can keep up with this! There's too much!" Yuma yelled back. Kyoko ignored everything else as she fished for one of the extras they brought in the glove compartment. She handed it to Yuma before picking up the phone again.

"You never take this long, what are you doing?! We have a client to serve!" The Miyamotos' and Watanabe's words bounced around her head. "We also know you're only getting forty percent".

Yeah, 'we' my ass.

"I've only had to deal with one 'package' at a time before! There were twelve at the first stop alone! This was already going to be a nightmare to begin with, and then you gave me this fucking tiny car to do it! How the hell am I supposed to carry 'packages' anywhere?!"

"I wish there was something I could do about that but – "

"When you're the one getting sixty fucking percent, you'd think you'd be able to do some of the god-damned basics!" She snapped harshly.

There was silence on the phone as she focused on getting to the next destination. They were four minutes away, according to the GPS but realistically less than that if they kept going at this speed. The silly GPS assumed they would be following speed limits. Ha!

"Where did you hear that?" He asked tersely.

"None of your damn business. If you don't mind, I need to get back to work." She hung up angrily and swerved around a narrow corner to pull up the next destination.

Yuma used a modified shock wave to force Kyoko's head down into the steering wheel. Hard. The fucking horn even beeped.

Kyoko was about to scream at her, to ask her what the hell her problem was, until she felt the familiar feeling of her own lance swinging right over her head to shatter the driver's side window and lop off the top of her head rest as the sound of glass shattering rang out behind her.

It was so easy for her to forget just how sharp that thing could be.

"Thanks Yu-" She looked in the rear view mirror and couldn't see her…at all.

"No problem!" She heard a faint yell from outside; she was sure the volume was loud, but the speed of the wind cut off most of it.

Kyoko whipped her head around to see that the spear was lodged into the interior wall of the car while the shaft was hanging outside with Yuma…hanging off the shaft a few feet from the car.

"GET BACK IN HERE!" Kyoko was confused as to how Yuma could have even gotten to that predicament.

Then she noticed the roof of the car was caved in beyond the sunroof.

How the hell had she missed that?

"No way, this is fun!" Yuma grinned, throwing shockwaves expertly into the falling debris and hitting the witch's car head on every time. Kyoko couldn't help but grin back.

"You're a fucking lunatic." She yelled back in good humour.

And then she heard sirens approaching.

Oh shit.

It was only the first bit that had been awful so far. After the dramatic situation had been diffused, they had a lovely meal (sushi, salad and desserts prepared by Hitomi, chips and dip prepared by Sayaka, chicken and noodles prepared by Nakazawa, surprisingly, and taiyaki bought by Kyousuke) and just talked on the couches. Having a few rounds of sake certainly helped things along too.

Sayaka figured she would fight with Nakazawa at some point during the night, so she had to pick her battles. Arguing about the fact that he draped his arm over the back of the couch so his arm was almost around her shoulder would not be one of them.

The moment he tried to put it around her shoulder, it would be.

"Would anyone like some green tea ice cream?" Hitomi asked pleasantly. "It's a new brand I've never tried before, so I was curious to see what it was like." Living wild, I see.

"Sure, I'll have some! Can't go wrong with ice cream." Sayaka smiled. The guys agreed and Hitomi served them two scoops each (Kyousuke's put in the microwaves for ten seconds to make it easier to eat) and drizzled a bit of chocolate syrup on top.

"Do you not have any more of the vanilla sauce?" Kyousuke asked with disappointment. Hitomi looked hurt.

"It doesn't really make that much of a difference, does it?" Nakazawa tried to hint pretty obviously.

"Well no, I suppose not, but I prefer the vanilla."

"You clearly shouldn't have missed Saotome-sensei's classes in eighth grade." Nakazawa sighed, shaking his head.

They changed topics, because that was what they called a 'danger topic', and were currently discussing out of body and paranormal experiences, which came up because of one of Hitomi's psychology or spirituality classes or whatever. Sayaka tried to understand everything she was talking about, she really did; it was just hard sometimes.

"The most fascinating thing is that the majority of patients who said they had seen ghosts said that the ghosts just looked like regular people; the ghosts did not look dead at all."

"Then how do they know they were ghosts? Couldn't they just have been people?" Sayaka asked as she watched Kyousuke struggle to pick up some noodles which he helped himself to again after ice cream. Sayaka suspected there may have been a dark ulterior motive to Nakazawa's choice of food offering.

"Well, they knew them when they were alive and knew they were dead, so they must have been ghosts." Hitomi explained.

"I saw a ghost once." Nakazawa said casually. Kyousuke stopped his battle with the noodles to look at Nakazawa with awe.

"Really? Where? Who? What were they like?"

"You guys know that old abandoned church in the Old Industrial District?" Oh brother…

"I've heard of it, but I can't say I know much about it." Hitomi admitted.

"That place isn't haunted. We stayed there plenty of times and didn't see anything!" Sayaka responded exasperatedly. She tried to fight the blush that was threatening to emerge when she remembered what they did some of the times they had stayed there. She wasn't sure what deity they would have been offending, but she was sure they must have been offending them unless it was some kind of pagan god of fertility.

"Shh." He shushed Sayaka. "Ok, so the story behind this place is there was this preacher who had amassed a huge cult following. People were going crazy; they were abandoning their families, their money, their jobs, everything for this guy. He had hundreds of people eating out of the palm of his hand!

"But the power was too much for him. He couldn't handle all of it and he went insane. He was even telling people that he lied to them and his daughter was a witch; people believed him but kept coming. Rumour had it there was a curse on the place that made people come back, no matter how hard they tried to escape it."

Sayaka rolled her eyes at the cursed church story. She had heard it a few times, but it never stopped being ridiculous.

"One day, he snapped. He murdered his wife and daughter, burned down their house, and hanged himself. His suicide released everyone else from the spell, but, the curse of that building wouldn't let his family's spirits leave. The building needed a sacrifice to make up for all of the followers the preacher was bringing in and lost. So their spirits are trapped in that church to this very day."

"And it's pure bullshit." Sayaka said bluntly.

"I'm not done yet! If the preacher and his family want to be released, they have to recruit three more spirits to take their place. So if you stay in the church on the anniversary of their death or on Halloween, when their spirits are strongest, the preacher might" Nakazawa made a throat slitting gesture "make sure you take their place. Meanwhile, his daughter, the one he said was a witch and murdered will try to save everyone by getting them to leave so her father won't find them and get them like he got her."

"Oh god, what is that smell? It reeks in here. It must be you, because you're so full of shit." Sayaka was likely the only person in the room who could say something like that and get a smile out of Nakazawa.

"I heard the murder-suicide happened, as well as the massive cult following." Hitomi stated excitedly. "We studied it in our group human behaviour course when we talked about collective obsession."

"I'm not denying that part's real; but the part about the curse and ghosts trapped there and trying to kill you is bullshit."

"Then how come people keep seeing the ghosts?" Nakazawa argued. It was harder to take him seriously when he started coughing; it sounded deep and full of phlegm. Please don't get me sick Sayaka tried her best to not outwardly cringe.

"What, so people go in and see the crazy preacher who tries to kill them?"

"No, but the spirit of the daughter is still there, and I saw her! She tried to get me to leave!" Nakazawa exclaimed. This had admittedly piqued Sayaka's curiosity, but she didn't show it. Kyousuke did.

"What was she like? Did she look dead?" Kyousuke asked with rapt attention.

"No, she looked alive. She was fuckable." Hitomi flinched. "Sorry Hitomi, she was 'aesthetically appealing'." He said making quotation marks with his fingers. Sayaka chuckled. "She was…kind of a bitch."

"How so?"

"Well, when she saw me, she was all like 'Hey, what the fuck are you doing here? Get lost! You can't be in here!' It was really rude."

"And you're sure she wasn't just a patrol from the city or something?" Sayaka asked. She had stayed at that church plenty of times, and nothing ever happened. The worst thing would be other street addicts stealing your stuff while you were passed out.

"She didn't have a uniform or anything, and I heard the daughter had red hair like her mother. One person said when she gets really mad, her face morphs into a demon's face. I heard one time she nearly killed a woman, and she's still institutionalized. The daughter can also raise the ghosts of the bodies in the graveyard behind the church to do her bidding. Other people say she has unnatural strength. Like this one time, she picked up a person three times her size and threw him across the street! Literally across the street! No human could do that. And it's true! I saw the guy after; he looked pretty beat up."

"And it was the same girl?"

"She's pretty distinctive looking. Not a lot of girls have crazy long red hair and red eyes." Sayaka could think of at least one.

"There's something that doesn't make sense to me though." Hitomi began.

"What?" Nakazawa asked, displeased that his credibility was being further challenged but by someone other than Sayaka. He coughed again, pounding his chest a bit with his fist.

"The girl; I'm assuming she looked like she was at least a teenager?" She said, and then looked down uncomfortably. "I would feel very uncomfortable if you would describe a child the way you did."

"I'm not a pedo! Yeah, she looked like she was at least seventeen or eighteen…it was a few years ago, so I was the same age-ish…that doesn't make me a pedo, right?" He looked unsure.

"No, you're fine, but that makes no sense for the daughter. His daughter was only seven when he murdered her. Even if her spirit could age, she would only be about thirteen now, right?"

"Wait, so when someone dies, do you think they stay the age they were when they died? Do they keep aging, like they don't even know they died? Or can they choose whatever age they want to be because they're dead?" Sayaka pondered.

"I hope it's the third one. If I die when I'm 90 and become a ghost, I'd rather wander the earth as a smoking hot young person than an old fart." Nakazawa replied while popping another piece of sushi in his mouth.

"I would too, but I don't think that would apply to this ghost." Kyousuke began. "I mean, under the third option, that's more like returning to state of being that you already were. This one would be creating a new state of being altogether. Like, she imagined this is what she would look like as a teenager, so that's the form she took."

"Ok, so it's like a ghost can look like anything they want to look like? I can see that. They're ghosts. They should be able to do that." Nakazawa reasoned.

"So going with that logic, could I make…enhancements to my ghost body?" Sayaka started to joke. "You know, maybe fill out a bit up here." She gestured to her breasts. "Shrink a bit down there." She gestured to her stomach. "Maybe fix up my nose and cheeks a bit. And walk through the world as a bombshell spirit for eternity without having to spend hundreds of thousands of yen on plastic surgery! Sounds like a win-win." She grinned.

"Maybe that's how so many models are insanely hot, you know? Maybe they never actually got plastic surgery; they just died and changed their bodies to their liking." Nakazawa laughed.

"One of the mysteries of the world has been solved." Kyousuke joined in. "If you could change your appearance in any way you wanted, do you think you could make yourself look like someone else altogether?"

"What do you mean? Like start your existence on earth as a new person altogether?" Sayaka asked. "I guess after living your own life in your own body for so long, it could be refreshing to change. Kind of like reincarnation but more morbid because you're actually dead."

"No, I mean like…look like someone who's already alive, you know? Get to live a life like them."

"So become a ghost to commit identity theft?" Nakazawa asked, perplexed.

"Basically, yeah! If I could, I would look exactly like that new Austrian composer Roderich Wentz. I would impersonate him, say I am releasing a new album, and then release the shittiest of shitty compositions." Kyousuke said, with a grin.

"What, why?" Hitomi looked appalled. The poor girl wasn't always the best at understanding their sense of humour. Sayaka rarely saw this side of Kyousuke herself, but she liked it when she did.

"He just seems like an ass. Needs to be knocked down a few pegs." He grinned. Nakazawa responded in kind, likely the reaction Kyousuke was trying to get.

"Take advantage of your newfound deadness and control over your physical appearance to ruin celebrities' careers? That sounds awesome! We should all die!" Nakazawa laughed, getting up to fist bump Kyousuke whose hands would always be too clenched to be able to high five.

As Nakazawa was leaning over the table to reach Kyousuke, a very small Ziploc bag, the size someone might put a pendant for sale in, fell out of his pocket and on to the table, right in front of Sayaka. The bag didn't have a pendant though; it contained a small pile of white powder Sayaka was all too familiar with.

Time seemed to stand still. No else seemed to notice that it fell except for Sayaka.

It felt like she was detoxing all over again. She could feel every pore in her back prickle, like she could feel the cold droplets of sweat being produced from each one. She could hear her heart's increasingly insistent pounding in her head. She couldn't focus on anything else aside from the bag sitting innocently on the table in front of her.

She had been having such a horrible time at work recently. A horrible, horrible time. Maybe just a hit? One little hit? She had been clean for 23 months, surely one little hit couldn't hurt that much, right?

No, she didn't have to take it. Of course not. She was only picking it up with trembling hands to look at it.

Maybe it wasn't actually heroin. Maybe it was something more legal, like baking soda? Maybe he just needed to bring a bit to a friend who was baking but didn't have all of the ingredients.

Sayaka should smell it a bit to make sure.

She had a bit of difficulty opening the bag; her fingers wouldn't be still enough for her to do it easily. She was very conscious of the way she was inhaling through her nose must harder than usual; her body was ready for it.

Just to make sure it was actually what it looked like, of course.

"Sayaka, NO!" Hitomi yelled, grabbing the bag from her when she wasn't expecting it. Hitomi marched straight into the bathroom with it. Sayaka sat on the couch in a stunned stupor, watching it get further and further from her grasp.

Hitomi was saying something. Her tone sounded angry, but she wasn't listening. She was focusing on Hitomi's hands.

Her hands that were about to drop the bag in the toilet.

But Sayaka didn't find out what it really was yet.

"NO!" Sayaka screamed savagely. She mostly jumped over the table, knocking it over in the process and launching the food and dishes everywhere. It didn't slow her down from getting to the bathroom.

But she was too late. Hitomi dropped it and had just pushed the flusher.

Sayaka shoved Hitomi to the side, reaching into the porcelain bowl to get it before the bag disappeared. She could feel the suction and water swirling around her hand; the constricting metal pipe that her hand and arm barely fit through; almost as much as she could feel the corner of the plastic bag just teasing her finger tips before it rushed past her reach.

The toilet made a strange sort of strangled sound, and then stopped.

Everything stopped.

Sayaka realized she had half her forearm buried in Hitomi's toilet.

Hitomi's eyes were wide with shock.

Sayaka felt embarrassed; more embarrassed than she felt in a long time; even more embarrassed than that time at the policy academy obstacle course when she tripped over one of the tires and managed to somehow kick the large, short cylinder of rubber into the face of her peer behind her. She tried to pull her arm out.

She couldn't. Her arm was stuck.

Half of her forearm was stuck in Hitomi's toilet. In front of Hitomi, Nakazawa and Kyousuke.

She whimpered pathetically as realization sunk in.

She fucked up, and she fucked up hard.

"What should we do?" Yuma yelled through the shattered windshield to Kyoko.

"Approaching destination on left in 100 meters." The GPS informed her.

Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit.

She swerved into a narrow back alley, hoping that could keep her out of sight long enough to grab the bodies and go.

That wouldn't keep the witch out of sight though.

Kyoko then realized she had made the dumbest of dumb mistakes.

The alley was closed off by a brick wall.

The witch was facing them from the street, and could still fit in the alley.

She had literally put herself between a rock and a hard place.

Their car was fucked but they still had one more stop.

Yuma was still dangling off the side of car.

"Yuma, get off the car now!" Kyoko screamed as she dislodged her lance from the mangled door. Yuma was of course still connected to the spear by the string of diamond lattice, so Kyoko grabbed her with it and jumped up to a balcony, well above the witch's height, just in time to get out of the way of the witch-

Gently nudging their car forward at a maximum speed of three kilometers per hour?

The witch and their car were hidden in the alley. The familiars remained in their balloon.

The edge of the labyrinth came down; it looked like the steel wall of the stadium. It only blocked the edge of the opening of the alley.

The witch's car shut off. The familiars didn't make a sound.

The witch and familiars were hiding them from the cops.

"Have…have you ever seen something like this before?" Yuma whispered. Kyoko simply shook her head in response. She was apprehensive to say the least.

She couldn't see beyond the edge of the labyrinth, but she head the sirens get louder and pass right by them.

The sirens started to fade away into the opposite direction.

After a few more tense moments, the wall of the stadium disappeared and the witch backed out slowly, deliberately, and professionally so it was facing the way the cops went; the way they had been going before.

The familiars still didn't make a sound, but the slowly lowered the balloon so they were hovering slightly above the witch. The witch's car made quiet puttering sounds as it patiently waited.

"Wait here." Kyoko whispered to Yuma. "If they make any sudden movements, leave the car, and get out of here." Yuma nodded, eyes fixated on the peculiar witch.

Kyoko went inside. There were four bodies this time; all burly adult males who looked like less than reputable characters and were deader than door knobs. She didn't feel bad about their deaths at all.

She tied them up with a diamond lattice, and exited through the side door into the alley slowly.

Their poor Benz looked so beat up. It struggled and spluttered, but it was still on and going.

The witch and familiars appeared to be watching her as closely as she was watching them.

She slowly, deliberately walked towards them. With every step, she was ready to leap up the balcony and abandon the bodies on the ground, even if the whole world would see them.

The balloon extended a rope down to her, which split apart at the end so it looked like an open hand. It made no move to grab her. It just waited patiently right in front of her.

Kyoko's eyes glanced skeptically from the rubber rope hand to the witch to the air balloon. Her posture indicated that she was nervous and ready to run, like a cat with its back up.

She gently placed the bodies into the open rope hand and dissipated her diamond lattice holding it together. The rubber fingers closed around the bodies and pulled them into the balloon.

None of familiars made a sound or movement as the bodies were absorbed into the mass.

Kyoko could hear the phone ringing from the car. Tomi was probably freaking out again. She didn't take her eyes off of the witch or familiars as she slowly walked back to the car.

She could register from the quiet tapping of feet on metal that Yuma was descending from the balcony to the car too. Yuma stepped onto the crushed back while Kyoko walked backwards towards the driver's door. She reached to the unlocked door to open it.

The door fell off with a loud metal "clud" sound as she did. She folded her lips in, showing the awkwardness she felt. The rubber hand slowly reached down, extending its fingers in front of her, like it was offering to help but trying not to scare her.

She handed it the door, while still holding onto the handle. The hand accepted it, retracted itself as she let go of the door handle. Kyoko stepped into the car with the missing door, while still looking at the witch and its familiars suspiciously. She put the car into reverse, but didn't move.

"Are you ready, kid?" She whispered.

"Ready whenever you are." Yuma whispered back.

The car shrieked out of the alley. Kyoko quickly put it into drive and sped off ahead of the witch. About ten seconds later, the witch's car began roaring like a demon out of hell chasing after them. The familiars were screaming with excitement, throwing items down at them.

"Turn left in 500 meters." The GPS said in a pleasant voice that made Kyoko look forward to smashing the damn thing when they finished the last stop.

"That was weird as fuck." Kyoko yelled to Yuma, who she could tell agreed with her. Yuma was knocking debris into the witch, just as she did before.

"What should we do?" Kyousuke asked timidly from outside the bathroom. Sayaka felt so crowded. The bathroom wasn't very big and she, Hitomi, and Nakazawa were all in there with Kyousuke's wheelchair blocking the exit.

"We can't get her out of here like this. We need to call the fire department or police." Hitomi fretted. She hated having strangers in her home.

"NO!" Sayaka and Nakazawa yelled in unison, likely for different reasons.

"We should at least call your parents. Your mother owned a laundromat before, right? Maybe she knows something about plumbing?" Hitomi suggested with doubt.

It pained Sayaka to call them, but she knew they would find out anyways. She nodded, as she lowered her head to hand that wasn't stuck in shame.

What a glorious daughter they have… She thought sarcastically.

"Let's try pulling one more time." Nakazawa said earnestly, like the fifteenth time clearly must be the charm. Hitomi wasn't even listening and was calling her parents. Sayaka was more inclined to think Hitomi's strategy was better.

"It's useless, Nakazawa. I haven't budged an inch." She said hopelessly. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Kyousuke look at her with an expression that wasn't pity…

It was pure disappointment.

She closed her eyes and looked down at her arm. Her hand was probably insanely pruney by now.

"They're on their way. They just need to grab the tools they'll need. It sounds like your mother might actually be able to help!" Hitomi tried fruitlessly to lighten the mood. Everyone stayed silent and stoic.

"I also just cleaned that toilet today, so it shouldn't have too many bacteria in there." She continued on.

Sayaka groaned and bumped her head against the toilet lid in frustration.

Miraculously, the last stop went by without a hitch. Now they just had to drop off the car at the harbour and kill the witch.

Kyoko almost felt bad about killing the witch that had overall been surprisingly cooperative. It seemed like it just wanted to race.

Yes, she almost felt bad about it. But they had to expend so much magical energy tonight and they needed a grief seed.

Maybe one of the familiars fell off the balloon and would evolve into the witch; they could race again then, in loving memory of this night from hell.

They heard sirens again as they raced through a busier street in a nicer, metropolitan part of town. The store fronts glistened gold with their incandescent lights, showcasing beautiful clothing on faceless mannequins of unrealistic proportions.

They really did look a lot like the witch and the familiars following them.

"Son of a bitch." Kyoko muttered under her breath.

"I hear ya, sister." Yuma agreed.

"You're watching too many American shows again." Kyoko teased, rolling her eyes at her protégée's attempt at speaking "gangsta".

"We're drag racing. I thought it fit the mood." She replied calmly. She was sitting so her legs were dangling out of the destroyed back of the car while her butt was on a salvageable part of the back seat and her back was against the back of Kyoko's seat. The back of the car was essentially ripped open completely now, so she had a solid 180 degree view and aim from where she was. She lazily diverted debris into the witch; she was getting pretty tired too.

"This job would have been way better if we could have just taken the entire top off from the start." Yuma muttered with mild annoyance. "I had to do way more work than I would have if we had that other car."

"This job would have been way better if we can have taken a big van and dumped everything in the back to just haul out to a witch in a single location. All of this is way more work than we would have had if we had another car." Kyoko corrected. She was still pissed in general about the car of choice.

"What should we do about the cops that are coming?" Yuma asked casually.

"Turn right in 500 meters." The GPS reminded.

"Oh I am so ready to kill that fucking bitch!" Kyoko snapped. Yuma chuckled in the back.

"Seriously, what do we do?"

"Just make sure they don't catch us, I guess." Kyoko shrugged. The bodies were gone. The car was damaged beyond recognition. They had their hoods up so no one would see them. What could the cops really do?

"You know, it's kind of a nice breeze having that door gone." Yuma observed.

"Yeah, it is."

"Turn right in 100 meters." Kyoko growled in response.

Red and blue flashing lights came around the corner Kyoko had to turn at.

It didn't concern Kyoko that the cops were about to see them.

What concerned Kyoko is that the cops were about to T-bone the witch.

"Should we save them or let them go?" Yuma asked. Kyoko couldn't help but wonder if poor, unsuspecting and surprisingly cool Blue was one of the cops. She was going soft.

"Meh, save them."

Yuma shot off a wave, which made the cops' car flip backwards in the air twice before it landed and rolled onto its side. The siren died down anticlimactically.

"Jesus Christ Yuma." Kyoko said without any real bite in her voice as they sped down the street that would take them to the final drop.

"My bad." She replied as though she had just spilled a bit of milk instead of seriously damaging police property. She had done worse tonight.

The harbour was deserted and the car spluttered to a stop, as if grateful for the end of its abuse.

The witch screeched to a halt when it found them.

"Let's get this over with, shall we?" Kyoko grinned.

The witch's own window was destroyed after so many bricks hit it. Kyoko took advantage of that, throwing the worthless, fucking GPS right at its head. It was a bullseye and the portable device shattered into pieces while the witch made a sort of low groaning sound, clutching its head.

Kyoko took the change to run at it, thrusting her spear right into its core. The witch didn't make a sound.

Kyoko stared at the faceless creature, as it just gave her a sort of respectful wave with its rubbery arm. Kyoko returned it as the witch, car, and familiars all disappeared, leaving behind a grief seed with a tire on it.

Both girls received a rush of endorphins after their soul gems were surprisingly fully cleansed from the one grief seed. Maybe feeding so many bodies to the witch made it stronger and made the grief seed bigger? Kyoko didn't know, but she felt great!

They heard and loud clank behind them as the car collapsed off its wheels. Kyoko and Yuma just looked at each other, and started laughing hysterically as they ran away from the scene, hoping to never see the car again.

"Let's get ice cream!" Yuma cheered childishly as they darted down side street after side street on foot. Kyoko wondered if she ever heard the kid say anything as smart as that before.

Two bucket parfaits later, they were strolling lazily down the street. They heard sirens in the distance again. Kyoko's phone rang again.

"Heyello?" She answered casually and pleasantly.

"WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED TO THE CAR?!"

Miraculously, Sayaka's parents didn't sound overly upset about all of this, according to Hitomi. In fact, based on Hitomi's rapport, they were relieved which didn't make any sense but she decided she would wait until she saw them to determine their feelings on this.

She just hoped they would hurry up, because things were breaking down here faster than she was expecting.

"I did NOT come here trying to get her hooked on the stuff again! I know you all think I'm a dumbass, but I'm not fucking dumb enough to try to tempt a goddamn cop with heroin! Also, believe it or not I'm not so bad a person as to try to take away everything she's gotten!" He yelled at Hitomi. Hitomi tried to be nonplussed, but it was difficult; she could deal with confrontation when she had to, but she didn't enjoy it by any means.

"I'm just saying I found it unnecessary to bring anything like that to an event where there is a recovering addict."

"Hitomi, come on, Sayaka's been clean for two years! How should he have known that she would have that much trouble?" Nakazawa gave him a look that indicated he was annoyed, but said nothing.

"Guys, stop fighting. It's not helping anything." Sayaka said, voice full of exasperation.

"That's not how it works, and you should know that by now Kyousuke! How many times do I need to tell you?"

Sayaka's annoyance was turning into anger. Half of the people in her life said she was strong enough after all this time to be fine; had faith in her. The other half thought she was a weakling who would relapse at any minute.

And guess which half she proved right.

She tried pulling her arm out again and nothing happened.

"I really am sorry. My dealer's in this area. I had no intention of showing you or trying to get you to do it with me." Nakazawa said quietly to her as he sat beside her. "Can you still feel your fingers or did an alligator eat them yet?" He tried weakly at a joke.

"No alligator's yet. Maybe a rat or two though." She joked mirthlessly. "And I know. I know you're not a bad person. You're just sick, like I am."

Nakazawa coughed again.

"How long have you had that cough? It sounds terrible." Sayaka wanted to change the topic.

"Just a few days. It's a bitch though. I know a few people who have it."

"Yeah, me too now. Turn that way." She gestured to the door with a hint of a smile on her face. "Don't get me sick too!"

"If I'm going down…" He emphasized his exhale more than he had to deliberately "you're going down with me!" He exhaled on her again.

"Baaaahhh!" She swatted at him with her free left hand.

The buzzer rang. Her parents were here.

"What the hell happened?" Her father asked authoritatively. As soon as his eyes settled on Nakazawa, they darkened. "You little son of a bitch! What are you doing here?!"

"It's not his fault! And I invited him." Kyousuke defended.

"Sayaka, you came when you knew you had a bad tie here?" Kenji was furious.

"I didn't know he was coming, and Dad for god's sakes he's sitting right here. Have some manners." This was turning into a gong show pretty quickly.

"Well forgive me for being rude to the bad influence that got you into this mess." He growled out.

Sayaka briefly thought of how ironic it was that her parents were so angry that Hitomi's family blamed all of Hitomi's problems on Sayaka, then blamed all of Sayaka's problems on Nakazawa.

"Relax sir, I'm going." Nakazawa forfeited as he got up and left as quickly as possible, closing the door gently behind him.

"It really was an accident Dad." She said.

"I don't care, it doesn't change what happened!" There was a pause. "What did happen, exactly?"

Hitomi and Kyousuke tried to quell her father's anger while her mother came over with a bucket of mystery items.

"I hope Hitomi cleaned this recently." Her mother scrunched her face. Sayaka was grateful she wasn't making a big deal of Nakazawa being there.

"As a matter of fact, she cleaned it today." Sayaka reassured. Her mother still put rubber gloves on as she started scooping out water into the tap. She got most of it out pretty quickly.

She then pulled out a tub of margarine and a thin, plastic scraper.

"Is there anything I can do to help? What are you doing?" Hitomi asked gently from behind her mother.

"Normally I'd use a plunger, but that only works when the blockage isn't actually…you." Sayaka smiled ruefully at her mother's attempt to be academic. Alas, they were not an intellectual bunch.

Sayaka could feel the lubricated scraper working along the circumference of her arm. She hoped it would get her arm slick enough to get it out.

"Alright sweetie, on the count of three, we're going to pull, alright. One…" Her mother grabbed her right shoulder while Hitomi grabbed her left. Sayaka poised her feet to get ready to help pull back too.

"Two…Three!" The yanked back as hard as they could. Sayaka's arm was yanked free, and her wrist made a sharp, painful thud against the mouth of the toilet. Her mother and Hitomi both fell ass-backwards into the tub behind them.

Sayaka bit her lip, trying not to cry out. She looked at her wrist, which hurt like a bitch.

"She's out!" Fumiko yelled triumphantly to Kenji.

"Great, now we can be too. Let's go."

"Come on Sweet Pea, let's go home." Her mother helped her up. Sayaka followed obediently.

"I really am sorry." Kyousuke said dejectedly. Sayaka paused, before reaching her left hand back to grab his and squeeze it discretely.

"I know. It's not your fault. I'm sorry this happened too. You were just trying to help." She said with a sad smile. She let go and ignored that for just a moment, he seem to want her to let go.

This was bad. Her right hand was really starting to swell up fast. It hurt as bad as the time she broke it when she was six. She had a bad feeling it was broken again now.

And at that moment, her phone rang. Not her personal phone. Her work phone. She took a quick glance at caller ID.

Ryo

Oh shit. Why? Why now? Why, why, why, why, why?

She answered with her left hand. Her father noticed her right hand, which she had elevated and resting on her chest. He made a gestured to it and she just shook her head, assuming he was trying say 'something's wrong! Let's go fix it now!'

"Officer Miki." She said as professionally as her voice would allow.

"Miki, we need you to come to the corner of 15th and 17th now." What? Why? I'm not supposed to be on call tonight.

"What's going on Captain?"

"Just come here. This is the only scene where we actually have any evidence." Huh?

"Most…maybe all of the Black Dragon bosses have been taken out. A few of our undercover men were too. We have a very, very strong feeling that this could have something to do with a certain suspect you're watching."

"Wa…wa…wait, our men? We lost officers?"

She sat down on a stool. She had to sit. Some people died doing the exact same thing she was doing; killed by someone she was supposed to be watching.

She let good people die.

I let good people die. I should have been watching Kurosawa. I should have known about this. I should have -

"Yeah Miki, we did. And from what we gather, we've lost over two dozen other people. Literally. We can't find bodies or traces anywhere. Only here. For now, at least. We're checking the other bosses' homes now, so hopefully we'll find more evidence. That's why we need you to come by now. We need as many officers on the scenes as possible, and I want you to look around to see if there's anything you can recognize as being a sign of Kurosawa's."

"Of course Captain. I'll be there right away."

"Do you need a ride?"

"Do you mind if I walk?" She wanted to get her mind off of things, including her fucking wrist.

"We'll be here for a while. As long as you're here within an hour, I'm fine. Sorry for interrupting your Saturday night." He hung up.

"Sayaka, I'm not sure what he just told you, but you are not going." Her father began to argue.

"Oh fuck off Dad! I have a job and this is way bigger than anything that happened here! I need to go." She wanted out. She wanted to get out of here so badly, and this was her best shot.

"Don't you speak to me that way young lady! We need to take you to a hospital for an x-ray!"

"Some of my co-workers are dead right now and I should have known this was coming! Being a conservative selfish little bitch is what got them that way in the first place! I need to go." She walked past him.

"Sayaka, you nearly relapsed and how on earth were you supposed to know that would happen! There is nothing that can be done and looking out for your own well-being is not stupid, it's just good sense. You haven't been doing that enough recently and maybe it's this new assignment – " Her mother argued.

"I'm not dropping it!"

"You thought someone was trying to murder you just two weeks ago!" Her mother screamed.

Sayaka looked and saw the stunned faces of Hitomi and Kyousuke looking at her.

"Sayaka…what's going on?" Hitomi asked nervously.

I can't do this right now.

Sayaka took off and ran down the stairs. She was glad it was dark out because it was quick and easy for her to disappear into a side street before her out-of-shape aging father who was hot on her heels could find her.

They had to lose them. There were suddenly cops swarming the streets, clearly in response to the string of take-downs.

Calling them take-downs was bullshit. They were murders. The cops were reacting to the string of murders.

"Let's split up!" Kyoko whispered to Yuma. "Meet at the park bench by the apartment in 30?"

Yuma nodded and went to take the more direct way. Yuma looked way more innocent than her. Kyoko looked down and noticed the hoodie she was wearing was stained with blood.

Fuck!

While the hoodie was dark, she didn't want to risk anything. She flipped it inside out so no blood was showing. It wasn't super obvious it was inside out though, so it was better to risk looking disorganized than it was to risk looking like a murderer.

She walked around, trying to stay out of plain sight for about fifteen minutes.

Her phone rang.

"What do you want now?"

"I have some whiskey at my place. Would you like to come? I'm afraid the cleaners at the restaurant didn't do their job right, so we can't go there. How about we just go to the countryside on our own for a bit?"

"The cleaners messed up? What do you mean they messed up?!"

"They didn't even show up to clean one of the rooms! The manager is furious that that happened and is looking to punish everybody involved. You should come to my place for some whiskey, and we can just get away for a bit."

Whiskey was the code for "car". In this case, "car to get the fuck out of town".

"Does…the manager…" Kyoko was trying to keep things going with code "know where I keep my alcohol and things?"

"The manager knows everything, so get all of your belongings, and come to my place for some whiskey now. Hell, bring your family too!"

Fuck. Kurosawa really did know about everything.

Kurosawa knew about Yuma.

Yuma was on her own.

Yuma!

Kyoko dialled Yuma's number that she had memorized long ago. Voicemail.

"Yuma for fuck's sake call me back as soon as you get this! Don't go to the apartment! I repeat: do NOT go to the apartment!"

Kyoko was freaking out. She knew Yuma could take out a bunch of goons no problem if she knew they were there.

But that was it: she had no idea they were there.

And Kyoko was willing to bet her father's church that the girl had left her phone in their apartment.

Kyoko pulled on her hair. She had to do something. She absolutely had to do something.

She could do something. She hated it, but she could do this.

"Kyubey!" She called out telepathically.

"What can I help you with Kyoko?" It immediately appeared beside her.

"I need you to help me find Yuma."

She had to lose them. Sayaka had been trying so hard to run through the alleys that she got lost along the way. If she was lost, surely they couldn't find her, right?

There was way, way too much pressure right now.

So she was running away from it like the coward she was, naturally.

She felt herself crumbling and fell to the ground in a sobbing heap. I am so pathetic.

"Are you ok?"

Sayaka looked up and saw a familiar green-haired girl. Kyoko's sister?

"Hi, uh yeah, yeah, I'm fine. Just having a rough night is all." She used her left hand to wipe away her tears. Crying in front of a teenager; look at me in all my glory!

"I knew it. It was you in the park the other day!" She said with a proud (?) grin. "How have you been Sayaka?"

Wait, what?

"I'm…sorry I don't remember meeting you." Sayaka said with some confusion. "Aside from the park the other day. Did I introduce myself then?" Or the time I was dressed as a stripper outside your classroom, but I don't think you saw me or can recognize me…right? The now mysterious girl smiled back.

"We met a while ago. Don't worry. How have you been? Have you been staying out of trouble?"

"What kind of trouble?" Sayaka was all sorts of confused right now.

"Well, you know…drugs? Have you been staying away from drugs?"

Who the hell is this girl?

"Yeah…mostly. I slipped up tonight, I mean, but…"

"You don't seem high at all."

"No, I'm not. I didn't do the drugs. I didn't get to." The girl looked a bit perplexed.

"Well, you didn't do them; that's what matters. What happened to your wrist?"

"That's kind of why I didn't do it. Listen, I'm really sorry, but I really don't remember meeting you and I really have no idea how you know I was an addict. I'm not trying to be rude at all, but where have we met?"

Kyoko's sister laughed.

"Yeah, you were really, really out of it before. Can I see your wrist?" She reached forward to grab it, clearly not taking any objections.

"No, really I think it might be – " Sayaka gasped as a very pleasant, refreshing feeling came over her hand as her wrist seemed to fit almost magically back into place. Was this girl an osteopath?

Sayaka looked at her hand. The swelling had basically disappeared and her hand and fingers moved perfectly. It felt even stronger than it had been before.

"How…who are you?"

"I'm Yuma." She smiled. She reached forward, eyes closed, brows furrowed and put a hand on Sayaka's chest for two minutes. Were this any other situation, she might find it inappropriate. This somehow felt more like going to the doctor's for a checkup though and she said nothing.

"You're still good! Haha, cool!" She smiled brightly. "That's awesome!" It almost seemed like she was boasting…but about what?

"Uh, that's great? Yuma, I'm sorry, but could you explain to me what's going on? I really, really appreciate what you just did for my wrist and all. Seriously, you have the hands of an angel, but what…?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you. Just think of it as a strange occurrence and carry on." She got up, still smiling cheerfully. "I hope your night gets better, Sayaka!" Saying this, she got up and ran off.

"Thank you!" Sayaka yelled back, still feeling very confused. She contemplated running after her and trying to question her a bit more; put those interrogation classes to good use. She decided against it and to go to work; she had to admit that she did feel a lot better.

If she had followed Yuma, she might have noticed a black sedan had stopped, while a passenger opened the door, throwing a cloth over the girl's mouth and pulling her inside before driving off into the night.

Kyoko was sprinting through the streets towards her apartment. She didn't give a fuck that she was walking straight into Kurosawa's trap. She wouldn't…couldn't let Yuma get caught up in this shit further than she had been.

Her phone rang again. God fucking dammit Tomi!

"Tomi, just hold on! I'll be there in a bit I just need to find –"

"When you have a phone specifically to commit illegal acts, you'd think you'd get caller ID to be safe. Or are you just not paying attention?" A woman's voice said calmly.

A woman's voice she recognized.

If Kyoko weren't in such a rush, she might have stopped for a second.

"What do you want Miyamoto?"

"I want you to tell me where you are and we'll come pick you up. I hope you're not heading to your place, and I certainly hope you're not heading to Tomi's where Kurosawa's waiting for you to bring your sister." She continued.

Now Kyoko stopped running.

"What do you know? What the hell is going on?"

"If you haven't figured it out, I've got something of an inside connection on Kurosawa's end. He's pissed about tonight because things went wrong; nothing to do with your work of course. I don't know what he's doing with you and Tomi, but he wants to deal with you personally. He sent some of his other goons to your place."

"Does he have – "

"Kyoko? It's me." Yuma. Yuma was on the phone. "I'm fine. I don't know what's going on, but I'm with this lady and a friend of hers…"

"Hello!" Tsubasa greeted amicably.

"What the hell are you doing with her?!"

"Absolutely nothing. We don't hurt family, remember? Now tell me where you are and we'll come get you too."

She didn't trust them. She didn't trust anyone. But they had Yuma, and she had to be with her.

"I'm at 12th and 17th. By the Indian food place."

"Great. Now here's what you're going to do. Tomi has a tracker in your phone and Kurosawa's guys are on their way to come get you right now." What?! "You are going to call Tomi, tell him you found alternative plans for lodgings or whatever, break the phone, and run fast to 10th and 16th. We'll get you there. Do you understand?"

"Yeah. Yeah I do. Thanks."

They hung up and she dialled Tomi's number…again from memory.

"Where are you?"

"I have other drinking plans for tonight. Sorry. Maybe another time?"

"What? No, no, no, no NO you can't do this! Please help -!" Kyoko hung up. Tomi was fucked. She wasn't going to be like him.

She broke the phone, threw it out, and sprinted to the rendez-vous.

I'm so deep. I'm way to fucking deep.

If he had turned around, she might have seen a blue-haired solution to her problem running down the street.

Sayaka was sprinting through the streets. She had wasted way too much time with arguing with her family, running away from them, and then talking to Yuma, who she decided may be the oddest but most talented teenager on the planet.

There was crime tape and flashing lights everywhere. People in blue uniforms she frankly missed wearing were standing guard. She walked up confidently to the tape.

"Excuse me ma'am you can't –"

"She's a cop, let her through." Ayumi cut off the officer she didn't recognize. "We had to call in some back-up from Mitakihara. Some of the victims were from their city and force." Oh god…

"What happened to your face?! Are you okay?" Sayaka asked, confused. Ayumi looked like she was developing a mean looking black eye and she had a neck brack on. She couldn't understand how finding murder scenes would lead to a swelling eye and a hurt neck.

"Something very, very weird happened to our car when we were tracking down some drag racers...I don't want to talk about it."

"Oh. Okay. Is the car ok?"

There was a brief pause.

"No."

"Oh. That's too bad."

"Yeah."

The stared at each other for an awkward moment.

"Miki, glad you're hear." Ryo came up from behind her. She nearly jumped out of her skin. Why does he keep doing that?

"Heya Captain!" She said while trying to regulate her heartbeat again. She remembered exactly why she was here. "Uh…I'm very sorry that this happened." She said, genuinely apologetic.

"It wasn't you. It wasn't your fault at all. It would have taken someone very, very deep to know about this and for guys like this, I'm honestly not sure I'd ever want one of my own agents that far in. Miki, I want to warn you…it's not pretty in there. There are no bodies, but you can still see everything that's left. It's still a lot. Are you sure you're strong enough?"

Sayaka was willing to bet he wouldn't ask a male officer that question. That being said, it was a damn good question.

"Yeah. I think so." Liar.

The front hall of the building looked normal and inconspicuous. There was a closed door with holes (bullet holes) and she knew that that was where all of the mess was. She took a deep breath, put on the gloves, goggles, masks and slippers the forensics guys gave to her, and went inside.

It was surreal, to say the least, seeing all of the blood on the walls. It reminded her of the time she and Nakazawa had played paintball…but this time it wasn't paint; it was blood. It was hard to think of it as blood that had belonged to a person, inside of them just a few hours before.

There were tentfold papers on the ground with numbers. By each paper was some debris. No, not debris; they were white shards of bone. By each tentfold paper on the ground, there were shards of bone and…was that a tooth?

The most disturbing one had been seeing a pair of broken eyeglasses. Those felt the most human to her; more so than the bits of biological material that she never saw outside of a person scattered across the room.

Turning around, she saw something pink in the corner of the room. She looked and it more closely; it almost looked like a strawberry fondant.

Holy shit that's a piece of a brain.

She had never showed up for grade 11 biology, but maybe if she had that wouldn't look so strange to her.

She wasn't grossed out. It was just strange.

"Is there anything in here that screams 'Kurosawa' to you?"

She looked around and thought.

Nothing. Not a thing could specifically say 'Kurosawa' over some other kind of murdered. Which was frustrating as hell, because she was sure it was him.

"I don't see anything in here. I'll look around the house to see if I can find anything."

Ryo nodded and went back to talking to some of the forensics guys.

Sayaka went up some stairs. They appeared to all be bedrooms; two on the right and three on the left. It seemed odd that it was uneven, but she wasn't here to critique architecture. She looked through the rooms and didn't see anything amiss.

As she exited the last room on the left, she noticed there were three rooms on the right. What the hell? I was positive there were only two.

She had a feeling there was going to be something in that third room.

Fuck, I don't have my gun.

She heard a child crying. Her guard went down and she opened the door.

"Oko!" The little boy cried. "Oko!"

Sayaka looked around the barren room, seeing nothing wrong (Doesn't look like there's anyone in here ready to kill me).

In the corner, she noticed a bag filled with a suspicious white powder. She looked at the baby who was looking at her with wide, innocent eyes."Oko!"

She shook her head, deciding to try her best to ignore the bag in the corner. But she had trouble moving. Her eyes kept glancing over at it though. Not now. Not ever.

"There's something up here!" She yelled. She trusted that having other people in the room could get it out.

Forensics and Ryo came running up the stairs into the room.

"What the hell? There was a kid in here? How did we not notice?" The forensics guys speculated amongst themselves.

The baby was screaming more, afraid of the men in the white body suits and blue masks. Sayaka took her gloves, mask, and goggles off. The baby seemed to calm down a bit seeing someone more human-looking. "Oko?"

"No, not Oko. Sorry." Sayaka assumed that was a family member of some sort. She hoped he still had one.

He reached his arms up, wanting to be picked up. Her face softened more as she complied.

"You've had a crazy night too, haven't you?" She thought of the blood and shattered pieces of bone downstairs. "Probably a lot worse than mine."

He gurgled at her contentedly.

She noticed as she went down the stairs that he started fussing more, particularly when they passed by the door to the room with the bloodshed he started screaming blue murder. Walking outside, he was nervous, but calmed down immediately once they were there.

Sayaka strongly suspected the kid had seen something, but she wasn't sure what.

An infant witness wouldn't get them very far at all.

"Any idea who the kid is?" Sayaka asked Ryo as he left the building.

"Not a clue. We don't even know who the victims were because there are no bodies anywhere. We're just pretty sure they're all dead." He sighed in frustration. "I've never seen anything like this before; all on a single night." He pinched the bridge of his nose. "Every level of police is going to get involved with this; municipal, regional, and federal. This is going to be a shit show."

The child snuggled against her, content to be held. She was surprised by how outgoing he was. She remembered her parents telling her once that she was an outgoing child.

Her parents who she had literally run away from after telling them to fuck off.

Ugh, brunch tomorrow is going to be so awkward.

Kyoko knocked on the door to the Miyamotos' home office hesitantly. She felt like she was walking straight into a trap.

They had given her and Yuma a room at their private residence, which had plenty of bodyguards. They also assured her that Kurosawa had never been here and had no idea they were even here. They suspected he knew this place existed though.

"Come in!" Tsubasa yelled in a friendly manner. It didn't fit the situation at hand. "Have a seat, please Ophelia."

She did, and was not liking the turn this night had taken at all.

"I hope your room is to your liking?" He asked pleasantly.

"Yeah, it's great. Thanks."

"I'm going to cut the shit because you know just as well as I do that you don't want to be here. And that's fine; under most circumstances, I wouldn't want you here." A part of Kyoko strangely appreciated Suki's honesty and bluntness. It was way less bullshit to get through. "Want to know what happened, from what I understand?"

Kyoko nodded.

"Kurosawa set the payment for the hitmen as a price per head. He didn't specify which heads, he just gave them locations. So naturally, the hitmen became overzealous and killed everyone."

"It sends a strong message indeed." Tsubasa added.

"Even if you had been right behind the hitmen the entire time, it wouldn't have given the cleaners nearly enough time to get everything in order. They were told each location would have one to two corpses, and that's all they brought manpower for. From what I heard, the leader of the cleaners told them to just ignore the first location altogether after seeing it to focus on the others."

"When did the cleaners get to the first location?" Kyoko asked.

"Before you did. You weren't perfect either, by any means because you were behind schedule, but in the grand scheme of things it wasn't you that screwed up. If it makes you feel better, I don't think Kurosawa thinks you messed up badly either. If he did, he wouldn't be trying to deal with you personally. He'd send in underlings."

"What's happening to the hitmen and cleaners?"

"They're being dealt with by underlings." Kyoko was just glad she wasn't them.

"I don't know what Kurosawa was thinking. He put five cleaners on staff which would have been nearly impossible even if they had just had one death per location. Cleaning messes, particularly when they're from gunshots are nasty business." Tsubasa appeared to speak from experience. Kyoko didn't ask for details.

"Are you sure your source with Kurosawa's reliable?" Kyoko asked skeptically. She didn't want information from someone who was going to feed them shit.

"I'm not worried about that." Suki replied cryptically.

"Is my information safe with you?"

"That's up to you to decide. But unlike Kurosawa, we've never had a problem with a rat, as I'm sure you know. We haven't hired you once for that." She said with pride. It was true though. From what she'd heard, the Miyamotos never had a rat.

She suspected their staff got extra perks with their "loot" to keep them happy.

"Hell, a lot of his better staff come over to work for us!" She went on. "We're simply better to work for. Which is why we wanted to talk to you."

"I don't want to work for you." Kyoko said firmly.

"That's fine for now. I hope you'll change your mind. But remember this:" Suki leaned in, as if whispering a secret. "We saved your asses tonight. You owe us a favour."

Kyoko suppressed the shiver that wanted to go down her spine.

"Alright, so whaddya want? Let's hear it." Kyoko asked impatiently. She wanted it done and over with.

"Nothing yet. I'll let you know when. Besides, if we do anything too big too soon, it may attract the attention of the wrong people." Tsubasa warned. He was right though.

"We'll let you know, and we'll keep an eye on Kurosawa. We will keep you and your sister safe. You have our word." Suki promised. Kyoko felt she believed them, but she also had the feeling she was making a deal with the devil doing this. Kyubey all over again.

By the time she got back to her room, ready to sleep, it was 5:00 am.

"Kyoko…please tell me. What's going on?" Yuma asked sleepily and nervously.

"Let's talk about it when we wake up." Kyoko yawned. She collapsed next to her sister, draping an arm protectively over her and went straight to sleep. She didn't want to get into it right now.

Sayaka knocked on the door to Ryo's office hesitantly. She knew that essentially, everything had gone to hell over the weekend and they needed to have a meeting about it.

"Come in Miki." He yelled from inside. She complied, closing the door behind her.

"Here's where we're at now. It looks like a total of forty-three people are missing, five of whom were undercovers either from Kazamino or Mitakihara. Everyone is positive Kurosawa's behind it, but we don't have any proof as usual."

Sayaka nodded, not liking where this was going. Yesterday's brunch with her parents had been brutally awkward and ended in them literally begging her to drop this assignment. She lied when she said she was strongly considering it...but she wanted to.

"We have been able to get some fantastic information through you. You are our best shot at this. With the Black Dragons down, Kurosawa will be free to dominate the illegal drugs market. I'm particularly concerned about this Watanabe, the "international logistics" guy you talked about, and I don't like the role he's probably going to be playing in this."

Sayaka nodded again politely. This is not looking good at all…

"The problem with your assignment is that you're not there very often, and when you are there, it's not guaranteed they will be. I don't want you focusing on any of the small fry you were sent in there for."

Oh shit.

"We need you to try branching out beyond the club as Rin, if possible. Miki, not only will this be great for your career, but you can avenge the lives of some good men and save others who would have been killed by these people!"

"Captain, thank you for having so much faith in me. I mean it. But I really don't know if I can do that. The rules at the club are pretty clear that we don't start anything with clients." She felt like she was coming up with excuses. I am such a coward.

"Miki, five officers are dead. You can break a few rules. The Kurosawas have broken every damn one in the book! That's why they keep winning!" Ryo's voice was rising. "Do you know why I picked you for this, Miki?"

"I was the best on the pole?" She asked, not sure if she was trying to make a joke or not.

"Out of all of the candidates, you were the one who had something to prove. I know about your past experience with drugs. We had to check your medical records, and I know it damn near killed you. According to every statistic out there, you should be dead or locked up right now. Instead, you're a very respectable cop."

She honestly doubted the 'respectable' part, but everything else was shaking her to the core.

"Do you know how I got so deep into my undercover position when I started out? Between you and me, I used to be a criminal; I was an intermediary dealer and a pretty good one. It was only after my brother got shot by another gang that I decided to get out and try to bring the whole market down. I got into the force because I never got caught and never had a record. I got the undercover assignment right away because I had a captain who believed in me the same way I believe in you."

She was stunned. She didn't know about any of that.

"I got all of the guys in my ring and the guys who shot my brother behind bars. It was the best day of my life and will probably be the greatest accomplishment I'll ever achieve. This is your chance for that kind of accomplishment Miki. I would hate for you to be on parking duty for the next ten years while these tyrants run wild. I would hate for you to look back and wonder 'if I had kept going, would I have gotten them?'. Because you know what? You would have. You will get them. But you have to keep going. Miki, please tell me; are you as brave as I think you are?"

She was speechless. Absolutely speechless.

She nodded dumbly, before her expression was of pure determination.

He was right. If she quit now, she would regret it for the rest of her life.

Any regret now would just be for the short term.

She wouldn't regret anything.

"You don't need to worry about this, Ophelia. I don't want to hurt you. I really just want to talk. I have no idea where you got the idea that I had bad intentions." Kurosawa said, looking at her distrustfully.

The two Kurosawas, Kyoko, and Tomi were sitting in Tomi's office at the club. She had been avoiding this for three weeks, ignoring the awkwardness she felt whenever she found excuses to not do private shows for him.

She had thought about running away and quitting. She really, really wanted to. But she needed to get the money for the church, and the Miyamotos didn't want her to leave either. She had no idea why they insisted she stick around though.

She got her and Yuma a new apartment. She wondered how long it would take before they all found the new one.

They probably already did; who was she kidding?

"You can't blame me for being nervous when I heard you were going after my family. I didn't even know you knew she existed." Might as well be honest since we all know everything.

"You never gave me a reason to bring it up. In fact, this wasn't even a reason to bring it up. It was our dear mutual friend who told you to bring her. I had no part in that." Kurosawa shrugged.

Kyoko looked at Tomi imploringly. He looked away ashamed. You little shit!

"Why did you go over to Tomi's and ask to speak to both of us then?"

Tomi was like Kyoko; he had thought his home address was a secret.

They were both fools.

"Whether or not the job had gone well, I would have spoken to you two. Of course I'm glad that all of the bodies are gone; in fact I'm impressed you managed to hide all of them; my men went overboard and they are being dealt with." Kyoko didn't even want to know what he meant by that, but she had a pretty good idea. "I'll give you a bonus 12,500,000 yen for your work Ophelia."

She didn't trust him. She didn't trust him at all. But she nodded, accepting it. Every bit helped.

"I wanted to talk about changing the nature of our professional relationship." He smiled diplomatically. "As I know you know, though I don't know how you know, as contractors I pay Tomi sixty percent and you forty percent for the work you do. Since we're going to be expanding our operations, I think my costs are going to be increasing, so I want to find places to cut them."

Kyoko didn't like where this was going at all.

"And since I'm the only real client you will have, why have you as contractors when I could have you as employees and cut out all the service fees? This seems much more straightforward to me."

Tomi was spluttering with indignation behind his desk. Kyoko just narrowed her eyes.

"So if I'm an employee, are you going to give me the full 100% now? You won't need him anymore. But you're going to need me."

Tomi guffawed.

"For your work, you're right Tomi will have no part in that. I need him for other services which we will discuss separately. As for you, you'll keep getting what you're getting and be happy. Some of my other new staff are taking pay cuts and are kissing my shoes in gratitude. I'm being as generous as I am because of our history."

"And what if we say no?" Kyoko tested the waters.

"That's up to you." He shrugged noncommittally.

She didn't trust him for a second. She waited patiently.

"Yuma must be happy living in an apartment that's less of a walk to school. And Tomi, your new villa is divine! Those drapes really match your eyes." He mocked.

She fucking knew it.

Tomi looked like he was about to cry.

"I would ask you both to sign contracts, but I know how much you hate a paper trail Tomi. Will this be adequate for a verbal agreement?" His smile never left his face.

Kyoko was seething. She and Tomi nodded their consent.

"I'm so glad to have you both on board. You'll be getting a monthly wage of 7,500,000 yen, which I think is more than fair to keep you employed for me and only me. For any jobs you do, I'll give you more if you earn a bonus."

That's not what you fucking said before.

She was angry, but she knew there wasn't a damn thing she could do about it.

"On the other hand, if your work is unsatisfactory, I'll have to penalize you. For example: what you did to that car, Ophelia, was unacceptable. Not only was that car very expensive, but driving around in such a damaged vehicle attracted attention and did nothing to help our image."

"You were trying to brand yourself while I was hiding bodies?!" She asked incredulously. She'd suspected it, but she was hoping he wasn't that much of an idiot.

"I was trying to warn potential competitors of what could happen if they try to come on my turf." He said with a bite. "And it will do you well to not criticize my practices. That's not what you're paid to do. But for your recklessness with the car, you are being penalized 25,000,000 yen."

"That's…that's the entire second payment and the bonus."

"Exactly. So I owe you nothing." He glared at her briefly before smirking cockily.

"Just so you both know, as employees I will be ensuring you have proper security against the police and any other threats. Abide by your contracts, and you will be safe. Now, I'm going back to the Miyamotos. Come with me Koko. I'd like another show from you and Precious tonight."

He gestured for her to walk in front of him. She could feel his eyes leering at her ass, which was more exposed in today's black leather dominatrix costume than usual; she could also distinctly feel that the biggest threat to her and Yuma was looming over her at every turn.

The younger Kurosawa never said a word.

"You don't need to worry about this, Sayaka. You've got this." She said to herself as she stared at the reflection that didn't look her at all. The pouty-lipped blonde doll stared back, looking particularly pretty in a strapless green lace dress. If the skirt were (much) longer, she might have looked elegant. She was trying to shake a bad feeling that had been throwing her stomach in knots all day.

"Good evening Precious. How have you been?" Geisha asked, wearing another kimono. Sayaka had no idea where she even found those; she'd been exploring the costume closets over the month and a half she worked at Tomi's and never saw them anywhere.

"Good, good!" Kind of. "How about you? I haven't seen you since that first time. It's nice to see you again." She wasn't technically lying. She didn't care much one way or the other since she wasn't used to seeing her.

"I am glad to have at least one friend here."

The red light started flashing. The shifts were changing.

They had both already been booked for Room B. Sayaka picked up chicken wings and sake before going up.

In front of the door, she took a deep breath in and out. She'd done this well over a dozen times now, but her nerves never seemed to dissipate. She had a sinking feeling in her gut tonight though, like something was going to go wrong.

"You seem tense. If you are not comfortable, you should leave."

Sayaka laughed mirthlessly.

"No, I'm fine. Thanks for your concern." She chose to disregard the suspicion that this girl was just trying to steal her client.

She rushed into the room, hoping to not raise suspicions from the girl who barely worked there at all.

She was surprised when she entered to see two faces who weren't normally there, but she recognized both of them.

Magumi Akihiro, the rat-faced drug dealing underling of Kurosawa was there. She had only seem him the one time, and hadn't cared to see him again considering that she had much bigger fish to fry now.

Atahiko Osamu was another matter now. He was a tall, sturdily built bald man; he looked like a golem. He looked exactly like the mugshot they had of him when he was arrested for suspicions of human trafficking (released based on lack of evidence) five years ago. The only difference from the photo was a long, deep, thin scar on his left cheek.

"You're a new one here". He grunted.

"My name is Precious. It's a pleasure to meet you sir. What's your name?" She tried to sound sweet. She tried to pretend she didn't know exactly what he did for a living, being that he stole addict girls like she once was and sold them.

"Atahiko. Is that sake? I need a drink."

She served everyone drinks, hating the way to Magumi and Atahiko were obviously staring down the front of her dress, which was admittedly the desired effect of the low neckline; didn't mean she had to like it though.

A sultry jazz tune started playing. She looked up to see Kyoko swaying her hips as she approached her.

"Everyone wants another show, Precious." She stage whispered seductively. Sayaka thought she noticed something not quite right about Kyoko; she didn't seem happy at all. "Don't be afraid to back out whenever you want to." She whispered more discretely. Sayaka nodded back.

No one was talking as they performed on the small circular stage. Sayaka was on her knees, back pressed against Kyoko's chest using her left arm to hold onto the pole to not fall forward. It was easier for everybody to watch Kyoko fondle her breasts and other parts.

"Are you okay?" Sayaka whispered. Kyoko laughed mirthlessly.

"I'm the one supposed to ask you that. Just go with this. If you're comfortable."

Even though Sayaka had been on the receiving end of this treatment a few times now, she always felt her knees buckle when Kyoko worked her neck. Kyoko had a tongue the gods must have given as a blessing to mankind (she knew from firsthand experience), which would lick her gently between bites from her sharp fang. There was something about the combination of a little pain and a lot of pleasure that made the bottom of Sayaka's core throb embarrassingly more than she would have liked.

Kyoko, the smug bitch, loved it.

The dress got pushed down a bit, revealing her hardened nipples to their audience. Sayaka fought the urge to keep her eyes closed. She opened them, staring directly at the younger Kurosawa through a veil of simulated blonde locks that were falling into her eyes. She had to admit she was grateful for them; it made it easier to pretend it wasn't her doing this in front of a group of hardened criminals.

"She's not excited enough, Koko." Suki said, without any bite in her voice. She didn't seem to be looking directly at them; more at somewhere above Sayaka's left shoulder.

"You're not helping." Kyoko quipped back. She guided Sayaka's face so they were looking at each other; only each other and no one else. "Are you sure you're still ok?"

"Yeah. Just a bit distracted is all." She said under her breath.

"I'll take care of that." Kyoko grinned (though it seemed forced) before kissing her lips, tugging at her bottom lip to ask for entry.

This kind of thing, Sayaka didn't mind at all. When it was just the two of them, it was fine (more than fine actually, though she wouldn't admit that out loud).

She felt that devilish fang nick her lips. The gasp of surprise probably sounded like a gasp of arousal, if Kyoko's smirk was anything to go by.

Her left hand slipped from the pole as she let herself be pushed down gently. Kyoko had somehow at some point (seriously, when did she do that?) snuck her own leg between Sayaka's.

With one of the redhead's hands playing with her pert nipples and the other rubbing gently around her clit, Sayaka felt like she was being played like an instrument. She was completely exposed, with one arm reaching back to grasp at the back of Kyoko's neck and her same leg behind Kyoko's to keep her own apart. If her deepening, quickening breaths were anything to go by, Kyoko might have been almost as talented a musician as Kyousuke was.

The tingling turned to throbbing, and reached a crescendo after what felt like no time at all. Sayaka came with a high pitched breath and a shudder that wracked her whole body.

The crowd made their presence known by cheering, like they did every. Single. Fucking. Time.

Sayaka looked up at Kyoko, only to look away blushing when she saw the over confident girl licking her fingers with a mischievous grin. That damn fang even glimmered, only adding to the effect.

"You're an ass." Sayaka said softly.

"An ass who's great in bed, thank you very much."

"This club has gotten so much better since last time I was here." Atahiko grinned drunkenly. Sayaka resisted the urge to sneer.

The group of criminals laughed over seemingly friendly bantering and chicken wings. A girl Sayaka didn't really remember was invited in to dance on the pole while the semi-regular girls (her, Kyoko, Lady, and Geisha) sat with the clients, or in Kyoko's case gave a lap dance to the elder Kurosawa. Sayaka noticed the particularly dark look Kyoko gave to the ground, particularly when Kurosawa's hands started to wander. Kurosawa was generally very respectful of the no touching rule.

"Koko, I miss you, come here." Sayaka pouted.

"She's busy." Kurosawa said dangerously. His hands were also getting dangerously high on Kyoko's thighs.

"Please." She stuck her bottom lip out. She felt obnoxious, but hey, it worked with her stage persona, right?

"Come on, stop being such a dick!" Watanabe laughed. He was getting quite drunk, joining Atahiko. "They had a special moment, everyone wants to cuddle after that!"

Kurosawa lifted his hands and Kyoko crawled over the man's son to join her. It was a funny change of pace to have Kyoko sitting in her lap instead of the other way around.

"Thanks." She whispered as she pretended to kiss her ear.

"James-sa…James" Geisha corrected herself. "What brought you from America to here? I always wondered why someone would leave a place as magical as San Diego for here?"

"Honestly? I came here looking for treasure!" He laughed uproariously, Atahiko joining him like it was the funniest joke in the world.

"There's piles of treasure here! I find some more every month!" Atakhiko said while making a thrusting motion with his hips. James wheezed with tears in his eyes. It really wasn't that good of a joke.

"Seriously, I'm curious man. I'm curious. What's the quality of girls that you can really get from the street?" James asked.

Fuck, I wish I wish I wish I was wearing a wire right now!

"Well obviously you won't fetch as high a price as you would for a completely clean non-addict." Suki began. "You can get about four times the price for a non-addict, but you can get ten times as many addicts. You make more off of street kids overall because there's more of them. Plus, if you tried to take a princess, you'd have cops all over your ass in no time. Everyone assumes the street kid junkies just got themselves killed by overdose and no one really looks." She shrugged, going back to sipping her cup of sake. She hadn't even finished one while Atahiko and James were on their eighth each.

"Some of them are still pretty hot though. Check it out." Atahiko threw a stack of photographs on the table. Sayaka noticed one in particular of a brown-haired girl on top; it was Kurana-san's daughter, the one who had been missing for a year. Wait, they didn't get her? Where did she go then? "These are the ones I've been tailing for the last little while."

"You follow your victims? You're such a fucking stalker, man!" James joked.

"Well duh! You have to make sure they're solidly junkies and not just dumb bitches who went a bit too crazy one night. The dumb bitches still get police attention. The long-standing junkies don't. Wait at least three months in the hard stuff before you make a move."

"You guys have this down to an art."

"It's how we do as well as we do." Suki shrugged again, flipping through the photos. "Oh for fuck's sakes Osamu, give up on Sapphire. She's gone."

"No way! I am going to get that bitch, fuck her, and then you can do whatever you want with her." He yelled out.

"Sapphire?" Fusao asked.

"What? I name our targets. Easier to remember them that way." Suki said as she flipped the picture around.

Sayaka's world stopped for a moment. That picture…it was a photograph of her she never remembered having had taken. She was laughing in the photo but something looked wrong; her eyes weren't focused at all. She was high in the photo.

Holy fuck. Holy fucking hell. Holy fuck. I was a target. I was actually a target.

Surprisingly, though she had gone through almost two years of rehab and presenting over and over again how lucky she was to be alive…this was the first time it was so evident how close she came to something so, so terrible. Probably worse than death.

"How long ago did you last see her?" Tsubasa asked.

"Almost two years. She's probably dead. Too bad, because she probably could have gotten a good price too." Suki replied, completely uncaring.

"I don't care. If I see her, I'm going to take her anyways, whether she's high or not. She was so far gone that everyone would probably just assumed she relapsed anyways." Atahiko was physically shaking with an expression of pure hatred.

Sayaka tried hard, as hard as she could in fact to not tremor in fear. The guy was huge and was saying incredibly disturbing things about her. What the hell did I do? She noticed Geisha looking at her intensely, as if waiting for a reaction. Sayaka swallowed the lump in her throat and stared back.

"Not if she's dead. You're wasting your time." Suki threw the photo back on the table.

Kyoko picked up the photo, studying it quite intently.

She knows who I am. She's seen me in the open before.

Sayaka's heart was pounding, as she stared with eyes that were a bit too wide at the girl on her lap. Kyoko turned to look at her, and back at the photo, and back at her again.

Is it that obvious it's me?

Sayaka felt her muscles twitching, ready to push Kyoko off and run for it. She knew what this was; she'd felt it before; her adrenaline was pumping full-force.

It was fight or flight, and she was definitely in flight mode.

"These fuckers are sick, huh? You can leave if you want to. I wouldn't blame you." Kyoko said quietly under her breath, before throwing the picture down on the table. Sayaka felt her entire body relax; she practically deflated.

"Hey Red." Atahiko asked, his words slurring more and more. Kyoko just raised an eyebrow at him in response.

"You know that chick? You were staring at her photo for a long time there."

The adrenaline spiked back up. Her throat was constricting. It was almost hard to breathe. It hurt. She actually hurt. These ups and downs were way too painful.

"Nah, never seen her. Just thought she was cute." Kyoko waved off the question.

"That's not bad treasure…but there's better." James said with a snigger.

"What, like a pirate's treasure?" Kyoko looked at him lazily. Sayaka was trying so hard to focus on their conversation, but she couldn't stop looking at that photo on the table of her that just looked so wrong.

"No, but a treasure I bet you'd" he booped Sayaka's nose "have heard of." He grinned. Sayaka's attention snapped back. Her brain was in overdrive. There was too much going on. What the hell is he talking about?

"What treasure is that?" Kyoko looked genuinely interested.

"Have you ever heard of the famous White Diamonds of Kazamino?"

"No. I didn't even know we had any mining here." Kyoko said obliviously. James and Atahiko laughed again; James looked like he was about to piss himself.

"Why would Precious know anything about those?" The younger Kurosawa seemed to challenge; he was on edge too.

White diamonds? Have I heard of that? I have. Where have I heard that?

"Come here Precious." Suki ordered from across the table.

"Huh?"

"Come here for a sec."

Kyoko got up so Sayaka could obey. That sinking feeling in her stomach was coming back. Something was going wrong; something was going worse than wrong; it was already wrong. She felt like a fly getting too close to a spider's web.

"Come on, it's fine. Just come over here." She beckoned her over impatiently.

Sayaka got up on shaky legs, like a newborn faun. She took slow steps forward; all she wanted to do was run away.

Suki didn't let her. She grabbed her left wrist the moment she got close enough and tugged hard.

"I knew it." She laughed. "You know, for a drug lord in training, you really need to get better at identifying junkies. You sure as hell don't want one working for you after all."

She was waving Sayaka's arm in the air, tapping on the discrete, healed, old needle wounds in the crook of her left arm.

"It's too bad I didn't see you before, Precious. You would have been an excellent addition to our line." Suki joked morbidly before laughing with Atihiko.

"Don't say shit like that." Fusao snapped, eyes narrowed. The whole room went quiet.

"Oh hey, have your balls dropped now?" Suki asked casually. Fusao glared and looked away. "Guess not!" She smirked.

"Hey Precious! C'mon, tell us what white diamonds are." James ordered. The whole room was looking at her. She could barely think. She still wanted to run away from here, from them.

"It's…it's a type of meth, right? It disappeared from the market a few years ago." She stammered. She remembered. It had been good; really good.

"That's right! Did you ever try it?" James asked.

"Y…yeah. But it disappeared before I could get too…hooked on it."

"That's too bad." Suki taunted.

"Do you know where it went?" He asked again.

"No! It just disappeared." Why the fuck do they think I know anything? She was getting paranoid. Really, really paranoid. James laughed.

"Relax, I didn't think you had anything to do with it. If anything, it was this guy" He nodded to Kurosawa "who did."

"Losing that cook was one of the worst days for my business. He died of a heart attack. He was a good man and made the purest product I'd ever seen." Kurosawa said solemnly.

"Rumour has it he had made a lot extra in anticipation to sell it; there's hundreds of extra kilos of it hidden somewhere in the city." James said, as it sharing a whimsical children's fairytale.

"I heard it was in the old industrial district." Tsubasa added.

"Probably is, and that's why thirty-five percent of the city's addicts disappear on the streets!" A whole group of them laughed this time, except for the Kurosawas.

"You look so tense, Precious." James said kindly. "Do you want to relax? You've been so nice, and you put on such nice shows, I'll give you this."

He threw a little plastic bag at her, filled with clearish-white crystals. No, no, no, no, no!

"The last bit of white diamond I have. Go on, try it! We should show the younger Kurosawa how amazing some of his father's former empire's goods were." He said.

Sayaka remembered it being good; really good.

She wanted to get out of there. She just wanted to get away from these people.

She broke down and started crying. She'd cried so much recently.

"Cut that shit out!" Kyoko screamed. Sayaka looked up through surprised, tear-filled eyes. She noticed Kyoko wasn't glaring at her, but rather at James and Suki. "Are you trying to get her to quit this job or get addicted again? Come on! This is fucking low, even for you!"

"Makes me more money in the long run." Suki smirked viciously. "Another addict is another addition to my line."

This is so much. So, so fucking much.

The bag stared at her from the table. Just like Nakazawa's had before.

She kept crying. She buried her face in her hands. Why had I ever thought I could actually do anything right?

"Let's go." Geisha whispered behind her, trying to lead her out of the room. When did she get there?

She felt like a zombie as she was gently guided away, Lady, Geisha and Kyoko taking her away. Lady closed the door behind them, so the conversations could no longer be heard. But they were saying so many important things…and that bag's right there too.

"I NEED TO GO BACK!" Sayaka freaked out, trying to jump back into the room past Kyoko who was trying to hold her back.

Kyoko's head fucking hurt. Rin managed to land a pretty good punch to her temple that might have knocked her out if she wasn't a magical girl.

"Dammit Rin, pull yourself together!" Kyoko held her by the waist, but her torso was over her shoulder and she was hard to hold; she was wriggling around too much.

"I need to-" She was cut off when she flipped over Kyoko's shoulder.

Kyoko lost her grip on her partner.

Her stage partner fell to the ground, landing hard on her head.

She stopped wriggling around after that.

"What is…oh my god, what happened?!" Mangohead said as she came down the hall. Tomi was close behind her with wide frightened eyes. He'd really been pulled through the ringer the last few weeks.

"Is that Precious? Jesus Christ, why isn't she moving? What did they do?" Tomi immediately began. Kyoko had an idea of what he was afraid of; it was something that had never happened at this club, and she would be damned if it ever did.

"It wasn't her fault." Geisha cut in.

Everyone looked at Geisha with some surprise.

"It wasn't her fault. They found out she was a former addict and tried to tempt her with some. Anyone, no matter what they prior usage history was would have difficulty with that."

"How the fuck did I never notice she was a former druggie?" Tomi looked at the ground. He was specifically looking at her left arm.

"From what I have seen, she has never had any problems with recent drug abuse. It is just if you put it in front of her, which no client should be allowed to do. Any self-respecting workplace that cared for its workers should have strict policies in place, considering the kinds of clients we have. She could easily sue you and win for this." Geisha said matter-of-factly.

Kyoko was stunned. Did the client stealing bitch just defend Rin?

"Kyoko…has Rin ever had any problems like this before?"

"No. No, she was always fine. She's a good stage partner. It would be really unfortunate to let her go if we don't have to." The tips were good, after all. "As long as those pricks know they can't pull shit like that again, it should be fine."

Tomi looked at her apprehensively. "Had she made any real connections with clients here?"

"Kurosawa's son really likes her." Kyoko said honestly. Tomi winced.

"Okay. Okay we'll keep her if she wants to stay." He looked down at Rin, who still hadn't moved at all. "Is she alive?"

Geisha was on the ground checking vitals and feeling the back of her neck.

"She doesn't seem to have any spinal injuries. She's breathing normally. She likely has a concussion. If you would like, I can dress her and take her to a proper hospital discretely."

"Great, thank you Geisha. Take her out now. I don't want the other workers to see her and freak out."

Geisha nodded and with a surprising amount of strength lifted Rin and carried her off. Kyoko felt like she should be the one doing it, but she was pretty sure there were more important matters to take care of.

"Excuse me ladies." Tomi said as he entered Room B without knocking. That was strange for him.

"Another addition to your line is another lost customer for me. You should be giving me a portion of your profits. After all, without me, you'd have nothing." Kurosawa challenged.

"Well, before we were making fun little jokes. Now you're taking it a bit too far, Kurosawa-san. This is no longer funny." Tsubasa said with a strained smile.

"And I was never joking with you."

"Gentlemen. And lady." Tomi said with a surprising amount of authority in his voice.

The occupants of the room looked at him unhappily. Those that were sober were in a bad mood from the most recent events in the room. Those that were drunk were in a bad mood because everything was being a major buzzkill.

"What do you want, Tomi?" Kurosawa asked impatiently.

"One of my employees was just injured because some of you thought it would be hilarious to tempt a former addict with drugs." He pointed at the table, giving Megumi a stink eye. Megumi raised his hands indignantly, as if to say 'it wasn't even me!'.

"One of my firmest policies at this institution is that the safety of my employees comes first. You disregarded that policy. I would like for all of you to leave immediately and not return." He looked at Kurosawa who was raising an eyebrow at him. "Until next week." He finished lamely.

At least he tried… Kyoko thought while shaking her head.

She usually liked the nights when she and Rin put on shows. Tonight fucking sucked.

I hope she comes back. She thought selfishly. But if that girl knew what was good for her, she would turn away and never look back at this hellhole.

Sayaka's head fucking hurt. She opened her eyes, but had to squint; the light was way, way too bright.

"How are you feeling, Miki?" Ryo asked.

Am I hallucinating right now?

"Miki? Are you alright?"

She blinked a few more times for her vision to come into focus. Surely enough, Ryo was sitting beside her bed in a hospital room.

"Where am I?" She asked.

"You're in a hospital. From what I understand, you fell on your head after an incident." He sighed, disappointed. "You've been unconscious for fourteen hours."

She looked at the time. It was 2:00 pm. She should have been getting ready to go to Hitomi's in a bit.

"Am I alright?"

"You luckily only have a minor concussion. You'll be fine. Just take Tylenol."

A feeling of dread overwhelmed her.

"Did I blow my cover?"

"Thankfully, no."

She let out a sigh of relief.

"And frankly, surprisingly no. You're damn lucky Miki."

She didn't really feel it.

"So what now?" She asked timidly. "When is my family getting here?" Her parents were probably waiting to chew her out. This is exactly what they thought would happen. They had been happy when she slipped up so badly at Hitomi's because they thought it would convince her to take a step back.

Her parents trusted her judgment way too much.

"They're not getting here because they weren't informed of this. For police matters, I'm your emergency contact."

"What?"

"I changed it after the incident where you parents called us. I figured it would be better for the assignment if they didn't hear about little blips like this. These happen, but if your cover isn't blown and you can still get back up, you should get back in there."

"Uh…"

"Tell me everything that happened last night Miki. Just like we would at a review meeting. I want to hear everything. I'll determine if the working environment is impossible for you to go into. You can determine if you feel up to it. Alright?"

"Uh, okay." She still felt groggy.

"And I want you to be honest with me about what actually happened that led to the accident."

Sayaka swallowed nervously, and explained everything from the photograph to Atihiko's hatred to the white diamonds and how her cover was blown. She didn't mention anything about her show with Kyoko.

"So you're telling me you're a target? From back when you were seventeen?"

"Yeah. I got freaked out. I know I shouldn't have. I'm really sor-"

"This is fantastic!" He grinned at her. "Don't you know what this means?"

"Um, no?" Her head still felt pretty foggy.

"If you were to go to the Old Industrial District undercover as…well, yourself, you could get a direct in! We could catch them while they try to take you! You could have wires and proper surveillance and everything! This is the ideal undercover situation!"

How the fuck is sending me into an addict's paradise an ideal situation?!

Her face evidently showed her thoughts on it.

"Miki, you can't pass this up. Especially when Miyamoto is directly involved in the kidnapping, we would be able to get her. You would be able to get her. Think of how many young women's lives you'd save if you stopped them!"

"I…I…"

"Think it over Miki. I think, no I know you can do this. Just believe in yourself like I do."

"Won't the accident report get me kicked off the assignment right away?" Won't the accident report get me kicked off the force? She thought glumly.

"Not if the accident report says you fell on your head doing a pole move. I'm the one preparing it." He winked at her.

"That cannot be in accordance with procedures."

"Of course it's not in accordance with procedures." He laughed. "Playing by the book never gets us anywhere, because these guys don't. In order to get them, we need to act like them. And right now, you're giving us the holy grail of opportunities to do that. Think it over. You could do some absolutely amazing things here, Miki."

She could also do some absolutely amazing fuck ups too. And after the last few weeks she's had, she felt like she's leaning more towards 'fucking up' than anything else.

She swallowed her nerves. She knew what the smart thing to dowould be.

But the smart thing isn't the right thing; and it's about time she tried to do it.

AN: Help! I am in desperate need of a beta! Would anyone be willing to help me out? In return, I will give you internet gratitude and major spoilers for this story. The only potentially picky preference I have is that it would be nice if you have read Oriko Magica, just so you know Yuma's character. Even then, I can live happily if you have not. Please send me a PM if you'd be interested in being (and/or have the time to be) a huge helping hand.

And yet again, I didn't get to where I meant to be at the end of chapter three…and this is 65 pages long (lol, fuck). At least I'm positive that I'll be able to get to the end of the original chapter three next chapter! I don't think I'll have this problem again with future planned chapters though.

A few of you brought up really good points about long chapters being dangerous (in terms of actually finishing things), and I completely agree with you. I'm trying my best to get one chapter out per month to make sure I finish, but it's a bit tricky when this is getting so long. That's the other reason I need a beta! Please help me organize this story.

As always, your reviews and constructive criticism are always very much appreciated! Faves and follows make me incredibly happy too. Thank you for reading!