Chewing on Diamonds

by Don'tKillKenny

Six years after the Mitakihara disaster, Sayaka has become an undercover cop at Kazamino's upscale strip club. What she doesn't know is that the girl training her is not only superhuman, but may be one of the criminals she's there to take down. Continuation of Oriko Magica timeline. KyoSaya, drugs, gore, crime, yuri, dubcon, hinted abuse, PTSD, other warnings inside. Chp 1 edited.

5. Chapter 5

WARNING: This chapter contains explicit pedophilia which could be disturbing to some readers. If this is a trigger for you, please skip the third section of text. I will include an additional warning when you come up to that scene. You will not miss any major plot points or foreshadow that you cannot find elsewhere if you do not read that scene; the story will just seem a bit choppy there.

Chapter Five

Sayaka was very familiar with the path to self-destruction. She'd been on it before, though she hadn't realized it at first. Now, the second time around, she could see all of the warning signs.

The internal debates were starting, nagging her, and doubting her. On the one hand, it seemed like a good idea and would make people like her, or in this case be proud of her. On the other hand, she was playing with fire.

She wasn't even going to bother talking to her parents or counselling circle about this. She already knew what they would say.

She definitely wasn't even going to bother talking to the force psychologist. She'd heard rumours that various superiors would bribe her to give false positive recommendations so they could keep their top guys in the field instead of behind a desk.

She wouldn't put something like that past Ryo.

She sighed, curling up under the blue and white duvet on her bed.

She really regretted dumping that vodka.

She unfurled her body so she could roll on her back and look at the ceiling.

She sighed in agitation again.

She curled up under the duvet and repeated her personal ritual of mental masochism as she had done for the past four hours.

She heard her cellphone ring, for the fifth time that hour and ignored it. It was Wednesday and she was supposed to have called her parents and confirmed dinner for tomorrow an hour and a half ago. She was going to skip it. This was going to be the first time she had ever skipped it.

She supposed her text of "I have a shift tomorrow", even though she specifically asked for Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday evenings off at the start wouldn't bode well with her parents who could not comprehend the meaning of the words "adult job" or "privacy" or "duty of confidentiality".

I'm being too rough on them.

She groaned and unfurled so she could stare at the ceiling. She was obsessing over things, and she felt like she was trying to impress all the wrong people.

Just like old times.

Sayaka entered the apartment as quietly as possible, glancing around furtively. She didn't see or hear any sign of her parents. She held the shopping bag from the pharmacy behind her back as discretely as possible, which realistically wasn't discretely at all.

She had condoms, a mickey of vodka, and a gram of weed in there.

Her original train of thought had been that by getting all three at once, she was just getting it over with, like ripping off a band aid. Now that she was actually doing it, she realized that getting busted would mean really getting busted.

She assumed her parents would be pretty pissed to find their fourteen year old daughter trying any of those things, let alone all three at once.

She practically sprinted to her bedroom and threw the bag under the bed, exhaling in relief.

Where were her parents, anyways?

She wandered around the apartment and didn't see them. She noticed the answering machine's light flashing.

"Hi Miko. I'm going to have to work late at the office tonight. I'll probably be home at around nine. I'll just get some take-out here. I love you." The machine beeped.

Sayaka walked into the kitchen and noticed a note on the table.

"Hi Kenji. The meeting at the bank is going longer than I thought it would and the events committee at the club called an emergency meeting for the auction night. I'll probably be home at around nine. Could you make something for you and Sayaka? I love you!"

She rolled her eyes. Figures. She made some ramen noodles that she had bought a few days ago. She didn't really know how to cook with the fancy ingredients her mother bought, and she was getting pretty used to making her own food at this point; might as well get stuff that she liked and knew how to prepare.

It also gave her a great excuse to take cash from her parents' wallets and have it not look suspicious... it was okay because most of it was going to go towards buying food anyways and they were way behind on paying her allowance. They still owed her something like 10,000 yen after all the cash she took for personal purposes. She watched a youtube video about how to keep books like her father, so she had a little journal hidden under her mattress to keep track.

She took advantage of her freedom to throw the dubious contraband on her bed, turn up her stereo to full volume to play Norwegian death metal that would make her parents (and maybe Hitomi and Kyousuke and maybe the neighbours; who knows?) cringe, and get ready for her first party with the cool – by which she meant senior – crowd. According to Nakazawa, there were even going to be university students there.

She took off her school uniform, which was vaguely reminiscent of her old Mitakihara one; this one was blue, white and grey instead of red, cream, and black. She liked her first one more. This one made her look scarily monochromatic.

She hung it neatly in her closet and pulled out a black garbage bag that was hidden in the corner. She pulled out clothes her parents may have considered 'too punk' or 'too revealing' and makeup they would have called 'too grown up'.

She was going to be out of the house before they came in anyways.

After a quick shower, she threw on some clothes (which actually meant that she spent thirty minutes trying on almost every different outfit and accessory combination that she could, on top of spending the entire shower thinking about what to wear) and set to working on her hair. She wanted to have a casual, 'rolled out of bed looking like this because I don't care what you think about me' look.

It took her an hour of playing with her straightener, hair products, and hair spray to get the look she wanted right.

She made her eyes and lips as black as possible. She looked at a new pimple that formed on her forehead today; the second one this week! She had heard of some people using some sort of makeup on their skin to make it look more radiant and cover pimples, but she wasn't sure what it was called. She knew mascara, eye shadow, and lipstick. Most people didn't wear the skin stuff, right?

She thought she remembered Madoka mentioning her Mom wearing skin stuff.

Sayaka sighed. Maybe it was only popular girls who wore skin stuff, which covered their acne and made them more popular.

She brushed her bangs in front of her forehead to hide it. If you can't make it, fake it until you do; that's what Madoka said her Mom said, and her Mom was super cool.

'Am I trying too hard?' Sayaka thought to herself. She shook her head of the notion. She was going to have to try pretty hard to not come off as a total dweeb.

After Madoka died and Hitomi became "unwell" as her parents called it, Sayaka was on her own at school. A lot. And there seemed to be some kind of unspoken rule amongst the 'Kazamino Originals' to not speak to the 'Mitakihara Originals'. It didn't help that Sayaka hadn't really had any real friends other than Hitomi and Madoka before either. They had been all she needed, so she was so used to just being herself, which as she learned meant being a total dweeb.

It also didn't help that there were only six Mitakihara Originals left from her former class; there had been almost thirty before. Most of them died, but a few had just moved to other cities. Most of the ones who came to Kazamino avoided her because she was a dweeb and they wanted to be cooler in front of the Kazamino Originals.

Nakazawa talked to her. He was one of the few who seemed to get along with all of the Mitakihara Originals. The Kazamino kids didn't talk to him.

Kyousuke managed to do well for himself; no surprise. He simply hadn't been at the school when the disaster happened, so he didn't think he saw any monsters, and no one thought he was crazy. He was actually quite popular; he had received two love letters within a month of arriving at Kazamino Middle School.

Hitomi had confessed long before those other girls though. She told him almost immediately after the accident that she 'cared deeply for him', as she put it. Sayaka asked later why she confessed.

"I don't want to die with any regrets. And I don't think I want to live much longer."

Sayaka had no idea what she had been supposed to say to that. It was hard to be angry about her confessing to the guy she liked when she had other things to worry about; Hitomi's mental wellbeing being one of them.

So she pretty much had two friends at school regularly, and one of them was too busy to talk to her. So she basically had one friend at school regularly…who she had done some inappropriate things with last weekend when they got drunk. She had felt absolutely awful about it after too, because she knew she was supposed to save things like that for someone special and she wasn't sure if she felt like she wanted Nakazawa as her boyfriend or anything like that. But she didn't want to say anything that would make it weird and make her lose her only friend.

So she had one friend she did sexual things with to keep as a friend at school regularly.

Sayaka sighed, staring in the mirror and reflecting on her loneliness. She really had to stop thinking so much.

She prayed to whatever god was out there that she wouldn't drunk-cry tonight; her eyes were completely covered in black makeup, she would look terrible, and she would completely blow her perfect chance to make some more friends.

Her phone buzzed.

'We're here. Are you ready?' Nakazawa's text read. She didn't even bother replying before she shoved the weed, alcohol, and a condom into a black purse that her Mom thought looked cool. She had helped Sayaka pick it out.

'Oh god I am way too lame for this party.' Sayaka thought with dread.

"Hey Lil' Blue. You look pretty hard core." Nakazawa's older cousin complimented with a smirk as she got in the car. He was driving them to the party.

"It's too much, isn't it?" She asked meekly.

"Don't listen to him, he's an asshole. You look awesome! Way older than fourteen." His girlfriend said in a way that reminded Sayaka of the way Madoka would tell Tatsuya he was doing a good job at something. She sunk into her seat like she wanted to disappear.

Nakazawa's cousin and girlfriend were in the front seat. Nakazawa's cousin's friend who she had met a handful of times, Nakazawa, and she were in the back, sitting in that order. They were quite cramped back there, because the friend was twice the size of Nakazawa; he had been body-building for strong-men competitions years and it showed.

"If you weren't a little kid, I'd fuck you so hard you couldn't walk tomorrow." Nakazawa's cousin's friend said nonchalantly.

Sayaka eyes widened and she blushed harder than she'd ever blushed before. She didn't notice when she clenched her legs together in response.

"Fuck man, you can't say shit like that to a fourteen year old! Sorry Sayaka, he was doing some shrooms earlier. Knowing this fucktard, he'll be passed out in an hour. Your purity's safe!" Nakazawa's cousin assured. "Well, from him anyways. Not sure about my cousin."

Sayaka and Nakazawa looked at each other uncomfortably and looked away. She felt very aware of the condom she had in her bag. She tried to ignore the annoying thoughts in the back of her mind that asked her if she really knew what she was doing.

The party itself was like a scene out of a movie her parents wouldn't have wanted her to watch. The bass of some techno song was so loud she could almost feel her chest throb in tune with it. She couldn't even hear the song's melody.

The room was hazy as scents of cigarette and marijuana mingled in the air. She heard someone nearby drop a glass bottle, but there were so many people grinding together in such close proximity that she couldn't even see it. Her shoes were sticking to some parts of the hardwood floors though.

"Come on!" Nakazawa yelled into her ear. He pulled her away from the crowd, following his cousin and his friends upstairs. They went out onto a large balcony that overlooked the extravagant backyard, which included a huge swimming pool whose lights changed colours. They were at some rich kid's house, and she had no idea whose.

"Did you bring anything with you, or do you need to bum some off of us?" The girlfriend asked. Sayaka nodded and pulled the mickey and bag of weed out of her bag. The cousin whistled, impressed.

"Not bad kid. More than this fucker brought." He grinned, pointing to Nakazawa.

"It's fine. I'll share with him. He's the one who got me the contact anyways." Sayaka tried to play it cool.

"Well, technically I'm the one who got you the contact but whatever. You kids have fun. We're doing other stuff. Do you have papers for the weed?"

"Uh…" 'Fuck! I knew I forgot something! I look like such a tool.'

"Here. Apparently it tastes like cotton candy. Little girls like things like that, right?" The friend said, sitting next to her and throwing a burly arm over her shoulders. She smiled, trying to hide her discomfort. This time she noticed her legs trying to clench together.

"Heh heh, yeah thanks. I've got more than enough so I can share with everyone." She said with a friendly smile.

"Aww, you're so sweet!" He said with a grin, pulling her closer to him in a sort of one-armed hug. She didn't think anyone else noticed, but she sure did when he gently bit down on the top of her ear and licked it. It made her feel funny down there, like when she and Nakazawa made out. She wasn't sure if she liked it.

She put what was probably way too much weed on a paper and rolled it. It looked like little bits of green were poking out in places it shouldn't. She hoped that they would disappear by the time she finished rolling it.

It was a slightly misshapen joint, but no one said anything about it. She brought the outer edge to her mouth to lick it and seal it.

"You're going way too fast there. If you take your time a bit more, you make sure all of the weed is in the middle before you finish rolling." The girlfriend said helpfully. Sayaka felt her cheeks get a bit warm again, but she nodded and hoped no one would notice.

"You're trying to lick it way too fast too. Slow down." The friend said. She looked up at him as she slowed down, eyes asking for approval. 'Am I doing it right now?' His eyes seemed focused on her tongue and he smiled with a look she could only describe as 'predatory'.

"Stop creeping on the fourteen year old!" The girlfriend smacked him. He just laughed her off.

"Seriously, he's fucking with you. You did great for your first time!" The cousin congratulated her. She smiled bashfully.

She rolled the second, third, and fourth joints better. After about an hour. She could feel her heart beating, the blood creating a tingling sensation as it was pumped out. It was electric but soothing. She no longer coughed when she inhaled or held the smoke in her lungs.

Nakazawa's body wasn't the most comfortable leaning rest ever, but it was nice.

The friend's hand that had at some point slid behind her against her butt felt warm.

Everything felt so nice. She felt accepted.

She almost felt happy.

"Have you ever tried this?" The friend asked. Sayaka opened her eyes and looked over to him lazily. She really didn't want to move. He was holding an inconspicuous looking white pill.

"If that's Tylenol, yeah." He grinned.

"This isn't Tylenol. It's way better. Have you heard of ecstasy?"

She had. And based on the name, it sounded awesome.

But based on what she'd heard, it was harder than anything she had ever done before.

"Yeah, I have." She closed her eyes again and snuggled deeper against Nakazawa.

"It's really good, you know."

"So I've heard." She replied slowly. Conversation took effort that she didn't feel like taking. She was enjoying this moment.

"You should try it." He prompted, trying to hand her the pill.

Sayaka opened her eyes again, and saw that her two guardians, the cousin and the girlfriend had left at some point. She hadn't even noticed.

Nakazawa had fallen asleep.

"I like this. Just being like this. I don't need anything else. Thanks though." She smiled genuinely.

"You're gonna pussy out? Too bad. I thought you were more badass than that." The comment irked her.

"Can't pussy out of something I never agreed to do." She rationalized.

"Fine, I'll give you that. But you're still being a pussy. Just because you have one doesn't mean you should be one. It's awesome. It makes sex amazing. Have you lost your v-card yet?"

"No." She replied truthfully. She'd attempted to give Nakazawa a blowjob last weekend, but she was still a virgin, right?

"So you've never touched a hard dick before?"

"Never said that. Just haven't lost my virginity yet. I'm waiting for someone special."

"I'm not special? You hurt my feelings. My Mom thinks I'm special."

"You are special, but not the kind of special I'm looking for." She teased.

They started to hear some yelling from the backyard. It didn't sound good.

Someone she'd never met rushed through the patio door a minute later.

"Hey man, there's a fight down there that's starting to get ugly. Can you help break it up? You're the biggest guy here."

"I'm kind of busy right now." He said, clearly annoyed.

"Come on buddy, please! This looks like it's going to be the kind of fight that'll get cops here."

"Fine, fine; I'm coming. Hey Sayaka, hold on to this and think about it, kay? I'll be back in a few." He pecked her on the lips, which slightly surprised her. She probably would have reacted more strongly if she wasn't high out of her mind. She looked at the pill in her hands.

"Dude, how old is she?" She could vaguely hear the stranger ask as they walked away.

"Old enough man, fuck off. It's not statutory rape or anything, I looked it up."

"If you had to look that up, she's too young for you man."

"Again: fuck off."

Their voices disappeared with them to go deal with the fight that was getting ugly. Why would people fight on a night like this? The stars are out, the moon is shining, and it's the perfect temperature to cuddle up with friends. Why ruin something as nice as that?

"Are you okay?" Nakazawa asked timidly.

"You're awake?"

"Kinda. I didn't want to leave you alone with him, and I thought he'd make me go if I were awake. I thought this way I could make sure he didn't try anything really bad, you know?"

"What would you have done if he did? He's like twice your size."

"Yeah I know. I hadn't thought that part out." He smiled. The twinkle in his eyes reminded her of Kyousuke. "Thanks for coming with me tonight. I was nervous, but having you hear makes it way better."

"Yeah, same. Your cousin and his girlfriend are really nice. Do you think they'll invite us to things like this again?"

"Who knows? I think if our parents found out he'd brought us, they'd freak at him and me. He's been bringing me to these things as a favour. Help me zen out a bit, you know?"

"Yeah, I know." Nakazawa wrapped his arms around her, and they sat side by side, holding each other.

They stayed quiet, looking at the sky for a few moments, which could have been seconds or minutes or hours. Sayaka had no idea. She was content though. She felt safe. She felt warm.

She didn't feel lonely.

"I've been thinking about last Saturday a lot. Seriously, I can't get it out of my head. Sitting still in class when you're right next to me has sucked. Sometimes, I'm grateful the teacher likes to pick on the Kazamino originals because I get…well I get kind of hard when I think about it." The pill in her right hand felt heavy.

"Do you want to try this?" She asked nervously.

"I'm sorry! I hadn't meant that! I'm just talking…I should stop. I'm sorry."

"No, no, don't be! It's fine! I'm just…curious I guess. Do you really think it's as good as he said it would be?"

"You know he was trying to get you to take it so he could do you, right?"

"Well duh, I'm not that stupid." She looked away. 'Ugh, why did I say anything? I'm so stupid!'

"I have heard that it's really good though. My cousin and his girlfriend use it a lot."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

She opened the palm of her hand, which had gotten a bit sweaty. The pill seemed to stare at them, beckoning them.

"I thought drinking and smoking weed would be really scary, and they weren't. But this seems like it's the next level, you know?" He continued nervously. She couldn't even begin to imagine what her parents reaction would be if they caught her with something like this.

"But drinking and weed haven't been that bad. I don't feel, you know, like addicted or anything. Do you?" He continued.

"No, you're right." She looked at the pill again. She was getting more and more curious.

"We only have one though." He said.

"What if we each took half? Is that what your cousin does?"

"No. He and his girlfriend each take one. So maybe if we only do half, it won't be too much?"

"Yeah, so then it won't feel really, really good and we won't have to worry about getting hooked or anything right? We aren't alcoholics, so why should this be all that different?" She sat up, feeling more awake.

"Yeah, exactly!" He seemed more eager too.

They grinned at each other, excited. She had never done anything like this before.

She felt kind of cool.

"How do we split it?" She asked.

"I don't know. Maybe if you bite it in the middle?" It sounded like a good idea, and surely enough it worked perfectly.

It had a sort of chalky, bitter taste while it sat on her tongue. She could feel it start to dissolve. She didn't want to swallow before he did though.

"Did you swallow yet?"

She shook her head. "Waiting for you. Hurry up, this tastes bad."

"Okay. One, two, three!" He popped the pill in his mouth and swallowed while she just swallowed. She felt something bubbling in her stomach; she wasn't sure if it was the pill, anxiety, guilt, excitement, or some kind of combination of everything.

"Do you feel anything?" She asked.

"No, I think it takes time. Want to go back inside? I'm kind of scared my cousin's friend is going to come back soon and be pissed when he finds out I took half."

Now that Sayaka thought about it, she would be scared too if he found out she took half.

"Yeah, let's go."

The found a bathroom down one of the halls in the house. It seemed like this one house was bigger than Sayaka's entire apartment building. The bathroom was quite small and cramped. It only had a small sink, toilet, and standing shower. It was difficult for two people to fit comfortably.

Luckily, they didn't mind sharing space.

While just last week their kisses had been soft, gentle, and hesitant, they were already heated and passionate in less than a minute this time. Nakazawa was much braver with his hands this time, roughly grabbing her hair and thighs.

She became incredibly aware of where he was touching her. She could feel energy from his hands shooting through her nerves, piercing her lower core in the most delicious of ways. She was so aware of how his body seemed to fit hers perfectly, how his tongue danced so well with hers.

They smelled like marijuana and it smelled earthy and good.

His tongue and lips against her neck, the way he sucked and nipped felt electric. Even as he moved downwards, she could feel tingling from where he had been. It wouldn't go away, either. She just felt hot everywhere he was, and it felt like it was all over her.

His hard dick through his jeans rubbing against her belly was so, so exciting.

"Please, please, please let me. Please."

"Let you what?"

"Please let me go inside of you." He breathed frantically.

She nodded. Her body wanted it.

She wanted it.

"I have…in my bag."

"Huh?" He asked, pulling away from her to pull down his pants. She looked away, felt silly for looking away, looked back at him, then felt like a pervert for doing so.

"A condom. I have a condom in my bag."

He grinned at her sheepishly.

"I have one in my pocket. I wasn't sure if we would go all the way tonight, but I wanted to be ready if we did. Can you, or should I?" He looked at her skirt hesitantly.

"Yeah, yeah, I've got it."

She noticed the way he watched her with such attentive eyes as she slid her skirt and underwear down. She took the stockings off too. She wasn't sure why, but she felt like she should. She took her shirt and bra off too, a bit more self-conscious. She was never sure why she seemed to have a bit more belly fat than other girls did; she wasn't chubby, but she didn't have toned, smooth abs either.

"You're so beautiful." He told her sincerely and breathlessly. The slightest inhibition she had before was gone.

It didn't hurt as much as everyone said it would. She couldn't tell how much of the tickles of energy on her body were from having sex and how much were from the half-pill.

The contrast of the heat of the thrusting body in front of her and the cool shower wall behind her, combined with the contrast of her mouth feeling nothing but gasps of air while her lower extremities were full was like nothing she had ever experienced.

She opened her eyes to see her reflection watching her, her own body moving up and down with her.

Her skin was so much paler and smoother than Nakazawa's.

Her skin was so pale and smooth.

Underneath the cobalt eyelids and long, full lashes shone bright periwinkle eyes.

She had such pretty eyes. She liked her eyes.

She liked her skin.

She liked herself.

She felt full.

She felt electric.

She felt loved.

She felt beautiful.

She couldn't tear her gaze away from the eyes of her reflection. She didn't care if it was conceited; she indulged her vanity, her lust, her hunger, her everything.

This was the best she had felt in months. Maybe even years. Maybe ever, for that matter.

She could register when Nakazawa's gasps started turning into primal grunts and his movements which were already sporadic turned into those that resembled a spasm; it meant he was having an orgasm, right? That's good. She could make him feel good. She hadn't managed to do it last week.

She felt desirable and powerful.

"Oh my god." He panted out. "Oh my god that was amazing."

"You liked it?" She breathed out, smiling.

"Yeah, did you? Did you come too?"

"Uh, maybe?"

"I think you'd know if you did. I'm sorry." He didn't look too disappointed though. He looked like he was just trying to catch his breath.

"Maybe we just need to practice?" She asked. She didn't mind one way or the other. This had still been great. She even told him so to make him feel better.

"Yeah, yeah you're right. We'll focus more on you next time." He smiled. "What do you think it would be like if we each took a full pill?"

She wasn't sure, but she was damn excited to find out.

Sayaka could almost look back on the loss of her virginity fondly. She wished they hadn't tried the ecstasy that time though. Maybe she would have been able to tell the difference between the feelings of sex and the feelings of the drugs better, and she wouldn't have been so excited to try them again.

Too late for that now though.

Now, she was going to go right back in.

She pulled a thick, black holofill coat out from under her bed. The brown fur that lined the hood had been stained with blood years ago from god knows what.

She wasn't sure if it was her imagination or not, but when she brought the coat to her face to inhale deeply, it still smelled like weed.

She should have thrown it out as soon as she got clean. This coat was like the ultimate example of a bad reminder.

She put it on and reached inside the pockets. She could feel the holes she had made that would allow small items to fall into the back part of the coat so no one could take them easily. It came in useful more than once, particularly whenever she passed out.

It still felt warm. It was why she had worn it all the time. The crack houses could get pretty cold.

This coat was like her second skin during the worst parts of her addiction.

She sighed and zipped it up, throwing the hood over her head. She was going to need it.

She had been dreading this day for weeks, but it had finally come. She was scheduled to go into the lion's den tomorrow.

---

Kyoko was very familiar with the path to self-destruction. She was also incredibly skilled in the art of taking the ones she loved down with her.

"Why don't we just move cities?" Yuma asked from their new, smaller bedroom. The walls looked way too crowded with the amount of her artwork that was posted on it. Kyoko had refused to throw any of it out though.

"They'd find us anyways. And besides: we don't need to be cowards like that. Don't you like your friends at school?"

"They're okay. Why don't we just fight back then? We'd win and you know it." Kyoko sighed.

"You know why. We need them."

"I know why you think you need them. Why do I need them? I don't need to keep the church from being demolished and neither do you."

"Would you cut it out with the whole 'abandon the church' thing? You know I'm not gonna do that. We're just gonna fight again." Kyoko said with barely concealed aggravation. She didn't want to bite Yuma's head off, she really didn't; but the brat was making it so hard.

"But this isn't worth it! It's not worth anything! Come on, you're never going to make enough money on time."

"Shut up! At least I can say I tried!"

"And all you're going to do is bring us both down; you know that!" Yuma's voice started to escalate.

"You think I'm bringing you down? Fine. Leave! The door's right there!" Kyoko's escalated more.

"Why are you so stupid?!" Yuma screamed and marched out of the apartment, slamming the door behind her.

Kyoko clenched her fists, shaking with rage. You're right. I know. I fucking know! I fucking know all of it!

She slammed her fist into the wall, cracking the drywall. She could faintly register a sting of pain. She sat at the kitchen table and buried her head in her arms.

"Here you are, brother. May God bless and keep you." Kyoko watched her father bow as he graciously handed a homeless man a bowl of hearty soup. It would have looked just like a scene of Jesus serving the lepers out of the Bible, had he not been wearing the hairnet and stained apron the homeless shelter made all volunteers wear.

Kyoko's stomach grumbled, but she ignored it. She spooned out another brimming bowl of soup to be handed to the next homeless person in line.

She bit her tongue to keep from screaming at the man who walked away without acknowledging or thanking her father.

None of the homeless patrons ever did.

She got angry once. Her father scolded her and made his next sermon about the dangers of pride and expecting to be thanked for your contributions to others.

She knew it was wrong to expect it, but she still hated it when no one took the two seconds to thank them.

She heard another grumbling stomach next to her. She saw Momo dutifully passing the patrons cutlery, looking down, dejected.

Momo hated volunteering every Saturday at the homeless shelter almost as much as Kyoko did, but for an entirely different reason. She hated being so close to food and not being allowed to eat it. They handed it out though.

Serve others before yourself, as Jesus would do.

From what Kyoko had heard during an argument her parents had had, if they had registered or something, they would have qualified to be patrons themselves.

That's another thing Kyoko hated about this place. It made her parents argue.

"May God bless and keep you."

He was ignored again.

"Why are you crying little girl?" An elderly patron asked. Kyoko looked up at the woman confused, and saw that she was looking at Momo. "Do we scare you?" She asked and assumed kindly.

"No, you're not scary. It's just that I'm really –"

"Momo, go back to the kitchen, I'll be with you in a bit." Her father interjected, keeping a calm and level voice. "Honey, can you come help here?" He called to her mother, who had been taking registrations before.

"Yes dear." She came over dutifully with a gentle smile, grabbed the soup from Kyoko and passed it to the elderly woman. "May God bless and keep you, sister."

The woman didn't say thank you either.

Kyoko felt her fists clench, but said nothing.

She filled another bowl to the brim.

After another two hours, the shelter was empty and they were helping clean up. Kyoko swept the floor while her parents loaded the dishwashers.

"We made too much soup again. Where do our patrons keep going?" The shelter coordinator asked another staff. Both were paid, but Kyoko swore she and her family did more work than they did.

"I hear there's a new shelter not too far away. They have neighbourhood restaurants that donate extra food. They also have showers there. It's hard to compete with that."

"Damn. We'll just have to reduce how much we make again. We're wasting money on ingredients. Will the soup keep until next week?"

"I doubt it. There's not too much left though. Do you just want to bring it back to your family?"

"I guess so. The kids don't like the shelter food. But hey; we can always feed it to the dogs. People are willing to pay top dollar for puppies that are raised on raw diets."

"Oh yeah, how is your wife's breeding business going? I hear you have a new litter of German Shepherds on the way, eh?"

Kyoko took a deep breath and counted to ten. She tried to imagine she was in an apple orchard. She thought of her father's disapproving stare, which he would no doubt make if she yelled at the staff. He would prepare and preach a sermon about the sins of anger, which only their family would hear, but all of them would know it was about her.

She used every single strategy her parents had tried to teach her about controlling her anger.

It wasn't working.

She turned around and left, going to the kitchen.

"Daddy, can we have some of the food now?" Momo asked pitifully.

"No Momo, that's for the patrons." Her father explained kindly as he had done dozens of times before.

"They're going to feed it to dogs." Kyoko barked, not unlike a dog that was going to be fed.

"Where did you hear that, Kyoko?" Her mother asked from the dishwasher.

"The two staff are out there talking about it! They're going to feed it to dogs! Why don't we just take it?"

"Kyoko, this food is meant for the patrons of this shelter. If there is leftover now, there will be some for souls seeking shelter tomorrow. They are in greater need than us."

His own stomach growled that time, but if he felt any hunger pains he didn't show it.

"Did you get angry with the staff again, Kyoko?" He put a gentle hand on her shoulders.

"No Dad." She sighed. "I took a deep breath. I counted to ten. I imagined I was in an orchard. When those didn't work and I was still mad, I came here. I'm sorry for being a coward and running away from my problems."

"Sorry? What is there to be sorry for? You did excellently Kyoko! You knew and accepted your own limits. I'm proud of you." Kyoko looked up at him with wide eyes, to see his look of genuine pride. She grinned excitedly in turn. She thought she had done badly. Her father's smile softened further as he ruffled her hair.

"Now that you feel better, could you finish sweeping the floors? I think we can be done cleaning in fifteen minutes if we do our best."

"Okay!" Kyoko saluted.

He was right, as usual, and they were off. Kyoko noticed the coordinator loading two big pots of soup into his car. She looked at her father, who had noticed too. He didn't say anything, so neither did she.

She counted to ten again.

It was a rough evening. They had a box of crackers that someone had given Momo for dinner. Her parents tried to make her and Momo eat most of it; they said they weren't hungry. Kyoko didn't believe them.

Kyoko was almost angry when Momo cried about being hungry that night; she had eaten the most!

It still wasn't much, but it was the most!

She took a deep breath, and told her sister a story about a starving boy who was granted a wish and got a magic porridge pot that could make enough food to feed his whole starving village. Momo liked that story a lot. They both fell asleep, dreaming about porridge and soup pots and dogs. Kyoko woke up angry.

"Are you ready to study math Kyoko?" Her mother asked.

"I am!" Momo cheered. Kyoko was always jealous of her because she was doing easy things like addition and subtraction; Kyoko was working on multiplying and dividing fractions now.

"Yeah." She grumbled. "It makes me angry sometimes because I don't feel like I'm very good at it." She was told she should tell her family when she was feeling angry. Talking about it would make it better.

"Is that so? You know you're already on eighth grade math, and you're only in grade six! I think you're pretty good at it." Her mother praised.

"Wait, really?"

"You're at an eighth grade level in most of your courses Kyoko. You're only at a seventh grade level for English."

Kyoko grinned happily, and eagerly opened her math book, which now that she looked at the cover actually was an eighth grade book.

"Where am I Mommy?" Momo asked excitedly.

"You're at a grade two level, right where you should be."

"Aww, I was hoping I was as smart as Kyoko."

"It gets easier the higher up you get." Kyoko lied. "So don't worry! I bet you'll catch up to me in no time!"

"Okay, let's do math!" Momo cheered.

Kyoko smiled at her fondly. Her smile immediately disappeared when she saw her mother's disapproving frown. They both knew she had lied. And lying was wrong.

She could guess what her father's next sermon would be about.

At lunch time, they were given time to play on the church grounds. They had nothing to eat for lunch. Kyoko suggested a game that wouldn't take too much running, so they wouldn't get hungry too quickly.

Her father had gone out trying to recruit more attendees. He probably wouldn't get anymore. But maybe someone would give him some food again?

She saw after their lessons finished that no, he had had no luck today.

"The good Lord will provide for us soon. I am sure of it." Her mother encouraged.

"Why doesn't God give us a big magical porridge pot that can make enough porridge for the whole city?" Momo asked, excitedly gesturing with her hands. Her parents looked at her confused. Kyoko wouldn't tell them she read about that from a book she borrowed from the public library…and hadn't returned yet. It was due a few years ago.

"Momo, the Lord's work isn't like that. You are not magically granted gifts. He gives you opportunities to work for them. We must continue to seek out God's opportunities." He reasoned gently.

"What does seeking mean?" Momo asked with a drawl that many younger children seemed to have. Kyoko couldn't remember if she used to speak that way too or not.

"It's like hide and seek Momo. You go looking for something." Kyoko explained.

"Should we go out and seek God's opportunities too? I like hiding more, but seeking is fun too!" Momo exclaimed too loudly.

"I can do that just fine on my own. You two" he tapped Momo and Kyoko's noses "need to focus on your studies."

"Aww, I want to go out seeking God's opportunities with you Daddy."

So did Kyoko. But she could tell her father wouldn't approve of it. He never seemed to find anything though.

Could he disapprove of what he didn't know?

Kyoko wandered around Kazamino that evening aimlessly, looking for an opportunity. She didn't care about recruiting followers for the church; she didn't think she had enough charisma to do that anyways. But she could find food.

She used to steal a few apples from the grocer. She got caught, and the grocer told her father. The sermon on temptation and stealing had been a particularly shameful one.

Maybe she could get a job? She could try to get a paper route or something; they hired twelve year olds, didn't they?

She didn't have to think about that for too long though. Just as she was walking by an alley, she smelled something familiar.

Pasta! In the dumpster? Why was it there? It looked plenty good.

The dumpster looked gross. The whole alley looked pretty gross, actually. Even the door and stairs next to the dumpster looked gross. But the food didn't!

She picked around the pieces that were touching gross garbage, but most of it was in a neat pile. She taste tested it, just to make sure it was good enough for her family.

It had a thick, creamy sauce. It was the most filling and delicious thing she had eaten in weeks! It was so good!

And she had nearly finished all of it.

"Hey, what are you doing?" A masculine voice asked her forcefully. She jumped, which caused the lid of the dumpster she had been holding up to crash on her head, sending her into the pile of trash.

Her head hurt and she was humiliated now. Maybe this hadn't been such a good idea after all…

"Are you al-" The man's voice sounded much kinder now. She looked up at him. He had a kind face and scruffy goatee. He almost reminded her of her father, but he was younger and paler with black hair.

"Were you eating the pasta from the dumpster?" He asked, horrified.

"Uh…well…I…" She wondered how he knew, and realized a noodle was hanging from her mouth. She quickly slurped it up, looked up at him one last time, and sprinted away.

She would have stayed away. She wouldn't have ever gone into the same part of town ever again, if she could help it.

But when her mother fainted that night, she decided that she needed to get more food, no matter what.

This time, she brought a bag with Tupperware containers. They hadn't been used for a few years now, but they didn't look dusty after she rinsed them off.

She looked around carefully this time. She didn't see anyone nearby.

She opened the lid and found an Italian food galore.

Breadsticks, pasta, salad, chicken, and so much of it would be just fine if it was just cleaned off a bit.

Kyoko lost track of the time trying to expertly pick out food that was as uncontaminated as possible.

"Here." Kyoko jolted at the voice, dropping the heavy lid of the dumpster again. This time, the man caught it before it hit her.

"Food in the dumpster belongs in the dumpster. Take this instead. You're not an animal." He handed her a bowl of spaghetti and tomato sauce. It looked delicious.

"Are…are you sure?"

"I saved an extra bowl just for you." He said kindly. "I have to ask though. What are you doing picking food from dumpsters?"

Kyoko felt her face flush with embarrassment. She wanted to lie, but lying was shameful. She was already ashamed enough. She sat down on the stairs next to the man.

"I was looking for food for my family." She said, looking away from him. She took a seat next to him on the stairs.

"Your family doesn't have enough to eat?" She shook her head. He offered her the bowl and she took it, but she didn't eat.

"No. No one believes my Dad's teachings so they won't come to his sermons. Dad told me God doesn't just give us things; he gives us opportunities to get what we need. So I'm trying to find opportunities to get us food. And this is food that nobody seems to want, and they don't want to feed it to their dogs either."

The main raised an eyebrow at the dogs comment, but didn't ask for clarification.

"Wait…is your father the one who's been trying to get that cult going?"

"It's not cult!" She snarled. "Everything he says makes sense! Cults don't make sense, but my Dad does!"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I was just wondering. I'm sure he preaches wonderful things like you say." He said with arms raised in a placating manner.

"Do you want to come hear what he has to say?" She asked hopefully. "He's always happy to talk to new people!"

"Aha, no, sorry. I'm not one for religion, I'm afraid. I'd be happy to give you some food whenever you need it. We always have some leftover here, and it seems a waste to throw it away."

"You just throw it away anyways?" She was still hopeful. She may not be able to recruit a follower, but she could still find a source of food.

"Well, not all the time. We actually donate a lot of the extra food to a new homeless shelter a few blocks down."

Her hope was gone.

Her father would never accept food that was supposed to be donated to the homeless.

Everyone was starving, but at least her family had a home and large one at that.

"Oh. Okay."

"What's wrong?"

"Dad doesn't let us take food that's donated to the homeless. It's meant for them, not us. We have a home."

"Oh." The man said. His face lit up like he had an idea. "Hmm…" He said exaggeratedly.

"What?" Kyoko asked, genuinely curious.

"What if the food wasn't going to be donated?"

"What do you mean? You're going to throw it out?"

"No silly. What if we were paying someone who was working for it?"

Kyoko's mind went back to the paper route, but this sounded way better.

"Really? For real? I can work for you?" She was literally bouncing up and down a bit in excitement. Her first job! Her parents would be so proud of her!

"You sure can! I always close up the restaurant alone on Thursdays to Sundays. It's late, but if you come by at around midnight you can help me clean up the kitchen. I can't pay you money because you're a bit too young, but I can pay you in leftover food." He promised enthusiastically.

Kyoko was thrilled.

"Okay boss!"

The man laughed pleasantly.

"So, what's my new kitchen girl's name?"

"I'm Sakura Kyoko! You can just call me Kyoko. What's your name, boss?"

"How about you just call me boss? I like the sound of that."

"Okay boss!" She grinned.

"Alright Kyoko, here's what we'll do. I still have work, but how about you come by in about…" He looked at his phone. "In about five hours and we'll clean up together. One important rule though, okay?" She nodded, listening attentively. "You can't tell anyone about this. See, I think some people would get mad if someone as young as you were working for me. So if we don't tell anyone, they can't get mad, right?"

"I guess…" It made sense to her. "So what do I tell my parents when I bring home food?"

Boss pondered it for a few moments.

"Tell them there's a drop-in youth centre you're going to, and they always have extra food that they give you. Does that sound like a good story?"

"Yeah!"

"Great! So come back at midnight, okay?"

"Okay! Bye Boss!"

She skipped the entire way home. She was ecstatic. She didn't like having to lie, but a white lie to feed her family would be worth it, right? Right.

She snuck out that night. Momo was a heavy sleeper and her parents' room was pretty far away from theirs and the front door.

It was easy enough. She just mopped the floors of the restaurant, which were already pretty clean and put away a few dishes. They spent most of the time rehearsing her story.

She got four big doggy bags of food for it.

"So what are you going to tell your family when they ask where you got the food?"

"There's a drop-in youth centre nearby! It's really fun. We get to play air hockey and videogames. They have free nights on Thursdays to Sundays. They also have some food, and they say they always have extras that they're just going to throw out! I asked if I could have some and they gave me some doggy bags." She shrugged, like it was no big deal.

"Perfect. So I'll see you tomorrow Kyoko?"

"Yep! I'll see you tomorrow! I look forward to working with you!" She bowed energetically.

She told the story expertly, and her parents believed it. Her father in particular looked quite relieved by this.

"Can I come too Kyoko? It sounds so cool!" Momo was leaning into her face. She had been crowding her ever since she found out Kyoko had gotten good Italian food.

"No Momo, cut it out!" She pushed her away. "You have to be at least eleven years old to go." Lying came effortlessly to her; something that had always concerned her parents.

"Awww." She looked genuinely sad. Kyoko felt bad, but she figured if Momo knew it was actually a job, she'd hate it.

"Well, I think it's great you have a fun place to go to Kyoko. Momo, they have some drop-in play groups in the area. If you'd like, I can take you there after lessons?" Her mother offered politely.

"Misaki, you know why we-" He began under his breath.

"Yes, I know, but really this is for their own benefit." She whispered back. He sighed and conceded.

Kyoko didn't understand what they were talking about and she hated it.

She decided not to ask though. It would be hypocritical of her to demand to know their secrets while she kept her own.

She'd already heard a sermon on hypocrisy. That one had been because of Momo though.

They continued on this way for the next few weeks. She mostly told Boss about what she was learning in her lessons. She talked about her family. She talked about her frustrations at the homeless shelter and how people wouldn't give her family the time of day. She talked about how annoying Momo could be.

Boss was a great listener and it was fun working with him. She liked coming in to work! And when she was old enough, she could work at the restaurant full-time and would be able to provide for her family. She went out and found an opportunity! Everything was going great.

Until Boss said she couldn't work at the restaurant anymore.

"I'm really sorry, Kyoko. It's not you, really. The owner of the restaurant found out you've been coming and won't let me have any underage help." She was about to protest that she was just as good and responsible as of-age help. "But I still want to work for me. You do such great work and it would be a shame to lose it, right?"

Kyoko was skeptical.

"Yeah, but if I can't work at the restaurant, what can I do for you?"

"You know, I always work so hard at the restaurant that I never have time to clean my house. I don't live too far away. Would you be able to help me there? I'll keep bringing you good Italian food, don't worry!"

"Okay!" She agreed. At least she still had a job, even though it didn't sound as cool as helping out in the kitchen of an upscale restaurant.

The house was about a twenty minute walk away, making it twenty minutes further away from her place. She would have to walk almost an hour to get here.

But oh well. She could do it. It was for her family, after all.

It was a cute little white bungalow. She was confused, because it was actually very clean inside.

"Are you sure you need my help, Boss? I don't see anything that needs to be cleaned up."

"Oh yeah, I guess you're right. It is pretty nice in here. It's actually a lot messier in the basement. Can you come downstairs with me and we can clean it up together?"

"Oh, okay! Sure!" She followed him downstairs. She heard a door lock.

---

Please skip this section if you do not want to read explicit pedophilia.

"Why did you lock the door?" She asked curiously. The church had a basement they locked too, but not usually when they were in it.

"Sorry, force of habit. Do you mind if I keep it locked though? I feel better that way. A burglar broke in once, so I figure if it's always locked, I have nothing to worry about." He smiled.

"Oh, that's smart. Okay." She smiled and ran down the stairs.

The basement did look a lot messier. There were pictures scattered across the floors.

Kyoko, trying to be a go-getter, immediately started picking them up.

She noticed a lot of pictures of kids in swimsuits at the local pool.

"Do you go to the pool a lot?" She asked, trying to start a conversation.

"Yeah, I do. I'm a lifestyle photographer. It means I take pictures of people doing everyday things. I think it gets the beauty of normalcy, you know?"

Kyoko thought having a normal life would be beautiful.

"Yeah. I do. That's a nice thing to take pictures of." She kept picking up pictures and putting them into neat piles for him.

"Hey Kyoko. After we're done this, do you want to play some videogames? I have some good ones like Mario Kart! They're classics, but they're classics for a reason." He grinned.

"Sure! I've always wanted to play videogames. I might not be very good though; I've never played before."

"No?"

"Dad thinks they're bad."

"Oh that's too bad. Are you sure you want to play them?" Kyoko thought about it for a second.

"What he doesn't know can't hurt him, right?" She grinned at him.

"Right." He laughed, ruffling her hair affectionately.

He set up the videogame, which involved finding the right dusty box and plugging it in.

"Don't you play it a lot?"

"No, I don't have anyone to play it with. That's why I'm glad you're here." He said with a smile. "I don't have a lot of friends."

Kyoko looked down.

"Yeah. Me neither."

"Why not? You're so nice and helpful."

"My Mom says kids might not like me because of my temper. I get angry a lot. And we don't go out much. I think I've embarrassed them too many times now." She felt vulnerable telling Boss this. She didn't want him to fire her, but she felt like she should be honest. Lying is shameful.

"I think it must be more because you don't get out much. You've got a great personality. I like you." He said kindly.

"I like you too. I'll be your friend Boss!"

"Call me Hachiro, ok? We're friends now."

"Okay Hachiro." She grinned.

It took a few minutes, but he got the game up and running. The bright colours from the TV were the only thing illuminating the dark unfinished room.

She took a seat next to him.

"Oh, well now you're totally going to lose."

"Huh? What makes you say that?" She asked incredulously. She figured she would lose, but that didn't mean she was okay with throwing the game.

"You see how I'm sitting right in the middle in front of the screen? This means I can see everything more easily from here. You're sitting to the left."

"Yeah, but if you're sitting in the middle, how can I sit there too?"

Hachiro patted his lap. "You're small enough to sit here."

"I think I'm too heavy now. Dad won't let me sit on his lap anymore because I make his legs go numb." Hachiro laughed.

"You won't make my legs go numb. Come on." He patted his lap again. "This way, we can both play as good as we can! It makes it more fun that way."

Kyoko felt guilty, because she figured she was probably heavier than she looked. But she conceded; he could always tell her to get off later.

She sat down and the played a few rounds. She had even beaten him a few times! She liked the little green lizard, Yoshi. He was cool.

Something kind of strange happened after the third round though. She felt something poking her.

"What's that?" She asked, shifting her body weight around trying to get more comfortable. She noticed Hachiro take a quick intake of breath.

"Aha, that's the remote. Don't worry about it. It's better to leave it there so it's easier to adjust the volume on the TV."

"Oh. Okay." That seemed odd to her, but she said nothing. She moved herself up and closer to him. She was sitting on the remote control now.

"Sorry, is it ok if I sit on it? It's more comfortable. I can move or sit beside you instead if that's better." She wasn't as bad at the game as she thought she would be. She could probably do pretty well, even if she didn't have the best view.

"This is just fine." He almost growled out. Kyoko had never heard anyone say anything in that way before; she never really had an adult friend before though, so maybe this was just how grown-ups talked. She just smiled and leaned against him.

He was breathing really heavily. He finished last in the fourth round.

"Are you okay Hachiro? You really sucked."

"Ah, yeah. I think I'm just ready for bed. Kyoko, it's getting really late and it might be dangerous for you to walk home alone. Why don't you just sleep over? You can tell your parents tomorrow there was a sleepover at the drop-in centre, and you had so much fun that you just didn't want to leave."

She didn't feel very comfortable with that.

"I don't know. They told me that if I were ever going to stay out too late, I should come home and let them know." They didn't have a phone.

"Wouldn't that just mean you would go home?"

Huh. He's right.

Her parents were sneakier than she thought.

One time wouldn't be so bad, right? And she'd never been to a sleepover before, but she always wanted to go…

"Okay! Where do I sleep?"

"There's a bed in the room over there. We can both sleep on it. Come on."

The bedroom was finished, unlike the rest of the basement. It was a nice little room with pale green walls and a tan carpet. The bed was white with pink and green flower doodles on it.

It wasn't her style, but she guessed a more typical little girl would have liked it.

"Are you tired, Kyoko?"

"Not really, but that's okay! I hold the record in my family for quickest to fall asleep." She grinned.

"You don't need to sleep yet, it's okay. I'm tired, but not too tired. You know how I said I like to take pictures?"

"Yeah."

"Could I take some pictures of you? You're a very pretty little girl. I think you'd be a great model!"

No one aside from her parents had ever called her pretty before. It made her happy.

"Okay!"

He left the room to get a camera. He'd instructed her to take her pants and shirt off, but she could keep her underwear and hoodie on. It seemed odd to her, but she figured it had something to do with art and photography that she couldn't understand yet.

"You look perfect, Kyoko. Are you ready?" She nodded eagerly.

He took pictures of her in all kinds of weird poses. There was one where she was sitting and had her legs spread while smiling and biting her finger; a few where she was on her hands and knees, looking back at him; he even gave her a strawberry popsicle, but she was only allowed to lick and suck. They did things like that for about half an hour.

"You're a great model Kyoko. I wish I had thought of that before making you be a kitchen girl." He said in the same growly voice as before.

"It's okay. I liked working in the kitchen."

"Want to play a game? I know a really, really fun one."

"Is it like Mario Kart?"

"No." He chuckled a bit. "No, it's way better. It's called the kissing game, okay?" It sounded a bit icky to Kyoko, but she didn't want to be rude.

"How do you play?"

"So first, you kiss me somewhere, anywhere. And then I kiss you. Whoever stops kissing first loses. Loser has to pay a penalty. Sounds easy, right?"

"I guess. I'd rather play Mario Kart."

"Just try this. I bet you'll like it. Do you want to start or should I?" Kyoko shrugged.

"I'll go then." Hachiro decided. He kissed her on the forehead, lingering for a few moments longer than Kyoko would have liked. It was like when her mother or father kissed her, but somehow not and she couldn't figure out how.

She kissed him quickly on the cheek, like she would do for her parents. He kissed her shoulder. She kissed his hand. He kissed her neck, and this time he stayed there and sucked and licked.

"That tickles!" Kyoko giggled, closing the space between her ear and shoulder to get him away. He grinned and kept going, making her squeal. "Stop that!"

He finally relented. "Your turn." She wasn't sure where to go, so she settled for kissing his nose. He scrunched up his face in a comical way, making her grin. "And my turn."

This time, he kissed her on the lips. She had seen her parents do it sometimes, but never like this. He was sucking her lip into his mouth, like what he had done on her neck.

Kyoko wasn't sure why, but something felt very, very wrong about doing this. She felt like she had swallowed a rock; she felt guilty and anxious.

"I think I lose the game. Can we go to sleep now?" She averted her eyes. She didn't want to look at him.

"You lost, so I get to decide the penalty. Come on, let's try that again." He pulled her to him to kiss her again. She pushed back.

"I don't want to! Stop Hachiro! Friends don't make friends do things they don't want to do." She felt so childish saying that. She wanted to leave. She wanted to go home.

She looked at the alarm clock and saw that it was already 2:30 am.

"Friends also do things for friends. But it's okay. Let's do one last thing and we'll go to sleep, okay? You can do that, right?"

"I don't know." She honestly didn't. He was making her do a few things she had never done before.

"It's okay." He assured her again. He pulled down his pants. Kyoko's eyes widened and she looked away quickly, blushing.

Her parents had never gone into detail before, but she knew how boys and girls were different; boys had penises and girls had vaginas. She got that. But she had never actually seen one before.

She never pictured it would like that either. She would have thought she would notice her father's at least sometimes if it was sticking up like that all the time.

"Touch it." He ordered her softly.

She looked at him, frightened. She didn't want to. She just felt like it was wrong, but she had no idea why it should be. It just didn't feel right to do at all.

She shook her head fervently and tried to keep herself from crying. That would be really embarrassing.

He sighed. "It's okay. Maybe next time. But watch this, okay? I'll teach you how to make someone feel really good. It's easy." He grabbed it and started rubbing up and down really fast. Kyoko didn't want to watch him. It felt weird.

Hachiro stopped and pulled out the camera. "I want to take a picture of you right now. You look so perfect."

"I don't want a picture."

"It's fine. I won't show anyone else. Just us. Our secret." He took a photo anyways, and went back to rubbing.

She didn't like looking at it, but when she looked up she noticed he was staring at her, with his mouth open. He was breathing hard and grunting.

She tried looking at the ceiling but he scolded her for that, gently but firmly.

She decided to look at his thing because it was better than looking at his face.

However, if she had been looking in the general vicinity of his face, she might have noticed his other arm reach other to grab her hand and put in on him…there. He grasped her hand so she was rubbing it with him.

She tried to pull her hand back but he was too strong.

"I told you I was going to teach you. This is how you learn."

"But I don't want to –"

Suddenly, something happened and he groaned. She felt her hand get hot and wet. She was terrified that he'd peed on her like Momo used to do before she stopped wetting the bed.

It wasn't though, thank goodness. It was something white instead.

"Do you want me to give you food for your family for a whole week?" He asked between breaths.

She looked at him tepidly, but nodded.

"Lick it up and swallow it." He pointed to the white stuff on him. "It's like food. It's good for you. I won't even make you do a penalty, promise." She felt like this was enough of a penalty though. She felt like she'd done plenty of penalties.

But it would give her family food for a week.

She closed her eyes and lowered her head, ready to just get it over with.

"Hang on a second." He grabbed the camera. "Now go."

Something felt humiliating about this. She did it anyways and heard the beep of the camera.

It tasted really bitter. It was gross. She had to try twice to swallow it and fight the urge to spit it out. But she did it.

The taste was still on her tongue, like she hadn't managed to swallow everything. She scraped her tongue against her teeth, trying to get the taste off.

Hachiro seemed to think she was licking her lips and he loved it. He took another picture.

"You're such a good girl Kyoko."

"I want to go home." She said firmly, getting up and ready to try finding her clothes. She felt naked and bare now, even though she still had her hoodie and underwear on. He pulled her to her chest with just enough force to let her know that no, she could not go home yet.

"You can leave in the morning. It's dangerous out there now." She knew that she was sleeping with the danger now, but gave up. He fell asleep quickly. She couldn't. He never let her go so she couldn't sneak out.

He woke up after about eight hours. His thing was hard again, but he didn't make her do anything. He gave her a backpack and three tote bags full of food that he pulled from the fridge and cupboards; anything he could find, really.

Explicit pedophilia scene ends here.

---

"Come back again next week, and I can make you feel really good too, okay? You did so well yesterday. Do you remember what you're going to say?"

"There was a sleepover and I had so much fun, I lost track of the time and didn't want to leave." She said, feeling sick.

"Right. But say it with more enthusiasm than that, okay?" She nodded and walked out as fast as she could. He told her not to run.

Her parents had been mad when she got home, but quickly forgave her when they saw how much food she had.

"I'm really sorry I didn't come home last night Mom and Dad. There was a sleepover and I had so much fun, I lose track of the time and didn't want to leave." She smiled.

"Well, next time if you could run home quickly to tell us, we'd be happy to walk back with you and you can stay the night. I'm so glad to hear you're making friends Kyoko." Her Mom smiled. "Now, shall we all sit down to eat? It looks like we have enough that we all deserve to have a big, special breakfast this morning!"

Momo cheered. Kyoko felt even sicker.

She felt tears prickling at the back of her eyes. Her father seemed to notice. He always did.

"Kyoko? Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine!" She was worried she sounded too chipper. "I just ate a lot at the sleepover, so I'm already stuffed. I'm actually really tired because we didn't sleep much. Can I just go have a nap instead?"

"Aww, I don't want you to go sis! I want to hear about the sleepover! Can I go to a sleepover?"

"No, no, Momo if she's tired let her sleep. Go ahead Kyoko. Sweet dreams." Her father smiled kindly as he always did.

She wanted to tell him, but she knew she shouldn't.

She slept for twelve hours. When she woke up, she wasn't hungry and her mouth tasted bitter again.

She brushed her teeth. Again. And again. It still tasted bitter.

Momo had walked in a few times. They didn't have a lock. Momo didn't actually need the bathroom; she had just wanted to play.

"Are you finally done yet?" She asked, clearly bored.

"No, go away." She gargled out. She spit. It still tasted bitter. She put more toothpaste on her toothbrush so she could brush them again. She made a mental note to scrub her tongue more this time.

"Kyoko, you're being weird. You've been brushing your teeth for two whole hours! We won't have any more bubble gum toothpaste left for later. I'm telling Daddy!"

Her eyes widened in fear. She knew there was something weird about brushing your teeth for that long.

"No, Momo don't!" She quickly spit and rinsed her mouth. It still tasted bitter but she ignored it. "I'll play with you, okay? Just don't tell Mom and Dad. You can keep a secret, right?"

She hated the way she reminded herself of Hachiro when she talked to Momo.

Momo made a big deal of looking like she was contemplating her offer.

"Can I pick what we play?"

"Sure, sure." Kyoko breathed out, relieved.

"For the next week?" She grinned deviously.

'Ugh, we're going to be playing house for a whole week?'

"Fine. You win."

"Yay! Let's play house!"

The week passed quickly; quicker than she liked. She pretended to be sick over the entire weekend. Apparently she wasn't as good an actress as she thought, because her parents saw right through it.

"Kyoko, why aren't you going back to the drop-in centre? Don't you like it there?" Her mother asked, concern lacing her voice.

"Yeah, I just don't feel like going is all."

"Are you having problems with some of the kids there? Would it help if we went to talk to them?"

Kyoko jolted.

"No! No, don't do that, it's fine. I'll just go next weekend."

"Kyoko…what's going on?" Her father asked suspiciously.

'Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no."

"I got kicked out." She lied. Her parents looked ashamed.

"Kyoko! How did you do that?" Her mother asked, disappointed. Kyoko felt grateful that this time, she didn't even feel bad. She hadn't actually done that wrong…but lying was wrong.

"I got into a fight with another kid. He made me angry."

"Are you permanently banned? I'm sure if we go speak with the coordinators, they can understand that we're working on it with you and they'll let you back in." Her father said calmly. She could see right through him though; the food was good.

And they were going to catch her: there was no drop-in centre.

"No, not permanently. I just need to apologize."

"Then why not just do it?"

"The kid made me really, really mad. And they're wrong." Her father sighed.

"Kyoko, remember what I told you about pride?" She cringed. She did.

She promised to go back next weekend.

However, when Thursday afternoon came by, she didn't have to anymore. Something much worse happened.

They were almost running out of food again. Her parents were relieved she was going back, and there was going to be another sleepover that had a lot of food. Kyoko pretended to be excited. They had a scarce Thursday lunch with the whole family.

It was interrupted by a knock on the door.

Her father immediately stood up, a sense of restrained excitement evident in his step. Maybe they had gotten an interested follower?

Kyoko and Momo hid behind a doorframe to observe. Her parents opened the door and enthusiastically welcomed their guests.

They were all wearing suits and holding briefcases.

Kyoko didn't like them.

"Is this the Sakura residence?" A young woman with long, straight black hair and red rimmed glasses asked. She had a voluptuous hourglass figure; her hips were very wide, so her pantsuit looked less harsh than the others' did. She had narrow full lips that smiled pleasantly, but it looked forced.

"Yes, it is. How can I help you today…" Her father began, but the woman wasn't looking at him anymore. She had noticed the two girls hiding in the doorway.

"Hi there. Are you Kyoko?" She asked in a friendly manner, her voice a higher pitch than when she had been speaking to her parents.

"How do you know my name?" Kyoko asked suspiciously.

"It's okay, I…well we" she gestured to the group of people behind her "came to ask you a few questions about someone, if that's alright? My name is Chiyo."

"Chiyo! Your name kind of sounds like Kyoko!" Momo chirped. Kyoko raised an eyebrow at her. "Well, kinda!"

"Yes, I suppose it kind of does, doesn't it?" She laughed.

"Excuse me, but who are you and why are you in our home?" Her mother was defensive now.

"We're federal investigators." Chiyo's senior said seriously, showing his badge. "They are with Child and Family Services." She gestured to a man and woman standing to the side.

"Federal? Kyoko, what did you do? Were you stealing again? How many times have we told you not to do that?!" Her mother turned to her. Kyoko was terrified and ready to bolt.

"No, no! Ma'am, if you could follow my colleagues we will explain what is happening, alright? But we would like to speak with you privately." Chiyo sounded like she was afraid she was losing control of the situation. "Kyoko, you are not in trouble for anything, I promise you that."

"Who are you, and why are you here?" Her father asked sternly, though it didn't sound like a question. Chiyo turned around to look at her senior. He nodded.

"We're from the Special Victims division. We specialize in sex crimes."

Kyoko wasn't sure what sex was. She hadn't even heard of that before.

Her parents clearly had though. They both went pale.

Her mother went down on one knee and beckoned Kyoko to her.

"Kyoko…Kyoko I'm very sorry for yelling at you before. It was very wrong of me. Could you…could you explain why these people are here?"

Kyoko shook her head. She honestly couldn't.

She had a bad feeling she might have an idea though.

"We just want to ask you a few questions. Is that alright, Kyoko?"

"What's going on?" Momo finally asked, tired of being left out.

"Go into the kitchen Momo, we'll speak to you in a bit." Her father ordered.

"No, it may be better if we spoke we her as well." Chiyo interjected. "Just to be sure."

"Sure of what? What the hell is going on?" Her mother started to cry. "What the fucking hell is going on?" She more said to herself.

"Mom, it's okay…" Kyoko tried to console her, awkwardly reaching out her hands to hug her. She was never really good with feelings and she had never heard her mother say bad words before.

"It might not even be anything serious, Mrs. Sakura. It could be a false alarm." Chiyo tried to encourage. "Kyoko, do you want to speak privately in another room? Just you and me, or maybe with one of your parents too?"

Kyoko shook her head. She did not want to be alone with that woman. She was making her mother cry.

"Are you alright with me asking some questions out here then?" She said accommodatingly. Kyoko didn't respond.

"Has anyone done anything with you in the past few weeks that may have not felt right? Maybe about two weeks ago?"

She was definitely talking about Hachiro. Kyoko knew it. Her body tensed.

"Two weeks ago…Kyoko that was the sleepover at the drop-in centre, right?" Her father asked, a look of dread coming over his face. "There was a sleepover at the drop-in centre, right?"

She paled. She lied to them. She had lied for weeks. And lying was shameful.

"You're not in trouble for anything. We won't be upset with you. We just want you to tell us what happened." Chiyo pressed on.

"Kyoko brushed her teeth for two hours!" Momo chirped excitedly.

"MOMO SHUT UP!" She screamed, horrified and angry. She just knew that there was something wrong about that.

She was right. She saw all of the strange people make varying cringing faces. Varying faces of pity.

She hated it.

She let go of her mother and ran for the back as quickly as she could.

"Kyoko, come back!" Her father yelled, chasing her. Kyoko didn't listen; she disobeyed which she knew was wrong but she wanted to get away from there.

She had made it to the other side of the cemetery before she tripped over a tree root. She tried to get up, but her father had already pounced on her, holding her in place.

"Let me go! Let me go!" She was screaming, trying to get away.

"Kyoko, stop this right now!" He yelled. She had never heard him yell before. She shut up.

"Kyoko…Kyoko I don't know what happened to you. I'm terrified, and so is your mother, because we think something very bad happened that shouldn't have happened. Please Kyoko…please be brave. You need to tell them what happened. No one will be upset with you. Even if you lied before. I promise we won't be mad with you, just like the lady said. I promise." He hugged her, and she cried. She just hugged him back and cried. She had wanted to do this since she had come home from that house, but couldn't and now she could and it felt good.

After a few minutes, they went back inside. She, her parents, Chiyo, and a social worker sat in the kitchen.

Chiyo showed her a picture of Hachiro, who she said had been arrested. They found her because they found pictures of her. Her mother cried more.

They showed her a stuffed doll, where she had to point out where he touched her, and she had to touch him.

She talked about working at the restaurant and then at his house.

"Why were you working at a restaurant?" Chiyo asked. Kyoko looked at her parents, trying to ask for permission to explain the reason. She wasn't sure if they understood her message, but they nodded at her to keep talking.

"To get more food." Kyoko saw her father bury his face in his hands, and he cried.

"Why did you need to get more food?"

She knew she shouldn't say it was because they hadn't had any in too long.

"Do you have enough food here?" She pressed on.

"We will." Her mother assured. "Our family has been having some difficult times recently. People do not always understand or appreciate my husband's teachings. But they will. And when they do, we'll have more than enough and nothing like this will have to ever happen again."

"But in the meantime, you do not have enough to provide for your children?" The social worker asked critically. Kyoko felt herself getting angry.

"We do! My-" Her mother's voice became distorted, like she was speaking through a machine.

Something happened that cut off Kyoko's reverie. Kyoko lifted her head off the barren kitchen table and tried to think. What had her mother said? She couldn't remember. It was making her head hurt to try to think about it.

"Why didn't you before?" The social worker continued. "Why did you have such a severe food shortage if you could –" The voice became distorted in the same way.

"What the fuck?" Kyoko asked herself. This had never happened before. She rubbed at her temples, trying to simultaneously think harder and soothe her head.

"Don't worry, I'll-" Her mother's voice was distorted again.

The social worker looked at her skeptically and nodded. She said they would follow up in a few weeks.

"Our fortune truly will turn." Her father assured.

"Of course they will, Mr. Sakura." Chiyo said kindly. It was obvious she was just humouring them. She wasn't really listening; she didn't really believe.

She called him 'Mister' for crying out loud!

Kyoko felt herself getting angry again. She said nothing as they left. She nodded when they asked if she would testify. She was angry and wanted them to leave.

Her parents cried more after they left. Her father called himself a failure. Kyoko asked if she could go outside for a bit. They let her.

She marched angrily through the cemetery. She screamed in anger.

It wasn't fair! Why did no one believe them?! Why did no one listen to them?!

"I can help you." An androgynous voice said calmly behind her. Kyoko whipped around, startled.

Sitting on one of the gravestones was the oddest creature she had ever seen. It looked like a cat, but it had white wings coming out of its ears.

"Did you just talk to me?"

"Not quite. I just communicated with you telepathically Sakura Kyoko." How did it know her name?

"What are you?"

"My name is Kyubey. I'm here to offer you an opportunity. If you make a wish, any wish at all, I can grant it for you!"

"Why would you do that? I still don't understand what you are." She asked. She didn't want to come off as rude, but this strange cat-genie thing was the weirdest thing she had ever seen. She wondered if she had fallen asleep at some point and was just having a really weird dream.

"You're not dreaming, Kyoko. I want to help you because if you make a wish, you will become a magical girl that can fight witches! Witches spread the seeds of despair throughout the world. I am trying to find more magical girls who can fight them. You have more than enough potential to be a magical girl, and you seem to have a wish in mind…" it hinted.

"So you can grant me a wish? Any wish at all?" She still didn't believe she wasn't dreaming.

"Of course!"

"And I'll get to be a magical girl that helps protect people's happiness?"

"Yes!"

It sounded so cool. It sounded perfect.

"Are you an angel?" Maybe they had been wrong about what angels looked like all these years? It was natural for humankind to be vain, according to her father; maybe making angels in human's image was part of that vanity.

"I have been called that a number of times by your people." It swished its tail. That didn't quite answer her question, but alright.

"So I could wish for a magical porridge pot that could create an unending supply of porridge?"

"If you would like. Is that your wish?"

No. No, it wasn't.

She didn't want to be angry anymore. She didn't want to watch her family be hungry anymore. She didn't want to watch her parents fight or cry anymore.

And she knew exactly what was making all of that happen.

"I wish everybody would listen to my father." She said, closing her eyes and clasping her hands in front of her chest in prayer.

She winced as she felt something deep within her being pulled out of her chest.

"Consider it done! Sakura Kyoko, take your soul gem and accept your destiny!"

She reached forward and clasped the glowing red gem in her hands.

She had sought out God's opportunity and found it after all.

Kyoko rubbed her forehead. She had remembered her stupidity. She had remembered most of it quite vividly.

She remembered all of the people who made her so angry.

She remembered that disgusting bastard, who she fully understood now, and what he did to her and how it made her feel.

She remembered so much of it.

So why the hell couldn't she remember what her mother and that social worker were talking about?

Normally, she wouldn't be too concerned. She would assume it was memory loss, because this was such a long time ago now.

But it didn't feel like that.

It felt like magic, and she couldn't understand why it felt like that.

She hated having feelings she couldn't understand. She'd experienced that phenomenon her whole life; surely by the time she turned twenty, she should be over that.

She couldn't focus on her confusion or frustrations for long though. Her phone started to ring; the pay-as-you-go phone the Miyamotos gave her.

"Hello?" She asked with an unpleasant tone.

"Hello sunshine. It's time. Meet me tomorrow at the abandoned hotel in the Old Industrial District at nine pm. Do you have a shift tomorrow?" Suki sounded like she didn't care what the answer to the question would be; she probably didn't, really.

Tomorrow was Thursday. She never had shifts on Thursdays.

"I'm free. See you there." She hung up.

She didn't notice her soul gem had darkened a tinge.

---

Sayaka fiddled with the sleeves on her jacket uncomfortably.

"And go." A techie commanded.

"Testing, one two three, test." She said obediently.

The van they were in was horribly cliché; a plain white truck with shaded windows. She couldn't tell if they were trying to scream 'We're cops!' or 'We're rapists!'. She supposed it was good to try to blend in with the enemies, but this was just painful.

"We're good." He gave a thumbs up.

"Miki, can you hear me?" Ryo asked into her ear piece. They had already tested it a few minutes before.

"Aye captain." She said, which her wire picked up. It thankfully didn't look bulky at all underneath her jacket. Surveillance technology had become must smaller and more discrete.

The wire included a GPS tracker, in case they had to transport her directly to the Miyamotos to catch them. It was very, very unsettling.

Her gun didn't look bulky under her jacket either. It wasn't easy to get to though, and that was even more unsettling.

She looked at a compact mirror to study her makeup job; the force helped with some of the more complex parts, such as making her old needle marks look fresh and administering eye drops that stung like a bitch but made her eyes suitably bloodshot. She had put on her dark makeup the way she used to, then rubbed it around to make it look splotchy. Her hair looked like it used to look nice and sleek, but was later mussed up and tangled in a fight or a fit of passion with a lover.

She looked just like she got back from a crazy bender.

"Alright. There's a condemned building, a former hotel not far from here-"

"I'm very familiar with the old hotel captain." It was a well-known crack house. She had spent more than her fair share of nights there.

"Right. Now when you enter through the front door, be sure to not draw too much suspicion to yourself. We don't know what kind of surveillance they have there."

"If I may captain?" She said with a sigh.

"What is it, Miki?"

"No one ever uses the front door, sir. The only accessible room is the front lobby. I would like to see if the hole beside the dumpster is still there." That, and the front door would be obvious as hell.

"Ah…do what you feel is right Miki. Just try not to put yourself in a place where it will be difficult for us to come in and back you up."

Good luck with that. She thought sardonically. The reason the hotel was such a consistent favourite was because it was easy to hide from people if they didn't know it well. She had vague recollections of a time she and Nakazawa had to hide from an angry dealer; they ran into some air ducts and hid out in the old generator room.

"I'll do my best sir."

"Good. We'll drop you off slightly closer to the site. Good luck Miki. We're all rooting for you."

The car lurched as it moved forward. She felt nauseous.

There were so many ways this could go wrong.

She took a deep breath and got ready to go.

---

Kyoko fiddled with the sleeves of her jacket uncomfortably. While she was no stranger to nights in abandoned buildings, she had gotten used to the luxury of an apartment over the past six years.

She felt dirty just standing in this place.

She knew this old hotel; her father had gotten banned from the premises in an overly dramatic and humiliating way that involved the police so she never went near it. Now that she thought about it, she probably could have served some divine justice to the place after she first got her magic to feel a bit better.

She never had to, of course. The top half of the hotel had been ripped off by Walpurgisnacht and the owners never bothered to fix it. This whole section of town, aside from a few select fortunate buildings had been pretty badly damaged.

No one was going to want to stay in this district for a long time.

She had been instructed not to go through the front lobby. Apparently it had been booby trapped a few years ago, as that was usually where cops tried to go in. There were a few well-hidden holes along the sides of the building that most junkies came in through.

Suki told her to use the back door, which she would unlock for her. She said they deserved to be 'civilized'.

The door had opened easily enough and she was now standing in what may have been a surveillance room long ago. There were screens everywhere. None of them were turned on though.

It felt dead.

"I'm glad you came right on time. I hate waiting." Suki said nonchalantly. Kyoko figured she was hoping to sneak up on her.

She could sense her coming from a mile away though.

"And I hate coming to shitholes like this, so I figured I might as well just hurry up and finish up this fucking favour for you." She mimicked Suki's tone. She turned around to see Suki's obnoxious smirk and Megumi and Atahiko standing behind her obediently.

"Too chicken shit to talk to me alone?" Kyoko taunted. Suki guffawed.

"Atahiko is one of my best. He's been training our newest recruit, Megumi here."

"Taking on two jobs? I would have thought that would be bad for your health." Kyoko commented coolly. Megumi looked like a rat that had been noticed by a cat. Suki laughed again.

"He will only be working with us quite soon." That's cryptic. "If it's up to me, you will be doing the same."

"I wouldn't think Kurosawa would appreciate you taking two of his employees."

"I wouldn't think either of you would appreciate being tied to him as an 'employee', considering what your standing was before. Really now, it's just degrading to both of us as women in this industry to see how he's treating you; I hope you know you're better than that. I wonder why you even put up with it."

That stung; but Kyoko said nothing.

"I meant what I just said. I hope you'll be working with us soon; not for us, but with us. That's why I called you here. I can't make you work in my sector forever, but I want you to at least try it."

"What? No, I don't-" Kyoko had always sworn to herself that she would never be involved with human trafficking. She had some questionable morals, sure, but this was too much.

"You owe me a favour. This is the favour I'm asking. I want you to try it. If you don't like it, you'll never have to do it again. It's simple, alright? Just make it through the night, and the debt will be paid. Who knows? You probably won't even find any of the targets tonight. We've been having bad luck with them recently." The last sentence was muttered as an afterthought.

"Can I ask if I can do another favour instead?" Kyoko murmured. It was humiliating being in this situation at all.

"If you can't make it through the night, yeah, I'll get another favour for you. However, this is the one I want you to do. Just try it. You're going to have these two with you, so if you want they can even do the work while you just shadow them. It's fine if you're not an active part of it. I'm not going to test you or anything on this after."

Kyoko's lip was curled in discomfort and disgust. She assumed she would be asked to hide a few bodies or something; maybe enchant an official or two.

But more importantly: she couldn't figure out what the hell Miyamoto was playing it.

It bothered her.

"You owe us. This is how you can pay it back. Are we good?"

Kyoko nodded subtly.

She couldn't think strategically if she had no idea what her opponent was thinking.

"I'm glad. I look forward to working with you tonight." Suki bowed politely. Kyoko raised an eyebrow at her courtesy skeptically. "You're not a stripper here; you're a colleague. I have no reason to be impolite."

Kyoko nodded again.

"Atahiko will brief both of you. I need to meet with someone nearby, but he has my number if you need any help. Don't be afraid to ask questions. I wish you luck, whatever that may mean for you." Suki bowed again to the three of them and left through a hole in the wall Kyoko hadn't even noticed before.

"Alright, let's get started." Atahiko sighed.

---

Sayaka shut off her senses. It was a sensation she was familiar with, but the practice had always been assisted by other substances before. This time, she had to force her own conscious thought to do it.

The hole by the dumpster was still there. When she entered, she ignored her sense of smell. She didn't remember the place always reeking of human shit and sweat, but maybe she had smelled like it before too and hadn't noticed. She shut it off.

She couldn't seem sober. She couldn't seem in control. It was too suspicious here.

She shut off her sense of balance. She let her legs wobble. She let her steps be uneven and her stride go sideways.

She shut off her sense of self-preservation. She let herself fall and didn't use her hands to break it. She landed hard on her face.

She shut off her sense of pain. She knew it hurt like hell, but she couldn't let it show.

She pretended to be unconscious in what had formerly been the third conference room. She couldn't recognize what colour the carpet used to be, but she could recognize that it reeked of mould.

She wished she hadn't let herself fall face first. She honestly hadn't thought about it. Realistically, that was the right way to go about it, but this was still profoundly uncomfortable.

She heard the floor creak. Someone walked into the room. Their steps were as unsure as hers had been.

She shut off her sense of fear, which was threatening to send her into flight mode. The steps were coming towards her.

She was rolled over. She could at least appreciate that she didn't have her face buried into a carpet that had developed its own ecosystem over the years.

She kept her eyes closed, face relaxed, and breathing even.

It was hard. She was so tempted to open her eyes to see who was observing her.

She felt cold hand feel her face and pull open her mouth.

Holy fuck if someone tries to put their dick in my mouth Ryo can't expect me to not shoot them.

The hands moved away and unzipped her jacket. Her heart started to race; the wire was attached to the inner part of her coat.

Whoever was undressing her didn't seem to notice. They lifted her shirt and Sayaka could feel their cold hands tracing along her skin as they did.

It was gross.

She wondered how many times this had happened to her when she was actually unconscious.

The hands pulled the jacket off completely. They pulled the sleeves up on her black zip up hoodie she was wearing.

She could feel the hands pushing at her needle mark scars.

She worried that they looked too fake. Part of her makeup had been making the old scars look fresher.

The hands pulled down the sleeves and put her coat back on, zipping it up and pulling the hood over her face again.

She wondered briefly if she was safe.

The hands grabbed her ankles and started to drag her out of the room.

Apparently not.

Her breath picked up a bit. The dragging stopped.

"You're okay Miki. Just stay calm." She heard Ryo whisper in her ear.

She slowed her breath and again and murmured incoherently, trying to pass it off as her having an odd dream.

The hands accepted this and kept pulling her.

A few minutes later, she felt the hands drop her legs and pulled her up under her arms.

The body of the hands reeked; whoever was pulling her clearly hadn't bathed in weeks.

Their breath in particular was disgusting.

She was pushed inside a small room; maybe a closet? Her legs were pushed against her chest and she heard a door close.

She was definitely in a closet.

"Are you alone?" Ryo whispered again.

"In a closet." She murmured in the same way that made her sound like she was asleep.

"That's good. That's really good. If someone moved you in there, you might be a target. Just stay calm and stay there. We're staying close. You're safe."

She didn't believe him, but she said nothing.

This closet was really hurting her back.

---

Kyoko shut off her senses. After learning that magical girls became witches, she had learned to ignore her sense of right and wrong when she killed them and hoarded grief seeds for her and Yuma.

Magical girls made mistakes by making contracts, so they kind of deserved what happened to them, right?

And addicts made mistakes by trying drugs at all, so they kind of deserved what happened to them too, right?

She never really convinced herself that either of those thoughts were true, but she ignored it.

"First rule: only take a girl whose picture has a red 'x' on the back. That means we're confident that we can take them and no one will ask questions." Atahiko explained. Megumi looked bored; Kyoko guessed he had already heard it all before. "If you see one, let me know. Don't try to take them alone; always have someone to help you. And for the love of god, be careful for friends or boyfriends nearby." He snarled, as if speaking from experience.

She flipped through the pictures they had. There were twelve in all. Three had red x marks on the back.

One of them was a pretty young woman with an aristocratically pointed nose, curly black hair and thin lips. Her eyes were closed in the picture, but she would be able to recognize her.

Another had short orange hair and an athletic build; she looked like she could play professional soccer. Her brown eyes were staring off somewhere unfocused.

The last one she recognized; Blue, the current cop. She was the only one whose photo had a smile, but it looked crazed. She was a lot prettier when she wasn't high.

"Second rule: for any girls who don't have a red x on the back that you see, just make a tick mark on the back." All of the photos had tick marks; the ones with red x marks had the most.

"Third rule: if you see a girl who we don't have a photo of, but you think could be a good candidate, take a picture of them. We'll start to keep track of them after."

"What makes a good candidate?" Kyoko was morbidly curious.

"Someone young and attractive who doesn't look like drugs have fucked up their bodies too much."

"Ah." She looked away.

"Last rule: we have some helpers in here. See, sometimes the regulars here know more about who comes and goes than we do. They help us find the ones we're looking for in exchange for certain goods or services." Kyoko raised an eyebrow but nodded. "We only have two helpers; don't trust anyone else. We don't know who they are."

"Here, I have the photos." Megumi offered her his phone.

The first one was a guy in his late teens or early twenties with bad teeth. He looked like he had been using for a few years. He must have dyed his hair in rainbow colours before, because now his dark roots had grown pretty long, but the ends were still multiple colours. He looked ridiculous.

The second one, she recognized. It was the same, decayed looking old lady that had attacked her outside of the church. It didn't surprise her that she would be a helper. Doesn't look like that bitch has a sense of right or wrong either at this point.

"If they have found someone, they will ask you if you're an angel. The correct answer is 'if you take me to Bethlehem, I am'. Then they will show you whatever they've found." Kyoko cringed at the biblical reference, but nodded.

"Watch out for the crone though. She hasn't been very good lately. She brought me to someone who was clearly an undercover a few months ago. For fuck's sakes, they were sitting in the lobby. Never go in the lobby. There are only cops or newbies there. I think we're going to be done with her soon."

"What do you do when you're done with someone?"

"Talk to one of the Miyamotos. I've never seen it happen, but if take a shot in the dark, you're probably right."

Kyoko nodded solemnly. She knew the world was a cruel place. Her father wanted to change that; it made him cry every morning.

This was the first time where she felt like she was playing a very direct role in making the world a cruel place…at least to humans.

Sure, she let people, especially people like this become food for familiars; but it seemed kinder to let them fall prey to familiars and have a quick death than whatever it was the Miyamotos would steal and sell them into.

She tried to suppress a shiver at the thought.

"Any other questions?" Atahiko asked gruffly.

"No." She replied tersely.

"Can I ask you one then?" He didn't wait to let her respond. "Aren't you a stripper?"

"If you ever seriously thought she was just a stripper, you must be stupider than I thought." Megumi said snidely. Kyoko wondered how much he knew about her; probably about as much as everyone else, which was actually a damn lot.

"Well I figured she must be something else too; Suki's been on about her for years. I'm just wondering what she's doing as a stripper if she doesn't have to be one."

Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Kyubey watching her closely silently smiling at her. Its head tilted, enquiring the same thing Atahiko just had. She shot a nasty look and gesture at him when Megumi and Atahiko turned their backs to her. He kept smiling at her.

She'd disembodied that rat thing before and it had the same smile on its face.

"Koko, before we actually go out there, I want to warn you: it's not pretty. They're not pretty. We're really looking for diamonds in the rough out there, you know?" Atahiko began.

"Cover your nose." Megumi finished. She nodded again and they opened the door.

The overwhelming odour of vomit greeted her immediately.

They weren't kidding.

She breathed through her mouth and walked with them.

They walked up a spiral staircase whose original colour and stability looked questionable in some parts. Atahiko walked with confidence like this was an everyday set of stairs, but his steps that skipped some or would switch from stepping to the center to the right and the left betrayed that. Megumi and Kyoko mimicked his motions as closely as possible.

They started on the top floor: the twelfth of what used to be a twenty story building. It had no roof.

There were only two people up there, laying on their backs and staring at the sky; two young men. They were so still, Kyoko was almost afraid they had frozen to death. She was shivering in her own black and red hoodless jacket.

"Nothing interesting up here. Next floor." Atahiko pried open an emergency exit door and they walked down more secure looking stone stairs.

The eleventh floor was shielded from the brisk spring air in most parts, so there were more people. She saw two filthy, elderly men searching through unconscious teenage boy's stuff. One of them was starting to touch the boy inappropriately on a bed. She moved forward to intervene but was pulled back by Atahiko who shook his head.

"Won't change anything anyways. They might just go after you. Leave him. He won't remember it anyways."

Kyoko would be able to wipe the floor with them; she knew that. The problem is that nobody else, including her current companions did.

"Let's go." Atahiko repeated.

They also saw a girl who had a yellow mark on the back of her photo on the floor. Her long auburn hair looked like it would have been beautiful had she washed her hair in the last week. Her skirt, which was far too short considering the temperature outside looked like it was fashionable and expensive. Kyoko suspected she came from a wealthy family.

She had a cord tied to her arm and she was injecting something into her arm. She saw them notice her and smiled flirtatiously, spreading her legs and taking two of her fingers to rub the outside of her black laced thong over her clit. Megumi smirked and raise an eyebrow inquisitively in return.

"Watch your back, Megumi." Atahiko said uncaringly. Megumi whipped around and saw an unattractive young woman trying to reach into her pocket. He smacked her hand away and stayed closer to Atahiko. Kyoko buried her hands further into her pockets where her wallet was to keep it safe.

She clenched her fists when she saw Atahiko make a mark on the back of the girl's photo.

They checked all of the former hotel rooms on that floor. One of the rooms had had a toilet that was clearly not fit for use but still had fresh shit in it.

This place was disgusting.

They did another floor with similar sights.

She thought back to the unconscious boy on the eleventh floor.

"Are you an angel?" They heard a gravelly masculine voice ask from behind them. It was the guy with the crazy hair. He looked pretty high.

"Only if you take me to Bethlehem." Atahiko said like he'd said it a million times. He held up the backs of photos and tilted his head. Kyoko wasn't sure what was happening.

"Yeah. Orange." The guy said. "Room 815. Alone."

"Show me." Atahiko said. While he had been a bumbling drunken fool at the club, he was stern and very professional here.

They went down the emergency exit stairs to the eighth floor.

"Megumi, get your gun out. This might be the real deal." Both men pulled guns from their jackets that Kyoko hadn't noticed, but was not surprised that they had. The pushed the cracked door with dull brass numbers "815" open.

It could have been a scene out of a twisted macabre version of Sleeping Beauty. The room was filthy like everything else in this hotel. The bed, which clearly should have been thrown out years ago was still perfectly made. On top of it laid the orange haired athletic girl sleeping on her back with her hands clasped on her stomach.

Her stomach appeared to protrude a bit; it was definitely larger than it had been in the photo: the photo with the red 'x' on the back.

Atahiko went over, carefully checking the closet, bathroom and under the bed first. He shook the girl. She didn't respond.

He lifted up her shirt, looking at her stomach.

Kyoko's brows furrowed in worry.

Her stomach was protruding and firm.

She was pregnant.

"Son of a bitch." Atahiko muttered. He pulled out his phone and dialled a number from memory.

"Hey, it's me. We have Orange alone and unconscious. She looks – ugh for fuck's sake, fine. We found Topaz who is alone and unconscious; are you fucking happy? Yeah, yeah, great, anyways: she looks pregnant. Yeah, yeah I know. Should we take her or leave her? I don't know, probably first trimester. Alright, see you in fifteen minutes. Bye."

The Miyamotos were clearly much less secretive over telecommunications than Tomi was.

But that didn't change the situation at hand: they found a girl with a red 'x' and they were going to take her.

"This is a lot for your first day. Kyoko, keep checking the other floors. Megumi, you're going to stay here and help me." Atahiko sounded very calm and authoritative. It disturbed her to think of how common this must be for him.

"Aye aye, captain." Megumi grinned and saluted. His excitement disturbed her more.

She had been clenching her fists for so long they were white now. She wanted to say something. She wanted to stop them.

She wanted to stop the elderly men on the eleventh floor.

But it wouldn't do anything good for her or Yuma.

"Kyoko. Keep checking the other floors."

This was disgusting. Everything about this was disgusting.

"Kyoko." Atahiko said louder. Kyoko quickly blinked and looked at him, snapped out of her personal crisis of ethics. "Go check other floors. Now. All Suki wanted was for you to see all of the floors. Now go." He dismissed her.

She inhaled and exhaled, but she still felt angry. She counted to ten, but she still felt angry. She imagined she was in an apple orchard, but she still felt angry.

She gnashed her teeth and reluctantly left. She still felt angry.

Would you be proud of me, Dad?

---

Sayaka wasn't sure how much time had passed. She didn't dare move from her profoundly uncomfortable position though, and she didn't dare open her eyes.

She could hear someone in the vicinity having loud sex though. She wondered if she had ever been that inconsiderate of everyone else in this place.

Probably.

"Anything happen yet?" Ryo's voice asked quietly directly into her ear. There was something that made her uneasy about the fact that her boss could do that at the moment in this place.

"No." She mumbled, as if asleep.

"Should we just go, Captain? It's been over ninety minutes." Ayumi's voice said, also directly in her ear. She was in another van that shared their encrypted radio frequency. So that's how long I've been here.

"Not yet. I can't imagine she would be brought into a closet and just left there." Ryo said.

"Captain, I have to respectfully disagree. I find high people do many nonsensical things. That is why we arrest so many of them." Ayumi replied in a professional tone. Sayaka imagined that the girl was ready to pull her hair out.

Sayaka was ready to leave this closet too. She wondered how easy it would be to find someone who could give her a hit or two.

It would feel so good.

The makeup on her left arm started to itch. She wished she could scratch it. But she didn't dare move.

She wasn't sure what would happen, or what she would do if she did.

Ryo sighed in aggravation.

"Miki, are you okay in there?"

"Okay for now." Sayaka muttered.

"Just wait another thirty minutes. Then you can leave."

"Yes sir." She mumbled, hoping the next thirty minutes would pass faster than the first ninety would.

She doubted it.

---

Kyoko wasn't sure how much time had passed. She checked each floor carefully as instructed, and she hated everything she saw.

She saw a few people who could have been in their twenties or fifties and were skin and bones. A few of them asked her if she was a dealer and tried to buy drugs from her. One of the had hundreds of thousands of yen, which she guessed was stolen from an ATM. She was tempted to take the money, but was honest and didn't.

She saw a man snorting something. It was morbidly fascinating to watch the way his eyes almost instantaneously glazed over. He flopped on the ground like a sack of potatoes with an idiotic grin etched on his face. When she went by again about twenty minutes later, he still hadn't moved.

She saw a couple fucking doggie style in a corridor; why they couldn't have at least gone into one of the equally filthy hotel rooms was beyond her.

It took her two floors to actually find someone eating food or drinking. There was a woman eating a bag of chips and drinking something out of a flask. Kyoko didn't want to bother finding out what the mysterious liquid was.

Overall, this was a depressing and sickening place and Kyoko had no idea why Suki wanted her to see the whole thing.

"Excuse me ma'am. Are you an angel?" A withered voice asked from behind her.

It was the old woman who had attacked her in the church.

"Only if you take me to Bethlehem." She said with dread. She didn't want to know what she would find, but she figured sabotaging the mission would be a good way to get on the Miyamotos' bad side.

The woman nodded eagerly, clearly not remember their nasty encounter a few weeks ago. She brought Kyoko down to the first floor.

They walked through a series of corridors and appeared to be near some conference rooms. She pointed to a supply closet, bouncing on the balls of her feet in anticipation.

"I put her in there. She looks good, right?"

Kyoko opened the door to see an unconscious body in a thick black coat that had been thrown in their haphazardly. It was a good thing she was out cold, because that position did not look comfortable at all.

Out of some kind of subconscious sympathy, Kyoko moved the girl into a more comfortable position. She pulled back the hood to look at her.

Kyoko felt like she swallowed rotten food.

It was Blue.

"I checked her before. She's not too skinny and doesn't have a lot of scars. She's cute enough, right? She's good?" The crone asked, desperately seeking approval.

Kyoko's phone rang.

"He…hello?" She asked. She had trouble speaking.

"Have you checked the floors?" Atahiko asked.

"Y..yeah almost. Uh, do you need anything else?"

"No, we dropped off Topaz. Do you want us to come get you?"

"Who is it? Are they other angels?" The crone asked excitedly.

"Shut up!" Kyoko snapped. "Not you, the woman."

"Ah shit, is the crone giving you a hard time? She's been bad lately. She's just desperate for a fix. If she doesn't have anything good, just get away from her. I'll pick you up in twenty minutes, but we probably shouldn't meet back there. We noticed more of the creeper white vans in the area than usual, and Suki suspects the extras might be Kurosawa's. Do you know where the old cult church is?"

Kyoko growled in irritation. "Yeah, I do."

"Great, meet me there in twenty. No matter what you do, avoid the main roads and the vans, got it?"

He hung up.

"Are the other angels coming? They'll be happy with her, right?"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Kyoko tried to shake her off.

"When are the angels coming here? When will they see?"

Kyoko looked at the quirky cop that had given her an umbrella a few weeks ago. She and Yuma had used it a few times. It was a pretty blue colour, like the girl's eyes.

She felt even sadder looking at the girl, who she now realized kind of looked like Rin.

Both of them tried their hardest, and it just wasn't good enough.

This girl had pissed her off when they first met, yeah, but she didn't deserve the fate she was going to be sold into.

No one did, but especially not her; not the girl who gave away her umbrella and sought justice for a stolen 400 yen taiyaki.

She couldn't look at her. Not like this. Not right now.

She walked into the nearest conference room. She needed to think. If she was looking at that girl, she couldn't think.

"When are the angels coming here?"

"They'll be here soon." Kyoko said, trying to mentally formulate a plan.

Her planning came to a halt when she felt a blade against her throat. The crone kicked the door closed.

"No. Only the angels can take her." Her voice sounded much harder and younger now. It was still raspy though.

Kyoko looked into her pale blue eyes; they were not nearly as pretty as the officer's. However, this was the first time she had ever seen them looking rational at all. They looked fox-like and sharp.

Kyoko began to suspect the crone was somewhere in her forties, which was really, really sad. She looked terrible for her age; she could have passed for being in her seventies.

"I thought we already decided I was an angel." She asked coolly, pretending to not feel threatened at all. Last time, she was caught off guard too, but she hadn't managed to get a blade anywhere near her throat that time.

"I've never seen you before. How can I trust you? I want to see the others."

Kyoko narrowed her eyes, but pulled out her phone. She clicked redial to get Atahiko.

"Is everything alright there?"

She didn't want to say anything that could lead Atahiko to Blue, but she didn't want to leave her alone with the crazy lady. She also didn't want to get, well, stabbed but that she could probably handle.

Kyoko started to cry. She could put on quite a show when she had to.

"You have to help me! It's the woman. I think she's crazy! She has a knife to my throat right now and is going on and on about seeing girls that aren't here. She just took me to an empty supply closet and told me a mop was a cute girl. I think she's about to kill me!"

"What?!" She heard Atahiko, Suki in the background, and the crone ask with various tones of disbelief and fear.

"Put me on speaker now!" Suki commanded. Kyoko did as told.

"Listen to me you crazy old bitch. If you lay a single scratch on her, I will find you. I will find you and will cut you into a million tiny pieces and feed you to dogs and no one will ever fucking know! Do you hear me? You are not going to hurt her. No one harms my angels, get it?" Kyoko barely recognized the voice on the phone. She was used to Suki being fairly loud, obnoxious and an all-around bitch, but she sounded quiet and deadly now.

The knife clattered to the ground.

"No, no! I didn't hurt her! I didn't…I didn't hold a knife to her! She's lying! She's a liar! And there really is-"

"Do yourself a favour and shut the fuck up. I'm tired of listening to you. You are going to let her go peacefully and if I hear a single word about you hurting her or interfering in any way, I will follow through with my promise. Am I clear?"

"Yes ma'am. But –"

"Good. See you soon." The line went dead. It wasn't clear who Suki was speaking to. There were a few moments of shared silence, nothing but their heavy breaths.

"You….you bitch!" The woman screamed, jumping at her.

Kyoko was humiliated that she actually let the woman land a nasty scratch to her face; it stung a bit.

Kyoko got her back though; a single punch knocked her out cold.

Okay, okay. Think think think think think!

Kyoko looked at the clock on her phone. She had about fifteen minutes to get to the church.

She could make it in seven, easily.

She needed a safe place to drop off Blue. Was there really any place in the Old Industrial District that could be considered safe?

One place. She could think of one place that she never wanted to go again. But it had changed, and it should do the trick.

She could make it there in five minutes, but it was in the opposite direction of the church.

She could probably make it there in two if she took a shortcut thought.

She could do this.

She darted out of the room and saw the blue-haired girl where she had left her.

"You are such a dumbass." She sneered, throwing her over her shoulder and sprinting for the exit off the side of the building. She skidded through it, barely avoiding smashing Blue's head against the wall.

She was about to get onto one of the streets which would lead her to the old homeless shelter, which been upgraded and accepted vulnerable adults twenty four hours a day. It had improved significantly since the former executive director had been fired for fraud, she had heard.

She heard screeching tires, and saw a white van come around the corner quickly.

Son of a bitch!

She ran back into the alley and saw a white van screech on the other side of the alley.

She only had one option.

She took the ladder of the fire escape and practically jumped up a story at a time until she go to the seventh floor and jumped onto the room of the adjacent building.

She could make this work.

She had to make this work.

Whether it the Kurosawas or the Miyamotos down there, she had to get Blue out of here.

"You are such a dumbass!" She screamed at Blue again as she leaped onto another roof.

She was going to eat an entire extra-large pizza herself tonight, she decided.

---

Sayaka felt like she was flying. It was terrifying.

"SAYAKA WE'RE LOSING YOU! USE YOUR GUN! GET OUT OF THERE!" Ayumi screamed.

"No, Miki stay down! Everyone else, calm the fuck down and stop being so goddamned obvious! Miki, you're doing fantastically, just stay calm and stay down. We're right behind you."

"Captain, they're on the roofs! We're not right behind them! We're losing them!" The techie guy yelled.

Everyone was freaking out.

It was freaking her out.

She opened her eyes. She saw a cement alley pass by underneath her as her assailant jumped over it.

Now she was officially freaked out.

And really freaking confused.

She couldn't hear everything that happened after the two women went into the other room. Sayaka almost decided to blow her cover to make sure everything was alright when she heard one of them, who sounded almost exactly like Kyoko cry that the other had a knife against her throat. She had even moved her gun into her most accessible pocket, ready to use it. The argument ended quickly after that though and she didn't need to do anything.

"Miki, stay down! You're doing great! I will tell you when things are out of control and then you pull out the gun, got it?" His voice was loud, echoing through her head.

All of their voices were echoing through her head, and they were all saying different things.

It was really stressful, and if they had a meeting about this operation after, she was going to professionally suggest that only one person get communication privileges.

"Everything is still under control Miki." Ryo reassured.

They passed over another alley.

The gun fell out of her pocket.

Time almost stood still. She reached out to grab it, and even felt the warm metal graze her fingertips, just like the little bag of heroin had. And just like the little bag of heroin had, she was just barely unable to grasp it.

Her eyes widened and her mouth gaped as she watched her one real safety literally fall away from her.

The situation was not under control at all.

She was so, so, so beyond fucked.

---

Kyoko felt like she was flying. She almost forgot what it felt like to do something good for somebody else.

That, or her adrenaline was just pumping like crazy. This chase was terrifying, but kind of fun.

As a matter of fact, she had passed the shelter a few blocks back. There had even been two lampposts that were right in front of it and would make it easy to cross the street from above.

The vans were still speeding alongside her. Hell, they were even starting to pass her a bit. But that was exactly what she was counting on.

She could turn around way faster than they could.

She halted to an immediate stop. She had forgotten about the girl who was flung over her shoulder; Blue's head collided with her ass and nearly set her off balance, but she regained it quickly enough. She ran the other way.

She was about two minutes away from the shelter.

She used a bit of extra magic to boost her speed. Someone could have mistaken her for an Olympian at the speed and lengths of jumps she was going.

The shelter was in sight. This was going to work.

Kyoko grinned. This was going to be fun.

---

Sayaka felt like she couldn't breathe.

She didn't have her gun.

They were going in the opposite direction of the vans.

This person was superhuman or something because no one should be able to run that fast.

"Van three reporting, we are too far away to help. We are out of range, repeat we are out of range!" A man's voice who she had only heard today shouted.

"Van two reporting, we are trying to turn around asap. We are almost out of range, but we are working to get fully in." Ayumi sounded terrified.

"Situation is out of control! Everyone, put the sirens on! Miki, pull out your gun now!" Ryo shouted.

Sayaka was about to scream to scream about her situation, but her breath was stolen again.

Her assailant jumped, letting them fall about two stories onto the lamppost which made a nerve wracking groaning sound beneath her as she landed and ran across it. The other was not nearly as dramatic. It was still terrifying though.

The assailant landed and ran to a side door of a building. Sayaka heard the door being thrown open as she was about to gracelessly dropped to the ground. She closed her eyes out of instinct.

She was about to die. She knew it.

She braced herself for what was coming.

---

Kyoko felt like she couldn't breathe. Her heart was beating too fast. She had to get out of here.

She heard sirens nearby. Just what she needed right now.

She set the girl as gracefully on the floor as she could. She rung the little bell on the counter, hoping a staff would come soon.

She forced the girl's eyes open. They looked so bloodshot. The contrast between her blue irises and red veins was gross.

"You do no need drugs! You're better than that! You hear me? Don't do any fucking drugs!" She screamed at the girl. She could only pray the message would get through to her. It was disturbing to Kyoko to think this girl could be like the addicts she saw in the forsaken crack hotel.

The girl's pupils dilated as she looked into Kyoko's eyes, her mouth gaping.

Kyoko was pretty sure the girl was still high out of her mind and couldn't hear a damn thing she had just said.

She sighed and ran. She went onto a street away from the sirens. Once she was a safe distance away and the sirens stopped, she pressed redial.

"Where the hell are you? Are you alright?" Suki asked, evident concern and frustration in her voice.

"Yeah, I'm fine, but I wasn't able to get to the church. Could you get to the train station on Fourth Street or is that too busy a spot?" The station had been deserted for years. A new, nicer rail had been built after Walpurgisnacht so no one used this one. It might still have some security cameras or something though; she wasn't sure.

"No, that's fine. We'll be there in a few minutes."

Kyoko hid behind a pillar. They did arrive a few minutes later, driving much more discretely than Kurosawas' cars had. Kyoko wasted no time getting in.

Megumi sat next to Tsubasa in the front, who was driving. Atahiko and Suki were in the back with Kyoko. Kyoko never imagined she would be sitting knee to knee with the woman.

"You had an eventful first day!" Tsubasa tried to joke lightheartedly. If Kyoko were a more sunshine and rainbows kind of person, she might have smiled. As it was, she was still panting and just kind of nodded.

Suki held Kyoko's face in hands and turned her head towards her gently. For a second, Kyoko thought Suki was about to kiss her.

"What happened to your face?" She asked with concern.

"Huh?" Kyoko was confused.

"Your face. It's scratched. What happened to it?"

"Oh. It's no big deal. I actually did have the situation back there under control." Kyoko replied truthfully.

"I have no doubt that you did." Suki assured, and there seemed to be no malice or disbelief in her voice. "Still, you shouldn't have been in that situation at all."

"I'm very sorry that happened. I shouldn't have left you alone in there on your first day, and it was stupid of me to not give you a gun. I'm sorry Sakura, and I'm sorry Suki, Tsubasa, and Megumi. This was not acceptable." He bowed his shame in genuine shame.

"I would have made the same mistakes." Suki said forgivingly, patting his knee.

"Everything worked out alright, so there is nothing to fret over." Tsubasa smiled. "Except for your face, Kyoko. Do you need any disinfectant?"

"No, no, really it's fine." She couldn't help but compare the Miyamoto style of management to Kurosawa's. It was like day and night.

"Was it the old lady?" Suki asked casually, as if asking about the weather. Kyoko wasn't sure how big a deal it was. "There's no reason to not be honest about it."

Otherwise translated as: don't fucking lie to me, bitch.

"Yeah, she nicked me a bit. It's fine, I got her worse. I don't think she'll bother me again." The last part was a lie. This woman had attacked her twice now.

"Got her worse, eh? What'd you do? Don't you know you're supposed to respect your elders?" Atahiko grinned.

"Oh for fuck's sakes, the bitch is forty-eight. She just looks old as hell." Suki rolled her yes.

"Jesus Christ, the woman from the photos?" Megumi turned around, a look of disgust on his face. "Seems like it's kind of a hit or miss if an addict looks fuckable, huh?"

Kyoko grimaced at the thought. She thought about Blue, who certainly did look 'fuckable' according to general consensus. She wondered if she really knew how much danger she had been in today.

"Really though, what did you do? These two insist you're badass and can hold your own, but I mostly saw you as a damsel in distress." Atahiko was trying to piss her off. It was working.

"I knocked her out, and I can knock you out too."

"You knocked her out? She was conscious when we spoke to you and warned her, was she not?" Tsubasa asked as casually as Suki had.

"Uh, yeah she was."

"Did she hurt you before or after the conversation?" He pressed on, still oddly casual. Suki was looking at her through the corner of her eyes.

"After." Kyoko said, suppressing a nervous gulp.

She saw Tsubasa and Suki share a meaningful look through the rear view mirror.

"Thank you for your honesty, Sakura-san. I deeply apologize. If you choose to join us, I guarantee this will never happen again." Tsubasa said, brows furrowed. She could only see from looking into the mirror, from where he was observing her.

"It's not a big deal, really. It was the most exciting day I've had in a while." Kyoko grinned. She was more excited about saving Blue, but she would never say that that was why she was smiling.

Suki laughed and the men in the car grinned good-naturedly in return. "That's the spirit!"

"This has been a big day for all of us. Let's get dinner and drinks, on us." Suki gestured between herself and her brother. "Are you free, Kyoko? You could bring your sister. Can I call you Kyoko? I apologize that I never asked."

"Uh, yeah it's fine, I don't mind." Suki had caught Kyoko off guard again. The free food was tempting, but she didn't want to bring Yuma along for dinner with human traffickers; that seemed very, very wrong. "I'm busy though. Sorry."

"That's a shame. We already ordered the food. I guess some of it will just be thrown out then." Tsubasa shrugged.

"What? No, don't waste food like that! Let's just bring it home." Suki argued. This was the first time Kyoko fully agreed with her on anything.

"Matsuro's doesn't let people bring home food. It's part of why it's so posh." Megumi shrugged it off.

"What if we snuck it out?" Suki asked, clearly working through a logistical plan in her head.

"Give it up, Suki." Tsubasa said with a smile. "You and your food. But Kyoko, are you sure you don't want to join us? Matsuro's is one of the nicest restaurants in Kazamino!"

It was, and it pissed her off that any food at all would be wasted.

"Fine, I can come. But I won't bring my sister."

"Oh thank god, drinking with a teenager would be weird." Suki grinned. They worked through a plan to get there.

Both Kyoko and Suki decided they were going to sneak in Tupperware containers in purses to sneak out food.

---

It was a painful affair.

A few very elderly volunteers, some of whom she recognized as family members of other recovering addicts in her rehab group came to help her. The ones who recognized her looked absolutely heartbroken to see her.

She was about to explain that she was undercover.

Ryo and all of the twenty members on the force who barged in with guns drawn did that for her.

"EVERYONE DOWN ON THE GROUND!" Ryo had shouted authoritatively.

It was ridiculous. For god's sakes, a seventy year old woman helped an eighty year old man in a matching bright green t-shirt representing the drop-in centre onto the ground; his knees wouldn't let me move that quickly.

After explaining what had happened, all guns were immediately withdrawn and the cops helped all of the volunteers up while apologizing profusely.

An ambulance had to be called for one of the older women who was concerned she was going into cardiac arrest.

Sayaka told Ryo immediately that she had lost her gun. Six of the cops on standby were sent out to find it. They couldn't.

A report would have to be filed. She was terrified, because losing a Force-administered firearm was incredibly negligent and in the right circumstances could be grounds for dismissal.

Ryo assured her that he would handle the report and it would be fine. He told her to come in Saturday evening and they would file it together. She thought it was a weird time but agreed to it.

She sat alone outside while some of the other officers smoked around the corner to relieve their stress.

The operation had been a complete failure.

"Miki-san? Or, err, sorry Officer Miki?" A volunteer asked. Sayaka looked up and saw Karana-san, the vocal woman from the rehab meetings whose daughter had gone missing.

"Hello Karana-san. I'm surprised you're not at the meeting tonight. Have you been volunteering here for long?" Sayaka asked pleasantly with a tired smile on her face.

"For many months now, actually. I'm here full-time. I have been hoping my daughter would come here one day. This has been the most exciting day so far." Her tone was very snide. "I'm surprised you're not at the meeting tonight either. I hate to pry, but what are you doing down here? You look-" Her voice took on a concerned edge.

"This is a costume, don't worry." Mostly true. "I haven't relapsed at all. I'm just working."

"Working where? Doing what?"

"Working with the force like I have for the past number of months. I'm afraid I can't answer the 'what' due to confidentiality, Karana-san."

"I had a gun held to my head by your coworkers less than half an hour ago. I think I deserve an explanation as to what you were doing."

"I am very, very sorry for that incident Karana-san. I have no doubt that a report will be filed and an investigation will be launched. The proper officials will contact you and they will be more authorized to provide information than I would be." Sayaka felt like a recording thanking customers for their complaints.

"Do me a favour and cut the red tape bullshit." She narrowed her eyes. "As a citizen whose tax dollars helps pay your salary, I have a right to information."

"You pay taxes? Aren't you a full-time volunteer?" She asked exhaustedly.

Karana's eyes widened with offended shock.

Shit.

"I apologize Karana-san; that was uncalled for. This has been a long day." She laid her head down on her knees.

"Is everything alright here?" Ryo interjected.

She did not feel like seeing him right now.

"No, officer it's not alright. I was just requesting some information from Officer Miki about what you were doing in this area, and she wouldn't answer. I trust you will be more cooperative?" Her chest was puffed up. If she were taller than five foot two, she might have seemed intimidating.

"I am afraid that we cannot disclose that due to confidentiality. Our work here is still in progress. Once it has been completed, perhaps we will get the proper authorization to disclose it. Unfortunately, as of yet it could disrupt the progress of our project if we released any information to the public. We appreciate your concern and the excellent work you do for our community here ma'am." He bowed graciously. "We're certainly lucky to have you." He grinned. He looked quite handsome.

"Well, I suppose that makes sense. Sayaka, do tell me when you can, won't you? I just want to make sure you're safe." She said in an insincerely kind way.

"You know each other?" Ryo asked, a flash of concern crossing his face.

"Yes, I'm good friends with her mother. We do work for addictions awareness month together."

"I see. I apologize for having to clarify this, but please do not speak with Miki-san's parents about this. They are not aware of our work here either, and no one should know. It's atrocious enough that this blunder happened in front of all of you. I do apologize for this." He bowed again.

"Of course! I fully understand. I won't say a word. Would you like me to leave you two be or-"

"Yes please. Thank you very much for your cooperation ma'am." He smiled.

Sayaka bet her mother and father would be confronting her about this within the next week.

After Karana had left, Ryo sat down next to her and lay a paternal arm around her shoulder.

"Miki, if you ever have problems like that with the public: flirt with them, flatter them, or do both. Never try to actually reason." He smiled.

Sayaka smiled back tiredly. He rubbed her back in a consoling manner.

"I know I put you through a lot back there. You did great though. I'm proud of you. You push your limits the most. It makes you the best cop I've ever had. You know that, right?"

Sayaka blushed lightly and smiled. "Thanks Captain."

"I know you're pretty new to all of this, but Miki, this is the first major failure of an operation you've been a part of. How do you feel right now?"

"Uh, bad, I guess. I'm sorry I'm not quite sure where you're going with this."

Ryo laughed.

"I'm not sure either. But you know what? By the time I was in the force as long as you've been, I'd been a part of at least five major failures. They happen. It doesn't matter if you have fifty failures, because as long as you have one success, you've won. Just remember: we haven't lost yet." He ruffled her hair. She couldn't muster the strength to make her smile more energetic. She tiredly batted his hand away.

"Still, it's your first. So it sucks. I know." He reached into his coat pocket. "I don't normally do this, but do you want a smoke? It always helps me calm down a bit after a bad day."

He held out the stick of nicotine to her.

She blinked at it.

It didn't appeal to her at all.

"No thanks Captain. I don't think I really need one. I appreciate the offer though." She said sincerely.

"Fair enough. I've never seen you smoke before, so I guess you're not much of a smoker. You drink though, right? I heard some murmurs about needing a strong drink after this. Maybe you should come along too?"

She did drink. She sometimes had wine to wind down with Hitomi. She had not too long ago, in fact.

The thought of drinking didn't appeal to her either.

She just didn't feel like it. At all.

"No thanks Captain. I don't really feel like having a drink either. I think I just really want a nice relaxing bath and to watch a silly movie." Her tone remained genuine, but it was laced with confusion.

"You don't seem so sure of that."

"No, actually I am. I'm just confused because I'm sure of that, if that makes any sense. Normally, I'd be happy to go out for a drink after a day like this, but I just don't want to."

"We all cope with bad work days differently. It's probably healthier that you not drink; you might get a beer gut like the rest of us if you do." He laughed jovially while patting his gut that had a bit of a layer of fat, but not nearly enough to be considered a beer gut. "Well, as your captain and emergency contact, it's my job to make sure you're alright. Don't be afraid to give me a call if you need any support, alright champ?"

"Yeah, you got it boss." She smiled back.

Something had changed inside of her. She wasn't sure what, but she knew how.

It was something in the way Kyoko spoke to her. She had no idea why, because she had heard the spiel about not needing drugs for years from dozens of people with whom she had varying degrees of familiarity and closeness, but this time it stuck with her.

Kyoko's words had struck a chord within her and penetrated her in a way no one's ever had before.

It seemed like Kyoko had this amazing ability or gift or charisma or magic or something that could just impact her like she was being hit by a freight train.

She wondered what that meant.

All she knew is that this time, if it actually stayed with her, it would be a really, really good thing.

---

It was a painful affair. Kyoko really had no idea why she expected anything otherwise.

"And so there I am, thinking I finally got Blue. Ah, sorry Suki, Sapphire." Atahiko rolled his eyes. "So there I am, thinking I finally got Sapphire. See, we'd seen her over and over again, and by the time we finally upgraded her to a red, she's gone for like, two weeks. I don't know what happened; her parents probably locked her up or something.

"Anyways, I finally see her totally passed out in the corner of a shithole room on the second floor. Like, there was a literal hole in the wall that had shit in it. Well, not literal shit, you know, but like random shit like food wrappers and mould and gross non-shit shit. But anyways, she's in a shithole room, passed out, and she's even in a room right be the stairs so it would be easy to get her down to the pick-up point.

"I'm stoked and ready to get a bonus and go out for drinks, maybe see some sexy ladies at the good ol' club, you know? I go in, check her vitals to make sure she's not dead or anything gross like that, and she's not. And then I swear to god, out of fucking nowhere, this fucking lunatic comes out and he just" Atahiko made a slicing motion over the scar on his left cheek "slashes me with a fucking knife. Seriously, if I weren't so surprised, I would have killed the fucker. But I was surprised and a noob, and then he" He made a jabbing motion into his right shoulder "stabbed me right there. I've had problems with my damn rotator cuff for two fucking years now. I can't even work alone anymore because I can't lift too heavy with it. It's fucking humiliating, you know? So seriously man: that's why you got to check everywhere. They fucking hide man. They can fucking hide and sneak up on and you and jump you. They're like the monsters hiding under your bed you were scared shitless by as a kid, but they're real and weirder."

Kyoko shovelled more of the food, most of which she had never heard of (really, what the fuck is es-car-goh? I thought this was supposed to be a Japanese place) into her mouth. It gave her an excuse not to talk too. They were all sharing details of their exploits, all of which she'd rather not know about.

It hit even closer to home hearing him talk about Blue like that.

"I call dibs on pounding that bitch if we get her." Atahiko said callously.

"Based on what you said, she's probably not a virgin so we can't sell that, so go for it." Suki grinned and stuck her tongue out to imply she was kidding around. Kyoko thought it was a disgusting thing to be joking about.

"This is why I love working for you. You're the coolest boss everrrrr! Drink!" Megumi thrusted the overpriced sake at her. She laughed and shook her head.

"Not in the mood tonight. Thanks though." She said politely.

"But we just got my first one! Isn't that reason enough to be in the mood? Come on, drink!" Megumi grinned.

"No, really. Thanks though." She said more firmly.

"Why not?" He pouted.

"She's always weird about the pregnant ones." Atahiko slurred.

Suki tensed.

"And that's enough for you, my friend." Tsubasa said pleasantly, pulling the alcohol away from Atahiko.

There were a few painfully awkward minutes of silence.

"So…Tsubasa." Megumi started, clearly trying to find a conversation topic. "What is it exactly that you do?"

Tsubasa laughed merrily. "I'm a doctor, actually. Licensed and everything."

"Wow, really?" Megumi was surprised. Kyoko was too for that matter. "Hey, I've had this weird lump starting to grow on the back of my arm, could you check it out for me?"

While Megumi and Tsubasa discussed skin defects, Kyoko started shoving food into a tupperware container she hid in an oversized purse. She was ready to leave. The conversations had turned from morally revolting to just traditionally revolting.

"I really am sorry you had to be there for that today." Suki said quietly to her.

"The old woman? Don't worry about it, it's fine." Kyoko wanted to shrug her off and get out as quickly as possible.

"No, not that. For finding someone. I honestly didn't think they would. That wasn't why I wanted you to be there."

"Then why did you want me there? Don't you want me to work for you? This is the shit you do, and would need me to do."

"This is the shit we do now, yeah." What's that supposed to mean? "It was never going to be part of your job description though. That would be a major waste of your talents. Kyoko, I wanted you to see how they live."

It pained Kyoko to admit, but she was curious. She didn't quite understand where the cunt was going with this, but she was curious.

"Have you ever had any experience with someone who has an addiction, Kyoko?"

She thought of her father, who became an alcoholic towards the end of his life. She thought of Rin. She thought of Blue, who she really didn't know that well, but she still considered her an almost-friend in a weird, twisted way.

"Yeah. I have."

"Like, really known someone or just kind of knew someone. Trust me, it's completely different when you know them really well, or live with them." Her eyes darkened, focused intently on a beautifully drawn sakura blossom on the wallpaper.

"My father was an alcoholic." Kyoko narrowed her eyes. Suki looked at her surprised, and her face softened.

"I'm sorry to hear that. Do you remember him before he became an alcoholic?"

"Yeah. I did."

"Was he the same person after? Could you even recognize him?"

Kyoko glared at Suki. Suki just looked at her sadly. Kyoko exhaled. She didn't feel angry; not when her expression was like that.

"No. I couldn't."

"We aren't stealing 'people', Kyoko. We're stealing addictions; shells. That's how I see it. What you saw in that hotel weren't people. They were just shells filled with nothing but their addictions. There's no helping them. There's no hope for them. All they're doing is destroying their lives and their loved ones." Suki focused on the same flower on the wall.

"No, you take people who are vulnerable and force them into sexual slavery. If you're some kind of altruistic hero putting them out of their misery or whatever, why not just kill them? And who are you to know there's no hope for them? They can get better."

Then she thought of Rin, who had basically had a meltdown just last week.

She thought of Blue, a respectable cop who she never would have thought was ever an addict.

Then she thought of Blue, who was passed out in the crack hotel today.

"Did your father recover?"

Kyoko bristled and snarled. She clenched her fists and counted to ten in her head.

"What happened to him?"

"He killed himself, okay?" She said between clenched teeth.

She was feeling angry again.

"So did he, or did he not destroy your family?"

Before Kyoko knew what she was doing, she had already punched Suki in the face. Hard.

She got up, shoving the Tupperware into the bag and stuffing one last dumpling in her mouth as she stormed out of the room.

AN: Hello once again everyone! I am very, very sorry for the long wait. One of my biggest flaws as a writer is that I have trouble controlling length, which is part of why these take so long to turn out.

The good news is that this was only half of chapter five (haha, fuck my life this chapter was supposed to be one of the shorter ones), and the second half is already completed and will be released within the next few days! I seriously promise this time!

To help me with some of my length control problems, grammar, and as a general plot feedback provider, I would like to thank my beta the wonderful MagicalGay! MG is an awesome person and I am grateful for their help. Hopefully, I will be better at turning out chapters quickly!

Reviews, follows, and faves certainly make me feel warm and fuzzy inside and give me motivation, so please don't be shy! Constructive criticism makes me a better writer, so don't hesitate to provide that too! All feedback, good or bad is much appreciated!