Tewi hated this room.

She'd only been brought here once before, on the day she'd been hired to join the association. It was a small room; too small, with walls built of jet-black ivory and obscure 'modern art' which she could have easily mistaken for a child's scribblings. Maybe they were - she wouldn't put it beyond Morichika to sell random doodles as supposed masterpieces. He had a way of appraising things, giving them more value than they really had, and selling them off to some poor sucker none the wiser.

Tewi did what she could to make herself comfortable. Unfortunately, the chair she'd been given was rickety and set to fall apart at any moment. A nicer chair sat across from her, taunting her, but it was for a man much higher in rank than Tewi would ever be. She fidgeted. Her back hurt. Maybe a different angle? No, that was even worse.

The clock ticked in the distance, slowing down to mock her. She had blown it, in the most disastrous way she could have. Millions of yen that they were looking to take in, and in two hands she'd lost it all. Izayoi had played her like a fiddle, toying with her pride and throttling her with her own ego. And that shot at the end - she knew full well that she'd lost to the fifth king planted to help her. Sakuya was manipulative, but she hadn't broken a single rule.

The wait took longer than she could have imagined. By now Tewi was trying to interpret the meaning of the wall markings to pass the time, and was distracted when her employer finally made his way into the room.

"Tewi. Honey. Darling."

Rinnosuke Morichika was a figure dubbed in mystery even to his own compatriots. His appearance was simple, but sharp - a tall, thin man in a light-blue suit, the make you couldn't afford if you had to ask the price. His hair was dark brown, standing up just enough to look attentive but not to the extent of looking childish. He adjusted his designer glasses as he took his seat, his voice the epitome of calmness.

"What happened out there tonight? You were my big player, y'know? I had a lotta faith in you to win me my money, and you lose to some blonde chick we've never heard of before?"

Perhaps it was more frightening that he was calm. Any normal person would be yelling profanities across the table right now at the thought of all the money they'd lost, but Rinnosuke was almost impossibly relaxed. Tewi was both impressed and disturbed, partially because this behaviour reminded her too much of the girl she'd lost her fortune to.

Perhaps they were two of a kind, Rinnosuke and Sakuya - that deviousness, that cunning, and a gentle sprinkling of insanity.

"I-It wasn't me, I swear. I played along to the plan, to the letter. If that dealer hadn't screwed up and played the fifth king, none of this crap would've happened."

Tewi's body was stricken with nerves, and her response was stuttered and forced. Surprisingly, Rinnosuke reached out and placed a hand on her shoulder, an all-too-cheery smile on his face.

"I know, I know. It's all his fault we lost that money. He's a bad, bad man who made some really bad fuckups. Hey, wanna see something?"

Rinnosuke reached into his sleeve, pulling out a small remote. He pointed it towards what initially seemed to be a blank wall, but with a small beep a slate caved into the side, revealing a flat-screen television behind it.

"My favourite show is on right now. Figured you'd learn something from watching it."

Another beep, and the screen came to life. The picture was grainy, and for a moment Tewi couldn't discern what it was actually showing, but the sounds coming from it were a hint.

There were two figures in the room. One was tied to a chair, his face bloodied. The other was circling him, slamming his fist into the other man's jaw once every few seconds. The grunts and yells of pain coming from the speakers left nothing to the imagination.

"Ooh, that was one helluva punch, huh? He's gonna be feeling that one in the morning."

Now and again, the beating stopped, and instead the speakers were filled with the sound of a grown man sobbing. Desperate, almost unhearable pleas for mercy echoed into the room, but they were ignored. The breaks would only last a few seconds, and then the assault picked up speed again.

Tewi pulled her eyes away from the pummeling for a moment, looking at Rinnosuke to try and distract herself. He was grinning again, almost wildly, his eyes glistening as he watched a grown man suffer. He was almost panting, containing his pleasure and struggling to maintain his otherwise cool demeanour.

"Doesn't that get your heart racing, Tewi? The sight of failures getting the punishment they deserve, seeing the world right itself because you will it to, the feeling of justice that hits you when you get payback on someone who's wronged you? You said it yourself, right? This guy's responsible for all of our losses, and he's getting the shit beaten out of him. Isn't that wonderful to watch?"

Tewi wasn't sure how to reply. She couldn't laugh at this. This was brutality, this was abuse, this was just like that time when-

!

Tewi took a sharp breath. Something was coming to her. Something she didn't want coming out. Something that needed to stay back like the lie it was.

"Hm? Tewi, honey, you look a little distracted. This isn't reminding you of something, is it?"

He knew. He KNEW what this would remind her of. He was watching the look on her face as the sounds continued to echo through the room. She could see the sneering grin on his face, enjoying this just as he had enjoyed watching the pummeling. She was doing her best to forget, move on, act like it never happened, but he KNEW. Not just that, he was going to use that information as he saw fit, and she'd given him more than enough of a reason to toy with her head a little. She couldn't let him do this, but it was too late now and it was coming out and she couldn't stop it and stop stop stop stop STOP

...Papa wasn't a bad man, just prone to grabbing the bottle a lot. She remembered the recitals and performances he missed because of 'work', the days he'd come up barely coherent enough to speak, and most of all the days when she'd sleep hearing the sound of fists slamming against flesh. The next morning she'd talk to Mama alone, panic running across her face, wanting to know the story about all those noises she'd heard the night before.

"Oh, dear, that was nothing. Mama and Papa were just having a little argument, that's all. ...Oh, that? I just tripped and fell down the stairs. I'll be fine, really."

Was it a lie? It had to be a lie. She wasn't stupid.

But that would mean the truth was...no. It couldn't be. She didn't want it to be.

So she taught herself to believe what she knew wasn't true. It was hard, but with a few years of practice she finally pulled it off. Fighting? What fighting? Her parents got on like any other family would. The occasional fight, but nothing worse than that.

So why were the arguments about her so often?

"It's you spending so much time on that goddammed kid, that's what! Why can't a woman like you spare some time to make me my goddamn dinner?!"

It was always her name that came up. Mama was in trouble because Tewi hadn't done her homework, Mama was in trouble because she loved Tewi too much, Mama was in trouble because Tewi wasn't well enough to go to school today. It was Tewi this, Tewi that, Tewi everything.

One night, Tewi came home with her report card. It wasn't great, but she'd managed to scrape a pass in subjects she'd been scared of failing. Mama had been accepting, supportive, even ready to reward her for doing well. Papa didn't see it until he'd come back from 'work', face red and voice slurred.

One look was enough to put him into another of his little rages.

"The fuck is this?! How do you expect to get into university with shitty grades like that!?"

His eyes turned to her, smouldering with indignation. He'd have punched her in the face right there and then if he hadn't been grabbed from behind.

"That's enough, dear! Can't you see Tewi is trying her best!? We should be congratulating her for how well she did!"

Immediately Mama came to her defense, seeking to reason with Papa and calm him down. All it did was cause him to redirect his anger, and he turned on her instead.

"Honey, please do-gggk..."

His hands clasped tightly around her throat, her words cut painfully short. He spoke with an anger even Tewi wasn't familiar with, one that left her shivering even from hearing it.

"Don't you go defending the little piece of shit! There's no way my daughter would come home with grades that bad, got it!? So either she ain't trying, or that's not my kid! Which is it, huh?!"

Mama couldn't offer a response to him. She tried to push his hands away, spluttering and choking all the while. Tewi just stood in place, the report card falling to the floor. She couldn't look away. She wanted to, but she couldn't. If her body would let her she'd have run as far as her legs could carry her, but she was frozen on the spot, watching and listening to Mama's little gasps and coughs.

Eventually Mama's struggles weakened, and she went limp in her husband's livid hands. Even after she had passed out he clutched onto her, ready to snap her neck if she dared talk back to him. He needed a few moments for the realisation of what he'd done to hit him.

"...Honey? Honey? ...Oh, god. Oh, god."

Tewi felt something come apart in the back of her head. She was separate from the rest of the world, isolated and left only to watch from beyond. The sounds of the world around her faded into the distance. All she could hear were the thoughts bouncing around inside her own head.

oh god she isn't breathing she's going blue her eyes look so empty and he looks so scared now and is she going to be ok what if she isn't what if she's dead if she's dead it's because of my stupid report card which means i killed her which means she's dead and it's my fault

my fault

myfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfault myfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfault myfaultmyfaultmyfaultmyfault myfault...!

"Gyaaaaah!"

She screamed - or at least she tried to, but the sound ended up trapped in her throat, coming out as a pathetic, strangled cry. She slumped back onto her chair, eyes gazing out emptily into the distance.

Rinnosuke saw fit at last to turn the television off.

"There, there, darling. It's okay. Uncle Kourin is here for you."

His hand rested on top of hers. He could still recall the day he met her at the juvenile centre, lying through her teeth without breaking a sweat. Something inside her had broken a little then, and lying had become so second-nature to her it seemed she genuinely believed her own lies. He took her in to his little 'family' on the spot - she had potential, and better yet she had a history she'd rather have forgotten. Tragic, perhaps, but it was a weapon he could use against her.

A leash, if you will, that he could yank at if he grew displeased with how she performed.

"Lucky for you, I've done my research on our friend Izayoi. If what I've been hearing is true, we should have our money back sooner than we thought."

Tewi was barely listening. All she could manage was a sniffle and a light nod of the head. She'd recover in a minute. She'd forget that silly nightmare and remember what really happened.

Yes, that was right. Mama died of a terrible illness, and Papa had to leave her to do very important work. They loved each other, more than anyone ever could, and they both loved her as well...

It was a strange feeling, waking up to the sight of the setting sun.

Koishi had just about collapsed into bed the moment she'd changed out of that horrible bunnysuit getup. She had dreamed - or at least, she thought she had. She couldn't recall any useful details about the dream, so maybe she hadn't. It was hard to tell.

For some reason, there was a laugh stuck in her mind for a moment when she woke up. Youthful, but wise; not so much laughing at her as laughing with her. It drifted away a few seconds later, along with her recollection of it, and passing it off as just a little dream she pulled herself out of bed and stretched. It was a good thing there was no class tomorrow - it was going to take a while for her to get her body clock back in order after a night like that. According to the dim light of her alarm clock, it had just turned five.

"Morning, Koishi-sama~."

"Um, but Orin, isn't it evening right now?"

"Figure of speech, Okuu. Figure of speech."

The two pets continued their unintentional comedy routine. The M-1 Grand Prix was theirs for sure, she could taste it.

Next on her list was waking up Sango, who was passed out on a bed in the other room. The dolphin had managed to catch enough sleep to keep functioning through the night, and she'd boasted to Koishi that she'd be fine until this evening, but the sound of the youkai's snoring had woken the Siren up once or twice. Koishi's suggestion of moving out of the bathroom had produced immediate and satisfying results, so she no longer had to worry about a slumbering dolphin in the bath when she washed her face in the morning. Koishi paid for this through the inconvenience of walking an extra five steps or so to wake her up in the mornings - she briefly wondered the irony of having to wake up her supposed protector.

Stepping through the corridors, still absently rubbing at her own eyes, Koishi found Sango lying fully-clothed on the bed, jacket and all. Apparently sleep had crept up on her during her guard shift. Koishi made to prod her at the side and bring her slowly back to the land of the living, but an obnoxious buzzing noise beat her to the punch. Sango's eyes fluttered open, unfocused.

"Uh...whuh? Boss?"

Still half-asleep, Sango's hands started to run across her body in an attempt to find which pocket she'd placed her phone in. A few seconds of rummaging turned up no useful result, but whoever was calling was adamant enough to keep going no matter how long Sango took. The beeping got louder and louder the longer Sango left it unanswered, but she was still too tired to give herself more than a casual inspection.

"Mmh, 'zaround here somewhere..."

Koishi sighed. Nitori was the only person with Sango's number, and she wouldn't call unless something really important had come up. For all they knew Sakuya was in danger right now and this was the call for backup, so Koishi couldn't sit and wait for Sango to wake up enough for it. She reached down, grabbing at the chest pocket the noise was coming from, ready to snatch the phone out and answer it on Sango's behalf.

This would have been an excellent plan if Sango hadn't taken that exact moment to sit up.

"Ah-!?"

She had grabbed something. Something soft and sensitive, something behind the jacket. Koishi's face froze in embarrassment, the rest of her body likewise caught in place. Anything resembling logical thought vanished from her mind there and then.

"Ph...phwee...?"

Sango seemed more stunned than anything. Her eyes were starting to open up properly now, the sensation of being touched waking her up properly. She looked up for a moment at Koishi, just awake enough to be puzzled by her bright-red face.

She understood why the moment she looked down and saw Koishi had managed to grab at one of her breasts.

"...Ph...ph..."

Koishi felt a hand smack against her face, knocking her a step to the side.

"PHWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

Sango sounded like she was on the verge of tears, her hands suddenly running over her chest. Tears began to form in her eyes, and she glared in Koishi's direction with a look of hurt.

"K-K-K-Koishi-san! What the hell did you think you were doing!? Having your way with a pure, innocent maiden in her sleep!? I mean, I know you think I'm adorable, but that's just...just...!"

Koishi raised a hand out, looking to get a word in edgeways, but Sango had already started on a barrage of accusations and panicked mutterings.

"No-one's ever touched me there before! Ever, ever, ever! I was saving myself in case I ever met a guy I liked, but...I've been deflowered now! No man's going to want to touch these damaged goods. Maybe if I was busty like that girl from last night, but no, apparently the youkai gods decided Sango Tororetsu was gonna be born flat! I hope you're ready to compensate, Koishi-san! I'll...I'll sue you! For all that you have!"

She couldn't be listening to what she was saying, surely. Now she was just spouting gibberish, her brain overheating as her face went a painful-looking shade of crimson. The beeping from her jacket continued, rising to the point where Koishi swore she saw a vein popping out of her companion's head.

"You'll get put into prison, and you'll never see the light of day again, and-GYAAH, WHAT IS THAT RINGING NOISE!?"

Sango rummaged into her jacket with ease now, grabbing at the pocket she'd placed the phone in. She was vaguely aware that her hand was now in the same place Koishi's had been.

The realisation of the facts dawned on her slowly and painfully.

"...Oh."

Koishi could see the epiphany in Sango's eyes, and nodded in agreement. There had been nothing to it; just a simple misunderstanding between two girls. It took a few seconds for Sango's anger to fully dissipate. She pulled the phone out of her pocket and held it up to the light.

Then, with a look of shame on her face, she passed the phone on to Koishi.

"You answer it. I need to go take a quick bath."

With that, the dolphin rose to her feet and made her way out of the door, starting on her undressing before she'd even made it to the bathroom. Murmurs of 'This wouldn't have happened if I'd been sleeping in the bathtub' echoed down the house's hallways, leaving Koishi almost as nervous as Sango was. Maybe the youkai didn't get the concept of clothing or things like that, but being touched in sensitive places was a universal embarrassment.

After what must have been a minute of ringing, Koishi finally saw fit to open the phone and put it to her ear.

"Yes, professor?"

The voice on the other end sounded frustrated. Given that she'd been on hold for so long, it was understandable.

"Took you long enough. Was I interrupting anything?"

Koishi flinched. The professor couldn't have picked a worse time to make a quip like that. A few seconds of nervous silence followed, and Nitori's voice went from grouchy to just plain awkward.

"Oh, uh. Then, well...guess now I've got your attention, I'd better give you the lowdown."

The Siren nodded. Anything to distract her from current events would be wonderful.

"So have you found out some more info on Izayoi?"

The annoyed tone made its way back into Nitori's voice.

"See, that's the thing. I took a look through my database again, and there's no history of Izayoi as a family name in Gensouto."

Koishi raised an eyebrow. By now she'd come to assume that Nitori was some endless supply of knowledge; seeing something that truly stumped her was a first.

"Maybe she's a foreigner? Blonde hair and such, and she played the part of the foreign bimbo a little too well."

"No can do, kid. The Sirens are all girls who were born in Gensouto, and they'll all be in Gensouto when the fight begins. Or did last night not prove my theory to you?"

Koishi nodded along at that, even if Nitori couldn't see it from the other end of the call. Statistically the odds of finding a Siren at that casino were next to zero, and yet they'd found one just as the kappa had planned. With a result like that, Koishi was pretty much sold.

"OK, fine. That leaves us with Sakuya Izayoi being a pseudonym, right? Can you try and sort it by power and figure it out from there?"

"You kidding? Do you realise how many people live in this city, Koishi-san? There are probably four or five bloodlines with some form of time manipulation, spread our over dozens of families. We can't just go up to every single one and ask if there's a daughter in the house with a penchant for gambling."

She sounded desperate, concerned for Sakuya's immediately safety. Perhaps rightly so - the mob probably wouldn't be too happy with their losses, and they'd be out looking for her right now.

"On top of everything else, we don't know if the Claw are onto her as well. Maybe they had an insider at the casino or something - I can't be sure, but what matters is that you find some other way to track her down."

That one left Koishi pausing for a moment. The answer seemed so obvious to her that she couldn't understand why Nitori was putting the question to her. She became aware that in the midst of all of last night's action, she'd never had the chance to bring up the errand she was performing for a local bakery. It hadn't seemed important back then, and by the time she realised it had more relevance than she thought she was too preoccupied to do a thing.

"...I think I might have an idea how to take care of that, professor."

Nitori let off a little gasp. "You didn't grab some hair from her, did you? 'Cause if so I could probably run a DNA test and-"

"Not quite. It's a little more...traditional, but it works."

Nitori seemed outright baffled now. Koishi grinned slightly as she passed the story on, feeling that she'd gained a slight victory over the woman who'd failed miserably to teach her mathematics.

"...I see. Well, I have to say, that's quite a coincidence."

Nitori didn't sound as surprised as she should have been after she'd heard the tale from Koishi. The Siren just shrugged in response, again as if she was talking to someone right in front of her.

"I know. You'd almost think someone planned all this out in advance, wouldn't you?"

She heard a snicker from the other end of the line.

"Just about, Koishi-san. Just about."

Faintly, Koishi could have sworn she heard Nitori laughing to herself as she closed the line, enjoying the sight of a good plan coming together.

Before they could make their way to the bakery, Sango had one thing she needed to clear up.

"Sign this."

She still sounded stern as she handed the document over to Koishi. It had been written on a long line of toilet paper while Sango was hiding in the bathroom, and stated in long and arduous detail how they needed to agree to never wake each other up again. From sheer frustration, Sango's pen had pierced the paper several times, leading to rushed rewrites and repetition to the point where it was barely legible.

Koishi needed a moment firstly to comprehend exactly what she'd been handed, and then another to realise Sango wasn't kidding with this. She sighed to herself, taking Sango's pen (she'd found it lying on the bathroom floor - something Koishi had forgotten to pick up?) and carefully writing her own name at the bottom of the roll.

"Uh...sorry about that." oishi couldn't think of any other way to bring down the awkward atmosphere, and so she tried her best to utter an apology. Sango let out a deep, heaving sigh as she took the paper back, and did the only thing she could with toilet paper - flush it.

"...I, uh, probably overreacted a little. It's just that...well, you may have noticed I'm not so good at this whole social thing."

She sat at the side of the bath, her arms crossed and her eyes distracted. She glared sharply at a particular floor tile, not looking up to Koishi as she spoke.

"My folks were both big names in the White Pearl - well, as big as a little group like ours can get. If it weren't for the fact they're pretty old and grey now, they'd probably be helping me here as well. They told me a bunch of stories about you humans - about all the amazing things you did even without magic. Stories of love, glory, triumph, beauty, all that stuff.

"But, well. The rest of the pod didn't exactly agree with my family's views. They called us human sympathisers, and not as a compliment. Your kind still has a nasty habit of hunting us dolphins down and...yeah. This is pretty much the first time I've had anyone I could even call a friend, so even with other dolphins I'm not used to having someone to talk to. It's not any easier with humans, trust me."

Surprisingly, Sango looked perfectly calm as she spoke - perhaps she'd had plenty of time to come to terms with this. Pulling her head up, she managed a smile as she looked brightly into Koishi's eyes.

"But, well, I believe in those stories. I think you humans are flawed, and you make a few really dumb mistakes now and again. But somewhere, deep down beneath everything, you really do have the world's best interests in mind."

The dolphin stood up from her makeshift seat, standing eye-to-eye with Koishi now. She placed a hand on the Siren's shoulder, looking into her eyes for some form of conviction.

"I trust you, Koishi-san. Don't let me down, okay?"

Koishi wasn't sure how to reply. Placing her trust of humanity in Koishi's hands? Wasn't Sango overdoing this a little? What if Koishi messed up? What if there was another misunderstanding about phone calls and misplaced hands and-

Stop. You're worrying again, aren't you?

The word jumped into her head, cutting her thought process short. Sango's glare was as intent as before.

You'll be fine, Koishi-san. I've seen enough of you to know that.

That was enough to relieve Koishi of her concerns. She wasn't quite able to trust herself, but if Sango could find something worth having faith in then she could as well. The Siren nodded, the solemn look leaving her face.

"Alright. I'll do your parents proud."

"You'd better, or my old man's gonna jump outta the sea and kick your ass!"

She'd taken this trip to the bakery dozens of times before, but this one felt different from every time before it. She'd never come here for any reason other than to chug down a quick excuse for a breakfast, so this was her first time seeing the bakery in the evening. The sun began to set in the distance, hitting the building at just the right angle to turn the walls a radiant shade of crimson.

Tacky wasn't the word that Koishi was looking for. Distressing seemed closer to the mark.

"Y'know, I should just stop doubting myself." Sango was ranting to herself, growling between sentences. "I KNEW I sensed something here earlier. Sakuya hangs around this place so often she's left a mark on the place - magically, at least. I caught it yesterday, but I didn't press it..."

Koishi was barely paying attention. Her thoughts was focused on the building's puzzling choice of paint. Was it designed to turn that colour in the sunset? Was the Scarlet Bakery supposed to be some ingenious pun?

She shrugged the thought off. In the end, even if the decor was questionable, the food was second-to-none, and that was all a bakery really needed. More importantly, all of this was irrelevant compared to the hunt for Sakuya.

Koishi walked up to the doorway, once again checking that the store was open. They'd made it here within fifteen minutes of closing time, which was a relief. She poked her head through, trying her best to act casual. She knew Sakuya would recognise her as the bunnygirl from last night, so it was best to just play it slow-

"What in the name of all that's right and logical do you think you've been doing?!"

The sound of an argument breaking out in the backroom killed off that idea in a hurry. It was the voice of the woman who'd taken the counter yesterday - Patchouli, had she called herself? It was difficult to believe that a girl in such poor health could shout with such volume, and sure enough she spluttered slightly as she caught her breath.

Koishi knew she wasn't meant to eavesdrop on conversations like this, but there was more at stake than simple manners. There was only one person Patchouli could be so angry at, and Koishi needed to get hold of that person no matter what. She entered the store completely, the argument drowning out the sound of her entry as Sango followed behind.

"I've been raising money. And if you're done with the counting, I think you'll agree that this is a generous sum."

Sakuya's voice carried through, but only barely. Compared to the livid Patchouli, she sounded almost eerily calm. Koishi knew she was in the presence of not only an angry fellow employee, but she was also in the possession of millions of yen. None of it rightfully hers, and its owners would very much want it back. Staying so utterly calm in a situation left Koishi unsure if Sakuya was alright in the head.

Wait. Raising money?

This was something she'd never considered. Sakuya had won herself a fortune, but what exactly did she plan to do with it? Koishi had assumed she'd blow it on the usual suspects - big houses, flashy cars, trips to resorts across the world, things like that. From the way she'd said she was 'raising' money, Sakuya seemed to already have a plan for how every single yen was going to be spent.

From the tone of her voice, Patchouli didn't approve of this plan.

"Don't you realise this is just another false lead?! You've visited every specialist in the nation by now! What will it take you to accept that there is no cure fo-"

"Don't say that."

Again, an utterly cold remark from Sakuya, silencing Patchouli mid-sentence. Even from a whole room away the words were enough to chill Koishi's blood. There was a grim determination in Sakuya's voice - one that wasn't set to listen to rhyme or reason.

"I owe her my life, and it's a debt I intend to repay. No matter what it takes. Do you understand?"

There was no response. Koishi could make out a grunt of some sort on Patchouli's part, but words had failed her. Even from here Koishi could tell that nothing the asthmatic had to say would sway Sakuya's conviction. Silence hung in the air for a few seconds, with Koishi and Sango doing their best not to disturb it.

"Well, now that's been cleared up I have a meeting to attend. Apologies for my disappearance, and I will be back on duty as normal tomorrow morning. Good night, Patchouli."

Footsteps made their way out of the building through the back door, a tinny ringing signalling Sakuya's exit. Wordlessly, Koishi looked over to Sango.

Do we follow her?

Sango nodded. They were losing their trail fast, and it was too dangerous to leave Sakuya unguarded. Before anything else Morichika would be after her, and on top of that there was the ever-present risk of the Black Claw finding another Siren on the loose. That meant there could be two different parties both baying for Sakuya's blood.

The pair broke for the door at once, set to loop around and follow Sakuya to wherever her destination was. They weren't as subtle with their exit as they had been with their entry, and the loud ringing from the door was more than enough to alert Patchouli of their presence.

Or at least, their former presence. By the time the employee made her way back into the main room, there was only a slowly closing door to greet her.

Koishi and Sango couldn't afford to be aggressive here. Sakuya was smart, and if she caught the sight of them tailing her any chance of trust would be out the window. Just trailing behind her would be too obvious, so they had to find another way of keeping track.

Fortunately, one of them had just the right tool for that.

"She's really getting into the darker part of town, isn't she, phwee? ...Next left."

Sango's inbuilt Siren-sonar was working its wonders again. They couldn't see her, but they were just close enough that the dolphin could still sense her presence. Following behind from a safe distance, the pair found themselves well off the beaten track, twisting and turning through some of Gensouto's less cheerful streets.

The sun had just about set by now, and only the occasional light from a window stopped Koishi from walking head-on into a wall. There were no streetlights in these alleyways - another area forgotten by the building planners, it seemed. The smell of cigarette smoke made Koishi cough a little, but Sango was outright choking on the fumes. She'd never experienced the joys of second-hand smoking before, and it was an experience that did not endear itself to her.

The path Sakuya took was deliberately complicated and ornate. Sure enough, she was suspicious of being followed, and more than once the Siren had set a trap and turned the path around on itself to see if there was anyone behind her. Only the most skilled of rogues would have been able to follow her unseen - assuming they weren't cheating dolphins who saw all of this coming well before they had any right to.

"I feel almost bad for her, phwee...think she's giving up. She's heading outta the alley now."

Giving Sakuya the usual thirty-second head start, Koishi and her steed were all too glad to be out of the backstreets. They still weren't in the nicest part of town, but there was no need to worry about some random passer-by stabbing them for a laugh. Koishi wasn't very familiar with these parts, so it was a relief she was following rather than leading.

After a good half hour of walking, Sakuya finally made it to her destination. Koishi and Sango finally caught up with her, keeping behind a nearby pillar and only poking out to look once or twice. Sakuya was standing at the entrance to a private medical clinic, one that from the look of the faded neon sign had seen better days. The doors took painfully long to open for her despite supposedly being automatic. Sakuya simply shrugged and stepped inside, visible behind the glass door for a few seconds before walking out of sight.

Sakuya's two newest fans followed in behind her, sharing in the long, dull wait for the front door. It creaked as if the mechanism running it was three times older than it really was. Maybe while they were here Koishi would suggest that someone oil this thing up a little.

Immediately they were faced with a receptionist, looking utterly unprofessional. She was more preoccupied by the flowers on her desk than the large pile of papers that she was expected to file through. Worse, there was a little note written on the flowerpot blatantly stating 'WARNING - SUZURAN FLOWER, HIGHLY POISONOUS. DO NOT TOUCH.' That explained the gloves on the receptionist's hands, covered in pollen.

Suddenly, Koishi could understand why this clinic wasn't Gensouto's favourite.

After a good ten seconds of shuffling, the receptionist finally noticed there were even more patients to be seen to. She jerked to attention, fiddling with the red ribbon in her hair and trying to act as if none of the above had ever happened.

"Uh...good evening, and welcome to the Asakura National Health Clinic. Do you have an appointment, or is this your first time?"

There was makeup all over her face, Koishi could see. She'd overdone it, to the point where she looked more like a doll than a person. Not the time or the place to mention it, unfortunately.

"Hello. I was here along with Izayoi-san? She just came by, I think."

A look of understanding jumped to the receptionist's face. Her lips formed a perfect o as she nodded, her hand still absent-mindedly playing with the flowers.

"Oh, you're with the rich girl? Yeah, she's seeing Dr. Asakura right now. Down the corridor, third room on the left, but it's pri-"

Koishi and Sango were on their way down the corridor before the receptionist had even finished speaking. The woman was left to herself once again, looking at the flower-pot for a moment as if for solace.

"...Suu-san, why are all the customers so rude today?"

Koishi had never been fond of hospitals, and clinics were only one step down from that. The too-clean smell of antiseptic hung in the air, and the bright white walls almost burned themselves into her eyes. Sango seemed to find the aroma to her liking, but had turned her head downwards to look at the immaculately clean floor instead. With the inside this well-kept, it was a very good question as to why the outside hadn't seen any repair for some time.

Each of the rooms for appointments was linked to this corridor by a door and a window, with curtains available in the event that a patient wanted strict privacy with their doctor. The third door on the left was locked tight, but the curtains hadn't been set up, allowing Koishi and Sango to see inside with ease.

Sakuya sat in a rigid-looking chair, her eyes fixated on the doctor. A glimmer of hope hung in her eyes, but beyond that her face showed no sign of emotion. Across from her, a woman in a long white labcoat was counting through the money one last time, utterly baffled by the sheer quantity of it. Even doctors didn't see this much money - at least, not all at once. At several points Koishi saw the doctor adjusting her glasses slightly, blinking, confirming that what she was looking at wasn't some sort of hallucination.

Sound didn't travel through the window, so Koishi and Sango were left to try and interpret lips as the pair held a discussion. Neither of them were fluent with it, and a lot of complicated scientific words were being thrown about. They were only able to pick up on several words that were repeated several times over - 'scarlet', 'genetic code', 'DNA', and 'revolutionary research'. The last one in particular seemed important to Sakuya, causing her to nod violently every time it came up.

The doctor sighed. She seemed guilty, for reasons that Koishi couldn't quite place. Was Sakuya terminally ill? Had she just been told that she was going to die unless some miraculous treatment came through?

As if to answer Koishi's question the doctor turned to a nearby closet, pulling it open while looking at Sakuya head-on. As a man stepped out from the inside, pointing a gun straight at Sakuya's head, Koishi felt her stomach fall through the floor. Two words slipped out of the doctor's mouth, and Koishi knew what they were even without hearing them.

"I'm sorry."