Sparks

by haliyam

We all know the story: a year after the Red Cape incident, the Yatagarasu senses another disturbance in the Capital and the mantle of Raidou Kuzunoha must be taken up once more. Narumi's still a bum, Tae's still fighting for recognition in the workplace, and Gouto still denies his love of Foxtails. Only this time, the 14th is...a girl?

6. Shall We Talk With Our Fists?

Loyalty: YEAHHHHH. Playing the game, I could really imagine Binbou-gami as a real person/Fiend/thing that smelled bad and was just weird in general. His character was entertaining though, if you're not the one he's trying to get to 'warm him up'. Plus Louis is just that kind of guy you would trust, you know? Even Kotone, who knows at the back of her mind that he shouldn't be trusted because why does he know everything? overlooks it to listen to his 'advice'. He's really cool, actually. If he wasn't such a major character in the Megami Tensei world, I might have written about him, haha! And about the True Love girl fic, haven't really finalized anything for that but I always found that NPC so funny XD

nitewind: Thank you! Yeah, some Chaos answers would have gone against the character/personality I imagined Kotone to have. After all, Kotone's still inclined to do the lawful thing as Raidou despite how she feels about some things, but sometimes she'll disregard that for her own opinion which will grow increasingly 'Chaotic' as time passes in this fic. Lucifer fights - probably not going to happen, I admit. Raidou is powerful, obviously, since she saved the Capital once already from gigantic robots and zombies with her friends, but fighting and defeating Lucifer would practically turn her into a god, for me. It felt great kicking the Horsemen's and Lucifer's butts in the game, but even I can't suspend my disbelief for Raidou as just a human character if she's able to defeat Lucifer at this age. Maybe in the future, when she's older and more experienced, but not now. You will definitely be seeing Alice and Uncles Red and Black later in the fic, though. :) But thanks for the questions and suggestions! They're definitely appreciated and help me develop the story - I loved your idea about Lilim's art of 'making friends'! I think I'll borrow that, if you don't mind? Haha!

minaseiko1: Thank you! :)

LordxxAxelxxLover: Thanks so much! I'm honored. Writing a genderbender fic is often like treading on glass, so I was apprehensive about writing it (thinking of the flames I would probably get XD) but...yeah :)) I'm glad you like Kotone! *munches on internet cookie*

Hello everyone! I'm so sorry I don't have back-to-back updates for you today, but this chapter is longer than most of the others, I think...not longer than two chapters, but longer than my usual chapter :)) (or maybe as long as two chapters? I'm not sure anymore...) I'm sorry for the long wait! I've been focused on school and have been in talks with another FF. net author, junior-wheel, about her continuing my Legend of Zelda fic, Twilight Child, so it won't be so crappy anymore, haha! She's going to post it on her account and will be taking over the fic since I'm focusing on Sparks now. Anyway, don't let me ramble on further - read on!

Just to remind you, in the previous chapter, the Narumi Detective Agency plus Tae visited Tsukigata Village, where they asked too many questions about Dahn, so Akijiro had them drugged and nearly assassinated after their attempted escape. Raidou's butt was sufficiently kicked, at least until Geirin came to the rescue, and Nagi said some things that annoyed Nue. Dahn and Akane are actually brother and sister, as Akijiro revealed. Yup. Chapter 6 GO!

---

Sparks

Chapter 6: Shall We Talk With Our Fists?

"In the name of the Yatagarasu, we entrust the fate of the Capital to you. Much is expected of you, Raidou Kuzunoha the 14th."

Slowly, she disappeared, from the bottom of her cloak, to her chest, then her shoulders, to her pale lips, small nose, and to the hood that covered her eyes, as the Herald of the Yatagarasu was wont to do. Once Tae had awoken, Narumi and Gouto sent her back to the Capital and came to Shinoda's Nameless Shrine to report on their recent findings. The Herald informed them that Dahn's actions, though carried out with his sister in mind, could only bring destruction unto the Capital. The misfortune brought about by the release of the luck locusts, too, had already known repercussions, such as the appearance of Fiends in the area – which explained Binbou-gami, but the Herald warned that there would be more to come. The only uplifting news that Raidou received for the whole visit was that the Herald could purify her of her terrible luck – and she did, so the Great Summoner might finally stop walking into everything.

Kotone took a step back and stared at the bell that summoned the placid woman, and then at the tiny magnolia lanterns that lit the eerie shrine. Just where did she disappear to all the time? She was aware that the woman was simply a manifestation of the herald's spirit (at least, that was how she had come to understand the state of things, because everyone was much too cryptic), but it was still a mystery.

A squeeze on her shoulder snapped her back to reality.

It was Narumi. "No pressure, Raidou," he said with a slight chuckle. "It's a big task, but you always come through, right?"

"Of course, boss," she said with the confidence he wanted her to hear. It was confidence she felt, too, but the thought of more fiends like Binbou-gami – and worse – occupied her mind too much for her to stay too proud. And that was a good thing, she supposed, as long as she didn't surrender to their power.

"But, wow…" Narumi pulled his hat over his eyes. "We were in a big enough pickle when Dahn and the Fukoshi were all we had to worry about…now, Fiends?"

"He shouldn't be worried," Gouto snorted, "if you can trick them, Kotone, you can defeat them. They'll just take more work than most demons."

"What did Gouto say?"

"He doesn't know why you're worried," said Kotone. "You are not the one who must defeat them."

Narumi crossed his arms at Gouto. "That wasn't very nice…"

"Kotone!"

"He was only joking, of course," Kotone added with a small grin. "Where to, boss?"

"Back home," replied Narumi, fixing his hat. "I think it's time we had our next Investigational Meeting. Yeah…time to sit back, relax, and discuss our next move. After one more dreadful train ride…"

"Actually, boss," said Kotone, eyeing the Dragon's Cave near the shrine, "I have a short cut."

---

Sparks of electricity crackled in the dark room, the sound of exploding machinery augmenting the eeriness of the maniacal laugh echoing through its walls. Above, a clueless and rather miserly shop owner wondered what ghastly things occurred in his basement as he felt the ground under his feet shake slightly, but as long as his tenant paid the right amount, he would never attempt to even venture a guess.

The air mingled flirtatiously with thick smoke and the stench of rust when the Narumi Detective Agency appeared with a blue flash of light. Its namesake sneezed as soon as he attempted to inhale, and spent a number of seconds coughing and beating away at the air. "What kind of…?"

Gouto pawed at his nose in a manner Tae would have found adorable while Kotone, pinching her nose gingerly, reached for a tube. "Aeros, if you would please…"

"Of course."

"Thank you."

With a few spins of his shimmering half-form, Aeros forced the smoke to swirl in an invisible vacuum and the room cleared. A green light flashed near Raidou's chest, and Narumi could breathe again. He hated going to Victor's laboratory. It was badly lit, messier than even his own office to the point that it felt like a mine field: something seemed likely to explode wherever he stepped. So he decided to stay rooted to his spot, clear of the experiments that littered the place.

"Ah, Kuzunoha!" called a voice on the edge of insane laughter. "I know I can always count on you! A woman's touch is always better than an Ippon-datara's!"

A tak-tak-tak made its way towards them. "WelLCoMe, MiSs RaiDoUuuuuUu!"

A white spirit with a dog's head slithered about in the air, floating to its fellow demon's side. "HELLO, SUMMONER!" said the Inugami, a smile on its canine face. "I NOW MAKE VICTOR HAPPY."

"That's very good, Inugami. Hello," said Kotone, reflecting the Ippon-datara's bow to both demons. Narumi wished he could 'see' again. There were downsides to having the ability, such as being forced to look upon the fearsome ones without turning away for fear of being rude and angering them, but it was better than staying unawares. "Where is Dr. Victor?"

"Over here, over here!" Victor's voice rang out again. He came out from behind one of the cages scattered around his laboratory, wiping the soot from his lab coat. To Narumi, he looked as batty as always: grimy coat, shiny black gloves, patches of skin sewed onto his face through some means he dared not imagine for fear of his own sanity, and disheveled, oily gray-white hair so solid that it defied the laws of motion, much like the way his experiments did the laws of nature. His lips were twisted into one of the widest grins the detective had ever seen.

"Good afternoon, Dr. Victor," said Kotone, bowing. Narumi marveled at Gouto's and her capacity not to stare slack-jawed at his odd appearance. Then again, compared to something like a Fury Nezha, Dr. Victor looked like a saint.

"Yes, yes, to what do I owe the pleasure, Kuzunoha?" The doctor's thick goggles slapped back against his forehead when he pulled them off. "Ah, welcome to the Gouma Den, Mr. Narumi! Gouto! You have found your apprentice, I see!"

"Gouto and I passed by him on the way back when you first disappeared," Narumi explained to Kotone. "Tae stayed upstairs. How did, uh, how did that experiment go, by the way, Victor?"

"Bah!" Victor made a face and bitterly waved a hand, as though willing the thought to leave him forever. "The secrets to creating a sentient machine remain in the coming future, for now! If only I could get my hands on that android again… Have you seen him lately?"

"Not since a year ago, no," replied Kotone, and she was glad of it. Rasputin kept to himself now. Even after his encouraging words, along with those of many others, had helped her in the past year, and though she had achieved sufficient retribution from breaking a bottle over his head, the memory of her own defeat at his hands still upset her. Especially because he was a lecherous and lascivious, rude man with unnatural powers. "I haven't explored the lower section of the Capital. I suspect he might be in the Red Light district, but we haven't been given any reason to travel there."

Victor rubbed his chin thoughtfully. He should have appeared as the intelligent creature he was, but Narumi couldn't help but look upon him as a too eccentric man in need of some mental help. That or the scientist wanted his slick gumshoe brains to experiment with. "If I send another case file asking for him, would you?"

"Actually, we're on a pretty big case right now," Narumi interjected. "We're just passing through, really. So, we're heading on back to the Agency now, if you don't mind, Doctor…"

Gouto snickered at the detective. "His unease is too apparent. It's a good thing the Doctor doesn't care about the opinions of others, or it might be considered rude."

Narumi raised an eyebrow at Kotone for a translation.

"He says that Dr. Victor can smell fear, you know."

"Wh-What?"

"It was a joke," said Kotone, again. "Once again, Doctor, your Tesseract Box works like a charm."

"Yes, indeed! And from the farthest of places, hmm? An even better Box should be ready for testing soon – I've been working on a way to teleport to any Dragon Cave from the lab this time!" Victor gave a jovial laugh, but even that sounded menacing to Narumi.

Really, for a seventeen year-old girl, Kotone kept company with the most peculiar of men. There was Tsukumo, that rocket scientist from a year ago, her bizarre alliance with Satake, the bartender at Shin Sekai, and he didn't even want to know what others who could guess her true gender thought of her visits to Dr. Victor. And that wasn't even counting Gouto, her ancestor's spirit inhabiting a cat's body, or himself, a detective almost twenty years her senior (though he fancied himself an interesting subject rather than peculiar). Of course, this sort of thought came always before he took into consideration her being a Great Summoner, as Geirin had so proudly put, and that though a teenager she rarely acted like one.

"SURE YOU DON'T WANT TO TRY DR. VICTOR'S SWORD-FUSING MACHINE?" asked the Inugami, swimming in the air around a blind Narumi.

"It'S GoOOoooOD! SucCeSSfUl LiKE wALLs!" the Ippon-datara agreed, clapping its hammer and tongs together. In the demon world that should have been convincing, Kotone supposed.

"That doesn't even make sense," Gouto grumbled, having found Ippon-dataras unbearable even during his lifetime.

"At a later time, maybe," said Kotone, stifling her amusement at Gouto's irritation. "My blade still works well."

"The bearer of the blade and not the blade matters, after all, yes, indeed," said Victor, his hair frozen together so that it stayed still as he bobbed his head up and down. "Still, I expect a visit from you soon, Kuzunoha! Take care, Mr. Narumi and Gouto!"

The Narumi Detective Agency – hurriedly, in Narumi's case – gave their goodbyes and climbed the stairs to Konnou-Ya. Its owner, a miserly balding man who had forgotten about all of Kotone's purchases in the past year and perceived her once more as a child who bought nothing from his store, expressed great distress at their simply walking out of his basement without buying a thing, paying that they had reached the basement without his knowledge no mind, and pestered them until Kotone agreed to buy some Medicine for her demons.

A pair of men awaited them at the agency doorstep. One had just turned from a sniveling boy into a man in his father's place, and the other had reduced himself to a sniveling fool for the sake of his son.

"Kenta, Mr. Kogure," Kotone greeted them with a pleasant tone. "It's good to see you're both safe."

"Hello there," Narumi smiled at the boy and inclined his head at the father. He had heard of them from his apprentice and saw through the Kantou Haguro-gumi punk stance that was natural to Osamu, thanks to the basket of croquettes he held in his sandpaper-dry hands.

"You must be Mr. Narumi," said Osamu, his hardened mouth breaking into a smile.

"Just Narumi, please," said the detective.

Osamu nodded. "Kenta and I wanted to thank your Agency for helping me escape that…bizarre place. Here." He handed the detective the croquette basket before turning to Raidou. "I talked with Mr. Satake. He wasn't too happy, gave me more than an earful, even, but at least I ain't a peon again…"

"Satake's justice system when it comes to his men actually has merit. He has a soft spot for members of his crew," Narumi noted.

"And for you, Raidou," said Osamu, his innocent smile turning into a suggestive grin. "He sends his regards to Narumi and your cat, and a letter for you."

Nudged forward by his father, Kenta held out a folded piece of parchment with his head bowed. "Here…from Mr. Satake!"

"Thank you." Kotone unfurled it and read aloud, "Kotone, my enemies are looking for a delicate teenage girl to exploit my alleged weakness. Idiots. Keep up the cross-dressing act and you should be fine, but it's gotten around that Narumi's a close friend of yours. I'd tell him to be careful. Watch out. –Kenzou Satake." She glanced at Osamu thoughtfully. "How does he know my real name?"

"Oh," Osamu smiled. "Your journalist friend was very accommodating."

Narumi frowned. "What's that supposed to mean? And I'm in danger now?"

"We didn't harm her, if that's what you're thinking," said Osamu, waving his hands defensively at the implication. "The dame opened the door to your office. She was fixing stuff around the place. When we asked her where you all were, your friend called Raidou with her real name. Mr. Satake didn't think you'd mind."

"Not much we can do if he knows," Narumi muttered, but knew there was no real harm in the yakuza boss knowing his apprentice's name. It made that false rumor buzzing around a little more realistic this way, however, and it made him slighlty uncomfortable. Not that Satake could possibly be serious – he still saw Kotone as a man with whom he shared a mutually beneficial relationship consisting of case files and favors despite everything that happened, he'd confessed to Narumi, and some friendship he reserved only for those who earned his respect, a list that now included the members of the Narumi Detective Agency. "Tell him thanks for the warning."

"Will do. Take care, now. Lots of guys out there who ain't content with how Mr. Satake runs the business in the Capital," said Osamu, bowing and turning in the direction of the train station. "Thanks again."

"Bye, kitty," Kenta said to Gouto, patting his furry head gently, and followed his father out of sight.

Narumi watched them go proudly. He liked the feeling of expecting more customers soon, even though he treated the thought with some disdain, especially when Kotone wasn't around. Remembering the basket in his hands, he grinned at his two companions. "Looks like dinner's all set!"

"I'm all for croquettes," said Gouto, tracing a whisker with his paw, "but that wouldn't be very nutritious for you, Kotone."

Narumi, already unlocking the door to his office, looked back. "Hmm?"

"Gouto says the basket will be empty before the afternoon ends. We'll have to buy dinner again. Perhaps with your funds this time, boss," said Kotone.

"We'll talk about that later," Narumi said with a jittery laugh. "Come on, let's get settled back home."

Kotone watched her boss enter the Ginroukaku building with a curious tilt of her head. "How strange…"

Gouto was already on his way inside. "What is?"

"The boss hardly took notice – if he did at all – of the fact that Miss Asakura entered his office and rearranged his things," said Kotone, almost perplexed. It seemed completely out of character for the Shouhei Narumi she knew. "A year ago, he might have whined irritably about it."

Gouto chuckled. "Catching on, are you?"

"What?"

"Nothing," said the cat, stretching his mouth into an innocent smile that instead appeared sinister. "Narumi gave Tae a spare key, so he probably expected something like this. And people change, even over so short a time as a year – as Protector of the Capital, you should understand this best."

"I should," Kotone agreed, missing the clues that Gouto laid out for her as she quietly berated herself.

Narumi leaned against the door frame, an eyebrow raised at Gouto and Kotone. "Are you two coming in for the Investigational Meeting, or do we plan to stand around here and talk about me all day?"

---

Raidou and Gouto bounded out of the train station. Dahn was gaining on Akane, the Narumi Detective Agency realized towards the end of their discussion, and it was only a matter of a time before he realized her true whereabouts. Not to mention that a number of his Fukoshi were trailing Raidou herself and she had probably already led them to the mansion during her last visit. Narumi had continuously rung the Narita residence from at least half an hour back, but no one answered.

They had run so far in such a short amount of time with earthquakes in between that Raidou could feel the sweat trickling down her neck, and in between the folds of the chest she bandaged down every morning. Gouto was so exhausted halfway through that his descendant had picked him up, but the violent swings of her arms as she leapt through Kasumidai did little to subdue his sudden vertigo, and he requested to be set down again.

The mansion's front doors were already open when they arrived, though it didn't come as a surprise. With the telephone's cacophonous ringing in the background, army soldiers lay sprawled about on the front porch, leading as a trail of groaning breadcrumbs into the vestibule, right before the receiving room, where a black-masked Fukoshi stood guard.

He started at the sight of the caped student and her matching black cat. "Y-Yew…! Yer alive…? Ah remember yew from Mannen-Cho! The luck locusts shoulda chewed up all yer luck by now... Though yer outta luck either way! Yer gonna die even if we leave yew alone now… Don't think yer lucky to have survived, 'cause yer in for a livin' hell." Raidou gave no reaction to his empty threats, prompting an irritated grunt from the Fukoshi. With a concentrated arch of his back, he faded away as though he'd been a mirage all along.

"What a mess…" Gouto leapt over the soldiers to reach the receiving room. "C'mon, Kotone. I'm worried about Akane now."

Raidou caught sight of the phone, still ringing, below a large portrait of Councilman Narita. Picking it up, she said, "Boss?"

"Raidou!" Narumi sounded surprised, the familiar sound of things falling off his desk proving it. "Must be chaos there if you had to answer the phone yourself. What's the situation?"

Raidou felt almost mesmerized as she stared at the receiving room's doors. They rippled with magic she was finally familiar with. "Dahn is here, boss. There is a Fukorutsubo spell blocking the way to the receiving room – I'm about to enter."

"All right." Narumi felt his breath hitch. They were finally about to face Dahn and he was useless back at the office. Getting accustomed to doing leg work again was finally unnerving him. "Be careful, Raidou. And remember that the bugs are weak against fire."

Kotone wanted to tell him not to remind her, as the thought still made her want to retch, but she was Raidou Kuzunoha the 14th. Though he was a friend, Narumi still reported to the Yatagarasu. "Thank you, boss," she said, and put the phone down.

As soon as she did, Councilman Narita's butler came out of hiding from behind the staircase in the main hall and fell to his knees. "P-Please!" he cried. "I-I tried to get into the sitting room, but I can't! I fell unconscious in front of the door…and when I came to, I was in this strange place! M-Master Tasuke and Mistress Akane are in there! They're being held captive by a young man…!"

Gouto sneered. "They've got some nerve using the same spell twice. All we've gotta do is break through – let's go, Kotone!"

Raidou nodded dutifully and, striding forward to touch the ripples warding the receiving room door, realized she was no longer a stranger to the feeling of losing her grip on the waking world.

The sunset was gone. Raidou woke to the depths of sickly green insect wing patterns, though pores still fell from the sky like snow. It was ironic how an assassin's weapon could imitate the curious descent of falling snow, peaceful and calming. Her ear rested against something of a smooth texture, like the flower petals that she and her favorite male cousin used to collect into piles and dive into, so Kotone turned her head to see what it might be.

The black walls. Insect wings touched like petals.

Kotone inhaled sharply and jumped back, springing to her feet, a scream begging to come out of her throat. Disgust crawled up her spine and she hardened her back so as not to release the shiver that would show her weakness – not that Gouto needed any more evidence to show that the great Raidou Kuzunoha the 14th could defeat soulless armies and awful little gods but cowered at the mere thought of a butterfly.

"I'm all right," said Raidou, holding a hand up to silence the cat whose tail flicked in vague disappointment.

Gouto tilted his head and pawed at his whiskers. "I hope you're sure about that, Kotone, because I don't think it's a light waiting for us at the end of this tunnel."

Raidou stared into the forking paths thoughtfully, reaching for a tube on her chest. "Perhaps it needn't be a Jiromaru. Leanan?"

Leanan Sidhe was a woman, moreso than Lilim in the physical sense. She was pale with long, platinum blonde hair, full lips, a face soft enough to tempt a man but with enough ire to stave him off. Her long black dress dipped low into her chest, at the tip of her stomach, and yet she floated in the air in a laid back sitting position, seeming to take no notice of it in any way.

She gave her summoner a sly smile when she realized where she was. "Kotone, dear," said Leanan Sidhe, "how can I help you? It's been a while since we fought together. Although I can't say I miss the gore…"

"There'll be no gore today, Leanan," Raidou replied. "I needed a beautiful demon at my side to attract another who resides here. Asking for directions might be a better plan than stumbling about this sick maze."

"Oh." Leanan only laughed, accustomed to the more businesslike tone Raidou often took while on a mission, and it sounded like the pealing of bells. Her hair swayed to the side and reminded Raidou of silky rays of sunlight. When Kotone had first met the demoness, she, like many Devil Summoners and regular humans, had been tempted to trade her life away for the company of such an alluring being, but Lilim saved her and helped her convince the woman to join her team instead. "Well, when you put it that way…"

"Hey!" A flash of green light, and Lilim was flapping her wings furiously with an expression on her face to match. Speak of the devil. "Beautiful demon? What about me? And don't even get me started on how you interrupted me again, Kotone!"

Leanan Sidhe put a dainty hand to her lips and gave a slight chuckle. "Kotone knows the score, my dear Lilim."

"Stay out of this, Leanan," Lilim hissed. "I'll show you beautiful!" The child of Lilith clasped her hands together and uttered incantations she had learned from her siblings as a child, her eyebrows knitting more tightly by the word.

"A summoning spell," said Gouto, watching Lilim's now visible aura glow violet. "But not the kind we need. Stop—!"

As was often the case, it was too late. Lilim's spell had attracted a Fury Nezha, a demon quite common in the depths of the Fukorutsubo, and it was in even less of a good mood than its kind usually was. It came charging in from the eastern path, letting out a fierce battle cry and hurling its stave at Kotone.

"Uh-oh," Lilim muttered.

Raidou caught the weapon with her left hand and turned to her oldest friend. "Can't you control it?"

"I didn't learn that spell!" Lilim waved her hands helplessly. "My mother told my sisters not to teach me when she found out I was friends with you, remember? Go kill it with its own weapon!"

Raidou dropped the stave and flicked out her revolver, but Leanan was in the way of the demon before she could fire.

"There, there," Leanan cooed, patting the Nezha on the head with a glowing pink hand. A charm spell, and a triumphant grin sent Lilim's way. The two females were partners and the closest of friends when it came to Kotone's demons, but that had never stopped them from a little competition. She floated out of the way to reveal a calm Nezha, seemingly civilized to the point of bowing. "And Lilim, you should know better than anybody that Kotone's left hand is strictly her trigger hand."

"Age over beauty," Lilim huffed.

A dark expression overcame Leanan's pallid features. "What was that?"

"Nothing…" Lilim smiled sweetly at the woman. "Now, Kotone, what did you want a demon for anyway?"

"As I said earlier, directions." Raidou approached the Nezha, sword drawn, but didn't strike. "Mr. Nezha. We would like to escape this place as soon as possible. Which fork paths do we take from here on out?"

The Fury Nezha took one loving look at Leanan, who nodded, and answered, "East, west, southwest, my dear girl. I know not their purpose, but there are two masked humans standing near there. It's strange. They themselves seem to be the exit – only they can provide passage for humans such as yourself. Zappo!"

Raidou breathed and cleared her mind, crawling with bugs. "Leanan, that will be all."

Leanan's long eyelashes fluttered at Lilim. "I assume you at least know a banishing spell?"

The younger seductress shot her an impatient look. "I'd like to see you deal with being Lilith's daughter and friends with her greatest enemy's descendant at the same time."

Leanan shrugged and uttered her own incantations, which caused the Nezha to run back whence it came, disappearing as it went. Before she and Lilim could argue any further, Raidou summoned them back into their tubes.

Having been oddly quiet during the exchange—the cat usually had a comment for whenever Lilim was out of her tube—Gouto sighed. "Women. I'm glad your father trained that pettiness out of you, Kotone."

Raidou smiled. "Let them be. I don't understand why they argue. Strength and strategy win battles, not beauty. At best, it serves as a distraction."

Gouto wondered, in retrospect, if Kotone's father had been right to train her so vigorously in battle, with nary a care for the world beyond demons and her duties as a Great Summoner. He did want the name of Raidou Kuzunoha to continue down his bloodline. Then again, Kotone was only seventeen. This new century was a chance for women to outgrow the rigid rules in which society had placed them, and he didn't want to stop Kotone from doing that – or it could just have been Tae talking.

Thanks to the Nezha, it took Raidou and Gouto only a small while before they found two masked men speaking in hushed tones. They seemed so engrossed that it was tempting to just attack them and take advantage of their surprise, but they hadn't spread any numbing poison the way their elders in Tsukigata Village had, and in this state Raidou felt she could take them on without too much trouble. Jiromaru was disgusting, but he wasn't too difficult an enemy in the face of Pyro Jack. The summoner had to draw her sword twice before the Fukoshi noticed her.

The Fukoshi's shoulders tensed at the sight of her, and the one to the left had a familiar voice. He was one of the assassins who had stolen her luck in Mannen-Cho.

"Yer stubborn as a mule," he said, his katana ready. "Yew keep fighting against us. Ain't yew got no sense, girl? Or are yew sick of hangin' around limbo, and yew want us ta finish yew off?"

The second shook his head and raised a hand to his lips, getting ready to whistle. "One way or t'other, it's time to finish this! Sic 'em, Jiroma–"

"Nue, Shock Wave!" Raidou interrupted, pulling a tube from her chest. Nue leapt out of the green flash of light with a great roar that matched his tiger limbs. His green snake tail hissed excitedly as lightning shot out of his wide black mouth, shocking the two Fukoshi into twitching on the floor.

"Kotone!" Gouto leapt up to his descendant and gave her a noticeable frown. "These are humans – you can't use your demons on them! Using Gozuki to knock out that civilian was one thing, but using spells on humans—"

"This is an isolated instance," Kotone reasoned. "We're in a hurry, Gouto, and they live."

Nue shook his white, slicked back fur and put a paw on each man. "STILL A SPARK IN BODIES," he noted, glancing back at an approaching Raidou. "FINISH OFF?"

"No," his summoner replied, and was only able to breathe when her vision blurred. She hadn't been sure if knocking them unconscious would break the spell. Commanding Nue to return to his tube, Raidou saw the world of Fukorutsubo flow eastward like a river until it was out of sight and the space before her was occupied not by an insect wing guarding the depths of a sullen green sea but the door to the Narita mansion's receiving room. At her feet lay two black-masked Fukoshi, and the one whose build she now recognized stirred a little. Raidou checked his neck for a pulse and considered removing his mask to further his shame, but decided instead that the red boxes on his and his companion's waists were of greater value.

As she moved to unclasp them, he seemed to wake. His hand had a weak hold on her wrist. "How in the hell…" he groaned weakly, "how did yew survive…with luck like that…?"

"I learned something of luck in the Tsukigata village," Raidou replied, removing his hand from her person and placing their boxes onto her own belt. Already, she felt more optimistic. "And I believe it's time you returned what is mine."

"Tch…Wipe that smirk off yer face…" the Fukoshi mumbled. Raidou's mouth dropped into a line. She hadn't even known that she was smiling. With the last of his energy, the Fukoshi proclaimed, "The feller up ahead will kick yer ass fer damn sure!"

The Fukoshi was unconscious again, and Raidou realized that the butler was gone. She figured he was cowering somewhere within the house, if he hadn't run out completely. Gouto pawed at her feet. He appeared resolved to be distant because of what she had done, but there were bigger issues at hand. "Dahn is up ahead. Make sure you're ready."

The receiving room seemed just as much of an old photograph as the mansion's entrance hall. It was so drab that Raidou barely noticed the vases and paintings skirting the walls. In fact, the only reason she noticed the long table in the middle of the room was because she had nearly bumped into it. The room was lit a dim yellow, but even in the soft light she could see three figures clearly: Akane, Dahn, and Councilman Narita.

Akane was standing off to the side, holding her purse to her chest and staring at something fearfully. Raidou followed her gaze and landed on the almost comical sight of Councilman Narita's feet dangling against the wall, the only thing keeping him in place being a shoe pressed against his neck. It was Dahn's, his red jinbaori and black hair bright against the councilman's gray suit. She couldn't see his face, but even Gouto knew he was grinning at the sound of Narita choking against his foot.

"You sound like a strangled chicken," said a familiar voice. It took Kotone a moment to realize it was Dahn's voice as she barely remembered it on the Ushigome-gaeri bridge. His accent was much less pronounced than those of his men. "Heh. Brings back memories of the village – the same village you left because you weren't keen on the Tsukigata way, huh, Narita? But here you are, takin' their money and shelterin' Akane." He scoffed, "It ain't funny, neither."

"I'll…give…back the…money…" Narita struggled to say, his legs swinging wildly and his hands prying pathetically at Dahn's foot. "I'll…give back…"

Dahn snorted. "Keep your money. You'll need it for your hospital bills."

"Stop it!" Akane cried out, taking a step forward.

Dahn removed his foot immediately. Narita fell to his knees, holding his throat and finding himself in a hacking fit. Raidou's gaze flew back to Akane, whose figure was now wrapped all in Dahn. She shook herself out of her reverie. Watching Narita suffer had been so horrifying and mesmerizing that she'd had to stop for a moment. Raidou took light steps in reaching Narita. Neither sibling had noticed her yet, so she helped him up to a seat near the table and held his shoulders steady. "Are you all right, sir?"

"I been looking all over the Capital for you, Akane," said Dahn, his voice suddenly of a different tone. With Narita it had been amused and gruff and angry, but with Akane his voice was gentle, riding on a low whisper. "This Capital's one big place."

Akane shook her head against his embrace. "You're always doing everything the way you want to… You never listen to me, brother!"

Narita coughed hoarsely before grabbing Raidou by the shoulders and pointing at Dahn in a panic. "Y-You came at a great time!" he exclaimed, and it was as though his composure and disdain for her had never existed. "I'm in luck! You're looking for Dahn, right? Here he is! This man is Dahn!"

Akane peeked her head out from her brother's embrace and gasped. "R-Raidou?"

Without turning, Dahn sighed irritably. "Them fellas I left to keep watch… I know they're not the kind to ignore orders and let you through. So how'd you get here…?"

Raidou forced Narita's hands off her and stood straight, flipping her disheveled cape back as she moved forward. "I've been sent to the Fukorutsubo under normal circumstances, after being drugged, and after inhaling numbing poison. I am not so easily deterred, Dahn Tsukigata."

Dahn released Akane and whirled, an eyebrow raised curiously. He stared at Raidou, sizing her up, it seemed, and Kotone took the opportunity to memorize him so as not to forget him again. His build was larger than she remembered, his shoulders broad and his body narrowing along his waist. She couldn't see much past his encumbering jinbaori, but his face was older somehow. It was his frown, portraying confusion and irritation and a different sort of recognition she hadn't expected. His eyes, Kotone realized, he certainly hadn't taken from his father. Akane and Akijiro shared the same eyes. But Dahn's were deep set, russet, and might have been captivating if they weren't so angry.

Dahn had thin lips, and they parted to utter, "…You. The girl from the bridge and the train. Sorry, but go on home. I'm busy right now."

It was Kotone's turn for confusion. "You mean to say – you're not aware of who I am?"

"Yeah, yeah," Dahn sighed, waving a hand at her dismissively. "You're the girl who's been followin' me."

"No." Kotone felt her eyebrows knitting. This wasn't how she had expected their confrontation to proceed. "I am Raidou Kuzunoha the 14th. The Devil Summoner; Protector of the Capital. You have been following me."

"Wait…" Dahn scratched his head a bit, her earlier words catching up with him. Numbing poison and the Tsukigata Village. The gumshoe didn't travel to the village alone with that reporter frail – she was with them. He just hadn't seen them together. "You're the one my pals met at Mannen-Cho?"

"Yes." Raidou liked the recognition, no matter if she could already feel his ire for her rising. "And your elders in the Tsukigata Village – they aren't pleased with you."

"To hell with the elders," Dahn spat. "Look…I'll pretend I didn't see you. Less'n you're here to get in my way." He flashed a confident, patronizing smile, the kind Raidou was accustomed to seeing from older men. Satake's goons had taken her for granted before, and so had the other boys in Kuzunoha village – at least until she knocked them unconscious. His eyes were challenging, as though he believed he would win if ever they did battle.

"That's right," she replied, ready to prove him wrong. "I won't allow you to take Miss Akane."

Dahn's smile vanished even faster than Tatsumi's. "Wha… I don't quite get you. I don't remember pickin' a fight with you…" He was frowning now. "Take it from me, and don't bother. Go home and eat some bonbons or somethin'. You ain't beatin' me."

Raidou didn't appreciate his bonbons comment, but she wouldn't get angry. Retribution for this type of man usually came in a good beating. "Perhaps I should tell you – that same confidence is what coerced your men into allowing me entrance."

There was a change in Dahn's demeanor. He was getting aggressive. "Huh…so you beat my men, is that it, little miss Devil Summoner? Well now, playtime's over…and your luck just ran out. I'm in a foul mood now, no two ways about it." Dahn scratched his head wildly, just as Raidou thought his hair couldn't get any more disheveled, and she noticed, as he picked something from his back – nunchucks with ends like sickles – that he shared the thick provincial accent of his men when he was angry. "I'm madder'n a riled hornet's nest, and I'm gonna have revenge for those pals of mine… So the first thing I've gotta do is rearrange that pretty face of yours!"

Akane gasped. "B-Brother!"

Raidou unsheathed her sword and held it ready. No one had ever called hers a pretty face before (except for her mother and Hiruko, but they didn't count), and she might have been distracted or flattered by Dahn's words had he not slipped it in the same sentence as rearrange.

"You have an interesting weapon of choice, Dahn Tsukigata," said the Devil Summoner. "However, within the narrow space a receiving room provides, don't you think you would only end up hurting yourself?"

With a wave of Dahn's hand, the sight of the receiving room flowed westward like a river until it was washed away by the familiar vision of a green Fukorutsubo. Narita fell on his posterior with a grunt, still holding his neck painfully, and was approached by an equally confused Akane.

"The Fukorutsubo, one of the Fukoshi's few spells, and yet one of the most deadly," Narita explained to the young woman who had pretended to be his daughter. He had always tried to distance himself from Akane, knowing her fate, but he couldn't push her away, especially not with her great likeness to Makiko. In the space of a week he had grown from disdaining to pitying to caring for her as a father should his child. His love had willingly taken on the dreadful task. So had Akane now, and as she held his arm fearfully, he wished she would be trapped in the Fukorutsubo forever rather than become the bride to those damned Tento Lords. He could hardly blame Dahn for his actions, but the boy was taking it to extremes. It was up to the devil summoning girl to fix this, if Akijiro's inability to stop his son was any indication.

Akane glanced around, understanding how the intricate patterns trapping them were related to her clan's legacy, but couldn't help but ask, "H-How…?"

"The spell is taught only to those who've reached a certain rank in Tsukigata clan training, but the devil summoner mentioned… I wouldn't be surprised if your brother taught his underlings as well," said Narita. "The only way to dispel it is to defeat the caster."

"Defeat…" Akane glanced at her brother and Raidou worriedly.

"We're awake," Raidou said to Gouto. "How is this so?"

"Quit that fancy talkin'," said Dahn, "you wanted a bigger battlefield, didn't you? I'm lettin' you keep your wits about you, givin' you a fightin' chance, and you're gonna complain? Not that I care if you're comfortable – I'm gonna pay you back for hurtin' my pals. Just wait 'til you feel the sting of my sickle nunchaku… Girl or not, I'll give you a hidin' you'll never forget!"

Dahn attacked first. With time that would have been maximized to only a few steps for most of Raidou's opponents, he was before her, throwing his sickle nunchaku at her face. Dropping her sword, Raidou bent her body back into a bridge on her palms and used the momentum to give Dahn an uppercut bicycle kick, knocking his weapon out of his hand and hitting his face. He stumbled backwards as she rolled to the ground and rose quickly to her feet, sheathing her sword and returning to her ready stance. If it was a fistfight he wanted, he would have it.

Dahn had something else in mind, however, as he rubbed his chin carefully and snapped his jaw twice to reassure himself that it was fine. "I'll admit you got me with that one… My head's spinnin' a little." He gave his curly hair another ruffle and feigned deep thought. "This'd be a piece of cake for me on my lonesome, but if it wants its time to shine, sure…" Two fingers to the lips, and a high-pitched whistle. "Come, my Taromaru!"

"No!" Kotone couldn't help but exclaim, holding her left hand out as though it would stop the expanding sphere of light from heralding the arrival of another giant locust. It resembled the Jiromaru of Dahn's henchmen in every aspect save for its legs, painted red, matching its position as the Fukoshi leader's familiar.

"Heh…" Dahn was pleased with himself. "My men told me that the kid who tried to challenge 'em was afraid of Jiromaru. I can see why now."

Raidou frowned. "Are you implying that the reason is that I'm female?"

Dahn shrugged, not caring much for her pride, and gave Taromaru a pat to the hind leg. "Go, Taromaru!"

Raidou stared at the bug, steadying her breath. It was so ugly. Moreso because its legs were bright red, vivid like the pillars of the Tamonten Shrine. Insects were sticky when they died. They stuck to the surfaces of whatever they died on or fell on after being swatted properly, and if this Taromaru were to die, then its bright red legs would stick to that surface too, and it would take a lot more than scratching off to get the color off the surface. What if it were to land on her cape once it died?

"Kotone," Gouto called her attention. She had almost forgotten he was there. "This is just like Jiromaru! Summon Pyro Jack!"

"I'm here, ho!" Pyro Jack declared, having released himself from his tube on his own. It was an easier task when Raidou wanted him to come out even without saying anything, because a willing summoner loosened the binds on the tube a great deal. "Another hee-nsect! Don't worry, Ko-ho-ne!" The little demon flew over to Taromaru, advancing on Kotone slowly, and inhaled as much as he could. "Agidyne!"

Taromaru barely budged. Its abdomen caught fire, but with just a few flaps of its wings, the fire dissipated. Pyro Jack turned his body to Raidou. "Why—ahh!" Pyro Jack's body was thrown against the insect wing of a wall almost as soon as Taromaru lifted a leg and struck him with a fierce roar.

Whimpering, Pyro Jack slid down beside Akane and Narita, who backed away in surprise. "A demon…?"

"Are you…all right?" Akane picked up his pumpkin head, blinking in surprise and almost dropping him again when his hat, cloak and lantern were lifted along with it.

"Pyro Jack, are you—"

"You distract too easy," Dahn called out, and in a similar fashion to Pyro Jack, Raidou's concern was interrupted as her body was slammed against the tunnel walls. Taromaru had charged her, pincers pinning her to the wall and antennae poking curiously at her face.

Kotone bit back a shriek, her chest rising and falling as rapidly as heartbeats as she stared into Taromaru's eyes, edges glimmering like hollow jewels. "Jack…"

"Hee-ho!" said an energetic whine, accompanied by a flash of green. Taromaru roared and shook its head blindly as a white blob in blue covered its vision, pounding at its eyes with a cold fist. "You're a meanie, hee!"

Raidou, who was dropped when Jack Frost leapt out of his tube, stood and decided he was worth a try. "Jack Frost, Cocytus!"

Jack Frost's black abyss of a mouth widened, shooting out tiny ice crystals and snow at Taromaru. It was enough to freeze the bug's head solid, and Taromaru backed away, struggling to regain its bearings. Realizing it was unable to do so in this environment, it picked up its wings and flew off in hopes of finding a way somewhere else within the tunnels.

"Good job, Jack Frost. Here, Medicine for Pyro." Raidou tossed her favorite Ice-order demon the item and left the brothers to their devices with Akane and Narita while she faced off with Dahn once more. It was extremely unfair, how the Fukoshi could order their familiars to fight her one-on-one and yet Gouto would scold her for using Nue to knock out a couple of the assassins. Kotone had never questioned the existence of a double standard until now.

Dahn was furious, but he could still spare a few compliments. "Y-Yer pretty good, Devil Summoner, confusing my Taromaru like that… I don't do this often," he said, whipping out his sickle nunchaku again, "but it's worth pullin' out to show you the pain we Fukoshi can dish out!"

Although he was in the middle of aiding his fire-wielding brother, Jack Frost could still hear the fight and sense the power within Kotone's curly-haired opponent growing. Raidou wasn't oblivious to it, either. Everything she had heard of Dahn so far pointed to him being a great warrior and a great leader, but up until this point she hadn't felt such from him at all.

Now Dahn's aura glowed red orange, and his presence became overwhelming to the point that Raidou felt like vomiting, not because she might not be able to match his might but because the spike in his power was so sudden and sharp that it dizzied her. It reminded her of Louis and his energy back in Shin Sekai, only with Louis it seemed as though he had controlled his power, let it sink in slowly so that her sense of it was gradual.

Raidou's temples were struck with a searing pain. It burned for a moment, and then it flared, spreading to her face and chest and legs until her vision was filled with white diamonds, sparkling in and out of sight until it was almost all she could see.

"Brother – Raidou–" Akane thought of rushing to either of them to stop their battle – she had been calling out to them since the beginning – but knew they would not listen. Akane continued to cradle Pyro Jack in her arms, her shoulders slumping as she continued to watch Raidou writhe on the floor.

"Ho-no!" Jack Frost squealed, leaping towards Raidou, who didn't seem to notice that she was down on all fours in pain. "Cool down, hee!"

The heat was still intense, but it subsided a little with Jack Frost's power. When Raidou recovered her vision, she spotted Dahn with his eyes closed, concentrating on his spell and clutching his head almost as if it was causing him pain as well. The devil summoner forced herself to stand, hand on her sword's hilt as she contemplated on whether she would run it through Dahn while he was out of focus or not. Her head turned instinctively to Akane, whose presence she had barely noticed with Narita's since they were transported to the Fukorutsubo, and saw even from afar the hopeful look in her eyes. Kotone couldn't kill a human in front of his family.

Raidou reared her clenched fist and punched Dahn in the face.

Dahn spat out blood, holding the left side of his face as he jumped over his feet in an effort to keep his composure. Still wobbling, he spared his opponent a surprised glance. "Playin' dirty, now, are we?"

"You depend on spells and your familiar too much," answered Raidou.

"Said the kid who needed fluff to fight a bug," Dahn shot back.

"Hoooo…!" Jack Frost squealed in anger, jumping off his summoner's back. "I'm hee-Jack Frost, ho!"

Dahn waved a hand at the demon with mild irritation and shook his head vigorously. It reminded Raidou of a wet dog shaking the water from its fur. "Maybe I underestimated what a devil summoner could do…" he grumbled, but stretched his neck side to side and recovered soon enough. "If I have to go through you to get to Akane, though, don't think I won't!"

Sickle nunchaku in hand, Dahn rushed at Raidou once more and gave it another swing. The devil summoner felt insulted; he used the same attack as his first. Did he really think she was so easy to defeat? Hadn't he tested her mettle enough? Again she kicked him as she backflipped, and soon she learned that her mistake was to emulate him, because he foresaw her counterattack and caught her foot, showing great strength as he lifted her by the leg and tossed her to the side.

"Jack Frost, Dia," Raidou called out, and received an energy boost in reply. With the pain in her leg vanishing for a moment, she jumped up and ran at him with her sword, hoping to at least knock him out with its hilt. He deflected her attacks as expected. As she thrust her sword at his shoulder in the hopes of immobilizing him, Dahn sidestepped and caught her left arm, having been extended so as to balance herself, and managed to twist her around so that he had an arm around her neck and a sickle to her face.

"I'll be takin' my sister now," Dahn's whisper tickled her ear, sending an aggravating feeling of helplessness through the devil summoner.

"Kotone!" Gouto growled.

"No." Raidou pulled herself forward and struck Dahn with a backward headbutt to the face, causing him to curse out loud and clutch at his nose in pain. Taking advantage of his distraction, she circled him and jabbed her sword's hilt at his head.

To her surprise, he only reacted with a few more expletives; normal opponents, even some demons would have seen stars already. His head certainly was thick. Maybe surrender would be an option to him now, Raidou thought as she kicked his sickle nunchaku away and drew her sword to the tip of his nose.

Dahn opened his eyes to the sight of steel. "Wh-What just happened?" His eyes flew to his weapon on the ground. "What kinda trick d'you pull, huh?"

As soon as the disbelief left Dahn's lips, the world around melted. The green of the insect wings and the black webs dripped like wet paint until they were once again standing in the receiving room. Narita and Akane glanced down in surprise to find that Pyro Jack was no longer in the latter's arms.

Raidou summoned the Jack Brothers back into their tubes and withdrew her sword. "That spell must have drained you of energy if you can no longer maintain the Fukorutsubo spell."

Dahn frowned, but soon it was consumed by his apathetic grin. "Heh... Sorry 'bout that. Guess I wasn't takin' you serious enough – that one don't count." He eyed her cautiously again, acceptance flashing across his face. "They sure don't call you a Devil Summoner for nothin'. I'll be takin' you real serious next time. How 'bout it? You're up for another round, right?"

Raidou zoned in on his grin and wondered if he meant it about taking her seriously. In the past, Rasputin had been almost frivolous when dealing with her, but Dahn was bordering on utter aloofness even after his defeat. The assassin was either hiding his irritation or he didn't hold grudges at all, and that was impossible. All humans held grudges. Still, the summoner nodded. "If you will name the time and the place."

"Stop it!" The slamming of chair legs broke the two fighters out of their taunting. It was Akane, standing and pushing the chairs aside as she neared them in a show of – no, it couldn't be anger – exasperation, maybe. Fear was a familiar sight on Akane, but not this. Anything implying impatience was so foreign on the woman that it seemed as though another Raidou from the future was possessing her. Dahn and Kotone didn't hide their surprise, and this was enough for Akane to revert to her usual sorrowful countenance. "Dahn…" she said, placing a hand on her brother's shoulder, "It's okay… I – I did have dreams for the future, but…"

Dahn squeezed her hand. "Akane…"

"It's okay. I've made up my mind. If it's for the village's sake… Besides, I've caused Raidou and the people of the Capital enough trouble." Akane hung her head, and at that moment, Kotone didn't doubt that the two truly were brother and sister. The despair on Dahn's face upon hearing Akane's words of surrender mirrored her own. "All I have to do is accept my fate. I'm going through with the Marriage Ritual."

Dahn clenched his fists so tightly that had he not been wearing gloves, his palms would have bled on through. "Akane, you're my sis." It was clear he was trying not to grow angry again, but he failed. "There's no way I'm standin' for that! Don't just sit there and let it happen – custom or no damn custom, I ain't puttin' up with them anymore!"

Akane glanced up to her brother for a moment, unaffected by his raised voice, her eyes sparkling with tears. "Dahn…"

Kotone felt as though she were intruding, as though this wasn't something she was supposed to see, but she looked on in curiosity.

Dahn reached out for his sister and squeezed her shoulders, his jaw shaking. "Listen. The village's future can go hang if it means you're gonna cry! Them villagers'll just sit and watch – so I'm the only one that can do anything, right?"

"No, Dahn, listen… I have no choice but to accept this…" Akane shook his hands off but covered her face, realization dawning in her eyes. It was soon replaced by resolve, however, and she shook the tears away, her lips trembling. "Be reasonable…"

Dahn would hear none of it. "Maybe I couldn't do it today, but I'll save you, Akane. I…Listen. I'm gonna become King Abaddon, y'hear?" He tilted his sister's chin upwards, wishing he could give her all the hope he stored within. "I've made up my mind. You're gonna be okay!"

Akane nodded, a small shred of hope in her eyes, but realized her mistake soon enough and gasped. "Wait...! What does that…Dahn? You're not going to do something reckless, are you?"

Dahn's reply was interrupted by one of the earthquakes that had been racking the capital of late. By the time the shaking ceased, he seemed to have forgotten all about comforting Akane and turned to Raidou. "All right, little miss Devil Summoner. I hate to see my sis cry, so you win today, all right? Lucky you. But I'll tell you now – when the dust settles, it's gonna be me," he pointed at himself with what appeared to Kotone like a half-hearted sneer, "King Abaddon, who wins. So don't get cocky, okay?" His attention returned to his sister. "I'm here for you, Akane. I'll become King Abaddon and save you."

Gouto, having been reassuring himself of his and Raidou's overall safety after the quake, frowned. "Save?"

Dahn didn't hear the cat and waved his hand in a similar fashion as the rest of the Fukoshi Raidou had encountered before. Her vision rippled again, and soon Dahn was gone. Akane grabbed after him, but she only swung at the air. "B-Brother!" she called out helplessly, "What is King Abaddon? Answer me! Hey…!"

"Miss Akane, if you've seen your father or his other assassins perform this spell before, you should know that he is gone."

Wearing shock all over, Akane glanced at the devil summoner. "Raidou – you…my father…?"

"Boss – Mr. Narumi and I recently returned from Tsukigata Village. Lord Akijiro informed us of the situation, Miss Akane," said Raidou, confirming the older female's suspicions.

Akane tucked her curled behind her ears again, a habit, Raidou noted, which became apparent when she was nervous or ashamed. "I see…I…I can't blame you if you despise me for lying about my name."

Kotone couldn't help but find that odd. Despise her for such a small thing? Of course, it would have been easier to understand the situation knowing she and Dahn were siblings, but it could never be cause for abhorrence. Being raised in a household of summoners and a household of assassins, both on the beck-and-call of the Yatagarasu – how could they be so different?

Councilman Narita sighed before Kotone could appease Akane's worries. "This sham of acting as her father has all been a waste."

Akane would have tucked more curls behind her ear had there been any more. "As you know, my brother is now a traitor to the Tsukigata family. If he's found by a member of my clan, he'll be executed. I thought that maybe I could find him before anyone else did and make him see reason... You saw what my brother is like, so I thought – I thought you might be able to capture him and bring him to me. I'm sorry… I know I used you. I caused so much trouble for everyone here… I'll leave now."

Kotone felt an emotion tug at her as she listened to Akane's words and realized it was growing irritation. The woman was so frail, so apologetic, so ashamed of herself, always. She wanted to knock her upside the head and tell her to stand up for herself, but she didn't want to embarrass her before Councilman Narita and she knew they could barely even be considered friends. That and her father told her never to give unsolicited advice to "just acquaintances."

"If those are your wishes, Akane, I must agree to them." Narita faced the devil summoner sternly. "I warned you before, Raidou. You have to know where to quit. I'm telling you this for your own good. You've learned of the Marriage Ritual… Let that be the end of your dealings with the Tsukigata clan. Consider yourself fortunate to be an outsider. You wouldn't want the bugs to swallow you up, would you? Hah… Like the Tsukigatas."

Raidou had expected scornful derision, an I told you so of sorts both to Akane and herself, but the Councilman seemed thoughtful; melancholic, even. The way he had chuckled at the thought of being swallowed by a bug – it wasn't out of amusement. It was almost as if he were recalling an old memory, as if the two young women and a cat weren't in the room at all.

"We'll see, sir," Raidou couldn't help but reply, and she almost covered her mouth afterward for it. There was no longer a need to challenge the old man. He was weak, she could see now, vulnerable; she just couldn't tell where yet. It wasn't necessarily Akane that made him this way, but it had something to do with her. Perhaps he had been affected by Dahn's mention of his truancy?

Narita was too sullen to care. He shrugged at the summoner and said to the girl who'd been his daughter for a few days, "Take care, Akane. You and I…we will most likely never meet again."

Akane stepped forward and held Narita by the hand, seeing the dirt on his white undershirt caused by Dahn's violence. There were bruises on his neck where Dahn's foot was only some minutes ago, she was aware – she took care of Dahn after his daily training sessions, before, and now knew the bruises caused by different types of blows.

"Thank you…" said the girl who was truly a stranger to him, "for all you've done for me."

Akane dropped his hand and exited the receiving room hastily, leaving Raidou with a quiet Councilman. It was curious how, by seeing his weakness, she was able to gain true respect for the man. She wasn't aware of the circumstances that led to his desertion of the Tsukigata clan, but certainly he couldn't have been just an ordinary coward to have lived in that horrid place before. Kotone bowed, more meaningfully this time around. "We'll take our leave as well, sir."

Narita seemed to realize that she was still there, and eyed her as though telling her to wait. When he finally collected himself, he spoke. "You'll…You'll take care of Akane, of course."

"Of course."

---

Kotone pulled her head from out of Narumi's closet, coughing and waving the dust away from her nose and mouth as she slammed it closed. There were certainly no mahjong tiles in there.

Raidou and Gouto had brought Akane to the Agency after little to no parting words with Councilman Narita, and after explaining what happened in the mansion to Narumi, said boss decided that they were to act as bodyguards to Akane from that point on until her wedding, and that they would take the trip back to Tsukigata village the next day. Kotone would have liked to stay home first, explore the Capital and visit Kaya and Rin, whom she hadn't seen since she left for the Kuzunoha village the year past and whom she hadn't had the chance to visit since her arrival, but Narumi's plan did have substance.

It was doubtless that Dahn was on the watch for them despite having only been defeated. During their discussion, Gouto had said that the Abaddon of legend was a fallen angel who tortured those without God's seal and drove them to despair, but that he was also known as the Locust King. There was clearly a connection between the 8th Fukoshi clan and this Abaddon – a disgusting connection, thought Kotone, bugs – but besides that, there wasn't much to go on. It puzzled Kotone how Dahn could think that he could become a Locust King. He knew his insects well, that was certain, but that didn't give him powers worthy of the title.

And what Akane had said, "It is every daughter's destiny in the Tsukigata clan to wed Lord Tento, our god. The Tsukigata clan owes him our existence – if Lord Tento desires my hand in marriage, what can I do but give it to him?"

Destiny. It weighed so heavily on Kotone's mind that she forced the thought away before her attempt at understanding it drove her to madness.

"G-Gah! Raidou, what are you doing here?" Narumi was sitting up on his futon, pulling his blanket up to his mouth, but Kotone needed to see only his eyes to find his shock. The man rubbed his eyes and grabbed the alarm clock from beside his pillow. "It's almost an hour before midnight!"

"Hello, boss," said Kotone, looking at the particles of dust revealed by the pale moonlight phasing through the window. "I'm sorry. I couldn't sleep. I searched the case files for something I might solve to wear me down and remembered your mahjong tile request."

Narumi continued to stare at her in disbelief. "It's almost an hour before midnight!"

"I know, boss," said Kotone with some amusement. She understood that it was rare when anyone possessed her stamina. "I'll leave you to your rest now. Forgive me for waking you."

Narumi rubbed his eyes a little more and watched her retreating figure. In the haze of his sleepy mind, he remembered that at her age, he would be out with his friends at this time. But she didn't have too many friends. She hadn't even dropped Kaya a line since she arrived – ever focused on work, that was Raidou. "Hey," he called before she closed the door. Kotone peeked her head back inside, hat still perched on her head, and it was one of those moments when Narumi remembered that the Great Summoner was human, too. "If you need time to think, the roof'll do you some good."

"Thank you, boss."

---

Kotone unbuttoned her cape from her neck and wrapped it around herself tightly as she leaned against the rooftop railings. Now that she was on the roof, she didn't actually want to think. If she tried, silly thoughts would fill her head, like perhaps Nagi was so pale because she only came out at night and the white moon would shine on her the way her mother loved having the sun on her face. And then she would correct herself, thinking, of course not. Nagi is pale because she isn't Japanese.

Foolish thoughts like that – it was the fault of the stars littering the night sky. It felt the way someone feels whenever they are around their parents, no matter how old they are – childish. Not that Kotone would understand. Her conversations with most of her adult acquaintances never branched into such a topic.

Kotone strained her neck watching the sky. No dung beetles or grasshoppers, but the stars did seem to twinkle quite a bit tonight, almost as though they were diamonds dropped into the ocean like coins in a wishing fountain –

Raidou whirled and met her blade with the curve of a sharp sickle, its end almost touching her nose. Her cape gave a small flapping noise as it was blown to the side by a breeze, and then it fell to the ground.

She jumped and, using the railings as a point, somersaulted in the air over her assaulter and landed behind him. He was already facing her.

"Dahn Tsukigata."

"Heh." He gave her only a grin and attacked again. Raidou opted not to give a kick this time and gave her blade a little more credit, using it to stop Dahn's weapon from reaching her.

"So…" Dahn began, throwing his sickle nunchaku down. Her speed with that sword would turn it into an endless fight tonight. Deciding to throw a punch instead, he continued, "Fancy meetin' you here, summoner."

Raidou ducked from his fist and kicked his feet out from under him. Still with sword in hand, she pointed the tip of her blade to his nose once more. "If you are here to take Miss Akane, I wouldn't suggest it. You are still tired from our battle this afternoon, and as its winner I am bound to have more energy left in reserve than you."

Dahn frowned, staring at the tip of her sword again. "…Fine. But let's talk. That's what Akane wanted, right?"

"She did, but you've proven too stubborn. Talk about what?" Raidou asked, an eyebrow creased in sparked curiosity. "There's nothing we have in common that we could possibly discuss."

Dahn snorted. "'Cause you think I'm a country bumpkin, s'that why?"

"Of course not," she replied. By all accounts, she was a country bumpkin, too. Only the presence of her father and her time in the Capital had weathered down her own accent. "It's because you—"

"Then let's talk."

Raidou frowned. She wasn't going to be tricked into speaking with him just to say she didn't discriminate – but now that she thought about it, it would be interesting to know what was on his mind. Too long had she fought first and asked questions later, or perhaps it was the lack of sleep talking.

"Very well," said Kotone. "Talk."

Dahn shot her a look, his eyes nearly coming together at the sight of her sword. "You have conversations with people while pointin' that in their faces?"

"You don't expect me to trust you."

"I'll give you your personal space, summoner," said Dahn, rolling his eyes at her. "Fukoshi's honor."

Kotone would have protested, but he had already backed away, and was standing against the rooftop railings with his back turned to her. His speed aside, it wasn't wise or very polite; she could have killed him on the spot, but perhaps he knew she was an honorable Kuzunoha and wasn't the type to do such a thing. Generally. "You know, everyone thinks you're a brute."

"Wow."

Kotone stared at him. "Wow?"

"Is that how y'get to know people better? Insult 'em? Or is that how you devil summoners get cozy with your familiars?"

Kotone sighed. Was he going to be criticizing her all night? She had come here to watch the stars; not please a man whose pet insect had tried to kill her. His father had asked her to capture him and return him to the village. She should have been capturing him – but given how he had escaped her blade before she could use it to pin him to the spot and 'talk', she might not have been able to that night in any case, she reasoned. At least not without some effort. "I speak only the truth."

Dahn shrugged. He didn't take things personally too often. "What do you think of me, Raidou? That's yer name, right?"

Kotone continued to burn her eyes into his back. "Overconfident sometimes" – not that she would truly know – "last time, without reason."

Dahn grinned, glancing back at her for a second. "You just tell it like ya see it, don't you?"

"I don't understand how telling you you're very strong despite how you lost to me is going to help you."

"Me neither."

Kotone eyed him curiously. Was he drunk? Or perhaps friends with that Louis character? He had a way of making no sense that reminded her of the young blond foreigner. "What do you hope to gain from me? I won't hand over Miss Akane to you."

Dahn faced her again and rolled his eyes. "Your ears broken or somethin'? I said let's talk. S'not like you're so busy or anythin'."

"I am," Kotone corrected him. "I like to watch the stars at night. The sky is clearer above my village – though this roof has its advantages."

"Then–" Dahn took some steps towards her. When he got her comfortable enough, she would see it his way, too. "–let's watch the stars."

Raidou narrowed her eyes at him, pointing her sword at him before he could get too close. He stayed in place and seemed not to plan to go any further, however, as he raised his eyes to the stars. "If you look up from here every night… Don't you just see the same thing?"

Kotone shook her head at his foolishness. "When I was a child, I was of the impression that the stars changed places every night. They would play a game where you were tasked to find all the shapes they wanted you to find, and once you did, you would receive…a wish."

"Did you ever win?"

Kotone wondered why this man was humoring her, but she hadn't spoken of her life in the village before her training began in a long time, and it felt good. The nostalgia was creeping in, but it felt good. The fact that he tried to kill her only hours ago nagged at her, but some part of her reasoned: hadn't his father, Akijiro, as well? "My father taught me the game. Naturally, after I had named all of the shapes I could see, he would declare a brand new wish in my possession."

Dahn watched her expectantly. "But?"

Kotone was surprised to find his eyes on her. "…But what?"

"Don' know," said Dahn, his gaze distant. Perhaps he hadn't been looking at her after all. "Just sounded like you were gonna add somethin' else."

"…When the elders chose me to take my father's mantle," said Kotone, her eyes on the hilt of her sword, "to work to earn my place as a Great Summoner, I was eight. Every day after school I would be trained to the bone. Sometimes, I collapsed in my bed when I returned home. I wasn't able to watch the stars as much, anymore. At least, not with my father."

For a moment, Kotone thought Dahn had finally disappeared – or fallen asleep. But when she looked, he was still there, looking back at her. "How did he die?"

Kotone blinked and turned her gaze back to the stars. His eyes were always too intense. It was easy to match in a battle, but under the guise of carrying a normal conversation between the two of them… "You would ask me to share something so personal in your first civil conversation with me?"

Although it was only their first time speaking, Kotone realized that Dahn had a habit of shrugging in an aloof manner that made her want to say something more. She didn't think she had ever shared so much about herself with anyone outside the village besides Kaya and Rin.

"You started the sharin'," he said. "Figured you'd wanna finish it."

Kotone appreciated the chance to speak of her childhood, but nothing past that. "It was my father's wish that I take his place as Great Summoner should he lose the capability, and as fate would have it, the clan leaders believed me the only child with enough potential to take my father's place. Had I not been chosen, I would have been a disgrace to my family; the honor of becoming one of the Four Great Summoners has always been passed down from father to son – and daughter, now."

Dahn appeared thoughtful, forgoing the fact that she didn't answer his question. "So you followed what yer dad wanted, even if it almost killed you."

His wording was not appreciated. "If you mean to imply that I regret it, I don't."

"Uhh..." Suddenly, Dahn was on the roof ledge across Kotone. He looked almost uncomfortable. "That's enough talk for one night, don'tcha think?"

"If you say so," said Kotone, deciding Dahn Tsukigata must know Louis after all. She wouldn't even try to keep up with him now. "If you attempt to return for Miss Akane, however…"

"I wouldn't be too cocky if I were you, Raidou," Dahn interrupted, moving closer to the edge of the building. "Somethin' you might wanna think about – my Fukoshi ain't the only ones trailin' you."

Raidou straightened up. "And who else is trailing us?"

"Either way, you'll see. I can still save my sis," said Dahn, and somehow Raidou knew he wasn't going to say anything else on the matter. He didn't look back as the world shifted. "Well…bye."

"Goodbye," said Kotone, quirking an eyebrow, but didn't attempt to follow his disappearing act from the roof. Raidou decided she would have to look into spells that might be able to counter that 8th Fukoshi clan vanishing spell and ward it around Akane soon to shake off any more pursuers, but Gozuki and Mezuki would have to do with guarding her for the evening.

---

If there was one thing Raidou Kuzunoha the 14th hated besides insects, mathematics, and condescending adults who had no right to be, it was waking up to the sunlight. She appreciated cool, cloudy mornings and was especially fond of dark, rainy days when she could hear the hard battering of raindrops against the roof, and her cousins running into the house and saying school was cancelled for the day. Sunlight never did her much good, except cause her to sweat even further during training and have her clothes weigh heavier and feel tighter for it.

Kotone lay sprawled out on her ivory white futon, the pillow she slept with between her knees tossed somewhere on the floor near the door. Bright light glared in through the windows and the useless drapes; it was just her luck that where her futon was situated, perfectly in an angle from the window so that the breeze cooled her face every night, was the same angle where the sunlight hit the room directly every morning.

She batted away at the air as though it would cause the sunlight to disappear, and was surprised for a moment when it did. Clouds had moved in to cover the sun. She raised her head, glancing at the red insect cages sitting on top of her closet. Luck? Maybe.

Sense returned to Kotone in fleeting waves. Why was there sunlight? Here in the Capital, she always woke before the sunrise so as not to have the heat on her face. The clock she kept under her pillow which she struggled to turn over and reached for said—

"Nine o' clock?" Kotone jumped up and raced to the door, grabbing her cap at the rack beside it but still barefooted as she made noise running down the stairs and appearing at the Agency's main office in a disheveled manner only Narumi had ever seen her, once.

Narumi and Gouto were having buttered toast at the table, and were already watching expectantly when she arrived. She stared back at them, calmly analytical as always, but with some confusion. "What's the meaning of this, boss? Gouto? Hours past sunrise and nobody woke me."

"Mornin'," said Narumi, clearly suppressing a laugh. "Nice pajamas, Raidou."

Gouto swished a tail and shook his head. "Narumi complained about your quest for the mahjong tiles late last night, so we thought it best if we let you sleep in a bit."

Kotone looked down and remembered that she was still wearing her favorite pair of pajamas made especially for her by her mother, orange with the Kuzunoha clan crest all over. Orange, she admitted, was such an ugly color, stark and bright and called for too much attention, but she couldn't help but love it. Mostly because oranges were tangy and her favorite fruit. Not that anyone had ever asked, of course.

"I will change into proper clothing soon enough," she said indignantly, but took another glance at the clock. "I could have caught up on sleep in the train, boss. I had planned to drop by Dr. Victor's and try his new sword fusion technique…"

Her sword. Raidou remembered the fight with Dahn the night before; that it was the reason why she was tired and woke up four hours later than usual. And just as she did, Akane walked out of the kitchen carrying a tray of coffee, water, and two plates of more toast. The perfect lady, it was almost as if she were gliding towards Gouto and Narumi as she set the cups and plates down.

"Good morning, Kotone," said Akane, assuming it was acceptable to call her by her female name in the Agency (she didn't yet understand why she was Kotone and Raidou, but she didn't believe she had the right to ask). It was odd seeing the younger girl in anything but her black uniform and cape, but she supposed she was odd for thinking that; no one could always be so composed. If Akane didn't know how deadly Kotone was with a sword, she might have even called her near adorable out loud. "I heard you coming down… I thought you would like some buttered toast as well. I couldn't make anything else…"

"Good morning, Miss Akane," replied Kotone, bowing as usual. She appreciated that Akane hadn't laughed at her clothing as the two males in the room did. "Please don't allow the boss and Gouto to force you to work."

"Oh, no," Akane smiled. "This is the least I can do for all your help."

Gouto and Narumi smiled at Kotone triumphantly. "See, Raidou, we didn't force her into anything. Anyway, you still have time to ask Victor to craft you a new sword."

"That isn't all, boss. I still need better materials for Victor. Bargaining takes time."

"I'll go with you, then," Narumi shrugged. "I'm pretty good at haggling, if I do say so myself."

"Agreed," said Gouto. "Now, if only he could haggle his debts…"

"Why do I have a feeling Gouto might be saying something insulting?"

"Perhaps you are getting to know him quite well, boss. In any case, you can't accompany me. Someone has to watch over Miss Akane."

Akane wrung her hands at the mention of her name, uncertain as to whether she could enter the conversation again. "I could just come along… I've been out in Tsukudo-Cho on my own before."

"That was before Dahn knew your exact location, Akane," said Narumi, crossing his arms over his chest. Akane had seen that many times before – with Dahn, her father, Councilman Narita. Men couldn't be bargained with. "In fact, I'm surprised Dahn hasn't shown up on our doorstep yet."

Maybe on the rooftops, Kotone thought, but that matter had been dealt with as for the night previous. This was why she needed a new blade forged.

Something about the summoner's presence made Akane want to bargain, however. "I'd like to buy more ingredients," she pleaded. "For the trip – it will be a long one."

Narumi and Kotone caught each other's gaze, and neither required words to understand the internal debates occurring within the other. On one hand, with her training to be a wife, Akane was sure to be a wonderful cook. On the other, Dahn could be anywhere, and Raidou knew this more than anyone.

But Kotone was hungry, and she wanted nothing more to do with Narumi's modern bread and butter. "It would be best to have our own food on the way…so that we're satisfied until at least tomorrow, and are not forced to eat food tampered with by those villagers." She glanced at the Tsukigata at the table. "No offense, Miss Akane."

---

Narumi surveyed the marketplace in Fukagawa-cho with some disdain. Too many people. Too hot. They had just arrived and the midday sun was already grating on his nerves. He would have removed his hat to fan himself, but he was in the presence of a lady, and the two Raidous probably wouldn't let him live it down. He wouldn't be here if this market in Fukagawa-Cho wasn't the only place where no one would report a conspicuous young lad (actually a girl) traipsing around, shopping for materials to forge better weaponry.

"Well," said Kotone, stepping out of the safety triangle they had created with palpable haste, "my search begins. Boss, please take care of Miss Akane. I will find you when I see materials worth haggling for."

At one point or another in the previous year, Narumi discovered that he wasn't scared of how shopping was still something looked forward to by Kotone, who seemed barely female when she first arrived because of her stiff demeanor. What had scared the detective was how shopping for materials for new weaponry delighted the adolescent, changing her merely pleasant demeanor to almost eager. (Although still not as eager as when she thought Nagi might be a summoner, he now noted.)

"Wait a minute, Raidou." Kotone froze at Narumi's call, whirling around with her lips set in a line. It was the first he had seen of any displeasure she might hold towards him. She wasn't challenging him, he was sure – she was much too polite for that – late puberty, perhaps? A rebellious side of her he didn't know about? Either way, he continued. "You should keep an eye on Akane."

"But Miss Akane and I are in the market for different things, while you are well-versed in matters of haggling for prices in any situation," Kotone said with persuasion she was unaware of possessing. Or was it that keeping company with Leanan Sidhe and Lilim again was augmenting her own skill? "Accompanying Miss Akane is a task meant for you."

Akane shuffled forward. "I…I can search the market for ingredients by myself."

"No," Narumi and Raidou said in unison, turning back to her. They glanced at each other, silently debating this time, and the older man acquiesced. His assistant did have a point – but flattery, really? He never knew she had it in her. Something akin to pride blotched in with mild irritation (as he'd allowed himself to fall for it) stirred within him.

"All right," Narumi said with a smile, showing none of his reluctance. He wasn't that reluctant, to be honest. He would never admit it to anyone, but all that bread and butter was starting to wear him down. He paused, glancing at Kotone warily. She didn't seem like she had brought out her mind-reading demon to know his thoughts – then again, she had the best poker face he had ever seen. Now, if only she wasn't completely incapable of winning a mahjong game even if it was rigged in her favor. "Lead the way, Akane."

Kotone and Gouto parted ways with them and soon with each other, the old soul taking Mezuki with him in case they needed to contact Raidou. Despite his feline form, the cat still possessed an excellent eye for quality when it came to weapons.

The heat and the noise didn't bother Kotone as much as it should have, considering she was clothed all in black. In the village, the Kuzunoha clan collected all the raw materials needed for forging weapons. It was better this way, the elders always said, to ensure that the Devil Summoners had more time for training instead of collecting. So the first time she had gone shopping on her own, she was overjoyed – the elders didn't like to experiment with new steel and she already knew too well the limitations of clan-issue weapons. Dr. Victor's help was always welcome when it came to fusions like this.

At the moment, Kotone was immersed in staring at two glinting pieces of steel, which would have looked the same to an untrained eye, but to those who received Yatagarasu training, possessed multitudes of different qualities. There was doubt in the back of her mind – perhaps she shouldn't have left the boss and Miss Akane alone, helpless, knowing that Dahn might be around the corner – but she brushed it off. Dahn would be too tired to fight today. He had learned from their previous encounters, she was sure. He would bide his time and strike when she was weakest, most fatigued; but she wouldn't give any opponent that opportunity.

So deep in thought was the devil summoner that she didn't notice the shopkeeper staring at her with some concern. What she did notice was the familiar presence behind her. It felt like a great shadow looming over her – and it was. The sun no longer glared into her back.

"Hello," said the presence.

Beret, blond, blue eyes. "Louis," she said when she turned to see him, concealing her surprise well. "Hello."

He stared down at her with a half-smirk. She realized he had always had that half-smirk plastered onto his face, but in the shadows against the light it seemed more pronounced. It made her almost uncomfortable.

"Is there something you need from this stall?" asked Kotone, resisting the heavy temptation to look anywhere but his eyes. No one had ever kept her gaze for so long – and it wasn't even intense. It was amused, and yet empty. As though nothing could surprise the young foreigner. "Or did you come to warn me?"

His smirk grew. It looked natural on him. Attractive with his power, still, and yet eerie. As though admitting that she was drawn to his energy was such a great sin – she couldn't understand it. Thankfully, she didn't have time to ponder on it as he spoke. "Kotone," he said. "I didn't think it possible for you to be selfish."

Kotone frowned. Louis appeared to expect this, but when was he ever shocked? "What?"

"You mustn't take offense," said Louis. "It's only human to possess flaws of this nature. No man is perfect."

"Your equivocations are lost on me," Kotone replied, and then added, "though that could be their point. What is yours?"

"Hubris is also a sin," Louis continued. "But in this case, you might be right to have it."

Kotone stared at him, waiting for him to finish.

He was pleased by this. "Remember that sin often resides closest to the heavens. Goodbye, Kotone."

She watched him leave with that checkered bag of his. Raidou thought to follow him, to demand answers, but it was pointless. Louis was an enigma, and with the amount of energy he possessed, maybe it was better that he remained so for the time being. He had never sent her in the wrong direction before, though this 'riddle' of his was even more cryptic than the last. And what was that about her hubris?

"Talkative friend you've got there," said the shopkeeper, agreeing with Kotone's disturbed expression. "So, what is it exactly you're looking for?"

Kotone glanced at him, and just in time – a luck locust had flitted onto his shoulder. She had fought so many of the Fukoshi's soldier bugs that she could easily tell what they were when small. Feigning surprise, she tilted her head and stared at the empty space behind him. "Is that…?"

"Huh?" the shopkeeper turned around, and his movement was enough to scare the luck locust away. Toward Kotone, at first, who dodged, but it was flitting away somewhere else, seemingly with purpose. Without another word to the shopkeeper, Kotone followed.

She was unsure how to use the birdlime and the insect cages. It felt awkward enough having two of the red boxes pulling her down by the waistbelt, but if it helped improve her luck, she would have to think about capturing more.

The luck locust flew ahead of her, taking her through twists and turns through the marketplace and out of it, always just out of reach. It seemed to slow when she did, pick up the pace when she did. Was it baiting her, aware that she possessed a cage capable of imprisoning it and draining it of its stolen fortune?

Finally, when Kotone had cornered it into an alley, the luck locust flew high up into the air, past a building where she could no longer follow it. Raidou frowned, staring into the sky as though that would will the insect to return, but it was her senses which returned to her instead.

"Kotone!"

The summoner whirled, finding Gouto and Mezuki panting heavily as they reached her.

"We've been chasing you since you fled the marketplace," said Gouto, and with the way his tone rose, Raidou already knew she was in for a scolding from her great ancestor. "What in the – Narumi?"

To her right, she realized only then, were bodies scattered on the ground. It was a normal sight in Fukagawa-Cho, Kotone had learned early in their first arrival at the Capital. She had wandered from a busily haggling Narumi and come upon seven men that day, either knocked out or barely conscious, and before she could summon Lilim to delve into the minds of those still awake, Osamu Kogure had arrived, a little shocked to see her there, and informed her that this was nothing of note; simply members of some minor gangs trying to wrangle control of the districts Satake lorded over.

"Oh," she had said then, back when she had been a mite apprehensive towards the idea of appearing too unknowing in the ways of the world to older men who would attempt to belittle her for it (though in retrospect, Osamu might not have done so, having been present when she defeated two of Satake's bodyguards). Narumi had explained to her the workings of Satake and his brood, but Kotone didn't quite understand the concept of organized crime until she'd seen it up close at that moment. "Carry on, then."

He'd proceeded to warn those with enough sense to remember that with Satake's dominance of Fukagawa-cho, there came order. And they had nodded, pulling up their near-fallen comrades and scampering off, too happy to escape with their lives for indignation.

Now there were seven men again, sprawled on the ground save for one – Narumi. He sat leaning on an upright knee, his face bloody with an eye beginning to swell up. There were stains on his suit, but Kotone could tell that most of it wasn't his. Officer Sadakichi had said as much in the previous year, and she didn't doubt it was the same now.

Kotone rushed to the man. "Boss," she said as he blinked, realizing she was before him and not a figment of his hazy consciousness. "Where is Miss Akane?"

"Appreciate…the concern there, Raidou," Narumi half-groaned, half-grumbled, holding his jaw with a grimace. Well, his face hurt like hell, but he felt energized enough to speak. He threw an irritable glance at the unconscious brutes. "These goons jumped us. I didn't even realize we were being trailed until Akane needed to use the ladies' room and we went looking, and, well, you can guess the rest. I…managed to to take some of 'em down, but…if I can just…get up from here, I can…"

It was clear that Narumi's body felt like lead at the moment. He could barely lift a hand to wipe the blood off his face. Kotone understood; her early days of training had taught her thus. "No, boss," said Raidou. "You'll only strain yourself." The devil summoner took in every detail of the brutes and their uniforms. None were familiar. "Why would they take Miss Akane? This is no Fukoshi trick. Dahn Tsukigata would never attempt to save his sister this way."

"It was planned. I'm sure of it, Miss Kotone," said Mezuki, arms resting on the hilt of his sword as he speculated. "After meeting such resistance from Mr. Narumi, these men wouldn't insist on kidnapping your guest unless they had intended to do so for a time."

"Mezuki's right. And they definitely don't wear these uniforms to feel like they belong," Gouto agreed, jumping over the thugs. He inspected them carefully, and Narumi was surprised at how he could wait for a cat to finish its meowing before giving his own input and still take himself seriously. When he could find nothing of note, the cat continued, "Kotone. Someone's got to answer for this."

"I understand."

"I don't," Narumi sighed, but watched patiently as Raidou removed a tube from her chest and—

"Mom-hee!"

Hiruko, Narumi remembered with a shudder. Creepy little thing, like guts put together in a little gut-colored cup with hands and feet as hands and a creepy head inside. Why Kotone had kept the thing when its kind almost ruined the Capital last year, he still didn't understand.

"I can see it," said Narumi, wondering if they were back in the Fukorutsubo, but it was too hot for them to be. "Why?"

"Our situation and my energy can afford that Hiruko appear to those without the sight here," said Kotone, patting the demon with almost a hint of cooing in her voice. It nuzzled the little of its head that protruded from its body into her hand with something like a purr. Narumi felt a cold shiver run up his spine. If she found that cute, he would hate to see what she found grotesque. Besides bugs, anyway. Who would have thought?

"What can I ho-do for you, mom-hee?"

Kotone smiled. While she found Jack Frost and Pyro Jack incredibly adorable, there was a charm to Hiruko's whispery, whimsical and yet ravenous self that she found brought out the doting girl in her. Or perhaps it was that she rescued him from a bleak existence in Waden One last year, from being simply a parasite among parasites to becoming her Hiruko that made her want to protect him.

Raidou approached one of the groaning men and turned him on his back with her foot. "Wake up," she ordered, nudging him with the tip of her shoe.

The goon groaned painfully again, reminding Raidou of the Yomi-kugutsu. The memory was still fresh in Hiruko's mind as well, and the demon gasped and flew before Kotone. "Don't worry, mom-hee, I'll eat it, ho!"

The man opened his eyes at the sound of such an inhuman tone of voice and screamed. Mezuki gave an amused smirk, but Narumi cringed. Gouto didn't look too happy, either. Getting up on his elbows, the thug backed away, crying out, "H-heeelp! What is that abomination!?"

Hiruko choked on a sob. "I-I'm not an abomination! I'll…" His four fists clenched tightly together. "I'll hee-eat you now, ho!"

"No, Hiruko," said Raidou, pulling the demon back by one of his four wrists. "Strike Fear into his heart."

"What?" Gouto frowned. "Kotone! Hiruko, no!"

"The spell is quick and painless," reasoned Kotone.

"To Hiruko, maybe. Evil Smile will haunt the human forever!"

"That would be exaggerating," said Kotone. "He will forget, but the lesson is learned. This is for his good as well as ours. Perform the spell, Hiruko."

Hiruko was obedient to his human, always, and floated carefully over to the thug, who had suddenly lost the energy to even attempt to crawl away. Once they were face to face, Hiruko's black abyss for a mouth closed to form a line, which stretched out and widened to form a smile.

Having understood only Raidou's end of her argument with Gouto, Narumi wondered what Hiruko was up to as the thug's face changed, from gruff in his sleep to bewildered at the demon, and now terrified didn't even seem to fit his expression. It was all the man could do not to soil himself. His fear was unfounded, and if he thought hard enough about it, he would have realized that there wasn't much cause for it, but the terror that engulfed him was so overwhelming that he shook visibly. "What—I—no—"

"Who sent you?" Raidou asked, Hiruko spinning cheerfully behind her. Narumi caught the grin on his face and felt a pinch of fear strike him from deep within. He looked away and the feeling dissipated just as soon, but that smile… "Why did your companions kidnap the girl?"

"I – I don't know!" the thug whimpered, burying his face into his hands. If anything, the fear increased, mostly thanks to Hiruko's smiling. "Boss wanted Satake's dame, and—"

"Boss? Give me a name."

"I—I can't! He – he's—"

The thug fainted. "Looks like his heart gave out," Narumi remarked. That smile definitely beat torture, though maybe the effects were too heavy for a thorough interrogation.

Raidou shook her head in disappointment and checked for a pulse. "He lives. But I doubt consciousness is in sight."

Hiruko narrowed his eyes at the thug, his smile disappearing. "Can I ho-eat him now, mom-hee?"

"Others will deal with him, Hiruko," replied the devil summoner, but she tossed him a croquette she'd been saving in case Narumi's haggling would take too long. Hiruko gobbled it up gratefully before returning to his tube.

"Satake's dame," Narumi repeated despite his increasingly painful jaw. His energy was dissipating again. "Those thugs thought Akane was you, Raidou."

"Apparently," Raidou agreed, pushing her growing anxiety away. When Kaya had first been kidnapped, she was irked that such a crime could occur before her own eyes, but she'd kept a level head. She believed she could find Kaya, and there wasn't much pressure despite the fact that Kaya came from a wealthy family. Not compared to the pressure she suddenly felt now – not only had they promised to protect Akane, but Dahn was on the loose and looking for his sister. Should he discover that she was lost under Raidou's charge – Kotone felt something she hadn't known since she was a child bubble within her: embarrassment, though she wouldn't admit it soon.

"Those thugs are long gone," Gouto said gruffly. He was still upset by Kotone's use of Hiruko against a human.

Narumi ignored the cat and asked Kotone the question that had plagued his mind since she arrived. "How did you even find me, Raidou?" He liked to think she had some sort of internal radar for trouble, but if so then she would have sprung to his rescue last year when Sadakichi and his men had beaten his face to a pulp in the same manner (though not without putting up a fight, he maintained).

"There was a luck locust. I followed it, and it felt though it wanted me to find—look." Raidou's eyes followed a shining bug flitting about above one of the thug's heads. She removed two tubes, summoning Dominion and returning Mezuki. "Dominion, please carry the boss home. That luck locust is getting away."

"No way," Narumi protested. "Akane was under my responsibility just as well."

"All right," said Raidou, too hasty for arguments.

"Whoa!" Narumi grasped the air for balance as he felt two arms scoop him up from the ground. His body ached, but he could vaguely feel 'Dominion', whose presence seemed to energize him again. The ground was much farther from his eyes than he was used to, and he grabbed for something above him to assure himself that he wouldn't fall and go splat all of a sudden. The detective shot his apprentice an uncomfortable glance. "Not that I wanna look a gift horse in the mouth, but…"

"Your superior is very fidgety," Dominion remarked to Kotone, but was ignored along with the human he was carrying. His summoner was much too busy following the insect that glinted in the sunlight to listen. They were fortunate that the insect took nooks out of the way of main roads, or humans would have already caught sight of a floating man following a conspicuous, caped boy. "Perhaps he would be more comfortable if he could see me?"

"In my experience," Raidou replied to Dominion absentmindedly, sprinting to follow the locust and fumbling for the pinch of birdlime she stored within one of her cape's inner pockets, "that would be inadvisable. Given his gender and yours."

"What?" Narumi glanced down, floating leisurely in comparison to Raidou, whose nose was beginning to sweat visibly. "What gender? Whose?"

"Very well," said Dominion, quietly chuckling at Narumi's attempts to understand the situation.

Gouto was still quiet, until he remembered the narrow alley they were running through, cramped by houses and weeds, and realized they were nearing the side of Fukagawa-cho they most frequently visited. "Stop!"

Raidou stopped instinctively and turned to Gouto. "I have the birdlime ready. I will attempt a capt—"

"Kotone," said Gouto irritably, his tail flicking with the sharp utter of her name, "we're nearing the bathhouse area. Narumi needs to walk on his own."

Kotone glanced at the luck locust, slowing but steadily moving, and then to Gouto. She understood that it wasn't the time to argue with him again. "All right, Gouto. Dominion, set the boss down, but aid him as he walks."

"Glad to know we're getting my opinion on how this works," Narumi muttered, but said nothing when he understood why. He limped toward the thickly populated area of town behind Raidou, who continued to follow the luck locust at a more languid pace. He wasn't sure if it was she or the luck locust who'd slowed down in consideration of his situation.

"If you're going to catch it, do it now," said Gouto, his lithe feline body still ready for a chase but his mood spoiled.

Raidou noted his anger and swiftly brought out a Tsukigata insect cage, smeared the birdlime from her fingers inside and held it out to the bug. At the back of her mind, she realized that keeping the cages against her belt meant keeping the insects close to her stomach, her weakest spot, but she shrugged the thought away successfully and focused on the insect.

The locust neared her, flitting around Gouto and Narumi before setting its sights on the cage. It seemed to recognize the cage, antennae touching (Kotone stopped herself from squeezing her eyes shut), but turned and flitted away before Raidou reached out to clamp the cage bar shut. "No!" Raidou watched it fly up and away, disappearing into the sunlight. "Why didn't it enter? There was birdlime, and…"

"Did you see the color of its outer face?" Narumi asked, straightening his posture as he spoke with invisible help. "That photo Akijiro showed us had a silver mask on the bug. This one was bronze."

"So it wasn't a luck locust…?" Gouto wondered aloud.

"A decoy," Raidou thought. "Is that what you mean to say, boss? That I've been chasing a decoy?"

"The 8th Fukoshi clan has countless types of insects at their disposal, right?" Narumi thought back on his conversation with Akijiro. "Another little soldier bug…who knows how many more types look like that?"

"Maybe Lord Akijiro knew," Raidou suggested. "He must be keeping an eye on us. That locust was much too accommodating, don't you think, boss? It led me to you, and–"

"Kuzunoha?"

Kotone had almost forgotten how tall Satake really was. He stood taller even than Narumi, with broader shoulders and a confident stance, but today there was something different about him – ah. He wasn't half-naked. The Kantou-haguro gumi leader had been taking his daily stroll when he saw the familiar devil summoner, who quickly strapped the insect cage to her waist and covered herself with her cape.

"Hello, Satake," she greeted him, hoping memories of their last encounter would not resurface in Gouto's mind and further his annoyance toward her. "How are you?"

"I should be askin' that question," he said, looking past her to eye her boss with a grimace. "So how'd Narumi get his face rearranged? Someone finally get tired of all that smirking?"

"Laugh it up," Narumi grumbled. "Funny story, really. I put up a fight trying not to get a client kidnapped by one of your enemies. They got this idea in their head that she was your 'dame.'"

Satake didn't laugh, though. He crossed his arms. "Didn't I tell you to be careful? I wrote a letter and everything. I don't write letters."

"If it makes you feel better, it was more of just a note," Narumi gibed. If he wasn't drunk on the magic Dominion's constant Dia spells caused, he would have treaded more carefully with the yakuza boss, but Satake didn't mind his joking as much as the swelling on his face.

"Boss, boss!" A man Kotone recognized as one of Satake's consiglieres ran up from behind her. He bowed before speaking in a collected tone laced with panic. "Kuzunoha's been kidnapped."

"Hello," Kotone greeted him.

"Oh!" he jumped at the sight of her. "It's you. But–" he looked extremely confused. "We just received a ransom note for the boss's dame."

"Okay," Satake started, and his men stiffened. This was his I'm about to hit something, so dodge if you're in the way tone. They knew it well. "One, Kuzunoha ain't my dame, and two, they're a bunch of idiots."

Kotone nodded in agreement. "As boss has said…the woman they kidnapped was a guest at the agency. They must have been tracking us – they saw her in the boss's company and must have thought she was your…" She appeared almost uncomfortable saying it, giving a small wave under her cape as though to imply it so she wouldn't have to. "Your dame." Now that she had it out of her system, she turned to the consigliere. "What do they demand in exchange? Who are they?"

"The note claimed no ownership," the consigliere replied, telling his boss, "but they wanted control of the Red Light district."

Satake scoffed. "That ain't gonna happen soon."

"Of course not," the consigliere offered.

"Where did the idiots want the deal to happen?"

"By the docks," the consigliere replied fearfully. "At the church in Harumi-Cho."

"Those thugs must be pretty brave if they hold their base near the Navy," Narumi remarked. "Or incredibly stupid."

"I'd say they're pretty wise in that aspect," Satake laughed wryly. "If they lived anywhere close to Fukagawa-Cho, they'd be dead."

"Anyway," Narumi cleared his throat, licking a busted lip. "I think you might be right about Akijiro, Raidou." To Satake, he said, "Thanks for the info. We needed it…and now we'll be off."

Satake's expression as he looked at Narumi could only be described as disgust. "You should get some rest, Narumi," he said with something resembling pity. "You look like hell. A dip in the hot bath should do you some good."

"I agree, boss." Wiping his blood did little to help his face, after all, and she assumed he must have been tired, having begun with legwork again only recently. "I can take care of those brutes on my own…especially because Miss Akane's kidnapping was my fault. I shouldn't have left you two alone, knowing Dahn Tsukigata wasn't the only one having us followed."

"No," said Narumi, then did a double take. "Wait, what? How did you know?"

"I…" Kotone paused. "...Satake sent us a note telling us, didn't he, boss?"

"They must've hit your head harder than we thought," Satake chuckled. "Listen, Narumi. Shut up and get some rest." And that was that. To his consigliere, "Get my shoes. I'm going to Harumi-Cho."

Kotone glanced at the mob boss curiously. "Satake, your arrival might only validate their claims."

Satake shook his head; it was too late and he had already made his mind. "No offense, Kuzunoha. You and I both know you've got the goods, but they don't know that, and I've got a reputation to keep. It wouldn't do any of us good if those idiots thought I was hiding behind a girl."

"I understand," said Kotone, though she wondered what 'the goods' were. Did he mean demons?

"I'll join you, boss," said the consigliere as he arrived with Satake's shoes. "You'll need some backup."

"Nah," Satake dismissed him with a wave. "Stay with Narumi. Make sure his face doesn't get any uglier, all right?"

Narumi's lip curled, but the consigliere could only spare him compassion. "You got it, boss."

---

Despite her efforts during the Red Cape incident, Kotone had never been treated with adulation past a mere 'thanks' from the Kuzunoha village elders, the Herald of the Yatagarasu, and her favorite dessert baked by her mother upon hearing the news. But when Satake walked out of his main headquarters in Fukagawa-Cho, she imagined that it was how she might have been treated had her heroics been made public. Everyone who passed him bowed, greeted him, inquired as to his health, and made way for him. It was all sycophantic, she understood, and she was glad from of the obscurity that kept her from possessing the same irritation Satake was beginning to harbor. He liked the respect, of course, he'd said to her in one rare minute when no one approached him, but sometimes he had 'enough of the ass-kissing.' It was why he appreciated the Narumi Detective Agency.

"In the future, I'll make sure you needn't involve yourself in this, Satake," Kotone promised, looking up at him after he sternly returned some woman's eager greeting.

Satake brushed her off with another wave. "They were gonna kidnap some frail eventually. I actually figured it'd be Narumi's dame, given the rumors circulating about how you keep his company – not that you're my dame. But you know the gossip." He shrugged. "S'fine with me, really. Been a while since anyone tried gettin' one over the Kantou haguro-gumi. Gotta remind 'em who's boss, right?"

"Of course," Kotone agreed. "Better now than later."

"Exactly."

Kotone backtracked through the conversation and thought out loud, "Boss has a dame?"

Satake smirked. "Where've you been? Sure. That reporter frail. She's a friend o'yours, too, right?"

"Reporter frail. Miss Asakura? The boss's dame?" The first thing that came to mind was that Tae would definitely go berserk at the thought of being anybody's frail or dame or woman, but the past week's occurrences provided her with a better understanding, a new angle. Gouto, who prowled beside her quietly, had made quips about them. It was no wonder they didn't mind sitting so closely together on the train to Tsukigata village, and that was why the boss didn't mind her rummaging through his office. "Oh, yes. I hadn't realized she was already his dame."

"No man troubles himself for a woman's safety unless he's hers," said Satake, and then added as he motioned to himself, "or doin' a job. 'specially not your lazy boss. He's got a wise head, but the reason why he hasn't gotten anywhere's because he's so lazy."

"To an extent, he's fond of the obscurity," Kotone explained, realizing it was a similarity they shared. "Having people breathing down his neck is rare, but when it occurs, he is easily frustrated. Boss is happy where he is."

Satake laughed. "And anyway, he's got his hands full with that tough reporter of his. So, tell me about this frail we're saving – it's not that Daidouji kid again, is it?"

"No. You're one of the few familiar faces I've met since I arrived. Boss and I have been very busy with our case, so I've yet to call on Kaya."

"You should," Satake told her. "S'only proper, if you're friends."

Kotone was about to reply when she saw the route they were taking. "Where are we going?"

"Streetcars," Satake answered with a tone. Shouldn't it have been obvious? "Can't walk to Harumi-Cho, Kuzunoha."

"I have a faster way, and we needn't pay."

"I don't pay for streetcar passes."

"We won't be cramped."

"Now you're talkin'," Satake grinned. "Whaddya got in mind, Kuzunoha?"

"I want to hear this, too," Gouto spoke up.

Kotone removed a small yet bulky flute from her cape. It was crudely made and looked old and worn, bits of the wood flaking off at the ends, but she held it confidently. "This is the Flute of Rhone." To Gouto, she said, "I haven't seen our friend in a long time."

Gouto was determined to show his disappointment, but he let this one slide. "If you can call that extortionist a friend."

"He's nice enough when you get to know him," said Kotone. When she turned to explain her plan to Satake, he was watching her very, very oddly.

"Did I just catch you talkin' to your cat, Kuzunoha?"

Kotone blinked. She had grown so accustomed to Satake knowing nearly everything that she forgot he didn't know about Gouto. "I come from a long line of powerful devil summoners."

"I know that. What's it have to do with the cat?"

"Trapped in the cat's body is my great ancestor's soul. He was the original Raidou Kuzunoha, but we call him Gouto now."

Satake stared at her, seeming to process all the information first, and then he threw his head back and burst into laughter.

Gouto wasn't surprised. Kotone didn't join the merriment. When the yakuza boss noticed this, he calmed himself down. People usually joined his laughter out of fear, but apparently he'd forgotten who he was dealing with. "You're serious, aren't you?" Kotone nodded. Satake's eyebrows knit together as he chuckled. "No wonder he stormed into the bathhouse that one time."

"I still don't find that funny."

Satake raised an eyebrow. "Did the great Raidou-cat say something?"

"He says he didn't find it amusing at the time, and has yet to."

Satake guessed he could question the truth a bit more, but more bizarre things had happened. A sixteen year-old girl in a towel and a schoolcap beating two of his fully grown men in a fistfight, for example. He could only laugh.

When he was finished, Kotone chose a secluded area of the docks, her flute firmly in her clutches.

"What's this big plan o' yours, anyway?" Satake asked just as Kotone neared her lips to the instrument. "This better not be a waste of time, Kuzunoha."

"It isn't," Raidou replied. "I'm about to call on an old friend; he is called the Large Tarrasque, but he swims faster when you refer to him as the Great Tarrasque. It's a male issue, I think. A demon, a bit larger than three skiffs. Try not to react when he arrives; noisy fear angers him, and quiet fear inflates his old ego. Only alcohol or—"

Satake sighed. Devil summoner or not, heroine of the Red Cape Incident or not, she was still a teenage girl. Or maybe she was just taking the chance to talk; it didn't look like she had a lot of friends outside people she met for work. Poor kid. "You're rambling," he said outright. The way Kotone's face flushed in realization was revenge enough for her actions the last time they met. "Get to the point, Kuzunoha."

"All right," said Raidou, regaining her composure. "Act nonchalant."

"Gotcha. Get playin'."

Satake certainly knew how to be bossy. But what did she expect from a yakuza boss? Raidou put the flute to her mouth and began to play.

Satake wanted to grab the Flute of Whatever Hell That Demon Came From and break it in half, and then take those pieces and break them into even smaller pieces, and then use them as firewood for the funeral pyre he would build for his ears. The flute produced a high-pitched, squeaking sound, like nails against a chalkboard. He couldn't distinguish one note from the other. On his more aesthetic days, he might have been able to tell himself that there was beauty in the sheer horror the sound produced, but right now it just annoyed the hell out of him.

Before he could break the flute, however, the water began to rise. Raidou played even louder, her terrible sound making music with the roaring of the rushing river.

Finally, a great shadow rose from the water, only it wasn't a shadow. It was an ox's head with a turtle's body and a rat tail, and its bellowing shook the unstable wooden docks on which they stood. "Who dares summon the Large Tarrasque while he slumbers?"

Satake stared at the demon quietly. He remembered fighting those zombie things during the Red Cape incident, but this was the first time he'd faced such a large demon. So ugly, too; such a bitter expression on its face. If this was what Raidou dealt with on a day-to-day basis, he could understand why she held no fear for his men.

"Greetings, o Great Tarrasque," said Raidou with extremely formal speech, accompanied by a bow.

Something rose from the demon's throat, shaking the ground again. When Satake came to his senses, he discovered that it was the Tarrasque's hearty laughter. "Why, hello there, sonny!" the creature fondly looked upon Raidou and her feline ancestor. "I was beginning to think you'd forgotten all about me!"

Raidou smiled cordially. She definitely still had her guard up; it was the same smile she wore every time she entered the bathhouse. "Of course not," she said, tossing him a Jin Dan. His ox mouth caught it. "I returned to my village to train. It was time-consuming."

"I understand, sonny," said the Tarrasque, then noted Satake's presence. "And who might you be?"

"This is Mr. Satake," said Raidou. The honorific felt foreign on her mouth; she hadn't used it since she defeated her descendant and went for a drink with the man and her boss (though drink for her meant orange juice), after which they were required to nurse Narumi's hangover and became something like unstable friends, and he said she needn't address him the same way his people did. "We require your aid to reach the Catholic church in Harumi-Cho."

"Oh." The Tarrasque was in deep thought. "Is this where you fought that dark summoner?"

"Rasputin, yes… Although I doubt he resides there now." Surely memories of his defeat would deter him from returning there, Raidou thought, thinking back on the android's half open face, his silver skull and electronic red eye crackling with electricity.

"Ah. Well," said the Tarrasque, baring his teeth at Satake in what appeared to be a smile, "It's nice to meet you, young man."

"Same to you, Great Tarrasque," Satake returned his grin. He didn't know the custom for demons, but he still didn't bow for anybody he didn't know well enough to respect. "I got a question. Why can I see you when I'm no summoner?"

"Untrained humans can see me now because Iam powerful enough to will it," said the Tarrasque. "I can make it so that you are the only normal human who sees me."

"When you aren't in a drunken haze," Gouto commented, meaning to scathe.

But the Tarrasque was in a good mood and only chuckled. "Then you're lucky I'm out of alcohol, great kitty! Now, jump on, children. Let's travel before any nosy humans see you two floating over the water."

They obeyed, and as the Tarrasque sped off into the river, Satake glanced at Kotone. "Y'know he calls you sonny, right?"

---

Kotone had always wondered about the Catholic religion. It involved one deity of three identities. There were other figures called saints worshiped, but believers insisted that these were nothing like demi-gods, because worshiping a deity other than the first was a sin. It boggled the mind, and Gouto simply told her not to dwell on it. She never tried asking the Herald, thinking it might offend whom the woman represented.

Satake languidly strolled up to the Catholic church. Kotone wondered if he should be so proud, but surely he couldn't have become the Kantou haguro-gumi leader for nothing.

It was eerie inside, reminding Kotone of the day she was informed that she was poised to start training for the role of Raidou Kuzunoha the 14th. She was brought to an empty room in the labyrinth of their village temple with only three pines within, and speaking to her were disembodied voices, their great echoes making her unable to recognize them. Her father had told her of those voices in her youth, that when the time came, she would discover that the voices were little more than the Kuzunoha clan elders who'd watched her grow. But within the temple they were supposed to be guided by the gods and their very own ancestors, the Raidou Kuzunoha of glory days long past (except, she learned later, for Gouto).

"Hey," Satake's voice echoed out to the seemingly empty church as he slammed its doors shut, breaking Kotone out of her reverie. "Time's a wastin'. Come out, come out, idiots."

"I didn't think you'd come bounding to the rescue so quickly, boss," said a hoarse, high-pitched voice of a man.

Satake continued down the long aisle to the altar, and as she caught up with him and followed his gaze, Kotone saw a balcony at the back of the church where choirs were positioned to sing hymns. Leaning against its intricate wooden railings was a tall, wiry thing of a man who certainly looked the part of a peon: hooked nose, naturally narrow eyes, and a wide mouth upturned in a wicked grin.

"Hishida, you bastard," Satake muttered, staring up at his former underling with nothing but exasperation. "Only a goon like you could make a mistake like this."

"I wouldn't talk like that to the man who had my frail," Hishida said with a laugh, motioning to something behind him. Out from the darkness came two men, carrying a woman bound by thick rope to a small chair. Her mouth was gagged by cloth, and yet, Satake noted as he watched the unfamiliar woman, she didn't move or scream. She was poised, dignified even in her state of captivity. Behind her veil of collectedness, however, he could see the woman glare at her captors and look down to him pleadingly. No, not to him – to Kotone. Raidou.

"If I'd known your weakness was a frail like this, I'd have baited you and won Mannen-Cho out a long time ago!" Hishida continued with a cheesy cackle. Satake tried not to roll his eyes for the girl's sake. Her kidnapper had worked for him for a few years until the Red Cape incident rolled around and revealed his true colors. Hishida had attempted to use the panic to overthrow him and rise within Kantou haguro-gumi ranks, but Satake had given him a good beatdown in response. He didn't think he'd be seeing the idiot this soon.

Satake was about to respond when Raidou spoke, voice deep. "You may now release her."

Hishida, patience already worn thin by Satake's lack of a more desperate reaction, turned to the young man with a flash of anger in his eyes. "Who the hell are you? I should have your tongue cut off for speaking out of turn, little brat."

"I should cut your head off," Raidou replied.

"Pretty extreme, but I don't see why not," said Gouto with a smirk. "As long as you do it yourself. No demons involved."

"I can do that," Kotone said with a small smile, grateful for Gouto's forgiveness.

Hishida mistook the smile for a smug one. His growl echoed through the church walls. "The stakes just went up. You want your frail, give me the Red Light district along with the damn brat and his big mouth!"

Satake crossed his arms. "You really think this plan's gonna work, don'tcha?"

"Or maybe you don't wanna leave this place alive," Hishida snarled, his tone dangerously low.

"That would be inadvisable," said Raidou, always ready to provide input. Perhaps it was better that Hishida thought her a boy, like most. No doubt it would save on time that would have been wasted criticizing her gender. "Satake's murder would send the Kantou haguro-gumi into a frenzy and start a gang war that would draw a multitude of casualties, including innocent civilians. The police normally turns its head at gang affairs, but the uproar such a thing would cause would force their hand. Not," she finished when Hishida's face was crumpled up with fury, "that it's in your capability to harm us, to begin with. But you might give it some thought."

Satake grinned. Maybe stating the obvious was okay when it came to saps like Hishida who just didn't get it. "Let the frail go, Hishida. Maybe you'll escape with your life."

At Satake's words, Hishida took in deep breaths and attempted to regain his composure. "Oh? We all know Dame Satake's been hangin' out with that private dick Narumi. Is this woman really just a frail?"

Satake and Raidou exchanged slightly amused glances. The former said to Hishida, "Gimme the girl and crawl back into your hole already. As much as I'd love to bump gums with you chumps all day, I'm a very busy man. Managin' Mannen-Cho, the Red Light district and all that, you understand." The Kantou haguro-gumi boss feigned an expression of sudden epiphany. "Or…I guess you actually don't."

Hishida slammed a fist against the railings. "I should kill you now!"

"You should try," Satake offered.

Raidou glanced at her companion and whispered, out of Gouto's hearing range, "My demons and I might smooth things out. You needn't lift a finger."

"Isn't that illegal?" Satake asked. "Not for me – couldn't care less – but for you. You said somethin' like that before."

"Hishida is interrupting an important investigation," said Kotone. She knew it was against the rules, but she couldn't help it. "It needn't be."

Satake smirked. "It'd be fun watching these mooks piss their pants with fear, but I like takin' care of my own problems. Feel free to join me."

Raidou nodded, and Kotone wondered if she'd injured Satake's pride. And then she remembered pride on its own, and hubris, and Louis. Her hubris, he had said. Sin resides closest to the heavens.

Catholics believed in a heaven too, didn't they?

Kotone tried to imagine Louis as she repeated his words in her mind and found she could remember that conversation very well, almost as though he were repeating the words in her mind at that very moment. Had he been warning her about this?

"Kuzunoha, you there?" Satake snapped his fingers in her face, untying the sash on his robe.

"Yes," Kotone answered apologetically. "I have not participated in a true fistfight since I defeated your men in a towel. But I will join you."

"I've always like you for your moxie, Kuzunoha," said Satake with a smirk, and granted the same to Hishida. "You're outmatched. Last chance."

Hishida burst into laughter, his men joining him. Akane ignored them and continued to stare hopefully at Kotone and her friend, the reason why she'd been taken. They had kidnapped her afer taking some damage from Narumi and interrogated her about 'Satake', demanded to know how a frail like her had ensnared the yakuza boss. They only jeered when she replied that she didn't know what they were talking about in the least.

"Laughin' ain't gonna solve this problem," Satake interrupted. "But hey, we don't hafta fight if you're chicken."

Hishida cleared his throat and gave only a small chuckle now. "Are you really bringing a brat into a fistfight?"

Satake glanced at Raidou and saw only a fellow fighter. "He can make his own decisions."

Grunts appeared from the sides of the church, charging at them with battle cries as though it would help them in the coming tussle.

At this, Satake threw off his robe, leaving him only with his trousers. Above, Akane glowed a bright red. She'd never seen a man's body before – Dahn and his friends didn't count. And all those tattoos, and muscle, and man. She felt as though she were sinning just by staring, but the young woman couldn't avert her eyes. How Kotone stayed calm with such a vision before her, she could only attribute to her being Raidou.

Raidou, having seen Satake half-naked on several occasions, barely batted and eyelash and subsequently removed her cape. Gouto gathered the black and blue clothes on the floor to himself and promised to look after them, telling his descendant to make quick work of the offending humans.

She rushed into the fray, paving the way for Satake. It had been a long time since demons attacked her outside the dark realm, thanks to two friends she'd made during the Red Cape incident. They would have loved a raw fight like this, but they were busy handling 'family matters' (or so the notes in their tubes said) and she respected them enough as elders not to summon them forcefully.

Men stormed down from the staircase leading to Hishida and Akane above, and Satake felt almost irate as he watched Raidou punch and kick and beat the hell out of the goons that were supposed to be his stress reliever for the day. He didn't like sharing in this case, even with his friends, and he didn't appreciate dealing with just leftovers.

Halfway through the stairs, Hishida's goons learned about teamwork and decided to jump Raidou all at the same time. Instinctively, she ducked, rushing only at the thug directly before her, and the two others fell forward to Satake. The yakuza boss was all too happy to pick up the slack, grabbing the two men by their collars and messily bashing their heads together.

Raidou glanced up from kicking her opponent down for good, and then behind to check on Satake. "There are more coming."

He snorted. "I'd enjoy this better with a front row seat. D'you mind?"

"Oh." It was new for Raidou to have someone want to take on the trouble instead of her, but she welcomed it. Stepping aside over a groaning body, she answered, "All yours."

Satake grinned and surged forward, dodging a blow to the side and carrying a man by the waist before tossing him off the side of the stairs. He punched two more in the face at the same time, gave them another blow to the back of the head as they fell forward for good measure, and then stepped on a man's foot to keep in him in place and pummeled him to the side with a swing of his thick arm. There was a headbutt somewhere there and more thugs being tossed off to the pews below until they reached the top of the stairs. Satake wondered why Hishida even bothered.

Hishida held a knife to Akane's throat. A scream rose there but she held it back, knowing not to give her captor what he wanted. Instead, she showed her fear to Raidou and Satake, the latter of whom tensed visibly at the knife so close to her neck. Akane didn't know if she would be hurt or encouraged by how Raidou simply stared at the weapon.

"This church is a place of worship for some," Raidou said cautiously. "Are you certain you want it sullied with your blood?"

"That's it!" Hishida growled, and even Satake shot Kotone a reproachful look as the traitor raised his knife in the air, ready to plunge it into Akane's heart.

He never got that far. As soon as the knife was over Akane's head, Raidou pulled out her revolver and shot at his hand. Hishida screamed painfully, dropping his knife as he fell to the floor.

Satake lifted Akane and the chair and brought her as far away from Hishida as possible. He ripped the rope apart with his bare hands and untied the gag on Akane's mouth. "You okay? 'Course you're not," he answered his own question in surprise. The woman had been cute at best from afar, but up close, she was beautiful. Short, curly hair, little nose and pursed lips. Even with her just looking back at him, he could tell she possessed a quality to her many women lacked – a certain elegance that came with her apparent frailty, a dignified manner of existence that was both innate and bred in her. A highborn, most like. And her hazel eyes – they looked so sad, and so hopeful. No one had ever looked at him with hope before – only fear, from the general populace, or respect, like his men and the Narumi Detective Agency. But Satake wasn't known for getting lost in some classy woman's hopeful eyes instead of his business, ever-flourishing, so he tore his eyes away from her and turned to Raidou. "Hey Kuzunoha, did you kill him?"

Raidou stared down at Hishida. He was whining about his bleeding hand. "Maybe I should," she replied, returning her gun to its holster. "But I think that pleasure belongs to you."

Satake stole a last glance at Akane, who looked away when he did and resorted to tucking curls behind her ear. He stood and went to kick Hishida's side. "Hey."

Hishida groaned once more, clutching his bleeding arm, and whimpered at Kotone. "Who are you?"

"Raidou Kuzunoha the 14th. Devil Summoner and Protector of the Capital."

"Hey, hey, I'm the one askin' the questions," Satake said, raising his voice. When Hishida looked back at him, the yakuza boss asked, "You ready?"

Hishida didn't hide his confusion. "Huh…?"

Satake gave him no reply except for a foot to the face, and even Kotone's eyes widened a little as Hishida flew from his position on the floor, off the railings and landed on the pews below, shattering the long wooden benches that were repaired only a little after the unexplained destruction there (Raidou had watched the reparation process a little before she returned to the Kuzunoha village). The summoner followed him to the railings and peered down. Gouto had deserted their things and approached Hishida, prowling about his body.

"Alive," the cat announced. "But unconscious. The police can finally charge someone for that ruckus you and Rasputin caused last year, and we get our dame back."

"Perfect," Raidou replied, approaching Akane. "Miss Akane, I'm sorry we took so long – we were uncertain as to who had taken you. Did you come to any harm?"

Standing, Akane smoothed the wrinkles on her dress and gave a difficult smile. "No…for all their boorishness, they were too busy laughing at their own triumph against…" she glanced at Satake briefly, "to think of me."

"Oh, yes. Satake, this is Miss Akane," Narita, Raidou almost said. "Miss Akane, this is Kenzou Satake."

Akane bowed, smiling nervously. "It's nice to meet you, Mr. Satake."

Satake returned the bow. "Pleasure's all mine, Miss Akane…?"

"She'd prefer it if nobody knew," Raidou whispered to him.

He understood. A little mystery every now and then didn't hurt, as long as she wasn't some kid below eighteen possessed by an evil spirit from the future, determined to avert the inescapable end of the world (Narumi had told him as much when he was drunk). "Miss Akane."

"Thank you for rescuing me," said Akane after a long, heavy silence. She was still looking to every which way in an attempt not to look at Satake's chest. Or stomach. Or arms. "He…Hishida…he really didn't expect you to arrive so soon."

Raidou glanced at the table across the stairs, filled with bags of food. That explained those. Kotone would enjoy these spoils.

Satake shrugged. "Not that I don't trust Kuzunoha to kick sufficient ass…It's just, you gotta fight your own battles. Get what I mean?"

"Oh, yes. Of course," Akane nodded vigorously, though knowing her, Kotone didn't think she did. But she supposed that everyone wanted to make a good impression with new acquaintances.

They started down the stairs, and Akane couldn't help but gasp at all the unconscious men. She'd heard the brawl from above, but she hadn't actually imagined it to be like this. "I'm sorry for causing all this mess…"

"S'fine," Satake waved her worries away when they reached the ground floor. Or it felt like he could. "Don't worry about it. These goons needed to learn their lesson anyway."

"And they did," said Kotone, wearing her cape around her like a protective blanket and tossing Satake his robes.

With Satake's chest almost covered again, Akane was able to speak more clearly. "By the way… How is Mr. Narumi? I'm afraid he was injured in his attempt to protect me."

"He'll be fine," said Satake. "Bet he's enjoying the hot baths."

"No doubt," Gouto remarked, catching up with them as they made their way out of the church.

"There is that," Kotone said with a small smile, and when the sun got into her eyes as she exited, she could have sworn she'd seen Louis, passing her with a smug grin, but when she lowered her head and pulled her schoolcap forward, nothing.

Akane saw the afternoon sun and sighed. "I'm sorry. We were supposed to leave today and – I've delayed us."

"Miss Akane, it really was no—" Kotone stopped at the sight of Satake's irritated expression. "Is something the matter?"

Satake was ignoring her. Instead, he turned to Akane and said, "Stop apologizin', will ya? Stand up for yourself. You're not gonna get what you want with a buncha sorry's."

Akane looked down. "I'm—" she stopped. "All right."

Walking ahead of them, Kotone whipped out her Flute of Rhone. She'd wanted to say those words to Akane herself, but seeing how they only furthered the drop in the older female's confidence, perhaps it wasn't the best way to go about things. Of course, Satake had never been one to beat around the bush.

As Satake watched Akane tuck her curls behind her ear and think of how someone who could be so empowered now with her beauty was so meek and apologetic, the river roared and out came the Tarrasque, grinning toothily. Akane felt her knees buckle.

"Goin' somewhere, sonny?"

---

Again, sorry this took forever. I didn't want to put the scene with Dahn on the roof at first because Dahn seems like a fists first, talk later type of person, but I played the game again to get a feel for the atmosphere and despite his rough demeanor towards anyone who might oppose his quest to save Akane, he tries, later on, to persuade Raidou to let him do what he has to not with a fight but by showing Raidou what he needs to see. So I thought that it wouldn't be so weird if Dahn tried to talk to Raidou first a few times, and THEN showed Raidou what s/he needed to see after being refused. Unfortunately, he doesn't get to persuade Kotone in this chapter as much as he can because he let Kotone talk too much and was annoyed by her talk of following her father's wishes (to which he reacts negatively because he has daddy issues these days) before he could. Dahn's an impatient guy; I can see him walking out on a conversation like that. Or maybe that's just me. Feel free to share your thoughts! :D

Next chapter quote sneak peek time!

"Whaddya wanna hear, summoner? That I believe in you?"

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