Taro put down his brush. "It's done."

Ryoko flashed him a wide smile and jumped off the platform. "I want to see!" she said with excitement in her voice. When she came around the easel and looked at what Taro had created, Ryoko gasped. "That's incredible!" She giggled sweetly. "I know I don't look that good in real life!"

"Not true. In fact, my painting doesn't do you justice," Taro replied. His heart raced as he looked at his beautiful model in the tiny striped dress that now stood next to him. "Thanks for being such a terrific model."

"It was fun." Ryoko, sensing Taro's appreciation, reflexively pushed her dress down over her hips.

"Do you like being admired?" Taro asked.

"Every girl likes that, doesn't she?"

Taro reached forward and took hold of Ryoko's hand. He pulled it toward him, turning her to face him as he did. "I'm glad I met you."

Ryoko stepped toward Taro. She pulled back her hand, the hand Taro was holding, and moved it over her hip. Taro got the message and placed his other hand on Ryoko's other hip. Taro's model smiled, put her hands over his shoulders, and clasped them behind his neck. "I've wanted to do this for a long time," she said as the two came together for a kiss.

When they separated, Taro looked into Ryoko's eyes. "Can things work out for us?"

Ryoko shrugged. "Maybe. I still need to figure a few things out."

"Can you live in my world?"

Ryoko stepped back. "Do you really want me to? There's a lot about me you don't know and you may not like." Ryoko crossed her arms over her chest. "I've been using you, you know. And I may just be using you now."

Taro picked up his brush. "Well I'm using you, too. To help me break through this block." He waved his hand over the painting. "And it's working. That doesn't mean I don't like you."

Ryoko nodded in understanding. "I like you, too, Taro. Very much. You're sweet and you're genuine." She giggled as she studied her sexy image in the painting once again. "And you're very talented."

"You are, too, Ryoko. All of those things."

Ryoko laughed. "Then you really don't know me."

Taro stepped forward, once again closing the space between them. "I see that coldness, the ice in your eyes. I feel the drive and the purpose behind them. I sense that you can be one very scary young girl, Miss Ryoko Asakura. You're someone a person wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of."

Ryoko turned her head away. "I have to go now." She started walking towards the TV. She looked over her shoulder. "I hope we can have tea tomorrow morning. Think about what you want me to wear for tomorrow's session, okay?"

Ryoko dove forward into the set, rolling forward on her back, a split second before the screen turned to static.

"CRUNCH! CLANK!"

Taro rushed to the window. When he looked down he could see that Lito had managed to pry the door handle off of the security door using a long piece of metal pipe.

"Get away from here!" Taro yelled. "I'm calling the police!"

Lito looked up. "You're door lock is gone, asshole! Maybe you should call your asshole uncle instead and get this thing fixed!" Lito kicked the door in spite and ran off down the street, leaving a long section of pipe behind.

Taro called the police immediately. When he told them there was a break-in attempt - not merely a broken window on an upper floor - they took this call a bit more seriously and sent a squad car over. The car arrived in ten minutes. Taro greeted the policeman at the damaged door.

"Do you have any idea who did this, sir?" the policeman asked.

"Yeah. The same guy that always harasses me. Lito Kamata. The guy's a druggy."

"Did you see him do this?"

"Well, no. I looked out the window after I heard things breaking and falling on the ground. Lito was standing right there. It couldn't have been anybody else."

"But you didn't actually see him do this."

"No. But he obviously did it." Taro pointed down to a six foot long galvanized steel pipe. "He used this. I'm sure his fingerprints are all over it."

"Fingerprints don't stick very well to galvanized metal," the policeman informed him. "The problem is that we've been finding a good amount of piping and other plumbing materials in the neighborhood since that plumbing supply store on 42nd Street and Main was abandoned."

Taro recognized the address. It was just opposite of his warehouse on the other side of the communications building. "Huh? Why would someone abandon their store?"

"Guy killed himself. Went to a cabin up in the hills and stuck a knife in his own gut about a month ago. Nobody really knows why. We checked out his computer's hard drive and found some pretty disturbing stuff. The guy definitely had some screws loose." The policeman made a rotating motion with his index finger around his ear.

Taro stood there in shock. "No kidding? Wow. I guess you can never really know what's going on in someone's mind, can you?"

"No, you can't." The policeman closed his notebook and handed Taro a card. "Here's your incident report number." He pointed to the door. "I'd get that fixed as soon as possible."

"Thanks, officer."

"You might want to consider getting some security cameras set up here. Video evidence is very hard to beat in court."

Taro nodded. Lito Kamata was a drug addict and an asshole. But he wasn't stupid. He'd take the camera out with a brick the day after it was mounted. Taro did his best to secure the broken door on the inside, using a two by four piece of wood and some rope.

Then he went out the back door to explore. His destination: the plumbing supply store on the corner of 42nd and Main.