Disclaimer: All fandom-based and real-life entities, including other art and literary works mentioned in this piece do not belong to the author with the exception of original characters, plot, and subplots. The views and opinions of the characters do not necessarily reflect that of the author.

Zwischenzug

by four-eyed 0-0

Part IV

"We all die. The goal isn't to live forever, the goal is to create something that will."

– Chuck Palahniuk, Diary

o-o

Farewell

The entire lecture hall erupted in a series of shouted hallelujahs and "Banzai!" as soon as Kurama introduced himself as the new professor to the class that included the rather tactless student who'd confronted Aoshi only about a week ago. This reaction didn't surprise Kurama as much as he would have if not for the confidence the professor had put in forecasting the scene.

"Did she finally get sacked, Professor?"

Kurama wasn't even halfway to opening his mouth when the double doors from above opened and revealed the small professor in her pinstriped pants and sleeveless blouse, her arms crossed.

"I didn't," she spoke loudly, carrying through the hall and effectively cutting off the lingering celebratory yells that followed the fearless inquiry.

The hall was silent, the students frozen.

"For your information, I have been promoted to teach advanced courses. I'm guessing it's because the Chairman thinks I've had enough of you little shmucks acting like you're worthy of being in this school," she said, cocking an eyebrow. Then, with a smirk that could rival Hiei's, she said, "See you when you finally grow back your tails. All that running with them between your legs has probably had them hacked."

And then she sauntered up the stairs, the clanking of her heels echoing through the suddenly quiet hall.

It took a while after the double doors had closed for the students to turn back to him. He had probably acted his part well despite the fact that he'd caught her scent even before she could put three feet between her and the entrance, thanks to one of the students who had to wave his hand in the air before Kurama appeared to have noticed.

"Yes, Mister—?"

"Yanagi, Professor. Are you going to pick up from where she left off?"

The meaning behind the sentence wasn't lost on him, and even if he had wanted to be less terrible to the students on his first day, Aoshi had made it a point to keep him clueless regarding the scope of today's recitation.

"If by that you mean we'd be discussing the next unit, then yes, we're going to continue where you left off."

Another chorus ensued from the students, this time of groans of frustration.

Kurama tried his best to look as sorry as an innocent, newly-hired faculty member.

o-o

Chiaki was beginning to regret that she'd let Kurama infiltrate Todai as a teacher. Apparently, not even the ghastly sight of his fake, wild curls could chase away admirers. As though Urawa and other obnoxious people from the laboratories weren't pestering enough, students had come back and forth in the department every single chance they could get to have an appointment with him over anything as obtuse as a critique on a paper he'd marked and returned within the same day.

In all of her years as a teacher, she had no more than five students approaching her within a week. More than being jealous of the attention that the afro mole was getting, she was extremely irked by the fact that some of the students had come to make snide remarks on how horrible she was as a professor and how she was no match to Good Professor Matsuda. They'd carefully laced their words with contrite tones on her behalf, but she'd kicked Honda out one time to the dismay of the department chair because the student was being the imbecile that she'd been not a month ago.

Kurama couldn't seem to drop the image he'd adapted of a reasonable, considerate junior, and Urawa kept sneering at this blatant act of neglect for a friend every time.

She was feeling better this Tuesday morning, as Kurama had gone to his first period, and he was left with an hour and a half of peace before hell's flames began rising again. Two weeks into the investigation and Kurama hadn't been able to break into Urawa's office. It wasn't even because she didn't provide a very good distraction. Kurama seemed to have plainly set aside planning.

By the end of the week, she was feeling a weird combination of restlessness and lethargy for what seemed to her was dallying on Kurama's part that she grabbed him by the collar as soon as she arrived at the diner some minutes after him who'd taken the train as soon as he got off from work.

Urawa had been extra obtrusive to assign her to decontaminate a pile of glassware. His one week of supervision had extended to a whole month, as Ozu seemed to have no intentions of coming back anytime soon.

It didn't surprise her when she almost yelled at him when she opened her mouth. "We're going to take a well thought-out plan of action, Kurama, and I don't want you leaving me out of whatever you're doing or not doing right now, do you understand?"

Kuwabara had risen from his seat and raised both hands to her in an attempt to calm her down, but she thought it unnecessary since she harbored no further violent intent on his effeminate friend. God knows she'd make a fool out of herself if she ever decided to lay a finger on Kurama's red hair.

Kurama stared at her, unblinking, before he released a breath and smiled. "I was only waiting for you to ask."

Not fully getting it, she let go of his collar nonetheless and sat down next to him. Kuwabara seemed to take the hint that there would be no scuffle to ensue and took the seat next to Kurama as well.

"Your behavior the past weeks seemed inconvenient to the plan that I have made up, so I had to make sure that you were finally willing to see it through."

She only rolled her eyes at him. "Well? What do I do?"

o-o

Monday morning found Chiaki extremely agitated and nervous. Kurama had presented a fairly simple plan that did not involve distracting Urawa the least effective way—by picking a fight with him. Apparently, Kurama'd picked up on the ape's neurotic tendencies when it came to his experiments.

The plan was brilliant and met no objections from the team, and so Chiaki was confident the three other key players to this strategy were waiting for the signal from their station.

While she was happy that she was finally invited into this plan, she wasn't particularly excited about the role she received. Kurama insisted that it was vital to the whole act, lest she wanted to be suspected.

She didn't, of course. She'd gotten this far and she wouldn't want to be a drawback to the team.

Kurama came up behind her after Urawa barked them an instruction. She took with both hands the single culture dish Kurama handed to her, careful to hide a folded piece of paper at the bottom from Urawa's eye in case he turned around. Kurama covered for her as she placed it inside the oven, and they loaded the rest of the culture dishes inside and locked the door.

Ten minutes into a relatively silent task from Urawa and the oven was visibly smoking.

Urawa's glasses almost slipped all the way down the bridge of his nose as he ran to the obviously burning oven while shouting for someone to get the fire extinguisher.

Kurama dashed to the shelf while Chiaki slipped a hand in the pocket of her coat, fumbling with shaking hands for the communicator inside. She almost let go when Urawa's panic-stricken face turned to her, as if he knew there was some monkey business going on.

But Kurama came hurtling down and distracted him from deducing her lack of action, and hoping that he'd dismiss it for shock, she flipped the communicator open inside her pocket and pushed the third button her thumb touched.

Hiei and Urameshi had ten minutes to rummage Urawa's office as the whole building shut down.

The lights dimmed and beeping came from various machines about them as smoke ensued from the burning oven. People began rushing toward the open door, witnesses to Kurama and Urawa battling with the humongous tongues of flames.

She didn't know the oven could burn this bad. Come to think of it, she'd never burned anything before. Not even with the assistance of a burning spell courtesy of Hiei.

Chiaki took charge for damage control and ushered the whole staff out of the unit and into the hallway, refusing to answer questions from them as to how the fire started. She didn't know, she said. Her heart was beating as if she'd just drowned from the smoke, afraid of what could go wrong, afraid of what Hiei and Urameshi would find.

Some minutes later, too short for Hiei and Urameshi to have done their part, too long for her to have calmed herself to face Urawa's wrath, the soot-covered men emerged from the unit, their coats burned in places.

"Nothing to be afraid of," said Urawa calmly, which was so uncharacteristic of him. "Nothing else burned but the oven."

"Professor," a junior researcher dared to speak, standing in a huddle with other youngsters. "It's the second time something like this happened. Are we in danger?"

Everyone turned to Urawa. Chiaki copied them.

Are we in danger?

Are she and the team in danger?

If someone could pick up on the things that had happened at the IMCB and if the facility indeed had something to do with the previous attacks, then yes. They were in danger. Their cover could be blown just as easily as Hiei's mystical powers had set the oven in flames.

Five more minutes for Hiei and Urameshi.

Urawa pushed his glasses up his nose. When he spoke calmly again, Chiaki felt like puking.

"No, we're not in danger. This is nothing but an accident." He eyed Chiaki levelly, and she swallowed. "We shall seek the help of the fire bureau to investigate the nature of the incident. I request everyone to please pack up for the day and keep out of the area. Make sure all your experiments are secure. Work will resume tomorrow."

The crowd broke up and Chiaki looked to Kurama. He nodded his head very slightly to assure her that no one would know.

"Matsuda, Chiaki, come with me."

She looked at Kurama once more before ambling beside him and followed Urawa to wherever he was taking them.

The beating of her heart overpowered the echo of their footsteps down the hallway. She could only imagine the questions that he would throw her way. How could you mess up? How could this happen? What were you doing?

How could there be no evidence?

She didn't even hear the screak of his shoes against the tiled floor as he turned around, never realizing it if not for Kurama's hand on her elbow.

"Matsuda, go to the reception. Call the fire bureau. Chiaki, come with me to the fire exit."

Her face didn't betray her confusion, her unspoken question met with a mere shake of Kurama's head and Urawa's turning his back to her.

Kurama disappeared to do as Urawa had asked. Chiaki decided to follow the boss, too anxious to even feel relief that they weren't headed for the office and Hiei and Urameshi would never be discovered.

The walk to the fire exit seemed too short for her to puzzle about the situation once more and too soon he was sitting on one of the steps of the stairwell leading to the upper floor while he leaned on the corner farthest from him and closest to the door.

It took a lit cigarette before he said anything. "Would you like one?"

She shook her head.

He pocketed the cigarette box and his lighter. "I think you know why I brought you here."

"Because I set the oven on fire?"

He blew a smoke ring. He was always the one who did that. "You're not sure?"

Chiaki could only swallow. God, she was blowing this whole thing.

"It's either you're not sure or that's not it." He stretched his legs in front of him and dusted soot off his pressed khaki pants. "Tell me, Chiaki, what did you do to warrant this meeting in a fire exit?"

I am busted. I am busted. I am busted.

He turned to her. At first he was smirking and when he stood up and stepped on the unfinished cigarette, he was frowning. His eyes almost looked sad and… worried.

"I know you're smart and we're no fools, so Chiaki, what was it that you did? What are you doing?"

His eyes had never been this intense since the day they split. With the intensity came a plethora of other things that she could and could not define. Anger, dismay, fear, doubt… and a look that said she betrayed him.

"What are you doing? Answer me!"

He looked ten times taller and as he advanced on her, she couldn't do anything else but back into the corner she had stupidly pinned herself to.

"Urawa, I—"

"I'm not going to hear any lie from you, Chiaki," he said, finally closing the gap between them and pressing his forehead to hers. "I know you never lied to me and you never will."

I never did, and you didn't believe me, idiot. And now you're in this mess. We're in this mess.

"So tell me, what is it?"

She couldn't shake him away, not when his hands are cupping her face, not when his breath fanned in front of her, not when she was washed up with the urge to cry from apprehension and guilt and from his warmth.

"Chiaki, please, trust me. What's going on? Why are you doing this?"

"Urawa, I don't understand." What was she supposed to say?

"I said I'm not going to hear any lie from you, Chiaki. Tell me what you know."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Oh God. Oh God," he was whispering, his voice too weak.

And then she was in his arms, and he was speaking to her ear, his voice breaking. "God, Chiaki, how could you be so stupid? How could I be so stupid? I should have never listened to them. You should have never done this."

He knows. The tears left her eyes as soon as it clicked, no, as soon as she accepted that he did, in fact, know what she was up to.

His body was trembling, and she knew he was trying not to cry. "I'm so sorry for everything. I was so stupid. I've messed up, Chiaki. And you can't mess up. I can't let you mess up. You are so much better than me."

The ability to say anything coherent seemed to have left her that instant.

He'd finally admit that he was wrong. She had been longing to hear him say he was stupid for ever doubting her. She had imagined all the scenarios of how he would declare his defeat, how he would take her again.

But she never thought it would be like this. In a fire exit. An escape route. Dark, damp, but not too cold thanks to his missed presence.

"I'm so sorry I never loved you the way you loved me, Chiaki. I'm so sorry I was so selfish. I'm so sorry."

She wrapped her arms around him to feel this warmth that she missed. I love you, Isamu. I still do. I still do. Would you come away with me?

"I'm so sorry. Please be careful," he whispered before squeezing her tight and pulling away.

He turned to open the door but hesitated before grabbing her face and placing his lips upon hers.

It was firm and hard, desperate and chaste. It didn't make a sound, as if he had always been this careful. But it took her breath away like it always had.

He opened the door and left her standing alone.

The fire exit was too cold after.

o-o

The moment she met him at the parking lot, Kurama was perfectly aware that something had happened to Aoshi. She wouldn't say anything when he asked and much to his surprise, she absently acquiesced to his request that he rode on the motorbike with her.

He'd asked to accompany her since he was worried that she was far too dazed with whatever she was thinking to make it to the meeting safely and intact.

After fifteen minutes of hanging onto what little material the motorbike could offer him (he'd done away with holding onto her) as they travelled at a speed quite nearing the border of the limit, they arrived at the diner and proceeded to the apartment upstairs after greeting Keiko at the counter.

"Kurama, Professsor, good for you to join us," said Yusuke as soon as they appeared at the landing.

He was huddled around the low table in the sitting room with Botan, Kuwabara, and Hiei, various notebooks and a stack of paper dumped in the center of the table while a duffel bag lay limply on the couch where Yusuke had probably tossed it.

Aoshi silently sat next to him without a single word. She was staring at the smuggled belongings on the table—staring, but not seeing.

Yusuke waved a black, leather-bound notebook in front of Kurama. "This looks like his journal."

"Did you find anything else?"

Kuwabara lifted another leather-bound note, this one thicker by an inch. "It's a record of sorts." He flipped it open to a page before handing it to Kurama.

Kurama immediately found a name that he was expecting: Yamamoto Koji. But it was struck out once with red ink.

And then another: Urawa Isamu.

And then: Aoshi Chiaki.

Kurama's eyes rose to the top of the page. There was no heading. He flipped to the previous page and the one before that until finally he reached the first page of the notebook. No headings, as if Urawa was deliberate to leave this detail out, but more than a hundred names occupied about five leaves of the notebook. Red-inked strikes were found here and there, most of which were littering the first two pages. He flitted through the pages once more. The number of strikes increased as he moved to the earlier ones.

Yamamoto Koji was dead. His name was struck out. Would that mean—?

"Professor Aoshi."

The professor slightly jumped at the mention of her name. For the first time, she seemed to be aware of their presence. "You called for me?" she asked, blinking at him innocently.

Kurama handed the notebook to her. "This looks like a record of names. Yamamoto, Urawa and Aoshi are listed in the last page. Yamamoto has been struck out in red like most of the other names in the previous pages."

She wasn't listening to him and even then he realized she wouldn't need to. The moment she found their names and scanned through the other pages, her eyes became bigger and bigger. Her hands began to shake as she flipped through the next section of the notebook.

Kurama leaned in to see. This section contained dates starting two years ago in one column and a short narrative in the other. She browsed through most of them until she found a more recent entry.

Aoshi Chiaki and Matsuda Kou: hired.

Aoshi lifted her eyes to look at him. "Where did you find this?"

"Urawa's office," said Yusuke with an edge to his voice. "What did you get?"

She swallowed. "It's a record of the names of scientists," she said after a moment's hesitation. "Some have died, some I know have disappeared."

"And the other section?"

"A record of events since from two years ago."

"What happened two years ago?" Kurama asked.

"I left IMCB. Yamamoto left with me."

She flipped to a page containing names and pressed the notebook on the table, putting pressure on the pages so the point where they were glued to the spine was visible. Leaning in, Kurama saw it: a small patch of paper clinging onto the string that bound the pages.

"A leaf is missing," Botan whispered, leaning in to see as well.

"No, four are. At least."

Aoshi went back to the other section and paused at another spread. She pointed at an entry on the left page which was obviously truncated and another entry missing a first part on the next page. Her finger then slid to the dates.

She then pressed on the gutter once more. This one was clean and contained no patch of paper to give away that there was a tear at this point. She then turned to a random blank page and tore a leaf. The leaf adjacent to it was quite easy to pull out after.

"If a person were to leave no evidence, he would have to tear adjacent leaves. Since a leaf was torn from each section, two more should be missing."

"Do you have any idea what events could have been recorded that Urawa didn't want anyone seeing?"

Aoshi scanned the pages where the entries had been truncated. "Something happened between the first and third attacks."

"The second attack?" Kuwabara asked, incredulous.

"That one or something related, like Yamamoto's 'suicide'," Aoshi said, nodding her head. "But don't you notice something else?"

"What?"

"If Urawa had been meaning to be careful, why did he leave the other tear obvious?"

"I'd bet he was just being careless," said Yusuke.

Kurama didn't know what Aoshi was driving at.

"He wasn't."

"What do you mean, Professor?"

"Kurama, I think he knew what we were up to."

"What?" Yusuke exclaimed.

She was talking fast suddenly. "He talked to me at the fire exit. He was aware that we ransacked his office. He knew and he allowed it."

"Because he'd taken substantial evidence with him!" said Botan, shaking her head in realization. "Oh no, I need to inform the SDF immediately."

"You don't need to. He won't rat."

"Why do you say that, Professor?"

"I know he won't."

"What did he actually say?" Kurama asked.

Aoshi looked at him for a moment before shaking her head. "It's not important. He's not going to rat us out. He took some evidence with him but he made it obvious. If he'd meant to betray us, we would have run into some trouble by now."

"Why would he take some evidence with him, then?" asked Kuwabara.

"To prove his loyalty," said Kurama, understanding what the professor meant. Something must have happened in the fire exit. Whatever that was, he was trusting the professor to know better.

Hiei spoke for the first time. "They're right."

Yusuke scoffed. "Took a dip again, Hiei?"

Aoshi glared at the two of them.

"I can't take a risk," said Hiei without looking away from the professor. "I had to know."

Botan clapped her hands to call their attention. "So what now?"

Kurama turned to Aoshi. "Professor, do you recognize all of the scientists? Do you or Urawa personally know them?"

She hesitated. "I know some of them, and I think Urawa does just as well. Why?"

"The ones with red marks, are they dead?"

She turned to the names again and quickly scanned over the pages. "Those that I recognize, yes."

"Could you mark those who died naturally and those who committed suicide, got into an accident, or were murdered?" He handed her a pencil. "You said some of them disappeared?"

"Yes, for unknown reasons. One from Russia, he was a forensic pathologist. Disappeared without evidence almost two years ago."

"Do you know why your name was written in the notebook?"

She shook her head after a second's thought.

"I think it's because they want you into this plan, but we still need to see."

Aoshi visibly swallowed again. "Urawa's name was in it."

Kurama only nodded at her.

Yusuke scratched at his nose. "What about us, fox boy?"

"G&P. If there's any time that they would carry out their plans, it would be now."

Yusuke and Kuwabara sprang up and stretched. Botan conjured her oar and opened the window before flying out. In no time, Kurama and Aoshi were left inside after Hiei was dragged out.

Minutes passed in a loaded silence, as if a question was hanging in the air. It took many instances of catching her eyes on him before she finally spoke. "Kurama, do you trust Urawa?"

And would he be safe with the evidence that he carries with him? "I trust him enough not to tell what we know, but I don't trust them to spare him, if that's what you want to know."

What little light remained in her eyes dissipated, and soon enough she looked away, turning her whole back to him. But he heard her crying anyway.

He didn't do anything.

o-o

God, he was in trouble. She could feel it in her fingers. Every single mark she added to the notebook filled with his scrawls was a percent certainty. He was in trouble for not ratting them out. He needed her help. But how?

She needed to trust him. He'd be fine. She couldn't do something about it now or their whole plan would blow. She just had to have faith in him.

But like Kurama said, they couldn't trust whoever Urawa was working for. If they discovered this, they wouldn't hesitate to harm him.

But she couldn't blow any of this. She couldn't do anything to blow everything that they had been working for.

She turned another page. It was blank.

She sighed. Of course it would be blank. Her name was the last entry, wasn't it?

"I'm finished," she said, turning to Kurama.

He looked up from Urawa's journal. She briefly wondered what he could have discovered. He reached out to take the record book and she waited.

A moment of silence punctured by his repeated turning of the pages passed them before, satisfied, he turned back to her. "It does look like what I've expected."

"What you've expected?"

He closed the record book. "It seems Urawa took with him the names that mattered. The names you've marked as missing didn't amount to an alarming number given the nature of this elaborate plan."

Too worried about Urawa to really care, Chiaki only managed to murmur a disconnected "Hmmm."

Kurama's lips curled to a shadow of a smile, neither happy nor amused. "I don't think we should throw this away, though. I can always ask Koenma to check the records."

"How would you do that?"

"I'll have to ask Botan to come back."

"You can always do it yourself, don't you?"

Kurama cocked his head good-naturedly. "But I can't leave you alone and defenseless."

"I'm sure the defenses you've put up at my place are enough to keep me safe."

"At least let me come with you."

She looked away. "Okay."

A few minutes later they said goodbye to Keiko and went out to ride home on her bike. It took her a while to realize that no one had ridden with her since two years ago. She hadn't allowed anyone, not even her closest friends.

She must have been quite out of it that she let Kurama take Urawa's seat.

Goddammit. If only she could do something about it. If only she knew where he was.

They didn't talk the whole ride to her apartment. They didn't have to. She didn't trust him to understand how conflicted she felt given the circumstances.

Urawa was a great moron, yes, but she loved him. She always did.

It would be so much better if only she knew where he was now.

Kurama was suddenly speaking to her ear. "Professor, could you please pull over? My communicator's gone off."

She turned to a deserted alley and halted. Kurama reached for his pocket and took out the ringing compact. She twisted on her seat to see him speaking to the pink device with the face shield of his helmet pushed up.

"Yusuke?"

"Kurama, G&P's under attack. The same monsters. Where are you?"

"I'm with the professor. We're headed to her home. Would you need me to convene with you?"

"No, we can handle this. Get your ass somewhere safe and make sure she's not seen. I don't understand why they would do the obvious but I'll beat myself if she gets in trouble."

"All right, we'll see you."

"Stay safe, bud."

Chiaki waited for Kurama to finish pocketing the device so he would look at her when she asked, "I'm in trouble?"

She must have sounded horrified.

"Chances are… you are. We should better be going, Professor."

She revved the bike and turned to a shortcut. If I'm in trouble, then Urawa must be in trouble. Just where is he?

And what of it if you know? What would you do, Chiaki?

The two of them jumped off the bike as soon as she changed gears and pulled the key out of ignition. Kurama grabbed her by the elbow to the stairwell, the two of them taking two steps at a time.

A strange tingling sensation started at the base of her nape before spreading to her chest.

She didn't know what it was, but as soon as they hit the third floor landing, she found him.

In front of her doorstep.

Urawa.

And blood.

Red, cold blood soaking his shirt.

Red, dried blood that had dripped from his lips.

She broke into a run, stumbling toward him. His eyes were closed, his breathing ragged. Her fingers found his pulse and it was there. Weak and slow, almost not felt.

"Urawa," she whispered, close to his ear, pulling him near her with difficulty. More blood oozed from a huge, gaping wound across his abdomen. "Hey, Urawa."

"Professor, we must get inside."

She ignored Kurama. She started shaking the man in her arms. "Hey, Urawa. Hey, answer me!"

He started stirring and she waited. She waited and looked only at him, listened to him take a labored breath and open his bloodshot eyes.

"Chi—Chiaki." His voice was hoarse, as if he'd injured his throat. Had he been screaming in agony? Had he been throwing up blood?

His hand found hers and squeezed. She squeezed it back.

"What have they done to you?" she asked, letting the tears fall. "Who did this to you?"

But he can only shake his head. "Don't. Cry."

She held her breath. "Urawa, please, what's happened to you?"

"Everything. Taken." His voice was too weak.

She leaned in and placed her ear to his mouth. "What did they take?"

With each word his breath that fanned her ear grew thinner. "Evidence. Letter."

"What letter?"

"Yama. About book."

"Yamamoto's book?"

He drew a sharp breath. "I to you."

"What do you mean?"

When she heard nothing but an intake of breath, she twisted back to look at his face. He was mouthing words to her. She couldn't understand, and she started to panic.

God, he's not going to make it—

"What do you mean, Isamu?"

His eyes widened at the mention of his given name. This prompted a very small, almost imperceptible curl to his lips. But she saw everything, she memorized everything. From the tilt of his nose to the wrinkle on his temple.

And she read his lips when he voicelessly uttered, "Suki."

And she saw him close his eyes.

It started to register and her mind tried to go blank, to shut down. But he wasn't breathing. He didn't move and he didn't respond when she called his name.

He was not with her anymore.

He had left.

"Isamu?" she called again. Still no response. "Isamu."

A hand on her shoulder. Kurama's. It was too warm compared to Isamu's still form.

"Isamu?"

"Professor, let's get him inside."

She turned to Kurama.

"Is he gone?"

He sighed. "I can't feel anything from him."

"He's gone."

"He is. I'm sorry."

"What do we do?"

"Let's set him inside."

o-o

Kurama was soon ushering the professor into her apartment and hauled Urawa's body on his shoulders. For someone who just lost a friend, Aoshi seemed to take it well. She even ran up to a guest room and fixed the bed.

"What do we do now?

He corrected himself; she wasn't taking it well. Aoshi seemed to have taken being submissive to a whole new level that didn't become her.

She was in denial.

"I'll give Botan a call—"

The hairs in the back of Kurama's nape stood on end and he jumped, pulling the professor to safety. The window shattered to a hundred pieces in front of them, covering Urawa and the table. His defensive plants had sprung into life, holding at bay one of the hybrids that were too familiar to forget.

Screams emanated from the whole complex; Aoshi's cries of protest at the fate of Urawa's body were muffled by the shouts of agony of the creature. She tried to break free, but Kurama was quick to toss her on his shoulders and run for her room just as a ball of reiki and youki—(Reiki and youki?)—drilled a hole in the captive's torso.

Reiki and youki?

He put her down before she could even react and before he could comprehend the gravity of the situation. He placed his hands on her shoulders. She was shaking, unfocused.

"Professor, I need you to pack your things. I'll hold them off."

"They murdered Isamu!" she said distractedly.

"I know, and I'm not going to let them harm you. Now pack your bags. Make sure you bring the pieces of evidence that we have. I'll make sure they don't reach you."

Another guttural roar and Kurama lifted a hand to bring his plants to life, ordering them to envelope the whole room, shutting out the sunlight from the window. He flicked his wrist and lit up several lamp weeds, alarmed at the increased intensity of shaking from the professor at the sudden, split-second darkness.

He turned to her again, the tears on her face glanced by the lamp weed's light. "I'm giving you five minutes, Professor. I can't hold them off for long. We need to run. Do you understand?"

"But what about Isamu?"

Was Keiko like this when she saved Yusuke? "If I were him, I wouldn't let you waste this chance to get out and save yourself. Trust me, Professor. Please."

A blast shook the ceiling and sent the lamp weeds swinging.

He gave her a pat on the shoulder before running to the window. He let his plants slide it open and vaulted out into the open yard. It took a moment before his eyes adjusted to the bright sunlight but when they did, he did a double-take. Several half-demons were trying to climb to the professor's window and he took out his whip without a second thought.

Summoning a huge amount of youki, his whip grew longer. He jumped, piercing the air. He maintained one form and flicked the whip in huge, precise arcs that took down all of the half-demons in less than a minute.

The tingle didn't go away even as he realized that the area was clear. Angered roars echoed through the compound, and he dashed to the parking area, sighting a dozen more coming from the gate.

He dashed to meet them and didn't hesitate to continue his slaughter, not giving them a chance to react and throw a ball of reiki and youki his way.

Five minutes and this much blood in an open area. It was a mess to be in this business, but it was his choice. Right now, he couldn't care less about the other people in the complex. He would deal with them later. The professor must stay safe. They needed her.

After catching his breath, he threw his whip to wrap around the handrail in the open walkway and pulled himself to stand on her door. Without pausing he immediately bolted for her room and caught the half-open bag that she tossed at whom she thought was an enemy, screaming for mercy.

"Professor!" he said calmly.

She instantly stopped.

"The coast is clear. Let's go," he said, reaching a hand to her.

She hesitated, blinking several times at him. He couldn't fault her. This must be the most terrifying fifteen minutes of her life.

When she didn't move, he grabbed her hand. It was clammy and cold, but he didn't mind.

As they passed the hallway, she said, pulling him to a stop, "We can't leave Isamu behind."

"Botan will take care of him. I promise."

She searched his eyes and bit her lip. After shifting her weight on the balls of her feet several times, she said, "I need to see him one last time."

They'd lost so much time. But he nodded. "Please be quick."

She silently walked inside the ramshackle room and after three agonizing minutes that put them closer to the danger that they weren't fully out of just yet, she emerged, face wet and hands bloody.

When he took a second look at them, he realized it wasn't Urawa's.

It was hers.

"Let's go," she said, walking past him. Too calmly, almost dead.

And when she did, he knew.

She would never be the same.

A/N: Did you expect that?

Hello, readers! In case you were wondering, yes, I'm still alive. I'm so sorry it took almost two months for this long overdue update. I was so caught up in real-life college happenings that I wasn't able to find the drive and time to sit with this story. But now that the holidays are here and the term has come to a close, here I am again! Please expect another update soon. We're going to pick up immediately where we left off since it would be terrible not to know what would happen to Chiaki given that she's been through a lot just now.

I don't think greeting you "Happy holidays" would go well with the way this chapter went, but I hope you like it enough that you would leave a review (oh please do, this is a turning point to this story). Thanks to everyone who stumbled on this fic and decided to put it up for their alerts and faves! I love you all.

See you! Ciao!