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 VI

"Yeah, as long as we know we're trapped, we still have a chance to escape."

― Sara Grant, Neva

o-o

Guns

"I don't believe she's been anything but helpful since she came to us," said Yusuke, frowning at Kurama when he came to relay the reason for Aoshi's distress. She'd gone to sleep an hour ago, exhausted from the emotional encounter they'd quietly shared.

"I agree with Urameshi," said Kuwabara. "Besides, if they've been meaning to get cloning materials from us, they should have gone through with it since the first attack."

Hiei cleared his throat. "Don't you think she's projecting too far from what is happening? How sure is she that they're after us?"

Kurama felt his friend's statement was loaded. "What do you mean?"

"Yusuke was correct to say that the enemies are steps ahead of us. Don't you think they'd predicted our movements quite accurately? On top of the last attack coinciding with our retrieval of evidence from Urawa, they were able to escape our most recent raid."

"What are you exactly driving at, Hiei?" said Yusuke, his frown deeper than ever.

"That they've anticipated every single one of our moves whether it involved her or not," said Hiei, his patience quickly dwindling. "We're banking too much on the certainty of what she says that we forget this isn't something she's entitled to figure out like a puzzle all by herself."

Brashness was one of Hiei's most endearing traits, and he couldn't keep himself from holding his friend in high regard after the most sensible position he'd voiced out in a while.

"So you're saying we don't listen to her now?" said Kuwabara.

Hiei rolled her eyes. "Did you even understand what I just said?" he asked, already at his limit. "Whether what she's saying is the true intention of our enemies doesn't matter anymore. We just have to face them when they come."

"But you do realize that our next potential encounters could be with clones of ourselves, don't you?" said Kurama.

"I do, and I'm telling you, it's not the wisest move they've had in a while," he said, tut-tutting. "I hate to admit it, but we're not the strongest lot in both the Ningenkai and the Makai. It was an utterly stupid tactic."

Yusuke and Kuwabara's faces morphed in a millisecond and both of them were suddenly doubled over, laughing for a good thirty seconds so that a vein popped in Hiei's temple.

"Man, I'm not laughing at you," said Kuwabara for unneeded clarification.

After the moment of mirth was exhausted, Kurama asked a question they'd forgotten to figure out on their own, "Why then do they want to clone us?"

"Because they're obsessed with superstars?" said Yusuke.

Kuwabara's eyes widened and he turned open-mouthed to his best friend. "Bro, you just said it."

"What?" asked Yusuke in confusion.

"Remember 'Chapter Black'? Humans against demons, demons against humans," said Kuwabara, and Kurama found himself nodding, convinced the younger man already understood. "Not to brag but we're indeed quite known to be supporters of Enki's cause and it's been a while since something this big exploded. There have been attempts to shake up the peace but nothing quite like this."

"You're saying they want to overthrow the alliance?"

"Yes, Yusuke," said Kurama. "It's been the underlying reason to all this."

Yusuke's face fell and he sank lower in his seat. "Everything we're working for will go to waste if we don't stop them."

"You're forgetting something."

"What?"

"Hiei's suggestion. To face them when they come," said Kurama as all three of his teammates turned to him in intrigue. "It's wise to maintain a low profile but inform our allies—the human and demon forces. We anticipate their attack and deploy the necessary troops surreptitiously. This way, we can prevent danger from befalling innocent people."

"And what about us?" asked Kuwabara.

"I guess it's time to go back to the city," said Yusuke, a smile on his face. "There's no more point in holing up in here."

Kurama nodded.

o-o

Someone was laughing. She moved her head from side to side. Nobody was in the tunnel. The laughter grew deeper, louder, almost guttural that it felt she was hearing not a human but a monster.

"Aoshi, how dumb are you?"

Chiaki whirled around to turn to behind her. It wasn't like anything she'd heard before—like a chorus of voices both high and deep, shrill and low. Female and male.

"You're a pawn," they said. Chiaki's eyes welled up with tears. She tried to step forward, but her ankles were deadweight. Her knees gave out under her, and she melted onto the floor. You're a pawn. You're a pawn!"

"Stop it!" she pleaded, covering her ears.

"You're a pawn! You're a PAWN! YOU'RE A PAWN!"

"STOP!"

Something warm touched her hands. It was moist and warm and—when she withdrew them from her ears—red.

Blood.

"They'll leave you to rot, you stupid bitch!"

Blood.

"PAWN! USELESS! WEAK! STUPID!"

"STOP!" she was screaming, tears flowing down her face along with the blood that gushed out of her ears. "STOP! STOP! STOP!"

And then there was silence—silence that came with a ringing deafness.

Chiaki opened her eyes very slowly—a minute flicker of light ahead of her became crystalline from her tears. It flickered again, this time bigger, brighter, and Chiaki's chest heaved with a small hope.

"Who's there?' she weakly asked, her voice a mere feather in the unmoving air.

"Chiaki, you dimwit," said someone.

She knew that voice—it sent a nerve at the back of her head throbbing with excitement and anticipation.

"Forgotten me already?" he asked. "What's happened to you, my dear dim-witted girl?"

Her heart skipped in her chest. "Professor?"

The light flickered once more, only this time infinitesimally longer. "Finally. What are you doing listening to them?"

"Professor, how—?"

"It's a shame but I do not know. Perhaps your subconscious?" he said, already knowing full well what she meant to ask. He always did.

"Why did you call to me?" she asked the flickering light.

He sighed. "There's trouble brewing. Do you remember our secret?"

"The beaver?"

"Not that one. The secret I've shared to you before, stupid."

Chiaki's eyebrow's collided.

"You're my secret-keeper. Don't lose that to them, do you understand?"

"Professor, I don't—"

"Figure it out; you had a knack for it, after all. I must go now. And be careful. Don't trip on your shoelaces."

The light dimmed, reducing in size. Chiaki scrambled to rise to her feet. "Professor—!"

"Bye, Chiaki."

Chiaki opened her eyes with a gasp and she felt cold. She looked at her shaking hands. Finding no trace of the crimson liquid on them, not even a mere drop, she reached for her ears.

Nothing. They were intact and not injured in the slightest.

It was all a dream. A vivid one, but still just a dream. No one would harm her now.

Sunlight poured into the room, telling her it was morning. She was alone, no one had been speaking to her.

Yamamoto had been too cryptic and Chiaki felt a headache coming.

A shrill beeping made her jump, and she scuttled to her closet, wrenching the doors open and rummaging for the source of the beeping. It was her keitai, and it rang with an alarm going off.

An alarm signal from the Kabukicho laboratory.

"Don't trip on your shoelaces."

Panic rose to her chest like bile from the puke that didn't come with the lucid dream, and she found herself throwing the bedroom door open and running out with no particular direction to go to.

"Kurama!" she was yelling, running to the kitchen. "Kurama!"

Several pairs of feet came thundering from different directions, and Chiaki skidded to a halt, tripping on her foot and onto the floor with a loud bang. Confused beyond doubt as to how she'd ended up almost kissing the ground, she picked herself up and tried to ignore the bitch that was her scraped knee. Her friends burst out into the hallway, running towards her in panic—including Kurama.

"Professor—"

She limped up to him and grabbed his shirt. "Kabukicho," she said, brandishing the keitai to let him and only him see.

His eyes widened and his hand found her shoulder, relaying the message that he understood and would take care of it. He spun around to look at Urameshi.

"We must go back to the city. Botan, could you prepare a portal for me and the professor? We must attend to something."

Urameshi stepped up. "Kurama, where are you going?"

"It's—" started Chiaki, irritated, but the redhead held up a hand.

"Trust me, Yusuke. I'll take care of the professor. This matter requires only our attendance and no one else's."

The smaller man pinched the bridge of his nose and stomped his foot in frustration of having been kept out of the secret. "Fine. We'll depart after you."

Chiaki wasn't sure how it happened, but in no time at all, she was being ushered to the swirling vortex she'd only seen a few feet away on one occasion. Kurama kept his hand on her elbow and asked her to step into it ten seconds after he did.

"What would it feel like?" she asked, afraid.

"Nothing at first, but warm cushion after," he said.

Chiaki ran up to the demons she'd made friends with to varying degrees and gave each of them a hug—even Suzuki who affected disgust and Chu who was practically overjoyed. Jin gave her a painful pinch on the cheek before patting her on the shoulder in farewell.

She gave a quick, "See you later," to the rest of the group and turned around to face the black-and-blue vortex that didn't look any different from illustrations of black holes.

Taking a deep breath, she sent a silent prayer for the nearest god within earshot. When she stepped into the hole, it felt like she was suctioned out—falling, falling, falling—

—to Kurama's arms, the air whooshing out of her lungs.

Her heart seemed to have fallen on the asphalt as well and it took her a while to absorb the reality that she was back in the city—in a random, creepy alley with a man who held her in his arms like he'd known all along she would fall from the sky and land on top of him.

He righted her and she wobbled on her feet.

"You were lying," she said, glaring at him.

Kurama only nodded his head in apology. "If I told you the truth, it would have taken more time to convince you to jump."

Chiaki rolled her eyes.

He held her by the hand. "Let's go, there's no time to lose."

The two of them started running, with Kurama leading the way through the maze of alleyways that would take them to the laboratory. He tried to keep up with her pace, but with the imminence of danger staring her in the face, Chiaki could barely move stealthily.

One time, she tripped over a tin can and sent the object flying in the air only to land on the head of a stray cat, which hissed to them in retaliation. When they rounded another corner, she hurt her toe on a fallen brick and Kurama had to stop in his tracks and drag her elsewhere more secluded to make sure she didn't slow them further.

But even with her toe not at all perished, the feeling of dread never left her as they rounded the last corner.

She was sure she'd smelled it, but she didn't dare believe her power of olfaction when Kurama who had presumably a great sense of smell didn't falter in his advances towards the laboratory.

She'd also heard and could almost see them, but she refused to believe that it was too late. Kurama seemed to have refused to succumb to his senses, too.

Because when they stood next to each other, only mere feet from the crowd of people who'd gathered around the burning building that was never presentable in the first place—with smoke that rose higher than she could have ever jumped or tried to fly to—, Chiaki was certain a part of her died.

Her knees gave out under her and she cried.

God, she was so tired of crying.

"You're my secret-keeper. Don't lose that to them, do you understand?"

He couldn't have meant this, could he? Because if he did, she had failed him again. She had failed herself again.

God, she was so fed up.

o-o

He'd sensed the fire even from the first moment he arrived. But he continued on with the professor kept close. She would refuse to believe him, anyway, if she didn't see for herself.

It still disconcerted him to see the shock on her face, the tears that came as soon as it registered and the adrenaline in her blood dwindled. When he held her by the shoulders and hoisted her up to prevent her from collapsing amidst the commotion of people and fire trucks and gigantic hoses, he didn't know what he expected her to do.

But all the same he was surprised to see her trying to escape from his hold and run toward the burning building that held much importance to her.

It was in this moment that he realized how incredibly soft the professor really was—no amount of tears that she'd cried the past two months could sum up the failed look her face and entire being took on. He was convinced that she had finally succumbed to gravity's pull and taken everything she had held dear down along in her fall.

Kurama would have given her the opportunity to express her grief and undergo the due emotions as she witnessed her second home go up in flames, but even with the absence of anything out of place that would normally nick at the back of his head while in a crime scene, he couldn't allow a far more grievous danger to befall her in this state.

He shook her shoulders, forcing her to look at him. "It's not safe here. Let's go."

She didn't give her time to react—he scooped her up and ran fast, away from the commotion. Aoshi continued crying to his shirt as she clung to him, silently awaiting their arrival someplace better, safer. He navigated them through narrow streets and alleyways, shortcuts in the back of abandoned buildings and community ruins, avoiding the traffic and busy pedestrians that would otherwise take notice of them.

It had taken them a long while before they reached his apartment complex, and he commanded the grass to open the gates so that he never had to let go of the cathartic professor, afraid she would only be in a worse condition if he shook her out of her momentary trance.

He walked up the open walkway of the fourth level and through the unlocked front door, closing it behind him through the use of his Eyevine.

The professor only moved from blankly staring when he deposited her on the couch in his living room.

"Kurama—" she said in a gasp.

He placed a hand on her shoulder. "It's all right, Professor. We're safe now."

"Kurama, I had a dream," she said, her eyes glazed over with wet tears. "Professor talked to me again. He said I had to keep our secret safe… but the lab's all gone up in smoke. I can't think of anything else that he'd asked me to keep."

She could barely focus, shifting her gaze every which way. Kurama crouched in front of her, keeping a steady hand on her knee. He wanted to tell her that it was merely a dream and that she should not rely on something as uncertain as such but he knew it had something more to do with a distant memory that tried to resurface and come to her attention.

"Don't be too hard on yourself, Professor. You may rest now. We'll talk about this later," he said, trying to placate the growing nervousness that showed through her body language.

Her lips quivered and she covered her face with her hands. "I'm just so tired of it all. Everything's gone."

Her muffled declaration stirred something inside Kurama. No words of comfort came to him, and even when he tried, he couldn't bring himself to negate the truth that she herself had already latched onto.

"Professor, would you like to see your room?" was all that he managed.

o-o

Kurama knocked at her door for a good minute before she slid it open. To say that she was not in her best form was understating the state he found her looking up at him with red scleras and a flushed face.

"Professor?"

"Sorry, Kurama. I know I look horrible but go on," she said.

"The group's come over. Would you like to join us?"

She weakly nodded her head. "But let me wash up, will you?"

"Of course," he said, directing her to the bathroom downstairs.

She came to the living room five minutes later, the remnants of her tears washed away by cold tap water. Keiko immediately ushered her to a seat on the long couch, and Yusuke fidgeted from his perch on the floor, weighing the chances of being heard in this atmosphere.

"We're tailing the arsonists—turns out they're humans," he said and Aoshi looked up from inspecting her entwined fingers. "The human police force and Makai border patrolers have been dispatched and keeping them under surveillance. We're only waiting for clearance to leave. Hopefully we get down to the masterminds this time."

"There's a huge certainty that the next attacks will be launched in the Ningenkai," said Kurama, to further explain the situation. "The Makai troops have yet to deploy their raid teams to another island that they've been surveying. We'll be gone for however long it takes for the enemies to attack, and we need all of you to stay here at all costs."

"No visitors, no opening of the doors and windows," said Yusuke.

Aoshi had looked like she wanted to say something, but she hesitated and sank in her seat.

"And Professor," said Kurama, so she looked at him with empty eyes. "You, especially, will have to keep this promise, do you understand?"

Her head bobbed down weakly. "I do, and I promise."

Kurama stepped around the couch and to the kitchen counter, taking a bottle of brewed concoction for incognito. Aoshi eyed the purplish liquid with trepidation but took it from his hand.

He would rather that she disguised herself than have the enemies realizing he sheltered a potential target in his home.

She uncapped the bottle, wrinkled her nose, and downed the contents in several large gulps. Empty bottle in hand, her hands shook and gripped Keiko's as her hair became blonde and curly.

When the transformation had come to a halt and her grip on her friend's reddened hand slackened, she turned to him with soft blue eyes that were neither calming nor alluring. Even when he knew it was the same person he'd come to care for, he felt slightly detached.

He tried to convince himself it was an indication of the efficacy of the concoction.

They all prepared to take leave and were soon given the bearings of their destination—some miles south of the city harbor.

He turned a last time to the professor who stared at him with a worry made more prominent in her clear, blue gaze. He took her hand and squeezed it, bending down to whisper to her ear.

"Don't ever think you're any less than you really are, Professor."

He pulled away slowly and lifted her hand, placing a soft kiss on her wrist, just above the thin skin protecting her pulse so that it throbbed against his lips.

Without letting her respond, he stepped into the vortex.

o-o

The efforts Keiko was exerting to make lighter the cloud of doom in the apartment were much appreciated, but Chiaki couldn't help but feel bad about this. There was something wrong, and she could feel it in her bones even in the confines of the supposedly safe sanctuary.

But she had to have faith in the capabilities of the forces that were up against the fiasco that could potentially harm everyone in both the Makai and Ningenkai.

Her eyes darted about the austere living room ridden of anything grandiose and extravagant, perfectly unpretentious like Kurama's real persona. Low-key and always trying to blend in, the redhead had become a source of calm amidst the hubbub that was her life. She feared for his safety, knowing that he could face someone as strong as he, if not stronger.

He had been extremely in tune with her, knowing exactly what she needed without having to be told. It would be a pity to lose someone as capable as he was to a danger that she never knew had always lurked about the shadows of this evil, evil world.

It unsettled her even more knowing that she was supposed to be aware of Yamamoto's secret. Her dream was indeed a mere dream, but it was a sign regardless of its sham. It was her subconscious trying to tell her that she was missing something important that the enemies thought they could have found in the laboratory.

She had long concluded that Yamamoto had hidden whatever it was that they required quite effectively that they'd decided to get rid of his last footprints in this world at long last.

Triumphant as the end result was, Chiaki couldn't shake that they were now more desperate to find the solution to the puzzle that even she didn't know the nature of.

She wracked her brain for the answers, tuning out the low volume of the television that her companions had decided was an effective tool to pass the time as they waited with not a single clue as to what could have happened to the boys.

She tried making sense of the effects of trying to use the boys' DNA to generate clones. Yamamoto would have known how to devise a protocol to produce something as elaborate as genetically-recovered clones of both demons and humans since he had extensively studied them.

Cloning took time and a lot of attempts to perfect, but with the previous attacks and the reports of the enemies' underground lair, Chiaki could hardly disregard the effects of the supernatural circumstances on the possible scientific backlogs of such endeavors.

It had been almost four months since the first attack and possibly the first time they could have collected DNA material from the boys. Chiaki doubted four months would have sufficed had it been under "normal" scientific setting.

But what was the catch?

She couldn't even begin to think what the reason was for the responsible to go through something as horrific as trying to clone possible equals of the boys, but she could at least come up with a speed bump that could have retarded their progress. A speed bump that Yamamoto had known long before he decided to quit and succumb to death. Isamu, too, if the circumstances of their deaths were anything to go by.

Taking a deep breath, she tried to remember what she knew:

Dolly the Sheep died half as old as most sheep. This is because she had shorter telomeres in her chromosomes courtesy of the sheep from which Dolly's genes were taken. Shorter telomeres indicate that the genome has undergone repetitive replication since birth, and is hence indicative of the age of any organism.

Genes would normally undergo mutation during development, brought about by several mutagenic factors such as drugs or radiation.

Mutant genes from a source would naturally be passed on to the clone—favorable and otherwise.

Chiaki would have gone on and on about the nuances there was to a feat as complex as cloning, but she couldn't find any more advantage to it except perhaps the obvious: to preserve the species (especially those endangered).

So why would they wish to clone powerful people given the drawbacks to the due process?

Ding dong!

Her heart flew out of her chest from the sound that disrupted the monotone of the television drama. The five of them silently exchanged glances, and Shizuru surreptitiously rose from her perch on the floor, snuffing out the end of her cigarette on the ash tray.

Botan stood as well, bending over as she followed Shizuru to the door. Yukina beckoned for Chiaki and Keiko to move behind her, and they glued their backs to the wall, craning their necks as far as they could go to see Shizuru and Botan on the door without revealing their perch.

Shizuru barely extended her arm to reach for the latch after peeping through the hole when the door swung open to reveal a woman who jumped in surprise after seeing the equally shocked faces of Shizuru and Botan, her bag of groceries almost keeling over.

"Mrs. Hatanaka!" said Botan cheerfully but quietly as Shizuru took the grocery bag from her. "How nice to see you!"

Chiaki blinked repeatedly to absorb the features of their unexpected guest. Dark brown hair, dark almond eyes, a kind albeit wrinkly smile…

She'd seen her face somewhere before. Chiaki whipped her head to turn to the frame sitting next to the television set. Three people were in it—a baby bundled in sheets, a red-haired man, and a younger Mrs. Hatanaka.

Oh. "She's not Kurama's—"

"Shuichi's," said Keiko quickly just as the three women turned to enter the living room.

The three of them stood straight, greeting the elder lady.

"How nice to see you, Yukina, Keiko," she said, bowing to them as well. She turned to Chiaki and inclined her head in inquiry. "I'm sorry, but your name I fail to remember, dear."

"Oh," said Chiaki, waving her anxiety off. "That's because you haven't met me before, ma'am. I'm—"

"She's a cousin of mine, Mrs. Hatanaka," said Keiko, linking her arm with Chiaki's, much to her surprise. Why did she have to cut her off? She could introduce herself just fine. "I'd like you to meet Yukimura Chiaki."

Oh.

Hatanaka's initial reaction of wonder turned to comprehension and she was suddenly bowing to her with her genial smile in place.

"Nice to meet you, dear. I'm Hatanaka Shiori, Shuichi's mother. I'm sure you've met him," she said.

"The pleasure's mine, and yes, I have."

Hatanaka turned to the others. "Fancy seeing all of you here, but my son, has he been here?"

"He was here about an hour ago," said Botan. "But he left, said there was an emergency with the boys."

"That boy should know better to remember to call me when he's in town," said Hatanaka, sighing.

"I'm sure he only wanted to surprise you."

"I doubt that, dear," she said, beckoning for them to come with her in kitchen. "Goodness, why are the windows shut?"

She didn't even require an answer as she flicked the lights on herself.

"On the way to the grocer's, I remembered he was running low on his supplies," she said, sorting out the goods from the bag Shizuru had brought to the counter. Chiaki hung about the back of the crowd surrounding her.

"I've been paying visits since he'd gone about two months ago, hoping to see him home like I always do when he forgets to call me."

Something about the way Hatanaka pattered on told Chiaki she was extremely anxious to speak to another of her sex about Kurama's exploits.

"He told me he'd be gone again because of something he doesn't want me to know—oh, would you like something to eat, dearies?" she said, catching herself as she stashed away the eggs, Keiko and Shizuru helping with the vegetables.

Botan waved her head in declination. Chiaki copied her.

Hatanaka took the cue to go on with her soft, babbling confiding. "I was so worried, I really am. Granted, he's given me calls now and then but he never answered my questions regarding his spontaneous trips. It becomes so often that I find myself not caring anymore—which is completely unacceptable!"

The sound of wood against wood echoed through the otherwise silent room as she pulled open a built-in drawer in the counter where she placed a new set of chopsticks into.

"It wasn't the most pleasant feeling in the universe, but I swear, my son is just as secretive as he was when he was younger," she said, turning her full attention to Chiaki, Botan and Yukina. "It has driven me insane time and again, but I'm his mother. I knew he was special and I had to accept that. I trusted him even when he didn't return the favor."

She turned to look at Keiko and Shizuru who hovered behind her.

"Too untrusting, doubtful of even his friends. Honestly, did he think the neighbors would do something as outrageous as peek through the windows to see how gloomy his house is? Or perhaps try to barge in to find anything when neither can I?"

A crash made all of them jump and turn to the back door.

Bang… Bang—

Shit.

"I'll hold them up. Run!" Yukina said, running in front of the door and raising her hands in front of her.

Chiaki froze.

"Out of the way, Professor," said Botan before grabbing her by the arm.

"What's going on?" asked Hatanaka.

"Beats me, ma'am," said Chiaki before she was painfully dragged away by a panicked Botan.

The five of them were suddenly running to the front door as the temperature in the kitchen dropped. Chiaki looked over her shoulder, past Shizuru and Keiko and Hatanaka, and she saw Yukina's turquoise locks being blown away by a blizzard that gushed out of her hands and onto the door and the wall, leaving it frozen.

Botan blasted the door with a gun she whipped out of nowhere, the tiny balls of blue light shaking the door off its hinges, and the five of them burst out to the walkway, running towards the lifts.

Her heart rang in her chest and Chiaki looked back once more. Yukina was already running with them, and a confused Hatanaka was panting her lungs out.

Three figures materialized from the stairs in the opposite end of the lifts—plainly humans—and Chiaki grabbed her arm from Botan's hold, pausing to ring the doorbell of somebody's unit.

The girls seemed to have caught on and rang the doorbells of every single unit as they ran in a single file, Yukina working her magic to freeze the hinges just as the doors were opened by curious neighbors.

Chiaki punched at the elevator buttons, biting her lip as one by one, the frozen doors were kicked and taken down by solid arms and strong feet, much to the neighborhood's fright.

At last the door dinged and they filed in, Chiaki pounding a fist on the buttons. The doors seemed to take forever to close, and she could hear the thundering feet of whoever was after them—

Yukina blasted a new trail of freezing snow to the figures just before the doors finally shut.

They didn't even have the chance to take a breath as they all bounded out the moment the lift doors opened, running like wild animals to the parking lot. The hot afternoon sun beat down on them as they raced through the maze that was the parked cars, oftentimes bumping against the side mirror, ensuing a grunt of pain from one or two of their party.

Chiaki ended up in the middle of the group, armless and only wishing to run away from the now five people who were chasing after them.

By the time they reached the gates, Chiaki was positive that after all this—she sincerely hoped it would end—, she was going to pass out from the adrenaline that kept her lungs from giving out. She should have quit smoking, she really should have.

Their group turned a corner. Botan led them without looking back through a series of narrow alleys and dark paths, through the back of a huge building in the edge of ruin.

The six of them stopped against the blackened wall, catching their breaths and their sides aching. Chiaki wracked her brain for something—anything that would explain why they had to be chased down through five miles.

"Down!" yelled Botan, and the four of them did as she said, covering their heads as a series of gunshots echoed from her end.

When it finally stopped, Chiaki started running again, bringing up the rear. Their pursuer had a gun. Shit, they had a gun.

It was illegal for civilians to possess firearms.

Chiaki's lungs were not being considerate. Breath short, she stumbled against the concrete just as Botan once again yelled the command to get shelter from the bullets, Chiaki ending up sprawled against the ground in her haste to seek safety.

Her face almost smacked the pavement if not for breaking her fall with her elbow, and she tried to get up.

They're after me, I know they're after me. The man fell down and Botan beckoned for them to run as she lowered her odd-looking gun.

They're after me.

Despite the burning pain on her elbow, Chiaki managed to think a single thought: she had to get them out of here safe. She wouldn't let anyone get hurt because of her—not Keiko or Botan or Shizuru or Yukina. Not Kurama's mother.

With this resolve, she looked back for the fallen person's body only feet away from her form, deaf to Shizuru screaming for her to get up already, unmoved by her attempt to pull her back. She instead crawled her way to the man, hands and feet used to scuttle and retrieve his arms. Her shaking hands groped for the gun in the dark, old asphalt, for the man's jacket—for the magazines.

It was almost instinctive—knowing where to find the effects of a gun man.

She felt the cold metal singe of the gun at the same time as her other hand landed on the magazine pouch. The same time a set of footsteps registered to be coming from opposite directions—one from her back and the other up front.

Chiaki raised the handgun in front of her with a painful twitch of her broken elbow, ignoring the footsteps behind her. A gunned shadow fell on the asphalt as another man ran up to view, and Chiaki pulled the trigger.

The man didn't even have time to react as he fell down from the wound to his jaw.

She reeled from the force of the gun, almost toppling backwards but she stood her ground.

God, she just killed a man.

I just killed a man. I just killed a man. I just killed a man.

"Chiaki."

She heard the surprise and disbelief in her voice, and Chiaki refused to be affected by it. Yes, she could aim and shoot. Yes, she just killed. But she must keep them whole and alive.

She took the gun fallen from the man's hold, running as she heard more footsteps coming their way.

"Let's go, Shizuru."

She pocketed the magazines and the new gun and got up from her kneeling. She pushed the older woman forward, unfreezing the other four up ahead.

It was best to hope that they remained alive after this.

"Do you know how to use one?" she asked Shizuru as they ran to a brighter street in the middle of residential compounds.

Botan ducked to another alley behind a grocer's and the rest of the group followed.

"No," said Shizuru, panting. "Wonder why you do."

"Long story," said Chiaki, disappointed that there was no one else to help her but thankful that she wouldn't have to make guilty anybody else.

Aiming for the man's face had been impulsive as it had been years since she held a gun—since she had used it against her father. She was lucky to still know the basics: "Ready. Aim. Fire," as the scum had chanted endlessly when he arrived home drunk.

Chiaki had no idea there would come another time to make use of the skill she learnt by observing her father's drunken demos that she had no gall to refuse and by practicing with an empty gun while he was away. It was a miracle she had never been the receiving end of his gun except for once, which was when she had started to hate him and found herself more interested in learning to handle the weapon to use against him for later.

But she never pulled the trigger. She couldn't kill the animal. She instead ran away.

She had always been a coward herself.

"Shit," said Shizuru as they dropped behind a wall.

"What?" she asked in befuddlement.

"The brew's worn off."

Chiaki reached for her hair. It was dark again. Shit, shit, shit. They left the bottle in the house!

Another set of footsteps were coming up behind her and she whirled about, aimed for the hand and pulled. Metal on metal, the gun flew out of the man's hand, and Chiaki wasted no time to shoot him in the ankle.

He fell to his side, and she sprinted away to catch up with the girls.

More of them kept coming, and Chiaki made sure not to kill—she disarmed them and shot at their foot, hindering them from keeping up. It was the best her cowardice could offer her.

It became clear as day that they were after her when she shot about the tenth person who hesitated to release a bullet as soon as she faced them with a gun raised in front of her. Whoever wanted her needed her whole.

There was no use to running away anymore. They would find them soon enough and Chiaki had no choice but to come with them.

"Botan, set up the portal, will you?" said Chiaki as they went up behind a particularly narrow dead-end, crouching behind some trash bins. "We need to get out of here."

They had to get out of here.

Chiaki looked back to see Hatanaka. She was shaking from fear and confusion but refused to ask questions even as Chiaki replaced the already blank magazine of the first gun she managed to retrieve.

She appeared extremely pale, almost ashen. Chiaki came up to her and placed a hand on her shoulder.

Hatanaka's eyes snapped to meet hers—they were so beautifully brown yet filled with so much fright that Chiaki had to grip the gun she held harder, keeping it away from the mother's line of vision.

"Ma'am, we're getting out of here, you understand? Please pull yourself together," she said, patting her gently on the cheek. "You're going to see Shuichi soon."

"Who're you, really? At least tell me, dear."

She bit her lip. "Aoshi. Aoshi Chiaki."

"My son, where is he?" Hatanaka asked, clinging to her desperately.

"He's safe, ma'am. I assure you that."

For a moment, the mother didn't look convinced but then surrendered to the requirement of blind faith to a complete stranger who happened to know how to use a gun. Hatanaka nodded, her shaking reduced but still there. Chiaki couldn't blame her.

She took the gun Botan had let go of while she attended to the portal and forced it to Shizuru's hands. As long as it was Botan's, it wouldn't be destructive of life—as much as she had gathered from the absence of wounds in the bodies that received the bullets made from pure balls of light, of energy.

"I'm going to stand near the corner and watch out for them. You stand here and take care of the others, got it?" she said, projecting as much command in her voice as she could.

Shizuru tut-tutted, this time clearly worried. "You're going to kill yourself."

Chiaki smiled. "I'm good with a gun. Rusty, yeah, but still good."

Shizuru didn't take her eyes off her until they heard loud footfalls from around the corner. Chiaki placed a finger to her lips as soon as the others realized the presence of someone else.

Botan was almost done with the portal and Chiaki stepped closer the opening of the alley, the cold metal gun raised to her side, ready to fire. She pressed her back to the wall, inching closer and closer, trying to sense the proximity of the danger.

A footfall against tin and Chiaki pushed herself up from her cover, aimed the gun at the man's hand—shocked as he was—and shot. A second bullet connected to his foot, and Chiaki bent down to take cover again.

She looked back to her friends and found them covering their lips to help themselves from gasping. She couldn't blame them for being surprised. It was almost an organic rapport—her and a gun.

Had she not been trying too hard to be different from her utter-piece-of-shit of a dad, she would have probably been in the police force. She had always revered him after all when she was younger, when he was still better.

The portal was almost finished—Botan held up a finger. One minute more.

One minute too long to escape and not surrender herself to them to cover for her friends now that the other pursuers would have heard the two gunshots.

Chiaki remained bent by the wall, breathing shallowly despite her lungs almost giving out. She should really quit smoking. But god knows she would another stick right now if she could.

She was so screwed. Her heart was racing a hundred miles per second. She was scared and she was high and she was many things all rolled into one at the pit of her belly that she couldn't relieve as she crouched in hiding.

Please don't let them come yet. Please.

Fate wasn't kind as several—Shit!—footsteps echoed from the direction her latest victim had come running and towards their hideout.

Chiaki's eyes were almost blinded by the sweat that drenched and rolled on her forehead, and she didn't dare move to wipe them.

The footfalls were getting closer and closer.

"Professor!" said Botan in a harsh whisper.

Chiaki could almost hear herself cursing as the footsteps came sprinting now, aware that they were hiding in a dead-end in the middle of a neighborhood they no longer identified.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

"Professor!" said Shizuru, the panic in her voice echoing through the alley.

It was too late.

Chiaki whipped around to look at them. "Go already. I'll go in after all of you."

"We can't leave you here."

Chiaki bit her lip as the footsteps were no farther than ten meters from jumping right at them. "Listen, I'll come after you. I promise."

The girls just stood there, staring at her. Left with no choice with the enemies only a few more footsteps away, she pulled out her spare gun and aimed at Shizuru's hand.

Bang!

The gun—now a useless metal contraption—catapulted through the air in a large arc and landed in a corner.

"They need me. I'll be safe," she said.

The footsteps sounded almost a hairsbreadth away.

"GO!" she yelled, setting everyone to motion. Shizuru stared at her, dumbfounded, and Botan pulled her to safety, next to Keiko who was cajoling Hatanaka to jump in as Yukina had done.

Chiaki smiled at them before she jumped out, the two guns held by her hands aimed at the crowd of men standing in front of her, their gun's ends only a mere foot away from shooting her into oblivion.

"You're after me," she said with gritted teeth. "Take me and no one gets hurt."

A/N: I really got nothing to say except for that we've only got two chapters left.

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See you!