Misaki frowned down at the two dead men. One had been stabbed through the heart. The other bore no outward appearance of injury, but his face, frozen in a terrified rictus of death, coupled with the preliminary star readings that were coming in, told her everything she needed to know. BK-201.

Damn him.

It had taken two hours for her team to locate the source of the contractor activity. The doll network had been useless; it wasn't until Oostuka had tracked down reports of a disturbance in the park that they'd finally discovered the dead contractors. By then, BK-201 and anyone else who had been here was long gone.

Inwardly, she was relieved. She didn't know what she would do if she came face to face with Hei. If he was threatening an innocent person, she had no doubt she'd do as she'd promised and try to shoot him - but if she'd walked in on this? A fight between contractors?

"Chief, you alright?"

"What?" Misaki looked up to see that Kouno was now standing next to her.

"You seem a little distracted," her subordinate said.

"It's nothing," she said, a tad harshly. "Astronomics reported that two stars fell."

"TX-788 and SY-573," Kouno said. "SY-573 had a wind control ability - he's probably the one responsible for the mess." Kouno gestured at the park. Portable floodlights illuminated fallen trees and shattered branches littering the area. It looked like a small tornado had gone through. "I wonder which one he was."

"Hardly matters now," Misaki said. "What does matter is that he's dead, and we need to know what happened here. Saitou said there was a witness?"

Kouno pointed to a low hedge. "First responders on the scene found her behind that bush, completely terrified. She was nearly creamed by a flying branch. Seems like she saw the whole thing."

Misaki frowned. "Seems like? You haven't taken her statement?"

"Uh, we're having some problems with that. We can't get any answers out of her. She's a foreign exchange student - I don't know whether she can't understand us, or she's just freaked out. EMTs are treating her for shock."

"Where?"

Her subordinate led the way further down the path. Out of the harsh glare of the floodlights, the gravel wound its way through trees, still intact here, until it ended at a park bench under the soft light of a lamp. A small drinking fountain stood nearby.

A young woman in her late teens sat on the bench, clutching a blanket around her shoulders as if it was the only thing that existed in the world. A man in the uniform of an EMT was sitting next to her, talking quietly, but she didn't appear to be aware of him.

Matsumoto was standing nearby, speaking with another EMT. The two broke off their conversation when Misaki and Kouno approached.

"Any injuries?" Misaki asked.

The EMT shook his head. "She's a little shocky, but otherwise in good shape. If she calms down soon, we won't even need to take her in to the hospital."

"She hasn't said anything yet, but she did show us her ID," Matsumoto reported. He pulled a small notebook out of his suit pocket. "Xu Jiao-tu," he stumbled over the unfamiliar name. "Exchange student from Xi'an city, Shaanxi Province, in China. That's all we know so far."

"She has problems understanding Japanese?"

"Hard to say," the EMT put in. "It could just be the shock. Although, it may be helpful to have another woman try talking to her."

Misaki was about to suggest they radio for a female officer to come down when she noticed the look Kouno and Matsumoto exchanged. Oh. He meant her. She ignored her subordinates. It wasn't that she wasn't a kind or friendly person…it's just that nuturing and comforting weren't exactly in her repertoire as a police officer, especially in the middle of a crime scene investigation.

Trying not to frown or look too severe, she approached the bench. "May I have a word with her?" she asked the EMT who had been speaking to the woman. The EMT nodded, and gave her his seat.

Misaki laid a tentative hand on the woman's shoulder. The woman gave a start, and turned to look at her. Her cheeks were streaked with tears and dirt, and there were dried leaves stuck in her short black hair. "Do you understand Japanese?" Misaki asked.

The woman nodded hesitantly.

Good. That was progress. "Your name is Miss Xu, right?" That was the only part of the name Misaki could remember.

Another nod.

"My name is Kirihara Misaki. I work for the Public Safety Bureau - the police." The woman seemed to be following her so far, so Misaki continued. "Can you tell me what you saw tonight?"

The woman's lower lip began to tremble, and her eyes welled with tears. She seemed to be fumbling for words, then shook her head violently.

Misaki squeezed her shoulder gently. "It's alright, you're safe. We're the police, you can tell us what happened."

The woman started talking then, but in rapid Chinese. She stopped long enough to shake her head again, and say in accented Japanese, "Can't say. Please. So sorry." She sounded utterly miserable.

Misaki turned to her subordinates. "Has anyone tried getting a translator?"

"We haven't been able to find anyone in the department," Matsumoto said. "And the Chinese embassy is closed until the morning."

Misaki suppressed a sigh. What the hell was she supposed to do? They didn't actually need a witness; she knew exactly who the culprit was and where to find him. But she couldn't just walk up to Hei's apartment and ask that he kindly turn himself in - he'd kill her, no matter how much back up she brought.

And besides, she'd given her word she would forget that BK-201's alias was Li Shengshun.

Well, she had told Kanami she'd try and be her old self again. What would she have done if she really had forgotten she knew who BK-201 was? Hm, get impatient, probably.

"That's too long to wait," she said sharply. "We need to start tracking leads now."

"Saitou said he had an idea," Kouno offered hesitantly.

Misaki frowned. "What idea?"

"There's a Chinese guy working at the restaurant just up the block - you know, where we get take-out from for the office."

"A civilian? That's against protocol. We can't bring someone like that in on a case like this," she said.

Kouno actually looked relieved at her severe tone. Had she really been acting so differently? "Yeah, I know. But we knew you wouldn't be happy about waiting all night for a translator…"

"Chief!" She turned, and saw Saitou walking up the dark path, another man beside him. Misaki rose from the bench and went to meet them.

"Saitou, this really isn't -" She cut off abruptly when she saw who Saitou had brought. Her heart skipped a beat. Possibly ten.

"Hello, Chief Kirihara. Good to see you again."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"L-Li!" Kirihara stammered, cool composure gone in an instant. Hei wondered if she was blushing; it was too dark to tell. "I didn't - I mean, I didn't know you were the one Saitou went to get."

He believed her; the surprise on her face was too genuine. But she took a deep breath, and recovered herself.

"Normally, we wouldn't bring in a civilian for this sort of thing - it's against protocol." The police chief shot a glare at her subordinate, who looked abashed at the silent reprimand.

"It's not a problem," Hei assured her in his Li persona, eyes open and smiling.

"I really don't think that's for you to say," Kirihara said pointedly. Obviously she suspected his motives for agreeing to help.

But he hadn't had a choice, really: he'd refused Saitou at first, explaining that he'd already taken his break and couldn't leave again in the middle of his shift. Except then his manager had stepped in and insisted that Li do whatever he could to assist the police, who were such brave protectors of the city (and such good and loyal customers).

Hei had no qualms about visiting the scene of his crime. He was a little tired after the earlier fight, but he hadn't sustained any injuries that the police would notice. He wasn't even worried about the witness - there had been nothing to witness that the police couldn't deduce on their own. If this person had been close enough to see the hand-off, Yin would have picked them up.

No, he was just a little reluctant to meet Kirihara Misaki again. He thought he had a good handle on her character - but she was human, which meant that she was unpredictable.

She'd also promised to shoot him if she met him again as the Black Reaper, and he didn't know if this situation counted or not.

"No, that's up to you," Hei said unconcernedly, still smiling. "But I'm happy to help."

"Thank you," Kirihara said, still eyeing him. Hei was suddenly glad that it was so dark; he had no idea what expression her eyes, usually so warm, held, and he didn't want to know.

Finally she said, "I suppose since you're here, you might as well." The damage has already been done, is what her tone was telling him.

She motioned towards the young woman sitting on the bench. "I think she understands Japanese pretty well - we just need you to translate her answers, and the questions if she needs it. If you don't mind, I'll record the conversation - in case we need to refer back to it later."

In case I lie about what she says, you can verify it with an official translator. "Good thinking," he told her with a friendly Li smile.

"Right. This way." Kirihara led him over to the witness, and touched her shoulder. The young woman looked up at them, and Hei stopped dead in his tracks.

Bai?