A/N (3-31): Spelling fail. 'Moredo' should have been 'Morado'. Fixed in this and subsequent chapters

Misaki paced nervously near a row of dumpsters behind the high school. She could hear the sirens of the fire truck that had been dispatched to put out the car fire, and hoped no one had gotten a description of her leaving the scene. It was just a car, she told herself. No one got hurt. Fortunately, she hadn't heard any gun shots; Hei must have been able to sneak onto the grounds without too much trouble.

She heard Yin's voice over the radio directing Hei to the parking garage, and listened with bated breath to the doll's warnings of another contractor's attacks. She wished she could see what was happening; aside from wanting to back up Hei if she could, she'd only ever seen glimpses of him in action. At Park's house fighting KV-464, he'd looked like a dancer, graceful and intense. When he'd knocked out VI-952 in front of her and Saitou, it had been over in an instant; then he'd disappeared just as quickly as he'd appeared. Not for the first time, she wondered if he had deliberately timed it so that he'd saved them, or if it had just been luck.

"Yin, stay on the car!" Hei said, his voice low and cutting. She heard nothing else for another couple of minutes. Misaki was about to ask what was happening, when she heard a scraping sound behind her. She spun, hand darting beneath her blazer to retrieve her weapon. But it was just Hei, dropping down from the alley fence. He wasn't wearing his mask; blood ran down his face from a slice along his hairline. Neither of the girls was with him.

"Are you alright?" Misaki moved forward to look at the cut, but Hei brushed her hand aside.

"It's fine." He wasn't meeting her eyes, but it wasn't hard to detect the anger that was simmering just below the surface of his blank face. "Yin?"

They both waited for several tense seconds; then Yin said, "The car turned onto Gaien-nishi Dori. I can't follow it."

Hei turned and slammed his fist into the nearest dumpster, the metal clanging loudly. He moved to punch it again, but Misaki, her heart in her throat, caught his arm with both of hers. "Hei, calm down!"

"I'm sorry," Yin said.

Hei took a deep breath, then let the air out slowly. "It's not your fault, Yin."

"They took her in a car?" Misaki asked, relieved that he was calming down, although he still seemed to be struggling to contain his anger. She was more than a little terrified at the thought of him losing control of himself, and didn't let go of his arm. There was an obvious dent in the dumpster where he had hit it.

He nodded, jaw tense, and wiped the blood out of his eye with his free hand. "Morado put her in a car and took off while I fought with another contractor. Cars are hard enough to track, but the streets are too dry for Yin right now, and he saw her specter anyway; he'll know to stay away from water."

"Morado?"

"The contractor with Jiao-tu. I knew him in South America," Hei said. There was a dangerous glint in his eye; Misaki did not want to be anywhere near Morado when Hei caught up to him.

"Okay," said Misaki. "This is good."

Hei gave her a sharp look, his eyes narrowing. "Good?"

How was it that she was the one thinking rationally here? "Yin, did anyone see your specter when they still had Xu in the basement? When you were repeating their conversation?"

"No," the doll answered.

"Good," Misaki repeated. "I didn't understand the Chinese, of course, but I know I heard something about Yokohama, after the car fire started."

Hei frowned. "Yokohama…they said something about going to a base in Yokohama, I think; I didn't catch it exactly."

The beginnings of a strategy were forming in Misaki's mind. "There's a large Chinese community in Yokohama. The MSS deals mainly with policing their own citizens living abroad, it would make sense for them to have a base of operations there, someplace secure where they can take Xu until they get the key." She still didn't know why the MSS were after the key when they didn't have the research files it decoded, but that didn't exactly matter now.

"If she's smart, Xu will tell them where she hid the phone; they won't risk hurting her until they have it. With all the confusion at the embassy, hopefully it will take them a while to get organized and go after it. And if they didn't see Yin's specter, they don't know that we know that that's where they're headed, so they won't be in any hurry, and they won't be expecting us."

"They'll need to regroup first," Hei said, the relief evident in his voice. "I still have time to get to her."

"And outside of the embassy, I can be of more help," Misaki added. "Strictly speaking, I don't have jurisdiction in Yokohama, but my badge will still open doors that may be useful."

"You still want to help?" he asked quietly.

"Don't be stupid!" She couldn't keep the edge from her voice. "Foreign intelligence kidnapped two girls in the middle of my city; of course I still want to help!"

Hei smiled at her then. It was slight; it wasn't a happy smile, it wasn't the kind of smile that she'd loved seeing on Li's face, but it was real. Her heart skipped a beat. Then he looked away. Without a word he removed his arm from her grasp and took off his gear bag, then stripped off his coat and gloves. Misaki watched as he pulled a worn red jacket from the bag and put it on, hiding his knives. He folded the black coat quickly and placed in it the bag, then stood again. He settled a navy blue baseball cap on his head, pulling it low over his cut; the bleeding had stopped, but there were still smudges of red on his temple.

"Here," Misaki said. She reached up and wiped the worst of the smudges away, then tugged some of his hair down to hide the cut. Finished, she started to bring her hand down, but he reached up and grasped it gently.

"Thank you," he said seriously, and she knew that he meant it for far more than just helping with the hat.

"My car is still at Xu's apartment, but that's between here and Yokohama; we can pick it up on our way," she said, trying not to lean in and kiss him.

Yin broke the spell. "It's too far," the doll said. "I can't see."

Hei let go of Miskai's hand and turned abruptly, heading down the alley towards the street. "It's out of range for the radios in any case. It's not going to be easy locating them in Yokohama without Yin."

Misaki caught up to him. "Go pick her up. I'll get my car and meet you at…Shinbashi?"

"Alright. Yin, wait for me at the station. Both of you turn your radios off for now."

They walked to Roppongi station in silence, then split up; Hei heading north and east to meet Yin, Misaki heading south to Ookayama and her car. As she crossed to her platform, she watched him waiting for his train, hands in his jacket pockets and looking bored; she only saw his tense impatience because she was looking for it. It was a good thing he'd brought the baseball cap, though. It did more than just hide the cut on his forehead; it hid the deadly determination in his eyes.

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Jiao-tu squished herself against the door of the sedan, trying to keep as far away from the contractor as possible. This seemed to amuse Chuzi to no end, but he didn't try to crowd her space. Instead, he relaxed into his own seat, took a length of kite string from his suit jacket pocket, and began playing a game of cat's cradle, whistling softly. Xing used to love that game, Jiao-tu remembered sadly. The two of them had played it all the time, while they waited for their brothers at Grandfather's school or after their dance class before one of their mothers came to pick them up. Seeing the familiar designs forming around the hands of the contractor made her feel a little ill.

Her own hands were bound in front of her now, tied with a plastic zip tie that Zhang had gotten from the guard who was driving them. So much for not being a prisoner. She wondered where the other guard had taken Mei-li.

Zhang turned to the back seat, scowling. He was obviously used to sitting in the back himself and being chauffeured like most party officials; but, like Jiao-tu, he appeared to be too afraid of Chuzi to argue the point.

"Who the hell was that? How did he know where you were?" the MSS officer asked angrily. "You were told not to contact anyone!"

"I didn't!" Jiao-tu protested. She was remembering her earlier thoughts, that the man in the park might have been Tian. Now that same man had appeared at the embassy. His height and build fit, but he'd been so terrifying. Could that really have been Tian?

"Hm, who indeed," Chuzi said, working the kite string through a series of intricate patterns. "After the key, I am guessing - he does not know she does not have it."

"How did you miss him tracking her? I'm beginning to regret hiring you," Zhang said, turning back to the front and straightening his suit irritably.

"I am no doll, to be detecting threads," Chuzi replied mildly. "I did not even see any ghosts. Except the one in the garage, when he already had found us. Even so, if you were not hiring me, I promise you, you would be dead at the embassy."

Zhang gave a snort. "Shanzi will take care of him."

Chuzi shook his head. "O Anjo Negro? He will be slowed by Shanzi, but Shanzi will be killed by him. Poor Shanzi." He didn't sound at all sad about Shanzi's potential death. "Still, moving cars are not so easy to follow. Yokohama is too far for his water doll to track, and he does not know we are headed there; if Shanzi slows him long enough, he will not find us. Boa sorte para nós."

Jiao-tu was getting confused by their talk of dolls and ghosts, but at Chuzi's assurance that the masked man wouldn't be able to follow them, her heart sank. She had been hoping that the masked man was Tian, she realized. At least Tian didn't seem to want to kill her, unlike Zhang. After all, he'd known that that file was on her phone all night, and hadn't tried to take it from her. He'd even told Kirihara that he didn't care about it. Was Kirihara right? Could she really trust him, despite all the lies?

They drove for a few more minutes in silence, the city rushing past. The dark tint on the windows made it seem as if the whole world was enveloped in shadows. The contractor eventually stopped his game; but instead of putting the string back into his pocket, he considered it thoughtfully.

"Ah!" he said suddenly, making both Jiao-tu and Zhang jump. "Now I know why it is you look familiar!" Jiao-tu tried to avoid his intense gaze, but it was impossible in the confines of the car. "I see Hei at the embassy, and I think, ah, it is true, he is a contractor now. And I see his power, and I think, how strange, that he is having the same ability as his sister. And here is my answer - you, you look like his sister."

Jiao-tu blinked. Hei? She thought back to the conversation between Tian and Kirihara; what had he said? Xing became Bai, and I became Hei. It hadn't made any sense at the time, his talking about them becoming white and black, but now…were those names? Strange names, if they were. But no stranger than Chuzi or Shanzi. And Hei certainly fit a killer who dressed all in black.

"Sister? You mean…Bai?" she asked tentatively.

"Com certeza! Such a deadly dancer, that one is," Chuzi said. Then he frowned. "But you are not Bai. You are another sister? A…what is it, who is next to a sister? Ah, a cousin, perhaps?"

Jiao-tu tried to think. Should she admit to being Tian's cousin? What would Chuzi do if he knew that she was?

She decided to avoid the question, and asked one of her own instead. "How do you know…Hei and Bai?" Zhang was listening in the front seat, she saw, and she was afraid that Chuzi wouldn't answer. But he didn't seem to mind the audience.

"We were teammates for a time, they and I, during the troubles at Heaven's Gate."

The South American war? Tian and Xing were in that? Jiao-tu was interested in spite of herself - Tian wouldn't tell her anything about his life for the past ten years, maybe she could learn something from Chuzi.

"Were you friends?" she asked.

"Friends? Bai and myself are contractors, Anjinha, and contractors do not have friends. And Hei, he is o Anjo Negro, he has no friends, only enemies. For a time, though we follow the same orders, I thought he would kill me in my sleep."

"Why would he do that?" Jiao-tu asked, aghast. The cousin she'd known would never do something like that. Had Tian really changed so much? …But he must have, if he was indeed the man from the park, the killer in the white mask.

Chuzi gave a laugh. "Because I dare to suggest we leave his sister behind during a mission. She fell asleep, she was too much trouble to carry out. I say, we leave her. He say, he will carry her himself, and kill me if I try to stop him. For weeks after, I see him watching me, and think he will kill me anyway." The contractor was smiling at the memory, but there was no warmth in his eyes. "Eventually, we understand each other; but, I still guard my back. You do not want o Anjo Negro for your enemy."

"What do you mean, Xi- Bai fell asleep?" Jiao-tu asked. "In the middle of a fight?"

Chuzi gave her an odd look. "You know Bai, but you do not know her price?"

"Price?"

"It is why we are called contractors," Chuzi explained. "To use our abilities, we must pay a price. Bai, she must sleep. I, I have my string." He held up his hands, the kite string still woven in a complicated pattern.

Tian had said something about Xing falling asleep as a price, Jiao-tu remembered. Like half of what he'd said though, she hadn't understood it. "What happens if you don't pay?"

The contractor laughed again, teeth flashing. "Nothing good, Anjinha. Hei, he watched over his sister every time she make her payments. So strange, to the rest of us. So human, caring for a sister who no longer cares for him back," Chuzi mused, his smile slipping. "I had sisters, once. Sisters, brother, cousins. I hear what is to happen to Heaven's Gate, and I do the rational thing - I run the other way. Never do I think to even warn those people, who used to be minha família."

"You're from Brazil?" Jiao-tu asked. "So, all your family was killed when Heaven's Gate disappeared? That's terrible!"

Chuzi gave a casual shrug. "Família means nothing to contractors. Means nothing to me."

You can always bargain with a contractor, she'd heard Tian say. Contractors were rational. Chuzi didn't care about his family, but he did care about himself. She thought she saw a glimmer of hope, so she took a risk. "He's my cousin. Hei. He said he isn't interested in the key on my phone, he only wants to keep me safe. He'll kill you if you hurt me." She wasn't sure if it was true or not; all that mattered was that she convince Chuzi that it was.

But he dismissed her assertions confidently. "If Hei were not now a contractor, if you were Bai and not you, yes, you would be right. But he is a contractor, and so he must be rational. He will come for the key, not for you. And as I say before: he will not find us in Yokohama. But this is a good thing - you think you want o Anjo Negro to find you, but you do not."

He kept saying that phrase, in his native tongue. "What does that mean?" Jiao-tu asked. "O…what is it?"

"O Anjo Negro da Morte. What is it in Chinese?" Chuzi pursed his lips. "Black, eh, black ghost, maybe? No, no… Eu não sei - Zhang, my friend, what is the word? The good ghosts? Not Asian ghosts, European."

Zhang's mouth twisted when Chuzi called him 'friend', but he answered anyway. "Angel, you mean."

"Angel, is it? Yes, you are probably right. Black Angel." Chuzi turned back to Jiao-tu. "I shall not tell you how he came by that name; you would not sleep."

The contractor's smile alone was enough to keep her from sleeping, Jiao-tu thought, but Tian's new name, a twisted perversion of his true name, was even more chilling. The Black Angel. Hei Tianshi.

Portuguese translations:

o Anjo Negro da Morte...the Black Angel of Death
Anjinha...little angel
Boa sorte para nós...good luck for us
Com certeza...certainly/of course
minha família...my family
Eu não sei...I don't know

Chinese translations:

Chuzi...cook
Shanzi...fan
Hei Tianshi...Black Angel