For the past two days, life had seemed almost surreal to Jiao-tu. She watched the other students in her classes, blissfully unaware of the existence of contractors, or else cheerfully discussing the rumors as if they were fairy tales, or a story out of some comic book. She wasn't going to disillusion them; she wished that she could go back to that comfortable naïveté herself.

Saturday and Sunday night she'd hardly slept at all for the dreams - dreams about windstorms, and blood, and betrayal. But she still meant what she'd said to Tian and Chief Kirihara; as much as she'd like to forget what she'd seen in the park, and in Yokohama, she never wanted to forget her cousin. No matter how bad the dreams got, they always ended with a man in black - sometimes with Tian's face, sometimes with a blank white mask - telling her that it would be alright, that she was safe. And she knew that he was telling the truth. The dreams would probably fade with time. She hoped.

With the death of Iwakara and Arakawa's arrest, Jiao-tu's physics class was cancelled until they could find a replacement teacher, and she now had Monday afternoons completely free. After lunch, she was heading off campus to meet Liang when, with a shock, she spotted Tian on the crowded sidewalk up ahead of her. He gave her a significant look when he saw that he had her attention, then disappeared behind a building. He'd made her promise to pretend not to know him if they ran into each other in the city, but it looked like he wanted to talk to her. She shifted her bag on her shoulder, glanced around to see whether anyone was watching, then followed him around the corner.

He was waiting for her, leaning up against the wall with his hands in his pockets. He looked just like any other student on campus; she still found it hard to believe that he was nothing of the sort.

"I thought I wasn't supposed to see you," Jiao-tu said. She was still a little angry with the way he had left her in Yokohama, but glad of one last chance to talk to him.

"I wanted to give you this." Tian withdrew a purple phone from his pocket, the same as the one he'd burned. "Purple's still your favorite color?"

"Yes," she said, taking the phone. "Thanks - I hadn't figured out what I was going to tell Mom and Dad about my old phone yet. Wait, you didn't steal this, did you?"

He gave her a look. "I do get paid for what I do."

Jiao-tu wasn't sure she liked that idea any better than him stealing it for her; but then again, he had been the one to fry her old phone, so he ought to be the one to replace it. Although, if she was being fair, Arakawa should have been the one to replace it, but he was currently in the hospital, nominally under arrest.

"Thanks for finding Mei-li."

"Is she alright?" he asked. He sounded like he genuinely cared; the old Tian certainly would have.

Jiao-tu nodded. "She had to get some stitches, and she has some pretty bad burns, but she'll be alright. Chief Kirihara says that she'll probably be able to keep Mei-li from getting formally charged with anything, but she'll still be deported, for spying." Jiao-tu had spent most of the day yesterday at Kirihara's headquarters giving her statement, and the other woman had filled her in with what she knew, as well as given her the printouts of the photos that the police had pulled off her phone, for which Jiao-tu was grateful. "I haven't talked to Mei-li yet; my other roommate and I are going to go by the hospital this afternoon and see her."

"That was brave of you, trying to save her like you did. Stupid, but brave. Like a dragon."

Jiao-tu blushed at the compliment. He was smiling the shadow of a smile, almost affectionate. It was a far cry from his old smiles; she hated to think what his life was like now, that it was so hard for him to be happy.

"So," she said, turning the phone over in her hands, "you can use electricity? That's your contractor ability?"

"Yes," he said warily.

It was a fascinating idea; she'd spent a lot of the past two days thinking about it. "What sort of things can you do with it?"

He shrugged uncomfortably. "I can prevent memory formation, and I can electrocute people."

"I know that. I mean, what else can you do? How many volts can you generate? Enough to charge a car battery?"

Tian was looking at her like she was a little crazy now, but he answered anyway. "Sure - anything that involves electrical currents, I can manipulate. I can break through electronic locks and security systems, knock out the power to a building, things like that." He scratched the back of his head absently, a gesture that she well remembered from their childhood. "I fixed my landlady's television, and once I restarted my heart."

"Whoa." She didn't want to think about him being in any position where his heart would stop. "What would happen if you got struck by lightening?"

His look turned bemused. "I really don't want to find out. How is your arm?"

She pulled back her sleeve, and peeled back the edge of the bandage. The burn was pink and shiny. "Not too bad, if I keep the bandage on. It would have been worse if you hadn't found me when you did." She sighed. "It's going to be an ugly scar though."

"It looks like mine," Tian said, and showed her the inside of his arm. There was a light scar there, like a pale thumbprint. It did look like hers; that made her feel a little better about it. A little braver.

"Did Chuzi do that to you? He was scary and all, but you - you were pretty amazing." She wished that she could tell her brother about Tian; for all his national titles, he'd never actually fought anyone in earnest. He'd usually beaten Tian in their sparring, but she wasn't sure that he would now. "I can't see anyone getting close enough to hurt you."

He shook his head. "A different contractor. It would have killed me, if not for Yin and Misaki."

"Kirihara told me that Yin looks after you. I'm glad you have someone like that. And Kirihara…are you going to see her again?"

He didn't frown, but she wasn't sure she'd ever seen him look so unhappy. "It's not safe for her to be around me, anymore than it is for you. Besides, she's a cop; it's her job to arrest me. I'm surprised she hasn't tried it yet."

Jiao-tu smiled. "You know, you never did understand girls very well. She likes you; because you're not the terrible person that you think you are. You really haven't changed all that much."

This time he did frown at her.

"I mean it," she said. "Maybe the Tian I remember wouldn't ever have hurt or - or killed anyone, but you risked yourself to protect me. And Kirihara told me that you kept her and Yin from getting hurt too. That's the Tian I remember."

He shook his head. "One good deed doesn't erase everything that I've done. What I'll keep doing."

"Maybe not. But, I think, Tian is part of Hei Tianshi. No matter how much you try to pretend otherwise."

His expression was still clouded. "I don't understand how you can even stand to look at me, after what you saw me do."

Jiao-tu huffed. "You're still my family, stupid." She slugged his shoulder. She was sure that he could have dodged it if he'd wanted to, and was grateful that he didn't. "You know, I was thinking that after this semester ends, I'll go back Xi'an and enroll in a school there."

"Really?"

Jiao-tu nodded. "I miss home. And there's no reason for me to stay here anymore; I found what I was looking for." She smiled at him, then felt her smile slip a little. "I really won't see you again after today, will I."

He looked at her sadly, but didn't say anything. She wrapped her arms around him in a fierce hug. "Just promise me one thing?" she asked. "Find Xing."

"I will," he said, determination in his voice. "I'm glad I got to you see again." He returned her hug, then released her and pressed something small into her hand.

"Goodbye, Xiao-long," he said, and smiled kindly at her before turning his back and walking around the corner of the building, hands in his pockets once more.

Jiao-tu stood rooted to the spot for a moment, surprised by the name. She recovered herself, and dashed around the corner after him; but he'd disappeared. She looked down at the object he'd put in her hand: it was the plastic jade dragon charm from her old phone, burnt black. She smiled.

A/N: One more chapter after this one, followed by an (actual) epilogue. ='(

Chinese translations:

Tian...skyHei...black
Tianshi...angel
Jiao...lovely
Tu...rabbit
Xiao...little
Long...dragon