Kurei lowered himself painfully onto his bed. He was going to be feeling the after-effects of that evening for a while... He shifted his weight carefully to his side. It had been an ordeal, to say the least. Looking back, he wasn't quite sure how he had managed to survive it. Even if they were only high-school kids...

This wasn't comfortable. He turned ever-so-slightly to a better position. He had rapidly improved against the girl, and had almost taken her out with a particularly good shot. It had severely injured her leg. But before he could follow it up, her giant mohawked friend had come barreling onto the scene. He was past reasoning with-- Kurei couldn't have made him believe that she had attacked first, even if he had tried. It was like Kage Houshi had taken over their minds...

It had taken a superhuman effort, but he had managed to defeat the both of them. Kurenai was going to get an earful about this in the morning...

He fell asleep plotting what he could do to Kage Houshi when he next saw her.

****

It was nearly midnight. Mikagami was walking from the video store. He had nearly forgotten to return the video games he had rented. Fortunately, he had barely managed to avoid the late fees.

A woman in a black dress was walking towards him, carrying an unconscious figure with some degree of difficulty.

"Young man! Excuse me," said the woman, stopping him as he passed by. "But could you give me a hand? This girl is surprisingly heavy."

Mikagami didn't want to be detained, but he stopped short when he recognized the girl. It was one of the lower-classmen at his school, Sakoshita Yanagi. The one he had been silently watching since her first semester here, because she looked so stunningly similar to his dead sister, Mifuyu.

"I'll help," he said shortly. "What happened to her?"

"Oh, it was so terrible," said the woman, looking worried. "She was over at the school, and there was a fight. A girl and a boy there had things... I don't know, they were called madogou, or somesuch... and this man wanted them. They were fighting over them. This poor girl got caught in the crossfire, and I was walking past. I just wanted to get her far away from the school, but I don't know where she lives."

"This is nowhere near her home," said Mikagami flatly.

"Oh! So you know where she lives? Are you a friend of hers?"

"Yes," admitted Mikagami, not looking at the older woman. He didn't want to admit that Yanagi only knew him by reputation, and they had never really spoken. "My place is much closer. I can take care of her until she wakes up."

"I don't think she'll remember much of what happened," said the woman, as they walked towards Mikagami's apartment together. She silently thanked her grandfather, who had taught her the technique to ensure the memory loss. "But she wasn't too much hurt in the fight."

"The man who wanted the madogou," said Mikagami casually. "What was his name?"

"I think it was Hanabishi Kurei," said the woman, pretending to think it over. "Yes, I do believe one of them called him that."

****

Kurenai frowned, perplexed. "That makes absolutely no sense," she said, over lunch the next day. "Why would they do such a thing? And how?"

"It was that thing on her hand," explained Kurei, not sure of how to describe it. "A whitish bracelet armband thing... she stopped when I broke this large crystal in the center of it."

"But why would they attack you?" persisted Kurenai.

"Why would Kage Houshi attack us?" he replied, moodily staring into his teacup. "But she was behind both attacks."

Kurenai stood up reluctantly. "I have to go to class," she said. She leaned over and gave Kurei a quick kiss on the forehead. "Take care of yourself," she said in concern.

****

Koganei stared intently at his opponent. Would she go to the right... or would she choose the left? "The left, the left, the left," he willed.

She chose the right.

A look of relief crossed her face. "Yahhhh, you're the Old Maid!" Ganko exclaimed, reveling in her cardplaying skills.

"Yahhhh!" he replied derisively. "It's just a game."

"Yeah, and I won!" said Ganko proudly. She snuggled up in Reira's lap. Reira patted Ganko on the head in her most congratulatory way.

"So what?" replied Koganei, pretending he didn't care. "You're such a kid."

"So are you."

"Not as much as you."

"Oh, yeah?"

"Yeah!"

"Oh, yeah?"

"Yeah!"

"I know what you are, but what am I?"

"You're such a kid!"

"I know what you are, but what am I?"

The arrival of Raiha managed to stop the potentially infinite debate.

"Koganei! There you are... Mori Kouran wants you and Mokuren to see about a little task..."

The boy jumped up, pleased at a chance to escape from Ganko. Just because they were the two youngest members of the Uruha, didn't mean he had to babysit her all the time. Let her go play with her dolls...

"Sounds good!" he said. "Is Mokuren back already? I thought he was dealing with the Yakuza."

"He'll be back tomorrow," answered Raiha. "But I wanted to get you fully informed about everything before then. You can tell Mokuren when he gets back."

Koganei nodded. "What kind of a job is it?" he asked, trying to mask the hesitation in his voice. He disliked killing people... those jobs were best left to his partner. Now, damaging people... he didn't mind that as much. Especially if they gave him a good fight in the process. He picked up his Kougan Anki and trotted alongside Raiha, swinging it cheerfully. He hadn't had a good fight in a very long time.

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