Disclaimer: I don't own Ao no Exorcist.

Note: This story jumps right in at the end of chapter 52, and since further chapters hadn't been released at that point, it completely diverges from canon.

"So where is Izumo now?"

Rin broke the silence. Takara had finished telling his story of Izumo and her relationship to the Illuminati. Her involvement had been more complicated than they anticipated, it was not the story they were expecting. Shiemi was especially distressed. But Rin also wanted to hurry up and take her back, along with Shima. Takara dismissed Mike, and stuffed the incredibly-expensive puppet in his bag. Then he pointed to the Dream-Town Inari, the massive apartment complex across from the Inari Shrine.

"Down there." the puppet flapped its jaw.

"I could sense my tracker at that place. There are many underground levels in that complex. It is the lab that the bastard fox was talking about." it said matter-of-factly.

Suguro and Konekomaru couldn't help be annoyed by his attitude. Suguro couldn't help but want to punch him. But it wasn't the time for that right now.

"People live there! Attacking it would cause a huge commotion." Suguro said.

"Before that, we should report to Sir Pheles, he might have further orders." Yukio said.

Yukio walked over to the stairs and dialed a number. A flamboyant voice rang out on the other side of the line.

"Mephisto speaking!~"

Yukio reported the situation. First, he explained what he had heard from Mike about the Kamiki family, and that the Illuminati seemed to be using the power of the nine-tails in a bid for immortality. He further explained what they had all learned by talking to the tourists. Dream -Town seemed to bring fortune to those who lived there. The Inari gave people sort of unnatural attraction to it, but they only had a sneaking suspicion that the Illuminati was behind this without knowing any other details. Then he finished it off by saying "We've found the Illuminati lab, but it seems to be under the apartment complex. We can't attack it openly, unless we find a way to get rid of the residents, or enter the lab stealthily."

"Hm?~ Well, young children like yourselves can easily get around without attracting suspicion! I suppose just sending the six of you in worked out well."

"Surely you or the Order would have more experienced exorcists able to pull of covert operations, though?"

"Unfortunately, everyone is still busy dealing with the aftermath of the attacks."

"Yes….but…." Yukio was about to say that someone, anyone more experienced at this would be able to guide them through making the rescue. But then he remembered something. The exwires had rescued Rin before in Kyoto and broken him free, making it past the guards unnoticed. He had known it was Mephisto's work immediately. …Oh, of course.

"How did they break out Rin back in Kyoto? Do you know?" He asked pleasantly.

"Now, what makes you think I would know something like that? My business was to confine him, not release him!~" Mephisto said, knowing neither of them believed it.

"…."

Yukio put his hand on top of the receiver and moved the phone away from his ear.

'One question. How did you break Rin out of solitary confinement back in Kyoto?" He yelled the question in the general direction of the exwires.

"Shura gave us these jackets." Shiemi said.

"She called them camo-ponchos." Suguro added.

"Yeah. They made us invisible so no one could see us." Shiemi continued.

Yukio had thought as much. He turned back to the phone.

"So. Camo ponchos. The same ones you gave Shura. Something like that would be extremely handy right now."

"Could we seriously use something like that again?" Konekomaru asked the other exwires.

"That depends if we can get in contact with Ms. Kirigakure." Suguro said.

"Actually it sounds like they originally came from Sir Pheles." Konekomaru motioned over to where Yukio was silently listening to Mephisto.

"Unfortunately, as I have told Ms. Kirigakure, I have my hands full fixing the barrier around True Cross Academy. I'm afraid you have to rely on your own brains and means, Mr. Okumura." Mephisto said.

"Is it possible for us to just wait for you?"

"I am not sure how long it will take, and time is of the essence. In case of problems you have Takara and the son of Satan there with you, don't you? That should be enough." Going into a melodramatic dialogue, he said "Against all odds, the gifted hero uses his power to attack the lab, fight the evil mastermind, and save the damsel in distress! It's a story that I always find so entertaining."

Yukio could practically hear him making overblown gestures over the phone. But he was disgusted. 'He sends us on a suicide mission because he thought it was 'entertaining'? This isn't a manga! Things never work out that well! He has to be plotting something'

Then Mephisto became serious again (by his standards, at least). "But more importantly. Mr. Okumura. My mind has been occupied with something lately, as I'm sure yours has, too. Rin Okumura is not the only son of Satan on this mission. Perhaps there is something you can do as well?"

Yukio's eyes widened. "What are you talking about?" he said uneasily.

"I wonder. In any case, farewell!" Mephisto hung up.

'He knows about my eyes' Yukio realized with a mixture of horror and shock. 'He knows, and he's scheming something.' Yukio's thoughts raced as he lowered the phone. 'He knows even more than I do. He probably has all of the answers I need. Then why hasn't he told me?! What was he hinting by saying that? Have I already inherited the flames? But that's impossible. I'm tested every day, I was tested yesterday and they haven't found anything. I'm a human, he should know that too.'

Rin noticed Yukio silently brewing over something, staring into the distance. So he got up and walked over to him.

"Hey. Yukio."

Rin attempted to put a hand on Yukio's shoulder, to turn him around. Yukio slapped it away, turning to Rin, and for a second he gave him an exceptionally tense, icily vicious glare. Yukio's mouth tightened, and Rin withdrew his hand, a bit apprehensive but mostly concerned. Yukio breathed, shut his eyes for a second, regained his composure, and smiled again.

'What the hell is up with him?' Rin thought. 'It looks like relaxing at the festival didn't help him any. He wasn't this bad before. It's gotta be that thing he's hiding, messing him up. Ugh it pisses me off! If I ask again he's just going to brush me off… He doesn't rely on me at all!' Rin felt bitter. As soon as this was over with he and Yukio were going to need to talk. He wouldn't take 'no' for an answer.

Unnoticed, Takara observed Yukio silently, keeping a careful eye on him and considering something.

"So it seems we're alone in this. We have to rescue Kamiki ourselves. It seems Sir Pheles will not be able to lend us the same equipment everyone used in Kyoto. Or anything else, for that matter." Yukio had gone back to teacher-mode.

'Or he simply won't.' He thought quietly. 'He knew that Ms. Kamiki would get kidnapped. Otherwise, Takara would never have had the chance to put that transmitter on her. How did he know? Why did he let it happen? Why send -us-? He had every reason to prepare a proper exorcist squad, or even demonic items that we could use to rescue her, if he really wanted her rescued. What the hell is he trying to do?!.

"Um…maybe we can sneak through the air vents?" Shiemi suggested.

"That only works in movies. In real life they're too small to fit human beings." Konekomaru said.

Rin looked at Konekomaru. They both shared a moment of silence.

"You might fi-"

"THEY'RE TOO SMALL EVEN FOR ME!" Konekomaru flipped out. Rin realized he probably shouldn't mention Konekomaru's size again, ever.

"Ventilation systems...Underground..." Yukio said, thinking out loud. Then an expression of realization hit him.

"We could gas them! Put them to sleep with Etorphine or Atrophine! The concentration wouldn't be interrupted by air coming in from outside…."

"But we still need to do something about the residents. The gas will get back up into the apartments." Konekomaru said.

"Yeah… that's true. We would need to find a point in the vents where the air blows only into the underground levels, and then make sure old air is circulated out without affecting the other levels. We'd need to figure out the layout of the vents before knowing if this is safe to do." Yukio covered his mouth in thought.

Rin was visibly not fond of the idea. He'd rather just go in and fight his way through. He said as much.

"How about I just break in and rescue her?" Rin said with a toothy smile.

"Because we don't know what measures they can take against demons, or what kind of familiars they have. " Yukio said, annoyed.

"I can get through all the wards, and holy water doesn't hurt that much."

"And you were unable to kill a single ghost alone. We need to do this as a team."

But the others were willing to go along with anything. The problem, they all realized, was that they had no way to keep the gas from affecting the wrong people.

"Then let's focus on the layout of their lab first." Yukio insisted as he began walking toward the stairs that led down to the street. "Sir Pheles said we had to do this as quickly as possible."

The others followed him. The mood was heavy again, the enjoyment from the festivities and the food had worn off. They went down the stairs and through the entryway of the observatory, making their way through the busy street toward the path that led to the shrine, and presumably to Dream-town. The shrine and the alley, and the apartment and the shrine were both connected by a single long, heavily shaded pathway with benches lined up along the path. The massive, and admittedly gaudy looking apartment building showed itself through the trees. As they walked closer, it started to tower above them. Before they had reached the entrance, they convened again. From that exchange, it was basically understood that they would go in as normal guests and look around. They would try to pinpoint cameras, avoid them if possible, and find any ventilation shafts. Shiemi's and Takara's familiars would enter through the shafts and survey the layout of the subterranean levels and find any links to the upper levels. They would also have to find any rotaries and understand how the air was circulated. Most likely, the layout for the Illuminati lab wouldn't have been found on the building plans in the municipal government's records and their office was certainly not nearby, so they couldn't look there. There was no time to waste by searching. If the doors were locked, they would pretend they had a friend living there and wait for an opportunity for someone to let them in.

Thankfully, the sliding doors weren't locked. On the contrary, the place seemed more like a hotel. There was a reception desk was off to the left, in the corner near a wide window. The lobby was a good seven or eight meters high, with a dimly lit chandelier in the center. There were two sets of old European-style lounge areas on each side of the entryway. All of the furniture was covered with expensive red velvet, and the legs had complex adornments with a golden fringe. The miniature round coffee tables in the middle of the furniture sets were cut from dark, polished oak. There were carpets in the entryway between the two lounge areas, leading up to a wall and splitting into two hallways on either side at the end. The carpet itself was decorated with white fox illustrations, ending at the base of the ten silver fox statues lined up against the edge of the opposite wall.

"Hello! Welcome to Dream-Town-Inari! How are you doing today?" A woman in her mid-twenties with black hair and a slick blue uniform asked from behind the desk.

"Is this your first time here? Would you like to look around? I can show you if you'd like. It's my job to be a guide for anyone interested in living near Inari!"

Several of them nodded slowly and smiled, a couple had hesitant looks, and Rin and Takara had blank faces. Tour guides. In an apartment building. This was not part of their plan. They all appreciated this, as maybe some new information would slip up about what the Illuminati were doing, but they also had to ditch or distract her quickly. Somehow.

"That's great! I am sure you'll love it here! Come with me."

The guide sauntered off from behind the desk and to the opposite side of the room, and looked expectantly. They all followed.

They didn't know what they were expecting. The woman talked, but had nothing useful to say. It was all about good luck brought by visiting Inari, better luck by living at Dream-Town, and full-time access to the great food nearby. Some of her lecture was also about the amenities of the apartment building and the size of the rooms. Unfortunately, here, so close to the lab, the exwires were limited in what they could ask, in case this woman knew more than she let on. So nothing important was asked during the exchange. They saw that there were many apartments on the first floor.

Konekomaru was the first to notice a vent shaft by one of the janitorial rooms. He nudged all of the others, one at a time, and pointed. Then he pointed at the guide. Yukio nodded, pointed at her, and nodded again. Yukio started a livelier conversation with the guide, asking about the date of the establishment (which they already knew at that point), and other such things. Meanwhile, the others slowed down. Thankfully there didn't seem to be a camera nearby, so they headed to work. Rin climbed on Suguro's shoulders and reached for the edges of the vent. He couldn't find any screws, so he just yanked the entire thing off. Yukio began to talk a bit louder and more enthusiastically in an attempt to keep the guide's attention.

He gave Rin a dirty look from the end of the hallway.

Rin shot a dirtier look back.

Takara summoned four familiars. One was a "Fashion Doll Mika: Catburgler" complete with a jet pack. He also summoned a similar "Jean" doll. Another seemed to be a miniature Knightmare Frame figure. His final figure was a Blue Fighter figurine. All four of his familiars climbed or flew up the two boys and went into the vent. Nii went with them. Rin slid the vent cover back horizontally into the opening..

"Oi. Hey! Put it back properly!" Suguro hissed.

Rin bit his lip and scrunched in his jaw. "It's not gonna fit! The wall's broken now!" Rin responded with a hushed voice. Indeed, small parts of the wall and some of the paint had come off with the vent cover.

"Then don't break the wall when you pull of off the vent in the first place!"

"How was I supposed to do that?! It was glued on!"

"Both of you, calm down." Koneko said with a hushed voice. "I don't think that the receptionists working the floor up here are Illuminati. But we don't have a lot of time before someone sees and they get suspicious. Hopefully we'll have finished by then. Just get down, quickly!"

Rin climbed back down. Yukio had already turned the corner with the guide, and was still engaging in pleasant conversation with her. The other exwires caught up with Yukio, and continued listening to the guide. Rin didn't do well with long-winded explanations, and was practically falling asleep on his feet. But the onslaught of words from the guide did do a lot to distract him from the matter with his brother.

The guide made a loop along the hallway, continuing her explanation, and then they arrived back at the lobby. The guide asked for their phone number and email to let them know if a space opened up. At first Yukio denied it, but she insisted. Yukio took the pen and paper and wrote down

Suprrrbikinigrrrl29 [yahooco-mail]

The guide gave him a strange look.

"Ah, it's for a friend of mine. She was originally supposed to be here, but something came up." Yukio smiled.

Indeed, that had been Shura's email address. Shura's very old, turn of the century email address that she didn't even know Yukio knew. He was quite sure she was embarrassed about it and didn't want him to know, which was exactly why he had used it. It had the added benefit of annoying her, and being hard for the Illuminati to figure out was connected to someone from the Order.

The guide took the paper and bowed. "Thank you for visiting! I hope you enjoyed the tour!"

"You're welcome!" The exwires said pleasantly at different, uncoordinated times, except for Rin, who was still plenty spaced out and simply smiled. Takara called her an 'Overbearing bitch' and walked out with the rest of them.

The exwires began to walk back down the shaded path. They had to distance themselves from the apartment complex first. They didn't want to loiter around and look too suspicious while they were discussing their plans and waiting for their familiars. They headed in the direction of the shrine. About 70 meters away, they stopped and sat down on one of the benches. Suguro and Shiemi sat down on short stone walls on opposite sides of the bench. They waited. Five minutes later, after a bit of an awkward silence:

"Seriously? We should be in there rescuing her by now. This is taking a really long time." Rin said, exasperated.

Shiemi giggled softly.

Yukio put a hand on his face and sighed. "That's why I said…" He began.

"I know. If we all don't work together we're not going to succeed in this, right? There really is a lot of stuff I can't beat alone." Rin said seriously.

Yukio looked at him, amazed, even happy. That's right, Rin was actually obeying orders, too. Was it the effect of the Seven Mysteries…?

"But still, why not something faster?"

'Sigh…any improvement is good at all, I guess…'

"All of you shut the fuck up, you're annoying. I need to concentrate" Takara said.

"You're the one that should shut up if you have nothing but bullshit to say!" Suguro said.

"Go to hell!" He snapped back.

'Ah. This. If it's not one thing it's another. We're doomed.' Yukio thought.

"Just sitting here in silence is going to be really awkward…" Konekomaru said.

"Just go over there!" Suguro yelled, pointing at the line of benches on the way to the shrine.

Takara must have believed this was a good idea, because he went over to a bench about 5 meters away, and sat in silence again. For about 15 minutes, the exwires began to have a casual conversation.

Meanwhile, Takara observed as his familiars descended deeper and deeper into the Illuminati's lab. Nii had gone to check the first few levels of the apartments, and then also descended. The Jean doll, however, poofed out of existence when it reached the 8th floor. Takara wasn't surprised. He went over to the exwires.

"They have demon wards starting from the 8th underground floor down." Takara said.

"Eh? You can sense that?" Shiemi said with disbelief. She was having trouble even telling what Nii was doing. She looked down, embarrassed. She promised herself that she would try harder in the future.

"Yes. I also lost contact with doll I summoned for Kamiki several hours ago. She is contained in one of those rooms. Let me see if there are ways through the wards."

Blue Fighter, the Knightmare Frame, and Mika descended to the same spot. Takara made sure not to make them follow the same path that Jean did. The Knightmare Frame ran along and above the hallways, Blue Fighter and Mika took paths into some of the rooms. Takara had a lot of luck with the Knightmare Frame's route, but after a few rooms each, Mika and Blue Fighter had both disappeared. A few moments later, when Nii had reached those levels, he disappeared too. The Knightmare Frame was actually able to make it all the way down to the bottom of the lab. However, this had taken another 20 minutes.

"It's only the rooms. The hallways are not warded. Also, there are 14 underground levels." Takara finally said.

With a poof, the Knightmare Frame disappeared from its place in the vent.

"I feel the layout of the lab now." Takara continued.

Shiemi took out her summoning circle, bit her finger, and summoned Nii.

"Nii!"

"Hey…!" she cooed, smiling. Then she looked up at Takara.

'I wish I could do that…See what Nii sees." she thought solemnly.

Sensing her wishes, Nii jumped about a meter away and landed on the pavement. Exclaiming 'Nii' loudly, he generated a complex cube of tree and plant roots, around 120 cm high and 200cm across. Intermixed, jutting through the middle and around the sides of the roots were deep red stems of pokeweed, and in several places along the pokeweed structure the berries bloomed. The structure was actually split into two halves, one longer than the other. The longer half also had higher roots, and darker, possibly to represent Dream-Town. The layout of the building in the subterranean levels below it consisted of smaller rooms circulating around large auditoriums, one above the other, each a few stories high. The other half had no surface level, but it did have berries on the surface in several places. The halls and rooms were arranged in a more traditional structure, with a central hallway, and split hallways in a square shape, which combined together to form the kanji for "naka" (中)

"Nii…?" Shiemi gasped.

"So you're not a total good-for-nothing." Takara said.

"Is this the layout of the building?" Yukio said slowly, examining it.

"The red stems must be air shafts. And if that's so…then these berries are conductors…" Konekomaru added.

"It's still missing levels. The little green midget bastard didn't make it down all the way." Takara said

Shiemi looked hurt. "…Don't insult Nii." She said under her breath, as she glowered at Takara and learned what 'dislike' felt like for the first time in her life.

He ignored her.

"Here."

Takara's puppet traced a finger along at the bottom of the root system.

"The layout of these floors is the same as the upper ones." He motioned with his finger in the air 6 times, moving downward, indicating the as-of-yet invisible 8th-13th floors below Dream-Town. Nii generated them, following his fingers. "The 14th floor is different. There are two large rooms in the upper right-hand corner. Possibly the living quarters of someone important." Takara pointed to the corner on the side away from the exwires.

"And this side." He pointed to the shorter cube, indicating the section that wasn't under the apartment building. "It runs on a separate circulation system. The air circulation through this one is stronger. The air is carried around the perimeter of the building through these vents. Then it goes into these vents that cross the center of the building." He pointed at the pokeweed that ran through a square, a little bit inward. Then he motioned towards the pokeweed branches that connected the ones around the perimeter of the building through the center. "However, some air is cycled into the lab through a circulation system within the apartment building. That's up here." Takara motioned to the center of the apartment building in one of the janitorial rooms, the berries there, and the branch that moved downward. "There is also air circulating out, into the apartment building, in five spots." He pointed to five places, including an area by the lobby.

"We need to siphon that air out, somehow. Shiemi should probably focus on that. Takara's familiars can carry gas canisters into the rotaries on the other section." Yukio said. He sighed. "And we are going to need a lot of gas. I have a Link Key, so I'm still able to get to the armory at the True Cross Academy and return here with supplies. Etorphine is the stronger chemical, in intravenous forms it can knock out an elephant, so it would be a safer bet to go with the gaseous version of it and use lower doses. We're also going to be making our attack from two different directions, so I'll need to bring some canisters to the cram school before I come back. Those of you who go into the apartment will be able to pick up the canisters from there using your keys. We won't be able to move around well with that many canisters, and I don't remember seeing any matching doors in the apartment, so can you all help me scout the area for doors that might be a bit closer to the other rotaries? "

"Yeah."

"Okay."

"Whatever."

"How long is this going to take?" Rin was dying of boredom.

They walked back toward Dream-Town, except when they neared the building they took a left onto a narrower alleyway. This was also completely shaded by trees. They were not having any luck. The area around Dream-Town was quite rural. In other words.

"We really can't find anything!" Rin grabbed at his hair in frustration.

"I guess we'll just have to go in the other way?" Shiemi said.

"It's going to be a lot slower."

"But not impossible. It would have been better to mount our attack from here, but we can still do it from in the apartment using Takara's familiars. We're going to need at least 30…"

"Let me help too!" Shiemi interrupted.

"Excuse me?"

"Let me help! I'll try to summon more greenmen." Shiemi's eyes shone with determination. "And I'll try to be able to sense them too!"

'If I can do this, I'll get stronger! I have to get stronger so he doesn't call Nii rude things! I can't lose to him.' She thought.

"Shiemi…I don't think… No, nevermind. If you could summon more than one familiar, that would be really helpful. But your greenmen should focus on redirecting the external air."

"I don't think that's the ability of an ordinary tamer." Yukio thought.

"In any case, I can't use a link key to connect the armory to the apartment doors, so we're going to have to do it through the school… I'll need some time to prepare." He continued.

They headed back to the apartments, back toward the shrine, intending to head toward the foxes' alley again. Yukio needed a wood door. Naturally the exwires began talking amongst themselves again.

"It's so pretty out here. Izumo is lucky." Shiemi said

"It reminds me of the summer camp." Rin said.

"It's not like we went there to relax back then….And we didn't come here to relax now. We've got to set Shima straight. " said Suguro.

"He'll come back. I'm sure of it. He runs away from things a lot. But when it really matters, he'll come back. He saved my life when we were fighting the Impure King." Konekomaru said, wearing a heavy expression.

"So that's why you trust him?" Yukio asked.

"I trust him because I think I know why he did this… He grew up in the Shima family even though he's that sort of easygoing person. The Shimas are dedicated members of Myou-Da. It doesn't look like he wants to be a part of that, but his family expects it of him. Everything I've seen of him leads me to think he's fed up with it, because he has no motivation. His parents have realized that too. So they've stopped treating him as well as their other sons."

'Family expectations again…is it?' The story was a bit different, but it had shades of Toudou. And shades of his own worries as well. Shades of Toudou was bad. If Shima had shades of Toudou, then he was most likely gone for good.

'Ignored? By his own parents?' Rin thought, appearing concerned. Shima had seemed like a happy-go-lucky guy, the kind that didn't even care if someone called him uncool. Was he smiling and faking that as well?

"Just those reasons could have been enough to turn him traitor. Are you prepared to face that reality?" Yukio said. After all, it was too much like Toudou. And Toudou was unsalvageable.

"Heis not a traitor. He's just lost." Konekomaru insisted.

"The Illuminati has a way of attracting people who can't meet the expectations of the people around them. There's a chance he's too far gone."

"And how do you know that?!" Konekomaru snapped.

"That's not something I have the privilege to share. But depending on his answer we might have to turn him into the Order as a prisoner."

"Yukio, what the hell?! Shima's our friend! We're taking him back! And there's no way I'll let you hand him over!" Rin yelled.

"I feel the same!" Konekomaru yelled with an unusual sharpness in his voice.

"The Order does not know of this yet!" Takara interjected.

Yukio stared at them with a steely expression in his eyes. "What he is….is a danger if he's left to do whatever he wants in the academy."

"I know my eyes! And they aren't wrong!"

Yukio's expression got even colder. "Your eyes were already fooled once. Shima has proven himself to be an excellent liar, and he will lie again."

"You've known him for 8 months. We've known him our entire lives. The Order doesn't know anything yet. And if Sir Pheles doesn't say anything they won't. And if they don't, they don't need to because it will just cause problems!" Konekomaru's desperation showed through. The desperation to protect one of his lifelong friends, he realized, was something he would go to any lengths to uphold.

"That's TREASON. No, setting aside that we don't know what the rest of the Order knows at this point, just saying that could get you excommunicated! And if you continue this I will see to it that you are." Yukio threatened.

Rin punched a nearby tree out of anger.

"What is WRONG with you!?" Rin screamed. "Now it's Konekomaru?! Listen, I know you're always going on about how I'm not doing this or that or yadda yadda and you've always got a stick up your ass. But you've never, never been this bad with anyone else. Aren't they your friends too?! Even Shima!"

"I'm an exorcist! I'm doing my duty! Duty trumps friendship, and right now Shima is an enemy! So they are being a danger!"

"Like hell they are!"

"They are. They really are." Yukio laughed a bit. "I get it now. Sir Pheles sent us because we would be the only ones stupid enough to bring back the traitor. He's a schemer. Maybe they'll both trick us into trusting them while they hide the defection and pull something again. Or maybe Shima is just one of Sir Pheles's people. Maybe it's both! Mephisto's a demon! Do you really think he's on the side of humanity? You heard it right? He knew this would happen. And he's a Demon King! They're probably all working under Satan!"

And he wants to turn me into a demon and make me lose myself to Satan's power.

Rin caught a glimpse of Yukio's expression as Yukio raised his chin a slight degree. Wide eyed. Crazed. Completely insane. Yukio had no control of himself any more. 'Something is seriously, seriously wrong with him. This is worse than I thought! Jeez, Yukio you stupid…' "You're crazy!" He exclaimed. "You've gone absolutely off-the-walls crazy! Whatever your problem is it's rotting your head!"

"I don't have a problem!" Yukio exclaimed back. "I'm the only sane one here!"

They had reached the Foxes' Alley, and continued yelling at each other in the midst of the crowded street. Others stopped chewing their food and talking to stare at the fight.

"Sounds like crazy to me!"

"Because you don't listen and you ignore it while you let the people around you manipulate you! Like Sir Pheles, and like him!" Yukio's voice quickened as he pointed to Takara.

"Fuck you, you babbling idiot." Takara replied.

"No one's manipulating me into saving Shima! Not the clown, and not anyone else. I am doing this because I want to do it! That's all!"

"Heh….can you really say that? You're too simple. You just don't realize it when people are using you. Takara staged all of this. He knew about Ms. Kamiki ahead of time and he did nothing. Ask him how he got that transmitter on her. I dare you."

Suguro looked at Takara. 'Dude's definitely suspicious …. Mr. Okumura's right about that much….'

They had reached a door. Yukio looked at all of them.

"That goes for all of you. I hope you've come to your senses by the time I get back. And you, Takara. I might not send you with Shima if you do your duty and help the others without betraying them."

With that, Yukio left for the True Cross Academy Armory.

I want to thank themoonlandian, SuperiorDimwit, and Earthforge. Without you this story would never have become a reality! Thanks for the encouragement, beta-ing, beta-beta-ing, and tolerating my spam of PMs about nearly everything. It made such a huge difference in the quality of my writing so I can't thank you enough!

Review please? ^^