"Wh..what? That's impossible."

"It's true." Kenzou looked engrossed in his tea, obviously not really wanting to make eye contact for the moment.

"How do you know?" Kenji's voice was sharp, a little high. "I don't want to distrust you, just…"

"He killed one of my brothers." He looked up then, directly at his friend.

"Oh." Kenji felt himself grow acutely uncomfortable. "I'm sorry."

Kenzou let out a deep breath, shaking his head. He didn't look terribly upset – numb perhaps, but not upset. "Thank you."

Kenji nodded slowly, pursing his lips. "Ah… which one?"

"Yori." His mouth twisted in a bitter little smile and he sipped his tea.

"Oh." Silence fell between them, deep and uncomfortable. Kenji had never really known what exactly Yori's deal was, but he knew that there were problems between him and Kenzou. Bad problems. He couldn't work up any sympathy over the bastard. "So what do we do now?" Kenji's voice, though quiet, shattered the silence into sharpness.

Kenzou shrugged a touch, helplessly. "I honestly do not know."

"We fight." Kenji said firmly, practically daring Ken to contradict him. He smiled weakly back.

"Of course we fight." He reached across the table for Kenji's hand, taking it firmly. "And we will win."

Kenji smiled and nodded slowly. They'd be fine, as long as they fought together.

-----

Hattori raged. The body was gone and the blood cleaned up… but the apartment looked even worse, half-destroyed with the broken dishes and everything else strewn around.

They would ruin everything. Everything.

But no, he wouldn't let that happen. Perhaps that German piece of shit thought he was better than Hattori, but he had no clue what he was dealing with. None.

He shoved one last glass vase off the table, then shoved the table over too, out of good measure.

It wasn't ready yet. It was far, far too soon and he hadn't even had a chance to get Kanna yet.

But it didn't matter. If Kenji knew, it was time to act. It could wait no longer.

He kicked detritus out of his way, storming to the closet next to the door, grabbing his coat and slipping it on. It was time, again, to pay Sada a visit. He had neglected his oldest friend far, far too long.

After that… well. After that, he would rain death on the heads of Tenma and his pretty-boy lover and the rest of Japan.

It was a matter of days – weeks at the most – before they would know just who was in charge here.

----

It had been tense, the last couple of weeks. Hattori – Fukubei – Friend. Whoever he was, really, he had disappeared and his followers had started frenetically working on something.

Kenji had come to Tenma's home the night before, bringing Kanna. Their convenience store, the apartment… everything, gone. Burned by the followers of Friend. It hadn't surprised Johan, of course. Kenji was Hattori's target, whether he knew it or not.

He watched Tenma fuss over the baby, bemused. He didn't understand babies, honestly. He didn't get how Tenma could sit there with a silly smile on his face, letting her play with his hands and tug at his hair and gnaw and drool and all of that.

Children, at least, could understand a lesson. Babies were nothing but mute little tyrants.

But babies were not half as mystifying as Hattori's plans. Whatever they were, they were big. Johan had been planning for a battle, subtly. Guns had been stocked. Contacts were made. He was out more often than not, busy. Watching. Kenji too had proven a surprising help, and was currently watching the compound Johan had identified.

He slid up to Tenma, resting a hand on his shoulder, unable to help but smile at the warm smile that greeted him.

"Hungry?" He asked it lightly.

"Mn. Actually, I am." Tenma leaned up, brushing lips over his mouth.

Johan nodded, drawing back. He couldn't explain the tightening in his chest when he saw Tenma's smile, the way he seemed to warm up from the inside. Nor could he explain the protectiveness that seemed to overwhelm him.

He didn't know what was coming, but he knew he wanted to stop it, to safeguard Tenma.

He nodded to the food he had deposited on the table, scooping up Kanna gingerly to let Tenma eat.

"Do you even know what to do with babies?" Tenma's voice was wry, amused.

Johan shrugged, looking down at the chubby-cheeked little girl who had started squirming in his hands. "Not particularly. But really, how hard can it be?"

Tenma chuckled softly and Johan staunchly ignored him, looking down at the child in his arms. She was so… small. Fragile in a way that he was u unaccustomed to. Her tiny fingers pulled at his collar and he just stared at her.

Tenma stood, wrapping his arms around them both, nuzzling into his neck. "Thank you for lunch."

It was ridiculously domestic, but Johan still leaned back into it, pressing a careful kiss to his temple. He could do without Kanna in his hands, fussing, but otherwise this was all he wanted.

This was worth fighting for. Love always was. It was the only thing he had ever believed in.

----

All too soon, they knew what Hattori had planned.

They heard the alarms before they heard the news on the television. They'd had an idea, of course, so they weren't completely unprepared.

No one could be truly prepared for this, though. Bodies lay nearly everywhere, blood seeping out of their pores. It pooled in the street, puddles of cooling, congealing blood.

Kenji wanted to throw up – only he already had not more than five minutes ago and he was sure there was nothing left in his stomach. He held the gun Johan had given him awkwardly, trying to remember the brief lessons, eyes scanning the streets, deserted save for an occasional car.

He didn't know how Kenzou and Johan were so calm. They moved with grace and determination, and their hands didn't shake. Their eyes swept over bodies – Johan's with absolute lack of emotion, Ken's with a kind of clinical detachment. They were almost as eerie as the scene that they walked through.

"Look out." Kenzou's voice rang out harshly, and Kenji found himself, Tenma, and Johan all shoved down an alley and into a deep doorway as a car drove by.

A faint patter of drops echoed around them. Kenji didn't remember the forecast calling for rain. He nearly put his hand out, but was stopped by a hiss from Kenzou.

"A car. They're spraying something. I think it's the contagion." The doctor murmured. "It can't be airborne. It requires direct contact."

Kenji's breath caught in his throat painfully, eyes wide as he watched the unnatural rainstorm pass.

"I suppose he gave up on the robot." Johan mused from beside him.

"Stay out of the rain." Kenzou said decisively, pressing them out of the doorway. "We need to keep moving. He will be here soon enough."

"How can you be sure of that?" Kenji gave him a doubtful look. Only an idiot would be here, in the hell that Fukubei had created.

"He's a narcissist." Johan said, hand on Kenzou's shoulder, steadyingly.

"How astute." A voice rang out from behind them, footsteps echoing in the dark alley. "I'm disappointed you didn't ask me to come play with you…"

Kenji whirled around. A man wearing an impeccably tailored suit and a child's mask stood there. And he knew immediately who it was.

"Is there need for that, Fukubei?" He asked tightly.

There was a startled moment, then muffled, hysterically insane laughter, his attention shifting for a moment to Kenzou. "Oh, I really am going to have to punish you, sensei for giving the game away so quickly. I had so much more fun planned for us, Kenji."

Kenji raised his hands, aiming the gun towards his forehead, trying not to shake too much. "This is not my definition of fun!." His voice cracked and broke on that

"Do you really think you can kill me before you are exposed?" Fukubei's arm rose, pointing behind them, to the car that had backed up, blocking them into the alley. "You should put that silly toy away."

Johan made a soft, annoyed sound under his breath. "The doorway, Sensei." His voice was so quiet, for a moment Kenji didn't believe he had heard it. But then he felt Tenma's hand on his wrist, hard.

He didn't see Fukubei drop, barely even heard the shot, registering it all only after he had been slammed again against the door, this time by Johan, his hand holding the gun next to Kenji's head. He stared at it numbly, the smell of gunpowder suddenly coming to him, both faint and somehow overwhelming.

There was a breathless moment where it seemed that everything in the world had stopped.

They waited for the deadly rain again for what seemed like an eternity, but surely was only seconds before the car unexpectedly revved and sped off.

It was several more heartbeats before Johan let them away from the doorway, stepping out, his gun raised in his hand, warily.

Kenzou hurried to Fukubei's side, cautiously kneeling. He had been far enough back to be out of the spray, the ground around him dry except for the blood that seeped from a clean bullet through his forehead.

"He's alive." His voice echoed eerily down the alleyway.

Kenji found himself stiffening, watching them in disbelief. "How is that even possible?"

Johan laughed softly, making the hair on the back of Kenji's neck raise in the way that it had when the Friend cult had burned down his store, or when they had stepped out to find the world had exploded. Somehow in that moment he looked like a wolf, all hard tearing edges and danger.

"There's a hospital a block away." Kenzou straightened a little, catching Kenji's attention again. "We'll take him there. No use in calling the ambulance, I'm sure they're busy, or worse."

Kenji stood stock-still, mind whirling. Kenzou was actually planning on saving this piece of shit?

"Are you insane?" His voice was low and, he knew, ugly. Rage filled all the numb hollow spaces that had been left by the horrific tableau and he felt sick with it.

"Help him." Johan's voice was utterly calm. He could have been discussing the zen mysteries of life, and despite himself, he found himself going to help pick Fukubei up off the ground, glaring down at the pale bundle in their arms.

"You had better have a damn good reason for this." He snarled under his breath.

Kenzou said nothing as they balanced their load – his former friend – in their collective arms, nor as they walked towards the hospital cautiously. Johan followed them, a pale deadly ghost.

How could they be so calm? How could they not be throwing their guts up or at least making sure the bastard bleeding all over Kenzou was damn well good and dead?

None of this made sense. The world and everything in it had gone crazy.