Patlabor Fan Fiction ❯ On The Run ❯ Chapter 1

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Imported From: RAAC

From: "David A. Tatum" <desaix@sysnet.net>
Subject: [Patlabor][FanFic] Patlabor: On the Run, Complete

On the Run
A Oneshot Patlabor Fanfic by David A. Tatum
Disclaimer: Insert legal junk here...

Author's Notes:
I keep saying that there's plenty of room for fanfiction in Patlabor. I
really have no idea why it isn't a more popular series... well, in addition
to Patlabor: Personal Files (for which I've planned 66 episodes and (so
far) 9 OAVs), I've got MANY more ideas for Patlabor fanfiction. So,
because I was bored and wanted to try my hand at a shorter Patlabor fanfic
(one which I might be able to finish rather quickly), I came up with this
thing to work out some of the ideas I CAN'T fit into P:PF.
Enjoy!
-------------------------

Noa munched her assorted tempura happily. A good, home-cooked dinner from
her mother beat anything she'd ever had at SV2 headquarters. Sure, it
would be nice if she could work off the meal by waxing Alphonse, but she
wasn't on the reclaimed land at the moment. No, for the first time in
months, she was actually visiting her home. And this time, she wasn't
AWOL.

The reason was simple- with the first unit receiving their Peacemaker
labors, it wasn't necessary to have the Ingrams on call twenty-four hours a
day; because of that, more vacations were going to be scheduled for the
second unit. This was the first of many of those vacations, and so far Noa
was enjoying herself, despite the absence of Alphonse.

"Say, do you remember Akemi from down the street?" her father asked.

Noa thought about it for a second. "Oh, yeah! Did she get past those
college entrance exams she was studying for?"

"She decided not to take them. She got married to Mamoru- you should
remember him: the very well-to-do computer technician? At any rate, with
his job and the money she got as a dowry from his parents, she didn't need
to go to college."

Noa's face fell. She knew what was coming next. Why did her father ALWAYS
have to bring up marriage when she visited? Not only did he sound like a
broken record, but he ALSO was spoiling her vacation. "I'm NOT quitting my
job to look for the hypothetical perfectly handsome and wealthy husband,
dad," she stated firmly.

Her father sighed. "Why do you insist on such a dangerous career? You
KNOW that if you ever get hurt your chances of ever getting married are
pretty much gone. There've already been SEVERAL incidents where you might
have been killed already! WHY do you insist on risking your life time
after time for a job that BARELY pays you enough to live off of and which
no-one ever will respect you for?"

Noa glared at him. "Dad, how many times do I have to tell you I love
working with labors? I don't WANT a job which won't let me use them!"

Her dad was almost in tears by this point. "But even if you foolishly
insist on playing around with those stupid giant robots, there's any number
of safer careers involving labors out there, and many of them are much
closer to home! Construction work, maintenance services, all sorts of
things. Labors are even being used in airports to load baggage and on
fishing ships to help haul in the catch. I'd even say the MILITARY is a
safer career than the police, because the military gets called in a lot
less. But instead, you pick the most dangerous job out there for labor
use, and you insist on staying in it, despite almost being killed several
times. What's worse, you aren't even able to see us more than once or
twice a year with this job, when there are other careers- even in labors-
much closer to us! Why?"

"You wouldn't understand," Noa growled, sulking. "Excuse me, I'm full. I
think I'll take a bath and go to bed." With that, she stood up and stalked
out of the room.

She scrubbed herself off furiously in the shower, trying to calm herself
down. It wasn't until after she'd made it to the furo that she succeeded,
however.

When she finally quelled her anger, she actually wondered about what her
father had said. 'I like Alphonse,' she thought to herself. 'That's what
I always say whenever he asks me. But he's right- I already know I'm not
going to be able to keep Alphonse forever, and I've accepted that I'll lose
him one day. So why do I stay in the SV2? Dad is right- I could hurt
myself seriously one day. Some days, even Alphonse isn't enough to make
the job worth it... so why do I do it? Why do I put up with the long
hours, the risks to my life, being so far away from my family, and the
constant fear that I'm just not good enough? Why?'

* * * * *

"Dammit, son!" the father of Asuma Shinohara shouted. "I am NOT doing
anything wrong- those instances were occasions where I was using acceptable
business practices to acquire those smaller companies. I am NOT being a
corporate bully! What I'm doing is something any other business in Japan
would do!"

Asuma himself snorted. "You shouldn't believe yourself to be perfectly
virtuous just because everyone else is corrupt, too." He grabbed his
jacket and cap. "That does it, pop, I'm out of here. I'm tired of
fighting with you all the time, and I need to get back to base, anyway."

"Fine! Leave! But you'll never see one dime from the company from my
inheritance!"

Asuma didn't even look back. "You've made that threat so many times, I
don't think I'd be in your will right now if you were serious." He opened
the door heading out of the house. "I'm so tired of all the fighting, I
hope to never have to deal with you again. I won't be back." The door
slammed behind him.

Mr. Shinohara sighed. "Stupid boy- don't you know why I built this
company?" He shook his head. "You'll just never be good enough to run it,
will you?" The phone rang. "Get that for me, will you, Tsukai?"

Tsukai, the servant, nodded. "Certainly, sir," he said, leaving the room.

Shinohara continued to grumble about the abstinence of his son while Tsukai
was out of the room until the doorbell rang. Rolling his eyes in
frustration, he stood up and made he way over to open the door himself.
One servant was USUALLY enough to do all the chores, but from time to time-
like this occasion- more than one thing had to be done at one time. He
opened the door.

Tsukai returned from the phone, planning to tell his master that the phone
was a wrong number, to see him waiting on the open door.

"I thought you said you weren't coming back again!" Shinohara growled.
"What are you- ohmyg-"

The concussion from the explosion that followed threw Tsukai through the
wall and rocked the foundations of the house. Shinohara, however, wasn't
so lucky.

* * * * *

Noa sighed, seeing how upset Asuma was. He was always this way whenever
his father came up- surly, upset, and difficult to deal with. He'd just
gotten back from the Shinohara mansion, apparently, and this was when he
was at his worst. She walked up to him as they made their way to the
officers lounge (where they were all hoping to spend the last few minutes
of their vacation time), hoping to take his mind off things and maybe to
comfort him a little. She knew better than to try suggesting a
reconciliation again.

"Hi, Asuma," she said.

"Hi, Noa. How was your vacation?" he asked, desperate for any kind of
distraction.

Noa shrugged. "Fine for a while, but then my father started bugging me-
eep!" she cut herself off mid-thought, not wanting to bring up parents at
all. "Had all kinds of fun skiing and eating our famous Hokkaido crabs. I
thought you were coming down to join me?" she teased. She hadn't really
been expecting him- while they'd mentioned it once or twice, they hadn't
worked out any details.

Asuma shrugged. "Next vacation for sure. Pop monopolized me this one, but
he certainly won't next time around."

They were still a short ways away from the lounge when Ohta heard Asuma say
those words. "Asuma! There you are- come quick! There's a story on the
TV you need to see!"

"Huh?" he said.

Without waiting for Asuma to comply, Ohta grabbed him and dragged him at a
run back to the lounge, Noa following along as fast as she could. When
they got there, the TV was broadcasting a very important story.

"We finally have a camera at the scene. If you follow our reporter, you
can see the path the shell took as it killed Mr. Okami Shinohara, the
Founder and President of Shinohara Heavy Industries. The nation mourns the
loss of this great man...."

Asuma continued trying to listen to the rest of the report, but for some
reason the words just didn't make any sense. His knees started to buckle,
but an arm- Noa's arm- went around him to support him and keep him from
falling. He nearly dragged her down with him, but somehow she was able to
support him.

"Excuse me, Mr. Shinohara," a voice said from behind him. "Can we talk to
you for a moment? We have a few questions...."

Asuma turned to see a pair of police investigators waiting for him outside
of the room, accompanied by Captain Gotoh. "Um, sure."

"We'd like you to come down to the station with us," they said as he was
leaving. "As you probably already know, your father has been murdered.
There are a few questions we have regarding your possible involvement...."

* * * * *

"Asuma's being arrested!?" Noa screeched. She'd been there when he'd been
taken away, of course, but she'd just thought they were going to ask him a
few questions and that would be it. She'd had no clue that he was a
suspect.

"There was apparently some evidence against him," Gotoh explained. "The
servant witnessed Asuma's father open the door and make comments indicating
that he saw Asuma there, seconds before the blast occurred. Furthermore,
he testified that they had had a serious fight during that day, where Asuma
claimed he didn't want to deal with his father anymore. Finally, the
murder weapon was a firearm from a police labor- an Ingrams revolver, as a
matter of fact. Asuma is one of the few people who would have access to
such a weapon. It's believed he had an accomplice, however, as it is
assumed he was not the one operating the labor."

Noa frowned. "So the whole case is based on the testimony of one man and a
gun that any number of people who may be associated with the police could
get?"

Gotoh sighed. "I admit that seems to be a rather circumstantial case, but
Asuma did not offer an alibi nor could he offer any suggestions for anyone
else who might have a motive. Since Asuma was the only one they could find
who had the means, motive, and opportunity to kill Mr. Shinohara, they
arrested him."

Noa's eyes widened. "But that can't be right! I mean, Asuma's not like
that at all... besides, he was shocked when his father's death was
broadcast on the news. He didn't know about it! You saw him, Ohta- you
remember how surprised he was, don't you?"

Ohta, however, was remembering something else. He remembered that, when
trying to find Asuma, he overheard him say that his 'Pop' wouldn't be
monopolizing him on future vacations. How could he claim that unless he
knew that his father was dead? The more Ohta thought about it, the more he
was convinced that his reaction in the lounge was staged.

"Noa," he said hesitantly. "I... think he did it."

Noa flashed him a look of betrayal. "You, too? But you know Asuma would
never do something like that!"

Now that Ohta had firmly convinced himself that the police were right,
however, he was a lot less hesitant in his reply. "No, I don't! In fact,
Asuma's such a punk kid, I wouldn't put it past him! Besides, who else
would it be?"

For some reason, Noa was seized with rage at that comment. Tears of anger
in her eyes, she reared back and slapped Ohta, nearly knocking him to the
ground. "How DARE you!" she shouted.

Gotoh's eyes widened. The situation was escalating much too quickly. "Now
hold it, hold it! Calm down!" he cried in a panicked voice, stepping in
between the two of them. In a much more subdued tone, he continued,
"Asuma's guilt or innocence is not for us to decide. At the moment, he's
only ACCUSED of murder, not tried and convicted. In the meantime, we'll
have to reorganize to fill the hole that his absence leaves us with."

Noa clenched her fists, trying to calm herself down. "If you'll excuse me,
sir, I'm not in the right state of mind to hear about this. Good bye," she
growled out through clenched teeth.

Angrily she made her way towards the hangar bay, planning to console
herself with Alphonse. As she walked, the thought about some of the things
Asuma had told her when they were visiting his brothers grave.

"He killed himself," he had said. "I think it was his last act of
resistance against our father. It was a stupid thing to do- dying never
solves anything."

Dying never solves anything. That was what Asuma believed. He thought
suicide was a stupid thing to do BECAUSE dying never solved anything. If
he believed that, then he certainly wouldn't kill anyone, would he?

"Of course not," she said to herself. "It just doesn't make sense. Asuma
knows better than to do something stupid like that." She paused. "But
no-one will believe him but me, will they? I mean, I'm the only one who
knows him that well, and all the evidence is pointing to him... I've got to
do something."

So resolved, Noa made her way to the hanger with newfound determination.
She had to come up with a plan, and Asuma wasn't there to think for her.

* * * * *

Hiromi couldn't believe all that was going on. No-one was acting like
themselves- Asuma was a cold-blooded murderer (supposedly), Noa had gotten
physically violent in a confrontation with Ohta, and, most recently, Sakaki
had shocked them all by suggesting that the mechanics load the labors on
their trucks (just in case there was a call) and then go on home for some
r&r... though he certainly seemed angry when he gave those orders. Perhaps
he was just as mad as Noa about Asuma's arrest, and wanted some time alone
to calm himself.

Hiromi himself was rather angry at that, as well. How could Ohta believe
Asuma was a murderer? And being arrested for such a flimsy set of
evidence, as well. It just didn't seem to make any sense.

He walked by the door into the hanger bay, and heard a noise coming from
the direction of the parked labor transports. 'That's funny,' he thought.
'No-one's supposed to be in there right now.'

Deciding to investigate, he quietly made his way towards the disturbance.
Finally, he caught sight of the intruder- Noa was underneath the console of
the transport carrier, fiddling with something under the wheel. It didn't
take long for Hiromi to figure out what she was doing.

"It isn't possible to hot-wire one of those things," Hiromi said quietly.

Noa tried to sit up, and bumped her head into the wheel. "Ow!" she cried,
wincing. "Hiromi, what are you doing here?" she said nervously. "And I
wasn't trying to hot-wire it- I was just, uh, practicing some of the skills
the maintenance squad was teaching me!" she continued, not very
convincingly.

"I heard a noise, and thought I'd take a look." He paused. "So why are
you trying to steal Alphonse?"

"Hiromi..." Noa began, realizing how pointless further protests of her
innocence would be. She wasn't sure what to say, though- she had prepared
what she was going to say to anyone else, but she'd just overlooked him.
She decided to try and explain. "I can't let them do this to Asuma. I've
got to get him out of jail- there's something really wrong about the way he
was arrested. I mean, they basically imprisoned him on hearsay... there's
something suspicious about that. Either the investigators don't care to
look any further than Asuma, or... or there's something really wrong going
on. If it's the later, I don't think Asuma's going to stand a chance of
getting a fair trial...."

"You know we'll have to stop you," Hiromi said simply.

Noa looked down. "Yeah... but once I get Asuma free, it won't matter. I
won't need Alphonse any more..."

"You won't?"

Noa's eyes widened when she realized what she'd said. "I don't mean never-
I mean, I won't need him to finish my plans. I can just leave him behind
somewhere safe, and wait for you guys to pick him up and take care of him
for me. Asuma and I can then hide out until we figure out who it is who's
doing these things to him."

Hiromi nodded, sighing. "Well, you can't do it without this, I don't
think," he said, producing a key and tossing it over to her. "Good luck.
Take care of him."

"Don't I always protect Alphonse?" Noa asked.

Hiromi just smiled, walking away. "Alphonse wasn't who I was talking
about," he said to himself, making certain that Noa wouldn't hear.

* * * * *

"You have to realize, Ohta, that women don't really like it when you
contradict them so fiercely," Takeo was saying.

"I was just telling her the truth- that Asuma's a punk and that the
evidence convinced me that Asuma's guilty," Ohta, holding an icepack to his
cheek, grumbled.

Takeo raised an eyebrow. She found that assertion of Ohta's hard to
swallow, as well. She didn't know Asuma as well as most of the others, but
what she'd seen of him showed him to be a very honest, forthright, and
decent man. A bit rough around the edges, perhaps, but certainly no
murderer. "That may be, but the way you put it was-"

She was cut off when the siren came on warning of a possible call to
action. "We have a 999. Repeat, a 999. All personnel on station please
report to your duty station. This is NOT a drill."

A 999. The one call everyone felt was impossible- a call no-one would ever
want to answer. It meant that a member of the SV2 had stolen a labor with
criminal intent. It meant they would have to fight one of their own.

"Shit!" Ohta exclaimed, running out of the room.

Takeo thought about that. "A 999? Hmm..." Whistling, she strolled her
way out of the room, a slight smile on her face.

* * * * *

Shinobu stared over where the second unit was getting ready, a scowl on her
face. Gotoh wasn't driving his men at all, and only Ohta was moving like
he wanted to go out. Sure, she knew that Noa was his top pilot, but still-
that was no excuse for not stopping her when she committed such a serious
crime.

She was about to walk on over to him to reprimand him when Gomioka ran up
to her and saluted, drawing her attention.

She saluted back. "Yes, Mr. Gomioka?" she inquired.

"Captain Nagumo, ma'am," he said. "I regret to report that it is
impossible for us to answer this call."

Shinobu was surprised. "Oh? Why?"

"None of the labor transports are working, ma'am. They appear to have been
sabotaged."

"Sabotaged?"

"The starters aren't working at all."

Shinobu's eyes widened. "But Ms. Izumi wouldn't have had time to sabotage
all the carriers for both units AND steal her labor after the mechanics
left... the mechanics!" She cursed.

It seemed as though Noa had more help then perhaps even she realized. The
mechanics were on her side, and so, it seemed, was most of Unit 2. They
probably all knew what Noa was going to do before even she did.

She almost laughed. Of course they would- and she couldn't blame them,
really, either. After all, she didn't believe Gotoh's protege was guilty
any more than they did.

* * * * *

The warden of the prison which contained Asuma's holding cell smirked to
himself. It wasn't often he got cops handed over to him. It was even less
often that he was specifically instructed to place those cops in with the
hardest criminals in his pen. Apparently, some of the higher-ups were
hoping that they wouldn't have to bring the cop to trial, since that would
be a very embarrassing thing for the force, and thought that he wouldn't be
able to survive some of the... attentions... of those rougher criminals who
might hold a grudge against a former cop. For some reason, the politics
involved amused him.

He stood up from his desk, grabbed a cigarette, and walked over to his
office window. He lit up and took a puff. As he blew the smoke out the
window, he spied one of his two Type 97 Pythons guarding the outside. They
were too old for serious police duty any more, and they couldn't afford to
keep them very well maintained, but they looked impressive enough to keep
the prisoners in line.

As the warden looked out the window, he noticed that some sort of
disturbance seemed to be forming, as the Python started running in one
direction. Just at that moment, his phone rang. He moved to get it, but
then there was a huge crash outside. The warden ran back to the window,
trying to see what was going on.

An empty labor transport had apparently crashed into the wall, and it
appeared to still be pushing. Much to his surprise, the prison's two
labors were engaged in combat- apparently with another police labor, an
Ingram. The Ingram dismantled the two Pythons, and then stormed over to
his window, drawing its gun and pointing it right at him.

"What cell is Asuma Shinohara in?" a female voice boomed out through the
labors speakers.

"Er... Cell 231 in cell block A," he said.

The labor put away its gun and bowed slightly. "Thank you," the woman said
politely before sending her labor into a run again, bursting through the
doors into the prison. If the building hadn't been recently modified to
allow labors to move through it, there might have been serious damage to
the prison. As it was, the shattering of the doors shook the building to
its foundation.

The phone continued ringing.

Moving as if in shock, the warden slowly walked over to it and picked up
the receiver. "Hello?"

"Ah, ah. This is Captain Gotoh of the Special Vehicles, Second Section.
Am I talking to the warden?"

"Um... yes, I'm the warden."

"Good. I'm afraid that I have the duty to inform you that one of our
officers stole an Ingram, and may be on the way to break her partner out of
your prison. We would be on our way to help you, but along the way she
sabotaged all of our other labors."

"Uh... thank you for the warning," the warden said. "We'll... keep an eye
out for her." Hanging up the phone, he looked outside at the wreckage of
the two Pythons and the labor carrier.

* * * * *

Asuma wasn't paying any attention to the commotion around him- he just had
too much on his mind to care. His father was dead- murdered- and he didn't
know exactly what he felt about all that. He never got along with his
father- in fact, he downright hated him, most of the time. However, there
were times when he actually was pleased to be able to see him. Like that
time he and Noa visited his brothers grave....

That was another point. With his father's death, there was no-one who he
could call 'family.' Come to think of it, now that he was in jail, it
wasn't likely he was going to see anyone who he might be able to call
'friend' for some time, either. Ex-cops weren't exactly popular in prison,
and it was unlikely anyone from the SV2 would be able to come visit him.

The biggest question for him, however, was just why did they think he was
the murderer? Sure, he and his father had gotten into a fight earlier that
day, but he and his father ALWAYS had fights and he hadn't done anything
before. Outside of that, he had no clue what, if any, evidence they might
have had.

"Hey, buddy," one of his cellmates said, approaching him. "What are you in
for? Impersonating a police officer?"

One weird thing about his arrest was that he wasn't allowed to change into
his street clothes. Usually policemen, when arrested, were allowed to
change out of uniform before being placed into a holding cell. Not so, in
his case.

Asuma wasn't really thinking clearly enough to realize the implications
behind his answer, so he just said, "Nah. I really am a police officer."

"Oh, you are?" the cellmate said, his voice becoming slightly more hostile
as he moved in closer to Asuma. "Then why are you in here?"

"I was accused of murdering my father." There seemed to be a loud crash
coming from outside, and the floor shook.

"Heh... guess that makes you a bit of a hypocrite, doesn't it."

"What?!" Asuma cried, his brain finally catching up with the conversation.
"No- I didn't do it."

The man snorted. "Please- that's what we all say. Do you cops ever give
us a break because of that? No... like I said, you're just a hypocrite.
And we don't like hypocrites here."

Asuma stood up, taking a defensive stance as the man and two of his
companions advanced on him. He knew he was in bad shape, as all three of
them were about twice his size. It wasn't very likely he'd survive the
fight.

Before that fight could begin, however, an Ingram burst into the cell
block, paused, then drew a gun. "Leave him alone!" a voice boomed over the
speakers.

The attackers dropped back, surprised. Asuma just stood there, blinked,
and turned to face the labor. "Noa?" he asked.

Using one of Alphonse's hands to bend open the bars, she said, "That's me.
Come on, let's go."

"Noa, do you know what you're doing? I can't let you do this to yourself-
erk!"

The hand which had bent the bars open reached in and grabbed him. "I don't
have time to argue," Noa said, putting away her gun. "We're getting out of
here."

Stopping only to bend the bars back to their original position with the
hand which had held the gun, she ran off, carrying Asuma along with her.

"Dammit," the prisoner who had confronted Asuma growled. "Someone broke
him out before we could get him! Now we'll never get that ten million
yen."

* * * * *

On board the Sangria, a ship owned by Shaft Enterprises Division 7, a major
construction project was underway. It was not the most ideal of conditions
for labor construction, but it was very secret and, when the ship was in
still waters, it was adequate for the builder's purposes.

Richard Wong, the vice president in charge of Division 7 (a division Shaft
Enterprises denies is still affiliated with it), smiled his usual smile as
he surveyed the progress of his latest work.

The chief mechanic strolled up to him. "Excuse me, sir. We're probably
going to have it ready in a couple of days. I've wondered for a while,
however... why are we rebuilding this thing? It succeeded in its mission,
didn't it? What do we need it for, now?"

"It only half succeeded. We managed to pull off the demonstration very
well, but the second half of our mission is still on-going. We have yet to
obtain the software of an Ingram. Until we obtain a copy of Ms. Izumi's
movement disk, Shinohara Heavy Industries will be able to keep Shaft from
dominating the field of advanced humaniform labors."

The mechanic nodded. "Um... have you been paying attention to the news,
lately?"

Wong shook his head. "I'm afraid not- I've been rather busy in India until
today."

"Well... I don't think we need to worry about Shinohara Heavy Industries
any more."

Wong's smile slipped a bit. "We don't? Why?"

"Um... well, see, Mr. Shinohara was murdered yesterday. They arrested his
son for the crime, and now suspect his partner to have been an accomplice.
With Shinohara dead and his son in jail, well... it's likely that their
company is going to have some difficulties for a while."

Richard Wong's smile fell completely. "His son is Asuma Shinohara,
correct?"

"Um, I think that's the name the papers are giving, yes."

Wong's face hardened. "Hmm... I've studied Asuma and his partner, Noa
Izumi, ever since I ran into them in a video game arcade almost a year ago.
I like to think that I know them fairly well. Asuma Shinohara certainly
does NOT strike me as the type of man to murder his father, even if they
don't get along very well." He paused. "You've been in touch with the
regional headquarters more recently than I have. You wouldn't happen to
know if WE'RE responsible for this, would you?"

"Um... there are rumors that we've had something big in the planning..."

"Indeed." Richard Wong removed his glasses to massage his temples. "I
have been called quite ruthless for my actions, and I've committed acts
which break the law if it aided me in achieving my goals. However, I've
never murdered a man in cold blood, nor have I ever framed one for one of
my crimes." He turned to the mechanic. "Asuma may be a rival, but I also
respect him, maybe even feel some sort of twisted friendship for him. It
appears, however, that Shaft Enterprises is willing to go even further than
I am."

"What are you saying, sir?" the mechanic said.

Wong's smile returned. "Well, if Shinohara Heavy Industries falls apart,
I'm out of the job. It seems to me that it's in my best interest to aide
Asuma in his legal defense. Where is he being held? I'd like to go see
him."

"Uh, well... see, his partner broke him out of prison."

Richard Wong raised an eyebrow. "Ms. Izumi did that? Oh, my... perhaps
she's more impulsive than I believed. Ah, well. I have some idea of where
she might be trying to get to."

* * * * *

Asuma sighed, standing at the foot of Alphonse as he waited for Noa to
disembark from the labor. She had refused to listen to any of his protests
while they were on the move, but since they seemed to have settled down for
the night, he suspected he'd have a chance to actually get in a few words.

"I'm afraid his batteries won't last much longer," Noa said, as she made
her way down from the cockpit. "That's okay, though. They should be
strong enough to get us the rest of the way to a nearby fishing village, if
I conserve power. From there, we can rent a boat and travel out to
Hokkaido. I know somewhere that we can stay which isn't on the maps nor in
any official records, so we shouldn't have much of a problem staying there
for a while. Then I'll finally be able to turn the thinking over to you,
again," she said, finally reaching the ground. Wiping some sweat off her
forehead, she walked on over to him. "I'll be quite happy when we get that
far... I'm not used to be the part of this team that has to think."

Asuma closed his eyes, taking in a deep breath. "Noa, I really appreciate
all you're trying to do, but... please, just give it up. Surrender to the
police, and take Alphonse with you. I'm not worth ruining your life over.
I can handle things myself."

Noa shook her head, smiling slightly. She figured he'd say something like
that. "Nope. Won't do it. Besides, I've already done so much that they
won't be able to just sweep this under the rug if I went back. I'm in this
as much as you are." She paused. "And from the look of things when I
showed up at the prison, I'd say you wouldn't have been able to handle
things if I hadn't been there."

Asuma's eyes opened, focusing sharply on her. "Why? Why are you doing all
of this for me? I mean, you know you'll never be allowed to pilot Alphonse
again after all this, and you didn't even try to find out if I'd done it or
not before you broke me out. Why?"

Noa looked at him, her smile remaining. "Did you do it? Did you kill your
father?"

"I might have thought about it a few times," he said, looking rather
uncertain at his own statement. "But no, I didn't."

Noa nodded. "Well, I thought you wouldn't get much of a chance to explain
your side. They arrested you entirely on hearsay, didn't even look at
anyone else, and it looked to me like they stuck you in a cell with a group
of people they knew would kill me. I think someone in the force is after
you- maybe as part of a conspiracy. What evidence they've released seems
to indicate that there was more than one person at the scene when your
father was murdered, so there's obviously a number of people involved."

Asuma shrugged. "Yeah, I figured something weird was up when they made me
keep my police uniform on in the holding cell.... That still doesn't
explain why YOU decided to do something about it."

Noa sighed, her smile falling. "Perhaps... perhaps it was something my dad
said to me on that vacation. He asked me why I was insisting on being in
the SV2, when there were plenty of other jobs involving labors I could do
that were less dangerous." She paused. "I couldn't give him a real answer
then. I still couldn't, now. Part of it, however, was that... was that I
didn't want to give you up. I knew that if I left the SV2, I'd lose you.
I know I'm going to lose Alphonse one day, but you... I don't want to give
you up."

Asuma blinked, looking at her in surprise. "Is that it? You want to
remain my forward, huh, even though I've now been accused of murder?"

"Yes," Noa stated firmly. "I can give up Alphonse if I have to, but I
can't give you up."

Asuma blinked again. "Well... I suggest we NOT give up on Alphonse. One
of the few things I know about my father's murder is that there was
apparently a labor involved, as it was a labor gun that was the murder
weapon. My guess is if we find out who it is, there's going to be a
fight."

Noa's eyes widened. "But... the batteries almost gone! Alphonse wouldn't
be usable in a fight!"

Asuma nodded. "Yeah, I know. Don't worry- I'll figure out a way to
recharge him before we leave that fishing village you're talking about.
Now, I also suggest we keep moving. I know you want to bunk down for the
night, but chances are they'll be trying to track us down. The sooner we
can get shipboard, the better."

Noa nodded, and relaxed a little. "Okay. Oh, and Asuma?"

"Yeah?"

"I may be the only one who'll be able to tell you this," She took a couple
steps closer to him and wrapped him up in a hug. "I'm sorry about your
father."

* * * * *

Gotoh looked through the folder, shaking his head.

"Any word on where Alphonse has gotten to?" Shinobu, filling out a form,
asked.

Gotoh shook his head. "No. Lost track of them at a fishing port."

"We could ask for satellite tracking, you know. An active labor gives out
signals that can be located from space, which should stand out pretty
easily in the middle of the ocean."

Gotoh merely grunted noncommittally.

Shinobu looked at him from her desk, curious. "What's wrong?"

He held up the file, pointing out the cover. "I have the notes about
Asuma's case here, and things just don't add up. I mean, they say that the
murder weapon was a Patlabor revolver, and that Asuma was one of the few
who had access to such a weapon. That's only partly true- he wouldn't have
access to it unless he got the key to the weapons' locker from you or me.
He certainly hasn't checked out any guns like that as far as I'm aware of.
Did he get a key from you?"

Shinobu blinked. "No... but wasn't there a lot of other evidence?"

"Not as much as the news media's been lead to believe," he said. "There
was evidence that Asuma was there that night, but that's not in dispute.
He'd been spending the night eating dinner there, working on some sort of
family reconciliation. He and his father got into an argument, but they
had been having fights for years before, and it's never escalated to
violence. Beyond that, the servant gave some testimony about Asuma saying
he wasn't planning to come back, then Mr. Shinohara answering the door with
the words 'I thought you weren't coming back', but the servant never saw
the face of the person at the door. Still, the investigators ramroded the
case against Asuma through."

Shinobu chewed on the end of her pen in thought. "Perhaps they were just
lazy. Maybe you should take it up with their superiors- if you can clear
Asuma, then maybe this whole mess can be forgiven."

"IF I can clear him. Just exposing the lackadaisical efforts of the
investigators won't be enough, though. And I'm not sure that it was just a
case of laziness. Some of the details behind Noa's break-out make me
wonder."

That caught Shinobu's attention. Before, it had just felt like one of
their usual idle conversations, even if they were talking about a case that
had been on their minds a lot lately. "You think he might have been framed
by someone in the police?"

"Now that you mention it..." Gotoh smirked, showing that was what he
suspected all along.

Shinobu smiled and shook her head. "Okay, I get the hint. So, what do we
do about it?"

"Us? Nothing."

There was a knock on the door, and Takeo Kumagami came into the room. "You
sent for me, sir?" she said, saluting.

Gotoh nodded. "I have a job for you. I have a few questions about Asuma's
arrest, and was wondering if you could talk to the investigators for
me...."

* * * * *

[PART 2]

"I didn't know you could sail a boat, Asuma," Noa said, working on
tightening down the construction labor shell that they had fashioned around
Alphonse to camouflage it. Somehow, between the two of them, they had been
able to scrounge up enough material and financial resources to recharge the
battery, rent a small fishing boat (that was just barely big enough for
Alphonse and the two of them), and grab the shell of an old construction
labor from a junk yard. Asuma had felt it was a bad idea for them to go
traipsing through town with a Patlabor, considering they were going
somewhere that there WERE no Patlabors. Noa was uncomfortable with the
idea (especially since it meant that Alphonse would be getting rather
dirty), but had agreed it was probably for the best.

The end result of those purchases, however, was that they couldn't afford
to hire a boat crew. Asuma, thankfully, had shown a surprising talent in
navigating the boat, and now they were sailing through a port just outside
of another small fishing village- this one on Hokkaido.

"Heh... one of my few somewhat HAPPY memories of life with my father. We
used to go boating as a family together- him, me, and my brother." He
sighed nostalgically.

Finishing up with the panel, she moved to sit next to him at the rudder.
"Just you guys, huh? What about your mom?"

"I never knew my mom. She died giving birth to me."

Noa decided not to stop asking him questions about his past. 'Sheesh,' she
thought to herself. 'He never had a mother, his brother killed himself,
and he was framed for the murder of his father. Talk about a hard life.'
Unconsciously, she reached over and rubbed his shoulder comfortingly.

He didn't seem to notice, his mind elsewhere. "Say, Noa..."

"Yeah?"

"Do you see that ship over there?" he said, pointing to a tanker that was
docked in the port.

Noa looked over where he was pointing. "Yeah... seems kinda out of place
at a little shipping port like this, doesn't it?"

Asuma nodded. "Yeah... not just that, but doesn't it look a little
familiar, maybe?"

Noa squinted, trying to see what it was he saw. "I dunno... maybe. All
those ships look the same to me, though, so I wouldn't be able to tell.
Why?"

"I think I remember seeing it at the Babylon Gates."

Noa went quiet. She had been certain she wasn't going to survive that
incident. She was facing the Black Labor- the Griffin. Not only had it
torn up Ohta's labor just days before, but it had also severely injured
Asuma and then... it just escaped, totally unharmed.

Noa fought her damnedest against the Griffin, but it still escaped again.
She'd had a genuine nervous breakdown because of that incident, and had
spent several more months trying to prove to herself that she was really
good enough to pilot Alphonse. Then the brass started to threaten to take
Alphonse away from her, and Noa was so panicked with fear that they would
that she went AWOL, going home- to remind herself what it was like to say
good-bye to past Alphonses. Asuma had actually tracked her down, and come
to meet her. For some reason, just his presence gave her what she needed
to return, and when the next battle between her and the Griffin came, she
was able to handle it confidently.

And she'd won. Which made his statement seem rather curious. "Could they
have rebuilt it?" she asked.

"Maybe," Asuma replied. "But we don't need to worry if they did. We've
got our own problems to deal with right now."

"So why did you worry ME about it!?" she cried, grabbing him in a choke
hold.

"Ack! Noa- I gotta steer the boat! Leggo!"

* * * * *

Takeo shook hands with Inspector Matsui before sitting down across from him
at the desk. "Captain Gotoh said you'd probably be... helpful... in this
case."

Matsui nodded. "Yeah, he phoned me before you got here. I assume he gave
you the files I requested."

She nodded, indicating the box she had with her. "Yes, sir. Lots of stuff
to go through- what are they?"

Matsui lifted the box she'd indicated, setting it down on his desk and
pulling the top off. Taking out one of the hundreds of folders she'd
indicated, he replied, "Records from the SV2's weapons locker. I'm trying
to track down where the gun which killed Mr. Shinohara might have come
from."

Takeo's eyes widened in surprise. "Of course! Asuma COULDN'T have gotten
the weapon out, so it had to have come from somewhere else!"

Matsui nodded. "If we can find the actual murder weapon, we might be able
to clear him."

Takeo gestured towards the box. "Need any help?"

Matsui shook his head. "Two people would just confuse things. You could,
however, get started on another track for me."

"What?"

He handed her a piece of paper. "There's a warrant to investigate the
phone records of the people involved in the initial investigation and
decision to arrest. Get the records from the phone company and see if you
can find anything... unusual... in them."

"Like phone calls from people who might have an interest in ruining
Shinohara Heavy Industries?"

"Right."

Takeo nodded. "Will do. Anything else?"

Matsui nodded. "One more thing, but keep this under your hat. I suspect
you'd advise Noa and Asuma to surrender to the police if you ever got in
touch with them, hoping that the system would bail them out." He looked up
at her meaningfully. "Don't. Gotoh's right- something weird is going on
around here, and they aren't safe with the police. If you DO make contact
with them... do anything you can to make certain no-one ELSE will,
understand? And give that piece of advice to anyone else from your unit
who you trust." He sighed. "Sad as it may sound, they're probably safer
being fugitives on the run from the law than they are co-operating with the
law."

* * * * *

Asuma piloted Alphonse through the snowy woods under Noa's careful
directions. They had been taking shifts piloting the labor so as to avoid
fatigue, and his shift was almost over. Suddenly, the screens all turned
red and a word in English started flashing on the main monitor. "Noa, the
battery's running down. We've got no more than ten minutes of power left."

Noa, wearing the headset radio while she watched the sun rise from her seat
on Alphonse's shoulder, nodded. "That's all right. We're almost there-
we'll make it without any problem."

"We will?" he asked, surprised. "It certainly doesn't LOOK like there's
anything around here- especially not with all the snow and trees and
things. Where are we going, anyway?"

"An old business venture of my late grandfather's that never got off the
ground," she answered. "He wanted to try and start a ski lodge. He
managed to get the lodge partially built, but ran out of money before he
could finish it- not to mention to pave the road they had built for the
construction equipment or the ski lift. The reason this place is so safe
for us is that the property is STILL in my grandfather's families name
instead of my- "

"Won't it get cold?" Asuma asked, starting to get a little concerned. If
it was unfinished, then chances were that there would still be drafts in
the place. One of the big reasons he didn't like skiing was because he
never liked getting cold.

Noa shook her head. "No... after my grandfather passed away, my father
repaired it and supplied it with a snowmobile. There's a finished ski
lodge about a half hours ride away on a snowmobile, and so when we go
skiing we usually stay here." She paused. "Take a right when you get to
the bike path- that's the only way we usually can get up here."

"Roger," he said. "Does the place have electricity or heat?"

"It has a few propane tanks for heat and cooking and a diesel generator for
power," Noa said as Alphonse turned to follow the bike path. "As well as
some canned foods, some bottled water, and some other necessities. We'll
have to conserve what we've got, though- we only store enough supplies for
a couple weeks vacation at most, and we don't have any money to buy any
more. We went to a different ski lodge this last vacation, and so no-one's
been in the place for a few years, but the place is set up for spontaneous
ski trips."

"Hey, I think I see the building!" he noted. "Looks like Alphonse'll make
it, after all."

Noa nodded. "I told you so. Stop him here for a moment- I'll go on in and
start the heater up, you take him around the right-hand corner of the
house- there's a garage where we keep the snowmobile, and Alphonse should
be able to park there if he knelt."

"Sure thing," he said, bending Alphonse down slightly and touching the
ground with his arm so that Noa could just slide to the ground. When she
disappeared inside the front door, he moved Alphonse to where she'd
directed, parking it in the garage- seconds before the power ran out.

Asuma whistled to himself. "Nice timing," he said to himself, popping the
hatch and departing the labor. What he saw made him rather curious- Noa
had only mentioned one snowmobile, but there were three parked there.
"Hmm," he commented, glancing around. As he'd feared, there were tracks
into the garage from two of the snowmobiles. "And Noa's inside," he
remarked. "Damn!"

Running as fast as he could, he burst in after her, intent on rescuing her
from whatever group had captured her.

There she was, sitting (somewhat uncomfortably) and drinking tea with
Richard Wong and Bud Reynard. "Ah, welcome, young Shinohara," Wong
greeted. "It's about time you joined us. Bud and I have been waiting here
for the two of you for quite some time."

* * * * *

Ohta burst into Captain Gotoh's office. "Captain, I strongly request
permission for some emergency target practice."

Gotoh raised an eyebrow. "Oh? What emergency is it this time?"

Ohta looked at Gotoh like he was totally missing the obvious. "Izumi's
treachery, sir! You know that we'll have to have a tangle with her at some
point, and I have to be prepared!"

Gotoh sighed. "We currently aren't even certain that Noa still HAS a
usable labor which would require our involvement," he noted, trying to
placate him. "After all, she abandoned the labor carrier and her spare
battery, so she had no way to replace her old battery and, without the
carrier, it would be very difficult to recharge the current one. Even if
she didn't abandon her labor, it's unlikely that she has one which she can
use."

"But they could charge them in a town!" Ohta complained. "All it would
take would be a power socket and an appropriate extension cord, which they
should have with them!"

Gotoh nodded. "True, but it's unlikely they would be able to do that very
often. My guess is that she's merely trying to keep Alphonse with her than
to keep him effective to fight with. You know Noa...."

"I thought I did," Ohta muttered.

"At any rate," Gotoh said, "Your request is denied. We aren't able to
requisition more bullets until the new year, and the way you use them we've
only got a two months supply left."

"But, Captain-"

"Dismissed," Gotoh said, turning his attention to his paperwork.

Ohta clenched his fists and snarled, but he'd had enough arguments like
this to know that any form of protest was useless. "Very well, Captain,
but I KNOW you're mistaken. Noa and I will have to fight- it's our
destiny."

* * * * *

"I've already eliminated the evidence which allowed me to find you here,
and my delivery people have already left after supplying you with an extra
months worth of food, propane, spare diesel gasoline, and two spare
batteries for your labor- plus a specially designed battery charger to make
recharging your battery more efficient," Wong was saying as Asuma sipped at
the tea provided for him. "I've made arrangements for one of my men to act
as a messenger- he'll be staying at the ski lodge a few miles from here- in
case we need to contact each other."

"Uh huh," Asuma said skeptically, frowning. "Why, exactly, did you decide
to help us?"

Wong turned his smile up a notch, almost as if competing with Asuma's
frown. "Would you believe that I'm doing it because I think of you two as
friends?"

Asuma didn't even flinch. "This from the man who shot Takeo Kumagami at
Harumi after being her lover in Hong Kong?"

Wong's smile completely disappeared, and a slightly menacing expression
replaced it. "I did NOT, nor would I EVER shoot Takeo. That was my
security man, and I had him transferred the next day. I also prevented
Shaft Enterprises from attacking her in the hospital- I would appreciate it
if you NOT bring that up," he growled. With some difficulty, he managed to
get the anger out of his face. However, he was unable to completely
replace his smile. "Yours is a case similar to that. Shaft Enterprises
has done something I totally disagree with- they murdered your father and
framed you, who I really DO consider a friend, for it. There was nothing I
could do to prevent that bullet from hitting Takeo, just as there was
nothing I could do to stop your father from being murdered. But I stopped
my associates from attacking her in the hospital then, and so I'll make up
for my associates crimes against you now."

Asuma couldn't help but believe him, though he was still cautious. "And I
should trust you about this because?"

Richard Wong laughed, his smile returning to what it had been. "My dear
Asuma, you have no choice BUT to trust me. But if you want to know my more
self-centered motivations, I should point out that my current job is spying
on and eliminating competition. They went over my head, and it appears
they may be trying to put me out of the job. You could always consider it
revenge."

That caused Asuma to become even more suspicious. "Are you sure you aren't
STILL trying to 'spy on and eliminate' competition?"

Wong laughed again. "Of course I am. It is always best to face a known
opponent than an unknown one. It is still uncertain who is in charge of
Shinohara Heavy Industries with your absence. Only if you're put in charge
will I be able to know what to expect from you."

Asuma opened his mouth to protest, but he couldn't form any words in
response. Noa, however, had her own questions.

"You aren't going to try and fight me again, are you?" she asked Bud,
shifting uncomfortably.

"Of course not, Sis!" he replied enthusiastically. "I don't hurt people
when they're down. Besides- you beat me fair and square last time. No,
now we're playing on the same team."

Wong finished sipping his cup of tea. "Well, time for Bud and me to go.
I'll begin an investigation to see if I can find who it is who framed you,
and then we'll see if we can find some other evidence together. You two
just hang out here and have fun together- Bud insisted I give you a care
package to entertain you."

"Um... okay," Noa said.

"Come on, Bud- time to go," he said, standing up. "We've got work to do."

"See you, sis!" the kid said, leaping to his feet and waving to Noa. "Hope
to see you again soon."

"Um, see you again soon," Noa echoed hesitantly.

Asuma stopped Wong before he left. "Suppose Noa and I want to conduct our
OWN investigation?" he demanded.

Wong just shook his head in amusement. "And how would you do that? I
mean, you can't do any investigating from here. If you really want, you
can leave here the way you came to conduct one- I'm certainly not holding
you prisoner here- but your best bet is probably to stay right here and let
me do all the work for you. Don't worry- we'll come and get you when it's
safe." He paused. "You're wise not to trust me completely, but you really
don't have much choice, now, do you? You two are safe here- take comfort
in that, and let me do the rest."

Asuma finally let him go, then turned to find Noa going through a couple of
boxes. "What are those?"

"I think it's the 'care package' Bud wanted us to have," she said, opening
up the first box. "Huh... this box is full of nothing but batteries.
Wonder what's in the other box."

Asuma knelt down next to her and opened the second package for her.
"Hmm... I think those batteries are for these things."

"Eh?" Noa asked, looking into the box he had opened.

"A portable TV set- powered by batteries. A lamp, powered by batteries. A
few manga. Oh, and a battery-powered Headgear (TM) MiniGame System with...
um, Patlabor: the Video Game." He unpacked the box a bit further. "And a
note addressed to you from Bud."

He gave her the note.

"Hi, sis," it said, "Here's something to keep you in practice. Maybe
you'll be able to reach level 10 by the time all of this is taken care of.
Don't worry, sis- we'll avenge you!"

* * * * *

There was a knock on the door. "Come in," Gotoh said, not looking up from
his paperwork.

Inspector Matsui entered the room, carrying two file folders with him.
"Hello, Captain Gotoh. I have a couple questions about those records you
sent down to me the other day."

Gotoh nodded, gesturing to Shinobu. "I'm sure that if either Captain
Nagumo or myself can help you, we will."

Matsui nodded. "Upon a thorough combing of these files, I found two
instances of labor revolvers being checked out and not checked back in. I
was wondering if you knew if these incidents were just neglect or if there
was a specific reason they weren't logged in as returned."

"Well, I'll take a look at the folders, and see if I can suggest anything,"
he said. Matsui handed Gotoh the files, and pointed out the two incidents
he was referring to. "Hmm... well, considering the date, I'm fairly
certain that both of these guns were involved in the incident between the
Griffin and the Peacemakers. I recall that the report said both revolvers
were believed to have both been tossed into the Tokyo Bay during the fight.
Only one was recovered, however- that one in unserviceable condition. The
other-"

"Wait," Shinobu interrupted. "Did you say BOTH were thought to have been
tossed into the bay?"

"Yeah, that's what the official report I read said. Both revolvers issued
to your Peacemakers were lost in the Tokyo Bay during the Griffin
Incident."

"But... only ONE was lost in the bay that time- the other one was dropped
on the sidewalk. I thought the maintenance squad recovered it!" Shinobu
said.

Gotoh frowned. "Hmm... curious. Inspector Matsui, perhaps we need to
investigate this little corruption angle a bit further back than I
suspected...."

* * * * *

"Um, Asuma," Noa said, returning to the main room. "I have some bad news."

Asuma, who was disposing of the trash produced from their dinner, looked up
at her. "Oh?"

"Uh huh. I just checked the rest of the house... um, apparently mom and
dad haven't been maintaining this place all that well lately. The only
room which we can actually afford to heat is the bathroom and this room-
their are holes in many of the windows, a partially collapsed ceiling in
another room, and the back door is letting in a very bad draft."

Asuma sighed, putting the last empty beer can in the trash bag. "Great,"
he said. "Okay, I'll take the bathroom."

Noa looked at him guiltily. "I can't make you do that- I'll take the
bathroom."

"Oh, just let me take the bathroom. This is your house, after all."

"And you're my guest!" Noa countered. "I'll take the bathroom."

"I already feel bad enough with you making yourself a felon for me," Asuma
argued. "I'll take the bathroom."

"Fine! We'll BOTH take the bathroom!" Noa shouted.

Asuma blinked. "Um... Noa, think about that for a minute."

"Uh... okay, maybe we won't both take the bathroom," she said, embarrassed.
She thought about it for a second, blushed, and bit her lip nervously.
"Still... it might be best if we shared a room for the night... I mean, who
knows when we'll be getting more propane for the heater... we should
conserve what fuel we've got."

Asuma nodded slowly. "Um... well, I guess that makes sense. We should see
if we can repair some of the other rooms, though." He paused. "If you
promise not to hit me, I guess it would be all right. Show me where the
futons are and I'll help you drag a couple here."

"Heh heh..." Noa laughed nervously. "Um, that's the other piece of bad
news I've got."

Asuma looked at her in disbelief. "Don't tell me there's only one futon!"

"No, there's plenty of futons!" she exclaimed. "Um... sort of."

"Sort of?"

"Well... see, remember I said there was a partially collapsed roof in one
room? Well, see, some snow leaked through that roof onto the pile of
futons, and so..."

"They're all wet?"

"No! They've dried off- well, most of them have. It's just that many of
them are slightly rotted... or smell bad... or..."

Asuma sighed. "Never mind. Lead the way- let's see how bad off these
futons are, anyway."

* * * * *

Takeo sighed, waiting for the taxi to stop. She'd almost gotten through
the phone records she'd already obtained, and then Inspector Matsui called.
He'd found more people to check up on, and pushed the date back for the
records collection. So, off she was to the judge's office to get the
warrant, and now she was headed back to the phone company to pick up the
new files.

As the taxi entered the parking lot, she noticed a HELICOPTER parked up on
the roof of the building, illuminated by the setting sun. At first, she
feared that it was part of Shaft Security Systems, but upon further
inspection she was able to determine that while it was the same make of
helicopter as those used by the 3-S, it was customized in a way that no 3-S
person would ever allow (not to mention there was no 3-S logo painted on
the side).

"We're here, ma'am," the taxi driver said. "That'll be forty-five hundred
yen."

Takeo pulled a wad of cash out of her purse and handed it to the taxi
driver. "Thank you. If you could return in a couple of hours to take me
back, I'd be grateful."

The driver counted the yen, noticing it was fifteen hundred yen larger than
he'd asked for. Not much, true, but enough of a bribe to make him take
notice of her request. "Of course, Ma'am."

The taxi drove off as she made her way inside. After a few brief words
with the receptionist (who had been expecting her), she went over to the
same room for phone records retrieval she'd been at before.

She stepped up to the counter at the records department, looking in to see
who was there. Most of the staff was apparently missing, but there was one
man in a suit bending over a computer terminal. Takeo couldn't make much
out about him, but from what she could see she had the vaguely disturbing
feeling she'd seen him before- and not at the phone company. Shaking her
head furiously to clear it, she called over to the man.

"Excuse me, can you help me?"

The figure stiffened. In a nasal and strongly accented voice, he replied,
"I sorry- only here from India researching phone systems. Can no help
you."

Takeo's eyes widened. She recognized that voice, even as (badly) disguised
as it was. Leaping over the counter, she ran up to the man and turned him
around by the shoulder. "Richard!" she cried.

Richard Wong faced her with some of his usual smile, but it looked a little
more nervous than usual. "Hello, Takeo. I should have known that little
trick wouldn't work on you," he said.

They just stared at each other for a few moments, neither one knowing what
to say. Finally, Takeo's eyes turned cold. "You're under arrest for
illegally infiltrating the private records kept by the phone company."

Wong held out his hands, still smiling. "If you insist- and I won't trick
you this time, either. But you'll be making a big mistake if you do."

Takeo snorted. "And why would that be? I can't believe you're helping
these people cover up who REALLY killed Asuma's father. I know you've done
some pretty despicable things, but that's low, even for you!"

That caused Wong's face- and hands- to drop. "I thought you knew me better
than that. I'm not covering up any of the murderers."

Takeo sighed. "I thought I knew you better than that, as well! But I
found out a few years ago I don't know you as well as I thought I did. If
that ISN'T what you're doing, then why ARE you here?"

Wong's smile returned. "Why, I'm trying to do the exact same thing you
are- get Asuma Shinohara off the hook." His smile grew. "After all, if
Shinohara Heavy Industries collapses because their owner is in prison, then
I'm out of the job."

Takeo's eyes widened. There was a ring of truth to what he was saying.
Still... "We can conduct our OWN investigation, thank you," she said,
pulling out a pair of handcuffs.

Wong nodded, holding out his hands again. "Oh, I believe you. I remember
just how much attention you pay to detail. You're a great detective- I
have no question that you'll eventually crack the case!" He paused.
"However, since Asuma and Noa are under my care, they might find themselves
in a little bit of trouble if I'm not there to help them."

That stopped Takeo before she could put the cuffs on him. "What do you
mean, 'under your care?'"

"The two of them found this nice little cozy hideaway they could stay at,"
he answered. "However, they have no money and only limited supplies. I
found them there, and offered to make certain they were well stocked during
their visit to that establishment. They did NOT want to trust me, but they
didn't have much other choice." He sighed, putting on an unhappy look.
"Sadly, it looks like their mistrust will be well founded, as I will be in
prison and unable to provide the help I promised them."

"Where are they?" she asked anxiously.

Wong laughed. "Now, Takeo, you know I'm not going to tell you that. You
can't arrest me while I have that information, and I'm certainly going to
do what I can to keep you from arresting me." He paused. "Besides, I'm
certainly not going to give their position away to the police!"

Takeo remembered what Matsui had told her. "I won't give their position
away, either." She paused, hesitating before she continued. "And I promise
not to arrest you if you do. Perhaps... perhaps we could work together on
this investigation, and I could help you work on getting Asuma and Noa
to... relax... around you."

Wong's face dropped- not in sadness, nor in anger, but in shock. That was
an offer he certainly had not been expecting. "Are you... serious? You
want to... work... with me, again?"

"Only for the duration of this investigation!" Takeo declared. "And JUST
working! Consider it a temporary pardon- but once this is finished, the
best you can expect from me is a running start."

He relaxed into his smile again. "Of course," he said. "Well, I'm very
willing to work with you on this. Let's get those phone records you came
for, and then we'll start looking through them, okay?"

* * * * *

Asuma struggled to get comfortable. He stared across at Noa, who was
relaxed comfortably on her futon- the ONLY futon in the house which hadn't
been ruined by the weather.

In order to make a bed for himself, he'd grabbed the two next-best looking
futons they could find and doubled them up. It was still very lumpy,
however, and smelly, and parts of both futons he was using had rotted. The
blankets were much the same way- enough undamaged covers for one, really,
so he had to make do with multiple ruined covers. It still left him cold-
sure, they'd warmed up the room before going to bed, but it was dangerous
to leave a propane tank burning overnight and they'd had to turn the heater
off before going to sleep. There were no holes in the walls, so it wasn't
cooling down too quickly, but the disrepair of the blankets he was forced
to use didn't offer the protection needed to keep him warm. It didn't help
that he was sleeping in his underwear- neither he nor Noa had a change of
clothes on them, and so they'd been forced to make do with their underwear
and some bathrobes as pajamas. None of the bathrobes fit Asuma, however,
so he wound up using them as an extra blanket.

As he studied Noa's apparently sleeping form, he sighed. It looked like
she was very comfortable. 'Tomorrow,' he thought to himself, 'I'm getting
on that snowmobile and heading over to the ski lodge to see if I can pick
up a futon and some blankets from that contact of Wong's. And maybe a
change of clothes or two, as well.' He paused. "And anything else that
might be of use in making this place livable," he accidentally muttered
aloud.

"I'm sorry, Asuma," Noa said from her futon.

"Noa? You're awake?"

"I can't sleep- I keep wondering what we're getting ourselves into," she
said. "I mean, we're working with the BLACK LABOR here- and we're working
AGAINST all of our friends."

"I know," Asuma agreed. "Do you regret helping me?"

Noa turned her head to smile at him. "No. I'd have had an even harder
time sleeping if I hadn't." She noticed him shivering slightly. "You
cold?"

"A little," he admitted. Unfortunately, his teeth chattered slightly when
he said it.

"Sounds like you're more than just 'a little' cold," Noa accused.

"Well... yeah, okay, I'm cold," he said. "Not much I can do about it."

Noa looked guilty. "I got the good futon... maybe I could give you the
good blankets in trade?"

"And have both of us uncomfortable?" he said. "No... keep the blanket."

"But I'm the host- it's my job to make the guest feel comfortable."

"And I'm the guest," he replied. "Do we have to go through this again?"

"Let's just skip to the end- why don't we share?" she joked.

Asuma, however, missed the humor in her voice. "You can't be serious!" he
exclaimed.

For some reason, Noa took offense at that. "Oh? If I was, what would you
do?"

He paused. "I... I don't know," he admitted. "I mean, I've had to share
rooms- and sometimes futons- with the others in our unit, but..."

"But?"

"But you aren't just one of the other guys," he said.

"Well, yeah- I'm a girl!"

Asuma propped himself up on an elbow, turning to face her. "It isn't just
that you're a girl, though."

That surprised Noa. "What do you mean? If it isn't just that I'm a girl,
what is it?"

"I... I'm not sure how to explain it," he answered. "It's just... well, I
wouldn't be really... comfortable... sleeping next to you."

"Well, gee, thanks," she growled, hurt.

"I didn't mean it like that!" he exclaimed.

Noa looked at him closely. "Then how DID you mean it?"

He lay back down, closing his eyes so that he wouldn't see her face when he
said what he was about to say. "I couldn't ALLOW myself to get comfortable
because I would be afraid of getting... too comfortable... with you."

The implications of that set in, and for the first time Noa wondered about
their relationship. She thought about the times they'd spent together, the
times they'd gone into battle together, and the emotional memories they'd
shared. "Asuma?" she said. Her voice was cracking slightly.

"Yeah, Noa?"

Noa paused. She wasn't sure she wanted to ask this, but once she'd made
her decision she figured she might as well not back out of it. "Do you
want to share the futon?"

Asuma sat up like he'd been shot out of a cannon. "Are you sure you want
to take the risk?" he asked.

"Asuma," she said sternly. "I don't care about the risk. You've told me
more about yourself than I've seen you tell anyone else- I'VE told you more
about MYSELF than I've ever told anyone else. When the Griffin hurt you
and I didn't know if you were alive or dead, I was more terrified than I'd
been at any other point in my life. When we had our first real fight-
about you making up with your father- I was afraid we'd never make up, and
didn't know how I'd handle that. Whenever my life was on the line, I cried
your name, desperately hoping I could see you just one more time. Asuma...
like you always say, backup and forward should have one heart and one mind.
I think we've got the one heart already. I let you be my mind sometimes.
If we DID... get too comfortable, all that would happen to us would be that
we'd add one more thing we share- one body."

Asuma couldn't move, or speak, or even think- was Noa offering what he
thought she was offering?

"Noa, do you know what you're saying?"

Noa nodded furiously. "Yes. Now get over here!"

"Yes, ma'am!" he said, jumping out of the futon. "Wait... don't I usually
boss YOU around?"

Noa chuckled. "Tell you what- you can boss me around in the morning.
Tonight, it's my turn."

* * * * *

"Ah, Inspector Matsui," Gotoh said. "Find any more... irregularities... in
our weapons log?"

"No," he said gruffly. "I'm done with that portion of this investigation.
I have a pretty good idea what weapon was used- we just need to find it and
perform a ballistics test on it. In the meantime, however, there are a
couple other angles to work on. Takeo's taking one- she phoned me to let
me know she's discovered a confidential inside source on the conspiracy,
and she'll be working with him independently for a while. In the meantime,
however, she gave me the results of another file search I'd engaged her on.
Um, would you and Captain Shinobu please help me with this phase of the
investigation? There's someone I need to question, and I'd like to have
you two along with me when I conduct this particular interrogation."

Gotoh looked over at Shinobu, who shrugged and nodded, before getting up to
walk over to him. "Certainly- though may I ask why?"

Matsui coughed. "Well, I'm going to be questioning another police
officer."

"Not one of MY men!" Shinobu cried, outraged.

"No, not one of your men," he said reassuringly. Glancing casually at
Gotoh, he added, "Not one of yours, either. Nor Sakaki's."

Shinobu and Gotoh looked at each other. "Well... if it's not our men,"
Gotoh asked, almost to himself. "Who does that leave?"

"Are you taking us off base? If so, I'm afraid I won't be able to go..."
Shinobu said.

"No, we should find the person who I'm intending to talk to in this
facility right now...."

* * * * *

[Part 3]

Noa and Asuma, half-dressed after their difficult night's sleep, were
trying to relax in the main room of their hideout. Things were slightly
tense between them after what they said and did the previous night, and
they were uncertain how to relate to each other after the unexpected
change. Trying to avoid the issue, they'd seperated to do very different
things. It had turned into a very lazy afternoon.

Noa was furiously her Patlabor game, trying to beat her top score. She'd
seen a steady improvement in her performance that day, but part of that
might have been that there wasn't much else to do in the cabin. Briefly,
she glanced over at Asuma, blushing slightly. No, not much else to do at
all.

Asuma was lying on his elbows, reading one of the manga they'd been
supplied. It wasn't something he'd normally be interested in (it was a
girls manga), but considering the limited options it was probably the best
way of preventing boredom. In an attempt to breech the wall of nerves
they'd erected between them, he first tried helping Noa out on her video
game. That hadn't worked out, however, and he found that the screen on the
Headgear Mini-Game device wasn't big enough to allow two people to view
what was going on at once- at least not without getting too close to each
other for comfort. He also considered suggesting they watch some
television, but he doubted anything of interest was on the local TVs...
though he should probably consider watching the news later that night, just
to make sure there weren't any major updates on their case.

"Say, Asuma?" Noa said, not looking up from her game.

"Yeah, Noa?"

"Are there any OTHER girls you'd have hesitated before sleeping with?"

Asuma blinked, and looked over at her. She was doing her best to keep her
smile from showing- obviously, she was teasing him.

"Not in this building," he said.

"And outside of it?"

"I don't know... I mean, there definitely are some. Most of those others,
however, are for completely different reasons."

Noa raised an eyebrow. "MOST of those others? What about those 'others'
who aren't covered in that 'most?'"

"Well, let's see. They'd have to be someone who I liked a lot... and who I
would be afraid of losing what I had with them... and who I trusted with
pretty much anything... hmm, not sure there really ARE any others who fit
all of those requirements."

"Good," Noa said smugly.

"Now, what you SHOULD have asked is if there are any other girls who I
WOULDN'T have hesitated before sleeping with," he added, smiling up at her
maliciously.

"What! Why you-"

"Shh!" Asuma said suddenly, leaping to his feet. "I think I hear
something."

Noa started listening along with him. She just barely made out what it was
he was listening to. "Is that a... helicopter?"

Asuma nodded. "Yeah... and it's getting closer. Do helicopters come
around here often?"

"First time I've ever heard one in these mountains, as far as I can
recall."

"Damn- that's almost certainly the police," he growled as the helicopter
got close enough for them to know that it was landing near them. "Wong
must have sold us out- quick, grab anything you can, and let's get out of
here!"

Noa glanced out the window. "Asuma, wait!"

"What is it?" he said, stopping with his shirt half-buttoned- he'd been
wearing just the T-shirt up until that point.

"That isn't a police helicopter. In fact, I think I see Utsumi waving to
us from its window," Noa explained, using the pseudonym Richard Wong had
first given them when they had first met.

"Utsumi?" Asuma said, surprised. He resumed buttoning his shirt, but with
less urgency. "Why is he here this soon? It's only been a day since we
last saw him!"

The helicopter finished its landing procedures, and Wong left it
accompanied by someone else. Noa, still looking out the window, gasped.
"Asuma, Takeo's with him!"

He paused. "Well... it's too late to try and run now that they've landed.
Let's just hope she's on our side. Utsumi said he would try and help our
investigation- maybe he's bringing her in to do it, and she has to ask us
some questions or something."

Noa turned to face him, and as she watched him fix his shirt remembered her
own partially-clothed state. Quickly, she buttoned up her own blouse
(which she'd been wearing unfastened), and turned to wait for the
unexpected guests.

There was a knock at the door. Noa glanced at Asuma, who nodded, and
opened it.

"Ah, hello, Noa, Asuma," Wong greeted. "I brought along a guest who simply
insisted that she see you to make certain you two were safe."

"Hello, Asuma." Takeo said, stepping in alongside him, smiling. For the
first time, Asuma noticed an odd similarity between her smile and Wong's-
perhaps it wasn't as wide, but it appeared almost identical in shape. It
was almost as if she WOULD be smiling just like him if her lips would let
her.

"Uh, hi, Takeo," Noa said nervously.

"Noa," Takeo acknowledged. "Have you been taking good care of Asuma?" she
asked in hidden amusement, noticing that the younger woman's shirt wasn't
buttoned up quite right.

Noa blushed. "Well... we have had a few problems. We need a few supplies
to remain... comfortable."

"Oh?" Wong said. "Did we not bring enough for you in our care packages?"

Asuma nodded. "We need some changes of clothing- we've been stuck in our
uniforms ever since we escaped, and there's only so much bathing will do.
We could also use something to help clean those clothes."

Wong nodded. "Oh- oh! I'm sorry I did not think of that when I showed up
yesterday! Give me your clothing measurements before I leave, and I'll get
you a complete wardrobe by nightfall. Is there anything else?"

Noa raised her hand. "Yes! We could use a larger futon and- ulp!" She
was cut off as Asuma's hand went over her mouth.

"A larger futon?" Takeo repeated, raising an eyebrow.

"Uh, yeah," Asuma said, still holding his hand over Noa's mouth despite the
fact she was now biting him. "See, she's had to sleep on this really small
kids' futon she used to sleep on when she was, like, five or so, and was
hoping to find something a bit more comfortable." Once Noa realized he was
only trying to keep their secret a bit longer, she stopped biting him, and
he was able to move his hand away.

Wong laughed. "Of course! I'll send her a nice queen-sized futon along
with the clothing. Is that all?"

Asuma was a little surprised at the size of the offered futon, but decided
to ignore that little puzzle. "Well, the whole place is a bit shabby, and
could use a few things to fix it up. We don't need that stuff right away,
but if we have to stay much longer we could use some materials and tools to
rebuild the damaged portions of this house."

"Oh, I doubt you'll have to stay in it much longer," Wong said. "A few
days, a week at most."

That surprised all three of them. "You really think we'll be done with
this investigation so quickly?" Takeo said.

Wong looked at her sadly. "I'm afraid so... and then our truce will run
out, and I'll have to start hiding from you again. A shame, really, but I
promised to do my best to keep my end of the bargain."

"How do you figure we'll be done in a week?" she asked.

"Ah, well, see- our little research project with those phone records worked
two ways. You were able to discover what people in the police were
actively conspiring to force the investigation to turn on Asuma, and I was
able to find out who it was in Shaft who'd ordered the frame-up. I talked
to my friends in the departments those people head, and they'll try and
find for us the murder weapon your Inspector Matsui identified. Once they
do that, we'll go there, extract it, and use it to prove Asuma's innocence.
In the meantime, your Inspector Matsui and Captain Gotoh, if I'm any judge
of their competence, will be able to break down the police conspiracy in a
very brief time." He paused. "Which really doesn't leave much
investigation for us, does it? Ah, well- do you want to join me on the ski
slopes before we leave?"

"Richard Wong," Takeo warned. "We're only here on business. If you're
attempting to butter me up into liking you again, you're wasting your
time."

Wong sighed theatrically. "Oh, well."

"I would like a chance to talk to Noa and Asuma privately before we depart,
however. Would you mind leaving us alone for a little bit?"

Wong raised his hands in surrender. "Leaving you alone as ordered. Have
fun." Winking at her, he left the house and made his way out to the
helicopter.

Takeo closed her eyes and shook her head, that smile that reminded Asuma of
Wong still on her face. "You two are in a lot of trouble, you know," she
said. "I don't think you realize what it means to ally yourselves with
Richard Wong."

"Maybe not," Asuma said. "Though I do know enough not to trust anything he
says."

"Well, that's a start," she said with chagrin. "But there's a lot more to
Richard then just an untrustworthy guy. He's not going to hurt you, or let
you get hurt- not physically, at any rate- if you're a friend of his. And
when he told me he thought of you two as friends, I believed him."

"Are you sure about that?" Noa asked. "It sure didn't seem that way when I
had to fight the Griffin!"

Takeo nodded. "Hurting and humiliating are two very different things in
his book." She blushed slightly. "I happen to know that he finds
humiliating those he cares about something of a... um... turn on," At
Asuma and Noa's wide-eyed stares at her, Takeo quickly changed the topic.
"Realize, the Griffin got into a lot of fights- many of them very intense
battles- but it was controlled well enough that it wouldn't kill anyone.
It hurt Asuma, yes, but that was unintentional and unexpected. If it had
been going to kill you, it could have, Noa- and probably long before the
battle turned in your favor, too."

Cold chills ran down both her and Asuma's spines- Noa, at the thought of
how close she was to death in those fights, and Asuma, at the thought of
how close he could have come to losing Noa.

"So you're saying we can trust certain things about him?" Asuma asked.

"No- don't even trust what you know about Richard, because he'll use his
own patterns against you. Trust me- I've seen him work."

"Why is he really doing this for us?" Noa asked.

Takeo laughed. "Who knows? Richard's quite eccentric- he told me those
speakers that Bud was using on the Griffin to yell at you were put there so
that he could get the labor to play selections from Wagner's operas as it
moved. He lives by his own rules, and no-one understands Richard Wong but
Richard Wong himself."

"So how did you two come to join forces in this case?" Asuma asked. "Did
he approach you, or what?"

"No... we were following the same lead, and just happened to meet. I was
about to arrest him until I found out he could contact you two, and we made
an agreement where I would arrest him if he kept you two safe. He's
actually been quite helpful- which isn't really a surprise; he usually is,
when he wants to be."

"So... what should we do?" Asuma asked.

"You?" Takeo said. "You're already doing it- stay hidden. Just relax,
have some fun, and think of this as a vacation... but stay indoors. Well,
maybe there are some things you could do- I suspect it would be safe to go
skiing, if you wear some sort of disguise- but just use caution and don't
let anyone see your faces."

"Yeah, that's pretty much what Utsumi told us," Asuma said.

"I just wish there was more to do around here," Noa sighed.

Takeo's smile grew a little. "Oh, I'm pretty sure you'll think of
something. Look, I'd better be going- I'll come by to check on you guys in
a week if we haven't cleared you by then."

"Bye, Takeo," Noa said.

"Hold on," Asuma said. "Give Noa and I a chance to write down the things
Wong needs to get us our new clothes."

Takeo nodded, pulling out a pen and a small note pad from her vest and
handing them over to Asuma. "Write down anything you want to tell him in
this."

Asuma and Noa took their turns with the notepad before handing it back to
Takeo. "We'll see you in a week, Takeo," Asuma said.

Takeo smiled as she turned to go. "By the way... if you hadn't tried to
hide it, you'd have gotten a bigger futon."

"Huh?" Asuma and Noa chorused.

"Well, it's pretty obvious you two are sleeping together. If you'd just
come out and admitted it, he'd have given you a king-sized futon to share
instead of the smaller queen-sized one. Honesty has its rewards with
Richard."

As she continued out the door, Noa and Asuma both facefaulted.

* * * * *

Inspector Matsui stopped leading when they reached the door labeled
'Section Chief Fukushima.' His two companions halted when he paused and
pulled out a cigarette. Gotoh looked at the office, looked at Matsui, and
nodded slightly. Shinobu, on the other hand, just looked confused.

"Are we going in to get the section chief's help, too, or are we just
stopped so you can smoke a cigarette?" she asked, somewhat harshly as she
wasn't very comfortable being left in the dark.

"His 'help?'" Matsui echoed. "Hmm... I guess that's a good way to put it.
The answer to your question is we're stopped here so that I can smoke a
cigarette BEFORE we go in to get some 'help' from your section chief. I'm
going to need it to calm my nerves- sometimes it seems Mr. Fukushima does
his utmost to make me feel uncomfortable, and I'm gonna need this smoke to
get through this."

Shinobu looked at him, still confused. She was used to reading between the
lines with Gotoh- well, sometimes she was- but she didn't understand
whatever it was Matsui was implying. Or at least didn't want to
understand. "Well, should I go in and get him, or are we all going to have
to wait for you to finish this cigarette break?"

"We're going to have to wait, Shinobu. See, Fukushima isn't going to help
perform the questioning- he's going to be the person we're going to
question."

Finally, it all clicked in Shinobu's head. "You don't mean HE'S the one
who sold us out to Shaft? But he's our section chief! Surely he
wouldn't..." her voice trailed off into memories. Memories of the time
she'd confronted the same section chief about the possibility that the
SRX-70 that had been donated to her labor unit was being used by Shaft to
develop military labors. Blood money, she had called it. Fukushima's
response, for some reason, rang in her head that moment.

"Labor units run on money, not on pride," he had said.

"In addition to a number of phone calls between him and several suspected
Shaft administrators," Matsui explained, "I accessed his bank accounts and
discovered regular deposits to him by dummy corporations set up by Shaft
Multinational. While Shaft is not the only group I started out suspecting,
I've since got a few 'tips' to make me believe that Shaft WAS the
organization which framed Asuma and murdered his father, and while
Fukushima isn't the only person who appears to be receiving bribes from
Shaft, we've got other leads- namely your apparently altered report on the
missing weapon- that seem to connect to him."

The door behind the three of them opened. "And, in addition to all that,
you're able to discuss all of this in front of my office without giving me
a chance to defend myself," Fukushima growled. "Come in- I've heard what
you all had to say. Let's talk."

The three officers, looking a little like schoolchildren caught cheating on
a test, followed him in and closed the door behind them. Fukushima sat
down at his desk, gestured for them to take a seat, and then folded his
hands together.

Matsui, sitting down, cleared his throat. "Um, sir, I still have a few
questions-"

"Stow it!" the section chief barked. "You can ask your questions later. I
get a chance to explain my side of things, now." He paused, waiting for
their reactions.

Matsui seemed unhappy, but nodded and leaned back in his chair to hear what
Fukushima had to say for himself. Shinobu felt vaguely shell-shocked-
while intellectually she'd been convinced that there had been an internal
conspiracy to frame Gotoh's protege Asuma, she hadn't quite connected that
to corruption in the police- especially not to someone who she worked with.
She might not have liked Fukushima, but she was very by the book, and had
always felt that Fukushima was a by-the-book man, as well. His apparent
betrayal was something she'd never have expected in a million years, even
if the evidence for his had hit her on the head.

Gotoh, however, was as unflappable as ever. "Go ahead, chief. We all
appear to be wondering why you would frame one of your own for the murder
of his father." Unflappable, but still not very happy. Shinobu, who had
never heard him address someone so darkly- least of all someone as powerful
as the section chief- shuddered slightly at his tone.

"I did nothing of the kind!" Fukushima denied violently. "I will admit to
taking money from Shaft Multinational, but I wasn't doing anything like
that for it." He paused, sitting back defiantly. "I merely was something
of a paid consultant and lobbyist for them. I was asked to support their
labor designs over that of the Shinohara Heavy Industry designs back when
the two were competing for the Patlabor contracts, and received a modest
fee for my support. Since then, I've been supplying them with some
information when they've requested it- medical reports on the effects of
high-stress assignments on pilots and that sort of thing. However, I've
never done ANYTHING which I felt has hurt or hindered my police work in any
fashion- especially nothing which might have lead to one of my officers
being framed for murder." Disdainfully, he added, "In fact, I think it
could have helped us out significantly, if we hadn't been paranoid about
their motivations. They were willing to just GIVE us an SRX-70 was in part
due to my aid... and I STILL feel it was a mistake to get rid of it."

Shinobu was starting to get angry now. The SRX-70 incident had been a
trying time for her, and she still got mad thinking about how she'd almost
been duped into illegal weapons testing. Fukushima had refused to see her
problem with it at the time, and now he was only compounding his errors in
her mind. Still, she was able to keep her cool, and not do anything too
violent. She did break a pencil she was holding between her fingers,
however.

Gotoh noted Shinobu's waning restraint, and decided to ask a question
before she snapped. "Hmm... you say you've done nothing to lead to one of
your officers being framed for murder. I don't doubt that you believe that
when you say it, but can you be certain they never used your work in ways
you weren't aware of? I wonder... you didn't happen to alter a report at
their request, did you? A missing weapons report?"

Fukushima blinked. "Now that you mention it, they did ask that I change
one report from listing a missing revolver to say that it fell into the
Tokyo Bay instead of listing it as having been misplaced following the
action. I happen to know for a fact that the weapon in question was
non-functioning, however."

"Non-functioning?" Shinobu said. "How?"

"It was defective, according to my source at Shaft. They were merely
studying the trigger system, but the barrel had been damaged."

That got Shinobu out of her chair. "And you believed him?" she growled,
slamming her fists down on top of Fukushima's desk. "Shaft makes weapons
systems for the armies of fifty different countries. The police revolvers
used by Ingram and Peacemaker labors are pretty pathetic compared to Shaft
equipment- they had no need to study the trigger systems of those weapons!"

"Shinobu," Gotoh said, trying to calm her down slightly.

"How much did they pay you to believe them, 'Chief?' The ONLY possible
reason they would have for wanting to obtain one of those revolvers would
be to use a labor-designed weapon that WOULDN'T be traced back to them,"
she said. "So, 'Chief,' guess what? You DID participate in framing one of
our officers- and it's your fault he's on the run right now!"

"Shinobu!" Gotoh snapped, trying to get her attention.

She relaxed slightly, turning to Gotoh. "Sorry... but to think I used to
actually treat this man with some respect..."

* * * * *

Noa went through the crate of stuff that had been delivered for her.
Fortunately, she and Asuma hadn't had to unload the futon themselves, but
the boxes of clothing Wong had sent were much larger than they were
expecting. Noa pulled out some laundry detergent (complete with
instructions for how to hand-wash things, as if she needed them), four nice
blouses, three pairs of slacks, a skirt, and some underwear. Then she
started finding some items she hadn't thought to ask for- an iron, some
soap and shampoo for the bath, some toothpaste, some mouthwash, some maxi
pads (not her usual brand, but she couldn't really complain) and other
toiletries.

There was one thing that she couldn't quite identify, however, until she
took it out of the box and carefully studied the English writing.

"Eep!" Noa blushed, dropping the box once she realized what it was.

Asuma, unpacking his own box, looked over at her. "What?"

Quickly, she grabbed the box and hid it behind her. "Uh... nothing."

Asuma smiled teasingly. "Are you hiding something from me?"

"No!" Noa cried out, her voice trembling with embarrassment. Realizing she
just shouted, she giggled nervously.

Asuma's smile grew, and he crawled over to her on his hands on knees so he
could confront her face to face. "Come on- what is it?"

"Nothing! Really!" Noa insisted desperately. He was trying to be playful-
she was just trying to keep him from finding the box and getting the wrong
idea. Unfortunately, the more she fought the more he thought she was
playing, too.

"Then what's that you're holding behind your back?" he asked.

"I'm not holding anything behind my back- see!" Noa said, showing both her
hands.

Asuma feinted a look of surrender, then with a battle cry of "Ha!" ducked
around underneath her hand to grab the box from behind her.

"Asuma!" Noa cried, outraged.

Asuma gave her a toothy grin of victory, but then noticed that she wasn't
just disappointed or embarrassed like he'd expected, but actually looked a
little scared. His smile dropped, but he still took a good look at the
item Noa had been trying to hide.

"It's a box of condoms," he said simply. "An assortment- ribbed, flex-tip,
and... flavored?"

Noa nodded. "Uh huh," she mumbled.

"What's the problem, though? I mean, it's probably just a gag gift- you
wouldn't believe some of the silly things they put in my box. But you're
acting scared of this. Why would a box of condoms scare you?"

Noa blushed. "Um... I'm not sure how to explain it. Last night was
wonderful- we found out what we meant to each other, we snuggled up under
the sheets- even if part of why we held on so tightly was to fit on the
futon, we kissed each other, and we... um... did a few other things." Her
blush grew until she looked as red as her hair, but she continued. "But we
never got far enough to have to use anything like that. I was a bit glad,
actually... I'm not ready for that kind of step. This morning, when I was
thinking about last night, I was wondering what I'd have done if you HAD
tried to start something like that... something I wasn't ready for. I
figured one excuse I could use was that we didn't have anything like this
to protect me from... well, getting pregnant." She sighed. "Now that
we've got them, though, I... I can't think of any reasons other than 'I'm
not ready yet.'"

Asuma smiled comfortingly. "And what makes you think you NEED any other
reasons?" She blinked at his response. "Look, Noa, I'm not going to do
anything to hurt you, nor will I do anything to rush you. Like you said- I
can boss you around in the daytime. At night, however, it's your turn."

Noa smiled back weakly. "And what if you try something during the day?"

"Then you automatically take over, okay?"

"Okay," she said. "Say... you said you got a bunch of gag gifts. Like
what?"

"Um..."

"Come on! Let me see!"

"Ack!"

* * * * *

Takeo sat down next to Wong, removing her skis after a long, hard day of
going downhill. She sighed briefly as she recalled her vehement objection
to skiing with him. Of course, he was easily able to just ignore all of
her arguments and rent skis for the two of them, anyway. Then, of course,
she let herself be convinced to ski with him, after all: "It'll help
maintain our cover," he'd explained, "We don't want people wondering why a
helicopter flied up here and then left without someone from it visiting the
famous ski slopes... unless you WANT people to come and investigate around
the area of Noa and Asuma's cabin."

Takeo bought into that hook, line, and sinker. Then, of course, he spent
the entire day they were skiing hitting on her. The only pause had been
when they took a short break to fill up Noa and Asuma's new care packages.
His one comment about the extra things she'd added (which had included
feminine hygiene products for Noa (just in case), some books she knew Asuma
liked, and a couple other odds and ends) had been on the box of condoms-
"I'm surprised you're carrying a thing like that around," he'd said,
smiling like always. "You wouldn't happen to have been thinking about
using them, would you?"

The more she thought about it, the more annoyed she got. Here he was,
still hitting on her like the events of the past year just hadn't happened.
It seemed like he was hoping a few jokes would ease all of the betrayal
she'd felt at his running out on her, and that that would be the end of it.
Things would be back to normal, and forget all the little details like how
she'd be forced to arrest him on sight again when this was all over.

Well, he was wrong, and she was about to let him know and let him know just
how wrong he was, dammit! Just as soon as she figured out how to tell him,
that was.

Furiously, she grabbed her skis and slammed them onto the return counter
for the ski rental place, almost breaking them in the process. With that,
she stormed out of the room, trying to project her displeasure with the
world to anyone who might be paying attention.

One of the few people who WAS actually paying attention happened to be her
intended target: Richard Wong. Noticing the cloud over her face as she was
leaving, he quickly jumped up and followed her (he'd actually finished with
his own skis several minutes beforehand, he was just waiting for Takeo to
catch up). As it turned out, however, his rushing after her caused
EVERYONE to pay attention. The immediate rumors that started spreading
noted that the nice young couple which had arrived by helicopter that
afternoon was having a rather nasty fight. Some of the other men in the
ski lodge were hoping the couple would break up so that THEY could have a
shot at the cute ski-bunny who'd arrived so suddenly in the middle of the
day, but who had apparently been attached to the weird foreigner with the
odd smile. At any rate, Takeo and Wong were the talk of the whole place in
a matter of minutes.

Wong finally caught up with her in the lobby of the lodge, looking a little
flustered. "Takeo, what's wrong? Why are you so upset?" he asked.

"Nothing! I'm not upset," Takeo snapped. "Let's just get out of here,
okay?"

Wong scratched his head, confused. "Get out of here? Where are we going?"

"Home, of course! Where do you think?"

Wong still looked confused. "How do you expect us to get home? It'll get
dark before we get the helicopter warmed up, and it isn't equipped for
night flying."

Takeo clenched her fists, closing her eyes. "You mean... we have to stay
here overnight?"

"Well, we could always head back to Noa's cabin, if you'd prefer, but I
suspect your friends wouldn't like that," he answered, his smile returning
for the first time in this conversation, albeit hesitantly.

"And, let me guess, you only rented one room."

"Well, I don't really budget more than one room for business trips to ski
lodges," he replied.

Takeo sighed, defeated. "Fine. Where's this room of ours?"

"Right this way!" Wong gestured with a flourish, and started leading her
through the hallways of the lodge. They stopped at a door, and he used a
card to open the electro-magnetic lock. "Allow me to escort the lady
across the- eh?"

Takeo totally ignored his gallant gesture, just walking right past him into
the room. She grabbed a sheet and a pillow off of the one bed and headed
over to a sofa. "I'll spend the night here, thank you," she said, lying
down.

Wong followed her in after a second, letting the door close behind him.
"Um... if you want, but it might get kind of cramped."

"I'll be fine, as long as you stay in the bed where you belong," she
grumbled, turning so that she wouldn't be facing him as she slept.

Wong sat on the bed, his smile falling again. "Did I do something wrong?"
he asked. "Why are you acting so... hostile?"

Takeo sat up, spinning around to face him. "Look, did you really think it
would be all that easy?"

Wong blinked. "I'm afraid I just don't understand. What are you talking
about?"

"Listen," Takeo said, taking a deep breath. "We may have been lovers back
in Hong Kong, but that was over the day you never came back. It was even
more over when I found out you didn't even quit Shaft like you said you
would. If you think that, just because we have a temporary truce, I'm
going to go back to the way things were just because you con me into
spending the night in the same room as you... well, let's just say you're
SADLY mistaken."

Wong blinked. "Um... Takeo, check the closet."

Takeo blinked. "Why?"

Wong sighed, and walked over to the closet. Opening it up, he gestured to
the fold-away bed that had been placed there. "I was planning to sleep on
this, but if you insist on using the sofa, I'll be happy to take the
regular bed..."

Takeo blushed slightly. "You mean... you weren't just assuming we'd be
sharing the same bed?"

"Well, I was hoping you wouldn't mind if we did," Wong admitted, his smile
once again returning. "But I was prepared either way."

Takeo's blush disappeared, but she still looked somewhat embarrassed. "I'm
sorry... it's just that, with the way you tricked me into this ski trip and
that crack you made about the condoms I got for Noa and Asuma... and then
there was just one hotel room, and one bed, and..."

"Like I said, I was hoping you wouldn't mind," Wong said. "And I'm not
sorry for what I said and did- the ski trip was unavoidable, and that joke
was just too good not to make- but I'm certainly not going to ask you to
resume our former intimacies if you don't want to." He paused. "I am not
the most admirable of men- I do many crimes against the world merely for my
own gain, and I have no qualms about hurting those I care about if they are
in my way- but there are certain lines I will never cross. I will not
allow your co-worker to be successfully framed for the murder of his father
because my employers crossed one of those lines. I will not force you into
anything you are not ready for, because THAT would cross one of those
lines."

"You most certainly AREN'T the most admirable of men!" Takeo snapped. "You
lie, you steal, you cheat, you betray... but you're still better than I've
been treating you." She took the blanket and the pillow, and walked over
to the closet where he was standing. "Tell you what: You're paying for
this room and all, so I should be the one to get the rollaway bed. You
take the regular bed, and consider that my apology, okay?"

He paused, considering her offer. "Okay, deal," he said, heading over to
the bed. His expression took on some feigned disappointment, however. "I
guess hoping that you'd sleep with me in apology was too much, wasn't it?"

Takeo, who knew him well enough to know he'd been planning some sort of
zinger like that, merely swatted him with her pillow hard instead of
slapping him like she otherwise might have. "Yes, it was. Now get to
sleep- and if you even THINK about dreaming about me, I'm going to toss you
off the helicopter tomorrow... while we're in the air."

As he started to make his way under the covers of his bed, he blinked.
"Wait a minute- it's my helicopter. How are YOU going to get ME thrown
off?"

Takeo smiled evilly- oddly reflecting Wong's own expression. "Oh, I'm
pretty sure I could think of a few ways. I've had to toss the occasional
man out of a window in my time. And if I can toss Ohta out the window when
I'm drunk, I'm pretty sure I can toss you out of a helicopter door when I'm
sober. Or maybe even THROUGH the helicopter door."

Wong hesitated. That sounded... painful. And serious. "Um, yes, ma'am."

* * * * *

Matsui was not really surprised to find Gotoh sleeping in the Captains'
Office when he returned to the reclaimed land the day after the questioning
of Section Chief Fukushima. He WAS, however, a little surprised to find
that Shinobu was in the same office and NOT complaining about the laziness
of the other captain.

"You're letting him sleep on duty?" he said curiously.

Shinobu giggled slightly. "Actually, he's off duty. I've never known him
to go home when I'm here- instead, he just sleeps in the office and fixes
himself coffee and soups using his teapot and a sterno heater."

Matsui blinked. "Odd... oh, well. It's a good thing for me that he IS
here, at any rate... I need to... discuss... a few things with some other
higher-ranking officials, and need him to help me out."

Shinobu frowned. "Would I be able to help?"

"Well... not unless you're willing to leave the base while on duty."

Shinobu nodded fiercely. "This whole mess didn't seem all that real to me
until I heard that stuck up Fukushima's admission. Yesterday, I wouldn't
have been willing. Today, though... just tell me what we need to do, and
I'll call Gomioka in here to take over while I go do it."

"If you're going to do that," Gotoh, who looked like he was still sleeping,
said, "You'd better let me write a few extra orders. I'm going too, after
all, and so Gomioka's going to be in charge of both units for a while."

"Your awake?" Matsui said, startled.

Gotoh finally opened his eyes and sat up. "Been awake the moment the door
opened. I'm a pretty light sleeper."

"Well, then... write out your orders and let's go, shall we?" Matsui
suggested, trying to recover his wits.

* * * * *

Takeo sat in the ski lodge's cafe, munching on some pastry or another she
had bought for breakfast as she skimmed over the newspaper headlines. The
night had gone rather quietly after she'd made that threat to toss Wong out
of the moving helicopter, and now there were plans to head back after
lunch... she wanted to go after breakfast, but the departure time was
totally out of her hands.

The sound of a chair scraping against the floor caused her to look up from
the paper, and was somewhat surprised to see a total stranger taking a seat
next to her. He was a rather handsome man, wearing a slightly seductive
smile to go with his ski outfit. He'd taken what seemed to be his
breakfast with him when he came to sit next to her, and seemed to be
setting himself up to hold some sort of conversation while eating.

"Hi," he said.

"Hello," Takeo said hesitantly, turning her attention back to the newspaper
in an attempt to show her disinterest in holding a conversation.

"I saw that fight you had with your boyfriend, yesterday," the man said.

"My boyfriend? I don't have a boyfriend!" Takeo said, startled.

"Oh? Then who is that guy who's helicopter you flew in on?"

Takeo started to answer, then realize she didn't actually have one. Saying
he was a co-worker wouldn't sound true- not for someone who took her in on
a helicopter. "My ex-boyfriend, sort of. But that was a long time ago-
this is the first time we've seen each other in... well, almost half a
year. And the last time we saw each other didn't end very well." Well,
Takeo felt it didn't go well- being dumped into the laundry basket
certainly wasn't her idea of a good ending.

The stranger's smile grew to show his gleaming teeth. "Indeed? Then
you're unattached... good." He made direct eye contact with her. "Perhaps
you'd like to go skiing with me, today? Especially as you and your...
companion... seem to have had a falling out."

Takeo, who was starting to get a bit annoyed at having her breakfast
interrupted, shook her head. "I'm afraid I don't have time," she said as
politely as she could. "I'm supposed to leave at noon for a business
meeting."

The man's smile slipped a little, but he didn't give up. "Indeed? Where
do you work?"

Takeo got a smile of her own. She knew a line that chased away most of the
more annoying men she knew. "I'm a cop for the Special Vehicles, Second
Section... in Tokyo."

"Really!?" the man said brightly, his smile regaining the lost ground and
then some. "I live out by that Chinese restaurant you guys always order
from. What a happy coincidence, don't you think?"

Takeo's smile held, but the teeth that were showing started grinding. This
guy was relentless... and his persistence was starting to get annoying.
When Wong- the only other guy who she'd ever noticed hitting on her- first
approached her, he always knew when he was wanted and when he wasn't. This
guy just didn't seem to care. Was there any way of getting rid of him?

"Um... really? Well... that's good to know... um," she hesitated.

"Excuse me," Richard Wong said, approaching the table. "It appears that
we'll be ready to go sooner than expected- seems the helicopter can leave
right now, if you want.

Takeo nodded. Turning to the man who was annoying her, she quickly said,
"Well, I'm sorry, but it seems I'm going to have to cut this conversation
short. Bye!"

Without giving the man a chance to respond, she rushed to stand up and
nearly dragged Wong out of the room with her.

"I take it my intervention was rather timely, eh?" Wong commented.

"Let's just say I'd prefer your company to his. Let's get packed and get
ready to go, okay?"

* * * * *

Asuma sighed, putting down the manga he'd been reading and standing up.
"I'm bored. Wanna go wax Alphonse or something, Noa?" he asked,
stretching.

Noa glanced over at him anxiously. There was something he'd been avoiding
for some time, and she was starting to wonder about it- what was he feeling
about his father's death?

It almost seemed as if he was totally unaffected by the fact that his
father was murdered. Well, that wasn't true- she DID recall him looking
kind of saddened back during the boat ride to Hokkaido when he recalled the
memories of sailing with his father, but outside of that there'd been
nothing from him. And that hadn't lasted long- just until he sighted
Wong's ship.

Noa had initially put his avoidance of the topic to all the stuff that had
been going on- their need to escape, Wong's sudden appearance, and their...
recently discovered closeness. But they weren't on the run at the moment,
Wong wasn't likely to show up any time soon, and they weren't really doing
anything that would make their 'closeness' get in the way. She had thought
that once things settled down, he'd be able to think- and talk- about his
father's death. But he hadn't said one word about it since they'd arrived
at the cabin, and he seemed to be going on as if everything was normal...
well, as normal as being stuck in a cabin in the middle of nowhere could
be.

"Something," Noa answered. "Asuma... why are you so unconcerned about your
father's death?"

Asuma stumbled. That was sudden. "What?! What brought that up?"

"Well, you haven't said a thing about it since it happened, and I'm
starting to get worried, that's all," Noa explained.

Asuma looked... well, hurt wasn't the right word. Offended, perhaps.
Almost angry. "So you're starting to think I did it? That I really DID
kill him?" His voice showed some of the genuine hurt her question had
caused, however.

"What? NO! Of course not!" Noa quickly replied. "But... well, you don't
seem to have reacted to his death much at all. But if you're bored, I
thought, well, you might want to talk about it."

"Why would I want to talk about it?" he growled angrily.

This was not going well- it reminded Noa of that big fight they'd had over
his father back when she first discovered that they weren't getting along
well. They hadn't spoken socially to each other for days after that
incident, and she really didn't want the same thing to happen to them this
time. Not talking for days in a situation where they had no-one to talk to
but each other would be hell. Still, this was something Noa felt she HAD
to get him to talk about.

"Because... because I care about you, Asuma!" she exclaimed. "I don't want
something like this eating away at your insides. I know that fighting with
your father all the time tore you up, because you always got mad whenever I
brought him up. Angrier than I ever saw you. But I also know that you
WANTED to make up with him, especially after I saw you run after him that
time we visited your brother's grave. He's DEAD, Asuma, and you never had
time to reconcile... don't tell me you don't feel anything about that!"

Asuma winced as if stung. "Geez, Noa... what ARE you trying to do? I KNOW
my father died before we could return to being the family I wanted to be,
but I've been trying to not think about it."

"Sorry," Noa apologized. "I don't want to hurt you, but I'm afraid you'll
be even MORE hurt if you don't get this off your chest. I'm TRYING to
help."

Asuma glared at her. "You should stick to piloting Alphonse. You're not
very good at this... especially with the way you spring this sort of thing
on a person so suddenly." He sighed. "This is the SECOND time you've
blurted out something about facing up to my feelings with my father- you
really should learn to ease this sort of thing into the conversation, you
know?"

Noa smiled guiltily. He didn't seem quite as angry as he had been, and he
DID have a point. "Sorry, Asuma... but I still think we should talk about
it."

"Well... talk about what?" Asuma asked. "I mean, it's not like there's
anything I can say about it. My father's dead- nothing will change that.
I didn't have time to reconcile with him- nothing will change that, either.
So, well, it might hurt a bit to think about it, but what can I do? Why
should I hurt myself even more by thinking about it, when I can't do
anything about it?" He paused. "I'd rather worry about the present, where
you and I are stuck out in the snowy mountains, where all we have to do is
find ways to combat the boredom of life in a hideout while we wait for
others to find the evidence it will take to allow us to go home. I'm just
afraid that if we don't find new things to do soon, we'll annoy each other
to death."

Noa blinked at him. "Hey, are you saying I'm annoying?"

Asuma smiled. "Of course you're annoying. Doesn't mean I don't like you,
though." His smile changed a bit, showing less humor and more
understanding. "Look, if it'll make you feel any better, we'll head over
to my father's grave when this is all over, and maybe I'll have a chance to
mourn. But right now, while we still don't know how all of this is going
to end- however peaceful it is at the moment- I'd rather worry more about
how to survive each day with my sanity intact than worry about what can't
be fixed."

Noa nodded. That made sense, but it still seemed like a rather... cold...
way to look at things. "Asuma... if it was ME who was dead, and not your
father, would you still be acting so casually?"

Asuma blinked. "If... if it was you? That would never happen, though.
Anything that would get you would also get me, as closely as we work
together."

"That's not an answer," Noa said.

"No, I guess it isn't," Asuma admitted. "But it's something I can't really
think about. I wondered, back during the first Griffin incident, what
would happen if you couldn't handle it- if it killed you before I got there
to back you up. I couldn't even imagine it- after all, you're probably the
only thing keeping my life stable, and you have been since we met. I can
tell you I wouldn't be the same, that's for sure. It's different with my
father's death, though... I don't have to redesign my life to replace him,
because he was never really a part of it." He shrugged. "I guess you just
mean more to me than him."

Noa glanced out a nearby window. The sun was nearly down. "That's...
well, sweet, sort of. It wasn't really a nice way to put it, though."

"Sorry," he replied.

"But I mean it- it's really sweet. Especially since you don't seem to
consider staying HERE to not be a major adjustment in your life, but the
idea of being without me would be one." Noa smiled at him. "It's almost
nightfall... doesn't this mean I should be the boss, soon?"

Asuma blinked at the apparent change of subject. "Well... I guess, but
that's not really what I meant..."

"Good!" Noa replied. For some reason, some of her concerns had disappeared
in that discussion, and her eyes went to the box where they'd placed a
number of the gag gifts they'd gotten from Takeo. "There's something ELSE
I want to talk about, but I think you're going to have fun with this
discussion..."

* * * * *

[Part 4]

The door to the Captains' office burst open. "Captain Gotoh, si... Where
is Captain Gotoh?"

Gomioka blinked, looking up from the paperwork he was engaged on. "Eh?
Didn't you know? Captain Gotoh was called away on an investigation, as was
Captain Shinobu. I'm in command of both units until they return."

Ohta blinked. "And where is Lt. Takeo?"

"She's conducting an independent investigation. Same crime, but a
different aspect of it."

Ohta smiled widely. He didn't know Gomioka all that well, and the veteran
pilot of the first unit certainly didn't know him all that well. But
Gomioka was inexperienced, and might be enough of a pushover to actually
allow what he was considering.

"Well, then, sir, I guess I'm supposed to bring this request to you.
Please, sir- may I engage in firearms drills?"

Gomioka sighed. He'd been expecting this. "Well... okay. But no
live-ammo drills."

Ohta's eyes darkened considerably. It looked like he was running into the
same opposition he always did. "Sir! Shouldn't we be prepared in case we
need to battle another labor of equal or greater force than our own?"

Gomioka smirked. "Our labors are at the top of the line, at the moment.
They can handle anything."

"Sir, what if we have to face another police Ingram? Especially one
piloted by one of our former officers!?"

Gomioka set down the papers he'd been looking over, and gave Ohta a hard
look. "Now come on, Officer Isao. Do you REALLY expect Ms. Izumi to
engage us in combat?"

"YES!" Ohta cried. "Before she broke Asuma out of prison, I might not have
thought her capable of it. But now that I know to what lengths she would
go to protect her partner-"

"Ohta," Gomioka sighed. "I'll level with you. Captains Gotoh and Shinobu
are on their way to proving Officer Shinohara's innocence. It appears it
may all be a big frame up, involving upper-echelon officers of the police
department... including our own Chief Fukushima. He's already admitted to
falsifying some reports that may be part of the cover-up of a theft, and
Lieutenant Kumagami is working with a close source that may be able to find
direct evidence of the true culprits guilt. We won't NEED to fight them-
we'll have them cleared of all charges before any battle takes place."

"Sir, if that was true, then WHY did Shinohara run? It makes no sense!
He's a police officer- he should have known better. No, I believe Asuma's
guilty- his own escape convinces me of that!"

Gomioka sighed. "Whether he's innocent or guilty, there will STILL be no
life-fire gun drills today, Officer Isao. Even if I agreed with you about
the need- which I don't- it is not in my power to authorize the ammo
usage." He picked up his papers. "Unless there's something more, you're
dismissed."

"I can't BELIEVE that you, a fellow labor pilot, would deny me something
which you must KNOW we need!" Ohta ranted. "If I was you, I'd find some
way past the red tape and mmmph! MMMMPH! MMMH MMH MMMMMH!"

Hiromi and Shinshi rushed in to the rescue. Hiromi clapped a hand over
Ohta's mouth while Shinshi started bowing to Gomioka profusely as they
backed the enraged labor pilot out of the office.

"We're sorry, sir," he explained. "We let him out of our sight for a
minute. Won't happen again!"

When the door closed, Gomioka shook his head, smirking. "Weird crew. It's
amazing that Gotoh's able to get ANYTHING from them."

Sighing, he turned the page of the sheet listing the daily orders he was
reviewing. At the top of that sheet, in large print, highlighted, and
underlined multiple times, were the words, "Under NO circumstances is
Officer Ohta Isao to be allowed ANY life-fire practice with the firearms.
Violation of this directive will result in your immediate transfer from
Special Vehicles to a lesser position... like meter maid."

* * * * *

"You REBUILT the damn thing?" Takeo demanded, standing next to Wong. They
were in the construction bay of his floating base of operations, watching a
newly-rebuilt Griffin receive some fine-tuning.

"Well, we weren't planning to use it against your team again," Wong
admitted sheepishly. "It's really just an experimental model, a
demonstration of what our boys in development can produce. Besides,
considering all the infighting that goes on in Shaft International, it's
probably a good idea for me to have something like this around for personal
security."

Takeo raised an eyebrow. "You need a LABOR to protect you due to corporate
infighting? Just what kind of enemies do you have in Shaft?"

"Well, I DID have to fight off four of 3-S's Abraham labors back during the
first trial runs of the Griffin, because your people discovered me," Wong
recalled. "And occasionally someone will bring in a Brochen or something
and try to use it against me." He shrugged. "What do you expect from a
company like Shaft?"

Before Takeo could formulate a response to that, one of Wong's subordinates
ran into the room and delivered a note to him. "Important message, sir,"
the man said. "From one of your contacts in headquarters."

Wong looked at the memo in his hands, skimming the writing. He looked up
and smiled at Takeo. "Well, that was sooner than I was expecting."

"What?"

"It seems we've found the location where Shaft is storing the police
firearm used in the murder. If we can get to it before they clean the
barrel, your team should be able to clear Asuma with a simple ballistics
check."

Takeo raised an eyebrow at him. "You do realize that this will probably
destroy Shaft, don't you? They will be so harshly penalized by the
government that they won't be able to remain intact."

Wong continued smiling. "Not destroy, but merely fragment. Why, chances
are section seven will become an independent company under my charge!" He
nodded to her. "Come on, let's go round up your two friends and we'll
strike against the facility which holds this vital piece of evidence.
We'll probably need their help... and the help of their labor. The Griffin
can't do this alone- at least, not nearly as easily."

* * * * *

Gotoh lit up his cigarette, smiling slightly. "Job well done, if I do say
so for myself," he commented.

Shinobu grimaced. Gotoh had a lot of bad habits, and smoking was one of
the worst of them. Usually, she was able to ignore it, but when they were
in an enclosed space together- like a car or, in this case, the tiny
waiting room for a prison warden's office, she couldn't help but pay
attention to it.

Fanning she smoke out of her face, she asked, "What job?"

"Noa's attack. Did you see the two 97's as we were coming in?"

Shinobu shook her head disgustedly. "Those things didn't stand a chance
against an Ingram."

"I disagree," Gotoh rebuked. "If the pilots in those 97s were good enough,
they could have given an Ingram considerable trouble. After all, they
outnumbered her two to one, and had the advantage of knowing the landscape
reasonably well. I daresay your Gomioka might have stood a chance of
slowing an Ingram down... if that Ingram was piloted by anyone other than
Noa." He paused, allowing her time to comment. She didn't- actually, she
was rather impressed with the female labor pilot, herself, but she didn't
see what made Gotoh comment on how well Noa's piloting was in this
incident.

When he was convinced Shinobu wasn't going to say anything, he continued,
"I was referring to the precision of her assault. Did you notice that
neither labor had any EXPENSIVE damage done to it? Just damaged knees in
one and a cut power line in the other. This amount of restraint DESPITE
her obviously irrational mood at Asuma's arrest and DESPITE being in combat
with two labors at once." He paused. "If anything, her anger made her
even better. Which, while she usually fights better when angry, is unusual
in that she's usually more destructive when mad."

Shinobu considered that briefly. "Maybe she'd calmed down before getting
into the fight?" she theorized.

"You don't calmly break someone out of jail," Gotoh noted. "But perhaps
she wasn't ANGRY so much as filled with another emotion..."

His voice trailed off, and Shinobu wondered what it was he was thinking.
She was about to ask them when Inspector Matsui rejoined them from the
wardens office.

"Thanks for waiting," the inspector said. "I think my interview was rather
successful. Come on, let's head back to your car, Gotoh."

The three policemen stood up and slowly made their way out of the prison.
"What did you learn?" Shinobu asked curiously.

"Enough," Matsui said. "He confirmed what the Deputy Commissioner of Penal
Facilities admitted to ordering- that Shinohara not be allowed to change
into plainclothes before his incarceration, and his bribing some of the
more viscous thugs in the cell Shinohara was placed in to try and arrange
an 'accident' for young Asuma."

"Of course," Gotoh said. "Whoever planned this knew that there was no way
the evidence would stand up in court."

Matsui nodded. "Right. At any rate, with everything else we've got, we
should have a relatively easy time clearing his name... provided we can
find the murder weapon. Until we find that, a lot of this stuff could be
considered somewhat circumstantial."

Shinobu blinked. "A conspiracy to murder someone in prison could be
considered 'circumstantial'?"

Inspector Matsui shook his head. "Not exactly, but it doesn't mean that
there was a conspiracy to frame that same person. Could just be the police
trying to eliminate a potential embarrassment. If we could confirm,
though, that the weapon that Shaft managed to obtain was, indeed, the
murder weapon... well, that would go pretty far in clearing Asuma's name."

"So how do we find that weapon?" Gotoh asked.

Matsui grinned slightly. "Well, hopefully, that's what your Lieutenant
Kumagami will handle for us."

* * * * *

Noa was startled awake when her pillow suddenly decided to sit up.
Blinking sleepily, she exclaimed, "Huh, what?!" when her head hit the
floor.

"Sorry," Asuma apologized as he quickly disentangled himself from her.
"But I hear a helicopter landing outside. Make that TWO helicopters."

"Two helicopters?" Noa echoed, the sleep leaving her voice. "Then... it's
probably not Wong, is it."

Asuma shook his head. "No- probably not." Rolling out of the futon, he
ran over to where their clothes were stashed and quickly tossed her an
outfit before he started getting dressed himself. "Keep quiet, but get
ready to leave in a hurry."

Noa nodded and hurriedly started slipping on her underwear. She was just
reaching for her blouse when the door opened and in walked Takeo and Wong.

"Oh, terribly sorry," Wong apologized. "I thought you'd be up hours ago-
it's already the afternoon, after all. Long night?"

Takeo noted Noa's half-naked state (and flat-eyed, shell-shocked gaze), saw
a shirtless Asuma, and blushed. "Um... if you want, we can leave and give
you two a chance to get dressed."

Asuma shook his head, slipping his hands into the sleeves of a shirt.
"You're back several days sooner than I was expecting, so you must have
important news. If it's that important, I don't want to wait to find out
what it is."

Takeo noticed Wong eyeing Noa, who was still just in her underwear and had
added a blush that was going all the way down her neck, and gave him a
short elbow in the side. "Hey!" she exclaimed, annoyed on Noa's behalf-
and maybe just a tiny bit jealous. "Concentrate on business, here!"

Noa, finally shaken out of her stupor, "Eep!"ed and ducked into the
bathroom, taking her clothes with her. "I'll change in here," her voice
echoed out from its confines. "I'll still hear whatever you guys say."

Wong, still rubbing his side, frowned at Takeo briefly before turning his
attention back to Asuma. "Well, we have some good news. Pack your bags
and get your things ready- we found the facility which is storing the
weapon that killed your father. We brought a special helicopter which can
airlift your labor to our ship, and from there we'll head for the target."
He smiled again. "After all, you'll probably want to be present as we
clear your name."

Noa emerged from the bathroom, having dressed in record time. "You mean
this is it?" she asked.

Wong nodded reassuringly. "Yes, we're about to take action. Why don't you
go and start your labor to get it outside, okay? Once it's on the ship,
we'll give it a maintenance look-see, free of charge, but we need to get it
there, first."

Noa nodded, and started outside, but Asuma grabbed her by the shoulder
before she took more than a step.

"I don't trust him," he whispered to her. "So once you get Alphonse
loaded, download the movement data to your backup disk and dump the
computer's memory core. Then hide the movement disk- somewhere on your
person, if possible."

Noa nodded. "Right." She squinted at him before she left. "Start
packing, though- I'm looking forward to clearing your name. But don't
forget anything." Without thinking about the implications of her actions,
she gave him a quick peck on the side of the mouth and winked at him before
bolting out the door.

Asuma flushed as both Takeo and Wong shot identical knowing smiles at him.
"What?!" he exclaimed defensively.

Takeo just shook her head in amusement. "Come on, Romeo, let's start
packing up your little lovenest, okay?"

Asuma's embarrassment grew, but he started packing anyway. When he had
recovered his composure, he turned to Wong. "Ya know, I have a hard time
believing you're really helping us, even WITH all of the reasons you gave.
Are you sure you aren't getting anything out of this?"

Wong laughed. "Of COURSE I'm getting something out of this!" He gestured
to Takeo. "Didn't she tell you not to trust me? If she didn't, I'm
ashamed of how lackadaisical her police work has become since I've been
around her!" At Asuma's dumbfounded look, he took pity on the younger man
and explained. "Do you really think my engineers haven't DREAMED of having
a chance to look through one of your labors up close and personal? I don't
know how much of what we find will be new to them, since I suspect that you
just told your girlfriend out there to dump the Ingram's hard drive, but by
helping you out I'm doing my job to the best of my satisfaction. So, of
course I'm getting something out of it."

Noa returned before Asuma had a chance to respond. "Alphonse is loaded up
and ready to go. How much more packing do we need to do?"

"We're pretty much done," Wong announced. "If you'll help us carry a box
or two out to the helicopter, we'll be ready to go in just a few minutes."

Noa nodded, picking up a box and heading outside, Asuma carrying two of his
own boxes on her tail. Wong and Takeo continued to pack up.

Just before she was going to close her box, Takeo spied one last item that
she could pack up. Grabbing the box of condoms, the glanced inside. As
she had suspected, a couple of them were missing.

* * * * *

Gomioka sighed, taking care of some paperwork as he manned the phone at
Shinobu's desk. She and Gotoh had just called, letting him know that the
two captains were returning to base and should be back in about four hours.
Thankfully, no calls had yet come in while they were out, but he still had
to keep waiting for any possible incoming calls.

A snore from the desk across the room disturbed his reverie. In order to
keep him from annoying his teammates with rants against Asuma's escape,
Gomioka had drafted him into answering Gotoh's phone. Thankfully, the day
had been so light that Ohta drifted off to sleep with the inactivity. The
only problem was that Ohta snored. Loudly. VERY loudly.

"Gah! What a buzzsaw," Gomioka muttered, turning back to his paperwork.
Thanks to discussions of the possible formation of a third unit, his
workload had been tripled. Thanks to his being given interim command of
the SV2, he was having a difficult time keeping up, and was VERY glad of
the peace and quiet. Ohta's snoring, however, was not something he'd
factored into the equation, and he was constantly being distracted by the
annoying sound.

The phone on Gotoh's desk rang, startling Ohta awake. He quickly answered
it, and Gomioka was very glad for the reprieve from the constant
disturbance that was Ohta.

That reprieve didn't last long. "They're going to be WHERE?!" Ohta
exploded, quickly scribbling something down. "Yes, sir! Thank you, sir!"
Slamming the phone down, he grabbed the piece of paper and jumped out of
the desk chair. "Lieutenant Gomioka, sir!"

Gomioka sighed. "Yes, Ohta?"

"A call from headquarters, sir! Noa and Asuma are expected to be at this
address by 1600 hours, and we are to scramble to apprehend them!"

Raising an eyebrow, the other police officer stood up and walked over to
get the paper Ohta was waving. When he saw the address, he frowned.
"Hmm... how do we know they'll be there?"

"Apparently, there was an anonymous tip, sir!"

The frown grew. "Really? And how do we know this isn't just an attempt to
distract us so that someone can commit a more serious crime?"

Ohta blinked. "I... don't know, sir. But we've been ordered to scramble
both units, sir!"

Gomioka sighed. "Oh, very well. Go tell Sakaki to prep the labors for
immediate action."

Ohta saluted. "Yes, sir!" he cried, and started out the door. Gomioka
considered things for a moment.

"Wait! Belay that!" he ordered. "You get everyone up and ready to go. I
want to talk to Sakaki about something else, as well."

"Yes, sir!" Ohta acknowledged, then bolted from the office.

Gomioka frowned. "Hmm... now, who would know where Noa and Asuma are going
to be OTHER than Noa and Asuma?"

* * * * *

Noa smiled as she leaned into Asuma. His arm was around her, and the young
couple was standing on the ships deck watching the scenery pass by as they
sailed to their destination. One short mission, and they'd be able to come
out of hiding. And then... maybe she could 'introduce' her father to her
boyfriend (it might be cute to see her father's reaction when he discovered
that the boy who had come to take her home from the grave of Alphonse the
First had won her heart). That might make vacations at home bearable- and
might finally be enough for her father to stop bugging her about quitting
the SV2 and finding a husband. Briefly, Noa wondered if Asuma was going to
ask her to marry her at some point. She wasn't sure he would- he didn't
seem to be the sort of person who would think of that kind of thing. And
to her, it didn't matter any more- she and Asuma were together, in a way
she never thought possible, and she loved it. They hadn't actually said
those three special little words to each other, yet, but that was only a
matter of time. And maybe a matter of resolving this situation they were
in- something which Noa was very glad to finally be doing.

Asuma had been rather quiet since they'd left the cabin- almost as if he
was brooding. He seemed to want to talk to her about something, but was
reluctant to say anything. She could sense it wasn't because he was
nervous about whatever he was going to say (which, she was certain, meant
that he wasn't thinking about popping the question to her just yet), but
felt that he just didn't want this moment to end. She didn't, either, but
it was obvious there was more reason for him bringing her up here then just
a nice cuddle.

"Asuma," she began.

"Hmm?"

"What is it you want to talk about?" she asked. "I know you brought me up
here for some reason, and I don't think you're enough of a romantic for
THIS to be it," she said, giving him a slight squeeze.

"I'm afraid you're right- I don't think I've got a romantic bone in my
body," Asuma replied. "I just wanted to talk to you about this 'mission'
we're going on."

Noa smiled at him. "Well, I certainly don't mind being held by you while
we talk about it."

Asuma half-smiled at her. "I don't mind it, either." His face got serious
and he continued. "Noa... I'm a little worried. I don't really trust
Wong- I don't know what it is he's trying to get out of helping us, and I
don't trust his promises. I'm not even sure we can trust his information."

Noa looked at him in surprise. "I don't trust him, either, but he's right
when he says we don't have any choice. Besides, what do you think we can
do about it?"

Asuma sighed and shook his head. "There's nothing I CAN think of to do
about it. But I... I just want you to be careful, okay? Don't trust the
Griffin. In fact, if we find the murder weapon like we're hoping to, don't
touch it OR let the Griffin touch it, okay? You don't want to ruin the
ballistics, or else this will all be pointless." He swallowed nervously.
"And... look, don't sacrifice your life for this, okay? It's not worth it,
whatever the situation. I'll be happy enough living in hiding with you,
okay?"

Tears almost came to Noa's eyes at that statement. "And you say you don't
have a romantic bone in your body. Asuma, I-"

A door just three feet away from them clanked open, startling the couple.
Takeo walked out, noticed how they were holding each other, and giggled
slightly in embarrassment. "Oops- didn't mean to interrupt. Asuma,
Richard wants to talk you about something."

Asuma sighed, looked an apology at Noa, and disengaged himself. "I'd
better go see what he wants. I'll be back in a few minutes."

Noa looked at him expectantly, but frowned when he just ran through the
door.

Takeo noticed Noa's expression and chuckled. "You were expecting a
good-bye kiss, weren't you?"

Noa flushed. "Well... I should have known better. He just TOLD me he
'doesn't have a romantic bone in his body.'"

Takeo smiled. "Well, that's to be expected. I imagine he has his upside,
though."

Noa smiled. "Yeah... he's just wonderful."

Takeo's eye twinkled. "So... how good is he in bed?"

Noa coughed, startled. "Er, what do you mean?"

Takeo's smile widened, taking on that characteristic smirk which reminded
Noa and Asuma of Richard Wong. "Well, while we were packing your room up I
discovered that a couple of condoms were missing from that package I sent
you. What else did you use them for, an art project?"

Noa blushed deeply. "Er... well, okay. Yeah, we... eventually went that
far." She giggled in embarrassment. "Just a few hours after I told him I
wasn't ready for it, too. He promised he'd let me set the pace, and I did.
I moved a bit faster than I thought I would... and, quite frankly, I'm
glad I did." She paused, not looking at Takeo. "I don't really have
anything to compare it to, but I think we were good together. We seemed to
fit each other perfectly, and... well, I don't want to give too many
details, but I think we both enjoyed it very much."

Takeo nodded. "I'm glad for you."

"Takeo," Noa hesitated. "Asuma's... very worried about Utsumi's
motivations in helping us, and thinks I'm in serious danger from not just
this strike we're making on the Shaft warehouse, but also from the Griffin.
You know Utsumi pretty well- as well as I know Asuma, I think... um, just
how much do I really need to worry?"

Takeo raised an eyebrow. "I don't think you can say I really know Richard
that well. I don't think he'll intentionally hurt the two of you, but he
doesn't usually think about that sort of thing when he makes his plans.
But if you think I know him as well as you know Asuma, well... you're sadly
mistaken."

Noa looked out at the sea, leaning against a piece of railing. "Didn't
you, er, sleep with him, too?"

Takeo sighed, joining Noa at the railing. "A long time ago, yes. I didn't
really know him well enough, then, and he's changed some since I last saw
him."

"Do you think I know Asuma well enough? Do you think I got into this
relationship with him too quickly?" Noa said, almost frightened.

Takeo laughed. "Hardly. You two are so attached to each other around the
SV2, everyone assumed you've been lovers for some time. If anything, you
two know each other too well- now there's nothing new for you to learn
about each other!"

Noa blinked. "You really think so?"

Takeo's smirk returned. "Remember when you had that toothache?"

"Don't remind me," Noa grimaced. "That was VERY painful, and Asuma wasn't
much help at all with all his teasing."

"Hmm," Takeo mused. "You might be surprised to know that, until we found
out from Asuma that it was a toothache, everyone assumed that he'd gotten
you pregnant and you were upset about it."

"WHAT!?"

"Why do you think everyone was trying to force him to make up with you?"
Takeo laughed. "Even after he told us it was just a toothache, some of us
thought he was just covering up until you overdosed on Shinshi's pain pills
and fell asleep in the staff meeting. Well, we finally believed him when
Gotoh asked him directly what was going on with you- after Gotoh drew a
watch on your wrist. Oh, that was funny..."

Noa blinked. "You mean Asuma really DIDN'T do that to me?"

Takeo just laughed harder. "Oh, my.... Gotoh does have some sense of
humor, doesn't he?"

"Well, I didn't think it was funny!" Noa huffed. She paused, reminiscing
to that incident. "He always teased me a lot, but he helped me when he
thought I needed it."

"Eh?"

"Asuma. He teased me the whole time I had that toothache- and rode me so
hard I puked when we had to go into action- but he helped me out a lot,
too. When I was ordered to wax Alphonse- which was shocking in and of
itself, since I never had to be ordered to do that- I fell asleep on his
shoulder. It was those stupid pain pills that did it to me, but I wasn't
able to stop myself. I heard him gasp right before I passed out, and saw
him stretching out to catch me in case I fell." She paused. "Good thing I
didn't."

Takeo smirked. "You know, we always thought your relationship with him was
kind of twisted, since it seemed so linked with your labor. Did you know
once, when he was trying to wake you up, you called him 'Alphonse?' You
told him to shut up, so you obviously heard him talking to you and realized
it was his voice."

"Hey!" Noa snapped. "My love for Asuma has NOTHING to do with my love for
Alphonse! I think of Alphonse as a pet, nothing more! Asuma's...
different." She paused. "And if you think my relationship with Asuma's
twisted, what about your fling with Utsumi, the master of labor crime?"

Takeo gaped at her. A thousand replies went through her mind, but Noa's
honest anger eliminated half of them. In fact, only one burned its way
through her mind.

"It wasn't just a fling," she muttered softly.

"What?"

"I said it wasn't just a fling," Takeo repeated. "My relationship with
Richard was SO much more than a fling... that I just don't think I'll ever
get over it enough to find someone else."

Noa blinked, her anger gone. Shifting to face the older woman, she asked,
"Do you still love him, then?"

Takeo smiled, once again taking on the Wong-esque expression. "Tell me
this, Noa. If Asuma HAD killed his father, and you KNEW he had killed his
father, would you stop loving him?"

Noa blinked. "Well... when I broke him out, I knew that he hadn't. I just
knew it. Still, he asked me why I was so sure he didn't. I asked him, to
his face, if he had. At that point, I knew that even if he said 'yes,' I'd
stick with him. I didn't know WHY I was planning to stick with him, but I
knew that doing so was something I was looking forward to." She paused.
"I guess the answer to your question is yes, I would still love him. Even
if I didn't realize it."

Takeo nodded. "Richard Wong has done everything you could possibly think
of that I would disapprove of- except maybe sleep with someone else- and
despite all of that... despite all of that, I still sometimes think I want
to spend the rest of my life with him."

Noa coughed. "You might want to let Hiromi know that."

"Huh?"

"He's got a crush on you, I think. Just like you say everyone thought
Asuma and I were together, everyone seems to know Hiromi likes you but
you."

Takeo smiled sadly. "Hiromi's a nice guy. Very gentle, I guess somewhat
handsome. But... he isn't Richard. I'm sorry about that, and I hate to
disappoint him, but it just won't work."

"And your relationship with Utsumi will?"

Takeo paused. Trying to change the subject, she said, "Say, why don't we
go see what the boys are talking about? For some reason, they always seem
to want to leave us girls out of everything."

Noa knew what Takeo was trying to do, but decided to let her do it. After
all, she didn't want to be apart from Asuma any longer than she had to
right now. Something about this upcoming mission was starting to worry
her, even if she had been looking forward to it just a while ago.
Something about Asuma's warning... about the chance of having to fight the
Griffin... about the fact that Asuma was worried, himself. Perhaps it was
just nerves, but she felt the need to reassure him, and to be reassured
herself.

Besides, Takeo seemed to need a chance to talk to Utsumi herself.

* * * * *

[Part 5]

"Ah! Mr. Shinohara, welcome!" Wong greeted.

Asuma grimaced. For some reason, Wong's constant cheerfulness was starting
to get on his nerves. "Utsumi," he acknowledged.

"I hope I didn't catch you at a bad time?" the elder man said, noticing the
sour tone in Asuma's voice.

"Not really, no," Asuma admitted. "Noa and I were just on deck, admiring
the scenery."

"Oh! Terribly sorry," Wong said apologetically. "I know how precious
moments like that are. I just thought that, as a courtesy to you and to
help you make plans for the encounter, I should give you a few of the
performance specifications for the Griffin."

Asuma took a proffered folder, but his eyes didn't leave Wong's. "Oh? And
how, exactly, do you know how important a moment like that is? For some
reason, I have a hard time seeing YOU as being able to know something like
that."

"You wound me, my dear Mr. Shinohara," Wong complained theatrically. "Do
you really think of me so poorly as to assume I don't know anything about
matters of the heart?"

"No," Asuma said evenly. "However, while I may not be a romantic or
anything like that, I can appreciate a few moments of peace right before
you know you're about to risk your life for something. I can't see you
caring about anything enough to knowingly risk your life for it, so I don't
see you ever HAVING a moment like that to appreciate it."

Wong paused, his smile fading. "I have, though. There was something I
cared for like that, once. Someone."

Asuma snorted. "You expect me to believe that? Look, everything I know
about you tells me that you let other people take your risks for you. When
have you ever had to worry about never having a chance to see someone
again?"

Wong turned the most serious expression Asuma had ever seen at him. "When
I tried to resign from Shaft for Takeo." He paused. "I failed to resign
from Shaft, and I didn't see Takeo again for several years. So not only do
I know what it's like to be in your situation with Ms. Izumi, I also know
what it's like to have a moment like that, and then actually lose what it
is you're fighting for."

Asuma was having a hard time keeping his skeptical attitude, but still
couldn't quite take Wong on his word. "How do you 'fail' to resign from a
company, and how in the world would that keep you from Takeo?"

Wong's smile returned. "The last day I saw her- that is, the last time I
saw her before my security agent shot her- I swore to her that I would
return to her after resigning from the company. She'd been begging me to
quit for some time, and finally I was able to say 'yes,' I would quit. So
I went in to work, walked into my bosses office, and handed him a letter of
resignation."

Asuma snorted. "What happened, did he make an offer of a promotion?"

Wong nodded. "At first. My own division, a vice-presidency, a huge raise,
stock options, the works." Wong laughed. "I said no."

That surprised Asuma. "Then, what-"

"Apparently, they'd been keeping me under surveillance for some time. They
knew my weakness," Wong answered before the question could be asked. "They
knew Takeo was a cop on loan to Interpol, and they knew that she'd made
contact with me in order to spy on Shaft. She was a security risk, they
told me. If I quit, they warned me, her life would be forfeit. But if I
stayed with the company, accepted the promotions, and promised not to go
back to her... well, then they'd spare her life." He broke eye contact
with Asuma, and started staring at his feet. "You've been asking me since
I met you in that lodge what I was getting out of this. I'll let you know,
now... if I can free you by showing that Shaft assassinated your father,
then Shaft will be destroyed and I will be free of its yoke. If I am free
of Shaft, then... then I can return to Takeo, and tell her I've kept my
promise. I am sure there will have to be a period in which I will need to
earn her forgiveness, but once I've done that I can ask her to marry me,
like I was planning to however long ago it was I handed in my resignation."
He paused. "Never trust me, my friend, but know I am telling the truth
this once. What I'm getting out of helping you... is Takeo."

Neither of them said a word for quite some time. Finally, though, Noa and
Takeo arrived and broke the silence.

"There you are!" Noa cried. "What have you two been talking about?"

Asuma coughed. "Not much. Just going over the specs for the Black Labor,
so I can help come up with a strategy better."

Wong nodded. "Indeed, but we seem to have drifted off into idle chatter.
I suggest you two go and have some fun. We've got a long day... say, have
you been to your cabin yet? I suggest you go- I ordered the chef to
prepare a special meal for the two of you." He gave Asuma a wink.

Asuma got the hidden message in the wink. "Um, good idea... I think."

Noa nodded. She wanted to give Takeo and Wong some time alone, herself.
"I think so, too. Come on, Asuma- I'm hungry!" Grabbing Asuma by the arm,
she dragged him off in a run.

Takeo giggled. "Were we ever like that?"

Wong looked at her, eyebrows raised. "'We?' I don't think 'we' had much
of an opportunity to act like that. We were too busy doing other things...
more, er, mature things."

Takeo gave a very unladylike snort. "Maybe we would have been better off
if we'd had more fun like they're having. What IS this 'special' meal
you've had prepared?"

Wong's eyes twinkled. "Oh, only the best. The best sake money can buy,
premium Kyoto beef, the freshest shrimp around, and, because I figure Asuma
will be needing the boost before they leave that cabin, a plate of raw
oysters."

Takeo looked confused. "Raw oysters?"

Wong nodded. "The Viagra of seafoods. They've only got a few hours before
they're going into action- I figure they'll need that one last 'time'
together."

Takeo laughed a little at first, then hesitated. In a rather more serious
tone then she'd been speaking with him before, she began, "You know, I was
chatting with Noa, and realized something. I think we need to talk."

Wong tensed, but nodded. "Yes, I think we need to talk, too. There are a
couple things I think you'd better know I'm planning."

* * * * *

"Shinobu?" Gotoh said softly, shaking the other captain slightly. "Time to
get up. We're back."

Shinobu blinked her eyes awake. "Eh, what?" she said sleepily. She tried
to stretch out the crick in her neck- she always got one when sleeping in a
car.

"We're back. Time to go in and see if Gomioka has any messages from Takeo
for us."

She yawned. "Maybe she's been able to wrap up the case without us. This
whole investigation disturbs me."

"Doubtful," Matsui said pessimistically from behind Gotoh. "I imagine it
will take either a very high placed source in Shaft or a stroke of the
greatest luck in the world for her to have found the weapon already."

"Inspector Matsui," Shinobu intoned. "Has anyone ever told you that you
have no sense of subtlety?"

Matsui grinned. "Nope."

"Consider yourself notified," she ordered.

"Yes, ma'am!"

Gotoh led the trio into the SV2 headquarters building, but before they
could even reach their office they were intercepted by Sakaki.

"Captain Nagumo," he said, approaching Shinobu. "Lieutenant Gomioka left
this note for you. My mechanics and I have followed his instructions to
the letter."

Shinobu scanned the letter Sakaki handed to her, a frown growing on her
face. "Inspector Matsui," she said absently.

"Yes, ma'am?"

She pulled a key out of her pocket and tossed it to him. "Go up to my
office and use that key to open the top right drawer at my desk. In it,
you'll find a labor movement disk. Bring it to me."

"Er, why?" Matsui said, somewhat surprised.

Shinobu stared at him hard. "It appears as if I'm going to be needed as a
labor pilot."

* * * * *

A few hours after their first sojourn to the deck, Noa and Asuma left their
cabin to make a second. On their way out the door, though, they bumped
into Takeo and Wong.

Takeo blushed upon meeting the others, and withdrew a hand which had been
held inside Wong's. That only drew attention to the fact that they had
been holding hands, however, and so she blushed even further.

Wong coughed politely. "Oh, my. Well, we were going to be getting the two
of you ourselves in a few minutes. We've arrived- in about fifteen
minutes, we'll be docking at our destination, and... well, we'll see what
happens after that. I suspect there'll be a fight of some sort, but we may
be able to avoid that."

Asuma's eyes widened slightly. "Prep time, then?"

"That is correct," Wong acknowledged, nodding.

Asuma cursed slightly under his breath. "Come on, Noa- back to our room.
We need to get our equipment ready," he ordered, giving her an apologetic
glance. It seemed they wouldn't have that last moment on deck, after all.

Noa nodded, and the two of them started back down the corridor to their
stateroom. "Was I seeing things," she said, the moment she was out of the
other couple's earshot, "Or was Takeo... 'acting different' towards
Utsumi?"

Asuma half-smiled. "Yeah... I think they made up or something. But do you
really want to spend our last few moments before a potential fight talking
about them?"

Noa's face lit up like a candle. "You mean you want to talk about us?" she
said, opening the door to their cabin.

Asuma blinked. "Um... that wasn't what I was thinking of-"

Noa's face fell. "Oh."

"But if you'd rather do that than figure out ways of surviving what's up
ahead, I don't have a problem with that," he finished, pulling out the
suitcase which held their headset radios and Noa's helmet.

Noa flushed. "Um, sorry. I guess that IS more important."

Asuma paused as he was adjusting his headset. Not meeting her eyes, he
sighed. "Maybe it isn't." At Noa's surprised look, he explained, "Look,
we have a few things we might be able to go over, but they'd just be
reminders of things I'm pretty sure you won't forget. But we might not
succeed in this, and if we don't we need to decide what we're going to do."

Noa slowly moved over to the suitcase, pulling out her own radio and
helmet. "We-ell," she said, drawing the word out as she thought. "If this
doesn't work, then I'll do whatever you need me to do."

Asuma sighed. "If this doesn't work, then there's probably no chance of
ever clearing my name, you know. We'd have three real options. The first
is for us to remain refugees in Japan forever- and as many fond memories as
I have of your family's would-be ski resort, I don't think we can keep
hiding out there for the rest of our lives. The second would be for us to
leave the country- forever. Go somewhere that Japan doesn't have an
extradition treaty with, and see if we can't forge a new life their. It
would mean learning a new language and getting new careers, but it's
probably preferable to the first option."

Noa adjusted her helmet, waiting for him to continue. When he didn't, she
prompted him, "And the final option?"

"I can surrender to the police. I'd be arrested, and probably jailed for
life, but at least you'd most likely be able to get out of being sent to
jail, which would allow you to live the rest of your life without being on
the run. You could see your family and friends, and probably yo-"

"Stop!" Noa screeched, startling Asuma. "Asuma Shinohara, if you even
THINK that I'm going to abandon you after I've gone this far, you've got
another thing coming. If we DON'T succeed in this, then I wouldn't mind
living in another country for the rest of our lives, as long as it was you
I was living with. But I WON'T accept any plan which takes you away from
me, got it?"

Asuma continued to look somewhat amazed at Noa's outburst, but soon
regained his composure. "It was just an option, and not one I particularly
cared for, either. But I figured you deserved a chance to think about it."
He smiled at her. "But don't worry about it- all we need to do is prove
that the murder weapon belongs to Shaft, and you won't need to make that
decision."

Noa nodded. "Right. I won't let those bastards who framed you get away
with it!"

'Good,' Asuma thought. 'She's mad- whoever tries to stop her doesn't stand
a chance. But she'd better relax for the moment- she doesn't need that
anger interfering with her until she's in combat.' He paused. 'Well,
there's one thing I can think of to tell her that might help... too bad we
don't have more time, or there's something else we could do, but that'll
have to wait.'

"Noa?"

Noa met his eyes with a fiery gaze. "Yes, Asuma?" she stated fiercely.

"I don't know how all this will turn out, but there's something I think we
need to say to each other before it happens. Something I'm pretty sure we
know already, but we still should say the words first." He took a deep
breath. This was hard for him, but he had to say it. It might be his last
chance. One thing that Wong's story of his and Takeo's failed courtship
told him was not to wait for things like this, as the opportunity might
never come again. "Noa, I know we haven't said it yet, but I know it, and
I hope you know it, that I... that I love you."

Noa's face softened considerably. "Asuma...."

Not able to come up with an adequate verbal response, she grabbed him up
into her arms and started kissing him. Hard. As if it might be the last
time she ever could.

The kiss was still going on when Bud Reynard, the young pilot of the
Griffin, burst into the room. He pulled to a stop, blinked at the pair,
and whistled. "Go for it, you two!" he cheered. "I'd ask to see more of
this kind of action, but you need to get into your Ingram, big sis, for
another kind! Seems we have a few other labors to play with before we can
find that gun."

Noa and Asuma broke apart in surprise, blushing badly. "Um, I'll be right
there," the female half of the team said, pulling on her helmet. Asuma
sighed, taking a moment to relax before he had to get into position,
himself.

Richard Wong, accompanied by Takeo, entered the room as Asuma was glancing
around for one last check, trying to make certain he hadn't missed
anything.

"Are you ready to go?" Wong asked him. "We probably should be heading to
the observation deck, so we can get good seats for the upcoming round of
entertainment."

Asuma snorted, leaving the room and following the other man. "I'd hardly
call 'desperately trying to regain my innocence' to be 'entertainment,' but
yeah, I'm ready to go."

Wong pouted jokingly, leading the trio down the corridor and up a set of
stairs. "Oh? Well, perhaps you ARE under a lot of stress over this
incident, but I suspect the upcoming battle will be quite interesting to
watch from an impartial standpoint. I can already tell you there are going
to be more contestants in this little game than we were initially
expecting."

"There are?" Asuma said in surprise as they neared the door to the
observation deck. "Who?"

Wong opened the door and continued on to the edge of the open-air platform.
"Ah, smell that sea air."

They hadn't quite moored at the pier, yet, which gave them plenty of time
to survey the scene before any action had to be taken. Handing Asuma a
pair of binoculars before donning one of his own, he pointed.

"Check over there, by the loading dock, behind all those crates. You
wouldn't be able to see it from shore."

Asuma squinted. "Hmm... a labor carrier of some kind. I don't recognize
it- certainly isn't one of the standard Shaft carriers."

Wong nodded. "Nope- it just happens to be an Interpol labor carrier. And
check out the labor standing next to it."

"That's odd... I can't identify that one at all. It looks fairly advanced,
but doesn't really look like an experimental..."

"It's not. And I'm surprised at you- your the son of the founder of the
largest labor corporation in Japan, and you don't even recognize one of
your foreign competitors' labors?"

Shinohara shrugged. "Not all of them. I know every model in the companies
which have ever tried peddling their wares in Japan, but if they haven't,
well, I really haven't paid much attention."

"Ah, that explains it," Wong nodded. "It's an American model. After you
successfully proved your own company's defect with the Hyper Operating
System some months back, the New York City police opened bids for high-end
labors, excluding Shinohara Heavy Industries and all other competitors who
had adopted the HOS, and turned down the contract your company had to
supply them with the Zero's."

Asuma nodded, still looking at the unusual labor. "I'm familiar with that
much of the situation. I'd hardly call it MY company, however- I would
never have marketed a labor if I knew that it was defective, hoping to fix
the problem later with 'upgrades' which didn't take place until after
hundreds of billions of yen's worth of damage was done."

"Chrysler, an American-based car company, developed the eventual victor of
the New York City Police contract- the CPJ-7 'Rumbler' model. Unless I
miss my guess, the pilot of that Interpol labor may very well be a friend
of yours. Then again, you aren't exactly in a situation where you can
trust your friends, are you?"

Asuma grimaced. "I can trust Noa. And when it comes to most of the
others, I think I can trust them to be fair- and to act the way I think
they'll act in a given situation."

Wong glanced at Takeo, who was idly picking at her nails, obviously bored
with the whole conversation. "Well... yes. I suppose you can sometimes
predict how people will act," he replied wistfully, remembering a certain
conversation in a laundry room some months back. "In addition to the
American labor, there's our two labors, plus I can make out a team of four
Shaft Security Systems' Abraham labors, and at least two Brochens. There's
obviously more here that my company is trying to protect than I knew." He
smiled. "It should be an excellent test of our two labor's fighting
skills."

"This isn't a test," Asuma growled.

"Sure it is!" Wong exclaimed. "Yes, maybe there's more to it than a simple
test, or demonstration, but it is nonetheless a great opportunity to see
how my new, improved Griffin handles itself. I could also point out that
it should be a good test of your little girlfriend's piloting skills, but I
assume you don't really care about that."

"Noa's the best labor pilot out there," Asuma sounded out through clenched
teeth. "I don't need a test to tell me that. If she wasn't, your old
Griffin would have crushed her."

"Perhaps," Wong admitted, his smile unwavering. "I suspect you and your
friends had something to do with that, as well, though. Especially you,
from what I've seen. But right now, that's unimportant- we have a 'game'
to prepare for. Hmm... do you want me to give you the specs of each of
those labors, so you can do your job as Noa's 'backup' better?"

"Just the Rumbler's. I know the others by heart."

"Ah. That's easy- physical strength roughly the equivalent of the Saturn,
speed roughly equal to the Brochen, and a very primative neural net system
for the software. She may carry a firearm of a smaller caliber than the
Ingram's, but Americans usually have better cared for guns with higher
quality ammunition and more accurate marksmen in their Patlabors. Japan,
for some reason, doesn't see the need of training its labor pilots to use
the tools it gives them."

Asuma shrugged. "I dunno about other units in Japan, but we deal with
urban combat more than anything. Despite the protests of one Ohta Isao,
using our labors' guns in city limits usually gets more complaints than
letting the criminals get away." He paused. "Noa's a terrible marksmen in
practice, but when you let the adreneline start pumping in her, she can be
one of the best. Once, she ended a hostage situation by firing a bullet
inches away from both the hostage and the hostage-taker. The concussion of
the blast knocked the supposed gun- which was actually an umbrella- right
out of the guy's hands. As I recall, that was Takeo's first assignment
with us."

Silent up until that point, Takeo moved over to join the talk. "I remember
that. Considering the reputation Section Two had before I joined up, I was
astonished to see someone of Noa's skills as part of it. I quickly learned
the reputation wasn't because of a failure to produce, but because the
person I was put in charge of was usually a bit too much of a hothead.
Ohta can be really sweet sometimes, and when he's calm enough he can
actually work pretty well, but... well, he doesn't seem to have control of
himself all that often, it seems."

There was a slight lurch indicating that the ship was properly moored. A
member of the freighter's crew joined them a moment later. "Chief Utsumi,
sir!" he saluted. Wong frowned slightly at the formality but motioned for
the man to continue. "Docking is complete, sir. We can be ready to raise
and activate the two labors in exactly three minutes, sir."

Wong looked at Asuma. "Well, this is your party. Are you ready?"

Asuma switched on his radio headset. "Noa, can you read me?"

"Loud and clear."

"There are seven labors visible from the dockyard. Two Brochens, four
Abrahams, and an American labor which may or may not get involved. Can you
handle it?"

There was a pause. "I don't know," she said. "The Griffin can probably
handle the Abrahams easily, and I've been able to handle multiple Brochens
before- but it will be dangerous, especially if the American labor gets
involved. I don't think it would hurt to try, though. Alphonse hasn't
ever let me down, yet."

Asuma smiled slightly, Noa's voice dropping some of the tension his
conversation with Richard Wong had created. "Okay. Get ready- we're going
to deck up you and Bud."

"Roger."

Flipping off his mouthpiece, he turned to Wong. "Raise 'em."

* * * * *

Kanuka Clancy was surveying the harbor's facilities with a keen attention
to the goings-on around her. As of yet, no-one of importance- either here
or at home- knew that she was even in Japan, and she hoped to keep it that
way for a while. Hopefully, when everything was done, she'd be able to
return to America without anyone knowing she was gone.

She wasn't AWOL, exactly- after all, one of her perpetually ongoing
assignments was to track the movements of Shaft Security Services, evaluate
their performance, and investigate them for illegal activities at home or
abroad. Three-S had suddenly positioned a full detachment of it's forces
in this harbor, and officially (if she had to give an official reason), she
was here to look them over. And if it turned out that she was on hand to
help out an old friend who was in a bit of legal trouble- unofficially- so
much the better.

She'd seen the ship as it was coming in, and knew she'd recognized it from
somewhere. It wasn't until the two labors rose out of it that she
remembered where, though.

"The Griffin!" she gasped in surprise. And not just the Griffin, either,
she realized, but Alphonse as well. "What are THEY doing here- TOGETHER?"
she asked herself aloud. Had Asuma gone over to Shaft in the hopes that
they'd find a way to keep him safe? If so, why was Noa involved- surely
she wouldn't agree to something like that willingly. Well, she might if
they promised to keep Alphonse intact for her... but still, that didn't
seem in character for either of them. Neither did murder, for that matter.

Well, Kanuka knew better than to intervene before she knew what was going
on. She settled into her hiding place to watch the proceedings just as
Alphonse and the Griffin leapt down off of the tanker and onto the dock.

The Abrahams approached Alphonse and the Ingram tentatively, and then the
labors met...

* * * * *

[Part 5]

"Noa," Asuma ordered through the microphone. The eight labors he was
paying attention to were still in a standoff, and he was still unsure
whether the Rumbler was going to intervene. He hoped he could get
everything done before it did anything, but he knew that was unlikely.
However, until he knew which side it might come in on, he had to pay
attention to the more immediate dangers. "Draw your gun, and get ready to
use it. It won't do anything significant to those Brochens, but you might
be able to disable an Abraham with it."

"Roger," Noa acknowledged, directing Alphonse to draw its revolver. She
wasn't even going to argue for the preservation of the Abrahams- if it
stood in the way of her clearing Asuma's name, she'd get rid of it.

"Mr. Utsumi, sir," a young messenger said, running up to the man.

"Yes, Mr. Iguchi?" Utsumi said to the man, pulling away from Takeo. Iguchi
whispered a few words into his ear, and his smile grew devilish. "He is?
Well, welcome him aboard and escort him here! We shouldn't leave him out
of the party. After all, everyone ELSE has a representative here... well,
everyone but that American labor."

The messenger nodded, running off.

"Who's coming?" Takeo asked curiously.

"An old friend," Wong replied. "Who also has a stake in this coming
battle, if I don't miss my guess."

"You're being evasive," Takeo clucked.

"I just don't want to spoil the surprise!" he laughed.

Asuma, standing just within hearing range, glared at him. "Uh huh... why
do I get the feeling we won't LIKE this surprise?"

"Surprise?" Noa asked, not able to tell he was talking to Utsumi through
the microphone. "What surprise?"

"A friend of Utsumi's is coming aboard," Asuma explained. "I don't like
it. In fact, if a battle's going to take place, I'd rather it started
before he got here. Move in, but take no hostile action until they do."

"Roger," Noa replied, and Alphonse started marching into the line of
labors. A Brochen moved to step in her way, so she tried to turn and avoid
it, only to be cut off by the other one.

"We're being surrounded, Sis," Bud said through the Griffin's speakers.
When he spoke, Wong snapped his fingers.

"I almost forgot AGAIN! Hold on a moment," he said, dashing into the
control cabin briefly.

While he was away, the Brochen behind Alphonse started closing in. "Noa!
Look out!" Asuma cried.

Before Noa could react, the Brochen launched an attack, striking out with
its fist with the intention of punching a whole through the patlabor. The
Griffin intercepted the blow, deflecting it with a quick forearm and
shoving the military labor back several steps. As the Griffin started
moving into action, a sound sprang forth from the speaker.

"Music?" Asuma said curiously.

"Wagner," Utsumi explained, emerging from the office. "We put the speakers
on the thing just so it could play Wagner when it moved. We hadn't done
that until just now."

"The Flying Dutchman?" Takeo said, curiously. "Knowing you, I'd have
expected the Rings of the Nieberlung."

"Let's just say that if things don't turn out well in this action, I have a
feeling we'll be stuck at sea for a very long time," he explained.

"Why is that?" Takeo asked.

"Because," a new voice answered. "He knows that if Shaft survives this
little encounter, he won't be able to survive going anywhere Shaft has
offices. And Shaft has offices all over the world.

"Ah! Mr. Kurosaki!" Wong chirped. "I was wondering how long it would take
for you to get here."

Kurosaki, the man who had once posed as the chief negotiator for Holly
Security Systems, and who had one point been Utsumi's right hand man,
approached the gathering of people on the deck, escorted by Iguchi. "I
must thank you for this opportunity to be your replacement, sir."

Utsumi laughed. "You're only my replacement if there's a company to make
you one, Mr. Kurosaki. I don't think there will be one when this is all
over."

"Only if you win, Utsumi. And I don't believe that's going to happen...."

"You don't think so?" Utsumi said, turning his attention back on the fight.
"Why not?"

The forces had squared off. Alphonse, instead of being surrounded, was now
confidently facing both Brochens, which appeared to be slightly scuffed
from prior action. Meanwhile, Shaft Security Systems' four Abrahams had
encircled the Griffin, mimicking the former battle the two sides had
engaged in on the Babylon Gates. One of the Abrahams attacked, but the
attack was quickly countered by a shoulder throw into two of its
companions.

"If you're going to beat us," Takeo noted, "I don't think it will be with
these labors."

* * * * *

Kanuka watched the initial hostilities break out, and quickly realized that
Asuma had come here to find something important. For some reason, he had
formed an alliance with Utsumi to get it, too.

And Shaft Security Systems was trying to stop him.

Since she was investigating to see if the 3-S was involved in ANY illegal
activities, she had to know just what it was they were so anxious to
protect. And if, while doing so, she could find what Asuma was desperately
searching for, well, she wouldn't have any objection. And, considering all
of the fighting going on, it was unlikely anyone would notice her for a
while.

She started to move her Rumbler out, and got about halfway to the warehouse
before her sensors picked up movement on her right flank.
'Reinforcements!' she thought worriedly. Quickly, she found cover and
waited until they passed, drawing her firearm just in case.

When the two type Zeros and the Ingram passed by her, she realized that the
new arrivals weren't exactly reinforcements after all.

* * * * *

Gomioka whistled in amazement as he took in the scene. He'd seen plenty of
combat in his labor, but this was the most high-powered battle he'd yet
seen. One Ingram- Alphonse, perhaps the best produced Ingram ever,
considering how fine-tuned the mechanics squad had been able to make it-
two Brochens, four Abrahams, and, to top it all off, the god-damned GRIFFIN
were engaged in heavy combat not more than a hundred yards from his
position. And it was his duty to get in the middle of that fight.

He couldn't quite tell who was on who's side- though it seemed that the
Ingram and the Griffin were trying to work together. He didn't know who's
side he should go in on, either- the Ingram was piloted by an AWOL police
officer, but her apparent ally was one of the greatest criminal labor
pilots in Japanese history. Shaft owned the Abrahams and the Griffins, and
most people in the police thought of Shaft as being little more than a
business Yakuza, but this WAS their property and they did have the right to
defend it. And, for all he knew, the Griffin was a part of Shaft, too, so
didn't it have as much right to be here as Shaft Security Systems? Though,
now that he thought about it, Shaft had disavowed any knowledge of the
Griffin when they'd been questioned about it.

"Traitor!" Ohta roared over the radio, and charged in toward the Ingram
and, since they happened to be in that direction, too, the two Brochens.
One of the two military labors turned from Alphonse to face him down.

Well, that settled it, in Gomioka's mind. Obviously, Ohta was out for
Noa's blood, and he couldn't calm him down. He wasn't sure he SHOULD calm
him down at this point, anyway. Instead, he had to act... and since the
Brochen was a known enemy, the Griffin was, at least at one time, a bitter
enemy, and the Ingram was going to be an enemy whatever he decided, maybe
he should just take all of the labors down and sort it out afterwards.

* * * * *

"Uh, oh," Wong frowned. "Looks like your friends from the SV2 have arrived
earlier than I expected."

"Doesn't change anything," Asuma said, directing his voice away from the
microphone to make sure he did not distract Noa. His eyes did not leave
the battle, however. "I was hoping they'd get here before the fight was
over, myself."

"Yes," Wong said distractedly, fumbling with a radio microphone of his own.
"But I should make sure we don't hurt them too badly. Bud?"

A crackle of static came over the speaker on Utsumi's radio. "Yes?"

"A few new labors from Special Vehicles have shown up on the scene. Please
try to remember we're working WITH the police this time, not against them.
They just don't know it yet."

"What if they attack me?" Bud's voice asked.

Wong thought about that for a few seconds, and witnessed the Griffin
deliver a powerful blow which shattered the chassis of one of the Abrahams.
Two of the others were slightly damaged, but still battle capable. A
third had yet to actively enter the fight. And, it seemed, the two Type
Zeros were closing in.

"If they attack you, just be sure you don't hurt them any more than you
have to in order to survive. We want them happy, remember."

* * * * *

Noa was not a happy camper. The Brochens had not been trying to fight her,
yet. Instead, they were driving her away from the Griffin, isolating her.
Hoping, perhaps, to get her alone and finish her off quick.

They got her a considerable distance away, though the Griffin was still
visible in her line of sight, when one of the two labors broke off and
engaged... another Ingram. Asuma's voice in her ear informed her that the
SV2 had arrived, and was apparently going after everyone, and then she
didn't have time to think any more because the Brochen finally made its
move.

Rapidly directing Alphonse to duck the blow to its head, she started
thinking strategy. Drawing her electromagnetic baton, she charged through
the attack and clipped the other labor in the torso, staggering it.
Quickly pushing out Alphonse's foot, she hooked the Brochen's leg and sent
it to the ground. Spinning the baton around, she pierced the metal armor
of the military labor, disabling it.

"Brochen one has been dispatched, Asuma. I'm currently out of the action-
what should I do?"

"Ohta seems to be taking care of the other Brochen for us- though I think
it's unwillingly," Asuma's reassuring voice yelled out. "Helping him would
only get us into even more trouble at the moment. Why don't you help Bud
out? He's having problems trying to avoid the Zeros without hurting them."

"Roger," she agreed. Retrieving her baton, she turned her attention
towards the spot where the Griffin was still tangled with five labors.
Just as she was about to run into the action, a powerful energy beam passed
right in front of Alphonse, exploding the concrete not more than ten feet
away. "Ack! What was that?!" Noa cried.

* * * * *

"Where the hell did THAT come from?!" Asuma exclaimed, echoing Noa's
sentiments.

Kurosaki stepped over to Wong. "Well, I kind of agree with your friends.
I don't think two Brochens and four Abrahams would be enough to handle the
Griffin and the Ingram. So, when we saw that the Sangria was coming into
port, I brought along a couple of experimentals which may be a bit more of
a challenge. Meet the SRX-71 and the SRX-72. A hybrid, if you will, of
the technology behind the Griffin, the Saturn, and the Phantom."

On the battlefield, a pair of labors, both reminiscent of the SR-70
Saturns, appeared from behind a large set of crates.

Utsumi stepped back, slightly startled. "A hybrid?"

Kurosaki nodded. "Like I said, thank you for giving me your job. You're
too much of a loose cannon, so I was appointed to replace you in the
military labor research section by the Division Manager. I took those
lessons we learned from you all too well."

Utsumi frowned. "I thought we determined that hand-to-hand was the way to
go."

"That we did," Kurosaki agreed. "But that philosophy gave us the same
results as the heavy weapons of the Phantom did. No, in the end I realized
it wasn't the weapons that was the problem with the earlier version, it was
the lack of speed and maneuverability. What good is a weapon if you can't
use it? The Saturns were maneuverable enough, especially when enhanced by
the Griffin technological developments, but really were underpowered-
especially to handle all the technology we included on the Phantom project.
So we developed two variants, pulling in the technology you developed in
the Griffin project. We replaced the weapons ports for the firearms with
the power generation and distribution nodules from the Griffin, and
miniaturized the weapons of the Phantom project, placing them in the
electromagnetic combat knife storage system slot. In the SRX-71, you have
the Plasma Cannon. In the SRX-72, you have the Electromagnetic Pulse
Generator. The results, well... we'll see in this action how effective the
results are, won't we?"

Takeo frowned. "Why are you telling us all of this?"

Kurosaki laughed. "Because it doesn't matter. All we want is to see how
these labors do when facing the Ingram and the Griffin. By the time this
battle is over, anything you might have been coming here looking for will
be long gone."

As Asuma frantically relayed this information over to Noa, Richard Wong
looked at Takeo with an expression only she would know meant he was
worried.

* * * * *

Kanuka heard the explosion behind her- a sound which reminded her of a
certain snowy night almost a year beforehand- and shuddered. It sounded as
though something more powerful than she'd thought Shaft had available at
the time. She couldn't worry about it right then, though- her job was to
find out what Shaft was hiding in that warehouse. Then, if it was as
incriminating as she'd hoped, maybe she could join the fight and not get
into TOO much trouble when she got back to the States. Besides, it was
entirely possible that finding whatever it was that Noa and Asuma were
looking for would be the best help they could get.

Hoping the battle would be enough of a distraction that she could get into
the warehouse unobserved, Kanuka moved out from her hiding place and
started running in as fast as her labor could travel. Reaching the
warehouse's loading dock, she pried the door open.

To her surprise, there was a lot of activity going on in the building.
Dozens of people were running around, taking what looked like labor parts
and loading them into a truck as fast as they could. Additionally, one
group of people was carrying something quite familiar to Kanuka. A police
labor revolver.

Putting two and two together, Kanuka quickly realized what was going on.
The labor parts being loaded weren't labor parts at all, but a labor shell
which could be adapted as a disguise, making any labor look like a
patlabor- likely an Ingram, from the shape and color, though Kanuka
couldn't tell the make for certain in as many pieces as it was. The
revolver, obviously, was the murder weapon used to kill Asuma's father.

The evidence. Shaft was trying to get the evidence of their guilt out of
the area as fast as they could, hoping to avoid discovery by the police.
Well, they had been discovered. And Kanuka was angry.

"This is Interpol. I am using the authority granted me by international
treaty to put you ALL under arrest!" People started scrambling away,
until Kanuka drew her gun. "FREEZE!" Everyone stopped- no-one was willing
to chance a labor with a gun. With this evidence secured, Asuma's name
would be cleared.

The question was, though, how she could keep it secure if she needed to run
out and save Noa from whatever those two mystery labors were?

* * * * *

Bud Reynard directed the Griffin to rip the arm off of the labor he'd just
dispatched. Pivoting and thrusting out with the metallic limb, he pierced
the armor of the final Abraham, knocking it out of commission permanently.
Level one was complete.

He observed the rest of the field. Noa was having difficulty with the new
labors- she seemed to be on the run, mostly, unable to spend the time to
draw her gun or move in for fear of being struck by one of the weapons. He
started to move in to aid her, but the two Zeros cut in front of him. He
could easily pass through them, but not without causing them severe damage.

The other Ingram, however, which was also in serious trouble from the
Brochen it was facing, could probably be helped without too much
difficulty. Charging in from behind, he struck out. The Brochen was
heavily armored, but the hands of the Griffin were designed to pierce any
labor armor yet designed and Bud was intimately familiar with its layout.
Piercing the back of the military labor across its 'spine,' he ripped out
the power supply- both battery and connectors- before it had a chance to
react.

He could see Noa in desperate need of assistance. She was running out of
room to run, and she still couldn't move in on her opponents. She needed a
distraction, at least. Now that he'd rescued the Ingram and left the
Zero's behind, maybe he could give her that distraction.

He didn't count on the Ingram not being as grateful as he'd hoped it would.
Before he could move into action, a metal fist backhanded the Griffin,
knocking it back into the charging Zeros, damaging an elbow joint in the
process. While the Ingram charged off in Noa's direction, Bud found his
attention taken by the two other police labors.

As he watched the Ingram run off, he shook his head. "Ingrate," he
snarled, before trying to find a way of evading the two Zeros with a
damaged arm.

* * * * *

Ohta ignored the Griffin. It, too, was a criminal, but the Zeros could
deal with it now. Batting it out of his way, he turned to once more run
after the traitor. There was an explosion a few feet away from his labor's
legs, but he didn't care. Sure, once he'd dealt with the traitor, he could
take care of the other criminals around here, but the traitor was the
number one priority.

He ran up and grappled with her, catching her unawares. Apparently, the
other criminals were too much of a distraction for her, and so he was able
to surprise her with his attack.

His headset crackled to life. "OHTA!" Noa's outraged voice broke in
through the speakers. "ARE YOU INSANE? DO YOU WANT US BOTH KILLED?" she
shrieked.

"Quit begging for mercy, traitor- you won't get it!" Ohta snarled. HE was
the betrayed one- she had no right to feel outraged.

"Ohta, you idiot!" Asuma's voice intervened. Ohta's eyes widened- so the
murderous criminal mastermind was somewhere nearby. "In case you hadn't
notice, you're being shot at by the same energy weapon which sliced the arm
off your labor about a year ago. If you don't start paying attention to
what you're-"

"SHUT UP, MURDERER!" Ohta screamed. "YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO SAY ANYTHING TO
ME!"

"Stubborn, pigheaded, obsessive idiot," he heard being muttered, then some
shuffling, as if the headset was being given over to someone else.

"Ohta, this is Lieutenant Takeo! Listen up!"

Even though she couldn't see him, he snapped to a seated attention. "Yes,
SIR!"

"Noa is by no means a traitor. Maybe a little hot-headed in this case, but
you're ALWAYS a little hot-headed."

"Wha-" he started to reply. He hadn't ever heard Takeo talk to him this
way, before.

"We have reason to believe that Shaft Enterprises murdered Asuma's father,
framed him for the crime, and had made sure he would be assassinated while
in prison. Noa's breaking him out saved his life."

"But-"

"You will release Noa at once and turn your attention to the two labors
currently FIRING on you."

"Where's your evidence of this so called 'frame up?'" Ohta growled out, no
longer willing to trust his superior officer.

"We have the testimony of Mr. Richard Wong-"

"YOU BELIEVE THE MAN WHO HAD YOU SHOT!?"

"Oh, damn- the hybrids are closing in," Ohta heard Asuma say distantly.
"Give me the headset- I've gotta warn Noa..."

Ohta couldn't make out the rest of what was being said because suddenly
another radio transmission broke in. "Ohta, obey your superior officer.
And if you want to know about the evidence, I'm standing in a warehouse
full of it. See if you can't get some of your command car officers over
here, now. You guys are going to need me, and if I leave here now all the
evidence is going to disappear."

"Kanuka?! What are you doing here? What evidence?"

"I'm here investigating Shaft Security Systems for Interpol, and I'm
breaking radio silence to tell you what an idiot you're being! You want
evidence? How about if I said I found a fake labor shell, the murder
weapon, and, well, I just got a full confession from the pilot of the labor
which actually shot Mr. Shinohara."

Ohta blinked. "Are you... sure?"

"DAMMIT, OHTA!" Noa screamed in. "LET ME GO OR WE'LL BOTH BE DEAD!"

Ohta suddenly realized what was going on. Here he was, grappling with a
fellow cop, when all the REAL criminals were over there, shooting at him.
He released his grip on Alphonse, and turned towards the two hybrid labors.
"Attention, criminals," he announced through the speakers, stepping in
front of Noa and drawing his gun. "You are under arrest! This is your
only warning- leave your labors at once and you will not be harmed, but if
you try me-"

The flash of the electro-magnetic pulse striking his labor and scrambling
every electronic system in it stopped him before he could finish. The
other hybrid sliced off the arms, legs, and heads, quickly taking him out
of the action.

* * * * *

Kanuka was grateful to see Shinshi and Hiromi show up and take
responsibility for the people in the warehouse. The confession of the
murderer was an unexpected surprise- apparently, he had been feeling
increasingly remorseful for his actions, and her seizing the evidence gave
him the opportunity to accept the responsibility for his crime. Kanuka was
quick to get it in writing, and then turned her attention back to the
battle, with the hopes of finding someone to relieve her- or hopefully to
find that she wasn't needed in the fight at all.

Ever since she'd seen Ohta damn near get all of them killed, she'd been
getting more and more impatient to get involved. Thankfully, Ohta hadn't
succeeded in letting the hybrids take Noa out, for when he stepped in
between Noa and the two other labors he'd shielded her from their weapons.
Noa was able to use that to her advantage, and once more move out of range
and escape. She was still in a bad way, however- she needed someone to
distract her opponents badly. Now that Hiromi and Shinshi were here, she
could do something. She'd already broken radio silence, so there was no
reason she couldn't move actively any more. Time to strike.

Using her gun was a bad idea- it would attract their attention, yes, but
she'd be in the same situation as Noa and they'd be alert to a similar
attempt. No, she had to close in and attack. The Rumbler probably wasn't
good enough to take on both simultaneously, but she should be able to
distract them and then get away before they could eliminate her.

But get away to where? To run to Noa for support? Or... to lead them away
from Noa?

* * * * *

Noa hated running like this, but Asuma was right. It was impossible to
close in on both of them without being cut to pieces. If there was just
ONE, she might be able to zigzag in close enough for hand-to-hand, but with
both of them able to do significant damage to her if their weapons hit, it
was impossible. She needed support, and she just wasn't getting it.

She'd have to do something sometime soon, though. Her batteries had been
under a heavy drain since the battle started, and she had no idea how long
they'd last at this pace. Furthermore, she was being driven into a corner.
And when they cornered her, it was only a matter of time...

A flash of yellow appeared behind the two hybrids, and a bar of metal
flashed up and struck at both of them. Noa saw that one of them- the one
with the EMP weapon, she thought- received some hip damage, which would
slow it some. The yellow labor, which she realized was the American labor
Asuma had told her about, quickly turned and sped off, taking the other
labor with it in pursuit.

Noa's face hardened into a much more determined grimace. It was one on
one, now. She shouldn't have been so defeatist in the first place- she
knew she had at least one ally out there in the Griffin, and now it looked
like she had more than one willing to help her. It was time for her to
move in and seize control of this whole mess.

* * * * *

Bud grimaced, glancing at the damage control monitors for the Griffin. The
Zeros had been concentrating on his damaged arm, and by now it was
completely useless. Without it, he wasn't sure he could beat both of the
Zeros at once even if he COULD fight back against them. It appeared as
though they had realized Noa was still on their side, but had yet to
recognize that he wasn't against them, either. They still weren't doing
anything to help Noa, though, and until he got past them there was nothing
he could do.

Risking a glance in her direction, just to make sure she was still in the
action, he saw to his surprise that she was charging in against one of the
hybrids. He didn't see the other one- it didn't seem as though Noa could
have done anything, and that other Ingram had been sliced and diced
already, so its disappearance worried him. Where was it? Where had it
gone?

He was answered when a yellow labor- probably the Rumbler that he'd heard
Wong mentioning- came running between him and the two Zeros, being chased
by the other hybrid. The energy beams emerging from the hybrid's arm that
appeared aimed at every one of them convinced the Zeros that they might be
better off ignoring him for a while to deal with this aggressor. It was
the break he needed to step back and try and make stop-gap repairs to the
Griffin.

The arm was a total loss. He just ejected it, hoping to reduce the drain
on his systems. Additionally, there was some damage to his sensors that he
had to lock down, and one leg was sluggish for no reason he could tell.

The Rumbler was dealt the price of leading the hybrid into the other three
labors, having its legs cut out from underneath it by the energy cannon.
The Zeros were moving in to fight the thing, but already Bud could see
their strategy was futile. He had to hurry and lock down the damage before
something serious happened.

One Zero was behind the hybrid, trying to move in close. The other was
trying to distract it from the front, but wasn't able to give a very long
distraction. The energy blasts came too quickly, and soon the first Zero
was down.

The Zero behind the hybrid was actually able to engage in a little bit of
hand-to-hand. Unfortunately, most of that hand-to-hand was the hybrid
applying damaging force to the Zero. An elbow to the head destroying all
of the sensors in the patlabor was the first blow, and a karate chop
severing both legs was the last. Bud, repairs finally completed, knew that
he'd have his hands full. Especially with just one arm.

Charging in just as the music on his speakers changed from the overture to
The Flying Dutchman into the Ride of the Valkyries, Bud struck out with a
piercing spear-hand. The hybrid backed off faster than he had been
expecting, and the Griffin overbalanced. Still, his attack managed to
strike the knee, giving the hybrid a limp. Bud nevertheless knew the fight
was over even before he heard the plasma weapon pierce his armor, severing
the power supply from the rest of his labor.

The monitors went out, and a huge explosion in the distance signaled that
something had happened in Noa's battle. As things went black, Bud closed
his eyes.

"Good luck, sis," he prayed.

The speakers, running on a separate power supply, continued to play on in
reply.

* * * * *

"Asuma," Noa said, dodging a punch as she tried to hold the electromagnetic
pulse weapon away from her. "Power's running down fast, and this guy is
moving like the Griffin. I'm in serious trouble."

"Try to draw your baton," Asuma's voice chimed in. "It'll make whatever
attacks you get in that much more powerful. And step closer in- it may
move as fast as the Griffin, but I'm pretty sure it's not as strong and
you'd have the advantage if you get close enough to negate his
maneuverability."

"Roger," Noa acknowledged, taking a moment to draw her baton. It was a
moment she could ill-afford, however, because by the time it was out the
other labor had its weapon trained on her. "Shit!" she cried, reacting as
best she could- stepping in and striking out with as much force as she
could muster. Simultaneously, the pulse went off. Alphonse's computer
systems went haywire, and for a moment she feared she'd failed... until she
heard the sound of the baton, running on an internal power supply,
directing a disabling EMP of its own through the other labor. Maybe she'd
won.

"Asuma, I think we got each other at the same time. Anything I can do?"

* * * * *

"Try shutting down all of your systems and performing a complete reboot,"
Asuma suggested through the radio. "That worked with Ohta's labor last
time."

Kurosaki, looking through the binoculars, cursed. "Shit."

"What?" Takeo asked, her eyes burning into the man. She was starting to
hate him.

"Your Ingram out there just pierced the hybrid at a very vulnerable spot."

"Oh, is that all?" Takeo said.

"No, it isn't," Kurosaki added. "That spot just happens to be vulnerable
because it's the location of the explosives for the labor's self-destruct
mechanism. Usually, it wouldn't matter, but since that Ingram's weapon
just happens to be sending a continual electrical charge through that
system, I'm wondering how long it will take for the self-destruct system to
accidentally engage."

Asuma, who hadn't been paying any attention until he heard the words
'self-destruct mechanism,' looked at him in shock, his eyes widening.
"Noa!" he cried. "Forget the shutdown- just strap yourself in and brace-"

The explosion was harsh enough to temporarily blind everyone on the deck of
the Sangria. "NOAAAA!" Asuma cried, his voice barely heard over the din.

Takeo and Wong were blinking and rubbing their eyes, hoping to see better
what had happened on the shore. "Hell," Wong muttered, barely able to make
out the burning wreckage.

"Noa, come in!" Asuma shouted furiously. All he could see was the bonfire
in the middle of the dockyard. "Noa, do you read me?" he said desperately.

"Where's Alphonse?" Takeo asked, her eyes clearing up. "I only see the
wreckage of one labor."

Utsumi scanned the dockyard, finally spotting the Ingram. "Over there-
looks like it was knock almost fifty feet away. Just how powerful an
explosive did you think you NEEDED, Kurosaki," he growled, annoyance
finally showing in his voice.

"The charge in the Griffin was insufficient, last time," Kurosaki noted.
"There was some material that the police were able to salvage for study."

"NOA! COME IN!" Asuma screamed.

Takeo looked at him sadly, then glanced at Wong. He returned her gaze,
nodding slightly. Sighing, she approached the upset young man, raising a
hand to gently put it on his shoulder. "Asuma, maybe..."

"Noa, is that you!?" he said, an almost reverent whisper in his voice.

Takeo blinked, leaning in to see if she could hear what was being said.
"A...su...ma," she heard. "...love... you."

"NOA!" he shouted. Glancing out to the battlefield, he could see that the
other hybrid was limping over in the direction of the fallen Alphonse.
"Dammit," he snarled. "Noa, hold on- I'll be right there!"

Ignoring the others, he leapt over the side of the boat. Takeo, taken by
surprise, reached out just as he cleared the fence, but just missed
catching him by the back of his shirt. She closed her eyes, not wanting to
see him, in his sanity-depriving fear, fall to his death.

She heard no splat of his body hitting the concrete, however, nor a splash
from falling into the water. "Resourceful lad, isn't he?" Wong said.

Re-opening her eyes, Takeo saw Asuma clinging to a line between the boat
and the shore, probably burning the skin off his hands as he slid down it
to the shore. Giving out a huge sigh of relief, she turned to Utsumi and
smiled slightly. "Determined, more likely. He's quite attached to that
girl, even if he didn't realize it until recently."

Wong sighed, grasping her hand lightly. "I wanted to go back... when my
security man shot you. I REALLY did. I do love you, you know- I never
stopped."

"I know," Takeo said, rubbing his hand with her thumb. "Let's just hope
their story turns out better than ours has, so far."

Glancing over at the limp Alphonse, he nodded. "Let's hope they still have
that chance."

Kurosaki, however, had a different opinion. "Bah... that boy should have
learned long ago not to let his personal feelings get in the way of getting
the job done. He'd have been better off trying to contact the command
officers and getting them to investigate."

Wong's expression went cold. Takeo blinked- she hadn't seen him get that
angry very often, and was shocked that the comment Kurosaki made was what
triggered it. When Richard started speaking, however, she understood.

"Is that so? I did the sensible thing, going against my heart, years ago.
I've regretted it ever since. I damn near lost the woman I loved more than
anything in my life," he snarled. "And I'm damn lucky I got her back. You
want to know why I'm really here, Kurosaki? Asuma just couldn't believe I
was doing this to help him. And you know what? He was right. I was
willing to help him hide, but I probably wouldn't have done any real
investigating if I hadn't run into Takeo here. My job was SUPPOSED to be
to get rid of any evidence of Noa and Asuma's whereabouts... but I thought
it was much more important to try and get Takeo back into my life. And I
decided that, if that meant losing the Griffin, my position in Shaft, and
everything else I held dear, well, it would be worth it. And, so, to get
her back, I decided to get Asuma off the hook, using my inside sources.
And I don't regret it one bit."

Takeo looked at him, a little shocked. "I'd hoped you were actually
reforming," she said.

He looked at her, half-smiling. "I have. After all, this time, I decided
to act on my heart for you. Last time... my heart told me not to leave
you, last time, you know. I didn't listen to it, then."

"And you have, now?"

Wong's smile widened. "Well, I'm still working on it. I've been using
both my heart and my head, now. But I think I'm starting to trust my heart
just a LITTLE bit more."

Takeo said nothing, and turned to look out at where Asuma was climbing up
the shell of Alphonse. She desperately hoped that nothing had happened to
Noa. If Asuma and Noa didn't come out of this alive, intact, and
together... well, she feared that what little progress she'd made on Wong
would be gone forever. After all, why listen to his heart when all it did
was result in the death of his friends?

While she and Utsumi were busy sorting out their feelings, Kurosaki saw
that it was probably the only chance he would have to leave...

* * * * *

Asuma opened the hatch manually, scrambling madly in his panic. Noa HAD to
be all right- she just HAD to. He'd lost everyone else in his life- his
mother, his brother, his father... all had died. All had died suddenly.
And now, Noa... Noa couldn't be dead, could she? She just had to be
alive...

He stepped into the cockpit, and there she was. Blood was pouring from all
over, where glass shards from several monitors exploding had pierced her.
One arm was bent oddly, probably broken. She was quite plainly badly hurt-
the question was whether she was even alive.

Quickly, he fumbled for a pulse. Desperately, he felt her neck... and felt
nothing. No- it couldn't be. She was dead. She was DEAD!

Unable to deal with it all, he collapsed to the floor, tears running down
his cheeks. Everything he had was gone. What did it all matter, any more?

* * * * *

Takeo saw that the remaining hybrid had finally found where the explosion
had thrown the stunned Alphonse. She sighed, and glanced over at Wong.

"Richard... is there some way you can tune your communications equipment
into the same frequency of Asuma's headset? If he gets Alphonse running
again, he's going to need a command officer- I doubt the sensor equipment
will have survived all of that."

Wong frowned, observing the situation. "How long does it take to shut down
and complete a reboot in an Ingram?"

Takeo frowned. "An average time of around five minutes, if things work
right, why?"

"Then do you have another suggestion for someone to call? He doesn't have
time to reboot before the other hybrid strikes."

Takeo looked at the scene again. "Well... it won. It's not going to
attack any more, is it?"

Wong sighed. "Takeo... the only reason the Phantom and the Griffin never
killed anyone is because I didn't let Shaft talk me into the same 'leave no
witnesses' policy that got you shot. If it closes in on Alphonse... both
Noa and Asuma won't be allowed to live."

* * * * *

"Asuma?" a voice weakly said.

He twitched. Was that her ghost? Was she trying to communicate with him
from beyond the grave?

"Asuma!" her pained voice cried. That sounded too real. Maybe she was
going to haunt him- it was HIS bad advice that lead to the explosion which
killed her, anyway.

A weak hand touched his face, and he looked up. Noa's eyes were open. She
was actually alive? "Noa?" he whispered, wonder in his voice.

"Asuma..." she croaked again, then faded out. He checked, and found she
was still breathing after all.

"Heh... well, I didn't do well in the field medic class at the Academy," he
mumbled to himself, pulling out the labor's first aid kit and doing what he
could to help her. There wasn't much, though, because he didn't want to
make the glass splinters in her body get any worse. "Let's get Alphonse's
reboot restarted, and then see what we can do to fix you up while that's
going, okay love?" he muttered to her, not caring that she probably
couldn't hear it.

He ejected Alphonse's movement disk just in case there was a problem, and
began powering the labor back up. Thirty seconds later, just before he was
about to put the disk back in, a message flashed up on the only intact
screen in the labor.

"Insufficient power. Low Battery. Please replace or recharge battery
before continuing start-up sequence."

Asuma cursed. "Hell," he said. "We're sitting ducks, Noa. We have to
abandon him. We'll come back for him, though, I promise," he said. He
unhooked the one strap she was wearing- a shoulder strap which dislocated
her arm by probably saved her life. Glancing around for anything he could
salvage, all he saw was the emergency shotgun (used to keep people from
trying to enter the cabin unwanted, and as a back-up defense in case the
battery died) and the spent first aid kit. Grabbing the gun, he strapped
it to his back, knowing it was probably useless in his situation and had
only three shots if it came down to that. Re-opening the hatch, he gently
picked Noa up, cradling her to his chest, and left the wreckage. Slowly,
he made his way back to the ground, being careful not to jostle his
precious cargo.

On the ground, he glanced around, assessing the situation. The other
hybrid, limping badly, was making its way over to Alphonse. Asuma walked
off as quickly as he dared, knowing that the modus operandi of Shaft would
dictate it concentrate on the Ingram and leave the people alone. Noa could
kill him for abandoning Alphonse, later- her life was more important.

He was about sixty paces away from the fallen patlabor when he noticed the
hybrid was no longer targeting Alphonse. Instead, it seemed to be
following... him.

"Murderers," he spat, breaking into a run.

* * * * *

Kanuka applied a little disinfectant to a nasty-looking cut on Gomioka's
shoulder. He hissed slightly as the contact burned away any infection, but
Kanuka continued her treatment. Over his shoulder, Kanuka could see where
Ohta was bent over, giving the pilot of the other Zero a better angle to
draw a small piece of shrapnel from his shoulder.

Gomioka frowned. "Just what is that labor doing?"

Kanuka looked up from her ministrations over to where the hybrid was
continuing to pursue Asuma, who was cradling an apparently wounded Noa in
his arms. "I have no idea... I don't think they would-"

"Oh, I think Mr. Kurosaki was ordered that there be no mercy shown," an
unexpected voice broke in. "The labor is going to try and kill them. And
when it's done with him, it'll come after us."

"WHAT?!" Ohta snarled.

"I'm afraid he's probably telling the truth," another voice said. This
one, they all recognized- Takeo.

"Then what are we staying around here, for?" the officer treating Ohta said
in surprise.

"Where would we go?" the man who they had yet to recognize said. "We can't
leave the dockyard fast enough on foot, my ship isn't capable of getting
underway in time to escape. And that plasma beam will mow us down if we
try finding a car or something. No... we don't really have any options."

"Sis will handle it," a boy, who Kanuka recognized as Bud Reynard, said
with conviction. "She beat me."

"Your 'sis' doesn't have a labor," Takeo noted. "And she's unconscious.
Asuma is trying to carry her to safety, but he's in even worse shape than
we are."

"There must be something we can do," Gomioka said forcefully. "I will NOT
just sit here and die."

"We can pick up one of the labor guns," Ohta suggested, "And fire it by
hand. I've done it once, when I had Hiromi to help me..."

"I don't think we can kill it with one shot," Kanuka said. "Takeo, am I
right in assuming that man with you is Mr. Richard Wong?"

Both Takeo and the man looked a little surprised. "Well... yes. He is."

Kanuka nodded, unsurprised. The others, however, were startled- why was
Takeo hanging around the man who had shot her? "Mr. Wong, I assume you DID
come up with a back-up plan, some way to escape should this very situation
arise?"

"Escape? Not really," he said. "But, I wouldn't be surprised if my
contingency plan will be here in time to protect us." Wong glanced over at
the labor, still marching slowly towards Asuma- who had stopped running for
some reason and was setting Noa down. "THEM, on the other hand..."

* * * * *

"He's hobbled, but he's still moving a lot faster than I can while carrying
you, Noa," Asuma said. She was still unconscious, but it felt better to
talk to her. "And I'm really starting to tire out."

He gently set her down, carefully laying her out so as to not aggravate her
injuries. "I can't run any more, Noa. I don't know what I can do to stop
him, but whatever happens I won't let him at you. I promise."

Her eyes cracked open. "Don't lie," she whispered through pain-clenched
teeth. Asuma's own eyes widened in surprise. "If he gets you, I don't
care if he gets to me or not. So don't even try."

Asuma couldn't look at her. "I won't let him kill you. Not you, too...
they've already killed my father, you know? They killed my father... and
now they're going after you. I can't let that happen." He pulled the
shotgun off his shoulder. "I don't know whether this is supposed to be
effective against that thing, but it HAS to work. We don't have anything
else."

"Asuma," Noa whispered, her eyes closing again. "I don't regret it. Any
of it. I-"

"Shh," he hushed her. "I know, Noa. I know. I feel the same way. Save
your strength, love."

He looked at the labor. It had stopped, and was raising its arm.
Apparently, it had decided it didn't need to get any closer, and was going
to vaporize them with the plasma cannon. He sighted the gun along the
barrel. He was always a poor shot, but he didn't have a choice right now.
He had to find a weak point, and hit it.

But first, he had to get rid of that weapon.

He could see that the weapon had him targeted. He could see the red glow
of the gathering plasma. And he could tell he had already pulled the
trigger without realizing it.

With a massive explosion, the hybrid's arm became a ball of fire as the
plasma containment system was breached.

* * * * *

Ohta was amazed. "When did Shinohara get to be THAT good a shot?"

"It wasn't a good shot," Gomioka said. "It was a lucky shot. There was no
way he could have made a shot like that intentionally."

Takeo hesitated. "I don't know about that... if it's important enough to a
person, they can often do surprising things..."

"Hush!" Wong commanded. "I think my contingency plan has arrived, but... I
don't think this is over. Not yet."

Everyone returned their attention to the hybrid, and saw he was right. The
arm might have become a charred remnant of its former self, but the labor
was still moving. And was moving towards Noa and Asuma, too.

* * * * *

It took a few seconds for the shock of his very good shot to get over
Asuma. Then he noticed that the hybrid had taken it in stride, and started
walking over to them. Obviously, if it could vaporize them, it would try
to squash them.

He took aim and squeezed off a couple of other shots, but he really had no
weak points he could target. They hit, but were utterly ineffective. And
by now, it was too late.

"Run!" Noa's pained voice shouted up at him. He looked down at her, into
her tear-filled eyes. "I don't want you dead, too. Get out of here."

Asuma huffed. "I won't leave you. And I can't carry you any more... it's
over, Noa. It's over."

Noa closed her eyes and sighed, gathering her strength. Finally, she
slowly sat up. Her legs shuffled a bit as if she was trying to stand, but
she was unsuccessful. Asuma's eyes widened and he knelt down to her side.
Noa shook her head, grasping him in a powerful hug despite all the pain it
must have caused her. "I can't get up, Asuma. Not right now... my legs
won't work right. I'm sorry."

Asuma found his own eyes were tearing up, as well, and he hugged her back.
Maybe she was hurting, but it didn't matter. Just holding her was a great
comfort... they'd be together when the end came. He wouldn't be alone....

The shadow over his head signaled their doom. He clenched tighter, waiting
for it to come.

The large crunching sound he heard, however, was not that of his and Noa's
bones being turned into powder by the weight of the hybrid. Instead, it
sounded like metal crunching metal.

He looked up, and saw, much to his surprise, that there was yet another
Patlabor standing over them, protecting them. A Zero. It stepped past
them, continuing it's attack on the wounded hybrid, as he watched in
amazement. "Noa?" he whispered reverently.

"Yes, Asuma?"

"I think we made it."

A few seconds later, a command car drove up right beside them, and two
people stepped out. One of them was the slightly-pudgy Inspector Matsui,
who's attention was on the labor battle. The hybrid was obviously losing,
and it was only a matter of time.

The other man was their one-time captain, Gotoh. "Well, you two," he said,
smiling down on them. "Are you going to surrender, or will we have to add
resisting arrest to your charges?"

Asuma glared up at him, gathering his strength to once more pick Noa up.
"Not now," he snapped, not caring what happened to him. "Noa needs a
hospital. Get an ambulance here, now."

Gotoh's smile quickly disappeared, and he ducked into the car to radio the
hospital. Across the dockyard, the Zero piloted by Captain Shinobu
finished tearing the hybrid to pieces.

It was over.

They had survived.

* * * * *

Epilog:

Slowly, Noa's eyes blinked open. There was Asuma, sitting over her, an
expression of concern on his face. Her expression softened into a smile,
and so did his. He started to lean over, almost as if in habit, when a
loud throat-clearing from across the room startled them both.

Noa looked over to see that Gotoh, Shinobu, Inspector Matsui, Takeo,
Utsumi, Hiromi, and Kanuka Clancy were all in the room as well. Perhaps a
nice wake-up kiss wouldn't be a good idea, after all. Besides, her mouth
tasted funny, as though she hadn't brushed her teeth in a while.

"How's Alphonse?" she croaked out, surprising herself with her own
hoarseness.

Asuma quickly raised a paper cup full of water to her lips as the others in
the room tried to supress their laughter. To her surprise, she noticed
handcuffs on his wrists. She drank, but as soon as she could, she said,
"You've been arrested again?"

He smiled and shrugged. "Just a technicality."

"A judge is writing up the court order to release him officially as we
speak. As it is, we have permission to keep him out of prison 'for his own
safety' as long as he's secured," Matsui clarified. "I've got my pager, so
I'll know the moment it comes through."

Noa hesitated. "What happened? I don't remember much after the
explosion...."

"Shinobu saved us from certain death," Asuma explained cavalierly, sending
a significant look to the others telling them to let him tell the rest of
the story later, in private. "You were badly hurt by the blast, however.
The doctors think your heart might have even stopped briefly, but it
miraculously started again before they were on the scene. You were badly
cut by flying glass, and your shoulder restraint dislocated one arm. The
worst of it was internal, though- you had a collapsed lung... and a few
other things." The look of anguish on his face while he listed these
injuries was palpable. Anyone in the room could see that he was feeling
sympathy pains as he talked.

Wong continued where he left off after being nudged by Takeo. "They had to
remove your spleen... and your appendix, too, but that was incidental- it
was going to have to come out anyway." He smiled. "Nothing you aren't
able to live without."

"I'm not sure I lived through the battle," Noa said curiously. "I remember
the explosion, sort of... then this light at the end of a long tunnel I was
approaching... then waking up to see Asuma crouched at my feet. The rest
is kind of a blur, but I could have sworn I wasn't breathing until I saw
Asuma again...."

A nurse came in and said a few words to Gotoh. He stepped out of the room
with her for a moment, while everyone else chatted. Mostly, it was people
telling Noa to get better soon, wishing her well, and the like. Any topics
dealing with the actual incident, however, were completely ignored. Noa
felt as if they were something, but decided she'd dig it out of Asuma
later.

Gotoh stepped into the room, and cleared his throat to attract everyone's
attention. "Ah... ah. Excuse me, everyone, but I've been told our visitor
hours are almost up. Asuma, you could probably stay, but they want to give
her family a chance to see her, as well."

"My FAMILY is here?" Noa exclaimed, startled. They never left their home
island- never!

"Come on, people, let's get out of here," Gotoh said, ushering everyone but
Asuma out of the room. Before he shut the door, he turned to the two of
them. "Asuma, you aren't allowed out of this room until Matsui gets
confirmation of your release. Noa, I'm going to have to talk to you later
about some unresolved issues with all this." After waiting for their nods
of acknowledgement, he left.

Suddenly, Noa remembered something. "Asuma, how's Alphonse?"

Asuma grimaced. "Uh... I'll tell you when your parents are done visiting,
okay?"

"What? Why? Can't you just-"

"MY LITTLE GIRL!" a pair of voices sobbed from the door. Two people, Noa's
parents, burst in and ran to her bedside. Her mother quickly grabbed her
hand, holding it fiercely. Her father glared at Asuma venomously before
joining his wife in her vigil, putting a hand on Noa's good shoulder and
squeezing reassuredly.

"Mom! Dad!" Noa said, smiling and clasping her mother's hand tighter.
"I'm so happy to see you."

"Oh, my poor little angel," her mother whimpered back, tears dripping from
her cheeks.

"Relax, mom!" Noa cried. "I'm all right."

"No, you're not," her father said sternly. "I feared this would happen. I
warned you over and over again it could, and you never listened. Now,
you'll probably never get married- how many men like women with scars all
over them? I hope you'll finally take my advice and just leave this
horribly dangerous line of work." Asuma twitched slightly.

Noa glared at her father. "Dad, I've told you once, and I'll tell you
again. I LOVE labors. Furthermore, I don't want to be seperated from As-
Alphonse," she said, barely catching herself. Asuma twitched again. "I
won't leave the force until they force me out."

"And YOU!" her father said, moving in on Asuma. "How DARE you let her get
hurt like this! You should have known better then to send her into this
kind of situation- and after she risked everything to save you, too!" The
labor officer winced, but didn't say anything in his own defence.

"Dad!" Noa snapped. "Leave him alone!"

Her father changed tacts instantly. "Dear... don't you WANT to find
yourself a husband? You're already going to have problems, with all of
these injuries, but-"

"Yes," Noa said, her eyes quickly glancing over at Asuma before returning
her attention on the man in front of her. "I DO want to find a husband.
But I won't be able to live with a husband who won't let me be who I am-
and I am a labor pilot in the SV2."

"Do you really think you ever will?!" her father snapped. "Who could want
to marry someone who spends their days risking their lives in order to
publically HUMILIATE themselves! A labor pilot for the SV2, huh? You DO
realize that makes you a laughingstock, don't you? If I had my way, you-"

"Shut up," Asuma snarled, clanging his handcuffs against the metal railing
on Noa's hospital bed. "She just got out of surgery, damn near lost her
life, and yet all you can do is yell at her and insult her to her face. My
father may have been bad, but at least he had some common sense and DIDN'T
get into an argument with me the one time I was hospitalized."

"She's an ingrate!" her father shouted. "Do you know how much we spent on
her education? We were setting her up to be the perfect wife for a
wonderful husband, and instead she goes off on this foolhearty quest to
become a patlabor pilot!"

"DEAR!" his wife snapped. Everyone turned to look at her as she comforted
a tear-filled Noa. "I can't believe you said that!"

Asuma looked at Noa for a little while, then back to her father. "If she
wants a husband... WHEN she wants a husband... she'll have one, whatever
she is. Now, leave her ALONE!"

Noa's eyes widened at that proclamation. "Asuma..."

Finally, her father 'got it.' He now, finally, understood why his little
girl had risked everything to protect this man, why she got upset when he
yelled at the boy, why she didn't want to stop working with labors, and why
she was so adament about not leaving the SV2.

"I'm sorry, Noa. It's just... I see you there, in that hospital bed, and
it's just like what I've been seeing in my worst nightmares." He sighed.
"I haven't slept much since I heard you went AWOL, and all of my fears came
out at once... I think I need to step out for a bit and calm down. I...
don't really mean most of what I said."

Noa sniffed slightly, wiping the tears off her face. "I understand,
dad...."

Her mother went over to lead her husband out of the room so they could all
calm down, leaving Noa and Asuma alone. Asuma sighed, pulled a tissue, and
started dabbing her face, clearing away the tear stains.

Noa hesitantly smiled up at him and took the tissue away. "Asuma. Was...
what you just said... was that a proposal?"

He scratched the back of his head uncertainly. "Well... I wasn't thinking
about what I was saying, really. Your dad just got me angry enough to say
just about anything.... If you DO want to get married some day, I wouldn't
have any problem with it, though."

Noa smirked. For some reason, she wasn't surprised- or upset- by that.
"I'll hold you to that one day," she said.

Asuma half-smiled nervously. "In that case, I have a feeling your father's
going to get most everything he wants. Noa... we need to talk a bit.
About some of the things Gotoh's going to want to talk with you about when
he comes back."

Noa's face fell. "Uh oh. I don't like the sound of that."

"You're not going to like this," he said. Taking a deep breath, he
continued, "Noa... you can't pilot for the SV2 any more. While they are
not pressing charges, you DID damage police property while 'rescuing' me,
and you WERE technically aiding and abetting a fugitive from the law.
Gotoh knows that his superiors, especially those whose friends are going to
be disciplined for being a part of the whole Schaft conspiracy, are going
to want to do something to you... like transferring you or forcing you to
resign. But you aren't likely to be in the SV2 any more."

Horror dawned on Noa's face. "No... but, but... what about Alphonse?!"

"He's being retired," Asuma stated slowly. "He's the only surviving
Ingram- Ohta's in unrecoverable. Alphonse is in such bad shape that they
plan to retire the whole line, and bring in more Zeros...."

"But..." Fresh tears dripped down her face. "I guess I'd gotten used to
the idea of one day losing him, but... I hadn't thought I'd be losing you,
too."

That took him by surprise. "What? Why would you be losing me?"

Noa looked at him sadly. "Don't you see? You'll be part of the SV2 and I
won't... and we BOTH know how little personal time that leaves us off-base.
However we feel about each other, if we never are able to see each other-"

"Well, actually, Noa," Asuma interrupted, somewhat uncertainly. "I'm not
going to be part of SV2, after all."

"You're not?"

"No. I'm going to be part of Shinohara Heavy Industries."

"You are?! But-"

"Dad didn't quite leave me with the company," he explained. "He didn't
trust me with it- instead, he put it in the hands of a 'board of trustees.'
But I inherited a large portion of it- and his life insurance is actually
paying off the inheritence taxes. It included one stipulation, however...
one I'm not too happy with. I was planning to turn it down, inheritence or
no inheritence, but after all of this I guess... well, the stipulation is
that I have to leave SV2 and-"

"Work for the company."

Asuma nodded. "I selected my own job, though- I'm going to be involved in
special project. The Patlabor contract, specifically... I'll be in charge
of developing new labors for the police, fire and rescue, and maybe even
military units." He paused, considering. "We may need a police liason
with labor experience... know anyone who might be willing to take that
position?"

Noa smiled up at him. "Yeah... maybe I do. Maybe I do." She yawned.

"Get some sleep. You need it."

"Officer Noa Izumi, doing as ordered, sir," she said, smiling sleepily,
before closing her eyes and drifting off to sleep.

* * * * *

In the waiting room, Takeo sat sipping coffee with Richard Wong, Gotoh, and
Shinobu. "By the way, Lt. Kumagami," Shinobu said, "Gotoh and I have a few
things to discuss with you. An opportunity, if you will."

"Oh?" Takeo said. "What is that?"

"There's going to be a lot of turmoil in the police- and especially the
SV2- after this. Section Chief Fukushima's being asked to resign, and I've
been told I'm going to be promoted into his place," Shinobu began.

"Izumi's going to be transferred out of the SV2," Gotoh continued. "Much
to my disgust. Best labor pilot I've ever seen, and she's not going to be
very effective anywhere else, I fear. At any rate, she's not the only one
going, either- Ohta felt that he needed a transfer, fearing he'd ruined his
ability to work with the others after his single-minded pursuit of
Shinohara. I fear for our future, as he's going to be put in charge of
labor training at the Academy. Shinohara, himself, is likely to resign due
to some details in his father's will. Kanuka is, of course, returning to
America some time soon, which means we're down both of our pilots and my
two best substitutes."

"We can't afford to lose another pilot," Shinobu continued. "Gomioka will
remain Unit One's top labor pilot, whatever you decide, but you are not a
pilot at all, and have never recieved any training in that regard. We were
thinking of transferring Captain Gotoh to command of Unit One, and
promoting you into Captain of Unit Two...."

"I like the offer, Sir, Ma'am..."

* * * * *

ONE MONTH LATER...

"As usual, it seems Shinohara Heavy Industries is making the best offer,"
the police representative said to the gathered negotiators. "Especially
since we only have to pay for two of the three Zeros. But I'd like to
know, why are you willing to trade a perfectly good Zero for an obsolescent
Ingram?"

Asuma Shinohara, the representative of Shinohara Heavy Industries, smiled
slightly. "Well, Captain, I happen to have some experience with that
particular Ingram. And, I believe, you'll note that we're insisting you
let the maintenance team for Special Vehicles Second Section to repair it
to the best of their ability before the trade in."

"Yes, I noticed that."

"Well, while I was WITH the SV2, I noticed that specific Ingram performing
better than any other labor out there... including our Zeros. Since we
developed its architecture, I know it has recieved a number of upgrades and
customizations from the maintenance squad, and we wish to study them."

The Captain frowned. "That could very well have been thanks to the pilot,
you know. And we will not release the movement disk, as some of that
information may compromise them."

Asuma tried to stifle a laugh, and failed. "Didn't you know, Captain? My
fiance piloted that Ingram for its entire career. I already HAVE a copy of
the movement disk."

The Captain flushed slightly. "Oh... of course. Well, I don't think there
were any other irregularities... so, the Special Vehicles labor contract is
being awarded to Shinohara Heavy Industries. We are currently undecided
about the Traffic Control labors, however... will the negotiators of
Shinohara Heavy Industries and Sangria Enterprises please return at 0800
tomorrow to continue discussions?" After a couple of nods, he continued,
"Very well. This meeting is adjourned."

The representatives of a dozen labor manufacturers started milling about
the room, talking to their peers and catching up on old times- or, in some
cases, ribbing them good-naturedly. Asuma quickly made his way to the
negotiator for the newest of these, Sangria Enterprises.

"Well, well, well. Maybe I shouldn't have helped you out after all,"
Richard Wong, president of Sangria Enterprises said, raising his hand.
"Good job."

Asuma took it, shaking his hand warmly. "Hello, Utsumi. I see the
downfall of Shaft hasn't hurt you very much. In fact, seems to me you've
made out like a bandit in the aftermath."

Wong laughed. "Of course, of course. Surely you didn't expect otherwise?"

They both laughed, then settled down and served themselves a cup of coffee
each. "So, how did you wiggle all of Planning Division Seven away from
Shaft, anyway?" Asuma asked.

Wong shook his head dismissively. "Bah... I just took my stock in the
company and used it to purchase away the only thing I wanted- namely, the
development team of the Griffin and the construction facilities aboard the
Sangria. They threw in the rest of the division because they were trying
to get out of Japan, I guess- there are at least four other spinoffs, you
know." He paused, then his watch alarm beeped. "Looks like I've got to
go. Why don't you come with me? I want to know what you think of my new
Vice President of Ethics. So you and Noa made it official, huh?"

Asuma's smile turned rueful as he followed the other man out of the room.
"Not... exactly. Oh, we're planning to get married someday, but not any
time soon. But all of the tabloids are now talking about how the 'son of
the greatest businessman in the history of mechanical industry' was seeing
a lady cop, and so we said we were fiancees to the press. Well, I guess we
did make it official, but we haven't set a date or anything."

"I'm surprised the police agreed to keep her as the liason to Shinohara
Heavy Industries after that was revealed."

Asuma scratched his head. "Well, Gotoh and Shinobu both spoke up for her,
and I added that if they forced her out of that job just because we'd
gotten engaged, they could forget ever doing business with my company
again. They relented." He paused as they approached the car. Wong
knocked on the door, signalling to the person inside. "I had to do it.
She wants to work in labors, and I want her with me. What can I say? I'm
in love."

They left the building, and approached the car that was waiting for Wong.
He tapped on the door and signalled to the woman inside. She stepped out
of the car, and Asuma gasped. "Asuma Shinohara... allow me to present my
new Vice President in charge of Ethics... Takeo Kumagami."

"Takeo!?"

She smiled slightly. "What can I say? I'm in love, too."


-------------------------
I may one day write a side story which will deal with Ohta's redemption,
but considering this thing had me burnt out of writing for almost a year at
one point, I figured I should just post it as-is for now...
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