* Kyon sits in a quiet third-floor cafe near his hotel, with some bright green 
drink in front of him. He pulls out his cell phone, looks at it for a second, 
then flips it open and punches through the calling menus until it starts 
dialing.
<Katie> <Hello?>
* Kyon leans back in his chair. "<Hey. In the middle of anything, or got time to 
talk?>"
* Katie narrows her eyes, and her voice seems to drop a few degrees. "<Oh, it's 
you. No, nothing big. Just discussing the benefits and drawbacks of cold-blooded 
murder.>"
<Katie> <And Kaede says hi.>
* Kyon cocks his head. "<Yeah? Who's your target?>" He smirks. "<Yeah, say hi. 
Why not.>"
* Katie can be heard, distantly: "Kyon says hi, Kaede. And I'm going to go 
pretend I can't hear you talking about me, so." This is followed by a door 
closing.
* Katie has a seat on the bed. She glances around. "<The Nine of Cups. I assume 
Haruko told you.>"
* Kyon nods tersely. "<Got mentioned. Know where he is?>"
<Katie> <No.  They're trying to stop me before I even go looking.  What do you 
care, anyway?>
* Kyon smirks, and turns to look back out the window. "<Doubt you'd go with it 
if I said it's because I care for you deeply.>"
<Katie> <You never know.  I fell for it last time.>
<Kyon> <Maybe you should again.>
* Kyon rolls his eyes. "<Of anyone, you should know what I sound like when I'm 
faking. Sound like I am now?>"
* Katie plays with her sleeve. "<Your double faked me once. Maybe you can't 
trust my judgement.>"
* Kyon shrugs quickly. "<Maybe I should just respect his skills more. You can't 
always be right.>"
<Katie> <You should.  Your Sou-kun will take your feelings and guilt, twist 
them, and break you given half a chance.>
* Kyon barks out a laugh. "<That's what's bothering you?>"
* Katie shrugs. "<It's not my chief concern at the moment, but if we're on the 
subject of weaknesses, it does bother me.>"
* Kyon grabs the drink, and sloshes it in the glass. "<Done with him now. He's 
had his chances, and he doesn't get to prey on my people without my permission. 
Never been one to put emotion over what needs to be done.>"
* Katie chuckles. "<Yeah. I bet not.>"
* Kyon smirks. "<Need to bet? Bet you already know, then.>"
<Katie> <I might.  But I could be wrong.  I could always be wrong, can't I?>
<Kyon> <Got to trust your interpretation of the information where you are now, 
until proven wrong. All anyone has.>
* Katie sighs. "<Thanks for the advice.>"
* Kyon smirks. "<What I'm not there for.>"
* Katie tilts her head, listening to the conversation outside. "<So, what'd you 
want to know?>"
<Kyon> <Checking up. No urgent business on this end. Just trying to find someone 
here to lead me to where Reiji is. Got to be methodical.>
<Katie> <Good for you.  What'd Haruko tell you?>
* Kyon sips the drink, looks thoughtful briefly, and puts it down. <One, you got 
kidnapped again. Got to watch that. Going to give the crazy girl a challenge.>
* Katie tightens her free hand into a fist. "<Watch that? *Watch* that? Like 
this is some kind of competition? Like I went and decided one day, oh, I'm going 
to get kidnapped and sexually assaulted and lose twenty hours of my life and my 
powers suppressed and drugged and nearly sold to the god dammed Chariot because 
it's *fun*?>"
* Kyon looks back out the window, and keeps his voice cool. "<Right. Not the 
reasoning behind it. Let me rephrase. Be more careful.>"
<Katie> <Oh, fuck you.  I don't even know how they did it, but they got me from 
my house, Kyon.  You think I'm not careful?  I'm probably more careful than 
you'll ever be.>
* Kyon leans back and laughs. And it doesn't even sound forced. "<Right. 
Responses like that, that's why I trust you.>"
* Katie snorts. "<I'm glad I amuse you. Actually, you know? I'm not. So unless 
you come up with a better reason for me to keep talking to you, I think our 
conversation's over.>"
* Kyon nods quickly. "<Fine. Heard the Band broke up. Know what happened to 
their leading torturer?>"
<Katie> <Not a clue.  Sumire didn't know.  She didn't seem to care.>
* Kyon nods quickly. "<You should. Getting him on your side would mean a lot of 
firepower, and he didn't care much for anyone else. Offer him a say in the 
leadership, you could get him.>"
<Kyon> <Can try to get you some info about where he is.>
<Katie> <If you want, I won't turn down free info.  Why aren't you talking to 
Haruko about this?  I thought she's your chosen or whatever the hell.>
* Kyon pushes himself up in the chair. "<Because you can both be effective. So 
I'm telling you both.>"
* Katie rolls her eyes. She stands and walks over to look out the window. "<I 
don't agree with you about Senshirou. He's insane and a loose cannon. He turned 
against his leaders before on a whim, on Tenjirou's behalf, and there's no 
guarantee he won't do it again.>"
<Kyon> <He turned on his leader because he never agreed with him. Give him 
something to agree with, he'll work better.>
<Katie> <I will not compromise if I do not agree.>
<Kyon> <Not with me, or not with him, or both?>
* Katie presses her fingers against the window. "<We're equals, Kyon. You agreed 
to this the day we met.>"
* Kyon nods quickly. "<Which means we do compromise. Not hearing orders coming 
from me here.>"
<Katie> <No, you save those for Haruko.>
* Kyon smirks. "<She wasn't there that day, was she? And she does have input. 
Not all one way. What she does with what I say is her concern.>"
<Katie> <Then what I do with what you say is my concern as well.  Anything 
else?>
* Kyon leans forward and kicks his foot against the floor. "<Any contact with 
Matthias? Ask for anything lately?>"
<Katie> <Not with me.>
* Kyon blows out a breath. "<Right. What do you want from me, Katie?>"
* Katie raps her knuckles on the window and checks for latches to open it. 
"<Your undying love and affection.>"
* Kyon rolls his eyes. "<That really it? We'd definitely make people's heads 
turn.>"
<Katie> <Chikako would try to kill me, and I think my list is long enough 
without putting my former best friend on.>
* Kyon rolls his shoulders against the chair. "<Could put in a good word for you 
there, if you need it.>"
<Katie> <Oh, I don't know if it'll work.  She knows I killed him.  Nobody has to 
tell her so.>
* Kyon smirks. "<What definition of good word do you use that 'She killed a guy' 
qualifies?>"
* Katie rolls her eyes. "<She knows, Kyon. Or she suspects. And she'll only get 
more reason to suspect as time goes on.>"
* Kyon shrugs quickly. "<So that's what it is. You think she hasn't heard worse? 
That she wouldn't give you the time to explain? May not solve the problems, but 
if you think you've already lost her, where's the harm in trying?>"
<Katie> <Good question.  Are you willing to lose a girlfriend over it?  We both 
know I'm a bad liar.>
* Kyon barks out a rueful laugh. "<If she's going to hate you for that, she's 
not going to want me in the end, anyway. So again: why not?>"
* Katie looks out the window. She doesn't answer.
* Katie finally speaks up: "<I can lie to her. I should. But I don't want to.>"
<Kyon> <Healthy attitude.>
<Katie> <No.  My attitude's far from healthy, and I think we both know it.>
<Kyon> <Your definition of healthy. I think your attitude's ended up like mine.>
<Katie> <There are some very important differences, I think.>
* Kyon cocks his head. "<Yeah? Then lay them out for me.>"
* Katie raps her knuckles on the window again. She peers down. "<I don't care 
about alliances, and I don't care about a cause. I don't care about this war 
everyone talks about but I don't see. I don't care about our greater purpose. I 
can't distance myself the way you do, Kyon, because I'm a victim. I've always 
been a victim, and I'm through with that.>"
* Kyon waits a few seconds, then answers in a halting tone. "<You know what I 
care about? Surviving, and living how I want. That's where I am. The rest of 
it's trappings.>"
<Katie> <Really?  Wow, me too.  But fuck living how I want, because it'll never 
happen.  You know that, don't you?  It'll never go back to the way it was.>
<Kyon> <Yeah. That's how it is. So you go with your best chance from here. 
Survive, and keep moving towards the best end you can.>
* Katie chuckles. "<The best end. By whose definition?>"
<Kyon> <Yours. I'm not going to tell you what your end should be. Not my story.>
* Katie presses her forehead against the glass and closes her eyes. "<Yeah, I 
bet not. But you're a part of it.>"
* Kyon smirks. "<A wise decision.>"
<Katie> <Hey, you didn't even *want* to be there, remember?>
* Kyon speaks more softly. "<Didn't say that. Said it was your definition of 
your end.>"
* Katie swallows. "<You didn't want to be in the beginning. But you are, and 
you're in the middle. You'll be in the end, Kyon.>"
* Kyon nods quickly, and twists the phone against his ear. "<Yeah. Can't take 
too much longer to find this guy here, and then I'll be back.>"
<Katie> <You've got an interesting home to come back to.  And Kyon?>
<Kyon> <Yeah?>
<Katie> <I'm still very, very angry at you.  So, I hope you come back with a lot 
of apologies.  And maybe chocolates.  And I might demand a hug, so you should 
probably be prepared for that whole touching people thing.>
* Kyon smirks. "<What, you don't want a panda?>"
<Katie> <Bring one of those, too.>
* Kyon nods quickly. "<Right. Need anything else?>"
* Katie presses her hand against the window. "<Just come back soon. I'm going to 
find Tenjirou today and hopefully drive a knife into his brain.>"
* Kyon cocks his head. "<Need to be done, you think?>"
<Katie> <He knows where I live.  He won't stop at raping, and he's willing to 
kill.>
<Katie> <I'm not a fighter.  I have to hit him while he's down.>
* Kyon nods quickly. "<Understood. That mean he's immobilized now, then?>"
<Katie> <The fight was ugly.  Saki was shot twice; a bullet nearly got her lung.  
Taki wore herself out to exhaustion and was shot in the leg.  Kaede and Satoshi 
both took nasty beatings.  I was thrown against the concrete a few times, and so 
was Haruko.>
<Katie> <We're on our feet and back, though, thanks to Haruko.  Tenjirou doesn't 
have that; he wouldn't have survived without serious medical attention, and even 
that takes time.>
* Kyon turns to look back out the window again. "<Right. Getting out in healable 
shape is the important thing. He still in the hospital?>"
<Katie> <I don't know if he ever was, but that's the first place I was thinking 
of checking.>
* Kyon nods quickly. "<Sure you already know, but don't get caught.>"
* Katie chuckles. "<Without saying. Taki can generate fields now. She said she's 
going with me. If the Chariot's with him, we have the ability to distract him 
and run in order to do as necessary, assuming the others are willing to do this. 
Do it as quickly as possible, get out, and incinerate the murder weapon. I 
know.>"
<Kyon> <Sounds like a plan. Asphyxiation is cleaner and leaves less evidence, if 
you have the time, but might not need that, if you have the field. You know the 
conditions on the ground. Your call.>
<Katie> <I know it's cleaner.  If we have the time, that's the way to go, but 
I'm not counting on that.>
* Kyon nods quickly. "<Right. Just be ready. Let me know how it goes.>"
* Katie taps her fingernails against the window. "<Oh. And Haruko wanted a 
reading on if there's another way to deal with him instead of killing him. Just 
so you know. I'm not going to wait.>"
* Kyon shrugs against the chair. "<Can do it. Let her know soon.>"
<Katie> <Sure.>
* Kyon drinks the rest of his green drink, and sets down the glass. "<Anything 
else for now?>"
<Katie> <Not really.  Stuff happens.  Things are getting heavier than ever.  
People are getting squeamish, but that's to be expected.>
* Kyon nods tersely. "Yeah. It happens. Do what you can to keep people in good 
shape, but you have to act while it still can be done.>"
<Katie> <Yup.  So, you take care over there, all right?  I need you in good 
shape so I can break your nose.  You and Satoshi can match.>
* Kyon barks out a laugh. "<Can try. Doubt you'll manage that goal. I'll be fine 
on this end.>"
* Katie sounds vaguely amused. "<Don't underestimate me, Kyon.>"
* Kyon shakes his head bemusedly. "<Don't underestimate me, Katie.>"
<Katie> <I don't think I do.>
* Kyon stretches against the window, leaning back in the chair. "<Then, we'll 
just have to see. Talk with you later.>"
<Katie> <You'll have to, if you're going to see it through to the end.  Bye, 
Kyon.  Oh yeah.  And you're still an ass.>
* Kyon smirks. "<Wouldn't be me any other way. Later.>" He stabs the button to 
hang up on the phone, flips it closed, and gets up to pay his bill.
* Katie hangs up and slips her phone back. She takes a breath, adjusts her 
satchel, and turns from the window, walking out of the room.