O.K. This is very beta. Let me know what you think.

Laters!

**********************************************************************


	Matsuri took Lt. Mizuchi's offered hand as he reached back to steady 
her as they went down some sharply sloping rough ground. He gave her a 
grin and a wink as Detective Nijikawa and Shinkai-san came down behind 
them with much less grace and a lot more noise. She forced herself to 
smile back as he rearranged the duffle across his shoulders and started 
to whistle.

	They had put quite a few miles between themselves and the crippled 
plane that Tsuzuku's Dragon had let down gently in a clearing on the 
crest of one of the rolling mountains they had come in over. He had 
gestured with his head toward the distant glitter of a city as soon as 
they had jumped out, the White and Black Dragons hovering high above the 
tree tops, their calls sounding impatient as they darted toward the city 
and then back.

	She had nodded at him and then he was rising towards his brothers on a 
hard, hot wind. She still wasn't sure what had happened. They could see 
them as nothing more than ribbons of color from the distance. Then the 
Blue Dragon had risen to join his brothers. She had been so relieved. 
Until that cloud had formed. A huge black cloud. Her skin had crawled as 
it swirled into the shape of a grinning skull. The dragons rose for it, 
challenge in their faint roars as it reached out and engulfed them.  She 
had been able to see their shadowed twisting shapes as they fought some 
unseen enemy. Then they had stopped moving, frozen like pictures in a 
book.

	"Are they dead?" Lt. Mizuchi had whispered.

	"No. But I think they are in pain." Shinkai-san had answered. She could 
hear his concern and fear.

	*No.* "Hajime can't loose! They can't loose, can they?" She wasn't sure 
who she had asked. "Please." It was a whispered plea as she wished there 
was some way she could help Hajime and her cousins with all her soul. 
Tears had threatened and she had swallowed hard as she fought them back. 
Crying never solved anything.

	A single tear had escaped to fall unhindered. It hit her entwined and 
clenched hands and bounced up into a myriad of sparkling bits. She had 
stared at them, entranced, as they soared into the air and came back 
together as a bird made out of golden light. She still couldn't figure 
that out. All she could think was that something as magical as her 
cousins had heard her prayer. It had arrowed into the deaths-head that 
hung over them, and for a moment she feared it had failed as the dark 
cloud swallowed it. Then the golden light punched holes through the 
grinning evil thing and it had tattered into nothing. Yet the bird and 
the Dragons were gone too. Where did they go?

	The four of them had held a quick council as their 'hostages' kept an 
eye on them from behind the safety of the planes missing hatch. Nijikawa 
had spied a thin ribbon of road to their left and they had agreed to 
head for it and try to hitch a ride into the city and hopefully they 
would find her cousins there. That was proving easier said than done. 
The easy roll of the terrain had been wickedly deceptive. She almost 
wished she had stayed with the Prime Minister and the Secretary of 
Defense at the plane as she scrambled up the facing bank with a helping 
push from the Lt. Almost. Those two old men had been at each others 
throats the whole trip. Her eyes widened as the Lieutenants hands 
shifted to a somewhat inappropriate place.

	"Watch your hands, Mizuchi!" Shinkai growled.

	"Hey, I've got to push somewhere!" Mizuchi grinned back.

	"Well, not there!" She glared back down at him from the top, hands on 
her hips. He shrugged and just gave her back that 'devil may care' grin 
as he threw the duffle up. She 'hurumph'-ed yet took his reaching hand. 
She seriously considered letting go as she anchored herself against his 
pull. It would serve him right to end up on his rear back at the bottom 
of the gully. But she didn't. He had given up so much to help them. And 
she didn't understand why. Shinkai-san she could understand. He and 
Hajime had a long history that went back to high school. Detective 
Nijikawa didn't have a choice. He was accused of helping the Ryudo's 
escape after that thing that had looked just like Hajime had blown up 
the police HQ and made them international fugitives. But Lt. Mizuchi had 
simply walked up to them the night that Owaru had been taken and thrown 
away his career with that impish grin and an offer of much needed help 
with their confiscated tank. He kissed the back of her dirt smudged hand 
as he reached the top. She got ready to yank it away and snap a few 
unkind words, ready to put a stop to this flirting right here and now. 
Yet the expression on his face as he looked up stopped her. There was no 
lewdness in it as she had expected. In fact, it was almost reverent.

	"You are truly a gracious lady, Toba-san." He said softly then his eyes 
got that gleam again as he released her hand and turned to addressed his 
companions who were still at the bottom. "Now, let's get these out of 
shape old men up this little hill, shall we?"

	No, she didn't understand him at all.

	The climbing of the gully turned into a break. Matsuri sat on a log and 
twirled a wild flower between her fingers as she waited for the men to 
get their breath back. She covered her smile with a hand as Mizuchi got 
in a few good digs about Nijikawa's addiction to sweets and it's effect 
on his waistline as the Detective grumbled and went through one of the 
duffles looking for a candy bar he was swearing he had put there.

	Shinkai-san was sitting and writing in his little note book. She knew 
that he was chronicling their adventures. She frowned a little as she 
looked around. One of their party was missing.

	"Did anyone see where Matsunaga went?"

	The Lieutenant looked around, his grin changing to a scowl as he 
realized his dog was missing.

	"Hey Matsunaga-san!" He bellowed.

	Nijikawa stuck his finger in his ear and wiggled it around. "Let me 
guess, you were the JSDF's personal bull horn."

	"Shut up. Do you hear that?" Mizuchi cocked his head.

	Matsuri nodded. She could hear the faint yapping also.

	Mizuchi whistled high and sharp. The yapping continued but came no 
closer.

	"We'd better go and see what he's got himself into." The Lieutenant 
hefted his duffle and swung it over his shoulder.

	"I'll wait here." Nijikawa sat down by the duffle he'd been lugging.

	"No. You'll come with us. We can't afford to get separated." 
Shinkai-san said firmly as he hauled the Detective back up by his arm.

	The two men locked eyes and for a moment the steel that made soft, 
round Nijikawa such a good detective surfaced. He was tired, dirty and 
at the end of his rope. Things had happened so fast that he had just 
been drug along trying to keep his head above the proverbial water. 
Right now he was going to take back control of his life. He jerked his 
arm away from the reporter and stepped back, tense defiance in every 
angle of his body.

	Matsuri knew she had to nip this in the bud. They couldn't afford bad 
blood. They needed each other. "Nijikawa-san, please come with us? We 
will just go and find Matsunaga and then maybe we can stop and eat? I'm 
getting tired and hungry." She batted her eyes at the three men and 
smiled sweetly.

	Nijikawa smiled back and relaxed. "Sounds like a plan to me. Doesn't it 
sound like a good plan to you, guys?" There was a hardness under his 
voice.

	"Fine." Mizuchi shrugged and started off in the direction of the barks.

	Matsuri caught Shinkai-san's eye as she hopped off the log. She gave 
him a pleading look as he seemed to get ready to disagree. She knew he 
wanted to find the road and get to civilization and information as soon 
as possible.

	He nodded back at her, reached down and helped Nijikawa lift the duffle 
to his shoulder.

	Of course the way to Matsunaga was all uphill and through thick summer 
vegetation. The Lieutenant would whistle every now and then and 
Matsunaga would yap for a while, guiding them on. Finally they spied the 
dog with his front feet up on the bole of a large tree. He ran to his 
master, barking and jumping happily then sped back to the tree to bark 
back up at it's branches. Mizuchi put out his hand to stop Matsuri as 
she started for the dog and a better look at what it found so 
fascinating in the branches. She looked at him questionally as the other 
men caught up to them.

	"He might have treed something dangerous."

	"Like what? What's going to be afraid of a little yellow dog?" Nijikawa 
huffed.

	"I don't know. But I'd rather be safe than sorry. Matsuri, you and the 
others back off a bit and I'll take a look, O.K?"

	Matsuri took the detective's arm as he took a breath to complain and 
pulled him away. "Just in case, Nijikawa-san. Please?"

	The detective grumbled and muttered but followed unresisting. Mizuchi 
watched and waited until they were at what he considered a safe distance 
then advanced slowly. It probably was nothing but a squirrel but 
Matsunaga was normally much more obedient. He would have come if it had 
been a normal chase. *Wonderful.* He grumbled to himself as he saw the 
limp form draped over some on the thicker lower branches.

	"Hey, Matsuri! I found one of your cousins!"