Chapter Forty-Five: Racing From Hell:

March 25th, 2010.

Tsuzuki rushed into Watari's lab. "Watari!" he called. "Watari, I need your help!" The scientist looked up.

"What is it?" he asked. The shinigami stopped, panting.

"I met her kitsune!" he blurted out. The blonde gave him a puzzled look.

"What?" he asked. Tsuzuki stood up straight.

"I met Anna's kitsune," he said.

"How?" his friend asked.

"I don't know, it just happened."

"Okay, okay, just tell me exactly what happened."

"Alright, Anna and I were in for the night," Tsuzuki began.

"Okay," Watari said, nodding.

"I fell asleep."

"Right."

"I found myself surrounded by heat. Flames worse than hell, I tell you."

"Go on."

Tsuzuki dug for more details in his head. "I could barely walk. I had to crawl forward to try and get out. Suddenly it all stopped."

"And then?" the scientist asked.

"I came to the place where the bars were crumbling."

"Would that be�?"

Tsuzuki nodded. "Yeah."

"And she was inside?"

"She's as in�"

"The mother," the scientist said. Tsuzuki nodded, pressing his lips together. Watari leaned in, intrigued.

"You sure?" he whispered.

"Yes," Tsuzuki said.

"How do you know?"

"I sensed it in her. Plus, she had seven tails."

"Seven tails, you say?" Watari booted up his laptop and opened his notes. Tsuzuki looked on the screen with him.

"You're right," the scientist said. He turned to his friend. "Go on, what else happened?"

"Well, I talked with her," Tsuzuki answered.

"Talked with her?"

"Yeah."

"What happened there?" the blond scientist asked. Tsuzuki was about to speak when there came a knock on the door.

"Come in," Watari said.

"I'm coming in," he said. "Excuse me." Tatsumi walked inside, looking around.

"What's going on?" he asked. Watari looked up, grinning.

"Tsuzuki here has met the mother," he said. Tatsumi rushed over to his former partner.

"How?" he asked. "How did you manage that?" Tsuzuki shrugged and shook his head.

"I don't know," he replied.

"I'll explain later," Watari said. He turned back to his friend.

"Go ahead," he encouraged. "What happened when you spoke to the mother?" Tsuzuki tried piece together the important points in his head.

"She's trying to escape," he said.

"What?!" the other two yelled.

"Is the shield breaking her doing?" Tatsumi asked. Tsuzuki shook his head.

"No," he said. "The damage came way before this point."

"All of that damage to Anna's body," Watari said.

"Yeah," Tsuzuki said. "That's not all." The men stared at him.

"What do you mean?" Watari asked.

"Well," his friend said. "When I mentioned Daisuke, she looked agitated, really pissed off, you know?"

"Well yes," Tatsumi said. "He did lock her away all those years ago."

"Yeah," Tsuzuki said. "There was something else."

"What?" Watari asked. The shinigami paced his words.

"When I mentioned her children," he said. "She regretted all that's happened." Tatsumi huffed at such a suggestion.

"That's ridiculous," he said.

"No, no," Tsuzuki said. "I saw her face. She really regrets that it's come down to this." He pressed his lips together before saying the next part.

"That's why she wants to get out and put an end to it," he said. The other two shinigami looked rattled. Tatsumi shook his head.

"No!" he snapped. "Absolutely not!"

"Yes, I know," Tsuzuki said. "But she wants to end the Eda-Kimoto clan too."

"Tsuzuki, a kitsune cannot be trusted," Tatsumi said. "You know that! What if she takes over Anna and makes the problem worse?"

"I know, but�" Tsuzuki said. Watari thought about this.

"You know," he said. "He could be right."

"What do you mean?" Tsuzuki asked.

"Well, Haruka did say that the mother was killing them," the scientist said.

"Huh?" his friend asked. The blonde played him the audio clip that Haruka sent them on Valentine's Day.

"Why� wasn't I told about this?" Tsuzuki asked.

"Your relationship with Kimoto-san," Tatsumi said. "Konoe-san decided that it wouldn't be a good idea to tell you in risk of making this case anymore personal." Tsuzuki gritted his teeth.

"Does Anna-chan know about this?" he asked. Their silence told him everything.

"And when were you going to tell her?" he asked. Watari and Tatsumi didn't speak at first.

"I'm so sorry, Tsuzuki," Watari said. His friend shook his head.

"Unbelievable," he muttered as he walked away.

"Tsuzuki!" Tatsumi yelled. The shinigami waved him off as he walked away.