The Scent of Gardenias in the Early Summer Rain...

"For Fiore," he answered, "my company."

" Um...you must be suffering from some sort of delusion. What's your name?"

"My name is Amitabh Kapoor. And what do you mean, delusion? Exactly how much do you think you know about me, woman?"

" I'll admit, I don't know a lot. How is it exactly that you can fall Fiore your company? From what I have here you aren't involved at all..."

"Up until a year ago, I was an executive at Fiore, even though I was a Contractor. Many of those formulas are my pride and joy!"

"I'm sorry but I'm checking records and I just don't see your name. "

"Obviously, I didn't use the same name."

Just then, a security alarm went off. Someone had breached a lock on her mansion, having managed to slip past all the guards patrolling her grounds.

Bayle immediately pulled an AK from under the desk in her office and picked up her two desert eagles, heading down to the basement. She almost left Guy in the care of her security officers, but decided to go and get him herself. She took a right down the hallway and grabbed the man. "We've got to get to the basement." she said as she dragged him downstairs.

"Why, what's going on?!" he yelled as he followed her. But, they didn't get far. When they rounded a turn in the hallway, Bayle got caught a glint to her side before a wire had wrapped itself around her neck, pulling her to the ground.

Bayle immediately followed the wire with the arm that was holding the AK, which was set on fully automatic, and fired.

She heard a grunt of pain, but also the wire moving rapidly, and before she knew it, a gloved hand clasped her face hard, and Hei's mask hovering above her.

"Fire again and you're dead," he stated matter-of-factly, gripping her face a little harder to accentuate the point. "Don't move," he added, as Guy had started to move as well. His spare hand drew a double-bladed knife from his belt and pointed it at Guy.

"That's fair." Bayle replied laying her gun down. "Also don't you dare hurt him or we're both going down. What do you want from me?"

"Take me to the Contractor," he said simply, "and no one else gets hurt."

"Well, if you could wait for a couple moments, we have some questions we've been waiting quite awhile to ask him. I'm certainly not letting him free and I'll happily let you have him when I'm done, if we can make that agreement."

For a moment, he growled a little, as if angry, but he got off of Bayle anyway. "Fine. So long as you make it quick." He kept his knife in one hand as Bayle got up.

"Thank you." Bayle said as she got up, dusting herself off. "Come with me," she motioned him to follow her to the surveillance room where they were watching the contractor. "As you can see I have the situation under control." She hit the button for the intercom. "Sorry about that little break in conversation. What name did you use, if I may ask?"

Kapoor just stared in the direction of the voice. "As if I'd tell you that... The reputation of Fiore would be ruined if they knew..."

Hei stood motionless behind Bayle, and Guy stood beside him, staring nervously.

" You idiot, I'm not out to ruin Fiore, I'm out to satisfy my own curiosity, and I just happen to have a lot of resources and money. So please, just answer my questions or you're never leaving here alive. I can and will let you starve to death in that room."

"Fine! My name was Yuzuki." He seemed to be growing more agitated as time went on. Hei also seemed to be growing agitated. Bayle could hear a faint voice coming from him, as if over an earpiece, and he tapped a foot impatiently.

"Time's running out."

"First and last please," Bayle requested over a headset as she motioned for Hei to follow her. As she waited for his answer she led the mysterious man down to the basement. He gave it, and that was all she needed to know. She took them all back behind the tanks to where the door to the room lie, shutting of her headset she said. "He's in there. I'll open the door for you and you can do what you want, but I'd rather he not see me." she stood to the side of the door and let it scan her hand and eyes. In just a few seconds the door slid open.

After the long silence over the headset Kapoor had been impatiently awaiting the sound of the door open. He tried to sit up as the door slid open, but to no avail. Hei calmly walked into the room toward the prone Contractor, and bent over, placing his palm tightly across the top of his head.

Hei's body glowed blue then, and Kapoor's body spasmed uncontrollably. Kapoor screamed in agony, and Bayle could even see a few sparks inside his mouth as the lethal electricity raced through him.

It lasted less than two seconds, and Hei dropped the dead Contractor, leaving nothing but a slight burn on his head as evidence to the deed. When he walked out of the room, he just looked at Bayle, his face hidden behind the mask.

The weapons dealer looked back at him and shrugged, " Look, I don't care what you do. I won't tell anyone you were here and neither will Guy. I'm good at keeping secrets and...well I'd obviously be a fool to go blabbing. I'm not so keen to die quite yet. " she said as she led him back up to the upper floors of her house. "Also, though I won't be upset if you don't, but if you could not tell anyone about my basement, I'd appreciate it greatly."

"I don't care enough to tell anyone," was Hei's simple response as he walked to the door. He didn't say anything else to her, but simply stepped outside and walked away.

At the top of the steps to her door, Mao waited for him. Once Hei had passed the cat, Mao made eye contact with Bayle and seemed relieved that Hei hadn't killed her. He nodded at her thankfully.

"Mao." The cat perked up and turned to follow Hei. Mao slinked off into the shadows, and Hei went off into the other direction, blending into the darkness so well, even Bayle couldn't see where she went.

Guy was speechless as he watched the two go. He was great at keeping secrets, but this was by far the biggest secret he's ever had to keep.

Bayle took a deep breath and thanked each and every god that she was the only child of a weapons dealer. "Oh shit, Matsu-san." she exhaled giving him a hug. " Let's go inside and do nothing, you've had a hard night." she led him back up to the bedroom he was in while her night maid cleaned up the mess in the hallway from their fight, even though there wasn't much of one. She made sure he was nice and comfortable in bed before hopping in beside him and giving him a head massage. " Oh and by the way,it was awesome the way you apprehended Kapoor at the construction site. It was impressive! and I'm so sorry I tased the shit out of you. Do you want anything?"

"No, I think I'm okay," he said, before pausing. "Scratch that, I'll take some wine. It has been a rough night, but somehow, I feel like it's just made me more of a man. This was all very tough and at times, I thought for sure I was gonna die, but we came through it stronger than ever!"