Alley leads Delinquent and I down the deserted halls of the main building. With all the students and the faculty attending the bizarre outdoors assembly, in the middle of winter no less, no one spots us as Alley unlocks the door to the administration wing and hurriedly ushers us inside. No one has bothered to turn the lights on yet, leaving the cubicle farm shrouded in gloom. Delinquent suddenly curses as he trips over an unattended stack of files left on the floor.

I reach out to steady Delinquent and take the opportunity to break the uncomfortable silence that had settled between the three of us.

"So, how's Jacob doing, Alley?" I ask but all I get is a hostile hiss from the woman. She turns briefly around and fixes on me a stare that could burn a hole through solid concrete.

"I'm not threatening you." I sigh, "I'm honestly curious about how Jacob is doing with the whole au naturale lifestyle thing on the reserve."

Delinquent starts at my response and blurts out, "You mean the rumors were true? Mrs Alley had her husband shipped off to live like a wild animal in the wilderness?"

"Oh shut up, the both of you." Alley grumbles as she takes a ring of keys from a pantsuit's pocket and unlocks the door to her private office, "I haven't heard about Jacob ever since the keepers at the reserve set him loose. They rated his chances of survival as high though."

"Jacob had gotten himself killed at the hands, or rather paws, of a pride of lions a few weeks ago." The Voice sniggers, "If its any consolation, our fledgling vampire had left behind a legacy of sorts. A pack of vampiric lions. Though its uncertain when the rangers will decide to eliminate this threat to the reserve."

I stifle a laugh at this news. It would be hilarious telling it to Alley and watching her reaction, but nah, even I have a limit. Delinquent gives me a questioning look but I dismiss it with a waive of my hand. Alley on her part doesn't bother with my antics and merely lets us into her personal office, before gesturing at us to take a seat and securely locking the door.

"Alright." I begin addressing Delinquent after having made myself comfortable, "Tensei. What's the beef between you and him?"

Delinquent leans back in his chair with an annoyed but complicated expression on his face. He opens his mouth to speak several times, but always clams up without actually saying anything, the furrow on his brows deepening. Alley despite herself begins to grow interested in Delinquent's consternation and leans across the table in anticipation. Still, Delinquent refuses, or is unable, to begin telling his story. He might need a little prompting to get things started.

"I heard you and him were best friends." I offer, leaving the conclusion of that statement open for Delinquent to fill in.

"Yeah. We were." Delinquent agrees the confusion on his face growing, "I think we still are? But I don't know..." He folds his arms defensively and sinks into morose contemplation, the words not coming to him. Delinquent taps his feet restlessly and begins to rise from his seat. Whatever hold the Hero has over him, its stronger than Delinquent's latent hostility.

"This was a mistake, I gotta go." Delinquent mutters to my alarm. I quickly activate the artificial core and fire off a mind blast.

Talk. You want to talk.

Delinquent's eyes widen for a second as he digests my mental command. Slowly nodding to himself, he settles back down in his seat and begins tapping Alley's table with a kind of frantic energy. Delinquent folds his legs and fidgets a little before deciding to go back to man spreading.

"The construction site. You were there." Delinquent finally addresses me after a pregnant pause.

"The URI? Yeah, I remember that." I answer, "I would have thought that you would be on our side, instead of SOPO's."

Delinquent makes an irritated noise, "I wasn't on SOPO's side. I was on Tensei's."

"And?" I gently urge. Good, we're getting somewhere. Delinquent's story is coming out piecemeal, but he is willing to talk about the good stuff now.

"And now I'm no longer the heir to the Matsui family." Delinquent deflates and sinks into his chair like a beat up rag doll.

Uh, that's a sudden escalation of events. Alley makes an exclamation of surprise as she questions Delinquent on her own accord, caught up in his revelations.

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"What? How did that happen?" Alley asks.

Delinquent closes his eyes tightly while burying his head in his hands, "The other patriarchs had a word with my father. They said I was unworthy to be heir after publicly standing against the family."

I hear a stifled sob coming from Delinquent as he continues, "Father was forced to agree. He's giving me an allowance until I graduate, but I'm otherwise completely cut off. The family won't support me once I leave the Academy. I've been kicked out."

Alley is left completely speechless at this confession. She finally gathers herself and tries to console Delinquent, "Look Ken, you're still young. There will be plenty of opportunities to turn things around."

"No. No there won't." Delinquent whispers, "Thanks to Tensei, the whole Family knows that I'm a sell-out. Everyone there except my father wants me gone. My father was keeping the other patriarchs at bay by justifying my actions as building ties with SOPO, leaving the door open for me to return in the future, but -"

"ORPO has defeated SOPO completely." I conclude, "No one in your Family wants to associate with someone in Hernandez's bad books."

"Yeah." Delinquent sullenly agrees, "My father was originally not keen on aligning the Family with ORPO. Now that ORPO is top dog, everyone wants to kiss up to Hernandez. Me going back would get in the way of that."

Alley sympathetically massages Delinquent's shoulder gently. He makes a halfhearted effort at shaking her off, but eventually submits to her attentions.

"And what about you and the idol girl?" I quiz.

"How did you know about that?" Delinquent suddenly barks and sits up straight as a rod.

"Saw you at the hospital the other day." I shrug, "You were joining in at that public bonfire, right?"

Delinquent folds his arms defensively again and sinks back into the chair, "I don't want to talk about that." Alley gives me a warning look as she reassuringly pats our former gangster heir on the shoulder one more time.

"Alright. Alright." I concede, "So I get why you hate Tensei now. He spoiled things with your family."

Delinquent suddenly rouses himself and rebuts, "No! I don't hate Tensei. At least I don't think so? Its complicated, OK?"

Alley cuts in at this point, "I don't understand. You hate him, but at the same time you don't?"

Delinquent clenches his fists and trembles with tension, "Tensei didn't force me to do anything. I did what I did freely. But there was always a thought in the back of my head, you know, telling me that all this was wrong, that I shouldn't be backing up Tensei. When I'm with him, that thought goes away, but when I'm alone, or talking to someone else about this stuff, it just comes roaring back. Like now."

Alley frowns at this incoherent statement, "Tensei tricked you into helping him? That's what you're saying?"

"No!" Delinquent cries before backing up, "Yes? Maybe? I don't know anymore!"

"Density. The Hero's density pulled Mr Matsui into subordinating his own interests in favor of the Hero's agenda." The Voice informs, "Mr Matsui is now slowly but surely weaning himself off the Hero's influence. The confusion he is experiencing is due to his neglected true nature reasserting itself."

That makes sense. Delinquent is probably feeling like a fool following the Hero about and breaking ties with his entire family in the bargain. His brain is probably shitting itself thinking of rationalizations for turning his entire life into a massive dumpster fire. But facts cannot be denied. Delinquent is in his own very inimitable way, coming to terms with these undeniable facts.

I quickly seize the opportunity and press Delinquent for the information I need, "Did Tensei do the same thing to any of his other friends?"

"I don't think so?" Delinquent scratches his head, "We were a small group, but not really close to each other. There was Tensei of course, then that Inspector Scott, Sera, Rose.." a slight grumble of unhappiness, "Kira and Celeste. I was Tensei's only guy friend, it was like we had a special relationship with one another. It was a guy thing we had going on. Something different compared to how Tensei treated the rest."

Special relationship? As I'm about to make a crack about special relationships between men, I notice something odd about Delinquent's statement.

"I never noticed another girl outside of the Heroines and Inspector Scott hanging around the Hero while Mr Matsui was present." The Voice rasps in alarm.

"Never heard of this Celeste." I comment. This could be it, the identity of the servant.

"She was always just around you know." Delinquent mumbles, "Celeste is at the hospital with Tensei right now in fact. Shit. Just thinking about her makes my head hurt."

Bingo. That girl has to be the servant.

"How did you guys meet this Celeste?" I urge.

Delinquent keels forward, as if he's about to collapse, but he nevertheless keeps talking, "She was .. she was .. doing this petition thing against my family. I wanted to kick her ass, but Tensei persuaded me not to."

"Mr Matsui's heart rate is increasing to dangerously high levels." The Voice warns, "Talking about the servant must be triggering a malicious physiological response within him."

"Focus. Stay with me." I grab Delinquent by the shoulders and shake him roughly, "Celeste. Give me her full name."

"Celeste is Celeste is Celeste is Celestttttttteeeeee" Delinquent babbles uncontrollably as he begins to foam in the mouth. His body jerks about as if gripped in the throes of an epileptic fit.

"Get me something to put in his mouth now!" I shout to Alley, "He's going to bite his tongue off!"

Alley quickly shoves a notebook into Delinquent's mouth and he starts gnawing away at it like a deranged beaver. Both of us hold Delinquent tight to prevent him from hurting himself while thrashing about.

"You did good, Ken." I reassure Delinquent as he flails haplessly, "You did good."

"Help me bring him to the nurse's office." Alley directs as she unlocks the door of her office and assists me in dragging the struggling Ken out.

And so we backtrack through the deserted corridors of the Academy, with only the muffled screams of a lunatic for company.