Yamato stared out the window that morning. The night before had enlightened him to the fullest, and now was the time to start putting his plans into action.

He felt Yuuhime wake up and start her morning routine. The tap, tap of her feet was unmistakably her's. She was always a quiet walker, but also had a certain stomping vibrations that came with her favorite pair of shoes. Yamato enjoyed "listening" to her walking, naming the motions she would do: Brush hair, lotion face, change into day clothes, walk out.

She did more walking today, though. He stopped thinking about what she was doing and started thinking about what he was going to do.

"Yuuhime shall stay home today," He murmured, "I'm going out."

"What?" He turned and smiled.

"You're staying home today. Is that ok? Do you have anything going on? Any tv clubs or..."

"N-no.." She whispered and turned back into her room.

He smiled even more and walked down the hallway.

Having someone associated with the Esper Union in his grasp would do wonders for the Midnight Order. Tang Xuan just so happened to stumble onto his chess board, basically waiting to be carved into a piece for him to use.

Besides, his sister liked him very much. She was clearly overjoyed yesterday.

That pleased Yamato greatly.

The only thing that was bugging him was how he was supposed to lure Tang Xuan close enough to capture. The boy was smart, and he didn't think going to him would work.

The Union was heavily guarded, and he was sure that there were many people there waiting to fight to protect each other.

'Especially that Li Ling...' He walked out into the cool embrace of the morning, pulling a hood over his head.

His sources had confirmed that during Sands of Guilt, Li Ling had gone out and accused Tang Yun of kidnapping the older twin. His sources also said it got violent. Dealing with him would be a headache in itself after he had Tang Xuan, but if he had to deal with him before? Nightmare, it would be a nightmare inside a nightmare.

For now, he simply had to gather more information, and he knew the perfect place to do so.

"The breeze is nice today, don't you think?" An older woman sat on a bench. She had a tiny dog who barked at Yamato like a crazed maniac.

"Yes, it really is," He bit his cheek so he wouldn't kick the dog.

"This is Momo," The woman said happily, "She's quite the thing, isn't she?"

"Yep," Why was this random lady talking to him?

"Where are you off to?" She asked.

"Oh, just out for a walk." Shiz, this lady was nosy.

"I wish I could go out for walks more often, but my knees are weakening."

"Hm." He stoped paying attention to her and walked off.

What even was that about?

It didn't matter, that old hag probably couldn't remember him now.

He was now at a park. Slipping his hands into his pockets, he started walking around. He hoped he could find a peace keeper around, but any person who watched the news would do; in fact, they'd probably be better, as he had some questions that might arise suspicion in peace keepers.

This person would have to be alone, as for no one else to overhear them. A peace keeper with that description would be difficult to find, too, so like he decided before, any one person would have to do.

He pulled up a map on his phone of the park, showing the secluded and private areas of the park. He started for the most private ones; under a bridge, in a ring of trees, deeper into the park by a river. He found a young man sitting by said river, holding a small bird in his hands. This young man was an Esper, with horns sticking out of his purple hair to prove that, but he didn't recognize him from the Union's staff database.

"Excuse me," Yamato said confidently. The Esper looked over at him as the tiny bird flew away.

"What?" The young man stood up on his hooves, looking over the taller man in front of him.

"I'm from the local news, going around getting the people's opinions on the Esper Union and their members." Yamato pulled out an official badge from a popular news station.

"Ah, I see. Love to," The Esper seemed to relax a little. Good, having a cautious Esper to worry about was not ideal.

"First off, what's your name and how do you spell it?"

"Ethan. E-T-H-A-N."

"What's your general opinion on the Esper Union?"

"Like 'em for the most part," Ethan said, stroking his arm, "Especially when they come around when miramon attacks happen. Though, sometimes they end up preventing me from getting a paycheck..."

'Normal response,' Yamato noted.

"Next questions,"

***

After a few minutes of asking the fake questions, now was the time to ask his real questions. Now that Ethan was a lot more comfortable around him, it would be easier to ask the "suspicious" questions.

"Who would you say is the strongest Esper in the Union?"

Ethan thought about that one for a long time, "I guess all of them."

"Elaborate?"

"W'ull, they all have their own strengths," He explained, "And some of them are gonna be better at some things than others."

He supposed that was true.

"For the next set of questions, I'm going to ask about specific Espers."

"Eh? Alright, but I don't really know a lot about most of them."

"Have you ever seen the Esper Li Ling in battle?"

Ethan's ears fell down as he thought, "The one with like six arms? Yeah, he's pretty violent to his targets."

The response that he expected, but it's always good to double check your conclusions.

"What about..." He checked his list of other potential nuisances, "Lewis?"

"Uh..." Ethan's ears drooped more, "He's...also violent?"

"Elaborate?"

"Um, like, he's strong...and, uh, he punches a lot."

"Mm." Yamato took note of that, "How about Mona?"

"She's good at long range attacks...wit' her bow, you know."

"Just one more," Yamato's eyes glistened.

"I've got a question for you," Ethan suddenly blurted, "Why are you asking me this stuff? If you've ever watched th' news, you'd know all this stuff already."

"Of course," He sensed that Ethan was starting to lose his trust. It was understandable; but he just needed one more answer. "I just want an outside perspective on all of them."

"Tsk," Ethan looked Yamato up and down.

"One more question," Yamato pushed, "That's all I need."

"Alright, fine. Then go and leave me alone."

"What would you say the powers of Gaius and Raven-"

"That's two questions!"

"Just answer the question!"

"Raven has this motorcycle," Ethan said stiffly, "Gaius has his lightning."

"Mm."

"Now go away, weirdo," He grumbled.

Yamato swiftly left. He wished he could have gotten more out of Ethan but he knew this was about the best he could do; almost every single other person would tell him the same answers.

It was better than nothing though.

Perhaps he should catch up on the news...

***

Tang Yun scrolled through his feed, lying on his back on his bed. Food video...best self defense tactics...his brother and Yuuhime on a date...new hoodie stock up...

Wait a minute.

He scrolled back up and was shocked to see a picture of his brother and Yuuhime (why was she with him?!) at the new amusement park in Utgard, eating churros. Yun clenched his jaw tight as he read the caption; "Even Union superstars and their dates enjoy our new park! Come visit today at..."

He put his phone down. "I don't care, I totally don't care!"

Oh, but he did. Not only that, he suddenly had a swarm of questions invading his mind. Why was Xuan even at the park? Why was Yuuhime there? Why did they have to chose such an unflattering photo?

Was Xuan really dating again?

He couldn't have this. He WOULDN'T have this! He wanted so bad to go find both Yuuhime and Xuan to yell at them.

Xuan was smarter than to actually date the sister of someone who tried to LEAVE HIM FOR DEAD, whose only redeeming quality was that he cared about his sister a lot.

...

Hmph. Perhaps his bother had gone softer. Or maybe he was overreacting?

Nah.

He swallowed his jealousy and looked closer at the picture. Xuan was in the middle of speaking, while Yuuhime was in the middle of shoving a churro down her throat. Really, an unflattering and awkward photo. It seemed to do the trick, though, as the post had hundreds of likes and comments. Most of the comments were talking about how cute the two were, or how they had to go try the churros.

He had to restrain himself from arguing with every one of them, and shut off his phone, slipping off his bed.

Why? Why her of all people? Why with his brother?

No! No! No!! Stupid! Yuuhime! Stupid! Xuan!

He slid out of his room and then outside. The ground was luckily dry, as was the night air. He walked until he found a lone bench, a street lamp hovering above it. He slid onto the bench and combed his hair with his fingers.

He should really look into sleeping meds, he could never get a good night's rest normally. He doubted this thing with his brother would help at all either.

Why did he feel so strongly about this? He knew the answer, but he didn't want to accept it.

He grunted and stood up. That was enough outside for him. Maybe there was some pudding in the fridge? He hoped he didn't run out, it was hard to go out to buy stuff.

...

Tsk. Thinking about other things wasn't helping him at all, in fact, it just made him feel worse about the whole thing.

His feet crushed weeds and grass as he walked back into the cold building.

"What's with the sour expression?" He jumped and turned to see Sander, arms folded and eyes looking at him up and down.

"It's nothing," Yun grumbled.

That answer clearly didn't sit right with Sander, but instead of addressing it, he simply said, "Hm. You should go get some sleep."

Yun gave a quick nod.

Opening his door, he was back in his room again. He didn't want to be here. He wanted to go find Xuan and knock sense into him. He shook his head angrily.

"Rrrrrrrgggggg," He clicked open his window and paused. Then he grabbed a hoodie and jumped out.

***

Yuuhime was starting for feel a sense of dread wash over her. Yamato had come home and immediately turned on the news and started reading past news stories, which was very abnormal of him to do. He always talked about how news outlets were horrible and never told the full truth, just their personal biases.

He told her that he wouldn't be able to "talk to her tonight" because he was going to be "so busy" with work. Good, she hated when he came to talk to her, because he never had anything positive or even interesting to say, at least to her. She was pretty sure he just loved hearing his own voice. He did had some narcissistic tendencies that made his control over her even worse.

She went to her room and saw that she had a message. Peering down at it, she saw that Xuan had messaged her; 'We got photographed at the amusement park, haha!'