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Koji's head shot back up, shocked and confused. He had been gone all day after disappearing through a shadow portal with Twilight. There was no way, in Koji's mind, that they could have excluded the idea that he had a part in it. Even if they had believed that Twi had kidnapped him, Koji knew lying about it would only have fueled Luciano's rage and made him want to go hunt down Twi even more. Sure Koji would have been off the hook for now, but if Luciano found out later he was feeding him false information, it would have been even worse. This wasn't the best situation, but coming clean and getting any punishment out of the way now was better than trying to keep a secret and having it blow up in his face later.
"Yes." Koji said at last. "He was only here to warn us that the vampires were planning an attack. When he showed up that night, a squad had already arrived so he did his best to keep casualties to a minimum and escape. He came back after things had settled to make sure we had survived, but then everyone freaked out and you had him held prisoner." Luciano clearly wasn't in the mood to hear this, Koji pressed on. "As much as you don't want to believe it, he's keeping an eye out for us. Which is more than we can say for the Kuro family right now.." He mumbled the last part under his breath.

It was sunset when Nari finally made it back to Durem with Max. Little was said during the thirty-or-so minutes they rode in Max's silver Mercedes. Max, knowing his friend like the back of his hand, knew not to prod her for answers at times like this and merely asked what she currently needed.

"Where would you like me to take you?" he asked her pleasantly as they passed through the town leisurely. "Please drop me off at the pub on Main St. I'm meeting Emilio," she responded too politely to sound normal. An eyebrow twitched upon hearing that familiar name, but Max kept his comments to himself. He had not been told any details from her recently, but he knew they would eventually talk and catch up. He knew they were childhood pals, but he also heard that Emilio was involved in a gang of his own. Still, the crafty woman could handle herself.

Max turned on Main and parked in the street to let her out in front of the bar. It looked like a normal building, so Max tried to relax and not worry too much. As Nari let herself out, she turned and quietly thanked Max-- again, out of character. "Call me if you need anything else," he told her before she closed the door and he drove away. Through his right mirror, he noticed her walking away from the bar down the nearest alleyway. He could only sigh and rub his forehead in response. "That mouse will turn into a dragon soon enough. Glad I'm not on the receiving end. Whatever happened must have been pretty bad," he frowned and muttered to himself.

After Max left, Nari walked down the alley beside the pub. She had no intention of getting a drink; she was looking for a particular entrance Emilio had described to her on the phone earlier. Finally having a chance to be alone again, she let her face droop in defeat. This was utterly frustrating and tiresome; she hadn't even started fighting yet!

When the alley ended, it opened up to the next street. It was much less crowded than Main, which made it easy to spot the one person she could blame for this-- Twi. He seemed to just be strolling around casually, as if he had no problems in the world. 'I'm about to f-cking change that...' Nari thought, everything suddenly going red. Eyes ablaze, she quickly snuck up behind him and pulled a fast one-- she kicked him in the right shin as hard as she could before pulling out her rod.

"Nope... was all Nari said to Twi in response as she swatted her miniaturized rod in her free palm rhythmically. "You're not going to fight because you won't be able to when I'm done..." she added in a quiet, ominous tone. The glare in her eyes was deadly, but the rest of her body language was strangely collected; she didn't even frown anymore. It was safe to say, she was beyond mad now. This was the wrath of a woman.

And with that, she swatted his arms with her rod several times, intent on breaking them if only to get a punch to his face. He was really lucky she didn't just activate the rod and electrocute him on the spot in her mind. But she wanted this to hurt, so this was the alternative.

A small part of Nari's mind considered this. It would be reasonable to find out Koji's whereabouts; she had been a bit worried about him and Sabe wouldn't tell what he knew. But then again, who cared about reason, anymore?

"Why don't you just shut up?" she asked a bit gruffly, finally sounding more normal. She started mumbling without much thought, "First, you see too much, and now you talk too much..." With Twi out of sorts, she took this chance to grab Twi by his shirt collar and to punch him square in the jaw with her left fist. With her wrist guards supporting her hands underneath her jacket, she had no trouble putting extra force into the swing.

That felt good, very good. It was as if her fist released most of the inner anger she felt weighing her down. Nari took a step back and examined her "handy"-work. She hadn't expected to do so much damage on the first try, and it made her feel a bit better about her arena fight tonight. Still, seeing how stunned Twi was sedated her desire to beat him to a pulp for the moment.

"Stupid, perverted man..." she griped under her breath. "If you had any brains, you would have stayed away from HQ from the start... And peeping in on women. Disgusting," she continued, her real, unconscious reason for hating Twi slipping to the surface. Crossing her arms over her chest, she glared daggers at Twi and wondered if he had even enough sense to get up.

'Maybe I should have just brought a gun, instead,' Nari thought darkly, as Twi finally started getting some nerve. She only stared dully at him, not fazed by his threat. It was an empty one in her mind, anyway; she could just kill him-- or at least do the vampire equivalent-- right here. Her rod wasn't a flying lead projectile, but it could do enough harm to his brain to shut him up if she aimed it for his skull.

A short moment of silence passed as Nari contemplated the violent things she could do to Twi right now; she was considering murder at this point. But suddenly, she started chuckling as if everything Twi had said was a joke-- because it was in her head. "And I was thinking about walking away..." Acting upon her thoughts, she uncrossed her arms and flipped the switch on her rod to make it extend fully. As it crackled, she pointed it downward to Twi's face while still chuckling and shaking her head. "No, not capiche," she mocked him and continued, "You must not realize how dead you can be saying that to me. I make the deals if you want to stay alive. So you are going to listen to me, and think hard before you say no." The chuckling stopped, and she became calmer. She even lowered the rod to her side.

Perhaps it was adrenaline from the pummeling she just gave Twi, and perhaps it was just good timing. Nari had quickly managed to devised a plan to hopefully quiet Twi's blabbering and also get what she needed right now-- a clean slate. Sure, she had just made this up on the spot somehow, but she was a businesswoman. Making negotiations in tense situations was a way of life. "If you want to be friends or whatever the h-ll you want to call it with Luc, and if you want to protect HQ without always babysitting us, and if you want to keep me from kicking your -ss again... I can't believe I'm saying this... We have to work together on something I already intended to do."