It was the night that nearly cost them both their lives; where everything had gone wrong; when she had only through the barest luck and iron determination made it out without exposing her identity.

That was when she'd hung up the hat. Hid the costume away. Her magic tricks–well, her father continued to teach her any new ones he came up with, and she could always pull out her supplies and do a half-hearted feat just to reaffirm that she had the skills. It wasn't often, however–it hurt to look at them and remember what she'd done.

They were both lucky. So lucky, it was almost a sin. They could have died–would have, but it was as if the Lord had helped her that one time, acknowledging her service to Him.

Since the three fateful years since that accident, Seira had merely tipped the police off as an anonymous caller. It worked fine.

But it wasn't Saint Tail, and everyone felt it.

Meimi Haneoka, now seventeen, stared out the window to the night sky beyond. A giant moon gazed serenely back at her, adding soft shine to her long strawberry-blond hair. Her blue eyes were distant and slightly damp, but she always had cried easily. She'd cried more than usual when she'd made the decision to give up her nighttime adventures not to mention the pursuit of a certain detective.

How had it happened? What were the odds?

A sigh escaped her lips as she closed her eyes, plummeting down the well of memory.

The night really was the better time of the twenty-four hours, Meimi reflected. She must have inherited her love of it from her mother, along with her thieving skills Too bad she had to have a heart thrown in with the mix, or she'd be filthy rich right about then

But she wasn't. She was seventeen, single, wanted by every single guy in the whole confounded high school except the one she wanted, semi-popular, doing better in school now that her mind wasn't preoccupied with how to pull off that night's stunts and utterly miserable.

Still, the knowledge that the boys lived for her gym period was somewhat gratifying. Or at least, it had been–the school nurse had finally requested that she be allowed to practice in a private training room. This was on the grounds that between 1:25 and 2:30–her gym period–the nurse had had to treat the entire male population of Seika Catholic High School for nosebleeds three weeks in a row and going on a fourth.

Meimi could hardly resist asking the nurse if any of the boys had been Asuka Jr.

She turned away from the window and flopped onto her bed. Ruby squeaked and climbed onto her forehead, then curled up into a ball and rolled down Meimi's nose, launching into the air and landing with another triumphant squeak on her stomach. Meimi smiled slightly and tickled her hedgehog's nose, but her thoughts were elsewhere. Particularly on a certain seventeen-going-on-eighteen-soon detective with the most unique hair color she'd ever seen. [AN: Forgive me, it's just that in the manga his hair is GREEN. You don't see that in a Catholic school every day I think?] How she missed those days where she'd look and he'd be behind her, always chasing her; yet if she fell back she knew he'd catch her. She wanted to send him those calling cards, little promises to meet at night, even if it wasn't the most conventional kind of meeting. She'd loved it when he'd told Lina that he didn't want to know her identity until he caught her, when he'd taken that bet with Lina to get her off her back, when he'd finally seized that calling card out of Lina's hand. She loved him, and maybe he had loved her

But that was over now.

Ruby had made her way back to the top of the pillow, obviously in hopes of ski-jumping off Meimi's nose again, but Meimi foiled her plans by turning over and looking her pet in the eye. "Normal girls don't have to put up with this, you know," she muttered. "They don't have the strangest combination of people for parents and crushes on their arch nemeses. Well maybe not, Rosemary was kinda my arch-nemesis, but not really. I don't know." Ruby squeaked. "Whatever. Point is, normal girls don't have to put up with this."

Ruby gave her the your life would kill an ordinary girl' look.

"You're too darn smart for a hedgehog," Meimi shot back, flipping onto her back once more, to which Ruby responded by clambering onto her head and rolling off her nose once more.

Meimi walked into the classroom with a yawn. She hadn't fallen asleep until long after she was supposed to, yet she didn't know why. For whatever reason, she was just getting a creepy feeling, and it was bothering her.

She sat down wearily without going to talk to her friends like normal. It was just one of those mornings.

"Hey, Haneoka, you look awful," came a cheerful greeting.

She buried her face in her arms–partially to hide her blush–and growled, "Go away, Asuka Jr."

"And a good morning to you," he returned. She could hear his chair–his seat was coincidentally next to hers–scrape across the floor and the rustle of cloth as he sat down. "Someone's a merry little sunshine."

"Someone's an annoying pain where the sun don't shine," she retorted, lifting her face to send a glare his way. "Don't you have somewhere to go? Anywhere? France, maybe?"

"Not this year." He leaned back with a frown on his face.

"Aren't you the bluebird of happiness," Meimi said dourly. He normally wasn't this down in the dumps. "What's with you? Someone spike your coffee?"

"Always a possibility, but I doubt it." Shifting forward, he rested his chin on his palm. "The mayor of Tokyo faxed my boss yesterday afternoon. He heard about the Saint Tail case and some others, and they want me to come work for them. If the chief'll transfer me, I'll be hitting the big city for some work soon."

Meimi was having a very hard time breathing, but she finally managed to choke out, "That sounds nice."

"Yeah, I don't know if I want to go or not. It sounds like a big break for me." An unreadable look came into his eyes, but he said nothing more.

"I'm sure it would be." She hid her face in her arms again, but this time it was to hide her horrified expression. Leaving? For Tokyo? And a detective–he could get hurt!

A hand came down on her shoulder, and Seira's voice whispered into her ear. "Meimi, I need you to come to the confessional this afternoon. It's urgent." She was gone as soon as she'd come, and Meimi found herself at even more of a loss than before.

The Sister came in and everybody hurried into their seats, chattering away; Meimi opened her textbook dazedly. It was time for Math.

The news of Asuka's possible departure was weighing heavily on her as she let herself into St. Paulia church and hurried towards the confessional. Couldn't he see what he'd be missing? He'd be leaving his father, his friends–her! He'd be leaving all of them behind!

Of course, maybe he was doing it to get away from Lina

"Seira?" She peeked inside the confessional.

"I'm here. Please come in, Meimi."

Meimi entered, setting her book bag down and sitting with a sigh. The small room seemed even smaller than when she'd seen it last but that had been around three years ago. "What's up?"

"I know you decided you didn't want to do this anymore, Meimi," Seira said, sounding uncertain for once. "But There is a problem."

"What are you talking about, Seira?" Her face was hard to see through the lattice between them.

"I overheard a conversation at a restaurant between the police chief and a detective from Sakuraoka. There are quite a few cases where someone has been cheated or swindled out of something valuable–or so they claim–and there's no way to prove it, or they haven't caught the person responsible–"

"I know what you're going to say, Seira." The nun-in-training could see her friend's head bowed, masking her expression. "You want me to become Saint Tail again."

"Meimi–only if you want to."

To her surprise, the redheaded girl gave her a big smile, and behind her blue eyes she could see plans already starting to form. "This solves more than those cases," she said happily.

"Oh yes, Asuka Jr. I see. If Saint Tail returns, he may be assigned to track you down once more." This was working out better than she had imagined "So you will help these people? I can't."

"Yes, I will." Meimi was grinning from ear-to-ear.

"Then this is the situation "

Asuka Jr. stared at the assignment in front of him in the library. He didn't have any cases to work on right then, and his boss had given him the afternoon off, so here he was, studying History. He'd never cared for it–who really thought about what some god-forsaken country the size of a cow pasture was doing in the early 1600's, anyway? Not anyone with a social life or a job, that was for sure–but the teachers certainly did.

He really wasn't favoring this possible transfer to Tokyo; it would take him away from his hometown and Meimi. This was not the kind of thing he wanted, but refusing it would tank his career.

Meimi hovered around the bookcase behind him, wondering what she could do. She'd stopped by home to pick up a few supplies, but there were so many ways she could do this

Asuka just knew he was going to fall asleep. His eyelids were drifting closed

Something bounced off his head and landed with another high-pitched squeak on his open textbook. Was that It squeaked again as he picked it up. It was a chew toy? No, more like a plushy meets a chew toy of him. Him chibi-style in rubber.

It burst in a shower of confetti, and in his hands was left a card. His heart started racing, and he flipped it over.

"No way," he said aloud, eyes wide as saucers.

Another rubber-chibi bounced off his head and he caught it. It burst, this time spraying him with bubbles, leaving another card.

This was not his life.

"Show yourself, you coward!" he yelled. Immediately the librarian sat straight up, sending him a look that would have turned a lesser soul to stone. He, however, paid no heed.

One more chibi dropped out of nowhere, popping on impact and covering him in pink fluff. He grimaced and read the card.

Meimi watched him fume, smothering giggles, waited for a count of ten, picked a book off the shelf to have a pretense, and walked out. "My goodness, Asuka Jr., I must say that pink is not your color."

"Huh?" He started, then blushed a brilliant hue that surpassed the pink. "Oh–that–"

"Looks like you got caught in a blender along with a strawberry milkshake," she commented dryly. "Or pink Styrofoam. What happened?"

"Saint Tail " he said thoughtfully. Then something clicked in his mind.

Before she knew it, he had picked her up by the waist and spun her around. "The boss is gonna let me stay! He has to–no one else knows her case like I do!" Breathless, he set her down.

"That's wonderful!" He was happy he was going to stay!

At that moment, for Meimi, all was right in the world.

Then both of them realized that a) they were extremely close b) they had just acted like they were going out and c) his arms were still around her. With those facts in mind, they sprang apart, blushing furiously, him muttering something about getting in touch with the chief and her mumbling something about talking to Seira. Within seconds they had hurried off in opposite directions, and silence reigned in the library.

Meimi leaned against the wall of the library, cheeks still burning. Then she remembered his face when he'd gotten all three of the calling cards, and a slow smile spread across her face.

Saint Tail was back in business.