As he went back to his stool, Logan told Scott quietly, "This place sells more than raw fish. One of the customers had a bug up his butt about some merchandise."

"What kind of merchandise?" Scott asked warily.

Logan figured it was drugs, but he knew Scott would want to shut it down if he knew, which would not endear them to the girl. So he lied. "I don't know. Want to make some guesses?"

Scott gave him one of the menu of his sour frowns as they both took their seats at the bar.

Kyoko came down to where they were, and asked Logan, "Another cup?" She was referring to the sake. He nodded, and as she filled it up, she asked, "Are you here on vacation?"

"Business."

She nodded, then asked, after a surreptitious glance at Scott, "What's with your friends' glasses? Are those virtual reality gear?"

That almost made him laugh. "Yeah, somethin' like that. He's a big geek."

She giggled, and he flashed her his best smile, which she returned shyly, her eyes showing a bit of interest. He had her. "What kind of business do you do?"

"Various things. Right now we're looking for a girl."

Her face seemed to fall. "There's places-"

"That's not what I mean," he quickly interrupted. "A specific girl..." He had to carefully choose his words here. The Japanese word for mutants was a slur, and he didn't want any sense of hostility getting across, inadvertent or not. He remembered some Japanese mutant activists using the word 'special' instead, so that's what he used. "...special. Her name's Nariko."

Recognition flashed through her eyes before her natural wary mask slammed back down into place. Terrific; she knew the girl. "Why are you looking for her?" Kyoko asked, feigning disinterest. She pulled a cloth from the pocket of her waitress apron and began cleaning up an imaginary mess on the bar, just to the south of his tray.

"I work for a man who likes to hire specials," he told her, pulling out one of Xavier's cards. Noting it was all in English, he asked Scott, "Gotta pen?"

"Yeah." He didn't even have to search his pockets; he pulled a Bic out of breast pocket and handed it to him. He was an amazing dork.

As he scribbled Japanese numbers on the back of the card, he told her, "He'd fly her to New York just to talk to her. No strings attached."

When he glanced up and looked at her, the surprise was obvious on his face. "There has to be a catch."

He shook his head. "I thought so too, but no. He's just an old rich special who likes to aid his fellow specials."

Her delicate eyebrows arched in shock, and she stopped pretending to clean up. "Are you a..."

He simply nodded. It could be a bad gamble, but there was something about the way she was suddenly acting so cool, something about the way her muscles tensed and her shoulders became rigid when he said the name Nariko, the way he suddenly smelled fear coming from her like cider vinegar...he hadn't smelled a man at Nariko's mother's house, had he? She had lived alone - save for a canary - for a long time.

She studied his face for a long time, then glanced at the card and muttered, "Just a moment."

As she disappeared into the kitchen, Scott asked, "Was she flirting with you? What the hell is it with you and women?"

"Part of my mutation is I have twice as much testosterone as a normal guy, so I put out more pheromones. Women pick up on that."

"Is that true?"

He let him stew for a moment before he admitted, "No, I just made it up. But I had you goin' for a minute, didn't I?"

Scott made a noise of disgust. "You are such an asshole." After a pause, he admitted, "I have to use that sometime."

"Good luck."

"Does that girl know Nariko?"

"Better than that. I think she is Nariko, using her middle name."

"How do you know her middle name?"

"I don't. I'm guessin'."

They heard raised voices from the kitchen, and Logan knew the father didn't want her to leave her shift early, but she snapped that Yamamoto (must have been the ferret-y guy) had just shown up in a snit, and she had no intention of sticking around and waiting for him to come back with his "thugs".

(There was a big, long story here. But Logan knew from bitter experience that getting involved in black market wars could only end in heartbreak. There were no winners, just losers and survivors.)

"What's going on?" Scott asked, hearing the shouting but not understanding it.

"She's leaving early. I think we got her." He quickly dug some cash out of his coat pocket, only to discover he only had American currency, and a few Canadian dollars. But he left an American ten dollar bill on the bar. With the exchange rate, this more than paid for the meal.

"You got her," Scott noted, sounding embarrassed. "But it was just luck you came into this place."

He grunted an acknowledgment. "True enough."

Kyoko/Nariko came out of the kitchen, pulling on a red vinyl jacket. Her waitress apron was gone, and she wore nothing more than a white flower pattern peasant blouse, a short black pencil skirt, and tie dyed sneakers that marked her as an occasional club kid. She was probably trying to look older, but she actually ended up looking like a little girl playing dress up.

"Let's go somewhere else and talk," she said, pulling her hair out of the collar of her jacket. "But if you're a bunch of perverts - "

"I assure you, Nariko, we're on the level."

She appeared shocked that he knew, and was about to deny it, but then her shoulders sagged. "How long have you known?"

"Couple of minutes."

"Where are we going?" Scott asked, standing up.

Logan shrugged. "Probably nowhere. She just wants us to convince her we're on the level. I'm gettin' the idea she wants to get out of this life; we showed up at a great time."

"Xavier's known for his timing," Scott pointed out.

As they left the sushi shack, Nariko leading the way out, Logan had to agree. He did have a knack for sending his people out at the right time.

And as much as Logan hated thinking of himself as one of Xavier's 'people', he was glad he ultimately decided to come.

Maybe he couldn't go back in time and save Mariko. But he could do his best to save others from her fate.

And his.

THE  END