There was no reason to bring up his (nonexistent) affiliation with Alucard - as Sakura had walked in on a most unsightly reprieve which he never wanted to discuss ever again. She had apparently chosen to keep it to herself, assumedly to come to her own conclusions. All the incorrect ones, of course, but Aidou was pretty used to human ignorance, so whatever. It worked out well for him, as her misgivings were bleeding into her demeanor.

When she said "I can use a little of mine", he heard: "Sasuke-kun is having some problems, which is why he has to overcompensate with a big sword."

Perhaps there were different levels of power suppression. It was a workable theory. Those without any strength whatsoever, the average human, would probably be unaffected, which explained why weak people like Miku and Edgeworth and Larsa had no complaints. On the other hand, Aidou expected any being - human or not - with advanced abilities or special talents would be feeling the strain. If not, there wouldn't be any cooperation, and three times the brawling.

Then Sakura broke into a babble over his suggestion of a "double date", an even better reaction then he'd expected. Even better than Rukia-chan, and that had been vengeance served pretty good. It appeared that even with a piss poor, robotic personality, a gloomy kid could win the undying affection of a female.

There was hope for Kiryu yet!

"Well, I presume it's just the three of us now," Aidou commented. If he hadn't tried to impregnate Yuffie or something equally debauched, Jack had probably taken off. The list of immediate annoyances was dwindling with the disappearance of Alucard and Jack's fashion sense. "Shall we keep going? Night is almost over."

Unfortunately.

_{[stepping over here]}