PAN - Project Assassin: Nara

     Aya muttered to himself as he drove through the
pouring rain. “Ken absolutely has to have this stupid
potting soil at ten pm, and who’s the one to get it? 
The only one with a working car, of course.” He turned 
a corner viciously, ignoring the honking from other
cars, and sped onwards.
     Suddenly, a figure darted into the street in 
front of him. He slammed on the brakes as it leaped 
out of the way. Before he could put his foot on the 
gas, however, something knocked on his window. He 
looked out, sighed and rolled it down.
     The girl standing in front of him was obviously
young. She was soaked to the bone, and shivering. 
She seemed much smaller than she actually was, in a
large flannel shirt and baggy jeans. She was panting
hard. “Mister, you gotta help me.”
     Aya looked her up and down, correctly guessing 
just what her outfit and appearance meant. “Right.
 I’m gonna help some stupid kid run away. Get lost.” 
He prepared to roll up his window.
     Stubbornly, the girl stuck her hand into his
window, letting water drip onto his lap. “You don’t
understand. I have to get away. If they find me, 
they’re gonna kill me.”
     Aya looked her up and down again. “Your parents
aren’t gonna kill you, kid. They love you. At least 
you have them.”
     “They’re not my parents. I don’t have parents.
Listen, I know this is weird, but if you just help me
get away, I can - “ She stopped, suddenly, and looked
up.
     Aya looked at her strangely as she seemed to
shrink, her shoulders hunching, her expression like 
that of a trapped animal. “Hey, kid, I don’t have 
time -"
     “They’re here! Get me AWAY!” The girl threw 
herself at the car, but she only succeeded in rocking 
it slightly.
     Aya was about to make a cutting remark about her
sanity, when suddenly, he heard sirens. “Oh, so 
that’s it. You’re a criminal.”
     “No! I never did anything wrong! Please, you’ve
gotta help me!” The desperation in her voice made 
Aya’s mind up for him.
     “All right, get -" Before he could finish his
sentence, Aya cut himself off, pushed the girl away 
and rammed his door open. He grabbed her and jumped 
away from the road just as the grenade hit his car. 
“Who the hell is after you, kid?” He calmly drew his
sword out from under his trenchcoat. “Because they 
are really, really pissed.”
     “It wasn’t my fault, I didn’t do anything, 
they -"
     “All right, no time for buts.” Aya quickly 
pointed. “My apartment is a mile that way. There’s a
tunnel to the sewers the next road over. Get into 
the tunnel, and it’ll lead to my house. When you get 
in there, press the red button on the inside. I’ll 
hold them off. Go!”
     Terrified, the girl just nodded, then turned and
ran.

     Ken sighed. “What’s taking Aya so long? Was 
there a huge line at the store or something? It’s not
like they’re even popular over there...”
     Omi shrugged as he arranged a freesia display in
the front window. “Maybe there’s some old lady with a
thousand pennies in front of him at the store. Calm
down.”
     “If I don’t transplant this thing soon, it’s 
gonna -"
     Ken was interrupted suddenly by a loud banging 
in one of the storage rooms. Omi immediately ran to 
the door and opened it.
     The girl staggered into the room, wet and 
dripping, and slid across the floor, right into a 
pile of cardboard boxes that had recently held seed
shipments. She fell and lay sprawling among them,
panting hard.
     Ken ran to her side. “The secret entrance? But 
only we -" He was cut off as Aya walked calmly into 
the room.
     “You’d never guess what happened to me on the 
way to the store, Ken.”

     After they’d warmed her up and gotten her dry
clothes, the girl was much more coherent and willing 
to talk.
     She sat in an armchair in the large living room
above the shop, a cup of tea in her hands. “First of
all, my name is PAN. PAN stands for Project Assassin:
Nara.”
     Omi gasped. “I’ve heard of something like that
online. It’s rumored that the government is trying to
create a super-person to do their dirty work.”
     PAN nodded. “That would be me.” She turned to 
Aya. “When I said that I didn’t have any parents, I 
was serious. I was artificially created in a lab. I 
am what you would call a bioroid. They programmed me 
to be an assassin, have ultimate powers, and be
completely and totally perfect.”
     Youji raised an eyebrow. “Wouldn’t that mean 
you’d be programmed to stay put?”
     “Yes, but you don’t understand.” PAN shook her
head, making her long brown hair fall into her face. 
She pushed it back with a practiced gesture. “I’m not 
a machine. I’m a living, breathing human, just like 
you. However, they engineered into my DNA several
traits. Like, I’m not supposed to age. I will 
sometime, no matter what they say, but I will stay 
alive longer than anyone else. Also, my muscles won’t
deteriorate after puberty, nor will my brain shrink. 
I am, in a sense, perfect.” She paused and looked up,
her startling green eyes catching them all. “Except, 
of course, that I am human.”
     Ken had been watching PAN, almost awed by her
beautiful features and mesmerizing voice, but now he
spoke up. “That’s awful. They ‘programmed’ you?”
     PAN looked down again. “Well, you see... I was
raised in a crèche, with many other ‘super-children’. 
I was given love, but only enough so that I wouldn’t 
be mentally unstable. I was pushed to do well in the
school, but only enough so that I would get the 
highest grades possible. And I was raised to be the 
best assassin ever. They trained me in everything. 
They trained me to kill, to hunt, everything.” She 
hung her head, so that her hair shielded her eyes. 
“But they never trained me how to hide.”
     “After a long time, of being at least content, 
I began to develop unwanted traits.” PAN paused and
looked up, a sweet smile on her face. “When I was 
ten, one of my caretakers gave me a couple of seeds. 
I think it was a test. Every other child got seed 
too, because everything was given equally. But they 
all threw them away. Me, I somehow obtained a pot and
some soil, and I planted my seeds.” PAN paused,
remembering. “They were rose seeds. White roses. I 
will always remember the day when my roses bloomed. 
I kept them by my bed, until one morning, I woke up 
to the sound of murmurs around me. I opened my eyes 
and gasped. It was my rose! It was white, white as 
snow, and it smelled so sweet...” Abruptly, PAN hung 
her head again. “They took it away. They said that 
if none of the other kids had planted their seeds, I
shouldn’t have either. They enforced conformity. 
Staying with the group. They called it teamwork.”
     PAN sighed and raised her head slightly, 
looking into her tea. “After that, as the years went 
by, I got more and more convinced by what we were 
being taught and how we were being treated that it 
was all wrong. Nothing our leader did was wrong. We 
were allowed to follow in games, but an adult always
led. We weren’t supposed to be leaders, only blind
followers.”
     “I couldn’t take it. I planned this for a month,
planning what I would take, where I would go,
everything.” PAN paused to take a deep breath and 
sip her tea, and then went on. “Suddenly, before I 
had time to even grab my clothes, the opportunity 
arose, and I just left. Silently, but not silently
enough. They’ve been looking for me for a night and 
a day now. I haven’t eaten or slept since before I 
left. I haven’t had a chance to.”
     Youji looked startled. “Then why are you only
drinking tea?! You need some soup or something!”
     “No, I’m not that bad... I am the perfect 
soldier, you know. I’m not falling down from
exhaustion.”
     “You fell down when you came in.” Omi pointed 
out helpfully.
     Aya got up. “You can sleep in my bed. I’ll go
microwave something for you.”
     PAN looked after him as he walked away. Youji
smiled at her and she looked at him questioningly. 
“He likes you. He wouldn’t have bothered to microwave
you something if he didn’t like you.”
     PAN stood up. “Where is his room? I think a 
short nap would be good...”
     Ken pointed mutely, and all three men watched 
PAN walk off, her back erect and her gait purposeful.
     “She was right. She really is the perfect 
soldier, isn’t she?” commented Youji.
     Omi nodded in agreement. “She didn’t say how 
old she was.”
     Ken shrugged. “That doesn’t matter. Point is, 
we’re gonna have to figure out if we should really 
help her or not.”
     “That was never a question.” Aya commented from 
the doorway. From the way he said it, his teammates 
knew better than to argue.

     PAN woke up to the darkness and warmness of 
Aya’s room and sat up. Immediately, she noticed 
someone standing by the doorway. “Hello?”
     Aya stepped out of the shadows slowly. “Here. 
I brought you some soup.” He set it down on the 
table beside the bed.
     “I took a long nap, didn’t I?”
     “We didn’t feel like we needed to wake you. No 
one has come by and tried to question us or anything, 
so I think we can safely assume that they don’t know
you’re here.”
     PAN shivered. “What am I going to do in the
meantime?”
     Aya shrugged. “Well, you can’t go anywhere else. 
I was thinking you could just stay here and help us 
with the shop.”
     “Shop?”
     “We run a flower shop. Downstairs. If you help 
us run it, then that’ll give you something to do. 
We’ll have to camouflage you somehow, though...”
     “How about we pull and my hair under a hat, so 
it looks like I have short hair, then I could flatten 
my chest and wear some of you guy’s clothes? With a 
pair of sunglasses, I could pass for a boy.”
     Aya thought about it for a minute as he sat down 
at the edge of his bed. “Why don’t we just cut your
hair? I’m surprised they didn’t make you do that
already.”
     PAN’s hand flew to the back of her head
protectively. “Oh, Aya, please don’t make me cut my
hair... It’s the only thing they ever let me do
individually...”
     Aya sat silent for a few minutes, his face
impassive. PAN studied his profile as he thought, 
then he suddenly looked at her, his violet eyes 
catching and holding her gaze. “What did you say your
name stood for?”
     “Project Assassin: Nara.”
     “So your name is Nara?”
     PAN thought about it for a moment, then 
shrugged. “I guess. All they ever called me was PAN.”
     “From now on, I’m calling you Nara. You don’t 
look like bread to me.”
     The newly renamed Nara blushed. “Well, um, I 
should get up... I mean, you probably want your bed
back...”
     Aya shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. I never sleep
much anyway.”
     “Really...? Why not?”
     “Sometimes I have to work nights.”
     Nara sat back in the bed. “You’re an assassin,
aren’t you?” she commented flatly.
     Aya narrowed his eyes at her. “You say it like 
it’s so horrible.”
     “I should have known it when you pulled out 
that sword. Only an assassin would have known how to
hide a sword under a trenchcoat like that.”
     “Look, it’s my job, and at least it pays the
bills.”
     “What bills? Your flower shop should pay every
single bill you have.”
     Aya glared at her. “You don’t know what you’re
talking about.”
     Nara glared right back, crossing her arms in 
the bargain. “I wasn’t made super-human for nothing. 
I know perfectly well what I’m talking about.”
     “Get out of my room. If you keep talking I’ll 
throw you out of the house.”
     Taken aback at first, Nara’s eyes blazed 
angrily. “Fine! See if I care!” She threw back the
covers so hard they flew across the room and hit the
wall, almost leaving a dent. “Maybe I should have 
kept going, instead of stopping YOU!” She practically
threw herself out the door, slamming it behind her so
hard that it shook the entire apartment.
     Aya glared after her, then sat down on his bed,
took out his katana and began polishing it, so 
agitated he almost cut himself several times.

     Nara hunched down on the couch, her large shirt
falling over her shoulders in folds. “I can’t 
believe him. It’s not my fault I don’t like 
assassins. He doesn’t understand. He doesn’t know
anything...”
     “Nara?”
     Nara craned her neck around and looked over the
back of the couch. “Oh, hi Ken.”
     Ken yawned and rubbed the back of his neck. “Are
you okay? I felt a door slamming.”
     Nara glared at the TV, imagining it being Aya. 
“He doesn’t know anything.” She paused as something
occurred to her. “Ken...?”
     He sat down next to her on the couch and looked
back at her. “Yeah?”
     “You... You aren’t... an assassin, are you?”
     “Did Aya tell you?”
     Nara turned on the couch and pulled Ken closer 
to her by his shirt. “Please, please, don’t tell me
you’re an assassin, please, Ken, please...”
     “Nara...”
     She let go of him. “You are, aren’t you? Oh, 
no...”
     “Nara, it’s just my job...”
     “Ken, you don’t understand!” Nara pulled into
herself as she pulled away from Ken. “We were all
trained to be assassins... Sometimes, they’d pit us
against each other. There was no reward, but 
everyone tried their hardest anyway. There was 
one...” Nara closed her eyes and shivered, 
remembering. “His name was PAT. Project Assassin: 
Tomas. He liked the games even more than anyone 
else. And he loved me.”
     Ken watched her carefully. “But, wouldn’t that 
be a good thing?”
     “No, he didn’t love me, he loved me. He didn’t 
love me as a person. He loved bullying me, or leading 
me along, making me believe he actually was being 
nice, then... Then he’d just push me in the mud 
again.”
     “But...”
     “The problem was... I was in love with him. I
couldn’t help it. He had this voice, and the way he
moved, the way he spoke to me... His cruelty was so
alluring... He had long brown hair, dark as mahogany,
and black eyes, like the souls of Chaos. His voice 
was smooth, like velvet, but it had a hidden 
sharpness, like velvet over knives. Every time he 
hurt me, it was like he would stab a knife into my
heart, rip it out, and stomp on it. But it didn’t
matter. He was so beautiful.”
     Ken watched her, silently, as she continued. 
“One day, they gave us baby chicks to raise. Most of 
the kids took the chick and fed it to the watchdogs. 
But I kept mine, and I raised it into a chicken. I 
named it Polly, and I loved her. Then, when I was 
out exercising, they took Polly and cooked her up 
for dinner. I didn’t cry, of course, but I couldn’t 
eat a bite. Not when it was Polly.”
     “Afterwards, when we were in the barracks after
dinner, I was sitting on my bed, alone, thinking 
about Polly. A shadow fell across my bed, and I 
looked up. PAT was standing there, watching me. He 
knelt down and put his arms around me, and he held me. 
I felt like he was apologizing for everything, out of
sympathy.”
     “But that wasn’t it. As soon as I thought I was
okay, I tried to pull away. Instead of letting me go, 
he held me tighter. My back muscles began to ache 
from staying that position too long, and I begged him 
to let me go. But he wouldn’t. It got so bad that I 
knew I would scream, but he kept going. Finally, 
knowing I couldn’t scream or he’d kill me, I passed
out.”
     “Oh, Nara...”
     “When I woke up, I felt so stiff I could barely
move. It took two whole weeks for the ache to go 
away. That was my punishment. For caring about 
another living being.”
     Nara was staring at the rug in front of her 
very hard. Ken laid a gentle hand on her shoulder. 
“I understand how you feel about assassins, Nara, but
Aya, Youji, Omi, and I don’t just go out and hire
ourselves out to whoever’s paying. The only people 
we kill are the scum of the earth, the ones who 
deserve to die. Believe me on this one. None of us 
would ever kill an innocent person. We’d rather die
first. That’s what being one of us is about.”
     Nara sighed as she tried to relax. “Oh, Ken... 
You just have no idea... All the other punishments 
Tomas put me through…”
     “Well, I’m not going to think about it, and you
shouldn’t either. Now come on. I’m not going to let 
you sleep on the couch. My room is much more
comfortable.”
     “But what about you?”
     “I’ll wake Omi up and steal his bed.”
     “Ken!”
     “He’d probably share with me anyway. Come on.”

     The next morning, before the shop opened, Ken,
Youji and Omi woke Nara up.
     “Good morning!” Omi called cheerfully from the 
edge of the bed.
     “Huh? What?”
     “It’s time to get up, Nara! We have to dress 
you like a boy, so hurry and take a shower!”
     Nara rubbed her eyes and yawned, but she got up 
and plodded into the bathroom. Ken watched her go, 
and then turned to Youji. “She’s almost as much of a
zombie as you are in the morning.”
     Youji looked prim. “At least I have a good 
reason.”
     About a minute later, Nara came out, wrapped in 
a thin towel. “Okay, let’s go.”
     Ken’s jaw dropped. “You took an ENTIRE shower 
in that much time?!?!”
     Nara rubbed her hair calmly with another towel.
“They didn’t give us much time where I lived before.”
     Omi looked her over. “Wow, it was kinda hard to
tell yesterday, but you are incredibly thin.”
     Nara paused a moment while rubbing her long 
brown hair and blinked, her cat-like eyes expressing
confusion. “I am?”
     Omi looked surprised. “Well, yeah! I mean, it’s 
not a normal thing for people to look androgynous.”
     “Oh...” Nara looked down at herself. Indeed, she
was fairly tall, with long legs and a long torso, and
not much of a chest. She sighed. “This is all I knew
before... There are other kinds of people?”
     “Man, you really were sheltered! Come on, let’s 
see what we can do for you.” Omi led her to Youji’s
room, where he had gathered everything he could find
that might look good on Nara.
     Nara surveyed the clothes-strewn room. “Is it
always like this in here?”
     Youji grabbed a couple of shirts off his bed and
sat down. “Not usually, but Omi just had to gather it
all somewhere.
     “So, uhm, Nara...” Ken rubbed the back of his 
head in embarrassment. “We can’t exactly, uhm, do the
first step for you.”
     Nara looked puzzled. “You mean binding my 
breasts?”
     Ken blushed crimson. “Well, uh, er...” Hoping 
she wasn’t a mind reader too, he tried to blank out 
his thoughts.
     Nara shrugged. “They covered that in the basic
disguise class, in case us girls needed to look male. 
I can do it myself, if you have some gauze.”
     “Oh, sure! You know, it’s not like we can go to 
the hospital or anything...” Omi trailed off as the 
now-recovered Ken made violent cutting motions,
signifying Omi shouldn’t talk about that. Omi opened 
up the first-aid kit and fished through it, throwing
aside stitching needles and clamps as he searched 
for the gauze. Finding a large roll, he held it up.
“Will this do?”
     Nara took it from him. “This will do great, Omi,
thanks.” She stepped back into the bathroom, made 
some swift movements, and then came out, her chest
completely flat beneath her towel. “Okay, now we need 
a hat, sunglasses, and actual clothes.”
     Ken smiled and held up one of his hats. “How’s
this?”
     Nara took it from him and examined it. “Let me
see...” In a moment, she had her hair bundled up 
behind her head, and she tucked it under the cap. It 
fit perfectly.
     “Either Ken has a big head, or you have a rather
small one,” commented Youji calmly.
     Ken glared at him, but Nara giggled. “Okay, now 
for the clothes.”
     Omi fished through the piles. “Well, the only
clothes that I think would fit you would be mine... 
How about this?”
     Nara took the proffered shirt and held it up to
herself. “Hmm... This will probably be fine. What 
about pants?”
     “You can wear a pair of my shorts!” Omi held out 
a pair for her.
     “Let me try those on. Oh, and what about
sunglasses?”
     Youji held out a pair of his. “Try these.”
     Nara went into the bathroom and dressed with the
same swiftness she had used when doing everything 
else. “Okay, you guys have to tell me if this looks
okay...”
     When Nara stepped out, Ken gasped. “Wow...”
     Nara stood now in a light blue sweatshirt, not
overly bulky, and slightly femme. The shorts were 
tan, with creases down each side, and the hat
overshadowed her face seductively. When she raised 
her head, the barely concealing sunglasses gave her 
an air of mystery. “Is this okay?” Nara shifted in 
the clothes, looking in one second both comfortable 
and uncomfortable in them.
     Ken was speechless. He doubted he’d ever seen a
more beautiful boy in his life. It made him doubt if 
he was straight. “You look... amazing.”
     Nara blushed again. “I don’t look too girly?”
     Youji shrugged, unconsciously keeping his cool.
“You look like a very beautiful boy, but a boy
nonetheless.”
     Nara smiled in relief. “Do you think they’d
recognize me if they came looking?”
     Omi shook his head. “No way!”
     “Good. Well, when does the shop open?”
     “Whenever we feel like it should be opened,”
answered Youji.
     “Well, why don’t we?” Nara drew herself up and
darted out the door, ready and eager to start her 
day.

     Later that day, after school was out and all the
schoolgirls were swarming the shop, Aya noticed
something strange. He was used to getting a lot of
attention. So were Youji, Omi, and Ken. But Nara, in 
her disguise, was getting more attention than any of
them. Normally that wouldn’t bother Aya. But it was 
his main sales pitch, getting the girls to fawn all 
over him so they’d buy something. How was he supposed 
to do that when none of them were fawning?
     Ken was oblivious to the whole situation. Far 
from being jealous, he himself mooned over Nara like 
a sick calf. Even when she was dressed like a boy! 
But Ken was obviously infatuated with the playful 
smile and quicksilver charms, which all at once led 
the girls along and let them down gently.
     Youji was even more jealous than Aya. He not 
only used attraction as a sales pitch, he enjoyed 
all the attention! What was he going to do without 
all his groupies?
     Omi, out of all four, seemed fine. In fact, he 
was enjoying not having all those girls all over him. 
It was a rare and happy respite, which he used to his
full advantage.
     As Youji fumed, Nara noticed his bad attitude, 
and made a split-second decision. She commented to 
the girls how lonely poor Youji was, and how sad he
looked, and almost instantly, a large group broke 
off from the horde to go over and comfort “Poor 
Youji”. He looked distinctly more cheerful after 
that.
     Ken, on the other hand, was hardly doing any 
work, so caught up was he in worshipping Nara with 
all the girls. Aya glared daggers at him whenever he
managed to catch Ken’s eye, but the unrepentant and
smitten young man just ignored him. Finally, Aya
couldn’t take it anymore, and gave the register to 
Youji for a moment while he dragged Ken into a back
room.
     “Are you out of your mind? We’re supposed to be
working here.” Keeping his voice as calm as ever,
nevertheless Ken could hear his anger.
     “What’s your problem? So incredibly jealous that
you can’t deal with it? It’s not her fault they like
her!”
     “You’re acting like an idiot. If you don’t stop
soon, I’m going to take drastic measures.”
     “Look, you don’t know what she’s been through! 
She was tortured by that idiot when she was 
training!”
     “What idiot? She didn’t mention anything to me.”
     “Some guy called Tam or something. He’s the 
reason she’s so afraid of assassins. He was awful to
her, from the minute they met until she ran away.”
     “What?”
     “She’s still afraid of him! He tried to 
strangle her because she raised a chicken instead of
feeding it to the watchdogs! And she said that 
wasn’t even the WORST!”
     “Uhm... guys?”
     Both men looked up. Omi waved nervously. “I 
need some more snapdragon seeds and plants. They’re
being bought up like crazy.”
     Aya raised an eyebrow. “Why?”
     “Because Nara mentioned that they’re one of her
favorite flowers.”
     “They’re right over there.” Ken said, pointing.
     “Thanks!” Taking them, Omi disappeared again.
     Aya turned back to Ken. “Just tell her to stop
charming and start working, all right?”
     Ken shrugged. “Sure, okay.” He turned to go, 
then stopped and looked over his shoulder. “Aya, 
don’t be so hard on her, okay? It’s not her fault 
that she’s had the life she has. And it’s not her 
fault that girls like her.” With that said, he left.
     Aya sat for a moment and pondered this, and then 
he got up and went to take back the register from 
Youji.

     Nara collapsed into the big, fluffy armchair. 
“Are all normal females that frantic and shrill?”
     Youji shook his head. “Not all of them. Just 
the ones who visit the shop.”
     “You certainly have an interesting culture here. 
I never knew what it was like in normal society.”
     Omi shrugged. “Some things could be changed. 
Nara, didn’t you ever wonder what ‘normal’ people 
did?”
     “Of course I did, but it wasn’t like I could 
find out. The only books we were allowed to read were
the ones they gave us. I only knew what I had to. If
they gave me a book about life in China, I read the 
book and believed whatever it told me. I really don’t
know anything practical.”
     Ken watched Nara sympathetically. “Really? Well,
why don’t we take you out and teach you?”
     Nara looked back at him, puzzled. “What do you
mean?”
     Youji smiled. “We could go to a club or two, 
see how well you can hold your alcohol, and teach 
you the finer points of picking up women. That way 
you’d be an even more convincing male.”
     Omi rolled his eyes. “Youji, your strategy 
doesn’t exactly work out for everyone. Don’t you
remember when you tried to teach Ken and me the 
‘finer points’?”
     Youji paused. “Oh, yeah. Well, we can at least 
take her out and introduce her to some people, so if
something happens she’ll have other places to run.”
     Aya looked up from where he was stirring 
something on the stove. “She won’t need ‘other places 
to run’, because nothing’s going to happen to us,
Youji.”
     Youji shrugged. “Whatever. Anyway, what if we 
had to run somewhere, to separate places? You should
always plan for such things, after all.”
     Aya grunted and continued stirring. Ken piped 
up again. “I think that’s a good idea. Let’s go
tomorrow.”
     Nara yawned. “Yes, tomorrow would be nice… Wow, 
I didn’t think so many girls would give me such a
workout, but I’m really tired. I think I’ll go to bed
now…”
     “Goodnight, Nara.”

     Later that night, when all the guys and Nara 
were asleep, there was a rustling sound underneath 
the flower shop. It continued, growing quieter, but 
also growing nearer. Finally, the grate came away 
from the sewer tunnel entrance, and a tall figure 
stood, their long hair blowing in the wind from the
cooling fans.

     Nara was sleeping fitfully. She knew something 
was wrong. The wind was wrong, and Ken’s room, which
usually smelled like gentians and clean sweat, 
smelled all wrong. Everything around her was silent.
Suddenly, she sat up straight in bed.
     Before she could make a sound, a warm hand 
clamped over her mouth. “Nara…” a velvet whisper, 
filled with promises, both dark and sensual. “You’re 
not going to scream, are you Nara? Screaming is not a
preferable course of action…”
     The velvet voice continued as a black-masked 
face came into view. “You know I can kill you, Nara… 
You know you wouldn’t be able to stop me if I tried… 
So don’t try to scream, Nara, because after I killed 
you I would kill your little friends too.”
     As he took his hand away from her mouth, Nara
breathed fitfully, her eyes full of terror. “How did 
you follow me? I left no tracks. It was raining, 
there’s no way -"
     “Oh, Nara, how little you know… They noticed 
your friend dart into the tunnel, so they figured you
had too. After they removed the gate, they sent me in 
to find you.” Tomas caressed her cheek as she tried 
not to pull away in revulsion. “We miss you so much,
Nara. All your friends and I… Your absence hurt us 
so…”
     “It must have hurt to have to pick out another
underdog.” Her courage returned slightly, Nara 
managed to snap at him, although weakly.
     Tomas hissed at her. “You wound me, my lover…”
     Nara looked away, and Tomas smiled. “Yes, you 
know me… You know all of me…” The emphasis he put on 
the word made Nara wince.
     “Tomas, I’m not going back. You don’t 
understand…”
     “I understand perfectly. You’ve always been 
weak. It started with the rose. They knew they had to
watch you.” Tomas grinned, the smile of a predator
making a kill. “They knew you would run. They were
surprised at how well you ran away. But I wasn’t. I 
knew you too well, Nara.”
     Nara tried to edge back against the headboard.
“Tomas, please. Let me go. You don’t want me. If I 
stay away from them and never do anything, they won’t
need to worry about creating an imperfect being. That
way they’ll be happy and I’ll be happy. I’ll even let
you wipe my memory, Tomas, please, just don’t make me 
go back!”
     Tomas watched her coolly as she begged and 
pleaded with him. “What if I just snap your neck and 
go, Nara? Wouldn’t that give you an escape too?”
     Nara’s voice dropped to a terrified whisper as 
she hung her head in shame. “Didn’t you feel 
anything?” She lifted her head, her eyes full of 
anguish and tears. “Didn’t you feel anything when 
you kissed me? When you held me?”
     Tomas closed the space between them so that his
whisper was only for her. “Never.”
     Nara’s eyes widened in shock as he grinned at 
her, a jackals leer. She hung her head again, then… 
“YOU MONSTER!!!”
     Tomas’s eyes grew wide as Nara threw him off of 
the bed. He recovered his sense just in time to 
brace himself as he hit the wall. But as soon as he 
was up, she was on him. “You never cared, never 
loved me, never even thought about me! It was all for
your enjoyment! I’LL TELL YOU WHAT I THINK ABOUT
THAT!!!” She punched him in the stomach, then the 
face, then the stomach again, several times in rapid
succession.
     Ken, aroused by these strange sounds coming from
his bedroom, got up and opened his door, just in time 
to see Nara throw someone through the door and out 
into the hallway. “N- Nara?”
     Ignoring him, her eyes red (though from fury or
tears Ken couldn’t tell), she picked Tomas up and 
threw him out the window into the cold night air,
knowing even as she did it that she hadn’t killed 
him. She turned away from the window and wrapped her
arms around herself.
     Ken carefully stepped over the splinters of the
door and walked into the room. “Nara…?”
     Nara turned towards Ken. “He never… Never…”
Exhausted and in pain, all Nara could do was fall 
into Ken’s arms and cry.

     The next morning, declining to wake Nara up from
her fitful sleep, Ken called a meeting with his three
teammates. They met in the flower shop, just before
opening time.
     “Listen, all I know is that someone attacked her
last night. She went berserk and threw them out the
window, then she collapsed on me, sobbing. Something
very bad happened, and we need to find out what.” Ken
pounded his fist on the counter for emphasis.
     “How do you propose we do that, Ken? It’s not 
like we can read her mind, and I don’t want to be the
callous bastard to ask her,” Youji commented.
     “Maybe we need to get someone who can read her
mind,” Omi said quietly.
     Youji looked at Omi. “Oh, no. It’s only been a 
year since I last saw that rat-bastard, and that’s 
not nearly long enough for my tastes.”
     Ken, catching Omi’s idea, smiled. “Hey, they owe
us. Why don’t we ask a small favor from our favorite
German?”

     Youji made the call, since he knew Schuldig 
better than anyone else. “Hello? Is this Schuldig? 
This is Youji. Yes, I told you I was going to collect 
a debt someday. Well, we need a little information. 
From someone’s mind. No, you don’t need to torture 
them. They’re asleep right now, so you might want to
hurry over, so they won’t know we’re doing this. Yes, 
we don’t want to ask. No, it’s nothing like that! 
Yes. Yes. Thanks. Bye.”
     Turning to Ken and Omi, who were eagerly 
awaiting the verdict, Youji said. “He’ll be over in 
ten minutes. We have to keep Nara asleep until then.”
     Omi made a salute. “Yes, sir!”
     Youji glared at him. “Wipe that smile off your
face, lieutenant. When this is over, you are going to
hurt.”
     Omi looked sufficiently scared and ran off to do
whatever there was that needed to be done before the
shop opened. Youji turned to Ken. “Are you happy now?”
     “No. I won’t be until I find out who attacked 
her and why she was crying so hard.” Ken’s face held 
a look of utter determination and bitter hatred. “She
thought she’d be free with us. And all that happens 
is she gets attacked again.”
     Youji laid a sympathetic hand on Ken’s shoulder.
“Hey, you knew the risks of this job before you took 
it. And now that we know they know she’s here, we can
watch her. Maybe her friends are the supposedly
‘perfect’ beings, but we have something going for 
us.”
     Ken looked up. “What?”
     Youji winked. “We actually care about her.” With
that, he went off to help Omi with the preparations,
leaving Ken to lean on the counter, confused.

     Schuldig arrived in the shop just as the doors
opened, before the first girl arrived. “Hello?