Andromeda

The Inner Man – Episode 10 – Angel

Mashiro stared down with the man oppose of him. He had wanted his revenge for getting beat by this man. And now the part deep inside him that he had tried to forget and bury away was awake. The part of him that had seen too much blood that it was never enough and committed such sins that he could not sleep at night. It was awake and ready to rip this man apart without a second thought. He was barely holding himself back.

"Crimson Angel, yes. The boss speaks quite well of you."

"Who are you?"

"Oh me? Well since we are using our professional names, I am called The Bear."

"Since we have introduced ourselves, let our fight begin."

"Yes."

Mashiro slowly approached the man, his feet balanced on the tower's metal support beams. Bear had a large stance with his feet placed on two beams. It meant that he was too large to be supported by one beam an advantage that Mashiro had. He could move easily without worrying about having enough footing. The tower was towards his advantage, how long would the man remain on the tower?

He slowly walked towards the man who remained posed. It was obvious that he was going to have to fight him where the man stood. Mashiro did not like the idea of playing towards someone, but it was obvious that the man's strategy was built around remaining like a rock unmoved. He needed to find out the extent of the man's skill and reflexes.

Mashiro let a knife fall out of sleeve and into his palm. He aimed his knife near to the man's leg with a path going through, but nothing vital to be hit, yet. The knife left his hand gleaming red from the flames. The man did not look to be moving until the knife was within arms reach. His hand quickly snatched the knife up stopping it from striking his leg.

"You give me too little credit."

"Fast for your size." Mashiro narrowed his eyes further moving his hand in a quick motion and drew up the wire attached to the knife that was just caught. He spun a large series of loops that immediately latched around Bear's arm squeezing tightly. Blood slowly dripped from around the cuts made in the muscular arm. However, Bear did not even flinch but pulled his arm in. Mashiro immediately released the wire letting it fly into the air.

Then a moment after while the wire was still in the air Mashiro pulled out several throwing knives immediately into his hands. Mashiro leapt into the air to get the angles he wanted and released each knife carefully. The throwing knives flew towards Bear, who was not impressed.

"Throwing knives? You will have to do better than that!"

"They aren't normal throwing knives."

"What?!"

The knives flew past the wire that was in the air catching parts of the wire in an open part of the metal loop on the back edge of the handle. The wire caught inside the loop and pulled in by the knives that were speeding towards Bear unprepared. The knives flew past Bear wrapping the wires around him and causing the knives to spin around him until clinching their blades into his skin.

The wires did not tie him down, though that was not Mashiro aim. This slowed down his speed and distracted him while Mashiro was setting up his attack. But Mashiro was not expecting Bear to rip through the wires. Mashiro stopped his next attack to see what Bear would do next. This man was unpredictable still and had more stamina than he expected. Mashiro was still resisting the call of blood that he was getting, trying suppress the violent nature of the Crimson Angel.

Bear sent the wires and knives flying through the air as he broke the bonds. One knife flew towards Mashiro, who caught it casually. A bit of the wire still dangled from the loop. He let the wire fall as he watched Bear. The man jumped down from the tower to the ground. Bear hit his fists together getting himself ready. Mashiro followed him to the ground, knowing that he would be at more of a disadvantaging now.

The two stared off with each other again, though this time Bear made the first move. He charged towards Mashiro, it was something that he expected though he was moving quicker than he would have thought. Bear was in front of him within seconds swinging his large arm at Mashiro's head. Mashiro flipped backwards dodging the attack and the follow up swing by the other arm. Even though he had dodged him, it was obvious that the man's reactions were faster than he thought. Mashiro still had mobility, but he did not know if his speed was going to be enough against this one.

Bear thrust his arm at Mashiro who dodged to the side this time. Mashiro had to try to slow him down somehow, but getting close to him meant that he was going to risk getting hit. He dodged out of the away of another attack from Bear and pulled out a knife during the attempt. Mashiro threw it in the shadow of Bear's arm as it dug into the thigh. Before Bear had a chance to react to it Mashiro already pulled on the wire to remove it the knife. The knife returned back to Mashiro, blood lightly trailed in the air following the knife.

From there Mashiro pulled back continuing his assault from a close range that Bear could not react fast enough to stop him. Mashiro cut deep into him at various points to affect his mobility and create more small wounds that would continue to add up. Bear would back away, but Mashiro closed into for the equal distance. The two continued, Bear unable to make a solid assault without Mashiro avoiding it.

Bear suddenly stopped and picked up some dirt tossing it into the air. Some of it got into Mashiro eyes causing him to hesitate. He tried to dodge out of the way of Bear's next assault but failed and was knocked flat to the ground with the large man pressing down on him. Mashiro could felt the pain of his tender ribs from the first fight with this man.

"Is this all the Crimson Angel is?"

Mashiro ground his teeth together in pain trying to get this large man off of him. The man was using his entire body to crush him. Bear wrapped his arms around Mashiro squeezing him even tighter while he felt the weight of the man pressing down. Mashiro closed his eyes trying to think of a way out.

'It is time.'

'No, I can do this without you.'

'I can smell the blood. It pours around you. It is unavoidable.'

'I-I c-can do this alone.'

Mashiro felt the blood from Bear dripping on him. It fell across his face; a drop fell to his lips. Mashiro could smell the blood and licked his lips. It had tasted the blood and Mashiro's demeanor completely changed in an instant. It was flat and emotionless, smooth almost angelic. The Crimson Angel was awakened completely.

In an instant Bear's smirk changed twisting in pain as two large knives sank deep into his sides through the muscle down to the bone and organs. The Crimson Angel stood up pushing the large man off of him. Bear pulled himself up off of the ground, blood dripping from his deep wounds. He charged at the Angel ready to throttle his neck, but Angel was no longer there. He was already behind him stabbing deep into his back. The knife struck deep into one of the lungs.

The sudden strike made Bear cough, the previous wounds had sent blood into his stomach and he forced it up spitting out a heavy amount of blood. Bear fell to his knees, still coughing up some blood. Angel painful twisted and pulled the knife out ripping through flesh and muscles. The serrated blade torn its way back out. Then Angel pulled out his gun and fired a bullet through his skull. Bear collapsed to the ground in his blood that slowly poured out into a pool.

Crimson Angel wiped the blades and left back to his car. The entire time his expression had never changed once, it was simply a calm, serine expression nearly akin to happiness, yet still lacking the sense there was feeling present. He sat in his car and drove around the collapsed tower resuming his course to find Chiko.

Chiko was pushed forward again by the woman that had kidnapped him. He did not even know what was going on anymore. He thought that they might have been with the Awakening Dragons, though if that were the case then he would have seen the scarred man with them. He would probably be dead as well, since if they knew who he was they would simply have killed him by now. Chiko was more angry than anything else for being pushed around by the woman.

The woman pushed him into the next room where there were two men standing. They immediately looked over to see what the noise was in the room. The woman pushed Chiko forward once more.

"Your mission was a success I see," one of the men said.

"Yeah, but watch this one carefully, she kicks hard," she said limping away.

"Where's The Bear?"

"He stayed behind to rough up someone."

"You did tell him not to kill him right?"

"Yeah, he knows." The woman walked out of the room leaving Chiko alone with the two men.

'Who are these people?' Chiko looked at the two men carefully. They were rough shaggy looked men, though clean. These were no doubt his guards to make sure that he did not go anywhere. 'Rather glad I am not older, they wouldn't do anything to a child.' He knew that Mashiro would be on his way to find him, but there had been nothing said about the reason for kidnapping him. Was their main goal not to find him, but something else?

The two men approached him and pushed him forward. He was getting tired of being pushed around by these people. Chiko kicked the one on the left in the shins and ran off to a different part of the room. The other rushed after him, but Chiko was small enough that he was able to get away. Chiko managed to find a small hiding spot behind some junk that left him in a corner. When the man came for him Chiko kicked him sharply in the face breaking the man's nose.

The man tried to grab for him, but he jumped up out of reach landing on his back. Chiko made sure to land hard enough to knock the wind out of him. The man lay on the floor not moving as Chiko ran away looking back. Unfortunately for him, the one that he had kicked in the shins was in front of him. Chiko's grin quickly changed to surprise as he bumped into the man.

The man grabbed him by the arms holding him up off of the ground. Chiko kicked in the air, but he was too far away to actually hit him. The man glared at him looking like he was ready to hit him or possible something worse. Chiko shrank back as much as he could for being held. However, before anything could be done the door opened revealing another man.

"The little one giving you trouble?"

"Yeah, she got quite a kick for being such a runt."

"Where is the other that was supposed to be with you?"

"Laying on the floor half unconscious."

"From the little girl?"

"Yeah…"

"That's pretty embarrassing. Anyway, the boss wants to see her. So escort her there."

"Yes, sir."

Chiko watched the man leave lifting the door slide close. He then looked back at the one holding him. "You're lucky he came when he did," the man said.

The man then carried Chiko under his arm out of the room. It was embarrassing for Chiko to be carried around in such a manner, but he was hardly in much of a position. The man was holding a weapon in the other hand as security now, so he could not make too much of a fuss anymore.

He was dropped down in front of a woman that was sitting down in the back end of a very large room. As Chiko was realizing it was an abandoned warehouse or factory. It had probably not seen much use for a decade or more. The inside of the building was bare other than the few rooms. He had only seen the small rooms until now, it was already night outside he could see through the dusty windows. The ceiling was high and there were a few tables and electronic screens set up around for whatever work they were doing. Chiko could not make it out well enough to know what they were up to, but he thought that he saw something familiar. Unfortunately he was forced to turn towards the woman that was sitting down.

"Welcome. My name is Rachel, I'm a friend of your dad."

"Huh, my dad is dead," he said remembering that piece of information.

"Well not your real dad, of course, your new dad, Mashiro."

"How do you know him?"

"We go way back. Long before you were born."

"Oh? What do you want with me?"

"Not much, you're such a cute a little thing that we wanted to make sure that you were safe from all of the danger."

"What danger?" Chiko said knowing that the woman was holding things back. He did not know if she was saying these things out of some sort of strange kindness for that the fact that he was a child or just teasing him. He knew that they kidnapped him for a reason and if she knew Mashiro it was either because they were looking for Chiko Toyozama or they wanted Mashiro by going through him. It was uncertain still what they wanted because he could not see their work from a distance.

"Did you know that Mashiro used to be in a dangerous line of work?"

"What do you mean?"

"You don't know?"

'Of course I do, but you're are being too vague,' Chiko thought to himself. 'She trying to be vague to irritate me or just thinking I'm dumb?'

"Well let's just leave it at that for the time being. For now however, since you're being a troublemaker for your guards I'll be keeping an eye you. But don't mistake my kindness; I'm their boss for a reason. So don't cross me." She pulled out her gun to emphasis her point. "Understand?" Chiko nodded back to her. "Good."

Chiko had little he could do at that point he knew. The situation was already tense and he knew that they were serious from the start if they managed to knock out Mashiro. He was getting tired of being helpless and unable to do anything though. However, the woman seemed to be more competent than his previous guards. It was unlikely that he was going to have much of an opportunity to try anything. He knew that Mashiro was coming sometime and he would just have to wait until he did. There was something worrying him though about these people, they knew Mashiro somehow. They knew him from his past before the two of them met. He did not know if they were related to Section Three or something even further back than that. Either way, they seemed more focused on Mashiro than anyone else. Chiko hoped that it meant that he was unrelated to their plans other than simply to lure Mashiro here.

Mashiro awakened as the Crimson Angel from his past continued to drive, though the two parts of him were fighting for complete control. Mashiro did not want to leave the Crimson Angel free when he got to Chiko. He did not want to show Chiko that side of him that he had tried to forget. In ten years he had gotten by without the aid of his inner demon and hoped that he would never have needed it again. Yet it was free from his mind now with a mind of its own almost. The feeling was intoxicating like his old days.

He did not have sadness or regret in this killing, he was simply the instrument of death that someone used. The Crimson Angel did not know emotion, rather just simply killed because it was required to complete the objective. There was no cause or reason in the need for the kill it just became the reality. Mashiro hated that part of him, the part that was inhuman and unable to feel for that which he did. But it was important for the times; if he did not have that cold, empty shell for killing he would have been consumed by every deed. Sadly, he was unable to keep his conscious from cracking that shell eventually.

At this point he was afraid of what was going to happen. He knew that even the Crimson Angel knew what the goal was at this point. It was simple, rescue Chiko and take him to safety, but there were going to be people in between them. Normally, he would not have cared what happened those that stood in his way. However, suddenly he was aware of the death that was going take place and while it was necessary he was having second thoughts. He knew that he should not at this point. Mashiro knew that even if he were in complete control he would be killing people; it was the method about how he went though that was troubling him. He needed to be in control.

The car came to a stop at a large abandoned warehouse. It seemed rather typical of a place to hide, almost cliché, but it did have its uses. Many people would not use a building like this if it were not useful. Inside was Chiko, he was certain of that from the device. However, there was large stretch of debris in an empty field that probably used to be a parking lot back when this was actually being used. It was going to be risky going in with the car even though it would be quicker. He would have to go in by foot.

He stepped out of the car checking the empty lot. There were plenty of places for an ambush. He pulled out his gun not wanting to waste any time having to deal with someone. There were two that he could already see hiding behind some debris of a machine. Then opposite of him, two more, he was starting to be surrounded. However, he did not give them any more time to form any tactic.

He dashed to the edge of the lot where two of them were waiting. Two shots rang out as the men fell taken completely by surprised. That triggered the others to make a move, which he was ready for. Most of them were out of hiding now and lost whatever formation they might have had against him. He casually fired off shots as they came into his sights towards him. Each shot was one to the head nothing more, no waste. The shots fired at him were so scattered and broken that he did not have to even think about finding cover or moving around. He simply walked towards the group as each one lined up to die.

In a minute they were all dead and he was exchanging his clip. He had just finished reloading his gun when a shot fired from the direction of the warehouse knocked the gun out of his hand. He immediately turned towards the sound with a knife in hand quickly. A woman stood at the entrance with a mask over her face much like the one that Bear wore when he was in his house. She stood pointing the gun directly at him waiting for him to make a move.

He looked to see where his gun had fallen, far enough out of reach that it would have been trouble reaching quickly. However, another shot fired from the woman sent the gun spinning away even further out of reach. He returned his focus to the woman.

"Will you come quietly now?"

"What is it that you want?"

"It's pretty simple, answer our questions and nothing more happens."

"I'm only here for the girl, nothing more."

"Then we shall make you talk."

"We shall see…"

The woman fired a shot at him, though he saw her pulling the trigger and dodged out of the way. Once he moved, he continued into sprint to get around the woman. He was almost ready to strike when an explosion nearby knocked him to the ground. There was little injury to him other than the impact knocking him off his feet. He presumed that its purpose was not to inflict damage, but to slow him down.

In the moments that he had to recover the woman was already on top of him almost. He threw one of his throwing knives at the woman's leg, but she dodged it. However, that was enough for him to regain his position. He quickly closed in the gap between them and threw another knife quickly that was not meant to be aimed well just keep her guessing. She easily avoided the throw even at the close range that he was at, but as she was recovering to shot him he was in front of her.

He grabbed her gun twisting her wrist as he turned to get it out of her hand. She released her hold on the gun as he twisted the gun to bring it pointing at her. The woman immediately ducked down pulling out another gun from behind her pointing it at him. The two remained in a stand off weapons pointed at each other.

"The gun only has one bullet, better not miss."

"Two bullets."

"Huh?!"

He fired off a round at her while she was taken off guard. The shot was blocked by her gun that she had instinctively held up in front of her, but the force of the impact knocked it out of her hand. He threw the gun away and pulled out his knife throwing it at her. This time the knife sank into her thigh.

She pulled the knife out of her leg looking at him, "You lied." The woman threw the knife back at him, the blood on the blade dripping. He caught the knife by the blade end and started running towards her. The two made circles around each other, the woman fired yet another one of her guns at him. He continued to throw knives at her that she dodged.

The two continued avoiding each other for several minutes until he stopped suddenly. The woman stopped as well not certain about why he was not moving anymore. Neither had given in an inch, in spite of the injury the woman was keeping up with him. She had managed to avoid all of his attacks, though his face remained as peaceful as he began.

"Out of knives finally? Well I still have plenty of bullets."

"Its over."

"Giving up?"

"No." Without another word, he released one last knife towards the woman that she blocked with her gun. The knife then split into three spinning around the woman's arm becoming caught in her clothes. The knives were barbed in such a way that they became easily attached to something. She tried to pull the knives off her, but they would not free. It was then that she made her final mistake, she pulled at her arm and suddenly a swarm of wires that had been unseen flew up into the air.

The woman tried to get out of the way, but the barbed knives had wires attached to them that ran down to all of the knives that she had dodged that were now in the ground. She suddenly realized what had happened. During their entire fight he had been carefully planting the knives not trying to hit her, but still make it look like he was aiming for her. The knife would land in the dirt becoming stuck and with each one laid down came a wire that was attached until there was a web interlaced on the ground unseen in the darkness of night.

The final move was the barbed knives that had wires as well that attached to the other knives. The slightest pull sent them tightening the wires, pulling them in closer. When she had pulled her arm it triggered the trap. With the trap sprung she tried to move away, but it only tightened the wires faster and wrapped them around her. She was tied up unable to move at all as each motion only make the grip tighter around her.

Her skin that was bare was already bleeding from the tightening wires. She was forced to stand as falling over could had meant her death by strangulation. The woman was cornered and she had no more moves. It was the end for her.

The Crimson Angel picked up the weapon that he had tossed aside earlier, her weapon that he had taken from her. He pointed it at her and fired the final round in the gun. The bullet went through her mask and into her forehead. She immediately collapsed to the ground as blood poured out of her from the wires tightening even further. The mask cracked and fell away revealing her face.

Mashiro knew who she was, another member from his team ten years ago. It was Natalie, skilled with guns and a perfect marksman. He thought that she had been killed; the reports had said nothing about what happened to her. He did not think that she was still alive let alone working for Rachel. Mashiro wanted his body back, but his bloodlust was still controlling him. He could not break free of the powerful grip of the Crimson Angel that was dormant so long.

He picked up his gun that had been left in the dirt and walked inside the warehouse. Inside the warehouse he was in a hallway with a number of rooms. There was a chance that Chiko could be in any one of the rooms or further down. But he did not want to leave anything to chance and began opening the door and executing anyone that might be in the room.

'Stop this madness! This is unnecessary.'

'Silence.'

'Give me back my body!' There was a momentary pause as he stood before a guard that was shaking with a gun pointed at his head. The guard did not know what had been happening. Mashiro and the Crimson Angel struggled for control for the body as the guard looked confused at the still body before him. The guard took the opportunity to go for his weapon, but was killed before he could get a shot off. The same expression remained on the face of Mashiro's body as he walked out to the next room.

Rachel had pulled up the cameras that were placed around the warehouse displaying them on a holographic projected flat screen in the air. There were several cameras being shown at once. The images would cycle through other cameras revealing how many there were actually setup throughout the entire building. She had been looking at them ever since there was the sound of an explosion.

Chiko did not know what was going on, but there was something that had the other men in the room nervous. Rachel seemed unaffected by the events that were going on invisible to them, but she had ordered the men to focus themselves. It was apparent that Rachel was experienced in this sort of thing, though her men must have been people she hired. Chiko judged from the way she acted that, if these were really her men they would have acted like her instead of being scared. It would probably be easy for Mashiro to get past the guards that might be in his way. However, it was Rachel that concerned him. She was cold about everything that was happening, she must have been through a lot of things.

On the screen one of the cameras was halted from cycling. Chiko could see it barely, on the camera was Mashiro walking into a hall. The cameras follow him as Rachel watched what he was doing. Mashiro was systematically going through the rooms killing everyone. Chiko was shocked; he did not know why he was doing that. It seemed like it was unnecessary to be going through not even asking any questions, simply killing anyone that he saw. Chiko's mouth hung open letting out a meek gasp.

"Never seen your dad like this before?"

Chiko turned away not wanting to look at the screen anymore. It was hard for him to keep looking. Even though he could not see whom he was shooting, the empty sound of the gun firing each time made him want to throw up. There was not even a sound from the men that he was killing; Mashiro was not giving them a chance. He was acting so cold; he could not believe what he saw. This was not the Mashiro that he saw each morning making breakfast for him. There was something different about him that was frightening.

"You shouldn't turn away from the truth. This is who he really is. See what he truly is."

"No! I don't want to see!"

"Such a childish response, looking away from the truth. Fearing what you see and denying what is before you. You see all the facts and you still don't accept it. You can't run away from the truth child."

Rachel grabbed his head and turned him back towards the screen. Chiko could not stand looking at it for even the second that he did before closing his eyes. "No! Go away! I don't want to see it anymore!" He fought to try to get out of her hold, but then he heard the click of her gun. Chiko opened his eyes to see that the weapon was pointed directly at him. She was serious about him watching Mashiro; it was cruel to have to watch.

He continued to watch the killing, as Mashiro was almost finished with the entire hallway now and going into the final turn. Down the final turn were several more guards at the door; each of them fell quickly without much of a fight. They had been standing there shaking not certain what was happening. There was only gunfire in the eerie quiet that surrounded each burst. The silence of nothing was far worse than hearing screams, at least a scream you know something happened. The empty void between shots left everything to the imagination with nothing to work from. It built the tension to a point that the men were unable to move.

Mashiro kicked down the door, the sudden noise startled Chiko even though he knew it was coming. There he stood at the far end of the open area of the warehouse. He was here to rescue him, but Chiko was afraid of Mashiro in a way that could not explain. The way he looked was so cold and calming that it was frightening. Mashiro did not even have an expression on his face, no anger or even worry. Chiko did not know what to think, he wanted to back away.

Chiko tried to pull away from Rachel again this time managing to get free. He ran to the wall trying to get away from the both of them. There was so much that he did not understand about the two of them. They both seemed to have the same look right now, the cold stare towards each other. Rachel looked back at Chiko grinning.

"Your so called daughter finally sees you for what you really are Mashiro, or should I say Crimson Angel?"

"C-crimson Angel?" Chiko said confused.

"Yes, that is the name most know him by. The name that was famous in the underground among professionals. He is called the Crimson Angel because when you see him he has a face so pure and gentle it is as though you are looking at that of an angel. Yet his stare, his eyes are deep as blood for that is all he leaves behind. You can never tell what he is thinking or feeling through that smooth face he carries. He was the perfect assassin."

"Assassin?"

"That is until he betrayed me and those he worked for. Betrayed us for those like you. Betrayed us for a simple life, an easy life. But he can never have such things; there is too much blood on his hands to ever find that life. He can taste the blood even now. He is a weapon and can't forget what he is even with all of the pretty children and nice houses."

The Crimson Angel fire a shot by Rachel, it was not meant to hit her. Though it did stop her from speaking. She smirked back at him. "Don't want her to hear about the truth? Trying to hide it from her?"

"Let her go."

"You ready to tell me what I want to know?"

"Let her go and you can live."

"Somehow I doubt that you would let me live. I can see it in your eyes, you want to taste my blood." Rachel looked over at the men that were standing around trying to not gather too much attention. "Keep an eye on the girl." The men looked at each other and hesitated in moving towards Chiko. Rachel pointed her gun at them almost squeezing the trigger getting them to move. There was a gun shot from Mashiro's gun that took out one of the men that made the rest stop.

Rachel turned back towards Mashiro and rushed towards him. The men saw that Mashiro was distracted enough that they could move again. The remaining men, which were four of them at this point, surrounded Chiko and carried him off to a distance corner of the warehouse.

The Angel was unable to do anything about Chiko at the moment with Rachel bringing her full attention to him now. She brought a high kick up towards his head that he blocked with his arm. He then struck forward with a knee that she blocked and pushed away from in a back flip. She fired her gun halfway in her flip at him, which he dodged to the side rolling away. Rachel immediately pushed off with her arms as she continued her flip sending her feet first towards the Angel.

He blocked her assault with is arms, her heels dug into his skin leaving red bruises that were slightly bleeding. However, he grabbed her by the leg before she could leap off of him and sent her against the wall. He fired a shot at her while she flew against the wall, but she was already pushing off the ground sending her above out of the way of the shot.

Rachel rebounded off the wall bringing herself down on Angel, but he rolled away. As he rolled, she grabbed his leg stopping him as she landed on the ground. He quickly spun his leg around to kick her in the face to free his leg, but she had already let him go and pushed away. He flipped himself back up on to his feet. The two stood up standing off against each other.

Chiko sat on the ground confused and helpless. He did not know what to think anymore about what was happening. He wanted to be rescued from this and be safe, but he did not even know if he could be safe anymore with Mashiro. There was a side to him that he had never known before, a darkness in his heart that was now freed for him to see. He had trouble even looking at him anymore. Chiko was sitting in a confliction of decisions and all he knew at that moment was that he did not want to be helpless.

He stood up, tears in his eyes looking at the men. They looked down at him a little puzzled by his sudden change. Chiko's pretty face narrowed, his eyes arched downward as he began to fight against being helpless. The men did not know what he was about to do.

Chiko kicked one of the men hard in the shins hearing his leg crack. The man collapsed to the ground holding his leg in pain. Chiko had enough of these men and everyone trying to tell him what to do. He was going to find his own answers, even if it meant having see the harshness of reality. There was no looking back; he was already in far beyond the point of no return.

The other three men went for their weapons, but Chiko swung his leg around quickly knocking all three down. It did more than had hoped for and gave a little smile of excitement to know that it worked. While they were confused he jumped on one of the men punching the man's face hard. His hand hurt afterwards, but the man was out cold. The other two were shaking their heads trying to figure out what just happened and why an eight year old was beating them.

Chiko stood up and went over to the next man and tackled him as the man became alerted. He was out of ideas so rushing him quickly seemed like the best plan at the moment. As Chiko collided with the man, his head smacked into the man's chin sending him backwards. The man's head hit the cement floor hard that blood dripped out from a crack in his skull. The man was dead; his skull had been pierced by a cut off bolt that was still part of the ground. Chiko did not realize this and moved to the last one.

The last man managed to pull out a gun on Chiko and fire at him. Unfortunately he was so nervous and confused that the shot grazed Chiko ripping into his thigh and skirt slightly. Chiko did not stop and pounced the man's arm knocking the gun out of his hand. In the process Chiko's force had broken the man's arm and he lay on the ground holding his arm. Chiko turned away trying to decide what he was going to now that he was free for the guards.

Rachel and the Angel were exchanging blows with each other. They were in a stalemate with neither of them being able to connect. All the while Mashiro continued to struggle to gain control over himself and failing. Rachel spun around with another kick that he caught. However, before he was able to take advantage of it he had to let go as she was firing her gun at him. They were both running low on bullets with the close combat they unable to reload.

He swung around hard trying to knock her off balance, but she avoided it retaining her position. Then he pulled out his knife going at her swinging keeping her moving. Rachel continued to dodge and jump out of the way of the swings. She leapt on to one of the machines getting above him and coming down with her foot on his hand. The knife fell out of his hand sliding across the floor, but as she was coming down he grabbed her. He ran into the wall with her entire body as she tried to soften the blow by turning herself. Her side smacked against the aged wall and crushed the wall in places.

The Angel was still pushing on her forcing her further in the wall it scraping against her skin. The wall slowly crumbled around her as the two fell into the room with dust kicked up around them. Dust fell out of the hole filling the area around where they had been fighting. Inside the room they coughed trying to look through the thick cloud. They suddenly found each other and there was the click of guns.

As the dust settled the two were pointing their guns directly at each other's face. Rachel lay on the ground with the Angel on his knees over Rachel. He still had his empty expression, while Rachel's was filled with anger. "Why!?"

"That is an answer you have to find on your own. Find it on your way through the River Styx." His finger slowly began to squeeze the trigger. Rachel's eyes shrank in size as she saw him act. Then her eyes immediately narrowed as she pulled the trigger. The two pulled the trigger together, but nothing happened. They looked to see through all of the dust that their guns were empty.

They tossed the guns aside and Rachel kicked him in the chest knocking him through the wall breaking it down even more. He flew backwards recovering himself in the air and flipped in control to the ground as Rachel stood up looking at him through the hole in the wall.

He pulled out his knife and threw it at her, but she caught it and threw it back at him. He then caught it and threw it back at her. She caught it and threw it back continuing the futile effort couple more times before he returned the knife to his place. They stared at each other trying to find what they were going to do next. The two were about to charge at each other when there came a gun shot from somewhere else.

The bullet hit Rachel in the leg bring her to one knee. The Angel immediately pulled out the knife again and sent the knife straight at her heart. The blade pierced her chest. She fell backwards in the debris dead on the floor. He turned to see that it was Chiko that was holding a gun shaking. Chiko dropped the gun and ran away out of the warehouse.

The Angel followed Chiko trying to catch up to him. He found Chiko sitting in the grass at the side of the road crying. "Its time to go."

"No! I don't want to go with you!" Chiko got up and tried to run away again, but he grabbed Chiko's arm. Chiko out of reflex turned around and kicked in him in the shin.

"Ow! Stop doing that already, you're going to completely ruin my driving leg. Gah!"

"Mashiro?"

"Huh? I'm in control finally." Chiko stepped away from Mashiro as he tried to approach him. "What's wrong?"

"Stay away from me!"

"What?" Mashiro said in shock. He could not believe what he heard from Chiko. Chiko was crying looking down at the ground trying not to look at him. "Chiko…"

"J-just stay away!"

Preview for the next episode:

"Hello, everyone! My name is Kohana Kitayama. Tee hee! You see Chiko and Mashiro are not speaking to each other right now so I'm doing the preview this week. I'm the cute and adorable girl you see all the time, but don't hear.

"I'm so excited that you get to hear from me. So what you want to talk about? I like kitties and doggies. I like ice cream so much, though it makes my head feel funny. Oh and I like Sakura! She makes me laugh."

"I like you too, Kohana!" Sakura says. "Oh...what is this? It looks like fun."

"Want to join me?"

"Oh can I?"

"Sure, just say hi to everyone."

"Everyone? Hello, everyone! I'm friends with Kohana."

"I'm friends with you too."

"Really? Yay!"

"Oh my, I'm forgetting something. Oh right. The next episode of The Inner Man, Alone."

"Alone? That makes me sad."

"What? I'm supposed to say this? Why?"

"Say what?"

"Don't miss it! I'm going to be kicking more than shins this time!? Tee hee!"

"Tee hee!"