Andromeda

The Inner Man – Episode 14 – Gemini

"Its six in the evening, she is already finished with school."

"What?! You kept me here listening to your stories the entire day! Where is Kohana then if school is out?" Mashiro rushed out of the kitchen with the doctor being dragged along behind him trying to stop him. "What's your problem? Let go of me. I need to find her now!"

"But there is so much more I want to talk to you about, she'll be fine. She can take care of herself."

"That is what I'm afraid of." Mashiro dragged the doctor through the house and in the car as he pulled out and sped off to look for Kohana. "Thanks to you, she could now could be anywhere if she does not know how to get back home." The doctor sat quiet in the car looking down in his own world, but that suited Mashiro right now. He did not cared what was going on with the doctor right now, it was more important to find Kohana wherever she might be. That girl that the doctor made was controlling Chiko's body, if she did anything it could jeopardize everything that they had worked so hard for. Mashiro did not even know if the simple mind that the girl had could understand that concept.

It seemed strange almost stupid for someone to go and make an artificial intelligence that was dumb like this. The mind was so innocence and naïve could it possibly not even understand what it truly was? He did not understand the doctor's logic in creating something like this and he doubt that he could possible try to understand if he asked for a reason. The doctor while brilliant was so screwed up in the rest of his head that there were probably no actually thoughts going through to consider all the sides of the situation. Mashiro wanted to strangle the man for everything he had done, but if he did that then Chiko would not have anyone to beat up when he returned to control.

He did not really know where he was going to look for Kohana though, since it was not Chiko controlling things he did not even remotely understand the mind of that girl. She could be anywhere in the city depending on how much walking or traveling she did. If she was out sight seeing that would not be so bad, but if she was getting to trouble that worried him more. He just hoped that he could prevent her from getting into trouble before something that he could not fix happened.

Mashiro turned on the radio figuring that if something bad did happen like he feared might, it would be on the news eventually. He hoped that he could get to her before then, because if he was going to hear about it at this point the events would have already happened. That was not something that he wanted to think about, but he had to be open to the possibility, it could improve his odds of finding her sooner.

'The doctor has been quiet for a while, rather strange for him. Oh well, glad that he is, better than him talking all the time driving me crazy with his stories.' Mashiro looked at the doctor, who was still staring down at his feet rather than helping him look out the window for Kohana. The man was so excited and proud about his so-called daughter; the fact that he was not looking for her now seemed a little puzzling to him. Mashiro could not understand the doctor's actions, but he doubted that he would ever come close to that sort of understanding.

He continued to drive around through the neighborhood looking for any sign of Kohana, but there was nothing that could find. It was obvious that she was not around the neighborhood anymore and he was going to have to search in the main city. Unfortunately, he did not know which direction to take. There was so much to cover in Osaka and she could have gone a number of directions, he needed a clue or something to put him in the right direction.

Mashiro pounded his fist on the steering wheel in frustration. He did not want to waste time, but a wrong turn could mean more than wasted time. Suddenly there was a news bulletin that came across that alerted his attention.

"Only a few minutes ago police arrived to the Fourth Branch Bank of Osaka responding to an alarm that had been set off. When police arrive at the bank they found the criminals already stopped and tied up by some unknown girl. The mysterious girl quickly disappeared from the bank before anyone could stop her for questioning. The whereabouts of this girl remains a priority for the police who-"

'That's my lead.' Mashiro quickly mashed the pedal of the accelerator to the ground as the car leapt across the street jumping over a short raise in the road. It came to a rough landing on the street and flew through the neighborhood with little regard for those around it while still avoiding everything somehow. During the wild driving of Mashiro the doctor was bouncing around in the seat barely being held in by the belt. However, it did break the doctor out of whatever mood that he had been in before. He was flailing about trying to reason with Mashiro to not be driving so recklessly.

"You're going to hit something!"

"I haven't yet."

"Y-yet? The way you're driving I'm going to die!"

"I can't let you die until Chiko is back."

"I'm not going to make it!"

"Shut up already with your whining. Just a little bumping, they haven't fixed the roads in a while around here."

"A little bumpy? My stomach is in my mouth!"

The doctor grabbed at Mashiro who was trying to fight him off with one hand. He had to keep at least one hand driving, though he preferred having two for this driving. "Stop grabbing at me!" The doctor was not listening though and continued to wave his arm around blocking his sight. "I can't see!" Mashiro push the doctor and his face out of his way just in time to see that the road was coming to a sharp turn and he barely had enough time to react to that. Unfortunately the doctor was so frightened by how close they were getting to the turn that he was clinging around Mashiro's waist knocking his head into his elbow.

Mashiro did not have enough time to slow down to make the turn and if he did not he was going to ram through the fence into the storage facility that was going to be impossible for him to navigate through safely at this speed. There was nothing else he could and so he turned the car and hit the curb nearby and then quickly turned the car in the opposite direction. He let everything else handle itself as the car jumped on its side with only two wheels on the ground. This sent the doctor sliding through his belt into Mashiro and smashing him into the door. Everything in the car slid towards Mashiro as it continued to drive on two wheels.

While the car was on two wheels he turned it hard and with the force and momentum that he had the car hit the fence in the turn. The car had enough speed in the direction of the turn that he did not crash into the fence completely. The fence gave a little in the impact of the car, but it was now driving on the fence with enough centrifugal force holding the car to the fence and not allowing it to slide down to the ground crashing to a halt. Mashiro drove on the fence for a short length until the car was beginning to slip. He set the wheels just right to catch the ground and allow it to recover slowly as he sped up back down the street having completed the turn.

The doctor was half in his lap from the stunt and finally pulled himself up off of him to return to his seat. "What they say is true then."

"What is that?"

"That you're a maniac."

"Now you know how it feels."

"Huh?"

The doctor sat back in his seat trying to find a way to get the belt together after having snapped from this spot. Mashiro took the time to focus on the road and get his baring to the bank. If he did not get there soon, Kohana would be too far away from the scene that it would be difficult to search for her. He just hoped that he could find her soon before anything worse happened. He did not like the idea of a bunch of people seeing her and whatever it was that she did to those criminals had him worried. The doctor told him that he gave her things that came along with the package of being some 'magical girl' but he did not understand what that meant. It had been years since he even read a single manga let alone pay any attention the culture. That was something from his youth, every kid read them even a lot of adults, but he stopped following it, what little he did, when he joined the military. He sort of had an idea of what the doctor meant, but it had been so long that he forgot most of the stereotypes that where associated with each genre, let alone the sub-genres. The few images that he could summon up made him afraid of what she could be capable of doing if the doctor's genius was even a fraction of what he appeared to be.

If there was anything left in the engine to give Mashiro pushed it harder thinking about the possibilities. The car leapt over a cliff that looked down over the downtown area of Osaka a few minutes away from their neighborhood. It was not exactly the downtown area, but it was pretty close with all of the busy streets filled with stores, shops, vendors and every other assortment of business. The streets were packed with cars and Mashiro had his car aimed for them all.

The doctor was clapping his hands together and praying mumbling something that Mashiro could not understand. He looked back at the view before him smirking at the thrill. The traffic was all stopped at a light and they were only seconds away from the hitting all of the cars that were waiting to move. The doctor's words were becoming louder as the tension rose. Mashiro leaned forward gripping the steering wheel with both hands tightly; he had already let off the accelerator at the cliff and was ready to hit the brake.

The seconds slowed down as the light turned to yellow and evenly slower to red. The car was only a few car lengths from touching all of the cars that were about to drive away. The light changed to green and they were only a few feet from hitting the roof of a car now. The cars responded to the change in light and started pulling out. The first and second car was already out and Mashiro saw the opening that he was looking for, the car was aimed straight at it with only inches to spare as the second car left the spot. The third car came to an immediate halt seeing a new car suddenly appear from the sky in its spot. Mashiro did not waste anytime once he broke enough to have all four wheels on the ground. He sped off turning to the left almost to the bank now.

He could see the police vehicles parked out in front and he slowed down to a normal speed to avoid trouble for the time being. The building where the bank was still filled with a lot of people, mainly police and some news crews trying to get their stories. Mashiro parked the car in a free spot that someone else was about to take. The driver looked at Mashiro with a glare and Mashiro return his glare with a look so dark that it made the driver blue in the face. The car immediately drove away panicked. Mashiro looked at the doctor who was not much more than a puddle of emotions on the seat of the car. "Time to go."

The doctor popped back to his normal self and exited the car looking around, as did Mashiro. "Just try to stay out of my way…" The doctor was already running towards the building crying out for his precious daughter. Mashiro slapped his own face with in frustration as his veins were popping out in anger. "Never listen to a word I say…" He chased after the doctor hoping that he would not start something that he could not handle. It was bad enough trying to find Kohana, but having to clean up more than one mess. Mashiro was beginning to wish that he had not even woken up today. "Give me gunmen, bombs, shootouts, anything but this." He managed to catch up to the doctor before he got to the police who were being held up by the reporters. Mashiro grabbed the doctor with his hand over his mouth to keep him from talking. Unfortunately, his hand was getting wet from the river of tears that the doctor had.

He pulled the doctor back behind the wall of the building close to the doors. It was close enough to allow Mashiro to listen in on the conversation and get whatever information he could on where Kohana ran off. The doctor bit his hand causing Mashiro to lose his grip of the doctor as he ran off to the doors. Mashiro did not want to follow to try to keep out of the cameras, but he did not have much choice in the matter at this point.

"Where's my daughter? Where's my daughter!?" the doctor shouted to the police officers interrupting the interview. The reporters stared blankly at the scene he was creating until they took the chance to get an even bigger story. All of the lights and cameras were being pointed at him now trying to get answers out of him.

"Do you know the mystery girl?"

"Are you her father?"

"Who is your daughter?"

"Does your daughter have anything to do with the bank robbery?"

"Are you part of the robbery trying to cover things up?"

The doctor looked at them a little confusion not really certain what to tell them. Mashiro leapt out to try to grab the doctor quickly, but he was too late the doctor began to speak which knocked him down in disbelief. "Why I'm the greatest scientific mind of our age!"

"Dagh! That is not even what they asked, you idiot!"

"Who are you, sir?"

"What is your name?"

"Are you related to the girl?"

"Ha ha, my name of course. I would be The Doctor!"

"The Doctor?"

"That is not much of a name."

"Is that really your name?"

"W-why of course it is name! How dare you say that I would lie to you about my own name!"

"But that is not a name, it's a title."

"Of course it's a title!" Mashiro said jumping out yelling at the doctor. "He doesn't have a name because he was suppose to only be a bit part for comedic value in the first episode that was not suppose to come back!" Mashiro panted heavily, pounded the doctor's head creating a bruise to pop up. "Quit acting like you're suppose to be important!" He pulled the doctor out of the crowd with the reporters pulling around trying to get more out of the man. They even tried to get him, but he refused to even show them his face and pulled the doctor through the crowd.

Mashiro dragged the doctor through the street disappearing between the cars in the busy street as the reporters lost track of them. He threw the doctor into the passenger seat and got into the car driving away. The few moments there he was able to pick up everything that he needed to continue to search for Kohana. He also saw a few things that made him want to pummel the doctor. There was one of the criminals being walked out wrapped up in a bunch of paper hearts it looked like, Mashiro could only imagine that it was Kohana and the things that the doctor was talking about being some 'magical girl'. Then he had over heard the police talking, the couple of men that were not being interviewed. They were talking between themselves and had said that they saw the girl disappear further into the city going even further into the heart of Osaka. The last thing was that they could not find her and since more than likely they saw her at least once, it means that she looked different now than before. He remember them saying something about her wearing a lot of red and white along with hearts and other weird things, no doubt some costume that the doctor made for her. They could not find her because she was not in that strange costume anymore, she was back in her uniform. That was all he needed to know to be able to find her, he just hope things did not really change that much.

Kohana slowly walked on the sidewalk grinning to herself happy that she was able to help someone out. Up to that point she had felt a little useless, she wanted to be able to use her powers to help others that was what they were given to her for after all. If she were not able to use them to do good, then they would be wasted on her. She did not want to think that she was wasting her gift. It was important to do as much good and help save the people from the evil that corrupts their hearts. She had to find her next person that needed saving.

She walked around looking until she got distracted by the stars in the sky that were starting to appear as night fell. The lights of the city were blocking most of the stars, but she was able to see a few appear slowly over time as she stared at them. It made her smile widely at the sight of the stars poking through the sky. She reached her hands up jumping upwards to the sky laughing. Kohana ran chasing down the new stars as they appeared in the sky somehow avoiding the people that were walking.

The stars led her into a sign that knocked her down. She sniffed back some tears as she looked up to see what she had run into. The sign belong to the library, a large building that rose taller than many of the buildings around. She stared up at it in awe wanting to go and see what it was like inside. There were probably plenty of books inside that she could read as well as look out at the city from the top.

Kohana walked up to the doors and walked inside. However, one of the guards stopped her before she could go very far. "I'm sorry but we are closing soon. There is not enough time to find and check out a book."

"Oh…but I wanted to see the library! Waah!" Kohana said starting to cry.

The guard did not know what to do about her and tried to comfort her. "You could come back tomorrow and see the library." She stilled cried though, not letting up and the guard was getting worried if there was anything he could do to reach her. "Well, I guess you could go look around for a few minutes."

"Really!" she said the tears breaking suddenly.

"W-well, I guess it won't hurt anything."

"Yay, thank you mister!"

"Just remember, only a few minutes we're closing."

"I'll remember," she said smiling happily. Kohana ran up the stairs with a dust cloud behind her. The guard sweated embarrassed not completely certain it was the right thing to do. She found herself at the top of the library in an instant and began to look around at all of the books. The shelves were quickly a disinterest for her as he found the windows to look out at the city. Kohana rushed over to see everything around that was possible. She continued to look around easily being enthralled by the sights until she saw a flash of light down at the street. The light caught her attention immediately and drew her to the edge of the library where she could look down in an alley. She could barely make out three men assaulting several others, the sight made her mad.

Kohana ran down the stairs quick to stop the evil that was happening. However, when she got there it was all over and whomever it was that had done this was gone. She looked at the four men that lay in the alleyway bleeding and dying or dead already. There was blood everywhere, the car, the ground, the bodies she could not get away from it. The blood was too much, too much blood. It poured out painting her vision red. There was no escape. "B-blood, s-so much blood…" she said though it almost was as though Chiko had spoke. Kohana fell over fainting in the alley.

Mashiro was driving through the streets not really paying as much attention to them as he should have been. His eyes were more focused on the sidewalk, trying to find Kohana wherever she might be at right now. He did not know what she was up to, but if she had done one thing already like at that bank, there could be a chance that she would do another. He needed to stop her from doing that if at all possible. There was already too much media exposure over this whole thing. It could be getting worse every minute that she was alone to do what she wanted. She was quickly unraveling all their secrets and lives before the media. If she were not stopped now The Awakening Dragons would know everything they needed to kill her. He could not let that happen.

It was then that he caught the glimpse of something that looked like the school uniform for Noyai. He brought the car to a halt without any signs sending the doctor's face against the windshield. Mashiro could now see that it was someone from Noyai by that uniform. He parked the car on the side of the street and got out. Whoever it was that he saw was lying on the ground not moving, he was afraid that it was Kohana. If she had gotten into trouble that she could not handle, he did not want to think about it.

The doctor was quickly behind him as Mashiro rushed to the alleyway where he found Kohana lying unconscious on the ground. He was relieved to see that there were no signs that she was hurt physically. But that was when he looked into the alleyway. He left the doctor hugging his daughter as he looked at the bodies of the men. It was clear after looking at them for a second that it was not Kohana who did this, as he feared it might have been the case. These men were tortured and shot, as far as he knew Kohana did not have guns on her. In spite of everything that the doctor was, he was pretty certain that the doctor would not have given her weapons to kill people with. But what had him even more worried was something else about the men; two of them were wearing masks. Masks that looked a lot like those from Rachel's group that attacked him.

Mashiro pulled off the mask of one of them staring at it. He did not like what this meant. If these men were associated with Rachel, then it meant only one thing, she was still alive after all of this. His hands began to shake in anger; she was still alive out there doing something. She had not come after him again, he did not know why. However, since her men were dead at the hands of someone else it would seem that she had bigger problems then just him now. Someone else was going after her now, if she had failed her mission her employer could be trying to kill her now for that failure. The Awaking Dragons probably did not look too kindly on failure. If he was fortunate, she would end up dead with whatever secrets she might have and end that thread of his life. He could not rely on that happening, but as it stood now he did not have much to go on. Mashiro left the bodies to go back to the reunited couple; unfortunately Kohana was still unconscious not that would stop the doctor.

He grabbed the doctor who would not listen to his calls and dragged him back to the car along with Kohana who was in his arms. Mashiro was glad to have this ordeal over with, but he knew that there was a lot more that he was going to have to deal with coming up. No doubt he was not going to be able to rely on The Awaking Dragons to kill Rachel, even though he wished that they would so that he did not have to deal with it himself and risk the beast coming out again.

But aside from that matter, he had to find a way to get Chiko back. He did not know how he was going to do that, it was hard enough just trying to talk to someone that did not want to be near him. He had to find away to speak to someone that might not even be listening to him. Mashiro just hoped that the doctor would be able to figure out something to get Chiko back without have to rely on him. He was not used to having to deal with this sort of situation. Emotions were one thing to deal with, but he could not handle someone else's emotions that were out of control. He did have any experience in this sort of thing; he was a trained soldier first. The idea of having a family was a luxury, a dream not something that he thought about. This was not your ideal family and Chiko was definitely not his daughter or anywhere close to that, but when he looked past everything that made things complicated it really was that simple.

Chiko was his friend, someone that he had to protect with his life. He understood that, it was simple to meet things under that concept. But things were different now and his situation was not a simple guardian. He was protecting a child, or rather a man in a child's body, that acted like a child most of the time. The person he was protecting was more than just a name or mission objective, he was a human being with emotions, feelings of his own. Mashiro had to address that and change the way that he saw everything. It was more than simply a mission; he had lived with Chiko for several months now. He had been thinking about it from the wrong side, it was a job nothing more.

There was no room for attachments or getting close to someone, that was how he was taught and brought up. That was the military way, that was the way he had always known and understood, but it was different now. It was not the same as a mission that was completed in a day or a week. This was a long-term assignment; he had grown fond Chiko and his easily angered ways. It was more than simply being the bodyguard for someone. He was the person that Chiko relied on to keep him safe from everything. Chiko was helpless against everything that was happening to him and needed him to be there for more than just the times that he needed protecting. Chiko needed him to be there for support as well, this was trying on Chiko as much as it was on him.

Then Chiko saw those acts that he had done to save him. Chiko had never seen him fight and kill someone. Mashiro had made sure to keep that out of sight, he wanted to keep those horrors away from Chiko. The man had already witnessed enough blood and death for anyone that wanted to sleep soundly at night. He knew that Chiko had nightmares of the day he almost died, but there was nothing to compare to when you see someone you know doing those same ruthless acts. It is something you expect to see from those that are evil and without the room in their hearts for pain or remorse. Mashiro had felt like he had no room for those things, he filled it all up with his past. He showed all of that to Chiko and he could not understand that. He was the person that he trusted and he shattered that all in front of him. Now that face was always in front of him reminding him not allowing him to forget those things, never to rest, never allowed to sleep.

Mashiro finally made it back to their house where he pulled up stopping the car. The doctor got out carrying Kohana in his arms and Mashiro followed up behind him still heavy with thoughts running through his mind. He was still trying to sort out what he could say to her or him, but he knew that he was going to have to be ready for when that moment came. One way or another it was going happen and he needed to be there when it did.

The doctor set Kohana down on Mashiro bed upstairs and backed away looking at her for a moment. Mashiro did not really know what he was up to at this point, but he knew that he had to wait and see if the doctor really could do whatever it was to bring back Chiko. After a few minutes of the doctor doing nothing but staring Mashiro walked over to him carefully looking at him. The doctor was staring at Kohana unblinking.

"Hey, doc! Earth to doc!" Mashiro whacked him over the head with his fist to wake him up from his daze. "Hey, what you think you are doing?"

"Oh, I was looking at how peacefully she sleep. She is so beautiful, isn't she? And…"

"And? What?"

"She's wearing the panties I gave you that first day."

Mashiro fell over on the ground unable to stand after hearing that. He then immediately jumped up and smacked the doctor in the back of the head with a frying pan that strangely enough was on hand. The doctor was laid out on the bed with another round bruise rising from his head. "Stupid pervert! Get serious for once in your life!" Mashiro then grabbed the doctor up who was barely conscious at this point to hear his little tirade and shuck him around to wake him up. "You've a job to do, you can sleep when this all finished!"

The doctor woke up slowly to the yelling and Mashiro let him go turning him around forcefully to get started on figuring out what was wrong with Kohana/Chiko. "Don't rush me, the brain is not something you just walk around in on like a Sunday afternoon at the beach."

"Don't make excuses and do your job."

"Fine, fine. Now, I shall be needing a few things from my lab. Can you open up your storage mirror?"

"Um, yeah…" Mashiro went over to access it while the doctor pulled out a device from his back pocket. His hands went over the device quickly, it made a few sounds and beeps, but nothing that Mashiro understood. He simply did what the doctor asked, the storage was open with the usual array of weapons that he kept on hand along with a few other things.

"Weapons huh, wasting the awesome power of a vacuum sub-space pocket for weapons. That is not what I need, step aside." The doctor pushed Mashiro out of the way and resumed pushing things on his device. After he finished with that he closed the storage part of the way enough that everything went back inside. The doctor then pushed one last thing on the device and opened up the storage again. This time weapons did not come out of it, but instead there were scientific instruments everywhere. The doctor went about pulling things out of the storage.

"What did you do with my weapons?"

"Don't worry, they are still there. You didn't know that it was interconnected sub-space network of pockets that allow for instant access anywhere and anytime. Normally they are locked down to specific locations and made only accessible through these remote terminals. However, if you know how to by pass that, then you can access anything you want that is stored in there."

"But what about my weapons?"

"I told you already they are still there, I'll put it back when I'm finished."

"You better."

The doctor went to work with the variety instruments that did not look like much to Mashiro. All he knew was that the doctor appeared to be doing what he was supposed to be doing, which was looking at the body and mind to see if he could get Chiko back. Mashiro sat down in the chair that was near to the door just watching what was happening. He knew that this point there was nothing that he was going to be able to do that would be of use. It was up to the doctor try to figure out something to do.

The doctor continued to work for an hour unstopped doing all manner of tests that Mashiro did not understand. There were a few that he did and had to stopped the doctor to get him back on task, hugging Kohana was not a test. Then after that time the doctor dropped to the floor having been staring at his device for a few minutes. Mashiro rushed over to the doctor to find out what he had learned that made him stop.

"What is it doc?"

"This doesn't make any sense. This can't be right."

"What doc, what can't be right?"

"It just can't be."

"Make some sense!" Mashiro slapped the doctor out of his daze and grabbed him by his shirt glaring at him. "Now tell me what it is that you found."

"It is what I did not find."

"Huh?"

"I can't find Chiko's brain patterns anywhere in the mind. It is as though they are all gone."

Mashiro's pupils shrank in shock. "What? That can't be right! Do the test again!"

"I already have four times."

Mashiro dropped the doctor looking at the still body on his bed. He could not believe that this was happening. After all the things that happened, Chiko was gone because of him. He was lost to the abyss as a result of his mistake. He protected him from attempts on his life, he survived death, bombings, snipers, body switching and now this. It was him, he was suppose to protect him from everyone and yet he could not protect him from himself. He killed Chiko. Mashiro could not believe it.

Mashiro stood up looking down at the body. He approached the body that was void of life at the moment. "This can't be true. This isn't fair. I was supposed to protect you. I was supposed to protect you from anyone that threatened your life. But now here you are and I can't protect you. How can this be right? This can't be. I killed you; I was supposed to protect you… Chiko… How… After everything you've been through, the person you trusted with your life…me. I-I…I can't believe it.

"My life, my past is tainted with blood and black with too much pain. I thought I had buried it away deep enough to forget. But I can still remember as much as I try to forget. I believed that I was meant to be alone in life, that all I could be was a weapon, a tool for someone else. I believed that I had no other purpose and that I deserved none. I had resigned myself that, accepting whatever mission I was given, even taking ones with little chance of survival. Maybe I was looking for that moment, I don't know anymore.

"But it all changed. I changed when I meet you. I know we don't have the most healthy of relationships. At first you were just another mission for me to handle. I did not care about it, just about finishing the job and taking another. Then I realized that there was something more. That I still had a chance, that I wasn't necessarily a weapon. I felt a warmth of actually knowing someone, protecting someone and having a friend. You can be a pain, stuck up, a jerk, rude, vindictive, childish, but I found something in you that had been missing that I could never…"

Mashiro cut himself off suddenly when he saw the body move. The eyes opened slowly blinking once and looking around. Mashiro threw a book at the doctor to wake him up. The doctor and Mashiro climbed up on the bed looking at the body not completely certain about what was going to happen. They were both expecting to see Kohana, though it was rather quiet for Kohana. But the scene of blood there probably had been traumatic on her mind to witness.

Suddenly, she lifted herself up looking at the two that were staring her in the face now. Then in the instant afterwards there was a loud crunch as she punched both of them in their face sending them flying against the wall. The impact that they made left cracks in the wall's paint and the wallboard itself. Both of them twitched in pain as she started to speak yelling at the two of them.

"You stupid pervert, I can't believe you created that thing! Making a little girl as a doll and then making a mind to go along with it. And then you don't stop there, but you make her equipment and a costume to live out a fantasy of your dreams. Let alone, you actually made your stupid dreams actually real! Don't you have anything better to do with that empty head of yours than mess around with life size bodies pretending that they are your dolls for your own amusement!

"And you! You, it is a good thing that she held me back for so long. I swear I'm going to throw up having heard all of that junk. You talk too much you know, once you are down from that wall I'm going to break you in two and throw you into the hallway. Then I'm going to kill that doctor for doing that. I can't believe you actually fell for it. You are so gullible, the good for nothing; brainless doctor fixed me a long time ago. He just had the stupid idea that lying to you and forcing me into a bound state while I had to listen to you babbling. I can't believe it, you are worse than those sappy romance novels. And ew, just ew. You better not start saying things like love and 'I want you to be my daughter for real.' I swear, if I hear anymore from you like that I'm going to kill you first before the doctor."

Mashiro fell down from the wall in complete shock landing on the floor, dust kicking up around him. He then got up and went over to Chiko and look at him. "That really you?"

"Of course it is! Don't make me kick, I've been itching to do it for so long." Mashiro grabbed Chiko up hugging him glad to have the Chiko he knew so well back. It had been a long time since he heard that. "What did I tell you?" Chiko tried to pull Mashiro off of him, but the doctor quickly joined in. "What are you doing, I'm not your stupid girl!"

"It looked like fun!"

"Now I know where she gets her idiotic reasoning from. Now don't make me force you to let go of me." Unfortunately for Chiko there was not a lot that he could do about it, he was being crushed by the two of them. He tried to push them away by putting his hand on their faces and pushing, but that was failing him. "Stop this already! I just got back I don't need this, its too early for all of this."

"I'm just glad that you are back."

"I am too, but this is too close. Especially for guys!"

The scarred man was holding off responding to The Superiors' call as long as possible. He had little to actually go on right now. He already knew the pressure that he was under to get this finished; he did not need to be reminded by them. However, he could not avoid them anymore without gaining their wrath. He had already pushed things much farther than anyone would dare against The Superiors.

He picked up the earpiece and answered them this time.

"You better have a good reason for not answering our calls."

"Yes, it seems that the audio array was damaged and we just managed to get it repaired."

"You better not be lying. We hope that you have not been wasting the last three days fixing it."

"I have not."

"What have you learned?"

"The assassin has hid her tracks well, but I'm closing in on her trail. I have not obtained the information that she was holding yet, but I am almost ready."

"Do not waste any time. Your position is making the other syndicates nervous. The longer you remain the harder it will be to clean up your mistakes. Do not fail us."

"I shall not fail again." The line went dead after that. He threw the earpiece at the table and walked out of the room.

"Throw it around like that and it will actually break," Shisa said quietly. The two were sitting looking through things on the computer trying to put together the small pieces of information that they had gained into the lead that they were needing to end this chase. Unfortunately, they were worried that The Superiors would lose faith in their ability to resolve this before they got to that point.

"Sir! Something I think you should see." The scarred man walked back into the room and Kitsune turned the screen towards him. The screen held an image of a man along with another man pulling him away.

"What am I looking at?"

"According to news reports, this man showed up at a bank that was almost robbed today. If you look closely at an enhanced image of the man he should be familiar to you."

"Section Three. What were they doing there?"

"Apparently he was looking for the girl that had saved the bank from being robbed. But the robbery is not what is important, if there is someone from Section Three there and a child. There is the chance that they were the ones that the assassin was after for information. It seems too much of a coincidence for someone from Section Three to be here."

"Good work. Find out where they live." The scarred man walked back into the dark room. He finally had his lead that he was searching for. There was still something bothering him about this whole thing, but he still had to find the assassin and kill her. He had to finish this all quickly.

Preview for the next episode:

"Hey all, Kohana back here by popular demand to do the preview! I'm not going to be doing as much in the next episode, but there is something exciting that is going to happen. Oh, I can't wait to see how it goes! You see Chiko is-"

"What you think you are doing? This is my preview, I've been gone for so long and you are hijacking the preview now and not just my body!"

"But you said you couldn't stand to be in the same room as me let alone be here for the preview where you are-"

"Stop! I told you not to say it!"

"Say what?"

"What I told you not to say."

"But I haven't said it yet."

"Exactly, I have to stop you!"

"What? Then how will they know what is going to happen next?"

"Like I care about, I have what is left of my dignity to keep. Oh wait, the preview is almost over. Don't miss the next of episode of The Inner Man, Unspoken. It is unspoken for a reason, don't even utter a word!"

"Chiko is going-"

"Shut up! Argh! You better not miss it, there is going to be plenty of kicking in the next episode! Tee hee! Now cut quickly!"

"Chiko is-"