Andromeda

The Inner Man – Episode 5 – Hostage

The man with a scar across the side of his face walked out of a building followed by two of his men. They had left Tokyo two weeks ago in their search for tying up the lose ends. The only clue that they were working with was that their target had moved to Osaka. This meant that they were outside of the domain of The Awaking Dragons. There were more variables than just the ones of finding the target in Osaka.

The Osaka underground was divided by several syndicates, the most powerful would take offensive to their intrusion if it were to be found out. This meant that they had to make careful, slow movements that would not alert the powers in Osaka to their presence. It was a little troublesome to be forced into such a position, but they were not ready to start a syndicate war. There was enough for them to handle in Tokyo not to need to create new fronts.

This lead had been a bust for them again; it was the third dead end. It was becoming more difficult to find a well-known celebrity than he thought it was going to be. He had failed to kill him three times already the superiors were not pleased. The only information he had managed to get out of those section three men was Osaka. That was hardly enough to start an investigation on, but he had to take matters into his own hands at this point.

The three men entered the car, driver already waiting for them. The scarred man sat in the back with one of his men while the other in the front passenger seat. The one in the front seat turned back to face him as the car entered traffic.

"Sir, I understand that we have to maintain our cover, but we are leaving too many ends free to talk."

"That maybe so, but right now dead ones will talk more. Besides, if we play our cards right those ends might make the mistake we are looking for. We will keep searching, but we are also waiting, setting the trap so that when they make their wrong move we are there to strike. Second chances are not going to be an option."

"Sir!"

The car drove off down the highway merging into the lanes of traffic and disappearing into the mass of cars. The morning sun blended everything together into a hazing fog.

Chiko woke up on the couch rubbing his head knocking hair into his face. It was all frizzy and knotted from sleeping. He was used to having somewhat longer hair when he was a man, but the length of the girl's hair was annoying. It was always falling around him when he was trying to sleep. Every time he would get up he would be sitting on it and nearly fall over. Now he could not see out through his hair as he stood up nearly falling over the coffee table in front of him.

"Argh! Not again!" Chiko shouted as he banged his knee against the corner of the table. "Every morning! Every morning I wake up with this hair in my face!"

Mashiro in the kitchen heard Chiko's ranting and knew that he was finally awake. "Yup, he is awake," he said sighing as he was preparing breakfast for the two of them. He then started repeating word for word Chiko's rant that he did every morning. "Why did that stupid, obsessive doctor have to make this body? If he had not made this body I might have gotten the right body. And this hair, I swear I am going to cut it one of these days." Mashiro smiled, whistling away as he prepared the food. "You know Chiko if the doctor learned you cut his precious girl's hair what he would say."

"Argh! I still hate it. How do girls actually stand having all this hair? Why would they want it this long and thick? It takes forever to wash and brush through."

"Guess you know why they spend two hours in the bathroom now."

"And now I have to spend all that time in the bathroom."

"No thanks to that stupid doctor!" Mashiro said in unison with Chiko.

"Quit mocking me!"

Mashiro laughed and went back to focusing on the food that needed to be stirred. He could hear Chiko stomping up the stairs to go to the shower. It was often the only way that Mashiro could make him forget about his fear of stairs. The first week he had to carry him up and down the stair for whatever he wanted. Arguing might not be the best way to start off the morning, but it at least got Chiko's blood moving enough that he was not thinking straight.

After about thirty minutes Mashiro had breakfast finished and knew that Chiko would be getting done in the shower soon. He started up the stairs and to the second floor. The shower normally cooled Chiko off enough that he could not walk back down the stairs. In most cases, he did not even remember how he got up there. It made Mashiro grin sometimes to look at him finding it hard to actually see Chiko in there. He knew that it was mostly Chiko even though he really did not know him personally until recently. But he could tell that at times the girl part of that body, or more likely the child part of that body took over.

It would still be a few minutes before Chiko got out, so Mashiro went to his room to sort through some things. He pulled out his computer that Section Three had provided him. There had not been an update on his mission or situation since he arrived. That was disconcerting for him, but he wondered if they were trying to not make any contact with him to keep them hidden. The danger of the situation was obvious, if The Awaken Dragons would attack in broad daylight the Section Three building, they did not know much fear. Not to mention their information network was powerful. All this considered it made him wonder how long they would be able to remain hidden. Mashiro knew that Chiko was thinking about this as well, it was a hard fact to forget that they were on borrowed time. Their only real hope was that Section Three would be able to make its move before they were discovered.

The sound of the bathroom door opening woke Mashiro from his thoughts. Chiko was finished and already dressed. He had been bringing his clothes with him into the shower since they had not really set up his room yet. He was still brushing through his hair, a task that at first had made him mad enough to send the brush through the wall. Mashiro thankfully patched up the hole since, but it would still frustrate Chiko from time to time.

"Ready to go, princess?"

Chiko sighed, "Yeah…" His hand tugged at his hair trying to get the brush out.

Mashiro picked him up and took him to the breakfast that was waiting for him. As they did every morning Chiko would stand up in the chair eating while Mashiro finished brushing through his hair. Chiko's patience was quick to evaporate, so Mashiro had to finish it for him. It did seem a little strange for him to be doing this duties for the person that he was suppose to protect, but it was all part of his job.

He let Chiko go to school and went about cleaning up from breakfast. It was just another normal day for him. There was something nagging at him though, but it could have just been his leg acting up from Chiko's repeated attacks to it. He rubbed his leg carefully thinking about it.

Chiko slowly walked to school, the ever constant dread that he had every day going to school. Mashiro told him that he would get used to it, even enjoy reliving it. As though having a second childhood in someone else's body could actually be fun. All that it was for him was tiring and a long process of one dangerous situation to the next. He still had chills from Nobu. The boy was friendly and helpful, even though he did not really need any help. But it seemed to fuel the strange curiosity of his classmates when they were together.

He really did not want attention and it seemed that he was getting more each day rather than less. This could not continue, he knew there had to be point when he would be ignored, but it was not happening soon enough. How was he going to avoid the syndicate if he kept making too much attention for himself? Everyone at school probably knew who he was by now.

Sakura joined him on his walk when they were about three blocks away from the school. She usually joined him then and Nobu would end up joining him not long afterwards. Even though Sakura seemed a little air headed at times, she was easy enough to talk to. It was usually just about school, since Chiko had no idea what else to safely talk about. If there was another subject, he let someone else bring it up first, then he could safely talk about it without seeming too strange.

They had just reached the entrance of the school when he noticed a black car that was not normally parked at the school. He did not recognize it, there was a man smoking on the corner. Even though he seemed to blend in, the suit and simply being on a corner of an elementary school made him seem suspicious. Chiko stopped for a moment. 'Did they find me?'

"Kohana? Something wrong?" Sakura asked.

"Huh? Oh no, its nothing." Chiko said moving again with them. 'I guess time will tell. Not a lot I can do right now…I doubt that they would make a scene in the school.' They walked into the school in between the usual mobs of students that rushed in. He was all too familiar with them, especially his face and fists.

They made it to class; noisy as the first day he arrived. Everyone was talking to someone else trying to be heard through the noise. He sat down not really concerning himself with them and went about sorting through his homework. It was all finished from last night, though he had to get it ready to hand in. He also had to sort through is books; he normally packed hastily in the morning.

Mrs. Shimasuke brought the class to order with a yell as she always did. He never had managed to get used to it though. In spite of her quirks, she was a kind woman. So it was always jarring to hear her yelling, even though he tried to remind himself that it happened everyday.

The lessons went about as usual, though Chiko's mind kept thinking about that car and the man smoking. He did not know who they were, but it was definitely clear that they did not belong around a school. If they were part of The Awaking Dragons then when would they strike him? Did they even know who he was or just going on some clue that they had? Before they had struck in open day, they were not afraid of consequences to take him out. His being dead was important to them, but how much did they care about making a huge media scene in front of a school?

As he was thinking it made him realize how much they wanted to try to kill him. Attacking directing in the day where anyone could see in the heart of the Tokyo had to be a risky move. Section Three obviously knew who it was and did not start much of an investigation on the matter publicly. Chiko had heard little to nothing about the attacks on the news or the net. They had managed to keep the media out of the incident. The syndicate probably planned on that happening, though it did not make a lot of sense to him why Section Three did not want to try to expose the syndicate's attacks.

He wondered if it was because of how powerful the syndicate actually was. There was not a lot that he had been told by the men at Section Three, but it was clear that they were more powerful than even Section Three could handle. They spread across all of Tokyo, which meant that they must have dealings in just about everything. That was no doubt the reason he was moved to Osaka, it would be too easy for them to find him in Tokyo. He had two attempts on his life in the short period of a day. First the bomb that destroyed his apartment and then the attack outside of the Section Three building.

If he went out to lunch would they try to kill him then? They could just fire one shot from the distance of a roof of a building or a car on the street. Would that be all that they did and then it all gets covered up as some random drive by shooting? The media would be all over it, but would anything become of it? Could he just end up dead without anything having been accomplished? He did not like that feeling, it made him uneasy. It was his hope that he was just over reacting and the car was nothing more than just a coincidence. Besides, how could they know who he was, he had a new body. He did not have to worry about them finding him if they did not know what he looked like. It was a small comfort to him, but at this point he would take anything he could.

The time passed and lunch came with many of the students leaving to go outside after they ate or even to eat their lunch. Chiko remained inside since he wanted to be cautious about being too visible. He quietly ate his lunch listening to the noise of the other students. There was the usual talk about things that they had read or watched. Nothing that really had Chiko interested. He sighed sitting in his chair hoping for the time to pass faster so that he was not bored.

Suddenly Sakura came up to him and pulled him by the arm, "Come on, lets go outside, Kohana!"

"Huh? I don't feel like it." Chiko tried to pull his arm free from Sakura's grip.

"Aw, come on it is a nice day out."

"I don't want to."

"Why not?"

"I don't know." If he actually said why he did not want to go outside she would not believe him anyway. He really did not have any idea what he should be saying to her. Chiko just wanted her to leave him alone.

"Then come, let's go!"

"No!" Chiko said nearly yelling back at her.

"What's the matter, Kohana?" Sakura said starting to cry.

'Great, now I made her cry.' Chiko sighed and looked around the room to find that he was getting a lot of eyes on him. He really did not want to go outside it was too risky for him, but if he did not Sakura would be crying for the rest of the day. That was definitely more attention than he needed, he would just have to be careful going outside. "Fine, we'll go outside."

"Really? Yay! Thank you!" Sakura said instantly changing moods and smiling.

Chiko mouth hung open not really sure what to think until he was pulled down the hallway by Sakura nearly off of his feet. She even pulled him down the stairs; he could feel each step banging into his back. It all happened so fast that his fear did not manage to catch up to him until he was already outside on firm ground. He literally collapsed in shock as well as exhaustion; his legs were shaking as well as the rest of his body. Though at this point he did not know how much was because of the fear and how much just from being dragged from the class to outside in thirty seconds flat.

'Where is she hiding that energy?' Chiko coughed trying to catch his breath as Sakura stared down at him a little confused.

"You alright?"

"Yeah, sure I always get pulled down stairs."

"Really?"

Chiko sighed, "Nevermind." Sakura started to walk into the playground area when Chiko pulled her back. He looked around the entire area carefully scanning for anyone that might seem suspicious. There was still plenty of cover for them behind the school sign where they had stopped to rest. Chiko looked around the edge of the sign to see if that car was still parked there at the corner. Unfortunately he could not see the corner from where he was, there were too many trees and kids were in the way.

He let Sakura get up, but he held on to her hand as they walked cautiously around the playground. The brick wall around the school provided him a lot of protection, though it also blocked his view. If he was not so short he could look over the wall to see if there was anyone on the other side. It meant that he was going to have to get closer to the wall before he would be able to find out if there was anyone outside. He was growing more nervous as each minute passed in relative silence.

Suddenly Sakura broke the silence, "Kohana, you playing some game?" Chiko nearly jumped into Sakura's arms for how tense he was. His heart was pounding out of his chest as he tried to recover himself from being startled.

"Something like that," he managed to say when he finally had recovered enough. He started moving to the wall again carefully keeping an eye out at the gate. The wall was finally within in arms reach. It was not a lot, but he had a little protection. He now had to make it to the gate to actually look around outside since he was too short to see over the wall.

He kept Sakura close behind him, even though it did probably seem strange to her she was remaining quiet. Chiko did not really know why, but he was just glad not to have her startling him again or alerting who ever it was that could be on the other side. He continued to move slowly towards the gate with sweat starting to drip down his face. He was on even more of an edge before worried about the next time that Sakura might say something. Finally, the gate was in sight and he could look around outside.

Cautiously, he started to push his head out to look around the wall, his eyes barely able to look. He started to look towards the corner where the car was when he saw it in the morning, but he did not see it. The sidewalk was almost completely empty with maybe two people walking. He was about to call his worries off when Sakura jumped on him.

Chiko fell down to the ground in the plain sight of everyone that might be looking with Sakura lying on top of him. He looked around quickly if there was anyone that he could see near by. There was nothing, it seemed that whoever it was that was here this morning was gone. He sighed with relief nearly forgetting that Sakura was on top of him still.

"I'm sorry, Kohana. I just got excited to see what it was that you saw and sort of tripped."

"Sort of tripped…"

"What is going on here? You know you are not allowed to leave the school grounds!" Chiko turned his head around to find Mrs. Toki looking down at him. He grinned in embarrassment not really sure what to say to her.

"Oh, I'm sorry Mrs. Toki. Kohana and me were playing a game."

"Really?"

"Sorry about that Mrs. Toki, we were not trying to leave," Chiko said. He helped Sakura up off of him and stood up dusting himself off. His uniform was not really ruined just a little dirty. It was not something that he really cared about that the moment, though it felt strange to him that he was thinking about it. He sighed and waited for the principal to leave, though she still hung around them. She did not seem satisfied with the answer, fortunately for him there was a couple boys getting loud that caught her attention.

"Lets go!" he told Sakura.

"Okay!" Sakura said seeming to be enjoying the excitement. It left Chiko a little puzzled, but he just wanted to get back inside. It was strange that those people were gone. He was glad that they were, it meant that they either did not find what they were looking for, that being Chiko. Or they were not even looking for him to begin with and they were just weird people in a strange place that was all just coincidence. Either way he was just happy to forget the whole matter happened and go about a normal day.

Resting safely in his chair he looked back at Sakura who was glowing with a smile. He really did not know what was her issue, but considering how much of an airhead she could be he really did not try to think too hard on the matter. It was more important to him that those people were gone, they had nothing to do with The Awaking Dragons and he could get back to a somewhat normal life.

"You seem pretty happy for some reason, Sakura."

"Yeah, I guess I am. It was fun playing with you."

'I wasn't playing…' Chiko sighed, "Well I'm glad you're happy then."

Lunch was coming to a close and the students slowly started to pour back into the class. Chiko's spirits were higher knowing that a crisis had been adverted now. He had been on edge the entire morning that he had not been able to even draw anything coherent, not as though he actually drew anything someone could make sense of anyway. But he was finally at ease able to rest and take the day as it came. He did not even mind having to deal with the exocentric teacher.

However, Chiko's peace and everyone else's was shattered by a sudden scream from down the hall. Everyone rushed to the hall to see what was happening, even Chiko was curious at this point. Plus he was worried that his worries were suddenly going to be returning. The scream sounded serious, he needed to know what was going on down the hall. Mrs. Shimasuke beat him to making a move though as she started running down the hall to see what was wrong.

The entire class followed behind him as well as a number of other students went to see what was going on. It was at the end of the hall by the stairs, there was Mrs. Shimasuke. Chiko's eyes widened as he tried to step backwards into the crowd of students. There before all of the students were three men in suits with guns pointed at Mrs. Shimasuke and another female teacher.

The three men turned to look at the crowd of students that had gathered in the hall. Chiko tried to make himself invisible behind a few students. 'I'm Kohana…Kohana…Kohana Kitayama.' He tried to re-enforce that thought in his mind and tried to completely ignore that he was Chiko. 'Kohana, an eight-year-ago girl in the second grade. Normal, average girl, Kohana. Kohana.'

Sakura placed a hand on Kohana's shoulder, she jumped nearly shouting, "I'm Kohana!" She was able to hold herself back enough to not make too much noise. Her hands had quickly clasped around her mouth holding most of what she had said inside. Her eyes turned towards Sakura looking with fear at her.

"You okay, Kohana?"

It took a while for Kohana to clear out her throat that had choked from fear. "Yeah, I'm just scared."

"Me, too."

The three men looked at each other and then back at the students. They whispered a few things to each other that Kohana could barely hear. "We haven't cleared the first floor yet."

"I know, but we are already here. We need to take care of them."

"No choice in the matter."

"Right."

Kohana stepped back as they started to move closer to the students. Sakura held Kohana close as the men stood in front of them all most of the children being dwarfed in height and size. Kohana wanted to run away, get out of the school, but she knew that she could not run. If she tried anything suspicious it might alert them to who she really was or even cause them to just simply kill her out right.

The men stood not saying anything; one of them was getting the two teachers up off of the floor at gunpoint. Once the teachers were standing, they spoke to them. "Get your kids down the auditorium. We will not ask a second time."

Mrs. Shimasuke nodded to them and turned looking towards her students trying to put on a brave face. There were a lot of students gathered, most of them not her own. They were all looking up at her for answers even though she did not have any. "Come on children, everything will be okay." She started to push them on in down the stairs at the end of the hallway.

The three men quickly talked between themselves before two of them followed the students down. One of them in front and one of them behind, the other remained upstairs.

Kohana remained with Sakura getting close to the stairs. She had to go down them, but she was afraid to even touch them. The man behind her was telling her to get moving. Sakura tried to pull on Kohana, but she would not move. Kohana was too scared, even the fear of getting shot was not enough for her to get down the stairs. She was going to die from a stupid phobia that she had no understanding of the reasons. 'I'm going to die…'

"Kohana? Please, we need to go. Kohana, please." Sakura was trying to speak to her, but nothing was getting through to her. Kohana could not hear Sakura's voice; her own fear was completely swallowing her up. She could not take it anymore as tears started to fall down her face even though she was not move. "Mrs. Shimasuke!"

"What's wrong Sakura?"

"Move the girl now before I force her down the stairs!" the man yelled.

"Come along, Kohana. Kohana?"

"She hasn't said a word to me, Mrs. Shimasuke."

"You go on down, I will carry her."

Kohana did not even realize that she was being carried as her teacher took her down the stairs. Her fear had paralyzed her such that she was in the auditorium before she finally was aware enough to be shuck awake by Mrs. Shimasuke panicked voice. "Kohana!"

"I can hear you, I'm not deaf!"

"What happened to you? You didn't answer us," Sakura said.

"Huh? I just got really scared. What is going on?"

"I don't know, everyone in the school is in the auditorium. There are a lot of men in dark suits with guns. What's going on Mrs. Shimasuke?"

"I don't know anymore than you do Sakura, but everything will work out. Trust me."

Kohana was not so certain; they were looking for something or wanting someone. She did not know why they would take a school hostage, if it were whom she thought. They could simply start killing people, but that could draw more attention to what they did than they could deal with. Killing innocent children would be major news across all of the media centers. Then the hostage could be a cover for something else. She needed to know what they were planning.

She looked around hoping to be able to find one of the men. If she could just get near one of them, she would be to listen in on their conversation and possibly learn what it was that they were doing here. She moved around slowly with Sakura holding on to her arm. Sakura had refused to leave her side in case she froze again; it was reassuring for her to know there was someone with her.

Even though there were plenty of men guarding the different exits of the auditorium, none of them seemed too talkative. If she were unable to learn anything, she would be sitting in a stalemate. She had only guesses right now and did not want to guess that they were looking for Chiko. However, if they were not here for Chiko, then what was their reason for taking a school hostage. She did not have any ideas what could be the reason, which meant finding Chiko was more than likely their objective. But how did they know that Chiko was at the school, she needed answers.

The guards by the main doors were finally starting to talk between each other and Kohana listened closely to what they were saying.

"Guarding a bunch of brats, not my idea of fun."

"Yeah, I know. But the boss said that we had to keep guard on them"

"What are they going to do, cry on us?"

"Hah hah. Maybe so, but he has plans."

"Yeah, yeah. Think we will really find that guy in this school?"

"I don't know, this whole school could be a front for Section Three."

"Sounds a little far fetched. Who makes a school a front?"

"Yeah, well we have to find him."

"I guess, sure like to know why we are going to so much trouble to find this guy. He really that important?"

"They seem to think so."

'They are looking for me. What am I going to do now?' Kohana stepped back, some of the fear starting to pour over her again. She knew just from their conversation what was going on well enough to know that she was in trouble. They were referring to 'him', so they probably did not know that it was herself that they were looking for. That gave her an advantage, she wondered if anything happened they would think that she was actually Chiko. It did not seem like they knew, she was hoping that meant her identity was safe at least for now.

Unfortunately, her life was not the only problem right now. There were plenty of armed men around that were holding her entire school hostage. She had to try to figure out a way to free them. There had to be something she could do with the body that she had, anything or what was the point of her even being here. If she could get a weapon from them maybe or even just render them unconscious. She was having trouble thinking of anything that was not too much of a risk. There were so many chances for things to go wrong, what was she going to do. She needed help; she needed Mashiro. 'Mashiro! That's it.'

Kohana pulled out of her pocket something that he had given her back before she had started school. It was something from Section Three that they had provided for him. The device was an emergency beacon for her to use if there was trouble. Mashiro would be able to find her anywhere no matter, so long as she held on to the device, naturally. She pushed the button on the device and watched a red light flash on it and then fade away.

At the house Mashiro was sorting through the clothing, it was laundry day for him. He really detested having to go through Chiko's clothes, but it was too high for Chiko to reach in his current body. Last time he had tried, he nearly fell into the washer. Mashiro had a good laugh, but Chiko saw it a little differently having gotten soaked and soapy. Thinking about it made him grin slightly, he did not have enough pleasant things to think about, so it was comforting to be able have created a few.

The laundry was finished and he was about to take it upstairs when he heard the rice. He had to have it ready for dinner in a few hours. It felt like he was more a housewife these days than an actual protector for Chiko. The child-like size did seem to suit him though, probably did not do a lot for himself to begin with, now he really could not do anything for himself. He got the luck of the draw with that pick. If the doctor had made him any taller he could have helped more around the house.

Mashiro continued about his duties, not hearing the beeping from up in his room of the beacon. A holographic map was being displayed showing Chiko's location. The device sat on his bed next to a change of pants that were lying on the bed forgotten.

A call was coming in, the scarred man turned to look at his man next to him. His man answered the call not saying much more than two words before looking at him and handing over the earpiece. Something must have happened if they were calling him on assignment. "Yes?"

"Our intelligence network has picked up something unusual."

"Can you be anymore vague?"

"There seems to be an hostage situation developing at Noyai Elementary School near to you in Osaka."

"Why is this important to me?"

"Sources say that its one of ours."

"What is another squad doing here, did the superiors send them?"

"Its unknown, the superiors have not been informed yet. We were giving you a heads up before reporting."

"Report to them immediately. I need more information than speculation."

"Sir." The line was closed after that. His eyes narrowed even more than usual. Both of his men were looking at him waiting for orders. They could tell that there was a problem.

"Change in plans, we are going to Noyai Elementary School."

"Sir?"

"New lead."

"Sir?"

"That is all I have right now." He looked out the window towards the inner part of Osaka. 'Something foul is in the air…'

A few of the men in dark suits were on the second floor around another man. He was listening to each of the men reporting in their findings. So far there had not been anything in the search for Chiko Toyozama. The man knew that if he were hiding here they would find him. It definitely seemed like a possible place to hide, no one would think about hiding in an elementary school. "Keep searching the classrooms and double and triple check the basement. If he is hiding, the most likely place would be the basement. However, the most likely maybe not be where he is hiding. An elementary school is unlikely to begin with. He may be in plain sight, so keep your eyes open. Dismissed."

The men dispersed as a single individual approached him, his right hand man. "Sir, as we planned the police have dispatched units to the school."

"Yes, time to start to raise the curtain on our show. The actors will soon be assembled."

"Yes, sir."

"Keep directing the men in the auditorium, I do not expect much trouble from elementary students, but keep your eye out. Small things have a tendency to disappear."

Kohana looked around the room, all of the students sitting in the chairs not saying a word. There was a little talk between the teachers; they were probably planning a way for them to escape. Most of the students were barely able to keep from shaking, Kohana did not feel alone in how she acted or even embarrassed. No one blamed her, even though it still did not make her feel any better, especially since it was not so much the men that had her frozen at that time. But definitely now as time passed she was building more tension. She hoped that they would search the school and find nothing and just leave.

It was pretty obvious that they were not going to find Chiko Toyozama in the school, but the concern she had was what would they do when they did not find him? Would they leave peacefully, or would the hostage situation turn into something far worse? None of the students knew the real reason why they were here; she hoped that was enough not to give them cause to kill everyone. Hundreds of dead children did not look good in the news, if it was linked to The Awaking Dragons, would be a nightmare for them. But did that actually worry them anymore in trying to find him?

She had too many questions, unfortunately all she could do right now was wait for Mashiro to show up and hope everything worked out for the best. If there was an opening, she was going to keep an eye out for it. She had to escape and try to help the children escape as well. Kohana's face was narrow, focused.

"Kohana? Are we going to be safe?" Sakura asked.

"Don't worry, everything will work out."

To be continued…

Preview for the next episode:

"Chiko has been taken hostage along with the rest of the school. Now with the scarred man drawing closer to the school and police outside what will happen to Chiko. Can I make it in time to rescue Chiko and will his identity remain a secret? You've been quiet Chiko."

"It’s Kohana!"

"Huh?"

"I'm not Chiko! I'm Kohana."

"Umm, right. It is all confusing to me. Don't miss the next episode of The Inner Man, Charade."

"Mashiro, please save me!"

"That is a first."

"Don't miss it! I might get a chance to strangle that scarred man!"

"I doubt that, you'll be hiding in the corner...argh! Not the shin again!"The