1 Chapter 1

In an alleyway out of sight and deserted a miracle was about to happen. Fate has brought two people together with the most unusual circumstances. Passing by, an ordinary office worker glances into the alley. Dropping her stuff, she vanished.

Soaring past was an average looking office worker. Her high heel connecting with the face of a thug, hair scattered and undone from her bun, her face frozen in a war cry. The stopped moment resumes, and the thug falls over. The other two look at the woman standing there, obviously shocked.

"Wh-ANIKIII!"

"ANIKII!"

The other two thugs crowded around the fallen thug, his face was already swelling and bruising.

"ANIKII!" This time both thugs yelled in unison.

"Why did you die ahead of us!?" The thug with a shaved head had tears on his face.

"Aniki! I swear to get revenge for you!" The other thug with a hot pink mohawk had snot dripping down his nose.

"Shut up. Who the hell's dead, eh?!" The other thug got up, rubbing his cheek and pushed his purple side mohawk away. Shoving the other thugs away as well. "Bitch, who the hell are you?" The other two thugs looked at the office worker. A simple white blouse, pencil skirt, and glasses. In all aspects, she looked the part of an average office worker. She looked at them and pushed up her glasses with her middle finger. Intentionally flicking them off.

"EEHhh! I didn't know someone was there? Wait, is it a person? It looks more like dog shit to me. Yuck! You even smell like shit." She clenched her nose with one hand and with the other she waved them away, obviously taunting them.

"You! Get her boys!" The purple thug commanded the other thugs to go after her. Seemingly to have forgotten what had just happened they obeyed him with grins on their faces, lust and greed in their eyes. The purple thug smirked at the office worker. "It won't be so easy now that you don't have a sneak attack!" The purple thug got up and went after her as well. Dodging their attempts to catch her the office worker weaved in and out of their arms. As soon as they think they've caught her she slips away.

"Ah! This is so frustrating!" Pulling out a switchblade the pink thug flicks it around his hand and dashes towards the office worker. The office worker sees the glint of the blade and barely dodges it, getting cut on her arm.

"Tch. Circle her." The purple thug signaled at his minions. His face covered in a creepy grin.

"Oi." The three thugs flinched. For some reason they each began to sweat. Their knees felt like buckling under some invisible pressure. "Did you fucks think you can just ruin my favorite blouse and get away with it? "Leaning against the walls of the alley they looked at the office worker, fear in their eyes. The pink thug dropped his switchblade. In their eyes the office worker had turned into a demon, her eyes empty and ruthless. Bloodlust seeped out of her. The blood on her blouse spreading down her arm. Raising her arms she cracked her knuckles. "Looks like I got rusty. Oh well, time for round two." Her smile seemed more sinister and evil than the purple thug's, so much that his smile would look like an angels compared to hers. Not waiting a moment longer the office worker dashed towards the bald thug and landed a punch in his gut. The bald thug's eye became unfocused and he fell over, foam spilling out of his mouth. The pink thug fell to his knees, scared for his life. The office worker was ruthless. She appeared before the pink thug next and swung a kick towards his head. Before her foot could make contact the pink thug had fainted so she stopped her kick.

"Looks like you're the last shit left." The office worker flexed her hands and went over to the purple thug. He tried to run away but she threw her heel at the back of his knees, making him fall. "Too bad." She punched the thug in his face, breaking his nose, and making him faint as well.

"Whew." The office worker got up and patted her hands together, dusting off her legs and putting her heel back on. Adjusting her glasses again she walked over to a lump on the floor. "Hey…Hey!" She nudged it with her foot. Groaning the lump turned over and a young man turned to face her. Despite the fact that he had dried blood on his face and bruises which caused his face to swell he still looked somewhat handsome although half of his face was hidden under his hood. Sighing the office worker turned around and started to walk out of the alley. The young man got up on one elbow.

"W-wait! I just need a place to stay one night! Please, just one night. I-" The young man winced and fell back to the floor. "Please… Just, one night…" His wispy voice trailed off as his conscious faded.

*sigh* "Fine, one night. But, if I find out you're one of those gigolos I'm tossing you out. If you try to make a move on me, well, you can see what I'll do to you." The young man didn't say anything except nod his head before finally losing conscious. "Man, what kind of problem have I picked up now?" Sighing deeply to herself the office worker picked up the young man in a princess carry and walked out of the alley.

Eyes wide open the young man woke up. He felt his face and for his hood. Noticing that he wasn't wearing it he looked around and found it neatly folded next to him. Washed and cleaned. He touched his chest and found he wasn't wearing a shirt. Bandages on his chest and arm made it hard to move. Touching his face he found that the swelling had gone down a bit and patches were placed on areas he had gotten cut. A thought came to his head and he quickly lifted the blanket covering his legs. Noticing how they were still the ones he was wearing earlier he sighed in relief.

Looking around the room it was really plain. A desk in one corner, mountains of boxes in another and a window above the single bed. It was dark outside, the light from the stars and moon shining brilliantly. He tried to get up but the sharp pain he felt when he moved caused him to stop trying. He decided to wait until the scary office lady came back to change his bandages. While waiting the young man fell asleep.

Light pierced into the young man's eyes. He turned his head away from the blinding sun and sat up. Looking out the window he realized that he was high off the ground, in an apartment of some sort. Realizing that it was already evening he checked his wounds. His bandages weren't changed. Feeling for his hoodie he grabbed it and pulled his head through it. Putting on his hood he felt good enough to stand so he did. He made his way towards the door when he heard laughing. It was loud and energetic, the kind of laugh that was contagious to others. He paused by the door, his hand hovering above the doorknob, nervousness welling in his stomach. Swallowing he grabbed the doorknob and turned the handle.

The door swung open and the laughing stopped. Staring at the young man was the office worker. Her hair was tangled and messy, as if she had just woken up. The TV in front of her displaying an anime. Wearing only a tank top and shorts. She was holding a cup of instant ramen, noodles dangling half way to her open mouth on her chopsticks. Her eyes widened.

"BURGLAR! Help, someone!" She threw her chopsticks at the young man and dashed towards him. He raised his arms out of instinct to block the chopsticks but in the corner of his eye he saw that the office lady was about to punch him in the gut, like she did to the bald thug.

"W-Wait!" The young man held his hands out in front of him to try to stop her from punching him. "It's me! The one you picked up!" In his last attempt he crouched down and held his hands over his head. The office lady's face twitched in pain, as if recalling a long-forgotten memory, and then she stopped. Her fist inches away from the young man. She used her other free hand to cover her face until it went back to normal.

"Whew. You really surprised me!" She patted the young man's shoulder, a grin on her face and bent down to pick up her chopsticks. Blowing on them gently she sat back down cross-legged at her table and picked up her noodles. "I forgot about you after yesterday. Heh." She continued to eat her noodles, the TV's flashing scenes of Gin**ma.

"We-well, it's not like I did it on purpose… And who yells out help when they're planning to take down the intruder?"

"Haha, it's kind of like a tactic I've developed. If someone says for others to save them who's gonna think that they're actually skilled enough to save themselves?"

"Mhmm… But, how could forget that you picked up a person? You should've at least recognized me."

"Well, I don't have my glasses on so I couldn't really see your face since it's blurry and, you came in here without saying anything with a hood on. How else should I react?"

"T-that's…"

"But, y'know. You really shouldn't startle a person like that. What if I had actually punched you? Or worse, reopened your wounds? Geez, no manners." She continued to grumble to herself as she watched the screen. "What? Sit down. I'll make you one too." She gestured for him to sit down and he did. "Uh-uh, hood off." He nodded and took his hood off. "Hmm… Now that your swelling went down I see that you have a pretty good face." She stared at the young man before he turned away from embarrassment. The tips of his ear turning red. Seeing that she went back to boiling water for his instant noodles, humming to herself. She glanced at the young man and really, he was good looking. His fluffy light brown hair bounced whenever he moved his head, his slanted amber eyes that captivated anyone and his height. Although her height was 172 cm, which was taller than average, he was taller than her. He looked about 190cm tall. Last night it had taken everything she had not to drop him, switching from princess carry to piggyback.

"Sooo… What's your name?" She brought his noodles to him and placed them down in front of him. The steam escaping from the top.

"Jin Soo Kwon. And you?"

"Aha! Korean? No wonder you didn't look Japanese, but you're pretty fluent. So cool, my name is Rei Misuzo. Say, how old are you?" She lifted her noodles and drank the liquid slowly.

"I'm turning twenty-two in a few months." For some reason he felt very uncomfortable and nervous answering such a simple question.

"Mmh, just a baby huh? What a coincidence. I'm turning twenty six in a few months as well. What day?" She finished the liquid and placed her chopsticks down, her full attention on Jin.

"T-the sixteenth of April." He was even more embarrassed now as she was studying him carefully.

"Oho, mines the second of May. So, wanna tell me why you were beaten up in an alleyway surrounded by yakuza wannabes?" Jin had just placed down his finished noodles when Rei swiftly took it away and made her way to the sink. With her back turned jin's eyes followed her. He observed her closely for the first time and found that she wasn't as plain and ordinary as she tried to look. Her waist length black hair glistened under her kitchen light. Grey eyes so pale they almost looked white. In his opinion Rei looked pretty without her office worker getup. What caught his eyes the most was that she was well built. The curve of muscles on her arms and legs showed that she exercised and lifted weights often. His eyes fell on the wound on her right arm. The bandage already had a red splotch on it.

"Staring are we?" Rei sat down at her chair and stared at Jin. Flustered from being caught staring he fumbled with his words.

"U-uh, um, uh… Yes…" He couldn't bear to look her in the eyes. He hung his head, staring at the floor. "Sorry, I didn't mean to but…" He mumbled his words at the end, his ears turning bright red.

"Haha! Sorry, when you act like that it's hard not to tease you. I'll go change, must be uncomfortable for a baby like you to see so much skin." She chuckled to herself and got up, ruffling his hair. "Ah sorry. Bad habit of mine." She pulled her hand away and waved at him while slipping into her room, across from the one Jin had came out of. Sighing he felt himself breath again. It felt like he had been holding his breath the whole time he was talking to her. His hands went to his face and he felt the heat on his face. He couldn't imagine how red his face was just then. But, her patting his head hadn't been so bad. As soon as he thought that he felt even more embarrassed and placed his cheek against the cool table to cool it down. He stared at the TV which was still playing Gin**ma. Suddenly a surge of pain rose in his chest. Burning and piercing, it felt like a knife had been stabbed into his heart. He clutched his chest, his breathing becoming ragged. Sweat dripped off his chin as he tried hard to suppress whatever "it" was. He clenched his jaws so hard that they began to ache.

"Jin? What's wrong?" Rei who had just come out of her room saw Jin slouched over. "Jin!" She rushed to his side but he pushed her away.

"Go away! Don't come out, not now! Go back in! I just need a little more ti-" Jin was thrashing furiously at his surroundings. As if invisible ghosts had come to haunt him.

"JIN! What's wrong? What do you mea-" A loud crash shook the room. Soon armed people swarmed the room. One man in black combat armor raised a hand to his ear.

"This is Echo-1, target has been located. The 'switch' has been confirmed. Requesting orders." Silence filled the room. A small beep followed my mumbled static caused the man to raise one hand and point three fingers towards Jin and Rei. The men nodded and aimed their tranquilizer guns at Rei and Jin. Without a word they fired. Sensing something bad Rei grabbed Jin and dodged before they could hit them. Flipping the table over Rei created cover for Jin. Obviously stunned the it took the men a couple seconds to realize that Rei and Jin had avoided the tranquilizers. In those seconds Rei had dashed out towards the nearest man and attacked him. Grabbing his arm and flipping him over, cuffing his arms behind him with the handcuffs at his side. It all happened so fast that the man couldn't do anything. The other man next to him finally realized that it was Rei and aimed his taser at Rei. Ducking the electric wires Rei came up close to the man and used the palm of her hand to knock his chin upwards, bringing her knee into his crotch as well. She then landed a punch in his gut and flipped him over so he faced his comrades. Using him as a body shield she glared at the other men. During her attack the others had come back to reality and watched as she took down two of their elite troops in seconds.

"STOP!" The man called Echo-1 raised his voice. "Lower your weapons." The men seemed a little hesitant but followed their superiors' orders and lowered their tranquillizer guns and tasers.

"What business do you have with us?" Rei was still on guard, her eyes kept track of each of their movements. The moment anyone made a move for their weapon she would attack again.

"Calm down Ms. Misuzo. We are here to retrieve Mr. Kwon." The man removed his helmet and his old face shocked Rei more than them knowing her name. He was the convenience store owner whose store was two blocks away. She had visited and chatted with him often.

"Mr. Warashi? What's going on?

"Could you just put him down first?" Noticing how her grip on the man's arm had tightened she let him go and his body fell to the floor.

"Tell me, what's going on and what's any of this got to do with Jin?"

"I'll need you to come with me first. It's not good to talk out here. Follow me, and, I promise things will get explained in time." Doubt showed on her face but just as she was about to protest a sharp pain erupted from her thigh. A brightly colored tranquillizer hung on her leg, the man she had just released let his arm fall, completing his duty.

"You bas-" She fell forward but before she hit the ground an arm caught her fall. His once light brown hair had turned into a dark brown, almost black. Those shining amber eyes were now dull and had more of a red tint. He looked at the sleeping woman in his arms. Her breathing soft and light. He picked her up in a princess carry and sighed.

"Echo squad, we're leaving." His deep and mature voice was nothing like his previous energetic and embarrassed voice. The squad of men replied, 'Yes sir!' through their communicators. Two men helped carry the passed out guy while another released the handcuffed guy. Leaving almost as soon as they had arrived it was almost like they were never there, except for the slight cracks in the door. A helicopter was already waiting atop the roof of the building. Placing Rei gently against the window the man sat down and looked out the window.

"Jin, is this the woman you chose?"