The Woman & The Shadow

Yuki wandered about, heading back towards his home as if it were second nature. Yuki's body was there, walking on his way through the somewhat crowded sidewalks of Star City, but his mind was elsewhere.

He fades away from time to time thinking about the past, reminiscing about the times and memories he shared with his father, thinking about what could have been if his father came home that day.

Yuki and his father had a close relationship, which is something you don't see much within adolescence, his father was not only his family, but he was a friend as well.

Now, Yuki is alone, with Trivy of course, but inside, he is alone.

The Man continued to follow Yuki through the streets but remained to watch him from afar, something the man had been trained to do.

The man thought of this mission to be an easy task since no one would get in the way and interfere with his planned abduction of Yuki.

That was the case, but the Man soon realized that this may not be such an easy one after seeing a woman approach Yuki, a woman who appeared to be in her mid to late twenties, a woman who looked fit enough to take care of herself.

She wore a trench coat with a Star City Astros Baseball Cap, as well as a shirt, jeans, and boots.

"It appears he knows more than just the therapist…"

That was the question, did Yuki know this woman, this woman that was unfamiliar even to Yuki's shadow.

From the Man's perspective, they seemed like old friends catching up on the times they were distant from each other, friends that used to be close but were separated by uncontrollable circumstances.

But from young Yuki's perspective, she was more confrontational and threatening than the unknown, well anyone would be if they were holding their hand over your mouth.

"Whatever you do, DO NOT yell… you're being followed." the woman said as she calmly let's go of Yuki's mouth.

"Are you crazy?! No one is following me, lady!" Yuki shouted, getting the attention of only a few around him, as this was an everyday thing for veteran workers of Star City.

"Are you a moron!!" The woman shouted as this gained the attention of the shadow, who is shocked at the realization that his cover may have been blown.

"I think my cover has been blown, but how?!" the man still questions just how did the two even locate the man, he remained well enough away from him to dispel any suspicion, what was his mistake, what was his misstep?

The man immediately panics, as he was not trained to react if his cover was blown if his mission was threatened by failure.

He panicked and started to push through the human barriers that separate him from Yuki and the strange woman.

The woman easily spots this, something Yuki still hasn't even the slightest of what's going on, and grabs Yuki's hand.

"C'mon, he's coming!" The Woman starts running as she finishes her words, she crosses the street and into traffic, which stops a car in the process. This wasn't anything new for the war-torn soldiers who worked through the rigorous and brutal Star City.

"Would you let go of me!! I don't know you, lady!!"

"The man will probably kill you now since his cover was blown!"

"What are you talking about?! There is no man, lady!"

"See for yourself!"

Yuki looks back and tries to prove to the lady, whom he believes isn't at an adequate level of sanity, that no one is following them.

Yuki's certainty slowly turns into doubt at the realization of this 6-foot man in all black beaming through the crowd and aiming his discomfort straight at Yuki and the woman.

Yuki has never seen this man before, and nor does he want to meet him after seeing how desperate he looks just to catch up to him and the woman.

"What the?! Who the hell is that?!"

"He's been following you for some time now, you were just too slow to notice!"

"Huh?! For some time?! That means you've been following me too?!"

"Follow?! You hardly go anywhere, just school, home, and that office on Sundays!!"

"What?! How long have you two been following me?!" The woman let's go of Yuki's hand, and Yuki starts running on his own, not really thinking that his hand was free, and just thinking of a way to get out of this scenario that he found himself in.

"Stop asking questions! Once we hit the corner here on our right, there'll be a van waiting for us!"

"Who are you?!". The woman thought that Yuki would never stop asking questions, but she dismissed his curiosity as nothing more than adrenaline taking its course.

Yuki's body acted in a flight manner during this perception of a harmful entity that continued to pursue him and the Woman who had no name.

The corner gained closer and closer, and Yuki, who had never been in a situation nearly as fearful as the one he currently found himself in, had never felt this way before.

Yuki isn't the one who would normally work out beyond the minimum requirement given to a student within a P.E. class, but now, during this moment where it is almost necessary to be in shape, he didn't feel tired or exhausted, if anything he felt as if he were going to erupt with the amount of energy that filled his body.

His focus was almost heightened, the corner gained closer and Yuki couldn't think of anything else but immediately doing as the woman with no name instructed him.

Yuki wasn't prepared for something like this to occur, hell, would anyone be prepared for something as chaotic and ironic as this event.

The first hour Yuki decides to get fresh air from the suffocating fumes of adolescence and agony, an event as confusing and frightening as this one occurs.

The corner finally came as it felt close to an eternity to arrive there, and the woman and Yuki turned, almost simultaneously, as if they were both prepared for a situation as nerve-inducing as this one.

Yuki sees a van, the van that the woman claimed to be there waiting for them, but was it true?

Was this woman even the one who he should be following?

These are all questions that floated around Yuki's cognition, but none fell flat on his radar, as he was only focused on retreating from the suspicious individual who was vigorously chasing them as if it were the man's life purpose to do so.

Yuki did the only thing that he knew, and the only natural response to something of this magnitude, escape from it.

The woman whips out a handheld radio device and yells "Hey! Open the back up!"

"Got It!" was swiftly delayed back to the woman's radio.

The woman was slightly uncomfortable with having to use such prehistoric technology, especially at a time like this, when a first impression can travel miles ahead of the ratio necessary for this device to get a signal.

The back of the classic white van opens up, and the escape path is now in plain sight.

Yuki's confidence was still within the depths of despair, well, even though the anchor was put there, it still remains within the sunken ships.

The woman didn't hesitate to enter the van in a professional manner, similar to a dive or a jump kick, something that not many can pull off when jumping into an open vehicle.

The woman, after her unnecessary and extraordinary entrance into their escape vehicle, noticed that Yuki wasn't as reluctant.

He stood there, frozen, at the entrance of the vehicle, psychologically panicking, not knowing what to do in a situation where knowing nothing of the future, or even the present, was his current predicament.

Why was this happening?

And why him out of all lonely high school students?

Yuki would very much rather be in bed sulking, in a very masculine and prideful manner, over being here, in a life-threatening situation where his natural flight reaction has crashed into the ravenous mountains, having been blinded by the rain clouds.

Yuki's dilated pupils stared down the entrance of this van as if it were an endless tunnel, with the possibility of stumbling upon the light or being stuck in carnivorous darkness.

"What's with that face?". The woman had no time for Yuki's early mid-life crisis, and quite frankly, neither did he.

The woman swiftly grabbed Yuki's collar and tugged him into the van as if she were a professional at the art of tug of war, a simple pull can go miles ahead of just first place.

The woman hurried to close the doors of the van and slammed the roof twice, an obvious signal to the driver to do nothing more than withdraw from the scene.

The leering eyes of the stalker remained intact with the van, the mission still was in reach for him, and defeat was not an option for him.

Failure was not an option.