I

Ka-ching! The sound of a round being loaded into the chamber of an anti-materiel rifle. An especially dangerous weapon, even more powerful if put into the hands of a masterfully skilled operator, such as the one currently behind the scope. Laying in the rubble on top of the roof of one of the tallest buildings in the city, a girl with powdery blue hair had been making preparations for several minutes, to make sure she only needed one shot.

"Sinon, do you have a clear shot?" The radio she had placed next to her crackled to life, startling her slightly. She steadied herself and looked down the scope, hoping to find her target square in her crosshairs. Needless to say, she was disappointed.

"Negative. Windows look reinforced and made of ballistic glass. Also, there's curtains. So I think this one's up to you." She answered.

"Well, that complicates things. Do you at least have a visual on me?" The male voice had an almost joking tone to it.

"Kirito… You're standing in the street waving a glowing purple sword around. In the dead of night, too! Who do you think I am?" She stifled a laugh. "And be careful with that. Just because it's new doesn't mean you can wave it around and blow your cover."

"Right, right. It's about time. Try to make sure nobody sneaks up on me again." Kirito laughed. "That was totally your fault, by the way. What were you thinking falling asleep on the job?"

"To be fair, you had insisted we go to that party the Chief was holding." She rolled her eyes, even though there was no way Kirito could've seen it.

"Yeah, yeah. It's time. I'm going in." Sinon watched as he hung his new photon blade at his side, under his coat. He gently pushed the door aside and stepped into the building. Sinon and Kirito were an amazing team, a cohesive unit. The TSG's best. The two were almost as close as brother and sister, though they weren't related at all. Their frequent jokes and making fun of each other was a testament to that. In some circumstances, one might even think they were rivals, but once in the field, they were peas in a pod and serious as could be.

Sinon watched intently through her scope as Kirito presented his fake I.D. to the woman behind the front desk. She held her breath, before the woman gave Kirito a curt nod, and he proceeded on his way. Kirito walked quickly, but not so fast as to alert the people around him to his identity or his intentions. Kirito and Sinon had been trained only by the best; their mentor Heathcliff was the only agent able to surpass them in the field… Was. Sinon went back to that horrible day, that ridiculous assignment. Kirito and Sinon had known it was difficult. Impossible, even. But Heathcliff never gave up- he never backed down.

"Sinon." The voice from her radio came again. "I'm gonna need you to hack into something… The door here's locked." He didn't seem too happy about it.

"What? The briefing didn't say anything about hacking." It wasn't as if she couldn't hack; she could, but the fact that their intel didn't encompass everything was… Unsettling.

"I know, that's what I'm worried about." His voice was dead serious. "It's a keypad, I'm plugging you in now."

"Roger." Sinon flipped open the small but rugged laptop that rested on the ground to her right. "Go ahead." Her eyes widened as the schematics and code started to flood her computer screen. "Th-this is top-level encryption! The stuff the government uses to protect nuclear launch codes, etcetera."

"Can you do it?" That was Kirito. Serious and straight to the point in the field, joking and easygoing anywhere else. Maybe that's why he and Sinon were paired, and now shared such a close connection. Their personalities were almost indistinguishable.

"Of course. It'll take a bit, though."

"Well, I hope it doesn't take as long as that time they sent us to see if North Korea was making nuclear warheads. I almost fell asleep." His voice indicated boredom, as he waited for Sinon to crack the code.

"Pfft." Sinon huffed. "I'd like to see you try."

"That's what I have you for, isn't it?"

"Door's open. Get moving, joker." Sinon almost smiled. Something exclusively Kirito could make her do, but it was still a rare occurrence in the field.

Kirito hugged the wall, and carefully opened the door before peeking inside. An empty room, a round table with 5 seats around it in the middle. Papers were scattered all over the mahogany surface. Quickly examining the room to make sure there were no visible traps, Kirito entered quickly, and began to search through the papers on the table.

"Careful, Kirito. What's in there? Actually, could you just open the goddamned curtains?" She decided to take a look for herself.

Kirito stepped over to open the curtains, and Sinon could see inside. "Careful, Kirito. Where do you think they all went?"

"Well…" Kirito examined the contents of the paper he was holding. "I'm not sure… Wait." He said, as his nose picked up on a familiar scent. Nearby on the table, a mug filled with brown liquid steamed, from being recently heated. "They're here somewhere." He muttered under his breath, as to only allow Sinon to hear.

Suddenly, from behind one of the many wall panels, a small bang could be heard, along with a quiet curse to accompany it. Bingo. Kirito dashed forward, blade unclipped from his side and humming intimidatingly. Sinon watched in awe as he thrust it into the wall, it searing straight through the material, and the reinforced steel that lay underneath. She knew the TSG had state-of-the-art equipment and technology, but this? This was insane. Kirito used the blade of his beam sword to cut an opening in the wall large enough for a person to fit through. Sure enough, one man in a ruffled business suit was huddled in a small reinforced compartment, hidden behind a wall panel.

"Please don't hurt me!" The man almost screamed, cowering. "I don't know anything! I'm just an investor! They forced me in here and told me not to come out until whoever was here left!"

"So that's how low the Kaneshiro company has stooped, hmm? Shoving helpless investors into vaults as distractions." Kirito's voice came, disgusted.

"They didn't tell me anything, I swear!" The man was still cowering in fear.

"Get out of here." Kirito's tone softened slightly, as the man got up and ran for his life, hands above his head in a sign of surrender. Sinon and Kirito had been chasing the higher ups of the company for almost two years, as their intel operative "The Rat" had collected info pertaining to the sale of weapons to terrorist groups, by the Kaneshiro weapons company. But wherever they went, it seemed that the company was always a step ahead. They always knew what operation the TSG had planned next. But this time was supposed to be different. The plans were kept only in paper, and were destroyed once Sinon and Kirito had been briefed. The company's board didn't even know about the meeting they were going to have; only the CEO did. But somehow, they were gone, before Kirito had even had a chance to show off his new sword.

No matter, however- they had left behind something equally important. The company's most important documents. Recent transactions, emails, finance reports. It seemed like this was a relatively important meeting. Top secret, even. So how did that rat get her info on it? Argo never failed to impress Kirito, with her seeming 'omniscience.' Nevertheless, they hadn't got what they came for, but what they were rewarded with was arguably more important. "Sinon?" He radioed as he stuffed pieces of paper into his utility pockets.

"Yeah? Anything good down there?" She asked.

"Better than good. We have what we need. Let's get out of here."

"These are quite the find, Kazuto. Well done." The chief congratulated him. A tall, african-american man by the name of Andrew, but he went under the callsign "Agil". Kazuto only went by the callsign "Kirito" while he was in the field, but he'd been told several times that it wasn't "creative enough" or that it was "too easy to crack- some foreign country is gonna kick down your door and kick your ass!"

Kazuto rubbed the back of his neck. He and Andrew had quite a good relationship, despite their roles in the workplace. "It was nothing… In fact, I had effectively no resistance. The only thing that needed to be down was Sinon hacking a keypad. That's literally all."

"I'm not surprised, actually. The schematics of the building had almost no defence mechanisms, and it's almost Christmas, so the guards should have been few and far in-between."

"Wha-what?" Shino gawked. "You knew?" She had spent most of the meeting in silence- she found the chief slightly intimidating, as he was of massive height- almost reaching seven feet. "Then don't you think sending both of us was a little overkill?"

"It wasn't the mission I was worried about. I heard from the rat that the Kaneshiro company had hired a contractor to keep the higher-ups safe. She's only known by the name "Lightning-Flash".

"Ooh, Lightning Flash. Sounds pretty intimidating. I bet she's just a big wuss." Kazuto crossed his arms.

"Ha, ha. You wish, Kazuto. Apparently, nobody even knows what weapon she uses; she attacks so freaking fast. That and the fact that nobody's survived to tell, even if they did see what weapon she uses."

Kazuto's arms dropped back to his sides and the smug look was wiped off of his face. "N-no way! Is that even humanly possible?"

"Apparently so. I sent both of you just in case she decided to show up. Can't go losing one or both of our best operatives." Andrew chuckled. "Anyway, that's it for the debrief. You two have have combat training with Ryoutarou."

Shino and Kazuto simultaneously rolled their eyes. "Great." Shino's dull voice made it clear that she wasn't looking forward to "training." Last time, Ryoutarou had made them run around and dodge bullets for almost half an hour, saying that it "improved their battlefield skills substantially."

"That wasn't too bad." Kazuto put his hands behind his head in a relaxed gesture, as the pair walked out of the large room that contained all of the TSG's training equipment.

"Easy for you to say…" Shino pouted. During the course of the exercise, she had acquired a few new bruises. Their class had been on 'defensive techniques', as Ryoutarou liked to call it. In reality, he just got to shoot rubber bullets at them while they tried their best to block or deflect them. Kazuto was already used to deflecting and cutting bullets with his sword, and his new photon sword only made it easier for him. Shino, however, was stuck jumping from cover to cover and grabbing whatever equipment Klein had made available to them. Today, it had been a baseball bat. What the hell was he thinking? Needless to say, if one were to walk by the door leading to the large training room, they would have heard rifle fire, then a series of feminine yelps and shrieks, and long slurs of not-so-feminine curses, mostly directed at one person in particular.

"You can't deny it might come in handy one day." Kazuto pantomimed Shino trying to swing at bullets with her baseball bat. It had looked hilarious, he wouldn't let her forget it any time soon.

Shino playfully punched Kazuto in the arm. "Maybe. I still don't think it was worth it, though." She rubbed a spot on her shoulder that was a particularly painful-looking colour of purplish-brown.

Kazuto chuckled, as the two headed to their personal barracks room. Normally, males and females' sleeping quarters were separated, according to the fraternization rules of the TSG. However, an exception was made for Kazuto and Shino, as Andrew had ruled that if they didn't spend every waking (and slumbering as well, apparently) moment together, it would mess up their team dynamic. Kazuto could probably guess that that was not the reason Andrew had made an exception, but he didn't like to think about it.

Kazuto took off his black operative's coat, and Shino removed her urban digital camouflaged fatigues. She usually liked to wear more of a forest-pattern green, but the mission had required her make a change of wardrobe. Kazuto, on the other hand, had no problem with wearing anything, as long it was black and masculine. The room was simple, with two beds in opposite corners of the room, and a door leading to a bare but functional bathroom. It certainly wasn't as inviting as a civilian home, with stark white walls, devoid of any decoration, with a dark laminate floor, and stark white bedsheets to match. The white light given off by the lamps didn't help either, just bathing everything in a sterile blinding white. Kirito, in just his base layer, climbed into the bed, eager to let sleep take hold of him. Sinon followed suit, turning the lights off before she did so.

"Goodnight, Kazuto." She yawned.

"You too, Shino. Big, important mission tomorrow." He said it as a joke; it had become an inside joke between the two. Even if the next day was completely free. Shino and Kazuto's relationship extended beyond just work. Extended beyond friends, even. It was almost as if they were two halves to one person. Indeed, when you have to accompany somebody through hell and back, you are guaranteed to grow close.

A/N: Boom shaka-laka! Second story, yay! So I'm sure you guys have lots of questions- the TSG are the initials of Japan's special operatives force, if you were to say it in Japanese. And that's it for question period! Also, I don't have a beta or anything for this story, and I don't intend to. Don't get me wrong, betas are great, but I want to play this one solo. (See what I did there? ;D) I'm also doing away with pre-chapter authors notes and chapter titles alltogether. I know, it's probably a bad idea, but I don't think they're adding anything to my stories anymore. Now let it be known that I am NOT abandoning or putting Swords and Bows on hold, I'll work on both stories simultaneously. That's right. Super impressive, huh? Anyway, if you like the concept or the story in general, please drop a review! It'd be greatly appreciated, and with all work I do, constructive criticism is not only accepted but welcomed. :). Anyways, that should be all for now. EDIT: Whoah, this story is really similar to In Darkness We Fall, except the fact that it's not as good as Shiori07's story. I had no intention of copying him or anything, I came up with the secret agent idea myself. But the story might need a title change, just so it's easier to tell them apart. If you guys have any ideas, let me know! Thanks. SECOND EDIT: So after receiving a very helpful review, I have realized that I do use one analogy WAY too much in this chapter, so I have edited it slightly to alleviate that issue.

Until next time,

-TheSilentSwordsman