"It's not smart…Miss Nakagawa…to attempt to flee from a hostile government…and not use an alias…"

Hanging from the ceiling, two rusted metal manacles bolted around her wrists, Noriko Nakagawa dangled over a pool of her own blood and tears. Standing before the youthful girl was a stern and mature looking Japanese woman, fully decked out in a black suit and tie. The room they were confined within was no larger than a jail cell with only two, worn-out, fluorescent lights that provided the dimmest of light to the dank and decrepit scene. The lighting made it hard for Noriko to see exactly who she was conversing with, and the additional swelling around her left eye wasn't helping to improve the situation. The tears in her right eye clouded her vision, but she could still see the woman pacing in front of her, each step precise and calculated. Even without her earlier statement, it was obvious the woman worked for the government. She seemed to be enjoying every second of Noriko's torment with a fascination that bordered on masochistic.

Both of Noriko's shoulders seemed to be dislocated from being hoisted up at such an odd angle. Her entire body was wracked with pain, bruises peppering her sensitive flesh along with several lacerations and wounds that lay beneath the torn holes in her outfit. The scar that crossed her cheek had been sliced open to fester, blood trickling down and hardening on her face like crimson tears. Noriko had no idea how these people had found her, or why they had traveled all the way to Los Angeles just to torture her, but it was slowly becoming clear that the Japanese government had something big planned. Her apartment had been broken into as she was settling down to write to Shuya, and several, large men burst in and attacked her. She was knocked unconscious, and when she awoke, she was in the presence of this woman. The woman talked for quite some time, asking for information, and Noriko refused every single request. This refusal had only earned her more beatings and injuries, and the damage was starting to take its toll. Noriko wasn't a physically strong girl, and she wasn't good at handling pain.

"Now Noriko, I think we both know by now that you won't last much longer. You know who I work for, or at least, you know the government I work for. You must also know that I'm going to kill you. Why not just make things easier for yourself? Take a quick and painless death, rather than suffer through this any longer."

"I…" Noriko cried softly, her voice weak, "I…won't…betray…Shuya…"

"That's fine. All I need from you right now are the aliases and locations of Akari Mitsuda, Yuji Naka, and Hara Kazuko. I know that you were the one who helped them hide out in this country Noriko. And I also know that you're the only person who can help me out here. Those three greatly damaged my reputation, and I simply want the opportunity to take my revenge."

"Revenge?"

"Why my dear girl…" the woman seemed to laugh at the question, "surely they mentioned me. My name is Kamana. Invisa Kamana. I was formerly their instructor."

"Y-You…"

"Are you going to tell me what I need to know Noriko?"

"Never…"

"That's a shame. You see, I had only two ways of dealing with this situation. One was to put a bullet between your eyes and end all this pain quickly. The other, which you've now forced me to implement, is to disembowel you with the same rusted knife that was formerly entrusted to Shiro Amasaki, and then force your own intestines down your throat."

"Wait!" Noriko cried out in terror, her eyes widening as she beheld the knife Kamana produced from her jacket pocket, "I'll talk! I'll talk! Just…don't. Anything but that! I don't care about those others! I only care about Shuya."

"Good girl," Kamana laughed, "I always knew you were weak. I'll make this quick once you tell me what I need to know."

Noriko spilled her guts, choosing that over the literal meaning of the phrase. She gave Kamana everything she needed to know, from location to the names they had taken on and the friends they had made. Of course, despite giving up everything she knew to Kamana, Noriko was still forced to hang there, her wrists bleeding as the metal cut into her flesh. Kamana left the room for what seemed like an eternity to Noriko, two heavily armed guards taking her place by the door. Were Noriko a casual observer, she probably would have found this comical, as everyone knows you don't need guards to ensure that no trouble comes from someone in her position. Her feet throbbed within the tight confines of her shoes, all the blood having flowed southward and cramming its way into her lower extremities.

Kamana reentered the room and dismissed the guards, leaving Noriko alone with her once again. Kamana's face held a frighteningly chipper smile. The woman was literally grinning from ear to ear, a modern day Cheshire cat, if you will. Reaching behind her back, she withdrew a pistol, and before Noriko's eyes, she checked the clip to make sure she had the ammo to get the job done. She, of course, already knew that she was fully prepared to end the young girl's life, but the look on Noriko's face, that look of terror and realization that she was, in fact, going to die, was what Kamana had been aiming for. Stepping forward, she raised the gun and placed it against Noriko's temple for a minute. Then after pondering, she relocated the barrel to the center of Noriko's forehead, so the girl would see it coming right before she died.

"I apologize for leaving you hanging," she laughed at her own pun, "but I had to make sure the information you gave me was accurate. It has been verified and a team has been sent out to collect the three fugitives. I greatly appreciate what you've helped me accomplish, Miss Nakagawa. I really do. And now, I think it's time to uphold my end of our little bargain."

With a quick motion of Kamana's finger, a bullet tore through Noriko Nakagawa's skull and exited out the other side before embedding itself in the concrete wall behind her. A pair of guards moved into the room to gather up the body and take it away, but they were halted by a wave of Kamana's hand. With another motion of her finger, she ordered them out, following close behind and locking the door behind her. As she looked through the grimy window in the door, she smirked, knowing that after eliminating of Japan's most wanted fugitives, she would surely regain some of her former honor and respect. Noriko Nakagawa however, was not so lucky. Her body was destined to hang there until the flesh around her wrists was eaten away to such an extent that her hands would no longer be able to be held within the manacles. Her final thought, right before the bullet ripped through her brain, was a silent apology to Hara, Yuji, Akari, and above all else, Shuya Nanahara.

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It had been difficult to find a quality apartment, but with help from Noriko, and some financial support from Abe, Yuji Naka, Hara Kazuko, and Akari Mitsuda all shared a large, studio apartment in downtown Los Angeles. It was there that the three fugitives, each one with fierce memories of horror and death burned into their minds, spent their nights. Groceries were delivered, anything they needed was sent in by an aid to the resistance, and thus the trio rarely had any reason to venture beyond the safety of their new home. However, all of the security in the world wasn't enough to stop what plans Kamana had already set into motion. Within an hour of Noriko's confession, an elite force of soldiers had formed ranks outside their building, waiting for the order to invade. Kamana's voice crackled over the leader's headset, and as he paused to listen, she gave the command to begin the operation.

Upstairs, Hara and Yuji sat together on the couch, a blanket draped across both of their laps as they watched a televised version of Romeo & Juliet play over their big screen TV. Hara's head rested on Yuji's shoulder, a happy sigh pushing past her lips every so often, usually followed by a gentle kiss to his neck. Although he didn't show it, Yuji was the happiest he had been in a very long time, almost as though the horrors of two editions of the Program had been swept away. His hand rested on Hara's exposed stomach beneath the blanket, rubbing in gentle circles as he returned Hara's kisses in a manner so sweet that it almost didn't suit his intense masculinity.

A week prior, Hara had noticed a change in her cycle, and at first, she thought nothing of it. After all, if it were possible to accurately predict when a girl's period was going to go into effect, drug companies would be out of a job. However, after a few days had passed, Hara grew suspicious and concerned. Being the responsible girl that she was, she added a pregnancy test to the list of groceries being ordered to the apartment. Two minutes after peeing on the stick, Hara found herself with a blue cross and a bun in the oven. She mulled it over in her head, worried about what Yuji might think if he found out, but there would eventually be no way she could possibly hide what was growing inside of her. So she came forward with the good news and Yuji was overjoyed, to say the least. He was going to be a father and Hara, a mother. He cared little about the possible expenses, and his only thoughts were of Hara, and how soon, he would ask her to be his bride.

While the other two remained together on the lower level, Akari sat at her computer, typing away at a memoir she had started writing on the first day that she, Hara, and Yuji had set foot on American soil. Certainly, it was ambitious for a nineteen year old girl to even consider writing a biography of her life, but given everything she had been through, it almost seemed like it was her duty to write it. Besides, there was little else she could do, given how little the group left the apartment. Her only other activities included: watching soap operas with Hara, listening to a set of "How to Speak English: Japanese Edition" tapes that Yuji bought for the three of them to learn together, and of course, she could always tease the perverted old man in the building across from hers. He had a telescope and kept it pointed into their apartment on a constant basis, specifically on Akari's room. So rather than find some way to force the man to stop, Akari would tease him, occasionally flashing her breasts. She didn't care what some old man did to get his rocks off, and she didn't care if he saw her body. An entire nation had seen her naked on national television. One, lonely, old man was hardly going to make her uncomfortable.

There was a buzz over the intercom, indicating the presence of an outsider requesting access to their home. Akari acknowledged the noise, but she wasn't going to move from her seat just to ring someone into the building. She was right in her groove of typing and the keys were becoming little more than a blur to her. If she stopped, she'd lose all of her momentum and she would have to start the whole process over again. Besides, the other two were downstairs while she was one level above them. There was no reason for her to waste time and energy when both Hara and Yuji were closer to the door than she. Hating Akari a little bit for disturbing her peace, Hara cast aside the covering and shuffled over to the door in her bunny slipper, applying her finger to the button and requesting identification. The man outside identified himself as a UPS delivery man with a package for them, something not at all uncommon. Hara rang him in without giving it a second thought, and then she returned to her seat beside Yuji.

After a ten minute gap, a lot longer than it normally took a delivery guy to get to their floor and apartment, there came a knock on the door, and Hara, once again, rose from her seat to answer it. She didn't even bother looking through the peephole to see the delivery guy before she opened the door. After all, deliveries were very common to them, as Abe was always sending new things to the trio. Smiling as always as the door creaked open, Hara didn't even have time to register the gun in the man's hand before he fired twice into her abdomen. She felt the sharp twinge of pain and looked down to find two darts lodged through her shirt, in the flesh below her neck. Turning slowly, she looked at Yuji with a pleading look, his eyes still transfixed on the television.

"Yuji…" she rasped as she pulled the darts out of her body and showed them to him, "help…"

In the short time that all of this had occurred, the delivery guy, really a soldier sent by the Japanese government, grabbed Hara around the waist and yanked her bodily out of the apartment. Yuji heard her cry for help, and turned just in time to see his girlfriend go flying out of the apartment before five armed men stormed inside. He rolled off the couch and ducked behind and upholstered chair just as a barrage of tranquilizer darts turned the couch into a pin cushion. The soldiers rushed forward, looking for a quick and painless end to the operation. Yuji maneuvered around the chair as more shots were fired, but there was very little he could do to avoid them. He was trapped, pinned down by whoever these people were, and they had already captured Hara. He raised his hands as a sign of defeat, essentially begging for mercy, as a soldier to his left raised his gun to fire. That soldier never got the chance, as the left side of his head exploded through the right side of his head with a spectacular show of blood and gore.

"Yuji!" Akari called from the upper level, "Catch!"

Akari tossed a weapon over the railing, a pump action shotgun with plenty of ammo to spare. Yuji caught it, pumped it, and fired a blast into the closest soldier, all with one hand. The fight was on and suddenly, it wasn't so one-sided in favor of the imposing military. High above, Akari shoved her bed up against the entryway from the stairs, barricading herself in from any possible attack before raining down a volley of bullets from the plethora of handguns she kept tucked away in her closet. Soldiers were dropping like flies, somehow unable to bring down a pair of untrained fugitives. Yuji's shotgun kept them ducking for cover, unable to get a good shot in, while Akari's far more accurate pistols were breaking limbs and shattering skulls from up above. Half a dozen men lay crumpled across the apartment floor as another dozen filtered in, standing off against Yuji and Akari. Akari stared down as the soldiers split up, making a pathway for a demon she knew all too well. She roared and prepared to pull the trigger when Kamana raised her hand, issuing a ceasefire.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you Mitsuda," Kamana spoke clearly without even the slightest hint of wavering in her voice, "you see…we have Miss Kazuko. And if you kill me, who will give the order to keep her unharmed?"

"You bitch!" Yuji cursed at his former teacher, "If you hurt her, I swear to God I'll kill you."

"Temper, Yuji. As long as you do not force me to do something rash, then Miss Kazuko will be just fine. You and Miss Mitsuda have been our main targets all along. You see Yuji, the government doesn't take kindly to having the Program disrupted, specifically, by having not just one, but two students escape. Hara won fair and square. She had no idea what you were planning. That's an awful way to treat your girlfriend, letting her think you to be dead. Anyway, Hara has no enemies in the Japanese government. You two are the ones we want, and if you cooperate, Hara will come out of this unharmed."

Yuji shook with a mixture of rage and anxiety, thoughts of all the unspeakable acts they could do to Hara, just to keep him in line, racing through his head. Akari felt a bond of sisterhood with Hara, a bond that could only be formed when two girls have gone through such a traumatic experience together. She knew how close Yuji and Hara were, but she couldn't allow either of them to be captured, lest the entire resistance movement be rendered moot. She was about to yell out to Yuji for him not to listen to Kamana, when she felt the prick of a dart in the side of her neck. One of the soldiers had taken their moment of distraction to aim and fire upon the girl, catching her completely defenseless. She gasped and slumped against the railing, toppling over the edge. With the way she was falling, a drop from that height could snap her neck, and Yuji knew this. Abandoning his defensive position, he lunged forward, catching the girl as she slowly lost consciousness. He didn't even have time to put her down when three more darts injected themselves into his arm. Yuji collapsed, still holding Akari in his arms, as the soldiers moved in to collect their spoils.

"We have them," said Kamana, already on her cell phone and talking to a superior, "all three. The game is set to commence in just a few days. We only have one last loose end to tie up before we can begin to set our plan in motion."

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As he sat in his office, sorting through the pile of midterm tests he had yet to grade, Professor Abe Babigee was suddenly interrupted as his door burst open an a bullet was plugged into his right shoulder. He let out a scream of intense pain that he hadn't felt in a long time as the blood sprayed from his arm and coated the tests in a red glaze. Kamana entered the room and fired three more shots, one into his other arm, and one into each of his legs, just to ensure that he didn't try anything like the previous trio had. With pain and adrenaline coursing through his body, Abe's eyes bolted wide open as he looked upon the face of an evil from his past. He recognized her immediately. It was hard to forget the face of someone who had forced him to murder and kill people he didn't even know. He slumped back in his chair, arms and legs too aggrieved to move into a more suitable position as Kamana approached.

"When I broke you out of prison, Mr. Babigee, I never in a million years would have dreamed that you would rise up and go to the aid of Shuya Nanahara and his pathetic resistance movement."

"What can I say Kaymanek," he choked out, "I don't like you."

"First of all, Kaymanek is not my real name. It's Kamana. It always has been, and it always will be. Second, when you got this job as a professor, a professor of psychology no less, did you really think you managed that little feat all on your own? Surely you can't believe that a convicted felon would even be considered to teach the impressionable young minds of American youths. No, we did that. We needed you in this position of power, Mr. Babigee."

"What the hell are you talking about? I graduated, and I got this job on my own merits."

"You can tell yourself that all you like, Mr. Babigee. Your delusional words are not going to make it true. Anyway, the reason I've come here today, and shot you, is because we have, in our possession, Akari Mitsuda and Yuji Naka."

"No! How did you find them? How the fuck did you find them?"

"Well, you can thank Miss Nakagawa for that. She told me everything I wanted to know. She's dead now of course. And you will be too, soon enough."

"Leave those kids alone…they deserve a chance…to survive…"

"They will. They will have a chance. You see, Akari and Yuji are going to play a game, one that they are all too familiar with. This is why I've come you specifically, Mr. Babigee. You see, I've learned that your psychology class is scheduled to go on a little trip tomorrow. That's the perfect opportunity for what we want."

"My…class? No…not them…you can't. You won't get away with it."

"Oh Mr. Babigee," Kamana laughed like a schoolgirl, "what makes you say that? The Japanese government is willing to pay whatever is required, as long as we can get a foothold in this country. Your class will be the first wave. You should be proud Mr. Babigee. You're going to die for a very noble cause."

Before he could utter a response, Kamana's pistol fired twice into his skull, blowing the professor backwards, dead in his chair. She smiled, content with the knowledge that in the course of one night, she had crippled the resistance. Shuya Nanahara's lover was dead, as was his greatest ally, and the three fugitives he had aided and helped to escape were now in custody once again. Before leaving the office, she rummaged through Professor Babigee's desk and pulled out his class list, going over it once before stuffing it into her pocket. The two soldiers that had accompanied her removed the body and tidied up the room to hide any evidence of foul play. The next day, everything Kamana had worked for would come to pass, and she needed her rest to prepare.