AN: Welcome readers to this story! Thanks for giving it a chance. This is my first time publishing something and this idea stuck in my head for a while now. My native language is German and I try to make no mistakes in spelling or grammar, but if you find some mistakes, let me know. I really would love your comments about my story, so please review – constructive criticism.

I am sticking with the original romaji spelling of names and words. If I use them, you can find the translation below the chapter.

Okay, on to the story! Enjoy ;-)

プロローグ

(Prologue)

A single figure stood in the shadows of a tree opposite the brightly lit building – the Beika Central Hospital. In order not to be seen and recognized, the woman in her late thirties wore black cloths and sunglasses. Impatiently she glanced at her watch. It was 11:12pm. After a moment, she lifted her head and stared at the hospital building again. She was waiting for her husband to contact her.

Several minutes later, the ringing of her cell phone, yanked the woman out of her stupor. She put her black gloved fingers into her coat pocket and pulled her black cell phone out.

"Yes?" she answered the call with her rough voice.

"The boy was born two hours ago." she heard the deep voice of her husband on the other end.

"And why weren't you calling me two hours ago?"

"Amarula – darling – everything went according to the plan, despite the complications we had. That's why I call now."

"What complications?" Amarula, the woman was named, asked nervously.

"Well, you know – the boy was born two months earlier than expected. He wasn't breathing when he was born and his heart stopped a few times." he reported his wife, "But the doctor got the problem under control. His heart beats steadily and he is now on a ventilator, though the machine could breathe for him, until his lungs are fully developed and he starts breathing by himself. The doctor told her, that he expects her son's condition to keep improving."

He paused for a moment to take a breath and then finished, "That's why I'm calling two hours later."

For a long moment, neither Amarula nor her husband said a word, while they thought about everything. They had expected complications, but they didn't expect the boy to be born two months earlier and then the complications which were caused by the early birth. Their entire calculation, procedure and simulations were based on a boy, who would have been born after a nine-months-pregnancy. They calculated with a variance of two or three days, which wouldn't ruin their procedure. But two months? Amarula cleared her throat, before she started talking again. "Are you sure, that we should continue? Or should we wait a few days or maybe even weeks? It seems that the boy would stay a few weeks in the hospital, due to the complications."

"Don't worry about it. In the last two hours, I regularly checked his vitals and it looks good. His condition, indeed, has improved. You know, what we didn't include in our simulations?"

"What is it?" she asked immediately.

"His' immune system. We didn't include it in our simulations, because we thought, he would be born after nine months. We didn't expect that his immune system wouldn't function properly."

"Right, we have never thought about this problem." she admitted, sounding a bit angry about their mistakes. "Relax honey, everything's okay." he reassured her, "The simulations showed, that his not properly functioning immune system is an advantage for us."

Amarula let out her breath, which she didn't realize, she had been holding. Although her partner and husband couldn't see her, she nodded. "Then we continue?" she asked hopefully. Now it was her husband, who nodded in confirmation.

"Yes we continue."

"By the way dear, do you know that I love you?"

"I know, darling. Take Masao and Reiko with you. We will meet in the NICU. Be careful that you aren't caught, wile walking through the hospital corridors."

"Cognac! I'm not a newbie!" Amarula hissed and hung up, before Cognac had time to respond.

Then minutes later, Amarula, Reiko and Masao entered the hospital through a side entrance. The corridors were dimly lit, because in the night, the duties of nurses and doctors slowed down and the stuff was reduced. The night nurses regularly checked the patients' rooms, the ICU and the NICU. The ER was still silent, because in the last four hours no emergency was there.

It was easy for the three people, dressed in black, to get to the NICU without being seen. They entered the NICU several minutes, after they entered the hospital. About fifteen Babies lay there and were soundly asleep. Every baby in the NICU lay in an incubator, but not all were connected to a ventilator. One man in his late thirties stood next to an incubator and observed the vitals on the monitors. He nodded in satisfaction. Amarula, Reiko and Masao silently approached the man, who seemed to not notice them.

"Nice cloths, but not your colour darling; especially not white." Amarula commented and yanked her husband out of his deep observation. He turned around and looked with a raised eye brow at his wife, but said nothing. Indeed, Cognac, didn't wear black cloths like the other three; he wore red scrubs and a white lab coat. He wore the hospital cloths for the case that someone saw him and asked, if he was a stuff member.

"Is this the boy?" Amarula asked after a silent moment. Cognac turned to the boy again and nodded in confirmation. "He is so tiny and pale." she commented, without leaving her eyes from the boy. Cognac only shrugged.

"We should start, before someone comes looking after the babies." Cognac said after a moment.

"When do the night nurses come?"

"Every two hours." Cognac answered. "The last nurse went in here, a moment, before you three entered. Luckily you didn't run into her, did you?"

"No we didn't." Reiko replied, speaking for the first time, since they have entered the hospital. "Alright, let's move." Cognac ordered.

Reiko and Masao quickly and silently separated the boy from the machine and Reiko ventilated him by hand.

As quick and quiet as possible, they left the NICU with the incubator and went along the corridor to the elevators.

"Which floor?" Amarula asked when they stood in the elevator. "5th floor." Cognac answered in a low voice. Amarula nodded and pressed the right button. Then the elevator doors closed. It didn't take them a minute to get to the fifth floor. Before they stepped into the corridor, they made sure, nobody was close, though he could hear or see them. They went along the corridor and stopped in front of the door, which led to the operation section of the hospital. For a moment, they paused, to see at the right and left, if someone was to be seen or heard. But everything was quiet and though Amarula stepped forward, opened the door and let everyone else enters first. After Amarula entered the room, she closed the door quietly behind her. They now were in the preparations room.

Masao, Reiko and Amarula changed their black cloths against hospital cloths. "Which OR are we taking?" Masao asked, while putting his shirt on. "OR 4." Cognac answered briefly and determinedly.

While Reiko and Masao scrubbed their hands for the operation, Amarula and Cognac entered the OR with the incubator, which say placed next to the operating table. They laid the boy, down on the operating table and induced some narcotics into his system, though he couldn't wake up during the operation.

After they prepared the boy for their planned secretly operation, Amarula shoved the incubator at one side, though it wouldn't be in the way and left the OR together with her husband. Then, Masao and Reiko entered the OR; fully dressed in sterile operating cloths and started with the operation, while Amarula and Cognac now scrubbed their hands and prepared to enter the OR again.

"I can't believe how far we have come in our research." Amarula said impressed. Cognac nodded in agreement. "But there is actually one thing, I haven't told you." Cognac said after a silent moment, surprising his wife. She didn't expect that there was something she didn't know – especially when it was about their research. "What is it?"

"You remember the third test phase with the lab mice?" Cognac asked and continued after he received the confirming nod from Amarula, "I did the third test phase, because I changed our plan a bit."

"What do you mean; you changed our plan a bit?" Amarula asked shocked to hear her husband saying something like that. And she was angry at him, because he didn't trust her that much to tell her everything. She gave him a dark glare and he held up his hands in defeat.

"Don't worry, Darling. It's nothing, which will compromise our original plan. And there is definitely no risk of the operation being a failure." Cognac tried to reassure her, but Amarula couldn't be persuaded so easily and she definitely didn't want to dismiss her husband's actions. "Why did you do this? And what did you do?" Amarula asked curious now, because her husband didn't tell her what exactly he had changed. "Well, I can't tell you this right here, because of–" Cognac nodded with his head in the direction of Masao and Reiko, who were opening the boy's skull. "Too dangerous to tell you this here, but I thought about our project and I wanted to add an idea, which occurred to me since the meeting with the boss."

"Since the meeting with the boss?" Amarula repeated questioningly. She didn't know when her husband had a meeting with the boss. And the boss usually didn't meet with the people; usually the second-in-command did the meetings. "Can we talk about this later? The boy is more important right now." Cognac said, but received another dark glare from his wife. "We are not done Cognac!" she sharply hissed and dried her hands with a sterile cloths. A lot of this in their organization had changed since Armageddon, their boss, was murdered and was replaced by Anokata about ten and a half months ago.

"Cognac, Amarula, we are ready." Masao's voice could be heard through the speakers. Without a word, both entered the OR, fully dressed in sterile operating cloths, masks, gloves and caps. In the OR Cognac went straight to a tray on which a very small chip, some syringes and a laptop lay. He picked up the chip (of course not with his gloved hand) and went to the operating table. Cognac handed Masao the chip, which took it and placed exactly where Cognac showed him to. Then Masao's most difficult part came – he had to connect the chip, with the nerves in the boy's brain, which. Therefore, everyone was quiet; they didn't want to disturb Masao, wile he did his job. After several moments, Masao connected the first nerves, with the chip and nodded to signal that everything was still looking good. Amarula went to the tray and picked up one of the syringes, then went back to the operating table. She handed Reiko the syringe. "Inject this into the boy's brain." Amarula ordered Reiko, who took the syringe from Amarula without hesitation and obeyed. "What was it for?" Reiko asked after she laid the syringe back on the tray. "Just a drug to ensure, that the chip won't be rejected by the boy's body." Amarula casually answered, without looking into Reiko's direction.

"Aha… Is this drug just for the operation or can the chip being rejected at any time?"

"No it can't. With the drug the boy's body shouldn't reject the chip ever." Amarula answered. "But why are we implanting the chip secretly? I mean – when a doctor does a MRI or SAT, the chip will be discovered."

Cognac and Amarula took a deep breath at the same time. It was frustrating, that Reiko asked so many questions. Cognac and Amarula were the leader and superior in this research project and though had the entire knowledge of the entire project. Unfortunately, the organization forced them to work with people, who were allowed to know a little about this project or weren't allowed to know anything about it. Wile Masao was one of the few people who were allowed to know the goal and ways to reach that goal to a certain point, but Reiko wasn't allowed to know anything. Of course, the young neurosurgeon was curious about the project and had many questions and her constantly asking annoyed Cognac, Amarula and Masao.

"The chip won't be discovered." Cognac answered for his wife this time, "Our technicians developed the chip. The chip will blend in with the boy's brain –"

"Like a chameleon?" Reiko interjected. "Exactly my point."

"Can the chip be removed at all?"

"No." Cognac simply said, without adding and explanation.

"What does the chip do? I mean, why are we implanting the chip anyway?"

"Shut up!" Cognac said sharply to Reiko, who just stared with a mixture of surprise and shock at Cognac. "You are already asking too much questions and you aren't even allowed to know anything. We told you enough and now shut your mouth."

Reiko went next to Masao again, to assist him; without saying one word, but she angrily glared at Cognac, who ignored Reiko completely.

Half way through the difficult task Masao noticed a movement. For a moment, he thought, Cognac, Amarula or Reiko just changed places, but then Masao figured out, what the movement was. The boy started to wake up! He was horrified about that thought; he not only could make a mistake and damage the boy's brain, but also the boy could start screaming in pain and would attract unintentional attention outside. But before Masao could say a word, the boy started clinking. After a few times, he opened his azure blue eyes completely.

"What's going on?" Cognac, Reiko and Amarula asked shocked at the same time, when they noticed, the boy's movement.

"Reiko, don't keep standing and staring! Give him a second dose of the narcotics!" Masao quickly demanded. But Reiko didn't move. For a moment no one moved; they just stared at the moving boy. He didn't scream, but turned his head left and right as far as he could under these circumstances. It looked like he took the scene in, but no one believed, the boy would really understand, what they were doing with him. But the boy tried to get away from Masao, which caused Masao to yell at Reiko, though she would finally give the boy another dose of narcotics. Then, Reiko moved and took one of the syringes from the tray, while Amarula held the boy in a tight grip, but the boy didn't want to lye still on the operating table. Everyone sighed in relief, when Reiko injected the dose of narcotics and the boy's eyes closed a moment later. They waited a moment, to be sure, the boy finally was unconscious again; only then Masao continued his process.

"Is everything still looking good?" Cognac asked nervously. He didn't want to stop in the middle of their actions. "Well–" Masao said, concentrating on looking at the chip, "-due to the chip slightly getting out of place, some connections loosened. But I can fix it."

"Shouldn't take too long." Masao added confidently. Cognac nodded in understanding. And Masao was right. Several minutes later, he fixed the connections, which has been loose and then went on with his work. It took him another ten minutes, until he was finished for a moment.

"Alright, I am ready." Masao told Cognac.

He nodded and went to the tray, opening his notebook, which stood on the table and had been in standby-modus the entire time. Cognac opened a program and started configuring the chip. Reiko observed and told Cognac the boy's vitals, while Amarula gave her husband some parameters, which he had to configure and ad into the program. "I'm done. Masao you can finish the operation." Cognac ordered the neurosurgeon, which nodded and checked his work, before he finished the operation.

Before they left the operation section, they put everything back, where it belonged, though no one would get suspicious. They didn't leave the slightest evidence in the operation section, which could confirm, they had been there. That's how the operation worked; whatever your mission was, the organization gave you, you do it quickly, silently and leaving no traces behind, which could lead to you or the organization.

"Someone coming?" Amarula asked Reiko, who looked around the corner. She shook her head. "No one's coming. "Way's clear." Reiko said. Hurriedly all four went to the elevator. Amarula was holding the boy, because, they didn't put the boy back into the incubator. They checked his vitals and breathing, to make sure, they made the right decision. And they gladly noticed, that the boy breathed on his own now, although they were slightly surprised to notice, that the boy's lungs fully functioned now, despite the fact that the boy's lungs weren't fully developed yet. But they hadn't enough time to figure out what the reason for this was. Though it wouldn't be noticeable that the boy went through a brain operation, they bandaged the boy's head and put on a cap, though the bandages wouldn't be noticeable as well.

The four took the elevator and a moment later, they were at the basement. They hurriedly crossed the ER and went in the direction of a side entrance, but the boy suddenly started to cry.

"Calm him down." Cognac demanded. Amarula tried her best to comfort the boy and whispered soothing words into his ear. But it didn't work. "I told you to calm him down. He will attract attention."

"I tried okay! By the way, why don't you try it, if you know everything better than me?" Amarula hissed angrily. "Shall I try?" asked Reiko and opened her arms to take the boy from Amarula. But Reiko was as successful as Amarula was some moments ago. Cognac abruptly stopped; though suddenly, that Amarula and Reiko almost bumped into him. "Gosh, can't you warn us?!"

Cognac angrily glared at his wife. "Do something! He will betray us any moment!" Cognac hissed, ignoring his wife's comment. "Maybe–" she hissed in annoyance, "-you should try to calm him down. You are a father, you should know, how to do it."

Amarula handed Cognac the crying baby, but Cognac pressed the boy into his wife's arms again. "And you are our daughters' mother. You know what to do best."

"Excuse me? Can I help you somehow?" a voice behind Cognac asked politely. Cognac turned around and the other three stared at the corner, from where the person came. It was a doctor, which was evident because of his cloths. He stepped closer to the four people and looked at the boy in Amarula's arms.

"Ah… um… that isn't really necessary. We are just keeping from treating people, who are needing medical attention more than our son. He is just –"Cognac started to explain, but had to trail off, because he was lost for an excuse.

"-he is just tired, but couldn't sleep. We thought it would help him, if we walk with him a little while." Amarula interfered and tried to sound convincing, but the doctor eyed them suspiciously. "Are you sure? May I check? Just to be sure that everything is alright with your son."

"I told you it's not necessary Dr. –"

"Umazaki – Dr. Umazaki"

Dr. Umazaki nodded, but didn't seem to be convinced. And he wasn't. "Maybe he is hungry or you need to change him." Dr. Umazaki suggested.

"Maybe-" Amarula agreed briefly.

"What's your son's name?" Dr. Umazaki asked then. A bit surprised and nervous, the four looked at the doctor. They were sure, that he didn't believe them and they had to get away, before they would attract more attention to other people.

"Um… his name is Yukio." Amarula answered hesitantly, which was noticed by Dr. Umazaki. "Alright. But the visitation hours are long over. Maybe, you want to leave the hospital now and I take you and your son to your room." Dr. Umazaki ordered. The doctor started walking, while pulling out his phone and dialled a number. "I wouldn't say something." Cognac said pressing the riffle of his gun into Umazaki's back.

"You aren't the boy's parents right? And his name isn't Yukio." Umazaki said, holding his phone a few inches away from his ear. "A very good conclusion sensei. My friends and I will go now and we are taking the boy with us." Cognac told the doctor. Umazaki slowly raised his hands in defeat like anyone would do. He held his phone still in his hand. "Why are you kidnapping the boy?"

"It's not your business!" Cognac hissed. "You won't get out of this hospital." Dr. Umazaki assured them, but all four just snorted in disbelief. "We are almost out of the hospital and no one is going to stop us."

"Umazaki-sensei I called the security team!" Nurse Hitomi, who heard everything, Cognac and Umazaki said through the phone, said and rounded the corner.

"No Hitomi, don't come closer! Get away! Run!" Umazaki shouted. But it was too late. In only seconds, the bullets hit Dr. Umazaki and Nurse Hitomi. With shocked and surprised eyes, both fell to the ground; dead. Both were dead, lying motionless on the ground.

"Hey are you guys crazy?!" a patient shouted angrily. He stuck his head out of his hospital room. He wanted to know what was going on, because the turmoil on the corridor and the loud baby cries woke him up.

"Here are sick people trying to rest! And you have nothing else to do but shooting in a hospital?!"

"I hope you get harsh punishment!"

"Get away!"

"Hey, don't hurt this poor baby!"

More patients, who were woken up, stuck their head out of the doors. They cursed and shouted angrily at the four kidnapers. "Great! Now we are in the situation, we tried to avoid." Amarula hissed angrily. But before Cognac could argue back, Masao spoke up, "Shouldn't we move, though we won't get caught?"

"Right." everyone agreed and stepped over the two dead bodies and run along the corridor. The angry patients called after them and woke more patients up. Before Cognac turned around the corner, he aimlessly fired back, though the patients dug into their rooms again.

But they didn't get too far from the corridor, where Cognac shot Dr. Umazaki and Hitomi. And the side entrance was still two corridors away. But six security guys surrounded them.

"Stop! Drop your gun to the ground!" one of the security guys, who stood before the four kidnapers, ordered them. However, Cognac didn't move. He was deep in thoughts, what they could do now. But every idea, he had, was dismissed immediately, because it wouldn't work and he didn't want to get the boy hurt. He had to admit to himself, that he was lost for a plan now. Amarula and Cognac looked around; there was no way out, because the six security guys stood in a circle around them, blocking every direction, they could possibly go and aiming at all four. And another problem was that Masao and Reiko didn't have any guns or other weapons, because they were neurosurgeons and would never work as a field agent. That meant, he and Amarula were the only ones, who had guns; however, Amarula held the boy in her arms and would probably be shot, when she attempted to put out her gun. Although Cognac didn't believe, that one of the security guys would shoot Amarula, because they would risk the boy's life. What to do now?

"Drop the gun and hand the boy to one of my colleagues." the security guy from earlier ordered. But all four didn't move.

"This is the last warning." another security guy said sharply.

"I repeat it once more. Drop your gun and hand the boy over to one of us." the first security guy said firmly again. Cognac knew, they had to do something and they had to do it quick. But what? Cognac raised his gun and pressed against the boy's head. "If you-"he emphasized the word 'you', "-don't drop your guns, I will kill him."

"What?" asked Amarula shocked and stared at her husband. How could he?

"Are you out of your mind? This wasn't planned-" Amarula said angrily, but was silenced by a dark glare of her husband. Cognac hoped his wife would understand what he tried to do. And after a moment of thinking, she briefly nodded, when she came to the same conclusion as he did. The security guys didn't notice Amarula nodding, but they also concluded what Cognac tried to get all four of them out of this situation. Unfortunately, the security team could only follow the kidnapers' order, because they didn't want to risk endangering the boy more than he already was. With one nod of the leader of the security team, the other five dropped their guns; the leader was the last one, who dropped his gun.

"Good – very good – And now, you two-" Cognac pointed with his gun to two security guys, "-step aside to the wall and turn around."

Of course, the two men did what Cognac demanded of them. They stepped to the wall, opening an escape way for the kidnapers, and turned around, though they faced the wall. While Cognac stilled aimed at the now quiet boy, Amarula handed him to Reiko. "Ah, ah, ah, you don't want me to kill the baby, do you?" Cognac said bittersweet, when he noticed two men bending down to take their guns again. But they quickly stepped aside, raising their hands again in defeat, though everyone could see, that they didn't have a gun in their hands. Mentally they cursed, that they were caught by their attempt. When Reiko held the boy securely in her arms, Amarula put out her gun and aimed at the security guys too.

"Alright then – it's time to say goodbye my friends." Cognac said in a happy voice. The four turned around and Cognac pushed Reiko before them, though if the security guys would take their guns again, they would directly aim at Reiko and the boy. The four slowly went backwards. "I wouldn't recommend you guys, following us. You don't want to kill the baby, do you?" Cognac warned them.

They slowly rounded the corner and when Amarula noticed, that the two security guys, who stood face-forward to the wall, wanted to turn around and pick up their weapons, she shot them in the back and both fell instantly dead to the ground. The other security guys didn't dare to follow them. They ran along the corridor, turned around another corner and then ran along another corridor. They could already see the side entrance, where they would thankfully get tout of the hospital. But they forgot something; a little detail, which was however very important.

"Ouch!" Cognac shouted and let his gun drop. Amarula immediately stopped and looked at her husband, who held his hand. Blood was running down his hand. He was shot. She quickly saw another security guy and shot him. But then another bullet riffled through the air and injured Amarula's shoulder. Both, Amarula and Cognac, knew that they had lost now. But before they were going to be arrested, they would escape. Both scientists figured that they somehow would find the boy again and then they would take him with them. But for now, they had to think about themselves. Though, they dug behind a bush and quickly moved away from the scene, without being seen, while they heard, how the security team arrested Reiko and Masao.

"Shit! That went all wrong at the end!" Cognac loudly cursed ten minutes later, when they sat in their black car and were on the road again. While Cognac was angry about the situation, Amarula just sat silently in the passenger side. Before they started their car, they treated their injuries as good as they could with a first-aid-kit. "Why are you so calm? Don't you understand what we lost today?"

"Of course I do!" Amarula shot back, now getting angry herself.

"And what now?"

"We will find him again." Amarula confidently answered, causing Cognac to look surprised and incredulously at him.

"How?"

"Vermouth." Amarula said just this word; nothing more. And although Cognac had a few questions, he dared not to ask them, because his wife's look told him not to and he guessed, that she would explain everything once they were back in their lab.

Megure Jūzō was police officer of the Tōkyō Metropolitan Police Department, Division 1 and investigated the case together with his superior Fujikawa Akaya. But the investigation turned out to be complicated in much different ways. Another doctor examined the boy after the security guy, who took the boy in his arms, went inside the hospital again. Although the doctor saw the boy's head wound, he found nothing on the CT picture, which made everyone curious, including the two investigators. The doctor wanted to observe the boy closely, before discharging him, because he wanted to be sure that the boy's brain wasn't damaged. And luckily it wasn't.

Reiko and Masao of course, were arrested from the police officers in the same night. Both said nothing during their interview and on the way to prison, both committed suicide, leaving Megure and Fujikawa with more questions than answers behind. Amarula and Cognac couldn't be detected, though the investigators wanted to prevent the boy of another kidnapping attempt and stationed police officer in the hospital during the boy's hospital stay.

Another mystery was Kurosawa Ayame. Kurosawa Ayame, who gave birth to the boy, discharged herself thirty minutes after the police informed her, of the kidnapping attempt. She left a short note behind, stating she was only the 'surrogate mother' and that the police should call the boy's birth parents, who turned out to be a young married couple of twenty and twenty-one years of age. And another surprise for Megure was that he knew the couple personally. That made everything more personal to the plump police officer, who always wore grey trousers, a white shirt with black tie under a brown trench coat. Matching to his brown coat, he wore a hat of the same colour.

Of course, the police tried to find Kurosawa Ayame, but they couldn't find her and moreover, they found out, that Kurosawa Ayame didn't exist. Another puzzle for the police without the right answers, and there was one more question without an answer: Why did someone (whoever it was) delete every information about the boy? There existed no medical file anymore, except the birth certificate, which the hospital gave the birth parents of the boy. But sometime after the boy was discharged, someone deleted every medical file and information about the boy. Why and who did this? But again, the police couldn't find an answer for their questions.

After about four months of investigation, the case got closed, although Amarula and Cognac weren't found. The boy luckily was healthy and his brain wasn't damaged, therefore, he could leave the hospital five weeks after the kidnapping attempt. During the next three months, a police car more often passed the house of the little family, but nothing happened. No further attempt to kidnap the boy was made. Megure and Fujikawa were clueless, but had to accept it and closed the case.