Well, ladies, welcome to the first really short chapter of a really weird story that I've been obsessing over for too long. All I ask is that you not take it too seriously.
Enjoy reading, children. Manny Coachen appreciates you all. Sort of.

Today was not pleasant, to say the very least. He would find himself recalling this day in the future for a long time, feeling that vague regret in the back of his mind for months, maybe years. Even though things could have turned out much worse, today he showed one of the first signs that he was far from perfect.

Today, for the first time in a long while, Manny Coachen panicked.

The events seemed to escalade from almost nothing. Earlier, he had received a large stack of papers, all of them related to the international smuggling ring- in which he played a critical part. Some papers were typed in Cohdopian, which he was proudly fluent in, some in English, and some bore his signature in both languages. These papers were currently stored in his safe, hidden inside the second compartment, where no one else could possibly recover them.

Manny began to slot the papers neatly against the safe's corners, with his knife- the Yatagarasu's "key"- in one hand. His calm state of mind abruptly disappeared as he heard a boisterous knocking on his door, which he had left carelessly unlocked. This was his first regret of the day.

He knew who was standing at the door, and he frantically began to hide all the papers in his hand. By some miracle, he had forced the rest of his documents into the safe and shut the small vaulted door. Unfortunately, Manny's mind was too quick for his muscles to follow, and he dropped the knife onto his other hand, slicing it open. He winced and released a brief whine of pain, and hastily flung the knife underneath the safe.

In that instant, the door opened, and Ambassador Colias Palaeno stepped inside to witness his secretary and friend at his worst- hunched over, with a pale, panicked expression, and clutching a bloodied hand.

"Ah, Manny!" Colias began to hurry over to his side, but stopped halfway when he saw the secretary stand up. "What happened to your hand?"

"It's alright, I only nicked it a little," Manny lied quickly, "I accidentally dropped my pocket knife on it." It was partially true, anyway.

Colias didn't seem to acknowledge the possibility that he had startled Manny into dropping the knife onto himself. "It's bleeding quite a bit. How about I help you bandage that?"

"Thanks," Manny said. He really didn't need the help, but his nerves were too fried to decline the offer.

They walked to a nearby restroom- first aid kits were located underneath the sinks- and the ambassador gingerly wrapped a roll of gauze fabric about Manny's hand after he had washed it. While sitting patiently for him to finish, Manny realized that he had been careless, unprepared, and very lucky.

There had been many other times that Ambassador Palaeno had stridden aimlessly into Manny's office while he was dealing with the smuggling ring papers. These times, however, Manny was sitting at his desk and merely had to hide the papers in the wooden drawer as soon as he heard the knocking. This time, he had been caught at the worst possible time, but with a favorable outcome- his injury canceled out any suspicion against him.

Manny would have asked the ambassador to keep out of his office unless in case of emergency, but this would only cast suspicion onto him. Furthermore, he actually didn't mind Colias's presence at all, even if the man was rather clueless. If anything, he liked his company. Colias's warm personality and handsome face was a relief from cold, ugly documents.

Even though he sensed that his boss trusted him, Manny felt a constant danger of being caught working with one of the largest smuggling rings in the world. He was not sure how he would be able to maintain a more innocent persona, but he would have to find some way. If this situation wasn't critical as is, it could turn in the wrong direction more quickly than he could imagine.

When he had taken the life of a young woman years in the past, he had soiled an otherwise perfect reputation, and escaped punishment by a hair. His next encounter with the law would not go nearly as well.

Colias had finished dressing the cut on his hand, cheerfully bade him farewell, and they both retired to their respective offices. Still feeling relatively paranoid, he wondered if the ambassador had any idea of how much of a criminal his own secretary was. Perhaps the only person who doubted Manny anymore was only himself.

He quietly locked the door behind him, sat at his desk, and began to look over some trivial legislature that had recently been passed in the country of Babahl. Today, Manny was not in the mood to deal any more with the smuggling ring.