A/N: This is my new story. First of all, I want to thank all those nice people that commented on my last story. I hope that you'll like this story, even though it's a completely different genre.

I found a Beta now, so the corrected version will be updated, soon.

Alright, let's start the story. You will find more notes at the end.

Silver Grass

Prologue: A Stranger in a Strange Land

"So, you're the Chinese import-contractor? I told my superiors that cheap Chinese products break easily, but they wouldn't listen." November 11 stated without emotion. Hei turned around to stare at him not knowing what to answer. At first he hadn't even recognized November's voice, as it sounded too different when he spoke English. How did MI-6 get involved with this? If he started a fight now, he would most certainly draw attention towards himself. He noticed that his mouth hung open a little and started to speak quickly as not to raise November's suspicion: "Excuse me?"

A little smile flashed over his face as the agent answered: "I'm just joking. Well, back to business. I am November 11, your contact for the next weeks, and you are September. Here is a map on which I highlighted the point where you are supposed to meet your other contact person, who will then take you into the organization. I also marked the apartment you will be living in and this meeting point where you are to report every second day, starting tomorrow. Do you have any questions left regarding your mission?"

'Yes' Hei thought. 'Why are you the one giving me directions?'

However, instead of asking that question he shook his head and waited patiently, until November had disappeared. After a couple of seconds he sat down on a bench that was close by and exhaled slowly not sure what to think of all this. He would have to find a phone booth to call Huang. Quickly.

While on his desperate search for a pay phone, he thought back to his mission briefing a couple of days ago and wondered, if he had missed some crucial point – for example MI-6' involvement.

It had rained that day and Hei had felt a little impatient as Huang took his sweet time. He showed up twenty minutes late and sat down on the bench under the tree, where the rain was held back by the leaves so that he could smoke.

"I hope your English is good", he declared mysteriously and Hei knew that those words would mean trouble for him.

"It's alright. What do I need it for?" His question came reluctantly since he did not really wish to actually know what the syndicate had in stock for him this time.

Huang puffed on his cigar for a couple of seconds, before he decided to answer the question and go on with the briefing: "You are going to Europe and I doubt that you will find too many Japanese speaking people there. The syndicate wants you to infiltrate an organization, give information to your contact person, whom you will meet at your destination, and afterwards they want you to eliminate the head-members of that organization."

"I am supposed to take down a European organization? Alone?" Hei asked just to be sure that he had heard right and Huang nodded.

"Your contact person will help you at the elimination part of the mission, but you will have to do the rest on your own. In order to get you to Europe, you will go back to China as Li Shengshun, because you have to visit your mother who is in the hospital. She has cancer, which is why you are allowed to interrupt your exchange program. Once you are in China, you will get a new ID and you will take a plane to Europe. And then I won't have to deal with you for a couple of weeks."

Huang smiled at the last part. "Mao won't come with you, since he refuses to travel on the airplane as a cat and Yin will stay here, too. A doll will raise too much suspicion. She will give you the addresses of your meeting points and the places where your ship and plane leave. Have fun."

He laughed and got up to leave. The next day Hei had gotten his information and only three days afterwards a ship took him over to China.

Everybody had cell phones – except for Hei. Thus, everybody stopped using pay phones – again, except for Hei. Now the effect of that was that there were hardly any phone booths left for him to find, which meant he had to wander through a huge foreign city, while desperately looking for one of those archaic machines.

When he was finally able to find one, he had trouble figuring out how many of the coins he was given to feed the phone. So, after he had randomly put in a large amount of money, he was able to dial the emergency number that he was given with the money.

The phone rang about half a minute, before Huang's ruff voice answered: "What do you want. This number is for emergencies only!"

For a couple of seconds, Hei was happy to hear somebody speak Japanese. It was hard to walk through the streets and listen to people talk in a language, he did not understand. What a nice feeling to be able to speak a language now, that none of the by-passers understood. "This is an emergency. I just met my contact person. He is an MI-6 agent."

There was no answer for a short time while Huang seemed to try to comprehend the gravity of the situation. All he could hear was the humming of the phone line.

"That's impossible, are you sure?" Huang had him confirm his statement and Hei even told him which exact agent it was he had met. "Maybe the syndicate chose to work with them in order to get rid of that organization. Don't reveal who you are working for. MI-6 probably doesn't know who they are dealing with." That was all that Huang was able to contribute to the situation.

"Understood" Hei said, even though he was not exactly sure he did. "I'll call back if I have any more questions." Then he hung up and gave a short huff, before he opened his map in order to figure out his apartments address.

The apartment was small, but sufficient. It was located in the middle of Bielefeld, Germany where the headquarters of his target organization lay. When Hei had opened the map, a little paper had fallen out. It read: 'Meet the 'Dornröschen' agent at 10 am tomorrow.' At least he had the rest of the day to acclimate to the new surroundings.

Hei wondered how much money had changed hands to ensure that his equipment hadn't been taken away at the airport. After all he had taken several sets of knives and his metal wires and nobody at the security check had as much as blinked.

When he was done stowing away his weapons in the closet, he left his apartment and went on a walk. It was late afternoon and the sky was overcast by gray clouds so that the city looked somewhat dull and lifeless. Still, people where walking down the streets busily heading from one appointment to the next, some of them talking on the phone or stopping at the window of a shop to look at the items on display. They didn't seem to mind the dull weather since they were probably used to it.

Not that Hei himself cared. Of course it would be inconvenient if it started to snow, because it was always harder to fight in a snowstorm, but he wouldn't be stopped by something as trivial as that.

After a fifteen minute walk, Hei had reached the headquarters of his target organization. It was a tall, gray building that looked pretty much like any ordinary office building would. Nothing seemed to be special about it or give away the fact that an organization that was hiring contractors was located inside.

Then, he spotted a small café on the other side of the street, right across from the organization's hideout, and headed that way in order to get a warm drink since it had gotten fairly cold outside. He would have to buy warmer clothes as soon as possible, since he hadn't expected the temperatures to be this low. Actually, he should've known that it would be cold with winter starting soon and Christmas drawing closer. That was another thing he didn't care about enough to pay any attention towards it.

Once he had entered the café, he quickly found a small table close to the front windows where he could keep an eye on his target location. The café had an inviting interior with walls painted in warm colors and the people inside were acting completely different from those outside. They were calm and relaxed while eating cake and drinking coffee.

A young woman with long blond hair pulled back into a ponytail came to his table and tried to take his order in German.

"Umm, I'm Chinese, so, is it okay if I order in English?" He asked, rubbing the back of his head while quickly slipping into his Li-act and giving the woman a big, slightly uncomfortable smile. She nodded, took his order, and headed back to the counter to prepare his coffee. The smell inside this café had started to get to Hei, too. He noticed this because his stomach gave a slight rumble, something that would grow out of hand if he did not get something to eat, soon. Probably it was best to just eat right here, now that he had ordered a coffee already. From what he could see at the other people's tables, there were many delicious looking cakes offered and he would have a hard time deciding on which one to eat.

When Hei's eyes moved back to the window, he saw a green-bluish blot in his peripheral vision and quickly turned its way to see an observer spirit disappear into the window. Was MI-6 keeping track of him, or was that mysterious organization observing all the close-by buildings? He didn't know and decided to ask his contact person the next day, hoping that whoever had sent out the spirit did not notice him.

"Did you find him?" asked the woman and the little boy nodded with a blank expression on his face. "He's at Becker's café. It is located 0.8 kilometers north-east, right across-" The boy was interrupted, as the woman huffed: "I know where it's at, I'm not stupid. Stop observing him for today, I don't want him to notice you and get suspicious."

The boy only nodded and pulled away from the café window.

More A/N: Alright, that was the prologue.

This prologue is very short and is meant to be more of a teaser than anything else. The real story starts with the first chapter, which I will upload soon.

Since this story is almost completely finished, the updates will come in a regular interval (maybe every 2nd week or so).

So long!
Scio Nescio