"Do not confuse good tactics with good luck." - unknown

Karma sat silently on his chair, gazing into his mug with no expression. His mind was troubled, his problem was global at least if not universal, or whatever you would call it, it was trouble nevertheless: being promoted to general with the demon of war panting on your neck was not a pleasant situation. Even if you were demonic yourself. Even if you enjoyed serious and deadly situations.

This war was different, of course it was different.

The war against terrorism.

Everyone knows what are these and how they work, but never in his prideful life would have he imagined to actually be ordered to solve the problem himself. His task was to identify the leader of the newest terrorist group, capture and… execute him? Maybe. That far they did not get in the planning.

This new terrorist group was smart, witty, clever and hell annoying.

They bombed buildings with apparently no pattern and made no demands so far, only leaving a signature of a smiling yellow figure, an octopus kind of thing, and only one time they left the signature as KoroS. That explained everything, yeah, how could they even say they were stuck…

Of course not. That signature messed up the whole profile they had on the terrorists.

First they thought they were some new-anarchist group aiming for buildings that were all a little odd, or old fashioned. Then after the third bomb they had to give up on this idea. All three houses were so different there was no connection at all.

The signature was discovered later at the first building, well hidden under the rumble and nasty scene.

That was the point when Karma's superior asked him to leave the room. Confidential.

Yeah…

He took a slip from his mug.

Solve the problem but thou shall not know any possible helping information of the case as thou shall only solve the problem and catch those terrorists.

How nice of them.

" Anything else I could get you?"

The small, pleasant voice startled him just a tiny bit, as it was fully unexpected, and he looked up at the waitress.

" No thank you. I would like to pay."

" Certainly sir."

He smirked at the title, she could be around his age. A few moments later he was out on the streets sharpening his senses and searching his mind for any possible answer.

Nagisa sat in his room his eyes on the gigantic map of the town hanging on the wall. A small smile played on his lips as he followed the yellow lines on the paper. The plan was far from perfect, his maximalist brain told him but he couldn't stop himself from adoring his work. Not perfect but effective. He looked at his watch and got up, stretching his arms. Time to go.

Akari sighed from tiredness. She had worse days but this one wasn't easy either. It was calm and filled with friendly customers that's a plus no matter how you look, but! A non-stop work of 8 hours without being able to sit down for more than 5 minutes could kill your happy smile.

She looked at her reflection in the mirror and smiled to herself. She had worse. At least the customers were mostly kind. No senseless arguments and drunk flirting. She hated that. Not that it happened that often.

To be honest it never happened to her exactly jet usually she was the one handling those drunken nuisances when they harassed her workmates. Being flat chested had its perks, she said to herself with a bittersweet laugh. Although learning self-defense came more handy.

She was working at a small coffee shop kinda bar which was opened 0-24 and placed in a busy crossroad next an even busier park surrounded by offices filled with thousands of different people. She had a little hobby figuring out which building and office did the different customers came from. It was easy after a month but sill entertained her so she never actually stopped it even when she promised to herself to be more normal.

Normality and blending into the crowd was one of her wishes. When she was young she had plenty of problems with her behavior and family background to realize being invisibly grey was a huge benefit.

So she changed into her incredibly average clothes and let out her long brown hair from the loose bun, got her absolutely average handbag and went home with her average headache.

The audience in the museum murmured in a sleepy way and Nagisa had to bite down two huge yawns that threatened to escape. The funny thing was that he wasn't tired at all. He was hyper energized from the thrill of his next mission. The reality of people's unconcern amazed him beyond imagination and he had to force his body to act normal. He made a mental list check for the hundredth time since he arrived and moved to the next painting. With a casual move he looked at his watch and smiled. Showtime.

Karma smirked. His subordinates watched him from far with disgusted horror as most of them couldn't understand their boss' sadistic logic and black humor. It was only that, heavy black humor.

He would have laughed if the suffering whimpers and agony of the dying hadn't invaded his head spoiling the cabaret of life.

He wanted to visit the exhibition, Picasso was classic, it was an unwritten law to go and see it. Now he won't.

He waited until most of the victims were successfully saved and escorted to somewhere else then entered the ruins. What was he searching for?

Akari's favorite time was around midnight. It was the most quiet actually, with about no person at all, and those few who appeared were more than interesting, travelling around the city or the country, doing shady business or mopping around after a horrible date. Or who knows maybe she couldn't read people at all. But it was fun.

She noticed a new face, cool and collected with a handsome but barely visible smile hiding in the corner of his lips, mercury gold eyes twinkling with something more, something darker. He appeared randomly, drank the same coffee and left without tips.

First she thought he was a politician. Then he appeared more like the brain behind the politicians than the puppet smiling on TV. After the second of his visits she decided he was some kind of a horribly wealthy but sneaky businessman who liked to appear casual keeping his trillions and milliards somewhere safe. Then he shifted to a secret agent. And after the fifth time he came and left (no tips, thank you very much) she admitted with an amused smile she had absolutely no idea what this man was doing for a living.

Nagisa fall back to his bed. He thought he would smile like a maniac or laugh or enjoy himself after the last successful mission but apparently his mind had other problems.

Truth be told, he was shocked by his lack of joyful reaction. He had an aim, achieved it and…

Of course he still had more than two or three missions ahead of him, and others did their parts as well but… he couldn't help the feeling.

Or the lack of it.

So he decided to go and have something, a late diner, an early breakfast or just a well-deserved coffee or whatever he could get at this hour.

He left his flat not bothering to lock anything. His cover was more than perfect. His mask was flawless.

When the little shop showed up in his vision he had a faint lingering thought he shouldn't enter.

Karma finished the paperwork, laughing at the irony, (oh the irony, life is nothing more than black, pitch-black joke) and stretched his arms. Being the handicapped authority was laughable. He deserved a little rest, he thought to himself while ascended the stairs, going out to the park stuck between the huge skyscrapers.

He only realized two days before that he did build up a habit kind of form with visiting the same coffee shop/bar whenever he was tired or genuinely upset with the government. This was definitely not why he had joined the army.

He was surprised to say the least when he discovered that the real reason behind his frequent visits had to do something with the waitress who could appear and disappear almost as hallucination, leaving a hollow promise of a greater secret behind her.

He gave her credits for this, the first person to surprise him more than once with the same act. Somewhere between his tired and upset thoughts he had a faint desire to know her better, to ask her something, but she slipped away ever time. Well… the last time. That's why he noticed how easily she covered herself in the crowd, more importantly in an almost empty shop as well. She could simply disappear.

This time he was determined to watch her.

Akari sighed. Yes, she said she liked the midnights but being assigned to the night shift and the afternoons for a week could weaken her enthusiasm. If only she could say that at least no problematic customers appeared.

Yet, she smirked to her mirror image, the possibility of sexual harassment were about 0, thanks to the fact she was the only waitress. Perks of a flat chest.

However nothing seemed to promise the lack of sociopaths among the costumers, she sighed again. Lately more and more appeared and the terrorist attacks were not helping it. When one idiot comes, all the others arise. Common truth, of course but hey… It is a truth.

If anyone had asked her opinion about the terrorist she would answer with a confused face claiming she has no idea who in their right mind would do such a thing.

If she asked herself the question she would simply shrug as she couldn't imagine what kind of idiot would try to attract attention in this horrible way. Because it's all about attention and news and fame and being the only topic in public… She couldn't agree with this. Not this method.

Nagisa looked around in the building. About six persons were in his vision two waiter, four customers, but he was sure to have two more in the back, the manager or the cook and one more. And maybe someone was using the toilets. So that would make him the tenth person to be in this little place around midnight. What could he say, it appeared a rather busy place.

The customers expression was tired if not exhausted entirely, their clothes grey, uninteresting and worn out like their owner. The waiters, a boy and a girl, both around his age were even more average.

He sat down next to the windows, ordered a coffee, a small cookie and had the same tingling feeling he shouldn't do this.

The lack of positive, well-deserved satisfaction covered him like a coat, eventually making him miss how the waitress appeared and disappeared at his table.

Only when he was back at home and out of sheer boredom replayed the events of his uneventful night walk did he acknowledge that a simple waitress had sneaked up on him. This amazed him and he decided to return.

Akari couldn't decide if she was happy that the mystery man was back again and decided to chat with her. Or at least tried to. She answered with the most average type sentences and lies she could come up with at 01:32 after 6 hours of work and hoped he was done with his sudden curiosity.

The fact that someone was genuinely talkative towards her and was a handsome person, flattered her, yet she knew how life was never like a fairy tale (common grey girl meets handsome mysterious boy, the boy falls in live with her strange average being and style and they… live happily for about two months? Six at most.) plus she never wanted more acknowledgment than necessary. She had her reasons.

More, when she was finally back at her little flat staring at her reflection in the bathroom with a smug smile, in which fairy tale was a girl like her?

Nagisa went back the next morning but couldn't find the waitress. He went back in the evening as well, still nothing. The idea of asking around appeared childish and useless (unwanted attention).

He ordered the same and let himself relax a little (as much as a he could "relax" outside his hide out) enjoying the taste and the calm atmosphere in the shop.

Once finished with the drink he looked around a little more carefully, discovering the same young customer from the day before with wild red hair and gold eyes looking uniquely out of place. The young man was asking around from the waiter and Nagisa regretted to sit so far from him (not like he had any idea this would happen) as the redhead spoke in such a quite voice it appeared even the waiter couldn't hear properly. Whatever the question was the answer was negative and the man left shortly after. Nagisa followed him trying to figure out why he had the nagging in his brain he should know who that person was.

Karma was thrilled to figure out the waitress' secret, it appeared as a far easier task than to legally catch the terrorists.

Last night he tried to speak with her, asked if she was working every day, and when did she start, why did she become a waitress.

She answered with the most boring facts, she was in her last year of university, only working to pay her rent and her shift had nothing to do with her.

Her voice wasn't special, nor her way of speaking and he could imagine himself being fooled by her play.

Only… only after his failed attempt she disappeared without a trace. Or almost without one. Obviously she had to remain in the building but when he turned back to drink up the last two drops from his glass she was already gone, and he had no idea where to search with his eyes. Other tables? The kitchen? The changing rooms? Upstairs? Outside?

So he had won his little bet, she was hiding something. She was acting.

The question was only why?

Nagisa put down the phone, finished his notes and stretched out his numb body. His next mission will take place only two days after, he already finished his preparations it was like winning a little vacation.

The perfect opportunity to catch the waitress from the coffee shop.

Akari felt like her head will kill her.

Scratch that, it was common truth, a prophecy from Fate, unwritten and engraved future for her.

She could just feel how true it is. And the power of this.

So again she smiled at her reflection while tying up her apron and started her little mantra: "average girl with and average pain"

She should have taken those painkillers.

The night was casually falling down on the town when the usual faces appeared. The mystery man was back, she noted, and that blue haired one as well.

His face was cute, even according to their manager's taste, his figure creating the feeling of a caring but little awkward friend who can be a lovely dork at times.

The others said he was a dreamer, or an artist.

Akari saw his eyes and decided that one idiot drags the army...

After the strange talk with the mystery man she asked for a small break, reasoning with the horribly long week she had worked before. She lived quite close to the shop, and had no problem with the park neither so the following days kept an eye out for those two.

She was right. The bluebird was right back at morning, the red settled with the evenings.

The following days both came at night.

There goes the peaceful life of an average girl with an average pain, she hummed to herself as she walked towards the blue guy to take his orders.

" Hello, what can I get for you?"

" Hy, I would like a coffee and some biscuit."

" How would you like your coffee?"

" Two sugars and no milk, thank you."

" I'll bring it in a minute."

" Are you free after your shift?"

…

" To be honest, I have a thesis to work on for two days from now."

" Oh I see…" she was about to leave " And when you're finished with that?"

" I don't know yet."

He let her go with that and when he paid for his order, smiled and left a nice tip.

Akari decided that he was indeed cute. And an idiot.

Karma knew that when he finally could capture those terrorist, no government and higher ups can stop him.

He wouldn't call it revenge, only natural due payback. For destroying public properties. And killing hundreds. And playing with his nerves. And playing against him. And playing in this game…

Once again he was standing before a burning building, a school actually, waiting for time to due his job.

This time, contrary to the implications only two persons died.

Karma smirked again, oh the irony. Only two.

One was a by-passer who walked too close to the school walls, the other one a homeless person hiding next to the bins.

Probably mistakes.

Nagisa was debating. He had a perfect disguise, no person on earth could tell he was sneaking into buildings leaving bombs in hallways in his freetime.

Yet.

If he did let his curiosity get the better of him… There was no guarantee for anything.

He laughed at himself.

What was he actually afraid of?

The girl discovering his secret hobby? Then what? She calls the police? He can easily shut her up in a bunch of ways. And none of them includes killing. Yet.

Or she has the greater secret, and while he tries to discover it she discovers his first?

Probably not.

She has a secret, it was a fact. A reason why she is so charming yet unnoticed. He couldn't believe it when she admitted he was the first to ask her out.

So what was the problem? Why was his mind alert?

Akari agreed on one date. And that one was about two weeks later Nagisa (he managed to introduce himself properly shortly after) asked her.

She told herself that no matter what happens, how sweet this boy-man (he was just as a man as the mystery redhead) acts, how flattered and fluttered she will be that will be all. One date.

She will bore the hell out of the guy, he will gave up and that's all. No fairy tale meeting.

As she grimaced at her reflection (average girl with an average pain) and listened to the radio and the breaking news (new terror attack, old school building, miraculously only two victims) her smirk fall down as the pieces clicked into place.

The buildings were to point out places and stages, the color yellow was obvious enough and she could figure out that they actually had left one or more writings as well.

It clicked so quick, the information so much and grave, she almost fainted.

"Average girl with and average pain…"

Nagisa tried not to laugh at himself because he was nervous. For real.

He had a date with a stunning beauty (well hidden in grey common clothes) and oh boy he had missed this part of life.

Almost completely.

Of course he didn't join the "bad" side for fun like others, he had his story and reasons. And now being normal for once felt just too right, and horribly scary.

When she arrived finally (about 2 minutes late, but he was there before an hour than the actual meeting) in a normal pants and t-shirt with her hair casually up in a lazy bun he felt positively flustered. He was going on a date with this girl.

They had million missions where he had a partner for cover, both acting the whole stuff, he knew what to do. But doing in real, without a secret target, or anything more was completely new. With a completely normal girl, innocent and unaware of his real nature.

They settled down on a bench chatting about whatever came up their mind.

Thanks goodness his repetitive instincts were working. Half the times he had no idea what to say.

So he let his memories slip in and take control. Or just listened to her babbling. She had a warm voice.

Karma was about to kill someone. Strangle the first poor soul on his way to the office. Better, scare the living hell out of them. Not that they weren't jumpy already, or frustrated. The whole department was at their mind's end, not to mention how irritated and nervous was the whole situation. They had clues, tiny ones pointing at something no one heard about (at least their information base lacked anything useful) and the government threatened them with layoff to place the cherry on top of this sh*tful cake.

So when he entered his office room with the brightest smile one tiny insignificant part of him was grateful for his coworkers wit to hide themselves. Blood was the smaller problem to cover. And he was sure not to pay any psychiatrist not for himself and definitely not for their recovery.

He made a mental list of the 'clues' so far.

They attacked different buildings one museum, one school, one church, one shop and one old house that would have been demolished anyway. They left behind only one word "KoroS" and some yellow paint. The amount of people killed during one bombing differs without pattern.

And just a day before he received a small note informing him where will the next bombing take place.

This joke was going in a horrible way.

The note said that in two days time they would blow up a laboratory with or without the researchers, but every single professor and genius working on that project will meet their end on that day.

It was left on his doorstep and he didn't bothered informing his boss, because if he asked what was the project's topic and aim or if he asked who are these people working there he already knew the declining answers.

All he would get were these lines he despised by heart: "Just do everything to prevent it. Now you even know where it will be, don't waste our precious time."

Once he will leave this position and start his own agenda for a little payback.

To say Akari was surprised was an understatement. Horrible one actually. She failed her only aim so badly it hurt her pride gravely, to the point she refused to leave her room for a day.

Nagisa panicked when the absolutely adorable, cute and super shy (that's how she acted, I mean which girl refuses a friendly possible date for about two weeks in a row when it's clear they like the idea?) from the coffee shop simply disappeared after their absolutely normal date.

Maybe panicked is a little harsh to describe his feelings. It was more like startled and confused. And no matter how hard he denied it thrilled his not so average taste a little. He never imagined himself as the hunter type but the way this girl (yes he didn't believed her name was Kayano) avoided anything that could lead to something personal information or friendly interaction – sincerely friendly and open interaction – awoke his unknown desire to capture her. In which way was still the mystery of tomorrow.

So he stayed in his small apartment and tried to think out something, got frustrated and eventually admitted defeat so called up one of his teammate for a little advice.

When she couldn't hide more and had to leave her home she looked at her mirror and gazed into the reflection.

" Just act as you should after… this. "

She grunted and let out a muffled scream. She screw it up. In the end he asked with the most innocence smile and face if they could repeat this again since he had so much fun. Or something similar. Her brain stopped working and she couldn't even act something out like a normal answer, just squirmed and bolted towards the closest dark alley to have a heart attack and then try to crawl home.

Luckily – if you can call it that – Nagisa seemed way too shocked to follow or try to stop her.

And now, she has to face this boy-man with the cutest face and the most dangerous questions.

And her head was killing her…

" How on earth do I act normal after this?!"

She should figure out a full-scale lie about herself. She already did. Okay that was only half a lie. Maybe that's why it didn't worked this time.

She introduced herself as Kaede Kayano, average girl at an average university minding her full average life with a quite busy time schedule and all…

Now she has to come up with a believable normal – like Absolute normal – reason for why did she ran away like a savage startled gazelle - and the answer that she indeed felt like one at that time and still, wasn't in option.

Maybe she had a sad family backstory that's why she can't spend more time…

Talking about any family was strictly out of question. Even to herself.

She glared at her reflection. "Even you."

But time was ticking, she had to go. As she pulled her hair in a lazy bun the idea struck her: she was feeling ill. Some serious disease caught her and stuff..

She was happy with herself and started to hum her little mantra of the pain while leaving her apartment.

When the door clicked behind her she knew it was useless.

Karma would had more fun hacking into confidential files if time weren't eating his mind off. The constant ticking of the clock kept him from enjoying the evening. Eventually after two to four hours of hard work he decided to rest a little and visited the coffee shop. In the last days he almost gave up on the mysterious waitress, yet his guts told him that if someone has a clue to this nonsense then that is this girl. Or having a casual yet informative conversation with her will break his chaotic days and bring something new. For the better or the worse… how could anyone know?

He saw that for her act she even started a little blooming romance with a new, strange, young… man? He had to double think to decide its gender. So he let her play the average and tried his best to observe from far away. Which was close to impossible.

All he noticed were close to meaningless insignificant clues, like she was always smiling, or she looked plain and quite non-attractive to everyone, minus the blue… thing. And sometimes it looked like she was exhausted… That was a wild guess, since he only saw it once that the waitress stopped and let out a tired-like sigh, and then in a blink she was again running up and down between the tables. She probably hid her physical conditions as well.

It was calming and perfectly relaxing to observe her after a day full of paperwork and outrageous conversations between his boss and coworkers. When the blueprince appeared he couldn't help but smirk at his first failed attempts. It was like an Italian romantic comedy.

He didn't pay too much attention to the boy, he was just a tool, a décor on her stage.

He still had about one and half day to figure out a way to save some brainiac.

Nagisa tried his best to come up with the best reason as to why is he still inside the coffee shop or trying to find her. (Yes, she was that closed up, no number or address or whatsoever.) In the end he was aiming for the honest way, telling her and the other workers that he wanted to talk with her. Again. And still. And…

He was about to chuckle to himself. He was nervous. Again!

Only this girl could find a way to make him positively uncomfortable and stubbornly determined in this crazy story. As he ordered his usual, and draw the conclusion that she's not working this day either his phone rang.

It was almost unexpected.

" Yes?"

" You didn't forget that tonight we have a final meeting, did you?"

" Of course not. There's still about three hours left until then. You wouldn't phone me just for this."

" Sharp and correct as usual. Where are you?"

" Minding my own business. Why?"

" I have some funny news to you."

" And it cannot wait till the meeting?"

" Yup. Should I go there or you don't want your little personal life interrupted?"

He simply ended the call. As he raised his hand with the intention of paying, his eyes met with the man's from across. His mercury gold eyes buried into his azure ones and suddenly the familiar feeling that he ought to know this man was back.

Akari felt a mountain falling from her chest when the others told her that her cute blue knight was here but left already. She found this amusing to the point for about a minute she actually forgot about her pain.

As she stepped to the table to take up the next order and was met with familiar inquisitive mercury gold eyes the pain came back with tiny hint of annoyance.

" Long time no see." The smirking readhead greeted her.

" Blame is on the university." She smiled back with ease. At least he wasn't planning anything like Nagisa. He was just plain tiring with his stubborn questions.

" Where is your little prince?" he tilted his head resting it in his palm, blinking as a curious cat. Scarp that tiger at least.

" Oh, you mean Nagisa? Honestly don't know. Heard he left earlier." Time to play the average girl in timid love or something.

" Trouble in paradise?" he smirked again, eyes glinting with mocking playfulness.

" No, not at all… I don't even know what is between us so… " she looked away, avoiding his eyes, then took a deep breath. " So I guess the usual?"

He blinked fast, then smiled.

" The usual indeed."

She was happy to leave the table and his sight.

Nagisa sat into the van greeting the others.

Last meeting before the show started.

Karma had one more day to figure out something.

Either he came up with a plan to collect all researcher and protect them then inform the higher ups that they were in danger thus let the laboratory burst into pieces or he reported the whole thing leaving it to his boss to solve the impossible.

As he had pride and reputation mostly towards himself the first option was more likely.

So he stared at all the information he could dig up through hacking and started planning.

As Akira entered her home she didn't cast a tired smirk towards her reflection, nor did she let out an exhausted sigh as she did everyday. She went straight to her bed and threw herself on it, hid her head under the pillows and bite into the mattress as she screamed. She didn't dare to scream at the top of her lung. That would definitely raise suspicion.

The pain was killing her.

Her mind slowly went blank as she felt the pain, that pain taking over.

She lost control.

A.N.

Hello and welcome in this AU where Akari is a 'simple' waitress, Karma is some high ranked general in the country dealing with terrorist attacks and Nagisa is part of the terrorist group led by the second Shinigami trying to gain attention to a project.
Yes it can remind you to Terror in Resonance since I simply love that anime and the story and stuff.

BUT! I'll do my best to come up with something interesting and I hope you will enjoy this little story as much as I do :) it's about half the story so far, but I don't have so much time nowadays so I can't promise anything.

Thank you for your attention, hope you liked it

Have a nice day :)