"People from the past, have a tendency to walk back into the present, and run over the future." - Anthony Liccione

The day came and fulfilled its dreadful promise. The terrorists blew up the laboratory, though at the command of the general, it was almost empty, only the unmovable equipment remained. No casualty in that attack.

Then the hunt began. All the professors, researchers, assistants were warned about their position and danger, but even the general couldn't create a nuclear-proof basement to hide them. Their death finding them one by one like an invisible epidemic eventually got all of them… expect one.

The first assistant of the original principal professor of the project, since the old man died before the research ended, inherited all, that means all data and progress of the project, along with the results and further ideas. To sum up, this assistant had the essence of the project, therefore earned and gained higher, tighter and as it turned out actually effective protection from none other than the general himself.

When the sun's last lights painted the city buildings in blood-shaded gold the show ended with a satisfying result.

Akari woke up because the ocean deep silence sounded suspicious for her. She somehow scraped herself up on her bed and blinked at her alarm clock. Somewhere two hours before sunrise her head decided to wake her up and she had to force her brain to function again. This wasn't right. She should be dead asleep from tiredness.

She was.

For two days in a row.

Nagisa hissed in irritation when they finally met after their long, long day. Even if their job was almost complete they couldn't eliminate the most important one. The grey mouse escaped.

Bonus headache point when he discovered the same mercury gold eyes at a place no normal human should be. That meant only one thing, and he cursed himself not paying more attention to his inner voice.

He missed the slight opportunity to finish with the assistant and the same redhead from the coffee shop, turned out general, proved himself to be quite the tough enemy on the field.

Now his pride was scattered, his head was aching, and they had to come up with a better plan.

Karma was furious. When his boss congratulated on saving the sorry *ss of the living data base, he couldn't hold his cool anymore and laughed in his face asking which family did his boss wished to inform about their loss because of belayed information and suffocating bureaucracy and told him that maybe mentioning that there was indeed one person from the whole team who actually survived without a scratch to the grieving families will absolutely cheer them up, as no man can refuse to join the joy of others. He managed to tell it with one breath and with leaving close to nothing personal space to his boss that he actually managed to horrify him.

That was tiny bit satisfying.

But the fact that the assistant whom he mentioned seemed mortified calmed his boiling head miles more.

Of course he was glad that at least one was saved, but the incompetence of his section angered him. At this single day about 30 renowned professor, scientist, researcher was slayed down as the grass on the field. Some along with his men some died under the careful eyes of his men and that was maddening.

He wanted to break something. Slowly from pieces to bits and to dust, burn it, crush, eliminate, erase from existence. Step to step with the most cautious perfection.

" Excuse me… When you said I cannot leave your side for the time being, exactly how long were you referring?"

The small voice started him and he turned towards the assistant with his sinister grin still on his face. The boss long left the room.

The assistant stood there, her hair in lazy braid laying on her left shoulder, lavender eyes looking at him from behind thin glasses without a flinch.

" Dear Miss… "

" Okuda." She helped him out calmly.

" Miss Important assistant. Please inform me if you failed to get the meaning of this day and the graveness of the events that are behind us."

" If you're referring to the fact that all my coworkers are dead because your security couldn't keep them safe, I'm completely aware the meaning of this. I was merely asking when can I leave."

" Miss, you have a death wish?"

" Hardly."

" Then until the last of them is either dead or in an interrogation room, you are to put it kindly stuck with me."

" I have work to do."

" So do I. And from the two of us, life proved mine to be more important."

The young woman was about to say something but Karma was a little to irritated to listen to a meaningless argument, so he simply covered her mouth with his hand, and continued. " As I consider myself a gentleman, I'll be glad to continue this conversation in another time, but for now I strongly recommend to cooperate. In some minute my assistant will inform you about your immediate future."

With this he left the room, to fill out some report but more importantly replay the actual events in his head and find the answer to that tingling question in his head that there was indeed a huge clue in his memory.

Her workmates asked if she was alright, suggested to see a doctor, offered help, lectured her about self care and healthy lifestyle and so on. When she could finally escape from their suffocating friendliness and entered the main room to take up the first order, she forgot about the troublesome men in her recent past: the handsome redhead, and the cute blue boy. For a moment she panicked but with a quick glance reassured herself with a slight surprise: none of them were in the shop.

Nagisa consulted with the others. Their new plans were cautious, well planned but all had to wait. They had an original pattern to follow. In between two emergency meeting they still prepared for their next move, hoping that this whole thing was just a little delay.

When Karma thought nothing can be more tiring than negotiating with his boss to give him a free-er hand in the question, this assistant proved him so wrong he had to give credit for his boss cooperative trait.

Okuda turned out to be quite the asocial quiet but stubborn type who took professional secrets way to strict.

It took him three days to convince her that keeping the secret about the project was meaningless, and one more to get her to accept the fact that she had to live with him to be under strict protection. Order may vary.

But he had to give her credit, as she wasn't bothering him at all. He could work perfectly fine, only stopping to check if she was still there, the silent she was.

He was considering giving her some collar or bracelet with tiny bells, so he will hear if she moves. Funny thing, her silent almost sneaky way of walking didn't surprise him. Not as it did with the waitress.

When the assistant finally agreed to tell him a little bit more, so he can help, he wasn't surprised by the revealed information. All hail hacking the system.

When he told her this, she looked a little upset, as if he was rude and didn't appreciated her willingness to break a rule (that nobody else used)

His other problem was he finally connected his memory to the terrorist he came across in action. He couldn't be sure since the attackers were covered in black, and did everything to cover their face. But the way it moved and the atmosphere it had… reminded him of someone he knew, or met before. After day long searching in his memories he ended up with the coffee shop but couldn't decide which one was it. After arguing (fighting) with the assistant and his boss and the media, the last weeks became blurrier, some unimportant fact fading out entirely. He knew that if he visited the coffee shop, the answer will be there… probably.

Days turned to weeks and Akari was pleased to see that both mystery-man gave up on the shop. Of course her workmates wouldn't shut up about her declining romance story, but she couldn't be mad at them when she got rid of their annoying presence. That may be harsh, but she was better safe than sorry.

But her average pain was still there and she knew that now that she knew, hiding and doing nothing was impossible.

When she arrived back at her apartment and stopped to talk with her reflection, clearing out her thoughts, arranging everything so she could predict the future, it only took about two minutes. And her head was killing her.

The when and where was too easy, even for her. The only question remaining in her mind was what to do.

She couldn't ignore it.

She couldn't stop it.

She wouldn't let it.

This raised ten million more question. How to do it, how to cover, what to do actually, escape plan, cover story and so on.

Nagisa let out a tired sigh and rested his back in his chair. All preparations were done and the following day their original plan will continue as usual. He was tired. All their efforts to correct the little mistake were fruitless as the assistant's security was diamond-like with the leading of the general. They tried. In the last weeks about six times they failed.

Therefore the group decided to give them more space, a false feeling of security and wait until the other gets tired or irrationally terrified, which ever fits them.

Now he had nothing to do but sleep.

And sleep he did. Surprising himself how exhausted he was.

The lovely Sunday turned into a horrible macabre in the port of the city.

Karma knew this suspicious silence and uneventful week was leading to hell. At least he could get actual information from the assistant.

That turned out useless when the terrorists blow up the cruiser which was supposed to set sail as a sign of peace between their state and one which they fought for decades.

To say he could have killed the assistant was… close to the truth. Anyway he knew his job and wouldn't do something stupid as this.

When he arrived at the scene he was stunned.

Nagisa woke up with a heavy heart, feeling as if he forgot something.

This time he spent actual hours standing in front of his mirror trying to figure out what is bothering him.

He couldn't.

When he met up with the others to start their next stunt everyone was optimist and sure at least the original plan is foolproof.

Arriving at the port to take plan into action, sneaking onto the ship they were met with a lone figure of a young woman standing patiently next to the engines a huge red scarf covering half her face and a stunning black dress adoring her body just the right way, hair long scattered on her back, hands holding something they couldn't figure out because the next moment the engines blew up.

At least every one of them was trained to the point to survive.

The cruiser burnt as a pyre on the water a sign for them: they should be more cautious.

They could hardly get some fresh air when something attacked them. First the man next to Nagisa fall on his knees and collapsed eyes turned white, then the woman behind him shrieked. The rest were guarded in an instant but even that was too late. This something finished them one after the other until they decided it was better to run.

When they decided to leave the place and the burning cruiser Nagisa took one look back seeing the same woman with red scarf and black dress standing among the gathering crowd.

The tingling was back: he should know her.

Karma tried to comprehend the scene before his eyes. The cruiser burnt like a joyful little bonfire lighting the place with orange, red and yellow, terrified civilians and curious by-passers talking about possibilities, taking pictures with their phones, confused paramedics trying to help those 6 unidentified person laying on the ground. Their clothes were normal, nothing suspicious and the general was almost convinced they were mere failed attempt on behalf of the terrorist, weren't it for their position, the way their body was twisted out like they were in a fight. Why would any ordinary civilian get into a fight this serious?

He was about to question one of them which appeared to come around when the paramedics told him that this was indeed question of life and death and it would be very much appreciated if he let them work for f*ck sake. As Karma was a reasonable gentlemen he informed the paramedics that under no circumstances would he want to sabotage their work but once one of these little sorry pigs regain consciousness he will be the first to ask them out. With thus mutual friendliness they both parties left the scene.

Akari slowly closed the door behind her back sinking down to the floor, letting out a deep sigh. No matter how hard she tried to come up with a full plan thinking out and through everything in the end she just did what her instinct told, ending up doing almost the same as they, proving nothing. She was just like them, an aggressive, incomplete version, something that only sees salvation and solution in brutal force.

Slowly gathering herself up from the floor and dragging herself to the bathroom rising her head to meet her reflection's eyes half way.

" So what does it feel like? Destroying everything?"

" I didn't kill them."

" You blow up a ship. A cruiser to top it." Her reflection smirked like a cat.

" Nobody was on the ship."

" That's what you think… you may never know about those sorry fellows who thought it was a good joke to hide in the cargo."

" There wasn't anybody. I checked it twice. "

" Whatever. Now you're the same as them… don't forget this." The reflection purred. She almost crushed it with her fist. Next time she will do better.

According to his assistants and anyone who worked with him long enough, Karma sitting calmly in his chair and smiling innocently to his phone while playing blickblock was the first sign of the upcoming ragnarok. Answering with the world's most friendly face to any question was the last step to the end of the world so when his newly found shadow (the assistant he was supposed to protect from the terrorist) went up to him to point out the obvious everyone was running for their life.

Actually Karma was so taken aback from the assistant's bluntness he forgot to tear down her head or terrorize her mind.

" You know waiting for the paramedics call while doing actually nothing won't make time fly faster."

" Are you suggesting that I'm not working hard enough?"

" Halfly. Other than that, I think you should rest a little." He only arched one eyebrow. " I mean, you were on your guard for about two weeks in a row, you must be exhausted. It looks like the terrorist also have a little relax time nowadays so-"

Karma's curious eyes turned to stone cold with the piercing edge of a diamond.

" Relax time you say… Do tell me, what do you think who blew up that ship today?"

" I guess the terrorist but as you suspect them to be currently injured and in the hospital doubt may arise."

The assistant responded with a deadpan face and Karma couldn't argue. He was indeed tired a little.

" If you're afraid that I may be playing to the hands of the terrorist and escape you can handcuff me to yourself to ease your mind."

Karma laughed. Wholeheartedly.

Akari decided it was time for her to act with all her power. Actually, unless the blue haired cutie comes and search for her she won't have to do anything. But she had a slight guess fate just… doesn't like her type.

So she was guarded. Of course she had rose suspicion around her with acting all stupid and startled, but after years of peaceful suffering and dealing with her average headache no one can judge her about that mistake. About the cruiser… She will figure out something as soon as she's finished with her shift.

When she entered the main room with her usual cheerful smile she gave herself an award for acting normal despite the redhead handsome sitting there with his usual smirk-smile resting his hand on the table, a calm lady sitting right across him her fragile hands also on the table and a full random handcuff keeping them together.

Actually she wasn't surprised at all. Faking it was the harder part. In her head this mystery readhead was perfectly normal with or without handcuffed to a woman his age, she could believe anything about him why not this one?

When he saw her there was something in his eyes she definitely did not like. Was it recognition or sick amusement? Either way she smelled trouble.

As he gestured towards her specifically she couldn't escape. She went up to them with a slight frown and a fake-fake smile (did it make up a real one then she wondered) and asked with false insecurity.

" What can I bring you?"

" Aw, no hello, how are you, long time no see?" the man smirked and she was getting annoyed. Her head wasn't helping.

" I wasn't aware we are this close terms… I'm sorry then."

" It's okay, as you can see this day is a special one." He grimaced showing his full teeth and gesturing towards his hand.

" A… date?"

" Hm… Should it be?" he turned towards his companion the first time with a face that screamed trouble and Akari did as well for the first time. She had to force her eyes to remain as they were, and her mouth to shut up as usual. This woman turned out to be way too familiar to her comfort zone.

" Technically speaking as we are neither close friends nor relatives, the situation we are in can be seen as a date." The woman spoke up with a small smile of her own.

" Miss Important Data-san. I asked if it should turn out as one, not if it can be seen as one."

" I would prefer to keep to our original positions." She answered with a deadpan voice.

" Afraid you couldn't resist my charms?"

" As far as I know, personal feelings can make a bodyguards job hell."

" Exactly. So I would like the usual and the Miss here would like some bitter coffee with sour cake to match her sweet personality." He winked at Akari who know didn't have to pretend her uncomfortable smile. She quickly bowed her head and left.

Just when she thought she was prepared for the end and back…

Nagisa sat in silence while the others ran up and down the basement. Their secret hideout looked like a dragon danced through it. Everything was upside down, no one knowing what to do how to proceed.

In the end their leader declared total retreat for the time being, commanding everyone to hide under their normal civil self.

When he arrived back to his flat and took a long deserved hot bath an old memory came back leaving him wondering how could he forget. In this normal life of his he had a promising girlfriend. And now that he had to act as unnoticeable as possible finally acting his age and get someone as everyone around him (mostly bored old man and gossiping elders) suggested years ago.

Lucky for him the shop where he can find her was still open so he decided to run for it.

Karma watched close as the assistant slowly drank her coffee something clearly running around her pretty little head.

" Anything pressing your heart?"

" That girl… I have a feeling I should know her…"

" Shall we wait a little more then?"

" You're not tiring yourself with this do you?"

" Life and work never stops for me, but I reassure you once I found this situation annoying or useless I will be the first to leave this shop." He grinned.

Nagisa stopped dead in his step as he saw the same mercury gold eyes below those familiar red locks of the general. He should have know it.

Taking a deep breath he took up his usual attitude of the strange yet average guy and entered searching for the waitress with the lovely messy bun as usual.

To think about it he never saw her hair down.

Akari asked for a short break claiming she was sick and had to have some minutes for herself.

Breathing in and out did nothing to ease her building panic. She was sure if that woman sees her one more time she will get the picture and then the mystery man….

Speaking of the redhead now that she thought about it this was logical. He was with the legal forces.

She was about to spit in frustration and disgust.

That woman and the legal men together were trouble if not a disaster.

Her head was killing her.

That blue guy was back.

This was horrible.

She had no idea how to escape. No way out and what waited for her was worse than death.

Everything she worked for the last years (three… at least five if not more) will scatter to ashes right before her eyes as soon as she steps out.

She wasn't attempting to run from her life. Just to live at its fullest the average life she would never get, to live for all of them. She enjoyed her average days one after the other, never thinking too deep, avoiding the problem, her cross called: family.

Her workmate knocked on the door.

Doom was waiting for her.

Karma watched bemused as his current partner the assistant casted sly glances towards the door where the waitress disappeared.

He could feel something come up, something that will be either amusing or fateful maybe both.

A.N.

Thank you for your lovely reviews
Ale I hope I could write it quick enough and it's still as good as you think it is :)
xvmidnightstories I guess you can find enough Karmanami for your taste :)
Colorslander once again I thank you very much for your review, you lift up my heart :)

Turns out this story will have one more chapter at least but we are getting closer where I wanted to go originally... Most probably the next update will be quite far in the future as I should pay more attention to my exams but until then
I hope you enjoy this story,
leave anything if you feel like talking
and most importantly have a wonderful day :)