Who are You?

A/N : Thanks for the follows and the reviews they are much appreciated - I'm really glad that some of you seem to be enjoying this. I know this might seem a little lengthy for exposition and cheap har har's but I promise this story goes somewhere :-)

Disclaimer : Still don't own it, if I suddenly become a billionaire and acquire the rights to this, I will gladly take suggestions for a rewrite. Until then this is just for fun ;-)

Ouma Family Residence Location Unknown : 0821 hours Saturday November 1 2042

Shu's eyes shot open as he felt someone jostling him, in a near state of panic he rolled over in bed only to find Inori adjusting herself peacefully next to him, she was still wearing the getup that had caused so much fuss the previous night.

"Going to have to get used to that I guess." Shu scolded himself, he had forgotten Inori had slept with him the night before. It wasn't the first time she had slept beside him, but it had been a long time, and Shu had almost forgotten what it felt like. He sighed heavily as he watched her sleeping. "What now..." He tried to push the worry out of his mind when he was with her, but he knew there were going to be problems – at the very least making a new life. It's not like he could go back to his apartment he was as good as a fugitive at this point. On top of that Inori, for all intents and purposes, didn't even exist. "Breakfast...That's what is now." He attempted lamely, to reassure himself.

After slowly easing himself out of bed in an effort not to wake the girl, he made his way down the chilly hallway. The hardwood floor was cold on his feet and his footsteps made a slapping sound as he neared the kitchen that had been a battleground the day before.

"What to eat..." He asked curiously as he looked through the cupboards and refrigerator. To his satisfaction he managed to find a Tupperware bowl containing leftover Miso soup. "This will do... I'm not feeling like trying my cooking skills." It had been a long time since Shu had cooked for himself, he had subsisted mainly on microwaveable items. His decided disability at the time had made it difficult to make a substantial meal, and his sub par pay didn't make it any easier to afford that type of food either.

As he put the soup in the microwave another flood of worry washed over his mind. "Money... We will need some..." He lamented. He had a small savings, but nothing substantial. Enough for a couple of months at best.

"Good morning." Inori's voice came serenely from behind where Shu was standing.

"Oh... Good morning." Shu replied cordially, hoping desperately that Inori hadn't heard his conversation again. This time, he was not so lucky.

"Are you okay?" She asked as she claimed a seat at the kitchen table.

"Uh.. Yeah I guess." Shu replied nonchalantly as the microwave beeped signaling that their breakfast was at a temperature where it could be eaten.

"You seem worried Shu." Inori , though emotionally challenged from time to time, was able to pick up on most of Shu's emotional inconsistencies. After all, she based nearly all of her existence on his own.

"I would be lying if I said there was nothing to worry about... Want some soup?" He asked abruptly, trying to avoid the former conversation entirely.

Inori nodded in affirmation. She was still in a sundry of disarray from having woken up. Her hair was out of order and she looked tired. Still – to Shu she seemed perfect. "You..." He cut himself off.

'When did I become so timid around her?' He wondered to himself.

"I...?" Inori looked confused.

Shu sighed, he knew he owed her the rest of the sentence now. "...Look really nice." He handed her a cup of the soup.

'Looks nice? She just woke up...What are you doing?' Shu berated himself mentally.

She gently accepted it, looking away slightly to hide the fact that she was blushing from his earlier compliment. "Why are you worried Shu?" Inori pressed on with the former line of questioning.

Shu slouched slightly and let out a heavy sigh as he leaned against the granite counter top behind him. "Well... We have almost no money, we're probably being pursued and we don't even know by who. Aren't you a little worried?"

"I won't let them hurt us." Inori replied sedately as she sipped the soup Shu had given her. "This is... Good..."

"Well I don't have any intention of letting anyone hurt us either, but... Is that really how you want to live?" Shu was getting slightly frustrated. He knew he , and assumed Inori, would be more than capable of fighting. That however, wasn't the point. The point was he didn't want to spend the rest of his life fighting. His was afraid it would ultimately end the way it had in the past.

"What else is there?" Inori questioned blankly. She focused intently on Shu as if she really had no idea there could be any other lifestyle.

"What else? Like a normal life... Job or school or just whatever, anything but just fighting all the time...It's not like it was three years ago... I can't do that again!"Shu's voice became louder with every word and he sounded slightly annoyed that Inori didn't understand what normal life was.

"I don't understand... What were you doing for the past three years. We can do that..." Inori responded somewhat defensively, she could tell she had upset Shu, but wasn't sure why.

"Well... I mean outside of being completely alone and miserable... I was a teacher, up until a few days ago actually." He responded more calmly this time, he was kicking himself for snapping at Inori, after all she had no experience with normal life outside of her short stint in High School which was interrupted with missions and whatever else came up in conjunction with Funeral Parlor.

"A teacher..." Inori let the words sit on her tongue momentarily. She had seen Shu do many different things, but she had never seen him do anything like that. "Did you enjoy it?"

"I did." Shu added as he picked up his cup of soup and made his way to the kitchen table.

"Why?" Inori asked softly.

"It's stupid..." Shu grumbled as he stared into the rapidly chilling soup before him. "But... I felt like it made a difference." He continued his story. "Most of the kids, they were too young to remember. They were always happy. It's like they lived in another world." He smiled as he reminisced on his time as a primary school teacher.

"You enjoyed teaching them?" Inori asked as she brushed a strand of hair from her face and focused more intently on the boy across from her.

"Yeah – they taught me a lot too. They helped me." Shu became slightly choked up on the words. "They showed me that there was hope."

'Hope...' Inori thought. She knew that concept. After all, it was Shu that had first given her hope, and time and time again he had delivered. "So. That's why you fight like you do now?" She fell back on to the question she had posed the night before.

"For them? Yeah." Shu smiled. "I don't want them to lose like we did, I don't even want them to have that kind of world."

"You said last night though..."Inori was confused. She clearly remembered Shu saying he wasn't sure if he wanted children.

"I don't know – being around children as a teacher is a lot different than being a father. I think I would just screw that up." Shu laughed.

As Inori became further consumed in her own thoughts the conversation fell silent between the two. There had to be a way that they could experience this 'normal' life Shu spoke of. After all, she was becoming increasingly interested in experiencing these normalcies she had only seen in glimpses during her former life.

"Shu..." Inori murmured, holding on to the sentence before letting it free. "We could run and just go some place else, and have a normal life right?"

Shu found it slightly ironic, had Inori listened to that same sentiment from him three and a half years ago, things might have turned out decidedly different. "I suppose so, but to where?"

For this Inori didn't have an answer. "I don't know – GHQ could find us anywhere."

"Well... Perhaps we should just wait it out for now.. Maybe the next time I'll ask some questions before just killing them." Shu joked.

"What about having a normal life?" Inori followed up.

"Well... GHQ has never really done anything on the level. You probably don't exist, and I doubt they'd openly admit to an assassination attempt on a Japanese citizen." Shu rationalized. "Maybe I'm over thinking it, maybe we can just go on."

"Do you think so?" Inori looked at him doubtfully.

"Well, there isn't really much else we can do." Shu scoffed.

"I'm sorry." Inori replied sadly. "I was selfish. I just wanted to be close to you again."

"Don't be sorry for that, I wanted it too. If this is the price, I'll pay it." Shu added reassuringly.

Sephirah Genomics Primary Research Facility : Tokyo

Day 60

It appears the subject has reunited with Ouma Shu. The boy is nearly fully aware of his potential. We have received secondary reports that his combat efficiency is far to superior to that of the subject as well as our other Genome enhanced combat forces.

However, this situation does have a silver lining. Research and Development has indicated that the current operating parameters are viable for execution of long term scenario 17B. Both candidates seem to be following the established pattern and the results of the scenario should prove interesting.

Initial estimates on cost are in the billions however the yield is unlike anything we have seen in the past. We will go ahead with this plan. Additional resources should be allocated to fallback mechanisms and training and provisioning of additional genome augmented personnel in the event that the two subjects require motivation. For now standing orders are to leave them alone, clean up any evidence of the two and let them continue as normal. Monitoring of their activities for behavior not fitting the scenario should occur however unless deviation is noted no intervention will take place.