The most interesting item in the bag was a mask, which she delicately took into her hands to look at it.

It was beautiful.

- - - - - - - - - -

Chapter Twenty – Facing Death

Unlike what Mikan would have expected, it was not an animal. She was half-disappointed that Persona hadn't given her such a mask, but that didn't diminish the awe she felt by looking at it.

It covered her eyes and nose, and might as well have been a mask that someone would wear at a party, or a ball. Yet, there were fine lines and patterns carved into the strong material, for which Mikan couldn't help but try to think of a use. She couldn't come up with any, but it was pretty nonetheless.

Cautiously holding it up to her face, she walked to the mirror and put it on. It felt strangely warm, and though she had the feeling that it didn't fit at first, it was like a second skin after a few seconds. She smiled.

The mask concealed her identity perfectly; she could have been anyone. The young girl quickly changed and added something from her own wardrobe to it. She had never worn it before, but had liked it the moment she had seen it in the far end of a small clothes shop.

It was a wide, black cap, which made her look boyish in her clothes, but could also have been feminine had she wanted it to look so. She fastened her hair with clips and stuffed it under the cap, making sure that everything sat well, including the weapons which she fixed upon a belt around her waist.

She was ready to go.

Deciding to start there and then, she opened one of the windows in her room and swiftly climbed down the stone wall, taking hold of drains, window sills or deep cracks in the rough surface.

She didn't know why, but she felt excited in a strange way, knowing that she'd experience something different this evening, and bizarrely, she looked forward to it, she was eager to prove herself and see what she could achieve.

Half running, she made her way to the clearing, where, sure enough, a masked man was waiting there. No emotion passed through him as he saw Mikan approaching. He simply turned around, motioning her to follow him.

Without an exchange of words, they got into a black car, and quietly, it drove out. Mikan, feeling slightly uncomfortable but trying to hide that fact, coolly looked the tall man up. He had a slight mask, just like her, except that there were no incisions in it that could have made it special in any way.

He was wearing all black too, but to keep up the appearance of an actual business meeting, he was wearing a suit. The young girl could see that underneath the dark shirt was an extremely muscular chest, and she could only guess how strong his arms must be.

They drove on for quite some time, and it was only shortly before they halted that he finally spoke. He had a deep voice.

"No matter what they say, do not speak to them. Remain in the background, but always close to me. I realize that this is your first mission, but there is no space for a first mistake here, for it might be your last. They will probably try all sorts of tricks with their alices, but now that you're here, you will take care of that too. Understood?"

Mikan simply nodded, but inside, she was so scared that she wondered if she would be able to control her abilities enough to be of any use. This was it.

She started to feel a little nervous. What if she forgot? What if she failed? She didn't know what would happen then. The man quietly got out of the car and held the door open for her. She nodded, her lips tightly closed to hide her anxiety, and stood still until he got a suitcase out of the trunk and had shut it.

The low thud reverberated through the dark silence, and sent a shiver down Mikan's spine. She looked around and tried to make out her surroundings, but there was nothing recognizable. A few warehouses, the smell of the gutters. Nothing much really.

The cold night wind brushed over her face as they started walking. The driver remained behind while the tall man was walking in front of her, his shoes cluttering on the pavement. The young girl didn't dare ask where they were going.

She didn't feel like herself. From here, she was simply watching what was going on, and felt as if she was looking at herself from another angle. Nothing seemed to belong to her, not her feet walking on the cold stone, not her eyes taking in the dark silhouettes.

Her collaborator was walking steadily; he knew where he was going. He turned right, then left, then right again. Finally, he pushed open a small door covered in graffiti, leading to a small rectangular room with only a desk and two chairs in it, both facing each other.

One of those chairs was occupied by a man. He too was wearing a mask, but of a quite unusual attire; it was completely white, with two bright red dots on the cheeks and a big smile painted level with the mouth. It was grotesque. It seemed as if keeping one's identity a secret was one of the top priorities in this kind of business.

Mikan nervously tugged at her own mask, simply to make sure that it was sitting well and hid her face.

"Mr. Fuji" said the face behind the white mask, ever-smiling. It was the voice of an aged man, but not that old either. He lifted a gloved hand and invitingly directed him to the chair. Fuji sat down with a polite nod.

"Mr. Jin."

The old man folded his hand on the top of the desk and fixed his piercing eyes onto Mikan, who was trying to discreetly stand in the background, but still close enough to keep an eye on the exchange.

She had only just noticed the two tall men standing behind Mr. Jin, close to the wall. Behind them, half in the darkness, was a door leading either out or to another room, and the young girl wondered if any danger was lurking behind it.

She evaluated the two; they were definitely bodyguards. They were also wearing earrings, which meant that they possessed alices.

"I see that you have brought someone else this time…One of Persona's new boys?"

Fuji gave a vague grunt, difficult to draw a real conclusion from, but the old man seemed satisfied and turned his full attention to the man seated in front of him.

"Well then, as I have heard Persona is not entirely happy with my new prices. Yet I am sure that he will understand that what I deliver has a certain quality – and with quality comes price. Since the authorities have discovered those other idiots, it has become increasingly difficult to…"

"I am well aware of all of that, my dear friend" Fuji said with his rich voice, "but I'm afraid that this is none of our concern. We provide you with clients, since we don't need everything for ourselves, but that is all we can do. So don't come to us with stories about the authorities when all we want is an agreement."

Mr. Jin inhaled sharply and placed his palms on the desk. He slightly leaned forward, causing Mikan to tense faintly.

"We can do it both ways, my friend. We know that you can't go without it, and we know that we are the best." He casually leaned backwards, fixating his interlocutor with blank eyes.

"No." Mr. Fuji said harshly. "Either you stick to the agreement or the deal is off."

"You forget…"

Everything happened very quickly then. With a quick movement that almost escaped Mikan, her "tutor" got out of his chair and had stuck his hand under his suit. The two bodyguards edged forward, and Mikan the young girl could feel a shockwave come from one of them aiming directly at the tall man standing in front of her, which she quickly dismissed with a small movement of her hand. It worked, though she felt as if a great amount of energy had just been sucked out of her.

At the same time, the other man had thrown himself at the old man to protect him from whichever danger there was, but he relied so much on his shielding alice that Mikan had just cancelled that he was incapable of fending off the dagger that was thrown at him.

It hit him the neck and simply stayed there, stuck in his pulsing flesh by several inches. The man let out a strangled cry which sent down shivers down Mikan's spine, who couldn't do anything else than stare at the scene, horrified.

The other bodyguard, having recovered slightly from his failed shockwave attack, hurled himself at Fuji, who had taken out a shiny object which had been hidden under his clothed.

A gun.

Mikan's eyes widened as she stared at the scene in horror. Was this really happening? It had to be a dream, must be. It couldn't be real.

Yet it was, as real as the sound of the detonation as the cold-blooded man with the bear mask pulled the trigger, sending his attacker back by a few meters. Still, he was standing, trying bravely to get out his own weapon.

He didn't even get that far. A well-aimed shot to his forehead knocked all of the energy out of him, and he stood there for a moment, his eyes open as if in surprise, before collapsing to the floor with a low thud. Mikan would never forget the look in his eyes and the sound his dead body made as it hit the ground. Never.

But it wasn't over yet; the old man was still left. He was desperately trying to move the stabbed man's body out of the way. It was blocking the door, the only possible way for him to get out. It was too late.

"Mr. Jin"

He froze, knowing what would come next, and his shoulders slumped. He had given up. Slowly, as if age had suddenly made him stiff, he turned around and looked at Fuji. Then, he looked straight into Mikan's eyes, and she could see the pleading desperation that he must feel.

She couldn't turn away, and he took a step into her direction, stretching out his hands towards her.

She shied away and stepped back, panicked, and didn't even see Fuji shoot him. He fell to the ground soundlessly. Inside of her, the little girl she once had been started screaming.

Behind her mask, Mikan was silently crying, the silver tears flowing down her face without her doing anything to prevent it, without her wiping them away. She could taste the salt on her lips, and couldn't move.

Fuji stood there for a second before pocketing his weapon and strolling over to the dead bodies, as if nothing had happened. The first thing he did was get his knife out of one of the men's throat, wiping it clean on the corpse's white sleeve shirt.

Mikan looked at him, bewildered, and could suddenly hardly repress the urge to start giggling hysterically. She couldn't even muster the strength to ask what he was doing; everything seemed so far away, everything was way off. It wasn't meant to be that way.

She saw Fuji search through Mr. Jin's suit and, apparently having found what he was looking for, retrieved a small square object that Mikan couldn't identify from it. He turned around and looked at her.

"Let's go, job's done. Don't worry, you'll forget. It'll all just blend in at the end, and you won't remember a thing that happened here. Too much will be done between now and then."

Mikan nodded automatically, but at the back of her head, something inside of her was screaming. How could he say that? She followed him to the car and silently got in. It has been her first mission. How could it be? Hadn't she been told that this was going to be easy, nothing compared to what was going to come?

The young girl suddenly wondered if that was true. Would things only get worse from this point on?

What was this place, who was this man?

But the most important question now was: Who was Persona really?