Natsuki stumbled into Midori's classroom halfway through the third period of the day and after a brief scolding, the lesson was resumed. The navy-haired girl could literally feel the stares of certain members of the class, especially from a certain orange-haired Tokiha Mai. Aside from the fact that Mai was naturally a worrier, Natsuki had probably sent the girl's motherly instincts into overdrive after she had left a pile of assignments outside her dorm room two nights ago, with a note asking her to hand them in for her with no explanation, and was absent from school the whole of yesterday and that morning. She expected an interrogation over lunch.

And sure enough, as soon as the bell rang, Mai somehow managed to appear in front of her desk before she had even closed her textbook, with mild concern written all over the normally cheerful girl's face.

"Are you okay, Natsuki? You look like you haven't slept much."

'That's because I haven't…'

Natsuki replied sullenly in her mind as she recalled the events of the past few days. Following Yamada's call, she had spent all night and the better part of the morning tuning up the motorbike she was being lent and going over the details of the race. It was a qualifying round and the fastest three would be chosen to compete in the next round. Her job was to keep a certain racer out of the top three but luckily for her, said racer was inexperienced and barely managed to stay in the top five positions, let alone top three.

The night itself however, turned into a dangerous one as the supporters and sponsors of the fastest two racers decided that the other had cheated and a mass brawl had ensued as the race finished, which meant Natsuki only just about managed to fight her way out and get away before the authorities decided to show up or worse, she got killed.

"And then you… Natsuki? Natsuki! Listen to people when they're talking to you!"

Mai's voice rose a tone higher and Natsuki was brought out of her thoughts.

"Oh… sorry, Mai. I missed that."

"Geez, what's with the spacing? Anyway, like I said, are you going to explain why you left all your assignments outside my door, like you were planning to miss school?"

Natsuki could not help but wilt under the stern gaze the winner of the Carnival was levelling at her.

No wonder Reito lost…

"I was uh…" Natsuki tapped her foot rapidly against the chair as she tried to come up with a viable excuse. She then caught sight of a group of guys huddled around what looked like the latest game console. "P-Playing this new game I bought."

"Game?"

"Yeah, you know… on the Playstation?"

Natsuki watched as Mai easily bought her lie and visibly relaxed.

"Oh, Natsuki… and you decided to miss school to finish it, I'm assuming?"

"Y-Yeah… It's pretty addicting."

Natsuki was ridiculously glad that Mai believed her and felt ridiculously stupid for not having prepared an excuse in advance. She nodded along to Mai's and later Chie and Aoi's constant chatter over lunch as her mind drifted again to the USB device that was sitting in her pocket. She had been handed the device by Yamada as soon as she had arrived at the meeting point with a face of thunder. He had laughed at her predicament and then after loading the bike onto his truck to return to the hacking group, had explained what the small thing was.

The USB device outwardly appeared to be a nondescript, standard piece of hardware but apparently hidden on it was the viral programme within it that gave it the nickname Switchblade/Hacksaw for its ability to be able to gain access to all data, including hidden files and those that were password protected, then copy and send them to remote ghost servers – without leaving a trace. It apparently worked rapidly and if the programme felt threatened by antivirus software, it would wipe itself off of the system and the USB – again without a trace of its existence. Yamada had insisted that the hacking group she had just done business with were the best.

But… she was going to have to insert the USB directly into one of Searrs' main CPUs. And that involved spending more time in the lair of a rather dangerous enemy, who potentially knew a lot more about her than she would have liked.

So as soon as she got home, she finished writing up notes from Mai and doing more assignments, and then spread open the blueprints she had received from Yamada all over the floor. She winced as she aggravated some of her injuries but decided that the bruises from her brief scuffle as she attempted to escape the race-turned-riot had been worth the bargain price she had been offered for the USB and yet another contact in the murky underworld she frequently dealt with. Her navy eyebrows furrowed as she tried to make sense of the diagrams and tried to find a way in and out of the new Searrs territory while guessing as to where their main servers would be placed.

When Natsuki finally threw down her pencil after adding the last finishing touches to her plans, she looked up to check the time and realised that she had been at it for a good few hours. She grimaced as she stretched out and yawning, she got up off of the floor while grabbing her helmet and keys. She readjusted her holsters so that she could throw on her leather jacket over her guns as she jogged down to her motorbike and set off as soon as she could.

Natsuki had always enjoyed riding her motorbike, enjoying the freedom of being so open to Nature's elements and so close to the road. But there was something about riding at night that added to the bliss. Perhaps it was the fact that the normally busy roads on which she was hurtling along were empty and the night was giving her the shroud she was so used to having over her.

Regardless, she could ride for hours at a time and not realise that so much time had passed as she thought things over or sometimes rode just mindlessly, allowing her instincts to drive. And with this hobby in mind, it was little wonder that she did not mind the slightly long trip she was currently taking out of Fuuka, onto the newly repaired bridge (that linked Tokyo Bay and Fuuka Island; once destroyed by Alyssa's ARTEMIS) and into a district in Tokyo.

As she neared her destination, she began taking the roads that would have her riding around the block and briefly scouted the area before parking in a nearby alleyway. She crept into the shadows and with practised ease, manoeuvred around in the darkness – all the while keeping her eye on one particular balcony of a building just opposite her. The light was on in the apartment and the silhouette of a lithe figure was just visible through the gossamer curtains that gently swayed in the evening breeze.

Natsuki continued with what she had been up to and disappeared into a few more alleyways. However, seeing that the area appeared clear, she returned to her Ducati and her vantage point and paused to stare up at the balcony. She let out a short snort of humourless laughter and wondered what it was that always possessed her to stop and wait to see if the owner of the flat would come out onto the balcony. She had done so every single time. And it was stupid really. She was supposed to be moving about undetected yet she always found herself looking up rather wistfully hoping to catch a glimpse…

'And then what? Remember that she doesn't want to know me anymore?'

Natsuki suddenly balled her hands into tight fists as she felt a sharp pain shoot through her chest.

Sayonara, Natsuki…

The navy-haired biker determinedly wrenched herself away from her spot and clambered onto her motorbike before starting the engine. As she drove away, she told herself that it was enough to know that Shizuru was safe by checking that her apartment was not being watched and neither were there any traps laid out for her, whenever she could. She did not need to see her.

'It's my turn to protect you from the shadows… Shizuru…'

As soon as Natsuki returned to her flat, the first thing she did was ring Yamada. He picked up after the first ring.

"Yamada."

"Kuga. I'm going in and I need transport."

"Got a plan, Kuga?"

"Several. Anything to report?"

"Nope, no unusual activities in any of the sites you've asked me to keep an eye on."

"Great. I'll go over the details with you later."

"Roger that."

OOO

Natsuki decided that there was probably not much else more undignified than swimming through underwater piping (fortunately they were storm drains and not sewage pipes as she had originally feared) and squeezing into ventilation pipes that were most definitely not designed for humans to be climbing up in. Even after shedding the slightly bulky diving gear and only wearing an annoyingly skin-tight wetsuit, it was admittedly a bit of a squeeze. Albeit, she did have a number of items attached to her, like her weapon holsters and a utility belt of sorts, but they were the barest minimum she required. She sighed. At least she was not stuck somewhere, wishing she had a smaller rack, butt or hips. Being less blessed than many other women in certain departments, she supposed that at least it suited her current job description.

Better yet, at least she was not claustrophobic.

Natsuki's meticulous planning and memorising of the route through the pipes were rewarded after what felt like an age when she finally reached her exit point. Using one of the tools she had carried with her, she unscrewed a square air vent and slipped through to land lightly onto the floor of a boiler room of the new Searrs facility as she had planned. She drew her Glock 19 and checked that the suppressor was attached before she crept towards the door to open it slowly. Natsuki carefully slid her head around it to check the coast was clear and noting the security cameras, she destroyed them with muted bullets. As she swiftly but stealthily made her way to her destination, she knew that breaking the cameras would greatly minimise the time that she had to complete her mission but anonymity was crucial at this point and she felt she had no choice. When she arrived at the main computer server room, she was firstly relieved that it was not locked and secondly that so far, she had not run into anybody. She entered to find a room full of CPUs stacked on racks in columns, whirring and clicking as they kept the entire system that Searrs was operating on fast and smooth. Pulling out the USB containing the Switchblade/Hacksaw virus from a waterproof pouch on her belt, she picked a CPU that was partially hidden by wires that had been neatly tied off and plugged in the USB behind it. As soon as she was done, she made her way out.

Of course, Searrs was an international organisation with many secrets and a private army hired to keep those secrets safe and even though Natsuki had made very good time with her sneaking around, security were already on high alert after noticing the broken cameras. So as soon as she closed the door of the server room and turned a corner, she found herself facing two heavily armed guards. Instinctively she dropped to one knee and fired four rapid shots, two for each guard and the unfortunate souls both dropped with two holes in their forehead.

Now knowing that she had almost no time at all, she ran as quietly as she could towards a second destination, remembering to fire at cameras along the way. She skidded to a halt in front of a stock room and smashing through the locked door with a bullet and a few firm kicks; she trashed the place and grabbed a handful of small devices to make her entry look like an armed robbery. Natsuki could hear footsteps fast approaching at the racket and knowing that they would notice the mess and enter the room, she hid herself in the shadows beside the now damaged doorframe and changing over to a full magazine, waited. And sure enough two guards blundered into the room in shock of the state of it, only to find a bullet lodged in each of their skulls.

Natsuki darted out and now sprinted towards the port that was attached to the facility, only stopping to gun down cameras and anyone who saw her. Fortunately she made it to the main doors by the port without too much interference, as the facility was rather large and she presumed the night guards were currently running all over the place to try and corner her.

Slipping through the main door, she found that it was still night but there was enough lighting around for her to see that there was only one guard there. She crept up behind him and clamping one hand over his mouth and one on the back of his head, she firmly twisted it at an angle that was not appropriate and after a sickening crack the man fell lifeless to the ground. Checking her coast was clear; Natsuki darted towards the darkened waters and was just about to dive into the water, when suddenly she heard, "He-Hey! Put your hands up where I can see them!"

Natsuki slowly raised her hands and turned to find another guard appearing from behind a large cargo box and had she been in any other circumstance, she would have been terribly amused that the man currently pointing an assault rifle at her was holding his trousers up with one hand. She assumed that he had been relieving himself when he had caught sight of her.

"Now drop your weapon!"

Natsuki replied simply, "Your trousers are slipping."

The poor stupid chap hesitated before glancing down to check and Natsuki only needed a second. She leapt backwards into the water fired at the guard as he also squeezed the trigger on impulse.

Splash!

Natsuki felt a sharp pain in her left shoulder as the cold water engulfed her but was satisfied to see the Searrs guard fall just before she went under. Pulling out a mini oxygen tank and mask, she placed it over her mouth before swimming under the decking of the port. She hid underwater until the water settled and resumed its normal flow of current before swimming her way out of the area towards her exit point.

Yamada had realised when Natsuki had asked for a weapons dealer and started adding extraction strategies to her plans that she no longer had her odd pistols and pet metal wolf. He was never one to believe what the media fed the masses and had been sure that the large scale destruction of Fuuka that had occurred only a few months prior were not the result of "gas leakage explosions", "a random act of terrorism" and "gang warfare" but from an all out battle between these… hybrid beasts. He surmised that Natsuki had lost her 'weapons' at the end of it all. In fact he had been pretty sure that the girl would lose her life at the end, judging by the steely determination intermingled with (what he could only describe as) sad resignation he had seen in her eyes when he had returned her fixed Ducati.

Clunk.

Yamada was jolted out of his thoughts at the sound of something hitting the hull of his motorboat and his hand flew to his Colt 1911 when he saw a wet hand grab the railings but immediately went to help when a wet navy head popped over shortly afterwards.

"Mission accomplished, Kuga?" Yamada asked the slightly breathless girl as he inspected the wound on her shoulder. "This looks like a piece of bullet hit bone."

"Yeah, mission accomplished." Natsuki replied as she peeled the wet suit off her shoulder for Yamada to dig out the fragment with his knife. "And yes, one guy pissing himself caught me off guard... argh… um, ow?"

Yamada chuckled at her annoyed expression and quickly pressed a nearby towel into the shoulder before handing Natsuki the bloodied piece of metal, "Ah, stop whining. You're lucky that kid was too busy pissing to take a good shot."

"No. I moved."

"Yeah right, Kuga. Not even you can dodge bullets."

"Whatever." Natsuki grumbled in reply and took the towel from Yamada to press down on her wound herself as he went to start his motorboat.

"Well, anyway what next, Kuga?"

Natsuki looked out towards the horizon to find the sun peeking over the edge to signal the start of a new day.

"For now, we wait."

And she threw the fragmented bullet into the horizon.