CHAPTER NINE: Epitaph

Yuko was almost to the center of the building. The nerve center, and her meeting place with Leela. It's where they were certain their target was hiding.

She was high-tailing it as fast as she could when something caught her arm, jerking her back against a wall and causing her much pain.

"Ouch!" she said, a little too loudly.

"Quiet," came a deep voice on the side of her injured arm.

Yuko's eyes grew to the size of saucers. "Oh, shit."

"Come with me," the voice came again, tugging hard on her sore arm. Yuko winced.

She was pushed roughly from behind into a small room, and a light was clicked on. She stood looking into the incredibly angry face of Aya.

Without saying a word, Aya began to un-sheath his katana. Yuko gasped and said, "Aya, you really don't want to do this."

"My name is Abyssian, and this is a mission," he stated, matter-of-factly.

"Well, my name is Yuko, and this is me kicking your ass!" With that, she jump-kicked Aya, connecting with his "killing arm", and knocking his katana out of his hands. Then she smashed out the light and bolted as fast as her legs could carry her.

* * *

Leela was rounding the corner to her meeting point with Yuko when someone else ran straight into her, knocking her off her feet.

"What the hell?" yelled Leela.

"It's me, it's me," the girl told her, helping her to her feet.

"Yuko," Leela sighed. "May I reiterate.what the hell?"

Grabbing Leela's arm and taking off at full speed, Yuko told her, "It's Aya. He saw me and got pissed so I kicked him. So now we have to find the target and get the hell out of here or else we'll have Aya on our asses, too!"

Struggling to keep up, Leela panted, "You know, kicking people isn't always the answer!"

"Shit!" Yuko exclaimed, stopping short.

"What now!?" cried Leela. But then she saw him. Youji was standing in front of them, looking at them crossly.

"So YOU'RE the one that kicked me, Yuko?" He asked.

"Dammit, we need to get by!" Yuko yelled at him, angrily.

Just then, Makoto came around the corner ahead of them, "Quiet! They're going to know we're here! In any case, I planted and activated the virus."

"Good," Leela said. "Now we just need to take out the leaders and then blow this place straight to hell."

"Shhhh," Youji shushed them. The girls heard a buzzing in his ear. "Right. Well, that's Omi. Apparently, he, Maki and Ken worked out a plan. Who is your target?"

Katzen exchanged a glance. "The leader of Unagi," answered Leela.

"You don't know who that is, do you?" Youji asked them, already knowing the answer.

"Can't say that we do," Makoto replied. "But we need to get to the main nerve center of the building. That's where the shit's going down."

"Well, come on then," Youji said. "It's this way."

* * *

The three members of Katzen and Youji peered into the room.

"What the hell? There's no one here!" Makoto sighed, exasperated.

"That's just great," said Yuko, frustrated. "Why wouldn't they be here?"

"Maybe they heard you yelling like frightened children, and escaped," came a baritone voice from behind them. Spinning around, they came face to face with Aya, who was holding his katana a bit more gingerly than usual.

"Why are they still alive?" he asked, looking directly at Youji.

Straightening up to his full height, Youji stood just an inch away from Aya and said, "Because we have a more important mission to worry about right now. We have a lot more dangerous women to kill than these girls, and, frankly, I like Katzen. So that is why they're still alive."

Aya frowned and then shrugged his shoulders. Brushing past them and into the room, he said, "let's find the target's escape route."

* * *

"What is taking them so long?!" Maki cried, starting to panic.

Up on the roof, the night had turned cold and Maki was shaking from chills and fear. Ken placed an arm around her and pulled her close. "Don't start to worry yet. Wait another 5 minutes, and then worry."

Maki nodded and they sat in silence for a few minutes. Then Maki spoke again. "Hey, Ken?"

"Hmmm?"

"Do you like kids?"

Ken smiled. "Love them."

"Good."

* * *

"The roof", Aya finally concluded, having discovered the target's secret escape route. "Let's go."

* * *

Bursting onto the roof like bats outta hell, the leader of Unagi and her closest cohort stumbled over two strangers and crashed to the ground.

"What the hell?!" yelled Ken, and stood up, pulling Maki with him.

The curly-haired leader of Unagi stood quickly and faced them, pulling out a gun in one swift motion and pointing it at Ken.

Just as their target pulled the trigger, Maki jumped in front of Ken without a word. She didn't make a sound as the bullet plunged into her chest, and she only made the slightest of sounds as she fell to the ground at his feet. The only way to even tell anything had happened was the sound of the discharging gun, and the spray of Maki's blood all over Ken's shirt.

Ken was too stunned to move, and the two members of Unagi used that moment to run towards their means of escaping from the roof.

* * *

Aya, Youji, Yuko, Makoto, and Leela were laying in wait for their targets. Aya had not only discovered their means of escaping from the nerve center of the building, but also a map showing their escape route from the roof.

As soon as the assassins saw two shadowy figures emerge from a door that they knew led to the roof, they sprung.

It only took a moment for Aya to take out the target's assistant, and then they all turned their attention to the person they had been planning to kill from the beginning.

In the briefest of moments, the plan she had been participating in for four years was forgotten, as Yuko came face to face with her target.

"Satori!" she yelled.

* * *

"Maki, hang on!" Ken begged, trying to hold back tears.

In the moments after the members of Unagi had fled, Ken had kneeled down and taken Maki's limp body into his arms, and attempted to get her to open her eyes.

After what seemed like an eternity of shaking, pleading, and crying, Maki's eyes fluttered a bit, and then finally opened.

"Ken?" she said, "I messed up really bad, didn't I?"

Ken shook his head, causing a few stray tears to fall on her. "No, no.you didn't mess up. Everything is going to be fine!"

"I couldn't let her shoot you," Maki continued, as if Ken hadn't spoken. There was an emptiness and distance in her voice that frightened Ken.

"I couldn't let her shoot you," Maki repeated. "I'm sorry if you're sad. I guess I messed up."

Pulling her even closer to him, Ken said, "I love you. And that's why I'm not gonna let anything bad happen to you!" Maki's eyes began drifting closed again, and Ken spoke urgently into his headset, "Omi, are you getting this?!"

From his end, Omi was shaking and trying to stay calm. "Yes, but you know there's nothing I can do from here! It's not like I can call an ambulance!"

Maki's eyes fluttered open again. "Ken?"

Ken looked down at her and leaned in a bit. His voice shook when he spoke. "Yes?"

"I love you, too."

With that, she closed her eyes and didn't open them again.

* * *

Hearing her name, the leader of Unagi glared at the girl who had apparently come to kill her, "So you've come to stop me, have you, Yu-chan?"

"You know this girl? You caused this, didn't you?" Aya asked Yuko, glaring at her with a gaze just as cold as Satori's.

"She should know me," Satori told him. "She's my sister. She left me ages ago to join this pathetic little gang. Yuko said she was coming back and she never did."

Yuko stared at her sister, speechless. Behind her, Makoto, Leela, and Youji couldn't believe what was happening. Aya was the only one who had a reaction, "You're our target," he said, starting toward her.

"No!" screamed Yuko, standing in front of her sister protectively. "Don't do this! It's my fault. Don't kill her."

"You know I have no problem killing both of you," Aya told her.

Youji grabbed his arm, roughly, "Stop."

"Now you've come to save me, Yuko. Too bad it's too late," Satori whispered to her, grabbing her and putting a knife to her throat. "I had all those people at the festival killed. I killed that girl who came here with you. I turned Unagi into what it is today. I came here looking for you, big sister, and this is what I found. Some pathetic little gang that wasn't going anywhere. You were gone. Abandoned me. Just like Mari abandoned us."

"I didn't.," Yuko said, crying. "I couldn't leave."

"This is your fault, Yuko. You never should have left. Hell, Mari never should have left!" Satori yelled at her. "You may have wanted to protect me now. But it's too late, Yuko. It's too late for that. I won't let you stop me." Satori's knife tightened at her sister's throat. But, before she could pull the blade across, Yuko's elbow jammed into her stomach and she lost her grip.

Grabbing the knife, Yuko turned around and stabbed the leader of Unagi in the stomach, "I'm sorry," she said.

Satori sank to her knees, staring at her sister in shock.

Makoto ran to Yuko's side with Leela just after her, "We have to go," Makoto told Yuko.

Yuko looked her, "But Satori.and Maki."

"Come on," Leela tugged her arm. "We have to go." The girls turned around to leave.

"Yu-chan.," They heard Satori's weak voice behind them.

"No!" Yuko screamed. "Let's go! Where's Ken? Where's Maki?!"

"Maki's dead," came Ken's voice. He stepped out of the shadows. The others saw his face was stained with tears and his shirt drenched in blood. "You shot her," he said, seeing the wounded Satori. Before anyone could grab him or say anything, he ran over to her and thrust his bugnuk into her chest.

Yuko screamed and clutched onto Makoto for support, tears streaming down her face once more,

"Stop, please!" It was too late. Ken finished what Yuko started. Satori was lying on the roof, lifeless.

"We have to go," said Aya. "Now."

* * *

From his place back at Weiss headquarters, Omi was crying. He couldn't help but feel guilty. Memories of Maki flashed through his mind, and he sighed. "Maybe if I had been there, I could have helped you," he said out loud.

But, as it was, he was waiting for the signal to detonate 20 pounds of explosives that Youji had planted around Unagi headquarters.

* * *

Aya, Youji, Ken, Yuko, Makoto, and Leela ran down four flights of stairs and out of the building as fast as they could. Once they got outside, Youji ordered them to keep running for another 300 yards.

Once they were a safe distance away, Youji said, "now" into his headset.

With that, the huge building that had once been Unagi headquarters exploded in a torrent of fire, brick, and glass.

"Get down!" yelled Leela, and they all dived behind the nearest car as debris rained down around them a little too close for comfort.

After a few minutes had passed, the assassins could hear sirens approaching from the distance.

"Time to go," said Makoto. They all stood, and looked out at the crater that had once been a prominent building.

As they all turned around to leave, Yuko and Ken found themselves lingering just a little while longer. The pain had not hit them with full force yet, so they were in no hurry to get home.

Makoto walked over and touched them both on the shoulders. They looked at her, nodded, and then finally turned to leave.

* * *