Author's Notes: Hey, everyone (or anyone reading this, I'm not sure whether I have any readers left. I wouldn't be surprised if I didn't have.) Anyway, I wanted to update this now, because school ends soon and I might not be able to update since I'll be busy during the holiday. So, I'm going to try to update often. Mark the try, I'm not promising that I will… I will try.  Onto the review responses:

Hikari Kuu: Thanks! Hmm… you'll just have to see who Haru and Kasumi X heard… I'm evil… Wait a minute, I'm not… you're going to find out who it was in this chapter. Btw, your story is wonderful.

Joey/Mai fan15: Long time no see, eh? No, wait, that's should be 'long time no write, eh?'… Oh well, who cares anyway… It takes sometime to update since I have to plan everything I write. I'm not sure about a lot of things, even though I have two possible endings. Sorry for not updating…. Speaking of which, what about your story? You have to update soon, you can't just leave your readers in suspense, that's a cruel and unusual punishment! Ignore that, I'm being a real hypocrite right now… I hate hypocrites. Anyway, I should stop rambling.

Wolf Runner: Thank you. I try to make it interesting. Wait a sec, why haven't you written anything lately… I haven't seen any of your work for ages.

TigerEyes2: Thank you for your wonderful reviews, they're very encouraging… (*hears coughing sounds*) As are all the reviews I get. Anyway, thanks for reading and reviewing.

With This Knife

* I let myself fall into a lie

I let my walls come down

I let myself smile and feel alive

I let my walls come down

No matter how hard I try

I don't know why…*

   -  With this knife, Smile Empty Soul

The footsteps were now heard clearly, it was not a person. What could it have been?

Now it can't be… Could it?  Kasumi X was bothered by her thought patterns, as the footsteps came closer and became soundly louder. Whoever or whatever it was sure was walking quickly.

Haru looked up as he saw heard something jump out from in front the building. Now they knew what it was. A black panther.

Figures…  The runaway ninja thought, relieved. The panther was barking, and looked very angry.

Wait a sec, why is the panther running around in the garden without supervision… That must mean… Christie. Is. Home.

The ninja slid against the wall, she tilted her head to get a glance at the garden. She saw enough, her fears were now confirmed. She saw someone from a far; it was a woman who was wearing a hat and wore a white sundress. She was coming towards and them and was coming closer.

The ninja's heart beat was at quick tempo and she tried to explain what was going on. " Haru, someone's coming… And I think it's Christie."

" What?" He paused. " Why didn't you tell me?"

" I just noticed it." The runaway ninja said, as the panther's continued barking. Loudly.

Haru caught a glance at the woman, who thoughtlessly wandered. He saw enough to know two things; what to do and that the woman wasn't Christie. " Just follow my lead."

The woman was there. She looked up in terror as she saw the two.

" Who are you, two, and what are you doing?" came the question.

" Oh, I'm sorry; I think we've got the wrong address." Haru replied, he turned around and looked the runaway ninja, while attempting to whisper in a loud tone, so the woman would hear. " See, I told you Aunt Christie lived in the next house."

The woman stopped for a second, " Wait a minute, I'm the housekeeper. I don't live here, I think you've got the right address afterall."

It was working.

" Might I interest you to come in for a cup of tea?" The woman added with a smile. The two, now, saw the woman. She was quite old, perhaps in her early sixties.

" Yes, thank you… I'd love that…" Kasumi X replied. Haru shot her a glare. The woman didn't notice and lead them into the house.

The house was beautifully decorated. The living room had pictures and painting hung high. The woman motioned towards a sofa, where the two sat down. She hurried off, to cook some tea and to offer them something to eat.

" Why did you say 'yes', we're not supposed to drink tea with the housekeeper… we're supposed to murder someone…. Remember?" Haru angrily muttered in a low tone.

" Relax, how bad can this be?" She replied, as she rested her head on her shoulder.

" And you ask this question, don't you realize that this woman could tell Christie that someone was here to visit her… I just made that up, so we could have some sort of excuse to come from the back of the building instead of just using the driveway." The angry reply came.

" Look, nothing will happen… The woman's probably senile, anyway…" Kasumi X exclaimed.

" Whatever. Atleast we have an excuse to be in the house."

¤

It took a while, before the housekeeper came back. Kasumi X immediately attacked the plate of biscuits. Haru arched a brow at her, but averted his eyes to the housekeeper, who spoke.

" So, Christie's your aunt. I thought she didn't have any siblings."

Haru looked up at pictures, it was a way to avoid the question. " Excuse me, what did you say? I wasn't paying attention. I mean, these pictures are certainly distracting. Aunt Christie sure has good taste, don't you think?"

" I agree. Now, I forgot where I was… wait a minute…" There was a pause. The young man looked up at the pictures. A certain black and white picture caught his attention. In the picture there were two little girls, one was taller than the other. There was another difference other than a few facial differences that separated the two, one was cheerful and the other was sad. At the bottom of the picture, there was writing: ' Louisa, aged 8, and Amy, aged 6.'

" As I was saying, I didn't know Christie had siblings. She's never talked about her family."

" Oh, yes, it's a sore subject. It brings a lot of bad memories. You see, our mother, Amy, died and she and Aunt Christie didn't get along, even though they were the only two people left. It also brings up the memory of our grandparents, who were murdered, when our mother and Aunt Christie were small. That's why Aunt Christie values that picture so much." Haru lied, and pointed toward the picture.

Kasumi X looked up at it, as well, and added a few words to the lie. " On the way, here, I wonder whether surprising Aunt Christie was good. I mean, we should have called her and told her before, and then she wouldn't be sad when she sees us..."

" What do you mean?" The older woman was now interested, and was definitely buying their lies.

" Well… Aunt Christie would remember mother when she saw us and that would make her sad. I think coming here was the wrong thing to do, so if we leave before Aunt Christie comes I would advise you not to tell her. The last time, she saw us was the funeral…"

Kasumi X buried her head in her hands and looked sad. The older woman grabbed a box of Kleenex, which she handed Kasumi X. " It's okay, I just… really need to get over this…"

" I wouldn't want to upset Christie, although, I think she would be happy to know that you guys came to visit her." There was a silence.

Kasumi X decided to change the subject. " It's warm in here, I don't know why I haven't bothered to keep my jacket on… Do you know where I could hang it? Is there a coat rack anywhere?"

She had scanned the area earlier and had seen that there wasn't any coat rack or wardrobe downstairs, that would give her a reason to go up to the second floor.

" We don't have one, but I'm sure Christie wouldn't mind if you hung your jacket in her room. It's the room furthest to the left, down the hall."

" Thanks." Kasumi X walked away, she blinked at Haru and gave him a look, that told him to 'keep the woman distracted'.

¤

Kasumi walked up the stairs, and looked at the hall. There were a few rooms, only one was open. She looked into it. It must have been the room of a young adult, or perhaps a teenage. It was spotlessly painted in black and there were morbid pictures hung on the wall. The mark of an assassin. Now, Kasumi was sure of that it was Kahuku's room, as she found the wardrobe. It had two parts; a lower part where he had clothes and upper part, where he kept private belongings. She found something interesting, as she scrolled through the belongings; prescription pills. Her imagination practically ran away with her, as she thought of different ways to kill the assassin.

¤

Haru had started talking with the woman and had distracted her. He had told a countless lies and filled up all the plot holes of his previous lies, such as him and Kasumi being related to Christie even though they were clearly Japanese, which he easily explained by talking about having a Japanese father and a British mother. Another lie was about why Christie called herself Christie although her name was Louisa; this lie was harder to explain. He told the woman that Christine was Christie's middle name and that she always hated the first name, so she went by a shortened version of her middle name.

Strangely enough, the housekeeper believed the lies.

Haru started to get tired of being there, since the woman bombarded him with questions, which made things hard to explain. He looked up as Kasumi X came down the staircase, and waited for the right moment to make up an excuse for leaving.

¤

Kasumi X looked up at the road ahead as she got into the car. The driver, Donovan had hired for them, started driving toward the hotel.

" What did you do to assassinate Kahuku? Did you find out anything that we didn't know or that could help us?" Haru asked, wondering why Kasumi had been upstairs for more than five minutes.

" Well, let's just say I put something in his pills and leave it at that." She said smugly, and smiled an evil smile.

" Good. For once, you've done something right." Haru complimented, not considering that the clone could have easily done something wrong or not have poisoned the assassin. It was uncharacteristic of him, not to distrust her motives.

¤

Author's Notes: Short chapter, huh? It's like 1915 words, including this text. I know it's rushed, but hey, I had one hour and nothing to do. I hope to update soon, and clear out the misunderstandings in this chapter (I think it was confusing and probably, weird.)

Anyway, I have to study; I have a VERY IMPORTANT presentation tomorrow at school. Wish me luck, I'm gonna need it.

Anyway, until next time…