Yahahaha. I so love being evil. It's so much fun!

Ryu is so cool! -swoon-

Uh, don't mind me. Just too much NGing, I think.The outfit... the hair! YAY!

Damn! And I was intending to not write anything about him in my author's notes, either!

Thanks for reviewing, as always. Enjoy!

She dearly wanted to reach for her own knife that she could feel holstered under her jacket, but knew that if Ryu was as well-trained as she was, that she would get nowhere near it.

"I am an innocent girl that happened to walk into you by mistake and asked you to lunch. I never knew that you would be holding a knife at my throat and completely disregarding my hospitality!" Her voice was an angry whisper. Getting attention would do nothing.

"You are not. What you are is a good actor,"

Couldn't he ever speak in plain English? "Fine, then," she sat up, reaching into her jacket slowly and carefully, groping around discreetly for the knife. "Who do you think I am?"

With a quick thrust, the knife was back at her throat, mere millimetres away. "Do not go for your weapon, Miss Chieko. I can have you done with and be gone before anybody realises that you are lying dead on the table. Answer my questions and I will not harm you,"

"I would rather die then answer anything," she hissed.

He levelled emerald green eyes on her. "You are an assassin. Christie, is it?"

Holy shit! Her brain began racing wildly, trying to think of something to say. He's damn good! Donovan could use a man like this! "Who is this Christie and what makes you think that she has anything to do with me? I ask you to lunch and you call me a murderer? What are you, insane? Just call me this Christie person out of the blue?"

He tossed long strands of hair away from his face so the eye contact effect was stronger. Rather feminine move, that… "You are an assassin. I've picked that up. Your stature is the same as Christie's. Hair and eyes are easy things to change. The DOATEC has been trying to assassinate me, for reasons I still do not know. Christie is an assassin that works for aforementioned company. You are carrying notes about me, for heaven's sakes. What are the odds that you are not Christie?"

The knife moved away from her neck, almost as though he was purposely giving her an opportunity to pull out her own weapon. A small smirk played on her lips for a second. She was not going to forfeit the chance.

"How the hell do you know my stature?"

No use trying to feign it. Thanks for nothing, Chieko.

He raised an eyebrow, sipping at his water. "You are the same height as me. If your height was different, I probably would not have noticed it as readily. However, it is not every day that you find a Japanese woman standing at five feet ten, with non-Japanese features. It was then that I knew you were not who you said you were, Chieko Taniguchi,"

Forget this. Quick as a flash, she pulled out a gun.

"Put your hands up or die,"

He put the glass down, staring at her. "Why not kill me straight away? Is that not what your precious company wishes?"

The amount of malice the ninja held for DOATEC was startling, but she refused to let it deter her. "Put up your fucking hands. Now,"

Distantly, she heard screams and cries as the rest of the people in the restaurant realised what was going on. "Anyone calls the police and you all die!" she shouted. "Co-operate and nobody gets hurt! Move from where you are and die! Got it?"

Everybody stayed seated. In her peripheral vision, she noticed one happy camper who continued to eat their food and read the paper.

Good on them. Hope your toast tastes as good with blood as it does with jam.

He still wasn't putting up his hands. He was simply staring at her, emerald eyes taunting her. 'Come and try it,' they were saying. She narrowed her eyes. She would try. And she would succeed.

She pulled the trigger.

An explosion of blood as the bullet connected with flesh.

The limp corpse fell to the floor. Instantly dead.

All too easy…