Black Balloon

Chapter One.

I still remember the world from the eyes of a child. Slowly those feelings were clouded by what I know now. Where has my heart gone? An uneven trade for the real world. I want to go back to believing in everything and knowing nothing at all. I still remember the sun always warm on my back. Somehow it seems colder now. Where has my heart gone? Trapped in the eyes of a stranger. I want to go back to believing in everything...

—Field of Innocence, Evanescence.

"Find her. Watch her. Get to know her. Once you find it, dispatch of her." Boris threw a manila envelope onto the desk. "Here is some information on her. Her family, friends, and personal, complete with a picture of her. Do you understand?"

All he could do was nod with no objection. "Of course." It was his job; there was no room for argument. Kai Hiwatari picked up the envelope, and turned away from Boris, his boss. Anything Boris instructed him to do, Kai would carry it out like a loyal bloodhound. He destroyed lives in an instant; created destruction with every step he took, upon the word given to him by Boris. Kai couldn't say he was proud of what he did, or that he took pride in it, for he didn't know how he felt on the subject. It was apart of him, one he could never separate himself from. Assassination is what he had been trained to do, since practically from birth.

"There is no margin for error. This plan must be executed flawlessly." Boris reminded him, as Kai's hand brushed over the doorknob.

"I know."

"You won't have any trouble killing her because she is a woman? You've never killed a girl before, much less one of her importance."

"I will not mess this up. I know what will happen if I do. This is what I was made for; this is what I am. Leave it to me, and don't worry. This is my trade, not yours. Leave it to the professionals." He assured, stepping into a gauntlet of shadows, shutting the door softly behind him.

The halls of the great Biovolt mansion were long a strenuous, though highly exquisite in design, it held the creepy feeling of a dungeon. Only lit up by a small column of candles, it was hard to see past his nose, but somehow Kai managed it. The long days ahead would prove to be exasperating and hard, but somehow he would get through it. Never before had he taken on a mission quite like this one, most of them were quick mastication's, but now he had to try and live close to his soon to be victim.

How he would even manage to get close to her, Kai had no idea? The answer would come shortly, Kai liked to let problems as this one sort themselves out. Most of the time it worked out nicely, Kai just hoped it would this time as well.

"Hey Assassin G6502?" A rather gratingly irritating voice called out to him, using the disrespected collar number instead of his actual name.

It was a number they were giving right as they entered the abbey, right as they were peeled away from their mothers, and any chance at being carefree and normal. There they were stripped away of their dignity, and emotions, but this pinhead behind him somehow hadn't wreaked the full benefits of the program. He was still an arrogant moron.

Kai whirled around sharply, and glared at him. "What do you want, Brooklyn?" He questioned bitterly. "I have no time to deal with your immaturity."

"Now, now, now. Is that anyway to talk to your friends?" Brooklyn shook his head. "No wonder people stay clear of you. You lack proper social skills."

"If you can't answer the question, why don't you get lost!"

Posing his hands in the defensive, Brooklyn grinned. "Hey no offense that's just what people have been saying is all."

"If that is all, I want to be left alone now."

"Heard your next mission. Can't believe they gave something that important to a screw up like you."

"Eavesdropping is illegal in my mind. Do it again, and consequences will be dire. I know where you live; I know when you're vulnerable. Be happy. Know that you're lucky. Because Brooklyn, if I wanted to I could dispose of your insignificant arrogant life, and no one would shed a tear." Astonishment reflected in Brooklyn's eyes, as well as fear. "Fortunately for you, I am too busy to carry out said threat. Maybe at a later time I will reconsider it." Kai turned away from him pushing open the fifty-foot broad door, and exiting the mansion halls. "Live each day as if it were your last, because soon you won't be breathing." The door slammed shut with a loud thud.

Of course he would never kill Brooklyn, but he enjoyed seeing the terror in his eyes. Boris wouldn't allow him to dispatch of something important to their cause. Unfortunately, Brooklyn was one of the top assassins working for Biovolt, but when someone is as sickly in love with torture and death as Brooklyn was, it would be expected that they would kill efficiently. Unlike Brooklyn, Kai was efficient, but he didn't take pleasure in watching someone die. It was inhuman, but then again Kai often wondered if it was still possible he was human. With each life he stole, humanity seemed to slip out of his viewpoint, and his reach.

Outside the mansion Dranzer was waiting for him. The fire-like winged bird sat perched upon a ledge, and when it saw Kai it flew to him and sat itself upon his shoulder. Kai looked at him with a warm smile. Dranzer was his only close friend; his only needed friend. The bird cooed in glee of Kai's return as they stepped down the cement stairway. At the bottom on the landing, Kai took a breath, and began to jog away. He needed to go home, and study the file he had been given, and prepare himself for another assassination.

Cutting through shadows like nothing. Sprinting with the stealth and grace of a dear, Kai Hiwatari ran with all his might. It was good practice, and kept up his stamina.

It was night out. From horizon to horizon, a myriad of gleaming stars lit up the sky. It was a full moon tonight, and strangely the moon was red stained in a eriee gray ash. It was strange all right. Almost as if the moon was in pain.

Kai headed for the bay, it was a shortcut to his home. Actually it wasn't just a shortcut it was a stress reliever. Kai hated being around crowds, he disliked the obnoxiousness of the vile contraptions known as cars, and the people who drove them. He preferred utter silence, and liked to walk or run.

Yes he was antisocial in the purest sense of the word, and he didn't care. That was the only thing Brooklyn had right about him, but everything else held no truth. Brooklyn would never see past the façade he created for himself. No one would. To know him, would be like trying to piece together a puzzle without all the pieces. Sometimes Kai didn't know himself. He had lost himself long ago, and he didn't know when it happened, only that it did. But it didn't really matter anymore.

His feet meet with endless sandy fields, as he entered the foundation of the beach. Kai's run became a slow amble. The beauty of the beach at night still astounded him to this day. Although he had traveled through this same area for eight years now since the day he moved into his apartment.

A loud cry, followed by another. Kai stiffened, freezing in midstep. Voices ate at the silence of the night, a male and females.

Kai picked up his feet, walking, looking for the source. When he found it, he felt so many emotions erupt inside of him.

About a mile away, a large broad shouldered male was hovering over a terrified young girl, and Kai could only come to one conclusion from this situation.

Memories flooded him, not his, but his mothers. Things she said, things he had heard. The way he was born. It was because of people like this that he was not conceived out of love. All the sins in the world that Kai had committed paled in comparison to what this monster was doing to this young girl.

Something snapped inside of him, and he was no longer seeing the young girl, but his mother. Kneeling down with stealth, Kai pulled out a small dagger from a holster around his ankle, and took off after the man.

Stopping a few feet before him, he said, "You will do yourself well by letting the young girl go free, and turn away before my shadow overlays you, you would."

The man stood from the girl, who was currently drowning in the ocean's depths, and took of his long coat, throwing it upon the ground. As he got up, Kai noticed something strange about him. On his right shoulder he wore a dark colored patch, which was stitched onto his flesh. On the patch was a dragon coiled around a dagger. Kai's eyes widened at the sight. The patch was similar to that of his own.

"Listen kid. This is none of your business, and if you want to keep your head, you would do yourself well in leaving, and pretending that you saw nothing."

Who was this guy? Why was he attacking this girl? What was going on? Confused, but still mildly angered by his previous conclusion, Kai agilely sprinted towards the man. Holding his knife's handle firm, Kai jammed it up the man's stomach, making sure that the blow wouldn't kill him, but would injure him enough to give Kai enough time to grab the girl a run.

Shock and horror haggard the man's facial expressions. Kai bent into him, and whispered. "I will find out who you are. You have been marked." Kai informed, and then pulled his knife away, and pushed the man towards the ground.

The blood on the blade gleamed in the moonlight, as Kai wept it away on the side of his blue pant leg, and stuck it back into it's holster.

Kai went to the girl and scooped her out of the water, holding her in his arms. Kai wiped the long brunette strands from her face, and bent his head inwards to listen to her heartbeat, and if she was still breathing.

For a moment she was breathing a little, but then it stopped, and her heartbeat was faint. Kai held her firm, took a deep breath of air, and held it in his lungs, then pressed his lips against her mouth. He softly let the air flow into her, feeling the cold tender flesh of her lip. Gradually, it pushed through her mouth, and into her throat, then traveled down into her lunges. Kai waited a few moments for her chest to start pumping, but nothing happened.

Still, her pulse was faint. She was barely alive. There was still hope.

Taking another breath, he held her out, and pressed his lips against hers, letting the air flow. Minutes passed, and finally a reaction occurred. Her chest began to rise and fall slowly, and he watched her gasp, and choke out water from her systems. Her eyes opened revealing brilliant honeysuckle colored gems, as she looked up at him in surprise, but also in confusion before blacking out once again.

Now that was over, Kai stood from the ground clutching her close. Stanching her wounds, Kai found the blood-loss to be dire. The man had done a number on her: a bullet wound to the chest, broken jaw, and torn flesh in some areas of her body, what had she done to deserve this? It was obvious to Kai that this man had done everything in his power not let her escape, but why was it so important that he captured her?

Answers to these questions would have to wait. Kai began to walk forward, finishing his journey home.

Behind him, Dranzer flew, he had bewared the battle, as he had most of the times Kai was engaged in a fight, and now was laughing at him for his weakness. Laughing at him because he showed his compassionate side, and saved this woman's life. A compassionate side that wasn't supposed to exist within him. It should have been beaten out of him at the abbey. Little did the mocking jerk know, Kai had his own reasons for saving her, even if he didn't know what they were, and surely they had nothing to do with compassion.

"Shut up." He grumbled. "You have a twisted mind Dranzer. Get out of the gutter, before I hurt you, and disown you."

That shut him up. Dranzer would never want to leave the comfortable lifestyle Kai had created for him. No one else would provide such a conceded bird with what Kai had giving him.

Everything was obscured in the darkness and haze Hiromi's mind was drowning in. All she could do was moan and groan, half from the pain and half from confusion. She tried to get her head around where she was and what had happened, but was caught on the curb before she could fully turn an understanding. Her head was pounding and she couldn't feel her body, only the pain it was confined in. No longer was she cold or wet; she was warm and comfortable, although comfort couldn't rid her of the pain.

Twitching. Hiromi began to twitch, trying to move herself.

Something warm and lively touched her shoulder; it sent chills up her spine. It held her firm, stopping her from moving any further. "Don't move. You're badly injured. If you want to stay alive, I suggest you go back to sleep." The words were muffled, but she could understand them. There was something familiar about the voice, she didn't have a name or face to place it to, but it still seemed familiar, as though she had heard it once before.

It soothed her. Hiromi felt safe.

As her conscious began to wander drifting back through past memories of right before she awoke, she began to struggle to move once more. Gasping.

Rei.

Mariah.

Her younger brother.

Were they still alive? Hiromi had to know. She had to find them, had to leave and meet them at their special place, the place they all agreed to meet at once this was all over.

"I can't." She whispered, slowly. It hurt to speak. Her mouth, her face was wearing some sort of protective cast, and she could hardly get out any words. "Leave. Got to. Go." She forced the words out with all her might.

"I don't think so. You're not going anywhere. Believe me, I don't want you here either. I have better things to be doing than baby-sitting you, but currently I have no choice."

Whoever this person was didn't sound too nice, and the soothing comfort she took in listening to his voice began to deteriorate. If she weren't in so much pain, if her mouth didn't hurt when she moved it, she would have yelled and reprimanded him until she was blue in the face. If she was such a burden to him, then why was she here? Why had he brought her here, wherever here was?

Only weeks ago, Hiromi was living a normal stable life untouched by the foul wickedness of her late husbands death. She was a twenty-four year old average college girl, trying to get by in this supposedly normal world. Once she was happy, innocent, and fortunate, but it all ended they day he mysteriously died. Now she had been dragged into his secret life, one she never knew he possessed, and was taken on a wild ride through pain and torture, loss and despondency.

If Hiromi ever got her hands on him, she would make him pay for this.

No.

How could she make him pay when all she wanted to do was hold him, have him hold her, and tell her everything was all right? She loved him, and never got to mourn him properly. Right after the news of his death came, dark secrets came to light, and her life was shattered into a million bloody tainted shards that were incapable of being mended.

Having a normal life with her brother and friends once again became a passing fancy. Now she was nothing but a fugitive on the run from something she barely understood, and in a sick twist of fate had her life placed in the hands of a stranger, one who didn't seem to bare the kindness and compassion she would hope for. Her first impression of him was lie, and the second one revealed his indifference, but maybe a third would reveal him as something else. Hiromi was all about giving, second, and even third chances.

"W-Where—am—I?" She asked, not caring about the pain any longer, and was sickened by her slurred tone of voice.

"In my bedroom." He replied blandly. Wasn't one for conversation was he? Not that she was in the mood for a major conversation herself.

A strong hand lifted her head forward, and it scared her a little because her vision was still groggy, and she couldn't see a thing.

"Here drink this, it should get rid of that headache, and clear your eyesight." He explained.

Hiromi would have done anything to be able see straight, and to get rid of the headache, and so she opened her mouth slightly for him. Dropping a putrid chalky liquid into her mouth, Hiromi began to feel sicker than before, and began to choke on it.

"Swallow all of it." He ordered. "It's not the tastiest substance, but it sure can cure an awful lot of aliments."

If she wasn't completely immobilized, completely not up for an argument, and didn't want to be cured, she would have gave him an earful. Hiromi hated it when she was bossed around. No one bossed her around and got away with it. He would be the first.

A moment later after the disgusting medicine had been completely digested; Hiromi actually began to feel better. The pounding headache grew to a small thumping, and her vision began to clear up. Bleared and shadowed objects where illuminated, and brought into the light. The first thing she saw was the ceiling and out of the corner of her eye the face of the man who must have saved her. He had long bluish slate hair tied at the nape of his neck, the most piercing auburn eyes she had ever seen, was wearing a black cotton-wool-blend trench coat, a black tank top, and some very baggy blue jeans. Painted in blue on both sides of his cheeks were two shark fins, and on his wrist was an odd jewelry that reminded her of a Roman slave bracelet. It was a slave bracelet.

Hiromi looked him up and down in awe, never before had she seen such a strange profile. This man was definitely a one of a kind chance meeting. He seemed to be annoyed by her constant gaping, it made her rather embarrassed as she looked away and began to study the rest of her environment. His room, as he had previously told her wasn't very fashionable and could have used some sprucing up. It was an intriguing setup, but dull. Gothic pictures of ravens, dragons, and phoenixes on his walls frightened her. One another wall void of pictures served as a display rack for an astoundingly bristling collection of blades. Stilettos, wider daggers, sabers, katanas, kodachi's, wakazashi's, short swords, sickles, saias, and scythes, many of the blades were etched with elaborate designs with ornately carved and painted handles.

What was this guy a psychotic serial killer? With all the beautiful murder tools he possessed, it would have been her first guess. But then again maybe he was just one of those fanatic collectors?

He seemed to catch onto what had grasped her attention as he walked over to the wall sporting the weaponry, and brushed a hand over one of the larger sabers. Hiromi's heart began to pound praying that he wasn't planning on finishing the job that that organization-lackey had started yesterday.

"You shouldn't look at these, it will only make you nervous." His hand dropped from the saber as he turned to look at her. "You don't have to worry, I won't use it on you. Only those I am told to."

That was reassuring: only those I am told to. The idea that he was some psychopathic serial killer began to look like a definite possibility.

What if something told him to kill her? Like he got an insane urge, and some crazy voice in his head nagged at him until he took her life. No way was she going to let her life be held in this man's hands any longer. No way was she going to be the next victim in his twisted game. Hiromi tried to sit forward, tried to swing herself up from the couch she was lying on, but she failed. The pain forced her down. Again she tried, and when that failed, she went to get away a third time.

"With all the injuries you've sustained you won't be going anywhere for awhile. So just deal with it, and sleep. I have a job to do. If you need anything just call to me, and I'll come." He instructed and walked over to her, covering her up in a blue blanket with a phoenix painted on the front. It's wings were outstretched, fiery feathers swirling around its flaming body. It was beautiful.

"Wait." She found herself calling to him, as she began to remember some of the events occurring before she awoke in the security of a strangers house. "What happened to that man I was with? Where is he? Did he tell you that he was lying? They're not dead. They're alive righ—ahh!" She winced from the pain her quick words induced upon her, obviously her mouth hadn't healed enough to where she could freely speak. If it was broken it was probably going to be weeks before she could speak, but if it was just a slight fracture than it was possible for her to speak within a week tops. If it wasn't broken, of course.

Before her he was silently contemplating her words, when he had finished he turned his back to her, and began to walk away. "I took care of him. There wasn't anyone with him; your friends are most likely dead. Just be glad you survived and get over it." He said coldly without an ounce of compassion. "Your mouth is slightly broken, it's best if you remain silent, and sleep." He whispered as he drifted out the front door.

Tears poured down her cheek at his unsympathetic words that brought her no comfort or hope. They only underlined the truth of which she had been handed on every corner she rounded. Dead: Your family is dead.

No.

It had to be a lie. He was liar just like that monster lackey that had almost stolen her life as well. Hiromi refused to believe them.

The third impression had been made. This man was a cold heartless liar.

She feebly wrapped her arms around herself, and sobbed into the blue phoenix blanket he had provided her with.

Maybe this was all a nightmare, and she would soon awake in the comfort of her own home, lying beside her husband.

Maybe. That's all she had.

Just a maybe.

Kai stood tall upon the tip of the radio tower gazing off into the ocean, watching the currents crash up against the side of the cliff the tower stood upon, he was captivated by it's sheer beauty, although his mind couldn't have been further away in thought. He was downright confused. Confused by his sudden actions.

Why had he saved her? Why was he holding her up in his home until she recuperated? Kai tried to tell himself it was because of his mother, because of what had happened to her, and had almost happened to the woman lying on his couch. However, nearing the end of saving the girl, he realized that the guy wasn't out to satisfy some sick hunger, but was on a dire mission. A mission Kai couldn't help but be curious of.

There was a patch stitched on the man's right shoulder, one in close resemblance to the one on his own shoulder. These patches with symbols in thier designs were a statement of undying loyalty. Of undying service. Of slavery. Slavery to murder.

This only furthered his curiosity. Why then was this man wasting his time on an innocent, insignificant girl such as the one currently residing on his couch?

These questioned troubled him, and were ones he planned on getting answers for? Kai didn't understand why he cared about this so much, but he did. Something about that man reminded him of something important. It resided in the past, foreshadowing his own destruction.

A sharp wind blew at him. The waves crashed more fiercely against the cliff, and Kai turned away from the oceans view. He would find out why that man was after her, but for now…for now, he would prepare for his next mission. The assassination of the wife of Takao Granger, who was the leader of a notorious crime syndicate. He was dead now, and shortly his wife would join him at the doorway into oblivion.

To be continued.

Chapter one: Completed.

10-18-04

Sorry the chapter was so short. I will make the next one longer, I promise. The prologue was a bit gruesome I know, sorry about that. I got carried away in describing every detail.

What did you think? Total AU, ne? I finally shed some light on the actual plot, do you guys like it? As I ask on all my chapters, do you guys have any constructive criticism for me? Did you find any inconsistencies while reading that you would like to point out for me? I want to know.

Anyway Kai has made his appearance. And Tyson has made one, although it was just in mention. He will make a real one later on. As you can guess, no, he is not dead, but still pretend you're shocked when he makes a return. It'll make me happy if you do. Just joking.

Bye.