Tampered Mind – Sniper

Misaki slowly opened her eyes to the light of morning shining down at her. She blinked and tried to sit up, but when she came half-way to a sitting position, she noticed that something was holding her back. Further more, she didn't recognize the place she was in at all. She looked down to find a pair of hands laced carefully around her waist. Frowning, she looked behind her to see who was holding her. When she saw Oujirou, asleep and looking positively exhausted, a sense of familiarity returned to her. Curious about her surroundings, she carefully tried to pry his hands apart. The moment she tried to push his hands away from each other, she knew that she had made a mistake. Oujirou let out a soft sleepy moan before his eyes slowly fluttered open, squinting for a moment because his eyes were not accustomed to the sunlight coming through the windows of the living room. Seeing Misaki right in front of him, his brain took a moment to piece together the events of the night before. Finally letting go of Misaki, he reached an arm back to soothe a kink in his neck. Misaki almost immediately got to her feet and turned around to face Oujirou, who didn't seem to want to get up from the couch any time soon.

"I would say good morning, but I honestly don't have a clue where I am," Misaki said with an unsure smile.

With his eyes closed now, he let his arm fall carelessly back into his lap and rested his head against the top of the sofa.

"This is my brother's house," Oujirou said calmly, "When I picked you up last night, we were on our way here, but I think you fell asleep before we got here. Yeah…that was it. I carried you in from the car because I didn't want to wake you. Needless to say, I failed in trying to get you to your bed and collapsed on his sofa instead…" A chuckle escaped his lips and he smiled. Opening his eyes, he slowly got up from the couch and stood facing Misaki at an angle.

"My brother, as well as Shouko-san should be around here somewhere. We should probably look in the kitchen first. What do you think?" The tiredness in Oujirou's face had somehow disappeared now, replaced with his usual twinkling smile.

Misaki smiled back and nodded in agreement, "Sounds like a good place to start."

Oujirou smiled even wider and led the way out of the living room, through a hallway, leading into a kitchen with white-marble countertops, what looked like a stove and a refrigerator…only odder looking. A little farther off there was small table that looked like it was made of a solid and expensive kind of wood, but it had the symbol of an angel egg burned into it. If that weren't odd enough, it was almost completely covered in papers. There were only a few spots on the small table that didn't have stuff piled on it, but every other part of it was completely submerged by a good five to six inches of random stuff.

"Oh, he says on here that they went out to eat something," Oujirou said, a note in his hands, obviously not taking notice of the odd-looking table in the next open room.

Misaki didn't answer, she was totally absorbed in looking at the odd things that were pilled on the table. As she circled around it, she realized that all the stuff on the table had to do with Angelic Layer in some way. There were old Angelic Layer magazines, a newspaper clipping that was titled "Angelic Layer Hits National Popularity", and a Piffle Princess memo that read "please turn in idea for new Layer by next week."

"What is all this?" Misaki turned around to Oujirou, pointing to the table.

"What?" Oujirou looked up from the refrigerator, with food in his hands, he closed the door. "Oh, that stuff? That's my brother's 'Angelic Layer dedication.' He used to eat on that table, but now its just basically a shrine to everything that has to do with Angelic Layer," Oujirou placed the food on the table and watched Misaki for a moment.

Misaki frowned, turning back to the small table, "But…why?"

Oujirou shrugged, turning back to his the food on the counter, "I guess it's a sort of collection of his life's work…or rather…his life's work, up to this point."

"I still don't understand," Misaki stared at the table.

"I told you that my brother was the maker of Angelic Layer, right?" Oujirou began making something with the food that had been in front of him.

"Oh…that. So that's why? Because he wants to remember everything that he's accomplished in his life so far?"

Oujirou shrugged, "I guess so. He always seemed really proud of Angelic Layer, and I suppose he has a right to be. After all, it's a huge event every time an Angelic Layer tournament is held. Almost anyone can enjoy playing it too. It can make you feel…very powerful, even if you aren't in real life."

Misaki nodded, "That's true. Besides loving Hikaru, that was one of the reasons why I love playing Angelic Layer. But with me, its more…I like feeling that Hikaru is powerful on the Layer, even though she's small."

Oujirou smiled, "I think that's how everyone feels about it." He finished making a meal with the food, and served it to Misaki and himself, leading the way outside, to a small table which had a wonderful beachside view. Sitting on the wooden floor, they started eating what looked like a kind of salad with fruit mixed in.

"Its very good, Oujirou-san…"

He smiled a twinkle finding its way into his eyes, "Thank you. Its something my mother taught me to make."

"I had no idea you could cook," Misaki blushed, embarrassed at what she had just said.

"Well, that's normal. I honestly haven't met a lot of guys who could cook, myself. Actually, the only reason that I can, even to the minor extent that my cooking is, has to do with my mother's rules. As soon as I turned seven, it became a condition in her household to cook dinner at least two nights a week. Although, I often had the impression that she would eat something of her own creation after what I had served her on the nights that I cooked," another chuckle escaped his lips, "but at least I can say I tried."

Misaki giggled at his statement, as well, "Well, I can honestly say that I like this meal, thank you."

Oujirou only smiled, Misaki always knew what to say. In that way, she was entirely perfect in his eyes.

Two houses away, there were several black figure perched on a roof, careful to keep low enough as to not be seen. One of them looked through a targeting device on a riffle and saw Oujirou and Misaki sitting outside together. Searching the area around the two and seeing nothing, he put the gun down, pressing a button on the side of his headset. "Nothing…she hasn't shown up yet."

A voice came back, "Keep looking. She may not be coming right at them. Check the other roofs as well. It may not be her who's doing the hunting."

"Understood," picking his riffle back up, he focused his targeting device on the roofs across from where they were. Seeing a black speck on a roof almost a mile away, he blinked, turning the riffle back to the spot, "Hang on…I think I may have something. Its very far away, though. I'm going to go in even tighter, one moment."

He put his thumb on a knob making the targeting system focus even tighter in the area he wanted to see. Seeing another black figure that he could now see was a man…or a woman, and they were pointing their own riffle down at Misaki and Oujirou. "Got it! Somebody get down there now, we need to get them inside right away!"

"But, Kenichi-sama…won't that spook whoever is up there?" A young woman with short black hair, and was no older than her early twenties, said, squatting next to her superior.

"We can't risk for the civilians getting killed in the process. Get them out of there now! Go!"

The young woman hesitates, then nods. Leaving her riffle behind, she jumped off the roof with ease, and swiftly and quietly made her way to Misaki and Oujirou. The man still on the rooftop, focused even tighter on the person on the far away roof. He could see the person putting the riffle to their eye and aiming at Oujirou and Misaki. He removed the glove from one of his hands, putting it back on the riffle.

"Oh no, you don't! Your not hurting those kids…not if I have anything to say about it." His fingers reached the trigger, letting out a clear whistle-like sound. He could see the person across from him thrown back slightly as the shot seemed to hit their arm.

Misaki and Oujirou looked up, trying to find the source of the far off grunt and what had whistled in the air overhead.

"What was—" Misaki was about to ask when the young woman dressed in black jumped over the side of the wooden patio, grabbing Misaki's hand and thrusting open the door to the house, not even bothering to explain.

"Get in there!" The young woman forcefully pushed Misaki inside. Seeing a very confused Oujirou, she grabbed his hand as well, almost throwing him inside before running inside after them and shoving the door shut behind her, leaning against it, out of breath.

"Who are you?" Oujirou asked rather shaken. Misaki was clutching his arm in fear. Realizing her doing this, he put his arm around her.

"I'm an officer of the ninth division. My name is Nyoko Hisa, and I'm what stands between you and that sniper out there." She jerked her head, taking out a small police-issued hand gun, loading it, and putting it back at her side. "Your names are Misaki and Oujirou, correct?"

"Yeah…but I wasn't aware that we had police protection," Oujirou frowned, still holding Misaki to him with one arm.

"Ichirou Mihara called us, I think he said that he was your brother?"

"Step-brother…yeah, he is," Oujirou suddenly looked a little put out, shaking his head and putting a finger to his temple, "Yes…that would be him, all right…"

"You know…now that I see both of you face to face, I think I've seen you before somewhere…maybe in a magazine or something. Yes, now I remember…you were both champions for the Angelic Layer tournaments, correct?"

"Misaki was the champion this year," Oujirou said quietly. Misaki heard this and blushed. Looking at the woman in front of her she began, "Nyoko-sama, you said something about a sniper. Why would there be a sniper after us?"

Oujirou looked questioningly at Misaki, "I thought I told you about that girl who was after you…and her coming back to try and hurt you? I think I said something during the drive here, last night."

Misaki shook her head, "No, I must have fallen asleep. I'm sorry."

Oujirou frowned, "But didn't you wonder why I was taking you away from your home that late at night?"

Misaki nodded, "I wondered and I sort of heard something about someone doing something, but I don't remember a whole lot about it. I guess I was just too tired to listen properly."

Oujirou sighed, "Oh well, too late to really say much about it now…"

"I'm sorry," Misaki said again, looking at Oujirou apologetically.

Oujirou's expression softened, "You've got nothing to be sorry for."

Misaki gave him a questioning look as if to ask, "Are you sure?"

Oujirou smiled and kissed her brown hair. "Don't worry, Misaki. It'll be just fine."

Nyoko leaned against the wall patiently and alert, ready to spring into action at any moment if the situation suddenly called for her attention. Oujirou looked at Nyoko rather tensely, holding Misaki against his chest in a protective, loving way.

"It'll be just fine…"


Hello again. Hopefully I'll be able to work more on this fan fiction during Summer break, but until then.. Please hang in there. Thanks for reading!