Hilary patted gently her stomach, out of habit. Her smile curved as she thought of the little Granger stirring inside. Three years had passed since the Balkov incident. She looked at the congratulation cards sitting on the windowsill from each of the ex-ninjas: Prima and Enrique, Max, Mariam and Joseph, Salima and her brother Kai, Emily and Kenny and of course, the Chows. She sighed with contentment. Tyson should be home soon. Her gaze wandered out of the window to the busy streets of Tokyo. Life here was hard at first, before they could muster the language. But luckily, Mr. Granger knew an important person who found them this house. It was furnished in a traditional Japanese style and for someone like Hilary who'd always lived in the States, it was very exciting to be living in such a place.
Salima and Kai stayed in the States. Hilary still couldn't believe that her brother was married to her friend but she found that they did looked cute together. Salima, most fortunately, managed to get her hair back to its natural colour and length. She looked as splendid as ever on the photo of her and Kai in front of the Eiffel Tower during their honeymoon. Kai, despite the fact that he wasn't smiling, looked like he could never been more happy. Hilary was very glad for them since both had bad experience with love and to Hilary's knowledge, Kai had none.
The becoming of the other ninjas were more or less passionate. Kenny became a professor at Yale and Emily a librarian. When asked, the orange head answered that she had chosen such a low post because she disliked too many crowds and preferred the silence of a library. Plus she could read as much as she wanted. As for Max and Mariam, they had become friends. Mariam lived with her brother Joseph who was keeping a fast-food restaurant running. Hilary found it a shame that Max and Mariam no longer loved each other but when seen together they were always cheerful and there was a complicity between them that no other people could rival.
Prima and Enrique of course, were wed and were now living in Italy. Hilary supposed that they were getting used to each other's presence and didn't complain much. In her early e-mails, Prima always talked about how she wanted divorce because even married, Enrique was still seeing girls. Hilary must admit that she wouldn't have liked it much more than Prima did. But as the years passed, there weren't so much complain in her e-mails but rather regular news about her family.
The Chows had moved back to China. Mariah never did marry Ray but instead shut herself from all social life and started writing a book. Tyson thought it was funny of her, seeing that she was so childish and light-headed, to which she replied that he wasn't better. Lee Chow was about to be released from his prison term and resume his business man life. Hilary heard that Giovanni was offering him a partnership in selling works of art.
All in all, nothing looked so bad. Hilary would sometimes take a peek at her ninja watch, hopping it would flash bright red with the word 'Mission' on the screen.
I would like to thank everyone who had read and reviewed this story. It was a pleasure for me to receive your reviews. Anyway, this might be the ending of a story but the next is about to come.
Look out for the White Valkyrie!
