Well, I got bored so I decided to put up this part of the next chapter, which has now been split into three chapters, the last one, this one and the next one.That made not much sense, but oh well, it's late.The ending of the next chapterisn't quite typed up yet, but I just wanted to getthis up. Coming soon.

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The stranger had arrived with little difficulty at the address on the paper. He was outside a window, stretching and limbering his arms and legs. He would need to be prepared if he was to follow through on the paper's instructions. He read through the paper, written in a solid but very neat and a tad scripty, almost effeminate hand, one more time.

Enter the house through the back door, the lock is easily picked or broken. Once inside, go up the stars on your left and enter the third door on the left side of the hallway. Use the dagger this was attached to attack the occupant of the room. There is no one else in the house. There is no need to worry about sound you make as you enter or move about. Be out of the house as soon as possible.

Ps. Killing of the occupant is optional.

-No one

He folded the paper away and slipped it into his pocket, the set about breaking the window, muffling the sound with a piece of cloth. Even thought the note said not to worry about noise, he had learned that it was best not to tempt the fates. As the latch turned easily in his hand, he fished the dagger out of his pocket. It was a simple, minimalist design, designed for ease of use and efficiency, not style and comfort. The blade was both polished to a brilliant shine and sharpened to a hair-splitting point. Defiantly not a neglected tool, nor a half-bad looking one, and defiantly not for lack of use. Shifting the dagger to his left hand, he tried to get the weight and heft of the weapon. Its balance was slightly off, the only flaw he could find to a near-perfect tool. Stealthily slinking through the house, he came across very little, some furniture, a few pictures, some signs of everyday living. All the lights downstairs were off, and a lone, faint light drifted down from somewhere up the staircase. He approached the steps carefully, stepping on the outsides of the steps and not touching the hand railing, as to avoid give-away creaks or snaps. He could hear snatches of what could only be described as violent non-swearing coming from the room at the end of the hallway.

He stood for a moment in the doorway of the room, staring at the occupant, whom was facing away from the doorway and holding a hot one-sided argument with two different computers at the same time, one old-looking and one new looking. He had the same silvery-sheened hair as the person in the alleyway, but the voice was so different that it couldn't have been the same person. As the stranger stood there and watched and listened, it took him a short moment to realize he was being addressed by the room's occupant, whom was still facing the computers.

"Hi, um what are you doing... No I don't want to exit Windows!... here now, it's so late. Stop that, I don't know how to do DOS prompts. Stop. Sorry, where was I? Oh yes, if you want to play monster world... Ooh, a help file..., my sets are broken and I don't... Well that wasn't helpful at all... get a new one until... Hey, what's this floppy disk doing here?... next week. Well if that just doesn't beat all... The stupid floppy was doing it... Come on, come on, work darn you!... No!... How about a reboot... Um, if you want to come back... Yes! They work! Hello RuneScrape and Page of Mythology!... um want to come back later, that's fine." The boy in the room said. When he got no response, he swiveled around in his seat to face the doorway. His bright evergreen colored eyes widened in shock and his pale complexion got a few shades whiter, as he was obviously not expecting a knife wielding stranger in his doorway. The stranger was finally broken out of his reverie by the scream he could see threatening to well up in the boy's throat. He snapped back to reality and quickly rushed the boy, whom he could see now, was really more of a teen than a child, as his first impression had been. The boy rolled of his chair and came into a low crouch with the same strange sort of grace that the shadowy figure had moved with in the alleyway. After that point, his instincts seemed to totally desert him, as he madly searched for some sort of weapon or escape route.

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Ryou groped wildly for the plug to his CD/cassette player, to at least give himself some sort of semblance of a weapon. He stared at the intruder, a shortish boy with long blonde hair pulled back into a braid. Ryou envied him slightly for being able to wear a style like that, and not have even the slightest chance of being mistaken for a girl. It was also quite evident from the way he moved, held himself, and handled the weapon in his hand, that he had gotten professional combat training, and lots of it. Ryou knew he stood no chance, but he couldn't just give up and get killed, or worse, depending on the intruders intentions. Ryou finally figured that he couldn't get the cord detached from the CD/cassette player, but he did manage to get a thin pen out of his pocket using the CD/cassette player as a distraction. Quickly coming up with a plan, then executing it the next moment, he flung the CD/cassette player into the intruder's face and rushed up at him with the pen. Unfortunately for Ryou, he saw it coming and sidestepped the blow while striking one of his own with the knife. Ryou could feel the wave of despair and hopelessness wash over him, just the same as he felt the searing metal cutting into the flesh of his arms. One word escaped his mouth in a faint voice as he fought to escape from his attacker, who was now relentlessly pressing him, heading for a corner to trap him.

"Help..."

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Sorry about the minor cliffie. No killie please, or you won't get the next chapter at all.

I'd better go write some more. Sigh, I shouldn't have watched the YGO ep this sat. It was an ancient Egypt one with lots of Bakura. Now I have all sorts of new ideas for this, and I was hoping to get back to Cultural Exchange soon.

Oh well.

Syanara.