Chap. 2

Kairi looked around the room, her voice resonating in the air. Nobody was there. Then Kairi looked down, and her eyes widened in horror.

There, on the floor were her parents, lying lifelessly and bloody amidst the shattered glass from their bedroom window. Kairi scuttled to their side and screamed their names, shaking them vigorously.

"Mom! Dad!" She yelled, and started to bawl uncontrollably. "Come back! Wake up! This game isn't funny!"

But even though she tried to make her parents wake up, the truth was sinking in, and Kairi stopped shaking them.

"No! You have to take me to soccer practice! I'm not ready for this alone! Don't leave! I n-need you!" She cried, and pounded her little fists on the ground. Her cheeks were soaked with tears as she tried hopelessly to revive her parents. Kairi, shaking, curled up in a ball and rocked back and forth, whispering comforting words to herself.

"No, Kairi, wake up." She would tell herself. "This is a dream. Mom, tell me to wake up and get ready for school. I'M DREAMING! GOD I'M DREAMING!" She opened her eyes and looked around hopefully to see if it wasn't real. Unfortunately for her, it was. Kairi sniffled and let what tears she had left in her roll down. When she looked back at her dead parents, she ground her teeth in anger and punched herself.

"It's all your fault Kairi," She said to herself angrily and punched herself again. More tears rolled down her already wet cheeks.

"You should've come home earlier. But you needed to talk to your friends first didn't you. STUPID! YOU SHOULD'VE COME HOME EARLIER!" Kairi yelled at the top her lungs, punching herself a couple of more times to relieve all her anger.

Just then a hand touched her shoulder gently. Kairi whipped around and stared at the man in horror. She saw he had his hand extended as if he wanted her to take it.

"How did you get in here? Do you want to kill me? Is that it? Well fine go ahead!" At this time Kairi had gotten up to her feet and was raising her voice decibel by decibel.

"I have nothing to live for anyway! JUST KILL ME!" Kairi was huffing, and she was glaring at the man. He didn't even flinch. He just held out his hand and said something in Japanese. Of course, Kairi understood him, and looked back at her parents. She knew they were dead, but for some reason she felt guilty just leaving them there.

"Will they be alright?" She asked solemnly.

"Hai" the man replied. And giving her parents a small prayer, Kairi grabbed the man's hand and left.

Yes, that is how the story went. Kairi reflected upon this memory often, and even now she couldn't remember what the man had said in Japanese that made her trust him so.

That man, of course, was Vincent, her boss. Her life changed dramatically after she met him. She met Tifa and Cyrus too, and they all trained for Vincent in becoming assassins. Kairi's main reason in becoming a stealthy killer was to avenge her parents from their horrible deaths.

Kairi had to live with someone, so she moved into her aunt's house. It was a good place too, because her aunt was almost always out of the house, so that gave free access to all her comrades. Kairi lived a good life, though she always wished every night that her parents would still be alive.

But let us return to the present day, when Kairi, Tifa, Cyrus and Vincent are all older and much more experienced.

"Kai, don't you have anything besides oranges in this fridge of yours?" Cyrus asked irritably the next morning. They had all slept over the other night because her aunt was gone on a business trip, and they all wanted to spend some quality time with each other.

Kairi walked into the kitchen yawning.

"Um, I think there should be some cereal in the pantry" Kairi said groggily. She grabbed her lunch from the counter and shoved it in her already full backpack.

"Morning guys" Tifa greeted as she came into the room. Her bun, which used to be nice and neat, was messy and matted, but of course, she still looked good.

Kairi cursed when she looked at the time, and rushing past Tifa, did a front handspring across the banister and into her room. She had to admit, having flexibility skills came in very useful for late morning rituals. She looked around, grabbed her homework from her desk and did another perfect flip downstairs.

"Hey Kai, I made some pancakes. You hungry?" Tifa asked when Kairi walked calmly back into the kitchen.

"Sorry, no time" Kairi said hastily, throwing her backpack over her shoulder. As she was about to walk out the front door, Cyrus blocked her path and shoved a pancake in her mouth.

"No is not an acceptable answer. You're still a kid, and you need your protein!"

"Dumbass…pancakes don't have protein," Tifa said, shaking her head in dismay.

Meanwhile Kairi was standing there looking like a chipmunk. She punched Cyrus in the stomach and he stumbled out of the way (he pretended it hurt more than it did and she knew that) said goodbye, and walked out. She was very happy to have friends like she did, and even though school was miserable, she always had something to look forward to.

When Kairi reached school grounds she checked her watch. Hey! Only 2 minutes late this time! Kairi thought. She sighed and walked to her class.

"Well Kairi, late again as usual. I don't know what I'm going to do with you…" Ms. Hinako said in her bored tone when Kairi walked through the door. Kairi rolled her eyes and was about to go to her seat when she saw a guy with spiky brown hair occupied it.

"Uh, excuse me, that's my seat" Kairi said exasperatedly to the boy.

He only raised his brow.

"Kairi, I moved you. You now sit right up here in the front," Ms. Hinako told her. Kairi ground her teeth in annoyance and sat down in her new seat.

The rest of the day went pretty downhill until after lunch, when Kairi had P.E., her favorite class. It was pretty much the only class she had an "A" in. Kairi wasn't a bad student, but she really only got B's or C's.

She walked into the girl's locker room and stuck up her nose to the foul smell that emanated in the room. She got dressed quickly, in her white shirt and black shorts, and ran out. When she reached the blacktop she sighed happily. Today was track day, when they had to run a mile. Of course, Kairi was the very best in her class, and this happened to be her favorite day.

"ROLL CALL!" Bellowed her male teacher Mr. Sakka. All the students moaned and walked over to their roll call numbers. After he checked everybody off, he said loudly,

"Today we will be running!" More moans and groans came from the tired looking students. "We will be running a mile! Remember, I will be timing you! If you can, try beating Kairi's record of 4 minutes! Off you go!"

Clouds of dust emerged as the class took off on the track. Kairi was already in the lead, her legs taking her swiftly around the bends. She had run this track so many times in the past year that she could've closed her eyes and had her hands tied around her back and still find her way around and beat everybody.

Kairi was just about finished with the first lap (and these were pretty big laps) when she heard very quietly at her side, some footsteps. She looked to her side to see who had actually caught up to her. It just so happened to be the boy with spiky brown hair she had seen in her first period class.

Kairi was very surprised to find that new, funky-haired boy running just as fast as she was. He noticed she was looking at him and grinned, then shot ahead of her. Kairi ran dazed for a couple of seconds before realizing he was beating her. Laughing to herself, she picked up speed and sprinted up right next to him, trying to get ahead.

The two teens ran side by side almost the whole way, until the very last half lap when the boy started to get a couple of feet ahead. Forgetting that she wasn't supposed to reveal any skills that might give away that she was an assassin, Kairi tumble rolled the last few feet and landed in the splits, her left leg just barely over the finish line. The spiky haired boy had also crossed the line just before she did, and wasn't even panting. Kairi got up, and sighed. She wasn't sure if he had won, or if she had been faster, but either way, Mr. Sakka was congratulating him. Kairi rolled her eyes stupidly. In fact, she was a bit ticked off that some random guy had just shown up one day, stolen her seat in Math, and beat her in running the mile. Frustrated, Kairi stalked off in the direction of the girl's locker room.

The last two periods of her day were boring. Her only thoughts were on the boy that beat her. How did he do it? She was an assassin for goodness sake! Could he possibly be one too? No way. He was just probably just extremely fast. The bell rang and Kairi picked up her stained books and rushed out of the room like normal.

Kairi walked home sadly. In fact, she was rather angry and sad at the moment. She was angry at the boy, and it was bad enough that she had no friends at her school, and that she just lost the one thing that made her somewhat popular.

Kairi made a fist with one hand and smacked it into the palm of her other. She imagined herself beating up that kid, and she laughed to herself.

"Tifa could've beaten him," Kairi said aloud. And it was true. Tifa was probably the fastest person on the planet Earth, according to Kairi.

Just then a finger poked at Kairi's shoulder. Kairi turned around to find the boy who had beaten her with a wide grin spread over his face.

"What do you want?" Kairi said harshly, meaner than she intended.

"I just wanted to say sorry about what happened during PE today" he told her.

"There's nothing to apologize for," Kairi said turning around and walking again. He jogged around her and made pace with her.

"You're really fast ya know that?" He complimented. Kairi shrugged.

"You're faster," she said more to the ground than to him. Suddenly he stopped and put his hand out.

"The name's Sora," he said, moving his hand closer to her. Kairi eyed the hand as if she didn't trust it. Then she smiled. He was only trying to be nice.

"Kairi" she told him and shook his hand. Sora smiled, and they continued walking.

"So how did you get that fast Sora? You're the first person that has ever outran me in school," Kairi blurted out. She just had to know.

Sora seemed rather stunned at the question.

"I guess I just inherited it from my dad's side of the family." He responded. Kairi doubted he gave her a truthful answer, but she decided to let it slide.

"Where do you live?" He asked her, trying to get off the subject.

"Just around the corner," Kairi pointed to the curb that was just a little bit ahead.

"Funny. I live just a couple of streets away." He said quietly. Kairi stopped walking when they reached the corner that turned into her street.

"Well I should go, my aunt is probably expecting me some time soon. See ya tomorrow Sora," Kairi said.

"Yeah, bye Kairi," Sora gave her a pat on the back and turned the opposite direction. Kairi walked a couple of feet before realizing she had forgotten to ask him something. She turned around, but he wasn't there. Kairi stood there puzzled.

He couldn't have walked away that fast…Kairi thought suspiciously. Something was telling her that this Sora guy wasn't just any normal kid.