Hello loyal readers!

I'm so excited to share today's chapter with you! It's one that I've been dreading to write because the outcome had the potential to be so awesome, but it was going to require a lot of thought and intent.

Just a caveat before we begin the epic fight, I set up Kimiko's character when the Momiji arc was still gathering steam. I think I first had the idea to handle her character as a foil for Kyoko when in the manga, she was just an ambiguous blog post and a foreboding name. Since then, the Momiji arc and Nakamura-sensei really fleshed her out to have much different motivations than I have given her in my story. Hopefully everyone doesn't really mind my version of Kimiko! She's still the arrogant, manipulative b**** everyone loves to hate.

For any writers out there, I highly recommend Super Eye Patch Wolf's "What Makes a Fight Scene Interesting" video on YouTube. He explains how the most intriguing fight scenes in cinema and anime aren't just flowery kicks and gunshots, but a deeply moral dialogue and debate between two characters. Loved it and hope you do too!

For now, Merry early Christmas and see you all next month! (Unless I can get my next plot bunny for All the World's a Stage out onto paper.)

Enjoy!

-x-

CH43

- 0:26 until re-vote -

"Get the hell outta my waaaay!" Kyoko shouted as she sprinted across the marble tabletop in the center of the conference room. Agent M leapt forward and landed a solid flying kick across the jaw of an infamous black market munitions dealer from Osaka. The burly gangster flew back and crash-landed into several other Henshin agents who were trying to clamber onto the table to block her way.

Rolling to dispel the force and keep her momentum, Kyoko used her ninjatou to slash at the Achilles' tendon of a renowned female mercenary who screeched and stumbled back, blood flashing from her ankle. Hearing others clamber onto the table behind her only to find themselves violently engaged by the other two LoveMe members, Agent M continued to dash forward until she jumped off the end of the marble tabletop to reach her goal: the door.

Her hand immediately flew to the handle – but there was no handle.

Hand awkwardly frozen in the air, Kyoko stared at the door – no handle, no knob, just a blank metal slab in the wall. In her confusion, she noticed to the right of the door there was an unmarked metal pad in a hollowed out recess with a small readout screen above. The pad beeped and flashed a red color, lit from beneath.

"A handprint scanner?" Kyoko wondered, trying to catch her breath. She would need someone's handprint – a Henshin agent's hand.

However, Kyoko's ears perked up as she heard a yell behind her. The auburn-haired agent whirled around and ducked just in time to avoid a roundhouse kick to the face.

Former high school gang leader and current smuggler, Murasame Taira bobbed and weaved next to the edge of the marble conference table, his fists up and ready for a fight.

Murasame smirked, his dark curls plastered to his forehead with perspiration. "I knew it was you in the janitor's closet! Where's your asshole brother, Miss Setsuka Heel-san?"

Agent M frowned sourly.

"If you knew it was me, why didn't you detain me then and there?" Kyoko grumbled half under her breath.

Murasame's smirk faltered. "Well – you see – Manaka was rushing me and – I just, you know–"

His guard slipped slightly, and that was all the opening Agent M needed.

"Sorry, Tau, but I don't have time for this," Kyoko growled and rushed forward, swords swiping across. To dodge, Murasame jumped back. However, this was exactly what Kyoko wanted.

While Tau was suspended in the air, Kyoko pushed off the ground and flipped forward to close the distance, using her momentum to axe kick him down across one unguarded shoulder. His hands shot up to block, but he was too late.

Hands preoccupied, Murasame plummeted straight down, his back hitting the marble tabletop hard as he got the wind knocked out of him. Kyoko watched his eyes widen as they focused on her katana blades falling aimed directly at his face.

Murasame Taira – formerly known as Akazame, the Red Rain, for wherever he appeared a red rain was sure to fall upon his enemies– uttered a very unintentional and unmanly shriek.

At the last second Kyoko twitched her swords to the side, and the special titanium alloy skewered straight through the marble, mere millimeters from Murasame's ears.

"Aha… About that…" Tau laughed nervously and promptly fainted, his eyes rolling up into the back of his head.

Wasting no time, Kyoko grunted as she dragged his unconscious body off the table and managed to flop Murasame's hand onto the scanner plate.

The pad beeped and flashed red. The screen readout above the plate read, "Fingerprints verified. Access denied. ID: Tau".

Frowning in frustration, Kyoko had a brief moment to wonder if anyone in the room would even be able to open the door. Would she have to go one by one and drag each unconscious mobster and assassin and mercenary to the door, only to find that no one had the authorization to open it?

Fast footsteps behind her caught her attention. Kyoko turned away from the door again and had to leap back to dodge the chair that a short, brown-haired woman had swung at her.

Kyoko's eyes flashed to her pair of katana, still embedded in the conference table, then back to Manaka who was rearing back with a girly yell to take another swing. Side-stepping to her right, Kyoko ducked under the chair swing and leapt forward. She planted her hand down on the metal plate by the door and used that support to land a two-footed drop kick into Manaka's sternum.

With a feminine yell, Omicron tumbled backward, limbs entangled with the chair. Apparently noticing the irked agent approaching above her, Manaka's eyes cinched shut, and she threw her hands up defensively.

"Kyah! Don't hurt me, scary lady! Please!"

Kyoko sighed and was about to ask Manaka if she knew who could open the door when Agent M heard an upbeat three-tone sound from behind. She whirled back around. The pad glowed green. The door smoothly slid open.

Instantly, Kyoko shot forward, wrenched her weapons out of the table, and was about to exit through the door when she screeched to a halt. She turned around to look back at her friends.

Kanae was in the middle of breaking her retractable metal tonfa over the shin of an attacking yakuza captain. There was a loud crack and a howl of pain. The man's leg below the knee was suddenly pointed the entirely wrong way.

"Tch." Kanae examined her bent tonfa before sighing and hurling the broken weapon in the face of her incapacitated and now unconscious enemy. The dark-haired agent flashed an annoyed glare at Kyoko as she drew her spare melee weapon and snapped, "What are you waiting around for? Your drama rerun to come back on? Hurry up and stop looking back!"

"Yeah, it's distracting!" Chiori called out as she rabbit punched some middle-aged, balding drug lord in the temple, the electricity sizzling in her gauntlet as she knocked him out cold. The short-haired agent calmly reached to the back of her belt for her pistol as she smoothly shot out the kneecap of a mercenary who had been trying to sneak up behind her. "Just go get Agent T or Delta – whoever comes first!"

Her heart in her throat, Agent M nodded. Sharing a determined smile with her two friends, Kyoko stepped through the door.

"Hey, scary lady."

Agent M paused, half-turning. Manaka was on the floor, trying to poke Murasame back into consciousness. The surveillance expert mumbled off to the side, eyes flicking up to Kyoko's and then back down in embarrassment.

"Sorry I was so clingy. I was just… jealous or something." Manaka grumbled over her shoulder, her cheeks puffed out in a pout. "You look good with Cain-san…"

A real smile broke across Kyoko's face as the door slid shut.

"Thank you."

Unknown to anyone, as the door closed behind Kyoko, the handprint scanner blinked green twice more before shutting off, the readout next to the scanner fading from its unread and unappreciated message: "Fingerprints verified. Access granted. ID: Omega."

-x-

Whatever Kyoko expected to find behind the metal door, this certainly wasn't it.

Creeping warily down the carpeted central aisle of the cavernous room, Agent M sheathed her two katana and instead drew Ren's pistol. Flanking her on either side of the plush red velvet walkway were glass boxes raised on thick rectangular metal pedestals.

Kyoko peered into one before passing on. It was an engagement ring, the diamond too small and roughshod and the band too scuffed to look entirely at home in its fancy glass case and purple satin holder.

The next box held an old, weathered photograph of two Japanese men standing in front of an official-looking concrete building shaking hands. The younger one dated the picture with his casual 1980's suit but the older one was completely out of place, wearing an ostentatious, obviously handcrafted British palace guard's uniform. The two were smiling, even though their photographed eyes had been scratched out with black marker.

Looking down the line toward the end of the hall, Kyoko noted that each and every box held a somewhat mundane object encased in polished glass and resting on a bed of unblemished satin. It almost felt like… a museum of sorts, the significance of which was obvious only to its curator.

Suppressing a shudder, Kyoko broke away, feeling unnerved. Perhaps it was the harsh, artificial lights that shone down onto each box and not much else. Spotlights ran along a series of sturdy narrow catwalks suspended from the high ceiling, casting stark light and shadows on each of the museum cases.

As she slowly started forward again, Agent M quietly released the clip on Ren's pistol to check her ammo count. Out of the original eighteen bullets, after her brief firefight in the warehouse, only six rounds remained. Swallowing hard, Kyoko refocused on the task at hand. A frosted glass double door at the end of the aisle beckoned.

Still, the silence as she stepped forward was unnerving. Though her only companions were the mute, encaged artifacts, her heart beat raggedly in her chest. It was as if the entire room was holding its breath.

That was why – when it went off – the gunshot seemed ten times as loud and shocking.

Kyoko felt a scorching pain blossom in her upper arm. It took a moment for her brain to register past the surprise and confusion. She had been shot.

Another bullet whizzed past her head, and Kyoko ducked on instinct, clutching her firearm and scrambling back. She dove for cover behind one of the tall metal pedestals just as the glass case above exploded in a fury of glass shrapnel.

Breathing hard, Kyoko clutched her left arm and backed herself up against the sturdy metal stand. Blood dripped to the floor, and she grimaced as a wave of pain tore through her. Beyond her anguish, she heard a voice cut like a knife through the silence of the room.

"My, my… If it isn't New Agent M."

Kyoko froze. In the reflection of the glass case across from her hiding spot, Kyoko saw Morizumi Kimiko emerge from the shadows across the room and turn to saunter up the central aisle. As the assassin brandished her pistol, she tipped her head to the side, long black hair and straight fringe framing her face.

"What a coincidence meeting you here of all places," Kimiko crooned mockingly. "Of course, you're on your way to see him."

As Kyoko quickly tore off a strip of black cloth from the hem of her shirt with a shaking right hand and tightened it around her arm with the help of her teeth, she grunted out, a grim smile on her lips, "Morizumi-san, you changed you hair. Did you have a recent break up?"

In the reflection of the glass, Kimiko stopped abruptly, almost robotically, the condescending smirk appearing stuck on her face as her face flushed angrily from her neck to the tip of her forehead. Agent M took a deep breath, gathered her feet beneath her, turned out of cover, and fired.

Kyoko's shot just missed her. Kappa immediately ducked and dodged, disappearing behind another pedestal across the aisle. Kyoko quickly turned back, hidden in her own cover.

"Five," she breathed, tightening her one-handed grip on the pistol.

Across the room, there came a high-pitched, mocking laugh. Kimiko cooed, "Bravo! Agent T actually came to your rescue after all! Congratulations!"

Kyoko frowned. There was something not quite right with Kimiko's response.

"But," Kappa smugly called out, "I heard that jerk got himself shot and captured trying to get you out!"

Wincing, Kyoko raised her wounded arm to stabilize her gun and peeked around the corner. The aisle was empty.

"Serves him right!" The assassin abruptly snarled. Suddenly, a head popped out from behind one of the pedestals, and Kyoko yelped as a smattering of bullets ricocheted off the side of her cover.

Breathing heavily at the near miss and the adrenaline pumping through her veins, Kyoko almost didn't see the dark blur as a shadow raced down the aisle toward her. Agent M fired twice at the moving target before it dodged back behind another display case only two away from hers, still across the aisle.

Three.

"Where is T-san?" Kyoko found herself demanding.

"Poor, poor Agent M," the assassin crooned. "She went looking for her boyfriend and found the wrong person entirely!"

"Where are you keeping him?" The auburn-haired agent snarled, gathering her feet beneath her.

"Well, he definitely isn't here," Kappa snorted. "I thought that'd be obvious by now."

If Ren wasn't here in this room, like Kimiko was mockingly implying, then… Kyoko's eyes drifted to the frosted opaque glass of the double doors at the end of the hall.

Taking a deep breath in, Agent M tightened her grip on the firearm and waited.

"Sorry, but it looks like your prince is in another castle!" The dark-haired assassin began another giggling fit.

'Now!'

Agent M leapt forward, center of gravity ducked low as she flew across the aisle, somersaulted over the uncarpeted wooden floor, and spied her target. Kimiko's eyes were wide as she froze, mid-chortle.

One amber eye closed for greater accuracy, Kyoko shot twice.

Kappa screamed as a live round pierced through the center of her left hand. Her gun clattered to the floor.

Moving as swiftly as she could, Kyoko dashed forward, her right hand drawing its short, straight ninjatou.

To her credit, no matter how 'off' Kimiko seemed, she was still a field-trained, battle-hardened pro. The Henshin agent's eyes flashed fury as she snatched her bloodied pistol off the floor with her uninjured hand, aimed, and quickly loosed several shots at Kyoko.

Low and fast, Kyoko heard the bullets whiz by and winced as something stung her cheek right before she swung downward with her katana.

Kimiko tried to block the swing with her gun. Unfortunately for her, the LME unit has made some leaps and bounds with their tech after her resignation. Kyoko's special titanium alloy blade sliced through the firearm with a piercing metallic grind.

However, unfortunately for Kyoko, as she brought Ren's pistol up, her last bullet in its chamber to end the matter, Kimiko's other hand flew forward, fingers pointed to claw at the hastily tied cloth over Agent M's bullet wound.

Pain flaring like a blinding plume, Kyoko yelled as she yanked her arm away. Her gun flew out of her grasp, skittering down the aisle. She briefly saw it coast across the room beyond the final two pedestals before a mechanical hum sounded in the air.

A latticework of bright red lasers burst from the shadows in the walls, creating a tightly knit barricade separating Kyoko from the exit at the end of the hall.

Instinctively ducking under the half-gun Kimiko hurled at her, Agent M's eyes widened in horror. Kyoko knew that if her own gun hadn't tripped the sensor, and she had made a dash for the door, she'd be mincemeat by now.

"You thought I wouldn't have made preparations to ensure you never got to him?" A mocking voice called out.

Recovering her stance, Kyoko's eyes locked onto the dark-haired assassin who had staggered over to another glass cabinet, this one longer than the rest. Inside, on a polished metal stand lay a long, cruelly curved nodachi sword. The traditional samurai katana must have been only two heads shorter than the assassin herself. Kimiko turned a dark, crooked smile at Kyoko. Then she shattered the glass case with the butt of her broken gun.

Agent M didn't have time for this. She had to get through those lasers and get to Ren. Kyoko's eyes darted about her environment, calculating. The laser fence shimmered and sparked in the air, much higher than she could ever hope to jump. Agent M cursed under her breath as her gaze drew upward, then her eyes widened. The catwalk of spotlights lay right above the laser grid. If she could get up there and jump down onto the other side…

But how to get up there? There had to be a maintenance ladder – Kyoko's eyes flew across periphery of the room.

There! It was right across the hall from Kimiko, but Agent M thought she could make it if she had a decent head start.

Kappa had just picked up the scabbard of the great sword when Agent M bolted across the room.

"Don't even think about it!" Kimiko screeched behind her. "I'm here to make sure you never get through that door."

Kyoko's panted breaths sounded harsh in her ears, and her heart hammered in her chest. She sprinted for the ladder, sheathing her ninjatou as she ran. Behind her, she could hear the violent footfalls as Kimiko caught up. Black-painted metal rungs in sight, Kyoko leapt for the highest rung she could and lifted her legs off the floor. Biting back a scream, she felt the strain on her wounded left arm, but clung on tightly.

Below her, Kappa bellowed and leapt as well, however the heavy long-sword on her back limited her reach. Kimiko's fingers angrily scraped the bottom of Kyoko's black boot before gravity brought the assassin back down.

Hearing her enemy crash to the floor, Kyoko swallowed her pain and began climbing. Trying to block out her left arm screaming in agony, Kyoko desperately pulled herself up, rung after rung, step after step, almost two stories up until her hands finally closed on the metal surface of the narrow catwalk.

She was lifting her foot to step onto the platform when a sharp tug almost sent her tumbling through the opening and back to the floor below.

With a yell, Kyoko instinctively clung to the metal grating of the platform for dear life, her fingers protesting at the sudden strain. Her other foot lost its grip on the ladder and pinwheeled in the air. Through the grate, Agent M could see Kappa had somehow caught up with her and was pulling on her foot from below. On instinct, Kyoko kicked out and thrashed, feeling her boot wrench itself from the dark-haired woman's infuriated grasp.

Ignoring the pain, Kyoko swung her lower body to gain momentum and hoisted herself up through the hole in the catwalk, pulling herself with her forearms onto the platform.

Breathing heavily and scrambling up, the wounded agent backed away from the entrance to the catwalk. Without her normal gear pack and with the spotlights bolted in place, Kyoko had nothing to throw at Kimiko to slow her down. And Agent M knew she wasn't going to waste one of her katana.

If she missed, the range difference between just one of her ninjatou and Kappa's nodachi would spell instant death. Turning her back and running from the long-reaching sword would also mean death.

So she took the only option available to her. As Kyoko awaited her opponent, she breathed deeply and flicked the switches on her specially made short swords. Just like Master Uesugi had taught her, she evened her breathing and awaited her enemy.

As Kimiko's dark head cleared the entrance to the metal walkway, Kyoko drew her two ninjatou fluidly, taking a solid defensive stance. At this clear provocation, Kappa looked down her nose at the LME agent and with a sneer, drew the longsword from its sheath on her back. The nodachi's edge flashed dangerously, under-lit by the spotlights below as Kappa ducked under the scabbard's leather strap to toss it aside.

Flecks of blood dripped to the ground as Kimiko raised her injured hand to grip the katana's long hilt. There was a moment of thick, tense silence as both women studied the other. Then Kappa moved.

With a frighteningly fast stride, Kimiko had nearly closed the distance between them, taking a wide stance and fluidly whipping the sword up and around her head and throwing her whole body into a diagonal slash forward. Moving on base instinct, Kyoko managed to get her swords up in time to block the left-sided attack, her ninjatou moving in parallel to parry the heavier sword away. There was a high-pitched metallic grind as the three swords connected.

The beginnings of a foreboding grin twitching at the corners of her mouth, the dark-haired assassin smoothly transitioned into an upward thrust of her sword, aimed straight at Kyoko's blind spot.

Agent M could only duck, her swords coming up to block the next blow to her head before she could throw the weight of the attack off and stagger back. Trying to quiet her breathing, the auburn-haired agent eyed Kappa, her swords flying back up into guard in parallel, body turned sideways to minimize her target. The assassin's strikes were so… ferocious, so angry.

Master Uesugi always said you could tell what your opponent thought about you when you traded blows with a sword. Kyoko could tell: Kimiko despised her with every fiber of her being.

Watching with eyes full of dark fire, Kimiko's grin slid more and more across her face. She raised her sword and slid a smooth hand across its beautifully deadly surface, her fingertips grazing the artistic waves of folded Japanese steel.

"What's wrong?" Kappa crooned, her grin and wide eyes now borderline manic. "Aren't you stronger because the power of love?"

With her final, snarled word, Kimiko hefted the sword again and delivered a wide, heavy sweep aimed at Kyoko's left side. Agent M's left bicep cried out in pain as the reverberations from the hit shot down her blocking ninjatou and into her wounded arm.

Gritting her teeth, Kyoko blocked hit after hit, most of them aimed at her left side. Finally gaining enough distance to leap back and recollect herself, Kyoko desperately tried to catch her breath, every movement of her left arm an agony. At this rate, she would drop her sword, her left arm felt so weak.

Either Kimiko's sword-fighting style favored the left, or... She was doing it on purpose.

Agent M's eyes narrowed at the assassin who was tying a strip of cloth over her own injured left hand. The resting nodachi gleamed in the light, the folded Japanese steel holding true against her own sturdy titanium swords.

Except… Kyoko's eyes widened. It was hard to tell in the dim light but there appeared to be a divot, a small imperfection in the blade's smooth surface.

If it was real, Kyoko decided as she glanced down at her own unblemished swords, it must have been from that first strike. Well, if Kimiko was going to focus on her weak point, then two could play at that game.

"Love is trash!" With a fury-laced battle cry, the dark-haired assassin hoisted her sword again and dashed forward, hacking and slashing with startling control and precision.

However, focus renewed, Kyoko blocked each of the strikes at a particular point on Kimiko's sword. As she countered a particularly vicious thrust aimed at her gut, Kyoko couldn't help herself as she shot back, "If love is trash, why do you seduce men to kill them?"

Her opponent grit her teeth, eyes wide and enraged. "I do that BECAUSE love is trash! Love is just a tool to get what you want."

Kimiko swung forward again, and Kyoko dodged by rolling back, shoulder striking the metal walkway beneath them. Kappa grinned darkly and snarled, "That's what Agent T taught me."

Eyes narrowed, Kyoko lowered her center of gravity and dashed forward, retorting, "It's not his fault that he didn't return your feelings."

At her words, Kimiko's eyes widened further and her smirk contorted into an ugly snarl. Moving fast, Kyoko easily used her right-handed sword to sweep aside the nodachi's hasty slice, letting the heavy sword get carried away with its own momentum, leaving Kappa defenseless. Kyoko's left sword swung up from below.

Kimiko barely dodged, throwing her head back at the last second, her dark-dyed fringe flying up and back. Stumbling backward, Kappa's spare hand flew up to her forehead where a slow trickle of blood oozed down between her eyes. Belatedly, short strands of straight black hair fluttered down around the assassin like pieces of grotesque confetti. Past her parted fingers, Kimiko glared at the LME agent, her once straight bangs now sliced into asymmetrical hanging locks.

"He never lied to you," Agent M growled, settling back into a strong stance, one hand defending and one poised to attack, her eyes flashing amber fire. "You just made up this fantasy in your head and ran with it."

At her words, Kappa's eyes widened in pure fury, her hand gripping her face tighter and tighter until it flew off and away, trailing flecks of blood. With an animalistic scream, Kimiko flew forward, sword swinging wildly.

"SHUT UP! Who the hell are you to preach to me!" Kappa screeched, flailing widely with her blade and appearing to grow more and more agitated with every slash that Kyoko blocked. "Your stupid childhood friend's betrayal should've scarred YOU for good!"

Aiming for that midpoint on the nodachi, Kyoko felt the angry, hate-filled strikes reverberate up her arms.

"Yet you keep crawling back to the emotion of love!" Kimiko shrieked, not appearing to care that some of her sloppy strikes were now hitting the chest-high metal guardrail that ran the length of the catwalk. "You're WEAK! Can't you see? Ren is just going to hurt you AGAIN!"

Sweeping aside a particularly hasty thrust, Kyoko stepped back. Watching Kappa struggle to stand and catch her breath after swinging the heavy sword so ferociously, Kyoko felt an uncomfortable sense of familiarity creep through her. But things were different now…

"You're not wrong," Kyoko murmured softly.

Kappa watched her through dark, narrowed eyes, a myriad of emotions cycling over the assassin's face.

"Throughout our lives," Kyoko admitted with a small laugh, "we are probably going to accidentally hurt each other again and again… But I believe in him, and I know he believes in me. That commitment – that's real love."

By this time, Kimiko's head was ducked, her swordpoint drooping to the floor. Her slim shoulders shook, as if crying. Feeling pity for the girl, Kyoko slowly dropped her guard.

Then Kimiko's eyes flashed up. Her shoulders weren't shaking with tears. They were shaking in anger. Kyoko scarcely had enough time to get her swords up again to block the nodachi's violent swing from decapitating her. Instead the crazed woman's sword bit into Kyoko's upper right arm before she was able to parry it away.

Facial expression shifting briefly to hungry satisfaction at the drawn blood before morphing back into dark anger, Kimiko swung forward again, impossibly faster than before. She screamed, "WHY DID HE CHOOSE YOU!"

Kyoko grimaced at the renewed strength behind the strike and stumbled backward on the catwalk – "WHAT'S SO GREAT ABOUT YOU ANYWAY?" – The auburn-haired agent barely managed to block the next swing before righting herself.

"WASN'T I PRETTIER?"

Slash.

"WASN'T I A BETTER AGENT?"

Slice.

"WASN'T I LOVEABLE?"

Knocked off-balance and sent scrambling again, Kyoko found herself desperately blocking the last attack, swords locked in an X, stopping Kimiko's longer sword from above. With a scream of rage, Kappa pushed Kyoko backward, and Agent M found herself caged in, her back blocked by the metal guardrail.

The metal of the sword edges grinding together, Kyoko's eyes widened as she felt her strength faltering. Kimiko's sword slipped down past Agent M's guard to slice into Kyoko's shoulder. The assassin laughed crazily, apparently rejoicing in her inevitable victory.

Gritting her teeth, Kyoko pushed back, every fiber of muscle in her body straining. She ground out, "Tsuruga-san may have hurt you on accident…"

A kimono-clad girl stood in a metal vault and proclaimed her vengeance on the sneering heir.

Kyoko's grip on her katana tightened as she felt the nodachi's blade slip out of her shoulder. She continued, her voice growing stronger, "But the way you react is your own responsibility."

A tall, dark-haired man strangled a hooded figure on the top of a cargo ship, a ghoulish, evil smile plastered on a face that Kyoko no longer recognized.

Centimeter by centimeter, Kyoko pushed her swords up, giving her space as she grunted out, "It's always easier to hate than to forgive."

'What about you? Are you going to just give up?' Her senpai had asked. She hadn't had an answer for him and had let him go. She had let both of them go, almost to their own destruction.

"It's always easier to stay stuck in the past than to run forward into the future." Kyoko's amber eyes flashed to connect with the assassin's wide dark ones.

"Sh-shut up!" Kimiko cried. Kyoko was given the impression that if Kappa's hands hadn't been occupied, they would've flown up to cover her ears.

With a small, pitying smile, Kyoko regarded the proud girl. She said simply, "You're just a coward."

Unleashing another scream of fury, Kimiko leaned her full body weight into the sword. Eyes wide and desperate, she squalled, "Why won't you just BREAK!"

Kyoko glanced down at the nodachi. Perfect.

Taking a deep breath in, Kyoko flashed Kimiko a wide grin. "Because I'm stronger than that!"

In one lightning-quick motion, Kyoko brought her left hand back and with a battle cry, brought it smashing down onto the nearly imperceptible notch and widening spiderweb crack on the long sword. The Japanese steel creaked, groaned, and finally with a metallic scream, shattered mid-blade.

Still pushing with all her might, Kimiko's momentum propelled her suddenly forward and downward, and with no more ninjatou to stop her, Kimiko found herself pitching through the gap between the catwalk and the handrail. Her broken blade plummeted to the ground nearly two stories below, and her body followed.

However at the last second, a hand caught Kappa's wrist in a strong grip. On the walkway above, Kyoko lay on her belly, hand outstretched to grasp Kimiko's wrist.

Eyes wide, Kimiko dangled there as Kyoko strained to pull her back up. The dark-haired girl whimpered, "W-Why?"

Choosing to ignore Kappa in favor of focusing her drained energy, Kyoko merely grunted as she managed to pull Kimiko's wrist up to the guardrail.

Kimiko began to thrash. She screamed, "Stop it!"

Continuing on in silence, Kyoko pulled a pair of handcuffs out of her back pocket – a parting gift from Amamiya-san – and clapped one end onto Kimiko's wrist and the other end onto the railing.

"What are you doing?" Kimiko continued to screech and fight, her body still half-dangling off the catwalk.

Kyoko easily ducked under the sloppy kick aimed at her neck, picked one of her katana up from the floor, and stepped on Kimiko's offending foot. The short sword sliced through Kimiko's pants leg at the ankle, driving into the catwalk up to the ninjatou's hilt and trapping the girl's leg in place. Enraged, Kappa screeched again and tried to swing her other fist at Kyoko.

Agent M merely caught it in her free hand and used her spare katana to pin Kimiko's wrist to the ground.

Irate, Kimiko thrashed and screamed. When she realized that she was trapped and could not move, she glared up at Kyoko, her dark eyes full of venom and screamed, "The only difference between you and me is that HE chose you!"

This finally caused Kyoko to pause. As she gazed down at the dark-haired girl, Kyoko had a bizarre feeling as if she were looking into a parallel universe and seeing a clouded image of a not-so-distant future. She didn't like what she saw.

For all that Sho's selfish arrogance had cost her, deep down inside, Kyoko knew that she had ended up net positive. After all, his fake love helped start her down the road to realize what true love looked like.

Turning to the still squirming Kimiko, Kyoko shook her head slowly.

"The difference between us is that I turned my poison into a strength," Kyoko gave the dark-haired assassin a small, sad smile. "But you let it eat you alive."

With that parting line, Agent M ran the last few meters to the end of the catwalk above the laser grid and leapt off it, easily clearing the humming lasers and landed rolling across the floor by the glass double doors.

Above her, Kimiko continued to scream, enraged, yelling at Kyoko to stop and come back here! Ignoring the girl, Kyoko stooped to pick up her long-forgotten pistol. She checked the clip: still one shot left.

"You're wrong!" Kimiko continued to screech, her voice strained and cracking from so much yelling. "There's no way you're going to save him that way!"

Pushing through the frosted glass, Kyoko let the doors close and silence the girl behind her as she murmured to herself, "Hang on, T-san! I'm almost there!"

-x-

Ren's eyes opened slowly. It was disorienting and worrisome to wake up in an unfamiliar bed with no recollection of how he'd gotten there. At least the bed was decently soft. Ren's eyes flicked to the side.

But unfortunately, the door had bars on it.

Groaning, Agent T finally mustered the energy to sit up but had to abruptly stop as a wave of nauseating pain crested over him. His side felt as if it had been set on fire and punched a hundred times by Uesugi Hiou – at the same time. His hand crawled over to his flank. Instead of blood, like he'd feared, he felt the clean coarseness of gauze.

Oh yeah. He'd been shot.

Panting slightly and blinking blearily past some kind of sedative that he'd clearly been dosed with, Ren drew his knees up before shifting them over, straightening his legs so they were hanging off the side of the bed. Taking a moment to catch his breath, Ren closed his eyes and tried to remember.

He got shot. He gave Kyoko his comm link and watch. He watched her pleading amber eyes fill with tears. And his heart simultaneously broke and burst with happiness as he finally told her the truth. Then shooting, more shooting, hiding for cover. He heard a noise above him. A dark figure – a guy in a black coat? – dropped down from above. Then… darkness…

Ren's eyes fluttered open. He couldn't recall anything else.

But this was no time for thinking. He had to get to Kyoko.

Taking a couple deep breaths to solidify himself, Ren sat up, feet dangling over the side of the bed. Pausing again to clutch his side in hopes of soothing the shooting agony, Agent T had two brief thoughts.

One: who treated his gunshot wound?

And two: how the hell was he going to get out of this cell when he could barely get himself out of bed?

There was a muffled shout from behind the door. Ren's ears perked up. The shouting crescendoed, punctuated by a smattering of gunfire. Not wanting to be caught unawares, Agent T struggled to his feet.

Just then, the door burst open, bright light pouring into his cell from the outside. Unprepared, Ren shied away, raising an arm against the sudden brightness, but he could see a feminine figure silhouetted in the doorway.

As his eyes adjusted to the light, Ren's eyes widened at her unexpected appearance.

"M-Mogami–?"

The woman in the doorway staggered into the room, gun limp in her hands. Ren could see the bodies of two guardsmen behind her as she slammed the door shut.

Her hands – shaking, he noticed – dropped the semiautomatic rifle with a clatter to the cement floor. Breathing heavily, she stumbled but as she tripped, Ren was able to step forward in time to catch her.

"What are you doing here?" Frowning, Agent T gently lowered the woman to the floor. "…Councillor Mogami."

Waving him away as she collected herself, the middle-aged politician frowned up at him, her dark hair askew in her bun. Flecks of blood stained her white blouse. Saena attempted a wry smile before the expression became swallowed up in her furrowed brow.

"My apologies. I'm probably not the Mogami you were hoping for."

-x-

All around the room, the rows of auditorium-like seats had long desks in front of them, each row sunk on a lower level than the desks before them. Each of the desks was an empty, black surface and every single chair in the three-dozen or so rows was empty.

As Kyoko held the pistol up and ready, she descended the central staircase slowly toward the small clearing at the bottom of the room. At the very center of the room, towering over the clearing and the seats, a large screen shone a blank white, the only illumination in otherwise darkness. She glanced back. The only entrance or exit appeared to be the glass double doors that she had come through.

Her timid footsteps the only sound in an otherwise eerily silent hall, Kyoko had a sudden flash of recognition. Though she'd never had the opportunity to be inside one, the room resembled a large college lecture hall.

Another slow flight of stairs and Kyoko had reached the bottom. The flat white floor was empty, except–

Another soft footstep sounded in the room. Kyoko's heart leapt to her throat, and she tightened the grip on her pistol, raising it quickly to aim at the dark figure of a man in a black trench coat emerging from the shadows at the base of the white screen. The screen backlit him, casting the man in silhouette, and Kyoko was about to demand to know who he was when the screen caught the reflection off his wire-rimmed glasses.

Choking on her words, Kyoko froze.

Delta stepped forward again, fully into the light and no longer in shadow. He treated the LME agent to a warm, open smile.

"Hello, Kyoko. It's so nice to finally meet my daughter after so many years."

- 0:11 until re-vote -

-x-

Notes: Bait and swiiiiiitch! Haha, sorry all! Couldn't resist! Careful readers will note that Kimiko never confirmed that Ren was behind those doors. Don't kill me~! Haha, merry Christmas, enjoy your cliffhanger! xD

-x-

MAILBAG:

Guineapigs1 – Delta always has something evil planned! Haha, not that he would define it as "evil", but… More on that next month. ;) Thanks as always for the review! It's always great to see what you think of the plot twists and turns!

brennakai – Hehe, your suspicions were correct! Delta and Kyoko meet face to face, and he's certainly up to no good. Hope you enjoyed the brief LoveMe girls badass battle!

H-Nala – So they do!

ReneeFee – Aww! It makes me so happy that you consider my story one of your faves! It's such an honor, considering that there are lots of great writers and stories on this site, particularly in the Skip Beat section. Thanks again, ReneeFee!

Erza Tsuruga – Haha, crazy busy, I know how that feels. I admire you for tackling all of it though! Family, school, and work would be enough to drive anyone to their limits – solo, not to mention when mixed all together. Admittedly, you were right about last chapter in that it was pretty short. I couldn't find a decent way to break up the action, so this month's chapter ended up super long by comparison! Hope it makes up for last month! And hang in there! Hope you're able to spend a relaxing holiday season with loved ones!

Guest – THANK YOU~! I think we are on the same FB group as well! I want to post more to tell those doubters off, but the group is still "Public" and "Open", so I'm worried that all of my coworkers and non-anime-loving friends are going to see all of my impassioned arguments on the group. And then I'm going to be outed as a big ol' nerd. TT_TT And I totally agree with you: Nakamura-sensei is a huge sadist but also, Ren and Kyoko's love story would not be half as amazing if it were easy. Lol, leave a name next time so I can call you out specifically. See you on FB!

kittiesama – Thanks for taking the time to catch up and review both chapters! LOL I love how you're like, "I'm not even upset he got shot" xD #priorities If these two could have an easy love life, it would be boring and it wouldn't be Skip Beat. Hahaha And you also got the Kanae-Chiori dynamic down. I wish Sensei would show us more of those two interacting in the manga. They're pretty hilarious together.

Jellyfishhh – Thanks again for the review! As for tension… Last month ain't got nothin' on this month's chapter! Muhahaha!

MWEH – Thanks! It's always worth the wait for your reviews as well! Really happy you liked the LoveMe girls interacting. I've been watching a lot of Gintama lately and Chiori really reminds me of Otae – hides her dark, violent inner persona behind a cutesy, pleasant smile. As for the SB page, I think it is the same page! This month, Sho didn't make an appearance and Ren did, which is nice – but next chapter is setting itself up to be a big cluster F of love triangle. Ughhhh Hope no paparazzi are around! That's one aspect of the celebrity status of Skip Beat's main characters that I am not looking forward to impacting their relationships. I feel like once you bring the public into things, the misunderstandings are just going to grow and Kyoko is going to get meaninglessly bullied. Til next month, MWEH! Hope you have an amazing Christmas season with family and friends!

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Don't forget to leave me a Christmas present as well! Drop a fave, alert, or review to let me know what you think of the story! Love you, my loyal readers!

And if you haven't already, check out my Skip Beat one-shot series, All the World's a Stage!