Seeing the Sun

Chapter 2

Meg slowly walks to the detention room after school, head down. She's never gotten detention before, but the teacher was in a bad mood today. And today had been an off day with Meg. She'd been spacing out a lot, along with talking to some of her friends in class. Jo had to go too.

The silver-haired girl walked into class extremely late. There were only about five more minutes of that class. The teacher began to scold her, and Jo flipped her the bird. Oddly enough, Jo burst out laughing when the teacher became red-faced and yelled at her.

She approaches the door, nervous. As she opens it, though, the teacher isn't there. Not yet. She does, however, see the group of guys. The school's "bad-boys", she remembers. She bites her lip, not really wanting to stay in the room. Alone. With them.

"Hey babe," says one of them, grinning at her. "You sure you got the right class? Unless you came to see me..." He winks at her.

"Shut it, perv," snaps Meg, angry. "Jerk off in hell, it's not like you'll get a girl anyways."

The guys friends laugh, but the guy himself stops smiling, standing up from his perch on the desk and walking up to her. "Are you looking for a fight, princess?"

At that moment, Jo runs in. Her eyes have an evil glint to them and her hair is thrown back from running. She closes the door behind her, locking it. There's a knocking on the window, and Meg can see the teacher yelling at her angrily. Jo smirks and dangles something in the air. The keys to the classroom. The crazy girl chuckles a bit before turning to the group of boys.

"Don't you dare open the door," she threatens them, still grinning.

The boys, who'd been acting so tough only moments ago, stare at her with wide eyes and nod. They walk to another side of the room. Meg stands still, frozen since she heard Jo's voice. In the two week she's been at the school, Jo hasn't said a word. But now Meg has heard her talk.

Jo's voice is calm and smooth, with something lying beneath the surface that sends chills through you. The only emotion it seems to show is anger, no matter how little there is. Even though she's smiling (though the smile is wild and dangerous), she sounds kind of angry. Then again, she was threatening them.

"So," Jo turns to Meg, mischievous grin still plastered on her face. "What are you in for?"

"Just small stuff," replies the red-head. She can't believe that the girl is actually talking to her. She feels like that question is something that people ask eachother in prison, but then she remembers that Jo is recently out of prison.

"You already know why I'm here, I guess. I never really introduced myself to anyone in this school, so..." she holds out her hand. "Nice to meet you. I'm Jo."

Meg takes her hand, smiling. Maybe she's not as bad as she seems. "I'm Meg."

They shake hands and Jo sits down, resting her feet on the desk. "Thanks to that stunt, I'll probably be in here for a month or something," she mumbles. "I probably won't go anyways, but hey, don't really care at this point."

"What did you do, anyways?"

"Stole her keys from her pocket, waved them in her face and took off down the hall." The girl sounds proud of it. They sit for a while, until Jo gets up, cursing. "Damn, forgot about that."

The principal comes in, the teacher next to him. Jo waves goodbye as she's dragged to the man's office. But even then, as the principal looks at her with disappointment and the teacher scolds her, she can see Jo chuckling under her breath.

What's with that girl?

When she's finally free, Jo runs to her motorcycle, hopping on. If she goes fast, like she always does, she'll be back before Sei gets mad. She revs the engine and takes off, going down the street faster than anyone else could.

She pulls up at their huge apartment. It's in a bad area, but she could care less. After all, it's owned by their syndicate. On the top level is Leo, her mechanic and the only other person living in the house. He, too, is with their group, so he's alright with her.

She storms into their apartment, hair disheveled from the ride over. Amy is the first person she sees, and the only one in the place at the moment. Jo smirks, closing the door. If she's beaten Sei here, then she's alright. Amy winks at her, signaling that she won't tell Sei that she just got back. Jo shoots her adopted little sister a thumbs up before plopping down on the living room couch.

"So what happened, Jo?" asks the young girl, eager to find out why Jo had been late.

"I flipped the teacher the bird, got detention, stole the keys to the classroom and locked her out." Jo smiles a little as she tells the story, and Amy laughs.

"You do love pissing people off, don't you?"

"You know it."

At that moment, Sei walks in. She drops a folder on Jo's stomach, and the silver-haired girl reads it. It's files about her next target, she knows. It says that he's experienced in knife-throwing, runs fast, and a bunch of stuff Jo doesn't care about. She throws the folder onto the kitchen table, getting up. Opening the closet, her equipment is revealed.

She straps on the holsters, making sure they're secure before slipping her guns into them. She takes off her fingerless gloves, only to replace them with ones that have spikes on the knuckles. Jo finally adds the finishing touch to her "job outfit"- a pure black mask.

Slipping on the hood of her jacket, she walks out. Jo quickly gets on her bike, going full-speed to the location of her target; under the highway with a group of ten soldiers with him.

"You almost there?" asks Sei through the earpiece.

"Yeah," replies the red-eyed girl, her voice only slightly muffled by the mask. As she sees the group, she comes to a stop. She did it fast enough that it sends her flying through the air at them. Midair, she shoots, laughing almost crazily at their shocked expressions. As she lands, she aims at the last four soldiers and the target.

The target throws a knife, the silver blade getting a good two feet away from her before she kicks it out of the air, keeping her aim steady. She grins, though they can't see it. She shoots one of the guards right between the eyes, killing him instantly. She quickly targets another.

"Who sent you?" asks the guy she was sent to kill.

"Them," she says. The mask distorts her voice, making it sound monstrous.

With that, she runs towards him, spinning in a circle and shooting two more guards. The last guard, who's closer to her mark, is knocked out as she punches him in the face. The target runs, fast. But bullets are faster, and he takes one in the back of the head.

"Sei," calls Jo through the microphone as she rides through the streets of Tokyo. "Mission accomplished."

"Nicely done. Now get back home, Jo."

"Already there." The silver-haired girl hangs up, looking up as the door opens. She stands up, getting off her bike, only for one of her legs to buckle as she does. She grunts in pain through the mask, making it sound rather demonic.

"Jo, are you alright?"

There's a gash in her leg, she sees. It's about ten inches long, a centimeter wide. She can't tell, but she thinks it's deep. She looks at Sei. "I guess when I kicked the knife out of the air, it got me. I didn't even notice it until now."

"You should have just dodged it like a sane person," snaps Sei, but helps the girl inside. "Come on, let's get you fixed up."

Amy watches as they walk in, and Jo slips off her mask, pulling down her hood. As Sei cleans the large gash, Jo takes off her holsters, dropping them on the seat next to her. She then takes the needle and thread from Sei. "I got it," she says. "I've done this before."

She stitches it up as Amy talks with Sei. Jo was never one to take help, saying it made her feel like a child. Whenever someone tried to help, she usually brushed them off. If she was in a bad mood, the person was never that lucky. She's kinder to her adoptive sisters, though. Kind of. More than she is with other people.

As she finishes dressing her wound, she limps over to the basement, grimacing with each step. She won't be going to school tomorrow, she decides. Come to think of it, she doesn't know why Sei made her go in the first place. But hey, it's something to do.

She looks at the single lamp casting a dim, almost candle-like glow. She feels herself slipping into what she calls that state. It's a cross between daydreaming and recalling something. Her tattoos burn slightly as she remembers needles and fire, along with a splashes of blood. Someone is screaming.

Enough.

She snaps back into reality, pushing the memories away. The burning fades as she does this, and soon she's controlled herself. She sits on the old, stiff couch. She doesn't have a bed. She didn't want one. When she's tired, she doesn't care where she sleeps. But she never seems to sleep at night. Or at least, not properly.

The lamp flickers and dies out as screams are heard from the TV, and Jo manages to coax her body into a near-sleeping state as blood splatters on the screen. She smirks a bit as she hears the screams of a killer's last victims.

A/N: You have now seen a miniscule amount of Jo's past, so GOOD FOR YOU. Remember, Jo was not born to be a living weapon in this. She's more or less a normal person. Or is she? You'll find out later. Since she's more or less familiar with emotions, I thought a fitting personality would be the angry bad-ass type who doesn't let others help her most of the time. Let me know if you agree.