Hi again guys! I'm uploading this while I'm at school... so there will definitely be a few mistakes I haven't noticed ^^' Thank you for reading my fanfic. Still not a lot of talking - I guess this is the deal is for first chapters. I hope it's alright.

Chapter 2

"WAKE UP. WE'RE MOVING."

Kaito groaned as Len's voice rang out from outside his tent. As much as he loved his job, he loved sleeping as well. Couldn't people just take a break some days?

Kaito slowly crawled out of his tent and began to wrap his belt strings around his waist on his clothes and slipped his katana into the belt. Luka and Gakupo were helping each other roll up the tents and Rin was sharpening her knives on a rock, the screaking sounds of the metal resonating throughout the camp. Gumi and Miku were loading the equipment onto a cart they had brought them, and Len was handing out water bags and small knives. In fact, he wasn't even giving them out, he was throwing them.

Kaito caught the knives clumsily, cutting his finger in the process and warm blood began to spill from the small wound. He was not in pain or hurt, he was just annoyed that Len was too damn lazy to just walk over and give it to them. Then again, it was probably a practice of skill.

"We're near the town, so I want everyone to keep their guard up. Understand?"

Everyone nodded and continued with their business. Kaito sat down, sighing, and began to roll take down his tent when Miku bounded up to him.

"Kaito-kun. I can help you with that," she smiled, giving him sweet puppy eyes. Kaito looked at her with blank eyes and nodded in approval. The sun's rays were only just starting to brush against the mountain side, and they were already up and moving. It was tiring, but the job was rewarding and definitely worth the sweat and blood.

The troupe were steadily approaching their destination and the tallest of the buildings in the abandoned village were beginning to peak over the small trees and scarce forest. Dry smoke was still in the air from two weeks ago when the village was reportedly burnt down and message was sent to Scarlet Tiger to investigate the incident.

Kaito stared at the village as it slowly crawled into view. All the homes were burnt and falling, and the ground was blackened with ashes and debris. Smaller wooden buildings were collapsing under their own weight and the singed, almost unrecognisable simple furniture could be seen and were starting to crumble under the forced of the breeze. .. Piles of rotting bodies still reeked of charred flesh and there was not a person in sight. It was truly an abandoned village.

Len stepped onto the darkened ground and unsheathed his sword. He began to tap the ground with the tip and Kaito watched as the ashes were so easily sifted with his sword .Len turned back to the troupe.

"Troupe, set up camp here. We're going to investigate the town separately. Take your weapons, cover as much ground as possible, leave no stone unturned. I want reports on the whole village before dusk. Got it? Now get a map from the cart of the town and move out," Len instructed. With a swift movement, he had stuck his sword into one of the scrolls of the maps and walked off, holding out his sword in front of him.

"What a showoff, it's already so obvious that the killer burnt the village down after himself, what's the rush," Rin growled. She twirled a knife around her finger and snatched a map from the cart and walked off.

"Back at her, don't you think." Kaito muttered, the rest of them laughing a bit The rest of the group slowly began to drop their belongings in a neat pile and Gumi rested a canvas covering over the pile. They began to disperse when Kaito felt a tug on his sleeve.

"Kai-kun~ Let's go together!" Miku whined, looking up at him. Miku was an energetic member of Scarlet Tiger, and was one of the youngest, about only 17 years of age. Gakupo used to always joke with him about how Miku was falling for him but Kaito would always politely return Gakupo's comments with a punch in the stomach, often rendering him unconscious. Kaito looked back at Miku and began to consider what Len would do if they were to disobey his orders of investigating the village separately. Probably never see the light of day again, but then again, what happens if they were snooping around the village and had bumped into each other anyway? They had no specific reason why not to go in pairs… so it would have been safe for them to just bend the rule a little bit, right? Kaito shrugged.

"Sure, why not?"

Miku replied with a squeal of delight and grabbed Kaito's arm, trying to push her body against his. That was disturbing. Kaito immediately regretted his decision, but what was done was done, and he was too nice to tell her to piss off.

"How about we go around the edges of the town first? We'll see if we can find anything strange." Kaito assessed, eyeing Miku as she smiled cheerfully at him. It was going to be a long day.

"We found nothing strange beside a whole lot of burnt buildings and a few dead domesticated animals."

It was nearing dusk, and the group was sitting around a fire. They had set up camp on a burnt deserted landscape where there used to be forests – the fire had obviously burnt down a huge area of land around the village. Kaito was just sharing his findings with General Kagamine, his arms lazily crossed and his body sapping up the warmth of the fire.

Len nodded and was about to turn to Gumi for her report when he stopped and raised an eyebrow at Kaito. "What do you mean 'we'?"

Crap! Kaito began to try and think of an excuse for him saying "'we' found nothing", but Len read all.

"You went with Miku, didn't you?"

Kaito looked down and was preparing to be brutally murdered by Len when Rin began to blabber about the town.

"Well, the town was really, really, really black and deserted, and there wasn't really anything to report on, but I found a whole bunch of burnt tatami mats that smelt of dead cats! Ut then I realized that there was a dead cat under the tatami mat and I decided to bury it, and I made it a whole to bury it in and I gave it a short funeral and I saw a bird fly across the sky with funny markings! I think it was an eagle of some sort, so I thought I would come ask you later, but that's beside the point. I saw a whole bunch of burnt money as well, and I swear it was worth a whole much more than a normal person's weekly wage, then again, the house I found it in was bigger than normal, so the family was probably combined and…" Rin had obviously sensed Kaito's worry and was trying to cover up for him. Len saw this as well.

"Fine. Kaito, I will let you off this time. Miku, you too. Don't disobey me again, got it?"

Kaito and Miku nodded vigorously in unison, earning a mischievous snort from Luka and Gakupo, and a giggle from Gumi.

"There such a cute couple, don't you think?" "Yeah!"

Kaito glared at them and Miku was smiling in delight. It obviously made her ecstatic to know that she and her crush were cute together. Kaito on the other hand, simply felt annoyed that a 26 year old man could actually look like an item next to a 17 year old. That was simply creepy.

Kaito stood up abruptly, and looked at Len. "Sir, I'd like to walk around the village to see if anything seems out of place, if that's okay with you."

Len nodded and crossed his arms. "You have my approval."

"Thank you, sir." Kaito bowed and walked out of the camp, hearing faint whispers of words like "Wow, he's embarrassed!", "You two are sooo cute!", "Are they going to advance in their relationship?".

How annoying.

Kaito had tried to get away from the group, but now had to face the terrible stench of ash and decaying flesh from the village – it was nearly as suffocating as the conversation they were having earlier. And he had already tripped and fallen into shallow ditches at least five times due to the creeping darkness night-time brought.

Maybe I should head back. I'm tired and I'm hungry, Kaito thought, and began to turn around. He nearly slapped himself in the face with the realization. He was hopelessly lost in the village at night. What a genius thing to do.

Now what do I do?! He began to panic and tried to measure what time it was. It was only about eight at night, and it would take at least another hour before the moon would shine bright enough to at least see where he was going. Darnit.

CRACK

Kaito jerked upwards and drew out his katana.

"Who's there?! Show yourself!" he whipped himself around, eyes darting in all directions. What made the noise?He looked out into the darkness hesitantly, scanning the darkness, hoping that he could somehow miraculously be able to see in the dark.

"Don't hurt me." A gentle voice chimed from in the darkness. It was a woman's voice. "I don't mean any harm. Please don't hurt me."

Kaito's eyes widened in surprise and shock. What? Was there a person here?

A tiny lantern light was starting to approach him, and he held out his sword in front of him. Sweat dripped down his face. There was a woman holding the lantern, her clothes slightly tattered from the wind and cold.

"It can't be, is it really you…Kaito?" The woman's eyes were wide in shock, and Kaito saw it. .

There was a vine shaped scar on her face, covering her eye. It couldn't be…

Kaito's expression changed from one of fear to one of joy. It was the joy of meeting someone he hadn't met in 17 years.

"…Meiko!"

Ooooh! Reunion between Kaito and Meiko! This is set in sort of ancietn-ish Japan, just saying, if you haven't noticed. Yayy! Please review, favourite, follow and critique? Thank you for reading...!