Height made no appearance for the next few days. Maybe he's angry, or sulking, whatever. The white bird never stood at my window either. Somewhere, a part of me missed it. They days went past the same as usual. The flower shop, and trainings.

Manx hasn't dropped by these few days either. I had submitted the repost for the previous mission. Kritiker was probably analysing it and thinking of how to make the next move on the target. As I've heard, he'd fled and hiding somewhere.

Ken mentioned that they might drop the mission because all the evidence of his 'creations' were annihilated. I wouldn't be too sure about that. There's still Height, his minions and myself. One thing Kritiker might not know is that we're able to hide ourselves among the people. In fact, there was one right under their noses in Weiss.

For the past few days of nothing, I cocked up some really odd habits. I was training more than my usual hours which consisted of mainly about half to one-half hours. Now, I could hang around in the attic (our training room) for up to two or three hours, just wielding the katana or practicing hand to hand with the others.

Currently, I had just finished a half-hour sparring with Yoji, then an hour of slashing the air. Ken dropped in and we both started a fairly serious battle. We both wielded our 'mock' weapons: a wooden sword and silver coloured Styrofoam claws.

Yoji gave the signal to start and the brunette and I raced to each other with our greatest speed. I got to him first and gave a horizontal slash. He dodged under before raising his fist. Knowing a few of his common moves, I shifted back and darted to the side.

The battle was long and we were way part our limits. A usual continual, vigorous sparring would drag us down by the end of twenty minutes, but it was forty by now and both of us were panting crazily, hands shaking as they gripped the weapons.

Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw Yoji rubbing his chin in wonder. None of us before could take a hand to hand against Ken for more than twenty min tops. However, neither of us seemed to be giving a hint of retreat.

"Jeez, when did you become so hard to deal with?" Ken wheezed.

I cocked my head to the side. Was I easy before? Well, whatever Ken had meant, I felt a little bit insulted. After his words, I decided to just end the spar.

I turned around and headed to the shelves where other weapons were placed and put down the wooden katana.

"Hey, Aya!" Ken stormed over, probably wondering why I stopped half way. "What's up? You just went off in a middle of a spar."

"I'm tired", I lied. But seriously, I actually feel the adrenaline just started to build up. Yes, I was panting really hard, but I didn't feel like stopping. My muscles ached to continue, but I didn't want to raise any suspicion. Especially from Yoji, since I found him acting weirdly these days.

"Oh. Fine. I've got the evening shift in the shop anyway", the brunette sniffed and took off his gloves, tossing them messily onto the shelf.

I barely gave a nod and looked over at Yoji.

The blond returned the stare and shrugged. "Well, if you're not going to use the bathroom, I'm hogging it first", he smiled and idled off, whistling away. Ken followed him out and I remained in the attic by my own.

My muscles were definitely aching, especially the area on the back. They also hurt, but mostly because I bounded them close to my body.

I went up to the roof and the sun was shining brightly as ever. The roads below were pretty silent for a mid-day. I stood in the middle of the roof, away from the door and the edge. I really couldn't bear much longer.

I took off my top and loosened the bandages I used. After half of it was unwrapped, my wings were out and free. I raised my hands above my head and stretched, feeling some nice 'popping' along my spinal cords. My wings opened and the muscles on my back relaxed. It felt so much better when they weren't squeezed together.

I pulled them backwards and beat once to loosen the tightened muscles more. I kept doing it repeatedly, back to front and up to down. When I felt that they were flexible enough, I looked up at the blue sky.

I was tempted to fly.

I remembered clearly on how to do it. I watched the wild birds. They would give themselves a small push to the air and flap their wings quickly. Then they would keep their legs behind them straight and stable.

I went through the steps in my head over and over and I did the same.

Even though this was the third attempt, I was filled with confidence. I ran towards the edge opposing the streets, which faced the alley ways between buildings. I based it all on my speed, kept my wings closed until I jumped into the air.

Once I feel a small descent I opened them, and like a parachute, they stopped my fall. I flapped once in less than a second, then another.

It was an eternal sort of feeling. You wished it would last forever. I was flying towards the skies, towards the clouds you could see but never touch. When I was a kid I thought clouds could be caught like snow and made into shapes. I reached out my hands and tried to do the same.

-------

Just before eight, everyone was forced to watch some movie on TV recommended by Omi. According to him, it was a really good show. Only that it was pretty gruesome. But I highly doubt it would be as bad as what we've seen altogether. The movie was called Hostel.

So, for the sake of Omi, everyone just got settled in the mission room to use the great big screen which has a purpose of something more important, but Omi managed to tune it to the local channels (I have no idea how).

Halfway through the movies, to most of our disappointment, one of those 'important news' came on.

At first, the news said it was a mass murder. Okay, not surprising. The next information they gave was that the killers were blackbirds. Everyone, even I, was shocked. It was reported that in the late evenings, a whole flock of birds suddenly attacked the streets. Close to twenty people died, while another thirty or so were injured.

At first, they showed a short video of a black mass heading towards the region. Next, clips of which the birds started ganging up in tens to attack one person, piercing and tearing through their flesh. One after another, the neighbouring people were killed as well.

"According to experts, there was absolutely no explanation for this cause. They claimed that truly, they will attack to usually defend their young, but this was an outrageous advance, as at least a hundred of these had appeared", the news reporter said.

"This flock had retreated when police came with firearms to scare them away. For now, we warn the people to stay away and residents in the southern side to stay at homes until this problem can be solved."

A video went on and my eyes widened at one point. I got up from my seat quickly and dashed up the spiral stairway. I heard Omi and Ken call out to ask where I was going, but I gave no reply.

I grabbed my car keys and drove off in my Porsche as fast as I could, heading towards the south of the city.

While driving, my hands were cold and white. So was my face. The video I had just seen was worse than the movie I was watching.

The video I saw the black flock advancing on the city. But in midst of the black flock was a pair of white wings.

whohoo i secretly did the story during class time lalalla... for my commentors please state whatcha love about this story pretty please with sugar? i love height XD i might just draw a smexy pic with him and ran together -hearts hearts- thanks for reviews!!