Hey all! This is a semi-timely update so I won't apologize, well profusely anyways and this chapter is also kind of build-up so i will try to get the next one to you pronto. I won't make any promises though cause finals are next week and there is not an emoticon seriously freaked out enough to display my complete and utter petrified....ness i guess. AUUUGGGHHH! anyways, enough about me, here is another part of the story that keeps looking longer and longer the more I think about it.

Fii aka Ficchan: Wow, that sounds like a LOT of math. Have no fear, I completely understand. It's all good. Thanks for keeping up with me even though I have been....a little bit slow on the updating....*cough cough*...... oh! and haha, i ALWAYS end iwht a cliff hanger, got to keep you guys wanting more, right?

Stelra Etnae: I know, right? Tezuka, Inui, and Fuji are definitely some of the sharpest tools in the shed. In fact it may be OOC to make them not all figure it out at once haha. Thanks for the review :)

NAO-chan33: haha, thanks! i'm glad i made you laugh....almost haha. yeah this chapter doesn't quite get to her attending seigaku yet, but i'm going to get there for sure. i seem to spend a lot of time justifying the characters' actions so they don't seem OOC, but if i do it too much let me know. thanks for the review! :)

Azumi POV

I was lying in my bed trying extremely hard to hear what was happening on the other side of the screen.

From what I could tell, he was asleep. But he was generally a quiet person (much to my dismay) usually so I didn't want to have to count on the lack of sound as m indication that he was asleep. It was too bad he didn't snore. Now that would have been helpful.

I checked the time again for about the third time in the last minute and a half. 1:30am. I really had to get going.

The screen that divided our room was about 5 feet high so it didn't really actually provide much privacy. I just hoped that it was tall enough that from the lower position of his bed, he couldn't see the window from that particular angle. I took off my wig for the first time in days. Even though my hair was probably as oily and nasty as a piece of toast deep fat fried in bacon grease, it felt so good. I ripped off the hair attachments from around my eyebrows and sideburns, (which did not feel as good) and took out my contacts. I placed them in solution while I blinked my eyes a couple of times. It was so nice to be el natural again. I took my hair out of the tight French braids that had been pinned tightly to my head and shook my hair out.

I had done all of this sitting up in my bed which, thankfully, was sitting directly beneath the only window in the room. The window slid open smoothly and after scurrying to my clothes stash and grabbing another outfit, I leapt deftly out of the window landing lightly on the porch.

I shut the window, though not all the way and leapt off the porch into the night.

(Regular POV)

Ryoma sat on the side of the bell tower, one leg hanging off the side, the other bent out in front of him. He was sitting, watching the moon, drinking Ponta, and as usual…looking really bored.

He checked his watch. 1:57am.

Okay, so he was a bit anxious. Family was one of those things that was hard to control or know how to act around. Or at least that was the case for Ryoma. You had to admit, he had a pretty dysfunctional family. Samurai Nanjiroh was his dad. Enough said.

Not for long though because he heard a rustling in the grass to his left and he knew she had arrived.

If she had wanted to, she could have snuck up on him quietly and scared the wits out of him. She always used to approach him like that except once she had done it and more than Ryoma's wits had been scared out of him. He was the only person she bothered to deliberately make noise to announce her presence for. Needless to say, him and all his dry pairs of pants appreciated it greatly.

"Ry-chan!" she yelled as she hurled herself forward to tackle him off of the edge of the bell tower.

"Ite!" He shouted back much too late, putting his hands up to try (in vain) to stop the coming onslaught of his uber excited sister.

She crashed into him and he found himself on the ground being hugged rather ferociously. It kind of reminded him of the beginning of freshman year on the first day he had been reunited with all the seniors and Eiji had caught sight of him. Pure bubbly excitement followed by a bone-crushing hug. Falling to the ground didn't hurt much though as the bell tower, really wasn't much more than a pile of stones with a bell and a roof. It was more of a mound than a tower. But the hug was threatening to meld all his organs together.

"One-san," he managed to choke out.

"Hm?"

"You're crushing my Ponta."

She looked down and indeed, his Ponta was trapped underneath him. However, being annoyed that she was being told off at the sake of his soda, she pushed him away in order to scold him. He took a deep breath, glad to be able to breathe again, despite the scolding he was bond to receive from his elder sister.

"Now Ry-chan, you can't be putting the well-being of soda over the feelings of others. One of these days Ryoma, you're not going to able to get everyone licking the tops of your boots and…"

She trailed on, but Ryoma wasn't really listening. He kind of had a silly smirk on his face as he looked at her.

She kept going until she realized that Ryoma had only been smirking at her.

"Ry-chan, are you even listening to me!?" she demanded as she waved a hand in front of his face with a rather exasperated expression upon hers.

He chuckled a bit, "One-chan you're being silly." He tilted his head back to sip his Ponta, "Mada mada dane." He said condescendingly right before the Ponta met his lips.

But the Ponta never met his lips as it was swiped away by Azumi whose expression of exasperation grew more pronounced. He was sure that she would have started lecturing him again, had he not so rudely interrupted her lecture the first time.

Deliberately, she chugged the rest of his grape Ponta instead, with a smirk on her face the whole time.

It was his turn to scowl. Their eyes met and clashed as their icy stares collided, trying to freeze the other. And just as the glares were growing to their most intense, smirks began to grow before they were chuckling and the chuckle was followed by a small laugh until they were soon rolling on the grass laughing as loudly as they could.

Though they were siblings , and with siblings, rivalry was always present, they were also family to each other. Family that could always be turned to, and one of the only things in the whole world where "don't let your guard down" became absolute crap. A person with which, absolute confidence was mutually assured with no words or hand signals. You were just you and it was safest that way.

Soon the laughter died down and Ryoma and Azumi shared one of those priceless moments where they could just enjoy the company of each other without purpose other than the sheer joy of being near to one another.

Ryoma folded his hands behind his head as he gazed up at the stars.

"So, I'm guessing you're pretty curious as to why I'm here, huh?" Azumi began, breaking the comfortable silence.

"Mmm.."

"Well, you should first know that Imei high is just a front for a young spy in training center."

"One-san?"

"Yeah, I know, weird right? That's why they wanted the top tier of all the babies and stuff. It makes sense if you think about it. Every country wants super soldiers and this is the way Japan is trying to get it. Start early and beat the kids into emotionless monsters…" she closed her eyes for a moment, thinking, "most of us actually don't go on missions, as I said, it's just a training facility. Getting us ready for the big time you know? Kind of like uber intense, never-ending boot camp."

Ryoma lay in the grass, intently listening, but not bothering to interrupt. She was on a roll and his questions would get answered one way or another. Plus, even with Azumi, who he talked with the most of anyone, he couldn't really be considered very talkative.

"Everyone who goes to the school has a profile and are assigned a team from a very young age. Then, the team's performance is monitored and the teams normally get pretty mixed up until the supervisors are satisfied with every team's execution in most areas. My team was different, we gelled almost right away. And because of that, we became ruthlessly efficient. We weren't better at martial arts, hacking, or any of that hard stuff, we were just a single lethal unit and the headmaster," a steely glint passed through her eyes, "recognized it. He saw the potential of having children who could actually perform in the field. Who would ever suspect a child of being a spy? We were invaluable. We could gain access to countries and places that no trained agent could go, simply because we were below suspicion. So our team stayed together ever since I was 6 years old. No other team had ever been together from such a young age. I think that that's why we were different, we weren't separate agents, we were a team. No, we were friends."

Azumi stopped her story long enough to smile as she too, gazed up at the beauty of the stars.

"But, the headmaster didn't like that fact very much. I could tell when he started testing our loyalties to missions vs. our loyalties to each other. Agents cannot have bonds. Not even with each other. It poses a risk to operations." She snorted in disgust. "Did you know, that in the United States, they don't allow women to join the Navy SEALS because they believe that, that will make men act chivalrously and save the 'damsel' as opposed to sacrificing a comrade for the sake of a mission? It almost makes sense…"

Finally Ryoma chimed in, "I don't think so."

She looked at him.

"You were probably told that you have to give up the smaller good, for the greater good. Leave a teammate behind so that others can be saved. And sometimes a sacrifice may have to be done. But, that is not your choice to make. It never is." Ryoma continued. "Even in tennis, that's a principle that holds true. The moment, we believe that the ends justify the means, we've already lost. Akaya blasts people with tennis balls, resorts to violence. I could do the same thing and beat him, but that would make me no better than him. I've changed who I am and broken my own will. He's won, I have beaten myself."

Azumi lay speechless on the grass in the night. Then she smiled. He really had grown up. And of course, he would bring in tennis. It was his allegory for life. Typical.

"Hmmm…" she sighed contentedly as she lay back down in the grass.

"I'd have to agree with you. I've already chosen that path, but your words will keep me from wavering Ry-chan." She added teasingly.

He pulled down his hat farther over his eyes, "Mada mada dane One-san."

She just smirked and continued her story, "Anyways, the headmaster finally decided to put our loyalties to the ultimate test. He made me, the leader, choose between the good of the mission, or my closest friend's life…I chose him. And of course, he killed Tsuneo anyways," she spat out the words vehemently. "and then tried to have me killed as well."

She sat up.

"And in short, that is why I am here, Ry-chan. I was on the run and by mere happenstance disguised myself as a boy, and ended up as Tezuka-san's trainer." She finished.

"Mmm…" Ryoma, paused. "What about Tezuka-buchou?"

"What about him?" Azumi asked irritatedly raising an eyebrow. She didn't really like to talk about him…or think about him…or really have anything to do with him in general, actually…

"Fuji said he had cancer."

"I don't really know yet. That just seems to be the most likely explanation for his current health problems." She huffed indignantly before lying down again with her arms crossed and chin raised in defiance.

Ryoma chuckled.

"What?" Azumi demanded, even more irritated.

"One-san, Tezuka-buchou really gets on your nerves doesn't he?"

"Doesn't he get on everyone's?" she snapped back.

"Is he going to be able to play tennis?"

"Really, Ry-chan, is that all you care about?"

"…yes…"

"No, then."

"It's a no, only because I just care about him being able to play tennis?"

"Yes."

"That doesn't make any sense."

"Well, neither does Tezuka-san."

"Point taken."

"Of course it is, I made it."

"That would make us what, at 30-15?"

"What are you talking about?"

"That's your first point, I've already gotten two on you."

"What? When?!"

"When I said you were trying for Tezuka-buchou."

"Okay, that's one, just because it's such an insult to even think about thinking about thinking about that at all…ever! What about the other point?"

"I brought another Ponta." He said as he reached his hand into his bag and pulled out another grape Ponta to replace the one that she had taken from him in an attempt to teach him a lesson.

Azumi pouted. "Fine, it's 30-15. But why do you get to serve first?" she whined, totally going with his hypothetical word tennis match.

"Because I'm not the cross-dressing trainer to the human block of stone." He replied non-chalantly as he casually sipped his Ponta.

Azumi opened her mouth to protest, but no words came. She may have been able to beat a lot of people with her fists, but when it came to arguments, she sure was losing a lot of them.

Ryoma smirked at her, "40-15."

Nishimura, Saito, and Miura (A/N: for those of you who have been faithfully reading as I unfaithfully update and may not remember these guys, they are Koga and Mochizuki's replacements) were all busy at work in the D-room, the headquarters for operation track down Azumi typing away at their computers. Nishimura was once again typing furiously as he glowered at his computer monitor. Unfortunately, no matter how furiously he continued to glare at the screen, the computer screen did not show him what he wanted to see. This was a rather unwise decision on the part of the computer screen. If it knew what it was good for it, it would have shown Nishimura what he wanted long ago which was the precise location of a black-haired, green eyed, female, annoyingly resourceful, renegade, and increasingly hard to find agent.

The screen was a map of Germany with regions highlighted red indicating where the team had already searched without success.

Just then, Asai and Tokaji walked in.

"Sectors 5,9, and 23 are all negative." Asai mumbled quietly, evident exhaustion in his voice.

Tokaji didn't even dignify to give a report and plopped down in his chair giving an indignant and rather irritated sigh.

Nishimura gave the computer a break and chose to throw a glare in the direction of Tokaji to which Tokaji merely rolled his eyes.

Turning his attention back to the computer, Nishimura highlighted three more sections of the map of Germany red. He sighed and glanced back at the screen.

The map of Germany was mainly red. The computer program was a standard one especially useful for operations that involved finding a fugitive and apprehending him/her. Once a sector was searched, the region would be highlighted so as to eliminate that area from the search.

Nishimura was fairly certain at this point that Azumi had long since left Germany, however, he had no real idea as to where she might go. Saito was running through every scrap of information he could find about Azumi, searching for clues as to where she might flee to. Miura was busy filtering through mass amounts of media, searching for any mention of suspicious activity that might point to the presence of Azumi in the region, a suspicious break-in, perhaps even a string of murders.

Asai and Tokaji had been assigned to reconnaissance as they knew Azumi's patterns the best. Nishimura had also assigned them to reconnaissance because he found them to be rather useless as of late. Tokaji had become more and more surly since the betrayal of Mochizuki and Koga, bordering on rebelling himself. With every order, Nishimura saw the glint in his eye that screamed that he was considering disobeying, and every time he saw it be repressed, for now. Asai had become more robotic and withdrawn. All the tension that had built up since the exile of Azumi was building up. He really needed to find her and soon.

(Azumi POV)

My time with Ryoma was exactly as I had remembered. He was sarcastic and seemingly uncaring but kind and amazingly sweet in the small things that he did, like how he would turn to look at me when he talked, or actually remembered to bring a Ponta for me. Totally clueless and yet totally brotherly.

He was my heartbeat. The only thing that kept me human at my stay at Imei. With my parents', for all practical purposes, abandonment, and cold instructors at Imei, it was easy to turn into a cold killer with a single purpose. Devoid of human interaction outside of the frame of being taught to kill and finding teammates to increase the ruthless efficiency of killing, real interaction with Ryoma kept me alive.

I was reluctant to leave.

But duty called. Well, friendship, decency, obligation, love, and guilt were also yelling pretty loudly too, but I figured that They would be okay with being put under the heading of duty, they all kind of mushed together. The point was, was that I had a lot of really good reasons to leave Ryoma no matter what I wanted to do.

Phooey.

"Ne, One-san, you should go." Ryoma said uninterestedly.

I turned to him, "How did you know I need to go somewhere?"

"Whenever you're having trouble deciding what to do, you become absolutely still." He commented as though it were the most obvious things in the world.

I always knew he would have a made a better agent than me.

I stood up and shook off the grass from my clothes and gave Ryoma a little wave.

"Mada mada dane." He said with a smirk as he continued to stare up at the night sky.

My eyebrows creased, as I frowned at him, "Remember Ryo-chan, I can still beat you up."

"Love you too, One-san." He remarked without breaking his smirk.

I glanced at my watch. 2:45. I needed to get going.

With one more gaze up at the night sky, I sprinted off into the night.

I needed to get to Imei. I had made the journey from that facility so many times that I could probably find it if I got dropped from a helicopter anywhere in Japan.

Due to this I could tell from where I stood that it was about 30 miles away as the crow flies, but there were no highways or train stations to it. The nearest highway brought me within 10 miles of it which meant at least 20 miles of running (there and back) and the return trip with a possibly injured Mochizuki and Koga. Also, I had the problem of even getting to that close point on the highway. I had no car, helicopter, airplane, motorcycle, heck even a moped would do.

I had pretty few options in general, though I had been formulating this plan for quite some time. I knew that I would have to leave from the Echizen household as I intended to see Ryoma before going anywhere.

I was going to have to "borrow" the family car.

I didn't tell Ryoma cause if he knew I was trying to take the car, he'd undoubtedly want to go along and get all stubborn, an unfortunate Echizen trait.

Plus, it was slight payback for all the "mada mada dane"s he had been throwing at me as of late. I'd say that this would at least bring up the score to 40-30.

If my family noticed, he'd be stuck in the awkward position of either taking the blame, or coming up with an excuse and probably getting blamed anyways. For some reason I was much happier than I probably should have been about this fact.

I was coming up on the Echizen residence and very quietly vaulted over the back fence landing in a soundless crouch on the grass. I moved silently to the back porch and very slowly slid the backdoor open. I crept through the dark house not needing a light, I had memorized our house with Ryoma when we were little and I was still trying to make him into a pseudo-spy. He in turn had tried to teach me the basics of tennis. Unfortunately, both enterprises were both shown to be fruitless as my visits became less and less frequent and shorter and shorter. I snatched the keys from the hook in the laundry room and crept back out the door noiselessly closing it behind me.

I snuck over to where the car was parked. We didn't have a garage so I needn't worry about that opening and waking up everyone in the house.

I opened the car door softly and put the keys into the ignition. I closed the door, buckled myself in and then just sat there for a second. I stared at the keys in the ignition, wondering if I should have felt guilty for stealing my family's car. Regardless of what they did to me, they were still family. Then, realizing my logic, I figured that no matter what I did to them they would still have to consider me family. So ha! Take that conscience!

I started the car with a good rev of the engine and was sorely disappointed when the rev turned out to be more of a purr from a very small kitty. World-class tennis player or not, my dad really should think about investing in a nice little sports car, not this old clunky thing. I mean, I loved Lancers as much as the next guy but 1973? Even cats from that long ago were pushing up daisies and cats have 9 lives.

I slowly backed out of the driveway and arced out into the street. I didn't bother to turn on the headlights, as they would most certainly have given me away. I just hoped all that training to use night vision would pay off. I had never exactly tried using that particular skill from behind the wheel of a car. As soon as I got out of the neighborhood, I gunned the gas pedal and sped off, always going in the general direction of Imei. I tried to keep to neighborhoods, 1 because there were fewer people to notice me out and about, and 2, because there were more little roads that could keep me going in the right direction.

I estimated that I was going an average of about 65 mph considering I was taking the straights at a good 80mph and the turns around 57mph. I could have taken them much faster but considering my vision was impaired and spinning out slightly to round the corner created a loud screech of my tires, I kept my turns more mundane and rounded.

I glanced out the sunroof that peered out into the night sky. I could see that it was a moonless night. Not something that I had taken into account but certainly welcomed, it would make stealth just that much easier.

The walls of houses and windows sped by in my peripheral vision and were soon replaced by shops as I found myself forced out onto main roads. From there, the highway was preferable to anywhere where there might be a night life. As I had suspected, the highway was near vacant and it was just me, going 90mph along a stretch of concrete that I knew would lead me to Imei. I scanned the side of the road for the turnoff where I knew I would have to desert the car and continue the journey on foot.

It felt like an eternity before I finally found myself at the spot and not really caring about noise at this point, I spun the car in a 180, which caused it to slide neatly stopping about a foot short of the highway barrier. I frantically glanced down at my watch which now read 3:15. I was running out of time.

It would take me at least one hour to get there running and by then dawn would be swiftly approaching. I would not be able to make it back successfully if the sun rose before I could get the car back to the Echizen home. Not only that, but if I made it there in an hour, I would have run 10, 6 minute miles which was extraordinarily exhausting. I might have had just enough energy to retrieve Mochizuki and Koga if I ran into no resistance but on the return trip they may have to drag me.

I though about all of this as I sprinted through the fields that surrounded Imei. It was settled out in the country mainly to keep a low profile but also training was much easier where there was a lot of ground to train. You couldn't exactly have a race track to practice high speed chases, an airstrip, or stables in the city.

I supposed that I could steal a vehicle from Imei to make the return trip, the only problem with that was that I would have to abandon it by the highway and they would have a very large clue as to where I was. They may even have access to traffic cameras and such once they knew where on which the highway to look. I would have to pick something that could bring them on a wild goose chase or even better yet, return to Imei without me having to take it back. Anything digital was definitely out. All equipment would have GPS systems and thus their journeys will all be recorded.

I went through our list of non-digital transports and came up with a very short list.

Horses.

That might actually work…

A horse could carry more than one person and when left alone, naturally return to their stable.

I ran on with a solid escape plan ground into my head, which gave my legs strength to run harder. Sweat dripped into my eyes causing them to smart. All I had for a reprieve was the knowledge that I would not have to run back and the cool air that whipped past me. My sais were strapped to my back and by now I could definitely feel their extra weight take their toll on my legs. But I continued to run. It was the only honorable thing that I could do.

(Regular POV)

Koga sat still perched on the edge of her cot. If she had calculated correctly she had been up for 12 hours. With no windows or anything electric in her room, she didn't really know for sure. The headmaster would have been an idiot to put anything electric in her room as her comprehensive knowledge of mechanics and, to put it quite bluntly, bomb-making was enough to fill a set of encyclopedias 4 times over.

Her stomach growled. She tilted her head to look down at her very empty, very demanding stomach. She then licked her lips and also realized for not the first time that day that she was extraordinarily thirsty.

Suddenly, she jumped up to her feet and immediately reached for the nunchakus that were ordinarily present on her right and left hip. Her hand gripped empty air as she remembered that she was imprisoned, and people who were imprisoned were normally not left armed. She stayed in a defensive position regardless.

She had heard footsteps that seemed to stop at her door. From what she could tell it was about 5 men all around 180lbs. She sneered to herself. They figured she couldn't take out 5 guys. It was nothing short of an insult.

The doorknob turned slowly and a person entered with a tray of food and water. He was about 6 feet in height and had two guns holstered up by his arms. He was flanked by two more men who also boasted guns. The other two must have been flanking the doorway she figured.

Cheaters. They brought guns…Koga thought viciously.

Nevertheless, in a stroke of defiance, she stood up out of her crouch and looked at the men without a hint of fear, arrogance that almost issued a challenge shining in her eyes.

The men generally ignored her, however, and the one with food placed it on the nightstand before they all left just as quickly as they had come.

Koga relaxed her position and sighed turning to the food that now adorned her bedstand, tempting her.

She was sure that it was not poisoned, the death of a top team member without a fair trial would send the students into a tizzy. But drugged to get her to sleep? Highly probable.

She glared at the food, hoping that somehow her obvious disdain for it would cause it to change.

Nothing seemed to be happening.

The water that was brought however was most likely safe she decided. Firstly, it was bottled and secondly, a human could not survive long without water, especially if they were often physically active or had raging metabolisms, also known as being a teenager and they didn't want her dead for reasons that she had already stated. In fact, the fact that they had brought her bottled water verified in her mind that they wanted her alive. They had not wanted her to abstain from the water for fear of it being drugged and thus had brought in bottled water to declare its safety.

Her lips parched, she twisted the cap off, satisfied to hear the click of the seal breaking, once more signifying no foul play.

Without hesitation she raised the bottle to her lips and took a good long swig of the water. The cool liquid brought such relief to her dry mouth, but she stopped herself from drinking the whole bottle. She wanted to know that she would have some for later just in case the headmaster didn't feel so generous later.

She moved to once again perch herself on the edge of the cot and took a step forward. As she put her foot down, the room seemed to rock a bit beneath her foot. Confused, she moved her head to look down at her feet and as she moved her head, everything blurred, like her vision wasn't quite keeping up with the movement of her head.

Oh no… she thought.

She grabbed for the water bottle that she had placed back on the nightstand, but as she reached for it, her disorientation made her feel sluggish and the fact that she couldn't focus properly didn't really help with that much. Her hand that had grabbed for the water bottle instead clung only at air as she fell onto the floor in a crumpled heap.

Koga slowly reached up for the bottle and managed to knock it off of the table. As she felt it again, she noticed that it was wet on one side. With shaking fingers and drooping eyes she turned it to that side and ran her fingers over its surface. She froze. Her finger had detected a hole. A hole so small that it was almost undetectable. A hole the perfect size for a needle on the end of a syringe full of drugs to pierce the plastic of the water bottle.

The bottle dropped from her fingers as her consciousness fought with all its teeth and claws bared to throw off the sleep that was threatening to take her.

She was losing.

The last thing she remembered was the soft click of her door opening again before she drifted into oblivion.

Haha, ended with a cliffie again ;) please review! i will still write but it REALLY does motivate me to write faster. it jsut gives the warm fuzzy, someone-cares-about-me-and-my-awesome-OCs kind of feeling hehe.