Disclaimer: No I do not own Gunslinger Girl. Raphael and his other aliases yes but the rest of them no.

All of a sudden the metal door at the other side of the room swung open and out came a man. He was bald and dark skinned, probably African, he was heavily built. He came into the room with a remote in his hand.

"Super magnet, we have one installed on the walls of this room. I call it the disarmament room for that reason. As you can see it takes all metallic objects and locks them to the walls. You're girl there is one of those cyborg girls right? I thought so, I guess she is not metallic enough to send her careening to a wall yet she is also not metallic enough not to feel the ill effects of the magnetic fields tampering on her mechanics." The man explained

"Turn this thing off, were already disarmed!" I yelled.

"Raphael I presume. Well our sources were wrong in saying that you are a cyborg like these girls but then does that make you a normal person? I am sorry Raphael but I can't turn this machine of. You might smarten up and grab a gun. You may see that I am unarmed, that would be unfair for me right? Don't worry you're girl won't get hurt she's probably just feeling queasy. Now if I turn the power level to 10… "

He pressed a button on the remote and the humming in the room got louder. At that moment Triela started screaming.

Chapter 13 Vuoto

Empty

"Stop that!" I shouted.

He turned it back down again and Triela was able to catch her breath.

"I am not going to have you hurt her again, or get in my way. Consider yourself dead!" I threatened

But the man just said, "Go ahead, you won't have a gun though, if you wish to defeat me and save the girl you'll have to fight me."

With that he took a combat pose. I decided to follow suit and started walking around him. That's what I do before a fight by the way; I find those fighting positions stupid so I just stalk.

"Are you the man behind this whole operation?" I asked before we got into fighting distance.

"No, if you're looking for the boss he is in the door behind me making his escape." With that he threw some punches. I was able to dodge them all and deliver and elbow into his back but when I did I felt what was beneath his shirt. Damn! Body armor! I am really going to kill Jean now for not making me wear Kevlar.

"So who are you suppose to be." I asked him.

"I am called 'The Guide'. My job is to take people to the path they choose. You're target wished to start a terrorist business here so I guided him to the path. Several other people in the underworld wished for things and I guided them to it. In short I am a hired gun. Now I shall guide you to the path… to hell!"

With that he gave a lightning fast kick. I caught it with my hands but I lost balance. He took advantage of that and punched me in the gut. I winced and stepped on his knee to give me leverage to kick him in the head. Strangely enough he did not fall. It was strange since that move of mine is usually near fatal. "Impressive. You might be a source of entertainment for me, before you die." He said as he ran towards me and speared me with his shoulder. I fell on the ground and coughed a little blood. He stood up and grinned as I kipped up and prepared for the next attack. He threw a punch again but this time I was prepared. I dodged the punch and sent a knee into his gut. He also started coughing blood but I was not done with him. Since the knee had him bend down. I grabbed his head with my arm and fell backwards driving his head into the ground. I kipped up again while he staggered to his feet with blood coming from a gash on his head. He assumed a fighting position once more as I tried to deliver a kick to his head but he caught my leg in mid-air; I expected that. I wanted him to grip onto my leg so that I could use the split second to let him carry my entire body through that leg allowing me to raise my other leg and kick him in the face. He staggered a bit from the blow and I added a baseball slide to take him down again. I prepared another kick but this time he caught it and threw me across the room. I fell in a bad way and it made my head ring. When my head cleared up I saw him running towards me, I was lucky enough to have the presence of mind to do a legsweep sending him to the ground again. He was definitely frustrated and I got cocky again. I did not realize that he could give me a legsweep of his own. I got back up but he lifted me in the air and threw me into a wall, then slammed me to the ground. My vision blurred again but when it cleared up a bit I saw him charging towards me again shoulder ready to thrust into my gut. This time I was prepared. I reached around his body and used the running momentum to lift him up, spinning him in the process and bringing him down, I kneeled so that he would slam his back across my extended knee.

Triela could bare it no longer I had to end this, so as soon as he got up I jumped into the air and kicked him in the chest. Then in mid-air I spun around and gave him another kick this time in the head. I knocked him out with that move. I got the remote from his unconscious body and pressed the off button. The humming stopped, the guns fell from the wall and Triela stopped clutching her head. I approached her just to see her smiling back at me.

"You're making me regret picking a fight against you last week." She said.

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Raphael helped me up after that. Unfortunately when we got to the door and up the staircase behind it we were led to the roof of the building. There we saw the target get away via a green hang glider. He left an orange backpack behind and Raphael brought it along. When we got back to the magnet room we were faced with corpse of The Guide. He had committed suicide by taking a cyanide pill probably in fear of interrogation. We found our way out of the building to be met by Henrietta, Rico and Jean. They showed multiple injuries but aside from that they were ok. The magnet did not cause any damage on me and Raphael just needed treatment for some broken ribs, which he probably got when The Guide threw him and the ax wound.

We were given the day off today so that some of us could recover from their injuries. Raphael was called by section 1 to participate in a simple assignment. Before he left, we spent sometime at breakfast exchanging… exchanges. When Jean called Raphael to ask him if he would like to help section 1 I realize something.

I still felt empty even thou I was already with him. I don't know how to describe it. He was there, he would snuggle up to me if he had the chance and I would do the same if I had the chance but now I just feel empty. It was a void looking to be filled. I knew I had to ask someone about this so I looked for the only person who I could talk too, Claes.

"Claes I have--."

"You have a problem. Since Triela rarely has a problem I could guess this is about Raphael." Claes said without taking her eyes of her book and not even making a nudge to acknowledge my presence, which I found annoying.

"Wrong I am here to ask you why I saw you and Raphael kiss?" I said, trying to be sarcastic. But instead of getting Claes to deny such a thing from happening she turned red and started yelling.

"What? You saw us? But how? No way, we were alone! It's not what you think Triela he was just—."

"What! So you did kiss him?" I shouted. My heart sank. Did Raphael really kiss Claes? When? Why?

We were definitely confused. So Claes told me to keep quiet and then she asked me nice and slow.

"Triela did you see or hear me and Raphael kiss?"

"No I was just being sarcastic with you for trying to act smart." I replied.

With that she sat back and put her hand on her head.

"O, thank god for a while there I thought you actually caught us k—." she suddenly stopped herself from saying what she was about to say but I already got the message.

"You did what?!" I screamed.

I was about to really kill Claes but then she jumped of her bed and grabbed a chair to ward me off.

"It's not what you think Triela let me explain!" she shouted.

I decided to give the criminal the chance to explain her self. She did not put the chair down but she explained that on the day Raphael confessed to me his feelings. That afternoon she was debating with Raphael whether to just confess or not. To prove his point Raphael claimed that he liked Claes. Claes got the message but afterwards asked if Raphael was just lying about liking her. With that Raphael embraced and kissed her in the head, just in the head, and told her that she was nice but he liked me more [Chap 10].

"Is that enough of an explanation?" she said as she slowly put the chair down.

"I guess so." I replied.

"So do you still have something to ask me or was that really it." She said as she sat on the chair.

"Yeah, and you were right it has something to do with Raphael, smarty pants."

"Well, spill."

"I am with him every time I get the chance but I still feel empty in the inside."

"Well. It looks like we have a case of love deficiency." she said.

"What is that?"

"Well you feel that he is not loving you enough in short."

"I guess so…"

"That's pretty strange. Raphael looks like a passionate lover. He is willing to die for you, he never puts you at fault, he likes being with you, he defends you're honor against people who other people are afraid of going against and I see that he is very touchy especially when he… I am going to stop there in fear that you might try to kill me again. You get what I mean right?"

"I do."

"Wait a minute. Has he kissed you?"

It was then that all the times Raphael kissed someone scrolled in my head. There was the time he did mouth to mouth with Henrietta, he did kiss Claes and there was the time he kissed me in the cheek. You can't count all three tries since Henrietta needed it to live and he did just kiss Claes on the forehead but then I was only kissed on the cheek.

"No he hasn't."

"There is the answer to you're question. You 2 haven't reached 1st base yet. No wonder you feel incomplete." She said.

"…You're right." I said in realization, "That's what I am missing."

"Exactly, it is pretty weird of Raphael though. Has he even made a move to kiss you?"

I tried remembering the times when we were together and looked for the slightest hint of him trying to kiss me but I found nothing.

"Never, o my god what's wrong with him… what's wrong with me? Claes is something wrong with my lips?"

"They're fine Triela, this is definitely peculiar. Why would Raphael not kiss you?"

"I don't know. What should I do Claes?"

"Go to him right now and pucker up I guess."

"What? No! I might freak him out. Besides he's not there yet."

"On the contrary he is. If he does like you he will."

"You're right Claes; I have to stand up for myself." I got up and made for the door. However, as soon as I opened it I realized something.

"Claes, I don't know how to kiss!"

"Neither will he, just act natural."

With that I left my room and made my way to Raphael's. I looked at the door and saw light coming from the bottom; he is definitely back. I knocked; I was answered by Raphael's voice.

"Door's unlocked come in."

I got in and I saw Raphael sitting on his chair dismantling his gun. He looked happy to see me and he stood up.

"Sit down Raphael." I told him.

I made up my mind I was going to approach him as he is sitting down lean towards him and if everything goes right I'd probably make out with him. He was obedient he sat down and did not say anything. So I approached him I sat on a chair adjacent to him I leaned towards him. My heart was racing, as I got closer to his face. At first he looked ready to return give me a kiss but suddenly he turned his head to the right and sighed.

"I can't do this Triela." He said in a soft tone.

"And why not?" I asked.

He looked at me with so much sadness in his eyes then he said:

"Do you want me to lie to you or are you going to give me a short while to make my explanation make sense." He said.

"You can tell me the explanation right now without trying to make it make sense." I said.

"…Ok…I don't want to hurt you Triela." He mumbled.

Ok I did not understand that at all. So I gave him a moment to rethink his reason.

"Triela I think were going too fast, there are just some things that need time."

"Well you kissed Henrietta and Claes."

"I did not kiss Claes, I gave Henrietta CPR"

"You did, Claes told me."

"… On the head, I kissed you once on the cheek."

"Then why won't you kiss me now!"

"Because…"

We both fell silent. At that moment, both of us were just looking at each other. I could feel the tears in my eyes but I just had to ask him:

"Do you love me Raphael?"

He looked at me without saying a word. I don't know what he was trying to convey but I don't want to think about it now, I can't take this anymore.

"That's all I needed to know Raphael."

And I ran away. Raphael tried to get a hold of me but he did not reach me in time. I just ran and ran all the way to my room. When I got in my room, Claes quickly got up.

"What happened?"

But I did not answer. I just pressed my face on my pillow and cried myself to sleep.

"Triela I would have kissed you ages ago. If only… if only we could really be…"