Recap

I cried so hard and worn out my body that I fell into a recuperative sleep.

Chapter 3 – The explanation

Normal P.O.V

The SPR team watched as the young man Mai had clutched desperately too, sigh and lift her off her feet and carried her to the shredded couch. That was when they realized that she had fallen asleep. They looked between the unconscious Azumi (who had been laid on the opposite couch) and the sleeping Mai. They could now see the resemblance between the two, with their hair now the same lengths the looked alike, almost identical.

They jumped as the elderly man spoke, "I apologize for the mess. I will pay the full price and have it fixed. We came for a case but I'm guessing you would like an explanation first,"

"That would be nice. I would like to know how my assistant was able to tear apart the room."

The two strangers nodded to each other and sat on the floor, everyone followed suit.

"As you Know Mai and Azumi are sisters. What they tend to neglect to mention is that they are identical twin sisters. Mai is older than Azumi by 7minutes. Haruko here is the girls' older brother. I am their grandfather, Kana. These girls were raised to be above first class assassins. They were separated at birth and trained to believe that no one is their family. Of course they knew otherwise. By the age of three they had learnt to hide all their emotions. But everything soon changed when...," he was interrupted when two voices spoke up.

"...when our father died," said two voices.

"We were close to him. We knew that we weren't meant to but what can you expect from three year olds. When he died we become hollow we felt no emotion. We didn't have to hide them anymore because we felt nothing. Not pain or fear, or joy, sadness or love. We were empty. We trained harder than ever and became consumed," Azumi said everyone's attention now on the awaken girls. Their faces were blank.

"By the age of five, we had mastered everything and were now developing our own moves and techniques. We were the best. No one could defeat us. Our first assignment was given to us on our sixth birthday. It was completed in the fastest time in assassin history. No one saw us. But they did hear us. Poor guy thought a couple of spirits were haunting him," Mai said with an empty smirk on her face. Her adopted family was nervous. What had happened to the Mai that they knew?

"This went on and on. People started hearing rumours and eventually we were dubbed SHADOW SPIRITS. Before someone was killed all they saw was a couple of misty shadows and laughter that if heard you knew you were gonna die and that nothing could save you."

"Unfortunately we grew careless and didn't realize we had been seen by a monk. He told the people and when we got home our mother lay slaughtered on the ground. That was when Azumi disappeared and I went my own way. But not before we compensated the kill. You see we may be assassins but we never kill innocents. Our targets have always had done something wrong such as murder, rape, kidnapping. We have saved more lives than anyone will ever realize," Mai concluded.

The room was silent. Azumi was glancing flirtatiously at Naru who ignored her. She went to play with her hair but stopped short remembering her new look. Azumi then glared at Mai who smirked back. This show of emotion was noticed by everyone. Monk blinked as he examined the little brunette who had become his sister. "If you can't feel or show any emotions then how come you are?" The girls looked at him blank looks then looked away uncomfortably.

Kana then spoke up, "To answer simply, it was because they were loved. All their life only their parents loved them. Haruko wasn't allowed to see them and I was forced to keep away by the council. When the only two people who loved them died they refused to acknowledge anyone. When Mai met you, you accepted her and showed you cared about her. Despite feeling insecure she allowed herself to feel again. Azumi is the same. They both found a family that cared for them."

The unease left everyone and the ever silent Naru finally spoke up. "Why are you here?"

"Because we have a case," Kana said simply, "Recently we've been having some problems. At first it was just banging noises, doors opening and closing and missing animals. We thought it was just some jokes the trainees were pulling until a week ago. Blood has been appearing on the walls and floors as if someone was dragged and the maids and servants have been pushed down the stairs, pushed out of windows and locked in rooms. Our students are also having the same problem but five of them have gone missing and two have turned up dead."

There was silence and Mai spoke up, "It sounds as if you have a rouge assassin, not some paranormal entity. Go away and take care of it yourselves."

"Well Mai if we had thought it was a rouge assassin we would've dealt with it but see the bodies we recovered weren't flawed. Apart from the common scars none were fresh and there was no way to even tell how they had been killed. There was no poison or unknown substance in the blood at all. An autopsy was done and it was only then that we discovered how they died. They had no hearts."