Chapter 2: The Great Escape

Nagisa pulled a hairpin from his hair and began working on the lock to his cell. An hour earlier, that crazy woman came by and informed him the tournament she had been talking about for the past couple days would be held tomorrow. During the few days that he was stuck in here, he had been observing his surrounding and planning for his escape. He would like to have a few more days of planning before making his move, but he realized he can't wait any longer.

It took patient, but eventually, he was got his cell door unlocked. Quickly and silently, he slipped out of his holding cell and began looking around. As expected, there was no one nearby. Nagisa soon traced his way back to the entrance of the dungeon where two semi-drunken guards were sitting at some crude table having some drinks. They were dressed in some medieval leather armor, chatting with each other. Under normal circumstances, he would never do what he was about to do, buut they were drunk...

Acting normally and with a friendly smile, Nagisa approached the guards as if he was their best friend. "Yeah, I know exactly what you mean. This job is just too boring."

"See, I knew someone would agree with me," replied one guard. He took another gulp of ale, oblivious of his surrounding. There was a thud on the table which prompted him to take a glance. His partner was out cold. "Hey come on, George, you are out already. Shees, how pathetic can you get man." He then turned to the new comer. What he saw left him somewhat puzzled, and so he asked, "By the way, who are you?"

"Who, me? Why, I am just an escape prisoner," Nagisa answered smiling.

That got his attention almost immediately. He quickly looked to his partner who was incapacitated. Panicked, he drew his own weapon on reflex and prepared for a fight; but there was a loud clap, and he was paralyzed. Soon, he was put under a chokehold and blacked out.

Once Nagisa knocked out the two guards, he took their keys and dragged each guard inside a separate holding cell. He had planned to dress up as one of them, but their armor and clothing was just too big for him. If he wields them as a disguise, he'll simply stand out like a sore thumb. Realizing he had wasted enough time already, he quickly left the dungeon.

"Hmm, General Esdeath's personal prisoner huh..." whispered Wave. He shuddered to think just what kind of dangerous criminal such person was. From what he had heard though, this person didn't really sound all that impressive...

-Flashback Start-

Wave was taking a night stroll when he saw what appeared to be a small group of guards discussing nervously among themselves.

Suddenly, another guard was seen running toward the small group. "I checked the left wing. There was no sign of him," said the newly arrived guard. His voice was shaky.

"Crap, we got to find him soon or else General Esdeath is going to have our heads," another one whispered in fear. His legs were visibly shaking the whole time. The whole group looked very discomfort...

Curious, he decided to approach the group and asked, "What's the matter? Why are you all so nervous?"

"It's Wave-sama," said one guard.

The others took notice. It wasn't long before they all bowed before him and pled, "You got to help us, Wave-sama." They began explaining their situation to him...

-Flashback End-

Wave made a third round around the palace and still came up empty handed. He sighed and began to think the person he was looking didn't really exist. After all, the description he received was that of a weak little boy with some pigtails for hairstyle. There was just no way Esdeath would keep someone like that around. The remote chance of such person being Esdeath's potential lover didn't really cross his mind since the boy was cited to have a relatively weak body build...

...And any truly dangerous criminal wouldn't last enough to make such daring escape, so Wave was left understandably confused. In any case, he decided to take one last look around and made an abrupt turn around a corner, and...

"Ooph."

He ended up bumping into someone, knocking that someone to the ground. Taking a closer look, that someone turned out to be a maid carrying a basket of clothes. Wave, being the good soldier that he is, immediately went to help the maid gathering up the contents of her basket all the while apologizing for knocking her onto the ground.

"No, you shouldn't be apologizing. It was my fault for not paying attention to where I was going," the maid replied with a cute, innocent smile.

For the first time, Wave took notice of the maid's features and... 'Shoulder length blue hair, bright blue eyes of kindness, and that angelic smile...she's so cute,' he thought, staring at the pretty maid. His heartbeats increased, his mouth went dry, and he started to blush. "No, no, I should have paid more attention to my surrounding. B-by the way, I-I am Wave. N-Nice t-to meet y-you."

"Nice to meet you too, Wave-kun. I am Nagisa...Nakamura," the 'maid' smiled.

'Nagisa...What a cute name,' he thought, completely dazzled by 'her' charm. "So um, wh-what were you doing here so late at night, Na-Nagisa-chan?" he said, trying to strike up a conversation. 'Gah, what am I saying! I sounded like a total stalker!'

"Oh well, um, this is kind of embarrassing, but this was actually my first day. As this is such a big palace, I kind of got myself lost," said Nagisa 'sheepishly'. He knew the kind of effect his maid form was having on Wave. He had seen it before and wasn't very thrill, but he didn't have much of a choice here. The castle was too big for him to wander around blindly...

The 'damsel in distress' look made Wave's heart skipped a beat. He was so captivated by Nagisa's innocent smiles that the flat chest and tiny body didn't really register as a problem in his mind, nor did anything else for the matter...

Wave eagerly took Nagisa's hands into his own and said, "Where were you trying to get to?"

"I was..."

...

...

...

"Hmm, so you were set out to chase after some escaped criminal before running into me," Nagisa smiled warmly, even though he was actually feeling quite anxious about his new companion. He's no dummy. He pretty much deducted the escaped criminal his companion had been talking about was none other than himself. The absolutely worst of it all was that he was actually a direct subordinate of that crazy woman.

They continued walking along the way while making small talks with Wave taking the lead but Nagisa manipulating their direction. They were getting closer and closer to the edge of the castle wall, and Nagisa decided it was the time to send his 'escort' packing... "I am sorry my clumsiness got you away from your job, but I think I'll be fine from here, Wave-san. You should head back and assist with capturing the criminal."

"Since we already got this far, let me escort you back to your quarter, Nagisa-chan. Plus, there's always a chance we may encounter the dangerous criminal on the way. I feel better knowing you are safe and sound back to your room."

"But-"

"Let's go, Nagisa-chan," said Wave as he grabbed Nagisa's hand and excitedly moved forward.

Nagisa mentally sighed but was forced to follow along. Needing to get rid of his escort quickly and running out of option, the modern assassin decided to take measures into his own hands. While Wave was facing away from him and still holding onto his hand, he fell, on purpose.

Wave immediately turned around and checked on his companion. "Nagisa-chan, are you alright," he said, sounding worried.

"I am alright, Wave-san, and thank you for everything," Nagisa said as he snaked an arm around Wave's back seemingly using him as his leverage but in reality...

"However, I am very sorry at the same time," said Nagisa, plunging an acupuncture needle he had hidden to the back of Waves neck. It's not something he wanted to use, because the slightest of mistake on his part could cost the death of his victim - or worse that he would completely miss his mark and expose himself. Regardless, he didn't have much of a choice but to risk it...

"Nagi...sa..." said Wave as he felt a small sting on the back of his neck. Then, his vision began to blur. He attempted to look at his companion and saw an uncanny smile...

"I cannot afford to be capture here; not especially by her."

"...chan...?" uttered Wave before finally fallen unconscious.

Nagisa checked the condition of his escort and was relieved to find him alive. That meant his acupuncture needle hit exactly where he wanted to. Removing the needle, he began to drag the unconscious body of Wave to some dark corner of the hallway. Afterward, he left for the castle gate...

Nagisa was running down the street of the capital still wearing the maid's outfit. It was late at night, therefore he didn't encounter many. In fact, the particular street he was on was entirely empty. He breathed a sigh of relieve and slowed down a bit. Suddenly, he spotted a figure walking in his opposite direction. He was pretty sure it was a woman as the figure was pretty slender and had long flowing hair.

Not wanting to attract attention, Nagisa began to walk forward with his head looking down. The figure soon became clear, and to Nagisa's horror, it was Esdeath, the crazy woman. It was too late to turn around or find a place to hide, so he decided to act as normal as possible and simply walk pass her. Despite having his heart pounding like it was about to explode, outwardly, he managed to put up a pretty calm facade.

Somehow, the modern day assassin managed to walk right pass Esdeath without drawing attention. Just when everything appeared to work out fine and he was about to breath a sigh of relieve, she spoke, "Nagisa?" She sounded very surprised. It was almost as if she called his name out of intuition rather than actually recognizing it was him, and so he kept on walking as if saying she got the wrong person, but...

"I am impressed, Nagisa," said Esdeath as she approached him. "You actually managed to get all the way out here," said the ice general, draping one arm over his shoulder while resting her chin on his other.

Nagisa tensed but finally sighed, "...How did you figure it was me?" He figured that his gig was up, and his fate was sealed. There's simple no point in resisting her now. After all, fighting this monster as he was right now would not yield any positive result...

"Hmm? By your smell," she answered happily after taking a sniff. She was getting more and more excited, which was exactly opposite of how she felt just a few minutes ago. 'Considering the odds, it must be our destiny that we meet again in these circumstances...' she thought joyously.

'What is she, a bloodhound?!' thought Nagisa somewhat disturbed.

As Esdeath 'escorted' him back to the castle, he was getting more and more disturbed by the woman's action and words. On one hand, she was being uncomfortably close and 'intimate' with him. It was almost as if she was trying to seduce him or something. On the other hand, he sensed she was actually quite on guard the whole time. Had he tried anything funny, he wouldn't like the outcome of it. While she was at it, she also constantly reminded him of what was installed for him. And no matter how he interpreted her words, he can only see a very cruel future for him. Yup, he was disturbed, very, very disturbed...

To Nagisa's surprise, it was not some dark prison cell that he was escorted to. Instead, it was a large and beautiful room, fit for a princess, which she dropped him in. There was a huge bed in the middle of the room, a number of drawers and two large windows.

"Hey Nagisa, there had been something I wanted to ask you," said Esdeath.

"..." Nagisa blinked, somewhat surprised.

"Why are you dressed up like a maid? Do you have 'that' kind of fetish?"

"WH-WHAT! N-NO! NO! NO! I-I have no such-what-whatever fe-fet-fetish you are talking about!" the assassin exclaimed, totally embarrassed.

His reaction came as a shock to Esdeath, and she wasn't sure what to think of it. "Don't worry Nagisa. If that is how you like it, I don't mind," the ice general replied. She tried to make it as neutral as possible, but it seemed only to aggravate the young boy even more. His face reddened even more than before, and his denial was getting more and more hysteric. Oddly enough though, rather than getting annoyed, she found this side of him kind of cute...

Seizing her chance, Esdeath tried changing subject. "Anyway, Nagisa, what I am more interested in was..." When Esdeath finally ran out of things to ask, she chained him up against a wall before going to bed herself...

Chapter End

Omake

Nagisa stepped out of dungeon that he spent the last couple of days locked up inside. It was night time and the first thing he did was take in a deep breath and look to the night sky. From there, he spotted a huge full moon, and he froze with his mouth hanging wide. It was right then and there when he knew he was screwed. Oh, he was so very screwed...

AN: I really don't have much to say about this chapter except maybe the 2 alternative scenes I came up with after completing this chapter. Well I am too lazy to actually rewrite it so I'll put it here.

1) The scene where Nagisa knock out Wave: I thought it would be more amusing to have Nagisa pretending he was freaked out about see some mice and jump into Wave and then knock him out.

2) The scene with Esdeath catching Nagisa: now that I thought about it, there could be a few people walking there. Once Nagisa notice Esdeath was near, he will pull some random guy on the street and ask about Japan or something while fully knowing he would not get any answer. He simply wanted Esdeath to walk past him but he will be caught the same way.

Since both these scenes are not going to affect anything, I leave them to your imaginations as to which scene actually occurs.

As for poor Wave-kun… Sorry if this offends any Wave fans out there, but he will have a slight lolicon complex here (because I have always seen him that way). As for his 'confusion', it shall be resolved but I don't think he's going to be too happy about it either way…HAHAHA

My knowledge for AGK is still limited to anime only, but I did read over 4000 posts about the manga. From what I saw there, my impression on things didn't change all that much… Well anyway, next chapter, Nagisa will fight Tatsumi and he will win (sorry Tatsumi fans but our assassin boy here just have to win or else you wouldn't have much of a story)…