OH!!!!! I'm really excited for this story all of a sudden! Hope you all are too!

Please review and things!!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This means WAR!

A Double Agent

--

The little bell above the door at the inn chimed merrily.

"I'll be there in just a minute!" Chihaya called from the kitchen.

Gill stood in the doorway menacingly with a horridly dark and choking aura as he stared at the girl sleeping at one of the tables.

Akari! He yelled inside his head.

He walked slowly toward her, grinning wickedly, while she snored pleasantly. Then he lifted his hand as if to strike her just as Chihaya leapt out from the kitchen brandishing a skillet as a weapon.

"Step away from her, ogre." Chihaya said will a chilly calmness. "That act would be low even for you."

Gill's eyes narrowed, his arm still raised, then he slammed his fist down on the table jolting Akari awake.

She jumped violently at seeing Gill and then raised an eyebrow at Chihaya.

"What's going on?" she asked sleepily.

"This is what's going on!" Gill spat, lifting his fist off the table and revealing the Polaroid of him screaming. "For the record I wasn't afraid!"

Chihaya lowered the skillet with a sigh.

"I just wanted to let you know that." Gill said icily. His cold blue eyes were piercing hers.

"Well, if that's true…then why did you scream like a little girl?" Akari asked matter-of-factly.

"I didn't." he claimed.

She pointed at the picture. "I'm thinking you did."

He growled. "You just took me off guard is all."

"That's the same thing as being afraid." Akari pointed out.

"Did you seriously come here to complain about our prank?" Chihaya said mockingly. "How ridiculous--"

"Shut up you worthless piece of trash!" Gill spat.

Akari sprang to her feet and smashed Gill's loafer with the heel of her boot. "Haven't I taught you to not call people names…?" She hissed murderously against his cheek.

Gill ground his teeth together to stop himself from showing his pain and pushed Akari away from him. He didn't push her very hard but she toppled over the chair that was behind her and landed on the floor with a loud bang.

Chihaya quickly ran to her side but she brushed his helping hands away.

"You think you are so smart don't you?" Gill breathed, he was looking down, his face hidden by his pale blond hair.

"You think you are actually competent. That you can actually prove your worth…" He slowly raised his head, revealing a sinister smile. "But it's pointless."

"It's funny, really…watching you work on that farm of yours…thinking you could make it worthwhile again." He cocked his head to the side.

"And then with me." His eyes locked with hers. "You think you can actually get the best of me." He chuckled coldly. "Well, you have another thing coming…"

"Are you finished!?" She spat through clenched teeth.

His eyes narrowed.

She pulled herself to her feet, swatting Chihaya away. "You are all talk aren't you!?"

She took a step forward threateningly. "You act so tough, but really you are nothing. Your not even worthy competition for us." She said with a nod toward Chihaya.

"Is that so?" Gill growled.

"Yes, it is." She lifted her chin, daring him to prove her wrong, then whispered, "We are going to ground you into the dust."

The bell above the door chimed, and Luke wandered into the threatening atmosphere. His eyes shifted from Chihaya and Akari to Gill who stood in a silent face off. He had just begun to sneak backwards towards the door when Gill shot him a deadly look that froze him to the spot.

Gill glared at Akari one last time before spitting out a, "Good day," spinning on his heel and walking briskly out the door making the little bell chime again.

"Sheesh….that guy gives me the creeps…" Luke whistled once he was sure Gill was gone.

"Tell me about it…" Chihaya muttered. Then he suddenly started inspecting Akari for any possible scratches from her fall. "Are you okay!?" he asked with a worried crinkle on his brow.

"I'm fine." she lied, while obviously rubbing her elbow in pain.

"No you are not, let me see that!"

She tried to squirm away from him but was quickly pushed into a chair as Chihaya examined the rash.

"Stop fussing over me, would ya?" She mumbled, staring at the top of his fuzzy peach head as he knelt beside her chair.

"No, I'm not going to stop." He said, rubbing some ointment on her elbow. "You need someone to fuss over you. You need someone to be there and make sure you are okay."

She didn't say anything for a moment, then muttered angrily, "If that stupid Gill wouldn't have pushed me over then you wouldn't have to fuss over me!"

Chihaya carefully placed a band aide over her rash and looked up into her honey eyes with a sigh. "As much as I hate the guy, I'm pretty sure he didn't do that on purpose."

"Huh?" Akari said in disbelief.

"You were, after all, standing on his foot. He pushed you to get you off, but when he saw that you were falling he didn't look pleased or anything. He honestly looked concerned."

"What? Gill concerned?" Akari asked skeptically. "I really doubt that."

Chihaya shrugged then jumped when Luke suddenly loomed over him with a painful grin.

"I'd hate to break up this touching scene…" Luke said. "But I came here for lunch, and I'm about ready to eat the table there in a second."

"Oh sorry!" Chihaya exclaimed, leaping to his feet and dashing off into the kitchen. "The usual right!?" He called over his shoulder as he began whipping out pots and pans.

"Yeah, that's great!" Luke cheered as he plopped down in a chair next to Akari.

She was flipping through Gill's diary again, trying to figure out what any of it meant. Luke peaked over her shoulder.

"What's that?" he asked.

"Gill's diary.""Oh! No way! I thought that was only a legend!!"

She laughed. "Nope its real….and utterly useless."

"Hmmm…." he watched her flip the pages. "That's weird…"

"Your telling me…"

"I wonder if Gill is paranoid that someone will read his diary so he fills it with pointless stuff like this."

"But then why would he keep the diary if there is nothing in it?"

"Maybe…maybe because there is a secret message in there that is something he needs to remember or dives directions to a secret place or something!"

"Secret message…?" she mused. "But how would we even know what the secret message was when we don't know what to look for…?"

He was quiet for a moment, deep in thought.

"Hey! Those letters in the corner! I bet if you get all the letters you can spell out the secret message!"

Akari stared at him a gasp. "That's a terrific idea!!! Luke you are a genius!!" She quickly grabbed a piece of paper and a pencil and was scrawling down the letters while Luke marveled at being called a genius.

"Nobodies ever called me that before…"

"Well you are one!" She assured him. "How did you ever come up with something like that!?"

He cocked his head to the side. "I don't remember…"

She laughed to herself. Maybe he wasn't a genius…he just had spurts of genius.

---

For the next half hour Akari, Luke, and Chihaya arranged and rearranged the letters into possible words.

"I've got it!" Luke exclaimed dramatically. "It's 'Rose de Unneth!"

"Huh?" Chihaya mumbled. "What is that?"

Luke shrugged. "Something French…?"

"I don't think so…" Akari mused. "I'm ninety nine percent sure that that isn't French and that Gill wouldn't write his secret message in French anyway."

"Then what is it?" Luke asked.

"Well, if you replace the 'R' in 'Rose' with a 'N" you get 'Nose'…" Chihaya mumbled. "But what does nose have to do with anything…?"

"Nose…nose…nose…" Luke tapped his nose thoughtfully.

"Well, if you take out the letters for 'nose' you can easily find 'the' and I bet that is right…" Akari said, moving around the bits of paper that had the letters written on them. "All that's left is a 'D, N, E, U, and R'."

Chihaya slapped his hands together. "It's 'under'! 'Under the nose!'"

"Okay…but what does that mean…?" Akari scratched her head.

"Oh! I've heard of that before! Through from who I don't remember… Anyway, it's a rock on the side of the mountain that looks like a giant nose!" Luke said excitedly. "Whatever Gill's secret is, it must be buried under that rock! And funny thing too! I found a map this morning that leads you right to it!" He pulled a crinkled up map from his back pocket.

"Wow…this could actually make sense…" Akari breathed, feeling victorious that they had finally discovered the secret of Gill's diary. "Luke! Go show us to this rock!"

---

They hiked up the side of the mountain carrying shovels and could see the unmistakable rock formation just up ahead next to a tree.

Akari stopped suddenly and looked behind her.

Something didn't feel right…

"Here we are!" Luke said, slapping one giant nostril. "I bet cha it's riiiiiiight….." he scanned the ground and found two sticks positioned to make an 'X'. "Right here!" he exclaimed.

"X does mark the spot…" He said with an uncertain shrug.

Akari could tell that he thought something was fishy too.

Luke stared at them. "Well lets get diggin!" And with that he stuck his shovel in the dirt.

Chase exchanged a worried look with Akari then took a hesitant step forward.

Suddenly the world was turned upside down and everything started spinning. Akari felt her legs get whipped out from under her as she was pulled toward the sky. She then quickly realized that she was caught in a net with an uncomfortable lump beneath her that was probably Chihaya since she could hear him groaning.

"Chihaya, are you okay!?" she exclaimed, trying to shift her weight so that he could wiggle into a sitting position.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. Are you?" he asked, and he instinctively checked to see if she had any scratches again.

"I'm fine!" she said, annoyed that he was fussing over her again but let him for his own benefit. She then caught sight of Luke who was staring at them with guilt all over his face. "Luke? Did you…?"

"I didn't mean to!" He exclaimed. "I completely forgot about it! But it was him who told me about the code in the diary and gave me this map…" He slapped himself in the head. "How could I have forgotten that!?"

"Wait!" Akari exclaimed. "You mean--"

"My, My…" Came a chilling voice from behind the rock formation. "Look what I've caught…a couple of wild animals."

Gill stepped out from behind the rock, holding his real diary with a wicked grin on his beautiful face.

"I told you, you had another thing coming, now didn't I?"

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well this chapter certainly isn't the most thrilling…but it sets things up right? I wanted to show more of the feisty Akari here…

The juicy stuff is next!!!

Please review!

And if you haven't voted either for Gill or Chihaya to end up with Akari on the poll on my profile, do so right NOW!

Bye!