This story is now rated "M," this chapter contains moderate, gory violence, but no worse than what you'd see in the anime. Subsequent chapters will contain some mild adult situations.

Koza Commercial High School Track Team.

Front row: left to right: Fija Norika, Shimabuku Miho, Kinjou Kaori, Otonashi Saya.

Her eyes moved back and forth between the final name and the face in the picture they pertained to.

She looks like me.

Saya had gone to the library with a secret mission in mind, to find out something about her past: who she used to be before the hit and run accident that had supposedly left her wandering around Okinawa with no idea who she was. She never imagined that it would be as easy as entering her name into the search field of an electronic newspaper archive.

Her eyes were fixed on a poor quality print out of her findings as she made her way home beneath the dimming sky of the Okinawa suburb. The date on the page was of particular interest.

2005.

That doesn't make any sense. That was over thirty years ago.

Could it be a weird coincidence?

I guess she doesn't look that much like me – her face is shaped a little differently.

The difference in hairstyle made denial easier.

Saya glanced down at the time on her cell phone.

Wow, I'm really late. Better take the fast way.

She turned a corner and slipped through the chain link fence surrounding the large construction site for a new cluster of high-density housing, a shortcut she had used often when accompanied by her adoptive sisters. Perhaps it was her amnesia and limited experience out in the world, or perhaps she simply hadn't seen enough movies to fear such an ominous setting.

Of course, this was when she vaguely registered the presence of a group of young men behind her.

American soldiers.

American soldiers gallivanting about the streets of Okinawa was a common enough sight not to warrant any particular notice. The bizarre thing was how quiet and orderly they seemed, walking in three straight lines, not even chatting amongst themselves.

People wouldn't want to get rid of them so badly if they all acted like that, she thought briefly and ceased to pay them much mind. Judging by their silence, they weren't drunk or riled up, so she assumed she had nothing to fear from them - again, no doubt the naivete of amnesia.

Her mind returned to it's previous subject.

She does at least look kinda like me, and the name is the same. What are the odds of that? I mean, I guess there's probably more than one Saya Otonashi in the world, but it really is strange that she would look at all like me.

Could it have been my real mother? We do have the same name, and she would be about the right age -

But wait, it couldn't be that - Saya Otonashi was just a name they came up with when they became my foster parents, right?

Weird.

Maybe there's something they're not telling me.

No, it really must be a coincidence. Yes. Even if they were hiding something, there's no way that could have been me in that picture. I'd have to be at least forty, and still look the same.

Plastic surgery maybe?

No, there'd be some kind of scar or something, and they probably would have made me prettier.

Must be a weird coincidence.

She glanced over her shoulder again. Those guys are still there.

Saya had a strong urge to fully turn around for a better look at them, but that didn't seem like a good idea. She noted some considerable anxiety rising in her chest and consequently, her pace quickened.

But she could tell by the sound of their boots, that theirs did too.

She made a turn onto one of the narrow lanes between the as-yet uninhabited houses, in hopes that her fears would be quelled by their continuing forward on their way to somewhere else. No such luck.

Still clinging to hope that it was just a coincidence, she made another turn.

And another.

Still there. They're definitely following me.

And another – by this time, she wasn't entirely sure of where she was, or which way led out of the construction site.

Why would soldiers be following me?.

She recalled hearing of incidents of muggers dressed as police, and thought this could be a variation of that technique.

What do I do?

She pulled out her cell phone and wallet, tossed them both on the ground and kept walking.

No use, her pursuers didn't appear interested in either, she could actually hear the phone being indifferently kicked aside as they slowly closed the gap.

Oh god…

She recalled hearing old people complain of rapes and murders committed by American soldiers in Okinawa.

Oh god oh god…

Another idea came to her.

Maybe if I run for it.

I'm pretty fast, I bet I can loose them.

She started running, and succeeded in creating a little distance, but was nowhere near shaking them.
"Leave me alone!" she screamed, "I already dialed the police!"

Her face took on a look of panicked determination as she attempted to coax a little more speed from her legs, far too focused on escape and survival to realize that she was running well over a human's limit.

Just as she was looking over her shoulder again, she suddenly collided with a dark figure, and shrieked in startled terror; in that moment it felt like every cell in her body went rigid.

"Saya, are you alright?"

"Oh god, Haji," she panted as she relaxed slightly. Saya was fairly sure she had never been so glad to see anyone in her life, and fought off a surprisingly strong urge to hug him.

"Those guys are following me." She turned around and pointed. The street was empty. "They really were, there was like ten of them," she pleaded. "I swear! I'm not crazy!"

"I believe you," he stated calmly.

"Um, do you think you could walk with me for a little while, they'll probably leave me alone if you're with me."

"Yes."

She and her companion began walking and the sound of booted-footsteps resumed.

She looked over her shoulder again.

"That's them."

He nodded in acknowledgement.

They're still following us. Wait –

"Maybe they'll go away if they think you're my, um -"

"I understand."

She timidly took hold of his left hand, the tense situation couldn't keep her from blushing as his fingers intertwined with hers.

"They're gaining."

He nodded again.

"What do we do?"

Without another word, he swept her up in to his arms and took off running.

"Hey-"

Damn he's fast!

She peered over his shoulder.

No way, they're as fast as he is!

The Chevalier and his passenger came to a sudden halt when half a dozen more soldiers appeared in their path.

But of course, Haji's escape routes didn't exist in only two dimensions.

That's –

Even her inner monologue was dumbfounded as he shot straight up into the air, landed on a nearby roof and took to hopping across them like a ninja in a movie. Saya clung to him as tightly as if he wasn't already holding on to her, glancing up at his moonlit face, and then down at the rooftops flying under his feet.

Unfortunately, their pursuers were just as adept at jumping, and their superior numbers allowed them to regain the upper-hand quickly, flanking him on either side.

Of course, Haji had another option that his opponents did not, one that would have made escape incredibly easy, but he had reasoned that the sight of his wings would be far too much for a Saya still fully in the grips of amnesia. That would be left as a last resort.

Haji's boots hit solid ground a moment later, not because he couldn't fight them on the rooftops, but because the street would give Saya an escape route, if necessary.

Saya got a better look at the soldiers as they closed in around them.

They all – they all look the same.

In addition to their identical uniforms, each one bore the exact same face, pale skin, shorn black hair, curiously tapered ears and piercing jungle-green eyes that seemed as if they couldn't be real. Even stranger was that in place of guns, they appeared to be carrying large, straight-bladed swords.

This just gets weirder and weirder and weirder, Saya thought warily.

Wait, I have an idea. She gathered every last ounce of courage and stepped forward.

"My step-mother is Mao Jahana," she said as sternly as possible, "oyabun of the Jahana family. She'll be really mad if something happens to me - or my – my – boyfriend."

Their attackers displayed no reaction, verbal or otherwise.

"You know I'm telling the truth! it's way too dangerous to lie about something like that!" She cried in desperation.

They continued their advance and she turned to her companion.

"Please tell me you know karate or something," she whimpered in hopes that his ninja-like jumping could translate into ninja-like fighting.

He made no response, save to pull out one of his daggers.

Okay, I guess that's better than nothing.

His face remained absolutely calm as he launched his weapon, the dagger seemed to magically multiply in mid air. In the blink of an eye there were half a dozen of them lodged in the faces of their attackers.

Holy crap!

Before Saya even had a chance to be further impressed by his skill, something far more alarming caught her attention. One by one, the daggers dropped to the ground, and what should have been fatal injuries closed up before her very eyes.

Now that's way past weird -

"What – what are they?"

"Chiropterans."

The soldiers attacked before Haji had a chance to elaborate.

The cello case on his back was now in his hand, and he swung it into the crowd of soldiers, toppling several of them like bowling pins.

Who would have thought that he's a total badass?!

Just as she took note of an increase in admiration, the tide of battle seemed to turn when Haji took a harsh, well-placed blow from a corpse corps boot, sending him flying across the street.

However, cunning warrior that he was, he made use of this momentary distance by snapping open his case, and to her further astonishment, pulling out an oddly shaped katana.

He really is a ninja or something…

Now, it might have seemed that this would be an appropriate time for him to present Saya with her estranged weapon along with a request that she use it, but Haji hadn't forgotten the content of his plea to his suicidal Queen, shortly after Diva was killed.

"You do not need to fight anymore."

At the same time, he knew that daggers and blunt weapons wouldn't defeat these creatures, and he also had no intention of revealing his claw, if it could be at all avoided, not only out of fear of scaring her, but out of a recently developed premonition that the if she were to first see the limb after receiving his blood, it could stimulate the return of her memories, beginning with the most disturbing ones she had.

Haji didn't think of himself as a swordsman, but he was entirely capable of using the weapon, as he had once demonstrated on a Vietnam-bound ship for a previous amnesiac Saya. He gripped the sword tightly and waited for his opponents to approach, in order to draw them away from her.

Saya watched in utter awe as he battled his enemies with such blurred speed as to make it appear that he was wielding a bolt of lightening. For a moment, she was struck by a strange sense of romance in the scene, her crush in engaged in a sword fight on her behalf.

But this notion was quickly washed away by the almost indescribable carnage, blood gushing limbs and severed still-flinching heads that were somewhat inconsistent with a romantic period piece.

Worst of all was the deeply unsettling realization that she was not disgusted by it. Rather, it had an odd air of familiarity, and even more disturbing, instead of being nauseated by the sprays of blood and splatters of guts as any normal person would be, she found that her mouth was watering.

But the looming sense of self-dread was abruptly forgotten when she saw an enemy blade slide through his chest.

"Haji!"

Oh my god, right in his heart-

Through the blinding pain, Haji recalled how she had often scolded him for leaving openings for that type of attack. Even with the enormous blade through his chest, he managed to disable the last of his opponents before dropping her sword and collapsing.

Saya burst into tears; logically he would be dead in seconds. It still hadn't occurred to her that he was one of them.

He pushed himself to a kneeling position. His body was already healing around the blade, making it far more difficult to remove. Whether by his chiropteran blood or simple desensitization, Haji probably had the highest tolerance for pain of any conscious creature on earth, but even he cried out as he dislodged the weapon. The sword clinked against the ground, but he was still in no condition to put up much of a fight, and his slaughtered enemies were rapidly reconstituting.

"Saya," a trickle of blood rolled off his lip, "you must run."

"What?"

"I will hold them off."

"I-I cant just leave you here, you're hurt."

"You must."

She glanced at the opening in the ranks.

"But they'll kill you…"

She really hoped that he would say something to contradict this.

But he couldn't deny it.

"There is no choice. You must run."

She glanced down at her katana, lying across the ground between them. A strange urge came over her, or almost more of an irresistible compulsion.

Just then, a thousand images flew through her mind, an incomprehensible whirl of events, of keys, of crumbling castles, of blood spattered non-la, of a little boy crumbling to dust, of a middle-aged man on his hands and knees in a pool of his own blood, of a flaxen haired gentleman kneeling at her feet, of cracks traveling across a mirror-image face, of Haji skewered by a stone monster's claws…

But as she unconsciously reached down for the weapon, the images abruptly stopped.

The very moment her fingers closed around the hilt, she was enveloped in a sensation that was both frightening and heartening. The overwhelming feeling of fear, confusion and helplessness fell away like water from her fingertips, replaced by fortitude, mastery and self-reliance.

And above all, power.

Wide, terrified eyes narrowed slightly to an expression of grotesque calm, pupils dilating, then contracting as her irises ignited into glowing red, to match the blood now running down the length of her sword.

"I wont leave you to die -" the next part of the sentence came out for reasons she did not yet fully comprehend, "not again."

Haji grimaced, as if impaled anew, knowing that his promise at the Met had just been broken.

"Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"

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