BP: Well, I am busy lately, as well, being in the top class, I have to keep up to the class's reputation and also, I am in my final year in high school. I had writer's block, but nothing major, I'll just write whatever comes to my mind, so bear with me, alright?

Clutching the letter in his hand, Ryoma dressed in his assassin outfit and equipped himself with all the weapons he could hold, and he was forced to bring a bag to contain the rest of his weapons. Making sure Nanako was asleep, he stealthily went down the staircase and went out the door. 'Bye, Nanako.' Ryoma thought, as he went out of the house, closing the door quietly being him. For some reason, the last verse of the song the Hanging Tree, came to him.

Are you, Are you

Coming to the tree

Wear a necklace of rope, side by side with me.

Strange things did happen here,

No stranger would it be,

If we met up at midnight in the hanging tree.

No, he couldn't wonder why the last verse came to him just yet. He took out a map and another piece of paper. Just this evening, he traced the path from his house to their group's old headquarters, and even wrote out instructions and directions of how to get there. He scaled a tree and jumped from tree to tree, praying he got there in time. 45 minutes later, he climbed down, and ran the rest of the way there, and got to his destination within half an hour. He attached a string to the railing, and used it as a medium to climb the gate, and jumped to a nearby tree. As he thought, there are quite a few people guarding the outside. He grinned, and took out his blowgun with darts. 'I could only shoot six poisoned darts at once. Once I take out six of them, the rest will definitely know where I am. I'll just blow at all six, then hurry and take the rest out after jumping to another tree.' He took aim, and quickly blew six of the poisoned darts at six random people. He quickly jumped to another tree two yards away. He hid as the others ran around, frantically looking for him.

Half an hour later, "Oh, just let him hide. It's not as if he can hide forever. It's either taking his brother down quickly or his lover dies." Ryoma widened his eyes at that. Not only because Kunimitsu is probably dying under the injuries the brother surely inflicted on him, but the voice belonged to the girl that tried to kill him. The others agreed, and they sat back down, leaning against the truck of the tree, as they are tired of standing. 'This is my chance.' Ryoma thought. He made a bet that once they fallen asleep, he could drop a small but powerful sting bomb (which explodes silently, and the stings inside will hit everyone within a two-kilometer radius), and the others will be affected by the poisonous stings and they will be distracted trying to remove them (which is futile, considering when the bomb explodes, the stings will bury themselves deep inside the flesh of the victim) and he can actually break in to the headquarters.

Meanwhile, the girl guard's thoughts raced as she slept under the base of (unknowingly, Ryoma's) tree with the rest of the guards. The only thing that she could think about is that she signed up for this. Sure, Ryoga is a very good leader and he already had his plans laid out and told them what they must do to avoid being hit by his little brother and she'd been training for this so the chances of her surviving Ryoga's brother's infiltration are more in her favor then those Ryoga recently recruited… but, that boy has been training all his life. She doesn't know why his brother would attack the one she loves so much. She will protect him at all costs, and make sure she will kill him before he even gets in. The invader (probably Ryoga's brother) also had about the same chance of surviving, possibly higher than her, and either must die for the other to live.

What if she dies here? What if she never gets to see her family again? What if…she felt a sting in her leg. Ouch. What was that? She shot up gripping her bow and arrows tightly and looked around. The so-called guards had fallen asleep. Figures. She felt another sting in her arm, and she began to feel woozy. Oh no, those can't be…they are Gift Stieg, a poison made by Shizuka Yakushi, a member of the rival group who is good at medicines and poisons. Shoot! Better warn the others.

She was immediately on her feet and did something only an assassin would even think about doing when they're about to be in danger. She put her fingers in her mouth and gave a loud whistle waking all the other guards up. But it was too late as the bomb already collided with the ground, and the others were stung with the poisonous stings. The girl didn't dare look back as she staggered away. Maybe she can make it to the headquarters and warn Ryoga. However, the poison seemed to be winning as she collapsed and convulsed to the ground. She felt hands taking her arrows from the sheath. The last thing she registered was a boy, so much like Ryoga in appearance, fills his sheath of arrows with hers, before going away. Ryoma watched as the guards convulsed from the poison, before dying. He took all their weapons as they weakened, because he needs all the weapons he can get in order to fight his brother. He ran to the lock, and turned the letters to form the word, "Shadow". The door unlocked and Ryoma went in. As soon as the door closed, he was assaulted with various obstacles, and he was forced to somersault to dodge them. He took some arrows from his sheath and aimed the arrows at three of the oncoming arrows, deflecting them, and ducked as an axe swung towards him.

'What kind of obstacles are these?' Ryoma thought, insulted at the fact that his brother is underestimating him. He deflected the knife flying towards him, and caught the mallet that was about to crush him. Finally, he made it to the other side, and sad to say, half his weapons were gone from trying to defend himself against those obstacles. He clutched to his pearl-handled gun. He ran up the stairs, and heard the sounds of a whip in the distance, and teeth gritting. He deduced the sounds are coming from the left. He turned to the left, and the sounds were louder, especially the whip. He raised his leg, and counting to three, he kicked the door open.

"You have remarkable strength, Chibisuke." said a voice. Ryoma narrowed his eyes at the figure holding a whip. "You seem unharmed by the guards and the obstacles." A tick appeared at Ryoma's forehead. He shrugged. "They were too easy. All I need to do is use poison against those guards of yours."

"Of course. I overlooked the fact that you might use Shizuka's weapons against me…" he trailed off. Ryoma's cold expression did not change. He scanned the place, and found his lover, with his arms and legs full of whip marks and there was a gnash on his face, probably from a knife. Ryoma widened his eyes at the sight, but was snapped out of his reverie when Ryoga said, "Pretty, isn't it, Chibisuke?"

Ryoma turned back to face his brother. "What did you do to him?"

Ryoga shrugged. "Oh, he wasn't really cooperative, so I punished him a bit."

"A bit?" Ryoma hissed. "He looked like he was tortured for months!" Angered by the sight of his injured lover, he took out his gun, and shot at Ryoga, but he missed. Ryoga himself took out his axe, and slung his bow and arrows over his shoulder. Ryoma swung his knife at Ryoga, and Ryoga ducked, swinging his axe at Ryoma's head, which Ryoma dodged at the last second. He unzipped his jacket, revealing an array of throwing knives. Ryoma took one, and threw the knife at Ryoga, which he avoided, but Ryoma attached a string to it, and he swung himself, managing to kick Ryoga in the stomach. Ryoma pulled at the string, and he caught the knife, while taking out his bow and arrows to aim at one of the lamps. While Ryoga was recovering, he shot an arrow, which severed the string that attached the lamp, and it came falling towards Ryoga. Ryoga jumped out of the way, and shot an arrow towards Ryoma, which Ryoma blocked with his bow. He realized the arrow had a smoke bomb attached to it, and when he blocked it, he hit the smoke bomb, which exploded in his face. Ryoma coughed, covering his mouth. Ryoga took the opportunity to punch him in the stomach and face, and he flew to the ground, coughing.

Ryoma saw the button that controlled the force field and threw an axe towards it, but to his surprise, the axe did not even make a scratch to the glass encasing the button. "Forget it. Not even steel can break that glass." said Ryoga. "Even if you broke it, I attached the self-destruct button just now so when you press it, the place will self-destruct." Tezuka bit his lip. So Ryoma would die, huh?

Ryoma smiled. "Unfortunately, I don't intend to leave here alive tonight. My objective is to save Kunimitsu." Tezuka widened his eyes. This couldn't be! Ryoma dogged the axe coming his way, ran behind and sliced Ryoga's back, and managed to punch him in the face. Ryoma was about to launch a punch at Ryoga when he blocked the said punch, and swung the axe at Ryoma's left thigh. 'The stab is pretty deep.' Ryoma thought. He sliced at Ryoga's face, and Ryoga managed to stab him in the gut. Ryoma coughed out blood, and got to his knees. "Is that all you got, Chibisuke?" said Ryoga, grabbing him by the collar. Ryoma, took his gun, and shot Ryoga in the foot. He yelped, and let Ryoma go. Ryoma somersaulted, and landed on his injured leg. Ryoga took his bow and arrows and shot at Ryoma, but Ryoma dodged, deflected, or sliced the arrows. Ryoma threw the knife at Ryoga, but he grabbed it, and pulled, dragging Ryoma with him. But what he had failed to see was Ryoma taking out his knife with his free hand and when Ryoma reached him, he stabbed Ryoga in the right eye. Ryoga cried out in pain and let go of the string, clutching to his eye. He then kicked Ryoga, sending him flying to the wall. Ryoga got up, and reached for his arrow, but realized the sheath was empty. He tried to run, but Ryoma found a brick, and threw it at Ryoga as he tried to run. The brick hit Ryoga, denting his skull, killing him.

Ryoma limped to the button, and closed his eyes. He hoped that method would work. He imagined the glass was a target board. He clenched his fists and started punching the glass. He kept punching, although his hands started bleeding, and his lover was yelling for him to stop. Finally, the glass broke and Ryoma pressed the button without hesitation. The place shook slightly before boulders started falling. He ran, and grabbed Tezuka's hand. "Come on, let's go!" he cried, as they ran towards the exit. Tezuka, being the faster runner, was leading Ryoma.

Suddenly, extreme pain shot through Ryoma's thigh and gut, and he fell down, breaking their hand connection. Tezuka turned back and crouched down beside him. "Run, Kunimitsu." said Ryoma. "Go on without me."

Tezuka shook his head. "I can't."

"Yes, you can." said Ryoma. "Please….if you don't run, you'll die too. My leg has finally given out…I can't run."

Tezuka bit his lip. He can't leave Ryoma like this. He mustn't. He scooped Ryoma and carried him bridal style. "Wait, what are you-?" Tezuka was immediately on his feet, just in time too as the fireball crashed on the ground. He didn't dare look back as he made a run for the life, carrying Ryoma. He knew he just have to make it to the exit and they'll be safe. It's a long way through (because they had to run down staircases too) and it feels even longer when you risk being crushed by boulders and fireballs.

Tezuka's legs seemed to move even faster as the exit came into view. He heard Ryoma scream as one of the fireball scraped Tezuka's legs, giving him a long burn, he knew he could have avoided it if he wasn't carrying Ryoma but he didn't care about the pain. He just kept his eyes on the exit as it got closer and in fuller view. Finally, he jumped, and both of them landed on the ground as the building exploded. Ryoma, who had his eyes closed all the while Tezuka was carrying him, slowly opened his eyes. "Are you alright, Ryoma?"

Ryoma felt his consciousness fading. He mumbled something incoherent before all went black.

BP: Just one more chapter to go, and we are all finished. I know is bad, because well…I am having writer's block, and I only have 15 minutes, and I was watching Crayon Shin-chan (Yeah, go ahead and laugh), but please review though!