I uneasily tie the apron around my waist. There's no mirror in the bathroom where Ryuko-san told us to change, so I can't check to see if my fears have come to fruition. I feel very reluctant to step outside the door. Looking at what I can see of myself, I mentally cringe. The skirt is kind of…short on me.

"Karin, you've been in there long enough!" Mitsuki's voice rings through the bathroom door. "Hurry up and come out! Work is starting soon!"

"Fine, fine." I suck in my breath and open the door. I stand there awkwardly, letting everyone in the room look at me. "Is it weird?"

"You look fine, Karin." Hana assures me.

Mitsuki has a gigantic smile on her face. Ryuko-san also looks like she's trying to hold back a few giggles of her own.

"No, it doesn't look fine." I say accusingly, pointing at the two. "Look at them! They're desperately trying to hold back tears of mirth!"

"Oh, don't be silly." Hana spins me around to fix my apron ribbon for me. "You just look…different than usual."

"I bet I look fat, don't I?" I wail. "I look like a pink blimp!" Hey, thirteen is a delicate age, so don't judge me for not wanting to look fat! I've always been a bit chubby for my height, and it's a sensitive subject for me…

"You naturally skinny people wouldn't understand." I bemoan, cursing skinny people in my mind. "The pounds just love me, and always come back with their buddies!"

"This outfit really doesn't suit you, huh?" Ryuko-san agrees, trying to hide her smile after seeing my distress.

"What's going o- oh." Daichi had walked in during the exact wrong moment. I feel my face blaze up immediately, and hiding my face, I run back into the bathroom.

"I'm not wearing this!" I holler, and immediately begin to strip myself, escaping back to my school uniform haven.

"Daichi-kun!" Hana scolds, while Mitsuki is just laughing her head off at my expense. I am so embarrassed. So, so embarrassed. Can I just die now?

"I-I'm sorry!" I hear Daichi stuttering outside. He still hasn't gotten rid of that habit… Back at the U.S Alice Academy, Daichi's stuttering problem had gotten better, only coming out whenever he became super excited or flustered about something. The stutters were definitely back now.

"Karin-san." I hear Ryuko-san's voice coming from the door after three polite knocks. "Try this on for size instead." I peek the door open a crack, my pride still hurt, and take the clothes she gives to me. "It's the same uniform the boys and Kumiko-chan wear."

I quickly put it on, and feel much better. The outfit is pretty much a pink jacket and pink pants with the logo of the shop on the back. I emerge shyly, tugging at my sleeves self-consciously.

"Much better." Ryuko-san smiles approvingly.

"Can I still serve guests in this outfit though?" I ask worriedly, mentally slapping myself for forgetting the true purpose of being employed here. "It's kind of a big contrast to…that." I gesture to the maid outfits Mitsuki and Hana were sporting. I shouldn't have made such a fuss about it, since it's only part of the mission, but the horror of wearing that was just too much for me.

"The two girls can stand outside and welcome customers, and you can stand at the cashier and handle the money." Ryuko-san says thoughtfully, tapping her chin as she thinks. "Perhaps we can have you take over Daichi-kun's secondary job then." I mentally release a breath of relief. Thank goodness I haven't lost the job.

"But she's a girl!" Daichi objects.

"What is the job?" I ask apprehensively. Hopefully it's not anything gross, like scooping up dog poop or something along those lines.

"Normally I also have Daichi-kun move some crates from the small storage room to the cellar. But I feel sorry having him do this on his own, so it would be a big relief if you could help him do this."

"I'm fine on my own!" Daichi insists. "I don't want her to get hurt!"

"I'll be fine." I smile at him. Pumping my muscles, I say, "I've always been a tough girl. A few crates won't be a problem!"

Daichi rolls his eyes at me. "Suit yourself then."

After this, Ryuko-san leads us out to the main part of the Howalon shop, where Hayate, Yamaguchi-san, Kumiko, and Hikaru are waiting.

"How cute!" Yamaguchi-san gushes, a slight blush on his cheeks. Kumiko runs over to Hana and Mitsuki and squeals over their maid outfits.

"You can go back now, Hayate-kun." Ryuko-san says bluntly. "I've hired the girls."

"Yes ma'am!" Hayate salutes her before waving bye to us and leaving quickly. The coward…

"Alright kids." Ryuko-san claps her hands together decisively, a determined twinkle in her eye. "Time to start the day!"

For the rest of the day, Mitsuki, Hana and I struggle to learn the ropes. I mess up twice counting out people's change, my hands fumbling with the still unfamiliar yen. Mitsuki brushes up on her people skills, trying her best to remain smiling the entire day, while Hana goes about her day like she's done it for years. By the end of the day, we're utterly exhausted.

I catch Daichi trying to sneak away with a medium-sized crate in his hands. "Excuse me, my good sir." I tease him. "I believe I'm supposed to be helping you!"

"You caught me." He chuckles. "Here, you can carry this." He hands me the crate he was carrying before disappearing back into the kitchen.

"Um…Daichi-kun?" I have no idea where I'm supposed to carry this thing!

"Hey! Chill." Daichi comes back pushing a dolly with three large crates stacked on top of each other. "You handle the small boxes, I'll take care of the big ones."

"Always the gentleman." I shake my head, smiling a bit. I walk beside him as he leads the way to where we're supposed to move the crates. As we descend some stairs to the cellar, I try to come up with a way to call him by his real name and not his code name. 'Daichi' is just too unfamiliar to me.

"Ni-chan!" I say suddenly. Daichi stops in his tracks, almost losing his grip on the dolly as he was carefully moving it down step by step.

"Cutting it a bit close there, aren't we?" He asks me, astonished. "Translating my name directly like that…"

"I don't like calling you 'Daichi.'" I insist. "That's not who you are."

Daichi rolls his eyes. "Well, it's who I am now." He replies. I purse my lips in a stubborn fashion. "If you must." He concedes, apparently deciding that this was a battle he did not want to fight. "Well? Did you want to ask me something?"

"Um, why are you here?" I ask like it's the most obvious thing in the world.

Daichi puts his face into his palm, and then quickly glances around. "It's obviously top-secret?" He hisses at me in the same tone I used earlier.

"Come on!" I cajole him. "A hint?"

"No." He answers me shortly, reaching the bottom of the stairs and switching on a dim light. "Would you tell me why you're here in Japan as well?"

"No…" I reply reluctantly. "But it's just too much of a coincidence that we're stationed in the same area. It makes me curious as to what the higher-ups are thinking."

Daichi leads me to a mysterious door and starts unloading his dolly. I place my small crate down to help him lift and arrange his crates on the floor. "We're their pawns." Daichi grunts as we lift the topmost crate. "Our only purpose is to be moved according to their will and sacrificed to protect more important and powerful pieces. It's always been like this."

I listen quietly to his pessimism, feeling down myself. Usually, Daichi is the one to break through my stormy clouds with his sunny optimism, but now, for some reason, Daichi looks pained and contemplative. I wonder what's happened to him.

"Ni-chan, what's wrong?" I ask, patting his shoulder gently.

Daichi looks at me, and I can see the war going on inside, deciding whether to tell me or not. In a hushed tone, he whispers, stuttering slightly, "M-My little brother's found me."

I gape at him in astonishment. All of us at the American branch of Alice Academy have lost all communication with everyone we knew from our previous life. We technically don't even exist, with no social security numbers, no birth certificates, nothing to signify that we were ever born and had families and friends. Every trace of our existence was erased the instant the government found out we were Alices. To ever establish a connection with someone from that previous life is a one in a million occurrence.

"Your family found you?" I finally find the oxygen to ask, amazed and slightly excited. "They know you're alive? Wait, how'd they find you? Are they in Japan?"

"S-Slow down with the q-que-questions." Daichi scolds me nervously. "Van found me about six months before I left for Japan. I was walking around Central Park in New York City when Van ran into me while he was buying a newspaper from one of those stands."

"Doesn't your family live in Southern California?" I ask urgently, wanting to know faster. "What were they doing in New York?" I stop to think for a second. "What were YOU doing in New York? Weren't we all in Washington D.C. at the Alice dorms?"

"I had a mission, if you must know." Daichi snaps at me. "And apparently, my family was on a trip to New York. Van changed a lot after my disappearance. He became more grown up and responsible, and he and my parents were there to check out New York University. Van got accepted into a prestigious summer program there."

I whistle appreciatively. "Wow, NYU huh? Van really has changed a lot. Wasn't he the laziest kid ever? I remember you complaining about having to practically do his homework for him."

"Yeah. I still remember that stupid project I had to do for him because he would've been held back a year if he didn't complete it." Daichi scowls at the memory, but his facial expression still holds a hint of longing and sadness though he really does look annoyed at the mere thought of the memory.

"It's weird though." I grunt out as I struggle to hold up my end of the second box. "Usually they're really careful about keeping us away from anyone we've known before. Who was your handler for that New York mission?"

Daichi groans as we set the second box down on the floor. "Stop asking me questions you know I can't answer."

"Fine, fine." I concede. "Don't think you're off the hook though. I'm still going to ask you later. Do you at least know what's in these boxes? They're so heavy! How the heck did you manage to lift these on your own before I came?"

"I actually don't know what's inside." Daichi admits. "And I'm a strong boy."

"What kind of agent are you?" I tease. "Curiosity is supposed to be our greatest asset."

"The terror Ryuko-sensei instills in our hearts is enough to scare anyone into submission." Daichi declares. "You saw how even Hikaru is cowed before her. Also, another reason to not get on her bad side is that, she's kind of my boss, you know?"

I roll my eyes at his sarcasm. "Yes, I know that."

"And even though I shouldn't tell you this, I'll say it anyways. It's kind of integral to my mission that I remain employed here, so I should probably try to stay on my boss's good side."

"Enough with the sarcasm already!" I groan, smacking his shoulder for good measure. "I got it, I got it! I'll stop asking you questions that I know you can't answer. So Ryuko-san doesn't allow you to open these boxes." I have a suspicion as to the contents of these crates, but I can't be absolutely sure until I can open them and see what's inside with my own eyes. I give Daichi an I-need-to-see-what's-inside-these-crates look, nodding my head and moving my eyes vigorously from him to the crate. I'm sure I look like an idiot right now.

Daichi nods, showing me that he understands. "Ryuko-sensei specially told me, Kumiko, and Hikaru not to ever look inside these boxes." Daichi places particular stress when referring to himself and his team. To my surprise, Daichi kneels down on the floor, lifts my pant legs up, and pulls at my shoelaces.

"What are you-!" I begin to protest, but Daichi shoots me a glare. He then proceeds to knot my shoelaces from opposite shoes together, to my great astonishment.

As he stands up, he smirks as he tells me, "Oh, your shoelaces are untied. Better tie them up before going back upstairs. It's dangerous to walk around a kitchen like that, you know. I'll be going up first." He gives me a meaningful look, points to a dark corner to the left, and leaves me, pushing the dolly back upstairs.

I stand there, very confused for a bit. I suppose first things first; I should probably retie my shoelaces. He could've thought of another way to leave me here alone, although I should probably thank him for this opportunity. He's allowed me a chance to investigate the contents of these crates. I curse him under my breath as I struggle to take the knot out. Stupid Boy Scout.

After tying my shoelaces, I creep over to the corner Daichi had pointed to earlier. At first glance, all I see are dozens of sacks of sugar. But Daichi wouldn't have pointed me here without a plausible reason. I start moving some of the sacks around, looking for some strange object out of place. After I've moved perhaps my fifteenth sack of sugar, I feel something hard in the sixteenth sack. I pat it down quickly, and discover that the top of this sack has been opened. Carefully opening the top of the sack, I find a black crowbar stuck in the midst of pink sugar, like King Arthur's sword stuck in the stone. I extricate the crowbar in awe, mentally thanking Daichi. This is what I need to pop those crates open. At the end of the crowbar, tied on by a strong piece of rope, is a hammer to nail those nails back in when I'm done snooping. Daichi really does think of everything. That smart boy.

Trusting that Daichi has bought me enough time upstairs to open the crates and close them, I immediately launch into the operation. Sticking one end of the crowbar underneath the lid of the crate, I push as hard as I can on the other end, making the crowbar into a lever. The nails are nailed really hard in the wood! It takes me three minutes of throwing my weight on the crowbar to even pry it open. With renewed fervor, I use all of my strength to lift the lid up a total of five inches. Panting from the exertion, I accept my losses and try to peek inside. The lighting in the cellar sucks, so I have to conjure up a small fireball for a light source. Putting on my glasses with the hand that's not holding my fireball, I lean closer to the contents of the crate.

There's a bunch of wrapped candies inside the crate. Curious, I reach in and take one out for a closer look. The multi-colored candy inside is shaped like a ball, and it has a number written on the outside plastic wrap. The one I've taken out is labeled 'five.' I put that one back and pick up another one. This one says 'fifteen.' I think I've hit the jackpot. These crates must all contain Gulliver's Candy. But…why is Ryuko-san involved in this? How is she involved in this? I know that Yamaguchi-san is a former member of the AAO. Perhaps the AAO is involved in the distribution of Gulliver's Candy? But Yamaguchi-san should no longer have any more ties to the AAO. He faked his own death, according to Hayate. What is going on?

I try the handle of the strange cellar door. It's totally locked. Giving up for now, I continue my investigation by cracking open the rest of the crates to make sure all of them contain Gulliver's Candy. As expected, they do, and I quickly use the hammer that Daichi provided to bang the nails back into place.

"HEY!" I hear a loud, squeaky yell coming from the stairs. I quickly turn, certain that the jig is up. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"

The owner of the voice is a fat, balding old man. As he steps closer to the light, I recognize him as Toshiyuki, from Persona's briefing. Hidden behind his bulk, Ryuko-san seems to be guiding him down to the basement.

"Karin-san?" Ryuko-san asks me, looking confused. "What are you doing down here? Daichi-kun went up ages ago."

Thinking fast, I decide the idiot route is my best bet. Scratching my head with one hand, I laugh and say, "Oh, I was down here tying my shoelaces when I noticed that some nails on the crates weren't nailed in properly, so I was just fixing it up."

Ryuko-san frowns. "Where'd that hammer come from?"

I shrug. "I don't know. I found it in that corner over there." I point away from the bags of sugar.

"Tsukasa-san must've left it out." Ryuko-san sighs. "Although I don't remember seeing that hammer in his toolbox…"

Toshiyuki is staring suspiciously at me. I can feel his eyes raking over my bright pink outfit and judging my fashion sense. It makes me want to snap at him that I'm not wearing this by choice, but whatever. I'm already in a tight situation…

"Who is this girl?" Toshiyuki asks Ryuko-san harshly.

"I'm terribly sorry for the inconvenience." Ryuko-san bows to the ball of fat. "She is one of my new employees, and is still getting used to the work. Karin-san." Ryuko-san addresses me a tad nervously. "Please apologize to Toshiyuki-san."

Who the hell is this obese, gelatinous tub of lard that can make even a strong woman like Ryuko-san quiver? But, to follow through with my dumb image, I purposely bow awkwardly and slur together a "Please excuse my rudeness" like I'm a dimwit.

"Ryuko, you really should pick your employees carefully. Perhaps you should start giving out intelligence tests." He sneers at me. My face heats up, hate inflaming my whole being. You bastard, I'm an effing genius! He barks out a command at me. "Get out of here, you dumb girl!"

Who the hell died and made you king? I want to scream this at his face, but to keep my cover, I bow my head and hurry to the cellar stairs. I run into a small body, who steadies me with warm hands. Looking up slightly with the intent to apologize, I meet Natsume's fiery red eyes. I stifle a gasp. His gaze flickers to the cellar door, then back to me. His little mouth tightens into a firm line, and I remember the role me, Mitsuki, and Hana must play tonight. We must keep the shop doors open no matter what.

"Shin, what are you doing?" Toshiyuki's obnoxious voice rings lazily throughout the cellar. "Hurry up and get down here!" The strange cellar door was open, and Toshiyuki was holding the key. Ryuko-san looks at me worriedly before entering the cellar door.

"Coming, Toshiyuki-san." Natsume lets go of me and follows after Toshiyuki. I gaze at his straight, proud back as he disappears through that mysterious cellar door.