When I arrived at work on Wednesday, Naru had decided that I would be using an assumed name for this 'business trip'. He said I could chose it, but as soon as I had, he decided to use it for the rest of the week to 'help' me get used to it.

Tanizawa Mikiko.

He had suggested keeping the initial sounds similar to my real name as I would be more likely to naturally react to the sounds.

And as we – Naru, Yasuhara-san and I - sat in the Aston Martin DB9 on Christmas Eve, I found myself reacting to my new name without a second glance. Yasuhara-san had insisted that I call him Echigoya. And Naru had once again assumed the façade of Narumi Kazuo.

We had been driving for hours, stopping only for a refuel and some food. Lin and Madoka were arriving separately, this was a fact that Naru seemed somewhat aggravated by.

We arrived at exactly midday. The mansion was in the middle of nowhere and surrounded by a deep forest.

I stepped out of the car after taking Yasuhara-san's hand. I was wearing one of my new day dresses and, not that I would ever admit it, one of the new sets of underwear.

Yasuhara-san, acting the perfect gentleman, carried some of my luggage for me. I had a case for my new furisode, a case for my ball gown, a case just for the petticoat and finally case for my normal clothes. It wasn't like any of the cases were particularly heavy, but they were bulky.

We were greeted by a man named Oohashi-san who guided us to our rooms after an extensive search and full body scan. They had one of those machines that they have in airports. The mansion was the weirdest thing I had ever seen. There were staircases in the middle of walls and filled in doors and windows and random changes in elevation.

Naru had warned me against speaking so I could not ask any questions about why this place was so weird. Though he had given me some information about the owner; Urado.

Urado wasn't his real name, but Naru wouldn't tell me that. But he was very high up in 'the business' and had a very nasty way of getting rid of his enemies. It took me an hour of badgering Naru to find out what that was and once I knew, I really wished I hadn't asked.

Apparently, he captures his enemies and lets them bleed out into a bath tub and then bathes in it. When Naru told me this, I remembered one of the crappy American horror films I had seen. I think it was called Hostel? But something similar happened in that.

The point Naru stressed was to keep away from that man at all costs. So here I was, taking advice from one assassin on avoiding another.

As I was to be Yasuhara-san's escort, I was sharing a room with him. Much to my disgust, Naru had been paired with Hara-san; though I had a feeling she had something to do with that.

Naru avoided me all afternoon, so Yasuhara-san and I went exploring. As instructed, I clung to his arm like some sort of love crazed worshiper whenever there was someone in sight. Yasuhara-san found this all very funny.

Eventually we returned to our room to dress for the evening meal. Yasuhara-san was dressed wearing a plain navy and white kimono. He ended up helping me tie my obi. Excluding the time in the shop, the last time I had worn a kimono was at my mother's funeral. The thought brought tears to my eyes and I quickly blinked them away.

We had been about to go down for dinner when there was a knock on the door, Yasuhara-san signalled for me to wait by the bed and I did as I was told. He opened the door a fraction and peeked out.

But when he realised who it was, he let Naru in and shut the door behind him.

"Hello." I greeted him. He too was wearing a kimono. Unsurprisingly, it was entirely black. "Why all the black?" I asked jovially. "It's like you're in mourning or something."

I noticed Yasuhara-san flinch out of the corner of my eye, but didn't say anything. And as usual, Naru didn't say anything either.

Instead, he walked closer and drew something out from some hidden pocket. I did not see what it was until he was sweeping some of my hair from the side of my face and fixing it with the clip.

"Better." He said before turning away and leaving.

I turned to look in the mirror. It was a beautiful little clip, adorned with what I would have guessed to be opals.

"Well I look like a rather crappy date after that." Yasuhara-san joked. "Shall we?" He offered me his arm.

The meal was frightfully dull. The food was pretty good and I spent a lot of time trying to work out the code these people were using.

Naru and Masako were sat at another table with Madoka and Lin and a few other people we didn't know. What shocked me most was that Lin as not wearing a kimono like almost everyone else in the room, but a changshan. Was he Chinese?

I would have to ask him later. If I dared.

Yasuhara-san was talking with a middle aged man when desert was served. The man's name was Minami Reimei and as I sliced a piece of my cheesecake, I tried to tune into their conversation.

"So Minami-san, has business been kind to you this year?" Yasuhara-san had said.

"Yes!" Minami-san laughed a laugh that made me want to crawl up inside myself. "Atsugi-kun here helped me finalise the deal with Oliver Davis." He gestured to the young man sat beside him.

"Is that so?" Yasuhara-san asked. "That must've been a tough deal."

"Not at all." He laughed again.

"I'd love to hear more about that sometime, I know a lot of people were after a deal with him."

"Ah, well I can't give away all my secrets now can I?"

"I would've thought his circumstances would have put such a deal off the table." Yasuhara-san replied. "I suppose you knew about that incident?"

"Of course!" Minami-san replied far too quickly and I'm sure Yasuhara-san picked up on it too. Perhaps Minami-san thought he'd been rumbled because he struck up conversation with the elderly woman at our table. I think her name was Igarashi-san.

Yasuhara-san did not pressure Minami-san any further, but turned to Iharashi-san's assistant, Suzuki Naoko, and began flirting. He really was an awful date.

I returned to my food, but couldn't shake the feeling that someone was watching me.

At the end of the meal, drinks were served and a small string quartet was playing in one corner. All of the guests were milling about and chatting as if this was the after party of a wedding or something. It was very disconcerting.

I stayed by Yasuhara-san's side, not saying anything and smiling politely at everyone.

It wasn't until 9pm that Naru re-joined us. Thankfully, Hara-san was not with him.

"Narumi!" Yasuhara-san said grabbing him cheerfully. "There is just someone you have to meet!" He was acting as though slightly tipsy; even though I know he hadn't had anything alcoholic to drink.

"Who?" Naru asked, who was also smiling as if he was enjoying the event.

"Minami-san!" Yasuhara-san called and Minami-san, who wasn't far away, reluctantly came over. "This man finalised the deal with Oliver Davis." Yasuhara-san said to Naru by way of an introduction. And finally, Naru looked genuinely interested.

"I should thank you." He said as he bowed to Minami-san.

"Whatever for?"

"Oliver Davis finalised the deal with my brother." Naru said with a horribly cold look in his eyes. And any suspicions I had about what 'finalising' meant were immediately removed and replaced with a certain fact; this Oliver Davis had killed Naru's brother.

I wasn't sure what was more shocking; the fact that Naru had a brother, or that his brother must also be in this trade. Was assassination a family business? I snorted at the thought and Yasuhara-san looked around at me.

"Sorry." I whispered and Yasuhara-san laughed.

"Echigoya, might I have a word? You can bring your friend." Naru said and Yasuhara-san nodded. We left the hall and walked until we found somewhere that appeared private.

"What is this about?" Yasuhara-san asked.

"They have found the tape." He said and I frowned. He had agreed to me coming because they were going to talk in English. What a jerk.

"How?"

"Madoka just told me earlier it had been planted in your apartment, the detectives were suspicious of your finger and took your absence as an opportunity to take a look. You cannot return to work for the police if they know."

"Damn, I was enjoying it." Yasuhara-san suddenly seemed to realise something. "This means they will know why you are here. Even if they don't know who you are."

"Yes, that is another problem."

"We'll I'm just going to go to bed if you are going to talk about things I can't understand." I huffed and made to walk away from them both. Unfortunately, it's hard to walk fast in a damn kimono.

Naru caught my arm and dragged me back without even looking around.

"Thank you for introducing me to Minami-san." He said to Yasuhara-san.

"I thought you'd find that entertaining." Yasuhara-san was smirking.

"Highly." Naru looked down at me. "You did well today. You should both head to bed and don't forget to lock the door."

Naru left us and Yasuhara-san began guiding me back to our room.

"Are you going to explain any of that?" I asked hopefully.

"Nope."

Author's note: So I am not completely happy with the chapter, but the next one should be more fun!

Now in response to AmyNChan's little piece, I wrote my own semi-canon fanfic of this fanfic (FANFICEPTION much!) so please check it out. It's called An Alternative Hint. It's not a serious piece so take it all with a pinch of salt...

Now to reply to my "feisty" guest reviewers as one kind reviewer called them...

"Shut yo trap it was a mis take ! Rite more ok" Hi Amanda, telling people to shut their traps isn't very nice.

"Y UNO rite dih story lik naru came pan one mission and I'm meet Mia n dem fall in love n wen she fine out sah I'm a one assassin dem almost brake up n shi fine out sah shi pregnant n naru enemy dem want kill r mi mah sah yo story no sound gud but I wudda lik it dat way ok thank" Hi Kim, if you want such a story, pay someone to write it or write it yourself. I will not write my story your way.

And finally, I suppose I ought to let you all know that I have exams starting in less than two weeks and I really ought to do some work for them, so my update speed might reduce! I doubt it will by much because I love writing this too much! But if I go 3-4 days without updating as opposed to 1 day then don't be surprised!

And as usual, please review with your thoughts and predictions and questions!