Eight: Spy AU

Ayano re-crossed her legs in her stiff leather chair and continued to stare at the monitor, its light reflecting green on the skin of her face. Thousands of hours of waiting and watching, alone, in this safe house, were about to come to fruition.

There, on the screen, Shintarou approached the photo on the shelf in Mary's bedroom. His eyes were widening in surprise, his hand trembling as he reached out to touch it…

Ayano winced as he fell to his knees, hard, clutching his head.

They'd both known it would be hard on him, being the sleeper agent. But two years ago, when the Snake terrorist cell's actions had finally forced her into hiding, the two of them had met with their best agent, a former Snake named Mary, and decided that having an ace in the hole was the Mekakushi Organization's only chance of success.

And so she'd watched, as he tortured himself with guilt over her faked death, as he lost contact with everyone and became a person she barely recognized. And she let it happen, because it was the only way to keep safe the younger siblings who only knew about a fraction of the danger they were in. They needed someone else who remembered all the tactical forecasts, all the ways this could go wrong and the one way to get it right—and, more importantly, they needed someone who knew where she was and how to get to it, but who wouldn't remember until the right moment. They needed someone that the Snakes would never even notice.

At first, she had considered Kano—but he was still so young, and entirely too close to the situation. Besides, he was very good at keeping secrets, and the Snakes knew it. He would have been the first one they tried to compromise—and, indeed, he had been approached, and was even now acting as a double agent in hopes of preventing the enemy from seeing the organization formed to oppose them as a threat. He had placed himself well, and Ayano was both proud of him, and utterly heartbroken at the thought of what her brother must be putting himself through.

Mary had been another option, but she was more useful as an activated agent. Mary's part seemed to be the easiest one in the plan, but in reality she had the challenge of secretly leading the movements of the Mekakushi Organization, guiding them toward the recruits they would need while steering them away from the secrets they weren't ready to know. A difficult task, but one she'd performed admirably thus far.

No, Shintarou had been their best option. And now, Shintarou had found the trigger they'd set to unlock the memories he'd forced himself to repress. It was the picture that Mary had hidden in her own room, in the deepest part of the Mekakushi Organization's headquarters, where Shintarou would not go until he was thoroughly involved in and trusted by that group. It could have been any picture, really, but Ayano had chosen one of herself and her siblings in a move of pure sentimentality. Even now, she was occasionally prone to them.

Now, things would start moving quickly. She would need to be prepared.

Ah, it had been so long since she'd been able to do field work…

A/N: The Mekakushi Organization is a spy organization, and Ayano is the shadow head of it, controlling all of its movements through her agent Mary. Between Ayano and the spy plotline, this might be my favorite AU in this collection.