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�The remaining Colonies had finally mastered their thoughts of containing complete iso-lation from the Earth. After the Special Force Agents dropped MX0331 Colony to Earth three years ago, killing almost the entire population, the remaining Colonies acted upon a Human�s natural instinct and shut off all exits and entrances linking the Earth and Colo-nies.
�Now three years later, the surviving Colonists are beginning to realize that the Earth is a graveyard with few people and more available resources then available on the Colonies. And so, slowly, people are going to explore, creating the city of Graceful Be-trayal, a small, but growing city in the mountains, where the sun has begun to shine and the grass grow green.�
The words echoed in his head as he watched out the window as the car drove down the road. �You listening to me, Akira? Hey,� the man hit him on the shoulder and the teen turned.
�What?� he narrowed his slate colored eyes. �I�m listening.�
�No, you�re not. I�m serious.� He stopped the car and Akira opened the door. �Get out of the car.�
Akira stood up, knocking his sunglasses back down over his eyes as he slammed the door shut with his foot. �Yeah, yeah,� he shouldered his backpack, adjusting it on his right hip and watched the car drive off. �Fuck you.�
Walking up the walkway towards the front doors of the school, he watched the two guys from behind his sunglasses. He knew them. Special Force Agents. Here to get him. Not today. He gripped the strap of his backpack and kept walking. He walked up to the doors and opened one of the two doors. Just as he passed under the arch, the two turned.
�Shi, Akira?�
He stopped and never turning, smiled. �Nani?�
There was a silence. He heard one of the two take a deep breath while the other sighed. �In English Jap!�
Akira turned, slowly. �I�ah�� he paused. �My eng�ish not that good.� He shrugged. �Gomen.�
One of the two men removed his sunglasses. �That�s bullshit kid! We know damn well you can speak English! Cut the crap and listen up!�
Akira sighed and picked up his back pack off his shoulder and set it on the ground next to him. The two Agents flinched to their guns and Akira blinked, taking notice. He stepped back into a guard stance and brought his arms up into a block. �Then, come on, let�s go. Omae o korosu! You�re just like the last two who attempted to get me. I�ll send you the same place I sent the last ni!�
�You can�t take on the both of us and with guns!� they both pulled their guns and Akira took a sweep kick, knocking the guns from their hands. They grabbed their wrists in pain and Akira spun around, with a second kick, to the neck of the closer man, drop-ping him. As soon as his foot settled, he dropped and grabbed the guns, leveling one against the other�s head.
�Stand up.� He looked down to the second guy, his voice cold and leveled the other gun at him as well. �Now!� he yelled and the two men jumped. He was actually thankful he had to get here early today. �I don�t want to get your brains splattered on the floor of my High school!�
The second man stumbled up and Akira lowered his eyebrows as he stepped for-ward, causing them to step back. He walked till they hit the doors, then they pushed them open. As they stepped out, they turned and ran for their black Sadan, but Akira fired two quick shots, killing both of them. He dropped the guns and turned back into the building.
He was mumbling incoherently, half in English and half in Japanese, as a teacher ran up to him. �Akira! I heard gun shots! Are you alright?�
�Hai�yes. I�m fine. It was me.�
The woman�s face dropped as she stared at the teen that stood calmly in front of her. She blinked and closed her mouth. �Why did you do that?�
He shrugged. �Daijoobu desu.� He walked past her. �Who else is here? I need to talk to Masuda-san.�
�She�s not here yet. Akira!� she turned as he stopped a few feet away to pick up his backpack. He looked up to her, but never said a word. �Wh�who was it?�
�Agents.�
Her face dropped. �What? As in the Special Forces? Why are they here?�
He sighed, but answered her questions anyway. �They�re here to get me. I�ll be leaving soon. With in the next few days. I have to go.� With out another word he walked off down the hall and up the stairs that were at the corner of the hall. He topped the stairs to the second floor as he heard the cop car siren on the ground floor. He turned a second corner in the hall and almost ran into a woman. He bowed slightly. �Sumimasen!�
The teacher smiled. �Ah, Akira, I was just coming to find you, I heard the gun shots.� She spoke in their native tongue of Japanese and Akira nodded. �Let�s go to my office.� She motioned back up the hall and turned, walking off. Akira followed quietly and closed the door behind him as they stepped into the office.
Um�� he said quietly and was thankful he could speak Japanese with this woman. �Masuda-san, there were two of them this time.�
She sat down at her desk and shut off the lamp, casting a dim glow. �There you go, Akira. Take off your glasses; you know I don�t like to talk to my reflection in your sunglasses.� She smiled with a laugh as Akira removed the glasses to his forehead. �Two, you say? Huh? This is serious.�
�What do you mean?� he took off his backpack and sat down in the chair. �I know this is serious. I really don�t like showing up here in the morning and having to kill a couple people that way I can go to class without worrying about ending up like that Jene kid.� He crossed his arms and snorted.
�Speaking of Jene,� Masuda-san opened a folder on her desk. Akira blinked, but stayed quiet. �You have been�no, that�s the wrong word. You are going to Earth. And there�s no say in it. I talked to the man who built the Twins and he said that they still ha-ven�t gotten their hands on Seid�.� She flipped over a piece of paper. �Steele Tekk�, on the other hand is still on the premises.�
Akira never flinched, but listened, half-heartedly to what Masuda-san was telling him. The last thing he wanted to do was stay here, he himself, was, what he had over-heard, was a creation called a Neoweapon, neither Human nor machine. But on the other hand, he couldn�t stay on the Colony and risk the lives of so many people. Damn! Why did it have to be this hard to make the decision?! And in the end he knew he would go to Earth, whether he wanted to or not, better to just give up in the beginning then worry about fighting it later.
�Are you even listening to me Akira?� Masuda-san leaned her hands on the desk. �I said you�re leaving later tomorrow.�
He snapped his attention back to her. �Gomen. No, I wasn�t listening. Tomorrow? Why so soon?�
She sighed. �That�s what I�ve been explaining to you Akira. Damn, why did we decide to make you a Class B, Jene was such a better listener then you.�
�Hey!� he jerked his thumb at his chest and leaned forwards in the chair. �I lis-ten!�
�Anyway,� her voice has a hint of sarcastic annoyance. �You leave tomorrow be-cause that�s the next flight to Graceful Betrayal and we said so.�
He stood up and his glasses slid to the end of his nose from his forehead. �Wakari manshita!� he picked up his backpack and turned for the door, flicking the glasses back up against his eyes. Just as his hand touched the knob, Masuda-san spoke. He turned to her.
�If you�re going to the Earth, you�ll want these.� She opened a small box to reveal two identical hand pistols. The pistols were completely silver, except for the black han-dle, where a silver metal plate had been screwed on. Akira blinked calmly and spoke.
He spoke in an exhale, �Soko wa watashi no pisutoru.�
�Yep, they both are.� She nodded and closed the box. �We had the second one made, but never gave it to you. That, too, has your name inscribed in the side of it.� She reached her arm out to hand it to Akira.
He took it slowly. �Arigato.� He bowed slightly again. �Tomorrow, then. Fine. Who will be there to take me.�
�I will.� She bowed back. �Get some sleep Akira. You�ll need it.�
He tucked the box under his arm and opened the door. �Yeah, right. Me sleep? I was going to stay up and watch the movie tonight.� Laughing, he closed the door and walked down the hall. He could, no he would make the most of his last day at this school. He walked to his locker and opened it to put the box inside. Just as he was about to close it, his friend, Yushiro, walked up to him. He looked at him from behind the sunglasses and made no attempt to hide the frown on his face.
�Why so bummed Akira?� he asked as he leaned against the lockers.
�No reason,� he lied. �Come on, we should get to class some time soon, before the bell rings.�
�Hey,� he stood up. �Do you know why the cops are out front, trying to figure out what the hell happened to those two Special Force Agents. I heard one say, they were murdered and at close range.�
Akira jumped as a locker slammed shut and he spun into a stance, only to see some under classman, pick up her stuff and walk away from the row of lockers. �Shit.�
�Man, you�re jumpy today, bud.� Yushiro laughed. �What�s going down with you?�
�Ha!� Akira walked towards his friend, who stood a few feet away. �Down is right, Yushi.�
�What do you mean?� he looked at Akira as they walked side by side down the hall. From the side profile, Yushiro could see that Akira was trained on something and focused, which was unusual for him. What was bugging him so much that he kept his eyebrows lowered into an angry, nervous look?
�Nevermind, Yushi, it doesn�t concern you.� He sighed. �Forget I said that.�
�Okay,� he paused as Akira opened the door to their classroom. �If you say so.�
The day passed normally for Akira, with the exception of the normal fight at lunch between him and one of the Seniors of the school, about who knew the martial arts better, him who had learned it since the day he was�born? Or this Senior, who had been taking it for the past few years. He paused and the Senior, also known as Yuki-Tora, the Snow Tiger, landed a punch on his jaw, breaking through his defenses. Akira flipped backwards and did a handspring, landing on his feet a good ten feet away. �Was I�?� he spoke quietly in his fluent English and waited for Tora to regain his over blown ego.
The Senior laughed. �I see today, you�re a little slow, Shi.�
Akira lowered his eyebrows. �Shut up.� He fell into a ready stance.
Tora laughed. �I�ve already broken your defenses once today, Shi, what�s wrong with you?�
�Lucky shot, don�t go jumping to the over all conclusion. Come, if you think you can handle me.� He smiled.
Tora, letting his ego blind him, took a running start for Akira, not even sure of an attack. Akira sighed calmly and brought his knee up to his waist, standing on his right foot. �No baka.� He said quietly and jumped into the air, switching feet and kicking Tora under the chin with his right foot and landed silently on the floor again as Tora landed with a hard thud. Akira spit in his hand and saw the blood from his mouth, where he was hit in the jaw. Wiping his hand on his grey pants, he looked down to Tora as the Senior attempted to stand up. �I warned you. I won your challenge again today.� He turned and walked off with Yushiro.
But the thought still bugged him. He knew nothing of his parents, if he even had any, all he knew of were Masuda-san and that guy who dropped his off this morning, and he didn�t even know his name. He sighed at his confusion and a �mmm� noise that sounded more scared and afraid then he would ever let on. Yushiro looked at him and raised an eyebrow. �You okay?�
Akira walked over to his locker and quickly timed the combination with out a word. He opened it and took out the box. Yushiro peered over Akira�s shoulder as he opened it, revealing the two pistols. He gasped and for the first time Akira realized Yu-shiro had been looking over his shoulder. �Shh, quiet.� Akira said as he picked up one of them and held it in his hand. �Same weight, hmm. Good.�
�What?� Yushiro�s eyes widened. �Same weight as what?�
�Hold this.� He handed the box to his friend and picked up the second pistol. He could have cared less that there were people in the hall watching him. �These, Yushi, are all I know. I don�t remember my parents, my childhood, nothing, I just woke up one day and Bang!� his sudden change in voice caused the students around him to jump. �I�m here. Class B, Subject D. Man do I wish I knew what that meant! You know your par-ents, or at least know you have parents. I don�t know if I even do.� He laughed. �I must, if I�m here, but the question still remains, am I��
�Akira!�
He dropped the guns to his sides. �Masuda-san!�
�Akira,� she walked up to the two boys and took one of the pistols from Akira. Or attempted to take it from Akira. He pulled his hand away and stepped back.
�Ah, no, you took these from me once, not again.� He spoke rapid Japanese.
Masuda-san scowled. �I see things are moving faster now then planned. You leave after school.�
�Fine.� He snapped back. �Leaving is just fine with me.� He matched the flare of anger into his words as she did her spoken Japanese. �You just be there.� He pointed at her with his index finger, his hand still wrapped about the butt of the pistol. �I�ll be wait-ing.� He took another step back and then turned to walk off.
�Akira!� Masuda-san stepped after him, but he turned and leveled the pistol out in front of him. He cocked back the hammer and lowered his eyebrows as he spoke. �You stop right where you are, Masuda-san. Not today. No more, you are not going to tell me to calm down and back off. I�ve listened to you long enough and if you don�t think I�ll pull this trigger�� he leveled the other one and cocked the hammer back. �Then I will on this one.� He cocked his head and with a sarcastic smiled bowed slightly and turned, walking off.
�Akira!� Yushiro ran to catch up and stopped suddenly as Akira turned. �Akira?� he repeated quietly.
�Yushi,� he said calmly. �You need to stay here. This doesn�t concern you.� He turned and bounded down the stairs leaving all he knew behind. It was stupid, to pull out the two guns in the middle of the school day, but something told him to do it. Some thing he had never felt before, some desire to hold them, feel the cool metal in his grip and�and pull the trigger. He had managed to over come that last part, but barely and it would have felt so damn good to have pulled it! But he couldn�t, not with Yushiro and the others there. They had never seen blood shed before and it was becoming a daily thing for him. But why all of a sudden were the Special Forces after him and why was Masuda-san sending him to Earth? And who was this Tekk� character? �Fuck it,� he kicked open the front doors to the school and ran blindly down the sidewalk. �I�ll found out soon enough.�
He skidded around the corner and ran down the side street to his home. But was it his home? With a growl of anger, he threw open the front door and ran up to his room, taking the stairs two or three at a time. Slamming the door shut behind him, he flipped through a book on the desk. His so-called journal of the accounts that had happened to him. He�d had one ever since he could remember and had wrote in it everyday, even if it was a word or two, his hand writing was sketchy, but he could still read it. He flipped to the first page of this newest one and read the lines.
Date September 15
Today was the best! I got into a fight with this Sophomore who calls him-self Yuki-tora. I so kicked his ass!
That�s no help! He slammed the book shut and turned again. There had to be something he was over looking, but what was it!? He looked to the mirror over the dresser and ripped off his sunglasses. The Log! That was it! The Log! It was in the base-ment�he took one step. The basement was locked. He rolled his eyes and looked to the items on the dresser. There was that lock pick he never used�maybe he should pack a bag of things to take with him to Earth�he picked up the kit and ran down the stairs.
He looked at the lock and for some reason he knew which piece to pick out. He pulled it out and picked up the lock. The door swung open on its hinges and he looked down the stairs to see a dark staircase as his eyes flashed. This time he would know for sure what his past was like! He blinked once as he entered the stairs and he could feel the Nucular Shine affects kicking in. He turned down the stairs and crouched on the landing. He could see clearly in the dark room, as black as it was down here, and he could see, sitting on the table, an open book�that was it. It had to be! He jumped down the stairs and flipped to the first page.
Age: 6
The Nucular Shine was a success and Akira has woken with no remem-brance of the occurrence, except that he complained a little that his eyes hurt. Masuda-san gave him a pair of sunglasses and sent him�
He flipped to the front of the book, slamming the cover closed. This was an inter-esting factor�he read the words on the front of the book.
Subject D: Shi, Akira
Type: Class B
No date.
No where.
None at all.
He picked the book up and ran back�he stopped. There sitting on the bench un-der the stairs was a bunch of small boxes. He walked over to them and picked one up. �Ammo?� he whispered. �Damn. This is too good to be true!� he turned and ran up the stairs to get a back pack together. He came back a few minutes later, sliding his sun-glasses to his forehead. He pushed a bunch of the boxes into his backpack, over the book and the lock pit set. He, at least would be one of the so-called Neoweapons to know about his history as sketchy as it may be. He closed the door upstairs as he heard a knock on the door. He slid his glasses on and answered it. �Yeah,�
It was Masuda-san.
�You ready to go?� she crossed her arms and leaned on the door frame.
�What about school?� Akira grabbed a long thin wooden case from by the door and walked past her and down the front steps, headed to her car, as if he knew no more then what had happened at the school. She closed the door and followed.
�I told them I was taking a half day.� She got in the car and started it, driving down the road. �I came to take you to the port so you could leave.�
�Lucky day for me. You get to see me off huh? That must be a thrill for you.�
�You know you can adapt quite the attitude when you want to.�
�And you can be quite the bitch when you want to be.� Akira snapped back and looked out the window. �Well, so much for me seeing Yushi again. I�m gonna miss him.�
�You�ll get over it.� Masuda-san turned a corner and Akira saw a sign that read some thing about the port being a few miles down the road. Besides he could see the building that led to the shuttles.
�You mean to tell me that in a period of three years, they have fully rebuilt a shut-tle landing runway.�
�A temporary one.� She looked at him quickly and turned back to the road. �Why are you bringing your sword? You�ll be on your own you know.�
�I know.� He crossed his arms, ignoring the question about his sword. That, too, was a part of him and he had had that ever since he could remember as well. �But I won�t be if this Tekk� kid�s gonna be with me. How old is he?�
�He is a she. And she�s your age, Akira. She�ll meet you down there, near the edge of the city. But be careful, there are many Agents down there. Some that will be-friend you and some that will betray you. Watch your back.�
�Yeah, yeah,� he got out of the car once she stopped. He turned and leaned his hand on the door. �Hik�ki wa itsu kimasu ka?�
�Not for a little while.� She watched as he stood up with out another word and slammed the door shut. He turned and walked off, taking no notice to anything, but at the same time everything because you couldn�t see what he was watching from behind his sunglasses. He walked past the double doors and into the lobby. He had been here once before, so he knew that no one watched as a guard of any type in the place. He could get in and to the shuttle with no problem and no body would ever notice him.
He took a deep breath as he walked to the area and sat down in an empty seat. There was a woman and her son sitting in the area as well. The small child looked up to Akira as he sat down and opened his backpack, taking out the book he stole from the house. The boy, no more then the age of six, stood up and walked over to Akira. He placed his hands behind his back and weaved on his feet. �My mom said that you shouldn�t wear your sunglasses inside a building.�
�Jakob! Leave the man alone!� his mother spoke up, almost horrified at his sud-den interest in paying attention to the rules. �Sorry sir!�
�Don�t worry about it. It�s actually fairly dim.� Akira took off his glasses and looked back at the kid. �There you go Jake.� He turned his head slightly and his eyes flashed with that night film covering, but Jake saw it.
He gasped. �How do you do that?!� he asked and turned to his mother. �Mom his eyes flash like Martha!�
The woman stood up. �Honey, a Human�s eyes can�t flash like a cat�s. It�s not possible. Now leave him alone and let him read his book.� She placed her arm on Jake�s and looked up to Akira as his eyes kept the light from the fixtures above. She, too, gasped and yanked Jake back to his seat. �Wha�what are you?�
Akira slipped his glasses back on and shrugged. �Honestly I don�t know.� He looked at the book in his hands. �I�m hoping this will give me the answers.� He put the book in his backpack and stood up. He clicked it shut with the snap and slung it over his shoulder. �The shuttle�s here.� He picked up his sword and walked off and down to the shuttle. He was surprised to see that no body came off the shuttle to the Colony, but it really didn�t bug him either way. He walked onto the empty shuttle and sat in one of the seats, setting his backpack next to him. Leaning back in his seat, he closed his eyes and drifted to sleep.
The voice over the intercom woke him some time later. He looked out the win-dow to see green. He closed his eyes again, but snapped them open and slammed his hand to the glass. �Fakka!� he grabbed his things and ran for the door of the shuttle. He jumped down the stairs and came to a sudden stop as he saw two Agents talking to a third. One pointed towards the shuttle and the others turned. �This is not good!� he turned and ran off towards the edge of the runway. The woods were this way, right where he needed to be.