Chapter 2 - Slip-up

Izumi pov:

"Needs more salt...." I mumbled and reached out to the salt shaker.

I added some salt into the curry in the cooking pot and stirred it while lowering the flame. I closed the lid to let it boil for a few moments while I got out a plate, a spoon and chopsticks as well as the rice and side dish that I had prepared for my lunch. It was a pleasant day with no running around on any errands or daily chores at the cafe. I had spent most of the morning at home, doing some cleaning that I had been putting off for quite some time now. I had also gone shopping to stock up on groceries that I was running short of. I had had the television on the whole time while switching between the news channel and history channel – two of my favorites – in which I happened to hear about the kid I had saved from the yakuza thugs only recently. He was safe and sound and undergoing treatment for the injuries he had suffered when he was kidnapped. His parents had had an interview with the media and they had thanked the PDST for helping them without giving any details of who really helped them.

I was glad for that because I didn't want to stir up any commotion. Well, I suppose I can't say that I hadn't stirred up any commotion because ever since I saved the kid and he mentioned to one of the investigators about a 'awesome girl dressed in full black clothes and wearing cool shades' saving him, they've been relentless in trying to find members of the PDST. More than anyone, Detective Hong has always been interested in the undercover services we offer to anyone, even giving concession in prices for the jobs depending on the financial status of the person requesting the job. He has been spending the last two years searching for us, hoping to find our undercover operations base and meet any one of us in person and figure out who exactly we are but all his efforts have been in vain. Too bad for him, eh?

Pushing unnecessary thoughts out of my head, I served the finished stew in a bowl and placed it on the big tray along with the rice, side dishes and cutlery. I walked to the couch in the living room and I took a seat comfortably. I reached for the remotes and turned on the TV to the local entertainment channel. There was a comedy show airing and I laughed every now and then while eating.

A few minutes passed and my phone rang musically. I glanced at the screen to see who was calling – it was Juri san. I didn't want this phone call to interrupt my meal so I put in my ear piece and answered the call while taking another bite of my rice and stew.

"Hey Juri san, what's up?" I asked as I looked back at the TV screen.

"Took you longer than usual to pick up my call....were you eating?" She asked as cheerfully as always.

"Yup." I said though my voice was slightly muffled because of the food in my mouth.

"Sorry about that, dearie. But this is important." She responded making me nod.

"A new mission, huh?" I asked nonchalantly.

"Yes....and one I believe that only you can handle."

I paused my chewing for a moment and looked to the side sort of lost in thought. If Juri san was saying that it was a mission she thought only I could handle, I knew it was a dangerous one with a lot of risk of getting caught. I was the best at being unnoticed but there were some missions where not getting caught was impossible. I suppose this was one of those kinds of missions and I would have to highly depend on my combat skills to keep myself safe and not get caught by the enemy.

"I see. So what is the mission?" I asked and went back to eating, though not as light heartedly as before.

"It's probably easier to tell you about it while you're looking at the details sent in to us. Once you're done eating, head over to the HQ. Oh, and you'll be working with Teddy this time so go over to him and he'll brief you over the mission." She said and didn't hesitate to cut the call after a cheerful goodbye.

"How sad for me....working even on my day off." I sighed dramatically and shook my head. "Alright, better finish eating and head over to HQ."

I finished up with my lunch quickly after the call and dumped the soiled dishes in the sink to wash later on. I changed into a neat pair of blue jeans and a mauve colored t-shirt before picking up my backpack and heading out of my apartment. I headed to the HQ on my skateboard, occasionally doing some pretty cool maneuvers that earned me gasps and praises in awe from the kids I passed by.

I walked into the cafe I worked at and to the service door at the back of the counter while giving Shuta san a friendly high five. I headed to the changing room and to the very last slightly larger locker at the back. Only Shuta san and I had the key for this locker and it was the entrance to the secret underground headquarters where the PDST operated. Thanks to the camouflaged planning of the entrance of the PDST, no one, not even the people working at this cafe suspected anything.

Once I was down the entrance chute, the glass doors of the travel capsule opened up to the lobby of our facility. I was greeted cheerily by the receptionist which I returned with a respectful bow and greeting because he was about two decades older than me and then proceeded to the hackers' department. I knew all of the hackers so I greeted all of them before meeting with Teddy at the very back. As usual, he was sitting with his huge gaming headset on and had a variety of food and snacks messily scattered over his work desk.

When I got close enough, I whacked him on the head with my hand earning a started yelp. Teddy whirled around in his chair to look at me while holding his head and I gave him a Cheshire grin.

"Yo!" I said and held up my hand in a peace sign.

"Jeez Izumi! You startled me!" He whined, now rubbing the slightly sore spot on his head.

I chuckled and shook my head before resting my arm on his shoulder and looking at all the stuff displayed on the four screens in front of him. "You should be more aware of your surroundings, Teddy Bear. Just because you have a desk job, it doesn't mean you can be so chilled out. You're a member of the PDST for crying out loud."

"Teddy Bear? Are you serious?? As if Teddy wasn't enough..." He sighed and I couldn't help but laugh.

Teddy was actually a nickname that all of us working here gave Masahiro about a year ago. He had come to work while carrying a teddy bear one day which all of us had found quite funny. He had bought it for his younger sister as a gift and planned to give it to her when he went to his hometown a few days later but he hadn't had enough time to go home to leave it there before coming to work. As a result, from the first impression of him carrying the stuffed toy into the PDST facility, he was given the nickname Teddy. We occasionally bugged him by calling him cuter names though, just like how I had done today.

"Sorry about that." I said still smiling amused. "Anyway, Juri san told me that we're going to be partners for this mission. Can I have a look at the details?"

"Sure thing, Zu." Teddy responded, calling me the rather friendly nickname I had been given by the others. Of course, there were times when 'Zu' became 'Zoo' and ended with the weirdest sort of teasing but that's a story to save for later.

I leaned over his Teddy's shoulder a bit as he opened the email request we had received. I glanced through it for a brief moment, looking mostly at the words that seemed important and skipping explanations that I found to be unnecessary. I also checked the pay that they were offering for the job. It was quite a lot – in fact, it was much higher than the pay I had received for any other job before this. That was hint enough that this mission was going to be a troublesome one.

"Another investigation and e-data collection job, huh? And it's tonight too – that's quite short notice. So where exactly is this Marine Dunes the client has mentioned?" I asked and leaned away from the monitors so I could look at Teddy.

"It's a ship." He responded evenly.

"A ship?" I asked with a laugh. "I've had clients ask me to infiltrate big corporate companies and organizations to collect information....but a ship?"

"Apparently, it's a cruise ship on which some really socially high ranking person is holding a party and a lot of famous people are attending. The party is just a cover up to transport the important e-information we have to get which I'm guessing will be stored in the lowest cargo storage of the ship. You'll have to sneak into the ship, get to the cargo storage unnoticed and get the information the client wants." Teddy explained. "You shouldn't have a problem getting onto the ship but you'll have to be careful to not be seen during the entire cruise....it's a four hour cruise from Tokyo to Kyoto. Think you can handle it?"

"What sort of question is that? Staying unnoticed is my forte, Ted. Don't tell me you've forgotten that." I retorted with a huff. "You're going to be there to take care of any surveillance cameras so getting in and out of the ship will be a piece of cake. Besides, the party is in the evening so the darkness will help me camouflage."

"That's true but this ship is for VVIP's. It's not just the surveillance cameras we have to worry about but the swarming bodyguards and men with guns." Teddy said not quite happy with my relaxed attitude.

"Stop being such a worry wart. You handle the cameras and I'll handle the bodyguards. Knowing them, they're all probably all bark and no bite – just a bunch who think they can fight but just randomly flail their arms and legs unaware that they look hilarious. I can take them on no problem!"

"I suppose you can handle the situation...but a piece of advice, Zu: you have to be extra careful and keep an extra low profile. You won't have any place to run if you're caught – you'll be surrounded by water and will be too far from the shore to swim to safety. If you're caught, everything is over." He said very seriously.

"I know that. Don't worry, I'll be careful." I replied while nodding my head. "So, what time do I leave?"

"I guess you can leave in about two hours. The party starts at seven so you should get onto the ship at six – before it departs and before it's thriving with security guards." Teddy suggested.

"Alright, whatever you say." I mused with a laugh and plopped down on the seat beside him.

I spent the next hour helping Teddy with organizing some details of the mission after which I took a shower and got into my usual black work clothes. I pocketed my phone, equipped myself with all that I needed for the mission and put on my glasses before heading to the garage of the PDST. Teddy sent me off with a 'good luck' and I took off towards the harbor where the cruise ship was on one of the many bikes that the company lent to its gofers on any mission. When I was close to the harbor, I parked my bike in an inconspicuous spot and got onto slightly higher ground. I zoomed in on the ship by pressing one of the buttons on my glasses so I could see who all were attending, how many security guards were there checking the invitees and patrolling the ship and of course where the important e-information was being stored. There were more people standing guard at the entrance of the storage on the lower deck of the ship – I'm sure that was where the e-information I was looking for was kept and I had to get in there without any of those men spotting me.

"Teddy, are you ready? Keep a lookout on those annoying cameras for me." I said and headed towards the front of the ship.

"I'm already on it." He said making me smirk just a tiny bit.

I headed to the chip quietly while looking around to make sure there weren't any people at a close enough distance from where they could spot me. There were a few crates on the harbor that gave me the hiding place I needed and I maneuvered through them until I was right next to the ship. However, I had to bolt behind the nearest wooden crate, crouching on one knee and hiding out of view when two men walked onto the front deck of the ship with torches and flashed them around the harbor.

"I've taken care of the cameras on the harbor but you'll have to get me connected to the ship's main control board to work quickly on the ship's surveillance cameras. Did you get onto the ship yet?" Teddy asked.

"I'll get on in a minute. Just waiting for the coast to get clear." I said while narrowing my eyes at the two men just a few feet away from where I was hiding.

"Alright, this side looks clear. Let's head back to finish up boarding the passengers. We can send some of the newbies to keep a lookout here until we depart." One of the men said to the other and they headed to the middle deck of the ship where the passengers would get on.

While they were instructing some other younger looking security personnel standing close to the middle deck, I jumped from the wooden deck of the harbor and onto the ship, crossing the gap between the two with much ease, and rolled once on the floor of the ship to lessen the impact of my landing on the hard surface. I got up swiftly and walked around the pool, towards the control room and into the shadows to camouflage. I looked around for a moment to spot the surveillance cameras around the doors of the control room.

"Three cameras. How much time do I have?" I asked in a barely audible voice.

"I can hold off the video feed for ten minutes at max. You'll have to be quick at getting past them when I give you the signal." He responded and I gave a slow nod. "Three, two, one....go!"

Pulling my hat down a bit, I headed into the control room while passing the three cameras as quickly as I could. There were two people in the main part of the control room who I guessed to be the men working under the Captain of the ship. I deadpanned at them realising that there was no way I would be able to find my way around the ship without accessing the digital controls and these two were in my way. I chuckled softly to myself after a moment though and reached for a pebble I had in my bag. I always carried them because they were great tools for distraction and most people were stupid enough to fall for it.

I waited for a few moments, watching the two of them intently while fiddling with the pebble in my hand. When they were busy laughing at a joke one of them cracked, I threw the pebble at the glass window on the opposite side of where I was standing before concealing myself behind the door. The glass didn't shatter but the sound that came was loud enough to get their attention.

"What was that?" One of them asked sounding a little startled.

"Dunno, mate. Could it be a bird or somethin' that hit us from the outside?" The other asked and they walked to the glass to get a closer look.

I took the chance to get into the control room and close to the controls of the ship. Pulling out my phone and the USB cable I had ready in my pocket, I connected it to the control board and hid out of sight of the two men. I had just enough time from their distraction to have Teddy download all the information about the ship, it's unregistered surveillance cameras and the location of the main storage where the electronic data was being transported. Just as the Captain of the ship walked into the control room with his two subordinates, I slipped out of there and made my way down the outer corridor of the ship.

"Good job, Zu. Just like always!" Teddy cheered making me grin.

I stayed standing in a small dark niche for a couple of minutes, looking over the map of the ship that had been downloaded by Teddy and sent to me for reference. The engine of the ship revved the life and we began to sail away from the harbor. When we were a good distance away from any sort of lighting, I proceeded with my mission.

Finding the cargo room was easy enough thanks to the map of the ship being displayed to me on my smart glasses. They were the latest version of smart glasses on which I could read emails, take pictures, zoom in on things in the distance that I wanted to see and of course, give my partner live footage of whatever I was seeing in front of me when required. I also had a ring on my left thumb that was connected to my cell phone via Bluetooth so I could answer calls by pressing a button on it when I didn't have time to pull out my cell phone or had to be inconspicuous.

Getting in and out of the cargo room too was quite easy. There were a few people guarding the entrance of it but none guarding the ventilator that opened up to the main deck. I was able to get in through that thanks to my slim and flexible build and since there was no one inside the room guarding the computers and e-storage there, I let Teddy hack into it through my phone, get the information we needed before being on my merry way out of the cargo room. Of course, I couldn't leave the ship because we were in the middle of deep waters right now so I decided to find a good spot to watch the stars in until the cruise was done.

Darting my eyes around and being well aware of my surroundings, I walked towards the front of the ship again – it was the least crowded area since the gathering and partying itself was happening at the back. There were bound to be a few guards but I'm sure they wouldn't be any problem to get past.

"Hey! Who are you? What do you think you're doing here?" I heard a male voice call out from behind me. I stopped walking and brought my mask up cover the lower half of my face with a sigh.

"Just when I thought everything was working out perfectly...." I mumbled and turned to face the guy while activating the shades of my glasses.

"What's with your appearance? Who do you think you are, coming here dressed like that? And who let you on board? This is a cruise ship arranged for VVIPs, not punks like you!" He barked gruffly.

"You're so noisy, old man. And that's too many questions at once." I said and shifted on my feet while putting one hand on my hip. "And be a little nicer, would you? I'm not a punk. Do I honestly look like that to you?"

"What did you say, brat?! You're going to regret sneaking onto this ship!" He barked, glaring at me murderously.

"Looks like things just got troublesome, Teddy." I muttered when the guy whistled, probably to call his buddies, before running at me with a pocket knife.

I dodged the knife fluidly though it missed my face by a mere inch. I shifted backwards while continuing to dodge the attacks he threw at me with his knife or in the form of punches and kicks. However, I couldn't keep dodging for long because we were joined by about five more men all dressed as bodyguards. Upon seeing me, they yelled out curse words and ran at me to fight me along with the first guy.

I mentally groaned but struck back this time. I rewarded the men with painful hites, even sending one of them plummeting into the water of the swimming pool. In between dodging their random flailing of hands and legs – they didn't seem to be trained in martial arts at all and merely had brute strength and no skill just like I had expected – I ran to the very front of the ship to avoid any unnecessary run-ins with the VVIPs gathered at the back. Just as I was about to jump down from the upper deck to the lower deck, I was confronted by another rather hefty looking guy. He couldn't stall me though and I did a side flip, jumping over him before landing on the lower deck. He followed suit, not with a cool side flip like me though, and I immediately turned three sixty degrees to kick the guy across the face causing him to stumble back.

His moment of being unguarded was enough for me to continue my retaliation. I kicked him in his gut and he fell to his knees gasping for air like a fish out of water while holding the sore spot.

I turned around upon hearing more hurried footsteps to see a bunch of other men who had spotted me running at me to strike. I rolled my eyes because I noticed that two of them were quite plump and we're having trouble even running to me. They were huffing and puffing and sweating buckets and there was obviously no way they had what was necessary to be a good bodyguard. How were these guys going to fight me anyway? Squash me under their weight??

I laughed to myself at the thought and ran to them to meet them mid way on the deck. I got to one of the chubby guys first and hit him with my elbow on his collar bone knowing that any other spot wouldn't hurt as much because of the flab. He choked and I used the chance to shove him back with my body weight. As he fell back onto his rear, he held onto the sleeve of my jacket and pulled me down with him. Thanks to his pot belly, my landing was cushioned and I rolled off of him before standing and tackling the others.

"Oi oi! Stop fighting, you lot!" A voice called out after a few moments making all of us pause out scuffle.

I was still surrounded by the guards but I turned to face the guy who had just spoken knowing quite well from his tone and the way these guys froze up that I wasn't going to be attacked any time soon. This guy was probably the boss and his orders had to be followed, right?

"You lot are so useless! How can it be that so many of you can't take on one little kid?!" He barked while taking a step forward and then looked at me with narrow eyes. "Then again, it's not really very surprising that you all got beaten so easily. And perhaps it's a good thing too....I've wanted to get a closer look at this kid."

"Uh, Boss? You know her?" One of the men asked dumbly.

"Tch! I still wonder how you all became bodyguards...." The man said irritated and I couldn't help but snort out a laugh.

I received glares from the bodyguards but they didn't attack me because they hadn't received permission to do so yet.

"You're from the PDST, aren't you? Seeing you here would mean that you've come under someone's request to steal the information we're carrying on this ship. Am I wrong?" The boss spoke again.

"Waah....I'm surprised." I said with a poker face and in a rather placid voice.

This guy was what anyone would call intimidating. He was tall and quite broad with dark hair, a moustache and beard and sinister dark eyes. He had a thick cigar held between his teeth from which a line of smoke rose to the air. He occasionally sucked in the smoke and let it out of his nose and mouth. He wasn't all that intimidating to me though. I had been around all kinds of people, fought against all kinds of opponents and confronted financially and physically powerful people before. Having to face another one didn't faze me in the least.

"You don't look all that surprised to me, kid." The boss said with a gruff chuckle, more smoke being puffed out of his mouth in the process. "Under whose request did you come here? Who's your client? What does he plan to do with the information you've got your hands on, huh?"

I looked to the side with a laugh. I adjusted my glasses and shifted my weight from one foot to the other before looking back to the guy with an amused smile. "It's our policy not to dig into the details of our clients, especially what they plans to do with the information of loot they request us to get for them. Seeing how you've heard of the PDST and recognised me as one of its members without much effort, I was expecting you'd know how we work as well. Guess not." I responded coolly with a shrug.

"Not dig into details, huh? If you think I'm going to believe that, you're wrong, kid." The boss said while clicking his tongue and taking another step forward. "You'll talk once we capture you and interrogate you. We know how to make criminals talk and let me tell you, it isn't going to be a pleasant experience."

"Criminal?" I asked with a chuckle. "I think you've mixed up the facts. I'm just an errand-runner."

"Of course, of course!" He said chuckling as well and narrowed his eyes with a malicious smile. "You know, I'm feeling rather generous today so I'll give you one more chance to stop resisting and fighting my men and let us take you into custody nicely and gently. If you fess up, JK sama may even consider sparing your life and letting you work for him. We'll pay you handsomely if you become our ally."

"Oi Ossan." I called out making him twitch slightly annoyed at the way I called him. "I don't take orders or charity from people and I most definitely don't have any obligation to accept your generosity. So my answer to your suggestion is, 'No'. That means I have no intention of going with you or becoming your 'JK sama's' subordinate."

"You're really going to regret saying that, girl!" He said narrowing his eyes dangerously.

I raised a brow behind my glasses as we had a short staring contest. Neither he nor his men made any move and my lips twitched, threatening to break into an amused smile. The boss too realised that his men were at a loss of what to do and he sighed exasperatedly.

"What are you numbskulls still gawking at her for?! You're supposed to catch her now! What kind of idiots do I have working for me, ones who can't even get the hint when I say something?!" He barked after which the scuffle between me and the six guards resumed. "And make sure you catch her in one piece and alive. She's no use to us if she's dead."

I chuckled at the boss's yelling and worked my way through the guards while dodging their kicks and punches and even potentially serious hits from a wooden staff. I rewarded them with hits in return, most of which was painful enough to keep them on the ground and no longer able to fight me. I knew that I couldn't fight these guys forever though – there was even a possibility that more of them would turn up to subdue me and I would definitely be in trouble then. I was good at fighting and getting away from any sort of trouble but with the restricted space of the ship's deck as well as the lack of dark places to camouflage into, I had to finish this as quickly as possible before finding a place to hide for the rest of the trip.

"We're not going to let you escape! And there will be no place for you to hide on this ship! I'll be making sure of that!" The boss hollered as if having read my mind.

I merely scoffed as I ducked to dodge a three sixty degrees kick sent by one of the guards. I kneed him in the gut when he landed and shoved him back, making him fall into his rear with a yelp. I leaned back avoiding a clumsy punch from another guard before hitting him with my knuckles on his neck causing him to choke slightly and bend over while gasping for air. I used the chance to hit my heel against the back of his head and leave him lying unconscious on the floor.

"Argh, this is starting to get annoying!" I said because of what seemed to be a never-ending scuffle and looked around for a brief second.

I spotted an opening on my right and I bolted in that direction deciding to invade the party at the back of the cruise ship and use it as a distraction to find a place to hide. Of course, not that I would be able to hide in the same place throughout the cruise because the commotion I was planning to cause was sure to make the host of this cruise party tighten security and have every single one of his men sent out to search for me. But I had to take the chance.

"Oh no you don't!" The boss yelled as I ran to the outer hallways on the side of the ship, coming to a stop a little harshly against the railings.

I stumbled back and away from my destination when I heard a gunshot from the boss. The bullet whizzed past me, missing my nose by a mere inch. I wasn't so lucky when he fired again though – the bullet left a slightly deep bleeding cut on my right arm. It hurt like crazy and I cursed under my breath while applying pressure on the wound to help clot the blood.

I moved away from two guards who came to fight me again while keeping an eye on the boss and the gun he held in his hand. He had it aimed at me but he didn't shoot. Unfortunately, I was concentrating more on him and the two men I was currently fighting so I didn't notice another guard come up to me with a wooden baton in his hand. It was only when I felt a very hard blow on my back did I realize my distraction had cost me greatly today.

The impact of the hit along with the throbbing of my arm caused me to lose balance. I was right next to the railings so despite flailing my arms to prevent from toppling over, I fell back over the railings and into the cold water of the ocean. I could hear the men from the ship yelling even though I was underwater and the boss was scolding his men for letting me fall out of their grasp. I broke through the surface of the water as quickly as I could while gasping out of breath, feeling a weight on my chest because of the extremely low temperature of the water as well as the seemingly increased throbbing of my arm.

I wasn't able to stay above the water for long though. A powerful wave pushed me under the water again and the currents only pulled me deeper. I couldn't breathe and the surface of the water kept getting farther and farther away. I could feel the pressure of the water due to the increasing depth but I could do nothing more than helplessly flail my arms and legs in hopes of getting to the surface again.

After a few seconds, the force that was pulling me and holding me down seemed to lessen and I immediately swam up to the surface. I sucked in air almost in a wheeze when I was greeted by the air before coughing and taking quick raspy breaths to get enough oxygen into my burning lungs.

I looked around while turning off the shades of my glasses and moving my wet hair out of my face. I spotted land a little away from me and I swam towards it, ignoring the pain through my arm because of the cut left by the gun shot. When I made it to the shore, I crawled forward on the sand to put some distance between me and the raging waters of the ocean. When I felt like I was far enough, I collapsed on my front with my eyes closed and still breathing heavily, least bothered about the sand against my face or the salty taste of the ocean water in my mouth.

I laid there for a few minutes to catch my breath. When my breathing had returned to almost normal and the throbbing in my limbs from swimming against such a strong current eased out, I pushed up on my arms and sat on my knees while looking around. I noticed that I was on a slightly rocky shore and there was a wooden building in the distance that looked like a large watch tower. It's four corners at the top were lit by fire torches and I was even sure that there were several people in and around it, few carrying smaller fire torches themselves and seeming to scout the area. I also glanced at the ocean behind me but I couldn't see the cruise ship from which I had fallen overboard even though I had swam from where I fell to this land rather quickly. The cruise ship should have been visible to me, right?

"What in the world?" I asked more to myself before touching my ear piece. "Oi Teddy! Are you there? Can you hear me? Teddy!"

I got no response from him even after several minutes and I pulled out the ear piece so I could look at it. I looked at it while turning it in my fingers and frowned. My phone was sure to not be working thanks to being dunked in ocean water and the current had washed away my backpack so this little earpiece was the only way I could communicate with HQ at the moment.

"Don't tell me this thing is broken! The company paid a lot of money for this and it's supposed to be waterproof!" I complained and put it back in my ear again. "Teddy can you hear me?! Hello, say something!"

Thoroughly displeased, I pulled out the earpiece and threw it onto the sand in front of me. I ran my hand through my wet hair, grimacing at the slightly sticky feeling before looking around me again.

"I have no idea where I am...." I muttered annoyed. "I should find some place to dry off first and then find my way back to the main road. At least things can't get any worse than they already are."

"Who goes there?!"

"Ah, looks like I spoke a bit too soon...." I grumbled and stood up while picking up the earpiece.

I looked to the side from where I had heard a voice and I narrowed my eyes upon seeing a guy dressed in primeval armor holding up a torch in one hand and a katana in another. He was watching me sharply though I'm sure he couldn't see me clearly because of the dark.

I didn't want to get into any sort of mess so I ignored the guy and sprinted off into the trees in the side. He chased after me for a bit but lost sight of me when I climbed up into a tree and hid in between the leaves. He soon gave up and went away so I fell back against the tree trunk with a sigh. I was a little tired and in no mood to think or search for the main road at the moment. Besides, I had a feeling that the odd looking guy would be looking around me for a while and I didn't want to end up fighting him after everything that had happened.

Heaving another sigh as I looked at the moon and the stars that shone brightly in the sky, I settled in for a short rest.

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Well! Izumi sure got herself into some trouble, didn't she? She did a good job of standing up against the bodyguards but she couldn't do so well against the boss. It's not really fair of the boss using a weapon though, right?

She received a harsh and painful blow and fell overboard. Thank goodness there was some land close by, wasn't it? But....the cruise ship has disappeared and she met with a very strange looking guy. What's going on???

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