A/N: This is it. The final chapter. I hope you guys enjoyed reading this as much as I did writing it! Hooooooollly crap this was so fun. I'll see you guys in book two!

Enjoy this chapter.

-Parker

---

A droning ring, on and on. It sounded like an alarm. Annoyed, she snatched the phone off of its stand and nestled it between her shoulder and her ear. Her long, black hair got caught between the ugly tan bit of plastic and her perfectly chiseled, pale white face.

"This is Akiyama." Her voice rang with impatience. "What do you want?"

An overly cheerful voice came through. "Akiyama! It has come to my attention that a member working under you has failed to complete their mission. Akarimoto, right?"

She hesitated, then answered slowly, cautiously, "Yes? What about her?"

"I'd like to assign you to her place. She failed in killing Fujimoto and Akiya-"

"Don't. Say his... his name." Akiyama's teeth clenched, grinding against each other. Her voice became a low growl as she continued, "He has nothing to do with me."

"...Okay, but she still failed in killing all three of them. The higher-ups have talked about it, and they want to send you in in Akarimoto's place. Will you-"

"I'm not going anywhere near that damn city with that monster still alive!" Her body grew tense as the man went on.

"They still need you there. Ikeda and Nagai quit, right? Something about the younger one's band, Forever Somewhere or something. So you're the only one left in the branch that controls that area who can do it."

"You can send Ryuu in there."

"He's just a kid! Besides, he knows who Ta... er, the Killer Boy is to him. He's only a kid." Akiyama sighed. "You can't tell him to do that, Maiko."

"I can't believe I'm about to say this, but... Since Ryuu is my son, and I do feel bad for him, I'll go."

"Great! Then-"

"But I'm taking Ryuu with me. He's bound to come across this kind of cruelty later in his life, so why not expose it to him now? The younger they are, the more likely they are to imprint from it, right?"

"...R-Right. I'll... call the travel branch, then."

Maiko suddenly smiled, and laughed into the microphone. "Only the best for me and my little Ryuu!"

The man laughed back. "Sure thing!"

A click.

Maiko whirled around in her chair to face a small, white-haired boy who stood just across the dimly lit room. "I don't care what they say, you're going in there and killing him. I don't want to even touch him."

The young boy nodded. On the outside, his face was stern, but inside... he was spilt. Either he obeyed his mother, who was the only family he had ever known his entire life, or he could save the Killer Boy's sanity and betray Maiko. Then again, he had only met him once, so... The answer was simple.

Kill the killer, and save the savior.

It was that simple, right?

---

"Ugh, this little town is so, so..." Maiko's foot tapped the air impatiently.

"Quaint?" Ryuu suggested, still staring out the window in awe.

"No, it's... it's sickening, that's it. All the little houses, and all the little people, and all the-" She broke off as the limousine passed a store with a female American name in bold, blue letters on the front. "Is that an American store?"

"Really? I wanna see!" Ryuu broke his gaze from his window and scrambled over to where his mother sat, on the left side of the limo.

"We've already passed it, sorry. Maybe we can stop on the way back, though," Maiko added after his red eyes lit with fiery rage. The fire died.

"Here we are, Ms. Akiyama," the driver said as the vehicle glided smoothly to a stop. A chug sound, then the engine silenced and the back door slid open. Maiko and Ryuu stepped out, Maiko sporting a businesswoman's stereotypical work uniform and Ryuu shroud in an old jacket with the Roman letters P, A, T, and D, with an exclamation point in between the P and the A. Ryuu had no idea what it meant, he just thought it looked cool. The hood on his jacket was thrown over his head to shield him from the sun. His shoes were red converse that were worn and had his scribbly handwriting all over the soles and toes.He looked a lot less official than the ever-stunning Maiko, with her black dyed hair and her piercing silver eyes. Ryuu would never say it to her face, but she was actually really scary.

The pair strolled into the building as if they were on some official business to buy the whole building and turn it into a giant five-star hotel or some foolish thing like that. Maiko quickly found that the layout was extremely confusing and hard to navigate, so, reluctantly, she ended up asking a few students where the office was. Finally, pride nearly shattered, she found the glorious sign which read "OFFICE" and marched in.

"Hello, ma'am! How may we help you today?" a smiling secretary with short, straight, chestnut-coloured hair bubbled.

"Why the hell is this damn school so confusing??" Maiko began to scream at the innocent woman, but Ryuu gently nudged her and cleared his throat.

"I-I'm sorry. I've had a rough day." Maiko sighed, regaining her composure. "I'm here for Tamotsu Akiyama. He's going home."

---

"Whatcha drawin' now?" Kokoa peered over my shoulder, weighing it down. I was drawing something that was none of her business, I wanted to say, but I didn't, for reason beyond me.

"I don't really know yet. It's someone I know, though. I think." I continued sketching the rough lines of her face.

"Is it... " Me? I heard her add silently. "...that girl you said sat behind you before I was switched out of your class?"

"Maybe. I dunno yet." The door to the art room swung open, and Makoto, an office aid who was in choir with me, bounced into the room holding a slip of paper. He walked up to Mrs. Arakawa, who stared at the paper for a second before opening her mouth to speak.

"Akiyama? You're going home."

I sighed and closed my sketchbook, gathering it and my other books up to leave the classroom. Makoto waited by the door for me.

"What does Yasu want now, do you think?" I asked him. He knew a couple of things about how Yasu could overreact.

"I don't think it's Yasu. Maybe his sister or something." He jerked his head behind him. "Don't look now, but you have a shadow," he added quietly. Goddammit, Kokoa.

"What'd she look like?" I asked. Fear churned in the back of my mind, but I pushed it down.

"She's got long, black hair, and she looks like she's the secretary of some weird guy." He paused. "There's this kid with her. He's kinda small, like a twelve-year-old or somethin'. He's wearing some weird old jacket. I dunno who they are, but they seem dangerous. I don't think you should go."

I knew who he was talking about right away. Maiko, that crazy lady that Kagerou was talking to, and that kid I saw way back when we got back from summer break last year. I didn't show it, though. "They don't sound dangerous."

"I dunno, man. They have this weird feel about them, like they're about to kill someone." I swear, if Makoto says "I dunno" one more time-

"Just... be careful, okay dude?" He walked past me as I stopped next to my locker, heading back to the office.

"You're... Tamotsu, right?" Maiko looked me over. "Your, er... guardian asked me to come get you."

"Yasu? He wouldn't send some shady woman and her weird-looking son to come see me. Even if he had just lost his legs, he would crawl on his hands all the way here to tell me what happened. Weird guy," I added under my breath. He was weird, but he was the only family I had.

Maiko finally noticed Kokoa. "Who is this?"

"I'm Tamotsu's sister," she added, as though she had rehearsed it a thousand times. I saw a flicker of amusement on Maiko's face, but it quickly died and she regained herself.

"Fine then. Come along."

WHEN DID I BECOME SO SOFT???

"He's, uh... just come with me. Ryuu can fill you in on the way." Maiko grabbed my hand and practically dragged me out through the door. I noticed a shining limo parked outside.

"Is that your ride?" I asked no one in particular, just sort of marvelling.

Ryuu, who I suspected to be the little albino kid, laughed. "Yeah, cool, right?"

Suddenly Maiko turned on Ryuu, her eyes gleaming frostily. Her voice was a low hiss. "Don't socialize with that monster, you insolent little-"

"Hey! He's a little kid, how's he supposed to know better?" I stepped in between Maiko and Ryuu. This earned me a powerful slap to the face.

"He was raised by me, that's how he's supposed to know." She stalked away angrily, her hand still wrapped in a death grip around my wrist. She haphazardly tossed me and Kokoa into the limo and stormed in after me, Ryuu following me.

"Tamotsu, you're so brave!" Kokoa gushed from the seat next to me. I shrugged.

"He is just a little kid. You would have done the same thing, too, I bet."

I felt something pull on my sleeve. "Tamotsu?" It was the kid, Ryuu.

"You're the kid who I s-" Ryuu quickly slapped his tiny pale hand over my mouth.

"Sh. No one's supposed to know about that," he whispered urgently. "It wasn't one of my official orders. I never really saw you."

Damn, this kid sounded old.

"So I'm sure that by now you know who the KAC are, right?" It wasn't so much a question as it was an accusation.

"Yeah. And I'm sure that you guys are part of them." My voice hardened a bit. Ryuu flinched.

"I was born into this. It's not my fault." He sounds like... me.

"So you guys are here to kill me or whatever?" I sighed and crossed my arms. "I don't care. I know I'm gonna come out of this alive, so you might as well just drop me off here and let me go back to school."

"They're going to kill you?" Kokoa's shrill voice was filled with concern and fear. Curse my foolish girl heart for wanting to go along!

"Ryuu!" Maiko barked from the shotgun of the limo. "Are you socializing with it?"

Don't call him an 'it.' "No, ma'am."

"Good. If you keep quiet, we can go see that American store afterwards." Why that was the reward for staying quiet, I didn't know. I wasn't about to ask, either.

"Tamotsu?" Kokoa's usually boisterous voice was now quiet, quivering. "What's going on?"

"I'm not so sure myself. Just... Try not to cause trouble, and maybe they'll let you go." True, many had died by my own hand, but I wasn't about to let myself be the indirect cause of death to someone, especially someone like Kokoa.

"Soup..." REALLY? NOW OF ALL TIMES??? "I... There's something you should know about me."

The limo screeched to a stop. The right door slid open, soundlessly and flawlessly as an owl's wing. Just outside the door was a bright green, leafy backdrop, a forest. The ground dropped away treacherously just feet away from the limousine, the slope covered in slick, young grass, ready to slide any unsuspecting human to their demise. The branches must have covered any stretches of road, for there was but slits of sunlight wandering on the ground. A leftover cold breeze from winter whispered into the car, sending a wary feeling down my spine. Reluctantly, I stepped out of the car.

The door slid shut with a jolting chk sound, making both me and Kokoa jump. Ryuu stared at me with a pitying gleam in his unnerving red eyes.

The limo scurried away almost the second we stepped out, leaving black tracks behind it.

And we were alone.

"Ryuu, get rid of the girl." Maiko had a sneering grin on her face, a murderous and bloodthirsty aura surrounding her. Ryuu's body went rigid as Maiko spoke, his pupils dilating and growing cloudy. He stepped closer, cracking his knuckles as he did. Then, out of the blue--

He stood directly in front of Kokoa.

Ryuu shoved Kokoa towards the cliff edge, her neck bleeding. She lost her balance, stumbled and tripped over a rock. Falling backwards over the edge, she tumbled down the steep ridge, her cries dying away as she fell farther. Finally, they came to a stop. The sounds of her body hitting the solid ground still continued.

"Now for your brother."

Something tightened around my neck, and I felt warm and cold all at the same time. Then I couldn't breathe...

And everything went black.