Streets of Seclusion by Ali
Summary: A tale from Ken's past, when he was still a boy and living with a group of other orphans in a place where the streets could be lethal.
Categories: Gatchaman, Battle of the Planets Characters: Dr. Kozaburou Nambu, Jinpei, Joe Asakura, Jun, Ken Washio, Original Character
Genre: Action/Adventure, Angst, Drama
Story Warnings: Strong Language, Violence
Timeframe: Prequel
Universe: Alternate Universe
Challenges: None
Series: G-Force Alternate
Chapters: 16 Completed: Yes Word count: 26499 Read: 48964 Published: 05/26/2007 Updated: 05/26/2007

1. Chapter 1 by Ali

2. Chapter 2 by Ali

3. Chapter 3 by Ali

4. Chapter 4 by Ali

5. Chapter 5 by Ali

6. Chapter 6 by Ali

7. Chapter 7 by Ali

8. Chapter 8 by Ali

9. Chapter 9 by Ali

10. Chapter 10 by Ali

11. Chapter 11 by Ali

12. Chapter 12 by Ali

13. Chapter 13 by Ali

14. Chapter 14 by Ali

15. Chapter 15 by Ali

16. Epilogue: Six Years Later by Ali

Chapter 1 by Ali
Streets of Seclusion
Disclaimer: slight use of racist remarks. I apologize for any offence.




   "Just this once, okay, Eddie? Let's try to get home without running into any trouble."

Eddie Varlhet laughed out loud next to him. "Jeez, Ken, I thought you liked trouble." He nudged his best friend with a playful elbow to the ribs. "You live for trouble."

Ken Shimada gave his partner-in-crime a shove back and readjusted his backpack on his shoulder. "Just this once I'd like to walk back home at a regular pace with nothing to worry about."

"Sure thing. Whatever suits you."

Walking side by side, the two fourteen-year-olds looked as physically different as night and day. Ken had the fair untarnished skin of a Japanese, deep blue eyes and a mop of dark hair he kept long in the back. He was still mostly long legs and slenderly built, having yet to fill out. Eddie, in contrast, had smooth dark skin and tight coffee-colored curls on his head, marking him of his African-American blood, bright brown eyes and he looked as though he had perhaps been stealing parts of Ken's share of food, given his firm build and good muscle. They had been best friends since they could remember, having been together at Shimada Guard for a good part of their lives. They rountinely walked to school and back together, not only out of habit, but also upon Kikei's insistence.

And just as routinely, walks home never could avoid trouble for long.

Ken stopped in his tracks. "Oh crap."

"What?"

Ken nodded towards the kids ahead of them. Older, bigger, and with the all the brands of the Serpents gang. "Them."

Eddie looked in the direction and groaned. "Damn. We turn around?"

"They've seen us already," Ken whispered as the group of boys came towards them. "We turn and we'll be in a chase."

"What if we crossed the street?"

Both boys looked over at the busy street, cars moving non-stop beyond the city speed limit. They were blocks away from any cross-junction. Ken turned to his partner. "Not if we want to be roadkill."

Eddie clutched Ken's sleeve, slowly backing away with him. "They're closing in..."

"Play it cool, Eddie." This he'd said when his heart was about ready to explode.

"Guys, looks like little West Siders!" one greasy-haired boy called to his friends. He looked directly at Ken and grinned maliciously. "A nigger and a pretty-faced girly-boy!"

Ken felt his temper rise. He was known for his patience, his quiet calm, but now and again he had his own moments of fire. This time it was more the insult towards Eddie than the one towards himself that ired him. "Watch your language, bud," he said, his voice determined. "You just used a

very foul word."

A boy from the back poked his head in. "Yep. That's a girly-boy all right!"

He felt his fists clench. He hated his voice. It was still in the stages of cracking properly, which was why he didn't talk as much as he used to.

"C'mon, guys, let us pass," Eddie said.

The biggers kids seemed to loom over them now. "Sure. Pay up."

Ken rolled his eyes. "Great. You just *had* to ask, didn't you, Eddie?"

"Sorry..."

Ken reached into his pocket and brought out whatever small change he had left. And he dropped it all on the ground.

Eddie couldn't hide the grin on his face if his life depended on it.    

The greasy-haired kid was about to bend down and pick up the money when Ken stopped him. "No, no, I wouldn't want you to to have to do that," he said in the most innocent tone he could pull off. "It would look pretty stupid for a Serpent like you to be bending in front of me, now wouldn't it?" He quickly went down to collect the coins scattered on the ground.

The Serpent beamed. "See, guys? This kind of authority, I like."

Ken raised his eyes a little, smiling. Once he got all his money back, he scooted back on his heels and ran. "Eddie, c'mon!" Eddie took off after him.

"Hey, get back here you little bastards!" But he couldn't move two paces before he stumbled and fell over his shoelaces that had been tied together.

Eddie managed a glance back, saw the melee that just happened. "Way cool! How'd you do that?"

"They don't call me 'Lightning Ken' for nothing, you know," Ken replied. He looked back and saw the other boys coming after them. "They're gaining on us, Ed."

Eddie looked back again. "Yep. That they are. Do we split up?"

"Next junction, we split."

They ran faster and faster, hoping to reach a breakaway point where they could split and perhaps even things up. Both boys had grown into their school's top athletes for a very good reason: going home was a strenuous physical workout for them.

"Where do we meet up again?" Eddie called as they neared a junction.

"The big park in the tree!" Ken caught himself. "I mean, I mean, the big tree in the park!" And he broke away from Eddie's side.

Eddie was laughing. "I love it when you're messed up, Ken!"

"Shut up and run!"

There were four kids chasing them before; now it was evenly split in half, two for Ken, two for Eddie. Eddie cut across the street and ducked into an alleyway, hiding behind a dumpster. He kept his ears open for the two thugs chasing him.

"I think he went this way!"

"We'll whup that little nigger!"

Eddie heard them running closer. He counted to ten before he kicked the dumpster out of the alley and onto the sidewalk. He heard two audible 'clunks' before there was silence. Walking over to the other side of the dumpster, he found the two boys semi-conscious after colliding with the dumpster that had seemingly appeared out of nowhere.

"Don't call me 'nigger', understand?" he said before taking off for the park.


   Ken wasn't having it easy. He ran for blocks and blocks already but he still couldn't shake them off. He cut through the children's playground, and saw a group of girls playing double-dutch. And he knew two of them. "Keisha! Susie!"

They turned and waved. "Trouble again, Ken?"

"Like what else is new?" Ken darted right through their jump-ropes and signaled towards the two chasing him. "Gimme a hand?"

Keisha smiled. "Sure. We owe you, anyhow."

"You got our kite down for us the last time."

The two thugs tried to get past the jump-ropes, but Keisha and Susie pulled it taut, and they tripped. Then they took off before the boys could direct any attack at them.

"Domo arigato!" Ken yelled from far ahead. And he quickly made his way to the park.                  


   Ken scrambled up the tree like a squirrel before settling down on a branch sheltered by thick foliage. He rested on the trunk, breathing hard. "Eddie?"

"Yo?" On the other side of the trunk, Eddie sat slumped, perspiring, trying to catch his breath. "And how did you do?"

"Didn't do a thing. Now I owe Susie and Keisha again."

"Jump-rope?"

"What else?" Ken choked on a breath for a moment before continuing. "You used a dumpster?"

Eddie sat up. "How'd you know?"

"You need a bath, man. I can smell you from here."

And both boys laughed.





           to be continued...
Chapter 2 by Ali
Streets of Seclusion



"So what's homework like for you today?"

Ken sighed as they walked down the street heading for home, taking the what had to be the longest short-cut in history to get home. "The usual. A double payload of everything you can name."

Eddie shrugged, feeling sorry for his partner. "Advanced class must be tough, even for you, huh?"

"I just don't see the point of it," he said. "I mean, where am I going that I have to finish school so fast?"


"Let's put it this way, Ken. The rate you're going, you're gonna graduate by the time you're sixteen. Then you can get outta here. Leave Seclusion."

Ken lifted his gaze from where it had been locked on his shoes for the past while. "Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"

Eddie looked around them for a moment. The buildings were desolate in this part of Seclusion. Trash in the streets, people in the streets, and after sundown, the same lively streets were dead for fear. The city was barely surviving; it was only pride that kept it alive as it was. "Look around you, Ken. You don't deserve this."

"Neither do you, Eddie," he replied tersely. "No one in Seclusion does."

"But this is the way it is, pal," Eddie said. "Take it or leave it."

Ken shook his head. "It's home, Eddie, and I can't, and won't leave it." They walked on in relative silence, and Ken only stopped for a moment when they passed the florist.

"What's up?"

Ken stood there for a little while longer before he asked, "What day is it today?"

Eddie scratched his head. "Umm... Thursday. Why?"

"Wait here." Ken walked into the florist shop, leaving Eddie outside. He slid through the door slowly, not wanting to jar the tiny bell that hung over it. He moved inside slowly and quietly, before calling, "Atsuko-san?"

A tall young woman popped up from behind the counter, holding a delicate bouquet of carnations in her hands. "Ohayo gozaimasu, Ken-chan," she said, her voice sweet and clear. "Is today the day again?"

He nodded slowly. "Actually, I've missed two days already."

"Oh, it's all right," Atsuko consoled. "I'm sure she wouldn't mind. She knows what you've been up to, anyway. You know that, of course."

"Yes, I do." He eyed the long black braid that trailed down Atsuko's back, finding the ribbon coming off. "Atsuko-san, your ribbon..."

She turned around and lifted the end of her braid up. "Mm. Thank you." As she retied her ribbon, she saw Ken busying himself with finishing up the bouquet she had been arranging, trimming loose leaves and tying the arrangement off with a flamboyant bow. He looked it over approvingly.

"Okay?" he asked.

Atsuko laughed. "Of course. Here," and she handed him a couple of small bills. He handed them back to her. She could not hide the puzzled look on her face.

Ken shrugged. "You reminded me yourself that today is the day."

Atsuko blushed a little. "So I did." She put the money away and went to the back of the room, where she reappeared with a single long-stemmed white rose. "Here you go."

Ken took the flower as though it was made of delicate crystal. he hedl it carefully with both hands, almost afraid to drop it. "Thank you."

She nodded, then reached over to ruffle up his hair. "Now you take care, okay, Ken-chan?"

He cringed now at the reference to his name. "Don't you think I'm a little too old to be called 'Ken-chan' anymore?"

"Nope," she said, smiling. "You'll someday turn twenty-four, then thirty-four, and I'll still call you Ken-chan from when you were fourteen."

Ken shook his head good-naturedly. "Whatever. Just, not in front of people I know, okay?"

She giggled. "Deal."

He waved as he left, still holding the rose in his hand, rejoining Eddie outside.

Eddie took one look at the rose and understood. "Oh.The day, huh?"

Ken nodded. "The day." They walked a little further, and came closer to the city cemetery. "You don't have to wait for me, Eddie."

"I'll wait," he said, a smile on his face. "You know I'll wait."

Ken walked past the gates alone. He followed the small path until he reached the very edge of the cemetery, where a cliff hung and he could see the sea below him, hear the waves crashing. He walked along the edge until he came to a small gravestone under the shade of a tree. Dropping his backpack to the ground, he bowed deeply, then knelt before the grave, carefully placing the rose against it. He cut away the overgrown grass around the stone, pulled out the weeds that crammed around it, then sat down.        

"Hello, Mother," he said, his voice very low, very soft. "I'm sorry I haven't been coming. It's been so hectic for me. Atsuko said you'd understand. And I think you do. Well, actually, it wouldn't have been much of a loss; nothing much has been happening lately, anyway." He sighed deeply before going on. "It's funny. I dreamt about you again last night. The same dream, and I still can't understand it. And no, I haven't told Kikei about this yet. I don't know if I should..."

A white eagle soaring across the sky. A tall dark-haired woman in black calling him. Wings of fire. Cries of a Phoenix.

"It probably doesn't mean much, but the fact that it keeps coming back sorta bothers me." He took a quick glance at his watch, the time he feared had come. "I have to go now. Kikei's probably worried about me." He got up and picked up his backpack, slinging it over his shoulders again. "I miss you, Mother," he said as he touched the stone. It was warm to his touch. "And I love you. Bye."



"Some time you're gonna have to teach that to me," he heard Eddie say.

Ken blinked a couple of times. "Teach what? How long have you been talking to me?"

"How long have you been listening?"

"Umm... not, very long... actually."

Eddie rolled his eyes. "Your brain is a little too preoccupied, Ken. I bet it never sleeps. I bet it's just running around still even though you're already half-dead with exhaustion."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Ken gave him a light shove as they neared the gates of Shimada Guard. "Teach you what?"

"How to tie a guy's shoelaces together in about two seconds flat."

"It wasn't two seconds."

Eddie raised an eyebrow. "Huh? What, longer?"

Ken grinned. "It was half a second. Flat."

"You little boaster! I'll get you!" Ken had started running, and Eddie ran to catch up with him. They raced all the way back to Shimada Guard, through its gates and right through the front door, tumbling into the living room like whirling dervishes, laughing themselves silly.





                to be continued...
Chapter 3 by Ali
Streets of Seclusion


Ken could not remember the day he moved to Seclusion. He couldn't remember where he had come from before Seclusion, but it didn't matter to him because for all he could remember, he was happier here than anywhere else before, and it was certainly better than wherever he had come from before this. That much he knew, and that much he didn't question.

Now and again he did wonder, though, how Shimada Guard came to be. The house was a huge affair, built to accomodate a maximum of twenty-five people, with two  rooms that were designed to be dorms, and one as a nursery. The older residents, named Angel Elders, had rooms of their own, as he did. He just didn't know where the finances had come from, or when the house was built. Shimada Guard now housed fifteen orphans, mostly lost and abandoned, and they had in custody also, three infants.

For now he sat in his mother's former research lab, beneath the house, where he read and finished up his homework. Once in a while he would tire of the work and wander around the vast room, going through old books and things before he felt ready again to tackle his homework. But his patience with his assignments soon wore thin enough that he decided to maybe

duck out of his Physics class so he wouldn't have to hand in the homework. As good as he was in Physics, he hated the subject anyway. He began to sketch instead.

"Ken-tenshi?"

Ken looked up and saw one of the children at the door above at the top of the stairwell. "What is it, Michael?"

"Kikei-tenshi's calling a meeting for the Angel Elders. Will you come?"

He gave a nod and left the desk. Michael led the way up.

[Ken-tenshi...] Not too long ago he was referred to by the children as Ken-niisan, which was something he had to take time to get used to in itself. Something in his past reminded him that he was always the youngest present then. But things have changed now. They changed again when he was considered old enough to be an Angel Elder, and that was when he gained his new reference: Ken-tenshi, or Angel Ken. He hadn't grown completely accustomed to it yet.      

He walked into the kitchen where the other Angel Elders had gathered, making a final total of six. Kikei sat on the kitchen counter; he motioned for Ken to clamber up there with him. "What's up, 'Kei?"

"Shana's just had an asthma attack," he told the entire group. "She hasn't had one in a long time, and we haven't been replenishing her supply of medication. Now she's in trouble, and we're down low on what she needs."

"We'll need to go into Seclusion's city to get her medication?" Tokiko asked.

He nodded. "I'd go myself, but I have to stay with Shana. She won't take anyone else but me. I need someone else to go."

"I'll go," Ken said. He was instantly met with hard stares. "I said I'll go."

Kikei dropped a hand on his brother's shoulder. "Ken, it'll be a rough run. And you haven't done one on your own before."

"I said I'll go," he repeated, his voice calm. "I think it's about time I ran one on my own, isn't it? That's why I'm an Elder now. So let me do what an Angel Elder is supposed to."

There was a moment of quiet among the older members of the group until they each gave a nod of approval. "You may go, Ken," Kikei said, "But remember to signal back if you're in trouble."

Ken leapt off the counter and bowed to the older members. "Ask Eddie. I live for trouble," he said as he left. And he felt some pride swell inside him as he heard the quiet laughter among his older Angels.



Ken changed out of his regular clothes, putting on a black pair of jeans, black t-shirt and his black jacket, which he quite seldom used at all. He needed the advantage of the shadows, and his night-dark hair seemed to blend the whole outfit together. He picked up a backpack of the same color and headed downstairs. After wishes of luck and -- was it? He wasn't sure -- a glimmer of pride in his brother's eyes, he left Shimada Guard and ran into the shadows of Seclusion's urban area.

It seemed extreme; it had sounded extreme the first time he heard of it, but it was the way Seclusion was. The night was often dead because people feared to be outside. Street gangs in Seclusion had gone beyond the point of control not long after he moved there and it was advisable still to not be on the streets in the night. Most people who still do go out at this hour would either be mugged, raped or killed.

Ken had seen them happen before, and theyhad disgusted him. In his mind he felt he'd seen more than anyone his age should have, things most mothers would cover their children's eyes for. But he had no mother. Nothing was filtered for him. He saw everything as is, as was. He had no child's world, he saw the real world. No one could lie to him about it. There had been times in the past when he had questioned how old he was because he had forgotten. He still did.




Wayner had long grown used to the habitual mode of operations for the Angel Elders of Shimada Guard. They never used the doors. At least, never the front door. Windows, sewers, holes in walls. Hardly ever doors, which had been invented for security but also to make entry easy. So it did not surprise him much at all when he heard his upstairs window open and shut with a light 'bang'.

"Who's there?" he asked, his voice calm.

"Ken Shimada," Ken said softly, creeping down the stairs. "I need Shana's old medication."

For the first time Wayner was suprised by an Angel Elder, or Younger, in this case. "Little Shimada? Kikei sent you? Is he mad?"

Ken rolled his eyes. "Oh for god's sake, Mr. Wayner, I'm fourteen." [I think...] "And Kikei did not send me. I sent myself. And no, Kikei's not mad. I'm just reckless."

Wayner went behind the counter to the drug records. "He should know better than to allow you to do this on your own. I would never send my child out like this."

"I'm not Kikei's child. I'm his brother."

Wayner surrendered. "Shana... the asthmatic girl?"

Ken nodded, his eyes dead set on the door, watching for people outside. He felt like he was making a run in a war-torn town, a refugee ducking under the soldiers' noses. Somehow, he thought it couldn't be very different at all. "She just got an attack earlier today. Not since a long time, so we never stocked up. do you have it?"

"Ken, my boy, I'm always stocked up." He smiled as he handed the medication to Ken. Ken put it away in the backpack and pulled out the money to pay. Wayner shook his head.

"But.. but.."

"You're on your first run, tonight. You have enough to worry about. Go now. Hurry."

Ken bowed quickly and ran up the stairs, and again there was the sound of the window opening and closing with a light 'bang'.



'Lightning Ken', they'd nicknamed him. Ran like lightning, and like lightning moved silently and appeared out of nowhere. But it was one of the selection of nicknames he had been given over the years. 'Magician', because he could disappear in a blink of an eye. 'Maze-runner', because he knew all of Seclusion's backstreets and paths. 'Riddle', because he was, so to say, a riddle.

Right now he had to live up to 'Lightning' and 'Maze-runner'. He darted in and out of desolate alleys, choosing only the most confusing set of roads to take to throw off anyone who may be following him. 'Riddle'.

His mistake was having been looking back all that while, and not forward. He stumbled upon a small gathering of Serpents.

His other mistake was getting scared. He did not move.

"Oh crap."



                to be continued...
Chapter 4 by Ali
Streets of Seclusion



[To hell with 'Lightning' and 'Maze-runner', let's just settle for 'Alive' now, okay?] he told himself. Things were bad now: he had a bunch of Seprents behind him, whooping and screaming in either glee or pure malice, and he didn't care to find out. Things were getting worse because he was beginning to panic, and he was losing concentration on his paths.

[Ken, stop panicking, damn you! Focus!] It was ritual for him that balancing meant breathing slowly, deeply, inserting calm while he was at it. But he was running now, and he needed air quick and sharp. Wrong time to meditate.

Then he heard them: the roar of motorcycles. Screeching tyres. He picked up speed, running harder and faster, cutting through streets and lanes. He had to lose the bikes. Somehow.     

[Go where they can't go, Ken.] And that seemed like a good idea. He ran into an alleyway, heard the bikes screeching at the corners coming after him. A wire mesh fence stood in front of him, and he leapt half-way up, scrambling the rest of the way. [Perfect!] And he soon found that it wasn't really so.

The bikers could not reach him, true, but they still could hurt him. Two of them drove their bikes right into the fence, and though it didn't give, the force of the impact was enough to send Ken flying off the fence, landing hard, skittering across the ground. There was laughter among the Serpents, voices that said, "That little bastard's dead now!" "Broke his fucking back, I bet!"

They did not count on watching Ken get up and look straight at them. He ached in places, but those were minor. He was thin, but he wasn't brittle. He couldn't afford that. He watched slightly bemused as the Serpents withdrew in shock, and surprised himself when he said, "Would you like a second try?"

The bikers revved up again and turned out of the alley, figuring on jumping 'the freakish bastard'. Ken figured this before they did, and had taken off again.

[Again, where can you go that those bikes can't?] He looked up.

[Can you fly?]

That was an odd question. He wondered why he had asked himself that. But the premise was as good as any. The first fire escape ladder he saw, he took.


The advantage of his size was that he could move quickly. The disadvantage was that his legs still weren't long enough to take up the widely-spaced rungs on the ladder. Each rung was a full stretch, and it was taking its toll. When he felt the ladder jar with movement from below, he had to climb faster, stretch further.

Then a meaty hand clamped around his ankle. He looked down now and nearly panicked again.  

The guy behind him was big. Too big. If he sat on Ken, he would surely kill him. And at the moment, he was trying to pull him off the ladder and down to the ground that lay 20 feet below.

"Let me go!" Ken screamed.

"You have to let go first, you little sonuvabitch," he said.

"Fine!" And Ken let one hand fall away, allowing him to twist his form around and with his free leg he sent a foot right up the guy's jaw. Ken heard the sickening crack of breaking teeth. His opponent fell to the side, freed his ankle and went all the way down, landing on the garbage dumpster below. Ken continued his climb before anyone else could catch up with him.

Once on the roof, he stopped to catch his breath and to examine his ankle. [That was pretty stupid. You nearly helped him twist your foot in the

other direction.] But the ankle was all right, if not bruised from the grip.

He heard the rest of them coming. He ran across the roof, to the edge. For some reason he didn't stop running.

[Can you fly?] asked one part of him.

[Well, we're about to find out now.] answered another.

He leapt cleanly off the edge of the building, adjusted his form to the air, and landed on the next rooftop. He looked back: it was a near 7-foot leap. "Wow..."

There was hardly time to recover before he saw heads oking up from this building's fire escape. There were more of them now: he had proven himself to be a big enough challenge for the rest of this gang. But he felt very tired now. His legs were aching. And as he moved he heard the sound of Shana's medication bottles knocking against each other inside his backpack. That changed everything.

He started running again, going to full speed before he leapt again off the edge of the building and landed on the next one. He didn't stop this time; he kept running and leaping, one rooftop after another, and he began to enjoy the exhilarating feeling of momentary flight.    

[Can I fly? Why not?]

And then he ran out of rooftops. He came to a jerking halt at the edge of his last building. "Oh shit... No more Lands."

"Whassamatter, kid? Run out of places to get away?" came a leering voice behind him.

Stiffly, he turned. There were about seven of them, with one scantily clad woman who was looking him up and down in a way he didn't like at all. He backed away, and when his heels met with the concrete edge, he felt unbidden panic rise inside him.

"He's got a very pretty face," the woman said, licking her lips. "I want him."

Ken stepped up onto the ledge. [Can I?]

One of them pulled out a knife from his back pocket. "Yeah, sweetie, and when you're done screwing him, we'll change his pretty face."

Ken let one foot slip off the edge. They closed in on him. He closed his eyes.

And he let his entire body fall backwards. Backwards, down. He could hear the woman's scream, the men's audible horror. But the feel of the wind as he cut through... it was amazing. Then his eyes flew open and he saw the ground closing up to his face.

He uprighted himself, unzipped his jacket and spread it wide; instantly he felt his fall slow, the lift from the jacket allowing some able gliding. With the lift, he turned and flipped in the air, using up as much of his momentum as possible before he hit the ground. There wasn't enough airspace: he would hit hard still. So he shifted his weight to the side; there was still a small chance...

He landed on the candy-striped awning of the corner store, bounced a bit before he tore right through and landed on a pile of empty cardboard boxes. "Ow!"

Ken burrowed out of the pile and crawled into the shadows where he could almost feel himself melt into the darkness. He looked himself over: not a thing broken. He was slightly bruised and still a little dizzy from his impact, but otherwise he was okay. And it surprised him. He looked up again and it looked as though he had fallen from a mile above. In any case, it certainly felt like it.

He rested for a few minutes and then made his move again, this time jogging back to Shimada Guard.



Ken barely managed to toss the backpack to Kikei when he was stormed by a little girl, her hair the same color as his own tumbling over his face as she pinned him down on the floor. "Niisan! I'm so glad you made it back!"

Ken blew a few strands of hair out of his mouth. "Kira, get off me. Get off me!"

She only hugged him tighter. "Why'd 'Kei-niisan let you go on a run on your own? I was so worried!"

"Kira, I said get off me! I can't breathe!"

She finally let him go, sat herself down on the rug with him. She was in her white nightgown, her long dark hair a mess, deep blue eyes shining, a small smile on her pretty face.

Ken sat up and looked at her, the look turning into a glare. "Why are you still up? You should've been in bed an hour ago!"

Kira grew nervous at Ken's tone. "I... I wanted to wait up for you. I was worried. You were out there in the middle of the night..."

"You didn't have to wait for me, Kira," he said firmly. "I would always come back."

"But, but.."

Ken stood. "No buts. You're going back to bed now."

Slowly Kira stood up, dejected, and shuffled back to the stairs. It pained Ken to see her like that. [But she was supposed to be in bed hours ago!] [Yes, but she was worried about you, idiot.] [She didn't have to be...]

"Kira."

She turned around. "Yes, Niisan?"

He heaved a deep sigh. "Come over here. Your hair is impossible."

She smiled a little, then said, "Have you looked at yourself lately?"

"I don't count." He picked up a hairbrush from the mantelpiece and sat on a chair, motioning for her to sit in front of him. She knelt down, her back to him, and he brushed her hair out. "Don't you ever braid your hair when you sleep?"

"Aw, it's so troublesome, Niisan," she griped. "Who's got the time?"

Ken shook his head. "You're eleven, Kira. You've got plenty of time to waste." He pulled her hair back and braided it carefully, tying it off with a red band. "There. Now go to bed."

Both stood up, Ken feeling his shoulder ache from his fall, Kira examining the braid, very happy with it. She quickly turned towards him, stood on tiptoe and planted a small kiss on his lips. "Thank you, Niisan!" And she darted up the stairs.

She did not see the shocked look on Ken's face or his hand that had come up over his mouth. To Ken's greatest relief, she also did not see that his cheeks were a shade of rose.

Kikei chuckled quietly from the stairs. He nearly laughed completely when he caught Ken's glare towards him. "It's okay, Little Eagle. She is your sister, after all."


Ken tried to get his face to return to its normal color, but he failed miserably. "Tell me again how she's my sister?"

"We're the last of our Clan, Ken. There are no more Shimadas other than you, me and Kira. We are blood, one way or another," he explained as he stepped down to the lounge. "She is your sister, no matter how great the distance."

Ken nodded. "She looks enough like me to pass for it, that's for sure."   

Kikei led him upstairs and into Ken's room. "You made a good run tonight," he said. "Did you get into any trouble?"

"Enough for a while," Ken answered as he undressed. "Is that really the real world?"

Kikei sat on the edge of the bed. "No. The real world varies. It can be better, can be worse. We happen to have a slightly darker shade to it."

"Then why did we move here?"

"That was Mother's decision. Even I don't know why." Then he let out a gasp when he saw the raw flesh on Ken's shoulder. "Ken, what happened?"

It was only then Ken felt the pain there. "Must've been from the fall I took."

"You did a free-fall?" Kikei questioned with a raised eyebrow.

Ken thought about it. Did he? "Was that what it was? I did I free-fall?"

"Describe the incident."

So Ken did, blocking out only words of his pursuers to him, and Kikei listened intently. Once Ken was through, Kikei gave a slow nod. "Yes. You did a free-fall. On your first run out. That's pretty good, for your age."

"But I fell wrong," he said, pointing at the injured shoulder. "This shouldn't have happened."

Kikei pushed Ken into the bathroom and tossed him a towel. "Go take a shower first. Then maybe I'll explan some of the tricks to you."

Ken shut the door and got the shower running for a bit to get the hot water. Outside, Kikei gave a knock and said, "Be careful getting into the shower. That scrape is still very raw. Don't get the hot water on it too --"

"OW!"

"-- soon."

"Ow, ow, ow! Kisama...."



                to be continued....
Chapter 5 by Ali
Streets of Seclusion


Kikei hadn't expected Ken to be such an eager student when it came to free-falling. And he hadn't also expected him to be very good at it. There were some things Ken did that Kikei had trouble even thinking about, but Kikei attributed it to Ken's smaller build and faster reflexes.

What bothered him was that as the more Ken improved, the more willing he became to go on runs alone. He grew more daring, at the same time sharper, smarter. Kikei took it as a mixed blessing, proud and worried all at once.

Then on one run, Ken didn't make it back.



Up and over, Ken landed on the next rooftop. He had grown much stronger, more confident with his leaps and dives. And without the added weight of the backpack like there had been on his first run, he felt almost certain that he could fly.

He wore all black again as he did on all his runs. The stupidest thing to do on a run, he had concluded, was to try and blend into the shadows wearing white. It was impossible. When had it been possible for one to be unseen wearing white? But it was a curious thing.

What seemed to have changed since his first run across the rooftops was the fact that now the street thugs seem to be able to do it too, though not as quickly. There was still fearful odds at stake: one swift him versus a dozen slower them was pretty considerable.

They were gaining on him; was he getting slower or were they getting faster? He picked up speed. He was far ahead enough to stand clear, but close enough to hear the cocking of hammers on handguns.

[Shit...]

The next leap would have to be very close: too far yet too near, he could just make it by his heels. He picked up speed.

He leapt.

"Shoot the bastard down!"

Mid-air he felt one bullet rip across his shoulder, another scoring his leg. He ignored them and angled for a landing. Just. Just.

Another bullet ricocheted off his target building's ledge. [Good. It missed].

Some of Seclusion's buildings were new. Some were old, cracking and brittle.

This was one of the latter.

As soon as Ken's foot touched the ledge, it crumbled beneath his weight. He dropped, arms flailing wildly looking for something to grab onto but there was only air. Air.

"Kikei....!"



Kikei's glass slipped from his hands. It fell to the floor and shattered. He did not pick up the pieces because the glass hadn't stopped falling in his eyes. The glass seemed to fall forever, in slow motion, two feet changing to twenty, glass changing to...

"Ken."  

He heard voices, sounds. He had to leave now.



Falling on his shoulders had been a good idea. He had lessened the impact to his back, and his head hardly hit the ground when he landed. He figured he'd cost about a dislocated shoulder and scrapes there which were worse than the one from the first time. But he hurt too much to want to try and move. Dimly he could hear the sound of footsteps approaching, voices laughing, gloating. This was not good.

[Damn.... hurts... I can't move...]

He blacked out just before pandemonium hit the area, just before his pursuers were taken care of one by one, just before....



"Niisan?"

Ken flinched; god his shoulders hurt. Beneath them he could feel the familiar comfort of his bed, beside him he felt the presence of a person. Slowly he opened his eyes to find Kira standing by his bed. "K... Kira?"

He saw a smile behind the tear-stained face. Her voice. "'Kei-niisan! He's awake!"

Ken groaned. [Oh, now I'm gonna get it.]

"Thank you, Kira," he heard Kikei say. "Now please wait outside." Kira silently obeyed and left the room, shutting the door. Turning back to his younger brother, he asked, "How're you feeling?"

Ken swallowed a little; his throat felt dry. "Like I fell off a twenty-storey building."

"You fell twenty feet, Little Eagle." Kikei reached over and pulled Ken up slowly. "Let me have a look at you."

Ken complied even though he ached almost everywhere. Then he noticed that he wasn't wearing anything more than an oversized shirt. Kikei pulled away the blankets and examined his leg wound, then his shoulders. "Did I break anything?"

"Nope." Kikei was quite pleased by that. "You're intact. It was a smart move, landing on your shoulders. If you had fallen wrong, you could've caved in your skull or broken your back."

"That's good to know," Ken replied. And he waited for the blow which could possibly include things like carelessness, recklessness, bad judgement and "you're not going to go on another run again until you're thirty". But it never came. Instead: "How could you have fallen off the ledge? Was it loose?"

Ken blinked rapidly. "Umm... yeah. I think one of the bullets ricocheted off the spot I was aiming for."

"Circumstancial, then. It wasn't your fault."

Ken's jaw dropped slightly. He shut his mouth again.

"You couldn't have avoided that fall no matter how hard you tried. So I don't blame you. And you're not being punished. Don't worry."

Ken nodded, then lay back into the pillow, nestling his shoulders there. He sighed. "I'm tired."

"Sleep then," Kikei said, brushing Ken's hair back with his hand. "Tomorrow's a big day. Remember that Nambu-hakase is coming."

"Mmmhmm.... I remember..." And he awoke again for a moment. "Kikei, don't tell him about this."

Kikei smiled. "Not a word of it."

Relieved, Ken fell asleep almost instantly.



"So tell me about last night!" Eddie said. "Of all people you're not telling me?"

Ken stretched slowly on the floormat, minding his shoulder and leg. "There's not much to tell, Eddie. Just happened." He bent forward, flexing his legs, touching the floor with his palms. He suddenly realized that it was a farther way down than before. "Hey, I think I'm getting taller."

Eddie looked him over. "Nah. Your legs are just getting longer from all that leaping and flying you're doing."

And then Ken flipped up onto his hands, his feet up in the air. He held on for a little while. "Very funny, Eddie. I'm not going to be pint-sized forever."

"Give it a couple of years, man. You'll get there."

Ken bent forward, folding his body neatly in half with his feet nearly touching the back of his head. "Not getting there fast enough."

Eddie winced. "That has *got* to hurt."

He reversed the moves, pulling his legs up again, coming back down on his feet. "Nope. Not a bit."

The coach's whistle blew, all the kids gathered in the center of the gym."Today is Endurance Run day," Coach Atson said. "That's 10 laps around the track. 4000 meters. Timed."

The enitre class groaned, and Ken almost wished he had been shot in the head instead of the shoulder. And he had a record to hold on to.

Eddie nudged him. "What was your last time?"

"34 minutes. I'm just glad I have study hall after this. I can sleep through it if I need to. Yours?"

"35. I'm aiming for 32, this time."

"Three mintues off only? I'm thinking of 29."

Eddie's eyes bugged. "Ken, you're insane. Even the best guy went at 30."

"Before or after his appendix burst?"

"You're impossible."

"No, I'm just insane." And Ken grinned. "That guy didn't time it right. 1000 meters should take an average of 7 minutes to complete. Four times that would take 28. I'm giving myself an extra minute."

They stepped outside and Ken went back to his warm-up before Coach would start the run. Eddie warmed up with him, and in the middle of his stretch he was pushed roughly to the ground. "Hey!"

"You two owe us money, remember?"

Ken looked up. The same guys from the other day. The guy whose shoelaces he'd tied. "Lay off, okay? You want money, you earn it like everyone else."

Another boy shoved Ken to the ground, landing him on Eddie. "You shut up, street rat."

"Why you --" Ken started to get up, but Coach had blown the whistle. The run was starting. "C'mon Eddie."

Both ignored the bigger kids and went to the starting line. The kids who had stop-watches on their watches set them; Ken set his for both him and Eddie. A second blow of the whistle sent them working on their pace to cover the 4000 meters.

"Ken, I think those guys are running the same field," Eddie told him as they jogged at an easy pace. "We're in for it."

"We'll stay ahead of them, but we don't sprint. They won't last as long as we can."

"You scare me when you're confident you know."

Ken shrugged. "I scare me too."

The two boys ran at an almost identical pace, Eddie in strength, Ken in stride. They continued to make good time until Ken noticed that the bullies from before were closing in. He had been wrong.

"Eddie, we'll have to change the pace. They're coming."

"Now? We've only run a little less than half the course, Ken."  

"I know. Either we break for it or we get pounded here and now into the track."

They picked up their pace, skipping from jogging to a full run. The thugs did the same, and Ken had overly underestimated their stamina. They apparently had more energy within the school grounds than outside.

"Eddie," he said, breathing hard. "Run for your freaking life."

When Coach Atson saw his two top athletes breaking into a sprint before covering the proper one-third of the course, he nearly swallowed his whistle. "What are you two trying to do? Slow down immediately! Shimada! Varlhet! You'll burn out before you're through!"

Eddie was trying to keep up with Ken. "Ken... he's got a point!"

"He hasn't got four heavyweight morons chasing him! Keep going!"

"Ken, we'll be risking our records if we crash out."

Ken pumped harder, moving faster down the track. "And if we don't we may have the best record in history."

Eddie could not argue with that. And in any case, those guys were gaining on them. "They're trying to attack us here on the grounds! We get them in a fight and they've had it."

"And gives them all the more reason to dig graves for us. Keep running!"

Lap Eight. Ken felt his heart pound out of rhythm. It was getting harder to breathe, but Eddie had his arm on him, and they kept running. The guys tailing them were dropping back.

"That's a good sign," Eddie panted.

Ken looked back and saw one of them sprinting forward now. "Don't count on it. Move!"

Coach Atson saw it now. He saw that it wasn't pursuit; it was evasion. The kid chasing Shimada and Varlhet was going to run them into exhaustion if it meant getting his hands on them.

But he stayed back. He didn't involve himself.

Lap Ten. "A little further, and we can die, Ken..."

"Have you.... been keeping time..?"

"No... you're the one with the watch."

"Is he still there?"

Eddie looked back. "Yeah, but I think he's gonna pass out soon."

Ken kept moving. "So am I."

The second they cut to the finish line, Ken slapped the timer on his watch and collapsed to the ground with Eddie. They'd passed the finish together. Their pursuers had collapsed in the chase long ago.

Ken felt the world spin. He had broken the biggest rule in running by immediately stopping all movement after running. He would cramp soon. He knew it.

"T... t... time?" Eddie asked.

Ken struggled to pull his arm up to see. "I think it says... it says... 29 minutes, 42 seconds..."

"Yaayy..."

"Are you cramping?"

"I can't feel my legs anymore."

"Hmm."

"Give it one minute and those guys are gonna come again."

"Let's go."

And they stumbled back into the locker room after giving their running time to the Coach and disappeared into the showers.





        to be continued...
Chapter 6 by Ali
Streets of Seclusion


There was a place in the back of the library that Ken and Eddie had made for themselves. There was a section of bookshelves that were against the wall, but had about two feet of space in between. This was where they hid, studied, talked, because no one could see them.

Today, this was where Ken slept.

Crouched in a far corner behind the shelves, he had his back against the wall, his chin resting on his chest as he breathed lightly, tired from

the run. The Coach had raved about the new record time the two of them had achieved; Ken wanted to rant about how he must have seen the apparent chase and had not put a stop to it. Ken had been quite afraid that he had burst his appendix running like that, and he had wobbled all the way to study hall three floors up.

Ken heard a scraping noise near him and momentarily opened his eyes. "Eddie?"

"Yeah," came the answer. "You were sleeping?"

"Sorta." Ken stretched a bit. "How come you're here?"

Eddie set his stuff down and sat down with Ken. "Winslow's taken the day off. Betcha five bucks he's at the golf course."

"Hmm." Ken lay back again, closed his eyes, sighed. "Wake me when the bell rings, okay?"

"Can't guarantee that," Eddie replied. "I came here to sleep too."

He got no answer because Ken had fallen back asleep. And it wasn't long before he caught up with him, and both were jolted to wakefullness by the last bell.



Eddie had a couple of errands to run after school, and he wasn't the one who was involved in a twenty-foot fall the previous night; Ken staggered home alone, infinitely glad that his choice of roads and paths that mazed all throughout  the city did not draw anyone's attention.

He walked through Shimada Guard's front door, failing to notice another car he hadn't seen in a while in the driveway, and crashed face-down on the sofa in the lounge without saying that he was home.

"Ken, is that you?" Kikei asked from the kitchen.

"Mrphmhhmm..." Ken could distinguish Kikei's footsteps from anyone else's, but there was a second set of footsteps following close behind that he couldn't quite clearly make out.

"Hello, Ken," Nambu-hakase said gently to the sleeping boy.

Normally Ken qould've hit the panic button and shot right up awake, standing at attention to his mentor and bowing formally as he should. This time he raised his head sleepily, half-opened his eyes and simply nodded in acknowledgment. "Ohayo gozaimasu, Nambu-Hakase," he said, before he plopped his head back onto the cushion.

Nambu looked back at Kikei, and he only shrugged. "From what I heard, Hakase, today was an endurance run. He appeared to have broken his own record again."

"He's grown very strong now, hasn't he?" Nambu asked. "Since a couple of years back."

Kikei nodded, a sad smile coming to his face. "He's a fighter, Hakase. He's beaten more odds than anyone I can think of. It's keeping him this way that worries me."

Nambu placed a hand on Kikei's shoulder, leading him back into the kitchen. "He will stay. As far as the results tell, he is perfectly healthy now and there shouldn't be anything more to worry about."

The two men moved into the kitchen and sat down at the small table there, a pot of tea between them. "You were saying about a proposal, Hakase?"

Nambu nodded. "The G-Force Project should be running in at least another two years. The others are nearly through with their individual training and should be beginning team training within the next two months."

"You didn't want Ken involved in this."

"No, but I need him to run Shadow Mountain." Nambu sipped his tea slowly, his eyes not leaving Kikei. "I'd call on you instead, and allow Ken to continue his studies, but you refuse to leave Seclusion."

"So will he, Hakase. Train someone else to run Shadow Mountain."

"Your mother left strict instrcutions that it should be handled by either you or Ken. Only your imprints are there in the main system, and that means that no one else on this Earth can activate it. You know that."

Kikei dropped his head down. "I do, but..."     

"But?"

"Whether or not you want Ken involved immediately in the project, one way or another he's going to be a part of it. Should you not be able to find the fifth..."     

Nambu nodded. "Your mother did mention that Ken would be a final resort. I know this is distasteful for you, Kikei, but that was what she had told me to carry out should there be no other alternative."

Kikei sucked in a deep breath. "I know."

"The final decision would still be his, Kikei. He may not have to."


But Kikei remained unconvinced that it would change. There was a moment of quiet before he spoke again. "How much will he need to learn about Shadow Mountain to be able to run it?"

"A lot. How quickly can he learn things?"

Kikei smiled now. "Very quickly. As long as he's interested."

"Would he be?"

"It's his mother's personal work, Hakase. He would be very interested."

Nambu smiled; things could go smoothly now, perhaps. "That's good to know."





                to be continued....
Chapter 7 by Ali
Streets of Seclusion


"There's something I found that I think should belong to the both of you," Nambu said that night at dinner. The three of them ate much later, when all the children were asleep and there would be no one to bother them. Earlier, Maia, a four-year-old moppet, refused to leave Ken's side and kept crawling all over him. He very nearly screamed at her, but in keeping his patience he had entertained Nambu quite a bit.

"What is it, Hakase?" Ken asked.

Nambu reached into his pocket and pulled out an orange envelope. The boys knew exactly what it was right then.

"Mother..." Ken whispered. "A letter?"

"More of a short note. I only found this a week ago. It lead me to her private documents and journals that she'd hidden in my home." He looked at Kikei first. "Kikei, you've completed your term at Kyrell and you have a pilot's license?"

Kikei nodded, his jaw slack. "You mean... Seclusion Air?"

"Is yours."

Ken's eyes bugged. "Seclusion Air? That's why you came!" A smile grew on his face. "'Kei, the income from there... we get to keep it!"

Kikei wore a winsome smile now. Yes, the income would keep Shimada Guard afloat, put the kids through school. There was a whole export-import thing that went on in Seclusion that would earn them plenty. But... "But what about the sister airfield? In Utoland?"

Nambu smiled at Ken. "When Ken turns eighteen, Archangel Air will be his. That would mean he would have to move out of Seclusion to maintain it."

Ken stared. He tried to speak but he couldn't. Four years... in four years, he would own his mother's place. She  had loved flying as much as his father did, and together, they set up two businesses, Seclusion and Archangel. Since his mother was still with the ISO then and working with Nambu, she maintained Archangel in Utoland. And Archangel would be his... "I have to leave here?"

"You can't possibly maintain it from here, Ken."

"But Shimada Guard..."

Nambu chuckled lightly. "Ken, it's in four years' time. You can decide then. For now, yes, your place is here." And Ken seemed very relieved.

But Kikei saw through it. Lure Ken away from Shimada Guard, from Seclusion. Then Shadow Mountain. Slowly Ken's interest would shift to the G-Force Project. Kikei knew better than anyone that Ken was just as qualified as the four already selected, but they weren't his brother. Ken was.Despite knowing all this, he said nothing.

"There is one other thing," Nambu said. "Actually, two."

"What?" Kikei said.

Nambu left the table and went out to get his briefcase. The boys heard some shuffling and shifting before Nambu returned to the table with two small black boxes. He placed one in front of Ken, the other Kikei.

"Open them."

Ken didn't touch his; he waited for Kikei to open his first. Kikei clicked the lid open, and in the folds of soft black cloth lay a silver bracelet: an ID bracelet, with his name, 'Kikei', engraved on the plate. He picked it up, tracing the name in the cool silver with his finger, and turned it over to see the engraving on the back. The intricate Japanese characters spelled out 'Shimada'.

Ken at last opened his, and found an identical bracelet, only with the name 'Ken' engraved on the silver. He took it into his hands, and almost instantly his mind illustrated images of his mother, and he could hear her, feel her. He looked up to Kikei beside him, and knew that Kikei was feeling the same things.

Noticing the boys' silence, Nambu said, "She intended for them to be given to you this year, when you turn twenty-two, Kikei, and you, Ken, fourteen. It's probably a little loose for you, Ken, but you'll grow into it."

The boys didn't seem to hear. Kikei clasped on his bracelet on his right wrist, and it fit nicely. Ken put his on and the bracelet nearly slipped out of his hand. He seemed mildly disappointed. "It's okay," he said. "I could still carry it with me."

Since her death three years ago, Ken had tried to put aside all the times he had had with his mother. He only wanted to remember her, not all the things she'd done for and with him. He wanted to section off the memories so they wouldn't hurt. But later that nihgt in bed, clutching the bracelet, everything came flooding back, every event, good and bad, everything. And he had cried, and cried until he fell asleep, vaguely aware that Kikei was on the bed beside him, holding him, crying with him.



Not long after he turned fifteen, Ken noticed a few changes within and without himself. He had finally grown taller and put on some weight, still slender but at the very least not scrawny as he'd been before. His voice had changed; this was something he wasn't sure he really liked. He had complained for months that his voice was weird, that it refused to crack properly, but now that it had, he really wasn't sure. It was light and clear, what Tokiko had called a 'storyteller's voice', but its tone seemed to vary time to time. He spoke even less now.

The other thing he had noticed was that he began to draw glances from people, specifically the female people. People who had previously refused to acknowledge his presence were now talking to him. He didn't like it. It seemed too much of a ruse. He remained with his own crowd, with Eddie.

Ken had liked it when no one noticed him, left him alone. Now he was jittery because now and then there would be a slip of pink perfumed paper tucked in his locker, or between the pages of his books. The occasional thing that really bothered him was the goings-on in the boys' locker room if he wasn't careful.

"I need to disappear, Eddie," he said over lunch hour. "I need to be invisible again."

Eddie nearly spat out his juice. "Are you insane? You've got some of the hottest girls looking your way every time you pass and you're complaining?"

"Have you ever been in a room where everyone seems to be staring at you and you're even afraid to breathe?"

"If I were you, I'd like to be."

Ken kicked him from under the table. "Idiot."

Eddie chuckled. "Hey, you'll be graduating next year, way ahead of the rest of us. You can get out of here and you can be as invisible as you want to be then. Right now, just deal with it."

Ken rolled his eyes. "I'm not extremely keen on that, you know." He took a quick look around: he nearly slid under the table when he noticed that there was a small company of girls watching him. He paid them no attention. The ruffians were at one table of their own; it would not be long before they decide to harass the rest of the lunchroom. But Ken's gaze locked on there, and he saw a glint of metal.

Eddie looked in the same direction. "What?"

"A gun." He breathed evenly. "They've got a gun." Eddie started to get up but Ken held him back down. "No. If they're planning on firing it, we can't move."

Eddie leaned forward. "What in hell are they trying to prove?"

"That having a gun means you can threaten people. Eddie, if they make a wrong move with that thing, someone is either going to get hurt or killed today right now."

Nothing happened. Not even when the next bell rang. Everyone left in a hurry, but Ken and Eddie moved the quickest, following the group with the gun from a safe distance.

"If we can get the gun out of here there won't be a chance of trouble right?" Eddie whispered.

"Only if that guy keeps it in the locker," Ken replied. "Then I could break in there and get it."      

But he took it with him, tucking it into his back pocket.

"Shit."



What made Ken even more nervous after that was that he was in the same class as the kid with the gun the next period. He sat in the back while Ken took his usual seat in the middle of the classroom where he figured he'd be obscure enough. It was a failed trick.

Ken kept waiting to hear the click of the gun, the cock of the hammer or the loading and locking of a cartridge, but there was none. He thought at that point that if it did happen, he would have a heart attack and die at the rate his heart was pounding now. He lost all concentration on his class, his eyes and ears focused on the kid at the back with the gun in his back pocket.

The bell couldn't have rung sooner. Ken darted out of the class, his last class of the day, and grew determined to get rid of the gun. He met up with Eddie outside the school building.

"Did he... did you..?"

Ken shook his head. "I'm going crazy, Eddie," he said. "I have to stop him before something does happen."

"But you're not involved," Eddie said. "Why are you letting this bother you?"

[Why?] Ken didn't know. What was this sense of justice that building inside him? Because he knew about it? That the information meant that someone could die because he had known but not said a word about it?

White wings...

"I don't know." Then why was eating at him?

Eddie shook his head in disbelief. "You're one guy, Ken. Just one person."

[One person who has seen enough death and carnage to last him more than one person's lifetime]. He froze. Where in the world had *that* thought come from? How many people were inside his head? How old were they? How old was *he*? He shook off the questions. "I need to. I just do."





                to be continued...
Chapter 8 by Ali
Streets of Seclusion


The gun issue was never completely forgotten. Ken fought mentioning it to Kikei, who was now training in the police academy, due to graduate in about a year and had requested to be stationed in Seclusion itself. No, he wanted to solve this himself. Even if it was going to get him in severe trouble with Kikei, he was going to deal with it himself.

That afternoon Ken returned early to Shimada Guard to find that Nambu was visiting again. He cursed under his breath. Nambu was almost as perceptive of him as Kikei; both together would definitely see that he was troubled by something. No matter how hard he would try to hide it, he knew his eyes would give it away. His mother used to say his eyes could 'speak'. That was not a good thing all together.

[I could use a distraction right about now. A very big distraction so that they won't see what's on my mind]. He sighed, shaking his head. There was no chance.

The wind seemed to pick up. Ken froze. He looked around quickly, and he noted the angle in which the tree braches were bending, where the birds were flying, how fast a leaf moved across the ground, what the wind sounded like, smelled like. He looked to the edge of Shimada Guard where he could see the sea. He saw the waves, and knew that the wind scented of seawater.

"Seclusion Storm." Ken ran up to the porch and into the house, calling out, "Seclusion Storm!"

Kikei got up from the sofa where he had been sitting across from Nambu. "There's only the two of us here today, Ken. We'll have to do it on our own."

Ken nodded quickly, dropped his backpack and books and ran up the stairs at a speed that Nambu had only seen four times before.

The Shimada boys worked in an almost telepathic manner that had fascinated Nambu for a long time. Ever since they were young they seemed to communicate so well, sometimes without words at all and only glances and subtle bodily movements that anyone else would dismiss. Ken's slight tilt of the head would be a question, and Kikei's shifting hands would be an answer. Kikei needed only raise an eyebrow for one reason or another and his brother would explode laughing. Ken would make a tiny sound, which most times sounded like nothing at all, and Kikei would know what it was for.

And now Nambu watched as this fascinating feature helped them work through Shimada Guard to be ready for the approaching storm.

Kikei worked downstairs in the basement, opening the storm gutters and shutting the upper windows. Ken was moving along the rafters above, putting up rain screens and cracking windows open to let the wind through. Even as he did so, the wind ripped through, tearing at his hair. Lightning flashed in front of him but he paid it no heed.

Kikei looked up to Ken, and almost instantly Ken looked back down. They stared at each other momentarily, and then nodded. Ken came back downstairs, Kikei met him there.

"Done?"

"Done." And thunder shook Shimada Guard. The nursery exploded with cries.

Ken's shoulders sagged: this was the distraction he'd asked for, maybe. He waved Kikei back -- [I'll handle it] -- and walked into the nursery, where three babies demanded his attention.

"The two of you never cease to amaze me," Nambu said. "I'll never understand how it is that you two work like that."

Kikei shrugged as he sat down again. "It's just something we've been able to do." He chuckled. "I think that's why Ken doesn't talk much. He knows I can understand him; what he doesn't understand is no one else can."

"Ken was never a simple person," Nambu said. "He's as enigmatic and questionable as your mother. Could that be where he gained the nickname 'Riddle'?"

A nod. "Most likely. If he were a passageway, there would be too many turns, too many juctions, corners, dead ends. You would get lost and never get out."

"I'm not that bad, 'Kei!" Ken shouted from the nursery. "Could you can it for a moment and get me a bottle of milk please? Warm?"

Kikei excused himself again and went into the kitchen. Nambu followed this time. "He's only fourteen, Kikei," he said, not sure what he meant by saying so.

"What? You mean this thing with the nursery? It's normal." Kikei pulled out a ready bottle of milk from the fridge and put it in a saucepan of water over the stove to heat up. "He's an Angel Elder now. He has these responsibilities."

After a few minutes Kikei turned off the stove and took the bottle, testing the milk on his wrist. Then both men moved out into the nursery, where Ken was struggling to hold the eight-month-old correctly. He shook his head and handed the child to Kikei. "You do it. I might drop him. I can't even hold him right."

"About time you learned, neh?" Kikei said as he took the baby and held him in one arm while the other fed him the bottle. "There. See? Not too hard, is it?"

"Not like I've always had to do it."    

"I had to baby-feed you when I was nine," he said.

Ken grinned. "Well, thank you. I'm glad I didn't have to return you the favor." He jumped momentarily when another explosion of thunder rang outside, and the wind continued to howl, the rain falling hard. "Looks like the cover of National Geographic out there."

Nambu sat down next to Kikei, watching him feed the baby. "The storms here haven't chnaged a bit, Kikei."

"That's why we still call them Seclusion Storms," Ken said. His head jerked up when he heard the bus honking outside, signalling that the kids were back. He groaned. "And there's only two of us to bring them all in."

Kikei shook his head. "Correction: one. Kitter here isn't finished yet," he said, referring to the baby.

Ken looked up to the ceiling and sighed. He went to the storage closet and got out fifteen towels, dumping them near the front door and grabbed an umbrella for himself. Taking a deep breath, he ran outside.

"Ken-tenshi!" "Ken-tenshi, take me first!" "Me first!" "No, me!" "Ken-tenshi!"

Ken grabbed two of the smaller children first, got them under the umbrella and ran back to the porch where he handed them a towel each. "Dry off, take off your shoes and march straight upstairs for your baths, understand?" They nodded and did as they were told.

He did this five times alone; the last few came out with Tokiko-tenshi who happened to come back then. Clad in a raincoat, she didn't have much to worry about. Eddie leapt off the bus last and dashed to the porch without any cover.

"How come you're home early?" Eddie asked.

"I'm a senior, remember?"

"Oh."

By the time Ken came back inside, Kikei and Tokiko were drying off the rest of the children with the towels, Eddie picked up a towel for himself and tossed a spare one to Ken, who was soaked to the bone.

Tokiko tried not to laugh. "Ken, it appears the umbrella was redundant?"

Ken growled as he roughly dried his hair. "Cover is redundant with Seclusion Storms. Any cover, period."

"I didn't get all that wet," Tokiko said, pulling off her raincoat, showing him how dry she was compared to him.

Ken looked away, trying to hide the color of his burning cheeks, and marched right upstairs to take a hot shower. Nambu stifled a laugh when he heard the door slam shut.





                to be continued...
Chapter 9 by Ali
Streets of Seclusion


The storm carried on all night, forcing Nambu to stay over in Shimada Guard until the storm cleared. Ken worked in his room most of the evening; it was then Nambu paid him a quiet visit. Sitting on his bed, looking around the room, Nambu asked, "Is it hard for you here, Ken?"

Ken didn't look up from his Chemistry, but answered. "No. Not really. Something I'm used to, I suppose."

"Kikei tells me that you're a straight-A student."      

"Kikei doesn't know how many Physics classes I ducked out of," Ken replied with an audible grin.

Nambu seemed taken aback by it; Physics was his expertise after all. "But you still manage to score?"

"It's funny how you do well in subjects that you don't actually like."

There was a moment of silence before Nambu decided to drop the big question on him. "How would you feel about coming to Utoland for a few weeks this summer?"

Ken stopped writing and slowly turned in his seat, a look of question clear in his eyes. "Utoland City? With you?"

Nambu shrugged. "It's only for maybe two weeks or so, Ken. You're a bright student; colleges there are good ones."

"And you need me to go through Mother's work, don't you?"

It surprised Nambu that Ken was as perceptive as that. But it relieved him when it was a look of interest in the boy's eyes, not apprehension or threat. "Yes. I'm sorry if I was leading you on like that."

"It's nothing," Ken said, smiling. "Kikei told me about Shadow Mountain, how only either he or I can access the main system. He said I don't go until I graduate."

"Which will be?"

"Next year." A touch of sadness came to his face. "Two years before everyone else."    

Nambu stood up now, approaching the workdesk. "You're not comfortable with that?"

Ken shrugged. "I just don't see the point, that's all. I mean, where am I going so fast?"

That was a strange statement, Nambu thought. A complete opposite of Joe who wanted to get everything over with as soon as possible. A change from Jun who loved to study. A relief from Jinpei who didn't. A step up from Ryu who struggled to get by. And here was Ken, who felt he had no real direction despite his keen interest and intelligence. "You're young; there are a lot of things you can do, Ken. You do have some intention of getting into Kyrell, don't you?"

There was a deep sigh of longing. "Yes, Hakase, but..."

"But?"

"I can't afford to spend two years there, not when I'm needed here. Kikei barely made it with the work-study program; what kind of chance do I stand? The single terms are perfect for me, but those are under a special program. You have to apply and see if they accept. Sort of like a scholarship."

"You're bright enough, Ken."

"They prefer if you've already had a license. And I'm not old enough to even fly solo yet. So in other words, I have no way of getting into the program until I have a license, and maybe some decent credentials."

Nambu took off his glasses and wiped them with a handerkerchief. "I thought a good number of students are in the single term program."

"Because they pay their way through. And I won't be one of those." Ken turned his back to Nambu and delved back into his work, almost as though to change the subject quickly.

[Sayuri's pride], Nambu thought. [So evident on its own]. So he didn't ask about it anymore. Instead he got up and stood behind Ken at the desk, watching him work.

Ken didn't know what to make of what he was feeling then, having Nambu, his foster father, stand over him as he worked like that. It felt like it was right, a father watching his son at work, except that Nambu wasn't his father, and he wasn't Nambu's son. But he revelled in the feeling, and worked with a quiet smile on his face.



The next day Ken found out that the school had caught the kid with the gun from yesterday, that the weapon had been confiscated and the boy now detained until it was decided what to do with him. For the rest of the day then, Ken worked happily, relaxed and undaunted. He had no idea relief could be so powerful.

As a senior certain school days were shorter for him, so this day he walked off the school grounds after his last class a little after one. He took the longer way back, passing the playground. Since he was still in the urban area, this part of the playground stood behind a wire-mesh fence. He passed by there often enough that the kids there were familiar with him. Some called him 'Ken-niisan', some others who knew of his position called him 'Ken-tenchi'. They called to him as he passed, and he mostly smiled, and waved back. It was clear that the children adored him, and that he cared about them.

He walked past a man heading in the oppsite direction wearing a long coat and a dour expression. He had nearly bumped into him by mistake; the man was clearly very preoccupied. Ken took no notice of him until something held him back.

Slowly he turned around faced with the man's back. From where he stood, Ken saw a few things that tugged at his gaze. A letter in one pocket. A shape or form inside the long coat. He watched as the man stopped at the playground's fence, watched as his facial features changed in emotion, watched as his hand reached into the coat and pulled out what seemed to be -- and was -- an automoatic rifle.

Unfiltered terror gripped at Ken's soul, and he froze at the sight. Did anyone else see? Can they? Was he the only one?

White wings... white wings....

All he knew was that he felt himself break into a run towards the man, he heard his voice calling for him to stop, warning the people around him to stop him.

No, stop! Don't! Stop!

He saw the gun turned on him instead. He saw the cold face pull the trigger. The last thing he felt was a flash of pain inside him, his body crumbling to the ground. He saw nothing but red, then darkness.

He heard the rapid fire of the gun, the screams, and the final shot.

Then, mercifully, he fell into oblivion.



Ken rose slowly to full wakefulness. The first thing that registered in his head was the dull pain in his chest that made it hard to move. Followed by voices. Kikei's, Nambu's... and some other people he couldn't identify. Wait, there was one more... Dr. Slate? But... why? The last thing was sight, and slowly his vision cleared and he found himself staring at a blank white ceiling.

[No. I'm not home.]

"He's awake, Nambu-hakase, Kikei."

Kikei's face was teh first he saw, and what he saw written there was distubing. "Kikei?"

"Shh... Ken, relax, don't try to talk," Kikei breathed. He could not hide the emotions on his face. And Ken read everything as though it was printed there.

"What is it? 'Kei... I don't --" Then he remembered. He remembered the playground. The man. The gun. The screams... "'Kei, it didn't happen? Tell me it didn't happen," Ken pleaded. "Tell me I wasn't there. Tell me I was dreaming, 'Kei!"

Nambu turned away then, and Kikei wanted to follow suit but he could not deny his brother. He stood there next to the bed, visibly trembling. "Ken... I..."

Ken sat up in his bed now, ignoring the pain that seemed to web from his chest to his entire body. "Kikei, it was a dream... a nightmare... Tell me I didn't see it! Tell me they didn't die!!" His voice touched the point of hysteria and his tears came unsummoned. "Tell me they didn't die!!"

For the first time Kikei looked Ken in the eye, and there were tears there too. He shook his head. "Ken... I'm sorry. They --"

Right then and there Ken seemed to shatter: his will, his calm, his heart. He grew quiet though his eyes were screaming at something no one else could see. The images played in his mind over and over again, and they would not stop. In a small voice, he asked, "Why am I still alive?"


Kikei drew a breath then, and he sat down on the bed, locking Ken in an embrace. "No... no, don't think that," he whispered. "It wasn't your fault. You were not a part of that... Ken, listen to me... Even the angels could not stop this, how could you?"

Ken had never cried so hard before.



There were at least thirty people within range of the man's aim. He had killed 9 children and one woman, injured 10 other children and a number of parents. And one unnamed teenager who was shot first. The man had also killed himself with the same gun. The letter that Ken had seen was a suicide note littered with madness and sorrow. He had lost his wife and children in an accident, and the grief had driven him insane.

Ken tried to make sense of it all. He had collected all the news headlines he could find on the incident, each one stating almost identical information with perhaps one or two minor differences. In all of them, only one mentioned the name Ken Shimada. He tried to understand why. Why an ordinary man could commit murder and then suicide without a second thought. Or had he thought of it all the time? Long enough? Ken didn't know. Maybe he didn't want to.

The funerals were held while he was still in hospital, so he did not attend. Kikei and Nambu paid their respects, as did most of Shimada Guard. Some of the Shimada Guard children had known the dead, and they were going to take lots of time to heal. They were children, after all. Though Ken was not, he knew he would take far longer than them.

Putting things into perspective, Ken figured that if the man hadn't shot him first, there would have been no warning for the people at the playground. If that first shot hadn't been fired, no one would know what was to happen next. The casulaties could have been more, the deaths more. In shooting him, he had bought a fraction of time for the people around to move away, duck down, pull their children back. For all he knew, he probably did save one or two lives.

But a small consolation that was.

Ken did not attend school for a week, wanting the fuss to blow over before he went back to what should be normal. Eddie dutifully collected homework assignments for him, while Maia, the five-year-old, kept close company with him while he was at home. Kikei guarded him. Nambu overstayed. And Kira shared his bed.

The Sunday before he went back to school, Ken visited Atsuko and bought a small bouquet of flowers. He took his flowers to the playground, where he had walked nearly two weeks ago.

He hadn't known each child by name, but they had known him. Because of that, he couldn't visit their graves individually. He saw them as one, most of the time, and that was how he wanted to pay his respects.

People did look at him. Some did know that he was the first victim. But they all left him alone as he looked past the wire-mesh fence, looked over the deserted part of the playground, knelt down as he left the bouquet of flowers there against the fence, and walked away.

[If I had been someone else, if I had some degree of power in me, I would've liked to change what happened there that day. Angels couldn't have stopped it, Kikei said. If I had been one of those angels, I would have sacrificed my wings to save them. I would have torn them off and shielded them all. But I would not die, because angels don't. Funny. Then why hadn't those angels even tried?]

He walked further away, wishing that he could somehow protect the rest of the world from what he had come to witness, and sighed. "Someday..."





        to be continued....
Chapter 10 by Ali
Streets of Seclusion


That summer Ken spent two weeks in Utoland City. Kikei agreed to it solely because Ken seemed to take a long time getting over the shooting and was afraid that he was edging on depression. "Take him away from these streets, just for a while. Just long enough for him to come back."

So Ken had reluctantly packed up and left with Nambu to Utoland City for two weeks. Kira had held him long and tight before he left, making him promise to come back, and Kikei said nothing other than what was close to telepathic between the two of them. Ken remained blank, expression mostly gone, but the eyes told stories only Kikei could see and hear.

Upon arrival at Utoland City, Nambu had taken him straight to the Residence, where he lived. Ken did not immediately question the size of the house; he thought that could wait. He was quickly introduced to Tante Marie, the housekeeper, who did not hesitate to comment how thin and frail he looked. Normally Ken would have growled at a comment like that, but he was too sudbued to think much of it, of anything at the moment.

Nambu escorted him to his room, which was slightly bigger than his own back at Shimada Guard. The shelves were empty, as was the closet spaces and drawers: it had the smell of a new room, the fresh paint, the smooth-sanded wood, the fabric softener. The room was soulless as it was. No one had ever been in here. And Ken forgot to ask about the four other rooms surrounding his own.

He was alone in the room for the meantime, given a rest from the journey. Ken discovered that his window provided a magnificent view of the sea and the forest land nearby. The window faced north; he would get both sunrise and sunset through the glass. He smiled faintly at the thought.

It was strange, the silence in the house. He kept waiting for a small voice to yell, "Ken-tenshi!" but none came, none did, and he missed it. [So this is solitude. This is quiet]. He never thought it would sound so alien to him.

During the first few days, Ken was mostly left to his own destruction, so he ventured out now and then, taking the bus out to the city itself and wandering around. He felt very awkward walking among so many people: they moved in such a relaxed manner while he kept looking over his shoulder and stealing glances left and right because it had been his habit for so long. Some days he spent at the libraries, other times he played basketball alone at the local Y. Slowly he began to relax into this new world, not caring if he didn't pay attention to his surroundings, pacing himself, trying to understand the meaning of peace.

One day at breakfast, Nambu asked if he wanted to see his mother's handiwork: Nambu had never seen a brighter smile before this.

"But how do we get there?"

Nambu led him into the study, where books lined the wall-to-wall shelves. Ken had spent a decent amount of time here already. He watched as Nambu reached for a book on one of the shelves: 'The Phoenix and the Dragon'. He pulled it out partway and the entire wall sank back, sliding away to reveal a dark passageway.

Nambu was minorly surprised that Ken wasn't fazed by it. "She had a thing for old movies, Hakase," Ken explained. "Though I can't rightly remember which movie she picked this one from. Good choice for the book; I wouldve picked something like that myself."

A while later they were in a transport capsule shooting through a maze of underground tunnels towards Shadow Mountain, what was to be the base of operations for the G-Force Project. Ken sat comfortably throughout the ride, Nambu was more tense. "Did she have a thing for amusement parks, too, Ken?"

"She might have," he replied, smiling. "I can't remember really."

The transport capsule stopped and they alighted, walking down a quiet, dark corridor until they came to what Ken figured was the main chamber. It was sparsely lit, and what he could see of it was mostly a huge computer console with five seats along it and a conference table littered with what seemed to be much of his mother's work in files, binders and journals. He looked up to Nambu who practically hovered above him, and with a raised eyebrow asked the question.

Nambu said, "I've been trying to sort thorugh her work. She's put everything out of order on purpose so that any ordinary person would give up trying to fit everything together to make sense out of it."

"But you're not an ordinary person?" Ken asked with a gentle smile.

Nambu shrugged. "She was my partner. I suppose she assumed that either you or Kikei would be wiling enough to help me put her efforts to use."

He hadn't realized that Ken had stopped listening and was already fingering through the paperwork, looking for the basics of what he was supposed to know to help Nambu with Shadow Mountain. "She wouldn't happen to have left the manual lying around or something, Hakase?"

"No. I would have tried that myself. She insisted that you or Kikei would be able to figure it out and connect into the central system."

Ken turned to the stack of journals on one end of the table and eyed them closely. They were numbered and lettered on the bindings, but the letters were rather unusual that some books had more letters than others, several letters used repeatedly. He tried to rearrange the books in numerical order.

Without being asked, Nambu came over and helped Ken rearrange the books.

"What are you hoping to find, Ken?"

Ken laid down the last few books in order. "If you don't mind my saying, Hakase, Mother was brilliant, but she had a kid's mind. Riddles and games and things. She used to drive me and Kikei crazy with all her words and puzzles."   

"You think this is one?" Nambu was slightly upset. How could he possibly not figure out Sayuri's puzzles? She was his partner in the project. Unless for some reason she needed someone even more trustworthy to touch her work. Someone like her son.

"Maybe." Ken cleared away the table. "Hakase, help me put these journals upright."

Together they brought all the books to a stand, using some other files and folders for bookends. Ken moved around to the front of the table, and Nambu saw his eyes widen.

"What is it, Ken?"

Ken breathed evenly. "The Riddler strikes again."

Upright, the letters on the binders now spelt in a neat fashion:



                C O N S O L E

                C U F F  

                W R I S T

                C O N N E C T

                H I N O T O R I

                

Nambu stared in pure wonder. He was a scientist: facts, figures, physical evidence. Sayuri was more of a magician than a scientist. It made some sense why something like this could not have occured to him.

Ken went to the main console again, taking the middle seat, and found there in a small compartment a metal cuff. "Hakase!"

Nambu went to him and inspected the device. "My guess is that this cuff would identify the user. Only three codes are locked inside, and that would be your mother's, Kikei's and yours."

Nervously, Ken clasped it around his right wrist, the metal embracing the silver ID bracelet he now wore. "So this would connect me to the central computer system. But how?"

Both looked back at the unusual message on the binders. "Hinotori."

"Japanese for 'firebird'," Ken said.

It made sense to Nambu. Much of the project was built around that theme. The Phoenix. She ahd favored it for some reason he never got to ask her about. "Try it."

Ken cleared his throat, and said, "Hinotori."

Nothing happened. "Hakase?"

"It's definitely a vocal command, Ken. You couldn't really key in the word, because then anyone could do it. It's tracked to your voice."

"My voice changed since she died," Ken said, dejected. "Maybe Kikei should do it. His voice hasn't changed."

Nambu laid a hand on his shoulder. "No. Try again, Ken."

Taking a deep breath, Ken said again, a little louder, "Hinotori."



A little way behind them, parts of the chamber had come to life. Streams of vine-like creatures had begun to move towards them, sensing their presence. They slithered closer to the console....



And three vines jumped onto the cuff, diving into the circuitry within. Ken was so stunned he forgot to react.


Immediately the entire chamber was filled with a warm hum, lights coming on so quickly the two humans there were nearly blinded, and the main screen above them blinked on.

"Hinotori Systems operational. Code entry: Ken Shimada. Verified. Hinotori Systems now fully active and awaiting further instructions."

Ken felt his heart stop at the voice. The tone, the manner, the light 'tinklingness' of it... it was all a clear, perfect mimickry of...

"Mother?"





                to be continued....
Chapter 11 by Ali
Streets of Seclusion


Sometimes secrets that are revealed can be enthralling, exciting, joyous. And there are some times when they bring into view the purest form of sorrow and loss.

Ken was being squished between both of these instances. He wasn't sure what to feel, say, when he saw before him, on the main screen of Shadow Mountain, a computer-generated image of Sayuri Shimada smiling down at him, her light voice filling the air.

He felt his heart break when the image, the voice, said, "Hello, Ken."

The replication was so incredible that even Nambu was at a loss for words and expressions. He only held Ken by his tense shoulders.

Ken drew a breath, then asked, "Mother?"

The image shook her head. "No. I am Hinotori. I was designed to look and sound like Sayuri Shimada to the most infinite detail by Sayuri Shimada herself. I am now operational under your control, Ken Shimada, until at least you imprint anyone else's verification into my memory banks."

It was strange hearing his mother's voice being spoken from an image of her so clearly. But he had to remember, his mother was dead, and that this was Hinotori. "Hinotori," he began in a professional tone, "rearrange the data left by my mother into something that resembles coherence for Nambu-hakase, please."

She smiled. "Certainly."

Scores of vine-like objects moved to the conference table where they began sorting through the files and papers, acting as though they can see, rearranging the information as he requested. Nambu and Ken watched in perfect wonder, the workforce of Shadow Mountain.

"Those are fibre-optic nerves, Ken," Hinotori explained. "They act as I command them, as you have commanded me."

"They don't work on their own?"

"Now that you have activated me, I can use them accordingly as well, whether or not you're connected to me," she said. "You only need to connect if you want to access classified information or do research into my files or anyone else's. If there is no information you would like to access right now, you may disconnect."

Ken took off the cuff, and the nerves continued working. Hinotori remained on screen. "Now that I'm operational, I can begin reconstruction of Shadow Mountain. There is still much left to be done here, Ken."

Ken nodded. "Wait. I need to imprint Nambu-hakase's record into the banks. That way he won't need me around all the time." He got to work, making progress as Hinotori instructed him on how to go on about it. In ten minutes, Nambu was verified as an operator of Shadow Mountain and Hinotori.

"Why didn't Mother just employ people to do the construction instead of creating the fibre-optic vine network?" Ken asked. "It would have been less work on her part."

"Shadow Mountain and the construction going on within are top secret. Having employees would be a certain breach in secrecy and there was no guarantee that they would remain after her death. These animated vines could carry out every task humanly possible without the need of humans. Since her death, Shadow Mountain and I have been at rest because no one could release the code. Now that you're here, Ken, work can resume."

Ken knew what was ahead now. He was fifteen, but he was to carry out his mother's life-long work. Suddenly he found a purpose. Suddenly, he wanted to get out of school as soon as it was possibly legal, and he wanted to come back here to engineer Shadow Mountain. Far in the back of his mind was the name 'Seclusion', and he had to consider that for a bit before he did anything too rash.

He had choices again. He had no idea it could be so thrilling.



For the remainder of his stay in Utoland, Ken spent a lot of time in the depths of Shadow Mountain, going over the construction and learning how to operate the Hinotori System. He had amused Nambu to some degree when he asked the vine network to make a cup of coffee for the professor and impressed him with the fact that he wasn't afraid of heights when the network carried him right up to the ceiling.

In his quick exploration of the massive mountain base, Ken had found training rooms, rest quarters, locker and shower areas, a firing range...

He stopped there longest, and most frequently. Now and again within the walls of the range, he could hear echoes of the shooting in Seclusion. They left him as soon as he left the room, but would return whenever he came close. He didn't know what it would take to exorcise the incident from his mind forever. Until...

"Do you know how to shoot, Ken?" Nambu asked.

Ken quickly shook his head. "I don't think I want to."

Nambu pushed him in gently. "Take it as a sport, perhaps? You have a distinct fear of guns right now, don't you?"

The boy didn't answer, but it was enough to give an idea for an answer.

"You should, Ken. Maybe that's what you've been thinking about all this while. Just try."

Nambu led him to one of the target areas and handed him a gun. It was just about right for Ken's teenage hands and slender fingers: an automatic Beretta. Ken looked it over, then held it wrong, then right, surprising Nambu. "Do you know how to load?"

Ken picked up the cartridge, clicked the release, thrust it in and pumped the gun once. "Yeah."

"Where did you learn?

"Kikei's in police training now," He shrugged. "He just shows me stuff he thinks I could be interested it. I was, until then."

Nambu brought up a target. Like any other firing range, the target was shaped like a man. This brought even more distaste from Ken. "How good is your aim?"

Nervously, Ken shrugged again. "Mother taught us how to fire a crossbow; this couldn't be any different."

He fired once and missed the head by an inch. He fired again and hit the target right between the eyes. Again, and it pierced the heart. Two more punctured both lungs. The next few were all casuality shots, justice shots, Kikei would call them.

What bothered Nambu was the steadiness in Ken's hands as he fired. There was very little repulsion when he fired, and he got right back into aim after each shot. Sayuri had trained him well with the crossbow, which was considerably harder than the ordinary firearm. His aim was good, though Joe was certainly much better at it. The difference being that Ken never shot at the same spot twice: no overkill. And he chose his spots carefully: if he had to kill, he'd do it quickly with minimal suffering to his target, and if he had to just defend himself, his casualty shots were minor but crippling nonetheless.

[What am I thinking?] Nambu wondered. He had realized he had been evaluating Ken just as he had the other three he had put on firearms training. Jinpei was still far too young, hardly half Ken's age.

Then he noticed that Ken had visibly relaxed, his shoulders sagging, head down. There was a quiet smile on his face. "Ken?"

"I think," he said, "it worked." He unloaded the gun and put it back on the stand. "The images are gone now."

Nambu looked at him curiously. The older Ken seemed to get, he noted, the more he was sounding like his mother.

Ken's smile grew. "It's over. I didn't know exorcism could be like this."

With a gentle hand he led Ken away from there; it was close to dinnertime.



Nambu had trouble not observing Ken. He was the boy's foster father, yes, but it was not often that he got to see so much of him at once. He watched Ken with rapt attention, unconsciously noting his abilities, talents.

A week since the activation of Hinotori, the singular vacuum transport tunnels became operational. Like the larger transport capsule, the start of the journey was in the study, only there was no wall to go through. Five spots on the carpeted floor were the take-off points. Ken rose early every morning to head for Shadow Mountain with a small backpack in tow. Though the five transport tubes were not meant to be assigned to him at all, he had taken one of them for his own use. He would reprogram later once the G-Force Project was in actual swing. Taking the center spot, he readied himself, and said, "Let's go, Hinotori."

The floor vanished from beneath him and he slipped into a perma-glass tunnel that carried him to Shadow Mountain, the vacuum keeping him aloft as he sped down the tunnel. He laid down flat to cut down on friction, and uprighted himself again to slow down, preparing for the drop.

The end of the tunnel came and he tumbled out of it. Adjusting his weight and form, he landed neatly on his feet. "Good morning, Ken," Hinotori said brightly. Nambu, who was there too, gave him a nod of greeting.

Ken waved back and ran to the training rooms where he had been spending more time now. Nambu saw that Ken was already in a training suit. Shrugging, he followed.

Nambu was very glad that Ken was finally over the shooting, that he was finally getting back on track, but there were new things about him now that left him in complete wonder.

As he watched Ken work on the parallel bars, he saw the grace and fluidity of his movements, caught all the mental calculation Ken must be doing, marvelled at the sheer flawlesness of his performance. Growing up in the Seclusion streets must have had a hand in it, but for the most part, Nambu knew that Ken was practically built for acrobatics and martial arts. He wondered why not him. He didn't wonder for very long.

"Has Kikei been keeping you up with your martail arts, Ken?" Nambu asked as Ken dismounted and flipped back to the mat.

Ken took a moment to catch his breath. "Yeah. As often as we can, though not as much lately."

Nambu took a seat. "Would you mind showing me a few of your katas?"

Ken blinked a few times. He thought that was a rather strange request, but complied anyway. He got into his stance, and began.

Again, Nambu found himself noting the differences between Ken and his four other wards. Ken moved fluidly, more like a dancer, his strikes exact, every move carrying a strength that lay hidden underneath the exterior. Joe didn't hide his strength and he struck like a deadly viper. Ryu was all strength, not as graceful but easily twice as powerful. Jun and Jinpei resembled Ken's style a little more, but their movements were quicker and more flamboyant; they needed that edge because they were smaller.

[Every bit like Sayuri. If allowed, if I trained him with them, he would make an excellent agent, but....]

But.





                to be continued...
Chapter 12 by Ali
Streets of Seclusion


Ken returned to Seclusion in its worst form.    

The night he arrived itself, he could see a towering fire in the city. It was plastered all over the news, and Kikei was there on the scene getting some idea of how to investigate an arson.

Nambu had tried many times before to comprehend how a place like Seclusion could raise a child like Ken. He figured then, someone, something had to be watching over that boy.

Ken watched the fire from outside Shimada Guard for a while, before asking Eddie, "Why so soon? It's not Halloween Eve yet. Far from it."

"This looks like a random gang attack," Eddie said. "Smart. They had to pick on the hardware supply shop."

"Hardware supplies?"

"Paints, sprays, a happy assortment of flammable stuff. It borders on chemical fire."

"I think that was the entire plan, anyhow." Ken sighed. "I'm gone two weeks, and this place goes insane."

Eddie bent down to take up one of Ken's bags as he led him and Nambu into the house. "Kikei said it looks like the beginning of something. Something big."

Ken nodded. "It is."

Eddie could not take his eyes off Ken's cold, vacant expression.

"It's the beginning of a new gang war in Seclusion."



"They are territory freaks," Kikei agreed. "There are invisible borders in the city that only the gang members can see, and it looks like one of them crossed someone's border and did some serious damage."

"But why would they want to start something up again?" Tokiko asked.    

Kikei shrugged. "I don't know. Mindless violnece is my first guess. That, or they just have nothing better to do."

"How much will the police be able to do about it?" Ken asked from his seat on the floor.

"Not a lot. No suspects, and not enough evidence." Kikei sighed and leaned back into the sofa. "Now I'm more anxious than ever to get posted here."

[One person who has seen enough death and carnage to last him more than one person's lifetime], Ken thought again. Now he felt that it referred more to both he and Kikei than himself alone.



Ken's return to school after that summer was considerably eventful. The first day itself a massive gang fight occured in the gym where he had been a few minuted before it actually started; he debated getting involved. Detention on the first day was not an appealing idea.

Eddie had teased him non-stop about the three pink perfumed notes he had received from a girl in his class. In three of his classes, as a matter of fact. That, and the fact that many of girls in the school were beginning to pay a little more attention to him than he could really stand at once. Ken had squished himself into the corner in the library during study hall.

Another fight had occured in the lunch room later on, and Ken was thankful that he had come late for his lunch period, because by then the food had all converted into ammo and was mostly on the floors and walls.

[Seclusion is falling apart by the seams], he thought.

His last class proved eventful. He sat between two guys from opposite gangs, and was caught dead in the middle of an argument that had gone out of hand in the sense that both guys carried switchblades. In trying to stop the fight, Ken had earned a gash in his lower arm. After that he took down both boys in a fit of anger and frustration, leaving them baffled with the fact that the slender, unassuming Ken Shimada had taken them both down as though they were nothing.

By the end of the first day, the kids who lived in the suburban area were classified as the Rebels, since they did not take part in any of the gang-related goings-on in the city.

Rebel. Ken almost liked that. Almost.

"Fight?" Eddie asked during their walk home, referring to the bandange around his left arm.

"In the classroom, too," Ken answered. "I think if I hadn't been sitting between them there would be two dead people here today."

"Or one dead you."

Ken brushed off the comment. "It's getting scarier, Eddie. We've got a house full of kids who don't know how to protect themselves yet. And now there's a full-fledged gang war going on. I don't know... I just don't know."

"Ken," Eddie said, "you're still only one person."

Ken looked at his partner, but said nothing. They continued their way back in silence until fate decided to intervene.

Eddie stopped. "Ken, hold back."

Both stopped a little before a small gathering of Serpents who were too busy smoking to yet notice them. Ken recognized one of them as they one guy he had to take down in class. [I've had it. If he sees me...]

"Hey, it's the little bastard that hit me," came a voice from the crowd.

"Shimatta..." Ken scooted back half an inch.

Basically, he knew this kid solely by his last name, the probable explanation being that his first name is not good enough for a gang member, something pretty dopey perhaps. But the last name Valestra had a lot to do with getting hurt. Badly.

Valestra appeared from behind his crowd and came forward to Ken. Eddie had already blended himself neatly into Ken's back. "Ken, run...."

"He's not going to let me," Ken whispered back. "You get out of here. Now."

Eddie shook his head. "Ken.."

"Ima!" Now! Eddie took off; he would never know why Ken seemed to sound more threatening, more subtle when he spoke his native language.

Valestra chuckled at the sight. "What? Calling for back-up?"

"I don't need back-up," Ken seethed. What was wrong with him? Was it finally too much to take?

Ken barely moved when Valestra reeled back for a punch; only when the hand was about two inches from his face did he sidestep him, grabbing his arm and hurling him forward with his own momentum. Valestra went skittering on his back.

And it was then Ken discovered that for a kid twice his size, Valestra was not slow at all. "You little bastard!"

He lunged at Ken, and again Ken sidestepped gracefully, elbowed Valestra in the small of his back and sent him down to the ground again. No longer wanting the so-called fight to go on, Ken dropped his foot on the back of Valestra's calf, pegging a nerve. Valestra howled in pain.

"Touch me, or any of my friends again, and I'll let you know which other nerves on your body can seriously hurt, understand?"

No answer. Ken pressed harder. And Valestra nodded quickly.

Ken let go and continued his walk back, ignoring the loud profanity being thrown against his back, blocking out the laughter from the other gang members.

[Now it really begins].



News about Ken's 'fight' travelled rather quickly in the school, which at some point convinced Ken that that was the stupidest move he could have possibly made. It was harder to keep out of sight now, but his new glasses helped him isolate himself from people.

The glasses were something of a gift and an experiment from Dr. Nambu. Sayuri used to wear them despite having more than perfect sight, and Nambu discovered that the glasses weren't made for corrective sight but more for the work of a special agent.

So Ken often toyed with the glasses' built-in functions: x-raying lockers, detecting metal, tracking infrared. The feature he liked most on the eyewear was the fact that somehow it made him slightly more obscure than he used to be. Which was a good thing for him.

Ken was behind a pile of books in the far corner of the library -- he had finally grown too big for his old spot behind the bookshelves -- when he heard someone push up next to him. He had to fight from rolling his eyes when he saw who it was.

"Hi, Ken," the boy beside him said.

Ken murmured a polite 'hello' and delved back into his work.

"Senior year work is tough, huh?"

He nodded. "Yes, Sabu, it is." And was silent again.

Sabu had been in Shimada Guard since the beginning, and since he was the same age as Ken very frequently hung around him. He had been Ken's first 'clinger', and possibly the longest-lasting. Eddie's theory of that was because only Ken had the patience to deal with him and his antics. Sabu was not the bravest of boys, certainly not the type who actually could look after himself which earned him the title 'Crybaby Sabu', and had clung to Ken since they were children, because 'Lightning Ken' would always protect him.

Ken thought it would end once he ascended to high school and left Sabu behind in grade school. But it only stalled until school was out again, and there he would be, stuck there like there was a leash around his neck that Ken tagged along. When Ken's timetable began shifting during his second year, their times did not coincide any longer, and Ken would be well rid of him until Sabu came home. Then Kikei had urged Sabu to enter a student exchange program, and was sent to May-Eau-East for a year, and Ken hoped to the Gods above it would change him.

He was worldlier now, yes, but other than that, he was still Sabu.

"I heard about the fight, Ken," he said.

[And who hasn't?] "Mmhmm." [Work, Ken. Just keep busy]. Ken habitually worked with both hands; like Kikei, he was ambidextrous. It used to be a thing that was frowned upon, though he couldn't remember when and where it was so, but he had kept it up, and now wrote down notes with the pen in his right hand, and jotted outlinings with the pencil in his left. The illusion of work he was trying to cast did not seem to work on Sabu.   

"Do you finish early again today, Ken?" he asked as he opened his own books to get to work.

"Mmm." He didn't, but Sabu didn't need to know that. He felt a sense of relief when Sabu finally got to work, leaving him pretty much alone again. Someday he was going to have a talk with that boy about growing up a little.

[But how old are *you*, Ken?] [Fifteen, but it sure doesn't feel like it.]





                to be continued....
Chapter 13 by Ali
Streets of Seclusion


Ken and Eddie had hidden away up in a tree on the school grounds to read when they heard a voice repeated calling Ken's name in a rather urgent tone.

"It's Sabu, Ken," Eddie said, deadpan.

Ken nodded, slid his bookmark into the book and closed it. "I know." He jumped off the tree. "Be right back."

He ran to where the voice was coming from, and found Sabu up in another tree, cowering from the boys beneath, still calling for him. Ken saw that one of the boys happened to be Valestra.

"Come down, you little crybaby!"

"Whiner!"

"Lookit the coward!"

"Lay off," Ken said, his voice low and bordering on dangerous. He got the bullies' attention, and he noted that Valestra had visibly backed off. [Good. He remembered].

The other boys did not immediately move. "I said, lay off. Now."

Valestra urged them to move back. They moved far enough away from the tree to allow Ken to coax Sabu down. "Get down here, Sabu. For crying out loud..."

Sabu slowly, cautiously crawled down, and once he was on the ground he hid behind Ken, nearly disappearing behind Ken's taller frame. "Th-thanks."

"Now get out of here. Go," Ken said. Sabu could tell he was not pleased by this. "Yuke!" Go!

Sabu backed away and ran as fast as he could. Ken wondered what it must feel like to have a group of kids laugh at you because you're so scared of living. He looked back at the group of boys and they had begun to disperse, leaving Valestra very much alone.

Ken saw no point in staying, and turned away. He saw Eddie approaching him, Sabu not too far behind. The smile he saw on Eddie's face quickly changed to a look of warning, fear. He stopped walking and turned on his heel...

To see a sizable rock hurtling towards him. Too late to dodge, Ken brought his arm up to deflect. His hand snapped the rock away from its path, away from him, but the pain was there in his wrist where the rock had cut him. He held firm; showing Valestra he was in pain would not be a wise idea.

Valestra stood stock still, wondering what else to do. He decided to make a break for it.

Once Ken could see no shadow nor dust of him, he dropped to his knees, clutching his bleeding wrist. Eddie was next to him in seconds. "Ken!"

"Just get me something to wrap this up with, will you?" Ken croaked.

Eddie pulled out a large clean handkerchief from his back pocket and gently bound it around Ken's wrist. Blood soaked it quickly. "Ken, do you think..."

"I hope not."



Ken had hoped right. He hadn't torn a vein or an artery, as Eddie had feared, but the cut had been deep enough. Lightly, Eddie had noted that now Ken had matching bandages for both his left and right arm. Ken had slapped him on the back of his head.

"Kikei is going to absolutely love this," Ken said.

"Just tell him you were bailing out Sabu again," Eddie told him.

"Kikei will then proceed to bang his head on the wall and ask me why I did it because Sabu is fifteen years old and should have some idea how to live like an orphan like the rest of us," he retorted. "Believe me, Eddie, I'm getting really burnt out with him."

Eddie shrugged. He was carrying Ken's books for him, seeing that he now had two injured arms. "That doesn't sound like you."

Ken shook his head. "I don't know. Maybe... maybe it was okay when we were like, twelve or something, but for god's sake, I'm going to be leaving next year. Don't tell me I'm going to find out he's dead the day after I leave."

Eddie paused. "Whoa, back up there. Back up."

Ken blinked. "What?"

"You're leaving? Leaving here?"

[Oops...] He felt his cheeks grow warm, and he tripped and stumbled through his words. "You see... I... that summer in Utoland... it... there is... I... I mean that..."

He was rudely, though happily interrupted by Eddie. "Fantastic! So what are you going to do?"

Ken blinked again. [Fantastic?] "Fantastic? Eddie, you been smoking something?"

"No, but this is great! I told you you had potential to get out of here!" Eddie was running in circles around Ken now.

"Wh-what?" Ken still could not believe what he was hearing. "Eddie, you know I don't want to leave."

"You don't, but you gotta. Look around, Ken. There's nothing for you here. Out there, there's something. You got chances! You're smart, you're tough, and you beat odds like no one else I know! So c'mon, c'mon, tell me the grand plan!"

Slowly, Ken started talking about his mother's work, though not all of it, certainly not about Shadow Mountain and Hinotori. He talked about Archangel Air, and about Kyrell, and perhaps college so he could maybe work for the ISO under his mother's old department. By the time he was done talking, Eddie was beyond excitement for his best friend.

"That's incredible! So now you're trying to speed up your schooling too?"

"Not really," he said, referring to the stack of books Eddie was carrying. "Look at the payload I have now. I'll take it slowly, but at least now I see some point in an early graduation."

When they came near the gates again, Eddie felt something else tug at him. "Umm, what does Kikei think?"

"So far he agrees on all that I've been planning," he answered. "Nambu-hakase has been doing a lot of talking to him."

"You're on a smooth path, my compadre!" Eddie said. "Beginning to sound really good for you!"

That somehow made Ken all the more uneasy. He only wished he knew why.



He had been downstairs in the laundry room alone with his homework when Sabu came down to see him. Ken hated laundry duty but that was what his rotation called for today. The only good part is that it was one job where he could actually get some of his own work done while waiting for the washer or dryer.

"Hi, Ken."

Again, Ken only murmured a polite 'hello'. Not that he was really angry at Sabu. He just figured that if he and Eddie could look after themselves... [Now that's pretty selfish.] [I think trying to teach him to live is no selfish act.] [You're being hard on him.] [Like the rest of the

world was on me. Live and learn.]

"How's your arm?"

Ken wanted to say 'hurts like hell' but didn't. "S' fine. Just a cut." He wanted to completely cut away from Sabu, but there was very little success.

Sabu was shuffling and shifting around behind him, quite nervous. "Kikei... he really tore me up about today. I'm really sorry about what happened."

"Mmm."

"Ken, why aren't you talking to me?"

It was then Ken stopped working.

Kikei watched silently from the top of the basement stairs, wondering what Ken was going to say. He wondered then how two boys the same age could be so different. Sabu was more worldly now, but that could not match Ken's attitude, his 'premature maturity'. Sabu could hardly defend his own, while Ken defended everyone if he could. And Ken had fire inside him; that was one thing Sabu could not ever have.

"It's not that I'm not talking to you," Ken began lowly. "Today was the last time  I saved your behind, do you understand?"

"N-no," Sabu said quietly.

Ken sighed and removed his glasses. "I'm going to tell you now, that you and I are both fifteen. When we were kids you could handle yourself because you were stronger, I was mostly in bed. I don't see why you can't maintain that anymore, just because I happen to be up and around now. I'm up and around, sure, but soon I'm also going to be away. If you keep taking my being around for granted, what'll happen when I'm not around?"

"But... but I can't..."

"Don't give me that. Before I came along you were fine on your own. I think now it's time for you to go back on your own."

Sabu was rocking on the edge of crying. He truly would have preferred if Ken yelled at him or something, not speaking like this, like it was nothing. "Ken... I don't... understand..."

"Let me make it simple: live without me. From tomorrow onwards, either you stay out of trouble, or learn to get out of it. I can ignore you. I can not come to help you. I can let things happen to you and not feel a thing about it. I can not sympathize with you. I can. I doubt I'll even have to try."

And that was true. Even as Sabu's eyes glistened with threatening tears, Ken did not feel anything. He felt completely cold and deviod of any emotion for this boy. All Sabu could see now was the hero he had worshipped standing high above him beyond his reach, completely aloof and uncaring. 'Lightning Ken'. It was the first time Sabu could see clearly that Ken had left him behind, that Ken had long since grown up.

Slowly he moved away, shuffling up the stairs. Every time he looked back, hoping to see the Ken he was familiar with, the Ken who would feel sorry for him and offer him a small smile of comfort, he was disappointed to find the older Ken, firm warmth but cold expression, 'live and learn'. He walked past Kikei and never looked back again.

Kikei came downstairs and took a seat next to Ken, who had gone right back to work. The illusion again, failed. "How're you feeling?"

"I'm not sure," Ken said. He stopped writing.

"You regret what you said?"

Ken shook his head. "No. It was right. It felt right. I would've known if it didn't. What was going on before was wrong. But I wish it didn't have to hurt him."

"It takes a little force to nail in a point, Ken," Kikei said, shrugging. He saw a glimmer of a thought in Ken's eyes, one only he could have seen. "What's wrong?"

"I can't believe I used to envy him," he answered. "I can't believe I used to want to be him. I used to watch him run and play outside from my room, and I'd be too weak to open the window any further. He did things I didn't have the strength to do."

Kikei wrapped a brotherly arm around his shoulders. "I know. But no one could blame you. I envied him too, Ken, because I thought that you could be like him too. And you did. You became even better."

"I also grew up a little faster because of that," Ken said. There was some resentment there.

"The day you cheat the Devil is the day you grow up and never go back," Kikei said quietly. "You cheated the Devil too many times in too short a space of time. So you just kept growing."

Ken gave a tiny smile. "For every time you cheat him, one other evil becomes clear to you and you understand it."

"By that understanding, you grow up."

There was a 'ding', and Ken bolted for the washing machine to fill in the fabric softener.

Kikei laughed. "For instance, I don't know any other fifteen-year-old boy who can do teh laundry liek you do."

Ken took a handful of soap suds and threw them at Kikei. "Jerk."





                to be continued...
Chapter 14 by Ali
Streets of Seclusion



It was the coldest winter in all of Seclusion's history. Half of Shimada Guard suffered coughs and colds and a little dent appeared in their finances for buying more blankets and winter wear. The bill climbed slightly for heat.

That winter Ken's relationship with Sabu faded, but with Maia strengthened. The kids were starting to share beds to share body warmth, with some hope to maybe save up on energy. So Maia chose the best place for warmth: Ken.

She crawled into his bed late one night during a howling snowstorm that guaranteed closed schools and chills from hell. Ken had two blankets; he would've liked about two more but he had to give to the kids. So he had piled on his clothes and slept in an unaccustomed curl to keep his chest warm. He hadn't yet forgetten his old ailings. But when he felt his covers being pulled back, a form crawling into the bed, he stretched out again, and Maia nestled against his chest. He pulled the covers back up and slept, a child curled close to him.

When he asked her later why she had come into his bed, she said that the other kids didn't want to take her to share the bed because she was so small and that the snowstorm frightened her. Ken had a strict principle that he would not cast favorites among the Shimada Guard children, but Maia was simply irresistable.

And so it was ever since.

Winter runs were the worst, as Ken soon discovered. There was no traction whatsoever and more often than not he slid right off rooftops and glided down sidewalks. And he was running into the wind, into its chill, which he felt was the stupidest thing anyone would want to do, but he did it anyway. There hasn't been a stupid thing he'd admonished so far that he hadn't done himself.

The lack of traction was good training: he learned how to use his momentum in leaping, how to actually brake and do a point turn, how to run harder with as much caution as possible. Ignoring the cold, steeling himself for the conditions around him also made him stronger. He felt somewhat battle-seasoned. And that wasn't far from the truth since he was living where he was.

[Just until graduation, Ken,] he reminded himself as he ran back from the drugstore one night. [Just until then. Then you're gone]. Gunshots and screams came from behind him. Ken groaned. "Here come the circus, all dressed up and nothing better to do than chase me."

He skidded down the sidewalk, caught hold of a lamp-post and swung into an alley, quickly making his way up the fire escape. This time of year, he adored his gloves: the steel was freezing cold.

The gang wars in Seclusion had peaked recently, and both sides owned guns as though they were candy. More people were getting hurt daily, and Ken saw the risk on the streets trickle into the school as well when just the other day someone had fired a gun in the gym and caused pandemonium.

With the recent peak, Ken had made it a point to learn how to shoot and fight better. Kikei trained him harder than he used to, only because Ken had asked for it. So Ken's skill, too, peaked, almost as good as Kikei. Kikei's sole regret was that Ken was not going to use his skill in the police force. "You would've been quite an asset to us."

Ken slid across the rooftop and leapt high and forward, landing neatly on the next rooftop, sliding again on the ice. He heard them follow him, but he knew they would never catch him this way. Maybe not by hand. They were still armed.

[Need to lose them], he thought. He jumped off again, going straight down like a suicide jumper and caught hold of a clothesline. With his momentum he swung up and over, somersaulting to the ground. He looked up from where he had begun: the odler he got, the more meaningless height was to him. He knew no fear of heights.

He made his way back to Shimada Guard where five kids and two Angel Elders were waiting for their cold medicine. "Tadaima!" I'm back!

Kikei came downstairs and took the backpack. "Thanks, Ken." He looked Ken over, and saw something that just baffled him. "Ken, you ran out there in the snow and ice across rooftops in your *boots*?"

Ken looked down as though seeing the boots for the first time. "It's a gift?" he suggested. It earned him a whack on the head. "Hey! It might come in handy, running in your boots!"



It had come to a point where drive-by shootings were common. The school had been shot at after hours, bars in the early morning. Never homes yet, but it was only a matter of time before they decided to strike those too. Shimada Guard appointed two more new Angel Elders, Eddie and Casey solely because now they had night watches. Ken took the pre-dawn shifts so he could stay with Maia during the earlier part of the night.        

"Ken-tenchi?"

Ken rose to his elbows in bed, looking at the little girl snuggled next to him. "Yes?"

"I'm scared of this place," she said plaintively. "I'm really scared."

"Shh, it's okay," he breathed. "As long as I'm here you'll be all right." He held her closer, letting her burrow into his chest. "I'm here, Maia."

"Promise?"

"I promise."

[White wings... white wings...]



Ken turned sixteen that January. Kikei turned twenty-four. Kikei got his post at Seclusion's Chinatown precinct, the 101st. Ken got his weapons' license.

Fresh snow came down that evening, and with the joyous occasion for the Shimada boys, everyone in Shimada Guard went out to play. Snowballs fights, snow angels, fortresses and white men of ice. Ken got the shock of his life when Sabu brained him with a snowball. He thought that took some guts, after all. It was the first time in a long time that Ken had lost himself in the moment.

Kikei's warning had shattered the illusion. "Ken, there!"

Ken looked in the direction where Kikei was pointing and saw them.

Drive-bys. Cars with guns.

"Inside! Inside now!" Ken shouted. "Eddie, get to the door and do a head count!"

Amidst the confusion and screams, bullets were already flying over their heads, not meaning to hit but only to threaten. Ken and Kikei herded the kids inside while Eddie struggled to make a head count. Ken was the last to go in, and he dived through the door, shutting it with his foot. "Count!" His voice barely carried over the sound of the gunshots.

Eddie was still confused. "I think, I think that's all of them."

Kikei looked around. He felt something was wrong. "Ken?"

Ken whipped around, searching and not finding. "Where's Maia?" He stood up. "Where's Maia?"

"Ken-tenshi!!"

Tokiko ran to the window. "Ken! Oh, god, she's still outside!"

Kikei did not get to stop him. Like the wind on wings he was out the door again. "Ken, wait! Come back!"

[As long as I'm here you'll be all right]. [Promise?] [I promise].

"Maia!!"

There were whoops and delighted screams as they saw Ken run out of the house to the girl. They reloaded and fired again. "Dodge these, Rebel!" "Serpents rule!" "Lookat him run!"

Maia was too scared to try to run to him. She was too scared to move. She just stood there and cried. "Ken-tenshi!"

[White wings... white wings, Ken...] "Maia! Maia, come to me! Come to me!" He pretended there were no bullets around him, pretended he didn't see them ricochet off the ground and walls trying to score him. All he saw was an open field with a little girl stading in it. "Maia, come to me!"

When she saw him she ran. She stumbled through the snow trying to get to him. She did not have his strength, his strides. She kept falling as she ran. "Ken-tenshi!"

One bullet ricocheted off a rock and sprang towards her. It struck, and she crumbled like a marionette with its strings cut.

"Maia!!"

*bang*



Ken forgot to cry during her funeral. He forgot to feel anything. He had never felt so devoid of emotion before that he was somewhat sure that something had finally gone wrong inside him.  

The consolation was that the car that had driven by Shimada Guard and opened fire was involved in a freak accident and had blown to hell. None

of them survived. That thought did not console Ken. Nothing could console the fact that he had broken a promise.

[As long as I'm here you'll be all right. I promise].

"A massacre is a statistic. A single death is a tragedy," he whispered to himself. "But they are dead people, nonetheless."

Kikei's arm slipped around his shoulders, but no words were exchanged between them. Nothing that was obvious.

[And where were the angels this time? Could they not have saved one girl? Maybe I can understand the toll of the playground, but this one child? Not even this one? Damn you, Angels of Heaven. And damn me, for not using my wings to fly to her].



Ken did not dwell on Maia's death the way he had for the children at

the playground. He set himself to work as soon as he was able and kept himself busy as much as he could to keep from going back to that memory. Winter came and went, as did spring, and Ken graduated from high school with honors.

And he pushed on without once looking back.        





                to be continued...
Chapter 15 by Ali
Streets of Seclusion



"Are you sure this is what you want?" Kikei asked from the door. He wasn't alone; half of Shimada Guard was watching Ken as he packed his bags.

Ken folded another shirt and put it into the bag. "We've been over this so many times. Yes, this is what I want. Nambu-hakase needs me in Utoland, and in two years Archangel Air will be my responsibility. I may as well be there now."

Kikei sighed and shooed all the other people away so he could speak to Ken alone. Once it was so, he stepped into the room. "Ken, it's not that I don't want you to go, and I don't want you to stay either, but --"

"Seclusion is that kind of place, Kikei," Ken broke in, not looking at him. His eyes were dead set on the window where he could see the sun going down. "It's the kind of place you have to admit is home because it's where you've been a good part of your life, but for the same reasons you can't stay forever because you can't always belong there. Seclusion is where I belong, and where I don't. It's a parallel mirror and even you can't deny that."

"No. No, I can't deny that," he said, coming up behind him to share the sunset. "It's just... we've never really been apart since we were kids, Ken. It's like changing phases. You were small and sickly, and now you're older, stronger. I used to call you 'Little Eagle', and you called me Niisan. Now you're just Ken, 'Riddle', 'Lightning'... and I'm just Kikei. We were always at home here. And now you're leaving for Utoland City."

Ken gave a small nod. "Things change. Who knows what else will change once I'm there."

Kikei gave a knowing smile. "Maybe you'll find the wings you've been looking for?"

He smiled back. There were two meanings to that, perhaps.



Nambu arrived early the next morning, before the children were awake. It was how Ken intended it, to leave quietly and unnoticed until later. Those who were there were the Angel Elders and Kira. Eddie helped Ken pack his bags into the car, talking with him briefly, personably. Ken had a small smile on his face most of the time, trying to decide whether he should be glad about leaving or upset.

He would always come back if they called, he told them. Parellel mirror or not, this was still, one way or another, his place should he want it to be. Need it to be. He had that duty, after all, as an Angel Elder.

Kira could not hide her tears from him no matter how hard she tried. He gave her an assuring smile that told her he would always be near.

"Atashi wa imohto desu," she whispered. I am your sister.

Ken nodded. "Hai. Ore wa oniisan desu."   Yes. I am your brother. "Take care of yourself, Kira." And he held her longer than he ever had before.

As expected, he and Kikei said nothing between them. There were only small gestures, expressions, almost undetectable traces of a psychic conversation, maybe. They hugged briefly before Ken got in the car with Nambu and he turned his back to Seclusion to begin another part of his life.



Sitting at the main console of Shadow Mountain, Ken was checking out a new weapon he had found in the Weapons Room. It was a sleek double-bladed boomerang, somewhat patterned after a bird. He liked the feel of it in his hands, as though he knew how to use it, but when he threw it and it came back in a smooth arc, he ducked.

"Maybe you should wear steel gloves?" Hinotori suggested.

Ken went to pick up the weapon again. "Look, I can dodge blades and I can catch them, but not one that I throw and comes back to me." He fingered it again before putting it back in its sheath in the Weapons Room. "Maybe later. Who knows."

Hinotori eyed him as he crossed the room. "You do know that Nambu's four wards will be arriving tomorrow?"

"Yeah," he replied. "If Tante Marie doesn't bug me about stuff when they arrive maybe I can still meet them with some dignity intact."

Hinotori giggled. "She can be testy, neh?"

"'Testy' doesn't begin to describe her." He plucked a CD from his bag and set it into the player. He selected a track and sat back down at the console.

Hinotori smiled as she heard the music. "'Chage & Aska'? Have you been going through your mother's collection?"

He grinned. "I have to admit, I like her taste. I'm so pathetically retro."

"She has good taste. She has a thing for old music."

"Like I have a thing for old movies," he said. "What a combination." He connected to the systems and began a quick run-down of Shadow Mountain's workforce activities. "So everything is on schedule?"

"Construction of the G-Force vehicles and the mother ship Phoenix is sixty percent complete," she said. "The base's transport system has been upgraded, as you've asked." She smiled. "Have you ever gone on a roller-coaster, Ken?"

"How do you think I came up with the idea of how to design it?" he grinned back. He looked up to the screen, setting his glasses on the bridge of his nose. "What about the storm drain system?"

"Looks okay, except for a few more minor glitches to touch up on. I'll send the Network on it later."

"Nah, it can keep. The Network has enough to do as it is," he said. "It doesn't look like it would rain anytime soon. Just keep the lower vents working and I think it'll do."

She smiled. "Roger."

Ken never thought he would get so involved in his work in Shadow Mountain. He treated it like his own private project, as though he was picking up from where his mother had left off. And he was thoroughly enjoying himself. Now between working here and getting his flight hours down to get his private pilot's license, he had a full life as it was, and he was happy.  He missed Seclusion now and then, but Nambu was not terribly picky about outgoing phonecalls, so he still kept in touch with home when he wanted to. Having a phone in his room proved satisfying.

"Transport shuttle has arrived. Passenger: Dr. Nambu," Hinotori announced.

Ken stood. "Thank you, Hinotori." He walked down the familiar maze of passageways to meet Nambu at the gateway.

Nambu was just getting out of the shuttle. "Good morning, Ken."

"Morning," he replied. He caught sight of a small pile of paperwork in Nambu's hands. "More test work for me, I suppose, Hakase?" he said with some lament.

Nambu smiled and handed him the stack. "Yes, Ken. Just because you're out of school doesn't mean you stop doing schoolwork immediately."

Ken thumbed through the papers, taking a brief glance at each one. "Hakase, at the rate you're pushing me I'll have my Bachelor's Degree by next year," he said lightly. "What's up?"

"Nothing other than the fact that you are very intelligent, Ken," Nambu said. "You've taken this base apart and put it back together again as though it was a two-piece jigsaw puzzle and based on the past results of the tests I gave you, you have the makings of an excellent ISO agent."

Ken had heard all that and was greatly embarassed, but he was also paying attention to one of the assignments Nambu had given him. "Criminal profiling?"

"Your aptitudes tests gave you a go on psychology and engineering," Nambu explained. "It's... quite a combination, actually. It's the first time I've seen it, at any rate." He heard Ken chuckle. "You find that amusing, Ken?"

He could not suppress his grin. "Ken 'Riddle' Shimada, they called me," he said. "This is just the icing on the top now. It's sorta scary, don't you think?"

"Not really. Unusual, yes. Scary, no." He looked at Ken for a moment: two weeks here had so far encouraged him and allowed him to go to his full potential, Seclusion having 'secluded' it for so long. He probably didn't even realize how talented he was despite the fact that most of it was uncannily obvious. [If only, Sayuri. But I couldn't... he's your son.]

His thoughts were interrupted by Ken's voice. "... go work on these now. I don't have much else to do. The Network is getting everything done as it is, so that leaves me pretty much idle." He led the way back to the main chamber with his nose in the assignments, finding them at least a little more of a challenge than what was given to him the last time.

Nambu absently followed, his thoughts completely focused on the events of the next day. They were coming at last. But they were still four.

Now and again he would look up to see Ken in front of him. He could easily see Sayuri in the way he walked and moved, talked, thought. And Sayuri had been the ISO's best until she retired for her boys. Nambu had always imagined more of Sayuri in Kikei, who was bigger and stronger, but now he saw he was a little off the mark, and that it was Ken who moreso than ever justified his mother.

[You've already selected him, haven't you, Sayuri?]        



Old dreams plagued him that night during the storm. His first fall. The shooting at the playground. Maia. The woman in black, the crying Firebird, the white eagle, wings of fire. Twice he had awakened in the middle of the night, breathless, his heart hammering so fast he was afraid it would come to a complete sudden halt. The storm contiued on and he lay awake until morning, until the storm died, the thoughts frequently coming back to haunt him.

[But I don't understand...]

He took a shower and dressed, absently putting on the glasses out of habit. He picked up his Magic deck from the dresser and shuffled it just to loosen his wired nerves. He sat at his desk and continued to shuffle, hands moving like a Las Vegas dealer, the cards flying past his fingers in and out. He wondered if he was any good at an actual Poker game. He'd never tried.

When he was through shuffling, he picked up the top card. It was a small ritual he did for each time he suffered a nightmare. A card would be something, and he would try to interpret it, to see what it might mean to him in his current state of mind. He had learned not too long ago that he was sharper and more perceptive after nightmares. He had no idea why.

The card was a White card: Divine Transformation.

[A good change. Something is going to change today. The events that will follow to today would change lives. Maybe not just mine, either. White calls for protection, defence, healing. Hmm. Means that it will definitely be a good change.]

In his deep thought, he did not hear the car pull up into the driveway. He did not hear four new voices speaking downstairs, did not hear the argument between a brother and his sister, the constant complaining of a third, and the relaxed reassurance of a fourth voice.

Ken put on his res jacket, checked himself in the mirror and decided to go out for a while. Weather was often pleasant after a storm.

He looked up out hs wondow and saw the packed gutters. The storm had blown all the leaves away, the rain had soaked them through and stuffed the gutters full with damp leaves and debris.

[I'd better clear out of here before Tante Marie makes me clean that out. I'm not going to go chores this early in the morning.]

He ran out of the room and down the stairs, completely passing by the four newcomers; he did manage to say, "I'm going out! Bye!" before he vanished out the door...

And whacked right into Tante Marie.

"Oops..."

"Back inside, boy," she demanded. And Ken stepped backwards into the house again; so much for dignity.

"But, Tante Marie..."

"No, you are not going out, boy!" she barked. "You have the gutters to clean up there!"

Ken groaned. He could very well feel the presence of four other people now, and they were all probably looking at him with some question, wondering what kind of an idiot he was, perhaps. [Why don't you just step onto the top of the world and announce that so you can embarrass me in front of the whole damned planet and not just these people?] "How come they get to call *you* the housekeeper when I'm the one turning circus-acrobat on the roof?"

"Ken," came Nambu's voice.

He sighed, his head dropped. "Yes, Hakase." He turned around and walked back upstairs. As he did, he saw the four newcomers.

A light-haired boy about his age, his eyes narrow and face taut with an expression that only implied annoyance and impatience. He would make an equal opponent for him, Ken figured, but he didn't seem all too welcoming of the idea.

Another boy, but tall and wide. Maybe his age, maybe younger. His ahir was short on the top but a ponytail trailed from the back of his head, and his worn vest had the name 'RYU' sewn onto it in bold letters.

A small boy, probably no more than eight years old with a mess of dark brown hair and small eyes, skinnier than Ken had ever been at his age. He had the look of a street-wise smart-ass, but Ken was not one to question something like that based purely on first impressions.

And there was a pretty girl, he guessed to be about two years or so younger than himself. Her hair had a greenish-black tint to it that made him wonder if it were natural or if it was one of though rare colors. She was fair and very attractive. He took the thought no further. She reminded him of Kira.

He continued his way up to change into some old clothes to deal with the gutters on the roof.

[So much for change....]





                to be concluded....
Epilogue: Six Years Later by Ali
Streets of Seclusion
Epilogue: Six Years Later



Ryu looked over to the commander's seat next to him where Ken lay in an impossible position, fast asleep. He shook his head, unbelieving. "Ken, are you made of rubber or something?"

Ken must have heard: he smiled. "...mmm... something... when you're tired, nothing really counts..." He opened his eyes and stretched fully, but he kept his angel-white wings still folded over him, keeping him warm. "Where are we?"

Joe yawned from the back. "Somewhere over the Northern Region and going due south."

Something glistened in Ken's eyes right then. Only Jun saw it. "What is it, Ken?"

"Are we anywhere near Seclusion?" he asked plainly.

"Passing over its airspace in about two minutes," Jinpei reported from the back. "Why?"

Ken stood up. "Ryu, go over the city center and drop me off. I won't be long, about an hour or less. Wait for me at the cliff at the cemetery."

Now Joe stood. "Wait a minute! What do you think you're doing?" he demanded. "We have a debriefing to get to!"

"*De*briefing, Joe. Not briefing," he corrected. "And it's not as if you really want to go to the debriefing anyway, right?"

"Well, yeah, but what exactly are you doing?"

He looked back at Joe for a moment. "Visiting my mother." And Joe fell silent.

There was a screech from the back of the bridge followed by a furious flapping of wings. Ken turned to see Azrael calling from her perch. The falcon wanted to follow.

Ken nodded. "All right, Azrael. You may come." He stepped onto the lift and it rose, taking him to the launch bubble, Azrael on his shoulder. The moment the bubble opened the wind lifted his wings up, spreading them, and he and Azrael took flight. They glided easily in the wind, landing together on a rooftop in the middle of Seclusion's urban area.

Ken looked around, and as he gave the call "Bird Out", his white wings transformed into a black jacket, the rest of the uniform converting into jeans, shirt and boots. Azrael perched on his shoulder again, and he took her on his arm. "Azrael, fly up and follow. Don't come down to me."

She screeched and spread her wings, nodding. She took off into the sky,leaving him alone.

Ken surveyed the area from where he stood. He felt a small smile touch his lips.

[You can never really stay away, can you?]



Slowly, cautiously, he pushed the door open and slid inside without jarring the tiny bell that hung over the door. "Atsuko-san?"

She stood up from behind the counter, her black hair in a long braid, her hands full of fresh orchids. "Ken-chan!" she cried. "You're back!"

He smiled. "I'm only passing through, Atsuko. I'll be leaving shortly."

She pouted. "Oh, that's a shame. I haven't seen you in a long time. You've grown."

"I'm twenty-two now."

"And involved?"

He blushed, thinking of Jun. "Sort of. Yeah."

Atsuko looked him over, liking what she was seeing, and nodded. "She has very good taste, then."

His cheeks took and even deeper shade. "Atsuko..."

She smiled, then giggled. "Are you here for the usual?"

He nodded. "And something extra. Could you..."



No one questioned or stopped him when he left the bouquet of flowers by the wire fence of the playground. Yes, he was older, taller, stronger, but people could still recall a lesser fifteen-year-old who had survived that tragedy. They recalled the absent manner in which the boy had moved, and saw it again in this grown young man.

When Ken looked past the fence now and saw the children there playing with their parents, he could only think of the group of children who were killed. And then he remembered what he had thought: [If I had been someone else, if I had some degree of power in me, I would've liked to change what happened there that day.] Now he did have that power in him. He thought of the millions of people he and his team had already saved, protected, given their wings for. No, he had no power to change the past, but he could somehow make up for it. Did the angels' work for them. He wore their white wings now, didn't he?

From there he walked to the cemetery, moving towards a tiny grave at the edge of the land. There he left a single red rose.

Maia had had no last name. So with just the name 'Maia' and the dates that marked her short life, the stone slab looked rather bare. They could not choose an epitaph then because they could not think of anything to say for her, anything that could justify her death. It saddened him, now.

He had loved her. And he had lost her. He couldn't blame himself for being afraid of love. He had lost his father and mother because he had loved them. Kikei and Kira had so far endured whatever curse he felt was cast upon him when that was what he had believed in. He had lost Joe, too, and hadn't he loved him like a brother as well? But Joe came back. And Joe 'removed' the curse from him. Only then did he dare love Jun.

He moved away from there and went to the very edge of the cliff, walked along it until he came to the familiar grave under the shade of a tree. He heard the cry of a falcon -- Azrael -- not far above him. She was watching over him.

Ken bowed deeply, then knelt down to leave the white rose against the stone. Someone had already cleared the overgrown grass and pulled out the weeds. He remained there for a while, silent; it had been a while and he had forgotten how to speak to her. He cleared his throat and began, "Hello, Mother. I know it's been a while, but as you know, I guess, I've taken the role that you've always intended for me, and it doesn't allow a lot of time for my occasional visits."

The wind picked up; he caught the smell of a familiar cologne, but ignored it for the moment. "I hope you're proud of me, for what I'm doing now. I'm still so doubtful of it, I don't know how much longer I can go on, but I have to. I dared to question the angels once, and now I know why." He sighed, then stood. "I wonder if you can see me now, see the white wings I've taken, and I wonder if this was what you had intended, and if you are proud."


"She is, Ken. As am I."

Ken didn't need to turn around; the cologne had given Kikei's presence away. "You knew I was here?" he said, not making it sound like a question.

"You know that I would always know," Kikei said, coming up behind him. "Visiting?"

Ken nodded. "I won't be here long. The Phoenix is down below, waiting for me." He watched as Kikei too left a white rose on the stone, next to his own. "I never could stay away for long, could I?"

"Seclusion is that kind of place, Ken. You would come back when it calls, but once it's silent, you are obligated to leave." Kikei smiled. "Personally, though, I would have liked for you to hang around more often."

"No can do. There's a world to look out for now," he said, a soft set to his face. "Angel's work."

Kikei shrugged. "Same here, only I'm a lesser angel than you."

"There are no statures for angels. Only their duties differ, but they're for the same cause, same reason," Ken said.                

The two brothers stood together in silence for a while, the sunset creating dancing glints of light on the twin silver bracelets they wore. Their moment came to an end when Azrael gave a cry from above, the signal to go home. Home.

"I have to go," Ken said.

Kikei gave a nod. "I know." He stood back and watched as his younger brother -- 'Lightning', 'Riddle', Ken -- walk to the edge of the cliff, a falcon circling above him. Watched as he drew his arm up and called, though softly, and the blinding white light gave him a pair of white wings with which to fly, the wind catching them, lifting them away.

Ken looked back once, smiled, then leapt high into the air, spreading the wings, Azrael not far behind, and the blast of wind from the Phoenix's rockets ripped at Kikei, tearing through his hair, his coat. The spectacular ship rose and caught Ken and Azrael in its bubble, and as the bubble closed and took him down, Ken managed a wave back.

And saw Kikei throw a salute.

[I would come back. You know that. I would always come back].






Home is never always the place where you begin


Never the place you would end


Not always the place you find and make love


Unnecessarily the place you laugh and cry


Not the place you are accepted into or banished from


Nor where you are born and then buried


It is a parellel mirror you cannot deny


It just is.






                The End
End Notes:
And this, people of the GML, is the last part-by-part fanfic I can offer
you. Time is constricting, and soon I would be leaving for a whole other
country, and since I'll be back in school again, priorities will be shifted
around again.
So ends my reign, I now make way for other people's works. I have loved and
enjoyed the support you have been giving me as much as I have writing all
this time. It's been fun, and I can't wait for the day when I'll be able to
do it all again.
Until then, keep writing, people, and Gatchaman Forever.


with many thanks from the heart,
Ali-cat   
This story archived at http://www.gatchfanfic.com/viewstory.php?sid=247