• "Spectacular, Imari! Simply perfect!" The loud speaker rang Imari Mamoru's ears. She looked towards the plexiglass window on one side of the room. "Are we done yet?"she asked, breathing shallowly. "Yes, feel free to have lunch in the cabins." She nodded and as she walked out the door, put the her sword back on the rack. The two men on the other side of the of the glass chuckled. "You were right, Takeshi. She's perfect, where did you find her?" the older of the two asked. "In the slums of the city, suprisingly. Was playing with another boy we had tested, she was such a bright young girl back then." "All the easier to be tainted right? Well what her friend, the boy you just spoke about?" Takeshi sighed heavily. "He was such a weakling that we didn't even bother to kill him. We roughed him up and let him go, I think his name was Wataru. Whatever. Get him out of your head Hayabusa, concentrate on Miss Mamoru." "Are they still friends?" Takeshi rolled his eyes. "Yeah, she visits him whenever she gets the chance. What does it matter?" Hayabusa gave an evil smile. "I'll accept her and pay extra if you let me test her strength." he said. Takeshi sat up from the bench he was sitting on. "Oh really now? Name your terms."
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    Imari raced through over the many small landfills and the dead and sick people to her old home. She tried to hide the smile that was creeping on to face as she spotted Wataru near an old and dying tree. You slowed down to a halt and sat down beside him. He was sleeping. Imari began to poke him until he finally woke up. "Wha...Imari?"She nodded and some of her short, messy, black hair fell into her eyes. He reached his arms out and she fell onto his chest. "I'm happy to see you again." Wataru sighed. "You're getting thinner." She remarked. Imari looked up at him and he looked away, embarassed. "Can we not talk about that again?" He asked stubbornly. "I still don't understand. Why won't you let me bring you some food from-" "Never! I will never eat any food from that hell hole!" He cut in. Imari nodded sadly and rested her head back on his chest. "Don't worry, Imari. One day, I'll manage to get you of their radar, bust out of this town, and we can have the life we always wanted. Away from here, where no one can disturb us." Wataru said in a dreamy voice. Imari reached her hand up to stroke the side of his face, where four pale scars resided, and smiled. They began to lean in for a kiss but a small beeping sound stopped them. Imari looked at her wrist. Her small red braclet was beeping. "I've got to go." She said sadly. Wataru nodded and he let her go. He watched her go and sadly thought to himself that no such place existed.
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    The minute Imari got back she was called into Takeshi's office. She sat down on the couch across the room and he walked over. Takeshi was younger then most people would expect, he was only 28 and yet he owned the world's most advanced facilty of fighters. Apparently he inherited after his father passed away, but everyone knew that he had murdered him. He sat down across from you with his ever present fake smile plastered on his face. "I have great news Imari," he said. "someone wants to hire you as a personal bodyguard." Her head shot up and she looked at him in wonder. "Ginji Hayabusa, I'm sure you've heard of him. There's even more exciting news, he said that such youthful young woman like you is everything that he could ever want for a daughter, so he also wants to adopt you."She had to bite her lip to contain the smile that was about creep onto her face. "I understand." Imari said as coldly as she could. "But there is a catch, he wants to test your full strength. So he prepared a mission for you." Takeshi handed her a folder and dismissed her. She walked into the hall and looked around, making sure no one was there.Imari leaned against the wall and began to read through her assignment. She gasped and tears formed in the corners of her eyes.'I have to kill him?! But why?!' She raced back to Takeshi's office and began to bang on the door. "Sorry Imari, but if you don't complete your mission, you will have to be Mossflowered. And I'm sure that you don't want that to happen." She heard Takeshi's voice ring through the door. Mossflowered, she would die in the most horrible way possible, and since she was a girl, a virgin girl at that, well, you get the idea right? "YOU CAN'T DO THIS! YOU CAN'T!" she screamed and sobbed. The door opened and Takeshi's two guards came out. They grabbed her arms and forced her to her knees. Takeshi walked out himself and bent down to her height. "I'll forgive you this time. Tomorrow, either you will kill Wataru Amano or you will be Mossflowered. Oh, and I will be in charge of the Mossflowering by the way." He said wearing a sadistic smirk. He stood up and commanded the guards to take her to the isolation room until she gave her decision.
    Imari heard footsteps walk into the isolation room about 15 hours later. The light was turned on she winced. Tears bubbled into her eyes from the pain. "What's your decision?" she heard Takeshi's voice somewhere off to the left of her say. He was soon beside her. "Well?" he urged on. "I shall accept Mr. Hayabusa's offers and will kill Wataru Amano." Imari said emoitionlessly. He smirked. "Good girl. Hayabusa shall be pleased." Takeshi's footsteps faded and she could hear him ordering others to get her ready for her mission.
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    Wataru was just walking away from a feeding circle(where the homeless eat what little that they have) that he had been dejected from, again, when he heard the sound of familiar foot steps. He stopped, grinned and spun around to face the figure. "Ima-! I-imari?" His grin fell imediatley. Imari was dressed in the Fighters uniform that belonged to Takeshi's company with a gun and a sword at her side. Although she advoided his eyes slightly, Wataru could see guilt and pain mixed a killer instinct. "Imari..." he trailed off. She took a few steps toward him. "Are you here to kill me?"Wataruasked. Imari said nothing. "I see, you're obeying HIS orders. Then get it over with."Her eyes shot up to his face in alarm. "I-I-" "Follow your orders Imari." She advoided his eyes again and drew her sword. He just gave her a soft smilethat madeher heart break. Imari glared back fiercly and reached into her uniform. She threw five explosive tags at him. Wataru managed to do a few sloppy back flips to dodge them and ended up sliding slightly on the last one. He winced and grabbed his side, an injury from Takeshi's fighters that had gone untreated. He stood up wearily. "Imari.....say...say you love me." He huffed. "No." She retorted. "If you're going to kill me then I want to hear that lie escape your lips, say it." Imari's eyes first widend then she glared. "No!" She threw a few knives in his direction. He didn't bother to dodge them. One hit his stomach and another lodged in his shoulder. A blood ran out of his mouth and down his chin. He limped towards her. "N-No!" Imari sank to her knees and covered her ears. She felt as though her heart was rotting. Wataru sat on his knees in front of her."I don't want to die without hearing you say it just once. Please..." He begged. Tears streamed down Imari's face. "I love you, Wataru." She said. Wataru smiled. Then, the sound of a gunshot ran through their ears. Wataru cried out and fell down next to Imari. Her eyes widend and her head shot up towards the sound. Takeshi was walking towards her while putting a gun away. "Takeshi!" Imari shouted in disbelief. "Sorry dear, but I couldn't bear watching you suffer like that. And quite plainly, you were taking too long." He said smirking. She turned back to Wataru and wrapped her arms around him. He groaned and looked up at her. "I'm sorry I lied." He said softly. "You don't have anything to be sorry about!" she cried. He grunted when he tried to move. "No, Imari....I lied because there isn't a placewhere we'll ever-no.Where I'll ever belong. We can never be at peace when we're together." Imari clamped her eyes shut and shook her head, wishing that it was all a dream. Her tears rained down harder than ever. Wataru could feel his life slipping away and death taking it's place. When he couldn't hold on anymore he let darkness cloud him over. "Wataru?! Wataru?! No! Wake up! Wataru!" Imari cried out before sobbing. "That's enough Imari. Mr. Hayabusa is waiting. Just tell him that you killed him, OK?" Takeshi said while walking over. "Stay back!" she shouted back and sent 4 knives flying at him. He caught each effortlessly. "Just go away, you monster." she whimpered. "A monster is he?" said another man's voice. She looked up. Hayabusa was striding over. "Well, maybe a soft idiot, but a monster? Nah." He said. Takeshi's eyes widend. "M-mister Haya-""Shut up, you dumbass. Let's go."He told him harshly and began to walk in the opposite direction. "But what aboutMiss Mamoru?" Takeshi then asked. "She's weak. Leave her." Takeshi glanced back ather a last time before following Hayabusa. She looked back at Wataru. He looked incredibly peaceful, even though he had a horrible life. Imari looked at her discarded sword. She carefully set Wataru's body down on the ground and retrieved it. 'There is a place where we belong, where we can always be together. Your there now, perhaps I can meet you there' The last thing Imari ever saw was Wataru's face and her own blood bubbling out of the deep cut on her wrist.