Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction / Card Captor Sakura Fan Fiction / Gundam Wing Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Gangs Of Tokyo ❯ The Stage Is Set ( Prologue )

Gangs of Tokyo

By CCS ZER0

Prologue: The Stage Is Set

~~~~~Gundams~~~~~

“This is a bad idea Milliardo,” stated a young man with slightly ruffled brown hair, piercing cobalt blue eyes, and an expression that displayed his obvious misgivings about the current plans. “You could be walking into a trap.”

“I agree,” said a girl with short aquamarine hair and insightful blue eyes, who was about the same age as the young man she was agreeing with. “The Captors are not as stupid as the Yangs.”

“We've been over this a number of times already, Heero and Ami,” answered Milliardo Peacecraft. Milliardo gently ran a hand through his long platinum blonde hair and sighed. “Both Mamoru and I know you two don't think this is the right course of action, but we have to find out what the Captors want.”

“Then let us come with you,” stated Ami Mizuno.

“We all know that Ami and myself are the best you've got,” continued Heero Yuy.

“That is exactly why you two aren't coming along,” responded Mamoru Chiba. “While this is a very important meeting, it is more necessary for you two to take our place while we are gone. With Noin and Usagi coming along with us, I'm sure we'll be able to handle any traps that might be waiting for us.”

Heero and Ami were about to begin protesting once again when they were interrupted by a knock on the door. “Enter,” stated Milliardo.

When the door opened, Ami and Heero watched a striking girl about the same age as Milliardo and Mamoru walk into the room, hips swaying side to side in the process. Giving Ami and Heero a sexy smile from behind her long purple bangs that covered part of her face, she continued to the far end of the room. “Everything is ready,” said Lucrezia Noin as she walked up to Milliardo and gave her husband a quick kiss. “Whenever you two are ready to leave, Usagi is already waiting by the car.” After telling Milliardo and Mamoru what she had come to say, Noin took a moment to look at the expressions on the faces of the two junior members in the room. As she had expected, Heero didn't have much of an expression on his handsome face, but to Noin's slight surprise, the usually cheerful looking Ami was frowning a bit, indicating she was obviously unhappy about something. “I take it you two still aren't convinced that you don't need to come to this meeting.”

The unmoving expressions of Heero and Ami made the truthfulness of Noin's comment very apparent.

“Don't worry,” said Milliardo. “They both know we can handle this meeting without them.” Milliardo turned away from his wife and faced Heero and Ami and continued. “Besides, the Captors, and everyone else for that matter, know nothing about either of you, and I see no reason to tell them now.”

Milliardo, Noin, and Mamoru all watched the expressions of Ami and Heero shift ever so slightly, indicating they had finally, although reluctantly, accepted the decision made by the two leaders. Knowing he had finally won the small debate, a small grin crept across Milliardo's lips and as he walked out of the room, followed by Noin and Mamoru, he gave Ami a gentle kiss on the cheek, and placed a hand on Heero's shoulder.

“Take care of things while we're gone,” called out Mamoru over his shoulder as he passed through the doorway.

Unseen by everyone except Ami, Heero tightly balled up his fists and swearing under his breath, punched the solid granite statue present in the room so hard that he managed to crack it. Normally Heero didn't show any emotions, including anger, around other people, but Ami was an exception. Heero and Ami were by no means a couple, although many of the other gang members had gotten together in such a manner. Heero and Ami had slept together before, and in fact were the first and only person the other had ever been with, but they had never really officially gotten together. Pretty much all of the rest of the gang thought Heero and Ami were perfect for each other, but Heero and Ami themselves felt more comfortable just acting as each others' confidant and better half.

“Calm down Heero,” said Ami gently as she took Heero's hands into her own and looked him right in the eyes to keep him from damaging anything else.

Heero took a deep breath, knowing Ami was right in that he had to keep his cool. “Go get your guns and meet me in the garage,” said Heero in his usual calm and collected tone of voice.

Ami was visibly caught off guard by Heero's comment. “Why?” she asked. “Where are we going?”

“We're going to that meeting,” answered Heero. “We'll hang back and stay out of sight, but I am not letting them go without sufficient backup.”

The look of curiosity left Ami's face, and a playful grin crossed her soft lips. “I was waiting for you to say that,” she answered. Then dropping Heero's hands and walking to the door, Ami called back over her shoulder, “I'll be there in ten.”

Heero couldn't help but smile while watching Ami's gorgeous body move as she walked out of the room. Heero cared for Ami more than anyone else that he knew, and also felt that even if they did spend the rest of their lives together they would probably be happy. But despite that, he and Ami still had no intentions of becoming a couple. Their uncertain future still did not change the fact that Ami knew Heero better than anyone alive and was always able to predict his thoughts and actions. After Ami left the room, Heero took his leave as well, and headed up to his own room to get prepared. As he walked into the foyer and up the large staircase to the bedrooms, he found himself silently thankful that the rest of the gang had gone out for the night to party. Being one of the most efficient of the gang members gave Heero some leadership status and therefore his actions were rarely questioned, but he had a feeling that had anyone else been around, they would be asking where he was going and wondering if he was making a wise decision. When Heero entered his room, he headed toward his closet to change.

Heero's room at first glance looked fairly small for one of the gang's top members, however looks can be very deceiving. The first reason his room was small was because he was not one of the many members who shared a room with their significant other. Ami did spend the night in Heero's room every now and then, but she still had her own room down the hall. The second reason was because Heero had not one, but two walk-in closets. The main closet was a very standard size closet with the normal assortment of clothes, shoes, and other accessories. The second closet was substantially larger than the first, and was only accessible through a very well disguised door located just inside the main closet. This closet was filled with a wide enough assortment of tools, guns, and other weaponry for a small military task force.

In his main closet, Heero pulled out the normal type of outfit he wore when going out on assignment. While most people found all black to be the way to dress when going out on a mission, especially a covert one, Heero preferred something a little different. Heero found that all black didn't quite blend perfectly, since in public people often took notice of people dressed in all black, and when sneaking around, all black was a little too dark, and was sometimes noticeable within the shadows. Heero did wear black pants and a black jacket, but instead of a black shirt, he always wore either a dark blue, red, or green shirt. This slight inclusion of color in his wardrobe made it possible for Heero to blend-in in both public and shadow.

For this particular occasion, Heero chose a dark green T-shirt, black slacks, and a black leather jacket. After donning his clothing, Heero walked into his weapons closet. Already knowing which and how many guns he planned on taking, Heero wasted no time in grabbing two shoulder holsters and a double belt holster. Quickly putting on the shoulder holsters underneath his jacket and positioning the belt holster directly in line with the center of his back, Heero made his way to his handgun rack. From the large assortment of meticulously kept weapons, Heero pulled down a pair of gold plated .50AE Desert Eagles with 12.6mm barrels, and a pair of black 10mm Auto Glock pistols. Heero placed the powerful Desert Eagles, which had black handles with gold dragons engraved on them, inside his jacket in his shoulder holsters and put the smaller, albeit it not by much, Glocks, which had the same gold dragons, Heero's trademark, on the handles, in the two holsters attached to his belt on his back. Then grabbing an extra clip for each of his four guns, Heero went back downstairs to wait for Ami.

Shortly after Heero finished getting ready, Ami made her way down the stairs. In her thigh high black skirt and dark blue form fitting top, Ami was dressed to kill, both literally and figuratively. It always amazed Heero the slightest bit how the girls of his gang could dress so provocatively and still manage to be able to hide their guns and move with such agility. For tonight, Ami chose to bring two guns; a sub-compact Beretta .32 Caliber pistol in a holster strapped on her inner upper right thigh, and another, slightly larger, Glock .40 Caliber in her matching dark blue purse. Both guns were black with Ami's personal emblem, the Mercury Star symbol, engraved in a sparkling, yet eerie blue, on the handle.

“You look great,” complimented Heero when Ami reached the bottom of the stairs.

“Thanks,” responded Ami, following her reply with a kiss on the lips to show her gratitude to Heero for the compliment.

“But you do realize that if all goes well, nobody will even see you tonight, right?”

“Maybe I'm all dressed up just for your benefit,” said Ami seductively as she ran a finger along the neckline of Heero's shirt.

“I'm not complaining,” responded Heero with a grin. Ami and Heero then started laughing lightly as their friendly dialogue came to an end. “Anyway, you ready to go?”

“Yeah,” answered Ami. “Which car did you want to take?”

Heero pulled a set of car keys from his jacket pocket. “We'll take the BMW,” said Heero, referring to the metallic black BMW 545i parked amongst the plentiful number of vehicles in the Gundams' garage.

The two got into the spotless powerful luxury sedan and Heero started the car and turned up the rock music coming from the installed eight speaker stereo. Putting the car in gear, Heero stepped on the gas and accelerated out the garage and through the automatic opening and closing front gate.

“Bring up the Navigation Tracker,” Heero said to Ami in the passenger seat. “Let's see where they are.”

Ami reached over to the center dash, just above the stereo, and pulled up the wood panel covering a small LCD touch screen. Pushing in the proper commands, Ami had the screen display their position as well as the position of the Lincoln Navigator that Milliardo, Mamoru, Noin, and Usagi were occupying. “They're about six miles ahead of us and maybe fifteen minutes out from the destination.”

Heero nodded in understanding and sped the car up a bit, wanting to at least halve the distance between himself and the leaders before the first car reached the building the meeting was to take place in.

~~~~~Captors~~~~~

At the same time, on the other side of town, a very similar interaction was taking place. “We've already been over this,” said a tall and well built young man with dark black hair framing a handsome face and mysterious eyes. “All of you are not to interfere.”

“Fine. I understand,” came a harsh answer from the other end of the line, following by a sudden click of the line bring disconnected.

Touya Kinomoto sighed as he placed his phone back in his jacket pocket. Touya was the leader of the notorious Captors gang, but occasionally had trouble controlling the free spirits of some of his subordinates.

“Think he'll come anyway?” asked another young man, about the same age as Touya, with silver hair, glasses, and a face that attracted every girl who looked his way. Yukito Tsukishiro looked harmless and sweet, but his perfect acting exterior was all an elaborate illusion. In addition to being the second in command of the Captors and one of the best and most ruthless killers in the city, Yukito was also one of the biggest playboys in the gang. That wasn't to say he was disrespectful or dangerous to the women he encountered, in fact he was quite the opposite, but the sheer number of women who entered his room one night and didn't leave till the next morning was beyond most people's imagination.

“He won't,” answered a female voice from the seat behind Yukito before Touya had a chance to respond.

Yukito turned around to look at the beautiful girl, about his own age, with long light blue hair, beautiful pale skin, and caring and insightful pink eyes. “You sound very sure of yourself,” he said.

“Botan's right,” agreed Naoko Yanagisawa, a cute younger brunette with glasses and the most innocent of smiles. “If he was going to disobey this order he would have just followed us and not called to reassert his opinion again.”

“I'd have to agree with Botan and Naoko,” stated Touya. “Calling ahead just isn't his style.”

“I guess you're all right,” conceded Yukito. “Now, let's just get this mission over with. I don't want to miss my date.” The two girls in the back seat laughed at the playboy antics of Yukito, and Touya sped up slightly, also anxious to get this meeting with Milliardo Peacecraft and the Gundams over with.

Back at the main house and headquarters of the Captors, a teenager with a perfectly fit body, slightly rustled brown hair, and intense amber eyes, stared out the window with clenched fists and the shattered remains of a cordless telephone at his feet. Syaoran Li had been so angry that he destroyed the phone instead of just hanging up with Touya.

“Touya didn't say what you wanted to hear I assume,” came a sweet and innocent voice from the doorway behind Syaoran. He didn't even have to turn around to know who was addressing him, not only because he easily recognized her voice, but also because he could see the reflection of the light brown haired, emerald eyed beauty in the window.

“I've been considering going to that meeting anyway,” responded Syaoran. “Despite what your brother says.”

“You're not going,” said Sakura Kinomoto, still in her sweet and kind voice, not in any way menacing. “If you were going, you would already be gone.”

To this comment, Syaoran turned around to face Sakura, and was slightly surprised to find that she was not alone. She was flanked on one side by a short, slightly evil looking, guy with spiked black hair with a white streak, and on the other side by a taller, calm and collected young man with long red hair. While Syaoran had seen Sakura very clearly in the window's reflection, the other two had managed to stay hidden in the shadows, just like they always did.

“Why aren't you two with the rest of the gang at the club?” Syaoran asked to the two previously unseen members.

“How come you only ask us and not little Sakura here?” responded the shorter of the two guys as he jokingly messed with Sakura's hair. Hiei Jaganeshi didn't really mean any disrespect, but it was just in his nature to sound offended when anyone questioned where he was.

“What Hiei meant to say was, we are meeting the others at the club in a bit,” intervened Yoko Kurama. “Like Sakura, we wanted to make sure you didn't do anything stupid. Now that we know you are not, we will take our leave.” As he turned to leave, Kurama gave the younger and shorter Sakura a kiss on the head and then walked out the door, followed by Hiei. Syaoran may have been younger than both Hiei and Kurama, but the nature of all their different skills had Syaoran acting as a higher ranking member of the gang, despite his young age.

“I understand how you feel,” consoled Sakura as she walked up to stand by Syaoran after Hiei and Kurama were out of sight. “I feel the same way. I would much rather be out there making sure nothing happens to Touya and the others than be cooped up here.”

The two teenagers spent a while standing next to each other and staring out the window into the night. The complete silence between the two was not an uncomfortable one by any means, but eventually Syaoran got restless and broke the mood. “I'm going for a drive. Want to come along?”

“Sure,” answered Sakura with a nod of her head. Syaoran nodded back to the younger sister of his gang leader, and the two went to the garage to get a car.

~~~~~Gundams~~~~~

“It's that building over there,” said Ami as she pointed from where she and Heero were parked on the side of the road. “And there is the car.”

“It seems quiet enough,” commented Heero. “Maybe we were worried for nothing.”

One second later it was obvious that Heero spoke too soon. With a thunderous boom, the building Heero and Ami were watching exploded from the inside out, sending flaming pieces of wood, metal, glass, and concrete almost as far as the area where the car was parked.

As soon as they saw the explosion, Heero and Ami both sprang into action, jumping out of the car and running to the building. Heero busted through the front door at full speed, shielding his face from the heat, with Ami right on his heels. Once inside, with guns drawn, Heero and Ami scanned the area for any sign of either their comrades or any enemies. Neither Ami nor Heero could find any sign of an enemy, but Ami did notice some of their friends lying on the floor under a fallen catwalk. Heero and Ami quickly made their way over to their friends as they were very worried at the fact that none of them seemed to be moving.

Heero may not have been as big as some of the other gang members, but his muscles were so well toned that he could hang with almost anybody in terms of strength. Momentarily putting away his guns, an adrenaline filled Heero strained his entire body and managed to pull the heavy piece of steel off his friends. Heero and Ami inspected the unmoving bodies of Mamoru, Noin, and Usagi, and Ami buried her head in Heero's shoulder as she started to break out into tears when they discovered everyone was dead.

From the wounds on the three warriors, it wasn't too difficult for Heero to discern a likely hypothesis about how each of them had died. It looked like Mamoru had tried to protect both Noin and Usagi from the explosion, and he had paid a severe price for his unselfish actions. The deadly explosion had caused the clothes and skin of Mamoru's back to be completely ripped to shreds, leaving only heavily charred flesh and muscle, and even exposing bone in a few places. It appeared that Usagi had also died as a direct result from the explosion. The right side of Usagi's head was bleeding rapidly, making it fairly clear that she had been killed instantly by some type of severe impact to the head, which Heero assumed was probably due to a large piece of shrapnel. The rest of the long blonde haired girl's perfectly formed body, minus a few small burns and cuts, looked to be completely protected, indicating that Mamoru would have been successful in protecting his fiancée were it not for the one chance injury. It seemed as though the explosion itself didn't directly steal the life of the beautiful Lucrezia Noin. She looked to be barely burned at all, probably due to Mamoru's attempted heroics, but the collateral damage had finished the job that the explosion had started. The catwalk that Heero had pulled off the bodies of his three friends had left a small portion of itself behind. A steel bar, probably part of a guard rail, had been completely detached from the metal structure and, unfortunately for Noin, was now rammed right into the chest of the beautiful woman, piercing through her heart, and going all the way into the floor.

Heero continued to scan the area as he and Ami knelt by the bodies of their comrades, while his beautiful short blue haired friend cried into his shoulder, until he spotted some slight movement from above him. Heero quickly withdrew a gun and looked up in the direction of the movement, and then just as quickly holstered his weapon when he saw who it was. He quietly told Ami to stay where she was, then stood up, and moving as fast as he could, Heero ran up the steps to the skyway where Milliardo Peacecraft was positioned near the edge. Heero reached his fallen leader, but unfortunately, Milliardo was just about as bad off as the others. He was bleeding unceasingly from his head, leg, and stomach, and although he was alive and had had just enough strength to crawl to the edge of the walkway and get into a sitting position against the railing, it was clear he wouldn't live for more than another couple moments.

“Did any of the others make it?” coughed out Milliardo in a strained and hoarse voice when he caught sight of Heero through his one eye that was still functioning. Heero got down on a single knee, held Milliardo's hand in his own, and shook his bowed head slowly from side to side.

For the next few moments, nothing was said between Heero and Milliardo, as the Gundams leader's breathing grew more and more strained and haggard. When it was clear his body was about to finally give out, Milliardo spoke for one last time. “It's in your hands now.” As he squeezed Heero's hand, Milliardo expelled his final breath, and Heero watched as his friend and leader's eyes slowly closed and the life of Milliardo Peacecraft came to a tragic end.

Heero knelt over the lifeless body of Milliardo Peacecraft and a single tear escaped his deep blue eyes as he mourned his fallen leader. He looked up from Milliardo's body when he felt the gentle hand of Ami Mizuno on his shoulder. It was the first time Heero had ever been so distracted that he hadn't noticed what was going on around him.

“Look,” said Ami quietly as she pointed down toward the open back entrance to the building.

Heero looked down to where Ami was pointing to see a sight that caused his blood to boil. Walking through the door were none other than Touya Kinomoto, Botan, and Yukito Tsukishiro. As soon as Heero saw the three Captors, he immediately pulled out his two Desert Eagles, and without even saying a word to Ami, he did a flip over the railing and landed in a single-knee crouch on the ground with head down and guns to the side, right in front of the Captors. All three Captors were so surprised when the unknown teenager landed in front of them that they didn't even think to draw their guns.

Heero raised his head to glare at his enemies with pure rage burning in his cold cobalt eyes. He only gave one word of warning before he made his move. “Die.” Then in a single motion, Heero fired off a total of ten rounds from his two guns. Three bullets went into each chest area of both Botan and Yukito, and the remaining four shots all impacted Touya. The shots by the high power guns at such short range, sent all three Captors to their backs on the ground. Both his guns still had smoke coming from the barrels when Heero stood up. He slowly took the few steps forward to stand over the three fallen Captors and pointed the guns at the three, all of whom were still alive. Heero was an exceptional shot and had purposely shot Botan, Touya, and Yukito in such a way to be sure that they would not die instantaneously.

From his position on his back, Touya saw the vengeful stare in the eyes of the teenager who shot at him, and tried to move his body in order to draw a weapon. Unfortunately for Touya, his assaulter had shot him two times in each shoulder, tearing ligament and destroying cartilage, resulting in Touya being unable to move either limb.

Heero stared straight into the eyes of Touya Kinomoto as he towered over the incapacitated leader. Without even shifting his gaze, Heero aimed each of his two guns at the heads of Botan and Yukito. Touya glared back at Heero, now knowing he must be the previously never seen killer in the Gundams' ranks. All Touya could do was watch as Heero, without so much as a flinch in his cold stare, unloaded the last two rounds from each of his guns into the heads of Botan and Yukito, finishing off the assassination. His two Desert Eagles now empty, Heero unceremoniously dropped the heavy guns to the floor and withdrew his two black 10mm Glocks. Touya didn't show it, but at that moment he was afraid. He wasn't afraid for his life, for he was prepared to die, but he was afraid for the rest of his gang. This teenager with the unwavering facial expression and cold, hard, cobalt eyes, had the look of unrelenting vengeance upon him. It was clear he had the skills to take on anybody alive, and he was obviously not afraid to take life nor risk his own. Touya closed his eyes and silently prayed for the safety of the Captors, especially his sister Sakura, as the last sound he ever heard was the loud bang of two Glock pistols simultaneously firing two bullets into his head.

Heero stayed unmoving over the dead body of Touya Kinomoto until Ami came down the stairs and stood in front of Heero. Ami placed her hands gently on Heero's waist as he put his guns back in his belt holsters. Heero placed his hands on Ami's waist in much the same way as Ami had her hands on his own waist, and then bowed his head until both Heero's and Ami's foreheads were touching. Both teens closed their eyes and together silently mourned their friends' deaths.

Heero opened his eyes a moment later when he thought he heard a noise, and then quickly pulled himself and Ami to the ground when he saw a young girl with brown hair and glasses, start firing a handgun at them. Heero acted just in time as the flying bullets passed just over the falling bodies of Heero and Ami. Heero positioned his body to break Ami's fall with himself, then rolled to the side as soon as he hit the floor so that his back was to the attacker and Ami was protected.

When Heero had unexpectedly pulled her to the ground, Ami had been quite surprised. However, as soon as she heard the gunshots, Ami's natural battle reactions kicked in. From the position she was in, Ami couldn't reach her own guns, but since her arms were still wrapped around Heero's waist, Ami withdrew the Glocks from Heero's belt holsters instead. She was unable to see the attacker because Heero's body was blocking her view, but based on where the sound of the gunshots came from, Ami aimed and then unloaded the remaining bullets from each clip.

After Ami was done shooting, both she and Heero jumped to their feet. Simultaneously, Ami tossed Heero one of his guns back, and Heero tossed a new clip for the other gun to Ami. In a matter of seconds, Ami and Heero were both reloaded and pointing their weapons at the location of their attacker. Unfortunately they were only just in time to see a body slip around the corner and out of sight. The two Gundams were about to give chase when they heard the distant sound of approaching emergency response police cruisers, fire trucks, and ambulances.

“How long until they get here?”

“Three minutes max,” answered Ami. “Probably closer to two.”

“Dammit,” swore Heero. He then holstered his two 10mm handguns and picked up his discarded empty Desert Eagles from the ground. “Let's go,” said Heero reluctantly.

Ami knew why Hero was pissed, and in truth it hurt her as well, thinking about what they had to do. “I'll send Quatre and Trowa to get their bodies from the morgue tomorrow morning.”

“Get everyone back to the house,” said Heero. “We have to let them know that a war has just begun.”

~~~~~Captors~~~~~

“Hello?” answered Sakura as she answered her cell phone from within Syaoran's black Aston Martin V12 Vanquish sports car.

“Sakura,” came a very strained female voice from the other end of the line.

“Naoko? Naoko, is that you?” said Sakura worriedly when she heard Naoko's weak and strained tone of voice.

“Sakura. I'm sorry.” That was all Sakura heard before the line clicked dead.

Putting her phone away, Sakura turned toward Syaoran. “We need to get to that meeting right now.”

Syaoran had overheard Sakura's conversation and had already been expecting a change in direction. Since the meeting place was in the opposite direction from their current heading, Syaoran tapped the brakes and turned hard on the wheel, causing the car to do a skidding 180. He then hit the gas and the car shot down the road toward the meeting building.

Syaoran and Sakura arrived at their destination in extremely quick time as a result of constant breaking of speed limits and other traffic laws by Syaoran. Unfortunately they were still not fast enough. When they arrived, the entire area was already swarming with firefighters, uniformed police officers, special task force detectives, and news media personnel. Syaoran parked a couple blocks away from the mayhem and he and Sakura studied the site from afar.

“What the hell happened?” asked Syaoran rhetorically when he saw the heavily damaged building and the plethora of city officers.

“I don't see the car anywhere,” commented Sakura. “Maybe they aren't even here anymore.”

“Bring up the tracker on the car,” said Syaoran.

“Way ahead of you,” answered Sakura, who was already pressing the correct sequence of buttons to find the location of the Mercedes S600 sedan her brother had taken. “Got it,” she said after a few seconds. “The car is a few blocks away. It looks like they stopped in some alleyway.”

Syaoran took a look at the map displayed in the center dash and then started the car and headed toward the alley where the other car was. When they arrived a minute later, Syaoran and Sakura stepped out and cautiously approached the parked car. It looked like nobody was inside, so Syaoran and Sakura each withdrew one of their two guns in case it was a trap. Syaoran's guns were a pair of black H&K MK23 .45 Caliber pistols with a dark green wolf emblem on the handle, and Sakura was carrying a pair of silver plated 9mm SIG handguns with white handles engraved with her signature pink cherry blossom emblem. Syaoran crept along the driver side of the car, while Sakura approached from the passenger side. When they reached the front of the car, both Syaoran and Sakura took a look inside and immediately holstered their weapons when they saw the single occupant. In the drivers seat, slumped over the steering wheel was Naoko Yanagisawa.

Syaoran opened the driver side door and carefully positioned Naoko in a sitting position in the chair. When he sat her back, Syaoran caught a glance of Naoko's shirt and the ever expanding blood stain in the stomach area. Syaoran cringed a bit when he saw the volume of blood that was coming from the wound in her stomach, as well as the color of the blood, which was almost black, indicating she must have been shot through the liver and left pretty much no hope that she would survive.

“Naoko. Naoko,” gently said Sakura, who had climbed into the passenger seat and was trying to wake up the semi-conscious Naoko.

“Sakura?” asked Naoko weakly.

“It's me. What happened Naoko?”

“Sakura, I'm sorry. I couldn't stop it,” said Naoko softly as her eyes started to water, causing tears to run down her soft, but at the moment, ghostly white cheeks.

“What happened Naoko?” repeated Sakura.

“Gundams. They killed everyone.”

At hearing this, the tears that had started to form in Sakura's eyes began to pour down her face.

Before Sakura or Syaoran could say anything else, Naoko continued. “When we arrived, the building was already on fire. Touya told me to cover them from the outside. A minute later I heard gunshots, so I put my rifle back in the car and took a handgun. By the time I got to the door, Touya, Botan, and Yukito had all been executed. There were three or four Gundams dead in the building too, but the assassins were still standing over the bodies so I shot at them.”

“Did you recognize who they were?” asked Syaoran.

“No,” answered Naoko with a cough. “I had never seen them before. But they are good. I don't think they even saw me, but they still knew to duck out of the way before I even got off my first shot. Then one of them, I think it was a girl, started shooting rounds at me while they were still falling to the ground. Before I knew what happened I felt two shots hit my stomach. Then I crawled to the car and drove away. I guess I only got this far before I passed out.” As soon as Naoko was finished speaking, she broke out into a fit of violent coughing and wheezing. It was clear she had used the last of her strength to tell Syaoran and Sakura what had happened at the warehouse.

“Thank you, Naoko,” said Syaoran softly.

“We'll miss you,” added Sakura as she gave a final hug to her friend.

“Say goodbye to everyone for me,” whispered Naoko into Sakura's ear. Her last testament said, Naoko let out one final breath before her faint heartbeat finally ceased and Naoko Yanagisawa's life came to a sorrowful conclusion.

As her friend passed to the next world, Sakura silently cried to herself and gently closed the eyelids of Naoko. When Sakura finally let go of Naoko, Syaoran carefully picked her up out of the car's driver's seat and laid her in the back. Sakura was still crying, but got herself together enough to make her way to the car she and Syaoran had taken and followed Syaoran, who was driving the car Touya and the others had taken, back to the Captors house. Once there they got back to the house, they would contact the rest of the gang and then attempt to discover all the details of what had just happened on the tragic night.