The next day, Mikagami knocked on Fuuko’s room’s door first thing in the morning. He heard a few shuffling inside her room and when she finally opens the door, he was glad she wasn’t crying. Her eyes were puffy and her face shows her morose mood. Well, on the other hand, she wasn’t crying, was she?

“Hi, Fuuko-san,” he said almost timidly. “How are you?”

“I’m fine,” came Fuuko’s hoarse voice. “In fact, I felt terrific.” Mikagami noticed that she avoided his eyes when she was saying this. “Thanks for everything, Mi-chan.”

Mikagami stumbled for the right words to say. “Uh…your welcome, Fuuko,” he said. “It was…my duty to protect women, hmm?”

Fuuko looked angry for a second. “You see that’s exactly what I meant, didn’t you?” she said. “That guy yesterday—oh, if I wasn’t so panicky, I would’ve kicked his butt. If I wasn’t in the pool and he wasn’t pulling me, I would’ve even killed him.”

Mikagami forced a smile. “Okay, tiger,” he said. “Here.” He thrust into her hand a red rose and a blonde hair-dye.

Fuuko examined his gifts. “Thanks for the red rose,” she said, and he noticed she was smiling. “A One-Night-Stand blonde hair-dye? How impressive.” She almost chuckled, but wait as he did, Mikagami didn’t hear it.

“Well,” he said, embarrassed, and to his horror he’s even blushing, “I just thought it’d be a nice give, what’s with me ruining all your hair color. Couldn’t get it off my hands what’s with touching your hair and all that.” He mustered up a real smile.

Fuuko smiles. “Thanks again,” she said. “I need you more than I knew.” She noticed his hands are smudged with blonde color.

Mikagami shrugged, putting his hands in his three-quarters pants. “Least I could do, really,” said him, blushing again.

Fuuko frowned. “Something’s weird,” she said. “Something’s not right. Oh wait. It’s so weird seeing you in casual dressing…” She smiles. “Three-quarters khakis and a baggy T-shirt? Your style has dropped, Mi-chan…”

She was teasing him. Cursing himself for blushing again, he looked up at Fuuko. Suddenly he noticed that something’s different about Fuuko too. It wasn’t that her hair was purple once more, it was that—that—he couldn’t place his fingers on it.

“Oh!” he cried. Getting into Fuuko’s room, he closes the door behind him. “Why are you wearing those…clothes?”

He noticed that Fuuko’s wearing a loose pants (like the ones in the commercial for Negro guys—no offence), a baggy T-shirt that says “I’m Against Women Discrimination” (trust Fuuko to find something like that :p) and a cap worn backwards.

“Why?” Fuuko blushed. “Well…I realized a few things while I was abroad, Mi-chan. I…developed a sense of style and I noticed what enhanced my body and what doesn’t. Well. I’m guessing if I stay on the what-doesn’t-enhance-my-body side, I’ll be saved from being provoked.”

Aghast, Mikagami felt his mouth drop open. The change was Fuuko was…well, different. Somehow it doesn’t feel right. “Fuuko,” he said. “Surely you don’t feel that if one man provoked you like that, all men are the same?”

Fuuko blushed again. “Well.” That’s why my password’s what I think, Fuuko thought silently. “I just…feel more secured this way. If people judged me for what I am, I don’t know what that tells you about the world.”

“But, Fuuko-chan,” Mikagami said, “you know that I’m not like that.”

Fuuko looked up to him. “What I experienced last night was enough to make me comfortable wearing these clothes. I was never the one to wear tight clothes, but wearing a bikini is a no-no from now on.” She managed a battered smile.

Mikagami doesn’t know what to say. “Okay,” he said. “Let’s just forget about the whole thing for a moment. Let’s just…go to a little tour around New York, shall we?”
Fuuko smiles a little. “Thanks, Mi-chan, but I don’t—”

“Oh, come on, it’ll be fun.”

Fuuko stared at Mikagami with wide-eyes. “I never thought I’d see the days where you’d used the word fun, Mi-chan.”

***

Walking around New York City was fun, as Fuuko quickly found out. She managed to make her hair blond again before she went out, and she felt somewhat happier about that, as no one would recognize her as…as whatever she was.

Mikagami and Fuuko went into a Japanese restaurant and ordered themselves some food. “Once again, Mi-chan, you’re right,” she said. “I’m able to forgive and forget—well, perhaps not forgive—yesterday’s incident.” She ate her sushi.

Mikagami smiles. “Good,” he said. “I don’t want you moping around.” He noticed something else when he ate his sushi, and he muttered, “Since when did you have long hair, Fuuko?”

Fuuko laughed. “How long did it take you to notice that?”

He blushes. “Never mind that. And…your eyes are blue.”

“Contacts,” Fuuko said disgustedly, crinkling her noses. “I have to wear them. It’s not the ones for I’m-blind thingy. Keep changing the colors, see. It’s so that no one will be able to recognize me from any part of my body except for my, well, body.” When she said the last word, she flushed and ate her next sushi and prawns angrily. Mikagami noticed that Fuuko seemed to be stabbing her rice cakes.

“You know you’re not healthy when you stab food for no reason,” Mikagami said, smirking.

Fuuko looked up, embarrassed. “Um, never mind that. Anyway. I never heard more about you. Come on, I revealed myself to you. Actually, I didn’t. You found out…”

“Well, I did tell you I’m an agent, didn’t I?”

“True, but you owe me much more than that.”
Mikagami sighed. “Okay, what do you want to know?”

“When did you come over to New York and joining an Agency?” Fuuko asked interestedly. She took a bite our of her rice cakes. “Come on, spill it out.”

“Well. A few years after you left, I guess,” he said. “I can’t remember correctly. But I did it as a favor. Years flew by, and I began to like the job. I think I was borne for it. Didn’t you?”

“Totally,” Fuuko said, beaming. “That’s how I felt about my job too. And you owe a favor to whom?”

“That’s a secret,” warned Mikagami. He ate his sushi and prawn forcefully. “I wasn’t that excited for it, but I was just a natural. Or so they say.”

Fuuko giggled. “So how come you didn’t have to, you know, change your hair color, your eyes color and stuffs? It’s unfair, that’s what it is.”

Mikagami laughed for the first time—a true, genuine laugh. “Well,” he said. “I tried to color my hair, but it always turn back to silver. I don’t know why. It’s stubborn. And my eyes got lethargic when I tried putting your kinds of contacts… Just not really your kind. It’s, like, contacts that record every moves you make.”

“Ooh,” said Fuuko disgustedly. “That must have hurt.”

“Trust me, it does.” Mikagami ate his last prawn and gulped it down. “Well. I trust you’re done, so let’s go somewhere else.”

Fuuko moaned. “Ooh, I’m too tired,” she said. “I’m always tired when I’m done eating…” She threw a withering look to the laughing Mikagami. “Can’t we just go somewhere where we can sit? The park?”

“Too boring,” Mikagami said, snorting.

“Oh, let’s see a movie, then,” said Fuuko, grinning widely. “A new movie’s playing. What was it again? Not Another Teen Movie or something.”

Mikagami just shrugged. “Oh well, I owe you a treat. So to the movies we go, then.”
Fuuko happily walked out of the sushi before she embarrassedly stopped and pulled Mikagami into the Japanese restaurant again. A man was yelling something in Japanese (which was quite rude, so I won’t print it out—besides, I don’t know any Japanese), waving a chopper in his hands.

“We didn’t pay the bills!” Fuuko hissed.

Mikagami blushed and thrust a 20 dollar bill into the man’s hand. “Sorry,” he muttered as he and Fuuko walked out of the restaurant, both blushing furiously.
 

***

That night, Fuuko went home feeling tired but happy. Mikagami walked her back to her suite (why, she doesn’t know, perhaps to ensure her safety) and before she closed the door, she smiles at him.

“Thanks a lot, Mi-chan,” she said. “I appreciated all of your help. Although I don’t see why you have to walk me to my door…” she teased.

Mikagami just flushed. “I want you to arrive here safely.”

“Numbers of people who had died walking to their door: 0,” Fuuko said teasingly. “But thanks anyway,” she continued hurriedly as Mikagami blushes again, “I really appreciated your help.”

“You’re welcome,” he said, smiling.

Fuuko smiles as she closed the door. Turning to her bed, to her horror—

“Aaarrggghhh!!!”

The scream was considerably loud and Fuuko could only hear a tap on the door. She lets Mikagami in, and he could definitely see what makes Fuuko screamed. It wasn’t because it was a definite horror; it was because it made Fuuko relive what had happened yesterday.

On Fuuko’s bed, lay a now-dry-out bikini and her room looked like it was searched after the bed was made out. The guy from yesterday probably disguises himself as the servicemen and searched it.
Her laptop was still on the table, untouched. “Oh my God, oh my God,” she cried frantically before she started sobbing. She hurried to her laptop and opens it. Thankfully, she had put a spell on it (Japanese anime lovers, you know what I’m talking about) and it won’t open. The laptop and her compartment (which she brought with her everywhere she goes) was the only thing she put a spell on, because it were the only things that are very important.

Sobbing, she grabbed the bikini and threw it out the hotel window, where she slammed shut until the glass almost shattered. She buried her face into her hands and sat down on her messed-up bed, crying. “I can’t believe this is happening again…” she muttered to herself, shaking her head, refusing to be comforted by Mikagami, who’s already kneeled in front of her.

“What—I don’t know how this happened, but—”

“The damn bitch is out to get me! He knows I’m a spy, and he’s trying to kill me!” she cried out desperately. “Probably thought he’d have some fun with me before he killed me,” she said bitterly through her crying.

“Ssh,” Mikagami said, trying to comfort Fuuko in any way he could. He doesn’t know what he was supposed to do, however. “Alert your Agency.”

“007’s probably going to shout at me for being so careless!” Fuuko sniffled. “Oh God, I’m dead… How can I let this happen?” Still sobbing, she rocked back and forth on her bed. “Why can’t the stupid guy leave me alone? I wore this outfit! Isn’t that enough?”

Mikagami tried to hug her, but all he managed was to put his hand on Fuuko’s knee. “You shouldn’t resort to wearing it just because one man tried to harass you, Fuuko…” he said softly. “You know that. You should never make someone happy or disappear from your life by doing that… You’re worth more than that.”

Fuuko was still sobbing. “God, oh god…” she muttered through her fingers. “What am I supposed to do? Kill myself so he won’t bother me again?”

“Fuuko, listen to me,” Mikagami said gently. “The problem’s not going away—not by what you’re doing. No one should be able to make you feel bad about yourself without your consent.”
Fuuko’s sob stopped a little, which turned into little hiccups. “But I can’t—hiccup—make him leave—hiccup—me alone—hiccup!” she said between hiccups. She looked up to Mikagami. “I—hiccup—hate—hiccup—men!” she said softly, wrapping her arms around herself.

“Ssh,” Mikagami said, as a strong feeling overcome him. He didn’t realize that he misses Fuuko’s (hiccup!) purple hair and her green (?) eyes so much… Leaning toward Fuuko, he pressed his lips gently on hers and gave her a soft kiss.

Shocked at Mikagami’s sudden move, Fuuko just sat there on her bed, frozen. She could only think on how soft Mikagami’s lips is when—hiccup!

Pulling away, surprised, Mikagami looked at Fuuko. Fuuko was shocked too—she didn’t want that to end—but she suddenly let out a laugh. Mikagami stared at her and then cracks a grin. Laughing, he kisses Fuuko once again throughout her hiccups until it subsided. He realized that Fuuko was returning his kisses.

***

The night when Mikagami had suddenly kisses Fuuko leaves a memory on her. Fuuko was astonished, but obviously please. She didn’t know that she even had feelings for him until he had professed his feeling for hers. (The feeling’s mutual)

They spent the night cuddling in each other’s arms (Fuuko cuddling in Mikagami’s arms, mainly), telling stories about themselves, trying to catch up on what they had lost, comforting Fuuko in the process.

“I never thought you’d be the one,” Fuuko had confessed last night.

“Neither did I…” Mikagami said, stroking her hair (this time not ruining her blond-dye.)

Fuuko took a deep breath and shook her head. Okay. Maybe Mikagami’s right. She should really alert 007. Who knows? The whole thing could turn hazardous. It’s serious business. She’s not taking any chance, and she’s not up to some wild goose chase. Perhaps if she uses her madougu… No, that’s too risky. What if she killed him? But, of course, that’s the whole point—eliminating the enemy. Being a spy slash agent teaches Fuuko a thing or two that UBS told her—on how to survive, mainly.
That’s it, then, Fuuko thought. First step she’ll take is alert 007 (*snigger*) and then she’ll try to track the spy down herself. If she has to kill the guy, she will. God knows he caused her so much pain, and the reason she got over it was Mikagami, thank God for him.

Fuuko finished sending her message to 007 and the reply came back almost immediately. 007 just told her to be on alert (duh) and if she must, eliminate the enemy as it seems that Mr. Stouffer might’ve known who Fuuko really is. And the last thing 007 told her is good luck. Well. That’s a first.

Fuuko took her fuujin out of her briefcase—she hasn’t used it for such a long time. She had brought it with her to New York. Who knows when she might need it? Even though she’s good in martial arts and weaponless combat, she might need it, and this situation proves her right.

She sighed. “Well, then,” she said to herself. “Let’s get to work.”

***

Looking around suspiciously, the man spotted Fuuko. “Found her,” he said in a state of whisper.

Out of nowhere, came out a voice saying, “Finish her, and our work will be done.” It was the man every agent knows by the name of Mr. Stouffer. “She’s too nosy to live.”

“But isn’t that the job of a spy?” the man asked confusedly.

“Insolent fool!” Stouffer said angrily. “Be done with her!”

***

Fuuko knew that without trying, she had found the guy who was following her and trying to kill her. She never thought it’d be this easy—she would’ve thought, however, that the guy should be more cautious, seeing that Mikagami almost killed him the day of the incident.

Walking slowly, as if she has no care in the world, she turned into a passage which people rarely use—it’s a turn down at Alphabet City, a place where no one really lives. Full of crooks, this place, Fuuko thinks, looking around.
Well, Fuuko was ready this time. She has her fuujin hanging safely on her arm. Her fists balled instinctively as she heard footsteps behind her. She turned.

It was, indeed, another spy. The spy looked quite taken aback, and around his face was a muffler, hiding his profile. He wears and oversized coat. On his head is a fisherman’s cap. He’s also wearing shades. Ah. Fuuko couldn’t mistake the guy for a normal guy—he’s definitely a spy.

“Well, well,” the guy hissed, smiling. “Come to commit suicide?”

Fuuko smiles. “No,” she said angrily, remembering what the guy had done to her in the pool… “I come here to commit a murder, I’m afraid.”

“Oh, I’m shaking,” the guy said, taking a gun out of his oversized coat. The sun glints off the shiny point of the gun. “I am afraid, however, it’s time for you to die. We hope you have a better life in the afterlife.”

Fuuko saw the man pulled the trigger and waited until the last second to dodge the bullet. Doing a back flip towards the man, she took him by surprise and swapped his gun from him. Thrusting the gun into her own garments, Fuuko held the man by the collar.

“Well,” she said, grinning. “What an obvious turnaround. Tell me who you work for.”

The man just smiled. “I’d rather die than tell you that.” Fuuko heard a ticking inside the man’s coat, and—

“Ugh!” she screamed as she rolled on her back after the man blew himself up to bits. “My God! You’re crazy!” she hissed at the dead man. Shaking her head, she tried to find something she could identify him from. With some luck, she found that his head was definitely unharmed.

She took off his shades and his hat and turned his gruesome head to her face. Gasping, she lets go of the head. “Ugh,” she said, hurrying to get up and running. She disappeared from Alphabet City as fast as she had come.

***

“It’s not him,” Fuuko said, gasping.

“Who’s not him?” Mikagami asked, confused. He’s in his own suite, sitting and reading a book. Can he be more careless? Fuuko thought.

“The spy who just blew himself to bits,” Fuuko said, closing the door behind her. “I—I just went to Alphabet City”—a disapproving look from Mikagami makes Fuuko blushed—“and…well, he was following me. He wants to kill me, of course, as I have figured out.”

“Then?” Mikagami asked sharply, putting his book down.

“Well…um, I knocked him off, I guess,” Fuuko said. “I tried to beat the hell out of him to tell me who asked him to kill me. And then he said something like, ‘oh no, I wouldn’t, I’d rather die doing that’.”

“Okay,” Mikagami said, nodding. “Go on.”

“And he blew himself to bits using a timer-bomb,” Fuuko said incredulously. “I mean, how seriously whacked is the guy? Do you think I made him crazy just by hitting him? Come to think of it, I didn’t really hit him. Just threat him.”

Mikagami looked as puzzled as Fuuko felt. “But, if it’s not the guy from the pool”—both flushed as none wants to remember about it—“then who it is? Do you think that the guy’s working for the same Agency of the pool guy?”

“But—” Fuuko bit her lips. “Well. It would make sense to change men. But I thought they’d usually send a man and ask him to finish the job. And until they’re done with that… well, you know the procedure.”

“Still doesn’t explain it,” Mikagami said, shaking his head. “Then what about the guy I twisted his neck around?”

Fuuko winced. “Well… that, I don’t know. Perhaps…”

“I don’t know, Fuuko,” said Mikagami, reading her mind. “Why would they send an agent from Stouffer before you even spy on him?”

“Well—maybe they know I’ll be a…you know, a threat or something,” said Fuuko, her eyes wide. “Now, that really wouldn’t make sense. I don’t know.” She sighed in surrender and slumped on Mikagami’s couch. “I give up.”
Mikagami was still thoughtful, though. “It’s weird… What did you say the guy who blew himself up to bits said?”

“Huh?” Fuuko looked confused and raised her eyebrow. “Oh! Um, he said something like he’d rather die. Not much help, though.”

“You just don’t know,” Mikagami said thoughtfully.