If I had to be honest with myself, I would have to admit that coming to this strange country that was Japan while inhabiting an estranged body wasn't the smartest idea. I was feeling half in the moment, half away.

Still, even without the japanese courses to keep my mind away from things, I had my friends, and the daily training with Frei. She found a training room to rent close to where we stayed, and we trained there every morning. Often not talking at all, exchanging all we needed to know through stares and our bodies.

It sometimes felt strangely intimate, but the training was paying off. I felt more at ease with my new muscle distribution and balance, and was beginning to win our multiple jousts more often than not. Which was severly annoying Frei, but also sometimes making her stare at me with awe.

I felt a strange mixture of uncomfort and joy at that, as it had to be the first time anyone ever expressed amazement at my techniques.

The rest of the day after meeting up with the other two, we mostly followed Frei, who knew a lot more about Kyoto than she initially led to believe.

It wasn't so bad.

Two weeks passed, Thursday.

My courses would only begin in a bit more than one week's time, but it felt like it would never come.

I had just finished showering after our morning routine when Frei shouted something from our living room.

"Sias? You've got a message!"

Who could that be? Fanny and Henry were next door, they would have knocked on the wall.

Which only left my mom and my father. A message from the first one never meant anything good, and I didn't want to hear about the second.

I took a bath towel and covered my body with it before going back in the bedroom.

Frei was waiting for me to finish, watching the television currently showing a crazy japanese host show where they had dressed idol stars as... sexy dinosaurs? How the hell is that a thing?

Not trying to understand this almost expected asian nonsense, I went for my phone on my bed.

Frei looked at me distractedly from the corner of her eyes, before blushing and forcing her eyes back on the big screen.

"Sias, really?"

"Mh sorry" I answered distractedly, usually I would have been pretty amused by her reaction but I was concentrated on what my phone was showing me.

A little icon with "Papa" was blackening the little luminous square.

I opened it, realising that my father rarely sent textos, he'd rather be old school and call me.

The message was rather cryptic.

Dates, locations, one today, one tomorrow, and three others next week with number and associated images linked with them. The only sentence was at the end, and I felt a chill run through my body as I read it.

"Le dieu de la mort à eu echo des affaires de père, je disparais un certain temps avec ta mère, voilà une Liste."

A List, my dad just sent me a List.

"Fuck." I said out loud.

"Sias? Something wrong?"

I looked at my now pretty close friend, even though we only met slightly more than a month and a half ago.

But I couldn't, not even her.

What was the best way to lie?

Don't.

"Pretty bad, we're going to have to go into hiding for a while. That guy the detective talked us about, Shikami? You remember?"

"Yes" Frei shut the tv down.

"Seems like he's finally showing his hand and isn't as reasonable as the previous friend from grandpa. He sent us hitmen, and they don't look the type to have an agreable nature."

"Shit." She immediately jumped on her feet.

"Yup, I'll talk to Fanny, stay here, prepare our stuff, as I don't believe you'll let me go on my own"

"You're guessing right." She looked at me, there was no doubt in her eyes.

I sighed loudly. And left the room still half naked. Fortunately the corridor was empty, but I didn't have to go far anyway.

"Oooh, why the treat?" Said Fanny opening the door almost immediately after I knocked.

"You're taking tomorrows flight to wherever in Europe, I don't care where, as long as you're away from here." I told her without emotion.

My autoritative tone never bode well with her.

"Sias what the hell! Of course no.."

I cut her mid-sentence.

"You are, or I'm knocking you and Henry out and shipping you through mail."

"Why are we being threatened?" Henry appeared behind his girlfriend.

"Henry, you know I wouldn't ask if it wasn't the only solution. I need to go into hiding, Frei is good enough to help, you guys aren't and would just put us in more danger than you deserve."

"No-one deserves to be in danger! You don't either!" Fanny almost shouted in anger.

"No, but sometimes, things you do have repercussions you cannot avoid. I don't want to have to think about your protection. Pack you bags, you're going as soon as you can."

Henry looked at me and whispered something in Fanny's ear, who went into the room, giving me a deadly 'you're gonna pay for that' stare."

Ah I was definitely finding shaving cream in my shoes again.

Henry waited for her to leave us alone before looking back at me.

"You're doing your Sias thing again. You're not saying everything."

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

That was the problem with people knowing you too well: they knew you too well.

I answered, as vaguely as possible.

"You won't be safe, not if I have guessed who the guy in charge is correctly. I'll have to do something extra so that will be the case. I won't tell you what it is."

He looked at me with a sad expression.

"If you won't tell us, I can pretty much guess what it means Sias, I know you, there is almost nothing you wouldn't say."

"Henry please."

He faced me, his gentle gaze almost entierly gone.

"We'll do what you ask Sias but, I don't want to see you again before you handle everything. And I mean everything. I have to think about her first you know?"

I knew this was coming, but it hurt a lot more than I had expected.

"Yes, of course I understand."

"Goodbye Sias, take care eh? Don't forget you're a good guy, well girl."

"Crazy how good girl's meaning is not even close to the good guy meaning." I half-heartedly joked

He chuckled and I joined him.

But both of us weren't smiling.

Frei said a quick goodbye to them one hour later, but wasn't in the mood to be emotional so cut our final meeting short. She was already trying to find multiple safe houses, and didn't like our best choice.

Her father's Dojo. As a professionnal martial artist and bodyguard trainer, hiding in his estate was probably one of the safest places you could be in such a quick notice. Unfortunately that would mean convincing him, and even if he agreed, actually living with the unsufferable man.

But feelings had no place right now.

We had already packed our bags, and I was convincing Frei to go on her own to convince Shiwazaki-san.

"There is already someone here in Kyoto according to your father! I can't leave you alone!"

"Frei, I agree, but we need this, and I will not be a sight your father is going to enjoy, I assure you, not with what I said to him. He may not look like it, but he still cares, if you ask, and you really need it, he'll act as a father, I know it."

"You seem to know my Tou-san better than I do."

"Nah, I just know people better than you do."

"You unbearable arrogant bastard."

"Yeah, yeah. Go quickly, every minute counts, I'll be staying in Fanny and Henry's apartment I promise, I won't leave the building."

Frei finally nodded.

"Fine." She stopped a moment thinking about what I said. "I hate it but moving next door will give you an undeniable advantage. Don't try anything stupid." She told me with an inquisitive finger aimed at my chest.

"Frei, leave, you're wasting precious time, as soon as we're in your father's dojo we'll be safe for a while."

"I still believe you should follow me, it doesn't make any sense for you to wait here, why you couldn't wait in a nearby cafe."

"We don't have time to argue Frei."

She looked back at me angrily.

"Fuck, why are you so stubborn about it. You're not making sense."

"Frei..."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm going. Ittekimasu."

"Itterashai."

And the front door finally closed.

I sat down quietly.

I drew my phone, I didn't have much time. First the detective.

"I was waiting for your call." Answered almost on the first ring a coarse voice.

"Kendrick?"

"One and only. I heard about a sudden arrival of some very nasty people. What the hell have you done to get him so riled up I dont know, but well, shit."

"Yup I know, thanks for the tip about Shikami, gave me a nice headstart. Well to my dad at least."

"No problem, I'll do anything to help catch that son of a bitch." As I expected, he had a personal history with the man behind the sudden chaos.

"Could you help me contact him?"

"No, as I said before, old school, doesn't even use a phone. And even if it was possible, I don't believe talking to him would help you. You need to go into hiding. I could help you with that."

That made me think. Would that be reasonable? Leave Frei behind? She would hate me but she would be safe.

"Kendrick, answer me honestly, if I disappear, is Shikami the kinda guy who'll go after my..." I wanted to say family or friends but he didn't let me finish.

"Yeah."

"Then no, I'm going to have to try something else. And I promised I wouldn't leave the building."

"That doesn't seem smart."

"Oh it unfortunately is."

He stopped talking for a while. I felt like he was talking to someone else close to him.

"Miss Jourdin, I did some digging after talking to you."

I smirked. He wouldn't have found anything.

"I found enough to get the idea. I have here strange footage of a young effeminate boy accompanying known peace mercenaries."

My smile fell.

By his tone of voice, I knew he wasn't bluffing. I underestimated him again.

"Miss Jourdin?"

"Yes."

"Could you tell me where you are right now? I believe your plan is..."

Shit.

I hung up.

I was going to have company. I needed to hurry up or more innocents would get caught in the crossfire.

I phoned one of the numbers that my father sent me. The first on the list. I knew a dark haired, short japanese man would answer me. Murazaki Shin, Ex-Yakuza, one of the rare who got away from the mafia after eliminating his own clan. Apparently sold them out, to get an out.

He changed vocations, but with a not so distant job.

The most famous hitman of Osaka.

It took some time before a cold, knife-like voice answered me.

"Dare?"

"Murazaki-San? I have to ask you not to kill yourself."

The man switched to an horrible english, barely understandable through his thick accent.

"Miss Jourdin? Well, that is a surprise. I do not understand what you mean though, are you threatening me?"

What I was doing was ridiculous, but I had to, to not become what I had been accused of being.

"I am being honest with you. You are throwing yourself into a place you shall not come back from. I am not who they told you I am."

"You're a cocky brat eh? I think I shall enjoy you before..."

I didn't let him finish, I didn't want to forget the human behind the demon.

"Murazaki-san. You will die if you go to this address."

"What?"

I hung up for a second time, and sent him my coordinates.

I had two hours.

Two hours to remember my first and last lesson.

"Grand-père?"

"Sias. Viens ici."

My younger self walked close to the man I once admired as much as I feared.

"Today we'll talk about a special lesson."

"I'm going to school?! Enfin?"

"No, not yet. You'll go later."

I heard a moan coming from the wooden door behind him. The forbidden room. Next to the training room where I had to study all kinds of martial arts. And out of where my grandfather always came.

But I stayed focused on what my grandfather told me.

"But I'm 12 already, normal children have to go to school at my age!"

"You're not like the others Sias. You're much, much better than them, you know that right?"

I didn't know that, for I had never met another kid. I could see them, on the television sometimes, read about them in books. They didn't feel different from me there.

Except I was always alone, without friends.

I heard a cry now. Sobs and scratching. A terrible noise, something that could not come from a human, should not.

But my grandfather didn't look worried, so I didn't feel like I should be.

"But then? What's the lesson? You're already teaching me the Arts. The other teachers too."

The man in front of me, barely in the middle of his fifties, looked back at me with an almost childish expression.

"A lesson of Balance Sias. What needs to be done in this world sometimes to outweigh the evil and corrupted. It's hard, but oh so necessary."

It didn't look that hard looking at him. He seemed joyful.

"But let me show you."

And he opened the door.