CROSSFIRE | MYSTIC MESSENGER / 707

TWO

Every agent earned their codename within the organization. It was a direct reflection of personal skill and dedication to their craft. If one worked hard to fulfill missions with little to no mishaps for 10 years, a codename unique to the agent was bestowed.

     That being said, there were very few who held such high titles. Ghost was the name she was given as the tender age of 15. Many whispers about her being a genius often drifted through long hallways, always full of envy or doubt. What they thought meant nothing to her. Everything she had, she earned just like them.

     Besides, if they had the time to gossip it only proved they were below her.

    Even as she drifted down the halls of the main building, no one spared her a glance. They weren't ignoring her, every person she passed never even realized she had been there in the first place. It was amusing. Every single person in that hall were at least A rank agents, yet they couldn't even pick up on her presence.

    It wasn't like her body was invisible. That was simply impossible and a childish to entertain.

    Still, she was disappointed in her coworkers. It was rude to make her shoulder all the achievements of their organization. A small chuckle parted her lips as she came to a halt in front of the mirror in her bathroom. It always made her excited when she took on missions that required an entire transformation.

    Hair that once resembled moonlight now lay an inky black on her shoulders. It spilled over, seeming to consume every ounce of light into its hungry void. In the mirror, eyes that shone a coral pink studied the new look. She was more than satisfied with the results.

    Unknown targeted women who looked rather common. Brunettes, blondes, gingers and the like. Yuna contemplated contacts to make herself truly boring. I could always just wear sunglasses, she thought. Ultimately, she decided against the color change. The baiting period wouldn't require that much.

    The file indicated that the person she was luring likes to pick targets he could easily manipulate. In order for him to gage if that was possible, that meant he kept close eyes on them until he was sure he could pull the strings. The failures he had previously were due to his impatience. At the center of all this was a small cafe called Fortune Cat. Not only was it an ideal hunting ground, it provided the necessary elements to stage an encounter.

     Yuna flashed a pearly smile while grabbing her sunglasses and the backpack that contained everything she would need, along with the key to her baby. It had been a while since she went on a deep immersion. A year, maybe?

     The identity she received was Kim Jieun.  Apparently, she was going to play the role of an aspiring musician. A minuscule look of disfavor pulled the corner of Yuna's lips as she swung the door to her new apartment open.

     Ah. Struggling musician.

     Apartments provided by the organization were always a hit or miss. Compared to her personal style, the place she would be living in for the foreseeable future seemed rather plain. Dare she say, dilapidated? No, that was too harsh. Cheap was better.

     Images of a damp and moldy interior flashed in her mind for a moment. A discontent shiver ran up her spine. Such memories, she made sure to lock away. Still, they seeped through the cracks every now and then. A rather unpleasant feeling settled in her chest as she placed her things down next to the sofa.

     Every identity given to an agent in deep immersion was one that was pre-existing. The names they took on had been real people, with real footprints. It made going undercover easier because all they had to do was replace every photo with her own.

     This Kim Jieun would have been Yuna's age by now. That is, if she had been alive. The original Kim Jieun had given into the dispair that plagued her life since highschool. Her parents were incredibly strict and were against Jieun becoming a musician, so she had run away.

     Her life only got harder from then on. Jieun barely had enough to feed herself let alone keep up with her rent. She worked 3 part-time jobs which took up every day of the week, month after month. A truly pitiful existence.

     So she took her own life. She died alone in the very apartment Yuna now lived. Yuna's gaze swept over the room a moment more. She wasn't bothered by the fact that someone died in the space she inhabited, nor did she feel odd for taking the identity of the girl who no longer breathed either.

     It was work. Her only problem was making sure she wore Kim Jieun like a skintight suit. Absolutely nothing should make anyone suspicious of her.

     With all the data compiled, Unknown hunts in the morning when there are very few people about. The intel agent planted at the cafe often saw a young man dressed in a red tank, black cap, mask and black leather jacket at the tables closest to the targets. There was, reportedly, nothing really remarkable about him other than the tattoo that decorated his arm.

     Well, at least she had something to go on.

     The dusty wooden chair creaked under her weight as she opened the laptop she had borrowed from the tech department. Yuna needed to understand Unknown in every sense. His hacking patterns, signature, past achievements and his identity. It would've been easy for the intel department to find out these things but that took away the fun.

     From what Yuna could tell, he was an amateur at best. A small chuckle escaped her lips as she dug out information on the address he operated from.

     "That was too easy, I'm a bit disappointed," she sighed. Yuna took a mental note of the information before closing the device. The rest could wait. Yuna wanted to take her time with this one.

     Her next step as establishing a routine, and she already had something in mind. Every other day she would visit Fortune Cat. On the mornings she would visit, she would take a stroll to the establishment and order a macha green tea latte. Stay about 30 minutes to an hour reading or 'working' on projects for her career and then leave when she finished her order.

     After that she would stop by an arcade or a convenience store before making her way to a part-time job. That seemed like a reasonable routine to make. Depending on how long her target would follow her would decide how long she kept it up.

     Yuna flopped onto the sofa with a long yawn. It was going to be a long hunt. Just thinking about it brought a wide grin to her face, she very much enjoyed the waiting game.