Nemesis, Vol. 1

The Woman & the Shadow

The woman softly removes her hand from Yuki's mouth, in a calm manner with the intention of keeping him from panicking.

"Are you crazy?! No one is following me, lady!" Yuki shouted, getting the attention of only a few around him as this was an everyday thing for veteran workers of Star City.

"Are you a moron!!" The woman shouted back.

The abrupt altercation alerted the shadow who was shocked at the realization that he may have been discovered

"I think my cover has been blown, but how?!"

The man still questions just how the two even locate him, he remained well enough away from Yuki to dispel any suspicion, what was his mistake, what was his misstep? Panic was his next move, he was not trained to react if his cover was blown or if his mission was threatened by failure. Overconfidence in this mission brought its own problems. 

He started to push through the human barriers that separated him from Yuki and the strange woman like he was in front of a stampede. The woman easily took notice of this, something Yuki still hasn't even the slightest idea of what's going on, and grabs Yuki's hand.

"C'mon, he's coming!"

The woman starts running as she finishes her words. She leaps into the street and into oncoming traffic. Tires screeching against asphalt along with howling horns bursting through the night sky. 

"Would you let go of me!! I don't know you, lady!!"

"The man will probably kill you now since his cover was blown!"

"What are you talking about?! There is no man, lady!"

"See for yourself!"

Yuki glances back hoping to prove to the lady, whom he believes isn't at an adequate level of sanity, that no one is following them. His certainty slowly dwindled into doubt at the sight of this giant in all black barrelling through the crowd and heading straight for them. Yuki has never seen this man before nor does he want to meet him after seeing how desperate he looks just to catch up.

"What the?! Who the hell is that?!"

"He's been following you for some time now but you were just too slow to notice!"

"Huh?! For some time?! That means you've been following me too?!"

"Follow?! You hardly go anywhere, just school, home, and that office on Sundays!!"

"What?! How long have you two been following me?!"

The woman gently lets go of Yuki's hand, and Yuki starts running on his own, not really thinking that his hand was free and just focused on a way to get out of this bizarre scenario.

"Stop asking questions! Once we hit the corner here on our right there'll be a van waiting for us!"

"Who are you?!"

The woman thought Yuki would never stop asking questions, but she dismissed his curiosity as nothing more than adrenaline taking its course. 

Yuki's body acted in a flight manner during this perception of a harmful entity that continued to pursue him and the woman who had no name. The corner came closer and closer, and Yuki, who had never been in a situation nearly as fearful as the one he currently found himself in, had never felt this way before. 

He isn't the one who would normally work out beyond the minimum requirement given to a student within a P.E. class. But now, during this moment when it is almost necessary to be in shape, he didn't feel tired or exhausted, if anything he felt as if he were going to erupt with the amount of energy that filled his body. 

His focus was almost heightened, the corner gained closer and Yuki couldn't think of anything else but immediately do as the woman instructed him. Yuki wasn't prepared for something like this to occur, would anyone be prepared for something as chaotic and ironic as this event? 

In the first hour, Yuki decides to get fresh air from the suffocating fumes of adolescence and agony, an event as confusing and frightening as this one occurs. 

The corner finally came as it felt close to an eternity to arrive there, and the woman and Yuki turned, almost simultaneously, as if they were both prepared for a situation as nerve-inducing as this one.

Yuki spots the van that the woman claimed to be there waiting for them, but was it true? Was this woman even the one he should be following? These are all questions that floated around Yuki's head, but none fell flat on his radar. 

He was only focused on retreating from the suspicious individual who was vigorously chasing them as if it were his life purpose to do so. Yuki did the only thing that he knew, and the only natural response to something of this magnitude, escape.

The woman whips out a handheld radio device and yells "Hey! Open the back up!"

"Got It!" was swiftly relayed back to the woman's radio.

The woman was slightly uncomfortable with having to use such prehistoric technology, especially at a time like this, when a first impression can travel miles ahead of the ratio necessary for this device to get a signal. 

The back of the classic white van opens up, and the escape path is now in plain sight. Yuki's confidence was still within the depths of despair, even though the anchor was put there, it still remains within the sunken ships. She didn't hesitate to enter the van in a professional manner, similar to a dive. 

After her unnecessary and extraordinary entrance into their escape vehicle, she noticed that Yuki wasn't as reluctant. He stood there, frozen at the entrance of the vehicle, not knowing what to do in a situation where knowing nothing of the future, or even the present for that matter. Why was this happening? And why him out of all lonely high school students? 

Yuki would very much rather be in bed sulking, in a very masculine and prideful manner of course, over being here in a life-threatening situation where his natural flight reaction has crashed into the ravenous mountains after being blinded by the rain clouds. Yuki's dilated pupils stared down the entrance of the van as if it were an endless tunnel, with the possibility of stumbling upon the light or being stuck in carnivorous darkness.

"What's with that face?"

The woman had no time for Yuki's early mid-life crisis, and quite frankly, neither did he. She swiftly grabbed Yuki's collar and tugged him into the van as if she were a professional at the art of tug of war. The woman hurried to close the doors of the van and slammed the roof twice, an obvious signal to the driver to do nothing more than withdraw from the scene. The leering eyes of the stalker remained on the van, the mission still was in reach for him.

Failure was not an option. 

His utilization would wither away if he were to fail, the wrench would simply no longer fit for its function. This job as well as every other job this stalker may or may not have been involved in was to determine his usefulness for his next job. One failure would indicate damaged goods, similar to a malfunction within an industrial droid, it isn't fixed, it is simply replaced. This was just part of the trade after all, whatever the title may be for the occupation (or vocation, however it is defined).

The stalker's panic began to rise to the surface every second the van looked closer to nothing more than a snowflake. The stalker looked around this street, looking for anything that could dig him out of the five-foot ditch that would soon turn into six feet. 

He spotted a motorbike, a running one with two people beside it, one with different colors from his own and the other, nothing more than a distraction, nonetheless, the perfect opportunity.