There was a flicker of movement in the trees, a soft sound, and then silence. A black clad figure suddenly appeared, seemingly from thin air, stalking his prey with slow delicate footsteps. Then, a quick movement and the target fell, dead, on the ground with a kunai sticking out of its back. After carefully examining the beast on the ground, the figure sighed, and relaxed. Pulling out a scroll of paper, he began to write a message on it, but froze and leaped away from the deadly swing of the beast's claw. The man stared in shock. The monster was supposed to be dead! Slowly, as so not to alarm it, he slowly pulled out his kusarigama and was poised to strike, when the beast rose and leaped at the man with startling speed, surprising the man, who dropped the kusarigama. Realizing his error, he tried to pick it up, but wasn't fast enough. The monster clawed him across his back, and the man fell, twitching while the blood slowly poured from the wound like water from a fallen cup.

"Geez! When will you take a hint and leave me already!" A high school girl was shouting at a professional looking man in a suit and sunglasses.

"I'm sorry, I can not. It is on your father's orders of course, madam."

The girl scratched her head and sighed.

"Don't call me madam. I keep telling you, my name is Marina. There is no one that gets called madam by a person older than them in this day and age!"

"I'm sorry, I can not. Your father has instructed me to call you madam, and I must continue doing so."

Marina began muttering curses under her breath at her father. Why in the world had he assigned her a body guard! She was only a fourteen year old kid for goodness sakes. She couldn't have fun with this … hindrance following her around. Marina stopped short, a smile sly smile playing on her lips. If this stupid guard insisted on following her, she would just have to ditch him.

"Well then… let's see just how much stamina you have then!" Marina yelled and took off running. She was confident in her stamina and running abilities. She was an excellent fighter, and train constantly without her father noticing.

The body guard's eyes widened, and he started panicking, then took off running after Marina yelling for her to "please stop!" but she kept running, dodging corners, cutting into alley ways until he lost her. She was thrilled at the feeling of freedom, but had run so fast that she was lost. No problem! I'll just wander around until I find an exit. Marina grinned and slipped through the narrow passage ways.

Ten minutes later, she was still lost, and getting frustrated too. What… are the walls shifting or something?! It seemed that way, for she would turn, and it was a dead end. Marina paused to take a short break, and decided that the best course of action would be to climb onto one wall and see where she was.

Crouching, Marina ran at a wall to gain momentum, then jumped, leaped off the wall, and landed on another. Success! Marina looked around and nearly fell off. On the other side of the wall, was a dense green forest. What in the world?! Shocked, she looked around to find miles and miles of brick walls, forming a maze. Where did the alley go?! Marina looked at the forest, and that seemed to be the only option to go to, so groaning, she leaped off the wall and into the trees.