There is a pattern to running through dark and rain-swept alleys. It is a 
pattern of fear and relief, fear and relief. Fear cropping up at every shadow, 
with the expectation of some unknown yet horrifying danger waiting to jump out 
at you. Relief when you pass and it is nothing. You forget the danger and feel 
safe, at least until turning the corner and the next shadow is holding a danger.

     Despite all logic telling me that such dangers did not exist, they still 
held my attention. I ignored the rain and the cold and all the things caused by 
it: a line of moisture that seemed always to find a dry path down my back; how 
my rain-plastered hair hung in my eyes; the way that the water caused my 
undergarments to ride up.

     About the only thing that I did notice was the increasing difficulty it was 
too keep my pace up because of my waterlogged footwear. That slowed me down, 
something more than annoying - it was almost fatal. I stumbled, and something 
nicked my shoulder. Pain flared up and I instinctively grabbed for it. My 
balance off, I fell in a clumsy somersault, landing on my back and skidding a 
few feet.

     I paused a brief moment before scrambling to my feet. I spun around, 
bringing my hands up in a futile measure of protection. Whatever defenses I 
could put up wouldn't stop whatever was thrown at me.

     There was a scuff behind me. Shit, I'd forgotten about the second one - the 
swordplayer. I swallowed, turning towards him. First threats first, after all. 
His grip on the blade was unwaverying, aimed directly at my throat. One easy 
lunge and it would be through me.

     My name is Kaneko Takayama. And I'm a...


                           Magical Girl Hunted

                      (Magical Girl Hunters Part 38)

                              by Damien Roc

                    original concept by Aaron Shattuck

                         presented by Improfanfic


     Of course, I wasn't about to wait for Itami Daikaku to bring me to an 
untimely end. I sidestepped even before he had a chance to attack, whipping 
around to pull a nice kick to the back of his knee. Not hard enough to break it, 
which I could have tried to do (I suspect he would have rolled with the impact 
just fine), but there was no point in taking chances. Despite a being an 
annoyance to me at times, I had uses for Yoi Kurasaka and wounding his partner 
just would not do.

     Still, I didn't need him following me quite so closely, so I chopped him 
across the back of his neck and was off again before Yoi could pull off a second 
shot.

     Three turns later, thinking that I was home free, I made a mistake and 
ignored a sound. Something snaked out from above with a crack wrapping quickly 
around my neck and pulling tight.

     "Ka-Kasumi," I said, wincing more from my stupidity than the pain. All my 
extra experience, talents, and skills I had over Sailor H did not matter one 
whit in that situation. I could do little more than kick in frustration as my 
breath gave out.

                                   ***

     The ultimate end I had expected from that did not come. This was surprising 
as Yoi Kurasaka's efficiency matched that of any great assassins in world 
history. Still, I was not one to question a boon when it happened - part of my 
own success was simply the will to grab and utilize any opportunity. I may have 
been captured and bound up, but at least I could attempt to ask some questions. 

     Possibly, I could have worked out a deal. I had been waiting since our 
first meeting to propose some things to Yoi, but the opportunity had not 
materialized to my satisfaction. This was hardly optimal, but life throws some 
things that must be dealt with.

     However, all these thoughts and musings were secondary to my main problem. 
I had a headache that rivaled the worst hangover from my college days. I stifled 
a groan and listened through the pounding in my ears. There was talking. Two 
voices, they were muffled, however. I could not determine if it was because of 
the pounding or just that they were speaking quietly. 

     Before I was able to make out any of their words, however, someone spoke 
from behind me. "She's awake."

     I grimaced and let my eyes flutter open. Images swam slowly into view. Yoi 
Kurasaka was leaning far back in a chair, feet upon a desk. Itami Daikaku was 
leaning against a wall. Their sidekick, Pretty Deadly, sat straddling a chair 
backwards, her arms along the top and her chin resting down on them. She peered 
at me, but the pistol she held lightly in one hand destroyed any illusions of 
benevolence.

     That left one more member of their troupe. "Hello, Kasumi," I said. Turning 
my head to the side to catch a sidelong glimpse of her. My arms were securely 
fastened to the chair, inhibiting my movement. She was resting languidly against 
a second desk. "Fancy finally meeting you face to face."

     She sniffed, a twitch of irritation crossing her face. I wonder how much 
anger she harbors towards me because I replaced her as a part of the Magical 
Women. I could have probed her on it, perhaps setting some seeds of doubt but 
given my situation that probably would have been risky.

     Yoi did me the favor of moving first. "We've got a few questions for you... 
Kaneko."

     "I should imagine so, after all the trouble you went through to catch me. 
Relatively unharmed."

     He grinned. "Wasn't that easy. You dropped Itami pretty good."

     I cocked my head, and put up a coy expression. "Yes... perhaps."

     "H can't find hide nor hair of the Magical Women," he said, pushing on. 
"We've heard word that they're dead, and you're all that's left."

     I raised an eyebrow questioningly. "How very odd. I have heard nothing 
about their demise."

     "Then why couldn't I find anything?"

     I chuckled. "Kasumi, dear, you aren't a Magical Woman any longer. Why 
should we allow you to find us easily?"

     She cursed at me.

     "Always a touchy one, weren't you?" I asked.

     Yoi slapped a hand down on his desk. "Enough. What's the whole deal about 
training magical girls?"

     Aha! So that's what he was after. Very well, I could answer him somewhat 
truthfully and still work something out in return. "Oh, that is very simple. We 
are at war, and I'm trying to win in the best way possible."

     "A war against us?"

     "Not you, specifically, rather there are various agencies and whatnot who 
would have it in for us magically inclined females - and males. Logic would 
dictate that the more of our kind that exist, the less chance any one of us will 
be killed. I had figured if enough magical girls were trained to survive, then 
the opposing forces might be dissuaded from killing us."

     "You were traning them so they wouldn't die so quick when we came after 
them, then."

     "No. There are other groups out there besides yourself."

     "Like the youma."

     "Some of them, yes. But other groups and individuals who, for various 
reasons, have their own problems with the existence of magical girls. Some do 
contract work to take them out, like you."

     "But we already got rid of those two copycat jokers," Pretty Deadly said.

     I sighed. "Not all are as incompetent as them. Many more exist, some who 
have been working far longer than you."

     Yoi narrowed his eyes. "So why haven't we heard anything about them?"

     "Organization and information. Except for some loose ties, most girls 
worked independently or in small groups. News tends not to travel quickly, so 
the loss of a few won't be noticed unless someone has an extensive network to 
track those sorts of things."

     "And you do." It was not a question. I did not like how this conversation 
was heading. Yoi may be crude, but still effective at weeding information out.

     "I have built up contacts, yes."

     "So how many other groups are there? I'm not really appreciative of 
competition, here."

     "I cannot say for sure. By necessity, many fight in a clandestine manner. I 
would assume that in some cases your unit has been hired to take out targets for 
others, no matter what your contract line may have been."

     "Tricky bastards." Itami's first words in the conversation took me by 
surprise. His stance and expression had not changed since I first came to.

     "Right," Yoi said. A he looked pensive for a moment. "You're saying that a 
number of secret organizations have it out for magical girls besides us, and 
you're training them so they can survive."

     "There may possibly be a number of organizations. It is not something that 
I have confirmed. As for the training, you brought that to a premature end, but 
I may look into it again in the future."

     "Why not just take out the elements themselves? There's got to be more 
people gunning for..." He looked around at the others in the room. "...us."

     "Oh, I had uses for you, Mr. Kurasaka. While your aggressive tendencies 
toward my kind are dangerous, they are not absolute." I motioned with my head 
towards Pretty Deadly. "Nor are they all encompassing. You rarely do any killing 
if you are not paid for it. And while some of your direct associates like Kasumi 
may be less discriminating, you are the ringleader. Anything important will 
likely either require some action in relation to you."

     He grimaced. "That damn fateless thing again. Next you're going to try and 
recruit me to your side. Are you for Order?"

     I slowly shook my head. "I do believe you have me at a loss. I am not sure 
I have a 'side' as you put it."

     "What about the Magical Women?"

     "We work together, but I posess a differing agenda in many cases."

     "Do you know if they're alligned with Order or Chaos or whatever?"

     I frowned. He was getting into territory I was not familier with, but I did 
not want to show ignorance... not yet, anyway. If I could milk something out of 
him instead. "Not to my knowledge," I said.

     "I think we've gotten enough out of her," Kasumi said, "Waste her, now."

     "That would be unwise, Kasumi."

     She barked a laugh. "You'd say that to save yourself. They stopped me once, 
and you're a tough bitch, but don't think I'll fail again."

     "You may try," I sighed, "But it would be unwise because we can benefit 
from an... alliance of sorts. People have interests in you, particularly Mr. 
Kurasaki..."

     He snorted. "Really."

     "And many are far less forgiving and beneficial towards you than I." I 
decided to try a gamble. "I can offer you..." I trailed off.

     "Offer us what?" Yoi stood up and paced behind Pretty Deadly. "We don't 
need firepower. You don't seem to be able to offer us much more information, 
and, frankly, your goals don't coincide very well with our own. Who knows, 
wasteing you might make everything a whole lot easier for me. Why not give me a 
reason, something tangible, for why we should work with you."

     I licked along my upper lip and decided to go for the gut. "I can make you 
male again." To my annoyance, only Pretty Deadly gasped.

     "I've been offered that before," Yoi shrugged. "It's not enough. Besides, 
what would you want out of this?"

     "My life, for one. But perhaps we can come to a truce of sorts. You seem to 
be preoccupied with something that is larger than the run-of-the-mill magical 
girl hunting, I can keep some things out of your hair for the time being."

     "You keep some people out of my hair for a while, and in exchange we let 
you go."

     "Yes. If you would wish to pursue further cooperation, that is acceptable 
to me."

     I studied him while he considered my offer. Despite the time he had spent 
in a female body, all of his mannerisms were wholly male. Both during our first 
meeting and this one I had caught a few leers from him. Unfortunately, the 
advantages my enhanced body usually granted to me over males did not work on 
him.

     "If anything comes down on us from either you or your associates," he said 
finally, "We're coming after you."

     "That is not ideal for me, but considering my situation, I cannot refuse."

     "Verasity?" he asked, "Is she on the level?"

     "As nearly as I can tell, Kurasaka-san," a second voice said from behind 
me. I twisted around in surprise. I could not sense anyone besides Kasumi.

     The second woman was beautiful, and had a critical yet complacent 
expression on her face. She sat behind the desk Kasumi was leaning against. I 
narrowed my eyes.

     Slowly, I let a smile cross my face. "Of course. You aren't alive. Very 
good, Mr. Kurasaka, you play this game well." I turned and regarded him. "Is 
there any way I can interest you in a further agreement between us?"

     He shook his head. "I don't like this 'game' as it stands. I don't want to 
be any deeper in it."

                                   ***

     They let me go and I considered my next move. A few phone calls would 
subdue magical girl activity enough that they should have an easy time to do 
what they will. No new clients, at least, would bother them.

     That left my associates amongst the Magical Women. It was rather unlikely 
that they would even consider bothering Yoi Kurasaka and friends, I felt it best 
to at least take a precaution. I left a few messages for people then called up 
Mina. As our nominal leader, it was best that she brought them together.

     "Kaneko?" Mina did not answer her phone. "Thank god! We've been looking all 
over for you. Where have you been?"

     I stuttered in surprise. "What do you mean? Kei, what are you doing there?"

     "Oh, it's so exciting! Styx showed up, and she's this really old magical 
girl, but anyway she's here and we're going to be working with her."

     "Styx..." I wondered what she would have wanted with us. Despite our 
maturity compared to most magical girls (even Kei), Styx was, frankly, far 
beyond our league.

     "...and so you see that she thinks that he needs a bit more pursuading," 
Kei had not stopped throughout my musing, "So what do you think?"

     "What? Who needs pursuading."

     Somewhere in the background, I heard, "Kei! Who's on the phone."

     "It's Kaneko!" she shouted without removing the reciever from her mouth.

     I winced. "Kei. Put Mina on." I felt a pit of apprehension growing in my 
stomach.

     I listened to Mina explain the situation clearly, feeling my plans come 
crashing down one by one.

     "We can't go after Yoi Kurasaka, Mina, I've already talked with him and we 
have an agreement. This... this is moving too fast."

     "An agreement? Kaneko, this is too important. Now, get over here. We're 
going to nee..."

     I hung up the reciever. Whatever the Magical Women were doing, it would 
null the agreement, and they would be after me very soon. I wondered if there 
was a way to salvage my plans, or at least assure their continuance without me.

     Odd. I was already thinking that I would not survive. Granted, there was 
much precedence to believe that Yoi would succeed in killing me. He had 
certainly faced greater odds in the past.

     But it seemed that an unlucky stroke of fate would do me and all my plans 
in. I did not appreciate the irony of the situation.

     I returned to my apartment to pack a few things. Survival, if it did 
happen, would be easier if I was on the move.

     I shifted back to my mundane form and stared at myself in the mirror. There 
was a difference, but was it enough? I was still as fit as always, but my true 
age showed: some wrinkles around the eyes, a few graying hairs, sagging in the 
breasts.

     I put on a smart business suit, shouldered a small duffel bag of 
necessities, and left. It would be best to keep moving for as long as possible.

                                   ***

     The hotel was a cheap dive, but it would suffice for the night. I lay in 
the bed with a blanket drawn tight around me. I wondered if I had jumped too 
quickly. Perhaps Mina, Kei, and Yuna would not be moving out immediately.

     Perhaps.

     After two hours of tossing and turning, I decided sleep was not going to 
come and got out of bed. I shifted to my magical form and started working out, 
sans costume, clad in my bra and panties. After thirty minutes of aerobics, I 
had started to build up a nice sweat, but still didn't feel tired. After another 
half an hour, I stopped.

     Panting moderately, I went to open the window.

     The first crack appeared as I was raising the sill. I stared at it for a 
moment, comprehension failing me. Then, I attempted to raise some sort of 
defense.

     Too late. I saw the second crack, hearing the light report almost at the 
same instant, then everything was tumbling. I felt a dull thump as my head 
rebounded off the floor. After that, everything became difficult.

     With my last thought I wondered what the headline might be: "Half Naked 
Woman Killed by Sniper"?

                              ------------

Author's note:

Here's the part where I plead for people not to kill me, even though I know 
they're going to want to.

Why? the question probably is, Why the hell did you shift the point of view?

Good question. In MGH it's happened once before, and that's probably the worst 
chapter written, bar none.

Still, it's an easy, if selfish, answer: I'm bored with Yoi Kurasaka. He's a 
cool character, and all, but when I sat down to write this, I couldn't think of 
what else to do for him. Still, MGH is an interesting, if somewhat confused, 
storyline, and I still wanted to put in one last little bit of influence before 
it tied up completely.

So here we've got Kaneko. I introed her, and now I took her out of the picture. 
I did have one more scene planned, but as I'm writing this, I am pretty much out 
of time, so tacking it on wouldn't be the best idea. As everything stands, I had 
to rush through this part to get it done on time, and except for the 
conversation scene it feels too flat and light for me.

As usual, there are many things I had intended with this part, but it would 
break the spirit of Impro, at least to me, to relay them here. The old "Hey, 
here's what my part was _really_ about" bit. So I'll just say that anyone who's 
wondering about them, they can email me for all that.

So, I'll leave it at that. This part hasn't been preread or even checked over, I 
hope that no extra reasons that people may want my head will come out of that.

Damien Roc
Water Dragon productions