"Cadet Eno Takehide calling in, we have a man down..." A young and deep voice spoke in a thick Tokyo accent into the walkie of a broad-sized right hand. It was none other than a young officer dressed in a black uniform, decorated with a cross belt and bright blue strips on its high standing band-styled collar. Standing five-six outside his police cruiser he had a clear view over the rim of his open driver's side door.

His darkened coal eyes upon the entrance of the neighborhood Jewelry Store. His bloody right hand anxiously running through his short dapper black hair. Showing off his nervous disposition was one long lock of black hair hanging in front of his face. Though what gave his character strength was a small groomed samurai bun in the back and his hairdo featuring a heroic fade on either side. Most of his facial structure was sharp, including his jaw, though he had soft cheekbones that mildly brought out his intense coal-black eyes.

Static sounded brief before a response came from the gadget, "What is Sergeant Watanabe-san's condition, Eno-san?" It was the regional Police Commissioner.

"Stabbed, Sir, in the chest. He's lost too much blood," Takehide lowered his radio from his lips, his free hand resting at the Tanto sheathed at his hip. "The assailants robbing the store are heavily armed and trained."

For a split second, as he was in the lot, his gaze dropped to the side view mirror. His eyes outlining his neatly shaven face, darkened by stubble as his immature beard was growing in.

'Watanabe-senpai, I chose a bad day to put off shaving...' He thought to himself, a frown stealing his lips from the harsh veil of indifference. 'I don't even know how that is bad luck, but it is as you said this morning, neglected hygiene brings ill-omens. And here I thought you were just some eccentric. Why am I thinking about this?!' Groaning in frustration, he squeezed his eyes shut picturing the lifeless eyes of his superior before opening them again.

Laying behind him in the mirror, he could see Watanabe's lifeless legs protruding out of the door to the back seat.

"Eno-san, we have been granted permission to send in a Tactical Assault Team. Please stand by for further instructions," the commissioner spoke once more, giving him the order to stay put.

"If I stay here, there is a possibility they'll escape," Takehide responded without a second's delay, clicking the one-way button before releasing it.

"You cannot go in there alone, Eno-san, it is too dangerous for even a Samurai peacekeeper, stay your hand. That is an order," the commissioner repeated his orders with an evermore stern tone.

Hearing the order, he went to drop the walkie onto the driver's seat as a breath of air hissed from his throat in anger, only to quickly catch it as he saw something in the window. A female was shoved right passed the door of the jewelry store that he and the late Sergeant were responding to.

Pressing the button on the side of the walkie, urgently shouted, "There are hostages inside!" He was making assumptions, but he was right to. The last he heard, the person who called the police had indeed been inside.

"What is their status?" The stern voice of his superior rang through the speaker.

"Currently being battered around with a blunt object, I'll get closer to get a better look!" Takehide responded in kind, knowing it was likely he'd be told to hold his ground once more. He just didn't want to do that.

"I repeat, do not leave your post!" Even as this order was issued, he had already dropped the walkie onto the front seat as intended moments ago.

With one hand on the dagger's grip, he quickly crept over towards the jewelry store. There were only windows in the front and on one side, on the left of the front door. His pouches bouncing and cuffs jingling as he moved, it didn't take him long to reach the wall in great stride.

Pressing his back against the wall of the compound, he gave his cruiser one last glance before sliding along the surface towards the front entrance. 'If they have guns my armor vest will come in handy, and if they have a knife, they'll have to go for a weak spot. Thank the spirits for this metal plate,' He gratefully thought to himself in a quest to enable himself in continuing the course of action he had chosen to take.

"And stay down! Bitch!" Growled the unknown assailant, followed up by the sound of a boot crashing against her ribs. Her fleshy body was picked up about a foot before coming right back down, bumping into a pair of chairs.

Staring at the reflection in the glass door, he watched as the masked man wandered off towards the backroom, vanishing from sight. When the moaning from the female hostage reached his ears, his eyes widened and he shrunk down into a crouch by the door to peer inside.

Glass from the display cases littered the ground like glitter, priceless pieces lay sewn throughout the floor, There was even a shattered jade vase laying in the center of the main exhibit.

As he was looking in, his sights set on the owner of the shop who was laying in a puddle of his own blood, along with his wife laying over top of his torso. A look of disgust crossed his face, "Who would kill them over this?" His eyes then fixated on the only remaining hostage as he stepped into the doorway to find no other assailants in the room. "Huh... There were six of them, right?"

Stalking onto the scene, he tried to remain hidden from the cameras, but he quickly found that their wires had been cut. So either way, it was useless to try being stealthy in that case. Hearing the crunch under his shoe, he watched as the girl's head immediately shot up.

"Sena-san?" He uttered in shock, completely frozen as he stood there in the light cast in through the doorway he stood in. "What are you doing here?" She didn't answer him as she moved in a pained manner, getting to her feet. 'What is this sense of despair?' His eyes narrowed on her warm brown eyes that didn't leave him the entire time she advanced. Flags were rising in his head, even the hair on the back of his neck was standing up. Right in front of him was his ex-girlfriend from before he had joined the academy.

"Takehide-san...? Ugh... Is that you?" Sena, a girl with brown hair and eyes stumbled forward, holding her side, her fingers slipping behind her back. "We have to get out of here before they get back..."

"Sena-san, why are yo–" Feeling her press herself into his chest, Takehide raised his arms as he was completely caught off guard. 'Is she hurt?' Before he could check her or do anything, he heard the sound of a weapon being drawn from the back of her blue jeans. He only had enough time to contort his face as he saw the glimmer of the weapon just as she stuck him under the arm with it.

That is when it dawned on him, 'she was trying to kill me!'

A sharp pain pang throughout Takehide's body, a blade embedded under his right arm, his entire body trembled at the cold steel that embraced his ribs. "You're not getting away with this..." He muttered as his legs were beginning to loosen up beneath him.

A grimacing frown on his lips as she grasped one hand upon the form of a small female holding the handle of the knife used to impale him. Her other arm was wrapped around his lower waist while her gaze was buried in his chest, refusing to look him in the eye. It was his ex-girlfriend, the girl he left prior to joining the police force. She was always adamant of China regaining its independence that it had lost over seventy years ago. Now she was parading around with a bunch of crooks, at least that is what it seemed like.

The world felt so cold and empty as his sight became blurred, the young police officer could hardly see the shattered glass that littered the ground of the jewelry store.

"It didn't have to be this way..." The woman's voice called to him in a mumble, "You should've just looked the other way, Takehide-senpai." Finally looking up at him were two warm brown eyes, "You just had to get in the way... You know, I would've given you another chance once China was free again."

"Ah..." Takehide dropped to his knees, the girl following him to the ground as his only support. "And here... I once thought you were just some shy bookworm," a faint chuckle escaped his throat as if he pitied himself. "So you... You're a revolutionary, huh...?"

"You really shouldn't underestimate people, Senpai." The girl muttered as she twisted and broke off the blade of the knife between his ribs with a fulfilling snap sound. "Even followers of the Bishudo like you... Aren't invincible."

"Sena-san," he muttered as his hand hanging by his side grasped the sheathed tanto at his hip.

"Hm?" Her warm brown eyes remained on him as she ran her hand through her short black hair.

"Don't let your guard... Down..." Painfully bringing her into a bitter embrace with one arm, he drew the dagger in a single swift action and slashed the blade across her abdomen. A thick scent of blood rose up to separate them as if pushing the one known as Sena onto her back.

"Nnnngh..." Dropping the handle of the knife she had used, Sena gripped at her stomach, frantically attempting to stop the bleeding. "You... Asshole..."

Sighing sorely, his lips twitching, Takehide was losing feeling in his legs and he was half-blind. Blood was oozing down his side, decorating his kevlar armor with beautiful crimson, from the subclavian artery being severed. On his knees, he fell against the wall a few inches away and rested his head against its cold unfeeling structure.

"Takehide-senpai..." Murmured Sena, her hues locked on him as she lay there with her hands on her stomach. "That was... Playing dirty..." With those final words, the girl lost consciousness.

"I was only being... Honest," Takehide closed his eyes as he could feel the cold embracing his limbs first. His heartbeat was slowing down as was the circulation of his blood. His fingers felt like rocks, a death grip on the blade in his hand.

"Ah... Shit!" Growled a man who came out of the backroom seeing the woman and the officer bleeding out. "We have to get out of here boys! One of you grab Sena, we need to get her out of here!"

Takehide's gaze raised to look at the blurry human male who was marching towards him with a broad looking weapon in his hand. 'Am I going to be beaten to death? Or put out of my mercy?'

The man knelt down and carefully slipped the weapon out of Takehide's iron grasp, by keeping his fingers on the dull faces of the blade. "You won't be needing this, Imperial Police-san. A samurai has no place in the free state of China," a smug chuckle escaped his lips as he toyed with the weapon between his fingers.

"Mmm..." Takehide groaned as his condition was plummeting, he cursed them in the back of his mind, 'Just get it done and over with...' Gritting his teeth, he wasn't exactly expecting what happened next, feeling his own blade being plunged into the side of his neck and out the other. Without time to even close his eyes, he slid forward along the wall as his body collapsed onto the ground, face planting into shattered glass from the broken display cases.

From white to black, Takehide was pretty sure he was dead or dying. The sirens of the police coming to the scene were becoming faint, but the pain was already gone. It was as if he was floating on clouds and he was quite sure he was smiling in death.

'So this is death... Shallow darkness with nothing but an unsettling calm. It would be nice if there were some cherry blossoms.' His thoughts seemed to echo in this place where he was. A strange sense of loneliness overcame him. 'How disappointing...'

Like the feeling of being taken by the undertow of the ocean tide, a golden light invaded his thoughts. 'What is this?!' Panic immediately came over him only for the peaceful darkness to end. His arms, his legs, he could feel them all again! As if he had been tossed into the air by a few feet, he then faceplanted upon a floor made of cold stone bricks, a strange greenish-blue light breaking through his eyelids.