<b>Re: Tears of Scarlet, Chapter 1: The End</b><br/><br/>In hindsight, there were many ways in which she could have done this. Ways that wouldn't have put her in the situation she was in now. How did that saying go?<i>Passion negates rational</i>? Touma always thought that the saying was complete and utter bull, up until she found herself a victim of passion. Had she been thinking clearly, she would have just done the logical thing and tried to get a job with Jojo like most of the normal people in Endsville did. They were the biggest employer, they paid well, and with her parents as recommendations, it wouldn't have been that hard to secure a job there.<br/><br/>But her curiosity got the better of her. She wanted to know things, she had to know things. It became an obsession, a needless thirst for answers that could only be quenched when they were found.<br/><br/>Some good<i>that</i>ended up doing her. Here she stood in the office of someone called Mister Sir - what the hell kind of name was that anyway - who made it clear that she would have been killed already if they hadn't thought her to be useful in some way. Jojo he must have meant. Honestly, there were a lot of things about her current position that she didn't understand.<br/><br/>The last thing she remembered, she jumped off the back of the transport that she boarded and tried to sneak into the restricted area's of the wall. Then, she remembered a black bag being pulled off of her head and being escorted here in this office.<br/><br/>Now, this man she had never seen before was telling her that she had a code name and handing her a gun. Paycheck? Failure meant death? Mission equipment? Briefing? Practice? The conversation was one sided, mostly because she could only make out every other word in between the sound of her heart pounding in her ears. Questions? If she asked all of the questions that were running through her mind right now, they would be here until this time next week in a most exasperating question and answer session that she was certain would result in her being murdered by the man out of sheer annoyance.<br/><br/>Touma shook her head numbly.<br/><br/>Her chocolate brown eyes slowly looked down at case in her hands. She knew that the pistol that he had been holding was inside of it. It held two shots. Silenced. Extra pay for returning with one bullet left in the gun? Pay for what? What mission? What the hell was happening here? What else was in the case she was holding? She definitely needed to get out of the office and some place where she could think in peace. Some place where this questionably named Mister Sir wasn't. He said he would brief her in two hours. And that she could practice if she needed. Practice handling the fire arm? This was the first time she ever held a gun in her life, much less seen a pistol like this one.<br/><br/>"None," she barely managed to say.<br/><br/>For now, she was at the mercy of Jojo, of Mister Sir, and whatever the hell Godiver turned out to be.