Chapter Two
The wandering souls meet

"Bounty Number Seven, Fallen Demon.  Wanted for the Class A crime of
flight beneath Zalem and destruction of Factory property.  Bounty:
100,000 Chips.  Identifiable markings: Natural Human, Gaping hole in
chest," a young girl, her appearance being that of someone barely
fourteen, reads aloud from a small scrap of paper she holds in her
metallic hands.  She looks up from the paper in disbelief and speaks,
"You've got to be kidding!"
"I'm afraid not," a metallic creature, similar in form to the Netman,
replies.  "We have a video recording from Netman Nine showing that
Bounty Number Seven was indeed shot through the chest and yet stood up
again."
"Whatever," the girl replies.  "It doesn't matter if he's flesh and
blood or iron and steel, his head is mine!" she announces grimly.  She
then runs off, her brown trenchcoat flapping as she goes.  She quickly
builds speed, launching into the air in an increadible acrobatic
display.
The girl flips through the air gracefully, landing on a slanted
rooftop perfectly.  Her leather clad boots clang against pipes and
metal roofs as she continues forward, jumping across houses,
displaying her incredible agility and speed as she nears her target.
"The Angel is on the hunt again tonight," an old man remarks as he
watches the young girl fling through the sky.  "And may God have mercy
on her prey."

The man known as Naotaki sways from side to side as he tries to reach
something familiar.  Something he knows that he can latch on to and
reclaim some of what he has lost.  So far, he has gained nothing.
He wanders the streets of the unfamiliar city, wary and cautious
around the inhabitants.  He is alone, wounded in mind if not body, and
in despair.  He halts his uneven progress, and slumps against the side
of a concrete building, clutching at his head in agony.
His eyes burst red with blood as his mind is assaulted by images,
flashes of memories, sounds, emotions, and colors which he does not
recognize.  Naotaki falls to the ground, his hands pounding against
the concrete, gouging chunks out of them as he trembles in the
greatest agony of all…  Confusion.
"Kain…"
"I don't…"
"You were…"
"She loves someone…"
"The ultimate…"
"End it now…"
"See you on the other…"
The images and sounds piece together, becoming more coherent.  For a
single moment, everything returns to him.  He remembers everything.
He can think of a memory, focus on it, and remember for a
split-second, but it slips away, clouded in haziness.
He returns to his feet, glancing around at the people walking about,
trying to live their lives without incident.  No one notices him, and
if they do, they choose to ignore him.  Apathy is the basis of life in
this monstrous city, and it takes more then a scream to attract
attention.  Naotaki wanders into the flow of people, following the
crowd in hopes of finding himself.

The young girl jumps across large mountains of wreckage, never
faltering as she closes in on her objective.  Her mind has become
enriched in the flow of adrenaline, focused only on the hunt, only on
the kill.  She lives for moments like these, lives for the thrill of
the chase, the feel of the wind against her face and the gleam of
metal in her eyes.  These precious moments are the only times she
feels truly alive, real and whole, with a purpose and an identity.
She arrives at her destination, skidding across the scrap-metal valley
with grace.  Her eyes, cold and black, scan the ground for
information.  Something to lead her to her prey's current whereabouts.
 She finds nothing, however.  Like all things in the city, the scene
has been covered, a new layer of wreckage covers over the old.  She
sighs, the blood-rage leaving her.
"He left, miss," she hears a voice say.
The girl turns around, blade in hand where none had been a moment ago,
confronting the voice.  She then lowers the weapon as she sees the
owner of the voice is no threat.  An old man, one eye covered by a
metal replacement, a cracked lens for a pupil, staring back at her
with a smile on his withered face.
"What do you want?" she asks, her facial expression softening somewhat.
"It's what you want, Miss," the old man replies.  "You've come for
your brother, the Fallen Angel."
"What are you talking about?  I'm looking for the man found here
yesterday."
"Yes, yes, the Fallen Angel.  I saw him come down.  I even touched his
heavenly body," the old man tells the girl, his one real eye alit with
eagerness.  "His fall from heaven was too great, though, and he
collapsed from the strain.  That's when the doctor got him."
"What doctor?"
"I don't know his name.  All I know is that he took the Fallen Angel
to the warehouse district in the Eastern Sector."
"Thank you, kind sir," the girl says, reaching into a pocket in her
trench coat and pulling out a small circular object.  She places it in
the old man's hands and smiles.  "Take care of yourself," she tells
him before jumping away at enormous speeds again.
"No, thank you, Miss Angel.  I hope you see your brother soon."

The crowd of people thins as night falls over the city, allowing
Naotaki to move about more comfortably.  The night was apparently his
element. He feels at peace in the dark streets, the shadows only
occasionally pierced by neon signs and floodlights.
He walks across the cold metal sidewalks brimming with curiosity.
Very little of what he sees is familiar and what is familiar seems out
of place.  A young woman wearing little clothing walks up to him,
moving in a seductive fashion.  He is not interested with her, though.
 Pleasure can not ease his pain.
"I can make you feel wonderful, honey," the women purrs at Naotaki,
lust and greed evident in her voice.  "It won't cost you that much
either."
"Go away," Naotaki tells her, his eyes staring ahead unflinchingly.
"Come on, lover.  Don't you want to have fun?" she asks, unwilling to
give in.
"NO!" Naotaki screams, turning to face her.  His cold blue eyes stare
straight into her brown eyes and sparks literally fill the air.
He grabs the woman, who is now shrieking with fright, by the shoulders
and flings her into a pile of garbage nearby.  "I don't want fun!  I
want to know!" he yells out to the night sky.  The sparks increase in
intensity, shooting out and destroying chunks of concrete and metal as
he rants about.
People duck and hide, mad with fear, hoping to avoid the strange man's
rage.  Naotaki has attained a level few before had in the city.  He's
attained notoriety.  The people actually care about what he does.
Even in the madness of his pyrotechnics display, the rumors run rampant.
"Is this the same man who destroyed a Netman yesterday?" a young man
wearing sunglasses asks.
"I saw him.  It is!" a woman replies, barely avoiding one of the
sparks as she dodges her head to the side.
"Why is he doing this, then?" a third asks, blood streaming from a
wound on his arm.
"Some evil force must have invaded his mind, driving him mad!" the
woman answers, her eyes wild with excitement.
"Then what do we do?" the young man asks.
"We can do nothing!" a new voice tells them.  The trio look up and see
an old man with a metallic eye, standing unprotected amongst the
sparks cast by Naotaki.  He does not seem to care about the danger,
his interest lies solely on the three, as he speaks.  "However, the
Angel will be here soon and when she is reunited with her brother, the
violence will stop and we shall be saved!"
"You're insane, old man!" the young man spits out.  "There are no
angels here!  Nothing can save us!"
"Get down, duck, before he hurts you too!" the wounded man shouts,
motioning to the old man  with his good arm.
"But he's right!  The Angel is on her way.  The Angel of Death!" the
woman announces, pointing at a speck in the sky.

The "speck" becomes more defined as it comes closer, becoming a young
woman wearing a black, skin-tight leather jumpsuit, brown leather
boots, and a brown trenchcoat, jumping through the air at tremendous
speeds.  Her face is smooth and beautiful, marred only by two chrome
streaks, one on each cheek, directly below her eyes.  Her features,
despite the appearance of youth, are hardened and strong.  She is a
woman ready for battle, made doubly noticeable by the blade she
carries in her gloved hand.
The woman lands gracefully, then flings her body forward in a roll,
heading straight for Naotaki.  He does not notice this, however, being
too caught up in his mental torment to be bothered, and her roll
becomes ineffectual by the mere act of ignorance.
The woman does not give up, though.  As she rolls past Naotaki, she
unfolds her body and kicks out, jabbing the screaming man in the
stomach with her heavy feet.
Naotaki falls to the ground, clutching his stomach in surprise.  The
electricity arcing through the air stops suddenly, nullified by
reality.  It is only a momentary reprieve, though, as Naotaki stands
back up and focuses his attentions on the young woman.  "What do you
want?"
"Your head!" is all she says in reply as she sweeps at his neck with
her blade.
Naotaki counters the blade with his arm, using his abilities to harden
its density.  The blade contacts his arm just before the elbow…  And
slices clean through.
Blood spews out in great torrents as Naotaki stares at his severed
limb with shock.  For a moment, he recalls a bit of his past, but
loses it as the woman's blade jabs into his chest.  He brings his feet
up and plants them against the woman's chest, shoving her away.  He
then grabs the blade still in his chest and throws it to the ground.
"You're starting to get on my nerves, little girl.  Now cut this out
before you make me mad," he declares with annoyance.  He looks at his
severed limb, concentrating with all his might, and the steadily
bleeding wound closes up.  Shortly afterward, the remaining flesh on
his arm stretches out and forms into a long sword.
"I don't care!" the woman yells back as she stands back up.  "You're a
criminal and your head is mine!" she declares, leaping forward to
attack again. The man dodges out of the way and swings his blade-arm
out, cutting through her trenchcoat and into her right arm as she
flies by.  The woman shouts out in shock, then tumbles to the ground
in an attempted roll.  She can not stop her momentum, however, and she
collides with a pile of trash.
The man walks up to the woman and reaches out with his remaining hand
in a symbol of peace.  "Give up yet?" he asks her with a smile on her
face.  "I mean, you're good and all, but I don't want to hurt you."
The girl grits her teeth and prepares to strike out at the man with a
deadly punch, but realizes she can not since her arm has also been
severed.  She looks up at Naotaki with confusion in her eyes, "I don't
understand," she tells him.  "You're a criminal."
"Maybe I am, maybe I'm not.  I don't really remember actually," he
replies.  "However, if you're talking about the same thing that weird
robot thing was, I didn't fly.  I fell.  In fact…" his words are cut
short as a blade rips into his back.  He turns, only to be sliced at
with another blade.  Naotaki falls forward, blood streaming from a
dozen wounds, and lands against the trash in a heap.
"Guess I get the bounty this time, Gally," a man remarks as he cuts
into Naotaki's prone form with two long, jagged knives.  He smiles in
obvious glee, his metal arms moving quickly and efficiently, cleaving
the knives across Naotaki's body.
"I found him first, Deck.  He's mine!" the woman yells.  With that,
she jumps up from the trash and swings at the man with her remaining
arm.  He dodges to the side and brings one of his knives down on her
back, cutting into her metallic flesh.  She screams and falls to the
ground.
"Guess this is my lucky day.  I get the bounty for a change, and I get
the prettiest hunter's head for myself!" the knife-wielding maniac
announces joyfully.  He bends down to claim his new prize, drool
dripping from his mouth.
"I'd suggest you keep your filthy hands off of that lady, punk!" a
strong, harsh voice declares.  The maniac looks up and sees Naotaki,
wounded yet standing, ready for a fight.
"You're just prey, boy," the maniac responds.  "Wait your turn."
"I don't want to," Naotaki replies, shoving his blade-arm into the
man's stomach.  The man staggers back, surprised for a moment, then
starts laughing again.  He lunges forward, preparing to strike… when
the girl gets back up.
"I said leave him alone, Deck," the woman says angrily.  She reacts to
the situation quickly, knocking the maniac away with her arm.  He
skids across the hard metal ground, sparks scattering around as his
hard-metal body grinds against the street.  He returns to his feet,
only to be knocked down again.
The girl plants her hand against the ground and pushes her body toward
the maniac, smashing a foot into the man's head.  The force of her
kick is so strong that the man's head is completely disconnected from
his shoulders.  The decapitated body twitches for a moment, then falls
to the ground like a broken scarecrow, blood flowing like a river from
the jagged remains of his neck.
The woman makes a graceful flip in the air and lands between the dead
body and Naotaki.  She kicks at the corpse, then speaks at it with
disgust, "Nobody takes my bounties, Deck.  Remember that… in your next
life."
Naotaki loses his strength again, forcing him to lean against the pile
of trash for support.  He regards his situation with cold blue eyes,
the dead man, the young woman, and the wounds he's sustained.  He
tries to focus on healing, but his mind is too cluttered.  His blade
arm retracts, becoming a stump again, then the wound begins to reopen
and the pain returns.  He focuses his eyes on the powerful young
woman, speaking with ragged breaths, "Gee, I thought I was a criminal
to be beheaded, not defended."
The woman turns and looks back at Naotaki, a childish smirk on her
face.  "You defended me, I defended you.  If that's what you're
thinking, you're wrong.  I only saved you because you're my bounty…
And I want to figure out exactly what you are before I take your
head," she explains flatly, traces of both truth and lies evident in
her voice.
"Sure you do," Naotaki says, his voice reeking of sarcasm.  "I'd like
to know too, but so far, answers haven't been forthcoming.  These
wounds aren't doing me any good either.  Think you can get me to a
doctor before you make up your mind on whether to kill me or not?"
"I saw you heal before.  Just do it again," the girl points out.
"I can't.  It takes a lot of concentration to heal.  That's something
I don't have a lot of right now," Naotaki explains.
The girl stares at Naotaki for a moment, then quietly whispers to
herself, "I can't believe I'm doing this."  She smiles and offers her
only hand to him, which he takes with his only hand.  "Come on.  I
know a good doctor who can help you out."
"Thanks.  I appreciate that," Naotaki replies thankfully.  "By the
way, my name's Naotaki.  Naotaki Hakubi."
"I'm Gally.  But…  Naotaki's too long of a name.  Here, you'll be
Noru.  It means 'Dark Wanderer'.  Besides, when it gets out that
Naotaki's your name, you won't be able to hide from the Factory."
"Thank you, Gally.  It fits me," the man once known as Naotaki, now
Noru, replies, smiling at the implied friendship.
"Don't get too comfortable with it.  As soon as I figure things out,
your head is mine," the girl tells him, frowning half-heartedly.
"You're a very violent little girl, you know that?"
Gally smiles, looking deep into Naotaki's eyes.  "I'm not a little
girl."
"Yeah, I noticed that," Naotaki answers.  He looks around for a
moment, then down at his bleeding body and asks, "This doctor isn't
too far away, is he?"
"Not at all.  It's just a few kilometers from here."
"That close, huh?" Naotaki groans.
"Stop complaining or I'll take your head right now," Gally tells him,
leading him though the barren streets.

Neither Gally nor Naotaki notice the old man shouting frantically as
they walk away.  His one eye gleams with insight only he knows, as he
announces to the night, "The time has come!  The Angels are together
now!  Zalem beware the wrath of the Angels!"