Kira Lancer

Saturday, 20th March 2049, 2:50 PM

Today Noah had left school early after taking Alice home. He vaguely gave an excuse and left. A few days ago he had decided to look for someone and yesterday he was sent her location.

Standing against the wall next to the entrance of a high school, Noah wore a dark green velvet tracksuit with a minimum colourful design. He held his phone and seemed to be waiting for someone.

Acting inconspicuously, he turned to look into the school. It was much larger than the one he was going to with Alice. It had an increasingly long path leading to a building, trees lining both sides. The school day had ended and students walked along the path in groups.

Moved back to stand against the wall, he lowered his head, his face was covered by a black mask and hidden by a black hat, He further wore the hood of his tracksuit to hide himself further.

A few girls stopped and looked at him. Noah looked up and saw that they recognised him, he lowered his mask and put his finger on his lips and winked, asking them not to tell anyone. One of the girls seeing it was actually him let out a screech then quickly covered her mouth. Apologising she waved and moved away.

Noah looked back at his phone, before he knew it quite a few people had stopped nearby. They had just generally stopped and started talking. A few were even staring at him as if he looked familiar. Noah didn't mind too much, staying casual trying not to attract attention.

A girl walked up near to him, Noah looked in her direction and saw her face fill with shock and excitement.

"Can I take a picture with you?" The girl asked.

"Sure." Noah bent in a little and had his hand hover around her. Pulling his mask down they took a photo and left, saying thank you.

Another girl walked up as if she was in a line and gave him her phone, he took a photo with her and gave it back.

"I've been you're fan ever since I saw that video of you saving that child from collapsing building." The girl excitedly said.

Noah nodded. When he had volunteered to work in emergency relief services to escape from the clutches of his father, he had gone to Country C to help to deal with the 9.4 magnitude Earthquake. Videos of him helping survivors had gone viral, where a particular one of him running out of a building holding a child as it collapsed in the background was the most popular.

Such videos had increased his fan base further, even though he had he was quitting.

"Are the rumours true that you're never going to act again?" The girl asked.

"They aren't rumours," Noah answered while looking up, he saw a girl with short redish hair exit from the school gate and go in the opposite direction.

"Sorry, I have to go now, nice meeting you." with a smiled he ran after the girl.

The girl was listening to music as she walked. She had a bag on her back and a larger one in her hand. She walked through the crowd going towards a shiny black car parked waiting for her.

Catching up, Noah put his hand on her shoulder and pulled her to look at him. The girl was surprised to have someone grab her she grabbed the arm about to throw him to the ground when she noticed she saw the greyish blue eyes under the black hat.

Noah lowered his mask, "It's been a while Kira, how about we sit down and have some coffee." Pointing with his other hand towards the cafe across the street,

The girl pulled out the beads in her ears and released his arm, "You're paying."

...

In the cafe, Noah walked holding two drinks towards a table near the window. Kira sat with her hands crossed looking outside.

Putting the drinks on the table he sat down. Kira sipped her drink and stared at Noah wondering what he had to say to her. It was obvious to her that he was going to talk about Alice. Alice was the connecting point between the two, but she hadn't seen Alice for four years now, so that was old news.

"I didn't tell Alice that I was coming to meet you," Noah said putting his cup down.

Kira smiled with disdain, "Oh? Why didn't you?"

"I want to know why you cut contact with Alice four years ago," Noah said seriously. Kira was Alice's childhood best friend. Alice had met Kira before she had even met Noah. The two were closer than sisters and were always there for each other.

In the two years, he had been contacting Alice through video calls, Alice had gotten closer to Kira after he had left. She would spend most of her time with Kira since he wasn't there anymore.

Noah knew Kira well, she wasn't someone to leave without saying goodbye. She had been in the same martial arts centre he was going to as a child and was even his training partner. She had a strong self-consciousness and would never abandon Alice just after she had been orphaned.

"There wasn't any reason, my family moved away suddenly and I didn't have time to say goodbye," Kira said calmly looking straight at Noah,

Noah could tell she was lying but didn't dig any deeper, that was enough for him. He nodded, "Fair enough, I'm worst than you since I didn't even know about her parent's deaths." he said with self-deprecation, "She suffered for four years and was close to killing herself... I won't be able to live the guilt down but as Alice's family, the last thing I will do is leave her alone."

He saw the expression he was hoping for, Kira couldn't hide the concern and guilt on her face. "That's all in the past now, she's fine now but having more people around her will do her better."

Taking out an envelope from his pocket he put it in front of Kira, "This is an invite to the surprise birthday party I'm planning for Alice, It was only going to be the two of us for the whole day but if you want to join, this has the location and time, I'm sure you know the date."

Noah then got up saying one final thing, "I'm sure you know Alice well enough to know whether she wants to see you again."

Turning around and leaving, he had said his piece. Noah could tell Kira was avoiding Alice out of guilt. It seemed like her parents had forced her away from Alice, similar to his own, which was why she had given up on trying to meet her.

After he had gotten the letter written by his Father-In-Law he understood that things were complicated. His father had already investigated the people who were involved with Alice's parents and found out it was a secret society made of rich and powerful people related to the underworld.

All the people in the society had hands in shady businesses and crimes. They had multiple identities from social figures, royalty and politicians as a front but were pulling strings behind closed doors and manipulating countries from behind.

Alice's parents had gotten on the bad side of such people, in a private school where all the parents of students were near the top of society, they were able to find out the significance behind her parent's death. This was why everyone in school had stopped talking to her. Even Kira's parents had Kira transfer so she wouldn't be able to stay close to Alice.

As for Noah, he knew that his parents wouldn't have stopped him unless his life was in danger. Being so close to Alice would make him a target, but would also make Alice a target. By portraying her as a poor girl abandoned by her parents the enemy had left Alice alone. If she had the support of Noah and his family she would likely be taken hostage or his entire family would be pulled into the fight between the Underworld Society and Alice's parents.

This was why father-in-law wanted Noah to stay away. Also why his parents had hidden the truth from him, they knew if Noah found out about Anderson and Lillian's death he would do whatever it takes to go to Alice. What they hadn't expected was Noah to act out so much on suspicion.

Time had passed now and Alice wasn't watched anymore since the Eternal Battlefield, which was the target of the Underworld Society had officially opened.

He didn't want Kira to continue to avoid Alice out of guilt. Alice had never told him directly but whenever Kira's name was brought up, he could tell she missed Kira.

Meeting Kira today, he was sure the feelings were mutual. Other than him, his parent's and Alice's parents, Kira was the closest person to being Alice's family. Alice needed someone like Kira close to her in case anything ever happened to him.

Noah just wanted the best for Alice and have her live the happiest life she could

...

After Noah left, Kira stayed unmoving twirling the cup in her hand staring at the liquid in it spinning. She thought about what Noah said and looked at the envelope he placed in front of her.

'Alice's birthday isn't for a while, you came this early just so I can have enough time to rethink my decision enough times, to the point I'll just go see her.' Kira picked up the envelope putting the cup down and walked out.

She was familiar with how Noah worked. His mind was divided into two halves: Alice and everything else. So when he came to see her he didn't come out of pure intentions, he had already decided to have her reunite with Alice. Primarily for the reason that Alice would have reliable people around her.

Walking into her car, she sat in the back putting the envelope away.

Noah didn't remember her, but she actually met him earlier than Alice did. They had been partners at a martial arts centre when they were younger. Noah had sparred with her and taken her down easily. At the time she had a crush on him, but then the next thing she knew was that he transferred into the same school as Alice and her as Alice's finance.

Her crush had ended a long time ago, now she was only a fan of Noah in the martial arts community. She had even seen him in the Olympics, although didn't get to directly talk to him. But compared to Noah, Alice was more important to her.

In her head, she had always imagined Alice as a friend for life, so when her parents separated her she was shocked. She couldn't fight back against her parents and took out her frustration through martial arts. She had tried to get in contact with Noah and see if he knew anything about Alice but he would never respond.

The guilt of leaving Alice alone had haunted her, she had lacked the courage to go back and meet her after leaving.

'I knew I would meet her again one day, but I didn't think I would see her so soon.' Kira thought looking out the window.