By Richard Palmer

Lilly Kane was just finishing cleaning the eating area of the restaurant. She knew she didn’t need this job; her brother Billy made enough money for both of them. Still she enjoyed keeping busy. She sighed as she finished wiping off the tabletops. Billy always seemed to be looking out for her, sometimes overly so. He had used his position as one of the most respected men in Southtown to get her this job. She had of course argued with him that she was perfectly able of doing it herself, but Billy just smiled and said it was one less thing to bother with. She wasn’t completely oblivious to Billy’s job in Geese Howard’s crime syndicate, everyone in Southtown was aware of it. Although she didn’t really like the fact Her brother was a criminal; she learned to live with it.

She felt the locket around her neck, a gift from her father. The locket always reminded her of how important family was. After her parent’s untimely death, Billy put all his effort into making sure she was all right. Billy didn’t care what he had to do as long as his sister was okay, and that’s how Billy’s life of crime began.

All of the sudden she heard a click from behind her. She turned around expecting to see Judy, the manager. She barely had time to see who the person behind her was before the gun went off. As she hit the ground she struggled to stay conscious, fighting to scream for help, anything. The man who shot her quickly walked over to her body and grabbed her locket. As he yanked it off of her neck she saw the scar that ran down the right side of his face. His long dark hair was pulled back into a ponytail that seemed to flow around his shoulders. She blacked out before she could recognize any other distinguishing marks.

The man got up and turned to the door, when he suddenly heard someone come out from the back room. "Lilly, is everything alright? I thought I heard…" The large woman stopped as she saw this tall man with the gun. She had little time to react as he lifted the weapon and fired at her several times. She collapsed to the ground, wincing in pain. The majority of the shots seemed to have hit her left arm. She stumbled to her feet as she grabbed the shotgun beneath the counter with her right. As she stood up the man was no longer there. She looked around before she noticed the other employees looking on at the whole scene in fear. "Well, don’t just stand there," she yelled, "call an ambulance!"

As the man ran down the street He accidentally bumped into another large man, nearly knocking him down. Ryuji Yamazaki stumbled for a second before he yelled out "Watch where you’re going you dimwitted punk!" The man turned and Gave Yamazaki the finger before he continued down the street. Yamazaki was about to follow, and surly teach this moron a lesson, when he recognized the man’s face. "Hey," he thought, "I know that guy. Where do I know that guy?" he continued to ponder the question before he shrugged and continued down the street.