A fateful recollection

"I'm surprised those two showed up," Mimi said as she and Rika walked through the halls.

"Come to think of it, I don't know too much about your spy life," Rika stated.

"Well most of its top secret anyway so no worries," Mimi smiled.

As the two neared the elevator, the elevator opened to reveal a menacing figure clad in a dark black cloak standing in it. Mimi and Rika froze as the figure lifted his head up to reveal his frighting face. His skin was dark green and the sides of his face and his chin were littered with horns. He also had menacing dark purple tattoos running covering his face.

"Oh, no. It's Murr Mantis," Mimi said as she went pale.

Murr Mantis simply smirked and lowed his hood, revealing his bald head and the large horns littering it. Most shockingly of all, six additional arms appeared from his back upon him ditching his cloak. Three of the six were cybernetic, while the other three appeared to be organic.

"Careful, that guy's been genetically modified," Mimi warned as she assumed a defensive position.

Four small plane propellers then appeared in the top two ad top bottom arms attached to Murr Mantis' back. They were then lit with electricity as they began spinning around rapidly. Murr Mantis then summoned a double bladed pole that appeared as though it was heated in his two front hands and began spinning it around as he charged at the girls. Rika readied her knife, but Mimi immediately yanked her away as Murr Mantis' pole burned a slash into the wall.

"That guy's double bladed weapon is like a heated knife. It'll melt through your ordinary kitchen knife, assuming his electric propellers don't shock and slice you first," Mimi warned.

"So you're saying I can't beat him?" Rika asked.

"YES I'M SAYING YOU CAN'T BEAT HIM! Marzi was the only one in the old team who could even hold this guy off!"

"Marzi? The old woman from back then?" Rika asked as Mimi continued to drag her away.

"Yes, though she was much stronger in her prime."

"Speaking of prime, I'm stronger than-"

"NO! Last time you thought you were tough, I ended up nearly dying to save you!"

"But-"

"Ri-chan!"

Rika stopped protesting and immediately thought back to the event that nearly killed Mimi.

9 years ago, March 2007...

A 10 year old Rika walked through the woods with Mimi as they searched for one of Mimi's old teammates, Vivi.

"Say, why are you kinda... depressed?" Mimi asked.

"Depressed?" Rika replied.

"Yeah, you don't look like you're enjoying yourself."

"Well, I guess it's more me realizing I'm bound to a fate I don't want. See, my family's a branch of an elite assassin family. My father's a terrifying and ambitious man and wants me to kill in order to raise his status to greater heights, but I honestly don't want to be a killer."

"You wanna be a spy right!?"

"Well, no. Honestly, I'd just prefer an ordinary career, but I don't even know what I'd choose, and even then, no way my father would allow it."

"Then just run away."

"If I could. My father or one of my bloodthirsty sisters would then hunt me down like prey."

"You have sisters?"

"Four of them, they're all sets of twins, one set older than me, and one set younger. I'm the 3rd of 5 children altogether so I really am the middle one."

"I've been in an orphanage until I decided to become a spy."

"I envy your positive demeanor."

"It's been a bit rattled these past few day- er, I guess it feels like it was just days to me," Mimi somberly smiled.

"I guess I can see why, you woke up in a foreign land and everyone you know might be gone or drastically different from how they were before."

"So that's why I gotta make new friends too, like you."

"And the optimism's back."

"And it's staying long enough for me to impart some words of wisdom as an- well uh do I qualify as an elder?"

"Sure, we'll say yes to make it easier on your brain."

"Then here's my wisdom. *Ahem* A good friend who confessed her feelings to me once said, "If you can't escape the chains of order, find a loophole to slip through.""

"So you're just copying the words of a friend."

"Hey! It applies to you!" Mimi pouted.

"Loophole huh? So you're saying I should try and find something my father would be OK with me doing instead of killing? No, he'll want me to do something where I could still kill- _! That's it! Mimi, your friend's a genius!"

"I mean, yeah she is. But I-"

"I just gotta say I'll get a job that would allow me to kill targets with ease, then just not kill. But what?"

"What are you good at?"

"Well, slicing things with knives, though due to my age and size, my technique is limited."

"But you took out that guy at the prison just fine."

"No, I was ordered to kill him as part of a job. I was originally supposed to get rid of one of those frozen guys and stuff the dead researcher in there. But since I'm still a kid, I ended up having to jump up to stab him in the back. Sure, I killed him, but it wasn't a clean kill with resulted in him stumbling into the control panel and unintentionally unfreeing you, though I'm kind of glad it did. I've really enjoyed my time with you Mimi."

"OH! Well still, it's impressive that you know how to use knives so well at your age. That's it! You should be a knife maker!"

"I'm good at USING knives, not making them."

"Then um, uh what jobs use knives besides killing. Oh, a butcher!"

"Nah, too much blood, I'd prefer something a little less bloody."

"Then, um just plain ole cooking?"

"Huh, maybe. No clue how good I am, but maybe it could work."

Mimi then noticed a woman in her mid to late 50s with violet and grey hair tied up in pigtails trembling by a campfire, and ran up to her as Rika watched from a distance.

"You may look older and wrinklier, but I know you're Vivi," Mimi smiled.

"MI- MIMI!?" Vivi gasped in shock.

"Why you so scared?"

"H- How!? Y- You were frozen!?"

"Wait, did you know I was frozen, then why- oh, you're too old now right?"

Vivi relaxed a bit and sheathed the knife she attempted to draw from her back pocket.

"You'd best leave then. I don't know how you found me, but leave. They will come for you too," Vivi trembled.

"Who?"

"The traitor! The one who wiped our team, the one who got us captured... AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Vivi began to hyperventilate as she began to suffer from her PTSD.

"Vivi! It's alright! I'M here! I'm alive!" Mimi attempted to comfort Vivi.

Suddenly, Rika turned to see an old woman in a business suit glaring at her. Without saying a word, she kicked Rika in the stomach and sent her flying towards Mimi and Vivi. Rika landed before them and winced in pain as the woman approached them.

"Well, it seems I've found you, traitor," the woman glared.

"MARZI!? You're an old woman!? Wait, what do you mean traitor!?" Mimi shouted.

"Vivi, she betrayed Denmark, though I guess you knew it as Danablu."

Mimi nervously turned to see Vivi with her knife drawn.

"W- Why?"

"I killed Sherry! I didn't want to, but I killed her! I KILLED HER! I KILLED HER! I KILLED HER! AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Vivi cried in pain.

"Vivi? You... killed Sherry?"

"I'M SORRY MIMI! I DIDN'T WANT TO, BUT I BETRAYED THE COUNTRY! SHERRY FOUND OUT, AND SHE WAS SO PATRIOTIC SHE FOUGHT ME, THEN I KILLED HER! I DIDN'T WANT TO! SHE CRIED TOO AND APOLOGIZED! MEI-SAMA ORDERED ME TO KILL YOU TOO, BUT I COULDN'T! I FROZE YOU INSTEAD! BUT I DIDN'T BETRAY TO HURT YOU! I WAS TOLD YOU'D ALL BEEN CAPTURED AND-"

Marzi cut Vivi off by clashing knives with her.

"Seems age hasn't dulled you, or perhaps age has degraded me to the point where a deranged treasonous wreck like you can pull somewhat even," Marzi glared.

"YOU'RE THE REAL TRAITOR! YOU CAUSED US TO GET AMBUSHED! I GOT CAPTURED AND WAS DECEIVED AND TORTURED BY MEI-SAMA!" Vivi shouted.

"I sold not one of you out! You inexperienced brats probably screwed up despite what Sherry claimed.

As Mimi stepped back in shock, a third party entered. It was a large namahage with a knife.

"LOOK-"

*Stab*

The Namahage had stabbed Marzi through the neck.

Mimi and Vivi both screamed in shock as Rika got up and tried to run off with Mimi.

"We've gotta go NOW! That guy's a top killer-"

Mimi had already grabbed Marzi's knife and was attacking the namahage.

"She's holding her ground!?" Rika thought as she watched the fight.

Vivi immediately ran off, as Mimi delivered a nasty slash on the namahage's left arm, leg and the left side of his neck. The namahage immediately limped away as Rika's eyes widened.

"No way, no one's ever been able to even scratch that guy. How?" Rika asked as Mimi leapt into the air and stabbed the naahage through the neck.

"So I can't fly with my hands," the Namahage growled as he coughed up blood and fell to the ground dead.

"Now let's see who you are- huh? The namahage mask isn't coming off," Mimi said as she tried to pull her slain foe's Namahage mask off.

"This might sound crazy, but I'm pretty sure he's a real namahage, or at the least genetically modified to be a namahage. He's an infamous hitman from the underworld that only kills publicly on the Ides of March, but kills in secret all year round. I had never seen anyone land a scratch on him, though I never saw him spar with people like my father or uncle," Rika stated.

"Huh, well I've seen crazier guys and even a few cyborgs so no biggie. Though, Vivi ran off."

"Oh I can catch someone like her easy. Least I can do for all you've done for me," Rika smiled as she gave chase.

"Wait! Why are you so confident!? Vivi's strong!" Mimi cried as she ran after her.

                                                                              ...

As Mimi and Rika chased after Vivi, Rika suddenly stopped as she froze and stared at the woman walking towards them. The woman was merely out for a stroll, though that wouldn't have seemed obvious due to her being clad in a business suit and dress shoes. Her short slicked hair was a putrid dark green and looked as though someone had smeared sludge on her head with a spatula. Though her most defining features were her demonic beauty despite not wearing any makeup, along with her calm and professional smile.

"And why is a young girl like you running around with a sharp knife?" the woman sneered as she gazed at Rika.

Rage and hatred immediately boiled up in Rika's eyes as she charged at the woman.

"Ri-chan! Why are you-"

"SHE'S AN INHUMAN DEMON! I'LL NEVER FORGIVE HER FOR MAKING ME COMMIT SUCH AN ATROCITY!" Rika shouted as she pulled out a lighter and set her knife ablaze.

The woman smiled as she countered easily with a jagged hunting knife she pulled out of her suit coat. She effortlessly threw Rika back towards the face of a steep cliff. Rika managed to jab her knife into the cliff side and prepared to leap back up, but unbeknownst to her, the woman wanted her to do that.

"RI-CHAN DON'T!" Mimi shouted.

*SLASH*

"Why?" Rika tearfully muttered as she gazed at the woman's demonically deranged smile, and Mimi's bloodied body falling towards her.

"MIMI!" Rika shouted as she caught the bloodied Mimi and fell with her to the forest below.

The woman's calm demeanor returned as she shook the blood off her knife, sheathed it, and continued on her walk. She then looked at her suit coat, took it off and began burning parts of it, presumably to erase traces of Mimi's blood.

Meanwhile, Rika managed to fall with Mimi to the ground safely by using her assassin techniques. She then laid Mimi on the ground and stared in horror. In on slash, the woman had crudely sliced Mimi's stomach along with some of her internal organs. Had Mimi not used a defensive technique, she might have ended up sliced in half.

"MIMI NO! YOU CAN'T DIE!" Rika tearfully shouted.

"You... are... dumb... become...a sexy... hot spy... or chef... for me," Mimi tearfully smiled as blood flooded out of her lips.

"NO! YOU WERE JUST UNFROZEN! _!"

Rika immediately ripped Mimi's skirt and used it as a makeshift bandage. She then mustered all her strength and picked Mimi up before vanishing. Rika worked her body to it's limit as she leapt through the air faster than the eye could see as she headed for the cryogenics place where she had originally freed Mimi unintentionally from cold sleep.

The original mission Rika had been given was simply to kill someone who had begun to learn too much and get rid of some incriminating evidence at the cryogenics lab. On the day of the mission, the target discovered the existence of a room supposedly containing frozen former world leaders. Rika was surprised to see the target in the place where she was told to get rid of some evidence and decided to kill him there on the fly. Rika successfully killed him, but due to her small size at the time and, she had to leap up to deliver a clean stab to the back. This ended up not killing the target instantly, allowing him to stumble away towards a vat containing Mimi and unintentionally unfreeze her as his head miraculously hit the control panel and correctly entered the code needed to free her. Upon Mimi being freed, she easily overpowered the startled Rika and mistook her for a spy. Rika then fled, but was caught by Mimi, but instead of fighting, the two ended up bonding. However, the blunder also led to the public finding out about the secret room and naturally, the police to find out about the murdered researcher. As such, the cryogenics lab was crawling with police and some lingering paparazzi when Rika returned with Mimi.

By the time they arrived, Mimi's blood soaked into Rika's hair, giving it a crimson coloring. Rika's face was also covered in Mimi's blood as well. Even though she ran faster than the eye could see, she was forced to stop in front of the empty vat Mimi had been in. Everyone immediately gasped as Rika and an injured Mimi suddenly appeared. Rika frantically put Mimi in the vat and began smacking the control panel frantically.

"Who are you!? Wait that's-"

"SAVE HER!" Rika shouted as she pointed a knife at a researcher whom was nearby.

The researcher nodded and began tapping away at the control panel as Mimi breathed heavily and police began to surround Rika. Rika didn't care and kept her knife pointed at the researcher until Mimi was cryogenicly frozen again.

"Not again..." Mimi tearfully thought as she drifted off to sleep.

She had been saved.

"She's safe. Her wound looks nasty, but maybe in 50 to 100 years we'll have the technology to save her life," the researcher stated.

"Good, now make sure she's preserved until I can find a doctor that can heal her," Rika ordered.

"Miss, you're-"

Rika immediately leapt over the police and escaped the hidden room. As she ran outside, her body began to ache from the strain she had put on it. To make matters worse, a car suddenly sped towards her. A young Reika whom was in middle school at the time and in the car, had snapped a photo of her holding the knife as Rika was forced to leap out of the way. Due to the strain on her body, she ended up dropping her knife and was forced to leave it behind and exceed her limits to escape as a young woman in a high school uniform with short silver hair leaped out of the car and charged for her. Rika managed to escape, but had all her finger and toenails ripped out by Ichika as a punishment for her failure as soon as she returned to the Korosekai mansion. 

To make matters worse for Rika, the group that had been with Reika in that car were affiliated with the police and were able to confiscate the knife she dropped. Since Rika had used that very knife to murder her target, that along with her drastic actions with Mimi would easily convict her of the crime. Had it not been for Mimi's blood turning Rika's hair red and covering her face, Rika's identity would have been discovered then and there and it would have been over for her. Reika had only recently discovered that Rika was the girl from back then after hearing about the Takeda and Noveau Neo banquet cases and doing some research.

Back in the present...

Rika smiled and picked up Mimi before running away.

"HUH!? Why are you carrying me!?" Mimi stuttered.

"Cause I wanna make sure you don't get sliced up like last time," Rika smiled.

"Hoh, so you're tapping out? Well guess you two are retired," Dastard smirked as he suddenly appeared and began clashing with Murr Mantis.

"Wow, that thief guy's good," Mimi mused as Rika and her escaped via the stairwell.

"A thief huh? I've heard you've been robbing Illumous," Murr Mantis sneered as he assumed an offensive position.

"You're long past a mantis' lifespan. Time to send you to hell. I'll even decapitate you disguised as a female mantis," Dastard taunted.

Before the two could clash again, a whistle suddenly blew, causing the two to stop and turn towards it's source. It was an angry Von Sigmund.

"Fangschrecken! Vy are you destroying ze hotel!?" Von Sigmund fumed.

"Uh, I-"

"Look at zat! Ze vall und floor are filled vith slashes und might collapse! Illumous has investments in zis hotel. Plus zere's za bounty hunter counter, und ze rooftop lounge has already been closed for maintenance. I vill not be paying anymore of zees repair bills!" Von Sigmund fumed as he quickly appeared before Murr Mantis and knocked him unconscious, deactivating all his weapons.

"Ugh, sorry sir," Murr Mantis groaned as he fell unconscious.

"As for you thief, you- Oh, he's gone. Vell, hopefully he stole the bills so I don't have to pay zem," Von Sigmund shrugged as he carried Murr Mantis over his shoulder as he headed into the elevator.

                                                                             ...

The next morning, everyone checked out of the hotel and returned to the restaurant.

"Ugh, what a night, I thought I was supposed to be relaxing," Rika groaned.

"I've actually got one more secret to teach you," Mimi proudly huffed.

"Is it from Hylda?"

"Hmm, Hmm, Hmm! Not in the slightest. This one's a Mimi original!"

"What is it?"

"When you get tired or get hurt, just chug some milk and you're good as new," Mimi proudly smiled.

"Huh?"

"I mean, every time I drink milk I feel re-energized. My wounds also heal and even my hair grows longer too."

"Then that's probably unique to you. When I drink milk, I don't feel any different, nor does it heal me," Rika stated.

"Oh, yeah I guess that kind of makes sense. Helga didn't seem to heal when I gave her that gallon of milk to drink. Thinking back, none of my teammates seemed to be able to heal from drinking milk either... DOES THAT MEAN I JUST TOLD YOU SOMETHING USELESS!?" Mimi cried.

"No worries girl. It was you telling me not to repeat history that got us back here safely," Rika smiled.

"You really became a sexy spy, Ri-chan," Mimi smiled.

"And you actually are still beautiful despite technically being 64."

"Hey, I'm really only 18. Frozen years don't count anymore!" Mimi pouted as she showed Rika her new and current ID card.

"Come to think of it, why'd you have my Danablu ID card on you when I was revived again?" Mimi asked.

"I kept it with me to remind me of you. I almost had it confiscated when Ichika tortured me back then, but luckily I hid it in my stomach and she never found it. Since then, I've kept the card safe until I could give it back to you," Rika explained.

"Well guess I'm glad you did. Now I have two ID cards," Mimi smiled as she pulled out her Danablu ID card.

"Just tell folks that's from an amusement park so you don't get in trouble."

"No need to fear. I'm not the brightest, but I'm still a good spy- er, ex-spy. I can read rooms, keep myself safe, save the day, protect my friends, and never betray those close to me," Mimi smiled.

"I'm glad you're my friend Mimi," Rika smiled.