Chapter 1 - Employment
A/N: Revised…
A girl of 20 stepped out of the space shuttle shielded her eyes from the glaring sunlight. She moved over to flag a cab and set off to her new house at the far end of Powder Blue Alley. She stopped in front of a tall Venetian mansion with faded daffodil-yellow walls, green shutters, and a fox-red roof. There was a garden surrounded by tall fuchsia hedges. The flowers grown there consist of roses, marigolds, violets, petunias, daisies and poppies. She took out the key and opened the gate.
"So beautiful…" she murmured as she touched a rose. She always had a knack with plants. In her hands a withering plant can come back to life again.
'How ironic…' she thought as she opened the heavy oak doors and walked down the hallways. Cagalli picked out a room and packed the room. It was in a light shade of orange. Her favorite color. In half an hour, she finished packing her room. She took out a folded piece of paper and left to get dressed. On the table was a cut out advertisement to enlist a new secretary for Athrun Zala.
Armed in her white embellished cardigan and navy-blue drawstring pants, she made her way to the ZAFT building. To her great disgust, a great number of women were waiting. Every single one of them dressed skimpier than the other. Every one with equal amounts of make-up piled on her face. In this lot, Cagalli can be singled out easily as she was the only one with no make-up and decently dressed. 'What's so great about an old man? His money?' Cagalli thought. She amused herself by imagining how Athrun Zala looks like, failing to notice the receptionist calling her name. Snapping out of her thoughts, Cagalli apologized and went in.
What she saw surprised her. Athrun Zala was broad shouldered and had a firm square jaw that made him look very serious. Green eyes and midnight blue hair stood out against his pale skin. Clad in his ZAFT chairman uniform, Cagalli could see his muscular build. Despite the fact he looks nice…alright…alright… dead gorgeous, Cagalli is not even fazed. She took her seat and looked at him professionally. Athrun was quite surprised by her. Unlike most females she does not wear make-up and most importantly does not drool all over him like all the others did. Looking at her qualifications, he threw her question after questions which she countered very quickly leaving him very impressed.
"Miss Yula, you will start working here tomorrow." Athrun said.
"Thank you, sir. I hope we will work together peacefully" Cagalli replied.
They shook hands and Cagalli left the building. It was too easy. If only he knew her appearance marked his downfall.
Flashback
"You do realize that you are the best amongst the batch of girls we had don't you?" asked the voice in the shadows.
"Yes." Cagalli said in monotone.
"We have an employer that requests us to send our best kunoichi on the job. Naturally, you will be on the job. Do not return unless you kill him do you understand?" the menacing voice said.
"Yes, Master Yakashi." Cagalli replied.
"Your target is Athrun Zala. He is the newly elected chairman of ZAFT. So go and do your job." Master Yakashi said appearing from the shadows.
"Yes, Master Yakashi." Cagalli said firmly.
End of Flashback
That evening, Cagalli was training Tai-jutsu. She was trained from birth to fight with her hands and feet. She also knew where and how to hit to paralyze or even kill when needed. She not only studied punching and kicking, but also the human body. Learning all about the weaknesses and strengths. Punching a man in the face can be painful, but it might just piss him off, whereas a punch to the throat will be much more devastating. Grappling was a strong part of the ninja's fighting technique. She was trained from childhood to be extremely flexible and could therefore escape any hold or lock they might be put in. They played games as children where they were tied up and the object of the game was to get herself untied as quickly as possible; within a year, she learned to get out of any type of binding. This was no big surprise since she was kidnapped for her athletic abilities.
Cagalli gave the sandbag one last punch before heading for the showers. She came out dressed in her black shinobi shozoko. Cagalli opened the window and climbed up the roof. She leaped onto the roofs of nearby houses stopping in front of the Zala mansion. She leaped over and landed soundlessly on the ground. Moving in the shadows, Cagalli breathed with her movement so as to prevent her muscles from tensing. She noticed that there was a party being held as there were many limos parked at the back. "Damn!" Cagalli cursed under her breath. Knowing fully that she was unable to assassinate him tonight, she went home.
Athrun was getting very bored by now. He looked outside the window enjoying the moon's beauty when he saw a figure leap over the wall. Surprised, he alerted the guards and excused himself from the party. "Who was that?" he asked himself as he made his way outside his house. He saw a figure moving in the shadows quickly. Cagalli changed out of her shinobi shozoko and walked on the street. She wouldn't risk being found out by a stupid person who decided to look up and see her in her ninja mode. She was going to turn around the corner when she tripped over the curb. "Ahhh!" Cagalli exclaimed as she braced herself to feel the pain of hitting the concrete floor. Instead she felt a strong arm wrap over her slim waist and one against her back. Opening her eyes, she saw a guy clad in a tuxedo his blue hair combed artistically and his intense green eyes staring into her honey-brown ones……
-END OF CHAPTER 1-