Thorny Path

Prologue

Disclaimer: I do not own nor profit from any of the ideas, characters, names, etc that I have used from Until Death Do Us Part. Any original aspects of this fiction have spawned from my imagination, thus I'm rather attached to them, so would prefer if others don't nick off with them without referencing.

A/N: Well, this is my first foray into this fandom. I'm a little nervous, because I'm not sure I've fully grasped the feel of the manga. We shall see. One of the reasons I began writing this particular ficcie, apart from the obvious fact that I absolutely love the manga, was that it is so poorly represented. The last time I checked there were only 11 fanfics. That's like... blasphemy! I'm not sure how long this one will be, I'm just going with the flow here. So do hope you enjoy, reviews are always welcome, and don't be afraid to throw in some criticism if you feel it needs improving anywhere. :)

This fic will no doubt stray from the canon plot, in fact I guarantee it. My imagination tends to be quite fertile, and even though I would like to stay true to the manga plot, there are certain limitations, namely the fact it isn't completed yet. ;)

I shall keep the rating as T for the moment, it may need to be bumped up to M later, depending on certain factors. :P Apologies for the shortness of the chapter, it being a prologue and all, the next chapter will be longer. :) Mild warning for language that some might find offensive.

Mamoru gazed down at the landscape below him. Well, gazed may not have been an accurate term. Mamoru Hijikata was blind. He did however have aid in the sight department. The pair of sunglasses he now wore transmitted data directly onto his retina which allowed his brain to render these signals into an elaborate form of wire model of the world around him. He couldn't pick up specific details, such as writing, or subtle facial expressions, but real time movement, obstacles and the like were more than sufficient for him.

From his perch on the roof of a four storey building, he could see a stream of traffic flowing like worker ants below him. Across from him stood an impressively large high-rise building. It was well into the night now, and even though the street below was still busy, the office block opposite was mostly quiet, the majority of the staff having headed home for the day.

It was the perfect time for Mamoru. He excelled under the cover of darkness, the one time when the limitations of eyesight became apparent. He hadn't been born blind, but he had suffered with the supposed disability for many years. His other senses had picked up the slack, as it were, honing themselves to above normal levels. With the addition of the technological aid, he was at no disadvantage to any other human being. In fact, he probably had an advantage over most.

With one last glance at the building opposite him, Mamoru straightened, gripping the long, slender white cane in his right hand a little tighter. He didn't need the aid of the cane, but its purpose was more than pure aesthetics.

He trotted over to the adjoining wall and, spying the emergency exit ladder nearby, made a beeline for it. With a quick check over the side of the building to make sure the side-street below was empty, he hopped over the knee high wall and slid easily down the ladder, landing with a soft thud at the bottom.

His hands chafed a bit from the friction that sliding down the ladder had caused and he rubbed them briefly on his jeans to get the proper feeling back into them.

The side-street was fairly narrow, practically just an alleyway between two buildings. It wasn't even wide enough for a vehicle to drive down. Some garbage had piled up along the walls, creating an obstacle course for Mamoru to dodge around. As he neared the entrance to the side-street, he slowed, eventually pausing at the corner of the building he had just descended from. Peering out onto the main street, he noticed a few people strolling along the pavement, but they didn't appear to have business in this area and he didn't consider them to be any threat. The road itself was still pretty busy with traffic, the noise of passing cars drowning out most other sounds in the vicinity.

A slight buzzing in his ear let Mamoru know that the communication line with his team was now open. Another aspect of the sunglasses was to allow his teammates to monitor his actions and keep in contact with him. Originally, their little group had consisted of just Mamoru and Ryotaro Igawa. Igawa was essentially his partner, providing backup from the safety of his heavily modified van. He specialised in all things technological, so if Mamoru was the brawn of their operation, Igawa was the brains.

Mamoru had been quite comfortable with that arrangement. Igawa certainly had his uses – the sunglasses being just one of many. Mamoru was also quite the lone wolf. He didn't like having to work with others, they tended to get underfoot, become weaknesses, liabilities. So, with Igawa well out of the way in his protected vehicle, Mamoru was mostly left to his own devices. That was until 'she' had shown up. Haruka Toyama had practically accosted him on the street and demanded he 'save' her. She had been just a scared twelve year old girl to him then. If he had known what she would get him into, he certainly wouldn't have agreed to help her so easily. His fairly simple life had turned into one huge, ugly mess.

A wry smile passed across his lips. It wasn't as if he really had much choice. The girl was pre-cognitive after all. She had known exactly what she was doing, had planned it all out. No, that wasn't exactly true. Her predictions weren't set in stone. What she saw was just one of many possible futures. He had proven time and time again that the future she could see was changeable. Still, it left an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach.

Ultimately, he had agreed to look after Haruka, to keep her safe. The words she had uttered when they had first met came back to him. 'Until death do us part'. For something like that to come out of a child's mouth was creepy to say the least. When taking into account that she was also pre-cognitive, it was downright worrisome. What caused her to say that? The question had crossed his mind many times over the months that he had known the girl. He also had the niggling feeling that she wanted, or expected something more from him. It wasn't as if he was good at reading kids and he hated complications so he firmly ignored anything that was out of his comfort zone.

"You okay?" Igawa's voice crackled through his earpiece.

Mamoru shook his head. He'd been standing at the entrance to the alleyway for far too long, lost in his own thoughts.

"Worried about Haruka?" Igawa continued, upon receiving no reply from Mamoru.

"What?" Mamoru's response came across as gruffer than he had intended. If he had to admit it, he probably was a little worried. Not about Haruka per se, but her behaviour before he and Igawa had left earlier that evening had been rather odd. Usually, she asked to come along, but she hadn't even mentioned it. Even as bad as he was at reading kids, he could tell she had been upset about something. The only thing he could think of was that she had 'seen' something that she hadn't liked. Great, yet another thing to worry about.

He heard Igawa cough lightly through the earpiece. He was obviously contemplating whether to push the subject, but Mamoru's slightly heated reaction was causing him to doubt whether that was a good idea.

"Let's just focus on business," Mamoru interjected before the other man could make up his mind.

Stretching his cane out before him, he walked out onto the main street, posing as just another pedestrian, albeit a blind one. He strolled leisurely along the pavement opposite the high-rise building, the tip-tapping of his cane clicking against the concrete the only other sound aside from the traffic.

"Wait, hadn't we agreed on using the back entrance?" Igawa's voice sounded a little worried.

"Change of plans," Mamoru muttered, heading to the edge of the pavement, readying to cross the road, directly opposite the main entrance of the towering building.

"What the hell? Are you trying to get yourself killed?"

Another wry smile passed across Mamoru's features, but he chose not to reply, considering the question mostly rhetorical.

Seeing a gap in the traffic, he hurried across the road, cane leading. He paused as he reached the pavement on the opposite side of the road, scanning the front of the building. The two large doors which made up the main entrance were closed, as would be expected at this time. He presumed they were glass, going by the usual taste in this area of the city and the images that were being sent to him via the sunglasses. He couldn't see anyone in the foyer area of the building, so he cautiously approached the entrance. The images that were sent via his sunglasses used a sort of sonar system. It wasn't terribly accurate at long range, but it did offer the capability to 'see' through some amount of solid matter.

Something didn't feel quite right. There should at least be a security guard in the foyer. Unless, of course, he was doing his rounds. A gentle nudge on one of the glass doors with his cane confirmed Mamoru's deduction that they wouldn't be locked yet, allowing employees working late to leave without hassle. With his left hand he pushed open the door and slipped inside, letting the door close behind him.

There was a panel to his right which relayed the names of the various companies that were located on the premises. Of course, Mamoru couldn't read it, but he had gone over the layout of the building with Igawa earlier, so had no need for it anyway.

"Third floor, right?" Mamoru asked under his breath, as he headed for where he knew the elevators to be.

"Yeah," Igawa replied. "Make a right when you get there and it should be the second office on your left."

Reaching the set of elevators, Mamoru pressed the call button and waited, focusing all his senses on the area around him, in case anyone was close enough to discover him.

"Anything out of place on your end?" he asked through the com.

There was a pause before Igawa's voice piped up through the earpiece. "Mmm, not that I can see. In fact the place seems perfectly quiet."

Igawa had hacked into the building's security system earlier that night in preparation for Mamoru's infiltration. Having an extra set of eyes was never a bad thing. It was practically part of their standard code of conduct. Mamoru's sudden change in plans had probably upset their routine a bit, but he trusted in Igawa's ability to adapt to the situation, and if there was any danger lurking above him, then he was sure Igawa would see it before he got there.

The elevator pinged as it arrived on the ground floor and the doors slid open almost soundlessly. Mamoru stepped inside and eyed the control panel, eventually finding the button for the third floor and pressing it.

He clenched and unclenched his hand around his cane as the contraption began to move. Elevators weren't his most favourite of places. There was a sense of loss of control inside a moving mechanised box that Mamoru really didn't like. The fact that it was moving particularly slowly wasn't helping one bit.

Deciding to busy himself while the damned slow elevator made its way to the third floor, he reached inside his waist length jacket and checked that his equipment was all in order. A faint grating sound that emanated from somewhere above Mamoru had him jerking his attention upwards.

"What the hell is that?"

'Igawa's confused voice came back over the com. "What?"

Suddenly the elevator shuddered, causing Mamoru to shift his feet and lean against one wall for support.

"Oh, you've gotta be kidding me," he muttered under his breath. "What the hell's wrong with this thing, Igawa?"

Silence greeted Mamoru's question.

"Igawa?"

Again, there was no response. Before he could contemplate the meaning behind it, the lift shuddered once more. Mamoru's stomach suddenly felt like it had shot up into his throat as the lift abruptly descended, a heck of a lot faster than it had been ascending. Metal screeched upon metal as the mechanical box plummeted to the ground floor.

"Shit!"

Haruka sat huddled on her bed, her arms around her knees, hugging them close to her chest. Her wispy blonde hair had fallen forward, obscuring part of her face, strands of it clinging to her skin where her tears had moistened it.

Why did it have to turn out this way? Why was she so powerless? She stifled back another sob. Even after everything Mamoru had taught her, had showed her, she still had seen no way out. Other than... other than... this.

How long would it be before they saw each other again? Would they even see each other again? No, she had to believe in the future she had seen all that time ago. If she didn't...

Haruka shook her head forcefully. No she wouldn't go down that path. She couldn't.

She glanced up as the door to her bedroom swung open. A tall man in a black tailored suit with a grim expression on his face stood in the doorway. She didn't need to ask who he was. She knew.

"You need to come with me, Miss." The man's voice was deep and authoritative.

Haruka swallowed the lump in her throat. Even though she knew what was going to happen, it didn't make it any more bearable.

She turned and slid her legs off the bed.

"Okay," she replied meekly.

Without bothering to pick up any of her belongings or even a single look back, she stood and followed the man out of the room. As they reached the entrance of the building that had been her home for many months she glanced behind her, scanning over the objects as if trying to ingrain them into her memory. This would be the last time she would see this place. Tears threatened to overflow once more as she turned her back on the room and exited the building.