I clutch his arm tightly, not wanting to believe what he just said.

	"Andy... you don't mean that," I say, jokingly.  I don't want to 
believe it.

	"Mai, there's only three men to a team," he says, nodding over his 
shoulder to his brother Terry and their friend Joe.  Joe looks horribly 
smug.  I count ten ways I could smash that look off his face and relax.  My 
Ninja training buries my true feelings, as always.

	"But I'm your fiancee!" I say, pressing my assets closely against his 
arm.  My outfit leaves so much of them bare, I KNOW he can feel them.  As 
usual, he blushes and looks so cute.

	"Oh, cut the crap," Joe says.  "We don't need no girls on the team."  
He gets into one of his exaggerated macho poses.

	I want to throw up at his Neanderthal thinking, but I settle for 
sticking out my tongue.  The typical airhead response.  "Aaaaaandy?" I 
whine, putting just the right note into it.  I had practiced that note for 
hours.  I knew it reduced his resistance to mush.

	Not this time.  I could feel the tenseness in his arms, see the set of 
his jaws, watch as his pupils dilate slightly.  "Mai, I can't let you risk 
it.  I'll see you when we get back."  He slowly pulls his arm free.

	No, I spin around and drive my palm sideways into his nose, sending 
bone shards into his forebrain.

	No, I jump up, flipping in the air to catch his head between my 
thighs, twisting as we fall until there is a sharp crack, the sound of 
vertebrae snapping, severing the spinal cord.

	No, I touch every one of the Shiranui Special pressure points, causing 
his Chi to flare and burn out his nervous system.

	No, I sink to my knees and cry as he leaves me.  No, I grab hold of 
his leg and try to hold him back.  No, I am left behind at Master Jubei's 
dojo.

	As soon as they are gone, I get to my feet.  The tears stop on command 
and I look coldly after him.  But beneath the mask my heart is broken.

	I am Shiranui Mai, heir to the Shiranui School of Ninjitsu.  No one 
ever takes me seriously as a Ninja, however.  They see my skimpy outfit, my 
vacuous expression, the way I hang all over Andy.  No, not THAT one, they 
say.  She could NEVER be a Ninja.

	I smile at the compliment.

	As soon as I could walk, I was trained by my Grandfather in the ways 
of the school.  Deceptions, feints, methods of killing your target.  My 
ABCs were the forty-two methods of death the Shiranui clan had perfected.  
I trained long hours and spent the rest in meditation and learning secrets 
of herbalism (the better to poison you with, my dear).  Later, I also 
learned the secrets of the modern Ninja's most valuable weapon, the 
computer.  Did you know I have the equivalent of a Masters' in Information 
Technology?  No, how could you?

	When I was 13, my body began to develop with a vengeance.  At first, 
my Grandfather thought this would ruin me as a Ninja.  I was inclined to 
agree, but I had already met Andy.

	We were only 6 when he trained under Grandfather in some of the lesser 
techniques of Ninjitsu.  He decided it was not his style, but he had 
impressed both my grandfather and me.  I loved him from the start.  My 
Grandfather knew, and he approved.  He only asked that I complete my 
training before going after Andy, to let us both grow up before attempting 
a relationship.  I agreed.

	When my assets developed, my Grandfather began to despair that no one 
would carry on the Shiranui tradition.  I thought of a way.  I designed my 
trademark outfit, with a little help, and practiced all the moves I would 
need.  When next I fought my Grandfather, he fought an airhead who 
"bounced" entirely too much.  I got a few good hits in that day.

	As I grew older and, well, larger, my disguise worked even better.  
The first time I fought Andy, as an adult, he was so shocked he could 
barely block me.  I let him, because I wanted him to hold me.  I wanted to 
feel his touch, even though I knew a dozen lethal or maiming ways to make 
him let go.

	I attacked his brain instead, calling him my fiancee.  To my surprise, 
he didn't challenge the assertion, but accepted it.  He wanted me!  I was 
so distracted by that he got a hit in and threw me in the river.

	He's the only one who can distract me.

	Later, when I fought Lawrence Blood, I left him a trail to follow and 
let Blood beat me.  I knew my Andy.  I knew he felt protective of me, that 
he was shy and needed a way to show his feelings.  That bastard Blood 
sliced up my outfit after he "won" but if his skewed sense of honor hadn't 
stopped him from going further, I would have.  Permanently.

	I am a killer, trained and bred.  Does this surprise you?  What do you 
think Ninjitsu IS?  It is the art of assassination, pure and simple.  I 
strike where least expected, I wear down my foes in innovative ways, I go 
for the jugular.

	Except with Andy.  He knows nothing of the real me.  I don't want him 
to.  I want to BE Mai-chan, the ditz, the girl he loves.  He's caught a 
glimpse or two of the steel, though, and he respects it.  He doesn't know 
how deep it runs, or how far back the blood goes.

	Now he's left me.  To fight with the guys.  Because he feels I am not 
strong enough.

	I lash out with my fan at full extension.  One of Master Jubei's 
statues is beheaded.  I lash out with my foot and a pillar topples.  Chi 
gathers around my in a dark, forbidding aura, the aura of a Ninja.  Thus 
cloaked, I leap into the air and follow them.  No one sees me, no one 
senses me.  I am no longer Mai-chan.  I am a kunoichi.  I am the shadow of 
the night.  Unseen, Unheard, Unfelt... Death.

	Wherever they go, I will follow.  I think it is Andy who will need 
protection, not me.  He needs someone who thinks sneakily.  My poor Andy is 
too straightforward.  I love him dearly, but he will get a knife in his 
back one day if I am not there.

	Maybe THEN he'll get the hint.