(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0p_yo_VGOSw is the song that Min is playing. I highly suggest you listen to it :))

Have you ever played a shamisen? No, I suppose you probably haven't.

There really aren't any words to describe the feelings while playing it. I get chills up and down my spine everytime I pick one up. Inside are stories untold; treasures unseen. Inside is more grace than the cherryblossom floating in the wind, more beauty than any of my kind. Just as many secrets as well.

I plucked a few slow notes at first. The sweet sounds that escaped the three strings made my body melt into my music. After I let out a quick holler, I began to beat out a faster melody. Soon my fingers began moving at a more rapid pace than my eyes could follow. So instead of looking, I closed them and felt for the notes-- listened for them. My hair became askew to the point of my beautiful flower hairpiece flying out. Paying no attention to it, I continued my upbeat song with as much passion as physically and emotionally possible.

"Min."

My wrist came to an abrupt halt, breaking one of the strings of the beautiful shamisen in my arms. Fei gave a small gasp, knowing how much my instruments mean to me. Her pride was too high to apologize, though, so she onlooked with mock unconcern as I got out a spare string and restringed it.

"What is it?"

"U-uh, an emergency. BoA..." BoA, the most skilled and beautiful Geisha in existance? BoA, the Geisha that I must bow my head to as she passes? BoA, the Geisha who is even better at hiding her emotions than I? Why would BoA possibly be of our concern?

"She's dead."

The shamisen nearly dropped from my grasp as I looked up to Fei with my infamous deadpan face. Her sharp eyebrow lifted. "Curious now?"

"...Where? Why? Was it on a..." I shifted my gaze around the room as I listened for movement outside. "Mission?"

"We should probably go to a quieter place to talk. Suzy and Jia are already waiting for us in Jia's chamber."

After finishing the last touches on the beautiful device in my arms, I placed it back in its stand and gently stood up.

"Tell everyone what the message said, Jia."

The pale-skinned sister of ours took a deep breath and recited what she claimed to have seen on BoA's wall upon discovering her bloody body. "You know nothing about us. You know nothing of what we do, why we do it. You know nothing of the things we've seen. You know nothing about the so-called 'law' you're living under. You've been warned."

"Do any of us have a clue what this means?" our youngest sister Suzy asked.

"Something happened that made someone want to kill BoA. Maybe a mission went awry, perhaps she didn't quite finish off one of her targets and he was able to pinpoint her. Or it could have just a been mentally insane client. We don't know. One thing we do know is that BoA wanted somebody to discover the truth about us," I finished with a passive yawn.

"Did anyone see who went into her room last?" Jia wondered.

"No, but... I did see something."

We turned to the young one and waited for her to elaborate. "I saw an aircraft that wasn't usual around here. And, um... normally when people want to request the service of a Geisha in our Oriental, they land in one of these six areas, right?" She pointed to spots on a map of New Korea in one of Jia's history books. We nodded our heads upon seeing the locations. "Well, this aircraft was parked just meters away from the passage to the Oriental. Customers don't do that. They don't want the members of law enforcement to find where we are. So isn't it strange?"

The four of us shared fearful glances. Despite her age and innocent appearance, Suzy is easily the best Geisha among us. When I say Geisha, I don't mean our cover. I mean when it comes to what we really do: assasination and infiltration. We are in charge of killing off those who come a bit too close to discovering us. We also sneak into the Capital-- in other words the White House of New Korea, where our ruler and his minions live. Our longtime goal is to eventually kill the king and separate New Korea back into two separate countries. And Suzy is probably the only hope we have, now that BoA is done for.

"Maybe someone discovered us and wants to stop us? Someone who wants to keep New Korea as a whole?" offered Fei.

"The best way to anonimously do that is to reveal our location," Jia agreed.

"No," Suzy whispered. "I don't think that's it. I think it's somebody who knows why we want to separate New Korea."

All heads turned to her. She had said the unspoken. No Geisha knew why the founders of the Orientals wanted the country to split again. We never asked. Something didn't seem right about it all. It didn't feel like the only reason these people wanted to split was because the Korean war so many thousands of years ago. There had to be something else. But the leaders of the Orientals frightened us much more than the leader of the entire country, so we kept our lips sealed.

"Suzy, dear," Fei began slowly, "we don't talk about that."

"Well, we should! It's about time we get some answers. Then maybe we'll know why we were born to be trained assasins. And we'll know what happened to BoA, why she wanted to reveal us."

There was a long, drawn-out silence until I heaved a sigh. "Let's worry about this later. I have a customer coming soon, and I have to practice my flute before he gets here. We should all take a break from thinking about this."

Fei nodded. "You're right, Min. We will return here a little while before the next sunrise to ponder other thoughts. Goodbye, my sisters."

I was the first to get up and leave. If only that stupid woman had been a little more careful, then we could just continue with our efforts, no matter how fruitless they may end up being.

So how was the first chapter? Did you like it? Each chapter is going to be in the POV of a different sister, so you can expect there to be four chapters, plus one final chapter.

If you're curious about the characters' personalities: Min is the passive and detached music-lover, Fei is the prideful leader, Jia is super smart with a great memory, and Suzy is seemingly innocent with a hidden ability to figure out what others can't. I hope you enjoyed and that I'll see you around in upcoming chapters ^^