Recruited Murderer
I take a step back, allowing the guard's sword to crash to the ground in front of me, then slash out to my side, splitting his torso open. He collapses to the ground, choking on his own blood as it floods his lungs. I ignore him, stepping over his head and walk toward my final target. She's attractive. Short auburn hair, blue eyes wide with terror, tears streaming down her pale cheeks. It's a shame she has to die. And yet, that face. My chest aches at the thought of killing her.
"Don't look at me like that," I say. "It's hard enough killing someone as pretty as you when you're not looking so helpless. Come on, just smile. Or get angry. Something. Anything other than that."
"P-Please!" she pleads. "Please don't kill me!"
"I have to," I say. "I was payed handsomely to make sure you don't go home tonight."
"Please!" she begs. "W-What if I go home a different night!?"
"You know that's not what I meant," I say, raising my sword over my head, the woman pressing back against the wall, arms raised as though to shield herself. "Now you're just being difficult."
"Please!" she shrieks. "I'll make it worth your while!"
"And just how will you do that?" I ask.
"You can use my body!" she says. "Whenever and however you want! And as many times as you want!"
"Really now," I say. "Now you're just not thinking things through. You shouldn't make that kind of offer to someone immoral enough to murder as many people as I have. I've already killed twenty of your guards. If you make a promise like that to someone like me, you may just end up chained up in a dungeon somewhere, existing only to pleasure me whenever I s choose until you die. Would you prefer that?"
She stares at me, eyes wide with fear. "I-I..."
I sigh heavily, pulling out a knife and tossing it to the ground at her feet. "Here. You'll be needing this." Then, I turn to leave, resting the flat of my sword's blade on my shoulder as I walk away. As I take my third step, one of the woman's feet slaps the ground behind me and I smirk. "Right on schedule." I flip my sword off of my shoulder and to reverse grip, driving it backward. I feel it impale the woman as I crouch and lift the sword higher, and the knife I gave her clatters to the ground in front of me as the woman's blood splatters down over me. I sigh, standing up straight and rip the sword back out before scooping up my dagger and continuing on my way.
"One more tick removed," I smile. "I think the boss should be pretty happy with me. I finally completed my fiftieth job."
I walk out of the alleyway and stop, staring down the road where a single girl a little younger than me is watching me with a cold stare, her katana drawn and held out to her side. I sigh. "Have you come to kill me?"
"You're causing trouble," she says.
"Oh please, Akame," I snort. "If you really cared that I killed people, I'd already be dead. You're much more deadly than me."
"Hand it over and you'll be allowed to live," she says.
I begin to laugh, bending forward at the waist and holding my free hand to my stomach as it starts to hurt. I can feel her glaring at me, but I ignore it. Finally, I manage to calm myself, wiping a tear of mirth, as well as quite a bit of blood, away from my eye. "Man, I never knew you had a sense of humor Akame. You never cease to impress me."
"I wasn't joking," Akame says.
"Lying, then," I say, resting my sword on my shoulder again. "If I hand it over to you, you kill me, not that keeping it would change anything. It would just be that much easier for you."
"If you don't hand it over, I'll kill you and take it anyway," Akame says.
"And yet, the alternative of you taking it then killing me anyway doesn't really seem like it's all that alternative to me," I say. I point my sword at her. "If you want to get your hands on it, you'll have to kill me for it."
She's silent for several long moments before sheathing her sword, sighing heavily. "I suppose there's no other option. Come with me. You'll join Night Raid."
Again I snort in amusement. "Yeah, I'll take a solid pass. I'm content with my own group thanks."
"It doesn't matter how content you are," Akame says. "They're dead. Here's your pay for your most recent job." She holds up a bag of money. "Consider it your recruitment fee."
"I said I'm not joining Night Raid," I say. "Give me my money and leave."
"Let's go," she says, turning and walking away.
I stare after her before sighing, and pinching the bridge of my nose, following. "Jeez. Fuckin' women. I swear."
I stare at the silver-haired woman before me. She's got on a black bodysuit, has armor covering her right arm, or maybe it's a prosthetic, and has a metallic eyepatch over her right eye. She could be pretty, if it wasn't for the fact that she terrified me. To be the leader of Night Raid, she'd have to be incredibly skilled at killing.
"So, will you join us?" she asks.
"I don't really have much choice now that you killed the rest of my group and then brought me to your secret hideout," I say, looking around and trying to memorize faces.
There's a man with black hair sticking forward off of his head and shaped into a heart. Akame, with her long black hair, black dress, red gauntlets, and her red katana, which can curse someone to die with only a single cut. There's a woman maybe a little older than me with long violet hair and light purple clothes with a gigantic set of scissors on her back, sharpened on the outside as well, a girl maybe sixteen at most with some kind of gun beside her and pink clothes t match her pink hair, which is kept in pair of long pink ponytails, and a woman roughly my age with short golden blonde hair, a black tube top that barely covers the bottom half of her breasts and maybe an inch of her abdomen below them, a leather belt with a silver buckle on the front, black panties, white detachable pant legs, and a white scarf with black on the left side. But the one that seems to stand out the most is the only one who's watching me with something other than suspicion, dislike, or a calculating stare. Clearly he's the newest. He has messy brown hair, an off-white sweater over a white collared shirt, jeans, and a sword on his back with a golden guard, the front and back of which are curved like the outsides of a bow tie and sharpened. From what I can see, he's the only one besides the boss who doesn't have an Imperial Arms.
"Answer her or we'll kill you," Akame says, gripping her sword's hilt.
"Of that I have no doubt," I say. "Fine. I'll join."
"Good," the boss says, standing. "Sheele will test your abilities."
"And that would be..."
"Me," says the one with the scissors. "I'm Sheele. Pleasure to meet you."
I stare at her for a moment before responding. "I'm sure." I draw my sword. "Shall we?"
She draws and strikes with the massive pair of scissors so fast that I'd have missed it if I blinked. Fortunately, I didn't. I bend backward under the slash and she spins, slashing again. I block the slash with my sword and step forward, punching at her. However, she separates the blades f her scissors and spins it, knocking my sword downward with the one remaining against it, then knocking my other arm away with the other, rendering both arms completely useless while also getting the blades on either side of me. I leap into the air, barely escaping the blades, and flip, slashing downward at her, only for her to use the handle of her weapon to block the slash, watching me with a cold stare. I land on my feet and drop, sweeping at her legs and she jumps over it, only for me to spin, slamming a kick into her abdomen, launching her backward. The scissors stab into the ground beside me and I lean on them, watching Sheele as she stands.
"Good enough?" I ask.
"Yes," the boss says. "You're skilled. It's your loyalty I'm concerned with."
"As long as I'm getting payed, I'll be loyal," I say.
"Good," the boss says. "Because we're sending you on a job. You'll be paired with Sheele and Mine."
"Your what?" I ask.
"No you idiot!" the one with pink hair snaps. "Mine! It's my name!"
"Oh," I say, shrugging. "If you say so."
She glares at me but I turn and walk away. I head out of the hideout and to a river nearby, beginning to clean the dried blood off of my sword. It's nothing too fancy. It's got an all white double-edged blade about three feet long, a guard that extends about an inch past the edges of the blade, and a smooth black grip. It's an heirloom of my family, though if they knew how I was using it now, they'd crawl out of their graves to put me in my own.
"Hey asshole, we're leaving!" Mine snapped, stepping out of the trees behind me just as I finish drying my sword.
"Alright," I nod, standing. "Lead the way."
"Don't you want to know who we're killing?" Sheele asks.
"Not particularly," I shrug. "It doesn't really matter to me who I kill. one death is no different than any other."
"What if that death is your friend's?" Sheele asks.
I shrug. "Never had any friends."
"That's sad," Sheele says sympathetically. "I'll be your friend."
"I'm sure you'll change your mind by the time we get back here," I say. "Anyway. After you two."
They both nod, turning and walking away. I walk after them, twirling my dagger in my free hand. We walk for a while, reaching the capitol and heading into the upper part of the city where the wealthier citizens live. Then, finally, we stop, climbing onto the roof of a building where Mine pointed to a large mansion.
"That's our target's building," Mine says. "Sheele and I will handle killing the target. You just get a distraction out front and kill any guards that come out after you."
"No problem," I say, dropping into the street and drawing my sword from my back, walking up to the house.
There are stairs leading up to the door, so I stop at a flat level about halfway up and pick up a stone about the size of my fist, hurling it through a window. A moment later, the door bursts open and several guards step out.
"Sup boys," I say. "Your boss home? I've got something to talk to him about."
"Get out of here before we kill you!" one of the guards snaps.
"Sure," I nod. "Just as soon as your boss's head rolls across the floor."
As one, the guards drew their swords, charging down the stairs at me. I have to commend them for being able to run down such steep steps so easily without taking their eyes off of me to watch their footing. The first leaps at me from a few steps upward and slashes downward at me. However, I sidestep the blade, allowing him to pass me as I split him in half with my sword. As I do, the next reaches the flat level and drops into a crouch, shooting forward and driving his sword at me only for me to step out of the way, my sword arcing back down into him in one fluid motion, splitting the front of his torso open before he begins to tumble down the rest of the stairs with the other guard's halves. The last guard shouts for reinforcements before stepping forward and slashing at me. I deflect the slash and he adjusts, stabbing at me. I knock it away again and he sweeps it back around at me, keeping all of the momentum as he slashes at me. However, the sword skips off of my own blade and streaks up high into the air before sailing away, along with both of the guard's arms from just below his elbows. He stares at his amputated arms, then looks up at me just as I remove his head. I look up at the door just as several guards burst out of it, except, they're not fighting. They're running. The first's foot slips off of the third step and he begins to fall, breaking his neck, and bounces past me. The third trips over his untied shoe's laces and takes the second down, both crashing down on the level I'm on and groan. The final troop gets about halfway and jumps, landing in a roll in front of me and moving to slash as he stands. I step aside and he doesn't even slow down, moving to flee down the rest of the steps, only for a flash of orange energy to punch sideways through his neck, blood splattering across the ground before he fell, tumbling down the steps. I finish off the other two and look up at the door as Sheele steps into the doorway, blood running down the blades of her scissors.
"Not bad," she says. "Come on. We should head back before soldiers show up."
I nod and she walks down the stairs, joining me at the bottom before we walk away. She glances at me, watching me carry my sword by resting the flat of the blade on my shoulder.
"You carry your sword like it's bigger," she notes.
"I used to use much larger weapons," I say. "My first sword was a claymore. Then a broadsword. Then a bastard sword. The first broke fighting a Danger Beast, the second broke during a job when I hit a wall, and the last one I lost fighting this sword's previous owner. This cut straight through mine like it was a toy, if you can believe it."
"That's quite an impressive weapon," she nods. "Is it an Imperial Arms?"
"No," I say. "Just an incredibly well-forged sword. And a family heirloom."
"Oh, did someone else take it from your family?" Sheele asks.
"No," I say. "I took it from my brother."
"You killed your brother?" Sheele asks.
"I did," I nod. "Right after he got done raping my little sister to death."
Sheele falls silent, staring at the ground in silence. After a few minutes, Mine rejoins us and we continue on, Mine and Sheele discussing how easy the mission was. Then, as we're passing through a park, something falls at us from above and we all leap out of the way, the ground cratering as the thing, a soldier, crashes to the ground. We turn, staring at the girl as she stands, her range hair in a ponytail. She's about Akame's age, I'd guess, and she'd be really pretty, if it wasn't for the deranged, borderline psychotic, smile covering her face.
"I finally found you, Night Raid," she says.
Her hand is holding a leash attached to a small white ball of a creature, but as I stare at it, I can tell it's a living Imperial Arms.
"That thing's going to be a problem," I say, the other two nodding.
Then, Mine raises her gun, firing a long burst of bullets, which slam into the suddenly much, much larger creature, kicking up a massive cloud of dust and smoke.
"You're going to need something a lot stronger," I say, drawing my sword.
As I do, the smoke clears, allowing us to watch as the thing's bullet holes all seal themselves. The thing stood nearly double the girl's height now, and had pointed teeth and large, black, empty eyes.
"This is going to go poorly," I say. "It's going to keep healing no matter how much damage we do to it. We'll have to kill the girl first."
"Just try it," she snarls, her smile replaced by a glare.
"With pleasure," I grin. Then, I charge.
Leave a review.