"Hope" is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the song without the words
And never stops at all
And sweetest in the gale is heard
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm
I've heard it in the chilliest land
And on the strangest Sea
Yet never in Extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.
(page break)
"Some day, you'll face someone who can cancel out this terror and suffering that you've caused…that will be the day that my village will get revenge." The dying man said, coughing out blood.
"There's no such person." I said with certainty and a small grin.
"What? Of course there is. Where there's evil, there must also be good."
"That's true in some situations, but in order for someone to balance me out, they'd have to bring the dead back to life, and I hate to ruin it for you, but once you're dead, you're dead. Game Over. That goes for everyone, including me."
"Don't worry. There'll be someone…out there…" He said, with his final breath, and he finally closed his eyes for the last time. Unlike the other villagers, he struggled as best he could to stay alive, but the others died right after the first stab. He struggled tooth and nail to stay conscious, but in the end, he died just like everyone else. Just like every weak person should. I turned to fly back to base and report to the leader now that my mission was completed.
(page break)
"Did you fulfill your mission?" The leader said.
"Yes sir!" I said with a smile and an exaggerated salute.
"Good. Your next mission will be a month from now. You may do whatever you please until I contact you."
"Yes sir! I'll be leaving then!" I said, practically skipping out of the room. It was a long time since I've had much time off, let alone a month! Maybe it's because the organization is busy training more agents. Last I've heard, a bunch of the lower ranking agents were being killed by another group. When they were sent off on a mission, the organization would get a parcel back with their head. Perhaps he was giving me this time off so they could remedy the situation before sending their best agent off on another mission. It would suck for them to loose me after everything they put into training me. I mused to myself. "Those were the good days."
(page break)
"You will be a part of this organization from now on." The leader said while standing on the corpses of my parents and older sibling.
"No!" I screamed, and I began flying away when all of a sudden, a net caught my wings and I fell to the ground. Without being able to fly, I clawed at the ground in a feeble attempt to get away.
"I'm afraid you don't have a choice in this matter." He said, and I began sobbing uncontrollably. Then, I felt the net pulling up off the ground and into a cage which some other person carried into a small airship. I was then transferred to what looked like a medical ward, but I was handcuffed to the bed so that I couldn't get away, and a couple doctors were taking care of my smaller wounds, and also checking for wounds on my wings after I was netted.
"Leave me alone!" I sobbed.
"Don't worry. This organization will take good care of you. They'll make you strong, and you won't be experimented on. Plus, if you get really strong, you'll be able to go and travel on missions and whatnot." One of the doctors said.
"I don't care. I want to go home." I said.
"That's fine, this is your new home. You'll be safe here, and all the agents that work in this organization will be like your new family." The other doctor said. I thought for a moment.
"You promise?" I asked.
"Of course!" They both said almost simultaneously.
"Okay then! Will you call me Kikua?" I asked.
"Oh, don't worry. There's no need for names here. You can forget your old one." They said.
"But—"
"Just forget your old name. It doesn't mean anything around here. Maybe the leader will give you a new name later on."
(page break)
"Do you understand the basics now?" My teacher asked. We were studying Nen. Apparently, I knew what it was in the general sense before I officially learned about it, but I didn't know it was called "Nen."
"Yup! Can I try my Hatsu now?" I asked. Since I was already in a state of Zetsu and I knew Ten, Gyo, and En, I wanted to discover my Hatsu.
"First, let's test for your affinity." He said, "You do remember the classes right?"
"Of course! There's Enhancers, Transmuters, Manipulators, Emitters, Conjurers, and Specialists, right?" I asked.
"Good job! Now, just run your Nen through this cup." He set a wine glass with water and a leaf on the table. I did as I was told and I placed my hands on both sides of the cup then concentrated my aura between them. After a few seconds, the leaf changed to a blue color and then morphed into a flower. "Congratulations! You're a specialist! And it looks like you might be able to transform things. Not exactly conjure up items, but change them. Maybe on your own body since you have wings and everything." He said with a grin.
"Cool!" I said, then I focused my Nen in my hands, and I tried to think of turning my nails into claws, and changing the top part of my hand and forearm into hard metal. Nothing happened at first, so I got a little frustrated and bit my lip a little. Once the blood started to flow, my skin changed into extremely hard material, and my fingers turned to razor sharp claws. "Look Sensei! I did it!" I ran to give him a hug.
"No no no, transform back firs—" He rambled and stumbled away until I made it to him, and I accidentally cut a couple parts out of his sides out, and he began to bleed out. He started to collapse onto his knees, and fell to one side with his mouth moving, trying to say something, and his eyes wide open as if he'd seen a ghost.
"Sensei?" I asked. Before I knew it, a bunch of the agents outside of my room came running in rambling about things I didn't understand and they picked up Sensei's body and carried him out of my room, and leaving me very confused and standing in the middle of the room. Then, another, larger man came in through my doorway, and knelt down to eye level with me.
"Do you understand what just happened?" He asked.
"Sort of. I just killed him, right? With my Transformation?" I answered while looking down at my now red claws.
"Good. That helps while explaining this situation then. In short, you have a natural gift for killing, and so you've been chosen to receive special training in order to become one of this organization's field agents. As of today, your kill count is 1. During your training, once that number grows into the double digits, you will be allowed to spar with whomever you choose until your kill count reaches 24. Then, you will be given official missions, most likely assassinations for which you will report directly to the leader. Did you understand everything?"
"Yeah"
"Good. Your training will start tomorrow." He said, then got up and left out the door he came in through.
(page break)
"You will do five hundred sit ups, five hundred push ups, and a ten mile run everyday for the next few days." The scary trainer guy said.
"Okay. Am I allowed to use my Nen?" I asked.
"Yes. You may complete them however you choose, but you must complete the training before you leave for lunch. After lunch, you will have a thousand kicks, a thousand punches, and a sparring match with a partner."
"Okay. I'll get started then." I said, and I bit my finger enough to bleed, then I focused my Nen in my stomach and transformed the muscles there so that they would become more efficient, consumed less oxygen, and leaner so that I could finish all the sit ups as quickly as possible. I also changed the muscles in my arms and legs the same way. I also focused some nen in my lungs so that they could enlarge themselves in order to complete the ten mile run easily, and all the muscles in my body could be oxidized with less effort. Once I was done, I lied down on my back, and completed the five hundred sit ups with ease, then the pushups were even easier, but my hands got a little bruised. Then, when I was about to take off to complete the ten mile run, my instructor stopped me.
"Why is it easy?" He said with an incredulous look on his face.
"You said I could use my Nen, so I transformed the muscles in my body so that they could do each task quickly and efficiently." I answered.
"Okay then…let's just skip to your fight training. Do you know how to fight?" He asked.
"No, but I can probably learn from example."
"Then you will be having a sparring match against me." He said, and his face became very intense. Not scary, persay, but overall, he became very focused, and he activated his own Nen. I jumped a few paces back, bit my finger, and activated my own nen, creating my metal claws and also changing my legs to those of a deer to increase speed, and also adding light but strong material to my skin over my important organs to prevent any critical injuries. I also strengthened the contour feathers on my wings to turn them into light shields to block any blunt hits…it probably wouldn't protect too well against a sharp edge, but it would at least prevent hits from a strong punch or kick. My transformation was done within ten seconds. As soon as I was done, he ran straight towards me. As soon as I was about to dodge, he seemed to disappear, but he reappeared right in front of me, and I only had enough time to move my wings to block his hit, but I couldn't plan a counterattack in that short time, so started sliding back. Once I opened my wings, he'd disappeared again, and this time, he appeared next to me where my side was not covered by my wings. I sensed him in time and I unfurled my right wing fast enough that I could push him away and avoid his hit.
"Your reactions are good, but you can't win if all you do is defend."
"I'll try." I said, and I rushed at him. I moved my wings out of the way so I could attack, but they were ready if he were to aim a hit at me. As I was rushing him, I saw his legs tense up as he was about to dodge, so I followed the direction his body was aiming, and I blinked over to his next destination and landed a solid hit against his chin, causing him to mess up his equilibrium. He stumbled back, and I jumped a pace back in case he did have a counter attack, but he continued to stumble until he fell onto his butt.
"You got a good punch there." He said, his body waving back and forth since he couldn't get his bearings. "But what are you waiting for?"
"What do you mean?"
"Your kill count. Don't you have to get to the double digits before you can choose your sparring partner?"
"Yeah, but I don't feel like killing you, I already killed my last teacher."
"Just kill me already. This is how this organization works, and the more kills you get, the higher your ranking is. Given, you're already ranked pretty high since you have wings and you've killed your own teacher, but whenever people spar in this organization, it's expected that you kill the loser. If you don't kill me, I'm sure someone else will if they need to increase their ranking."
"But I thought this organization would be my new family?"
"This is how this family operates. Don't worry, I've been ready to die. Just get it over with already." He said, and he lied down on his back and closed his eyes. I walked over to him.
"Okay then. Maybe I'll see you again?" I said, starting to tear up. I was kneeling next to him now, and in a final attempt to keep fighting, he swung at me, but I saw his arm muscles tighten up, so I jumped out of his way, and his arm fell limp. I walked over to him again, but I stayed out of his arm's reach. He smiled.
"Yeah. It was fun fighting you. You're a natural." I smiled back, but his eyes were still closed, so he didn't see it.
"Thanks. It was fun fighting you too, so I won't say sorry, but I will make it quick." I said, and I quickly grabbed his heart using my sharp claws and I tore it out of his chest. He didn't even flinch, he just coughed up a little blood, got a little pale, then a faint sigh was his last movement before I knew he was completely dead. Killing him was different from killing my teacher since my teacher just fed me information and told me how to do stuff, but I had just met this guy and it was fun while my training lasted. He showed me how bodies moved when they fought instead of just telling me, and it was fun figuring out these things.
"Congratulations." Someone from behind me said. I got startled so I jumped away and turned to face the stranger. It was the leader. I recognized him from when he forced me to join the organization. I didn't hate him since he didn't do anything directly to me, and I was living pretty comfortably, and they didn't experiment me, just as the first doctors said. "I see you're fitting in nicely into this 'family' we've established here." He said, gesturing to my now dead instructor.
"Yup. Now what?" I asked.
"Well, seeing that you already know how to fight, I'll start making arrangements for your placement into the field agents, but I need you to kill at least ten more people before I know you won't hesitate when you're given a mission.
"Yes sir." I said with an exaggerated salute.
"Good. You may choose who you fight and you can choose who you're willing to kill, but keep in mind that if you lose, your opponent probably won't hesitate to kill you, so you might as well kill whoever you beat. And you must reach ten kills before I can give you your first mission."
"Ok, when can I start?"
"Now." He said, and I looked around for any opponents. My former instructor would be happy if I became a field agent. Before lunch.
I ran around the organization's grounds, and I fought a few people. Those fights all ended the same way. They were all perfectly fine with me killing them, but I still teared up as I killed them. Then, I fought a few more people, and since my kill count was growing, people started asking to fight me, and they were stronger. They also weren't as willing to die, so I managed to harden my heart. If they had a problem with me killing them, I figured they would have no qualms killing me, and if I let them live, their pride would drive them to kill me, so I had no choice. I killed all of them. By the time I killed the tenth person, my claws seemed to be stained red, and my transformed legs were starting to ache, but it was bearable, and I could probably take on another ten people, so I flew around looking for the leader. I didn't change my form in case someone else wanted to challenge me, but I wanted to make my dead instructor proud, so I flew around everywhere looking for the leader until I saw a tall building with a penthouse at the top, and I flew over to it. I saw a balcony too, and the door to the penthouse was open, so I flew right in only to see the leader sitting calmly at his desk.
"You can change back and wash your hands in the sink over there." He gestured to a sink at the other side of the room. "You're getting blood everywhere you know." He said, and I looked down to see that the blood from my last opponent hadn't completely dried on my hands yet, so the blood was dripping onto the wood flooring of the leader's room.
"Oh! I'm sorry about that." I said, and I walked over to the sink while transforming back to my normal form. I washed my hands thoroughly, making sure to get the dried blood out from underneath my fingernails, and I used around five pumps of soap to try and get the smell out of my skin, but it felt like it was still there. I don't feel guilty, I just felt an endless pit of emptiness, and I completely understood my actions, but I felt like my brain was purposely skipping over the feeling of emotions every time I thought about it. Once I was done, I shut off the water and watched the water go down the drain along with a few streaks of red. Then I turned around and walked over to where the leader was still sitting, but he now had a laptop and was reading something that he was very focused on.
"Done." He said, and he clicked a few keys then looked up from the screen at me, "I just finished entering you as an official field agent. Congratulations. And I also just received your first mission. It's an assassination. Are you ready?" He asked.
"Yup!" I said. I was happy. I did everything my instructor said, and became a field agent, before lunch. "Can I go eat lunch before I leave though?"
"Of course. Your first mission is simple. I just need you to track down a drug dealer then dispose of him. Make sure you don't get recognized, so either cover your face, or kill all those that see you.
"Ok. Where do I go?"
"He's in the nearby city, you should be able to see it. Your target works independently, so you don't have to worry about many witnesses, and he is located on the fifth street. I'm sure you'll be able to find him quickly and dispose of him even before dinner." The leader grinned.
"Thanks! I'll be off! I said, and I jumped out the window and glided down to the canteen to get some food before I left.
As I left, I realized I didn't really know the area around the organization at all. It was in the middle of a forest, so it was well hidden within the foliage of the trees. I also saw the city which would only be a few minute flight, so I bit my finger and changed into a bird so that none of that city's inhabitants would see a flying human. A few minutes passed, and I was circling over the city, and sure enough, on the fifth street, there was one really busted up building, so I dove into one of the alleys on that street, transformed into my human form, and covered up my wings with a blanket I stole from one of the clothing lines I flew over. I walked into the building, and I saw that there was a guy sitting on a couch smoking weed while counting money.
"Who are you? You don't look like you're from here." He said casually.
"I'm not, but I heard you got some goods, so I decided to pop by." I said.
"Goods? Yeah, I got some. How much you want?"
"Not much, I don't want to pay an arm and a leg for them if you know what I mean." I said with a small laugh and a small incision was made on my wrist with a knife he had on the table near the entrance.
"What?" As soon as he looked at me from his stack of cash, I transformed my right hand into a claw and I snatched his heart from his chest. With his last words, he said, "You're from that organization, aren't you? Can't believe they'd use a puny girl to do me in." Once he was done, his body flopped to the ground and the blood that was no longer being pumped to the rest of his body just seeped out of the wound in his chest onto the tiled floor of the room. I shredded his heart, then wiped my claw on the blanket I was covering my wings with, then transformed into a bird again since my incision was still bleeding and flew out of the city and back to the leader's room. He was still there.
"I figured you would be finished immediately, so I decided to find you another mission." My days continued like that, with my doing maybe two assassinations every day. Apparently, our organization was known for doing assassinations, and we got all the assassinations that another family didn't want, I think they were known as the Zoldycks, so we got a lot of requests from random clients across the world. Since I could fly, I got the bulk of the assignments, so my ranking rose and rose, until I finally became the #1 field agent in this organization. Apparently, number one still doesn't tell me what organization I'm in…according to the leader, in case I got captured, it's safest that I don't know the name of the organization or his own name, and if I got known for killing outside of the world, the name they called me is the name I'd use. Since I was quick at killing my targets, no one knew who I was. One person saw my shadow as I left a scene, but they didn't give me a name. They just called me, "The Angel of Death."
A month or so has passed, my kill count was around a hundred, and the leader just sent a note for me to go to his office right away, so I flew over to the penthouse and let myself into his office.
"Hey leader! What can I do for you?" I asked with a comical curtsy.
"It's more of what I need you not to do. I need you to take a month off from assassinations. There's a small issue going on. Once it's resolved, I'll contact you again. Until then, you may do whatever you please."
"Ok, see ya later!" I said, and I drifted out of the penthouse and jumped out of the building. "Finallyy" I breathed out as I continued to fall. A few meters from the ground, I opened my wings and glided up and out of the organization's grounds over to a deserted building I decided to make my temporary home away from the base. I flew right into my makeshift bedroom with my worn in couch and my few supplies and necessities. I flopped down onto it, and heaved a sigh of relief. "I thought he would make me go on another killing spree. Those take a lot out of you, ya know?" I said to myself. So much has changed since I was normal…and didn't kill people for an organization I didn't even know a lot about. Before, I actually had value for human life. I laughed out loud after that. No one could understand me, and I probably could never sympathize with another person since I started this…profession. I can't trust anyone outside of the organization, I don't hope for anything except for a day off, and I don't even have a name, but this is all hidden beneath my near perfect "normal" and "cheery" persona.