Hey people! So this takes place middle of the series, and it's got OCs and lots of assassin-ness. I've only seen the anime so if the manga has extra stuff that I missed or messed up, I apologize beforehand. Also, some of the missions they go on won't always align with the series, so just beware (most will but every now and again I might add something. I don't know yet)
"What? That's it? Surveillance and one possible hit?" I sigh, bored already. Old Man smells like smoke as always and his face is covered by his hat. I don't like him. He isn't a fan of contractors and he's constantly trying to figure out what my contract's price and power is; his superiors won't tell him for whatever reason.
"Yes. That's all. One kill. But he's a contractor so it might not be as easy as you think. Don't get arrogant you little brat." He scoffs. "Plus, until they decide whether or not to kill him, you've got to protect him."
I narrow my eyes into what I know is an icy glare. Doesn't that idiot know I could kill him in a second, even without using my contract? (Having a contract isn't an excuse to slack off on other forms of fighting; after all, if I fight contractor with the same power I do, I don't want to leave winning to mere chance.)
"I'm not a child how thinks she's invincible. I know pain and failure..." I pause, and a smirk comes to my face, "Though not nearly as much as you do."
His face freezes into a stony expression, "Since when do contractors get angry?"
I shrug and say, "You wouldn't understand it if I explain it to you; you're the most stubborn person I know; even if I did explain it, you simply wouldn't fathom or believe it."
He snarls, "You calling me stupid?"
I shrug my shoulders again, "Of course not. Challenging you would be irrational." He missed the glint in my eyes as I say it, but it's better that he does. It's funny; I can't explain the way I am either.
This response, he understands; I'm back to just being a plain old contractor now, not a complex being with emotions after all. I sigh and mockingly salute him as I'm dismissed. I stalk out happily; time to cut my hair.
I run my fingers through my short, scruffy, reddish-brown hair. I'm pleased to have my hair into a practical pixie cut, though the bangs are a little long for my liking. I slip my two hoops and one stud into the little holes in my ears, first the three on the right, then the left. My wardrobe for today is dark-colored jeans, black combat boots, a plain blue t-shirt with a brown jacket that reaches to my waist only. Nothing interesting or spectacular. I reach the train station in the nick of time, and my new ID (it's odd actually using my name on anything, to being able to tell the truth when they ask my name or birthday. It's rather uncomfortable, actually.) I board with my duffel bag and get off at Tokyo without trouble. I walk to the address of the apartment Old Man gave me; headquarters for the next few months. I knock on the door what I assume is where the lady who owns the place lives. Supposedly the Black Reaper lives in the complex too; it was unclear whether I'm supposed to kill him, or someone who's coming to kill him. Old Man hasn't decided whether to keep him around or not yet.
"Hello?" I call, putting on my "human mask" as Old Man calls it; I easily integrate with regular people, so they rarely notice that I'm unusual.
"Huh? Who is it?!" A elderly lady bustles through the door and inspects me. She opens her mouth to speak but I beat her to it, "I'm here for the apartment."
"Oh! Well, Okay." She narrows her eyes at me in inspection. Her eyes linger on my combat boots, earrings and short hairstyle. I smile at her innocently.
"You don't have any tattoos, do ya? You're not in a gang or some kinda trouble maker, right?" Her eyes huge and trying to figure out what to make of me.
"Uh, no." I say truthfully, "Really, I'm not. Sorry if my appearance isn't exactly normal but it works well for the job I've had for a while now."
"You have a job?!" She says shocked, as we walk up the stairs.
I nod and tell her that I'm going to be an assistant to a private detective. It's only a half-lie. I'm going into have an interview in a few weeks. "It's best to be a little scary looking in that line of work; from my experience at least."
She scoffs and rolls her eyes, "Dearie, you aren't even intimidating. What's your name again?"
"Alyss." I force a laugh; she has no idea.
She shows me the small apartment and points to the end of the hall, "Li lives there, he's a nice kid here for college. Down below on the first level are a bunch of hooligans. They're all about your age, so you'll probably fit right in." She observes.
I nod, thank her and she leaves me to the very empty space. I set down the duffle bag and put what I've brought into drawers. My stomach grumbles at me; a little unhappy from being empty for a while now. I frown, shove some money into my pocket, grab an extra set of emergency tools and open the door to head out.
"Uh!" I grunt as I just barely stop in time to save myself from running straight into some one.
"Ah! Sorry, sorry!" The guy says. "You must be the new neighbor!" He's got black hair and is quite a bit taller than me. He seems a little off, but I'm not sure what it is. Considering the only other people in the complex are "hooligans", it's possible this is the Black Reaper with his "human mask" on. I smile and apologize.
"I'm Li." He says cheerfully.
"My name's Alyss."
"That's interesting." Li says politely. I nod, say "bye" and head out to find some food.
As I leave I notice a black cat hanging around the place, staring almost angrily at the apartment that Li went in. Yeah, Li must be the Black Reaper, and that cat his teammate like Old Man said there would be. I shake it off and wander around, find a ramen stand and start walking home through the city. It's a long walk but I'm not opposed to it.
Suddenly, a there's a bright light; definitely from a contractor; from the roof of the building across the street. I sigh and walk across the street already making up my mind and wondering why I'm such an odd contractor. I peer through the window; they're not letting anyone out. Fine, I'll just get up there myself. I walk over to the hotel next door and slip inside of it. I take an elevator to the highest floor and promptly climb out onto the fire escape. A grin spreads across my face as I get to the roof and peer out over the drop. I slip piece of cloth over my whole head pulling it down so only my hair is showing, from my forehead to chin (ears included) is totally covered in a black mask. This building's a little taller than the one I need to get to so I'm in luck. I take one of my many emergency tools and fire a lightweight steel cable across, and using my belt to zip-line down onto the roof. A masked man is dodging droplets of blood that fly towards him from the other mans wrist.
Who I assume is the Black Reaper notices me first, "If you want to live, don't get that blood on you!" On cue, the guy with elf-ears snaps his fingers and the blood splattered on the wall explodes. Interesting power, his payment might be high though.
I stand still with my arms crossed and feet planted firmly. I will my contract power into effect and feel the chill spread over me as my skin thickens and smooths over.
Both stare at me for a second, but Elf flings his wrist, sending blood flying at me. I dodge it smoothly and drop into a roll, "What did I ever do to you?" I laugh, narrowing my eyes at Elf.
"You're in my way." He deadpans.
"Oh, brilliant! Well, now you're in my way since you're trying to kill Mask over there. Which for whatever reason, my boss doesn't want to happen." I say, smirking under my mask.
"What makes you think you can protect me?" Black Reaper scoffs as we dodge tiny explosive drops of blood.
I shrug my shoulders, "Well I've got orders so that's all I can say."
The Black Reaper's stoic mask stares at me.
Elf-man snarls as I charge forward, picking up more metal from the floor to add to myself and forming a short, jagged point added on to each of my fingers like claws on steroids.
I manage to rake my claws across his back, but realize they've now got blood on them. Cursing, I dispel the metal from my arms away from me, just seconds before he reacts and snaps his fingers.
The metal is replaced but I'd say I have twenty minutes of activity left before I need to make a payment. Usually I can last a few hours but I haven't made payment in a while and I've used my power before. My payment is more of an active-time per payment. It's bizarre, but I don't mind it much anymore.
Eventually, Black Reaper gets cornered on the roof and my power's drained; at this point I'm just using my other fighting skills to stay alive. I bury a knife in Elf's shoulder, he howls in pain, rips the blade out of his shoulder, whirls around and nearly gets me, but his blood just splats on the floor beside me. He turns again towards Black Reaper and flings blood towards him.
No one moves a muscle, and Black Reaper's head is turned away. Black Reaper runs his head to face Elf, showing the blood that coats his mask. Elf snaps and the Black Reaper goes tumbling off the roof.
Well, that was idiotic. It's surprising I actually escaped unscathed. I pull the Ace of Spades out from my pocket. It's flimsy now; I'll need another soon. It used to be crisp and shiny, now it's barely holding together. I use my nail to make a tiny cut on my hand and smear one drop of blood on the card, and make one tear in the side. The card has all shades of red; some faded to pink, others still crimson. It's funny, anyone who saw me do this would think it's my payment. It's only part of it. The rest of my payment is a little more interesting than a torn-up and bloody playing card. I sit myself down in one of the hallways, knowing Elf-man isn't too near. I close my eyes and I'm immobilized. I can't move, not even my eyes or my lungs. It's like I'm frozen. And if I don't choose to make it before a certain time, it chooses for me. It has gotten me into trouble before. It's unpredictable, and the amount of time 'frozen' totally depends on some unknown factor, but tearing and bleeding on an Ace of Spades signals that I'm making my payment, I guess. So, my payment is time, in a way.
When I open my eyes again, I glance at the clock to find I've been out for ten minutes. Not bad but not great either. I stand up and get a move on. Whatever's going on here, the Black Reaper's neck deep in it and my mission is intelligence so I'd better find out. I exhale sharply before racing down the hallway, towards the faint sound of screaming.
When I finally get in the room, some girl in a white dress has a hole in the center of her chest (courtesy of Elf-man, no doubt.) and Elf-man is lying in a puddle of water with his face half-seared off. The lady in a red dress looks sad, but collected about this event and a big guy next to her is barely containing his freak-out. Black Reaper is gone if he was ever here. I doubt the fall would have killed him, and the blood on his face was too much to be Elf's.
"Was he here?" I ask the lady in red, "The man in the white mask."
"Who are you?" She demands, sounding like she's interrogating me.
I shrug, "No one. But No One needs to know he was here, OK?" I'm irritated with this lady, her mind is obviously not realizing that I'm dangerous, or she just doesn't care. I'm not sure which is more annoying.
She grinds her teeth together and nods to the big guy and says, "Cuff her. Take her for interrogation."
Cop? Huh. "You couldn't just tell me where he went?" I deadpan, "It'd be so much easier."
Neither cop replies and I shrug as the big guy moves towards me with handcuffs. I crouch down and spring up, leaping up and kicking him in the chest. I land in a neat roll and stand up and race through the room and out the window. I free-fall for about five feet and then reach my arms out for the fire escape and hide underneath it until they look out the window and can't find me. I make my way down the escape quickly and silently.
I head back to the apartment, but just before I unlock the door, I hear someone say something.
"It was you, then."
I turn to face Black Reaper, smiling, "And you are Li. Lovely to meet you, again."
He nods, "Who's your boss?"
"Oh, nobody important. However, your boss and mine have an...agreement." I explain slyly, after all, I can't just tell him our boss is the same, but I have to gain his trust somehow, don't I? "So I might be helping you and your cat out every once in a while."
The cat jumps down from the roof and glares at me, "The name is Mao. And I'm not his cat."
"Of course not." I apologize.
I turn and enter my apartment, but keep my ear against the door.
"Do you think she's telling the truth?" Black Reaper asks Mao.
"I don't know, Hei. I guess we'll find out sooner or later." Mao replies.
"We should find out sooner if possible. Her power is strong, and I'm not sure the extent of them yet, or her payment. We should try to find out." Hei-formerly-referred to-as-Black-Reaper says.
And with that, they walk away.
I check my home phone for messages. Old Man called in the code, "Faeries don't exist, little girl." Which basically means I did alright today. "Call me back later" means that I'm not doing to good, "You're on your own" means that I'm in danger and need to clear out; and erase all evidence that I had anything to do with Old Man and his little society. The codes are so random, and really, Faeries? C'mon, now. I chuckle slightly to myself, and walk into the kitchen.
The phone rings though the near empty apartment. I hurry over and answer it.
I don't say anything into the phone.
"Sedaps, you are now working with BR and the cat. Report to area four-four-oh at seven hundred hours." And with that, the line goes dead. Really? "Sedaps" as a code name? All that is "Spades" backwards! No wonder we have leaks! I get ready for bed and change into my pajamas. Honestly, Old Man, what were you thinking? I wonder as I drift into sleep.
My alarm blares though the thick morning air. I hit it and get up a little tired; the people downstairs are ridiculously noisy. I wander around until I remember which drawer I put my clothes in and strap a few knives to myself before putting fresh clothes on over my bulletproof suit. I shove my mask in my pocket along with my Ace of Spades and get out the door in time to grab a croissant from a nearby bakery. Then, I make my way towards area 440; a little playground a little ways off the busiest streets. I reach up to smooth my hair and smirk when I realize I don't have to play the part of a diva anymore; not to mention I barely have any hair left to smooth! The thought amuses me a little, in a vague, distant way. It's funny, I think people believe that contractors don't have emotions because they don't affect us in the same way as ordinary people. We have them, they're just suppressed by rationality and reason, which I don't particularly mind.
I sit on the bench near the outskirts of the park. That black cat called Mao is napping on the playground, so I'm sure that this is the right place. A scruffy-looking, short, older guy walks up wearing a brown hat and coat. He narrows his eyes at me, but sits down on the other side of the bench. Hei is the last one to join us.
"What are you doing here?" He asks me.
I don't look up, "I was told to come. So here I am." Hei nods and sits by Grumpy the dwarf.
Grumpy starts talking, "We've got a bit of a situation. Hei and..." He pauses and asks me my code name, "Hei and Spades are going into PANDORA...into Hell's Gate."