剣のナオミ
Ken no Naomi
"You're so beautiful." The ugly mercenary murmured drunkenly as he began to undress. The woman laying already naked on the bed smiled indulgently. She stretched her lithe body, her skin milky white in the moonlight that streamed through the dirty window. He was panting, already imagining how it would feel to be inside of her. Her hair lay like dark amber across the frayed pillows and her eyes looked black in the darkness. But the mercenary knew that they were a dark, vibrant blue. He'd seen her staring at him from across the room before she smiled that sweet, seductive smile. He was hooked after that and when she motioned for him to follow, he'd wasted no time.
By the time he had opened the door she had already begun shrugging off her robes, revealing a supple, lush body with curves he longed to touch and caress. Across her back, a massive gold and black dragon snaked down her spine, it's mouth bared in a mighty roar. "Did you know the Princess Yona of Kouka Kingdom has red hair too." One of her eyebrows arched and she shook her head slowly. "No I didn't know that." She whispered. Her accent was lilting and exotic. She crooked a finger at him.
"So beautiful." He said again, climbing on top of her, sinking into her warm embrace, settled between her thighs. She was soft and yet firm, and her womanhood was hot and wet, her breasts soft and heavy. With little encouragement on her part, he delved into her. It was everything he thought it would be and more. He'd never been with such a woman, who knew somehow the precise angles that would give him the most pleasure. Her dark eyes were half lidded and her fingertips drifted up and down his sweaty back like delicate kisses of fire. She grimaced as he thrusted harder, almost reaching the breaking point. His muscles coiled and her back arched with him.
She smiled her heartbreakingly beautiful smile, reaching up to pull his head down. He thought she was going to kiss him, something she hadn't done. Instead he leaned down and buried his face in her neck. He curled himself tighter and tighter, ready to burst, when she sighed with pleasure and rammed her bone handled knife through his back.
Pain warred with pleasure as he struggled to breath. He looked down on her with shock. How could I have missed it? He thought, dying. He tried to speak but she put a long, slender finger to his mouth and shushed him gently as she ripped her knife out of his back. "Fukami Izumo sends her love." She whispered, enjoying the look on his face as he realized what had happened.
Her pale beautiful skin was splashed with blood and she unceremoniously shoved him off her. He hit to grimy floor with a thud and she stood over him, smiling so sweetly. "Y-You bitch." He coughed. Her eyebrow rose again. "Silence, filth." She said, kicking him onto his back and slitting his throat in a smooth movement. Perfect form, she heard her Master whisper in her mind. He tried gasping but the blood in his throat gagged him into silence. She loved the silence. She placed her hands together and murmured a prayer over her kill.
She huffed a laugh as his eyes glazed over and his heart stopped beating. The she used his clothes to wipe her blade clean. It's weight was a comfort in her hand. She eyed the body critically and then glanced down at her blood covered body. "Oh, what a mess." She said, laughter in her voice. She loved the kill but she'd always disliked the clean up. Her Master had always pressed his lips together firmly when she asked if she really had to dispose of the body or if she could just leave it.
A good assassin never leaves a body behind, he would say. She smiled as she cleaned herself up and cleaned the room meticulously. After claiming her proof of death, she bundled up the body and carefully tossed it out the window.
She descended from the room and tossed a gold coin to the innkeeper. The bustling woman wouldn't meet her eyes but took the gold readily enough. It didn't matter to the young woman. She knew what she was.
The body was disposed of easily in the pig pen, where the large hogs consumed it dispassionately. She loved the crude animals. They would eat anything without a care. Even a corpse.
She walked in the moonlight, feeling entirely at peace with herself. She always felt that way after a clean kill. The woman who hired her would sleep soundly knowing that bastard was nothing more than hog food. She pulled a red apple out of the pocket of her robe and munched on it contemplatively. The sweet juice reminded her of the days of her childhood before she had been forced to grow up. Of apple orchards and the bell like laughter of her younger sister.
How her life had changed.
The little city that Fukami Izumo lived in wasn't far and the young woman reached it before day break, leaving apple cores in her wake on the dusty road.
Knocking twice on the back door of the shop owned by the Fukami's, she slipped inside and found a kindly man and a thin lovely woman sitting at a worn table. They looked at her with a mixture of hope and fear. "Is… Is it done?" the woman, Izumo, asked in a terrified whisper. The lovely young woman, looking so delicate and gentle, gracefully reaching in her bag and pulled out two things. She laid them on the table and waited. The husband reached over and unrolled the flap of skin that lay next to the gold ring. On the dark skin was a tattoo of scrolling symbols that marked the man as a mercenary. The woman let out a shuddery breath and weakly smiled up at her husband who slipped the gold band back on his wife's finger.
"I have something else, but Mister, I would ask that you leave for a moment." The man stiffened and looked at his wife. She nodded carefully and stared. The beautiful woman smiled somewhat kindly at the lady.
Izumo's husband stepped from the room and the young lady once again reached in her bag and laid something in the table next to the skin. The lady Izumo gasped and paled. The mercenary's bloody organ, cut carefully from his body lay like a terrible relic on the table. "Lady, I would not presume his deeds, but believe me when I say this." The young woman knelt and looked the other in the eye. "He will never harm you again. I brought you this for recompensation. Burn it and be free of him." Izumo stared into the dark, blazing blue eyes of the young assassin who looked as if she understood all too well, what had been done to Izumo.
Carefully with shaking hands, the thin woman lifted the instrument of her terror and walked towards the fireplace. It was limp and she could feel the hate in it. Before the fire, she felt righteous anger swell up inside her before she hurled it with all her might into the consuming fire. Behind her, the blue eyed assassin smiled in satisfaction. Breathing deeply, Izumo let go of her terror. He was dead and would never hurt her again. "Well done." The young assassin whispered. She rapped on the table and the husband came back in looking worried.
Izumo smiled. She was finally free. "Thank you, Chimamire no koibito." The lovely assassin bowed and then looked at them expectantly. With a start, the husband realized that they had yet to pay her. And from what they heard, it was a death wish to cheat the Bloody Lover.
He reached in his robes and pulled out a heavy sack.
The young woman took the bag and looked at the coins held within. She took a few out and laid them on the table. "It was an easy job. Keep these." She murmured, enjoying the relief on their faces. They must have scrimped and scraped to afford her fees. This way, they'd at least have money for food.
She bowed and then left as silently as she had come.
On the outskirts of the city, there was an abandoned barn and the young woman slipped inside the dilapidated wooden structure to retrieve her things. She'd never traveled with much. The only things of value she carried were her beautiful weapons, her Master's treasure and her haul. She changed from the robes she wore for such jobs into her normal attire which was a curious mixture of clothing from across all the lands.
The dark grey low cut blouse came from the Xing Kingdom and was a fine material while the black strongly woven pants came from the Sei Kingdom. The long lace up black boots that ended at her mid thigh came from Kouka and the long sleeve, imperial collared overcoat came from the Kai Empire. The coat was black with embroidered gold trim with tails that reached her mid calf. It was cut so that the collar clasped around her delicate neck and ended just below her collarbones, not meeting again till below her bust where it buckled to her hips. The three clasps that came down the right side of her stomach were gold in the shape of dragons.
A thick black and gold chain hung from beneath the high collar and disappeared beneath the grey fabric of her blouse, between the swell of her breasts. A relic of a dying land.
The rest of her attire were belts and sheathes. She caressed her beautiful, shining blades and she sheathed them around her body. Six in her boots on the outsides of her thighs and then four sheathes buckles to the insides and outsides of her calves. Dozens of smaller knives were inserted into her coat and into the quick release sheathes the strapped to her forearms. Two long hunting knives hung on her hips. Two longer curved knives were strapped upside down crisscrossed across her lower back, easily accessed. And the last but not least where her two long katanas that were her greatest treasures. The belts buckled across her chest and the sheathes hung crossing on her back, the bone hilts peeking over her shoulders.
How many hours had she spent practicing the movement of reaching up and pulling the beautiful weapons from their sheathes? The movement had to be graceful and efficient. Her Master had taught her the Dance of Death. Everything beautiful, everything deadly. The dance of steel and blood.
Then he had taught her the other tools for their other trade. The art of tracking, hunting and capturing specified prey. She made as much money as a Bounty Hunter as she did as an Assassin. Both gave her plenty of pleasure.
The words of the mercenary circled in her mind about the Princess Yona. She has red hair too. She thought about Kouka Kingdom. She hadn't been to the middle Kingdom in quite a while. She'd been going back and forth between Sei and Xing Kingdoms as there was always work there. She pulled out another apple and ate it while she buckled her carry pouches to her upper thigh beneath her blades and tucked her money, her map and her medicine into it. Tying her travel bag shut and tossing it on her shoulder she looked to the North where Kouka lay.
Shrugging and rubbing the bone handled blade on her hip, she set off as the blush of dawn rose to grace the sky. Her Master had always told her that she had more than a touch of wanderlust. She hadn't yet found a land she wanted to claim as her own. She had laughingly told him that all the lands were hers and his bemused smile had set her heart to skipping.
She only hoped that Kouka would provide her with an interesting job. Something that could provide her with a true challenge instead of these simple fuck and kill jobs she'd been receiving the past few months.
Yes, she hoped Kouka would provide her with a true challenge.
