Disclaimer:
I do not own any of the canon elements from animes, or characters involved. They are belonged by their respective owners. Only a few things belong to me, so far just Haruko Asuka, while Zack/Daemon Crimm Rougier belongs to my friend Sams. All based off a rp with Sams; events and such are just told from Asuka's perspective.
Summary:
What happens when a high-ranking and lonely assassin, whom has little memory of herself, named Haruko Asuka-whom was never beaten-is finally beaten by her target, Daemon Crimm Rougier? And suddenly finds herself working for him; playing 'bodyguard' for him under a blood oath that can't be broken? Then finds her heart being stolen by the prince, and merely marks it off as unrequited love? Following, Haruko Asuka swears to herself she'd protect him no matter what... would she die for him? Find out by reading :3
Chapter 1: Haruko Asuka's assignment
It was cold, dark, and stormy. I could feel the rain run down my neck, right where some loose hair was stuck to. I was soaked to the bone, kneeling down on that roof, with a pair of binoculars. I was watching my target. Just waiting for the moment he was alone... at the moment, he was surrounded by something I couldn't remember ever having: a family. Yup, that's right... I don't remember ever having one... there were only quick mental flashes of people I didn't know. A woman, with emerald green eyes, and short to the neckline brown hair... a woman with black hair, and beautiful sapphire blue eyes... and a man, a brown head, with green eyes-just like the woman. I guess those people where my family, though I couldn't be sure. What brought me to that thought? I had black hair, and one sapphire blue eye, while my other was that green color. My genes must've been messed up, or something... if I came out looking like so...
This man... he was lucky... I've been watching him for days now, and his family seemed to really care. I felt... envious... this man had a spouse, and children... and love... things I couldn't remember ever having... and I probably would never be able to obtain it... who would want an assassin for love?
Quickly shaking my head, I kept close watch, just waiting... I didn't want to spill the blood of the children. He, and his wife put their children to bed, and left the room. I stood, moving to another area to follow the view of them. I jumped across the roof, and lost my footing... luckily, I grabbed the edge just in time. Imagine if I would have fell?
Pulling myself back up, I carefully crawled to the one end and unstrapped my sniper rifle from my back. I loaded it with one bullet; that was all I needed, I was one hell of a shot. Quickly taking aim, I fired... The bullet broke through the window, and pierced the man in back of the neck. Seconds later, blood splattered. I didn't feel any emotion at the moment... I didn't even feel remorse for what I'd just done. This man... owned his own company, was a loving husband and a great father to three... and yet, I didn't give a damn. I wasn't happy that I hit my mark, but I didn't feel bad for it either. My body was like one emotionless, empty shell of sorts.
Once I was paid half in advance, given a name, and a small file on the person... he or she was my target. I didn't care who he was; once I had my eyes set, he was as good as dead.
With my rifle in hand, I lept over to the next roof and used the fire escape to climb down. Afterwards, I disappeared into the dark alleyway.
The rest of the night was like a blur. I couldn't exactly remember what I did after 'work'. I think... I went down to Cat's Cradle for a few drinks. A bar, where ALL mercinaries and assassins went to for drinks. No one except those in that line of work, or the few men that brought our work knew about it. Usually, if someone just wanted a job done quick and sweet, with low pay would get the men to hire one of us down there. I rarely went for those jobs... don't get me wrong, I did accept a few, but mostly if the job holder requested I do it.
I recall getting hit on... and touched... then knocking the drunk right through a few tables. Also, a job offer, I think Akio refused it... then it came to me, which I refused as well. After that... everything went black. Maybe I drank too much?
I groaned, hearing my alarm go off. On top of that, I could hear the phone ringing and Nala, my cat, meowing. I rolled over to my side, hiding my head behind a pillow. The sound still came through, and I snapped up.
"Okay! Okay! I'm up!" I shouted at all three-the alarm, the phone, and Nala. Slidding out of bed-without thinking-I smacked my alarm off of the bedside table and ran over to the phone.
"H... Hello?" I muttered out with a yawn as I placed the phone to my ear. Man... my head was pounding.
"Is this the residence of Haruko Asuka? May I speak with her?" Came a dry, and bitter sounding voice.
"This is her." I replied, holding back another yawn.
"I have a job for you... it'll be a tough, challenging one, but the money for his head is good. Do you accept?" He continued as I scratched the back of my head. I was out of it, barely listening. I was searching around for the cat food as Nala pawed at my foot.
Without thinking, I responded: "Yeah... sure," I could hear him chuckle lightly from the other end as I scrambled about, trying to collect myself. Hanging up the phone, I started searching for Nala's bowl... and some aspirin for my hangover headache. With a few blinks, I came to notice Hina wasn't around... was she still asleep?
When I spotted Nala's bowl, I made a quick grab for it, and poured some food into it. She had clean water; one less thing to worry about. Dashing into my room, I glanced at the clock: 10:30 am. No way Hina would still be asleep... hell, she was the first one awake in the building everyday. "Hina? Hina?" I called, rubbing my temples. The doll was nowhere in sight... where could the little doll have gone now?
"Ow... my head," I muttered under my breathe, and heard something blow up slightly... in the kitchen. That woke me up, that's for sure. I jumped, slipped, and fell right onto my backside(not to mention banging my head against something). I gritted my teeth, rubbing the new lump on my head.
"Damn," Slipping, slidding, and tripping over toys, coloring books, and crayons, I made a break for the kitchen. Everything... absoultely everything had some smoke in it. I coughed, and heard a little cough along with mine. "H-Hina?" My voice out to my doll in between the newly found coughing fit. Then felt a tugging on my pants. Glancing down, there was the little blonde headed, green-eyed, and adorable doll.
"What did you do?!" I demanded, sternly, and a cold edge to my voice. She whimpered and cringed back some. I felt my face flush with slight anger... only Hina could bring out any emotion in me.
"I... I..." Sniffles, "Was only t-t-trying to m-make y-you breakfast..." She barely could get the words out as she sobbed...
"Hina! How many times do I have to tell you?! You're not allowed in the kitchen without me i-" Cut off once I saw her face. Tears swelled up at the corner of her green eyes, and she held her hands to her chest cutely. She tried wiping away her tears with the sleeves of her pink and white dress; however, only more tears poured out.
"Y-You w-w-w-work s-s-so hard. I thought you deserved b-breakfast in b-b-ed... and a d-d-day off..." She stuttered, and stumbled out her words as she started sobbing. The semi-warm, tiny buds of water raced down her porcelain-look-alike cheeks. With a sigh, I picked the doll up; how could I stay mad at that? Kissing her forehead, I headed for the bathroom.
"Come on Hina; let's get you cleaned up." I told her in a soft voice. She sniffled, and her sobbing soon came to a halt as I had her take off her clothes, and put on some clean ones; a purple and black dress, one I sewed together some time ago for her. Hell, I sewed a lot of different outfits for her to wear. She looked so cute in them, and I couldn't help but design and sew more for her to try on. Yeah, if you're wondering, I went to school for fashion designing... although I never finished-that much of myself I knew... from records I found.
I heard a beep coming from the living room; from my laptop. With a few blinks, I allowed Hina to run off to watch TV while I sat on the couch with my computer. Opening up newly sent file to me, a heavy sigh escaped me... why did I agree to this? It was too late to turn back now. I hated quiting after I accepted... maybe my target was someone I could deal with in a day or two. The file was pretty detailed, name, date of birth, blood type, yatta-yatta.
Daemon Crimm Rougier, whom has been using Zack as an alias. That sparked my interest some... why was he using an alias? Usually someone using one always was interesting-as I saw it anyway. Roughly 19 years old, about 5 ft and 11 inches in height... weight was unknown. Blah... purple hair, kind of faded violet colored eyes. Blood driven sword.. move on, scroll down-whoa! Wait a minute! A sword that likes blood?! That was just beyond creepy... maybe this Daemon would be a challenge, as the man had said. Skimming through some more information, I came to learn he was actually a run away prince; a prince of some land called Ipomea-Alba. Weird name. Why would someone want the head of a run away prince? It just didn't make any sense to me... maybe he did something he shouldn't have. Why did he run away? That made no sense either. The file didn't state why his head was wanted, or why he ran away... guess those questions will just plaque my mind, never to be answered. Lastly, was a picture of him in the file. I stared at it for sometime-getting the image memorized; even when I closed my eyes and thought of it, it would be a clear and perfect image. His eyes... were unique, to me anyway. I never seen any like them. Pretty good-looking-whoa, whoa. Where were these thoughts coming from all of a sudden? I shook my head, and quickly looked over the file once more. Last place he was located... didn't know so well, but I'd find it...
I caught a glimpse of him as he walked by. I was standing idly in the dark, minding my business, and-okay, okay... I was slacking off... and just sitting around in a tree. Heh... ANYWAY, I was cough slacking cough when something caught my attention. A figure; he seemed to be limping lightly. Pfft... whatever. Then... his figure seemed familiar, and I moved ever so quietly to one of the lower branches of the tree to get a better look. Thank gawd I had pretty good eyes, I could see him slightly. So familiar... AHA! It was him; my target; the dead man; the man whom the bullet in my rifle was waiting for; Daemon Crimm Rougier. With a slight smirk, I reached for my rifle... and felt nothing! Gah! I would've flailed if I didn't want him to know I was there. Where'd I put the stupid-oh wait... I left it leaning against the tree's side on an upper branch-great. With a small growl, I moved again, slowly to be quiet and started climbing to the higher branch I was on. Soon as I had my gun in hand... he had already entered the ramen shop.
Damn... now I'd have to go in too... well, not really, but I couldn't afford for him to go out the back or something and loose sight of him. He seemed injured, and maybe he believed he was being followed. Lords knows he might've had some plan to use that place to sneak out of and throw his other 'stalker' off track. Heavily sighing, I climbed down and strapped my weapon to my back, right before heading into the ramen shop myself...
Stepping in, people started staring... most likely at the gun strapped to my back... whatever, I didn't care; not one bit. A white cat walked by me as I stepped in... of course, I payed no mind to it... or anyone else for that matter. Daemon was sitting that the counter, so I sat a few seats away. I wasn't planning on ordering anything, but one of the workers asked me the usual 'My name is blah, blah, and what can I get you' crap. I ordered a small beef ramen-not too much money, and at least I'd have a little something in my stomach.
For one moment, I saw his eyes glance at me, but then turned back to his meal. My eyes glanced around at the place, before settling on Mr. Daemon. Exmaining his condition... he was more wounded than I thought. His clothes were torn up, and I could see all the freshly obtained wounds on his body, some of them were still bleeding by the looks of it... he was holding a cloth to his side-trying to stop some bleeding-and the fabric was blood red, and probaby still wet from the blood... was he outnumbered? I know he's my target and all, but that wasn't fair. Alright, so I have a thing for keeping things in 'fair fights'. I didn't use trickery or gangs, and certainly didn't like it; I dealt with everything on my own. I glanced at his sword, still in it's sheath- it gave me small chills at how creepy it seemed.
Suddenly, I heard his voice... a soft, and gentle sounding voice... addressing me. I snapped out of my thoughts and looked up at his face.
"Is there any particular reason you are staring at me Miss?" He asked, and I didn't answer. After a moment or two, I turned back, to the meal that was being set infront of me. I started eating-hey, why waste money? It tasted pretty good, and I might as well enjoy it... who knows, it could have been my last meal. This time, I started watching Daemon from the corner of my blue eye. That cat... was sitting on a stool, and watching him. It seemed... too odd to be a true cat... I knocked the thought right out of my mind as my target sighed.
"Am I truly that interesting?" He asked, not only addressing me this time, but the cat too. Maybe it wasn't just a cat after all. The feline mewed cutely, and I saw him smile... a nice smile that-gah! Noooo! Target, Asuka! Target! He was a dead man when you were though with him! Get your mind out of it! I yelled at myself... I honestly didn't understand why I was having these sudden thoughts... first time too, ever, over a target. I couldn't hear what he said next, but I saw the cat paw at him and mew again. He finished his meal, sat money down on the counter, and was all set to leave; he stood. My eyes still followed him, and the cat hopped off of the stool, and landed right by his feet. He knew I was watching him; I could tell. Daemon turned to me, and bowed... a really prince-looking bow, and chuckled down towards the cat. Right at that moment, I knew it; he was truly the Daemon I was searching for.
"You wish to accompany me?" I heard his voice ask as he started leaving; probably talking to that cat. I gulped down the rest of my ramen quickly-hot, hot! I burnt my tongue, ouch. I didn't have time to worry about that... I got up quickly, and placed the money to pay for the food on the counter, and left.
