Chapter 1: VINCENT

The madman now pointed the gun at me, while I'm protecting my cowering students behind me. It may be a feeble attempt, yes, but it will save their lives. I know they are smart enough to call the attention of 911. They are after all my students. Goodness, MY bright young students with a great life ahead of them.

"One" He said with a lilt in his voice. My students whimpered at his voice and I could feel their nerves grating at the palpable killing intent weaved in the atmosphere.

"Two" His voice now capable of smiling. I fixated my eyes on a silent and unmoving Vernice with her eyes downcast, hoping she won't be depressed when I die. She has the most fragile soul with a knack of hugging people she considers as her "precious people" and I do worry when I die, she might get devastated by loving too much.

As I my smile got bigger while my memories I didn't know I had filled my vision, and their panicked whispers slowly turned into yells, a bang and desperate shout resonated in the room. I expected pain, excruciating pain, but fate had other plans.

Floating and glowing saffron chains with knives in its end, now wrapped against the madman's hand and neck, squeezing it tight. Blood oozed from his mouth, his eyes bulging and his face now a pale blue. My eyes traced these weird chains and found where, or to be exact, who they belong to. As I met the owner's own desperate, despairing, and remorseful dark eyes, she cried and fell into a fit of tears. As I assessed the situation more, the more I can't comprehend what had happened.

"Vernice did the chains? But how? What?" I rambled on and on, making no sense to the on-lookers. The dead man now laid flat against the floor, my students had just witnessed something so early in their lives. Death in its purest form, right in front of them. Some are crying in relief, others praying to their respective gods, and Vernice, I could not even explain what happened. As her chains retracted back to her back, she raised her head, and looked at me straight in my eyes. A tumultuous storm of emotions was conveyed to me by a single look.

"I killed a man." Her soft voice cracked. She repeated the phrase again and again while the frantic look in her eyes grew and grew. I cradled her in my arms, and I did something I thought I would never do again. I cried with her.

"Think of it this way, you just protected us from someone, alright?" I comforted her more with my words. A few more minutes more in this position while the police swarmed the place, she looked at me with eyes of lost innocence.

"Damned by the flesh, saved by the blood." She whispered with a conviction as hard as steel. "This is the way of the shinobi." We stared at each other and came to an understanding. Then, she gasped. A gasp of pain, yet at the same time, enlightenment. Her eyes glowed red, with two commas whirring clockwise. Then, she promptly fell asleep in my arms.