[This story is also on AO3 at: archive of our own dot org /works/6892129 , where you can go if you would like to see the illustrations that go with it!]
He had only just turned eighteen, and been promoted only a little while after that, when Mon gave him his most challenging assignment yet.
The Minister of Roads had been plotting a coup against the Emperor. He had invited the other major players to his house under the guise of a party for the summer solstice festival. All the men involved in the coup would be staying at the Minister's home on the same night, such that the whole treasonous lot could be eliminated in one fell swoop. Mon felt it would be a good opportunity for his new Jin to prove himself, so he sent the youngest of his hunters on the mission alone, with instructions to kill everyone in the building and to make it look as if a troublesome crime boss from Lower Ougi had done it. The crime boss could then be put to death without fear of inciting commoner anger. There must be no witnesses, and he must leave no evidence which could link the massacre to anyone but the crime boss and his gang.
In Jin's opinion, this was a simple task, and he expected it to be fairly easy. He walked to the Minister's home not long after dark and waited in the shadows, watching the guests arrive. He wished to be certain that everyone essential to the coup was present before he went in for the kill. He had memorized the faces of the plotters; they were all here. But he waited until it was well past midnight before he made any move. There could be no one on the street to overhear or the plan might fail. Besides, he wanted the plotters to have had plenty of time to drink and gorge themselves and maybe fall asleep. The less alert his prey were, the better.
As the night deepened, the sounds of carousing built and then began to die off. In the distance, the bonfires blazed high, then damped and began to sputter. The streets were deserted. Across the road from the Minister's manor, Jin carefully and silently assembled his blowgun, slipped a dart into the long bamboo tube, and took careful aim at one of the guards who lounged against the lintel of the manor's gate. Both of the sentries were dead before either could voice a warning. He stepped over their bodies, plucking the darts from their necks, and dropped both darts into a bamboo vial that hooked to his belt. Then he melted into the bushes and circled the house. Through the paper screens on the doors and windows, he could see the people within silhouetted against the lamplight like shadow puppets. Easy targets. Like every Hunter, he was adept with his particular weapons, and as he walked rapidly around the house, he fired dart after dart through the screens and the open windows into the bodies of the inhabitants. Naturally he wouldn't get everyone this way, but it would thin them out and be much faster than a prolonged sword battle with every man present.
They took longer than he expected to come out of the house after him; they must have drunk even more than he'd hoped. That was a bit of a disappointment. He knew Mon was testing him, and was eager to show he could face a challenge alone and easily best it; a couple of staggering-drunk noblemen were hardly a worthy challenge. Then again, all that really mattered was the job got done, and at least this way it would be done faster. He killed three with shuriken before they even had their swords drawn. Tossing his hat into the face of another, he gutted two more on the draw, cut the throat of the first, then went into the house to finish off those still within. The Minister of Roads had hired girls to entertain his guests; one of them threw a knife at the assassin, but she missed, and the rest ran screaming and were felled with throwing darts. The Minister himself was already dead of a blowdart, another disappointment. The servants Jin felt a little bad for killing, since they hadn't a choice about being here; but then again, none of the household staff had reported the Minister's budding treason, so the servants were either cowardly, oblivious, or just as guilty as the plotters. A few more men drew swords, but Jin needed only one stroke to dispatch each. He was almost annoyed by how little contest they provided. Within ten minutes, every person in the house and yard had been slain.
He counted up the bodies and collected his darts and shuriken and hat, making sure that no one had escaped. No one had. Here and there he planted evidence to implicate the Lower Ougi boss. The blowdart victims he slashed to make it look like they'd been killed with swords. Once every guest was accounted for and every dart retrieved, he did a final sweep through the house and garden to make sure that he hadn't missed anything. All that was left was to take the horses and most of the valuables, which would then be planted at the crime boss's base of operations. Jin threw open cabinets and closets, being intentionally careless about it, as a bandit might, and collected up the gold and ivory, ruisha and rugals that the Minister had squirreled away. He remembered that the Minister had a wife and found her bedroom, expecting her to have a good amount of jewelry to steal. He flung open her wardrobe and froze as abruptly as if petrified.
Four wide, terror-stricken eyes stared up at him. A pair of little girls were cowering inside the bureau, one probably six or seven, the other no more than five.
He blinked. Had the Minister had children? But if so, wouldn't Jin have remembered as much? Suddenly his heart and his thoughts were racing. The smaller girl was sobbing as the older one clutched her close. They were too scared even to scream.
Mon's words echoed in his memory. Leave no survivors. Leave no evidence and no witnesses. The Minister's daughters fell under that umbrella: they had seen him, and, by his orders, they must be snuffed out here and now - they could not leave this house alive. But Jin was paralysed. He had killed so many men, even at eighteen, that he had actually lost count - but these two small, helpless children, absolutely guiltless, unable to do anything but stare at him like the frightened mewling offspring of an alleycat... they had stopped him dead. His hand rested on the hilt of his sword but he could not make himself draw it.
Without a word or any acknowledgement that he had seen the girls, he closed the door of the bureau and stepped back. I just forgot to open it, he thought frantically. I forgot the Minister had children so I didn't look for them among the dead. I just made a mistake, a little mistake, it won't happen again. Deliberately he turned to the drawer of the bureau and raided the jewels hidden there. Mechanically he went to the stables with his bags of loot, loosed the horses, mounted the lead stallion and rode off; the rest of the little herd followed. He rode to Lower Ougi, straight to the compound of the crime boss, hopped off the stallion and led the horses into the courtyard, then soundlessly closed the gate behind them. Placing the loot was a more delicate operation; he went into the storehouse from the roof and tossed the bags he'd filled onto the riches already gather there, near the door so it would look like they had been added recently. Then he returned to the palace as the first of Kousenkyo's people began to stir. He went to the barracks, to his bed, changed into pajamas and lay down, but he did not sleep. He prayed the girls had been clever and run away. He prayed that no one would ever see them again. He had just done a brash and stupid thing; he prayed his lapse in judgement would not be reimbursed with execution.