Chapter 1

I ran along the peak of the roof. The dumb, fat polititian inside this lovely home was my target. I slid down the roof to edge. The edge had an abraised edge that I caught on to with the heels of my boots. I looked in through the window. The polititian was sitting in a fat red chair by the fire. I cracked my knuckles. I reached up to my back and undid the whip that was strapped to my back. I licked my lips in anticipation. I forced myself to calm down. I held tightly to my whip. I pulled back and with a flick of my wrist the whip flew through the window and into the back of the polititian's fat neck and back out again the steel tip of the whip leaving a neat hole in the glass and in the man's throat.

Once his guards had realized what had happened I had pulled myself up and was jumping off the other side of the house. I was well on my way down the streets of Kyoto by the time they had managed to get the door open. I was running down the back alley way. I saw a man with long hair tied high on his head. Though he was shorter than me he still had the air of being in charge. It was his eyes. The eyes of a cold blooded killer. Often I wondered if other people looked at me and saw those sort of eyes shining evilly out of my face.

The man interupted my thoughts. "Shingetsu, is it done?" I nodded. "Yes, Battosai, it has been completed."

~Later That Night and Into The Morning~

I followed the Battosai back to our small makeshift camp. When I say makeshift I mean that we were in a forest and he slept on one rock and I slept on the other. We were in the Revolution. We were fighting on the side of the rebels, specifically the Ishin Shi Shi rebels. The Battosai had been fighting longer than I had. How long? I wasn't exactly sure. I had only been fighting in this war for a year, but I had been a Hitokiri for a little less than half of that time. I didn't quite know why the Battosai never really spoke to me though. We were the two best hitokiris on the rebel side and so even in the short time I had been employed we had been sent on many missions together. Still he never seemed to talk to me more than necasarry even on a professional level.

So today I decided was the time to ask him about it was today. I might be a heartless killer, but I did need to have someone to talk to. Just to make sure that I wasn't a monster. I made my way over to his rock. I cleared my throat. He said nothing and did not even acknowledge that I had said anything at all. I pursed my lips. "Battosai," I said quietly. He grunted but still didn't look at me. I sighed. Time to get this over with, "Battosai, why don't you like me?" He sat up and glared at me. I held his gaze. "It's not that I don't like you, Shingetsu. It's just that I don't think they should let a little girl come on these missions let alone kill someone." I frowned and crossed my arms over my chest. "You're the same age as me roughly, I mean 19 to 17. Close enough."

He looked down and I think he might have blushed a little. I ignored the fact that it was disgraceful a hitokiri to show any emotion at all. Then I knew why it made him uncomfortable to work with me. "Because I'm a girl?" I shrieked in anger. "I will have you know that I can do everything a man can. And you would do well to respect me as a fellow murderer because you know what will happen if you don't!" I yelled at him and spun on my heel to walk away. Then I sensed danger and ducked. A dagger flew over my head and thudded into the tree in front of me. I turned my icey eyes upon the Battosai. "What the hell was that?" I hissed. He glared at me his violet eyes every bit as sharp as his dagger. "That was a reminder who is in charge here." I growled, "Oro?" He sneered, "And is that your little made up word?" I ground my teeth to hold back a torrnet of the worst curse words imaginable. "No, it means come again. Like you would give a damn." I spun on my heel once again and started running. I think I heard a sigh coming from behind me, but this time it was me who didn't give a damn.