Cantarella
From the POV of Kaito
I am a ruthless assassin, born to kill. I will leave no living being standing in the path to my target. This is how it is for me. This is how it always will be for me. I always told myself this, not knowing any other kind of life. That was before the mission.
It started off like any other mission. The request was placed in the main hall and all of us gathered around it. We mused about the reward. That was when I took my leave to go to the Mission Office. A friend of mine was arguing with Ceil the mission manager about her cut, trying desperately to get more money for the job.
"C'mon, Ceil! You know I do most of the work on the missions, you know that Gakupo-kun's a lazy butt!" the red haired girl yelled at Ceil.
"I don't care who did more of the work on the mission. The monkey that lived at the victim's house could have killed a demon and you two would still have to split it 50-50!" Ceil told the red haired girl like she was a small child that needed telling off. The girl retaliated by sticking her tongue out at Ceil, but she didn't argue with him.
"Hey, Kaito-kun!" the girl yelled from across the room when she saw me.
"Hi, Jay." I said as I waved back. "You just got back from a mission?"
"Yup. I'm looking for another one, though." Jay replied, playing with her red braid.
"You haven't heard about the new assassination request, then, right?" I asked cautiously.
"No, I've heard about it. Ready to go too." Jay said. "The horses are still ready out back."
"You want to come with me?"
"Heck yeah! I'm tired of working with Gakupo-kun, the lazy butt he is." Jay said to me the second Gakupo came in through the window.
"Hey! I am not lazy! Do NOT ditch me so you can go on a mission with Kaito! I'll have to be stuck with Luka!" Gakupo yelled at Jay.
"What do you mean 'stuck with'?" Luka said in a threatening tone as she walked in to the Mission Office.
"Let's get going, before Luka breaks out the giant tuna." Jay said and hightailed it out the window. I told Ceil that we were taking the mission and followed Jay. No need to get whacked by a giant tuna of doom. As soon as I got outside, Jay asked me a question.
"So, what are we doing?"
Act 2
While we were on the train we had a lot of time to assess how we were going to kill the princess. We ended up going with old fashioned palace infiltration and poison. After resolving that pressing matter, I went to sleep. After a few hours I knew the train had stopped for two reasons. Reason number one: I no longer felt like I was falling off the seat. Reason number two: Jay was trying to shake me awake.
"C'mon Kaito, don't turn into Gakupo on me. You have to get up!" Jay said as she rattled my brains out.
"Nwah….." I moaned as Jay flipped me over.
"Kaito, I'm serious, get up. I will tickle you." I gave Jay a look. "Fine. I'll carry you." Jay said and picked me up. She put me over her shoulder and exited the train. I'm sure she received some weird looks as she exited the train station, but I know that Jay won't care about that. She probably wants to get to the inn and take a nap too.
We arrived at the inn about twenty minutes later and Jay tossed me on to the bed. I rolled over and cracked my eyelids a little to check on her. She put the bags on the other bed and walked over to me.
"Hey Kaito, we've got an hour or so before the princess's big party. You can sleep till then, okay?" Jay said and ruffled my hair a little. It wasn't long before I felt a warm, human body snuggle up next to mine.
"Jay?" I asked in a whisper voice. "Are you cold or something?"
"Mmm-hm." Came Jay's muffled reply. I rolled over and put my arms around her. She snuggled father into my grasp almost immediately and closed her eyes. I did the same and soon fell asleep.
BONG, BONG, BONG. The bells from the nearby church rang out waking me and Jay from our nap. Jay rolled out of my embrace and on to the floor into a big cat stretch. Yawning, she went into the bathroom and the water started running. I silently thanked her for not rattling my brains out again. I rolled out of the bed and found my bag. The contents consisted of a suit, not unlike the court people wear. There was also a mask and a pair of cat ears. I smiled. Jay is a moron at the best of times, seeing how the party we were crashing was a masquerade ball. The sound of rushing water stopped and I heard a cabinet open. A few seconds later, Jay came out of the bathroom with her body wrapped in a towel.
"Okay, it's all yours." She said and tossed me a towel. I caught the towel and went in to the bathroom. Just as I turned around to close the door, Jay let the towel fall off her body, leaving me in full view of her backside. She turned around and screamed at me. "Kaito, you pervert! Quit looking at my butt and close the door!" I quickly obliged so as to keep my head. I heard a shuriken impale it's self in the bathroom door. Ah, I'm glad I closed it.
Act 3
After the whole drama of trying to figure out court clothes, (They really are complicated!) we set off for the palace. We passed many nobles at the gate, so getting an invitation was very easy. The air around the palace hinted at bloodshed. The stage was set, with all the cast on it and the curtain was ready to fall.
The guards looked at us suspiciously as we passed, but they let us in anyway. The great hall was elaborately decorated to look like a forest, and the courtiers were all dressed according to this theme. A beautiful green haired girl sat daintily on the throne. There was our target. Jay slipped out of the crowd and looked around. An ordinary person would have thought she was admiring the decorations, but any learned assassin would know that she was scoping the area for a shooting spot. She quickly found what she was looking for and shot back to my side.
"It's all downhill from here. Get the princess out of the guards range. Then I'll shoot." Jay told me. I nodded and passed her a vial of poison.
"Just in case your aim's off." I said as a pushed it in to her hand. This time she nodded and then disappeared. The crowd seemed to disperse after this and the orchestra started to play. I waited in the shadow of a pillar for the princess to come down from her throne to dance. Then I'll lead her outside so Jay can shoot her. The crowd around me moved with the beat of the waltz, luring my attention off the princess. I drifted off into my thoughts until I felt a tap on my arm. It was the princess.
"Would you be so kind as to dance with me?" she asked me. I bowed and took her hand. I slowly whirled her around the dance floor, learning more and more about the princess as I did.
"Thank you for dancing with me. It saved me from having to dancing with my fiancé. He's not as gentle." Said the princess. I listened to all of her problems, wanting to help her solve them more and more with each passing minute. She had an abusive fiancé, an uncle that wanted her dead and a love that she could not see because if her family found out, he would be executed. As she told me these problems, I could not help and think why is a small helpless girl faced with all these problems?
A sudden crash came from the pavilion, followed by a scream. The princess and I rushed outside I time to see one of Jay's poisoned darts fly from the shooter on her arm to the heart of a yellow haired prince.
"Kaito. We've got to get out of here." Jay said bluntly as she rose from the dead body of the prince. The princess slowly backed away from me.
"You're… you're assassins! My uncle sent you to kill me!" she screamed. She started another scream, but she was cut off Jay knocking her out.
"JAY!" I screamed at my partner, and soon found myself in the same position as the princess. I suppose that Jay made quite an explosion exiting the palace, but I didn't see it. I was out cold.
I woke up in the forest, with Jay next to me sharpening one of her knives. The princess was tied to a nearby tree, struggling.
"Kaito, you've seriously got to read these request posters better." Jay said, holding up the request for our mission. "Kaito, this says prince of the yellow country, not princess of the green country!"
"SO WHY DID YOU KIDNAP HER!" I yelled at Jay.
"Because I know that you are in loooooooooove." She said, rolling the o in an annoying way.
"JAY!"
"Can I say something?" the princess asked over our arguing.
"WHAT!" we both yelled in perfect unison.
"I'm in love. I can account for that." The princess told us.
"Let's get home. You too." I said and untied the princess.
In a few weeks, we reached the Association. Gakupo and Luka were outside waiting for us when we arrived. Gakupo clobbered Jay in a huge hug, going on and on about how he missed her and how she should never leave him again. I smiled and laughed at them, until Jay death glared me into silence. I left and cashed the mission, leaving a little extra for Jay. The mission was done and life could return to normal. Or as normal as it will ever be. And that's not very normal.
Princess Miku and I got married in the spring and all was well. THE END.