Aannd I'm back! I swear I'll finish this someday. I'll definitely see this story to its proper end, and not randomly kill off everyone just to call it complete.


How I Became an Assassin

On the Field

"…only to find out escape was futile…"


What she saw outside was a barren field.

May found herself on the edge of a brown, dusty field. This flat, lifeless land stretched out as far as May could see. No shrubbery in sight. No cover. How would she be able to run away?

The only things interrupting this flat horizon were a few concrete buildings, identical to the one May had just escaped from. There were no visible windows and no open doors. Security cameras lined the roof of them, quietly scanning each square foot of land around them.

She gritted her teeth in anger and started to dart around the training arena building she just escaped from, trying to find a shadow to hide in. However, the building was a perfect rectangle. It was nearly noon and the sun was directly overhead. There was no shade. The security cameras continued to sweep industriously around. May was pretty sure she was already seen and caught.

'I've done so much to escape,' she thought furiously, 'I'm not going to give up now!'

She reached a corner of the training arena building and flattened herself against it, carefully listening for any movements on the other side. She was about to peek around the corner when - WHOOSH!

She jumped back, startled, as the sound of a roaring engine suddenly jumped to life nearby. The engine soon quieted to a slow purr. With wide eyes May viewed a sleek black jet take off silently into the sky. It left a duststorm in its wake, causing May to squeeze her eyes shut in pain when some dirt and debris blew into them.

Her eyes watering, she crouched down and shielded her face from any more incoming rubble. Suddenly, she felt a hand on her arm.

The next moment, she was pinned to the ground with a yelp.

'Well, well, well...' an all-familiar voice said calmly as he viciously twisted her arm behind her back. 'What do we have here?'

A swift chop on the back of the neck was all it took to bring May into a familiar world of darkness.


When she woke up, her arms and legs were shackled to a table. A cursory look around let May identify the room as the torture chamber she had briefly visited on her first day at the arena.

May slowly raised her eyes and her gaze immediately met with Drew's, who was sitting across the table. She quickly shifted her gaze to the table. His face was relaxed and his legs were casually crossed, but May saw a small spark of anger burning in his eyes.

He broke the silence first. 'Truthfully, I was wondering if this day would happen. You were so feisty when you were first brought here,' he said calmly, standing up and slowly making his way around the table. He placed his arms on the back of May's chair silently, and hissed in her ear, "But I never thought you'd dare to breach my trust."

"Well, deceit and backstabbing are important to assassins on field missions of course," Drew continued in a frighteningly calm tone as he straightened up, "but these qualities are not required between a mentor and novice. More importantly, you missed a very important quality of assassins: memory."

His hand shot out and pulled out the silver necklace hidden under her shirt, the medallion given to official novices. "I haven't been shocking you with the medallion for a while, so I guess you've forgotten that I can track you through it." May's face fell. She had grown accustomed to wearing it 24 hours a day that she had barely remembered its existence. She had been so excited about finding the hidden pathway that she had forgotten the fact that the medallion contained a GPS. Her dreams of escaping had clouded her judgement.

May sat there, pale yet defiant. But inside, a myriad of sadness and disappointment washed over her. She had plotted this escape for weeks! Getting on Drew's good side, learning more about him, working hard in her training...all this hard work gone in a single minute.

Drew's fingers lightly brushed the red marks still dotting May's neck, causing her to shiver. "To think that I was worried for my novice's condition and gave her a break from training, only for her to try launching a great escape! You must have been so proud, only to discover that there is no way to escape out there." His fingers pressed harder onto the wounds, causing May to wince in pain. But May silently noted that he deftly withdrew his hand before he worsened the wounds.

"So?" he asked with a sneer, walking away from her and sitting back down across the table. "How did it feel to escape the training arena, only to realise there's nowhere to run?"

May glared at him with all your might. Not seeming to mind her silence, Drew said idly, tracing the edges of the table with a single finger, "Well, it's pretty boring out there. Nothing to see, nowhere to hide, nowhere to run away..."

His dragonlike gaze rose to meet May's eyes once more, causing her to stiffen in her chair.

"But I certainly have to be more careful from now on," he said softly, his voice quieting even further to a soft purr, his finger still gracefully trailing the table. May squinted slightly and realized with a small start that small buttons lined the side of it. "I let you have free rein these few weeks, but what other plans are you scheming? It surely would be detrimental if you're plotting to kill me…"

His voice trailed off, and he turned an expectant gaze to May, now crossing both arms on the table as he watched her. She swallowed once, looked away from his gaze a few times, but finally turned back to face him. Kill him? She hadn't even thought about that idea once. Not because she didn't want to, more like it wasn't possible in the first place. He was much more skilled than her, and if running away couldn't escape his notice, then how would killing him possibly do?

During her long internal monologue May realized he was still waiting for her answers. She licked her lips and looked down before quietly saying, "I would never…plot to ki-"

"Liar." Drew said, cutting her off before she finished, making her look up in surprise. He tilted his head slightly to the side, smirking as he did so. "Did you actually think you could actually lie to me?"

"I wasn't!" May shot back, getting aggravated for the first time since waking up in the room. "I haven't even thought of this idea before, how would I even-" but then she caught herself. It was true that she had never thought of the idea before. She doubted she could ever be able to kill him, anyways. But the second he asked her that question, the split second after the words left his lips May realized she already had an answer in her heart.

Deep down, May was desperate enough to do anything to escape back to her family. And that included killing Drew. But she wouldn't just kill him out of revenge, or the sake of killing…perhaps…

"…I wouldn't kill you out of cold blood." May finally responded. "And it's not even possible, anyways." She shifted in her chair after she said that, feeling a bit annoyed. But why? Why was she feeling annoyed in the first place?

"That took a long time for you to respond." Drew stated flatly, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms. "And that was a pretty weak response." May had nothing to say to that.

He leaned back towards her, resting his arms on the table. "But as I said before, it would be detrimental if you're plotting to kill me. What exactly are you thinking? How much are you hiding; are you lying? After your escape, I just can't let this slide…"

A glow started to appear from deep within his emerald eyes. May blinked twice, but the glow seemed to just get brighter and brighter. His eyes glinted like jewels, and May strangely felt as if she was being sucked into them. As if her mind, her memories and her thoughts were being illuminated by that bright clear gaze...Her memories with her family…Her after-school shenanigans with her friends…Her tiredness from all the training…Her desperation to leave…May fought against the gaze, clearing out her mind, her thoughts, her…

Then Drew blinked and the moment was gone.

May collapsed into her chair, suddenly feeling drained. She looked across the table at Drew and noticed that he looked slightly annoyed, yet relieved...?

She watched as he ruffled his hair. His eyes darted around, his expression deep in thought, before they narrowed for a split second. May had just started to wonder what he was thinking when Drew rapidly hardened his expression, his eyes dimming and firming back into his dragonlike gaze.

"Wha…?" May managed to utter in confusion, but her mind was spinning furiously. In that moment, it really felt if her mind was being laid bare to Drew. Had he really been able to read her thoughts, her plans, her dreams? But wasn't mind reading a thing of fairy tales? It surely wasn't possible….

She was snapped out of her frantic thoughts by a small tablet screen placed in front of her. Drew, seemingly recovered from his confusion, coldly gestured for her to turn it on, before remembering that her arms were shackled. He deftly pressed the power button at the side of the tablet. As the screen flickered on, a live video began to buffer.

"The first day you arrived, I remember telling you that your family is in our custody," Drew said, his sentence cutting through May like ice. "That everything you say or do could put their life on the line." He paused, raising an eyebrow until May silently nodded in agreement.

"What we meant by custody was-" Drew started, before trailing off as he noticed the video had loaded.

A slightly static image of a living room appeared. May quickly recognized it as her own, but she noticed that there were papers haphazardly tossed into piles over the couches, the carpet, and the tables. She frowned slightly. Her tidy mom would never leave them like that…

Then, a slender figure made its way onto the screen. May gasped quietly as she saw her mom, visibly thinner than before, even with the blurry video.

"We didn't kidnap them," Drew said softly so that she could barely hear, yet every word he said stabbed May's heart. "Too much trouble, I'd say. We left them to their own devices at home, frightened out of their minds, desperate to find their lost daughter…"

May swallowed as the video feed switched to show their kitchen. Her father sat there in front of swathes of untouched food, hollowly gazing at the day's newspapers. He tossed it aside and picked up another one.

Drew reached over and swiped the screen to show the footage from their garden. "See something there?" he asked, gesturing near the tree.

May's eyes widened and her face blanched as she noticed a sniper aiming directly through the kitchen's window to her father's head. "…You-you wouldn't…." she said, stuttering in fear. White sparks clouded her vision. No, no, she couldn't lose her father, she had just plotted a stupid escape which landed her nowhere and-

"May," Drew said, cutting her off from her panic. "Look at me."

She slowly raised her eyes up to Drew. He was holding a walkie-talkie in his hand.

"No, no- please, I'll do anything, please don't-" May begged, her eyes filling with tears. "I'll never plot an escape again I'll listen to everyth-"

"Fire."


Time seemed to slow down as May watched the kitchen window's glass shatter and her father fall from his chair. Her mind went completely blank. She sat there, unmoving, a lone tear slowly dripping down her cheek and onto the screen.

Drew put down the walkie-talkie on the table with a small 'clunk'. "Now you know how dire the consequences are for misbehaviour," he said quietly, but May was barely listening. She stared hollowly at the walkie-talkie as she thought of her father, gone…

"But," Drew continued, "I'm giving you one last chance."

'One last…what…?'

He gestured for her to look back at the screen. May's mother was rushing into the kitchen, bending down to May's father. And her father was shaking his head, he was getting up- he was alive!

"H-how-" May said, her lip trembling so much she could barely talk. She watched her younger brother rush into the kitchen as well, hurrying to check if his father was okay.

"I previously told the sniper to just aim above his head," Drew replied as he reached forward to turn off the tablet screen and to take it away. His hand paused slightly as a stream of tears fell onto his hand.

"Can I expect you to be an obedient novice from now on?" he asked as he continued to clear away the tablet and wiped the back of his hand on his shirt. May silently nodded, tears still steaming off her face.

Drew's hand reached over, seemingly to wipe her tears, but he swiftly withdrew his hand and turned away. He pressed a button near the door to unshackle May's arms and legs and left her alone in the room to recover.


Three months flew by. May acted wary and obedient, eager to prevent anything from happening to her family. Naturally, Drew was stricter than before, but that was within expectations. She regained his trust to some extent, and he slowly grew warmer to her, till it seemed like her escape had never happened. More tests were held, and May passed some (and failed some), but slowly and steadily she was rising through the ranks of the novices.

Her room had been completed, and she enjoyed the solace in the evening that came with it (though she was still locked inside at night). With her rise in ranks she had been granted more personal belongings in her room: a desk lamp, a photo frame where she had securely placed her only photo of her family, a vase for the innumerous roses Drew kept handing her.

Meals at the cafeteria was a much calmer business now; May was no longer the lowest ranking novice there. She now had proper food (though it was much less fancy compared to Drew's), and she watched with quiet empathy as other novices were bullied by jealous or irritated mentors in the cafeteria. Occasionally she was still threatened, but threats were now only verbal: Drew now kept his unsheathed dagger on the table during all the meals. They maintained a harmonious mentor-novice facade in the cafeteria: no one had mentioned or seemed to know that May had tried to escape.

Until…

A hush fell over the cafeteria, causing May to feel a sense of déjà vu. The last time this had happened, A had appeared, praised her for passing the novie exam, and caused a fight between Drew and another mentor. What would happen this time…?

"Nice day today, isn't it?" sneered the familiar cold voice from behind her. May dared not turn around, staring straight ahead. But then she met Drew's sharp gaze, swallowed slightly and shifted slightly in her seat to face A, the boss of the corporation.

"It's even nicer to see that you two are getting along…" A said, tilting his head to the side.

Drew nodded stiffly. "Thanks," he managed to say. The people eating next to them quietened, then slowly turned themselves to watch this interruption.

"…I wasn't finished with my sentence." A hissed, narrowing his eyes. Drew swallowed and straightened ever-so-slightly in his seat, his eyes growing cold.

"It's certainly nice for you two to get along now," A continued, a taunting look now appearing in his eyes. "But what's not acceptable is not disciplining your novice correctly. Am I correct, M?"

May was slightly confused as to who he was referring to until she remembered Drew's codename was M. She had been calling his name for months…

"You are correct," Drew replied rigidly, cutting May out of her thoughts. She turned her full attention back onto A, but at the same time was uncomfortably aware that everyone's eyes were once again on them.

"Then…" A said, his voice growing louder. "Why have I received a report that to discipline a certain novice's escape, a sniper was dispatched to Norman Maple's house…and that the sniper misfired?"

May stiffened at the mention of her father's name. A stared into her eyes and seemed to relish the panic that flashed across her face.

"Now, a misfiring is a grave problem indeed," A continued. "A manhunt was launched by the local investigators to trace the origin of that stray bullet, and I've had to send that sniper into hiding. Now, I wonder if this misfiring was due to the insufficient training given to our sniper, or was it…?"

"I ordered the misfiring." Drew spat out, cutting off A's drawn out story. A cocked a brow at Drew's tone of voice.

"As the lowest ranking mentor on the table, are you sure that you should talk like that?" A asked mildly, but his eyes brimmed with increasing malice. Then, suddenly changing the topic, A said, "I've read your training proposal for the remaining time before the mission. Quite a packed one I daresay, since the operation is happening so soon. It would be quite a miracle to finish it on time."

Drew stared impassively at his boss, waiting for him to continue.

"I've decided to send you on a field mission." A said, a slight sneer playing on the corners of his lips. "The details will be found on your desk later. Feel free to peruse it after your meal."

With that, he left the cafeteria, his footsteps echoing through the large room.

Drew turned his attention back down to his food and continued eating his breakfast as if nothing happened. May quietly followed suit, trying her best to ignore the stares and murmurs around her.

Finally, when he finished his meal, Drew indicated for May to leave the cafeteria with him.


"Damn it!" Drew hissed the second the cafeteria doors closed behind him. May looked at him, startled. She had rarely seen him that agitated.

"Is it…really that bad to be given this assignment?" she ventured, hurrying to keep up with his quick steps towards his room.

"It depends on the length of the assignment…tch!" Drew said snappily in response, his footsteps increasing in pace with every word.

They walked in silence along the length of a corridor before May quietly said, "Uh…I'm sorry. And thanks."

Drew glanced behind and met her sincere eyes for a second. Then he turned back to the front, gruffly saying, "Don't know what you're apologizing or thanking me for. Let's get back to look at the assignment."

They reached their room, the door sliding smoothly open at Drew's touch. At the middle of the dining table lay a plain brown file. Drew strode across the room and snatched it up, his face darkening as he quickly skimmed it, his hands deftly flipping through the few pages in the file. Growling, he tossed the file onto one of the sofas, before collapsing onto another sofa.

"It's a fifty-day assignment," Drew groaned, ruffling his hair. "And I had finally finished my training proposal…is it even possible to finish the training with a month and a half's worth of time lost?"

May sat opposite him and tentatively opened the file. There was a photo of a brown-haired, unassuming teenage girl. May frowned as she skimmed through her basic profile, noting that she was a spy from another corporation, then flipped to the next page. She felt a sudden chill as she read the the second page:

"50: Leech and kill

Objectives: …"

"50 means fifty days," Drew said, now smoothing down his ruffled hair and straightening his posture. "I'm sure you noticed the '0' written in ink. It was originally a 5-day mission, and just for that, he increased it to 50…such a stupid assignment to boot…"

As Drew groaned yet again, May continued reading the objectives. "Targets noted…other related persons…what does this all mean?" she wondered, frowning in confusion as she read the list out loud. She frowned even harder when she read the last line on the page. When she was about to talk about it, Drew deftly plucked the file out of her hands and closed it.

"It's related to the mission you'll be sent on when you finish your training," he replied ambiguously. "You can worry about that later. What's more important now is preparing for this mission...I need to contact the tech department to craft my ID, and think of where to send you during these 50 days…maybe to Sheryl? I don't think that's allowed, though, because she has her own novice." He sighed, tossed the file aside and took out his glasses and a binder, about to search through a list of available mentors when May interrupted him.

"Drew…you might want to look at the last line on the second page." She said, gesturing back to the file. He cocked a brow, before opening it and quickly flitting to the second page.

His face darkened. Then, after a few moments, he quietly put down the file, took of his glasses and headed to his room.

"Clean up or something. I'm taking a nap." he grumbled, shutting the door behind him.

May look one last look at the second page before closing it and tidying up the file, glasses and binder Drew had left on the couches. The last line, crudely written in blank ink, read:

"The novice must come along for the mission."


I wonder how the field mission will turn out? Stay tuned for the next chapter!

I hope you'll drop a review for me! They really keep me going!

~KurunaGirl