Chapter 10: CP9 Closes In

"Rankyaku!"

*slice*

In midair, a falling leaf split in half. Sophia watched as the pieces flittered to the ground. The training had gotten her mind off the whole marriage issue. This made her wish O'Malley's lesson would never end.

"Now you try it. I want you to cut that tulip by the stem," he said pointing at the flowerbed.

"Hai"

Sophia took a deep breath and tensed her muscles. She cleared her head and only thought, "Cut the flower, cut the flower." Staring straight ahead, Sophia raised her right leg and brought her knee up to her chest. She then exhaled and let herself relax. Then with a swift upward motion, Sophia sent an invisible blade sailing at the bed of tulips, aiming for the tallest one among them.

"Rankyaku!"

*slice*

Sophia relaxed out of her stance and watched the tulip carefully. Had she missed? Was her rankyaku too dull? Her questions were answered as the tulip's blossom fell from its stem. It was a small, simple test but she couldn't help but feel a bit proud of herself. In itself, the results of her training were vey rewarding. O'Malley smiled and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"That's all for today Sophia. I promise to see you at the town's recital this weekend."

Sophia felt a pang of disappointment and asked, "There's no lesson tomorrow?"

"I'm afraid something has come up," he said as made his way to the garden's exit.

Sophia wore a sad expression as O'Malley made himself scarce.

Downtown 6 hours earlier.

The two agents sat across from each other at a quaint little tea house not too far from the upper-class neighborhoods. Flint sipped from a china teacup while Lucci fed bits of cake to Hatori. The early morning sunlight reflected off of Flint's shining scalp and caused his fellow assassin to momentarily squint. Both men had scoured the town searching for information regarding the recent raids carried out by the Revolutionaries. However, their mission, so far, had been fruitless. The tiny transponder snail in the middle of the table started to ring.

*petapetapeta*

*clack*

"Have you located the saboteur," asked the voice coming from the snail.

Flint held the mouthpiece and replied, "Negative, but we still haven't searched the entire area."

"If you fail to confirm and capture him, or her, then we'll have to get the agents of CP0 involved."

Both men flinched at the mention of the agency higher than theirs. CP0 was the agency of intelligence and was a mysterious, and extremely dangerous, bunch whose operatives answered to no one below them. To have them take responsibility for this mission would be like a bullet to the gut for the pride of CP9.

Flint brought the mouthpiece closer and retorted, "That won't be necessary. At the pace we are searching, we are bound to come across something sooner or later."

"You better pray you do. Contact us when you have found him, alive."

*clack*

Flint put away the snail in his breast pocket and finished his tea. Hatori pecked at the last crumbs of Lucci's cake and hopped back onto his master's right shoulder. The men sat in silence for a few minutes contemplating HQ's warning. Lucci broke the silence.

"Perhaps we should look into some of the lesser importing and exporting businesses. One of them might have turned to the Revolutionaries in order to keep himself afloat."

'Very well. We'll start wi-"

*CRASH*

The agents turned to see the house's owner, a stout middle-aged woman, cornered by three men with pistols. Shattered china littered the floor where she stood. The men towered over her in a display of intimidation.

One of them growled at the woman, "Where's your bastard husband, ehh?! He owes our boss for the tea he's buying from im!"

"The tea never came in. We decided there was no need to pay," said the frightened woman.

"Doesn't matter. You order it, you pay for it no matter the circumstances. Boss doesn't give a shit whether its the Rev's fault or not," said another one of the goons.

The third poked his pistol to the trembling woman's temple and started making ticking sounds.

"Excuse me."

The trio spun around and saw Flint and Lucci standing before them.

The leader withdrew from his group and said, "This is none of your business, get lo-"

"We'd prefer you leave. Me and my comrade have found a liking to this humble tea house and plan to return once we have finished our business. And seeing as you men work for that certain company, your tea tastes as good as rat excrement," said Flint.

The third man removed his pistol from the woman and pointed it at Flint. His tensed his finger on the trigger and was about to fire when he saw a flash of black.

*THWACK, THWACK*

In less than a second, Lucci had closed the distance between them and the men and used an upward kick, disarming the goon of his weapon and then palming him in the face. The man lost consciousness before his bloodied face hit the floor. Lucci then did a backflip over the second man and mule-kicked him in the chest, sending him crashing through a nearby window. It took the leader a moment to register what had happened.

"W-w-what the hell?"

Flint stepped forward and said, "If we see any of you around here again, you'll wish you were never conceived."

He now loomed over the goon, as if he were Death himself. A dark stain appeared on the man's trousers where it was once dry. He was now sweating bullets. Flint removed his sunglasses, revealing a cold stare that pierced the man's very soul. It was then that he made for the door and left. The woman, who was trembling for a moment, gathered her wits and approached the two assassins.

"A-arigatou gozaimashita, its nice to know that someone has taken such a liking to my tea and cakes. You both are welcome hear anytime."

Flint pulled out a few bills, handed them to her and replied, "This should cover the bill and the damages."

"Pardon the mess. This should be enough for the bill and the china I dropped."

She gave them a surprised look and said, "Oh, so generous! Say, you boys wouldn't happen to be friends with O'Malley-san would you?"

"...I'm afraid not. Who is this O'Malley," Flint asked.

"Well, he's a resident ballet teacher. Although, he does teach a little martial arts."

Flinted raised an eyebrow and asked, "I think we'd like to meet him, how do we find him?"

"No one knows where he lives. He's are pretty secretive man, but he's easy-going and gets along with everyone just fine?"

Flint beckoned Lucci and said, "Thank you for the tea miss, we have some business to attend to."

(Chapter 10 end)

For now on, Omalley will be spelled O'Malley.