Assassin from Hell
Assassin from Hell
A twisted love story
By Kyomi Terakada
Chapter Ten: Welcome to Our World
A sorrowful theme rang through Veins. Nestled in the canyon valley by the Thor Volcano, every note that was played bounced off the tall cliffs that surrounded the village -- no, small city. It has grown much since Effiel had last been there.
With the discovery of Hetarium, Veins had begin to prosper. And with that prosperity, what city could not grow?
Another note echoed off the cliffs. A slow song, melting into the sunset welcomed the travelers to Veins. A minstrel sat in the square with his lute. His long fingers plucked the strings which created the melody. Before him was a gypsy, twirling, and hopping lightly from one foot to another. The light translucent fabric that covered her arms trailed behind her gently, the golden chains and bracelets on her wrists and ankles jingled. Noticing the four travelers, the gypsy turned to face them and bowed.
Ying blinked, noticing that there were two small horns peeking out of the gypsy's long blonde hair.
The gypsy straightened herself and ran straight towards the priest. She pulled him into a hug and tugged on his hair.
Effiel smiled in spite of himself. For a return to a place he had grown to dislike, he never realized how much he missed Veins till now.
"Man, you've grown!" She exclaimed, laughing. "How's things been?"
Shiroi appeared between Ying and Effiel and smiled. "It's been a while, Succu," he said, raising a hand towards the gypsy in greeting.
She grinned at the stalker's voice. "Shiroi!
The stalker smiled. "I'll talk to you in a moment, I need to drop off these two duckies to the guild first," he said while placing one hand on Ying and his other on Effiel's head.
Succubus laughed. "Alright, I'll see you later." She winked, and nodded to the minstrel. The minstrel flashed the gypsy a thumbs up.
The music began to play again.
Back in Payon, a certain assassin of the Cross was pissed off.
"What do you mean he left without me?!" he shouted when Lucifer finally told him that Shin, the guild's biochemist was gone. Not that it was normally a big deal, but when he's the head of the alchemy "department" of the guild, that's somewhat of a problem.
Aslan wasn't very good at making poisons, and with his girlfriend kidnapped and his poison items keeper on a "voluntary rescuing mission", and with his poison stock run out weeks before, it's not good.
Every member in the guild at that time was pretty scared of the assassin, since a sharp throwing knife would be hurled in their direction if anyone dared to make even contact with him.
So obviously, for the longest time, no one was brave enough to tell him where Ying had gone, and what had happened.
"Well, don't you have a warp to Rachel?" Aslan demanded, when he finally got the answer he was looking for.
Lucifer shrugged. "Sure I do. But what are you gonna do when you get there? I don't have any more people to spare on this mission, and since Shin and Montblanc haven't reported me on their current status on the same mission, why should you go? What good would you do them? Get drunk again in Rachel? What happens if they get you too? Hell, I don't have any idea if they got those two now."
Aslan cringed as Lucifer began ranting about the whole incident.
Suddenly, a warp portal opened on the ground.
"Alright, whatever, go. You have two days. After two days, if I don't get any message from either you or them, I'm calling you all back, no questions asked."
Aslan nodded and stepped into the glowing portal.
The Hearts guild in Veins wasn't as glorious as the Hell guild in Payon, but damn, it was huge.
And even though it was so large, there was no room for the poor assassin to stay in.
"We never expected for Shiroi and Blue to bring another guest with them, so we have no spare room prepared for you," Saruki explained kindly. "This place may look large, but most of the rooms that are large enough already have two people in them."
"How did this place get so many people so quickly?" asked Blue, the gunslinger who had been with them.
Saruki sighed. "Like I said in that message I sent to you and Shiroi, Titus took over Hearts and was the one who ordered for you three to leave the Rachel Temple. You know him; he never liked the temple in the first place. He's recruited more members in hopes to take down Hell. Not sure what they ever did to us, but I guess something did something to him to get him pissed."
Effiel froze. Titus was a name he had hoped he never had to hear again. The person who had ridiculed his sister and their religion, he was the person who had caused his sister to die. The young priest balled both his hands into fists.
Ying looked worriedly at Effiel. She didn't understand what was going on, but something seemed to get the priest angry. She turned to look at Shiroi and the gunslinger.
"Hm, and who's this? New recruit?" Saruki asked, looking at Ying.
Shiroi shook his head. "This is Ying," he answered. "We found her wandering in Rachel early in the morning one day and Blue accidentally shot her while she was in the temple." He flashed a look at Blue and the gunslinger nodded.
"Quite the messup, wouldn't you think? It's lucky that no one reported that to the temple, else we'd really never be able to go back there," Saruki replied. "Anyway, like I said before, I'm sorry we didn't prepare you a room, but I'm sure one of the captains wouldn't mind sharing their room with you."
There were no "captains" in Hell, just "heads of 'departments'". Ying herself was a department head, but she considered herself more of a shepherd. She led the rookies to places where they could train and made sure they kept out of too much danger. The other department heads were of the merchants and alchemy, alchemists and biochemists who made acids, potions and the merchants who kept inventory of items for the guild. There were other ones too, but most of those departments weren't used, only during missions and guild wars, which weren't too often.
Anyway, Ying didn't know who those captains were, but she didn't need to take long to find out.
There were three captains in Hearts. These three captains were like dorm heads, keeping the large number of members in the guild happy with their rooms and such. There was a champion, Kuroi, a paladin Misei, and a lord knight, Aikaryu.
Unfortunately, Misei shared her room with a sniper and Aikaryu shared his room with an assassin.
The room Kuroi stayed in wasn't hers to belong with.
It belonged to…
Kuroi and Shiroi stood side by side infront of Ying. The assassin blinked.
Kuroi dressed in black clothing, Shiroi dressed in white.
If you ignored the fact that they were of different genders, they looked almost alike.
Almost.
Ying noticed that Shiroi was noticeably taller.
"Meet my sister, Kuroi," Shiroi said to Ying as he pulled his the champion towards him and grinned.
"Meet this girl I met in Rachel, Ying," the stalker turned to the champion. "Now get out of my room."
The champion put her hands on her hips. "Your room? Who's been forcefully put in charge of the people here for the time you were gone?"
Shiroi smiled. "Be nice now. What's-her-face probably misses her roommate, you know?"
Kuroi rolled her eyes. Shiroi's smile turned into a grin. "That's a good girl. While you're at it, can you bring Ying to Aikara? Tell her Ying needs to borrow some assassin gear."
His sister nodded and mock-saluted. "Yes sir! Right away, sir!" She turned to Ying. "Let's go."
The assassin followed silently.
Aikara's room was in the other side of the building. When the two arrived in front of it, Kuroi knocked on the door and stepped back. "Kara," she said.
A silver haired girl in a white assassin of the Cross uniform opened the door slightly. Her head peeked out though the crack. "Kuroi. Can I help you?"
The champion gestured to Ying. "This is a guest Shiroi brought with him when he returned. She hasn't gotten anything with her, so he would like to know if she can borrow some."
Aikara smiled and pushed the door open. "Certainly, come in."
Inside the room, There was an obvious split down the centre. One side was neat, a bed made, not a speck of dirt on the floor. The other side was messy, with armor and swords and blankets thrown on the floor, papers and books scattered around the table. Another silver haired person leaned on the bed, back propped up against the wall, left leg crossed over their right. The person looked up from their book.
Kuroi bowed. "Sorry for the intrusion, sir."
The person on the bed waved a hand. "Don't worry about it. But I would've cleaned up a little if I knew someone was coming."
"Great first impression, Aika," snickered Kara.
Kuroi coughed. "Anyway, I'll leave her to you, alright?" Kara nodded. "See you around."
"See you later, Ying," the champion smiled and closed the door behind her.
"So, normal assassin clothing, huh?"
Ying nodded silently.
"Any preferred colour?"
"Black," she answered quietly.
"Alrighty," Kara replied, pulling out a chest underneath her bed. She opened it up and began taking out the clothing from inside. She stopped when she found a black outfit and put all the others back inside the chest.
"Don't worry if you break it, I don't wear these anymore."
Ying noticed that the clothing in her arms was lighter than the ones she'd worn in a while.
"Is there anything else you need?"
Ying thought for a moment. "Poisons, and katars, if you have any to spare, please."
Kara frowned slightly. "I have the katars, but for the poisons, I have barely enough myself. I just haven't enough time to make any." She pushed the chest back under the bed and walked over to a shelf at the end of her bed. There was a cupboard at the bottom of the shelf, and she opened it. Inside were some red bottles and a few boxes, all labeled. The bottom shelf of the cupboard shimmered, the metal of katars and daggers reflecting the candlelight.
"Take whatever you need," Kara smiled, and paused for a second. "Ah, would you try that on for a moment? I'll need to get someone to make it fit you if it doesn't."
Ying nodded again, but didn't move.
Kara laughed slightly. "Alright. Aika, come out with me. Just open the door when you're done, Ying."
The two of them walked out the door, closing it behind them.
Ying slipped into the assassin clothing.
No wonder it was lighter than usual—it was assassin clothing.
"I guess being an assassin is better than being one of the Cross," Ying mumbled to herself.
The assassin turned back to the cupboard and looked once again at the boxes inside. They were labeled with "Venom canine", "Cactus needle", "Bee sting", "Poison Spore", and "Karvodailnirol". Beside those boxes were two types of bottles, one filled with an orange liquid, and another empty.
Ying slipped some of each into folds of her clothing. She gently placed an infiltrator on top and tied the clothing into a bundle. She picked the bundle up and opened the door. Aika and Kara stood outside, leaning against the wall.
"Perfect fit!" Kara cried. "No need to change anything. I love it when that happens," she smiled. "Come back if you ever need anything."
When Ying returned back to the other side, Shiroi was waiting for her.
"Did you get lost?" He asked, grinning. "What took you so long?"
His eyes looked her up and down. "It's nice to see you got what you needed."
"I got everything except a room to sleep in."
"Sure you do." Shiroi jabbed a thumb in the direction of his room.
"You're kidding."
"Normally, I would, but I've got a meeting to go to in a few minutes and by the time it's over, chances are, I won't be in the mood, or have the energy to argue or joke with you anymore. You either get a room now or sleep out here on the floor, because you won't be able to get one later."
Ying sighed in defeat and wandered into the room.
Unlike Kara's, the room had only one large bed. A set of clothing lay on one side of the bed, a pattern of white and pink flowers with green leaves on a rich red background.
"Kuroi left that for you," Shiroi answered before Ying could even pick it up. "It's a yukata for sleep."
Saying that, he turned for the door. "I'm going for a bit. Kuroi will be with me at the meeting, so if you need any help with anything, go bang around on the doors. Someone will help you."
Damn, that was reassuring.
Finally alone in the room, Ying changed out of the assassin's clothing and into the yukata. She folded up the black uniform and placed it on the table on one side of the bed. The assassin then turned to the bundle. She untied it and placed the items on the floor. The infiltrator was placed on top of the uniform and the dress she had used to hold all the items folded up and placed in a drawer under the table.
Ying gently put a venom canine, cactus needle, bee sting and poison spore in each empty bottle. Little tubes of karvodailnirol and bottles of berserk potions clinked as she gently picked them up and uncapped them. She poured one of the vials of chemical into one bottle of potion, swirled it around gently and poured that combination into the bottle. She watched as the contents of each bottle slowly melt; eaten by the chemical and turn red.
After the poison was made, Ying hid all the bottles in the drawer with her clothing. She gently placed them on top of her dress, making sure they were put in a way that they wouldn't clink together when the drawer was opened. A cracked poison bottle was bad, especially for the next person who touched anything in that area, for the chance of poison spilt unnoticed was fairly high and common.
With that all done, the assassin wandered outside.
When all the captains were present in the meeting hall, Titus began. "There's been talk of suspicious members wandering around Rachel lately. It's rumored that they're members o f Hell."
"More of them?" Misei asked. Titus nodded. "Hell had accepted the mission to assassinate the target, yet according to my sources, the assassinator had never returned to their base. Most likely, Hell is looking for their missing assassin. Furthermore, they had sent a rookie to do an elite's job. It was a bad choice on their part."
"Keep your eyes on the lookout," Titus commanded. "They have not come here, but once they do, it will be Hell's downfall."
"Dismissed."
As Kara and Aika returned to their room, the assassin turned to her brother. "I noticed some of my bottles are missing."
"Bottles?" Aika asked. "Perhaps Ying really took some of your poisons?"
Kara shook her head. "Not those bottles. The beserk and empty ones."
The lord knight shrugged. "Well, you did tell her that you're low on poisons. Perhaps she took some of the ingredients?"
Kara shook her head again. "She's a rookie assassin. She can't make poisons. The only way would be if she took them, thinking Shiroi could make them."
"That wouldn't be too bad, actually. Those stalker outfits are pretty hot," Aika grinned.
Kara rolled her eyes.
The stars shone bright in the sky.
Ying leaned back against the hard sandy rooftop, hands behind her head. She closed her eyes, thinking of everyone back in Payon. How was Lucifer? Was he handling the rookies well? Who did he put in her place for the time being to guide them?
What were they doing now? Perhaps sitting outside having chilled sake like they would on any warm night?
Ying missed the green shade of tall trees and cooler air.
She missed the times when there was someone to lean back to, someone who would hold her in their arms.
Ying sat up. Her vision blurred, and when she wiped her eyes, she noticed her fingertips were wet.
It had been only a week, and normally missions she went on lasted for longer, but this time seemed so different.
"Why did I agree to come with them?"
"Why didn't I just escape while I had the chance?"
Ying leaned back once again, expecting her back to hit the hard sandy flat roof, but instead, she landed on something a little bit softer.
He was dressed in a yukata of his own, one of a deep royal blue, contrasting with his white hair.
"Careful there," he said softly. "Don't hurt yourself."
She turned around to face him. "Shiroi…" she mumbled.
The stalker wore a gentle smile on his face, but it vanished when he saw her expression. "Is there something wrong?"
Before Ying knew what was going on, she had buried her head in his chest. Tears fell out uncontrollably.
"It's all right. I'm here," he said in the same soft tone, "tell me whatever you need to, take your time."
He pulled his arms around the assassin and the two of them sat on the roof of the guild house until the assassin finally drifted asleep.