Backstory 2. Centuries.
Kiku remembered the sound of the screams. He had been asleep. His parents had told him to stay in his bed. He screwed his eyes shut, folding the blanket tightly over his small body. But he could still hear them. He was used to death. That was what they were good for, his parents told him. That was how everyone in his town earned their money. They were not aligned with anyone, they earned money and they lived peacefully on their own. But hearing his own people scream…
Finally, finally, the screams stopped. Only because of the familiar sound of gunshots. Kiku never liked using guns. He preferred swords. His parents often complained about the cost of swords for a little kid like him, but that didn't matter. He was better with swords anyway. Kiku whimpered. If the screams stopped, that meant that his people must have died…
It was quiet.
Then he heard the footsteps and he shook even more. His parents told him that their town was "inconvenient". There were these things called countries around them and they happened to lie on a border, whatever that was. This meant that they were in the way. Kiku figured his parents were just waiting for this day. He held onto his sheets tighter as the footsteps walked into his house. It wasn't large, just one room. He was sure they saw him. He was dead…
"Go check some other houses, I don't see anything here," a man sighed and Kiku blinked in surprise.
"But, sire," another man attempted to argue.
"There is nothing here," the first man said coldly and a few footsteps left, though Kiku could definitely feel the presence of the first man. He had a lot of power to him…power he was uncomfortable with. "I'm not going to hurt you," Kiku jumped when he realized just how close the voice was. "You can come out."
Kiku delicately peeked over the covers, looking at the man in front of him. It was dark, they had attacked in the middle of the night, but this man appeared to glow. He had very light hair and pale skin and light purple eyes, laced with shadows underneath that told the boy that he didn't sleep well. The man smiled softly at him.
"Hello," the man attempted, shifting so that he knelt in front of Kiku. He seemed…surprised. Maybe he wasn't expecting Kiku to really be a child… "I'm sorry."
"Why did you attack?" Kiku asked quietly.
"I guess you could say because I was told to," the man smiled slightly, but it was a sad smile. Kiku sat up straight.
"Are you going to kill me, too?" Kiku asked.
"Do you want me to?" the man asked. It was a serious question. Kiku had to think about that for a little while. Sure, he was sad that his family was dead, but…that didn't mean he didn't want to live. He wasn't even crying. He was just afraid.
"Not really," Kiku muttered, licking his lips.
"Then how about this," the man offered. "I know two boys your age, they're in a similar position to you. They're family is dead and it's my fault. I'm sure they would love to get to know you. It's better than being alone."
Kiku looked at him, searching his face for some kind of lie, but there was none. The man before him only showed him kindness.
"You said you did this because you were told to," Kiku mumbled. "That means it's not your fault."
"I wish that could be true," the man smiled softly. "What do you say?"
It was better than dying, Kiku thought. So he nodded and the man nodded back.
"In that case," the man sighed, holding out a hand that Kiku took as he carefully climbed out of the bed. The man stayed kneeling down so they could be on the same level, "my name is Ivan. It is nice to meet you."
"Kiku."
"I'm going to warn you," Ivan sighed, a little sadly, "your town no longer exists. Coming with me means that you are a part of my country, do you understand that?"
Kiku nodded carefully. It was…better than dying. And he could have friends. He didn't really get to know a lot of the kids in his town very well, everyone was too busy practicing to kill people, really. If his town was dead, anyway, what else did he have to do but adapt?
"And I am the king," Ivan continued. "You will take orders from me."
"Where do your orders come from?" Kiku was under the impression that kings were the ones that made the rules, they didn't follow them.
"That is rather complicated," Ivan laughed slightly before standing. "You can still decide to leave."
"I don't know what else I'd do," Kiku said honestly.
Ivan smiled at him, leading the way out of the small house that was burned to the ground seconds after they left.
Kiku blinked. They blinked back. They were twins. The two kids stood in front of him, equally confused about him as he was about them. These were the two kids Ivan had told him about. But Ivan wasn't there, he was busy with work. So an adult just shoved him into this large house with these twins and they stared at each other. Minutes passed in this quiet.
Finally, one of the twins, the one with clunky, fake limbs, stepped forward.
"I'm Alfred," he said.
"Kiku."
"That's Matthew," Alfred looked back at his brother. "You're the guy Ivan talked to us about, huh?"
"Yes."
"Cool," Alfred nodded and they lapsed into silence once again. Kiku didn't know anything about these children, really. Just that they were in a similar position to Kiku.
"Have you killed anyone?" Matthew asked curiously, poking his head around Alfred, who jumped in surprise and glared at his brother.
"What kinda question is that?" Alfred snapped at him. "Why else would he be here?"
"You…kill people, too?" Kiku asked delicately.
"Don't worry, Ivan told us it wasn't bad, so it's not," Alfred gave him a bright smile. "Those people we killed were bad, so we had to kill them."
"You have an interesting sense of justice," Kiku muttered.
"Wow, you know big words," Alfred laughed.
"Why do you kill people?" Matthew asked delicately.
"Because people want me to," Kiku said. "I've never thought about if it's good or bad."
"Wait, so you're kinda like…uh…what's it called, Mattie?" Alfred turned to his brother.
"Assassin," Matthew said clearly and proudly, like it was a new word he'd learned. Kiku heard that word a lot in his town.
"Yeah, that," Alfred beamed, looking back at Kiku. "You one of those?"
"Yes," Kiku nodded. "My town's job was to kill people for other people."
"Oh, wow," Alfred nodded in approval. "You're cool, I like you!"
"I'm glad," Kiku said.
"What do you prefer?" Matthew asked curiously. "Do you like using a gun?"
"I like swords," Kiku muttered.
"Dude, dude, dude!" Alfred jumped up and down in excitement, holding onto Kiku's shoulders. "I've gotta show you something, it's so cool! They're new, I can't believe Ivan gave 'em to me!"
"Yes?" Kiku asked curiously and Alfred stepped back, posing his arm happily in front of him. All of a sudden, a bright red sword appeared out of it and Alfred beamed like he was the most impressive person in the world. Kiku admired the craftsmanship of the blade. He never got anything like that. Well, with a king supplying them…he'd get great supplies. Kiku smiled. "That's cool," he muttered.
"Are we supposed to be into girls?" Alfred asked curiously, his leg swinging absently from the broken window. Kiku knelt beside him, watching as people bustled, coming home from work. Ivan had told them that someone was planning on starting a riot. They had to kill him before he did anything bad. For now, Alfred was idly talking, driving the conversation like he usually did. "I mean, we spy a lot, right? And I've seen lots of other 13 year old guys. They're into girls."
"I'm not," Kiku said simply.
"I don't think I've met one," Matthew mused, standing behind them with a pistol in his hand. Kiku happily felt for the hilts of his swords at his hip. They were very advanced, the blades came out at the press of a button. He liked them quite a lot. A birthday gift from Ivan.
"That's my point," Alfred groaned. "Do you think it'd be a good idea?"
"I think they'd be a distraction," Kiku shrugged. "We're not supposed to be into girls, we're supposed to kill people for Ivan."
"Yeah, but I feel like I'm missing out," Alfred muttered.
"I see him," Matthew said, holding out a small tablet that he had of the face of the guy they were supposed to kill.
"I call him!" Alfred shouted, standing up and pointing his gun at the crowd. "Kiku got the last one…"
"That's because you didn't call him," Kiku smiled. Alfred searched in the crowd for a bit before he found him and shot once. The man fell to the ground and a few people staggered away, but no one was brave enough to make a big deal about it.
"Nice shot, Al," Matthew noted. "But you took a while finding him. Were you distracted by a pretty girl?"
"Oh, yeah, totally," Alfred rolled his eyes. "I'm gonna invite her home with me."
They laughed, an innocent laugh. None of them could think of a reason why killing a random person in a crowd was wrong. The king had said to kill him, after all. They'd been doing this for quite some time at this point.
Kiku stared in interest from behind Alfred, who didn't bother hiding his blatant curiosity. Matthew stood with Kiku.
"You're a girl," Alfred said bluntly. Now Kiku understood how the twins felt when he walked in suddenly one day. Ivan had told them about this girl and now she showed up in their house. And they were left alone. Each one of them with the tools to kill each other easily.
"Yeah?" the girl scoffed, crossing her arms in front of her chest. Her hair was pulled back, out of her eyes. She had the mannerisms of a boy, oddly enough. "So what?"
"But you're not…cute," Alfred mused.
"Alfred," Kiku sighed and Alfred looked back at him with wide eyes.
"What?" Alfred whined. "She's not."
"Good," the girl smirked. "I'm just as good as the three of you, I don't see what's so wrong about me joining. The king even thought it was a great idea."
"And I ain't questioning his judgement," Alfred shrugged. "I'm just not sure how much I trust someone who tried to kill him."
"I didn't actually do it seriously," the girl rolled her eyes. Ah, so this was the incident Kiku missed out on. The incident that had Alfred pacing for hours because he was so nervous. This was the girl that managed to get through Matthew and Alfred during a celebration and pose an actual threat to the king. And Ivan had welcomed her into the group…interesting. "If I had, he'd be dead by now."
"Yeah, and let's see you get there again," Alfred threatened, his eyes going cold. "Don't care how much he trusts you. The second you turn on him, I'm not giving you a second chance."
"Then the same goes for you," she hummed happily, walking up to him. "My name's Elizabeta by the way, call me Eliza."
"Alfred," the boy sighed, looking at her again. "I still don't get it…"
"What? How I'm not cute?" Elizabeta tilted her head to the side.
"Aren't ya supposed to be?" Alfred asked. Elizabeta hummed, looking at him closely and carefully.
"Hm," Elizabeta smiled. "Guess that means you're gay." She didn't wait for a response as she turned to Matthew with a hand. "It's nice to meet you."
Kiku suppressed a laugh as Matthew introduced himself and she turned to him.
"I'm Kiku," he smiled at her. "It'll be a pleasure getting to know you."
"You seem a little small for an assassin," Elizabeta mused and Kiku noticed that Alfred's brain was still trying to process what he just heard. Kiku had had his suspicions about Alfred for a long time, but he wasn't going to intrude on that thought process.
"I'm glad you think so," Kiku smiled. "A lot of people think the same way, it helps me kill them easier."
"I like you," Elizabeta giggled, wrapping an arm around his shoulders. He smiled. It was nice to have friends. Now he was happy that Ivan had brought him into this group, full of kids just like him. Perfectly willing to kill at the drop of a hat. "We're gonna be great friends, I can tell!"
"I'm glad you were able to tell him," Kiku said, glancing at Alfred. "I've been meaning to for a while."
"Should I tell the other one too?" Elizabeta asked curiously and he nearly laughed again.
"He'll accept it when the time comes," Kiku said thoughtfully.
Kiku shifted from his spot in an alley way as he watched his friends. Alfred and Matthew had decided to split up, surprisingly, and were on top of separate roofs, waiting for the right moment to strike. They were waiting for a revolutionary speaker that they anticipated to come to this location. They had to kill him before he started talking. It didn't matter if they caused chaos in the process. Elizabeta and their new member, Roderich, were together in another alleyway. They had hit it off rather well and were casually talking as they kept an eye out. Kiku smiled. He thought they were cute together.
He hid further in the shadows as the man walked forward and Kiku evened out his breathing. Their first try would be Alfred and Matthew and their guns, but if they failed, Kiku came next. If he failed, it was Elizabeta and Roderich. If all else failed, they weren't allowed to. Finally, Alfred and Matthew spotted him. Matthew fired first, but the man had seen them and ducked out of the way. The shot started a panic. Kiku was up, since Alfred couldn't shoot in that crowd. He would risk hurting innocent people.
Kiku ran forward, shoving through the crowd that didn't so much as look at him. Finally, he reached the man and slammed him into the nearest wall, ignoring the people rushing past him. There was a huge height difference, but Kiku didn't quite care. One of his blades was on the man's neck, the other on his stomach while one of his arms pinned his chest to the wall. Kiku had a few questions for him before he killed him.
"How did you see him?" Kiku asked simply, coldly and the man stared at him in wonder. He probably hadn't expected kids, if he expected assassins. "Answer my question." Kiku pressed the blade on his kneck a little closer to his skin.
"We had information," the man muttered quickly. "I was told to be on my toes…the king has assassins now…"
"He's always had us," Kiku said coldly. "How did you find out?" No one was supposed to know about them. Perhaps there was a spy in the capital building. He would have to tell the king about this.
"No one knows her name," the man muttered, trembling slightly. He was afraid of death. He thought Kiku was going to let him go. Funny. "She goes by Britannia."
"Anything else you feel like sharing?" Kiku asked simply. This guy must have been stupid, knowing about the assassins and still coming without a proper guard. Perhaps these revolutionaries really were poorly put together, if they didn't even have proper guards for their speakers. Maybe they just didn't expect the news of him speaking to come out so soon.
"Please," the man muttered. "I have a family…you can't just…"
"Don't worry," Kiku gave a small smile. "We'll find them, too." He sliced the man's throat and watched as he fell to the ground. Any family of a revolutionary certainly held the same ideals. They would have to be killed as well. It was a good thing they knew his name. He hadn't even noticed how much the crowd had dwindled until he looked around and saw the members of his team walking up towards him. "He has a family. We'll need to find them."
"How come he knew we were there?" Alfred asked simply, not even bothering to look at the body. He'd already memorized the face, after all. Soldiers would be by soon to pick it up.
"A spy named Britannia knows inside information," Kiku sighed. "I don't know how, he obviously didn't have a clue of even who she is. In any case, the revolutionaries know we exist, I don't know much else.
"Tough luck this time," Elizabeta laughed at Roderich. "Maybe you'll get a kill in next mission."
"I'm not exactly eager to kill," Roderich said simply, straightening his back and clothes in the same, swift motion. "Unlike you."
"Aw, come on," Alfred grinned. "Make the most of the situation. At least we're getting rid of the people the king needs us to. We're helping him out."
"Indeed," Roderich muttered. "I just prefer to be a more dignified about it."
"Dignified," Alfred snorted as he started walking away, Matthew following him closely behind. Kiku smiled. He definitely liked this family of his.
His family had been torn apart. Piece by piece. Until it was only two people left. But Kiku still kept a positive demeanor, even while his world fell apart around him for a second time. This time with just a little less screams. It was just him and Matthew now. Well…soon it would just be Matthew. And he knew it.
Kiku stood with the soldiers in front of the capital building. He could clearly see the army that the revolutionaries were capable of putting together. It certainly was a surprise. His grip on his swords tightened. These were the people ripping his family apart. And it was orders from the king to do his best at fighting. His goal was to kill every last one of them.
Not a realistic goal, but the only option he had. None of the soldiers around him had ever heard of him, didn't know his face or his name. The soldiers in front of him were in the same position. He wouldn't be remembered, he would be left with the pile of corpses, not given a burial because he had ceased existing many years ago.
He started running. He had to be on the lookout for their sniper, but once he made it into a crowd, he'd be fine. Their sniper wasn't going to risk anyone on their side. Kiku easily made it into the crowd of soldiers, slicing down several at one time. They were so in shock that no one fired after him for a few seconds. He was able to cause quite a bit of damage in a few seconds. Certainly, he wasn't going to go for the leaders of the group at the front, at least not yet. Not only would he be an easy target for their sniper, but he knew when he was outmatched. Those were kings and presidents, he wasn't about to fight them.
Suddenly, there was a sharp pain in his arm and he stopped for a moment, looking at the fragment of a sword on the ground. It was one of the swords that belonged to Alfred's arm. He didn't have the time to look for the source as the guns surrounding him turned their attention to him. He gritted his teeth as he struggled to keep up the proper speed to allow his swords to block or slice the bullets that would hit him. Quite a few managed to graze him.
It was about two minutes before a bullet slammed home in his shoulder and Kiku cried out in pain, dropping his right sword. He blocked as many bullets as he could with his good arm, but many more bullets slid home, through his back, legs, stomach, chest. The last thing Kiku remembered was the pain before he dropped. He silently cursed his fate. He could have kept fighting if it weren't for that last bullet hitting his head.
Kiku's such a wise and smart child. He's ten in the beginning, in case any of you were curious. I wanted to put it in there, the chance to put it in never came up, though. Sadness. Also, to give a peek into this incredibly complex timeline I've crafted, I'll tell you all a few things. First, consider the year the first revolution started as year 1. Year 8 is when Ivan takes power, when Alfred and Mattie are little babies, not even a year old. Year 18 is when Kiku joins when he's 10. It's not until year 25 when Arthur starts his own team. Year 30 was when all of the main plot occurred. Just so we're not all confused. Trust me, I was sitting with a pen for a few hours planning out this entire mess of a timeline, adding in all of their ages and everything. If you want the whole thing, PM me and I'd be happy to tell you all about it.
Anyway, here have another sad ending to a mostly happy backstory. Next one's Gilbert and Ludwig, so we'll get a little happier, I swear. You know, hopefully. Please review!