Sneaking in the shadows of night. Silent as a church mouse and stealthy as a lion. Maki Harukawa, the Ultimate Assassin, was on yet another mission to take down anyone that is demanded of her. Maki was taken in by a cult known as The Holy Salvation Society from the orphanage she grew up in and since then was trained to be an assassin. It began ordinary life for Maki to be sent out to track and kill a person, whether she knew them or not. This mission was no exception. Maki was making her approach to a miniature, wooden shack that supposedly was a science laboratory according to her instructor.
"Finally…" The assassin uttered. All that was in range of Maki's sight was nothing but dense forest. This forest was known as The Forbidden Forest. Though some have heard of it, the forest is located in the depths of Japan that most of the country did not acknowledge, thus why Professor Sosuke located his laboratory in such an isolated part of Japan. Professor Sosuke, otherwise nicknamed by the media Schizo Sosuke, was an elderly mad-scientist claiming to make the world a better place wi-th his military and weaponry inventions. Although he's been on the run from the police and society for decades, nobody has been able to strike him down.
After The Holy Salvation Society learned Professor Sosuke discovered their identity and development of assassinations, they sent off Maki to track down and kill him before he exposed the cult to the world. After sneaking through the shadows of the dark, dense forest amidst the pitch black night with only the moon luminating in the night being the singular light source, Maki pressed herself against the wall of the laboratory, being sure to go unnoticed. Peeking between the crumbling window of the laboratory, Professor Sosuke was faced the other way wearing a white lab coat with his gray spikey hair poking out of his head like a porcupine.
Though Maki felt his appearance was sucked straight out of a cheesy cartoon, she observed even further that the scientist was holding some kind of red tool she couldn't make out, but that didn't matter! She had locked onto her target and grabbed her razor-sharp assisination knife from the pockets of her black assassin belt. Before she knew it, the assassin asserted all her energy and busted into the laboratory. She darted to the scientist at full speed and thrusted her knife into his chest as she closed her eyes. Normally she would expect a scream of agony from her target, followed by an echoing thud from the victim falling to the ground. Instead she was greeted with the sound of metal clanking together.
Maki opened her eyes and saw her knife made contact with a curly red tool. "A crowbar!" she thought to herself. The dark brown haired teen looked up to see Professor Sosuke making eye contact with his kooky, pale eyes.
"Nice try, sweetheart!" Professor Sosuke sneered.
"Do you want to die?" Maki replied coldly. There's seconds of lull silence before it's shattered by Professor Sosuke's delirious laughter.
"Mehehe! Well what about you princess? Do YOU want to die?" The old man proceeded to lift his crowbar up, knocking Maki to the ground. Before Maki could process what just happened, Professor Sosuke was hightailing it out of the laboratory. Maki fuming with hostility wasted no time and followed the psycho scientist, commencing a life or death game of tag. Despite his age, the scientist swiftly progressed through the forest. Fortunately for Maki, his footprints were distinguishable thanks to the soil being soft and squishy from the intense rainfall over the last four days.
The assassin surged with fury as the chasing progressed, resulting in her running faster like an irate wild boar. Professor Sosuke glimpsed behind to see Maki right on his tail. He knew at any moment she would deliver the fatal blow and that would be the end. As a final resort, the old man clutched a gray, ball-like device with a tiny red button from his lab coat and tossed it to the ground.
"Take this, princess!" He shrieked. The device sprayed black smoke throughout the area, shrouding Maki's view in darkness.
"Wh-What?" Maki stuttered. She was confused at the surprise of smoke and lost sight of the mad scientist. "Damn it!" She grumbled. Disappointment began to course through her body that she let him get away. Just when she thought it was mission failed, a shout resonated in the assassin's ears.
"AHHHHHH!" The voice startled her and couldn't help but feel like that voice was familiar.
"That was him." She muttered. The scream definitely came from her right hand side. Once again, she equipped her deadly knife in hand and charged at the direction of the scream. The scenery was notably peculiar than the rest of the forest. First off, the trees were decaying on the floor, and the trees still standing looked overgrown and hazardous. The ground was covered with dark grass. Maki thought this was strange since the rest of the forest was simply dirt. Although she took note of the change of scenery, she was too absorbed in hunting Professor Sosuke before he actually escaped.
"Where did that freak go?" Maki asked herself. Nobody seemed to be around. Just Maki and only Maki. The ominous air seemed to grow heavy as she sprinted through the grassy path. That is until her sprinting was interrupted by Maki's right leather boot broke through the seemingly solid grass, revealing mushy, black mud beneath. The mud made loud slurping noises that disrupted the peace of the forest.
"What the hell?" Maki said. Confused and annoyed, Maki placed her knife back in her belt's knife slot and clutched onto her boot to pull them back above the surface, but pulling was useless since they didn't budge no matter how hard she pulled. She looked to her left and her left boot also broke through the mud and was stuck fast. Freeing her boots was proved to be more a challenge than expected. The gurgling muck had a steady grip of Maki's boots and refused to let go. Distractions were the last thing Maki needed in this mission and had no tolerance for the mud's stubbornness. Maki deduced she would have to leave her boots behind and continue the chase without them.
"I'm not letting some stupid mud jeopardize the mission." She announced. Having that said, Maki tried her best to remove her right foot from the tall boots. After freeing her right foot from her boot, which revealed her crimson red socks, Maki looked at her surroundings of where to place her foot. The grassy path had completely melted into a mud bog before her eyes and had nowhere to place her foot. All she could hope was that she could walk through the mud and continue the chase with no complication. The assassin placed her right foot on the goop, along with pulling her leg foot out of her other boot in an attempt to run, but her expectations of the bog's stability were sorely miscalculated. Almost immediately the muck devoured her feet up to her ankles with a slurp.
The sensation of the slurry soaking into Maki's socks was unpleasant and irritated Maki greatly. Another attempt was made to free herself from the morass, but nothing would make them budge even a little. If her aggressive tugging was doing anything, it was only making her descent further into the mud's clutches. "Mphm! Come on! Umph!" The assassin struggled. This was more a workout than anything Maki had faced in her years of training and sweat began dripping down her face. As she stopped to catch her breath, Maki looked down to see the mud had a grip on her calves.
"Am I sinking? Fantastic…" She said in a sarcastic tone. The fact she was caught in a mud pit and couldn't escape frustrated, if a little embarrassed her. Since pulling herself out was clearly insufficient, Maki resorted to her surroundings perhaps helping her. There was a long, sturdy looking vine dangling 10 feet above her. Of course, it was impossible for her to reach. To her left, however, was a deteriorating tree branch at the edge of the pit, just in her reach. Maki jostled her body to the left and reached out for the branch. It was slightly out of reach, but if she could nudge herself a little further...
"Just a little… more…" She uttered. Maki used all her muscles to fight the wet soil to reach out for the branch, but unfortunately the more movement she tried to make, the further she sank. The more she plunged into the mire, the more strenuous reaching the branch became. The more challenging and unbearing reaching the branch became, the more movement was necessary. Overall, it was a deadly recipe that would lead Maki to her doom. This dangerous cycle continued, Maki forgetting that she was still sinking deeper until she felt her black skirt soak, leaving an agonizing sensation that could not be ignored.
Maki stopped to look down and saw the marsh had completely swallowed her legs up to her upper thighs. It was then Maki began worrying for her life, especially since she sank deeper into the liquid earth despite standing still. Her current plan is just as ineffective as her previous one and needed to devise a new one fast.
"Alright. Looks like it won't be that easy. Maybe if I loosen the mud, it'll be easier to maneuver around." She thought. Maki proceeded to twist her hips and waist in the hopes of loosening the suction. However, Maki still hadn't puzzled together that her movement only quickened her descent into the muck. Her sinking speed only increased as the mud seeped into her pockets and covered every inch of her body, making her heavier. Once she felt the mud soak into her clothing, it was then she began to deduce the biggest issue about escape.
"This is absolutely going nowhere. Every time I move, I sink deeper into the…" she trailed off, finally connecting the dots. "Quicksand! I gotta get out of here now!" She said, expressing a hint of unease. Now acknowledging the danger she was in, the assassin knew how she went about escape needed to be reevaluated. While the mud continued to slurp and suck her into the earth, Maki made an even horrifying connection.
"Him!" She yelled. "It was all HIS doing. His goal all along was to lure me into this stuff with that howl from earlier." Now feeling such a fool, this only determined the assassin more to pull out the mission, in addition to wanting to escape the quicksand. By this point, she had now sunk to her upper chest right before her breasts. Maki's next strategy was to push her hands on the mire in order to propel herself upwards until she could kick her legs. She was subtle in making little to no movement so her plan wasn't counter-productive. However, just when she thought she was finally making progress and obtaining a small sense of hope, it was quickly consumed by despair as he hands shot through and were now encased in the mud.
"Crap…" She pouted. She was hesitant to move her hands around, even if she was or wasn't able to since every little movement would sink her further. Now beginning to feel hopeless at the situation at hand, she felt something other than the muck press against her right hand.
"My knife!" She exclaimed. Maki looked up and saw the same, long vine from earlier hanging directly above. She had an idea, though some sacrifice was necessary. If she had the right coordination, she could throw her knife at the vine which would fall onto her. From there she would be able to utilize the vine in order to rescue herself. Fortunately she was able to slightly move her hand around the mud and grab her knife. She raised her mud covered hand and knife from the sludge with the sacrifice of her breasts submerging in the quicksand. Only her shoulders and above were left above the surface.
"Alright Harukawa. Don't screw this up now!" The assassin muttered to herself. She only had one chance at this, otherwise it was game over for her. Maki paused to pinpoint her accuracy at the vine. Her thoughts drowned out the slurping sounds of the quicksand and all that mattered in her life at that point in time was aiming that knife.
"Now!" She shouted. The knife flew out of the muddy assassin's grip and directed right at the vine. In just a few seconds, the vine landed onto Maki's arms. "Yes!" she said to herself. After obtaining the vine, she heard yet another ear piercing scream.
"AHHHHH!" It sounded exactly like the scream she heard previously before getting in this mess.
"That must mean that scientist is close by!" Maki thought to herself. Now more determined than ever, she quickly turned the vine into a rope around the tree branch from before. Luckily the vine was very sturdy and was not intended to tear apart as Maki pulled for her life. After a harrowing and distressing battle, Maki was shortly pulled to solid land and out of the quicksand.
"Finally! That was agony…" Maki stated. From the shoulders down, she was caked in thick black mud. As she wiped some of the mud off her body, she recalled the direction she threw her knife. She wanted to retrieve her knife before she could hunt Professor Sosuke. However, a pungent smell filled her nostrils that came in the same direction. Curious, Maki made her way in that direction, making sure to avoid any quicksand. What the assassin witnessed only made her more confused.
"Is that…" She trailed off. Standing before her was Professor Sosuke faced downward on the ground, her very own assassination knife stabbed into his back gushing out blood that stained his white lab coat. That wasn't all. She took note that his right leg was bent in the opposite direction than it should be. Putting the pieces together, "Perhaps he didn't lure me in that quicksand trap, but rather his own stupidity caused this." She thought. The conclusion Maki developed was while running, Professor Sosuke tripped and twisted his leg, making him unable to stand up, which is why he let out that first scream. Then when she threw her knife, she made a perfect shot and stabbed him, which resulted in the second scream.
In the end, Maki Harukawa pulled off yet another successful mission and was ready to make her return. As Maki awkwardly plucked the knife out of his back, she wondered how she would explain why she was drenched in mud and why her boots were absent from their site. Regardless, she knew nothing as frivolous as a mad scientist would be the one to take her down.