Alright… here we go. New story and a million and one things to do in my life. I hope you like this one. There will be a few trigger warnings here and there, and I will do my best to preemptively warn you.

Warnings: Mentions of abusive situations, familial deaths, and homophobia.

Disclaimer: Here's where I start to not own stuff. I'm sure you'll be able to figure it out.


R.A.R.E. Central Base

Exact Location: Classified

Hallway 17

8:25


R.A.R.E.

Romulus And Remus Enforcement.

Yeah, I know it's kind of a weird title, but it kind of makes sense. In Roman mythology, Romulus and Remus were orphans taken in and trained to fight like wolves. And, yeah, we do a bit of enforcement. Actually, a lot of enforcement.

Sorry, got a little distracted there.

Livia G. Trasic, reporting in on Mission JPN-5T. Log 1.

Opening statement: Get fucked. No, for real. I just got back home on what I thought was my guaranteed month-long break and you decide to-

Ginevra is shaking her head at me from across the hall. Fine, I'll save my rant for my roommate, but don't think for a second I'm not going to try to waste as much time as possible for you all. If I get enough of you to complain, maybe when I get back from this mission you'll give me two months off. Sound fair? No? Well, sucks to be you.

Now... how to waste your time first, hm? I've got another ten or so minutes before getting back to my room, so where to start?

It's currently August 25th. Nice warm day outside. Blue sky, hint of cloud, faint breeze, the works. I'll probably be stuck inside all day though to get ready. Thanks for that.

About me then. I'm a girl. Average height at around 5'8'' with dark brown hair. I like to keep it tied back out of my face because I hate the feeling of loose hair on my neck. It's kinda long, ending somewhere beneath my shoulder blades. I've considered getting it dyed a dark red color a few times but I'm not allowed.

'You're supposed to blend in,' they say.

'Your brown hair is perfect for that,' they say.

Whatever.

Um… I'm 17. Birthday is in early January. Capricorn. Family consists of one younger brother. But I suppose those of you listening in aren't too surprised by that. Most of the people here are orphans, just like me, but we also have a fair few who were kicked out of their homes or escaped abusive situations. Sure, we've recruited a few children from military families and what not, but other than that? No real parents to speak of. It's an unspoken rule here that you can't ask new recruits about how they ended up at R.A.R.E. Most likely it's a sad and sucky story that will leave very few people without tears running down their cheeks.

My brother and I were lucky to be placed in one of R.A.R.E.'s orphanages. It has hundreds all over the world, and it's almost like a gift from above to make it into one. R.A.R.E. mostly uses them for easy recruitment purposes, but they don't force it. R.A.R.E. is dedicated to helping anyone who needs it, and a lot of our jobs are centered around children. Joining up is totally the child's choice. If they don't want to join then they stay in some pretty great children's homes or our Foster Care service. Most of the time when R.A.R.E. agents retire they end up giving back to the orphanages by donating or adopting. It's pretty cool how we always look after our own.

I mentioned how we take in kids who get kicked out of their homes too, right? Well, that means we get a lot of LGBTQ+ folks around here. We get a lot of our orphans adopted by the gay couples that spring out of our agents, and then they can live the rest of their happy lives as one happy family! The photo wall is so freaking cute...

Ahem.

Sorry, got a little more carried away there than I had planned. And since I'm already back in my room, I guess I should actually talk about my new mission.

So around eight o'clock this morning I was just starting my usual training session with Nathan Aleshire. I had only just finished my last mission out of Scotland two days ago, and was finally starting to get back into the swing on things. That's when I got called to the director's office, which can really only mean one thing. Another mission.

In a word, I was pissed the hell off. Still, orders are orders, and I went.


Livia scowled as she walked down Hallway 5. No one stopped her to chat.

See, with the way that R.A.R.E.'s central building was set up, there were only a handful of destinations someone could be heading if they were walking towards Hallway 4. It could be Human Resources, the garage for mission vehicles, the Director's office, or one of the many mission consultation rooms. Anyone going to either of those places was usually not in a chit-chatting mood.

Plus, the brunette personally looked like she might drop kick whoever spoke to her, so everyone gave her a wide berth.

The crowd thinned the further Livia walked. She was almost completely alone by the time she arrived right where Hallway 3 ended and split off to Hallways 2 and 1. A door was stationed right in the fork of the two halls, a silver plaque nailed to the center of the wood.

'Mathias Jepson'

'Director'

Livia threw it open.

"I swear if you tell me I have another assignment already-"

"Yoshio Ootori called."

She stopped.

"...You're not lying just to make me shut up, right?"

Her director shook his head and Livia sat down in front of his desk. "Okay… I'll listen."

Mathias Jepsen wouldn't strike you as the Director of a worldwide organization of weaponized youth if you took a passing glance. He looked more like an aging high school math teacher who was really cool with his students, but still painfully boring. Strong, but not buff, and with a graying army-cut hairstyle but laugh-lines around his eyes, Director Mathias could go from soothing a young new recruit to downright threatening a client who tried to talk themselves out of payment in a heartbeat.

The man rubbed one of his calloused hands over his haircut. "I just got a call from Mr. Ootori saying he had another job and he wanted you again. We arranged a meeting tomorrow morning in Conference Room 3. You remember the drill from last time, yes?"


Last time...

To bring you up to speed, four years ago I had been given my first ever Japanese assignment in my career. All of our main Japanese agents were out on missions when Mr. Ootori had called. He said he needed a solo mission only because having two would be suspicious for the cover he'd organized. Since I was the only solo-mission agent left who could speak enough Japanese to get by, I was selected for the job.

The man's eldest son, Yuuichi Ootori, had just entered his last year of high school with plans to go on to a high-end university and take over his family's business. Yoshio had been informed that a price had come up for Yuuichi's death. While the Ootori family did employ a private police force, they weren't trained well enough for professionally hired guns. So, he had taken matters into his own hands and hired me.

Apparently my slight fumbling in the language was a nice touch considering the cover story he'd prepared. For the following two months I was the only daughter of an American couple whom Mr. Ootori was hoping to do business with. As I would be spending some time in Japan to learn of it's language and culture Mr. Ootori had volunteered his second son, Aikio Ootori, to tutor me.

And, yeah, those lessons were Hell on Earth, but when I left I actually had a much better appreciation and understanding of Japan and its culture.

Not to mention a new hole in my left calf.


Livia sighed and gave a nod. "Thanks for the heads up, I guess. What time?"

"0600."

"Uuuugh. Fine. I'll be there two minutes early."

"Just be polite."

"Don't fucking tell me what to do."

Brown eyes met bright green over the desk before the Director snorted and covered his eyes. "You're lucky you're one of our best agents, Trasic."

"So you say, Sir."

He smiled and waved Livia towards the door. "Dismissed."


And that brings us back to now. Oh lookie here! I'm at my door! Now, a more reasonable agent would probably keep this recording going through their research so the first recording of their new mission is more streamlined for those processing it, but guess what I'm not gonna do?

Sorry, not sorry!

End log.


Okay, so this is pretty much a demonstration of how most of the chapters in this story are going to go. They'll switch between Livia making her logs about her ongoing mission and the recorder narrating the actions she's describing. Does this work? Yes? No?

If you like where this story is heading, please favorite, follow, and leave a little review telling me what you think. I look forward to hearing from you all.

See you next chapter!