Shadow Organization Night Troops, Four Years Ago…
Gen looked up at Masamori, dark eyes wide with disbelief.
"You're taking me with you?"
"More like you're bringing me with you. It is your mission after all. However I will be right there with you if you need the back up. Think you can handle that?"
"Yes sir!" Gen answered. His first mission would be in a forest, somewhere near the city of Kobe. It would be more of a recruit mission than a search and destroy, but the girl they were planning to recruit was most likely about Gen's age, and after what had happened last time, Masamori decided he shouldn't send Hiba on those sorts of missions anymore.
There was some risk, as Gen was still a fairly new recruit, but as he'd mentioned before, he'd be right there if he was needed. As for the girl…judging by reports, she was an integrated type, but hadn't gone full ayakashi or lost control of her powers. She just kept scaring passersby into dropping things. Things that would be gone when they calmed down enough to realize that they'd dropped them. To be blunt, they were dealing with a ten year old thief that liked to scare people.
Odds were, this wouldn't be that hard of a mission, and Gen could easily fulfil it without much, if any, interference from him. Then again, Masamori had been wrong before…
That night, the forest was quiet, save from the slight breeze that rustled the leaves in trees that were excellent for both climbing, and hiding in, if what you were hiding from didn't have enhanced senses. The trees also tended to make good ambushing spots, when one was running low on necessary supplies.
Lissette peered down, careful not to be seen by the man in a kimono, and the young spikey haired boy with him. A bit of an odd pair, considering most of the others she'd seen going through this area, seeing as neither one of them seemed to be normal humans. The boy was an integrated type, like herself, and the man was some type of castor, though not one that she was very familiar with.
The boy also seemed to have some type of restraint on his powers, which was also odd, but all the better for her. The weaker they were, the faster she could rob them, and the sooner she could stop feeling guilty for it. Having to steal for survival was not something that she enjoyed doing, but a girl had to do what a girl had to do. Besides, it wasn't her fault that these people were usually so easy to scare, let along how careless they were about dropping things.
"Sense anything yet Gen?" The man asked the boy, who shook his head.
"The wind is mixing most of the scents here up to the point where I can't pick them out very well. Sorry Chief."
"That's alright, take your time. She's around here somewhere."
'She'? Were they looking for her? Had she pushed the scaring thing to the point where someone had hired some kind of exorcist to get rid of her? Was that what that guy was, an exorcist? And the boy was just there because he could track her scent? She silently thanked the wind for mixing her scent with everything else in the area.
She edged out onto her branch a little being careful not to make it move, in order to get a better look at the two. The boy stopped, looking in her direction…and then he was in the tree with her. Lissette was startled enough, she lost her footing and landed on the ground below. She mumbled a few nasty words as she picked herself up, trying to ignore the soreness of her ass.
"What's the big idea buddy? Don't you know better than to sneak up on people like that?" She scolded, glaring up at him. He just stared down at her, most likely surprised at the amount of filthy words that had come out of her mouth a moment before. Not many girls her age knew that many words like that, let alone what they were used for.
"So you're the one who's been causing all of this fuse." Kimono guy said, as if he were somewhat surprised.
"What if I am?" Lissette countered, ready to run or fight if necessary.
"Then I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to come with us."
"And what if I say no?"
"Then you'll have to take that up with him." He pointed to the boy that he'd called Gen before.
"If you insist"
She leapt back into the tree, blades extending from her hands as she slashed at the boy. He dodged, jumping back to the ground afterwards, his hands and feet now turned into dark brown and white claws. She followed, slashing at him again, and again, somewhat impressed that he could block her at this speed.
He took his chance when she left an opening, swiping her feet out from underneath her and pinning her to the ground.
"You aren't very strong, are you?" He asked. She couldn't tell if he was honestly asking, or just plain mocking her.
"Alright, you want to play dirty, fine" She said, kicking him, the look of complete and utter agony on his face telling her she'd hit her target as she took the opportunity to shove him off of her "I can play dirty too."
Gen picked himself up, the pain now replaced with anger as he slashed at her. She dodged it with ease, appearing behind him and knocking him over.
"Not very fast, are you?" She asked, a rebuttal for his earlier question. He got back to his feet, even more pissed now. They started slashing at each other again, each of them dodging or blocking the others hits like they'd been fighting each other for years, instead of about twenty minutes or so.
Kimono guy remained on the sidelines, watching them intently. That guy made Lissette a bit nervous. He'd spoken to her in a friendly enough tone, but behind his expression, she doubted that he'd hesitate to kill her if his little buddy didn't get her to cooperate. All the more reason to beat him quickly, then get the hell out of there.
She tripped him up again, and slammed him into a tree, causing him to become unconscious. She was ready to make a run for it, when a blue box of sorts, smashed into the side of her head. The last thing that she saw before passing out, was Kimono guy picking up Gen, then walking towards her.