Ayashi no Yuugi

Disclaimer: Standard disclaimer applies.

Chapter 6: Perfect Assassin

In the colony L4, a dark figure smiled as it crept along the roof of a mansion. The best security guards and the most vicious guard dogs money could buy couldn't keep her from getting where she wanted. She was getting close… She could almost smell her prey… She could almost smell his blood… The first officer of the Nautilus, a new faction that would threaten peace between earth and the colonies… Yamanaka Fujita…

She smiled slightly at the sight of the sakura tree under his window… How reminiscent of his Japanese heritage… Her friend back in the Academy would be happy to know how her namesake helped her with this mission… Just as she herself had done in countless other missions in the past…

No.

Now was not the time to think about past missions and her partner sleeping soundly in her bed in their dormitory, well aware of what her friend was doing. She was in the middle of a mission. She could afford no slip ups or distractions, not when she was so close to her prey, so close…

She dropped from the roof into the topmost branches of the sakura, a lithe shadow, undetectable amid the shifting blossoms and shadows on the tree. She leaned against the trunk and pulled a handheld computer from a pouch on her belt. She grinned, her eyes hidden by the mask on her face. Quickly, she tapped at the keys, taking out security and turning off the alarms. The computer vibrated slightly, alerting her to the fact that the work was done. The assassin slipped the computer back into her pocket and slid the window open and shimmied inside.

She came to the bed, and silently unsheathed one of the two kodachis strapped to her back. The quiet hissing of metal against metal was enough to wake the sleeping soldier. Yamanaka Fujita bolted upright, his gun aimed at the open window. His hand shook. He knew he'd closed the window. The alarm had not been set off, there was no barking or howling from his guard dogs, his bodyguards were not bursting into his room, guns at ready, but the window was open.

That meant only one thing.

An assassin was in the mansion.

"That's right," the assassin whispered, appearing from the shadows. She knocked the gun out of Yamanaka's hand and covered his mouth with her free hand. She angled the kodachi upwards from beneath his chin and smiled. "I'm an assassin, and you are my prey. Tsuyo kereba iki, Yowa kereba Shin. If you are strong, you live. If you are weak, you die. And you have proved to be the weaker." She thrust the kodachi upward, through his chin and into his brain.

Yamanaka Fujita died instantly.

Calmly, leisurely, as if she had all the time in the world, the assassin cleaned her kodachi on the dead man's sheets and sheathed the kodachi. Then she slowly walked to the bathroom and wiped the blood off her black leather pants and top and washed the blood from her hands and face. Then she walked through the mansion, killing the bodyguards as she passed. She walked down the three beautiful staircases and into the foyer and opened the massive oak double doors and stepped out of the mansion. She stepped over the corpses of the security guards and paused to pet several of the guard dogs and gave them treats. She walked across the sweeping lawn, and vaulted the high electric fence.

Once on the other side, she removed her Kodachis and slipped into the driver's seat of a stylish black Mercedes Benz and placed the two swords on the passenger seat. Studying herself in the rear view mirror, she took off her mask, revealing blue-black hair pulled into a bun flat against her scalp and cold but beautiful amber eyes. She smiled, and set her mask on the passenger seat beside her kodachis, then applied some lipstick, and drove off into the night.

The only sign of her presence on the Yamanaka Estate were the many corpses, and the note taped to the gate of the estate reading 'Aku Soku Zan' Slay Evil Immediately.

The entire job had only taken half an hour.

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Heero Yuy couldn't help but be suspicious of the new girls, Tenou Kotori and Tenkou Sakura. He had seen in fencing and P.E. what they were capable of. The girls even took archery, martial arts, gymnastics, drama, conflict resolution, and dance.

Then there was the fact that Tenou Kotori had supposedly fallen ill the day before Yamanaka Fujita, the head of Yamanaka Corp. was assassinated. She had been even been sick the next day. Then she comes back, looking nothing like she had recently been ill.

The there was her friend, Tenkou Sakura, who supposedly skipped class to 'take care of her friend who was ill' when she could easily have taken the girl to the infirmary, then attended her classes.

He was even doing a search on them, and the info didn't seem to match.

Tenkou Sakura was said to have been moody and withdrawn, with a 336 IQ and a tendency to beat up people who invaded her personal space, namely those who came within two feet of her. Tenou Kotori was said to have a 336 IQ and was also withdrawn. She had a poker face that was impossible to break, talked only when absolutely necessary, and tended to beat people into a pulp if they approached her in the wrong way, which, when mixed with her volatile temper, often ended with the victim in the ICU. Both were brilliant girls, brilliant enough to be considered geniuses, both war orphans, and most importantly, both had personality and mental disorders. In other words, both girls were clinically insane.

The records in the computer did not match the personalities of the two girls in question. To Heero, that was a dead giveaway that the girls were not who they seemed, and were hiding something.

Now, the only question was who are the girls, really, and who do they work for.

Once he knew that, they would die.

He stretched and leaned back in his chair. New victims. Yes, life was good.

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Kamui Gaia 07: Hey! I hope you're enjoying the story so far! Especially you, Mi-chan! You've been a very good friend, and a wonderful muse.

Tenkou Sakura: That sounded illegal.

Tenou Kotori: How did you make something so innocent illegal Kamui Gaia 07?

Kamui Gaia 07: (Shrugs) Dunno, just good at it, I guess. What do you think, Mi-chan?

Mitsuki Cosmos: They're right. It did sound illegal, and you're right. We got good at making the innocent things illegal and the illegal things innocent quite a while ago.

Kamui Gaia 07: Right after we finished watching Fruits Basket, I think.

Kamui Gaia 07 and Mitsuki Cosmos: (Gives thumbs up and smiles simultaneously) Yes!

Tenkou Sakura and Tenou Kotori: (Sweatdrops) …….

Kamui Gaia 07: As for the part where the assassin's all, "Tsuyo kereba iki, Yowa kereba Shin," I got that out of Rurouni Kenshin, Legend of Kyoto. It was so cool when Shishio Makoto said it, and I couldn't help putting it in. I think I'll make it (Bleep)'s catch phrase.

Mitsuki Cosmos: What was with the bleep, Gaia-chan? You didn't say something dirty, did you?

Kamui Gaia 07: No, of course not, Mi-chan. The bleep was to cover up the name of the one who will have "Tsuyo kereba iki, Yowa kereba Shin," as their catch phrase. I don't want to give their identity away.

Mitsuki Cosmos: Oh, I see. So the next time we see the phrase, and we know who's saying it…

Kamui Gaia 07: Then the phrase is that person's catch phrase. (Mutters under breath) You've gotta be stupid if you don't already know who it is. I mean puh-lease! I dropped more than enough hints throughout the entire chapter didn't I?

Mitsuki Cosmos: OOOOHHHHH! That is sooo cool!

Kamui Gaia 07: (Smugly with hands on hips) My thoughts exactly.

Kamui Gaia 07 and Mitsuki Cosmos: (Gives thumbs up and smiles simultaneously) Yes! (Turns to readers and pulls out the shinkens of the Chi no Ryu and the Ten no Ryu and give readers twin death glares.) We will Aku Soku Zan you if you don't review.