Disclaimer: I do not own Soul Calibur 3, Namco owns that. I do own Yu and Boss, though.
Chapter 1: Bird of Passage
A dark night and another innocent life ready to be spent. Moving as silent as anything, the shadow runs above. Perched on a tree and waiting for her prey, the shadow is poised to attack. The prey walks beneath and the shadow jumps down, blade cutting through flesh and bone. The air is thickened with the smell of blood. Not even a scream is uttered from the prey before its life ends. For that is the life of Yu the Silent Blade.
She quickly retreated back into the shadows and cleaned off her bloodied dagger. She made a run for it before the numerous guards even realized that their charge was dead. Her mission was completed, just like any other she had ever gotten. She sighed and made the long walk home. She stuffed her black gloved hands into the pockets of her black pants as she walked. Pretty much all she wore was black or a shade of dark grey. Black sleeveless shirt, long black gloves, black gloves, dark grey boots, dark grey sash… But nothing was as ark as her eyes. Her eyes were so pitch black and empty that it seemed the iris and pupil were one. Her skin was pale in the few places it was showing. The only color on her body was her hair. It was brown-blonde, messy, and cut short enough that it seemed boyish.
She stared down at the cobblestone street, walking in her "invisible" state. She would be astonished if she stood out even if she with only one other person. Pocketed hands, slouched shoulders, head facing down, knees bent, putting one leg a little farther than the other. Not to mention her clothes were good camouflage in a dark night like this. Finally, she rounded the corner and faced the only place she could call home.
It was a large, old house with a small yard barren of grass and filled with dead trees, dripping from every old limb with ravens. She started up the thin dirt path to the entrance. The ravens stared squawking their hello, and a few even flew to her. She ignored them; she had no use for the pet messenger birds. When she got to the house she quietly climbed the three stone steps to the large oak door. A brass nameplate was crookedly nailed to it; the words crudely carved into it were "Bird of Passage". She reached for the brass knob and opened it. She stepped inside and there came Boss, as everyone called him.
Boss was an older man in his late-fifties, but still as strong as if he was twenty. He was the leader and founder of the Bird of Passage assassin organization. His raven-black hair was heavily streaked with grey, his only sign of his age. Boss was a stocky, heavily muscled man, and he didn't look it but he was extremely fast. His clothes were forest green and black with multiple knives and swords thrust into his belt. His stormy grey eyes seemed cheery, but they had much concealed.
"Yu, my girl!" he yelled. He walked to her and clapped her small shoulder with one of his large, callused hands. Yu flinched from the touch and absentmindedly shrugged off the hand.
"Still not much of a talker, eh?" said Boss. "You made us a lot of money off of that kill you just made. Congratulations, Yu, we've never had a more successful assassin. Now go to your room and get some rest. You'll have a new mission first thing in the morning," said Boss.
"Yes, Boss," Yu whispered and made her way upstairs to her room. When she got to her room, she saw that her roommate, Tira, was already there.
"Hey, Yu!" she said in her high, taunting voice. Yu just nodded to her and sat on her own bed and kicked off her boots.
"I… heard about that kill you did an hour ago," Tira said, trying to break the calm atmosphere.
"What of it?" Yu whispered. Although she was younger by two years, she was taller and had a deeper voice than Tira.
"There were about forty guards surrounding that old man, you fool! And you killed him without a sound, and no one realized he was dead until later! That's a bit too good. So, what's your secret?" she pestered.
Tira was a small girl of seventeen and another assassin of the group. She was considered to be quite eccentric, even compared to Yu. She had dyed her hair a strange metallic blue-green and had green makeup. She wore a skimpy green outfit, green feathers in some places, and purple makeup striped across her body and one across her nose. /What might have been more noticeable than her strange sense of style were her large purple eyes filled with malice.
Yu sighed and shook her head in a no. Tira scowled. "You know what? I don't get it. You are younger than me and you are even better than me!"
"In what way? I don't really like killing, but it's one of the few things I'm good at," Yu whispered.
"I can't be silent and let my presence not be known. It's always a fight to finish my job. With you it's BAM he's dead and you slip away and he never knows what hit him. The people here even give you a formal title!" Tira yelled.
"I wouldn't call a ring sword much of a stealth weapon," Yu pointed out, referring to Tira's weapon: a large hoop with razor sharp blade surrounding the outside of the rim. Tira crossed her arms and pouted, sticking her green bottom lip out. "And they give me a formal title because they respect me," Yu whispered.
"You fool! They give you a title because they're afraid of you. Every last one of them, except for me, of course!" Tira said. Yu sighed and didn't say anything else. She settled in her bed for sleep. Not knowing that the mission tomorrow would change her life forever.