The hallways of the Onmitsukido base were silent as the soldiers of the Executive Militia assembled. Soi Fon was being sent on her first real mission. This was an important one, she was told.

For some time now, Soi Fon's father had suspected some members of the family and numerous soldiers from the other noble families of treason. His suspicions only increased when all questionable members disappeared one morning, and when he informed Yoruichi, she ordered a group of scouts specifically to keep an eye out for the traitors. Just that morning, one of the scouts had dropped in, out of breath and bleeding, to deliver a report confirming his suspicions; the defected soldiers had been planning and were now ready to move against Soul Society's nobility. This, Yoruichi decided with a grave expression, meant war. Not any normal war, but a secretive one, where only stealth and strategy would prevail.

Soi Fon was one of the assassins being sent to locate the recently sighted group of traitors and to eliminate as many as possible while assessing their strength. She stood shoulder to shoulder with two of her five brothers, facing forward toward their uncle, who was leading the team. Her head was buzzing with dozens of thoughts and emotions, and Soi Fon thought she might explode if the team didn't move out soon. She felt her brother fidget next to her and realized that all six of them must be feeling the same anxiety.

Finally, the order to move out came. Soi Fon's uncle led the group of sixteen toward the east, where the traitors had been supposedly sighted earlier that day. For Soi Fon and her siblings, this was their first mission, but each of them fully understood the importance of it; there was no room for fooling around and no room for error. Error could very well mean death.

Soi Fon bounded through the trees silently, sharp eyes scanning the depths of the forest below her. Sometimes she would glance up to make sure she was still following her uncle closely. After some time, the group stopped in a circle around a clearing.

Perfect hiding spot, thought Soi Fon. A thin layer of leaves layered over the grassy area, which was surrounded by thick bushes. She peered into the shadows around them. Suspicious, she thought. Their group was considerably large for just a scouting and assassination team, but she didn't feel safe at all. They had either cleared out of the area, or they were hiding somewhere near here. And Soi Fon didn't think it was the former. Her hand crept back toward the hilt of her dagger.

She caught the eye of her uncle, who nodded to his left and gestured at Soi Fon and her oldest brother. She nodded back, understanding, and then took off toward the indicated direction with her brother. They alighted on a large branch and scanned the horizon. Soi Fon could hear the others moving under her uncle's direction, perhaps also taking up scouting positions. She rested a hand on the tree trunk.

Suddenly, something glinted out of the corner of her right eye, and she instinctively jumped off the branch onto another. But instead of hearing the thud and crack of metal hitting wood, she heard a strained scream and muffled thump. Soi Fon turned toward the place where her brother was, or at least, where he once stood. But now, he lay on the forest floor some thirty feet below her, a red stain quickly spreading beneath his torso. He writhed once and was still.

Soi Fon's eyes widened at the sight, but before she could jump down after him, she felt the smallest disturbance in the air around her. She whipped around, drawing her dagger just in time to deflect another tiny metal blade. Then Soi Fon turned and sped back toward the group.

"They're here!" She shouted frantically, as others began flooding in with similar reports. Her uncle was already rounding up the remainder of the soldiers, who gathered above the clearing again, their eyes wild and alert. Soi Fon counted three missing. Thankfully though, the rest of her brothers were still there.

The leaves rustled around them, but nobody attacked. Soi Fon's uncle narrowed his eyes. "They're escaping," he said, realizing the situation. "Follow them. And kill them on the spot."

Soi Fon left her position and ran in the direction of the rustling sounds, jumping nimbly from tree to tree. There! A shadow below her on a branch! She swung down and slashed her sword at the man's masked head, but her sword was met with another blade. She could feel the man's smirk through his facemask, and she grunted as he pushed her away with his knee. Again, she rushed toward him, blade clutched tightly, but he simply blocked her and kicked her to the ground. Soi Fon landed with a thud, and by the time she looked up, the man was already moving. But Soi Fon was not about to fail her first mission. Gritting her teeth and ignoring the throbbing pain in her left arm, she grasped her sword and ran after him, eyes trained on his dark form as it moved through the trees in front of her.

They finally reached a clearing, and Soi Fon, putting on more speed, skidded to a stop in front of him, blocking his path. She swung her right hand across, the blade cutting into the man's abdomen before he could come to a full stop. But it only took him a moment to realize what had happened, and he turned, trying to escape in the direction he had just come from.

"Tch," Soi Fon tutted angrily. She pulled two throwing knives from inside the collar of her uniform and threw them with careful aim. "You won't escape!" One knife whizzed over the man's head, embedding itself in a tree, but the second knife hit the man's back with such force that it sent him flying into a trunk, where he twitched and then slid to the ground, gasping painfully.

Soi Fon jumped down and stood in front of him. "You will die," she said, just as a shadow passed overhead. She watched as the body of one of the traitors went flying above them and crashed down somewhere in the forest. Her brother emerged from behind a tree. She made to go after him, but just as she glanced past the man she had confronted, he threw his blade with all the strength he could muster. But he wasn't aiming at her.

The blade went straight over her head and buried itself in her brother's chest, pinning him to the trunk of the tree that he stood on. He died as the weapon pierced his heart.

Again, Soi Fon thought, as she felt a wave of rage and despair overwhelm her. Again she was useless, too weak, too brash, and inept to save her comrades. She curled her hands into fists, knuckles whitening in anger. She lifted her blade to finish the man who had killed her brother, but she stopped midway. Instead, she pulled out another throwing knife and drove it into the man's shoulder, trapping him against the tree. The man cried out in pain as blood spurted forward.

"You don't deserve a quick death," Soi Fon said coldly. And she left him to suffer, cursing life as he died.

That evening, when the team returned to the Onmitsukido, they were down five soldiers, two of which were Soi Fon's brothers. Even as the rest of the assassins chatted away and celebrated their brief victory over the traitors, Soi Fon isolated herself, still inconsolable after the events of the day. At some point during the evening, her father came over to her.

"Your uncle told me what happened," he began in his deep, stern voice. Soi Fon simply nodded, slightly lifting her head to stare up at him. "Let me just tell you this then. Death is an inevitable consequence of battle. So do not mourn the dead. Do not hover over the matter. Do not keep them in your memories. These things will only bring you pain and make you incompetent. You fight for the Corps-Commander, and you fight for your life." He turned. "Remember this…Soi Fon."

Soi Fon stared after her father's retreating form in disbelief. Was this really how they were supposed to live? Dispassionately removed from anything that should give them emotions? Soi Fon knew that they needed to be strong if they wanted to be soldiers of the Onmitsukido. But now, she wondered if they were even human. She wondered if their lives had been taken away from them in their sleep, if they had been deactivated and then reprogrammed to do nothing but kill, kill, and live to kill some more.

Yeah, sorry about the lack of conversation in this chapter, but I rarely ever see the Onmitsukido speaking besides "Yes, sir," and I felt that the silence was appropriate for their kind of mission. So I hope the action wasn't too boring :P
Just bear with me here. Soi Fon is beginning to change.