Happy New Years!

Light the Darkness

Alarms had to be the most irritating inventions ever created. One minute your floating in the world of dreams and the next your being startled awake by the screams of a thousand dying chickens. Who in their right mind wants to be awakened to such a deafening sound? Well, apparently the little princess did. Leave it to me to disregard something like an alarm clock. Well if its waking up at the crack of dawn that these royals want, its waking up a the crack of dawn they'll get; this just motivates me more to steal the damn scroll and get the hell out of here.

"Why the hell would anyone want to wake up at," I turned to the alarm after rubbing the sleep from my eyes and almost screamed to the lords above, "good God it's four o'clock in the fucking morning!" as soon as I said that my speaker crackled.

"Yo Moriko, is there any trouble on your end?"

"No Katsu, just decided that I'm nabbing that scroll today and getting the hell out of here, waking up at four in the goddamn morning is insane!"

"Aw come on its only a few more hours earlier than we usually wake up to start our day," you could practically here the unshed laughter in that voice of his, which made me want to reach into the speaker and choke him within an inch of his life.

"We rise at six thirty Katsu, it's a whole two and a half hours more, and I don't care what anybody else thinks, that two and a half more hours really makes a goddamn difference."

"Well we knew before going into this mission what the princesses routines were and you didn't have a problem then,"

Grumbling I got out of bed and did a few daily stretches before looking at the sealing charm on my wrist.

"Watch over things Katsu, I'm transforming and making my way to the library for that scroll. I don't want this to be a bloody end, its going to be a hit and run type of mission this time." This would make the mission a bit harder, but I don't need enemies with power, money or influence on our backs. Doing a quick series of hand signs I slapped my right hand over my left wrist were my paper seal was. My cloths instantly transforming into a flawless triple layered kimono, a style fit for a lords daughter. When Katsu and I were watching and taking notes on Princess Aiko's behavior and daily routines, I noticed that she liked lavender's and sky blues with sophisticated yet beautiful patterns sowed into the cuffs and around the bottom edges of her Kimono's. In replication I used the same pattern that I saw her wear earlier that day in a light violet.

"Roger that, get in and get out, I'll start transporting Aiko. This is a wise decision, leaving her under a genjutsu for too long and it could become unstable.

"I realize that, give me a few minutes before you start on your way, I'll make a doppelganger to distract some of the guards," Within moments a mirror copy of the real me stood there. I had to admit that I missed my long light brown hair and blue eyes, lady Aiko was so plain with her unoriginal black hair and brown eyes, not to mention straight hair. I had a thing for layers and a bit of a wave couldn't kill anyone. "You know what your doing, cover yourself and distract the guards."

"Watch yourself love, the last thing we need is people figuring out that your not Ai," Katsu warned.

"No worries, I've done this type of mission before," I laughed out. "Hey by the way there's some really nice blankets here that would look just lovely in our room, and they seem to be on sale, would you like me to pick some up? There's plenty to spare," I asked remembering my silent promise to grab a few for the cottage.

"Oh I don't know, is there any cashmere? Maybe some silk?" he asked playfully.

"Of course, I would only pickup the best for you,"

"That 'a girl. Now shift that butt of yours in gear and lets get this show on the road."

I ran to the closet and grabbed a few blankets and stuffed them into the bag that I had carried here, along with a few extra pillows. I left the bag near the window hidden by the curtains for Katsu to grab on his way out.

Slowly I opened the door and scanned the halls for any one but like I planned all of the guards were out chasing after my doppelganger. Scanning again I made my way softly towards the library, if anyone ran by I didn't want to seem out of place by running around at top speed.

"How's step three coming? I'm almost at the manner," I heard Katsu wisper into the speaker.

"Things are running smoothly as originally planned, I'm slipping inside the library as we speak, your present is near the window. Slip in and place the girl in bed and then slip out, I'll meet you in the forest 20 kilometers from here due north," I whispered to Katsu before looking around.

"Roger that."

The library was nice I had to admit, but they had major errors in their security. First off, the scrolls were on display, a big no-no if you want the scrolls to remain in safe keeping. And then there was no one guarding it, again I was lucky that it was so early and my doppelganger was taking care of the guards while I worked.

"Hey I'm in and the princess is asleep and safe in her bed, you manage to grab that scroll yet?"

"No, it seems that the scroll we need is not among the ones on display, perhaps they did take the necessary precautions," I looked around and mentally recalled the layout that we received from the client. This would be the only place to house the scroll, unless…

"Maybe that case has a hidden switch or something, double check it before you go looking around."

"Yeah, that's what I'm doing, there's a lever on the bottom," I focused my chakra making sure that there wasn't a trap before pushing the slot aside and reaching in. "And Bingo was his name 'o," I couldn't help but chuckle until I felt a shift in the air and cursed. Of all the things that could happen, there just needed to be an alarm.

"The suspense is killing me, did you find it?" Katsu chirped eagerly in my ear.

"Yeah I'm rushing out of here, seems they did take precautions, a silent alarm went off, get out of there Katsu we need to make a run for it!" I quickly focused and did a quick hand sign, getting out of this Manner would be easy, there wasn't anyone around and I could swiftly get out without a trace of me being left behind.

"Riko, you there? Riko… Damn it, let me know if your okay!" Katsu's distressed and impatient voice cracked through the communicator's link.

"Katsu I made it out…"

"Geeze, thank the Gods above. Next time don't take so long to contact me!" I laughed through into my speaker and continued.

"Sorry, I'm heading towards you now, don't worry I had plenty of time to make it out of there. Its safe to say, step four complete, mission accomplished my friend, though that was incredibly easy compared to our usual missions. Even a novice could have done this mission, it's a bit of a disappointment." I raced to the tree as fast as I could move and lightly scaled it, coming face to face with Katsu.

"It was pretty weak, but the pay was good," Katsu added grabbing a small bag and turning to run. I grabbed the larger bag of borrowed goods, slipped it over my shoulder and joined Katsu, jumping from branch to branch.

"Your right about that, the clients probably knew that we would be disappointed with the mission and decided to pay us extra to motivate us to finish the job," I murmured. Most of our clients knew that we liked dangerous missions and the pay was the added bonus, this mission was a let down.

"If we decide to take a mission from this client again, I will make sure to ask whether the mission is worth accepting or not. It all makes sense now why the man was shifty before, to our displeasure it wasn't over how risky the mission was, but how risky giving it to us and dealing with us after would be. Question."

"Yeah your right, what is it Katsu?

"Can I eat him?"

"No Katsu, humans give you indigestion, we've been over this," I cried in mock seriousness. In reality Katsu didn't eat humans, but he compared himself to his brother species the wolf, and every now and then would ask to eat someone. He was too human to eat a human. He mentioned once that humans don't smell like food, therefore he'd remain eating what I provided for him.

"Kill joy," Katsu added, a firm smirk in place.

"Just looking out for your health, if you want I'll make you a nice steak when we get back, provided of course that you go to our client and get the rest of our money." Katsu sighed dramatically before smiling;

"Wouldn't have it any other way."

"Good, now lets get back to our place, I'm looking forward to a good nights sleep, and a hot shower."