On the outskirts of Petersburg five years and eleven months after the crash—
The sun was just beginning to find its way over the horizon as the sky turned from a deep indigo-black to deep blue and then finally a bright orange and yellow that signifies the dawning of a new day. The courtyard was silent, not even the morning birds made a sound as the sunlight broke through the trees. The large historical manner that at one time belonged to a high ranking Duke was eerily quiet even for the early hour. If it was any other morning, one would be able to hear the beginnings of a house hold coming to life and beginning to prepare breakfast, but today was not an ordinary day. This morning the air stank of death. The metallic smell of blood lingered in the air along with the sickly sweet smell of burnt flesh.
The courtyard was littered with nothing but leaves, and as a young girl of about 12 calmly walked across the yard to the front door her long red hair flowing behind her, partially covering the two fencing swords crossed across her back. A small hand gun at the ready on her hip, hidden daggers spread throughout her body as an extra precaution, the young assassin looked as if she was ready to take on the whole manner filled to the brim with enemies, but as her steps took her closer to the door, they turned from silent pads agents the soft earth into loud stomps that where a striking difference form the silence that encompassed the courtyard just seconds before. How could they do this to us, no, to ME! AGAIN! She made a frustrated noise as she stomped her way up the steps only to be stopped by a voice coming from a tree just beyond the side of the large manner.
"You know you're not supposed to go in there yet. Why must you always brake the rules K.T?" the boy sitting on one of the lower hanging branches asked, not even bothering to watch as his friend rolled her eyes at him as she surveyed the area, his bow at the ready. He wore all black, tight riding pants that where covered in straps for the various arrow tips he had in his arsenal, from highly lethal poison, to bugging software, all at the tips of his fingers. He wore only a black shirt with a holster holding the small Gluck that he kept on hand for emergencies along with the two extra clips that was mandatory to have with you if you carried a gun. He also had a small attachment to his belt that held wire as thin as hair but as sharp and hard as a steel sword for when times got really tricky, not that they often did. But he didn't mind, he liked sitting outside at night watching the perimeter making sure nothing unexpected interfered with the mission, unlike the girl who he could feel was glaring holes into his chest with her glare. Gods, if S.S and M.V Jr could figure out how to make K.T's death stare into a bullet, we would be would be unstoppable.
K.T. sighed as rolled her eyes again "And how, my dear P.V, are you able to FALLOW the rules all the time, I mean come on! We are part of this team too, and yet they don't let us in the building, or to even kill our targets, we have to 'incapacitate' our targets" she says with little air quotes that almost make P.V. smile. "What the heck is that anyway? Why can't we be part the mission too!?" she asks as she stomps her foot on the steps.
"One; stop making so much noise, you'll wake up the dead." Said a voice from the window.
"Two; to incapacitate is to stop someone from moving, either by knocking them out or stopping their movements, usually much harder to do without killing them." Said a voice casually form the branch above of P.V.
"Three; you were part of a mission, you were told to watch the rear entrance for movements because that was to be our escape route if the mission was compromised, and if not, how we got out after it was done. Something you are obviously failing at right now." Another voice said from right behind her making her jump a bit and then flinch as they accused her of failing her mission.
"But I-"she started but another voice interrupted her, a quiet voice that came from the woman leaning agents the door frame a board look on her face as she looked her youngest subordinate up and down.
"And four; you haven't been cleared to kill yet" The young burnet with an emerald eye said as she pushed herself off of the door frame, letting the door close behind her as she walked towards the younger girl. "You had your orders, and I have mind, 'Don't let the kids kill' that's what the boss said, so I fallowed my orders, did you?" She asked as she came face to face with K.T.
"I—no sir…."she said as raised her head too stare her commander in the eyes. Some would think this is bold, but in a family such as the Hervarar's, you do not show the back of your neck to anyone, less they chop it off. "I failed my mission sir… I am sorry, I will take full responsibility for my actions" she continued as she braced herself for what was too come.
The brunet smiled inwardly even has she kept the board look on her face So she can learn, just last week she would have augured or would have tried to explain it all away, that good, she's adapting. She'll need it for her punishment. This time the girl did smile, and action that made K.T nervous as she awaited her punishment. "I'll leave that up to Jr…. she was the one in charge of you on this trip, my pet—I mean pupil did just fine." She said as she pulled out an eye patch and fixed it over her right eye again. She hadn't expected to have to use it, but they had some unexpected weapons that were surprisingly difficult to handle. She was tired from its use as it still hadn't recovered from the training her and M.V a few week ago.
"Ooooooooh! I get to choose the punishment! How exciting!" the girl in the tree said as she hoped down to lean agents the trunk. "But that can be save for later, right now we have to get out of here, the staff will be waking up soon and I don't know about you, but I don't want to have to take out a bunch of old ladies just because they saw us." She said as she nodded towards the house where already steps could be heard in the lower floors where the staff slept.
"N.V. is right, let's go, P.V scout ahead, L.A and K.D take the rear, K.T, N.V and I will be middle gaur, K.T right, N.V left, I'll be in the center, let's go." And with that all of them where gone, as if they had never been there to begin with. It would take close to an hour before someone would find the first body, and by that time the small group of Hervarar assassins would already be on their plain back home, one worrying about a paper and evil doctor had assigned as homework for their tip he still hadn't started, two about the punishment that awaited one of them when they arrived home, one was occupied with her weapon as anther took a nap. The last member of the squad was staring out her window wondering why she had the sinking feeling that as soon as she got home, this would begin to change in a way that she could only hope she could keep up with. It's funny how we almost always predict our own misery, even when we don't try to.
Ok so first, thank a bunch to all of you who have favorite or fallowed, it means a lot, and it will be hard but I will try to get these chapters up sooner. So this chapter is rather short, but that's ok, the next one will be extra long I promise and it will have a few surprise people Yay! So before I start I just want to answer some questions that where presented in a review by ifup (thank you for reviewing by the way) so about how Haru/S.S go to the island, that is a secret, promise you'll know latter, but can't tell you now you know. Now about how Gokudera couldn't find the island, much like the island in the Inheritance Ceremony Arc, The Island of Maidens (that's it's name) is guarded by natural illusions only instead of being reinforced by more illusions like the Simon's island, The Island of Maidens literally disappears after a certain hour. It is located on a fault (yet I thought this much about the freaken island... I'm weird like that so sue me -w-) and when high tide hits, the hills and beaches become submerged, and all you can see are a few peaks, which is why when the search party passed by, all they saw was a bunch of rocks, not an island. The way they would around the flooding and what not will be explained in the next chapter, which will hopefully be up by Sunday. Thanks again for reading ^-^