I dreamt of it again, that was why I woke up in tears.

I dreamt about how my life changed.

About how my parents were killed by robbers, how I hunted the bastards and killed them, and how I surrendered myself to the police only to be released by a certain Taiju Shiba. He offered to give me a new life. He had someone fake my documents so that I would be Sakura Minamikawa, a distant cousin of his living in Tokyo. Since being Sakura, I also became Death, an assassin working under Black Dragon. According to what I heard in the group, there were a total of five hired assassins under Taiju, but all their identities were unknown. I haven't met someone like me.

In exchange for my new life and for money, I killed anyone. No matter how old, no matter what work they do, no matter how good they were. To me, they were nothing, just another task to be done. Soon, killing became normal to me like breathing. I lived with death. Every day. Every night.

My alarm rang.

I should get ready for school. Faking a normal life was the best cover for an assassin so I did my best to act like a normal girl.

But it failed. Thanks to the unnecessary confession of Matsuno yesterday. As soon as other students saw me, they began to whisper and gossip. The last thing I wanted to do was to attract attention. I was an assassin, a death reaper. I should be hiding in the background as I do my seamless work.

As normal as I could, I walked toward my classroom.

I waited all day for another message from Taiju but nothing came. It seemed like I was free all night. Instead of heading back to my apartment, I chose to stroll along the park. I pulled my MP3 player from my pocket and plugged in my earphones. Listening to the beautiful melodies of song after song, I walked slowly, observing the running dogs, the frolicking kids, and the loitering adults. Witnessing the kaleidoscope of scenes before me, I felt like an outsider, a mere observer. And that was fine to me. I had nothing to do with life anymore. Not since my family was taken away from me and I started killing other people.

It was still early in the evening so I decided to go to the bookstore first before grabbing a meal at the convenience store. Customers were hanging around, looking at the books on the shelves. I stared at a particular magazine and was about to take it when-

"Minamikawa-san!" A hand grabbed my wrist and I almost killed the stranger when I looked at him and realized that he was Matsuno. Geez. The last person I wanted to meet. He pointed at the bandage on my wrist. "What is this? If you have a problem, then talk about it with someone!"

I dramatically looked around as if to say he was making an unnecessary ruckus. Which he was. I took my hand from him and replied with a sour tone, "I accidentally cut myself on my window ledge. It's nothing."

He blinked. "Oh. I see." And then he smiled and scratched the back of his head, blushing. Was it because he was embarrassed? Or because of something else?

"Hoy, Chifuyu! Come on. Mikey's waiting. You can take your wife with you!" A teen with long black hair shouted from outside the store. He was sitting on a cool-looking motorbike.

Matsuno shouted back, "Baji-san, she's not my wife!"

"Whatever! Just bring her!"

The boy smiled and extended his hand toward me. "You heard him. Do you want to have a ride with me? Don't worry I'll take care of you." Without waiting for my response, he took my hand and guided me out of the shop and onto his own bike.

"I dumped you," I reminded him.

But he just grinned and said, "I don't give up easily. Besides, it's just a ride."

Which wasn't true, because they ended up in an arcade center where Matsuno and his friends challenged each other with childish games.

I sighed. I should just go home and leave these kids.

"Minamikawa-san." Matsuno handed me a fake gun. "Loser will treat the other lunch on Monday since today's a Friday."

"I... don't..." I didn't play childish games. I was an assassin, and despite my age, I already lived in the grown-up's world. However, seeing the joy in the eyes of the kids in here. Hearing their shouts. Feeling their excitement... I looked around. Yes, everybody was having fun. This was ridiculous. But... "Okay." The child within me I never knew still existed won over my mind. I took the gun. Matsuno inserted the chips into the machine and the game began. Expertly and without unnecessary movement, I shot zombie after zombie at the screen. Of course, I won and Matsuno gaped at me.

"You're amazing, Minamikawa-san. You could be a police."

Ironic. The police wanted me dead.

"Hahaha! How lame!" The one called Baji put his arms over Matsuno's shoulders. "So lame." The long-haired teen looked at me. "See if you could win against me with that."

He meant the whack-a-mole. I shrugged my shoulders. "Okay." And... he lost, too. Of course, these people might be strong gangsters but they didn't receive the kind of training I got. "What else?"

Matsuno's eyes widened as he looked at me and then he smiled his kind smile. He ruffled my short hair and brought me to the basketball shooting game. He lost again but he only laughed. Every game we played, he and his friends lost. After about an hour and a half of playing, they only have a few coins to buy chips. I offered to give them some of my money but they refused to let a girl pay.

The blonde pointed at the claw machine. "Guess, let's play that last." All of us agreed. Each of them received one last chip, so one chance per person.

Everybody watched me as I tried the game, expecting me to be an ace on it, too. I pushed the button and saw the claw come down only to catch nothing but air. I feel myself blush from embarrassment. "I-I'm not good at claw machines," I admitted.

"No, it's alright."

"It's a hard game."

"I also suck at it."

They comforted me. I thought gangsters were bad people.

I noticed that Matsuno was concentrating hard on the claw machine he was playing. The claw went down straight into a tabby cat key chain, successfully getting it. He caught it! Amazing! He took the keychain and gave it to me. "Here. Next time, you could try again."

It was a tabby cat.

When I was around six, I begged my mom to let me raise a cat as a pet, but she wouldn't let me. I cried in my bed for two days straight. On the night of the second day, my dad entered my room and handed me a tabby cat stuffed toy as he said, "Here. Next time, we'll ask your mother for a real one."

As I took the keychain from Matsuno, water glistened in my eyes.

W-what... I sucked in my breath.

"Hey. Are you okay?" I heard the boy ask with concern.

I shook my head like how my heart shook. "It's nothing."

Matsuno walked me home. He lent his motorbike to his friend.

It was already late at night and only a few people were around. We were mostly silent during the walk, but when we were a bit close to my apartment I asked the blonde, "Why do you like me?" It was an honest question. Why would someone like a plain, boring girl (my cover) like me?

He was blushing when he looked at me and said, "Because you're a cool and kind person."

I almost choked on my own spit. I mean, I get the cool part, but kind? I bet there were demons kinder than me. "Why do you say that?"

He put his hands inside his pockets. "I saw you, around two months ago. You saved a child from a kidnapper. At the park. After I saw you and what you did, I just fell in love. I thought, she must be really nice."

Ha.

I remembered the incident. Black Dragon staged it to gain the couple's trust-my target. It was mission accomplished. Meaning, I successfully killed the unsuspecting couple, and their five-year-old child. Hearing those words from Matsuno and remembering what I did, I felt... uneasy.

"My apartment's here." We stopped walking.

Matsuno waved his hand at me and said goodbye. "I'll see you on Monday. Eat well and sleep well, okay?"

I watched him leave thinking, "Idiot."