Ryuji II

Ryuji Tatsumori was a timid kid whose bravery was instilled in him by his father at a young age. His emerald green eyes were a trait he inherited from him and his obsidian black hair was from his mother.

His father was a retired fighter from Anith, the City of Brawls, and he moved to Hanamichi to settle down after finding his self-proclaimed love of his life there.

When he left his homeland, he didn’t take his reputation with him, and so although the two of them were happy, they had no money. What he had taken with him however, were his principles which he had passed down to his son.

“There are two rules to live by,” his father told him, “the first is that as long as you have something to protect, you will never have nothing in this world. The second is that if you are a good person, you will never be the weakest. Therefore, as long as your heart is pure, and your intentions are right, there will be nothing in this world you can’t protect.”

The words stuck with the boy who carried them throughout the days of his short life. He searched for something worth protecting, but all he saw were people who gave him weird glances due to his poor attire.

It was because of this that when he met the sole person who didn’t look at him weirdly, he decided that that was who he wanted to protect. It was an old man that ran the candy store named Mr. Shinjiro. He had a kind heart and always greeted everyone with a smile. So when Ryuji saw a group of older boys attempt to steal candy from the stand, he couldn’t help but wonder why anyone would do such a thing.

Recalling his father’s words, he boldly ran after them to stop them, but even when they were confronted, instead of apologizing they beat him up. His innate strength helped him land a few hits, but he was severely outnumbered and quickly overwhelmed.

As the boy was being beaten, he began to doubt his father’s words. His heart was pure and his intentions were right, so why couldn’t he protect Mr. Shinjiro like he wanted to? Why were those with their intentions so evil so much stronger than him?

It wasn’t until he heard a voice of a girl that his mind began to clear.

She came in so unexpectedly and had such a flamboyant mannerism.

“Hu hu hmm!” she said in a way that resembled the smug assassin from a popular play that passed by the sector of the city often.

Right behind her was a boy that looked to be about the same age as him, and he would later find out that the boy stood to be a voice of reason amongst the declarations of beheadings from the girl.

These are good people, Ryuji decided. Even the girl who wanted to behead the thieves was good, he thought, for her intentions were to stop the fighting. I want to protect these good people. I want to be strong just like them so I can.

When the girl offered him to join the dojo for free, he was skeptical at first. Growing up in a poor family, he knew that free things weren’t something that were easy to come by.

But the girl had pleaded with her father, “please, please, please, please!”, and since she had done it in front of the whole dojo while everyone was in training, he had no choice but to relent.

The tall man tossed Ryuji a wooden sword and called over a young boy about his age to spar with him. He had bright orange hair and lime-colored eyes that were just brighter than his. The girl’s father then told him that if he impressed him in the duel, he would allow him to join.

Ryuji had never held a sword in his life before, but when he held the wooden handle for the first time, nothing had ever felt so right. His opponent charged at him with a sloppy but trained form, and although Ryuji’s guard was equally as sloppy, his strength alone allowed him to deflect the boy’s katana out of his hands.

This impressed the girl’s father, who suddenly began to take a keen interest in him. He told him to stand over there with the rest of his age group, and to start paying attention to the group’s dedicated instructor.

Ryuji was delighted.

He finally found a place where he felt like he belonged. Even better was that the opponent he had just beat, respectfully gave him a formal bow. It made Ryuji happy. In here, everyone was equal, and nobody gazed at him strangely just because his clothes were tattered or his shoes were missing.

He thought back earlier to when he had doubted his father’s words. He realized that he had been wrong in doing so, for it was his desire to protect Mr. Shinjiro that allowed him to be admitted to a place where he can become stronger where he otherwise would’ve never gotten the chance.

He made a promise to himself to thank the girl after classes were over.

⋆✦-∞-⟡-∞-✦⋆

“Tatsuko! Come over here!” her father suddenly called her over after dismissing the class for the day.

Uh oh, Tatsuko thought, I’m in trouble aren’t I?

She was used to getting into trouble with Nene, so she always seemed to be able to anticipate when she was going to get a good scolding. Based on what she had done today, she assumed that this time it was because she had irresponsibly interrupted a class while it was in session.

When she saw her father however, he had a happy expression on his face.

“So Tatsuko,” he said, “you know what you did today was wrong right?”

She nodded her head.

“I’ll let it slide for today, because your intentions were good. Yoruhi told me what exactly happened out there, and I’m glad to hear that you did the right thing.”

He gave her a gentle pat on her head.

She was surprised to hear that her little brother had stood up for her. She had always assumed that he was an idiot, but now her opinion of him was starting to become a lot better. What she also didn’t know was that Yoruhi had also conveniently left out the part where she threw around beheading as a punishment in her favor.

Judging by her father’s eyes, she knew he had more to tell her.

“Now then Tatsuko,” he said standing up, “your mother and I have been talking and we decided that it wasn’t fair for Yoruhi to get all the special attention. We want you to know we still care about you too, so we pulled a few strings and hired a mentor for you.”

Mentor? She wondered.

Suddenly, Tatsuko began to feel a creepy feeling behind her back, and she instinctively turned around. There, from the shadows, appeared a tall avikin woman. Her black feathers draped over her body like a cloak, and she had a visible scar cutting down her left eye.

Tatsuko’s brain short circuited for half a second upon seeing the dagger hidden amongst her feathers.

“Did you…” she quietly murmured before exploding into a loud shout, “DID YOU AND MOM HIRE ME AN ASSASSIN?! OH MY GOD, I LOVE YOU GUYS SO MUCH!!! I LOVE YOU, I LOVE YOU, I LOVE YOU!”

She jumped up and down and all over the place, unable to contain her excitement within her.

She only stopped when the lady calmly grabbed her and shushed her mouth.

“Shh…” she said in a cool, deep voice, “the first rule of being an assassin is to be quiet.”

Tatsuko silently nodded her head, but her eyes still retained the sparkles within.

“My name is Vivian Masquette from the Masquette Noble Family,” the avikin lady introduced herself, “I am an old friend of your mother’s, and your parents have told me a lot about you, Tatsuko. I heard that you’re looking to become an assassin?”

She excitedly nodded her head again, remaining quiet as she had been instructed.

Indeed, out of all the professions she chose to be interested in between her parents who were both swordsmen, this little girl chose to be interested in assassin work, for she believed the dagger was cooler than the sword.

Her parents knew it was their fault for taking their daughter to watch one too many Midnight Masquerade plays, but they never expected her to actually gain an interest.

Nevertheless, with both his children occupied and happy, Hayate let out a huge sigh of relief, for he believed that this achievement meant that he had succeeded as a father.