Assassins and Adventurers

Yoruhi lazily sat by the railing on the third floor of the estate, watching below as the swordsmen began to pack up and prepare to leave. Next to him, he held the bird cage that Fukuro was in, having been childishly left outside by his sister.

Outside of his training in what he himself called the ‘mana room’, he had made no progress in his magicule detection skills today and he was starting to feel a bit bummed out about it.

As he was moping around, he suddenly heard someone walking up the stairs and he turned around to see the boy from earlier. Ryuji was his name, if he recalled correctly.

“Hey…” the boy said exhausted from the day’s training, “I just wanted to come by and thank you guys again… Where’s your sister?”

Yoruhi looked around the place before giving a shrug. He didn’t know either. She had seemingly disappeared on him, and he only noticed after walking back outside and seeing Fukuro still stuck in her cage.

“Oh,” Ryuji said, “well tell her I said thanks when you see her again.”

Yoruhi nodded his head and after that the two of them sat there in silence, not knowing what to say next.

“So you guys have a pet owl?” Ryuji asked, noticing the bird in his hand.

Oh, so it’s your turn to use it as the conversation starter, Yoruhi figured.

“Yeah, it’s Tatsuko’s really. I don’t know much about her other than that her name is Fukuro,” he said.

“She’s very pretty,” Ryuji complimented, staring at her dark iridescent feathers as the bird gave him a curious gaze.

Yoruhi nodded his head again, and yet another awkward silence fell between them.

I suppose it’s my turn to continue the conversation, he decided.

“So… what do you like to do?” Yoruhi asked.

Ryuji then began explaining to him about his hobbies. He explained to him that his father was a renowned fighter from Anith who retired after falling in love with his mom, who worked closely with a low ranking member from the Hibike Noble Family to set up the various plays that happened around town.

Because of this he had a few interests such as bonsai, which he admitted he wasn’t very good at, and origami. He told Yoruhi about the rules his father instilled in him, and explained that that’s why he wanted to get stronger, to which he thanked Yoruhi again for helping him get into the dojo.

This kid… he’s a good kid, Yoruhi thought as he watched him talk, he’s born from a poor family and yet he’s so kind and willing to see the good things in this world… Maybe I was the problem. Maybe I was just too ungrateful for everything.

It was this kind-hearted boy that made Yoruhi realize that it was not the lack of money alone that made someone so bitter like him. Even so, he didn’t want to fault himself so quickly.

Ryuji also has a good father, and parents that love and care about him, he reasoned, so even poor kids can still get love from their parents… then what was my parents’ problem then? What’s their excuse for never caring about me? It’s my parent’s fault that I’m so bitter.

Alas, this was the conclusion that the boy came to, and having decided that it was reasonable enough, he didn’t want to think about it anymore today.

“Oh yeah!” Ryuji suddenly said, “I forgot to tell you earlier, but tomorrow I need to go pick up some training books at the library. Do you and Tatsuko want to come along with me?”

“Books?” Yoruhi asked, “but you can’t read yet, can you?”

“Nope!” Ryuji shook his head and explained, “but the training books only have pictures in them. It’s supposed to help me understand and practice the form I need to be in when using the sword.”

I see, Yoruhi thought, that does make sense.

He silently leaned his back against the railing.

Form… he wondered, maybe there’s a specific way that makes detecting magicules easier.

“Okay,” Yoruhi finally decided, “I’ll go with you. I’ll ask my sister at dinner if she wants to go with us tomorrow as well.”

“Yay!” Ryuji said, “I’ll see you guys there.”

The two of them waved goodbye, and not knowing what to do with the cage in his hands, he decided to bring it up to Tatsuko’s room.

⋆✦-∞-⟡-∞-✦⋆

“Mommy, can I go to the library tomorrow?” Tatsuko asked at dinner.

Yoruhi nearly dropped his chopsticks, surprised that his sister would be the first to bring up the topic.

“The library?” Mizuki asked, “sure.”

“Then, can I go too?” Yoruhi also asked, deciding to jump on the train.

“Of course, but why the sudden interest, you two?”

“Well, I got invited by a boy named Ryuji,” Yoruhi explained.

“Ah, that kid needs to go pick up his first training books,” Hayate noted, listening in on the conversation, “you two are already friends?”

“...Something like that,” Yoruhi said, unsure if he really saw him as one just yet. He still wanted to hide his heart away. “But what about you Tatsuko? I was going to ask you later if you wanted to come along.”

“Hu hm!” she said proudly, “I just knew you were going to ask beforehand.”

Really now? Yoruhi wondered.

“Vivian said she needed to pick up her first training books on being an assassin,” Hayate explained.

Tatsuko’s smug grin dropped into a pout.

“C’mon daddy, you’re no fun!” she said poking at her food.

“Vivian?” Yoruhi asked, “assassin?”

Reasonably, he had no idea what his sister had been up to the whole day and he was just now hearing about this.

“Oh yeah oh yeah!” Tatsuko’s expression perked up again, “Daddy and mommy got me a real assassin to train with! Can you believe it! She’s from the Masquette Noble Family too! Hey, hey, did you know that the Masquette Noble Family is known for their assassin work? She’s so cool and she’s so pretty too! She has this awesome scar on her right eye, and she uses her wings to hide her daggers! And—”

“Okay, calm down Tatsuko,” Nene said, “real assassins don’t poke at their food. Now sit down and eat.”

Tatsuko quieted down and began to silently eat her food, but her body still visibly jittered with uncontained energy.

The adults in the family were beginning to realize that this was becoming an effective strategy to get her to quiet down.

“Are the Masquette Noble Family really a family of assassins?” Yoruhi asked, worried about the idea that legalized assassins were roaming around the world.

“Haha, no,” Hayate explained, sensing the child’s unease, figuring that he must’ve heard about the role from an old book. “While it’s true that they were originally found on assassin work, they have since evolved from their roles. The Masquette Noble Family now mainly focuses on the idea of recon, rescue, and espionage. They’re known to produce people who are fast, and make up most of the Natural Disaster Response Teams. While Vivian is an ‘assassin’, the job doesn’t mean what it used to. Instead it’s a role in the Adventuring job field, and their task is to quickly hit the weak points of a monster so that they’re easier to take down for everyone else in the guild.”

“That’s why she’s so cool!!!” Tasuko shouted while shaking around in her chair.

As Nene tried to calm her down again, Yoruhi breathed a huge sigh of relief upon hearing Hayate’s explanation.

So guilds and adventurers exist in this world too, he thought, his heart pounding excitedly. His old unrealized dreams were beginning to resurface.

He was also glad that Tatsuko was not so messed up as a child that she would want to kill people when she grew up, and that her definition of an assassin wasn’t the one he was thinking of.

Suddenly, he noticed a cold pair of eyes on him, and he looked up to see Mizuki who stared at him with a moon-like expression.

“You’ll be excused from magic training tomorrow,” she said. “I was going to tell you to get some training books anyway. Nene will take the two of you and your friend to the library.”

Yoruhi looked over to Nene to see her wings visibly droop. The poor fairy was too overworked.