My Assassin Life

Vroom. A rusty red car zooms fast by my house as I look out through my dirty window, and then a black car comes and my eyes follow it just like I do with the rest, they’re like the sheep I count when I sleep, some have white fur, some have black, and sometimes even pink, red, or purple. Watching cars is boring though, it’s not like I have anything to do, I climb down from the chair and lay down on the stained carpet, look up at the ceiling covered in dust, and cobwebs.

“It’s so boring.” I groan and raise my arms then they fall right back down.

“I wonder what Papa’s doing?” I prop myself up and go in search.

“Papa?” I turn my head to the living room, nowhere in sight.

“Papa?” Then the kitchen, but there’s nobody there. Which means there is only one place he can be. I sneak up the creaking stairs with each teeniest step sounding like I’m stepping on eggshells.

“Papa!” I bust into his room and the dust from the door flows into the air.

His room was dark with the only light being the small lamp placed at his work desk scattered with envelopes and papers. One of his hands was holding his hair, and the other holding a paper tightly where you can see it crease. He didn’t react to my sudden burst so I quickly scoot closer to look at his face, his eyes lacked color, and they were focused on one thing which was whatever was on the paper.

“Papa, hey Papa?” I shake him a little to see if I can wake him up, he shakes his head and looks at me.

“Oh, Kimiyo? Would you like to go somewhere fun? How about the animal shelter?” He asks but his voice lacks any sort of emotion.

“I would love to go! Let’s go, Papa, I’ve always wanted someone I can play with!” Nevertheless just knowing I get to go somewhere fun fills me with enough excitement, that I’m near to exploding.

We hop into our broken-down blue car, and the engine rumbles loudly giving a mini earthquake inside the car, but after we were off to get me a new buddy. Should I get a cat, or a dog, or maybe something completely different? We arrive a couple of minutes later at a dark place. It didn’t look like a place that kept doggies at all, but I remember what they would all say, to never judge a book by its cover.

“We’re here.” My dad says then we head out of the car to the giant warehouse in front of me. We enter the building and I never let go of dad’s shirt. I close my eyes as he escorts me and then we reach a stop. I slowly open my eyes and see the legs of people in front of me.

“How much?” Papa asks, putting his hand on my shoulder.

“Wait, daddy, I haven’t even decided on which pet I wanted yet.”

“505,349.46 yen.” The man offers.

“Daddy! I haven’t picked who I wanted yet, why are you choosing so suddenly like this! Hey, dad are you listening to me! What are you doing!” I shout and cry as I look up at his face where his eyes were the same and not making a single bit of eye contact with me despite my crying and yelling.

“Deal.” He grabs a handful of money from the guy in black and pushes me forward where I trip and fall on the cold concrete floor.

The guy’s hand reaches out to grab me like those claw machines in the arcades, carrying me away from my dad who is counting every paper pill in his hand not even shedding a tear or even waving goodbye. I knew it was strange that he suddenly talked to me.

“Kimiyo, wake up!”

“Huh? What?” I open my eyes with my vision in a blur.

“Kimiyo, were you staying up late again?” My vision clears, and it was just my good friend Himiko.

“I told you to go to bed earlier,” Himiko says.

“Sorry, I was up late doing that history assignment.”

“You haven’t done that yet, it was due a week ago! What am I gonna do with you?” Himiko shakes her head

. The school bell rings announcing the end of school, and we would walk home together like always,

“I’m telling you, you can’t be sleeping so late, I mean look at your beautiful white face, and soft skin, I can already see bags forming under your dark brown eyes.” Himiko grabs my face and starts examining it.

“Mmm, my beauty doesn’t matter, what matters is making sure I do my job of being a student.” I put her hands off my face.

“Oh, c’mon Kimiyo, being a student isn’t just about school work, it’s about youth, like romance, and karaoke.” Himiko happily expresses.

“Romance is the least of my worries, I’m just a high schooler after all, and plus I’m not nearly as popular or as beautiful as you to go to big gatherings, and have guys asking me out. I’m not that valuable.”

“Kimiyo, If I was that beautiful then I would have a boyfriend by now, but you, you would be surprised how many guys I see talking about you.”

“You look at me too high, those guys are probably just talking bad about me.” “No, if I were a guy there would be no other girl than you I would go for, I’d go to great lengths to give you the moon and the stars, because that’s what you deserve, trust me Kimiyo. You have to look at yourself higher.”

“Thanks, Himiko,” I say but it really doesn’t matter for me, a boy isn’t what I want.

“Hey, my friends and I are gonna hang out tomorrow, wanna join?” She offers me.

“Sorry, I’m busy with my part-time job,” I reply.

“Can’t you take a break?”

“No, my boss won’t allow it.” I sadly say.

“What an annoying boss, I bet he’s fat, and ugly whose head is balding.”

“Hehe.” I giggle at that statement.

“Well, whenever you are free, hit me up okay? I wouldn’t miss it for the world to hang out with you.” Himiko turns around, gives a bright smile, and waves me goodbye.

Her long dyed blonde hair blows in the wind, her cheeks always having a slight red to them, and her eyes always shining like diamonds under the sun, while I stand under the shadow with my black hair tied in an angel wing in the back.

My house is right in front of me but I don’t go inside, instead, I go to my part-time or maybe even full-time job, in a dark warehouse that I am now quite familiar with.

“Ah, you’re here.”

“What’s the target?” I ask.

“Kimiyo, darling you don’t have to be in such a hurry.” He puts his hands on my shoulders.

This man wears a nice black suit and a tie, he has round glasses, a fedora, a light goatee, and when he opens his mouth his teeth are like dominoes falling and leaning on top of each other. He is a man that is of no importance to me except for giving me money to live.

“I don’t care for chit chat with you, give me the target.” I glare at him.

“Oh no, so scary.” He says sarcastically.

“I trained you, I hope you know that.”

“You trained me against my will, why would I thank you for teaching me how to kill, and it’s not like you raised me.”

“Why are you so cold all the time?”

“Isn’t that because of you?” He smiles.

“Glad to know our finest assassin who’s ever been trained in our organization hasn't gone soft from school.”

“Just give me the job.” I glare.

“Fine, for you Serpent your job is to kill this businessman who didn’t return the money he borrowed in the six-week time frame.” He hands me the information sheet, with his name, picture, address, and reason for the assassination.

I go to leave and change out of my school uniform. I change into a black dress that zigs zags through my body, showing my entire left leg, then the right side of my belly, then the upper half of the left side of the chest, and then going over my right shoulder that is being held on by straps on my back in the shape of an X, on my wrist, there is a bracelet with reptilian skin patterns, and a ring of a snake coiling on my pointer finger, and small diamond earrings. I hold my whip barbed with poison tips, as well as a fast switchblade I keep just in case and head out to take the life of a man.

I arrive at the man’s house and the lights were off, the window was broken, and the door was wide open, perhaps a thief? To check I look into the house from the broken window where a single light dimly flickers in the darkroom, and I catch a glimpse of the target’s head rolling on the floor, no doubt it was him. Blood everywhere around the kitchen, and in the middle a tall figure, and a sudden flash of purple then in the next second he appears right next to me, he quickly flings his sharp purple nails my direction and I block with my switchblade. He jumps back then speaks,

“A human? Being able to react to my swing that fast? How intriguing?” He licks a bit of blood off his face.

He comes charging right at me, I dodge but he was still able to scrape me with a cut to my cheek, what incredible speed, but now he was right next to my whip that I was dragging on the ground, I wrap it around his ankles and cut off both his feet to where he falls on the ground

“A human harmed me? How truly fascinating indeed!” His feet start to regrow.

“Your eyes filled with murderous energy, are you a monster as well?”

“Maybe,” I reply then I charge straight for him, and he charges at me. He gets a hold of my neck, and hand but my whip wraps around his neck, a stalemate. The snake with his fangs bare on my index finger, I cut his palm, and I pull down my whip, letting his head slide off, “Wait, this can’t be happening! No!” He’s somehow still alive, and his head flies back to his head as if this was some sort of movie, around his neck a collar appears and locks itself on.

He tries to take it off but couldn’t and says “I guess, I’m your pet now.”

Wait, what? What did he say?

“This is annoying, well I guess I should introduce myself, my name’s Dalreth, and I’m a Valta, a race that you humans would consider to be monsters, we are materialized from the spirits, and the dead from wars, so we are a race that values power and have an extreme hierarchy system where there are these marks on our backs that activate when we are defeated, making us a slave or a pet to the individual who beats us, they control our life, what we do, and whether we should we kept alive or not, if we don’t kill or fight we die, and when we are pets, it’s similar to feeding a dog to keep it alive, but instead of food the owner has to kill or fight to feed us energy if they want me alive of course. So what will you do with me, human?” He explains.

These are things I feel are pulled right out of a book, I understood the gist of it though “You can’t hurt me any more right?”

“Correct.”

“Then I won’t kill you, as there’s no reason to, you’re not on my list after all.” This monster is now supposedly my pet, and he stands in front of me.

His dark purple hair is scruffy going down to his eyes, he has a single earring on his left ear with a star dangling from it, red eyes, a scar on his right cheek, he wore a black collared trench coat with purple outlines, he only had a single button buttoned on in the middle revealing some parts of his six-pack, his muscular figure can be seen, he has purple claws, he loosely wears a belt and regular black pants with normal shoes. He has a cool demeanor but still looks human.

“Well, I’ll be off now.” I wave and take my leave, I didn’t kill the guy but he is dead so I guess I can still claim the reward, maybe what happened today is just a dream, and tomorrow none of this ever happened.

“Can I ask why you’re still following me?” I ask.

“I’m your pet, remember, I can’t go anywhere without my owner.”

“Does that mean I’ll have to bring you to school?” “Yes, but don’t worry I can do things like this.” A purple aura emits from him and then he’s gone.

I look around “Down here.”

I look down and he was small, a tiny man, my face lit up “So cute! You’re like a kitty!” I pick him up in my palms, smiling.

He has an irritating face on “A grumpy little kitty at that.”

“Please, put me down.” I place him on the ground.

He follows me back to my house where we head up to my room. It’s not an exciting room at all, a regular bed, and a regular desk, and chair, there’s nothing more to it.

“This is your room? I was expecting something with a lot more decorations.” Dalreth looks around.

“I wish, but this is good enough as long as it’s livable. Yawn. I think I’m gonna go to sleep.” Dalreth is now back to his regular size.

“What’s that thing you humans say? Oh, right, goodnight.” He says.

“And a goodnight to you too.” He lays on the floor and I go into my bed.

I start counting the sheep, in my head with a smile on my face. That was the first time anyone has ever said good night to me.

RING! “Ugh,” I groan and roll out of bed.

“You’re awake.”

“Who’s that?”

“Me.”

“Papa?”

“Dalreth.” He simply says and my memory to me as the drowsiness of waking up fades.

“Oh, right you! Good morning!”

“Isn’t the phrase good night?”

“No, in the mornings you say good morning.”

“You people have one for night and day.”

“Yep, we’re social creatures, so how’d you sleep.”

“I didn’t sleep, Valtas don’t need sleep. I sat around your room the whole night looking at a gray wall.”

“That’s so boring, but how about some breakfast?”

“Don’t need to eat either, we just fight for our entire lives, never saw any meaning in what humans do.”

“Well, a nice glass of milk and a piece of toast will brighten up your morning.” As I am saying this I turn to look at the clock and the time is eight 15 am, which means school starts in ten minutes.

“Nevermind, no time for breakfast I’m gonna be late for school.” I rush out of the house, the school is within walking distance, about 30 minutes usually but if I run I can get there in ten, maybe even less. Dalreth runs beside me.

“You run quite fast for a human.”

“Let’s just say I’m in better shape than most people, also can you shrink down? I can't let people see you in school.”

“Oh, right” Dalreth shrinks while running.

For a constantly fighting monster, he looks like a rat running away from his predator.

“Get in my bag, here.” I open up my bag for him to jump in.

“Just in time,” I say as I check the clock.

I sit down in my seat, greeting Himiko on the way in, then I take my seat and try to understand what the teacher is saying but I already slept in so many classes I have no idea what’s going on. Time passes by though, and I move from class to class, wondering if Dalreth is suffocating in my bag, but then the angelic bell rings and the teacher releases us from school.

“I’m surprised you didn’t fall asleep today.” Himiko sneaks up behind me.

“Himiko, you startled me, but I say I slept quite well yesterday.”

“That’s good, but why do you have a bandage on your face?”

“It’s just a scratch I got from work, don’t worry about it.”

“You have to be careful, Kimiyo.”

“I know, I know, thank you for looking out for me.”

“Always, now wanna walk home?”

“Of course.” We go back on the same path home like always.

“So, are you working again today?”

“Sadly, I think I do.”

“Boo, when are you not busy?”

“Never.”

“At least something interesting happens during your job.”

“Of course, all the time, it’s all exciting, gets my adrenaline pumping, but yesterday had to have been one of the most unique days, I met this guy, and-” I got cut off.

“A guy! Are you interested in him?”

“I mean, yeah.”

“What’s his hair color? Is he cool? How tall is he? What’s his personality like?” Himiko starts spitting question after question.

“I’m telling you, I don’t see him that way.”

“Whatever you say, but tell me more about it tomorrow, have fun at your job.”

“I wouldn’t call my job fun.” I give a light smile and wave Himiko goodbye then head to the house where I get my tasks for the night.

“Ah, you’re here, today I have a surprise for you.”

“I don’t care.” I coldly reply.

“Still as harsh as ever huh? Well turns out today, you don’t have to kill anyone, you can just go home.” I turn and leave without saying anything to him.

“Not even a good-bye or thank you, c’mon Kimiyo.”

“I hope my next target is to kill you.” I quickly say before leaving.

As I am heading home I remember a certain person and open my bag.

“Finally!” Dalreth jumps out heavily breathing.

“Sorry, the day is pretty long, hope you are okay.”

“No, I’m not, please next time let me hide outside and not inside of a cage, that was torture. We might not need sleep or food, but breathing air is still a requirement.” He says in a breathy voice.

“Yeah, next time I’ll find a better place with air circulation for you,” I promise.

“That would be great, but at least I was able to hear from inside there. You act completely differently when you are talking to that man instead of that girl.”

“Well, my job is serious, and I have a history with that man.”

“Interesting, your lifestyle is a lot like mine.”

“I guess, but it’s not the life I want.”

“That girl too, who is she?”

“Oh, Himiko? She’s a friend of mine.”

“She seems rather annoying but fun.”

“She’s not too bad, I’m glad she even talks to me.”

“Maybe your life isn’t like mine, I never had friends before.”

“What happened to them?”

“I killed them or someone else did because that’s what my race does.”

“Oh.” I didn’t have the words to say to him, but I can tell from his eyes that he’s lonely, that look that I am also quite familiar with.

I arrive home and Dalreth was still in his small state, sitting on my shoulder, and when I enter to my surprise he was standing at the entrance with a trilby hat, his spiky gray hair tied in a short ponytail in the back, serious eyes, a gray beard, on his deck a cross necklace, a jacket that he wore like a cape on his back, brown jeans with a belt, a collared white shirt, a gun, and a knife on his waist. This was my adoptive “father” Vaso Tanclave. A well-known monster hunter who’s barely home in search of exorcising and killing monsters, I never believed monsters were real even when they told me about his occupation but after meeting Dalreth, I now know that his job isn’t just playing around.

“Oh, you’ve come back?” I ask.

“I’ve come back because there’s a rumor of a monster in this area, don’t expect me to always be home though. Also, Kimiyo, tell me did you see something like this.” He showed me a picture of a figure with dark purple hair, sharp purple claws, and a scar running down his right cheek.

Dalreth.

“No, I told you before I don’t believe in monsters.” I lie.

“Whatever, I’ll leave now.” And then he left, without even a minute of conversation, without even asking me how I was, without caring about me at all despite him being my “dad”.

I rush into my room, throwing my back on the floor, and slumping against a wall, silently crying. I’m just like a snake, an animal who can’t feel love or an animal who’s deemed undeserving of love, and the feeling of being cared for. Dalreth jumps off my shoulder and turns back to his normal form, and squatting down so our eyes can meet,

“Why are you crying.” He tilts his head looking at me.

“You know Dalreth, I’m glad I got to know you.”

Dalreth still has a puzzled look on his face.

“Don’t worry about me, it’s just complicated human things, so just smile alright? You don’t have to feel sad.” I start to wipe my tears off my face and try to smile.

He doesn't crack a smile but instead has a sad look on his face, almost like he’s giving me pity, but then he hugs me.

“I don’t quite get it, but I think this is what humans do to comfort one another. I've seen them do it before, when I’m about to kill them, they would always shed tears and embrace each other tightly. Humans have much more complicated emotions than Valtas, I might not understand your emotions at the moment but I hope this helps.”

“Yes, thank you, this helps, just having you here helps a lot.” I hug him back and slowly begin to fall asleep.