Target Tentacles - A Karmagisa Assassination

Chapter 4

The second thing Karma notices is the desk positioned right inside the doors where a receptionist is shuffling some papers. He walks up to her, putting on his best smile.

"I'm Karma Akabane." He slides his driver's license onto her desk. "And this," he gestured behind him to Nagisa, "is Nagisa Shiota. We're here to see Tadaomi Karasuma?"

The receptionist inspects Karma's license, then nods and turns to Nagisa. "ID?"

Karma steps slightly in front of Nagisa, blocking the receptionist's line of vision. While up until now his smile has been charismatic and friendly, it now becomes slightly harder and more intimidating. "I'll vouch for him. He didn't realize he'd need an ID and it doesn't sound like we have time to go back and get it."

The woman hesitates, then nods. She returns Karma's driver's license and beckons over one of the (probably) soldiers. He comes over quickly, eyeing Karma and Nagisa surreptitiously.

"Take them to Karasuma, he's expecting them."

The soldier nods and says unnecessarily, "Come with me."

Karma fights the urge to roll his eyes. He can already tell he isn't going to like this guy.

The soldier guides them through the building, which is quite frankly more maze than anything else. Karma keeps an eye out, taking all of it in. He's reasonably certain he could find his way out again, but he's glad that Nagisa's here so he can rely on the blue head's excellent memory and observational skills.

Along the way Nagisa makes a few attempts at conversation, but the soldier replies only with monosyllabic responses. His silence conveys an air of seriousness that hadn't been there in the car. Karma can feel anticipation building up in him. This is real. He and Nagisa are really going on another assassination.

Eventually they come to a pair of heavy metal doors. The soldier holds them open for Karma and Nagisa, and together they step inside. They've entered some sort of training hall. Nearest them Karasuma is looking through some papers spread out on one of the long metal tables that are scattered throughout the room. In the center is an open area with removable padding, and along the edges are racks of weapons and training dummies. As Karma is taking all of this in the soldier leaves, shutting the doors behind him.

Meanwhile Karasuma looks up and nods in greeting. "I'm glad you made it, Karma, Nagisa. I trust Karma has briefed you on what we're doing?"

Karma watches as Nagisa swallows and nods. "He told me we're assassinating Mikoto Takimi because he's been implanted with a tentacle seed."

"That's about the gist of it. You don't actually have to kill him; I know neither of you have actually taken a life before. As long as he's totally incapacitated the Special Forces can take him in, but it still might be necessary to straight out kill him."

"And what about the target?" Karma cuts in. "You said he was definitely evil over the phone, but the files you sent only gave basic information."

Wordlessly Karasuma hands each of them copies of the papers he had been looking at.

Karma reads the title. "Target Tentacles?"

"That's what we're calling this operation. The government has been in turmoil ever since we discovered about Mikoto Takimi. The orders and operation details just came in early this morning. To answer Karma's question, Takimi's after power. Quite a few of his political rivals and personal adversaries have disappeared in the past few weeks. We suspect that the two are connected and there's a team working right now to collect evidence. They'll be at his house tonight taking advantage of the event while we take out the target."

Karma listens attentively as he skims through the documents. It doesn't look like Takimi has had any military training, so if they can just get past his tentacles he should be pretty easy to subdue.

Karma looks up from the documents as Karasuma resumes speaking.

"So, what do you say Nagisa? Karma's already agreed, but I know it's a lot to take in. Will you do this for us?"

Karma could practically see the wheels turning in his friend's head. He elbowed him. "Come on, Nagi. It'll be fun like old times."

Nagisa sighs. "Right. Fun." He says in a dubious tone. But Karma can tell he's already made up his mind. Nagisa isn't the type to sit on the sidelines if he can help save lives, and with the recent disappearances Karma knows the decision is practically made. Nagisa proves him right a moment later when he lifts his eyes to meet Karasuma's, his expression dripping in bloodlust. "I'm in."

Karasuma nods, having expected it. "Great. Then let's start preparing. We have a perfect assassination to pull off."

________

This chapter is longer as promised :) I hope that somewhat makes up for the shorter sections.

In the next few chapters Nagisa's going to be forced to cross dress as Karma's date in order to have a reasonable excuse for attending the event. Any ideas on what he should wear...? 

As always, thanks for reading and happy 2021!

–Laika