Ninja Assassin

Prologue

Until yesterday, I couldn't have ever imagined in my wildest dreams what would then transpire. We were a happy family of three, Father, Mother, and me... "Open up!!" In the middle of the night, someone was furiously pounding on the door. "Father...?" I called out. "...Dear..." he said looking to Mother. "Yes..." She answered. "Put her in the hiding place!" He told her. "I know." Mother took my hand and then pulled up the tatami mat on the floor. She then removed the floor board. "Mother, what..." I began. "Listen to me. You need to hide in here." Mother told me. "But Mother" I protested. "Just do as I say." Mother said. "...Yes ma'am." Sensing that something terrible was happening by the serious and urgent look on my mother's face, I nodded meekly. At the same instant I slipped into the space underneath the floor, the floorboards were replaced, and everything around me was plunged into darkness. (What on earth is going on...?) (I'm scared...) "I'm coming." Father called out. I could faintly hear my father's voice. Immediately as the door was opened, I heard the sound of several people entering the house, zori sandals on their feet. "You are under arrest for the crime of assisting in smuggling activities." A man said. (...Smuggling...!?) "What...?! My husband would never..." Mother spoke out. "Lord Tori, I have no knowledge of committing any such crime." Father said. (...Tori....?) "Besides, if it's smuggling you're concerned about, wouldn't you know more about that than I...?" Father said. "Oh, so that's how you want to place this? We have evidence of your crimes, so give up the ruse." Yozo said. "...Evidence?" Father asked. "Yes, hard evidence." Yozo answered. At that moment, I heard the sound of a sword as it slid against its sheath. "Aaaargh...!!" Father yelled. "No!!" Mother hollered out. (W-What just...? Father...) "I'm sure you'd be too lonely all by yourself." Yozo said. "Aaahh!!" Mother yelled out after he spoke. (Mother...!?) "Tori! What do you think you're doing by killing them like that?!" Another voice said. (Huh...?) "What? If we're asked, we can just say we had to kill them because they resisted arrest. These guys knew too much. It would be too dangerous for us to let them live. We'll have them pay for all of their crimes. Grab the corpses." Yozo said.

(Did he just say...corpses...?) My body started to tremble. (No, this can't be... I don't believe it...) After the house fell silent, I slowly pushed up the floorboards and crept out. "No..." I said. Bright red puddles of blood from two bodies were spreading across the floor. That man had said "Corpses." So that meant... (My mother and father... they're... dead...?) But neither of their bodies were anywhere to be seen. All that was left were the imprints of zori sandals in the tatami mats and some kind of bill, stained with blood; that had apparently belonged to my father. "Father... Mother..." I said in an empty house. Tears welled in my eyes and dripped down my cheeks. The happy days we'd enjoyed until just yesterday had come crashing down before me. (This... This is just too much...!) (My father would never, ever be a smuggler...!!) (Not my father, the constable, so upright and just...!!) "Tori..." I said as I walked out into a dark street. (I know that name, Yozo Tori...!) (He's the magistrate of the North Ward... and Father's superior.) (From what he said, it sounded like he intended to kill Father all along...) (It must be that Tori guy who was really doing the smuggling.) (And my father found out about it... and that's why he was killed.) "I'm sure if I go back in the house, those guys will come back again..." I said. (I can't go in there, but I also can't go to the magistrate's office without any proof of what happened...) (What should I do...) I wandered aimlessly around the silent midnight streets. (I guess all that's left is to join my mother and father...) (I can't bear to go on living all alone...) Just then, I thought I saw a glimmer of light from the alley. "Huh?" (What was that...?) Straining my eyes to see through the darkness, I closely crept towards the alleyway. The moon came out from behind a cloud and shone its light down into the streets. A sharply glittering blade... and drops of dark crimson blood... Someone, most likely a man, dressed in dark clothing was standing there, blending into the night. And at his feet, fallen to the ground and bleeding, was another man... dead. "Wha... Who...?" I said. From out of the darkness, the dark-clothed man's eyes glimmered. "Who are you...?" I said; he didn't speak a word. Instantly, the shadowy figure deftly climbed up onto the roof. Then, he disappeared, swallowed up into the night. "W-What was that...?" I said. My body shook with fear, and I sank to the ground. (Another murder... Who was that man) "Maybe..." I said thinking. I remembered something I'd once heard. "As long as you pay, they'll kill, steal, and do anything at all." I said. (Those assassins... People called them...) "Vigilantes..." I said. (This man who was murdered... was he assassinated?) (By that man in the dark clothes...)

"First things first, I'd better get out of here..." I said as I stood. (If I stay, someone might suspect me of being the murderer.) In my chest pocket, I clutched the small amount of money I'd been left by my parents. (With this money...) It felt eerie being at the deathly silent shrine at night. But I drew up my courage and placed the pouch of money into the shrine's offertory box. (I'm pretty sure I heard a rumor that you leave your money here and then say your request out loud...) "Please, I just want the man, Tori, who killed my parents to get the punishment he deserves." I said. "He killed them to keep them quiet because they knew about his smuggling...Please..." For a while, I stood before the shrine, oppressed by the silence. The only sound was the idle whispers of tree leaves fluttering in the wind. "...It's no use..." I said. (I guess it was just a rumor after all...) Just as I was reaching to take back the money pouch... A hand suddenly slipped out of nowhere and grabbed onto mine. "Aah...!?" I said. "Be quiet, please." A voice said. Arms circled around me from behind, and my mouth was covered up. "Mmp...mmph...!" I tried to speak. "Don't struggle." The voice said. I was quickly blindfolded and gagged and then thrown over someone's shoulder. "Mmmmmm...!!" (Who...?! Not one of Tori's men?) (Where are they taking me...?!) "We're here." The deep voice said. I was slowly set down on the floor and had my gag and blindfold removed. My blurry vision gradually became clear. "Where am I...?" I asked. (It looks like... a room in a teahouse, maybe?) "Now, young lady." A man said as he plopped himself down in front of me. As far as I could tell from his voice, it was the same man who had kidnapped me. "What... what do you want with me?" I asked. "Well now, what do I want?" he asked. "Kinshiro! What do you think you're doing, bringing this girl here?" a man asked. "Why this girl...?" another man asked. "She couldn't be yours, could she?" Another asked. When I looked around me, I saw there were three other men. "U-Um..." I said. "You saw what happened earlier, didn't you?" he asked. "Earlier...?" I asked puzzled. "In the alley." He added. Just remembering back now made me quake with fear. "...Yes." I said. "You mean, she saw you...?" another man asked him. "Damn it..." Another said right after. "Even if she did see, what's she doing here?" The last one added. "We couldn't very well leave her there to go tell the magistrate what she'd seen." He answered. (So it was him back there...?) (Meaning, these guys are...) "...are you guys the vigilantes?" I asked; they looked at me with surprise. "Indeed we are." One answered.

"I'm the boss here, Kinshiro." He said with a little smile. "The ones who actually do all the work... are these three here." He added before I looked to the others. One of the men turned away from me, one sighed, and one gave me a small smile. "You had a request, did you not?" Kinshiro asked; I looked at him blankly. (My mother and father were innocent victims...) (I have to clear their names.) "...Yes, I do." I answered. "Very well, catch." Kinshiro said before tossing my money bag to me. "Can you restate your request one more time?" Kinshiro asked. "...Sure." I answered. "My parents were murdered. They were falsely accused of smuggling crimes. While they were being arrested, they were killed, under the pretense that they'd been resisting the police... I heard everything that happened from where I was hiding underneath the floor. They were killed before they'd had a chance to resist for even one second! Yozo Tori... he's the murderer. He killed my parents for uncovering his own smuggling." I said. "...Yozo Tori, you say." Kinshiro said with a frown. "I have ten gold coins." I added. I held out the bag of money to Kinshiro. "...Please accept my request." "You look determined enough. Fine, I think I've got a good grasp on how you feel." Kinshiro said with a small smile. "So you'll do it?" I asked. "Well, when it comes to Tori, it is sort of my business, after all, being another magistrate. However, there is one condition." Kinshiro said. "A condition...?" I asked. "Now that you've seen where we work... unfortunately, we can't let you go. I'm sure you understand." Kinshiro said. "Y-Yes..." I answered. "So how about it? How would you like to become one of us?" Kinshiro asked. "Huh...!?" I said. "Hey, Kinshiro, what're you talking about?" One of the other men asked. "You can't be serious! Don't you think that's going a little too far, even to joke about?" The other man added. "Yeah, Kinshiro and you can't really think this woman could be a vigilante..." The last one said. "Shut up, all of you," Kinshiro said in a hard voice. "If you refuse to become a vigilante, I'll send you to join your parents' right here and now." He added; I looked at him. (He means... He's going to kill me?!) "What will it be, young lady? Show me just how determined you really are to avenge your parents." Kinshiro said. I was scared to death. I wanted nothing more than to run away. But I had to see this through... I couldn't just run away. I tightly clenched my fists. "...As long as I can get revenge on the people who killed my parents." I said before adding, "And one more thing. Don't call me young lady. My name is Yui Takao." "Haha! I think I like you. Okay then, Yui. You'll be working alongside one of these three men." Kinshiro said with a smile. "One of them..." I said. One man a stubborn, serious-looking constable type. One handsome and well-dressed, seemingly capricious man. And one brightly smiling, kind-looking gentleman.