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Free Me From the Sun (Yuichanzu) (1/2)

PART I (Imaizumi Side)

During night time, even the moon spoke in euphemisms, rumbling softly with muffled splashes of black and red across a white-lit asphalt. This city had been painted a dull spectrum of colors by the factions overtaking it and the complacent police where only a pair of still bright-eyed youngsters tried to change.

During daytime, the soft muted colors littering the streets seemed almost safe. The sun hidden behind clouds seemed to not emit any warmth; chilly weather started early this year.

Those were observations that Imaizumi Yui made as she came to this city.

A freelancer with a good reputation, she was called an assassin; she was called an informant; she was called an entertainer and a jack of all trades. Roaming across the country, she had stopped by this city on the request of one of the large organizations that had taken half the city, the western half to be precise.

That request was simple, but she had teetered on the brink of accepting and not accepting. Nonetheless, she chose the former choice for a number of circumstances.

Hopping over the railing of the second floor balcony connected to a bar owned by a certain criminal group controlling half the city, the short girl spotted her target looking at the sky. Imaizumi hadn't been noticed quite yet, so she drank in the view of a beautiful girl with long hair and sleepy looking eyes dressed sharply in a suit, a gun stealthily holstered out of view under the black.

That person loved to watch the sky at dawn, even as her fingers looked pinkish from the cold and she puffed out a breath of white condensed by the temperature of the air.

"Yuipon, isn't it cold out here?"

"It gets colder than this. You should be careful not to catch a cold." Kobayashi Yui slowly removed her hired freelancer's hands from her own, pausing before saying the freelancer's name, "Imaizumi."

"Thank you, Yuipon. I know how to take care of myself." Imaizumi leaned her back on the railing, taking a position next to Kobayashi.

Kobayashi replied without missing a beat, "You do have a good track record for that." For a moment, their conversation appeared like a normal pair of girls' chat, but they weren't that sort.

"That's the job."

"You've completed the one I requested?"

"You can confirm with the heads if you want."

"There's no need. The money is already in your account."

Imaizumi nodded with a hum that signalled her acknowledgment of Kobayashi's words.

"Will you be leaving this city soon?" Kobayashi inquired.

"Are you chasing me out?"

"No."

"Then, I'll take you up on the hospitality." Imaizumi smiled teasingly, "Next time don't call me Imaizumi."

Kobayashi seemed to squint at Imaizumi's blindingly bright presence. She didn't reply, not willing yet to use a foolish sounding nickname that the freelancer had asked to be called with by their third meeting.

"Call me Zuumin." The short freelancer told the crime boss.

Kobayashi wryly smiled, "You really do as you please."

"Because I'm as free as I can I be."

"The sun is rising." Kobayashi noted out of the corner of her eye. "You don't have anything to do today, right?"