3 years before:
The mission was to escort the girl to all Xuanwu, make sure she wouldn't be killed or kidnapped on the way by Oni, Evil spirits, or brigands, and then deliver her as a sacrifice to the legendary dragon of Xuanwu that decided this year that girl will be his dinner. That mission was so awful and horrible that no Xuanwu warrior want to take it, even killers don't want it. So it was led to the best killer of Xuanwu or more, the more heartless one: him.
First, he never thought the mission has horrible, a mission was a mission no emotion should be involved after all emotion is the worse assassin's enemy, but to be fair he conceder the mission as a pain in the ass: not only it was a long mission because the travel will take at least 3 weeks, but also he technically has to protect someone and take care of her need until he reaches the end of the mission. Protecting himself was something easy for Seven, but protecting someone else was new and it could be a lot of trouble.
He remembers meeting the girl.
7 "Shadow killer number seven. I was sent by the organization. I'm ready to accomplish my mission."
Guardian of the girl: "Ah! You're here! Ah just first ... we trough it would be simpler for you and for her if she didn't know, so we didn't tell her ... the ... well the killing part you get it... so if you don't want trouble just don't tell her"
7 *they didn't tell her that her escort guard is a killer? Well this is sure that no one wishes to be escorted by a killer...*
7"just tell me where is the girl."
The guardian "... y..yes sure. Bai, your escort has arrived! Come here"
Bai "I'm coming !"
The girl arrives with a white tunic, long brown hair, a package, and a small sword on her back.
Bai "Hi! My name is Bai. Thank you for accepting the mission."
7"Fine. Let's go."
Bai *Not even saying hello... what kind of dude he is ?*
"ahh... yes. Mister, what is your name, how I should call you ?"
7 "I'm shadow k...Seven. If you need to call me, just call me Seven."
Bai "okay. That's noted Seven !" She says with a big smile.
7 *she smiles? Ahhh this mission is going to be long... veeery long*
Some hours after :
Bai *what is wrong with him, he is always walking on my back that's scary!*
7 *She always turns back to look if I'm still here, is she trying to find a good opportunity to escape her fate?*
Bai stops walking and turns back.
Bai *Okay I had enough! Why are you walking on my back and so far away ?! I can't even hear the sound of your footstep, this creeps me out!*
7*well it's killer behavior to be in their target back, he knows nothing else, bad habit* "I'm ... watching your back, keep walking"
Bai "watching my back ?! From so far ?! You look like a stalker! The only one in kilometers that looks like he is about to kill me is you! at least come closer."
7 *I look like a killer because I am one but is not like I can tell her...*
Bai "I'm not moving until you come closer!"
7 *this mission is already a pain in the ass ... But it's better if she walks on her own* Seven makes two footsteps.
Bai "mooore closer !"
7*oh god... why isn't the mission just to kill her ?!* he makes two additional footsteps. "This is close enough."
Bai "NOO !! It would be close enough when I will not need to scream to talk to you !"
7*Oh gosh, I already understand why that dragon wants to eat her* he comes close to 2 meters to her. "That way enough. Now walk."
Bai "Arh fine !"
She turns in the direction of the road and keeps walking.
But the girl was clearly still annoyed.
A bit after:
Bai "I clearly don't get it!"
7 "..."
Bai "seriously why ?"
7 "..."
Bai "I was trained !"
7 "..."
Bai "I'm a high skilled warrior! I can defend myself alone !"
7 "..." *is she going to talk all the way?!*
Bai "Seriously you can go. I really don't need your help! Take a vacation, I can escort myself alone !"
7 "I will not give up a mission."
Bai "Ah! You will see at the first menace we encounter that I don't need you!"
7 *Is she even understanding that she is more captive now that protected ?!*
"..."
Minutes after:
Some bunch of thieves go on their way.
Thief "Hey you, it is some fancy clothes you have there, you're not from here right? You better give us what you have or my friends are going to... take care of you." Saying this they all draw out their weapons.
Bai draws her sword with a smile "Ah finally some action! You will see Seven, they have no chance! You will not even need to move! Listen, guys! I'm a warrior from the white dragon clan, if you wish to live flee now, it's your last chance !"
Seven, from the back of the girl, prepare himself to strike, if one of them comes closer to his mission, they're dead. He put his hand on the thousand demon dagger and draw it up just a little bit, letting appearing his token and 10 centimeters of the emblematic cracked blade colored with blue and purple reflects.
Thief "This ... this blade... and the ...the... it can't be real ... it's ... it's ... sha....sha...AHHHHHH! We're sorry forgive us !!" And they all flee quicker than their own shadow.
They are gone, Seven stow his sword in its scabbard again.
Bai, confused, "ahhh....huhhh...they're gone already ?"
Bai, turning to Seven with a big smile, "See I told you, you are useless in this mission, you will not have to move a finger with me !"
7 "..."
7 "......"
Bai "so you can leave me !"
7 "it was simple thieves, evil spirits and demons won't flee like that. Keep moving we are already late enough."
Bai "tsss... you're so stubborn!" And she turns back, draw back her sword and keep walking."
A little bit after:
Bai "you are not very talkative don't you?"
7 "..."
Bai "If you won't leave me, at least say something!"
7 "Talking is not part of the mission."
Bai "Mission! Mission! Mission! Do you have anything in your life other than your mission ?!"
7 ".... .... no."
Bai "ahhh woooh ... really? That's ... that's sad. Sorry... I didn't know that you really have nothing else... you not even have hobbies between missions?"
7 ".... I do training."
Bai "I mean something not related to missions..."
7 "... ...."
Bai "ahhh... I see..."
7 "... sometimes when I train my Qi control, birds come sit on me and ... it happens that I ... can cuddle their feathers, is this what you call a hobby ?"
Bai "ahhh... well it's small but I suppose so... that's kinda cute by the way."
7 *Cu...cute ?* seven was disturbed by so naive and simple words and he missed one of his furtive footsteps.
Bai "Ahah! Did I hear one of your footsteps? What is happening, you're starting to lose your concentration, Ahah ?"
She turns with a big smile that she quickly lost, she can see Seven with a very serious face, red glowing eyes, and his hand on his sword ready to draw his weapon.
Bai "ahhh Seven? Are you okay? I didn't get you mad for this ... right ?"
He slowly approaches the girl. Then quicker than light, he grabs her arms and draws the thousand demon dagger. She was sure it was her final moments until she realized the boy dragged her behind him and made a big slash in front of him in the dark of the wood, cutting trees on the way. How did the boy cut the trees from so far and from a simple short slash, and most of all, why ?!
Bai "Se..Seven? What was ... that ?"
7 "Careful. It's just injured, it's not over yet."
7 puts down a bit his sword to be prepared for a new upcoming attack, still grabbing the arms of the girl to be prepared to move her fast in case of need. Then Bai notices the strange sword he has: one full of cracks with blue and purple reflections, she had never seen a sword like that, that was beautiful. At the end of the sword she notices a little smudge of red blood, the boy has cut something alive with this sword, how did he get this far ?!
Bai " i ..."it"?"
Seven quickly made them do a rotation of 180° and he did another slash into the dark wood. From far, it looks like he was making her dance.
7 "demon."
Then another attack.
"Tiiiiiing"
Seven rotate his hand to put his sword in front of the girl doing a protection line. The sword stops some kind of tiny spears or more some kind of biological needles send at high speed by the creature from its body. The sound of the needle on the sword was a piercing and acute distinction "ting" that can look like music notes. Doing a big slash, he automatically redirected the stopped attack to the original sender, but Seven can hear with the environmental sound that the creature dodge his counterattack. Where was it now?
Another attack, the creature was rotating around them in the dark to shoot its needles from far.
"Titititititiiiiiiing"
This time from another angle, the creature sends a more dispersed shot of needles forcing Seven to separate the sword with Qi, creating a cloud of little floating iron fragments of the sword. All these little fragments perfectly intercepted all the needles of the attack from the demon creatures one by one. All of this sounds and looks like music floating around the girl, and turning constantly with the boy, it was like dancing on a strange bloody dangerous symphony where the boy was the conductor of it. The girl couldn't understand all of the situation, she feels shocked and at the same time amazed. She never sees a weapon like that, she never sees someone with a perfect Qi utilization like that and she never sees someone having to fight to protect her like the boy was doing right now. He was so calm, perfect master of the situation when her never seen a demon attack like that in her entire life. He sure, at first, looks like a really weird guy but right now he really looks like he was ... amazing.
7*ahh like guessed it's hard when it comes to protecting someone else. She is always on the way and never dodges on her own. It is already complex if I have to take that monster on my own, but it is more complicated to have to make sure nothing happens to her AND to kill the demon. ...Come on, don't you start running out of needles, vicious creature? Come face me it will be way more simple.*
Just after the needle's shots stop, a tentacle came from the dark. A strange tentacle arm that his up part was recovered of needles and the back part was soft.
Seven starts to attack the tentacle which directs itself to grab the girl, but the slash is perfectly useless. The sharpness of the thousand demon daggers couldn't get through this natural armor of Qi infused hard spines, and it breaks.
So Seven pushes the girl out of the way and then quickly dashes slide under the tentacle, he recreates the sword with Telekinesis Qi, to this time makes a slash under the tentacle in the soft part.
"KYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAHHHH!"
It instantly cuts the tentacle in a blood effusion. By the heavy acute scream, it sounds like the demon felt the attack and felt it bad very hard. With a cutted bleeding tentacle, the creature finally shows itself. It looks like a strange starfish: a soft side with a center weak point, a hard side full of "spines needles", and made of a lot of tentacles. The tentacles were grabbing trees like monkeys grab trees with their tail, putting the monster in an above position. With other tentacles, the demon was making a shield to its weak points. It was definitely hurt and angry for blood.
Seven stops grabbing the girl's hand and face the monster.
7"finally, you get that you will have to face me first, don't you ?"
As a positive answer, the monster throws at him his needles that the thousand demon dagger floating pieces tank with no difficulty. Then the monster takes a tree and try to crush Seven with it. But the monster was way too slow. Seven was already on the tree higher than the ground and from here he jumps on the center weak point and tries a big slash. But even from high, the slash wasn't strong enough to break the natural armor that was the needle spines on his tentacles. He was forced to go back before the other tentacles of the monster touch him. He needs to add more power to his sword if he wants to get through its Qi armor. Dismissing the shotted needles with slashs of his sword, Seven, one by one, positions himself to cut the attacking tentacles until the moment the creatures have no more enough to move from tree to tree as it does before. With its two left tentacles, it takes a ball position completely surrounding itself of its armor hoping the boy will leave this weak but indestructible bleeding rock alone.
7 « game over »
Finally, he just has to finish the weak dying beast. It wasn't really a hard fight but it would have been way simpler if he didn't have to protect the girl and more if this damn nuisance demon didn't have deadly poisoned needles spines.
He takes his weapon with one hand, put the other hand flat on the sword handle, and then forces with Qi. The sword progressively breaks into tiny pieces and get between the spines and tentacles to go under the armor. Then Seven recreates the sword cutting the tentacles along the way and finish the beast by pushing the sword into the soft weak center point. The monster makes a pain big scream then die definitely. He sticks out his sword from the monster's dead body, shakes his sword a little bit to get off the blood, and put it back in its scabbard.
He turns back, good the girl was still here, she didn't use this fight to try to flee him. The girl was a little bit still in shock. He looks closely at her ... ... oh no.
Bai "Se...Seven ... you defeat it ... that was..."
7 "DON'T MOVE!"
During his fight, he probably missed one shotted spine hidden by another shotted spine, because right now Bai has one poisoned needle spine slightly stuck in her leg.
Bai "...What ?"
7 "don't move your leg. You have a spine stick on it. Don't move."
Bai "Ooohh.... oh yes you're right! But it's okay it doesn't hurt at all, I can just remov..."
7 "NO! Don't touch it !!!" *ahhh god how much she will make this mission more complicated?*
Bai "... Seven... that the first time you look panicked of the day and just for a tiny spine, should I be scared of something ?"
Seven come close to the girl.
7 "just don't move your leg. Starfish demon needles are poisonous but I can handle this if you just listen and don't move, okay?"
Bai "poiss... ahh... o...okay."
Seven takes the girl in his arms like a princess, that makes her blush. Then he puts her sit on the floor. He takes his belt and enrolls it on her leg and makes a tight knot with it, like this he made a tourniquet on her leg.
7 *If I remember correctly this demon has spines with two poisons: the first one the paralysis, and the second one comes after paralysis, the deadly one. It seems that the paralysis one enter a bit in her leg, that's why she didn't feel anything. The deadly one is still in the spine, good news, my mission is not already failed. If I carefully remove the paralysis poison I can avoid her to lose her leg or worse avoid paralysis to her heart that will cause her death and failure to my mission.... come on! I can do it, after all, I already do this on myself, that's not that different, right ?*
7 "the poison seems to still be in the spine. I will put it off, if you don't move it will be okay."
Bai "o...okay."
Seven take his hand and put two fingers up, he actives his telekinetic Qi on the spine to remove it without activating a pressure on it. He focus as his maximum at it was a really delicate surgical operation for him. Then just with his Qi, without having to touch the spine he gets it off in a flash and a legendary precision. A bit of blood start to drop from the wound, this blood was unusually darker because of the poison in it.
7 *fuck I need to get off the poison in the blood ...*
Bai "... is it over ?"
7 "No. don't move, I need to suck off the poison of your blood"
Bai "you..... whaaaaat?!"
Seven rolls the pants of the girl to her knee to see the wound correctly. He takes his sword and with it opens the wound just a little bit more. The girl did a weird face but say nothing.
7 *she didn't feel pain from it. Not good the paralysis started.*
Bai « you can't be serious ?! »
7 « I never fail a mission, it will not starts today.»
Seven takes the leg of the girl with his hands. The girl feel so embarrassed from it, that she could help but move a bit her leg by reflex.
7 « I SAID DON'T MOVE !! »
He was angry and maybe a bit stressed and it scares the girl, she says nothing and stops moving.
He puts his mouth on the wound and starts sucking the blood from it, then he splits the blood on the grass. He repeat the operation 4 or 5 times until the blood from the wound stops to be darker.
The girl feels so embarrassed right now. She could not feel the mouth of the boy on her strangely, but she can see all the scene and she was probably completely red, maybe it was for saving her but still, never did a boy put his lips on her ... ahhh... how could the situation turn like that ?!
But the boy, him, feels so concentrated on his mission, he's not even looking to be concerned if this was embarrassing for him or not.
Bai « Aie! That hurts! »
7 « Good. You're out of danger then. »
He splits a last time then wipes his mouth of the poisoned blood with his hands and then the border of his cape.
The boy with his dark hair, dark circles under his eyes, and blood all over his lips and hands, right now for the girl, looks like a vampire, a beautiful and attractive vampire. A deadly demon temptation, what was he for real? Would he lead her to her death? Even if he was here to take her soul, he looks so handsome, she maybe could easily let this demon kills her... ahhhhh what she was thinking god dammit! She mentally slaps herself.
He takes bandages and unrolls them on her wound, puts back her pants normally, puts back his belt, and stands up again.
7 « come on, get up. We are moving. I don't want to sleep in a forest invaded by demons, if we are quick enough we will reach the close-by village.»
Bai « ah ... heuuh... yes sure. ... ARH! Ahhh.... »
Bai tried to stand on her legs and it hurts.
7 *even if I take off the poison, it will probably be painful for 1 or 2 hours now. The time for her body to destroy the little part of the poison still in...*
Bai try to walk but it was painful and slow.
7 *I can walk with this kind of pain or even still fight but I guess she didn't have this kind of training... if she is that slow that would be a major problem...*
7 « if you walk like that we will be stuck in this forest when the night will come. Give me your sword. »
Bai « I know I'm sorry I... arhhh... try my best. Wait, my sword? »
7 « I want no weapon on my back, that is not negotiable. I take it from now, you will have it back when you can walk on your own again. »
Bai « walk on my own? »
He didn't give the girl the time to understand. He takes her sword and puts it close to the thousand demon dagger. Then he takes her and put her on his back, carrying her weight with his arms under her legs around his hips. Like that he start walking again like it was no effort at all.
The girl was definitely red this time and lucky for her he couldn't see it because she was on his back, she was so close she can even feel his hair and senses his smell...
7*Ahhh this situation is humiliating for me, for the shadow killer, for the league... and it is unusually risky for me, if I need to defend myself I will be way slower ... no even speaking about... someone in my back... I never let anyone that close to me, especially in my back... she is not a match for me and unarmed but still... there are so many dangerous possibilities... if she tries anything I will need to take her down without killing her... to be fair I have no idea how to do that...ahhh I hate this mission! ... but the mission is really important for the chief and Xuanwu, if I give up now it will be a way bigger humiliation for me, for the league, for the chief... all of Xuanwu will make me a public enemy... there is no way that happens! I'm the best killer in the world now! I can take care of one single girl even if that is not what I was trained for. »
Bai « Seven? »
7 « mmh? »
Bai « I...I want to say I'm sorry... »
7 « I'm the one missioned to make sure you will reach The great Dragon Orochi alive, don't blame yourself, if someone is to blame for your injury it's me. I will not be so reckless next time, don't worry. »
Bai « No, I mean sorry for ... before, when I say you were useless... that was rude and even after insulting your skill like that you still not hesitate to protect me... I'm sorry, you deserve better... To be sincere when I see you first you scare me a bit but now I think you're a good person... »
7*g...good... person* he miss again one of his furtive footsteps. Seven for the first time was starting to blush. A good person, how can someone think something like that about... him? It was the last thing he would use to describe him.
7 « ... no ... I'm not a good person... really. I'm just accomplishing my mission.»
Bai « You rude with yourself, what I saw just before was more than someone simply accomplishing a mission for money, You didn't just fight, you really put your life in danger to protect me... Thank you for it, you ... you really were... incredible just now. »
7 *T...Thank? That ... not something people use to ... tell me...* these words make the killer feel strange. Something he never felt before. Warm and light and great maybe. Why simple words can make him feel like that, him who was sure to not feel anything anymore?
7 « ... Thank is ... unnecessary, that my mission to kill anything that will try to kill or stop you before we reach Orochi. What happens after this travel, is not of my resort.»
Bai « Still this monster was really dangerous a lot of people would have probably given up the mission from now. »
7 « I will not give up. I never fail or give up a mission, be assured it will not start today. »
Bai « Ahah I was sure you would say something like that! Still thank you ... it's because you're here I can do this travel and finally get free... »
7 *Get free ???? Is life so much torture for her she wishes to be eaten by a legendary dragon?*
7 « Get free? »
Bai « Ahhh... well... The people of the clan, they say I was born with a special Qi that can help spirits get stronger. They say it was a gift ... but to be sincere I always feel like it was more of a curse... »
7 *gifted by birth... people want to use this Qi gift for them... a gift like a curse... is not like I didn't know that...*
Bai « For this, they trained me so I can protect myself and help then but still they never let me leave the city of our clan because it was too dangerous if an evil spirit will take my Qi »
7 « You never saw anything else than your city before today? »
Bai « ... ahh yes. that the first time I leave the door of the city. »
7 *that. That's sad ... she basically doesn't know anything and in no more than 3 weeks when she will finally starts to see the world by herself she will need to die. That is probably why she acts so surprised by everything and so reckless. I need to pay more attention to her then.*
Bai « But that's okay! I'm sure we can do it and reach Orochi! When that dragon will take my Qi, I will maybe not be able to be a Qi user anymore but I'm okay with that! »
7 « You... you're okay with ... that? »
Bai « Yeah! I know a Qi fighter like you can't understand that, but I'm really happy about that because after the ceremony I will be able to finally accomplish my dream! I will be free of this curse and finally, I will be able to travel the world on my own! »
7 *OH GOD .... she doesn't know?!*
Seven can't help but laugh for the first time face to the irony of the situation.
7 « AHAHAHA! they didn't tell you ?! »
Bai « hey! What are you laughing ?! They didn't tell me what ?! »