Author's Note: I hope it's okay if for this story at least I post the first five chapters in one block, and the next five in another, and then after that post individual chapters as I complete them (I'm working on length in regards to this one, believe me). Also, there are a few slight changes in wording compared to the version of these chapters I have posted elsewhere.
Chapter One
“So let me get this straight… you’re firing me?”
Muramoru, my agent, merely stared at me with his penetrating golden eyes, one of those aloof, “you know the answer” looks on his face. Why he tends to do that so much, I don’t know, but time after time it’s gotten on my nerves. And it was even worse this time; especially since he had just “let me go,” so to speak. “Of course I’m firing you. Our deal was that if you took on a job that you would go through with it no matter what. You failed to do that this time.”
“But still! The guy wanted me to kill the ambassador of the Neutral party! I could never do that no matter how much money he offered me –“
“You mean us. In case you’ve forgotten, another condition of our contract stated that we split the profits from each job 60-40.” Muramoru smugly corrected me, yet another irritating habit of his. Ah, whom am I kidding? Everything about him is irritating!
“Who cares anymore?!” I shouted, finally up to my last nerve with him. “You should’ve told me exactly who I was going after when you assigned me to the job! That was also in our contract, remember?” Bam! Gave him a taste of his own medicine.
Muramoru, still unshaken despite my outburst, merely twitched his shaggy wolf-tail and responded coolly, “That just further proves my point. Since we both breached the contract, it’s safe to say that we fired each other already.” He then leaned towards me from his desk, his face inching ever closer to mine. “But if you want, we can still be friends? Or maybe now that we’re no longer coworkers, we can actually take it a step further.” That’s when he made the one move he’ll probably regret for the rest of his life…
Responding in the only way I knew how other than killing him, I punched his face in before he could even peck me on the cheek. As the momentum of the blow flung him to the other side of the room, I opened the door and began to walk out of the jerk face’s office, leaving him with these words of rejection: “Like I’d ever date a wolf to begin with, much less a jerk like you…”
So then I was out of a job, and even ruined my chances of getting a final paycheck… My first order of business, naturally, was to buy a copy of the daily newspaper and see if there were any other assassination agencies hiring, and just to see what’s going on in the world aside from the war that’s been raging for the past 200 years. So as I was walking down the now desolate streets of New Mesa, that’s what I did.
As usual, I read the current events pages first, skipping the pointless stories regarding the war, and then skipped to the classified ads. Nothing really out of the ordinary, save for the recent boom in the protection industry. Then again, with teenagers like me killing people just so they can make ends meet, it’s only natural that the protection field would also be prospering quite well. It was one of the usual “body guard wanted” ads that caught my attention. It read,
24-hour protection needed
Free housing provided, negotiable pay
For more info, ask for Kai Yamada at the New Mesa town hall and show the receptionist this ad.
My first thought was ‘what the heck is this guy thinking?’ If he was that desperate for a bodyguard, as almost all nobles are, you’d think he’d advertise through a private employment agency rather than in the newspapers. But there are few occasions when those of powerful status will hire just about anyone that can use a weapon and won't take bribes from the enemy to turn on them for higher pay. Hence why it's so hard for former assassins to switch over to protection if they're particularly well-known or their potential employers actually bother to do a background check. However, after the last job, I began to feel that maybe it really was time to move on to a line of work where I wouldn't have to take on such a detestable task as killing people all the time. After all, how hard could it be?
My only problem was my "siblings." Sure, none of us are really related, but due to the heightening of the war lately, we all had to band together and create a pseudo-family so as to at least try to survive submitting to the very fragile, incompetent foster care program set up by the equally fragile CPS. And naturally, being the oldest in the group, I'm expected to be the main supporter as far as finances go. And if I got this job, I knew that I would have to leave them to fend for themselves... This was definitely a job that I had to consult them about before going to
apply for.
Life: 03/06/08 | Posted By: cardcaptorryoko | 2 comments | Original Anime and Manga
