Aikou Hateshiganai

Kaylie growled deep in her throat and grabbed him by the collar, hauling him to face her, nose to nose. “Where is she being cared for?”



“The healer’s…” he stammered out, then watched in shock as she dashed off with such great speed he didn’t quite register it at first. He’d survived… perhaps she was one of the few assassins that believed that it wasn’t really their place to kill the messenger.



There was a small pain in her side from where her money pouch had slapped viciously against her in the panicked run to the town. Her horse, a beautiful, gray, Desert gelding, was probably being caught by the stable hands by now. Devotion was a good horse, and had run himself to a lather to get her here. She stormed into the healer’s building, several people turning to stare as the dark-haired girl who’d so abruptly stormed up on her gray horse and flipped off, before it had even stopped, made her way to a healer. Perhaps some sort of an emergency was happening. One of the medics noticed her and made the mistake of approaching to see what was wrong. The boy looked positively horrified as he was lifted off the ground, feet dangling, and growled at. “Where is she?!”



“Sh… sh… she who?” He stammered out. He knew who this healer worked for, and that it was a possibility some muscle had been hired to take someone out.



“I’m Lee.” She barked out, dropping him to the ground in a heap, staring down at him with wild eyes. He stared back, even more horrified. Everyone who knew anything about this business had heard of the great assassin Lee. She usually knew where people were and was in and out before anyone knew she was even there though. Then something started clicking in his little head. She had someone being taken care of here. “Faith, the girl. Where is she?” she growled out again.



“Oh… oh her…” he bowed his head sadly, but yelped as he was hauled up again. Perhaps that body gesture hadn’t been such a great idea. “She’s… she’s in that back room…” He pointed desperately through a door into a hallway. “The last door on the left…” He yelped again as he was thrown into a chair, landing with his but in it instead of crashing down in a bruised heap like he’d expected. When the boy looked up again, she was gone.



Kaylie looked apprehensively into the room, and saw a figure that looked only vaguely familiar laying on the bed. One arm was splinted, and there were bandages everywhere, including on her head. What had happened? Stepping tentatively in, she reached out, knowing well that she couldn’t touch Faith from where she was and glad, for fear that she might hurt the fragile figure there. “F… Faith?”



When the healer ran to the room, scared out of his wits that something drastic might have happened, he found a hunched figure kneeling next to the bed. It seemed to consist of black and more black. Black pants, black shirt, black tunic, black boots and belt even, and the dark curls falling everywhere from a sorrowful face looked very close to black themselves. A slender, elegant hand with long fingers rested underneath the hand of Faith’s uninjured arm, barely holding it in fear that she’d do more damage. Eyes didn’t leave the girl’s sleeping face, and as he approached, he noted the twitching of her ears and set of her jaw. “I’ve done what I can.” His voice was soft.



“What happened to her? Will she be alright?” the woman he assumed to be Lee had a soft, concerned voice as she continued staring at Faith. “Will she recover?”



“With luck and time, she should be fine.” He answered, afraid to tell her that unless she started to improve soon she may die. “I’ve done what I can for her injuries, and shall continue to help in any way that I can.”



“What happened to her?” There was a growl in the dangerous woman’s voice now, and he was shocked to see a single tear track down her face. Assassins never cried, never cared. Maybe helping this girl was more than some debt she’d owed.



“The husband. She was staying here to keep away from him, and evidently he’d recovered enough from his ‘message’ to give her his own. He caught her in the middle of the trading square when she was on an errand, and beat her until he fainted from the exertion. I would guess that if he hadn’t been so weak from his own injuries that he’d have gone on until she was dead. They’re holding him in the prison.”



“I knew that he wouldn’t take the hint to leave her be.” She growled softly, then bolted up to the very end of the bed as Faith groaned, her eyes fluttering. His own widened in shock as his jaw dropped. She hadn’t shown any signs of improvement that morning, seeming quite set in her coma. “Faith? Faith it’s me… shh honey, I’m here.”



“Kaylie?” she groaned out weakly, staring up at the person hovering over with bleary eyes. “Kaylie?”



“Don’t worry honey, he’s never gonna hurt you ever again. I’m here to make him stop and take you away. You have to get better first though.” The girl said softly, leaning down and gingerly brushing the displaced hair out of her face. She quickly whispered, “Call me Lee honey. Just call me Lee, remember that old nickname?”



“Lee…” Faith groaned out, seeming to be satisfied, and tired. “Lee, don’t leave me again…”



“I’m here to protect you now sweetie. You sleep now. I’ll be right back, alright?” Kaylie whispered loud enough for the healer to hear. Faith tried to nod and moaned in pain, finally squeaking out an affirmative. Kaylie rose and strode purposefully over to the man. “If she dies, I’ll kill you.” With that, she walked out of the building, and headed for the stables, where her horse would be, and her things.



The next day, the soldiers were in an uproar. Apparently the bruised bulk of a man they’d arrested in the trading square recently had just disappeared out of his cell without a trace. They suspected a breakout, though there were many confusing things no one could figure out, such as how had none of the guards known what was happening, and how had he gotten out and managed to lock the cell behind him. An expert was called in, and found a small puncture wound on the neck of each guard on duty that night, and pulled confessions out of them that they’d woken from a small sleep with a bee stinger in their necks, having thought that they’d only been out for a few seconds. It was concluded that somehow an accomplice had drugged them by shooting the stingers at them, and that’s when it had happened. And when the healer watched the girl he knew to be a famous assassin walk in and washer hands of a dark red liquid, he shivered.



Three days later there was another uproar and panic in the prison house, though no information was released to the public as to why. They were only informed that they now presumed the missing prisoner to be dead. It was only that evening that two soldiers walked into the healer’s clinic, still looking a little pale. They looked in on a sleeping Faith, seeing the curious, dark girl sitting vigil, and went back to the healer’s office with him. “Do you know if Miss Faith has any prominent friends, Master Healer? Someone of high status or varitable wealth? I had learned she was living with you before the time of the incident.”



“No. In fact, Faith has practically no friends. One poor couple came by the day before the incident to make sure she was well. They’d been friends of her and that bastard, and only wished well of her and were happy that she was finally out of his care… or lack there of. The girl in there now is named Kaylie. She’s a messenger in a town a few days travel away that Faith was friends with in schooling. Apparently, Faith had written her of her predicament a few days before coming to stay with me. The girl just got here recently and was directed by a medic of mine who heard her searching around for a woman named Faith to here. She hasn’t explained much else since then, just watches over her. Why do you ask?”



“Well you see, the odd thing about it is that we suspected that an assassin was hired to kill the man.” The soldier said in a conspirital tone. They both trusted the healer to not be a gossip, having come to him before. Perhaps he’d be willing to share more information if they told him. “Several days ago, her husband disappeared without a trace. A message scrolled in blood, what we believe to be his, was on the wall this morning, ‘HE WAS WARNED’ in bold letters. Hanging from the ceiling was a single red rose, its thorns uncommonly sharp and black, and stuck through it was a human heart. A well known assassin, at least in the level of people that would know about such things, named Lee, uses rose petals and thorns as her calling sign. We think that either someone who aspires to be like this Lee, or the true assassin Lee, was hired to kill him. The… body… has not been found yet.”



“Well, if Lee is all that I hear, it may be a while before you do, unless Lee wants the body to be found.” The healer said softly, looking down. Just as he suspected, the man was dead. Probably tortured. Well, there was nothing he could do now. “I’m afraid I don’t know that she would know anyone with that kind of money or power, much less that would be able to access the assassin so soon. I hear that Lee is hard to get a hold of, even if for a job.”



“Yes, she is.” The man shrugged, then looked around. They were wasting time here if the healer didn’t know anything. “I’m afraid that we must be moving on. Please inform us when the girl wakes. Have a fine day, Healer.”



“Yes sir. And to you. Good luck.” The man nodded and watched them leave, walking into the room and seeing Faith propped up gently, and talking in a wearied, quiet voice to her friend. “The soldiers are suspicious.”



“Well, they should be, shouldn’t they?” Kaylie asked with a cruel gleam to her eye.



“I assume that we shall be calling you Kaylie then?” He asked carefully, she narrowed her eyes, then nodded. “I assumed that was your street name when she called you that at first, guessing that you were the one she mentioned before. So, then, you’ll be Kaylie to us. I’ll tell the medics and apprentices to refer to you with that name now.”



“Would you excuse us, Healer? I need to talk with Faith about something.” Kaylie said calmly, her face a little hard though her voice did not portray it. A little apprehensive, he nodded and walked out. “Faith… there’s something you should know about me.”



“Did you give Greg those bruises?” She asked softly, still a little out of breath often though the healer had said she was recovering at a remarkable rate. “He looked really beaten up before he came after me.”



“No, but I’m why he got that message.” Kaylie said, a little ashamed. She’d never wanted Faith to know what she was. “Faith, do you remember back in schooling, that one time early on that you met my father?”



“The sword for hire, yeah. I remember.” Faith nodded slowly, to be careful of her head. “You told me then that was why you know how to fight so well, and were exempt from the fighting courses.”



“Yeah… um… he wasn’t just a hired sword hun.” Kaylie blushed and scratched the back of her neck, looking up at the ceiling. She could never look at Faith when she admitted to things she wasn’t proud of. “He was a Hitter.”



“What’s that?”



“It’s sort of like a muscle, you know the strong guy people have with them to get the point across physically… and a sword for hire… and a really low rank assassin all rolled into one.” She said softly. Faith let out a small noise. “I couldn’t tell you back then because I wasn’t allowed to. My momma was a low ranking assassin too, but she died on a job when I was five. I… um… that’s why when you asked if the killing part of being a fighter would bother me back then, I laughed. Death on your hands… it’s never really bothered someone like me. I grew up around it, they would bring home trophies for their employers all the time. I… I learned that trade from them….”



“Oh…” Faith said even more softly. She didn’t quite understand, but she was slowly starting to get the picture.



“Yeah… that job… you remember how when we got out of schooling and were both wandering around trying to figure out what to do, well my father found me a job with the permanent employer he found. They had to put me somewhere else, where I wasn’t known yet, and I had to work my way up the ranks. It’s harder for girls in that field. Well… um… I kinda became an assassin… and they kinda know me well there… in the way that means that a lot of people have heard about me….” She stood and continued staring at the ceiling. Scuffing her boot, she dared a glance at Faith. The girl didn’t look upset but she didn’t look all that happy about it either. “I’ve actually kinda become the best assassin under my boss… and he looks at me as not only a favorite… but also as a daughter. He knows about you… I’ve told him… and well, when I got the letter, and showed it to him insisting that he let me… handle it… he convinced me to have a message sent instead.”



“A message…” Faith paused, trying to remember the day that the burly man had come and fetched her to the kind healer. He’d said that her husband was being ‘talked’ to. So that’s what talking, message, meant. Too bad they hadn’t known that it would only make him more angry. Gregory wasn’t the brightest candle. “Oh… that’s… oh….”



“I wanted to come here, take care of you… handle things myself. Honest… but papa Domick convinced me that you might not want him dead yet.” She bit her lip. “But… but when I heard what he’d done to you… I kept my promise Faith… he’ll never, ever hurt you again. I understand if you don’t really want me around anymore though. Just tell me when, and I’ll leave.”



“No… I mean…” Faith took a deep breath, and smiled up at Kaylie. “I understood when I wrote you the letter that if you could do anything, something would have to happen to him. I’d really just hoped that you’d show up like a shining hero and whisk me off somewhere before making sure he didn’t follow. I didn’t love him, not really. He got me pregnant, but after the marriage the baby was aborted somehow…. I… um…” she blushed and rubbed the splints on her arm. “It’s just, you’re that Lee?”



“Yeah…”



“Wow. You’d never take a job against me if someone tried to…” Faith started to ask, a knot in her throat. Assassins notoriously did not care for anyone, at least above their jobs, and could be bought eventually. Kaylie’s eyes widened and she instantly dropped to her knees next to Faith.



“I would NEVER hurt you, ever!” she swore, shocked. “Faith, never. I would die before I hurt you… and I’d rather die than let anyone hurt you. That’s why I got rid of Greg. He’d get out eventually and come after you again. No one hurts you if I can help it. I was just so afraid of telling you what I’d become. I was ashamed, I thought you’d hate me for being a killer.”



“You don’t feel sorry at all?” Faith asked tentatively.



“It’s never really mattered to me before. I suppose that I’m a bit sad that I’ve shed so much blood… but I don’t take joy in it, I just don’t feel bad about it either. The fact that I don’t particularly enjoy it is what keeps me from feeling guilty.” She shrugged as her cheek twitched. It wasn’t all true. She’d enjoyed what she’d done to Greg. No one hurt Faith and got away with it. She’d seen to it in schooling, she’d see to it now. “Are you disgusted?”



“Well, I’m not really happy about it, but you’re still Kaylie. That’s all that matters.” Faith said with a weak smile. “Why didn’t you ever come to see me before?”



“Oh… well… this is really risking something Faith. We’ll have to move you now. As someone with so many enemies, if anyone knows that I particularly care about someone… they might use it against me. To make me do things that I can’t do just so that they won’t hurt you… kill you to hurt me for revenge. I’ve taken out a lot of powerful people on my jobs. I don’t even know why I’m hired most of the time, but they’re generally powerful people.”



“Oh… what about now?” Faith asked. “I don’t want you to leave me again. I feel safer with you.”



“That’s not really true.” Kaylie laughed wryly. “But I don’t want to leave you either. I don’t know what we can do. Most people don’t know my face. If I’m hired outside of the… company… I work for, I always show up in a hooded cloak, and the only people that see me on a job are the ones that die. I don’t mix with my coworkers outside of work… perhaps, perhaps I might be able to bring you back with me, take care of you. So long as no one finds out I’m Lee, then they’ll only know that you’re friends with some young girl named Kaylie. I don’t stay in the apartment they gave me, so since I have to have an outside persona, I’m a guard at a tavern. The place I live doesn’t ask questions.”



“Oh… um… okay…” Faith blushed. “I would be able to eventually find a job, right? To help pay for things.”



“I don’t even know how much my guard job makes, Faith. I cost so much to hire, and the jobs pay so much… that I’m well taken care of. About once a month I ride out to stash what money I can’t keep there with me. If you want a job to have something to do, or feel that you have to make your own money, then I’ve no problem with that. However, there’s nothing that you need to pay for.” Kaylie grinned warmly. “I always told you I’d take care of you Faith.”





TBC