-Vol 6: Dusk of An Era-

-Doom Fest(11): Part 2-

Having already made her mind, the woman in black leather outfit suddenly vanished right in front of Kenshin’s eyes. But before she could even make a move, she felt her sides were kicked by something hard, like that of the impact of a speeding truck. She would know for she had endured a few of such impacts in her life.

Normally she would have endured such an impact without much sweat, but here, she was on the verge of using a flashing skill, and the kick landed just around that time. She threw out of the window by the kick and landed face down on the road outside after sliding for a few meters.

As a veteran, she hurriedly stood up and observed the person who sneak-attacked her while falling into a defensive stance. A small shadow blinked past her before she could react, another kick landed on her neck. This kick was way heavier than before, forcing her to kneel from the force of it. She made a roll away and used her flash skill to jump many meters away from her assailant. It's only then she saw who was responsible, despite herself, her eyes widened from disbelief.

Before she stood a young girl around ten to twelve years old, wearing a cute pajama. But she recognized her in an instant, it was the same girl she was holding hostage. Her brain started to race as she thought of possibilities until finally, it made sense to her. She remembered how calmly her target was despite having his family as a hostage. Back then, she thought it was because he didn’t care about them… but the truth was something more than that. she, at that time, realized, she and by extension, the other two had all fallen to a tarp… a well thought and sure kill trap.

Being a high-level hunter, her intelligence had gone through several improvements. Her IQ was off the charts. Given all that, it wasn’t hard for her to realize this with all the clues in front of her. The small girl might be a powerful hunter who could alter his/her appearance. If so, then she was indeed unlucky to grab that exact person.

“Hado***en,” shouted the small girl, sending a closed fist image out of thin air towards the female assassin. The speed was so fast that the woman barely avoided it. Even still, a long scar was formed on her cheek, drawing blood.

‘Shit!! Where did he learn that name?’ Kenshin, who was standing at the window of Ellie’s room, sweated when he heard his zombie uttering that exact name. This was used to be a finishing move of a famous game before the disaster struck changing the world forever. Some of the survivors later remade this game, which became even more popular than before. Kenshin, too had played that game when he was a child, and his favorite finishing move was this exact one.

In reality, this same train of thought was running inside the female assassin’s head as well. She had never expected to hear a familiar name uttered in such a fashion. Axel zombie arrived close to her in an instant and aimed a kick to her abdomen, followed by a knee to her other chest. The female assassin skillfully blocked them, but the zombie’s strength was overwhelming, so with a resounding crunch, her hand broke.

The female assassin followed up with a kick to the small girl’s head, but the Axel zombie simply took it in head-on, without much effort. On the contrary, the female assassin thought she just kicked an iron pole. The pain was immeasurable. After that, the Axel Zombie did short work out of her.

Kenshin observed the fight from the window, seeing that it was about to over, he jumped out and calmly walked on air, using a few of his skills in tandem.

“Stop!” Kenshin stopped Axel Zombie, who was about burst her head like a watermelon. His underling stopped midway, having his fist just a hair’s breadth away from her face. Despite her face was broken beyond repair and she was bloodied all over, the female assassin was still able to whizz out a few words. Kenshin didn’t answer her. Rather, he pulled out a bottle of advanced health potion and dropped on her wounds. It healed at a visible speed within seconds.

“What are you doing?” asked the female assassin, looking curiously at Kenshin.

Kenshin was a bit taken aback by the lack of concern and care of this woman, despite standing so close to her death. But that didn’t matter, he didn’t heal for that… there was another reason.

“I am going to make you a ‘bait’ to trap your two companions. That all.”

“Haha, I didn’t expect you to be a naïve kind Kenshin. I am a professional assassin, trained to not oblige even the worst of tortures to be done on us… what makes you think I will comply?” the female assassin smiled mockingly.

“Don’t misunderstand. I am not requesting or asking you, I am just making a statement.” As he said, he touched her head with his index finger. After a few seconds, he pulled out, but when he did that, a glowing blue string attached to his index finger, whose source was her forehead. The female assassin’s eyes were widened when she saw it and couldn’t help but ask, “what is this?”

“I am binding you in a contract with me… the terms are you have to comply with my wishes, or your body will be forced to do so against your will.” Kenshin explained calmly.

“Please don’t do that… don’t bind me anymore, I beg of you. I will do what you want… just let me be free for once in life. Grant me the freedom of death and break these shackles…” the girl pleaded with her eyes looking distant and lost. Since her childhood, she was just a bird in a cage, and now someone is making another cage inside that cage… she couldn’t take it anymore.

Just once in her life, she wanted to be free. She wanted to die and leave behind everything.

Kenshin looked at her eyes, found nothing but emptiness in them. Letting out a sigh, he pulled her to a standing position and said, “alright. Call those two and tell them that everything is okay and that they should start the operation.”

The female assassin nodded and pulled out her phone. Suddenly Kenshin remembered something and asked, “what is your real name?”

“I don’t know. I am ghost assassin for our guild, I don’t have a name. My every mission gives me a name if we count that it would take over thousands. But, if you must know, there is this one name that stuck with me since my childhood, its called No. 45” after saying so, she called her companions and did as she was told.

…

Recalling this moment, Kenshin couldn’t help but sigh. The world wasn’t fair to everyone. Some suffer for others to remain happy. People like this girl were really unlucky, having to fall into the hands of organizations like the guild she belongs to. These people don’t even have an identity of themselves, and instead regarded as tools for war.

Such was the reality of the world they were living in… below its harmonious exterior, these things run rampant.