The daily routine changed after we graduated. First, I wake up from a wretched nightmare…either killing my parents or my classmates. Then I meet with VirtueVice, WarWolf and StarBorne for Hasha yoga. It is a combat training and mind centering exercise used by assassins before RiftRippers were a thing. Before our first session began, VirtueVice told us to call him Guru, an otherworldly word for teacher. WarWolf would always one up me in the yoga exercises but it didn’t bother me considering she was wearing very tight stretch pants and StarBorne was given an entirely different exercise entirely due to his or her flexibility. The part I dreaded most of each day was the meditation. It always brought up disturbing thoughts and it was different for both of us. VirtueVice had her meditate on concepts such as truth and loyalty, StarBorne often focused on intuition or nature but I had to focus on my fears and guilt.

Why was Guru torturing me?

Thankfully after meditation came personal time. Now that I was unable to write, I had to record my story with a PsyrenFrog, which WarWolf would then write down for me. After a few months of logging it was no longer my story. It was the story of our class, the Assailants. I of course omitted BladEagle’s final scene to protect both him and myself.

Eating became more challenging now. Not only were there more poisoned meals, most of which were lethal, but the kitchen was guarded by teachers and anyone caught wouldn’t be permitted to eat. All the students had to work as a unit every day and then distribute the food amongst each other. When someone was poisoned, we had our best healers take care of them. Even though most of our day was spent one on one with a teacher, either training or as a support unit, we really felt like a family. I made it my mission to learn everyone’s names and their expertise. Our loss brought us all to common ground and we greeted each other with dignity and pride.

“Weech, killing by hugging,” I would say to any new assassin.

Of course this greeting was reserved for assassin to assassin encounters. Secrets were our weapons after all.

For WarWolf it was ‘killing by clawing”. Goopy was ‘killing by crying.’ StarBorne was “killing by sparkling’. Sparkle was apparently the name for his special gift of emotional insight. BunBun didn’t speak to me still, but WarWolf told me hers was ‘killing by poking’. I’m sure if BladEagle was alive he would say ‘killing by slicing’ or something like that. As for CamOctopus, ‘killing silently’ seems appropriate.

When we finished breakfast, we would join back with Guru for training. Close-quarters training was WarWolf’s expertise but after Guru teaching me for five years, she didn’t really stand a chance against me. I of course kept my true skill a secret and she had too much pride to call me out on it. That said, there were a few times her metal legs sudden movements caught me off guard. Weapon training always made WarWolf a bit sad. Sometimes she would turn, expecting to see BladEagle, but he wasn’t there. Durability training was always painful but physical pain, after four years of having daggers thrown at me, didn’t bother me. The pain felt more like signals and those signals alerted to my attacker’s location. Team training was last and this always made me miss BunBun. WarWolf would always hold my hand while Guru instructed us. She knew that I felt a void without BunBun.

Guru no longer shared a new chapter of his life with us. I wonder if that was because killing his parents left such an impact on him.

After we ate lunch, we got paired up with a teacher or even an assassin that lived outside school grounds. It hadn’t sunk in that we were real assassins until my first night out with a nameless veteran who hid their identity under an OniGiri mask. When I first saw them, I had thought they were an actual dark realm creature, but that proved false. My very first official mission wasn’t an assignation at all. We simply had to escort a client to his destination. Other than a raid from some Goblis on the road, the mission was finished without any danger. And even when we were attacked, just the sight of the OniGiri mask sent them fleeing.

Almost all my first missions were escort missions or even what the hero’s called ‘fetch quests’. The missions weren’t hard, but really, they weren’t all that important either. My main mission was to uncover who among these assassins was a traitor and it was hard getting any of them to talk.

Sometimes the mission would last for over a week and some of the assassins I was paired with only saw me as baggage. One particularly muscular assassin even beat me up when the person we were supposed to escort got captured. I took the hits without complaint. When we finally found our client, an informant with information on the new CatBoy General, his throat had been slit.

“You incompetent little shit. Do you know what this means?” he asks, glaring at me with those ugly bushy eyebrows.

“That you lost some money. Look, I’ll be sure to stay focused next time. I didn’t know they were waiting inside the bar. I stood watch right where you said to.”

He took out his knife, a Shocku shaped blade that was all red.

“CrimsonShocku was my name before I became a nobody.”

Wait up. We lose our codenames when we become assassins? That’s lame.

CrimsonShocku swung his blade at my throat.

I squeezed the PsyrenFrog in my pocket and tossed a DustMeowz to the ground.

The creature squeaked before creating a smoke cloud.

“You can’t run, Weech. I’m going to kill you.”

Teacher once said a dying man spills all secrets. Let’s test that theory.

“I’m a traitor to the guild. Failed the mission on purpose just so I’d get you to say this.” I tap the PsyrenFrog and roll him along the ground.

The frog responds in his voice. “You can’t run, Weech. I’m going to kill you.”

“A traitor and an amateur!” he yells, rushing to the source of the sound.

I rush to attack him from behind and shield my throat with my arms when he suddenly flips around and slices.

Kill! Kill!

The voice in my head makes my vision go blurry.

I suddenly feel myself being stabbed over and over. The pain is overwhelming to my senses.

I then see myself stabbing me with a pencil.

When will this wretched memory let me be free?

I cough and fall over backward. When my vision returns and the fog disperses I see my target covered in blood and stab wounds.

I felt his wounds, but why?

Screams ring in my head and I slam it against the wall to silence them.

“You…” The assassin coughs.

“If you’re a traitor, then there’s no need to hide it anymore. I lied before. I’m loyal to the guild.”

CrimsonShocku chuckles, flashing his sharklike teeth. “I’m no traitor. Please, save me. I don’t want to be lost in the darkness.”

“There’s no saving you but don’t worry. Thanks to you attacking me, I found a great way to track down the traitors.”

“By bringing them…to the brink of…”

“Death! Yeah! That’s right. I’m kinda socially awkward so this seems like a good ice breaker.” I smile at him.

“Freak.” He smiles back. “Kill them all. If the traitors win, then all our sacrifices…pointless.” His eyes go clear.

I look up at the night sky. A single full moon and one that is just a crescent. StarBorne would say that nights like these are special, that they make one live in both the present and the future. I don’t have a clue about star study but I do wish WarWolf was with me to see this lovely sight.

Guru isn’t happy when I report that I killed an assassin in self-defense. Even so, the internships continue and so does my mission.

My next mission is with the OniGiri mask assassin and it is my first truly dangerous one. We are tasked with infiltrating a slave auction and stealing an angel.

Street Trash is the name of the city run by bandits. It’s a dusty place filled with unsavory fellows from many different species. Almost every building as tall as a mill and all the windows were made from the skin of a Drakin, which made it so the people inside would see us but we couldn’t see them. The road was in the process of being paved with shiny rocks, but I noticed a small MounTroll girl steal one and add it to her already shiny arm.

Wait up. I don’t remember learning about Drakins before. What is it?

“Hey, you ever remember something but you don’t know how? Is that like tapping into the Source? That’s what my friend Goopy says.” I smile at my partner.

Though he hasn’t really spoken to me since he lost his hand. Are we still friends?

“You see those flowers on that plant woman? I had a target who absolutely adored flowers. I set fire to her home and she rushed in to save the potted plants. With her hands full a single jab to the heart was all it took and the fire burned all the evidence.”

“Wow, you’re really awesome!”

And you ignored my question but at least you’re talking to me.

“Do you know what I did after the kill? Haha! I rushed in to save the flowers.”

“Is that some sort of code of honor?”

“Nope. Not looting the dead is part of a code of honor. This is something called Death’s Acquisition. Now it doesn’t happen always, but sometimes we get lucky and take a bit of the target’s memory. Can lead to some important intel. Other times we just pick up their habits. It’s taking everything in me to not go up to that flower and sniff it.”

“So it’s not just RiftRippers who do that?”

“RiftRippers have a much stronger version of Death’s Acquisition called Soul Claim. It’s not so finicky as what we have but it’s also more taxing on the mind.” The assassin with the mask suddenly grabs me and rushes down the alleyway.

“Were we spotted?” I ask.

“Nope, but looks like another assassin is here.”

“For the angel?”

“Possibly.”

“Then shouldn’t we join up?”

“Absolutely not. They could be hired by a different client or even compromised.”

“Hey, umm. How come you’re talking to me now?”

“Hear you killed CrimsonShocku. Really hated that guy. Always beating up on the new recruits. I don’t think every assassin lost is a loss. Sometimes Punk is better off without some of us.”

Is that something a traitor would say, or a loyalist?

The masked assassin leads me through the crowd to the front of the slave auction.

The massive stage has cages with all sorts of beings inside, but not our angel.

“This auction wasn’t always a part of Street Trash. There was a time before the guild, before integrity, that this was a city of assassins.”

Is my partner trying to cover up her true feelings about the guild or is she finally opening up to me that she’s a loyalist? I guess I’ll just have to get us in danger if I want to find out.

Even when the angel was being sold I was told to stay my ground. The poor angel was so frightened. She kept hiding her face under her racoon tail. We followed the rich MounTroll who bought her to his rocky carriage.

“What does he want with her?”

“A resale most likely. Killing him is against code, so we have to get her out without being found out. Keep in mind that violence between scum is prohibited in this place. So we have to get her before he exits the city. Also, no doubt the other assassin wants her too so be on the lookout.”

The MounTroll merchant is kicked out of the carriage as soon as he steps in. The other assassin leaps on top of him and uses golden claws to tear out some stones from the troll. They then take those stones and sharpen them with their tendrils.

A RiftRipper! We’re competing with a RiftRipper.

The masked assassin takes the angel out of the carriage and sneaks up to me.

The RiftRipper slams the sharpened stone into the MounTroll’s throat while another tendril stabs into the masked assassin. My partner turns around and tears open her cloak, revealing the guild mark to her attacker. “We’re on the same side.”

“Should have said so sooner. Take the angel. My mission was to kill whoever bought her. The MounTrolls have been price gouging the Village Elders lately and need to be reminded how important balance is.” The RiftRipper then devours the MounTroll and then slinks away through the shadows.

The masked assassin follows me into a nearby hut with the angel in tow.

An actual OniGiri spots us in her home and her skin flares up as her muscles bulge.

The angel pops up and gives her a kiss, putting the OniGiri in a bliss-like state.

“Didn’t know…angel kisses did that.” The masked assassin forces a smile but it’s clear she’s dying.

Now that her cloak is torn its quite clear that my partner is a woman.

The racoon angel stands on her tip toes and raises her head. “I’m not just any angel!”

“All angels can heal, right? Can you save her?”

“Nope. I was on a super secret recon mission and you assassins messed it up. Saving one of you just means more dead.”

“Yeah, more bad people,” I say, glaring at her.

“It’s not my place to judge.” She shrugs and then walks off to the bath.

I go to my partner. “Were your vitals hit?”

“Yeah. Sorry about that. This is really going to ruin your record, kid?”

This is my chance. Hope it works.

“I don’t care about my record. I hate the guild.”

“Be careful, that kind of sentiment will get you killed.”

My eyes widen. “The troll wasn’t his target. You were. He knew you were a traitor. That RiftRipper was sent to kill you.”

“We don’t call ourselves traitors. I’m part of the Red Guild. And that’s all the information you’re getting from me.”

I grab her hands. “Please…I don’t know what side is right. Why did you join the Red Guild? What is your goal? Did you know SparkuPine?”

“We call the Assassin’s guild the black guild. They make us kill our parents, isn’t that reason enough. I don’t have a goal, I just do what I’m told. But even so, I feel like it has a purpose. SparkuPine got captured trying to kill the school’s star pupil. Both sides kill for our own reasons. It’s up to you to decide what the right path is.”

“I…hate the guild for taking my parents away but what else is there? And I want to make my parents proud of me.”

“Then bring my head to the guild. I noticed you recording me. I have faith that the Red Guild will prevail with or without you. One assassin makes no difference. Only together can we smear the future red.”

My chest hurts and I notice a potted plant behind her. I bring it to my partner and she nuzzles it.

“Thanks, Weech. So, are you going to kill me?”

I don’t even think to lift my blade on her.

“I know all about the Black Guild. Maybe it’s time I find out about the Red Guild firsthand.” I rush off to the bathroom of the building.

The water is crystal clear and has the small racoon angel resting comfortably.

“Oh, came to sneak a peek? I know, I’m irresistible.”

“I came to make a trade.”

“Amorita doesn’t negotiate for tricks. Love is free.” She winks at me.

“I’ll give you back this bottle of…whatever this is and you’ll heal my friend.”

Amorita’s eyes sparkle. She hops out from the bath and rushes past me bare naked.

I follow her along and see her drooling on my partner’s wound.

“I’ll let the Red Guild know what you did for me,” says my partner, smiling at me through her mask.

“There we go! All done! And I am not fickle or anything. Assassins are worthless! Buuuuut he loves you enough to steal from me so I decided to help. Love and peace!” Amorita hops around as she slides back into her clothes.

This angel is nothing like Tempera.

“Here’s your bottle.”

“Nope. I don’t negotiate.”

“I know that. But I don’t need it anymore.”

Amorita takes it and smiles. “Okay. I’m going to get captured again. Tell your bosses not to rescue me this time or I’ll get really mad.”

“Haha! Sure thing.” I smile at her.

Amorita then rushes back to the bath. “Tanewki Transform!” The bath bends and shrinks until it becomes a leaf. She shoves the leaf in her pocket and then speeds out of the hut.

Guru comes to pick me up at night. When I see WarWolf, she looks very excited.

“Did you find a traitor?” asks Guru, wobbling side to side but keeping his vocal composure.

“I sure did.” WarWolf reaches into her bag and pulls out a man’s head. She then taps her PsyrenFrog which says ‘I admit it! I’m a traitor! I’m on your side!’.

“Your side?” asks Guru.

“Yeah, I lied and he fell for it. Then I slit his throat. Still bloody. Not sure I want to shower just yet.” She licks the blood off the top of her hands.

Guru turns to me. “Did you find a traitor yet?”

If going against the guild means going against Guru, then can I really do it? I can’t sell off my partner either way. She may think that one assassin doesn’t matter but I disagree.

Guru leans in closer to me. “Weech, did you find a traitor?”

“Not yet. I’ll keep searching.”

Guru smiles through his whole cloak. “You’re lying again.”

How can he tell.

WarWolf steps in front of me. “Calm down! I lied too! I made them say they were a traitor. I just wanted to learn more about what my father fought for. If you kill him, then you’ll have to kill me too.”

“You’re both traitors, yet you are so loyal to one another. That makes you a true threat to the Black Guild.”

“What is the Black Guild?” asks WarWolf.

“My sworn enemy. Apologies for the test but I had to make sure our views were in alignment. I am the founder of the Red Guild. I am the traitor general the school is no longer searching for.”

Wait! He’s the traitor!? Does that mean we’re safe or in danger!?