The next morning, I make my way over to the drug den, walking into the central hallway to find it full of men in poorly maintained outfits, some wielding bats and some without. Each one had a radio conspicuously on their belt or clipped to somewhere on their chest. They stand around, somewhat idle as they await further orders, though they pay enough attention to clear a path for me to make my way to Nick’s office.

“Hello again, fearless leader. I take it you’ve already seen all the grunts I have on hand?”

“Yeah. All that accomplished in not even a full day, good shit.” I clapped once. “So, what’s the plan from here?”

“We wait for my scout to report in with their location, then the boys sweep out and around to the chokepoints, and then you’ll personally flush them out and lead them down this path I drew, where me and a few other guys are gonna surround ‘em and bag them.”

“Y’know Nick, I’m not sure why I’m surprised that you managed to organize such a plan so smoothly.”

He nods. “It’s not like I had someone else do 80% of the actual planning for me, you know...” Nick lets out a short cackle.

“Alright, guess I’ll just be here waiting with the others...” I take a moment to study my copy of the map closely, memorizing my path to each of the suspected points and the paths I’d have to take in order to herd them towards Nick’s team.

An hour passes before Nick gets a call, answering the phone he left on his desk specifically for this occasion. “So they’re at position 3, right? You think? Pull out your fucking map!” Nick pauses, appearing slightly tense. “So it is position 3, good.” Nick hangs up. “You heard ‘em, position 3. You can take this map with you if you like. Give us 5 minutes or so to get into position.”

As I quickly step down the stairs I hear Nick’s voice on every one of his underlings’ radios at once, and thankfully they have the manners to let me get out first before they scramble to get into their positions.

My shoes pound the pavement as I go over the path and the order of turns I’d have to take in my head, being sure to pause before I made the last few as to give Nick and the others time to properly get into position. After all, it’s not like these rats were going to scurry on their own anytime soon. Despite this, the minutes feel almost agonizingly long as this was a delicate plan, and could fall apart at any moment if something truly unexpected happens.

The time is up, and I make my last few turns, walking up to the alley offshoot that they’re tucked into, dealing the vilest drugs this city has to offer. Sure enough, I see a group of three adolescent figures, one with a distinct red coat and the other two wear hoodies. One has something vaguely resembling a blanket.

I walk forward, unlocking my katana with my thumb against the tsuba. “I know what you’ve been doing on our turf. Surrender and come quietly if you want to not die.” They may be youngsters, but they were selling Teneb, and having first-hand exposure to it, I didn’t feel much obligation to go soft on them.

They look among themselves-they’re talking too softly for me to hear at this distance-and the one with a rag tugs at the red coat of another hoodlum’s shoulder as he nods, before they all run at me. I draw my sword, holding it ahead of me, silently hoping they would stop. They didn’t stop, and I had to wonder if they had pocketknives they were going to flick out at the last second. As they close to within 10 feet, one of them throws the blanket at me, obfuscating my vision as I slash at it reflexively, the blanket hanging off my sword and weighing it down as I start backpedaling. The simple but effective trick annoys me as I pull my sword back, spotting movement to my left and slashing at it without much thought. A small spray of blood comes out as all three boys have darted out on my left side, fleeing as one clutches his now-bleeding shoulder.

Some part of me finds slashing at an adolescent’s arm out of reflex distasteful, but the complaint is shoved far away as I run after them, resting my sword on my shoulder to keep it from hitting anyone else. As they make for each possible outlet, thugs brandish their weapons at the boys, steering them down the path we planned for them to take like actors in a haunted house, each encounter leaving them scrambling slightly more incoherently than the last, until they’re finally right behind the drughouse as Nick shows up, with thugs appearing around the corners of each way out except the one behind me, which is instead flooded with the guards that I had passed by.

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t the little SHITS dealing Teneb on MY back lawn!” Nick flicks open his collapsible baton, rolling his neck. “I oughta beat the lot of ya into the ground!”

While they were already scared, I could tell the boys were practically terrified after Nick’s outburst, shaking and moving into each other trying to find room to retreat that wasn’t there. I inhale and exhale. “You should just surrender and come quietly now. It’s pretty much your only chance of getting out of this alive.”

The boys looked among themselves, before sighing and putting their hands up. “Alright… don’t let your guard down, boys!” Nick walked over and pulled out zip ties, tying up each boy’s wrists in turn. I wipe my katana with a blood rag and see it back into its scabbard.

“Nick, don’t forget to handle that cut on his arm.”

“We’ll get to that once we’re back in the den.” Nick seemed disinterested in the fact that the kid was bleeding, though given what they were dealing, I don’t entirely despise his disdain.

With the guards helping in manhandling the boys, they were moved into Nick’s office as most of the guards stood downstairs. We bandage-wrapped his arm before we begun with our interrogations.

“So, who sent you?”

“This… this man, our ‘guardian’ as he calls himself, sends us off to sell this weird black goop in this part of town. He’ll dump us out on the street if we don’t do as he demands.” The boy whimpers. “We’re orphans, sir. Please forgive us.” Looking closer, the one in the red coat-the leader, if I had to guess-was 15, 16 at the most with his compatriots looking closer to 13 years old.

Nick sighs, apparently only slightly moved by the boys’ words. “Believe it or not, I think they’re telling the truth on this one, but we can’t just let them go if they’ll go right back to causing us problems.”

“About that, I might have an idea. Give me a few minutes.” I step outside, calling Sigmund.

“Hello again, June.”

“We just caught three orphans dealing Teneb on our turf, all male, ages 13-15. Nick says he won’t just let them go, so I was wondering if you’d like to potentially adopt them… as recruits. Otherwise, I fear we may have to kill them.”

“Hmmh, indeed.” Though I don’t hear it, I can feel Sigmund thinking it over, like any wise old man would. “I suppose I’ll give them a try, maybe they’ll turn out to be wonderful recruits after all. Though, I will admit I’m a little suspicious. I’ll let them stay at the dormitory, but they’re not allowed to go to the church, understood?”

“I understand, and I actually agree with your choice this time.”

“I’m glad you see. After all, it’s a little too early to be introducing those boys to… religion, isn’t it?”

I chuckle. “Yeah, I suppose so. Bye.” I slide my phone into my pocket, walking all the way back up to Nick’s office.

“He has agreed to taking them in. But, they need to agree to it first.” I cross my arms. “So, boys, would you like to join a new family where you’ll learn the ancient art of swordsmanship?” I could see the boys begin to get excited, though I also saw wariness across their faces.

“Sounds cool. What’s the catch?”

I let out a small, calculating smile. “Wise of you to ask what’s in the fine print. I can see why the others trust your leadership. You will be called to serve us in dangerous battles, but you will also be treated relatively well and be surrounded by other people like you. You will live much better than you have before, but you will also be called upon to pledge your lives to our group.”

The boy clearly frowns. “And you’re telling us you’ll just kill three teenage orphans if we don’t accept?”

At first, I was pissed off-I don’t know why-but then I saw the irony of their situation and laughed, though I might have let a little bit of my annoyance seep through the cracks. “About that, I think we’ll just be sending you on a train to a place far, far away where you can’t bother us anymore. So, you have a viable alternative if you want to turn us down, but keep in mind that I went out of my way to make a phone call just to give you this opportunity.” I crouch down to eye level and look between the three boys. “So, shall we just give you fifteen minutes to make your decision?”

“Wow, that’s awfully considerate of you.” The boy in red blinked.

“Just imagine how lucky you runts are that she’s the boss here and not me.” Nick crosses his arms, flashing a wicked smile. “I would’ve just pistol-whipped you to the shadow realm and be done with it… or maybe sell you into slavery instead.”

Some part of me wanted to be indignant at the suggestion of Nick participating in child trafficking, but I simply decided to dismiss it as a feint on his part to make me look good. At least, I hoped he was just joking. I don’t really think he was joking about beating them to death, though.

A few minutes pass as we let the boys huddle in the corner among themselves.

“If you say you’ll join and just run away right after, I’ll kill you myself! Even if she says otherwise!” Nick shouted at them, putting his hands on his desk in an almost over-dramatic, hammy way. They looked over to him briefly, and they seem to have gotten the message, as they speak more among themselves. A few more minutes pass, and they break ranks, walking forward to me.

“We accept your offer.”

I smile. “Glad you’re willing to jump on board.” I pull a pair of scissors from a cup on the desk, snipping their zip-ties open as they fall to the ground, the thin plastic strips sticking up in a sign of both defiance and defeat. I set the scissors back into the cup. “Let’s get you to the dormitory, shall we?”

For once, the boys looked like they had some hope as they walked out of the drug den with me.