He was nobody. He had abandoned everything; his friends, his parents, his identity. Oddly though, he felt quite good.

I’m the general’s will.

That was not to say he didn’t have a mind of his own. But seeing the fate of nations change based on the general’s plans was a pleasure like no other. There was no way he would deviate and risk them to fail.

“Kill your father during the western border inspection, carve one of his eyes out and bring it to me” the general had ordered. He had done so unquestionably. As a result, a full moon later a foreign nation erupted into civil war over the command rights of their special forces that had acted without orders. Coincidentally, that nation had been preparing to invade their country in the near future.

As far as he was concerned, watching the intricate plan unfold was more than enough compensation.

Now, he gazed at the dark-colored building into which he would fulfill one out of the next bunch of orders.

“Sir, please this way.”

He examined the girl that greeted him in front of the entrance. Her large eyes looked back at him with practiced adoration. She wore revealing white clothing and her hug-like gestures tried to pry the gaze away from the plainness of the thick mud-and-stone wall and onto her luxurious figure. He decided to indulge her and stopped calculating the building’s structure.

She appeared well-cared. Her hands were smooth and she shouldn’t have led a physically taxing life. However, when she turned her head shyly to the side, he glimpsed something special in her eyes. He had seen such eyes before in the battlefield; determined to struggle and survive until the bitter end. Oh, how he enjoyed seeing such determination being snuffed out. But only if the mission required it.

He refrained from smiling and nodded at her silently.

“Please, this way.” She bowed and gestured.

He followed her swingy gait through an empty doorframe and into a plain wooden corridor. As he did, he closely examined the way she lithely moved her body. In the end, he determined that her sense of balance was that of a normal person’s. Interestingly, despite the slight ashen smell of the torches arrayed on the walls, he could distinguish a faint opium-like scent lingering around her clothes. He concluded that she probably was a hostess of the organization.

To him, this meant that his intelligence was correct. It came from the general anyway, but it clearly stipulated a reaffirmation on sight. Having achieved this minor objective, he quickly lost interest; she did not exhibit an ounce of energy, martial or magical, and wouldn’t become a variable.

“Our mistress was rather surprised.“ the hostess commented in a flirtatious tone, stealing glances at him. Her eyelids fluttered as she turned her head to the side to make sure he followed. ”We didn’t know anyone would request business before this branch opened for good. How strange… Sir must be someone famous, right?”

She tried to probe him, but he made no effort to reply. Perhaps she took his silence as displeasure and stopped talking.

As they walked through the torch-lit interior, he made sure to remember the exact way the thick wooden pillars supported the building as well as the placement of the numerous doors presumably leading to a number of smaller rooms. Judging from the way they most barred from the outside, people should have been locked inside. Although not relevant at the moment, information could never be enough in case of an emergency.

“Secretary, the gentleman has arrived” the hostess announced as they finally entered one of the rooms on the third floor – the topmost one.

The room’s interior was plain but felt very different from the rest of the building. Despite the lack of decoration, the floor, the ceiling and the walls were covered with an orange-colored wood. He knew this kind of wood quite well, since his father and his acquaintances all had safe rooms coated with it too; it could be enchanted to form a magical barrier that would easily withstand attacks of the magical bombardment grade.

A wide window provided a clear view of the roads leading up to the building’s front. It carried ample sunlight and a cool breeze, warming up the room’s orange hue.

A small desk was placed in the center of the room and a couple of empty bookshelves stood tall behind it.

A woman was seated behind the desk. When they entered, she was neatly arranging two small piles of papers to the side. She would be pleasant to look at, but the black circles around her eyes and long brown hair clashed horribly with the vivid pink of her dress.

“A pleasure to meet you, customer.” She left her paperwork and tilted her head. Despite her strange looks, her voice was serious.

“Please sit.” She gestured at a simple chair placed in front of the desk while dismissing the hostess with her other hand. He thought her slightly bronze-colored skin should come from the south and mentally noted this to include in his report.

The chair was not too fancy, but he could see the famous maker’s signature on its back; from this detail he could gauge the extend of wealth and luxury the organization had decided to eventually pour into this place. He mentally took note of this too - the general would probably derive even more meaning.

“Hai!” he resisted the almost instinctual urge to chop towards his windpipe in greeting and instead slightly bowed. He then sat in the chair upright and faced the secretary.

“How may we address you?” she asked politely. From the naturalness of her tone, she should have asked this question numerous times throughout her life.

“I’m not someone. But if you must, you can call me Shadow.” He emotionlessly replied.

“Mister Shadow, then. A pleasure... My name is Anne. I’m in charge of this yet shabby branch. Please excuse its poor condition.”

Anne freely divulged the organization’s intention to expand the branch. This was probably an indication that she would be open to co-operation.

He nodded stiffly. “I’m sure my employer will admire your ambition.” He simply replied.

Anne smiled and remained silent for a couple of breaths. She seemed to be contemplating something. Her eyes momentarily drifted to look over his right ear before they focused again on him.

“Really?” she moved towards the window.

He stared at her stout back. For an instant, the lines that had hardened around her mouth felt wrong.

“Fufu. Did you also admire the spoils from ravaging our three branches?“ there was an unmistakable edge in her laugh and she shuddered in anger. “Shadow? More like the Lavender general’s second Root that’s been missing since last spring.”

She gestured vividly as she spoke. Probably some signal of sorts.

Before he could react, he felt an invisible force pushing him against the chair’s surface. Immediately after, a thin spear emerged from the floor and impaled his foot. The door he was led in from burst open and two men clad in tight leather clothing that outlined their lean muscles barged into the room. Their purple and green Mohican hairstyles were interesting to look at.

Undisturbed, he stared at Anne’s back with interest.

“How did you know?” he simply asked.

“Lifidich’s Shadows infiltrated the Vizier’s retinue and he’s still alive? Try better next time…” he couldn’t look at her face, but he imagined she had a smug look.

Funny thing was, this was exactly what had happened; he had infiltrated the Shadows first. And after a lot of coincidences, he was given the infiltrated spot in the retinue accompanying the Vizier to the Black Lands, where his true objectives lay. It was very smart of the Shadows to not kill their nemesis to maintain cover; this -rather atypical for them- course of action backfired on him and caused Anne’s confusion. Of course, he wouldn’t tell her that.

It was moments like this he just couldn’t get enough of.

“Under the authority of the vice-leader, kill this guy.” Not knowing his thoughts, Anne commanded. She unhurriedly turned towards him.

The two Mohicans remained rigid and nodded. Immediately, their martial aura converged towards their fists, which they raised in front of their faces in preparation of assault. From the aura’s quantity alone, they could almost be considered proper disciples. Or, as per the general’s characterization of martial warriors with enough aura to boost their bodily functions, qualified beginners.

“Don’t even dream of escaping; both our own and hired personnel have filled this building.” Anne informed him when she saw him look around.

Her eyes narrowed, making the tired bags around them even more pronounced. “And I was so looking forward to partnering up with our first big customer here…”

She moved one of her hands to the hem of her pink dress, undoubtedly to grab a life-preserving treasure. He thought she was being too naïve not doing so from the beginning. But she probably thought he had lost his mobility. Or it could be a trap.

The two men immediately lurched forwards when she finished speaking. Their fists went straight for his vitals. He’d seen that martial style before; by injecting aura in the opponent’s body it would make the heart burst and fry the brain from the inside.

Chuckle

His outline waved and faded, making the attacks pass through empty space.

“Waihaihai!” He started laughing as his true form melded into the shadows under the chair. ”A trap and some hastily gathered forces… So easy! I’d have thought better of the organization.” None of them could tell where the sound was coming from and jumped back in caution. The men had good reflexes, but were clearly inexperienced because they tried to look for him.

They stood back-to-back in front of the door and took defensive stances, their tight leather jackets touching to reduce their blind spots. It was clear they were used to fighting together.

But they still had too many openings.

He could easily deal with any number of such novices – so much different than the organization’s elite troops he had fought before. Although he’d rather not attack Anne – he hadn’t received a death priority order and he’d rather not fall into unknown defensive measures.

As Anne and the two men scoured the room with their gazes, he comfortably let the shadows obscure his immaterial form and pondered his options. Being ambushed was outside the plan. Plan A, that is. He decided to also skip plan B and moved onto plan C. It was the most energy-efficient, since he’d rather not leave behind a building full of dead people – it could affect his other tasks. Although he supposed the Mayers family had acquired the Fragment on their own and wouldn’t need his help.

While thinking, he moved his true form from the shadow of the chair to the shadow under the two men. He willed himself to become corporeal again and leisurely put his hands around their necks.

They stiffened when he appeared at their sides, but had no time to react before they felt the martial aura on his hands wrap around their carotids. Feeling the threat, they stopped moving.

He was a bit disappointed they noticed – he’d be justified to trash them a bit first if they tried to counter-attack.

He leaned his body forward, separating their backs, and stared leisurely at Anne from between the leather jackets. Her eyes widened in shock.

“Waihaiai~… Ooops. My bad habit again.” He laughed but soon caught himself. He shouldn’t play too much, or else they wouldn’t negotiate with him.

“Secretary Anne, the general says that you couldn’t expect to be outlaws within our country, surely? Getting members of the parliament to pass loopholes an organization of your strength could exploit was too much… But he would feel very happy if we co-operated outside.” He passed on plan C’s message.

He could feel the two men’s cold sweat as he jokingly circulated his martial aura towards his elbows and back. However, they could tell there was no chance to throw him off before he claimed their lives and did not dare retaliate. He rather admired their cool-headedness.

Anne stared angrily at him. Although her pink dress was vivid enough that she appeared comical, he thought that perhaps this attire was meant to make people underestimate her and readjusted his attitude while holding her gaze.

”Yes” he continued. “For example, if you could fulfill the original request about the newborn Lycans, the general would be perfectly happy to let you use our special corps next winter.” He considered whether he should release killing intent to intimidate her, but he doubted the organization would get such a novice as a branch manager. It was one thing to be undermanned and another to be underskilled.

Her mouth parted slightly, as if not knowing how to respond. Nobody in their right mind would accept negotiations from the enemies that had methodically exterminated their people. Nobody but people of the organization, that is. He didn’t know why, but the orders said that it would definitely be accepted.

He immersed himself in the moment, watching Anne’s thought process dance in the palm of the general’s hand. A vein started pulsing on her forehead as she weighted the gains and losses while trying to ignore her emotions.

Dozens of breaths passed in complete silence. To be precise, three dozen and five. He knew, for he kept careful count of how many times the pulses of the necks he held beat in trepidation against his skin.

“Very well.” Anne finally said. She opened her mouth again – probably to state some additional terms…

CRAAASH

A loud sound coming from above made both him and Anne stop in alarm.

“You monsteeer!” someone fell outside the window amidst several crates spilling wiggly meat everywhere. The scream became louder when the cluster of objects became level with the window and then trailed away.

CRAAAAAASH

The crash on the bottom was even louder than the previous one.

“What the?”

His instincts kicked in without thinking. He released the two men he was holding and pushed them stumbling forward, out of his way.

Having minimized the number of blind spots, his true form dived into the shadows, leaving behind only an image of himself.

Anne also frowned and looked upwards.

“Team three, what happened?” she shouted into thin air. Based on the tiny thread of magic that trickled upwards, she should be using either a communication spell or a magical device.

Silence.

For a couple of breaths nothing happened.

RUMBLE

The room’s ceiling trembled as if some great weight had hit it from above.

But he knew there was no danger to the room – even if the rest of the building collapsed the enchanted wood could hold just fine.

Slash-slash

He thought he heard two distinct slashing sounds.

CRAAAAAAAAASH

To his astonishment, the ceiling at the center of the room gave way and wood and stone-thick mud fell onto the desk, crushing it underneath. Dust covered the falling debris, out of which a figure rose.

Despite being safe and sound within the shadows he tensed. His intuition made him apprehensive of the newcomer. He hadn’t felt that way since he had joined the hunt for elemental Ronom bears. He wondered what kind of monster he was facing this time.

Cough-cough

Johan rose from the debris in the middle of the room while the dust that fell with him started clearing.

Next time, I’ll destroy the ground in front rather than under me. He noted. In retrospect, it had been rather stupid of him, but he had been basking too much in the brilliancy of opening a hole to think it through.

He took a step out of the hovering dust.

Why’s everything so orange? His first impression of the room was strange.

But he quickly focused on the task at hand.

There were four people here. Two vividly colored Mohicans on top of leather jackets, a thin young man -at least half a decade younger than Johan- and a woman in a horrid pink dress. They all seemed reasonable people and thus he tried to talk first.

“Ah, forgive the intrusion. Is anybody in charge here?”

“Him – Her”

The woman and the thin young man pointed at each other simultaneously.

Say, what? Johan suspiciously eyed them both.

“Him!” the leather-jackets pointed at the thin young man too. Majority vote it was then. Only the vote should probably be counting the ones agreeing with each other.

“Alright...” Johan turned to the woman. “It’s alright, if you co-operate there would be no need for violence. Just free your slaves and give me a piece of intel and I’m on my way.”

The woman first shot an angry glare at the two who had given her out while trying to help before eyeing Johan again.

She opened her mouth to speak-

“Hm?”

Johan’s intuition flared up and he sensed movement behind his back.

He fell towards the floor, where he used his hands to jump with his body upside down. He propelled his legs back and upwards to the direction of the threat and moved martial aura to the leathers wrapped around his feet.

Dumph

His feet collided with a palm that had been grabbing in a claw-like motion towards his body. His assailant skillfully jumped backwards and summersaulted to diffuse the force, landing on his feet.

To Johan’s surprise, it was the thin young man.

What? Wasn’t he right there?

From the corner of his eye, Johan witnessed the man's previous outline vanishing into thin air.

“Waihaihai!” the young man broke into a sinister laugh. “You’re something else! Usually people start reacting correctly after they see me kill one fir- eh?”

Without letting him finish Johan jumped in front of him and drove his right fist into his chin.

For the briefest of instants, Johan felt a solid impact, but then his fist pushed through the head of an immaterial phantom.

What a strange ability! Without stopping, Johan grabbed the black katana with his left hand, which wasn’t overextended. Although he had previously switched katana to his waist under that hand, he unsheathed it in one fluid motion.

His control was a bit clumsier with his off-hand, but still managed to savagely infuse martial aura into the katana. He slashed the space under his still overextended hand for good measure.

When confronted with the unknown just attack your blind spots. His body reflexively remembered the hard-learned teachings of grandmaster Kenji better than his mind. Of course, anybody would have learned to do so correctly after fighting zapping gusts of wind –were they called Breathkills?– for several moon cycles.

The two leather jackets cunningly took advantage of the moment to attack him from behind with their fists. However, Johan jumped forward after his own katana’s path and rolled on the floor until he got his back against the wall.

He grabbed his katana with both hands and calmly raised the black metal between them. The stance seemed to make the two men hesitate and they glanced at the woman who was looking at the proceedings from the side, seeking instructions.

It was commendable that she had cleverly positioned herself in front of the window in the commotion, probably to escape quickly if need be.

Johan forced himself to relax, so as not to miss another of the strange ambushes.

“Waihaihai! You’re tough. How could you hurt me mid-materialization?” The thin young man appeared behind the leather Jackets. He was a bit wobbly and a horizontal slash on his face bled into his robes. But he didn’t seem to care and kept laughing instead. He raised his hands over his head in surrender.

“Secretary Anne, I tried for the sake of our alliance, but I’d rather not have a deathmatch. Also, our own negotiations haven’t really finished.”

The woman scrutinized Johan and -although he sensed no danger- he shifted uncomfortably. Her gaze seemed to try to peer right through his intentions.

“Fine!” She folded her hands while standing and addressed both of them. “Let’s … negotiate.”