Category: Novel

Art of Killing – Chapter 9 – Test

Featured ~ Kyreon ~ Leave a comment

To everyone’s surprise, Monty showed up to class. All of them had received an announcement from the school, stating that Monty will resume classes.  Most expected him to be a no-show and had given up. Only Kyra had a feeling that he might show up. She did talk to him yesterday about mentoring herself.

Rena noticed her smirking slightly and asked, “I know you talked to Monty yesterday. What did you entice him with anyway?”

“Not much,” Kyra responded. Rena shrugged and did not poke into matter anymore. Cree overheard them and leaned forward to add his thoughts.

“Well, whatever it was, I hope it goes better than yesterday. Be nice to actually to do school stuff.”

Shiloh laughed at Cree. He obviously did not share Cree’s opinions. In fact, Shiloh was not much of studious person. He had other personal reasons to enroll in the Academy. He figured that it was more practical than theory. However, he quickly learned from Shiloh last night that the Academy’s curriculum was much more than that. Still, he figured that he would ride on Shiloh’s coattails on the more mundane stuff.

“Kyra, I need you to hang back awhile. There’s something that you need to complete for the Academy,” said Monty.

“An assassination?” Kyra asked.

Monty was dumbfounded at her response. “What? No! You need to a physical assessment. I don’t think the Academy give out assassination work. Do they?”

“Sure, I have nothing going on anyways. Why do they need my physical assessment? How about the rest?”

Monty explained that the rest of the class had already done their assessments prior to enrolling in the Academy.  Surprisingly, Kyra did not have to take an assessment but was allowed to enroll. From what she could gather, the school had a strict enrollment process. Those who wished to enter had to go through several trials and examinations. However, Kyra was made an exception. She did not know if it was because of her family status, or her father pulled some strings. Hell, it could have been both.

Kyra followed Monty to the Academy’s simulation training center. Wow, this shit’s generic. Kyra couldn’t help but scoffed at what she was looking at. Of course, a school was going to have a simulation center. Although as much as Kyra is laughing at the school, the Fukagi Manor also has a simulation center. A place which Kyra had not used in a long time ever since she went on her first job.

The school’s center was much larger than her manor’s, probably so that it could house groups of people at once. There were huge stage lights on the ceiling. These stage lights help to project images and can turn the arena into different environments. Her manor’s utilizes robots which the stage lights project onto them with different human textures, to give the simulation a more realistic feel.

“Kyra, I need you to move to the center.” A speaker crackled with Monty’s voice.

Without hesitation, Kyra moved towards the center. Within seconds, the stage lights lit up like the city during Christmas. Kyra’s eye adjusted after a while, to see herself in a forest. She was surrounded by trees. Admittedly, she was taken aback by her surroundings. The stage has an impressive sound system. She could have the leaves rustle and the branches slightly cracking as they move in the artificial wind.

Monty’s voice echoed again, “Your physical assessment will be a tad different from the rest. Since you already experienced in actual combat, this test will aim to cover the necessary points of the Academy’s pre-enrollment trials and to see your ability to adapt in a different environment that’s not urban. Your mission is to defend yourself from various enemies and survive the onslaught in 15 minutes. One more thing you are not allowed to take a hit. Good luck.”

“What?!” Kyra exclaimed.

These were an unfair set of rules. Who the hell set this up? Kyra immediately drew her sword in anticipation. She walked towards a tree and placed a hand on it. This is solid. It was almost as if it was an actual object. The tech that the school had was more advanced than her manor’s. Hers still required dummy walls for image projection.

Kyra jumped onto a branch and landed on it. The branch swayed up and down and eventually settled. This was almost too freaky. Kyra didn’t realize that technology in the world has advanced so much. To be fair, she was not the most tech savvy person in the family. If anyone, it was Asa.

Thwip

Kyra immediately jumped down as an arrow was loosened at her. She heard the arrow hit the tree as she fell. As she landed on her two feet, two assailants, equipped with swords, attacked from her front and back. Kyra went low, with a right leg sticking forward and katana pointing 45 degrees to the left, and spun in a circle. Effectively, tripping and slashing them. Their bodies fell to the ground and faded after a few seconds. It seemed that the “enemies” required one hit.

Kyra circled the shooter instead of heading towards him. She ran past the arrows that were being fired at her. Kyra was not being quiet about her movements. She figured that the A.I. always knew her location. There was no need for her to be sneaky. She closed in her target and dodged another arrow. Kyra slammed the shooter against a tree with her foot and stabbed him in the chest. A branch cracked loudly above her.

She looked up to see another enemy dropping with the intention to pierce his blade fully into her. Kyra jumped backwards and the enemy landed on one knee. He took out his sword from the ground and flipped it back. Kyra heard more rustling behind her.

She rolled her eyes. Do they just keep doing the same tactics over and over again? At this point she found this more annoying than challenging.  This trial was forcing her to be on her toes. It did not matter if the forest had lots of cover. The A.I. knew where she was constantly. After some thinking, Kyra decided to screw it and head for the boundary. The boundary had to be the only place that she could face her back to and defend her front properly. Real life would not quite work out that way, but this was a simulation with limitations. It was always nice to exploit systems.

Kyra did not have any specific direction to go to, so she just headed straight in the direction she was facing, avoiding fire and melee attacks. Those that came close, she got rid of instantly. It did not matter if she strayed a bit as there was bound to be a dead end if she just kept going forward.

After what it seemed like an eternity, she finally reached the boundary.  She stepped out of the forest and got a good look at her surroundings. The end area was made to look like a meadow, but it was an optical illusion. Her hand reached out and touched the sky. This was the wall of the simulation. Now, she need not worry about her back. Although, she had to be fast and agile when it came to gunfire. There was not much cover here, she had to keep in mind where the boundary is at all times.

She estimated that there was about 8 more minutes left in this cursed assessment. All she had to was survive and not be hit. Hell, it was just like real life. Unless, if you are a masochist, one would not wish to be stabbed or shot. That kind of shit hurts like all hell. Kyra planted her sword in the ground and took a knee and waited. The A.I system is probably coming up with algorithms to tackle this situation or whatever it is that an A.I. does.

Not long after, several enemies appeared with an assortment of weapons. Kyra cracked her stiff neck and smiled.

“Time to die.”

And the onslaught begun.

Art of Killing – Chapter 7 – New People New Problem

~ Kyreon ~ Leave a comment

Kyra had left the dormitories and was heading towards a place known as the Shopping District for some supplies. As the name implied, it was an area for the students to buy daily necessities or leisure items. There were other districts as shown on her ID. She would have to visit them some other time as Kyra’s goal was to locate the pharmacy in the Shopping District.

Before she left, she had checked on Rena. Her temperature did not rise which was a good thing. But it appeared that she had difficulty breathing and was occasionally spitting out blood. Even with limited medical knowledge, Kyra could tell that it was nothing life threatening. However, she decided to get some medicine to ease Rena’s pain. Hence, the trip to the pharmacy.

Additionally, it was a good way to explore some of the Academy’s facilities. If possible, Kyra would like to visit the School Building later. She wanted to scout ahead and familiarize herself with the area.

It was a ten-minute walk to the Shopping District. The District had a rather antique feel to it. It had a walkway in the middle with various shops on both sides of the walkway. It was like something out from a classic movie. Kyra admitted that the place had a certain warm vibe to it. It was comforting to even stand around here.

Kyra spotted the pharmacy and went inside. There were shelves upon shelves of various kinds of medicine, ranging from tablets to fluid types. All kinds to keep one’s vitality up.

She managed to find painkillers but she still needed something else stronger for Rena. She was just about to move away from the shelf when someone bumped into her, causing Kyra to drop her painkillers. However, the other person wasn’t as lucky as she was carrying small glass bottles of medicine. They went falling and shattered into the pieces. The liquid splattered all over the floor and onto their legs.

“Well then, that’s unfortunate,” Kyra said.

“Err… I’m very sorry about that.”

“Nah. It’s my-” Kyra stopped when she got a good look at the other. She recognized her from earlier. More notably, the semi-automatic rifle she was had slung on her back. To be precise, she was the one who threw the flashbang in her face during the entrance exam.

The girl’s face paled when she too recognized Kyra.

“Eep!! I didn’t mean to bump into or blind you. I er….er….”

Kyra watched as the girl panicked and blubbered with her words.

She gave a slightly different vibe from when she was in battle previously. Although she may seem timid, she was decisive and focused during their fight.

Kyra sighed and reassured the girl, “It’s alright. I’m not mad or anything. I’m not gonna kill you over such a little thing. I will kill you only if you are my target or if you fuck with me.”

The girl shuddered at that statement. She had heard of the Fukagi Family and their exploits. They were considered to be the top assassin family in this city. She had no doubt that the Fukagi standing in front of her meant every word. Although, it may seem threatening to others but to Kyra, it was just a matter of fact.

A pharmacist came over to clean the mess up. The two grabbed what they needed and paid for their items, hastily trying to leave before they get into trouble. The girl became unsettled when she had to pay for the broken medicine as she did not have enough money to pay for everything. Seeing as it was kind of her fault, Kyra offered to pay for her.  The girl then would not stop thanking Kyra.

“It’s alright. You don’t have to pay me back,” Kyra told her.

“But-but I can’t do that.”

“Really. I’m fine with it,” Kyra firmly reassured her in hopes that this will end the topic and they can move on. Unfortunately, the girl seemed really pressed to pay her back by any means.

“No. I can’t do that. At least let me-”

“Okay! How about you treat me to a bun? I saw a bakery earlier. We should head there.”

Kyra clapped her hands to snap her back to reality. Though she may have sounded a tad irritated as the girl lowered head and agreed silently.

 For some reason, they sat on a bench outside after buying buns. Their weapons placed beside them. Kyra didn’t know what to say and the girl didn’t too. Silence and awkwardness between the two filled the air. Kyra just did not know what to do in this situation. Both tried to kill each other not too long ago. Now, they are sitting beside each other with a steaming char siew bun in hand.

Kyra took a whiff of the bun. The aroma from the bun was making her mouth water. Without further ado, she took a bite. Mixture of oil and the juicy meat seeped in her mouth. While it was hot, Kyra took no time in finishing her bun. In contrast, the girl took her time in chewing her steaming bun, savoring each bite. Kyra sat idly while waiting for the girl to finish.

Maybe I should tell the cooks to make this back home. Oh, I should buy some for Rena too.

“Thanks for the treat,” Kyra said as the girl had her last bite.

“Mmmm. It’s nothing.” The girl shook her head.

“So, what’s your name?”

“It’s Aimi.”

“Just Aimi?”

“Just Aimi,” The girl responded with a hint of sadness.

“Well, I’m Kyra…. Just Kyra.”

Aimi smiled at Kyra sheepishly, “You know, I wasn’t expecting a person of your stature to be in this Academy. You might make graduation harder than it already is.”

Kyra chuckled lightly, “I don’t think my reputation is that high up. Even my sister is more infamous than me.”

“Is that so….?” Aimi seemed to think about what she just said.

“Why did you come to this Academy? To me, it didn’t seem that you needed to come here. You could have done fine outside.” Kyra asked. She was curious as to why Aimi enrolled here. For Kyra, it was because of family obligations but she wanted to know about others. Kyra spoke the truth when she thought that Aimi didn’t need to come to this Academy. She personally felt that one can accomplish the same thing or more in the city. Aimi had the skills to be a good hitman or bodyguard. What the Academy offered, the city offered more in terms of violence and blood.  Hence, her conclusion of one will learn more outside of the Academy.  However, having said that, knowledge is still knowledge. There’s always room to learn more no matter how stuck up she was.

“Umm…. well, I guess it’s because of Ned. He wanted to come here to become stronger and I sort of followed him. But deep down, I too want to become stronger without having to rely on others.”

“Ned?”

“Oh, Ned is Boomer. The one with the grenade launcher. I actually came here to buy ointments for his burns.”

“Right. Him. I heard you two gave a lot of trouble to my friends.”

“I’m sorry about that.”

“Well, it’s not me that you need to be worried about. Rena might blast holes in the two of you when she sees either of you.”

Aimi laughed softly, “Then, I had better watch my back.”  She stood up and took a deep breath and let it out. She smiled at Kyra and said, “I best get back to Ned soon.”

“I hope to see you again soon.” She picked up her rifle and walked a distance away, before waving goodbye. Kyra didn’t wave back but watched her leave, not in the direction of the dormitory though. She felt that it would not be very cool of her if she did that. She too, had to hurry back to the dorm. She stood up and left the entertainment district, not before buying more char siew buns.

When she reached the dormitory’s lift lobby, she saw a person with his hands on his hips who seemed to be analyzing the mess that happened earlier in the day. Kyra’s senses told her that this was yet another annoying person. She lowered her presence and walked calmly towards the lift.

“Hey, you! Yeah, you there!” The person called out to her. Kyra immediately regretted not taking the side stairs that was not in the lift lobby. It was located at one of the ends of the building. Kyra had deemed it too far and now she was about to be stuck in another conversation.

Kyra turned around to see him, smiling at her. It was a smile that was meant to put people at ease which irked Kyra a lot. She could already tell that he had ulterior motives with her.

He offered a hand to her. “My name is Everett, the vice council president. Of course, you don’t need to introduce yourself. I already know who you are, Miss Kyra.”

Kyra could feel her veins pulsating in her forehead. She observed Everett even closely. He had a classy look to him due to the formal uniform he was wearing. He had also mentioned that he was the vice council president. Having dealt with the president earlier, Kyra really didn’t want to interact with yet council member.

“Ha ha ha. No need to be hostile. I want to be your friend,” Everett said truthfully when he noticed how Kyra was tensed up.

Your friend? What’s this idiot scheming about? Kyra had no interest making friends with him. However, having an established connection with someone on the Academy’s Council could prove useful in the future. It’s just that she would have much preferred anyone else but him. Kyra decided to play it cool and first find out what Everett wanted from her.

“And what do you want? Other than being my friend,” Kyra asked.

“What I want is simple,” Everett smiled devilishly. “I want you to join me in overthrowing the Student Council and this Academy.”

Kyra stifled her laughter and put on a poker face. “And if I refuse?”

“You won’t refuse me. For various reasons, the Student Council President has started keeping tabs on you since you first entered, even the higher ups at the Academy. You will want to work with me.”

“Well, I like to think it’s because of how annoying us Fukagis can be.”

“Yes, I can see that,” Everett gestured at the broken glass, from the fight Kyra had earlier, at his feet. “But you’ll have to be naïve to think that. There has been a lot of chatter about you. And I mean a lot.”

That was troubling to hear. However, it wasn’t surprising to say the least. She wasn’t bragging or anything but her family name holds a lot of power in the city.

“I’ll think about it. I have places to be,” Kyra decided not to give a direct answer. This required both careful thinking and planning. She could not just say yes and dragged herself into a full-blown conflict.

“Of course, no one’s stopping you. But I wish that you will reach to a satisfying answer. Even if you don’t join me, you will still be the President’s downfall. I see it in your eyes. Of how much you want to kill her. And I can’t wait to see it happen,” Everett tapped his watch. “Just a matter of time.”

Kyra’s left thumb twitched and proceeded to fiddle with her katana’s sword hilt. She found Everett to be getting on her nerves at each passing second.  It was as good a time as any to leave. She didn’t want to leave Rena alone any longer. Kyra walked past Everett without saying anything.

Everett smiled and bowed, “Have a pleasant evening, princess.”

Rena was still sleeping when Kyra returned to the dormitory. She went to prepare another glass of water and laid down the medicine. Kyra gently touched her shoulder and shook her awake. Rena’s brown eyes slowly fluttered open.

“Argh…. My head hurts,” Rena closed her eyes again and pulled herself up.

“I got you some painkillers by the way.”

Rena took some and drank it down with the glass of water. Rena slammed down the glass on the table and let out a refreshing shout.

Rena looked at Kyra and asked, “So, which room do you want to take? There are two rooms. I’ll give you first dibs.”

Kyra looked at the doors of the rooms. They were beside each other. So, that meant the rooms were parallel to each other. Quite frankly, she didn’t really bother which room she got.

In the end, she took the room on the left. Kyra carried her stuff in to unpack. She had wanted to help Rena move in but she had declined, insisting that she troubled Kyra enough.

Kyra’s room was spacious. There was a work table, cupboard and obviously, a bed. It took about thirty minutes to unload everything she had. The last item she took out was a Nexmor in a jar. This particular Nexmor did not have any filament so that in the event of someone taking it, they were unable to reproduce it. One could say that the flower served as a decoration for her room or something to remind her of her home. Additionally, Kyra had seeds, that she had already kept hidden, for growth into her calling cards.

Once Kyra was done with assembling the room into her own functioning safe room, she took out all of her clothing and headed straight to bed.

Chapter 8 – Negotiation

Featured ~ Kyreon ~ Leave a comment

“Morning, boys.” Rena greeted Shiloh and Cree who were already in the classroom. They were seated at the back of the class. As Kyra and Rena walked towards them, she felt most eyes staring at them, sizing them up and getting a read.

“Well, you certainly took your time. Homeroom started like ten minutes ago. You know we waited for you girls? Only until we realized that we were dumbasses for waiting.” Weirdly enough, Shiloh did not seem to be annoyed. He was just teasing as far as Kyra could tell.

“It was fine. We didn’t really tell them that we were going to wait for them. Besides, our homeroom teacher is even later than both of you are,” Cree said.

Rena simply shrugged, “I wouldn’t have cared if I was late anyway.” The table conveniently had four seats for all of them and Rena sat down beside Shiloh.  

“Huh. You’re not wearing your jacket today.” Cree directed at Kyra. Kyra looked at him funny and replied, “Well yeah, I like to change up my style every now and then.” It wasn’t much of a change but Kyra liked to switch it up every now and then. She decided to wear her jacket around her waist. She wanted to make her family emblem less obvious. Obviously, she could have just opted not to wear her jacket but Kyra loved her jacket too much to just leave it. Plus, her jacket hides various weapons and utility, although, her katana was more than enough. This, she was sure of.

“Aren’t you gonna sit down?” Rena asked. Kyra was scanning the class, observing if anyone was of interest. She did spot Aimi and Boomer at the front. “Yeah.” She placed her katana on the table and sat down.

Some time had passed. Everyone had gotten restless, waiting for their homeroom teacher, especially Rena. She had dismantled and reassembled her pistols more than once now. “Man, where is our homeroom teacher?” Shiloh had an irritated look across his face. He felt that the Academy having a school-like curriculum to be a waste of time. Like most, he came here mainly just for the power of Arts.

“Yeah. It’s been about thirty minutes since the bell rang.” Cree remarked. According to the school’s schedule, the day starts with an orientation with said homeroom teacher. The room got louder and louder as everyone in the class was talking over each other. Kyra and the crew were unbothered by all the noise. They were barely speaking with each other, only making occasional remarks. Except for Kyra who had been quiet.

Kyra had her head resting on her hand and was thinking about why her family wanted her to attend the Academy. She felt like there was a catch to it. This whole time she had been pretty much left to her own devices. Kyra didn’t think that her siblings being former students were the reason behind it. There were other reasons she could think of but she did not have any concrete evidence. Before she could think about it any further, a man burst into the classroom.

Her eyes widened upon realizing who it was. The man walked over to the teacher’s table and sat right on it. “Alright. Quieten down. I did not want to be here but yet here I am. Let’s get this orientation over and done with.” There was not any doubt. It was Monty Summers, one of the world’s top master swordsman, said to have even invented several sword styles. Maybe, she will at least act interested being here. She needed to find a way to establish a connection with him.

“So ummm…. What was it again? Why the hell did I have to take this job….” Monty mumbled to himself as he pinched his nasal bridge.

“Oi! If there’s nothing to do, can’t we leave now?” Boomer shouted.

“Ned…. You can’t just shout at a teacher,” Aimi was shocked that Boomer just lashed out.

Monty, on the other hand, didn’t seem to mind it and was actually considering what Boomer had to say. “You know what? Fuck it, class dismissed. All of you can leave.”

Boomer was the first to leave, along with Aimi and another two that Kyra did not recognize. Aimi apologized to Monty but he waved it aside. Soon, one by one, people started leaving.

“You guys go on ahead. I have business with him,” Kyra told the rest.

“What kind of business?” Cree asked.

“Nothing too special. I just need something from him,” Kyra smirked.

Kyra approached Monty and stood in front of him. “And what do you want?” Monty questioned. “I want you to teach me,” Kyra replied. Monty immediately chuckled out as soon as he heard.

“I don’t know if you got the hint but I am not even interested in teaching in this snobby academy,” Monty explained.

“Well, I don’t care about the school’s bullshit. What I want is what you have to offer. Your sword mastery skills and talents. I want to be your apprentice and learn everything.”

“Sorry. I don’t do apprenticeship.”

“Three hundred thousand credits every week,” Kyra rebutted. Now, she had his attention.

Monty was stunned and rightfully so, three hundred thousand credits was a lot of money and every week? She must have been some rich family’s brat to be able throw this much at him.

“Alright, I’ll bite. What’s your name, anyway?” Monty asked.

“Kyra. Kyra Fukagi,” she presented her name.

Monty’s expression changed slightly but he hid it well and returned to his poker face. Kyra, however, caught it. It might not mean much but people, in general, have different responses to her family name. For his case, it was not of shock but of realization.

Kyra and Monty moved to the cafeteria where they were each enjoying a waffle with a chocolate ice-cream scoop on it on the expense of Kyra’s wallet. She didn’t particularly mind paying for it. To her, all of this to get a living legend to train her was worth it. She could always take more jobs. Not to mention, the Academy’s in-built cafeteria had really classy desserts and drinks. How did Kyra know this? It was because Rena and her spent their morning here. It was open for all faculty and students at any time, be it before, after lessons or during lessons.

“Man, I haven’t eaten breakfast…. I will have you know that I’m not cut out for teaching,” Monty explained. “What do you even want me to teach you? How to hold a sword?”

“Why are you even here? In this Academy of all places. The legendary sword master has humbled down and decided to become a teacher against his better judgement. I believe that’s not the case?” Kyra asked mockingly.

“Ah…. Well…. I lost a bet and now I’m forced by Alkiel to be a slave in this school.” Monty scratched his head in frustration as if he just relived a really bad memory.

Monty was lying about the truth. Kyra could at least tell that much. But she was not too bothered by it. It was not much of a main concern for now. She determined that what he said was true to a certain extent. From first impressions, Alkiel seemed like a bitch from the get-go. Well to be fair, Kyra just didn’t like her. There could be more behind of what Monty said but it was not that important right now. Right now, she needed Monty to accept her being his apprentice. Whatever suspicions she had; she could deal with it in the future. She had a feeling that it might come into play.

Kyra moved in closer, almost like a whisper, said, “Other than teaching me everything you know, I need your help with something else. A new st-”

“Look, Kyra. You expect too much from me. You may think of me as some “legendary” swordsman. All I did was copy others and improve on it till it becomes something entirely new,” Monty interrupted, trying to get his point across.

Kyra stared at Monty silently. She wanted to make it clear that she was not letting him go. Monty let out a heavy sigh. “Fine. I do need any kind of loose change I can ahold of….” He mumbled.

“Okay then. I will wire you your money every Sunday, regardless if we have a training session or several or none. Think of it as a contract of sorts.”

“I admire you people being able to throw money all around the place.” Monty scoffed. “You ever had apprentices before?” Kyra asked.

Monty pondered about it before answering. “I used to have one which is why I can tell you now that I am not fit to have apprentices. But whatever. So, do you want to start now?”

Kyra thought about what he said. It can’t be that bad. Sure, one might call her behind selfish and a typical rich girl just flaunting her assets. But she needed this. For too long she had been narrow-minded. It was time to branch out. What better way than have Monty Summers be her master.

“Nah. Tomorrow is fine. I will contact you.” The two exchanged their personal contact information. Although, the school’s ID have their own contact information. Kyra much preferred to use their own lines. Who knows if the school had a record of every call made, message and email sent? Monty seemed to share the same consensus.

Monty left, not before finishing his waffle. “See you tomorrow, master.” Kyra decided to order another waffle. While waiting for it to arrive, Kyra sent a message to Asa to brag about her apprenticeship. She got an instant reply, saying that her sister didn’t give a fuck. Well, it was to be expected. But she had bragging rights this time. Kyra would like to add that Asa too was trained in swordplay in the past but slowly switched to firearms and eventually the sniper. ding Kyra looked up at her phone and saw a new message from her sister. Now, this was surprising.

Wait u said monty summers? That sword master guy?

Yea Im under his apprenticeship.

Huh interesting

 Kyra closed her phone and finished the rest of her dessert. Maybe she should try out the other desserts since she was here.

————————————————————————————————————————————————

Rena wandered around the school for a while. Her friend, Kyra, was busy with something so she was alone. She could have hung out with the boys, but she barely knew them. She rather had Kyra with her. The two had explored the Academy for a bit in the morning but spent their time in the cafeteria before reluctantly heading to class. She took out her ID and looked up the school’s directory. Rena immediately put her ID down and continued wandering. Her mind could not comprehend the complexity of the school’s map, so she decided to let fate decide for her.

Somehow, she had wandered into a shooting range of sorts. She had caught a whiff of gunpowder and followed it. The students were all firing different types of weapons, from pistols to machine guns. Rena was impressed from the get-go.

“Whoa! Hey! Who are you? What do you think you are doing here, you goddamn exhibitionist?” Rena was stopped before she could take another step.

“Fuck do you mean? I’m just taking a look around. I’m new here,” Rena got visibly frustrated but calmed herself. It was her first official day in the Academy. She could not make a mockery of herself.

“Oh right. I completely forgot that there was new fresh meat today. Silly me!”

Now, she’s just asking for a bullet through her head. Rena reached for her pistol.

“Well, since you’re here, let’s see your shooting skills. I see that you carry a pair of pistols. Here’s a challenge. Beat the score and you get to be an exclusive member of the range and armory. Discount on bullets and guns and all that. What do you say?”

“Deal,” Rena accepted. This was a worthwhile investment. She may not like getting her ammunition from unknown sources. But in an environment, such as the academy, the more resources the better.

“Good. I’m Tracey, by the way, in charge of this here facility.” The woman finally introduced herself. Tracey beckoned Rena over to an empty lane. “The targets of this range are slightly different; they are made of five parts. A head, two torso parts and two limbs. You will know what I mean when you see it. Each section you take down, you earn a point. Total score is 100 points and to get premium membership, you must obtain 90 points,” explained Tracey.

Rena walked towards the stand and pulled out her pistols from her pants. Tracey signaled over to the control room to start up the lane. The first target came up and Rena immediately got a clean headshot. However, the counter still displayed zero. Rena shot again and the counter number did not go up. She smirked as she finally understood how the targets work. When Tracey meant “take down”, she really meant destroy and obliterate the targets. Now, this Rena understood very well. She aimed both pistols at the head and continuously pulled the trigger until the head was blown away from its centerpiece.

Ding The counter went up by one.

Rena unloaded her clips and went for fresh clips. As she was reloading, Rena observed the target closely. There had to be an efficient way to deal with the segmented pieces. She only had six clips left, strapped around her legs. One shot was not enough to blow through one piece. Rena could not tell what kind of material was used. It looked like it was ceramic but if that was the case, the head piece would have been broken by her shot.  It was just the torso left.

She could feel Tracey ridiculing her from behind. The pressure was on her now. Rena was not going to let some wise ass make a fool out of her. She racked her brain as hard as she could. At this point, she was open to anything. Ah, screw it. What if she concentrated her shot at the center of the target? She had nothing to lose in this challenge. Rena lowered her left hand and aimed with her pistol. She took precise aim and squeezed the trigger. It was at this moment that Rena felt she released something powerful. There was more kickback than usual from her pistol. Her eyes started to burn, and time seemed to have slowed. Was it the adrenaline? she thought to herself.

Two targets were up. This time, she raised both pistols and fired simultaneously. The targets broke into pieces. Bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang The counter displayed a hundred points. Rena had gotten all the targets. She holstered her pistols back between her legs and immediately twitched. Rena always did enjoy the burning sensation of her pistols between her thighs but she had to admit it was hotter than usual. Tracey gave her a puzzled look and went on to congratulate her for getting the highest score.

“Hahahaha! You did well. Once you figured the trick and tapped into your potential, the rest is easy. You are now a member of our exclusive club,” said Tracey.  Rena proceeded to hand over her ID so that Tracey could register her as a member.

“Come back some other time if you are still breathing. There’s lots of fun shit that you haven’t seen yet in the Academy’s Armory,” Tracey smiled sinisterly.

————————————————————————————————————————————————

Monty was in the break room alone. He sighed when he thought back to his interaction with Kyra. He did not think that Kyra would approach directly. He had tried to play the role of an uninterested instructor and left the class. It did not work. Was all this planned? Did they know that Kyra would be interested in him because they were both sword artists? The thing is, he read through Kyra’s file, there was not much to go on. Kyra was active a few years back but had since then been a shut-in. The report did not go into detail as to why she fell off the map. It did not help that the Fukagi Manor was a fortress and isolated. For years, maybe even centuries, various people have been trying to breach the Manor but to no avail. The Fukagis were a lack of better words, monsters.

 A message came through Monty’s phone. Monty shivered with dread as he looked up his phone. An unfavorable trait, for a sword master, that he had developed lately. Nothing good came from his messages as of late. He took a deep breath before pulling out his phone. Monty knew it. They were asking about his progress with Kyra.

It appeared that you have come into contact Kyra Fukagi. However, it seems that you have strayed away from your initial duties. Although, the end result is the full potential of Kyra Fukagi, be reminded that you are no in position to make changes or demands.

Monty’s grip around his ID tightened. He did not want to be ordered around but he had no choice in the matter. One misstep could end everything.

Everything is fine I just have misgivings about being an instructor but I will help to unlock kyra’s full potential

Monty decided to reply to reassure them. All Monty can do now is play ball.

Noted. Do know that you and Kyra Fukagi are always under surveillance. Do not disappoint, Monty Summers.

Monty threw his ID across the room in a fit of rage after reading that last message. He silently swore that he will get back at whoever these people are.

Art of Killing – Chapter 6 – Settling In

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The administrative building was a small two storey building. A relatively simple building with just a word, “ADMIN” above the entrance. The administrative building handles almost everything about the Academy.

The group walked through the automated doors. There was a waiting area at the side and the administrative desk ahead of them. It appeared that there wasn’t anyone here.

“Well, what the fuck?” Rena swore in frustration.

“Ah! Welcome…. Give me a sec… hoo…” A tiny voice came from over the desk. Kyra heard a squeak and a little girl’s popped up and another squeak and half of her body was shown.

Kyra raised an eyebrow. She did not expect someone of her stature or her age to be working at the front desk.

The little girl noticed Kyra’s look and she responded as if she read her thoughts… “You got something to say, punk? I happen to be twenty-four this year.”

Her tone had completely changed from a little girl’s to a very aggressive adult sounding voice. Now, Kyra was even more amazed.

“So, you’re a dwarf?” she teased.

“You wanna fucking die right now?”

“Sorry. Maybe you prefer being called a loli or ….an old hag?”

“Ok that’s it! I’m gonna smash your head in!”

Kyra pushed her katana out of her scabbard a few centimetres with her thumb.

“Hey! Hey! I think we are getting ahead of ourselves. We’re here because we were told to come here after the entrance exam.” Cree stopped in between them as a mediator. Rena started laughing at the situation that is unfolding before her. The little girl calmed down and reposed herself.

“Well, why didn’t you say so? I’m Lillian Groves. The Head Administrator of the Academy of Arts. Once again, I welcome you to this prestigious Academy.” Lillian sounded so refined that she was almost a different person. Now she acted formal and a proper member.

“What’s the Head Administrator doing at the front desk?” Shiloh questioned. Normally, you wouldn’t see some of high position here. Unless the person in question was a weirdo whom Lillian definitely was.

“You see, I like to know who comes and goes in this Academy. I want to know what happens here. Nothing flies past me without my knowledge. I am a curious person by nature and I’m especially interested in the new freshmen this year.”

She gestured at Rena. “A disgraced Smisson.” At Shiloh. “A lost soul.”

At Cree. “Bound to family.” And finally, at Kyra. “A…. Fukagi.”

Lillian smiled deviously as she provoked them. She wanted to see what kind of emotion they invoke. Even before Head Administrator, Lillian loved to observe intensively and she took it upon herself to understand everyone in the Academy when she became Head Administrator.

No one said anything. The tension in the air only grew as the seconds passed. Out of the blue, Lillian clapped and everyone snapped out of their trance.

“That’s enough of that. Now, I need four of you to fill in these forms. After some explanation, I will hand over to you your dormitory keys.”

Kyra took the form and glanced over it. Instead of forms, it would be more accurate to call them contracts. It wasn’t just a piece of paper. It was an A4 paperback. It was rather quite thick. The contract stated that the Academy was not liable for any damages caused on the contract holder. In the case of death, the holder is held responsible instead. It was fascinating. Everything about this contract wards the Academy of anything. They would happily provide the students the best of everything but students are not their responsibility. The rest of the contract was just particulars, blood type, acknowledgment of the rules of the Academy.

Kyra signed the contract and handed it back to Lilian. She waited for the rest to finish before continuing. “Now remember follow all the laws closely. No killing unless authorised. Even I can’t help you if you break the laws.”

Lillian leaned in. “Now…. let’s talk dorms. Do you guys want to stay together or be in separate rooms.”

“There’s no restrictions?” Cree asked.

“Nope. We believe in the freedom of our students.”

“Then I’ll take a room for myself,” Kyra said.

“I’ll bunk with Kyra,” Rena added.

“Ok! A two-bed dorm. Here’s you let keycard. Don’t lose it!” Lillian handed the keycard to Kyra. Kyra didn’t move a muscle. Rena sighed and took it.

“Maybe if you have treated me nicely. You would’ve gotten your own room. Remember this, I’m the Head Administrator. I can ruin your school life with just a few words,” Lillian stared threateningly at Kyra.

“This your work?” Kyra took out the map from her jacket and held it in front of her. Kyra theorised that this map was created by her. She noticed that Lillian’s desk had a lot of cutesy stuff. Putting two and two together, this map was created none other than the midget.

“Yes! Yes! What’s wrong? Appreciating my genius now? I’ll have you know that it took me ages to complete the design of that brochure. Truly my best master-” Lillian stopped as her face whitened.

Kyra slowly tore the brochure from top to bottom and dropped it on the floor.

Without a word, Kyra left.

————

The dormitories are in a separate area of the Academy. It was a short five min walk away from the main campus. In all honesty, dormitory was an understatement. It was more like a high-end condominium. There were many facilities that one will expect such as a pool, gym, barbecue area and so on. A truly extravagant place to live in without knowing one might die anytime.

Their belongings and bags were placed in the main lobby. Kyra and Rena went to collect and find their belongings.

“That’s rude. They laid your stuff neatly while mine was haphazardly thrown around the damn area. My bags aren’t even in the same place.”

“No thanks to Asa,” Kyra muttered.

Kyra recalled a time when Asa said that her computer parts were damaged when she went to collect her bags. She had brought with her huge bags filled with her equipment when she enrolled. Apparently, the carrier was tired of moving her bags that he either dropped or threw it. Asa was utterly furious that she sliced off the carrier’s right hand. Kyra might have to avoid anyone who’s missing a right hand.

The dormitories were split into three buildings. One for the first years and one for the second years and one for the third years. This year, the first years’ building was in the middle. When the semester year changes, Kyra’s building will be a second-year building while the third year’s will be known as the first-year building for the new students that year. This was so that the students wouldn’t have to keep moving around.

“Hey, wait up!” Cree called to them from behind.

“Thanks to you, that bitch wouldn’t calm down,” Shiloh added.

“Did she throw her arms around like a little kid?” Kyra quizzed?

“Heh, yeah she did but also wanting to smash your head in several times?” Shiloh mused at the memory of Lillian using her threatening adult voice.

Cree held up his keycard and said, “I manage to have Lillian get us a room beside yours.  I think it’ll be better if we stay close together since we hardly know anyone. We did meet each other first.”

“I don’t mind but you’re not gonna spy on us or anything, are you?” Rena questioned with a pinch of suspicion.

“W-what? No, of course not.” Cree was clearly taken aback by the question.

“It’s ok, Cree boy. One day, I will teach you the wonders of peeping.”

“Ummm…. sure.”

“Oh? So, these are the new freshmen? You don’t look so tough?” An unarmed male walked over to the group.

Rena started laughing at his bald top. “What kind of hairstyle is that? That’s gotta be a joke.” Shiloh also tried to hold his laughter. The male’s hairstyle was out of this world. His head was bald except few parts that had a small bush of hair.

He did not seem to mind the laughter but Kyra sensed his hostility and questioned, “What is it to you?”

“Nothing, I swear. I just want to measure the freshmen’s strength myself!” He lunged forward with his fist.

Too fast.

Kyra barely drew her katana completely out of her scabbard. She raised her half-drawn katana to block his punch. Kyra was completely overpowered and was pushed back several meters.

Another fucking brawler!?

However, the punch attack wasn’t over yet. Kyra felt a shockwave from the fist hit her. More accurately, the shockwave was seemingly transferred from the fist to the katana to her. It concentrated at her chest and she was flung backwards into the glass windows of the lobby.

Bang bang bang

Rena fired three shots to which the brawler dodged all of it elegantly. He jumped in the air and extended a leg towards Rena. Rena fired upwards but was visibly missing her shots. His foot landed nicely and hard into Rena’s abdomen. Rena hit the ground and slid a distance with the brawler still on her. She immediately grabbed his ankle and pointed her pistol at his calf. Before she could pull the trigger, he kicked across her face. Her hand faltered as she slowly lost consciousness.

Fuck. He’s too strong. Is this all I have?

Rena had left her family because she felt undermined. Was it for naught? She thought she had become stronger even just for a bit. However, since coming here, she lost to Boomer and Aimi and was defeated by this hairless monkey.

Defeated? Lost? I’m not dead yet so I haven’t lost!

Rena snapped her hand upwards to his head and fired. The brawler tilted his body backwards. The bullet whizzed past his face, just a few centimetres away.

Bang

Rena fired with her left pistol that was at her side. Meanwhile, Cree was rushing ahead and went for a horizontal slice at chest level with his sword. The brawler was trapped in this deadlock.

He snapped forward, faster than the speed of the bullet and proceeded to twist Rena’s abdomen with his foot. Rena immediately screamed out in excruciating pain and she let go of her pistols. She tasted blood in her mouth and it was slowly foaming in her mouth. She spat it out so she wouldn’t choke in her own blood.

Cree put all his strength and speed into this one swing. The brawler brought his left arm up and block with ease. There was a tink sound. The sword did not even cut him. It was like he was using a plastic toy sword against metal.

“Cree!” Shiloh drew his knifes and sprang into action

The brawler grinned and grabbed the sword with his right arm and pulled Cree at Shiloh. They hit each other and both fell to the ground.

The fight was one sided and it was over. The brawler had won. Or so that’s what he thought. He heard a knife whooshing through the air. He brought his fist up to block the knife from stabbing his head. Unfortunately for him, the knife went through his hand. Though not fully, it still went through. His eyes widened.

Impossible. She can use-

The knife lodged in his hand was pushed further in with incredible speed and force, piercing through both his palm and finger. The blade almost reached his eye, missing a few millimetres. His eyeball began to shake and his iris shrunk. A knife dropped to the ground. That bitch swordswoman had thrown two knifes! She used the second knife to strike the first’s hilt, pushing it further in. This was interesting

“I fucking despise martial artists.” Kyra announced while leaking her killing intent.

The entire lobby became chilly and time seemed to have slowed down. The brawler was frozen in place and didn’t move a muscle but stared at Kyra as she slowly stood up from her sitting position.

I have to move before she strikes.

The brawler reached for the knife to pull it out. Kyra had already positioned for a straight lunge to slice off his head clean. The two stared into each other’s soul. Kyra lunged. The brawler took out the knife and prepared to parry the swing and punch through her face with his injured hand.

The two jumped towards each other, both with the intention of killing the other. Only difference was Kyra was out of pure anger, the other was for cleansing this world of evil.

They were almost close to striking the finishing blow when suddenly, a figure flashed in front of them and grabbed both of their arms. The brawler tried to stopped in his tracks but the momentum was too much to stop. Kyra simply didn’t care. To hell with it, she thought. She would just have to put in more strength and cut through the intruder and kill the brawler.

The figure grabbed both of their arms and spun along with Kyra and the brawler. One spin and she threw both of them in opposite directions.

“No killing unless authorised. Have you forgotten our laws, Zack?”

“I-”

“Initiated a fight that almost ended in a death match.” She interrupted the brawler, Zack, coldly without giving him a chance to explain.

She knelt before Zack and picked up one of his hair parts. “Do you want me to kill you right here, right now?”

Zack looked at her in the eye. Her eyes were as beautiful and sparkling as ever. But at the same time, they were frightening. There was a dangerous aura to them. He lowered his head, “No, President.”

“Good.” She smiled and smashed his head into the ground.

The floor, surrounding Zack’s head, cracked. A puddle of blood started forming. She left him and approached Kyra next.

“Well, well, Kyra Fukagi. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you. I’m the Council President, Veinarica Diamond.”

Kyra said nothing. The throw across the room had broken several of her bones in her body and what’s worse was her right arm. The part of her arm where she had grabbed was completely bruised. The grip the woman had was iron clad. Kyra figured it would be best to shut up. If she were to provoke, she most likely would die or be in critical condition.

“Quite impressive that you managed to put a scratch on me. The way you twisted your hand with your katana and strikes down.”

Veinarica touched her left cheek and wiped away the blood bleeding from the cut.

She leaned in close and whispered, “I will be watching your progress in this Academy very closely.”

Kyra’s body unconsciously shivered. Whether it was out of fear, she did not know but Veinarica had presence that screamed to Kyra that she should not be fucked with. Veinarica straightened up her body and smiled as if reading her thoughts.

“Feel free to visit me in the Council Room. I would like to have you over for some tea.”

Veinarica pulled Zack’s non-existent hair and dragged him away along with her. Once the two left, Kyra slowly got up and gently massaged her right arm. Kyra could see the purple bruise slowly fade away. She flexed her fingers and sheathed her sword. She moved over to Rena and kicked her foot.

“You’re alive?” Kyra asked.

“…. barely. My insides hurt like a bitch…. I really don’t want to cross paths with that bald cunt.”  Rena responded in pain.

“Well, I want to burn the rest of his hair off.”

Rena chuckled but ended up coughing more blood. Kyra pulled her up straight and patted her back, easing her excretion of blood.

“I think I had enough for one day. I need fucking sleep. I’ll see you guys tomorrow.” Shiloh spoke out of the blue. He grabbed his bags and left.

Cree watched as Shiloh entered the elevator. He sighed and asked, “Do you two need the infirmary.”

“No.” The two girls replied in unison.

“You sure?” Cree was puzzled. The two of them were pretty banged up compared to the boys. It seemed that they really needed medical attention.

“I’m a fast healer.” Kyra replied almost instantly.

“And I’m stubborn.” Rena admitted.

“Suit yourself.”

Kyra brought Rena to her feet and stared at Cree with a hint of mischief.

“Don’t just stand there. Help us with our bags.”

Cree dropped his head in disbelief. Maybe he should have followed Shiloh.

Their apartments were on the fifth floor. Cree helped Kyra and Rena into their room. Their room was impressive for a school dormitory. Kyra should probably stop being surprised. This was a prestige academy after all. There was a small and short hallway to the living room. The living room was considerably large. It even had a plasma TV for the student’s leisure. The kitchen was at the corner of the living room on the left after the end of the hallway.

Kyra brought Rena to the sofa and laid her there.

“Hey Cree, think you can get a cup of water for Rena?” Kyra asked.

“Yeah sure.” Cree dumped the bags in the middle of the room and headed to the kitchen area.

Kyra touched Rena’s forehead. She wasn’t hot and didn’t seem to have a fever. So that was a good sign, Kyra hoped. She wasn’t knowledgeable about this kind of stuff. She never needed to

Kyra heard opening of cabinets and running water. Soon, Cree came over with a filled glass in hand.

Rena took the glass and drank it slowly. Blood from her mouth mixed into the water.

“You feeling ok?” Rena asked.

“Like shit…. I will be fine by tomorrow.” Rena closed her eyes

“I’ll see you guys tomorrow. If you need anything, we’re next door.” Cree seemed to be ready to leave.

“Try not to peep on us,” Rena smiled wryly.

Cree laughed nervously, “I don’t think anyone with a sane mind will.”

With that, Cree retired to his room.

Kyra unfastened her katana from her waist and sat on the floor by the sofa. It had been a somewhat a long day and the day wasn’t even over yet. However, despite everything, she had made new friends. It had been a while seen she made new friends. Kyra wasn’t even sure that she could count her info brokers as friends. In a sense, Kyra had been shut off from the world for a very long time hence she didn’t socialise much. She did not know how friendship worked. Does friendship occur when both parties acknowledge it or does it happen with a sense of mutual respect?

While Kyra was lost in thought, she felt a hand pressed onto her the top of her head. She looked behind at Rena whom was slowly drifting off into slumber.

“Y’know, I’m glad that I became friends with you.” The words that Rena said cleared any doubts that she had earlier.

She ruffled Kyra’s hair for a bit and dozed off. Though Rena did not see it, Kyra was flustered for a while. Soon, it was Kyra’s turn to slowly fall into slumber and the two slept away without a worry in the world.

Art of Killing – Chapter 5 – Depths

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Kyra landed hard on the ground, tangled with the rest whom had fallen with. Their landing echoed throughout the cave. It appeared that they fell through a long tubing that swayed left and right for a good 20 seconds. Kyra removed Rena’s leg from her and stood up, away from the mess of bodies.

It seemed they were in some sort of an underground cave system. The caves were dimly lit with fluorescent tubes strewn along the walls.

“That was unpleasant. We fell into a literal shithole.” Rena commented.

“You can say that again.” A boy that was with them spoke as he got up.

Kyra did not take a good look at him earlier in the hall. If she recalled correctly, his name was Cree. Cree had a happy-go-lucky on look. He carried a sword just like Kyra. However, his was a western sword. The other guy beside Cree was Shiloh. Shiloh wore a bandana and his posture was slightly slouched. He held two daggers in his hands.

Cree spoke once again, “So what do we do now?”

“We need to find our respective Tags.” Kyra replied.

Rena raised her finger as if to indicate she had an idea. “How about we work together?”

“I think that’s a great idea.”

“Sure.” Kyra added. Being grouped together like this by the school was most likely encouraging students to work together or kill each other once the exam started.

Shiloh nodded.

Teaming up in an unknown environment is a sound idea. However, she cannot fully trust her “teammates”. Even though, they were not enemies. The chance of them backstabbing her was still there. As of now, being backstabbed was the least of her concerns. Finding others and getting the right Tag was a bigger problem. This entire cave system that she was currently in, most likely was a huge maze. Traversing and surviving enemy attacks are also another thing. Kyra had to assume that there were others who were working in teams.

“We should move before others find us. Find them first.” Kyra suggested.

“Well, which direction? Left, or right?” Rena gestured to the two passageways available.

“Let’s try the right.” Cree told the group.

It was better than nothing so they headed off to the right passageway without discussion.  

After walking a good distance, they came across two dead bodies riddled with bullets. Kyra took a closer look at the bodies. It seemed that they were shot behind from the back.

“Is this what Alkiel meant when she said by any means?” Cree asked.

Kyra answered, “Probably. She did say we are allowed to kill when authorized. It’s safe to assume that we are authorized to kill. Being passive won’t do good if the rest have the intent to kill.”

Kyra expected everyone in this school to be trigger happy. A kill on sight mentality was a must. Although the voluptuous headmaster did not outright authorize them, the wording was more than enough to entice everyone to start killing for a glorified smartphone.

Kyra examined her surroundings. The cave system was not strictly passageways. It was a mixture of large and small openings, arenas with plenty of cover for fights. A pretty elaborate underground fight arena underneath the school.

All of a sudden, the ground shook. Rubble fell from the ceiling onto their bodies. The ground shook again. The magnitude of the rumble got heavily over time as if it was getting closer.

The group drew their weapons. Kyra, her katana, Rena her guns, Cree his sword and Shiloh his knives.

Soon, they could hear explosions. A panicked examinee, with tattered clothes, ran down from the tunnel ahead. He saw the group and shouted raspingly for help. Before he could get any closer, his body blew up into pieces.

Rena whistled, “That’s overkill. I don’t think his ID survived that.”

Kyra silently agreed. Whoever that assailant was, his method was surely explosive and they were just about to find out who that person is.

The assailant emerged from the explosion’s smoke. He was holding a grenade launcher, grenades slung across his body.

He snarled, “Finally gotten the damn rat…. Oh, what do we have here? Four more rats scouring around.”

The student proceeded to reload his launcher grenade by grenade.

Creed spoke to him, “Look, we don’t want trouble. How about you grab the dead guy’s ID and we go our separate ways.”

Kyra knew that was not going to happen. The explosive idiot was going to listen to them.

“Ned! Wait up!”

A voice came from behind him. It belonged to a girl, who was carrying a semi-auto rifle, stumbling across the path.

“I thought I told you to call me Boomer!”

“The others lost their way because you blew the entire place up. 2 of the IDs we picked up were destroyed. You need to be more careful.”

“And I told you to follow closely behind, Aimi.”

The girl, Aimi, walked towards to the exploded carcass and gently picked up a leg. She took out the ID from its pocket.

“Ah! Found it. The screen’s cracked but it’s still functioning. Errrm, it says Tag 3 here.”

“Isn’t that nice. You’re Tag 3. I have yet to find mine yet but there’s four to choose from.”

Boomer observed the group. Two sword users, a gun user and a stealth user from the looks of it. The gun user was more of a concern than the rest. It all boiled down to who made the move first. Boomer was still reloading rounds into his launcher. The plan was to fire a grenade at the ceiling above them. The gun user merely unholstered her guns. Either she was unsure of what to do or she was confident she could get them first.

He whispered to Aimi, “Pop the smokes.”

Aimi fumbled with the smoke grenades and threw them across the cave.

Immediately after the smokes were thrown, Boomer aimed his launcher towards the group’s direction and arced his trajectory upwards. Kyra readied herself to jump out of the way. She knew what he was planning to do. He was going to blast the ceiling above them.

Before anything could happen, Rena started shooting which caused Aimi to snap her rifle right at her. Shots were exchanged and Aimi came out victorious.

“That bitch clapped my shoulder!” Rena exclaimed.

Poppoppoppoppoppoppoppoppoppop

Boomer pulled the trigger and his launcher fired a quick succession of grenades towards them. Boomer’s grenade launcher had custom functionalities built in. He chose the full-auto for this situation. Boomer grinned. Unleash the chaos from my canvas.

The smokes decreased the group’s vision. First impact hit the ceiling. Everyone jumped away from where they were standing.  Rena jumped into cover, Shiloh rushed ahead while Kyra and Cree jumped towards the right.

The grenades continued impacting the cave. Kyra’s ears ringed loudly. She had counted at least 10 grenades being launched. All of them hit various parts of the caves. The worst part was that it was not random. Each grenade was fired into consideration and they impacted at spots where it did not give them much room to dodge.

However, the integrity of the caves failed.

“Aimi, thermal scope now!” Boomer ordered.

“Yes!”

Aimi turned on thermal on her scope and took aim. However, it was hard to take a clean shot as the ground shook vigorously and huge rubbles were blocking her vision.

“I-I can’t take a shot.” Aimi said.

 Meanwhile, the floor under Kyra and Cree caved in. Kyra lost her footing and both of them fell in deeper.

“KYRA!” shouted Rena.

Rena could only watch as Kyra and Cree fell. She could not move from her cover with all these rocks falling and the ground shaking violently due to the explosions. She had no idea where Shiloh went. She took a peek from her rock. The smoke was dissipating slowly. She could barely make out the aftermath of the environment. However, she could see two silhouettes.  There was a flash from the right silhouette. Rena immediately ducked down. A bullet impacted at the rock that Rena was hiding behind.

Despite the mini earthquake that Ned caused, Aimi continued looking through the thermal scope. She saw two body heat signatures fall. One peeked so she opened fire. But the figure went back into cover. Aimi fired a few more rounds. There were four of them. Two fell in the abyss. One’s hiding in the rock. Where was the other? In the smoke? But she was not picking up anyone in the smoke.

Boomer unclipped his launcher and unloaded the used shells. The chaos that ensued was overkill. But this was still exuberating. The thrill of cornering rats.

The launcher needed time to cooldown. He had recently used the auto firing which heated up his launcher even faster. During this time, it was inadvisable to load any more grenades. The smokes were almost clearing up now. Just then, at the corner of his eye, a figure burst out from the smoke to his diagonal right.

Aimi heard a figure emerging but was unable to shoot. It was directly in her blind spot where Ned was standing from.

Shiloh had been silently moving from cover to cover, waiting for a chance to strike. He moved towards an angle where Boomer’s body blocked Aimi in his line of sight. Boomer currently did not have his launcher at the ready. Smoke was rising from the canister. It seemed that the launcher needed to cool down. The chance to attack was now.  Shiloh emerged from his cover and went straight for Boomer. He was going to kill him and jump towards Aimi and kill her next.

Boomer grinned widely and immediately pulled out his side launcher at his pistol holster.

He cocked it and said, “Boom.”

Shiloh’s eyes widened as Boomer pulled the trigger. The only thing left to do was to twist his body mid-air away from the grenade. But he might not make it, seeing as the distance between them were barely a meter.

Bang

Rena fired right at the grenade round. The speed of the bullet impacted with the speed of the grenade round, which caused an explosion right at them.

Although Shiloh twisted his body away, he was still caught by the explosion, barely making it out. His bandana and clothing helped to shield most of the explosion and he hit the ground hard. He cursed silently. Shiloh was sure that he had broken a rib or two. For better or worse, the exhibitionist gunslinger, Rena had saved him. Shiloh needed to move away to cover. Boomer definitely was caught up in that explosion and the sharpshooter behind him most likely did not. At best, she flinched. Whoever made the next move wins this showdown.

Kyra hated this exam to the core. First, she fell and then she fell deeper again. Kyra looked up. She estimated that she had fallen at least 30 meters deep. If she was going to fall, she rather fell voluntarily.

“Argh. What do we do now? Is there a way out?” Cree asked.

“Yea, there should be a way out. There’s light here. Same as above.  We’re just deeper underground.”

“We need to hurry and head back up. Rena and Shiloh may need help.”

Kyra looked at Cree with a drop of curiosity. This guy was acting selfless. Even though, they were the ones in bigger trouble, he still thought of the others above.

Kyra looked away and gave him some assurance, “They’re both fine. I don’t know about Shiloh but I think Rena can handle herself.”

“Y-you’re right. Shiloh can take of himself.”

There were a lot of huge rocks and rubble around that had fallen from above due to the series of explosion. There was not much floor space to walk normally. Traversing across to the entrance that was ahead of them would not be easy.

Before Kyra could take a step, she felt a presence from behind. She instinctively jumped to her side and landed on a huge rock. The presence belonged to a hammer user. His hammer smashed into where Kyra was last standing. He, however, was not alone as Cree had his sword locked with another sword user. They traded a few parries before breaking off.

The hammer user raised his hammer and went straight for Kyra’s position. Kyra once again jumped away before he could strike. From the corner of her eye, she saw a scope glint. She ducked into cover and a bullet impacted onto her rock cover. The hammer user was not done yet and smashed her rock cover. Kyra ducked into the next cover beside her. She had to keep a low profile or the sniper will get her.

“I’m going to kill you!”

The hammer user swung his hammer wildly, smashing any rock in his way as Kyra continued to avoid the sniper and the swings. He seemed to harbor ill hatred against Kyra. She continued moving

Cree heard the sniper fire but thankfully he was out of the sniper’s line of sight. Though, he was completely on the defense against the other sword user. The sword user’s attacks were very aggressive, yet they were giving him no openings. With him being push back like this, his footing was getting more unbalanced due to the uneven ground. Cree had to find a way to go on the offense soon.

Cree decided to ask a question.

“If I may ask, why do you and your friends seem so angry with us?”

Their swords locked with each other again.

“The fight that happened above was you, wasn’t it? The series of explosions?” The sword user questioned intensively.

“Your shenanigans above caused my friend’s death!”

The sword user kicked Cree into a rock behind him. Cree smiled as if he had been for this. Cree hit the rock but he used the momentum and force to rebound his body back and stab the sword user thorough her chest with his sword. When she kicked him, he saw an opening.

Cree brought himself closer to her ear and whispered, “Now, you’ll die with your friend.”

Cree pushed her body off his sword. He looked towards the hammer user. It appeared he was still trying to smash Kyra into a blob. Kyra was dodging both the swings and gunfire. Cree guessed he would have to sneak his way ahead to intercept the sniper.

Meanwhile, Kyra was not having the time of her life. Having to dodge the heavy swings was one thing, but keeping low at the same time was annoying. She could just ignore the hammer user and go straight for the sniper.  To hell with it, she thought. Dancing around the big guy wasn’t going to do anything. Her jacket was not hammer-proof but it was bulletproof to a certain extent.

An explosion from above occurred. The ground shook again. It appeared Boomer launched another explosive round above. Kyra changed her game plan and went straight back for the hammer user. The sniper should have been staggered by the shake. Kyra ran to her left and pulled her blade back, ready to slice him. The hammer user saw this and swung low from his right. She immediately jumped to her right, onto a large rock, avoiding the hammer. Kyra then launched herself from the rock.

Twin Style 7th Form Rotary Slash

The hammer flew out of his hands and smashed into a rock. His headless body fell to the ground.

“Alex!!!” The sniper shouted.

The sniper dropped his rifle in disbelief. In just a few seconds, all of his friends that he had known since childhood were dead.  The black swordswoman was walking closer towards him with Alex’s decapitated head in hand, her sword still dripping with blood. Huge beads of sweats rolled profusely down his face. He took out his ID.

“H-h-hey! This is what u want, isn’t it? Take it. Just take it.”

He waved the phone at her. But the swordswoman was not stopping. She did not say anything. Her kill intent was flowing out of her. He could not take it anymore. He threw the ID and ran backwards. He was not going to lose his life here. So, what if he could not enroll in this Academy? There were other ways to learn Arts. This was just a prestigious school in this dump of a city.

However, he was stopped in his tracks by someone who blocked him with his body. It was the other sword user who fell from the hole. The sword user merely smiled at him. He tried to say something to him but soon realized that his throat was filled with blood. He felt a sharp pain in his abdomen and he looked down, only to see a sword pierced into his body. He screamed but no sound came out from his mouth. Only blood. The last thing he saw was his killer’s smile. A kind yet merciless smile.

Kyra dropped the head and went to search for the hammer wielder’s ID. It seemed she did not do anything. Cree had been waiting to make a move. She found the ID and turned on the screen. Tag 1, it read. Just what she needed.

“This guy has Tag 3. The girl I killed just now had Tag 2.” Cree stated.

“That means Tag 4 is somewhere under this rubble.”

Kyra scanned the area. “Yea, I’m not going to bother searching in this mess.”

They just had to find another examinee who had Tag 4 or leave whoever had Tag 4 to deal with his own mess. Rena had Tag 2. She had Tag 1. So, it was either Shiloh or Cree.

“Ah! Found him. His upper body is crushed but his lower half is intact. Let me see… And we got it. Yep. Tag 4. We’re done here. Let’s head up to Rena and Shiloh.”

Kyra could only watch silently and nod.

“Shiloh. Hey Shiloh.”

Rena approached Shiloh whom was laying faced down. His body moved.

“Yeah, I’m alright.”

Shiloh slowly sat up and checked his body for wounds. There was a few bruises and small burns but nothing too major. Shiloh looked towards Boomer’s direction. The smoke explosion was too visible. At this point, it was getting annoying. The smokes were hindering their vision and breathing. They were also in an enclosed area. It would take quite a while for smoke to dissipate again.

Rena spoke, “I could start firing rounds into the smoke as a distraction while you approach from either side and shank them before they get any wiser.”

It seemed like it was a decent idea. It was risky but if he could find them first and caught them off guard. Shiloh was confident in his backstabbing skills but he had to worry about any tricks that Boomer or the girl might have. For all he knew, Boomer might blow himself up with a grenade to take him out. He did fire a grenade at close range.

No, he had to make a call now. He just had to strike them first before they both react. Shiloh took out two knives from his belt. A knife each to the back of their heads, he thought to himself.  40 seconds had already passed. It was now or never.

Boomer emerged from the smoke and grinned.

“Nice try, bitches.”

A top part of Boomer’s face was burnt off.  Boomer was wearing a fireproof suit with long sleeves and had covered his face with his arm. However, part of his forehead was caught in the explosion. It was nothing to serious. Boomer was used to it. Aimi did not get caught in the explosion because Boomer had pushed her directly behind him and made sure she would come out unscathed.

“What do we do now?”  Rena asked Shiloh.

Shiloh replied, “Damned if I know….” He paused. “It’s an endurance fight now. Maybe till Kyra and Cree arrived.”

Rena smirked with slight uneasiness, “And be pussies? I will be the one damned if I let others rescue poor lil’ me.”

She raised her guns to her face and jumped out of cover and started shooting at Boomer. Boomer immediately pulled Aimi down and went into cover. As they went into cover, Boomer had dropped a smoke grenade. Rena cursed when it popped. She continued to fire into the general area where they hid.

Poppopopopop

“Run!” Rena warned Shiloh.

Shiloh immediately moved out of cover and went towards the smoke to get the advantage while Rena tried her best to avoid the explosions. Rena continued cursing. This was a bad matchup no matter how one looked at it. She was the only one with range in their little group while the rest used blades. The worst part was she had pistols only. She’s not equipped for heavy power or long range for that matter. As of yet… Prancing around like an idiot was her only solution. They needed to find a way to break this continuous cycle. They could keep dodging till Boomer ran out of shells. However, there’s an off chance one of them might get hit.

“Shiloh! Target the girl. I will go after Boomer!”

Shiloh nodded and Rena immediately sprung into action.  Rena dashed forward and fired in two directions. Boomer and Aimei. Shiloh went straight for Aimi. Boomer snarled and fired his launcher upwards. Shiloh stopped in his tracks as rocks fell down. Boomer pointed a middle finger at them and moved backwards with Aimi.

“That explosive cunt!” Rena cursed. Going up against a maniac with no regard with his safety or life was extremely reckless. She thought the girl would be a weak link but she was surprisingly in tune with Boomer. However, it was obvious that Boomer was protecting her. Too well.

“That’s enough.” A voice echoed.

Kyra had her katana at Aimi’s throat. “Move and I slice her pretty throat.”

“Well well, you got me.” Boomer replied. He went to back sling his launcher and raised his hands to show his surrender. Boomer eyed to his left and saw Cree.

Cree positioned himself in a way that he is able to thrust his sword into his neck.

Kyra called out to Rena and Shiloh, “You guys ok?”

“Yeah… Just kill the bastards already.”

Just then, Kyra heard a pin being twisted and pulled. Kyra looked down to see Aimi throw a flashbang at her. Kyra immediately slapped it away from her and braced herself.

BANG

The flashbang went off. Kyra became disoriented from the impact. She stumbled in her feet but held her ground and tried to focus. Without hesitation, Kyra swung her katana horizontally but the slash missed its mark. Aimi had already escaped. So did Boomer.

It took a while for Kyra to regain her senses. The rest were still recovering. Rena stood up and commented, “Seems like the girl is as crazy and reckless as him.”

“He must have signaled her to escape once we showed up.” Kyra theorized.

“Damn. I’m pretty shagged myself. We still need to get through this dumb exam.”

“Well… Cree and I took out a whole team by ourselves. Here.” Kyra passed Rena’s corresponding Tag to her and to Shiloh.

“Not bad. Hey. It’s bloodied and sticky.” Rena stated.

“Just wipe the blood away using your pants.” Kyra stated flatly.

Rena stood up, walked towards Kyra and wiped the ID on her jacket. Kyra’s eye widened and immediately hopped backwards.

“The jacket’s off limit, asshole!” Kyra slapped Rena’s hand away.

“You killed the guy so it’s your fault that this ID is bloodied.” Rena retorted.

“That makes no senses whatso-”

“Will you two keep it down? My head is still ringing.” Shiloh interrupted.

Rena flipped Shiloh off while Kyra sat down leaning against a huge rock. She took out her ID and started to fiddle with it. She clicked on an icon that said “Map”. It seemed that it showed the area that she was currently in. It was a rather extensive application with many functions. It was able to show 2D and 3D views, real-time GPS locations of students and faculty but that function was unavailable as of yet. The map showed that they were two levels below the nearest exit.

The group decided to take a breather before heading for the exit and get this exam over and done with.

Aimi stopped and slowly caught her breath. The second the flashbang popped, she had closed her eyes and hightailed it out of there as far as she could get.

“That was a close call….”

“I probably could have taken them all.” Boomer stated. Aimi looked at him with worry. He always had some would call, suicidal tendencies. She could not help but worry each time. He never listened to her.

“But that female swordswoman had a dangerous aura.”

“Where have you two been?”

The question came from another member of Boomer’s and Aimi’s team. He was together with the last member.

Boomer grinned, “We were in a scrape with another team.”

The member raised an eyebrow. He looked at both Boomer’s and Aimi’s conditions. Aimi was pretty banged up while Boomer was bleeding and his equipment had clearly seen some action.

“A scrape you say? More like an explosive fight. Those explosions and tremors were clearly caused by you. I don’t plan to die in an unknown underground cave. You do still have your ID intact, don’t you?”

“Yea. Stop nagging. You still have a young life ahead of you,” Boomer wisecracked.

“And whose problem would that be?”

The girl smiled, “Should we go back and deal with them, now that we have full strength?”

“No! ….” Aimi squeaked.

She continued after recomposing herself, “What I meant was that we should continue on and look for other targets.”

All the commotion earlier might have attracted other groups to that location. If the swordswoman was bad news as she had thought, they might not have gotten out unscathed.

The girl shrugged, “If you say so.”

The underground cave system seemed to be a mixture of natural and manmade formation. It seemed as if the school had repurposed the cave system into a battlefield. In any case, everything about the caves was quite unnatural. Kyra assumed that all freshmen go through the same entrance exam. If that was the case, wouldn’t the environment have battle scars? Kyra did not once see any signs of battles. Did the school always clean this place up thoroughly?

They had walked quite a distance before reaching the exit. They first had to climb upwards towards ground level and traverse through rocky terrain in order to reach their destination.

“I… never… want to go through that… again,” Shiloh panted.

“You can say that again,” Cree agreed.

It was a miracle that none of them came into contact with any other groups. They had heard sounds of people clashing together but they ultimately decided to avoid them and head straight for the exit.

As they approach the exit, the rocky terrain was slowly smoothened out and transited to a smooth polished marble floor.  They could see two figures standing at what seems to be a heavy fortified door.

“Welcome and congratulations and making this far. May we see your admissions?” they spoke in unison that made the surrounding area even chiller.

Kyra took out her ID and the other one flashed it at them. The rest proceeded to do the same.

“It seems everything is in order. Please leave the other participants’ IDs in the container bin here and exit through the door ahead and proceed to the admin office for registration. And once again, congratulations on entering the Academy of Arts,” they bowed.

Rena, who was visibly freaked out, quickly headed for the door. The door sensed motion and slowly swung outwards. Light from outside shone brightly and lit up the dimly lit cave. Rena walked out and took a deep breath.

“Finally, air that is even more stale and less natural,” she vented out.

Now, they had to find their way to this administrative office. Kyra sighed internally. This whole day had been nothing but ups and downs. The time on her ID reflected it was around 12 in the afternoon. That meant that they had been stuck in that accursed place for about three hours. The group stretched their bodies. Kyra’s body shuddered as she stretched. The sound of her bones cracking was oddly satisfying to her.

“Hey, is that a map of the school?” Shiloh pointed to a nearby stand with many brochures. He walked over to it and took four brochures and passed it around.

“Oh wow! This is like some kind of amusement park but with a higher mortality rate,” Rena remarked, clearly intrigued by the map’s design.

Rena wasn’t wrong. The map was colorful and had lots of cutesy design that you thought this wasn’t a prestigious academy. After the cold speech by the Director and the killing in the entrance exam, this was quite a shock to see. None of them expected to see this at all.

“Let’s see…. It seems if we make a right and follow the path here… we will arrive at the administrative building.” Cree traced a path on the map with his finger.

Without a word, Kyra left.

“Hey, wait up!” Rena called for her and ran after her. The two remaining guys sighed and followed behind.

Note: This chapter has not been fully proof read. I apologize for any errors or plots that do not make sense.

Art of Killing – Chapter 4 – Academy

Featured ~ Kyreon ~ Leave a comment

Kyra was at the dining table, eating her breakfast when the rest of her family slowly trickled into the dining room. She got there first because she was too hungry and had to eat something. Usually, she will be one of the last few to arrive.

“How are your wounds?” Silvain asked.

“Errr, I’m fine now.” Kyra’s bruises from last night had already healed thanks to a good night’s sleep. Kyra was the only one in the family who healed pretty fast. She used to joke that she got the good genes from their ancestors.

Kyra finished her meal and was just about to leave the table when Silvain called for her.

“Kyra, you have another assignment. Or rather something that you have to attend.”

“Attend?” Kyra asked.

“Yes. You are going to enroll in the Academy of Arts today.”

Kyra was puzzled. “You want me to study at the Academy of Arts? But why?”

“To improve your skills and more importantly, learn Arts.”

Arts. It is true that Kyra was not knowledgeable about Arts and that learning it could be very useful. However, attending an Academy was something that she did not look forward too.

“You seem to not like this idea. Are you refusing to enroll?” Silvain questioned.

Kyra panicked a little and reposed herself, “No..not at all. I just think maybe Tatem could teach me Arts instead.”

“Tatem and the rest of us have other duties. Think of this as a good opportunity to carve your name in the school like the rest of us.”

Kyra knew what he was talking about. Her siblings had all graduated being top of their year. Even though Silvain did not outright said it, he wanted Kyra to be at the top.  Kyra was just the another Fukagi in line to be at the top.

“Ok, I’ll do it.”

“Pack your things. The enrollment begins at noon. The maids will send you to the Academy.”

Kyra nodded and left for her room.

After Kyra was out of sight, Asa looked at her brother and questioned him, “Is it really a good idea to send her there? You will be giving her to them. Even, we had a hard time in that school. They surely aren’t going to make it any easier for her.”

Silvain replied with confidence, “Kyra won’t be aiming for the top. She will crush the Academy down to its last brick.”

In Kyra’s room, she was slowly packing her necessities and weapons. Aiming for the top surely did not seem like a bad idea. However, she cannot help but wonder if there’s more to it. The Academy of Arts were where almost all the top killers in the city came from. Not only that, they teach Arts and Vis manipulation which would be very useful for Kyra. She called a servant to take her stuff to the car and proceeded to head to the Nexmor Garden.

The garden’s scenery never got old. It was as if a red bloody sea was swaying left and right. Kyra harvested a few flowers so that she could grow a few Nexmors in her dormitory. After picking the suitable ones, she put them all in separate containers which were able to sustain the flowers for weeks.

Kyra went to the mansion’s front door to find Yue, one of the family’s senior maids, waiting with an escort car.

“Are you prepared to leave for the Academy, Miss Kyra?” Yue asked at once.

Kyra replied, “Yea, let’s head over to this Academy.”

The car ride was silent and solemn as if there was an invisible uneasy air between the two of them. Kyra could not help but feel uncomfortable, occasionally shifting in her seat and trying to find things to gaze outside the window. It was not as if there was bad blood with Yue. It was just Kyra had been so disconnected with her family for such a long period of time that she grew distant with almost everyone.

Putting that aside, Kyra could not help but wonder what kind of place the Academy was. She had heard different stories, rumors and seen forums online about the Academy. They were all varied and forums about it were very limited, to say the least. It did feel that any information regarding the Academy was being regulated carefully.

As if to read her troubled mind, Yue spoke while looking at Kyra in mirror, “The Academy is a different kind of hell. One could say it specializes in helping you completely becoming one with this hell of a city.”

Before Kyra could reply, the car stopped.

“We’re here.” Yue left the car to remove Kyra’s belongings.

Kyra took a look outside to see a large white building. Even in the car, it felt that the building was towering over her. She exited the car and saw the words, “Academy of Arts”. One could tell that the building was very well maintained to the point it was almost in mint condition.

Yue proceeded to walk towards the building. Kyra followed suit. Kyra noticed there were a lot of other people heading towards the building. She could only guess that they were just like her trying to be accepted into this school.

The atmosphere completely changed when Kyra walked into the door. A cold wind breezed past her face. The temperature inside was definitely cooler than the sweltering heat outside.

Yue pointed to the left, “I will head over to the dormitory to place your stuff. You head on straight to the main hall for registration.”

With that, Yue turned the corner with Kyra’s luggage and bags.

Kyra continued walking down the hallway to the double doors.

There were already plenty of people standing around the hall. Kyra looked around her. Everyone was carrying different kind of weapons, ranging from swords, guns, rifles, the works. She noticed various people, a burly guy, short girl, hooded guy and a guy with dead fish eyes to say the least. She stopped walking. A girl beside her caught Kyra’s attention. She had a pair of pistols by her waist holster. The pistols were huge and engraved. But her outfit was just straight up weird! Kyra couldn’t help but stare at her. Her pants had a big hole at her crotch area that went straight down to her thighs. Her panties exposed for all to see. Upon closer look, there were also side pistols and magazines tucked away in the inner pants.

Kyra looked up and saw the girl looking back at her in the eye. No matter how you looked at it, Kyra was the perverted one to stare. Uncertain, she said, “Nice guns.”

“You…. Are all Fukagis perverts?” the girl spoke with a smirk.

Kyra subconsciously covered her family’s sigil on her jacket.

“What about you?”

“Who knows? I’m Marine.”

“Kyra.”

“Welcome to Academy of the Arts.” A voice boomed in the chattery hall. Everyone went silent and focused on the speaker at the stage.

The voice belonged to a woman in a suit that could be described as too small for her chest. Her cleavage was clearly visible. Kyra wondered if she will meet more people with questionable tastes. But she could not argue if you had assets like her. Why hide it?

“I am the headmaster. Sheryn Alkiel. In a short while, you will participate in Registration. But first, accept the Identification Device, or ID for short, that is being passed around by our staff.”

The ID arrived into Kyra’s hands. It was basically a smartphone however it was heavier and larger than the average smartphone.

“The ID has every function of a regular smartphone. Not only that, it has extra functions and features that is catered to the school. For example, clearance to enter certain facilities, pay for your meals and to enter tournaments. The ID is part of your school life. Literally. Do not lose it by any means.”

Kyra looked at her ID in her hands. It seemed the entire school system was based around the ID. It was critical that she had the ID with her at all times. To her left, Marine had begun tossing and catching her phone mid-air repeatedly. Marine noticed her and gave her a face of what?

Alkiel continued, “Let’s go through the rules. Or the Laws of this school as the students like to call it. First Law. No killing of students and or staff unless authorized.”

Kyra repeated that sentence in her head. Unless authorized? There was a lot of questions. Kyra assumed that the headmaster and probably some of high ranking in this school could give authorization. Permission to kill one? Several? Or everyone? There were no specific parameters in the rule.

“You can through the Laws on your ID. Once you are done looking through, press “Register”, fill in your particulars and scan your thumbprint.”

Kyra skimmed through the rules and registered her thumbprint. A pop-up appeared on her screen. “Welcome Kyra Fukagi – Year 1 Student Class A Tag 1”

“What class are you in?” Marine asked.

“A.”

“Well, what do you know? I’m in A too. I can tell we are going to have so much fun together.”

“What’s this Tag?” questioned Kyra, ignoring her last statement.

“No idea. I have Tag 2.”

“Tag 1 for me.”

Kyra listened to the buzz around her. It seemed that some people had the same tags and the numbering goes 1 to 4.

“You may notice a Tag in your profile. Find other students who have different Tags and stand in a rectangle that are around the hall.” Alkiel spoke.

It just so happened that Kyra and Marine were different Tags and they manage to find two other students. They stood together on a rectangle.

“Now, we shall begin the Entrance Exam. Rules are simple. You may notice a Tag in your profile. In order to pass and become an official student of this prestigious academy, you must procure another tag of the same number by any means necessary. For example, Tag 1 student must obtain another Tag 1 student’s ID. Scan the player’s tag to reveal the checkpoint. The exam does not end until you reach the checkpoint with ID still in hand.”

Kyra grabbed the hilt of her sword as if to anticipate something ominous happening. This exam would be a bloodbath.

“Let the culling begin.” Alkiel smiled sinisterly.

The floor below opened and Kyra fell into the darkness.

Afterword

I finally got this chapter out. Among learning Japanese and drawing, writing is a low priority unfortunately. Since, I have advanced quite a bit in Japanese, I will focused a bit more on the novel. So Kyra has to enroll in an academy. The academy isn’t something I really wanted to do. But all I can say most of the story would not be centered around the Academy. It will still be a main point but the biggest one will have been the city.

Art of Killing – Chapter 3 – Transit

Featured ~ Kyreon ~ Leave a comment

Kyra did not sleep a wink last night. She probably should have but she thought otherwise. After dinner and the sudden bomb dropped by her brother, Kyra spent the entire night looking through any kind of intel she could find on her target, Bobby Guyart. Kyra was in the family’s Intel Room. The Intel Room hosted several servers and computers that could spy on almost anyone in Diamond City. The Intel Room has seen upgrades over the years. It even had old technology from the past that the previous Fukagis used. The recent upgrades were done by her parents and her sister, Asa and the room had seen a huge technical jump.

Using the surveillance network, she found that Guyart is a pretty scummy individual who liked to hide behind people where he called the shots and pretended to be the head honcho of everything. Guyart was an arms dealer in Diamond City. He sold weapons to the small gangs in the city. Lately, Guyart has been bringing heavy firepower that could potentially upset the balance in the city and Kyra’s client wants him out of the picture. Kyra went through all the surveillance on Guyart. Like the body double whom she killed yesterday, Guyart lets a dummy convoy to travel first. About five minutes later, an inconspicuous sedan will leave the area. Every single time there would be a different sedan. Most people would not notice the sedan and assume that it was an ordinary civilian car. However, the pattern was obviously there, and Kyra was not going to let the opportunity slip.

Guyart’s security detail were standard and simple. The front car surveyed the road ahead while the back car watches the back of the convoy. The middle car that is supposed to be driving Guyart watches around the transport. The surveillance showed that the guards all wear body armor and carry submachine guns with pistol sidearms. Looking at the information, Kyra decided it might be best to hit the sedan hard and fast before the armored convoy knew what happened.

Kyra left the intel room and found Talem waiting for her.

“Is everything in order?” Talem asked.

“Yea, I got everything I need to know about Guyart. I’m gonna hit him tonight. Let the client know and make sure whoever they are pay up and…. Father and Mother to give me the intel.” Kyra answered.

“Understood.”

Kyra left him and went back to her room to prepare for her next assassination. Kyra’s room was not just a bedroom. There’s a small armory of Kyra’s preferred weapons, a computer which was linked to the Intel Room’s servers. She walked over to the armory wall and flipped open a panel and keyed in the code to reveal several weapons and tools. Kyra picked up a whetstone and started sharpening her katana. She did not need to do it since all her weapons are always kept in mint condition. But she figured it might be the best way to kill time.

Several hours passed and the sun was beginning to set. Kyra was in the mansion’s main garden. The mansion consisted of several gardens and the main one grew Nexmor flowers. Nexmor are red flowers that grew natively in the mansion. No other place else has them. One could say that they were native in the Fukagi mansion. The Fukagis always bring at least one flower with on missions. Kyra knelt down and plucked out a Nexmor. She proceeded to remove the flower’s pollen to prevent outsiders from reproducing the Nexmor in the event of a Fukagi dying. She placed the flower in her jacket’s specialized inner pocket for the Nexmors. Her jacket has various inner pockets, each one with different uses. The Nexmors’ pocket is designed to minimize damage to the flowers. Kyra had everything she needed. It was time to head out and start killing.  

Kyra’s mode of transport will be her motorcycle. It had been a while since Kyra last used her motorcycle. However, she had been fine tuning it and doing maintenance in the past few weeks in preparation. Kyra climbed aboard and kickstarted the engine. Her engine roared in the silent garage and she immediately accelerated into the night.

“Have we found out who attacked us the previous day?” a man spoke, with a glass of wine in his hand.

“No, Mr Guyart. We only know it was single female sword user.” Another man with glasses responded back.

“Female swordswoman? Do we know anyone like that?” Guyart snapped back.

“No-“

“Tsk. You’re a bunch of incompetent fools. I’ll have you all replac-” Guyart’s eyes widened as the car he was in swerved and flipped over. “Argh…” Guyart’s vision was blurred. He looked out of the window and barely saw a figure making its way towards his car. His head was ringing and he blinked once. The figure was gone. thud The assailant was above the car. Guyart quickly unfastened his seatbelt and he dropped onto the car’s ceiling. As he dropped, a blade striked down at him, a few centimeters from his left. Guyart’s eyes were widened as if they could pop out from his skull any second. He had to get out quick before the blade finds its mark. Guyart reached for the door handle on his right and opened it. He crawled out but the car door immediately slammed into his body. Guyart cried out in pain. “I got you now.” A voice came from above. The assailant had been waiting for him to climb out. He looked up and saw a hooded figure crouched down with her hands on the car door. She proceeded to further press the car door into his sides. The pressure was suddenly lifted and the hooded assailant flew head first into the ground. Guyart had been saved by Thomas, his bodyguard who kicked the door.

“Damn. Sonofabitch.” Kyra should have been more careful.  Kyra removed her hood and stood up. Shit. She had left her katana on the car. She pulled herself up and turned around to see Guyart’s bodyguard crawl out. Kyra took out two throwing knifes from her jacket and threw one first at the bodyguard and another at Guyart simultaneously. The bodyguard simply deflected the knife towards with the back of his fist and kicked the other one aside effortlessly. Kyra’s shoulders slumped as he raised both of his fists and was in his fighting stance. Fuck me, he’s a martial artist. Kyra hated martial artists with a burning passion even more so than gunmen. Martial artists are known to hit hard and have a counter to most techniques. To make matters worse, her main weapon is behind him. She had to get past him in some way.

“A Fukagi, huh? It’s not most people get to face off with one.” The unnamed bodyguard spoke.

“Lucky you.” Kyra said as she threw her throwing knife again. This time, with another knife hiding directly behind. Kyra quickly rushed forwards with her own knife in her hand. The guard simply grabbed the door behind and yanked it out to shield him from the knives. The knives stuck onto the doors and he moved forward to bash the oncoming Kyra. However, Kyra saw it coming and jumped over. While she jumped, the guard grabbed her leg and threw her forwards. Her body hit the ground and her body slid for a while. If it wasn’t for her jacket, her back would been screwed. At best, there will be bruises. Kyra was staring at the night sky while she smirked, “I’ve won.”

“What?”

“You might want to look behind.” Kyra jumped onto her feet with her katana in hand. The guard looked behind cautiously while keeping a steady eye on Kyra. The guard looked behind, the katana was obviously in her hands and he looked down to see a knife stuck into the back of Guyart’s skull. The guard cursed silently and faced Kyra, only to see her reveal a red flower from her jacket. The red flower of death. The Fukagi’s calling card. All of the Fukagi’s targets are left with that flower. It was said that once you were presented with one, your life was already in the hands of the Fukagi.

Kyra had not felt this ecstatic in what felt like a very long time. To finally present the Nexmor was an orgasmic moment. She couldn’t help but shivered. It was time to deal the killing blow and leave before the convoy ahead realized that something is wrong.

“I am going to kill you, Fukagi!!!”

Kyra scoffed as if that was the dumbest thing she has ever heard, “No, you are going to die.”

The guard charged at her, using the car door as a shield. Kyra simply stood her ground and raised her katana and sliced down hard. The door split in two and the guard fell onto the ground lifelessly. Kyra walked towards Guyart’s body and placed the Nexmor onto him. The job was done. She climbed back onto her motorcycle that she left behind and drove away into the night once again.

Meanwhile on a roof of a high-rise building, Asa was packing up her sniper rifle. Her phone started ringing. Asa sighed. She hated it when Silvain kept calling for updates. She picked up the phone and answered before he said a thing, “Yes, I took out the convoy and Kyra assassinated Guyart. She did good.” The call disconnected soon after. Silvian had asked of Asa to keep watch on Kyra while also taking care of the armored convoy as Kyra dealt with Guyart. Asa did not why she agreed to it but maybe she thought that it was the next best thing she could do as a sister. Although she had no plans to reveal to Kyra. “You owe me one now, Kyra.”

Art of Killing – 2nd Chapter – Disappointment

Featured ~ Kyreon ~ Leave a comment

“Am I an idiot? No way. No way. No way. HOW COULD I MESS THAT UP SO BADLY!”

Kyra squirmed in her bed while clutching her head. She was still in disbelief at her miserable failed assassination attempt last night. She finally stopped squirming after a while and stared at her ceiling. Yesterday was her first assassination assignment given to her by her family. She was excited to have finally been able to prove herself. However due to the dramatic approach she had taken, her target had gotten away.

I probably should have read the intel thoroughly. she thought back to the previous day.

Kyra was too excited to embark on her assassination that she failed to prepare for the basics. She turned in her bed and hugged her pillow tightly. Her bare thighs slowly caressed the pillow. Kyra’s breathing gradually got more intense as seconds go by. Big Brother is not going to like this. No. Everyone in the family is not going to like this and be even more disappointed than before, she thought.She was really frustrated with herself.

She let out a scream into the pillow to relive her frustration.

knock knock

There were two gentle knocks on her door. Followed by, “Miss Kyra, I have a meal prepared for you.”

Kyra quickly sprung her body up. “Give me a second.” She left her bed to put on her blouse and shorts in haste.

“Ok, you may come in now.”

The family’s butler, Jonathan Talem, walked in with a tray of Kyra’s meal. Jonathan has been a loyal servant of the Fukagi Family for a very long time. Kyra’s parents weren’t always at home due to their long assassination missions. So, Jonathan had taken care and raised the Fukagi children as if they were his own. Kyra was not sure how long he has been in service but had heard from her family that he also raised both Kyra’s father and her grandfather. This would have meant that he was at least more than a hundred years old. Kyra was pretty sure that he looked the same as he was during her grandfather’s time. Even so, after all these years, she always knew that she can count on him and was fully indebted to him. Despite that, Kyra did not have the courage to ask him about his actual age.

“Here you go, Miss Kyra.” Jonathan placed the tray on her table.

Kyra walked over to her table and kicked one of the two chairs away. Jonathan watched as Kyra sat down on the remaining chair.  

“Thank you.”  Kyra expressed her gratitude.

“What’s for today’s breakfast, I mean lunch?” It appeared that she had been staying in her room till afternoon since the failed assassination.

“I’ve prepared Wagyu Steak.  Medium Rare. Your favorite. I thought it might lighten your mood.” Talem picked up the chair that Kyra kicked and returned it to its original position. Kyra ignored his actions.

The steak was still steaming. Kyra smiled and started cutting the steak up into smaller pieces. Smoke rose from the cut area. The steak was tender and easy to cut. Kyra took a bite from a piece. Her taste buds immediately shot up as she slowly chewed. After finishing the piece, she looked at Talem with a look of slight gloom.

“I guess I do feel better now….. Do you think I am cut out for this work? I’ve always believed that being an assassin was my calling since it runs in the family but ever since then I…. ”

Kyra paused and poked the steak with her knife.

“Miss Kyra, I have raised you since you were an infant. I have seen the limitless potential in you as I have seen in your siblings and your father and his parents before them. I know that you will become the greatest assassin and artist ever.”

Kyra fiddled with her long fringe and gave out a sigh. Even so, she felt weak. Everyone had high expectations of her but she had failed to deliver several times since she was young. Kyra couldn’t handle the power that was inherited to her or rather did not understand. Truthfully, no one did.

“I have an idea. Why don’t we meet in the training hall after your breakfast? I think perhaps a training duel is in order.”

Kyra met her butler in the training hall after finishing her steak. I probably shouldn’t have agreed to a duel. My food hasn’t digested yet. The Fukagi’s training hall was huge. It also had a small armory on a side. Even though it isn’t the Fukagi’s main armory, it still had a wide arsenal of weapons from guns to grenades to swords for the Fukagi family to train with or counter them. It was also restocked regularly without fail within minutes or even seconds of using an item.

“You would not be needing your sword today. Here.”

Jonathan walked towards the weapons shelf and picked two wooden practice sword. He tossed one at her. She caught it with her free hand and placed her katana on the floor. Kyra moved towards the center where her butler was waiting.

He’s in the Fukagi Style Stance. That’s not good.

The Fukagi style is an all-rounder, offensive and defensive sword style that had been passed down for generations, also said to be created by the founder of the Family. Kyra had practiced the style when she was younger. But she had gradually shifted to Twin Style for a more aggressive swordplay.  

“I can’t force you to change your Twin Style. Every Artist has their own unique style that suits them. However, you should reconsider the fact that the Twins Style is flawed as its leaves half of your body defenseless and open to attacks.”

Before Kyra could reply, her left side of her body was hit by her butler’s sword. Kyra’s face grimaced in pain and attempted to swing at her butler’s face. Jonathan immediately kicked Kyra’s gut in and pushed her backwards. Kyra vomited out some of her Wagyu steak out.

Argh…. For an old man, he sure hits harder and is definitely faster than me.

Kyra wiped her mouth. She looked at what’s left of her delicious Wagyu steak. This sucks. Kyra raised her sword and Jonathan raised his. Both were waiting for the other to make a move. A few seconds passed; the butler moved first. He dashed towards Kyra in a flash. Kyra was anticipating it and kicked her vomit upwards at Jonathan. The butler immediately raised his arm to shield the remains of the undigested steak.

Twin Style Spiral Piercer

Kyra spun to her right with sword in hand. Kyra was aiming to hit the butler’s left side. I got him. No, wait. Kyra felt a sharp at her left side. She flew and hit the ground hard. Jonathan had repositioned to her left and kicked her again with such speed.

“That was a nice trick. However, it is as I stated before. Your left is unguarded and-”

Obviously. Damn, this sucks and hurts so bad. Kyra had already zoned out and wasn’t listening a word to Jonathan.

“It might be high time for you to reconsider different styles.” Talem finished his lecture which Kyra did not listen to.

“Maybe…. but not today.” Kyra had debated several times to switch styles or go back to the Fukagi Style. However, she did not want to abandon her style. Not when she had worked so hard and so long to create the style. She had to honor the style by using it to the end. But it might be good to practice other styles while I’m at it.

“I’ll leave in your decision. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ll need a change of outfit and prepare for dinner.”

Kyra looked at her vomit staining her butler’s uniform and she guiltily apologized, “Yea…Sorry about that.” Kyra watched as her butler left. The servants who had been standing by at the door, started to clean up the mess Kyra had made. She coughed. “Sorry.” She swore that one of them gave her a stink eye. Fukagi Family’s servants were all trained killers who were under hire to protect and guard the mansion and family members if need be. They clearly didn’t like to do chores. However, it was their job. Every servant employed under Fukagi have been tested and went through trials. They were all loyal. At least, that’s what Kyra hoped.

Kyra decided to return to her room to rest till it was time for dinner. She plopped down into her king size bed with her jacket’s hood up. This sucks. At this rate, my strength can’t go any further. Nothing has changed… Kyra thought as she slowly dozed off.

There was blood all over the floor. Kyra was on the ground, her body lifeless with several cuts and a stab wound through her gut. Footsteps drew closer towards Kyra. Her eyes fluttered open and she saw her assailant’s feet. Kyra gripped her broken katana and tried to move up. The assailant’s foot lifted off the ground and stomped onto Kyra’s hand. Kyra shrieked in pain. “You’ll never be stronger than me.” The assailant then walked away with katana in hand.

Kyra’s eyes slowly opened. She rose up in her bed and removed her hoodie to ruffle her hair. She raised her shirt up to feel the stab wound. I’ll never forgive that idiot. She thought to herself. Moments later, there was a knock from a servant informing Kyra that dinner was ready.

Kyra went straight to the diner hall and saw her brother, Solmund, helping to set the dishes on the table. Solmund wore a gas mask as always. Kyra don’t think she actually saw her brother without his mask. He always wore as far as Kyra could remember. The only ones who may have seen his face was probably her parents and older siblings. Solmund saw her and gave her a nod.

“kish”

“…Evening, brother.” Kyra let out a rather awkward hello. It surprised even Kyra that she was roughly able to understand what he said or rather anyone in the family for that matter. She proceeded to take a seat at the far end corner of the table. I wonder who’s coming for dinner today. I hope that she’s not coming today. She thought to herself.

“HI HI! WHO’S HERE?! IT’S TIME FOR DINNER! Oh, it’s you.” The voice went from loud boisterous tone to a slightly disappointing tone the moment when Kyra was in view.

Of course, the second that Kyra thought of her, she showed up. Kyra cursed her luck and gave an awkward smile. “Hi…Asa.” Asa ignored her and sat down at her seat. Why did Kyra even bother with this family anyway?

“Man, I heard something funny about a girl who was able to fail an assassination. Well, it’s not like anyone expected her to succeed.”

Of course, the obnoxious one arrived first. Someone please shut her up. I just want to eat my dinner and go back to crying myself to sleep.

“That’s enough, Asa”

The voice belonged to Kyra’s oldest brother, Silvain. Kyra greeted him, “Brother, welcome ba-”

“Save it and let’s start dinner.” He interrupted her and took his seat. Asa smirked at Kyra and sat down herself. Soon after, Jonathan, the servants and Solmund came in with the food. Solmund set down a plate at Kyra’s and revealed it to be Wagyu steak. Kyra’s lips broke into a smile. She vomited the previous meal. Now, she got to eat Wagyu beef again and fully digest it this time. Solmund was looking at her as if he was waiting for something. He had convinced the kitchen staff to cook Wagyu in order to motivate Kyra. Of course, the butler didn’t mind, and Kyra certainly didn’t mind eating Wagyu again.

“Thanks, big brother.”

“kissssssh”

Asa rolled her eyes and started eating. “So. When our parents are coming back? I need to report to them something.”

Silvain replied almost immediately, “They won’t be back anytime soon. Relay the message to me.”

“Maybe later.”

Kyra decided not to pay attention to them and looked at ___ eating instead. Since ___ doesn’t take off his mask, he fashioned a mask that’s solely for eating. He would remove the filter and send whatever food through the opening. No matter how many times Kyra saw him ate, it never gets old.

I think sh-

“Kyra.”

Silvain interjected her train of thought.

“By Father’s orders, you’re going to complete the assassination, or we will stop supplying you with intel on-”

“What?!” Kyra was startled and couldn’t help but exclaimed.

“It is as I said,” Silvain stated, unflinching from her sudden outburst.

Kyra didn’t expected Father to drop a bomb like this on her. Better yet, he could have told her instead of relaying the message to Silvain. Sure, she became a recluse for several years and messed up her assassination. If you think about it, it wasn’t a hundred percent Kyra’s fault. Loss of intel…. That would be troublesome. Kyra needed that intel from her parents for personal reasons. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

She opened her eyes with a determined look on her face, “I’ll finish it.”

Afterword

So Chapter 2 is finally out. I’ve been too busy with school but soon I will have time to work “full time” when school ends. I’m looking forward to Chapter 3 and I hope there will be people out there that will be looking forward. Probably not. However, I will still keep writing out chapters for Art of Killing. It’s a story that I want to see it to the end. I’m also learning how to draw so that I can design Kyra and the other characters. I will be mostly focusing on Kyra since she’s the main star. Thanks for reading and making it here and enduring my amateurish writing. I do hope that you will support me in the future when I finally kick off and fully focus on Art of Killing.

Art of Killing – 1st Chapter – First Assassination

~ Kyreon ~ Leave a comment

The cold wind howls through the starless night. There was a certain chill of looming dread in the night city. Despite that, the night city was alive and shone brightly like it always did. A hooded swordswoman stood at the edge of the rooftop, staring down at the traffic on the roads. The swordswoman took off her hood which revealed her long black silky hair. Her long hairbangs that covers the right side of her face fluttered gently in the wind. Her cold eyes’ irises were reflected by the lights of the night city. The lights of the bright city reflected across the cold irises of the swordswoman. The swordswoman’s outfit was black. It was her favourite color. Black shirt, black shorts, and the black leather jacket she wore.    

“Kyra, the target is on the 60th floor,” Her earpiece crackled.     

Kyra gripped her katana’s scabbard tightly. 

“Understood.”

Kyra took a deep breath and jumped off the rooftop. She spread her arms and the wind strongly hits her body as she free falls. As she approaches the 60th floor, Kyra curled up her body and smashed through the windows and landed onto the coffee table. Men in dark suits immediately stood up from their chairs, alarmed. Kyra scanned the room as they were still in a state of shock. The target wasn’t in this room. Kyra assumed one of her sword stance.

Twin Style 7th Form: Rotatory Slash.  

Kyra lowered her stance.  She then unsheathed her katana and sliced the five men around her. Their bodies fell limp to the ground. Right after, more men, armed with pistols, burst through a door in front of her.Kyra ducked towards the counter for cover as the men started firing. The firing stopped after about 10 seconds as their pistols were empty. They started to reload.

“Did we get h-”

The man did not finish his sentence as Kyra vaulted over the counter and cut him down diagonally across the chest in a quick fashion. Kyra pushed the body towards the men behind to stagger them.

Twin Style 5th Form: Widash

Kyra moved to the right and proceeded to slice their necks with one huge arm swing from right to left.        

Blood dripped from her katana. Kyra looked at the door where the men came though. It led out to the hallway. There was only one door on her left in the room.

The target must be in there.

Kyra slowly walked towards the door and stopped a meter away from it. She closed her eyes and focused. She listened intently and heard 2 different breathings from the room. One ,that was heavy and nervous, appeared to be in the center of the room. The other was less nervous and was located on the left of the door. Kyra walked towards its general direction, raised her katana and stabbed through the wall. A shriek echoed from the room as Kyra withdrew her sword from the wall. Without hesitation, she proceeded to push open the door.  The first thing she saw was the bodyguard, whom she stabbed, struggling on the floor while choking on his blood as his throat had been stabbed open. Her target was squirming and whimpering on a sofa ahead. He scrambled towards the next sofa on his right. Kyra dashed towards him at almost lightning speed and stomped on his left ankle mercilessly. 

crack 

The target hollowed in pain. He looked at his assailant in terror. His widened eyes darted around and a sigil on her left breast of her jacket caught his attention.  It was a skull with bleeding eye holes and a silver knife sticking out of the top right part of the skull. Everyone knew what that sigil was.

“Y-You’re from the Fukagi Family?!”

Kyra raised her katana above her head. The target raised his hand.

“No. Wait, I’m just a bo-”

Kyra swung her katana down. The target’s hand dropped and his body was lifeless.

“Target eliminated.”

“The target has escaped the building.”

“Eh?”

Kyra’s eyes darted around the room and spotted a shelf that was out of place. There was a small gap coming from between the shelf and the wall. Kyra then heard wind coming from the gap. It appeared that the shelf was a door that led to a hidden passage. The target must have escaped when he heard Kyra burst through the window.

Her earpiece crackled once again, “It would seem the man whom you just killed was a body double.”

Kyra’s shoulders slumped and her face started to flush red. Thanks to her flashy entrance, her target had gotten away. Kyra just wanted to show off and she couldn’t believe that she would mess up her first assassination so badly.

DAAAMN IIIT.

Afterword

So this is my first serious attempt at a story or a novel. I hope that you will follow with me through this new journey. As of now, I’m currently working an illustration of Kyra. I’m not going to lie. The illustration is going to take a long while because I’m still learning to draw. Also, do note that this isn’t a finalized version of the first chapter. I would say this is a finalized finalized draft. So in beta state if you will. And well so is the sigil. I will definitely improve on it in the future as I practice on my drawings and illustrations. To end it, please support me and please give me feedback so I can improve my writing and drawings. Thank You! (^o^)

P.S. I haven’t actually decided on a title yet. For now, it’s Kyra. Originally I wanted Kyra the Blackswordswoman. But I think just Kyra works…. for now.