“My name is Inaba.” The teen standing in front of the class looked nervous, but at the same time, he had this look in his eyes. No one in the room could quite tell what the look meant, or what it showed about the newcomer’s personality. But everyone could see one thing, this person was different. His blue hair didn’t help with that either. “Well, this is awkward,” said Inaba. That look in his eyes was still there.
“This sucks, why did we have to move?” Inaba thought to himself. The school day was almost over, and Inaba couldn’t wait to go home and relax. “Do you want to hang out after school?” The girl next to him asked. “What was her name, was it Yuno? Sakura? Ino?” he frantically tried to remember. “Oh how silly of me, I haven’t introduced myself. My name is Ryoko.” “Nice to meet you, I’m Inaba.” So that was her name, Inaba took mental note of that. It was just then that the bell rang, releasing them from the shackles of the school building. As Inaba was walking home, two of his male classmates caught up to him. “Nice blue hair, where did you get it, the freak show?” They both started laughing. Inaba started walking again, just trying to shrug it off. “Hey, don’t ignore my question!” the larger boy yelled. He rushed forward and grabbed his shirt. “Do you want me to kill you?!” Inaba looked at the boys face, his threat was loud, but he could tell he wasn’t invested, he was full of it. Inaba pushed the boys hand off of him and started walking home. No one bothered to talk to him the rest of the way home.
The door opened with a click. Inaba walked in and hung his coat on the rack next to the door. He walked over to the fridge and got a bottle of water. “Well, that sucked.” he said in a sigh as he sat down on the couch. “Why did I have to move here, of all places?” The weather was starting to get dark, and as night set in Inaba waited in his living room, slightly irritated from having waited so long already. “If that phone doesn’t ring soon I swear I’m gonna…!” His sentence was interrupted by the loud ring of his landline telephone. “Finally,” he said with a groan. He picked up the phone to the usual swapping of code that went on in these conversations. “Have you settled in alright?” asked the woman on the other end. He knew she didn’t really care, she was just following the script that was given to her. She was simply working the material. “Yeah, it’s going fine. I don’t understand why I had to move here though. Its always so dark and dreary.” Night had fallen by then, and the unusual, almost ominous quiet set in, like it had the previous night when he had arrived. “Well, get some sleep, Inaba. Your job starts tomorrow.” The woman said. Inaba heard the click, and then the noise that indicated whatever sentiments she might have had to say, or any comments she could have had were gone. At least, for that night. Inaba walked up to his bedroom and got into bed. He looked up at the stars as he began to drift off. “Goodnight mom.”
Inaba was walking to school the next day, when he spotted Ryoko walking slightly ahead of him, talking to another girl. “Please don’t turn around, please don’t turn around.” She turned and saw him, then told her friend something and started walking back towards Inaba. “Hi Inaba!” she said excitedly. “Good morning.” “So how did you sleep last night? Did you do the homework? WERE YOU ON A DATE?!” “ENOUGH!!!!” Inaba yelled. “I just sat at home and slept yesterday. That’s all.” “Oh, well that’s not that interesting.” She said. They walked on in silence for a few minutes, before Inaba started hearing something that sounded like heavy footsteps. It sounded like they were being followed. “Probably just some other pedestrian walking to work or something,” he thought. He disregarded it and kept walking. A few minutes later he heard them again, and this time the person was running straight for them. Inaba managed to turn around, only to meet a fist. He didn’t see who had attacked him, but he did see Ryoko being dragged into an alley, blindfolded and gagged. He got up dizzily and started walking towards the alley. He saw three men in total standing over the bound girl. “I reckon she will sell for at least thirty.” “Thirty, a girl like this will get fifty easily.” It was then that Inaba realized who these guys were. They were, for lack of a better word, sex traffickers. He couldn’t just stand by and do nothing so he started walking towards them. The first man turned towards him. “Hey, look. It’s the little guy who was getting’ all flirty with our prize. Whaddya gonna do, shrimpy? Punch me?” All three men laughed, but the humor was short lived. Inaba rushed forward with speed none of the men had ever seen before. His fist landed true, and the first man fell face first onto the pavement, completely unconscious. The other two men looked at Inaba. “Why you!!!” one of the two men shouted. They both rushed at him, murderous intent in their eyes. Inaba sidestepped the first one, and in one fluid motion, flipped the second guy into the first. They both fell to the ground. While no real damage had been dealt, the men now knew this was no ordinary teenager. They looked into his eyes and saw an unusual look. It wasn’t anger, it wasn’t sadness, it wasn’t even pity. It was stone cold, and when the men identified it, it sent chills down their spines. That look was the look of a man who had killed before, and who could do it easily. The look was a look of calculation. It was a look of not murderous intent, but intent to manipulate. The men jumped back and charged him again. The first man took a running swing. Inaba wasn’t so kind this time. He grabbed the man’s arm and twisted. The man howled in pain, but that wasn’t the worst of it. Inaba brought his other elbow down on the man’s arm with enough force to shatter concrete. There was an loud snap, like the kind you hear wood splinters. The second man dropped to the ground holding his arm. The third man looked at Inaba with fear in his eyes. He turned and ran down the alley, into the shadows and out of sight. Inaba bent down and freed Ryoko from her bounds. “What happened?” she asked. Inaba helped her up and started walking out of the alley. He turned to face her, “If you don’t hurry, were going to be late for school.” He turned the corner, and Ryoko waited only a moment before following him to school.
“What was that?” Ryoko asked as she sat down. “Could you not ask me that in the middle of the lunchroom.” Inaba said quietly. He seemed embarrassed. “I cant help it, what you did back there, I have never seen anyone do that before.” Inaba looked away. This was bad. This could end very badly. He stood. “Come with me.” He started to walk towards lunchroom exit. Ryoko hurriedly followed him. They walked down the hall for a while, then ducked into an empty classroom. Inaba pushed her up against the wall. “You cannot tell anyone about this, do you understand me?” “Why not…..?” Ryoko tried to ask, but Inaba cut her off. “Because there is someone after me, and if they find out you know who I am, they will find you and torture you to figure out who I am. Do you understand?” Ryoko stared at him blankly for a second, then nodded. Inaba took a step back. “I’m an assassin.” She stared at him in disbelief. “How could this kid be an assassin?” she thought to herself. But despite her doubts, she believed him. “So, have you, you know, killed someone before?” she knew it was a stupid question, but she asked him anyway. He nodded silently. “So back in the alley, you could have…?” he nodded again. “So, why are you even at this school?” “Relocation, people back where I was based started to catch on to what my job was.” She looked around the room, and then meet his steel gaze again. God, those eyes, they were so pretty. But she knew if she messed this up, she might never see them again. “Are….Are you ok?” said Inaba. “Why?!” He stared at her for a second and then folded his arms. “Your blushing.” He said with a smirk. She reached up to feel her face, it was warm to the touch. She looked at him again, then turned and left the room. Inaba started to follow her, then he remembered something his mom had told him. “If a girl ever looks at you funny, or gets embarrassed around you, let them go for a bit. They will come back.” Inaba didn’t love her, but he felt he had to protect her now. After all, she might die because of him.
It took a few days, but eventually she calmed down. She asked him to meet her at her house after school. All the other girls looked at her angrily. All the guys snickered over in the corner. The day passed uneventfully, spare the group of guys making fun of Inaba, as per the norm nowadays. He left as soon as the bell rang, and headed back to his house. He went inside and took his coat. He was an assassin, but he could still get cold, and it was supposed to rain later. As he walked to her house, he swore he could hear the three men’s footsteps behind him again. He turned and saw a man, dressed in all black, running as fast as he could away from Inaba. “Amateur,” said Inaba. He turned and continued to walk towards Ryoko’s house. When he arrived at her house, he was thoroughly surprised. He didn’t really know what to expect, but the house didn’t seem like hers. He knocked on the door, and didn’t even have to wait a minute. There was a cascade of noises inside the house, something that sounded like a cat, and maybe some glass breaking. Finally, she came to the door. “Hello Inaba.” she said with a forced smile. “Please, come in.” She showed him where to put his shoes, and where to hang his coat. She then showed him to the living room, and told him to sit wherever he liked. “Arent your parents going to object to this?” Inaba said, glancing around the room. “My parents aren’t home.” “Stroke of luck,” thought Inaba. “So, Inaba, I wanted to talk to you about your, ummm, occupation.” She looked scared and frail, but she asked the question with confidence, or at least, as much confidence as she could muster at that moment. “Well, what do you want to know about it? You already know what I do.” She looked down and fiddled with her hands. “What……..what do you use to, you know, do your job?” “Well, I use a lot of different things. There was this one time that my target liked to duel with scythes. So I had to learn to fight with a scythe, and then I challenged him, and I won. That time was different. Most of the time I just infiltrate. Sneak in with some poison, or stab them in their sleep. Its not the cleanest job in the world. I have a lot of blood on my hands.” Ryoko looked down again, and then looked back into Inaba’s eyes. “I don’t want to die!” she cried. She jumped over the table and threw her arms around him. “Inaba, I’m scared.” She buried her head in his shoulder, and cried quietly.
(Work In Progress)