nnmh assassin AU prototype

// 01. night-in-gale


In the decade of information nowadays, killing can easily be conducted using internet.

The ever-infamous Revenge Market website is the one that provided this shortcut to kill people.

No registration needed for requesting, you’d only need to post the details anonymously: the information where your target live and why they needed to be killed. The administrator then will tell how much money that needed to be deposited as the booking cost. The request then will be viewed on the board and commented by a few people--the Assassin--who’ll bargain for bigger price. The anonymous sender have the freedom to pick the bargain price and the deed would be done within 24 hour count by the Assassin.

The site might be infamous, yes, but it is needed a special password to enter the web. The site has been said to be untraceable by the police and becoming threat to the nation’s security, but up until now, the site has never been taken down.

To this year, almost 12.000 names of Assassins registered by the Revenge Market web, donning an alias and portrayed with random pictures to symbolize themselves.

Seeing the growth of this ‘business’, the webmaster of the Revenge Market then proposed a presence of leader board for the Assassins and the requester to see. The leader board showed the user who had the most killings, the user with highest bounty price, the richest user, and so on forth. This makes many users wanted to take the top of the listings to get nicer bargains and all - even killing fellow Assassins.

.

Daiba Nana, however, didn’t really care for such theatrics. Able to live her life peacefully with stable job in Tokyo Slums has been more than enough.

Night in the Tokyo Slums is always eventful, especially when you’re walking to one of the bars to get intelligence information or just wanting to pass the night.

Every city has its part of ‘slums’ - the cast away side from the blinding metropolitan spotlights, yet Tokyo Slums has been one of the most prestigious slums ever known in the book of the shady market.

Illuminated with glittering lights from outside that’s coming from numerous cheapskate bars, hotels and brothels, strangers would think of this area is like a Red Light District of the distant past. Behind the ‘light’ area, lies apartment blocks composed of small, affordable tatami rooms. Rumor has it that some of those apartment blocks are where escapee convicts or illegal citizens lives - which is, quite on-point.

Tokyo Slums has been a part of her life for long Nana has known, also to get juicy bits of information from her favorite bar Suisenka before accessing the Revenge Market app from her phone.

Around this hour, ten to the night, Suisenka bar would be the most crowded - a perfect occasion for Nana to slip in to the bar counter without being spotted.

At first, Nana opted to wear a set of tux so the small-time mafia group there didn’t try to bother her. After long, the black suit, the monochrome selection of vest, the shirt, the tie, the pants and the shoes, have been becoming an irreplaceable thing in her choice of clothing. The suit enabled her to blend with the white-collared people out of the Slums as well, making her feeling at ease.

Hiding her two priced possession of blades away from sight, Nana entered Suisenka with her head held high. The lamps were dimmed inside, unlike the neon lights garnering the front of the bar. The round tables scattered around the bar is booked with men and their booze, leaving no more chairs aside on the countertop tables and private booths on the back.

Then again, no matter how careful Nana is trying to go in, the owner slash bartender in blue bob hair would quickly notice her.

“The usual Sherry, Nana-han?”

Hanayagi Kaoruko piped, bringing her biggest business smile for Nana to see. They have known each other for long that both of them know that the action is simply a stupid kind of greeting. Nana couldn’t afford the cheapest liquor there and she avoided to waste money on any alcoholic stuff even though she had the money.

“You know I liked your Banana Smoothie, but just water for now.”

“Oh? Is a big fish comin’ up from that darned app?”

Nana chuckled at the comment, she opened her phone on the cue and loaded the said app right away.

As ‘darned’ as it is, Kaoruko is the one whom introduced Nana to the Revenge Market app after Nana has accustomed on living in the Slums years ago. Kaoruko was also the one whom choosing the name for Nana’s display ID.

Welcome back to Revenge Market, Inferno.

“Still, I do think this ID name is too … great for me?” Nana mused. “I thought you’d name me with one of flowers, just like your bar Suisenka.”

Kaoruko poured her a tall glass of cold water as requested before looking at Nana’s phone screen. ‘Inferno’, a peculiar, foreign word. Nana tried to search for ‘inferno’ word later after making her ID and ‘hell’ showed up as the number one of the search engine.

What did Kaoruko see in her back then anyway? Nana never get the answer from the bartender herself. Kaoruko proposed that ‘Inferno’ name after she disagree with what Nana wanted to make as an ID: Bananice.

“It occur to me out of the blue, y’know. But isn’t ‘Inferno’ is a good name?” Kaoruko grinned.

She watched as Nana scrolled up to the news from webmaster then to several other pages. When the page is loaded for a certain leader board page, the bartender’s lips curved in satisfied smile.

“Ah, so you’re still the top of that highest bounty? ‘Atta girl.”

Nana scratched her cheek, feeling sudden self-conscious. Her last target was two weeks ago. It was someone with high position in bank who’s using power harassment to their subordinate. Nana would never remember her target names - straight to the kill and then mission accomplished.

“Is someone coming to kill you in your sleep, by the way?”

“No, well, there’s a few,” Nana tried to backtrack. “Oh, but they quickly leave after I severed their heads.”

“Yeah, leaving the world.” Kaoruko shoved a deadpan. “They should be bored to try and coming after your heads.”

There wasn’t any eye-catching new news in the board. The general chat room is a bit bland with a few newcomers asking for ropes. There’s no updates of what Nana is searching for either.

If there’s something worth to share with Kaoruko about gossips, there’s one thing.

“There’s something interesting in the general chat room earlier this afternoon,” Nana said. “It’s that person by the user ID ‘Paradiso’, the one whose bounty is below mine. They said to be coming from a well-known Yakuza circle”

Kaoruko whistled, “Wow, a foil of you with another strange name? That sounded nice, Nana-han.”

“A foil?”

“Isn’t Inferno and Paradiso a thing?”

“I’m sorry, Kaoruko-chan, I’m afraid I don’t read those kind of stuffs …” Nana apologized. “I read cookbooks, though.”

“Ah well, anyways!” Kaoruko clapped. “What’s the big fish?”

Nana tapped on the list of bookmarked link, one with post ID linked to one of requested killing posts.

--

Anon#63674238: I want you to kill Kagura Hikari.
Total page hits: 8810
Total mission trial hits: 76

--

Kagura Hikari, as the post entailed, is one of conglomerate within Tokyo Bay Area with an expanse of wealth all around the coastline of Tokyo. The anon fetched a sum of 20 million yen for anyone who’s able to behead this young woman, but then within 76 trials later, no one is coming back alive.

The reason for anon wanted to kill this conglomerate with hefty sum is for familial revenge - something like stock market war between two companies or something. This request has been there for a while already and everyone keep on upping the thread, yet no one succeeded.

Upon seeing the money count, Nana imagined Kaoruko would be beaming … and well, she does. Nana wasn’t killing for fame or money, though, but Kaoruko would say otherwise. All in all, Kaoruko is her employer, Nana didn’t mind if Kaoruko told her what to do and who to kill as long as she could achieve her goal.

“What are you waiting for, Nana-han? You should get that woman’s head! You can buy houses and cars with that lots of money!”

“Kaoruko-chan, I never want-”

“Oh come on, Nana-han~”

“Do you know a shortcut to the docks? Her private mansion is out there in a small island twenty minutes from Tokyo Slums.”

Kaoruko hummed. “You can ‘borrow’ someone’s speedboat, I’ll take the responsibility..”

“Great.”

This request sounded a bit fishy in a way since there’s a lot of trial hits but no one succeeded. The sum of money is big, too, everyone won’t skip such meager opportunity.

Or there’s something more to this request than meets the eye?

- - -


The request post entailed where Kagura Hikari, the target, is living and working. Assassination job is a bit risky to do in the midday, but it doesn’t mean Nana never do it before. Nana just think that the night job is more exciting, enthralling especially if there’s more than the target to be vanquished.

No, it’s not like Nana is fond of the idea of killing people out of fun. The blonde-haired tall woman is quite picky with her targets. Nana would love to do jobs if it is related to corporation dogs or someone doing power abuses - as it is aligned to her own goal.


After ‘borrowing’ a stationed speedboat from the fish market, Nana brandished her priced possession to check: her silent partner in crime, two katanas by the name of Rinbu and Rondo.

Guns or rifles would be better to do quick killing, but Nana loved her blades more than anything in the world ever since she is little. She had known stories from the Revenge Market that there are Assassins who’s using sniper rifles and bombs to do their deed, saying that it is quite effective rather than using melee methods - it never interests Nana all the same.

.

This job might be an exception as Kaoruko pushed her to it plus she’s curious - the reason of the sender is unclear aside from the shady background belonged to Kagura Hikari that she is somewhat involved in human trafficking, though the truth has yet to be made to public.

‘Someone as big as her with a wealth in expanse of Tokyo Bay Area is able to hide such crime easily, however.’ - Nana recited the end of the thread.

.

When Nana saw a sight of small island, she slowed down the boat, searching for the spot where the lighthouse didn’t rain on her. A tall white mansion is sticking out as a stark contrast to whole greenery beside a nearby orange lighthouse, this said property is belonged to Kagura Hikari, so the thread speak of.

Nana secured her boat somewhere behind a large rock before she ran through the forest area, spying the mansion basking in light. There’s no sight of guards outside of the mansion, or somebody walking around the lighthouse, the situation is silent save from the rustling wind to the direction of the beach.

It’s another strange point: no guards. Or maybe the surprise lies inside.

Nana climbed up one of the tallest tree to get a better look on how many windows that got the lights on, to spot that almost all of the lights inside the mansion is lighted.

The blonde-haired Assassin took one of her blades out and started to approach the mansion. There’s a door to the direction of the beach.

It would be wiser to pick the lock rather than storming from the windows, or so she thought of doing.

“... The lock is already broken.” Nana mumbled.

It wasn’t a clean pick lock, rather, a work of an axe or something with sharp, brute weapons.

Yet another strange point: the door is already broken. Or someone is breaking in the house at the same time as Nana did.

When she came inside to the mansion, what greeted her is an expanse of empty center room, arranged in a manner of an elevated stage with lights coerced to the center. It is like those kind of ball room with emptied space for one to dance and enjoy buffet - but there’s no food or music or even a single soul, just an empty hall with elevated portion in red carpet.

Aside from the ‘stage’ setup, what caught Nana’s eyes is that the floor is somewhat dirty with something red. Nana squatted to check. This red splotch of something is still warm and it is heading to where the elevated stage is located - it is a trail of blood, to be precise.

“Don’t come out from where you stand, this whole thing is a trap!”

The spotlight coming from the stage changed color from yellow to red, then several threads of thin red lights are visible on the center stage. An explosion could be heard from afar, far from where Nana is standing, then followed by a buzzing sound of alarm.

A humanoid drone robot appeared when the red laser lights died, scanning the whole area with a dome of green matrix light.

“Two Intruders detected in Central Ward. Two Intruders detected in Central Ward. Commencing CODE RED. Commencing--”

As much as Nana wanted to hear the rest of this ‘staged’ trap details from the robots, she opted to slash the drone into two. The robot said two, but Nana has yet to discover the owner of mysterious voice from earlier.

So this ‘Kagura Hikari’ is a scam? Nana should’ve known it better.

A flurry of footsteps coming to surround the hall not long. Three groups of men, fifteen in total and armed with handguns are present.

What Nana can muster is a sigh, a full grip on her two katanas, and her urge to dance.

“Whoever you are, if you still can fight, help me out and we’ll come out alive.”

After all, her blades are made to cut against bullets, but taking fifteen people at once is not a joke.

Nana’s first beat is to breakthrough the five on the left one from where she stood. Other groups will try and gun for her, so she should move as fast as possible. She won’t be out unscathed, that much Nana has known, but at least she should come out alive.

Her first wide swing overwhelmed two on the front. She didn’t let the third one to press the trigger with a stab to his chest. Using the corpse of the first one, she shielded from the other two that started firing, before taking her leap to slash them at their necks.

And just as she had hoped - the unknown person joined the fray, she could tell by how some men were screaming for life.

What Nana didn’t expect to meet is another woman with fluttering long blue hair, dressed in suit and dress shirt just like her, fighting bare-handed. Well, Nana shouldn’t spare the time to watch as the blonde must cover for another group, which should be a piece of cake.

Again with using one of the corpses as her shield, Nana marched on.

.

“Monster! They are not the same Assassins as before--GAH!”

.
.
.

It seemed like these men are just holding guns, not actually experienced to take someone seriously, Nana judged as she finished the last one with a deep cut through his neck.

.

Though as one of the man said about ‘Assassin’ … looks like everyone who fall for this scam is meeting with their fate already. There were trap laser lights, also battle drones - this one house is not a mere ‘trap for fun’.

Nana tried to check whether anyone got an ID card or something in their possession, to find nothing in particular to define their identity. Perhaps they are thugs for hire, or someone behind this ‘fun house’ already think things through.

The blue0haired woman whom fight bare-handed earlier is finished even earlier than how Nana took her time to square feints and kicks to the armed men. Bare-handed against five armed men, someone got her guts, though it also told how experienced this woman in a fight against arms.

Nana was failed to notice that the woman is limping, her stomach dyed red in her own injury as she kept herself standing.

“Can you run?”

“I guess.” the woman huffed. “We should go before more reinforcements arrive.”

“More?”

“I’ll … tell later. Just move.”

“Alright.”


- - -


Around the time Nana is back in Tokyo Slums, Kaoruko is about to close the bar for the night. Kaoruko always made her last rounds of cleaning herself after dismissing the workers and paid their hourly wages. The bar owner will take notes if she found cigarette butts on the toilet or stash of drugs below the sofa, scolding the worker that they didn’t clean up properly.

Kaoruko was about to lock the doors when Nana knocked, bringing the injured woman to one of the long sofas.

“Since when your work gained you an extra girl, Nana-han?”

“I’ll explain later, can you help me with first aid kits?”

“Fine, fine~”

Kaoruko retreated herself to the back room, Nana focused to the mysterious woman’s wound location.

The said woman didn’t say anything after they boarded the speedboat to Tokyo Slums, the only thing she did is to silently cringing on the pain. Nana has yet to study the wound as she is in hurry earlier, the boat is too small for her to treat the wounded woman.

Knowing that the blood made its trail, she seemed to suffer for quite some time already.

“I’ll open your shirt, okay?”

A mute nod. Nana didn’t waste long to get the suit away and unbutton the shirt as gently as she could. She got a cravat in her unlike the usual button-up shirt, which is unique. Nana never meet any other Assassin before - well, if this woman is indeed an Assassin.

Nana didn’t expect the wound to be quite horrendous--a diagonal line about two inch long below her torso, a bit deep for blood to ooze out periodically. It wasn’t that big to stitch, then again it is a miracle for her to keep on fighting in this state.

The blonde pulled out her handkerchief to wrap and put pressure on the wound, trying to make the bleeding stopped.

Kaoruko came a bit later with the usual box of first aid that Nana usually used to treat herself. The bartender handed the antiseptic spray bottle and went on standby with scissors and bandages on hand as Nana proceeded to patch the woman up.

The woman continued to wince, struggling with the pain.

“Don’t you dare to make stain on the sofa, Nana-han.”

“I’m trying.” Nana laughed dryly. It’s not time for Kaoruko’s sarcastic joke, though it is better than having another people who’s too worried rather to help.

“Oh, can you buy me a painkillers, also make us a warm tea, please?”

“You’ll pay for this, Nana-han.”

“I will, I will~”


- - -


“Are you sure it’s okay to let them get away?”

A black-haired woman asked her peers as she studied the surveillance camera where they watched the two intruders escaped, leaving the corpses of fifteen men littered the stage hall.

There escaped her signature sighs, the black-haired woman could hear, even though it is faint.

“They are bigger fries than the lasts who died easily. We’ll run out of ammo faster than we can have them dead,” she said. “76 Assassin is already a good sample, no one will fall for this trap again for the next time.”

“77,” the black-haired woman corrected. She then shoved papers to her partner. “The blue-haired woman left her blood data in one of the guarding drones when she’s injured earlier. It is unknown who that last swordsman is.”

The black-haired woman waited for her partner’s input on the data. The names from all the Assassin is unfamiliar to her--to the police forces--but this special operation Agent always happened to know who’s who.

This Agent claimed to hack the database of Revenge Market and specifically assigned to clean Tokyo from the Assassins, but the black-haired woman has yet to really trust this secret Agent somehow, aside of her professional side while working.

There was a longer pause this time, before she pushed the papers back to the black-haired woman’s hand.

“This person … ‘Paradiso’, huh?”


- - -


It was another eventful night by her life in Tokyo Slums - it’s never a dull moment in Nana’s life after she signed herself to be an Assassin, so to say.

Even though that Nana is somewhat Kaoruko’s employee, she couldn’t use the bar for this woman to sleep. So after Nana was done with the treatment, she brought the blue-haired woman back to her small, cozy apartment. The woman happened to pass out during the emergency treatment, must be a mix of exhaustion and dealing with the pain.

The sun already rises on the horizon as she walked with the woman in her arms, walking slowly along the small alleys and roads before arriving to a poor excuse of living complex on the hundred meters northeast from the Suisenka bar.

Her apartment might be small, but it is still home sweet home for her nonetheless. She couldn’t afford sofa in, only a small square table aside her bed in the bedroom plus living room space. Thankfully, she still have a separate bathroom and leftover space for barely a kitchen.

As Nana doesn’t have separate room for the woman to rest, she let her to use her bed. Nana didn’t want to bother her and laid her there without changing her bloodstained dress shirt.

The blonde said to Kaoruko that she’d explain everything later, especially after getting the word out of this mysterious woman.

First thing first after getting in her room, Nana felt like a cup of warm milk while posting a recap of the scam Kagura Hikari request. A scam that might’ve claimed the life of 76 Assassins before her.

After a long, comfortable life of becoming a paid anonymous killer, what kind of enemy that Daiba Nana--Inferno--is facing right now?