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The prologue to the story of the young assassin Kai that I felt had become rather necessary, particularly with how things are going so far, as well as his final escape. That's about all I have to say here, so hope you all enjoy =^.^=

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The Profession of Shadows, a title given to the overall trade of assassination, and was quite befitting to their tasks. Hidden within darkness, striking in silence, and disappearing with barely a trace...an appealing pursuit for many, an end for many more.

There were two common ways in particular that one joined the ranks of assassin: they could pursue it on their own, which often led to their death; or they could stumble into the life by an unwitting act. Regardless of how they came to join the profession, there could be no escape save for death once they had.

Similarly, there were two fates that a witness to an assassination could expect. They could be left be, to later desire revenge on the one that had killed someone they loved, which most often led to their own death; or they could be killed or injured, depending on the temperament of the assassin.

In one boy's case, however, none of these common occurrences applied to him. Instead, he was pursued for the life, likely never to be able to escape it.

It had been a small, uneventful town that the boy was born in, his parents a pair of red-furred foxes, the mother with green eyes and the father with blue. Nothing unusual could be seen about either of them, and their friends and family looked forward to the birth of another red-furred, blue- or green-eyed fox into the family.

It would be some time, however, before fate would be kind to the boy, before anything in his life or about him turned out as expected.

There wasn't even anything unusual about the birth itself, or anything that happened at any time during the pregnancy. It went on fully without incident, the first tufts of black hair atop the infant fox's head appearing before anything else, then more black as the infant continued to emerge, revealed finally as a baby boy with a full body of black fur, save for lighter fur along his chest up to his chin.

"What...what happened?" the father asked the one that had assisted in the birth, a doe experienced in doing so.

"I don't know, there was nothing wrong with the birth or anything, everything was normal..." she said helplessly, looking to the strangely black-furred child held in his mother's arms. It was obvious, at least, that the boy was a fox like his parents.

"Nothing...nothing happened that I should know about, did it?" the fox pleaded, looking to his wife for some kind of explanation.

"No, nothing...I don't..." gasping lightly, she saw the child's eyes open slightly, traces of red visible between his eyelids.

"What? What did you see?" the father asked, worried.

"Nothing...never mind..." his wife said quietly as the child's eyes weakly closed again. "Kai...that's what we agreed to call him..."

His red eyes and black fur quickly proved to be somewhat of a curse for the young fox, avoided by most of the other children his age in town. A few didn't seem to mind, were even perhaps overly curious about it, and those few he'd managed to become somewhat close to, even through the occasional taunting from others.

One person in particular he was close to was a wolf, a friend of his parents for a few years by the time he was five, apparently. He always seemed willing to spend a little time with the young fox, mainly teaching him how to play catch and pretend to hunt, which he said all creatures like them that had claws and sharp teeth did.

"So, kid...you ever heard of assassins?" the wolf asked him one day, sitting on a bench in a park near the town Kai lived in.

"Huh? What's an assassin?" the young fox asked, curious as ever.

"They live in the shadows, kinda like you were born to do with that black fur of yours," the wolf said, and Kai seemed more interested. "From there, they get rid of people that do bad things."

"Huh...sounds cool..." Kai said, looking out to the park thoughtfully. "Are you one?"

"I am, but don't tell your parents, alright? We usually like to keep it secret."

"Alright," Kai nodded. "So...could I be one, then?"

"Hehe...I think that could be arranged," the wolf said, an evil glint in his eyes which Kai, who was still looking away, didn't catch.

Some assassins chose the job, some found it...and for a rare few, some were chosen for it.

That night he was drawn out of bed by a black-garbed figure he slowly made out to be the wolf, Asura, who explained to him how his parents were bad, how they'd made a deal with a demon and how it had cursed him with his black fur and red eyes. Not allowing the young fox to protest, the wolf dragged him quietly along to his parents' room, where he directed the boy to stand in the doorway.

Unable to help but cry a little as he watched his parents go in front of him, the fox stayed quiet as he could as the wolf crept over and slit their throats, following the wolf out toward his new life, to determine for himself some years later that it wasn't on a job that his parents had been killed: it was to get to him.

Thus began Kai's training as an assassin by the time they reached the large city in which the wolf lived, where he was quickly introduced to two other assassins, the one that stood out most being a dark brown-furred rat somewhere in his late twenties, who quickly took a liking to the young ‘shadow fox'.

As much as he figured that learning to be an assassin would be interesting, even fun, Kai quickly found himself proven completely wrong. The first two years were the absolute worst of his life, those somewhat rare times he wasn't suffering under some randomly chosen poison to build up his resistances spent working on stealth, keeping his breaths and steps absolutely quiet at all times. He ate and drank more than usual during those two years, taking the occasional dose of antitoxin when his life began slipping away from him from some of the lethal poisons he was given doses of. Sleep, however, he received unfortunately little of, plagued by pain and illness most nights.

When it finally came to the point where his body could apparently ignore the effects of whatever poison had been slipped into his food or drink, he'd mastered breathing as light as possible, and his steps only made a small sound while running, which Asura insisted on him continuing to work to improve. Leaving the young fox to do that on his own time, the assassin moved on to the next lesson: infiltration. How to make his way past locks and other methods of sealing doors and keep quiet doing it, the latter part of which was the most difficult of the whole session of training.

Then came anatomy, where to strike to kill or disable his targets; then poisons of all varieties, how to identify them, how and where to use them, their properties, everything. Finally, when Kai was 13, it was time for him to prepare his own assassin gear, which he'd been looking forward to since mastering how to get through any door.

Given a large budget and taken to a place that assassins apparently often shopped, the fox prepared everything carefully, starting with his outfit; a cloth for his face to cover his chin where his fur was lighter, a hooded vest that could be zipped up and cover the rest of the lighter areas of his fur apart from the end of his tail, and which also had a few hidden pockets, and a pair of somewhat tight-fitting black pants. Next was his tools, which began with a specially-prepared pair of buckled gloves that could be adjusted to continue to fit him as he grew, and within which he chose a number of things to hide: a blade within the wrist of each that could be slipped in and out with a thrust and could also be sealed, a few needles laced with lethal poisons, lock-picking tools of many varieties, and spare blades hidden somewhat deeper into the tops of the gloves, while the fingers were cut off most of the way to allow him to use his claws effectively.

"Not bad, kid. You're really looking the part," the somewhat aging wolf said approvingly, looking over the fox once everything was completed and Kai had put everything on.

"That was the plan," Kai said, flexing his wrists and fingers a little to make sure he could still move effectively, which he fortunately could, and testing his wrist-mounted blades. It was also by this point that he'd learned the truth about assassins, about how Asura had targeted his parents on his own...how it would be too late for the old assassin to save himself now that he'd trained the fox so well.

"Looks like you might even be ready for a job at this point. Think I might even have one for you..."

His first job was completed without a problem, and he made sure a few people knew it. He also brought up the point of pay soon enough after a few more jobs were taken seemingly at random, without even officially receiving them, but the old assassin quieted him quickly, insisting that not all would be honest about who they wanted dead, and that pay wasn't everything.

Done with the old assassin that had since decided his life for him, Kai spent the next two years of his life breaking through the wolf's defenses. First was the door, which turned out to creak as soon as it was moved even slightly, forcing the fox to flee a few times while he worked his way around it. Then a wire-triggered crossbow trap that Kai had to deal with a few times, the first of which caught him off-guard and went through his right shoulder, leaving that wound to heal for a few nights before he attempted anything again.

For a number of nights that he or the wolf wasn't on a job, Kai continued at this, wondering why the wolf, who undoubtedly knew it was the fox that was after him, never stopped him, even after almost killing the fox the first time he got close, catching a loose floorboard that hadn't looked any different than the others and narrowly avoiding a slash across the neck from the wolf's dagger. All the while, he improved in both his efforts and overall skills, and developed his soon-to-be-signature fierce glare that filled those cold red eyes with a fearsome rage; almost terror incarnate, his wolf master thought.

Finally came a pre-planned night where neither the wolf nor fox had a job to leave to, and Kai left a particularly aromatic dish within the wolf's room, slipping quickly in during his time of privacy and leaving the plate there even once it was finished, slowly filling the room with the scent. Fifteen years old by this point, almost sixteen, the fox had grown quite a bit since the assassin first found him, more in ability than years. And now, the assassin that had taken him from his life would finally end.

Releasing the door steadily from his hinges, Kai pulled it out and to the side somewhat quickly, catching the crossbow bolt easily in one hand as it flew predictably at him. Dashing forward, taking one step on the floor on a space that he knew wouldn't creak giving that it was a point that was nailed down, his excellent vision in the dark showing him this fact after a careful, momentary look, he kicked off quietly from there, kicking off next from the wall and quickly approaching the old assassin where he slept. And he knew it was the wolf, because the bed and the plate were where most of the scent of the food were coming from. Unfortunately, even then the wolf almost caught him by surprise, what seemed an automatic action as he turned and swiped his dagger within the range of the best spot to attack, but too late. Blocking the swipe with one of his blades, Kai used the crossbow bolt he'd caught to run through the assassin's neck, watching the hand holding the dagger go limp and release the blade. Giving a confident smirk as he landed, Kai walked casually out of the room, never looking back to this house. It was every assassin's dream to end their master, and while few succeeded, those few kept the memory as their greatest accomplishment.

Spending the rest of the night at a local inn after finding and taking every bit of money the old assassin had, as well as a few small doses of multi-purpose anti-venom, which was difficult to create with its rare ingredients, Kai took the next night as a night out, heading to a local club. Granted, the doorman attempted to stop him, but a blade suddenly at their throat made them change their mind and allow the fox in.

"Huh? Hey, kid, what're you doing here? Where's Asura?" that dark brown-furred rat, Talon as Kai had heard him called, asked.

"Not coming any more," Kai simply said, ordering a glass of red wine from the bartender that decided not to question it since the fox had already made it into the place.

"Eh? Why not? Never seen you around without him there," Talon commented.

"He died last night, so I guess he won't be going anywhere."

"Died? Didn't know there was a mark on him..." the rat said thoughtfully.

"Probably wasn't, but I was certainly done with him," Kai replied, taking a sip of his drink. Not too bad, he had to admit. Lucky for him his resistances to poisons would do well to ward off the alcohol's effect despite his young age.

"You...wait, you got rid of him?" Talon asked, surprised as he looked over to the fox, who seemed completely serious.

"Took a while, but yeah. So now I'm on my own finally," Kai answered. "Nothing wrong with that, I hope?"

"No, nothin' wrong, just...seem a little young to be doing that, I guess."

"You suggesting that I can't take care of myself at this age?" Kai asked, a mild glare directed over to his fellow assassin.

"What? Nah, not at all," Talon said, a little concerned about those cold eyes directed to him. One scary look for such a young kid, that was for sure.

"Goo..." Kai began, not even able to get out the full word ‘good' before he was cut off by a cheetah that had a definite stink of alcohol about him.

"Hey, kid...ain't you little young to be ‘round here?" he managed to speak, chuckling.

"Probably," Kai simply said. "Now go away, you stink."

Grumbling, the cheetah glared at him. "Hey, you can't talk to me like...oh, whoa, tha' looks sharp..." he began to protest before forced down from it by a blade appearing suddenly at his throat, the point just touching his skin beneath his fur. "'ll leave you alone, then..." he submitted, wandering off and stumbling a little.

"Heh...hate guys like that, myself," the rat admitted, watching the cheetah leave. "Too much to drink, makes ‘em stupid, then they decide to try an' pick a fight."

"Yeah...guess I'll just have to get used to it," Kai shrugged, taking another sip of his own drink.

"So what'll you do now, then? Now Asura's gone?"

"Take to the road, I guess. Travel around, find jobs where I can from city to city. Think I may enjoy hanging around places like this, though..."

"Yeah, these places are alright. Plenty to see, plenty to hear, and the shows ain't bad," the rat said, approvingly looking over to the stage where such a show had began. A little curious, Kai looked over as well, his first look at the female anatomy. Blushing slightly despite himself, he turned away from it and took a third sip of his drink. Thus began his life on his own as an assassin...well, after a little encounter within the club.

"Hey, kid...little young to be in here, aren't you?" a doe asked, barely over 21 it looked like and wearing a dark blue, revealing uniform signifying her as an employee.

"Aw, give him a break, looks to me he's more than cute enough to be in here," her companion, a tan-furred bunny, smiled, running a hand along Kai's chin while Talon looked over the situation in surprise. Was it because Kai was so young? Well, that coulda been part of it...but no, it was probably that black fur and those piercing red eyes, it just made him a natural sight. Wishing he had such looks, he decided to try and sidle into the situation anyway, turning his seat toward Kai and the two females.

"Just gotta know what to say to the doorman, I guess," the rat said, letting a little pride flow into his voice, hoping his being the fox's companion would get him a little attention as well.

"Oh, really?" the doe asked, curious, wandering over to the rat before looking back over to Kai. "So he helped you get in here, huh?"

Giving the best pleading expression he could while the two girls weren't looking, Talon tried to convince Kai to say yes. Grumbling inwardly, Kai nodded. "Yeah, he did," he blatantly but convincingly lied, refusing to go into any sort of detail.

"Well, since you're here, how ‘bout I give you a good welcome?" the bunny winked, directing Kai's face to hers with that hand still on his chin and murring lightly as she gave him a kiss, the first he'd ever received besides perhaps from his mother. Blushing a little as the bunny held the kiss, the fox slowly returned it, finding it enjoyable enough. "Not bad, huh?"

"Yeah...could definitely get used to places like this," Kai admitted, initiating a second kiss to the bunny's pleasure. Life certainly seemed good...seemed...

Some time later, after quite an eventful two weeks followed by two months trying to return to his old path only to find him dropped back into the place where his life had begun to change, Kai sat at a table after breakfast within a wide, oriental-style building, a dojo that belonged to the old human known as Master Shiro, whose life the fox had mercifully ended, in the knowledge that the old man would reincarnate with all his memories somewhere in the world, perhaps even in another world for all he knew, as a result of his particular type of immortality.

Joining him was Shura, Shiro's son and also human, middle-aged with a relatively tough build. There was also the thin, unusually colored blue/green dragonfly a little younger than Kai, Myst, who'd become close to the fox. Certainly a lot closer than Shura, whose relationship with Kai could be called a strong rivalry.

"So...what now, anyway?" Kai asked, the conversation having been held on what to do with the future of the dojo under their care now that Shiro was gone.

"Now...I suppose we should relax, and look forward to the life ahead of us," Shura replied, and Kai gave a small sigh.

"It's not just that easy for me, unfortunately...there are things I have to do before I can join you in such a life, and it's likely that I won't come back," Kai said, glancing off to the side, away from Myst and Shura.

"Wha...what do you mean?" Myst asked, worried.

"I heard something about a snake you rejected, Myst..." Kai began, still not looking at either of them. "Any ideas how I might find him?"

"Kai...you're seriously still going to be an assassin, after all this?" Shura asked, glaring at the fox.

"Shut up, Shura," Kai snapped. "Myst, please answer my question."

"Don't," Shura demanded.

"I said shut up," Kai growled. "I'm not going back to that life, I'm leaving it. And to do that, I have to sever all ties I have to it, and if I stay here, they'll find me, and the two of you."

"We can..." Shura began, but this time Kai, beginning to lose his patience, cut him off.

"Shut up!" Kai growled, turning on Shura with that fierce glare of his, causing the human to back away a little. "I don't care how good you think you are, how good you might be, you're not going to be able to protect yourselves against assassins, simple as that. Now answer my question, Myst," he demanded.

"R...right..." Myst said timidly, not wishing to anger the fox any more than he already was. "He's...he's kind of tall, with green scales and eyes and really short blonde hair...said something about coming with him to a town just north of here..."

"That'll do," Kai said, calming down. "...I might be back, but don't count on it," he said as he walked back to his room, while his back was turned to Myst and Shura. With what he had...he might be able to do this, but it was still a rare few that were able to escape the life of an assassin, allowed to go free if the first attempt on them failed for worry of losing more assassins. And not one had been so young as him.

Leaving the other two to go outside to their training, he took off the outfit Shiro had left him in favor of his assassin garb, grabbing from the corner where he'd placed things that he'd figured would be useless to him a dark brown sack with a strap that could slip around him. It was clearly well-worn, but still held together. It would do.

Walking back to the large garden behind the building of the dojo, he gathered a few choice plants that would be useful to him, most particularly the plant that had the property of putting apparently anyone to sleep once, the first time they came near it. The plant that had been the first thing to stop him from taking Master Shiro's life.

"Kai, wait..." Myst pleaded, approaching him as he came outside to walk toward the path through the forest that surrounded the dojo.

"You're not going to stop me. This is something I have to do," Kai simply said, continuing to walk.

"I know...just...come back..." she said, looking to him with a hopeful expression.

"...we'll see, I suppose..."

"Promise me you'll come back," Myst insisted, some strength showing in her eyes as she stepped in front of Kai, halting his progress. "Even if you don't mean it, just say that you promise..."

Sighing resignedly, Kai chuckled softly and nodded. "Alright, fine...I promise," he said, though he still had his fair doubts.

"Good," Myst smiled, stepping aside to allow him to pass. "I'll see you then."

Dashing toward the city to the north as soon as he left the forest path out of the dojo, eager to get quickly away from this place and keep it from being targeted, hoping the plants he'd put in his pack wouldn't counteract any of the others or have some other strange effect toward each other, he slowed down as he neared the edge of the city, considering where to go. He'd been left with a fair description of his target, but no guarantee as to whether they were actually here. If they weren't, and weren't anyone well enough known...well, then it would probably be too late for the two he'd left behind.

Deciding at least for now to avoid any bars or clubs until he was ready to reveal himself to a fellow assassin, he asked around a little for anyone by the description he'd been given, receiving a few vague answers and one somewhat more solid one, each of which he picked through, coming finally to what seemed some type of indoor arena.

And the first sight he actively caught was the serpent in question, sitting off to the side with what seemed to be a few bodyguards and watching the fight.

"Hey, you'd hired someone to go kill a dragonfly in a town to the south, right?" Kai asked quite boldly, walking up to the snake, the two bodyguards quickly stepping into his path.

"Yeah, and got a failure who didn't even seem to remember taking the job. He's, of course, been taken care of," the snake replied, shrugging. 'Naturally,' Kai thought. "What's it to ya? Here to take the job for yourself? Because it's still up there."

"Me? No, I was with the wolf for that job. Wish I could say I killed her, but I guess I just couldn't bring myself to," Kai responded.

"...so you're another failure, eh? Pretty stupid, then, telling anyone that."

"Maybe. Or maybe I want them to know," Kai said, smirking lightly as he thrust both his wrist-mounted blades out, dashing forward and quickly slicing the throats of the two bodyguards.

"Wha...h-hey, you can't do this!" the snake protested, fear forming in his voice and expression. "You're not supposed to kill the one that gives you the job!"

"Exactly," Kai said, hardly finding it strange that nobody in the building had bothered to react to him killing these three people in plain enough sight. No doubt he'd hear about it soon enough, though.

"Hey, Kai, what I heard happened earlier...that didn't, right?" a dark brown-furred rat garbed in a sleeveless dark red robe sidled up to sit in the seat at the bar next to the fox at perhaps the most disreputable and frequented club in the city. "And what's with that sack of yours, anyway? Seems a bit bulky to carry around for...you know."

"I've got a few things that'll be of use to me in here for what's coming up," Kai said, glancing over to the rat. To kill him, or to let him run off to any other assassins he knew...tough choice, but either way it would have someone after him by nighttime, of that there was no doubt.

"Huh? What's coming up?" the rat asked.

"I'm quitting."

"You're...huh?"

"You heard me."

"Wha...you can't quit! Nobody quits! Come on, think this over at least, you've got the good life, you're near the top even though you're so young, you can probably get any girl you want just by sitting around," the rat tried to reason with his companion, but apparently to no avail.

"Yeah...and I'm sick of this. My parents were killed right in front of me and I was dragged into the life of an assassin immediately afterward. I'm done with doing little more than just killing...I want an actual life, that I can enjoy and relax in," Kai said, giving a small sigh.

"...you know what I have to do about this, right?"

"If you're going to try something right now, don't bother. We both know the rule: only pursue an assassin once. Go get help if you want, I guarantee I'll make my last stand a big one," the fox said, though his words only carried so much confidence.

"One more chance, man. Change your mind. Come back to us, please."

"No."

"...fine. You'll be hearing from us tonight. I probably shouldn't tell you that, but you'd know it anyway."

"Yeah...this is where this life will end for me, one way or another."

Getting a room at a local inn and making sure a few people knew about it, Kai looked over the room he'd been given, thinking briefly about how to make this work with what he had. Placing his sack down on the bed, he began removing the contents, as well as some of the contents of his gloves. Painstaking preparations would be needed, and he remembered how long it had taken him to finally break successfully through his old assassin master's defenses. Well, he had more, and he'd use it.

Casually swiping more pillows from the storage room while nobody was around, he shoved them under the bed, taking time to tear one apart and form it in the approximate shape of his head, removing his vest and slipping it under the blanket in such a way that the hood would cover it, making it look as though he was sleeping with his back to the door, which would make it that much harder to determine if it was actually him. Taking that sleeping plant next, he carved a small area out from by the door, slipping it in so that it rested against the wall, and would affect anyone coming into the room. Another plant he stored within the plant that was already on the cabinet by the bed, one that would fire poisonous darts at anyone it considered a threat. It had taken some time for it not to consider him a threat. The final plant he stuffed into the pillows beneath the blanket on the bed about where the back of his neck would be assumed to be, surrounded by minor explosives he'd picked up in the city just earlier, that would create a fair enough explosion if triggered. The final preparation was to adjust the hinges of the door so that they would creak loudly if the door was moved at all. Everything in order to his satisfaction, he waited until night truly fell, crouching near the corner fully opposite the bed and closing his eyes, his wrist-mounted blades already drawn out but his vest unfortunately no longer there to cover the gray fur on his chest. He'd have to live with that...hopefully.

It wasn't until the door was slowly pulled out into the hall that he realized his pursuers had come. They weren't being overconfident, at least...good for them, but all the same, one fell shortly after entering the room, and Kai realized it was the rat, one of his three old assassin companions. Next was a dark-furred wolf, who Kai had to give a little credit. Noticing the rat fall to something, this one took a quick approach, instantly targeting what he thought to be the back of Kai's neck and met with a surprise explosion that ended him. Two down, and now things would be getting interesting with everyone within the inn, even some outside it, alerted to the noise and light of the explosion. Thinking of the life he'd have once this was all over was all Kai could do to keep himself calm.

Removing himself from his minor hiding spot, he stopped himself quickly in his dash for the door at the sudden sound of a crossbow bolt, flinching as it cut through part of his left shoulder. Feeling the nerve-based poison in it take partial effect within that shoulder, he ignored it, inwardly thankful for the hell he'd gone through building resistances to nearly all varieties of poisons, whether nerve-based, illness-based, or even steadily lethal, quickly lethal poisons unfortunately something he didn't have so much of a resistance to. Their effect was slowed, but he'd still need antitoxins for them.

"You're through, kid!" a large brown bear shouted as he slid through the open doorway to stop right in front of the fox. What place such a large creature had in the world of assassins, Kai would barely know.

Dodging to the side to avoid the enlarged dagger that could more accurately be called a short sword that the bear wielded, Kai grunted a little in pain at a slash across the chest, a little slow in jumping back away from the bear's surprisingly quick follow-up attack that would be the large creature's mistake. Finally detecting the threat and fortunately unharmed from the earlier explosion so far, the final hidden plant fired off a spray of needles that, while not truly harming the bear whether with the needles or their poison, left him distracted long enough for Kai to ram one of his blades through the assassin's heart. Shuddering lightly as he let the bear fall, trying to calm himself, his eyes flicking from the burst window to the door, knowing that the other assassins probably wanted to stay away from the room for fear of sharing the rat's fate, the bear's large size giving him further resistance to the sleeping plant's effect, Kai considered his options quickly.

Sighing and wondering what he was even thinking, despite that it was obvious that at least one more assassin had been waiting out in the hall, the fox made a break for the window, leaping out, catching part of his fall on the wall of the building across the small path, and dropping the rest of the way, about two stories left before he hit the ground, hard, no shoes or boots there to help break the fall and the full impact going into his feet and legs.

"Tch...not quite enough preparations, I guess..." Kai muttered, looking around quickly and beginning to dash off before a spike of pain in his left leg stopped him momentarily. Almost instantly shoving the pain to the side, he continued on to the street, which seemed to have been cleared from what he could see.

"Not bad, kid, but now you're done," he heard a voice speak, and he stopped, suddenly noticing his surroundings in the wide-open, surprisingly empty street. A trio of owls, each armed with a crossbow aimed at him, each not at a far distance from him. One in front, one to the right, and one over to the left.

The Night Trio, they called themselves...Kai recognized that from the insignia over the heart on each of their night-blue robes. They always worked together, and were well-known for team efforts. Looked like he'd attracted some with a little fame to him...

"We'll see..." Kai grumbled, charging forward at the first one he saw right before him. The owl was smart, he had to give him that...while the two to his sides fired their shots immediately, to be deflected by gloves so filled with metallic tools that they could act effectively as gauntlets, the final assassin fired his shot when Kai was right on top of him in the act of driving a dagger into his heart, the bolt passing through his chest dangerously close to his heart.

Slicing it off and pulling both ends out of himself, Kai wasted no time in pursuing a second owl, who suddenly gave up on reloading their crossbow and slipped out a dagger from their sleeve, hoping to meet him in a small duel. Had it been a few months earlier that Kai had done this, he had no doubt that he'd have fallen here, but he'd gained some skill through his training as a swordsman under Master Shiro, and was able to soon best the owl, the act of avoiding two more crossbow bolts placing openings enough for a cut across his right arm and another near his neck.

Turning fully on the final owl, his eyes almost pure terror as he gave the most furious glare he'd ever managed to the surviving assassin, he saw the owl steadily decide against continuing this, especially in the face of those ferocious eyes, teeth, and blood-stained blades, dropping their crossbow and giving a few small, delayed claps.

"Congratulations," he said, the fox taking the lull to dig into one of his gloves briefly, downing a small tube of strange-looking liquid, one of the servings of multi-purpose anti-venom that his master had eventually taught him to make, sure that either the knife or crossbow bolt, or perhaps both, had some type of quickly lethal poison. "You're good, kid. Real good. Why you want to leave us is beyond me, but I suppose that's your choice. Where do you plan to stay?" the owl asked, bringing up another particular rule of assassins: don't go near the place where a retired assassin has decided to remain.

"A dojo in a small town south of here..." Kai said weakly, the cuts and poisons, as well as the fall, taking a hard toll on him.

"Fair enough," the owl nodded. "That place will never hear from us again."

"So what'll you do, then?" Kai asked, mildly curious, glancing to the owl's two fallen companions.

"It'll be a little harder now that you've dropped the trio down to a single person, but I can make do quite well, I assure you. So...goodbye," the owl said, kneeling down to pick up his crossbow, casting one final gaze over his two fallen companions and the now-retired assassin, and turning to leave.

"Ha...I...won..." Kai chuckled softly despite all his injuries, exhilaration at the fact that he'd beaten six other assassins even at his young age rushing up to replace all his bodily pain. Well, temporarily, at least.

It would, however, be another week that he would return to the dojo that he would be staying in likely for the rest of his life. It took some time to find an effective healer in that city, at which point he'd collapsed, unable to continue on. He found himself in the care of a swan perhaps five years older than him when he came to a little over a full day after the point which he'd collapsed, his cuts bandaged up and his left leg left in a splint.

"So you're finally up?" the swan asked as she noticed his eyes begin to finally open, surprised to find herself looking into a pair of bright red eyes that looked like they'd just been freed.

"Ungh...I'm not...dead, huh?" Kai asked weakly.

"Somehow, no. How you survived some of those poisons in your body is beyond me, but I suppose you did have some sort of antitoxin running through your system as well," the swan replied. "Let me guess, you were involved in that commotion a few nights ago, right? Should I be worried?"

"Heh...yeah, I played a fair role in that," Kai replied, giving a small nod, some of his energy beginning to return. "Don't worry, there shouldn't be anything like that happening around me any more."

"Well...good enough, I suppose," the swan shrugged, deciding to leave it at that.

Quinn, Kai would come to learn as the swan's name, not that he stayed around long enough for it to really matter. Finding out that he'd landed against the wall and on the ground worse than he thought with his left leg, he was forced to leave it in its splint and use a single crutch to get around, much to his resentment. She told him that he'd have to stay for a few weeks to recover fully, especially in terms of his leg and where the crossbow bolt had gone through his chest, but he had no interest sticking around somewhere that he might run into another assassin, and left one night a few days after he'd finally awoken.

"Come on, why do you keep three of us here, anyway?" a young blue jay protested, standing in the stone-tiled training ground before his two masters. "It's hard trying to keep up with both of you."

"We've told you, there are only two of us and you three are still being allowed to stay. You don't have to if you don't want to," the human sitting on the pillow on the deck replied.

"Then why didn't you keep that wolf?"

"We all know why," a dragonfly, about 17 years old and thus 7 or more years older than each of the three students, replied, dressed in the same somewhat loose-fitting black garb as the human, while the three students, a blue jay, a lioness, and a dragoness, wore similar outfits, only colored white. "He was too much trouble to deal with."

"It...it's not that bad..." the shy young dragoness said, the youngest of all of them at eight years old.

"We all want our own masters, though, even you, I'm sure," the lioness said. "Man...why can't there be three of you?"

"Who says there aren't?" a sixth voice spoke from over near the path that led through the forest, their approach unnaturally silent even with the single crutch that they used.

"Wha...you're back?" Shura said, almost standing up, surprised to see the fox again.

"Kai!" Myst shouted, rushing over to hug him tightly to find him grumbling in pain, and quickly released him. "What...what happened to you?" she asked, looking over the bandaged areas of his body as well as his leg, finally looking into his eyes, that looked different than she'd ever seen them. Relaxed...even free. Barely a hint of the coldness she'd come to expect.

"Ran into a little trouble and had to take a little time to recover..." Kai said, giving a confident smirk despite his weakened state. "But hey, I promised I'd come back, right? Meaning there was no way I could let myself get taken out."

"Y...yeah, you did..." Myst said, happy tears beginning to appear in her eyes before she suddenly kissed him, pleased to find him returning the kiss and ignoring the mildly disgusted reactions from the three students.

"So...which one of you is mine?" Kai said casually, to Shura's grumbling displeasure, as he wandered over to the three students, looking them over.

"Right here," the lioness said, giving the young dragoness a small shove forward, who looked shyly away from the fox.

"Why are you scared of me? In my state you could probably beat me up no problem," Kai chuckled, and the dragoness gave a small giggle, nodding and looking up to him. "So, what's your name, then?"

"Oh...it's Risa," she said. "Master...?"

"Kai," the fox replied. He'd have to get used to being called master, it would seem. "And give it a rest, Shura," he said almost automatically, glancing over to the human as he was about to protest, the blue jay's chuckling silenced by Shura clearing his throat.

"Fine, yes, ‘Master' Kai is indeed staying here now that he's returned...for now, at least," Shura spoke, sighing.

"Sorry, not getting rid of me that easily," Kai said, turning to head to his room. "I'm here to stay, whether or not any of us like it...for now, though, I really need some rest."

Leaving it at that, he returned to his room, finding it just as he'd left it. So many memories in this place, and now he was freed to make new memories for the future, freed from the shadows to make his own decisions.

"It's your turn for dinner, and no excuses!" he heard Shura shout after him from outside, and chuckled to himself. Life certainly would be interesting from here on.