CHAPTER 3: FOCUS

Riku on the peak of exasperation knew he was almost out of tricks….. Closing his eyes, truthfully he began to sleep in that instant of bliss his dreams only consisted of math equations, geometric solutions stormed through his being and mind...

“So is this your surrender? Have you given up? You think that this will not be your grave?” Kaito drew his shuriken and he was intent on finishing this right now.

HTCH! Damn, after I made a bet with her that I could take care of this dropout without moving an inch he pulled a cheap-ass trick with those stupid mags, now I’ll never hear the end of it.”

Originally Kaito had promised himself and his friends he would kill this brat without having to move from his starting spot, already having had been forced to move he was upset. To make matters worse the boy had managed to match him move for move, he was sparingly thinking of making him live.

Kaito was in mid extension of his throw when Riku finally opened his eyes.

The moment he opened his eyes Riku threw one of his pistols with rigorous force. The gun and Kaito’s shuriken collided but since the gun was several times heavier it didn't stray off course and Kaito had to throw another shuriken to throw the pistol off course.

Riku used the few seconds and reloaded his other pistol and in the same moment Kaito had his next shuriken ready to throw.

Riku fired one last shot to match the shuriken but this time the bullet that made contact with the shuriken did not stop, instead, it splintered in such a way that even Kaito who up until now was unscratched felt a sharp pain in his back.

Before falling to his feet, even Kaito was confused as he lay paralyzed on the floor.

It was scary to believe that the last bullet was precisely aimed to ensure that it would splinter and ricochet on the wall, behind Kaito.

“But, that kind of calculation is impossible to work out!”Kaito Lying barely awake murmured… “Impossible for you perhaps” Riku quick-wittedly responded.

Then the buzzer went off and the once sealed door finally opened, the smell of gunpowder, blood, sweat, and steel seeped out of this dreary room, the muscle rich man and the alluring female on the outside faces both dropped south. Absolute surprise-filled both faces.

Riku was finally done, covered in open wounds, soaked in blood and sweat, and smiled before his face slowly met the floor. He was exhausted and had lost a lot of blood, he was out cold.

It wasn’t until a day and a half later that Riku eventually awoke. Upon waking and taking in a dazed view of his surroundings he noticed he was in an infirmary wing of a building, its equipment seemed far advanced and more complex than any other he had seen previously.

Riku felt like he had slept for a decade and awoke in some futuristic time, gazing out his window with his back turned was the same beastly man that had walked Riku into such a horrendous death trap.

He paced around as he spoke, keeping his professional demeanor at all times speaking like a man that was well versed in being in charge.

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“Riku Saito, you’ve told me your story so allow me to tell you ours…..” he continuously paced around staring into some deep dark abyss.

“Ninjas, Spy, Hassahsins….Since the beginning of time, man has always had hidden organizations built solely to focus their ill intents, each more secretive than the last.

In today’s world we have ‘assassins’ but with growing weapon technologies and defenses it takes almost a lifetime to create a half-decent assassin.

But with the help of all the foreign countries, state officials and presidential parties the perfect nurturing institute has been formed.

A school that yearly produces hundreds of elite personnel all equivalent to an entire army, people who are above the law because they do not exist…”

Riku, now sitting up, pondered as the man spoke and quickly responded

“But no person in their right mind would fund such an evil or powerful institution!”

“Indeed they would never do something like that…. Well willingly at least.

But when you have a group of people who have done the dirtiest of things for these powerful people and organizations our requests become very easily met…” the man immediately retorted.

So basically you held them by the balls and forced them to fund this institution. I can only imagine how much disaster torments this place. Riku thought but would never say.

“I am Gabriel Victor, the Principal here at the Assassins Academy, where we train young minds, and bodies to be the perfect killing machines, and you Riku Saito have passed our entrance exam with flying colors.

You are hereby enrolled in our school and will start classes on Monday.

But don’t thank me yet, before you can leave this place you’ll have to spend three years and in that three years as payment for freeing you from prison, and deleting all records of your existence you owe my school five million dollars.

If you wish to purchase a new identity that’ll cost another two million, plus the tuition fee for the school is a million per term and that’s another million to pay for using our health facilities, failure to pay these debts will result in… dire consequences.”

Riku gulped feeling the shift in the atmosphere when he spoke about the consequences.

“Until then take a tour for the weekend; your injuries should be fully healed by now with our state of the art machines.

Your bill will be delivered to you at the end of the week.”

Victor’s presence always felt overpowering to Riku but now it was even more obvious when Riku stopped to consider the power of a man that led this school, his stomach turned a little but did not show.

I’ve been in prison for so long, a little debt isn’t going to deter me, this is my chance to start over, it might not be the life I always wanted but it’s better than that cell with those cunts. I’ll give this school a try...

Gabriel stepped out of the infirmary to meet his assistant, who fixes her glasses slightly as she reported,

“The results are in, it seems the bullet that ricocheted into Kaito did no permanent damage, it grazed his spinal cord.

According to our doctors even a nanometer to the left or right would have caused permanent damage.”

The principle pondered as they walked, trying to fathom the level of accuracy a shot like that would take, he had reviewed the video footage before and was impressed simply by the fact that he bested a second-year student at the school when the norm was simply to stall, surrender, cry or die each of which on their own merits could have gotten him into the school.

In truth the school accepted thousands of students per year. Talent wasn’t much of anything to the school, those who had it would discover it, those who didn’t would die, and the mortality rate for this school was over eighty-five percent as of the previous school year.

More often than not the school would choose high-risk young adults, who already had killed, or have exhibited high violent tendencies this time however this student was chosen for not only his bloody hands but also his natural talents.

“We have a talented batch this year don’t we, Miss Alexander?”

“Indeed, Sir, you’ve started focusing more on talent these last few years and the differences in ability lately have been obvious, I’m intrigued to see how this year goes sir.”