I washed my hands as I let the blood swirl in the kitchen sink below me and washed off my face as my father behind me cleaned the next body, shoveling it into the black bag to be transported to somewhere. I had never really questioned where it went but I assumed it was somewhere where it could never be found. I laughed at my phone as our next job came in, a message from my mom. This time I was on my own, my first solo mission. This is going to be fun.

     Whenever I asked my parents about how everything got started they always told me the same stories to the point I memorized them. 

A young girl who became a big hit after her first song debuted, then a famous actress and stuntwoman who starred in many movies my mother, Kishimojin Ito. She starred in many hits where she met my dad, a young rising actor and they very quickly found out she was in love with him. She never likes to talk about it much but somehow she got involved in contract killing and when my dad found out he just... stayed with her. Apparently he "just loved her too much". After 2 years of dating my parents tied the knot, then had my brother Baku Ito. For some reason by the time my brother was 8 they decided from now on every one of the family would be trained and become a part of the business.  Four years later and they had me, Akumu Ito. And I too was trained. By the time I was 5, I too was a cold-blooded killer. Now finally  13 years later and I finally got to work on my own, and I can't wait.

Slipping on my dark trousers with the ugliest suit jacket I mentally reworked my plan perfecting it to its exactness. As I selected my knives out of my large collection I stepped into the hallway and said my goodbyes to my brother who looked more worried than usual which didn't fit his rather delicate shaped face which reflected my mom more than anyone. He inherited her deep brown eyes and a small nose but reflections of my dad shined through with his shy smile and frighting (when mad) expressions. 

" You don't have to finish, if anything goes wrong you can call me. Rember to always watch your back aim for the heart and Ummm...." He looked as if he was racking his brain for anything else to stall me from leaving. Baku had always been different, I don't know what happened but I do know that when he went on his first killing to he came back... changed. He didn't talk for days but when he did his first word was "Monsters". My parents looked at him in disbelief and asked him what he meant, shrugging he just got up and left. Over time, he slowly returned to his previous state but still never the same.

" I'll be fine, I've done this a million times before just never the killing part" I grinned patting his shoulder trying to calm his nerves. " You have your earpiece right?" Mom yelled from across the kitchen, not at all worried but still nagging.  I hugged Baku then my mother before leaving, exiting the door more ready than I had ever been in my life.

Shifting the wheel to merge onto the highway I smiled at the thought of what reward I would get for this job. In my family at age eighteen you get to go on your first solo mission, when my brother got back he got two cars of his own. But I hoped for something better, I didn't really know what that was yet but I did know that I had to kill a rather difficult target.

Reaching the destination I prepared myself to get into character. This part was always my favorite moment when I got to act, pretend to be someone else reel the bait in before snapping them in two. Strutting in with an air of confidence that only came with years of experience, I approached the receptionist who was rapping against the keyboard. 

"Excuse me, I am the new temp here, Sara Beppu where should I go?" I tried to sound as enchanting as I could. "Let me see" She glanced down at her list, I already knew who I was with but I feigned innocence waiting patiently for her to find my name. " You are with Mr. Vermlin, over there" The lady pointed at a large room hidden by blinds that were closed I thanked her and walked over to the office delicately knocking on the door if knocking can be delicate.

 "Who is it?" 

" Your new temp Sara Beppu! I am working with you for the next month!"

"Come in!"

I bowed greeting my new boss hiding my excited smile as I met the eyes of my innocent target, who wouldn't live past today. Mr. Vermlin explained in detail my assignments while pausing every few minutes to look me up and down. Probably wondering how young I was and whether I was old enough not to get him landed in jail. I settled at my new desk and observed my target and checked whether my info was right. The client had stated that there were no cameras in Mr. Vermlin's office. I had avoided the ones in the reception and entrance as well as the ones sprinkled outside by wearing reflective sunglasses. Easy.

The sun sank in the sky as the night slithered in and I got prepared I had already locked all the doors and made sure everyone else had left. The only people left were me and him.

" Would you like to get dinner? You know to welcome you to your new job and all?" He leaned toward me getting uncomfortably close. Oh only if he knew I was eighteen, actually that might not even stop him. I rolled my eyes as I reached for my favorite knife. Its handle is long and decorated with flowers spreading across the white marble that acted as grip. I grabbed it firmly and plunged it into his heart. The look on his face showed such surprise I should have taken a picture. 

I ripped the knife out and let him hit the ground with a thud. Normally I would have grabbed him and put him in a bag and tossed it. But this client wanted the body found. I had one last thing to do, preparing to bend down I saw someone flash behind me. Curious instead of defending myself I stood still, just as I thought when I opened my eyes again I saw a knife against my throat attached to the knife was a man- no boy.. he looked no more than a year older than me. His eyes looked.. desperate? No, madder. His hair was on the shorter side and he had tight curls peeping out the top. His dark skin was almost glowing when it reflected the moonlight which also highlighted his scar across the top of his head not longer than 4 inches. He was probably 5'9 only about 4 inches taller than me. Most people would have been scared by having a knife against their throat yet it was just a minor inconvenience I had already done most of my job and I could easily take this person on.

" Who are you?" His voice was oddly calm.. hmm I guess he isn't intimated by me. But then again my appearance isn't the most intimidating.

"Uhh.. a temp?" I smiled playfully not really intimidated either

" Temps aren't able to kill someone in one go without shedding a sweat and be able to be so calm with a knife to their throat." Weird... How long had has he been watching me?

"Maybe I'm a special temp? You never can know who you're hiring right? But who are you? I mean I don't think what you're doing is super legal either."

"Breaking and Entering isn't as bad as cold-blooded murder. Are you an assassin?" I contemplated whether I should tell him the truth or not. I mean he saw my face so I might have to kill him but that meant more work but at this point, it wouldn't hurt he would die either way, also if he had been watching me for as long as he claims he saw me murder someone and did nothing which means he's not here to arrest me or something. So I took a chance.

"No, I'm a contract killer, there's a big difference you know" I flashed my smuggest smile preparing for him to attack. 

"I am too, and this was supposed to be my job."

I rolled my eyes not even surprised more annoyed even that this client couldn't even trust our well-known name in the industry and decided to call an amateur too.

" So I guess you can take this knife off my throat since it's not nice to kill your co-workers?" He dropped his hand while slowly backing away still wary, at least he's not stupid. I strolled toward the dead target.

"What do you think?" I said poking the dead target with my toe.

"Of what?" his tone had an air of...condescended- ness that just rubbed me the wrong way. Did he think that he was better at killing or something?

" What else would I be talking about? How well I picked off the lint of this suit? Of course, I'm talking about the target." I didn't mean to be rude or come off as harsh but he just sounded so... judgy.

" I mean you killed him with a knife in one stab if killing someone is something to be proud of then I guess you did a great job. I don't think I have much more to do here I'll be leaving I suggest you do too." He circled the bleeding corpse of the target lying on the carpeted ground while talking. Everything about him was pissing me off. His arrogant stroll, his degradation of my skills, and judgment of my kill.

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"What do you mean proud of? You don't think I should take pride in my job? What's wrong with what I do? You do the same!" I sighed frustrated as he just stood and he stared at me, with a disappointed look on his face.

" We don't have time to argue about your non-existent morals, we need to leave before someone discovers this body." I sighed and crouched near my first solo kill looking, facing it face to face.

" I need to do something first, you want to see?" He definitely rolled his eyes but crouched next to me, his face coming uncomfortable close to mine. One last task left to do, I pulled out my knife from its hidden sheath and dragged it across my thumb, and to the surprise of the stranger next to me let a single drop of blood slip against the kill's forehead. I proceeded to pluck out a hair from the top of my long brown wide selection and dropped it on the body somewhere visible. I stood up and dusted myself off.

"What are you doing? This can be traced directly back to you. Calling cards are stupid, especially as a contract killer! Are you trying to get caught?"

" No, it can't my DNA on file is completely different than my actual DNA. This DNA will lead to someone else with who I switched files."

"Who? How?"

" A random person, it changes every time, they get investigated and the police see that they have no relation or correlation to the crime they usually just close it. I don't really know-how, these types of things are run by my parents." I was completely unbothered by the fact he knows this information now. I cleaned off my sword using a handkerchief I carried around. If he really was a part of this world he would know who I was when I told him my name. So in the end it wouldn't matter whether he knew who I was or not or if my family was involved. I glanced at my watch, I didn't have to be home until 12 so I still had an hour or so. Smiling I stepped closer to the unknown guy getting ready to see his reaction and also find out if he was a fake.

"Don't you want to know my name?" I breathed a little too close to his face

"No. That means your going to try and kill me and then I have to kill you which I don't want to do." He stared at me coldly not wanting to give in or be one-upped yet his upper lip trembled slightly.

I raised an eyebrow, he didn't want to?

" I don't think you could." I smiled taunting him with my eyes

"Why is that?"

" Because my name is Akumu of the Ito - Nosaku family" I shouldn't have laughed at that moment but I had to. 

Whoever this was face dropped and looked at me with-anger? He stormed to the window he came from and sat on the ledge.

"What are you doing?!" I demanded, most people cowered in fear at just my family name but me, I was known only to come second to my mother, the best contract killer in the business. Yet no one had dared show anger.

"You should hope I never see you again because when I do you will be killed without hesitation scum of the earth." He practically spat at me before falling back and disappearing into the night. Before I could grab and kill that brat I had to go home. As knocked on my front door I saw my mom glaring at me from the kitchen in her robe.

"What made you so late?" Her tone gave off no concern, angrier. As a part of the training, my parents gave me I had to learn to analyze people and their emotions from just their eyes. They obviously didn't think about how this could work on them if they weren't paying attention.

"You said I had to be here by 12, and it's 30 minutes till twelve. So why am I late?"

" That was an overestimation I know you. And how long you take to kill. So what held you up?" While holding her harsh gaze she strolled over to look me in the eye probably to use the same techniques on me. Even though she was the one who taught me to guard against the very same attacks. Even though we were close, I was still a daughter who wanted her own privacy, I didn't want to share all my life with her even the professional side. I didn't want her to know that the daughter she thinks is perfect got distracted and missed.

"Ahh, well the target was difficult also I stopped by the ice cream shop near the mall. After changing clothes" I handed her the bag of bloody clothes and walked off before being questioned anymore. I was ready to flop onto my bed and pass out but before I could walk into my room a hand yanked me by my shirt.

When I turned around I saw a very mad Baku.

"Why were you late? Really? Don't give me the same bullshit you gave mom."

" I ran into some dumb assassin probably a year older than me, double-booked by the client. I won out obviously. But I may have rambled a bit, not anything he wouldn't know if he found out who I was." I fell onto his huge king bed wanting to erase the embarrassing event. Baku came over to flop next to me.

"You told him about the DNA signature right?"

"Yup"

"And your name?"

I sat up surprised he could have guessed that part.

" How did you know?? I didn't say anything about that?"

" I bet you said it like this too-" he stood on the bed with his hands on his hips and changed his face into a mean scowl.

"My name is Akumu of the Ito - Nosaku family," He said it imitating me with a much grander bravado than I thought I sounded like. But I couldn't help but giggle because I finally felt like I had my brother back. We used to be quite close but after his first solo mission he cut me off too, for no reason this is the first time I've seen him as his old self.

"I do not sound like that." I was never good at hiding my thoughts. "So what did it feel like?" I sighed laying back down in sync with him.

"What are you talking about?"

"When you went on your first solo mission what was it like?" I practically whispered it. We never talked about this in my family, it was unheard of. Yet I wanted to know what had changed my brother from the best assassin in the game (even better than my dad) to someone who became vegan because he refused to take anything from animals.

For a little while, it was quiet but then he answered.

"Well... I learned what it is we really do."

"What do you mean?"

" I mean have you ever thought about what it means to kill a human, a person?" I sat up in confusion.

" Of course, I know how to kill targets, we both do we've done it millions of times since we were born nothing new."

He sighed and sat up to meet my eyes, but when I read him it confused me because I couldn't understand why he looked like he was pleading with me.

"Not a target. A human. A person." I tried to meet his eyes but I just ended up darting them around the room.

"Why are you spouting nonsense?" I felt my anger sizzling over and burning my tongue making me want to lash out but I didn't know why. I breathed attempting to subside my anger. I needed to figure out why. Why was he angry? What happened to him, that's what my next words should be.

"Sorry, but can't you tell me what really happened? What made you start thinking like this?"

He sighed, telling me that he was trying to get his point across without giving up to much information. Walking over to his corner of stuffed animals he grabbed his favorite, a green dino he earned at a county fair for a shoot-off competition. He held it tightly before starting to open his mouth. Just as he was about to tell me there was a sharp knock at the door. My father pooped out his head peaking incautiously. He always to me looked like a bullfrog with his jutting mouth and wide jaw, with bulging eyes. I always wondered how mom fell in love with him of all people concerning her looks. She was a tall woman who spoke confidently and whose long black hair retained its shiny bounce always as if she was in a shampoo commercial she had wide downturned doe eyes that would pierce anybody with a simple gaze.

 Yet she fell in love with my father, at the top of her career. Of course, I never told him that. In fact, I've never really had more than 2 minutes of dialogue with my father before. He scared me so much, his eyes always seemed to be more harsh and cold than my mother's which would occasionally glow with warmth. He always silently did one job, clean up the bodies. As long as I've been alive, from a young age I learned to never ask anything personal. Once when I was 8 we had a project at school, for grandparents' day. I went home excited to tell my parents about the assignment I had from my teacher. All I had to do was bring in one grandparent and show them around the school. Until then I hadn't met any of them, so I was ecstatic at the idea of meeting more family.

"Mom! Guess what?" Her eyes briefly floated up from her target practice as she threw another knife hitting the perfect center of the rings, as usual.

"What is it sweetie what did you bring for me?" I ran and handed her the colorful glittery invitation I made in class that had been adorned with all kinds of pasta and string. She looked over it, brows furrowing.

" Honey.." Walking over to the black leather chair in the corner of the brightly fluorescent-lit basement she sat me down and smoothed my black hair she always insisted I kept long. It wasn't nearly as shiny or nice as hers but whenever she touched my hair it meant she was about to give bad news.

"Your grandparents on my side are no longer alive and your fathers.." She hesitates to pause to look into the air scrunching her nose as she always does when she is deep in thought. She turned to cup my face looking me in the eyes.

"You can ask him about that yourself." She got up before I could ask what she meant and continued her practice which was a sign this conversation was over. I trudged upstairs hearing her hit thunk after thunk against the target knowing she was hitting the center for each one. When I reached the wooden top of the stairs I saw my dad gazing at me. I walked over and handed him the invitation. He looked at it just as quickly as Mom did and turned to me.

"No." His voice sounded like a bullfrog if they could talk. Deep and warty. I was adamant about meeting my grandparents.

"I want to. Why can't they come?" I probably sounded bratty with my high-pitched voice and demanding tone. But don't all 8-year-olds when they want something? So why did he answer the way he did?

"I SAID NO DON'T EVER ASK AGAIN, IF YOU DO YOU WILL KNOW THE CONSEQUENCES." I don't know what a bullfrog screaming would sound like but I think it would sound just like he did that day I don't know if it was the poison seething out his eyes or the way the veins in his neck contorted and bulged out but I ran to my room, wondering if he would hurt me if I asked again. We never talked about it. The next morning he said nothing. As usual.

The sound of Baku questioning my father snapped back to the moment brushing the vivid memories under my mental rug, making sure it didn't get turned over was a problem for later.

"Why are you here Father ?" Baku said adding some dark steel to his voice making the question sound more like a dare, daring him to try to say something. Ever since the trip, it was more than just my relationship with my Baku that changed, reducing what was already little to none. Father barely acknowledge Baku's edging voice and instead turned to me as I quickly looked down to avoid contact.

"Your kill is on the news, I thought you might want to see."

"That was quick" he mumbled strolling away.

I stood up offering my hand to Baku to take, he should see my first job and be proud too.