You know those moments when you know you fucked up but thanks to the adrenaline rush causing spectacular on the spot decisions in an attempt to mitigate the fuck-upiness of the situation that you just feel everything will be okay.

Then when you are to meet someone to discuss your fuck up, your mind does this sweet sweet mental recap that reassures you, of how fucked you are.

Yes, this is exactly how I felt. How the hell did Antoine talk me into this stupid ninja bomb of fuckery that it was? I knew it was a bad decision and the problem is I know by experience of how insanely dangerous and terrible ninjas or people of ancient martial heritage.

I was standing there in silence in front of one of the most uptight managers of the organization. She was still reading reports, signing off on some, and throwing others in a big brown box.

I was not sure if I feared her or my dad more, both will kick my ass over this incident. However, if both of them know and decide to take it upon themselves to right my wrongs the next month will be absolute hell.

Oh!

She glanced at me.

It was a quick peek but I am sure I saw it. It sent shivers down my spine. All my talk about predators and whatever, I know I am mere prey in front of her and my dad and apparently ninjas. I think I learned my lesson this time. When I deal with people who I know can kick my ass, I should be accompanied by ones who can protect it.

The sound of her scribbling away on the paper, the ticking of the clock right behind me beside the door, and the low humming of the air conditioner resulted in a rhythm that was lulling me to relax.

I can smell the ink on the paper, the musk of her perfume, and the smell of old furniture. The old furniture smell is not bad but it makes you feel disoriented, a sensation of slight confusion in my case.

I was getting calmer by the second, the one thing that annoyed me is not seeing the time. I need to see a.clock. I have always needed to feel control over my time and having the power over my time taken away feels like a punishment.

I took a quick glance at her, Freya. She got the nickname Freya the unbreakable. When anyone gets a nickname among the secret societies and organizations, it is a testament to how famous they had become. A very deserved fame, I started recalling what I knew of her.

An ironwoman, by all means, she worked in a guarding service detail in Siberia. She was trained as a mercenary and she originated from the Truth seekers organization as she was born and raised among one family of guards but they died in an incident.

Her track record as a mercenary and as a guard is impeccable. She had all the qualities a good combatant could hope for and the drive to prove herself. What she was trying to prove or to who remains unknown but she certainly has proven she is among the best of her generation.

She got famous when she was captured at one time, and she held the passcode to her employer’s safe house. Even under brutal torture, she did not utter a single word. She managed to escape after two days of torture.

She did not return to her mercenary team though. She hid and bandaged herself, they had burned off a part of her face and some of her back as well as crushing three of her toes. She waited two days then she went back to those who captured her and she brutally tortured them for 3 days.

This incident was so famous because the bodies were so mutilated it would have been almost impossible to identify them if she had not taken photos of them before. Not to mention she cut off all of their fingers.

She got recruited to be chief of the guards of the chamber in the Truth Seeker’s society, which would be more of retirement but she still seemed to be in shape. She trains the guards herself as well, they all call her the ironwoman. Her training regime is so tough that the guards have reached the highest standards in the society’s history.

So I knew if she was supposedly going to handle the punishment herself it would be a real tragedy to yours truly.

My mind was still wandering off when I noticed the sound of the scribbling had stopped, I turned my gaze away from the window back to her. The sun was just rising, the view out of the window was so mesmerizing.

She was cast in a golden tint from the sunrise which made her scars look like they were on fire, making her look like a warrior with a commanding aura. Her face had a mixed expression of admonishment and amusement. She knew I had cooled down from all the action and I was back to being me. The talk was coming.

She clasped her hands on the desk which I noticed was bare of all the documents but one. I could not see what was written in it. She started off with a slap on the wrist as she said, “How can a man so smart and experienced make such a terrible series of decisions?”

“Everyone has their unsavory moments, I guess this was mine,” I replied.

She smiled slightly as she heard me, she relaxed her sitting posture. She did not look as imposing as before, she was still intimidating though. She said: “You have never been like anyone, so what would make an anomaly such as yourself to be grouped into the everyone category?”

She trailed off for a bit but before I could reply she said: “ Do not try to cover for Antoine, he will be punished, just like you, regardless of how much he knew. He will not be killed if that was a concern of yours.”

This was better than I expected. I was sure that the document on her desk had something concerning the incident, I was looking forward to knowing what it would be.

I told her the story beginning when Antoine called me, including that my brother was out of town and so the security detail was not as tight, to the moment I realized that the ninja was not as helpless as I thought.

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She was not happy to hear that I took a job while my brother was not here. Her expression looked scary when I mentioned that the ninja was supposed to have amnesia. The real nail in the coffin was when she heard how I tried to trick the ninja.

She listened to everything with rapt attention as if this was the first time she heard what happened, which I doubted. It seemed there was more to the story than I thought. This might not be a story of an estranged ninja who tricked everyone who knew him.

She stopped me at the part where I barrel-rolled out of the room. She said: “I have too many reports regarding that part. Unless you noticed something no one else did, I believe this will be the end of the story.”

I was silent as I mulled over the events one more time in my mind. I did not think there was anything of importance that happened. I nodded my head and said that this was all. The room was silent except for the whirring of the air conditioner and the ticking clock behind me.

She said: “I cannot in good faith hold you accountable, no matter how stupid you were. Of course, there will be a suitable punishment handed out.”

I was not particularly surprised but I still felt relief. I have been standing the whole time and this was a long night. The tiredness that has been held back by uncertainty was starting to show its ugly face.

I was anxious at the start wondering if I would be blamed for taking the job but it seemed like she knew that I and Antoine were old friends. This might have been the main reason I overlooked so many alarming details. The most important lesson learned from all of this is having a ninja on your side when dealing with a ninja.

I left my ruminations to focus back on the room, which felt more welcoming now as I felt relaxed. I liked its setup, I may just replicate it at home. Especially the desk in front of the window and the backdrop of the sun rising or falling, it would have quite the impact.

I looked to Freya, she was silent as she took out her laptop from the far right of the desk. She opened it and focused on reading something. A few minutes later she started tapping away at the keyboard. I wondered if she was chatting with someone or compiling a report.

The rhythmic tapping coupled with the soft sunlight glow coming from the window made the room even more relaxing. I was slowly getting lulled to sleep. I resisted the pull of sleep as I refocused my attention on the room to ground myself and stay awake.

I was relatively successful in doing so, then my gaze was pulled once more to the window. I was looking at the window as I fought the urge to sleep when the rhythmic tapping stopped. I looked at Freya as she raised her head from the screen. She stared at me silently, something flashed in her gaze. I would have sworn it was a pity but this was Freya the unbreakable ironwoman she would not feel pity, would she?.

“The committee has come to a decision,” she paused slightly, “You will tutor at the academy for a year and all your ongoing and future clients are suspended until the end of an academic year.”

OH!

OH NO!

All the sleepiness and relaxedness I had felt went right out of the window. It never crossed my mind they would send me to this hellhole. I felt my body tense, I was angry, almost wrathful.

How could they do this to me?

An entire academic year! This meant I would stay at the academy for two full years as the academic year has already begun and as a rule, no tutors or students are let in after the start of the academic year.

Was the incident worse than I expected? Or is there something else?

I stayed silent for a bit, fearing I would lash out at her, the last thing I needed was an additional punishment. As I gnashed my teeth and looked wrathfully at the laptop wanting to break it apart and scream in frustration, I saw her expression.

I have known Freya for a period of time, only after the incident of course as I was too young before that but in all the time I have known her I have never seen her make such an expression. The expression poured cold water over my anger, I felt fear for whatever would make Freya so cold. She felt like a frozen iceberg and in her I saw the hidden beast that tore and mutilated her captors. The beast that anyone who fought her and lived to tell the tale causes them to vow not to cross her ever again.

I inhaled sharply and fearfully asked: “What is wrong?”

My voice may have been lower than I expected and I could hear my fear wrapped around the words making them shakier than I liked them to be.

She looked at me in contempt, saying: “Do you not understand that we are protecting you by this so-called punishment?”

She continued: “After you saw what ninjas are capable of, can you be assured of your safety? Ninjas are trustworthy as partners but this incident is too complex for us to know who is an ally and who is an enemy.”

She did not let me off, her voice was dripping with contempt at this point and she was almost snarling: “Your actions landed us smack dab into the middle of a ninja feud. Even worse is that you are a valuable member of the Truth Seeker society, you should thank god for that otherwise we can hand you over and call for a peace meeting. Even if you were a nobody, based on the fact I had at one point trained you, I will be damned if they took you away like a lamb to the slaughter.”

My blood ran cold. This was even worse than the worst assumption I had thought. This is not satisfying my curiosity anymore, this was a horror story. Feuding with ninjas is the stupidest most insane action anyone could take.

I shivered slightly, If they are protecting me by sending me to the academy which is arguably the second most hidden well-defended place under the reign of the Truth Seekers Society this meant that I was in deeper shit than I had imagined. Only the council itself is more hidden and better defended than the academy.

Her ice-cold expression eased slightly but she still looked like she could scare Freddy Kruger himself. She said in a slightly softer tone: “Your father and I helped in securing this tutor position for you. The alternatives were being an assistant to a council member for an indeterminate time, being a record keeper at the library for a year, and being a researcher at the coliseum. I think you can appreciate where you are headed now that you know the alternatives.”

I laughed, this was absurd. The unfairness and the fear almost threw me off the edge of sanity. Every single alternative is worse than the other. My laugh rose in pitch then I stopped abruptly, I had to think straight.

The first alternative is so shit I will not even grace it with a list of advantages and disadvantages; I just kept in mind that the so-called assistant position to the council was no better than being a servant or a slave.

The second one sounded better but it was a grueling secretariat job, I would be lucky if I was not overworked to death. Not to mention the library is not a place for the faint of heart. Our society is a place for torturers so the people are no strangers to blood and cruelty and a healthy tad of insanity but the library is a literal horror story.

It keeps the record of every torture that has been witnessed or recorded since the inception of the society. Some of these tortures are so inhuman the very threat of them has brought confession to some of the most notorious criminals so one can imagine how terrible the records are. Some of them are actually banned, imagine banning torture for how horrible it was.

The colosseum is a place for criminals and the insane. Some of the combat professionals train in there but even then they do so under very controlled environments. This place makes the movie gladiator look like a Disney cartoon. So working there entails either being a fighter or an anti-torture trainer both of which are as horrible as they sound.

It seemed I owed Freya and the old man a huge favor. Her words sobered me up, I wondered at what cost they brought my sentence to be tutoring at the academy. I had to ask: “What did it cost?”

She looked at me with a lopsided smirk: “Nothing, for the academy dean himself wanted your sentence to be there. Your reputation precedes you, you have a good track with clients and your methods are as creative as they come. There is a small catch though before you start your academic year as a tutor which will be next year from now, you will give private lessons to a certain anonymous councilman daughter and if she decides to take up a position as one of the truth seekers instead of going for a combat career, you will be awarded a ninja for your protection.”

I was stumped for words, this sounded almost too good to be true. Only the councilmen and very reputable members of the Truth Seekers had ninjas for protection. I wondered if that reward had a time limit. This should be the easiest part of everything that will happen in the next two years.

How hard could it be to convince her to join us?

I nodded: “Thank you for everything. I am still bewildered, why is this incident so serious?”

Her expression hardened slightly, I sensed hesitation before she spoke again: “The person you had in that room was not who you were told he was. He is the son of one of the clan heads of a Gate of Heaven branch in China. The incident had gotten so huge as it is likely the escapee will lose one of his legs due to injuries, the two organizations are doing their best to avoid that. We will see how it goes.”

Oh, dear!

Now that I heard this, I was eager to get to the academy or the private lessons as soon as possible. The clan heads of any ninja society are fearsome people and they always come from a prestigious family so this is not a single person angry with me but an organization, a family, and one very pissed off clan head.

“I have never been so eager to get to the job. When can we head out?”

Freya laughed, it was a shrill cold laugh but it seemed she was not so angry anymore. She said: “The guards will come to pick you up in two hours. Your brother will be notified and your clients, private or public, are being notified that you will be on a special assignment and will not be able to meet them.”

I can only be thankful for the brutal efficiency. I wondered what my life will be like in the next two years. I can only hype myself up and deem this as a lesson to not meddle with ninjas anymore.