I made my way to the teacher's lounge and introduced myself to the teacher.
“Nice to meet you, Akatsuki-san. I’m Kurosawa Yoriko and you can call me either ‘Sensei’ or ‘Kurosawa-san’. I will be your homeroom teacher from now on and will introduce you to the class in a little bit. Let me first confirm with you, Akatuski Kaya is your sister, right?”
“Yes, she is my sister.”
I replied to her, wondering why she asked about her while thinking at the same time about how young my homeroom teacher looked. If my judgment is right, she should be around 25 years old.
“Sensei, you look really young for a teacher.”
“Fufu, thank you for the flattery. About your sister, she achieved a very high score on her exam so we had her skip a grade. She was assigned to a special class across my room for advanced students. There will be some students who are also 15 years old so she’ll be able to make friends and get along in the class.”
“Oh, alright. Thank you.”
“Okay then, let’s head to the classroom and introduce you to everyone. I’m sure you’ll fit in.”
Walking through the hallway towards my classroom, I turned my head to the right to see a beautiful garden with multiple benches and trees. After going up two flights of stairs, we arrived at the classroom. The teacher entered first and had me wait for the queue to come inside.
I reflected on how I will greet. While thinking about it, I looked at my hands. Even if my palms have been dirtied, I just want my sister to be able to live happily. The money I got from completing dirty jobs, the reason why I even began this job… I was just about to reflect deeply on the past when the teacher gave me the queue to come in.
Upon entering the class, I heard whispers from some of the students. My hearing ability is near superhuman level, so I can pick up sounds very easily. My ears are my sensitive spot. I went through all the whispers I heard: ‘He’s cute’, ‘I wonder if he’s a curving’, ‘He looks like Zach Effron from America’, ‘I wonder if he has a sister... I would totally like, go out with him’, ‘He’s such a cutie. I wonder if he doesn't mind men...’, ‘Is he a foreigner?’, ‘He seems fit for the soccer team’, ‘Handsome man he is, is he not’, ‘IMOUTOS ARE THE BEST’. The last one was a bit dangerous. I’ll have to keep my sister away from her. Most of the compliments of my looks came from the female students and the examination of my body and the remaining comments came from the males.
I turned around and faced the class. I looked around, examining my soon to-be-classmates.
“Well, introduce yourself.”
“Watashi no namae wa Akatsuki Esien desu. I'll be in your care from now on.”
I bowed in front of the class, still examining the other students. One girl with glasses and short, light brown hair caught my eye as she quietly looked at me. Upon seeing me eyeing her, she looked away. The teacher told me to sit at the far right corner next to a window seat, next to the girl I stared at. Walking towards my seat, I felt others’ stares hitting me everywhere. Receiving so many stares at once made my legs turn to jelly. I sat down with much difficulty and class began.
“Alright. I will have you all prepare for Friday, tomorrow, by reading the passage on the handout that was passed to each of you earlier. As for Akatsuki-san, you will start receiving homework on Monday. That is all and I’ll leave you to it.”
Kurosawa-san walked out of her class and suddenly, I was surrounded by a flock of people in front of me, asking questions. It felt like fainting from the nervousness of being surrounded by so many people. However, the girl who sits next to me interrupted everyone.
“Everyone, you’ve gotta be careful. He’s only one person and can’t answer all your questions at once.”
The students all muttered in agreement. I answered questions, one by one, like: ‘Do you have a sister?’, ‘Have you dated someone?’, or ‘Where’d you come from?’. I continued to answer questions and was finally able to get time to breath during lunch. I kept hearing rumors about somehow I became a hot topic in a couple of hours as I made my way around the school.
I found a flight of stairs heading to the roof. I opened the door and upon doing so, I saw my neighbor from my homeroom class. Seeing her, I called out.
“Yo! Is this seat taken?”
“U-um, no it isn’t.”
I sat right across from her and opened my bento, which was still warm even after a couple hours have passed. The girl looked off into the distance, her hair fluttering from the light breeze. Somehow, her beauty seemed to be captivating by the sweet aroma of my food. To break the silence, I thanked her for earlier.
“Your welcome. I know what it’s like to be in that situation and my bad, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Hayashi Natsuko.”
“Nice to meet you Hayashi-san. I figure you already know my name, but let me do it again. My name is Akatsuki Esien.”
“Nice to meet you Akatsuki-kun and please call me Haya-san, since my name too long to say.”
“Then I guess you can just call me Aka-kun.”
“”Pfffft- hahahaha!”"
We laughed at our own introductions and chatted for a while as we ate She asked me about my bento and I shared it with her. She complimented my sister’s cooking. We continued to keep chatting.
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“Hey, Aka-kun... wait, you got something on your face.”
She leaned over to my face and got closer. When she wiped off rice with her finger, we both blushed a little.
“Wo-woah.”
As she came closer, she lost her balance and fell on top of me. Looking into her sparkling green eyes, I was charmed. She started to lean in closer to my face. My heart began to thump hard in my chest.
We were suddenly interrupted when a group of students came upstairs, saw us, and left in awkwardness. She got off me, looked into my eyes, and blushed even harder.
““Pffft, hahaha!”
We both laughed again on our little scene that just happened. Thinking about it more, this is the first time I felt this kind of bliss. Not knowing what this feeling is for sure, I forced it to the back of my mind.
“Oh, by the way, what’s your WhatsApp ID? It was a fun day and I want to keep talking to you. Sometimes, I felt like my days are getting more ’n’ more bland and monotoned.”
“Sometimes I have those feelings too, and here.”
We exchanged IDs and chatted a bit more. As we talked, my heart kept beating quickly and was getting hotter. Confused, I forced my heart to calm down. Finishing lunch, we went separate ways and I received a message confirming that it was Hayashi.
Not looking where I was going, I turned a corner unconsciously and bumped into a rich and righteous looking guy.
“Oi, watch it! Hey, wait a second.”
“Hey, you’re the new guy. Let me tell you this before I let you go. I saw Natsuko talking to you so I'll say this once. Stay away from my Natsuko, and that's my only warning.”
Without letting me retort back, he walked away with an evil and lustful expression on his face. I could feel his intentions leaking out of him. Ignoring what just happened, I walked away as well.
After school ended, I headed home while getting pestered by many students. Keeping up with my facade, I answered nicely to each question they asked. Escaping the swarm of students, I made it home safely. It didn’t seem like Kaya came home yet. Maybe she made some friends, I thought. I took a deep breath, smelling the familiar warmth of the house, as I took off my shoes and put on my indoor slippers. Making my way to my room, I plopped down onto my bed, listless, as this was a nice day of freedom and change.
I closed my eyes. I dreamed about that day, the storm, the devil’s death, and the broken goose with dead eyes. A devilish figure drew closer and closer and a sudden puff of heavy gunpowder filled the air. Blood overflowed as it came closer towards me. I then suddenly woke up with a jolt from my dream.
Sweating heavily and eyes wide open, I sat up while grabbing a small towel to my right of my bed. I wiped off the sweat and headed straight to the shower room. Then, after finishing up with my shower, I cooked food for my sister and I, thinking ‘My sister, it's past five in the afternoon. I got here around 2:30 and she hasn’t arrived yet’. As I pondered while cooking, I heard a click at the front door. I looked and saw my sister and two other girls. Examining closer, it was a girl with black leggings and black long hair, and another girl with blonde twintails.
“Oh nii-chan, sorry I’m late. I should’ve called you.”
“It’s fine, but who are they?”
“Well, I made some friends. They were really nice to me and since we were talking about some anime, I asked them if they wanted to watch some with me at my house.”
“Hello, my name is Akatsuki Esien. Thank you for taking care of my sister throughout her first day at school.”
I bowed my head a bit and thanked them. The girl with twintails blushed a little as she looked at me. Bewildered, she spoke first.
“I-its no pra-problem, I’m Kurosawa Nami.”
She bowed and her blonde twin tails flailed.
“I’m Tazawa Haruka.”
The other girl said in a noble tone.
“Well nii-chan, I will be heading to my room. Call me when the food is ready.”
“Alright, it's ready though.”
“Oh, okay. Let me wash up first. Do you girls want to eat?”
“Sure.”
“S-sure...”
After they left to the bathroom, I got a message from my phone. Looking at my phone, I saw that the messages were from Kuroi Raion. Kuroi Raion is an underground site for Hunters and Job Takers in Japan. Remembering what it was about, I headed towards my room, leaving the prepared food on the table. Upon entering my room, I accessed my computer and entered the underground site by using a VPN. I entered a tripled secured password. There, on the screen, was a vague description of my new target. My employer is a woman I met personally and she introduced me to this. I opened the files to view additional information and glanced at them.
File: Y3-C3
============================================
Surname:
Naru
Name:
Kyoji
Personal Data Description:
He used his connections to cover up 18 murders in the past 4 years. He has kidnapped multiple women and used them as toys. Supposedly “Killed” in the assassination attempt in 2020.
Location:
(Sent to Kuroi Raion’s phone)
Mission Description:
Must be erased from this world. Your Job is to eliminate your target and kill his 2 subordinates. Information about the subordinates are not provided. Use any means necessary. Do not make too much of a scene. Do Not get caught
Code Rank:
Gray C 3
Mission:
1. Kill Mr. Kyoji
2. Kill his subordinates - Unknown Data
3. Find information about more arising figures (Optional)
4. Save the women if possible (Optional)
Time Left:
[119:48:02]
============================================
Sighing at the sight of another target, I looked at the Code Rank and thought it should be easy. Ranks are ordered by color, letter, and then by number from easiest to hardest.
Blue < Yellow < Red < Gray < Black
F < D < C < A < B < S < SS < SSS
2 < 3 < 4 < 5 < 6 < 7 < 8 < 9 < 10
The color represents how bad he is, the letter signifies the difficulty of the job, and the number shows how many connections he has. Sometimes the numbers could be assigned wrong, so we are given additional days to complete the job. That is why I have five days to do this.
I went to my closet. Since my wardrobe is a deep closet, there is enough room to fit 2 people. I pushed away my clothes and unlocked a secret compartment that contained my outfit for the job. I put on my two-faced skull mask and my gunslinger coat and equipped a Schwerer Stahl MK. 4 and two knives. I sent a text message to Kaya saying that I have to head to my job. To avoid her from seeing me, I left through a secret entrance inside the closet. Making my way outside, I muttered,
“Another day as a disposal man.”