Chapter 47: AAR

Three was sitting in a comfortable crouch where I had expected to find Six. She was watching a house next door, where I could hear the sounds of a struggle going on. With how relaxed she was, I assumed everything was fine, and so I let go of the shadows surrounding me as I dropped into the crouch next to her. She barely reacted to my presence and simply gave a muttered, "Master."

As I settled in to wait next to her, I began tracking the chaos through my shadows and asked, "How long have you been here?"

"Oh, just a few minutes."

A few minutes didn't sound like very much. Still, when I considered it had taken about fifteen minutes for me to find and eliminate my entire set of targets, she must have done so in less than ten. A 50 percent improvement was insane without taking a lot more risks than I had. Assuming she was successful, I didn't offend her by asking. However, I could tell by the faint smell of freshly cleaned blades that she likely had no problems with her task.

Finally, I scoped out the entire scene in front of us. Six had taken care of half of her opponents. I had been correct in giving her the Ihererin group, as they only had eight members in total. Currently, Six was fighting two of them while another two attempted to flee. They didn't get very far. One nearly cut himself in half on a trap she'd set up in the front entrance. The other ducked under, only to get his foot caught in a loop that pulled him off balance. Six ducked and weaved between her two opponents, still not taking any injuries that I could see, but there were several places where her black silks were torn. However, I couldn't sense any blood.

One and Two appeared over the ridge of the roofline across the street and gave me a small wave as they made their way over, down, across, and up to us. Two leaned against me as One sat on the other side of Three, her long legs stretched out, and she loosed her hair.

"Is everything going alright?" she asked.

Three nodded. "Six is performing adequately. She will need some time with me when we get back home. She has neglected some of the basics."

I felt Two wince next to me. As much sympathy as I had, I couldn't help but agree with Three's assessment. Six was talented, aggressive, and quick, but things were a little too imprecise, a little sloppy. And that was just unacceptable.

"I think we all need some brushing up," I said, looking at One and Two.

Three nodded her agreement. "Yes." Then she fixed One and Two with a penetrating gaze. "The two of you should have been done before me."

Two shook her head and muttered something, but One spoke up. "Speed was not a requirement. It was better to get the job done perfectly than have any chance of failure."

Three didn't respond but simply looked over at where Six was fighting.

One sighed. "Well, one of us needed to get done quickly to possibly assist Six, who was in the most vulnerable position. Not everyone did through. Neither Two nor I have the particular set of skills to move quickly enough to reinforce her compared to you or Master." She sighed slightly more deeply. "Though I suppose having better fundamentals will not hurt."

Three gave a half-smile, the side of her lips that only I could see quirked up. One must have read it in her aura, though, as she playfully swatted Three's shoulder. Three took it stoically and responded, "At least Four and Five have an excuse, though Four will need to practice fighting while disabled."

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"I will not," Four's voice came from behind as she joined us on the roof, Five in tow. "...but I believe Five will."

Five's face was redder than her hair as she attempted to hide a small gash on her forearm. Four looked at her, and Five glared back.

"Third place might need to be reevaluated, Five," Three said in a mild tone. "Six is performing well enough that she might take your spot."

Five's green eyes flared even brighter, but she did not challenge. I couldn't help but laugh softly to myself. After all, Three was just saying how Six needed more work and then using her to prod Five to better practice. One had said it was a toss-up between Three and Seven, who was better, but the rest of the Numbered seemed to agree that Three was. I hadn't met Seven, so I didn't quite know why yet, but it would be very interesting to see how else Three would put the rankings in danger. If Six was fourth, what were Two and One? I knew One wasn't the most combative, but, well, we'd eventually do some more training when we got home.

Six emerged from the front door, her hair slightly disheveled but, for the most part, not looking out of place as she pulled the last body inside and locked it up behind her. Two gave a chirping call that caught Six's attention, and a few minutes later, she joined us on the roof, slightly out of breath.

"I needed the exercise," she said, her words slightly interrupted by heavy breathing.

I reached over and brushed some of her hair out of her face and gave her a smile. "You did well, Six."

"So tell me what happened," I said after turning to face all of my Numbered.

Three started off.

"They were ready for me, seemingly aware that we would have issues with the removal of the Grandmaster, but all I did was bunch them up for me. They were all in defensive positions in the same room, so that made it easier," she said with a slight smile, her monotone voice maintaining a smooth confidence as if she was just ordering dinner. A satisfied smile punctuated the words.

I just nodded before giving a brief rundown of how I had caught them off guard and isolated them before taking out the last bit. One and Two told a similar story, where they had come in from different directions and converged on the last and largest group.

Four and Five had tried to work together as a team, and Five had apparently been babying Four. It was an attempt to intervene in a fight that Four had totally handled, at least how Four spoke, that Five got injured. Five didn't deny this but looked more ashamed as she went. Not that Four had made her look bad in the retelling, but rather... overprotective.

Three fixed Five with a glare the entire time. Not one of malice but rather an intense gaze that made her shift uncomfortably. After she was done, Three-spoke up. "It appears that not fighting while injured needs to be worked on. It was teamwork that has been forgotten."

One nodded thoughtfully. "It's not just Five. We all need to learn how to work together better." She gave me a knowing look. "Perhaps many of us wouldn't have even had these issues if we had foreseen some of these problems with various skill sets we've had and acted in better coordination. Certain risks could have been avoided."

I nodded in agreement, but she continued on nonetheless. "When we get back, the rest should be waiting for us. And we can have some intensive training sessions with all nine of us, with all of the Numbered."

I nodded and clapped my hands. "All ten of us will need to work together better," I said intentionally, and all of my Numbered looked at me quizzically. I would explain later, but I could tell that things would only get more complicated from here. I turned to Six. "Explain why you didn't end up waiting. It obviously worked out, but what did you see?"

She reported how she saw how they were first wary but then settled in after they realized they weren't immediately followed and separated out to clean up after the action. Wanting to take advantage of the distraction, she set several traps before moving in. The way she described her strategy left me impressed with her ingenuity and maneuverability as she leveraged the hidden assets she put in place to finish off all of the expert assassins with apparent ease. She looked a little better in her retelling than she had when I had watched the second half of the fight, but I let it slide.

"All right," I said. "I think it's time to go find Doja and wake up the Servants. We have need of yet another Grandmaster."