Chapter I: Fading Moonlight

"Who are you?"

The crimson-haired boy took his seat across the small table, wary amber eyes studying the slender figure opposite him, speaking in a small, raspy voice as he thankfully sipped much-needed mouthfuls of warm water. "Why did you bring me here?"

The girl returned his questioning gaze with an even stare, the warm golden of the room's light bearing a stark contrast to the cold ice-blue of her chin-length hair. Her dark eyes lacked a certain gleam, only presenting themselves as hollow optics that were filled with nothing but a dull, listless blue.

"You may call me Sachi," she started. "I would like to introduce myself, but before that, I want to ask you a few questions."

He noted the brisk tone that she used—as if she was participating in nothing more than a business conversation.

"Firstly, what's your name?" The girl—Sachi—sounded as if she was a robot, her cool tone not displaying any signs of outward emotion. "I believe that this is something basic."

The teenager frowned, surprised at the thick fog in his exhausted mind that shielded the answers from his grasp. "Akoni," he stated slowly, as if he was trying to pronounce a stranger's name instead of his own. "Akoni Hironori."

Sachi gave him a curt nod before continuing. "Do you have any memories of what happened in the past few months?"

He opened his mouth in shock—she'd managed to hit the nail on the head. There was a long gap in his memories—as if he had been sleeping for the past six months. All that was left was a blank canvas of dizzying emptiness that he couldn't even try to fill.

"I'll take it that you don't," she continued, a tiny sigh escaping her pursed lips. "Just as I guessed."

"How much do you know about me?" Akoni gave her a pointed look—Sachi had behaved in a suspicious manner, but he was lost and confused, and he had no one else to trust right now.

She merely raised an eyebrow, touching an index finger lightly to her lips. "That's something I can't tell you."

The teenager opened his mouth to ask another question, but the shorter girl interrupted him.

"You already know what to call me," she vocalised, taking a small sip from the porcelain teacup in front of her. "Let me introduce myself. This may seem strange to you, perhaps, but I work in the field of assassination."

The redhead nearly lost his grip on the fragile chalice, and all the cogs in his brain seemed to grind to a halt, as if they had short-circuited. His mind unable to work, he spoke, though the response he gave seemed insufficient. "What?"

The blue-tressed female gave a small nod to a long, sheathed sword that rested silently against the dimmed corner behind her. "You heard what I said. I work as an assassin, and I am very experienced in the field of this word you call 'killing'."

She didn't flinch one bit while she was speaking, keeping her calm, collected demeanour on the entire time.

It was scary—nearly terrifying, sitting right opposite someone who used the word kill so casually—someone who had no qualms about murder and could end his life instantly.

"You have nowhere to go now," Sachi told him. "Furthermore, I'm the one who even knows anything about you."

"What does that mean?" The boy tilted his head, a guarded expression rippling across his wan features.

The assassin chose to ignore his comment, instead lifting her eyes to meet his even stare. "I will help you for the time being," she concluded. "In return, you will work for me as my disguise-maker." Her tone made it clear that she wasn't taking no for an answer.

Akoni leaned back heavily, mercury eyes fixed on the veiled blade in the corner. "Do I have a choice?"

The female's mouth curled up into an empty smile.

"No," she uttered. "You don't."

⚔ ∰ ⚔

The redhead teenager stayed in the comfort of the shadows, keeping a good distance from the slayer in front of him.

The twilight had faded to blackness, the fading moonlight barely enough to pierce through the pitch dark. Everything had an unfamiliar slant to it, as if the daytime trees and flowers and stones had gone to bed and sent slightly more ominous versions of themselves to take their places.

Sachi's back was stiff, but she walked with an easy gait—as if she was just going to the mall for a late-night shopping trip. She didn't carry her sword with her, surprisingly—instead, a sniper rifle was slung across her slim frame.

When Akoni questioned the girl about the matter, she merely gave him a glacial glance. "Some of us have our preferred weapons," she informed. "However, that weapon may not be the best choice for certain errands."

She then came to a halt, silently disappearing behind a sheltered area of a cracked building. The redhead stood out like a sore thumb with his clothes, but the assassin beside him wore a set of plain camouflage gear that blended in with the crumbling cement around them.

Sachi moved into the prone position, lying on the dusted ground and heaving the large sniper into place, sliding on the big silencer and peering into her scope.

The boy squinted into the distance, only able to make out a tiny, black speck against the murkiness of the midnight sky. He wondered how exactly it was possible to hit the target, but he was even more concerned about the fact that a live murder was about to take place in front of him—and he was doing absolutely nothing to stop it.

The girl didn't hesitate for a moment. She handled the situation with expert calmness, swiftly training the barrel of her rifle on her target before noiselessly pulling the trigger with a gloved finger.

Not a single sound was make as Sachi fired.

The night was eerily still, so much that it scared Akoni. Perhaps it had been the moonlight making draining the colour of the assassin's skin, of the lack of wind letting every hair hang without movement—he wasn't sure. The girl beside him didn't even blink; she just kept her eyes on the far distance as if it was whispering secrets to her.

When the teenager next peered at the dusty horizon, the black speck that he assumed was a target was gone, only met with the dulled greens of the far, wasted grasslands stretching out in front of him.

The female blinked as she kept her gaze on the scope for a few moments longer before withdrawing, shelving the rifle back into its case and rapidly giving the floor a good wipe.

She then fingered a sleek cellphone, bringing it to her ear and speaking in a stony tone. "Task accomplished," she uttered. "I performed the assassination without any blood as you told me to. A clean lobotomy—I destroyed the connections to and from the prefrontal cortex."

Sachi then hung up, slipping the mobile device into a small bag that was slung over her shoulder.

She turned to Akoni, gesturing to the exit. "Let's go."

Hastily, he followed after the assassin, footsteps thudding heavily against the murky ground in a great contrast to her silent steps.

They arrived back at the girl's house—a reclusive apartment that was situated amongst the wilderness, hidden from view by the veil of thick forest that grew in seemingly random clumps around her abode's concrete walls.

Sachi let the boy behind her enter first, before closing the door firmly. She gestured at him to take a seat before fidgeting with the tip of her gun, speaking in an unruffled tone—without further context, the redhead could never have started to guess that she had just performed a flawless murder in cold blood.

"So, what did you think?" The blue-tressed teenager raised an eyebrow, spinning on her heel abruptly to face her companion. "That was a normal mission for me."

Akoni's eyes were still wide, cinder-coloured eyes staring at her in silent astonishment as his brain worked overtime to process what had just happened.

"You killed him," he pronounced slowly.

"That was obvious enough," Sachi replied in a monotonous deadpan. "I have already told you that I am and assassin—you should have known what to expect."

The teenaged male cast his gaze downwards, his tone so cautious that one would have thought that he was walking on a sheet of cracked glass. "How could you be so calm?" he questioned, slanted mercury eyes seeming to turn monochromatic. "How could you be so calm after killing a person?"

A long pause ensued, the short-tressed girl unconsciously fingering the velvety edge of the couch. "It is part of my job," she finally replied. "Killing is something I am good at."

"But—"

The teenaged girl silenced him with an icy stare, her words laced with a jaded wisdom as she spoke once more. "We are different from simple murderers," she vocalised. "When we kill, we do it for a reason. We kill sinners—people who have done the world nothing more than harm."

The weary look stayed on her face, her sharp eyes appearing to droop as she continued her hollow lament. "I suppose that it is this form of twisted justice that keeps assassins like us sane."

Akoni's eyes were trained on some invisible spectre in the distance, glazed optics struggling to drag their gaze back to the assassin. His heavy eyelids came a fraction too slow to blink, his irises too stationary. It was as if his brain was suffering a massive short circuit and was struggling to compute.

"You should better get some sleep," Sachi quickly interrupted. "I know you feel as if you have been sleeping for a long time—you have—but it's best if you just rest. I have a spare room in the back."

The redhead's mind was being thrown into a surging perplexity—he had so many questions, yet his companion had purposefully steered clear of answering them—and it felt like there was a blizzard of memories that ate at his mind, memories that stayed just out of reach.

He decided that it was best not to get into an argument with the enigmatic assassin, however, and gave her a heavy nod in response.

Akoni was surprised by how tired he felt—as soon as he climbed onto the bed, his mind spiralled into a thrillingly sickening free fall, swiftly dragging him into the welcome oblivion of sleep.

⚔ ∰ ⚔

The fading of the sunlight had also meant the fading of the heat. Icy air swirled around the slender girl taking every lick of warmth it could.

It was going to be a cold moonless night. The sky was dark and low, the air so chilled it hurt to breathe.

Darkness came like the spell of an enchantress, water to stone, earth to iron, green grass to frosted white. There was no hint of warmth left, nothing of the autumn or the kiss of the vanquished sun.

With each stride, her mind became more clear, more resolute, as if the growing physical distance between them had now become an emotional chasm. The nascent breeze caressed her skin, promising a new dawn, a new beginning, and she thus entombed her memories of him in thick walled ice.

Pixie-like wings unfolding. A small, fairy-like creature rising from the ground, clear pinions carrying the entity with ease and whisking it into the night sky.

Hard blue eyes that stared blankly into the distance, the darkness seeping every trace of colour from her once apple-green body.

And, once again, the night remained still.

⚔ ∰ ⚔

Welp. This was longer than I meant it to be. I have no idea how it happened, and I have no idea why I'm writing this when I'm supposed to be preparing for my english oral. ;w;

Anyway, thank you guys so much for 179 reads and 34 votes, with an astounding 21 on the prologue! I really appreciate your support gais <3

Critiques are most certainly welcome, and don't forget to read, vote and give your thoughts in the comments! Please be 100% honest!

~ nyxia ☆