500 kilometers East of Raiden no Me, Undisclosed Location
The Spine of the World, Kaminari no Kuni
…0800 hours
A young man, sixteen years old and filling out his shoulders in the awkward fashion of youth transitioning to manhood stood gazing out at a gray and cloudy horizon between whose gaps shone through compact rays of yellow sunlight striking at the valleys below. It was a dreary day and portended ill by all signs, but he had come here with a job to do.
Suddenly, a rustling noise behind him made the young man spin around, weapon half out of its scabbard.
“Gah, I’m sorry, Risei, I didn’t know it was you…but you should really stop sneaking up on people like that!!” protested the boy, to which the woman laughed, flashing a hint of fang at him.
“Haikuno, sweetie, you’re so easy to rile up. I think the boss will get a laugh out of that,” said the woman, Risei by name. She stood now, running a hand through her wild, back-length hair. “So, have you made your decision yet?” she asked.
“I have. I’m going to join you guys. I’m just an orphan with no family and no connections. But I have a strong arm and can hold my own in a fight. I’m ready,” said the boy, Haikuno, with a determined but happy expression on his face. Risei hopped over and took his arm in hers.
“Then let’s go meet them!” she giggled.
“Er…uh, just one question – where exactly are they?” asked Haikuno, scratching his head. To which Risei turned him around and pointed.
“There.”
Haikuno’s jaw dropped as he now beheld the massive stone face of a fortress that had been carved into the very face of the cliff itself that loomed behind him. Sure, he had noticed it before, but such sights were common in the mountain country – old, abandoned forts and cave dwellings that no one used because it was impossible to get electricity to them not to mention basic plumbing.
“Wait, that?! But…it’s so conspicuous!” he protested.
“Yeah, well, the boss has a thing for flashiness. So let’s go!” chuckled Risei.
A few minutes later
Deep inside the mountain fortress, Haikuno found himself in a well-lit chamber that for all intents and purposes looked like a cross between a military briefing room (with all the heraldry hanging on the walls and the large table strewn with maps and little figurines) and a bachelor’s den. On a far wall, hung a large tapestry with a symbol on it – a stylized bird of prey.
Surprisingly, it was empty save for a single woman sitting at one of the chairs near the table, calmly flipping through a book in her lap. On the outside, she seemed pretty in a mature kind of way, but there was something just a bit…off about her.
“Yoohoo, Yukiko! You remember Haikuno, right? Well, he’s here to join up with us!” announced Risei cheerfully to the woman, who looked up from her book, a pair of reading glasses sitting crookedly across the bridge of her nose. “Hey, say something encouraging to him!”
“That’s uh…not very encouraging…” he mumbled, now noticing that the title of the book she read: How To Not Be An Airhead, Vol. 1 What the hell, do all these people have some kind of weird problem or something?!
“He’s one of us, Marie,” said Risei, grinning.
“No he’s not. He hasn’t gotten the boss’s permission yet,” sniffed Marie as she stormed up to him, moving her eyes over his body in an obvious statement that she was checking him out. She turned her head and grunted. “Not qualified.”
“Hey! What the hell is your problem?!” ejaculated Haikuno, balling his fists up.
“Not a professional. Just a little punk!” she said, haughtily.
“I…wha…gaaah!” blubbered Haikuno, as Risei cheerfully ruffled his hair.
“She’s like that to everyone. Don’t worry about it. She already likes you, in fact!” said the beastgirl, dragging Haikuno away from an impending fistfight. “Here, I’ll show you more of the place before the boss arrives!”
</B>
The training grounds
<i></i>A shirtless, incredibly buff and chiseled-looking man hopped and skidded around as he twirled a dangerously sharp spear around him, practicing thrusts and parries and ripostes that distorted the air with their power. The torso of a nearby training dummy bulged outward in all directions and disintegrated into dust as he finally ran it through with a powerful thrust.
“That guy working up a big sweat is Yuuya,” said Risei. “Heeey Yuuya!” she called out, prompting the man to look back as he set his spear down and toweled himself off.
“He ‘bats for the other team,’ if you know what I mean,” said Risei playfully to Haikuno, who could not help but gasp a bit as he saw Yuuya’s true size – he towered a full half meter above the two of them, and his biceps were easily as thick as Haikuno’s torso.
“B-bats for the other, uh, team? You play…baseball?” mumbled Haikuno in wonderment.
“No, I like guys!” said Yuuya, chuckling as he flipped the towel over his shoulder. “But alas, you’re not my type, well, unless you want to be!”
“N-n-no thanks…” Haikuno mumbled.
“It’s cool, little bro,” said the man. “You showing him around? Seen Daishi?” he asked.
“I have an idea of where he might be. Anyway, we won’t take more of your time. Seeya, honey-poo!” said Risei, cheerfully as she took a still-baffled Haikuno by the arm and led him to the next place.
<B>A few minutes later
Before he was abruptly lifted by the back of his pants by the beastgirl he had hoped to spy on!
“And this idiot is Daishi, the ‘Light Sage’. Can you believe he’s supposed to be our second in command? More like ‘Hentai Master Sage’. Next time you peep I’ll break your fingers!” said Risei, exasperated as Daishi flailed his limbs in the air, clearly enjoying himself.
“Still worth it! I heal fast anyway! Dattebayo!” he laughed, before being dropped to the ground with a thump.
“Ah, moving on…the last one, well, she’s somewhere around here,” said Risei, shrugging. “Ah...perhaps that smoke trail…” she said, pointing to a slowly-rising plume of black coming from a few dozen meters away. “She’s a real cutie, too!”
As they cleared the brush away and stepped into a makeshift campsite, Haikuno’s jaw again dropped as he gazed upon the sight of a tiny-looking girl dressed in black, tending a fire that slowly roasted the corpse of an impossibly huge creature impaled on a spit.
“Is that…is that a Beholder…” whispered Haikuno, agog and pointing at the beast. “Did she kill it by herself?!” he asked. Beholders, like the Nian and the Imperial Manticore, were incredibly lethal and voracious S-ranked danger beasts that were known to destroy entire villages. The girl turned to face them, giving Haikuno a curious look with her deep red eyes.
“Well, not unless the boss says so, but I’m hoping he will!” said Risei, shrugging. “Oh, by the way, Haikuno, her name is Mitsuru. She may not look it, but she grew up kind of in the wild.”
“If you’re not one of us, I can’t give this meat to you,” said Mitsuru to Haikuno, again in her monotone voice.
“Er, I don’t want any…” said Haikuno, growing queasy at the sight of the charred monster impaled on a spit and leaking the bubbling contents of its characteristic gigantic single eye all over the ground.
“Ne, Mitty, aren’t you being a bit extravagant with this?” asked Risei, eyeing the corpse, to which Mitsuru shrugged and pointed to a man sitting nearby.
“The boss is back.”
“Enishi-samaaaa! Welcome home!” said Risei, trying to glomp the man, who effortlessly shifted to the side to avoid her, faster than Haikuno could actually comprehend.
“So this is the young man you told us about?”
“I highly recommend him! I think he has the aptitude for our work!”
Man, what is this, some kind of part time job?! thought Haikuno, scratching his head.
“Very well. Mitsuru, gather everyone in the main conference room. I’d like to hear the details of the latest operation, including everything about this young man,” said Enishi, rising from his seat.
Later
“Ah, it’s all clear to me now,” said Enishi, rubbing his chin. “So, Haikuno, would you like to join us?” he said, regarding the boy.
“Heh heh… I’m probably dead if I decline, right?” chuckled Haikuno, nervously.
“No, we won’t kill you, but since you’ve seen our faces and our hideout, we’d probably keep you prisoner here indefinitely or simply wipe your memories. Just so you know, I can’t guarantee that if I wiped your memories, you’d retain enough brain function to do things like go to the bathroom by yourself,” said Enishi, shrugging.
“It’s quite alright…I wasn’t going to say no,” said Haikuno, balling his fists. “I already made the decision to join you guys before I came here. I don’t know how much you know about me, but I’m from the town of Maru Maru. It’s a poor place where most of us live in the slums and resort to crime in order to survive. I came to Raiden’s Eye because I wanted to make a name for myself and in doing so, help my town out. But when I came to the Capital…” he closed his eyes, a painful memory flashing through his mind. “…I saw just how rotten it was at the core. Just how rotten the entire country is, and that we’d never have a chance of changing things the way I was going.”
“And don’t you want to uproot that rot at its core? As a man?” asked Yuuya, crossing his arms.
“Leftenant Horiuchi here, by the way, was an Imperial Army soldier before he too learned the same thing,” said Enishi, nodding.
“Our work is to eliminate evildoers in high places, especially at the center of things. At Raiden’s Eye, and Kumogakure if necessary,” said Yuuya again.
“But I have a question. Even if we kill the corrupt nobles one by one, that won’t change things for places like my town, will it? In the end, the little places always get left behind, change or not,” said Haikuno, sadly.
“That’s why this organization suits you especially well, young man,” said Enishi, smiling. “We’re not just some isolated vigilante group, and we’re not killing and dying just for the sake of feeding Shinbatsu. Let me quote a favorite document of mine:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
“Consent of the governed, Haikuno, is what we strive to restore to this nation. Imagine a Kaminari no Kuni where one’s birth does not determine one’s fate. Where there is no slavery or indenture. Where one is not punished for merely daring to voice a contrary opinion to that of a Shogun or Chancellor or Raikage or Sennin. Where the fate of a nation for good or ill is decided not by one madman occupying the throne, but by the collective will of the people. That is what is called ‘democracy.’ And there are many others besides us who seek to bring about this change; in particular, a group of commoners with some influence who call themselves the ‘Continental Congress’. They have the support of the people, but as long as those in power have the appearance of immunity, well, the status quo will always be maintained. So our job, as the Kingslayers, is to eliminate the corrupted ones, so that the people will learn that these men and women can and do bleed.
“And when a nation changes how it is run, Haikuno, then little towns like Maru Maru have the power to change their own destiny,” said Enishi with an air of finality, as if to rest his case.
“So we’re basically Assassins of Justice, then!?” asked Haikuno, enthusiasm written on his face. To which everyone in the room started to laugh. Flustered, the boy looked around. “Hey! What the hell is so funny?!”
“Otouto… The thing you have to know is that no matter how you dress it up, we’re still committing murder,” said Risei, darkness crossing her face.
“Killing another human being is never a truly just thing,” said Yukiko, sadly.
“We all deserve to die. Especially the boss. But then again, so do the other rats,” said Daishi, chewing on a toothpick.
“Each of us here fights for his or her own reasons, and is prepared to be killed at any moment. But we hope some good comes out of this. So are you still in, Haikuno?” asked Enishi, leaning forward and resting his head on his hands. Haikuno’s expression turned grim.
“Definitely.”
With that, Enishi nodded, rising to his feet and offering Haikuno his hand to shake.
“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. Welcome to the Kingslayers.”