CSA Version 6By Tenou AmayaAre you ready?

Summary: Students by day, assassins by night. They are Kage, a pair of elite assassins whose services go to the highest bidder. Meet Magami and Tenkou, beautiful, brilliant, and deadly.

Prologue

It was incredibly rare for humankind to ever discover that there was more to existence than they had ever believed. Perhaps there had once been a time, long ago when humanity was still young and philosophy and herb craft were the only science and killing was done with a blade, fire, primitive poisons, water, rope, or with a stick, when other existences were acknowledged. But that time was long past, and philosophy and herb craft were hobbies, science was the seeking of answers for the secrets of nature, and killing was done by technology. The only existence was that which could be seen, and demons and ghosts were considered little more than fairy tales and myths. The strange lights or occurrences were simply the results of sub atomic particles and the strange sounds heard on old battlefields were merely caused by either an overactive imagination, or mass hallucinations.

Humankind had extended itself to the stars, colonizing the two moons and the habitable planets through terraforming or behemoth steel and titanium structures placed in orbit around the planet or the moon. New medicines had been developed and genetic diseases were on their way to becoming a thing of the past while scientists and biologists worked on extending the human lifespan. Scientists sought new technologies and the secrets of life, and the standards of living had risen immeasurably. But still, the more things change, the more things stay the same, and humankind was not infallible, however much they may desire to be otherwise. The rich continued to live in luxury, the middle class lived comfortably but struggled to avoid slipping, and the poor lived in squalor, unable to rise to meet their ambitions, to fulfill their dreams.

Economists had their jobs down to an art, doctors and nurses continued their unending battle to save lives, and lawyers lied and cheated and freed criminals while the innocent rotted in holding cells, politicians continued to accept bribes and worked for their own benefit. But in this time, a new line of jobs came into existence, a line of jobs that was as deadly as it was unrewarding… Assassin teams were formed and slipped under the radar by being called “Private Police” and bounty hunters became “Police for Hire” but unnoticed were the rare “Spirit Police” who were not assassins, spies, or bounty hunters, but were instead the guardians from the shadows.

Such was the life of a human in the year 2525 AD…

The two figures crouched on the railings at the bell tower of the ruined Notre Dame Cathedral, their black leather trench coats fluttering in the wind, the droplets of rain soaking into dark hair and black denim and running down pale skin and supple leather. One sat across from another, a camera carefully aimed into the crowd below. The other sat silently on the railing, unmoving but for the occasional blink. Slowly, she turned her head to look at her companion, her green-gold eyes cool and intense. Her companion lowered the camera and looked at her, silver-blue eyes meeting with green-gold, and she moved her head slightly, indicating the long descent. The other gave a near undetectable nod and the other responded with a nod before leaping off the bell tower, trench coat fluttering around her. Green-gold eyes blinked slowly before she turned and leapt off the tower, and landed unnoticed on the ancient cobblestone street of the grand city that had once been Paris. She rose and started up a brisk stride toward the steps that led to the underground subway station.

It was with morbid satisfaction that the dark haired girl watched as her partner ruthlessly gunned down their target’s bodyguards one by one as they boarded the train. Magami was incredibly skilled and deadly despite her fragile appearance. Tenkou’s lips curled in a sardonic smile as she watched Magami dodge the bullets that were being shot by the fully recovered bodyguards.

Beautiful, fragile, but deadly, she thought, all the more reason why these imbeciles should learn not to judge by appearance alone.

“Are you just going to stand there and smirk, or are you going to take out the target?” Magami’s irritated voice said over the com-link.

“I’m coming, I’m coming,” Tenkou said lazily and vanished into the shadows, a kunai in her hand. She slipped wordlessly out of the shadows behind the target when one of the bodyguards turned and spotted her.

“Harada-san!” the man cried.

Damn! Tenkou swore and with a flick of her wrist, the kunai was imbedded in the man’s head up to the handle. The client turned, pulled out a butterfly knife, flipped it open, and slashed at her.

There’s no excess in his movements, Tenkou thought as she dodged. He is no ordinary civilian.

Harada flipped another knife out of his pocket and slashed at her again. Tenkou grabbed his arm and leaned back, narrowly avoiding his other knife. She curled her leg and lashed out, her heel hitting the man in the chest, while simultaneously releasing his arm, sending him reeling back several steps. She slipped her hands behind her back under her coat and drew out two tantos.

She turned and drove one tanto into the chest of one of the bodyguards leaping at her, dropped, so his momentum from the jump carried him off her tanto, and swept the legs of another bodyguard out from under him. She somersaulted forward, drawing the blade of her tantos across his throat and slammed her feet into Harada’s chest before flipping onto her feet. Quickly, she slammed one tanto into his chest, and another into his throat. She kicked the corpse off her blades, and spun around, slashing with the tantos, killing the bodyguard that was approaching her from behind with a knife in his hand.

“Punishment complete,” Tenkou’s voice said.

“Roger that. Pull out.” Magami replied. She pulled the trigger three more times, dropping the last bodyguard.

“Roger,” Tenkou answered. “Tenkou out.”

Magami faded into the shadows while on the other side of the car, Tenkou did the same.