Stray Kitten - 23

Laboratory assistant Saijin sighed deeply as he poured the contents of a bucket into the pool, which leads into the sewer system. It had been another failed experiment, even though it looked so promising at first…

As soon as the bucket was empty, the laboratory assistant wanted to head back and take care of the necessary paperwork for the failure, but hearing a bubbling sound coming out of the pool startled him.

Slowly, he peaked with his head over the rail. There indeed were coming bubbles up from his side of the pool.
Wondering what it might be, he put his face even closer to the surface, hoping to see something in the muddy water, which was filled with waste.

When all of a sudden a hand grabbed after him, he squealed in surprise, as the hand grabbed after his collar and pulled itself up on him.

Saijin tried to move back as fear entirely overcame him.
Was something born within this pool of mostly toxic waste?
Was it out to execute revenge and kill everything?

As soon as the surprisingly very human looking being climbed out of the pool, the laboratory assistant had already backed up to the wall.
Expecting that his final hour had come, he made himself as small as possible, while he closed his eyes.

The first action of the being was wiping off the mouth area, before it coughed up loudly.
“I only… want to know two things…” it said in a female, battered voice.
“Where do you have a shower… and where can I find the office of Kaze Mizuki?”

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The air in Kaze Mizuki’s office was heavy and full of suspense.

Kaze Mizuki sat in a chair, which for once was made out of a very dark wood and not formed by a pile of lustfully moaning women, while he casually swung a glass of wine in his hand around.

On the other end of the table, made in the same design as the chair, Blutkuss sat on one side and Schwarzschild on the other, both remaining silent.
Blutkuss was strangely emotionless, wearing a neutral expression as her eyes were fixated on the ground before Kaze’s office.
Schwarzschild had an unsettling smile on his lips, as he ran through some sheets of paper he had brought with him.


None of the three kept track of how long they remained silent, but all of them were waiting for the two months’ time limit, Kitty had gotten, to run out.

There were only nine minutes left, as the sudden opening of the door interrupted the silence, causing all three members in the room to look towards the door.

In the door frame stood Kitty, breathing heavily and visibly exhausted.
“Lord Kaze Mizuki…” Kitty began slowly “The mission was a complete success. I got the Black Scissors.”

Slowly stepping forward to Kaze’s desk, Kitty moved one hand to her back and pulled out the artifact, for which she had been sent out.
“Sir, I want to apologize… for causing a slight mess throughout the HQ…” Kitty said breathless, while she put off the glasses and put them on Kaze’s desk, right next to the Black Scissors.
“I will get to the cleaning instantly, once I… have put off the… prices of the mission…”
Once she had put down the glasses, Kitty pulled a closed phial out of one of her pockets and put it also down on the table. It contained a piece of Kitty’s skin, which she had put into the stains of the blood of the third daughter.
“If you… considered demanding a… payment for the mess… Please tell… right away…”
Finally, Kitty put the sword, the last of her prices on the table, before she humbly bowed.

“I swear… to work… hard… to… com…pen…sa….te…….”
Kitty was entirely beaten. She didn’t even have the strength left to remain conscious.
The struggle to survive in the sewer system had taken too much of a toll on her, along with the fact that she hadn’t really gotten any good food or sleep the last weeks.

Normally, Kitty would have hit the ground face first, wouldn’t it have been for Blutkuss’ shadow to catch her and hold her carefully, as the shadows carried Kitty on to the chair, Blutkuss had been sitting on not even a moment ago.

Carefully caressing Kitty’s face, Blutkuss looked at Kaze with a warm smile.
“I’d say, I have won, ‘hun. Don’t you think we should give a new hero of the East a well-deserved reward?”

Kaze stared down at the Scissors on his desk.

As always, the Heretic's ever-present smile remained on his face...but for the first time in years, the predatory gleam was absent. Hands clasped before him, elbows resting on the arms of his chair, he looked down at it, the faint whirring of his right eye the only sound in the office.

Length, width, metal composition, thaumaturgical signature...all data streamed across the view from his artificial eye, analyzing every inch of the relic lying on the desk. Ten seconds dragged into minutes, as the readings began to degenerate further and further into bizarre almost alien text. If anyone else would have seen through Kaze's eyes, they would never have understood a shred of it, unable to even comprehend it as a language.

But for the Heretic, it remained clear as day. Deeper and deeper his analysis went, using filters and parameters increasingly more alien and esoteric, knowledge and wisdom unique only to him from his decades of heresy allowing him to subject the relic to the most powerful and detailed analysis he was capable of.

Finally, after an entire additional five minutes had passed the assassin and the masked researcher staring at their leader with bated breath...

The Heretic Lord closed his eyes.

"Mission complete."

There was a moment of silence as that sunk in. Then-

"NO!" Schwarzschild howled. "I-impossible! For a mere street rat to succeed, where legions of my Assassins have failed- No, it CANNOT BE!"

Slamming his hands down on the desk, Schwarzschild's burning eyes flickered wildly over the surface of the relic, as if searching for some invisible flaw or blemish, some form of proof against Kitty's success.

"Lord Kaze, this is...it must be some kind of trap! The West would never have willingly allowed such a success so easily! You of all people should know the fury of the Matchless Avarice when his territory and treasures are trespassed against!"

"Enough, Schwarzschild..."

Kaze's voice was mild.

"I am well aware that this could easily be a feint by the West. However, there are two important things to consider."

The Heretic held up one finger.

"First, that reptile doesn't DO feints. Just a single layer of deceit, and then his fists do the rest. The only part of this that might be a trap would have been information on the Scissor being leaked at all."

A single glance at Blutkuss and a sly gleam in his eye hinted that perhaps Kaze had known that from the very beginning, before he held up another hand and another finger.

"And second...the terms of our little wager state only that the Scissors must arrive here, on my desk." He grinned. "It never specified the circumstances."