Gale came out of the shower, rubbing herself all over with a towel. She let her wet hair hang there, enjoying the feel of it drying naturally. Looking over at the bed, Nik laid there, working away on his phone.
"I'll be gone for a while once we're done with our business at the meeting. I'll need to return to Japan to personally oversee the restructuring of the organization," Gale said, sitting on the edge of the bed.
Nik turned off the phone giving his wife all his attention.
"How long you think you'll be away for?" he asked.
"No clue. I'm hoping it is all bluff and bluster by the hardliners. It would make everything cleaner that way. If they decide they don't like taking orders from someone without a set of balls hanging from between her legs, I'll have to create some eunuchs."
Gale did not laugh at her statement. Nik knew when she joked around and when she meant business.
"Be careful. I don't want you to die over there too."
Nik shuffled over, giving him the range to caringly rub her shoulder.
"I don't intend to die, Nik. How did it feel when you killed your first person?" she asked.
"How did it feel? That is a scary thought. I try not to think about it anymore."
"But you still think about it? It follows you like a shadow, a ghost."
"Are we talking about mine or yours?"
"I want to know how you handle the guilt of killing each day? How does it not eat away at your soul?" Gale asked, solemnly.
Nik took a long moment to gather his thoughts before replying. The seriousness of the situation hung in the air. Gale rarely acted this serious, always putting up the tough chick, burnout aire to keep people off guard.
"I can live with the guilt because there is no guilt, Gale. I made a vow with my own blood, while recovering in a hospital bed, that I'd avenge Anri. I sold my soul to the devil to accomplish that task. Systematically killing off every member of the Ueno clan until mentioning the name in whispers would elicit people believing me to be an unrelenting Halloween trope brought me joy. I did what needed to be done to accomplish my crusade. Now I live with the consequences of that crusade but I feel no guilt over it," Nik spoke, softly.
"I remember the first time a hit squad attacked me. This was after you saved me. Hard to believe how our lives intersected and changed that day. I know for me it was for the best. I can still smell the blood on my hands, hear the sound of skull bone and brains splattering against tile, and the potent rush of adrenaline that felt better than any toy I played with. Kaze Yamato died when they sent their first hitmen after me. After that Kelly Gale rose from their dead bodies."
Many Years Ago
Keishu waited outside the lecture hall for Gale, managing a slew of text messages on her phone. They had a small commute back to their house, located a few blocks from the school. They found a place near the college, and secretly had bought it under an alias to try and keep Gale better hidden.
The twenty year old walked out of the classroom, bag slung over her shoulder and a bored look on her face. She walked past Keishu, prompting the older sister to follow along.
"Class is too easy, sis," Gale commented without looking back. "I could ace this in my sleep. I took harder classes at my cram school back home."
"More time for you to train in the gym then. You have ten months until the national amateurs back in Japan. I'd still advise you against going back to attend the event but you better start training now."
"Hear anything from my brother or yours?" Gale asked.
"Nothing, life seems to be going on normal."
"What about...you know...him?" Gale blushed, too shy to say his name.
"He is doing well."
"That is all, just doing well?"
"I'll tell you when we get home. You know we should not talk about this in public," Keishu reminded Gale.
"Fine, back to nationals. My physique has been coming along these past couple months but I don't know, I don't have the pop that the other girls have. Do you think I'm training enough?"
"I'm more worried you'd be overtraining. You've kept to a strict schedule this past year, never deviating from it, and have seen remarkable improvements. You'll do fine."
"Fine? Fine is more losers, sis, I want to dominate. I want to be the best there is in the sport."
"One tournament at a time, one at a time," Keishu advised.
"Can you hold on for a second? I need to take a piss."
Keishu waved her hand.
"I'll be out here waiting."
Gale walked into the girl's washroom, heading straight to the mirrors. Going to the farthest mirror, she looked into it, observing how her right eye healed. It looked black and blue from a previous sparring session, taking a kick to the socket when a deflection failed.
"Fuck, I look like shit. I'll need to get better or else I'll lose my good looks," she commented, running her hands under the water.
The cold water felt good, refreshing, especially after splashing it against her face. The boring class almost put her to sleep, so she needed the natural pick-me-up for the walk home.
"One of these days I'll land a solid blow on Keishu. I cannot believe we've been practicing over a year. She is either a savant or I suck at understanding her instructions."
Gale shook her head and splashed more water on her face. As she grabbed some paper towel to dry off, the bathroom door opened up and a white man, dressed as a student, walked in.
"Hey, pervert, this is the girls washroom," Gale chided him, looking over.
The man sized her up but did not move at her fierce voice.
"Are you deaf? Wrong gender. Get out of here, freak."
"You're Kaze Yamato," the man replied.
"Who?" Gale said, feigning ignorance. "Sounds like a Japanese name. I'm Chinese. Learn how to tell the difference."
The man took a picture out of his pocket and tossed it towards Gale like a playing card. She quickly picked it up, not letting her eyes leave the man. Quickly glancing at the photo, it showed her coming out of a bar with her brother back in Nagoya.
"Just who the hell are you?" she demanded.
The man took a knife from the back of his belt, brandishing it towards her. His intentions were quite clear.
"You're going to make me a rich man, bitch."
He walked forward, knife at the ready to strike.
Gale's mind tried to process everything quickly. Her senses freaked out, trying not to have a nervous breakdown at seeing the knife so close.
"Help!" she screamed, loudly, hoping to draw some kind of attention. "Help!"
The scream only forced the man to rush forward, thrusting the knife at her gut. All of Keishu's training kicked in, allowing Gale to sidestep the lunge. Her knee struck upwards, hitting the man's elbow. While the blow did not do much damage, it knocked the knife out of his hand, helping to even the odds for Gale.
"Help!" she screamed again, just before ducking a right hook.
She rolled towards the door, trying to avoid the man's arms. The knob did not turn. Something kept it from opening up.
"Shit. Fuck. Help!" she screamed louder, banging at the frosty glass window.
The assassin closed the distance, reaching out to grab Gale's neck with his hands. His thick fingers squeezed her windpipe, lifting her up in the air by using his strength to intimidate the young college student. She tried to call for help again, but her voice quickly turned its back on her, unable to be conjured up. Testing her luck, she spat in the man's eyes. It had the intended effect, dazing him as he could not see through the slop, quickly trying to wipe it away.
Gale took this time to kick the man right in the nuts, punting him with all her might. Keishu taught her to fight dirty. In a real fight, where losing meant dying, honor meant nothing. Fight to win, fight to live, fight to survive, she always preached. The honorable dead are still dead. The assassin grabbed his balls, falling against the nearest sink in excruciating pain.
Not wasting the chance to strike, she grabbed the man's hair and slammed his skull against the hard porcelain sink. Again and again, she smashed the bony skull against the sink until a piece of the fragile material broke off. Blood gushed out everywhere from the open, nasty gash across the man's forehead. It sprayed the mirror, the wall, the floor, turning the bathroom into a house of horrors. He slumped over but Gale kept attacking, mounting his back to slip in a chokehold. Too dazed and confused from the sink damage, the man gurgled on his own blood, trying desperately to breathe and stay conscious. He rolled over, atop Gale, but the lithe and nimble woman wrapped her legs around his stomach, sinking the choke in tighter.
He threw a lucky punch behind him, landing on Gale's temple, forcing her to break the hold from the shock. He rolled over again, choking, semi-conscious, trying to recover his senses to finish the job. While the punch stunned Gale, the staggering effect lasted only a couple seconds before she looked around to reassess the situation. The glint of a knife caught her attention. She scrambled for it, hoping he did not notice it too.
"Fucking bitch," he gasped out, finally getting his breath back. "You were supposed to be an easy million."
