A Beautiful Stranger

September 22, 2022 - 11:03 PM

"I told you. We shouldn't have brought Haru in tonight's mission. Look at him, he's too drunk to do this" Kaito complained as he glared at his younger brother in contempt. Haru was holding a flower that he picked up on the way and started talking to it.

"Mikasa, look at you, you're so beautiful", Haru said to the flower, referring to the Japanese actress he had a crush on. "Ahhhhh. My eyes do not deserve to behold such a rare beauty", he placed his other hand on his eyes to cover it and drifted his head a few inches away from the flower in a very dramatic manner, as if his two brown orbs were being blinded by a very bright light. "You're more precious than a polished diamond. Will you marry me?"

Akira shook her head and heaved a heavy sigh, wondering how much alcohol the man ingested to get that drunk again. He was clearly in a different dimension right now.

"I know, but when did that guy even listen to me when he's drunk?" she replied in almost a whisper to Kaito as she shrugged her shoulders and raised both her hands, palms facing the sky.

Kaito was the next one to let out a sigh as he ran his palm through his face, "I should have just knocked him out and left him at the clan estate. I swear, if tonight's mission fails because of him, I'll beat him up so badly he wouldn't be able to get up and get himself drunk for two weeks straight."

The neighborhood was already in deep slumber, but for the three people dressed in all black, the night was still young. There, above the evening sky, was the moon glowing in its full glory. No matter how dark and scary the night was, as long as the moon still existed, they had nothing to fear. The heavenly body shall always be their guiding light and strength - making them the most indispensable and formidable creatures of the night.

"Oh Mikasa, I promise that you will not regret marrying me. I'll make you the happiest woman in the world. Let's also have tons of kids!" Haru continued to dwell in his imaginary world. He gave the flower a long smooch, almost crushing it.

"Haru, will you shut up. You're too loud. We're going to get caught at this point", Kaito mumbled angrily at his brother who was hiding behind a bush beside him. He was trying his best not to jump at his brother right now and punch him in the face. How they were siblings despite being total opposites in personalities still remained a mystery to Kaito until now.

Unlike Haru who was the epitome of being a happy-go-lucky and a chaotic mess, Kaito was more on the calculated and serious side. In the words of Akira's grandmother: a technicolor fountain of dysfunction named Haru and a perfectionist maniac by the name of Kaito; is there anything more atrociously and comically appalling than that?

"Shhhhhh" Akira murmured to the brothers, pressing her index finger against her lips as she carefully peered through the very small gaps between the bushes. "The lights had gone out. Let's move, now."

She returned the mask that was covering the lower half of her face then climbed the luxurious fence of the mansion that they were infiltrating so effortlessly like one of those people doing parkours - only that hers looked easier, faster and unearthly.

Kaito and Haru followed her, showing the same ease and impressiveness as hers in climbing.

The mansion consisted of three floors. Their target's room was found on the third floor. It was a man named Jozo Miyamura - a famous politician loved by the people. His advocacy was mainly on helping young people. He was a known youth advocate. However, Akira knew the darkness and deception behind that so-called advocacy of his. Miyamura's advocacy was centered on young people because they were his prey.

For the past eight months, two of the students who were beneficiaries of his scholarship program went missing. The first one was a female high school student. She disappeared one afternoon as she was on her way home from school. Seven months after her disappearance, another student, a first year in college and a male also went missing.

The police had been searching and investigating for months but they could not find any clues at all that might lead to the whereabouts of the two teenagers. It was as if the two just suddenly vanished in the face of the earth, leaving not even an iota of trace of their existence.

Investigators had just recently found out that the two victims were both academic scholars under Miyamura's program. They had the politician undergo through an interview, but they didn't really find any solid proof to keep investigating him. So, expectedly, Miyamura was ruled out in the scenario. They simply concluded that it was pure coincidence that the two students were both his scholars.

However, Akira and her team knew better.

No matter how hard the policemen tried, they would never find an answer. It was an impossible case from the very beginning because it was a case that wasn't really meant to be solved by mere humans. That's where Akira and her team enters the story.

With a hand signal, Akira led the two men who was with her in climbing the huge and tall building. Again, they made the act look so easy that one would assume that they could do it too, but they would just be deceiving themselves - it was so much harder that how it appeared.

Their hands and feet were quick to move, yet they were also stealthy, akin to that of a lizard silently and swiftly climbing the walls back and forth at night. There were no sounds coming from their movements.

After a few moments, they finally landed at the terrace extending from the room of Miyamura. There was a sliding door leading inside his chamber. Akira tried to open it, but the door wouldn't budge. It was locked from the inside.

"Listen up you two. I guess we're going to have quite the grand entrance tonight. I'll kick this door open, and you two swiftly surround Miyamura" Akira murmured to her companions. "He's a wary man. He'll do everything that he can to immediately escape. Make sure he doesn't escape before I deliver the finishing blow. Okay, at the count of three...one...two...three..."

The sound of hundreds of shattered glasses hitting the floor reverberated so loudly in the entire room. But Akira and her group didn't care. Their eyes quickly scanned the bedroom, searching for Miyamura and making sure that he was not already on his feet running away.

The sight in front of them had caught them by surprise. There, kneeling on the floor beside a king size bed was Miyamura, and a man whose face was covered just like them was holding the politician by his collar.

"What on earth is going on?" Kaito declared in confusion. "Who are you?" he asked directly to the masked man.

The man didn't answer. He stared at the three silently as if he was an AI who was scanning and examining them. The silence was deafening, and Akira found it to be eerie. Then her eyes quickly caught the man's left arm move behind his back. It was really hard to tell what was behind him judging by his position.

"He's got a weapon!" she exclaimed to warn her companions as she realized that the man was actually drawing a not-so-long sword.

The next thing she knew, the mysterious man was already in front of her.

"What the..." she uttered in astonishment. She did not actually expect the man to be that swift for she assessed and thought that he was a mere human!

The man aimed his sword at her, but she quickly blocked it with her own katana.

"Akira!" Kaito shouted as he was kicked and thrown a few meters away from Akira. He was in shock himself at how fast the man moved, including his raw strength. He coughed as he held his throbbing stomach.

"Don't mind me. I'll handle this. Go after Miyamura. Don't let him run away!" Akira reassured him.

"Alright! Don't die!" Kaito grabbed his brother and dragged him out of the room to chase Miyamura.

"As if I would!" Akira shouted in response as a tiny smile broke out of her lips. It wasn't an overconfident statement. She meant it. Akira had never lost in any of her fights yet.

"Who are you? Why are you here? Did someone send you to interfere our mission tonight?" she inquired to the man in front her, yet the man remained speechless.

His silence was starting to get on Akira's nerves. "Are you mute? Or are you just stupid?" she said through gritted teeth.

The question seemed to have infuriated the man as he pressed his sword harder against her. Her feet slid a few inches backwards against the tiled floor.

"So now you're pissed? I should be the one who is angry right now. I'll repeat the question mister. Who are you and why are you here?" Akira was hoping that the man would finally respond, but to no avail. Realizing that there was no talking to him, Akira decided to use her other method - the one that she was rather better at.

"You really do not want to speak, huh? Okay. If that's what you want, then you leave me with no choice." She jumped back and retreated for a few meters away from the mysterious man, causing him to be confused. He was analyzing and trying to figure out her every movement.

Akira removed her mask, revealing her entire face to the man. Her face and silver hair shone brightly against the moonlight as she stood at the direction of the window where the moon could slip its incandescence. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. In a split second, she was standing behind the man.

"Ho–" the man couldn't finish his sentence anymore as he was knocked out on the cold floor.

"I didn't really want to use that, but you were a persistent one", Akira spoke to the unconscious body lying on the floor.

Not long after, Kaito came running back inside the room to rejoin her. "What happened? Did you kill him already?" he asked as his eyes caught the motionless body of the man on the floor.

Akira shook her head. "No. I couldn't get a word out of him, so I had no choice but to knock him out. What about Miyamura, did you finish him?"

Kaito nodded. "Yes. It's done."

"Good", Akira replied in approval. She was a bit surprised that Kaito and Haru were able to finish him off that quickly. She thought it would be more challenging considering Miyamura was more than two centuries old.

"But wait, where's Haru?" Akira asked after she had observed that the younger brother was not with Kaito. She recalled Kaito dragging his brother along with him in a very 'unbrotherly manner' as he went after Miyamura earlier.

"He fell asleep on the stairs", Kaito answered in embarrassment.

Akira couldn't help but laugh at his honest response. Haru would certainly a get another day-long or night-long beating - which meant either verbal or physical - from his brother again once they returned home.

"Well at least tonight's mission is successful, right? Now, let's think about what to do with this guy." Akira kneeled on her one knee and removed the mysterious man's mask.

She was quite astonished to see a handsome young man. She honestly expected him to be someone who was older. She had an image of a man in his late forties, with full grown beard or mustache, the type that reminded her of those typical villains in movies.

"He's good-looking", she admitted as she continued to stare intently at the sleeping man's face.

"Are you serious?" Kaito responded in disbelief. He didn't bother hiding the disgust on his face.

"What? It's true!"

"Just kill him now."

"No. First, I need answers. I can kill him later after I get answers."

"Fine" Kaito answered in defeat.

"Alright. Go wake up your brother - if you can -" the latter statement suggested the possibility of Haru being carried on his brother's shoulder rather than walking on his two feet to go home.

"-And let's take this beautiful man at the estate."