Target?

Ayame kicked Damien into a chair and put magical restraints on him, making it impossible for any normal person to break free.

Once Damien was secure in his seat, she walked over to the closet and pulled out her bag from the top shelf. Placing it down on the bed, the sound of metal banging on each other echoed through the room. This made Damien go pale as he assumed there were a lot of tools in the bag for torture.

"Now, to make this easy, I need you to tell me everything you know and you will be free to go." Ayame blatantly lied as either way she was going to make him suffer in every way she could.

"I-I know nothing." Damien didn't know what she was referring to and even if he did, he was too shaken up by the situation.

"Hmm, that's unfortunate." Ayame rummaged through her bag and found in one of the compartments a pair of pliers.

"How much do you like your nails?" Ayame walked around Damien slowly and when she got behind him squatted down where his hands were restrained.

"Hu-ARGHHHH!!!" Damien screamed in excruciating pain from his fingertips and realised at the same time what Ayame was doing.

"Oof, that's a lot of blood." Ayame got a few blood splats on her face as she went hard and fast with the pliers causing blood to spew out of his fingertip. Stopping at just three nails ripped off, walked back around and waited for Damien to calm down.

"Is there anyone you work for? I want to know the most top-secret stuff." She held the bottom of Damien's chin trying to be a little seductive and take advantage of his monkey brain.

"S-s-ss…Sebath." Damien only spoke one word which she assumed was a name. Taking out the government phone, she wrote it down in an email and left it for the time being.

"Good~." Ayame was getting really into the torture and if anyone she knew saw her, they wouldn't recognise who she was.

"As a reward, I will mark you." Quickly going back to her bag, she brought out a blowtorch and a small solid iron bar.

For a moment Damien thought of nefarious things, but as soon as the blowtorch came out, he tried to squirm out of the restraints.

"Open wide." Tearing the bottom of her dress, she used it to cover up his mouth to make sure he didn't make too much noise. Even though she set up an anti-sound barrier, it was mainly for her sake as her ears were sensitive.

Holding the bar and torch in front of Damien's face, she heated up the iron forcing him to watch what was to come. Once the bar was a bright orange she ripped his shirt giving her direct access to his skin.

Slowly getting closer to his chest, Damien tried his hardest to move, but thanks to the restraints he barely was able to wiggle.

The bar hit his chest causing a muffled scream to come out of his mouth. Ayame pushed as hard as she could causing the worst possible burns,

Once she was happy with the burn, moved on to scraping the bar slowly across his chest. The screams continued until Ayame was finished doing a drawing.

"Done!" Stepping back, she admired her work that was on Damien's chest which was a burned drawing of the kitsune symbol.

Damien was out of breath from the constant burning and at this point wanted to die. Ayame without even realising it almost broke him which she didn't intend at all.

"Want to tell me anything else?" Almost forgetting she was trying to get information out of him quickly asked to see if there was anything else. However, she wasn't hopeful as the fact he wasn't aware of her race instantly told her that he wasn't important.

"I-I w-was only told by t-the man to look f-for a silver-haired w-women with orange eyes." Giving out a bit more information, Ayame was shocked to hear a description of herself.

'I am the target?' She knew her traits were very rare and doubted it could be anyone else.

"I've had enough." After getting this key bit of information, Ayame lost the mood to keep going.

"A-am I free?" Damien felt a bit of hope hearing she was finished and couldn't help but smile.

"Pfft no, you've seen my face and I can't let you live." Ayame pulled out the dagger from her chest and stabbed into the eye of the kitsune she drew. Conveniently it was in line with his heart making it almost an instant kill.

Damien's hopes were crushed in a second which was the last push needed to break him. His face turned desperate while the knife impaled him and soon after he lost his soul.

The orange crystal glowed for a brief moment signifying he was fully dead.

"Now to send details to the government." Pulling out the phone again, she filled out all the information she could trying to ensure the 300k.

[Damien has no idea about kitsune, so I can deduce he doesn't have a lot of important information since all I could get out of him was the name Sebath and that he gave Damien a target. This target was that of Silver hair and orange eyes, but there was nothing else.]

Sending off the message, she then turned the phone to ash with flames making it unrecoverable.

'Now to get out of this damn dress.' Ayame sort of liked the dress and wanted to keep it, but it just wasn't her style.

"Maybe I can go out with Kasumi again for one." Thinking that she can get a new one, quickly changed back into her normal stealth clothes.

*

After she packed up realised that the entire place was a mess with 3 dead bodies laying around.

"I should burn them." Wanting to get rid of some evidence, she drew a kitsune circle in the middle and gathered the three dead bodies on top of it.

"Akene!" Shouting the fire god's name, the bodies went up in flames turning them into a small pile of ash.

Ayame then used some wind and made the ash fly out the window, getting rid of any trace of their body.

'I made pretty good time.' Pulling out her phone, it was only 3 am which was the usual time she finished her mission.

'I'll text Kasumi to let her know I'm fine once I get back.' Remembering the missed call before she started her mission wanted to hurry back to make sure things were okay.

"Let's get out of here." Ayame poked her head out in the hallway and saw that it was clear. Going out the same way she came in, she made it to the roof where the 2 guards were taking a break. This time no one was there, allowing her to head straight back to the waystone.

Teleporting back home, once she appeared back at the shrine, her phone went off. She looked at the notification and saw a message from Tomoe.

[I put half of the 300k into your own account, spend it wisely ;)]

Ayame blinked a few times and re-read to make sure she wasn't going crazy. She then quickly opened up her bank app and suddenly saw the 150k refresh on her screen.

[$153,272]

Seeing the number, she quickly sprinted through the forest back to her house. Slamming the door open, she saw Tomoe crossing the hallway to her office.

The slam made Tomoe freeze in place and turn her head slowly, but when she realised it was just Ayame became relaxed.

"Heyyy sweetie~ how was the mission." Smiling, Tomoe stopped what she was doing and faced Ayame.

"What's with the money?! You never give me anything." Ayame pointed to her phone with the money visible on it.

"Well since my little fox is leaving the nest I figured I'd give you some of the money to set you up and not have to worry about today's societal pressures." Tomoe knew the time had come when Ayame would need her own money and with missions giving a higher reward didn't see an issue taking a cut now.

"B-but what about the rent for this place?" Ayame was well aware it wasn't cheap to keep the entire plot of land and was most of the reason why she didn't get much allowance.

"Oh don't worry it's only 40k a month and as long as you keep doing missions we will have plenty to spare. I just finished paying off all the renovations so you can even take a cut from some of the smaller missions." Disclosing the amount they pay, Ayame found the price quite insane, but it made sense to her why Tomoe couldn't afford to give Ayame any money before.

It was also news to Ayame, but what made it more convincing is Tomoe didn't try to tease her at all.

"Anyway, you can tell me how the mission went in the morning. I'm sure you're tired, so pass me the dagger and I'll send the souls off for you." Tomoe offered her hand and it took Ayame a second to realise what Tomoe wanted.

"T-thank you." Ayame looked away as she passed the dagger not really knowing how to show her appreciation.

"No worries." Tomoe took the initiative and gave Ayame a hug which took her by surprise.

'Warm.' It was a feeling she could get used to as the warmth Tomoe gave was something she didn't think she needed. Holding the hug for a solid minute, it felt like it was never going to end, but Tomoe needed to finish some things.

"Now go rest." Tomoe patted Ayame's head and let go of her.

Nodding her head, she walked off to her room and dropped her bag on the floor. Falling onto her bed, she pulled out her phone and sent Kasumi a text.