Mistaken Face

The little boy crumpled in Code X's arms, a gaping hole in his arm. From the center of the wound, the crimson liquid permeated outward, staining his rag-like sleeves as if a bloody rose.

Drip.

Drip.

Drip.

Drop by drop, his blood spilled onto the floor, forming a small pool of red, the color so bright that it hurt Code X's eyes.

No, it wasn't that she wasn't used to the sight of blood. But the image of the little boy lunging in front of her and blocking out the sharp blade with his own body as a shield stirred something within her heart.

He shouldn't have…

Another sword tried to stab at them, but her bloodshot eyes were suddenly blinded with sheer rage. Dodging the attack, she threw the knife the boy had picked up from the assassins right back at them, and a man dropped dead to the floor, a clean slit over his throat.

The little boy tried to steady himself, his face turning an ashen shade of white.

"Be… be careful…"

Using all the energy he could muster at the moment, he dragged Code X to the side as another blade approached the pair.

"Be careful… elder sister."

Trying to prevent the boy from collapsing onto the floor, she let him rest against her body, using one arm to support his weight.

With her other side, she cleanly kicked the long weapon out of another assassin's hands. And as he tried to bend down to pick it, in a single powerful stride, she stepped on his neck with all her strength.

Only until she heard the cracking of bones did she stop applying pressure. He gave out with a pained scream, twitching for a moment until his eyes rolled over.

The remaining two assassins visibly froze for a moment, exchanging confused glances with one another, almost as if asking themselves whether this mission was worth it or not.

"What are you all doing!" A voice boomed in the distance. "What is the meaning of this fight?"

"Under the name of the Blessed Emperor, how dare there be a public fight in the middle of the street!"

Almost as if on cue, the Empress's guards appeared in front of the remaining assassins, their swords drawn.

Panicked looks in their eyes, the two remaining assassins sped down the streets. With one turn, they disappeared into a narrow alley.

Honestly, Code X didn't know why it took the guards that long to find her. She was at most a street down, and there was no way that they couldn't hear all the commotion.

But with the corpses of three assassins strewn over the floor and a child clinging onto her for dear life, she hardly knew where to start in her lies to the guards.

"Miss, are you hurt?"

The words that sounded were not the ones she had been dreading. Half expecting to be reported to the Empress for trying to escape, she looked up with confused eyes.

"Are you speaking to me?" These guards must have finally gone blind or insane.

The guard looked equally confused.

"Yes, why of course, Miss." The guard must have thought that he was frightening her, so he deliberately tried to make his voice sound softer. "We're part of the Imperial Guard, and we thought you were someone we had been looking for."

"But there seems to be a mistake." The other guard chimed in, licking his lips in embarrassment. "You just happened to be wearing the same clothes as the woman we were looking for."

Code X was more confused than ever, her lips opening a few times before pursing close once more. Even she herself did not expect the words she spoke after a few moments of hesitation.

"Do you have an apothecary? This child is wounded, and I'll explain everything along the way."

As they waited for the boy to be bandaged, never once did his hands leave hers. She tried to release his grasp, but he would always look up with wide eyes, pouting until she stopped trying to fidget against his touch. It was almost as if he was a little pet, unwilling to have his owner leave for a mere moment.

Code X tried to weave a flawless explanation for the corpses on the floor.

"These men appeared out of nowhere, saying that my brother owed them something." She racked her mind for what else to include. "And this man appears from the sky, defeating a few of them before leaving in the opposite direction."

Judging from the blank expressions on the men's faces, she doubted that they believed her story. Heck, even she herself wasn't convinced by what she was saying.

She blamed her lack of focus on the little kid's touch. It was painfully hard to keep her concentration as his hands quivered with the doctor's touches.

Watching as he bit his lips in pain, she let out a sigh of relief when his wound was fully bandaged.

"Thank you so much for all your help, and I hope you find who you're looking for." Code X flashed a bright smile, hoping that the guards would be reminded of their missing target.

"Oh right!" One of the guards nudged at the other.

"Empress will not be pleased," he whispered to other man, but Code X's keen hearing still picked up the urgency of his words.

"Just wait here, and the Court Officials will be here to take your testimony! I'm afraid that the two of us will have to leave now." He dragged the other man back to the streets.

Almost immediately after they had left, Code X and the boy snuck out of the apothecary. Looking around, she finally found the perfect hidden alley, the opening partially obscured by a piece of drying fabric.

Half dragging the little boy there, she pushed him against the wall, careful to not let his wound actually come into contact with the hard stone.

"Who are you?"

And more urgently, she added to her question.

"And who am I right now?"