Year 1 - Owls

My novel is now on fanfiction, royalroad, and scribblehub under RubberPeen. Links in summary and author bio.

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Walking to Gambino's tent, I thought back to what the man was like. A petty, vindictive, man who doesn't like those who are better than him and is prone to anger easily. He hasn't lost an arm yet, so his personality hasn't taken a complete dive, but the day he does is when I'm thinking of leaving the group.

We had discussed leaving the mercenary group a few times over the past year, but Guts was still reluctant to leave his "father." So, we decided that if ever Gambino dies or loses his arm like in the story and becomes embittered, we would leave. Maybe not start our own mercenary group, but just take jobs as an elite squad of six.

Seeing Gambino's tent, I snapped out of my thoughts and walked in.

"Finally, you're here. Took you long enough." he said as soon as I walked in.

"Why'd you call me?" I asked as I ignored his attempts at getting me angry. He had done this over the year since we joined, and I knew it got him angrier to just ignore his remarks.

"Tch. Seems like your little group did a good job today. The commander is dead and you held back the siege by yourself. The lord who hired us wants us to ambush the enemy at night, so we can get rid of this nuisance once and for all."

"I'm assuming you want my group to lead it?" I asked as he put a smile on his face.

"No, I want your group to do a night assassination. Only you six. Less risk, more reward." he said looking for a reaction.

"Okay. Is that all, I want to tell the rest of us so we can rest up before the night."

"That's all. Be careful of monsters in the night." he said before I walked out and Amelia started following me.

"He wants to get rid of us." she said as soon as we were out of earshot of anyone.

"I know. He wants us to conduct the raid and hope we're tired enough to be killed, or he's going to send someone he trusts to get rid of us. We've become too famous for his liking. Outshone the king."

"So, when are we leaving?"

"As soon as night falls we're leaving for the raid. And after that, we leave. For good."

"Finally." she said with a smile, "I've been getting tired of all these stinky men ogling me and the girls. I thought it would calm down after Ciri castrated that one guy, but I guess not."

"Most men are creatures of instinct. Especially men who don't know if they'll live to see the next day."

~~

It was now nightfall and the six of us were ready to go. We didn't have much to pack for leaving for good since we wanted to be ready to depart at a moment's notice. Guts was still a little reluctant but he knew Gambino wasn't really a good person, nor a good father. But we were able to convince him that it was for the best.

"All right everybody. The enemy camp is an hour's ride away so let's get going." I told everyone as we mounted on the horses we were lent for the raid.

As we made our way to the exit, Gambino was waiting for us.

"Gambino." I said looking at him.

"Good luck, kid." he said looking at Guts before walking away.

"That's not at all cryptic." said Ciri before we rode off to our final raid as part of the Hand of Steel mercenary party.

~~

After an hour of riding in silence under the pale moonlight, we finally got close enough to where we were able to spot the enemy camp. Stopping the horses and tying them before giving them an apple, we huddled together to make a plan.

"So, what's the plan? Go in guns-a-blazing and get rid of everyone in our sight?" said Uzui.

"Not this time." I said with a smile, "This time we do it silently."

"Like a cat." said Yoruichi with a smirk.

"Yes. Like a cat in the night. First, we take out the patrols. Then we take them out one by one. If things get loud, then we go all out. But let's try to do this quietly." I said to the group.

"Wait, if we're leaving the mercenary party after this, why are we going through so much trouble? Why don't we just pretend to raid and then leave?" asked Amelia.

"Because this is where our newly formed party will take the spotlight. We're going to leave our new name on the campgrounds so we can get work easier in the future. After all, who would you rather get, a mercenary party with some renown or some no-name group of six members? We need some fame to get work, unless you guys want to spend the rest of the four years doing absolutely nothing but training."

"Uhh, yeah I don't know about that. I like variety in my life, so sounds like a good plan." said Amelia with a thumbs up.

"Good, maybe this way I can finally get a nickname too. It's not fair that only you, Ciri, and Amelia have one." said Uzui jealous that he didn't have a moniker yet. Speaking of which, Ciri got the moniker of Flash Sword Ciri because all you could see was the flash of her blade catching the light before you died. Amelia on the other hand had made a name for herself for being a sharpshooter, with the moniker of Hawk Eyes Amelia, yet another link to One Piece.

"Don't worry, after today they'll call you Snake Hashira with how you move your body." teased Yoruichi.

"Ahh, don't remind me of that snake bastard. I'm the Sound Hashira, not the Snake Hashira. Why couldn't I get something related to sound and not moving my body like a snake?" he said annoyed at being compared to the Snake Hashira, with whom he doesn't have the best relationship.

"Alright, quiet down." I said with a smirk, "Remember clean and quick."

~~

"That's the last one." said Amelia checking to see if any were alive with her observation haki. Speaking of which, Amelia had trained her haki enough for her to be able to do presence sensing and strength sensing. She wasn't able to do emotion sensing just yet, but it's impressive nonetheless.

"That was easy. Though killing their commander earlier in the day probably ruined their morale thus lowering their defenses." said Ciri to which Amelia smiled.

"So what are we naming our group?" asked Yoruichi.

"Hmm, I've been thinking of names but nothing's popped out to me." I said rubbing my chin.

"How about Uzui and the Five?" said Uzui with a puffed-up chest.

"We'll definitely get zero work like that. What are we a band of bards?" rebutted Yoruichi.

"Night Raid? Like that one anime?" said Amelia.

"I like it, but it sounds like we're limited to only night raids. How about the Owls?" I said.

"Owls? Just Owls?" asked Ciri.

"Yes. Because the owls are natural predators of hawks." I explained, "And it sounds cool. Owls."