Government mission

Sunday morning came and the usual routine was set in motion. Have breakfasts, wash up and get ready to attend the shrine. However, Ayame stayed up later than she should have only got 5 hours of sleep as they needed to be up early in order to attend to the people at the shrine.

*Yawn* "My bed sounds really appealing right now." As she was getting changed into her Miko outfit, she kept glancing at her bed.

"Someone stay up late thinking about a certain someone?" Tomoe appeared at the door with a smirk while waving a piece of paper.

"Shut up!" Ayame knew exactly what she was thinking and refused to let her continue.

"Anyway, you got another mission, all details are in the letter and make sure to meet up with the official in the usual spot." Tomoe let go of the paper slip and it floated straight into Ayame's hands.

"Yep." Ayame pouted, while she opened up the letter to look at the details.

[Case #469]

[Target: Damien Oshfauld]

[Location: Hotel room 420]

[Information: Found out by our intelligence centre, Mr Oshfauld has been conducting meetings with radical rebellion leaders and large sums of money are being wired into an offshore account.]

[Mission: Eliminate Damien and find out any information about the unknown group even if it's an encrypted message.]

[Reward: $150,00 for just eliminating Damien and if you get any information the reward will increase to $300,000]

[Note: Please meet with one of our representatives before and after the mission at building 45 to get more details and hand over any information you find.]

"300k!!!!" Ayame was in shock seeing the reward as this would be the most they would ever receive.

"This must be a big job if they are paying that much, usually it's about 50k which just covers the damn rent for this place." Ayame used the money given as a scale for how hard the mission will be and so for the government to be putting a heavy price on one guy meant it was extremely serious.

"Yes, so I want you to attend this morning shift and then go get ready, they didn't say a time, so I assume today." Tomoe, done with what she needed to do, headed back to her office.

"Oh shit the time." Ayame realised she needed to head out to the shrine grounds as it would be getting very busy right about now.

*

'I'm here." Ayame came running out towards Anna who was already there attending to the people visiting.

"Hey Ayame, how are you feeling, you look tired.": Anna noticed the bags under Ayame's eyes and assumed she didn't get much sleep after their call.

"I-I'm just a little tired, now let's get to work." Ayame wanted to finish quickly so she could take a nap before the mission.

"Aight." Anna nodded and went to perform one of the many shrine dances. Although the dances are meant to be performed once a year, it has become more accustomed once enough money is in the offering box for one to be performed. So, depending on the season or time of year, different dances were done to symbolise luck, love and many others.

In Ayame's case since it's the only shrine in the city that is close, they perform almost every single day due to just the amount of people going and offering.

Getting through the mass of people, finally Anna and Ayame could take a break.

"Are Sundays always like this?" This was Anna's first weekend working at the shrine and was getting a taste of what Ayame had to do for years.

"Yep, but it isn't the worst day, just wait until it's Christmas which luckily isn't for another 10 months." Ayame felt shivers thinking about Christmas as they were the place where stalls were set up and held a festival. This was the most Ayame got to interact with people and is the main reason why her social skills are not terrible.

"Sounds like hell." Anna was not looking forward to it, but she didn't know if she would still be here as her marriage is relatively soon.

"I'm going to take a nap, I have to go out soon, so make sure Tomoe doesn't work you to death." Ayame heard her bed calling and so she left Anna to continue her shift.

*Sigh* "No promises." Anna looked over at the cleaning supplies and sighed as now it was time for the tedious job of cleaning.

*

Falling onto her bed, Ayame set an alarm for 2 hours and hoped she wouldn't sleep through it.

'Good thing we finished before 12, I should have some leeway.' Finishing before the morning gave Ayame some time to rest before she had to prepare.

<2 hours later>

*Ring, Ring*

An alarm went off inside Ayame's room and slowly she got up from her bed.

'Fuck I still feel tired.' Ayame felt even more tired than before, but she knew she couldn't go back to sleep as she had to leave in a couple of hours.

Letting herself fall to the floor, she laid on her back procrastinating on getting her equipment.

"300k…. DOLLARS!" Remembering the reward for the mission, she quickly stood up. However, her vision started filling up with coloured static and caused her to fall back down to her bed. Recovering shortly after, Ayame regretted getting up so quickly and so this time she slowly lifted herself.

'I need to eat more meat.' Suddenly having the craving for meat, she quickly shook her head as she had other things to worry about. Rushing over to her closet, she grabbed out her clothes and bag of assassination tools.

"Since I need to get information, it would probably be good to bring some torture tools." Filtering out weapons and tools she wouldn't need, only small knives, the dagger, grapple hook, rope, blow torch, an iron bar and a few extra small tools were left.

With her things all in order, she put on her assassin clothes and went to tell Tomoe she was ready.

"Mum, I will be going now since I have nothing better to do." Ayame poked her head into Tomoe's office where she was again working on some papers.

"Alright, stay safe sweetie and call me if you are in trouble or send an SOS text." Tomoe leaned on her desk and waved at Ayame.

Getting her confirmation Ayame left the shrine and headed for the waystone to teleport near the meeting place.

***

<Kasumi POV>

Up high in a costly apartment, Kasumi and her father were in the living room which was all of the first floor.

"You can't do this Father!" Kasumi was yelling with a clearly angry tone at her father who was sipping on some coffee.

"I'm afraid if you don't control her, then I cannot allow you to associate." Putting down his cup of coffee, he calmly responded.

"I can't do that to Ayame, I don't want this fake shit, I want a real friendship maybe even a relationship!" Kasumi found her father's calm demeanour aggravating as it seemed like nothing was getting through to him.

"Relationship?" Raising an eyebrow at what Kasumi said, it seemed to trigger a change in his attitude.

"You believe that some random commoner woman is worthy to take my daughter's hand!" Getting up from the couch, it was clear he was now angry.

"Yes I do! The time of choosing a partner and keeping our blood pure is far over! And you know it, more human crossbreeds of the Kitsune families are much stronger than the regular ones!" Kasumi was getting sick of her father wanting to control her life and wanted to try to convince him that things are different.

"You know what, since she seems to be the problem, I will go out and kill her." Having enough of his daughter's antics decided to snip the 'problem' at the root.

"NO!" Kasumi instantly went to grab her phone, but before she could even move a muscle, she was restrained by shadowy hands.

"Be a good little girl and stay put while I go deal with a pest." Disappearing from where he stood, Kasumi was held still unable to do anything.

"Please…. Not again." Kasumi started to sob as once again the things she wanted were being taken away. Feeling her mental state crack, she didn't know what she could do and it seemed like the only path was the one that was paved for her.

***

<Tomoe POV>

"Hmm?" Tomoe turned around to look out the window as she felt a sudden presence enter the vicinity.

'It can't be Ayame, she just left to do her mission and it can't be Anna, she just went home.' Being almost night-time, there should be no one at the shrine and the presence she felt had an odd feeling.

Getting up from her desk, she clicked her fingers disappearing in a flash of flames.

Appearing in the branches of the trees that surround the shrine, she saw who was entering the shrine. But when she looked at him, he suddenly appeared in her face.

"Who do we have here?" The middle-aged man wearing a casual suit looked dead into Tomoe's eyes.

"Ara~ if it isn't my sister's killer Sebath." Tomoe's eyes were wide, but also filled with excitement, but Sebath hearing his name being muttered caused him to look in shock.

"Amber eyes and black hair…. No." Taking another look at the woman in front of him, he came to realise who it was.

"Oh yes." Tomoe took a step back and unleashed her kitsune traits fully. 9 black tails all tipped with flames appeared and the casual Kimono she wore became loose, showing cleavage, but allowing her to move more freely. Her fox ears popped out of her head and claws replaced her hands. Canine teeth poked out and soon her half-transformation was done.

"Ha… Hahaha, you're still alive? Here I was going to kill a pesky woman, but I found a much better prey!" Also releasing his kitsune traits, 6 dark purple tails appeared and similar to Tomoe, his body transformed partly into a fox.

"You know you can't win~." Tomoe saw the number of tails which signified the magical strength of a kitsune and it was clear Tomoe was stronger.

"Wasn't like that with your sister. Almost didn't recognise you since you don't have your silver hair." Sebath stabbed at the fact that despite Tomoe's sister having more tails she was still killed.

"Heh, I'd like to see you try." Tomoe was getting more pissed off by the second as she saw the smug grin on Sebath's face.

"Gladly."