Growing up

After Flora finished telling me that, she took me back to her agency. The other guys inside looked at me with worry and all asked if I was hurt. When I told them that I wasn't they looked relieved, only to turn around and start yelling at me.

I got through the rest of the day without any hiccups, until I got back to Rei's hotel. It wasn't because I did not have what he asked for, plus more I might add, but because he immediately recognized the old man's diamond pendant as a, literal, family heirloom to Butch. He then saw the rest of the stuff I had taken off of the old man, he went slightly wide eyed and then started laughing saying,

"You are supposed to be smart for your age! They teach sixth years this stuff in school don't they?" He then wiped a loose tear from his eye with one hand, while holding his stomach with the other.

"Rei, I am pretty sure you are the idiot here."

"Yo, Shadow. I didn't call you an idiot and how so?"

"I am able to read between the lines you know. Also, I am only a fifth year so, no, I did not know who the man was."

"Wait... You are seriously only five!?" He says genuinely shocked.

"Duh, Why else would I still be going to school six days a week? Sixth years get to go only five days out of the week like a normal school." I look at him skeptically, wondering how smart my friend really is.

"Well, that makes sense, but you do know that I can't pawn this stuff, right?"

"Yeah I guess so, but what should I do with it?"

"They are definitely going to send out wanted posters for this stuff... and who ever is in possession of it, AKA you..."

We continued to talk about how to get me out of this mess without my team finding out. We decided, stupidly, to put it all in a trash bag and dump the bag on the other side of town. He ended up doing most of the work since, you know... garbage bags... ugh... I shiver at the thought of them, even today, five years later.

A couple of days later they found the bag and since I always wear gloves when stealing, they could not trace it back to me being the thief. I got away with the crime, but earned myself a last name that would be a death sentence if I ever claimed it.

Sage.

It is not the plant, but the description of someone wise, not easy to fool, and in this case, too smart to be caught.

It secretly became my last name. Currently, this is how my name goes,

Nickname(s): Shadow

First Name(s): N/A

Middles name(s): Damon (pronounced demon)

Last name(s): Sage

~ 15 years old ~

Today I was finally caught for the crime I committed ten years ago. Who would have thought that the old man wrote down in his will that there was a little boy around Flora's agency, on a Sunday, that he believed is the one to have stolen his valuables that day. I mean LET IT GO! I am currently thinking back on how my morning went as I am being taken to Butch's team's, Team claw's, hideout for a private trial:

I finally moved out of Team Rocket's team house last month, so I am living on my own. Due to the fact that I am now of age, I have to take a skill test to see if I can rejoin Team Rocket. I really need to tell the guys that I want to build my own team, and of course make a pact with Team Rocket after, but I know they will be disappointed. Not that I really care but I still need allies! I am... how should I put it... Not likable? Bane of everyone else's existence? Pretty much I am hated by everyone but Team Rocket and Team Claw. I can't join Team Claw for... Ahem... Reasons. So I need to find a way to let them down easy. I graduated from TMHS, The Mafia High School, with kids who are three or four years older than me, last week. I came out top of the school despite my age difference and let's just say that did not make it easy in a school of trained killers. I made it out without any marks, but I can't say the same for my Mafia Record. Heh.

I am stalking down the oh too familiar alley to get to Rei's, while I am thinking of grabbing a drink at his built in bar in his hotel's lobby. I have my eyes out, looking around, while at the same time I let instincts kick in so that my mind can wander. I keep this up all the way to Rei's.

As soon as I get into view of Rei's hotel, I can tell that somethings up. It is dead quite. Typically you can hear one of Rei's obnoxious clocks, ticking all the way out here. I partly think that that is the main reason people even see his tiny hotel. Anyway, I pull out a dagger, that I had strapped to my thigh, as I slowly walk up to the side of Rei's hotel. Whoever is inside will probably expect me to just walk straight in through either the back door or the front door. Well, I'm not stupid.

I make it around the side of the building and hear people talking around back, as expected. There is a dumpster pressed up against the building next to Rei's, and this pathway is so narrow that the dumpster almost takes up the whole thing. I nimbly leap onto the dumpster lid without a sound and use the height, and my parkour skills, to scale the side of Rei's three story hotel until I silently land on his roof.

I know that he has skylights in the Suite rooms on the top floor. Quickly, I pick the lock on one of the skylights and drop into the room, leaving the window open in case of the need for a quick escape.

I exit the room, leaving the door open, and jump up onto the support beams under the roof. Rei never had a ceiling put in, because and I quote, ' It is a waste of time and money when the beams set a nice romantic yet rustic mood.'

So it was very easy to move from beam to beam without being seen because the light did not quite reach all the way up here and of course I am wearing black. Soon I make it down to the first floor and crouch down on a beam at the edge of the room, opposite the front door. I can see that there are four men leaning against some beams that are holding up the roof and connect to the floor at even intervals. They really did think that I would just walk through the front door. I'm actually offended. How dumb do they think I am? I mean come on… Ugh, you know what? This just means that they will be this much easier to deal with.

I don't see Rei anywhere, and there are six more men sitting at the tables that dot the first floor of the hotel. Pretty much the first floor is a bar or tavern. There are also about three men out back from what I could tell. Maybe four? That means that there are at least thirteen to fourteen men against me. Not really liking the odds because I do not know them or their fighting styles or how many weapons they have, but I have beaten worse so… Meh, What the heck. Let's do this!