Encounter - Dangerous In More Ways In One

"Hey kid, want to be an assassin, you have the talent and potentials so how about it!"

'Why the hell is he repeating that topic?' Currently a figure was on the floor with something bound between his hands and feet. Stigma had instructed Dusk before hand that if he wanted to capture anything, Dusk would turn into something like a snake or rope then bind it.

With Dusk keeping the intruder captive, there was no way anyone or anything can escape without losing some limbs. So he can relax for now.

However, both Hilda and the ax were still on Stigma's hand, showing that he didn't lower his guard for even a moment. Although he hasn't experienced anything serious as of yet, surprise attacks are bound to happen if one lowers their guard for even a moment.

'An injured dog doesn't mean a dead dog.'[1] A phrase he always remembered when he handled thugs or hooligans.

It hadn't been long since Stigma found an intruder entering his tent, he would have expected it to be some low class thief trying to steal from him while he seemed unguarded like the ones in the market.

The intruder on the other hand fought him toe to toe with no effort, skillfully dodging and literally catching anything thrown at him, along with exhibiting quick time judgement to limit Stigma's options of dodging when he attacked.

Whoever the assailant was, he was capable of following Stigma speed like it was as stroll in the park, even dodged the ax swing at the last moment, with Stigma grazing his chin. With such a display of skill and strength, Stigma could only assume the individual wasn't from a normal background.

'Too skilled to be a some small time thief, more of a military background maybe...'

"Answer my question first, who are you?" With the ax at hand, Stigma twirled it around to show he was serious if he didn't answer him truthfully.

Stigma would take this chance and use his skill, but he had to stay still for a few seconds to activate it and he had a feeling the intruder wasn't alone. Each of the lights were extinguished at the same time, so he had to be wary for reinforcements.

"Hmm, what should I do..." The figure sat up and cracked his neck from side to side, silently looking around with his barely closed eyes. Even without his skill, he can tell the man was a Cultivator who was capable in hiding his Zen aura.

Based on the voice, Stigma could assume the assailant was a man who was smiling at him with no form worry that he was captured, it's almost as if he was just playing around and enjoying himself.

If he took into account on how he fought, it only emphasizes he was veteran, who mainly focuses on speed and reflexes if he was able to follow Stigma's movements and knife throwing. Plus, he didn't emit any form of sound when he entered nor when he moves, it only proves why he was wary of him for some reason...

'Wait a minute....'

'Watching me from behind from a distance, gazing at me with no form of hostile intent, waiting for every person to leave and being sure I was alone and fell asleep, turning of the forms of light and trying to capture me...'

After going through going through the entire event, a quick realization suddenly came to him, causing Stigma's back to shake with cold sweat all the way to his legs.

'This man is dangerous in more ways in one!' A serious expression started appearing on Stigma, he even stopped twirling the ax and stared at the man who was sitting down.

Unfortunately, the man mistook it as some brave front from a scared child, leaving him to continue smiling as he gave his reply.

"I decline, you should introduce yourself fir-" *Swoosh!* Before the figure could finish his sentence, Stigma threw the ax between his crotch, inches away from being but in half.

With such a dangerous move near his manhood, the captured man broke out in cold sweat, leaving his mouth wide open with with his face still smiling, and sweat pouring down his face.

...

"You don't have to answer anymore, I have deemed you as a dangerous predator who likes to prey on young little boys who live by themselves..., for all young boys sake, I will cut of your d*ck." Placing Hilda right in front of him, he started mumbling to her for doing such a horrible act, but Hilda whispered back saying the following words.

'You did what you had to do' If she were human, she would be smiling with a dark aura surrounding her, wielding a hatchet as she swung it around[2].

Hearing such a ridiculous comment along with the boy holding his sword at the ready as he stared at his crotch, left the figure on the ground speechless with his mouth wide open as he covered his nether region with his legs as he inched away.

Moments later he finally realized what Stigma meant, causing him to puke out blood.

He had been called stupid, moron, rouge, drunkard and far worse due to some mistakes. But if others find out about his newly gained title which was depriving as that, he would cry tears of blood every time he heard it.

"LIKE LITTLE BOYS MY FOOT, I ,YOUR FATHER, AM A LADIES MAN!" Seeing him cover his crotch only made Stigma believe it was a sign of denial, he can only imagine how sick his fetishes were when he was captured.

"Huh! Like I would believe you, you could prove it but I doubt anyone can vouch for you at this time. Also mind explaining to me why you, a man, kept on smiling at me the entire time as we fought and tried to grab me a few time?'

"Like I told you, I am trying to recruit you to be an assassin!"

"Huh? That's weird? Someone is still spouting lies when he is about to lose his manhood. Still like to say anymore nonsense or are you going to tell the truth?"

"I'm telling you the truth! Stop aiming at my crotch with that thing!"

"Don't worry, just relax and stop resisting, the pain will only be in a moment, don't fight it....Why am I quoting something you should be saying to your rape victim, you pedophile...." Giving him a disgusted looked, Stigma almost ready to remove his 'little' proof of manhood and become a woman, but the man only begged.

"I AM NOT A CHILD RAPIST!"

Taking a deep breath he readied himself to swing Hilda at any moment. After the job was done, he had to make sure Hilda would go through numerous phrases of cleaning everyday.

"WAIT?! WAIT?! YOU MISUNDERSTAND, I HAVE NO SUCH FETISHES AT ALL, I REALLY AM HERE TO SCOUT YOU!" Seeing that Stigma was actually serious in believing he was a pedophile, he finally stopped smiling and tried to reason with him, but Stigma entered it to one ear and out the other[3].

As Stigma was about to get closer to castrate his prisoner[4]. Stigma's surroundings suddenly changed from the usual living quarters to a space covered in black curtain equal to the size of the entire tent, what followed a women's laughter from the distance.

"HA HA HA HA HA HA HA." Stigma couldn't tell where the laughter was coming from, but he could tell there were at least two voices overlapping.

"Wait! Wait! Ha ha! Time out! Ha ha ha! Time out! Ha ha ha my sides hurt so much, Ha ha ha ha!!!!"

"I told you, he he he he, you made the entire scenario weird, he he he he, when you smile."

Like what Stigma had expected there were accomplices, he still can't tell where they were but judging by the voices, he was about to fight two to three people. Yet instead of being a threatening tone both voices were filled with laughter.

Eventually the laughter died out, but the voice were still filled with joy.

"Hey Kid! You have one hell of a sense of humor! But you should believe him since he himself is an assassin, you already saw his skills so far." Out of nowhere a figure stepped out from the shadows standing right beside the man on the ground.

Unlike the hooded figure on the floor, this one was shorter with a higher tone, from below he can see high heels and had the scent of flowers, indicating her a female.

If he looked closely, the figure was petite with four set of knives on her waist with a bow and arrow on her back, under the hood he could see the lower half of her face which had red lips. If he were to guess, this one was an older girl from the way she spoke.

"But I am curious, why did you think he was after you for sexual purposes?" Another figure stepped out, only this time she was walked right behind Stigma. Now the reason Stigma could tell other one was a female, due to her hourglass like figure.

Strapped to her waist was a short sword, along with seven daggers, on her hand were three knives skillfully playing with them like they were toys.

"I'm returning these to you." After receiving his knives, Stigma looked between the two with a tense expression, he had to phrase it carefully so they can understand his misunderstanding.

"...Your curious?" Grabbing the ax on the ground he placed it on his back as he started back at them, with Hilda by his side he felt that he can destroy anything in front of him, but it didn't matter if he can't make a hit.

"Yes, you see, he is in fact telling the truth, or more accurately we ordered him to give a test if your worthy then recruit you. Also, I don't think the smile was what set you off, you must have noticed someone was watching you from before right."

The hourglass woman walked right in front of Stigma with her hands behind her back, showing that she wasn't going to do anything and listen. Beside her was the petite figure who was using the man as a chair as he went on fours with his hands and feet still bind.

"...Yes, I felt someone was staring at me hours ago, the gaze wasn't hostile, but t felt more like a show of interest. Normally I wouldn't mind it since I have made enemies so far, but having someone look at me with great interest concerned me greatly, now someone, who was an older man, barged into my tent with grin on his face as he looked at me. If you think about it he was trying to catch me half the time so I just assumed he was just after my boy hood. So I claim it to be self defence!"

...

...

...

It goes without saying that the two of them are trying to suppress their laughter, while the man on the ground was biting his lower lip with a defeated expression.

They didn't seem evil, but if they were part of some shady business, then he would try to break ties to them.

Situations like this was what Stigma was concern about, between attracting the attention of an underworld organization or getting rid of hoodlums he would choose the former. Since the gaze was following him, he used some tactics to misdirect him by using it in a form of an accident.

He assumed that the eight figure had something to do with them, but it might be a coincidence or they had no actual relation.

'If I excluded the time I almost killed those low lifes from the reception, these people wouldn't know much about me, so why ask me to be an assassin.'

Almost killing those people was him saying 'to stay away from him', unfortunately his scare tactic backfire, instead of pushing away trouble, he had somehow caught the attention of a mysterious individuals.

...

"Say boy don't misunderstand, though we call ourselves assassins we do other forms of jobs, such as transporting special goods, becoming a proxy to trade, monster hunting, it varies depending on the clients call, it's even possible to do actual assassination but they have to have a bounty on them. But if you don't want trouble you can only take jobs concerning information gathering."

"Yeah! Ah, by the way, you are not our target. Sister there just took an interest in you since you can move fast despite your age. So you want to join?"

"....What if I don't want to join?"

"Hmm, isn't it obvious. We have to silence you to keep our whereabout unknown, don't hate us ok, it's just that we need to be careful most of the time."

...

Right now Stigma was facing a problem, two of the three hooded figure were capable fighters. Two were watching his movements, while one was lying down on the ground with Dusk restraining him, if it weren't for Dusk standing by on constraints, Stigma would have been in a bad situation and he would be dealing with three people at the same time.

If that was bad enough, he was stuck inside a space which he had no idea what it does, making a bad move would be his last worry.

"Don't be so tense, didn't he tell you, he wanted to recruit you to be an assassin. If you think we didn't pay attention to your capabilities, you thought wrong, so let me ask you again would you like to be an assassin. Ah, if you agree we will protect you as long as we are in the market, since you are still a new recruit."

...

"Depends...."

"Oh you agreeing. On what? "

"Everything, also..." Slowly lifting his index finger, Stigma pointed at the man on the ground and gave his condition.

"Make sure this Pedophile stays as far away from me as possible, if he get near me without proving he really loves women, I will not hesitate to burn of his d*ck or castrate him when he sleeps, if needed he will sleep outside the tent."

"I TOLD YOU I AM NOT A PEDOPHILE! SO DON'T BE SO UNREASONABLE! SENIOR THIS KID IS DANGEROUS IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE!"

"OK! x 2" The petite figure along with the hourglass woman ignored the suggestion coming from the man and agreed without hesitation, while the man was bashing his head on the ground trying not to cry tears of blood, from his current predicament, the other two were dancing in joy.

"Let drink to our new recruit!"

"I agree! I agree!"

Without waiting for his approval, both women grabbed a bottle form the bar and started drinking, ignoring Stigma who was trying to follow the flow.

'....I wonder if made the right choice....'

[1] An injured dog doesn't mean a dead dog - similar to 'nothing is more dangerous than a cornered wild beast'

[2] Higurashi anyone.

[3] Metaphor for ignoring him

[4] Yes, he really was going to do it.