Fujin Village

The two partners, Kai and Glen, had spent the entire day trekking from the hills, leaving the comfort of their village, walking through many unknown streets, and finally spotting the village they were searching for.

It had taken roughly six hours to arrive, considering how they had to travel on foot without so much as a map to guide them. It was nearing the time of sunset when the sky began to change into a multicolored blur of yellows, oranges, and pinks. The sky seemed to be congratulating them on reaching the next village. The village where the Hideaki family summer house resided.

"Fujin Village. We finally made it." Glen chuckled, wiping his brow with satisfaction.

"Fujin... the god of wind. A fitting name for this village, considering how the sea brings the west wind to the village." Kai noted.

Glen nodded in response. "Let's get going. The Hideaki house awaits."

He marched on with a spring in his step, clearly eager to begin gathering information about their target - Hideaki Naoki. Kai rolled his eyes. Despite his partner being older and more experienced than him, he couldn't help but feel as though he - Kai - was the older one of the two.

Kai followed Glen through the village gates, keeping an easy, steady walking pace. It felt nice to simply take a stroll through a busy village, despite how noisy it was. The crowded streets and rushing people made Fujin Village seem almost like an exact replica of his own village - Kosuke Village.

'Well, I suppose the village life is more or less the same, no matter the village.' Kai thought to himself.

"Hey kid, hurry up - unless you want to be left behind!" Glen shouted to Kai. The grey-eyed man gave him a quick smile, then disappeared into the crowd.

It didn't take long for Kai to catch up to him. Glen had slipped into a narrow alleyway between two market stalls. The space was shadowed in darkness, however, it did make for a rather efficient way of avoiding the crowds of people along the main streets.

Up ahead, Glen slowed down and adjusted his pace to match that of Kai's. Kai noticed the gesture and gave a slight nod of gratitude to Glen.

"I never asked, but why do you want an audience with the king?" Kai asked.

Glen pursed his lips into a tight smile. "I want the king to recognize the suffering in the kingdom. Us simple villagers are forced to rummage for the scraps of nobles while the nobles sit high and mighty on thrones bigger than their ego." Glen spat on the ground next to them, and continued, "my younger brother is sick at home. I don't have enough money to pay for a proper doctor, and all the doctors in the village I come from, are not very skilled with medicines."

Kai tilted his head in confusion. "Are you not skilled with drugs and substances though? Surely you must have some sort of basic knowledge on medicines."

Glen gave a bitter laugh. "They call me the 'tainted apothecary.' While it's true that I'm fairly good with dangerous chemicals, I, unfortunately, do not know much about the field of medicine. I'm an assassin, not a savior. It's terribly ironic, but life is something I take, not give."

Kai gave no response.

"But alas," Glen continued, his voice a little more cheerful now, "we've arrived."

Glen slowed his pace down to a walking speed, and Kai followed suit. He was right. Just ahead of them, stood a tall black gate. Up close, it was much taller than he thought it would be, back when he had spotted it on the hill.

Compared to the simple wood structures and rugged village streets, the gate stood out like a sore thumb. The gleaming black metal seemed to repel everything around it as if to say, 'stay-away,-this-area-is-only-for-important-people.' Kai narrowed his eyes. The gate was unnecessary and only seemed to act as a display of power.

Gale, as if reading his thoughts, muttered, "Those damn nobles... flaunting their riches while the villagers are left with the bare minimum."

"Let's not get distracted from our goal," Kai said, beckoning Glen to move away from the wall and keep walking.

If they stood outside the gate for too long, the Hideaki family might notice something was up, and come out to confront them. If the Hideaki family, especially Naoki, saw their faces, that would certainly complicate things. It would result in a harder time staying unnoticed and inconspicuous.

However, to Kai's relief, Glen seemed to get the memo and stepped away.

"Okay kid, tonight, when the sun goes down, we're going to pull the first string of our operation," Glen paused. "Operation Kidnap-The-Servant." He finally said, as if he needed to clarify exactly which operation they were going to carry out. Not that they had any other ones.

Kai frowned slightly. "Wouldn't it be a better idea to watch the servant first, and find out their schedule? We'd be able to abduct them smoother that way..."

Kai made a small 'Tch' sound under his breath. He still couldn't believe he was actually going to help Glen abduct an innocent person.

"Well you see, young one, we're going to do exactly that! The only difference is that we won't be spending multiple days watching them. We're simply going to abduct the servant when he's alone, there and then." Glen gave Kai the same old easy-going smile that he always had on. "It'll be easy."

"This half-formed plan of yours can be called many things, but 'easy' certainly isn't one of them." Kai muttered.

Glen ignored Kai's retort, and they walked in silence.

The sun was going down, and their plan would, within a few hours, be set into motion. The only problem, however, was that they needed somewhere to stay. If they were going to keep a watch on Hideaki Naoki, they'd need to find somewhere to stay as a rendezvous point. Well, not only that, but they also needed to sleep somewhere...

Thankfully, as the two of them were wandering the streets, Kai spotted a reasonably large-sized building. It had a sign hanging on the door frame, with 'Sakura Inn' written on it with thick letters. The inn looked to be 5 to 6 floors tall and was made of wood. A simple, inconspicuous place to stay... just what he had been looking for. On top of that, it was also extraordinarily close to the Hideaki residence.

It was the perfect hideout.

"Let's stay here," Kai suggested blandly, pointing at the inn to their left.

Glen turned to look at the little inn, rubbing his nose. He clearly was not impressed with it, as his eyebrows were arched in skepticism.

"It looks... small."

Kai held back a sigh. "It'll have to do."

Kai held open the door for Glen, and they entered. The main lobby was not too small. It was a decent-sized space - not too cramped, and not too crowded. There was a young woman behind the counter in front of them, and she smiled at them politely. Kai walked up to her, leaving Glen to sink into one of the couches in the lobby.

"This is the life..." He could hear Glen whisper.

"Hello, sir, would you like to book a room here?" The lady asked Kai.

"Yes, two rooms please," Kai responded.

"Alright sir, please wait a moment while I-"

"NO, just one room will be fine, thank you miss!" Glen shouted from behind them, cutting her off.

The woman glanced between Kai and Glen uncertainly, not sure whose response to take.

Kai turned to face his mission partner, who was now half-swallowed by the sinking couch. "Glen, two rooms. You'll have your own room, and I'll have mine."

Glen shook his head and smiled. "One room will be enough. Save money." He gave Kai a wink, causing him to shudder.

However, Glen's leisurely smile disappeared just as quickly as it had come, having been replaced by a dead-serious expression. Glen's dark grey eyes seemed to bore into Kai, as he said in a low voice, "Trust me on this one, kid. One room is fine."

It looked as though there was some sort of deeper meaning behind Glen's words. Given his evident experience in this field of work, Kai felt a sort of obligation to obey him, and order the single room. Either that - or Kai was a complete fool. He narrowed his eyes, then turned away from the tainted apothecary to face the lady once more.

"One room will suffice." He muttered.

The lady pursed her lips in a tight smile and gave him an awkward little nod. "How many days will you be staying?"

"Three nights."

The woman smiled, seeming to forget about Glen. "That will be four silver coins, sir."

Kai reached into his pocket, pulling out three silver coins. It wasn't enough.

"You got a silver coin?" Kai asked, turning towards Glen.

"Yeah, hold on" Glen groaned, shuffling on the couch. He pulled a silver coin out of his bag and flicked it towards Kai.

He caught the coin and handed the four coins to the lady behind the counter.

"Thank you, sir, your room will be on the fourth floor, the third room to the right. I hope you enjoy your stay." She gave Kai another fake smile, clearly a professional mask of politeness she'd probably learned to do over many years of customer service. He felt kind of bad for her.

The lady handed him the key to his room, and he took it swiftly, dragging Glen off the couch which he'd practically become a part of. The two of them made their way to their room - fourth floor, third room to the right.

Kai unlocked the door and turned on the light. The room was simple - one bed in the center of the room, with nothing more than a simple table and chair next to it. A little telephone sat on the desk, probably for anyone who wanted to call room service in the middle of the night.

"This is where we will be staying while we work on the Hideaki mission. This will also serve as our rendezvous point whenever we need it. I expect we'll both do some exploring around this village after the servant tells us the information we need." Kai said.

Glen nodded approvingly. "You catch on quick, youngster. I'm sure you'd make for a great assassin."

Kai hesitated, unsure how to respond.

Glen continued before Kai could say anything. "Well, now that we've found somewhere to stay, let's get to work immediately shall we?"

"Right," Kai said, clenching his fists in uncertain anticipation.

Outside, the last rays of sunlight disappeared into the night.

Operation Kidnap-The-Servant was about to begin.