Saving the Street Rat

Instinctively, she tried to shake his hands off, but despite how small he was, he had an iron grip. Firmly, his tiny fingers remained latched onto her.

"Save me, beautiful elder sister…"

Seeing her cold expression, almost like a little octopus, he instead wrapped both of his stubby arms around her waist, burying his dirty face into her body.

For a second, Code X froze.

The boy was warm, a little ball of fire if anything. She couldn't remember the last time someone had hugged her. Perhaps a target had touched her during a mission, and she played along with the act to avoid suspicion. But there was no warmth to those embraces.

No, flames were what killed her in the first place, she reminded herself.

Mustering all the force she could gather, she pushed the boy off her, and he stumbled to the other side of the street, collapsing into a little pile of dirty rags on the ground.

"Elder sister…" Almost on cue, glistening tears pooled inside his bright eyes, threatening to fall down. He sniffed, biting back the tears as he pushed himself off the dirt floor.

To be honest, Code X's own strength had scared even herself. With her new body, she hadn't expected to push the boy back this far, and if she had known about how much momentum she could gather, she would have never used that much force.

She looked down at her hands. They were the same old wrinkled ones that she had grown more accustomed to. It wasn't like there had been a miraculous change in her situation.

A pang of guilt hit her, and she bit her lips, wondering if she should at least apologize. He was a mere child after all.

The beaten puppy look on the boy's face didn't help either. Seeing her unmoved, a single crystal tear slid down his face, and he quickly used a dirty hand to rub it off his chin, his lips quivering as he did so. The tear left a trail of water on his soot-covered cheeks, leaving a single stripe of white against the otherwise blackened skin.

"Elder sister…" He muttered, a hint of whimpering laced into his soft voice. "Why do you not want me?"

He rubbed another hand over his eyes, lightly sniffling.

Code X hesitated.

"Grab him! He's right there!"

But before she had the time to fully evaluate her thoughts, a group of men charged down the streets in the direction of the boy, kicking up another cloud of yellow dust.

"Don't let him escape!"

Donned in patched clothes, carrying wooden sticks and pitchforks, and wearing straw hats, these men looked like they just stepped out from their fields after a long day of tending to their crops. As they sped down the dirt road, it almost appeared as if they were chasing after their runaway livestock.

"That boy owes us our hard-earned money!"

"Stop that street rat right there!"

Their angry chants joined together in a horrible cacophony, and the ground trembled under the weight of their thundering footsteps.

People dashed out of their way on the street, pointing to the little boy with hushed whispers.

Only, Code X knew better.

In fact, she knew who these people were all too well.

Their disguises were nearly flawless, but they had left out a few crucial details. After all, neither in the past nor the present would a farmer ever wear boots to the streets. Especially, not these boots designed specifically to gain traction while scaling walls and rooftops.

Not to mention, they hid their weapons a bit too obviously. Whether it be the tiny glint of silver peeking out from the sheathed dagger within one man's waist straps or the dart hiding in the inner rim of another man's robes, the presence of these weapons suggested that they were not going to be merely using their wooden staffs and pitchforks on the boy.

There was only a single explanation.

These men weren't farmers…

They were trained assassins.

As the assassins grew ever closer, their figures doubled in her aged eyes, multiplying so that she didn't know if it was a trick of her vision or if there were really that many people coming for little boy.

Something was suddenly switched on in Code X's mind. She knew that she wasn't thinking straight and that she shouldn't be involved, but her limbs moved on their own.

Before she knew it, she was across the street, taking the boy's little hands into her own. Warmness immediately seeped through, tingling her fingertips, and a wave of renewed strength coursed through her.

Blinking, she saw the world in a suddenly sharpened light. The doubled shadows disappeared, and everything was no longer a complete blur. There were a total of five assassins, and well, there was only the two of them.

Gritting her teeth, she turned to the little boy.

"We won't be able to outrun then, so we fight. Do you know any combat?"

She looked him in the eye, and he met her gaze with determination as he pulled out a set of double daggers.

"Thank you, beautiful elder sister. I knew you would save me." He handed her a blade, holding the other himself.

"But I haven't saved you yet." Code X grasped the knife tightly with her right hand.

"But you will." He tightened his grip around her fingers, giving her left hand a little squeeze as if to encourage her. "I know you will."

The assassins charged.