Assassin! Ishimaru Kiyotaka

Effective Immediately

The small dragon pendant twinkled uselessly in the morning sun, rocking back and forth in the slight breeze. It hung loosely from it's chain, thousands of feet in the air.

Kiyotaka could drop it right now.

Forget everything, forget Mondo.

Let the chain slip through his fingers and watch the thin metal shatter on the rocks below. He could go on with his life as before, go back to his empty house full of books he would never read, useless artifacts that didn't bring him joy and lukewarm brewed coffee that cooled too quick to savour.

He could go back to supervising every little detail by Kenryoku's side, go back to a boring and monotonous life of paperwork and needless destruction of those who posed a threat through manipulative means. He could go back to the life he had slowly but surely built for himself.

As innocently as the wind blew, the pendant remained in his hands, remained suspended above it's timely demise.

The soft gold tinted light shone it's brilliant pattern across his face as the pendant wavered in the breeze, almost as if it was mocking him, laughing in his face.

Daring him to let it go.

To let this go.

After a moment more of bearing the condescending twinkling laughter the small inanimate object reflected into his eyes, he grumbled to himself, eventually shoving it back into his pocket and settling for staring out into the expanse of golden wash that outlined each building and shone reflections off long windows into the dusk dusted streets below, just waking up from a deep slumber.

He felt a disrupting roll of emotion forming in the back of his mind like a rumbling of a summer thunderstorm. A darkened cloud of 'what if's', questions he had no desire to answer, impeding desires and disturbing premonitions.

He didn't have the time to deal with this right now.

Nor ever.

He would lock up every ever deepening desire that swept across his astral plane, destroy every stray thought, until it all disappeared. Until he had no more thoughts, no more growing ambitions. For it was just much easier to live a life free of hope and wonderment, a world free of choices and a world free of heartbreak and a sudden spiral into disarray and disaster. Violent fits of rage and existential depression.

Yes,

he pondered.

It would be too harmful to allow himself to desire these disorderly thoughts of affection and aspiration and be better to feel nothing at all.

He waved a hand in the air absentmindedly, as if trying to dissipate the steadily darker growing clouds, before pushing off the oldened balcony railing and turning his eyes from the peaceful scene before him.

He had a long day ahead of him to get ready for anyways.

.

.

.

Smoke filtered through his lips, floating up and softly dissipating into the dewey morning air.

He exhaled heavily, pausing for a moment before taking another long drag of the cigarette he held loosely between his fingers.

The dew of the morning sunk into his loose fitting tank top, soaking his skin and making his clothes stick uncomfortably to him.

He really hated mornings.

But he could still admit to the beauty of watching the world around him slowly spring to life, the brilliant splashes of reds yellows and purples fade into pastel blue dotted with wisps of white clouds.