Mustang: The Road to Redemption

Chapter 23: Night One

After a short drive, Alex would arrive at the park as he parked his bike and got off it, heading down the trail and began to walk along it as he surveyed his surroundings and looked around to make sure that there was nothing odd or suspicious going on.

With it being this late, the park was mostly empty with spare little groups of people here and there only on the most populated and popular parts of the park meaning a majority of it was empty as all Alex could hear was just the sounds of nature.

He continued to walk on this path for over half an hour as it was getting extremely late by now.

Alex hadn't heard or spotted anything unusual so he figured that the killer decided not to be active today.

The boy decided to take a break as he approached the hill the lone Sakura Tree was on as he just sat down, back against the tree trunk as he closed his eyes and took a deep breathe.

'Guess I was too eager to get started. Probably should've waited a day at least.' Thought the boy as he felt as if he basically wasted an entire night's worth of sleep.

As if on cue right after he had that thought, somewhere within the park the loud sounds of someone grunting and shouting in fear and panic were heard as Alex immediately stood up.

"Huh. For once I'm happy to have jinxed myself." He said after a chuckle as he quickly ran off to where the heard the sounds.

As the panicked shouting grew closer and closer, Alex would eventually reach the source of the noises as he climbed up and hid within a tree as he looked down at the ground ahead of him to see an adult man seemingly running away from something before tripping and falling onto the ground.

"S-Stand back! I'm warning you!" He shouted in immense fear as he began to crawl and back away.

Alex looked in the direction the man was looking at and saw slowly approaching him a figure donned in a black coat with the hood on, completely concealing their identity and appearance.

'Is, that the killer? Definitely seems like it'. Thought Alex as he kept on watching.

As he saw the cloaked figure get closer to the man, Alex immediately sprang into action as he jumped down from the tree and got between them as he kneeled and helped the man up.

"Go and get running." Said Alex as he turned to face the cloaked figure, fully having expected the man to run away.

Unfortunately, the man would instead grab Alex's arms and pinned them beneath his back as he used his other hand to aim a gun at Alex's head.

"You gotta be freaking kidding. Just my damn luck." Annoyingly said Alex under his breathe as the man had a smirk.

"What're you gonna do now One-Cut Killer!? You attempt to finish me off and complete your assassination and this kid gets it!" He shouted.

'Hold up assassination? Then, that means she isn't just targeting a random ass civilian. She's targeting a likely criminal." Thought Alex.

Despite his threat, the assassin didn't seem fazed as they slowly brandished their sword in front of them fully ready to attack.

"Y-You're kidding. Are you that mad!? Do you not care about this innocent kid!?" He shouted.

It was clear that his threat was merely a bluff which the assassin didn't buy at all as the man began to shake in fear, his grip on Alex becoming less tight.

The boy used this to his advantage as he was able to get one of his arms free and elbow the man in the abdomen as he got pushed back.

"H-Hey wait!" He said in panic as Alex quickly got out of the way as the assassin in what felt like a second went from in front to behind the man, slowly putting their sword away as in cliché anime style, the moment their sword as placed away, the man's left hand was completely cut off.

"Aaah! You brat!" He shouted in pain as the figure merely stared at him.

Despite bleeding out, the man began to chuckle a bit as he looked up at them with a smirk.

"I-I'm still, alive? H-Hah! One-Cut my ass! Seems you're moniker was simply nothing but a li-?!"

Before he could finish speaking, strange black marks began to spread across his body from where the wound was the man struggled to breathe now and even began to cough up a little bit of blood.

He eventually fell to the ground completely dead as Alex was in complete shock as to what he just saw.

'H-He's, dead? Holy crap. They really do kill in one strike.' Thought the boy.

Before he could have time process all this, he saw the figure beginning to walk away.

"H-Hey wait!" Shouted the boy as the figure stopped walking.

"Who are you?" Asked Alex.

The assassin remained silent for a while before turning around, seemingly facing him.

"Someone from the dark." Said the assassin, their voice sounding feminine as they immediately began running away.

"H-Hey hold on! I have more questions!" Said Alex as he chased after them.

Despite his best efforts, it didn't take long until Alex completely lost sight of their trail as he stopped running, catching his breathe.

"Dammit." He said.

Once he fully caught his breathe, Alex decided it'd be best to call it a night as he at least knew now what exactly the killer's line of work was.

He would make his way back over to his motorcycle as he drove his way back to the apartment.

He'd eventually make it back, quietly entering back inside and sneakily making it back to his room without making a single noise as he immediately laid down onto his bed and began pondering to himself.

'An assassin. That means that they don't kill cause they want it. It's basically their job to kill so they're just doing their job. As for that voice, it sounded feminine so they must be a girl. Hopefully next time I can get more out of her. Just what the hell did she even mean when she said she was someone from the dark? Ugh. My head hurts just thinking about it. I can think this over more clearly once I wake up and once the sun is out.' Thought Alex.

A few more minutes would pass until Alex would move onto his side and closed his eyes, finally sleeping and calling it a night on his first stake out.

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Chapter 23: Complete