The Manifest // OC Light Novel

Chapter 5 - Nine to Five I

- Zero -

"Hmm... I think I'll just take a regular coffee, triple espresso to go please." The man said, standing infront of the cash register.
I smile, "Of course sir, that will come out to a total of $3.50." He rummages his hand in his pocket before pulling out a couple of coins, then counts them out before handing it to me. "Have a nice day." I say, he waves over his shoulder as he leaves, the bell over the door ringing as he does so.
I look over my shoulder and see Sera come back out from behind the stairs, "Sorry for making you take over the register Zee."
"Well when you gotta go." I say, shrugging with a light smile before stepping to the side, letting Sera take back her post. On my way to my bartending station, I see Zenji walking over towards the counter, "Zero, I got an order for two margaritas and a caesar for table four." he said, as he leaned on the counter, "Should be the last order of the night by the look of it."
I nodded as I looked across the cafe floor, only a couple tables still had occupants and the clock was close to 9 pm, while not our usual closing time, we had a mission tonight. Of course the customers don't know that, we just posted that we were celebrating something as a kind of ward to late night buyers.
"I'll get you those drinks quick then." I said as I started grabbing the different ingredients from the shelves, "And Zenji, remember to smile?" I made a motion with my hands indicating a smiling motion.
He deadpanned at me before smiling without his eyes, I shivered, "Never mind, that's creepy as hell."
His face returned to normal with a slight, genuine smile creasing his lips, I handed him a tray with the drinks before starting to clean some used glasses.

Sozen had said that this mission wasn't likely to be anything too harsh, but with all the events lately happening, I haven't been able to properly settle my nerves. I constantly catch myself looking at the clock, waiting for closing time.
Once it hit nine, the remaining customers left, and we began to quickly clean up the cafe before heading into the back and start suiting up.
Moving over to my locker, I opened it up and grabbed my black combat armor and started to change, Sera behind me doing the same. Our gear, all made by one of Sozen's contacts, were all made with us in mind and also had some identifier on them that related to ourselves. On mine was an orange crosshair shape on the right shoulder and a couple of orange highlights, Sera's had a large pink scythe across the right arm with a similar pink color as the inside fillings, and Zenji's gear had bright green wings across the back and over the shoulders.
He'd constantly mentioned his distaste for the large designs, but I'm confident that I'd seen him properly admire the equipment when he thought he was alone.

"You alright Zee?" Sera asked, I blinked as I noticed I'd been spacing out for a moment before quickly doing up the zipper and clips on my tight armor, "Yeah, sorry. Just a little out of sorts."
I felt Sera's gaze on my back as I continued to suit up before turning towards the door, just before stepping out, I heard her say, "You know you can always tell me if something is bothering you right?"
"I know." I said, my hands stopping as I spoke.
I don't know what kind of face she was wearing just then, but the next thing I knew, I heard the door close gently.
There's no way she would really understand. Understand the way I felt when I was with her and Zenji. I was the first person to come to the cafe after Sozen had found me those few years ago, and for that time, I was Sozen's number one, his only choice for these missions, and I was good at them too.
But ever since Sera and Zenji showed up that night, I feel like I've been lacking. There's no way she'd understand how I felt around them, those two both gifted with these exceptional powers and calling them curses, when I...
I was just me.

"Zero! We're heading out, you comin?" I heard Zenji call out from through the door. I let out a quiet, shaky breath before responding with a cool and collected voice I'd perfected over my years as a hired gun, "Yeah. I'm coming."

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I felt the cold night wind against my back as I stood atop one of the many rooftops in our city, I was looking down at the family of three far down below, the Lorels. Thomas Lorel, the father, was a tall and lean man with red hair, his daughter sharing this feature, Amela, seemed to be only slightly older than myself, she'd probably be in high-school, something none of us three had experienced. It made me slightly jealous in a weird way I admit.
The mother, Maya Lorel, stood out the most between the three of them with her brilliant silver hair.
From my perspective from way up top, I could see Seraphina, my closest friend, leading the family through the various back alleys in the city, our plan was to try and avoid any form of confrontation on our way to the Lorel's hospital 'Light Care' by taking these out of the way streets where there was minimal to no traffic.
I looked around a bit more and was just barely able to see Zenji as he stuck to the shadows behind the group, keeping an eye behind them for any suspicious movement.
We'd been moving like this for the past hour, and only had around thirty minutes until we made it to our destination, it had been way too peaceful for me to calm down, so I continued to strain my vision as I looked around with great intensity.
Only a few minutes passed before I finally found what I'd been so worried about.
Across the street and down the road a few ways, I could see the glint of a scope coming from one of the windows of a nearby building, three floors up.
I took aim, breathed out slowly, and pulled the trigger.