Mio Famiglia, Mio Scudo

Episode XII

In the dark of the night, a silhouette of a young woman reflected against the bright light of the moon. The powers were out in the house due to a well placed piece that disturbed the current, cutting out the electric input that the power plant of the town provided. The woman snuck inside, her mind set and heart hard as a stone. She needed to get rid of the disturbions of any kind, she needed to get rid of the being that had binded with her, bonded with the flame she wasn't supposed to have.

The Triads was a strict master, expecting only excellence and perfection from its members. Failure was met with dishonour that'd carry on in one's blood, torture and, of the leaders were feeling merciful, death. As a failed assassin, a mist who isn't actually a mist but a rain, the woman, who was now approaching the bedroom of her personal target, had already been subjected to the repeated "correction treatment". And she didn't wish to go through it again, therefore she needed to get rid of yet another stain that was disgracing her and her family.

The man, who she'd bonded with by accident, the Japanese high schooler with gravity defying hair and infuriatingly patient eyes. He was disturbing her work, making her incapable of getting rid of the Vongola Decimo. His existence was her weakness and she'd rather destroy her very being than hand her last bit of freedom to someone else. Her inability to bond with the triads had given her somewhat freedom, for example she was allowed to take jobs overseas. And now that freedom woud be dust in the wind. She wouldn't allow it.

She opened the door quietly, thanking her ancestors for the joints not making a sound. Her silent steps carried her over to the bed. She pulled out a sylinder...

"If I'm being honest... Nobody hasn't been trying to kill me this openly before", a voice came from behind her, causing the woman to freeze. She hadn't expected this to happen. "How did you know what I was planning?", "I had a feeling"

The lights were flipped on, momentarily blinding the assassin, who dropper the sylinder on surprise. "Are you aware of the fact that if you bond with a sky outside of your faction, it cuts off your ties to Triads? My Smoke Guardian, though I believe that you'd call her my second Mist Guardian, told me this interesting little fact", her sky, the man he was there to kill, said with an even voice, picking up the sylinder, "Her mother used to be in triads, but she bonded with someone, and thus was cast out. The Triads didn't like her double flame either, they seem to be after only the purest flames. Anything that may be seen as impure and faulty gets disposed of". It hurt. It burned to be reminded of this fact, that her own group saw her as impure and faulty over her abilities.

The male turned to her, face serious like the maskps the leaders used when they talked to her. "Do you want to be free from it all?"

Naoki hadn't really felt anything over seeing one of his people, one of his bonded sneak into his room with the intention to kill. He'd just followed the woman as she moved, made sure that she didn't notice him (which had been the most challenging thing in the situation), and the attempt to surprise her AND survive the encounter. But in that moment, when it'd come clear that she was indeed in for a kill, he hadn't felt anything.
He should've felt offended, angry, sad, betrayed even, but there'd been nothing. And it horrified him to realise that he didn't actually care about that, about the possibility of being murdered. It made him question his own humanity.

It wasn't that he didn't care about himself, he just... Would've accepted death. But he chose not to allow himself being murdered. Because he remembered the painfully hurt flames that the woman was trying to suppress. He'd seen a hint of what the woman was afraid of and what he saw compelled him to make his move. Lie in wait for her to come to him.

He'd noticed her in the cake shop earlier that day, when they had been leaving, he'd seen her. While in the cake shop, he'd been observed by her. (There had been a few others who'd been doing that too, but Naoki didn't notice them).