One Choice

Chapter 16

"So," Irina sat across from Lucy as Korosensei and Karasuma exited the room, handling the necessary paperwork as they talked amongst themselves, "what do you plan to do, Lucy?"

She looked straight at Lucy with those mesmerizing blue eyes. Right now, she was just Irina Jelavić, the assassin who is known to have the highest hit count by the government. She was not Bitch-sensei or anyone else but, just her. She looked at Lucy without faltering and Lucy envied how clear her eyes were. Despite being an assassin just like her, the two were so different. Though she might still have the background of one and utilize those skills in certain situations, she had escaped her career as an assassin and was currently making her own choices with no one controlling her. She envied that and she wondered if there would be a day where she, too, would one day be able to forge her own path.

But, she hardened her eyes, that may as well be impossible.

She had killed too many people and had dirtied her hands to the point where she could not distinguish herself between a monster.

"I will continue to do what I've been ordered," she answered.

"To not let him know you're being a double-agent?"

Lucy nodded her head.

Irina stared long and hard at her. "Is this what you wish for?"

Lucy looked up and gazed into her eyes. Compared to her, her honey-brown orbs were cold and blank, void of all emotion.

"I have to," she answered without wavering, her decision made. "What other choice do I have?"

Irina widened her eyes as she saw the look on her face. Tears welled up in her glassy eyes as her lips were pulled into a trembling smile. There was a sense of regret but also desperateness in them. As an assassin, she was not supposed to hold feelings but being with them — being with everyone from the E Class — she had acquired feelings that she thought she had lost a long time ago. Feelings that she no longer deemed necessary. Her weaknesses were growing by the second. Shiro had the members of Fairy Tail in one hand while on the other hand, he had the E Class. Whatever choice she made, it was bound to be a losing situation.

"I've made my decision," she stood up. "I won't let anyone else get further involved in my problems."

Irina watched her leave towards the door before speaking up one last time.

"Is it that you don't want or that you fear to?"

Lucy stopped in her tracks and she lowered her eyes to the floor. Even without asking and even after denying it all the time, the answer to that question was clear. She feared it. She feared losing more than she had already lost. She was going to keep them out of her problems. In the first place, the worlds they lived in were already different enough. They didn't deserve to see the dirty world that they assassins lived in. They deserved to be untainted by the inhumane morals of it all.

"I see," Irina stood up, well-aware of her answer. "But," she smirked, "even if you decide to leave us out, do you think we'll really stand up for that?"

"Huh?" Lucy turned around to face her.

The door behind her slammed open and pulling her into his chest with a firm arm, he stood there with glowing amber eyes. He wore a malicious smirk and Lucy widened her eyes, recognizing all-too-well of his presence.

"Of course not, Bitch-sensei."

"Will you stop calling me that already?!" Irina remarked loudly with a glare but was ignored.

"This is a personal attack on the E Class. If you think we'll just kindly step aside and have someone else do the work for us," he leaned in and whispered into her ear, his sadistic, playful voice sending a shiver down her spine, "that's where you're wrong, Lucy."