Soul Calibur Short Story Collection

Rite of Passage

January 15th, 1582

A pair of people are walking through the streets of Koln, Germany. From initial looks, the two of them are simply family that are enjoying a day with the hustle and bustle of a market. In this little family unit are a mother and a child. The parent carried a sword upon her hip, a common sight in a country that is becoming more and more unstable with each passing moment, and the girl appeared to be carrying a hula hoop, her favourite toy.

However, this family was not normal.

"You know the plan, go and wander off. Take this," the female gave the young girl a bag of coins, before applying a small tap to her back. She ran off into a back alley. Her task was to create the distraction and try to get as many guards in a panic as possible. The mother would cry in hysteria at the fact that her daughter is missing, whilst the child would perform her duty.

This little family were not a normal family. They were assassins.

Once she was a sufficient distance away from the main crowds, the girl would remove the wrapping away from her hula hoop. The sheen of steel would glimmer off of the low winter sun and shine with a ghostly whiteness, thanks to the thick layer of snow that was upon the floor. This was a ring blade, a signature weapon of her guild, as well as one of the most dangerous weapons that can be dreamt of. The cloth wrap around it was a cloak, which she soon put upon her head. Hiding the weapon away behind a set of empty barrels in the side alley next to an inn, the girl would begin to run about the more domestic areas.

The Birds of Passage were a notoriously savage, yet sophisticated form of assassin's guild. They were not ones for subtlety in their murders, however tracing them was extremely difficult despite their signature. Their attacks were often done indirectly, and their use of children was one of the reasons that they were most successful. A child is never a suspect in a murder.

This was one of the children that they use for their dirty work. She is promising to the guild for her abilities. She is a vicious killer, and only feels most alive in the thrill of a hunt, or even in the act of slaughtering with her own hand. She is able to blend into the crowd at the drop of a hat, and feign emotions such as joy, fear or sadness. But in truth, the girl does not feel anything. Emotions are a crux that lead to mistakes. Mistakes lead to traces, and traces lead to being caught. Such is the way of the life of an assassin.

This girl was being initiated in the same way that most members of the Birds of Passage grow up. She was locked in a cage alongside fifteen other children, all of whom were orphans or otherwise had no connections to anyone. The children were simply left to die, before one of them finally succumbed. The others were given enough food and water to fully strengthen them once again. The second child died, and the same thing occurred. This twigged in the girl's head that once a child died, they would eat. Come that night, the girl went over to the girl next to her and wrapped her hands around the other's throat whilst she slept. The other girl would first squirm and struggle violently, limbs flailing, but then grew weaker, slower. The girl would continue squeezing until the girl's eyes faded, dead.

The assassins noticed that this was the first kill, and instantly took her out of the cage. She was treated like a princess for that one night. She was bathed, given a feast, given new clothes, a new bed and most importantly, was given a chance to join the Birds of Passage.

Come the morning, the girl was awakened and brought back to where the cages were, and more importantly, back to the corpse of the girl whom she had killed for her freedom. "Girl, you did what you needed to do. If you kill, you will be rewarded by us. Kill to survive," the guard of the cage would tell the first killer. Inside of the cage, the children were all isolating themselves from one another. The kill had put them all into a sadistic game of chicken, people seemingly analysing the weakest targets, picking their moments and waiting for their chance to strike. In order to increase tensions, the guard picked the five-year old up and allowed for her to place a knife in the cage of children. That blade was their key to freedom, but with twelve kids and only one blade, the tension would raise to a point of boiling over.