It was an uneventful day for most of the crew, except for Killer. The skeleton had spent most of his day trying to think of ideas of how to hide his obviously cracked soul but hadn't thought of any "big-brained" ones yet.
The closest he had gone to was shoving in under his ribs and holding it in, but if his soul decided to move, then... well, he'd be looking forward to some broken ribs. And it wasn't like obscuring his soul was regular either. Nightmare would definitely realize the missing glowing red circle.
But it was almost noon, and if Killer had prolonged his move any longer, he'd have a demotion for the 5th time at his stay here. So, he decided to push it in the cavity and speed walk towards the main office.
Now, he was staring through the cracks of the door, waiting till the absolute last second to barge in and be present for attendance. The boss was at the moment signing some papers or doing as Killer says, "random shit".
He thought he was being fairly sneaky until he leaned on the door too heavily, causing him to fall on the thin plush carpet of the room. "Cough- ow..." he mumbled, rubbing his chin. For such a luxurious carpet, it sure did nothing to soften his fall.
"What an obvious mistake of you to make, Killer," Nightmare rumbled, letting out a quiet chuckle. "By the way, you're a minute late, so... you know what that means." Killer groaned. A deduction of his pay grade.
Using his hands to balance himself, he got up and brushed his jacket. "Yeah, yeah, I know... don't gotta rub it in my face." He turned around to close the double doors behind him slowly. One time he accidentally slammed them shut, then got a beating from Nightmare. Apparently, he hates loud sounds, because it "ruins his mood".
"Hm. You're awfully cheerful today. Is there any reason why?" Nightmare asked, adding, "I wouldn't want any of my teammates to be happy now, would I?" Killer gave him a daft look. Was that supposed to be a joke, or was he genuinely upset? "I'm joking." Oh.
"Hahaha," Killer replied in a monotone voice. "Lmao." Smoothing out the wrinkles of his sweater, he mumbled, "Just tell me the job already." Even though he had the record of the most demotions in a year, it wasn't because he was bad at his job. More likely, his low rank was because of poor attendance and being fashionably late to anything possible.
In fact, he was known for being the best at his job. He could flawlessly slice people's skin from miles away, throw knives right in the middle of the target, and jump from building to building without missing a step. (Maki Harukawa anyone-) His skilled efforts were probably the sole reason why he wasn't kicked out of the team.
"Mhm," Nightmare hummed, pulling out a single red slip of paper. "This one's gonna be a hard one." That peaked Killer's interest. If even he said it was going to be difficult, then it would pose an actual problem.
Hesitantly taking the paper, he widened his eyes slightly in surprise.
MISSION #430; TYPE: REMOVING
MISSION DETAILS:
In Nightmare's scrawled messy cursive, was only a sentence. Huh... this one is short.
kill cross and bring his body back to me as proof, do NOT come back until you do.
SIGNATURE: n.m.joku
"I- what-"
"I would like you to assassinate Cross for me," Nightmare replied formally, adding, "I do not see any use of him coming back alive, so why not dead?" The statement had a little hint of amusement at the end, a twisted type of amusement. "You should not return to me without his body because I, unfortunately, do not trust your word at all."
(Nightmare doesn't have necrophilia I swear- he's going to throw the body in the trash or something... or using his sickness, decapitate him and place his head on the castle flag or a pole- not like he ain't gonna dust, but...)
"Oh- well," Killer mumbled meekly. "I mean, I just wasn't expecting that. Isn't Cross a skillful unit?"
"Skill does not matter if it's over loyalty," Nightmare grumbled, sighing as he rested his elbow on the desk. "Plus, I have you anyways." The explanation was a quick few sentences, but it lingered in Killer's mind for a few seconds. Even though the octopus claimed to not trust him, he was putting in a lot of dependency on the fact that he hadn't left yet.
"Alright then... I'll go then?" Killer hesistantly stated-asked, then awkwardly turned around to take his leave. There wasn't really anything more to say, other than condolences for Cross which would not be wise to state in front of Nightmare.
And Dream. If his suspicions were correct, they'd be hiding out together in a cave or something. Or some secret garden. Or maybe a castle of his own? Killer let out a little huff. I don't think they'd hide in plain sight. Dream might, but Cross would definitely be against it. He knows better than that.
It didn't help that Cross was a skilled ex-royal guard, but he was also known for being uncatchable. There was a reason why Nightmare sent Killer instead of Dust. Well, Dust was mostly good at tracking down ghosts, but he also was the one to track down regulars too. Usually Killer was left with the unbeatable- Reaper, Ink, Error when he was being a man baby- he'd tracked them all down. Of course with Ink, he'd had to beat him too.
(Here's a little lecture :') it's fanon-ish but I thought it'd be a nice feature to this book.)
They all had something in common: God energy. The energy of monsters- or shall I say magic- always leaves a trail. Whether it is distinct or not depends on many factors.
The first one: class/rank. In the race of monsters, there are sub-ranks consisting of four main ones: God/desses, Guardians, Angels/Demons, and- well, regular mortals. From strongest to weakest, the gods leave the most trails. Their magic pulses strongly even when it's not used, so this would be obvious. Mortals do have a fairly nice amount of magic, but there are so many that a single trail would be impossible to snuff down.
The second one: experience. Of course, your class does not have to determine how subtle you can be. Many monsters have figured out how to hide their trails and patterns by saving more magic for later and using it around soft surfaces (grass, carpet, dirt, etc), because it lessens the chance that there will be any lingering trails.
As a royal guard, Cross never took time to rest, always going to martial art classes as well as learning how to create an unpredictable pattern. You can never learn too much, as he said once while stuffing his face full of mashed potatoes. Anyways- the point was that obviously Cross would take a long time to be found. And no matter how obvious Dream's trail was, he'd never been in Nightmare's territory so there was no pattern to follow.
Killer would expect to find sporatic usages of magic everywhere, as well as abandoned clothes- which could be concerning to the normal monster, but actually doesn't matter because Cross has a million layers- and maybe a sensor blocking rune or two.
Even so, it didn't matter at all. Leaning against the wall of the hallway, all Killer could think of was how much he memorized of Nightmare's face. After all, he wouldn't be seeing it for a long time. He wasn't allowed to enter his office until he'd bring back a corpse of his past friend.
He wasn't planning to kill Cross at all- in fact, he needed Cross alive so he could find Dream. If anyone could help figure out his emotions, it'd be him.
---
Words: 1.3k
Okay I'm working on the next chapter right away byee
~ ethereale 💜
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☽ Troublemaker ☾《Nightkiller》𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗻𝘂𝗲𝗱
Romantik✰ 𝟯𝟱𝟬𝟬𝟬~ 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗱𝘀 | 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗻𝘂𝗲𝗱 | ❝ why do you hate me? ❞ ♡ Killer is a troublemaker, through and through. Being a lazy skeleton who jokes all the time, people don't take him seriously. He brushes it off, but in reality, words d...
