When Did the Mist Turn Black?

The silence deafened as his ears strained themselves, searching through the blackness for purchase on anything. The endless slew of strange creatures had no let up, sending the blue haired assassin into a near constant state of alarm. Admittedly, such a state was not the worst that one could find themselves in, but the tension had mounted to an almost absurd degree, causing some unneeded and unwanted mental strain. Still, the ANBU member had not been promoted at random and felt confident in his abilities to handle the training exercise, his propensity to withstand such waiting games extremely high.

And there it was. Amidst the fish above, the whales erupting from the ground, and the myriad of other sea creatures moving about within the range of Kirite’s hearing rested something… else. The in and out breath of the ocean continued as ever, sending waves of rich sound to bath the landscape that had previously been bathed in the dark mist as the buzzing buzzing endless buzzing of those tiny things released by the other person flew about and multiplied. And that surprised the blued eyed boy a bit; without a doubt, he could hear some minute aspects of another, shorter than himself and from whose direction the buzzing had emanated.

But it was there, lurking, moving, planning, and plotting. He circled and shifted around the impromptu training area, a kind blank spot in the subordinate’s net of awareness, totally void of any noise almost to an improbable and unbelievable extreme. The shadow slunk about, no doubt plotting some new form of pseudo-hunting or a different version of the cat and mouse game the two, or rather three, had been playing. The man silently rolled his eyes, preemptively preparing for the oncoming onslaught from the Great Hunter Himself. Generally speaking, He did not appreciate other people being compared to hunters when He stood as the only true killer around.

The ocean’s floor quaked with the Voice as it spoke. Naturally. This foolish abomination of a man thinks he’s so clever. It took us mere minutes to understand the mechanisms behind his little technique. What a fool. But not uncommon. People of higher ranks endlessly fail to pay Us the proper respect. I’d say to end his life, to allow him to know truly that he is prey and little else, but he amuses me. However… that newcomer. He may need to have a visit paid him. Pressure mounted in the man’s skull as the Beast exerted His force.

The first kunai flew quickly from the huge man’s hand, its presence apparent by only the tiniest of whistling sounds as if flew through the air, the wind flowing about its circular handle. No immediate danger had presented itself, the knife not on a trajectory that would be lethal to the man, though he began moving before the blade found its mark, leaping up onto the railing and moving silently along the metal bar. While relying exclusively on his sense of hearing had been a bit of a challenge, the ways of silent motion were a longstanding friend to the assassin, a necessity for anyone routinely sent on high profile homicide missions in which no room for error existed, and being seen or heard happened to count as an error.

And so the man had vanished from his spot, moving towards the third party, all the while particularly conscious of the fact that Sketh could, in all likelihood, still locate his blue haired partner. After all, Kirite could maintain a fairly intimate knowledge of The Black Death; it only made sense that the opposite should also hold true. Still, he paid this knowledge little mind as he continued on his route, forming a singular hand sign in order to augment the already present mist, aiming to engulf the newcomer in the pure blackness. The mist expanded at his will as the sharp clang of metal on concrete echoed around the shadowy domain.

Silent as ever, he arrived shortly at his destination, coming to the slightest rest just a few short meters away from the newly blinded youngling before him. In his motion, he had made explicit effort to avoid the little buzzing contraptions plaguing the air, hoping to circumvent any kind of sensory technique the mysterious arrival had sent out. He tilted his head, gaining a slightly better vantage from which to intercept the sound waves coming from this person. As he did so, he noticed Sketh, a ways away from him at this point, had thrown another blade, this one aimed roughly at the third person present.

Should his target appear to remain physically unaware of his new proximity, the man would burst into silent motion moments before the second kunai struck, rapidly moving in behind the mystery man and going in for a simple maneuver, shifting his right leg behind his opponents left before whipping it about rapidly in an attempt to simply trip the boy while adding a firm shove from his right hand. The move would not prove lethal, nor even damaging in any real capacity, though it would hopefully prove to end the little training exercise. Of course, should the boy act as though he somehow knew of Kirite’s initial movements, such an opportunity might never present itself.

Having knocked down the young man, Kirite would move back a few feet in an effort to avoid retaliation, silently slipping away from the third party while still in freefall. He would then speak, directing his voice, modified and modulated through his ANBU mask, towards where he could faintly hear Sketh to be. “Do I pass now, senpai?”


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WC: 939 | 3615
1800/1800 [Silent Killing Learned]