ᴀʟᴇxɪᴛʜʏᴍɪᴀ ➳ 𝘐𝘭𝘭𝘶𝘮𝘪 𝘡𝘰𝘭𝘥𝘺𝘤𝘬 𝘹 𝘖𝘊

Part Three

God, he was annoying.

That was the first impression Rei had of Wenli. When you got over his at first sight intimidating appearance, he wasn't scary at all. He didn't gave off any kind of aura that displayed the knowledge of Nen. He only complained. About incompetent employees, irritating business relations, silly women and may God know what else.

But she just pretended to listen, and made sure to nod or say something agreeing sometimes. His whining was starting to make her feel sick.

"Sir Wenli?", she dared to ask when he took a moment to catch his breath, probably preparing for a new rampage. "Yes, miss Kotabe?".

"I'd like to make a small walk through this building, it is a bit blazing hot in here. As a matter of cooling down. Please excuse me", she stated, already standing up from her barstool.

"No, I completely agree with you. This tabernacle could at least afford an airconditioning system, so I don't quite understand why it is that warm in here. I'll accompany you. A beautiful and interesting woman such as yourself shouldn't wander around by herself."

Interesting? This man hadn't even asked her one single question about herself, but only kept on whining like a beater pig. Rei forced her mouth into a grateful and happy smile. "That would be lovely, sir Wenli!"

Seriously, even the way the people here talk was starting to get on her nerves. Was it really that hard to just say: "Wait, lemme go with you." Was that really that hard? Accompany, who on earth still uses such formal language.

Rei knew with her common sense a lot of people talked that way. But right now, she was tremendously pissed off and she wanted to slit this mans throat more than anything.

She trailed behind him, because she didn't enter through the main entrance and thus she didn't know how the front of this building was constructed. He leaded her through a pair of white doors, which gave out on a big corridor with red walls and black doors.

On their left was a staircase, which he started to ascend. She kept following him while she attempted to get a hand on one of her throwing knifes without him noticing.

She knew she was lucky there weren't any surveillance cameras in this premises, otherwise she would've been spotted since the start. With her knife clutched in her hand, she smiled at him while he started ranting about the bad state of the airships.

Rei just assented with him, her senses were starting to get on edge. They turned around another corner. "I suggest that we make our way back downstairs, miss. We will be missed."

"Hold on a second." She grabbed him by his wrist, took down his feet and planted a knee on his back, preventing him from moving.

"A boring piece of shit, that's what you are, you know?", she scoffed, yanking his head backwards by his hair and holding the knife against his throat. He just started stuttering and mumbling like she thought he would. He really was boring. "You really are no fun at all. At least say something original as last words, will you?"

He started crying. He didn't even reply to her comment, he just started weeping like a little baby, pissing off Rei even more. She putted the knife away from his throat, holding it against his lower back instead. "Nine said this was supposed to hurt a lot."

She stabbed the knife in his back, slowly, and quickly pulled it out. Wenli screamed like a pig, his arms struggling to get away from the pain. But there was no way out, except accepting that it was present. She repeated it, moving her stabs up bit by bit. Her eyes were cold and merciless. This man was responsible for so many horrible things, she couldn't help but thinking he deserved worse than this. But he was too loud to continue.

In one movement she slit his throat, ending his loud bawling abruptly. She removed her grip on his dead body and cleaned her knife with his clothes before putting it back into her thigh holster. An empty feeling took hold of her, something she wasn't used too but didn't surprise her either.

It had been too easy. Rei sighted and contacted Tadashi immediately, as she was supposed to. "One? It's me. It's done.". It was silent on the other side of the line. "Copied. Do you-"
"I'm fine. No big deal at all. Now you do your job, captain". She hung up before he could say anything else. The weird, constant disappointment was something she wasn't able to shake off.

Suddenly, she felt something else, warning her like it was a primitive instinct, causing her to retried from the dead body and took a defensive stance. An ominous premonition sent chills down her spine.

And then, he was there. She didn't even hear, smell or sense him coming. His hands were behind his back and he stood with his back hunched forward. His white hair stood upon his head and he had a Fu Manchu moustache, but none of those things were what made Rei react like that.

It were his eyes. They were grey, but filled with such a sinister look of determination it became intimidating. She took a better hold on her knife, totally on edge by his sudden appearance. "Oh, so you noticed me?"

When he spoke, he seemed to become less daunting. Rei eyed the old man in front of her. His voice was croaked a bit of old age, but he certainly way stronger than her. Engaging a fight was definitely not an option if she wanted to make it out alive, and he didn't seem to be interested in fighting her.

But that didn't mean she was going to lower her guard. "Sort of", was her short response. His grey orbs scanned her face and tried to place her demeanour. She didn't look scared, rather on her guard.

"You killed my target."
Rei was taken aback by his words. He was an assassin? "What is your name?". She doubted. Could she tell him? She didn't want to admit it, but the old man gave her a friendly vibe.

Rei allowed herself to relax a little. For a mere civilian it may not have looked like it, but she loosened her stance, even though it was just a little. "Rei. Rei Fukushima.".

The old geezer smiled. "You have quite the potential, Rei Fukushima.". He had been watching her. How she scanned her surroundings with her senses, making sure no one would be near. How she had kept up the masquerade, not revealing her true intentions until the last moment. How she despised the dead man, but gave no room to her personal emotions but did her job without risk.

Rei ignored the compliment he gave her. "Who are you?". This was a bad situation for her. She'd wanted to get away from this place as soon as the job was finished, but she couldn't turn her back to this man. He was on a whole different level.

"Zeno Zoldyck."

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