Red Crow

Chapter One

  I run down the hallways of the palace, passing every screen paper door, hallway and person. I was so late to first class. I knew I should've slept and not of been reading some ancient scrolls. When I came rearing around my classroom screen, I stopped running and started tip toing. My tabi sandals being as quiet as they can while my feet gracefully guided me on the wooden floor without so much as a creak. I open the screen door to see everyone inside staring at the chalkboard as she wrote on it. Everyone was seated at tables and sat in benches. All of the tables started from the floor that I'm currently standing on and went down a step. The benches leaned against the tables a step up and then the tables were scooted up near the bench.

  Around four people sat in each bench. Three columns and twenty rows down. Then there was a flat platform at the bottom, and there rested the teacher's desk, big old chalkboards, and bookshelves. Everyone in the classroom, including the teacher, wore red hooded, sleeved, cloaks. I wore one too, but had my hood down. "You wouldn't be in need of there anymore," a voice behind me said. I jumped and screeched. Suddenly the whole class looked in my direction. The teacher stalked up the stairs and kept her eyes on me. I walked backwards as she came up each step. After taking three steps back I hit something.

  I look up to see the Red Crow leader, Kiba-Sama. The teacher makes it all the way up the steps and to the screen door. "What in the name of-" she suddenly stops when she sees Kiba-sama. "Oh, Lead Crow. I suggest your here to tell Ryun-chan about the arrangements?" Kiba-sama nods.

  "Yes, Ms. Hoshuo, I am. Gomen, Ms. Hoshuo. I didn't mean to disrupt your class," Kiba-sama says. Ms. Hoshuo pushes her glasses up.

  "No! It's alright Lead Crow-sama! It was almost time to let them out of their class," she said. I doubted that. I was only gonna be thirty minutes late. After that there would be a fifty minute lecture on some famous emperor. I never kept tracked of politics. I only did when I had a mission that somehow involved them. Kiba-sama nodded his head as Ms. Hoshuo closed the screen. Kiba-sama then looked at me.

  "What the hell do you mean by 'arrangements' anyway, Kiba-sama?" I ask. He said nothing, but instead grabbed my wrist and practically dragged me into my room. A mat was placed in the middle of the farthest wall and had some bedding and blankets on it. That, was my bed. Two book cases covered the left wall, while the other was the haven to my weapons. A scroll laid on the side of my bed. We stopped in the middle of the room, the screen was obviously closed. Kiba-sama let go of my wrist and dug into his robe's sleeve. Kiba-sama wore a white kimono with a similar red robe over it. He pulled out a scroll with a jade ribbon tying it. 

  I look at him, my eyebrow curling up. "Another mission?" I ask. He nods. I read the scroll. "And one that requires me to kill Emperor Musac's newly wed wife," I say, examining the paper. Just as I was about to roll the scroll back up, Kiba-sama gives me another scroll. "Two missions?" I ask.

  "Yes, but you may only read the second when you come from your first. I expect you to leave tonight and be back by mid-morning next Tuesdays," he says. I nod. Kiba-sama leaves. So I only have five days to complete this mission. I guess I should hurry and pack light, I though to myself. I sigh as I grab weapons, a uniform, and some coin. I dress into the uniform and wait until dark. I silently run out of the palace halls and to the courtyard with the big tree. I climb the tree and onto the roof. I run on the roof until I come to the edge of the palace. There was a tree next to the edge of the roof, so I jumped and grabbed onto it before falling.

  The branch hissed at my weight, but I didn't care as I pulled myself up. This was the start of the huge change in my life, I realised.