After their meal, Kirimaru had left Yurito with Sushi and dumped them both in his son’s personal play room, leaving Yurito a glaring mess. His playroom was enough for ten children to play in, and although Yurito despised the idea of wasting time by playing he never made the move to yell at his father.
It was quite a paradise for children.
Sushi walked towards a big pile of plush toys and just lied down, tired from all that had happened in the short span of the morning. Yurito huffed at her attitude and grabbed a book from one of the shelves to read, and then sat down on one of the blue bean bags scattered all over the room.
After a few minutes after Yurito had started reading he noticed that Sushi was staring at the book in his hands, “What do you want?” he asked rudely as he glared at her silent form. She continued to stare and as time passed it made the heir feel unsettled, and then finally she moved from her place to sit right next to Yurito on a red bean bag, “What is it?”
She pointed at the cover and then to him.
Yurito looked at her and furrowed his brows, “You want me to read to you?” she gave him a small nod, “Fine, but not this book because it’s too complicated for you to understand.” he went back to the book shelf and took a much more child looking book than the one he had read, “This one is called Leprechaun, now let’s begin.” and with Sushi by his side he read to her.
The story was about a little Leprechaun who disobeyed his parents and left their underground home to wander around in the tunnels, he had accidentally tripped on one of the columns causing the ceiling of dirt to collapse onto his little mushroom home crushing his whole family in one blow.
He then left in search for friends and on his journey he came upon a sparrow with brown feathers who lead him to the tree filled with other sparrows, he then felt at home and was comforted by the sparrows and the little red headed leprechaun learned never to disobey that day.
“The end…” Yurito closed the book and returned it on the bookshelf, Sushi was still on the bean bag unmoving, “You’re not even going give a thank you for what I had done for you?” he approached her and sat down on his former blue seat, “You’re quite rude, have you ever learn the meaning of ‘manners’?” When he turned his head to gloom he felt a soft peck on his cheeks, shocked he jerked his head to the direction of Sushi.
Her face was still blank but no longer did her red bangs cover her eyes, “Th-thank you…”
Yurito released a blush a nice shade of pink as he stared into Sushi’s pretty lemon eyes, “F-finally, you hadn’t spoken in a long time.” he placed his left hand on his cheek and looked away, not wanting her to see his pink cheeks. After a few seconds he was sure that the warmth in his face had disappeared and had the courage to look at her again, but Sushi had started napping on her bean bag.
Sushi was strange and foreign to him, all the girls his age in his clan were noisy and touchy but she was quiet and distant. Thinking of girls led him to the thought of his mother, he cringed at that word, she was not his true mother, because Lanora was a fake.
When Yurito was born it caused too much damage to his true mother causing her to become weak, she was able to live a few more years but when he turned three she had died. Her body could no longer sustain the damage.
Just a year ago his father had married Lanora, one of the reasons why he was not so close with his father. He had looked up to him but now his mother was dead for only a year and then he married another woman? Yurito couldn’t stand it.
He shook the negative thoughts away from his mind and instead turned back to Sushi, her appearance interested him. Red hair was not natural here in Japan and neither were yellow eyes, it was quite exotic.
He decided to take a nap himself and settled into his blue bean bag.
Three years after that day, Sushi was now seven years old and Yurito was now eight. She had yet to see any other Gushita other than Kirimaru, Lanora, Yurito, and her personal nurses.
Sushi was told about her family heritage and was taught that she would soon have to revive her lost family, she could not understand everything but she knew that her family did some dangerous things for a living other than their sweets business.
Since the Portorate family specialized in infiltration and open contact with enemies she would have to learn how to defend herself, of course holding guns and any other weapons were still out of the question. Sushi was only seven after all.
Sushi was being taught the beauty of martial arts, her trainer, Amrita Rangosh was excellent and an old friend of Kirimaru. She had been taught other fighting styles but taekwondo had become her special favorite, because her arms were not strong enough to defend or attack but her legs were just enough.
Sushi stood before a human dummy with a cup on top of its head and prepared the proper stance, and knocked the cup off its leg with a perfect round house without disturbing the dummy.
“Good job Sushi!” Amrita said whilst clapping. The Gushita dojo was well equipped with everything, making it the best possible place to train the future Portorate Clan Leader and the Gushita Heir.
Sushi brushed her red bangs back onto her eyes and nodded towards her teacher, even after three years she still did not speak as much as any other child. Quietly, she sneaked a glance at Yurito who was repeatedly doing high kicks.
Their trainer went closer to Yurito and tapped his shoulder, “You’re doing great Yurito, as expected of the Gushita clan heir but you should really slow down… you don’t want to hurt yourself, right?”
The eight year old boy pushed her hand away from his shoulder gently and said “Hmph, pain is just one of the hurdles a Gushita heir has to go through in order to gain their reward.” he walked away from Amrita and started punching a bag filled with sand.
Crossing her arms the Indian woman pouted, “Stingy, you’re nothing like Kirimaru at all, Yurito.” she leaned her head to the left to see Sushi resting on the tatami mat floor staring at Yurito, “At least Sushi is a good girl!” skipping towards the Russian girl she patted her head, “Aren’t you, Sushi?”
Said girl paid no attention to the hand resting upon her head and continued to watch the young Gushita, not even stopping to look up at Amrita.
Amrita knelt in front of Sushi and tapped her nose, “You’ve got to make a reaction or something, it’s one of the things that makes a person normal.” but she was given none, “Fine, guess I’ll have to do this!” she made a move to remove Sushi’s red hair from her lemon eyes, but was given a slap to her hand in return. The trainer had her eyes slightly wide open until she let out an airy laugh, “Okay, okay, I get it, I can’t touch your hair…” She stood up and left the young girl alone.
The trainer sat on one of the benches stationed right next to the exit and allowed her head to rest upon her fist, the young duo were the most unique children she had ever had the pleasure of training. Most of the time, the Gushita children she was in charge of would just play around and pretend they were super heroes training to fight villains. Yurito was such a hard-working kid always striving to become the perfect heir and Sushi was just… quiet beyond natural.
Amrita had started training them after Kirimaru had asked her to do a special training project concerning two heirs, and to be honest she was quite hyped to be able to do something so awesome. The first time she met them they were so silent it scared her to death, and since they were so obedient Amrita had thought that they were involved in some sort of brain washing horror.
After a few months she had learned that Sushi did not talk at all, but one time she had caught her and Yurito making a small conversation. It was one of the days where she was late in meeting them for training.
Amrita rushed towards the dojo area slightly panting, she wasn’t able to wake up as early as usual since the day before that day she had gone through paperwork concerning the payments of all the students that she had trained. She paused near the door to open it, but stopped when she heard Yurito's voice.
“Are you okay? “ She found it hard to believe that it came from Yurito at all, since the kid was as cold as ice. It seemed impossible for him to show even the slightest big of compassion or kindness, “You’re sweating a lot and your forehead is very hot!” perhaps Sushi was sick, “We need to get you medicine!”
Amrita hid behind the doors and gave herself a peak at the scene, Sushi was sitting on the floor with Yurito’s hand on her neck. She watched Yurito brush her bangs away from her face, and was shocked when Sushi had not pushed his hand away.
Sushi made small wheezing noises and whispered, “Y-Yurito…” it was small but Amrita heard it, the first time she had heard her voice.
His hand still moved to her forehead Yurito looked into her lemon eyes, “What is it?”
Her eyes drooped and she fell on the tatami mats to lie down, “I'm sleepy…”
The heir nodded and picked her up, “Okay, I’ll take you to your room…” Amrita hurried to hide from their sight, and watched Yurito take her through the long Gushita halls.
Now in the present, Amrita had not heard Sushi’s voice since that day. Although she has tried numerous times to catch one of their small conversations, she was never able to.
Letting out a grin, she clapped her hands, “Okay then, training is over!” Yurito stopped his punching spree, and Sushi stood up from her place on the floor, “You go clean up while I talk to Master Kirimaru!” she started to jog all the way to the Gushita leaders office, leaving the two children in the dojo.
Amrita Rangosh did not consider herself beautiful what with her dark long curly hair, light green eyes, and tanned Indian skin, but many times she had walked down the street hearing whistles and catcalls from the random thugs down the street.
Stopping in front of his door she stared at the sign with a confused expression, it said, “The Awesome Leader’s Office, do not disturb or you will get a knife through your heart.” it was not there before, Amrita rolled her eyes at her boss’s humor and went inside.
Not heeding the warning she opened the door, “Hey Kiri, so about the pay-“She was cut off when a knife came zooming towards her chest, and out of reflex she dodged it, “What… was that!” she stared at the knife embedded into the wall and turned to her boss.
Another knife in his hand, Kirimaru brought his feet to rest upon his desk, “What’s up, Amrita? Doing well?” his snicker turned into a laugh when he saw Amrita's face expression.
Amrita coughed and fixed her hair, whilst walking to the front of the desk, “You know I didn’t think that you were serious… with the warning stuck on your door.”
Putting the knife inside his drawers he continued to laugh silently, “Well I am always serious!”
She crossed her arms and raised a brow at the knife inside his desk, “Why in the world do you keep a knife inside that thing?”
His laugh had halted when he said, “Well duh, what if an assassin came in out of nowhere and attacked me, I need something to defend myself.”
Amrita sat down on nearby black leather couch and hugged a white cushion, “Well sorry your Majesty, I failed to notice that.”
Kirimaru chuckled and started to write down on some papers on his desk, “So did you take your pills yet? It’s already nine.”
Taking out a bottle filled with pills Amrita gulped one down, “I forgot, thanks for reminding me.” she had a medical condition that no longer allowed her to be part of missions or suicide stunts, it was the main reason why she had taken the job of training future professionals instead of continuing to be one herself.
She had gotten the medicine pills from the Gushita Family’s personal professional doctor Koi Bito, although most of the time he was an insane scientist, he was very much reliable.
“So why are you here, miss Rangosh? “
She shrugged and continued to cuddle the cushion, “Nothing really, I was just bored.” Amrita stared at the clan leader as he continued to skim through long paragraphs of nonsense and said, “Remember the day you found me?”
Kirimaru looked up from his files and nodded, “Yep, I was ten years old and I found an eight year old you rummaging through the garbage for food.”
Amrita grinned and threw the pillow at Kirimaru, “Thanks for saving me from that dump!”
He caught the pillow and threw it back at her, unlike him, she had failed to catch it. “Well you didn’t come here unscathed, you gained a permanent sickness in your stomach due to the food you ate during your days there and now you have to take those pills every twelve hours to prevent the bacteria in your stomach from multiplying beyond limit.”
She nodded with a smile on her face, “Well yeah that’s true, oh and by the way I need help training both of the heirs, so can I bring a friend into the dojo?”
Kirimaru gave her a friendly glare, “You know that I cannot give anyone the pleasure of seeing the princess Sushi.”
Amrita erupted in bursts of laughter and said in a shaky voice, “Princess? I know that you have become fond of the girl, but calling her ‘Princess’?” her laughter continued to stream throughout the office room, “Hilarious!”
Kirimaru looked away and out into the window, “Sushi is quite valuable to me and I would do anything it takes to keep her from prying eyes, who knows maybe someone would recognize her appearance as one of the Portorate family and call the Russian government.” he looked down onto his weary hands formed by years of training and suicide missions, “All I could do then is jeopardize our family’s secret position and have all of us killed, of course we would not go down without a fight.”
Amrita gave her employer a smile, “I know what you’re trying to do is for the best, but really, all I want is to bring in my friend from the city to help them in the future when they start training with weapons and guns because you know I only specialize in hand to hand combat.”
The clan leader sighed and nodded, “I understand, only the best for Yurito and Sushi, very well, you are able to bring in this friend of yours… but first tell me who he is.”
She grinned and waved off his demand, “You will know his identity once he starts training with the kids, see you later, boss!” and with that she was out, leaving a pouting Kirimaru.
Walking in the grimy streets of the downtown area was Amrita who had a grin on her face, because she had been waiting for the perfect opportunity to get her friend out of this dump and onward to a better life. Her friend lived in a small apartment purposely made for people who were broke, so basically speaking it was very cheap.
It was quite often that her friend confused her, because how could someone so talented be so broke? Instead of using the broken elevator she used the stairs, and wondered how long the elevator has been broken. Arriving on the third floor she knocked on the door with the number ‘302’.
“Coming!” a masculine voice said from behind the door. The door opened to reveal a platinum blonde male with a spiky hairdo, pale blue eye shaped like a cat’s, and creamy skin.
Amrita waved with a grin, “Hey Cookie!”
This man was Cookie Desserter. He was once a very talented assassin, he had went to a total of seventy five suicide missions and only failing one. Cookie started training at the same time as Kirimaru when he was six years old, and he was close friends with the Gushita leader until a few years ago when he suddenly disappeared from their lives.
Like every other bum, he was kicked out of his home by his parents at the age of fifteen due to his inability and laziness for studying and anything productive. They had never known that he had been taking combat missions since he was thirteen.
Now thirty years old he stared at the olive colored girl with wide eyes, “Amrita? What are you doing here?”
With a huge smile on her face Amrita brought the man to her arm for a knuckle head grip, “You know how long it took me to find you? Ten years!” although Amrita was one foot smaller than the man, she had the strength and power that she had taken decades to hone and with this strength and flexibility she went behind Cookie, held his arms, and leaned back with her strength bringing Cookie with her causing his head to bang against the floor.
Amrita let go causing his body to go limp on the floor, “Y-you… have not changed at all Amrita…” slowly he stood up with blood leaking down his face, “There was no need to do that.”
Just like what she had taught Sushi just that morning she gave Cookie a hard round house kick, “Of course I had to do that! After what you did, you have the nerve to do that! Why did you LEAVE me and Kirimaru alone!? I thought we were best friends! The unbeatable trio!” right after that kick was another using her right leg, but it was blocked by his arm.
Wiping the blood from his eyes he gave her a smile and said, “Why don’t we settle this inside?” he said with his soft England accent.
Amrita did not know what was making her emotional but she felt tears prick her eyes, Cookie had always been the kindest person she knew and if she was to be honest there was no other man she would choose to marry but him.
Putting on a tough image, she wiped the unnoticeable tears from her eyes and yelled, “Fine!” and went inside his apartment, Cookie following after.
Cookie sat down on his broken sofa and looked up at the Indian woman standing right before him, “So?”
“Why did you leave?”
He chuckle and smiled, “Unlike Kirimaru you were always straight to the point, Amrita.”
“Answer the question.”
He leaned against the sofa, and made a face of one when thinking, “Well let’s see… maybe it has something to do with my legs.”
Confused Amrita asked, “What about your legs?”
He let out a warm laugh, “Well let’s just say that in the last suicide mission I was buried under a large amount of debris, with my legs as the victim.” with his pretty cat eyes he look into Amrita’s, “I made a small miscalculation expecting them to be surprised with my infiltration just like any other mission but somehow the data about me coming to assassinate their boss had leaked into their ears and they had prepared an exploding dumming, and before I was able to escape the explosion... it caused the ceiling to fall upon my legs, and of course I was able to escape by dragging myself out."
“Why didn’t you ask me or Kirimaru for hel?!” she yelled, “You know that we would be there to help you!”
Sticking out his tongue in a sheepish manner he gave her a friendly wink, “Well, I admitted myself into a hospital making some sort of excuse and such, and they had told me that the other injuries that I had taken in the explosion were life threatening… I spent five years inside the hospital and by the time I was out I could no longer face you all, and now here I am.”
A look of rage came upon the jolly trainer, and she gave him a strong slap upon his face, “You could have still came to us, you idiot! We still would have been able to take you in, but what do you do? You live your life in this dump wasting five years of your ENTIRE life!”
Rubbing the back of his head he smiled yet again, “I’m sorry for the inconvenience.”
Amrita couldn’t help the warm feeling in her chest to come out, “Forget it now, I came here for your help…” she looked away not allowing Cookie to see the smile forcing her way upon her face.
Tilting his head to the side he had a wondering look on his face, “What could I help you with? My legs can no longer handle any strenuous movement.”
“While you were gone Kirimaru had taken on the Gushita leader throne…”
Cookie’s eyes sparkled with surprise and happiness, “Really? Wow! Congratulations for him!”
Amrita stomped on his foot as hard as she could, “Don’t interrupt, idiot!” while Cookie held his injury on his sofa, she continued, “And after that he had a son with Kirei,” she watched Cookie cover his mouth, trying to hide the happiness his smile had shown in fear of provoking Amrita, “But as you know things don’t always last forever, Kirei died, Cookie.” with those words his smile was wiped from his face, “But of course Kirimaru remarried a woman named Lanora, nice girl,” a frown came upon his face, “Another thing, Cookie, the Portorate family has been wiped out.”
Shocked, Cookie stood up from his place on the comfort and held Amrita’s shoulders, “What!? What do you mean ‘wiped out’!?”
Amrita pushed him away, not liking the personal invasion, “I mean they’re all dead, Cookie! All killed by the Russian military! But of course you would have figured this out if you had actually come to us during your years of staying in this DUMP!”
Cookie had not heard her words, “What about Acre?” he whispered.
That name caused Amrita to glare, Acre was Cookie’s love before his disappearance. She was beautiful beyond words, with her dark reddish hair and mesmerizing light brown eyes. Amrita couldn’t count the amount of times she had hated the kind woman, and the amount of times she hated herself for hating Acre.
“Dead, like the rest of them.” she said quietly, “But luckily there was one survivor, the Portorate heiress.”
Cookie couldn’t believe all the things that he has missed in the past ten years, he had expected that everything would continue in their own marry way but what a naïve fool he was for even thinking such a thing.
Amrita nodded at his reaction and crossed her arms, " This is what I want to tell you about, I need your help in training both the Gushita and Portorate heirs for their future in the battlefield… I’m already training them in the art of martial arts but you already know that I am no good with weapons, that’s your forte.”
Giving a small sad smile Cookie said, “I’m not sure that I’m ready to reveal myself to Kirimaru, he would probably skin me alive… but I’ll do it, to make up for my mistake.” he looked up and started to think, “What’s this Gushita heir’s name?”
She raised an eyebrow to this, “Yurito.”
“Wow, he’s probably just like his father! Loud, funny, outgoing, and just pure kindness!” he said whilst reminiscing about their old days.
“Well he is the complete opposite, quiet, rude, loner, and pure evil.” Amrita said remembering the amount of times she wanted to gut the little brat because of his painful attitude.
Surprised, Cookie yelled, “How in the world did the kid end up like that!?”
Amrita shrugged, “Probably the stress of becoming the next Gushita leader and stuff.” Remorse filled her emotions as she thought about Sushi, “When the Gushita found Sushi, the Portorate heir, she was bleeding under a broken bed that collapsed under the debris, when she woke up all she could scream were the names of the Portorate family members… she would not speak for years, and the only one she would trust is Yurito.”
“I understand, I will come to the Gushita compound tomorrow in the morning.”
Amrita grinned and pats his back, “Good, that’s the time I usually train them… It’s good to see you again, Cookie.” she turned and left his apartment.
When she shut the door Cookie collapsed on his couch with exhaustion, “How in the world did you find me, Amrita? I made sure…”
Indeed, the next morning Cookie had come to the Gushita compound and with lots of yelling and violence, Kirimaru had accepted the ex-assassin after hearing his story. Of course he had given the man a couple of injuries just as Amrita had, but more.
Cookie had started to come to the Gushita compound again and again since that day.
Since the children were not yet capable and old enough to handle weapons, Cookie had decided on training them in other skills that Amrita cannot, as assassin stealth was one of his many talents. Yurito was a Gushita, and thus specialized in infiltration and that required stealth, as of now he was in the forest surrounding the City in which the Gushita compound resided.
Although it was Yurito’s first time in stealth Cookie had to admit that the boy held promise, but he was still inexperienced. He could hear his soft breathing coming from behind him right above the tree, but Cookie made no move to signal his awareness.
He decided to do a little something, “I found you.” he said out loud, trying to coax him out of his hiding, but he smiled when he didn’t, it was a technique found in many books and it was to trick your enemy into thinking he was not there and always stay calm.
He picked up a rock he found on the ground at threw it at Yurito's direction, fast and strong. He heard a response, it was Yurito's whisper of pain. Cookie had to hand it to the boy, because he tried hard to hold in his pain in order not to give away his position.
He came upon the tree where Yurito was hiding, and used his arms to bring him up to the branch he was sitting on, and he did it was grace, “I found you.” he repeated, Yurito’s hand was placed upon his forehead where a red mark with drips of blood was placed, “I’m not that easy to trick, Yurito, I was an ex professional assassin you know, It would take years for you to actually defeat me.”
Yurito glared at his new trainer but behind the hate that he put into it was admiration, he knew that Cookie had not put all of his power into that throw but it was still very painful. He was sure that he would get a headache later on.
Cookie started to jog and said, “Now come, we will run all the way back into the city to improve your stamina.” with his signature kind smile on his face he started to run.
Jogging behind him, Yurito nodded. He would take any challenge it would take to be worthy of his future role as Gushita leader, and a small jog back into the city kilometers long was no challenge for him.
While Cookie was training Yurito, Amrita was assigned with Sushi to help her flexibility and agilit. As of now, she was telling her to do acrobatic moves while dodging the soft balls aimed at her. As she did all these things, she would have to knock every red cup over different sizes of dummies instead of the blue ones.
Amrita stood behind a mini ball shooter aiming at Sushi as she did back flips, front flips, and all sorts of techniques that were drilled into her by the Indian trainer. She had also used different tactics in order to avoid the balls, and that was hiding behind the dummies.
“Hey, Sushi, that’s not fair! I told you to dodge the balls not hide from them!” Amrita yelled pouting, though she did not expect a response.
Sushi ignored her trainer and concentrated on staying safe as she knocked off every red cup on its dummy’s, of course she was not able to dodge or block every single soft ball. With a small grunt of pain, she was unable to hide from three that were coming her way.
By the time Yurito and Cookie had finished their jog back to the city, Yurito was tired. But he still had enough strength to give Amrita a kick to the back because of the state she had put Sushi in, "You're a moron!" he yelled.
Rubbing her back, Amrita said, “What was that for, Yurito?” she could have dodged the attack if she wanted to but she allowed him to have the small pleasure, of course she would get him back for it sooner or later.
Yurito gave another hit to the head with his fist, “For your idiocy!” he walked to Sushi who was running her stomach, the place where all three balls had hit her. He pulled her up roughly and tugged at her hair softly, “Why didn’t you dodge it properly, you’re so clumsy.”
Sushi's response was to take his hand that held her own, and to put it on top of her head. She was trying to make him pat her head, she had no smile and made no sign that she was in pain.
Cookie approached her and smiled, "Are you alright, Sushi?" he was kneeling behind her, and Sushi, hearing the blonde man's voice, turned around to give him a soft hug, "Sorry I trained Yurito first, I need to adjust something in his skills!" he returned her hug and patted her head with a small laugh.
Amrita still could not get over the sight of Sushi showing the slightest bit of affection to someone other than Yurito, she knew that Cookie was a nice and lovable guy but to even have the Portorate heiress wrapped around his finger was amazing.
She looked at Yurito and flinched, he was as red as a steaming lobster. Of course the Gushita heir did not take Sushi’s newfound actions tolerable, Amrita was sure that the boy was jealous of the new trainer.
Sushi was grabbed from her embrace with Cookie by Yurito, who dragged her to the farthest corner, “You’re injured, you idiot, you need to put some cream onto that or something before you do anything else! Do you want a bruise to be stuck on your stomach or something!?” he forced her to sit on the ground and left to get some sort of healing balm.
Cooking scratched his head, he did not know why Yurito hated him so much. The kid didn't even allow Sushi to speak or touch him. Amrita stood in her place to cover her mouth in order to hide the snickers that were making her way out of her mouth.
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