Ink Stained

41: take the shot*

発射を撮りる

They are a family.

No one told them that their targets are a family.

With her back to the ledge of the wall of the roof they are atop, she flicks through the uncharacteristically thin folder, rifling through the few papers inside that detail their targets. These files are supposed to be bigger, with more detailed information.

This one looks like someone did a cursory search on the internet of just their names and printed the single page out to make it look like they'd done more than they had.

Kiku said that their two targets are known to be flighty, using the pretence of their job, travelling to Sapporo from Kyoto and back. The higher-ups of the Sapporo branch want to tally these deaths as their own, rather than let the Agents at the Kyoto branch handle it. She doesn't know why – she shouldn't care why.

Not much is known about them, except the barest minimum of information that is enough to warrant sending Agents after them.

The first paper is printed back to front in Russian mixed up in code. So Fu knows their Agents will never let the files they receive on their targets be exposed to those not part of the organization, but they still take lengthy precautions. Every file she has ever received for a mission is encoded differently. This time, it is relatively simple. The file is in Russian, but the letters are coded in that they only make coherent sense when the letters are shifted three spaces ahead in the Cyrillic alphabet. She has spent hours doing mental exercises so that it is an automatic reflex to immediately translate the words so that they can be understood.

Clipped to the left-hand corner of the file is a picture of the first target. Her hair is long and dark, braided in two pigtails down her shoulders. Her eyes are a deep chocolate brown. Despite the schoolgirl hairstyle, the woman in the photo looks mature and capable of handling herself. The smile toying about her lips says she knows how to loosen up to have fun, too.

ФАМИЛИЯ ИМЯ: Mizushima [Maiden, Kaizaki] Kichi

РОДИЛСЯ: 29/08/1986

ВОЗРАСТ: 28

МЕСТО РОЖДЕНИЯ: Kyoto, Japan

ТИП: Tengu

РОДИТЕЛИ: Kaizaki Misaki [Mother, Deceased]; Kaizaki Ohga [Father, Deceased]

ОТПРЫСКИ: Kaizaki Yukiji [Younger Sister]

СУПРУГ/ НАПАРНИК: Mizushima Nishio [Husband]

ДЕТИ: N/A

ПОСЛЕДНИЙ АДРЕС: Kyoto

ЗАНЯТИЕ: Architect [Organic Architecture]

Why doesn't it say there's a child? she thinks, flipping the file closed.

All the other information on the next two pages details any past appearances So Fu is aware of. She reaches over and pulls the second to her. She lays it across her lap and opens the folder containing Mizushima Nishio's information. The picture is of a man with hair that curls just past the tip of his ears and a gentle smile on his face, eyes soft and kind. She quickly scans it, eyes shooting up and down the page in search of something that is not there.