Before they could even take out their weapons, yours are in your hands already and with a swift flick of your wrists, the men are dead. 

“Who—“ The one left backs away in fear, away from your approaching steps.  “Who the hell are you?!”

“Me?” You tilt your head and let out a smile.  “No one, really,” And with that, the third knife flies and embeds itself up to the hilt on his chest.

You sigh and let down your hood, exposing your head to the night air.  “Pity,” You pull up the sleeve of the last man’s shirt, showing his wrist.  “You guys were the most fun I had since the last two days,”

“Fun?”

You calmly pull out your knives from their bodies and turn at your heel, walking nonchalantly down the alley.  “Yes, Q.  Fun,”

The person you refer to as Q follows you quietly, making the necessary turns.  “No wonder you’re the only girl I’ve ever seen go so far with the job,”

At his sentence you abruptly stop and turn towards him.  “I have no job.  This is not a job.  I work alone, for no one.  You hear that, Q?” You say through gritted teeth.  Emphasizing your words, you stab your knives at the ground, cleaning the blood from it.

“But why,” Q whines.  “It would be great if you’d join.  I mean, we have the same purpose and goal and whatever, you know,”

“Shut it,” You jab at him, at his left and right, catching his right shoulder at the second jab, making him step back.

“Ouch,” He says, rubbing his right shoulder.

“Why do you always fail at this,” You mutter, continuing your walk.

“I don’t know, don’t ask me,” Q quietly says, frolicking around you and stopping at your face, forcing you to stop on your tracks.  “You have really pretty hair, you know,” He takes your hair in his hand and presses it to his mouth.  Or the mouth of the mask he’s wearing.  “Why silver, of all color?”

“I don’t know, don’t ask me,” You copy his words, slapping his hand away.  “Now shoo,”

He steps out of the way and whistles a merry tune, unfitting to the dark night.  “Where were they from?” He jerks his tumb back at the alley.

“Red Snakes,” You answer.  “Really now, you’d think that an evil syndicate’s group would have a cuter name,”

“Red Snakes, huh,” Q chuckles.  “They won’t be back any time soon, seeing their men like that in an alley with a clean stab that rid them of their lives,”

“Thank you,” You curtsy, then jump up a nearby fence and standing on it, walking with your hands behind your back.

“Show-off,” Q muttered, evoking quiet laughter from the two of you.  “Well, I gotta get back and report this to The Lady,” He eyes you through his mask.

“I know your expression, Q.  Don’t accuse me for not joining you,” You  pull up your hood and jam your hands into the pocket of your jacket.

“Hey, don’t spoil the mask’s purpose, I’m supposed to be unreadable and unrecognizable,”

“Yeah, right.” You roll your eyes and by the time they fall onto the ground below you, Q’s gone.  “Playing mysterious as usual,” You leap off of the fence and counting your steps to 30, you pull out a brown wig from your shoulderbag and whip it on your head, casually walking down the street like you always do. 

Q’s from the Kingdom, a.k.a the city’s capital organization.  Right under the wings of the Queen herself, the Kingdom is the most powerful, fearful, city-siding organization there is.  The Lady, the woman who runs the organization, has a very vague identity.  Their job is, in a cheesy way, to maintain justice.  But professionally, they’re a bunch of assassins, messengers, and all the other discreet roles, making up a 15 people organization.  Q told you that their names are all camouflaged with alphabets.  The alphabets are assigned by The Lady, and their names are kept by her.  Names are weaknesses, they believe. 

Groups like the Red Snakes are the bad guys.  They rob, corrupt, kidnap, whatever evil deed they can do.  They have their own purposes, needs and wants, but in general, they are foes of the city.  Which is where organizations such as the Kingdom comes in to terminate.

The good guys are only the Kingdom, though.  Sometimes it makes you wonder why you’d stay in a city like this, with the amount of bad guys roaming around like they’re normal citizens. 

Where do you come in? Oh, you’re actually siding with nobody, but in common sense, you also terminate the bad guys.  You’re looking for something.  For a specific something.  But nobody knows what, except you.

“Banquet! Banquet in the Castle!” A man carrying a basket of newspapers cycle past you.

“Sir, an edition, please!” You toss him a quarter and get yourself the day’s paper tossed in return.

“Thank you, lass!” He salutes and continues his hollering.

Your eyes scan the front page that announces a banquet to be held in the castle tomorrow.  Well, such an event cannot go to waste.  Things are bound to happen.