"An' here I was, startin' to doubt Rocket's resolve..."

She grins at his words.

Even if she knew he was relaying orders, they weren't the sort of orders that would've come down from an underboss more concerned with civilian lives than his own. They were pragmatic, in a sense she could come to appreciate. Respect, if not despise.

They were the orders of one who had understood war.

"You ever killed kids, dog?"

Darkness casts a shadow over all, the only shroud she truly felt comforted by. She feels at home here. In her element. And it brought the impression of curiosity to her lips without her even meaning to, pretending to care what sins her fellow assassin was guilty of. But she spoke only to herself.

"They ever look up at your with big ol' innocent eyes, wondering what you just did to their parents? Not even understanding? What'd you tell 'em, in their last moments? Huh? 'Shhhh, now... Everything's gonna be okay... You'll see momma real soon, kid.' Shit like that?"

She spits on the ground, readying her blades.

"How many kids you think the League's killed?"

She sinks into the shadows, swords melding into the dark and carrying her forth in the dark.

Too many to count.

Shadows cast by a nearby burning barrel roil like the surface of a black sea. The assassin emerges from them noiselessly, covered in black. It moves unnatural, not the black of night, but some deeper pitch, defying the dark around them in all its malice, in its hatred even rejecting the dim moonlight.

The shadowy shape slips a sword beneath the nearest guard's neck, and crimson spills across the ground. It is just as dark and menacing as the shadowy woman, who stalks through the shadows to the next man, closes that space in mere moments, and finds his heart before he can even utter a word. She twists her blade, covering the man's mouth as she lowers him noiselessly to the ground, but there is no sound.

No sound, but the silent hiss on shadows that carries her voice through her cursed blades to her cohort, the black dog.

"So, the dog's got a conscience now? Unfortunate. Just don't let the bosses know."

She shoots him a glance of annoyance as the shadows around her body melt away. The kid falls, nearly in front of her. She looks him over, nudging him with her sandal. Probably twice as old as she was, the first time she killed a man.

Still too young, by far.

But Hoenn's changed. This kid's just part and parcel now, his death an everyday occurrence. She turns her attention back to the dog.

"Yeah? Bet that makes your owner proud.

"Y'know any commands other than 'kill'? What about 'sit'? 'Shake'? How 'bout 'roll over'?"

She laughs heartily at her own joke, licking her lips and tasting the cruel jape as if it were blood. She swallows her sorrow, security alert blaring over a loudspeaker and alerting the rest of the camp of their presence. For all their coordination, the swarm of origami blades were simply not swift enough.

"Nah... 'kill' is fine by me."

Her scorn subsides, turning her attention up the stairs where three men had poured out of the room, each eyeing her and reaching to their hips.

The tyrantrum bellows a jet of hot breath, swinging its tail along the earth. Hana's swords carry her into the air, soaring higher than her own legs could propel her with an aerial ace aimed at the drake's face. Its teeth were as deadly as swords, but she'd rather plunge toward the open maw, straight at danger, than die a coward on the ground.

"Aw, poor dog... hurt your pride? Don't worry, don't mean a thing by it!"

Hana sails upward, sword leaving her grasp at the crest of her leap. It arcs towards the beast and plunges through the one hole in the tyrant's unarmored face-- directly through the beast's eye, and out the back of its cheek. She grins, as the beast cries out in pain and fury.

Somehow, her blades always met their mark. One day her luck would fail her, but not today.

"Tongues and swords 're both kept sharp, y'know! But it looks like our little king here doesn't understand. Don't you just envy that?"

She arcs over the beast's head, her second sword carrying her along its trajectory effortlessly, as if she were weightless. Half-blind, the tyrantrum had lost her in the confusion, but it focuses on the sound of her voice and turns to face her with glowing jaws, preparing a dragon pulse.

Her eyes widen in surprise.

Hana narrowly avoids the King's judgement, the Dog's onryou managing to fell the beast before it can deliver its blow. She lands gingerly on her feet, courtesy her floating blade, and hefts it over her shoulder.

"C'mon, yer so serious! Wag yer tail as much as your sword now an' then, learn to cut loose!"

She lets out a cheery laugh, carefree like she's just out to drink with friends. She doesn't even stop to look when her sword lashes out and slits the throat of a man unfortunate enough to round the wrong corner. He falls, clutching his throat, choking on his own blood.

His son stops short behind him, ghostly pale, eyes wide as he stares down at the body of what was once his father.

"Hey there! You're lost, ain't'cha?"

He doesn't respond, mouth agape.

"You really shouldn't be here."

Hana takes a step toward him, readying her sword...

Hana stops, mere feet from the kid. From here, she can see her own reflection in his eyes-- the innocent little girl lost on the sea so long ago, staring back.

"... Those aren't our orders, Dog."

She says it, but she doesn't move. Her fellow agent moves to wipe the kid's memory, to protect him from the worst of it, and Hana merely watches, a few feet away. Breathless.

She does not sheathe her sword.

"No matter what you do you won't make this right. Kid's father's already dead. News'll come outta this camp that Rockets killed everyone. The moment he hears that, even if he don't remember, he'll know what happened. He'll go lookin' for the ones responsible even if he don't know our faces.

"We've created another League recruit tonight, Hitoshi."

A final, wistful look, and she sheathes her blade.

"Havin' a heart ain't so simple, Dog. You gonna be his daddy now? Who's taking care of him?"

For once, she doesn't smile.