Chapter Text
San Francisco, California, 1987. November 1., Sunday
Aradia’s and Maria’s job at the moment was to blend in with the parade goers. Willie and Saya were doing the same not far from them. Both smoking and trying to find the boy they came here for. The others were around here somewhere too, lost in the crowd somewhere. Aradia knew Kendal was in an arcade along the street, and Billy was here too, though she couldn’t see him. Everyone was where they needed to be, the only thing missing was Marcus himself, and the party is on.
On school tasks and missions Aradia usually wore a white and gold mask that covered most of her face. She liked it that way. No one was able to recognise her, even the ones that knew her mask, didn’t know her. And that was key. But right now, - because of The Day of the Dead - she let Maria paint her face and dress her up in a flowy black and white dress that matched hers. This helped her blend in.
Aradia spun around Maria, as the other girl danced with her fans. Aradia was careful not to go too close to Maria, so her fans didn't cut her. She looked around, and there he was. The boy from the pictures Master Lin gave them. His black hair was tangled and all over the place, his clothes dirty and torn in some places. He looked nervous. He hung his head low so as to not be noticed. He had a cig in his hand. Aradia signald to Maria. Marcus was heading towards them. He was followed by two men, who were dressed like cops, and definitely were. By the looks of it, they had spotted Marcus too. They expected the police to show up, and they were not a problem. They could handle it. Being a distraction was fun in Aradia’s opinion, and right now, her and Maria were just that.
As she was turning around, away from Marcus, she saw Saya duck into an alley way, and Willie walking towards Marcus. Aradia spun around once again, scoping out where the cops were. For them to get to Marcus, they need to walk past Maria and her. Perfect.
“He’s in position. Move.” the cops ran towards Marcus, but they would not reach him if Maria could help it. And she damn well could. The moment the cops got close enough, Maria blew the white powder on them. They erupted in a fit of coughs and yells. “Son of a-” both were waving around their guns. Aradia hoped they wouldn't use them here, though she wouldn’t be surprised if they did. The crowd that came here to the festival didn’t fully need to be involved. A shooting would be taking it too far in her opinion.
The cops were trying to get out of the cloud of powder, but were not successful. They kept their hands in front of their mouths and noses to try and breath without breathing in the powder. One of them was yelling “Lost contact-!” his sentence was cut short by coughing. He said something else after, but Aradia didn’t pay attention. She looked at Maria, and the black haired girl nodded. Aradia nodded back, then she was away, fast walking towards Willie.
“He went that way.” Willie pointed down the street. Just the way they counted on it. That's why Kendal was somewhere that way. “I saw a cop car in the alley way, they must be waiting for him.” Aradia looked where Willie pointed, but it must have been just a general gesture, because she didn’t see anything, just darkness. “Sayas got it.” he added. That meant that she picked Marcus up with her motorcycle. Willie took out a pack of cigs from his pocket, and put one in his mouth. He lit it, took a slow drag, then offered it to Aradia. She took a drag too, then passed it back to him.
“Let’s go after them. They might need help.” Willie nodded, and they started in that direction that Saya was supposed to take Marcus. It took much more time for them to reach the parking lot than Aradia would have liked. They hurried up the stairs until they heard noises from one of the levels. When they stepped out of the stairway, Aradia saw Marcus on the ground, in a small puddle of blood with a cop standing over him with a gun pointed at Marcus’s head. Saya was nowhere to be seen. Aradia’s stomach tightened. Where is Saya?
Aradia took a few careful steps forward, Willie close behind her. The cop didn’t hear them, he was only focused on Marcus. He was saying something, she could hear it, but not well enough to understand the words. Marcus was seemingly begging, but by the looks of it, the cop was not fazed. He shook his head, laughed and got ready to shoot. At that moment Aradia noticed Saya. She was sneaking up on the cop. In the next moment, she could see the blade of Saya’s katana sticking out of the cop's stomach.
The next chain of events happened so quickly, Aradia didn’t even have time to react. The cop fired his gun, but he missed Marcus. He missed Marcus by a lot. The bullet went over his head, and it headed straight for Aradia. Willie tried to pull her away, but the only thing he managed to do was that the bullet hit Aradia’s upper arm, and not her chest. The girl fell backwards, straight into a puddle of blood, painting a part of her blonde hair red. This wasn’t the first time Aradia got shot, but it still hurt excruciatingly.
“Aradia!” that was Willie. He was kneeling next to Aradia mere seconds after she hit the ground and he helped her sit up.
“I’m okay. I’m okay. Go help Saya.” Aradia gestured towards the general direction of Saya and Marcus with her uninjured hand.
Willie hesitated. “You sure?” Aradia nodded, and with that Willie got up and went straight for Marcus, while getting a fabric bag out of his back pocket. Aradia got up, supporting herself against the wall with her non-injured hand, and she watched as Willie put the bag over Marcus’s head, who on the impact of that tripped over his own feet and bangs his head on the ground.
When Marcus came to, he couldn’t see anything. He could feel his ankles and wrists being tied to the chair he was sitting in. His head hurt like hell. He could hear hushed voices talking nearby, but he couldn’t quite make out what they were saying, though he was trying as hard as his headache would let him. He also didn’t recognise any of those voices. The only thing he was sure of, was that at least one of the voices belonged to a girl. He concentrated really hard on the voices, and he slowly started to understand what they were saying.
“Does it hurt?” asked a voice. There was a quiet, mirthless laugh.
“No Billy, not at all. Matter of fact, I don’t feel anything.” the voice of a girl, not the one he heard before, was dripping with sarcasm. She had an accent. Marcus couldn’t place what kind, but it kind of had a beat to it. It was… Sing-songy.
“Yeah, right. Sorry.” then the voices ceased. Did they notice that he is awake? Or did they leave? No, that couldn’t be the case. He would have heard their footsteps.
“Waste of time if you ask me. Dude’s a dirt bag.” so they were still here. And talking about him, presumably. Another boy agreed with the previous one.
“Y’all don’t know what is what. Stories could be garbage, you know.” there was yet another voice agreeing with this statement.
“Master Lin’s never been wrong before.” that voice he recognized. That was the girl who picked him up with the bike. The one that stabbed that officer.
The next thing Marcus knew was that the bag got removed from his head. The room they were in was dark, only one little lamp overhead giving any sort of light. The only furniture in there was a table and two chairs, one being the one he was sitting in. The table was full of white cloths, some of them were heavily stained red. In front of him, six people were standing scattered in the tight space. In the chair next to the table in the corner of the room was sitting a girl who was occupied with tending to a wound on her arm. Part of her blonde hair was tainted with a reddish brown color. Her face was maybe once painted like a skull, but now it was smudged and covered by reddish brown patches. Behind her was standing a boy with a green mohawk. His ears were heavily pierced along with his nose. He was dressed in a green denim jacket that was covered in patches and pins. On the blonde girl’s righthand side stood a black haired girl. She was dressed in a black and red dress that was like the dresses girls and women wore to the day of the dead parade. Her face too was painted like a skull. On the other side of the room stood a blonde boy. He had pink sunglasses on. Marcus wondered if he even saw anything in here with those on. Probably not. Behind him stood the japanese girl that picked him up with the motorcycle. Her black hair fell in front of her eyes, there was smoke coming from her mouth. And lastly, the guy that took the bag off of his head. He was still standing in front of him. He had black skin, his dark hair was braided in cornrows. He was wearing a leather jacket with yellow details and jeans.
“Hmmh. Don’t look like a psychopath to me.” he stepped back a few paces.
“There is no such thing as looking like a psychopath. They look like any other person.” that was the blonde girl. Marcus wondered what happened to her arm. She was still fiddling with her bandegas, but it wasn’t bleeding as much now from what Marcus could see.
“Girl, whatever.” he shot back, while smiling at her at the same time.
“He looks sweet.” the black haired skull-faced girl cocked her head to the side as she looked Marcus up and down.
“Scared, that's what he looks like.” the blonde girl didn’t even look up at him for enough time to assess that in his opinion. She now abandoned her arm all together, and was picking at her nails.
“No no. I agree with Maria. He looks sweet. Like a sweet jerk-off!” the blonde boy blew out smoke, directly into Marcus’s face. “So, what do you say, jerk-off? You a psycho?”
“You’re so fucking confident, why tie me up? Huh?” Marcus spat at their feet.
“Yeah, we’re all pissing our pants over here.That shriek you let out at the fuzz- Yeah, terrifying.” the blonde boy smirked at him.
“Put the bag back over his head Kendal.” the black guy threw the bag over to the blonde one. “Mad dog’s scarin’ me, yos.”The two boys found all this really amusing. The third guy and the skull-faced girls were talking amongst themselves now, and the black haired girl was just standing there, looking at him.
Then a door opened in front of Marcus, and an old man walked in. “That is enough!” he stopped a few steps before Marcus. He had a white mustache and was wearing a white suit. He had a walking cane in his hand. “You must forgive my students. They forget there are occasions when being vicious only serves to make one look weak.” he looked at the two boys, then back at Marcus. The blonde girl snorted at that statement, but the man didn’t pay any attention to her.
“Tell me Marcus, are you satisfied with your life?” the man picked up a cup of tea from the table. Marcus didn’t even notice there was a cup of tea there.
“Yeah. I always dreamed of living on the streets, eating garbage and fighting crazy people for shoes. Thanks for asking.” than he frowned. “The fuck do you care?” and Marcus spat at his feet. The blonde girl murmured something, but Marcus didn’t understand what she said. The old man didn’t seem to be fazed anyway. Not by Marcus or the girl. He only sipped his tea calmly.
“You’ve made quite a name for yourself. Unfortunately, there are few who appreciate your particular proficiency as an attribute.” he took a meaningful pause. “But I do.” he paused to take another sip of his tea. “I’m here to offer you a chance to help you achieve something in this world.”
Marcus scoffed again. “Like what?”
“I would like to train you to become one of the world’s greatest assassins. To be surrounded by others like yourself, and to be in a place safe from their laws.”
“A hitman?” Marcus asked. By now, he lost his smugness. “Man, that's insane.” he closed his eyes. This was all a dream. A feverish bad dream. Everything this old man said sounded more insane than anything he had ever heard. He opened his eyes, and exhaled. “I mean, look, I appreciate you trying to help me out and all, but I’m not the guy you’re looking for.” Marcus expected the man to be angry at him for turning him down, but his face and voice stayed the same as it was since he stepped through the door to the tiny room.
“Untie him!” the old man said, and he put down the cup in his hand, now empty. The guy who took the bag off his head and the guy with the green mohawk untied him on either side, Marcus picked up his backpack. He was grateful they had brought it too along with him. That bag and its contents were the only earthly possessions of his. He looked back at the people in the room, all staring at him, then he walked out.
Aradia watched Marcus walk out the door. She honestly expected him to accept Master Lin’s proposal. If not because he wanted to master the art of murder all his life, then because Aradia was sure the school beats living on the streets and eating garbage, as Marcus put it. But now, he was walking out.
“Well…” Aradia sighed. “That was a waste of our time.” she stood up, and took a step towards the door that led back to school.
“Miss. Kuroki.” Aradia stopped in her tracks. What now? This was over, wasn’t it? Marcus left. Can’t they go back to their rooms? She waited for Master Lin to tell Saya what he wanted from her. “Go after him. Try and convince Mr. Arguello to accept my proposal and join the school.” He had to be kidding, Aradia thought. She flopped back down into the chair she just stood up from.
Saya nodded “Yes, Sir.” and with that, she was out the door after Marcus.
For a while no one said anything in that tiny room. They stood around silently, waiting. The silence lasted until Billy asked “How long are we going to wait here?”
Master Lin just calmly stood there. He didn’t do anything by the looks of it, but Aradia was sure that he was plotting in his mind, like he always does. “We wait as long as we need to.” Master Lin was as calm as ever.
Billy let out a big sigh, then grabbed the chair Marcus had been sitting in before, sat down and buried his face in his hands.
Knowing Master Lin, they were going to wait here until Saya gives up, or Marcus gives in and comes back. Marcus didn’t seem to be the kind of person who gives in easily, and Saya wasn't the kind of person to give up. So they were looking at a long time spent here. But it wasn't long before the door to the outside opened and Marcus walked in with Saya in toe.
Marcus stopped in the doorway, Saya walked past him, and stood next to Maria. “I’d given it some thought, and if the offer still stands, I’d like to go with you.” Marcus stared at Master Lin.
“Your first instinct was to leave. I will not advocate for you again.” Master Lin turned his back to Marcus, and took a few steps away from him.
Master Lin was just playing games at this point. The never ending mind games must be tiring for him. Well, maybe not anymore. Maybe it's second nature for him by now. As easy as breathing.
Marcus looked perplexed. “You're saying the offer doesn't stand anymore.” Aradia couldn't tell if he was glad or sad about it.
As if Master Lin didn’t even hear Marcus, he continued his speech. “You will need a sponsor.”
There was a brief silence that Aradia broke. “No.”
“I don't know…” it showed that Maria wanted to be polite about it, but didn't want to be the sponsor either.
“Yeah, sorry man.” Willie crossed his arms in front of his chest and leaned against the wall. “You seem… soft."
“I'm not sponsoring the jerk-off.” Kendal looked disgusted at even the thought.
“Fuck, fine, I'll do it!” Saya looked annoyed. She probably only agreed because someone had to be it, and to be fair she probably wanted to be in Master Lin's good graces. Even if she was already there.
Master Lin nodded, “So be it.” and with that, he turned around, and he headed through the door. Saya gestured for Marcus to follow him, then after he did, she went after him. Aradia and the others followed after them. Maria and Aradia closed the door behind them, and stopped in front of another door guarded by two Chinese dragon sculptures. “Lesson one,” Master Lin said as he pushed a button on one of the dragons and the door opened. “Should you ever reveal the location of the school,” he turned to Marcus, “you will be eviscerated in your sleep.”
Marcus looked shocked. “Yeah. Sounds cool.”
Aradia giggled. She got that speech when she got into this school. They all did. Along with the rules that Master Lin was now reciting to Marcus as they were going down the spiral stairs.
No sex, no drugs, no unsanctioned killing, no disobedience. Those were the core rules they had to follow. Not all students did, but they were all clear about the consequences and everyone decided for themselves what was worth it for them. Although kids doing the first two got caught less than they were doing it. Master Lin either didn’t know about it, - which Aradia doubted - or he didn’t care about those two as much as he did unsanctioned killing and disobedience. Somehow he always seemed to know if one of those two were happening.
“You are to follow your instructors. If you fail to do so, you will be silenced.” Master Lin went on. They now left the stairs, and were going through the tunnel, walking past a pair of the Shu.
“This just keeps getting better and better.” Marcus commented.
Master Lin said some encouraging words about how he sees great potential and talent in him.
As they approached the end of the tunnel, the school came into view. Marcus’s steps slowed down until he came to a full stop. His eyes went wide, and the cig fell from his mouth. Aradia agreed with him on this one. The school was beautiful and foreboding at the same time. It had three buildings, they were built in a blend of gothic and brutalist architecture, but the gothic took over the brutalist so much, it didn’t look like an eyesore. If you looked past the buildings, you could see the graveyard behind them.
Master Lin gestured toward the building “...and because you have the fire of rage inside you, you may yet survive Kings Dominion, Atelier of the Deadly Arts.”