Of a time when I wasnât just Shizuru, but was Mukouda Shizuru.
Of a time when I wasnât a physician, nor an assassin, but a common, ordinary boy who goes to a grade school in Japan.
Yes, it was the dream of the last day.
I came to this world seven years ago.
Iâm 19 now, so I was 12 back then.
And for some reason, I couldnât remember anything before that.
I remember my name.
I even somehow remembered what kind of world it was, and how I lived in it.
However, I couldnât remember family nor friends.
Nor what happened just before I came to this world.
Nor how I came into this world.
I couldnât remember at all, nothing came to my mind.
Not even now, when seven years had passed.
That was how it had been since seven years ago, the moment I came to this world.
While I walked full of uncertainty, I must have looked like easy prey.
I encountered an incident an hour after I came to the world.
They were kidnappers, they took me by force into a back alley.
They took all I had on me and tied me up.
Just when I thought that I was going to be taken away somewhere,
The heads of the five men simultaneously rolled down on the ground, without exception.
The heads hit the ground with a thud, the bodies crumpled like puppets with their strings cut, and blood rained down.
Bathed in the iron-smelling warm rain, I looked at the scene from my prone position.
And then a woman walked in the middle of the rain.
âThe thing about decapitations is, you donât have to check if theyâre dead. You can take it easy when doing itâ
The woman in a suit holding a parasol.
She had both her eyes gently shut. Her silver hair made a rustling sound.
On the hand that wasnât holding the parasol, she had a pure white cane.
It wasnât until much later that I learnt that there was a sharp sword hidden there.
The blind woman moved as if she wasnât showing it, closing her parasol right as the rain of blood stopped.
After stopping for a while, she approached me.
âAre you all right? Youâre lucky that I had a contract to kill those guys, arent youâ
As she was talking, there was a metallic slash.
It was godly fast quickdraw 1, faster than the eye can see.
âBut this is a problem. Now that Iâve been clearly seen, itâs going to interfere with my workâ
At that time, she seemed to hesitate a little.
Whether to kill me or let me go.
After thinking and hesitating, she decided on neither.
âAh, I know. Three years from starting, weâre still short on hands. Letâs take him along. Since heâs still a child, he could become useful depending on trainingâ
She concluded after a monologue.
Without even asking for my opinion, she turned to me, still looking blankly.
And gave me a karate chop.
My mind clouded and my vision warped.
Within seconds, I had lost consciousness.
When I woke up, I was on a bed in a room somewhere unfamiliar.
âGood morning. Did you sleep well?â
She was looking down at me, the culprit who made me faint.
âWhere is this?â I groaned. She tapped the floor with her cane once, and answered after a bit of thinking.
âThe HQ of an organization I built. Also, the place youâll be living from todayâ
Short, and to the point.
It was too short I didnât really understand, an explanation that didnât really explain anything.
But anyway, she had always been like this.
A person that embodies the term hypocritical courtesy
I was picked up by that kind of a person.
I wanted to go home, I said.
But at that time I was still uneasy, therefore I clung to the word âhomeâ, that gave me a sense of safety.
Then in response to what I said, she only tilted her head as if to say, âwhy?â
âThereâs no need for you to go home, right? Youâll be living right hereâ
No objections or protests harbored.
That was the kind of person she was.
I was unable to raise her any more objections than that.
Because at that point, I finally remembered.
The fear and the pain of being pressed down, hit, and tied by men much larger than me.
And to top it of, the rain of blood I saw before I lost consciousness.
That scene was the reality that this person brought to bear.
At that time I was, honestly speaking, afraid.
My head was filled with the thought that Iâll be killed if I opposed her.
âYou say some strange things, boy. Weâll start practicing tomorrow. You should rest up for todayâ
She kept that attitude of having decided everything beforehand until she finally left the room.
And thus, I ended up not knowing her, Richelieuâs name, nor where this place was.
Without being given any options, I ended up joining.
Her organization, the assassinâs group âBlack Mariaâ.
From that day onwards, I was no longer Mukouda Shizuru, but just Shizuru.
Living as a healing magic using physician on the surface, while truly being a knife-using assassin.