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It was raining the night that Karma saw Gakushuu Asano for the first time.
He was Japanese. Twenty-two years of age. Born January first. One-hundred and eighty-two centimetres in height. Blood type; B. Parents school principal, Gakuho Asano and Biomedical Engineer, Haruyo Asano. Only child. No spouse or children of his own. Graduated from a top college the same year most his age would have enter one. Works high-level management in one of the most successful pharmaceutical companies in the country. Known in the industry for his intelligence, leadership skills, pleasant personality and good looks. And the next target on Karma's assassination roster.
These were all the things Karma knew of him. That and he had seriously pissed off some rival big shot. He didn't often do dirty work for the business world, especially when it was coming from some disgruntled old man who was mad that the new generation was starting to kick his ass but Karma hadn't done a high profile job in months and well, he honestly just didn't have anything better to do.
He didn't expect too much trouble with this one, although he was aware that his target had martial arts training. If anything that might just make it all the more interesting. All Karma really needed to do was put him down without anyone else knowing like the experienced assassin he was, even at twenty-one years old. By now, this was little more than a routine assignment.
Karma kept the hood of his jacket up, leaning against the back of the bus shelter like he was supposed to be there. It was night but he had keen eyes and spotted his target the moment he left the building. The strawberry blond hair and violet eyes were identical to the photograph Karma's current employer had given him and were a dead giveaway. He knew the man was attractive, of course. The photograph was candid and very well lit but he didn't expect or anticipate the way his breath hitched in his throat as a passing car shone light across his target's face who was brushing the hair from his eyes as it did.
It lasted but a moment, both the halt in his breathing and the view of his target before he escaped the rain and climbed into the back seat of a sleek black car.
"Well, fuck." Karma muttered under his breath. The photo had not prepared him for that. "It's almost a shame."
He wouldn't have said it out loud, but Gakushuu Asano was beautiful.
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He watched the car drive away and took the next bus when it came, although only for two stops. Next on the night's agenda was a friendly little visit to his hunky targets house. Killing him at his place of work would probably be way more trouble than it was worth when the man lived alone.
When he got to his targets house near an hour later, he found that the security set in place was pretty laughable seeing as he was supposed to be so incredibly intelligent.
There were three cameras, all aimed outside the house with two at the front covering two angles and another in the backyard. With just a few minutes of watching from afar, Karma could tell that the cameras panned left to right at a ninety-degree angle every thirty seconds. This made the front yard decently well protected if you're trying to keep out, let's say, a nosey neighbour or some middle schoolers trying to play a game of ding-dong ditch but anyone with knowledge of home security systems wouldn't take long to find a way inside undetected.
The backyard would be even more easily infiltrated with a single camera panning again at a ninety-degree angle every thirty seconds. Karma could practically slow walk through the back door what with the lack of heating signature reading devices of even a simple motion sensor.
Despite the hilarity of the security quality, Karma frowned from his place on the right-hand sides neighbourhoods back porch- from a quick peek inside the window it looked like a small family and they weren't currently home. While it was always possible that his target's security was so lax because he was stupid or because he didn't think that anyone would be out to get him, it was also possible that he just didn't need the extra protection. And that possibility was something, coupled with his martial arts training, that couldn't be ignored.
Even still, Karma wasn't worried because even if his target could put up a fight, he would have to see Karma coming first and that would be extremely unlikely. And so, he watched the backyard camera closely and timed it so he could scale the seven-foot fence, jog across the yard and come up against the back sliding door.
Light streamed through the curtains of what was most likely a lounge room. Inside he could hear a voice speaking, firm and cordial, but since he heard no answer Karma quickly deduced it to be a phone call.
There was a small crack between the curtains that allowed him a hurried view of the inside. It was most certainly a lounge room, leading straight into a dining room and then the kitchen in that order. He spotted the back of his target, still in his work clothes although his suit jacket was gone and with his phone held to his ear.
As the man turned in Karma's general direction he immediately ducked back into the darkness. He could hardly take him out while he was on the phone, especially if he was talking to someone that would get suspicious by a sudden answering silence. This meant he would have to wait and Karma hated waiting. He knew patience should have been a virtue for an assassin, his teacher had even said so- multiple times-, but he had never quite gotten used to it.
The phone call, the stupid fucking, blue-balling phone call, lasted another forty-five minutes and Karma had been a hair's width away from calling it a night and killing him later at a more convenient, less irritatingly boring time. But then the phone call ended, his target spent another fifteen minutes on his laptop at the table and then he headed upstairs, turning off the downstairs light as he did. This made it likely that he didn't intend to come back down during the night.
Karma tried the handle to the back door but it was locked. He pouted but didn't linger on it. Instead, he turned his gaze upwards, over the backside of the house.
There were two windows, only one of which had any light coming through it. The window led out onto a short slope, creating part of the roof for the lower floor. It took Karma all of two minutes to get up to it, simply jumping up, grabbing onto the edge of the roof and pulling himself onto it. It was really one of the easier roofs he'd gotten himself on to, no need for anything fancy.
Peering inside the window he found a brain numbingly neat bedroom with a strict grey and grey-green colour scheme. The target was nowhere to be seen but a door near the walk-in was shut and Karma could hear a shower turning on.
He climbed in through the window with ease, looking about at the ridiculously orderly space. There were three black and white photographs blown up on canvas hanging on the wall across from the bed, each spaced apart with perfect precision. Karma was fairly organised himself but this was next level. He just knew this guy probably colour coded his fucking underwear.
He ignored the urge to check for himself and swept the room for any video or audio recording devices. He still had the lack of video surveillance sitting in the back of his mind and wasn't about to screw himself over by assuming this genius guy had left it at that. He found nothing which could either be very good for Karma or another sign that his target fully believed they could fight off a home invader on their own.
The bedroom door was open by barely a crack and he could hear the spray of a shower hitting titles elsewhere in the house. He eased the door open just far enough to peek his head through and spotted another door, this one closed and with light flooding out from under it, down the other end of the hall.
The client hadn't specified for this kill to appear as an accident which made things all the more simple. It meant he didn't have to sabotage his targets car or orchestrate an elaborate house fire or infect him with some fatal illness. Not that those things weren't fun and that Karma wasn't willing to do them but this was supposed to send some kind of message to the client's competitors. This kind of job often called for a more traditional approach. The kind that was clearly an execution made by an assailant that would never be caught.
Karma may have been a cold-blooded killer yet even he found shower slashing to be not only an awkward and potentially slippery affair, but also way too old school horror flick for his taste. It was easy enough to listen for the water to shut off and then simply shoot his target point-blank as he left the bathroom if time was of the essence of he simply wasn't in the mood to wait any longer.
He pulled his handgun from his belt on the left and then the sound suppressor from the right, attaching the device to the end of the barrel. You'd have to be the worlds biggest noob to shoot in a well-populated neighbourhood without even attempting to muffle the sound and Karma could confidently say that he had never been that much of a noob, even on his first job.
Karma stepped out into the hall, not making a sound. The gun sat in his hand as though it had somehow been made was for him. Karma still remembered the first time he ever saw a real gun, the first time he ever held one, the first time he gripped it correctly and held it up to fire. The memories were clear in his head although he didn't spend very long thinking on them. He had a job to do, after all. He could take a stroll down memory lane when he was done and the target was dead.
He crept out into the dark, inching his way down towards the bathroom door. He had no reservations about his job even of Gakushuu Asano was so nice to look at. If anything, it just made him wonder what kind of picture would be used at his funeral. It wouldn't have surprised him to find that the man had picked out his own photograph in advance.
As he neared the door, Karma paused, head cocking to the left. His target was humming in the shower. It wasn't a particularly merry tune but a tune nonetheless. And from the humming alone he could tell that the voice behind it would have been a talented singer. Karma had killed a singer once. Although she hadn't been as pretty as Gakushuu and had had much better security.
Karma moved in close, almost but not quite pressing his ear to the door, listening intently. He was unsure if he had heard the song before but nonetheless found himself enraptured. He wondered how many people had ever heard this. His target didn't seem like the musical type at the very least.
When the tap turned off, Karma nearly didn't notice, attention so focused on the humming. He quickly turned the door across from the bathroom. It was sitting half-open, just enough for him to slip inside without even touching it.
Inside he found what appeared to be a study, just as orderly as the rest of the house.
'What am I doing?' He asked himself. He should have stayed in the hall. He could have taken out the target the second the bathroom door opened so why had he come in here? This wasn't like him at all...Before he could find an answer to his own questions, he heard the bathroom light switch being flicked off and the door open, followed by footsteps.
'Now', said the voice in Karma's head and yet he didn't move an inch. He listened to the footsteps fade down the hall, holding back a sigh. He had half a mind to press a hand to his face to check for fever. This had never happened before, after all. Perhaps he had just wondered too much about this man. Asked too many questions that really didn't matter.
He holstered his gun, frowning. This would have to wait for tomorrow night, he decided. He needed to get his head on straight. Or at the very least, get that humming out of his head.