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The tattoo was exactly as his client Satou had described it: a snake wrapped around the thumb, slithering along the wrist. Nagisa would've missed it had the sleeves of the target's hoodie not been rolled up. He sat crouched on the roof of a small building. The identity of the target had not been given, nothing more than the description of the tattoo.
Nagisa finger curled around the trigger and started to pull it when a bat swooped right in front of his eyes.
Fwoop.
Nagisa's rifle recoiled and hit his shoulder. The target fell to its knees and landed face first.
Shit, shit, shit.
He'd hit the parietal lobe, a shot that had a small chance of being unsuccessful.
Nagisa stood up and stuffed his rifle into its case. Usually, he wouldn't check on his target. His unerring aim would seldom fail him, and when it did, it was still a fatal shot. This shot, however, seemed as if it couldn't have done more damage than a graze to the head.
Nagisa ran silently thanks to his small frame. Reaching it, he could see the body was completely still. Without even checking vitals, he was sure it was dead. He raised the body's hand to check for a pulse. None was found after half a minute of checking. He let out a breath he didn't realize he'd been holding.
He lifted the jacket's hood to reveal a full head of bright red hair, instantly reminding him of his childhood friend, whose name he couldn't quite recall. It started with a K. Ko... Ka... Karu... He shrugged it off. And pulled back the body's head by its hair.
To his horror, his childhood friend's name was on his lips.
Karma was not a very ugly sight, apart from bloody socket; Nagisa had seen much worse. His remaining golden eye was still wide open, glinting lifelessly in the light of the lamp post, though not as threatening as they used to be. He was dead after all. His lips were pale and dry, slightly parted.
A drop of water fell onto Karma's cheek, and only when Nagisa wiped his own did he realize it was a tear. Why am I crying? It took Nagisa a moment to register how inhumane he had become over the course of his career as an assassin. Not once had he cried after a kill, or thrown up at the sight of splattered brains. Killing Koro-sensei had turned him into an emotionless exterminator.