[Episode 168440] [Episode 168440]Kirika stared at the pocket watch lying on the ground in front of her. Around her, her two best friends were in a deadly battle, one that was almost certain to end in someone’s demise, and she was at the center of that battle. Mireille was intent on fulfilling her promise to keep her out of Noir, and Chloe was trying to keep her in Noir — and both were prepared to use lethal force to accomplish their goals. Of course, only a minute or so earlier, she had been the one fighting Mireille, for the same reason Chloe was fighting her now. She should be in Noir. Noir was her destiny.
But then Mireille had brought out the watch. It wasn’t a particularly notable watch — sure, it was of Swiss manufacture, which meant it was very well made, but on the surface, there was nothing that would draw a person’s eye to it compared to watches of similar quality. Nothing, that is, but the distinctive insignia on the savonette casing showing two women, each holding a sword vertically. It was the symbol of Noir, and Kirika knew it well; after all, one of those two women was supposed to represent her. Yet this watch also had a provenance that made it particularly important to Kirika, as it had played a role in much of her life to that point.
The first time she saw the watch was right after she had killed its owner, one Pierre Bouquet, the leader of the most powerful crime syndicate on Corsica. At the time, she didn’t know why she’d been ordered to do so; it was only much, much later that she learned that his death, along with that of his wife, Odette, had been prompted by the Bouquet’s refusal to surrender their daughter Mireille to Soldats so that she could undergo her proper training as a candidate for the True Noir. The watch’s exquisitely manufactured Swiss clockwork had stopped the moment it hit the marble floor in the Bouquets’ dining room, a permanently recording its owner’s time of death — though for some reason, the music-box like mechanism in the watch that played a hauntingly familiar tune had survived. It was Kirika’s first kill. Two witnesses to the crime survived that day, but their survival was not the result of any sloppiness on her part; she had been specifically instructed to make sure they saw her actions, in fact. And they had survived — in fact, those two witnesses were trying to kill each other at that very moment.
But that was not the last Kirika would see of Pierre Bouquet’s watch. For it had been that watch that had been the catalyst that had launched her on her “pilgrimage to the past” with Mireille Bouquet several months ago, after her memory had been wiped clean. At the time, all she’d known about Mireille was that the Corsican was one of the most efficient assassins in the French underworld, with a success rate of over 95%, that she was living in Paris — and that the pocket watch in her possession belonged to her father. For some reason, Mireille had decided to take her under her wing — an act that was somewhat strange, given the blonde assassin’s reputation for iciness. Together, they’d formed a professional assassination team with an even deadlier reputation than Mireille had had working solo. On a whim, she’d decided to name the team “Noir.” This decision would eventually prove to be rather ironic.
Kirika had had many opportunities to see the watch while she was partnered with Mireille; the Corsican kept it out in the open, on a table next to a small potted plant by the window in her upscale Parisian apartment. Every morning, when Kirika (who knew perfectly well that her real name was almost certainly not “Kirika Yuumura,” but who also had no other label with which to think of herself) watered the plant, she’d spend several minutes staring at the symbol, wondering what it meant; sometimes, she’d play the song as well, but only if Mireille wasn’t in the room. Her partner seemed to find the melody disturbing, as though it was dragging up memories that she’d been trying to forget — an assessment that was actually quite accurate.
Their pilgrimage to the past had led them to cross paths with Chloe, another young assassin whom they would eventually discover was one of the candidates for the “true” Noir. She seemed to know something about Kirika’s past, but it wasn’t until fairly recently that things had been made clear to her. The three of them were candidates for some sort of messianic assassin team, called Noir, which consisted of two people. The last few months had been filled with tests, and it was determined that Kirika was a better candidate than Mireille. Thus, after Mireille had initially refused to fulfill her promise to kill her once they learned of her past, Kirika had returned to the Manor with Chloe, regaining most of her memory (though she still thought of herself as “Kirika” for some reason) and the two began the final preparations to become Noir.
That ceremony was to happen today… but then Mireille had showed up, much to the consternation of her fellow candidates. She shouldn’t have come… Kirika had told her as much. She shouldn’t have come, because Kirika still liked her, and she didn’t want to kill her. Things had changed. Kirika understood Noir’s importance now. Mireille couldn’t be allowed to stand in their way. So, they’d fought. The contest wasn’t even close — Kirika had always been a better shot than Mireille, and her reawakening at the Manor had only improved her skills. Yet somehow, victory eluded her, though that shouldn’t have been a surprise. Mireille was still one of the most skilled assassins in the world, and one doesn’t earn that title unless one possesses excellent survival instincts. Still, the Corsican’s defeat seemed to be just a matter of time… until she’d brought out the watch again, and tossed it at Kirika’s feet.
The casing had opened, and the song began to play… and that, in turn, caused another memory to resurface, flashing Kirika back to the fateful day when she’d assassinated the Bouquets. Pierre had died almost instantly; Kirika’s bullet had pierced his spinal cord at the base of his brain and exited out of his left eye, and a second bullet had lodged itself in the left ventricle of his heart. Odette, however, had only taken shots to her midsection, and while there was no doubt that they would prove lethal, it did afford Mireille’s mother the opportunity to say her last words. Kirika was never quite sure whether they were meant for her, or whether Odette had intended to give them to Mireille and simply mistook the five-year-old girl standing over her for her daughter, but now, more than two decades later, she remembered them clearly: “Love may kill, but hate can never save.”
The statement was in direct opposition to the core of Althena’s worldview, and now, Kirika realized that her experience in the outside world had proven Odette correct: she’d seen all sorts of hate, and it never resulted in any sort of salvation. Hate only begat more intense hatred; it only continued a vicious cycle. Althena’s proposed “solution” to the world’s problems was anything but: Noir would just make things even worse (likely as not, that was the reason that it hadn’t been active for so long — at some point, somebody must have realized the horrible truth and but a stop to it). Kirika couldn’t let it continue. But what could she do?
She remembered the erstwhile nun telling her that in the end, it was she who would choose who would be in Noir. Whether she chose Chloe or Mireille, the remaining candidate would be paired with her, and then Noir would be able to carry out its dark mission. It was a no-win situation; Althena’s deranged philosophy seemed destined to spread throughout the world, and there was nothing Kirika could do about it. No, wait. Kirika did think of one way out — one that would thoroughly destroy Althena’s plans. Because there was a flaw in those plans, and Kirika knew just how to exploit it. She just needed the resolve to actually do it, that’s all.
She took a deep breath as she committed herself to her decision. That was when she heard Althena’s voice shouting a command to stop — perfect. Then she’d be here to witness the destruction of everything she’d worked for. Kirika turned towards the sound of the voice and saw the cleric rushing forward with a frantic look on her face. Perhaps she expected what Kirika was about to do, or perhaps she was trying to prevent the death of either Mireille or Chloe; it didn’t matter, because soon, neither one would be of any use to her. Althena’s plan had one fatal flaw: she assumed that Kirika would choose one of her friends, but she didn’t take into account the possibility that Kirika would choose neither. And that was what Kirika did.
She quickly checked to make sure there were still bullets in her Beretta M1934, idly noting that her preferred firearm was the same model that was used to assassinate Mohandas K. Gandhi. That done, she looked towards Althena, and as soon as the two made eye contact, Kirika put her plan into action, lifting her pistol, placing the barrel in her mouth, and pulling the trigger.
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(Posted Thu, 23 Nov 2006 19:29)
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