Ch3 - To kill a lord

Blend in, then move in for the kill.

It was nearly a week later.
Purpura wasn't in his usual assassin garb.
He'd washed up, and dressed to blend in, even carrying a small bag.
His clothes were common, actually a little poor looking, but sporting a purple tint.

Why were all of his clothes purple?
Habit, perhaps.

In public events, during the day it was better to blend.
His hair was a light purple, his cat like ears twitching about with various noises.
He had a long thin cat tail that matched his ears, hair, and eyes.
Purple was not a very threatening color.
He recalled the lessons on neko culture, to them purple nekos were considered of royal blood.
They were qualified to lead nekos in various matters.
How did someone an entire culture believes should be a king become an assassin?
Purpura knew, but he didn't share.

As he was walking a large brutish man stepped in front of him.
"Hey there, little kitty. Where's your chaperon?
Little kitties shouldn't walk around alone. Could get hurt."
Purpura stepped backed and tried to walk around the man, who then stepped in his way again.
"Little kitties who don't listen could be more than hurt."
Purpura stopped, and looked up at the male.
"That's a good kitty. Why don't you follow me?
I got a couple of balls for you to play with, and some milk you can drink."
Purpura felt his fists clench, and his whole body tense.
To some, nekos are loving and affectionate people
To others that meant that they were easily dominated
It was true that many nekos were submissive in nature, but they were also very proud people.
And would fight if cornered.
Nekos were also completely monogamous.
Though they understood if their partner wasn't.
Different species had different needs.
"Come on kitty." The man insisted, when Purpura didn't move.
The man then roughly grabbed Purpura's arm.
In an instant Purpura threw the hefty man over ten feet away.
Smashing the man thru a wooden cart, destroying the cart in the process.
The crowd looked to Purpura, who then gave a scared/concerned face, and looked about as if confused.
The crowd sort of assumed someone saw the man harassing a little neko,
defended him, then hurried off as to not get in trouble with the watch.
The crowd returned to their day, before Purpura moved thru the crowd again, being more cautious.
He needed to control his temper better.
Taking the man into an alley and knocking him out would have been smarter.
Purpura shivered, he just really didn't like people touching him.

He kept moving, the speech would start soon.
He could hear trumpets sounding the man's approach.
Though he could not see the stage where the lord would be speaking.
He pulled the picture out of his pocket, nodded to himself, then put it back.
An unaccompanied neko was a little out of place this far into the Heartless Empire.

This close to the capital, a lone neko... Would be suicidal.
They were often considered weak, and thus second-class citizens in a kingdom that valued strength.
The queen despised nekos, having ensured the death of thousands.
Purpura had not ever learned why the queen hated nekos so much.
It caused a complete strain with the neko kingdoms.
Nekos didn't like violence.

Many kingdoms just played nice with the nekos.
The nekos were an extremely populous people, with great magic.
Only an extremely stupid kingdom would purposely agitate such a numerous species.
Just thru sheer numbers they had the rest of the species beat.

Purpura saw the stage where the lord stood, and began his speech.
The lord was arrogant in his speaking
It was obvious from his luxurious clothes and the audience's crude clothes that the lord cared little for his people.
Purpura was doing these people a world of good.
Clearly this lord taxed these people nearly to death.
And now made a show of his wealth and power, flaunting it in front of his captive public.
Purpura ducked into an alley. He dropped his bag and changed.
He put on the armor, and quickly wrapped himself in the bloody clothes that made up his garb.
He pulled the mask over his mouth, tied his ears down, and his tail wrapped about his waist.
He glanced at his tail, it was bright purple, very vibrate against the blood red.
He sighed, and quickly moved his hand, blood from the uniform climbed up and stained his tail.
Before he did the same with his hair, blood offered a great disguising of true coloring.
The speech was dull, and Purpura had to force himself to stay awake.
He was awaiting the moment the lord took the baby to show the people their new prince.
Purpura saw the lord walk over to a woman holding a babe.
The lord quickly snatched the babe from her.
She looked horrified, and tried to get the babe back the guards stopped her.
They were dragging her off, likely to never see the babe again.
She was clearly a slave, in semi decent clothes...
Perhaps she'd worked in the lord's castle.
Likely the lord forced her to conceive this child, and she had the misfortune of having a boy.
Purpura felt a little bad, surely losing her baby would break her heart.
Though it was the baby of her rapist, and the lord that likely tormented her.
She wouldn't be allowed to raise the child.
She'd be forced away from the child to avoid him getting her 'servant' habits.
They wouldn't want her to tell the babe of his servant heritage, he was to be a lord.
The lord started his speech, announcing the young prince.
"Thermange!" the child's name was.
Twas a very stupid name in Purpura's opinion.
Purpura quickly came up behind a guard.
Before moving behind the lord.
The audience gasped, just before Purpura forcefully pushed his hand against the man's back.
Suddenly the man's chest seemed to explode.
Blood exploded all over the audience, mixed with various inner organs, and some bone fragments.
The child, caught in the blast was practically exploded as well.
The infant's small body ripped apart by the blast.
There was barely a moment of complete confusion.
The lord then dropped to the ground, fell off his stage
When he dropped, they got a good look at Purpura.
The guards were already encroaching, swords drawn.
Suddenly chaos erupted, shouting, screaming, people running about.
Audience members shouted, "Purpura!"
They ran about, "Purpura killed the lord!"
"The lord is dead!"
"The prince is dead."
Purpura's job was done, now he had to get out of here.
However he took a moment to observe the chaos.
The guards were mostly baffled, and offered him no real threat.
In the midst of the chaos was one man who wasn't freaking out, didn't even appear surprised.
That was obviously the client, come to enjoy the show.
Purpura almost questioned who the man was, but it wasn't his job to question clients, or motives.
He did his job, and he did it well.
The chance to be sprayed in his enemy's blood without there being a chance to be fingered for the death...
That was what brought this particular client to him, nothing else was important.
The guards approached, and Purpura effortlessly avoided their swords.
To get full reward, no one else could die.
He moved, almost toying with the guards, as he avoided their swings.
He tripped one guard, causing the guard to fall into another guard.
Suddenly a guard transformed into a large demonic bestial form.
Blue skin, and horns, bright green hair.
Purpura had almost forgot that these guards were actually demons.
He ran and pushed off a wall, kicking the demonic guard in the head before landing on an adjacent roof.
The guards were scrambling trying to catch him, the demon shouting in rage and giving chase.
He moved quickly, running from roof to roof, leaving the stage behind.
Once he had distanced himself a bit, he slid down a roof landing neatly on the ground.
He glanced about, before pulling up a grate, climbing in, and pulling the grate back into place.
He went along, the sewers were disgusting, but made for a good escape route.
He followed the light flow of the water, before seeing the outer world.
The nasty water dumped into what he imagined was a once clean lake.
There were bars in the way, he simply placed his hands against the bars.
The blood from his uniform moved onto the bars, and suddenly the bars hissed as they melted away.
Once it had moved thru the bars, he grabbed lower, and repeated the action.
He removed the bars, and walked out, doing his utmost to avoid the water.
He left the bars, and went along.

Purpura's trademark was that he never said a word.
It was one of the things that made him popular to contract with.
He never revealed anything, about himself or clients.
His assassin's name of Purpura wasn't even his own creation.
Simply a result of his first string of high profile targets.
The mystery of what type of demon he was attracted curious bodies.
It wasn't that big a mystery, his type of killing made it obvious.
He was simply a breed thought extinct.

As such many didn't know how to recognize such a species.

For who expected?

A blood demon.