Burning buildings, screams of people and children, a boy stabbed in his back with a sword and blood coming out of his mouth, and people running to save him. I couldn't see the faces of these people clearly in my dreams. These were nightmares I woke up trembling every morning.

My name is Ryusuke Inui, an orphan who was abandoned by his parents. That's what the organization's counselors have said.  The organization was Assassin, a Mercenary group where I used to work. Meeting the counselors was like meeting the lords of a kingdom. No one can meet them until anyone is summoned. Well, considering the fact that, if there were even people in the organization.

It was me and the counselors that I saw there. I was known as Ripper, a mercenary who killed people without hesitation. The Organization took the money and only I was summoned for the extermination. The people I had killed were Rich people, businesses men, and any a person could think of.

One day, the organization asked me to carry out my tenth mission. When I entered the counselor's room, I felt a cold tremor and trembled in front of them. One wrong move and that's the end for me. Never had I looked into the face of the counselors when at the meeting.

"01, have you recovered well? Well, no matter. Your new mission is to challenge everything you have done so far," Yamato said.

"Well, whatever you need sir." Just as I had said that Yukimura disrupted me.

"How rude. Do you even understand the position where you stand? Well whatever, you have to do this mission 01. If you don’t feel like you can, you can just give up and leave this place you call home." said Yukimura. The smirk on Yukimura's face was priceless. like he only wanted failure from me.

 "Yes sir, I will accept this mission and come out successfully". I spoke to them without hesitation.

"You have to take out target 001. You have to kill the target as soon as possible, but watch out for the guards and traps as you go further," Heiko said.

 Heiko was the leader of the organization, he just wanted results from me. He didn't care if I was dead or alive, only the success of the organization was important to him. Heiko was a person with no emotions. All he ever wanted was the destruction of his rivals and to keep himself at the top of the food chain.

Yukimura was Heiko's successor, and Yukimura never considered Alfred and Yamato friends. He only saw the other two as stepping stones. Yukimura never even considered me as an ally. All he saw was an enemy for his success to be the leader of the organization.

 "Come on guys, give him some leeway," Yamato said.

"Everyone, everyone, please. Ripper is doing his best. Let it rest for him now, then we can send him out.” Alfred said.

 Alfred was my last advisor and a true friend. He was always there when I needed him the most. Even when I was young, he helped me and made me feel comfortable in the organization. He was a person I called a family. He was everything to me. A brother, father, and mentor. He taught me the way to calm my mind and defend myself. He would never let anyone bad mouth me and treat me as his family.

"Take a break! Come on Alfred, 01 doesn't need to rest. He's all fine the way he is now. The only thing 01 needs is punishment for failing the last mission.” said Yukimura. "Yukimura, calm down. We all make mistakes in life. Ripper already stated the reason he saved the children.” Alfred said.

"The mission declared that EXTERMINATION OF ALL, but Ripper didn't. And all the survivors would have come to us with death threats if we hadn't dealt with the problem. I think you should thank us 01." Heiko said.

"I have taken full responsibility for the problem that I had created sir," I told them.

"We are not here for the problem-solving, ripper. You do the tasks we tell you to do and you do it, was it that hard for you to do the task we told you to do," said Yukimura.

"Let's give him the last chance, if he comes out successfully, we won't punish him. And If he tries to create a new problem, we eradicate him," said Yamato.

Hearing what Yamato said gave me a horrifying death threat. I never knew how it had felt, but my body trembled as I heard eradication.

“It’s fine by me. We all know that 01 is bound to fail in this task also.” Yukimura said menacingly.

“Then that deducts today’s meeting. 01 is to execute this mission or It is the death penalty for him.” Heiko said while finishing the meeting.

There I was standing as all the counselors left, but Yukimura came to me and told me “Your little game ends now I hope you start your countdown backward 01 or should I say Ryusuke”.

As the meeting with the counselors finished, Alfred was waiting for me outside. He had two can of coffee with him. Alfred looked at me with a cherished face and told me nothing was going to go wrong. As we walked towards the equipment room, I wondered where all the people were.

"Hey Alfred, just a question. Where are all the workers? I don't see anyone except us."

I could see clearly through Alfred's expression that he was hiding something. But as a friend of his, who was I to judge him?

"w-well Ryusuke, It's lunchtime. So probably they all went for lunch. The Robots work here at this time. That's why there isn't anybody." said Alfred.

"yeah, of course." I had always trusted Alfred. Who was I to judge his weird expressions?

As we walked down the hall, Yukimura was standing there looking at us.

"Well well well. Look at whom we have here. The Great Ripper. Remember this kid, you can't do anything without us. You would've been dead by now if it wasn't for us. So, you better not mess this mission, understood?" said Yukimura.

"Yuki, Enough. Let us through here. I can't take any more of your crap." said Alfred.

I felt at ease when I saw Alfred standing up with me against Yukimura.

"Alfred, It's okay. Look, Mr. Yukimura, I know I messed up big time. But this time it will be different. And I won't fail again. Because the organization depends upon it. and this organization is my home. I won't see my home get destroyed. And I think you should start counting backward because your time is soon going to come."

The look on Alfred’s face was amazing. I could just tell he was proud of me.

As we walked inside the equipment room, I saw a wall of daggers, a wall of guns, and a wall of another dangerous tech that could destroy the world if it went to the wrong hand.

As I was preparing myself for the mission, Heiko came into the room with a syringe, it had some kind of blue chemical in it.

"01, Use this as the last resort. If the Mission fails, use this syringe on yourself. It will help you a lot." Heiko told me as he handed over the box.

"Right sir," I replied with a disappointed face towards him.

Alfred bought me a ticket to Japan and told me of a high intel in Osaka. I replied to him by whispering in his ear that I already Had a Friend over there called Marino.

I also told him the detail of when I met Marino in America when he risked his life to save me, so in return, I sent him to Osaka in Japan to hide from his enemies. Alfred agreed to this with me, and Alfred also told me to keep this a secret from the other counselors.

“Right Mr. Alfred. Also, I would like a favor from you. I have been having strange dreams again. But this time I saw the destruction. Is this a memory or am I hallucinating again?” Alfred told me to keep my head in the game and not worry about these hallucinations.

I had agreed with Alfred on this topic and went to Osaka to meet Marino. My savior and my friend.