Reina should have been asleep hours ago; she had promised her father as much, but the excitement got the better of her. Tonight was the night of the big meeting, and as much as her father had tried to downplay it like he had tried to downplay his profession over the years, she was now old enough to know what he did. He was an assassin.

He had tried keeping this from her at first, but she learned the truth when she was eight during a trip to Caracas. Her father’s competition had waited for him to be exposed, and vulnerable, away from their secure house outside the city. Her mother had insisted they had a day as a family, without the bodyguards, and her father would come to regret that decision. In the end, they failed to kill him, but Reina’s mom wasn’t as lucky.

Seeing their broken bodies a week later did nothing to alleviate the pain in Reina’s heart, nor did it seem to do anything for her father. But they grew closer after that; he explained what he did, how he had trained most of his life to get good at it, and how it provided the lavish lifestyle they led. Reina didn’t understand much of this, but she knew her father loved her, and as he said, he only killed bad men.

Those were the kind of men standing across their living room table now. She was crouched down by the edge of the stairs across the house and peeking from the darkness, with a clear view of an older man in a suit, and the six clad in black and purple behind him, their faces covered by masks that only let their eyes be seen. They all bore a purple dragon with 3 heads on their backs as an insignia of their clan. Reina could hardly believe there were actual ninjas in her house!

“You know about Dim Mak, of course,” said the old man downstairs. He was Asian, balding, with a subtle accent Reina recognized as Japanese from watching her father’s old Akira Kurosawa movies.

“Of course,” her father acknowledged, sitting across the table from them. Ruben Rodriguez was the image of serenity in his loose linen suit, legs crossed, and leaning back in his chair. His beard almost concealed his smirk when he talked, but not his playful voice. “If you would humor me though, I’d love to hear about her from…your perspective.”

The old man made a soft growl, disapproving, but then smiled humorlessly, seemingly deciding to indulge him.

“Not much to say,” the old man grumbled. “Before she appeared in Hong Kong at the age of twenty, no one had ever heard of her. Every other month there are a few upstarts who think they can just walk into the assassin business, but most don’t last a year."

“She did though," her father chuckled.

The old man grumbled displeased, but he remained patient. “We don’t know how many she has killed, exactly. Our best guess is that in the first year of her career, there were at least thirty-seven victims. Most of them were from some of the more aggressive street gangs, the kind common people were glad to see disappear. They had been harassing residents for a while, and she saw that as a way to make an introduction, if you will.”

“It must have been spectacular,” Reina’s father said as he poured another glass of rum.

“Yes, well, it certainly caught our attention. A young woman, killing that many with her bare hands…she knew we’d eventually take notice and do what we always do with the competition.”

“Take her out?”

“No, not at first,” the old man said. “We recognize talent when we see it, and we’ve learned it’s rare enough as it is, no matter what part of the world it comes from.”

“So you recruited her and then unleashed her on the rest of us,” her father said, but there was a note of reproach in his voice.

For once, the old man smiled in an oddly pleased way. “Yes, for the next four years she joined our clan, and despite her short tenure, remains the most successful member we’ve ever had.”

Her father chuckled, “And then she walked out on you guys like a bad boyfriend.”

Reina could almost feel the man fuming from across the room, even in silence. “Once you become part of the Yamata no Orochi, you do not leave it. Not even in death.”

“How many of you did she kill when you tried telling her that?”

“…one hundred and two,” admitted the old man, reluctantly. “We cornered her at the Macau temple, but it was a trap. She slaughtered them all without ever picking up a weapon. Since that night, she’s been known only as Dim Mak.”

“And your only competition,” Reina’s father remarked.

“You would do well not to mock us, Mr. Rodriguez.” The old man’s voice finally flowed freely with the anger he had been holding back. “You might enjoy hearing of our failure, but we remain the best at what we do.”

“Well…second best, by your own account just now.”

This time, his remark was followed by the subtle but unnerving sound of katanas being slightly unsheathed. It was just a quarter of an inch, but it was enough. Anyone who heard that sound knew that what followed was death.

“Is that why you’re here?” Asked her father brazenly. “Looking for someone to succeed where you failed?”

The old man said nothing, clearly still torn between continuing the conversation or ending it permanently.

“Well, despite my teasing, I am flattered, Mr. Omura. The problem is that I have to assume this is a join-or-die kind of invitation, right?”

Mr. Omura's lips twisted into a humorless smile. “You like to play the fool, but you’re a man of the world, Mr. Rodriguez. You know we don’t stand for someone playing at our level that isn’t part of our group. Sooner or later we come to collect them…or eliminate them.”

Reina's father sat back, for once his demeanor was grave. He drummed his fingers on the chair, mulling his thoughts. Reina on the other hand tensed up, afraid of what would happen next. She could feel the tension in the room grow as the statue-like men in black seemed to shift ever so slightly. As if ready to attack if given the smallest indication to do so.

A lesser man might have wet his pants at the clear threat by the man with ninjas at his command, but Reina knew her father too well. He smiled even when losing at cards, and this was no different.

“Well, I can't join you because I just don’t like you…or your outfits,” Reina’s father said, taking one last sip of his glass as Omura’s face contorted in anger. “And if I ever challenge Dim Mak to a fight, it’ll be my choice, not on your orders.”

“Then your chance has come, Mr. Rodriguez.”

They all looked around to see who had spoken, it had been a woman, but none were in the room. And before anyone could utter another word, the lights went out, and the house fell into complete darkness.

“Do iu koto?!” shouted one of the ninjas.

“YAMERO-!” A loud CRACK followed by what Reina had to assume was the last word of one of them.

They all scrambled, desperately trying to find the assailant, their feet trodding loudly on the wooden floor. She could hear the sound of cloth moving and swords swishing in the air, but not the sound of the blows the men were receiving. They each simply grunted once in pain, followed by the sound of their limp bodies falling over.

“You attack in the dark, like a coward!” shouted Mr. Omura.

A soft swoosh went through the air, as something small but metal flew across the room to hit the light switch, turning the lights back on. It took Reina a few seconds to adjust her eyes and absorb the room as it looked now.

All six of the ninjas lay dead on the floor, her father had stood up and retreated into the wall, waiting to be attacked, but it seemed he had been the only one spared. And that’s when Reina noticed her standing in front of the old man who was shaking with fear; the scariest woman Reina had ever seen.

Her hair was short and cut in an elegant open bowl style; except for a long ponytail that fell across her back and blended in with the black Chinese tunic she wore, adorned with blue lines and a large white crest of a crane at the bottom of it. Her hands and arms were wrapped in bandages disappearing into the big sleeves; her legs under white puffy pants, and her face, while serene, was like that of a predator out in the wild. Her eyes looked down at her prey with the security that it was already hers.

“Fine,” Dim Mak said simply, her voice soft but firm. “Die in the light then.”

The woman raised her right hand, the fingers stretched out like a beak, and with one swift movement, she plunged it into the man’s forehead, loudly cracking the skull as if it had been an eggshell. He fell dead.

She turned her attention to Reina’s father, who stood in a fighting stance, ready, but it was the first time Reina had seen him so nervous. Dim Mak regarded him with no such worry. “So…what brings you to my secluded home in the mountains?” Reina’s father asked, trying to smile as confidently as always.

“Same reason as them,” Dim Mak said casually, nodding at the corpses, “only I’m not here to make you any offers.” 

Her father tensed immediately, raising his fists in a fighting stance. Dim Mak had not moved, or even raised her voice, but just the way she said it unnerved Reina; her words felt like an absolute certainty.

“To be honest,” Dim Mak continued in flawless English, if perhaps a bit British sounding, “I’ve also been looking for a place to retire. And like you, I’m sure, I find the lack of extradition laws here useful.” 

She advanced slowly toward him, with all the calm in the world. “One last job, and in exchange, I get to stay here and nobody bothers me. I’ll admit, it’s not exactly where I planned to plant roots, but when you’re wanted in as many places as I am, well, you make do.”

Her father struck first, a quick punch that seemed sure to hit, but Dim Mak swatted it aside like a bug and returned the gesture, breaking his nose in the blink of an eye. Reina had never seen anything like it, her speed seemed unnatural. 

The man Reina knew had never taken a serious blow before, and even now her father seemed surprised to see his blood dripping down his lips. “You’re faster than they say.”

“And you’re more disappointing than what I heard,” she remarked cuttingly. He answered her with a high kick that flew half an inch from her face, almost like she hadn’t moved at all to dodge it.

He continued to press his attack, move after move, trying desperately to reach her. Dim Mak seemed mostly bored, not even bothering to deflect half of them, before catching his hand in hers and twisting it with ease.

“Argh!” Shouted her father, falling to his knees to keep his arm untact.

“I had you in my little list of the best fighters in the world, though now I’m reconsidering you being in it at all.”

Her father responded by maneuvering to stand up and shove her with his shoulder, managing to push her back a step and release her grip. He used the moment to attack with a strange kick, starting like a front one, before whipping halfway into a curved high kick that connected with Dim Mack’s face.

She barely moved from it though, and merely smiled back. “A question mark kick, how quaint.”

“Tagged you, didn’t I?”

“I prefer my moves to be more of a statement,” and in what felt like the blink of an eye, she performed the same move her father had, but much faster, throwing him against the floor, where that familiar CRACK sound followed.

“Your arm is broken.” Dim Mak stated simply, and Reina gasped to see his father crawling on the floor, his left arm limp.

“You landed a blow on me, that alone earns you a measure of my respect. You may ask for a final request if you wish.”

Reina’s father awkwardly turned around with his good arm to lay on his back on the floor. He sighed in pain, taking heavy breaths, but he made no more effort to escape.

“…I have a little girl upstairs,” he said, holding back the pain.

Dim Mak pursed her lips as if tasting something sour. “That is unfortunate.”

“I know you don’t hurt kids, we have that in common at least.”

“I’m sure the police will find her tomorrow.”

“And the system will eat her alive. I have no more family, and this is not a place where you want your children ending up in the streets.”

“That doesn’t mean I adopt every brat I make into an orphan.”

“I’m asking anyway,” Reina’s father pleaded, his voice breaking. “And if you do…you could try again.”

At that, Dim Mak shifted uncomfortably. It was only for a moment, but Reina noticed it. “My compliments on your sources,” Dim Mak said though she did not sound pleased.

“You would ask me that knowing it would thrust her into our life?”

“At least that way she’ll have a life.”

Dim Mak contemplated her father for a minute, her face a mask, but mulling over her thoughts. Reina thought it was the longest minute of her life.

“Very well,” Dim Mak said simply, and in the flash of an eye, she repeated her killing move on her father’s head.

“NO!” Reina shouted, rushing down the stairs towards him, uncaring that she was probably rushing to her death as well.

Reina grabbed one of the Japanese swords from the ninjas and swung it with all her rage at her father's killer. Dim Mak looked at her as if a stray cat had walked in while dodging the blade with ease, before finally catching it with just three fingers.

Dim Mak plucked it out of Reina’s hands without any effort and threw the sword over her shoulder, her expression still indifferent.

“You killed him!” Reina shouted, angry, but held in place by the sudden fear that invaded her.

“Yes, I did,” Dim Mak replied. He was a bad man.”

“So are you!”

“A valid point.”

“Then kill me too!”

Dim Mak smiled, which only enraged Reina further. “No, I don’t think I will.”

Reina swore at her in Spanish instead, which only seemed to amuse Dim Mak more. “You should appreciate your father’s gift more, young lady. He earned you a chance with me, it would be poor repayment to throw it away.”

“I don’t want to go with you!” Reina shouted defiantly, glaring at her, but then she turned to look at her father. She knew what he was, and had been ok with it. This woman was no different, but asking her to live with her after what she did to him was a lot.

“I am not going to ask you to see me as anything other than what I am: A killer…and a master.” Dim Mak approached her, and gently laid her hand on top of her small shaking fist. Reina wanted to punch her, but she knew it was hopeless.

“If you come with me, I will train you, and teach you everything I know. After that, you can do whatever you want. Even try to kill me if you still desire to. You can go ahead and thank me now,” Dim Mak stated simply.

Dim Mak was serious, and Reina allowed the rage to pass her, leaving only her tears. As much as it pained her, she said the words.

“Thank you for not killing me.”

“You’re very welcome.” Dim Mak seemed pleased, and slowly guided her by the hand, away from her father and the only home she’d ever known. “What is your name, little one?”

“Reina.”

“Oh, a Queen…not much of a kingdom though.”

“You’re the loser who wants to move here,” Reina said, surly, but Dim Mak laughed, delighted, which only weirded her out.

“A sharp tongue means a sharp mind,” Dim Mak said, and opened the front door for her to step out. “Let us honor your father’s last wish then, little queen.”