All six operatives—Zaraki Mitsuki, Jin Hatake, Ken Kazuo, Mia Kaori, and Akito and Akio Masaki—walked in the woods now embarking on the now-approved mission of executing the deserters.
Thanks to the interruption of Zaraki at the dying minute, the mission was approved, and if successful, it would be a major step up for all of them, excluding Zaraki, whose current class wouldn't be very much affected by it.
Then Zaraki warned,
"Please be careful; while these streets are safe from the territories of fables, there are still dangerous bandits roaming about looking for naive travelers and pilgrims."
For some reason, Mia felt insulted by what he had just said, maybe due to the mix of jealousy and gratitude she had towards the elite operative.
She felt grateful for his intervention, which led to the approval to undertake the mission, but felt jealous as she wouldn't be in the spotlight when they succeeded as an operative of a higher class was now at the helm.
"You don't have to state the obvious, big boy. We know," she said nonchalantly, much to the surprise of everyone, who were quite shocked at her rude behavior toward the senior operative.
Luckily for Mia, Zaraki had a thick skin and wasn't even bummed by her reply but commended her plainly.
"Good to know."
Jin, Ken, and the twins were relieved as Zaraki paid no heed to her childish behavior.
Even the always composed Ken stood in awe of Zaraki's mature temperament. Mia, however, was even more frustrated by her inability to affect the elite operative's temperament as well as she could with the others—especially Akito.
Due to the nature of their missions as operatives, they were disguised as average travelers wandering through the woods, as the details of the operation were to be classified and unnoticed by the actual travelers and civilians that also happened to be walking through the street at that time.
Their appearances were good enough to fool the average bandit into thinking they were harmless foreigners coming as pilgrims for the religious memorial feast that was to commence in less than a week.
The streets on which they were traveling were called "Safe," as they had been carved out by natural experts who had studied the habitats and behaviors of the several dangerous creatures that inhabit the forest.
It was close to the first week of April that year, a time known for high pilgrimage in the city of Langford. Several pilgrims came from the surrounding kingdoms to commemorate the memorial week of Lord Kristos (a man believed to be a divine who arrived on Earth with the divine authority to take off the consequences of sin by dying a criminal's death before returning to glory).
Although that wasn't what primarily brought people into the kingdom during this period, it was more than just yearly festivities that brought them.
Most of the pilgrims were simply tourists hungry for adventure and never gave a damn about religion, as the main attraction at The Langford Kingdom was the beautiful Kristos Basilica, a large building that was unrivalled in size and splendor and used as a place of worship and a museum for the sacred ancient religious artifacts.
The beauty of the basilica sounded like a fairytale, even to the most faithful of witnesses.
Even so, it attracted Kings, Queens, and Nobles from the far reaches of the unconquered world to the Kingdom just to witness the luxurious glory of the Basilica.
But that wasn't the concern of the operatives for now, as they were more preoccupied with hunting down the deserters before the feast commenced than with the primary aim of attending the feast itself.
Though they didn't want to miss the feast, because as assassins who were also strictly religious regardless of their numerous mothers and assassinations, they were assured by the church authorities that by a simple confession of salvation they would be automatically absolved of all sins committed provided they attended the remission ceremony where the priest and church fathers will declare them "righteous and forgiven."
Some operatives came out successful from suicide missions, sometimes not because of the reward that came after but because of the motivation provided by the assurance that their work was all for the glory of Lord Kristos, who would personally reward them at the end of the age for every successful mission.
This didn't exclude the six of them, perhaps except for Jin and Akio, who were atheists leaning towards the Kristenism religion.
But regardless of their slightly distinctive motivations, they would all agree to the fact that this was a mission for which they might not survive the experience.
Unusually, it now occurred to Jin that they didn't know exactly whom they were after.
"Remind me again whom we are after?" asked Jin.
Zaraki sighed and asked Jin,
"Do you want me to remind you or inform you?"
"All of the above, big boy," interrupted Mia.
Zaraki simply ignored her childish behavior and simply answered,
"Yuzu and Rangiku Tachibana, twin sisters of the elite class and one of the best among what they call Elite operatives, are about 20 years of age and potential masters of the blood mist. Akito arched a brow at Zaraki's last choice of words.
"The blood mist?" "Isn't that supposed to be a myth?" he asked.
Then he gave her a sarcastic smile and simply replied,
"Trust me, brother, it is as real as the air you breathe."
Zaraki's answer brought a brief moment of silence and inactivity, and he noticed they had stopped following behind him, maybe waiting for him to turn back to confirm all he had just said was all a bluff.
But he turned to face them, who were looking at him with a surprised yet sceptical gaze that almost made him unsure of what he had just said, save for the fact that he had witnessed the phenomenon himself.
"Are you sure you know what you're saying, big boy?" asked Mia.
Again, he ignored her rudeness but chose to address the question nonetheless.
"As some of you may not have heard, it is a secret technique only elites and ultimate class operatives can hope to learn, much less master, as it involves the sacrificing of your life force for the temporary attainment of unspeakable power, and it is almost certain the person would die afterwards as it cannot be deactivated once initiated."
Surprisingly to Zaraki, the other operatives were still looking extremely skeptical—perhaps even worse than before.
Zaraki shook his head in slight frustration but wasn't surprised anymore, as it was likely they had not gone on such a crucial mission before and didn't have enough experience to be able to properly discern myths from reality.
So to their surprise, he simply laughed,
"Don't worry, young ones; this mission will teach you many things,... but the only problem is that you might not survive the experience."
The others simply looked at each other for a moment, clueless as to what he just said, before shrugging it off like it never happened.
They continued hiking up the hill, following the Safe Street, as it was the only logical route to follow through these dangerous woods, mostly due to the presence of several predators that were too protective of their territories.
The Predators were mostly so savage and beastly that it will take multiple elite operatives or perhaps a whole elite squad to stand a chance against one.
Travelers who claimed to be eyewitnesses to these near-mythical creatures told stories that sounded too fanciful to be true, especially when it came to the physical features of these animals.
What everyone would agree on was that it was certain suicide to stray from the safe path that was made for their safety.
So some came back with injuries and scars believed to have been caused by the Beasts (now known simply as Fables), and their stories were grossly inconsistent to the point of sheer absurdity, as it was quite obvious they could have been attacked by common wild dogs and wolves. After all, wild dogs and wolves have commonly been known to attack people even when spotted outside their territories, if they had any.
These creatures, however, were known to be quite noble in their territorial behavior, as they wouldn't attack humans even in plain sight as long as they posed no threat or attempted to enter their territories.
The road they were following was commonly used by all travelers and operatives to stay on the right path, so it was very likely that the deserters used the streets as well, as the two elite operatives couldn't possibly stand a chance against the average fable as far as the records go.
As they went further, Zaraki sensed danger close by and halted while giving the rest the hand sign that they should do the same, which they did. Then came a snapping sound like a branch snapped in two, followed by a sound that felt like a large object was heading straight for them.
For a few seconds, they all stood silent, knowing that in a few seconds, things were going to get messed up.