"This is who you want me to kill?"

Twenty-four-year-old Gilbert Nightray peered hard at the detailed file he'd been given, squinting as if he couldn't possibly believe what he was seeing. He had been hired countless times before and succeeded in eliminating his target every time, but sometimes he still wondered what the hell he was doing. An assassin, for God's sake—not something he had ever counted on becoming. But he needed the money.

He wasn't being selfish. That was the honest truth. On the inside, Gilbert was actually a pretty decent guy—although perhaps you can't really say that about an assassin. But Gilbert's family was steadily running out of money. They were paying for his younger brother Vincent's college, and college was more expensive than it ought to be these days. And in this time of expensive colleges, Vincent's was still considered expensive as hell.

At one time, the Nightray family had been considerably wealthy. Gilbert still remembered when they never spoke about money—when they never had to. He'd had a ton of money to his name, and so did Vincent, so the two of them could escape from their family as much as they wanted. In fact, they could pretend they had nothing to do with the Nightrays in the first place.

Gilbert's family wasn't exactly the best family to be born into. Most of the time, his parents didn't give a crap what he and Vincent did. They'd taught them to fend for themselves as much as possible at a very young age. It wasn't as if Mr. and Mrs. Nightray were cruel to their sons, but it was dreadfully obvious they preferred staying away from them. Even if there were definitely people who had it worse, Gilbert and Vincent had, no doubt, been damaged by their parents' dismissive attitudes.

So in truth, Gilbert felt being an assassin was the only option he had. He was too caring for his own good, and he knew it. He felt as though making money for his family was his job, no matter if he was the only person who made an effort in the first place or if he had to do something horrible in order to do it. Gilbert never pushed Vincent to get a job, and he certainly couldn't push his parents, nor did he want to.

And so Gilbert had taken up his cute little habit of being hired as an assassin. It made his family money; that was all that mattered. He had to remind himself of that over and over again so that he wouldn't freak out or quit. He had never wanted to murder, but this was the only choice he had—which technically meant he had no choice.

Usually, Gilbert wasn't overly fond of those who hired him. He found anyone who could hire someone to kill someone else without remorse despicable, although that was probably a very twisted logic, considering he was the person that was hired. He'd dealt with some pretty messed-up people in the past.

Well, all of them were messed-up, but some more than others.

But Justin Pyre wasn't a super-special psycho like some of the other people Gilbert had worked with. He was just a very greedy, thirty-two-year-old man. Justin was the owner of Timmy's, a world-famous company that produced children's toys. (Gilbert had yet to figure out why a man named Justin called his company Timmy's, but that was a minor detail.) Justin was filthy rich from selling all those toys, but a new children's toy company was rising to fame, and it seemed that very soon it would override Timmy's.

This young company was called Cherry Blossom. Even Gilbert had heard of it, despite the fact that he couldn't be less interested in the children's toy-producing industry. The file Gilbert was holding was of the owner of Cherry Blossom—his next victim.

Apparently, with this young company came its young company owner. The owner of Cherry Blossom was a fifteen-year-old boy named Oz Vessalius. According to Justin—who'd done extensive research on Oz due to his...grudge, for lack of a better word—Oz had plenty of help from adults who had experience. Oz was very intelligent for a teenager, though. Enough so that he could mostly run his company by himself. Gilbert had some trouble believing all of this, but...

No wonder Cherry Blossom's toys are so successful among children, Gilbert thought, leering down at the photo of Oz. Cherry Blossom's owner is a child himself.

"Do you have a problem with going after him? Because I could hire someone else, you know." Justin groused. "I found a lot of other options. It wouldn't be difficult."

Gilbert bit his lip. Justin was paying him well, and there was no way he could lose this amount of money. Hastily, he assured the older man, "No, no, it's fine. I'll go after him. There's no problem. Just...he's only a kid."

"Whatever! Obviously he's not just a kid, if he can run a company that overruns mine." Justin looked furious, something sparking in his eyes. Gilbert had seen that same thing in most of the people who hired him. It was anger, but the type of anger you'd never see in a normal person. It was the type of anger that would make you want to steer clear of someone at all costs. The type of anger that wasn't quite sane.

"Um, yeah," Gilbert said, coughing awkwardly. "So, this Oz kid—is he really that smart?"

"Hell yes. I swear that little brat is a genius if I ever saw one. Which is why, if we don't get rid of him soon, I'll be ruined." Justin snapped. "Tell me, Gilbert Nightray, are you going to get out there and do your job? Or are you just going to stand here and waste your time pitying Oz Vessalius?"

Gilbert averted his eyes, feeling terribly embarrassed and, at the same time, irritated. It was natural for him to feel bad, wasn't it? He felt bad when he was normally killing people; now he was being hired to kill a kid.

Well, maybe it wasn't natural for an assassin to feel bad...but it hardly made a difference.

"I'm going. Do I have a deadline?" Gilbert asked, a bit coldly.

"You damn well do. I want to hear about Oz Vessalius's death before two months are up. Got it?" Justin hissed through his teeth.

"I've got it. Oz will be dead by then, I promise you." Gilbert started walking out of the man's house before glancing over his shoulder. "I won't let you down. You'll be glad you hired me."

Justin snorted. "I sure as hell hope so."

Oz Vessalius smiled warmly at his sister, Ada Vessalius. She was eighteen and in college, so he didn't get to see her all that often anymore. They e-mailed and talked on the phone a lot, especially since Oz had started Cherry Blossom, but it was different for them to see each other in person.

Oz and Ada was extremely close—they always had been. Their mother had died when they were very young, and their father wanted absolutely nothing to do with them. Their father had handed them over to their uncle Oscar as soon as their mother had died. Although their father didn't like either of them, he seemed to particularly despise Oz. Both had been severely damaged by their father's cruelty towards them—Oz more than his older sister.

"So Cherry Blossom is a success?" Ada asked brightly. She was an optimist, one who made you feel like smiling just from the aura she gave up.

"It sure is! God, I was nervous at first. I thought it was going to fail miserably." Oz laughed freely. "But look at me now—owner of Cherry Blossom, a company that's sure to be known all over! I'm seriously thinking it might even top Timmy's. Maybe I'm crazy. But that's what I'm thinking."

"You're not crazy," Ada said excitedly. "I think so too! Uncle Oscar was telling me about how your sales are through the roof. And everyone is talking about Cherry Blossom! Timmy's has been around for a while. It's your time, Oz!"

Oz grinned, grateful for Ada's encouragement and deeply confident himself. "The money's pouring in. We're going to be rich, Ada! In fact, we'll probably be rich very, very soon. Damn, this is awesome." He grin turned into a regular smile. "Well, that's enough about me. What's new with you? Do you like college?"

"It's wonderful." Ada's eyes sparkled. Oz smiled wider. He loved seeing his sister happy and cared about her endlessly. "I love it. I was...I was really worried about leaving you and Uncle Oscar, but it's...I guess...really fun being on my own." She blushed self-consciously. "Not that I don't enjoy being with you. You're the best!"

"Aw, don't worry about it. I get it. It's good to have some time with your girlfriends. And without being restricted by your overprotective brother and uncle," Oz added, laughing. Then his face turned abruptly serious. "Hey, Ada, anything having to do with the boyfriend situation...?"

Ada blushed, smiled, and fixed her eyes on the ground. "N-no...not yet, I mean. I don't like anyone. But...maybe..."

"Well, thank God you're not into any weird guys yet. That means I have time to prepare." Oz cracked a smile, although he really was oversensitive about Ada having a boyfriend. Oz had always acted as Ada's older brother rather than her younger, and he didn't like the idea of Ada getting independent enough to start dating.

It wasn't that he didn't want her to be independent; he was fully supportive of her going out on her own and having a great time. But Oz was overprotective, and he was nervous of what some group of creeps would do to his beautiful sister.

Ada took the chance to change the subject, albeit uncomfortably. "Oz, do you think Timmy's...will come after you? Because Cherry Blossom is stealing their business...?"

Oz stifled a laugh. "Ada, stop it. You're worrying too much. Timmy's isn't going to come after me. Timmy's and Cherry Blossom are rival companies, not enemy soldiers."

A tiny smile graced Ada's lips. Without meeting her brother's eyes, she gave a small nod. Oz was beaming. It was so great to see his sister again. He had to admit that he missed her all the time, no matter if that made him lame or not. He and Oscar could angst over Ada's absence all they wanted. And they did.

They didn't tell Ada that, of course. They didn't want her to worry about them.

Oz still mused at the fact that a human being such as his sister could exist. Ada was kind and loving, beautiful and strong—more mentally than physically. She had a peaceful, mature outlook on life that Oz greatly respected. It was an outlook he'd never managed to acquire himself.

Ada was precious to him, and he never wanted to lose her. To be honest, he thought his uncle and sister's happiness at the money Cherry Blossom was receiving was better than the actual money. Oz was more selfless than most people knew. Behind that mischievous, childish exterior was a brilliant-minded, caring, amazing person. He just hoped Cherry Blossom's success would go on, for the good of Oscar and Ada.

Oz smiled and sighed, gazing out the window. He hoped the owner of Timmy's wouldn't be too annoyed at the loss of sales. It was probably ridiculous to be thinking about that—this was business. You won some, you lost some.

Still, Oz couldn't help but wonder what the owner of Timmy's was thinking. He knew it was silly, but he couldn't help it.