Snippet #2128744

For two days Shadow slept and dreamed. For two days he slept silently and peacefully.

At least... on the outside.

Inside, Shadow's dreams haunted him with memories of his early days as an Assassin.

Torture day in and day out... As a child he learned to do two things: walk and fight. Fighting against the other children to the point where they actually died from the beatings they received from their peers everyday. Shadow, the strongest of the children of his generation within the organization, was noticed by Grandmaster Takai and taken under his wing first and later the rest of the Grandmasters.

Training was beyond brutal for Shadow to the point where they had to resort to special herbal concoctions and drugs to keep him alive and on his feet to continue training.

Using his own body as a guide they taught him the muscle groups of the body and their functions, as well as how to both temporarily incapacitate them by demonstrating on Shadow himself. They demonstrated how to permanently incapacitate them on "disposable training dummies", in other words innocent lives taken from surrounding villages outside of the valley. Using his body as a guide they taught him how each of the pathways of the nervous system worked one path at a time, as well as how to both temporarily and permanently shut them down.

Using his body as a guide... They taught him about the major organs of the body and where they were located by cutting him open and showing him his own insides. Carefully cutting open his stomach and avoiding the muscles while slowly parting them so that he could see what lie beneath. Drugs and extreme painkillers could not dull the pain Shadow felt during this portion of training, and as a result Shadow's tolerance to pain only grew yet further given the long hours the Grandmaster spent showing him his own innards.

Weapons, tactics, tracking, reconnaissance, stealth and psychology were among Shadow's main focuses during his training throughout the years. His skill with daggers soared to heights unseen and grew to the point where the Grandmasters saw fit to gift him with a pair made of Orichalcum, the only pair in existence. His ability to disappear and move without sound was second to none and earned him the title of Master Assassin when he was only fifteen years old. At eighteen years old, Shadow was promoted to Grand Assassin with the only title above his being the Grandmasters themselves which made him, effectively, the next in line for the seat of Grandmaster before his rebellion.

Shadow's early missions during his teenage years were "perfection" in the eyes of the Grandmasters. Shadow was cold hearted and ruthless, sparing absolutely nobody. Women, children, elderly, sickly and unarmed people all fell victim to Shadow's wrath during his pre-rebellion stage as an Assassin. He once decapitated a child simply because they got in his way as he was walking down the street towards the alleyways after a mission. He slit a woman's throat while she was sleeping simply because she was the wife of his target though she herself was deemed to be no threat by the Grandmasters. Shadow had killed three elderly men who were speaking amongst themselves in a park simply because they were there and they were "speaking too loud" for Shadow's taste as he was walking by.

Shadow was the epitome of evil in the eyes of the common people and the legends of the Red-Eyed Demon became infamous throughout the continent and soon overseas on other continents. Stories of his deeds were what gave even the most battle hardened warriors of Cre' Est nightmares and was the reason why whenever you saw those red eyes in the darkness, you turned and ran for your life.

Throughout the course of these memories and the details therein of his early years as an Assassin Shadow continued to sleep quietly though his mind was crying from the pain the memories brought. Despite how still he was lying in bed and how peaceful he looked on the outside with a calm and emotionless expression on his face, tears still flowed slowly from his eyes.

Despite the rumors, legends and myths surrounding the Red-Eyed Demon, the fact that remained which almost nobody alive save for a handful of people seemed to know or understand was that he was still a human being. Despite his toughness, he felt pain. Despite the detachment from humanity, he felt emotional pain and heartache. Despite his proficiency with weapons and all things related to being a Master Assassin, he was still a young man who was curious about the world around him and he wanted to be a part of it.

He was tired of being the "Red-Eyed Demon", but the world was not ready for that to happen yet...

... Or... Was Shadow, not ready for that to happen yet?

Shadow did not have the answer to that question yet.