The Icy Lakes of Russia

The Samaapt rarely, if ever, did meetings. It was somewhat amusing, simply because of how much the leader spewed about them being a family. Which, in a way, she agreed with albeit rather loosely. Sure, they were different from the Gashadokuro in every way and form, and due to the fact that she will never treat anyone like she did with the Gashadokuro ever again, but, she enjoyed their distances with the Samaapt. They barely saw one another when reporting back to base, and when they did a mask was always worn, or a cloak of sorts. It didn't bother her, in fact she preferred it. Everyone ignored each other and kept their distances. Every interaction was completely professional. It prevented conversations from starting and nipped the bud at relationships from forming.

The deep thuds of someone knocking at her door made the girl look up from her journal, softly releasing air from her nose as she stood from her seat.

Well, almost every interaction.

Anu placed the journal back inside its original holdings of the study desk's side drawer, and slowly stood from her seat. Just from the rhythm of the knocking she knew it was the leader, with his melodic whistling it was easy to tell. With stiff movements, the young woman opened the door to peek out at the cloaked man standing before her. He grinned teasingly behind his stark white skull mask and push her aside as he barged into the girl's 'room'. By all modern means it could barely be considered such, as the space itself was much too narrow and included only the most basic essentials like a much smaller attached room that included all necessary hygiene specifics and a cot pressed up against farthest wall in the current room. The only thing that really stood out was the old desk pushed against the wall the nearest to the front door with a much older wooden chair coupled with it. It wasn't much of anything special, a “gift” from the boss that she only used when reviewing mission details and kept personal information in. Which is why when the cloaked man entered the room to plop himself down on the seat of the desk, she didn't pause, but rather turned and knelt before the man with her head bowed, despite his back facing her as he picked at the candle. She knew why he was here, for the same reason every time.

”You have an assignment for me, Malik?”, the woman questioned as she gazed at the floorboards listlessly, idly noting the sound of the sounds of shifting above her. She heard the Malik hum and she knew that was her cue to look up to face him. He seemed to be reaching a hand to her when she looked up , but as she did he withdrew almost immediately and instead handed her an old, and still aging, brown folder. It was the folder that contained information about her next target, but was rather thick, compared to other assignments, and quite old. Judging from this alone, she thought this must be something of aged importance, which made her puzzled as to why he was giving it to her. Subjects like this were handed to the most skilled and higher up members, those who he were sure were not going to screw it up. It wasn't like she had shown dishonorable skill as the newest addition of two years, but it wasn't nearly enough time to give something like this to her. Almost like he could sense her inner questioning, the man chuckled. ”This bounty has been assigned to this group for nearly sixty years. I have given this to fifteen different people and all of them have died in trying to kill this man, except one who has gone into hiding.” Leaning back into the chair, the man folded his arms across his chest as Anu stood and accepted the folder, immediately peering into its contents to drink in its information as Malik continued. ”His name is Daigo, surname unknown. He is a former shinigami of the Gotei and a criminal, or at least that's what they tell us. Apparently, he escaped and the captain commander at that time had very much would have liked him back, alive. He was lasted spotted in Russia, but we're not sure exactly where in Russia, and that source was from a year ago. Still, a good place to start. Now, we don't usually keep hits like this going on for so long, or send so many people after one target but this is a special case. For the entirety of the time this project has been upheld, the Gotei has paid us to continue our hunt of this man. Look, it even has their stamp.” He said, leaning to point at the symbol of the Gotei United plastered at the edge of the folder. He gave a hidden smile as he watched the young woman drink in all the information
He didn't explain why he chose to give it to her, but he knew he didn't have to as he watched the girl bite her thumb to break skin and pressed the bloodied finger onto the folder, next to many past dried up blood stains of those before her. He smirked from behind his mask and leaned back into the chair again, saying nothing further as Anu bowed politely to her leader, turned, and began to gather what she would need for her extensive mission. Judging from the past failed attempts, this man was nothing to sneeze at and required an across-the-board amount of observation before she could strike.

She left that evening.

It took her a day to get to Russia, the land of ice and snow. Despite its wintry chill, Russia's weather never bothered her. The dark skinned woman could walk around in continent just fine, if it wasn't for the fact that doing so would cause her to stand out she most definitely would have. But alas, Anu had to wear the company issued much too large and heavy parka. At the very least it helped her blend in with the civilians. Since she arrived she had met up with the source who said they spotted Daigo near eastern Russia. The woman said she saw him lingering nearby one of the more desolated areas in the eastern region. She followed their lead to a small town called Sevenovsk, the home to a meager sixty hundred thousand population. But that's not where the girl looked. Her target had been avoiding getting caught for decades. For the man to start living in a town, despite how small it may be, would be uncharacteristic and not smart. All would take would be for someone to be passing by the area, and he would be newcomer if this is where he's been for about a year according to the spy. Being new in this kind of place would make him stand out far too much. The purple haired woman gave a puff of air and glanced towards the forest nearby.