The Nameless

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H

Haru Senpai

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"Your name is the difference between life and death. It became a game many centuries ago when humanity bargained with forces beyond them. It was a joke, you could write someone's name and make them confess their darkest secrets, or rob a store. Names suddenly had so much potential, people recognized this and it was quickly exploited. All of a sudden, millions were dying because of their names; from forced suicide to murder, someone would get rid of another in some way. Now, names are sacred, everyone goes by something else and things are mostly alright... There is one rule to live by now: Never tell anyone your name."

You're either a name mercenary, or you're not. The name mercs were people who were paid to do the simple task of discovering someone's real name. It was the best paying job there was, but one of the most difficult. A name merc had to keep their own identities a secret, if everyone knew you were out for names, how could you earn their trust?
There are two moments in one's life in which a name is revealed; a married couple knew each other's real names... Usually. And it was engraved on the deceased's tombstone. This is what made a name mercenaries job so difficult. Some would rather die than give up their identity..
And often times, they did.

Me: image.jpg
Identifies as: Lilith
Occupation: Name Mercenary
 
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Lilith walked through a heavily populated city, listening to the instructions being given to her.
"Kill him if you must, but then you won't receive the other half of your pay. We need his name, not his corpse."
"Yes Sir." The man was known only by that, Sir. He was the 'leader', having several mercs that worked beneath him. Some she knew, others she had only heard of.
 
Name: A***** "Ace"
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Occupation: "name clearer"

Ace made his way through the streets and into a small thought to be abandoned building. He slipped in through a back door once he was sure no one could see him. When you're being hunted by name mercs, you learn to keep a low profile. Inside the building was a man who had asked Ace to clear his name. When someone found your name, you called Ace in order to disappear. If you were a Kevin, by the time Ace was done, you were a Victor. Ace knew many names but the people knew that he could be trusted, seeing as he was against the name mercs and risked his own life to keep identities shadowed.

"Look. Take this..." Said Ace as he handed the man a false I.D card. ".. You take this and you drop it somewhere, but make sure someone sees it. When they try to use this name against you, they'll end up with someone else. Here's the thing, that person doesn't exists and they don't know you anymore. Poof! You're gone" ace gave a slight smirk at his final words. People didn't remember faces anymore these days, everyone was no one and anyone who became someone paid a few hundred bucks to be no one again. An endless cycle of false identities and false trust amongst each other. That's just go the world worked now.

The man gave Ace $200 dollars and a small nod before leaving the building. Ace counted his money, then blended in to the mass of people moving about the streets.
 
Ah what was this guy's name again? Right, right... Ace. This was a whopper of a hit, $100, 000 just to start trying to find out his name. There was another hundred K if she was successful. And you better be damn sure she was going to get that money.
"Why is this guy so important?" Leaning against a wall, she pulled out a cigarette, taking a long drag.
"Don't know, the client didn't say but you better not fail me Lilith." It wasn't cold, but she shivered at the threat his voice carried. But this was why he chose her, she made her mark in the world by being efficient.
A few that passed too close gave her weary looks, to others, it looked as if she was talking to herself.
The device he was speaking to her through was implanted within her ear canal and, completely invisible. It caught her voice just as her own ears did.
 
Ace watched as his client dropped the I.D card. Just as he knew would happen, someone was quick to pick it up and disappear with it. Ace loved to watch his handy work play out. The fact that he was known by many but no one really knew who he was made him feel powerful. He could make anyone disappear or he could expose someone to the world. It was like he indirectly ran the city and he loved it.

Of course Ace couldn't do everything he did alone. He had a team of people working with him to make their "ghosting" possible. Ace was like the president, and his co-workers were his congress. They were the underground network that kept everyone safe from name mercs, and worked towards exposing name mercs.

Ace watched as one of his partners slowly made their way towards him through the crowd of people. Once they were almost side by side, his partner purposely bumped into his side and quickly handed Ace a small computer chip. To anyone on the outside, it just looked like two strangers who accidentally got too close; but to Ace and his partner it was a critical transfer of delicate information.

"...why's this guy so important?" He heard a female voice say close to his right side. He didn't turn to look at her, but he knew what she was. Non name mercs don't ask questions like that. He was almost certain she was looking for him, seeing as there wasn't many other people she could be looking for. He and his group were phantoms amongst ghosts. He picked up his pace slightly in order to get away from her. He knew she wouldn't know his face, but the mercs had other ways of identifying people and he didn't plan on being caught today
 
"Am I working alone?" Her voice dropped to a whisper as she witnessed the transaction. People didn't just accidentally drop their I.D. Something, or rather someone, was at work here. There was nothing too out of place that she could see, two strangers bumping into each other, a brawl about to break out nearby.
"So far. This guy is obviously going to be tough to crack, we don't even have a clear picture. I'll see if I can find you some help." There weren't many under his control that she 'played well' with, but she could recognize a tough hit when she saw one.
The fight had started and it was time to go. Imbeciles she couldn't be bothered to toy with, but as a man got shoved into her, she found her head cracking against the brick behind her.
"Fuck!" Oh this wasn't good. Dammit!
"Li...Th.. Wh.. Nned..." Sir's words were cutting out horribly, a constant static being produced. The implant was broken, great.
Warm blood ran down her neck, stumbling as she tried to fight the dizziness.
"Hos... Pital.." Those were her last words before she blacked out on the sidewalk.
 
Ace stopped walking for a bit when he heard the fighting break out, the noise breaking the former calm sounds of everyday life. He took a quick glance back at the name merc and saw her get her head smashed into a brick wall. Ace cringed slightly but didn't move. "Come on Ace, just walk away" he said to himself as he mentally fought with himself. "Ah, I am so fucked" he said as he quickly jogged back to her and dragged her away from the fighting men. Once they were away he picked her up in his arms and carried her into a hospital.

"
Help, she's hurt!" Ace called out and waited a few seconds for a doctor to come take her from him. "What happened?" Asked the doctor as he pulled the girl out of Ace's arms and into his own. "She got her head smashed into a wall, I don't know how bad she hit it but she won't wake up." Ace' stone was full of false concern as he watched the doctor put the girl on the table and quickly assemble his medical team. "Don't worry we'll take care of her" said the Doctor as he and his team quickly pushed her down a hallway and the turned a corner out of his line of sight. "Yeah you do that" Ace said to himself before simply leaving the hospital, she wasn't his problem anymore
 
When she woke up her vision was blurry and that damn static continued in her ear. There were several things she needed to figure out first.
One: which hospital was this? Was it affiliated with the with the name mercs?
Two: how did she get here? There was no way she could have gotten here on her own.
Thre- Agh! She just couldn't take that static! Tweezers had to be somewhere, right?
The needle and IV lines were ripped from her arms, god it hurt, but it didn't stop her from frantically through drawers. A scalpel? To thick to be shoved into her ear. Yes! Finally a cabinet yielded results. The device was embedded in the epidermis, hopefully it wouldn't be too difficult to get out. The two pointed ends went into her canal and she dug around for any indication of where it was.
"Hey Lily, having some trouble?" Her hand came to a halt at the voice behind her. No, no, no. This had to be a mistake. There was no way Sir would send
"X. Please tell me that's not you." Lilith turned and sure enough, the dark haired man was there with his signature smug grin.
"Good to see you too. Did you really expect someone else? I'm one of the only ones trained to replace the communicators. Plus, Sir said a fragile little girl like yourself could use some protection." His eyes scrunched in the corners as he laughed at her "I mean come on Lil. You couldn't even handle a couple of idiots fighting over beer?"
Unlike her, he displayed his wealth through his clothing and vehicles. A stupid move, to remain inconspicuous you had to blend in.
The motorcycle he was leading her to was not blending in. "Sir payed for a hotel, I'll replace the thing there." X pressed his thumb to the start button, it read his fingerprint, then he swung his leg leg over and it roared to life. Air blasted downward and the bike was hovering, emitting a blue light. "Hurry the hell up."
Lilith glared at both him and the machine, mounting behind the man and refusing to wrap her arms around his waist. Instead, she gripped the back of her seat and pretended she didn't jolt when he took off.
"Help, she's hurt!" That voice. It was stuck in her head, and no matter how many times she analyzed it, she couldn't put a name. It definitely wasn't X's. Hopefully Sir was able to pick it up, maybe he could identify it.
"We have a month." What? He didn't mean... "We don't get this guy's name or body within a month, Sir is killing us both." This was one of the rare times the sarcastic man's voice was serious.
They either found out who this 'Ace' was or they were dead.
 
name j****** shiek
appearance
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occupation body guard/assassin


shiek was aces body guard but she also doubled up as assassin. she had watched everything go down through her rifle scope. after packing up her rifle she made her way to the hospital ace was at. after ace was alone she ghosted behind him and and leaned against the wall. "baka, you always have a soft spot. one day its going to get you killed."
 
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False Identity: Chao
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Occupation: Member of Ace's crew/ Odd Job Guy
Entering the room similarly to Shiek's method, Chao stood across from Ace, "Yeah, I know I ain't in a position to be giving you criticism, but that was pretty stupid Ace." He looked to their leader with a dissapointed look, "Plus I know you aren't oblivious to your surroundings. She was a name merc and you know it. I just hope she isn't good at her job." He crossed the room and placed the contents of his pockets onto a table. A couple of ID cards, some money, and a strange device that resembled a cell phone, "Anyways," Chao's sidetracked demeanor getting the best of him, "While you were off being heroic, I learnt the whereabouts of a name merc hangout spot with the MHD" He held up the phone like device known as the Mobile Hacking Device, a device that could pick up calls in nearby areas to allow for some eavesdropping. The downside to it was that it didn't work on private lines, and it only had a detection diameter of about 20 meters. Chao took off his jacket, "Yeesh, do you know how hard it is to get close to these guys? You make one wrong move and they suspect your gonna stab them in the back! I had to follow this guy four 14 blocks before he was convinced no one was following him. Not that I was counting or anything... I'm just glad he was a rookie and didn't conceal his call"
 
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Both of her ears we're bleeding now, dammit. One where the Inner Ear Device had been removed and the other where a new one had been inserted.

The small metal square was covered in blood, the wires sticking out from it like a deranged bug. "Crazy isn't it? This tiny little thing transmits so much information to our boss. Our heart rate, our breathing rate, hell, it even figures out our emotions based on our tone of voice. Who knows what else it can do? What else can that asshole take from us?"
"I can hear you, X."
"Good. Want me to repeat it?" It was no secret that X wanted out of the name mercs, but once you were in, that was it. The only reason X hadn't been killed yet was because he was a damn good merc and knew his way around a computer.
"Bet you can't wait to kill him huh boss?" Lilith smirked at X as Sir gave he gave them a detailed description on just how he would kill him.
"... And you too Lil, I have a feeling that in thirty days, I'll be offing both of you." Her smile dropped and X was clearly infuriated.
"Switch to private mode" a robotic voice asked if he was sure, speaking softly over Sir's shouting. "Yes."
Lilith surprisingly did the same
"God I hate him. Why did I ever start doing this shit?" It was a rhetorical question, they both very well knew why. "Lily, you can't tell me that you haven't thought about leaving, or at least trying to." His eyes were serious and pleading as he met hers, if her answer disagreed with his... It was possible he'd go insane.

"Of course I have." And this was the truth, she didn't want to hunt people anymore, she had wanted to stop for a long time.

"But we can't. We're stuck until we die." For once his voice sounded weak and vulnerable, he wasn't the man that tortured people's secrets out of them.

He was the man that was forced to.
 
Ace kept pace as he felt Shiek ghost behind him. He ignored her comment and went to meet up with Chao. "Dammit guys! Look I know what I'm doing. We've been at this for a long time, I know what's at stake. I wouldn't do anything if I thought it would expose us. She was blacked out when I took her in. No one knows my name and I gave a fake voice, therefore I'm still no one." Ace felt their lack of faith in him quite hurtful. He had brought them together because he knew that together, they were the perfect ghosts.

"
I heard her talking to herself. Meaning she had an audio device in her ear. I never used my real voice and I made sure she never saw my face. She has no ties to me; and even if she did she's powerless without my name. We are ghosts." Ace finally calmed himself and began unloading his belongings. Some I.D cards and the computer chip that he received earlier. He listened to Chao give the information he had found earlier with his MHD. "Good job Chao. Now that we know where they are stationed, we can try and find a way in. Shiek, I'm sure that's nothing you can't handle." He uploaded the chip he got earlier into his laptop and watched as a series of file images uploaded itself onto the screen. He had order some emergency cards for the group in case someone were to find their hideout. After all, they had found the name mercs' so it wasn't unreasonable to think they could do the same.

After he finished making the cards, he gave them to the others. "
See guys, once step ahead"
 
Chao gave a smirk, which slowly grew into a smile followed by laughter, "How could I have been so foolish as to think you'd give her anything?" He stopped and took a breath, "Besides, the way she hit that pavement, I wouldn't be shocked if she couldn't remember the last week. That looked brutal." He reached out and grabbed an emergency card, examining it thoroughly. We really are ghosts. Invisible to the rest of the world, appearing when we're needed His train of thought derailed as he thought of a superhero who helped society and fought crime. He was brought back to reality shortly later "They're holed up in some place downtown. Real low key. The address was 1014, 21st street. I haven't got the chance to head down there and examine the building, but I think I've passed through that part of town before. It isn't anything really special."

He trailed off, deep in thought about something that was bugging him, "You know Ace, the guy I was following didn't look much like the girl you helped." he whispered, "Do you think there may be another name merc guild? I mean, compared to her, the guy I was following looked real small time. And it's not like there's only one organization. Maybe there connected or something." he thought back to the guy, who blatantly looked like bad news. He wore a sleeveless vest which showed a fit physique. "Or maybe he was just one of their thugs. But still..." He leaned against the table all their belongings were sprawled out on.
 
Ace thought for a moment about the possiblity if more merc guilds. "It's a possibility, I'll try and look into it. I don't know if it's a good idea to get ahead of ourselves though. Let's keep a steady pace, and do what we do best. As for the mercs' guild, we can set up some surveillance and see what we find. As far as the other merc, we can't really assume that means another guild though it is a possibility. We don't have allot of information yet but we're not going to rush any answers or get jumpy. We're ghosts, and we need to stay that way. I know I have my own flaws and I will work on them as well so I'm not addressing anyone individually, I'm just speaking to the group as a whole." Ace couldn't have thought up a better team for the job. He knew if he couldn't trust anyone else in this world, he could trust his group. They were his family. It's funny how even family didn't know each others names, but he would die for these guys. Though he planned on living alongside them as long as he could.

"
Is there anymore need for today?"
 
shiek took her card and looked at ace. "ill go do some recon on this place." she handed ace her rifle "make sure you the gunsmith take a look at it and cleans it." she began walking away into the shadows. just before she disappeared. "ace dont get caught"and she disappeared into the shadows
 
Relieved, Chao relaxed. If there was any one thing he could be sure of, it was that Ace would have a plan. He always had a plan. Although it was never officially addressed, Chao definitely felt as if Ace was the leader of their elite squadron, and rightly such. He was one step ahead of everyone. Chao picked his jacket back up and began putting it on slowly, "Well, looks like Sheik's got the situation under control, so unless there's something you needed me to do, I'm gonna, kick back, maybe have a drink or two and get some rest." He buttoned up the bottom few buttons of his jacket and turned to the door. Before reaching the door he stopped and took a deep breath, "You know, you did actually have us worried there for a second Ace." he paused briefly, "You should get some rest too. It isn't everyday someone has to haul a full grown woman to a hospital. At least for normal people it isn't." He walked out of the room and outside to get some fresh air. The evening provided that soothing breeze that came at the end of the day to reward those for a hard day's work. It was still light enough that no lights had come on. Chao walked around for a while, pondering the state of the world, and remembering those wondrous days when names were common courtesy. Now it's become a daily occurrence to lie, to lie about something that used to be so simple. He sighed.
 
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I'm hindsight, getting drunk probably wasn't a good idea. They had a time sensitive hit and here they were, bottles in their hands and grins on their faces.

"We could do it you know. Escape. Your brains and my dashing good looks, we could get away." X hiccuped, his arm slung around Lilith's shoulder.

"You've been saying that for-" a hiccup interrupts her "for hours. We can't do anything about it.'' They had also managed to completely trash the hotel room. The large television was on the ground, and the bed had somehow been flipped over. The vomit all over the bathroom was definitely the worst.

"Yeah but I mean it this time. Just us two against the world." To her absolute disgust he tried to kiss her, his lips sloppy and tasting like puke, she pulled away and slapped him hard.

"What the hell X?!" She was now across the room, throwing a lampshade at him, who knows where the rest of the lamp went?

"Calm down Lily it was just a- burp- a kiss."

"Shut up, get your computer. Fun times done we're working." Grumbles and groans were his response, what was he supposed to do in this state of mind?

"Lemme know when you get that stick outta your ass, k?" Swiping his hand in a cross motion made four screens float in the air in front of him. "Now sit and let the big boys work."

Ignoring him, she kept at his shoulder now, reading everything that went across his screen. They were definitely not the only ones hired to get this guy's name. "By the way, have you heard? Sir is pretty pissed."

"He always is. That's not news" blurred pictures zipped a screen and she shook her head. Seems no one could get a clear shot of the guy.

"There's a new guy..Or girl. No one knows, but apparently she/he is takin' in mercs, giving em new names, and nothing's permanent. You can drop out when you want. Thing is, supposedly everyone in the guild has to let the boss know their real names." Her eyes fell on X's cheek, his skin glowing from the screens. Was he thinking about joining?

"So what? New leaders pop up all the time, one of ours will probably be sent to kill whoever it is." He nodded as he had already considered the same thing.

"Sir is already on it. Think he sent PeeWee out yesterday." PeeWee? This was one of the ones she had never met, but what the hell was with his name? "Fuck, Lily! This guys a clearer!"
 
it took shiek about 20 min to get to the location she immediately found a vantage point, after setting up on her vantage point she pulled out a note book and began observing. she pulled up a black mask that covered her face with a set of binoculars in hand she watched through a sky light. and wrote in her note book. definitely small time. she looked at the hotel to her left and saw the girl ace took to the hospital. using her binoculars she could see the computer screen. definitely one of the bigger groups.
 
"Okay wait, wait this might not even be true." X's finger scrolled through the page. "Just says this guy was a client of his and is willing to sell any info he has. Okay, whew, this is probably fake. Half of everyone knows this guys waned, makes sense if someone makes up shit for money." He ran a hand through his hair, sounding relieved.

Lilith on the other hand, felt this was a possibility. There was something that happened before she was knocked cold that she couldn't remember. What was it?!

"Hear me Lily? I think it's fake." Swiping his hand again made all four screens disappear.

"We're going to look into it." Oh but they certainly wouldn't pay the man for information.

"But Lilith---" he dragged out her name, complaining like a child, "I'm about 90% sure it's fake."

"Don't care, in the morning we're finding this supposed client of his."
 
it took shiek about 20 min to get to the location.........

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Julius took his first step onto the rooftop after getting a tip that someone was watching one of the agents here who had been injured by some unknown persons, instantly he saw the girls back, she was holding up a pair of binoculars and spying on her, a small grin appeared on his lip and he put one hand on his hip as he spoke out to her. "Some might think it rude, that you would watch them this way." He said jokingly as he awaited her response. From here it would probably lead to a chase, he didn't mind, apparently this girl was somewhat of a high-priority target, so he was definitely in for a good pay day.

He wasn't the best 'Name Marc' on the Market, but he was no push-over, His name well-known by underground targets and those with a name to protect these days, known best for being so well dressed no matter what the occasion, a hunt, a party, or even out and about, though his pale skin led to believe he didn't do much during the day-time at all.
 
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