1 Mischief

On one seemingly ordinary day, a young boy was born with the name Loki.

Loki had a loving family, as most children have when young. He loved his family and enjoyed his life while living with a child's blissful innocence.

That was until his family died when he was young, resulting in him growing up in an orphanage.

Loki had white hair and yellow eyes, which made him quite cute to all who saw him at the orphanage, but from early on, he was different. His parent's death at a young age led to him maturing early, allowing him to display his extremely high intelligence.

Due to this, he became detached from other kids at the orphanage leading to the workers trying to communicate with him to no avail.

Through the years, Loki realized that it was not only his intelligence that was high, however.

There was one thing that seemed to radiate from the core of his being as he learned more about the world.

That was ambition.

Ambition that others in the orphanage did not seem to have. Ambition that appeared to be lacking in all Loki had met.

He could not understand how these people were happy with their tiny lives when people were living better than them.

He did not want to settle for a small job barely scraping by. He refused this notion.

He wanted to be at the top.

His ambitions led to him planning his life, and to do that, he had to work hard. Realizing that he needed a scholarship if he wanted a good life, he devoted himself to school and made sure to get perfect grades.

Countless hours all to make sure he was at the top. This seemingly tasteless life was lived with absolute dedication, all to fulfill his ambition.

Although his life was seen as monotone to many, the thought of his ambition being fulfilled left him extremely happy.

After hard work and dedication in school, he reached the top 0.02 percentile. One of the top scorers in the entire nation.

His hard work would soon pay off, allowing him to further fuel this ambition that seemed to burn within him.

At this moment, however, Loki learned how unfair his world was.

He believed that with enough effort, he would be able to realize his dreams, but he forgot how small he was in the world he lived in.

The scholarship position he needed to advance was taken by a local politician's son to become friendly with his father. Someone who did not even need it.

This infuriated him, and he tried to contact others but to no avail. Although his score was at the top, it brought colleges no advantages compared to giving it to other people in higher places.

His lack of money also meant that he could not go out of state either, which led to his downward spiral.

What should have become his start towards the top led to his descent into hell.

In the next two years, Loki scraped by, but his ambition did not fade. Working these small-time jobs with no future was almost torture for him. It was as if something inside him refused to be at the bottom of this world.

Realizing this could not go on, he finally began looking for something else.

It was then that Loki began to deal in darker parts of the world. Although he could not reach the top in the light, he could be at the top in the dark.

Loki began training and joined a large hitman agency. He began to devote himself to intense combat training and achieved great success.

While training Loki also began tinkering with holograms and was able to make small gadgets that allowed him to project lifelike holograms of whatever he coded into them.

While taking jobs, he used his almost super intelligence to calculate all steps. Positions were calculated to the point where his targets would be puppets on a string. A string that he masterfully controlled.

Time led to his deeds becoming more known, and he soon became known as "Mischief" due to the holograms he would deploy and his white mask with a significant smile.

Loki did not fail to see the irony in this situation either, with his name being a homage to the God of Mischief.

While on his way to the top, he made a few friends and worked with some. One of them, however, had an obsession with anime and Manga, which he also came to enjoy.

Anime and Manga allowed him to picture whole new worlds. Worlds, where one could rise based on merit, were something that made his eyes shine with new light. The strength and scenes gave him longing and further renewed his ambition to reach the top of this dark world.

He would soon be the most feared hitman in the entire nation, but some people did not like this idea.

******************************************************

It was a cold winter, and it was snowing heavily.

Loki was walking down the street after finishing a job when he suddenly felt his brain sending warning signals.

With quick speed, he rolled to the left when he heard a loud gunshot.

He looked back to see a bullet hole in the fresh snow where he had just been standing.

Slowly walking out the alley behind him was a man he knew by heart. It was the man he aimed to surpass to finally achieve his goal.

The current number one hitman in the nation.

His name resounded throughout the country, known only as blank. He could easily be recognized by his blank black mask that seemed to cover his entire face.

"I didn't think you would come to kill me like this 'blank'…" said Loki in a joking tone.

Although he was smiling and was seemingly friendly, he wanted nothing more than to pull out his gun and shoot him. Sadly for him, he wouldn't have the chance too.

Blank didn't answer and instead opted to pull out his gun and begin firing.

Loki was well prepared, however, and quickly began to move with rapid speed. By following the gun's muzzle, he could adjust his body, allowing him to dodge the many bullets being shot at him.

As he was running, he reached into his back pocket, pulled out small black balls, and threw them all over the ground.

In a few seconds, there seemed to be countless figures of him with his plain mask and a giant smile.

Loki quickly weaved through the figures silently like a panther stalking his prey.

He quickly took a knife from his leg and threw it, hitting blank in the neck.

Blank seemed to not even realize what had happened for a second when he started to hold his neck and collapsed.

Loki was starting to feel relieved when suddenly he felt a sharp pain in his chest. He looked down only to see a sharp gauntlet coming out of his chest where his heart was.

He coughed up blood only to see another hitman behind him.

"Hehehe… Who would have thought that the number one hitman in the nation would be so petty to call backup…." Loki choked out.

The man behind him didn't seem to have heard him as he pulled out his hand. When he was off guard, however, Loki spit out a needle coated in poison from his mouth.

Caught off guard, the needle hit the man in the arm.

Seeing this, Loki laughed before falling on his back.

As he lay on his back and felt his warm blood flowing out, he saw the cold night snow falling in front of him.

The snow falling almost looked like small orbs of black light due to his vision blurring.

The black orbs seemed like the most exquisite jewels he had ever seen.

"How beautiful…" he thought as his vision faded.