[Bakiri Retsu]

With a solid four floors surrounding a large open plaza the Toshi shopping center while not the biggest mall in Tokyo certainly made the list. Large enough to fit thousands of shoppers at a time and with several bridges over the plaza for ease of navigation it was a marvel of engineering that has held up against natural disasters and villain attacks alike. Whether it could weather the storm coming its way however remained to be seen.

Looking at the crowd flooding in and out of the entrance Retsu almost regretted the time she'd chosen to make their move. Unfortunately however there were several more places she intended to hit by the end of the day and pushing this attack any later than 2 pm would make that very difficult. She supposed that if nothing else hitting the place during peak hours would make sure none of the security guards could afford to pay all too much attention to her people while they set the scene and they'd be going home with a lot more money once they cleaned out the registers.

"Charges are all set, ma'am." An inconspicuous looking man next to her said while passing by. Not acknowledging him in the slightest Retsu nonetheless pulled up her phone and sent the signal to begin. Several groups of hired goons had been hard at work placing down a wide variety of bags and boxes throughout the shopping center, all set to go off at the press of a button. Or to be more precise, several buttons on the brace of detonators hidden behind her sleeveless jacket each keyed to a fifth of the explosives. Everyone was in place and everything was set to go. Except for one thing that is...

...Where the hells was Rui?

"Hello? We were supposed to meet at the entrance, where da fook are you?" Retsu spoke into her phone as she heard the mayhem inside the mall begin. "What do you mean you're-" She cast a glance around and furrowed her brow."The front entrance? No? What do you- Forget it, we'll meet inside."

Unzipping her jacket she pressed the first detonator setting off a veritable cascade of explosions and gestured for her personal squad of hired goons to move in alongside her. She hadn't met them before but they seemed competent enough. Shrugging her jacket off she held her phone between her head and her shoulder as she picked up her duffel bag. While she'd made sure to have plenty of pouches and holders for her grenades hidden beneath her jacket she'd rather be too heavily armed than not enough. She'd seen what the results of that could be after all. Passing the first group of screaming civilians she tore the pin off of a frag grenade with her teeth and threw it over her shoulder into a security booth.

"Right ah'm goin' in- Left here? Sure, aight, left again at at the end of this- There's no way to go left here Rui what are you-? Fine, you meant right, sure. One second."

Gesturing for her goons to open fire on a several people about to cross paths with her she turns right, both confident in and uncaring of how well her help does. 

"Ah still don't see you. Wha- What do you mean you're getting new clothes first? Whatever, I see the clothing store, see ya there."

With that she walked into the clothing store, passing by racks and breaking open the register while she was at it. She took another look around while shoving its contexts into her duffel bag.

"Kent see ya, where are ya?" Retsu's eye twitched. "What do you mean you're at soup?!"

She let out a long sigh while making her way out of the store again. Tossing a smoke grenade into the corridor she'd arrived from she made her way closer to the center while looking around for both Rui and opportunities to cause more mayhem. She craned her neck to look at the balconies, checked around corners and even looked behind herself several times just in case while tossing a variety of grenades for good measure.

"Wha'ever. I'm 'eading to the plaza. Kent miss each other there."

------

Tags: Rui Matsui  Shō Matsui  Kushiki Kioko  ctrl  Bakiri Retsu

[Rui Matsui]

Mayhem Day was here! Rui never expected a holiday to feel as good as Christmas, but she had to admit she was loving every second of watching and partaking in the carnage Tokyo had descended into. If she begged the person who orchestrated this whole thing they could probably make it a yearly tradition, no one could resist someone as cute as Rui after all! Not even random people on the street.

''Come on bestie, we're going shopping! ~'' She grinned as she pointed her fake toy gun at an unsuspecting guy. Her gun wasn't real but he didn't know that and given their circumstances he wasn't about to take a chance with her. Another score for the genius Rui!! She was all smug imagining how proud her bro Sho would be if he could see her now. ''Hold on, I'm getting a call.'' She reached into her pocket, which made her lower her gun. ''If you run I'll kill you.'' She chirped casually, to which the civilian just sobbed and nodded his head. ''I'm at the entrance, bestie! The front entrance, right?'' She gestured for the guy to start walking inside with her gun, following closely behind him. The civilian flinched at the sounds of the explosions while Rui just giggled to herself.

''Left here.'' She said commanded the civilian, forgetting that she was still on call with Retsu. ''Left again at the end of this. We're gonna go shopping, hostage-bestie!'' She walked up next to the civilian to smile up at him. It was kind of rude that he wasn't smiling back, but she found most people didn't like being taken hostage. Walking into a clothes store, Rui managed to put on a sunhat with some effort, poking her horns through the top. ''What do you think? Scale of 1 to totes super duper the cutiest!!'' She waved her gun at the civilian. ''Retsu-bestie, I'm getting new clothes I'll see you in a bit-'' Something caught her eye, promotional t-shirts in another store! Surely she had time to check that out too.

''Me?'' She pressed the phone up to her ear. Looking around there was nothing but soup in her aisle. ''Soup, I'm at soup.'' She glared at her hostage. ''You know you're a pretty bad bestie, you haven't helped me find Retsu at all.'' At this point, the civilian took his chance to try and escape, but before he could get far a stray bullet from another gun collided with his head, covering Rui's shirt in his blood as he fell over. ''You got blood on my shirt! I'm not healing you for that!'' She pouted, stepping on his unconscious body on her way out. ''Plaza time.. Oh! I see you!!'' She waved from her floor, tossing herself over the edge to get down to where Retsu was, landing with a sickening crack as all her bones broke. However, her body regenerated from the fall in a matter of seconds. ''Found you! What's the plan? I think we should steal a BUNCH of stuff and become millionaires!'' She proclaimed confidently, barely remembering what their original plan was.

Bakiri Retsu
ctrl
Kushiki Kioko
Shō Matsui

[Kushiki Kioko]

I HAVE PROMISES TO KEEP

AND MILES TO GO BEFORE I SLEEP

Whispers of something wicked bore their way across the dark underside of Tokyo. Collaboration. True collaboration. Not just grandiose speeches full of hot wind and devoid of action as had been seen at the gathering weeks prior. Someone was mobilizing the Villain community to cohesive cooperation through the promise and application of chaos.

Application was the keyword. News of the ENKI System and the associated hardware it was hosted on spread ahead of the darker tidings it would bring. Especially to Kioko’s proverbial doorstep under her guise of Meliora. She had clawed her way to the top of the scrap heap that was the black market over the last year. When new tech surfaced, either she was the source or she wanted to know what the source was — and how to best deal with it. Whether that be to assimilate it into her own work or to find ways to negate it. Kioko walked a fine line between her own Villainy and ensuring Villains gained no true advantage over the few souls she still cared about on the other side of metaphorical and literal battlefields.

The ENKI System was squarely among the latter category from its sheer number of ill omened possibilities in the wrong hands. Of which there were many. Including the Umbra Syndicate. Her intel alluded to them participating in the coordinated mayhem and where they went, so too did Kioko. Were it not for their inclusion in what promised to be a dark day across Tokyo, Kioko would have given a wide berth to the city for the twenty-four hours ascribed to the looming peril and instructed Renjirou and Sebastian to do the same even if she knew they would not listen. As it were, she still sent the warning out to them, but she herself descended into the madness of the scene adorned as she oft was in shadowy garments and silvery superiority.

Brazen and barbaric. That was the sight that greeted the huntress as she stalked her quarry to a mall. How mundane a setting yet rife with potential for destruction and casualties. Already the count on the latter began to climb in the wake of spray-and-pray tactics. Panic ensued, but not for Kioko. Her face was stoic beneath the ornate mask obscuring all of her features aside from lips painted in the deepest obsidian and fangs bared between them as one of the minions missed a civilian with their aim and made the mistake of hitting Kioko instead.

The bullet skimmed past her arm, splitting dark fabric and pale skin alike. Silver trickled out of the wound. Some remained where it sealed the laceration. The rest returned the favor of injury as a bullet unto itself. It tore through the gunner’s dominant hand causing them to drop the weapon. Pain such as that would give most people pause, but the metal that had marred the mook was as insidious as its mistress. Poison coursed through them, weakening them and making them easy prey for Kioko to swoop down upon.

Long slender fingers clamped down over her temporary prey’s throat. She dragged them into an alcove reserved for patrons of the mall's many vending missions. “Where is the person in charge?” The question was hissed quite literally into their ear. Kioko’s grip loosened just enough for them to reply with vague directions.

To their credit, they mentioned nothing about the bombs or the plan at large before Kioko used the quicksilver coating her upper arm to boost her strength and ram their head into the metal casing of the closest beverage dispenser. They crumpled to the ground, claimed by concussion and toxin alike. Kioko stepped on their uninjured hand for good measure. Now it boasted an almost matching wound to its counterpart courtesy of the ever sharp points her stiletto heeled boots boasted. She moved on without a trace of remorse for her own actions in a stunning display of hypocrisy given her current goal. Kioko’s path took her toward said goal in the direction begrudgingly given up with her shadow stretching out before her as a silent herald of the reaper that followed.

Notes & Tags: Bakiri Retsu Rui Matsui ctrl Shō Matsui | Mask + Outfit

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[attr="class","ctrlNotes"]Kushiki Kioko[break] Bakiri Retsu[break] Rui Matsui[break]Shō Matsui

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Smoking indoors was frowned upon. Well, generally at least. Yet nothing about today could be considered generally or frownable. As the stale trickle of nicotine and arsenic-laced smoke worked its way into his system, Levi smirked to himself, content at the only 'law' he'd broken today. I mean, sure, there was that one guy near the entrance with a broken wrist who might disagree, but what was a guy supposed to do when someone charged at them with an uprooted street sign? Let them hit you? A third time??[break][break]

Some light bruising aside, Levi had his own mission compelling him to the massive mall. She had decided to venture in. He couldn't be sure why, or to what end, she had decided that this would be a suitable place to wind up. That was all in the far far past of a few hours ago. They stood now at one of the many epicenters of ENKI's demonstration. The Toshi Shopping Center.[break][break]

He had only picked up bits and pieces about the ENKI system, or rather what it could do.. could be in his hands. Incredibly dangerous, yet incredibly useful technology that could potentially give him access to every and any system in Japan in seconds. Skylark shuttered around his wrist at the thought, anticipation flowing through his blood realized through her. The danger was the only thing holding him back. There were too many unknowns, too many hidden variables. He could take over the system only to lose himself in the process. Or worse, not take over it at all and wind up dead or jailed. Unacceptable.[break][break]

His gait was steady, never faltering as he stepped over trampled masses and weaved through reckless goons, more seemingly interested in their window-shopped prizes than they had been in a wandering American perusing their wares. He had foregone his civilian identity, donning his eyepatch and letting his hair loose around his shoulders. It wasn't much, but if Kent Clarkson could get away with it, he didn't see any reason he couldn't. Why fix what was only slightly broken?[break][break]

He scanned the faceless masses, yet expectedly did not find Kioko nearby. Surely she wasn't foolish enough to stand out in the open without any sort of disguise or ruse, yet the mere sight of a giant dressed in all black would have at least been a good hint. Elevation would be key.[break][break]

Deliberate steps led Levi to the first stairway he could find, the elevators no doubt crowded to capacity if they even still worked at all. Behind the blackened view of his eyepatch, his vision switched between security cameras somehow still powered on as though they'd be able to help matters at all. To Levi, their purpose was two-fold: Find Kioko and Hide CTRL. It took a level of skill to see yourself walking on a security camera as you walked through it without falling over. It took even more skill to remove yourself in real-time from the picture entirely.[break][break]

The stairs were crowded, overcrowded in fact, as witless goons pushed and shoved past each other, fighting and brawling to reach the second floor. Levi pressed himself against the wall, a nearby speaker meant to play music catching his eye from the wall above. He cleared his throat as his voice moved, the speaker roaring to life.[break][break]

*"Kzch. Attention Q-Mart Shoppers! Blue Light Special on the Head of the Pretzel Vendor on the First Floor! First to bring me his head wins 1 MILLION YEN!!"*[break][break]

The shuffling bodies in the stairway paused as they listened to the announcement before running past Levi to claim their prize. None had stopped to ask who 'me' was, nor did they consider there hadn't been a pretzel stand in the mall for years. He exhaled a puff of smoke, moving forward to the second floor.[break][break]

The area here seemed less crowded than the first floor, at least enough that Skylark could break free of her confines. Liquid metal shimmered into his hands as the halberd-tipped sniper rifle took place, allowing Levi to freely scan the crowds. The mass of bodies previously blocking the stairs ran free on the floor below, searching high and low for the fabled Pretzel Vendor as...[break][break]

"Bingo."[break][break]

There she was. Black cloak. Lacy outfit. Silver-hued mask-like hands grasping at the serpent beneath. Meliora. Kioko.[break][break]

A gutless moron with a face that only a mother could love ran up behind, surely just looking to cause as much chaos within the scene. His view shifted, moving from Kioko to the target as a bullet loosed itself from Skylark's chamber. The round of formed nanotech pierced the body from behind, his limp form falling to the ground beside Kioko as the bullet penetrated the floor just in front of her foot. It crept from the hole, changing in form as the bullet became an earpiece, delicately molded for her and her alone. His voice spoke calmly through the speaker, a slight electronic modification to conceal his accent.[break][break]


*"Put me on. We need to talk."*

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[Shō Matsui]

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Light and shadow are opposite sides of the same coin [break]
“We can illuminate our paths or darken our way. It is a matter of choice.”

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It was pure chaos.[break][break]

Whoever was the benefactor of the ENKI system had decided today would be a day filled with chaos and carnage with a cryptic message of mobilizing as many villains as possible at once. In just a few hours, the entire city was ablaze with fighting and the sounds of sirens. There was a thick air of death surrounding the town, with many casualties on both sides and even those who were innocent and unlucky to be caught in the crossfire. It was a paradise for your small-time criminal who was free to wreak havoc with the forces of "good" spread so thin. Usually, they'd be shut down quickly, but there was just too much activity going on all at once with whoever was pulling the strings behind this event being the first in a long time to mobilize such a cohesive force.
[break][break]
Sho, given his connection to the network, also heard the call. His response was to completely shut off the device and leave it behind with his intention to equalize the body count. With his last few jobs, from the Akimichi Family to the fight against Ifrit, he mainly worked with other criminals to remove their competition. Bad Karma. In this case, he would be fighting on the side of "good" on his way to becoming an executioner for the next 18 hours. He would pave the streets with the blood of those villainous criminals who were out of control. He had been at it for hours without stopping or even speaking a word, even to those who recognized his shadow-cloaked figure and weapon as their last thoughts before they crossed the river to the other side. The only company he would keep at the time would be his small, dark-colored shadowy familiar with horns, wings, a tail, and pointed teeth. "Toki. How many is that?" the voice broke the silence uttering his first words while flicking his wrist to remove the blood painted onto his weapon "64." the familiar would chirp back at him. "You should head to that spot number 55 said they were gathering" Toki was referring to the last words of the 55th criminal to be executed in a desperate plea to negotiate his life. Sho would nod to his companion before he pulled out his own phone checking in on the locations of his siblings, and with a heavy sigh, it would become very apparent that the most troublesome one of all was in the center of this mess. Rui did revel in chaos and freedom like the rest of her siblings but took it to a new level relying on his highly potent healing abilities to be reckless as she was able, which usually got her into trouble. Sho would change the trajectory of his night to dissuade his sister from participating in the chaos further, and for him, this meant that he would kill anyone else encouraging her behavior and do the same to those who were stupid enough to attack her.
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As he stepped into the shopping mall, opting to use the wall instead of the smashed-in door, he was greeted by more concentrated chaos and carnage, with a considerable amount of criminals in the area smashing and destroying as much as they could. Infighting as far as the eye could see, several keeling over from injuries, and gunshots ringing out in a desperate struggle. Without another word, he would change his Black Talon into its rarely used 'Buster Sword' form, the blade being nearly as large as Sho himself and to most people, would be extremely unwieldy and dense. However, Gyrfalcon was not like most people. As he walked towards a group, a large commotion was heard as as group of people flooded from the upper level down towards the food court. One of the individuals who weren't as caught up in the big rush turned to see the shadow-cloaked Sho with his large sword and broke out in a cold sweat, nearly screaming as he tried to get the attention of the others but was too late. Kicking off the ground with his right foot, he gripped the sword and lunge into the crowd cutting through the group with ease moving in unnatural ways as the blade, much large then himself, would cleave through the skulls and bodies of the individuals foolish enough to gather. When he finally finished, he stood in a circle of the only unsullied ground, with the rest covered in the mixed blood of the grunts. Toki would pop back up just as the gunshot rang out from above them, which was unmistakably a sniper rifle. Not that this mattered much to Sho as he could avoid the bullet, but it did move his attention to where the bullet was fired towards. He would quickly climb the stairs to gain a view of the larger figure across from him, and not wanting to give anyone aside from his sister a chance to retaliate, he would leap from his platform and swing down at her only to stop mid-swing, the force of the blade carried enough to send a gust of wind in Kioko's face. Knowing from their experience that her acts of villainy were more targeted than broad, he would move the blade and place it over his shoulder, willing to give her a chance to defend herself from the accusations since he technically owed her one. "You're not part of that ENKI network." he had made sure to find out as much as he could as to who was engaging with the app "I assume you're back for more vengeance?" there was a slight snark in his voice "You're off my list IF you're not here to assist these guys." he would point to the crumpled body on the floor next to him with the bullet in it's brain and without looking he would point back in the other direction to where Levi was, fairly accurately pinpointing his location "I assume whoever did that is either terrible with their weapon or they don't intend on actually shooting you." expecting snark back he would cut the conversation short realizing he was pretty close to Rui as he could hear the sound of his laughing even from this distance. He would step past Kioko walking towards the center where the two familiar people would be gathered "Whatever path you're on whether it's for vengeance or for carnage, I'd stay of the way. C'mon, goal or not." if Kioko and he were on the same side of the conflict, this wouldn't be much of an issue, but if she wasn't...well, better hope her sniper friend could do more than just shoot bullets. [break][break]
Once he moved to the new location, he would spot Rui and another familiar face from a previous job standing in the mall's center. Given their last experience, it was likely they were up to trouble. "What do you think you're doing." he would approach the hulking blade in tow as his familiar, who was much less harsh on Rui would wave at her from his shoulder, undisturbed by Sho's evident disgust at the situation. If Rui knew him as well as she did, she would be well aware of why he was here and why he was about to scold her.

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Bakiri Retsu Rui Matsui ctrl Kushiki Kioko [break]
Word count goes here

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[Bakiri Retsu]

Retsu strolled through the mall as if it were a fairytale grove. A warm, soothing breeze tickled her skin when the incendiary she'd lobbed into the nearest store went off. In the distance she heard 'water' gently trickle down the stairs like a small stream flowing down the mountainside, calm but unceasing. A group of screeching children passed her by followed by a screaming caretaker not unlike a scene straight out of a Brothers Grimm novel. Doing her one good deed for the day she tripped the 'wolf' and watched the little lambs scatter in all directions as they looked for places to hide behind or within.

A soft sigh escaped her lips and her shoulders lost the tension built up over the past few hours. She felt entirely at home amidst the fantastical scenery. Making her way to the wide open plaza filled with planters, stands and benches Bakuretsu pressed the second of the five detonators causing bags, boxes and trash cans alike to abruptly be relocated in several directions. The blasts echoed through the surroundings like a round of applause for her performance, the large amount of 'cheers' that resounded in reply adding to the ambiance as well. As much as she'd like to simply enjoy the moment she was in charge of this operation and supposed to be making sure nothing went wrong. For them that is. Grumbling as her foot caught on a body she gestured for her personal squad to take positions several meters around her in all directions as an early warning system before she turned her attention to the proceedings. 

Amidst all the chaos the fourth floor was by far the quietest. Which wasn't that much of a surprise since the open-roofed area was home to terraces, bars, food stands and restaurants as opposed to the larger stores below. Given that it had the best view Retsu had placed most of the scarier and more well-organized groups up there to ensure they'd be able to contact her the moment anything above their paygrade approached the mall. All that combined meant the rest of the people under her command had few reasons and even less interest in heading up there.

The third floor stood in stark contrast to the fourth however. If it hadn't been for the fact that she herself was present on the first floor she was fairly certain it would have been the most chaotic of them all. The floor was filled with a large amount of glass storefronts that clearly hadn't been built according to regulations and had shattered into millions of small, sharp pieces when the multitude of blasts had torn through the area. The word 'lacerated' came to mind when looking at the results. What certainly didn't help either was that Retsu had put a lot of the more unstable goons up there to keep them as far away from her as possible without endangering the mission's completion. Registers were being smashed, merchandise was flying all over the place and people were stuffing as much down their pockets as they could.

Hells, she could even see several looters from here that clearly weren't under her employ. Ah well, they could have their fun for now. It would be much simpler to just collect everything they'd gathered or 'recruit' them once their raid was over. 

Her brow furrowed into a frown when it ran over the second floor. Sure, it shouldn't have been as chaotic as the third but it seemed much, much quieter than it should've been nevertheless. Maybe it was because the majority of her idiots had for some reason decided the first floor was a better place to be but it smelled like trouble nevertheless. Before she could inspect it further however she spotted a flash of blonde hair up above. Turning her gaze its way she quickly saw the red horns and waving arms as well.

How did she even get to the third floor this quickly? There wasn't an entrance up there.

That thought too was interrupted when the woman threw herself down without the slightest concern for her own health. Retsu cringed at the sounds her landing made and the nearest guards took several steps away, one even reaching for a trashcan to empty his stomach into. She couldn't quite figure out whether she was horrified or amazed by the way the woman's bones snapped back into place without so much as a wince from Rui herself. By the time she'd decided on an answer the horned woman was already rambling away. 

"Rui..." Retsu said while rubbing her brow. "That's exactly what we're 'ere for. Didn'tcha read the briefing?"

She pointedly ignored the fact that she hadn't either. Not that it mattered. She was the one in charge, whatever her second-in-command had put in it could be handled by the ones further down the ranks. That was just how delegating things worked. On that note she tapped a few buttons on her phone to direct an armed squad up to the second floor to see what was going on there. With some luck it wasn't anything worrisome...

...yeah, she didn't buy it either.

On the bright side there was no way it could be as bad as the last few big fights she'd been in. Not unless there was somehow another person of that level eager to get all up in her business or-

"Ah fook, it's 'im again."

Her face scrunched and her mouth formed into a snarl. Almost on instinct she palmed her modified flashbang and pulled the pin. The moment that fucker got any ideas she'd let go of the lever stopping it from detonating and she'd see just how well he dealt with something like that going off in his face. 

"Roite back at ya, samurai. Fook off, dun' got any trouble with you and ah reck'n we both wanna keep it that way, nah?"

For good measure she grabbed a frag in her other and pulled the pin with her teeth. Sure, this one would take five seconds to go off after she let go but how would he know the difference? The important part was that he'd get a face full of shrapnel if he decided to repeat the stunt he'd pulled before.

Her eye narrowed as her attention was momentarily taken by a burst of gunfire. Gunfire that sounded exactly like what the guns possessed by the squad she'd just sent up to the second floor would make. The very same floor that Sho had just dropped down from moments prior. Wasn't that just great. She'd thought he'd been the reason for her lack of manpower up there but clearly when it rained it poured. 

Given that she highly doubted dark-and-broody would've called in back up just to deal with her it very much meant she had another problem to deal with. As if getting in way over her head in a single way wasn't enough.

"Neither of ya 'appened ta see what's goin' on up there on y'r way down?" Retsu asked while gesturing with her head. The annoying part was that with a grenade in each hand she couldn't pull up her phone to send more bodies at the problem. Whatever. She was ready to react to anything. There was a large planter next to her that was home to a tree so high it reached all the way up to one of the glass bridges up above. If anyone took a shot at her from afar she'd have plenty of cover to duck behind and should danger strike from up close -and she wasn't singling anyone out there, not at all- she had two handfuls of 'right back at ya'. All that remained was to see what happened first. 

------

Tags: Rui Matsui  Kushiki Kioko  ctrl  Shō Matsui  Bakiri Retsu

[Rui Matsui]

''Did you like my landing?? Is he throwing up?'' She pointed to the guard near the bin and immediately started laughing, but quickly stopped herself. ''What briefing? I don't like reading and Lilian wasn't there to read for me!'' She wasn't scared that Retsu would get mad or annoyed at her for being honest about her lack of reading about their mission. She was Rui after all!! No one could stay mad at Tokyo's cutest demon and most eligible Prime Minister candidate. ''Sho-Bro!!'' Rui practically bounced on the spot as she waved back to Sho and especially his adorable familiar. ''You're here too? We're about to steal a bunch of stuff do you want any??'' She knew exactly why Sho was there, but that didn't stop her from acting dumb and friendly, hoping he would forgive her in a heartbeat then and there even though that had never ever worked before. ''Bomb Bestie is getting fired up too.'' She grinned, looking at Retsu as she started pulling grenades out.

Rui's head was far too empty to even register the fact that more gunfire went off on the second floor. It was probably just someone who got excited about shooting their fancy guns or something. Rui sure did wish she had a gun of her own... Maybe after this perfect heist she would be able to afford one! A proper one and not the fake toy gun she was carrying around. ''Sure!'' Rui nodded confidently. ''There was a sale at the soup store they were selling promotional t-shirts.'' She pointed down to her own shirt, covered in a stain of blood that wasn't her own. ''The blood isn't part of the design, but it's totes growing on me!'' She smiled, before her eyes widened with curiosity as she began sticking her grabby hands up at Sho. ''Why is your sword so big now? I wanna see it!''

Shō Matsui
Bakiri Retsu
ctrl
Kushiki Kioko

[Kushiki Kioko]

I HAVE PROMISES TO KEEP

AND MILES TO GO BEFORE I SLEEP

Sound hindered even as it aided. Cacophony from all around nearly masked the less-than-tactical rush behind her. Kioko caught the sound of said ambush only a second before her would-be attacker slumped to the ground. Diagnosis? Bullet.

Her eyes narrowed at the projectile embedded in the tile before trying to trace its trajectory back toward the origin point. Had it been a targeted shot or the result of another wild volley? It was hard to tell with gunfire symphonies still echoing throughout the mall, but the cadence had been different than that of ordinary small arms.

Sniper?

Kioko’s gaze had nearly reached its mark when her attention was summoned through her peripheral. Gyrfalcon. There was no mistaking the dark shadow. Ironic given the very nature of assassins and shadows was tied to anonymity. Reticence ushered in after a hiss greeted his sudden arrival and accompanying speech presuming to know her motives. He did. But that wasn’t the point. At the very least, he confirmed her suspicions of a sniper and their location.

She was tempted to follow him out of pure spite and would have too had a noise from below not redirected her focus once more. Instead, only a scowl followed Sho as she turned her attention fully to the other matter. Words meant solely for her rose from an earpiece made from an odd shimmering material in purple that evoked an even stranger sense of deja vu in her mind. Kioko just barely made out the faint voice coming through it beneath the din of the riot around her.

Not a chance.

Who in their right mind would touch mystery tech because it told you too, much less insert it into what was an almost universal weak point of the human body? Kioko snorted and spit in the direction of the earpiece. Spiteful and skeptical though she was, Kioko was also curious. Mercury had taken the place of saliva in the act and encompassed the small device. Carrier and ensnared package rose up to a higher level for ease of access even as Kioko ducked into a storefront and out of the line of sight of any more snipers and assassins that seemed to follow at her heels no matter where she went. Hidden away from the chaos outside, she posed a seemingly simple question to the digital voice with an answer more complicated than either of them really knew.

“Who are you and what do you want with me?”

Notes & Tags: Bakiri Retsu Rui Matsui ctrl Shō Matsui

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A puff of smoke trailed behind Levi as he watched Kioko try to locate him. Skylark's scope moved from the rifle to his shoulder, the liquid metal shifting along his body as the rifle faded back to her position on his arm. Nests were for the birds, Levi knew well enough then to stay still after firing a large caliber weapon in a crowded area.[break][break]

Step after step carried him further into the second floor, Skylark's vision pasted onto the back of his eyepatch for easy viewing. Much like a computer running multiple background tasks, the image quickly changed to the nearest security camera as Levi stepped into its view. He scrubbed himself from the footage before shifting his focus back to Kioko. Kioko and...[break][break]

His step paused at the sight of an oversized sword brushing wind past Kioko's face. His faltered walk continued as the scope shifted slightly, locking in on the attacker's face. Nothing but shadows. Red eyes. Edgy fuck. He had nothing to go on for the assailant's intentions, but the earpiece could pick up enough, barely relaying the words 'You're off my list.' Arrogant.[break][break]

He would have applauded the newcomer for accurately pointing at Levi's location had he decided to stay there. Case in point as to why one should always have mobility as an option. Still, he knew Levi was on the second floor, and more importantly, had inadvertently shared that information with Kioko.[break][break]

He watched as he broke away, following the newcomer as they moved to a purple-haired girl delicately holding a... grenade? And a sunhat-wearing girl with blood on her t-shirt and a smile much too wide for comfort. Children. His scope shifted back to Sho, only noticing the lack of emotion painted across the void. Babysitter.[break][break]

The scope flashed back to Kioko as her words carried through to his ear. His distraction faded to the back of his mind as her question rang through his mind. How exactly was he supposed to answer that? He hadn't expected her to ask any questions! Well... he had, but she wasn't supposed to! His answers darted from "Your Guardian Arcangel" to "The Guy Who's Gonna Save Your Ass" but nothing felt right. After a pause, he made his choice.[break][break]

*"Something you're in desperate need of. A friend."* She ducked into a nearby shop, cover enough to buy her time as Levi formulated his exit strategy. *"The shop you're in has an emergency exit near the back. You can make your escape through the employee exits. I'll meet you there."* Swift, simple, and to the point. He was tempted to crack a joke or make an attempt to add some levity to the situation, but the job came first. It always did.[break][break]

He had only covered half the distance he would have liked before a group of armed goons made their way up another flight of stairs, not far in front of where he was. Shit, that's part of the extraction plan. He turned, approaching a cowering civilian hiding behind a trashcan. He'd have to make this quick.[break][break]

A small portion of Skylark broke away, the figure of a purple handgun taking place in his right hand as he knelt to their level. "Hey, listen. I know you're scared. Take this and run, it'll get you out of here, yeah?" The ragged man sniffled as he wiped away a tear, staring at the gun before carefully raising his eyes to Levi's. "Go on, yeah? Defend yourself and get out of here!" Resolute, the man slowly wrapped his hand around the gun, nodding and not thinking clearly as he bolted immediately. Levi rose, stepping to the side.[break][break]

The man wouldn't last long against the approaching goons. Neither would the limited amount of ammunition that he was wasting taking potshots. Levi wasn't worried though.[break][break]

Skylark would make her way back to him when her joyride gave out.

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[Shō Matsui]

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Light and shadow are opposite sides of the same coin [break]
“We can illuminate our paths or darken our way. It is a matter of choice.”

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Sho didn't have any strong opinions on Retsu whatsoever. He knew better than anyone that if plans were to be made and Rui was involved, it was likely that she was the instigator. She marched to the beat of her own drum if that drum was filled with crazy people who gave into their impulses frequently. Nonetheless, he would address Retsu to set the record straight "First off, not a samurai." as someone who took up the blade even if it was for morally questionable reasons, he still wasn't a fan of the samurai discourse that was thrown around every time someone saw him with a sword "Second, a grenade is only going to kill you. She'll survive, and I won't be harmed." Unless she planned to level the whole building there was not much that could be done to stop him if he wanted to kill her. He had even considered it for a bit, but she wasn't causing any chaos. Toki, however, would chime in "You know he can kill you easily, right?" This was true, and honestly, if he changed his mind, so would the position of her head on her body. "Rui." two hands would extend from his back. One flew forward to grab her by the horns, and another grabbed a grunt near Retsu. The grunt flew towards him, unable to process what was happening before he suddenly found himself upside down with a torrent of blood spilling from his body, and the now separate halves flew in a separate direction. Sho would be much more gentle, floating Rui over to him and holding her eye to eye. "We're not having playtime. I'm going to kill everyone in this mall, and when I'm done with the regular ones, I'll be coming for your friend." he would point to Retsu before placing her down in front of him, Toki taking this opportunity to wave at her as even if Sho were serious about this whole matter, he would still indulge Rui when possible.
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As he heard more gunshots from the direction he came, he figured it must have been the sniper at it again since Meliora didn't use guns as far as he was aware. He would turn slightly to see the crowd running after the civilian, and even with his face being shrouded it wasn't hard to tell that he wasn't happy with the sight. "If I finish with everyone and she's still here I'll be killing her too IF she's still here. Balance has shifted too far." Rui would know exactly what he was talking about and he didn't care if she explained it to Retsu or not. "5 Minutes." perhaps a slightly arrogant take but Sho wasn't infamous for nothing and a group this weak would take only a few minutes to exterminate all of them. He wasn't going to let Retsu off the hook entirely but he sure as hell wasn't going to take her out first. Instead, his sword would shift back to a normal katana, and kicking off his right foot he would launch into a full sprint around the way he came, jumping and using his extra appendages to swing until he landed in between the mob and the man. With his eyes narrowing, he wouldn't take his eyes off the group, only uttering a "Run." to the man as the goons charged him some opting to shoot which he would normally phase through but instead used his sword to deflect or cut through the bullets reducing their numbers by half. The remaining would falter before being goaded on by one of the 'leaders' to which Sho only had one thing to say "You can fight or you can try to flee back to your normal lives. Either way, I'm dragging you all to hell." and with that, he would charge at the group; the sounds of screams and gunshots would be the only thing that could be heard as he sliced through each and every one of them.

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Bakiri Retsu Rui Matsui Kushiki Kioko ctrl [break]
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[Bakiri Retsu]

Planning a large scale robbery was much like cooking in Retsu's opinion. Not that she'd ever done much cooking, she had a microwave after all, but she'd put enough shows on in the background to distract herself from the pain in her eye whenever she fiddled with small parts to put stuff together. Light made her left eye throb like mad and if she didn't shine a damned spotlight down on the bits and bobs there was no way she could even see where she had to connect wires and other ends, something she sadly needed her depth perception for leaving her with no choice but to remove her eyepatch. But she digressed.

Planning a robbery like this was like cooking, or making pizza if she was to be more precise. You grabbed all your ingredients -your equipment, plans and weapons-, painstakingly wrangled them into the right state while screaming at everyone below you in the rankings to make sure you got that dough and finally tossed it all out there into the oven hoping it could handle the heat. 

Then some fucker cuts it all to pieces and everyone runs off with a slice of the pie. 

Retsu's eye twitched at the shadowy prick's words. Semantics, that was just what she needed. Then even the bird- if whatever the fuck was on his shoulder even was a bird- started sassing her too. She had half a mind to just shove a grenade down his throat and see what gushed out of his mouth then. Probably not sarcasm anymore. Seriously, she scoffed. The nerve on this dollar store Sephiroth. First he corrects her, then he mocks her, his bird talks down to her and finally he completely ignores her question?

A manic grin split her face. That was an awful lot of compensation on his part. Her eye briefly flicked down to the flashbang in her hand. Rui's brother wasn't nearly so talkative last time they met and while he had been dismissive he certainly didn't bother actively dissuading her from trying to set off her bombs. No, Retsu half doubted the man had even registered the frag she'd had in her reattached hand. 

This time though...

Yeah, he was certainly paying a lot more attention. As she watched one of her guards be cut in half she even noted he was taking steps to intimidate her into inaction. It was all very clear to her what that meant. Accurately pitching her frag grenade into a trash can a dozen meters away while ignoring the little 'lamb' hiding behind it she was quite sure that one wasn't the reason. No, it had to be the flashbang in her other hand. She should've known. 

Of course the shadow man would be weak to the flash of light it could produce.

With a smug gleam in her eye she considered letting go of the lever to see exactly how much hurt it'd put on him. Then, as if banished by the thought he turned around and booked it. She almost burst out laughing. Her test would have to wait.

"All units, bring y'r loot to the getaways now and either go along with 'em or don't. We won't cover ya if you go back in after but y'r job's done the moment y've handed off the loot, ain't gonna be y'r boss by then and won't tell ya what ta do. Valkyrie out."

Retsu spoke into her snazzy new phone. She couldn't care less whether or not anyone got greedy. The competent ones would know better and the chaff would get weeded leaving her average subordinate that much more competent. She was pretty sure that was how statistics worked but again she digressed. Either way the more got themselves killed the bigger her own share would be once they counted all the loot.

Shouting at her bodyguards to stop being such wusses and form up she mentally went over the exit plans or more specifically the ones that would be relevant to herself. To keep things simple they'd just divided the methods by floor instead of assigning different ones to each group. Organizing these thugs was like herding cats, who knew what floor they'd be on by the time the order came around anyway? No, specific orders would've caused way too much of a disorganized mess.

For the fourth floor they'd chosen the fire escapes, for if anyone would manage to make it out while exposed the entire time it'd be the groups up there. Third was supposed to take the normal stairs, crazy bastards would've probably seen anything else as fleeing and were unlikely to have listened to an option that'd have taken them out of the action sooner either way. It was only starting from the second floor that there were a few more options available. The outside led to several long bridges going over the nearby highway as well as external elevators right next to them on both the left and right side of the mall connected to the underground parking garage. Either option should have getaway vehicles ready that could be pinged on a 'first come first serve' basis.

Retsu immediately reserved one of them using her Director privileges to make sure the driver would still be there come hell or high water. She had the feeling she'd need the quick getaway rather soon. 

Decision set in stone -unless she felt like changing it- Retsu's eye ran over what she could see of the second floor from here. It seemed relatively unmolested compared to the rest of the mall, which was quite the problem for her. After all, the second floor was where all the fancy places were. Jewelry stores, goldsmiths, watch makers and more all packed closely together next to the upper-tier entrances for easy access by all the rich folks for whom the first floor entrance was too low class. Bakuretsu scoffed. Just her luck a bunch of the goons supposed to rob those places blind had split. She'd be having 'words' with them once this was over.

Either way it meant she had to go there herself. A solid third of the mall's value was concentrated on that floor or more specifically near the two entrances. The one on the west seemed active enough so she could ignore that one but the eastern entrance...

Well, that one was quite close to where her second problem seemed to be. Retsu let out a long groan. That meant it was very much going to be her problem if she wanted to properly rake in the cash. With that thought she pressed her third detonator setting off another cascade of explosions. The first floor was already clearing out. She'd have a completely unobstructed path to the second which meant anyone up there would also see her coming.

"Oy, Rui. You up for grabbin' some shinies on the way out? Second floor's havin' a clearance. Race ya there." Retsu said over her shoulder while strutting up the stairs, clearly not making any effort to win. No, she'd much rather have someone else be the first to poke their head up there. Way safer for her.

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Tags: Rui Matsui  Kushiki Kioko  ctrl  Shō Matsui  Bakiri Retsu

[Rui Matsui]

Rui nodded her head and looked back at Retsu. “It’s very true I haven’t died to a grenade before!” When Sho grabbed her and lifted her by the horns she let her whole body go limp like a cat. “That’s me.” She looked at the grunt as he was chopped in half and clapped her hands together slowly. “Oooo. ~” she cooed, before looking back at her brother. She furrowed her brow as she looked into his eyes. He was always such a Serious McSerious guy. “Fiiiiine.” She sighed, crossing her arms and pouting at the ceiling as he put her back down. At least Toki was still cute and she made sure to smile and wave back.

For a moment Rui went quiet. It was rare, but it happened every now and then. “You heard him! You better be out of here in 5 minutes bestie, or you’ll get balance shifted.” She smiled, drawing her index finger across her neck. “He’s so fast!” She mused as Sho took off, laughing when Retsu detonated another explosive charge. “A race? I won’t lose! You there!” She pointed at one of Retsu’s guards and threw the bandage skin around her arm up at his face and pulled him towards her like she was using a lasso.

“You’re my race horse bestie!”

“..What?”

“Horse bestie!”

“I’m-”

“Gimme a piggy back ride or my bro kills you!” She demanded, to which the goon reluctantly obliged. Shouting at the top of her lungs, Rui rode into battle, up the stairs, there was no way she was losing a race to Retsu!

Shō Matsui
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Kushiki Kioko
Bakiri Retsu

[Kushiki Kioko]

I HAVE PROMISES TO KEEP

AND MILES TO GO BEFORE I SLEEP

The mystery person on the other end of the earpiece would hear a noise that could easily be mistaken for static. But Levi had met Kioko. Studied her, even. He was one of few people that might be able to decipher the strange sound as a gut response to the claim she needed a friend that came out as a cross between a hiss, a snort, and a scoff.

“I need no friends.”

Whether or not that was true was debatable, but given the intensity of chaos outside the isolated storefront she had sought shelter within and the presence of Gyrfalcon, she could use an ally. She didn’t know if this person was that. How could she? She had no details on them. Including why they wanted to help her as they had never answered the second part of the question. Still, dealing with one obstacle was easier than dealing with the horde outside while trying to single out her own quarry if things did go sideways. Judging by an explosion that reverberated through the mall, things were going sideways elsewhere as it were. Heading in the opposite direction was sounding better and better.

“But I will meet you there and you will finish answering my question.”

She wasn’t really in a position to make threats, implied through the icy tone of her voice or otherwise, but this was Kioko. It was part of who she was. Her mind was usually enough to finesse her way out of the trouble her mouth caused. Usually. But it was her body having to make the getaway now toward the employee exit at the back of the store that led deeper into the building and toward the emergency exits she had been directed toward with the earpiece in tow courtesy of her mercury. She still had no plans to put it in.

Notes & Tags: Bakiri Retsu Rui Matsui ctrl Shō Matsui

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Oh, the Kioko scoff. Famously (no one else knew about it) studied worldwide (mostly thanks to him). In his ears, it was as good as a formal agreement. *"Clearly."* Everyone needed friends, right? Not that they always wanted them, but sometimes you got what you got! Levi's friendship came in the form of an eye in the sky, that was quickly losing sight of his prize as she followed his orders deeper to escape. *"Survival first, explanations later."* Referencing the earpiece she towed behind her, Levi pulled up a camera image of the hall Kioko had entered. *"Left turn there. Right takes you to the breakroom. Let me know when you see an elevator, gotta get you to my level first."*[break][break]

Concrete and metal sounded out their groans of submission as another set of explosions racked the building. Levi ducked into the closest storefront, the 'Cutting Picture' filled with a myriad of 'As Seen On TV' bullshit sold at well-over premium prices. He attempted to calculate the time it would take for the building to collapse, but there was no way of knowing what, or who, was causing it. Timed explosives? Maybe, but too well placed. 10 minutes then? Unless it's supposed to be a smash and gr..[break][break]

His thoughts immediately trailed away as the diversion he had been watching while thinking stopped dead in his tracks and... turned around? Arriving to ruin all of his plans had been none other than the arrogant shadow babysitter, who had apparently put enough of the fear of something into the man as he turned back, running the other way. No no no!! My distraction! Skylark rippled around his wrist angrily at the thought of losing a piece of herself, a thought which resonated well with Levi. "Yeah, yeah, I know.." he muttered.[break][break]

As the fleeing civilian's path brought him in front of the storefront, small spikes began to grow around the grip of the pistol in his hand. Fearing it was his only easy path to escape and failing to rationalize his situation properly, he doubled down and tightened his grip. Refusing to be taken so easily, Skylark's fractured self too doubled down, the pistol shifting entirely into one elongated blade, claiming three of the man's tightly wrapped fingers as purple nanotech mixed with blood dripped to the floor. He let out a slightly stunned cry of pain as the remainder of Skylark melted away in what remained of his hand, liquid metal swimming through the crimson river back to her master. "Told ya I wasn't gonna leave you behind." He hadn't explicitly said it, but surely Skylark knew what he meant. They shared the same mind, after all.[break][break]

Levi rushed out of the store, his faltered expression quickly faking concern as he rushed to the civilian's side. "Oh my god! You don't hold a gun like that!! Oh no, your hand!!" He was killing it. "Quickly, your phone! We can call for help!!" The panicked civilian, baffled by the confusion of a shopping trip gone horribly awry, quickly fumbled into his pocket and retrieved the phone for Levi, the shock of his injuries still failing to set in. Blood smeared across the screen as Levi graciously took it from him before pointing him at the stairs. "Go go, that way! I'll be right behind you!!" He brought the phone to his ear, playing into the man's confusion. "Hello 7-11??" The battered man attempted to wipe away a tear before rushing towards his supposed freedom. Levi's boot made a heavy step behind him...[break][break]

Before immediately ducking back into the storefront he had come from. "Sucker. Nice phone though." Plans A, C, and D had all gone to shit. Plan B was going perfectly, provided Kioko followed his directions. "Plan E it is then."[break][break]

There was no Plan E.

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[Shō Matsui]

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Light and shadow are opposite sides of the same coin [break]
“We can illuminate our paths or darken our way. It is a matter of choice.”

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Whoever had rounded up these people had done an incredibly poor job. Sho had expected at least someone to give him more of a challenge, and yet he cleaved through the group without any resistance. At least not any resistance worth thinking about. The group being mobilized to attack one civilian caught in the crossfire didn't strike him as a random circumstance. There was indeed a high level of chaos all over, but this was too coordinated to be done without the orders of someone worth a damn.
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He would walk in the direction they came from, considering who out of the people he knew here was the culprit. Rui was someone with motivation and zero inhibitions. Still, she had yet to defy a direct order from him as, from his experience, he was the only person she ever actually listened to. Meliora was petty enough to send a crowd after one person, but he quickly disregarded this as he had asked Lil about the specifics surrounding the man she had targeted the last time they crossed paths. They were technically on the same side again, which he wasn't a fan of, but he wasn't going to waste his time with someone weaker than him. Then there was Retsu, the weakest of the bunch. She was who he initially thought would be the one to do so, but she was scared of him enough to threaten to blow herself up in the process, plus Rui would turn on her the minute it meant he was in danger. Even if she WAS crazy, there was no chance that she wasn't the brains of the operation between her and Rui. So it must have been the sniper...
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"Rounds from a sniper." He traced the air as Toki looked confused. "Coming from this trajectory and elevation, it's the same floor." "What are you doing?" Toki quipped "Tracking." Sho uttered back as he looked around the group of dead bodies to make sure none of them were equipped with a sniper. Luckily for Sho, the scream of pain brought his attention to the area as it wasn't far. He would look over the railing to see Rui running up the stairs riding another grunt. Sho would call out to her, "Hey. Get you and your sidekick into that store" he would point to the sharper image. "Someone in there told me they wanted to ruin your fun by stealing everything first." he knew the taunt would get Rui riled up enough actually to go check it out, and she wouldn't die. If Retsu did? Happy accident. Either way, he would take his time to move towards the store as well, figuring that the diversion of his little sister and guest would be enough to either drive the sniper out from their position or would kill him outright

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ctrl Bakiri Retsu Rui Matsui Kushiki Kioko [break]
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