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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 took a minute to evaluate the situation flicking the blood from Retsu’s disarming off his blade on the ground. His usual overly affectionate sister would soon greet him as she usually did, hugging him by the waist, which he rarely reciprocated, ESPECIALLY in circumstances like this. She was all too eager to try and butter him up, and he stared down at her eyes narrowed as she should have been very aware of what was coming next. What he didn’t anticipate was that the woman he had disarmed was an ally of Rui’s. He would be able to get a better look at her now and didn’t recognize her from any previous meeting, and even if he could, he doubted that he could get her to say anything at this point, given that her face was contorted in pain. He was about to tell Rui to heal her, but she beat him, picking up her severed hand and fingers to reattach them. He would stand silently as he watched Rui work which was still pretty impressive to this day despite him having seen it many times before.
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Once she was done and insisted he comes to greet Retsu, he did just that, moving closer but still keeping his distance. Rui wasn’t exactly the best judge in character, and half the time she got kidnapped it was because she pissed off enough villain. He did speak up, however, “Sorry about that. I didn't realize anyone else would be coming to rescue her.” refers to him severing her hands before he would pick up Rui with his spare hand, bringing her up to eye level. “This is the 17th time this month.” he had been counting how many times he needed to intervene. Lil and Ume mostly kept a low profile; at least in Ume's case, she would just care for her own problems. The man who had opted to leave during this chaos was trying to be as stealthy as possible to not bring attention to himself, and without warning, Sho would throw his sword at the man with enough force to pierce his arm and pin him to the wall. With a scream, the man began to panic, attempting to take it out but to no avail. “This time, it was a coincidence I saved you.” he placed her down before walking to the senior Akimichi. “I have a job to finish.”
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Bakiri Retsu Rui Matsui [break]
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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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"You've likely never seen me because I don't usually sit down and eat." he said, trying to clarify why their paths hadn't crossed. The odds of this all happening were pretty slim, but he did realize in the middle of this realization that he never did tell Priya what he did for a living, so she likely didn't realize who he was enough to tell Chameli at least. If she had, they probably would have met sooner, or at the very least, given Chameli was a fan, she would have been the one to hand off his food to go.
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The display was indeed beautiful, Sho thought as he followed Chameli's lead and watched the show. It was nice to get a break from his busy life. Chameli was good company. He didn't have much else to say as he silently watched the display for the next few minutes. Any sunlight had completely faded at this point, with the moon taking its place being illuminated by every shower of fireworks. Sho couldn't help but feel that something was off as they sat. He could hear a slight echo after the fireworks went off. His brow would furl as he concentrated on listening intently to...gunfire. There was no mistaking that sound; he had heard it hundreds of times. He would try to be as discreet as possible to get Chameli away so he could take care of whoever or whatever was shooting. "Hey, Chameli." he would look over once the show had ended. "Why don't I walk you home? I'll just need to make a quick detour myself" he wasn't about to put her in danger, especially with how kind she had been. He hoped she didn't also notice the gunfire and he could move independently to resolve this.

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Chameli Sharma[break]
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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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In the brief time between his landing and Kioko's response Sho took the chance to take in her features. Even masked, he could tell she was female as her form wasn't fully cloaked by her long coat, and the features he could make out from under the mask, she had blemishless porcelain skin. None of this would impede his job as he didn't take mercy on women or even children if the situation called for it. Her response was venomous spoking with such confidence that it made his glowing red eyes narrow. From the usage of what he presumed was her quirk and her physicality, she didn't look like much of a close-range fighter, and her spitting in defiance to his question made that even more apparent. She was sharper than the average person as it seemed like she was analyzing him just as much as she was her. Smart enough to avoid a physical confrontation, Sho couldn't help but be a little impressed that she didn't flinch in the face of his demon-like appearance while also coming up with a plan that would avoid him entirely. Clever Woman.
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His choice of weapon hadn't been by random choice. It was an intentional feint to get her to move in a certain way. In his experience, when someone saw that he was using a shorter weapon, they would either choose to keep their distance if they were weaker in close combat or charge in if they had an aptitude for it. Kioko taking the opportunity to go overhead and outside of his range gave him an opportunity that he seldom took advantage of. The benefit of having the properties of his intangibility extend to his secondary appendages rarely came in handy. Without moving a muscle 3 shadow arms would shoot out and extend into the sky triangulating on Kioko and moving straight through her mercury without any issue. From this, they would wrap around her and rip her off of the mercury disc if possible and bring her back down so she was just a few feet away from Sho who stood up and cleared his throat. He wasn't going to bother to ask any questions that he felt Kioko would just spit back in his face so he decided on a more direct approach "One more chance. Choose a new target. I'm taking this one down myself." he would hit the switch on his weapon and it would transform to the much longer nodachi form that he would point at her throat "I don't care who hired you. You can go back to them unharmed, or I'll send you back in pieces." he was much more firm this time clearly at the end of his limited patience with this.

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Kushiki Kioko[break]
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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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As fast and as quietly as possible, he dashed over the roof of the complex, unconcerned about the chaos he would cause by the roof collapse. At this point, whoever was fighting had been constantly using explosives, and whether that was Rui or the Akimichis didn't matter. All it meant was that he could scout faster than if he was sneaking around as usual. He would reach the front where the explosions had occurred and leap down towards the ground extending the shadowy hands from his back to slow his fall. Once he landed, he was greeted with a destructive sight with ash and shrapnel everywhere. Additionally, there didn't seem to be anyone in the area, and he was sure that if Rui were here, he would have heard her by now. She NEVER stopped talking. He would turn back to the entrance seeing a trail of destruction and scattered body parts strewn about. Whoever had done this knew where Rui was, given the path of destruction they had made. Figuring it would be best to cut them off in a way that only he could, he would dash off in the direction of the western exterior of the building and then used his quirk to move right through the wall, sword brandished and ready.
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Two guards greeted him, and as their bullets flew, he didn't hesitate using the shock of him being unaffected to pivot on his right foot and take a large swing easily taking off the right guard's head and, in return would, cut the other guard in half. Without missing a beat, he would head further, hearing the familiar voice get louder with each wall he passed through. When he finally entered the correct room, it was pure chaos as an explosive went off in his direction, another above and ANOTHER to his right. His eyes narrowed as he saw Rui playing with her captors; he focused on the person who had entered the side opposite of him. SHE was the culprit to the explosives and couldn't be on his side if she was willing to throw explosives around wildly she would be disarmed before Rui got caught up in it. Pushing off his right foot he would lower his center, gripping his blade and switching it to its tanto form for his maximum speed and he would fly at Retsu attempting to slice off one of her hands before trying for the other one on his return. From there he would jump towards Rui smacking the other guard with his hilt before landing and turning his head to face his sister "Rui. What do you think you're doing." she could have likely killed this man easily but she had a habit of playing with her enemies. Children.

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Bakiri Retsu Rui Matsui [break]
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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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Sovereign Technologies. Who hadn't heard of the megacorporation? Sho had positioned himself to blend into the crowds as much as possible, opting to wear pedestrian clothes to carry out the facade as best as possible. His objective was clear a rival corporation wanted this employee of Sovereign Technologies taken out for good. They had allegedly been involved in shady business with the black market and exploiting their connections to increase their profit—pretty standard stuff in his line of work. Sho had developed quite a large client base due to his effectiveness and the ease of killing being aided by his quirk. He only worked at night, too, which served to aid him considerably. For now, he would blend in the crowd, having bought a newspaper upon his arrival, and stood not too far from the newsstand. Occasionally he would peer out over the street, feigning confusion as if waiting for a ride. A simple cover but necessary in this case, given the scale of the building and how long it would take to find the individual in question. Just too risky of an endeavor.
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While feigning his ignorance of the world around him, he took in the area and the people moving through it. It was reasonably busy, with many commuters taking their leave for the night. Out of the corner of his, one particular figure held his attention. They were significantly taller than the rest of the crowds of people, but this wasn't too uncommon within the world of mutations. What did make the figure stand out was the way they moved. They weren't a civilian as they moved expertly and deliberately, not attracting attention to themselves as they weaved between the people. He would need to get closer to see who it was under the hood, but as long as they weren't there to interfere with his job, he wouldn't move on them. An insider had provided a full itinerary for the soon to be victim and after much deliberation this was the best opportunity he would get. All that was left to do was wait.

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Kushiki Kioko [break]
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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 by complete chance that Rui was captured in the exact place he needed to be. Shedding his vigilante alias for the time being he was fully invested in a contract to murder a few members of the Akimichi Family. Who made the request wasn't really known but ultimately it didn't matter. Like with all of his jobs, he always did enough diligence to ensure the target, or in this case targets would balance out his positive karma. In this case, the scale of their operation was easily one of the more morally evil things he had to deal with and while he intended to take his time with this and wait until all three of his targets were in the same spot his sister had other plans.
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One of the first things he had done when he returned to the scene of his murdered father was to make a deal with the three of his siblings. He would occasionally help them out but in exchange, he required them to enable location tracking on their phones so he could keep tabs on them in case he needed to help them out OR stop them if they got out of hand. With a sigh he took out his phone again seeing Lil and Ume were in their usual spots but Rui happened to be exactly where he was headed. She must have gotten captured AGAIN. This was the 3rd time in 2 months.
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From the opposite side of the building as Retsu he had cloaked his face in shadows and brandished the handle for his weapon as she skulked through the darkness keeping his eyes peeled for anyone on the lookout. As he was about to move forward a large explosion rang out which served as the perfect distraction for him to slip in through the wall from a higher vantage point. Lucky for Retsu he managed to intercept a group of 6 men who were fully armed and likely headed to deal with whatever caused the disturbance. With one swift motion, he pulled himself entirely through the way and dropped down transforming Black Talon into its katana mode, and before the men could even fire he would behead 4 of them with a twist and pivot on his feet. One of the remaining two brandished a shotgun taking aim and firing. The bullets would just through him instead punching a hole in the wall behind him and Sho would retaliate with a quick slice to the man's throat and then would slice the tendons in his wrists causing him to drop the shotgun and keel over. With a few steps forward he would point the blade at the last man's throat who was sweating profusely "Two options. I can cut your femoral artery and tendons in your legs and you'll bleed out slowly or you can tell me where your boss is. Choice is yours" the man would quickly spill the information and Sho would use the handle of his blade to strike him over the head leaving him incapacitated but still alive. He had the dumbest little sister if she got caught by people like this.

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Bakiri Retsu Rui Matsui[break]
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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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He would scoot over in his spot giving Chameli plenty of room to sit once she had decided to keep him company. There wasn't much else he wanted to say or anything, in particular, he hoped to get out of their interaction. To him, this was just a day off. A taste of what life would be like if gave up his other life and just focused on his music. Giving her a reassuring smile as she settled in he would go back to what he was doing prior, people watching and now enjoying the sunset before the show.
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There was a lingering silence as Chameli presumably worked up the courage to speak up. Perhaps she was a bit "star struck" even if Sho personally didn't think they were that big of a deal he just knew that for him personally the music was something that he felt kept him grounded. It wasn't about fame or fortune. The silence would break shortly as Chameli fidgeted slightly before asking an innocuous question about his history with the drums. Not wanting to disappoint he obliged "Unfortunately playing the drums is all I'm capable of. I've been playing since I was about 12 I learned up north." he was specifically referring to Hokkaido "I traveled all over Japan when I was younger." he added to give further context to his explanation.
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The sun continued to set over the horizon now only able to be seen partly through the buildings as the dusk around them would slowly turn to night "It's nice to meet you, Chameli Sharma. You have a nice name. I would introduce myself as well however..." he would point to the spot on her shirt he had signed. The crowds were starting to disperse around the band and one of the members called out to him from a distance about going to some after-party "I'll pass. Fireworks are soon" he called out in return and gave a wave as they departed. "So Chameli" he turned his full attention to Chameli "What do you do when you're not out at concerts?" he paused before adding "I hope I'm not keeping you from any friends or family you might have come here with."

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Chameli Sharma [break]
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