A/N: Day 18: Tradition!

Alright, this one is going to piggyback off of the "Duo Lon and Shen Chilling" series, probably before the Big Betrayal, earlier on in their friendship(post Dusk before Dawn, pre Betrayal.) We learn about some of the *allowed* stuff that Duo Lon can talk about without having to kill someone, in regards to the Hizoku.

This stuff is all heavily HC'd. SNK really doesn't give us a lot about the clan structure or history of these guys-it gives us the names of the four sects and where they are located, and we see the abilities of some of their members, and we know they are secretive…but that's about it. What you see on the SNK wiki, and any little mentions of things in team stories, is about what we got.

From there, I basically had to piece together "What sorta things could this clan do tradition-wise?" So I started making stuff up that sounded cool to me. Hope you enjoy it!


"Alright. So... look, I remember you mentioned first seeing a city when you were…ten? Are you, uhh…allowed to mention that?" Shen scratched his head as he fiddled with the tile in his hand.

The assassin chuckled one, smiling slightly at him. "Yes, I can." The Hizoku had…secrets. Some of them were so intensely secret that just knowing them meant your life, and Duo Lon followed the edicts of his clan rather strictly. "That's not a problem."

"Where…the hell did you live before that?"

"A small village. Before I left to train."

"Okay…so…walk me through what you can." The brawler shook his head, still getting to know his strange yet deadly friend-he considered him that now, given he saved his life in a rather frightening way-and he knew that he couldn't ask too much.

Duo Lon reached out to take a drink of absinthe as he placed another tile on the table in his living room. He rented a small apartment in Shanghai where he would stay if he was there on business-it was more discreet than having to rent hotel rooms. "We live and train in one of the main villages for some time. Then we go off to train in less accommodating places. Living in cabins, even tents…sometimes finding our way in the wilderness."

"Sounds…harsh. Jeeze."

He shrugged. "Anyway…when we turn somewhere around ten to twelve-depends on the training-we usually get introduced to a big city. Shanghai was the first one that I saw. I was around ten. It's tradition."

"You were on the younger side."

"I learned quickly," he said, placing another tile. "A few of us were there. One of the masters took us. We learned to memorize streets and alleys, mostly. Had to find our way around."

"Did you get lost?"

He chuckled. "Somewhat willingly. We were pretty young, and prone to getting into a little bit of trouble. I think they would also use it as a bit of a test of character…but no one was immune to the temptations at that age."

"Did you get money?"

"We were given a small amount to make sure we could get food and drink, yes."

"So…what happened?"

"Nothing too much," he said. "But despite being one of the…better behaved ones, even I could not resist the allure of candy when we found that one back-alley store."

Shen snorted laughter. "You guys probably…didn't get much of that."

"No. We would get treats on special occasions only. Traditional holidays and the like."

"I guess you went on a sugar bender?"

"One of the others who was the oldest in our group, almost thirteen-he was known to be a bit of a troublemaker-got an idea to raid one of the shops after we were out of sight. After several bottles of soda and piles of candy…well, we were certainly hyper."

"I guess you couldn't hide it," Shen laughed.

"Oh, no. Not at all," he replied, chuckling himself. "Well…I almost did. Our master knew, though."

Shen rubbed his scruffy chin and took a swig of beer as he fumbled with a tile. "They had to know you guys would run rampant."

"They did," he said plainly. "It was part of the training."

"Self-control."

He nodded, deftly flipping a tile over his fingers, his deadly nails tapping lightly on the table occasionally. "They knew that we'd slip up the first time."

"What sorts of…punishment did you get?"

"Not as bad as you'd think. Mostly having to drive our hands into gravel buckets for considerably longer than we normally would."

"Goddamn, they had you on gravel that young?"

"Oh, yes."

"Christ, no wonder why you can shove your hand through…" he trailed off, rubbing his hair again. "Ahh, let's keep this one pleasant."

The assassin nodded, taking another drink as he placed another tile. He took his pipe and filled it as he looked over the table, planning another move. "Admittedly, I began to somewhat like the trips, despite being quite solitary. We would usually go about twice a year after that, and when we were teenagers, once every three months or so."

"When was the first time they let you guys go on your own?"

"I was fifteen. Usually, we were between sixteen and eighteen."

"Heh, gifted, ain't you?"

Duo Lon, not wanting the conversation to take a…turn, simply nodded. "Perhaps."

"Well…thanks for…letting me…be curious?" he asked, chuckling. "I didn't know you had traditions like that."

He nodded. "One of the nicer ones, I will say." He emptied his glass of absinthe.

"Say…I couldn't ask you how you drink that stuff like you do, can I?"

Duo Lon simply gave him a look-his eyebrow raised-as he placed a tile on the table.

"Ahh. Right," he gulped, snorting laughter.


A/N: Well, there we have it. Some Hizoku stuff that I thought sounded cool. I liked the idea of them being sort of kept away from big cities until they were ten to twelve years old or so. We do know they get sent off to different places to train from the main villages, at least, but I think this kinda works for how weird the clan is? It was something that at least came to mind for "Tradition."

Anyway, til next time!