A/N: This chapter has some slight disturbing past stories in it, going back to when Duo Lon was a young assassin, so that might be sensitive for some readers. Discretion is advised, etc.

Rubbing his eyes, the assassin realized he had drifted off on the bed. It was rare for him to do this; usually he would force himself to sleep for a couple of hours, but occasionally he seemed to remember how to act like a somewhat normal person.

He had woken up to his phone buzzing. Knowing who it was before he picked it up, he flipped it open and hit the button.

"Hello," he said.

A gigantic yawn greeted him on the other end before he answered. "Hey! Goddamn, that jet lag destroyed me. I've been sleepin' all day."

"Did you eat?"

"Yeah, I grabbed a bunch of stuff from the bodega right down the street. Perfect spot. This room even had a microwave this time!"

"I think they tried to improve somewhat to earn that occasional extra half a star," he joked dryly.

"Hey, lets me eat my ramen easier," he chuckled. "Anyway, what's up? You sounded like you were asleep. Since when did you sleep?"

"Believe it or not, I do sometimes."

"How goes it?"

"Well. I'm getting quite used to my place here. It's high up enough to be quiet. How are you adjusting?"

"I'm good, but holy shit. Did you hear that some serial killer is on the loose here?"

Duo Lon paused for a second before answering. "I have, yes."

It was Shen's turn to pause. "I know that voice. You knew about this shit, didn't you?"

He's smarter than he lets on, he thought to himself. Shen was always incredibly street savvy, with excellent instincts, even if he let some things cloud his judgment once in a while.

"Well, I'm on a…special sort of job," he said.

"You sound like you want me to come over and take over your couch like I do to your place in Shanghai."

He sighed softly, realizing that his friend was gently prodding him to allow him to at least lend an ear. He trusted Shen enough to let a few things out in the open, though the man, also of the underworld, knew how much to ask…and how much not to.

"I'll make something for us," he replied.

"I'll grab a shower and be there as soon as I can figure my way around the subway system."

"I trust you can. Just don't go the wrong way this time."

The table in front of them was scattered with remnants of the fusion-esque meal Duo Lon had whipped up.

While about half of it was pre-packaged, he had made the dou hua at least mostly by hand; he had managed to find the stuff from a shop during his poking around. He had even made it in the style Shen preferred; that is, the sweet style. He had grown up with the saltier variant of the dish- doufunao -but he had grown to enjoy the brown sugar-covered variant now and again.

Besides that, he had made up some spicy noodles and had fried some youtiao; the fusion part came from the fact he had also grabbed a couple of the bags of American-style nacho cheese chips and boxed snack cakes that Shen liked.

He'd have been lying to himself if he said he didn't kind of like some of them as well.

Polishing off the last of his custard-like tofu, Shen leaned back and uttered a burp, as he always would. "Damn, beats my microwave stuff," he said. "But the bodega near me sells some pretty kickass subs."

Duo Lon smirked as he finished his own food, soaking up the rest of the sweetened soy milk with his fried dough, washing it down with the tea he had made. "Figured you could use a proper meal for making your way over. I do suggest you try the noodle bar I told you about one day, though. We could even go tomorrow. The rain should have stopped." It had started raining as Shen arrived, and it was still going at the moment. The forecast had said it would likely rain on and off all night.

"My jetlag should feel better tomorrow. It's almost gone." he said. He hadn't started to press his friend for details yet; he knew he'd open up when he was ready. "Got anything to drink, by the way?"

Knowing that the brawler meant "with alcohol," he nodded and stacked a few dishes up to drop them into the sink of the kitchenette. It was actually a decent sized one, with more counter room than normal, and more than suitable for his needs here. Opening one of the cabinets, he checked out the bottles he had acquired during a trip to the liquor store. He had brought his own absinthe-which he knew would be difficult to find here in the strength that he liked it-but he knew it wasn't to Shen's taste. He knew Shen liked baijiu; one of his favorite things to drink besides beer, the pair had tossed back their fair share of the stuff since they had met.

Grabbing the two bottles, he lifted a couple of glasses that were left the cabinet-there were minimal dishes at this place, but enough for a couple of people with a few spares-and brought it all to the table.

"I have a few things," Duo Lon said, putting them down. "Haven't gotten any beer yet."

"Need to fix that."

"I don't drink it often, but I suppose if you're here I can keep a few on hand." He poured two glasses of their preferred drinks. He then went to bring the ashtray in from the bedroom so the pair could have after-dinner smokes. Shen immediately pulled his pack out, grabbing a cig and lighting it; Duo Lon picked out his favorite tobacco and packed his pipe quietly. The TV droned on in the background, set to a music channel that was playing some rock and metal videos. Not quite as underground as Duo Lon preferred-nothing he listened to would remotely ever make it to radio or television-but it suited for background noise.

"Baijiu!" he said cheerfully.

"Yes. I found some from a liquor store near Chinatown."

"Thanks," Shen said, sitting back and allowing the first sip to hit him. His friend had managed to pick out a decent-quality one. Duo Lon was not one to skimp on things, especially during the "wetter seasons," as one might morbidly refer to them as.

"So…yes," he said after a few moments and a sip of absinthe. "I'm here on a job. Suffice it to say I am hunting him down."

"That's…different. You don't know who it is, do you?"

"No. That's the thing. But I took the job anyway. I suppose that while I do not have any plans to atone for any of my past work that may have delved into a bad place, I can, at least, make it a point to use my talents for some good when I can."

"I ain't gonna ask the details, don't worry," he said. "But...it's…kinda weird?"

"It is strange, yes," he said. "I do think that they have no leg to stand on and no clue where to start."

"I can't imagine any other reason why they'd…" Shen waved his hands over toward the East, implying why they'd go all the way over there, seeking out an ancient clan of assassins who were not the easiest to find, unless you very much needed one.

"I thought the same thing. I asked what I needed to do, and now I am investigating."

"I mean…if I overhear anything, I'll let you know first."

"Thank you," he said with a smile. "You hang out at bars a lot, I know." He knew rumor mill was usually common there; often not true, but occasionally something could have a kernel of truth hiding in it.

"Not yet, but I plan on getting to know some of the seedy watering holes near the hotel and finally hit Chinatown, too." He cracked his knuckles after finishing off his whiskey and pouring another small glass. "I know I'm gonna need a scrap at some point here, too."

"I am sure you will find one of those," Duo Lon smirked. "But now, you know the basic story."

Shen rubbed at his chin again, knowing there was likely more to what was on his friend's mind. It couldn't have just been the job; he knew how easily he handled them before.

"There…anything else buggin ya?" he asked gently. This wasn't exactly his forte; but he knew Duo Lon well enough at this point to poke a bit at him.

The assassin exhaled, the slightly sweet smelling smoke drifting from his mouth over to the open window. The cool air blew in, causing the smoke to dissipate around, though it was fairly dark still outside, the moon unable to break through the current cloud cover. He looked to the table, fingering his glass of absinthe with his large hands, tracing a nail over it. He finally looked up at Shen, who was eyeing him almost gently; he was simply waiting for the man to speak, as he knew Duo Lon was a man that would only speak if, and when, he felt like it.

"Two teenagers," he said. "Hit me a little more than usual."

Shen shook his head. "Sick bastard. I don't blame you. Even someone who…claims to be as cold as you are would balk at that."

Duo Lon rubbed at his scarred shoulder before looking absently out the window for a moment. "I had a job once. I was young," he said.

"Your first?" Shaking his head, he wasn't sure where he was going with this yet.

"No. I was fifteen. I had done several already, but this was my first one involving multiple people."

Shen cringed. The brawler was no stranger to violence, having gotten into street fights as long as he could remember. But he had only killed one man, and he was a wreck afterward; he even talked to Duo Lon at length about it. The two were interesting contrasts; Shen had no issues with wading into a battle, beating everyone within an inch of their life if necessary, and wading out, but he stopped short of killing. It wasn't his style. The man he had ended up killing, to be sure, was one the world was better off without-but it still wore on him.

Duo Lon, however, disliked what he called 'useless' fights. He would often just knock one or two aside and leave Shen to the bar brawls, stepping in only when necessary. He fought in tournaments, mostly for information, and he would spar with Shen, the one person who he had fun doing it with. But taking lives was something he did easily-far too easily, he thought to himself at times, but it was how he was raised. He never killed indiscriminately, and only on the job or to protect the clan's secrets, but the act of it was responded to with a cold neutrality.

"Go on," he said, after a long pause. He took another cigarette out of his pack and poured himself some more baijiu. Duo Lon lit the smoke as he exhaled, blowing a smoke ring.

"There were several targets, as said. I took them down-a bit messy, but…I was new to it. I did not know my own strength yet, at least fully." The Hizoku went through a variety of training, and some members-those who were some of the most fit and powerful-were trained to harness their natural strength to great levels. Duo Lon had spent much of his youth shoving his hands into buckets of sand, and then gravel, building them up to be hard, until he learned to be able to contract his muscles, and focus to shatter far harder things, like stone and bone. His body control-linked to his necromancy-also gave him the ability to control his adrenaline, which could function as a strength enhancer to push it beyond what would be considered normal.

"Did any make it out?"

"No," he said, "But due to being a bit louder than I should have, I ended up attracting the attention of the serving boy there. He was…about my age."

"A year later, I killed a boy the same age for witnessing me," Shen suddenly remembered Duo Lon snarling in his darkest moment, the time he had learned about Ron's betrayal. He gulped, nodding knowingly.

"Was that…"

"Yes," he said. "He saw me. My master had said let no one see me. I obeyed." He sighed. "When I saw the teen boys yesterday, I remembered him."

"Did it…bother you?"

"The job I was on? No. They never bother me. I wish I had been less sloppy, but I was young."

Shen was silent again for a few moments, rubbing his neck again.

"What are you gonna do?" he asked finally, watching his friend take a drink. His bangs blew around his head as his braid hung long and heavy behind him, a couple of feet of it draped on the ground.

"Do what I'm hired to do. Hunt this man down and end him."

Shen nodded, looking down. He remembers his father, he thought to himself. I wonder if he blames himself for his father turning on the clan . For not being able to stop him. Something haunted him, and he wasn't sure what. Whatever it was, he almost was afraid to find out. If they were enough to turn the normally-detached young man even slightly intense, it had to be something harrowing.

"I'll stick around," he said. "I know you ain't gonna need my help. You'll get him. But…if ya want your drinking buddy around…"

Duo Lon snorted laughter, blowing out the last of his pipe smoke before tapping it out, placing it on the wooden table in front of him gently. "I don't mind some company. I can't…"

"I don't care. I don't wanna know. You work. I drink and listen to whatever the fuck is tormenting you and then drink some more to forget so it doesn't give me nightmares. Easy enough?"

The assassin looked at him again, finally smiling softly.

"Yes. Thank you."

Shen had indeed ended up crashing on Duo Lon's sofa that night. The assassin did his own research in the bedroom as he slept; he admitted he wasn't too sad about having some company over the night before. When the morning rolled around, as usual, the assassin woke before six, as per usual. Shen was snoring away still-and he'd let him sleep, knowing that his friend's wake-up time was "whenever he got around to it."

Never suffering hangovers-his poison immunity simply burned alcohol out of his system so fast, he had to ingest insane quantities just to get a buzz going-he slid out of bed and reached for the loose, black trousers that he sometimes wore around the house, sparing Shen the sight of the 'Prince Albert' piercing that he had should the man wake up early after all.

Which he knew, upon getting out of a sauna one day, gave the brawler a pained expression that still made him laugh to this day. Duo Lon was not a man who laughed constantly, but there were a handful of his friends that were capable of making him.

Going out to the kitchenette to get a large pot of coffee going, he went back to the bedroom with the new folders and a slightly clearer head at this point. He'd be able to hear Shen wake up, so he didn't really worry about any confidential information getting out. Not that he didn't trust him to keep his mouth shut about these things; he very much did. But still, he tried to play by his edicts when it came to jobs, at least mostly.

He planned to go see the spots where the bodies were found today. He knew they'd be cordoned off, but sneaking around was his specialty; any Hizoku learned the art of stealth very early on in life. He'd see if any evidence was missed that he could file away in his memory, and then go from there. He expected to hear about the victims soon enough today-given the files he got were new, they were probably planning the press conference or whatnot to be on the morning news, which came on at eight(if they hadn't already announced it overnight.) The morning papers wouldn't be in the machines yet downstairs, as he discovered they dropped them off around six.

Standing by the window for a moment to enjoy the cool, fall morning breeze-it promised to maybe only cap off in the high forties today-he felt a little better after chatting with Shen last night. He knew he was allowing this one to get personal, and while he generally did not do that for anyone save for Ron, it simply steeled his resolve to solve this one quickly.

He would get his prey; he was sure of it. He just wanted to do it sooner than later.

Not knowing what he'd find at the crime scenes today, he'd collect what he could-he knew there'd be no major evidence there, but he thought that maybe, just maybe, they missed something subtle enough that he could go on…something that they'd clearly overlook if even the more obvious evidence had them stumped.

Musing on why authorities tended to be useless, save for a few specific ones, in particular people linked to the Ikari team or the Agents, the sound of the coffeepot sputtered one last time as he gazed absently out the window, telling him it was finished. Wandering over to pour himself a large cup-drinking it black, as he liked-he could tell by Shen's snoring that the man might be out for a little while more.

Given that it was still fairly dark outside due to the extreme cloud cover, he suddenly decided on his course of action. Drinking some more coffee, he went to his drawer to grab a pen and some paper; he scrawled a hasty note to Shen stating that he was checking a few things out, and that if he woke up he was welcome to anything in his freezer, though he knew that the brawler knew he was anyway. Afterward, he quickly drank off the rest of his coffee, threw on some clothes-mostly just his black jeans, boots, a long-sleeved black shirt and his black jacket-and quickly moved out to trace the path in the early morning toward where he knew the recent bodies had been located.

Moving as silently and swiftly as a shadow, the assassin took the high road again where he knew he'd be highly unlikely to be seen by anyone. There were few out at this moment-mostly delivery people and other service people, as well as the twenty-four hour workers, but any rush hour hadn't started yet.

The first site was perhaps a half hour away from his safehouse, if he had been walking normally around; taking his swift route, at his speed, he reached it in roughly half the time. This alone was sort of an alarm for him, as it told him that the man was getting much bolder, leaving the bodies more and more in the center now, instead of the outskirts.

As he drew closer, he took more to the shadows, sneaking around alleys, passing through an odd wall or two even, ignoring the infected blight of the city beyond the death realm in the process-hoping he wouldn't have to spend too much time there. Eventually reaching the city park, Duo Lon kept quietly hidden in an alley, peering out and seeing how populated it was. Luckily, it was fairly empty.

There was police tape up, not that he was surprised. He'd easily be able to avoid that, but he wanted to try to seek out a few areas to search around immediately so as to pick up whatever clues he could as quickly as he could. He also mentally found some escape routes, knowing, of course, he could fade into the ground if absolutely necessary, but would prefer not to cause issues or shock anyone who happened to be looking at the time.

Seeing the coast was relatively clear, he decided to take a passer-by route, simply walking down the street as if he were heading to the store. Still seeing very few people, he glanced on the other side of the tape, seeing nothing out of the ordinary until he came across extra tape around some bushes; no doubt, he figured, where one of the bodies was found. The killer went as far, at least, as to dump it in the bushes-easily found in this area, of course, but he didn't leave it completely in the open. Peeking closer to the bushes, he could just about make out some things on the ground; looking from side to side, he decided to quickly fade from view, through the veil, to appear on the other side of the large tree, hoping that if someone had been looking out their window at that moment that they would have simply thought it was a figment of their imagination. It was still nicely dark at this time of morning, at least.

Crouching down, out of view, he squinted-unable to see well, he decided to sniff the air instead, relying on his sharp senses to see if they had left any blood behind. Able to smell blood from some distance away, he could tell someone had died there, but he couldn't quite see any extra details lying around.

Stepping away toward the pedestrian side of the tape again, he decided instead to prowl around the park itself to see if the killer dropped something for him to go on, or perhaps track something around that he could find. Squinting, allowing his sharp eyesight to try to see what he could in the dim morning-the clouds ensuing the sky stayed dark for a little longer than normal-he couldn't see anything besides some bits of trash, and the smell of wet grass at this point obfuscated anything else that may have been around.

However, when he reached a tree at the other end of the park, he noticed something on the ground.

Sliding a bit closer to it-at this point not needing to stay as stealthy, given he was out of the area-he checked to make sure it just wasn't some random trash. Bending closer to it, it seemed to be a card of sorts; one with a printed location and address on it. Squinting at it-it had been wet from the rain, but stood out among things-he saw the words at least fairly well in the streetlight:

Sloate's Game Room, 34 Anderson Street.

There was a picture of what seemed to be a sort of building, he thought, but that had been too damaged.

But this was good. He'd have almost been gid-if he had been a completely different person, and not hunting a serial killer, that was-but for him, he was at least somewhat glad to come across something. This game room, he figured, had to tie to someone involved-whether it was the victim's, or the killer's, he wasn't sure.

He also saw how close it was to the site…and how it had been somehow missed. At this point he was thoroughly convinced that whoever was on this case had no goddamn idea. Unless this had been mixed in with other trash that had gone unnoticed, it seemed they had missed an extremely obvious clue. This made him want to revisit every site at this point, though he had a feeling the other ones were long cleared by now.

Pocketing his discovery, the assassin slipped back into the shadows, making his way to the second address-an alleyway, somewhat across town. He had read that the body was tossed in a corner in this one; similar wounds as all the others, but seemingly more in a hurry. The fact it had been dropped in the center of the city made him think that the killings took place in the city.

According to the reports, the deaths had occurred in the early evening. This would match with the times people might stay after school to go to hobby nights at game places. Remembering the card, he wondered if one, or both, of these latest victims had been at the place; he wanted to go there as soon as possible, but he wanted to take care of the crime scenes before too many people started crawling around them.

When he reached the alley, he found it hadn't even been cleaned yet. There were little in the way of remains or anything like that; the death surely did not happen here, just the body dump. He would have to do some serious tracing to find out where the young man was killed, but he wondered how the killer managed to befriend the young men.

Or did he follow them? He really wasn't sure. It was clear the killer targeted certain types of people, in terms of what they liked, so he seemed to stalk them in some way. It was how he ran into them in the first place that he questioned.

As he poked carefully around the alley-which was desolate-his mind wandered some. Duo Lon, if anyone, could get into the mind of a killer…perhaps too easily. He was a killer. But a serial killer was something different. For the assassin, it was a job. And how he was raised. His clan did not kill indiscriminately. They would-or at least, were only supposed to-do so if hired, in self defense, or to protect some of the clan's deepest secrets, as an old drinking buddy of his discovered to his woe.

The odd member that would let the darkness take him would be executed…much like he planned on doing with Ron, who was a perfect example. But acting members followed a strict set of edicts.

A clan member that went mad would often do so by not being able to handle their power, more or less. A killer like the one he was hunting…he wondered. Many did it for the thrills because they were twisted individuals, others because they were twisted beyond reason by unfortunate events, sometimes it was a little bit of both. Sometimes they were simply born with the inability to feel remorse. There were a few assassins in the Hizoku's long history who fell under one of these umbrellas-they were swiftly weeded out, and in permanent ways. An assassin who killed for thrills was no true assassin; they were unprofessional psychopaths with an agenda, and could not be trusted. He even had one or two of his own targets who were from covert groups who were looking to erase a rogue member, or a member who was borderline-groups who wished to keep their own hands clean. There was even a story where they had once been hired-long before his time, or even his father's-to take out an entire small group before, one that did not care who it employed. If a single thrill-killing assassin was an unprofessional psychopath, a group that willfully hired and trained them was probably best being removed root and stem.

But, again, in any of these scenarios, he always had a specific target for these, with information given to him, as well as their common whereabouts.

So while he had been inside of a killer's mind more than once, now, he was first trying to figure out who this even was, which was first needed before even attempting to get into his head. Once he did, he figured it would be over. He would know how to find him. He suspected this one may have been a thrill killer, but his choice of target is what left him somewhat still puzzling him out, that there was more of a method to him, or perhaps more of a motive. He could tell a few things, at least; he was essentially untrained-so this was not a member of the police or military or anything of that nature. A trained killer would have handled things differently. This, however, didn't narrow down things much-if anything, it didn't narrow it down at all. There were a lot more average joes than there were trained individuals, after all.

But it didn't matter. It would come in time.

Coming back to his thoughts as he carefully searched around, he discovered a coin on the ground; about to pass it over as a typical drop, he decided to get closer to it just in case.

It seemed to be a token of sorts. It had no name on it, but on one side was an imprinted number 1, and on the other, a sort of growling wolflike head; if he had to guess, it was a token of sorts from a gaming establishment. He had been to a couple with Shen before, and most of them now he knew took these tokens instead of cash, as it was easier to get people to spend there with these.

Knowing that this was not a coincidence-and once again marveling at the incompetence of the detectives on this case-he pocketed this, and decided to now make his way back to the safehouse. He suspected Shen would be awake and probably hungry, given the pair did throw back some alcohol the night before.

Making sure the card and token were carefully tucked into his front pocket, he took off up on top of the low buildings, making his way swiftly across the city again, stopping to grab a bag of goodies from one of the nearby donut shops-he knew Shen had a sweet tooth-as well as his requisite morning papers. He suspected Shen would want to go out soon, too, likely to a diner, but even he was sort of craving some sort of American confectionery.

When in Rome, and all.

Eventually getting home without issue, he leapt up the stairs and let himself inside.

"Do you always randomly go out so early and leave guests alone?" he heard a voice say.

Smirking, he shut his door and slid his boots off.

"What? I brought donuts. I'm more surprised to see you up this early."

"You brought me donuts? D'aww. You shouldn't have," the man grinned.

Duo Lon raised an eyebrow at him, though the smirk didn't leave his face.

"I guess you were checking shit out?" The two plopped around the table with fresh coffee. Shen went and immediately grabbed a chocolate-covered one.

He nodded. "Getting the papers, as well." he took a bite of the cream-filled, powdered donut.

Shen uttered another yawn. "Let's hit the diner after this. Then I'll leave you be so you can do…whatever you gotta today. Just call me if you need. Or I'll call you if I get bored." He chomped on his donut. "Damn, not bad. The corner stores here are mad good."

"I have found them rather nice, yes," he said, finding himself liking the soft, cream-filled donut more than he thought he would. "I hadn't had the urge to visit places like this during the tournament, but I suppose if I have to live here temporarily, I can get into this."

"About time you try to not be boring," Shen grinned.

Duo Lon eyed him, thrusting his two fingers forward to poke him in the forehead. He didn't use his nails, but he used enough force to get the man to rub his head; this was something he had done from time to time.

"Ow," Shen grumped, unable to stay serious. He took another bite of his donut and smirked again anyway.

Duo Lon sat back, looking out the window for a moment as he held his coffee cup, letting his mind clear for what he had to do later in the day.

While he was easily able to focus on work, the man had to admit having a friend around this time was something he might enjoy for the days to come.

He knew this was going to get much nastier before it got better.

A/N: From food porn, to morbid stories, to serial killers and onto donuts, the story continues!

Have a couple more story references in this one. As always, they aren't necessary reads, but I always enjoy when folks check stuff out, and you might dig them!

-As said in the last chapter, "Let No One See You," is referenced, as is "Betrayal." The entire 'Bromance Trilogy' of Forbidden Knowledge, Dusk Before Dawn and Betrayal are probably all good reads, as I mentioned, to get an idea of how these two got so trusting with each other.

-In my HC, besides tattoos, Duo Lon has a Prince Albert style piercing. I thought it'd look cool on him for some reason. It's sort of a more 'private' piercing and somehow fit the guy.

-Hizoku are…weird. Very weird. They can do all sorts of superhuman things with their bodies, so being able to smell blood is probably something within the realm of someone who has strange levels of body control in terms of being to slow his metabolism, be immune to poison, has increased strength, and the like. SNK never went into every single power and ability in the background, but I've HC'd stuff in their training in a variety of stories, as I've linked! (they all also seem to have their own powers. Xiao Lon, for example, is described as 'frail' in the background, but her poison ability is second to none. Duo Lon actually performs some scary physical acts, as well as necromantic stuff, and has poison in his blood, but he doesn't seem to use the poison as much as, say, Lin; I wonder if perhaps the necromantic abilities-leaving him partially undead, perhaps even-sort of suppresses some of his poison abilities. He's still immune, and I'm sure they'd certainly kill someone with enough, but perhaps as a result his poison isn't as potent/concentrated. Not that he'd *need* it-the guy just ripped someone's head in half in his intro comic, after all, lol.)

-I've mentioned before how I HC Duo Lon and Shen in regards to their morals in other stories. Shen I don't see as a killer, even though he'll wade into fights and bash his way out. Duo Lon does the act far too easily, but doesn't like crude bar fights or anything of that sort. I like how it makes them contrast. (This is based somewhat on source material, too; Shen is shown fighting a lot, but never killing anyone, Duo Lon is described as not liking 'useless fights', but has no issue with his work. I just expanded it.)

-The Hizoku are said several times in the game to not kill indiscriminately, but they don't ask questions too much or anything like that. And given how Ron is being hunted, I heavily get the impression, as they are shown, that they are professionals. And for me, people who control powers like necromancy and the like most likely won't be able to 'let themselves go.' I can easily see Duo Lon, given what we know of him in game and otherwise, and his clan, to shun weird psychopaths who get off on killing. They may not be the nicest bunch, but they are professionals with standards. I also like the idea of them going after other rogue assassins who get a little too happy in the role, keeping the 'underground' with some professionalism.

Thanks for sticking with me! I know it's a slow burn, like I said, but perhaps things are now picking up..?