Keys to remember: Italic = thoughts Bold = Japanese
Three years. Uzui mused in thought. It had been three years since he had been dropped here, well, not just him alone. Uzui glanced over to his right where Rengoku sat in the seat, his radiant smile still on his face as if it had never left and beside the man that was the sun itself was the other bubbly star, Mitsuri, just like Rengoku, her smile was just as bright and kind as the man who mentored her. It still hurts to think and say his name but he was getting used to him being here, alive, not dead. A thought Uzui didn't think he'd be able to even have the pleasure of thinking or saying at all because of how long it had been.
Uzui briefly wondered at one point in time if Mitsuri and Rengoku were related, though he learned they weren't exactly related, he remembered how he would doubt their denial about being related just because they acted so similar to each other and yet, despite all of their similarities he could still tell the two apart. Uzui sighed to himself and closed his eyes for a moment more in thought, he wondered if he could keep such thoughts at bay while he was out, while he was wearing a mask to keep most of those thoughts out while he was trying to keep things calm for himself.
Still the predicament they were in was a weird one, too weird for Uzui to even try to understand but he briefly understood it, for what it was worth that is. The car door opened on Uzui's side and he didn't even notice that the car had even stopped moving at all, ah, it shows that he needed to get his head in the game, he was a former shinobu after all, he could keep his head clear.
"We're here Resonance." The driver said almost too suddenly to Uzui and he was brought out of his thoughts and he realized how he hadn't known what the man's name was yet, he'd ask later after this little mission was over. "Oh? Thanks man, we won't be out here too long, so keep the car running right here and we'll be out in a few minutes, contact the police in about three minutes or so." Uzui said as got out of the car and gave the man a smile, the driver smiled back while Rengoku and Mitsuri got out of the car behind him and the driver closed the door after Mitsuri had gotten out and walked back to the front of the car and got inside.
Uzui was sure the guy would probably be on his phone majority of the time but there wasn't really enough time to think about that, they needed to get this done, not that it would take long if what he was told was true about this then it was just a small clean up job, small fry that hadn't gotten the memo that they weren't supposed to be trying to sell drugs on this side of town.
"Are you alright Uzui-san? You've been quiet since the ride here? You can always sit this one out if you aren't feeling well." Mitsuri said quietly, he heard the worry in her tone and Uzui knew why, he was usually very talkative and he appreciated the concern and flashed her a smile, a clear sign to her that he'd talk about it later as right now wasn't the time.
"Don't worry about me sweetheart, I'll be fine. Just take the back of the warehouse like planned in case any try and run, okay? This'll only take a few seconds or so. I'll be in and out." Uzui said with a smile, pushing what was supposed to be confidence into his tone as much as he could, he didn't want the girl to worry about him and so with one more word of reassurance from him he began to make his way inside. This wouldn't take too long, just a couple of thugs and druggies, Uzui could handle a few thugs and druggies.
This base or what was being used as a base in particular wasn't a large one, just a small warehouse with only one entrance and one exit and inside of said base were a group of people, it wasn't a large group inside, Uzui knew that because he could hear the heartbeats inside, each thump of their hearts, some were steady, most likely thinking they were safe, others were not so steady, thumping in a quick pace like a drum, he could count those as the more nervous ones. Those were probably the new ones on the scene, hm, from what he was told these weren't superpowered, parahumans, he had to remind himself of the correct terminology for what were essentially people with blood demon arts.
So they weren't powerful enough to warrant a stealthy sneak in, add on to the fact that most druggies weren't trained in combat at all so instead Uzui simply just walked inside of the warehouse and once the men and women noticed who he was they had almost immediately began to attack him. Uzui didn't even let those who had tried to rush them get close, he took in a breath through his nose and then he opened his mouth and screamed.
Sound waves came out and crashed down onto all of them and pushed most of them onto the ground, it was almost funny how some had actually flew back and crashed into crates, he noted that drugs had been in those and would make sure to leave a note for the police or something but back to the people that were currently being blasted with sound waves. Uzui knew he had to limit how much he used, he only needed to produce enough sound waves to do enough to where they were disoriented and wouldn't be able to do much.
Ah, disoriented, that's exactly the word that could describe how he felt when he first got here, Uzui had spent the last moments of his life the way he and his wives had dreamed of. Surrounded by his kids and a bunch of grandchildren, grandchildren that wouldn't know about demons at all.
An ideal way of going out compared to most of his comrades. He had gotten the easy way out while they had to be sliced to pieces or worse. Uzui thought to himself bitterly as he backhanded a woman who tried to attack him, the attack was slow and clumsy at best, clearly the woman was high and being hit with a blast of sound hadn't helped her at all.
But that wasn't any of Uzui's concern and kept moving, he saw no need to try and tie her up, he noticed how she passed out soon after being hit and continued to round up anyone who was trying to make a run for it to the back of the warehouse, well, tried being the keyword in this situation, if they weren't in a trance and now doing the bidding of Mitsuri then they were being chased around by a flame tiger that was corralling the remaining ones right back to where everyone else was with Rengoku trailing behind them.
It looked like Rengoku was having fun and even Mitsuri seemed to be enjoying herself, well, she was enjoying the show that the bright man had been displaying until the group of women and men were all rounded up and dealt with and Rengoku stood in front of the group of beaten people, well, they weren't beaten too badly.
"Now then I trust you all have learnt your lesson, correct? I don't think we have to remind you all that our Master doesn't like it when drugs are being sold on his streets, especially with the amount you all have despite being such a small group! If you want to do that then go do that sort of thing on the ABB side, alright? Now then we're going to be leaving and I don't doubt you all don't know what will happen if we were to catch you doing something like this again! We'll be leaving and don't bother moving as some of you are injured, though, don't worry too much we've already notified the police so just stay put for us and cooperate and you'll do fine!"
Rengoku spoke with such fiery passion that it was almost intimidating to Uzui, no, not intimidating but it caused his chest to tighten in a familiar way. Uzui realized what he was feeling, why he was feeling that way as well. He missed this, missed hearing Rengoku speak, it's been such a long time and hearing him now was almost too much for him, no, it wasn't time for that, not now. Uzui brought himself out of such thoughts and walked out of the warehouse with Rengoku and Mitsuri, the car was still where it was parked at and the driver was already standing outside and opened the door for them and he watched Rengoku and Mitsuri get in the car and he got in behind them and the door closed.
Uzui breathed in and out, he didn't like feeling this way, especially not on a mission or after, not even one as small as this. Uzui was brought out of his thoughts as a hand fell onto his hand, he glanced at the hand and noticed it belonged to the very being that was consuming his thoughts, Rengoku, his mask was off now as well and his bright orange eyes were warm and his smile brought him comfort, a different sort of comfort. Not the way his wives brought him comfort, no, it was the way his siblings had, before the unfortunate end of most of them by his own hand. Uzui still wondered if he would be considered selfish if he wanted to keep this sort of comfort for himself?
Uzui didn't have time to think more on that as he remembered that he needed to make a phone call, giving the very embodiment of the sun one more smile before he fished out a phone, a burner phone but one that he would use for the moment and made dialed a number and waited for the hothead would answer, though he doubted the guy would for a moment, well, that was until an angry voice answered the phone.
"Well that went well, hey, we're returning back to the base for now, we'll report to the master and then we'll be heading home for the night." Uzui said as he snorted after the phone called had ended and he put the burner phone away back in his pocket and he wanted to laugh after the conversation he had with the jerk but he wouldn't focus on that for now, the night was about to be over for him, Rengoku, and Mitsuri.
Uzui had plenty of things to do, like getting to his bed, his wives, he knew that they were waiting for him, that comfort that he longed for after a long day was just a ride, a small talk, and another ride away. Uzui couldn't wait, he felt he was still emotional about whole "dead but suddenly not dead" thing, so home is where he wanted to be right now, he couldn't wait to be home and if his hand just happened to squeeze Rengoku then no one said anything.
On the other side of the city outside of a warehouse, a man covered in scars was there, he was dressed in a rugged, unbuttoned shirt with a loose-fitting vest, his scarred chest was visible, wearing a sleek and modern mask, it has a smooth, matte finish, with angular edges that give it a futuristic, tactical look.
The mask covered the upper half of his face, obscuring the man's eyes, however, there was no mistaking the anger that seemed to roll off of the man in waves.
The man's lips were curled into a scowl as the phone call ended and his grip on the burner phone tightened and suddenly harsh and sharp winds tore through the burner phone and the man threw the bits away onto the ground as he turned around to face a small group of people dressed in similar suits and masks that he wore as well.
The man noticed how there seemed to be a crowd and he couldn't even believe how fast the entire operation had become a shit show, really, he only asked for one thing, subtly. That was it. Was that too hard? Apparently it was too hard for these people but from what he could tell it seemed to be one problem, seeing how the dead body was directly at the feet of said problem and he noticed that it was one of the new people, a teen that had triggered about four months ago to his knowledge and had been cleared to take missions in the first place.
No, this wouldn't do at all, with no time to waste he began to match over to where everyone was gathered and it didn't take long for all of them to move out of his way so he could get to where he needed to be, besides, who would even stand in Sanemi's way when he came marching? That's right, no one would. They parted the way for him with ease.
Elijah stood frozen, trembling over the body at his feet. His hands were shaking, eyes wide with horror, as the weight of what he'd done settled in. He hadn't meant to kill them—it was just supposed to be a knockout, a simple use of his newfound power. But it had gone wrong. Horribly wrong. His trigger event had given him strength he thought he could control, no, that was a lie, he hadn't been able to do that, he couldn't control his power despite his training, and now someone was dead. Because of him someone had died, he had meant to paralyze the man, that was it, why? Why had it all gone wrong? And so fast? It didn't make sense, no, none of it was making sense to him right now.
Tempest marched toward him, despite the fact that half of his face was obscured he could tell that he was being glared at When had the man even got this close? When had everyone left him alone with this man? and his scarred face set in a scowl. Elijah's breath hitched as Tempest loomed over him, fully expecting to be torn apart. Instead, Tempest grabbed his shoulder and yanked him upright by his collar. Despite that Elijah refused to look at the man, it didn't matter if he couldn't see the man's face, it was the fact that he had to look at the man in the face after screwing up so badly, he only had one job, one job and he screwed up.
"Look at me," Tempest snarled, forcing his head up to face him. "Fucking look at me."
Elijah could feel the sting of tears in his eyes, eyes full of fear and guilt that was hidden by the mask he wore, but Tempest didn't soften. Tempest leaned in closer, his voice like a blade cutting through his panicked state of mind.
"Get your shit together. Get your head in the game. This is Brockton Bay. People die. Powers mess up, and mistakes happen. But you're not doing anyone any favors by freezing up like this."
Elijah's breath came in shallow gasps, but Tempest words sliced through the fog of his panic. Elijah blinked, slowly coming back to reality.
"When we get back to base," Tempest continued, his grip firm, "you will be seeing Monarch for another check-up. You're going to work through this. And until you learn to control your power, to not accidentally kill people, you'll be stuck doing patrols or on watch duty. Got it?"
It was harsh, but it was exactly what Elijah needed. A reality check. Tempest's tough words weren't filled with malice—there was a hard-earned understanding beneath them, and a demand for him to calm down, to be better. And slowly, Elijah nodded, his shaking subsiding as Tempest released him and turned away.
"Good," Tempest muttered, already marching off. "Now get moving with the rest, we need to leave before the PRT come if they haven't been contacted already."
Elijah stood there for a moment but he had no time to even look down at his feet, where he knew there was a dead body laying there when he was gently grabbed and he noticed it was a guy, he was taller than he was, he would've called the man frightening because of how silently he had appeared beside him, if not for the fact that he was being ushered away from the body and he wasn't going to stick around anyway, if he looked at the corpse he would've thrown up and so he began to leave the area once he realized all of the trucks had been loaded.
Elijah sighed but he knew he needed to get to his designated ride before they left him behind but he took on curious glance back at the man that had ushered him away, his back was now turned to him and he could see the kanji on the back of guy's uniform and realized who he was.
It was the clean up people. If what he was told was true, his eyes were about to drift back onto the ground, back to where that man was laid down dead when he was tugged. Again, what was with people grabbing him in some way? Elijah blinked in shock and he realized who it was, it was someone that rode with him on the way here and before he knew it they were in a truck and were driving down the street, he hoped he hadn't messed things up too mad, despite Tempest's words that people had died all the time here, which was true, people did die in this city but taking a life wasn't something he even thought he would've been able to do at all.
Sanemi grumbled underneath his breath as a car door was opened for him and he didn't waste time getting in and the door soon closed behind him and he was quick to take the mask off of his face and he threw it across the seat from him and sighed. Sanemi didn't like this new world, not one bit, demons were one thing, at least those things could be killed and people had a fighting chance as slim as it was back then with Muzan and his uppermoons running around and other demons, but with all the Endbringers that could pop up at any time, a bad government, corrupt police forces, and if that wasn't enough gangs but what made this even worse were parahumans.
To Sanemi parahumans were cursed beings, having powers were great, until you end up killing your mom or your dad, that's not even mentioning how parahumans get those powers in the first place. Having to experience the worst, worst doesn't even describe how most of these people get their powers, day of your life just to get a super power? And if that wasn't enough people, people in power all scramble to go and get their claws into the person that triggered, barely giving them time to even adjust to their new reality of having powers to begin with, god forbid it be a thinker.
So yes, Sanemi hated this new world but it was one he would have to survive, it was just like the last one but shitter, nothing too different expect for the fact that he would have to run around using a fake name, had powers of his own, had to go out on missions that didn't end up killing a man-eating demon.
If Sanemi could survive that hellhole then he was sure he could survive this one as well.