Tokyo Killers
Toby stood across the street in a nonchalant lazy stance.
The three Rogue Sorcerers stood across from him with their cloth masks and distinctive weapons.
Yellow, red, turquoise. They each wore skin-tight cloth masks that wrapped perfectly around their heads. They had holes cut out of the eyes so they could see, and small incisions around the nose and mouth to breathe.
Toby took off his round glasses, placing them in his jacket pocket for safekeeping.
The Yellow Masked Man stood out front with a small rusted bloody cleaver. He opened up his mask and licked the edge clean. The disgusting blood splashed around his dry lips.
Behind him stood the Red Masked Woman. With her slender body, and dark green eyes watching with intense blood lust. She stepped forward, walking on her toes, holding her large odachi katana across her shoulders. Its blade long in length, shifted up by her relaxed weight, carving against the ceiling of the cafe.
Toby turned to the mysterious man in the back, who leaned against a crumbled wall blocked by darkness. His face covered by a turquoise mask, flower imprints along his old cloak. He flipped a playing card up into the air, switching it from finger to finger. He looked up to the sky, out at the empty cityscape.
He looked back at Toby, then at his former Rogue Sorcerers.
"Take care of him quickly. That captain is on her way as we speak. We don't have time to goof around." (Turquoise Mask)
The Red Masked Woman swung her large katana around the empty street space.
"But I wanted to toy with him. He looks so fun and playful. Like he would scream." (Red Mask)
"No no no. He'd be chopped up real nice. Hung like dry pork." (Yellow Mask)
The Yellow Masked Man in full-body tattoos stepped up. His bloody cleaver pointed out.
Toby squatted down, rolling up his pant's legs.
"Who are you guys? You all seem to be working together, and the turquoise mask guy looks like your leader. You guys some Evil Sorcerer Organization?" (Toby)
"Haha! Organization. There's nothing organized about us." (Red Mask)
She held out her left hand, showing a tattooed Korean number imprinted on her palm. The Yellow Masked Man showed his number as well.
Toby was confused.
"What? Can you not read Korean?" (Yellow Mask)
"No I can. Lady, your number four. And the yellow masked guy's number seven. What that mean? Is the dude weaker than you?" (Toby)
He looked at the tattooed man. They looked at eachother. She looked back at the cafe, the Turquoise Masked Man was missing.
"Numbers are just numbers anyway. It's best to rely on straight facts. Like who can kill who?" (Yellow Mask)
Toby leaned forward, he did his stretches, touching his toes and ankles. One leg out, the other leg in.
"I one hundred percent agree. Same in our organization. Ranks don't mean squat." (Toby)
He stopped stretching. Looking out at the two remaining figures in the darkest of nights, slightly silhouetted in the street lamp shade. He quickly pulled out a .357 Magnum from his jacket pocket.
"Finally some action!" (Yellow Mask)
The Yellow Masked Man stuck out his left arm. He curled it up into a fist, pointing out his pinky like a hook.
"Minced Madness!" (Yellow Mask)
Toby shot three bullets straight at the Rogue Sorcerers.
Tink-
Tink-
Tink-
The Yellow Masked Man slashed the air with his left-hand pinky in consecutive order. The bullets shot out were each blocked by his invisible magic ability.
He pointed his pinky at Toby.
Toby stepped back looking at the air around him. The empty streets filled with bodies, with puncture wounds. He then came up with a conclusive quick idea of what this Rogue Sorcerers' magic could be.
The air turned dense.
Toby turned around. Watching the air around him. The denseness, the waves, the way things moved. It was slight, but it was there. A weapon hidden somewhere in space and air. Between the real and fake.
"Pay attention to your enemy!" (Yellow Mask)
He threw his bloodied cleaver out into the air. Toby quickly turned back away, swatting the cleaver away with the backside of his .357 Magnum.
"Now!" (Yellow Mask)
While Toby was distracted, the Yellow Masked man pointed out his pinky, moving the invisible weapon closer.
Toby quickly jumped away. Rolling across the ground. Trying to watch for any movements in the space and air.
"Minced Madness!" (Yellow Mask)
The Yellow Masked Man pointed out his other pinky from his right hand.
Two weapons.
Toby looked behind himself. Two invisible hooks in the darkness. From out of nowhere. Through space and air.
He tried his best to dodge. But his sight and movement were limited by the bodies on the ground and the space between the Rogue Sorcerers and him.
He tried his best. Each swing going faster and faster. The points getting closer.
He kept running, rolling, watching the enemy's hands for any signs of an attack, for any out of the ordinary movements indicating where the hooks could be in the space around him.
"I only have one shot to do it." (Toby)
He rolled across the ground pointing out his Magnum. He pointed it at the-
Slink!
"Fool. My invisible hooks may follow my hands, but once you stop your as dead as a fish in a river. There's no escaping it. It doesn't matter if I have one or two. They will always find their target." (Yellow Mask)
Blood poured onto the street.
An invisible hook had pierced right through Toby's stomach.
The Yellow Masked Man lifted his pinky to the sky. He lifted Toby into the air. His body pulled apart, ripped across the chest. His stomach leaking. Drop after drop, like porage pouring from glass to glass. All onto the solid cold street. A steamy mess of guts and gore.
The Yellow Masked Man walked toward the bleeding Toby. He picked up his rusted clever from the ground, dragging it across the street, creating sparks against the asphalt.
"You silly Magic Force Sorcerers never learn. Risking your lives, killing monsters. There is no joy in killing monsters. There is only joy in killing those that-" (Yellow Mask)
Toby bled out. His lifeless eyes dimmed to his regrets.
"Hahaha! Ohh... Already dead?! Welp, typical of a weakling." (Yellow Mask)
The Red Masked Woman sat down on the curb, she felt an unease in the quick fight.
"Wait, newbie. Don't get ahead of yourself here. There's something odd about this situation." (Red Mask)
She pointed her odachi at Toby's dead hanging corpse.
"You have to agree with me. That was too easy. This guy never even activated his magic. You've never fought a Second Class Sorcerer before so you may not know this. But there are two types of Second Classes. The leaders and the fighters. The leaders are Luitenents and Squad Captains, they rank up by working with their squads. Fighters are just plain and simple, fighters. They are stronger than leaders and usually have stronger magic." (Red Mask)
"You know quite a bit about the Magic Force for a Rogue Sorcerer?" (Yellow Mask)
"Ay ay! Shut the fuck up. As a newbie, I be given you good insider information here. Just look at his pin." (Red Mask)
She pointed her long odachi at Toby's pin.
"What?" (Yellow Mask)
"Not many inside the force know this. It's quite hard to notice, but Leaders and Fighters have two different types of flower pins. Leaders have roses, whilst fighters have dandelions." (Red Mask)
The Yellow Masked Man looked closer at Toby's pin.
"I don't get it? Looks like a flower to me?" (Yellow Mask)
"No no no. He's got the third kind. The daisy." (Red Mask)
"And... What's that supposed to mean?" (Yellow Mask)
"Uhhhh... I don't know... I've never seen one before. Back in the Force it was always legend." (Red Mask)
The Yellow Masked Man grinned.
"So I just killed a Legend?" (Yellow Mask)
The Red Masked Woman lowered her odachi to the street. She then pulled her weight back, pulling the katana across the sky, settling it firmly on her shoulders for the final time. She then noticed something on the ground. She noticed a small pink fire forming around Toby's .357 magnum.
"Thought so..." (Red Mask)
She slowly stepped back. Walking away from the scene.
The Yellow Masked Man turned around. His cleaver and tattoos under the soft-lit lights littering the road and streets. The darkness of the moon in the sky. The splatters of blood against his yellow cloth. Blood to the-
Snap.
The sound of someone who snapped their fingers echoed across the streets and road.
The Yellow Masked Man felt something up against the back of his head. He felt a gun against the back of his head.
Pink flames.
He looked up at Toby's corpse hanging in the air. His eyes turned frightened, worried, confused. Toby's corpse began to disintegrate and turn into pink flames that would rise into the dark night sky.
"How did you-" (Yellow Mask)
He cocked his .357 Magnum back, pressing it hard against the Yellow Mask's head.
The Red Masked Woman slowly backed away from the scene. Stepping from the open bloody road to the glass ridden sidewalk.
"Yo Magic Force Sorcerer. I'm just gonna dip. And newbie. He's all yours. Have fun." (Red Mask)
She turned and ran over to the side of the cafe, throwing her odachi katana through the smashed window and jumping in herself.
---
Thirty seconds passed.
There was a standstill. Toby had his gun pointed at the back of the Yellow Mask's head, with his finger firmly on the trigger.
While at the same time, the Yellow Masked Man had one of his invisible magic hooks pointed right at Toby's throat.
It was a standstill.
Whoever moved first would condemn their own deaths. And condemn the others.
"You shoot. I slice. We both go down. You really want to take that risk?" (Yellow Mask)
Toby looked down at the man's tattooed legs. He then immediately backed up and pointed his gun at his calves.
"So you were afraid." (Yellow Mask)
The Yellow Masked Man swiped his pinky across the sky. His hook slicing right into Toby's throat...
Toby aimed his gun at the legs. He stood unfazed by the attack. His arms and fingers still moving. The blood flowing from his opened throat.
The Yellow Masked Man quickly jumped back.
"Are-" (Yellow Mask)
He fired four shots.
The Rogue Sorcerer fell back to the ground. Both of his legs pierced by Toby's bullets. He crumbled to the floor, fallen on his knees, unable to move.
Toby fell back. Unable to breathe, unable to live another second.
Pink flames.
Toby's body, arms, legs, wound, head, gun, all turned to pink flames. Pink ash rising to the heavens.
"Your screwed newbie." (Red Mask)
Snap.
Toby magically appeared fifteen feet away on the other end of the road. He was facing down the headlight street opposite of the Yellow Masked Man.
He snapped his fingers gracefully.
Snap.
Pink flames fell from the sky, forming into a tornado of magic. A heavy machine gun appeared before him, its long barrel and tight grip. A tall tower of ammunition stacked high.
"What magic is that?! That's not even fair!" (Yellow Mask)
"Life isn't fair. Murder isn't fair. One second you die, the next you are alive." (Toby)
He gripped tight to the machine gun, he pointed it down the road, horizontal of the two parallel streets on either side.
The Yellow Masked Man tried to stand up but he couldn't, his legs were dead. He tried to attack Toby but he couldn't reach far enough. His magic wasn't strong enough.
"I figured. You're a close-range type. We were a bad match to begin with. Since I'm a... Special Type." (Toby)
"Special Type!" (Yellow Mask)
He was at the mercy of the machine gun fifteen feet away from him. It's barrel aimed right at his head. He couldn't do anything. He couldn't move.
"Save me!" (Yellow Mask)
"Sorry newbie..." (Red Mask)
Toby pulled back, pointing the heavy machine gun at the unmoving man in the middle of the street.
Legs bleeding, two holes on either side, he was unmovable.
But that didn't stop him, his life wasn't going to end there.
"I'm not giving up!" (Yellow Mask)
He crossed his arms pointing his pinkies across the sky. He swung his hands down, waving the hooks onto his lifeless legs.
Slink! Slink!
The hooks entered his wounds. Pulling his feet and knees up into the air. He swung his hands back and forth, trying to get himself to move, trying to force his legs to work by stabbing harder and harder, pulling harder and harder, against the flesh, the blood, the pain. But he kept falling, kept losing balance, topping over, losing more blood.
He made it halfway across the road, halfway to the curb.
"Shiiitttttt!" (Yellow Mask)
Toby fired. Gunning down the road. Ricocheting off buildings and windows.
Countless hits on one man. A bloody mess of guts and red goop. sprayed across the street.
He was dead in seconds. A riddle corpse, with no longer any resemblance of the man he once.
The Red Masked Woman peeked her head from the cafe to see the final damage.
"Ha! God damn, it was his first day too. You really did him dirty Magic Forc-" (Red Mask)
Toby turned his machine gun toward the cafe.
"Eeek!" (Red Mask)
She disappeared.
---
Thirty seconds later.
Yua appeared from down the road.
"Toby. What happened?" (Yua)
She looked at the bloodied corpse. The pink ash and flames scattered about.
She looked at the cafe, the dead Magic Force Sorcerers laid across the floor, killed by invisible hooks.
"Shit... We were lucky." (Yua)
Toby turned confused by her words.
"What do you mean? Lucky?" (Toby)
"It could have been a lot worse. The Tracker Team caught wind of a Turquoise Masked Rogue Sorcerer behind enemy lines. They followed him, but the suspect disappeared into thin air. And if my entire squad wasn't there to back them up they could have all died... I think... Today I made the right choice." (Yua)
"You mean with Colt? If Colt wasn't here then..." (Toby)
"If Colt wasn't here, then we would have been split up. Forced into separate parties and squads. Fighting that monster up there. Being picked off one by one down below by Rogue Sorcerers." (Yua)
Toby looked at the dead Yellow Masked Man.
"These Rogue Sorcerers. They were stronger than the usual. Especially that Terquoice Masked one and the Red Masked one. They were smart enough to escape when they encountered me. They also knew about secrets in the Magic Force. Stuff that only we know." (Toby)
"What secrets?" (Yua)
"The Special Class." (Toby)
Her eyes lit up with confused fear.
"How?" (Yua)
"I don't know... And I honestly don't care right now." (Toby)
He pulled up his jacket sleeve. He looked at his wrist. The roman numeral four was printed on his skin.
"I've used too many lives today, I think I'm going to go home for now." (Toby)
"Yeah, go take a rest at home. With your girlfriend." (Yua)
"Thanks..." (Toby)
He slowly walked away before Yua pulled him back for one last request.
"I do need one last thing though?" (Yua)
"What...?" (Toby)
---
Toby held out his right hand. He summoned a toy-helicopter and a wakie-talki with his pink fire magic.
"Your magic is very reliable. You know that." (Yua)
"And it's very taxing." (Toby)
Toby put back on his flat round glasses to cover up the deep creases under his tired eyes.
"I just need to contact Colt once. Get the situation up there so I can control the forces down here." (Yua)
She tossed the helicopter into the air.
---
Six minutes later.
"Why did it go silent?" (Yua)
"Colt destroyed it." (Toby)
Toby turned around with his small round sunglasses that hung an inch off his nose.
"Anyway. I'm gonna go home. I've got a show to catch." (Toby)
He went home.
---
Nine hours later. The next morning.
"Good morning." (Jack)
"Good morning." (Vlad)
They stood next to eachother in the leisure hall. No one around but them.
Vlad held out a half-empty bottle of gin. Jack sat playing with the small flaps on the bottom of his black jacket.
Silence...
"Where is everyone Vlad?" (Jack)
"Dunno?" (Vlad)
"Huh...? Ok...? Um, so you know what the missions about, the facts? When we're supposed to leave?" (Jack)
"Dunno?" (Vlad)
He sat down in the middle of the carpeted floor. He took a long gulp of gin.
Jack laid back in his chair. He closed his eyes.
"Ok... Cool... Yeah... You know... I'll just chill." (Jack)