Old-Fashioned Neo-Ronin

Karasu

It's night, and the streets are empty. The illumination from the street lamps and signs is the only source of light.

"Motel Alpha" says one of the signs, shining in a strong red. Two men, wearing overcoats, emerge from a dark alley, one of them wearing a brown cap, and they whisper something.

"Are you sure everything is okay, T?" says the man with the cap.

"Of course, we go in, get the files, and get out."

They walk to a shop - "Alpha Café," in green, says the neon - and break the door with a crowbar. The metal door creaks, followed by silence. Streetlight slowly enters the shop.

"And the alarm?"

"I've taken care of that. Come on, we need to find the files."

The door closes, and the alarm goes off.

"You took care of it, huh? What the hell, T!"

"Damn it, I thought I had deactivated that shit," says T, quickly pulling open some drawers. "McCoy said it would be here; let's find it and get out."

"It has to be!" says the man with the cap, heading towards a door behind the counter.

He opens the door quickly, and in the still-dark room, he sees a figure running towards him.

"Cart, I think I found... WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?"

T looks towards the door and doesn't seem to understand what's happening. Cart screams while trying to stop the bleeding from his right arm, severed up to the elbow.

"S-SHOOT, SHOOT HIM!" Cart shouts.

Before he can draw his pistol, the man dressed in a blue kimono enters the door and thrusts a sword into T's chest, rotating the sword still inside the torso and finishing the upward cut, exiting through the clavicle. T is dead.

The man in the kimono, back to Cart, says something as the man struggles not to scream in a mix of pain and fear.

"You shouldn't be here. Who sent you?" says the man, looking over his shoulders.

"M-McCoy, it was Albert McCoy! H-He wants the files from the café; someone important was there. P-Please don't kill me; I'm just looking for some cash, like anyone else in this damn city. Please..."

The man in the kimono turns to Cart, pointing the sword.

"No loose ends."

***

The night passes, another strange night in Alpha City. The day is cloudy.

"Uh, I think it's going to rain, Tako. What do you think?" says the girl sitting in the passenger seat, resting her arm on the door.

The girl seems to be around the same age as Tako, around 27. Short loose hair, a black T-shirt, and an orange denim jumpsuit.

"I think you need to stop calling me 'Tako'; my name is Takehiro, I've told you."

"Okay, Tako, whatever you say. And what about this old stuff; will you tell me why you still use a weapon from the 14th, 15th century or whatever?"

"They're better than this technological crap nowadays; there's no comparison," says Takehiro.

"I don't know; you could give it a try. I heard Tokage just released a new line of swords. They have a heating mode, electric, and all that jazz."

"I'll pass."

A few minutes pass, and they drive into the city.

"So, this neighborhood belongs to the Karasu; what are we doing here? Tell me," says the girl.