The Emperor's Dragon II

Cry Havoc!

Yoi Roudo liked working in his building. It had a nice garden to look out on and to spend time in for the few minutes he allowed himself to take for lunch. It was also nice to walk through at the end of the day before he left to commute home. The building wasn't too tall and was reasonably well maintained.

The others who worked with him at Nise Kai agreed with all of that but despite all the advantages of their building, they hated the place. Nise Kai did share the building with another company, the one that owned the building and that's where the problems were. There were always shifty looking characters going through the building, at all hours of the day.

If it was one thing that the advent of quirks should have taught society, but hadn't really, was that you shouldn't judge a book by its cover. Sure, he'd admit that some of the people who came through the building looked terrifying but they never bothered the people who worked at Nise Kai, and some of them were quite nice. Shin, for example, always said hello. Yoi didn't know what the name of the company they worked for was. It was one of those new fangled ones that didn't actually put a sign up but they were okay. Their boss never said anything but his two helpers were also friendly.

So just because someone looked scary, didn't mean they were. It wasn't that bad sharing the building. Plus he'd overheard the boss saying they got a really sweet deal on the rent, so that had to be good.

The only drawback was that when he worked late, like tonight, he got glared at by the other company's workers. They always seemed to work back late and tonight was no different, except there seemed to be more of them than usual. Rumour had it that they had some pretty big contracts in Europe and America so had to work the later hours. Tonight though, they seemed agitated and Yoi didn't know why. There was a feeling in the air that said it was best not to ask, so as soon as he was finished, he practically flew through the shut down process at his workstation and secured his equipment before he grabbed his coat and practically flew down the stairs to the exit.

Even that motion showed there were things wrong. The other company worked odd hours. That was true but he'd never seen this many of them around this late. And they seemed agitated.

Every single one that he passed gave him a sharp look, as if measuring him. Their gazes turned dismissive once they realised who he was and no one stopped him leaving but it was definitely tense.

Yoi would usually linger slightly in the garden on his way home but today he just rushed through it. He didn't want to be here. As he got to the gate Yoi almost felt relieved to be out of there and when he turned down the street, he knew he was.

Usually the road was empty. Today it was full and... He definitely didn't want to be there.

Yoi had never really believed his colleagues when they said the other company were really thugs but lining the street were... he couldn't call them people. They were things and they exuded aggression. Like the people in the building they looked at him and then dismissed him. Yoi made his way down the footpath quickly and was thankful when he could turn the corner and get away.

Except when he turned the corner there was another group of people there. They were an eclectic group. There were three tallish men, and a shorter man and woman. Three of the men wore long coats over their attire while the last was in a skin tight suit that included a mask. If they didn't radiate hostility, Yoi would have said they were heroes. The woman was dressed in... He vaguely recognised the costume. It looked Indian and was a tunic and pants. They were a muted grey.

He inched his way around them and managed to hold his nerve for a few steps past them before Yoi ran. He didn't look back and he kind of knew there'd be trouble at the office tomorrow... if there even was an office. Either way, there was something going on and whatever it was, he wanted nothing to do with it.