Hiroshi Unbreakable.

“So it’s settled then, you youngsters are getting on some stupid brawl with the Beretta family right.”

“That we shall, Sir.” A masked man spoke.

On a small tattoo parlor by the junkyard a rather scrawny old man was careful inking a tattoo on a young man’s back, a rather unusually skinned young man, a man with a white mask with only two black dots painted in place of eyes, one could not see anything while wearing such a thing. The shape of his bones clearly showing in his skin that by now was already adorned with countless tattoo’s in almost all of his skin, more than anything the tattoo’s resembled the countless faces of many men and women. The old man was simply tattooing a pattern around them in the form of crawling hair flowing thought all of his body.

“I don´t get it, every time I look at your back it’s never the same.” The old man scratched his head as he finished rounding upon the edges of the black hair ensuing to give the illusion that it was all flowing downwards. “Of course, I’m never the same man twice.” The old man sighed. “Must be one of that weird superpower stuff all you youngsters have this days.” The masked man remained quiet, simply staring at the floor as the people around him looked at their surroundings with worry. The Yakuza clearly armed as they stood guard outside the tatoo parlor.

“Rgghh, when you kids get violent is always us innocent folk who end up paying the price.” The Maked man raised his head his shoulders still limped at his sides as the tattoo artist complained at him. “There is no such thing as an innocent, not in Isla franca. A city born from sin leaves no man untainted.”

“Whatever just keeps us out of it, ok. I’m not asking for the moon here.”

“Every man to his fate.” The masked man spoke in whispers, his tone unchanged serene flowing like silk.

“Ehh…I suppose you kids aren´t all bad, at least you are trying. It’s hard not to feel bad for the folks in those factories, but if you kids thing you can just punch Salvatore’s people out of here that is never going to happen.” The masked man lowered his head again, looking at his black boots. “It concerns me not. I´m of the scorching sun, for my own wish and only for that.” The old man finished his labor and stare at his client in confusion. “That´s news to me. ¿So you aren´t doing this, to get revenge for your country, like your friends then? Now that I think about it you don’t even have one of those sun tattoo’s” The masked man put his thin fingers upon the forehead of his mask. “No, I very much not care for mere simple dirt; I have no need of a past either.”

“¿Then what’s that wish or yours boy?”

“I cannot say it, as everything loses power when given shape. It needs not to be spoken, not ones true desires, its best to give them no shape. To keep them safe.”

“Always a weirdo. Fine don´t tell me, I rather not know what creepy thing is inside that head of yours.” The masked man dropped his arm and his head remaining silence again, without showing any hints of discomfort as the tattoo was burned into his skin.

But that quiet moment was broke, the sound of glass breaking and the fearful unmistakable loud bang of gun fire drowned the small shop in an instant. The armed Yakuza in front were thrown back the impacts of bullets, one scream the other couldn´t anymore as he fell backwards his own machinegun setting off in vain. More and more the sound of glass and walls breaking resounded, a barrage of bullets entering front the front and breached all that lay within. The man in the mask and the old man never got to move, as he bullets reached and the wall behind was left full of holes, they both collapsed each sprouting blood as they fell.

“Target was hit.” Outside the tattoo parlor a man in a white suit came out of a broken down car that wouldn´t have looked out of place in that dirty old street. The broken window started to be surrounding by the Beretta family grunts, all very easy to recognize by the white suits they wore, all carrying machineguns and hand guns with them. Amongst them a man in white of brown skin and a thick mustache came forward.

“¡We have tasted first blood, tell all capos to begin operations, give them no time to breath!” He screamed to a radio in his hand and the other man around him guarded the car with they´re weapons drawn. The man with the radio signaled to the two gunmen who were just in front of the windows they have broken.

“¡Go in and confirm that the Noh is death, hurry now, we must keep moving, there is no going back now!” The man screams at them, clearly anxious and very clearly afraid as he moved his arm accusingly, the other two man didn´t question him and simply run inside the tattoo parlor.

“This trashcan is one of their bases, this people are just crappy street gang.” Another of the man spoke while still holding his weapon towards the streets.

“Yeah we are going…to kill them all out in no time.” The man with the radio spoke with a constant pause in his words as he reached for his neck with his free hand.

“Sir I can confirm the target was eliminated, there were no survivors.” A man in white came out from the parlor with his gun lowered; his expression was rather grim, all of them, men in white, seemed to not know where to look they all were simply staring around blankly at the tattoo parlor.

“¡Hahaha, see we took down one of their big shots already… Doesn´t matter how tough they are. ¡A bullet to the head is a bullet to the head!” The man with the radio laughed as he pressed the radio and spoke.

“The Noh is dead it all came perfectly, boss.” After reporting his succeed, he let go of the button and heard a bullet being shot.

“What?”

He turned back to stare at the parlor and he heard a gun ring out again and again, one of his men was already bleeding on the floor and other had taken a shot straight on its forehead and could only fall weakling among the rubble and broken glass, only the man in white right in front of him remained with his gun drawn, as he stared in silence at his companions he had just shot down without any mercy.

“¡What did you do!” The squad commander dropped the radio and pulled out his own gun pointing straight at the head of the other man, who didn’t move a single inch.”

“Oh, this must have been your first time waging a war lacking in sense; you all are clearly no super villains. Never believe you know what to expect.” The man spoke with a weak and dragged tone, almost as if he had barely any will to speak at all, but that voice was another man’s voice.

“!Ah…Ahhghgg!” In a panic the commander shoot the other man square in the shoulder as blood spitted outwards from his white suit, he remained in silence twisting from the impact but refusing to fall.

“Hmmm… This is my answer for this artist’s death.” With a voice like a mere whimper the killer in white broke his arm backwards like a puppet twisting his limps, and without even stating back he shot the last survivor with a bullet to the chest. The hit squad commander collapsed the sight of his own man’s back after killing being the last sight he would ever have.

“Now there is none who can paint our souls hopes upon our flesh... hmm”

Feeling uncertain the figure in the white suit jumped back with a range beyond what was humanly possible towards the car the family had arrived in, machinegun fire was unleashed upon him in an instant and his body barely managed to escape unharmed. Crashing upon the roof of a car and with a backflip upon impact and then disappearing behind it.

“Don’t stop, pin him down.”

Two more black cars came suddenly into the street and from the windows men in black opened fire toward their target even if it had looked like one of their own. As the bullets rained upon a tall black man walked closer to it, he wore a white suit with a hat like the rest, but he had a scar over his mouth that hided a respiratory device.

“!Sorry, but you took the bait, Mr Noh!”

With a furious scowl on his face the man punched the air releasing from his arm a vortex of fire that expanded onward engulfing the whole car inside its flames and so it exploded in a power deafening sound, but the flames didn’t stop the flew upwards burning the streets and the houses behind it, scorching them as a cloud of smoke flew upwards into the very skies. Fire wrath Johnson released fort devastation hoping to eradicate a single cockroach along with the whole street in a move. The men around him stopped shooting, standing in awe at the flames and cinder that blew up into the atmosphere.

“¿Hahaha, he is not death right? ¡Shoot if anything moves!” Johns raised his index finger with a flame dancing around it and pointed towards the burning car.

A gunshot was heard and a man in white was hit on the head, spitting red blood over himself, the rest answered in a panic releasing a barrage of bullets into the cover of smoke that veiled the streets.

“Eh... maybe blowing the car wasn’t the best idea” Johnson groaned as he opened his palm in flames towards him. The smoke was beginning to dissipate so among the loud rumbling of machineguns he alone stood calm. A man screamed close by and Johnson only manage to see him collapse as his throat bleed with no one else at sight, only two of his man remained so he knew well what to do there and now. Johnson walked towards his remaining men and released a raging flame towards them. One of the last men in white smiled and threw machine gun away and in an instant jumped out of the way leaving the other men to be burned alive, but the flames banished before they even scorched his white suit.

“¡There you are you are, you faker!”

The fake man in white landed on the roof the car behind them, his face seemed to be cracking like porcelain revealing a white mask below it. His white outfit turned slowly black and began to unravel falling on top of car now in the shape of hundreds of long locks of black hair that slowly fell from his body. The masked man’s chest was bare displaying clearly the tattoos of dozen of faces depicted upon his body and of black hair swirling and connecting them all. His true self revealed as the elusive Noh.

“Hmmm, you never noticed in time and so now your men rest.”

“I heard you were harder to kill than a cockroach, living to the name.” Johnson walked forward towards the assassin, his face hidden by the scarf but his clear eyes locked upon his prey, with no signs of fear.

“You are from the family, so bold of you to have come, tell me do you not fear Kojiro´s Wrath anymore?”

“¡That’s up to the boss, killing you is just a job!”

Flames sprout forward from inside Johnson’s sleeves, the Noh grabbed the roof of the car and impulse himself with both arms, and with a great finesse he slipped below the fire and quickly rolled on the ground reaching Johnson in a flash. The nails on his hands grew like grotesque knives and with a quick spin he sliced Johnson’s knees.

“¡Shit!”

Quickly Johnson released another barrage of fire just in front of his legs and the Noh did another backflip evading it just in time. The masked man remained with both arms in the floor his posture in resemblance of a frog just behind the reach of the flames. Johnson groaned and clenched his teeth barely managing to keep himself standing.

“You will need a clear head to reach me. Angry men are simple men.” Flames flew forward towards the masked man who jumped above it, his body painted in colorful inks twisted gracefully as he spun on the air with a single jump. Nimble and fit, slim yet with a strong complexion, the masked man fell behind his enemy stopping his fall with a single hand and using that single point of pressure he jumped back and landed on his feet.

Johnson didn´t wait a single second as his hand began to spread flames again, but before he could turn completely and scorch the Noh alive he was pierced in the shoulder, delaying him enough for the strange man to banish from his sight again.

“Damn it” Long finger nails stabbed him in up to three times on his arm and Johnson ended up releasing more smoke from his neck in anger, his flames only turned ablaze the asphalt on the street, The Noh was safe looking at him from atop a lamppost.

“But you do have strength and I cannot help but be enthralled, I wish to eat you, to make that strength mine.” Noh moved his fingers below the white mask and his long tongue slipped underneath it, it was not the tongue of a human.

“¿You want my power? ¡You think you can handle it!” Fire burst outwards from both of his arms, as he moved them towards the lamppost, Noh allowed himself to drop backwards, falling down with his sight upon the sky and once he touched the floor he speeded forward to pass the threshold below the two arcs of fire, his nails growing large again. The fire banished just above him, but as he raised his claws he was grabbed with great strength by the neck and lifted off the floor, his skin burning intensely from that touch.

“¡A weakling like you will only combust himself!” His hands closed on the slender man´s neck and they burned his skin black, fire wrath John engulfed him in an unbearable heat as he slowly chocked him to death. “¡This heat never ends, it never stops burning! ¡How much can you take, ha!” His neck was caught on fire as Johnson laughe, but the masked man never reacted not even with a single scream he remained numb.

“¡This right now, is how my skin always feels!...agg.” Jonson screamed to the inexpressive mask till he began to cough again in pain, a long stream of smoke was then released from his respiratory device, but Johnson was struggling from his coughing.

For a moment his strong grasp wavered and the man he was strangling finally reacted, his nails grew rapidly and with both arms he pierced Johnson in his wrist in a gruesome display, he scream among his coughing, but his arms refused to let go.

“Strong… I need to eat...consume you” The Noh spoke softly.

The mask man wasn´t struggling any more, leaving his snails piercing the other man’s arms, Johnson could feel his strength leaving him little by little, and something else creeping on the corner of his eye.

Something was crawling on top of his clothes, a swirling black mass that came out from behind the masked man, strings of hair only visible by being so many, but with an unbelievable strength and they all encroached thought his torso, his legs and finally his arms. He tried to resist, but the many string forced his hands to let go of the thin neck he had been so eager to break.

¨¿Why can´t you just burn me? Are you as well afraid of fire?” Even though the man shouldn´t be able to speak any more, he talked in mockery, his neck burned to a crisp and yet one could clearly see how very slowly his skin healed back into its place.

“I’ll eat you now, you are…truly worthy.” The black hair crawled from behind his head and into the space below his mask, the hair took the shape of many fingers and slowly began to peel the mask from his face revealing his mouth. The mouth of the Noh opened from its center like a slit, showing hundreds of small sharp teeth, his tongue was set free, getting longer and longer as it reached past the distance to Johnsons face.

“We will become one; exist as part of a greater whole. ¡A greater being!” His mouth opened and closer, splitting saliva without any hold, his voice was hardly human anymore, it was grating to the ears and yet it clearly spoke with great delight and joy.

Johnson couldn´t move any more the long hair had him chained to the ground locking every muscle of his in place, but there was no fear in the man in white´s eyes. Just anger and a fury that made his eyes pop white.

“¡Eat a load of this!” The fire wraith answered, his anger overwhelming all fear.

With all the strength that remained him Johnson began to force his hands back, clothes ripping apart by the countless strings of hair till they reached his flesh and made him bleed underneath, punishing for daring to move. Johnson´s whole arm bended unnatural threatening to break, but he bared it all and reached his scarf with his own hand moving it down his neck. Underneath his scarf was a very metal neck piece connected to a respiratory mask and two long tubes that arched down beneath his clothes and at its very center was a vault that he now turned open.

A loud metallic bang was heard and a barrage of black smoke exploded from his neck forcing the long tongue to retract, the smoke flowed outwards engulfing them both, and so the two of them disappeared as the smoke grew more and more all over the street and towards the grey skies, it spread forcefully by a strong air current and the street was left in silence below it. It kept expanding leaving the entire street in the dark till alone figure walked out of the smoke and into a small alleyway.

It was the slender man in the white mask, looking far more decrepit than before as he leaned against the wall to keep himself from falling down.

“Can´t breathe…” His chest moved strange as if something was moving inside it and below his mask he released a torrent of smoke that had entered through his mouth. Once he managed to spit out all of the smog, he got up, walking deeper into the alleyway with a limp, barely saving himself from a painful asphyxiation.

“¡Yehhaa!” From within the wall of smoke a figure spawned in a rampage, welding a gigantic axe and cutting him from hid retreat. The Noh wasn´t able to move in time and his arm was severed with a clean cut from the side. His skins ruptured and bleed while his entire body was sent flying against the near bye wall. He still landed in his feet raising slowly with half of his left arm cut open to the point his bones were clearly visible.

“Man, you can still jump out of the way.” A short, but corpulent woman in a white suit with blond hair and black sunglasses wielded the axe over her shoulder, her face beaming with a jolly smile as if she was simply in a stroll. The woman made her axe dance upon the air with grace and ease and the masked man could only evade it at the last second. He moved below it as it cleaved through the wall in the alley, breaking its concrete apart.

He ran his movement slower and clumsier than before, even a body as inhumane as his could reach its limit. But the woman didn’t give up her pursuit her axe swinging wildly in search of prey as she laughed.

“¡Hahaha you sure are something, let me have a bite!”

The Noh jumped out of the ally as the huge axe breached both walls at his side at once , he quickly landed on his right arm and spin on the air throwing a knife before landing again. She raised one of her legs skipping over the knife, but lost balance and had to stop running and tried as she stood in one leg for a second.

“Man, and Mr. Johnson already had cocked you very good and everything, give up and the boss might still forgive you.” The woman let the huge axe rest at her side as she slowly regained her breath again, she might be more tired than her smile revealed, but her grip one the axe was still quite firm.

“If not I think I’ll cook you myself, yeah I don´t want anything else to get on the way, Haha I´m gonna have to check for poisons thought…Haha…”

“¿You wouldm´t eat my flesh?” Even though his arm was ripped upon and remained limp to his side, the masked man showed no emotions in his voice.

“Yeah, I used to eat people a bit back in the day, but the boss says it’s too uncivilized or something, but hey I won’t tell if you won´t.”

Once more the sound of guns ringed on the abandoned old streets and a bullet pierced Noh in the shoulder making his body spin as he fall from the impact. The woman rushed with a loud joyful laugh and swung down her weapon against him.

But she was sweep of her feet; his hair had lurked below her and grabbed her ankles to make her fall along with her axe. Noh released her at once seeing that behind him a squad of men in white suit had their weapons ready. The masked man was bleeding again but his scrapped body didn´t slow down as he jumped out of their line of fire.

Machine gun fire ran as he jumped to the next corner of the street. He was on the verge of passing out and the road in front of him was nothing as his vision suddenly went dark as he suddenly was hit on the back by a heavy blunt object. The woman had thrown it from afar to stop him on his tracks, he had gotten lucky it only manage to reach him with the handle of the axe, but the men in white had all reunited with their guns ready.

“Nice catch, boys reel him in.” The woman gave a fist pump, jumping in place with excitement and two of the man began to walk with caution towards him. The Noh was bleeding out fast, his tattoos now hidden by his own blood as his slim arms still tried to raised him up again. He made no sounds as he finally stopped trying and rather than that he simply raise his hand above his head and towards the gray skies above.

“Please, we don´t want to…wither away.” And spoke in a fragile voice, a different voice. Someone else’s voice, but the man in white never heard him. There was a sudden change in the wind and a clear whisper could be heard. It was the sound of a drum, a hymn of sorts falling down into the streets and that of a string being released.

It was sudden in an instant an arrow pierced the white suit of one of the man in front and catch fire on contact, he tried to scream, but was silenced with and arrow to the head as did his companion at the exact same time.

“¡Everyone back!” The woman jumped back evading an arrow and in a desperate move grabbed one of the men in white at her side and forced him in front of her. He was punctured with three arrows and died instantly only letting out one last scream, still using his body as a shield the woman jumped back into the street corner. The other men raised their guns in a panic and began to shoot back.

Two more arrows where shoot into the street itself, with a round black device at their tip, it blinked a red light for a second and then released a curtain of smoke that spread thought the street leaving the men shooting blind in hopes of hitting the fallen man. Amiss the confusion a another arrow hooked itself to the ground just at the side of the Noh, it was hooked to a long rope and he bitted it strongly with his teeth and grabbed it as best he could with the only arm he could still move. Slowly the rope began to raise him upwards by the side of a building.

Only the woman remained sitting down in an alley with a confuse look on her face as she saw the men run from the smoke just to be pinned down one after another by an arrow to their backs. She laughed a bit and took out her cellphone out.

“Hi it´s me Bella… yeah I´m fine, but… well” She laughed weakly, rolling her eyes away from the street in embarrassment.

“Mission failed, boss.”

***

“You came; you truly are the guardian of the heavens.” The Noh groaned slowly barely keeping his consciousness as his wounds were treated. The Noh sited upon a rooftop under Aoi Kojiro´s watch, the very captain of their misfit army had come to his rescue.

“I…should have been faster…I.” Aoi Kojiro tried to fight of the tears, thought she knew how to treat some wounds on the battlefield she was hardly a doctor. His state was terrible even if he’s body could heal itself, this was too much. She was so glad he didn´t fall unconscious or else everything could have already ended. She tried to treat the burning of his neck by at least covering it up, but he didn’t allow her to touch his mask. Rather he grabbed her arm and gently pushed her away from his chest. He still had a bullet on his shoulder and a broken arm. She looked at his mask as if she hopped to see his eves from within those holes.

“¿What is the plan?” He said as coldly as ever.

“Plan…¿Do I have such a thing?” She stood up again as he laid further down. She was truly ready for it wearing a fully armored vest on top of her clothing well equipped with two different bows, carrying at least four quivers at her waist; it was war again, like the first time they meet.

She was ready as always, she had already spoken to all them warned them that something was going to happen.

“You always do, you simply have to recall it. We must not forget our selves again.” The Noh told her as he looked towards her.

“ahh…well, their plan was to kill you first before anything else. It was the smartest approach really, everyone else among us couldn´t reach Tonny Beretta before he flees again…We are a bit to showy.”

“In that cases we must make him regret his failure.”

“You can´t fight anymore. Not with a body like that”

“Even so give me a few hours and I will find him, this body still has much to offer and our debt is yet to be paid.” The nails on his right hand stretched and he quickly inserted them on his shoulder and carved out the bullet with ease. His hair grew down his shoulders and began to pierce the skin sewing the wound with strings of hair.

“There is nothing to be paid; besides you said tht you are only following us to consume Kojiro at the end.” She spoke with a smirk,

“¿Did I? I cannot remember, we were something quite different back then thought. This time thought, it is our war and ours alone so we must fight, for ourselves.”

“Only For ourselves, hardly there already way too many people depending on us in this slavers bay, I won´t allow it, this place will be ours, it has to be for their sake.”

Aoi stepped up into the border of the rooftop, looking down at the dirty street and all the men and women that reunited to look at the skies above they had come carrying drums of war and tall long flags awaiting an answer, awaiting her call.

“You are right we are not the same people we were five years ago, when Salvatore´s armies came, we could only sneak our way back but not fight them.” She spoke quietly so only Noh could hear her.

“It was wise because of that we exist here and now.”

“¿Wise, but have we archive anything at all? We will never reach Salvatore, so our revenge is pointless, he´s just too far away.”

“¿Do you truly care for such revenge, do you think it to be wise?”

“No, I haven’t, for a very long time, what matters to me are to at least free the people of this island and for Kojiro…to be safe. He has given off enough for us…”

“If so it’s fine by me, you two do as you please, like back then we are only looking out for ourselves. To see your goal realized that is the role of the Noh.”

“Hah… I really don’t get you at all…But thank you… ¡Listen up!” She finally addressed the crowd and they all raised their heads towards the grey skies above. The Noh remained sited outside of view staring blankly into the distance.

“¡We are at war now, we have fought desperately to make of this bay our own, because this was the place where this island needed to change the most, the beginning of our conquest! But now the Beretta family is here as well, they want to take all that we have earned and remember that if they win we will end up in chains again, there is no honor nor courage in them, they are no different than the many slavers we have broken, they will put you all back in chains and if not they will exploit you for every cent all the same!”

The crowd remained silent, she could see anger and fear in their faces, most of them were here only too feel safe after all, that would never be possible if they remained in the scorching sun and she knew it. This was no army, just the many unfortunate people who had lost their nations to Salvatore; they were survivors who could die when their time to choose came no different to her, thinking that so she stood still in silence, her words failing her again.

“¡We can win; we have Kojiro strength with us! ¡The strength that took down an army, the power that could stand even against the vey Salvatore, he will fight at our side and as long as he stands we will never break and the sun will be revealed above us once more! ¡So fight, follow Adachi Kojiro and know that the world’s strongest man is at our side!” She spoke fiercely raising the bow into the air and finally her words resonated among the Scorching sun, they heard her and screamed in pride and rage. They would fight because they believe they could win, because they remembered why the Scorching Sun is truly feared. When her speech ended and everyone left to their assigned posts, Aoi walked away with a somber look in her face. Noh had finally stood up awaiting her, his body a ragged mess of bandages and scars.

“You have ignited their spirit, congratulation.”

“No, my brother did, he Is the one they truly follow, they would not listen to a word I said otherwise.”

“So you remain the moon, but will that be enough. ¿Can Kojiro alone win this war?”

“He cannot, he is too good for deceiving, he would never approve of anything, but a fair fight, but that is not a war, so regardless of his feeling we both must do whatever is necessary to end our enemies, we are the only ones who can, after all we never had much honor in the first place.”

“¿A cowards assassination then?”

“Its fine, Kojiro is our light; his kindness is still carrying us onwards, so it’s not that bad to be his shadow. I´m not like him or Howard, I´m no warrior and neither are you assassin.” The Noh bowed in silence, as he looked at the crying face, she probably didn´t knew that there were tears on her eyes.

“I will pursuit Tony Beretta and kill him, Kojiro-sama will not be informed and much bloodshed will be spared.”

“No, don´t kill him, we need to make him talk first.”

“¿Hmm…is there something else that concerns you then?”

“Yes, this can´t be Tony Beretta´s idea he wouldn´t risk going against Kojiro, at the very least my brother is a deterrence that has kept even Salvatore away from us. Someone else is moving things here, some who cares very little for the Family or even us. I can sense it, your assassination attempt had no concern for the lives of their people, and they were sacrificed by a strategist that…- Her hands were shaken and the look on her eyes was as frightening as her brothers.

“Someone’s moving our lives whitout caring for their weight, a strategist with nothing protect, the sort of person that would burn the whole of slavers bay if they have to, and worst yet, someone who believes they can defeat Kojiro even with all of his strength. Even if there is only a small chance for it to happen, we need to destroy this phantom and I… wish to do it myself.” The Noh laughed in muffed sound.

“Very well, two heads to end a war. I´ll be our pleasure” And so the masked man bowed lightly.