Representation for the better

[Tatsuma]

Tatsuma entered Lamia Scale's guild hall. So many things needed to be done that he needed to push himself so he grabbed a request from the job board that was B-rank and walked out, uncertain of his whether or not he was going to have to argue his point in being there. When he looked at the job he almost baulked. The request said he still got a reward if he killed the target. Lamia Scale allowed that? Regardless he shook his head and slid on the gloves he wore whenever he started doing a job request for another guild. If he was going to do it, he might as well do it the way they would have, otherwise they'd probably deny the request and say they had nothing to do with it, which would technically be true, but he would rather avoid that debacle. That aside Ranor had sat down and had a long conversation with him about the last incident and he absolutely didn't want to deal with that again.

Once he had the paper he happily headed for Hosenka Town. Not just to do the job, but because he needed to get some new clothes and they were the only ones that sold clothes in the style that he like to wear anyway. Still, business was first and he had to meet with Niles in order to get any more information. After arriving at the location he was supposed to meet the guy, Tatsu simply stood and waited.

Upon his arrival the two began to talk. Tatsu asked his usual preliminary questions and eventually Niles explained to him what was going on.
"I started C Company when I was eighteen, with a group of other teens I used to hang out with. One of these teens was Troy Hosk. It's because I have been friends with him for a long time, that I hope to reason with him, and if that's not possible, punish him. In either case I don't want Troy dead because he deserves better than that. As the leader of C Company, it's my job to tend to Troy  but I've been otherwise preoccupied with other things." He explained, his eyes shifting slightly as he spoke the last part pertaining to the reason he hadn't gone after Troy himself. Still, Tatsu was pretty sure it didn't matter. It was cut and dry, find the guy, catch the guy, bring him back. Despite the fact he was pretty sure he got it he decided it would be in his best interest to try to be compassionate, (or at least in the best interest of his client).
"Don't worry, I'm sure I should be able to bring him back. Close friendships only happen so often and maybe he can be redeemed." He said with a nod as he turned to leave.

Now that the official meeting portion of the job was completed there was the whole matter of actually finding the guy. He knew that there had been some rumors around town about this group causing problems, but he had no way to tell if the incidents were related or not. He decided that it would be best for him to go about gathering information from the trouble makers. If nothing else hopefully they could point him in the right direction.

After spending the better part of the day trying to find out from denizens around Hosenka Town and stopping at his home away from home to drop off his belongings, he finally got enough leads to pursue some guy named "Hosk". The fact that his name was the same as the surname of the guy he was supposed to be looking for made the association all that much easier to make. It was possible that the guy was a puppet, though given that the name on the lips of people who had been victims of the unfortunate ruckus led him to the conclusion that it was unlikely. After finding the part of town where Hosk was allegedly causing trouble he set up camp on a rooftop and waited to for the sounds of people either calling for help or just general shenanigans.

Hours went by and nothing happened, and just when he was starting to think that he was possibly wasting his time, he heard the unmistakable sound of glass breaking. Silent as a shadow he moved down to where he heard it and watched three people fighting three other people in an alleyway. From experience he knew how fast the collateral damage could climb up, but he didn't really fancy getting into a fight potentially with six people. Never mind the fact that if their spells were covering enough area to cause collateral damage he was at a severe disadvantage since his ability to move and evade was going to be limited by the fact that there just wasn't a lot of room for him to use.

After watching the fight and seeing walls get tumbled, windows shatter, and various debris get burned, tossed, shocked, frozen, and shattered a victor was made apparent. The three who had been on the same side of the alley as he stood over the others. They didn't seem to be making a move to finish off their opponents though so that was, of course, a good sign. Causing trouble was one thing, but he didn't want to have to deal with possibly getting blamed for their deaths, especially not while doing a job from Lamia Scale. Once the victors were decided though, it was time to move. Slowly and carefully he stepped from his hiding place and approached the group.
"Well that was a..." He looked around at the aftermath of their mayhem before continuing his thoughts. "Interesting fight. You guys wouldn't happen to know where I can find this guy Hosk do you? He seems to have drawn some attention to himself." Tatsu said with a smile as he scratched the back of his head.
"He ain't here, who wants to know?" One of the three asked.
"Just a bit of hired muscle. It would seem he's stolen something and I need to recover it and him. It doesn't have to be in that order." He said.

At that he supposed the three had heard enough to know he wasn't exactly just going to go away.
"Yeah well what if we give you some incentive to stop looking." One of them said. To this Tatsu mentally shrugged. Everything always had to be the hard way on these jobs.
"Well I guess then I have no choice but to get the information through other means." He responded, cracking his knuckles as he waited to see which of them would attack first. He got his wish as one launched himself at him and as he dealt with that attack, a second one flew toward him. He attempted to slip through the second attack but as he did the first guy grabbed him and so he was stuck for the moment as a what he could tell was going to be a powerful fire attack. As the ranged fireball lanced toward him he activated his shock shield. The resulting blast was shocked away into submission while electricity lanced from his shield toward the enemy, blasting him with the power of the electromagnetic field. Meanwhile, Tatsu dealt with the fighter at close range who used his own fire spell. As a sword slash lanced toward his head the lightning dragon slayer ducked and followed up with his own attack.
"Lightning Dragon Fang." He roared as his kick slammed into the guy's forehead. Immediately his lightning targeted his equilibrium, movement, and sight and locked his body down. As the first mage recovered from his own shock the other one that was with him launched his own spell.
Despite the effort that went into it, Tatsu zipped forward, blasting the spell with his own lightning palm spell to overcome it as the second other man's spell zipped towards Tatsu and fizzled out, the electrical shock from his shield still affecting him and draining the power of his spell down to the point of uselessness. It was good that was what happened since there was no way he would have been able to dodge it without his own magical abilities for speed active.

As soon as the lightning palm cancelled the other spell, Tatsu created a glowing violet needle of electricity and threw it at the person he hadn't hit yet, paralyzing him too while the other watched as his companions were frozen in their places.
"I want answers. Where can I find Hosk, who I'm assuming is your boss given the way you gentlemen reacted. Last chance." He said as his body crackled with electricity and he looked back at his companions.
"Don't kill us we aren't doing anything wrong, just fighting people who want to claim the area as their turf! The guy said, genuinely looking afraid.
"If I were here to kill i would have done it already. I'm just here for answers and retrieval and I'm not an assassin. Now tell me what I want to know." He demanded.
"He's our boss, but we can't tell you anything. He isn't a bad guy, really." The guy still pleaded.
"At this point I just want to talk, it will be up to your boss whether it becomes a fight or not, and again, I'm not here to kill anyone. I get payed more if this can be resolved peacefully." He said as he took a step back.
"I'll tell you what, why don't you tell your boss to meet me at the hot springs tomorrow and we'll just talk there. You guys are free to go." He said as he turned around to simply walk away. He had no doubt after hearing what happened their boss would want to meet with him. With that he set out to the inn he was allowed to stay at for free to get some rest so he could be prepared for tomorrow.

WC: 1678/2000

[Tatsuma]

The next morning, after recovering from his fight the night before, Tatsuma left to the hot springs so that he could meet with the groups' boss. Though he factored in that it could just as easily be a trap, he elected to simply go in earnest and meet them. He donned his old clothes as opposed to his new ones and left to complete the task, hoping that everything went according to plan and that Hosk would listen to reason.

As he headed toward the destination he passed through an alleyway, very close in fact to the one he had been in the day before, and started looking around. The place was open to attack from all angles and he cringed as he thought about how horrible of a position he was in. As it turned out he was in exactly the type of position he though he was in and he zipped backward instinctively just as a fireball lanced out from seemingly nowhere at him. Meanwhile, a man stepped from out of the an alleyway just ahead of him holding a sword that seemed to exhale frost and cold air.
"I see you've been harassing my boys." He said, brandishing the sword before he pointed it towards Tatsu.
"I asked them questions to find... Well I suppose to find you. You're Hosk right?"
"What of it?" The man with the cold sword responded.
"I was hired by C company. It would seem that you stole something from them, and have been using it to cause trouble. They want you brought in, presumably so that they can ask you why you did it. I was going to meet with you to try to talk about just coming peacefully." Tatsu responded, beginning to see that the chances of that happening were all sorts of unlikely.
"I have no intention of leaving here. I'm giving you one chance to leave or my boys and I will make you leave." Hosk threatened.
"I'm not going to do that. I'm sure they told you already about the magic I used yesterday. What they probably didn't know was that I was holding back." He said as he prepared to have to defend himself.

They didn't speak, no more words needed to be uttered. Both parties knew that they wouldn't be talking the other one down, though Tatsu knew he was outnumbered and he doubted that any of them used something quite as uncommon as lightning magic. Regretfully it was all about fire and ice these days. One of Hosks men drew themselves from the shadows and charged at him, Tatsu activated his lightning storm spell. It was going to have to end now and quickly, though he wasn't going to allow any of them to escape at this point. Wordlessly, he activated his primal fury ability, and began assessing the situation. Still that wasn't going to be enough speed.
"Tsuzuri Raiden." He said coolly as his body crackled with electricity briefly. Technically he was only invisible while he was moving, but he would take that, and with his spells going he was now prepared to finish the job.

As the man from yesterday charged in at him, Tatsuma zipped around him, dodging quickly and striking him in the back of his neck with his lightning storm empowered fists. Lightning crackled as the blow landed and Tatsuma zipped off in the direction the fireball came from. As another fireball zipped toward him, he adjusted his path, reappearing on the wall to the side of the alleyway and disappearing once again as he moved toward the second opponent. As he grew closer a thin veil appeared over his target, and he recognized it as an illusion, though he naturally saw through it, and as he connected with the second mage, he realized that the fireball throwing caster who had been standing on a fire escape, wasn't accompanied by anyone. Though as he jumped down he assumed either the third henchmen was hidden, or he was away. Once that was completed he leaped down the fire escape and landed on the ground. When he looked at Hosk this time he saw concern in his eyes, beating up his allies hadn't helped things, plus he was struggling against his own killing instincts anyway.
"Why didn't my illusion work on you?" Hosk asked.
"Where is the other guy?" Tatsu responded, asking a question of his own.
"I told him to sit this one out, you injured him bad enough I didn't want to risk it." He replied.
"That was an accident, I didn't mean to hurt anyone seriously. Look, why don't you just go back to C company and talk with Niles. Maybe there's a way you can come to terms and perhaps work so that both your dreams can come true. We can end this here before anyone else has to get hurt." He offered, getting ready to deactivate his spells.
"And if we don't?" Hosk responded.
"Then my job is done and hopefully next time you guys won't need a guild mage to step in." He said, deactivating his spell as he turned to walk away.

When Hosk allowed him he considered the job done, and allowed him to leave. Tatsu would later learn that Hosk and Niles had worked out their differences and managed to simply expand C company with both of them in charge. Meanwhile the former members of Troy's old group joined up with the newly reformed C company to add even more strength to the group.

2598/2000