Residential District

[Valbjorn]

Ergo War

The young man spotted the strange looking man easily in the light of the rising sun, focusing on the man as he went about his business. Listening intently, he managed to hear the man mention a shipment being around the corner, and to give it a few minutes before going to get it. The man would then continue walking down the street like nothing had happened. At this point, Hiroto contemplated what his next move should be, to follow the suspicious looking character or to go try to intercept the shipment. On one hand the package could be a good place to sabotage whatever might be in the works, but the person might lead to more useful information, like where the shipments, which he assumed to be armor, were coming from. That track could lead him into more dangerous situations though.

As the man got further away, Hiroto left his place in the alley, dodging traps as he went down the street and around the corner to where the shipment was supposed to be, ducking back into another alley nearby. There he'd wait for the man who was supposed to retrieve the shipment to pass by. He looked up and down the street, even glancing back around the corner at where he'd come from, seeing no one around. His right hand drifted into his robe to draw a kunai, keeping it hidden in his sleeve as he waited, just in case he needed to get rough with this person.  

[Ergo War]

Valbjorn

As Hiroto took up his position, he would notice a young, weather-worn man and woman rooting through the trash behind the building. At first they appeared to be a homeless couple looking for something useful in the garbage, but there was something off about them. It wouldn't be easy to see what, specifically, they were digging through from Hiroto's position, but getting closer might tip the hobos off. What would he do?

Birds circled overhead and moth-eaten curtains swayed in a few open apartment windows above. The city was starting to stir, ever so gradually.  

[Valbjorn]

Ergo War

Watching the road for signs of someone coming for the shipment, Hiroto suddenly heard the sound of thinks shifting behind him. Looking over his shoulder, he noticed two people, apparently homeless, rummaging through garbage, but he couldn’t really see what they were doing exactly. Keeping his ears open, he heard birds starting to chirp, seeing a few circling overhead, and he noticed the open windows in a few of the apartments around. He made a mental note that he’d have to be even more discreet now, and that tracking could potentially become more difficult as more people came out to do their business for the day. As for the situation at hand, Hiroto didn’t want to risk alerting the people, so rather than approach them, he shifted to the opposite wall of the alley, watching the glass windows of the apartments near the hobos. As he adjusted where he stood, he noticed that from just the right angle, he could see the reflection of what the people were up to. He kept watching intently, but still keeping an ear out in case someone else approached, and still hiding the kunai within his sleeve, just in case.  

[Ergo War]

Valbjorn

It would appear that the hobos were not digging through the garbage itself, but rather something underneath it. They were picking through something shiny and metallic, but there was no distinguishable sound of metal. It would appear that the supposed hobos were picking through a collection of metallic objects.  

[Valbjorn]

Ergo War

Watching the reflection, Hiroto saw what it was the people were rummaging through, he was a little confused…was this the shipment he’d heard about, or just a pile of discarded metal objects? Thinking of how the city was starting to wake up, he figured attacking or doing anything big was a bad idea, it would draw too much attention. So, after taking a slow breathe and setting his expression, Hiroto stepped out of the alley and strolled down the path towards the people, not visibly paying any attention to them at all. When he was directly behind them, he stopped and turned towards the pile of metal they were looking through and reached in with the end of his staff, poking a few pieces. Putting a slightly curious look on his face and a smile on his face, Hiroto spoke cheerfully, “Whatcha lookin’ for? What’s this stuff?” he poked around the pile with his staff a little more, thinking the pieces looked like they could be chunks of armor.....and fairly high-tech stuff at that.He kept the kunai in his other hand still hidden within his sleeve. After another second or so, he pretended to scan over the people quickly, saying “If y’all are hungry, I don’t think you’ll find any food in there, but I could buy you some food over at the grill, get your day started off right.” He then widened his smile slightly, appearing to just be a curious and friendly passer-by.  

[Ergo War]

Valbjorn

((Sorry for the delay!))

Waves of hostility rolled off the two supposedly homeless people when the staff prodded the metal, but their anger faded quickly. Based on the echo the staff made on the metal and the two's reactions, this was definitely the shipment.

"Are you the relief?" one asked. "I heard the guy coming in as a replacement was a real card, and you fit the bill. Or are you perhaps... a spy?!"

The speaker recoiled slightly at the thought, raising his fists as if to fight the spy. Doubt and confusion ran across his face, though.  

[Valbjorn]

Ergo War

When the first person asked if he was the relief, then if he was a spy and jumped back as if ready to fight, Hiroto raised a hand, "Easy there, buddy. Yeah, I'm fillin' in, no need to get hostile." Hiroto let the smile on his face relax slightly, hoping it would ease the tension in this situation. After a few seconds, he continued, "So what do I need to do? I wasn't really filled in on the details."  

[Ergo War]

Valbjorn

The guy looked wary for a second, then breathed a sigh of relief.

"Just look over the stuff and make sure there aren't any major dings or other damage. We're just about done with our parts, so we'll be out of your hair in a second," he explained, turning back to his work. "Loose wires and leaky batteries are the biggest problems to look out for. If you find something sticky, you'll know there's something wrong."

The work would be fairly quick-going, as there wouldn't be any problems with the shipment of armor outside of a couple of surface scratches and a small ding in one of them. After a minute or so, the supposed-hobos would meander off, leaving the young man alone with the shipment.  

[Valbjorn]

Ergo War

Listening as the stranger explained what needed to be done, Hiroto nodded, thinking he understood what he needed. When the two people left, having finished what they needed to check, he kneeled down next to the shipment, looking through the parts to figure out what was what. Once he had found a main battery pack and the wires leading to and from it, the young man glanced around him quickly. Seeing no one, he let the kunai he'd been palming slip into his hand and made a few small cuts into the wires with the tip of it. Not large enough to be spotted easily, but would cause enough small leaks to disable it, making mental notes of where they were. When he was done, he placed the armor back where it was and stood, waiting for the person who was supposed to pick up the shipment, to tell them the "bad news" that the armor had suffered some damage either in production or in shipment, and would likely be inoperable.  

[Ergo War]

Valbjorn

It certainly would not be a long wait. After a couple of minutes, a man wearing a scarf high enough to cover his face approached the locale. He stopped next to the impostor inspector, kicked a small stone with his shoe, and cleared his voice.

"Everything clear?" he mumbled, the weight of years gone by and yet to come lingering in his voice.  

[Valbjorn]

Ergo War

Hiroto noticed as the man walked up near him, mumbling to ask whether the shipment was cleared. Hiroto turned towards the man, leaning on his staff slightly, speaking quietly, "Unfortunately some of the wires are messed up and the batteries are leaking. It must have suffered some kind of damage either in production or during shipment that other inspectors missed." After giving that a moment to sink in, he continue, "I could take the shipment in for repairs, if you know where it was manufactured. Or know where I could find out." The young man would stand there calmly, waiting to see what the other man would do.  

[Ergo War]

Valbjorn

From behind the scarf, the man's mouth curled downward.

"Unfortunate, yes. I'll take it from here, young man, but they keep a stockpile of these at the factory. You might want to take a look at some of those shipments if the other inspectors are so... unreliable."

A glint in the man's eye made it seem as though he knew more than he let on, but he simply covered the shipment and walked off without saying anything more. Was there an ally in this city, or was he a tricky foe trying to lure the young man into a trap?  

[Valbjorn]

Hiroto kept a mostly blank expression on his face as the man expressed his disappointment with the shipment not being in complete working order, then mentioned a stockpile of these shipments in the factory within the city. As the man left, Hiroto considered going to check the factory out, but at the same time was wary of a possible trap. Still thinking of what he should do, Hiroto left the alley behind the apartment building, dodging the traps like it was nothing, heading back down the main street.  

[Wolfe Whitehorn]

Nobuo Hyuuga
₪ White Eyes ₪
- Fuuton ☱ Suiton -
☼ Wanderer ☼
☼ D-Rank ☼
￥ Ryo: 000 ￥
AC: 000
☰ Chakra :---/200 ☶ Stamina :---/300

Sitting up from his bunk in the residential district, Nobuo looked out over the streets of Sasagi from his apartment window. Virtues, vices, lies, lust, and love, all seemed to mingle in this city. Sighing he slicked his hair back and walked over to his bathroom, casting off his shorts and his bed shirt as he did so. Climbing under the cold flowing water the man sighed and brushed his hair back out of his eyes once more, rinsing it back before he began to wash it out. Sighing, he scrubbed through the raven locks, before moving on to rub down his body with soap. As he knelt to grab the bottle of body soap off of the floor, he felt the cold chill of the breeze fill through the room, bumps lining up his body as he stood. Sighing, he shook his manhood with one hand, scrubbing himself before stepping his feet away from the drain and pissing into one corner of the shower. As he relieved himself, he watched the urine wash away into the swirls of the drain, he contemplated to himself that he was, in fact, poorly hydrated at this time.

"Too much soda and alcohol of late. Guess I'm cutting out the sweet drinks." The Hyuuga said as he shifted himself back into the flow of the water and began to rinse himself down.

As the soap suds were rinsed down off of his body, he placed his hands on the cold plastic wall of the shower unit and sighed to himself. This place was a far cry from what he had known as home for all these years, but nevertheless, here he was, attempting to make a difference, one day at a time. Scrubbing the last of the suds off of himself, he would then move to rinsing out and conditioning his hair, wasting a bit more of his morning in the shower. Exiting the into the cold embrace of the apartment, he grabbed the towel from the stand beside the shower and wrapped it around his waist and made his way to his bedroom to dress.

A few minutes later he would emerge once more, clothed, in a loose pair of hakama and a kimono top that he let remain slightly open. His hands were adorned in gloves that bore a steel plate atop the back of his hand and thin metal plates upon his palms.

Entering into his living room, he set up a training doll from where it had fallen upon the floor. Sighing he would begin to go over his basic training for the morning, teasing over the basic forms of the arts his father had taught, and the remembrance of the Gentle Fist.

Stepping forward, Nobuo made a simple gesture with his body, his feet in close, his body aligned, one arm tucked in while the other was extended. The extended arm thrust out to a hand held in a diagonal fashion. The stance was stoic, strong, and from such a simple pose, a strike would be launched. Thrusting his hand forth against one of the various beams launched forth from the core of the doll, Nobuo struck and the resounding rattle shuttered through the silence of the room.
[ 1/1 Lion Paw Learned ]

Recoiling from his first strike, the Hyuuga male returned to a stance with his arms forward, his hands presented, knife like, forward. Stepping forward, he thrust them outward, the first landing on the lowest extension of the doll's extremities, the second upon the high core of the doll. The soft rattling of the wooden beams continued to ring out as Nobuo began to fall into a repetitious pattern of strikes and stance movements, aiming to get his muscle movements back into place, to strike and move, to dodge and maneuver around the return stances of opponents.
[ 1/1 Tiger Fists Learned ]

Continuing the rhythm of blows against the target, Nobuo would slowly dance around it with dancing blows until he focused his chakra into a single, tantalizing blow. Stopping on his heel, he adjusted his stance and took a forward step, lunging into the training dummy. The resounding blow of chakra that danced forward and upward into the 'chin', causing it to teeter back and forth on its heels while he stepped back into position.
[ 1/1 Dragon Fang Learned ]

As Nobuo stepped back his left foot darted out from beneath him, the edge of it sweeping out underneath the doll to offset its footing, while his right hand shot out to strike it further off balance. Being backed up to the wall and counter-balanced, it of course remained standing, but the young Hyuuga was unbothered. He watched it teeter and shift, before adjusting his stance and rising to strike it once more, returning to the normal pattern of pummels. Smirking as he returned to his own balance, he would soon sigh, stepping back.
[ 1/1 Crouching Tiger Learned ]

Widening his stance, Nobuo let his legs spread and his feet shifted outwards until they were even with his shoulders. His eyes focused forward and he drew his elbows in to his hips, his focus forever forward until it set on him. Just as the beam of light shifted across the surface of the wooden beam, Nobuo exploded outwards, his fists bursting forward the doll, fingers extending outwards as a knife and colliding with the surface, forcing it to rebound off the wall with the force of the blow.
[ Roaring Iron Finger Learned ]

As his own body returned from the recoil and the raucous sound of colliding wood rang out across the room, Nobuo looked across the expanse between him and the doll. His right foot snaked forward and he stomped down, then following with the left, closing the distance. As he closed the gap he thrust both palms forward, slamming them into the central pole of the doll, forcing it to recoil once more, the shuddering of the wood ringing out once more. Something stirred in the room, no, above. His neighbor had woken up, scurrying across the floor of his own living room, searching for the source of the noise that Nobuo was making below him. He could hear the man's raspy panting and gasps as he threw himself along the floor in searching, he was strung out, drugged.
[ Double Pulsating Palms Learned ]

Turning on his heel, Nobuo was preparing to leave the training doll for a moment when he heard the sound of glass shattering in the apartment above. The neighbor above him was searching for the sound and spasming in its absence. Hearing the man scream out the window and frantically smash at the glass again, Nobuo turned on his heel and delivered a kick hard to the support arms of the doll, forcing the rattle to resound throughout the room. Hearing the man scatter across the apartment to search, away from the windows, for the sound, Nobuo sighed.

"That stuff will be the death of you."
[ Tail of the Fierce Tiger Learned ]

As the rotation of his heel brought him to his original stance, Nobuo's palms began to vibrate with a swirl of chakra. Tucking his elbows into his sides, he drew his hands out as if they were knives, fingers extended, and the chakra began to envelop the digits individually. Thrusting his fingers into the doll once more, the wooden carapace would crack and his fingers dug into the surface, chakra splintering beneath the surface for a few moments before he let the flow stop.
[ Cry of a Muffled Voice Learned ]

Sighing, he looked up as he heard a loud thump, and the snoring of his upstairs neighbor once again. The man must have passed out once more. Exiting his stance, he walked over to the kitchenette and gathered himself a glass and a poured himself some water, taking some aspirin for a simple headache he had garnered from the night before. Looking over to the training area, he thought back to his father's teachings.

[Those I'm Interacting With]

[Techniques Utilized:]
 

[Wolfe Whitehorn]

Nobuo Hyuuga
₪ White Eyes ₪
- Fuuton ☱ Suiton -
☼ Wanderer ☼
☼ D-Rank ☼
￥ Ryo: 000 ￥
AC: 000
☰ Chakra :---/200 ☶ Stamina :---/300

Nobuo sat at the table, his eyes shifting in and out of focus for a few moments before settling ultimately on his palms. He flexed the individual digits, turning his right hand over and back a few times as he watched how his tenketsu and the overall chakra network shifted with the movements. Turning his palm upwards, his eyes set on the node at the center of his palm, whereupon a bead of chakra began to form, needling upwards slowly, until it sat a few inches above the flesh, the scent of cinnamon accompanying it. The Gentle Fist, they called the teachings of his house, yet focusing on the palms and thrusting strikes, he never quite understood the idiom behind it. Sighing, he cupped his hand and focused his energies elsewhere.
[ 1/20 ]

Focusing on the opposite hand, Nobuo let the chakra flow build once more, the energies swirling beneath the palm of his hand until they rose like a needle through the flesh and the scent of cinnamon filled the room once more. The chakra flow would be invisible to the untrained eye, but those with the knowledge, or rare doujutsu like his own, would have the ability to see and watch the pinpoint precision of this technique. Watching the force rise and fall, he would then cup the second hand, closing out the force of energy behind it, and focus more on the teachings behind the actual method of what it was used for.
[ 2/20 ]

A memory, a wash of his past, three boys, two girls, setting on the mats of a dojo just outside of Raijin bay. All of the children sat upon their knees, the veins of their temples bulged. He saw himself, sitting on the far left, raven hair cut in a much shorter manner, tighter fitting clothing, his eyes were in full activation. Their father stood at the fore of the dojo, speaking to the meanings of the 'Gentle Fist', the means to end a fight without casting lasting injury, but sapping your foe of their ability to fight. His sister sighed, bored already.
[ 3/20 ]

A punishment, forced to fight against one of her elder brothers, who had already been taught a fair understanding of the art, to learn why her impatience was impertinence. Unfortunately, this meant that Nobuo was paired up versus the younger sibling. She was headstrong, where he was tempered, she was hazardous, where he was trained, she was reckless, so too was he. Nazumi rushed him headlong and Nobuo adopted the stance, his hands emitting the pinpoint needles of chakra. She closed the gap, but he thrust his palm into her thigh as she leapt, disabling her leg and robbing her of her chakra.
[ 4/20 ]

To systematically tear down the will of the enemy. To remove not their will to fight, but their ability. his father preached the opposite, but Nobuo felt it in his hands and in the pained reactions of his sister every time he struck her. The girl was rough, she found her footing, regardless of the numbness she now felt, and rushed her brother once more. Her left hand bore the pinpoint needle of chakra, and as he watched, he remembered using this exact view to make sure she could not surprise him as they fought. In a mindless reaction he gripped her left wrist in his right palm and struck her left shoulder with his own left palm, a large burst of chakra dancing out of her back as he burst another chakra node.
[ 5/20 ]

Details returned to his mind now he would have rather left in the past, the tears in his sister's eyes as she continued to try and fight him, to please their father. The look on her face was so damned familiar to him. She rushed her him once more after he created distance between the pair of them, her left arm and her leg now devoid of chakra flow and slowly falling into uselessness. The cold and calculated look of preservation fell onto his own face as the younger Nobuo turned to face his own sister, a needle of chakra lancing from his right palm towards her forehead, shrinking as she approached. The younger man drove a bare palm into his sister's forehead and threw her across the dojo floor, before walking away. A day he remembered all too well, a day he had almost become just like his elder brother.
[ 6/20 ]

Raising his own hands as he came out of his memories, he looked to them, and reviewed the scenes of his past once more. It was that day especially that he had been glad his father had decided not to send him or either of his brothers to join the Kumogakure Ninja Academy, such a cold and calculating machine turned into hands that would have refined it, instead of humanizing it. Where his father had taught them the extremity of the Gentle Fist in those earliest years, their uncle would spend the next several years teaching them the fine and gentler aspects of the skills and the important distinction it could take in ones life depending on how they chose to treat it. The wolves, love and hatred.
[ 7/20 ]

His brothers and sisters both seemed to have split among differing lines. One brother love, the other hate. One sister life, the other death. Nobuo, however, felt himself in an awkward placement. Now, almost a year to the day after settling in Sasagi City, he had begun to walk the twilight path. He envisioned ways to use his gift and teachings to disable his opponents peacefully, without leaving any lasting harm to them, but just as easily he had wrought ways to rend them whole, leaving them with only their lives, but none of their gifts. It was an uneasy place in the world for him, as he now stood, and the path of his hands guided it all. The very chakra within him stirred at this notion.
[ 8/20 ]

Each child would then spend two years training with their uncle, returning to the household only for dinner and rest, to learn the other matters of their special skills. Their father taught the fist, Nobuo the Elder, their uncle, taught the Gentle aspect. Remembrance of these days came to mind as Nobuo, the younger, traversed to the training doll once more. Strikes and blows that had been delivered before, aimed in a harder fashion, were now being delivered in the softer method, blows aimed at the beams of the doll, not just the core. The extensions of chakra rose from his hands once more, and Nobuo began his passes once more. This time, however, he did not deliver them the same method as he had before.
[ 9/20 ]

Where their father had taught to strike for the main tenketsu and the larger gates, their uncle taught the children to strike at the side gates, smaller extensions. Just as the larger gates of the body, it would shunt the chakra flow and disable the body just as well, but it would do so in a kinder method, that did not utterly destroy the body. Presented with the larger chakra flow from the main gates of the body, these lesser gates would eventually re-open, or could be opened with medical assistance much easier. Through their use, one could disable an opponent on the field without striking them down, or simply prevent an opponent from using their preferred choice of combat.
[ 10/20 ]

Beyond this, the methodology these two men taught was vastly different. Nobuo the Elder taught to harm none who did not bring you undue injury first, whereas their father taught to disable anyone who presented themselves as a threat to prevent them having the chance to shift their mindset. There were inherent flaws to both schools of thought, but who were they to consider them as children? His dance of strikes continued around the doll, blows shifting occasionally to main gates on the body, but never fully forcing them into a 'shut' state. His eyes seemed to glaze as he relived his past over and over in these short moments, forever locked within his own mind.
[ 11/20 Gentle Fist ]

[Those I'm Interacting With]

[Techniques Utilized:]