🌾» bold and outspoken or organized and assertive or trusting and excitable ?
🌾» bold and outspoken or organized and assertive or [ trusting and excitable ] ?
"Stop that man! Thief! BASTARD!"
His wheezing breaths only grew more haggard as he fled into an alley deep in the Rakuza District of Kugane. Sobe Hanamizu was not a particularly athletic man. He enjoyed the pipe along with his drink, and enjoyed both in spades. He was a man of numbers and the barber's blade, and was more adept at administering stitches than inflicting wounds that needed them. His slender, shaky hand nursed a knot in his side, and he cursed his younger self for choosing books instead of blades. If only that were the only thing he regretted--
"There! Get him!"
Hissing, Sobe bolted out of his self-deprecation, finding the strength to run in his selfish desire to survive. And whatever the reason for that desire, it was as elusive as he was now, dodging through night market crowds as he made his way down to the pier. Realistically, there was nothing for him. He'd angered his clan, and he was as good as dead or worse if he turned back--and his name would surely be dragged through the mud for not only refusing to treat a fellow criminal's wounds, but to steal from him besides.
He'd nearly toppled over the pier before his reflexes stopped him--bless his peripheral vision, which hadn't all failed him yet. He didn't have much time to figure out his next move, however. A throng of men were hot on his heels, with only the ocean as his path forward--
Suddenly, a heavy claw gripped around Sobe's ankle, and he had no time to react before he was swiftly pulled off of the pier and into the waters below. His mind was a blur as streams of bubbles filled his vision. Was it a Kojin working with the clan? Was it--
"Shhh. Stop struggling." A deep, murky voice would sound from the creature's chest--an Au Ra with mossy scales, and large, tusk-like teeth. He had pulled Sobe up to breathe before using his large claw to cover the man's mouth again. "Hold." He'd command, gentle but firm, as the Au Ra dragged them both back into the water and hid underneath the pier, away from Sobe's pursuers. The Au Ra man kept his eyes trained up towards the surface, watching for silhouettes to disappear back towards dry land before tugging them both back upward. Sobe sputtered and hacked out his already dry, exhausted lungs, the cold air a sharp, bitter, yet exhilarating relief.
"You... you helped me... why?" Sobe panted, and turned to look at the Au Ra with his good eye. He was a young man, with bright green eyes and a heavy-set jaw. He was unlike any other of the auri people that Sobe had ever met. Suddenly, his eye squinted. "What do you want?"
The Au Ra simply grinned, and his sharp teeth glinted in the moonlight.
"I am escaping from something too. Why not escape together? Can you read Hingan?"
Baffled, Sobe could only wipe his face of sea water as he stared incredulously at the man he would come to know as Tohnii.
