“The White Shadow”, by Jonah Brausch.
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“I thought you would come later Yozu.”
“I came early. You said the assasination would be today and I don’t want to miss my shot. You know what I do.”
…
“You’ll give me half right?”
“If you're correct on the target’s location, then yes. Half.”
“Alright. Speech is to take place in the Creel open air auditorium.”
“Open air? You would think the government officials would be a little sensitive about that. Senator Edins was shot walking to his house last month. You would think they would be taking precautions.”
“They are. They’re putting magic blast shields up on stage. That’s all the snipers are using these days Yozu. The armor penetrating magic bullets. Some of those things don’t even cost that much mana.”
“Let me guess. Don't have old fashion bullet protection up there.”
“Bingo. Governor Klouffer is trying to save expenses for the event, but at the same time is taking on one hell of a gambit. Some of these bounty hunters are smarter than to only use magic bullets. They carry metals on them too.”
…
“Thanks Takion. I’ll keep in touch.”
“You better be. I'm getting half.”
…
Emerging from the dark alleyway, a tall figure cloaked in a black hooded cloak looked around him cautiously and finally stepped out of the building's gap. The man had long white hair that swooped over his face from time to time, blank steel colored eyes and rather pale skin. From a day to day standpoint, he normally wore this cloak to hide his body and his face from the world. To add onto it, he wore black cargo pants for various item holding, and paired with the pants were black combat boots. Ths was Yozu Takenawa, but around here people called him “The White Shadow ''. Yozu had a reputation for attending secretly to governmental speeches and taking out assassins that were looking for a victim. Bounty hunters. No one knew where or how he did this, but he was rather famous in the media. He would turn up, get caught on camera, but all they could ever get was his cloak. Nothing else. Hence the name, “The White Shadow.”
The media had their theories on him. What if he was a high ranking military sniper. Was if his shots were fired from a drone? What if he was so good because he was in his 40’s and had a lot of experience? The truth was it was all by skill. And Yozu was only 19.
Government Officials thanked him so much for saving their lives that they gave him rewards. Mainly cash rewards. Sometimes without knowing it he would take out assassins with bounties on their heads and get a bigger prize pool. Those would be good days for him.
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Positioning himself on a nearby roof next to the Creel Open-Air Auditorium, he gazed at the people entering. Hunters would normally come early into the theater seats so that they could get a good shot. Others would risk it and merge with the crowd of people coming in. No one notices you, but you have a higher chance of failure.
An hour went by slowly, but Yozu didn’t budge from his hunkered position on the roof. There was nothing suspicious yet, and the speech was about to start. 200 chairs in the audience, one of them with a plan. Scanning rows and rows quickly, he smirked. Bingo. There he was.
The man was large, estimating about 6’4”, bald and had a scar barely missing his right eyes that stretched from his forehead down to his lips. The assassin didn’t have a gun in his hands or in a holster. The giant had an abnormally large guitar case strapped on his back. Hunters snuck in weapons when they thought security was tight. Knowing that this was definitely the target, Yozu took out his sniper rifle and slid the scope on. He raised it to his eye and watched how his vision zoomed in. Straight at the temple. That’s where the scope was aiming.
And now he waited. Waited for a sign that the giant had a trigger happy finger on him. Shooting someone without disregard wasn’t how he did things, that was a criminals way of doing things, and that wasn’t how he rolled. Go in. Find the target. Eliminate the target. Don’t get seen. Don’t get caught. Simple enough.
Governor Klouffer took to the stage, and the mana shields went up.
“Good Afternoon everybody! Let me start out by thanking each and everyone of you for coming out here for this event. I sincerely hope that you are all-” The Governor was interrupted by a loud BANG!
There was a body of a giant man with a rifle in his arms, crumpled on the ground lifelessly . Gasps went through the audience, and confused murmurs went rippling through the crowd and some of them backed away from the body, not knowing if he was still alive. Guards stood in front of Klouffer and others went to check the body. No pulse.
Yozu stood up, draping his white cloak over his face, and stood positioning his back to the target. “T-There! On that roof! The White Shadow!”, a woman yelled pointing, being the first one to see
Cameras turned anxiously to his mysterious figure and flashed their lights and Yozu ran away. Leaping across the tight roofs and jumping over the alleyways and the wind rushing past his face. He ran. And he ran. As far away has he needed to be. Eventually he stopped and took some time to catch his breath. Not only was he running pretty fast, but he also was carrying a decently heavy rifle in his arms as well. Yozu had stopped at a wide alleyway that he knew wasn’t popular to gangs and such. He sighed a breath of relief and closed his eyes.
Tak...tak...tak...tak...tak...tak...tak…….
In a split second Yozu was back into full power mode as his survival senses kicked in. Footsteps. He could recognize those sounds anywhere. They found him. He frantically turned to both ends of the alleyway to see who was coming and attempted to get away in time. But he was too late. One person on each end of the entrances holding a semi-automatic. Not the friendliest people in town. Yozu knew immediately what they were after. Him. Yozu was quite aware that there were bounties on the market for himself, large ones. They were laughing to themselves.
“Look at this! Seems like the Shadow isn’t as hard to catch as I thought! Right into our hands. All we had to do was to get Diablo to try to kill Klouffer for the bait,” The man to the left said with a large toothy grin plastered onto his scarred face. “And now I’m gonna give me some of that reward!” He said rubbing his hands together as the man to the right started to aim at Yozu’s face.
He couldn’t help but laugh, and that only caused confusion to his opponents. “Your way outta your league. You're not the first ones to set up bait for me you know,” the hooded man said as he strapped his gun to his back and slowly unsheathed five knifes under the cover of the alleyway's darkness. “Two months ago a group of guys thought they were being pretty smart. Were gonna keep me hostage and tourture me. ‘Make em go through hell and back’ they said. Do you know what happened to those five men?” Yozu asked the gun-slingers as they cautiously took a step back.
“I took my cloak off and showed them who I really was. And I was the last face they ever saw.”
Those words echoed through the alleyway. The gun-slingers stood in fear of the man before them, knowing that he could end their lives at any time he wanted.
Silence…
The men looked to each other and began to reconsider their actions. Then Yozu spoke up.
“And I’m sure you’d rather be on the wanted list and not in a coffin. So make your decision wisely, because it might be your last,” Yozu said sickeningly as he gripped the knives in his hands ready for combat.
That was the last straw for them. They bowed in apology, and ran off to who knows where.
The hooded figure walked out they same way they did, took off his gun, and fired twice.
The White Shadow had disappeared, and two new bodies were discovered in the streets. He had no mercy for criminals.
******************************************************************************************************
“I thought you would come later Yozu.”
“I came early. You said the assasination would be today and I don’t want to miss my shot. You know what I do.”
…
“You’ll give me half right?”
“If you're correct on the target’s location, then yes. Half.”
“Alright. Speech is to take place in the Creel open air auditorium.”
“Open air? You would think the government officials would be a little sensitive about that. Senator Edins was shot walking to his house last month. You would think they would be taking precautions.”
“They are. They’re putting magic blast shields up on stage. That’s all the snipers are using these days Yozu. The armor penetrating magic bullets. Some of those things don’t even cost that much mana.”
“Let me guess. Don't have old fashion bullet protection up there.”
“Bingo. Governor Klouffer is trying to save expenses for the event, but at the same time is taking on one hell of a gambit. Some of these bounty hunters are smarter than to only use magic bullets. They carry metals on them too.”
…
“Thanks Takion. I’ll keep in touch.”
“You better be. I'm getting half.”
…
Emerging from the dark alleyway, a tall figure cloaked in a black hooded cloak looked around him cautiously and finally stepped out of the building's gap. The man had long white hair that swooped over his face from time to time, blank steel colored eyes and rather pale skin. From a day to day standpoint, he normally wore this cloak to hide his body and his face from the world. To add onto it, he wore black cargo pants for various item holding, and paired with the pants were black combat boots. Ths was Yozu Takenawa, but around here people called him “The White Shadow ''. Yozu had a reputation for attending secretly to governmental speeches and taking out assassins that were looking for a victim. Bounty hunters. No one knew where or how he did this, but he was rather famous in the media. He would turn up, get caught on camera, but all they could ever get was his cloak. Nothing else. Hence the name, “The White Shadow.”
The media had their theories on him. What if he was a high ranking military sniper. Was if his shots were fired from a drone? What if he was so good because he was in his 40’s and had a lot of experience? The truth was it was all by skill. And Yozu was only 19.
Government Officials thanked him so much for saving their lives that they gave him rewards. Mainly cash rewards. Sometimes without knowing it he would take out assassins with bounties on their heads and get a bigger prize pool. Those would be good days for him.
******************************************************************************************************
Positioning himself on a nearby roof next to the Creel Open-Air Auditorium, he gazed at the people entering. Hunters would normally come early into the theater seats so that they could get a good shot. Others would risk it and merge with the crowd of people coming in. No one notices you, but you have a higher chance of failure.
An hour went by slowly, but Yozu didn’t budge from his hunkered position on the roof. There was nothing suspicious yet, and the speech was about to start. 200 chairs in the audience, one of them with a plan. Scanning rows and rows quickly, he smirked. Bingo. There he was.
The man was large, estimating about 6’4”, bald and had a scar barely missing his right eyes that stretched from his forehead down to his lips. The assassin didn’t have a gun in his hands or in a holster. The giant had an abnormally large guitar case strapped on his back. Hunters snuck in weapons when they thought security was tight. Knowing that this was definitely the target, Yozu took out his sniper rifle and slid the scope on. He raised it to his eye and watched how his vision zoomed in. Straight at the temple. That’s where the scope was aiming.
And now he waited. Waited for a sign that the giant had a trigger happy finger on him. Shooting someone without disregard wasn’t how he did things, that was a criminals way of doing things, and that wasn’t how he rolled. Go in. Find the target. Eliminate the target. Don’t get seen. Don’t get caught. Simple enough.
Governor Klouffer took to the stage, and the mana shields went up.
“Good Afternoon everybody! Let me start out by thanking each and everyone of you for coming out here for this event. I sincerely hope that you are all-” The Governor was interrupted by a loud BANG!
There was a body of a giant man with a rifle in his arms, crumpled on the ground lifelessly . Gasps went through the audience, and confused murmurs went rippling through the crowd and some of them backed away from the body, not knowing if he was still alive. Guards stood in front of Klouffer and others went to check the body. No pulse.
Yozu stood up, draping his white cloak over his face, and stood positioning his back to the target. “T-There! On that roof! The White Shadow!”, a woman yelled pointing, being the first one to see
Cameras turned anxiously to his mysterious figure and flashed their lights and Yozu ran away. Leaping across the tight roofs and jumping over the alleyways and the wind rushing past his face. He ran. And he ran. As far away has he needed to be. Eventually he stopped and took some time to catch his breath. Not only was he running pretty fast, but he also was carrying a decently heavy rifle in his arms as well. Yozu had stopped at a wide alleyway that he knew wasn’t popular to gangs and such. He sighed a breath of relief and closed his eyes.
Tak...tak...tak...tak...tak...tak...tak…….
In a split second Yozu was back into full power mode as his survival senses kicked in. Footsteps. He could recognize those sounds anywhere. They found him. He frantically turned to both ends of the alleyway to see who was coming and attempted to get away in time. But he was too late. One person on each end of the entrances holding a semi-automatic. Not the friendliest people in town. Yozu knew immediately what they were after. Him. Yozu was quite aware that there were bounties on the market for himself, large ones. They were laughing to themselves.
“Look at this! Seems like the Shadow isn’t as hard to catch as I thought! Right into our hands. All we had to do was to get Diablo to try to kill Klouffer for the bait,” The man to the left said with a large toothy grin plastered onto his scarred face. “And now I’m gonna give me some of that reward!” He said rubbing his hands together as the man to the right started to aim at Yozu’s face.
He couldn’t help but laugh, and that only caused confusion to his opponents. “Your way outta your league. You're not the first ones to set up bait for me you know,” the hooded man said as he strapped his gun to his back and slowly unsheathed five knifes under the cover of the alleyway's darkness. “Two months ago a group of guys thought they were being pretty smart. Were gonna keep me hostage and tourture me. ‘Make em go through hell and back’ they said. Do you know what happened to those five men?” Yozu asked the gun-slingers as they cautiously took a step back.
“I took my cloak off and showed them who I really was. And I was the last face they ever saw.”
Those words echoed through the alleyway. The gun-slingers stood in fear of the man before them, knowing that he could end their lives at any time he wanted.
Silence…
The men looked to each other and began to reconsider their actions. Then Yozu spoke up.
“And I’m sure you’d rather be on the wanted list and not in a coffin. So make your decision wisely, because it might be your last,” Yozu said sickeningly as he gripped the knives in his hands ready for combat.
That was the last straw for them. They bowed in apology, and ran off to who knows where.
The hooded figure walked out they same way they did, took off his gun, and fired twice.
The White Shadow had disappeared, and two new bodies were discovered in the streets. He had no mercy for criminals.