01-08-2018, 03:27 AM
The rainbow light faded, at last. He heard gasps from the assembled mass of men, women and children. From almost every family in these slums, at least one person had shown up. He could tell easily enough from their expressions and from the way they kept their distance from him and his follower that they were not yet willing to trust him, being suspicious of his offer of help with no strings attached. It did make sense, he supposed. After all, as the saying went, 'there's no such thing as a free lunch'... and he was offering considerably more than just lunch.
Despite their wariness, though, it wasn't long after the Omnilium bubble had faded away that the first of the crowd began coming forwards, making their way over to the massive pile of foodstuffs and grabbing anything from a single item to entire armfuls of packages. He didn't stop anyone. Many had their families to feed as well, after all... and if any of them were thinking of being greedy and hogging a lot just for themselves, then they'd only have themselves to blame when they felt sick later and puked it all back up.
Obviously he would have to come up with some system for sharing everyone's meals out properly at some point, but for the time being, this would do; simply summoning a huge pile of packaged fast foods of all sorts – some simply wrapped in brown paper, whilst other meals were stored in bags or flimsy, plastic tubs – and letting them all take what they needed. This stuff may not have been anything worth bragging about, but it was food... and better than they were used to, most likely... not that that was saying a whole lot.
Before long, the rest of them had realised that they might miss out if they continued to hesitate, and soon there was a mad scramble as people rushed to grab whatever they needed, wanted, or simply anything they could get their hands on. His ally looked to him in panic, his attempts at calming the mob having no effect. Hijiri had expected as much, though. As fortune would have it, as well as being a fair distance from any notable bases of the Wolfpack or Pyros, this place was also outside the normal area one would expect to see routinely patrolled by the Empire Peace Division... which was part of the reason he'd chosen these people, of course; he certainly had no intention of opposing the Empire.
So, knowing he was free to do pretty much as he liked without much chance of anyone too threatening noticing what was up, he pulled his pistol out of his coat and fired directly up in the air three times. That got their attention.
It was a crime-ridden neighbourhood, like pretty much all of Tier Five, so it wasn't all that likely that any random bystanders would be shocked by the sound of gunshots. All in all, he was expecting this to go completely unnoticed by everyone except the mob he had just shocked into silence. As poor as they were, this lot had no access to firearms, even in an area so saturated with them as this tier was. It came as no surprise that they were unused to – and unnerved by – having one fired repeatedly in close proximity to themselves.
He'd really need to find excuses to fire this thing a whole lot more...
If he wanted these people to turn into a proper gang, they'd need to get more comfortable around deadly weapons. For the time being, though, their fear would do just fine. There wasn't much point in feeding them if they were just going to stampede and trample one another to death in their haste to get at it.
“Don't rush.” he said simply, dropping his hand to his side... but allowing his forefinger to tremble slightly as it rested against the trigger. The movements were tiny, but with all of them focused intently on the gun, he doubted there was anyone in the foremost ranks of the crowd who didn't notice. A guy with an itchy trigger finger and a crowd who refused to take orders was not a good combination, and they were thankfully bright enough to realise that. In fact, not only did they slow down, the mob even backed off and sorted themselves into an orderly queue.
Behind the bandages that obscured his face, Hijiri smirked. It wasn't like he would actually have shot anyone here, of course, but it seemed that for the time being, intimidation would work quite well as a method of keeping them from doing anything stupid. At least, until he could earn their loyalty properly, and maybe even teach them a little restraint.
That wouldn't take too long, hopefully. With as much Omnilium as he currently held within him, he could afford to keep feeding these people for a while, even when taking into account the detail that he was also going to be summoning weapons for them. Before too long, though, they would really need to start earning for themselves...
Sliding the gun back into his coat, the Battle Rabbit stood with one hand resting on the hilt of his sheathed sword, which he leant on the ground as though it were a cane or walking stick, whilst his follower waited by his side, that bat of his leaning against one shoulder, as he nodded at and occasionally spoke to the occupants of the tenements when they came forward to take their meals. Hijiri couldn't help but notice that fewer people seemed to be picking up large amounts of food, now that they were doing so one by one... with the eyes of all their neighbours on them as they made their selections.
***
Mealtimes had passed, night had fallen, and beneath the courtyard, training was underway.
Yes, beneath the yard. No, there had not originally been any basement facilities under any of these facilities, this was a recent addition, courtesy of the gang's new Prime. An addition which he was feeling pretty smug about, actually; he had wanted a hidden place where they could train without the risk of being overheard, and so he had known that he'd need to use up some Omnilium building something... he had then remembered, however, that these buildings had no plumbing. No electricity. No nothing. Which meant that all the normal sorts of pipes and cables and suchlike that one might expect to find beneath a housing estate were absent in this case.
All he had needed to do was absorb Omnilium from the surrounding ground in a huge, rectangular-cuboid lump. With that done and staircases down here added to the ground floors of each of the three slum buildings, their hidden training area was complete, albeit sparse. The best thing was, though, because this 'construction' had consisted almost entirely of removing mass, rather than adding it, reshaping it, or anything else costly, he had actually increased his wealth (a little) by absorbing all the Omnilium that had made up that stone and earth.
It had taken him over an hour of work to prepare this place – which was still absurdly fast, of course, given how much time such an endeavour would have demanded using normal methods – and then a while longer to produce the two piles of weapons which had been handed out to those volunteers who had chosen to attend this first training session. More would come later, he knew, as they became more accustomed to his presence, but for now there were just a dozen of them in this cavernous space beneath the plaza.
He had taken their names at the start of this session, though he knew that unless no one else showed any interest, or this lot proved to be the best of what these slums had to offer, there was little chance of him remembering them all. He did now know the name of his first supporter, though, so that was a plus. The bat-wielding man's had turned out to be called Alejandro Torres... though calling him 'bat-wielding' may no longer have been all that appropriate, given that he now... well... wasn't.
The weapons Hijiri had prepared for them all were simple enough. He had stuck to what he knew; they were simply replicas of his own katana and pistol, albeit with some minor differences in colouration. Whilst his sword's pommel and guard were the colour of gold, his scabbard had several gold bands across the top, and his gun also had a gold finish to it, their slightly lower quality equipment was marked as being different by its plain, black appearance.
Still, though not as flashy as his own, the weapons were by no means the same trash as these people had been using previously. They were all fully functional and would serve their purposes well... assuming that this lot ever actually learned to wield them. His training sessions with the stormtrooper squad had been essentially all about practising for situations which might arise in an actual combat scenario... for this bunch, however, it was quickly becoming apparent that he was going to have to start right from the beginning; teaching them things like basic sword forms and how to hold a pistol whilst aiming.
This could take some time.
Despite their wariness, though, it wasn't long after the Omnilium bubble had faded away that the first of the crowd began coming forwards, making their way over to the massive pile of foodstuffs and grabbing anything from a single item to entire armfuls of packages. He didn't stop anyone. Many had their families to feed as well, after all... and if any of them were thinking of being greedy and hogging a lot just for themselves, then they'd only have themselves to blame when they felt sick later and puked it all back up.
Obviously he would have to come up with some system for sharing everyone's meals out properly at some point, but for the time being, this would do; simply summoning a huge pile of packaged fast foods of all sorts – some simply wrapped in brown paper, whilst other meals were stored in bags or flimsy, plastic tubs – and letting them all take what they needed. This stuff may not have been anything worth bragging about, but it was food... and better than they were used to, most likely... not that that was saying a whole lot.
Before long, the rest of them had realised that they might miss out if they continued to hesitate, and soon there was a mad scramble as people rushed to grab whatever they needed, wanted, or simply anything they could get their hands on. His ally looked to him in panic, his attempts at calming the mob having no effect. Hijiri had expected as much, though. As fortune would have it, as well as being a fair distance from any notable bases of the Wolfpack or Pyros, this place was also outside the normal area one would expect to see routinely patrolled by the Empire Peace Division... which was part of the reason he'd chosen these people, of course; he certainly had no intention of opposing the Empire.
So, knowing he was free to do pretty much as he liked without much chance of anyone too threatening noticing what was up, he pulled his pistol out of his coat and fired directly up in the air three times. That got their attention.
It was a crime-ridden neighbourhood, like pretty much all of Tier Five, so it wasn't all that likely that any random bystanders would be shocked by the sound of gunshots. All in all, he was expecting this to go completely unnoticed by everyone except the mob he had just shocked into silence. As poor as they were, this lot had no access to firearms, even in an area so saturated with them as this tier was. It came as no surprise that they were unused to – and unnerved by – having one fired repeatedly in close proximity to themselves.
He'd really need to find excuses to fire this thing a whole lot more...
If he wanted these people to turn into a proper gang, they'd need to get more comfortable around deadly weapons. For the time being, though, their fear would do just fine. There wasn't much point in feeding them if they were just going to stampede and trample one another to death in their haste to get at it.
“Don't rush.” he said simply, dropping his hand to his side... but allowing his forefinger to tremble slightly as it rested against the trigger. The movements were tiny, but with all of them focused intently on the gun, he doubted there was anyone in the foremost ranks of the crowd who didn't notice. A guy with an itchy trigger finger and a crowd who refused to take orders was not a good combination, and they were thankfully bright enough to realise that. In fact, not only did they slow down, the mob even backed off and sorted themselves into an orderly queue.
Behind the bandages that obscured his face, Hijiri smirked. It wasn't like he would actually have shot anyone here, of course, but it seemed that for the time being, intimidation would work quite well as a method of keeping them from doing anything stupid. At least, until he could earn their loyalty properly, and maybe even teach them a little restraint.
That wouldn't take too long, hopefully. With as much Omnilium as he currently held within him, he could afford to keep feeding these people for a while, even when taking into account the detail that he was also going to be summoning weapons for them. Before too long, though, they would really need to start earning for themselves...
Sliding the gun back into his coat, the Battle Rabbit stood with one hand resting on the hilt of his sheathed sword, which he leant on the ground as though it were a cane or walking stick, whilst his follower waited by his side, that bat of his leaning against one shoulder, as he nodded at and occasionally spoke to the occupants of the tenements when they came forward to take their meals. Hijiri couldn't help but notice that fewer people seemed to be picking up large amounts of food, now that they were doing so one by one... with the eyes of all their neighbours on them as they made their selections.
***
Mealtimes had passed, night had fallen, and beneath the courtyard, training was underway.
Yes, beneath the yard. No, there had not originally been any basement facilities under any of these facilities, this was a recent addition, courtesy of the gang's new Prime. An addition which he was feeling pretty smug about, actually; he had wanted a hidden place where they could train without the risk of being overheard, and so he had known that he'd need to use up some Omnilium building something... he had then remembered, however, that these buildings had no plumbing. No electricity. No nothing. Which meant that all the normal sorts of pipes and cables and suchlike that one might expect to find beneath a housing estate were absent in this case.
All he had needed to do was absorb Omnilium from the surrounding ground in a huge, rectangular-cuboid lump. With that done and staircases down here added to the ground floors of each of the three slum buildings, their hidden training area was complete, albeit sparse. The best thing was, though, because this 'construction' had consisted almost entirely of removing mass, rather than adding it, reshaping it, or anything else costly, he had actually increased his wealth (a little) by absorbing all the Omnilium that had made up that stone and earth.
It had taken him over an hour of work to prepare this place – which was still absurdly fast, of course, given how much time such an endeavour would have demanded using normal methods – and then a while longer to produce the two piles of weapons which had been handed out to those volunteers who had chosen to attend this first training session. More would come later, he knew, as they became more accustomed to his presence, but for now there were just a dozen of them in this cavernous space beneath the plaza.
He had taken their names at the start of this session, though he knew that unless no one else showed any interest, or this lot proved to be the best of what these slums had to offer, there was little chance of him remembering them all. He did now know the name of his first supporter, though, so that was a plus. The bat-wielding man's had turned out to be called Alejandro Torres... though calling him 'bat-wielding' may no longer have been all that appropriate, given that he now... well... wasn't.
The weapons Hijiri had prepared for them all were simple enough. He had stuck to what he knew; they were simply replicas of his own katana and pistol, albeit with some minor differences in colouration. Whilst his sword's pommel and guard were the colour of gold, his scabbard had several gold bands across the top, and his gun also had a gold finish to it, their slightly lower quality equipment was marked as being different by its plain, black appearance.
Still, though not as flashy as his own, the weapons were by no means the same trash as these people had been using previously. They were all fully functional and would serve their purposes well... assuming that this lot ever actually learned to wield them. His training sessions with the stormtrooper squad had been essentially all about practising for situations which might arise in an actual combat scenario... for this bunch, however, it was quickly becoming apparent that he was going to have to start right from the beginning; teaching them things like basic sword forms and how to hold a pistol whilst aiming.
This could take some time.
![[Image: Hijiri_Name_Sig.png]](https://image.ibb.co/k1H7Hd/Hijiri_Name_Sig.png)