My new Snippets Thread

[AntonioCC]

The old one had too much clutter from old stuff, so I decided to create a new one. Link to the Old Thread

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2008
Ryu Dojo, Brockton Bay​

The man known as Tatsuma Ryu ended the karate class with a respectful bow.

The kids scattered toward the locker room to shower, change, and gather their things—but one lingered.

"Sophia?" he asked, his English steady, though still touched by a Japanese accent. "Is something wrong?"

Sophia Hess, a dark skinned tween, crossed her arms.

"What isn't wrong? Steven wants to pull me out of your class. Says he doesn't trust you—with Lung around. And Mom is... well."

"I understand," he said, voice even. "The ABB makes life hard for people like me—those trying to live honestly."

Sophia looked away, scowling.

"Why don't you tell Steven to call me?" he added gently. "We can talk. I don't want you to feel unsafe."

"Okay," she said after a pause, and left.

Tatsuma watched her go. The dojo fell silent.

When did I get so soft? Once, he would have taken the fight to ABB thugs without hesitation. Once, he had stood face-to-face with monsters.

But that man—the one known as Ryoma Nagare—had died in Japan. Had died with Musashi, during the last stand against Leviathan.

Brockton Bay had no room for ghosts.

A café on the Boardwalk​

In the end, Steven and Tatsuma agreed to talk face to face in neutral ground.

"I don't appreciate your insinuations," Tatsuma said flatly. "I've never had ties to the ABB."

The other man didn't back down. "You live in their territory…"

"Barely," Tatsuma interrupted. "And I was there before that bastard who calls himself a dragon ever showed his face. And my dojo is well outside the ABB territory."

Steven narrowed his eyes. "Even then, you're a man with a past. We don't know you. You fight well, too well. And Sophia—she's... impressionable."

Tatsuma's expression didn't change, but there was weight behind his next words.

"I teach discipline. Control. Not violence. And I protect my students—every one of them. Even if it means stepping into the fire again."

For a moment, the air between them was tense, brittle.

Steven finally leaned back, arms crossed. "You're not what I expected."

"No one ever is," Tatsuma said, finishing his tea. "But I'm exactly what she needs."

Ryu Dojo. The next lessons​

Classes resumed. Sophia thanked him before one session, more sincere than usual. Things began to feel normal again.

Until the attack.

The news came fast and brutal: Empire 88. Steven and Sophia had been ambushed. Sophia escaped. Steven didn't.

The dojo felt colder when she returned. She didn't cry. She didn't speak much at all.

But Tatsuma noticed immediately—something had changed.

She moved faster. Hit harder. Too hard.

Sophia had always flirted with aggression, but he had helped her rein it in. Now, she was back to square one—worse, even. Her technique was sharper. Her control? Gone.

And worst of all, she had stopped listening.

"Focus, Sophia," he said after correcting her form for the third time.

She didn't even look at him. "I am focused."

"No. You're angry. That is not the same."

She struck the pad again, harder than before. "Maybe anger is what I need now."

Tatsuma's hands tightened around the pads. Not in fear. In sorrow.

I know that path, he thought. It never leads where you think it will.

 

[AntonioCC]

A Café on the Boardwalk — Evening​

"It's been a while, Annette," Tatsuma said softly, taking a seat across from her.

Annette Hebert smiled, tired but kind. "We can use our original names. For old times' sake."

"Michiru…"

She nodded. A flicker of shared history passed between them.

"I have a problem with one of my students," Tatsuma continued. "She's about Taylor's age. Lost her stepfather to the Empire Eighty-Eight. And now… she's lost in her rage."

He looked down at his tea. "I fear she's going to do something reckless. Something irreversible."

"That doesn't sound like the Ryoma Nagare I knew," Annette said, a touch of gentle sarcasm in her voice. "You used to be all fists and fury. Charge in, damn the consequences."

"Maybe I finally grew up." Tatsuma said.

He looked out the window, where neon lights shimmered on the rain-wet boardwalk.

"I was useless in the battle against Leviathan thanks to my recklessness in the battle against the Hiakki, when their bioengineered horrors tore through Kanto, and Musashi had to pay the price. If me, Hayato and Musashi, all three of us, had been available to pilot, things would have been different."

Annette's fingers curled slightly around her mug. The memories came unbidden to her mind, of another life, the hum of power, metal glistening under emergency lighting, and the sheer intensity of her father, Professor Saotome. It was no wonder that she had fled all of that, and ended as a Literature Professor in the States under an assumed name.

"Or maybe not. But that's it, you see yourself in that girl, do you? That rage, that aggressivity you had, she has it now."

"Yes." Tatsuma said, without elaborating.

"She's not the first girl to mistake anger for strength. Medea, Electra, Antigone—they all burned bright. Some brighter than others." Annette said.

"That's what I fear, Michiru." Tatsuma said, "I've seen what happens when that rage finds power. When the world answers back with fire. She won't just hurt others, Michiru. She'll lose herself."

Sophia Hess bedroom. Night. A couple weeks later.​

It was time. She had spent all her money on a crossbow, bolts, and some protection for herself. She held the mask in her hands for a long moment. No more tears. No more waiting. No more fear. Just the hunt.,

Tatsuma would say this was reckless. He'd be right. But this city wasn't made for people who played fair.

Shadow Stalker would start making herself a name tonight.

She went out the window and started to walk toward gang territory. It was time they would feel fear, instead of inflicting it.

It took hours to find something. Movies made it look easy, but in real life, she had to trail an ABB gangster for blocks before he finally led her somewhere worth hitting. A warehouse, she infiltrated through a back window that was open. This deep into the ABB territory, the security was sloppy.

The gangsters were talking in heavily accented English, the lingua franca of the ABB. A shipment of drugs. A perfect way to…

"What is that?" one of the guards said.

"Cape!" another said, producing his weapon.

She fired, missed, and phased through the wall before they could react.l. No use remaining here if the alarm had been given.

She ran away as the bullets started to fly. She didn't stop even as she felt a grazing shot carve a line of fire on the side of her abdomen.

She lost them quickly, thankfully. But she wasn't going to appear at home bleeding.

She slumped by a dumpster, blood slick on her fingers. Not fatal—probably.

But it stung in a way that went deeper than the wound. The gangsters had laughed as they fired. She hadn't made them afraid. Not yet.

The mask felt heavier in her pocket. The dream of justice, of vengeance, had teeth—but they were her own. And they'd bitten back.

She needed somewhere to bandage herself… the Dojo. Tatsuma tended to forget to close the windows of the locker rooms.

Ryu Dojo​

Tatsuma had decided to stay the night at the dojo, cleaning and practicing. Sophia hadn't come last week. Somehow he doubted she was going to come anymore. She has chosen her path, and there was no room in it for her old sensei anymore.

Then suddenly, he heard noise coming from the locker rooms, and he ran towards there, fearing a burglar.

As he turned on the light, he saw her, dressed in black. unmasked. Sophia.

She stood pale under the flickering fluorescents, hunched over the sink, a blood-soaked towel pressed to her side. Tatsuma said nothing at first. Then:

"This is what anger gave you?" He peeled the towel away, gaze level. "It always takes more than it gives, Sophia."

Sophia looked up. "I made them scared."

"And what did it cost you?" Tatsuma replied, voice level, "You think they were scared? You were the one bleeding in the street."

Sophia didn't answer, just grimaced as Tatsuma was disinfecting the wound.

"A grazing shot. It'll hurt like hell, but it's not really serious, let me bandage you." Tatsuma said, his expression clinical, "I have suffered worse."

This called Sophia attention. SHe was dimly aware that sensei had a past, but to hear him talk about it was new.

"What happened?" she asked despite herself.

Tatsuma sighed, and said.

"Not here, not now. Come here tomorrow after class, and we'll talk."