Minor Faction Drowning Tiger Cubs

Coruscant had a lot of layers, like a lot of layers. Most people thought of the upper levels as a shiny place where the rich lived and thrived and the undercities as dank murky places where living was nigh impossible. Nobody much thought of the places in between. There were thousands of levels with some levels being entirely dominated by one galactic culture or another. As his shuttle descended down one of the massive traffic craters from the surface Atsushi tried to get excited like the rest of the crew he'd brought with him. They'd never been to Coruscant before, and it was supposed to be his first time too but as the familiar Atrisian holo signs began to float into view and the holo boards of the ever-popular Hayata Corp shimmered to life he was reminded why they were here.

<Look at this! I've never seen anything like it before!> Shouted Shu. His dialect of Atrisian was a little hard to understand. It was slow, meandering, and some would say feminine but he just came from one of the islands on the homeworld. It was just how they talked.

<I'm ready to smash some heads,> Lee muttered, shoving a fist into his gloved hands. He was from the homeworld too. In fact, they all were save for Atsushi. They were fresh off the transport to Corellia. This was supposed to be their initiation into the Yokai. Kaibatsu skulls, sake, and wild nights on the town were all on the itinerary of this trip. A week of slaughter and bar brawls.

"Atsushi Ono!" called the Alliance customs officer. Atsushi shoved his way through the excitable group and stood up to the table, smoothing his hair out and giving his best "innocent tourist" smile. The officer looked from the chain code ID to the youth, console, youth, console, Atsushi. The old man's eyes narrowed.

"Business?"

"Family. My Obaa-san is sick. Gas leak from the Maw attack..." The old man didn't care about the sob story and sniffed before passing the chain code ID through a scanner and handing it back.

"Just stay out of trouble."

An hour later they were roaring through the streets on their swoops. They'd pulled them off some weak bōsōzoku. They hadn't been Kaibatsu tiger cubs though so nobody got killed, though Lee had come close to killing one of the poor kids. They were almost in Kaibatsu territory now and they were all wearing Red Riot colors, the Oni highlighted on their backs with holo-tech. They all wore masks too. They wanted the stupid Tigers to know who they were. Atsushi tried to take in the sights of Little Atrisia but the wind in his hair and his grip on the handlebars was the only thing that mattered to him.

<Boss, four riders coming up on us!>

They weren't wearing Kaibatsu colors but the leader was wearing a helmet with a tiger holo decal. Thug-level enforcers like the Red Riots. Probably never even spoke to anyone in the Kaibatsu. That schutta and her organization were too high and mighty to speak with the grunts like this. It was one of the reasons Atsushi hated them so much. Even the Red Riots were given privileges above common street trash. Some of them even got promoted into the Yokai's organization directly. He wondered if these poor fools even had that option. Well, after tonight they wouldn't have to worry about it.

<What you doin' out here kid? Y'all far from your Green Jewel ain't ya?> Sheesh that was a super country accent. He couldn't even try to pinpoint that dialect, but he understood it better than Shu's.

Djin rode up beside one of the other riders and pulled out a bat and twisted the handle causing red energy filaments to activate from within. The other biker didn't even have a chance to scream before Djin smashed the energy bat into the other rider's repulsorlift engine. It went up in a small fireball before plummeting into the traffic below.

<You-> Atsushi shrugged before pulling a katana from his saddle carrier and sliced the back end off. The rest of the tiger cub's gang sped up to try and catch them. The tiger cub boss managed to pull onto a walkway, crashing into and scattering a group of people. He groaned and struggled to get up, spitting a tooth and blood from his mouth. Atsushi was impressed that he'd survived but before he could shout some stupid quip Shu's swoop screamed over the walkway gripping a pipe and cracked the helmet off the man, laying him out for the Coruscant coroners.

The rest of the night went well. So did the rest of the week. They'd had to outrun a few Coruscant Security types and Shu had died in one of the skirmishes with the tiger cubs. But besides that they'd made it to the final night. Full on drink and spice the crew stumbled into karaoke after a 2 hour enkai. In honor of Shu, who was apparently a fan of Battlestar and the Exiles, Djin and Lee dueted the theme song. Atsushi thought they were all a little too old to be watching kid shows like that, but it was what it was and the two belted out the song, tears in their eyes. They had survived. Atsushi smiled and headed for the door, patting one of the group on the shoulder before telling him he was headed out for a smoke. They had all thought that they had chosen a Kaibatsu controlled karaoke bar as a final slight. If only it had been that simple. The group kept on belting out songs but when the door behind Atsushi closed they began to chatter among themselves.

<I can't believe we made it in!>

<You think the madam will be mad we had to kill so many of our own?>

<Nah, she doesn't care. She just wants these filthy "Yokai" goons dead.>

<When he comes back we gotta finish this. She wants this one dead for sure. Red Riots been causing too much trouble on Corellia.> Atsushi had walked out.

They tried to pull blasters on him. But what was a blaster to him? The bolts deflected off of his outstretched hand. When he gripped his open hand into a fist Lee's throat contorted, twisting at an unnatural angle before he could even scream out in pain. The body was flung into Djin and then both of them were slammed into the ceiling. Lee's body cushioned the blow but the two of them had left the roof dented. Drawing his blade, a blade reserved for only the Maou's deadliest assassins, Atsushi pointed it at the levitating Djin. He didn't understand Djin's words as he slipped into what could only be his true dialect, one that was too fast for even Atsushi to comprehend. The protests ended in a bloody gurgle as the man was pulled into the point of his katana. Atsushi twisted the blade and cut out to release his blade from the traitor, his blood mixing with the alcohol stains on the wall. The last one, the one at the door had frozen. Had he pissed himself in fear? The boy was holding the room's com, but he wouldn't reach anyone. Atsushi had already killed everyone in the office and any of the Kaibatsu brats who had come here tonight. The Tiger had left a message to the Yokai on Corellia. This was their reply.

The heads of the Tiger's would-be spies were left on the doorstep, the Kaibtasu tiger twin holo symbol modified. The tigers wanted to war with demons? It wouldn't be a fair fight, but the Demon King would oblige.