Ryoto leaped from his perch, eyes swiftly darting over the group and locking onto a man with a tattoo sitting on his neck. He threw both blades, chains crossed, into the grass on either side of the man and pulled. Using his momentum he landed two feet into the man's face, knocking him prone and unconscious. Still standing on the man's face, he reached backward, crossing his arms, and gripping opposite handles before pulling. Warm red liquid sprayed across his hands, flicking off the blades to either side as he brought both up in their correct hands with the chains no longer crossed.
To the pirate, it almost seemed like everything was moving just a little slower as all the eyes turned from Chaka, and now rested on him. An itching sensation stung up his back and neck as he leaped up to his feet before kicking the severed head toward another guard who screamed in a mix of terror and surprise. The scream was short-lived as Ryoto bolted forward, after the head, and sunk both blades deep in the man's chest before drawing both blades outward with a sharp twist. The blood bubbled out of his chest on either side of the tattoo that sat in the center of his loosely covered torso.
The guards and mercenaries began to move, the ones in casual wear attempting to run as did some of the armored individuals and weapon wielders. Three spear wielders ran forward drawing back their spears and lunging forward to strike the pirate.
Ryoto glanced at each of the men for a moment as he released both weapons he held and fell to the ground in a middle split to avoid the strikes. Chains from his wrists unraveled with his movements and he caught them around his calves. Spinning around to bring his feet together, he kicked one man in the ankle and knocked him to the ground before lifting himself onto both hands and spinning around rapidly. Sickles sliced into the second man's throat, who hadn't had time to reactively bring his spear back up, and he toppled backward. The third man, however, was able to bring his spear up catching one of the sickles around his spear.
The masked man tsked in annoyance before bending his body, almost unnaturally, and planting his opposite foot on the ground, tugging the spear from the man's grasp. As his foot hit the ground with the spear clattering to the ground as well, he continued the movement allowing the once-planted foot, to kick up and over his head. The sickle on the chain caught into the man's thigh and ripped upwards into his shoulder, slicing through vital organs and bones on its deadly path.
The sickle was ripped free of the collapsing body as the chain drew taught. The death collector spun his legs free once again and released more of the chain as he caught the handles of his blades. His eyes tracked over two armored individuals, one having a bandana tied onto his belt and the other having a tattoo on his arm. The two sickles dropped from his hands once more as he began to spin before launching them out towards the men. The sickles quickly sliced into the exposed neck of each, their momentum tearing the heads from their shoulders.
Not even waiting for the heads to fall, Ryoto was moving with startling speed, grasping onto the handles of the falling blades. He then began chasing down a group of five leaping with both blades in hand as he flicked the chains forward. He landed his feet on the middle man's back causing him to topple to the ground while Ryoto drew the blades through his flesh, ribs, and spine with the force behind the strike.
The silver raven skull mask now sprayed crimson with blood, looked to the four who were immediately attempting to get up onto their feet. He hooked both sickles around the ankles of the two closest and fell back, rolling backward on the grass to get back onto his feet once more. He then quickly launched off his left foot towards the right man hooking his sickles into the man's chest and abdomen before leaping off the man's leg which broke with a sharp snap. Blood and viscera sprayed across the grass as the collector pulled the blades out the back of the man and spun to catch the other man around his thigh and arm.
The man turned in a panic to pull himself free, but let out a howl of pain as the blades sliced deeply into the muscles of his arm and leg. He did manage to pull himself out of the strike though, and rolled across the grass away from the man. However, what little relief he may have felt was cut short as a pair of talons plunged through the skin of his back and began to close with a crushing grip. As the gurgled pleas cut out, Ryoto swiftly threw his blades, which arched into the air for a moment before impaling the two defeated individuals he had not outright killed. One fell silent immediately as the blade ripped through his shoulder from the center of his chest.
The other was not as fortunate as his screams of agony echoed in the courtyard. Ryoto stood to his full height as his talons retracted into the normal shape of boots, which were covered in blood, as he prowled closer to the screaming man. Reaching down with one hand he yanked the man onto his foot and stub, before putting the tip of the blade in the man's mouth. The other point of the blade rested against the man's temple before the handle was pulled down. The screams died immediately as the man crumpled to the ground with the blade disappearing in the man's mouth only to poke out through the left socket.
Ryoto wrenched the blade out the way it had gone in, before flicking the blood-coated grey matter across the grass. His eyes flicked around the area, seeing some of the rats had scampered towards the back of the palace, he moved imperceptively fast. "Shave," he muttered under his breath as he appeared to cut off the rat's escape with a wide swing of his blades, before flicking the chains to opposite sides, causing the blades to streak through the people trying to run past him.
Moving fast the death collector continued with his culling of the baroque billions, darting around the courtyard with terrifying grace. Each death being brutal and without mercy, screams of panic and pleading for lives filled the air. Not but ten minutes passed before everything stopped. The strange feeling in the air lingered, but the scene was now calm once more.
Less than half of the original men remained, all looking toward the black feathered male whose outfit was covered with red. Ryoto went to one of the armored men he had killed slicing the cape from the corpse, and began to wipe the blood from his mask and weapons. The feeling of tense unease hovered in the air, blood and viscera were scattered around the courtyard. "Your rat problem is almost gone," Ryoto called out into the still air.
The men who looked at him shuttered as he spoke, Chaka approached the pirate with a forced look of neutrality. "I stayed out of your way, what else do you want?" He asked.
Ryoto noted the fact that Chaka was breathing slowly through his mouth rather than his nose, "Set up barricades from the palace to the south gate. And do what you were going to do before I appeared. Just go on a defensive though." He instructs before coughing into his hand and beginning to walk toward the entrance of the palace. "Clean this up too, don't need anyone getting ill." He says voice beginning to grow hoarse. "I'm going to fly around." He says before launching into flight.
His wings flapped smoothly as he left the bloody scene behind, before flying up towards the clock tower to rest and get a good view. He landed lightly on the rooftop and sat on the edge as he removed his mask and gulped down the water in his waterskin before pouring some onto his gloves to wash some of the blood off. He wiped the bloody water off with the cape and splashed some water on his face.
He carefully wiped the blood from the metal of the mask, with a frown etched on his face as he looked at the distorted reflection of himself. He reached up, pushing a few strands of crimson hair back under the black feathered cowl he wore. Dark grey eyes squinted as he took in the pale skin with freckles across his face, the scowl pulling at his lips deepened as he wiped the the droplets of bloodied water off his face. Crimson brows furrowed together as he heard something below him clatter, muffled by stone. Putting his mask on once again, he got up and leaped off the clock tower and spread his wings to slow his fall. Upon landing, he began to circle the tower until he found a door.
Ryoto carefully pulled the door open, listening closely for any noise of a trap, before slipping in through the small crack. He looked at the stairs and cursed to himself before slowly beginning the climb. His eyes warily ran over each step to make sure he would make no noise, although the ticking and sound of gears turning seemed to be loud enough to mask his light footsteps.
As he continued up the steps, now close to the top, he began to hear some light snores coming from the top floor. As he almost crests over the top of the stairs, Ryoto peeked over the edge. On the floor toward the clockface was a woman, who was peacefully asleep on a mat covered in a light sheet. She was wearing an outfit that was inspired by frogs, which almost hurt Ryoto to even look at.
He looked away from the woman and back around the area and noticed a man currently working on the base of a cannon which was currently pointed upwards. He was muttering quietly to himself as he seemed to be messing with the mechanism that would tilt the cannon. He wore a coat with frills over the seams and cuffs, and sevens on the sleeves. It was a safe guess that this man was known as Mister Seven.
The gears turning and the clock ticking echoed around the space, and Ryoto used that to his advantage as he began to walk in rhythm with the ticks of the clock. He paused briefly as Mister Seven glanced at the sleeping woman before going back to work on the cannon. Ryoto clocked the gun on the man's waist, it looked very square in design. He found it a bit funny, as he knew his sister would hate the very creation of such an abomination. However, he could tell that this man likely was a gunslinger of some sort. He needed to get the gun and shut the man up.
Ryoto stopped only one small step away from the man, who wasn't aware of his presence yet. He began by quickly slipping the gun from the holster, as the man shifted to not bring any awareness to the movement. As the clock pulled closer to the hour Ryoto tucked the gun away, removed one of his leather gloves, and stood ready. As the clock hit one in the morning it chimed loudly once, allowing Ryoto to move swiftly and grab both the man's arms by locking one elbow with him and grabbing onto the other arm with the same hand.
The man's eyes opened wide as he reached for his gun with the arm only held by one hand, but found no handle. He turned his head towards the woman, "MISS FA-" The yell was cut off as Ryoto stuffed the leather glove into the man's mouth and tackled him onto his side.
Ryoto wrapped his legs around the man's thighs, boots linking behind each of the man's knees, as he rested the metal beak of his mask on the man's shoulder. His free hand holding the glove in place, "Now now. Don't want to wake a woman from her beauty sleep." he warns. Stormy grey eyes pierced out from the shadows of the mask, glare meeting the wide light blue eyes of the grappled man. "You got very unlucky. I just wanted a good view. I heard you tinkering away in here. Don't worry, I'll show you mercy. You can die first. I'll make it fast if you stay still." He promised before lurching forward as the man began to struggle harder against the grapple.
The beak of the mask retreated from the man's shoulder as Ryoto's free arm began to shift and extend into a folded wing beneath the duo. With a flex of the strong wing, Mister Seven was shoved over onto his chest with the zoan user leaning heavily onto his back. He began to scream, trying to do anything to wake the woman as the wing retracted and the gloved hand of the collector gripped into the thick white curls of hair on his head.
Ryoto gripped the man's hair tightly as he wrenched it backward as he shifted forward and released the man's legs in favor of sinking his talons into the man's arms. A shrill scream muffled by the glove filled the air before Ryoto slammed his face into the stone for the first time. He repeated the action twice more, before movement caught his attention and he rolled with the body in front of him as a round bullet lodged in Seven's chest. A gurgled scream pushed past the leather glove in the man's mouth as Ryoto gripped his throat with the hand that had held the glove and held tight. The glove fell from the man's mouth, "Miss... Father's...Day-" he choked out before Ryoto sighed and moved the hand from his throat to his chin. "Help m-" his words were cut off with a sickening snapping noise as Ryoto twisted his neck sharply. The man's body went limp as the woman screamed.
"Mister Seven!" She cried before raising her pistol once again and shooting at the cloaked man.
Ryoto picked the body up, having shifted his talons back to his boots, and ran behind the cannon using the corpse as a shield. Once behind the cannon the corpse was abandoned and Ryoto drew one of his sickles, "Shut up. No one wants to hear you wailing like a banshee." He called using the blade in order to peek a glance around the cannon at the woman. Ryoto's gaze fell on the woman, who seemed paler than before, "Shave." He says before moving in an instant, stopping behind the woman as she fired a shot where she had seen the blade not even a second earlier.
Her wide eyes flicked towards the man who crouched behind her, sickle now almost entirely around her throat, and turned her pistol to point toward the man's gut. "What do you think is faster? A bullet or your sickle?" She questions before pulling the trigger to the pistol. The sound of metal impacting made her grin widely as she would at least take this man out of the fight.
Ryoto pulled the blade through her neck, leaving the nape intact as the woman collapsed forward. He cursed to himself as he stood up and gripped where the bullet had impacted. "Damn woman." He muttered before dislodging the bullet from the metal chain which had gotten in the way of the bullet. "You missed." He grunted before picking up the blanket the woman had been using.
He laid the fabric flat on the floor and used his sickle to slice it into multiple strips. He began by tying a knot with a loop, before pulling a loop through it and pulling the previous loop tight. He continued until he successfully made a makeshift cord.
Ryoto then retrieved the man's body and brought him over to the woman, tying the corpses together before walking over to the clock face and pushing it open. He took in a breath of the fresh air before tying the other end of the rope onto one of the latches that normally kept the clock shut. The masked man then picked up the bodies and dropped them to hang outside the clock tower, before pulling the clock back in place.
Ryoto pulled off his mask once more and set it on the mat along with his gloves, one of which he retrieved from the floor. His eyes shifting to the cannon as he set down his bag and approached. He pulled the lever, which the man had finished working on, allowing the cannon to tilt. Once it was mostly horizontal, Ryoto walked to the mouth of the cannon and saw a giant ticking time bomb. "You just aren't gonna make it easy are you." He mutters before climbing into the cannon.