Iron, Gems, and Scarlet

Guilty men are so untrusting, thinking that the world is like they themselves. And while it might be argued that they are right, the result the same: lots of guards, lots of guns, and lots of trigger happy fingers. This is especially true when they are in a situation where they might otherwise be letting down their guard, such as when the wakagashira of the Taishu-kai Yakuza clan, Hidaka Hiroshi, goes with his men to the Spring Plum Bathhouse. There are a lot of guards, all so Hiroshi can feel safe stripping down to his skivvies and soaking a bit.

He should have known better, really. There's no such thing as safe.

Outside the main bathhouse, one of said guards is making the rounds, stopping to chat with another. “So what do you think of the new guy?” He pulls a cigarette from his jacket and prepares to light it. The other guard shakes his head. “Scary stuff. Did you hear how many people Hidaka had to kill before he got this one back? And I don't think Taro's really sane any more…”

The other guard points to one of the cherry trees. “Hey, what's that?”

The other guard looks too. Hanging from the boughs of the tree are several doesn't little crystal stars - well, shuriken, to be fair - hung by delicate chains like offerings at a Shinto shrine. Offerings for the dead. Or in this case, for the not dead…yet. The two men look at each other, and then run to alert the others.

“Good day to be Yakuza, eh?” Jason asks as he suddenly sinks down into the bath himself, stripped down to his skivvies as well. The difference is that he has a silenced handgun aimed at the man's head. “Oh what the hell, don't tell me I chose a rival gang hit to do this… You be quiet and don't say a word.” he says at the hint that something else is going on, and sinks even lower into the water until there's not a hint that he's there. Except that the gun is pressed against the man's gut under water.

By the time the two Yakuza make it inside, the front hall seems empty…until one of the men notices the blood spreading in a pool towards his feet. “Wait, look-” He only gets that far. There's a snickt sound and two heads roll away from their bodies as Diamond shakes the blood from her swords in one clean flick and continues on. The ground beneath her feet turns crystalline in front of her as she walks, like a path of diamonds leading into the main bath house.

When Diamond pushes open the main doors and stands in the opening, the men in the baths are divided into two reactions - either drawing their weapons and shooting or, arguably the smarter of the group, running. Diamond raises her hands. The katana in them vanish and in their place are throwing stars, sprouting like flowers. She flicks out her hands and they sail towards a half-dozen targets. Normally shuriken are annoyance weapons, but when thrown with the force that she imparts, they are like bullets. Men cry out and collapse from their wounds even as others empty their clips at her – without effect.

The sound of gunfire fills the air, heard even in Hiroshi's private bath. “Tetsuo,” the man whispers, aware of the gun at his gut. “Where are you? Kill her.”

Jason keeps his eyes open, staring up through the water but not getting a clear image due to the steam and the constant motions rippling across the surface. But the sounds of slicing, heads rolling, and even hearing the man's words through the vibrations of the water… he has a good idea that people are getting slaughtered right now. But best he wait, perhaps he can avoid fighting almost in the buff.

The front door to the private bath is torn off its frame and tossed aside as Diamond walks forward. In shape, she looks like an attractive woman, but only if the attractive human was made from some sort of deep blue gem-like material. In most lighting, she would probably look black, but the bath lamps reveal the midnight blue colors. “Hidaka Hiroshi,” Diamond says in Japanese as she steps forward. “You are guilty of selling your soul to the White Lotus. You have offered up the honor of your men for baubles and trinkets. For this, there can be only one punishment - your death.” An awkward pause, and then: “Do I even want to know why you have a man underwater in your lap?”

Jason finally raises up, looking annoyed as water falls from him and back down into the water. “Alright, what the hell. Can't a guy assassinate a Yakuza boss in peace?” he asks with the gun aimed squarely at the guy's head again, speaking in simplified but quite clear Japanese himself.

Diamond tilts her head. In English she says: “I think that's my line. But by all means, it's not like I claimed dibs-”

Which is precisely the moment a several ton hulking animate iron golem with glowing red eyes comes barreling through the door and into Diamond's back, pushing her through part of the floor and straight into the bath. There is a spectacular crash of water and it's rather a lot like seeing that an incoming train collide with a solid wall. Messy, violent, incredibly destructive. Tetsuo raises a solid mace-like fist and brings it down on Diamond repeatedly.

“Kill this one! This one! Tetsuo!” Hidaka Hiroshi calls out as he tries to get out of the way - out of the way of the oncoming crash, the gun, the very real possibility that his mortal coil will be shuffled off in a matter of seconds.

“Ah hell.” Jason crawls out of the water and seems to be running away from the bath. But then a moment later he comes crashing back in the way he came from, having done an insanely quick wardrobe change. His leather jacket, jeans, combat boots… And out comes four flying disks, all meant to stick into the golem's kneecaps and explode. “I hope you're not dead, lady.” Then he tosses another disk, this one flying for Hidaka, exploding and expanding into an incredibly tight net.

Gemstone shards, like spear-points, erupt from the ground and push Tetsuo off the ground for a moment before he comes crashing down again, driving him away from Diamond, who rubs the back of her hand against her mouth. “I'm fine,” she growls out. Maybe embarrassed she hadn't figured out that Hiroshi had added a super to his private army, but physically fine. She pulls herself to her feet and summons a black katana in each hand.

Tetsuo roars in pain as the flying disks explode and rip chunks out of his knees, but he still seems capable of movement. He does however, focus his attention on Jason at this point, swinging those mallet-like iron fists in his direction. He's fast too…compared to most people. Thankfully compared to a man of Jason Todd's training, Tetsuo is kind of clunky.

Hiroshi screams in frustration as the net closes around him, dragging him to the ground. He struggles, but it's a futile battle.

Jason jumps back to narrowly avoid the fist, not wanting to jump too far away from it. He immediately tries to go running up the arm, jumping and flipping until he's reaching into his jacket to pull out a C4 chart to plaster it on to the back of Tetsuo's head.

After that he just tries to leap off and hit a hidden button within the jacket to set it off.

As Jason attaches a lot of explosive to the back of Tetsuo's head, Diamond takes a hold of one of her katana, turns it into a naginata, and jabs the thing up into Tetsuo's chest using all her strength. She takes a step back and the naginata begins to shift, sprouting crystals and expanding - in effect enlarging the hole that Diamond created and pulling his body apart.

A second later Jason jumps, the explosives are detonated…and a headless Tetsuo falls to the ground with an earth-shaking boom.

It's quiet, save for the settling of dust, the creaking of broken wood, and the vain struggling of Hidaka Hiroshi.

Diamond walks over to the net-trapped man, then looks at Jason. “Do you want the honors or shall I?”

Jason straightens his jacket as the dust settles, slowly walking over to the trapped man. “I like to see how a woman handles a sword.” he says with a grin, stepping back and nodding. “Go ahead, have fun. I think you have more of a stake in his death than I do. I just thought he was a terrible person.”

“I'd say you were a good judge of character,” Diamond says, “but everyone in the Tokyo district knows that Hidaka Hiroshi is a terrible person.” She walks over to the man and drags him up to his knees.

“No, I'll give you anything you want!” Hiroshi bargains. “You want wealth? You want power-”

Her sword moves so quickly it's just a blur, and a moment later Hiroshi's head rolls from his shoulders. She flicks the blood off her blade and says coolly: “The only thing I wanted from you was your death.”

Diamond turns back and looks at Jason. “Are you familiar with the Shrine of Inari in the 13th Prefecture?” She holds out a diamond-shaped throwing star that looks like it's made of crystal.

“Can't say I am. I'm still getting to know most of the City, and I've spent most of my time in the seedier parts.” Jason doesn't much bat an eyelash at the decapitation, instead looking down over her weaponn out of curiosity. “Why do you ask?”

“Because we shouldn't stay here, but if you drop by and hang this from the shrine, I'll get the message.” She is clearly offering to give him the shuriken. “I'm Diamond. It's been a pleasure.” With that, she turns and leaves.