Jailbreak! [Active/Open]

[hisdreamsmyfate]

Characters: Zack Fair, anybody
Content: Cloud told him to stay home and rest his injuries. Zack's thinking otherwise. ...this could be bad.
Location: Along Broadway
Time of day: Morning
Warnings: An injured ex-SOLDIER in the streets of Manhattan. You do the math. ^^b

Comments

[defaultstare]

The day was starting to look up. This place was just filled with weapons, and unlike the more modern shops, Hashirama actually knew how to use more than 75% of them. The only downside to the whole thing was that the good ones were hidden behind glass display cases, but that was only temporary, and as strong or weak as the glass might have been, it shattered nicely with when hit with a chakra-charged palm.

Success.

Hashirama had managed to break his last katana, and now had two more. Two was a good number for weapons. One for each hand.

Twirling one of the blades, Hashirama tested the balance, found it to be acceptable, and then glanced out the window. Someone was coming. Well.

[hisdreamsmyfate]

Zack paused in the doorway as he noticed a shadow moving about inside the store, and jumped at the sudden shattering of glass. Backing up a bit, the SOLDIER looked around for anything he could use at that moment, since it seemed to be one of those crabs he'd heard so much about.

Feeling around on the wall, the man's hand eventually fell upon a rather small katana with a dragon print, the shape similiar to the one he'd started out with. That'd work nicely.

Zack slowly moved forward, ignoring the searing pain in his chest and abdomen and held the sword at the ready. He was starting to think he'd been decidedly stupid going out without being fully recovered first, but that didn't matter now, did it? He could handle himself. He always could.

[defaultstare]

“I would prefer it if you didn’t point that at me,” Hashirama told him, standing in one of the corners. In truth, the blade wasn’t aimed at him, per say, but the intent was unmistakable. With his crab-bite draining more energy than he cared to admit, Hashirama would have rather avoided fighting.

But, of course, if it was going to be that way, he’d oblige.

That was just how things worked.

[hisdreamsmyfate]

Zack jumped visibly at the voice, not expecting to hear one. Did crabs talk? He didn't think he wanted to find out.

Shuffling a bit closer, the SOLDIER was able to gain a good view of the other occupant, and found that it was actually a man. "Oh." Was his only reply as he lowered the sword and placed it on the back table. Zack clutched his side and cringed at the movement.

Funny. The guy kinda reminded him of Angeal, in both looks and demeanor. "Sorry. Thought you were a crab-thingy."

[defaultstare]

The man was tall, young, and recovering from a recent injury. A serious one, too, if the way he was standing was any tell. It probably was. Hashirama didn’t recognize the uniform, or the make of his armor, but that didn’t mean anything. With many worlds, there were many weapons smiths and military regulations. Different for each place. It wasn’t as surprising anymore.

“I assure you, I am not,” Hashirama told him, voice dry. “May I help you with something?”

[hisdreamsmyfate]

Very much like Angeal, Zack noted. Cold, serious, and to the point. Luckily, he'd grown accostumed to these types and knew just how to deal with them. Just don't say something stupid and piss him off, right?

The SOLDIER straightened himself and looked around. What a weird place. "Ah, no, I was just gonna look around for a bit." He replied casually. "I was going for a walk and found this place. Thought I might be able to find a new sword or something." He turned to the man. "How about you?"

[defaultstare]

Hashirama nodded calmly, and twirled the katana once before sheathing it. He’d been holding it at an angle behind his back, so the blade wouldn’t gleam and give him away. It was one thing to be polite and give people the benefit of doubt, but quite another to be stupid and let them kill you.

“Looking for weapons,” he told Zack, voice calm. “Same as you. There are many here.”

[hisdreamsmyfate]

"No kidding." The SOLDIER retorted, glancing back to the various swords, knives, and guns on the wall. The man's mako-blue eyes widened as he stepped back suddenly.

'...while you were dead...'

...guns. Something he didn't want to be near again anytime soon.

Pulling an axe off the wall, Zack looked it over with interest before setting it back on the hook and continuing his search. "Wonder if any of these would work against that Big Mommy thing. Doesn't look like they'd been touched in awhile."

[defaultstare]

“They need to be sharpened,” Hashirama agreed. “And I would not recommend trying. There are enough corpses here.”

There had been a twitch there, something Hashirama hadn’t understood, hadn’t really needed to. Everyone had fears. Everyone had a trigger. Shinobi often had more than one, but there was always something, a single, simple thing, that would send them off onto a path of explosive, inhibited violence. Always it was violence. They were born and bred for it, of course.

Such things were expected. Hashirama knew how to deal with them, if it turned into a problem. He wasn’t afraid, wasn’t anything but calm. He didn’t know the man, anyways.

“I am Senju Hashirama. You have a name?”

[hisdreamsmyfate]

Zack's eyes had unconsciously drifted towards the gun again in a bit of a daze. Corpses... if he hadn't come here, he would've been one. What if he'd died and Cloud didn't escape? What kind of mess would've--

...why in Gaia's name was he suddenly thinking like this?!

Oh, good. Introductions. Yeah, he could do that. Stop thinking all these horrible thoughts. Zack's head snapped back over to the man, drawing a sharp breath at the sudden movement. "Um. Zack, sir."

[defaultstare]

“Good to know a man’s name,” Hashirama said quietly. There was something hard and calculating in his eyes. There was something happening now. Something that might or might not result in violence. He would react accordingly to it.

When shinobi snapped, when they were triggered, there was lots of bloody violence. Or just an empty sort of nothing. Hashirama hadn’t decided which was worse.

“Are you here?” he asked suddenly, eyes narrowing. Here or in your head? Maybe no one but a shinobi would have been able to understand, but it was asked nonetheless.

[hisdreamsmyfate]

Zack blinked a bit, distracted. He had to stop doing all this deep-thinking crap. Don't let Sephiroth get his way. Don't let him win. But still...

"Uh, yeah. Sorry." The SOLDIER replied rather quickly. "Just... had a sudden thought. It's nothing." The man moved away from the wall faster than he would have liked the other to see, and began inspecting the swords on the opposite side of the room.

They were all pretty small, but then again, the Buster Sword had been quite a rare find. Zack didn't think anything would be that large or powerful here. Picking another off its hook, the SOLDIER grinned. Long, sharp. Effective. Sliding the weapon onto his holster, the dark-haired man turned to the other. "Hey, any recommendations?"

[defaultstare]

Hashiramam nodded, though whether he was pleased with the answer or not, he didn’t indicate. Not showing what he was thinking was a strength of his. As a commander, and as a shinobi, it had served him well.

“I prefer a katana,” Hashirama said in response to the question. He indicated the swords sheathed at his side. “But I have trained in it. What are you familiar with?”

[hisdreamsmyfate]

"I had a katana too, for a while." Zack shrugged, looking back to the wall. "I got a better sword later on, but... I'd rather not go into detail on how. I'm just kinda used to something like it by now."

The SOLDIER pulled the sword off its holster once more and swung it around a bit, testing the weight. Pretty big, kinda heavy. It would probably do for now; especially since it had a few nice prints of warriors that looked like they'd come from Wutai.

It was a stupid question, but Zack felt compelled to ask it anyway. "Say, you wouldnt've happened to come from a place called Wutai, would you?" The man certainly seemed like he would, but it didn't hurt to ask.

Slashing the sword across a bit too hard, the SOLDIER cringed and dropped it at the sudden pain. "Okay. Ow. Ow."

[defaultstare]

That wasn’t unexpected. Hashirama had known Zack was hurt. It had been obvious from the way he was moving, standing. Through training you could learn to see things like that, read an opponent like nothing else.

“I am from Fire Country, and Konohagakure no Sato.”

Hashirama sighed quietly. “You shouldn’t be moving so quickly. You’ll reopen your wounds.”

[hisdreamsmyfate]

Zack gritted his teeth and forced himself to stand upright, picking up the sword he'd dropped. Okay, yeah. That was a stupid move. "Never heard of either of 'em." He said simply, trying to mask the strain. He laughed a bit. "And I can't even pronounce that other one."

Shrugging, the SOLDIER placed the sword onto the holster and looked to the man. "I'm from Gongaga, but I lived in Midgar for most of my life."

'You'll reopen your wounds' Zack silently swore as he felt a bit of wetness leaking through the bandages on his bicep. Shit. Too late.

...Cloud was going to kill him. So much for being discreet.