Kazuto stared hard at the man with the whip until the guy lost his nerve and backed away with his two remaining companions. They knew a lost cause when they saw it, so they had good self-preservation instincts if nothing else. But the katanas did not return to their sheaths until all three of them had staggered around the corner and out of sight, and the blades had been given a clean on the dead men's clothing.

Free to relax his guard a little (he still didn't know if the newcomer was an ally or not), he turned to Jr while trying not to look too ill about the corpses at their feet. He personally would have preferred to have left them alive if he could, but those overseeing his conditioning - they called it 'training' - encouraged him to hone his skill where he could and establish a reputation. For that reason he tried to think of the corpses as your typical monsters in a video game, but it still wasn't easy.

"They probably thought I looked weak," he commented. "Groups like that always seek out lone fighters." Kazuto's eyes quickly sized up Jr and he added reluctantly, "There's still time to catch up with them if you don't want them to leak any information..."