Chapter 35: Testing Limits

Floyd Lawton a.k.a Deadshot was a man who never missed a shot. It was one of the reasons he was feared by those who knew him.

It was also the reason that Kenji was confident in his ability to complete the job.

He was hired to find out who was taking down Kenji's men and jeopardizing his hold in this part of Tokyo.

All the previous locations either yielded no clues or were burnt to the ground, erasing anything that might have been there.

Thankfully he didn't need to do too much digging as they already knew where he would strike next. All he needed to do was wait for them to strike.

And strike they did, though they were late by almost a week. He was already considering canceling the contract but that would damage his rep.

His target was apparently a metahuman with a strange ability. The ability to sink into the floor and move through it.

'That would explain how he was able to move undetected. Wait a minute…Is that a child?' He thought as he watched the boy grab one of the men at the back and silently sink into the ground.

He watched with growing curiosity and slight amazement as the boy quickly and almost effortlessly dispatched the men.

'Not too shabby for a kid but a job is a job.' He thought as he aimed his mini rocket launcher. He laid on rooftop of the building beside the factory.

He had placed a camera beforehand so as not to be caught off guard. Even without the camera, he still had a very good view from his scope.

As he watched the boy stand in silent contemplation, he pulled the trigger and watched as the missile flew into the room and blew everything up.

He let out a small breath as he got up from his laying position. As he packed up his equipment, his eyes caught something as he glanced at the camera feed.

As the smoke cleared up a bit, he could see the boy's corpse.

At least, what was supposed to be his corpse.

'Is that mud?' Deadshot thought in confusion.

"I don't appreciate being targeted." A voice said behind him.

He quickly turned around in shock but saw nothing behind him. He took out his gun form his holster and stood cautiously as his eyes surveyed the environment.

*Thud*

He heard someone land behind him but as he turned to shoot, a foot kicked him across the face, sending him back.

He immediately balanced himself, ignoring the pain he felt from the kick as the single scope of his silver mask focused on the person in front of him.

Sora stood in front of him with an expression of cold indifference as he regarded him. His glowing eyes only served to make him look even more menacing.

"Did you really think that would be enough to kill me?" He asked mockingly as Deadshot spat to the side.

"You pack quite a punch kid, I'll give you that. Now before I kill you, why don't you humor me." Floyd said as he took out his second gun.

"At first I thought it was one of those spandex wearing idiots who finally went nuts. Tell me, what's a kid like you doing getting involved in all of this." He said as he aimed the guns at Sora who watched him without so much as a change in expression.

"Not that it's going to save you but I'm curious." He added under the boy's gaze.

'I've been fighting henchmen for so long. I guess it's time to finally see how I match up against one of the big names.' Sora thought as he eyed the guns in the mercenaries hands.

He had sensed the man from the moment he arrived and his clone also alerted him to his presence.

"There's no need for you to concern yourself with that. After all, this will probably be the last time we'll meet." Sora said as he took a step forward.

"Come." He said simply as he dashed forward.

The mercenary immediately fired at him as he made his way closer. With their speed, it should have been impossible to dodge the bullets at close range.

Sora expertly contorted his body, moving out of the way of each bullet that shot towards him. Seeing the guns weren't working, he pulled out an assault rifle from his back and began firing.

Seeing the switch in artillery, Sora pulled out a gray marble from his inventory, aiming it at one of the bullets.

Upon contact, the marble exploded in a puff of smoke, covering the area. Floyd seeing this, leaped backwards out of range of the smoke.

As he landed, multiple objects shot out of the smoke. He dodged them with minimal effort, letting the objects pass him.

As they shot passed him, he observed what they really were.

'This kid really had these things on him. What is he, some kind of ninja?' Floyd thought as he watched the kunai and shuriken fly past him.

Sora shot out of the smoke at high speed, reaching the mercenary in nothing more than a second.

He jumped over a kick that was meant for his ribs, aiming his palm at the man's chest. Floyd brought his arm forward, intercepting it as Sora's palm landed on his forearm.

His other hand shot out to deliver a powerful punch but was parried by Sora as he adjusted the punch's trajectory with his other palm.

Grabbing a hold of Floyd's arm, he used it as a balance as he pulled himself upwards. His heel made contact with the bottom of the man's mask, forcing his head upwards.

Floyd, now annoyed, punched forward at Sora who was still airborne, expecting the body to dodge. To his surprise, Sora crossed his arms, blocking the blow with his forearms as he allowed himself to fly back a bit.

Only then did he notice the smirk on Sora's face. On his flight backwards, he tensed his wrists as wires became visible from his hands.

'Wires?' The marksman narrowed his eyes as he eyed the wires warily.

Sora pulled back on the wires, using his momentum to increase the force. The sound of metal cutting through air became apparent as the eyes of the assassin widened as he turned his head to the side.

The kunai that Sora had thrown earlier had the ends of the wires attached to them and were coming back even faster than before.

He made to leap away but found himself unable to move his feet. He looked down to see two hands holding him by the ankles, holding him to the ground.

Gritting his teeth, he pulled out a gun in each hand, shooting at the incoming weapons. He managed to hit all of them but one as Sora pulled lightly on the string, changing its trajectory from Floyd's aim.

The kunai that managed to evade the bullets lodged itself in the single scope of Deadshot's mask.

"AAAAHHHH! Fucking brat!" He screamed in pain as he pulled the small knife out of his scope.

Sora was very aware that scope on his mask was a mechanical one and it helped with him losing his actual eye.

The man wasted no time in pulling off the helmet, exposing his features, especially his bleeding eye socket.

"You're dead kid!" The man said as he pointed the gun at him. Before he could pull the trigger, another Sora emerged from the ground behind him, grabbing his neck.

Before he could go any further, Floyd's wrist mounted gun fired at him causing him to dissipate in a puff of smoke.

"Any more tricks?" The mercenaries asked, still wary as the hands holding his ankles were still present.

Sora stood in front of him, looking as fresh as when they started exchanging blows. The wind blew his hair to the side showing his calm face that wasn't short of breath.

"This fight is over. If you so much as move, you'll die." He said calmly as his hands formed the ram seal.

"So now you're making bluffs. It's a little too late for th-" The man's eyes widened as he felt his neck get unnaturally hot.

More specifically in the place Sora's clone had grabbed him.

'What the hell!? What's going on!?' He thought in confusion and shock as he subtly inspected his body for anything strange.

His eyes widened as he noticed black markings on his left arm and on the inside of his right forearm.

Both of these were where Sora had touched, just like his neck.

"What is this?" Deadshot asked in slight fear as he felt the heat grow where the markings were.

"I'm the one asking the questions. Answer exactly what I ask, anything else and you die." Sora said, his tone cold as he explained the terms.

Before Floyd could protest, he felt his neck get uncomfortably hot as a reminder. He promptly kept quiet only for Sora to speak up again.

"Nod if you understand." He said as the man nodded slowly.

"Good. First of all, who hired you and why?" The man seemed to consider it for a moment before staying quiet.

"Not talking?" Sora asked after a moment of silence.

'He could be bluffing.' Floyd thought.

"You're not going to do it. You need me to find out who wants you dead and you're not going to kill me until you find out." Floyd said with a smug look on his face.

"Besides, what are you going to do when one of those caped heroes find out your little secret. I'm sure Batman would be delighted to find out why I disappeared." He finished with a victorious smirk.

"The hard way it is then…" Sora mutterEd under his breath as his sharingan spun slowly as he made eye contact with Floyd.

The man stiffened for a second as Sora sifted through his memories. He slowly fell to his knees as the hands holding his ankles disappeared. A few moments later, Sora was done as the tomoe stopped their rotation.

"What the hell are you exactly?" Floyd asked lowly as looked up at the boy who held his life in his hands.

"No one of consequence. As for the league, I'll deal with that when the time comes." He said as he let his hand relax a bit.

Seeing his chance to escape, Deadshot dashed off the ledge of the building in an attempt to flee.

'Fool.' Sora thought as he tightened the ram seal.

*BOOM!*

Immediately there was loud explosion as Deadshot was blown into bits. Sora let out a breath as he turned off his sharingan.

'Just like that, one of the best human mercenaries is dead. It was a bit boring but I've gotten what I wanted.' Sora thought as he leaped away from the building.

With sealing mastery at the level it was, a thought came to his mind. What if he could implement seals into his fighting style.

Just like how Minato was able to mark people with just a touch, what if he was able to mark people with exploding seals.

It could be a game changer and with the skill in the high sixties, it was easy to implement.

He was also well aware that one of the factors that made the fight easy was Floyd's lack of intel on his abilities.

While it would have made it harder to fight, he felt he could still handle it. He pondered whether to find Kenji immediately or wait till tomorrow.

So far, he had only done one operation at a time to avoid getting ahead of himself but now he felt like if he didn't find the gang leader now, he would disappear without a trace.

'He's bound to know something's wrong if he doesn't receive word from either Floyd or his men. It looks like I have to make one more stop before going home.' He thought as he increased his speed.

He didn't know it yet but by killing Floyd, he had already drawn some eyes towards Japan and not all of them were friendly.