Dealing with the thugs was, it transpired, a simple enough affair. With a few more strikes, and in a few moments, it was Cobra trying futilely to beat Llexe away from her, whilst many of the remaining fighters circled around Viper, who was clearly on the back foot there. It felt bad to simply gang up on her, but it was clear that a few seconds was all that would be needed to-

Cobra's attacks were suddenly drowned in a cruel growl, and her voice emitted a cry of intense agony. Even as Kiyoshi turned to see the carnage, Llexe was rending the girl's face asunder. And yet, his distraction provided an opening for Viper to dart in and attempt to strike him, itself a crucial distraction that he was forced to deal with, his blade beating her away and backward into Light's range, just as Llexe tore open the other girl's cheeks gruesomely. It occurred to him belatedly that perhaps she was attempting to reach her partner, but that would be a digression from the matter at hand: Kiyoshi's clones spewed out from him again, this time toward Llexe and the fallen gangster, getting in range of her just as the clawed girl smashed her victim's nose in. The only response Kiyoshi could give was to swipe at Llexe with his weapon, bludgeoning- and he hated that word, but it really was bludgeoning her with as much of the heavy wooden sword as possible to force her off of the gangster's form, and promptly yanking Cobra out of reach of the maniac, inspecting her for... oh, those were truly horrific injuries. What a wonderful start to their heroics; nothing wrong with their actions, it was just somebody with their face violently ripped to shreds.

And in his increasing fury, Kiyoshi almost failed to realise how badly injured [i]Light[/i] was getting until she tossed Viper to the ground, her body punctured in many places, seeping some shadowy wisps of substance that Kiyoshi could only assume was equivalent to blood. Again, he was forced to take action, sending another wave of clones in the gangster's direction, the last one quickly striking the second leader around the head and shoulders as she tried to get up, finishing the job Light started, though seemingly at the cost of her well-being, if not worse. This time, his real self didn't leave its original position as the generated clones faded away, instead turning toward Llexe with an expression and posture rather unlike his previous calm demeanour.

'What the fff...' Catching himself before he made a discourteous statement, he quickly but angrily rephrased '[i]What[/i] were you [i]thinking,[/i] Llexe? In what world did you think [i]this[/i] was reasonable?' Even as he gestured to Cobra's unconscious and bloodied form, he knew passing the blame to Llexe in full was just as discourteous as swearing at her. He could have moved to stop her sooner. He could have taken on Cobra himself, or at least in tandem with the more aggressive person. And in turn, there was no way he could blame Llexe for Light's wounding. He was angry with her, true, and he was rather forming an image of her in his mind that he'd rather not form of anybody, but frankly speaking, the failure here was utterly his own, and his anger dissipated quickly, giving way to despair and self-hatred as he knelt next to the woman unfortunate enough to draw Llexe's ire.

This was unacceptable. How could he have let it happen? How [i]dare[/i] he let it happen? He had more skill than that, he knew he did, and yet he'd allowed this failure of justice to come to fruition, not to mention... hell. Llexe was wounded too, not to mention Light. They needed medical assistance, and quickly.