Hiro Ataka - Preference given to an older VA or an older sounding VA.

An older ex-mobster who has retired. Most believe he’s dead. The only one in Nox to have ever left the city and returned to tell the tale, but keeps it a secret until he tells Silver. Can sometimes be cold but also has softened up in his old age. Major recurring character who is central to the plot. 27 lines.

Footsteps CRUNCH in the dirt, and a MYSTERIOUS FIGURE approaches SILVER to stand beside him.

HIRO ATAKA

The first night is always the hardest, isn’t it

SILVER

What do you mean?

HIRO ATAKA

When you lose someone you’ve loved most, as sudden as this, you fall apart. Even though you blame yourself, the truth is that there was nothing to be done here, nothing you could do. Yet it still persists, this heartbreak. Like an emptiness that refuses to be filled. I was the same way, I’ve stood where you stand now, though it was many years ago. It will get better, just give it time. 

SILVER

Look stranger, if it’s all the same to you, I’d prefer to be left alone right now. And you’re wrong. I’m moving on, I’ve let her go.

HIRO ATAKA

I tried that too, you know. After this loss, the world will feel colder somehow, and you’ll tell yourself, if you just put one foot in front of the other, and move on with your life, you’ll feel like yourself again. So then, you’ll deceive your heart with your heartbreak, and push it away, far away, where it can’t hurt you. A month after her death, you’ll begin to convince yourself that you’re fine. But are you really? Can you truly leave behind your old ghosts?

SILVER

(angrily)

I think that’s enough old man! You don’t know me, you don’t know what I’ve lost, what I have done! Please, let me grieve in solitude.

HIRO ATAKA

(calm)

If that’s what you desire. But, you and I are more alike than you might think, memory thief.