#Fuuma Ninjas

[gabriel-gabdiel]

【Draft】 Rurouni Yahiko Chapter 57: The Chinese Parade

Finally got a bit of momentum back at writing. It really does feel cathartic to write again. Plus, there's a new Rurouni Kenshin anime coming very soon, which is neat.

Pardon the bad formatting, typos, and run-on sentences. it’s the roughest of drafts. 

Back at the exterior facade of the Minakata moneychanger office building…

Three things happened within the span of five seconds.

Five long seconds that seemingly went into slow motion for all those concerned.

As Kai Hidaka of the Fuuma Ninja Clan forcefully pulled at the speared Satoru Sakaguchi, he intended to either use him as an anchor to leap away from the attacking Kinta Minakata or as a meat shield if the lieutenant got dragged towards him instead.

Lieutenant Sakaguchi, thinking quickly, opted to allow Hidaka to pull at him instead to prevent his escape from Kinta.

The policeman charged and went into iaijutsu (quick-draw) position, intending to attack the rope-slinging brigand rather than be used as a pawn or collateral damage against Minakata.

Kinta now had no choice but to halt his momentum to prevent himself from slashing both Satoru and Kai apart with the Mangetsu O Tsuku Nari (Full Moon Slash).

That was the leeway Kai needed as he timed a jump at the last second before Lieutenant Sakaguchi could release his blade for a Half Moon Slash, his saber clashing against Minakata's Akatsuki (Red Moon) sword at the location where Hidaka stood a split second earlier.

By the time the Fuuma Clan Ninja reached the apex of his jump, he'd twisted and wrapped his body around a rope spear he'd shot into the ground below him.

Then he twisted towards the other direction, releasing all the potential energy he'd stored from coiling himself up like a mummy into kinetic motion.

***

Rurouni Yahiko

A Rurouni Kenshin Continuation Fan Fiction Story by Chester Castañeda

The Brigands are closing in on their Minakata V.I.P. targets. Can Yahiko and the Sakaguchis do anything against them?

Disclaimer: All characters used in this fanfic (save some others) are the rightful property of Nobuhiro Watsuki, Shueisha, Shonen Jump, Viz, Sony Studios, Fuji TV, Studio Gallup, Studio Deen, and ADV. This disclaimer also covers all the other copyrighted materials that are far too many to mention here. Don't sue me please, I'm very poor.

***

Chapter 57: The Chinese Parade

***

Kai Hidaka twirled like a top that'd been released from being bound-up in rope or string, intending to kill two birds with one stone with the whirling dervish that was him and his dual-wielded blades.

Only for Minakata to shift his weight on his lead foot to pivot, lift his back foot, and turn to avoid Satoru altogether.

His back foot then turned into his lead foot after doing his initial pivot, giving him the leverage he needed to continue his Tsunami's supersonic strikes, intentionally missing as though practicing an iaijutsu kata (quick-draw form).

From there, he moved past Lieutenant Sakaguchi and charged at the spinning Kai, barely losing any of his momentum. He then adjusted the trajectory of his sword to slash at Kai's revolving blades without missing a beat.

As though he turned his missed swings into an intentional part of his kata until he recovered enough to actually hit his target.

'Kinta-kun…!' thought Satoru, who himself turned to witness the Mimawarigumi Battousai clashi blades with the Brigand's resident ninja.

Kai scowled. Dammit. The Kagemusha (Shadow Warrior) did it again. He found a way to win.

Regardless, Hidaka used the recoil from his blades after they clashed hard against Kinta's Full Moon Slash to rebound back to the sky and avoid the Blue Moon Slash he knew was coming.

He then did a pirouette to redirect the trajectory of his body and land behind Satoru, using him as his human shield against Kinta like he had originally intended.

"DIE, SEIRYU CLAN!" Kai cried out, which surprised both Kinta and Satoru.

'Seiryu Clan…?' they thought in unison.

Hmmm. They were the Seiryu Clan, weren't they? Both of them knew the Brigands Guild member had a point. The name had a nice ring to it too.

Their clan indeed involved the partnership between high-ranked hatamoto samurais who only answered to the daimyo and low-ranked subordinate samurais under them.

Kai Hidaka had intended for Minakata to use up the last of his stamina to make himself easy pickings for himself or for Kinta's half-brother, Lucas Grant (the man who proposed that their guild take this dangerous mission in the first place).

A mission close to Lucas's heart. For the Prodigal Son, this time it was personal.

Then again, Kai also saw it as a personal mission in a certain point of view.

Hidaka then noticed that Satoru fell into the infamous Waning Stance. The defensive stance of Musou Madden Ryu where the user faced away from the opponent instead of forward.

As usual. How typical of the cowardly Lieutenant Satoru Sakaguchi. The sidekick of Kinta. The Kagemusha of the Kagemusha.

An ordinary police officer stuck into extraordinary circumstances. A family man with a wife and daughter to boot. Or an about-to-be widow and her daughter, at any rate.

Hidaka figured out that the Waning Stance was simply the Waxing Stance seen from behind.

Attacks happened much slower from the Waning Stance because the point of release happened from the front of the quick-draw swordsman and they had to loop around in a circle care of the resulting follow-through.

This defensive stance hid the trajectory of the sword, allowing for a 360-degree quick-draw slash that depended more on timing than speed to work.

Regardless, Kai had almost stabbed through Satoru to get to Kinta and injure him. Or at least distract him enough to the point of making a mistake.

Well, almost.

***

At the front door of the Minakata moneychanger office building…

A banker, a ninja, and a samurai all gathered at the front porch of the Minakata moneychanger building. No, that wasn't the start of a joke.

However, the ridiculous circumstances did push them to the brink of hilarity in the point of view of situational irony.

Thusly, none of them understood the resulting punch line.

Regardless, the thick wooden doors before them burst open long after they had closed them earlier, as though demanding they come back inside.

The jaws of Yahiko Myojin, Kaita of the Sanada Ninja Clan, and Tatsuya Minakata figuratively dropped on the floor at the sight before them. A sight to cause sore eyes on the part of Tatsuya, for sure.

Despite their best efforts, The Faceless—also known as Seth Merrick, John Rathbone, or even Fabian La Cerca—had breached through the defenses of the Sanada Ninja that ran interference for them, driving the bloody bat-themed spy through the door with a rapier stab.

Like Hajime Saito would with his fearsome Gatotsu stabbing technique.

"Baku!" exclaimed Kaita, which was the first time Yahiko heard the invisible ninja raise his voice. The master of camouflage seemed more like the quiet type, so the shout surprised the Tokyo Samurai Descendant a tiny bit.

Wide-eyed, Yahiko witnessed the bloodied bat-themed ninja screech and holler a war cry, a haunting noise which made him realize the inhuman screams he heard from before was actually from the shadow warrior all along.

Only for The Faceless to do a Beat, Parry, and Riposte to counter him, driving him to the ground and turning him into a human plow.

"Ahhh! Monsters! They're all MONSTERS!" screamed the horseman they found who was supposed to drive the carriage.

He then ran away on foot at the frightening sight of The Faceless painting the front porch with Baku's blood.  

"Come back, you coward!" demanded Tatsuya, who had half the mind to shoot the driver to put him away from his misery.

"SHIT!" cursed Yahiko while Kaita also did so, but under his breath. Then again, good thing the carriage driver didn't end up driving away with their getaway vehicle.

Aloud, the teenaged samurai asked Kaita, "The ninja uses screams to mess with his target somehow, right? Like maybe burst his eardrums or give him vertigo?"

He based this on his experience with Kenshin Himura fighting Enishi Yukishiro. Kenshin defeated Enishi's "Nerves of Insanity" by the supersonic sheathing of his sword that burst the wattoujutsu expert's eardrum with a high-pitched sound.

From behind Yahiko, Kaita said, "You're on the right track. Baku's screams disrupts a swordsman's ability to read kenki (swordsman presence) and sakki (bloodlust) by using infrasound vibrations."

Indeed, Yahiko couldn't clearly get a read on the intentions of Baku even from that distance, his bloodlust and swordsman presence masked with distracting supersonic screeches.

Like how the Kekkai no Mori (Sealing Forest) sealed away Kenshin's ability to detect bloodlust by the strange magnetic field surrounding it when he faced off against the Yaminobu Ninjas.

Kaita frowned, his kunai at the ready. Originally, Baku used his shrieks in order to strike fear in his targets and echolocate them from a distance or even in pitch-black darkness like bats would.

Baku trained for years to turn his screams into kenki disruptors, getting him on equal footing with the likes of the sharpshooter ninja Zan.

"However, the foreigner's swordsmanship style probably doesn't sense bloodlust the way Japanese swordsmen do, so Baku instead used his infrasound screams to disrupt his rhythm," Kaita surmised.

"He can do that?" said Yahiko in wonder.

Kaita nodded. "But his expertise only somehow woke up a sleeping giant. That man, The Faceless, is dangerous."

'You don't have to tell me twice,' thought Myojin, remembering how hard it was to hit or penetrate through the parries of the expert fencer who was always two steps ahead of him.

"Once you nitwits are done congratulating my assassin for a job well done, can you please save my life, if you don't mind?!" demanded the gaunt Minakata uncle, Tatsuya.

Fabian La Cerca did one flick of his sword in order to fling the blood on the ground. "Now where were we? Ah yes. Minakata Tatsuya. Prepare to die."

"AH! Don't come near me, you freak!" cried the banker, his pistol at the ready.

Both Yahiko and Kaita acted quickly, hoping they had the same idea in saving Tatsuya from harm. Or that their ideas didn't clash against each other.

Thusly, Kaita disappeared from view, like an apparition in twilight.

'Godammit,' thought Myojin, hoping against hope that the Minakata Family's ninja didn't just abandon them like their horse carriage driver did.

He then swung at the ground at full force to do an explosive "Dou Gami! (God on Earth)", only for him to shift quickly into a "DOU RYU SEN! (EARTH DRAGON FLASH!)" as soon as the fencer assassin dodged to the side to redirect all that loosened earth towards the direction of his dodge.

Yahiko then grit his teeth when Fabian also slipped, slid, parried, and deflected the resulting landslide of rocks and debris as though doing a fencing duel with it.

What was up with this guy?!

Then, just in time, Kaita the Ninja drove the carriage in front of Yahiko and Tatsuya, beckoning them to get in. He actually fetched their getaway car in time before The Faceless could get to them.

"Get in," beckoned the ninja, who threw kunai at La Cerca even as he dodged the rock shards and debris Yahiko flung at him earlier. "Lord Minakata. Yojimbo (Bodyguard). Let's go."

"Whew, I thought you abandoned us for a second there!" confessed Yahiko, who wiped the sweat off his brow.

"Not to worry. I'll stick with you like I'm your shadow," the Sanada Ninja reassured.

"Hmmm," grunted The Faceless because by the time he realized what had happened, his target and his guards had gotten away. "Touché, Minakata Tatsuya. Your bodyguards have impressed me."

***

Back at the exterior facade of the Minakata moneychanger office building…

Hidaka had anticipated the Full Moon Slash from the Waning Stance of Satoru, so he countered with a stab instead of a slash since that was the quicker attack.

However, Kai merely clipped the turning back of the policeman. As expected, contact with the ninja's blade made the lieutenant move like a booby trap that had been tripped.

The acrobatic Fuuma ninja sidestepped the resulting slash by reflex as soon as he saw the glinting blade appear in the moonlight, figuring out its trajectory by sight.

Hidaka then attacked with another lunging stab, knowing full well that Satoru was no Kinta Minakata and thusly wasn't capable of the Blue Moon Slash (or Double Full Moon Slash).

The shadow warrior now had leverage against Kinta and his supersonic slashes—i.e., an injured Officer Sakaguchi—while also buying himself time until Lucas arrived.

'What…?! Impossible!' thought Hidaka, who almost got bisected into two halves with a follow-up Full Moon Slash.

'A Double Full Moon Slash? A Blue Moon Slash?! That mere copper was capable of this advanced technique?!'

Unbeknownst to him though, Satoru Sakaguchi had one more trick up his sleeve.

Instead of doing the Full Moon Slash twice, Satoru instead did the Waning Gibbous Moon Slash, allowing him a slightly faster recovery time to execute a Pseudo Blue Moon Slash.

Even though Satoru couldn't do a Blue Moon Slash like Kinta could, he could fake the technique by instead doing a Waning Gibbous Slash that resembled a Full Moon Slash, allowing him a quick enough follow through to unleash a real Full Moon Slash soon after.

Thus, the opening that the Fuuma ninja thought was there got him slashed apart instead with an actual Full Moon Slash.

Such was the power of the Suigetsu O Tsuku Nari (Water Moon Slash or Illusion Moon Slash).

Like the reflection of the moon on the water, Satoru fooled Kai into thinking his Waning Gibbous Moon Slash and Full Moon Slash combo was the Blue Moon Slash.

It took advantage of the fact that the preparatory motion for all the slashes of Musou Madden Ryu appeared the same until release.

Hidaka fell for the Illusion Moon Slash hook, line, and sinker.

***

In the middle of Yokohama's Chinatown...

They were home-free. The two bodyguards, the samurai and the ninja, fulfilled their mission of protecting Kinta Minakata's uncle, Tatsuya.

Kaita, though with some difficulty due to lack of horse-riding experience, took he reins of the horses of the horse-drawn carriage that served as their getaway ride.

Yahiko bought them enough time to stave off the advance of The Faceless, the gaijin (foreign outsider) partner of the Minakata Family's Prodigal Son, Lucas Grant, in time to escape.

So why did they feel like something was amiss? Like something horrible was about to happen?

They slowed down to a crawl instead of riding straight through the streets of Yokohama's Chinatown in order to get back to one of many Minakata Zaibatsu mansions.

They ended up stuck with other carriages as a parade of dancing Chinese and Japanese folk as well as their half-Chinese, half-Japanese offspring went through the streets in celebratory fashion.

"What's going on? Why aren't we moving?" demanded Tatsuya, looking like a carved bronze statue of himself sitting on cushioned carriage seats.

"Relax, Minakata-dono," reassured Kaita. "There's just a parade happening. For some sort of Chinese holiday or festival."

"Ah, the Dongzhi Festival, huh?" Tatsuya allowed his tense shoulders to relax, his back finally slumping down on his seat's cushioned backrest. He'd previously been as stiff as a board this entire time.

As a local of Yokohama, he was familiar with the customs of the area. "Fine. Let's wait it out and find the nearest shortcut. I want to be hundreds of kilometers away from those maniacs."

The Dongzhi Festival or Winter Solstice Festival was celebrated during the Dongzhi solar term (winter solstice), during any day from December 21 to December 23. It was supposedly celebrated to ensure good yin-and-yang balance for the coming season.

After the celebration, it was believed the days would have longer daylight hours and more positive energy flowing in.

Different cultures celebrated the Chinese holiday in different ways, with them eating anything from glutinous tangyuan (rice balls) or dongzhi (dumplings) and quhan jiaoer tang (hot dumpling soup that expelled the cold).

Perhaps they were just being paranoid.

'Like hell we are…!' thought the antsy Yahiko as he scanned their surroundings, his hand clasping the hilt of the Hitokiri Battousai's sakabatou (reverse-edged blade).

"Wait a second," began Tatsuya. Something was amiss.

The Minakata banker then reminded his two bodyguards that it wasn't December 21st, 22nd, or 23rd today. The correct dates for the Winter Solstice Festival.

Also, the Dongzhi Festival wasn't celebrated with a parade of uproarious people in the streets and a Chinese lion mascot dance like it was the Chinese New Year. Families ate dumplings, sticky rice balls, or soup instead.

Kaita attempted to turn the carriage around in order to find a better avenue for their escape, but soon they ended up surrounded by the suspicious merrymakers.

Also, the lion mascot doing the Chinese lion dance—a southern lion mascot, Tatsuya informed them—started approaching them.

***

Back at the exterior facade of the Minakata moneychanger office building…

God damn it. Damn it all to hell.  Once again, that damnable Satoru Sakaguchi got in Kai Hidaka's way. Once again, the Fuuma ninja underestimated his childhood rival.

He swore to every Japanese god known to man, he'd make that son of a bitch pay.

As Kai fell to the ground in a spray of crimson, everyone present heard a loud crash from the wall facing them, which drowned out the wet splat of his own painful drop.

The ninja scrambled up to his feet in anticipation, ignoring the sting of Satoru's saber on his person.

If he had somehow made it out of the offices of the Minakatas, then the Brigands Guild still had a chance to complete the mission to finish off the strongest Minakata.

And as if on cue, Lucas Grant emerged from the dust clouds, smoke, wood, and plaster he plowed through like so much cardboard and tinder.

The blood then drained from Kai's face when he saw the bloody state that the Prodigal Son was in. He looked like a pincushion, with all sorts of darts, shuriken, knives, and other sharp objects stuck on his person.

For his part, Lucas walked like a drunkard, his clothes stained red from all the blood he lost.

'What the hell happened?!' Hidaka thought, his mind going a mile a minute while his own blood pooled from underneath him.

"Goddamn you, Sanada Demon!" cursed Luke. "Come back here, coward! Stand still and fight like a man, Zan!"

'Demon…?' thought Kai. 'I guess he is a demon.'

The Sanada Demon known as Zan then appeared from behind Kinta, startling the swordsman. His demonic red Noh mask, devilish garb, and oversized war fork would give anyone a fright.

"I've softened him up for you, Minakata-dono," said the strongest of the Sanada Demons as he bowed to his lord. "He's ripe for the kill."

"…." was what Kinta had to say about that.

'Who the hell is this?' thought Kai. 'We weren't briefed about the Minakatas having these other ninjas under their employment! Our scouts only spotted at least two ninja bodyguards, with the rest acting more like liaisons than warriors!'

"We can take him on together, m'lord. Now's our chance," Zan said to Kinta while both shielded Lieutenant Satoru from the rest of the brigands as the officer tended to his daughter's injuries. "We must strike iron while it's hot, before he recovers!"

Kai grabbed his head, forgetting he had a mask on that kept him from tearing his hair out.

'DAH! That was our plan! Lucas and I were supposed to converge on the Kagemusha then have The Faceless finish him off! Everything's going south for us!'  

"Keh. Fine by me," boasted, perhaps bluffed, the woozy Lucas. "Two against one, huh? As expected of you sneaky orientals. I can take both of you gutless cowards on!"

The Mimawarigumi Battousai shook his head at Zan, which prompted the ninja to complain, "Please, listen to reason, m'lord! Now is not the time to treat the enemy with honor. We must be practical and pragmatic about this. I know he's your brother, but…!"

Kinta turned towards Zan and shook his head. "I refuse to gang up against an injured man."

This took Lucas aback. "Bloody hell. What's this now? Japanese honor? The code of the samurai? I told'ya I'm good with you two going up against me at the same time! Come at me, big brother!"

"…Understood, m'lord," said Zan with a sigh and a bow to Kinta before he struck his war fork on the ground, making it tremble and shake once more. "As you wish, Minakata-sama. I'll finish him off myself."

Sneering, Lucas then said, "I wouldn't do that if I were you. Don't make my life difficult and I won't make your life short."

***

In the middle of the Chinese parade...

A northern lion mascot had a fiercer face, painted-on eyes, boxier jaw, and visible sharp teeth. A southern lion mascot has pouted fish lips, blinking eyes, and a moveable jaw.

So it felt surreal to have the adorable fish-lipped lion mascot staring back at Tatsuya, Yahiko, and Kaita, filling them with dread and uncertainty.

The lion dance was developed to scare away evil spirits and bring luck to the audience participating in it. It involved the lion mascot eating cabbages then spitting it out the audience as a sign of good fortune.

Legend had it that the lion dance started because a monster once would attack a village once a year to eat all the food or even the babies of the villagers. Until one day, a monk came to the village and tamed the monster by tying a red ribbon on its horn.

Afterwards, the monster acted as the village guardian, protecting everyone instead of eating their babies and some such.

Other stories alleged that the gods cut the monster's head off, but Guan Yin (The Chinese Goddess of Mercy) brought it back to life, which also turned it into a village guardian.

Thusly, the Lion Guardian of Yokohama Chinatown peered straight at them with blinking (puppet) eyes.

They were left in a conundrum. Should they go out of the carriage and move by foot? Or should they stay there trapped like rats in the middle of a slow-moving parade?

If this was all part of the Brigands Guild plan, they were screwed either way.

"Go out and see what it wants," Tatsuya ordered Yahiko as though he were his butler telling  him to see who was at his door.

"ME? Why me? Why not your personal ninja?" balked Myojin.

The Elder Minakata said, "He's not my ninja, he's Kinta's. Also, he's driving the coach so he's staying here with me."  

The teenaged samurai rolled his eyes. "All right. Fine. I'll go out. You two stay here."

"Oh yeah. Don't give the lion something white to eat," said Tatsuya. "It hates that."

"That's weird," said Yahiko. "Why is that?"

"It's Chinese superstition, you nincompoop," said the banker.

'Ugh. What an asshole.' Resisting the urge to throw Kinta's uncle to the proverbial wolves, Yahiko exited the vehicle and stood guard in front of it, his sword at the ready.

The lion dance mascot took one look at the samurai kid, spewed bits of cabbage at him, and then left him alone.

Huh. Yahiko then remembered Tatsuya telling them that, as part of the lion dance, the lion mascot pretended to eat lettuce and cabbages offered to it before it spat it out back to the business owners and audience.

This symbolized blessing them with wealth and prosperity in the coming year.

After merely ten seconds, Yahiko realized the danger he, Minakata, and Kaita faced.

What if the parade of merrymakers were real and filled with actual Chinatown residents, but mixed with the mercenaries hired by the Brigands Guild to do their bidding?

A crowd was the perfect place to kidnap dignitaries and assassinate V.I.P.s Bodyguards would have a hard time telling which was friend or foe. Normal citizens or actual assassins.

"Is the coast clear? Let me out. I'm going back to my mansion on foot, if I have to!" complained Tatsuya, who swung open the carriage door only for Yahiko to shut it close and shush him. "Wha…? How DARE you shush me, Bodyguard!"

"Please keep quiet, you ghoul," hissed Yahiko.

"Gh-Ghoul?! How dare you…!" hissed Tatsuya in return, only to get shushed further.

"We're being watched. They want you to get out of the carriage and get lost in the crowd."

Although he grumbled, Kinta's uncle shut the door of the carriage and did what he was told.

"Ninja, take care of Kinta's uncle while you're in there, okay?" said Yahiko, to which Kaita nodded in agreement.

Meanwhile, on his part, Myojin remained at the entrance of the carriage and focused. He remembered his training with Kaoru and Kenshin.

He trained mostly in Kamiya Kasshin Ryu and partly in Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu (mostly self-taught), specifically in the art of reading the air. Reading intentions before anyone even acted upon them.

Spreading his swordsman's presence to feel the ripples and detect the malice and blood thirst of those around him.

A couple of stray leaves snapped and popped before the Tokyo Samurai Descendant.

Yahiko snatched the hand of a man with a knife and twisted it. He then did a judo throw to him, also taught to him by Kaoru. This scared the person away.

Without looking, he batted away what might've been a poison dart, and then blocked a cleaver attack with the iron scabbard of the sakabatou.

Most of the sneak attacks on Yahiko's person, he stopped by gutting them with the hilt or tip of the reverse sword, with him not needing to draw its naked blade.

All these attempts at violence by rank-amateur mercenaries paled in comparison to dealing with the long-distance shots of the likes of May Brooks and her naginatajutsu.

He could dodge, counter, and manhandle everyone all day

However, Myojin actually fell for the Brigands Guild's Plan B. While he busied himself staving the attacks of disguised assassins and hired hitmen at one door, the lion mascot snuck to the other side of the carriage.

"Yojimbo! Myojin Yahiko, the other door…!" warned Kaita, his kunai at the ready while he reined in the neighing horses to calm them down.

Awakened from his trance-like flow state, Yahiko forced open the carriage in time to see the southern lion mascot "eat" (as in open its puppet jaws and grab hold with multiple hands) the person he was supposed to be protecting, Tatsuya, unto itself.

Afterwards, the giant mascot blasted cabbages at the horses like from a canon or a firework, spooking them and forcing Kaita to hold on for dear life and they all went buck wild.

Ironically, for the first time, the slow-moving parade finally gave way for the carriage to go through.

What the hell just happened?

***

Back at the exterior facade of the Minakata moneychanger office building…

"Daughter! Daughter! Kyoko, are you all right?" called out the worried Satoru, who cradled his little girl's head while pain still emanated all over her body from her attempt at a Full Moon Slash.

"I-I'm all right, Daddy. Thank you for saving both me and Kinta-sama."

Her vision cleared, and the first thing she saw was her father's worried face. Afterwards, her eyes traveled to Kinta, who stood perfectly still, looking none the worse for wear save for him looking sweatier than usual.

Dimly, she marveled at how her father and Kinta could continuously due such straining techniques in the heat of battle. Boys sure were made of sterner stuff.

However, this also had her worried. She now knew firsthand the incredible strength, agility, physical fitness, and skill to pull off those dangerous moves.

Even with their training and physical strength, they were both only human. Even they might end up like her, with pulled muscles or ripped tendons from the effort of performing Musou Madden Ryu techniques.  

She also saw the hateful Kai on all fours, crawling in a pool of his own blood. Served him right.

She wasn't a violent person by nature and she hated the sight of blood, but in the case of that creep, she made an exception.

Her eyes then settled unto Kinta Minakata's tall, blond, and handsome attacker, charging through a hailstorm of knives and daggers while swiping his European longsword at one of Kinta's ninja bodyguards.

Even though the bloodied blond devil's longsword had quite the reach itself, the devilish masked ninja had an even longer weapon he used like a lance, with every strike making it vibrate and hum the drone of a million hornets.

If she could hazard a guess, she'd bet there was some sort of trick that the ninja was using in order for him to accurately and unerringly strike down the gaijin assassin like target practice.

The war fork's vibrations and droning sound could be simulating the way swordsmen sense the intent of their opponents.

Like ripples from a disturbed pond bouncing back at anything that got in their way, revealing their shape and location.

Like a swordsman's kenki (swordsman ki) reacting to the sakki (bloodlust) of nearby opponents.

By all accounts, the fight was all over. They'd won. Kinta was safe. His assassins were struggling.

However, Kyoko's female intuition screamed at her to keep her eyes peeled. And her hands on her sword's handle.

But maybe she was just being paranoid.

Kinta was strong enough to do the Full Moon Slash without straining or injuring himself like she did.

His assassin was on the verge of being defeated without her or her father's help. They only needed to wait a little longer. Then they could go home and forget all this.

She swallowed down the lump of fear and panic in her throat and watched someone get stabbed to death bit by bit.

She forced herself to watch the grisly affair to prove her persistent feeling of dread wrong.

***

Back in the streets of the Yokohama Chinatown…

Yahiko couldn't tell if the parade was a premeditated ruse to lure any escaping Minakatas into a death trap or if the Brigands timed their assassination plot in the middle of a parade.

Regardless, he was in the thick of it and it seemed like he was taking out thousands of mercenaries in disguise one after another.

He couldn't tell friend from foe or bystander from hired merc and that was probably the whole idea of this Chinese parade "finger trap".

After all, he wasn't totally sure they were sneaky mercenaries with hidden knives or clumsy and drunk parade goers.  

Thusly, he did his best to avoid hurting innocent bystanders by doing things like making his attackers slip and fall or snatching their weapons away with his shirahadori (barehanded blade blocking) techniques.

The pacifistic Kenshin would probably approve of Yahiko's attempts to minimize any potential collateral damage in the middle of a skirmish, at least.

He chased the lion dance mascot all the way into a crowded wet market, and the parade's jolly dancers seemingly made their way there as well.

However, every time Myojin got near, he got bombarded by kicks and punches hidden underneath the flowing costume of the lion mascot. They essentially used hit and run tactics to escape their swordsman pursuer.

He had to contend with hidden mercenaries at every corner and martial artists trained in kung fu wearing a gigantic lion costume every step of the way.

The kendoist herded the multi-feet, caterpillar-like mascot puppet into the nearest, narrowest corner alleyway he could find, their shoes muddied by splashing puddles as he pushed them towards a dead end.

"Let the Thin Man go, bastards! He ain't my cup of tea either, but I won't let you kidnap him! Much less kill him! DOU…!"

It was then that Yahiko realized where they'd ended up at. Back near the Minakata moneychanger office building. Right into the waiting hands of The Faceless.

"I've already seen that attack before. Has your bag of tricks run out?" Fabian La Cerca asked Yahiko Myojin.

Meanwhile, the samurai kid's attempt at another God on Earth got blocked hard by Fabian's sharp and thick rapier, the clang of the blades making the sakabatou vibrate like a tuning fork. Or Zan's war fork.

"Faceless!" said Yahiko, remembering the name Kaita gave the, for lack of a better term, gaijin ninja. "Uh, fancy meeting you here…?"

"Quiet, you popinjay," said the smug La Cerca. "You've fallen right into our trap. Our Chinese mercenaries serve as our insurance policy against any unforeseen hindrances. Now hand over the Kagemusha's relative this instant!"

Yahiko had figuratively ended up between a rock and a hard place, facing off against a multi-limbed kung fu pseudo-lion and a sword-wielding maniac with no face.

***

Kai Hidaka had seen enough.

Styles made fights and obviously, Lucas Grant was no match against the long-distance projectile thrower with a war fork.

Had Zan and the Kagemusha joined forces to defeat Lucas, it would've been all over already.

However, as it was, the red devil ninja was more than enough to take care of the novice mercenary.

Where the hell was The Faceless anyway? He was supposed to be the veteran leader of the Brigands Guild. Their organizer. Their finisher.

Ever since joining the ranks of the Brigands Guild like a soldier in the foreign legion, Kai imagined he'd die someday due to some mission in faraway lands like Constantinople, Hindustan, Siam, Burma, Zaire, or Holland.

Never in his wildest dreams did he fathom he'd die back in his homeland of Japan.  

All the same, the goggled warrior picked himself up from the pavement and willed himself to go once more unto the breach.

If he was going to die anyway then he'd do so like a man.

Then maybe he'd haunt that idiot Faceless and his multiple personalities (or disguises) for good measure! He was nowhere to be found when they needed him the most!

Zan the daredevil ninja saw Kai approach and thusly shot him full of blades and projectiles, intending to turn him into a pincushion for multiple blades like Lucas Grant.

Or like Musashibo Benkei who died standing while shot full of arrows or Julius Caesar and his body stabbed by multiple senatorial daggers.  

However, much to Kai Hidaka's surprise, Kinta Minakata charged alongside him.

Kinta headed straight towards Lucas as soon as Kai decided to act as the distraction for Zan.

What was the Mimawarigumi Battousai doing? Was he finally willing to fight his half-brother now that it was a one-on-one battle or a much fairer fight than before?

Kinta and Lucas were face-to-face once again—The Prodigal Son versus The Minakata Heir.

"Hello, brother," said Lucas with a bloody grin. "Have you changed your mind? Or do you now feel like this is more of a fair fight, Mr. Samurai?"

Kinta kept quiet as he fell into the Waning Stance, his back turned on his bastard brother and his bastard sword.

'What's going on?' Hidaka wondered before dodging and slicing the flying knives and shuriken thrown at him by the sharpshooter ninja.

***

Back at a narrow alleyway in the Yokohama Chinatown near the Minakata moneychanger offices…

"I'll make this duel short to save you fatigue," said La Cerca to Yahiko, who fell into his fencing En Garde stance and did probing stabs at the samurai kid's defense. With both his rapier and his dagger.

"Duel?! You're ganging up on me, you masked coward!" came Myojin's retort, which in no way helped him against The Faceless' riposte.  

The troublesome dagger served as both his extra shield and extra weapon, with him shifting defense and offense between rapier and dagger.

Meanwhile, at the same time from behind him, an oversized, ridiculous lion puppet kept snapping its jaws at him with camouflaged fists and brass knuckles as well as kicks with hidden shoe blades.

It hardly seemed fair. It was like two against one. Or more like eleven against one.

Up to ten people could fit inside the lion mascot, although Yahiko wondered if Tatsuya was forced to serve as the eleventh person inside the puppet, so technically it was twelve against one.

Regardless, the poor kid got bludgeoned by kicks and punches from a lion mascot and wounded by stabs and slashes by the masked fencer.

Wiping the trickle of blood from his busted lip, Yahiko realized he could barely counter any of the attacks because whatever openings either opponent had was taken care of by the other's offensive, forcing him to remain on the defensive.

Dammit. He got beat up at every front, drowning in the winding rapids full of fists, feet, and sword stabs. Like he'd fallen from a waterfall directly into a swamp filled with man-eating gators.

Normally, fighting against The Faceless felt like fighting against a ghost. The Tokyo Samurai Descendant could throw confetti at him and none of them would land.

Now, it felt impossible to take him on with his guard lion running interference for him, wearing his defense down and keeping his offense limited.

The lion dance mascot clamped its puppet jaws at the reversed blade of Yahiko's sakabatou, which forced the kid to use his metal scabbard to block and parry La Cerca's resulting attacks instead.

Laughing like an unhinged lunatic, Fabian declared, "¡Ya me tienes harto! ¡Vete a la chingada! (I'm done with you! Go fuck yourself!)", and of course Myojin couldn't understand a word he said.

The lion mascot then wrenched Kenshin's sword away from Yahiko's lead hand at the same time as The Faceless disarmed his rear hand of his iron sheathe.

He was now weaponless. Unarmed.

***

Back at the exterior facade of the Minakata moneychanger office building…

Hidaka's twitch reflexes allowed him to dodge the flying sharp objects headed towards him at bullet speed much better than his teammate Lucas, who weathered such a storm of steel like a human meat shield. Or a sitting duck.

"Missed me," mocked Kai.

"Impressive," admitted Zan. "You're a harder target to hit than the Prodigal Son."

Like a knight in heavy armor and a gigantic shield, but he lacked both of those as he let Zan turn him into target practice. 'What an idiot.'

The ninja had figured out the secret behind the sharpshooter's unerring accuracy. Zan could somehow detect the sound waves from his war fork and used it like bats would for echolocation.

He also wisely circled around and tested the area of effect of Zan's vibrating war fork, crawling across its perimeter to make the demonic ninja miss his mark.

He winced at the effort, the laceration given to him by Officer Satoru made his chest feel like it was set ablaze.

His high-flying acrobatic ninjutsu had saved his life countless times in countless missions overseas. However, most of those he faced weren't familiar with the way of the ninja at all.

This time, he confronted one of his own right in his motherland. The birthplace of ninjas.  

The darkness was not Kai's ally. Zan grew up in that same darkness. Molded by it. They both didn't see the light until they were men.

They were cut from the same cloth. They were the same kind of animal in a violent dogfight, biting and clawing at each other for in a fight for survival.

He flew across the dome-like area that served as Zan's tripwire to fling his projectiles.

In other words, the outer fringe of Zan's echolocation chamber was where his aim was the least accurate, so Kai could dodge the easiest from there.

From within the sonar dome, the spidery ninja then deployed three-dimensional movement with grappling hooks and ropes that included jumps and flying in midair to dodge while his whirling blades deflected any projectile he couldn't avoid in time.

Going airborne allowed Hidaka to get in the mid-range of the Sanada Demon's war fork sound waves while still being able to dodge in X, Y, and Z-axis despite Zan's heightened echolocation senses.

Hidaka wasn't only dodging from left or right. He also had the freedom to jump ahead or even twist in midair, his twin rotating blades also serving as his means to parry any incoming projectile.

"Missed me again," said Kai.

For his part, Zan acknowledged, "Yes. Not for long, though."

The Fuuma Ninja threw his own rope projectiles at the Sanada Demon to bind and hogtie him, but Zan himself dodged those easily.

Now was the moment of truth.

***

Back at a narrow alleyway in the Yokohama Chinatown near the Minakata moneychanger offices…

Thinking fast, Yahiko ran towards the strangely adorable lion mascot, aware that from behind him, The Faceless was hot off his heels.

The Son of Tokyo Samurai then threw something at the gap between the lion's slightly ajar jaws (it "bit" on his sword, after all), which it received by reflex. Like the cabbage fed to it during the parade.

The mascot then opened the jaw up and "choked out" the white streamer that Yahiko pick-pocketed earlier to the ground, along with the sakabatou.

The boy remembered what Tatsuya said about the Chinese superstition of never "feeding" the lion dance mascot anything that was colored white because that was bad luck.

The silly superstition made the hardened kung fu mercenaries panic and "spew" the streamer out, which gave the unarmed Myojin the opportunity to snatch back his stolen sakabatou from the ground and enter the lion costume from the agape mouth.

He had finally entered the belly of the beast.

From there, chaos ensued.

Fabian La Cerca could only stare, his own mouth agape but hidden behind a plain white mask, as an armed Yahiko beat up his hired hitmen from inside their battle puppet.

From inside the costume, the teenager used his bloodlust detection training he did with Satsuki to bludgeon the wriggling mass of humanity within the costume. Attacking like a virus or bacterial infection.

Like a cape or a curtain, the lion costume unfurled, revealing a triumphant Myojin and a sweaty Elder Minakata who slumped on the kid's shoulders.

Yahiko took a long gasp of air that looked like a yawn. Man, did it stink inside that lion suit!

"I thought I was going to DIE!" said the gasping and wheezing Tatsuya. He slapped his bodyguard upside the head, but he lacked strength, so it came off as more of a nudge.

"Ow! Hey, what was that for?" asked Yahiko. What an ingrate.

"Th-That's for getting me captured in the first place, idiot! Y-You e-even made us run all the way here!" wheezed Minakata, who while nabbed by the lion costume operators, was forced to move in cadence with them at knifepoint.

"Yeah, you're welcome for saving your life," muttered Myojin with an eye roll while considering throwing the V.I.P. back to his kidnappers or to The Faceless.

Unbelievable. The samurai boy took out all those men by himself using finesse and creativity. He was cunning as a fox. Or perhaps he was a fellow thief like himself…?

Who was this interloper anyway?

With a harrumph, the masked assassin said, "Fine. I'll just finish you both off from here. It's like killing two birds with one stone."

Yahiko yelped, who had no choice but to let go of the tired Tatsuya as he fell into his Chudan-no-Kamae (Water Stance) and parried the lunging fencer's rapier before him.

***

Back at the exterior facade of the Minakata moneychanger office building…

"Can't catch me," taunted Kai.

"I've missed every shot so far. But I'm getting closer," said Zan.

"Is that a threat?" asked Kai.

Zan answered, "No, it's a promise."

The Fuuma Ninja used every dodge, parry, and block he could muster to get near the Sanada Ninja and his echolocation. He avoided projectiles on the ground from far away.

He leaped and used midair three-dimensional movement to avoid more blades and darts from midrange. He even threw his own rope darts and grappling hooks at Zan for good measure.

In a mere second, he got clipped on the shoulder by a blade, followed by stabbed on the lead foot with a shuriken and sliced on the rear thigh by the vibrating warfork.

"Almost there," taunted Zan.

He'd charged too close to dodge the sharp-shooting Zan. It was now or never.

Ignoring the screaming, burning pain from the severed nerve endings of his growing list of injuries, Kai Hidaka spun like a top with his twin blades serving as the razor tips of his human shuriken impression.

His blades rotated like the rotors of a windmill, the fins of a pinwheel, or the spokes of a wheel.

He intended to cut through every last projectile at a distance so close, Zan's primitive sonar abilities wouldn't matter anymore.

However, all Zan did was block the rotating Fuuma Ninja's blades with his war fork, which made it vibrate enough to give him enough echolocation sound waves to stab him multiple times with multiple knives with unerring accuracy.

"OH SHI—!"

Zan himself managed to avoid the rotating blades and stick knives into Kai's body between every rotation.

Zan then hissed, "Bull's eye."

Dammit. It didn't work.

Desperate, the Fuuma Ninja wrapped the war fork with one of his rope darts to stop it from vibrating then attempted to decapitate Zan from behind with a whirling dervish of an attack.

The Sanada Demon avoided that too by eyesight instead of by echolocation, ducking in time and countering with his war fork. He was too good and too strong to fall for that as well.

It was all over.

Hidaka wasn't able to land one slash. And now Lucas faced off against his half-brother while injured himself.

The goggled ninja's spent body crumpled to the ground, exhausted beyond belief and bleeding from several more stab wounds.

"Well? What are you waiting for, Sanada Demon? Finish me off."

***

Back at a narrow alleyway in the Yokohama Chinatown near the Minakata moneychanger offices…

'I thought he was a fellow thief, but he's nothing more than a pickpocket,' thought Fabian, who carved Yahiko up like a wooden toy knickknack. 'A petty thief against a criminal mastermind.'

On his part, the samurai kid couldn't penetrate the dual defense of La Cerca's double blades.

The rapier probed at Myojin's range at a comfortable distance and when he forced his way to more closed-quarter combat, the dagger served as both The Faceless' shield and auxiliary blade.

Just like before.

However, unbeknownst to the master fencer, the kendo master had actually pushed the battle towards the area where he'd lost the iron sheathe.

He then secretly picked up his scabbard with his sleight of hand like the pickpocket that he was when he worked with the yakuza.

He then used the same scabbard to block the dagger as he did a circular parry of the rapier and finally landed a rib-cracking body shot at The Faceless.

Coughing blood, even the doubled-over Fabian had to admit, "Magnifico, hijo. (Magnificent, kid.) How much farther can you push me, I wonder? Don't disappoint me now."

Yahiko cringed. "Why won't you go down, Old Man?"

The veteran duelist then moved in for the kill, baiting counter after counter that wore on the dual-wielding samurai's defense.

The Tokyo Samurai Descendant avoided the bait, but this forced him to second-guess his offensive, leaving him to mostly focus on parrying and moving to the preferred cadence of The Faceless.

"Hit him, dammit! He's right in front of you! What am I paying you for?!" demanded the disheveled Tatsuya.

'You do it,' thought the samurai kid, who feinted a strike to draw out Fabian's counter, only to get his counter to the counter blocked by that damnable dagger, leaving him wide open to a barely dodged riposte.

"Almost," said the masked man, his tone dripping with an implied smirk from behind the mask. Like a cat playing with his prey.

Wait. This feeling of frustration felt quite familiar.

Where had Yahiko felt this before? This was the first time he'd ever faced off against the foreign sword style of fencing, so why did this duel feel like he'd been through it before?

He felt a feeling of déjà vu.

From the corner of his eyes, Myojin then saw the mercenaries he beat up regain consciousness and start picking up the parts of their lion costume again. 'Oh, shi…!'

"Stand back! Stand back or I'll shoot!" screamed Tatsuya, scrambling for his pistol, but then he realized he'd lost his gun from the scuffle earlier.

The two realized that one of the mercenaries had stolen the Minakata uncle's firearm and aimed it at them, which backed them into a corner.

Things went from bad to worse.

***

Lucas Grant wiped the blood on his leaking forehead to his hair, dyeing it red. He then licked his hand. "That Sanada Demon of yours was a pretty impressive fighter. I'm not going to lie."

Kinta Minakata remained silent, his body coiled and ready to strike with a iaijutsu slash.

"You're not very chatty today, are you, Big Brother?" said Luke with a nonchalant shrug while tapping his bloody bastard sword from behind his head.

The Mimawarigumi Battousai and the Prodigal Son then picked up where they left off.

The surgeon versus the butcher.

The surgeon remained pristine and precise with his cuts. The butcher kept hacking and slashing right into the bone of the meat.

"You know, I went undercover as your bodyguard to do some research of my own on the Seiryu Clan. The Minakatas. The family that rejected me and my mother," said Lucas with the same inelegant strikes that wore down the snake man ninja Ren.

The Kagemusha, for his part, dodged Luke's fencing strikes and European swordplay, remembering the training he got from his grandfather, the sage and worldly Toshiro Minakata, on how to handle swordsmanship from across the globe.

This allowed him to defend against unconventional tactics he didn't witness from his time in the Mimawarigumi, like using the pommel of a bastard sword to bash the head in.

As brusque, simple, messy, and savage as Grant's swordsmanship looked, it was also pragmatic and effective. Like bashing any living thing with the sharpest blunt object you could find into minced meat.

"Every one of your family is full of bastard. Even bigger rat bastards than I am, the literal bastard," continued Lucas, happily chopping away at the surgical Kinta's defense, his sword slashes coming closer. And closer.

Like in the middle of a stampede of carriages or even chariots, Minakata kept avoiding those strikes, each one swung with great strength and killing intent. Each one enough to finish him off.

Disturbingly, every accurate cut Kinta landed on Luke, the foreigner didn't even register. He didn't even bat an eye. They might as well have been paper cuts. Or cat scratches.

It was as if they were too shallow for him. Flesh wounds weren't enough to take him down, as proven by Zan earlier. His brother dared him to commit to every strike and cut right through his bone.

Easier said than done. It felt like one wrong move from him would result in certain death.

Kinta didn't break a sweat earlier, but now he was really sweating on a December.

Also, it was naïve of him to refuse Zan's proposal to fight his bastard brother together, thinking it was dishonorable to fight an injured man.

This creature before him did not act like an injured man. He was more like a wounded animal whose fight or flight instincts had been activated.

But that wasn't quite right either. He acted to lackadaisical for someone so bloody. It was as if he became stronger and more relaxed the more injured he got...?

What an utterly ridiculous man he'd grown up to become.

***

Back at a narrow alleyway in the Yokohama Chinatown near the Minakata moneychanger offices…

Something in the periphery smashed the hand holding Tatsuya's pistol. A tetsubo (metal bat), to be exact.

"…Gan!" gasped Yahiko while Tatsuya used him as a shield against the lion dance mascot. "You came! I didn't think you'd come here!"

Sure enough, the Great Gan started swinging his weapon against the overgrown puppet before him. "You owe us part of that reward money, Yoshi-boy!"

"Don't call me that," said Myojin with a smirk, almost unthinkingly. He didn't really care what Gan called him at that point.

The thuggish ruffian walloped the multi-legged lion mascot before him, with him swinging for the fences with bone-shattering swipes.

Damn. Yahiko heard several sickening crunches from Gan's blunt force approach.

He then had to do a split-second cross-armed Hadome parry on short notice as Fabian suddenly lunged his rapier's tip at his face, intending to turn him and Kinta's uncle into shish-kebab.

However, before he could transition into the disarming Hawatari, the boy realized his fatal mistake, unable to backpedal in time to avoid the dagger to his heart, with both his arms leaving his chest wide open.

To both the shock of La Cerca and Yahiko, a dual-bladed block kept the dagger from puncturing the spiky-haired boy's chest just in time.

It was Munenori Minoe's Cancer Stance: Scissor Grip technique.

"…Minoe!" said Yahiko with a smile and a half-laugh. His allies had come to his rescue in the nick of time.

"Mochiron (But of course)," said Minoe before squeezing his two swords hard enough to bend and break The Faceless's dagger.

***

Hidaka winced at the forked stab that never came.

What was the Sanada Demon waiting for? The Chinese New Year? Tanabata (The Star Festival)? He should finish him off and get it over with.

"Hey, Demon. Quit playing games," said Kai, only for him to realize something important.

The mask wearing youkai (ghoul) ninja that reminded him of The Faceless the most had stopped moving.  

Like Musashibo Benkei who died standing while shot full of arrows or Julius Caesar and his body stabbed by multiple senatorial daggers.  

However, unlike them, he had no arrows or knives stuck on his body. Did he have a random heart attack and died then and there, smote by the gods?

What the hell just happened?

The ninja exhaled, releasing the breath he just realized he'd been holding all this time. He took stock of his surroundings, awakening to self-awareness with several eye blinks.

He felt like he'd just escaped death with the skin of his teeth. Or like he got sideswiped by a runaway carriage, saving himself from becoming roadkill.

He sat there, dripping in blood, his eyes searching for any wound or slash he landed unto Zan.

At first glance, it looked like Zan was the victor and Hidaka awaited death.

Kai's brain scrambled for a reason behind his sudden victory. Was it when he wrapped the war fork and muffled its reverberating sound waves, allowing him to land a hit?

However, his blades—as sharp as they were—didn't draw blood or felt like they even hit the red devil ninja at all. No impact or resistant.

Hidaka then noticed the drip of blood not his own.

Little drops of blood formed on the slumped form of Zan.

Wait a goddamn second.

Kai thought the pincushion look of the bloody Lucas meant that he'd been pushed to the limit by the devilish ninja.

What if Zan's red costume hid that he'd been wounded all along?

What if the blood on Lucas wasn't (only) his own, but someone else's blood?

Or, if that wasn't enough outward bleeding to incapacitate him, what if Zan had been internally bleeding all this time?

That last burst of effort to avoid Kai's blades must've been the straw that broke the camel's back.

Kai chuckled, which then turned into a full-blown cackle.

That damn Lucas had him worried for nothing.

***

Meanwhile, elsewhere in Chinatown…

With ragged breaths, a tired and sweaty May "Satsuki" Brooks pushed the blunt edge of her naginata down while she herself leaned on it like a cane.

She had actually went ahead and tailed the Minakata party even before the surviving bodyguards sounded the alarm of another assassination attempt, only for her to get intercepted by a Chinese assassins hiding behind a Chinese parade.

Like with Yahiko, random strangers pretending to be merrymakers attacked her, which she took out in short order thanks to her naginatajutsu.

She'd been training along with Yahiko to hone her sixth sense in battle, after all.

Only for her to get blindsided when the lion dance mascot also ambushed her for good measure.

And now there they were, with her taking on a surprisingly lion-like mascot puppet with the fierceness of its choreographed group attacks with military efficiency.

"Arigathanks for the workout," the tired blonde bluffed, not realizing she was code-switching between two languages and mixing up words together in her exhaustion. "Sorrymasen for the mess though. But I've got to go."

She brushed her matted hair, revealing a black eye. Her face and body had various bruises from the beating she got from the lion-head disguise of the Brigands' hired hitmen.

She'd actually been fighting against another lion mascot all this time, this time of the northern lion design with its painted on face and much sharper teeth.

It used less puppetry like moveable jaws and eyelids, but like the other southern lion mascot, it was controlled by Shaolin-trained kung fu masters hired by the Brigands Guild for their assassination mission.

With a sneer, Satsuki whirled her bladed polearm above her head and told the approaching lion dance mascot. "This is your final warning! Yamete kudastop…!"

The lion's sharp half-open jaw clamped upon the blade of the naginata while its worm-like body wrapped itself around May's body with wriggling hands and shuffling feet.

'Just you wait, Joshua-kun (Yahiko-kun)! Kyoko-chan! Satsuki-oneesan is here to save you!' she thought through grit teeth as she struggled against the mascot monster.

***

To Be Continued...

Beware of those Chinese parades, man. They're a riot.

As for the Sanada Demons, Baku is based on Batman from D.C. with supersonic shrieking powers like Banshee from Marvel. Ren wears snake armor reminiscent of Serpentor from G.I. Joe but has resonant destruction powers like Avalanche from Marvel.

Finally, Zan uses sonar-like echolocation (through his tuning war fork) like Daredevil from Marvel, but his accurate projectile hurling is more reminiscent of Daredevil's arch-nemesis Bullseye.  

Danke, Abdiel

[jaakunxkaze]

☠─ ━ႽμßοʀժІɴατе Falling in love with your target huh? That's interesting though it can happen very likely when you are granted kindness in return so this wasn't so much an embarrassment at all.

❝Falling in love when someone grants you kindness even when you least expect doesn't make it embarrassing. It means you have a heart, having one can give you the strength you need and something to fight for. ❞

A small hum came from her in response to her there, honestly her chief would be very much displeased with anyone who says otherwise there. ❝I used to be a geisha before joining the Fumma ranks you know and I've used everything from my past experience to now to help me become what I am today. Like yourself, I too would be dead if my lord never found me as well and just for your information- when he found me and said "Would you like to die out here alone or would you like become a flower of the night, ever fleeting in the wind?" I first thought he was flirting with me.❞

"Oh, um, okay..." The reassurance from the other kunoichi seems to have reached Kasuga to open her heart a little. It may as well as because they are both women so there is a mutual kinship present between the two.

"Just like you, I'm also an outcast of my village... but the reason why I became an outcast is a rather foolish one to us shinobi." She averts her gaze by lowering her head, staring at her grasped palms on her thighs. "I... fell in love with Lord Kenshin when I was supposed to assassinate him and my mission ended up in a failure... my village exiled me as a result." However, she hurriedly continue her sentence in a frantic manner — heat rising up onto her cheeks whenever she remembers her master's kindness that day.

"B-but, Lord Kenshin was kind enough to let me stay and serve him! If it weren't for Lord Kenshin's benevolence, I might as well as be dead back then."

[cerastes]

Chronicles of the Sword - feat. YOUR blorbos

Gamers and sports fans, GREETINGS, I'm planning something for a stream, involving Soul Calibur III - Chronicles of the Sword mode: We make a small army of YOUR OCs, and we take them through the game, where they'll fight alongside the one and only, the Scourge of New York, D-Mob's Finest, Wrathful Jebediah.

Your traumatized extension of your psyche could be picked to be a FIGHTING GAME CHARACTER and beat the shit out of crap on stream!

So! I'm hard at work right now unlocking all the classes and as many customizable options as possible for this! In the meantime, if you want your OC to be a featured swashbuckler or perhaps a dogged pugilist, maybe even an obstinate kerkuffler, send an Ask or Submission to me with the following:

Name.

Visual Reference: Reference art/character sheet/whatever you have, as long as it is visual.

Class and/or weapon from the valid combinations noted below; you can pick one if you want, and I'll pick the other: - Barbarian: Greatsword, Grieve Edge (AKA bladed boots), Wave Swords (dual reverse grip curved blades). - Dancer: Tambourines, Steel Fan, Grieve Edge. - Thief: Dagger & Bombs, Wave Swords, Sickle (it's more of a chain/whip) - Ninja: Kunai, Katana & Fuuma Shuriken, Sickle. - Saint: Extending Staff & Barehanded Combat, Dagger & Bombs, Steel Fan. - Monk: Nunchaku, Extending Staff & Barehanded Combat, Grieve Edge. - Samurai: Katana, Katana & Fuuma Shuriken, Sickle. - Assassin: Wave Sword, Kunai, Chinese Sword. - Gladiator: Sword & Shield, Wave Swords, Grieve Edge. - Pirate: Chinese Sword, Rapier, Greatsword. - Sage: Chinese Blade, Sword & Shield, Extending Staff & Barehanded Combat. - Knight: Lance, Greatsword, Rapier.

And that's it! Send these right my way and your beloved creation might just make it into the annals of transcending history via immense amounts of carnage, overheads, command grabs, and ring outs. The order of priority when picking who makes it in will be:

OCs > established characters.

Stream regulars > the rest.

That said, as long as you stick to the guidelines, your OC/entry is never out of the ruling, and if I like them a lot, they'll make it in, so even if you're not a regular, your blorbo can absolutely still make it in.

I'll try to speed up the unlocking process on my end so we can do this sooner rather than later, so send 'em in the meantime! I think it'll be a fun activity, so looking forward to your submissions, glandular gladiators, see you at the Circus.

[kaitoujokerscans]

Get Back Hachi’s Memories! CH1

Notice!!

"Tonight, I'll come to take the diamond 'The Monster's Heart' from the Harmony Theater's performance of the play 'The Tragic Monster'!

Phantom Thief Joker"

<1> Getting Along (?)

A round moon hung in the night sky. The silence of the night was broken by a loud yell which rang through the living room of the airship Sky Joker.

"I'VE HAD IT! I won't forgive you for this, EVER!"

The yell came from a boy of short stature. An aqua-colored hood covered his head, and the ninja outfit he wore was of a similar aqua color. Below his shiny metal headband were two round, shiny yellow eyes. Yet those cute round eyes were presently filled with flames of rage.

"Enough! You've absolutely crossed the line this time! Please apologize, Joker-san!" The boy pointed emphatically at a young man in a red suit.

Tufts of silver hair spiked out from under his azure silk hat, and his cool cobalt eyes sparkled. Atop his red suit, blue dress shirt, and yellow tie ensemble, a brilliant letter "J" shone on his lapel. The young man's name: Phantom Thief Joker!

Joker flapped the purple cape that hung off his back and, raising his gloved hands up to shoulder height, jeered at the ninja boy in front of him.

"Nooooo way! There's absolutely no chance I'm gonna apologize to you, Hachi!"

"Why not!? It was your fault, Joker-san!"

The boy called Hachi kept a hostile tone as he glared at Joker. Hachi was Joker's assistant in phantom thieving and was a descendant of the Fuuma ninjas.

"Hmph, it wasn't just me though! Besides, why have I always gotta apologize to you anyway!?"

"Excuse me!? It's because you always do things that merit an apology in the first place, Joker-san!"

"I'm sick of bowing my head to you all the time. Oh, I've got it! I'll apologize for everything at once at the end of the year, so just let me off the hook 'till then."

Joker's suggestion only added fuel to the fire of Hachi's anger. "HAAAAAAAAH!? That doesn't make any sense! I just want you to apologize for what happened today! And you're not being repentant about it at all, either!"

"Then I'll come up with some repentance at the end of the year too."

"'Come up' with it!? You really don't feel guilty at all, do you!? There's no point in receiving an apology if you're going to be like that!"

"There, see what I mean? Then there's no point in me apologizing now."

"ARRRRGH! You're constantly twisting my words like that... Joker-san, you have no empathy for other people whatsoever!"

"Yeah I do. At least, I can tell that you're angry. I just think that there's no reason for you to be that angry."

"Joker-san, that's not a good excuse! One day you're going to regret hurting people's feelings like that!"

"No I won't."

"No! You're definitely going to regret it one day!"

Hachi kicked and swayed his legs and arms as he argued. In front of him, Joker just scratched his own cheek with a weary expression.

"Sheesh... would you give it a rest already? It's almost time to get to work... If you keep whining at me, I won't bring you along."

"Mrrgh... I'm not going!" said Hachi, puffing up his cheeks and turning around. Then he picked up the round green creature which had been watching the argument.

"Hosshi, have some konpeito." He opened up a jar filled with candy and gave it some. Hosshi was Joker and Hachi's pet.

"Hosshi♪" Hosshi seemed to have no interest in the argument. With an adorable smile, it started to chow down on the konpeito which Hosshi had offered.

With a stunned look, Joker asked Hachi, "What? You're not tagging along to my job?"

"I'm not going! Do whatever!"

"Oh, so that's how it is."

"Go ahead by yourself and get yourself into some awful mess! Don't come crying to me—" Hachi turned around, only to find that Joker had vanished. "Huh...? Joker-san?"

Hachi looked all around. Then he heard Joker's voice from the transmitter in the living room.

"Then I'm headed off on my own!"

"Wha-!?" Shocked, Hachi looked out the window. There, against the darkness of night, Joker was holding a large balloon overhead and floating in midair.

"Heh heh, looks like it'll be smooth sailing tonight! 'Cause there's nothing weighing me down!" Joker taunted with a devilish smile on his face, then began his gentle descent downward.

As Joker shrank into the distance, Hachi puffed up his cheeks and squeezed Hosshi tight.

"H-Hosshi!" Hosshi squirmed around in discomfort.

Hachi yelled out at the top of his lungs. "FINE, BE THAT WAY!"

Joker lightly descended through the cold night air. The "Balloon Gum" which he was hanging onto was one of his phantom thief tools. When chewed, it would fill with a gas lighter than air and form a bubble just like gum. If held up high, this bubble could float up carrying the weight of one person or so. It was an essential tool for approaching a treasure's hiding place by air.

Yes, Joker was about to steal a certain treasure. Usually he'd be filled with excitement before a job, but this time he was annoyed.

"Tch, what's Hachi's problem!?"

Joker had acted carefree earlier, but to tell the truth, he was angry inside. The reason for this was, naturally, the argument they'd had.

 It all started about an hour ago.

Joker had just cleared Stage 7 of the recently-released video game Big Brawl Battle Smasher 3 after an all-night session and proceeded to knock out cold. He woke up again after noon and, still bleary, wobbled into the living room. He rubbed his eyes and made his way to the table set for lunch, when suddenly he caught sight of "Stage 8" on the console screen and couldn't tear his gaze away. Even stepping away for a little while meant that he might be missing out on something. The first few days after a game's launch were crucial. He couldn't risk getting spoiled during the hype.

"Joker-san, at least put the game away during meals, please," reproached Hachi as he prepared more side dishes to go with the omelette rice.

"Oh quiet, I'm at a good part."

"Geez... I put all the effort into making this and now it's going cold. Is there anything else you want to eat?"

"No, I'm good. Could you stop bothering me?"

"Good grief..." Hachi wearily sat down and quietly started to eat his lunch. Next to the table, Hosshi eagerly munched its konpeito just as quietly.

His eyes still glued to the screen, Joker finally reached out to grab his spoon... over five minutes later. His omelette rice had already cooled off.

"Hm... ah, there's an item over here too..."

Deftly using his left hand to continue playing, he lifted a spoonful to his lips. He mechanically deposited the sustenance into his mouth. It was obvious that he hadn't registered the taste at all. Seeing this, Hachi sighed.

Then Joker seemed to realize something and abruptly said, "Hachi, soy sauce."

"Soy sauce?"

Looking again, Joker had a deep-fried fillet left over from last night's dinner held with his chopsticks. The soy sauce dispenser in front of him was empty. Apparently it had just run out.

"Joker-san, I thought you liked worcestershire sauce with your fillets?"

"I'm in the mood for soy sauce right now. Hurry it up."

Predictably, Hachi was offended by this attitude. "No. If you want soy sauce, please get it yourself."

Hearing this, Joker took his eyes off the screen and scowled at Hachi. When he saw that Hachi was ignoring him and eating his own food, he threw out a "Hmph. You're mean." Then he stood up, game console still in hand.

"Sheesh, where is it..." Glancing back at his game regularly, he opened up each of the cupboards in turn and at last found a soy sauce dispenser on an upper shelf. "Finally, there it is."

Joker set the game down to the side and stretched on his toes to get the dispenser. Just as his hand touched the dispenser way in the back...

A ding came from the console. It was an alert that let him know he'd found a new item.

"Oh, a new item!"

Prize in hand, Joker got off his toes too quickly and the dispenser brushed up against something. A moment later, there was a loud CRASH! of something smashing against the ground right where he was standing. He looked down and saw that that "something" was a small wooden box. The box had been hit by the dispenser and fell down. Whatever was inside had been broken.

"Oh, oops..." Joker stared at the box with a guilty look. Hearing the noise, Hachi and Hosshi ran in.

"Hosshi?"

"What was that sound!? ...AAAAAAAAH!" When he caught sight of the wooden box, Hachi rushed over to pick it up. The rattle of broken pieces came from inside. Hachi gently opened the lid to reveal the shattered pieces of some kind of tableware. It was a light brown color, and judging by the size, it had probably been a cup. It looked like it had something written on it, but the shattered pieces were small enough that deciphering the words would be difficult.

"Aaah..." Hachi was crestfallen. He picked up the shards with his small hands and sighed deeply. His shoulders dropped with disappointment.

Beside him, Joker blithely said, "Sorry about that! It got nudged."

"Uuhrm..."

"I was trying to get the soy sauce, but then I got a new item, and when I pulled the dispenser out, the box must've gotten pulled along with it."

"......" Hachi didn't seem to hear. He just stared at the shards inside the box.

"But it's not totally my fault, y'know?"

"Huh...?" These unexpected words from Joker made Hachi turn around.

"'Cause that was a pretty dumb place for you to put the soy sauce in the first place, yeah? And if whatever that is is that important, then you shouldn't've put it so high up. No wonder it fell."

"What...? You mean it's my fault for putting them there?" Hachi asked back, hardly believing his ears.

"Not exactly, but I'm just saying it wasn't just my fault. Oh, another new item!" The game console had dinged again. Eyes glued to the screen, Joker started back for the living room.

"Ah, bring the soy sauce, would you?" Joker didn't even spare a glance as he moved away.

Hachi screamed at him. "JOKER-SAN!"

"? ..." Joker stopped in his tracks and turned around to see Hachi standing in the middle of the kitchen with his hands on his hips and a terrible fire in his eyes.

"Say you're sorry!"

His menacing stance was enough to startle Joker. "Eh...? I already did, right? I told you 'sorry'."

"That's not good enough! Please give me a genuine apology!"

"Huh? Whaddaya mean?" Something about Hachi's forceful tone set Joker off too. "I said it. And it's not entirely my fault. Don't get so up in arms over a crummy old teacup."

"Wha... Excuse me? What is with your attitude!? Say you're sorry! I'll have you know that teacup meant a lot to me!"

"Well, I can pay you back for it right away. I could steal you an even better one sometime if you prefer." Joker tried to grin at Hachi.

"That's not the issue! You broke something important to me, so it's only polite to give a proper apology first! Or is even that beyond you?"

"Say what? Don't talk to me about politeness. Anyway, I'm busy. Save it for later," said Joker, switching his attention back to his game and walking towards the living room. Hachi ran after him and cut him off, blocking his way.

"Apologize!"

"Sheesh, you're stubborn. Will you drop it already?"

"No, I won't!"

"Ohhh, fine. 'I'm sorry.' Does that work?"

Joker's patronizing tone made Hachi boil over with anger. He wrenched the game console out of Joker's hands and hurled it at the living room sofa.

"Are you crazy!?"

"I'VE HAD IT! I won't forgive you for this, EVER!" Hachi yelled, louder than he had ever heard him before...

 That was what had led to the current situation.

As he observed the neon lights of the city sprawled out below, Joker clicked his tongue. Okay, maybe it was my fault a little, but he didn't need to get so angry about it...

Well...... maybe I was a little too caught up in my game...

This wasn't the first time that Hachi had nagged at him. Usually he was so uptight about the smallest things that Joker just backtalked on impulse. Maybe the pent-up frustration from all those times had made Hachi stand his ground and speak up this time. And that made the blood rush to Joker's head too.

It had devolved into a back-and-forth after that. Joker had ended up raising his voice too and was now stubbornly determined to not apologize.

In retrospect, maybe he was to blame for everything after all. He could turn back and go apologize, but he just wasn't feeling up to it right now...

"Well, whatever. Hachi'll be in a better mood if I have a good story to tell when I get back," Joker said out loud to himself. Then he twisted around and leaned his body in to descend. Up ahead was the Harmony Theater, the recipient of his latest notice, illuminated with dazzling spotlights as tonight's audience was admitted inside.

...But this time, Joker should have called it off. If he had gone back immediately and apologized to Hachi, disaster wouldn't have struck. At this moment, Joker had no idea that something terrible had just happened to Hachi back at the airship...

[datastate]

THE REST OF NNO CHAPTER 4. I'M DYING. BADLY.

WELL THAT EXPLAINS A LOT THAT I DIDN'T INITIALLY THINK NEEDED EXPLAINING. DOESN'T IT.

where do i even begin with this. i apologize in advance if my words are messy. i've been switching between these few pages covering my mouth like a perfectly well-adjusted individual who has not just realized that Oh, so this story's about siblings, is it. <- AVERAGE SIBLING TRAGEDY ENJOYER. I CANNOT EMPHASIZE HOW LITTLE I KNEW ABOUT THIS GOING IN.

i was so ready to just hop on the idea of: "if you're in tune with [hijutsu?] you can feel it awakening in miharu" & that tobari was just the closest, but now this brings up all sorts of questions irt what miharu remembers + why miharu's grandparents would recognize tobari (unless he was assumed dead; though even then you'd also assume that they would've mentioned him by name & he'd be recognized through that. or unless he isn't a biological relative...)

^ OR unless he was influenced into giving a wish: being that miharu would be given the chance to live something more peaceful despite the power he held. but i don't know how that'd work out. which also can i just bring up how fucked this panel is -- trying to frame a genuine desire to protect someone else into something selfish. because why else would you even bother with it, huh...

also even the detail here that he still keeps the same sort of weapon on him all these years later... i'll die.

also also, speaking of reflections of past scenes. the utter contrast of something godly (of a sort) so freely offering protection, but with the connotation of 'shall' (which, as we've seen, usually warrants something in exchange... in this case: a wish) then contrasted with tobari surviving on 'will' alone. it's a promise only a mortal can make... and that's the weight given to it.

which just. now that i'm thinking about it, i wonder if the implication of this being forgotten was through miharu giving a wish to kill everyone else around him (hence why that's when the power took over again when he was abt to be overwhelmed), or if it was to revive tobari(?!) ... I DON'T KNOW. SPECULATION. MAYBE IT WAS ANOTHER CASE LIKE THIS (BELOW) WHERE MIHARU WAS TRYING TO CALL UPON ANY SOLUTION FROM THE 'WISDOM' & IT JUST OVERWHELMED THE OTHERS SURROUNDING HIM...? & if he Did find a solution within it, it could be a case of this scenario also being tucked away in the depths of his memory once it was finished...?!

HOW AM I JUST MEANT TO CONTINUE WITH A NORMAL TRAIN SEQUENCE INTO FUUMA LIKE THIS. you even see just how blank miharu's eyes are after this, & how listlessly he stands... aughhh

I DON'T KNOW WHAT'S HAPPENING </3 IT'S VERY COOL THOUGH. I'M EXCITED TO FIND OUT MORE (<- FULL OF DREAD AND FEAR). i'm really liking the pace of the story so far. i really did imagine the start would be a bit slower before it got into everything, to give miharu more space to practice on-page, but i'm not complaining in the least. holy shit

THAT TAKEN CARE OF: I FINALLY GOT THE CHANCE TO READ MORE AND I'M GOING TO DIE? everyone's being put through the wringer this chapter...

what tobari points out afterward irt the ninja's injuries too... okay as fucked as it is, i'm. actually very interested what the source of that could be, considering they're instead internal injuries...

[jayclouserart]

My newest character, a Ninja named Fuuma!

[aeswna]

Sengoku A Live ~Translation~

Main chapter: season 1

-Chapter 1 episod 4-

A Fateful Encounter

Kotaro-kun tiptoed out into the garden to find out what the sound he had noticed was.

[Yoshiaki Ashikaga]"The warehouse is empty... Is it a thief?"

[Fuuma Kotaro]".....be quiet."

[Hattori Hanzo]"-----"

These two are amazing. There is no sound of movement......

[Hattori Hanzo]"Fellow Shinobi, I would like you know more about Kota-kun?"

Is he really a ninja.......?

While thinking about this, I approached carefully and quietly stalking into the warehouse----

[Mitsunari Ishida]"Those suspicious guys who sneak up on us without making a sound! We'll punish them!!"

[You]"Huh!?"

[Mitsunari Ishida]"I mean, you guys............

[Hattori Hanzo]"Mitsunari-san....."

[Hattori Hanzo]"And Nobunaga-san and Masamune-san...........?"

[Fuuma Kotaro]"......why are guys here"

[Yoshiaki Ashikaga]"Are you up for singing?"

[Mitsunari Ishida]"No. Last night was mess after that."

[Date Masamune]"They stare at me, they chase me around,and I can't find a place to rest."

[Mitsunari Ishida]"I was in trouble when I saw a man looked familiar and he led me here."

[You]"In this house......?who that man?"

[Date Masamune]"He was in the land of mist."

[You]"......?Where is that person now?"

[Date Masamune]"As soon as he guide us, he disappear."

Who that person...... it's too mysterious.

[Mitsunari Ishida]"But when I sit down and saw the country with my own eyes, I was amazed at what I saw."

[Date Masamune]"it's full of weird looking building and there are people wearing weird kimonos"

[Oda Nobunaga]"That Kimono----A messenger of Nanban once wore a similar outfit."

[Mitsunari Ishida]"in other words, it this place is Nanban?"

[You]"No, This is Japan."

[Mitsunari/Nobunaga]"........"

[Date Masamune]"I wonder if it really is the future."

[Mitsunari Ishida]"Something like that......"

[Oda Nobunaga]"Even so"

Nobunaga-san glared at Yocchan with a sharp look.

[Oda Nobunaga]"I won't bother with this guy."

[Hattori Hanzo]"Ah, wait Nobunaga-san! Where are you going?"

[Oda Nobunaga]"I'm going home. To my castle. Kiyosu castle or Nagoya castle. Either way I'm going home."

[You]"Nagoya castle is there,but.... isn't it a tourist spot? It's far away from Tokyo."

[Oda Nobunaga]"Tourism? Tokyo? Once again, all this nonsense. I can't keep up."

[Hattori Hanzo]"Ah wait...... he's gone already. Are you okay?"

[Date Masamune]"There's no reason for me to stop him. That man...... How many times did he draw his sword last night?"

[Date Masamune]"Well it took a lot of effort."

[Mitsunari Ishida]"I thought you should be grateful for the trouble I've gone through to admonish you whenever you two fought."

[Hattori Hanzo]"Ah, That's was tough"

(Do I really no need to chase after him?)

The more I interact with them the more convinced I am of the time slip theory.

What would happened if a warlord from the sengoku period came to our peaceful modern world---

[You]"Ah, Violation of the Firearms and Sword Act!"

[Date Masamune]"Hah.....?"

Just as concerns crossed my mind, I heard the sound of a police officer car siren.

[You]"If the police found out about that sword, you'll get arrested...!"

[Hattori Hanzo]"Whoa,lord wait! I'll go with you...!"

[Yoshiaki Ashikaga]"Hey(name), don't go off on your own."

[Hattori Hanzo]"Lord! The sound is coming from over there!"

[You]"yeah.....!"

[Hattori Hanzo]" What kind of people are the police officer who would be in trouble if Nobunaga-san were arrested?"

[You]"Hm..............There are a lot of things, but anyway, be honest with the police! Lying is a crime!"

[Hattori Hanzo]" got it! "

To Be Continued....

_________________________________________

DISCLAIMER

_________________________________________

Not all translations in this are correct.. I have tried my mostly best to translate this so you please don't simply steal it.

If it has any mistakes wrong in this translation please let me know , this is my first time doing this kind of blog..🙇🏻‍♀️

Note

English is not my first language...so please forgive me . If there are a lot of typos, and if you see any mistakes, please tell me which paragraph and which spelling is wrong and I will come to fix it again...

[chiefbasementcreator]

Who is Fuuma Saika, former Secratry of the Fuuma clan?

"Allow me to be your vanguard, young master. Fuuma Saika, at your service."

Saika was a member of the Fuuma clan, where she occupied the position of Stewardess/Secretary. When the Fuuma rebellion eruptued, rather than fighting against her clan relatives, Saika decided to leave altogether, and she abandonned Gosha for some years, leaving the role of Steward/secratry to fall to Tokiko. During these years she occasionally fought alongside UFS forces, who had given her proesthetic legs after she was maimed during a mission on behalf of her clan. She recently returned to Gosha, and she is now trying to find her place again, becoming a semi-active Taimanin as well as rejoining the Fuuma clan.

Personalit--wise, Saika is diligent, polite and soft-spoken. while she can appear cold or distant to people that don't know her, she is extremely devoted to her clan (and especially toward Kotaro, since he is a harem MC) . She act motherly towards younger people and can be very assertive about her desires and wishes.

In battle, Saika uses her Ninja Art: Evil Eye: Takeover, which gives her limited mind control ability over the people that look her in the eyes. allowing her to also alter their perception, such as creating illusions only they can see. She has no cqualms about fighting dirty or using underhanded tactics. since her actual Ninja Art cannot directly damage her opponents, she uses her martial art training, with a particular emphasis on kicks with her prosthetic legs, to actually fight.

[under-eden]

Taimanin Idol S3

It’s time to vote and here are your choices everyone! Remember, only the top two will be added on so choose wisely! 

Link to the poll

Kurenai Shinganji - As a dhampir courtesy of her birth father, Edwin Black, she’s no ordinary Taimanin and with her Ninja Art, she’ll blow away any demons if you doubt her loyalties.

Aina Winchester - A mercenary who is usually hired by the United Federation of American-Pacific States (UFS). Despite being human, she makes up for it with her fire-arm skills and her artificial demonic eye to boost her magical abilities.

Fuuma Amane - Dressed as a butler and armed with a cybernetic arm, Amane is not a Taimanin that one should understimate especially she has access to her clan’s Ninja Art and a unique variant to really put the hurt to anyone foolish enough to attack the Fuuma clan.

Rin Uehara - Whenever she’s not on a mission, Rin is usually a substitute teacher at Gosha Academy. She utilizes the same Ninja Art as Yukikaze but has mastered it to the degree where she is known as the “Volt Taimanin”.

Annerose Vajra - Half human and half witch, Annerose leads her own private detective agency. She is an expert fencer and uses her dark sword, Vajrayaksa, to absorb the evil of whoever it touches and kills them should it be strong enough.

Crackle - As a nekomata, Crackle can’t ignore her cat-like instincts but don’t let that fool you for one second. She’s a formidable fighter and her speed is nothing to scoff at.

[liselicanis]

Day 4: The Merriest Band of Misfits

@arcvmonth

Edit: So I misread the prompt and like was almost done with the story, and so, uhm, yeah.

Characters: Fuuma Hikage, Timmie Genshin Impact

He's falling.

A most obvious conclusion to come to when one feels the wind rushing all around them and the ground is nowhere to be found beneath their feet. Even so, he can still tell that whatever has happened to him, he's not where he needs to be.

The sky for one, is bright and sunny, opposed to the lava field he had been in, and the landscape is so very different. Rolling green hills and a crystal blue lake surrounding a city state. The ground is coming up fast and it is by some divine miracle that he rights himself in time to land in the water.

The swim to shore isn't far, thankfully, but now he's soaking wet and very much confused of where he is. Looking around, he spots a few sticks he can use to make a fire to dry himself by.

It is when he's removing his shirt when he hears a small voice call out to him.

"Who are you?"

Instinct drives him to reach for his sword, but Hikage pauses when he sees the owner of the voice. A child, probably not yet ten years old, holding a small paper bag. He's looking at him suspiciously, and the Fuuma ninja can't blame him. He's a stranger and his appearance doesn't quite scream 'native to this land'.

There are a few more awkward seconds of silence. One wet ninja and a small boy just staring at each other before Hikage lifts a hand in a small wave, "Uhm...Hikage."

The boy nods to himself as if he understands and comes closer, placing his bag down as he points to Hikage's fire. "You really shouldn't do that so close to Mondstadt. Miss Amber will get mad at you. Come on! I'm sure my mom can give you some dry clothes!"

He grins and holds out his hand as if he wants Hikage to take it, and then gasps as if he's remembered something. And then points to himself. "I'm Timmie, by the way!"

Grabbing his already dry mask, Hikage smiles and stands up, extending his own hand forward. "Nice to meet you." He follows the boy into the city where some of the locals barely give him a glance aside from a young girl who tugs at her mother's skirt and points at him. Hikage doesn't mind though, he's sure he looks strange to these people who are dressed in very Western style clothes.

Timmie leads in front until they stop in front one of the houses and tells him to wait outside for a moment. He nods and takes the opportunity to retie his mask but chooses to not cover his face just yet. No one knows him here, so there is no reason to put it back on just yet.

The door opens and he stands at attention and a kindly looking woman stands at the doorway with Timmie behind her. "Oh you poor dear. How did you manage to fall in the lake?"

"...Carelessness." A plausible answer. Believable.

She tilts her head as if she's thinking it over and then lets out a small chuckle. "Ah yes, it is a curse, isn't it. Now come in, I'm sure to find you something."

He gives a bow in gratitude and follows the small family inside and does his best to not drip too much all over the floor.

Timmie is sitting on an armchair, a book in his lap. watching him with wonder and then grins. "Hikage, Hikage, are you from uhm, Inu...no wait, let me check my book." He looks down at the page the book is open too and tries again. "Inazuma?"

The ninja has no idea where that is but figures its best to play along for the time being. "Yes. I'm just here for..."

"Are you here for the Genius Invocation TCG Tournament?!" the young boy suddenly grows excited, standing up so quickly that the book falls on to the floor with a very loud thud.

"Uhm...the what?" It's like a fire doused. And then rekindled because suddenly Timmie is running out of the room, and then back with a box in his hands, and suddenly Hikage finds cards being shoved into his hands. Surprised, he looks down at them and he studies the small portraits on them. In fine print, he can see each card has a description of what they do and he can't help but let out an amused huff of air.

"So like Duel Monsters but not..." he says quietly, studying a card that has brown haired girl printed on it. The name of the card identifies her as 'Amber' and he now has a pretty good assumption that this is the same Amber that Timmie had mentioned earlier. "How do you play?"

It was as if someone had told Timmie that it was his birthday today. "I'll teach you!"

[himebushou]

So... there's a slight hole in my heart now that I've finished my Zoids: New Century Zero rewatch.

Man, it was so much fun! Overall, the pacing was excellent — but being the big tournament fan that I am, I definitely would've welcomed more episodes being dedicated to the Royal Cup. I was a bit baffled that it all got wrapped up in just three eps... it would have been a great opportunity to introduce another solid team rather than focusing purely on the four rivals we saw (the Lightning Team, the Champ Team, Naomi's team and the Fuzzy Pandas Zaber Fangs). However, to dedicate another ep to the Royal Cup, we would have had to drop a filler and the only real contender I can think of is the Sebastian-has-a-crush episode. I would be slightly reluctant to drop it since it gave us some sweet moments where Bit helped out Harry and the gang so it was sorta cute in its own way.

Still, some of the Backdraft's motivations were a bit whacky and needed more exploration. There doesn't seem to be much correlation between shooting down the judges' satellites and taking over the Zoid Battles Commission. And Altile being ready to kill a 10-year-old in order to undermine a colleague was definitely a theme that could've used some expansion! Nevertheless, the tension was effectively built up all the way through and seeing Bit win the final battle with the original Liger Zero was lovely.

Though the poor Panzer unit only got two outings!!

It was bizarre/incredible to hear so many people from the Gundam Wing dub! Picking up on Duo's voice was definitely a bit of a shock, lol. And man, all the DBZ voices... we always had a huge laugh in our household about Harry and the Great Saiyaman having a voice actor in common.

/looks up Scott McNeil

WHAT? He voiced Stoeller too?!? Oh wow oh wow —

I think the women in Zoids were all great: Leena was obnoxious, brash, loud and trigger happy (big heart emoji); Naomi was cool, calm and collected; Mary Champ was materialistic, refined and caring; the Tasker sisters had incredible battling skills (though very little development, sadly); Pierce was cool; Fuma was super cool and Sarah was ambitious and motherly. I loved that they all had very different roles and character motivations. And man, even the comic relief ladies were sweet — like the poor Royal Cup reporter and the woman in the parts shop who was rightfully terrified when Bit couldn't find the order form, lol. They all had autonomy and a part to play... and they all had a very deep appreciation for Zoids.

(Some sports anime could take note.)

And, once again, there's a tenuous link between a series I love and Sengoku BASARA. I came to know of Fuuma Kotarou through Basara — and, given that the Fuma team were super stealthy and could suddenly appear like ninja when Altile summoned them, I'm assuming the leader, Fuma, was based on the historical figure. So that was fun!

I'm wondering if what I watched was the HD version, after all? The episodes included scenes that hadn't made it to the dub — there were only about 4 or 5 in total, and with the exception of the scene where Laon was in a bar and then approached by the Backdraft Group, the cut scenes didn't really add anything.

It's a shame that Zoids: New Century Zero didn't get a second season because wow, I definitely could spend more time with these wonderful characters. At the same time, the whole series was incredibly satisfying to watch, so I'm not too torn up, I suppose.

But scenes I'd like to see!

- Bit taking a break, as promised, and returning in Episode 3 or 4 to save the day and join the series properly

- Top-notch warriors in S Class; the Blitz Team losing a few battles

- A new armour for the Liger Zero

- More exploration of Organoid systems

- Definitely some more stuff with Vega, Stoeller and the other cool folk from the series... I think the Lightning Team would make it to S Class, but I'm not sure about Naomi

- More battles being won by Leena, Brad or Jamie — one thing that disappointed me in Zoids a little was that Bit was the deciding factor for too many battles

- A short tournament for Brad and Naomi to participate in, since they made that promise?

- Absolutely no change to Steve Toros; I LOVE HIM

- Please... cool new Zoids...

- Something cool to replace the Backdraft Group... or maybe Toros goes on a wild hunt to find another Ultimate X (in which case, we'd need a new character to pilot it).

I think that's it for now!

[jaakunxkaze]

dnangelic asked: “I wanted to protect you.” 👍

Send Me “Why would you do that?” for my muse to jump in front of an attack meant for your muse. { ++ Inverse. Send me “I wanted to protect you.” for your muse to jump in front of an attack meant for mine. }

✦ ─ ━ Ѕһɩɴоβɩ A shinobi is nothing but a tool in war-that's what he's been taught from the start of his trials as a shinobi. From that point on he knew that no matter what he must go through all sorts of hardships in life to become a ninja worthy of the title of the Fifth Fuuma Kotaro hence why he no longer remembers his childhood name at all. So during this mission, he was clearly focusing on erasing those enemies to clear the path ahead of them, he already sent his subordinates for a lookout but unfortunately, he didn't count on an attack from a nearby Caster that was aiming for him so when he suddenly saw the other assassin getting hit in front of him there that something snapped inside of him there.

❝Do you know how reckless that was!? Get behind me, you are in no condition now to move with that injury that you took and I swear to Kami you AND Dark are going to get an earful from me! ❞

This wasn't Kotaro normal side speaking right now as this side was only shown within those of the Fuuma Clan, this side of him was the one who was revered as the legendary Fifth Fuuma-a leader who holds those accountable for their actions like this.

❝I will NOT take no for an answer.❞

@dnangelic

[daeva-agas]

In the Kotaro event, Ujiyasu finally made an agreement with Kotaro to let him have more time with MC.

Kotaro: (after coming home from whatever murder stuff Ujiyasu sent him to do) Since I haven’t gone on missions for a while I got asked to do extra things >:( Because of that I couldn’t go home earlier >:( Those stuff can be done by other people it doesn’t have to be me >:( 

He’s sulking because he wanted to go home to MC already but got tied up by the tedious extra tasks

And then MC gives him kisses 

MC: This is something very special, lovers only 

Kotaro: (o///o)

Ffff. I guess we won’t ever know what makes Kotaro's head constantly hurt unless he has a full route, huh. I wonder if he got cursed or had kotodama placed on him by his ninja clan or something. Because it doesn’t hurt when he’s near MC so it doesn’t seem like a physical injury. 

Like. He said there is a “Fuuma ninja clan/group”, so it’s not just him alone, but we know nothing about them (ish). I usually try to read all the Kotaro stuff, but there’s nothing so far IIRC, so I dunno. 

[kaitoujokerscans]

Get Back Hachi’s Memories! CH4

<4> The Secret Curry Seasoning

Hachi, full name Fuuma Hachi, was a ninja born in Japan.

Nobody knows for sure when the first ninjas came about. The word ninja literally means "one who hides", which makes them difficult to trace through history. One theory is that ninja were first employed during Prince Shotoku's reign in the sixth century. Back then they were called shinobi, "heralds of good news", and the name for them changed over time.

Ninja started to gain notoriety in the Sengoku period. They were valuable assets for generals in need of fleet-footed men. In the Edo period, the primary role of ninja switched to espionage. The bakufu engaged them as mercenaries and sent them all across the country. They spied on the secrets of daimyo and gathered local intelligence. Some even say that the famous poet Matsuo Basho, who composed haiku during his travels through the interior of the country, was himself a ninja.

There are multiple schools of ninjutsu, the most famous of them being the Iga, the Koga, and the Fuuma. Hachi belonged to this last group. In the present day, the different schools intermingle. When Hachi was a child, he went to Ninjutsu School to learn the basics of ninja arts. During his time there, he met Koga Hyakkimaru of the Koga clan. Hyakkimaru was in a higher grade than Hachi. Hachi was a poor student and a crybaby, but Hyakkimaru always came to his aid.

 A few hours later, the Sky Joker reached the airspace over Koga Village. A great tree which served as an icon of the ninja village grew at the center of a vast forest, and beside it stood a gigantic castle. However, there were no classic shachihoko ornaments decorating the roof. Joker had stolen the golden shachihoko in a previous caper.

Joker, presently Kaitou Joe, parked the Sky Joker next to the castle. He could've just descended from above with Balloon Gum, but then Hachi might've figured out his identity.

The two of them headed for Hyakkimaru's hideout in the forest.

There were ropes and cords strung all across and between the forest trees, like some kind of obstacle course. This area was probably used as a ninja training ground. After a while, they spotted a large oak tree. There was a small, inconspicuous shack halfway up its trunk. This was Hyakkimaru's hideout.

When the pair arrived, Hyakkimaru had just finished his regimen and was catching his breath.

"It's been so long, Hyakkimaru-san!"

"Well, if it isn't Hachi! Good of you to visit," greeted Hyakkimaru with a natural smile which showed off his fangs. A Koga mask rested upon his blazing red hair, and he wore a light yellow haori above his grassy green ninja gear. Two ninja blades, his weapons of choice, sat crossed over his back.

"Here's a little something for you!" Hachi promptly handed over a wrapped-up bento box. Hyakkimaru lifted the lid and found chikuwa fish cakes like the kind used in oden packed inside.

"Oh, you remembered my favorite! Let me try one now." Hyakkimaru picked up a chikuwa and put it in his mouth. He chewed it, savoring the flavor, and a look of happiness broke out on his face. "Indeed, it's flavorful to the core. You've gotten even better at this, Hachi."

"Thank you!" Hachi also broke out into a smile. The whole room was filled with a warm and genial atmosphere like they were back in their school days. Meanwhile, next to Hachi, Joker as Kaitou Joe was just sitting idly cross-legged.

"I didn't expect you to visit all of a sudden. So what brings you here, Joker?"

"Ah...!" Joker tried to cover up what he was saying, but it was too late.

"Joker, you say!?" Hachi instantly stood up, gripped the hilt of his sword and scanned the room with eagle eyes. "Where are you, Joker!?"

"Huh? What are you talking about, Hachi? Joker's right in front-" Hyakkimaru started to say, confused. In a heartbeat, Joker pointed to outside the window.

"AH, there he is! Up on that tree, there's someone that looks like Joker!"

"Really!?" Hachi ran up to the window and put a hand to his brow, scrutinizing the outside. "Looks like he's not there anymore..."

"Agh, he must've gotten away..." Joker acted disappointed.

Hachi lamented. "Good grief, that fiend makes a fast getaway. The next time I spot him, I'll chase after!"

"Y-Yeah, you do that..."

Seeing Joker and Hachi's unnatural behavior, Hyakkimaru's ninja instinct picked up that something was wrong. He turned to Joker and probed for details. "It seems there's more going on here than meets the eye. Could you tell me about it?"

A few minutes later, Hyakkimaru and Joker were left by themselves in the shack. Hyakkimaru had asked Hachi to go relay a message to the other Koga ninjas. Hachi was more than willing to oblige, saying that he was excited to see them all after so long.

Joker took a sip of the tea that Hyakkimaru had brewed and exhaled.

"So what's going on? Why does Hachi think you're not Joker?" Hyakkimaru asked.

Joker told him everything, how yesterday he left for a job in the middle of an argument and came back to find Hachi concussed and unconscious. How he seemed to forget all about Joker, except for how mad he was at him.

"I see, so that's what happened..."

"This whole thing's turned into a massive pain to deal with. Hachi said that he hit his head and lost his memory before, and you were the one who fixed him up that time."

"Right, that makes sense. I remember that happening..." Hyakkimaru folded his arms and traced his memory. "That was back when we were in Ninjutsu School, during a test where we had to deliver a coded message. Hachi fell from a high place and hit his head. He forgot the message he was tasked with. He'd fail the test if he didn't remember, so I jogged his memory."

"That's it! I want you to tell me how you did it."

"Hm..." Hyakkimaru closed his eyes and thought deep.

"How can I get Hachi's memory back to normal!?"

"It's probably not a matter of Hachi losing his memory, but rather that it's repressed. For some reason or another, he's lost track of it. Think of it like a cabinet drawer that's gotten jammed and can't be opened. In order to use the ninja art that will unearth his repressed memory, he'll need to be reminded of what he was doing immediately before the triggering event."

"Immediately before?"

"Yes, but from what you've told me, that may be difficult."

"How so?" Joker asked Hyakkimaru intently.

"Hachi was by himself when he lost his memory. Which means that Hachi himself would be the only one who knows what he was doing at that time..."

"Oof, I get what you mean..." Then Joker had a sudden thought. "Ah! But Hachi was in the middle of making and taste-testing the curry for dinner!"

"Hm, is that so... Something unexpected must have happened while he was cooking, which made him hit his head. It may be that the only necessary step to jog his memory is to have him taste curry."

"Yeah! Curry!"

"But it'll have to be a curry that tastes exactly the same as before..."

"Ha ha, that's easy. I just have to ask Hachi to make the curry again!" Joker stood up, full of optimism.

When Hachi returned to the Sky Joker, he was in an exceptionally good mood. "Well, I'm really glad I got to visit everyone again!" His round face was full of cheer, and per Joker's request, he started making curry for dinner.

But when Hachi tasted the finished curry, he tilted his neck. "Hmm..."

"What is it?"

"Something's off... I feel like there was a secret ingredient..."

Joker took a taste for himself. True enough, it wasn't Hachi's usual curry. It felt like it was missing something. "Yeah..."

"That's strange."

"You don't remember what you put in?"

"Hmm, I don't know..."

Apparently hitting his head had made him forget the secret ingredient, too. He wouldn't be able to recreate the same curry like this.

That evening, exhausted after chatting with his old friends, Hachi turned in early. Later at night, Joker stood alone in the kitchen.

"All righty..."

Joker lifted up the lid of the curry pot. There was still plenty of curry left. If he asked Hachi too many questions, he'd get suspicious as to what he was up to. Thus Joker decided to figure out the secret ingredient on his own.

That said, he always left the cooking to Hachi, so he had no clue what the ingredient could possibly be, nor did he really know what things were kept where in the kitchen.

"Well, whatever. I can just try putting everything in, yeah?"

 —A few hours later, Joker was stretched out on the couch, exhausted. After that, Joker had divided Hachi's curry into little saucers and added everything in the kitchen into different ones to test which one was the secret ingredient. Condiments, vegetables, meat, fish, even candy — he'd tried them all, but each time he tasted the result, his tongue met with a disagreeable flavor. Very few of them had actually been edible. He hadn't gotten any closer to Hachi's usual curry flavor. In fact, he was getting further away from curry that tasted any good at all. For the first time ever, Joker was intensely rueful that he'd never lifted a finger to help with cooking.

In time, he was down to one saucer of Hachi's curry that hadn't been altered. He couldn't risk any more failures.

"Agh, what should I dooo"

Joker was completely fed up at this point. He rolled onto the couch and started crunching down on potato chips that had been left over after he tried adding some to the recipe. On the outside, this just looked like typical bored Joker behavior, but inside, he was distressed.

If he couldn't recreate Hachi's curry, then he couldn't jog Hachi's memory with the method Hyakkimaru had described. In turn, that meant Hachi would keep hating Joker.

No, it was okay if Hachi still held a grudge. What disturbed Joker more than anything else was that Hachi had forgotten him entirely.

Hachi probably resented Joker because of the fight they'd had right before he left, and that emotion still remained. Joker could accept his anger over that. They could argue all they wanted, and they could get emotionally charged at each other.

But now, they couldn't even do that.

If all the time they'd spent together, all the fun and frustration and sadness, all the many fights they'd had — if Hachi didn't remember any of that, then they'd remain only in Joker's memories. As if they were something that had only happened in a dream, fading from existence. It would forever feel like something was missing from his life.

The thought alone pricked at his heart, filling him with pain.

As a consequence of his profession, Joker was hated by a lot of people. He thought he was used to the feeling. But he hadn't realized how much it hurt to be forgotten...

Under normal circumstances he wouldn't think this at all, but he didn't care if Hachi hated him, as long as he just remembered. Internally bargaining, Joker rolled over. The bag of potato chips was empty before he even realized.

Hm...?

I wasn't eating that fast, right? he thought, picking up his head. From the far side of the table, he heard the sound of someone crunching on chips.

"Mmm, these potato chips are tasty. I just can't restrain myself."

"Queen, you shouldn't have too many midnight snacks."

"!?" Joker jumped to his feed. Sitting at the table in front of him was Queen, munching on chips.

"Q-Queen! And Roko too!"

"Good evening."

"Pardon the intrusion, Joker," replied the white dog named Roko who was next to Queen. Roko was a super dog who had been genetically engineered to be able to speak, and was Queen's partner phantom thief dog. He was always calm and collected and kept Queen in check. He also lived at Silver Heart's house.

"W-What are you guys here for!?"

"Come on, you heard me announce myself. I told you I was coming in."

"Huh? You did?"

"We came in through the normal entrance and landed our plane in the hangar like always."

"Seriously? I didn't notice at all..."

"No duh, Joker. You're not in your usual outfit and you've just been zoned out on the couch looking at the ceiling. The kitchen reeks of something weird, so I was worried you'd performed an arcane ritual and something'd gone wrong."

"Hard to believe you were worried when you're snacking on my potato chips!"

"But I was hungry! You didn't respond at all anyway, so I figured you wouldn't mind sharing. So what's with the getup?"

"This...? Nothing special."

"Whatever floats your boat, I guess."

Joker was being close-lipped, but Queen didn't even seem to mind. She cleaned the chip grease off her fingers with a wet wipe.

"Again, what are you here for?" Joker scowled at Queen, irritated.

"The thing I was calling you about. You said you were busy and just hung up. I didn't want you pulling that again, so I just came in person."

"Right... that happened." He'd been so focused on Hachi that he'd forgotten all about the calls from Queen and Spade. Queen had been telling him about...

"Didn't you say something about a weird phantom thief?"

As soon as Joker brought it up, Queen leaned way forward and pouted in annoyance. "Yeah! I swear, it was SOOO frustrating!" She picked up and skillfully swung the humongous sword beside her, slamming it on top of the table. This greatsword made of diamond was Queen's weapon of choice. "I was at an art museum in the Caribbean not too long ago to steal a treasure. The 'Striped Brooch', you know the one!"

"Yeah, you told me about it before."

Queen had lately been coveting a treasure called the "Striped Brooch". It was a unique gemstone brooch with striations. It had been found in ancient Incan ruins, but its monetary value wasn't as much as its ostentatious appearance suggested, so Joker had passed it up.

"And then! I came across him in the storage room!"

"Him being?"

"The Time Thief!"

"The time thief?" Joker echoed with wide eyes. He'd never heard the name.

"That's not his actual name, though. He's been showing up all over the place lately, and he's called that because of his strange abilities." Just thinking back on the incident made Queen clench her fists.

"He's got strange abilities?"

"Yeah, that's what I said. I had so much trouble getting to that brooch and stealing it, but all of a sudden it wasn't in my possession anymore!"

"Huh? That doesn't make sense."

"I'm telling you, he stole the brooch from me before I even knew it!"

"You must've let your guard down, Queen. He could've just nicked it off you while you were distracted."

"That's not what happened," interjected Roko, who had kept quiet so far. "I was looking. Queen definitely had the brooch. But all of a sudden, it was gone."

"Gone?"

"As soon as we noticed it wasn't there, the Time Thief right in front of us was holding Queen's treasure instead."

"W-Wait a second here. You guys were there with this Time Thief guy?" Joker asked.

Queen folded her arms indignantly. "Yeah. But what's really bizarre is that when we went into the storage room, nobody else was there. But it was like he was just waiting around for us to take the treasure. The moment I got the brooch in my hands, he showed up out of thin air."

"For real...?" Joker was beginning to take some interest in this strange phantom thief. "The treasure just vanished right in front of your eyes? Both of you?"

"Yes. I was definitely holding the treasure. But he did something and then the next instant, it went poof. Then he said, 'The item you just obtained has now come into my possession by rewinding time.'"

"The heck..."

"After that, he said 'I can manipulate time.' Word for word."

"Time...?"

"Exactly. He has some strange ability that lets him manipulate time. That's why he's being called the Time Thief," Roko said in the same solemn tone. The way he spoke, it sounded like he was only half-convinced and was trying to persuade himself.

"It really is weird. It wasn't any sleight of hand. I don't understand what he did..."

"A phantom thief who can rewind time, huh..."

Then something lit up in Joker's head. Like a single shaft of light filtering through a pitch dark forest, a ray of hope beamed into his mind. In an instant, a fantastic idea gave him a jolt of energy.

"That's it!" Joker jumped to his feet and exclaimed.

"Huh?" Queen and Roko looked at Joker in surprise.

"If he can rewind time, he can go to the past, right!? Which means I can figure out what happened!"

"Uh... you could, yeah."

"If his ability is the real thing, yes."

"It's real! I mean, it has to be real, or I'm screwed! If I can take advantage of his ability and go to the past, I can figure out the curry's secret ingredient!"

"The curry's?"

"Secret ingredient?"

Queen and Roko vocalized in sequence, more confused than ever.

Yes, Joker had come up with an idea. He would investigate the secret ingredient for Hachi's curry by using the Time Thief's ability to go to the past. If he could just go to the moment when Hachi was making the curry, he could know for sure what he'd added to the recipe!

Joker marveled at his own brilliance. He turned to Queen and asked, "So where's this Time Thief guy!? Phantom Thief Joker is gonna head straight to him and steal his ability!"

"Um..."

"I'm not certain he'll show up today, but..." Roko began to say, then used his ears to push buttons on the TV remote. The television turned on to the UNN channel. DJ Peacock was there on screen, screeching in his usual garish manner.

"Good evening, everyone! This is DJ Peacock! And today, we've caught wind of an advance notice from Phantom Thief Spade!"

"Tonight, I'll come to take the Golden Gallery Box from the Escargot Museum.

--Phantom Thief Spade"

 The screen showed an image of the Escargot Museum. As the name suggested, it was a curious piece of architecture modeled after the shell of a snail lying on its side.

"Wow, looks like Phantom Thief Spade's on the job tonight. The so-called Time Thief has been up to no good lately, and if Phantom Thief Joker or somebody else shows up, it'll be all the more chaotic. We can expect some heart-pounding and stimulating developments from this!"

Joker switched off the television and stood boldly. "Ask for stimulation and you'll receive! Just you wait, Time Thief!"

The gloom clouding his eyes dissipated, making room once more for an optimistic gleam.

[datastate]

nno chapter 7... so much info has been unleashed

you are so scary, but i like you so much. i'm also really really really hoping kira isn't something that also steadily gets rid of your life/constitution in exchange.

he's too silly for his own good... he didn't die and his first thought is wow! it WOULD be weird if we made a tournament featuring ninjas from around the area.

i'm actually so unwell. i don't have much to say here other than a tearful thumb-up. i really love miharu...

get his ass you pained & pathetic little beast (said extremely affectionately)

okay, this is unrelated to the entire page, but i've noticed it a few times and does he. well it seems as though. he has a ring on his left hand... what's that about.....

koichi with the face of someone who already knew this, too... made the stunt with the sword all the more dangerous, intentionally or no. even though i understand their intentions, i'm just. grahhh... i need to blend them. of course you don't want to overwhelm miharu with everything at once, and it's been difficult with the. everything. but also :'] augh... someone like miharu seems to really need a basis of what's happening to know how to plan ahead and manage it. even with the initial shock, miharu had the stability of having a home routine to follow to give him time to adjust & actually approach tobari again and give this a shot... regardless of whatever shock it'll cause, something like this would probably need even more time to be integrated - i don't know if there's a way to remove it completely on your own, but honestly if miharu hadn't disconnected himself from the shinrabanshou (at least, the part that was conversing with him), it could've risked his life i'd think...

in any case. i find tobari's reaction to discovering that stuff really amusing. and also the hands are always so nice

i need to like. imprint this on my brain. i'm so bad with names </3 it's really interesting getting to see the origins though :3 however it's also making me wonder if it was maybe that miharu's mother was part of an opposing clan ... an that's how fuuma recognized her in miharu?

also i. Ouh. i had a terrible thought. wouldn't it be fucked up if the part of the shinrabanshou that was communicating w miharu purposefully took the form of his mother. not even in the sense that she had it, necessarily, though it could be entirely possible it's one of the previous users anyway that's just guiding people down this path -- but to give the whole idea of something/someone that can be trusted without having a physical replacement to refute it... hmmm.

Oh. nevermind. Okay maybe miharu & tobari were just part of banten. i briefly had the thought when they were like 'oh they're a small group comparatively' but Aughhh...

^he is literally eating. be kind.

"you can't be saying that white baby"

real talk though, i'm really loving how the plot's building up to this already - making it imperative for miharu to be involved regardless of what he does/n't do, so he may as well be there to figure out what his fate will be once they get their hands on what this new style will be. although i wonder how it's lethality will be. determined... without using miharu as the subject immediately, for the wolf gang i assume they'd. have to practice on removing & repurposing hijutsu from. yoite, yes...... oh no.

[we-are-monk]

Should fuuma shuriken (HIRAIKOTSU!) be Monk weapons?

I think they should be ninja weapons. I suppose in 5e, the ninja archetype falls under "shadow monk" so... in that case, sure. Ninja have some overlap with monks in terms of "spiritual discipline and martial arts superpowers" but personally I'd prefer if they were their own class, or barring that, a rogue variant.