x
There is a hustle at the front most of the ren. A group of samurais and ronins are squeezing through the crowd. Inside the gang, Sora can spot her target right away-
Takigawa Hikariichi, an ordinary looking man dressing in dull color. He does laugh and push to the front like the other gangsters do, but Sora can tell that he is staying alerted to the surrounding. His smiling face is a bit in tense and his eye balls are rolling all the time to surveil any subtle changes around.158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI2MM3YsGhd
Sora pulls Motoya’s arm and starts moving closer to the front, while keeps swinging her body like the dancers do.
”Come on.”
”So….we are actually undertaking any mission here? Sora kun?” Motoya whispers. He is now a bit nervous mostly because he is afraid something weird will happen on Sora again. His fascinated [dancing] mood has gone, pathetically.
“Who said that? We come here to dance of course.” Sora smiles and keeps moving. The gangsters are right in front already.
”Arrrrrrrr!” While everybody on their back scream, Sora ignores and dashes towards her target. She seems to have predicted the chaos to happen sooner or later.
Several, 8 precisely, female dancers are grabbing tantos(daggers) and shurikens hiding inside their costumes. They are moving fast towards the gang. Sora can feel that they are all professional assassins, right from the beginning.
But they don’t bother her. Her eyes never move away from Hikirichi.
”Stay away!” Motoya shouts. But his foolish art has successful drawn attention of Hikirichi.
”YOU?” The man recognizes them at once. “Take these people down!” He yells and turns away immediately.
Sora frowns but she never slows down. She leaps over the big guys right in front of her. Her body is light as feather while walking on the heads and shoulders of the crowd. Hikirichi is almost reachable.
Until she heard twang from her back.
Sora jumps forward, while spinning in an opposite direction towards the back. Then by slightly addressing her body, she lets 4 shurinkens flying pass her body. And within the 1/2 second she can identify the situation clearly that 4 assassins (probably of highest levels amongst the squad) are approaching fast. Motoya is fighting with the other two while the last 2 are beaten by the gangsters already.
She completes the full spin and manages to keep track of Hikirichi .
She jumps back onto the ground, slipping through the crowd like an eel, a battle move called 【Ripple Dance】
“What the??!”all the gangsters just cannot grab her no matter how hard and how many times they try.
Then Sora follows Hikirichi to an alley. She reaches out her arm trying to grab his shoulder.
He turns, swinging his elbow to block her grab.
Sora twists her wrist just to avoid his elbow while manages to grab his shoulder from his front instead. She then pushes her horse stance in between his legs successfully to knock him on his knees.
”Fxxxk!”
Sora tries to hit his neck with her hand-chop. But surprisingly he manages to move sideway that it misses his neck but hits on his shoulder.
“Arrrr!” It hurts but not enough to black him out because Sora needs him alive. Sora frowns again. This is the second mistakes she has made today. She has underestimated him- the most ordinary and average candidate in the Dojo that no one will ever notice his attendance everyday. His performance has never impressed anyone to a minimal extent. His ranking or existence never matters his colleagues.
He is and has been an ordinary guy.
But only few people manages to dodge Sora’s chop. Maybe by luck.
The guy squats down and he suddenly turns and spreads out some white powder towards Sora.
Sora bounces back. She smells starch only. Hikirichi rows forward and tries to get up when he is kicked by Sora at his back. This time Sora has applied 50% her power and is strong enough to penetrate a mud wall easily.
But she frowns again. The third time today. This guy is wearing a chain vest that manages to reduce 80% impact indeed. Instead it blows him 15 feet away from her. She has a gut feeling she cannot get him this time.
All these hiccup are lousy enough to let the other 2 assassins to catch them up.
10 shurinkens are shooting from them. 8 of them aiming at Hikirichi, 2 at Sora.
Sora turns, grabs the first and throws back. It hits the second, bounces towards the third and it goes on and on until all 10 are shot down like a domino effect.
The 2 assassins are stunned. When they realize what was happening, they are both knocked down unconsciously on floor by Sora.
Hikirichi is dashing towards the exit of the alley. Yet,
SOMETHING ENORMOUS DESCENDING FROM THE SKY and blocks his way!
A huge SHURINKEN! Shot and nailed into the ground like a metal gate, shutting off him from his way out!
Hikirichi stands still. He knows there is only one way to stay alive,
”Protect me! I will offer you information I have so far!!!”A woman jumps over the shurinken from the back and lands in front of it,
Sora, Hikirichi and the woman are standing still in a line.
”Hi, pretty. Are you gonna fight me, in bare hands? SORA THE SUCCESSOR?”The woman grins.
”And you gonna fight me with this huge TOY? In this alley?”Sora spreads her arms sideway. A strange stance that exposes her whole body to any upcoming attack.
”BUT YOU ARE NOT MY TARGET TODAY!”the woman finishes by throwing 4 shurinkens- they are so powerful that the shrill sounds like the SCREAM OF GHOST!
Almost at the same time Sora hits the side walls of the narrow alley with both palms. Two streams of forces are transmitted via the bricks, passing through a distance and explodes in between the woman and Hikirichi- a powerful move called 【Twin Surfing Dragons】of the [Wind] House of Ten-Ryu Dojo. The side walls collide and the debris just manage to topple over the flying shurinkens. It doesn’t stop them but reduces the speed a little bit- just enough for Sora to grab the stunned man and takes off from the ground, high above the woman.
”STILL TOO EARLY!” The woman jumps towards them. She is grabbing 4 shurinkens with her right hands’ fingers which makes her punch deadly.
But her hit is in vain. The couple disappears in front of her! Sora can miraculously control her own weight, to become heavy enough to stop the inertia and pulls them down onto the ground- a kind of Qigong 【氣功】from [Sky] House that can master the DYNAMICS of your body.
”Yahhhhh!” The woman still doesn’t give up. She screams and let go her 4 shurinkens. They hit each other slightly in midway, altering their trails in an unpredictable way without reducing their powers inside.
Sora shoots both of her palms up to the sky. The 【Twin Surfing Dragons】now materializes into two tornados rising up from the ground. They shoot down all the shurinkens and hit the woman in mid-air, who still manages to parry by her arms crossed in front of her chest.
Sora pulls up Hikirichi who seems to have fainted on ground. But she is too careless again-
starch, the guy just spread out another grain of powder towards her. Her reflex action forces her to let go her grab and steps back, offering a chance for the guy to dash forward.
Sora frowns as the woman stomps from mid-air. She rows forward to dodge and turns to offer a powerful spinning side kick to her opponent. It is so powerful that the woman is struck to hit hard and sink half of her body into the wall.
Sora stops chasing Hikirichi. Not because she has lost sight of him. Just that she realizes that it is impossible to ignore the woman….
who pulls herself out from the wall and stands firmly in front of her with her eyes of rage!
“…….We should have killed you last time.” She walks towards the HUGE SHURINKEN and slowly pulling up it from the ground.
Now that the side walls of the alley have mostly collapsed. Her range weapon may execute its power of destruction to the full extent eventually.
The ENORMOUS SHURINKEN is a huge Nagare Manji [流卍］with a large opening in the middle. A grab bar is spanning across the opening. The woman holds it tight, and shouts,
”NOW DIE!” Her body spins in full speed with the SHURINKEN placing horizontally and then she throws it towards Sora. The monstrous momentum of the huge spinning object sucks and drags the debris all around, imitating a fierce Tsuchigumo （土蜘蛛Earth Spider) crawling towards Sora!
Sora doesn’t dodge. She presses her palms together while only pointing the index and middle finger tips towards the sky. A Bluish Aura appears, together with several images of the HOLY SWORD orbiting around her.
”What? You can perform this WITHOUT YOUR SWORD?”
The HOLY SWORDS CROSS EACH OTHER in front of Sora, forming a a huge SHIELD to block the Tsuchigumo.
“G.E.T! A.W.A.Y.!” Sora shouts while spreading out her arms. The SWORDS slash altogether outward to strike simultaneously on the underside of the SHURINKEN. Send it up to the mid-air until it faints and falls back onto the ground, right in front of its master.
“No human can survive THIS with his bare hands….What the hell are you?!”
The Bluish Aura fades out. Instead, her eyes turns CRIMSON while she smiles and says,
”Think twice. YOU MAY REGRET TO FIND THE ANSWER TO THAT QUESTION.”
The woman feels a piercing chill running through her spine. It is the first time she feels Death so intimately. She loses her mind- while initiating another attack may be like attempting suicide, a retreat may result in PUNISHMENT BY HIM that she can hardly imagine.
”LEAVE.” A voice is heard behind the woman. It is much a relief to her. She picks up her weapon and before she leaves,
”Remember Sora the Successor, SAYAKA is my name, the one who should defeat you eventually!”
Motoya rushes back to the inn which is already surrounded by more than 30 samurais, ready to break into the inn. The only obstacle being a woman confronting them at the entrance, the Okami.
She is presenting herself proudly with one arm akimbo while holding a burning torch in her other hand.
”Anyone dares to go inside!”she warns the intruders, “don’t you ever think of getting out alive! I will set this place on fire together with myself!”
Motoya rushes to her side.
”Thank you, okami san!”
”Call me Ai! Oshima Ai.”
”Yes! Ai san!” Motoya points the tanto he got from one of the assassin towards the samurais.
They are unlikely to charge as if they are waiting for the last command-
Until the Shoguns, fully equipped, arrive on their horses right before their leader finally shows up, Uesugi Youta the Warlord!
He gets down from his horse, taking off his helmet. Surprisingly he looks young and handsome. His eyes shines with confidence and determination. He raises his right hand to signalize his men to cease any unethical action against a unarmed woman and a young man with only a tanto in his hands.
Youta smiles and says with his clear voice, “We don’t want any violence to spoil the joy and peace we are all supposed to enjoy today! Oshima San!” He opens his arms showing no sign to draw his sword.
“However, we also don’t want any anonymous foreigners to upset the peace, the tranquility of our village, to make any unnecessary troubles here!” He rises his voice as if his statement is indisputable and official.
”No one except you and your men are going to make any trouble here! So GET AWAY FROM HERE!”Ai screams. Her voice is as loud as Youta’s and her determination to protect her customers and their [assets], being the 5th Okami of the Tazu Ryokan, never falls short of her reputable entrustment.
“Hahahahaha!” Youta laughs and yells to his men behind, “I swear to you all- someday, I should make this woman mine!” He then turns and winks to Ai.
”it is……not funny AT ALL!!!!!” She feels being insulted while all the men burst into laughter. Youta laughs as well. But there is something especially different in his laugh, which disturbs Ai so much.
”Fire! Fire!” The staff inside the inn screams while Ai notices smoke raising from inside. Almost at the same time, they see someone standing on the roof of the inn- a FEMALE SAMURAI IN A RED ARMOR A RED ONI MASK. As she stands under the midday sun, a huge terrifying demonic shadow is casting on the ground.
She is holding both the HOLY SWORD AND THE HELL BLADE.
Suddenly she looks down and points the Hell Blade to Motoya and says,
”TELL HER! MORNGA HAS HER SWORD BACK!”
She laughs wildly and jumps down and disappears in the black smoke.
”Oh! My Lord! She has both SWORDS with her! Shall we chase?!”one of the shogun asks Youta. Obviously these supposed to be the real target.
Surprisingly, Youta scolds at him, “You fool! Go help put out the fire with me now!” He stops by the side of Ai and says, “No worry. I CAN FIX IT RIGHT AT ONCE!”
Ai doesn’t reply but instead gives him a dirty look. Youta winks at her. He and his men then rush inside to firefight and rescue all at once. Ai remains surprisingly calm while Motoya is almost driven nuts after witnessing the vanish of MORNGA with the SWORDS.
“Easy,” Ai puts her hand on his shoulder and says, “SHE will take care of it.”
”What?” Just as Motoya still wondering what Ai has said, he sees a shadow quickly flies across the sky in the direction of the fleeing MORNGA.
“SHE took the bait at last.” Ai smiles enigmatically, while Motoya wails as his mind is harassed by too many puzzles and worries.
Then Youta comes out of the building. His whole body, face and armor, is blackened by the smoke. Yet he looks as puzzled as Motoya and says,
”The inn is NOT on fire….NO FIRE AT ALL.”
MORNGA is dashing through alleys and leaping over roofs until she confirms that the crowd is distant enough. She stops on the roof of a shrine inside a forest.
She looks down and finds a girl emerging from the dense wood.
”Sora, this place is perfect for us. No disturbance. No one would ever know WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN ON US…..”
”You have been following us for weeks. It is clear that your target is Me, right. So before you try to do anything to me, may I know if you have met MY FRIEND, HARU, before? And where did you get this ARMOR from?”
MORNGA takes off her mask, a ruthless but ethereally beautiful young face. Her skin is pale and almost transparent with her eyes always squinting to despise this vulgar and hypocritical world.
She jumps down the shrine. And piece by piece , she removes the armor from her body. Now that she is wearing a white translucent gauze kimono only, Sora doesn’t figure out what idea actually lives in this girl’s mind…..even by her ENLIGHTENED INTELLIGENCE.
”Forget about Haru, and this stinky armor, Sora.”The girl reaches out her pearl-like beautiful hands to Sora and continues,
“Shall we DANCE?”
158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLEox8fVg2m
158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3A7DmV4Pap
158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCfkPdxElgD
158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl5w0F1AA4H
