Chapter 21: Onslaught

                        As Zero and Luna make their way through the big city of Finurey, Shou and the ninja party makes their way to the Xordanian docks on the coast. Tesshu asks the captain standing in front of a ship. “Yo, we want to cross to Asrael, how much you chargin’?

            “I’m sorry, but ships won’t be leaving until tomorrow, plus we’ll only take you to Finurey, from there you go to Asrael.” The ship captain responds.

            “How come?” Tesshu asks.

            “There’s a big concert today, in a few hours.” The ship captain replies.

            “A concert?” Shou asks lifting one eye brow.

            “Yeah, it’s Onslaught! Damn, that chick that sings is hot as well!” A ship crew member says excited appearing next to the captain.

            “Hey, doesn't she have a name? Even animals have names nowadays.” Shou says smiling.

            “Ruka Heartwit!!!” Tesshu says excited.

            “There he goes.” Shiemi sighs.

            “Oh God.” Mikae says.

            “What’s wrong?” Shou asks puzzled.

            “Ruka Heartwit’s the problem.” Mikae answers.

            “What about her? Who is she?” Shou asks.

            “Tesshu is like her number one fan.” Shiemi replies.

            “Hell yeah! Ruka Heartwit, she’s twenty years old, and the vocalist of one of the super rock bands of all times, Onslaught! I’ve heard she’s even Queen Onassis’s childhood friend!” Tesshu explains very excited.

            “Looks like you know a lot about her; now all you have to do is smile and say “yes mistress”…” Shou says with a smile.

            “Please don’t ask anymore about her.” Mikae whispers to Shou.

            “Yeah, or he’ll talk all night about her.” Shiemi says.

            “I demand respect, she’s my future wife.” Tesshu says staring at the party annoyed.

            “And you’re planning to go to the concert?” Shou asks curiously.

            “Why did you ask such a thing!?” Shiemi asks angrily.

            “Oh no, now he’s gonna get some crazy ideas!” Mikae states.

            “You bet your a*s I’m going!” Tesshu replies excited.

            “Here we go…” Shiemi sighs.

                        Tesshu gets all excited just thinking about the concert and quickly goes to buy some tickets for everyone. Meanwhile somewhere in Xordania there are four mysterious people dressed in custom cloaks, two men and two women, one of the men is tall with a very muscular body, the other guy is a little shorter than the previous. One of the women is carrying a scythe; the last woman has no particular weapon, but some brown colored bangs come out of her hood.

            “Remember, our mission is to kidnap that girl singing, I don’t want any screw ups, yes, I’m looking at you Yazon.” The woman with the scythe says looking at the shorter man.

            “Hey, calm down Ushima, just because you’re the ninja doesn’t mean you’re the stealthiest.” Yazon scoffs.

            “Yeah, besides, it’s in my little brother to be kind of noisy.” The muscular man remarks.

            “Sezuki, you have to control your little brother, he’s too noisy.” The woman with the brown bangs says.

            “Alright, alright.” Sezuki nods.

            “Hiruka, keep a close eye on those two if you would.” Ushima orders.

            “Yes.” Hiruka says.

                        A radio can suddenly be heard, Ushima takes it out of her bag.

            “Come in Ushima.” Harayoshi’s voice says.

            “Yes, what is it?” Ushima asks.

            “If by some reason you fail the mission, quickly retreat, my father doesn’t want this to be the last drop that starts the war between Gen-Exis and Xordania, got that? We have to conquer it cleverly.” Harayoshi says.

            “Right.” Ushima says.

            “Over and out.” Harayoshi says.

            “You heard him, no screw ups like I said; this is supposed to look like a terrorist attack. Yazon, I want you on top of that building with a sniper rifle.” Ushima says pointing towards the building. “Sezuki, I want you to take out one of the V.I.P. guards and disguise as one.”

            “What about me?” Hiruka asks.

            “Like I said, keep an eye on those two, if anything goes wrong prepare the escape route for them.” Ushima commands.

            “What about you Ushima? What are you going to do?” Yazon asks.

            “I will help Sezuki kidnap her quickly, then disguise myself as a terrorist along with Sezuki and record a video you’ll see soon enough. I also brought some soldiers to keep guard just in case.” Ushima explains.

                        After they are done talking they all go to do what they are ordered, during a five minute intermission they take that moment to take action, each of them keeping contact with Bluetooth’s, they successfully kidnap her without anyone getting in the way. An hour or so passes and the crowd gets restless, trouble rises, people start to fight, the cops arrive at the scene and so does the news teams, they report the event and after just a few minutes a live video feed airs on a big screen TV in the center of the city, it is Ushima and Sezuki disguised now as terrorist.

            “We demand for Onassis to give up the throne and give up one hundred million dollars cash or Ruka dies in twelve hours.”

                        The party watches this on the T.V.

            “What the?” Shiemi says in disbelief.

            “Oh no!” Mikae says.

            “I have no comeback for this situation.” Shou says.

            “No, my love! Huh?” Tesshu says then noticing something on the video right in the corner of the big T.V.

                        There was a small shot of a building that is only in Xordania. As this happens, Onassis is thinking things through. “I can’t send a squad because if they retaliate in a big way Rika might die… Our armed forces only have field combatants, air fighters, but no stealth operatives…” She then remembers the party. “The three young men that saved us from those demons might have been able to save Ruka, but I do not know a means of contacting them. What should I do?”

                        Back to Shou and the rest.

            “You see that? That building is around the plaza, we have to go save her!” Tesshu says desperately.

            “We have to hurry then.” Mikae suggests.

            “I don’t think so, there’s still twelve hours left.” Shiemi reminds Mikae.

            “True.” Mikae says, then looking at Tesshu.

            “I don’t care if we have a whole f****n’ year; I’m going right now to save my princess!” Tesshu says quickly rushing away from the party.

            “I now realize that I thought I wanted a career, turns out I just wanted pay checks, let’s just hurry up before Tesshu does something stupid.”

                        Tesshu and the rest arrive at the plaza; they find the building and enter. Shiemi notices some soldiers patrolling the building, despite this they keep on their pace, but very stealthily.

            “Shou, try to move at hour pace, you don’t want to get caught right?” Mikae whispers.

            “I can’t move as stealthy as all of you, so you’ll have to bear with an old man like me.”

                        Tesshu quickly takes out some of the soldiers while Shiemi jams their radios before they are able to contact the others. Mikae uses some hand seals and transforms into one of the soldiers to easily dispatch them. Shou keeps walking behind them slowly until they reach some of the final floors. There they see the big muscular man with the custom cloak holding a small Vulcan mounted on his back with a pistol in each hand0 waiting like if he knew there are intruders all along. It is a very old building, there is hardly any light, the muscular man asks. “Who are you people?”

            “You kidnapped my sweet heart!” Tesshu says furiously.

            “Humph… No matter.” Sezuki says.

                        Sezuki throws some flash grenades and some stun grenades at the party while quickly moving to the sides shooting at them. The party moves swiftly evading all the bullets, everything clears off after the flash grenades fade, Hiruka appears behind Tesshu attacking him off guard throwing at Tesshu crystal made daggers. Shou deflects the daggers with his spear to cover Tesshu. Mikae and Shiemi does some hand seals both throwing huge fireballs that combined in midair before hitting Hiruka, but after the fire disperses a crystal figure in from of Hiruka is seen, Hiruka appears right next to Sezuki.

            “Not bad, not bad at all.” Hiruka comments.

            “You people just don’t have what it takes to bring us down. Your strategies and Spirit Force are not enough.” Sezuki states.

            “We still haven’t fought you seriously and there are two more just as strong as us in the above floor.” Hiruka says.

            “Too many freaks, not enough circuses I see.” Shou says with a smile.

                        All of a sudden many people and reporters begin to appear outside of the old building because of all the noise and explosions they heard a few moments ago.

            “Oh great, now this place has been compromised, let’s head up to see what the others are going to do.” Sezuki says taking his Vulcan.

                        He starts to fire at the party, the long bullets pierce the concrete walls, Tesshu, Mikae and Shiemi quickly makes hand seals and blows the floor under them, they fall down along with Shou therefore escaping from the powerful Vulcan’s shots. Sezuki and Hiruka quickly go upstairs, Yazon and Ushima are next to Ruka which they have tied up in a chair.

            “Why did you do all that noise instead of taking them out quickly?” Ushima asks.

            “They weren’t that weak, they evaded our attacks quite well.” Hiruka answers.

            “They all seemed like ninjas after all.” Sezuki comments.

            “What? Ninjas? It can’t be!” Ushima says widening her eyes.

            “Something wrong?” Yazon asks.

            “No, nothing.” Ushima replies.

            “Now they now our location, what are we gonna do?” Yazon asks.

            “Harayoshi ordered us to retreat is we failed.” Ushima says.

            “What about the girl?” Sezuki asks.

            “We’ll leave them a little surprise along with the girl.” Hiruka says.

                        Hiruka places a vest on Ruka and tinkers with it a little.

            “If you or anyone else try to take it off, it’ll explode.” Hiruka says.

                        They all leave the building quickly, Shou and the rest quickly go up to save Ruka, and they finally find her on her knees tied with ropes with a cloth covering her mouth and eyes.

            “Oh God, Ruka!” Tesshu shouts running towards her, then taking off the cloths from her mouth and eyes.

                        Mikae and Shiemi cuts the ropes with kunais.

            “Wait a minute, the vest that I have on has a bomb, they told me that if I take it off I’ll explode.” Ruka says nervously.

            “There has to be a way of taking off the vest before it explodes.” Shou says observing the vest.

            “Mikae, you’re the bomb specialist here, what should we do?” Shiemi asks.

            “I’m not exactly a bomb specialist, but I know a little.” Mikae says opening the vest to see some wires; she draws out a kunai and cuts a black wire. “There goes the ground.” She then unscrews a metal plate to see two wires, a red one and a blue one.

            “Which one is it?” Shiemi asks.

            “Let me think, let me think… If I cut the wrong one we’re toast.” Mikae begins sweating a little.

            “Maybe you gotta cut the blue one, I mean; it’s always the red one.” Shou says scoffing.

            “Just because its red doesn’t mean it’s the dangerous one.” Mikae says putting her fingers behind the red wire to reveal a small thread. “What do you think?”

            “I think I’m gonna s**t my pants!” Tesshu says nervously.

            “Please don’t let me die.” Ruka begs letting out a tear.

            “You won’t, don’t worry.” Shou says smiling.

            “I think if I cut either the red one or the blue one it’s going to explode.” Mikae says.

            “Then what are you gonna do?” Shou asks.

            “I’m going to cut the thread.” Mikae says.

                        Everyone closes their eyes when Mikae is about to cut the thread, she cuts it, the timer stops, a few seconds pass, everyone opens their eyes.

            “You did it! Oh my God!” Ruka says in joy.

            “Yeah, that’s my Mikae for ya!” Tesshu says exhaling loudly.

            “I've had a perfectly wonderful evening, but this wasn't it!” Shou says annoyed.

            “Congratulations.” Shiemi says smirking at Mikae.

            “Thanks.” Mikae says.

            “Please take this off me.” Ruka says.

            “With pleasure.” Tesshu says taking off the vest, after a few seconds the timer begins ticking again. “Oh s**t son!”

            “Hurry up, leave the vest here and let’s go!” Shou says panicking.

            “Hurry, there’s only fifteen seconds left!” Mikae yells.

                        Tesshu lifts Ruka and puts her on his right shoulder and says. “The only way out is always through!”

            “In this case it’s through the window.” Shou says.

                        They all jump through the window as the bomb explodes right after their jump; Shiemi does some hand seals while falling and makes a big tree extend one of the branches, they land on it safely. They then take Ruka to the castle gates where the guards only let Ruka in, but Ruka tells Onassis and lets the ninja party in. When they go in Onassis greets them with Ruka on her side. “I thank you on behalf of everyone for saving Ruka.”

            “It’s aiight, I did cause I love her music, number one fan.” Tesshu says winking at Ruka.

            “Thank you, all of you.” Ruka says bowing her head.

            “It’s quite strange; you’re the second group to ever save this kingdom of its problems lately.” Onassis says.

            “Oh, really?” Shou asks.

            “Yes, you don’t happen to know Seshiro and two other friends by the names of Lloyd and Kirisu would you?” Onassis asks.

            “Yeah, I do know them, they’re friends of mine.” Shou replies conceitedly.

            “What a coincidence.” Onassis says.

            “Your highness, there are no coincidence, only the inevitable.” Shiemi says.

            “Yes, I’m also starting to believe that myself, because if I’m not mistaken you’re ninjas from the extinct Ido clan that my ancestors used to contract for certain missions.” Onassis says.

            “Yes your highness.” Tesshu nods.

            “What really happened to your clan?” Onassis asks.

            “It’s a long story.” Mikae says.

            “I have plenty of time.” Onassis says.

            “Well, during the Asraelian war we were mostly wiped out by Gen-Exis because we refused to accept their offer, at the time we were already contracted by Lemuria, Gen-Exis tried to triple the amount, but as I told you, we refused. During the war we lost some ninjas, including Shou, my best friend, afterwards I began searching for him, I found him not too long ago, he lost his memories, but now we’re taking him to the ruins of the hidden ninja village, it might ring a bell or somethin’, dunno.” Tesshu explains.

            “In that case, why don’t you stay tomorrow as well and watch Ruka’s concert, then I’ll supply you with a ship free of charge for saving my dear Ruka.” Onassis suggests.

            “Yes! That would be perfect your highness!” Tesshu says excited raising his voice.

                        Shiemi sigh and says. “Here we go again…”

                        Meanwhile Ushima and the rest are far away of the city, they receive a radio transmission from Harayoshi once again. “What’s your status?”

            “We failed the mission.” Ushima answers.

            “What happened?” Harayoshi asks.

            “Some mysterious people appeared and put our efforts to waste.” Ushima responds.

            “Mysterious people?” Harayoshi asks.

            “Hiruka and Sezuki claim they were ninjas.” Ushima replies.

            “I see… I’ll send Raven to pick you up A.S.A.P.” Harayoshi says. “Over and out.”

                        Ushima spaces out, thinking to herself. “Ninjas… Could it be Shou or maybe Tesshu? Or both? There was more than one, if it was them, how did they survive?”

            “Something wrong Ushima?” Hiruka asks suspiciously.

            “No, nothing at all.” Ushima replies.

                        Shou and the rest enter the boat the next day after the concert, on their way towards Asrael. Now in Asrael, they walk towards their destination, but before arriving Shou curiously asks. “So Tesshu… can you tell me who I was exactly and what did you do while we were ninjas?”

            “Sure… thought I dunno if you’ll like what I’ll say about it.” Tesshu says.

            “Try me.” Shou says smiling.

            “Well, first of all we grew up together ya know, we were best homies, did a lot of crazy s**t back then, we were trained hard in Ninjutsu, which were many things we had to learn.” Tesshu says.

            “Like what?” Shou asks.

            “Well bro, in our youth we studied survival and scouting techniques, as well as information regarding poisons and explosives. We also trained physically; we had to do long distance runs, climbing, stealth methods of walking and swimming. We also had ta learn some common professions ta take their form in disguise. We also had some medical training.” Tesshu explains.

            “But why would we need all that training?” Shou asks.

            “We were mercenaries for some feudal lords in our country, so we also worked for different clients depending on the dough. Of course, our missions mostly involved espionage, sabotage, infiltration, assassinations and open combat in certain situations.” Tesshu explains lowering his head.

                        Shou widens his eyes to this revelation. “…So that means we did a lot of bad things right, you and me?”

            “I ain’t gonna lie to ya Shou, we did pretty much all of those missions plenty of times.” Tesshu says placing his hand on Shou’s left shoulder.

            “Oh man, so that was all our training? There was nothing more than that?” Shou asks.

            “There were more advance trainings, it consisted in Fuji-Kiri, in nine Fuji-in hand seals and incantations that helped us gain many abilities, spiritual as well as body attributes.” Tesshu answers.

            “What kind of attributes?” Shou asks.

            “These attributes are what we call Jutsu’s, we are able to use flight, invisibility, shapeshifting, the ability to split into multiple bodies, summoning mystical animals and control over the fire, wind, earth, water and wood.” Shiemi explains instead of Tesshu.

            “Sounds like a pain in the crotch.” Shou says.

            “It is, that’s why we have to start learning since youth the eighteen disciplines.” Mikae says.

            “What disciplines?” Shou asks.

            “Spiritual refinement, stick and staff fighting, throwing shuriken, spear fighting, naginata fighting, kusarigama fighting, pyrotechnics and explosives, disguise and impersonation, stealth and entering methods, horsemanship, water training, tactics, espionage, escaping and concealment, meteorology, geography, unarmed combat, sword fighting.” Mikae explains.

            “Yo Mikae relax, you don’t have to throw in all those that Shou won’t understand right now, and he doesn’t remember a damn thing anyways, no use saying all that.” Tesshu says.

            “Sorry.” Mikae says.

            “Well damn, seems like being a Ninja takes a lot of effort and s**t I don’t wanna go through ever.” Shou says.

            “Yeah, but don’t worry about it now, just concentrate in remembering your old buddy Tesshu will ya. Everything will come back to you when you get your memory back, things will start looking better for you dog.” Tesshu says smiling.

            “What are you? A fortune teller?” Shou asks sarcastically.

            “Haha.” Tesshu chuckles.

            “We’re already here.” Shiemi says.

            “Whoa… now that’s a pretty big village!” Shou says surprised.

            “It was composed of just Ninjas, it was hard to get in here, and it was so well hidden.” Mikae remarks.

            “So can anybody become a Ninja?” Shou asks.

            “No, you had to be born to one of our families, I guess the most privileged family in Ninja’s was the Fujibayashi clan, they were normally above chunin class, but most Ninjas were genin though.” Shiemi comments.

            “Talk about favorites.” Shou says.

            “We’re almost at the last dock before arriving at the ruins of the hidden ninja village.” Mikae says.

            “No more complications I hope.” Shiemi comments.

            “Let’s hope not, you know how my back aches.” Shou says smirking.

            “That’s two of us n***a.” Tesshu says also smiling.

Reviews

[Felipe]

awesome chapter man though teshu sounded like a rabid fanboy with ruka, though she is hot so i know why he did lolz, the ninja story was so exact, you really did your research on ninjas dude, excellent work, keep it up!