A Murderous Duality ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Shinrin Jinja The Room of Fates was not empty when Ryoko entered it; but her condition did have a heavy ring. Loud enough to catch the attention of more than one person there. A flash of pink soon blurred into sight in the large main room of the Shinrin Jinja. It materialized as the so-called 'Imageless' Kunoichi; Ryoko. The girl landed swiftly to the smooth wooden floorboards of the shrine room; her sandals clacking down and her blonde ponytail waving behind her. She had managed to escape death from Shiki, but not without harm. Her Chi was dreadfully low. Maintaining that fog was very difficult. And it gets even more difficult as fights drag out. All of her kunai had been expended and most of all... she failed her mission. Just like Zanmaru had done. But unlike Zanmaru... Ryoko had managed to keep her life. If not for making the quick escape when that she did, she probably would have been killed just like he was. Ryoko kneeled to the floorboard ground and took a deep breath. She felt so tired. But it wasn't like she didn't have any reason to be. Not only was her Chi heavily exhausted but teleporting from Ichijiteki Park to the Shinrin Jinja was a taxing ability. It made her even more tired than she felt. But she wasn't alone in the Room of Fates. The older man who happened to be there as well walked up to the kneeling kunoichi. She knew that it was Hirotsugu but she did not want him to be. He would know that... she failed her mission... Hirotsugu's powerful dark eyes looked down at the ailing young woman. "...Well. If it isn't the First of the Orochi, Ryoko-kun. I would have assumed that I would be seeing you in better shape. The girl of Morioka must have given you some trouble. Though I assume that she is dead now...?" Ryoko stood upright, her stomach squirming. She failed in that mission. And she was deathly afraid of what Hirotsugu's reaction to that might be. The Imageless Kunoichi lowered her face and pulled off her pink mouthpiece. Revealing her mouth, which was bleeding a little bit from the corner of her rosy lips. "...I am sorry, sir..." Ryoko said both fearfully and apologetically, "...But I failed to kill the girl from Morioka. I tried... b-but she was lucky enough to land a blow on me before-" "Silence!" Hirotsugu's roar echoed throughout the Room of Fates. It shut Ryoko right up. She clammed up and looked downwards at her tired feet. She felt like a little girl being scolded by her parents for breaking something. However that chilling fear Ryoko also carried far outshined her embarrassment. The last thing she wanted to deal with was her Lord's anger. Ironically; it was the thing she expected most. And she got it. In all its glory. Then Hirotsugu turned his back to Ryoko, lowering his heavy tone of voice to speak in his normal manner. "You've said quite enough," He followed, "I have no time for your excuses. But I have news. My plans will be realized soon. I have ordered the other Orochi to rope those who will stand in the way of these plans into submission. Odd members of Parliament mostly. It is high time that we got started with this... I have waited too long." Ryoko brightened a little. "I-I understand, sir! You wanna see things go well for you and your plans. After I rest and regain my Chi; I'll join the others in the work on the politicians. You can count on me. I won't let you down again." "Is that so?" Hirotsugu said, sharply, "Why do you not tell me, Ryoko-kun? If a person were to die before achieving their dreams... how would that person get back in order to realize them?" Ryoko let out a half-confused glare at the Honshu Koga. She really had no idea where he was going with this so just answered to the best of her ability. "Well... a person cannot come back from the dead... so they cannot achieve their dream." "Exactly," The older man said, "The same applies to you, little girl. A failure is a failure. If you have been unsuccessful once then there is nothing to assure me that it will not happen again. When you take on missions for the Koga... you have one option. To succeed. And if you fail... then you are worthless. One strike, one kill." A quiver found its way into Ryoko's throat. Now she knew exactly what Hirotsugu was talking about. And it didn't spell good news for her. The blonde ninja stepped back in slow fear, shaking. "P-Please, sir... I-I've been good to you in the... p-past..." Hirotsugu looked over his shoulder at the trembling girl. "The past is the past. All I care about are results in the here and now. And the fruits that these efforts will bare in the future. You do not understand this...? Then I will make it easier on you." The Honshu Koga then looked over to the darkness around the close wall of Room of Fates. He nodded, as if to signal something. Ryoko knew that that action pretty much set up her death warrant. A crescent-shaped slash violently cut through the quiet air of that room. By the time that Ryoko even noticed it, her vision was turning red. The girl tightened up and collapsed to the ground in a heap. Her blood soon surrounded her corpse in a grim puddle. In one whole motion, her neck, chest and stomach had been sliced open vertically from her chin to her crotch. If anymore force was put into the strike, she would have been cut in half. The powerful shinobi, Yagami, landed in a crouched position, his large glaive crescent moon bladed glaive dirty with the dead Ryoko's blood. He had killed her effortlessly. Hirotsugu just looked over to his most trusted aide. "Stupid child. She really was talented. It is simply a shame that she couldn't hone those talents to their finest edge." "Master," Yagami spoke, "This woman has caused us too much trouble. I could find her myself and eliminate her." The Honshu Koga shook his head. "No. That would be a waste of your talents, Yagami-kun. I want her to come to us. For too long we have played under her terms. Now it's time to truly see what she is made of. If her intelligence is anything to go by then she will head for the Diet Building soon. When Mask-kun comes back from his 'errands' with Setsuki-kun, I want you and he to go there and wait for her. It's time the girl learned her place." "What about Setsuki-san?" "He will remain here," Hirotsugu replied, "It is time we got started. And I cannot have that girl interfering with me anymore. She must die" ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Kimagure Gakuen Morning had hit Tokyo. Just like she wished, Yui had gotten home at a decent hour last night. Despite her fight with the First Orochi, Ryoko. As soon as the fight was over she left for her apartment. And after all the excitement with Haruko and Ryoko; it was kind of lonely there. But that wasn't much of a problem for Yui at that point. She was more concerned with what she was going to be doing about the Honshu Koga; Hirotsugu. The fight with the Imageless Kunoichi had shown that Yui couldn't put off the killing of Hirotsugu for long. He would keep sending more and more of the Orochi to kill her until she was eventually worn out. Unless she could get to him first. And put an end to his miserable life once and for all. When Yui had woken up this morning, she quickly got dressed and had something to eat. She didn't want to be late for Haruko since they were walking to school together (and Haruko apparently hated it when people were late). This morning she managed to leave on time. And she met up with Haruko right in front of her house. It didn't take all that much walking but they got to school together okay. By this time; Yui didn't need to be shown around the class rooms and went straight to her first lesson. As soon as that lesson and the second one were over; Yui made her apologies to Haruko and left for the library. Once she got there she found a quiet table for herself and took out a certain book. A sort of A-Z of Modern Tokyo. She set it down and took a seat. Her goal? To find possible places where that snake Hirotsugu would be hiding. Which was what she was doing now. Yui's soft green eyes rolled from one side of the book to the other. Those orbs searched and searched for something. A place where Hirotsugu might be hiding in. She knew that he was showy and stuck-up (even if he didn't always act like it) and it was because of this he would probably make some Tokyo landmark his base of operations. All of the Koga tended to do that. Just as they tended to stick to the major city of their respective islands. The Hokkaido Koga lived in Sapporo, the Shikoku Koga lived in Matsuyama, and the Kyushu Koga lived in Fukuoka. The only reason that Yui knew this however; was because of the information given to her by her employer. But even she didn't know exactly where the Honshu Koga resided. Such details were top secret; even in the underworld. It was part of her job (or moreover, that of Shiki) to find these details. But finding out where the Honshu Koga was living was going to be harder than she first thought. In more ways than one. Two days ago; it wouldn't have mattered what happened or who came after her, Six Orochi or not. But Yui now had Haruko to think about. She had made a good friend out of Uchida Haruko and Yui didn't want to risk losing that. Especially so early on in their acquaintance. She had to bring to a prompt end to Hirotsugu before Haruko got sucked into any of it. Because not only did she have a probing political mind, the class representative had already been targeted by the Six Orochi. Though Zanmaru had probably thought of Haruko as nothing more than target practice at the time; it showed that the Orochi had no qualms in killing people who weren't even involved in their business. Yui, with the intimidating presence of Shiki watching over her, had to take a stand against the Six Orochi and kill Hirotsugu. The question was, however... where the hell was he? The Morioka girl scanned over her A-Z book map of Tokyo. Still searching for places in town that Hirotsugu might be calling home. There had to be somewhere special in this city that he was working from. Yui flicked over a page and kept looking. Classes started again in about five minutes so she didn't have much time for this. It would have been better to do this sort of thing at home; but Yui was too consumed with figuring out the mystery to care about location. And Yui was so caught up in her work that she barely noticed someone approaching her. "So..." A small hand was slapped on the table to gain Yui's attention, "Here you are. I've been looking all over for you, Yui-san." Yui blinked and looked upwards from the map. "...H-Haruko-san?" "Yes, who did you think it was?" The short-haired blonde replied, "But never mind all of that. Have your heard the news?" "What news?" Yui questioned. Haruko shook her head and pulled something from under her right arm. It was a newspaper, the Asahi Shimbun. Haruko presented it to the girl with surprised eyes. On it was a very blunt and eye-catching headline, entitled 'Butchered'. "I can't believe we just found out about it now. Sakamoto Gendo was murdered last night." Yui blinked, and grabbed the newspaper, looking down on the front page of it. Before she even read it she asked Haruko what was buzzing around in her head. "Who on earth is Sakamoto Gendo?" "Don't you know?" Haruko shook her head again, "Sakamoto Gendo was a popular member of the Kokkai. Sakamoto-san was one of a small number of politicians with pro-socialist views; since most of the cabinet are conservative. He even supported that failed bill for legalized same-sex marriage a couple years back. But last night his wife found him beheaded in the living room of his home in the early hours of the morning. But the weirdest thing is; his body was also covered in sheets of ice. Nobody can explain it." A chill passed down Yui's spine. Nobody else could figure it out. But Yui could. She had only met three of the Six Orochi. Zanmaru, Setsuki (for a brief moment) and Ryoko. Only Zanmaru and Setsuki had any affinity with the elements (Zanmaru was linked with Lightning, Setsuki with Wind). So it was obvious that another member of the Orochi had killed this politician. The Six Orochi had struck again. And this time they had taken someone in the public eye. But for what reason? Surely then couldn't need to kill a member of Parliament. The Four Koga already had a stranglehold on Japanese Politics. Their powers were not... absolute, but still... Yui felt herself becoming more serious. "...What does Fujiwara-sama say about this?" "Prime Minister Fujiwara?" Haruko held a hand to her chin, "Well, naturally, the article says that he's shocked and saddened by the killing. But he apparently didn't have much else to say on the matter. That's just typical, isn't it? Conservatives are always so cagey when it comes to issues like this one." But Yui knew better than that. If Fujiwara wasn't talking it was because he couldn't. Spineless as he was; Fujiwara wasn't stupid. He had to be aware of the fact that it was the Six Orochi who had done this. Probably under Hirotsugu's command. He was probably frightened for his own life. As much as others would be. Yui looked over at Haruko again when she remembered something. "Hey... Haruko-san. You said that this guy was a kind of liberalist, right?" "Yeah," Haruko nodded to confirm it, "He was a rare breed in this day and age. Why?" "N-No reason..." But in truth, she did have her reasons. The Morioka girl sighed at this. She was beginning to understand what was going on here. Intimidation. Sakamoto was just meant as an example. To wordlessly threaten those other members of the cabinet who just might be willing enough to question one of the Four Koga. Parliament was very important to the Koga; whether they liked to believe it or not. Because most of the Japanese people were completely in the dark about the Koga. Without the public image of congress (of which people were familiar with and knowledgeable about) the Four Koga couldn't employ any of the powers they had gained from the economic crisis years back. In that sense; the Four Koga were not all powerful. But because so many members of Parliament were either in the pocket of the Koga or too spineless to take a stand, opposition to their plans came very rarely. And only by those who felt their lives were worth less than the intrinsic right of freedom for Japanese politics. Sakamoto Gendo was one of those people. Now he was dead. Which was sure to spread a fresh wave of fear throughout the government. Yui didn't know how this was going to affect her shot at Hirotsugu, but it couldn't have come at a more awkward time. The Honshu Koga was bound to be more alert than ever. Which was probably one of the reasons he wanted Yui out of the way. He was obviously planning to do something big. Something that required the intimidation and silence of those who might try to stand against it. But it did give Yui one fresh clue. Whatever Hirotsugu was up to, it clearly involved something political. This was a sure thing by now. And if Yui was going to find out more about the location of Hirotsugu; she would have to go to the one person in Parliament whom had more contact with the Honshu Koga than anyone else. That was Prime Minister Fujiwara. And where else would she be able to reach him...? None other than the very hub of Japanese politics. ...The National Diet Building.
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