"You what?" she asked incredulously. There was no way in hell she could've heard him right. "We want you to help us break into the Japanese branch of the British Library." Lupin said, repeating himself, "After all, I have to clear my name somehow." "But... Why me? If you know where Nancy and Yomiko are..." "Because as I've already explained, they're already being targeted for assassination by the British Library (I believe the term they use is 'editing'). And while, as you've pointed out, I may have a history of helping out such damsels in the past, this caper will be tricky enough as it is without trying to stretch my resources further by trying to save the three of them. Besides which, knowing the British Library, by now they've probably already been either captured or killed. And as for you; from what I've heard, the stuff you learned at Sensei Raven's Dojo is enough to make even Goemon here have a run for his money in a fight with you." he said, indicating the ronin sitting on the chair behind him next to the bearded gunman who had yet to speak. "After all Mademoiselle, whereas most martial artists may master one ryu, one sword style, from what I could gather you've mastered at least four, if not five." "Monsieur Lupin, that was years ago. Since then I have become the owner of a lady's clothing shop." "Who just happens to be friends with two British Library agents? Nice try." "Very well, but still, why me? I refuse to believe there aren't better choices out there. Why not try contacting the Knight Sabers, for example?" Lupin began to laugh. "Those Imperialist stooges? Please! If I wanted one of Emperor Meiji's lapdogs, I'd just go out and steal one of his collies. Now..." Lupin was cut off by the sound of an explosion outside the building they were in, followed by a second a bit closer. The bearded man pulled up a window shade and looked out. "Shit!" he yelled "Take cover!" Just then, a horrific explosion was heard, violent shaking the building. Sylia, still tied to her chair, used the blast as a cover to fling herself and her chair down to the floor, sweeping with her right foot at one of the legs of the table in front of her as she did so. Both she and the table (with the one candle in the room resting on it) crashed to the floor. As the candle fell, its flame blew out, plunging the room in darkness. In the obscurity of the darkened room, Sylia worked her way out of the now broken chair, thanking her captors mentally for not bothering to tie her legs. Rolling her body up into a ball, she brought her hands down, passing them over her rear and down the back of her legs until they were in front of her. "Oh, merde alors (Oh, shit)!" "Boss, we're under attack!" "Debile (idiot), they're attacking all of Tokyo, not just us." As another explosion occurred nearby, Sylia moved in the confusion to where she knew the ronin had last been before the room went black. "Listen boss, do you hear something?" "Someone find the candle, damn it!" "My sword! Someone took my sword!" "Where's our prisoner?" Clutching the sword handle between her knees, Sylia managed to cut through the cords around her wrists. "I've got it boss! I've got the candle!" A few seconds later, a bearded face was illuminated by a match. Using it to light the candle, he and the others gasped as they saw Sylia standing behind Arsene Lupin, her left arm draped around his neck and her right hand holding Goemon's sword precariously close to his manhood. "M... Mademoiselle... What are you doing?" he asked nervously as a final explosion was heard faintly in the distance. Sylia smiled slyly. "Monsieur Lupin, for all the research you did on me and my background, you acted very foolishly in not binding my legs." she replied. "See boss," the bearded man broke in, "Goemon and I tried to tell you to..." "Ferme-la (Shut up), Jigan!" Lupin yelled, before feeling Sylia come up from behind and press her left cheek against the side of his face. "Shhh..." she whispered, her lips brushing up against the hairs of his sideburns, "Monsieur Lupin, that's no way to talk to your subordinates. Don't you agree?" she asked, pressing the blade ever so slightly closer to him. "(gulp) O... Oui mademoiselle, of course." he practically squeaked out. Sylia's smile widened. "Very good." she purred, noting that the gunmen, Jigan, had his gun pointed straight at her head, "Now then, you need to get into the British Library's Japanese headquarters, and I need to save two young ladies and their author friend. Let's make a deal, shall we?" ------ Michiru got to her feet as more explosions went off around her. Staggering out into the street, she saw men and women running out of damaged and burning houses as smoke began wafting over to her. Those running by bumped and jostled her as she watched a woman and child run over the scattered bloody remains of her horse. She felt someone come up behind her and gently turn her by her shoulder. Turning around, she saw a thin woman with sunken, haunted-looking eyes watching her with concern. The woman was wearing little more than a kimono in the cold January night. "Are you okay?" she asked. At Michiru's blank stare she raised her voice, "I saw you fall off your horse." she said, trying to be heard over the screaming and crying going on around them. As Michiru fought to find her voice, she was oblivious to the effect she was having on the woman talking to her. "I... I don't know, I... I have to get back, I..." "Okay, calm down." The other said as she took in Michiru's features by the light of the fires going on around them; her deep blue eyes, dark, wavy hair, and those lips. Those sweet, beautiful lips... She'd never seen anyone so perfect in her life. "Where do you have to go?" "I'm... not sure I'm supposed to tell anyone, I..." The woman tore herself away from admiring the beauty in front of her long enough to look out at the chaos in the streets as another explosion was heard in the distance, "Well, it's not too safe for a young girl like you to travel around alone. Tell you what beautiful; you don't have to tell me where you're going, but if you want I'll walk you home." Michiru gave the woman a suspicious look. Did she just call her beautiful? "I don't know..." she began wearily. The other woman smiled at her. "Look beautiful, I promise I won't try anything. Honest. And don't let the fact I'm a girl fool you," she said, pulling out a long knife, "I can defend us if I have to." Michiru had heard right. She'd been told of her beauty before of course, by her parents and her cousin Linna, but something in the way this stranger was saying it was different; more like when Haruka was sweet talking her. With growing unease, she looked at the knife in the woman's hand, then back toward the street. She watched in horror as people on the sidewalk across the street from her began running over the body of a dead elderly woman. "Okay." she finally said, wishing with all her heart Haruka were here to protect her. She watched as the woman put her knife away, and then she took the strangers hand. They both began making their way through the crowd. With Michiru's back to her, the woman found herself smirking. The entire situation was ridiculous. She'd only met this girl in front of her five minutes ago after she watched her fall off a horse, and here she was falling for her, recklessly running around out in the open because of a pretty face and a nice bosom. She was hungry, cold and in hiding, with bombs going off all around her; what was she thinking? After a few minutes, the smaller girl turned back toward her new companion. "We forgot to introduce ourselves, didn't we?" she asked, trying her best to smile in spite of the situation, "My name's Michiru. What's yours?" "Sylvie." The other woman answered, feeling butterflies in her stomach as she took in the smile the smaller girl was giving her, "Now come on, lets get you home while we still can." ------ The guard yawned a bit as he stuck the key in the lock and turned it. At the sound of the click, he opened it to find the prisoner apparently unconscious. He called over. She didn't respond. He called again. Still nothing. Now he was getting nervous. His mistress had told him and the others that no harm was to come to the woman under any circumstances. Something was obviously very wrong, and since he'd been given charge of the prisoner, he would be blamed. Entering the room, he went over and looked closely at her. She didn't even look like she was breathing. Going around to the back, he undid her hands and came back around to check again on the prisoner. Suddenly, Linna's eyes popped wide open, scaring the hell out of her guard. Before he could react, she kicked him with all the force she could muster in his groin, following that up with a punch to his windpipe. As he fell to his knees in agony, she gave him a chop to the back of the head, knocking him out. Taking his keys, she ran out of the room, stopping long enough to lock the door behind her. She then began to move cautiously through the labyrinth of underground passages beneath the auditorium. ------ The explosions and the planes gradually became quieter and quieter as they moved off into the distance. As they finally became barely audible, two figures came out of hiding from behind a garbage can and quickly moved into the alley behind the large auditorium. "Shit." Priss whispered, "On top of everything else, those ass holes have to..." She stopped when she felt Haruka grab her arm. Turning, she saw the blond looking off into the darkness. "Did you hear that?" she asked. "Hear what?" "Shhh, listen. Something's out there." she strained to listen, but heard nothing more. "Look, it's probably nothing more than an alley cat, but we can't take that risk. I'll go investigate. You go on, and I'll join up with you soon. "Are you sure?" "Look, Linna needs you now. I'm armed, and I know martial arts. It's probably nothing anyways, but we can't afford to be attacked from behind." Priss looked into the young officer's eyes, "Promise me you'll be careful Ruka." Haruka looked at her funny, "Where'd you come up with that name?" Priss smiled behind her faceplate, "I heard Michi-chan call you that once." she answered. The blond smiled back. "Fine." she said, "But only you and Michi-chan get to call me Ruka." "Deal." Priss said, as she turned and cautiously slipped in the back door. Now alone, Haruka suddenly felt much more nervous in the dark back alley than she did a moment ago. For all her bravado, she was no longer sure splitting up was such a great idea. Saying a silent prayer to Buddha, she began to cautiously explore around the area she was in. ------ "Shit!" Jeena yelled as she fought with her horses reigns, trying to get her scared mare back under control, "Romoana, find cover, I..." she was cut off as an explosion tore the street up in front of her, the horse taking the brunt of the impact. Jeena fell from the horse and lay motionless on the ground. "Jeena?" Nene called. No answer. "Jeena!" she screamed. Still nothing. She was about to get off her horse to go to her when she heard the sound of galloping behind her. Grabbing her naginata with both hands, she turned her horse and prepared for a fight. She immediately relaxed when she saw who it was. "Daley! Leon-poo!" she cried out, "Help, she's hurt! She isn't answering me!" "Calm down." McNichol said, "Who's hurt, I don't see..." Leon then saw a woman with long hair lying motionless on the ground, and in the darkness mistook her for another. "Priss!" he yelled out, "Priss, are you... Oh no." he said as he caught sight of long, shoulder-length curly brown hair and heard the distinctive jingle of the one-armed Yank's spurs as she slowly got up off the pavement, grabbing her derby and putting it back on as she did so. Jeena winced as she reached a hand into her vest and pulled out a warped, crushed metal container from her vest pocket, a large piece of metal sticking out of it. "My flask?" she mumbled, apparently in shock. Soon enough though, a look of rage overtook her face. "My flask!" she yelled. "Hey, you cock-sucking bastards! You ruined my fucking whiskey flask, you sons-of-bitches! I'll kill you, I'll... McNichol?" she asked, suddenly registering the presence of the Major. All memory of her precious flask was forgotten as she sashayed over, a smile on her lips as she swung her hips seductively. "My favorite bonnie Scotsman, come to rescue me." she said, tossing her hair a bit as she leaned into him. "Malso." Leon groaned, "What in the hell are you doing out here with Ne... With the Knight Sabers?" "Heh, I'll have you know I used to be a Knight Saber. In fact, that's how I lost my arm." she boasted. Leon's jaw dropped at that little tidbit. Giving Nene a questioning look, he watched in bewilderment as she nodded her head. "It's true; she was the original green Knight Saber." Nene answered. "That's right." she said, batting her eyes, "I was one hell of a swordswoman, still am too. You want me to show you?" she asked suggestively, "I've become pretty good at holding the handle with one hand. I hold it sooo haaaard..." she cooed. Noting Jeena's toothy grin, and Leon's mortified face, Daley turned in confusion to Nene. "Nene, What are they saying?" he asked, "I'm afraid I don't speak English." "Consider yourself lucky." the Russian replied, rolling her eyes at the way Jeena was throwing herself at the major. Shaking her head, she wondered how it was that she could remember 'McNichol,' while 'Romanova' was still such a mystery to her. "Hey Jeena, if you're done dry-humping him, can we get back to business?" she asked in annoyance. Jeena gave Nene a dirty look of warning. Leon, on the other hand, grabbed onto Nene's comment like a lifeline. "Right, business." he said. "We have to find Linna and Sylia. That's what we're here for." Jeena looked at him with a sad expression on her face. "(sigh) Very well, business before pleasure." She said as she turned away and began to walk toward Nene. By now the streets were beginning to fill with frightened faces as people ran out of burning buildings. Daley noted the effect Nene's presence was inadvertently having on the crowd as several faces, upon seeing the pink armored figure sitting tall in her saddle with her naginata in her hands, immediately seemed to relax a bit and calm down. The Knight Sabers were there, they'd take care of it. Daley shook his head; he wished he had as much confidence as the populace did. Nene reached down and helped Jeena to get on the horse behind her. They rode off, followed by Daley and Leon. ------ "Who ordered the attack?" Mr. Joker angrily bellowed as he stormed into the office leaning heavily on his cane. The others in the room looked around nervously. "I said I want to know who ordered the bloody..." he stopped when he heard the door open behind him. Turning around, he scowled angrily at the man entering the meeting. "Largo." he hissed. "What do you think you're doing?" he asked. "'What do I think I'm... Is that any way to talk to a partner?" he asked as he smiled pleasantly at the man before him. "You were the one who wanted the Japanese populace scared. We're just holding up our end. After all, we are the ones funding the Illegal Army... Our army." he added, a tone of menace in his voice. "Mr. Joker was outraged. "You dare to try to take on the British Library?" he asked, his voice now shaking, "Do you have any idea who you're fucking with? We have the full power of Her Majesty's imperial crown behind us, as well as Parliament's..." "We own Parliament." Largo said, a dangerous gleam in his eyes, "We are parliament. And as for your precious little dwarf of Windsor, Queen Victoria is no more than a figurehead and you know it! We have already infiltrated the palace guards of Windsor, to say nothing of your Majesty's advisors. You wanted a partnership, Mr. Joker, so you and your cronies could turn Japan into a British Colony. Very well, you got one. But it's high time you realized it's a one-sided partnership, and you realized just who's in charge." Mr. Joker numbly fell back into an empty chair in the office, too stunned to speak. Smiling once again, Largo turned on his heels and left. The other Library agents in the room looked on silently, no one brave enough to speak up. Finally, the Head Librarian stood back up. "Very well." he said in a low voice, "If that's the way he wishes to play it..." he muttered as he left the room with a look of determination in his face. The others began looking around nervously. They didn't know what was going to happen, but all could pretty much guess that it wasn't going to be pretty. ------ Haruka could feel her heart beating faster as she continued to strain to see or hear anything in the darkness. She was about to go join Priss, when she thought she heard something again. Turning with guns in both hands, she was just able to make out a small kitten slinking by. Breathing a sigh of relief, she put the guns Priss had given her back in their holsters and took a deep breath. Feeling a tap on her left shoulder, Haruka turned expecting to see Priss, but no one was there. Looking back over to her right, she was caught completely off guard by a roundhouse kick to her face. Staggering back in fear and shock, she was likewise unprepared for the hard punch delivered to her lower abdomen. As she doubled over in pain, a hand grabbed her by the nape of her neck and slammed her face into the brick side of the auditorium. As spots began to dance before her eyes, she was roughly turned around and found a muscular-looking man in a white tiger mask clasping her tightly around the neck with both hands. As her assailant's fingers tightened, she felt herself being lifted up off the pavement. Bringing her hands together at her navel as one would do in a prayer, she quickly brought them up between the assassin's arms and separated them once her hands reached her chin, forcing the man's arms apart. She then brought her hands behind his head, pulling down as she brought her knee up. The impact smashed his mask and broke his nose. Before he had time to counterattack, she brought her left hand down to his chin while keeping her other hand on the back of his head, and twisted. With a cracking sound the assassin fell, his neck broken. Haruka sank to her knees as she clutched her neck, trying to catch her breath. She could feel something warm running down her face, and in the darkness could only guess that it was blood. With shaking hands she reached up, wincing at the stinging pain she felt in her forehead and lower lip as she touched the tender spots. Undoing her tie, she wrapped it around her head, tying it off in the back. As she wiped the warm liquid off with a handkerchief, she turned and stared silently at the fallen figure. She'd passed basic police training, and she'd earned a black belt in judo, but she'd never killed before. Her adrenalin was still high, but even so she could feel her face throbbing and her lower abs stinging from the punch. As she started to get back up to her feet, she fell back down when she tried to put weight on her right leg. She realized then that she'd hurt herself when kneeing her assailant in the face. Putting the palm of her hands against the wall behind her and using just her left leg, she managed to get back up to a vertical base. Breathing heavily as waves of nausea began to wash over her, she heard the sound of snow crunching in the distance, like someone else was walking through it. Without thinking twice, she drew Sylia's guns Priss had given her from their holsters and yelled out the first thing that popped into her head. "This is the police!" she exclaimed, her voice still raspy from her assailant's attack, "Stop in the name of the law!" Out of the darkness, something flashed by her. From the light provided by a gas lit streetlamp a block away she just barely saw the glint of steel before she heard a slicing sound and two objects fall to the ground. Quickly feeling with her hands, she realized that someone had just sliced the fronts of her guns off up to where the trigger guard was, effectively disarming her. "Chikusho." she growled. Straining her eyes and ears in the darkness, she saw the figure of a man holding a sword and wearing a mask. Tossing what was left of her guns aside, she watched as he came at her, remembering something her sensei had once taught her. "When the enemy comes, welcome him. When he goes, send him on his way." Her opponent swung his sword. She managed to duck, grabbing her opponent by the wrists as she did so. Instead of blocking, she used his momentum to pull him forward, twisting her body and flipping him over her left hip, wincing in pain at the pressure the move put on her right knee. She quickly grabbed for the sword in the dark and buried it in his chest. Pulling the sword out, she strained to see or hear anyone else. When she was sure there wasn't anyone else coming, she limped back over to the wall using the sword for support. "That's the problem with Tokyo nowadays." she mumbled as she fell against the wall, "No respect for the law." She wanted to stay there, to collapse to the ground, but she realized she couldn't. Priss needed her. Michiru's cousin Linna needed her. With a painful groan, she pushed herself off the wall and limped toward the back door, cursing herself for suggesting she and Priss separate. Cautiously opening it, she slipped in. ------ "I think the attack's finally over sensei." Yomiko said, looking over to Nenene. The author looked back into her eyes, and felt her heart break all over again as it had a thousand times already in the past two days. "Sensei?" Yomiko asked, noticing the pained expression in the other's face, "Sensei, what..." "I can't do this any more." she groaned. "It's killing me." "Sensei..." Yomiko whispered, concern in her voice. "I can't... Be around you, and... and pretend I don't still love you." she said, as tears began to fill her eyes, "I can't keep looking the other way when I see how you and... and that other woman look at one another... I..." she couldn't go on. She looked away as she began to sob silently. Yomiko looked down as tears began to fall down her own cheeks. "Gomen." she whispered, "We should never have come here, I should've listened to Nancy when she..." she was cut off as she noticed a sound from outside, like distant thunder. It was coming closer, and from all directions. It sounded almost like... Marching? Nancy suddenly came in the room through the wall, a frightened expression on her face. "We've got trouble." she said, her normally calm voice betraying fear. Yomiko and Nenene ran to the nearest window to look out. Yomiko allowed a gasp to escape as she saw the army surrounding Nenene's house on all sides; an army of men in black suits, all wearing stovepipe hats. Standing in front of the men in a light blue corset dress with a small bustle in the back was a very familiar blond. "Wendy." Yomiko said in alarm. "They found us." ------ Reika Chang put the mask on, tying it off in the back. The others weren't back yet, and the man she'd sent to check up on the prisoner's condition had yet to return. As she exited the room she'd been in, she turned around and froze at the site that awaited her. There, standing directly in front of her holding a very nasty looking sword, was the Knight Saber she'd attacked before. By the gaslights in the backstage area, she could even see the bloodstains still left on the armor from the previous attack. "(You... You're still alive?)" she asked in shock as she pulled her own sword out. Priss noted the tone of surprise in the masked woman's voice, and grinned. "Surprised to see me?" Priss asked. "You're very good at attacking from behind. Let's see what you can do face to face." ---To Be Continued--- End Notes: For those of you familiar with the martial arts, you can probably tell that Haruka didn't use her judo very well in fighting off a choke hold. The problem, of course, is that I don't really know that much about judo. She instead used a karate move. Then again, in the heat of battle, maybe she just used whatever she thought would work in the situation she found herself in. Also, just to remind everyone, Sylvie was the sexaroid from Bubblegum Crisis OVA episode 5: Moonlight Ramble.
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