"Sensei?" Linna asked, "Who is this woman?" "Galatia." Sylia said in a low tone. "Gala-who?" Nene asked. "Sylia," Priss now broke in, "Just how many skeletons do you have in that closet of yours?" Sylia ignored Priss' attempt at humor. "You three, stay by the Emperor. No matter what happens, don't leave his side." All three of her fellow Knight Sabers noted the unease in Sylia's voice as she put her helmet back on and moved toward the betsushikime. Galatia pulled her katana from its scabbard and began to move forward herself, the malicious smile still on her face as she licked her lips in anticipation. As if on cue, the o-niwaban Iga Clan likewise unsheathed their swords. "Alright, listen." Priss said, "Linna-chan, you go for the two in front of you, Nene, you..." "All of you, stop! I order you to halt!" All except for Sylia and Galatia now turned to the man the Knight Sabers were guarding. The hunting pack's leader stepped forward. "You order? And who the hell are you supposed to be?" "I am Emperor Meiji Mutsuhito, Imperial Ruler of all Japan." The o-niwaban all looked at each other as indecision crept into their ranks. "Sempai..." "The rumors were true?" "This changes nothing." "How can you say that? If he is the Son of Heaven..." "I said it changes nothing! We have no business with him. It's because of his overthrow of the Tokugawa Shogunate's power that we're reduced to being stuck out here working for hire to begin with! We owe him no allegiance." "You dare disobey a direct order from your Emperor?" Meiji called over. The leader of the Iga Clan's hunting party gave no reply. Instead, his response was to charge forward, sword in hand. A shuriken thrown by Nene and landing in his neck brought him down, forcing the ninjas forward in an all-out attack. As the drama was playing out in one part of the forest clearing, Sylia and Galatia continued to stare each other down as they circled one another. The assassin's eyes narrowed as she began to take a fighting stance. "Sylia dear, it's been too long." "Not long enough." Sylia said as she charged the other woman. Galatia used her sword to block her blow as she hit her hard in the abdomen with her scabbard, cracking her chest armor in several places and knocking the wind out of her. Sylia staggered forward, struggling to turn back around toward her opponent as she fought the urge to double over from the pain the blow caused. "Remember the good times we had, sister?" Galatia continued, the smile leaving her face as the first signs of anger began to creep into her voice. "Remember the way it was... before you betrayed me!" She brought her katana down hard, Sylia just managing to get her dotanuki up in time to block the blow. On the other side of the opening, Priss was burying her sword deep into the side of an attacker's shoulder, severing his carotid artery. As he sank to the ground, another o-niwaban threw a dart like projectile at her, which broke through her armor and buried itself in her upper left arm. The cry of pain that escaped her lips caused Linna to look over in concern. It was all the opening the two ninjas she was fighting needed. Taking advantage, one of them kicked her hard in the ribcage as another rushed forward with his staff, knocking her legs out from under her and sending her crashing to the ground. Nene was having problems of her own as well. In the absence of her naginata, she had only her bow and arrows, four shuriken and a small dagger to defend herself against two ninjas wielding swords. She would ideally have tried to put some distance between herself and her attackers, but she couldn't leave the Emperor's side. As a result, she was stuck trying to awkwardly use her bow to deflect their strikes, hoping one of her fellow Knight Sabers would soon be able to come help her. Emperor Meiji Mutsuhito looked on at the proceedings in frustration. He was the imperial ruler of Japan, but for the moment found himself powerless to help even himself, much less the women risking their lives for his sake. He could only look on worriedly as the combat continued, and hope that the young women would somehow be able to pull off a miracle. Back on the other side of the opening, Sylia was finally getting her breath back. "You... were the... betrayer." she struggled to get out, "And st... stop calling me sister!" she shouted as she once more attacked Galatia. The other woman blocked again with her sword, this time however Sylia was prepared for the attempted blow with the scabbard, and was able to avoid it. They both backed up a bit, each once again sizing each other up. "The sensei was dying, sister. The old fool's dojo and secret methods were going to die with him." "No, he wasn't going to let them die. He passed them on to me." Galatia's eyes widened a bit at that. "To you? I see. Greed made you turn me in." On the other side of the field, Linna quickly rolled out of the way of the staff one of the two ninjas she was fighting tried to bring down on her. She brought her sword around quickly and cut his foot off at the ankle. As he fell into the arms of his other Iga Clan brother in agony, she got to her knees and thrust her sword forward, impaling both men at once. Pulling her sword out of them, she looked over to see Priss trying to fight a ninja with one arm, and Nene trying to defend herself against two others. She bent down, grabbed the sword the second ninja had, and threw it as hard as she could at the o-niwaban Priss was fighting. He was able to deflect it, but only by making himself vulnerable to Priss' attack. She sliced his chest open in a downward sweep from his left shoulder down to his navel. As she was extracting the dart from her arm, Linna was rushing to Nene's aid. "Our sensei's wishes made me turn you in." Sylia said on her side of the clearing. "You stole those scrolls, you took what did not belong to you and what you hadn't earned." This time it was Galatia who launched the attack. Ducking underneath Sylia's sword, she aimed for the area of her armor already damaged by the scabbard, and cut. The area, already turning red from the blood rushing to the bruised area, now bled profusely from the sword wound. "You know, you never were able to out fence me Sylia dear. And these aren't wooden practice swords we're playing with now." Sylia let out a primal scream as she rushed forward again thrusting her sword forward. Galatia side stepped the dotanuki as she came around with her scabbard and knocked her helmet off. As Sylia staggered a bit from the blow, the assassin brought down her katana, cutting into the outside of Sylia's left wrist. Sylia backed up once again, trying to put a bit of distance between herself and the betsushikime. The blow to her abdomen was deep enough to cause her to bleed, but not deep enough to disembowel. And the blow she'd just received to her wrist, why did Galatia hesitate to just chop her hand off? With a sinking feeling Sylia realized Galatia was toying with her, having fun at her expense. "So pretty. Still as beautiful as when we both longed for each other from afar. Remember those days?" "Shut up." Sylia growled. "Remember how it all started? 'Big sister, please teach me how to be as good a fencer as you.' 'Sure, Sylia. Hold your sword like this.' I said, as I wrapped my arms around you..." Sylia's face now flushed with anger and embarrassment. Galatia wasn't merely content with killing her; she was going to humiliate her first. The rage now building up inside of her was getting out of control. She was normally able to keep her temper under control, but Galatia was seemingly going out of her way to push all the right buttons. She rushed forward yet again, this time leaving all technique behind as she swung angrily with her sword. Galatia easily blocked her, once again getting a hard blow in with her scabbard, this time to her back. "Anger? The warrior must leave emotions aside, must calm the body and mind. That was my third lesson, dear sister, after how to properly hold your sword, and how to take your tongue and..." Sylia, blinded with rage, attacked again. Galatia sliced her across the right thigh, sending her down to her knees. Across the field, Priss joined Linna and Nene against the remaining two o-niwaban. One of the two, the apprentice, saw the writing on the wall and ran for it. The other ninja angrily noted his departure as he rushed forward with his sword toward Linna, who blocked his blow as Priss came forward, cutting him with her sword and sending him falling to the ground, dead. All three women breathed heavily. Nene turned to check on the Emperor's safety as Linna examined Priss' arm. As she looked up from her lover's wound, she saw what was happening across the clearing. Sylia's chest ached as she hyperventilated. Still on her knees, she could feel Galatia prowl around her, waiting for her to move. She tried to raise herself off the ground, only to have Galatia kick her in the rear, sending her sprawling back down. "Come on, sister. You can't be done yet." she mocked, "After all, Sensei Raven did trust you with all his secret techniques. Surely you have something you could use against me." Sylia tried once again to pull herself together and get up, only to have Galatia kick her down once again. "Pathetic." she said in disgust. She then noticed movement over to her left. Looking over, she saw the bloody nun running toward her, sword held overhead. "Sensei!" Linna shouted, "Hold on, I'm coming!" Galatia turned away from the leader of the Knight Sabers to face this new source of amusement. She easily blocked Linna's swing with her katana. Bringing her scabbard around, she hit Linna hard in the face, breaking her nose with a sickening "crack." Linna herself now sank to her knees as she let go of her sword, both hands clutching her face. "Wait your turn, woman." Galatia hissed, "I'm not done with 'sensei' yet." Linna didn't answer. She was in too much pain. Blood oozed down her face and through her fingers from her nose as spots danced before her eyes. Galatia looked from Sylia to Linna, and shook her head in amusement. How bad did the o-niwaban have to be not to be able to exterminate vermin like this? She looked up in time to see the arrow coming toward her, and to catch it in midair. Looking toward the stunned pink Knight Saber who was aiming another arrow, and the blue one now rushing forward, she looked back to Sylia. "We'll continue this later, sister." "S... Stop calling me... sister..." Sylia gasped, as Galatia ran off back into the forest and disappeared. As Priss, Nene and the Emperor came up to her and Linna, Sylia could feel darkness begin to surround her. Her eyes rolled up to the back of her head as she passed out. ------ "Hello, gentleman. May I help you?" The old telegraph operator asked the two rather nasty looking individuals in the railroad depot. The one with an ugly looking scar across his face handed him a slip of paper with a message on it, as well as the address to send the message to. The operator looked at the message, and made a face. "'The eagle has been sprung, and the boomer destroyed?' what in the world does that mean?" "Don't worry about what that means, just send the message." "Certainly sir, it will just be two cents a word. You'll have to pre-pay for me to..." he was cut off by the other man holding a knife to his neck. "Look asshole, forget the sales pitch and send the message now, or you'll be breathing out your Adam's apple, got me?" "Y... Yes sir, right away sir." the operator stuttered out, as he quickly began relaying the message through the telegraph lines. The yakuza with the scar was happy they were in Kyoto and not in Tokyo when their boss Mason-sama found out the bad news. The agreed upon code words, boomer for the gun and eagle for the Emperor, were sure to send the usually reserved head of Genom International's Japanese branch into a fury. After they got confirmation that the message had been received, and had taken care of the operator, both yakuza left the station. "Why did you do that?" the one with the scar asked. "Do what? Kill the operator? We couldn't have witnesses, you know that." "No, not the operator; the nun. Remember, the one coming out of the temple back there with the robes that were different from the others?" "Oh her? Because that bitch was the one who was with the other nun earlier, the one with the sword." "Yeah but..." "But what?" "Well, it's bad luck, that's all. It's bad luck to kill clergy." The gangster looked at his fellow yakuza in astonishment. "Bad luck? Are you serious? I never would've pegged you for the superstitious type." "Yeah, well, look at what happened to all the others who also killed the nuns and monks back there. I'm telling you, it's bad luck." "Please. You and your bad luck can go hang yourselves." He said as he walked away in the direction of the nearest drinking establishment. His friend looked back at the depot, shook his head and followed. ------ Priss looked at Linna sadly as she moved the former geisha's hand out of the way to see the damage. She met her lover's gaze as she reached up with her right hand and took her nose gingerly in her hand. "Alright Linna-chan, on the count of three; one..." "W... Whud?" "...two..." "Whaid, whad are you donna do?" "...three." Crack. Linna winced in pure, unadulterated agony as Priss twisted her nose back in place. Nearby, Nene and Emperor Meiji were both working on bandaging up Sylia's wounds. Nene left the team leader as she came over to Priss and Linna, a bottle of whisky in one hand and a roll of bandages from the wagon in the other. "Priss, let me see your arm." Priss looked over to Nene, then carefully removed the armor from her arm. Nene poured the whisky into the wound left in her arm from the ninja's dart, then wrapped the wound. Priss allowed a single tear to escape from the pain of the whisky being poured into her open wound before returning to her love. Meiji was finishing up with bandaging Sylia's wrist, when he looked at the young woman with an inquisitive look. "That woman you just fought, Galatia. I take it you two once knew each other?" "Yes Emperor-sama, we were sisters in the same dojo." "Why did she leave all of a sudden? No offense, but from the looks of things, she very easily could've taken on all four of you." "She's playing with us. Playing with me. I'm afraid this is rather personal with her." Meiji studied her for a moment, pondering the meaning of what she just said. "Sylia-san, the two of you were more than simply sisters, weren't you?" Sylia looked at Meiji for a second, before looking away and nodding her head. The Emperor stared at the woman in front of him a bit longer, then went over to check up on the two other wounded Knight Sabers. ------ "Mr. Mason," an attractive young secretary called over to her boss from the office door, "Someone's out here to see you." "What? I don't have any appointments. Tell whoever it is to go away." "Yes sir, I'll..." The secretary was rudely interrupted as she was pushed out of the way by a British army captain and a member of the local Japanese peace-keeping force. "May I help you two gentleman?" Mason asked, more than a bit annoyed. "Leon, let's leave." Daley said, "We'll only get in trouble with Colonel Roland if we..." "Where is he?" Leon demanded. "Where is who, young man?" "Leon, this is..." "The Emperor, you son-of-a-bitch! Where's Meiji Mutsuhito?" Mason smiled at the captain. "Have you tried the palace?" "You dirty..." "You know, the Oriental's right, lad. You'll only be causing yourself more trouble than you can handle if you try to push this." Daley had to physically restrain Leon at that point. "Are you threatening me?" "Leon, damn it, shut up!" "Because if you are, I'll..." Daley finally managed to drag Leon out of the room and pushed him into the hallway. "What the fuck are you trying to accomplish, you idiot?" "Why are you protecting him?" "I'm not, I'm trying to protect you, damn it!" Leon and Daley glared angrily at each other for a second or two. "Think; if he does know where the Emperor is, he isn't very well going to just blurt out the information to a British military captain and a Japanese civilian peace keeper! We have no evidence, and no clout. Now if you want to continue life in the British military, I strongly suggest you turn around and leave now." Leon didn't say a word. He just scowled at Daley before turning around and storming off toward the exit. Daley allowed a heavy sigh to escape before following. Back in the office, Mason stared at the open door a while longer before turning his attention to his secretary. "Are you okay?" "Yes thank you." "Filthy ruffians. I apologize for your having to bear such language." "Really, Mr. Mason, I'm fine. Oh, you received a telegram, sir. Here." Mason took the telegram from his secretary. His face turned red with fury as he read the simple message. "Sir, is something wrong?" Mason regained his composure and looked back over to his secretary. "No. Everything's fine. Please shut the door behind you." The secretary nodded and did as she was told. Once alone, Mason read the message again, and then crumpled it up in his hand. "Shit." He whispered. ---To Be Continued---
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