A/N: This is something new that I've been thinking about for some time. Had a bit of a creative slump recently, but I'm back and ready to try to once again put out quality writing that I enjoy creating and you enjoy reading.
A quick word, Shinovi Versus, and to a lesser extent, Estival Versus are the only SK games that I'm personally familiar with. I've not played either of the first two stories or watched the anime, but I'm aware of what they're about, and as much as I'd like to play New Wave, and I'm sure there's some way I could, I really don't want to go through that hassle. So most of what I write about the New Wave characters are played by ear. If there's established canon regarding their behavior that I don't really touch upon correctly, I'm sorry in advance.
Enjoy the first chapter.
Class is back in session. Shinobi students gather once more to hone their skills and begin their walk along the Path, and the fresh-faced first-years of Hanzō and Hebijo already show glowing potential in the eyes of their senior peers. But when those senior peers begin to mysteriously vanish, it falls upon the first-years to track them down.
~*~ Hanzō Academy ~*~
The Asakusa skyline glowed dim with the approaching sunrise, and a crisp early morning autumn wind whistled across the rooftops of Hanzō National Academy and the surrounding buildings. Two groups of five young women stood silently, facing each other with their grey-haired instructor standing between them with his hands behind his back and his eyes closed.
On one end were the upperclassmen shinobi, Asuka, Hibari, and Yagyū, wearing the Hanzō uniform, along with two of the most recent Hanzō graduates, Ikaruga, clad in a long-sleeved white shirt with a black vest and skirt, tights, and boots, and Katsuragi, who wore an open blue jacket over a simple white bra, a blue miniskirt, and her signature greaves.
On the other end stood the Hanzō first-years, excitable orange-haired Fuma, stern-faced brunette Hijikata, mellow ebon-haired Ayame, bleary-eyed, blue-haired Seimei, and blonde android Muramasa, all wearing the typical Hanzō uniform as well.
"Your first lesson this year will not be a lecture," Kiriya started. "It will be an exercise. I know from experience that some students tend not to respond well to being talked at in the first few days, or even throughout the year, for that matter."
At this, Kiriya turned his head and opened one eye to give a pointed look to Asuka, standing in the center of her group. The dark-haired third-year simply grinned and sheepishly rubbed the back of her head before Kiriya closed his eye again and resumed speaking.
"This will be a five-on-five capture-the-flag exercise, between the underclassmen Team Red and the upperclassmen-graduate Team Green. Your objective is simple: steal your opponent's flag from their base and bring it back to your own base. If your flag has been stolen, you cannot return to your base without it. The team who claims ownership of both flags wins. Any questions?"
From Team Red, Seimei slowly raised her hand, and Kiriya glanced in her direction.
"Kiriya-sensei… I'm curious, why did we have to do this so early in the morning? I feel like I'm going to drop at any moment..." she said, her dull blue eyes blinking slowly as she leaned on her standing rocket launcher. Her question earned disapproving glances from both Hijikata and Yagyū, and a small laugh from Fuma. Kiriya shook his head.
"Elite shinobi such as yourselves have to be ready to act at any moment, and answer the call for an important mission at any time of day. Your own schedule always comes second to your duties as a shinobi, and it's your responsibility to keep yourself prepared for the unexpected," he lectured.
Seimei sighed and closed her eyes, and Fuma patted her firmly on the back with a smile, surprising the blue-haired girl into blinking her eyes open again. "Chin up, Seimei! Once the mission starts, I'm sure you'll find the energy to get it done!"
Seimei raised a brow at Fuma and responded to her encouragement with a small nod. Kiriya cleared his throat, and everyone's attention focused ahead again. "Keep in mind that the space within a shinobi barrier is somewhat different, separate, from regular space. Any damage you do to your surroundings will be nullified once the barrier falls, so don't be afraid to go all out during this exercise, understand?"
"Understood!" All ten Hanzō students affirmed at once. Kiriya looked behind him at the eastern horizon.
"Now, get to your bases! The moment you see the sun's first light over the horizon, the exercise begins. Use that time to quickly plan your approach. Go!"
In a flash and a breeze, both teams vanished, sprinting quickly across the rooftops to their respective bases, leaving Kiriya alone. He looked back at the horizon for another long moment before leaping away himself, taking a steady stance atop Hanzō Academy's flagpole, where he could see the entire area and watch every one of his students' movements.
Within a minute, Team Red arrived at their base, where their banner rested in its stand, and no sooner than they arrived, Hijikata began ranting.
"You need to start taking this more seriously, Seimei. It was obvious why Kiriya-sensei called us out so early for our first day. It seems to me like you were just whining," she said, placing her hands on her hips.
Seimei furrowed her brows and rubbed her eyes. "I am taking this seriously, Hijikata. I'm just…" Seimei paused for a moment, covering a long yawn with her hand, which only seemed to irritate Hijikata further. "…tired. All I'm saying is, if it's just a training exercise, maybe it'd be better to do this later this morning when I'm more awake, you know?"
Hijikata rolled her eyes, unconvinced. "Like it would've made a difference… You're never more awake than you are now. Maybe a tap from my hammer is what you need to get your ass in gear!"
Seimei shouldered her rocket launcher with a frown. "Maybe a shot from my launcher is what you need to shut your ass up…"
Sensing the escalating tension, the rest of Team Red leap into action, with Fuma trying to get Seimei to stand down by stepping into the sights of her launcher, and Muramasa and Ayame running to hold Hijikata back to keep her from approaching Seimei.
"Girls, girls, girls!" Fuma called out. "Come on, this shouldn't be how we start our first day as Hanzō elites! What would Kiriya-sensei think? Asuka and the others are gonna steamroll over us if we keep this up!"
Fuma's voice of reason convinced Hijikata to floor her hammer with a huff, and Seimei nodded, silently lowering her launcher and leaning on it again. With everyone calm now, Fuma sighed and punched her palm. "Alright! Now, we don't have much time, so let's start thinking up a strategy, yeah?"
Ayame put her hands on her hips and shakes her head. "Do you really think we can win, Fuma? Kat and the others are the strongest girls we know. They might just steamroll right over us regardless of what we do."
Fuma gave Ayame a serious look. "I get what you're saying, Ayame. But if we're gonna get our asses kicked, I'd rather not just bend over and take it without a fight. Would Kat like that? I know Asuka wouldn't."
Ayame crossed her arms in thought, before she eventually shrugged. "Well, you've got a point there. What's the plan?"
Fuma glanced at the horizon. The sun was only a minute at most away from peeking over the hills and shining its first light on them. She tapped her chin before turning to point at Muramasa.
"Muramasa, directive!" she said, and the android responds with a quick turn and a robotic salute.
"Listening~!" her cheerful, synthesized voice answered.
"You and Seimei are going to stay here and defend our flag with your lives, got it? If they try to get close, Seimei, blast'em with your rockets! If they do get close, Muramasa, punch'em with your big robo-fists!"
Seimei silently nodded, and Muramasa grinned brightly and held up two fingers. "Directive understood~! You can count on me, Fuma! The senpai-units will not have our flag! Determined tone!"
Fuma smiled approvingly and turned to Ayame and Hijikata. "You two will be with me. Regardless of whatever comes our way, I'm going for the flag. Ayame, Hiji, you'll be our midfielders. If we meet them in the middle, you two should intercept them, slow them down however you can and give me time to nab their flag and hustle back. That cool?"
Hijikata crossed her arms. "I would much rather stay and help defend the flag, Fuma," she asserted, and Fuma put her hands on her hips.
"Well, Seimei is best left here, too. And you and Seimei aren't working too well together right now, so I'm only suggesting the next best option," Fuma said. "We can work out our issues as friends later. But right now, as shinobi, we need to do what's best for the mission, and I'm making the call I think is best."
Hijikata closed her eyes. "…Well said. I'm ready, then."
Fuma took another glance at the horizon with the squint, and the rest of Team Red followed suit, the tension building silently as the first light was only moments away from signaling the start of the exercise. Fuma raised her hand slowly, and the moment the glare of the sun's first light peeked over the hills, she lowered it quickly.
"Let's go!" she called out, before leaping away with Hijikata and Ayame behind her hopping from roof to roof toward Team Green's base. Seimei and Muramasa saw them off, and the moment they were out of sight, Seimei yawned and curled up against her rocket launcher.
"Muramasa, directive…"
"Listening~!"
"Wake me up when the enemy comes…"
"Directive understood~!"
Ayame flexed her fingers and tapped her gauntlets together idly as she tailed her teammates across the roofs at their decent pace. Hijikata had her massive mallet propped readily against her shoulder, and Fuma casually wound the chain connecting her fuma shuriken into a loop hold it and both linked weapons in one hand.
"I wonder what their game plan is…" Fuma wondered idly, tapping her chin. "I made the calls I thought was right, but if they predicted what we'd decide, we might be in trouble."
Ayame laughs. "If I know them like I think I know them, Kat charged ahead to brute-force her way through us, and everyone except Asuka, who's compelled to stay near the flag, chased after her."
Hijikata raised her brows and scoffed. "Whatever would make you think that? I think strong Hanzō graduates like Katsuragi would have a little more restraint than to just recklessly cha-"
Mid-sentence, a blonde blur appeared from nowhere, flying in from the side and delivering a flying dragon kick right to Hijikata's chest. Time seemed to stop for a brief instant before Hijikata was launched right out of her uniform blouse, soaring into the wall of a nearby taller building.
Fuma and Ayame gasped and stopped immediately, looking back at the smoking crater in the wall that marked their friend's impact. "Hiji!" Fuma called out.
"Don't ever, ever overestimate me!" Katsuragi yelled out as she landed on the edge of another nearby roof and puts her hands on her hips with a wide smile. "A friend once told me that being stupid is my greatest advantage as a shinobi. Now you know why!"
While Fuma and Ayame listened, Ikaruga suddenly appeared between them, her hand poised to draw her blade.
"Stay focused!" she said simply, and both Fuma and Ayame raised their weapons and leaped away in opposite directions to guard her attack. Ikaruga drew and swung Hien in a wide arc. It seemed to the naked eye that she had only swung once, but the multiple clashes of impact against their weapons and the unusual force that pushed them back further betrayed the myriad of swings Ikaruga took that were simply too fast to comprehend.
Ikaruga turned her attention to Ayame and turned her back on Fuma, advancing slowly but aggressively with her swings, sheathing Hien after each blow, only to draw it again immediately afterward for another attack, a signature habit of hers.
Fuma briefly forgot her own plan. Seeing Ikaruga with her back turned reminded Fuma of one of the basic rules of shinobi combat, and unwilling to relinquish this advantage, she readied her weapons preparing to toss one of her shuriken at Ikaruga's unprotected rear. Her senses tingled just before she threw, the hairs rising on the back of her neck, and she changed gears in a split second, turning and ducking underneath the flying hip check coming at her face, courtesy of Hibari, and then leaping away as a barrage of chilly globs of ink rained down on her location, courtesy of Yagyū.
"You're fast, Fuma! Isn't she, Ninto? I thought we had her for sure!" Hibari giggled and the ninja rabbit sitting on her back nodded affirmatively.
"Hibari, go for the flag. I'll be right behind you," Yagyū ordered, and Hibari nodded and leaped away to obey. As Yagyū turned back to Fuma, she ducked and dodged under the first long-range chained swings of Fuma's shuriken, before casually blocking the next two swings with her folded umbrella.
"Predictable. This isn't a game, you never use the same move twice in a row," Yagyū criticized her, before unfolding her umbrella and extending its blades.
"Fuma!" Hijikata's voice called from a distance. She dragged herself out of the hole in the wall she'd created and fell onto a lower roof, taking a knee. Sans a blouse, her frilly white-and-blue front-tied bra was all she wore above the waist now. "Remember your own plan, Fuma! We'll take care of this, get the flag!"
Fuma looked back at Yagyū, who had quickly lost interest in her and went to chase after Hibari. She gulped, before nodding. "G-Got it! I won't let you all down!"
Fuma turned away and continue advancing forward quickly and steadily across the roofs, speaking aloud to herself as she went.
"Ayame was right… All of them except Asuka did rush us down. But that just means you'll have your biggest fan all to yourself, Asuka~!" she said with a grin, picking up the pace excitedly.
While Seimei slept soundly against her launched beside the flag, Muramasa took point up above, balancing on top of the flag and watching for approaching enemies. The calm and silence didn't last for long, Muramasa gasped as she identified two incoming targets. "Owner Hibari and senpai-unit Yagyū~! Seimei, wake up! The enemy approaches!"
She leapt down and shook Seimei who groaned. "Five more minutes…"
Muramasa pouted. "Frown… That would go against the directive you gave me, Seimei! The enemy has come, so wake up! Stern gaze…"
Reluctantly, Seimei pulled herself out of dreamland and up to her feet. "Nnnngh… I guess I don't have a choice. Let's beat them quickly so I can…" Another pause for another long yawn. "…get back to sleep."
She shouldered her rocket launcher, aimed in the general direction Muramasa pointed, and fired four seeking rockets into the air which spiraled about in the air before diving to home in on Hibari and Yagyū one at a time.
"Just as we thought, it must be them," Yagyū said, quickly dodging the explosive blast of one rocket before launching an inky bolt from her umbrella to intercept and detonate the second rocket that had followed her dodge.
"Ninto!" Hibari called, and the ninja rabbit jumped off her back and conjured a cloud, which Hibari leaped onto the back of, speeding ahead and dodging both rockets with ease before zipping onto the roof where Seimei and Muramasa were waiting for them. Yagyū joined her, giving Seimei a look.
"If you actually tried to apply yourself, Seimei, perhaps you would've come close to hitting us with those rockets. Why do you insist on not taking this seriously?"
Seimei simply sighed. "Not you too, Yagyū… Hiji already nagged me about this. Hearing it again will just put me to sleep. …On second thought, I wouldn't mind you nagging me about it."
"Owner Hibari~! I estimated a 42% chance that you would be the one to come steal our flag. Excited expression!" Muramasa giggled, hopping on the balls of her feet.
Hibari smiled warmly at Muramasa. "I'm happy that you're here defending it, Muramasa. Directive!"
As per usual, the blonde android saluted attentively. "Listening~!"
Hibari's smile turned into a ready smirk as she took her stance. "I want you to fight me with everything you've got. Try to kill me, alright, Muramasa?"
Yagyū and Muramasa both look at Hibari with surprise, and Muramasa furrows her brows. "U-Unprecedented hesitation…" she murmurs, not immediately affirming a directive for the first time since her activation.
Hibari furrows her brows and tilts her head. "C'mon, Muramasa, I want to see you fight at 100% power! That would make me happy!"
"Possible compromise! This unit will fight at 100% power without trying to kill Owner Hibari. Hopeful pause?"
Hibari seemed sad. "That's not what 100% means, Muramasa... After training today, I'll buy you your favorite fuel, as much as you can drink, but only if you fight me with everything you've got."
Muramasa's body fidgeted uncomfortably at the sorrow on Hibari's face. "Frustration… A-Alright, Owner Hibari! Directive understood~! I will… a-attempt to terminate you!"
Smiling again, Hibari once again readied herself. "That's more like it. You're strong, Muramasa, now show me!" She ran forward, and Yagyū called after her.
"Hibari! Do you know what you're doing?"
She frowned ahead at Muramasa, before turning her head, eyebrows rising with surprise as Seimei approached swiftly.
"Don't forget about me…" she muttered in her ever-sleepy voice as she demonstrated the massive strength behind her tired exterior and took a swing with the bulk of her rocket launcher, which she'd unwrapped her sleeping mat from. Yagyū raised her folded umbrella to block the blow, but was still sent flying across the roof, skidding on her heels to a stop.
"So you can take things seriously,"
Seimei shrugged. "Of course I can. I just prefer to sleep. What's so bad about that?" she asked, shouldering her launcher again and taking aim. "But there's too many voices around for me to get back to sleep, so I don't really have a choice but to blow you away first and bring back the peace and quiet…"
Seimei pulled the trigger and fired another salvo of rockets, while Yagyū swung her umbrella and unleashed another wave of ink bolts to detonate them all in a massive explosion. Meanwhile, nearby, Hibari and Muramasa began to clash, the android trading quick punches with Hibari's wild, unorthodox attacks, It was difficult for Muramasa to read her owner's movements, and her inaccuracy earned her several punches and elbows as she was forced back toward the flag.
"Muramasa, you're not fighting at 100% like you promised!"
"Snappy retort! Neither are you, Owner Hibari!"
A stray missile lands near them and fills the area with smoke. Muramasa stumbled through the smoke, her optics working on overdrive to try to see through the haze, her cat ears opened, trying to pick up any soundwaves she could. Hibari had stopped moving. Suddenly, a voice called out.
"Shinobi… TENSHIN!"
A pink flash shined into Muramasa's optics, but before she could recover, she was met with a solid fist to the face, hard enough to make her head snap back and one of her eyes fade to static for a brief moment. As Muramasa staggered back, Hibari, now in her signature pink jacket and navy blue gym shorts, pressed the assault and began a relentless, more focused barrage of not only punches and kicks, but swings of her hips and chest to batter Muramasa with her bountiful butt and bosom as well. Every attempt by Muramasa to block was met with a strike from somewhere else, and as she was beaten back, it didn't take long for the stressful force of Hibari's assault to rip away at Muramasa's uniform and reveal the leopard-print bandeau and panties she wore beneath.
To finish her attack, Hibari stepped forward and threw an elbow into the back of Muramasa's head, causing her to stagger and fall to one knee. Hibari kicked Muramasa's leg out from under her to cause her to fall flat on her stomach, before finally leaping into the air and dropping down butt-first onto Muramasa's back, crushing her deeper into the roof.
"Muramasa…" Hibari murmured sadly as she got up, furrowing her brows as she got up and saw that she'd stopped moving. "I thought your prime directive was to make me happy."
Muramasa's fingers twitched, before she clenched them into a fist. Her eyes glowed as she pulled herself to her feet and a compartment opened in her left upper thigh, revealing her Secret Ninja Art Scroll, which she clutched in her hand and held up high.
"Shinobi TENSHIN!"
A yellow glow surrounded Muramasa as her underwear vaporized, quickly replaced by a blue one-piece suit with white and silver accents. In addition, her regular arms begin to unfold and rapidly transform into much larger bronze-colored metal fists that were just as large as Muramasa herself.
Muramasa's tone had become monotonously robotic as she spoke. "Energy output approaching 100%. Directive reaffirmed: terminate Owner Hibari."
Her sudden change in tone unnerved Hibari slightly, but her new resolve made her smile as well. "That's what I'm talking about, Muramasa~! Let's go!"
Once again, the two of them ran toward each other, their fists cocked back to strike their hardest…
And with that, the first chapter ends. Chapter 2 will be a continuation of this scene, up to the conclusion of the exercise, and Chapter 3 will introduce the Hebijo girls and what they're up to.
Hope you enjoyed it! Let me know if you did.
~M.H.C~