The night of their arrival in Mokuzaihanto, the Five Scarves embark on their first infiltration: the Mokuzai-dojo. Remaining without their scarves in order to hide their presence from Serpentine better, they approach the dojo perimeter at the stroke of midnight.
"Final comms check," Rob whispers into his wrist communicator. "Go, no go?"
Maria: "Wood go."
Danny: "Earth go."
Xander: "Water go."
"Where did you get these again?" Hanna asks.
"Your favourite husky, Kai Xin," Rob explains. "He cannibalised some of Brevon's tech to make-"
"Fire go," Hanna growls.
Rob sighs. "All go; commence mission," he commands.
The Scarves begin their infiltration: Hanna and Rob take the east perimeter, Danny and Xander cover the west, and Maria, the best at stealth, takes the north approach alone. The plan: Maria reaches the inner sanctum first, with the others arriving soon after as backup and emergency extraction.
The plan proceeds without fault; Maria is indeed first to reach the inner sanctum. Sticking to the shadows, she works her way through the corridors; the patrols are thin and easy to avoid, but they are stalling her progress.
An hour after mission commencement, Maria finally reaches the Grand Master's quarters; finding a convenient duct at ground level, she prises the grille off silently and enters the duct. With the grille slid back into place, Maria quickly scales the duct and crawls through to another grille over the centre of the main room.
A quick glance at her communicator; her friends are closing on her position, but they're still several minutes away. Carefully, she begins to prise the grille free; as she shifts from the far corners to loosen the near, the trap is sprung. Maria feels a rope tighten around her ankles, binding them together; another pins her arms to her sides, and a third tightens between her teeth, effectively gagging her. Before she can react to the ropes, the floor of the duct opens. Maria drops into the room, jolting with a pained squeak to a halt four feet from the floor; swaying gently, she lets out a long moan as the ropes bite into her flesh.
"Well, who do we have here?" a jet-black sable purrs, entering the room.
Maria painfully contorts to eye the stranger. "Get me down!" she tries to say; the rope gagging her mangles the words almost incomprehensible.
"Oh, I'll get you down," the sable confirms. "But not yet. Maybe in the morning; consider hanging there all night punishment for breaking into the private quarters of Ryoichi Nakano, Grand Master of the Mokuzai-dojo."
Maria screams incomprehensible pleas as she struggles to break free.
"I wouldn't struggle, little one," Ryoichi advises. "The more you struggle, the more the ropes tighten, and the more it'll hurt."
Maria struggles a few moments more. Eventually, the pain is too much; she relents, sobbing, accepting she's not getting free anytime soon.
"Good," Ryoichi soothes. "I'll be back in the morning," he adds, retreating to his bedroom.
Maria stops crying the instant Ryoichi is out of sight. With acting that good, I could have been a movie star! Slowly, she moves her left arm towards her tanto, grimacing with pain every fraction of an inch as the rope cuts deep enough to start to draw blood. With her fingertips, she gently unsheathes the blade; just as tip slides free, Maria fumbles and drops the tanto.
With an exasperated sigh, Maria waits for her friends to arrive and rescue her.
