Battle In The Park
XxX
Shikamaru looked at the swordsman approach that huge red machine. The machine was unlike anything he'd seen before, as tall as the Hokage's tower and dominated by a large face with a certain cockiness about it.
'Is this what I'm meant to fight? How the hell am I meant to fight something like that!' thought Shikamaru, the rings of shadow circling him idly. 'The Dancing Shadow Armor can't take lots of punishment; if that thing attacks me then I'm dead'
"Oi! You! You think I've got a problem taking on someone of your size? You're nothing to me!" yelled Hiko as he leapt forward, his sword angled towards the bottom of the machine. "I don't normally indulge myself, but against a beast like you I'm sure I can. Ryūshōsen!"
Hiko placed his hand on the blunt edge of his blade, accurately aiming at the join between the face and its undercarriage. His sword was only a few inches away from the target when he was blown back towards Shikamaru in a cloud of smoke.
XxX
"Kamina you dumbass, you're just a massive target in Gurren at the moment. Ron will do things you won't enjoy if you break it even more!" yelled Yoko's voice through Kamina's intercom.
"Well what do you want me to do? He's got balls of fucking steel. He just took on Gurren with a sword! He's a real man!" shouted Kamina back.
"Well look who doesn't like a taste of his own medicine. Remember how you got Gurren in the first place? You did the same thing! Now, you're going to lose if you stay in Gurren and then Ron has more work to do. So I guess you can get out and fight him yourself."
"You know what Yoko, that's exactly what I'm going to do!"
"Wait! Kamina! I was being sarcastic!" Yoko started to yell into her earpiece, but the sight of Gurren's face plate opening in her scope stopped her from finishing. "You idiot!"
She then focussed her attention on the lone teenager standing still behind the swordsman.
"Wait a sec… why doesn't he have a shadow?" muttered the sniper to herself as she aimed at him again.
XxX
"Listen up lowly maggots!" yelled Kamina from his spot in Gurren's open mouth as he jumped down to the ground, in his hand an elongated red sheath. "The great Kamina has come to fight you head to head!" Kamina then made an exaggerated point at Hiko.
With this, he put his sheath horizontally in front of him and started to unsheathe his particularly long sword. He had the blade only half out before Hiko collided with him, kicking the sheath out of his hands. Kamina fell to the floor, his sword just out of reach as Hiko put his foot on his chest.
"Well this is some disappointing news, here I was thinking I was fighting someone like that fine warrior Fuji all this time, but instead it's a little man with a big mouth!" said Hiko, leaning over Kamina with a wild grin on his face "I don't like being disappointed kid, but you have just done so." Hiko's sword tickled Kamina's throat, catching him slightly as the younger man's breathing rose. "A warrior wouldn't have spent so much time drawing his sword, especially against such a superior foe. Now, you get to meet some true warriors, in the afterlife."
As Hiko's muscles tensed, ready to strike the final blow, he changed the angle of his blade at the last second. Looking at his blade again, another bullet was embedded on the sharp edge, soon followed by another, and then a small explosion forced Hiko back, pushing him off of Kamina and forcing him back next to Shikamaru. The younger man reached over to grab his sword, the sheath now destroyed by Hiko's kick, and turned to face Hiko.
"You may have taken advantage of my good will, but you'll be getting none of that from the Dai-Gurren Dan!" yelled Kamina, blood dribbling from small splinter wounds on his chest.
Hiko brushed off the dust the explosion had caused and placed his sword back in its sheath, his hand lingering on the hilt.
"I guess it's a good thing I have prestige as well as power behind me. Fuyutsuki is a blade that's been well kept and used for over two hundred years, forged by the Great Student Chogi. Flecks of metal won't destroy it's cutting edge."
He then spoke, his eyes never leaving the now defensive man.
"Shikamaru, take out that gun lady. She's about two leagues in the direction I'm facing"
Shikamaru froze.
'Take her out? I can barely block her attacks from here, how am I going to run that far without her shooting me?'
"Are you not confident Shikamaru?" goaded Hiko "Should I instead ask a woman, or even a child to do it instead? Or perhaps you'd like to die here, and never see your partner again."
Shikamaru regained himself, looking at Hiko with angry eyes.
"So wh-" started Shikamaru before he got interrupted by Hiko running forwards, hand still on the hilt of his blade.
"Fight!" yelled Hiko, as he got within range of Kamina, his sheathed blade suddenly appeared, and sparks appearing as Kamina blocked the attack. Continuing the spin that he had started with the first strike, Hiko launched another attack with his other hand, this one holding the sheath. Kamina wasn't expecting the heavy blow, taking it to the shoulder.
Kamina let out a hiss of pain as he felt something crack inside him, pushing forward with all his body weight to break the block, his chest leaning on the back of his blade. Hiko kept his position, focussed on keeping his ground.
"How does it feel boy, being so severely outclassed that guts and willpower do nothing?" taunted Hiko as Kamina gritted his teeth. A small flash in the corner of Hiko's vision was all the warning he had before he jumped to the side, disengaging the block by himself. In the ground a few feet behind where he stood, a large chunk of grass had been torn up by another bullet.
"Are you seeing this Shikamaru? She's focussing on me, go take her out! This is getting annoying." yelled Hiko, sheathing his sword again.
Shikamaru nodded, running in the direction that Hiko had indicated before. Kamina ran to the side, aiming to get between Shikamaru and the Dai-Gurren. Before he got too far, Hiko was in front of him, hand on hilt.
"Stay put, boy."
XxX
"Simon! The target is approaching!" called Yoko into her headset, sending her message into the bridge, aiming her gun at a gap in those spinning circles around him. She held her breath, letting her finger pull back the trigger slightly as she continued aiming at the moving target. With an exhale of breath, she pulled the trigger all the way in.
The gun let out a loud bang as the bullet flew towards the target, the small gap exposing Shikamaru's knee to being hit. In the split second between when the bullet started its journey and ended it, the circle closest to it, hovering around his hips, had moved itself into the way of the bullet, causing it to bounce off harmlessly.
"The target has some kind of deflector shield, those rings of his just moved to deflect my bullet." reported Yoko into her earpiece.
Simon looked up from his seat on the bridge, glancing at Lord Genome and Leeron as they too started to think.
"Have you tried the concussive rounds?" asked Leeron
She reloaded her gun with another, slightly longer shell, aiming down the scope and hissing as he went behind a section of trees.
"Damn, he's behind a tree line. Give me a sec." said Yoko, training the rifle on where she estimated he'd leave the trees. A flicker of green in the corner of the scope told her she was wrong. "He knows he's being targeted, of course he wouldn't stay on course…"
XxX
Shikamaru carried on his run, leaping over a couple on the grass engaged in a kiss. The guy pulled himself away briefly and looked at the teenager now running away, his black hair scuffled from the woman's hands.
"Ringo… did you see that?" he said, breathing a few times heavily to regain some oxygen
"Doesn't matter," Said the red haired woman, doing the same.
"I kinda wanna chase him. He looks fast."
"I swear Ikki, if you start thinking about AT now, I will hurt you." threatened Ringo, "Now back to some unfinished business"
She gave him no chance to complain as she pulled him back to the grass, silencing his muffled protests with a kiss.
Shikamaru finally exited the treeline and Yoko got a look at his position. Firing the rifle again at the same point, she kept her scope on him.
An explosion of smoke covered him for a second, not offering any resistance as the ninja ran through it with not a scratch on him.
XxX
"They work fine on the other guy; but with this shield of his, they're completely ineffective. That shield is at least some kind of solid, because otherwise the concussion shell wouldn't have activated."
Lord Genome offered his suggestion.
"More than a few crew members are familiar with close and mid-range combat. Have them engage him; it will establish his shield's strength."
Simon nodded, entwining his fingers together on the table.
"That's reasonable, but what if he's awfully strong in close or mid-range?"
The head in the jar nodded.
"Unable to identify preference, insufficient data. I suggest a combined assault, find out for yourself."
"So we need people to make him keep a distance and to attack him up close… send Jorgun, Balinbow, Kittan and Makken on foot, priority red."
"Roger," replied the head, eyes gazing into nothingness as his mind sent the command to their respective communicators. After a few seconds, his gaze focussed again. "They're all aware of the situation, I specified non-lethal rounds"
"Thanks, Lord Genome" said Simon,
"He's approaching quickly!" called Yoko "He's already made it within 700m of the Dai-Gurren, he can probably see us already. Goddammit Simon, I can't focus on him and Kamina at once."
"There was always that possibility; by staying here we have a strategic foothold for launching Gunmen, but we remain highly visible. The civilians don't seem to mind though," confirmed the head. "Stay focussed on Kamina, we have the boy handled"
"Yoko, if you don't relax then you're gonna miss you big silly. Now take a deep breath and think of Kamina's pe-" butted in Leeron
"RON!" screamed an outraged Yoko, before letting out a small laugh. "I am not doing that."
Leeron just smirked to himself. "No, you don't have to now honey,"
"A shield? Never heard of that before. Time to fight! Fight! Fight!" came a duo of yells from down the hallway as the two brothers deployed themselves, their guns and ammo clanking from their running pace.
"Quiet down you two knuckleheads! This is a job for the eldest Black sibling!" called Kittan, himself running afterwards, laden with less ammo but still a reasonable amount.
Smaller footsteps echoed down the hallway quickly, as they passed the bridge door, Simon saw Makken pass by with two swords at his waist. He eyed Lord Genome briefly.
"You did specify non-lethal to all of them, right?"
"Confirmed,"
"Hmmm…" groused Simon, thinking about the swords.
XxX
"Vice-Commander! The Dai-Gurren Dan has engaged with the Travellers in combat." Called Lieutenant Ibuki to the higher deck of the command centre bridge. "Total number of combatants is currently nine; the MAGI are still calculating the most likely result of the encounter."
Kozo Fuyutsuki sighed to himself, sitting down in the chair his student seemed to favour so much.
'It's fortunate that that kid was chosen for this mission, none of our pilots have much combat experience and the Evangelions are just not suitable for fighting an unknown foe. I'll order Misato and the pilots to read and analyse the data we receive, then have the NERV instructors give them some additional classes'
"Understood Lieutenant, keep up the analysis of the battle. Commander Ikari will want a detailed battle report within an hour it's finish. Hyuga, switch from general battle analysis to detailed analysis of the Travellers. Aoba, continue decoding of Dai-Gurren Dan communication signals." Commanded Fuyutsuki.
"Roger, Sir!" called the two men, Hyuga now analysing his target while Aoba continued going through multiple scripts of data recorded by their equipment.
'Gendo, I'll never fully understand you.' Thought Fuyutsuki, 'Gaining knowledge on your allies… the methods of a liar… no, you'd call them the methods of a winner.'
XxX
The wind ruffled the grass as Shikamaru ran across the field, he'd already run far and was trying to make sure he was still going in the right direction.
'Now… he said I'd be able to see it… wait... what…'
Shikamaru kept his eyes straight ahead of him, he could see what he was aiming for but the sight of it was stunning. A leviathan of metal, bright red and bipedal; he also saw a long runway extending from the hips of the robot that only brought one thing to mind.
'That perverted teacher of Naruto's would love this thing.'
As he approached, he felt one of his rings squirm as it deflected something from straight ahead.
"Huh?" he said to himself, looking in the direction he was attacked from. He didn't have much time before the rings around him started to move at a rate greater than he'd ever used before, so fast that the shadowy shield fully blocked his view.
'Dammit… blocking so many attacks is draining my chakra' Shikamaru thought as he knelt to the floor, offering less of a target so the shield had to cover less area.
"Alright men, the shield seems to be automatic. He can't see us but it's still working!" yelled Kittan, "Makken, we'll keep up rifle fire, you go do your thing."
"Yeah" came the grunting reply.
Shikamaru looked over cover to see a small man approach him, a thin crop cut of light blue hair on his head and a steady expression on his face. As he came closer, Makken pulled his two swords from their scabbards, the inside edge glinting in the afternoon sun.
'Shit, is he going to use swords!'
Makken readied his swords as he got closer, his left sword kept on his centre line and his right sword raised above his head, ready to slash. Shikamaru didn't wait for him to arrive, pulling a kunai out of his holder and throwing that at the man, standing up to aim as he did so.
The man dodged out of the way as the three men behind him started to shoot those things of theirs that Shikamaru assumed was a 'gun'. Shikamaru was within Makken's guard before he could stop him, another kunai in his hand as he aimed the pommel at the swordsman's eye. Makken ducked his head to the side before head-butting Shikamaru squarely in the temple. Shikamaru staggered backwards as Makken pushed his advantage, the swords slicing cleanly through his slowly wavering shadow. Shikamaru jumped backwards, steadying himself with his hand as he skidded.
Makken changed his grip, his right arm blade now held in a reverse grip so the blade ran down past his elbow, while the left hand remained unchanged. Shikamaru pushed back his assault, the Armor deflecting all of the bullets being fired at him by the others still. Pulling out a set of shuriken, Shikamaru threw them in a row at Makken; the older man evaded them by dropping himself to the ground
'Why aren't they stopping shooting? Don't they want to help their teammate?' questioned Shikamaru internally. 'If they stop shooting, I can use my techniques… or if I force them to stop shooting.'
Makken used his position to take a swipe at Shikamaru's leg muscles, but the ninja jumped in the air to dodge that. After he landed, he saw the men shooting him were close by. Turning towards them, he ran at them full burst. Looking back at the man with swords now chasing him down, Shikamaru went over his plan in his head.
'If I can destroy their weapons, they'll have to join the melee.'
Just as Shikamaru reached the group, he felt a surge of pain run through him as he was met by a large metal rifle butt to the face. Jorgun had put the safety on his rifle, turned it upside down so he held the barrel like a baseball bat and had swung while Shikamaru wasn't looking. Now he was lying on the floor with what felt like a broken nose, struggling to breathe through his mouth. His armor had disappeared with his consciousness.
The men who had been fighting him looked at him on the floor, the one with yellow and brown hair speaking into a small metal box while the other three stood watch over his body.
"Hey, Simon, it's Kittan. We've got the new source unconscious. What do you want us to do with him?"
"Ah jeez, this was only meant to be a recon mission. Did you get any info on that armor of his?"
"Probably enough, he made a couple of stupid mistakes in combat, he probably had some plan but it didn't quite work out."
"Ok, leav-" Simon's transmission became garbled at the last part.
"Say what Simon?" asked Kittan, Makken looking at the communicator briefly before shrugging.
"- him there"
"Yes, he's there, what do you want us to do?" asked Kittan, his tone rising to annoyance.
"LEAVE HIM THERE!" cried a voice from behind them. "Pierce through! Sunlight Heart Plus!"
Before Jorgun or Balinbow could react, a pointed burst of white energy tore past them, knocking them unconscious from the force of the blast. Makken raised his blades to defend himself from the burst, but as the tip of the energy touched them, where they were touched, they melted, leaving the swords at odd angles.
As the energy died down, Kittan only saw a leg as it collided with his stomach, winding him. Makken saw more, spiky black hair and a red shirt before the flat side of a lance collided with his head in a practised move. Without pausing, the figure turned to the unconscious Nara.
The radio Kittan dropped continued to scream at no-one.
"KITTAN-"
XxX
"COME IN, KITTAN!" yelled Simon into his microphone, he then changed channels "Yoko, confirm Kittan's status!"
A few seconds went by before a small crackle signalled Yoko's answer.
"He's down… Simon, they're all down. I just saw someone drag the target into the treeline again, I can't confirm their identity."
Simon grunted as he turned to Lord Genome, "Lord Genome, you have records of that battle's audio right? Analyse it and tell me the best way to counter this kid." He demanded.
The head nodded, closing his eyes to think. Opening them again, he addressed Simon.
"They appeared to have Makken use close range weapons while they suppressed him with covering fire. To counter the target, optimal probability comes from close range combat."
Simon looked to Leeron quickly who thought quickly before nodding.
"Ok, send four of those new people, the top four on the CQC register. Tell them to capture the target, any means necessary, just alive." said Simon, sitting back in his chair.
"Yes." Said Lord Genome as he relayed the orders.
XxX
"Hey, Shikamazu! Wake up, Hiko's gonna kill me if you're dead!" called a voice, rousing the older teen back into the waking world.
Coughing and spluttering up blood, Shikamaru sat up and looked around him. He was in amongst the trees not far from the four men he had faced, knocked unconscious on the floor.
"Kazuki…" Shikamaru started, stopping when he realised how dizzy he was. "Did… did you do that?"
"Yeah man, I was afraid I'd lost you for a sec. Ya see, Eda and her crew like these donuts that taste like condensed milk, but they're only sold in this one little place in North Namkaga, cool place, the bakers are nice there. I had no idea they'd try to attack you straight away. I'm just so glad Hiko was here, otherwise you could have ended up killed, then Yuki would be pissed at me, then the universe would die and I'm so sorry man, I can't even describe it." Blathered Kazuki, kneeling down to talk to Shikamaru.
Coughing up some blood and wiping his nose, Shikamaru looked around. He let out a wince and grabbed his head.
"Gah! Head, Hurting." Eased out Shikamaru between hisses. "I've had worse Kazuki, just… we need to go. Leave. How do we kill that!"
Kazuki decided to answer his questions one by one.
"Yeah… that'd happen. You got clubbed by a rifle. I'm surprised you're even awake now."
"What about the gun?" said Shikamaru, his eyes still partly glazed over.
"The gun lady? She's here? Aww man, why can't Smoker be here? She can't hit him."
The sound of marching got his attention, so he peeked out from behind a tree. Coming towards the four unconscious men was another group of four younger guys. Each was built well but with different heights. Two were simply huge, nearly two metres high each and packed with muscle. One was a lot shorter with a close cut beard around his mouth and chin, built more like a barrel, clearly strong but smaller than the average. And the other was average sized, but with a strong build. Each one wore a pair of black combat pants and a tight black t-shirt with a large sunglasses wearing dragon on the back.
They jogged briefly as they saw the unconscious men, each one checking over a man before the other three nodding to the small one. The small man stood up and pulled a small radio from his belt before speaking in a gruff voice.
"This is junior operator Texe; we have confirmation that operators Black, Jokin, Bakusa and Bakusa are still alive."
Kazuki ducked behind the tree again as he saw the men starting to look around. Ducking down, he made a small signal to Shikamaru with his index finger, telling him to be quiet.
"Are they stable?"
The short man looked at one of the larger men, this one with cropped blonde hair and the other with longer black hair. The blonde haired man leant down next to Makken.
"Ultimate…." Murmured the older man in his unconscious haze.
The large man nodded to Texe who then spoke into the radio.
"That's confirmed Commander, operators are stable."
"Continue mission as planned, I'll send out more people to pick them up, don't lose that target."
"Understood sir, we got the image with the mission assignment." Texe then put the radio back on his belt.
Kazuki felt several small pressures on his arm, looking down he saw something that made his breath hitch. By the second, butterflies were landing on his arm. His face contorted in disgust as he felt them crawl around on his skin. Shikamaru noticed his discomfort and looked at him curiously. Kazuki caught the glare and mouthed the answer to him.
"I. Don't. Like. Butterflies."
The short man then spoke to his group.
"You all saw the message, they won't be far, and we're not going to let this guy get away with injuring these operators"
"Don't you get the feeling we're kinda being led like animals to the slaughter. This target or his friend took out four operators in next to no time, what makes you think we'll last any longer?" asked the average sized man.
Texe looked offended at that.
"That is not the kind of attitude we have in the Dai Gurren Dan, is it Yacht? We're the team that looks at impossible jobs and makes them possible. Central Government relies on us to police the streets, to protect citizens, how can you do that if you're afraid to put yourself in harm's way in the pursuit of justice?"
"No it isn't Texe, but this isn't your average job, this was a direct order from the Commander. They're normally only for senior operators like the ones lying unconscious." Replied Yacht, pointing at the group with a scowl on his face.
Kazuki was getting more uncomfortable as more butterflies landed. He could easily shake them off, at the cost of giving away his rather obvious hiding place. His arm twitched slightly at the idea, shaking a few off. The men's talking paused as they saw butterflies seemingly appear from nowhere. With a mutter of 'Just butterflies', the men continued speaking as Kazuki got more and more tense.
Shikamaru turned to him, trying to indicate that he should breathe deeply. Kazuki just took this as a reason to panic more.
"Then we have to do our best, if we don't then we can't return to base with our heads held high. Would you rather certainly fail in disgrace, or possibly succeed with great honor?"
"Well what do you two want to do?" asked Yacht to the two large men.
"I just want to fight, strong, weak, doesn't matter." replied the black haired man.
"I expected as much from you Matthew, how about you Chandak?" said Yacht, shaking his head.
"I'm a doctor… you get hurt, I do my best to look after you. I'm just following Texe on this mission."
"Dr Butterfly!" came a loud yell from about twenty feet into the wooded area. With a leap, a teenager appeared, carrying another teen in his arms, before he turned and ran in the opposite direction, going deeper into the woods. Glancing at the teen in the runner's arms, they all quickly came to the same conclusion.
"That's the target! Get him!" yelled Texe, taking off after Kazuki with his men in tow.
XxX
"Fuck, Fuck, Fuck. Why the fuck did that come out." muttered Kazuki as he ran through the forest, he was currently running down a wooded hill. He could hear yells from nearby but was too deep in the woods to see them through the brush. The weight in his arms was starting to ache badly, so he spoke to the guy in them. "Hey Shika, I've gotta throw you over my shoulders or I'm gonna drop ya."
"Just let me run, I can do it." said Shikamaru woozily.
"I think that ninja training messed you up in the head, you just took a rifle to the face and you think you're fine? Hardly. You're not doing anything unless you have to."
With that, Kazuki hefted Shikamaru over his head until Shikamaru's stomach was resting against the back of his neck. That slight misbalance from the switch was enough to push Kazuki too far.
"Oh shiiii-" yelled Kazuki as he fell over with Shikamaru, tumbling over himself as he fell down the hill. He felt the roots from surrounding trees, each one throwing him up in the air as well as adding a considerable bruise to his already large collection. Shikamaru fly off his shoulders after the first root, the impact making him loosen his grip, since he didn't expect it, so the ninja was rolling down the hill alongside him.
With a lot of snapping, the two rolled onto the branches of a young downed tree in front of some thick bushes. Kazuki let out a gasp as his back hit the trunk while Shikamaru rolled to a stop face up after hitting the trunk sideways. Feeling bones all over his body crack, he let out a groan, but still forced himself to move. Picking himself up, Kazuki walked with obvious difficulty to where Shikamaru was trying to sit up.
"Come on Shika, we gotta move. Those guys will be here in like, thirty seconds." Exclaimed Kazuki, pulling on Shikamaru to help him to his feet, "Hiko's gonna want some back up, if that sniper is focussing on him now."
At the mention of Hiko and the sniper, Shikamaru perked up.
'What's happened to me… that strategist who fought off immortals, who was tasked to lead an army against a madman, and I'm on the run from thugs? My chakra is low, I've broken at least some ribs and may have fractured my collarbone… is this what she meant when she said I was the tactician? Was I never meant to fight with these guys?'
Shikamaru slumped into Kazuki arms.
"Why don't you kill them Kazuki, it would be so easy. I have knives in my holster, take as many as you need and kill them. We'll survive and Hiko will get back up as soon as we get there." Said Shikamaru into Kazuki's shoulder. Kazuki sat him on the tree and stood up.
"HEY, THERE THEY ARE!" came the yell of the short man, who started charging down the hill, having no problems keeping his balance.
"I won't kill them because I don't need to," said Kazuki, turning to face the men "I've never killed a human, and I don't need to now. I had one begging for death before, a man who I call a good friend now, and he was trying to kill me. I tried to get away, but it's clear that's not an option now. We're lost and have incoming enemies, so-" Kazuki placed his hand above his heart. "Pierce thr-"
"FOUND HIM!" came a yell from behind them, Kazuki turned in shock as the bushes behind the tree trunk parted and six figures burst through. Each one was dressed head to toe in indigo; Hakama, Gi, armor and helmets along with a wooden bokken each. The figures ran in front of the battered duo, five making a line to stop the charging men, and one standing closer to the two injured teens.
"Sonkyo!" commanded the lone figure as the five figures in the line stepped forward in unison three times and squatted down, drawing their bokken at the same time.
"Chuudan no Kamae!" the figures feet shifted position, the left heel slightly lifted and placed parallel but further back than the right foot. The bokken were then placed directly in front of them.
The charging men didn't stop at the appearance of the figures. They were within thirty foot of the line all too soon.
"Bust through these suckers! Aim for the gaps!" yelled Texe, readying a palm to shove with.
"Namkaga Kendo Squad! Combination One!" instructed the lone figure loudly, hand idly over his own bokken.
As the men got within ten feet of the line, the group stepped forward as one, each one cutting a line horizontally at waist height to their right with a large kiai. Each of the charging men didn't stop in time and got hit in the gut by the powerful blows.
"What the…" gasped out Matthew, his stomach screaming in pain at him.
While they were winded from this, the kendoka stepped back and repeated the maneuver but instead, swinging to their left, hitting the men in their other side, leaving them all panting on the floor.
"See what I mean Texe! We gotfucked!" yelled Yacht, "You dumbass!"
Again, the kendoka stepped back again. With a large swing upwards, they each looked at their targets heads, before bringing the wooden swords down on them, the clunking sound of the wood hitting skulls echoing around the clearing.
"Sonkyo!" instructed the man standing close to the pair of injured teens.
Stepping back again, the kendoka squatted, bokken held in front of them in a ready stance.
"Sage To!"
The kendoka then 'sheathed' their bokken and returned to a normal carrying stance. The man stood in front of them then turned around, his face half visible through the bars of his helmet. It was clearly a man older than them, but not by too much, maybe his mid-twenties to early thirties. The then walked up to Kazuki and put a gloved hand on his shoulder.
"You must be Kazuki, yes?" asked the man.
"Yeah… but who the hell are you?" Kazuki panted out, cringing as speaking hurt his ribs.
"Just call me Ben, I'm the sensei to this kendo group, and these are my students. Joshua, Ryan, Andrew, Max and Him."
"Him?" questioned Kazuki.
"That's his name, Him, but don't talk, I'll explain. Hiko sent us to find you, said you'd be making a lot of noise somewhere around here. Believe me; the man doesn't know how to ask for help. But our old sensei trusts him enough to be her eyes, so doing him a favor isn't such a bad thing." Said Ben, his tone steady.
"And he wants you back there soon! He's getting shot at!" piped up one of the kendoka.
"Yes, Max, I was getting around to that part." Ben shook his head "Look, we'll get rid of these bodies, say we found them unconscious in the woods. Now go help Hiko," He motioned for the group to pick up the bodies and follow him. He looked back at the now staring pair before saying "Go!" and jogging off, followed by the students.
"Kazuki… did we just get saved by people with wooden swords?" asked Shikamaru, his head feeling better after not moving for a while.
Kazuki just stared at where the group just left from.
"I am so having words with Hiko when we get back; he knows he's not meant to get civilians involved. Civilians means police get involved, then we have to deal with that." Muttered Kazuki as he helped Shikamaru up, supporting him with his shoulder "You ok to walk?"
"Yeah, but what do you mean, get the police involved? Aren't they already involved with fights like this happening?"
Kazuki groaned, "Walk and talk Shikamaru, we've gotta get to Hiko now." Kazuki in turn started leading the pair through the bush the kendoka came through and towards what he could now hear as swords clanging together in the distance. "Look, at the moment this war of ours is obvious, yet also hidden. The police don't get involved due to the rules of this universe. But the only catch I've noticed is that we don't involve civilians. In a few fights before, civilians got injured and the police went crazy protective in district we fought for ages. Like, every other street had a cop on it."
The pair exited the wooded area, finding themselves on the other end of the large open area that Hiko was fighting on. In the mid-distance, they could see the form of that giant red thing waiting.
"So why don't they get involved?" asked Shikamaru, wiping some blood off his lip.
"I don't know Shika, but the bad guys don't involve innocents, and we don't either. So the police don't really have much to say about that. I honestly think Byakuran is paying them off to look the other way, so he can try to attack us in daylight, but he doesn't… this is the most open attack we've ever had, that's why I left you there, because I really didn't they'd attack you."
Shikamaru just nodded his head; he could see the logic in not making an enemy of the city that houses you.
"So how do we back up Hiko?" asked the ninja, able to see the two sword-fighting men up close. Hiko looked to be the better swordsman, his moves faster and strikes more numerous than Kamina's, but he had to back away as he was shot at.
'My chakra's coming back… it's not much at the moment but I can at least do a few moves.' thought Shikamaru.
"Well… that sniper is causing him trouble, and we can't exactly take care of her anymore if they've got big burly guys guarding them; and we'd need something pretty big to block her. And neither of us has that." Said Kazuki, looking at the battlefield. There was the large field, then the woods and then finally the Dai-Gurren. Shikamaru looked around then noticed something.
"Not quite…" said Shikamaru "Shadow possession technique!"
XxX
Kamina launched an overhead strike at Hiko, who parried the attack deftly before piercing forwards, scraping the younger man's neck. Kamina jumped backwards, panting after fighting for so long.
"Are you tired already boy? You wouldn't have lasted five minutes in the revolution against those amateurs calling themselves manslayers. Even my useless apprentice would have had no problem taking you down, even as a child." Taunted Hiko.
Kamina took a few breaths before retorting. "I don't see you slaying me, so you couldn't be too good at your job!"
"That's because you're not a man." Spat Hiko, grinning at the man's outraged expression
"Hey Hiko! You can fight for real now, Shikamaru's taking care of the sniper!" called Kazuki from his position behind a tree, the ninja visible beside him.
Averting his eyes quickly to see Kazuki and Shikamaru, Hiko focussed on his stance again.
"A likely story you lazy plague-ridden pustule! He's right beside you!" yelled back Hiko, watching Kamina pant to get his breath back.
"Kamina! What's up with Gurren?" asked Yoko through Kamina's own earpiece, clipped subtly around his ear and near invisible to an observer.
"What?" Kamina muttered "What's up with Gurren?"
"It keeps moving. Are you controlling it? Because I can't get a shot at that swordsman right now."
"What the hell?" yelled Kamina, drawing Hiko's attention as he turned to look at his mecha. Gurren was currently standing between the sniper and Hiko, a good hundred feet away from where he'd originally left it. It's cockpit was wide open with no one inside, but was bobbing up and down on its toes like a human.
"Haha! What do you know? He's good for something!" yelled Hiko, bullrushing Kamina. As the pair of men moved, the large robot followed them, staying in between the fighting and the sniper.
XxX
Warning – Lagann Separation imminent, prepare to switch to emergency power.
A loud warning was buzzing through the Dai-Gurren, Simon had ran towards Lagann's dock as soon as he heard Yoko's report.
"Simon, Gurren is being controlled. It's in the way so I can't support Kamina anymore. He's alone out there Simon! Help him!" Yoko had nearly screamed down into her mic as she reported in.
Leeron was currently standing up, standing at the bridge window, trying to view the fight with a small pair of binoculars. Their range was less than Yoko's version (set or pair when talking about Yoko… sounds too much like boobs) air, but were easier to store for general use.
"Listen Yoko, Calm down. I'm giving you my special permission to fire on Gurren to disable it. Now save your man girl!" explained Leeron, making himself loud enough to be heard over her hyperventilation.
All he heard for a few moments was that rapid breathing, but soon he heard a wheezy "Ok…"
Just then, the lights in the room dimmed, lights all around the base going out completely as well as all non-essential systems going offline.
Lagann Separated – Emergency power active.
In the new, quieter bridge, the roar of Lagann's jets was clear as day. Simon himself was piloting it as it flew past the deck window, the thruster jets powered by his will to continue.
"BRO!" was all they heard over the connection to Lagann.
"Yoko, Simon's on his way. Now knock Gurren down!" yelled Leeron
This time, he didn't get a reply, but he did hear several bangs from above.
XxX
Shikamaru felt his connection to Gurren loosen as the leg started to become unresponsive, dragging behind the rest of the machine's puppet-like movements.
'That sniper got the idea quickly…' thought Shikamaru with a frown. 'Too late though.'
Gurren crashed down to the floor, its large body making a shield from Yoko's shots, but it was now an immobile one again. Not that it helped the situation.
Hiko had Kamina on the floor again, behind the downed Gurren. A low roar was the only sound between the two as they regarded each other. Fuyutsuki, Hiko's blade, was caressing the younger man's neck, the blade cutting an ever so fine line along its path.
"You know what kid, you could have become great. Dedicate yourself less to that machine and more to the sword, you might have even touched me. I mean, if I didn't have twenty years' experience and the world's best style on my side. Too bad kid, the world won't miss you."
"BRO!" came a loud yell from the side as well a loud buzzing. Simon, in Lagann, landed with a crash beside the pair, before pouncing on Hiko. A large drill protruding from the mini-mecha's forehead, the point focussed against Hiko's blade. Hiko jumped off of Kamina as Lagann and Simon pushed him backwards. The samurai leapt backwards and to the side quicker than Lagann could advance, saving his blade in the process.
"Bro, get in!" yelled Simon to Kamina, who picked himself up and looked at Simon angrily from beside Lagann.
"No way Simon, this was a man's fight, you should have let me finish it."
Simon growled loudly
"Bro! This is not time for your fucking manly bullshit! Do you want to die? To leave everyone behind for some petty idea? A man takes responsibility for his decisions, thinks of consequences, who he could be affecting! Now get in and shut up!"
Kamina was taken aback by the outburst, but accepting Simon's argument, he struggled for a second before getting into the small cockpit of Lagann as well.
Simon then turned to Hiko, who was now being joined by Kazuki and Shikamaru, and addressed them.
"I trust you're not going to try anything now? I'm leaving peacefully."
"You attacked me and you think you can leave peacefully?" yelled Shikamaru, sniffing through his broken nose.
"Actually, you attacked us. Kamina was out on a routine patrol when he was attacked and acted in self-defence." lied Simon smoothly, eyeing the trio with distaste "I'm leaving as peacefully as I ever have been. Besides, I'm sure you don't want Lagann's drill to snap that sword of yours. A sword user without a sword would be a shame."
Leaving the group in silence, the small mecha started to walk away. It climbed atop Gurren and started to connect a series of hooks on wires from under pieces of Gurren's armor onto Lagann's back, letting the piloted mecha tow the damaged one. Before leaving the area, Simon turned to face the group again.
"One more thing before I leave, one of my men used the word 'Ultimate' in connection to you all… Care to explain that?" asked Simon, genuine curiosity in his voice.
Hiko was about to comment before Kazuki butted in.
"We're the Ultimate. The winners of this war, in fact we're the ultimate super stars of war"
"The Ultimate Super Stars of War?"
"In fact, that sounds too long." Said Kazuki, shaking his head "We're the Ultimate Stars."
Simon repeated the name to himself a few times, before nodding and continuing on his way, back to the Dai-Gurren.
Hiko then rounded on Kazuki, an expression of fury on his face. Kazuki just looked back at him in semi-confusion.
"What?"
XxX
A/N: Hope you guys enjoyed this first skirmish with the opposition, please read, review, let me know what you think and any criticisms you have. In the meanwhile, anyone who hasn't already should check out the fics from my Beta Lucifer-Allheart, they're all awesome.
Beta Note: Hey everyone, beta'd and approved by Lucifer-Allheart, hope you enjoy the chapter.
