Chapter 9
Rioichi slowly opened his eyes, running his fingers through his fur. He turned his head to see Asami's sleeping form next to him. Last night's events ran through his mind, he wasn't sure why he and Asami slept together, he guessed they both did it out relief from being reunited. He slowly slipped out of the futon, not wanting to wake his wife, and put on his martial arts uniform. He walked into the main room of the hideout to see Bentley working on a small RC car.
Small sparks flew as he attached wires to the small car, he was setting it up with a listening device so they could get more information from El Jefe.
Rioichi looked around the hideout and noticed the absence of his descendant. Turned out Sly had left to gather information on when El Jefe would be visiting Madame Geisha.
"There it's finished!" Bentley proclaimed as he examined his handy work.
"To make sure I am correct about this, Bentley-san, that device should allow us to listen to that tiger?" Rioichi said.
The green turtle nodded before replying "I've set up this RC car with a microphone that will transmit recordings to my satellite set up on my wheelchair. El Jefe won't suspect a thing since I've even set up the RC car with a disguise function."
Rioichi nodded in understanding.
Just then Sly returned to the hideout, taking off the heavy samurai armor he had used to gather information from the guards. He set the armor to the side before walking up to Bentley and Rioichi.
"Okay I did some information digging and according to the guards El Jefe will be visiting Madame Geisha tonight." he said.
"That's perfect! The plan is now set, I'll follow El Jefe with my RC car, gathering information from him, and Murray will meet him at the Geisha House dressed up as Madame Geisha." Bentley said.
Everyone understood their parts and began preparing for the next step.
Asami after she had woken up and got redressed, warned Murray about how men are toward Geisha and that he would need to keep his guard up around El Jefe otherwise he'll find out he's not Madame Geisha the hard way. Rioichi and Sly decided they would watch by rooftop, to make sure that nothing went wrong. Finally night fall had arrived and the plan was now ready to be set in motion.
Bentley made his way to a building next to a Geisha House and using a drum he hopped up on the roof top. He spotted El Jefe standing on the bridge, letting out a long stream of smoke out of his mouth before placing the cigar back in his mouth. After following him with the RC car, he discovered that El Jefe was hiding out at his statue fortress, the location of the switches to the dragon gate, the fact the guards are easily distracted by sushi, and he needed Rioichi for some reason. Seeing El Jefe approach the doors to the Geisha House once more, Bentley gave Murray the signal to move in.
The pink hippo adjusted his wig, took in a deep breath, and reminding himself to act as feminine as possible before approaching the male tiger.
"Konnichiwa, Jefe-san." Murray said with a bow.
El Jefe grinned thinking the pink hippo to be Madame Geisha that he was waiting for.
"Greetings Madame Geisha!" he said before taking Murray's hand and kissing it.
Murray did his best not to be grossed out by the action, he noticed some scrolls on El Jefe's back. Quietly and making sure he didn't move around a lot, he grabbed the scrolls and tossed them to Bentley.
The green turtle was surprised when he saw the scrolls were actually blueprints detailing about Rioichi's cane, leaving Bentley to wonder why El Jefe's boss would want Rioichi's cane. Bentley gave Murray a thumbs up for getting the scrolls and he gave one back.
El Jefe finally stopped kissing Murray's hand before stepping to the side to allow the pink hippo to enter the building first. An unsure frown formed on Murray's face as he remembered what Asami said about how men are toward Geisha. Though before he entered the Geisha House the male tiger actually smacked him on the rear. Murray yelped out both in surprise and pain as he gave a fake grin, secretly getting more worried by the second.
Bentley was fixing to leave till to his surprise Murray came running out of the Geisha House as fast as he could, he ran up to Bentley with a panicked look on his face.
"Murray you're supposed to be getting information from El Jefe!" Bentley exclaimed.
"I know, but Asami showed up saying she was going to do it!" Murray replied.
The green turtle's mouth dropped open in shock, he couldn't believe what he had just heard.
Inside Asami was in her geisha attire, waving her paper fan in front of her face as she winked at El Jefe. She kept worrying about the tiger finding out Murray wasn't Madame Geisha, so she decided to pose as a geisha that Madame Geisha assigned to entertain El Jefe while she left to attend important matters. She danced a circle around El Jefe, waving her fan in different directions, trying to make the male tiger so attracted to her that he would tell her anything.
El Jefe grinned as he took a long smoke of his cigar, watching as the female raccoon continued her seductive dance. Asami figured that it was the perfect time to start interrogating the male tiger, she brushed her tail against his face as she gave a fake seductive look.
"So what brings you to this village, Jefe-san?" she asked, holding her fan in front of her face.
"I'm on important business for my boss, he guarantees me a powerful army if I do what he says." El Jefe answered with a grin.
Asami hid her growing smirk behind her paper fan, figuring it would be easier than she thought to get information out of of the male tiger. She moved closer to El Jefe running her fingers along his shoulders, she was honestly was surprised that El Jefe didn't recognize her with the makeup on her face. She grabbed him by the collar of his shirt up pulled him close where there faces were mere inches apart, for the first time in her life she was thankful for the techniques she learned as a maiko.
"I'm curious, Jefe-san, who is your boss? I never see him around." she said as she curled her tail around his waist.
This action shocked El Jefe so much that he actually dropped the cigar out of his mouth, causing it to fall on the floor. He thought to himself about how he had no idea that geisha could be straight forward with men. Asami traced her fingers down El Jefe's chest. She could feel the tiger's warm breath on her face, she reminded herself that she needed to get the information from El Jefe.
"I'll tell you if you give me something in return." El Jefe smirked as he forcefully grabbed Asami by the waist.
The female raccoon's eyes widened in fear, she knew exactly what was going through the male tiger's mind. She shoved him away only to get grabbed by her wrists, fear begin filling her just like on the night of her mizuage. She struggled and fought with El Jefe, trying to free herself from his iron grip. Annoyed El Jefe forcefully grabbed the female raccoon by her hair, ignoring the yell of pain she let out when he grabbed a fistful of her hair. This action caused the chopsticks in her hair to fall out, making her hair fall to it's true length. El Jefe eyes widen in shock for a few moments before finally he narrowed them in anger, he now was able to recognize Asami as Rioichi's wife. He cleaned the makeup off of her face before grabbing her by the neck and lifting her off of the ground.
Asami chocked as her hands clung onto El Jefe's arm, trying to free her neck from the male tiger's iron grip.
"Should of known you were asking too many questions. Now I will ask you a question, where is that blasted Rioichi Cooper?" El Jefe snarled.
Asami kicked her legs around as she desperately tried to get air to her lungs, she refused to tell El Jefe anything, even if it meant sacrificing her life.
The male tiger snarled in anger when he the female raccoon refusing to cooperate. Just then a dark grin formed on El Jefe's face as he came up with an idea. He dropped Asami on the ground, only to take one of his swords off of his back and press it against her neck.
"If you're here that means Rioichi has to be nearby." he said.
With the sword still pressed against her neck, El Jefe guided Asami outside of the Geisha House. The male tiger's eyes scanned the area, searching for any signs of the certain male red panda raccoon.
"Cooper, I have your mate here! If you don't show yourself I will do many unpleasant things to her!" El Jefe yelled.
Rioichi who was hiding in the trees clenched his fists in conflict upon hearing wanted to save Asami, but if he surrendered the Cooper Clan would be in danger. If he didn't give himself up El Jefe would do unspeakable things to Asami. He took in a deep sigh, remembering how even his mother was met with a difficult decision and that was whether she valued her life or her family more. He thought about how she actually chose to sacrifice her own life in order to insure he would continue living. He turned toward his descendant Sly, the gray raccoon silently nodded his head, already knowing what Rioichi needed to do. Without a word Rioichi jumped down from his perch in the tree, revealing himself to El Jefe.
"Ha I knew you would show yourself, Cooper, if I threatened you precious mate!" El Jefe laughed as he pushed his sword more against Asami's neck.
"Rioichi don't do what he says, I'm not worth it!" Asami yelled in a pleaded tone.
This caused Asami to get slap across the face by El Jefe, telling her to be quiet.
Rioichi clenched his fist, but he knew better to try anything since El Jefe had the upper hand at the moment. He had no idea that he was being watched by none other than Kenta Le Paradox.
The skunk smirked at the site of Rioichi sacrificing himself in order to save his wife. Kenta never did believe in the idea of love; his father had taught him to manipulate others rather than to love. The male skunk thought about if he was in a similar situation with his own wife, he would actually abandon her because the only reason he married her so was that she could bear his children. Now that she had given him two sons he could care less for her, the only reason he kept her around was so she could take care of the boys since he didn't want to do it himself. His green eyes studied the sight before him, curious of how it would play out.
Asami's lip was quivering from the slap she had received from El Jefe, she never had intended for everything to happen, she was only trying to protect Murray. She stared at Rioichi with eyes full of regret and apology for allowing herself to get caught.
"What do you want from me, El Jefe?" Rioichi yelled.
Using his free hand El Jefe grasped his cigar firmly, taking a large inhale of the smoke before exhaling the stream of smoke on Asami's face, ignoring her coughs caused by this action. He finally pointed his index toward Rioichi's cane.
"I'm under orders to claim your cane. Now if you hand it over I will release your mate, if not I don't think I need to tell you what will happen." El Jefe said in a stern tone.
Rioichi glanced down at his cane that he had carved from a tree all those years ago; he didn't understand why the person El Jefe was working for wanted his cane. But he dismissed these thoughts when he remembered the situation at hand; with a deep sigh he began to approach El Jefe.
The male tiger grinned in victory as he begin slowly moving the sword away from Asami's neck.
Sly tightly gripped his cane, he couldn't stand to see his ancestors suffer any longer. Without warning he jumped down from his hiding place, landing firmly on his two feet in front of the male tiger. El Jefe didn't have time to react because Sly had already reached into his pack and threw down a smoke pellet, engulfing the area in smoke.
Seeing the opportunity Rioichi used his cane to knock the sword out of El Jefe's hand and pull Asami out of the male tiger's iron grip. The three raccoons began running as quickly as possible, seeing El Jefe call up the guards. As they ran Rioichi reached into his pack, pulling out a few ninja stars, he quickly threw the ninja stars at three boar guards, killing them upon contact. Some crane guards on the roof loaded their arch bows and fired arrows at them. Luckily the three raccoons managed to swiftly dodge each and every arrow.
Sly's brown eyes managed to spot the entrance of the hideout quickly approaching, but he knew they couldn't enter it otherwise the guards would see where they have been hiding. Thinking fast he turned on his communicator ear piece.
"Hey Bentley think you can help us out?" he asked.
"Already got it covered Sly." the green turtle said as he activated the RC helicopter.
He flew the small helicopter over the three fleeing raccoons and dropped smoke bombs around their area. The guards came to a screeching halt when they saw the area in front of them covered in thick smoke. They looked around for the three raccoons they were pursuing, but were unable to see anything through the thick smoke, allowing the three raccoons to successfully escape into the hideout.
Asami let out a sigh of relief, glad to be back in the safety of the hideout once more.
Murray who had fallen asleep at the table opened his eyes with a snort but quickly stood up when he saw Sly and the others were back.
"Asami, ah great you're okay. I was worried when you had volunteered to take my place but it looks like you guys managed to get out alright!" Murray said as he tightly hugged Asami
"It was a very close one, Murray-san, El Jefe managed to eventually recognize me and used me to try to capture Rioichi. Though thankfully Sly managed to step in when he did and help save me." Asami explained.
"That's true, but I still don't know why El Jefe needed Rioichi's cane." Sly said.
"Actually I can answer that. "Bentley started as he entered the hideout, "These blueprints Murray managed to get from El Jefe detail some sort of plan involving the Cooper Clan's canes. Whoever is behind all this is wanting to gather all of the canes for an unknown purpose."
Kenta Le Paradox walked down the hallways of his descendant's blimp, impressed with the technology before him. He entered the main room of the blimp to see a female pink mouse with blond hair, wearing a red bandanna black gloves and shoes, orange glasses, and a yellow jumpsuit. She would occasionally glanced at some blue prints as she worked hard on building an unknown machine.
"Ah, Penelope, I see you're almost done with the project I asked you to build." Cyrille Le Paradox said as he approached the female mouse.
Penelope sat up, dusting off her yellow jumpsuit. She adjusted her glasses before turning toward the male skunk.
"Yes but remember you need at least five power sources from different time eras in order to activate the machine." she explained.
Cyrille grinned, placing his hand underneath Penelope's chin, causing the female mouse to blush at this. She had to admit that the skunk was quite the charmer. It was because of his charming ways that she willingly joined him. She planned that if she encounters Bentley to breaking his heart she would tell him that she did it to raise money for the both of them.
Kenta couldn't help, but snicker when he saw the female mouse was actually charmed when she was actually a fool. The one thing the Le Paradox Clan was good at was manipulating others.
"Very good, Penelope, you have a bright future, but remember do not fail me or you might find yourself stranded in time." Cyrille said.
Penelope bit her lip nervously as she slowly nodded her head. With that Cyrille let go of her chin to allowed her to return to completing the project. When he turned he spotted his Japanese ancestor waiting for him, with a grin he walked up to him.
"So everything is going to plan no?" he asked as he tapped his fingers together.
"Yes, El Jefe guarantees that he will deliver you Rioichi's cane soon. Though I suggested to send in your army just in case the fool fails." Kenta replied.
Cyrille nodded as he turned away from his ancestor, he glanced at the machine Penelope was building.
"Soon with the five Cooper canes I will be able to power the machine and then my revenge will be complete." he said with grin before letting out a small laugh. Everything was falling into place for him.
