Chapter 9
A Chatorans went to draw his sword, but, before it could clear its sheath, Gin was upon him. The feline's teeth went flying as the samurai's boken smashed him in the face, violently snapping his head around. Gin was already moving towards his next target before the anthropomorphic cat fell to the ground, limp. He swung his wooden sword in a long sweeping arc, hitting two others in that yielded similar results. The silver-haired man turned and, following up in the same motion, threw his weapon at a fourth Amanto. The boken spun, end over end, and hit him in the throat, causing him to fall to the ground choking.
Tsukuyo, one step behind Gin, threw one of her kunai while on a dead run, hitting a Chatoran in the chest. Before the man could fall to the ground, she charged forward and kicked him in the torso, retrieving her kunai at the same time. One of the faster Chatorans slashed at her with his katana. She arched backwards, watching the blade flash over her face. She dropped to the ground and kicked the man's feet out from under him. She rolled quickly to her feet, striking the throat of another man who came up behind her with a kunai. She jumped over the Chatoran she had knocked to the ground, who was just getting to his feet, and caught the left sleeve of her kimono around his neck. Another Chatoran charged Tsukuyo with his sword raised over his head, looking to slice her in two. She danced away from the attack, spinning the cat man she had caught in her sleeve into his comrade's blade.
Gin bent to pick up the Katana of the first Chatoran he took out. As he stood, he slashed up at the Amanto nearest to him, cutting him down. Another jumped at him from above. He deftly parried the man's attack and ran him through. He turned and cut down the Amanto closest to him and, as the man fell, he saw two more coming at Tsukuyo from behind. He was about to call out a warning when he saw her dance between them and, almost faster than the eye could follow, delivered three lethal strikes to each of them before throwing a kunai in Gin's direction. It whizzed past his ear, killing the man who was about to attack him from behind. They come together and turned back to back to face the onslaught of enemies looking to kill them.
After seeing their comrades quickly being taken out, still numbering more than Gin could count conveniently, the rest approached the duo more cautiously. One of the Amanto leaders made a few hand gestures and they fanned out. They carefully surrounded Gin and Tsukuyo and kept their distance from the pair.
"It looks like you owe me lunch after this, Gintoki," the blond kunoichi taunted him. "I just saved your miserable life."
"Just don't get yourself killed before then or I'll eat and drink both our share. I'm going to buy some good beef too and make a hot-pot. It would be pretty sad if you missed out just because you got yourself killed by one of these losers."
"Haha, you said it," she laughed. "I'm going to hold you to that promise."
"Enough!" the Amanto commander yelled pointing his katana at the pair. "Attack!"
The Amanto rushed at them from all sides. Gin charged into the fray, swinging his katana seemingly chaotically, but took several of them out before reaching the wall of the warehouse. He jumped and kicked himself off the wall, flipping over the attack from one of the Chatoran behind him. He grabbed the wrist of the man's sword arm and threw him to his right, into the man's comrades. A Chatoran attacked from the left side and Gin kicked his sword away and cut down yet another attacking alongside him.
Tsukuyo threw a kunai from each hand taking out a pair of Amanto that were charging her. With a flick of the wrist she drew a couple more kunai and rolled to her left, ducking under a katana. She lashed out, stabbing one man's inner thigh and ripped it viciously as she spun to her feet and kicked the man aside the head. To her left a man charged her. She dodged nimbly, but winced in pain as she felt the man's katana bite into her arm. She quickly rolled forward as another man attacked from behind her. As she came up she turned and threw her kunai, hitting the men the neck. She jumped backwards in a flip, wrapping her legs around the head of an Amanto's behind her, snapped his neck and flipped back on her feet, rearmed with a fresh pair of kunai.
A loud groan echoed through the warehouse as the bay door started to open. Gin and Tsukuyo were not the only ones caught by surprise. The Chatoran were also taken aback, frozen momentarily in shock, by this sudden interruption. Standing there were two men armed with katana and a woman with a scar down her face who was wielding a pair of wakizashi. Right away Gin recognized Ryuu and Saotome. He could only assume that the woman was Saotome's sister, Kyoko.
"It looks like you were right, dear," the woman told Ryuu sweetly. She pointed one of her wakizashi at Ren and smirked, "Ren-chan here was trying to frame you. I think I may have to give him a little make over by running this blade through his throat."
Saotome gave her a disgusted look. "I can't take you anywhere without you embarrassing me, Onee-san. Can't you learn to act more civilized?"
"Calm down, Takaki," Kazuma chuckled to his friend. "She isn't going to change and besides, I like her just the way she is and, this time, I happen to agree with her." The last part he said with an edge to his voice.
The three of them charged into the building to join the clash against the Amanto. Ryuu and Saotome cut their way through several of the cat men. Kyoko covered their backs as they pushed their way into the throng of enemies, deftly parrying each incoming attack and riposting in a whip like fashion with her off-hand wakizashi. The three of them worked together seamlessly to take down Chatoran after Chatoran.
Gin and Tsukuyo took advantage of the distraction that their new apparent allies had given them and quickly regrouped. A cursory survey told Gin that the Chatoran numbers were rapidly dwindling. This fight had not gone the way that the Chatoran had hoped with more than half of them dead and even more badly wounded.
"Oy, I'll help clean up here. You make sure that damn blacksmith doesn't run away," the silver-haired man told Tsukuyo.
The blond ninja nodded in agreement. She spied her target, Ren, on the far side of the warehouse. He had his hammer like mace in hand, but was looking upon the battle with trepidation. With most of the attention now on the three newcomers Tsukuyo was able to more easily move about the warehouse.
Ren noticed Tsukuyo just as she was upon him and was just able deflect the kunai she had thrown at him with his hammer. He felt a sharp pain in his leg as the second kunai she had thrown found its mark. The blacksmith's face flushed with rage and he screamed out in pain. He charged at her and swung his heavy weapon with the ease that most people would a sword.
Tsukuyo nimbly jumped out of range of the hammer. She reached behind her back and drew the two tanto sheathed there. Before she could counter with her own attack, Ren had already followed through with his next attack. She had to roll to her left to avoid being hit and, just as she sprung back up to her feet, she had to duck under another powerful swing that almost took her head off. The last attack caused her to slip and her center of balance shifted awkwardly as she tried to keep herself from falling. She didn't think that Ren was going to come quietly but she didn't expect him to attack her so ferociously.
Ren saw an opening and brought his mace down as hard as he could, trying to crack her head open like a walnut. Ren knew that Tsukuyo had played him when she instantly recovered from her stumble and dodged his attack. His hammer awkwardly stuck the cement floor, sending vibrations up the handle of his weapon, causing his hands to sting. The kunoichi lashed out with her right leg and kicked him on the side of his right knee. She heard a satisfying crunch and the big man cried out in pain. As he started to collapse she kicked his hands free of his hammer and sent a straight kick at his head.
Unbelievably, Tsukuyo found herself flying through the air. The blacksmith had grabbed her foot and swung her around like she were a doll. She crashed hard into the wall of the building. Her head was spinning from the impact and she was having trouble catching her breath. There was a sharp pain in her side. She was sure that she had broken a rib or two. She could see two images of Ren rip the kunai she had thrown at him out of his leg and start to limp over towards her. Tsukuyo struggled to get to her feet. Her right leg hurt to stand on so she had to use the wall as support. She couldn't find her tanto as her head started to clear and the two Rens merged into one menacing man, slowly coming towards her, armed with her kunai.
"One more…" Ren's was breathing heavely as he closed the distance between them. "One more whore to add to the list. I will kill you with your own knife, bitch."
The man reached out with his hand, grabbed Tsukuyo by the neck and lifted her off her feet. The mad look in his eyes sent a shiver down her spine as he lifted the kunai threateningly. Tsukuyo knew two things in that moment. That this man was completely insane and that she sure as hell wasn't going to die because of this half-baked lunatic. She grabbed his wrist with one hand and with her other took one of the small kunai she used to pin her hair and, with as much power as she could muster, stabbed it into the hand around her neck.
Ren flinched back in pain, dropping Tsukuyo to the floor. He looked from his hand to her and opened him mouth, "You fu…" A blade emerged from the front of his throat and cut him off. He reached up to grab it, his face showing his disbelief at what had just happened. The blade slowly slid back out of his neck and he fell to the floor dead. Behind him, knelt over Ren's body, Kyoko was wiping his blood off of her wakazashi with his shit.
"So, was it as beautiful as I imagined it would be?" Kyoko asked the half-dazed kunoichi as she sheathed her blades.
"What?" Tsukuyo answered, still not sure what was going on.
"The look on his face when my wakazashi slid through his throat, was it as beautiful as I pictured it being? It's too bad I had to attack him from behind. I so wish I could have seen it myself." Kyoko smiled brightly at Tsukuyo. "I hope we get to talk more again." The woman turned, waved over towards Ryuu and Saotome and yelled as she ran back to them, "He's dead and the blond chick is mostly still alive!"
"Eh, looks like the four of them have trained themselves pretty ragged these years. I would have thought that you could have taken Ren without almost dying, but it seems I was wrong. I should have fought him myself it seems," Gin told her dryly as he knelt by her side. She hadn't noticed him there until just then.
Tsukuyo looked around and it appeared that the Chatoran had surrendered. The few that were still standing were checking to see if any of their comrades still lived. "I don't know what you're talking about Gintoki. If I had let you fight him he would have killed you three times over," she said with an exhausted smile.
"Can you stand up?"
"I don't think so. My ankle hurts and I think I broke a couple of ribs," she answered him.
Gin gently touched her sides and she winced in pain. "Yeah you did. Ryuu offered to give us a ride to the hospital in his carriage." Gin slid his arms under her knees and shoulders and lifted Tsukuyo.
"Gintoki! What are you doing? Put me down," her face flushed in embarrassment and she started to kick her legs in protest.
"Oi, hold still or I'll drop you, dumbass."
Ryuu, Kyoko and her brother watched Gin and Tsukuyo bicker the way out of the warehouse. "Hey dear, they remind me of use back when we were fifteen years old," Kyoko giggled to her husband. "I hope that someday thay can know the happiness we have."
END
I would like to thank everyone who read this fic. I hope you all enjoyed it.
