Hello again! Since I'll only be 'deployed' with my class on Sunday, I thought that maybe I could post an extra episode for the week, just to leave you guys with some good taste.
I wanna thank all of you who bothered to read this fic and even stuck with it up until now, seriously, thank you.
Guest: Sorry dude, I guess that it was way too blurry in the last episode, but as McFist said, despite it being one of the best (and last) inventions of Viceroy, it turned out that it only works by having direct contact with the skin. It was proven quite worthless against the ninja, who ironically doesn't show any skin besides the one between his eyes (Not to mention his magical ninja suit's energy provided some sort of mystical defense against the mind control waves).
delphigirl689: She will eventually, and it will be hilarious (I hope). Unfortunately, I can't allow him giving her an upgrade, since she's already seriously powerful as she is. As you could see in the previous chapter, she held her own ground quite well against Randy, despite being in a dangerously dry desert, if I decide to upgrade her, she'll become too powerful for Randy and even his friends to handle.
Chapter ten: Family issues
It was yet another stormy, dark night flight, only this time, while Howard, Julian and Mr. S. Ward Smith were sleeping in their first class seats, Randy was inside the Nomicon, in the paper woods of the Nomicon, speaking with Prime Ninja, also known as Hansuke Norisu.
"I… Don't know what to say… A ninja tournament?" asked Hansuke "Yeah. Apparently the winner gets to become the leader of the entire clan, or something like that" said Randy to him "But why would the council make such a decision, not to mention the timing… This sounds dangerous" said the unsecure Prime Ninja, then whispering something to himself. "Yeah, also I have a question for you…" said Randy "what might that be" asked Hansuke "Well… It seems like all the other participants are going to be direct descendants of the other eight of the Norisu Nine, so… Why isn't your descendant participating in this?" Randy spilled out eventually. Hansuke's eyes immediately turned dark. He turned around and gazed at the paper fields stretching towards infinity, eventually turning back to Randy and removing his mask, much to Randy's surprise. With a small sigh, he began to speak, his voice trembling as painful memories began to surface inside his artificial mind: "I guess it's time I tell you my… Hansuke's story" he said while feeling his throat aching.
"The Nomicon is like a memory chip; when a Ninja finishes his duty, all of his memories, experiences, thoughts, wishes, dreams and emotions as the Ninja become sucked into the Nomicon and become one with it. I myself am no more than a mere shadow of Norisu Hansuke, the first Norisville Ninja, but you already know all of that by now. But as a copy of him, I possess his memories as well, some too painful for a normal human to withstand…" the temple around Randy suddenly began to change, swirling and twisting like water flushed down a toilet, eventually changing their surroundings into an ancient Japanese dojo, hidden within the mountains that surrounded it. A noise was heard above their heads. As Randy and Hansuke looked above them, they saw a bunch of kids- nine, to be precise- playing tag while jumping from branch to branch, as if it was completely normal "Who are those?" asked Randy "That's me and my brothers, in our childhood, playing and laughing without a worry in the world. We grew into a family of mercenaries, assassins that killed for money, we lived a disgraceful life all these years, until…" an explosion was heard. The nine curious kids went towards the sound and so did Randy and Hansuke. As they reach a small city, they spotted what seemed like a person with grey skin, fangs, claws, huge bat wings and a sharp tale. Even though the people spoke Japanese, Randy could understand every word of it. Maybe it was the Nomicon's effect "A Yokai! Run for your lives!" yelled a peasant as the monster breathed fire and burned down a house "We have to do something!" said Randy as he was ready for action, but he was stopped by Hansuke "this isn't real, it's just a memory. Besides, look over there" Hansuke pointed behind them and as Randy turned around, he saw the nine kids coming in the monster's direction.
"Hey, ugly!" yelled a kid who looked just like Hansuke. He threw a rock at the beast, which turned around and flew towards them. The nine young ninjas dispersed and then attacked the monster with peculiar attacks, some of which Randy seemed to recognize: a blue ninja threw ice shurikans at the monster's wings, taking away its ability to fly, a brown ninja used the earth attack to send it flying at the air, a black kunoichi* used shadow step to appear in front of the monster and sent it back down with a front-flip kick and the red ninja that resembled Hansuke kicked the falling monster's face, making the defeated creature to explode in flames "weak…" said an azure ninja who blew his ponytail while laying with his back against a wrecked wall doing nothing "Who's that jerk?" asked Randy "That's the oldest of us brothers, Norisu Ayato" said Hansuke with a glare "Wait, so you're not the oldest?" asked Randy "No, I'm the second to the oldest, but my skills and the fact that I was the last one to survive the Sorcerer's attack granted me the nickname 'the ninth Norisu". A cheering crowd and a fancy and large man who was being carried in a palanquin came to where they were standing "You nine warriors have saved this town (And more importantly, my life) from this horrid monster! What is your name, young lads?" asked the man, as his shaking palanquin carriers lowered him down "Uh… we're…" Hansuke was stuttering, until he was pushed aside by Ayato "We're the Norisu Nine" he said with a voice full of pride, despite his non-existing efforts in the fight against the beast "The Norisu Nine! What an incredible group of people! Say… what do you think about working for me?" said the man with a slick smile on his face. Hearing the offer, the faces of all the nine brothers, including Ayato's, were enlightened "We would love to!" said Hansuke "Great! Now follow me!" said the heavy men as his palanquin carriers were putting inhuman efforts in lifting him on their shoulders again.
The images around Randy began to constantly change around him, showing the nine brothers fighting against different people and creatures as they got older "After we accepted the emperor's offer, we began to work as his bodyguards and an elite ninja force that protected Japan from monsters and evil all around the country, we even fought the Norisu assassin guild who hunted us down for abandoning the clan and it's rules. Having tons of experience that surpassed ours, we were unable to defeat them and went into hiding in different places across the globe; we needed to go to that much of a distance in order to escape from them. Time passed and eventually each one of us, including myself, fell in love and had children, to which each one of us passed down their specialties. While teaching my son, Hideki Norisu and enjoying the peaceful days with my wife, Kate Norisu, I was the happiest man in the world. But of course, fate had other plans for a person who escaped hell like me…"
Once again the scenario changed around them, showing the image of father and son walking together and carrying fish, suddenly noticing with pale faces and wide eyes the explosion that just occurred in the mountains. As they rushed in and saw what was most likely their burning house, they were glaring with deep hatred at the Ninjas who caused the explosion "… What could we do? Rage consumed our mind and spirit, so we charged fueled with our rage at the Norisu assassins, fighting like demons. But while we gained immense power from releasing the chains of reason, we also lost the ability to think straight, and my son was the one who paid the price for it…" as they were raging and killing all the Norisu assassins with their incredible power, one of them who was heavily wounded slowly lifted his bow and took an arrow out of his stomach, his arms trembling as he stretched the arrow across the string, eventually releasing it. In a loud whistle, the arrow pierced the smoke clouds and the air itself, eventually penetrating Hideki's chest. Hideki turned to look at his now father, a single red tear running down his cheek as he fell to the ground with a thud that echoed across the Nomicon. Hansuke snapped right out of it and went to lift his son, yelling at him to wake up and eventually screaming to the starry sky as his son went permanently quiet.
"Wait, your son is dead!? What the juice!?" said Randy, who was having trouble processing the information even before witnessing the shocking event "Yeah, being the embodiment of Hansuke's experience as the Ninja, I can feel his deep pain and sorrow to this day. Suffering from the kind that can drive people crazy" the image around them began to once again change constantly; once it was Hansuke helping his sister, the black ninja, against Norisu assasins in an ancient port, other it was helping Ayato figh them in Ayers Rock at Australia and so on. "After avenging my family and protecting my brothers from the Norisu assassins, we once again united as a clan that would be active against villains across the world, until we came across the sorcerer. One after one my brothers fell, sacrificing themselves and managing to weaken his powers significantly, until only I was left" the image then changed to Hansuke, wearing his Ninja suit and kneeling before eight stone pillars "I was left alone with the task to defeat the sorcerer and avenge my comrades, but this time, the black fire of revenge didn't consume my mind, this time I was ready to do what I had to do in order to protect this world. I probably don't need to tell you how that part of my story ended, since you were there to help me. And after a long time of serving the city that came to be Norisville, I finally quit being the Ninja and entrusted my powers, my essence and my legacy to a trusty ally, continuing to live the rest of my life in the bliss of ignorance, finding love again and even founding a new family" finished Hansuke with a smile that could only be reflected by people who had a hole in their soul filled again with that mysterious essence called 'love''
"Wait, so you DO have descendants! Why not pass the Nomicon to them? They'll be more fit for the job" said Randy "Because I'll only hurt the reborn me by putting such heavy duty on his family once again. But… There IS something that might catch your interest" said Prime Ninja as suddenly the roof began to collapse in the paper dimension they were. Suddenly, a bunch of roots dropped from the sky, reaching their position. Randy could see Hansuke's face on a paper on top of the main root, then seeing the faces of his kids, grandkids and a couple more generations filled with faces from different races and backgrounds; he saw an Afro-American sailor, a British cop and even a Chinese biker, but his pupils shrunk to atomic size as he saw the last two generations which's roots extended to the floor. Randy's jaw dropped to the floor as he recognized the pictures; on the top two there was the image of a beautiful woman with tyrian purple hair and emerald eyes sparkling with energy and the image of a robust man with black hair, sapphire blue eyes, a round beard and a soft smile that seemed too bright to look at. On the bottom picture, there was the image of a young teenage at his late 14's, with spiky tyrian pruple hair, sapphire blue eyes and had the face of someone who's main purpose in life was to have fun and live his teenage years to the fullest- it was none other than Randy Cunnigham.
For a second Randy thought the background around him was going to change again, only to realize it was his own head that was spinning and ready to black out from the overload of information flowing to his brain "Wha- Why is…? When did… How?"
"Destiny, Randy. You were meant to follow this path centuries before you even existed, which is also why I'm worried about this insanely shady ninja tournament and it's horrible timing" Hansuke then grabbed his shoulders firmly, as if preventing him from fainting, and looked at Randy with serious eyes "Listen to me, you must be very careful. Whatever happens, no matter the circumstances, you must NOT trust the other ninjas, for there's no knowing what happened in the clan that caused this. Understood?" he asked with a tone that gave Randy the chills "Understood" said Randy with a shaking tone "...Don't worry, it'll all be fine, after all, you're my greatest pupil" said Hansuke with a reassuring voice while patting on Randy's shoulder.
And with that, the plane's wheels began to rub against the asphalt as their flight landed on the grounds of Tokyo, Japan.
Welp, guess I'll see you sometime around November next time. So until then, see ya!