Chapter 10

There was no movement whatsoever at first. Lyle, Genis, Sheena, and Kuchinawa just stood there, staring at each other. Lyle wondered what exactly he was doing. Why isn't he attacking them? Lyle looked at the other two, expecting them to strike first. Genis seemed about as combat ready as he could be, but Sheena seemed a little shaken. Her eyes were focused intently on him, but she was breathing a little heavier than normal.

A very tense moment passed before Sheena finally said, "What do you want?"

"It's been a long time, Sheena. I heard that Chief Igaguri is nearly dead and that you were going to accept your position as Chief."

"How'd you know about that?"

"A member of my squad overheard the conversation between Marta and Lyle here."

Lyle stepped forward with the sword still held out in front of him. "How could you have done that? Colette was right next door."

Kuchinawa sighed. "You haven't figured it out yet, have you? Not even the Chosen's ears can hear us as was demonstrated in the previous battle."

"Stop gloating, Kuchinawa," Sheena said. "It doesn't suit you. Why are you after Lloyd?"

Kuchinawa turned to her and said, "That is none of your business. I came to deliver a message."

"Spit it out, already!"

"It's not for you." Kuchinawa turned away from her and settled his eyes on the redhead.

Lyle subconsciously tensed up and tightened his grip on the hilt of the blade. "What's the message?"

"I came to deliver a warning. It is true that our target is Lloyd, but we have come across someone of equal value. You."

Lyle let the blade fall to the ground, but he still kept a firm grip on the hilt. "Me? Why? What makes me such a threat?"

"Because you passed the test."

Lyle gulped. "What test?"

Kuchinawa continued as if he didn't hear him. "I want you to understand that there is nothing you can do against us. You can run, but we will catch you. You can hide, but we will find you. You can fight, but we will kill you. No matter what you do, how far you travel, how deep in the shadows you go; we will hunt you down and slice your throat."

Lyle had to admit that he was really intimidated. But then he realized something. "If there is nothing I can do against you, then why do you consider me to be as big a threat as Lloyd?"

"My message has been delivered."

"Oh, so I got you there, huh? Perhaps I do stand a chance against you after all."

"Don't get overconfident."

"So you're going to stop ignoring me? A shame, really. You were doing so well."

"I have one last piece of advice for you."

"And he's back on track! Give him a round of applause, folks!" Lyle stuck the blade into the floor and clapped mockingly.

Kuchinawa remained silent for a moment. Lyle wondered if perhaps going sarcastic on him wasn't such a good idea. But then he spoke, "You…remind me of an old friend. Or rather how he used to be."

"Who?"

But he resumed ignoring him. "My advice is this. Your family no longer needs any involvement here. It would be best if you sent them far away."

Lyle couldn't believe what he was hearing. First Kuchinawa tries to intimidate him, and all of a sudden, he's trying to help him? What's going on here?

"Why are you telling me this? And what's stopping you from killing them while they're away?"

"You have my word that they will not be harmed."

Lyle shook his head. "You don't seriously think I'll believe you. You bound our wrists and ankles and you attacked and nearly killed all of us. What makes you think I'm going to start trusting you?"

"Because you have no choice. Whether I'm telling the truth or not, you need to send your family away. If they stay, they'll be killed."

"You make it sound as if I'm not going to be among them."

"I don't think I need to repeat my warning. You need not worry; I will keep Kuchinawa off of them."

Lyle frowned. "But you're Kuchinawa…" Kuchinawa suddenly seemed to be caught off guard. Before he could say anything more, Lyle continued, "You're not him. Who are you?"

He disappeared in a puff of smoke. Once it cleared, standing in his place was the unknown assassin. "Alright, you caught me. I fail to see why I should keep up this charade anymore, anyway."

"Why were you disguised as Kuchinawa?"

"I felt that I would be more intimidating if I was Kuchinawa."

"Uh-huh…." Lyle saw Sheena sneaking up from behind him. "Exactly how valuable is your word?"

"It's value is equal to my honor as an assassin."

"Honor? There is honor in what you do?"

The assassin sighed. "There is honor in every assassin. Some more than others. I'm one of the former. I promise you. Your family will not be harmed."

Sheena suddenly took out a string of what appeared to be pieces of paper and threw them around the assassin. They created a barrier that prevented him from moving. Then she drew the knife she had strapped to her back and jumped on him, driving the blade into his neck. Because she penetrated his artery, blood spewed all over Sheena, the walls, and the floor.

Of course, just like before the assassin and the blood disappeared in a puff of smoke and then reappeared in the corner. "I knew you were going to do that. It's only natural." He reached into one of his pockets and drew out four pieces of similar paper. Then, with one swift motion, he threw all four against the wall close to the stalagmite. Without looking at Lyle he said, "Remember my warning…and my advice."

He then performed two hand signs. Somehow, with that, the paper started sizzling and was set ablaze at the bottom end. Then, with that all too familiar hand sign, he disappeared. Why are those papers sizzling? How did he do that with just-?

"LYLE, GET OVER HERE, NOW!" Sheena shouted, interrupting his thoughts. Lyle didn't hesitate to pull his sword out of the floor and run in her direction. On the way, he saw Genis' kendama on the ground and scooped it up. As he came closer, Sheena pulled out a single card. She raised it above her head and suddenly all three were enveloped in smoke.

All three reappeared on the ground. Lyle couldn't stop himself in time and ran right into Sheena. Both were thrown off their feet and onto the street with Lyle on top. "Ow…. Are you alright, Lyle?"

"Me? I landed on you. Are you alright?"

"Um…" She suddenly grew very uncomfortable. "Fine. Can you please get off me now?"

"Alright, alright, fine." Lyle rolled off of her and stood back up, followed by Sheena. He looked up and saw the house still dangling off of the stalagmite at an angle steeper than he first thought. Something looked really odd about it, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. "Uh, Sheena? Why did you make it sound like we were about to die when nothing happened?"

"Those were explosives, Lyle. They were about to go off."

"Wait. Explosives? Pieces of paper? That blow up?" Lyle sighed. "Nothing in life makes sense anymore."

"But they haven't gone off, yet. Why?"

"Is it possible that they were fakes?" Right as Lyle finished asking that, the house suddenly blew up near the stalagmite. Pieces of rock, wood, and plaster shot out in every direction. The rest of the house plummeted down to the ground, crushing itself upon impact.

As soon as everything settled back down again, Sheena answered, "No."

"You know," Lyle observed, "I could almost literally feel that coming. No, I'm serious, if I wanted to I could've said, 'BOOM!' if I really wanted to."

"You said 'wanted to' twice," he heard a voice behind him. Lyle turned around and the Symphonians and his family safe and sound. Luckily, everyone was smart enough to get away. The one who spoke was Lloyd. "Glad to see you guys made it out okay."

"Well…we're okay. How's your arm?"

Zelos was still out cold, but it appeared that Colette had regained consciousness. Lloyd was sitting on the sidewalk while Jane, Martin, and Luke were in their own little group, but not too far away. "Better. Marta set it a couple minutes ago. The pain was unimaginable, but it vanished quickly. It's still a little sore, though."

"I see. That's great news!"

"Anyway, what happened? How did the house explode?"

"The assassin paid a little visit."

Sheena interrupted, "Not to be rude or anything, but we need to get out of here before they come back. We can explain everything later."

"I agree," Genis said. "But to where? They'll probably be expecting us to go back to Lyle's house. Is there another place we could stay?"

"I doubt they would be setting up an ambush. They may have inflicted heavy damage on us, but we did the same to them, remember? Colette, you sent three feathers through the fake. Marta, you cut up that assassin pretty badly."

Marta, who was making sure the bandage over Zelos' deep wound was nice and tight, stood up. "Wait a second. First of all, how did you know about those fights? Second of all, if you knew what was going on, why didn't you help? Third of all, that assassin received only a 'scratch' as he called it and Kuchinawa completely overpowered us. Not to mention that we'll put Lyle and his family in danger. They'll probably be going after them to take them hostages. What makes you think they won't strike again?"

"I didn't say that they won't strike again. My instincts tell me that they will lick our wounds while we lick ours. And about your battles, I was watching everything from a distance. My training as a ninja told me that it wasn't the right time to attack."

"It wasn't the right time to attack?" Genis asked. "You didn't show up until after the battle was over."

Sheena remained silent for a moment. What is she thinking about? Suddenly she said, "Fine! I didn't want to admit this, but here's the whole story. I watched all of you fight from a distance and decided to wait for an opportunity to strike out at one of the assassins. Because of my brilliant deduction, I let all of you get hurt and allow all of the bad guys to get away. There! I said it! Are you happy now? Good! Now can we get going?"

Sheena walked past everyone and without turning to face them. The entire group was silent and simply stared at her back. Marta's questions were justifiable, but they couldn't help but feel a little guilty. Perhaps they pushed a little too far.

Lyle ran up to her. "Sheena, wait!" He placed his hand on her shoulder comfortingly. She stopped, but she didn't turn around or say a single word. "Sheena," he began, "have you considered the fact that maybe you didn't strike because you couldn't find an opportunity? If you came in at the wrong time, the results could've been disastrous. Well, more so than it is already. Perhaps you did the right thing." Sheena still remained silent so Lyle said, "I'm sorry. I know that this isn't exactly helping…"

"No," was all she said.

Lyle lowered his arm. "Then I'm sorry. I wish I was a lot better at this." He turned around to face the others.

"That's not what I meant." Lyle whipped back around to see that Sheena finally turned to face him. Lyle had to admit that he was really impressed. There was very little emotion showing on her face. Not even a tear. But he could still feel what she was going through. "What I meant to say was, 'No, it is helping.' Thank you, Lyle."

He smiled. "I said I would help in any way I could, right?"

"Yeah, you did." With that said, she turned to the others. "Anyway, back on our previous discussion. Genis is right. Going back to Lyle's house isn't safe."

"What's with the sudden change of mind?" Genis asked.

"Marta proved her point."

"I see…" Lyle could tell from his tone that he wasn't convinced at all. Sheena seemed to notice it as well, but she didn't address it.

Lyle suddenly remembered something. "Wait a second! Jason's parents are up at my house. We can't leave them there."

"I'll get them," Colette said, weakly. She tried sitting up, but couldn't and ended up lying back down.

"It's okay, Colette," Sheena said. "I'll get them. I'm the least hurt of all of you."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive. What about the rest of you?"

Marta said, "The first thing I think we should do is find some surgical equipment and medical supplies."

Jane spoke up. "There's a hospital not too far from here. That should have something."

"Great! Let's go there."

There was no argument from anybody. Lloyd stood up. "It's settled, then. Let's go." They decided that Martin and Lloyd should be the ones to pick up the two wounded. Since Lloyd was the stronger one, he picked up Zelos. Martin picked up Colette easily enough.

Lyle could tell that he was a little embarrassed, but Lloyd didn't complain.

Martin looked directly at Colette and asked, smiling and raising his eyebrows, "Come here often?"

She responded, "Uh, no. This is my first time here."

He chuckled a little. "Actually, I was…no, forget it. I was only kidding, anyway."

Lyle was just about to ask, "Do you have to hit on every pretty face that you see?" It was at this moment that Lyle temporarily forgot that technically, Martin held some power over him since he was the oldest brother.

Sheena stayed with them for a couple of minutes. Right before they split off, she asked, "How do I get to the hospital from here?"

Jane pointed down the street. "Keep going down this way. Make a left turn at the second street down and then a right at the first street you come across. You won't be able to miss it." Sheena nodded and continued on her way. The rest kept moving.

"Uh, Lyle?" Genis asked.

He turned to him. "Yeah?"

Genis pointed at Lyle's hand. He looked at it and realized that he had forgotten about Genis' kendama. "Oh, right." He immediately handed the little half-elf his favorite toy.

Eventually, the one-story hospital came into view. It was the same as it usually was. The tan walls, the crooked windows, and the cracked stairs…. It never changed. The only difference was that there were usually one or two people bustling in and out of that place. Now it was completely barren. Lyle had never really thought about this, but Midvale had become a ghost town. It was hard to imagine it going back to normal after everything that has happened.

"There it is," Martin said.

"It looks pretty run down," Lloyd said.

"The local doctor, Frederick Shimmer, never really considered looks to be important in a hospital. Only the quality of care of the patients was the key essential. You don't need to worry. The instruments inside are top-notch."

"And you would know that how?" Lyle asked.

"Well…that's what I heard."

"Uh-huh…"

Just as they were getting close to the hospital, a puff of smoke erupted from the ground and the unknown assassin appeared. Do these guys only travel by a puff of smoke? Lyle wondered.

Lloyd didn't hesitate. He immediately drew his twin blades, raised them up, and sent a Demon Fang at him. Lyle was a little surprised. He didn't know he could use that. The assassin simply stepped to the right. The red-orange wave passed by him harmlessly and eventually fizzled out of existence. Lloyd was already charging him.

The assassin responded by…biting his thumb? What's he doing? A trickle of blood went down his hand. He performed four hand signs and then threw his bloodied hand onto the ground. Lloyd jumped up into the air, preparing to strike. A symbol appeared and grew larger around his hand. A huge puff of smoke came out of nowhere and engulfed both him and the assassin.

There was a very loud ting! It sounded like steel striking steel. Suddenly Lloyd was thrown out of the smoke. He bounced and skidded across the street and ended up close to the group. The assassin did that? "Lloyd!" Genis shouted. "Are you alright?"

Lloyd sat up with a groan. "This is bad."

"What'd he do?" Lyle asked.

"I think he summoned…something. I don't know what it is."

"Summoning?" Genis asked. "So he's a summonor as well?"

"What exactly did he summon?" Marta asked.

Lloyd responded as he got back up on his feet, "A monster. It's definitely not a summon spirit. Lyle, keep yourself and your family away from this thing for your own safety. Leave this to us."

"A-alright," he said. "Don't get yourselves killed."

"Don't worry. We're in situations like this all the time."

Oh, that's comforting, Lyle thought. He kept silent, though. Everyone waited and prepared themselves for the terrible sight awaiting them behind the smoke.

Then it cleared.

Chapter 11 Coming Soon…