Having returned to the village to free the Bigfoots from the mind-control chips and heal them as best as they could (one-by-one in case they got violent), Tsukune, Mizore, Ruby, Kokoa, Kouta and Ling-Ling all pitch in as best as they can while Moka and Kurumu take it easy so that they don't worsen their injuries. Part way through it, the villagers came back and Moka explained everything that happened to Elder Olga. After which, she instructs many of the villagers to help them and a selects few of strong, trustworthy men to search the village for any signs of the traitor and to bring him to her alive with all of the evidence that they found. Less then an hour later, Tsukune and the girls are still busy with the Bigfoots when the elder's trusted few came back dragging another villager that was struggling with his hands firmly tied behind his back and a strong man on each side of him dragging him by his arms with the others following close behind them. As they neared the elder who was sitting on a piece of cut tree log that she was using as a stool near Moka and Kurumu (who were keeping her company since they were supposed to take it easy), both she and Kurumu recognized him and then the other men threw him down at the elder's feet. It was Little Joseph.


Chapter 11: Traitor and a Lone Wolf

The Siberian Village

March 6, 2017

"Oh gee, why am I not surprised?" Kurumu asked, rhetorically.

"You have really done it this time Little Joseph," Elder Olga said. "You have been such a trouble maker ever since your parents died when you were little. Even so, I never thought that you would ever do something like this."

"I-I-I-it wasn't my fault elder! They forced me to do it! They said if I didn't then they would've killed me! You have to believe me!" he screams.

"We found these in his bag when we caught him trying to sneak out the village, elder," one of the men said before throwing the bag in front of her.

Going through the bag she found a brand new two-way radio, a file folder with pictures of Tsukune and the girls, and 10,000 Rubles. [*1]

"I-I-I can explain that money! You see I… I mean… I… you see… I…"

"Enough," the elder said in a low, coarse voice. "You have endangered the entire village, our guests and saviors for the second time, and have brought much shame upon us all. You will answer for everything that you have done, traitor."

"No, elder, please spare me! Please don't hurt me!" Little Joseph begged as the rest of the villagers gathered around to see what was going on.

"Silence!" the elder bellowed and pointed her cane in his face. "Even now all you can think about is yourself? You will pay for crimes this day!"

Addressing then addresses the crowd.

"Does anybody here wish to protest his innocence?"

"… … … … …"

Only silence came from the crowd as Little Joseph continued to beg for his life. After a minute of silence from everyone else went by, he realized that it is hopeless and tried to get up and run for it but was quickly grabbed and forced back on his knees in front of the elder. Then she spoke again.

"For all of your crimes Little Joseph, you are sentenced to being 'tied up' and your blood money will go towards repairing the damage that you have done. Does anyone disagree with my decision?"

Upon hearing the elder's decision and no one objecting to it, Little Joseph is stricken with terror.

"No! Not that! Anything but that! NOOOOO…!"

Sick of hearing his crying and begging, his captors gag and drag him away to carry out his sentence.

Confused, Moka asked the elder a question.

"I don't get it. All this fuss over getting tied up?"

Turning towards Moka, the elder explained.

"You see, getting sentenced to being 'tied up' here means that you are left tied to a tree in the forest and covered in animal blood and guts. Sooner or later, the smell of the blood will attract an animal out looking for a meal. So when they find him there…"

"Serves him right," Kurumu said and then coughed.

"You are one mean… old woman," Moka told her with a grin on her face.

"It is the ultimate punishment of our village," the elder replied.

Noticing a commotion nearby, Kurumu asks the elder what was going on.

"They're taking bets, deary," the elder replied.

"Bets…?" Moka asked, confused. "What are they betting on?"

"They're betting what kind of animal finds him first."

"Are you serious?" Kurumu asked with a scratchy voice.

"Well, what else do we have for entertainment out here?"

After she thought about it for a few seconds, Kurumu asked her another question.

"Would American dollars be okay?"


2

A short time later, the elder is walking through the village after leaving the girls when her grandson Vlad runs up to her.

"I got what you wanted Gams. Fresh animal guts and blood. But I thought that Little Joseph had already been given his blood coat."

"He was." she replied. "This is for those six men that controlled the Great Mountain Beasts that attacked our village. Just gag and then toss all that stuff around them let the rest of our people know about it when you get back."

"Alright Gams."

After he started walking off, the elder added one last thing.

"And when you get back, put 10 Rubles on a Brown Bear for me."

It was just before dusk by the time the last of the Bigfoots had been treated and left to go back to their mountain homes. Ruby was so exhausted that Tsukune had to carry her back to their tents. After he settled the sleeping Ruby into her bag after she had fallen fast asleep in his arms, Tsukune rejoined everyone else outside. They were sitting around the camp fire waiting to talk about their next move. They were camping out in an old storehouse that was damaged during the attack since it was safer then staying out in the open overnight. The building did not have any bedrooms, but it did have a lot of free space for the tents and a big hole in the roof for the smoke to escape through and plenty of firewood from damaged or destroyed buildings.

"She's asleep now," Tsukune told everyone. "She really exhausted herself today even though she's not very good with healing magic."

"True enough," Moka stated. "But she still did her job regardless and my leg is all better I'm now back to 100%. I hate being useless like that."

"Sometimes it really sucks being the good guys, ya know," Kokoa commented with a depressed but angry tone. "Thanks to us helping those walking rugs we won't be in fighting condition until tomorrow."

"Are you done venting, little sister?" Moka asked her.

Taking a deep breath and exhaling, Kokoa answers her sister in a plain depressed tone.

"Yeah, I'm good. I just needed to get that off my chest."

"Thankfully Ruby's crows found those tire tracks on that old road where the Bigfoots came from," Tsukune said. "So we'll find out where they were transported from and who's behind all this in the morning."

"Alright then," Ling-Ling began to say. "I'll be heading back to the plane to send off our sitrep on the satellite phone to Hong Kong before it gets too dark to find our way there and back. It will be cutting it close, but we need to send this information off so that little brother can start finding out what he can about everything. Is there anything you would like me to add Tsukune?"

"Yeah," Tsukune began to answer. "Let Omote and Yukari know that Kouta is here with us and that he's safe and sound. I'm sure that they must have been worried sick about him."

"Chances are they already got Gin to sniff him out and figured out that he was with us," Mizore commented with her arms wrapped around a sleeping Kouta in her lap. "But they will still be relieved to hear that he's safe."

"You're right about that," Tsukune said with a smile.

He then turns to Kurumu.

"Are you feeling better now, Kurumu?"

"Yeah, I am. And I'm sorry for my crazy talk earlier. I have no idea what I was talking about"

"You don't have to apologize, Kurumu," Tsukune replied as he sat down next to and put his right arm across her shoulder. "You were in bad shape at the time and none of us here would hold it against you."

"Thank you, Tsukune," Kurumu replied and then leaned her body against Tsukune's chest.

"Does anyone want to accompany me back to the plane?" Ling-Ling asks.

"I'll do it," Moka immediately volunteered. "I need to shake off my restlessness from having to take it easy for the past few hours anyway. Kokoa, make sure that you protect everyone while I'm gone, okay?"

"Okay, Onee-sama," Kokoa answers.


3

The Plane

A short time later, Moka and Ling-Ling dismount their tread after reaching the plane and Moka does a quick security sweep on the plane. Then both of them walk to the cockpit and Ling-Ling calls her little brother. After Ling-Ling had hang up the satellite phone walked back to the tread with Moka, she asked her if they ever felt bad or guilty about doing what they did on their missions, especially when they had to deal with beings like those Bigfoots who were simply enslaved by the real bad guys. [*2]

Moka stopped in her tracks and closed her eyes before she answered her.

"Honestly Ling-Ling, we try not let it get to us. We can't... If we started second guessing ourselves about what we could've done differently every time something like this happened, then there would be no end to it and it would eventually consume us. Then we would be putting those around us into great danger and that's absolutely unacceptable."

Moka's words were having such an impact on Ling-Ling that she did not know how to respond. Then, Moka continued.

"We all agreed years ago not long after we started living in Hong Kong that we would not play the 'what if?' game along with everything else. Our only thoughts while we're on a mission is to keep everyone alive and accomplishing our mission. Thinking about anything else would only weigh us down and put everyone at risk. It's not easy, but it's something that we all have to do."

After Moka finished, they both mounted the tread to go back to the village.

They are so much more grown up and mature then I had thought, Ling-Ling thinks to herself. I'm really glad that they all joined our family and are on our side.

Moka started up the tread and they started speeding back to the village.


4

The Old Storehouse

Getting back to the village just after nightfall, Moka and Ling-Ling rejoin the others in the old storehouse. As they approach the fire, they see that only Kokoa is left to tend the flames. She is swishing an open canteen around when she sees them.

"Hey Onee-sama, everything go okay?"

"Yeah, we got the message sent," Moka answered her. "Did everybody else already go to bed?"

"Yup, today was a heavy day for us," Kokoa says in a tired tone and then takes a drink from her canteen. "Ugh… after everything that happened today, everybody is now dead to the world, and no wisecracks about it, 'walking dead.' By the way Ling-Ling, you're on watch duty tonight."

"And how do you figure that?" Ling-Ling asked, annoyed.

"Because unlike the rest of us you don't need to sleep, 'Because you're already dead," Kokoa said in a voice that imitated Ling-Ling's, badly.

"I'll be outside if anybody wants me," Ling-Ling angrily stated.

After she had left the building, Moka sat down at the fire.

"You know, you could be a little nicer to her. What do you have against her anyway?"

Kokoa took another gulp of the water in her canteen and stood up.

"I'm going back to the plane and get some Sake."

"I thought you hated the stuff that Fong-Fong got."

"Even cheap Sake is better than none at all," Grabbing her things, she starts walking towards the door. "Don't wait up for me, Onee-sama. I might have some on the plane before I come back."

"I'm just going to go to bed. I'm tired as hell anyway. Just make sure that you wait until you get back to drink it and don't get lost out there. I mean it."

"Yeah, yeah; I know all that Onee-sama," Kokoa said before she left the building.

Kokoa mounted her tread that she had topped off with gas while her sister was gone, double-checked her combat vest and her gear on it.

I'm sorry for lying to you, Onee-sama, she thought to herself. I just want to make sure that everyone is going to be safe tonight.

"You ready, Ko-buddy?"

"I'm always ready for you mistress, wee!" Ko-chan declares as he lands on her left shoulder.

"Good, cause it's going to be a long night tonight. Hold on tight."

She turned the engine on and sped off into the early night.


5

The Arms Dealer's Bunker, 72 km's away

Both the major and Casanova stood in the CNC room awaiting the arrival of the reinforcements that Casanova had promised. All the while, the major grew steadily more impatient by the minute. [*3]

"Casanova!" bellowed an angry Major Zhukov. "Where are my new soldiers? I want to crush these brats as soon as they get here!"

"They will get here when they get here," Casanova answered and then exhaled some cigar smoke. "In the meantime, why don't you play with your comb over?"

"Do not test me you blonde bastard! You have already fallen out of my good graces! Do not push me any further!"

"Calm down before you give yourself a heart attack, major. They will be here soon. Until then, have you done everything that I have requested?"

"…Da, I have a team on its way to the village right now to set up an OP as you suggested." [*4]

"Good, I seriously doubt that they would make a move tonight after the day that they just had, but they do not always do what's expected of them."

"You seem to think a lot of these Japs. Just how well do you know them?"

"Well enough to know that we cannot afford to go easy on them or underestimate them. They have a very bad habit of surviving and ultimately beating whoever they're fighting against."

"Never mind that," he angrily said. "Where are my troops?"

"They will be here so quit worrying. You sound like an old woman."

"Why you-"

"Comrade Major!" the radioman yelled. "A report just came in from the OP team!"

"What is it?" the major asked.

"They reported that a snowmobile has passed them on their way to the village."

"In which direction is it going?"

"This direction, sir," he answered.

"What?" the major yelled.

"How many of them are there?" Casanova asked.

"Just the one vehicle, sir," he replied.

"How many people were on it?"

"Just one, sir," he answered.

"What?" the major yelled again.

"I told you so, major."

"You shut up and tell me what's going on here! Are they seriously going to try to attack me with just one person? Is he supposed to be an assassin? Is he coming to get me? Answer me damn you!"

Casanova slowly takes the cigar out of his mouth and leisurely blows some smoke rings before answering him.

"Well, first off, Aono Tsukune is too level-headed and responsible to leave his girls all alone right now without a great reason to do so. So chances are it's a she that's coming here. As for her motives… it's hard to say. I suppose she could be after your life."

"I will be in the safe room. Let me know if anything changes," the major declares as he quickly leaves the C&C room.

Casanova starts enjoying the relative quiet without the major there.

"Too easy," Casanova tells himself. "I guess he's not that brave without any shock troops around him like grandpa had. Maybe now I can work in peace." [*5]

Looking at the lit up map on the wall in front of him, Casanova continues to talk to himself.

"Now… who are you my little lone wolf and what are you up to?"


6

On a Mountain Ridge Overlooking the Arms Dealer's Bunker

"Damn!" Kokoa quietly says to herself as she looks at it through her NVG binos as she lays on the edge of the cliff. "That thing's a freaking mountain fortress." [*6,7]

Having followed the tire tracks back to where they came from, Kokoa finds the bunker, hides her tread about 20 yards away from the road, climbs up the gentle side slope of a small, nearby mountain ridge, and takes a good look at the hideout. It had just the one large semi-circular opening at the base of the opposing mountain and was surrounded by chain-link fencing in a box outline around the entrance with a guard house next to and just inside the chain-link gate. It was all lit up with large security lamps all around the parameter. It was obvious that most of the bunker was carved deep inside the mountain itself like an underground castle. [*8]

"This is going to be harder then we thought."

"Kokoa-sama! Kokoa-sama!" shouts a panicking Kou-chan as he hurriedly flies towards her.

"Shhh! Quiet you idiot!" Kokoa quietly yelled. "Now, what the hell did you find on you patrol that has you so worked up?"

"Big trouble mistress. There's an army heading towards that base from the far side of it, wee!"

"The far side?" she asked, confused. "But that's in the mountains. Why would a human army be traveling through the mountains in this weather and at night?"

"Because it's not a human army!" a very anxious Kou-chan quietly shouted.

"What?" Kokoa half yelled in surprise before she caught herself. "What are you talking about Kou?"

"They're all monsters, mistress. It's an army of monsters!"

"Are you sure?"

"Very sure, wee," he answered.

"How many do you think there are?"

"Hundreds mistress, maybe even a thousand," he replied.

"Damn it! That's way too many, even for me. We have to go back and warn the others 'cause whoever they are I seriously doubt that they are friendly. We're leaving right now Kou-chan."

Kokoa backs away from the edge still on her belly until she is a short distance away from the edge. She then stands up and is about to turn around when she hears a sudden ear-splitting screech behind her that temporarily stuns her. Then something quickly swoops down, grabs her arms, carries her past the cliff edge, and then lets her go. As Kokoa is falling towards the rocks below, she quickly snaps out of it and starts jumping and sliding down the rocks on the cliff face to slow her downward decent before she reaches the bottom and crashes into them.

Landing hard on her feet, Kokoa quickly looks up and all around to find who it was that had just attacked her. She could hear the flapping and gliding of their wings as they sail through the air all around her, but she sees nothing in the dim light of the night's sky.

"It's been awhile since I've tried using this and it still needs a lot of work, but…"

She closes her eyes, clears her mind, and breathes slowly.

"Enemy Zero!" [*9]

Kokoa uses the ability that her mother was known for and quickly finds her attackers circling overhead.

"Just two of you huh?" she says to herself. "You must've followed Ko back to me. I wonder what you two could be."

While Kokoa stood there, one of the attackers took the bait and dived right for her.

"Perfect," Kokoa says to herself as she grabs a baseball sized rock, waits until he gets close enough, throws it right at him…

CHONK!

…Hits him dead center in the head…

CRUNCH!

…Gives him a right hook right in his jaw just as he was about to crash into her and sends him flying into the rock face of the cliff she was just on…

CRASH! SPLAT! [*10]

…Head first.

"Well, well… I always said that loudmouthed Harpy was a bird brain," the other attacker says as he lands about 10 yards in front of Kokoa. "But now I'd say that her head is full of rocks, hahaha."

"And you are who besides a teller of bad jokes?" Kokoa asks as she drops into her fighting stance.

"My name does not matter you little bitch," he growled in a deep, scratchy voice as he approaches her and becomes more visible in the partial moonlight.

She then gets a good look at him and her heart and mind are thrown into turmoil.

"No, it can't be, it just can't! Not one of you guys again!"

"All that matters is that I am the one that is going to kill you!"

"A Manticore!" shouts Kokoa, full of emotion. [*11]

To be continued…


Note #1: Rubles – It is the Russian currency unit like the American Dollar or Mexican Paso. The exchange rate however, is vastly different. 10,000 Russian Rubles is equal to about $312.16 in American currency.


Note #2: Security Sweep – Making sure that an area is free of anything hostile or dangerous.


Note #3: CNC or Command and Control – The room that is essentially the brains of the base. Like the bridge of a ship.


Note #4: OP or Observation Post – A temporary post used to observe the enemy.


Note #5: Shock Troops (Pronounced "Shook" in Russian) - Historically a name given to the best troops in the army and was tasked with the hardest assignments. In WWII Soviet Union however, it was the name given to units filled with civil and political criminals that were given all of the worst assignments imaginable. Everything from storming a fortress with just rifles with only a few bullets to clearing a minefield by standing shoulder-to-shoulder and walking across it. The Soviets had entire shock divisions and shock armies during the war. This was one of the reasons why the Soviets lost an estimated 25 million dead throughout the war. In contrast, the total casualties for all sides during the entire war were around 60 million.


Note #6: NVG – Military slang for Night Vision Goggles.


Note #7: Binos – Military slang for binoculars.


Note #8: Parameter – A military term meaning boundaries or borderlines.


Note #9: Enemy Zero – The ability to sense everyone near you up to a certain range and detect certain details about them depending on the user's proficiency with the technique. In Kokoa's case, she knows how to do it but her range and ability to sense details about her targets are still highly limited and cannot be maintained for long. If you do not remember it then re-read Season II, Chapter 43.


Note #10: I was going to have Kokoa shout out "Play ball, bitch!" after she knocked him into the rocks, but I thought that it would have been a bit much.


Note #11: Monster Dictionary: Manticore - The Manticore (Early Middle Persian Martyaxwar) is a Persian legendary creature similar to the Egyptian sphinx. It has the body of a red lion, a lion head with three rows of sharp teeth (like a shark), and a trumpet-like voice. Other aspects of the creature vary from story to story. It may be horned, winged, or both. The tail is that of either a dragon or a scorpion, and it may shoot poisonous spines to either paralyze or kill its victims. It devours its prey whole and leaves no clothes, bones, or possessions of the prey behind.


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