The Daughters woke before dawn, and slowly, reluctantly, disentangled themselves. Adi went to their idol, and picked up the lighter. A pull on its trigger, and the little flame sprang to life. She moved it toward the wick in the bowl, hand trembling, then dropped the lighter with a small cry, a whimper of pure pain. Ami stepped up and held her lightly from behind, while Avi picked up the idol itself. After the others filed out the door, Adi and Ami brought up the rear of the procession. For procession it was, with Avi carrying the idol in the centre of their group, her sisters in symmetrical formation before, behind and beside her, all seven stepping in unison to shame a military drill show. People lined up behind them, murmuring questions to each other, but not the grim-faced girls. Finally, they reached their destination: a little park with stone picnic tables, on one of which Avi placed the idol just as the sun edged up over the horizon. She removed her kanabo from her darksuit, and Adi jumped smoothly up to the table's top, standing behind the idol. "Let us pay homage to Aku as he deserves!" she called out, the crowd's curiosity turning to confusion. "Let us us offer proper tribute to the Master of Masters, Deliver of Darkness, Shogun of Sorrows, Tyrant over Tyrants, He Who Shapes the World!" At each title, Avi struck a blow to the idol, her heavy club cracking and breaking the stone. "And let mine," Adi concluded as she reached out her hand to Avi, taking hold of the club, "be the final tribute!" she yelled as she reversed the club, stepped back, and swung down with all her might, reducing the statue's base to rubble with a mighty, wordless shout. She returned the kanabo to her sister, who vanished it once more, then leapt down from the table. The girls turned to face the now cheering crowd, and bowed to them, their hearts warmed by the enthusiastic approval. They walked away steadily, and answered the questions put to them as best they could while heading for the theatre and the breakfast their contract included.
"Aki, do you want to keep putting on the plays?" Ashi asked as they walked.
She considered, then answered. "Yes. Everyone already thinks they're comedy, and now we know why. And you know, somehow, I don't mind mocking him."
Adi nodded slowly, reluctantly. "I know what you mean. But it's still so…"
She didn't quite break down before Ami put an arm around her shoulders. "It's all right. You've always been the strongest in faith of us, of course it's the hardest on you. Just remember: you're not alone. We're all here for you, sister."
Adi looked to the others, seeing only gentle smiles, even from the so-serious Ari. She smiled back, despite her heartache, and whispered, "Thank you." Even so, she was very glad she'd be wearing a mask on stage.
The day went by fairly normally, with chatter and snacks in the green room, their performances well-received, and after work, dinner from various street vendors, eaten as they returned to their tiny room to read the books Aji had found so very long ago. It was all so different from all they'd been taught, yet fit so well with everything they'd seen, everything they'd experienced. Had their mother known all of this? How could she have? But how could she have not? Adi set her book down first, Ari last, but they could only take in so much in an evening, and they hit that limit very soon. They looked to each other, and Ashi held her hand out. One by one, six more dark-clad hands reached out, touching and overlapping. "Let us renew our purpose. Not to kill the samurai, but the purpose behind that: to protect the beauty and wonders of the world against all who would threaten and destroy them." The others nodded in agreement.
"To fight against injustice," Aki said.
"Oppression," Adi added. One by one, each girl added to the pledge: Needless destruction, pointless cruelty, greed, hatred and untruth.
"Against all these things, and whatever other evil we may find in our travels, we pledge our strengths, our skills, our hearts and minds," Ashi said with firm conviction. "No longer are we the Daughters of Aku, servants of the ultimate evil. Now we are the foes of evil in every form: the Daughters of Darkness!" The girls grinned wide, chorused their new name, and swept their hands high. The books would wait. "First, we need to learn about modern weapons," Ashi said once the elevated mood dropped just a bit. "We don't even know what those things the samurai used to catch us were! And what were those weapons the boss' fighters had? What could they have done? So it's time to start learning. There must be a place to buy weapons." The others nodded, and the self-rechristened Daughters of Darkness filed out of their room.
The streetlamps were few and the moon hidden, but after growing up in caverns lit by torches, the Daughters found the light eminently sufficient. They quickly took to the rooftops, then dropped down into an alley where they neared a commercial district that might serve their needs. Of course, they drew a grew deal of attention once they exited the alley, but this time, the attention was different. No catcalls and wolf whistles, or crude propositions they didn't even understand, but smiles, gestures that seemed approving, compliments, thanks for their actions, and even offers to buy them food or drink. Bewildered but pleased, they continued walking, and at last Ami thought to ask one woman (who seemed far too lightly dressed for the weather) where they could go to find the weapons they sought. She smiled brightly, and gave them directions. They thanked her, and now able to read the street signs, found the store easily. It was narrow, but the building was very deep, much deeper than the store.
Aki stepped up to the man behind the counter. "Good evening," she said. "We're not really sure what we're looking for here, perhaps you could help us?"
He smiled, without the odd twist they'd seen so often on men's faces when addressing them. "I can try. Obviously you're here for guns, but what applications do you have in mind? Close up, long range, holdout? How much stopping power do you need? And if you're planning to travel, will you be able to get more ammo?"
"Ammo?" Aki asked. "I don't know the word."
He gave her an odd look. "Ammunition," and Aki looked terribly sheepish.
"Well… we'll probably be spending a lot of time in the wilderness, away form anywhere we can get more ammo, so that's definitely something we need to think about. And we want quiet weapons."
The dealer thought. The girls were pretty small, better stick to the light stuff. "Let's see… " He unlocked a case of pistols, taking out a white, glossy gun with a bright orange stripe down the side. "This is the Helmson and McKendrick BE-53702 neuronic frequency stun gun. Guaranteed to take down any vertebrate human-sized or smaller in one shot. I don't buy it; I think two shots. Bypasses most armours. Seven shots in the cell, takes about six hours to recharge, depending on the power source. Very good non-lethal weapon."
Ami picked it up. "It's very light, it feels a bit flimsy."
The dealer grinned. "You're right. But the shell is a boron-matrix composite, you'd need a cold chisel to crack it. It'll hold up. And if it gets dirty, a little dish soap and a rag will have it looking new in a minute."
She looked to Ashi, expression questioning. The other nodded. Ami put it down. "I'll take it, and three cells. How do I charge them?"
"With a charger. There's all kinds, but maybe we should see what your sisters get before I give advice that way."
They nodded as one, and Adi spoke up. "I want something more lethal. Something that could kill a large animal, or large person. Preferably not too heavy." She was thinking in terms of someone along the lines of the many-eyed doorman.
He nodded again. "Well, there's a few options. I've got laser weapons, plasma guns, electrolasers, all kinds of slug throwers. But if you're away from civilization a lot, I'm guessing you'll want an energy weapon. Good choice might be an electrolaser: pull the trigger, low-powered laser ionizes a path through the air, then an electrical discharge follows the path. Instant lightning, even if it doesn't kill it's pretty much sure to at least impair. This one's the DeLameter EES-606. Not too great against most armours, to be honest, but it's great for unarmoured opponents. Six shots a cell, takes about ten hours to recharge." He puled a streamlined, glossy black weapon from its display case and laid it on the table, letting her pick it up. "Again, it's a pretty light weapon, but it's made of seriously tough stuff."
She picked it up, running her hand over it in a decidedly possessive way. "I like it. I'll want four cells." She set it down, and turned to the sister with her bangs cut in an arc. "Aji, what about you?"
She looked over the selection. "We'll want a high degree of tactical flexibility, and we need quiet weapons. So I'll want something different from the electrolaser and stun gun. Something good against armoured targets."
The dealer considered, and pulled out a long matte-grey weapon with a fluted barrel. "You might want this, then. Reynolds MC-23 laser carbine. Melts most armours, inflicts really messy injuries on living things. Six shots a cell, about five or six hours to recharge." He set it down, and looked around the store. "For quiet… that's about all I have. The rest are mostly slugthrower types, chemically propelled and loud. Now, you're going to want a charger. With three different guns, and I'm thinking ten cells total, you'll want a four-barrel with eight extra slots. Solar panels, heat exchanger, and a wall plug. Maybe a vehicle adaptor. It needs to be rugged, am I right?" A nod in unison. Man, that was creepy. "Right. I have just the thing. This is just what you need: The Elphinstone 4DX," and he brought up an image on what looked like a pane of framed glass. The girls' eyes widened at the sight. "The real prestige one is the Fesdam 22C, but honestly, you're just paying extra for the name. It's for people who want to impress their friends, and I don't think you much care about that."
"Function matters more," Ashi agreed. "We'll take them. And three extra cells for the… carbine. We'll need somewhere to practice with them, you know such a place." He conceded that, and told them where to find a range. "And where we can find less sophisticated weapons? I use a bow." He grinned. These girls were the kind of customers he liked: they knew roughly what they were looking for, and knew when they'd found it. "Those are just display models, I'll put them back and get you the real ones." He did so, disappearing briefly into the back and coming back out with three guns in boxes and three sets of cells. "Don't worry about putting the wrong cell in the wrong gun; they'll only fit the right guns. Now I just need to get the charger." Another short trip to the back. "What about a gun safe? You have somewhere to keep them?"
Aji smirked a little. "We have very safe places to keep them."
"Gunbelts?"
"No need," she assured him. "We have our own methods."
He considered that, then shrugged. There were a lot of strange things in this world, and if these girls could kill that monstrosity down at the shore, they were about twenty of them. "Your choice. Now, let's ring those up. I should tell you, the power cells are too low to use. You can see why, I'm sure."
Aji nodded immediately. "We can." The bill was totalled, and Ashi paid the man. Then it was on to acquire her arrows, Ari's shuriken, and Avi's throwing axes. And Aki wanted whatever those were that the samurai had used to capture them, but it turned out that nobody sold them, they were so easy to make. So it was a trip to a third store, this one on the docks, to get the materials they needed: thin, strong, flexible cord and heavy weights. And a few other things, such as fishing poles, a net, knife, and the other paraphernalia of fishing, including a book on the basics of that art. By the time they were back at their room, they were very glad of their exceptional endurance and strength. They quickly opened their packages, and began reading the manuals for their new acquisitions, the first things they'd ever had that they could honestly call their own. First, they set the charger where their altar to Aku had been, the contrast lost on none of them, and after loading cells into their guns, they put them and the extras into the appropriate receptacles to charge. Then it was on to studying the mysteries of the fishing pole, hook and line until the hour grew late enough that sleep for the next day was wise.