It was an odd situation with mismatched pairs of defenders against just five assailants, the issue stemming fom the the fact that the New Hebijo girls were possibly better trained overall. The balancing factor was that Hanzo and Gessen knew that they had been approaching and had enough time to work out a temporary truce long enough to fend them off. With everyone in place and the attack underway; things would get somewhat crazy in short order with Ryouna and Ryobi encountering Asuka and Yumi first. With the HanSen team ambushing them with Yumi's long range ice attacks to cover Asuka's stealth approach to close as much distance as possible to try and avoid being shot.
With Asuka in place, Yumi would create a temporary ice wall between herself and the "traitors" to block their incoming fire and disrupt line-of-sight. The two of them would launch a pincer attack to grind Ryouna and Ryobi in between their attacks. Trying to keep the New Hebijo girls between them, Asuka and Yumi moved in an "orbital" fashion but trying to stay mobile. Managing to disrupt the gun-using techiques until the point of frustration and switch over to melee combat.
As that was going on, Shiki would encounter Imu and had no time for her normal valley-girl routine, as Imu wasnt' having any of it and immediately went on the offensive. Which was interesting, given their similar weapons-styles but that was it; Shiki was more mobile with her ability to float along once she got moving thanks to her bat-familiar's sharing their power with her. Imu's counter to that was to use her staff's extension abilities to try and stop the motion. It was perhaps too even a fight to really be able to judge from an outside perspective; it wasn't one sided and each was getting in shots when they could.
However, the most difficult fight was probably right at the front gate where Miyabi attacked on her own, confident in her abilities. She was mildly disappointed to not find Yumi or Asuka waiting for her there; believing that only the faction leaders were strong enough to face each other. But she'd settle for a sword-duel with Ikaruga, the prospect of such did send a surge of thrill through Miyabi though; due to her seven-branch sword's construction; meant to disable other sword users easily. Ikaruga had noticed it too during their fight with nearly losing Hien several times with the way Miyabi was trying to twist it out of her hand. Though it was very close with Ikaruga being talented but Miyabi simply had more experience and was winning by that virtue.
The only saving grace Ikaruga would receive, after losing about half her combat outfit was a newly-remasked Murakumo bursting out through the gate to attack Miyabi to back her up. Apparently, Hibari had heard was was going and had given her a party-mask of all things. It wasn't the same, but it apparently had been enough to resort enough of Murakumo's confidence to help out.
An interesting fight was going on between Murasaki against Kana and Yagyu with the use of mostly mid-to-long range attacks. Nobody wanted to get in too close because each party still had nasty melee surprises. However, when Kana tried to do so; she'd find out the hard way how much being hit by the Root of Calamity hurt because after a brief exchange of shuriken spinning and the like; Kana had yanked Murasaki's feet out ofrom under her. When she was about to try and force the long haired girl to move in a way that exposed her to Yagyu's incoming attack; she'd instead get hurled away by an explosion of energy.
Murasaki would get up and seemed exceptionally pissed off and was attacking with much more force and overall ferocity. Why? The two of them had torn her previous Bebeby plushie a little and the fact that they were pushing her and frightening her. Her fury directly at Kana because of her whip's ability to slip through defenses and painfully sting. Even as Kana had to fall back from being shoved away by the initial burst of the Root of Calamity the side effect of the ability was a sheld of energy that deflected Yagyu's attacks.
"This isnt' good, that energy's blocking my attacks." Yagyu calmly reported as she quickly tried to figure a way around it. The Root of Calamity's effect was spherical and didn't seem to have any obvious weakeness to it; Yagyu would get to see it a few more times as Murasaki decided to keep using it to punish Kana. The bursts of it making her ragdoll about from the repeated effects of it, shredding a good amount of her uniform.
To Kana, it hurt like hell; but the push effect was sparing her the worst of it since it pushed her away from the source more and more. That would be short lived as Murasaki advanced on her with the seeming intent to smash her into paste on the dirt path since Kana couldn't get to her feet. She didn't know that Kana had a power that turned on when she was frightened or angry though and as she drew closer; she'd see Kana playing dead hoping that Murasaki would slow down some. "That won't help you!" Murasaki shouted, powering up for another burst of the Root of Calamity.
Yagyu was horrified by the sheer brutality of this power, there was no way to interrupt it or to stop her from using it. In her attempt to divert Murasaki's attention long enough for Kana to get back to her feet; she'd use her secret ninja art: Legsweeper to try and shove Murasaki away as a whole. It would work with the attack's repeated sweeping attacks of the squid's arms; but not as well as she'd hoped because it made Murasaki focus on her instead. "Crap." Yagyu muttered, narrowly throwing herself back from a Calamitous burst.
Kana had enough, her will to survive fueling her innate powers to the point they became the dominant driving force in her personality, much like Murasaki's powers. That side of her didn't understand mercy or the idea of leaving survivors either, to that part; the only future for an enemy was to be pile of ash or a scorch mark on the wall. Spotting her getting up with an air-shimmering effect around Kana, Murasaki would release another burst from her Root of Calamity only to have two 'wings of fire" form and simply flap once with a sicorro-like blast of hot air to cancel it. Kana would get back up with eyes closing an eerie white as an enormous but harmless (to the shinobi) burst of flames turned the entire area into a blazing inferno. The snow melted immediately and the trees around them burst into flames as the very air itself began to combust in small pockets.
Without so much as a change of expression Kana released a gout of flame at Murasaki several times in succession; meaning to drain Murasaki's energy by forcing her to use her powers to block or disperse it. The sudden change of circumstances frightened Murasaki even more and powered her Root of Calamity enough to avoid the flames but the sight of the stones around her starting to melt from the intensity of thefire was scaring her. Her nose couldn't pick up anything either other than the smell of burning trees and the heat of the fires around her. In her rising panic, she was releasing more energy but the Root of Calamity could't only do much; prompting her to try to keep Kana away by using her shurikens to try and force her back.
Kana was implacably approaching the increasingly-terrified girl and parried one of her shuriken with a backhand and was about to try and finish the fight her way. When Murasaki got the idea to instead try to attack Yagyu to force a change of some sort; using one of her three Shuriken to go flying at hgh speed toward the Hanzo student. Yagyu tried to block it with her umbrella, only to have one of the hooks on the shuriken grab onto a rib of it and tear it out of her grasp. Regaining some sort of sanity from seeing an ally in danger, Kana used a flaming burst to leap clear over Murasaki and put herself between them. Her reward it was to make yagyu and herself back up just enough to avoid a full hit but it would slice her face open from from he forehead to just short of her lip and over her eye. "AH!" Kana screamed clamping a hand over it.
Yagyu, largely without thinking would finish the fight by using her own ninja art again; this time hitting Murasaki full on.
It would result in Murasaki getting knocked out from being battered by the attacks and her fear making her careless. Kana's clothing was largely gone from the damage she took and unable to see out of her left eye. Yagyu helped her up, worriedly berating her a bit in her own concern. "You idiot! You didn't have to do that." She snapped, trying to pry Kana's fingers away from her face to see the damage, then went pale for a second. "Crap, we need a doctor, right now." she muttered.
"It hurts..." Kana whined a bit.
"Here..." Yagyu replied, helping Kana to a snowbank nearby and scooped up a handful of it. "It won't do much..."
The pink-haired girl just took it and used the cold of it to try and numb the pain, the trickling water coming out from her fingers still running red...
"Man~ This is boring. Where are they? I'm all ready to fight still!" Katsuragi was fidgeting. She hadn't been too badly banged up from fighting Yozakura and her blood was still running hot.
"Yo!" Syra called, dropping out from the tree she was in. "Katsuragi right?"
Katsu immediately turned to face the unfamiliar voice; ready to fight. "Yeah...You're one of those New Hebijo tramps right?" she asked, feeling pumped. "Come on then! You're here to 'take us down' right?"
"Whoa whoa blondie." Syra waved her hands then rubbed them together since the gesture cooled her fingertips in teh cold air. "The others may be but I'm not really feeling it." She said.
"What? You afraid or something? Heh." Katsu snorted in amusement.
"No. I just think this is all really stupid." Syra replied in a deadpan tone of voice.
"Then come on! A good little fight will at least warm me up!" Katsu said, going for first attack with one of her trademark kicks, then repeatedly did it.
Syra groaned to herself and simply defended herself against the kicks by stepping forward just a bit to "short" her kicks and not let them get to full speed impact. "I told you I don' t want to fight Blondie." She said in a tone reminscent of Hikage.
"That's too bad because I want to!' Katsu said and kept going, changing up her pattern of kicks to try and keep Syra guessing.
It did help some but eventually Katsuragi was slowing down for some reason until after a few roundhouse kicks, that would knock down one of the trees she hit. "Ack!" Katsu said, tripping over something and faceplanting into the snow and rolled over to get to her feet only to find that her feet were tied together with some sort of shimmering thread?
"Now are you done playing ballerina?" Syra mocked, standing over her flipping a knife up and down in her hand; knowing Katsu couldn't get up. "I simply wanted to chat but noooo, you have to go get all puffed up and hot headed." she said in a chiding voice. "Dumb blonde..."
"Hey!" Katsuragi retorted hotly trying to jump to her feet again...and tripped again. "What the hell?!"
"Oh right, you won't be able to break that easily." Syra said pointing to the thread. "It's enhanced spider silk, pound for pound stronger than a steel cable of the same size." she explained and crouched down to sit on the balls of her feet and put the tip of the knife she had right up under Katsu's chin and tapped it a couple times.
"How? I didn't see you use it!" Katsu was confused.
"You're right, you didn't." Syra smirked. "Now look, you're going to sit here and cool your heels while I go help my team-mates be better people. " She said and stood up to head away.
"What? NO" Katsu said, managing to break the thread with an adrenaline boost. "We're going to finish this right here and now. I wont let you double team my friends!"
"Oh my. You seem to think you have an actual choice in the matter." She said and smacked her hands together like she was clapping and turned to Katsu, slinging something into her face that would make Katsu's head spin then put her to sleep. "Now what to do... oh!" Syra said.
A few moments later, Syra walked away leaving Katsuragi hanging from a treebranch, hog-tied in a very bondage-like way. "All she had to do was pay attention to her own movements. But I'd better hurry."
The fight at the front gates had turned almost dire for Ikaruga and Murakumo; who were barely holding out against the more experienced Miyabi. However, just in time; Imu would catch up to Miyabi as if to help but would bear news.
"We need to call this off. We've lost half our people already." Imu said, having found Ryobi and Ryouna stripped down and beaten soundly. She herself had a few bruises and cuts ove her body and her outfit was shredded in some places but she'd recover. Imu had also stopped and collected an unconcious Murasaki after making a compromise with Yagyu an dKana to let them go collect A knocked out Shiki without worry of an attack from behind. She was hauling a half-conscious Murasaki with her arm over her sister's shoulders to help her walk.
"Dammit!" Miyabi swore, breaking off her attack to fall back. "Fine. Fine.." the leader agreed, not wanting to lose anymore of her people to this overly hasty mistake.
"Come on you slutty cow." Syra was said, half dragging Ryouna along as Ryobi walked alongside her nursing a broken arm. Ryouna had a few bruises and all but the main reason behind Syra hauling her along was that Ryouna wanted to stop and enjoy being roughed up more.
"Well I told you this was a bad idea." Syra said to Miyabi once they were leaving the area.
"Oh shut up. I don't want to hear it. I bet you didn't even fight; you don't have a bruise or scratch on you!" Miyabi growled, thinking Syra had pussied out and simply didn't fight.
"Unlike you, I fight smart, not hard." Syra said, then muttered under her breath. "Like a real ninja should."
Later that day the Hanzo students and the New Hebijo students returned to their respective academies. Miyabi was fuming and smashing things in her room as their injured parties were being checked out and tended to by the medical staff they had at academy. To her, it wasn't a victory unless every single member of her team had won their respective fights- not just one or two. However, her angry rampage would get cut short by Suzune calling her in for a debrief, though it wouldn't be a very good review.
"What you did was completely foolish!" Suzune was actually really mad at them this time. "You went in without doing any of the proper research and recon! You thought you could take them both down while theywere fighting?" Suzune said in that dreadfully calm voice of hers that sounded like ice.
"I thought they'd be weakened and off guard." MIyabi tried to defend herself. "Maybe it was a little rushed..." she tried to sound contrite to try and lessen the incoming punishment.
"You were wrong and that one mistake got half your team beaten." Suzune said suddenly after a moment of seeming to consider what Miyabi said. "That's twice you've failed. Did I make a mistake in appointing you the leader of the elite squad?"
Miyabi immediately heard that serious reprimand in Suzune's voice and bowed down lower almost putting her nose on the floor as she did. "You didn't I promise." she replied in a clear voice, trying to hide the fact that she was actually afraid of Suzune snapping and issuing an order for her death right there. Hebijo wasn't known to be forgiving of failures afterall.
"You've done little to prove me wrong Miyabi." Suzune said then sighed, seeming to calm down by rubbing her stomach lightly in almost tender gesture. "I will give you another chance. Mind you, it will be your last." She said, feeling forgiving but also responsible; maybe she hadn't instructed them well enough? Perhaps a small lesson was in order.
"Yes ma'am! Thank you ma'am!" Miyabi jolted in surprise and felt a flood of relief surge through her as she was about to rise, shifting to get to her feet.
"Stop." Suzune said. "You may want to listen. I know you want to do better Miyabi, I can see your drive to prove yourself; But I want you to slow down." she started. "You aren't the first to be like that. A long time ago; before there were even elite shinobi; there was one young woman that was just like you."
iyabi blinked. "Like me?" she began to say. At the time of that topic, Syra quietly made her leave. She was going to make a comment to supplement the report of what Miyabi was speaking of..but her changing the topic made her think it would be best at another time.
Suzune nodded, coaxing Miyabi to listen well. "This elite shinobi was of a class far superior to almost anyone that had been admitted to this school. I myself was admitted shortly after they were here. She had amazing reflexes, eyes of cold steel, and less mercy than even I when it came to failure of her lessers. To some...she's just a myth. Her mere existence was merely played off like it was an experiment, were it something born out of a laboratory. For those like myself and Master Dogen however, we know the truth about her."
"...and just what was that truth, sensei?" Miyabi asked.
"That she left and became a rogue because her ideals did not match what Dogen had in mind for all of Hebijo. The same ideals I bestow upon you to carry out for me. But it wasn't because she was afraid of him threatening her, it was actually the opposite. I remember having a conversation where I tried to reconsider: I was a newly appointed elite at that time. But I reconsidered quickly when I got this sensation.."
The white haired shinobi looked at her, slightly confused.
"A sensation?"
"Of complete dread. That trying to take her on would be a death warrant." Suzune said, standing up and going to look outside. "I had a rival who promised she would not graduate until she was able to defeat me in battle. I suppose you could consider this...woman..to be my equivalent to that. The only exception being I would never challenge her directly. I'm only human, but she is on another level I can never reach."
Suzune continued and proceeded to tell Miyabi that story about a kunoichi that'd risen quickly through the ranks and shattered all expectations to what was considered ' the best.' It was also a warning that advancing so far so quickly would always, ALWAYS have unexpected side effects; most of them not that pleasant.
' It was also a warning that advancing so far so quickly would always, Always have unexpected side effects; most of them not that pleasant.
In the hospital paid for and aligned with the "good shinobi", Kana lay in her hospital bed with bandages around her face leaving her with her right eye to see with. It was so boring, the walls were all so white and the equipment the only company she had when visiting hours were going on. The doctors and nurses coming and going was growiing annoying but was the only sounds she really heard. "This place must not actually get alot of patients, normally hospitals seem more lively. It's like a bloody funeral home in here." She complained, though nobody was listening since it was late at night.
Or so she thought, next to her in a chair was Murakumo; whom had a few bandages on her arms and such but didn't look any worse for wear. Once again she had that old demon mask over her face. "Gah!" For the love of..." Kana yelped once she saw that. "-Kumo! You don't have to wear that thing here!" she said. "Take that off. it's freaking me out."
"I don't want to." Murakumo replied in her deeper, more hammy voice. "I feel better with it."
"There is nobody here other than us, you don't really need that thing." Kana said, turning over a bit to focus better. "You're a pretty enough girl without it..." she said, trying to make her friend feel better enough to take the mask off.
"Don't lie." Murakumo said immediately.
"-Kumo, look at me, do I look remotely close to having the energy to lie to you right now?" Kana sighed.
Murakumo thought about that for a moment and glanced around, seeing the door was closed and there weren't any cameras. So she'd take the mask off, if only not to freak Kana out from seeing it; though she thought it was more freaky to see her without it. "H-how do you feel...? You looked horrible when we brought you here."
Kana looked at her for a moment, thinking that Murakumo really did look alot prettier without that damn mask on. To a degree, Kana was jealous of the soft, pretty girl look that Murakumo had with her brown hair and green eyes. "Like I got hit in the face with a chainsaw." Kana tried to joke. "But really? I can't tell, they've got me hooked up to a morphine drip. So I imagine I'd probably be in agony if they didn't. All I feel is discomfort."
With a nod, Murakumo replied to her. "The doctors' said that they'll have to keep you here for a couple days, but you should be alright." The look of relief was obvious, though it seemed like -Kumo wasn't telling her everything.
"What is -Kumo? You're looking at me funny." Kana said, then remembered what happened to her that landed her there. Thinking that the bandages were from being knocked around by whatever-the-hell that power of Murasaki's was.
Murakumo shook her head. "It's nothing, you should go ahead and get some rest. I'll tell the others that you came to." She said and stood up and headed out. "We'll come see you tomorrow."
"Oh..." Kana said and just waved before sighing. "Alone again...will they just abandon me here too? Just like everyone else?" Kana lamented. "Why? Why's it always me? It's because I'm a monster isn't it? I burn everything around me. Nobody can stop me from doing it..." she said holding up a hand and looking at it. As she did, she remembered when she was training before and almost lost control and how Yumi managed to stop it. Before that, it had been Shiki that stopped her.
"No. I'm not a monster..." she muttered. "I haven't ever once hurt my friends...those important to me. The one time in the past was just an accident wasn't it? I didn't mean to cause it..." Kana muttered as if putting things together.
That put to bed some of the stress she felt about what she could do and eased the burden she felt like she carried. "I'm too tired to worry about it now though..." she said and dozed off again after a couple minutes.
A couple days later, word would reach the Crimson Girls about what happened at Gessen Academy. Homura groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose with her thumb and forefinger as if she had a headache. "Asuka and her friends went and fought with Gessen again and got ambushed by our supposed successors at the New Hebijo academy." She said, after calling her friends together once Haruka got back from her part-time job, or being fired from it.
"Really?" Hikage asked leaning back in her chair with one leg crossed over the other. "Huh, who'd have thought that we'd have successors."
"Who won?" Yomi asked from where she was, hoping that Ikaruga had come out of it alright, feeling the concern welling up.
Homura sifted through some notes she'd come up with and those that had been left with the last supply cache they'd received. It troubled her though; that someone was helping them out like that- not because they were, but because she knew how much trouble that person would get into if they were found out. That, and she still didn't have a single damn clue who was doing it. At first she'd thought it was Asuka and the rest of them but the message from Kiriya had made it clear that they werent' doing it. "It seems like they broke even and fought them off, probably due to the fact that they and Gessen's students teamed up to fight." Homura replied.
Haruka would come out from behind their curtain that separated out a place they could go to change clothes in private. The cave they lived in didn't have much in the way of privacy, being a large open space. "Then maybe we should go see them. It wouldn't hurt really, and I'm sure they'd appreciate the concern." She said peering over Homura's shoulder at the notes.
"I like that idea." Yomi smiled.
"It couldn't hurt but we'd risk someone recognizing us and tailing us back here." Hikage pointed out, unfazed.
"That's why we don't make a big deal about it." Mirai said, spinning to face them in her chair.
"Then that's that. We'll go pay them a visit for once." Homura decided.
So a couple days later, when Homura and Haruka didn't have to work; they'd go to Hanzo academy. Being as stealthy as they could to avoid being identified or followed, they'd separate to go different directions and would meet up again outside of the Hanzo gates and would let themselves get spotted by the shinobi -detectors around the campus. They'd be met by Kiriya, whom would direct them somewhere they girls could meet them after questionining why they were there.
The Hanzo girls would meet their friends inside of a kekkai barrier set up by the Crimson girls once they arrived, it wasn't meant to be a trap; but a way to talk without being noticed.
"Asuka!" Homura greeted her friendly rival from behind, making Asuka spin about to see who it was.
"Homura?! Don't startle me like that" Asuka complained. "You wanted to see us?" she asked a the others joined her, as did the other Crimson girls.
"We heard that you fought with both Gessen and New Hebijo. You got your butts kicked from the sound of it." Homura said. "Sad, considering how easily we could've beaten them both."
"That wasn't how it went!" Asuka puffed out her cheeks. "We fought with Gessen yes, but decided to team up when those " New Hebijo" girls attacked. "
"That was a difficult fight. I thought I was going to lose there for a time." Ikaruga commented. "That girl...Miyabi? Was really strong, she kept trying to take my weapon from me."
"The others were really strong too. I don't know what I've have done if we didn't have help." Asuka said and explained in brief what happened to them as she understood it.
Then...
"You actually got hog-tied and hung from a tree blondie?" Hikage smirked faintly, amused by the idea of it though she didn't recognize the fact that she was.
"HAHAHA OH Man, too bad nobody took a pic." Mirai burst out laughing, trying to imagine Katsuragi hanging fromn a tree kicking and screaming.
"Oh shut up!" Katsu blushed at the memory of the embarassing situation. "I don't know what happened, that black haired girl just slung something in my face that made me really sleepy. I woke up like that!" she said, turning brighter red.
Mirai collapsed to the ground in a fit of laughter.
"At least one of you should've been able to fight them on even grounds one on one..." Homura sighed, shaking her head a bit as Hikage helped Mirai up.
"What do you mean?" Asuka tilted her head.
"One of your number got trained the same way we were remember?" Haruka pointed out and glanced amongst them then sighed. "I see that he isn't here..." she said, sounding almost sad.
At the mention of that, Asuka reached up and touched the soft-furry shoulder cape she was wearing still without realizing it. "Oh... he...left..." Asuka finally said, looking down, in more than sightline.
"Wow. Maybe he should've stayed with us if you couldn't make him want to stay with you." Homura said offhandly, then sputtered back spitting blood from Asuka suddenly punching her as hard as she could. "What the hell Asuka?!"
Asuka was fuming at the mention of that and looked really angry at her for that with a bit of blood on her knuckles from cutting herself on Homura's teeth.
"Now calm down..." Haruka said. "What do you mean by that?" She asked, sounding concerned. But she could also read between the lines from Asuka's instant reaction to what Homura had said without thinking.
Ikaruga stepped up, seeing as Asuka was too upset to explain. "I presume you mean Sano-san. He left with our senpai for what she called, 'intensive private training'" Ikaruga explained. "She didn't say more than that. But we have heard from him that he's doing alright, nothing to be too worried about."
"I see..." Haruka replied.
Once all parties had calmed down, they got back to business, discussing what happened and the best way to deal with it.
"By the way, we had someone tell us that they were coming shortly before it happened, do you know anyone that might do that?" Asuka asked, remembering the girl in the black hood and outfit that stopped her and Yumi from fighting long enough to warn them.
"Huh?" Homura blinked. "No, nobody I'd know. I guess someone that knew decided to help you out. But it's a good question...if it was one of them, they'd have nothing to gain from telling you."
"Unless things aren't as solid there as they want you to think." Haruka pointed out. "If even one of them wanted to ruin their plans it wouldn't take much."
"That's right!" Hibari added. "I remember you all telling me that if I wanted to betray you, that I should try it if I felt confident I could get away with it."
Haruka smiled. "That's right, we did."
"Who knows? Maybe one of them is trying to make Miyabi look like a fool in hopes of getting her punished so that they could advance." Hikage offhandly suggested.
"Wait! I remember meeting one of them ..uh in a casual sense. She said that she didn't really like the rest of them, saying that Hebijo wasn't like it used to be or something." Asuka blinked.
"Maybe that's who's doing it?" Homura shrugged.
"If she said that, then maybe one of you knows who it is?" Ikaruga suggested since Asuka was still fishing for a name. She just couldn't remember the name or face for some reason.
While all that was going down, with the rest of the students recovering from what had happened, Syra found herself alone again at Hebijo. With Miyabi pissed off and Imu spending time with a shaken up Murasaki; and Ryobi and Ryouna busy sulking; Syra had found time to sneak off to be on her own. Going up to the roof of the main building; she'd sit on the crest of it leaning forward on her knees as she sat down; looking over everything. It was different than she remembereed; but the night itself was darkened with the cloud blocking out the moon overhead. It made Syra remember when she first arrived at the original Hebijo.
An unknown amount of time before...
"Man I didn't think this place would be so...dreary. It's all work, work work; I don't think I've seen one student here that actually looks like they're enjoying it." Syra muttered, sitting on the roof of the hebijo dorm building leaning over propped up with her elbows on her knees. Wearing what amounted to pajamas with fluffy slippers. "Onee-san said that this place would make me better, but I don't see it. Isn't school supposed to be something you actually partially enjoy because of the freedom? I haven't seen any of that here."
It would be another cloudy night, so the moon wasn't easily visible. But a minute came by and an older voice was heard behind her. "So I figure you would be up here..." it was her older sister, Haruhi in equal pajamas opposite of Syra's colors.
"Did we really have to come here?" Syra asked over her shoulder. "You made it sound like it was a better place to go than this. ... This place feels...dead, there's no ...enjoyment here...no life. Just robots going through their daily routines. Are we going to end up like this too?" she asked with a worried, almost scared look.
She sat with her and sighed. "I see what you mean...but I suppose that's only cuz of not getting the bigger picture. " she explained...only then laughed a little. "That's what I -want- to believe, anyway. But as of late...I'm not so sure anymore when it comes to myself. Things have gotten..." She paused, considering her words. "complicated."
"Complicated how?" Syra asked, turning to look down at the courtyard again and sighed. "I suppose it is better than where we were before at least in terms of how secure it is."
"Yeah. Here you have food, shelter, education, ways to defend yourself...and you have a goal to work towards. Personally I prefer that type of life for you rather than fast hands to steal. If you're gonna steal then I would rather you put those skills to better use." she said looking at her but then drooped her head. "...you already know this. I've already told you that." Usually she was able to come up with answers..but here she was left with few.
"I've always pissed off some of the others here because of that.." Syra said and produced three scrolls from her cleavage, holding them between her fingers. "Until they stop acting all superior I'm keeping their transformation scrolls." Syra said with a small giggle. "But is it just me or does something about this place feel...off? Like it's really reasy to provoke a fight over the simplest thing."
Haruhi just sighed and yanked them faster than she could blink from her and looked at her. "Syra you need to stop doing that. Do it only when it benefits you: empty hands that fill themselves with clutter for something as minute as humor isn't worth much here. " she said trying to remind her of why she was there.
"It worked at the time. It stopped them from using their full abilities." Syra countered with puffed out cheeks.
"Then when you can, return these." tossing them back. "That being said...I don't want to say too much but...things around here in Hebijo aren't gonna get any easier." now looking worried. "Nothing is gonna get easier around here now. Dogen is...doing some things."
Syra blinked at her, not having heard that name before that night. "Who?" she asked, putting the items away for the time being.
"He's..." she just remembered she never spoke of his name around her. "He's the secret headmaster, slash investor in Hebijo Academy. Sort of..the boss. Even though I AM the boss around here so to speak.." she laughed weakly.
Syra puffed her cheeks again and looked at her. "But...nobody's better than you are Onee-san." she said, confused. "what makes him the head cheese? just because he throws money around?" she asked.
"Money makes the whole world go around, and Hebijo is no different. We're funded by several head honchos and groups but he's basically the #1...and he's been putting himself more and more into the actual affairs of the school as of late." Haruhi narrowed her eyes a tad and looked intense for a second. "...he's shifting what Hebijo should be. At least...that's how I feel, anyway. Rin is perfectly ok with it though, so her and I had a big fight about it." she said, frowning a little."
Syra sighed and drooped her head again for a moment, mumbling a little then looked up at Haruhi again. "Haruhi...was dad ever like that?" I can't remember much." she asked in a quiet voice.
Her eyes narrowed a little in pain. They had been on their own for quite awhile but they did have a parent at one point. "Like what...controlling?" she asked.
"Yeah...or 'money first, screw what you peons think." Syra asked.
"No, never. I remember him being a pile of mush with you especially. He made you and I giggle a lot playing and messing around. " she said remembering him. "Always wore a nice suit, well groomed...purple hair so..." she points to herself. "That's where I take after anyway.."
Syra reached up and ruffled her hair a little and smiled wanely. "I wonder why he left us alone like this..." she asked. "Did he ever say?"
"He said we would understand some day...but it was beyond his control. That and he loved us. Just like I do." reaching for her hand trying to comfort her. "I hate not knowing what it was but...I'd like to think he'll come back some day."
Syra just sighed a bit and looked for a second like a sad puppy and laid down with her head in Haruhi's lap. "Maybe that's why when you're not around, I feel all kinds of lonely. It scares me... that you might go away and not ever come back. Like mom did..." She said and sniffled a little.
She frowned. Unfortunately she couldn't tell her she was planning to leave...just..not in the same way. "If I do...I'l tell you, but I won't NOT come back. Ok? I promise."
"Ok..." she said and poked her cheek. "I'mma hold you to that." she tried to smile. After a few moments she sighed again; all these clouds and all were bumming her out. "why can't I make friends here...?" she muttered. Most of the girls there largely ignored her even when she tried to be social and all; so she'd been developing a layer of "snark-knight" to deal with it. "It all seems so 1-on-1.. I haven't seen anyone team up here at all."
"I think that some o fthe lessons not being taught here are cooperative teamwork. They seem all stuck on the whole "ninjas have to work alone" bit." she said in a snarky tone.
"Maybe the friends you can make just haven't been enlisted to Hebijo yet?" she said trying to give a silver lining.
"Maybe..." she said. "It'd be nice." Syra said and snuggled a little, sounding sleepy.
Haruhi started petting her hair slowly. "You keep being this mopey I'm gonna have to shut your mouth up with something that will KEEP it shut."
She wanted this sort of life to continue, but with what she was experiencing with Hebijo Academy's top investor, Dogen...it wouldn't last very long at the rate. Haruhi felt it wouldn't be worth it in the long run.
"I just wish things could go back to what they were before..." Syra mumbled in a half-awake tone. Before she dropped off to doze completely she muttered. "I miss daddy..."
Haruhi frowned hearing that, looking back to the sky. "I do too, Syra..."
"I haven't thought about that in a while." Syra sighed, looking up at the moon as the clouds overhead began to disperse. The light shone over the campus like a silver overhead lamp had turned on, illuminating a few students in the training grounds getting in some late night training or other things. With a sigh she just hugged her knees a bit and looked up at the moon with her hair spilling over one of her shoulders as she did.
"I wonder what they're up to..." She asked, meaning her sister, father and her friends that'd gone renegade. She pulled herself in a bit tighter, with her hair blowing out to the side as a cool breeze blew through and dark clouds began to form on the horizon.
"It's been a while since we've been here. I hope everything's going as we left it..." A figure dressed in a slick dark purple, nicely-groomed suit mused as he stepped out of a glossy black car onto a sidewalk somewhere in the city. He then snapped his fingers and gestured. "Bring him, it's time for us to have a little..discussion."
The would be some shuffling and a loud, muffled cry of alarm as someone was roughly pulled from the car. The unfortunate person would then be drug against his will down a side street to an open park where he was roughly shoved up against a standing light and handcuffed to it.
"Now you're going to answer our questions. I think that's honestly in your best of interest right now. If you ask me...hah...well, no. I'll do the asking here. Because if you don't..." The mysterious suited man said as another man about his height stepped up but was still shadowed, the only feature the gagged captive could see was that he had on something resembling body armor maybe?"
In a second, the guy in the body armor snatched the duct tape off the guy's mouth eliciting a loud curse. "I ain't tellin' you fools anything!" the younger guy, dressed in a less impressive suit said.
"Of course you will. You will refuse for now; but you'll come around..." The well-dressed man said, walking past the bound captive. Stepping into the light showing that he had shoulder-blade length dark purple hair in a short ponytail. With a small gesture, he produced a small needle and deftly jabbed it into the guy's neck and injected something before tossing it. "Now as you saying? You were telling us about some of the things Dogen was doing."
The guy jerked as he felt the needle go in but right away he felt ...drunk, like he could tell these guys anything. After all he'd just had a few right? Who'd care? "Oh yeah..that old bastard got it in his head that he could use those dumbasses at some school to boost his profits or something." The guy replied then hiccuped.
"Really? Did he say how he'd do that?" The sharply dressed man asked.
"Nah. Just something about an old legend about a monster. As if anyone believes that crap..." The guy laughed drunkenly.
The two other men glanced between each other momentarily, having a whole conversation in that span of time on what to do. "Of course. Nobody believes old-wives tales." The guy in the armor said.
"Anything else?" the sharply dressed man asked pointedly. "And do be clear good chap."
"I think he already did that though, I heard that he rebuilt it and is brainwashing the students or something. I heard it's just a girl's school so the old perv probably wants sex slaves or something." The guy laughed a bit. "Who could blame him? You should see some of these girls, Man I've never seen bigger tits. I hope he decides to allow people to buy time."
"I see..." The dark-purple haired man said coldly. "Thank you for your information."
"Hey! You guys said somethin' about a reward right?" the guy hiccuped.
"I see..." The dark-purple haired man said coldly. "That wasn't so hard, now was it? I didn't even have to break your legs to do it! hahahah! Imagine if I did huh? You'd look even MORE stupid than you are right? haha, oh excuse me." wiping a tear from his eye then going straight faced again. "We're done here."
The poor man's pained screams would go on to wake up the neighorhood; sounding like someone was severely beating someone's ass. Loud, painful impact sounds and broken sobbing and pleads to "stop!" that would quickly have people contacting the authorities. When it was all said and done, when police arrived the people that'd done it had already left and all that was left was the broken body of someone chained to a lightpost. It was so brutal that one of the first responders was loudly ill in bushes and the medical examiner was pale-faced, unsure if he was looking at a person or an animal.
There hung a note around his neck that simply said 'This is what is left of a pour soul that dared to defy the true ways of H.C.G.A.'.