I wrote this whole bloody thing in ONE BLOODY SITTING, including the previous chapter. Meaning I probably haven't had the time to sit there and proof read it as much as i probably should have... as always, reviews are greatly appreciated, and hope you enjoy the thrilling conclusion to the Ronin story arc!
PS: Ride of the Valkyries was a fun song to listen to when I was reading this.
Johnny roared as he unloaded the bullets across the street and into anything that was yellow and moving. It was relentless; he ducked behind cover and quickly reloaded again, swearing when he was he was down to his last clip. There was a loud rattling as bullets hammered into the hot dog stand he was crouched behind. He jutted out from around the corner, unloading more bullets and cussing again as three Ronin bikes hurtled around the corner to join the fray. He quickly looked further down the pier.
"Fuck!" he growled when he saw Akuji, sword in hand and facing Wong. Johnny went to turn his aim on the leader of the Ronin, finger about to squeeze the trigger, as a bullet finally found its mark on him, striking him deeply in the arm, buried into his flesh. He shouted in sudden pain, trying to lift his gun to fire on his enemies.
At the far end of the pier Akuji swung the sword hard, clearly skilled in the art, slicing open a deep gash onto Wong's leg. The old man toppled, gritting his teeth and swearing in a foreign tongue. Akuji narrowed his eyes, muttering to the man in Japanese and raising his sword. There was a sudden shot of gunfire, bullets whizzing past him and he stopped, looking up to his assailant. Lu held the smoking gun, hand shaking and aim terrible; he'd clearly never used a gun before. Akuji swore darkly in his native language, stopping when he heard a deep, ominous rumbling of engines in the distance. They didn't sound like the vehicles his soldiers used…
Johnny heard them too, teeth gritted as he pressed his hand over the wound in his arm. He looked down the esplanade, eyes widening and letting out a loud shout of laughter when he saw them. The army of royal purple cars and bikes pored, flooded around the corner in unison, ploughing through the Ronin, Saints leaning out of windows to fire their weapons or slash at anyone close enough with machetes, swords or baseball bats.
And spearheading this army, this huge, unrelenting force, a single figure on a motorbike, recognisable to Johnny even with her features hidden by the helmet she wore. She swerved the bike, letting off single shots to any Ronin in her way, speeding closer to her Asian comrade and skidding to a stop, inches away from him.
The Boss pulled off her helmet, tossing her head to free her long ebony locks which caught in the wind. Around them, the huge mass of invading Saints continued to take over. Gat laughed as he got to his feet.
"You sure know how to make an entrance," he said approvingly to the smiling boss. She quickly frowned when she saw him holding his arm.
"Shit," she said, reaching out but he pulled back, tugging the silk over shirt off his shoulders, leaving him in the plain white singlet.
"It's fine. Flesh wound." He said, twisting the purple fabric to create a make-shift bandage. The Boss grabbed it hand began wrapping it around the wound, frowning.
"Sorry I wasn't here sooner-" she said with exasperation. Gat laughed.
"You kidding?" he said, holding out his arm to her and slinging the strap of his empty rifle over his shoulder, "I don't think you could have got here faster if you teleported. Not to mention bringing enough of the crew to invade a small country with."
The Boss grinned, tying the dressing off tightly.
"Where's Akuji?" she asked, back to business. Gat nodded down the esplanade to where the man was running down the pier, headed for the junk boats and chased by a limping man she recognised as Lu, Wong's translator. There was a brilliant explosion on one of the boats, what looked like a firework had involuntarily gone off, blowing a fiery hole out the side of one of them.
Wong was on the ground of the esplanade, holding his leg and shouting after the retreating Akuji.
"C'mon," the boss ordered, Gat getting astride the bike behind her, he wrapped his uninjured arm around her waist to hold on in the short burst down the pier. She quickly skidded to a stop next to Mr. Wong, who began speaking to her rapidly in Cantonese.
"Gat, can you get Wong out of here?" she said. Gat grimaced,
"Boss, you sure about going after Akuji by yourself?' he said quickly. He didn't want to be stuck there babysitting Wong; his priority was to her safety before this relative stranger's, but seeing as she was the 'Boss' he couldn't really undermine her orders. The Boss looked to the smoking boats, her face suddenly ashen and she swallowed.
"I'll be fine Johnny." She said; Gat noticed her eyes involuntarily flicker to his arm with concern, and he got where she was coming from. Johnny frowned as they both slid off the bike, the Boss loading her rifle, handing Gat her spare ammo. Johnny helped Wong up, slinging the man's arm over his good shoulder.
"Be careful," was all he said to her. She turned, and he thought he could hear her growl something about 'fucking boats' as she charged down the steps and onto the pier, chasing down the most feared man in Japan.
I coughed as I ran through the junk boats; there was smoke enveloping them; the Ronin had actually been lighting the fires. I unloaded my rifle and took out whatever resistance I found, covering my nose with my sleeve and trying to peer through the thick black cloud for any sign of Lu or Akuji. The three old boats were linked only by wooden planks, and it took some navigating before I finally made it to the last boat. The fires were spreading devouring the wooden boats alive – something behind me popped and exploded into fire and I actually yelped.
I had a thing about burning, exploding boats, as you could well imagine. And being on a set of flaming boats with unknown amounts of fireworks on board was doing nothing to comfort me.
Akuji I reminded myself.
I searched the bottom half of the boat first; only an idiot would go up when they were trapped on a burning, floating pile of wood. But there was no sign of them on the lower levels.
I groaned when I realised that idiot would have to be me.
I wove up the stairs, bursting onto the hot, flaming deck just in time to see Akuji dispatch Lu, slashing a huge, deep gash into his chest. Lu's body crumpled, blood pooling around him, hissing as it met with the fire. I growled at Akuji through the thick fire and smoke around us; high about the sails and mast of the boat began to light, cracking and dropping burning fabric around us. I turned the nose of my rifle to him and squeezed the trigger, trying to blink the smoke and grit from my eyes.
My rifle dismally discharged one last bullet before I realised it was empty, and that single bullet had bloody well missed, thunking into the wooden post next to Akuji. I swallowed unhappily, even more so when I remembered I'd given all my spare ammo to Gat. I slung my rifle off my shoulders and dropped it – looks like I'd be doing this the old fashioned way.
It must have been an idiot day for me.
Akuji muttered something at me in Japanese, kicking Lu's stolen sword over to me. I glanced down to it; I hadn't been keeping up with any sword play since Jyunichi, but if slicing up this old man was what I had to do, then it was what I had to do. I picked up the sword, glaring at the old man. how tough could he be?
"I hope you put up a better fight than Shogo," I quipped, then ran at him, swinging sharply. He dodged it, and I realised my fatal last words; years of training and experience showed as he curled the sword around on me. He was talented, I'd give him that.
But he was also an old, feeble man. And without strength and speed, his skills couldn't really be applied. I blocked his attacks, quickly on the back foot, before I managed to lock his sword down under mine, and kicked sharply into his shin, lurching my skull forward to head butt him. The old man fell backwards, and I lifted the sword to swing it at him, believing victory was actually in my hands.
He moved quickly then, swinging his own blade, the tip slicing open my hand and sending my weapon flying over the edge of the boat into the water. I grabbed my hand tightly. The thick flesh under my little finger had a deep laceration, bleeding profusely. That moment of distracting was enough for him to land a kick into my knee – the impact was been weak, but the spot he'd expertly aimed for was a vulnerable point causing me to yell in pain, my knee bending sharply a way it wasn't supposed to and I stumbled backwards, tripping over Lu's cadaver on the blood-slicked boards, landing heavily on my butt.
"You didn't really think you could defeat me?" Akuji sneered through his thick accent. I smirked. It was a familiar feeling, edging backwards from the man advancing with the sword, thinking of where I could possibly get my hands on a weapon. But this time, my gun wasn't across the room – it was strapped to my thigh. And he obviously thought I was going to face him like some honourable samurai warrior rather than someone who fought with common sense.
"Nope." I replied, whipping the gun out and shooting him in the chest. He cried out and fell to the ground, dropping his sword. "I'm gonna cheat." I finished with a smile, uneasily getting up, wincing at the pain in my knee and re-gripping my gun, hand shaking from the pain on my palm I was trying to ignore. Akuji looked up to me, eyes narrowed hatefully.
"Finish it." He said. I raised an eyebrow, looking to his sword on the ground and edged a toe under it, kicking it up like a toy and catching the hilt in my left hand. Akuji snarled at me even more so when I did. I kept the gun trained on him, walking carefully around to his back. I felt cold as I looked at him. I didn't want this quick and quiet. Not for him.
I kicked him down harshly onto the floor boards, gritting my teeth against the sharp pain that shot up from my injured knee, drawing back the sword and stabbing it down into his back, the metal crunching and grating as it crushed its way through his spine and between the vertebrae. Akuji screamed, the lower half of his body going limp. I pushed harder again till I felt the blade stick into the wood below. I snarled at Akuji, stepping out of the way as piss began to spread through his pants and over the floor boards. The added sting of humiliation to his death made me want to share the moment.
I slipped my gun away into the holster and pulled out my phone, pressing the speed dial for Gat, putting the phone to my ear.
"Boss! You ok?" he said quickly down the line. I felt myself nodding.
"Yeah, I'm good Johnny. Could you put Wong on the phone?" I asked.
"Sure thing Boss, hold on…" There was the sound of rummaging and Wong's tired voice replied. I smiled a little to myself.
"Wong, I want you to hear something," I said, crouching and putting the phone to Akuji's mouth. The old man glared at me with more hate than I'd ever seen and kept his jaw tightly shut. It was almost fascinating to watch; I found myself relishing his despising me, knowing he'd been defeated by me as my fingers wrapped around the hilt of the blade. I began slowly winding and twisting it, feeling the bones grinding again against the steel.
"C'mon, be a good sport," I cooed, grinning at his scream. Eventually I stopped, standing and putting the phone back to my ear.
"You hear that Wong?" I said. The man on the other end actually deigned to speak to me in English.
"Yes – I owe you a debt of gratitude – you are truly an angel of death" he said stiffly. I nodded, wondering if I liked the moniker. Hmn… a little cliché.
"You're welcome," I acknowledged, "Thanks." I clicked the phone off and slipped it back into my pocket. Above me, the flames lurched higher into the twilight sky, the mast of the ship cracking, seconds away from collapse. I had no interest on being stuck on another exploding ship any longer and made my way to the hand railings. Behind me, Akuji spat out hatefully.
"When I escape," he croaked, "The world will not be big enough for you to hide in."
I raised an eyebrow, throwing a comment over my shoulder.
"Luckily for me, you're doing to burn to death in a few minutes," I said, blasé. I climbed slowly up onto the railing, breathing in the night air, and for a while, that hole in my chest closed up, and I felt invigorated. I looked over my shoulder to the pathetic old man splayed out.
"Your son should have never fucked with my friends." I said darkly as the burning mast finally snapped and began to fall, stabbing down into the boat and causing a backlash of fire to erupt from the centre of it. I leapt from the railings into the cold water of the bay, feeling it wash away all the sweat and soot that lacquered my skin.
Having left Wong with a few other Saints, Johnny had gotten down from the esplanade onto the concrete docks and was scanning the burning boats, not realising his hands shook a little as he saw them begin to collapse in on themselves – each time they did there was a loud explosion of fireworks, some shooting out and exploding in a beautiful, brilliant light, others simply blowing the boats and the docks apart and erupting into fire, stopping him from being able to get to them. Peirce came jogging up behind him.
"Yo! Gat! Get back man!" he said, trying to call him back from the danger zone, "Wait… Where's the Boss?" he continued worriedly, eyes following Johnny's line of sight.
"C'mon," Gat said, starting at a jog down the concrete dock till he found a jetty that wasn't yet ablaze, running along it – it was the closest either of them could get.
"Shit man," Pierce said in amazement as he looked at the boats – it might have been sublime had they time to take it all in, the roaring red and orange flames licking up into the indigo sky, reflecting off the inky black waters, cracking with fireworks. A beautiful, deadly mess. Both men concentrated then on the water, hunting for any sign of life.
"C'mon Boss, where are you?" Johnny muttered. Peirce quickly slapped him on the shoulder, pointing and running further down the dock, Johnny quickly trailing him.
"There!" Pierce was shouting – in the distance, down by the third boat, a small figure was splashing in the water, trying to swim away. There was an awkward struggle for a moment as he saw her pull off her biker jacket, bared arms now pulling through the water feebly.
"Is she hurt?" Peirce said, narrowing his eyes through the darkness. Behind her there was another explosion low on the boat, sending a wave of water rolling over the Boss' head. She broke the surface again and spluttered, trying to swim harder. Gat swore and kicked off his shoes and threw his glasses from his face, drawing back his arms and diving blindly into the water.
"Shit!" Pierce said, pulling the hat off his head, trying to call out to Gat, who was attempting to swim but the injury on his arm slowing his progress. "God dammit…" he muttered, pulling off his shirt and kicking off his shoes, diving in after Gat and the Boss.
Panic was beginning to flood me – I kept trying to tell myself it was irrational, that I just had to stay focused, keep swimming, I'd be fine and make it to the docks in no time – but another wave rolled over my head, smothering me as I tried to breathe and filling my mouth with salt water.
Some people had snakes, some people had spiders. Though I despised admitting it, my fear was drowning.
I tried to use my arms to pull myself through the water, kicking with only one leg, the other shooting pain up my body whenever I tried to use it – usually pain wouldn't bother me but now it was adding to my anxiety and I knew I had to try and keep a level head. I was trying desperately not to think of being trapped in that trunk with Lin, the water rushing in around us. I didn't want to look at the fire over the water, too much like the night back on the boat with Hughes, the explosion that put me into a coma.
"Boss!"
I nearly sobbed with relief; I heard his voice before I saw Johnny, swimming through the water towards me. My hands scrambled for him, heart pounding. He treaded water and I clung to his singlet, trying to catch my breath, feeling my anxiety washing away with the current.
"You ok?" he asked quickly. I nodded.
"My knee's fucked, but aside from that I'm good." I declared; saying the words helped me believe it. "You arm-?"
"It's nothing," he said quickly. There was another splashing nearby and a figure came swimming strongly through the water.
"Pierce?" I spluttered. He pulled up to tread water.
"Well I was gonna look like an asshole if I didn't jump in too." He said. I heard Johnny laugh next to me and felt more relief. "Okay well, can we get the fuck out of here before the sharks show up?" Pierce said quickly. I just nodded. Pierce grabbed the front of my shirt and started pulling me along in a strong side stroke, Johnny swimming along beside me as I attempted to swim for myself. I was too relieved at this point to let my pride be hurt by the help. We finally made it to the jetty, all exhausted, crawling up on to the worn boards and flopping down on them, breathing heavily. I rolled over, looking up at the few stars that could be seen through the thick plumes of smoke, then slowly sat up, the men either side of me following suit. I looked back to the blazing ships, one half submerged as it burned. I breathed heavily, watching the last one, where Akuji was slowly burning. I felt a smile on my mouth, the pure insanity of the day wrapping around me.
It was over. The Ronin were done.
I put my uninjured hand to my mouth and felt a laugh bubble up from somewhere deep in my chest. I glanced either side of me; Peirce was grinning, admiring the spectacular sight before us, and Johnny was shaking his head incredulously.
"What you laughing at?" he asked with a broad smile. I breathed heavily, and waved a hand to the ships.
"We fucking did it," I said breathlessly.
So, how did I do?