Chapter 24: The First Stone is Cast

Ryuu rushed back to the village with Satoshi's warning in mind, racing through the trees and the bushes until he came out of the forest and onto the dirt road that bordered the edge of the village. Not wanting to lose any more time, he dashed down the road with unnaturally fast speed, zipping past one or two speeding police cars with their sirens wailing.

Suddenly, he stopped when the blue and red flashing lights of the police cars caught his eye and he allowed the vehicles to zoom past him to see where they were off to. He followed them, his curiosity aroused. He couldn't imagine what would cause the police to stir at such a late hour of the night in a normally peaceful and quiet town like Hinamizawa. He soon found out…

In the distance he saw the orange, dim glow of crackling flames that were luring other villagers to its location like a beacon. He slowed down when he saw other villagers- women, men, and children alike- emerge from their homes with bewildered expressions as they all cautiously approached the roaring fire which was now encircled by four police cars and a fire truck. Ryuu smelt a familiar scent emanating from the burning wreckage that caused his heart to skip a beat in fear and anticipation.

"Satoshi was here…" he thought with an alarmed expression as he recognized his scent in the air. The smell was coming from a siren-tower that, judging from the looks of things, had been ripped from the ground and slammed violently into the grass. Ryuu had to nudge his way past the crowd of worried looking villagers to get a better look at the trashed siren-tower. He saw sharp scratch marks carved into the tower's black surface and as Ryuu remembered the feeling of Satoshi's sharp nails digging into the meat of his shoulders he had no doubt that this was his handiwork. And as if that weren't enough, there was a large blood splatter mark on the tower's base that would explain why he had seen Satoshi with a large gash in his side last time they met.

"All right everyone, all right!" cried the hatefully familiar voice of Jack Lanyon, "Nothing to see here! Get back!"

Jack Lanyon emerged from a group of police officers that all looked at Jack with disgust as he brushed past them.

Not wanting to be seen by Jack, Ryuu slowly fell back with the rest of the crowd but kept a wary eye on Lanyon as he ordered the firemen to step forward and do their job. Ryuu watched as the firemen extinguished the flames with the help of a rather large water hose and it wasn't long before the police were investigating the scene.

But before the police had even five minutes to investigate for themselves, Jack had already come up with a conclusion. "Well," he began, "There's no doubt about it. This was most definitely the work of those Sonozaki freaks."

Silence fell over the once talkative crowd, most were completely dumbstruck by Jack's outrageous claim. The other police officers and investigators exchanged rather upset looks with one another and slowly all eyes fell on Jack as they silently waited for him to elaborate.

"How did you come to that?" one of the officers finally said, "These siren-towers were built like… sixteen feet underground. There's no way they have the kind of power to knock them down."

"Last time I spoke with Oryo-sama she seemed very set on the destruction of my beautiful towers," said Jack, as if that alone would be enough to convince all of them, "Who else could it be but her and her spawn."

"Hey! Don't talk about Oryo-sama like that!" snapped one of the villagers, angrily raising his fist in the air with protest. A few of the braver villagers jeered angrily in agreement.

"Yeah! And don't you think you should maybe think about this a little bit more before you go blaming the Sonozaki family!? What proof do you have!?"

"I don't need proof," he argued, "I have guns."

He raised two of his fingers and suddenly a large group of darkly clad and heavily armed Russian soldiers stepped out from the shadows, wielding large automatic rifles that they pointed threateningly at the villagers.

It was then Ryuu realized what was really going on. This was all a set-up-- a plan to frame the Sonozakis. Jack knew damn well who really destroyed the tower. He knew it was Satoshi because it was Jack who ordered him to destroy it in the first place. That's why Satoshi was out tonight! Why would he have a bunch of heavily armed soldiers on stand-by around the scene of the crime unless he knew the villagers would get riled up if he accused Oryo for the crime? It was clear to Ryuu now that all Jack wanted was an excuse to storm Sonozaki manor.

The crowd suddenly became very hushed at the sight of the burly soldiers and their guns and they all exchanged nervous glances as some of them slowly began to slip away from the crowd to lock themselves back up in their homes with their families. But Ryuu, along with about fifteen other people, stood their ground with looks of furious determination on their faces. And the villagers were not the only ones who looked outraged at the recent turn of events, the policemen, as well, looked as though they had finally had enough of Jack Lanyon: self proclaimed chief of the police task force.

"Chief, you can't just go pointing guns at innocent civilians!" cried one of the officers angrily, "They haven't done anything wrong!"

Jack simply shrugged off his protest and moved over to one of his soldiers.

"Are you listening to me!?" continued the officer, "This isn't right! Why the hell do you even have these men with you?! What are you planning on doing!? Huh?! Answer me!"

Jack continued to ignore him as he ran his hand up and down the shaft of the soldier's automatic rifle, as if he were inspecting it before making his purchase. And then, with no warning of any kind, Jack relieved the soldier of his weapon and fired it at the officer who had been questioning him earlier, blowing his head clean off with one shot and sending a spout of blood spewing from the man's open neck as he fell to his knees and died. The other officers were quick to react, whipping out their pistols and aiming them at Jack and his soldiers but Jack had already vanished behind his men before any of the officers could get out a single shot.

It was over before it had begun. When Jack gave the order, his men opened fire on the officers and they quickly reduced them to a broken heap of torn flesh pumped with lead. Only two of Jack's soldiers fell from the barrage of bullets that were fired from the police force.

The remaining villagers at the scene had been frozen by sheer astonishment at what had just happened. All those men that stood before them had just died in a matter of seconds. It was outrageous!

The villagers glared at Jack with the utmost hatred as he stepped out from the cover of his loyal troops, wearing a somehow humored smile directed at the heap of bloody corpses he was responsible for. A white-hot rage flickered in Ryuu's gut when he detected the small hint of pride glazed behind Jack's one remaining eye.

"Now that they're out of the way," begun Jack with a satisfied grin, "I can finish what I started all those years ago. Gregory!" He motioned at one of his soldiers to step forward. "Tell James to summon the U.N council in England as soon as possible. We shall begin our negotiations shortly. And after that, I want you to head over to Dorian's little hideaway with as many men as we can spare. "

"Negotiations? What the hell does that mean?"

Gregory saluted Jack to show he understood and marched off with two other soldiers back into the woods.

It seemed that Jack was just now remembering that there was a crowd of very horrified looking villagers standing in front of him. Ryuu knew they were in trouble when a delighted smile appeared on Jack's face. "Oh look," he said casually, "Witnesses."

The other soldiers seemed to think this was very funny as they erupted in a low chorus of laughter.

"Half of you come with me," Jack ordered, "We have business with the Sonozakis. The rest of you… leave no witness standing."

Ryuu hardly had time to move before bullets and blood began whizzing past his face as the soldiers opened fire on all of them.

______________________________________________________________________________

London, England; 8:01 pm; U.N conference building; John's Office;

"So Eric is still riding you for that password, huh?" inquired Greg to his friend, John, who was still sitting at his computer desk, trying to guess the ever-elusive password, "How's that coming along?"

"Terrible…" groaned John, "I got nothing. All I know is that it's three characters long! It's driving me crazy!"

"I could see how it could do that to a guy," chortled Greg, "Didn't you say Eric found Daichi's old girlfriend living with Dorian? I bet she knows what the code is."

"That's what I told Eric but apparently Miyo has gone bat-shit crazy," informed John with a frown, "All she says now is 'Umi, Umi'. She's completely forgotten everything!"

"Heh. Well of all the damned luck."

Suddenly, their conversation was abruptly cut off by a loud knock on John's office door.

"Quick!" spat Greg in a hushed voice, "Turn off your computer! We can't let anyone see this! Turn it off!"

"I'm on it," informed John as he quickly punched the power button on his monitor, "Just give it a few seconds to shut down—"

Too late. The door opened and James Wesker, Jack's head goon, stepped into the room wearing a very excited expression- like a little kid on Christmas day.

"No, please. Let yourself in," scoffed Greg sarcastically.

James simply ignored his remark. "Gentlemen," he addressed formally, "I'm sorry to intrude. But I couldn't help overhear the two of you from outside in the corridor. I hope I didn't interrupt anything too important."

He shot John a knowing glance. "By the sound of it, you have been very hard at work lately, haven't you Withers?"

John's tongue locked up again as he tried to offer an explanation. "W-well… Yeah…"

"What was that about you trying to find a password?" queried James, his arrogant little smile curving further upward, "Tsk, tsk, tsk. Whatever are you up to, John?"

John became powerless under his cold gaze. His brain went entirely numb, he couldn't think of anything to say in response and he knew that only made him look more suspicious.

"That's enough, Wesker," Greg said finally in a dangerously low whisper, "Why don't you tell us what you came here for and then I'll let you get acquainted with the door."

James diverted his gaze from John to Greg, shooting him an equally cold stare that had little to no effect on him. "Fine," he spat finally, "Dr. Lanyon talked it over with the Japs and finally got them to see the error of their ways. We'll be holding a video conference with them in the conference room at midday tomorrow-- that's twelve o'clock in case you didn't know, General Fears."

"Thank you for pointing that out, Wesker," said Greg with a sneer, "But enough talk, I'm sure you're very busy what with all the ass you have to kiss and all."

James's face flushed furiously at his words. "You know, someday that big mouth of yours is gonna be the death of you, Fears."

"I wouldn't have it any other way," retorted the aged general fiercely, "But until then I would like to look at you as little as possible. Get out of my site."

James scowled at him, nudging past him with unnecessary force to get to the door. "I'll be looking forward to seeing you at our meeting tomorrow," he growled, "I can't wait to hear what you might have to say about to the Japanese, J-J-John," he said, imitating John's unfortunate stutter, "I c-could use a g-g-good laugh."

"OUT!" barked Greg ferociously.

James shut the door behind him and laughed all the way down the hall as he went door to door to summon everyone the emergency meeting.

"Damn him!" cursed Greg, "That arrogant kid! I'd like to send a bullet flying right in between those cocky eyes of his."

"Yeah…" concurred John half-heartedly as he booted up his computer again.

Greg shot his friend a concerned look. "Hey," he said, his voice sounding much more caring now, "Don't let what he said get to you, John. You're a great speaker!"

John shot him a disbelieving look.

"Well…" Greg rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably, "You are when you're not in front of people you don't know."

"Well then, I'm not a very good speaker, am I?" The computer monitor lit up again, revealing the same old picture he'd been staring at for weeks now. There was still that same old computer window with a blank text box in it for him to write the password, taunting him with its absence of any letters or numbers.

"You just need to stop worrying about what people think of what you have say and just say it," Greg said sagely, "If you're always unsure of how people are gonna take your message then you'll never get it out for them to consider. That's the key of public speaking."

"Yeah well, why do I need to have public speaking skills when you can just do all the talking for me?"

"True," laughed Greg as he glanced at John's computer screen, "You should probably call Eric again and see if he's got any more clues about the password since you last spoke."

"That probably won't do us any good but I need a break anyway so… sure. You call him."

"I can't," Greg informed, "I got to go get my uniform back from the cleaners before the 'emergency' conference. Pheh. 'Bullshit' conference more like. Jack instigated this whole feud against Japan and the U.N and there's no way he's suddenly decided to try and bring them back to the U.N. Something's up."

"Yeah you're telling me," scoffed John as snatched up his desk-phone and began dialing Eric's number, "Be ready for anything, Greg."

The ancient old general smiled at his colleague as he opened the office door to step out. "Aren't I always?" And with that he shut the door and left John to deal with Eric.

Eric was quick to answer this time. "John? That you again?"

"Oh damn, and I was trying to surprise you," said John with a sarcastic note in his voice, "Listen, I was wondering if you had any more clues about the password yet. I can't think of anything."

"Sorry. Your guess is as good as mine."

John sighed sadly, feeling very discouraged even though he had expected this kind of answer in the first place. His answer was always the same… why would it change now? "God, I hate repetition," he groaned to himself.

"Me and you bo- oh God Damnit," there was a loud clatter coming from Eric's end of the line, "Umi! You spilt my tea all over my shirt! No, no, I don't want you to take it off. It's fine! It's fine, I'll clean it myself. Shoo! Shoo and be gone with you!"

"Umi…" sighed a very sad and crestfallen voice.

"Was that Miyo?"

"What do you think!?" snapped Eric crossly, "Awwwww… that's gonna stain."

"Suck it up, pussy," jeered John, "Why does she keep saying 'Umi' anyway?"

"Hell if I know. I think that was the name of Daichi's grandma though. She was a real nice lady."

"What happened to her?"

"Jack did. After Daichi died, Umi- the real Umi- went to console her Daichi's mom. Umi vanished that day and Daichi's mom was found hanging by a noose. I don't know if I already told you this but Jack set that whole thing up. He was the one who hung her after practically beating her to death."

"Yeah you told me," John said sadly, "But let's change the subject. I'm sitting in front of my computer right now so how about you do some guessing at the password. Maybe you'll have better luck than I did."

"It's only three letters right?"

"Si, Senior," he said, speaking in Spanish for no particular reason that came to mind.

"Top."

"Tried it."

"Pot… heh, heh. I love palindromes."

"Are those the things that spell a different word when you spell one word backwards?"

"Yeah. But I'm guessing you already tried 'pot'?"

"Uh-huh," he affirmed.

"Hot."

"Been done."

"Not."

"Can't even count the times I've tried that one."

"Cot."

"That was the first one I did."

"Tot."

"Okay, this isn't word association!" blurted John, his patience starting to run thin.

"Okay, okay. Sorry. Hmmm…" he paused for a moment as he thought of a next possible password, "Okay try this… S—"

"Umi!" cried Miyo's voice from Eric's line, "Umi! Umi! Umi!"

"No, shut up, Umi! I'm really busy."

"Umi! Umi! Umi! Umi!" John noticed that her voice had lost its previous sense of playfulness. It sounded urgent, like she was trying to tell them something.

And then it hit him.

He placed his fingers over the keyboard with baited breath, his heart beating a thousand thumps a second. A bead of sweat accumulated on the tip of his nose and cascaded downward onto his hand as he pressed down slowly on the "U" key. The "U" showed up on the screen before him followed shortly by an "M" and an "I". "UMI"

This was it… the moment of truth.

He hit the "Enter" key…

"ACCESS GRANTED"

Was the first thing he saw immediately after he hit the "Enter" key.

"E-E-Eric…" he gasped as his computer slowly began to load the password protected files he had been waiting weeks to see.

"No, hold on a second… try Sty."

"Er-ric!"

"No again? Damn… try 'Sex'."

John was about to go into cardiac arrest, his body simply teeming with excitement. "I got it… It worked…"

"Oh no way! It was 'Sex'?"

"No! It was 'Umi'!" cried John happily, "Daichi must've told her the password before he died! She's just been repeating it ever since she lost her memory! It's the only thing she can remember, Eric!"

There was no response from the other line for about five minutes. "Seriously?"

"Yes!"

"HA HA! Oh this is great! What's inside the file!? Tell me everything!"

"All right, all right," he said, taking a deep breath to try and contain himself. He didn't even know what he was about to read but just the idea of finally laying his eyes on what he spent almost two whole months trying to find excited him to the point of exhaustion.

"It's some kind of journal by the looks of it," informed John after he saw the formant of the documents inside the floppy disk, "All of them are written by Daichi."

"What's it say?"

"Okay, this is his first entry, 'I have been assigned a new project by Lanyon. I have been ordered to research the location and origins of the forgotten species of Homine Optimes- which is Latin for Prime Human…'." John paused, his curiosity now more than just intrigued.

" 'I will be typing in this file to keep records of my progress to eventually hand in to Dr. Lanyon when the time is right.' And then we have the next one: 'I just discovered the location of the Homine Optimes skeletal remains… Hinamizawa… in my home town…' And then it just kind of goes on about some sentimental stuff. Ah, this looks interesting."

Eric nodded and continued to listen intently as Tony, Akasaka, Hiroaki, and Keiichi all gathered around him eagerly, trying to listen in.

"It says," continued John, " 'I don't know how much longer I can continue this. I have already decided that my research is not meant for human eyes…'." John's voice dropped its narrative tone and suddenly sounded distant… almost a little worried. " 'The secrets I have overturned have driven most of my colleagues to the brink of insanity. Some have even gone as far as t-to… to take their own lives. I, myself, have already considered following in their footsteps. I don't know how I can bare this knowledge… Eric… if you are reading this… I ask you only continue reading if the need is dire…' Eric, I don't like where this is going."

Eric exchanged looks with his friends and they all nodded. "We need to know, John."

No response…

"John, it's all right. Just keep on reading and we'll deal with-"

Click.

John hung up.

Eric looked at Tony with a worried glance. "Try calling him again," proposed Akasaka.

Eric did try, time and time again but he never got a response. It just rang and rang and rang each time.

"What the hell do you think happened?" Keiichi asked.

"I don't know," Eric answered distantly, "But he sounded really upset."

Eric exited the small hut they were all standing in and stepped out into the village square along with his four friends.

"Something isn't right…" observed the old man, his youthful eyes scanning his still surroundings.

A brisk wind howled past them, whistling through the cracks of the rickety old houses.

"I know what you mean," concurred Tony in his squeaky voice, "There's definitely something… wrong."

The others could feel it too. It was like that pre-tornado feeling Keiichi would sometimes get during a particularly nasty storm. He didn't know how he knew a tornado was on its way… but whenever he got a feeling like this it never failed.

And judging by the loud gunshot that pierced the night at that very moment… it wasn't about to fail now either.

______________________________________________________________________________

Mion was resting her head on her pillow, her eyes puffy and red as she continued to sob into the blonde porcelain doll that she treasured so much. She wanted Keiichi now more than ever. Her life had just done a complete 180 degree turn with the return of her memories. Ryuu was a murderer! He had mutilated her! Just thinking about it made her squirm involuntarily.

But that wasn't why she was crying…

She herself did not know why her eyes were leaking so profusely into the soft, golden hair of her beloved doll. She felt a mixture of anger, sadness, and strangest of all… guilt. After she and her friends had received their flu shots she told them everything. And of course, they had insisted she tell the police. She did, and from there the horrible news spread like wildfire until it finally reached the ears of her grandmother and her mother. They were most displeased. As of now, Ryuu was a marked traitor to the village, basically a dead man. Mion didn't know if she wanted Ryuu to suffer the wrath of the villagers or not. Every time she tried to direct her anger at Ryuu she remembered his tortured face. That face was sad, beaten, and showed more suffering than Mion had ever experienced- even then. She couldn't get the image out of her head. Ryuu had suffered enough and now she had only worsened his misery by indirectly labeling him as an outcast. She wanted to see him again… to apologize… but at the same time she was afraid to be around him anymore. It was all too confusing!

And then it began. It started with the loud banging on her bedroom door which she didn't answer so Kasai opened the door for himself. Kasai's sunglasses had been cast aside and his usually tidy head of hair was wild and disheveled. His brown eyes were shimmering with fear as he dashed into her room. "Miss Mion!" he whispered urgently, "We need to get you to the chamber!"

Mion sat up, still trying to shield her red, teary eyes. "Why?"

Her answer came in the form of a gunshot from down the hall.

"What was that?"

"No time to explain!" he hissed as he swooped her up in his muscular arms, "We need to go. Now!"

Mion let Kasai hoist her over his shoulder with one hand as he removed a pistol with the other and kept it aimed at the doorframe.

"What the hell is that for?"

Kasai didn't answer as he moved for the large window at Mion's bedside and quietly slid it open. He stuck one leg out of the window before a large, pale man holding a Tommy-gun appeared at the threshold of Mion's room. Kasai quickly fired two bullets into the man's chest before Mion could register what was going on.

"Oh my God!" she cried, "Kasai! What are you doing!?"

"No time," he said again as he continued to struggle out of the window and into the backyard.

"They're back here," came a very deep voice with a thick Russian accent which triggered the sound of multiple footsteps marching for Mion's room. Kasai was still trying to get out of the window when four more men showed up.

Kasai had no time to think, he looked quickly to Mion and mouthed the words, "Go for the chamber. Lock yourself in," before he dropped her outside.

Mion remained frozen before Kasai shot her an intense look that told her to run. She did just that just as Kasai removed a second pistol from his pocket and aimed them both at the four intruders. Mion ducked her head as bullets zoomed past Kasai's hulking frame and out the window, coming dangerously close to Mion herself.

Mion summoned the courage to look back at Kasai, still standing outside her room with one leg stuck in the window as he fired away at the soldiers. Finally however, a shot finally reached the large man and pierced his sternum, making his body go limp with cold, cold death.

Mion cupped her hands over her mouth to stop herself from screaming at the sight of Kasai's limp body. She still didn't know what was going on or who these people were but it no longer mattered. The only thought on her mind was Kasai's last words to her.

"Go for the chamber. Lock yourself in."

She dashed for the large metal door in the side of the rock hill in the borders of the Sonozaki estate. Would she be safe there? It wouldn't be the first time highly trained soldiers would be able to penetrate the two steel doors sealing her in there and these soldiers seemed much more sophisticated in warfare. But it was her only option. She wrapped her hands on the steel handles but they wouldn't budge.

"There's one!" cried a voice from behind her, "Shoot to kill!"

Mion was now frantically pounding on the door. "Help! Help! It's Mion! Sonozaki Mion! Open the door!"

She heard a distant shuffling of feet from the other side in response. "Hurry! Hurry!" she cried.

"Kill her!" ordered another voice belonging to the Russian soldiers.

One or two bullets zipped past her and dented the steel double doors with a metallic cling. Mion looked back at her assailants and had just enough time to dodge a bullet that was only a few feet from her heart. But she wasn't quick enough…

A horrid pain erupted in Mion's arm that caused her to grimace in pain. She dared herself to glance down at the blood seeping through her yellow shirt and trickling down her wounded arm. But finally, her salvation arrived in the form of the massive steel doors behind her slowly creaking open from the inside. Mion dashed in through the tiny gap in the two doors and used all her strength to slam the doors shut and lock them tight.

"Oh Mion!" exclaimed the tiny, old woman as she threw herself around her, "Oh God… I'm so happy to see you safe."

"Oni-baba?"

"What? A grandmother can't be happy to see her granddaughter alive? Oh! What happened to your arm?"

"I got shot," she said simply, "Where's mom?"

"She's here too, along with your uncle and that Irie kid," she said in her usual gruff voice, "Come one. We need to get you to Ken."

"Why?"

"Because he can fix up your arm, you silly girl!" she snapped, sounding just like her old self again.

"He's awake?"

"Yeah, he woke up last night after your mom sent you to bed. Damn kid wouldn't shut the hell up about his damn music."

"That sounds like Ken all right."

"Turns out I was right though, Jack did take your sister and his brothers. No wonder Lanyon was so persistent on searching our house for him. And now Jack's decided to use force to find him… well two can play at that game!"

"Wait, Jack is the one behind this?"

"Who else?" she answered, "I got a heads up from one of the villagers. Apparently one of his precious towers has been destroyed and he's blaming it all on us. Not only that, that bastard took down the entire police force and several villagers as well. The good news is that other Maebara kid was among the dead."

Mion stopped in her tracks. "Ryuu?"

"Yeah that was his name. Saves us the trouble of hunting him down."

Mion didn't know how to react. Happiness? Sadness? She knew she should be feeling the former but the only thing she felt right now was remorse for Ryuu's death.

"That boy was a murderer," growled Oryo, "We're better off without him."

Mion didn't answer. In the back of her head however, she was disagreeing strongly.

After a short silence, the two women passed by the weapons shed. Oryo froze. "Wait here a second," she said as she ducked inside the shed and returned with two sheathed katanas. "Here," she handed one to Mion, "Just in case…"

Finally, the two of them arrived at the bottom of the chamber- the section that was encircled with a brown cave wall that was decorated with a great man barred prison cells. At the base of it sat about ten people. Most were villagers Mion didn't have the time to recognize but she did recognize her mother, her uncle who owned the toy shop, and Ken Irie who looked thinner than she had ever seen him.

"Mion!" exclaimed her mother as she leaped up and embraced her daughter forcefully, stroking her green hair and kissing her on the forehead, "Oh… I thought I lost you…"

"I'm fine…" lied Mion, trying to not get her mother worked up about the bullet wound in her arm.

"I'm glad, I'm glad," sighed her mother with relief, "…where's Kasai?"

Her only response her head tilting downward in grief at the thought of her sister's dead bodyguard who had given his life to help Mion. The second her family saw her face they knew what had happened.

"Oh no…" gasped her mother as she took a seat next to her brother, "Oh god… this is terrible…"

"What happened to your arm, Miss Sonozaki Mion-san?" inquired Ken Irie as he squinted his eyes, "Looks like a bullet wound."

"Yeah…" Mion affirmed absently.

"Well, let me take a look at that." And just as Ken stood up, there was a loud boom followed by a tremor that caused both Mion and Ken to lose their balance and fall to the floor.

"They busted open the door!" cried her uncle in panic, "Everyone! Follow me and I can help evacuate you!"

The other villagers stirred with alarm as the thundering footsteps of Jack's soldiers closed in around them.

"That won't do you any good!" cried Oryo, "Somehow Jack knew about the escape route and he had it caved in from the outside!"

"Well what do we do?!" cried a villager helplessly.

"We fight!" Oryo said simply, unsheathing her katana and motioning for Mion to do the same.

Mion tried to remove her blade from its sheath but her shoulder suddenly erupted in pain from the motion she made to do so and she dropped it.

"Are you mad, Mion?" cried Ken, "You can't hold that thing! It's too heavy for your arm right now!"

The footsteps were growing louder.

"Fine!" spat her grandmother, "Ken, time for you to repay us for housing you. You take the sword and help me defend the villagers!"

Mion could see the shine of the soldier's helmets as they emerged from the dark tunnel that led into their last sanctuary.

"B-but I can't!"

"Oh fine!" cursed Oryo again, lifting up the second Katana so she had one in each hand, "Coward!"

Mion had to admire her grandmother's strength. The Katana was a surprisingly heavy weapon and for a woman of her years to be holding to was completely mind blowing.

Finally, the soldiers emerged from the dark tunnel, fully armed and ready to kill. Jack was in the lead, holstering a shotgun in his one remaining hand.

Oryo assumed a battle stance, preparing herself to charge Jack with full force. "Well Lanyon, now I can show you I wasn't lying all those times when I said I'd run you through with one of these things," she snickered, motioning to her weapons.

"Indeed," Jack concurred, his arrogant smile not faltering in the least, "But you forget… I have guns and all you have are two rods of tempered steel."

"Don't underestimate me Lanyon, I could beat you whether you had your guns or not!"

Jack's smile faltered for a second. Clearly, Jack was a man who did not like to be challenged. "Is that so? Well I'll tell you what, Oryo-sama. Just to make it fair for you I'll take one of those Katanas off your hands and we'll have a duel to the death. Hell, I'll even order my men to stand down."

"Ha! You have one arm! What do you plan on doing against a woman with two!?"

"Now who's underestimating who?"

There was a brief silence. Neither groups of people moved as Oryo and Jack's eyes locked with a hateful intensity Mion had never seen emanate from either person before. Her grandmother smiled in acceptance. "Very well," she said, "I just hope you know what you're getting yourself into, Lanyon. Here, catch."

Oryo threw the Katana in the air for Jack to catch. And to her surprise, he actually caught it. He caught it right on the hilt of the sword, carefully avoiding the sharp blade, and with only one hand. Oryo's smile faded.

"I've been waiting for this moment for a long time, old hag."

"Well said." Her grandmother assumed a fighting stance. "Time to end this."

Jack's smile only widened as he assumed his stance, wielding the katana as if it were an English Rapier. Oryo was the first to strike, racing forward with her Katana raised high and swinging it down before Jack could lunge at her exposed chest. But Jack was equally fast, deflecting her blow with a simple flick of his wrist. Their blades locked for a moment as their gazes locked. Oryo's was filled with astonishment while Jack's was filled with only pride and sheer arrogance.

"Yes, let us end this once and for all!" He swung his blade up, causing Oryo to stumble back by the sheer force of the motion. Jack dashed forward and made a lunge for Oryo's gut but she deflected it quickly and swung her sword horizontally at his ribs. Jack simply leaped back so that the blade barely missed him and pounced forward again while making a stabbing motion with his sword.

"We have to do something!" whispered Mion to her uncle, "Jack's winning!"

"Relax," he soothed, "She's been in worse fights and lived."

Mion doubted it…

Oryo and Jack continued their fierce duel; the only sound they made was the clash of their blades or the occasional grunt or battle cry. Oryo was starting to sweat now, which made Mion fear she would lose her grip on her katana which would indeed in this duel in a heartbeat. But she held on tight and no matter how long the fight went on she did not lose her ferocity. If anything, the strength in her blows only began to increase as the duel prolonged. Jack was starting to have trouble deflecting her blows with the ease he had at the match's start. Either Oryo was getting stronger or Jack was getting tired.

"You're very good," complimented Oryo as she made a diagonal slash which Jack was hasty to block, "I'm surprised you're still breathing."

"Woman, every time I see you breathing is a wonder to me. It seems age has yet to cripple you."

"Demons don't grow old," laughed the old woman sinisterly.

"HA HA HA! Oh… you don't know the half of it!"

Jack made a powerful thrust inward with his blade but Oryo dodged it in the nick of time and then lunged forward at Jack's now exposed belly with her blade. Now it was Jack's turn to dodge and he would've been successful if it weren't for the large rock that had been hidden right behind his heel. He tripped backwards on the rock and landed on the hard stone floor with a hollow thud, his katana sliding across the ground with a metallic grinding. Mion and the other villagers jumped for joy at Oryo's victory.

The old woman placed her boot on Jack's chest, keeping him firmly rooted to the ground as she brought her sword to his Adam's apple in his throat.

"Any last words?" she queried as the point of her blade began to dig into his flesh.

"I have words," he gasped, completely out of breath, "But they will not be my last…"

Oryo shot him an inquisitive look.

"Kill her!" he roared.

Oryo looked at the mass of soldiers gathered in front of her with fearful eyes. While she was distracted Jack knocked the blade from her hands, sending it skidding across the floor in the opposite direction as his. Mion tried to stand up and save her grandmother but her uncle kept her rooted in place, roughly guiding her head downward and shielding her from the impending barrage of bullets.

Mion closed her eyes and clamped her hands over her ears, dulling out the harsh sound of gunfire and the sickening cracking of her grandmother's bones as bullet after bullet tore through her. Mion felt the warm splash of her Oni-baba's blood on her hair until at last the gunfire ceased. The last sound she heard the hollow thud of her grandmother's body collapsing onto the stone ground.

She could not dare herself to look at the sure to be bloody scene around her because she knew that her blood would be soon added to the floors and walls, along with the rest of her family and the villagers. She pressed her hands over her ears as hard as she could, hoping to God she could block out all sound completely.

She waited for the bullets to pierce her skin, silently praying they did not miss. All she heard were footsteps and then… cheering? Cheering… from her side of the cave? She opened her eyes and at first all she saw was her grandmother's corpse but it wasn't long until she noticed other corpses that had been added to the floor. Corpses of the soldiers!

She saw the remaining soldiers firing blindly in all directions for whoever had taken down their comrades.

Jack, who was now covered in Oryo's blood, called out to the cave walls. "Maebara!" he screamed, "Where the hell are you!?"

"Maebara? Does he mean Keiichi?"

The soldiers stopped firing and simply waited for the "invisible" enemy to make his next move. The next thing Mion knew, the two Katanas that once lay strewn upon the floor where quickly snatched up by a young man coated in blood. As soon as the soldiers saw him they opened fire as quickly as they could but the man dodged every single last bullet, bending in all directions imaginable to avoid their fire. He even deflected a few shots with his katanas.

The man swung his blade upward on a soldier, slicing off his arm and sending it flying upward into the air just in time to intercept a round of bullets that were coming his way. He sunk the second blade into the soldier's gut and killed him instantly.

That rare look of fear was visible in Jack's eyes once again as he silently ducked out of the chamber without being seen by anyone, not even his own men. The villager's rescuer did not cease in his attack even after the soldiers surrendered. He tore through every last one of them until there were none left standing. The man's greasy hair hung over his face, shielding his eyes from the villagers he just saved. He was panting heavily, like he had just circled the globe five times on foot. His knees wobbled as he staggered forward, the grip on his blades lessening until they slipped from his fingers and fell to the ground. Finally, he fell to his knees and passed out on the floor. Mion rushed forward along with the other villagers gathered and brushed aside his greasy hair to se Ryuu's eyes shut tight as if he were only sleeping.

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A/N: Tah-dah! That was a fun chapter. Yup, yup, yup. I enjoyed it, a lot happened. But next chapter is when things start to get intense. I can't wait to start writing that one, golly-gee. Oh wait, I can't. Why do you ask? Because the very same virus I thought I had eradicated a week ago has come to haunt me from the grave. :O So now I have to go BACK to my local repair center and ask them to fix my computer… AGAIN! Good news is I think I know why I couldn't kill the virus first time around so now this should never happen again. But I probably won't be able to get it fixed tomorrow so I may start working on the next chapter then.

Also, I just figured out that this fanfiction… yes, the very same one you are reading right now… officially has enough words to pass for a real book

…I can't decide if that's cool or just downright depressing.

Anyway, I'll try to get the next one out to you ASAP. (That doesn't mean it will be quick- I'm not promising anything.)

Hope you guys liked the first of the beloved "End Chapters"!

Don't forget to leave a comment! :D