I claim no ownership rights to any of the works of Rumiko Takahashi, Naoko Takeuchi or Headgear.
Kuno sighed as he read over the report of the latest assault on the auction center, and the destruction of yet another massive, very expensive viewscreen. Considering the cost that was piling up, he was beginning to rethink his decision to let a response wait until things elsewhere had calmed down and he was able to bring home the Neriman contingent of the Kuno Family security forces for their normal duties. He had hoped that wouldn't be necessary, that the attacks would eventually end in Ranma's continuing absence, but it wasn't happening.
So, Ranma's foul taint yet pervades my lording, he thought as he toggled the 'viewed' button. I would have thought that with physical absence his evil would abate, but there have been no signs of that happening — the lording roils with discontent, and Akane has yet to shake off his hold on her mind. Though at least I have rescued one of his victims. Truly, Ranko has slipped free of his malign influence and now walks free in the light.
But even there, there was reason for concern, and his melancholy deepened as he considered the fiery-haired center of his life. Since day of the sweep up and execution of the otokodate involved in smuggling slaves and running illegal brothels, there had been something missing from their mutual pleasures. The young woman he had freed from the clutches of the sorcerer Saotome still gave every indication of enjoying their shared explorations of the arts of pleasure, but she seemed ... distant, slightly aloof, unfocused. And after he would fall asleep, she would slip away to spend the night in the arms of her body slave.
Perhaps the time has come to seek the help of a healer of the mind. Doing so will deeply offend her warrior spirit, but the wounds inflicted on her gentle soul by what she did and saw do not seem to be mending.
He was still debating whether it would do more damage to a third of his soul to insist she visit a psychiatrist or ignore her pain and hope the nights sleeping alongside her friend might eventually heal her, when his secretary interrupted to inform him of the Master of Servants' call.
/\
"Pregnant!" Kuno jerked to his feet, hands clenched into fists and face twisted by hatred. "I see it now! This is how that foul blot on humanity has kept the shadow of his influence over the fair Akane even in his absence. With his demonic seed implanted in her womb, he is using a woman's natural love for her child to strengthen his hold, maintain his spell over her! And not just her, the radiant malignant taint must impose his twisted desires on all those around her!"
"But my lord," came Pyo's voice from his monitor, "The beauteous Ranko has visited the Tendos twice now, with no evidence of Ranma's influence."
Kuno shook his head, uncaring that his Master of Servants couldn't see him. "Her exposure was slight, and she has the constant wholesome influence of the young Usagi to wash away any ill effects, along with my own soothing presence in the dojo, dining room and bedroom in the evenings. No, we must act to expunge this cancer from among us."
"Kuno-dono, would that not violate the oath you swore to Ranma to leave Akane undisturbed so long as he absences himself from Nerima?"
Kuno hesitated, but finally shook his head. "Nay, for in leaving behind this piece of himself to maintain his hold and spread his poison, he has never in good faith held to his oath and we are free to act. Find the glorious Tendo Akane and bring her to my home, that we may rid her of this vile malignancy and offer her the peace and companionship she will need to heal from her ordeal."
The Master of Servants sighed. "Yes, my lord, it will be done."
/\
Call long over, Pyo stared at the cherry tree in bloom pictured on his monitor, feeling the weariness that had been weighing on him pressing down stronger than ever — the conversation with his lord had gone pretty much as expected, but not apparently as he had subconsciously hoped. Finally straightening, he took a deep breath. All right, Jun Si, if it is to be done, it is best done quickly. Time to move.
He reached forward to hit a speed dial button, then leaned back and waited as his monitor divided and subdivided into blank squares. With six blank squares, he said, "Activate." Five of the squares lit up, the black replaced by the faces of four men and a woman.
Without preamble, he said, "Akane has had herself tested, and she is pregnant. I've reported this to Kuno-dono, and he ordered that the pregnancy be terminated and she be held here until she accepts him."
None of the faces showed any surprise, and the Master or Servants smiled humorlessly. "Not a great shock to anyone, I see. Very well, Clean Sweep is active. Shuzo, inform the Mentalist that his presence is finally required, and prepare the room where we will be holding the rituals. We will acquire Ranma when the Mentalist has arrived."
Shuzo wordlessly bowed his head and vanished.
"Mai, have your team deal with Ukyo and bring Akane here, and activate the replacements for their cell phones."
The woman nodded with a grimace, before vanishing.
"Rangi, make the call to Konatsu for our trap. Activate it unless you hear from me countermanding it."
A second man bowed and vanished.
"Tagashashi, Kidlat, send out the alert to our people around the Tendos and the Cat Café, but do not send out the strike orders until I give final permission."
The last two faces bowed and vanished, and Pyo slumped back in his chair and closed his eyes. He had never felt so old.
/oOo\
Konatsu frowned slightly as the lovely cross-dressing kunoichi watched Mu Tse and Xian Pu roof-hop away toward the Cat Café, then twitched as he heard the short tune indicating a new job request sounded in his ear piece. Glancing around to verify his sense that he wasn't being observed, he pulled his phone out of its belt pouch and checked the number — a familiar client, always asking for a short run, hours only. I should be able to make the delivery and be home shortly after Ukyo-sama and Akane return. Hitting the speed button that would signal Nabiki that he was making a courier run, he pocketed the phone and started his own bouncing run across the rooftops toward the edge of the Nerima lording.
/\
Raven pony-tail swinging out over the multi-story drop, Konatsu hurriedly grasped the edge of the fire escape above the railing he'd landed on, barely in time to keep from falling. As he stepped down onto the fire escape landing and knocked on the steel shutter covering the window, the world's greatest male kunoichi mentally berated himself — that had been clumsy, and entirely his fault. But then, he was a bit distracted.
First, he was here, and Ukyo-sama was accompanying Akane to Juuban. He understood why, he'd been needed for the latest attack on the slave auction center in case the new security had its act together more than Nabiki's hacked plans showed. They hadn't, but they could have. Besides, Ukyo-sama had pointed out that, for this trip, Akane would probably be more comfortable if he wasn't along.
Second, there had been something ... off ... about Mu Tse and Xian Pu, during the raid. Nothing he could pin down, they'd certainly been alert (not that the alertness had been needed, the security hadn't made it across to the buildings where the catapults were — he expected a helicopter or two to be in the air next time). But he couldn't escape the feeling that they hadn't really wanted to be there.
Enough, Konatsu, worry about it later, he thought to himself as he heard the shutter unlatching. If you don't concentrate on the job, you aren't going to have any — no one's going to hire a discreet courier who loses her package, after all. And money's tight, even with the classes Saotome-san has started up.
The shutter swung inward, and Konatsu stepped down into the small room behind it. It hadn't changed since the first time he'd entered it months before — tatami mats on the floor, bare walls, and a desk in the middle of the room facing the window, without a single object sitting on it other than the omnipresent built-in computer monitor. His contact, Leoso-san (Konatsu assumed a false name), hadn't changed either, and Konatsu stepped to the side as the heavy-set man finished closing and relatching the shutter. Konatsu suspected the man was a Maori from both size and name, though he lacked the tattoos still favored by those of his people that refused to adopt their conquerors' culture.
Task done, Leoso-san walked heavily back to the desk and sat down. Konatsu followed him to stand in front of the desk, careful to keep his face blank. Something was wrong. He had met this man over a hand of times, and his contact didn't know that the breathtakingly beautiful woman standing in front of him wasn't a woman, and hadn't bother to hide how much he enjoyed the view. But now that enjoyment was gone, Leoso-san's face emotionless.
The contact sat down and stared at Konatsu for a long moment, before his emotionless mask failed, replaced by sorrow. "I'm sorry," he whispered, and pressed a button on the desk.
Konatsu's dive to one side took him directly into the path of one of the anti-personnel mines built in around the edges of the room's floor and ceiling, not that it would have made a difference. The two men were so badly shredded by the thousands of tiny steel balls that laced the room that a forensics laboratory would be required to identify their sex.
/oOo\
Ukyo nervously glanced around the dilapidated but clean train car she and Akane were riding in, the first train on their return trip from Juuban to Nerima. The itch between her shoulderblades was back.
Of course it's back, Sugar, what did you expect? Kuno's thugs may not have followed us into the hospital, but you know they followed us all the way there. Of course they picked us up again when we left. Looking discreetly around the car, mostly empty at this time of day, she couldn't see anyone obviously watching the two girls. But then, these would be ninjas — she wouldn't.
She glanced sideways at her friend sitting beside her with a rueful smile. If Akane had felt the eyes following them on the trip out, she certainly wasn't feeling them on the way back. The youngest Tendo's eyes were unfocused, a soft smile on her face. All she'd been able to talk about on the walk back to the train station (with a long break in the middle for a late lunch, now that Akane's relief had given her back her appetite) had been how happy Ranma would be, and how once they finally dealt with Kuno they'd finish their schooling and teach at the dojo along with Genma and raise a family while integrating the schools. But while it was good to see the girl shaken out of her angry depression and Ukyo hoped it lasted, now was not the time to be daydreaming.
The train jolted slightly as it began to slow down, and Ukyo glanced up at the semi-functioning display, finding enough readable letters to recognize the destination, and nudged Akane. "Hey, Sugar, wake up, this is our stop," she murmured.
Akane jerked, her eyes focusing. "Already?"
"Yeah, 'already'," Ukyo replied with a chuckle. "You've been zoned out pretty bad."
Akane blushed. "Sorry."
"Nothing to be sorry for, I'm glad you're happy. Just pay more attention."
The train came to a stop, and the two girls moved to the doors as they slid open. They were just stepping out, when Ukyo stiffened. The platform was empty. Even in mid-afternoon before the workday ended, there should be at least a few people waiting to board.
Even as she grabbed Akane's shoulder with one hand while the other reached for the haft of her battle ax, two women in standard samurai pants and blouses and holding short spears arced over the two girls from the roof of the train to land in front of them, the spears leveled. Akane dove out and to one side, but before Ukyo could move an arm circled her neck and pain arced her back as a blade pierced her side. Then a spear blade slammed into her chest, the other took her in the throat, she was falling backward into the car, and she heard Akane screaming her name as her view of the car's roof slowly faded into night.
/\
Akane rolled to her feet, turning, arms lifted ready to knock aside incoming spear blades — only the were no spears thrusting toward her, and she shrieked her friend's name at the sight of the two women driving their spears through the train car doorway, blood spraying back to meet them. She sprang forward, and one hand hammered into the back of one attacker's neck, snapping it with a wet crack.
The other woman whipped around to face Akane, frantically backing up, arms lifting to parry, but Akane charged, cartilage buckling under her fist as her strike blew through the block to slam into her attacker's throat. The woman stepped back, hands rising as she sucked air into her lungs through her partially collapsed throat, and ribs crunched as Akane's side kick knocked the woman off her feet.
As the woman convulsed on the ground, aspirating blood thanks to the ribs in her lungs, Akane whirled to step over the body of the first attacker and into the train car. "Uc-chan?" she whispered.
Ukyo lay on her back on top of another dead woman, a knife hilt flush against her side and both spears standing upright in her chest — they must have gone completely through and into the woman behind her. Her sightless eyes stared at the ceiling.
"Oh, Ukyo — may the Saotome ancestors receive you in the next life as Genma and Nodoka did in this one." Akane dropped to one knee in the pooling blood around her friend's body and reached down to close her eyes, then stood. Pulling her phone out of her pocket, she checked the screen. As expected, no reception — she was being jammed. She grasped the shaft of one of the spears and steadily pulled, slowly pulling it out without further damaging the body, then the other. Ignoring the tears streaming down her cheeks and with a spear in her hands, she turned and stepped through the still open car door. Also as she had expected, a new line of women were on the platform, a half-circle around the doorway, staves in hand.
Akane's anger had always burned hot, bursting out in brief eruptions. Now, though, she felt icy to the core. "So, which of you murdering bitches dies first?" she asked, voice cold as the frozen north.
None of the women spoke. Instead, they lifted small blowguns to their mouths and suddenly Akane felt the pinpricks of multiple darts piercing her clothing and into her chest and abdomen.
/oOo\
Pyo kept his face calm as Mai finished her report. " ... so we have Ukyo and Akane's phones plugged in for voice alteration and on the way to the Funabashi lording. The train's sabotage is ready, so as planned, we'll be able to call the Tendo dojo when the time comes and report that the girls will be late."
Waiting for a long moment to make certain his subordinate was finished, he nodded. "And the bodies?"
"Our four and Ukyo are on their way to the mansion along with Chu-lan," Mai replied. "They are being treated with all honor."
"Most excellent. Let me know when the call has been made, and your assessment of Nabiki's reaction."
Mai bowed and signed off, and Pyo leaned back in his seat and sighed, rubbing his face. Five of my people dead and one possibly crippled so far, and Clean Sweep has barely started. And none of them necessary. The same drugged darts that finally brought down Akane could have just as easily been used to bring down Ukyo as well, then she could have been killed with no risk to the strike team. But instead Kana, Se Wook and Moe had all volunteered to deal with the adopted Saotome personally and paid with their lives, and then Nani-ali'i had been killed and Chu-lan severely wounded by the spears used to kill Ukyo, thrown by Akane before she finally collapsed. And Leoso had disabled the trap door underneath his chair before Konatsu had arrived. My people are following their orders as honor requires, but they are not happy about it — and demonstrating that unhappiness with their lives. What happens when they actually assault the Tendo compound?
/oOo\
Nabiki stared out her window at the gathering shadows, nerves that had already been tight when her sister left now almost at the snapping point. Akane and Ukyo were late — well, not late for their revised schedule, that still had some time left...
But both times Akane had called, first to report that their connecting train had suffered a breakdown and later to say that it was fixed and on the move and ask what the revised timetable would be, something had been off. Nabiki couldn't put her finger on it, and on the face of it there was nothing out of the ordinary — Akane had been practically giddy with happiness that she was pregnant, frustrated by the delay getting home — but something about the conversation had set off an alarm in the back of her older sister's subconscious. Still, the delay was real, both the news and the online real time tracking for the transportation network had reported it.
She heard someone walking down the hallway toward her door, and then a knock. "Nabiki, can you come down to eat?" Kasumi asked through the door. "We won't wait for Akane and Ukyo, I've put their plates on a warmer."
"Sure, big sis, I'll be right there," Nabiki called back. The sound of Kasumi walking back toward the stairs came through the door as Nabiki sat down at her computer to put it on standby.
/oOo\
Xian Pu looked around the mostly-empty dining room of the Cat Café, and winced. The sun was setting, and the café should have been packed. But ever since Ranma was auctioned off business had been falling off, and those customers that did show up ate and left quickly and weren't tipping as they had before. The drinking establishments were doing a booming business, but Mu Tse reported that it wasn't a happy business, you could cut the tension in the lording with a knife.
As she delivered the latest order to her great-grandmother, Xian Pu paused at a sudden thought — she was taking the business of the Cat Café seriously, instead of considering it as the excuse to stay in Nerima that it really was. After a moment she shook her head with a slight chuckle. She was going native, actually coming to like living here — and just as she was reaching that point, they were going to be returning to the village.
However it turns out, she thought, mood darkening with guilt and shame. When the final act played out, she would not be there. Neither would Mu Tse or Great-Grandmother — watching the catapults firing their rocks at the latest massive viewscreen, she'd decided the risk to the village of being seen to be that deeply involved was simply too great. She had advised her great-grandmother that they remain until it was over so that they could unlock Ranma's Jusenkyo curse but do no more, and as soon as that was done return to Nyuchiehzu. Ku Lon had agreed.
"Xian Pu," Ku Lon called from the kitchen, "you have a delivery."
Xian Pu glanced again around the dining room and shrugged, before turning to her want-to-be fiancé standing by the back wall, waiting for a table to clear so he'd have something to do. "Duck Boy think can handle crush?" she asked with a grin.
Mu Tse surveyed the few customers. "Yes, I believe so," he replied with a chuckle. The news that they'd be dropping their support and eventually returning to the village had done wonders for him, her childhood friend was peeking through the mask of the love-besotted fool that had been so annoying — something that eased the pain of losing Ranma, however it turned out.
Almost bounding into the backroom, the young Amazon hastily pulled on the pants she wore under her skimpy dress when making deliveries, and grabbed her bike — Mu Tse wasn't the only one bored from the lack of business.
Ku Lon chuckled at her chosen heir's antics as she handed her the box and a slip of paper with an address she recognized as an old customer. "Be careful," the Matriarch warned as Xian Pu opened the door and pushed the bike through into the alleyway.
Xian Pu gave her mentor a confident grin as she hopped on the bike. "Who be too too stupid to bother me?"
Ku Lon bounded up to rap her on the head. "Don't be overconfident! It's dusk, things are getting dangerous, and even the most skilled can have a bad day."
"Yes, Great-Grandmother, Shampoo be careful," Xian Pu agreed, rubbing her head, before putting the takeout in the bike's basket and starting down the alleyway.
/\
In the watch post across from the Cat Café, Abe Kyoji rubbed at tired eyes before refocusing on the stacked square of multiple monitors showing views all around the restaurant. While keeping an eye on such powerful outsiders was important, for years it had been a light duty post, a place for Kuno ninjas to relax and recuperate while the pattern recognition software did the work. No longer.
Both of the outpost's occupants twitched at the sound of a soft beep, and Sasaki Sik Won leaned back in his chair. "Fifteen minutes," he murmured.
Kyoji was opening his mouth to make some meaningless lighthearted response to lessen the tension, when one of the screens flashed. He leaned forward, tensing up at what he saw — a purple-haired teenager hopping on her bike in the alley behind the café, a box of takeout in the bike's basket. "Oh, shit! Shampoo's leaving on a delivery!" he blurted, hand fumbling at the latch of a plastic cover on the panel.
Sik Won whirled to his vidphone and hit a speed dial button. Within moments, Pyo-sensei appeared on the screen. "Sensei, Shampoo is leaving on a delivery right now!" Sik Won almost shouted.
Pyo-sensei blanched. "Go!" he ordered.
Behind Sik Won, Kyoji's hand slammed down on the button the opened cover revealed.
/\
When the Amazons had first arrived in Nerima and set up the Cat Café, the Kuno ninjas had taken their measure and found them terrifying. True, neither of the teenagers could match Kuno-dono's retainers for stealth. But then, stealth had never exactly been one of their concerns and few of the ninja could match them in combat. And Ku Lon was a match for the ninjas in stealth, at least — they'd never succeeded in determining her upper limit. And she was even worse in combat, she'd helped train the killer of Saffron!
And so months before Kuno the Elder's death, on the Master of Servant's own initiative, his subordinates had prepared the only defense they could think of that would guarantee that they could deal with the all possible vipers in the heart of their lording. Using an extensive clean up and survey of the sewers underneath the lording as an excuse, workers with absolutely no training in the Arts or in ki manipulation (and so unlikely to come to Ku Lon's attention) had planted enough high explosives under the Cat Café to reduce a building three times its size to flaming wreckage.
But now their timing was just a few seconds off, and when the massive explosion hurled the shattered, flaming pieces of the Cat Café — along with the buildings on either side and on the other side of the back alley, and a chunk of road halfway across the street — into the air and the surrounding buildings, Xian Pu was already across the road and pedaling along the sidewalk toward an alley leading to their customer.
The Amazon Champion had no warning at all, but her great-grandmother had known that a warrior's worst danger was ambush and so had trained her heir until the teenager's reactions to a multitude of attacks were instinctual. So when the blst front picked her up and hurled her at the shop beside her, the same ki-powered focused shockwave than enabled her to ride her bike through walls blew out the large display window ... and the interior wall behind it, and the back exterior wall. She rolled across the bricks of the back alley and used the momentum to hurl herself at the back wall of the building on the other side ... and as the shop that should have been both her killer and her tomb was smashed apart by the shock wave and rubble, collapsing to fill the alley with debris and shake the building behind it, Xian Pu blew through the shelves that had been against the inside of her new refuge's exterior wall and slid across the concrete floor to slam up against the storeroom door. The teenager slowly rolled to her hands and knees, choking and coughing on the rock dust that filled the air through the entrance hole she'd made, covered with splinters and bits and pieces of plaster and brick and concrete — just as the outer wall collapsed under the battering it had just taken.
/oOo\
"Fifteen minutes," Jang Ma-zhi murmured into his throat mic from his position on the opposite slope of a house roof across the street from the Tendo compound. "Remember Pyo-sensei's revised instructions, Kasumi and Nodoka are to be ignored if they allow it, the only primary targets are Genma and Nabiki. Acknowledge."
The acknowledgments rolled in, in order down the circle around the compound. Ma-zhi rolled onto his back and stared for a moment at the first stars appearing in the dusky sky as he listened. He wondered what had led to the target revision — not that he was complaining, far from it, but Pyo-sensei had seemed adamant about removing anyone that might either be a direct threat or call attention to the planned mental alterations of Ranma and Akane. And he doubted he was the only one that had felt relief at the modified orders. It had to be his imagination, but he seemed to hear a new easing of tension in the rolling acknow —
The massive shock of the explosion rolled over his thoughts, and he clutched at his handholds on the suddenly shuddering roof. What was that!? he thought, jerking upright and staring ... at a massive spreading column of smoke and dust at the location of the Cat Café. The mine had been set off early! But that meant ... "Go, now! Go! Go! Go!" he shouted into his mic, and threw himself over the peak of the roof to slide down the slope toward the street.
/\
Nabiki, Kasumi, Nodoka and Genma were halfway through their evening meal when the shockwave of the explosion washed over the compound. Nabiki's head shot up as the Tendo home shook. "What was that!" she shouted as she sprang up from the traditional low table, leading the dash out into the yard. The four stared at the rising column of smoke visible in the darkening sky.
"Oh, my, that must have been the Cat Café," Kasumi whispered. "But what could have happened?"
"What happened is Kuno," Nabiki ground out, feeling suddenly sick — the calls from Akane hadn't actually been from Akane, Kuno was finally making his move, and she had never dreamed that he would be this ruthless.
Nabiki wasn't the only one suddenly feeling sick. Genma closed his eyes, reaching out for the feel of the ki around him, past his wife and future daughters by marriage, further ... further ... and there they were. They were good at hiding themselves, but not as good as he was, and they were coming down off the roofs around the compound, crossing the street — and the three martial artists he'd counted on to fight beside him when this night came weren't here, and their backup had just been obliterated. His eyes snapped open. "You're right, they're coming. Into the house now, Nabiki's room!"
Nabiki whirled and dashed for the house, Kasumi right behind her. Nodoka drew the Saotome honor blade as her eyes ran the length of the top of the wall, then turned and followed, Genma behind her. The two dashed through the twists in the hallway, up the stairs, and down the upstairs first hallway to the T-intersection and Nabiki's room in the center.
Nodoka rushed through the open doorway, Genma right behind her turning to close the door only to freeze when his wife asked, "Nabiki, where's Kasumi?"
Nabiki looked up from her seat in front of her desktop computer, glancing around frantically. "What?! I thought she was right behind me!" She shot to her feet, and stepped toward the door only to stop, fists clenched at her side. I can't, I have to do this before we die, or it's all pointless. Oh, Kas-chan ...
She sat back down, just as the lights went out. Her computer screen flickered as it switched to its battery. "Candles and matches on top of my bookshelf," she said without looking up. She ignored Nodoka passing behind her to fetch them, fingers flying across a keyboard barely visible in the light from the monitor. Yup, they cut the landline for the Net and are jamming the wireless. And I thought I was being paranoid when I quietly set up a second landline. And ... yes! They still haven't found my backdoor into the Kuno network. Activating virus ... there's the all clear, now out clean... Her shoulders slumped with relief as the connection closed down. That took care of the knife in the back, now for the hammer to the chest. She hastily brought up another preprogrammed routine, typed in the activation code, typed in the verification code, and the second verification code, and sighed with relief as the 'action completed' button popped up. Her part was done, now she just needed to learn if she and her immediate family were going to live through the next half hour.
/\
Nabiki had been very impressed by her meeting with Juan de Oro what seemed like a lifetime ago, and had wondered how the same Bible that had produced Shinto Christianity, with its strong pacifistic streak, could produce such a man. And so in what little spare time she'd had since their meeting she had picked up and dove into a copy of the Bible, though the local Shinto Christians from whom she'd acquired it would have been appalled at which sections she was focusing on.
Now, one of the results of that study flashed out across Nerima, and people broke off whatever they were doing as piercing squeals, slight electric shocks, massively vibrating phones — whatever their chosen signal for an emergency alert — grabbed their attention. The disparate group was made up of men and some women, from late teens to almost elderly, respected local businessmen to almost beggars. The one thing they all had in common was that within arm's reach was one of the staves Genma had handed out at his classes, and they all listened to the message that made official what the explosion that had shaken Nerima had already told them. The time had come.
For every person contacted, the prerecorded message was the same — Nabiki's voice, cold as ice and hard as steel, reciting the Biblical verse that had become her mantra since she had first read it:
"Remember what the Amalekites did to you along the way when you came out of Egypt. When you were weary and worn out, they met you on your journey and attacked all who were lagging behind; they had no fear of God. When the Lord your God gives you rest from all the enemies around you in the land he is giving you to possess as an inheritance, you shall blot out the name of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget!"
When I first read the Bible the verses I ended this episode with didn't impress me, being stuck in the middle of one of the more boring parts (Deuteronomy — not as bad as Leviticus or parts of Numbers or Chronicles, but bad enough). Then I eventually read Not for Glory, a scifi book by Joel Rosenberg set in an interstellar future where the Jews were driven off of Earth and are now supporting themselves as mercenaries. If I remember correctly, at one point the protagonist remembers how his uncle had turned a unit of worn out, beaten, demoralized soldiers into raving fanatics against their proudly Germanic (then current) enemies with a speech that ended with this quote. It's stuck with me ever since. (It also left the protagonist more than a bit prejudiced against those peoples proud of their German descent; not all wounds are physical, and sometimes those are the hardest to heal.)
The names of the ninja are Japanese, Chinese, Maori, Korean, Philippino, and Hawaiian, reflecting the size of the Empire and the extent of the Kuno Family holdings.
