Author's Notes:
Obviously my updating has hit another slow point. As I'm sure any FF.N writer understands how real life has a way of interfering with one's writing projects, if not with direct capture of one's time then by inhibiting one's creative impulsives through various hassles. I've not forgotten about my stories, but this summer has not been the golden opportunity for writing that I had imagined it would be.
Also, as I have mentioned for my other story, nowadays certain punctuation and spacing actions produce errors for which there is apparently no means of correction. Very frustrating, as it can really limit one's ability to create proper emphasis.
The team did not take long to regroup. Keitaro's energy level spiked even higher at the news of the sighting, and once again his energy spilled over into the other teammates. They split up in groups of four this time, and by the time the various quartets were on their separate ways Kanako was feeling very uneasy. She had Keitaro's word that he would not do anything rash and she knew that Keitaro took promises very seriously, but his emotional stress was painfully obvious and Kanako understood that emotional stress could drive the most soundly reasonable people to commit acts of recklessness. But she had little choice but to carry on with the mission as planned – there was no time to sit down and talk.
Less than half an hour after the groups lost eyesight of one another the second contact was made. Being much more careful this time, the group making the sighting didn't come nearly as close to stumbling right into the enemy sentry station, and several more outposts were discovered in a short order. All these sightings added to the original formed a clear arc protecting a large warehouse complex. As usual, there was little else in the immediate area other than a large helicopter airport that served the facility. Although slipping past the discovered sentry stations would not have been too terribly difficult, Kanako managed to convince the others that they had all the information they needed for the time being, and that they should stand down and observe from a safe distance until Gennai and Rikyo's combined forces were ready and on-site for an immediate attack. Then they could push in deeper to try and gather more detailed intelligence and it wouldn't matter as much if they were discovered, because they could launch a full-scale assault immediately and without allowing the enemy a chance to change anything. Keitaro too accepted Kanako's reasoning, though his reluctance to do so was still apparent. Keitaro and Kanako contacted their respective leaders to catch them up, and the team retreated a block or two's distance away from the outside of the enemy perimeter, set up watches with their binoculars and sighting scopes, and waited.
"9 hours ... 9 more hours of twiddling our thumbs and watching the enemy bare their backs to us. Did Rikyo and Gennai just get season passes for everyone on the slow boat, or what? This is a waste of time," Keitaro grumbled to himself after he'd been on watch for a short while. Indeed, the most of the enemy troops that appeared in his binoculars were facing away from them, and there was no sign whatsoever that they were on any kind of alert. Even in his agitated state Keitaro had to admit to himself that it was very strange that the main headquarters of the foreign vampires should appear to be so lax in light of their recent defeats, but he saw it as just another sign of their hopeless arrogance and that agitated him even more.
"I'd rather waste our time than waste our lives. You know that we need reinforcements for this attack. I know it's frustrating, but please, save your hostility for the enemy," Kanako said shortly, instantly realising that she had sounded more irate than she had intended to.
Keitaro turned his head sharply in her direction and made as if to make a smart reply, but thought better of it before doing so.
"Right," was all he said, and turned his head back towards the enemy and affixed his eyes back into his binoculars.
Kanako just barely managed to keep her sigh inwards. These were indeed going to be 9 very long hours.
However much the time dragged, it passed without incident. When a quartet of their team members arrived to relieve Keitaro, Kanako and their two companions from their watch, Kanako was able to pull Keitaro with her and take him to the small motel where those of the team who were not on watch were passing the time, where she even coaxed him into lying down and trying to get a little rest. All the while nothing of particular interest was observed from the enemy stronghold, and despite his halfway successful effort at resting, by the time the vanguard of the combined Lycan-vampire army began to arrive on the scene, Keitaro was once again barely able to contain his 'enthusiasm.' Even before the entire force had arrived on scene, Keitaro was already back in his armor and issuing his first order to prepare to attack.
"Hold that order," came Kanako's firm voice from behind him, startling Keitaro equally with its proximity and the frank tones of challenge and anger within. Quickly surprise turned into anger in Keitaro too as he spun to face his partner.
"Please excuse us, ladies and gentlemen, Keitaro and I have a last minute tactical matter to discuss," Kanako said before Keitaro could speak, not breaking her eye contact with Keitaro for an instant.
The small collection of officers that Keitaro had gathered traded glances with one another in puzzlement at the sudden conflict between their two executives who had up until now exhibited not only absolute solidarity but a clear personal friendship as well. Keitaro's facial expression and breathing shot a clear gesture of anger towards Kanako, as did his visible biting of his tongue. His gestures, however, were matched par for par by Kanako's own trademark steely eyes and frosty expression.
"Yes, it would seem that we do," was Keitaro's restrained reply, and without another word, Kanako simply motioned for him to follow, and the two of them walked briskly in silence to the now empty motel room they'd been using.
"What the hell is your problem, Kanako? A whole day of sitting on your ass not enough for you! Am I really the only one among us who actually wants to fight? No wonder this war seems destined to dra ..."
Keitaro had begun speaking angrily before Kanako had even closed the door, closing the already short distance between them until his nose was almost touching her hair. But Kanako closed the door before he finished speaking, and as soon as she did so, she whirled on her heels, pushed him back just hard enough to make room for her to bring her hands together in a loud clap just between their faces. Despite Keitaro's anger, it was sufficient to derail his train of thought just enough to allow Kanako to get her words in.
"You want to know what my problem is? Well let me tell you! I have been entrusted by the entire Japanese immortal community to repel an unprovoked attack from the outside, and the one person who is supposed to share my responsibility is having a lot of trouble keeping his priorities straight," Kanako shot back.
"I have done my best to be understanding of your situation, but I'm afraid our mission is not simply to avenge Mutsumi and your home through some reckless assault on a fortified enemy stronghold! In case you forgot, our mission for the moment is to analyze the enemy fortifications and determine the best manner of attack, and we have not yet accomplished this! We brought our forces in so that if we fail in our attempt to complete our mission without being noticed, we could attack immediately before the enemy has any more preparation time! Now this is the last time I'm going to ask you before you force me to draw my own conclusions: can you provide leadership based on reason and sound thinking, or are your emotions too much for you to handle at this time? Because if the latter is the answer, you owe it to your people, to my people, to me and to you yourself to step down and fight this war from a position where the rest of us are not bound to the consequences of your actions and the only people you will have to answer to is yourself and the people who care about you!"
Kanako's usually profound ability to lessen Keitaro's negative emotions showed their first signs of failure. While she had halted his angry words, his anger was clearly still present, although Kanako could see the gears working behind his eyes as he digested what she had said.
Of course, Keitaro knew that Kanako was right again. Had this not been the potential eve both of the end of the war and the vengeance of Mutsumi's terrible demise, he would have been better able to center himself at least for the task at hand, but as it was Keitaro was finding it almost impossible to suppress his gut reactions. Still breathing heavily but his internal argument robbing him of words, Kanako spoke again.
"I've said this at least once before, and I'll say it again now. If revenge for your friend is what you want, then you must realize that the only meaningful vengeance is the total defeat of the people who killed her! But that's not going to happen if you won't fight wisely! Now what we have to do right now is get back out there and look for the best way to get inside our enemies' headquarters so we can bring these ugly events to a close for good."
Kanako firmly put her hands on Keitaro's shoulders for emphasis. "So for the sake of all, Keitaro, pull yourself together and let's do what we came to do, and do it right. OK?"
Try as he might, Keitaro could not force down his anger, but on pure knowledge of the truth in Kanako's words he overrode the primal emotions that were boiling over in his heart just to make out a curt, "OK."
However, it quickly became obvious to both of them that the diffusion of tension that Kanako had hoped for was not happening. After a few moments of awkward silence, Keitaro just bowed his head shortly, and then, broodingly, opened the door again and left the room.
Kanako allowed herself an uneasy sigh once Keitaro was gone. She closed her eyes for a moment, trying to regain her own center. She was not wearing her full battle dress, but she always carried a few small pouches of time-and-place appropriate items. Opening her eyes again, she slowly reached into one and removed a small, black, elongated oval-shaped case. She stared at the item for a moment, then replaced it into her pouch and purposefully exited the room.
Fortunately, the last of the reinforcements was not long in coming. Keitaro was making an obvious but not entirely successful both to carry out the business of final planning and preparations for their mission and of avoiding direct contact with Kanako. This did not go unnoticed by the observant young vampire, but there was nothing she could do about it now. Right before a battle was not the time for officers to scwabble, least of all in front of their troops.
Keitaro, meanwhile, was actually having even more of a hard time than could be readily interpreted from his actions. The long hours of inaction while staring at the enemy he now hated so passionately had worn his nerves and his patience down to nothing. A quiet voice in the back of his head kept reminding him that Kanako's words had been nothing more than the simple truth, but this was drowned out by his own internal dialog that was only just managing to keep him under control for just a little longer. When his and Kanako's group was finally ready to set out again though, Kanako once again took Keitaro's side, and after a quick double-check of their equipment and plans, they broke off into groups of four and melted away into the dark alleyways and streets.
As had been expected, contact with the enemy was quickly established. Though there was no obvious sign that their earlier expedition had been spotted, security was still tight. Not far beyond the previously discovered watch stations, they found elements of a thorough and layered electronic surveillance frontier, as well as a large increase in armed patrol. All the search teams were operating from safe distances and as such, no one reported being seen, and although there was no difference in electronic surveillance or armed protection, an accident of geography and architecture seemed to offer the best point of attack. Two large warehouses were positioned about 25 feet apart at the edge of one side of the enemy perimeter. Though as well protected as any other spot on the perimeter, the large warehouses presented a physical obstacle to quick reinforcement. Only a few doors were on that side of both buildings, and if the electronic frontier could be passed through and the security squads beaten quickly enough, the bulk of their own forces could be through before enemy reinforcements could contain them.
"If we send in small teams to temporarily take the warehouses, or at least create enough mayhem inside to prevent the enemy from swarming through them to swamp us at either end, then we should have a solid foothold before they can scramble the bulk of their troops. Place snipers all around the rest of the perimeter to pick off any foreign vampires attempting to sneak out the back, and we'll force any enemy forces we find into battle. We can end this war tonight," Keitaro said, speaking both to the officers of Gennai and Rikyo's soldiers and to Gennai and Rikyo themselves over a makeshift video conference.
Nods from the other officers were passed around the group, and Rikyo and Gennai both gave a slow nod of approval as well.
"Kanako, what are your thoughts on the matter?" Asked Gennai.
"I have to agree with Keitaro. I don't think this will be another easy victory, but I can't imagine we're going to get any better opportunity than this."
The two immortal leaders exchanged a glance with one another over the camera, then looked back at the waiting soldiers.
"Alright, your plan has our stamp of approval. We look forward to your success," said Gennai again, and then he and his Lycan counterpart blipped off their respective computer screens.
Keitaro and Kanako first looked to each other, and then to their other officers.
"Alright troopers, let's do this one more time. Is everyone clear on exactly what their task is to be?" Said Keitaro, addressing Eizo and the other officers.
"Yes sir," was the unanimous reply.
"Good. Then let's do it," Keitaro said.
As the rest of the officers began to file out of the motel room, Kanako purposefully cut off Keitaro's exit. She let him give her a slightly irate inquisitive look before speaking.
"I'm going with your group," she stated matter-of-factly. Keitaro's expression began to show more irritation, but Kanako spoke again before he could say anything.
"It's not open for discussion."
Keitaro took a deep breath and made a minimally successful attempt at concealing his rising anger, but said nothing and merely nodded slightly. Kanako returned the nod, adjusted the strap of her carbine slightly, and motioned for Keitaro to lead the way. Together they left the room in silence, their other officers having all gone ahead.
Had Keitaro been more of himself, he would have realized that not once before in his life had he experienced anything even resembling the bloodlust that drove him now. Even Mutsumi's death had not directly affected him in this way – at first he had been consumed by grief, which had then turned into primal, unfocused rage, which in turn had become a cold, calculating drive for revenge. Now that his revenge was at hand, particularly after the agonizingly long wait, it was costing Keitaro a great deal of conscious energy simply to remain in human form. His knowledge of his greater responsibilities were fighting a losing battle in his head against his most primitive and deep-down Lycan instinct – to kill. This instinct had little concept of identities – pretty much anything in front of it was an enemy. Again, had a more typical state of mind been anywhere in his consciousness, he would have been worried about his ability to distinguish the invading foreign vampires from the Japanese vampires who fought by his side in the state he was in. But as it was, while for the moment at least he had no particular specific desire to slay his nearest vampiric ally, the concern of friendly fire was nowhere in his head. It was only some unknown autopilot mode that allowed him to pass within a half-second's leap from his enemy without acting out.
Fortunately, Kanako was much more mission-oriented. She could sense the state of Keitaro, but knew that there was nothing more she could do but hope that his self-control could hold out until the time was right. Keitaro, herself, their two companions and the rest of their personal team had penetrated the outer rings of the electronic surveillance frontier with still no obvious sign that they had been noticed. Even Kanako had doubted that they'd make it this far without starting a fight, but she had not let the chance go to waste and neither had the other groups of scouts. Over their secure, low probability of intercept radios, they had poured observations of enemy defenses to their forces waiting just outside the designated strike point. Now Kanako's group had neared the small, single story office building that at first glance appeared to be the enemy headquarters, and were silently watching and listening for any clues regarding special defenses – beyond the few dozen heavily armed guards that they could immediately see, of course. When after changing angles several times the found nothing new, Kanako finally made the decision that Keitaro had been waiting for.
"Not going to get any better than this ... let's order our main body to attack," Kanako whispered quietly in his ear.
Keitaro's only response was a simply release of breath that nevertheless managed to sound menacing, and his eyes began to cloud over grey.
"Please Keitaro, wait for our forces create some chaos. There are too many of them for just the four of us to openly attack, and who knows what's on the inside." Kanako whispered again. She was sure that Keitaro had heard her, but his energies were beginning to spiral out of control. He could not wait any longer. Quickly, Kanako depressed the signal key on her radio to send the Morse code signal to begin the attack.
The excitement of the decisive battle to come was already running high among the troops when Kanako's order beeped quietly through their radios. Eizo, who had been placed in command of the lot, could not suppress his smile as he spoke to the entire army.
"This is it, boys and girls," he said smoothly. "This will be one for the history books."
Soaking up the indomitable spirit of his troops for a moment, he then slowly turned around and raised his suppressed sniper rifle in the direction of one of the guards protecting the point of entry. All around him dozens of his teammates were doing the same. As soon as he was satisfied of his aim, he gently squeezed his trigger.
The guards around the warehouses fell to the ground in near unison, their heads in pieces all around them from the high-explosive dum-dum rounds. There we no living guards left outside but Eizo had to assume that either someone in one of the warehouses or another unseen enemy had witnessed the attack, and scarcely had the last guard hit the ground than he was leading his troops forward in a rush attack towards the gap between the two warehouses. As he had predicted, even as they reached the gap, enemy troops began to spill out of the doors inside the alleyway, but as there were only a few doors, their numbers were totally insufficient to stop the swarm of Japanese immortals that flew towards them, their guns blazing. But they did manage to at least slow down the advance.
At the same time, the two small assault groups that Eizo had assigned to run amok within the warehouses had just blasted through the front doors, intent on doing an instant replay on their last attack on an enemy-infested warehouse. However, it was quickly made clear to the attackers that things would be different this time.
Far from the sparsely occupied buildings that they had been anticipated to be, the small Japanese squads were confronted with nearly 100 foreign vampires, all heavily armed and armored. Worse, at short, regular intervals along the walls facing the alleyway, there were large boxes that were easily recognizable as bombs. They were bolted to the concrete floor of the warehouse and the inward side was reinforced with a heavy metal plate. Their purpose was obvious, but barely had the first attacker raised his carbine to fire it was too late to stop it.
"Looks like we're going a hair early, maggots. Deliver the package now," said one of the foreign vampires into a walkie-talkie, and a subordinate standing next to him pulled out a small remote control from a pouch in his armored vest, flipped up a safety latch, and pressed a small red buttom.
By this time, more than half of the Japanese immortals were inside the alleyway. The rows of powerful shaped-charge explosives lining the wall of both warehouses detonated in a rapid sequence, sending an intense, focused blast of energy and silver shrapnel through the attackers like a wave of water through a sand castle. The majority of those caught directly within the blast area were blown apart, burned alive or riddled with shrapnel instantly. Even before the flames had parted to leave a clear view of the destruction, the scores of vampires behind the bombs were unleashing a storm of gunfire on the shocked survivors.
Keitaro and Kanako's group were rattled by the massive explosion, and even before the frantic radio traffic from their officers reached their ears Kanako knew that something had gone very wrong. The rancor from gunfire and screams drowned out many of the words that came through her ear piece, but she could make out enough to figure out what had happened.
"... attacked ... Trap! ... enemy ... pinned down ... retreat!" Were the words that Kanako was able to understand. But the fact that the massive explosion was not part of their game plan was enough for her to fill in the gaps. Turning towards where Keitaro had been at her side to suggest that they fall back and regroup, she was startled to find that he was no longer there. Very quickly her thoughts routed Keitaro's most likely action, and as a knot of apprehension lanced through her stomach she turned her eyes towards the enemy headquarters just as the first roars, screams, and gunshots radiated out from it.
At the first rumbling explosion, Keitaro had taken advantage of the noise to cover his own movement. Calling upon all his immortal powers for speed and stealth, he had whisked himself down to the level of the headquarters building and had used the cover of the subsequent blasts to behead the few guards protecting the small enclosed area to one side of the building with swift and savage strokes of the short sword he carried. Apparently then his bloodlust had overwhelmed him, as the roars suggested that he had shifted forms and attacked the occupants of the building with tooth and claw. But the gunfire and the growing number of screams, shouts and commands from within suggested that even an enraged Lycan was hopelessly outnumbered.
Ripping off one of two strips of grenades off her vest, she tossed them to one of her companions with the simple command of "cover me." Jumping up and advancing quickly in a zig-zag pattern while picking off visible targets with her own carbine, Kanako flew forward, and even as she felt the first armor-piercing incendiary round just manage to pierce her armor she leaped forward and through a window feet-first, quickly unloading the rest of her clip as she did so and landing in a crouch. Ignoring the small but searing spot of pain where the bullet burned her, she quickly made out Keitaro's form tearing through a mob of enemy vampires like rag dolls. His special armor seemed to be doing it's job, as the same armor-piercing rounds that had wounded her ricocheted off his protective wear with no obvious ill effects. Nevertheless, his head was completely unprotected, and it was only the speed at which it flashed from enemy to enemy that had prevented him from being hit. Only a few of the vampires on the inside even noticed her against the chaos being created by Keitaro, but the sole survivor of the outside guard ran to the broken window where Kanako had broken in and fired at her again, and Kanako gasped as several more fiery projectiles bored their way through the back plates of her armor, not far enough to be lethal but plenty far enough to be painful. Falling forward with the energy of the strikes, she drew her pistol as she rolled forward to dispatch her tormentor while at the same time just avoiding another burst of gunfire from the foreign vampires on the inside. The outside vampire no longer a threat, she rolled to the side and took cover behind a corner as she quickly reloaded her carbine. However, those vampires who had decided that she represented as much a threat as Keitaro had moved on her, and she had to kick an enemy shotgun away from her before she could bring her own weapon to bear. Switching to melee mode, she slung her firearm and drew her naginata with a practiced efficiency. Extending the weapon to its full length in the same motion, she knocked the guns out of the hands of two more attackers, then brought the blade around to cleave them in two before they could produce another weapon. She split the chest of a final assailant with her blade, but not before he'd managed to put several more rounds into Kanako's midsection. At point-blank range these rounds penetrated deeper into her flesh than had any of the others, and it was fortunate that she had killed the last of the enemy who were paying her any heed, as she too fell gasping to the ground for a moment. But her meticulous training paid off, and she automatically retrieved an extraction tool from her kit. Rolling back behind the corner for a moment, she grabbed a piece of wood from the smashed window frame and stuck it in her mouth, biting down hard on it as she stabbed the extractor into the holes in her armor, pulling out three of the smoking bullets in quick succession. At another sound from outside the window, she raised her head just in time to see her other two companions raise the barrels of their carbines and open fire into the chaotic mess of foreign vampires across the room. Calling upon all her healing energy, she pulled herself back to her feet and motioned for her companions to move in, and spun back around the corner to lead them.
Despite being outnumbered a good 40 to one, Keitaro was making quite a show of himself. The fact that vampires with melee weapons were crawling all over and around him prevented their gun-armed friends from getting a clean shot as they fought to get control over him. Keitaro was fending them off astoundingly well considering, but the fact that he was clearly on the defensive now meant that he would not likely last much longer in the spot he was in. Even under the circumstances Kanako could not help but to make a mental note to inquire to Keitaro about getting herself a set of that armor at the earliest possible time. Just as more of the enemy vampires were switching their attention to Kanako and her wingmen, she and one companion pulled the pins from the strips of grenades without even detaching them from the cloth and flung them over Keitaro and behind him. Kanako had set them with a short fuse, and so the bombs exploded less than a second after hitting the ground. The mass of foreign vampires shielded Keitaro from most of the blast, but it still knocked him down and sent him sprawling. Cover fire from Kanako's companions shot down the survivors of the enemy vampires.
Kanako ran forward and grabbed onto the shoulder plates of Keitaro's armor, and her two companions opened fire again at the enemy with their carbines.
"Damn you, Keitaro! You promised me that you wou ..." Kanako hissed angrily, but was cut short when Keitaro lashed out at her in an attempt to dislodge her. Kanako's fast reactions avoided most of the blow and the armor on her own arms shielded her from his claws, but as Keitaro quickly drew back onto his feet and aimed himself back at the enemy reinforcements struggling to get through the door that was now blocked and jammed with debris, Kanako found herself having to make a very conscious effort to keep her own temper in check. As if forgetting about Kanako entirely, Keitaro snarled and prepared to leap into an attack. Kanako's eyes gleamed icy blue as she ripped the black oval case from her pouch and crushed it in her hand to reveal a syringe tipped with a thick needle. Launching herself into Keitaro, she knocked him off balance and disrupted his jump. Wrapping her left arm around the top of his head, she stabbed the needle into his neck and squeezed the contents into his bloodstream.
The effect was immediate and dramatic. Although Keitaro managed to violently throw Kanako off his back, even before she hit the ground Keitaro's muscles seemed to cease to respond to his will. Within a few seconds he began to stumble and fell back to the ground, and his body began to contort as he began to shift back into human form. Her eyes still shining blue and her face contorted with anger, Kanako had quickly picked herself up , grabbed Keitaro's writhing figure and heave it up onto her back as the first enemy reinforcements managed to get through the obstacle. Kanako's wingmen shot at them, but as they would soon again be badly outnumbered, all they could do was flee and hope that their comrades elsewhere were still creating enough havoc to allow them to escape. Running as fast as she could with the added weight of Keitaro, Kanako again felt the searing burn of more incendiary rounds in her back and her companions returned fire. Gritting her teeth against the pain, she pushed herself onward even harder.