Heart of the Infiltrators
(Senran Kagura x Male Reader)
Chapter 67: Titans' Clash
A shiver ran down Oda's neck as the sudden feeling that something was off pervaded into him. Though he watched the van full of dignitaries getting surrounded from above, led by one of the world's strongest people at the forefront, he couldn't help but think that there was something that went unaccounted for. He crossed his large arms, shuffled his shoulders awkwardly against his suit, and closed his eyes for a second to mull over the situation. The dignitaries were attacking in a similar fashion as they had in the past, striking several different locations at the exact same time with either guns, explosives, or both. Typically, those areas would be a bit more populated than average with more civilians between them and the responding emergency services.
Suddenly, Oda opened his eyes as a certain realization settled in. While the other two vans full of dignitaries had fit that memo perfectly, between the armed individuals and explosives that required specialists to come onsite to disarm, the particular van that he was targeting was off by a few minutes. Regardless of whether or not it was deliberate, why would the dignitaries choose then to be lax of all other times? Taking a long breath as he considered all of the possible options, Oda narrowed his gaze upon his strongest subordinate, Daidōji, as she stomped toward the back of the van with a ferocious look. Following behind her were several different teams of shinobi from the capitol, all under her command and hidden away from the prying gazes of the civilians who were looking out from the windows of the stores or apartments and from on the far ends of sidewalks.
Spying over the same sight was Tsao, who was hidden away on the balcony of a fire escape. His eyes were hard and intense, pondering the same questions as Oda, as he ran his hands over every piece of his harness and equipment. His booster and grappling wires were set, his blades were cleaned and sharpened, and his two handheld shotguns were each loaded with a single shot. A puff of air came out of his nose and he took another breath, watching and waiting for any sign of the dignitaries slipping past the shinobi.
Grasping her hand onto one of the van's backdoors, Daidōji spared a quick glance to her underlings with the faintest nod and waited for a few mock SAT units to approach. While they wouldn't contribute to any actual fighting or subduing, they were there to cover for the fact that shinobi were invisible and to keep eyebrows from going up when dignitaries were subdued by unseen forces. Once the placeholder units were in position, Daidōji ripped away the backdoor, causing the metal to loudly scream in response, before she moved to storm the inside.
But just as she was reeling her fist back to strike the most apparently hostile person in the room, a man with two guns in his hands as he tried to pull open one of the side doors, her eyes caught something off to the side. Aiming what looked to be some kind of firearm right where her torso was going was a frightened man with his teeth clenched together. By the time Daidōji noticed that the gun was plugged into a strange pod laying on its side, her momentum had already carried her into its strike zone.
Then, just as the man armed with two pistols began to recoil and pulled himself back further into the van, there was a nearly soundless click as two barbs fired from the taser gun. Even with how fast and puny the metal points were along with their nearly invisible wires, Daidōji caught the faintest bit of moisture glimmering in the sunlight that flowed into the van. Then they poked into her and she thought she felt a standard electric shock running through her body, one which she'd been trained to withstand along with every other graduated shinobi. Suddenly, just as she was extending her hands to rip away the gun, a different feeling pierced into her. Combined with whatever gel-like substance that coated the sides of the barbs, an intense shock that stemmed from the charging pod ran through the taser to blast into Daidōji. While it still did nothing to incapacitate her body, the back of her head was very suddenly in excruciating pain and her body forced itself to freeze up as it tried to deal with it all at once.
Seeing the woman distracted, Cleaner spared no glance to the man who'd saved him from the shinobi's prying fingers and aimed his pistol over Daidōji's head. He then fired a grappling wire and watched as it connected onto the back corner of the van. Before there was any sign of recovery in his opponent, he let himself get pulled and stuck out his feet to kick both of the woman's shoulders. As he was flung out from the back of the van and spiraled through the air, Daidōji crashed onto the ground just behind it with closest thing to a groan that anyone had ever heard from her.
Reacting quick and haphazardly, Oda grasped his hand onto another bit of concrete and chucked it after Cleaner but missed and the projectile exploded into the street. After a loud yell, "Damn!" he then launched himself from the building and landed onto the ground with a thud before rushing over to check on Daidōji's condition while all of the other shinobi moved in pursuit of the dignitary.
Much to his relief, the woman had already started to pick herself up and crawled back into the van to pull out the man who shocked her by the back of his collar, "I don't know what you were thinking pulling this thing out on me… but you should have known better…" Like a wide-eyed deer in headlights, the man shrunk his head down in apparent surrender as he dropped the stun gun. But at the very moment that Daidōji looked away to greet Oda and the remaining SAT stand-ins, "I'm fine. Here, someone handle this little pinkie while we go after Cleaner," the man then locked his eyes onto to his injured wife in the van as she weakly reached out to the pod.
As one of the armored officers saluted Daidōji's order, Oda rounded the van and stood beside her, "You had me scared. Let's go. We can still catch-," before he was suddenly shouted over.
"GUN, GUN!" cried one of the other officers as the injured woman in the van took aim at Oda and fired her taser. Just like Daidōji, the barbs sank into him and a seemingly standard shock was sent through. But just as the woman and the officers were moving to wrestle the gun away, a greater shock suddenly enveloped the back of Oda's head and he had to catch himself from falling down as he recovered.
Then the pain was gone and the shinobi was left to wonder what the point of that was. But as the other posing officers proceeded to tackle onto and secure the dignitaries, Oda suddenly felt off. While Daidōji, with her endurance for all forms of physical trauma at its peak, felt nothing, the man felt dizzy for a few brief moments and had to wipe a hand over his face. As he pulled himself together and took a breath, his eyes turned off to the side and found the faces of several different civilians staring right at him. His first thought as he saw the flashes of phones was that they were simply watching the altercation between the stand-in officers… but then he took a hulking step forward and their eyes followed him exclusively.
At the same time, Daidōji finished handling the two dignitaries and called over to him, "Hey, we'd better get going. Cleaner's getting-," before she was cut off.
"Our shinobi barriers…" uttered Oda in a hushed voice, "…are they still up…?"
Daidōji blinked at him once before her jaw clenched in realization. While the shinobi barrier was a mostly subconscious technique, it could still be felt by its individual users. At that moment, neither of the two could feel theirs being active. A long breath of air blew out of Daidōji's nose, especially as she also took notice of the camera's flashing their way, before she turned her head to the two dignitaries and asked in a guttural voice, "What in the hell do you two think you've done…?"
Reassuming his focus before the woman very nearly allowed herself to charge and beat the pair to a pulp, Oda reached over and clenched the side of her arm and stated, "We'll handle them later. For now, we'll go after Cleaner." There was a brief pause before Daidōji nodded to him and cracked her knuckles together in anticipation. But before she could reactivate her shinobi barrier, Oda gave her arm another squeeze before saying, "We'd better get into an alley first. Who knows how people are going to react now that two people appeared from nowhere…? We don't need them seeing us disappearing into thin air…" With nothing left to be said, the two retreated into the alley where Tsao was once waiting… though he'd already left in silent pursuit of the dignitary.
Using his grappling guns to swing around and occasionally shooting back at the shinobi chasing him, Cleaner was growling with frustration under his breath as he rounded the blocks bordering the relief camp. While the main objective of unveiling the government's forces had been successful, he and everyone else involved knew that further bloodshed would only add onto the fire that would burn beneath their enemies. However, despite numerous maneuvers to try and lose some of the lesser shinobi, his pursuers remained right on his tail and repeatedly blocked off any street or alley that he intended to use to attack the relief camp.
Patting at a few large capsules of explosives stuck onto the side of his hip, Cleaner began to wonder if he should have just tried his luck on the civilian buildings around him. As he swung from a street and into an alley, he snorted at the idea and reminded himself of the fragmentation-based design. While a group of people would certainly be at an extreme risk when faced with the explosive, especially with all of the little shards of metal that would be ripping through the air, even a wooden wall would be able to protect most people from its effects. No, his intention laid solely on the crowded camp, mainly for its tactical value.
Just as Cleaner exited the alley, he found that a pair of shinobi were already waiting on top of the roofs on the far side of the block toward the relief camp again. With a growl, he fired his grappling guns to swing away and down the opposite street. Knowing that his time would be running out, especially as the two heavy-duty shinobi caught up, he changed his strategy and intended to retreat a short way back. If he could create an opening or spread out the shinobi enough, he would have a perfect opening to strike if there were no other surprises in store.
As those thoughts occurred to him, Cleaner's eyes flashed to the side and found an opening to an alley. He blinked as a streetlight obscured his view of it for the briefest second and, when he opened them, he found a ferocious looking man swinging out and using a pair of grappling wires from his wrists to swing around. Cleaner blinked, unsure of how the balance of the situation had shifted, as he took in the man's eyes staring a hole into him.
But, before Tsao could take aim with either of his firearms, the dignitary labeled the man as a hostile and arced his body around after his last swing to take aim with both of his pistols. Reacting quickly, the infiltrator aimed his wrist at him and fired one of his wires at the man, listening to it ding against one of the man's weapons and forcing it off aim, before activating the booster and flying straight at him. Tsao drew a liuyedao into his free hand and swung it forward as fast as Cleaner's finger could pull the trigger and the blade connected just under the barrel and forced it to fire upward. In the second that followed, both men were facing one another with gritted teeth and raging eyes. Then Cleaner continued to swing away while Tsao fired his grappling gun to reorient his trajectory and the battle had truly begun.
ROARS IN EVERY HEART,
GLIMMERS OF YOUR LIFE SHARDS,
WHICH, RAISED BY HOLY GUARDS,
WILL ROAR RAGE WHEN THEIR EVIL'S COME!
Having spent too much time focused onto his newfound opponent, Cleaner didn't immediately notice one of the lesser shinobi taking aim at him from above with a musket-like weapon. Once he did, he arced his arms backward while twisting his body around as much as possible through the air and fired his grappling wires. He swung back and could feel the wind of a bullet flying past him as the musket let out a boom. By that point, Cleaner was already flying low and barely raised his legs up enough to not graze against the street.
PRESSED ON BY LOVE AND HATE,
BOUND WITH OR NOT BY FATE,
THERE'S THIRST WE CANNOT SATE,
IT WILL NOT FAIL, IN US PREVAIL A HEROES' DAWN!
But once Tsao flew over him with his guns drawn, Cleaner opted to not fire his next wire and began to shoot his pistol blindly up to the man to stave him off. Though his intention came through as the infiltrator used his booster to quickly fly further up ahead, the other man rolled along the street for a few seconds as he willed himself to take aim with his grappling wire again and swung back upward. Once Cleaner was back in the air with a second to think, he observed Tsao coming back in for another run while the shinobi were pinching him in from the opposite side. With a loud curse just under his breath, he then allowed his grappling wire to throw him above the roof that it was fired into before he fired the other to pull him into an alley. But, as he was descending, he spotted two familiar forms leaping over the roofs in the distance. Keeping his jaw clenched and his mind focused, Cleaner knew that he wasn't far from his death. But, before he was to die by their hands, he would do his utmost to see his duty fulfilled with the explosives at his side.
"Erring devotion for blindness,
A deceiver points me to death…"
Swinging through the alley with the intention to make a blitz for the park, intending to ignore whomever may go at him from the side, Cleaner kicked up his legs and fired his grappling wires to bring him back up to level with the top floor. From there, every shot from his grappling gun was across only short distances, usually from side to side or in weird diagonal forms. While it hampered his speed, it would throw off the shinobi rifleman from before and, perhaps, Tsao if he flew in from above.
But as he flew from the confined alley and into the open street with a bullet exploding the wall just behind him, Cleaner had barely enough time to arc his head backward at an awkward angle as a chunk of concrete whizzed just over him. His eyes rose and spotted Daidōji rushing across the roof just in time to fire the last few shots in his pistols. While the woman dodged away, the clips sprang out and the man was already sliding the underside of his firearms across his chest to load the next magazines. Before he had time to try and further push back either of the shinobi, the man was falling and he had to react quickly by firing one of his wires again and swinging down the opposite end of the street. With a skid of his knees and shins along the ground, the man bit back the burning pain of the concrete ripping away at his clothes and skin as he was pulled back up again, just in time to dodge another pair of wildly thrown boulders.
"Speaking sweetly of roles tragic,
His words common and body perched."
Realizing that he wouldn't get anywhere with so many people surrounding him, Cleaner blew a hot breath of air through his teeth before firing a wire into a streetlight and allowing himself to be reeled in as close as possible without slamming his body into it. Upon reaching that point, he released the wire and zipped just under it and fired another for the adjacent roof. The resulting momentum, swung him into a large half-circle that hurled him over the edge and faced him toward the two shinobi.
Raising both of his pistols toward Daidōji as she dashed toward him him, Cleaner hoped that he would have at least half of a second to fire a single killing shot. But the woman's earthshaking fist slammed right into his stomach which, combined with all of the opposing force of his momentum, blew every last bit of air from him. Taking immediate control of the situation, Daidōji proceeded to grab his shoulders, pulled his head down, kneed him straight in the face, and slid her hands down to restrain his wrists so that his hands pointed downward.
"But I'll live as the fool for him to know,
Perhaps madness can rule and men can float."
Recovering as quickly as he could muster, Cleaner fired a few shots from both of his pistols into the roof below them and began to wildly shake. Though Daidōji never gave the opportunity to be hit, she was thrown off by how fast the man managed to liven up after her pair of blows. Seeking to put him down as quickly and safely as possible, she pulled up his wrists and the rest of his body and proceeded to butt her forehead into his face. But, even as both his nose and mouth were bleeding profusely at that point, Cleaner managed to get an advantage from the situation. With his pistols in the air and right next to Daidōji's ears, he began to fire everything that he had left in his respective clips until they were sprung out again.
"My grave's within this duel as his seed sows,
I'll lay a broken tool turned to hell's row!"
Unable to keep herself from clenching her head down, Daidōji gave an opening just as Oda circled the man from behind, who'd kept a distance as he did so to avoid a wayward bullet. Making full use out of the opportunity, Cleaner twisted his body around and about until the woman's arms were at too awkward an angle and they had to release him. Quickly after, Oda closed the distance and blew a powerful elbow straight into the man's chest, where a few cracks loudly echoed from. The resulting blow threw him from the roof and Cleaner barely managed to see past the black in his vision enough to fire one of his wires for the opposing roof, swinging himself up and crashing with a pained roll.
"ROARS, HATE, LIES, DREAD;
IS THIS OUR WORLD!?
WHAT CARE HAVE I,
FOR ALL MANKIND!?"
Though Daidōji, Oda, and all of the surrounding shinobi expected the fight to be over, Cleaner surprised them all by quickly pulling himself back onto his feet. Though his form was a bit more hunched, his expression was still solid and prepared for a fight. He slid his pistols across his chest, loading the next pair of clips into them, before he eyed all of the other shinobi who were surrounding him. While his eyes trailed around, particularly for the sharpshooter from earlier, Cleaner's eyes met Oda and Daidōji's at one point and he couldn't help but force a maddened smile onto his face in an effort to try and throw them off.
"OH! WHAT DECEIT!"
Not willing to let the standoff go on for a second more, Oda spotted the shinobi with the rifle hidden behind an air-conditioning unit across the street and gave the subtlest nod to pass the killing order. However, being a man with a sharp eye, Cleaner caught the movement and all of its implications and immediately ran for the edge of the roof. Reacting quickly, Daidōji dashed from Oda's side and ran adjacent to the street where she expected her opponent to fly while the larger shinobi pulled rubble from the building he stood upon and hurled it at the man. As the small boulder was thrown and a bullet whizzed by from behind, luck somehow saw fit for Cleaner to clear away from both projectiles as he leaped and fired his wire to swing down the street. Oda stared after him for just a second before clenching one of his fists and throwing it in fury before giving chase.
ROARS IN EVERY HEART,
GLIMMERS OF YOUR LIFE SHARDS,
WHICH, RAISED BY HOLY GUARDS,
WILL ROAR RAGE WHEN THEIR EVIL'S COME!
Leaving Daidōji to chase Cleaner from behind, Oda made for the opposite side of the building and dived straight into the alley. He extended one of his hands as he fell, caught hold of metal balcony, and swung himself across it while inadvertently pulling some of the structure from the wall. With a steadily tightening face, the man further descended while repeatedly kicking off against the walls of both respective buildings to slow his fall. Upon reaching the ground with a slam, Oda let out a snarl and launched for the alley's exit, reaching both of his arms out to the outer corners and pulling hard to raise his velocity. He glanced his head to the street where the Daidōji and the other shinobi were chasing Cleaner but rifle shots echoing over the buildings told him that they'd managed to get further up ahead. Before his momentum carried him into the building across the street, Oda kicked down his legs and sprung up like a mix between an ape and a rocket to rapidly ascend from the street and up to the roof.
PRESSED ON BY LOVE AND HATE,
BOUND WITH OR NOT BY FATE,
THERE'S THIRST WE CANNOT SATE,
IT WILL NOT FAIL, IN US PREVAIL A HEROES' DAWN!
Between his legs and the occasional use of his arms to carry himself forward, Oda did not stay behind. Quick glances to the side found Daidōji's form flanking up ahead while Cleaner would occasionally swing himself just over the roofline and into sight before falling again. As Oda neared the edge of the next block, he found that the other shinobi across the street had suddenly ceased their pursuit and began to yell about something. Though the man intended to keep on target and was about to yell at them to do the same, he suddenly caught what they were yelling about in the form of a familiar face flying several meters above the street and Oda briefly saw nothing but red. But, even as Tsao came back into his vision for a moment before falling out of sight, the shinobi had to mentally pause and remind himself to keep on track as his body carried on over the side of the roof. First, he had to take care of Cleaner, whose intent to do further damage was clear… then he could give into his vengeful grudge.
"Born more for strained muscles than brains,
Leading actions oft with regret-,"
Suddenly, before Oda was about to climb onto the next building, he could hear Daidōji distinctly yelling, "He's rounding to the relief camp!" and already began to instinctually turn himself toward the fenced area. While he had no idea how Cleaner managed to get past the woman in the first place, especially with the broken bones that he must have had in his chest at that point, the man clearly had enough luck and tenacity to get as far as he already had.
Unwilling to let those factors carry such a wretched man any longer, Oda extended one of his hands to the building beside him as he ran and proceeded to scrap into it until his fingers could get a grip. At the very moment he did, small chunks of stone began to grind away and spilled into the palm of his hand as he rounded the corner of the block.
"When they called for me to command,
Did no one deign to think again?"
With blood dribbling from the mangled skin of his fingers, which were more used to simply pulling concrete away rather than grinding it, Oda made the turn and his eyes immediately caught Cleaner gliding through the air to fly into the park. As his legs carried him forward a few paces more, the shinobi rounded his body back as far as he could in a split-second and proceeded to chuck all of the bits of rubble in his hand forward. As though they were pellets from a shotgun shell, all of the stone rocketed forward straight toward Cleaner, who was nothing more than a sitting duck in the sky.
The dignitary barely had a moment to turn one of his eyes to the oncoming threat before it was immediately sliced by a particularly sharp bit of rubble. At the same time, stone proceeded to either smash or rip into various parts of his body and he fell down to the earth below.
"But though my strength falls short, I love this world,
As sworn before their court when hearts thumped bold."
Moving faster than every other shinobi onsite, Oda hurled himself across the street and proceeded to bludgeon himself through the fence made of brick and metal that bordered the entire camp. With his momentum carrying him, he proceeded to charge toward where Cleaner laid. But, much to the misfortune of everyone else in the vicinity, the man had landed just beside a small tent where several people were taking cover from the gunshots and fighting, no longer using the brick that surrounded the sidewalks in the area for cover. Sensing what would be his last opportunity to do the damage that he was ordered to do, Cleaner raised up his head and checked over himself with his one working hand, his other arm twisted and broken by the fall while the stone had completely obliterated one of knees. But, even as his various cuts and bruises bled onto the sidewalk beneath him, he reached to his side and grabbed at one of the explosive capsules that he had in place before yanking all three of them off with several clicks signaling their respective fuses and throwing them to the tent.
"Though this war's hard to ford, I'll break the mold,
So all may sing one chord and melt the cold!"
Feeling his eyes widen as he realized that his next few decisions would decide the fate of everyone within the tent, which was made of nothing more than a thin fabric that would be cut through by the resulting shrapnel, time slowed down for Oda. Then his body reacted on instinct born of past experiences in similar scenarios, which were all split down the middle with success and failure. His arms were no longer swinging from side to side with his run through the foliage as they reached out for anything in reach, hoping to find something that would either remove the explosives from the immediate area or block its shrapnel. As he plowed through some bushes and stepped nearly onto the sidewalk, his knees slammed through the short brick wall that bordered the walking area and his hands clasped onto whatever bricks that remained standing.
"OUR PEACE THREATENED,
IN BEAST'S COMING!?"
Without any real thought as to what his plan was, Oda's body continued to fly forward as his grip on the brick walls' remains intensified. Between the muscle that could rip concrete from buildings and all of the force of his large body carrying forward, two large chunks were pulled almost cleanly from the ground with only some bricks remaining in place. With those two pieces of wall, each one no larger than a small child, Oda dove forward as Cleaner rolled out of the way and covered his head.
"I SHALL MEET THEM,
WITH ENRAGED FISTS!"
Crashing very nearly with his face in the ground just half a meter ahead of where the three explosives landed, Oda did his utmost to keep the chunks of brick straight up as his mind screamed in wonder of what angles the shrapnel would fly. With his body racing farther ahead of his mind, the man took no chance as he scrambled to stand one bit of wall on top of the other, using his feet, hips, and shoulders to fill out the cracks while arcing his head down as much as possible. Not a second after, there was a loud blast with several barely audible whistles through the air before Oda let out a pained growl and fell onto his side. As smoke, dust, and surprised screams from the tent filled the air, the man's heel roared along with both of his shoulders as small bits of metal had dug their way into him and struck both bone and muscle.
"THIS, FOR MANKIND!"
Once he could stand to stop clenching his eyes, the man could look up and see that only the upper corners of the large tent were tattered by shrapnel with everything else having been absorbed by either Oda or the brick that he pulled along with him. His eyes went soft with relief before flashing dangerously. Even as his sliced heel screamed at him to stop, the man pulled himself up and locked his glowing orbs onto Cleaner, who had his gun raised and was shooting at the shinobi coming in from the rear. The larger man then began to mindlessly stomp toward his opponent with his fingers flexing to personally strangle him, too single-mindedly focused to grab the shinobi scroll stored in his shirt and too stubborn to stop.
ROARS IN EVERY HEART,
GLIMMERS OF YOUR LIFE SHARDS,
WHICH, RAISED BY HOLY GUARDS,
WILL ROAR RAGE WHEN THEIR EVIL'S COME!
Very quickly, Oda then realized that he was going to pay for his mindless advance as Cleaner then turned his head up and began to take aim with one of his pistols while his one eye flashed with deadly intent. As images of his wife and child flashed before his eyes, Oda kept his face hard out of sheer spite as he carried himself closer and closer to the man. Then, catching a new threat flying in from the side and through the trees that remained in the relief camp, Cleaner suddenly arced his arm up and began to fire blindly as Tsao flew right at him.
PRESSED ON BY LOVE AND HATE,
BOUND WITH OR NOT BY FATE,
THERE'S THIRST WE CANNOT SATE,
IT WILL NOT FAIL, IN US PREVAIL A HEROES' DAWN!
As his booster blasted him forward like a jet and a wire angled him perfectly on target, Tsao arced one of his blades up and prepared to deliver what he'd hoped to be a killing blow. But Cleaner reacted as quickly as his body allowed him to and rolled to the side at the very moment his last bullet was fired and his clip sprang out. Though Tsao reangled his blade as he landed, the dignitary swatted away the first striking blow with one of his pistols, which was blown out of his hand by the clash. When the renowned infiltrator spun along the ground with the momentum of his body to swing both of his blades into a combined strike, Cleaner blocked again with his other pistol and could only watch in fright as that too was pulled from his grip. At that moment, without anything to defend himself or fly away with, the crippled man could only look up and stare as Tsao continued his spin and was about to go for the neck. Then the infiltrator caught Daidōji charging right at him from the side.
"Here lands the demon of legend,
But I'm one true honest intent."
Angling himself just right so that the woman's blow wouldn't connect into his spine, Tsao took the punch and was thrown rolling back several meters. Remaining composed as he did so, his liuyedaos were sheathed and he pulled out his guns at the very moment he landed. But Daidōji, not being one to relent until her sparring partner surrendered or her enemy was dead, was already rushing him while spinning her legs around through the air to kick one of the guns from the man's hand. When the trigger for the other was pulled, she'd already shoved up one of his hands into the air and the one shot within the gun was expended. Realizing the situation that he was in, Tsao reacted quickly and used his newly freed hand to deliver a fast punch to the woman's throat to halt her aggressive pressing.
Though he was confused by Daidōji's sudden change in target, Oda's eyes widened with clarity. Cleaner was effectively immobile at that point with no possibility of getting away and Tsao threw himself right into the middle, outnumbered and surrounded by several shinobi. By the time Daidōji glanced her eyes to Oda to see if he would be capable of fighting, the man was already nodding to her and to himself in anticipation as he reached down to pull out his shinobi scroll. Knowing that there was no better time to use it, he shouted, "SHINOBI TRANSFORMATION!" and he was soon echoed by his comrade. The pair erupted into light, nearly blinding Tsao as they shined in both ends of his vision, before they erupted with their wounds healed and their bodies energized to maximum capacity. With their muscles prevalent and the large man's short blade drawn, they rushed the infiltrator from both sides.
"Blades and martial gifts span regions,
Against their sort of dark legion."
Relying more on his ears than anything else, Tsao listened to the pair's war cries as he drew one of his liuyedaos. With her fist reeled back to deliver a crippling punch, Daidōji was charging from the front while Oda's blade was whizzing through the air in the back. Reacting with his body and mind in perfect clarity, Tsao rapidly swirled his sword around and parried it into the side of the larger shinobi's while he jabbed the elbow of his free arm into the side of Daidōji's oncoming wrist. With a few swings of his blade to force back Oda, Tsao watched as the woman then sent forth her other fist and quickly latched his hand onto it. Her punch interrupted, Daidōji was about to grip her other arm onto the man but then took his shoulder into her face as he activated his booster and flew right into her.
Spiraling through the air for a moment, Tsao reoriented himself just in time as Oda launched himself up and caught his enemy by wrapping one arm around his entire body and tackling him down midair. The infiltrator kneed the offender a few times in the gut, taking a few dizzying punches from the shinobi's free hand in the process, before they crashed onto the ground and Tsao managed to wiggle his sword free enough to cut his calf. Oda let out a maddened roar and managed to get one more punch in before the infiltrator pulled his liuyedao back far enough to stab it forward into the side of the larger man's knee. There was a growl of pain before Tsao was released and threw himself onto his feet before immediately being dropkicked in the chest by Daidōji.
"Though I know I've transgressed, I've gone unheard,
Words passed my beating chest where we first learned."
By that point, all of the other shinobi had gotten around the man with their individual weapons drawn. As Tsao rolled along the ground from the force of Daidōji's strike, he reached his other hand down and drew his second blade before landing onto his feet. Just then, three of the lesser shinobi silently charged from separate angles and were only caught by the faint noise of their bodies whistling against the wind. Before they got a chance to deliver a fatal blow, Tsao raised one blade and parried back one of the shinobi's nunchucks while he locked his blade against the longsword of another and angled it to just barely block against the third's shinobi's scythe. The infiltrator then forced his opponent's longsword to the side and slammed his head into their face while parrying another pair of strikes from the nunchucks to the side. Anticipating that Daidōji would use that moment to strike, Tsao broke away from the three of them and brought his swords together to swing them toward the charging woman, nicking her on the front of her thigh as she forced herself to a stop and leaped back.
"Seen before each great task, those newborn birds,
Who need a weapon's best lest safety's sure…!"
Angling one blade over his shoulder to block another strike from one of the lesser shinobi's who came in from behind, Tsao kept his eyes trained on Daidōji. He caught Oda in the background, picking himself up as he decided to ignore the critical condition his knee was in, before hearing another strike coming in from the side. Quickly, he ducked his head beneath swinging nunchucks and swung his free blade into the side of the offending shinobi. There was a choked cry of pain before they fell, clasping at their wound, while the other two blocked Tsao's follow-up strike, which would have surely killed the shinobi. As he traded strikes and blocks with the two shinobi, his eyes found the sharpshooter from earlier trying to get an angle on him from the foliage that wouldn't risk hitting their teammates.
"Those sacred dears,
No harm may near…"
Moving quickly before the sharpshooter could become sure of themselves, Tsao parried a blow from the shinobi with the longsword and left himself briefly open to deliver a kick into the side of their knee which brought out a disgusting crack. Once they dropped their blade with a pained hiss and collapsed, Tsao locked one of his liuyedaos against the last shinobi's scythe while simultaneously angling his other wrist to aim at the opponent with a musket. Before a charging Daidōji could interfere, he then fired a grappling wire that dug straight into the sharpshooter's chest. With a frightened and weak shiver of their body, they fell onto their side once the wire was retracted and clutched at their wound while murmuring in fear. But before the wire could be fully reeled in, Oda dove in from the side and caught it with his fist. Even as the barb of it tried to wind and cut through his hand, his grip remained tight and he heaved his hand with a roar to pull Tsao toward him.
"They need not fear,
For I am here…"
For a brief moment, the infiltrator flew through the air and watched the surrounding scene. There were other lesser shinobi charging in, either to reinforce their superiors' offensive or to carry off and treat their wounded comrades. Daidōji was leaping straight at him with her body winding up another punch and Oda was raising his tantō with the intent to cut Tsao down as he flew through the air. The man's eyes tightened in the face of all of his opponents, wondering if there was ever a time when so many different shinobi had converged on him. His fingers wiggled with deadly expectation, dancing along the buttons on his liuyedaos that would activate his booster. With neither a complaint nor a taunt, he then clicked one and his body was propelled just above Oda.
"COME ALL DEVILS!"
Between his strength and the momentum of his booster, Tsao blocked the shinobi's stabbing tantō and blasted it straight out of the man's hand. Before Oda could even blink, the infiltrator hooked his foot onto the man's shoulder as he flew over and rounded himself downward with one of his swords jabbing forward to pierce into the back of the shinobi's only uninjured knee. Tsao's other sword would have then gone into the man's heart had Daidōji not closed the distance and thrown her elbow right into him. Unable to stand any longer, Oda fell onto his side and desperately grasped at the blade stabbed through his leg, trying to pull it free while mindlessly thinking that he could still fight. At the same time, Cleaner had been watching the entire fight unfold and caught the bigger shinobi's weakness. With a spiteful flash in his eye, he then began to crawl toward Oda while his one eye glanced to the discarded longsword on the ground.
ROARS IN EVERY HEART,
GLIMMERS OF YOUR LIFE SHARDS-,
WHAT CARE HAVE I!?
Using his blade to stave off a pair of shinobi who were going for his back after he landed back onto the ground, Tsao stood onto his feet and raised one leg to block the knee that Daidōji that was aiming for his stomach. While he had a moment, he threw a thunderous punch into the woman's face and took another in turn. A shinobi charged with a spear from behind, though Tsao parried that with a spin and grabbed onto the wooden shaft of it with his free hand. After swinging his liuyedao to force Daidōji back, he then elbowed the lesser shinobi in the face before yanking the weapon away and stabbing it toward the woman. Taking a cut to her side, Daidōji managed to dodge and grasped her own hands onto the spear. Though there would have been a tug of war for control over the weapon, Tsao was forced to release it when another pair of shinobi came at him, whose blows he countered swiftly with a block and slice into the arm of one of them. When his eyes turned back to Daidōji, she tried to piece him one and twice, to which he dodged both, before she roared and swung the weapon to break the shaft into the side of the man's head, which hurt but also did little. As all of that was happening, Cleaner was crawling closer and closer to Oda, using his only able hand to knab the longsword from the ground.
-WHICH, RAISED BY HOLY GUARDS,
WILL ROAR RAGE WHEN THEIR EVIL'S COME!
PRESSED ON BY LOVE AND HATE-,
THIS, FOR ALL MANKIND!
As a lesser shinobi charged with a greatsword swinging in from the side, Tsao blocked the grand strike and threw his blade to cut into the side of their neck while backing off from Daidōji as she unleashed a whirl of punches at him. As the shinobi collapsed, keeping their hands on the wound to keep from bleeding out, the two exchanged another pair of punches with one another. Neither were able to wind up enough to deliver a crippling strike and neither showed any signs of slowing down. Seeking to break the stalemate, Daidōji lurched forward with a punch that could have ended the fight but Tsao dodged to the side and managed to chop his hand into the center of the woman's spine as her body passed by. Then, as the sudden pain in her back's nerves hampered her for just a second, the man launched himself at the shinobi and delivered a punch that sent her rolling along the ground. But since Daidōji was just as vicious and tenacious as Tsao, she quickly caught herself and landed onto her feet. At the same time, Oda finally managed to pull the liuyedao free from his knee and pulled it up just in time to block Cleaner's striking longsword.
BOUND WITH OR NOT BY FATE,
THERE'S THIRST WE CANNOT SATE,
IT WILL NOT FAIL, IN US PREVAIL A HEROES' DAWN!
COME ALL DEVILS!
Retrieving his blade from the ground beside the shinobi whose neck he cut, Tsao raised it to Daidōji and the two had a standoff. They watched for any sign of weakness, not even daring to blink as they studied one another's eyes and movements for any sign of what the other would do. Then, with a suspicious flash in his eye, Tsao charged forward with his blade angled high to leave a wide opening. Daidōji thought she'd caught onto the tactic that the infiltrator was going for, believing that he wanted her to take the opening while he countered. So, leaving a feigned opening of her own, the woman braced for the coming charge with her fists raised into the air. To the side, Oda and Cleaner briefly locked blades before the latter was forced off and thrown onto his back.
IT WILL NOT FAIL, IN US PREVAIL A HEROES' DAWN!
COME ALL DEVILS!
Once the distance was close enough, Tsao swirled his sword to the side and made to go for Daidōji's open stomach. At the same time, the woman angled down her arm to protect her opening, intending to take a nonlethal cut, while she threw her hand straight toward the man's throat, ignoring the false opening he left at his sides. But much to the woman's surprise, the momentum in Tsao's body continued to spin until his head was ducked out of the way and his sword spun downward before rounding back up. At that moment, Daidōji realized that his scheme was multi-layered and that she had completely taken the bait. Her eye flashed to the side as Tsao continued his spin until the sword was coming back down to her. Oda, having caught what was happening from the sideline, moved to stand up but both of his knees buckled beneath him while Cleaner picked himself back up and prepared to use the distraction to his advantage.
IT WILL NOT FAIL, IN US PREVAIL A HEROES' DAWN!
COME, YOU DEVIL!
Tsao calculatedly brought down the blade to first cut into the inside of Daidōji's elbow and its respective joints, before reangling to slice at her neck. At the same time, Cleaner brought up the longsword with the intent to stab it into Oda's back while the man frightfully tried to save his comrade.
Then, without any warning at all, Cleaner was blown backward and the back of his head loudly cracked against the pavement, leaving his face wide-eyed and confused as his body finally gave out. Not a moment later, as Tsao's liuyedao began to cut into the skin of Daidōji's neck, he and his blade were suddenly blasted into the air and crashed along the ground with a roll. When he stood himself up, he could barely process the black shadow that flashed toward him and exploded its palm into his stomach. Though his breath was driven out of him, he still managed to swing his blade once before he felt a strong hand grip onto his wrist to hold him in place.
When Tsao blinked again, he was staring right into the eyes of a dark-eyed woman whom he'd never seen before. He made a faint noise before she used her free hand to clutch his throat and proceeded to strangle the life out of him. She threw him down to the ground, staring at him coldly while blood trickled down from a cut on her cheek and the man brought his hands up to try and pry her fingers away. When Tsao realized the hopelessness of that effort, he kicked a foot into her stomach to no avail. Finally, with his energy expended, he locked his chin down and simply stared at her defiantly as he thought that he was going to die.
She then released Tsao with a humored huff from her nose, who rolled and gasped for air as he finally began to breathe, before turning around to Oda and Daidōji and haughtily stating, "I'd heard this one was the shinobi killer." Her eyes danced around to the injured shinobi, who were either in the process of being carried away or bandaged before they stopped to look upon her, before she nodded, "I can see that he must have earned that title, seeing as most of you would certainly be dead."
Oda heaved a few heavy breaths, mixed with exhaustion from the fight and relief from seeing Daidōji alive, before he shook his head and wiped his eyes, "Thank you, Lady Kagura… Really and truly, thank you…"
The transformed woman stared down to the man who was stuck on his crippled knees before she commented with full seriousness, "Get yourself and everyone else to a hospital. If you die by bleeding out or from some kind of an infection, in these last day of Shin's coming no less, then everyone will have to ridicule you for as long as your name is remembered."
"Of course, ma'am…" said Oda with another long breath of air before he then raised and pointed one of fingers behind her, "…but, before anything else, you must kill that man there…"
Kagura flicked her gaze to Tsao, who'd already managed to catch himself and stood onto his feet to observe her. His gaze was both hard and hostile, though she knew that he had no intent to actively attack her after the nearly lethal beating he just took. With a click of her tongue, she questioned the man, "Why're you here, shinobi killer?" She then gestured to Cleaner's body, "This battle was between the shinobi and that mess over there."
Tsao took a few long huffs of air before he straightened himself and answered frankly, "My intent was to make sure that man was killed."
"Do you suppose that these shinobi would have failed?" asked Kagura with a genuinely curious quirk of her head, nodding her head to the side as Naraku both silently and casually stepped onto the scene.
"I believed they were capable," answered Tsao, "but I also knew that there was potential that he would only be captured, which would leave the opportunity open for him to be broken out by his allies."
"You think that could be done?"
"Dignitaries are resourceful…" started Tsao before he finally brought himself to nod respectfully, "…ma'am… and letting go one who is as skilled as Cleaner is not something that I can allow… Not when my brother's life is in the mix."
"Your brother?" murmured Kagura before she turned back to Oda, trying to remember if this was a conversation they'd ever had before her eyes brightened with clarity, "Ah, that one boy." She then faced Tsao again and nodded, "Yes, I can recall him. If I remember correctly, he was targeted by the dignitaries in the past? That's what led up to that battle with the Yōma?"
"While I don't know about the cause of the Yōma," replied Tsao before huffing another breath, "that is, indeed, my brother."
Kagura studied the man for a moment before commenting, "You were in that battle too. In fact, I believe that you killed several valuable shinobi who were fighting alongside your brother. Why was that?"
Anticipating an attack coming his way, Tsao kept his eyes trained on her as he responded frankly, "I went into the battle knowing only that my brother was involved. I did not know who was with who," before he pointed to Oda, "In addition to all of that, I know that man there. Really and truly, he hates me and would kill me if given the opportunity. I only decided to take the first shot to keep that from happening."
"Ah," came an unconvinced sound from Kagura before she took a step forward, "but that wasn't your first time killing shinobi. In fact, from all of the information I've gathered, you've killed every single shinobi that you've encountered in the past. Some of them weak and others very strong."
Tsao's expression didn't change, "I have."
"Why would you do that?" asked Kagura, her voice unenthusiastic but her body prepped to grind the man's face against the pavement, "I thought infiltrators were supposed to be self-sacrificing when it came to shinobi? Are you not supposed to be saving them from distortion?"
A humored huff came from Tsao's nose, "I suppose," before his mouth tightened into a frown, "though I don't agree at all with the self-sacrificing part." He bumped a fist into his chest, "Yes, infiltrators put shinobi before themselves at the start… but after decades of work, were we still not being attacked on sight?" He threw his hand dismissively to the side, "I have a family. A mother, father, two brothers. I have a wife and child. I have friends whom I'd trust with my life. Am I supposed to abandon all of my love for them because I need to die while correcting a shinobi who'll only spare some thoughts of gratitude after the fact?"
"Oh?" came another unconvinced huff from Kagura, "You're telling me that you would have died if you hadn't killed every last one of those shinobi?"
"I won't say that it was always self-defense," uttered Tsao as he kept himself up and straight, "but I will attest to the fact that they would have taken the opportunity if it was given… I simply took the first shot."
Kagura studied the man for a moment, caught at a fork in the road. To kill him would be to avenge all of the shinobi who'd been killed, leaving mankind with less and less defense against Shin; to spare him would potentially mean adopting an extremely valuable resource, an infiltrator with enough capability to take on several shinobi all at once and come out on top. It was a decision that would require much thought and one that she'd take much time to consider. With a wave of her hand, she said, "Go for now, killer. I'll decide what to do with you soon enough…" Just as Oda moved to protest, she locked her eyes on Tsao to ask, "…though, I trust that you won't be going out of your way to kill shinobi in the meantime?"
Tsao kept his body straight as he answered, "If they come to me, they will die. If I and my family are left alone, there will be nothing to worry about." Not wanting to wait and see if he would be killed for his reply, the man then turned and fired one of his wires to fly off. As he did so, Kagura only stood by and stared as Naraku watched from the side in complete silence.
"Lady Kagura…!" hissed Oda from the side, clasping his hands together as he began to plead, "This is an opportunity that we cannot pass up! Kill him! KILL HIM, I BEG YOU!"
"Have faith in Lady Kagura," said Naraku, her voice calm and undisturbed as her thoughts were. As Oda would continue to loudly protest and the remaining shinobi were picked up to be transported to a nearby hospital, the young lady would offer him rebuttal at every turn. The only two who did and said nothing was Kagura and Daidōji. One considered the prospects of Tsao, wondering what good and bad he would do if he were to tamed and recruited to her cause… the other looked upon the most powerful shinobi's cheek, which was sliced when Tsao attempted to defend himself from her. While it was a testament to Tsao's power, no one had proven that Kagura was as mortal as the rest until just then… and no one had proven that even the most powerful shinobi were capable of being beaten by fellow mortals.
What would such a thing mean when it came time to battle the ultimate Yōma?
