Story three
Part five
---Jim's POV---
After the incident in the mall with the dead body, I found myself trap at a restaurant with one very intimidating Ctral-Ctral who wanted answers.
"So Jimmy-boy, what's this all about, hmmm," Aisha smiled at me, while Melfina sat in the chair next to her.
I was trapped, and Gene was never going to let me hear the end of this for telling them about the showdown tomorrow, so I choose to exclude that part. I just told them about the part of the letter that had to do with them.
"So this Hanmyo is suppose to be only after us girls," Melfina stated plainly. "I don't understand, why?"
"She apart of the Anten Seven isn't that a good enough reason," I said a little franticly as she looked at me with a puzzled expression. Melfina was so naïve about everything, and at times this made her the hardest to lie to; I mean if you told her that pigs could fly and cars could swim she would probably believe you. If we would had stay on that subject any longer I know I would have spill my guts about everything, but lucky we didn't. We all knew that since Hanmyo didn't seem to be here, which ruled Melfina and Aisha out as her first target. That left one other woman, Suzaka.
"What about Suzo?" Aisha spoke up saying exactly what I was thinking. "If she is only after the girls what about her?"
"She's probably fighting her right now," I sign, as they finally understood my frustration over this confrontation.
"Let's go help her," Melfina once again stated the obvious.
"No way, Mel," I spoke out," this might just be a trick to get us all together."
"But Jim," Melfina started.
"Aisha can you take her back to the ship?" This question totally took Aisha by surprise as she just stared at me with wide-eyes.
"But!"
I then stop her in her tracks as I explain that if Hanmyo wasn't attacking Suzaka at the moment then she was probably waiting for them somewhere nearby, so it probably wouldn't be a good idea to let Mel go back to the ship alone.
"Why don't you take her back to the ship!" Aisha screamed," I a brave ctral-ctral warrior should be the one to face this Hanmyo and help out Suzo. Everyone stops eating and stares at us after her outburst, so I tried to turn their attention from us.
"Man, what a great performance that was when that guy said that." I then looked around cautiously to see if anyone bought my little act. They did as they resume eating as if what just happen wasn't anything special.
"Listen," I drop my voice into a whisper as an example to Aisha as to how loud her voice should be. "I will have a better chance of getting to Suzaka since I'm not a target, besides Hanmyo might just be looking for a chance to get one of you alone," I snapped at her as my reasoning finally sunk through.
"Ok, I'll take her back to the ship," Aisha smiled as she stood up from her seat. "Let's go, Melfina."
"Ok," Mel smiled and so the two left the mall and headed back to the Outlaw Star. Leaving me alone to try and help Suzaka.
---Hanmyo's POV---
Speed, Power, and Beauty, these things were all good description of Suzaka as she deflects blow after deadly blow. My steel fans shone in the late afternoon sky, but yet no drop of blood between us had been shed.
"You're good," I panted as I deflected yet another one of her powerful chi waves that was emitted from her bokken. I then charged at her as I spin my fans in my hands and jumped at the last second as she cut the roof where my feet last touch. Over her head I flip as I threw one of my fans at her with all my might, but without a backward glance she dodged it as it shatter the part of the roof she had just been standing on. Then like a boomerang it returned to my hand as I touched down at the other end of the roof.
"Yes and you're not bad yourself, but you are still no match for me, child," I heard her speak to me from a distances as she sat on another roof opposite of me. "You should just quit, before it's too late."
"Damn you," I muttered as I leapt across the gap and released one of my secret techniques. "Sakura Arts," I shouted as a put my two fans together and released a whirlwind that knocked Suzaka back a few feet. That was my most powerful attack and when I landed I was totally taken aback that she didn't have a stratch on her.
"I'm sorry," Suzaka mutters as she turns on me. I didn't stand a chance as I tried to defend myself from her next attack as she slashed at me with what seemed like over a thousand blows. Each blow as it connected with my fan felt like a sledgehammer that in the end manages to dislodged one of my fans from my hands and left me open to attack. She must had thought that I wouldn't be able to protect myself with only one fan as she telegraphed her final stroke that would've finish me. I saw the blow as it made it's way toward my throat, so I quickly used my remaining fan to hook it underneath the bokken and forced it upwards.
That was a big mistake as she pushed her chi through it and began to push me downwards. The tiles around me seem to crumble as I sank deeper and deeper until there was no more roof for me to sink into and I went through it.
---Jim's POV---
My heart was beating fast as I rush towards the area that I thought Suzaku would be at. I figured that since she hadn't gone after Melfina or Aisha that it left one more possible victim for her. As I bust upon the scene my heart jumped at the sight of my enemy being driven through the roof, but this feeling wasn't a feeling of joy. Instead it was a feeling of immense panic, one that I couldn't understand. Was something bad going to happen to Suzaku? I didn't know and I really didn't care as I found myself running into the abandon building just as the girl shirked in terror as the last of the roof gave way beneath her. The only thing that I know at this moment was that the fight wasn't over with yet.
--Hanmyo's POV---
The fall was quick but yet slow as I tried to remember the instructions that Kemi and Mata had given me about fall from great heights. I twisted and turn my body as I plummet and landed in cat-style on the ground with the fan still in my hand.
"I did it," I smiled as I stood straight up and look at the distance I had drop from the roof the floor, which was at least 50 feet. It was then that I notice Suzaka looking at me from above and a wicked smile cross my face as the idea came to me.
"Hey, Starlight how your hindsight," I laugh as I threw my fan at the area that she now stood. Of course she simply jump away from it as it cut its way through the roof and then boomerang back at her cutting the roof again. But I wasn't the one to give up on my first try as I hurled it again. She never once caught on to what I was doing as she moved and jumped away from my fan as it cut through the roof like butter leaving almost no mark as to where it had exited and reenter the roof time and time again. Only one from below could really see the amounting damage being done to the ceiling as she dance on the roof never once leaving it for another. Maybe she thought that I was going to make the roof cave-in on myself by doing this, but I knew better. All the areas I cut were old and weak to begin with and if she would had notice I never cut anywhere near myself as I stood in the light that the hole had made. I stare up at the damage my fan had made as I recoiled for another try. I focus my mind on using my other senses since I could no longer see my opponent and then when I was sure of the place that she now stood I threw my fan. I then listen to the sounds of her feet landing or sliding away from the spot that she had once stood. I had to be completely focus on the task at hand and so I only mentally said to myself It was only a matter of time
--Jim's POV--
What was I thinking? I thought as I step into the room behind the girl. Suzaka was a much better fighter than me, and she was having problems with her, so what was I expecting to do? I was kind of lucky as I step away from the light of the doorway and hid myself among some crates near the far wall. Hanmyo was obviously too engross in what she was doing to notice me as I walked into the room from the doorway. Her weapon flickered in a tiny bit of light as it left then return to her hand in a flash. The only sign of what Hanmyo was doing with that weapon was the soft twinkle of sawdust as it fell from the ceiling above and floated into the light in which she stood. It seem at that moment that tiny spots were swimming around her, and I found myself glued to the spot even though I knew what she was doing to the ceiling above. Suzaka was in trouble, but my mind was only think about how beautiful Hanmyo was in the sunlight.
CRASH!
That sound brought me back to reality as I saw Suzaka foot bust through the ceiling making another huge hole. What Hanmyo had been doing had become painfully clear to her then, and what I had to do became perfectly clear to me also as I pulled out my gun and raised it toward her. It was then with that one tiny flicker of motion that she noticed me and froze like a deer caught in the highlights of a fast moving vehicle. Her hand grip the metal fan tightly as she locked her sights on me and I knew that there was no backing out now. Showdown was happening a lot earlier than either one of us had expected.