(Note: This part is quite long, but I guess you hardly need me to tell you that! Phonesis :)
Chapter Nine
Kasumi groped with her footwear until she finally felt comfort. She had placed all of her belongings back into their rightful places upon her attire and felt more confidence building inside her with this reunion of her items. She took a glance at the blade of her tanto sword before swooping it back into place behind her back. An electric generator started to drone in the corner with spooky gentle cadence.
The cunning kunoichi then shuffled out of the store room and looked to the spiral staircase that spun upwards in a twisty path. She was fully prepared to do whatever would be necessary to get away from this place and felt ready to take on whoever may be up there. She took her first step up the metallic flight of stairs slowly and with caution. She was curved low and half in a fighting posture, her eyes focused and her mind as sharp as a razor. The walls arced rapidly as her pace continued on. Eventually Kasumi reached the top of the steps and peaked around the final corner of the spiral to take in the view. There was another corridor much the same in design and size as the one she'd come from but this time the far end of the hallway ended with a large wooden doorway. Kasumi imagined this would lead to the great outdoors; she just needed to take up that offer.
She slowly, meticulously, tiptoed sideways until her full figure was exposed to the view of the corridor. Her eyes studied every angle, look, and cranny. She bent low and started to sneak forward, the tip of her sword initially scraping along the solid floor.
Suddenly the girl stopped dead in her tracks. She'd spotted a door a few metres up the corridor to the right. The doorway was ajar and she could hear the distinct sound of laughter and conversation coming from the gap. She leant against the wall briefly, her heart racing intensely. As she stared at the gap in the doorframe she noticed a hand abruptly appear on the wooden border. Someone was inside the room, about to come out, and was hesitating in opening the door due to a conversation still commencing. The pale hand was still but the door began to swing slightly, inwards and outwards. Kasumi didn't falter and crept backwards before pouncing back behind the final turn in the spiral staircase, out of view.
Her brown eyes then took a cheeky glimpse down the corridor. As she done this a figure walked out of the room she'd observed. It was a male in a dark suit with long hair tied back in a ponytail. He was holding a bottle and took a swig from it as he walked towards the large wooden door down the opposite end of the passage. With a firm tug the man slipped out through the door. Kasumi noticed daylight decant into the dark indoors from the other side of the entrance. It must be the way out.
Kasumi felt poised to charge the door and break away in speed but a part of her was still unsure. She felt a need to stay put, as if her intuition was speaking to her yet again. As she pondered in this thought for a moment she heard the sound of a vehicle roar into the area outside. A loud choking engine was switched off and the piercing clang of a door closing frightened the birds away. Kasumi bowed ever lower and gaped at the wooden doors.
As she secretly observed the surroundings two more figures suddenly popped from the doorway the other man had come from. One was a large man in another dark suit but the other was a figure Kasumi had already had an introduction to, it was Pascal. He was carrying his phone in one hand and a glass of red wine in the other. The man seemed excited.
Pascal allowed his large bodyguard to push open the door. He then moved outside of the hangar and looked at the old rusty jeep that had pulled up outside. The three passengers had already got out. The fourth, the driver, sat in his seat glazing out through the muddy windscreen. Pascal could make out the dark moustache and sketchy features of the crooked criminal through the glass. He was smiling at Pascal.
"Ah you made it then," laughed Pascal.
He took a final gulp of wine then hurled the glass into the clearing. It didn't smash.
"Pascal Durron," the driver commented bluntly. "So you've not put on weight then."
He then got out of the vehicle and slammed the door shut. He was wearing a blue and red flowery shirt and a large gold necklace hung from his neck.
The three other men who had come in the jeep had walked over to Pascal's two bodyguards. Their attire was rough yet menacing. Guns hung from their backs and belts of ammunition wrapped around their torsos. They looked like a bunch of mercenaries. The five men were chatting away in unison, it seemed like they all knew each other.
"So..." Pascal started to walk towards the driver. "You took my call seriously Chad?"
"No, I just drove down here, waisting time and petrol, just to see your ugly face one last time," Chad bellowed mockingly.
He leant against the bonnet of his ride whilst Pascal came and stood next to him.
"Chad, Chad, Chad, how I've missed your wit," Pascal said.
A more serious expression then formed on his face.
"No but seriously, you up for my job?"
"Of course I am," Chad answered.
Pascal smiled.
"Good. Well there's not much more you need to know than what I've told you on the phone. I need you and your men to go to this village I was talking about and pick up a man called Hayate. Bring him here. Just tell him that you know a man who has caught Kasumi. He will come along just fine," Pascal said.
Chad looked up to the sky and then back at Pascal.
"Sounds like a pretty simple deal to me friend. Me and my boys are more use to the guns for hire type jobs, you know? But hell this is easy money. But, well, why don't you just do it yourself?" Chad was curious.
"I need to stay here, to babysit a nice young Japanese girl," Pascal laughed.
"Kasumi right? The girl this Hayate guy will want to come see?" Chad asked.
"Yeah that's right," said Pascal.
Chad stretched his arms then yawned. He then spoke:
"Right, well sounds good to me. I doubt it will be too hard finding the village, and once that part is done it's a piece of... cake."
Chad looked to his men who were still chatting away in the clearing.
"Hey before we shoot back off and do this for you hows about you let us into your," he paused. "What is it?"
"My airport hangar," smiled Pascal.
"Yeah that. How about you let us come in for a drink and rest. We've been driving for ages getting here," asked Chad.
Pascal didn't seem surprised by the question.
"Why of course you can. My men have managed to stumble across a few bottles of beer and wine, plenty for all," he answered.
The group of men then gathered up with Pascal in the middle. They then all began to march towards the wooden doorway which led back into the building.
Kasumi had heard voices and laughter from outside but hadn't been able to soak in any detail. All she knew was that Pascal was trying to get in contact with her brother. She didn't care if he'd managed that task yet or not. She just knew that her only concern was to escape and get away from this dark character.
The wooden door suddenly cranked open as an arm pulled it by the handle. Kasumi's wide eyes recoiled back behind the wall as a group of men strutted into the corridor. Kasumi then realised that the entire area she was in was covered in shadow. She wouldn't be seen. She sneaked forward back into the corridor but remaining within the shadow. She watched as the crowd all filtered into the room that was positioned to her right, just before the exit door. The final man entered the room, slamming the door shut with reckless force. The men seemed rowdy and it wasn't long until the kunoichi could hear them screeching in banter once more.
It was obvious what Kasumi had to do. There was only one way out and she needed to move. Without a moments more delay she leaned up and shuffled forward along the passage. In a perfect display of stealth she moved by the door to the room the men had entered in total silence, not that they'd have heard much above their own sound. Kasumi reached the wooden door and put her hand to the handle. She pushed it open and her eyes were struck by daylight. It stung as her senses became retuned to the outside after her time in the murky interior.
Just as the girl was about to race away back into the wild one of Chad's mercenaries busted through the door to the room behind her.
"I'm taking a whiz," he yelled.
As the words left his mouth he turned to face Kasumi who stared at him in a composed stance.
"Jesus," the man shrieked. "Hey guys that girl's here, she's freed herself."
The man tried to attack Kasumi with a right hook as he came charging at her. She blocked this by raising her left arm to meet the blow and then struck him with a series of fast jabs into his stomach with her right. He fell back into another mercenary as they came darting out of the room in reaction to the shouting.
Kasumi didn't move an inch. The second mercenary threw his ally to the ground, who was coughing and clutching his stomach. He then ran at Kasumi in a pump of undisciplined adrenaline. As his body came racing into her she grabbed both his wrists and fell back to the ground and pressed her feet into his belly. She then launched him over her, using her legs as a pivot as they slotted into his stomach. His body rose up into the air as his feet were taken away from the ground and then he slammed through the wooden doors fiercely, breaking them into a series of useless timber boards. He landed onto his back in the dry soil outside. Kasumi then leapt to her feet and ran outside, jumping over him, and across the airport clearing.
The rest of the men were not far behind. They'd come charging out of the room with slight delay. Pascal was behind them, his two bodyguards to either side of the cream suit. Chad ran into the clearing and looked down at the man who'd been thrown through the doors.
"Idiot," he yelled. "What way did she go?"
The man was clutching his lower back as he lay awkwardly amongst broken slabs of wood.
"She bolted off into the woods," he coughed out.
Chad's men formed up by his side, the one who Kasumi had hit in the corridor still clutching his stomach. Chad then yelled out a command and the men brought out their guns.
Kasumi hadn't had time to reach the tree line and instead hid behind a barrel positioned in the middle of the strip of overgrown runway. She had no more cover after this and knew that the men were beginning to walk towards her in a line. She looked down to her belt, a shuriken glistening.
Chapter Ten
Endal sat perfectly still. He could feel the cold sharp blade touch his neck and jolt with any movement.
"Ayane huh? So is that name meant to mean anything to me?" Endal was blunt.
He was pretty tense and was breathing heavily. He'd lost grip of his sword in the scuffle and knew that there was nothing he could do. Ayane smiled softly.
"It's funny isn't it?" Ayane's voice seemed irritated. "...How things in life link up, past events linking with the present."
Endal was confused.
"Look, who the hell are you?" He asked.
"I thought my name would remind you of who I am. But obviously I was too positive about the ability of your memory," Ayane knelt to his side with her sword still in place. "...I heard a rumour that someone was planning on capturing a relative of mine just so they could sell them on. I decided to do a little investigation. It turned out that a man called Shake had been asking around in bars the question of where my half brother, Hayate, lived."
As Ayane spoke Endal started to feel a little more than just tense.
"Shake then made the mistake of buying false information from a friend of Hayate's regarding where Hayate stays and a number to call him on. This friend then informed Hayate and myself. Shake had even been stupid enough to tell this guy where he was going to take Kasumi. Isn't it funny how whilst I head through the woods towards that very location I stumble across you walking away with a holdall full of cash!?"
Endal then noticed how his black bag had fallen to its side, a wad of money sticking out, half on the grass, fully exposed.
"Isn't it funny how I stumbled into you, Endal!?"
Ayane twitched her blade against the shady character's throat as she spoke.
Endal sprang up in alarm.
"Okay, so how do you know my name? He asked.
Ayane laughed.
"You still don't remember do you? About a year ago you tried to kill me Endal. You're an assassin, like me, and tried to kill me in my sleep. I remember the whole thing very clearly, I woke up, we scuffled and you fled. I then found out who you were and who had paid you. I've since dealt with that guy, but had always hoped to find you one day," Ayane lectured. "And now here we are: you, me, and no one else around to trouble us."
Endal needed a few seconds to take this all in. He thought back across his dark, blood stained, past and then it hit him with stark shock, a vain recollection of sneaking into a girl's room, the intention to kill her, that girl had had purple hair, too.
"Okay so I tried to kill you once long ago. You remembered my face did you? Big deal. You want to fight me? Let's fight!" He yelled.
Ayane concentrated on the face of Endal as he spoke. He seemed fearful, like the memory of their last encounter had proved her the more skilled warrior.
"So, Endal, why are you in the woods with a bag full of money?"
The purple haired warrior was curious although had a good idea.
"Go to hell," smiled Endal.
He avoided eye contact with Ayane and instead stared blankly into the foliage.
"Shake even told Hayate's friend that he was going to use someone, the best he described them as, to capture Kasumi. He's too slow to do it I guess. Tell me Endal, did my half-sister cause you much grief?" Ayane wasn't going to back down.
Endal had done his research into this situation and knew about Ayane and her relationship with Kasumi. What he hadn't known up until now was that he had already had a run in with Ayane in the past.
"Okay okay, let's do this huh. Let's do it. Yeah I captured your sister, and yeah I got paid. And, you know, yeah, she gave me grief..." Endal was nervous.
With that admission to what she already strongly suspected Ayane withdrew her blade and stood up. She threw her sword into the grass, took a few paces back and then got herself in a stance.
"No one tries to bribe Hayate, what's our business is our business. Kidnapping her for profit and using our troubles as your way into a quick buck won't stand. You tried to kill me once, now let's see what Endal's got," Ayane fumed.
Endal got up slowly and without much care. He stood facing Ayane side on with his head turned to look at her. In his heart he knew that he was already tired and still aching from his fight with Kasumi. He didn't have much left to give.
"You want to see what I've got do you?" He said quickly. "Well take a peek!"
He brought out his dagger from its thigh belt and without any hesitation threw it towards Ayane, aiming for her neck. The knife blade spun in a vertical axis in a swift gliding motion. Ayane was fast to react and cart- wheeled sideways to avoid it. The dagger spun by her with only inches to spare and fell into the grass. As soon as Ayane had finished her acrobatic manoeuvre she regained her stance and closed in on Endal.
Endal spun on his left foot and launched a spinning front kick with his right leg. It glided over Ayane's head as she bent low to dodge it. She then back flipped with immense speed. Both her legs shot up into the air and struck Endal square in the jaw simultaneously. As Endal fell back violently Ayane swiftly completed her flip until she stood back in her stance. Endal lay in the grass yelping in protest.
He looked up to Ayane and then looked to his left. He noticed his sword sparkling in the hazy atmosphere. It was teasing him, drawing him to clutch it. The fog was closing in fast, it was becoming very dense. Endal knew that Ayane was more skilled, faster, and likely more sharp than he was. He didn't see the point in just losing the fight without first trying a little improvisation. He quickly rolled to his left and grabbed hold of his sword. He jumped up and smiled as he waved it around, shuffling back towards Ayane.
"That won't help you one bit," smiled Ayane.
Endal didn't reply. Instead he initiated his attack, swinging his blade from side to side at Ayane. The purple-haired girl evaded it by stepping back. She kept this up until they'd danced a good few feet backwards. Ayane suddenly came close to a tree. Before she struck it from behind she jumped forward and in a brilliant display of lithe movement and perfect gymnastics ran both her legs up the tree. This allowed her to effectively partially run up it backwards and then she bent from her waist and flipped her legs forward in perfect timing. Endal could only watch as a pair of black boots raced into his face, one after the other. He collapsed in vicious force as Ayane managed to complete her spin and land on both feet.
Endal lay in the grass directly in front of Ayane. His nose was broken and bleeding quite profusely and the immensity of the aching around his jaw and forehead throbbed in enormity. A headache had also sprung itself upon him from the harsh blows. Ayane looked down at him smugly before speaking;
"You really don't have that much to give, do you?"
Endal knew that there was nothing he could do to defend himself any further against Ayane. He couldn't compete with the capability of the female ninja.
"Your right, I've nothing left Ayane. You win," he said submissively.
Ayane didn't seem impressed.
"And there was me gearing up for a fight," she grinned.
Endal didn't know what card to play but went for an underhand one.
"I don't suppose I can interest you in some money?" He asked, pointing to his holdall across the wilderness.
"Hmm let me see, I think not. Besides what's to stop me from taking all of that money now anyway? You?" Ayane giggled furtively.
After her words the girl started to pace up and down by Endal's side. She knew that her opponent was pretty much beaten. Endal sighed in defeat. He didn't know what was coming, but suspected the worst.