House of Maxwell Productions
Presents

Samurai Banzai RELOAD
Volume 5 - Night of Wrath (Chapters 21 - Epilogue)

Based on the webcomic Samurai Banzai
Copyright 2004 Briana Higgins

Written by
Elite Plushie

Chapter Twenty-One
In the Day of Battle

>>>Afternoon - May 8, 1583

The Greatness shone as brilliantly as ever as Takashi honed it against the smooth whetstone. The reddened rays of the setting sun shone off the blade at precise angles, indicating the pristine condition in which it was always kept. Still, even a routine action such as this could not distract Takashi from the big question nagging at his mind. Simply glancing over at the adult-bodied Yuki was more than enough to compound his curiosity. Even so, the ronin had not said a word since earlier when they had . . . well . . .

"Hey, Yuki?"

The raiju looked up from grooming her newly elongated hair that nearly stretched down past her thighs. "Hm? What's up?"

"Not to be insulting or anything," the ronin began. "But weren't you, like, 12 years old just a little while ago?"

Yuki grinned. "I've always been the same age, Taka-kun. It's just that my body finally caught up with my mind. These things happen, you know?"

Perplexity absolutely exploded upon the ronin's face. "These things happen? You went from 'ironing board' to 'mega-hot' in ten seconds flat! I don't know about you, but I've never seen anything like that happen before."

Yuki giggled. "You think I'm 'mega-hot', huh? It wasn't like I couldn't tell that from the way you acted earlier. I just can't believe how many times it took for it to even start going down . . ."

"Okaaay." Takashi interrupted, sheathing The Greatness. "Remind me never to ask you where you actually got experience on how to do that stuff."

The raiju stuck her tongue out playfully. "So noted."

The ronin looked around for a few moments in a suspicious manner, standing up so he could better see. Yuki was about to inquire as to the meaning of this action when Takashi held up a hand to keep her silent.

"I hear footsteps," he whispered.

Yuki stood up alongside him. "You think it's Noriko and Fuji?"

Takashi shook his head. "No, too heavy. It sounds more like . . ."

Nobumitsu suddenly came lumbering into view, casting his overly stern gaze about in a cautionary manner. It wasn't long before he recognized the two warriors.

"Takashi? Yuki?" he questioned. "Have you two seen Tomoe?"

"Tomoe?" Yuki replied. "What's happened to her? Better yet, what are you doing all the way up here?"

"Yeah," Takashi added. "And why talk to us? Thought you still hated us for that night eight years ago."

Nobumitsu shook his head wearily. "My feelings have not changed, but my sister's life is at stake. That raiju Hideaki has taken Tomoe hostage!"

"What!" Takashi exclaimed. "Why do something like that? What would those guys need a hostage for?"

"I have no idea," Nobumitsu responded. "I simply need to know if you've seen Tomoe or her captors recently."

"No, we haven't," Yuki answered. "We were just about to go up to the shrine and confront them ourselves."

"Well," the town guardian said as he was turning to leave. "There's no need now. Keichiro, Honda, and I will handle the cretins."

Takashi stood dumbstruck for a moment before moving to bar the guardian's path. "Whoa, hold on a second. You think you can just waltz in there and get your sister back? Do you even know who you're dealing with? Hideaki still has that freakin' huge chain, and his master is Raijin, as in High Yaen Master Raijin. Keichiro and Honda won't be enough to stop those two."

"What choice do I have?" Nobumistu returned. "They are the most able-bodied warriors in town, Honda quite capable with a spear, I might add."

"Spear nothing." Takashi attested. "If you go to that shrine unprepared, you're walking straight into the gates of the underworld. Look, I don't expect you to trust me or anything - hell, I don't even trust myself - but you would have a better chance of saving Tomoe if we were there." Noting the skeptical look on the guardian's face, the ronin continued. "Raijin and Hideaki want me, or more specifically, my sword. If I go in with you, they'll focus their attention on me, and you can get Tomoe out of there."

"Hmph," Nobumistu grunted. "Or, it could go this way: we all walk in there, you two give us away, turn out to be on their side, and kill us all. How's that work for a possibility?"

"Please, Nobumitsu-san," Yuki pleaded. "Don't go in there without us to help you! Tomoe wouldn't want you to die needlessly!"

The guardian looked strangely at her. "Weren't you a bit younger when we last met?" A moment of uncomfortable silence passed before Nobumitsu continued. "Well, you're absolutely right about what Tomoe would want in this situation, and your plan makes sense; I can't argue with that."

"Okay then," the ronin responded, hoisting his weapons into their designated spots and leaving the camp equipment behind. "What are we waiting for?"

As the town guardian, ronin, and raiju began to make their way back to the shrine steps, Nobumitsu had one final thing to say to Takashi. "Be careful, ronin. If you so much as breathe funny, I'll snap your neck quicker than you can say 'sake'."

"I dunno," Takashi replied sarcastically. "Sake goes pretty quick around me."

After a few minutes of walking, the trio reached the bottom of the stairway leading to the shrine. Despite Nobumitsu's claim, however, there was no one waiting for his return.

"What?" Nobumitsu wondered, cupping his hands around his mouth. "Keichiro!" he bellowed. "Honda! Where are you?"

"What's this?" Yuki asked, presenting the guardian with a bent wakizashi.

Nobumitsu marveled for a moment at the sharp contortion that had been inflicted upon the blade itself. "This belonged to Keichiro! We must hurry!"

The three uneasy companions raced up the shrine steps, each of their hearts pounding heavily, each for a different reason. Nobumitsu didn't look back to see it, but Takashi and Yuki's hands were fiercely locked together. Ready or not, the day of battle had come.

>>>

Just a few moments later, another two figures rushed their way towards the clearing just preceding the shrine entryway.

"Jeez," Fuji groaned, the raccoon dog again at his heels. "I can't believe we overslept! Of all the stupid things . . ."

"Indeed," Noriko concurred. "I just hope we make it there in time!"

"Oh, there's something I forgot!" the apprentice realized. "The o-fude are all written correctly, but you need an incantation to activate them! I didn't see one on the scroll, did you?"

"I removed that part." Noriko remarked off-handedly.

"You WHAT!" Fuji exclaimed.

Noriko laughed slightly. "Oh, calm down. I still have it, and I know the lines by heart anyway." Sliding a hand into the folds of her obi, she removed an object and quickly passed it into Fuji's grip. "Also, I'd like you to hold onto this."

The apprentice opened his hand to find the missing Eye of Amaterasu. "What the heck? Where did you-"

"It's my father's necklace," Noriko quickly answered as they neared the clearing. "Not much time to explain, but if we make it out of this alive, you need to take that back to your shrine, right?"

Fuji nodded dumbly, stringing the necklace about his collar and moving the mirror shard into the folds of his gi. "Absolutely, but are you sure it's the real eye?"

Upon reaching the clearing, both runners stopped dead in their tracks, Fuji completely forgetting about his question. The raccoon dog that had followed closely behind Fuji for most of the way fell backwards into the brush, growling as it went. Before the pair stood the Iga Ninjas, Tanizaki Megumi and Shisho Kumo. Megumi gave the group a nod, brandishing a pair of polished auburn tantos.

"How's it hanging, you two? Hope you weren't heading anywhere too terribly important."

Kumo leered from beneath his mask, twirling a finely-made spear in his hand. "Who would have thought that these country bumpkins carried such weapons?" the ninja wondered aloud. "Even stranger, who would have thought that target practice for the weapons just ran right up to you and presented themselves."

Noriko reacted quickly, drawing the Amatsuotome and pointing it dead on at the male ninja, whose red scarf flowed gently in the wind like a dead givaway. "Is your name 'Shisho Kumo'!"

The accused raised an eyebrow. "Indeed it is, fair lady. Why do you ask?"

The swordswoman simply uttered two words. "Itagaki Masanori."

A light suddenly clicked on in Kumo's head. "Oh! So that's where I've heard your name before." The ninja's eyes narrowed dangerously. "I do seem to remember some pathetic excuse for an old man challenging me just a few months back."

"You bastard!" Noriko exclaimed, making a head-on lunge at Kumo that the ninja all but failed to deflect. The Amatsuotome began moving like the wind, crisscrossing in lightning-fast arcs across the air and lunging at Kumo with random frequency. However, now that the initial blow had been made, the ninja found it easy to keep up with the swordswoman, using both the polished spear blade and its hardwood shaft to repel the constant flurry of attacks.

Megumi moved to join the battle, but was suddenly confronted with the Fan of Uzume. Fuji had not activated it, but simply held it in front of the advancing kunoichi.

"Why did you do it?" he inquired shakily. "Why did you betray us, Megumi!"

Megumi smiled in response, unnerving the already hesitant apprentice. "Betray you? I was never with you to begin with; I have always been and will always remain an Iga. You should have known better than to trust me, foolish boy."

Stung by the kunoichi's reply, Fuji failed notice the twitch-like movements made by the orange tantos. One of the blades shot out toward the apprentice, catching him full across the right cheek. Even as blood seeped from the light flesh wound, Fuji reacted instinctively. Extending the razor blades from the ends of the Fan of Uzume, the apprentice blocked the tantos' second strike with surprising speed. Fuji quickly backed off from his opponent, taking what Jeffy had taught him to be a proper defensive stance, with the blades of the fan facing the kunoichi in a vertical block.

"Hmm," Megumi hummed, twirling the twin tantos in dizzying fashion. "A Shinto apprentice versus the most esteemed knife-fighter in the entire Iga Clan? I wonder just how many seconds you'll last anyway . . ."

Fuji gulped visibly. Truthfully, he couldn't even imagine keeping pace with a trained ninja. However, he couldn't let Noriko get double-teamed by these villains; she was having enough trouble just breaking through Kumo's solid defense. The apprentice sharpened his stance and pronounced his next statement in a bold fashion that bore no resemblance to his last fear-laden inquisition.

"I'm not going to overestimate my skill," he proclaimed. "But you'd better not toy with me. Fight as you would if your life was at stake!"

Megumi laughed dangerously. "Interesting words, boy! I hope you're prepared for them to be your last!"

The raccoon dog growled quietly from the sidelines. Fuji couldn't possibly fight against that ninja, but what to do? There was nothing she could do. Tanuki had been powerless to stop this ever since this began, and there was most certainly nothing she could do now. Still, the creature knew one thing for certain.

I don't want to forget that name again . . .

>>>

The place was desolate. Charred remains of once proud structures stretched out across the olden shrine grounds, several of them simply burned-out husks, still standing but bent inward with strain. The setting sun cast a deathly red light over the skeletal ruins. Under the circumstances, it caused the shrine grounds to appear as a river of blood, with the banks formed by lines of fallen structures and a wide central path symbolizing the flowing lifestream.

Takashi, Yuki, and Nobumitsu made their way slowly across the central path, constantly shifting their drawn weapons left and right. Each of them knew that this was a perfect ambush setting. The enemy could emerge from these myriad ruins at any time. Nobumitsu was the first one to notice the bloodied bodies set up against a building to the right.

"Keichiro!" he shouted, despite the obvious fact that his men were dead. "Honda!"

As the town guardian rushed to the corpses of his comrades, Takashi spotted a sudden movement near the center of the grounds. Leveling his katana at the apparition, he called out a challenge.

"Show your face!" he bellowed.

Hideaki emerged from the shadow of a building, smiling fiendishly and toying with his chain, telltale blood dripping off the weapon. "No need for that sort of thing, Taka-kun. I fully planned on showing myself to you in due time." The raiju pointed a muscular arm in the direction of Keichiro and Honda's bodies. "I just thought I'd let you get a nice good look at your probable future over there."

"Bastard . . ." Takashi breathed. "Did you do the same thing to Tomoe?"

Hideaki shrugged. "Why would I? She's far more useful to me as she is." The raiju pointed up toward one of the taller structures where the unconscious girl had been hung by her wrists with a thick rope.

"Tomoe . . ." Nobumitsu muttered, rising from the bodies of his fallen compatriots. Forcing himself to remain calm, he demanded, "Why are you doing this? What possible use could you have for my sister?"

Hideaki raised an eyebrow, his haunting red irises sending chills through the three warriors. "That is indeed an interesting question, Nobumitsu. The answer is this." The raiju glanced toward Takashi. "Last time we met, you did not put up any kind of fight at all. Since you seem to value the life of this girl, however, I decided that she could be used to instigate a battle between the two of us; a proper one, unlike last time's one-sided beating."

The ronin stepped forward boldly, The Greatness still leveled at Hideaki. "There's no need for that. We can settle our differences without the hostage."

"It's entirely possible," the raiju mused. "However, something else vexes me." He looked toward Yuki. "Why are you in an adult form, sister? Do you not remember my warning? Also, what are you doing on the same side as the monster who destroyed our lives?"

The catgirl moved closer to Takashi. "My form doesn't matter, Hideaki. I made a choice, and I'm going to stick by it. That goes for Taka-kun as well."

"Your choice?" the male raiju laughed. "Oh, come now; you don't really expect me to believe that." Hideaki smiled devilishly. "Only someone as selfish and devious as this ronin could have forced you to do such a thing!"

"My sister," Nobumitsu interrupted, doing his best not to simply rush the arrogant demon. "Having one of your own, surely you can understand. Let her go."

Hideaki grinned benignly at the town guardian. "Hm? I don't suppose our situations are that similar, but since I bear you no hostility, why not? After all, I never really meant any harm. It's all good sport between friends, eh?"

The rope suspending Tomoe's body inexplicably began to unravel. The noise from the sliding fibers distracted Takashi for a moment, and that was all that Hideaki needed. The Ikazuchi chain shot out of a building to the left, hurtling straight for the ronin's head. If not for a timely block from Yuki, the weapon would have most assuredly ended the confrontation before it had even begun. Still, the Kamikaze-ken could not effectively deflect the impact of the heavy chain. Yuki's weapon shot out of her grip with a sound like a cymbal crash, spinning through the air and embedding itself in the rotted wood of a nearby structure up to half its length.

Takashi reacted immediately to the sudden attack, placing himself between the fallen Tomoe and Hideaki. The raiju had just begun to recall the Ikazuchi to his wrist when the ronin dashed forward, katana blade aimed for Hideaki's torso. The raiju effortlessly swung his right arm up and to the left, using the force of the Ikazuchi's return to block Takashi's strike.

Grappling intensely with the remaining momentum of the chain, Takashi called out to Nobumitsu. "Take Tomoe and get out of here! Now!"

The town guardian was quick to pick up his sister in both arms, but was hesitant to leave in the face of the enemy. Yuki, who still held her right hand in an attempt to stop the ringing sensation caused by her earlier block, noticed the man's apprehension.

"I know it seems cowardly to run away, especially since your men have fallen," she advised. "However, you have someone important to take care of; we don't know what happened to her while she was with Hideaki. Get her to town as fast as possible; hurry!"

Nobumitsu complied in a trice, barreling toward the woods away from the shrine's main entrance, the weight of his sister not even slowing the giant man down. It was easy to see the truth in Yuki's words, however, it was not so easy to accept their existence. Nobumitsu looked back toward the ronin and the female raiju. Were these not the same two children who had caused the destruction of Old Komo Town? At this point, they seemed nothing like what Nobumitsu had imagined when he was told of their deeds. Fighting to give the guardian a chance at rescuing his sister? That didn't sound like the act of reckless destroyers. In fact, it sounded more like what Taroto had said to him before his departure.

"Believe in their 'good spirit', eh?" Nobumitsu wondered aloud. "Perhaps you were right after all, Taroto-san."

It was just after the town guardian disappeared into the folds of the woodland that Hideaki broke his grapple with Takashi by reversing the Ikazuchi's direction. The ronin attempted to compensate by sliding his katana upward into a notch in the links that would allow him continue the direct power struggle, but Hideaki was two steps ahead. The Ikazuchi changed directions on its own, suddenly wrapping itself around The Greatness and ripping it clean out of Takashi's grasp. The ronin made a dive for the weapon as it thudded into the ground about two feet behind Hideaki, making sure to deliver a sweep to the raiju's legs in order to prevent the inevitable counterattack. Hideaki almost lost his balance, but compensated swiftly by swinging the Ikazuchi in the direction of the ronin's katana. The chain struck the pavement, causing a shower of sparks as it arced toward The Greatness, striking the sword clear of the ground and into the air. Takashi rolled out of his dive and rocketed upward, grasping the spinning katana just in time to defend his backside from a midair swipe by the Ikazuchi. The steel didn't even have time to grind; the direct impact from the massive chain propelled the airborne Takashi backwards and onto the crumbling roof of a nearby structure. Miraculously, the ronin maintained his balance on three limbs just out of the Ikazuchi's striking range both horizontally and vertically.

Hideaki smiled with delight as his chain again wrapped itself around his right arm. "It seems that Anakouji Jeffery's training does indeed deserve some credit, especially if it can give a no-account bum like you even an inkling of true talent."

Takashi shook his head. "Man, it sure does take a lot to impress you, doesn't it?"

Yuki, having finally recovered her sword, leveled the weapon at Hideaki. "Let's see how impressed he is at the prospect of fighting this battle two-on-one."

Raising the sword above her head in the same manner as Wild Card had once shown, Yuki shouted out the incantation that would unleash the weapon's power. "Kamikaze Awa . . ."

The raiju's voice inexplicably trailed off into nothingness just seconds before she suddenly dropped the Kamikaze-ken, pitched forward, and hit the ground with a sharp thud. She attempted to get back up, but the action resulted in strange convulsions that racked the girl's entire body.

Using the newfound distraction, Hideaki leaped forward and launched the Ikazuchi at Takashi bodily. The ronin found it easy to block the strike at that distance, but he couldn't take his eyes off the wildly convulsing catgirl.

"Yuki!" he shouted into the rapidly descending night. "What the hell's the matter! Yuki!"

(End Chapter Twenty-One)