DISCLAIMER: Same as before, I don't owe Love Hina or any of its characters. Blade (Jason) and the other Reapers or mine though.
Okay, I'm back, for a minute anyway. This is this still the "Blade" story but I figured that title might be throwing people off so I'll give this one a try.
Originally I planned on making this and the next chapter one big one. But I'm going on vacation for a week and I figured I'd cut it short then try to combine them now. (Besides I think it flows better this way anyway.)
And same as always sorry for the spelling and grammar.
By Bryant (Blade42)
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Blade sat at the dinning table quietly nibbling his eggs among the normal morning chaos of the Hinatasou. He was keeping to himself trying to avoid any scrutiny about his outing last night, mostly because the topic made him rather squeamish for some unexplainable reason.
" So Blade," Keitaro said bringing up the exact topic Blade was trying to avoid. " How was the excursion last night?"
"Fun, very fun." Blade keeping it short.
" Fun? That's it?" Kitsune said trying to drag a better answer out of Blade.
" Just Fun. And I fail to see how this is any of your business." Blade responded shortly
"Well if your not talking… how was it Shinobu?" Kitsune reasked her question.
" Umm… fun." Shinobu said retreating into the kitchenette escaping the center of the conversation.
" Oh come on, admit it, you didn't have anything better to do." A silky voice said joining the conversation unannounced. The resident's heads whipped around at the intruder with the exception of Blade.
"Hey Spook, you let yourself in again?" He said rolling his head lazily to look at his old comrade. He was dress in a pair of black jeans with a matching black button-down shirt.
" No this is the first time I've ever been here." Spook said, his voice floating thought the room like a light breeze
"Nonetheless, that is a bad habit old buddy." Blade replied.
" I'd say, who is this guy?" Naru questioned angrily.
"This is Sean," Blade answered blandly, kind of annoyed with the situation.
" Sean? OH! Good morning." Shinobu said emerging from the kitchen, now that the coast was clear.
"Morning Shinobu," Spook Replied, "And good morning Ms. Kitsune."
"I'll told you to drop the Ms." Kitsune replied tiredly.
" Maybe." Spook answered with a devious smile. " So who is everybody?"
"Sorry" Blade apologized. " You already know Shinobu and Ms. Kitsune." Blade said as Kitsune growled at him. " This is Su, Naru, Keitaro, and…. Where's Matoko?" Blade asked puzzled that he hadn't seen she leave the table.
" I saw here leave to do her morning practice." Su stated between mouthfuls of her breakfast.
" I take she's the marshal artist I've heard about." Spook said flirting the fact that he knew something about the people here.
" That she is." Blade answered, " Sense Jenn hasn't popped out of one corner or another, I assume that this isn't a social call."
"Nope, have you seen today's paper."? Spook asked flatly.
"No, where is it?" Blade asked looking about for the Hinata's copy.
" I have one." Spook said dropping it in front of Blade. The paper wasn't even opened; the thing had never been read. It sat there perfectly folded as Blade just stared at the front paper.
"We need to talk." Spook said grimly.
"Outside." Blade ordered. Without another word the two young men left the room and walked out the front door. All the residents still at the table blinked momentarily before crowding around the subspitus newspaper. The front page held a picture of the whaling protesters from the day before. All the people in the photo were throwing some form of happy pose at the camera, save one. A single my standing straight and stiff as a statue. If any of the residents had known this man they might have been clued into the danger they where about to face, for that man was 1st lieutenant Seto, former commander of the Reapers.
Matoko stood on the Hinata's balcony practicing her swing, and trying to keep her head clear enough to do it. Something about this new kid was unnerving her for some reason. Come to think of it Blade did the same thing when he first showed up. Something about the whole lot of them was just off. Matoko's train of thought was broken by a loud
"WHAT!" From below her. Matoko looked over the railing to see Blade and Spook, both of them obviously agitated. Matoko started to turn away have given up on getting any practice done but stopped and looked over her shoulder, deciding that she couldn't help herself. Matoko turned around and jumped, landing with a grace that would put a skydiver to shame.
"Calm down sir." Spook said unaffected by Blade's outburst, and offering a cigarette. "Smoke?"
" I quit." Blade answered automatically, as Spook opened the carton with his thumb. " But then again, it's not like there's a point to clean living anymore." Blade countermanded with a half-truth. Although the clean living comment was true, the cancer stick as mostly so that people spying on them would have a much harder time reading their lips. But unknown to them Matoko was pressed against the corner of the building listening to every word they spoke.
" Ok." Blade said breathing out the smoke of his freshly light cigarette. "Give me the idiot's Intel, all the details you know of." Blade finished settling back into old wartime habits.
"Yes sir," Spook said sensing the change in is friend and now superior officer. "Well first we know that General Fumieyo is here in Japan, about a 6 hour drive from here. And he is ready to move soon."
" How soon is soon?" Blade asked wirily, fearing the answer.
" 1am tonight at the latest." Spook said with out a change of emotion.
" Damn." Blade whispered. He looked around the Hinata Springs, already picturing the carnage it was about to endure. Blade glanced over at the windows smiling weakly as the residents tried to duck out of sight.
" And their commander is General Fumieyo as in Maxim's top general and deepest believer in his warped ideals."
" Yup." Spook replied. " Their plans are to assault the capital, and create a new nation were natural selection can take place again. To allow humanity to evolve again."
" I know their basic believes Sean." Blade retorted crossly. "And I also know screwed up they are. I lost one of my brothers to his purges."
" Sorry," Spook continued without a loss of step. He and lost his little sister the same way, but there way no room for grief now.
"Their forces are mostly untrained fanatic conscripts, with 2 battalions of the general's original forces from the Genetics' war although it's close to 4 or 5 if you count the men spread among the conscripts as officers."
"Which one's stayed with him."? Blade asked, just as curious as he was scared.
" The 101st and 24th of the 2nd regiment where disbanded to make officers. Fumieyo keep the 4th and the 17th together." Spook reported
" The Hell's angels and Satin's left hand." Blade whispered the unit's common names.
"In addition," Spook continued. " General Fumieyo has hired several mercenary regiments, all in all a little less that two divisions wroth of combat personnel." He finished
"Combat?" Blade asked looking thoroughly confused to Matoko's surprise leaning around the corner a bit to hear better. For a combat vet he had asked an extremely stupid question.
" Yes Jason combat, they won't have the usual supply train most modern armies do, their going back to the old way of feeding armies." Spook reported a look of low-grade anger on his face.
The old way to feed an army is looting and pillaging, conquering area and stripping it bear of anything valuable, and all the food they could find. Normally leaving the citizens to starve to death.
" If the soldiers are expected to steal and rob for their suppers, they aren't going to keep to civilized curtsies either." Blade reasoned. " Basically people will be murdered and abused, women will be raped, the soldiers will be in control, and it will be total anarchy."
" It's loot loot loot, that make the boys get up and shoot shoot shoot." Spook added, looking out over the city. "We've seen it happen."
"That's why we have to stop it." Blade said determined " It won't be easy."
" When is anything we do easy?" Spook asked rhetorically.
" Good point, well before we jump into this head first wouldn't just happen to know their complete movement plan huh?" Blade asked hopefully
" Some-what, it's pretty simple, their plan is a two front attack on the capital to overwhelm the defense forces, with any luck they hope this phase will be over in less than 48 hours. And that's the reason I'm here. 1 force will make a direct line for Tokyo, the other will have to cross this body of water." Spook said thumbing out at the bay. " It's the only place where the loss of the bridge won't affect the speed of their plan's too much. With the sallow water and lit current it causes, theoretically the enemy could ferry 20,000 men across in about 8 hours." Spook reported again.
" Fuck." Blade said simply. " And too top this all off, the only army units that are going to engaged in the next 48 hours are the 3 or 4 Battalions around Tokyo. Those poor souls are going to be hard pressed to hold prepared defenses with all the support the navy and air force can muster, never mind sallying some support out here." Blade took the finished cigarette out of his mouth and flicked as far away ass he could. "We need a plan."
" Cookie should be able to help with supplies." Spook offered
" That was kind of a given, we don't need weapons, we need soldiers, badly. 40 some-odd warriors cannot hold out against 20,000 enemy personnel. I hate to say it but we're going to have to conscript the forces we need."
" Yes sir." Spook said obviously not liking the decision, but then again he passed up becoming an officer way back when to avoid have to make these kind of decisions in the first place. Besides he more that trusted Blade.
" All right, Spook I need you to get every body down here and brief them, tell Jen to grab a few people and start working on a evacuation plan for the noncombatants. And I think that's it for the moment." Blade finished his orders with a childish uncertainty. "And before you go anywhere, how the hell did you get this information?" Blade asked.
" A combination of, hacking, strong arming, and old friends in unique positions." Spook confessed.
"You're a piece of work old friend." Blade responded shaking his head.
" Maybe Sir, and here." Spook answered handing Blade an unopened pack of cigarettes. " The Shit's really hit the fan."
" Fan?" Blade joked taking the cigarettes thankfully, " We're talking about a dump truck and a turboprop."
" Too true, see ya Blade." Spook agreed, starting to jog down the stairs. As Spook disappeared, Blade unwrapped the carton of smokes, and placed one in his mouth patting his pockets fruitlessly, he hadn't carried a lighter on him sense he stopped smoking in the first place.
Matoko leaned around the corner to assure that the coast was clear. Finding it so she stepped out of shadow of the building, her mind burdened by the knowledge that soon her home would be attacked, her country assaulted and her friends threatened by an oncoming barbarian hoard, and there was very little she could do about it.
Everyone needed to know.
Back in the house, Blade entered though the front door his unlit cigarette still in his mouth. He turned the corner into the dining room to find the table cleared, and everyone pretending to be cleaning in the kitchen, and it was insulting obvious that the only two that had any clue what they where doing was Shinobu and Keitaro.
" Give it up guys, I'm not telling you anything yet." Blade announced, strolling into the crowd.
"Umm, what's that?" Shinobu asked pointing at the cancer stick in Blade's mouth
" A cigarette, and I seem to be lacking a way to light it." Blade commented, his eyes coming to rest on the stove. Which he then used to light the smokable cylinder.
" You shouldn't be smoking those." Kitsune warned him
" So? Considering my profession, I doubt this little thing is going to kill me." Blade shot back, waving the cigarette around to empathize his point.
" Jason please put it out." Shinobu asked Blade, using his Real name and fixing her eyes on him with a begging expression.
" Alright Shinobu, you win." Blade surrendered under her assault, running the nearly unused cigarette under the facet before stamping it out and throwing it away.
"Shame, I haven't had a Marlboro in a long time." Blade commented, turning to leave the room. " I'll be around" He proclaimed over his Shoulder disappearing up the stairs, humming the "Hamster dance" to himself.
As the girls and Keitaro watched Blade vanish up the stairs, Kitsune rubbed her chin thoughtfully.
" I think we're in trouble here everyone." She said.
" Why?" Shinobu sounding out asking the predictable question.
" Because, Blade hasn't smoked sense he came to Japan."
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Ok, well what did you think, please drop me a review. I got nothing last chapter and that pretty much killed all will to right this here.
So please!!!!!!! I don't care if it's praise flames, or as simple as I read it. There are 6.3 billion people on the planet someone has to be reading this!