Disclaimer: Usual stuff. I own mine, they own theirs, bla bla bla. Read.

Schizo 2: Arato Kazuyoshi

Chapter 5: Ushi no Hyaku

A.N. For those who don't know/remember:

Elbow blade A (maybe 50 cm) blade with a perpendicular hilt. Think Talim in Soul Calibur. (Number 2 anyway...)

Shuriken Throwing blades, usually square shaped, with inward curving sides.

M4 Carbine Some sort of machine gun. Featured in Tom's (The Authorized) own fics.

Sai Like a dagger with prongs. Think Rafael (I think) in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Kusari-kama Chain-sickle. It's a sickle with a chain attached to the handle.

A single cry echoed across the plain, piercing through the silence of the early morning. The synchronized kiai of a hundred warriors who called themselves Ushi no Hyaku followed, causing a few random birds to take to flight in the nearby forest.

"I always thought the synchronized war cry was a lot more menacing than random yelling. Gives a sensation of order among the enemy. Feels like they're more than just a random bunch of armed idiots."

"I agree. That's why it is what it is," Kaze answered to Tom's remark.

"Synchronized or not, do you really think the three of us can take on a hundred warriors?" Elin asked, straightening her gi.

"We can certainly take them on, and their numbers have their own disadvantages. A hundred warriors is a very clumsy force to pit against three individuals. Use your speed and agility and their lack of it to your advantage," Kaze responded.

"Doesn't really apply to me..." Tom murmured, waving his M4 Carbine on the right of his head.

The three of them were standing on the slope of the hill that Kaze's house was on. They were positioned a few hundred metres in front of the house, looking down into the valley, where the opposition of a hundred fully armoured and armed samurai faced them.

Elin, the leftmost of the three, was armed with her trusty katana, plus another one she had borrowed from Kaze for the occasion. Her twin elbow blades were attached to her waist as backup, and inside her black gi, she had an array of Kaze's ninja weapons, including shuriken, smoke bombs and small paper pouches filled with pepper and iron filings.

Tom, in the middle, had his favourite M4 Carbine in his hands, with extra clips on a strap going across his chest. On his back he had a pair of semi-automatic shotguns, and a pair of 9mm handguns on his waist. He was also wearing a gi with ninja supplies, which Kaze had made him wear, despite the fact that Tom doubted he'd need them, considering the distance at which most of his enemies would die.

On the right was Kaze himself, with a spear well over 3 metres long as his primary weapon, presently standing upright in the ground, held in his right hand, with a spearhead roughly 30cm in length. He had two katanas strapped to his back, twin sai at his waist, and a kusari-kama reached to his waist at his lower back. His gi, of course, had all the same equipment as Tom and Elin, plus more.

All three had tied up their hair and had a headband across their forehead to stop sweat from going into their eyes.

There was another round of synchronised kiais and the hundred warriors charged forward, now yelling freely.

"Just bear two things in mind," Kaze said as he tilted his spear so he was holding it with both hands. "Mind who you kill, and don't die."

With that, the trio started walking toward the charging army, calmly readying themselves for the battle that was about to occur.

Elin took long breaths, gathering her thoughts, trying not to think of the battle she was about to get into.

Tom was feeling hyper. Adrenaline ran through his veins and he squeezed the gun in his hands, trying to release some of the excess energy that threatened to cloud his mind.

Kaze felt nothing. He cleansed himself of all feelings, reducing his ki to non-existence as he always did before entering battle. It made him invisible to those reading ki patterns. He held on to his spear loosely, and his eyes went blank, seeing all, focusing on nothing.

A few tens of meters before they met the front line, they stopped and spread our sideways, some 10 metres apart.

Tom cocked his Carbine and started firing at the approaching force. At first he simply swept over every target, but he soon noticed that their armour was stronger than he expected, so he had to start firing at individuals until they dropped to the ground.

Elin, meanwhile, waited for the front line to come right up to her, then leaped backward about a metre, letting the front most attackers make their sweep with their swords, then lunged forward, entering the crowd between two of the attackers, cutting their sides with her swords as she went. She was now in the midst of the crowd which had gathered when the front line had stopped, and the ones behind them had bottlenecked, making them easy targets as she swooped between them, moving too quickly for anyone to react before she was out of their range, slashing away as she went.

Kaze brought his spear down on the front most attacker, cutting him in half, then swiped the spear both left and right, cutting a few enemies across the chest, and stopping the rest from coming much closer. One brave individual charged forth, blocking Kaze's swipe. Kaze swung his spear around and hit the attacker smack-dab in the temple with the other, shorter end of his spear. (He was holding it uncentred.) The man collapsed onto the ground, and before he could do anything, Kaze brought down the blade of his spear, finishing him off. Meanwhile, the rest of the samurai had started to form a circle around him, boxing him in. However, when anyone started to approach, he would lash out at that attacker, finishing him off quickly, then swiping around in circles again so no-one else could approach.

Tom's volley came to a sudden stop as his clip ran out, and the attackers rushed forth again. Tom hastily dug a smoke-bomb from his gi and threw it at his feet, taking a few quick leaps away, giving him time to reload and resume firing before the attackers had time to locate him again.

Elin suddenly found that the enemy had discovered her tactic and the attackers now had her surrounded. She sheathed her katanas and threw a smoke-bomb at the ground. She dug out some pepper/metal filing pouches, and threw them in an arc at the enemies before her, blinding most of them, giving her time to grab her elbow blades and resume her previous course of action, swooping between the enemies, now slashing at the with her elbow blades.

Kaze noticed that none of the samurai around him were attacking him anymore, but just waiting for him to make a mistake or to show signs of fatigue. He smirked, and thrust forward with his spear. Before the spear had time to move much, a black portal opened in front of it, and a samurai behind him uttered a death cry. All turned to see Kaze's spear-head sticking out of his chest, coming out of a portal behind the now slumping man. Kaze proceeded to start swinging again, sometimes at enemies close enough, sometimes through portals, at enemies not close enough.

Tom now noticed both the lack of replacement clips and attackers. He discarded the now useless Carbine, not being able to put it in a storage-portal, because Loren with his portal-stone was nowhere nearby. He grabbed the two shotguns strapped to his back and brought them before him, clicking off the safeties, then proceeded to a new set of enemies.

Elin now found that the enemies were becoming too few and far between that she couldn't effectively hide amongst then anymore. She put away her elbow-blades and unsheathed her katana, threw a few shuriken at the opposition, and charged, now indulging in one-on-one combat with various different enemies, moving on to the next one every time she finished with one.

Kaze noted that the attackers now seemed to have little to no intention on attacking left in them. He looked around, then threw his spear to the ground. He reached behind his back and pulled out the kusari-kama. He held the kama in his left hand and lazily twirled the chain with his right. He lashed out with the chain, the weight at the end shooting forward, hitting an enemy 5 metres away in the face. He reeled it in and lashed out again. This time it twirled around a lone attacker's sword. Kaze gave the chain a yank, but the samurai held on to his sword. Kaze kept the chain tight, so the samurai couldn't move his sword. He started reeling the chain in, stepping forward as he went, constantly keeping the chain tight. He twirled around, bringing the chain around his chest, grabbed it with his right hand, then twirled around again, in the opposite direction, so he had the chain around him double, so it could be easily let go. His left hand, the one with the kama, was always free. He made his way toward the samurai, and when he got close enough, he simply stuck the kama into the samurai's neck artery. He released his chain from the samurai's sword, and worked his way toward Tom and Elin.

Tom and Elin now met in the midst of the chaos. Tom's shotguns had run dry and he had switched to his pistols. Elin drew her other katana and the two split up again, Elin heading for close combat, Tom keeping his distance. Elin indulged in combat with a warrior, reading his moves as he made them. She spotted his mistake and struck, stabbing him in the side, where his armour was light. She turned to see three enemies charging at her, swords in varying positions. She waited until the last moment, then collapsed to the right. The attackers sailed past, but suddenly she felt a ripping pain in her side. She looked at it, seeing a deep gash across her ribs. She stood up, holding a katana in her right hand, holding her side with her left.

Tom fired at anyone who came close, reloading his pistols with clips that were attached to his sides. He turned to see one charging at him, and turned to shoot him. He pulled the triggers, but there was no booming sound. "Shit." He dropped out the old clips and reached down to attach new ones, but he wasn't fast enough. The samurai lunged forward and stabbed Tom in his left shoulder, followed immediately by a stab to his right shoulder. He fell backward just as the samurai made the finishing tough by stabbing his throat. Lucky for him he had fallen, for now he only got a hole in his windpipe, as opposed to a severed spine. He fell to the ground, suddenly receiving another stab, this time in his upper thigh. He felt pain tearing through his whole body, and his vision started to blur. He threw one of his knives at the samurai, hitting him with the hilt. It gave him enough time to reload his guns, so he could turn up again and blast his brains out. The samurai keeled over and Tom hastily rolled out from under him, narrowly avoiding being stabbed again by the dead man's blade.

Tom and Elin met up again, now both wounded and slow.

Kaze soon joined them, now armed with his two katanas. The three formed a circle, a blade or a gun pointing in every direction. The remainder of the samurai, of which there were now only about 20, formed a circle around them. The three eyed the samurai menacingly, each with their own wounds from various attackers. The samurai eyed the three menacingly, each with their doubts, yet bound by their honour.

"Are you all right?" Kaze asked Tom and Elin, glaring at the samurai before him.

"I'm fine," Tom answered.

"Getting a bit tired though," Elin finished.

"We'll soon be done. Just make sure you don't die on the last..." Kaze didn't finish his sentence due to the fact that he saw a figure descending from the sky.

Looks like they started the party without us I said as we drifted over the battlefield where the three outmanned defendants were now regrouping.

Yet they seem to have managed well without us.

Even so, we'd better help 'em out.

Indeed. What do you have in mind?

That, I leave to you, for a change.

The large, light purple figure descended to the ground next to the trio, in the middle of the circle of attackers. There was a few seconds pause, before a blue sphere engulfed the four, then expanded, blowing away all the surrounding enemies with one swift stroke.

High up on the hill, far beyond hearing distance, a figure watched in surprise and disbelief as the 2 metre figure of a feline biped with a long, flexible tail shrank down into a human boy in his late teens, then turned to greet Arato and the other two teens.

Nagano quickly turned tail and ran as fast as he could.

"Who asked you to interfere!" Tom said loudly. "I had everything under control."

I flinched at the irony of his exclamation. (Quote from Dragonheart)

"Oh, quit complaining." I said, watching him dump his weapons in a portal.

"I'm glad you're back." Kaze said as I turned to him. "These attacks are getting to be more than the three of us can handle."

"No they're not!" Tom protested.

"Yes they are," Elin said as she examined the cut on her side.

I turned to Elin, seeing her wound. I walked up to her and lifted her arm away from the cut. I put my hand over it, using Mewtwo's recovery abilities to heal it to near perfect shape again. "It'll be fine again in a few days." I said, giving her a smile.

I turned to Tom, seeing him bleeding in a few more spots than Elin. "Got into close combat, did you? That's why I prefer Castor to a gun."

Tom used some of his own psychic power to heal himself, straightening himself out as the hole in his throat sealed up. "Shut up."

"Never mind. So," I turned to Kaze, noticing that he hadn't sustained any damage. Well, what would you expect from someone who has spent their whole lives doing this? "what's the plan?"

"For now, we'll just wait. But right now we need to bury these men. We'll all die from diseases otherwise." Kaze looked at the fields, which used to be green, but were now red from the blood fallen men.

Nagano ripped open the slide-door to Tomori's outdoor bath, where Tomori was sitting in a hot spring, staring blankly across the yard. He was drinking sake from a low-rimmed sake cup, sipping it slowly.

(Again, conversation is in Japanese.)

Nagano stumbled to the spring, bowed and started talking with a wavering voice. "The samurai have been annihilated. Every last one. Arato and the two teenagers killed about 80 per cent of them"

"And the rest?" Tomori asked calmly.

"They... There was... This..."

"There was what." Tomori said slowly.

"A... Creature. It came down from the sky. There was a... an explosion... The remaining samurai were destroyed... Arato, the teens and the creature were unhurt." He took a deep breath: "Then... The creature... It turned into yet another teen. A boy. The boy went up to Arato and the other teens. They were friendly."

"A creature came from the sky, destroyed our troops and turned into a teenager."

"I swear, it-"

"It's just as we were told. It's a shame we can't have these... people working for us." Tomori said, slow and calm as ever.

"What? Didn't we-"

"The samurai were also a test. Of course, had they killed Arato and his happy gang it would have been convenient, but I expected nothing more than this." He took another sip of sake, finishing his cup and refilled it. "Give them a few days. Then send" He paused: "It."

"I...It?" Nagano looked at Tomori with fearful eyes.

"Nagano." Tomori turned to Nagano. Nagano inwardly screamed at the look in Tomori's eyes. "Don't ever make me repeat myself." His glare was so powerful that Nagano felt his sanity's foundations crumbling away. He felt he would go crazy if he didn't get away quickly. Luckily, Tomori turned away, staring into nothingness again. "Now go."

Nagano didn't need to be told twice. He turned, stumbled, clumsily mage his way to the door, got out closed it, leaned against the wall and fought to catch his breath.

I felt the rain trickling on my head and down my gi, its coolness relaxing my troubled mind and washing away the blood from the fields. The bodies had been buried in a mass grave. A wooden cross made from branches marked the spot where 104 dead samurai lay dead. I had done most of the work, considering I was the one with psychic powers, but Tom had helped with his own. The digging had been done telekinetically, and so had the burying. However, the sight of 104 dead bodies floating through the air had freaked me out somewhat.

Kaze's house was on the side of a hill, overlooking a large plain. I sat watching as the rain came down upon the plain, slightly blurring sight of the further areas. The rain was light; more a shower than anything else. I tilted my head back and let the rain wash away the sweat from my face. I took a deep breath and slowly let it out through my nose, looking back at the plain again. I had always loved it when a fog or rain was so thick you could hardly see through it. It made my world smaller.

Simpler.

Behold chapter 5. Took me long enough… Hope ya like it! R&R Please!