Hebijo Academy
As Rin was expecting from her students, she's now the only one remaining in the building of Hebijo Clandestine Academy. Only a few minutes were needed to empty the building.
Now, she's walking in the endless school corridors, wearing her shinobi dress and weaponed, ready to counter any surprise attack.
But it's already been several minutes, and she hasn't felt any presence. But she's sure the enemy is there, waiting for the best moment to strike.
Rin is wary, she knows mister Uchineko isn't its only victim, and to be able to infiltrate Hebijo, one of the best watched place of the shinobi world, and murder in it without being noticed, it must be a very skilled person.
Rin does her best not to think about, because the more she does, the less she believes in her victory.
Then, it happens…
Crack
"Huh?"
Rin reacts, surprised by a sudden noise coming from two or three meters behind her.
She turns back, still in guard, but doesn't see anything, or almost…"
She starts, noticing something on the wall.
"... A crack?"
She ends, astonished, but keeping a distance.
Then, the crack starts to move, under the shocked eyes of Rin.
"What the…"
Rin asks herself, looking the crack moving like a centipede, before closing itself and vanishing.
Rin is frozen, wondering if it was the assassin, and more important, if it was a human being.
But before noticing that, she also dropped her guard… And someone is going to use this rare opportunity.
Crack
"What?!
Rin screams, noticing a cracks-made circle that just appeared at her feet, but this one is different… Because Rin feel something threatening in it.
She jumps to get out of the circle, a split second later, the ground breaks under the shocked eyes of the teacher.
A giant wolf-trap just get out of the ground by closing, the shock seems violent enough to cut someone in half.
Crack
Rin is on her guard, two other cracks are forming on both of her sides. This time, the cracks take way more complex forms.
The first looks like a giant crab claw, the other one looks like an ant lion head.
Like the former one, the cracks materialize themselves and get out of the walls, but Rin's seen it coming and manage to counter the two by blocking them not that easily with her dual shuriken fûma.
Rin steps back, and right after, the two materialized entities disappear.
"That shinobi cannot keep her creation alive too long… I must use this weakness…"
Rin thinks, ready to welcome the next attack.
But…
"KYAA!"
Rin is pinned down but a massive thing.
She managed to see it's a gorilla's arm, coming from the ceiling. The murderer probably used the noise of Rin struggling with the former creations to hide the crack noise.
Like the former ones, the arm quickly vanishes, but Rin knows she has no time to take a breath.
Crack
Another crack just appeared right in front of her, it's a tiger ready to land a claw strike.
The beast appears by destroying the wall, but it's not enough to get Rin who slash it in a single graceful movement.
"If you want to defeat me, you'll need more than it."
Rin says confidently.
Silence reigns over for long seconds, then…
Crack
A new crack can be heard, a little farer than the formers ones.
Rin turns back in the noise direction, and is now facing a rather strange scene.
The crack has taken the form of a human, a rough made, but obviously a female one.
The face of this form is very simple, two little cracks for the eyes, and nothing else.
Rin is on her guards, but the thing in front of her doesn't react at all.
"Who are you?"
Rin asks, still ready to defend herself.
No reaction first, then…
Crack
Another crack, way less noisy, actually, Rin barely heard it.
It comes from the wall where the figure is, and a crack is appearing on her face.
It takes the form of a circular arc at the mouth place, the crack's size is increasing more and more, turning into a malicious smile.
"Tsk…"
Rin is irritated, she charges at flash speed to the crack and destroy the wall in a single hit without getting any reaction of her.
But the teacher was reckless a second time.
Octopus' tentacles just went out the ground and caught Rin's arms and legs, making her unable to move.
"Damn!"
She yells, struggling to free herself, when a noise makes the situation even worse.
Crack
Another attack is coming, from behind Rin.
The evil shinobi turns her head enough to a giant crossbow, ready to shot.
Rin is struggling even harder, starting to panic a little.
Then, the war machine shots…
"Don't believe you're gonna win!"
Rin thinks, putting her entire force in her pelvis, where the giant bolt is going to hit her.
She barely manages to avoid it, actually, her left flank is pretty deeply cut, but it's not enough to make Rin falls.
The tentacles vanish, Rin is now free, but not reassured.
I can't continue like this, my attacks can't reach her, and she's weakening me, slowly, but surely…"
Rin admits to herself, her hand on her blooding flank.
She's till on her guards, but also using this short peaceful moment to think about a way to defeat her opponent.
Rin needs to find the assaulter, but she can't feel her presence, proof she's a master in that field.
She also thinks about unleashing her entire power to annihilate everything around her, but she's not sure to kill her in the process and that would make the building collapse, so, it could actually end as her killing herself instead of her enemy.
Then Rin finds the solution...
She's now preparing herself for the next attack…
Crack
Without even trying to know where it comes from, Rin acts.
"Shinobi Barrier!"
She yells, creating a giant barrier, way wider than she usually makes.
But her plan has worked, the shinobi is trapped with her inside the barrier, even if she's still hidden in the wall.
"I must end it as fast as possible, this barrier is hard to maintain…"
Rin thinks, she notices her opponent seems panicked, cracks are appearing everywhere as if she wanted to beat Rin quickly.
But Rin has the edge now…
"Ultimate Scret Ninja Art, Absolute Void: Rapid Slash!"
Rin yells, using her most powerful attack.
She charges and destroys everything in her way for around thirty seconds, reducing the scene of her shinobi barrier into piles of rubble and making any assault from her enemy impossible.
However, she couldn't find her, even worse, she's now exhausted, so, she won't be able to keep her barrier any longer.
She's focusing on her environment, hoping she's going to find where she's hidding.
And…
"Found you!"
Rin thinks, she just heard a soft noise from one of the numerous pile of rubble.
She throws her giant shuriken in its direction, destroying it… And revealing a shinobi trying to hide in the floor.
She knew she's exposed, so, she does her best entering the floor as fast as possible…
"Too late…"
But speed isn't her strong point, unlike Rin…
In a single merciless movement, Rin stabs the assaulter's torso with one of her shuriken, immediately killing her.
Once death, the part of her body already hidden get out the floor automatically, putting an end to the fight.
But something has caught Rin's attention…
The woman looks young, barely older than her students, which means she's probably a recently graduated one.
And one her shinobi suit, there is an emblem looking like a hornet, which immediately identity the organization behind that attack.
"Hachi Academy's symbol? I knew it…"
Rin says, deactivating her shinobi barrier.
Rin looks a little closer to her opponent's face, and notice another strange element…
It doesn't show any emotion, no terror, no hatred, no sorrow… As if she was already dead before fighting.
"Could it be… A mind control art?"
Rin asks herself.
The young woman has a very bad feeling, and feels even more worried about what could happen to her students, and her former ones.
But the assault on Hachi has already begun without a doubt, and even if the school went to a war right now, they wouldn't be able to arrive soon enough to help them.
Rin sighs, all she can do now is explaining the situation to the others, who should be waiting outside.
"Miyabi… I'm counting on you…"
She also closes her enemy's eyes, she was a though opponent so, she deserves respect in Rin's point of view.