Chapter 4

Of Youma and Swords

Senkou and Gekkou were now fending off Youma in the tower corridors putting together the lessons they had learned from their new friends thanks to Hibari's kindness. They were barely at the next door when they saw Fubuki surrounded by several more Youma that wanted to kill her for being defeated by humans, declaring that any halfling is unwilling to be part of a plan for worldwide domination. Taking out those who had threatened their friend, they collected Fubuki and ran off as fast as their legs would carry them.

Mirai and Yagyuu knew they had to return to their teammates for a quick meeting to plan their next move when they spotted Miyabi growing steadily angrier by the minute, slaughtering Youma that stood in her way. Behind them stood Naraku and Kagura who were both shocked that Miyabi wasn't acting like herself as they saw the corpses of several youma lying dead in a pile.

"This is insane," said Naraku, "Miyabi's never acted this way before."

"I agree," replied Kagura, "we better be careful or Miyabi will accidentally cut our hearts out of our chests."

In another room of the Tower, Danzo was struggling to ride a lift up to the next floor when he saw that several Youma were weighing it down causing the weight to be too much. After several attempts he was able to climb to the next floor when he removed the Youma and lightened the load just enough for him to climb up. He raced outside to see that night had fallen. Pressing on to his right, he saw a door that would lead into the next corridor.

As the girls gathered on another floor of the tower they noticed that Miyabi wasn't with them. "I know Miyabi cares about us as family, but she's been acting strangely after she sensed a presence in the slums of Asakusa that seemed almost too familiar to her," said Imu.

"I've felt it also," added Asuka, "whatever it is it doesn't seem very friendly. We need to be cautious and vigilant incase anymore Youma show up."

Kagura nodded. "I did see that Danzo was already moving on after he felled several Youma that got in his way, and he emerged from a portal to another dimension where said that he met someone called Trickster," she said.

"If he's a resident of the Tower of Darkness, then he might give us some clues as to what the hell is going on here," added Homura, her brow furrowing in disgust.

"Yumi, what's your say on the matter?" asked Murakumo.

"If we follow Danzo's footsteps, he may accept our help, if he doesn't call us deadweight," suggested Team Gessen's leader.

"Okaydokes," grinned Ryona, "Let's split up and find Danzo."

Ryobi patted her sisters shoulder. "Right, you heard my sister, let's split up and follow Danzo," she said.

In a nearby chamber, two Youma stood silent and still with two swords that resembled Scimitars. One was had bright bright orange skin, while the other had light blue skin with the blades carrying the respected color of their appearance.

"Look brother! It's been ages but we finally have company!" said the first Youma.

"I see that!" said the second Youma.

Danzo crossed his arms over his chest wondering why they noticed him.

"We must entertain our guest!" said the blue Youma.

"You're right! We have to be gracious hosts!" agreed the orange Youma.

"Er, what should we do?" asked the first.

":how should I know? We need to come up with something!" argued the second.

Danzo sighed loudly and began pacing the room in irritation.

"Brother, our guest is sighing," informed the blue Youma.

"SIGH? What is SIGH?" asked the orange Youma.

"Well a sigh is when-" the blue tried to explain when he saw Danzo snap.

"Enough already! How long are you two gonna keep carrying on like this?" scowled Danzo. Then he approached them.

"In case you didn't get the hint, I'll spell it out. Your GUEST wants to go through, Got it!" he said pointing towards them.

The two youma slowly stood up and Danzo could see that they had no heads on either of their bodies.

"Our job here is to guard this door!" said the orange Youma.

"That's right! We cannot let you pass!" agreed the blue Youma.

They leapt from their perch and landed with a loud crash that shook the whole tower.

The Kunoichi felt all around them as they raced to the source of the sound. When they arrived at the chamber Danzo was in, they saw him tussling with two Youma the looked big and bulky. They had no heads on their bodies and their skin looked very different in appearance. The swords they used were scimitars that had their heads as pommels. When the two Youma charged again one slammed into a wall sending Ryona, who had gotten their first, off balance almost falling to the floor. When Danzo saw her fall he holstered his guns and quickly caught her in his arms, jumped up performing a backflip, and set her down gently on the floor.

"I guess now the odds are in our favor now, you two," smirked Danzo.

"Finally a challenge," said the two Youma.

They charged again at the two unlikely allies. "Here they come!" called Danzo.

"Oh boy, come at me big guys!" cried Ryona gleefully.

Danzo cross slashed the first one on the back sending its brother right at him. With the advantage Ryona opened fire with her hand cannons severely wounding the second youma. They concentrated their gun fire on both firing like true marksmen with relative ease.

"I see you're wild, and raised you some crazy!" Danzo said to Ryona.

"Oh I love me some crazy!" giggled the blonde heterochromic kunoichi.

The two warriors raced to either side as the blue youma lunged at her with his scimitar raised for the kill when Danzo knocked the sword from it's hand, forcing it to its knees. They attacked more ferociously this time, with Ryona enjoying the sound of her guns almost immensely. "Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!" she said excitedly.

Danzo was almost surprised to learn that his new friend was a crazed masochist, but he secretly knew that she was cute and full of energy. A crazed grin split across his face as he fired again more rapidly than before rushing at the two Youma who were staggered and weakened. Suddenly the blue youma went down in a flurry of slashes and gunfire sending his scimitar flying into the air. Now only the red youma remained as he roared in anger calling the blue scimitar to his side. "YOU WILL PAY FOR KILLING MY BROTHER!" he screamed.

"Not if we take you apart piece by painful piece," smirked Danzo.

"Yeah!" agreed Ryona.

They charged again with Ryona firing madly at the Youma as she leapt up and fired a rain of bullets to the ground. Danzo lunged as well managing to find an opening as he exploited it with several slashes all over its body. With a final strike he sent both scimitars flying as they landed behind him as he finished off the Youma with a gunshot. He was about to press on when they asked him to wait.

"We have been waiting a very long time!" said the red scimitar.

"Yes, a very long time!" agreed the blue scimitar.

"For someone stronger than us." continued the red scimitar.

"Someone who can control us." added the blue scmitar.

Danzo slowly approached them as Ryona stood watching with curiosity in her mismatched eyes.

"My name as Arjuna!" announced the first scimitar.

"And my name is Rama!" announced the second, "You can take us with you!"

"We could be a great help to you!" they said in Unison

Danzo pondered for a moment, as Ryona stepped up beside him. "Yeah these two blades can be pretty helpful," she grinned.

"Okay, but on one condition," said Danzo.

"What is it?" asked Arjuna.

"Name it," added Rama.

"NO TALKING." he declared to the two swords.

"Fair enough. As you wish." said the two swords.

"Stand back blondie!" he said to Ryona.

Ryona did as she watched Danzo pick them up and cross them together above his head. As he did so, they began to emit fire and wind from their blades. With careful precision and martial artistry, Danzo began treating them like short swords that wushu warriors from china would perform. He combined them together forming a double saber as circles of fire and wind arced around him. He pulled them apart again as he created more powerful shockwaves. After he was done, Ryona jumped up and down clapping loudly as his sword dance was over. "That was so AWESOME!" she squealed gleefully.

"Indeed, impressive," agreed Rama.

Danzo however, slammed the two pommels of Arjuna and Rama together creating a loud clang. "NO! TALKING!" he reminded them.

The two blades fell silent. "Good." smirked Danzo as Ryona watched him holster the swords into his coat. Then she ran up to him and smiled innocently.

"My name is Ryona," she said in a friendly manner.

"I'm Danzo," he replied as he walked casually away.

"I know I can be energetic, but my sister, Ryobi would like to meet you," she said.

Danzo whirled around to face her. "Tell her I'd like to meet her when the time is right," he called to his new friend.

Ryona felt as if she was being undressed by his eyes. When he turned around, she saw that his sword looked very different from the swords Ikaruga, Yomi, Homura, and Miyabi used. It had a double edged blade that looked to be around his height, with a skull connecting the blade with the ribcage the handle which had a single spike with the crossguard folded in.

In the upper floors of the Tower, Miyabi was walking cautiously with her sword at her side, her eyes darting about in all directions looking for Youma to slay. Her chance had come as she quickly dodged the attacks they threw at her only to be cut down in a single swing. Smirking, Miyabi lunged at another youma decapitating it and tossing several explosives out to explode on contact. More of the Youma surrounded her, but they cut to ribbons, while another batch was sent flying by her abyssal power.

She jumped up onto a spear and gathered her strength kicking another back before performing a multi pronged attack that left it collapsing to the ground. Other Youma proceeded to cut at her but she evaded their scythes and kicked them back before delivering another strike with her blade.

Another small group approached her as she drew from behind her outfit, two ninja bombs and shoved them into their chests, and pushed them to the ground. They exploded immediately as she jumped up swinging her sword, and cut them down as in another swift motion using the spear she was on as a platform.

With an uppercut she sliced another in two from between the legs towards the head swung on the spear handle with her legs and cut down another. Leaping up in the air, she looped about cutting down several more as she landed on one hand, posed like a circus performer on the spear, and cut down more Youma coming for her.

She flipped up and caught herself in midair between two spears, and drew another explosive bomb that would incinerate everything in the room around her. The shockwave sent the Youma back in a crumpled burning heap as the smoke cleared around her. Heaving a sigh of relief, Miyabi turned and walked off to find the source of this madness.

Little did Miyabi realize, that she was being followed by someone whom she knew almost too well. Turning sharply, Miyabi saw that it was Homura. "What do you want?" she demanded angrily.

"Listen Miyabi, I don't what the hell's going on here but-" began Homura.

"I have to find the one who took my mother from me, and now I've lost my father to someone who intends to become a Youma!" she snapped angrily, surprising Homura.

But the leader of the crimson squad drew her six swords and prepared to battle her, only for Miyabi to kick her to the ground that the six blades went flying and clattered to the ground.

"Stay out of this affair!" she hissed, and raced off into the distance leaving Homura badly winded.