Episode 1: The Black Flower – Part 3
The group of white clad ninjas stepped into the alleyway, closing it off. Ethan tried to shove Kaitlin back behind him, but she pushed back. "What is going on?" she demanded.
"I said danger – get back."
"No freaking way."
Jess stepped forward, spinning her kama into a battle stance. "Are you crazy?" She asked Kaitlin accusingly, "These guys are ninjas – you don't stand a change against them."
Kaitlin swung her ice skate up by the laces, "You haven't seen me skate."
A figure near the front stepped ahead of the others and stared the four down. The ninjas eyes were dark black, their skin ivory, a scar running across the bridge of their nose. They spoke, voice muffled, "We heard you would come, Hamato mutts." The voice was tinged with a Japanese accent.
"Why do I have a feeling that you already saw us." Ethan snarled, pulling his naginata from its holster and giving it a quick, deadly spin to show how serious he felt. The anxiety he usually felt from battles he calmed quickly, letting the cool of the air brush through his fur, chilling him inside and outside.
The figure spoke again, "Because we already did. And we know why you've come for the girl," they stepped even closer down the alleyway, "And that is why we've come." With a flash a blade whirled from the sash on their side.
"Just stay out of the way then," Jess snapped and with a flash of lightening, the white Shinotomo ninjas rocketed forward, leaning down, weapons bared. Before Ethan's naginata met the enemy, an ice skate flew past his head, throwing water droplets across his face. He skidded to a halt as the skate made contact with the face of one of the ninjas and they slammed into the ground with a grunt and went still, the skate skitting across the muddy ground.
But Ethan had made a mistake.
The one with the scar who led the others flipped into the air, throwing her weight over him and suddenly he was seeing stars, the ninjas foot connecting with his nose and he fell to his knee.
She was quick – accurate – deadly.
But Ethan was used to dealing with that.
With a whirl of his naginata he jumped back to his feet.
The scarred figure was already occupied, dancing around Jess' kama strikes. She was petit, smaller than Jess, and moved past blades like water past rock.
The other two figures were almost on them, ignoring their fallen comrade.
"Stay close," Ethan snapped to Kaitlin, holding his weapon out, ready to receive the enemy. One of them didn't make it. Kaela threw herself in front of the two, her ribbon dart slamming into the skull of one of the ninjas as they crumpled. The final one moved unflinchingly forward, ducking past Kaela, nearly getting whipped by her long black, snake-like tail. A blade cut across the top of the naginata's metal tip, making it a ringing sound that echoed in the alleyway. Before the blade of the ninja could trail up the wood to Ethan's face he flung his naginata with as much power as his hip could deliver, knocking the white clad figure out of its momentum and throwing them to the side.
They recovered, but by the time they had planted their feet solidly again, Ethan had pounced, his shoulder hitting them and throwing them backward onto their back with a slam. Before they could right themselves again, Ethan slammed the butt of his weapon into their shoulder trigger point and they froze up, eyes bulging from pain and then closing.
"Dang, you guys are cute and good fighters?"
Ethan ignored Kaitlin's comment and turned.
Jess was flung like a doll across the alleyway length and her back connected with the damp, moldy wood of the building. She rolled to the ground groaning.
The figure with the scar raised their blade above their head, ready to bring it down.
"KAELA!"
She was already on it.
With a quick lash of her wrist, the blue ribbon soared through the air and wrapped around the leaders hand and with a tug she was thrown out of the way. But unlike her cronies, she did not fall to the ground. Instead, she flipped, following Kaela's momentum to keep her footing and then with a quick, precise slice of her glittering blade, the ribbon dart snapped.
Kaela stumbled backward with a gasp.
Ethan tucked his hand into his pocket and chucked a handful of black steel shurikans.
The leader darted out of the way, the shurikans pinging off of the concrete uselessly.
"It would seem I underestimated you," The ninja said, crouching low, voice still muffled by the cloth over their face, disguising their features. "Bloodmaw made it sound like you whelps were weaklings."
"That's weird, considering we've beaten him more times than I can count on my fingers," Ethan snarled back, his hands gripping his weapon tightly, his breath coming out evenly. He couldn't help but smile; they had improved.
The ninja's eyes narrowed, her blade had a thin stain of red across its side.
From the corner of Ethan's eye, he could see Jess straightening, grabbing her kama and gritting her pointed teeth, clutching her side with her hand, red staining her fingers. He could feel Kaela close behind him, holding what was left of her dart in her hand.
"You may have taken these fools down," the leader hissed under their breath, their words as sharp as their dagger, "But I won't be stopped so easily."
"Then it's three against one!" Kaela said confidently from behind Ethan, her dart gripped in her hand, the blue trailing down her black, furry arm like a trail of water.
Then ninja glanced behind her. Jess was ready again, both of her kamas in attack position, crouching low, glaring. They then looked back at Ethan and Kaela. She crouched lower.
"And if they don't take you out, then I'm gonna bash your head in with my other ice skate and then call the police to pick up your unconscious butt and bring you to jail!" Kaitlin emerged from behind a stack of old wooden crates.
The ninja stared down Kaitlin. "Another time then." They said it quietly, calmly, but their eyes were burning embers.
With a leap, a blast of gray smoke billowed through the alleyway.
With a chorus of coughing, Ethan lunged, striking where the ninja had been, but they were already gone.
"Ninja's actually throw smoke pellets?" Kaitlin coughed, "You guys are like, straight out of an anime."
Ethan couldn't agree more, but he didn't say so.
"So, are you going to trust us now?" Jess snapped, holding her side again.
Kaitlin leaned down and picked up the one ice skate that she had chucked next to the crumpled figure of one of the white ninjas. "Yeah," she said, "I definitely believe you. And this was way cooler than what I'm learning at school." She brushed the edge of the blade off with her fingers gently and then grinned back at Jess. "You guys said you needed my help," she said, "I'm in."
Ethan smiled. "Good."
Kaitlin had boiled mugicha for all of them on the stove and even served it into small cups that she had in her backpack along with a pile of textbooks, some entirely in Japanese. She sat cross-legged on the tatami mat while rain pattered the window outside and slurped her warm, barley drink quietly.
Kaela sat behind Jess on a chair and slung white bandages around her middle where the leader had managed to cut her and bit the edge of the bandage with her sharp, feline teeth to cut it and tie it off. Next to her sat her sad ribbon dart that had taken the most damage during the fight.
Sitting across from Kaitlin, Ethan grabbed a steaming cup from where she had left them and took a long swig. He nearly spit it back up. "Blegh," He said, "This tastes like someone crushed up cigarette butts into water."
"But its so authentic!" Kaitlin said it like a fangirl geeking out over merchandise.
Ethan raised an eyebrow and then ventured another drink. Shuddering he set his cup back down. "So, the help we were talking about before," he began and Kaitlin glanced up from her cup like an excited puppy. "This is gonna sound crazy—"
"Crazy is watching a humanoid Red Panda, Black Cat, and White Wolf fighting a bunch of ninjas in a back alley of Japan," Kaitlin interjected.
"Right – well, we all woke up in a New York backstreet a couple of years ago and have no idea where we came from or how we got there."
Kaitlin nodded over her cup, pursing her lips. "Yeah, that also is crazy."
Jess grunted and stood up, patting Kaela on the shoulder gently and sat next to Ethan, grabbing Ethan's half full cup of mugicha.
Kaela picked up her ribbon dart with a frown and began working to untie the rest of the limp, short blue silk from the dart.
Ethan continued, "We've been told by a crazy Japanese witch lady that we are actually her children and that we lived in Japan a long, long time ago. Like thousands of years or something and that somehow we were brought to modern New York. We wanna know if that is – y'know – true."
Kaitlin placed her empty cup on the tatami floor, "So, where do we start?"
Jess put the cup back down after it touched her lips and clapped her lips together, grimacing.
"A few places. The name of this witch is Kitsune. Finding something about her would be useful. That, and the Foot Clan, Hamato Clan, and Shinotomo Clan."
"Ooo, I got lots of stuff on them," Kaitlin said, ruffling through her bookbag. "After school tomorrow I can show you guys some stuff."
Kaela, Jess, and Ethan exchanged glances. "I dunno if you can go back to school." Kaela said gently, her dart now free from the blue ribbon which sat on the floor.
"Um, that isn't an option. I have to go to school."
"Look, the Shinotomo clan was who attacked us in the alleyway. The leader of the Japanese group is named Kurohana. She knows we are around now with that last person going to report to her. She'll be out to get you," Ethan said.
"What if you guys just come live at my place then? This place is kind of a dump anyway. Then I'll have more protection!"
"We could escort her back and forth from school," Kaela offered.
Ethan liked the idea of a heated, dry, decorated apartment.
Kaitlin watched them eagerly and Jess shrugged, "I'm cool with whatever you choose, Ethan."
"Alright, deal."
"Awesome," Kaitlin grinned, "Let's head over now! This place is creepy."
It didn't take long for Ethan, Jess, and Kaela to gather what they had brought with them. Kaitlin glanced at the blue ribbon on the floor. "What did you do that for?" She asked. "Can't you just retie it?"
"Retying it weakens the silk and makes it really easy to cut," Kaela explained picking up the blue trail sadly, "I brought extra so I'll just have to retie it."
As they packed up Ethan couldn't help but think about the ribbon dart. He had seen Kaela retie it several times before when an opponent had managed the expert cut that went through silk. For some reason, this retie felt different to Ethan. He couldn't help but feel like other threads in his life were about to be retied – and wondered if that was what he wanted after all.