Author's Notes: Just so you all know, the reason my updates are so slow is because I'm working on serious projects, stuff I intend to get published or produced. Fanfiction really isn't my top priority right now. I only can squeeze a little bit of time in when I've met all of my other writing goals for the day, which isn't easy let me tell you. There just aren't enough hours in the day.
Rest assured, I will finish everything, but I can't be speedy about it like I used to.
Ronin
Chapter 2 - Beasts o' the East
Danny lay back on his bed wearily. It had been a rough day. Apparently, school being out didn't stop Dash from being a pain in the ass. That guy was nothing but a predator, always trying to victimize whatever he perceived as weaker. Danny recalled a story about a kid who got bullied and beaten all the time until he finally snapped and killed one of the bullies with a knife. He wondered if Dash ever heard any of those stories and if it ever crossed his mind that he might one day cross the wrong person. He should consider himself lucky that Danny hadn't snapped, as he had enough firepower to kill him at least twice over before he even hit the ground.
With a frown, Danny tried to push those thoughts from his mind. He'd had enough bad encounters with the abuse of his powers already. And the temptation to keep misusing them was getting worse every day. He kept hearing that voice in the back of his head telling him that it was a waste to not use his powers in all aspects of his life, and he couldn't tell if it was his own or Plasmius'.
The cell phone on his nightstand pulled Danny out of his thoughts and he lethargically lifted it up and placed it to his ear. "Hello?"
"Danny!" was the urgent response.
"Sam?" That woke him up in a hurry.
"Danny, you really need to get down to the Nasty Burger! Now!" Whatever it was, she sounded panicked. The thought of whatever danger she was in caused a sudden rush of adrenaline and Danny dropped his phone without bothering to hang up before transforming and bolting out of the house at top speed. He had been improving his flight capabilities, which meant he was now able to achieve a maximum speed of 165 miles per hour with only a small sacrifice of mobility. Not that mobility was really needed when you could fly a straight shot to your destination.
It took only about a minute to reach his destination, seeing as the Nasty Burger was only a little more than two miles from his house. But even that short amount of time was too long for his liking. He pulled into a stop forty feet over the parking lot of the nasty burger and his eyes widened at the sight. Two samurai ghosts like the one he had fought yesterday were tearing the place apart. One had a huge creature that looked like one of those Chinese lion statues on a leash.
All the people had left already. Smart. Danny could see them all still running down the streets through his peripheral vision. This made his job a little easier at least. But where the hell was... oh no.
Sam must have been hiding behind the cars, trying to wait for Danny. She wasn't exactly one to back down from a challenge, even if it was a bad idea. But now the ghost... lion... thingy had spotted her. She made a break for it, but the other samurai ghost cut her off.
Not wasting a second, Danny went into a power dive, pulling up at the last second and swooping over Sam's head to smash his shoulder into the samurai ghost's chest. As he pulled himself to a halt, he turned 180 degrees and let loose a massive ectoplasmic blast, nailing the... lion-or-whatever-the-hell-it-was right in the face. "Sorry guys, no pets allowed!" he quipped.
The two samurai began shouting in Japanese and moved in for an attack. "Danny," Sam shouted, "look out!"
Danny dipped down, grabbed Sam around the waist and went intangible, passing the two of them through the asphalt of the parking lot. He'd learned a long time ago when moving through solid objects to trust his instincts about which way was up and how far he'd traveled. They were always right.
He emerged in a small alley about forty feet away and set Sam down. "Stay low," he warned. "I'll be back in a second." With a quick dash out, Danny managed to ambush the three ghosts while they were still trying to figure out where he was hiding. As he flew at them, he charged up an ectoplasmic blast and swung his arm out in a wide arc, intending to pitch his ecto-blast. Instead, it came out as a curved, bladelike arc of energy. It slammed into the two samurai and their pet, knocking them back.
"Since when could I do that?" Danny marveled. His moment of pride was short-lived, when he realized that in his haste he had forgotten the Fenton thermos back in his room.
"Sam? You got your thermos on you?" he asked desperately.
"You forgot yours?" she asked back in disbelief.
Danny soon regretted turning his back on the three ghosts as he felt the cold, non-pain feeling of a blade slashing the flesh of his back followed by the jarring impact of something large slamming into him and knocking him forward. He rolled a few times before running out of momentum and stopping at the mouth of the alley. It felt like his back and ribs were on fire. Then it felt like they were completely destroyed.
Sam kneeled by his side in alarm. "Danny!" She scowled over at the three ghosts who now began charging forward for the killing blow. Sam whipped out her thermos and caught the ghosts in mid-charge. They hadn't been expecting her to pose any threat at all, and so were taken completely off-guard. The beam of blue light trapped them all inside and the cap sealed them in.
With that dealt with, Sam kneeled by Danny again, her face taken over by concern. "Danny?"
Danny slowly and painfully pulled himself up, leaning his shoulder heavily against a wall. "I think... I think I'm gonna be okay," he muttered. "What hit me?"
"One of the ghosts got you in the back with his sword," Sam explained as she walked around to examine his wounds. "Then the fu lion gave you a head butt."
"The what-now?" Did he hear that right?
"Fu lion." Sam's voice took on a mechanical tone as her hands began gently exploring his back, eliciting the occasional wince from Danny. "What I don't get is where it came from. Fu creatures are supposed to be from Chinese legends, not Japanese. And those two ghosts were definitely Japanese."
"To tell you the truth, Sam," Danny strained as he forced himself to stand, "I don't really care right now... I think I need a doctor." He felt his balance decay again and he slid back down the wall as his knees weakened.
"Change back," Sam said gently as she pulled out her cell phone. "We'll just tell everyone that you weren't quick enough getting away." Her voice gave him some comfort. He felt like no matter what, he'd always be able to depend on her. Something told him that was going to be very important very soon.
-x-
Sam didn't like having to leave Danny in the hospital, but at the moment, she didn't have much choice. The cut from the sword wasn't very deep, but the contusions on his back were pretty bad. It was the bruising that had kept him from bleeding too badly, though. The doctors wanted to keep him for another day or two to see if any complications set in, though they remained optimistic.
Sam rubbed her eyes as she sat in her room. She couldn't just sit around and do nothing. Something was going on, and she had to figure out some sort of lead. Four Far Eastern ghosts in three days. What Sam hadn't told Danny was that the three at the Nasty Burger were also looking for him by name. Definitely something going on.
Sam kicked off her boots and set her laptop in front of her as she laid on her stomach on her bed. She decided to start simple and just did a Google search on samurai ghosts. A lot of the results were just what looked to be tourist brochures in Japanese, presumably about haunted places in the country. There were also some ghost stories here and there, and the occasional piece of badly written fanfiction for some cartoon or another. This was getting nowhere fast...
Wait... Sam had begun randomly clicking on links by the time she got to the 7th page of results, and the one she was looking at now had a picture of a painting of the first samurai ghost that Danny had fought, only as a living human.
Sam took a moment to examine the picture. It was indeed a perfect match; same armor, mask, headdress, and sword design. If there was one thing Sam prided herself on, it was her memory. It was part of a short article, but it was all in Japanese Kanji. Babelfish would be useless in translating it. The Japanese characters wouldn't work with the normal interface, and the program translated vocabulary, but not grammar, meaning all but a few sentences would be practically indecipherable. Sam had learned that the hard way when she pushed an article she wanted to use for a Spanish class project through Babelfish and the result ended up looking like a man with a head wound had been playing with a magnetic poetry kit.
Nevertheless, Sam bookmarked the page and decided to start looking for someone who spoke Japanese. There was a chance this could help, and she couldn't pass it by. Maybe Tucker knew somebody online who could help...
She pulled up an instant messenger and checked for FriarTuck. Bingo! Wherever there was an ethernet outlet or wireless zone, Tucker was guaranteed to be online. She quickly punched up a message and started the dialogue.
Tucker, I need a favor.
wats up?
Do you know anybody who speaks Japanese and can translate Kanji?
a couple ppl. y? this have smthng 2 do wit danny and da ghosts you saw 2day?
Yes. I have a webpage I need translated. And will you stop using that retarded AOL speak! It drives me berserk.
sry
er... Sorry.
Anyway, let me check to see if Shiunji's online. He lives in Kyoto, works as a tour guide.
Cool.
Sam only had to wait a minute before another IM window came up. The username read CaffeineSlave.
Hello. This is Shiunji. You are Sam, Tucker's friend, yes?
One of the nice things about talking to people who spoke English as a second language was that even if they hadn't perfected it, they still made an effort to get their spelling and grammar right. Unlike so many lazy American people online who thought it was cute to spell the word "the" as "da."
Yes. I found a webpage I think might be useful for an essay I'm doing, but I can't read Kanji.
Send me the link, and I'll take a look.
Sam typed in the url and waited to hear Shiunji's response. It wasn't a very long article, so it shouldn't take him long to get through it.
Hmm... Might take time to translate. My English still needs work.
Let me know as soon as you get it, okay?
Alright. I'll send you a text file when I finish.
Thanks.
You're welcome.
Now all Sam could do was sit back and wait. Hopefully this would provide some kind of clue as to what was going on. It often frustrated Sam how little she was able to help Danny sometimes. It's not like it was her fault. A mere mortal going up against ghosts was generally a bad idea. But she had to at least do something.
-x-
The next day, Danny was released early from the hospital. His mother came to pick him up in the Fenton RV. He had recently developed an accelerated healing factor, which meant he had pulled a miraculous recovery overnight. The doctors were perplexed, but as long as he was in good enough condition to safely leave, they couldn't keep him.
"Honey?" Maddie asked her son with deep concern as the left the hospital. "Are you sure you're okay?"
"I'm fine, Mom," Danny assured her. "The doctor just doesn't want me to do any heavy lifting for a few days until the bruises clear up."
Maddie gently hugged her son. "Your father and I are sorry that we couldn't make it in time to help you and Sam."
"It's okay, Mom." It was moments like this when the maternal instincts overrode his mother's passion for ghost hunting. Danny really couldn't blame her for it. He knew enough to understand how powerful a connection any parent should have with their own flesh and blood.
"Something about this seems very strange, though," Maddie thought aloud. "I didn't know you were out with Sam today."
"Uh... it was kind of a spur of the moment... sorta thing," Danny lied quickly.
His mother shrugged it off as she climbed into the RV and started the engine. "And then there's this Invis... Danny Phantom character. People at the Nasty Burger said the ghosts were looking for him personally."
Danny had to wonder about this himself. Why would ghosts that can't speak English be looking for him? It seemed that finding him was their only objective.
He felt his cell phone vibrate in his pocket and he checked the caller ID to see Sam's name on the display. He flipped it open and spared a glance at his mother. "Sam?"
"Danny," came her response. "Listen, I think I've found something that can help. How are you doing now?"
"I'm on my way home," he answered. "The doctors said I was well enough to be released early."
Sam obviously had more to say, but realized this wasn't the best time. "I'll be over to your house within the hour. Tell Tucker to come over as well. You guys need to see this."
Danny smiled slightly. Just like he had been musing last night, he could always count on Sam. "I'll see you then. Later." As he folded up and pocketed his phone, he caught his mother smiling at him. "What?"
"The way Sam looks out for you. It's sweet." Oh geese. Danny had a good feeling he knew where this was going.
His face warmed up and he looked out the window. "Well, we've known each other for years."
"I know," Maddie replied in a tone that suggested she was implying other things. "It's just really touching how close you two are."
"We're not a couple," Danny blurted out. Damn it! And he'd been getting better at this, too.
"I didn't say you were," Maddie said in a very singsong voice. "Was that perhaps a Freudian slip of some sort?"
Danny decided to keep his mouth shut for a while. If he didn't talk, maybe he wouldn't dig himself in any deeper.
"Danny," his mother spoke up, suddenly very serious, "I know you probably don't feel very comfortable talking to me about this... but I think there really is something magical between you and Sam." She placed a hand over her son's knee and smiled softly as they came to a red light. "Don't let it slip through your fingers while you still have the chance."
Danny looked at his mother from the corner of his eye, his mind mulling over everything she just said. He didn't say anything. He just nodded as he came to realize she was right.
An hour later found Danny, Sam, and Tucker sitting around in Danny's room. Sam was holding a piece of paper folded up into quarters. "Okay, Tucker's friend got the article translated for me, and it's not much, but it's definitely a clue."
Sam unfolded the paper and began reading through the highlighted paragraphs. "'The Order of the Crimson Ghosts was a small clan of mercenaries believed to have started in the Iga province circa 1500 AD. During the military campaign of Oda Nobunaga, the Koga and Iga provinces were known as the greatest threat to the general's conquest of Japan. These provinces were the birthplace of Ninjutsu, the art of stealth, and the clans that lived there started the tradition of guerilla soldiers known today as Ninja. During Nobunaga's campaign, he raised the entire Iga province as a cautionary move. Other generals saw opportunity however, and this is where the Crimson Ghosts come in.
"'The Crimson Ghosts were a small group and used particularly rigorous training. At the word of Nobunaga's march on the Iga province, the departed to the Koga province and waited there for a new opportunity to present itself. Tokugawa Ieyasu decided to exploit the skills of the guerilla warriors and Koga ninjas soon found themselves in his employ.
"'The leader of the the Crimson Ghosts was a man known only as Kagyaku. He was a brilliant strategist and a formidable warrior in his own right. It was his decision for the clan to wear the demon headdresses that became their trademark. Many stories have been told of their skills, often exaggerated to a supernatural level.
"Here's the really important part, guys. 'In 1605, Kagyaku was at last captured in Kyoto during an attempted assassination in which he planned to double-cross Tokugawa. The greatest precautions were taken to prevent his escape until he was sentenced to death by being boiled alive as a traitor to Japan. As the fires were lit and Kagyaku was lowered into the cauldron up to his neck, he swore to return again one day. He cursed the warlords for tyrannically trying to unite Japan, and vowed to sunder the whole world as vengeance.'" Sam pulled out a sheet of paper that had a picture of a warrior in the same outfit and headdress of the first samurai ghost he'd fought. "I think this all has something to do with the Crimson Ghosts and Kagyaku."
"So let me see if I got this straight," Tucker piped up. "An assassin decides to settle his differences with his boss by screwing us all over?"
"That's about the size of it," Sam answered.
Danny analyzed the picture for a moment and thought about what Sam had just told them. "But what does he want with me. Why does he want me dead? Well... deader... all-dead... whatever."
"I haven't figured that part out yet," Sam sighed in resignation. "Now that we've got one lead, though, I can do more research."
Danny glanced out the window and saw the sun sinking beneath the horizon. "You guys better get going."
Tucker glanced at his PDA. "Yeah. My curfew is in an hour. I gotta get moving. Let me know as soon as you guys get anything else." With a quick wave, he was off.
"See ya, Danny," Sam said as she stretched out. "If I find anything, you'll be the first to know."
As she started toward the door, Danny decided it was time for him to take his mother's advice and be a little more proactive. He needed to sort out his feelings, and trying to maintain space between him and Sam hadn't worked so far. "Hey, Sam?"
She stopped and looked at him expectantly.
"Can I... Can I walk you home?"
-x-
Author's Notes: Okay, I'm sinking more time than usual into my writing as of late. By setting specific goals (write at least two scenes today in Script X, finish one more page of short story Y) I'm able to more effectively set my pace. Expect a few more updates in the next couple of weeks.
On a side note, I won't be able to give personal responses to my reviewers for a while. For some reason, has decided to make it a violation of the rules to do so. I've already signed a petition to have this repealed as I honestly can't see any good reason for it. It's one of the things that allow this place to be a real writing community. If you want to help out, send in a few letters of complaint to the administrators. With any luck, we can get rid of this arbitrary rule.