Still Waters Another Turn, Chapter 17
123456
Here I Go, Playing The Star Again.
123456
Language and violence warning!
123456
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A young girl wandered around on the third floor office area of a certain warehouse. With dark red hair and expressive eyes, anyone could tell she would grow into an attractive young lady.
The man guarding the door grinned at her as she approached, and fished a pack of gum from his pocket. "Hey, ojou. Want some gum?"
The little girl smiled winningly. "Thank you, Akihiko-kun," she said graciously as she took the piece of gum the man offered. She sat down beside his chair and leaned against the wall as she chewed it. "Are they being nice to you?"
Akihiko looked confused for a moment. "The girls in there? Yeah. They've been talking to each other constantly the past few days, but that's about it. Why do you ask?"
"Because," the ten year old girl said as she stood up, put her hands on her hips and puffed her chest out, "They're not allowed to be mean to you! Only me an' Hiro-nii can do that. If they pick on you, just let me know, and I'll teach 'em a lesson!"
Akihiko grinned at that. The girl was just like her mother. It was a shame her mother wasn't around to see her now. Kagami-chan was second in line to run this group; if something happened to her brother Hiroaki, who was only just out of his teens, she would lead. Her mother and father had both been victims of a rogue faction of the Saga Group. It had almost erupted into war until the younger Saga, Saga Jin, had been brought in from Hokkaido. The man had promptly rooted out those responsible and sent their heads to the Mochizuki Group, averting much bloodshed and cementing the two groups as firm allies. Jin-san had gone back to Hokkaido after that, but Akihiko had heard rumors that he had returned recently. If something had gone wrong badly enough to bring in the Hokkaido Gunman, as he was called, something big was about to happen, and he had a feeling it had something to do with those girls locked in the storage room.
"Ojou, why don't you go visit the boss? I'm sure he'd like to see you."
Kagami-chan looked seriously at the older man. "What's wrong Akihiko-kun?"
"…there's a smell in the air tonight that I don't like. Call it a hunch, but…I think it would be for the best if you were with your brother right now."
"A hunch, huh? Ok, I'll go. But remember what I said! If those mean girls pick on you…"
Akihiko grinned and raised his hands. "I know; come get you, right?"
"Right!"
"Ok ojou. Go and play with the boss, I'm sure he'd like the company."
"Ok!" the girl said as she scampered off.
Akihiko stood up and checked his guns and his blade. He didn't think he'd need them, but…like he had told Kagami-chan, it felt as though there were something in the air tonight, and he preferred to be safe, rather than sorry.
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Kaede approached the warehouse stealthily and peeked through one of the dirty windows. Amongst the stacks of crates, four men in rumpled suits stood around a table, talking and looking at papers. She motioned at Misora and Cocone, and they came to her position quickly.
"How is it?" Misora whispered.
"Four inside, de gozaru. There will be others, so be careful. Do you remember your roles?"
Misora and Cocone flashed a dual thumbs-up, and Kaede's perpetual grin widened. She led them around the building to a side door, whose lock she picked. She took a quick look through the door's window, but could see nothing but crates. The lack of a clear line of sight bothered her, but there was no going back; she opened the door and slipped inside.
Cocone followed Kaede, and Misora was the last one in. She tried to pull the door shut, but it must have been sagging because the upper corner smacked into the doorframe loudly, drawing a startled shout from somewhere deeper into the warehouse. There wasn't even time for the three girls to get to cover before three yakuza ran around a stack of crates. One of them started shouting.
"Intruders! Hit the alarm! We have three—oof." The man was cut off midway as Kaede's knee impacted his stomach. Kaede whipped around and took the second man on the chin with her elbow before the first had even fallen, and then kicked the third man in the face as she spun, building on the momentum of the elbow strike, effectively silencing all three in the space of two seconds. It wasn't enough to stop the alarm, however, which started blaring through the building almost immediately. People were shouting and yakuza started swarming around the crates, so Kaede turned to Misora and Cocone. "Check the offices. If I don't find them down here, I'll be right up, de gozaru."
Misora nodded as she looked around, trying to find the offices.
Kaede turned to face the incoming yakuza and heard a quick "Adeat" followed by an "I'll go on ahead" from Misora, who grabbed Cocone and was through a door on the other side of the room in an instant.
The ninja girl, now surrounded by a dozen yakuza, give or take a few, stepped into the middle of the open space and grinned. "What are you waiting for, an invitation?" she asked.
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Misora shut the door behind her, careful to avoid slamming it, and heaved a sigh of relief as she leaned against the wall beside it. "Whew, that was bad, eh Cocone?"
A door down the hall creaked as somehow started to open it, so Misora grabbed the shorter girl before she could respond and used her artifact to dart down the hallway and up the stairs on the other end to the third floor.
"Hey, what was that?!" someone shouted below as she opened the door and entered the third floor.
"That sure was close, wasn't it?" Misora asked. She grinned at Cocone when the girl tugged her sleeve.
"Misora, look."
"Huh? What is…it…ah crap…" Before them in the hallway stood five tough looking yakuza. "Ah…"
One important looking man strolled up, hands in his pockets, easily taking on that casual 'I'd kill you so much as look at you' look that so many street punks tried and failed to emulate. "Who are you?" he asked roughly.
Misora gulped. She could see part of a tattoo peeking up over the collar of the man's shirt. Yep, real yakuza, all right. Crap.
"We are just passing nuns, looking for a place to stay out of the rain?"
The man cocked an eyebrow; his expression stated clearly that he didn't believe her.
"It's true! Right Cocone?"
The shorter girl posed dramatically and gave a thumbs up. "Yes!" she said in horrible, heavily accented English.
"Yeah…" another yakuza said.
"Put 'em in with the others," the important looking man finally said. "I'll tell the boss. Be quick about it, Hideki, Goro. The rest of you too, make sure they don't escape."
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Kaede slipped a punch, dodged the next, and caught the next, which she twisted into a hammerlock as she pulled the man in front of her to stop his ally from firing his gun. She shoved the captive man into the gunman and kicked another man coming in from the side flush on the chin. He staggered a few steps and collapsed, but she was already disarming another man who carried a knife, and then there was a sudden explosion of smoke, and four Kaedes burst through it and started to fight the remaining yakuza while the real Kaede stuck to the shadows and made her way across the room to the door Misora and Cocone had disappeared into.
The door opened on an L shaped hallway, with the door being on the bottom of the L. A man was milling around in the hallway, apparently confused. He held a gun, but seemed to regard it as something that might bite him if he took his eyes away. Kaede stepped back into the shadows in the unlit lower end of the hallway and waited as he walked toward the door. When he paused with his hand on the doorknob, she came out of hiding and clamped an arm around his neck, dragging him kicking and gasping for air back behind some boxes, where she bound and gagged him.
The only warning she got for what happened next was the bound man's surprised expression as he looked at something behind her.
Kaede rolled to the right, barely avoiding the vicious knife thrust that would have taken her in the shoulder. She came up with a kunai in each hand and faced the attacker. He was an older man, probably in his mid thirties; slightly graying hair, an amused gleam in his eyes, and a horrible, twisted mess of scar tissue across his neck the front of his neck. He moved with the grace of a dancer as the two circled, trying to get an advantage. After several feints from both sides, he made a gravelly sound that she realized after a moment was laughter, and grinned at her.
"A worthy opponent, de gozaru," Kaede said, her own grin widening as the man nodded. She feinted…no response. Again, no response. He feinted, then rushed forward in almost the same moment, taking her off guard. Her kunai went flying and his knife skittered off across the floor as each struck the other's knife hand. He grabbed her left arm in an attempt at a throw, but she grabbed his other arm, blocking it. They struggled for a moment in silence, and sweat beaded on both fighters' foreheads as each tried to overpower or overbalance the other.
They circled again, arms locked, and Kaede bumped into a box, knocking her off balance. The scarred man took advantage immediately, bearing down on her in an attempt to drive her to the floor. Kaede fought back, and then abruptly went limp, falling back and rolling, throwing the man into the wall behind her with a heavy thud. She was up again in an instant and kicked him in the chin, stunning him. She wasted no time and had the man bound and gagged in seconds.
Kaede stood up and headed for the stairs to the second floor but stopped her advance when three more yakuza came out of an office at the end of the hallway. They stopped dead when they saw her. Kaede, for her part, grimaced and would have cursed under her breath if she hadn't been so good natured.
The leader, upon being urged by the other two, took a step forward. "Don't move!" he said, raising a pistol.
Kaede sighed. Every time…every time this sort of thing happened. She casually raised her right hand and produced a kunai from nowhere. The three men looked at her warily as she made the small knife dance expertly across her fingers, then, with a quick flick on her hand, buried it several inches deep into a wooden support beam directly behind the leader's head.
"Ah…ah…um…s-stop that! Don't move!"
"Are you sure about this? It is your choice, de gozaru," Kaede said as she produced eight more kunai. She took a threatening step forward and the three men stepped back, sealing their fate. She herded them into an empty room and tied them up, then headed for the second floor.
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Two of the yakuza directed the two student nuns to the final room on the third floor and waited while the important looking man dug out the keys. "Ok, here we go," he said as he unlocked the door. Misora looked into the room and saw none other than the cheerleaders and Yue. And a lot of playdoh cats.
"Misora?!"
"It's not me! I'm just a wandering nun looking for a place to stay out of the rain." Cocone sighed wearily at the poor act Misora put on.
"…"
"…"
"…"
"So, what's with all the cats?"
Yue, Madoka, and Misa all looked at Sakurako, who smiled sheepishly. "Well, you see…"
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Kaede fought her way halfway through the crowded second floor before she heard shouts and footsteps pounding up the stairs behind her. 'It appears I was too slow, reinforcements are coming, de gozaru,' she thought. And these weren't normal yakuza, either. Some of them hadn't even been surprised at her clones or other tricks.
She brought out her shadow clones and the hallway was instantly filled with chaos as sixteen Kaedes fought the few remaining yakuza while she surged past them.
She knew she would never make it when she climbed to the third floor, however. Exhausted from battling dozens of yakuza and holding back in an effort to not kill them, not to mention all the shadow clones that had been summoned and destroyed…it had taken almost everything she had to get this far. And now over a dozen more yakuza were arrayed before her, and not a weak-looking one among them. She set herself for one more battle when suddenly something massive slammed into the door at the far end of the hall, startling everyone present. She suddenly recognized a certain feel in the air, one that she associated with Negi-sensei's use of magic. Surely not…?
"What the hell?"
A young man opened a door and stepped out into the hallway. "Someone check those girls! Hey, Akihiko, you're supposed to be guarding them, go check it out."
An important looking man, apparently Akihiko, looked back and forth between Kaede and the young man. "On it."
When Akihiko reached the door and stuck his key in the lock, an odd thing happened. Much to everyone's surprise, the door was blasted off its hinges in a spray of splinters and scraps of wood, and Madoka burst through, followed by a cascade of living playdoh cats that ran through the hallway, climbing all over the yakuza and in general causing mass confusion. Misa and Sakurako were out next, followed by Yue, Misora, and Cocone. Kaede was down the hallway in an instant, kicking the window from its frame to smash on the ground thirty feet below.
She turned to Misora. "Misora-dono, get Cocone-dono and Yue-dono. Madoka-dono, you help Misa-dono, I will get Sakurako-dono." Misora heaved a weary, much put-upon sigh while Madoka looked nervous. "Do not worry, Madoka-dono," Kaede said. Remember your training, you have the ability, de gozaru." She didn't give Madoka any chance to argue, instead picking up Sakurako and leaping out the window before anyone could react. Misora summoned her artifact and grabbed Cocone and Yue, one under each arm, and followed Kaede, leaving Madoka and Misa alone in the hallway with the yakuza and cats.
A young redheaded girl, perhaps ten, ran out into the hallway, looking around frantically. "Hiro! Hiro-nii!"
The young man from earlier shouted something from under a living pile of playdoh cats, but his voice was too muffled.
Totally freaked out, the little girl ran up to Madoka as she leaned out the window and grabbed her arm. "You can't leave! Big brother will get in trouble if you do!"
Madoka, not knowing what to do, looked at the girl helplessly, then glanced pleadingly up at Misa, who came to her rescue.
"I'm sorry, but we have to go now. Here, let me ask you something. What's your name?" Misa asked, kneeling in front of the child.
"I'm Kagami, who are you?"
Misa smiled, the little girl reminded her of herself at that age. "I'm Misa, and I'm a Magical Girl," she said, smiling as the girl's eyes widened. "Tell you what, would you feel better if you could have one of these little cats forever?" Kagami's eyes went really wide as she nodded emphatically. "Ok, let me see if I remember how to do this right," the cheerleader said as she thought for a moment, trying to recall what Yue had been teaching her the past few days. "Ok, I think it was something like this," she said as she reached down and took up a playdoh cat that was seated on the floor, cleaning itself. It was supposed to be a calico, she supposed...if calicos were blue, red, and yellow, anyway. She enclosed it between her hands for a moment, muttered something that sounded suitably magical, and passed the cat to the girl. "He should stay with you forever now," Misa said, smiling. "I've got to go now, be good, Kagami-chan!"
"Ok, I will!" the girl said happily as she held the cat up high.
"Come on, Madoka, let's go!" Misa said as she jumped at the other girl, forcing Madoka to catch her bridal style.
"I don't know about this," Madoka said as she stumbled around under the weight of the other cheerleader. Nevertheless, she went to the window and looked out at the ground so far below. "I really don't want to do this…" she said as she strengthened her legs with ki. She saw the others on the ground below, waving at her to jump.
"Oh crap oh crap oh crap…"
"Come on, Madoka, let's go!" Misa said, putting her arms around the other girl so Madoka wouldn't accidentally drop her.
Madoka put her foot on the bottom of the window and jumped out into the rain-soaked night. For a moment, it seemed as if she was flying…but then gravity took over and she landed awkwardly on her feet thirty feet below, slipping on the slick and muddy ground and dropping Misa into a puddle.
"My hero," the long haired cheerleader said sarcastically as Madoka helped her up.
"We need to go," Kaede said, motioning for everyone to follow.
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Meanwhile, seventy miles to the north…
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Max left the cover of the trees and darted across the lawn to crouch against the back wall of the sprawling single-story manor next to a small porch, then waved to Jennifer and Akira, who both made it across without incident. They made their way to one of the back doors just as thunder rumbled and the first spatters of rain fell.
Max took a quick glance through a window, then turned back to his companions. "Ok, here's the plan. Akira, you check the first room to the left, I'll check the first room to the right, and Jennifer will stay in the hall to watch for any guards. Don't take any unnecessary risks. Everyone got it?" The other two nodded their heads. "Ok, here we go," Max said, quietly opening the door and slipping inside.
The hallway they stepped into continued for some distance ahead before ending in a wall. Several other halls branched off on both sides, and there were a few closed doors. Luckily, the hall was empty. Max motioned the others toward their positions, and entered the door on his right.
It was a large kitchen, thankfully empty, so he stepped back out into the hallway and found Akira coming out of the room she had just checked. She shook her head to indicate the room was empty, so the duo moved further down the hallway.
They rejoined Jennifer and continued down to the first intersection. A quick look revealed only a startled maid, who Max sent running for the back door. This time Jennifer went down the hallway to the left, while Max sent Akira forward to look out for enemies.
Max went down the short hallway to the right, opened the door, and stepped inside, finding himself face to face with five startled bodyguard-types seated around a table. It looked like they had been playing poker.
"Shit."
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Akira stepped softly forward, peering carefully around the corner near the end of the hallway. It was a very long hallway, and judging by the windows on the far end, it crossed all the way across the manor house. It was also empty.
She took one last look and headed over to some rooms they hadn't checked yet. The first one was empty; it appeared to be some sort of waiting room or something, she wasn't sure. She moved on to the next, and the next, and the next, all were empty. She looked carefully around the hallway again…still safe.
She crossed to the other side of the hall and tried the first room on the left, where she found a startled butler changing his clothes. She squeaked an apology and left quickly. The next room was empty, and the next and the next. She continued along toward the next door, not paying attention to the wall on her right until she realized it was gone, replaced by an empty space.
"Hey! Who are you? Stop where you are!"
Akira jumped and found herself facing three men in crisp black suits in a large entry room, complete with double doors and gawking servants. She had a disturbingly violent urge to blast them through the far wall, but forced it aside in horror. But…Max-sensei had said there must be no escape for the bodyguards and security, they must be neutralized first.
"Hey girl, I told you to freeze," one of the men said threateningly.
Akira gulped and reached out hesitantly for her water as the three approached.
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Jennifer opened the door to her left and cursed aloud when two men faced her.
"Activate the contract for fifteen seconds for Jennifer Minindry!" It was an old trick, that, and one which she was quite familiar with.
She leaped forward and smashed a sagitta magica-charged fist into the first one's unprotected chin, knocking him backward out of his chair. She followed up with a spinning kick that knocked the second man down. She was on him in an instant, wrapping him in a brutal choke hold until he fell unconscious. By the time she had the second man down, the first was just starting to get his bearings back…apparently he wasn't a normal security guard. She jumped in with a kick to the gut that sent him sprawling, then drove her fist into the back of his head, the same move Max had used with such brutal efficiency in the Mahora martial arts tournament months ago. She shivered when the short contract boost wore off barely half a second later…she had cut it close.
Jennifer wasted no time in cutting strips from the coat one of them wore, which she used to tie and gag both men. She walked out into the hall and bumped into a third man who had come to investigate the noise. She dispatched him with a sharp punch to the throat that left him gasping for air on the floor and dragged him into the room as well, giving him the same treatment as the other two. Luckily, he was much more lightly built than the other two had been; otherwise she wouldn't have been able to move him.
As she exited the room for the second time, a loud explosion rocked the house and she began to smell smoke as several people screamed and others shouted. 'So, Max has made contact,' she thought. Well, Max could take care of himself, it was Akira she was worried about. A loud shout from somewhere toward the front of the house caught her attention, so she headed that way, checking each room as she went.
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Max stared for a moment, then grinned wickedly. He hadn't expected anything like this! The man had batted aside his fire-based sagitta magica like an old pro…he had had no idea that there would be anyone like this here. His opponent, however, was less than pleased.
The man inspected the charred sleeve of his suit jacket and shot a warning look at Max while wind and rain blew in through the hole in the wall behind him and his comrades all lay around the room, moaning in pain. Apparently, the sagitta magica had hit a gas line or something.
"You," the man said, pointing at Max, "You are going to answer for that," he said seriously as he approached.
Max tackled him straight through the smoldering hole in the wall.
The two rolled around in the mud outside, kicking, punching, and gouging, struggling for the upper hand. Max was far stronger, but the other man was like a weasel, slipping out of his grip before he could get anything done.
The man rolled off and drew a small revolver from an ankle holster, but Max wasted no time and created a mini fireball that detonated on the handgun, which exploded in a flashy display of flying shrapnel as all six rounds detonated at once. The man cursed like a fishwife as he clutched his mangled hand and tried to blink away the temporary blindness brought on by the flash. Max's side kick took him flush on the chin, snapping his head up to stare blankly at the sky. The man stood there a moment like that, rain falling in his face, then fell to his knees and finally flopped down on his face.
Max climbed back through the hole in the wall and rendered the injured guards unconscious, then opened the door and came face to face with none other than Jacob Donner, the owner of this estate and the man behind the kidnappings.
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To say that Donner had been having a bad day was an understatement, to say the least. His boss Gaze had said some terrifying things over the phone this morning. Things about cleaning up his mess and taking responsibility for one's own actions…things that had a ominous sound, coming from someone like Gaze.
And then one of his men, Genji, had phoned him to say that the inspectors from the Yukihiro Group had found something that didn't add up in the account books, and would like to arrange a meeting with him at his earliest convenience.
That was bad enough; one way plane tickets to foreign countries were considerably cheaper than a round trip, but the ridiculously short timetable in which to flee made things such as putting his affairs in order virtually impossible. He hated to leave Genji behind as well; the man was a genius at getting people to actually work. But…he could find a new pet taskmaster elsewhere. It was annoying, but no worse than having a car wrecked or stolen. He could find another one any time.
He was snapped out of these heavy thoughts when the house was rocked by an explosion and several screams and shouts.
"What on Earth…?" he said aloud as he closed his briefcase and pocketed his car keys. He opened the door of his study and peaked out into the hallway. It was deserted, so he reentered the study and quickly stuffed several handfuls of important papers into his briefcase before throwing whatever wouldn't fit into the fireplace. He used to the poker to make sure everything was burned, then went through a hidden door in the wall and cut through his library, and came out into another hallway, just in time to see perhaps the biggest man he had ever seen in his whole life.
Donner was so surprised he might have screamed or dropped his briefcase if he hadn't frozen in place like a deer in the headlights. A little less than a foot taller than himself, the man was huge…! And he was coming straight for him.
Donner broke from his paralysis, turned, and ran.
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When Donner took off for the back door at a run, Max followed. However, just before the American could reach him in the hallway, Donner managed to topple a large cabinet full of expensive crockery, blocking the hallway and forcing Max to slow down and climb over it while he escaped through the back door. By the time Max made it through the door, the sound of a car starting reached his ears and he spotted the other man speeding out of a garage in a vintage Italian sports car, wheels spinning on the wet cement. There was no point in trying to catch him at this point, so Max slowed to an aggravated stop. "Fuck…Fuck!"
The manor house behind him rattled and he heard screams, so he hurried back inside to help his teammates.
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"Water Jet!"
Akira shot the first man all the way across the room into the far wall with a hard blast of water, but he rose shakily to his feet when she released it. She looked around worriedly, hoping for Jennifer or Max to come help, but neither appeared. It seemed she would have to do this herself.
The servants had fled, but the three men before her seemed to know what they were doing.
"Give up, girl. This is a big mistake you're making," one of them said as he edged around, trying to outflank her.
Her mind raced as she tried to work out a plan. All the careful planning and training she had undergone under Max-sensei and Jennifer-san disappeared, and she was left with nothing but a memory of a sword. Remembering something she had practiced with Max-sensei, Akira calmed herself as best she could and reached inside herself for her inner calm, for her water, finally forming a blade whose edges she dulled instinctively. She still wasn't ready to have blood on her hands; she didn't think she ever would be, honestly, and hoped that it would stay that way. She carefully avoided any thoughts of Oscar Marshall…that incident hadn't seemed real, she hadn't been aware at the time, just floating in the water and letting it make the decisions.
If she killed another person…
She shuddered and realized she had let herself get too distracted when one of the men grabbed at her arm. She jerked back and barely avoided him, whacking him on the side of the head with the water sword she had created as he backed away. It didn't seem to have any effect. She realized with a start that the man she had slammed into the wall a moment ago was casting a spell, so she threw up a quick barrier that almost faltered under the lightning strike that hit it. Panic roared to life when she remembered her elemental interactions, and the barrier began to waver and falter; lightning could ride on water easily, doing serious damage to a water mage in an instant if the proper guidelines weren't followed. The storm raged outside, and now she had an enemy in front of her and one each on her left and right. An explosion shook the house and set her adrenalin pumping even harder.
On edge, she leapt to the side toward one of the men trying to flank her and got behind him. She pulled his head back by his hair with one hand and held her water sword at his throat with the other as she faced the other two. "If you come any closer, I'll k-kill him!" she shouted.
"You're in over your head, girl," one of them said menacingly as he drew a long, wicked-looking knife while the other began preparing another spell.
"Akira-chan! You're not ready for that yet, remember your training with Negi!" Jennifer shouted from the entryway behind Akira.
"Jennifer-san…!" Akira said, turning her attention away from her targets and toward her friend.
What happened next seem to occur in slow motion.
Jennifer shouted "Look out!" and reached toward her, her eyes wide in fear. Akira, trusting to some buried instinct, turned and ducked in the same movement, narrowly avoiding a vicious swipe by the man with the knife. She felt herself shove her captive into the floor face-first and swung her sword up in a ruthless arc, saw it cut through flesh and blood, bone and tendon as if they were made of butter. Saw the man's forearm go flying, hand still clutching the knife. And now the tip of her sword was driving toward the man's face, and he was holding up his arms to ward her off as if he still had two of them, and she couldn't stop, she couldn't stop…!
"Jennifer, take care of it!"
Max tackled her to the ground, driving her breath away.
Akira lay on the floor under Max, gasping for breath and struggling, trying to get away from anything, everything. She had been about to kill that man…! Again…she had almost killed another person!
"Akira! Akira, look at me!" Max said, grabbing Akira's head and forcing her to meet his gaze. "Akira, look at me!" he demanded, trying to snap her out of her panic. And, for a wonder, it worked. The girl's struggling slowed, her eyes stopped moving wildly and she started to get herself under control.
"Come on, get up, Akira, we're not done yet," Max said not unkindly as he got to his feet and offered her a hand up.
Akira looked for the three men she had been fighting, and was surprised to see that Jennifer-san had somehow managed to subdue them, and was even now putting a tourniquet on the stump of the knife-man's arm.
"We've wasted too much time, we have to find them now!" Max said.
Jennifer nodded. "Stick with me, Akira," she said. "Let's go."
Room after room after room was empty or recently vacated, but none showed evidence of containing any hidden secrets until they found a room guarded by two men who were quickly dispatched. Inside, they found a trap door with a ladder that led down to a narrow hallway below. Max remained on ground level while Jennifer and Akira climbed down.
Once down the ladder, Akira found herself in a narrow, badly lit hallway with gray cement walls and white tile floors. The hallway continued for roughly twenty feet before opening up into a larger, well lit room. Even from her current position at the foot of the ladder, she could see what looked like a heavy steel cell door with a tiny window. A bit of a thrill went through her at that. This was it…! Some of her classmates were here, locked up just a few feet away…!
"What is it now, Kimura?" a man asked from somewhere ahead. She kept her silence as Jennifer crept forward.
"Kimura? What's going on?" the man asked sharply as he came around the corner. Akira had a brief glimpse of a young man, probably just out of high school, and then she blasted him back against the far wall with a jet of water, and held him in place while Jennifer cleared the room and then secured the man Akira was holding.
The two of them checked a bank of monitors that seemed to show the interior of the cells lining the wall behind them. Only two cells were occupied, cell two and cell five, by Setsuna and Konoka, respectively. Akira wasted no time and shot a spear of water through the door locks of both cells, and freed her classmates. They retrieved the tired girls' belongings from a safe. Setsuna, though weary, hurt, and bone-tired, gripped Yuunagi fiercely when Akira passed the sword to her, and Konoka refused to let go of her Secchan's arm.
Altogether, the trio of Max, Jennifer, and Akira had wasted far too much time, and police sirens were wailing from the distance by the time they got Setsuna and Konoka outside and into the safety of the trees.
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Author's Note: Yeah…sorry this chapter was late. I realized it needed what amounts to a complete rewrite, and I'm still not happy with it. But, eh…that's just how it is, sometimes. Anyway, that's two rescue groups down, there are two to go. Keep reading!
As a side note, Kaede's little 'dono' speech seems clunky to me…oh well. If it's that or totally dropping a major part of her speaking style, I'll settle with the occasional clunkiness any day of the week.