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Earlier in the day of the arrival of Ron, Kim and Shego to Japan:
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Master Sensei walked serenely from his private quarters at the Yamanouchi ninja school and looked at the students going through their training in the mid day light. Spotting one of the senior instructors, Master Sensei called him over and asked if he had seen Yori lately. It wasn't entirely surprising that Yori hadn't been seen in a while. She was one of the advanced students at the school and as such was responsible for training other lower level students. Sensei had in fact already started grooming Yori to take his place when he finally retired. Already most of the day to day transactions of the school were being overseen by yori. Things like purchasing orders for supplies and acquisition of new property for the always expanding and diversifying school.
The senior instructor had to reluctantly admit he had no idea where Yori was but that the last she had been seen was two days ago in the company of one middle level student and two beginning level students and she had checked out one of the school's rarely used vehicles so perhaps she had taken them on an extended training mission?
The Sensei inclined his head dismissing the instructor to return to his class and pondered on his conclusions. While it was not unheard of for Yori to take on a few students to personally train them, she was usually most prompt in informing him where she was going to train and for how long but Sensei was pleased she was showing such initiative. He also knew that Yori wasn't exactly thrilled with the recent addition to her duties of trying to locate and purchase houses to be used as places of sanctuary in case the school was attacked and the students had to be dispersed for a while so he reasoned that this outing was her way of letting off a little stress and stretching her 'wings'. All in all there was no real reason for Sensei to worry about Yori or what she was doing. She was after all his most capable advanced student. No reason to worry at all.
Sensei glanced up at the crystal clear blue sky above. No reason except Ron Stoppable was due to arrive at the school any day now and Sensei knew that Yori would not miss that for the world. She had even strongly stressed she should be the one to greet him and lead him to the school when he did arrive so Sensei had left that to her complete control. Sensei himself did not know when Stoppable-san would arrive but having left that duty to Yori he was certain that she would inform him what day he was going to arrive. Since it would appear that Yori had taken a few students on a training trip he reasoned that Stoppable-san's arrival was not going to be any time soon.
With all his mental assurances Sensei still couldn't shake the feeling of vague menace that seemed to hang in the cold mountain air.
Spying the somewhat cantankerous woman that ran the meals at Yamanouchi, Sensei inclined his head to her in a greeting. To his surprise she quickly made her way over to him.
"You sense it to, do you not?" She asked in way of a proper greeting.
"As a cherry blossom floating on the wind may sense many currents I sense a great deal. On what particular event or omen do you refer to today?" Sensei asked in a calm voice.
The Lunch woman frowned at him. "Save that talk for the students who would be impressed. You know what I mean you old fart. I mean you sense the heavy air of something evil coming this way. Big Ears is supposed to return to the school soon isn't he?"
Sensei allowed a slight frown to mar his serene face. "Big Ears is hardly a proper name for the 'Chosen One', but yes Stoppable-san has been invited to return here for a visit. Why do you connect his arrival with evil?"
The lunch lady spread her hands to show she wasn't referring to Ron's arrival as the evil. "Just when Big Ears shows up something always happens." She eyed the Sensei and noticed a slight tensing of his eyes that almost anyone else would have missed. "You know something." She stated. "Something new in the Scrolls of Prophecy?"
Only a very few knew the secret of the scrolls and the woman before him was one of them. While to others she may appear as nothing more than a lunch lady, the Sensei had known her for decades and she was one of his most trusted confidants. Sensei briefly nodded his head and gestured for the woman to follow him and lead her to the scroll room.
Sensei removed a scroll from a locked case and brought it over and spread it on a table for the lunch lady to study. The secret of the Scrolls of Prophecy were they weren't complete. You could walk in one day and study them, only to find they suddenly ended with no warning. Leave and come back the next day and you might find more was written that the day before. Once, early in his career as Sensei, the man had forced himself to stay awake staring at the scrolls night and day and managed to catch the words appearing on the scroll as if being invisibly written as he watched. He could even swear in the stillness of that night he could hear the scritching noises of a quill pen being used on the material of the scroll but of course there was no such thing. Just words appearing on the scroll in the same aged ink and style as the rest of the scroll.
Sensei pointed at a section of the scroll. The lunch lady could easily read the ancient tongue as well as Sensei could and she read it out loud.
"There will come a time when the Chosen One shall take a mate. Her hair will be as fiery as her temperament will be and she will be a pillar of strength and support for the Chosen One." The Lunch Lady looked up. "Yes, so? This is old news. Everyone knows that Big Ears has fallen hard for Flame Hair. What is her name again? Kim Possible?" She asked. "Such strange names these foreigners have."
Sensei didn't bother to correct her disrespect of the Chosen One or his choice of mate. "Yes but a few months ago this line appeared on the scroll while I was showing it to Yori." Sensei ran his finger down the scroll and pointed at a new section. The Lunch Lady had to admit she herself hadn't read this part before.
"A great trial of darkness and terror will come upon the Chosen One and his First Mate..." The Lunch Lady blinked and looked over at Sensei. "First Mate?"
"Continue to read." Sensei replied.
"... will come upon the Chosen One and his First Mate, during this time not only will the Chosen One feel his heart open to another but so will that of his First Mate. They will both welcome into their lives one of exotic beauty and hair as dark as night and this beauty will become the Second Mate, together the three shall be as one." The Lunch Lady again paused and looked over to Sensei. "Do you read this the same way I do?" She asked in shock.
"That Stoppable-san and Possible-san will take another lover? I can find no other explanation that makes sense of the scroll." Sensei admitted. "Yori was excited when she read that thinking that maybe she might be the third that the scroll mentions. She cajoled me into letting her handle the reports from our observors on Stoppable's activities and safety in preparation of the time she would need to join him and Possible-san."
The Lunch Lady pondered for a moment. She, as well as everyone else at the school knew of Yori's infatuation with the Chosen One and her despair when the scroll had proclaimed that he was destined to be with a woman of flaming hair so she could see where the line she had just read might renew that hope in Yori once again.
"You feel that the scroll does not refer to Yori?" She asked.
In reply Sensei pointed even lower on the scroll. "This part only filled in yesterday morning."
The Lunch Lady read. "Many adventures and trials will the Chosen One and his mates will have to face, both in the realms of the living and the realms of the dreaming. A day will come when the Chosen One will return to the lands of rising sun and here he will face the trials of the dead. Together with his mate of flaming hair and his other mate of skin of morning grass will face..." The lunch lady paused as the scroll just ended. There were no more words on the scroll to be seen.
"Mate of skin of morning grass?" She asked as she reached up and scratched her head. "Who has skin the color of grass?"
The Sensei in reply reached over to a drawer and pulled out a sheet of paper. As he handed it to her, the Lunch Lady recognized a western style 'wanted poster' it showed a woman with black hair and what looked like minty green skin but she was almost attempted to believe it was a fault of the printing except for what she had just read in the scrolls.
"Her name is Shego." Sensei said unnecessarily. Lunch Lady could see that the top of the poster proclaimed that much. Not being familiar with English too well she couldn't make out what the young woman had been wanted for but she knew it was a long list in any case.
"I was made aware of that Stoppable-san had saved her in some kind of emergency and pleaded that she be given another chance by Global Justice but that is all I knew." Sensei explained.
Lunch Lady made a spitting gesture at the name of Global Justice but did not dishonor the scroll room by actually spitting. "And you believe that this woman will be or already is Big Ears Second Mate?"
For once in the long time that the Lunch Lady had known Sensei, she witnessed him helplessly spreading his hands. "As you said, how many people out there can have skin the color of morning grass? I think we may have to assume that this ex-criminal woman may be a mate of the Chosen One."
Lunch Lady was silent for a moment and the quietly asked. "Does Yori know of this yet? It will devastate her to find out that once again her dream of belonging to Big Ears is not to be."
Sensei too lowered his head in sadness. "As far as I know she does not. I was trying to find a way to broach the subject with her in the kindest manner I could before she took it upon herself to read the scroll on her own and find out that way but it would seem that she has gone off on an extended trip to train some of the lower level students. I'm sure she will be back soon as Stoppable-san is to arrive in a few days for his visit. I could attempt to contact her via the astral level but such news as this should be done in person."
Lunch Lady nodded her head. "She will be upset when she finds out, that much is certain."
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The evening of Ron, Kim and Shego's arrival in Japan. The House.
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Ron raced up the stairs he found, his heart in his throat. While the shout he had heard sounded more like anger than fear or danger he couldn't dismiss the feelings of wrongness the house was instilling in him and he wouldn't be calm again till he was with his two ladies.
Reaching the top of the stairs Ron could see a corridor branched off in two different directions. He was only interested in the direction that leads to Kim, Shego and Yori. He could see them at the end of the corridor to the left. Yori was standing with her normal calm face in anger with a red hand print on one side of her face. Kim was standing a few paces away from her, her face also red in anger but showing no signs of being struck by someone.
Shego was lying prone on the floor on her back with her elbows propping herself up.
Ron without a thought raced to the one who was down and swooped her into his arms.
"Are you okay? What happened? Are you okay?" He asked frantically after reaching Shego's side. He pulled away from the embrace he had her in only long enough to scan her for injuries before embracing her once again.
"He went to the criminal bitch without even asking if I was all right. And I'm the one with the obvious injury!" Yori angrily thought to herself.
Shego glared daggers at Yori and tried to reassure Ron that she was indeed okay. Ron glanced over at Kim. "What happened?" He asked her.
Once again Yori felt a rush of anger as he once again ignored her for the undeserving Possible.
Kim turned her head to glare at Yori but answered Ron in any case.
"Yori here was giving us orders on what bedroom we were to use. She carefully instructed us that you were to have the room at the other end of this hallway and Shego was to have the room next to mine but was not to bother me or I her and that we were under no circumstances to bother you. Shego started to explain to her that wasn't happening and that we were quite capable of deciding where and whom we were going to sleep with."
Ron turned to look at Shego in his arms. "You struck Yori?" He asked but not in recrimination but just as if he was trying to get his facts straight.
"Actually I struck her." Kim replied. "Yori accused Shego of being street trash whore trying to seduce you away from your proper path of Monkey Master, I interrupted her to tell her it was not like that and she said if I had been enough of a woman for you, you wouldn't have had to seek another to share your bed with."
Ron sucked in a breath. "He could just imagine how well that had went." He started to get angry as well. How dare Yori call Shego a whore and Kim not enough of a woman for him?
"So you struck her?" He asked in a flat voice to Kim.
"Yes! Finally Ron-san starts to get angry at how Possible abused me." Yori thought to herself.
Kim folded her arms angrily across her chest. "Yes I did."
"Then how did Shego end up on the floor?" Ron asked.
"Yori started to raise her hand to hit Kim back." Shego answered him. "I stepped in to prevent it and Yori pushed me at the same time she did a leg sweep dumping me to the floor."
Ron slowly rose to his feet helping Shego up at the same time. He took a deep breath to try to calm himself before he said something that was sure to irrevocably ruin a friendship between him and Yori.
"Yori I know this is not the greatest way for you to find out and I'm sorry about that. The truth is Kim, Shego and I are in a relationship. It is not that Kim is not enough woman to please me or Shego in some way tricked me into this. The truth is we all love each other. Again I know this is a bit of a shock to you but I hope we can still all be friends after this and put all this behind us?"
Yori felt like throwing up hearing that it wasn't just Shego and Kim trying to pleasure the Chosen One. She could almost accept that but if she understood her Ron correctly, Kim and Shego were in love with each other as much as they were in love with her Ron. Somehow the notorious criminal known as Shego had twisted her Ron's morals and his reasoning to accept this and Kim was also too weak and had fallen prey to the criminal woman's machinations. It was obviously up to Yori to right this before the Chosen One was corrupted beyond redemption and fell from grace.
Yori bowed lowly to Kim, Ron and Shego. "I apologize for my mistake and my comments. The Chosen... I mean Ron is of course quite capable to decide whom he will sleep with. I hope also that we can forget this unpleasantness and move on. Now if you will forgive me I have to see to dismissing the students that traveled with us and seeing that they return to their duties. I shall be gone for some time. If you wish you may partake of a hot shower and feel free to sleep. I will see about acquiring us some food tomorrow morning if you all believe you can wait that long?"
Shego while still angry decided to forgive Yori for Ron's sake for pushing her, not that big a deal anyway and for trying to hit Kim, a huge deal in her mind. She nodded her head. "No harm done." She said to Yori.
Yori inwardly seethed. It was all good for Shego to claim no harm done. It wasn't her face that had been slapped and slapped hard by Possible but outwardly Yori merely nodded and forced a smile to her face.
Kim warily watched Yori. She felt that things weren't going to be solved quite that easily but she too was willing to put aside her suspicions for Ron's sake. "Sorry for hitting you." She said to Yori.
"That is quite all right Possible-san. I was acting dishonorably and deserved it. Fortunately you did not hurt me." Yori replied in a tone that implied that Kim couldn't harm Yori if she tried.
Yori walked past Ron, Shego and Kim with her head held high. As she reached the staircase and started down however her hand griped the railing with a force that was surprising that it didn't crack the old wood of the railing. Yori reached the midway point on the staircase when Rufus with a yell ran out of the kitchen and ran up the stairs to meet her.
Scampering up her leg, Rufus stopped on her shoulder and rapidly squeaked something at her. While normally Yori could understand Rufus as well as anyone, well as anyone other than Ron who could understand Rufus under the most trying circumstances, this time all Yori could do was pick up random words.
"Danger!... Face... Shadow...House bad...Must leave now!" Rufus squeaked a mile a minute.
Yori picked up Rufus with her hand and held him out in front of her. She wasn't sure what had Rufus so worked up but she knew one thing. She had to make sure the others stayed in the house. The house was her friend. It would help her to straighten out Stoppable-san and make him see that Kim had betrayed him and Shego was corrupting him. That Shego was not the exotic woman with hair of night that was meant for him but that Yori was the one the prophecy meant.
Rufus continued to chatter in fear but finally noticed that Yori wasn't looking at him. She seemed to be staring off into space. Rufus was considering whether to bite her hand to wake her up when his little eyes widened in horror. The shadows of the stairs were moving behind Yori and looked like they were taking solid form. As the poor naked mole rat watched in fear the face in the kitchen reappeared at Yori's shoulder. As Rufus watched the face's dry flaking lips moved as if it was whispering to Yori.
"Yes. My Ron will see the error of his course and come back to me. All is needed is that they stay in this house." Yori muttered. Shaking her head as if coming out of a trance she looked at the mole rat clutched in her hand. Bringing up her right hand she swiftly jabbed Rufus before he could squirm out of her grip.
With a yelp Rufus looked at Yori's hand to see a tiny hair pin.
With a flare of blue fire Rufus broke free from Yori's hand and took a defensive stance on the railing. He could still see the gray face of the evil girl behind Yori but he wasn't taking his eyes off of Yori to give her another chance to stab him. As he stood in his defensive stance Rufus's vision began to blur and he felt himself nearly stumble off the railing.
Opening his mouth Rufus prepared to shout for Ron. He doubt that Ron could hear him way upstairs but Rufus had to do something but before he could draw in a breath deep enough to yell, his vision went black and he started to slide off the railing to fall to the ground below.
Yori snapped out a hand and caught the small naked pink form of Rufus and opening a pouch hanging on her side she gently put Rufus into it. As if sensing something or maybe in fear that Ron, Kim or Shego were coming down the stairs she turned to look back up the stairs. For a split moment Yori could have sworn she saw something behind her but there was nothing but dark shadows there.
Yori exited the house and found the student ninjas right where she had left them. Without a word she motioned for them to follow her and lead them back to the van. Whispering she instructed the most senior of the three ninjas (the only one with a valid driving license) to drive them to a storage building not far away to store the van. The other two junior ninjas she gestured for them to climb into the van with her for the trip.
The ninja sitting to the left of Yori in the back of the van tried to watch her out of the corner of his eye. Yori was a popular and well in demand student instructor at the school. It was considered a great honor for her to choose to take a pupil aside for personal training and for field training like they were doing now it was the highest honor of them all. It meant she saw potential in them!
The man, boy really, not only watched Yori out of awe and infatuation but also because he had been warned by other students that had been taken aside by senior student trainers that trainers like to launch surprise attacks on their students to test their awareness and preparation.
Even though he was watching her as closely as he dared, he was still unprepared when the woman next to him suddenly turned and jabbed him in the side with a hairpin.
The ninja struggled to react in some way but his vision faded to black before he could do more than grunt.
An observer would have hardly noticed Yori's attack. It was so subtle and quick. One moment the ninja to the left of her was sitting upright and aware and the next he was slumping slightly in his seat. Yori quickly readied herself and lashing out attempted to stick the ninja sitting to the right of her. This ninja whether he had noticed his fellow ninja slumping or he was just more on alert was ready for her and caught her wrist with his hand stopping the pin from hitting him.
The ninja sure that this was some kind of test smiled under the dark cloth covering his lower face but his eyes widened a moment later in shock as he felt a swift pain in his side anyway. Glancing down he noticed that while he had Yori's right hand trapped in his grip, her left hand was at his side with another pin in it.
Letting out a slight hiss he side to the floor of the van and moved no more.
Yori patiently waited while the driver of the van, who could not see in the back of the van pulled the van inside the school owned storage building and then shut off the van. Yori waited for the man to open the van's sliding door to launch her attack but this ninja was not a first level one. He was middle grade which meant he was much more aware and suspicious of anything strange going on. But even the most diligent ninja sometimes has to give into his curiosity.
Slowly the man walked over to the sliding van door wondering whether everyone inside might have fallen asleep in the drive over or had Yori arranged an attack with the other ninjas inside to test him?
After several long moments of indecision the ninja finally gripped the sliding door handle and with a quick jerk and a small leap backwards caused the door to slide open.
A black ninja form hit the floor of the storage building and rolled towards him convincing the higher level ninja student that Yori had indeed instructed the students riding back there with her to test his fighting ability. As the ninja on the floor rolled into a sitting position the more advanced student was ready and clutched the man's outfit with a fist and pulled him to his feet to snap out a punch.
The elder and more advanced student had just a moment to realize the body in his hands wasn't struggling before he felt a jab in his neck and turned to find Yori watching him. Swaying on his feet he dropped his fellow ninja to land on the floor before falling himself to land across his supposed student attacker.
Yori looked at the glooming interior of the storage building before dragging the ninja students to the center of the room. Once there she lowered a net and carefully tying their hands and feet she dumped the students into the net and raised it to the ceiling.
"I'm sorry my students but I need time to convince the Chosen One that he has been mislead. The drug I've injected you with will keep you unconscious for at least two days at which time I'm sure you will escape your bindings and find your way free." Yori paused for a moment and then looked back up at the dangling unconscious students. "Because if you can't free yourselves from such a simple holding then you are not diligently studying enough."
The storage building was close enough for Yori to run back and rejoin Ron before Kim or Shego could convince him to leave she was sure. Not that Ron would ever leave without finding his constant companion Rufus anyway. Yori paused with that thought and opened the pouch she had stored Rufus in. A brief search later turned up an old bird cage and Yori carefully tied Rufus up and placed him in the cage and hung that from the rafters as well.
"I know you will not understand and may hold this against me Rufus-san but I'm sure once I've freed Ron from the control of Shego and Kim and he can think clearly, that you will thank me."
Yori feeling an almost unbearable compulsion to return to the house and claim what was rightfully hers raced away into the night.