Chapter five

The night was quiet. Despite the fear that consumed Kasumi, she finally drifted to sleep both physical and emotional drained. Shadows lurked in her dreams. Always just outside the window.

An alarm went off in the room. Kasumi awoke with a start, jumping out of bed. The shadows made it through the window. Six of them to be exact. Only their hungry eyes could be seen. Kasumi snached her weapon as they approached silently. There was no need for them to be silent. The alarm screeched through the room loud enough to make her wince.

Hayabusa was already standing. He wore black as well. He never changed into the given outfits. The six began to circle Kasumi. She attacked with her sword. The first ninja blocked it with ease, grabbed the end, and pulled it from her grasp. One of them laughed. She recognized him. It belonged to the most disgusting ninja in their clan. He had always been foul-minded and he somehow gathered loyal ninja of his own to become his lackeys.

"He was right, she can't fight us." He said, "Don't kill her just yet. Grab her and go."

Kasumi's blood turned cold, this was worse than she imagined. Who had told them? She glanced at Hayabusa. One of the ninja grabbed for her. She somehow managed to slip past him. Would she be able to stall long enough for someone to get here? That hope distinguished as two grappled her, one had grabbed her legs and the other, the one who had laughed, held her tight around the chest. She kicked her limbs, but was too weak from earlier. DOATEC had killed her.

Kasumi closed her eyes and focused, she wasn't going to give up just yet. There was only six of them, seven if she counted Hayabusa, but he was on another level. She opened her eyes. There were only three?

Wait. . . she spotted one of the laying on the ground. Near the window she saw Hayabusa kick another out through broken glass. The three ninja near her seemed to just notice what was happening as she did.

"Ryu Hayabusa." The ninja gripping her chest said. Her shirt was riding up uncomfortably and his other hand held bare skin edged up under her shirt. "You don't have to do this. We are working under Hayate."

Hayabusa dropped his hands and looked at the three still left as if considering his words.

"We need to leave." Whispered one ninja to the leader. One inched toward the window. In one swift moment, Hayabusa picked up a chair and threw it at the ninja. The chair crashed into the man and propelled him out the window further shattering the glass.

"Put her down." Hayabusa demanded softly.

"Kill her!" The ninja near Kasumi's ear yelled as he dropped her to the floor. Kasumi fell hard as her legs were still held up by the other guy. Hayabusa and the other ninja faced off. The one still near Kasumi was on top of her in a second. He gripped her neck with both hands and squeezed. Sloppy. But she couldn't throw him. Her vision began to blur.

A moment later the grip loosened and she gasped for breath. The ninja that was on top of her crumpled to the side. Kasumi could barely take in what was happening when a hand grabbed hers and pulled her to her feet. Hayabusa held her upright against him.

People had began to swarm into the room, most of them white suits, DOATEC people. Questions buzzed in the air and they began prodding bodies and clearing broken glass. Kasumi could hear Hayabusa answer long questions with short answers. She was grateful when he deflected questions away from her. She pressed herself into Hayabusa when the others prodded her as well, asking what hurt. Soon they offered some pills which Kasumi refused and applying stuff to her bruised skin.

She was dazed. Their questions sounded like white noise, but she could hear Hayabusas' responses.

"Two escaped." He responded.

"Kasumi was the target."

"That's not my place to say."

"I can't answer that."

"You can ask her later."

The window was taped up with plastic, the alarm was reset, and Hayabusa and Kasumi were told they would be given a new room by tomorrow. Kasumi looked at the time. 2:25am.

"Two of them escaped. What if they come back with more?" Kasumi asked, her throat feeling tight.

"We did recruit the best fighters in the world didn't we?" A tall woman with a stern voice asked

as she looked at Kasumi being supported by Hayabusa. "If you can't fend off intruders than maybe you shouldn't be here."

"You people injected me with something so I couldn't fight." Kasumi said, anger cutting through her voice.

"Perhaps you should have thought of that before violating the contract." When Kasumi didn't respond. Another white suit moved between them as Kasumi sized up the woman.

"You both have been champions of DOA and you seemed to have the situation under control by the time we got here." Kasumi could see the resolve of the issue in all of their stances. She felt prickling behind her eyes. It dawned on her that these people didn't see her and the other competitors as human. She felt foolish that she didn't see this sooner, she wondered if she were the only one who didn't notice over the last two tournaments. She expected it from the leaders pulling the strings, but even the people that worked with them everyday? Most of the white suits left the room and Kasumi and Hayabusa. Kasumi's head was clearer now, but she was sore, stiff and weaker than ever. Everytime she put weight onto her left foot, she felt as if she might collapse. The plastic at the window crinkled as the wind pushed on it. She was going to sleep terribly.

Ryu patiently helped her to her bed. She was hyper aware of his hands supporting her. Every inch of her ached and a wound from earlier reopened, staining her white shirt with blood. She was lucky she escaped anything more serious. Getting onto the bed proved to be difficult. Ryu picked her in one swift motion and lay her gingerly on the mattress.

"Why are you helping me?" Kasumi finally asked.

"Do you really think I would just sit back watch you die?" Hayabusa asked. "There's no honor in what they did tonight."

"Yeah, it's best if they kill me honorably." Kasumi choked back a laugh. Honor had lost meaning to her. She wondered if she were better off dead. Hayabusa moved away without a response as two medical technicians took his place to examine her. She bit back the pain as they 'fixed' her up. Once they were done they denied her request to be moved to a separate room. They took their leave.

Kasumi looked over at Hayabusa. He lay on his bed, fully dressed, staring at the ceiling. Whatever medics did to her, it was working. The pain began to subside and her eyes became heavy. Sleep overcame her.