The Other Me
Chapter Six: Silent Assassin, Return of the House of Flying Daggers!
By: Sci-Fi Raptor
Disclaimer: See Chapter Four
Again, I will repeat that this fic is rated R…
(-O-)
And what I wanna see, is you go to sleep, in the dirt
Permanently, you just being hurt, this ain't gonna work
For me, it just wouldn't be, sufficient enough
Cause we, are just gonna be, enemies
As long as we breathe, I don't ever see, either of us
Coming to terms, where we can agree
There ain't gonna be, no reason, speakin' with me
You speak on my seed, then me, no speak Ingles
So we gonna beed, and keep on beefin', unless
You're gonna agree, to meet with me in the flesh
And settle this face to face, and you're gonna see
A demon unleashed in me, that you've never seen
-Eminem, Ft. DMX and Obie (Go To Sleep)
(O)
"The current stop is Hinata Springs. All customers please stay clear of the doors," the train's PA system droned.
It was the early part of sunset and Shinobu and her beloved sempai got a spectacular view of the sun setting in an ocean of soft orange and red. Shinobu was holding onto his arm so that they wouldn't get separated in the hustle-bustle of the station. Their proximity caused her to blush. Today was almost like a real date, she thought playing back all the things the two had done together. True, it was meant to get rid of all of Keitaro's post-test stresses, but Shinobu had fun anyways. So romantic… she thought when they got out of the station and saw the beautiful sunset.
She did feel guilty, however, that on the first day that she got to wear her sempai's cool looking jacket, she had 'accidentally' forgotten it on a ride with the said person's 'help.' She had been brooding over it the whole day, blaming herself for being so careless.
"Shinobu-chan. You can let go now…" Keitaro said.
"Sorry sempai!" she apologized, bowing.
"It's alright Shinobu," he said nonchalantly. "But you're worrying me. You've been spacing out all day. Are your really okay?"
"I am, really!" she insisted again for the seventh time that day.
"Okay…" Keitaro answered. His mood had improved dramatically from the last few days and Shinobu was hoping that her sempai was on the road to becoming himself again. Even if that means I have to lose him to Naru-sempai…
"Well Shinobu, thanks for spending the whole day with me, its been really refreshing," Keitaro said, holding the entrance for the Inn open for the younger girl.
When did we get here?! Shinobu thought in panic. And isn't this where the guy kisses the girl at the porch? But me and sempai do live in the same house…
Not wanting to seem any weirder, she blurted out, "Thanksforthedate!" and ran to her room, her face beet red. Fortunately for her, she had said it too fast for him to follow.
"…"
He quietly made his way to his room, determined to rest his tired body till dinner. As he rolled out his futon, he had a sudden urge to go into the secret entrance for the secret tunnel network under the Inn that Su and Sarah loved to explore. He opened a drawer and somehow managed to climb in. He closed the drawer behind him and crawled through the tunnel on all fours. And it seemed that fate was on his side today, for Motoko suddenly burst into his room, demanding that he see her regarding something about Kitsune.
I just got home and they're already on my back… he fumed. He crawled around for a while and found himself exit the tunnel into a hallway. This looks really familiar… he thought and then he spotted it: a piece of paper on a door. He walked up to it and read the sign.
"Come to think of it, I haven't been here in a while. He opened the door and walked in. In there, rested a doll the size and shape of a girl Shinobu's age that sat lifeless on its chair. He started to hear clicking and turned to face Moe.
"What happened, Kei-kun?" she said.
"What do you mean what happened, Moe-chan?" Keitaro asked, not in the least fettered that the until-now dormant doll was again talking to him.
"Back when you fixed me, Hinata-Sou was so much happier," she said.
"Well, back then, I let the girls push me around," he answered angrily.
"…That's not like you, Kei-kun. The Kei-kun I remembered was kind and always tried to make people happy…"
"Well, the old Keitaro is dead. Those girls killed him! This… this is the other me."
"Really?" she asked, unbelieving.
"What do you mean by really?"
"Is it really you? Are you sure?"
"Of course this is me? Who else could it be?"
"Keita-"
Suddenly Keitaro felt as if he were covered by some dark shadow. Minutes later, he woke up. He looked around and saw Moe-chan sitting in her seat, as lifeless as when he entered.
"Wow… I must be going crazy… I swear I just spoke to Moe-chan again." With that, Keitaro got up and fumbled his way out of the room.
Stupid bitch… she almost ruined everything… something thought.
(O)
When Keitaro got out of the tunnel system, it was already dark. He found that he was somewhere in the grounds that surrounded the Inn, faraway from everyone. He sighed, knowing that the trek back would take a while and that once he got back, the cold steel blade of the resident Kendoist would most likely greet him for reasons he didn't even care about at this point. His intimidation tactics had kept the girls away from him the last few days, but after seeing how Motoko had all but hacked her way into his room when he left, he knew that the last few days of peace and quiet would soon be a fond memory.
"Damn bitch…" he thought aloud.
"Watch your mouth, child," someone said from the darkness. "Are you not familiar with the saying, 'Hell knoweth no fury like a woman scorned'?" it said with a hint of laughter. No doubt, the shadowy assailant was a woman herself.
"Whatever…" Keitaro said dismissively and continued walking.
"Where are you going? I'm not done with you yet!"
"I'm going wherever I want to. I don't take orders from the inferior gender anymore," he said angrily and stomped off.
"Why you insolent little brat!" she screamed. Suddenly Keitaro could hear a faint hiss in the air get closer and closer. At the last second, he ducked, but grabbed into the air as if on reflex. He was surprised to find a dagger in his hand.
"This is interesting. I have never met an opponent that could dodge my daggers, even in the light!" the voice said, suddenly happy.
"Are you done with me yet, woman?"
"Ho ho, the fun has just begun!" she said merrily. Keitaro heard the hiss again, but this time there were four of them, all of them coming from different directions. Keitaro closed his eyes and shut off every sense, save his hearing and triangulated their positions and trajectories. In his mind, he constructed a rough picture of where he was and where the daggers were heading for. Without even thinking, he imagined how the daggers would intercept him and how he would manage to dodge all of them without even moving his feet. When the first dagger had reached its optimal position, he moved his upper torso this way and that, punching with his arms to cancel to force of moving this torso. And it seemed that he had done it successfully, since the daggers hissed past, merely cutting up his clothing a bit. When Keitaro was standing rightly again, he expected the woman to curse at him for having dodged her daggers again, but she remained silent.
Suddenly, four daggers were headed for him again. Since they were so close, he couldn't move in time and only managed to dodge one. His arm, cheek and right buttock suddenly had fresh gashes on them. They didn't bleed too much since they all seemed to be like paper cuts: meant to destroy the nerves and cause the enemy massive pain.
"The hell!" Keitaro cursed, surprised that the same four daggers had somehow made their way back for a second attack. "How the hell did she do that?"
"Is it that hard to believe that someone could manipulate daggers in such a way?" the voice asked.
"What kind of fighting style is that?" Keitaro asked, half from curiosity and half from trying to buy some time. Fortunately, she bought it.
"It is a lost style from one of China's less famous houses; the House of Flying Daggers," she said. "Though I never trained in that style, it seems that I have lived as one of their warriors in a past life and her desire to come back to this world allowed me to retain her experiences."
"Who sent you anyway? I don't remember wronging anyone of your caliber," Keitaro said, trying to butter her up. As they spoke, his wounds were healing. He could imagine in his head how his cells were undergoing mitosis at an accelerated rate. And the fact that he still retained feeling in the wounded areas told him that the severed nerves were being rejuvenated as well. Just a little more…
"My name is Xiao-Mei," the voice said. She walked out of the dark and stood some distance away from Keitaro on the trial. From the little he could see of her from the moonlight, he could tell that she was not that much taller then him, though she had a gorgeous face (unlike our four eyed Keitaro).
"And as for who sent me, you should have been ready for the Yakuza to seek retribution at any time," she said darkly, but then in an annoyed tone, "Though I am usually sent out on missions where someone important needs to be eliminated, such as our former president, or Jet Li. But, it seems that you picked the wrong father's daughter to assault."
"You're telling me that that bitch's dad has rank in the Yakuza?" he asked in disbelief. He intended for them to seek vengeance, not start a war. The fact that he assaulted the daughter of someone important among them made it all too possible.
"He presides in the Council, but you didn't hear that from me… Actually, it won't really matter since you wont live to tell about it!" she said, suddenly extending her arms. Keitaro quickly concentrated on his hearing and heard not four, but three daggers flying. Why would she decrease their number? he thought while planning on how to dodge the flying metal instruments of fatal agony. When the daggers had reached the optimum positions, Keitaro started moving around like when he dodged the first set of daggers. But to his horror, the three daggers suddenly turned to six as they had been paired up tightly the whole time.
Women… so fickle… Keitaro suddenly judged. He managed to dodge two of the daggers since they followed their original trajectories, but their mates made contact. Keitaro's left arm was left useless as the biceps, triceps and shoulder muscles were all cut horizontally, gushing blood like the Niagara Falls spills water. The last dagger was situated in his left eye. He shuddered as he felt his eye leak the crucial jelly that let him see with it and fought to ignore the pain. Damn, I never saw that coming! With strength that he had never known he had, he glared at the woman, daring her to attack once more.
"Ho ho, did you like my little trick? I have plenty more I can show you… if you can survive!" she said and let fly the six more daggers.
Shit! Keitaro thought. There's no way for me to be sure it's six daggers and not twelve! Knowing he had no chance to fight her in this kind of situation, Keitaro did what any other honorable warrior would do when faced with unstoppable death: run like hell!!!
This place is way too open! Keitaro thought. I need to find a place where her daggers can't move around so freely. Somewhere that I can do some close quarter fighting with her!
"Are you running away, you coward?! Do you feel no shame?" she boomed.
"No," Keitaro answered, looking back. "I just suddenly feel that I'm not interested in old, dead women!"
"What?? How dare you call me dead? It is you who shall die!" she said, giving chase. She was remarkably agile and jumped from tree to tree with inhuman grace and speed.
"You're the one who said something about being dead before!" Keitaro shouted, trying to keep her from noticing his plan. Within seconds they would enter an area thick with foliage, or what looked like it with what little Keitaro could see.
"I was saying that I've been reincarnated you fool!"
"So you've died before!"
"But that wasn't me!" she yelled back, frustrated. Keitaro smirked. You actually fell for it! he thought when they had reached his desired destination. He stopped running and faced her, tracking her with his one good eye. Even now, he didn't move to pull the dagger out the other yet. She didn't notice him stop in time, so he punched her in the face while she tried to capitalize on her momentum by going from jumping from tree to tree to a Tiger Kick. Unfortunately, Keitaro had somehow anticipated her and got her smack dab on the nose with a one inch punch. She went flying back and crashed into a tree.
"My nose!" was she first thing she said, holding her face while dark fluid poured out of it. "You flattened my nose!"
"It wont make much difference… your face was already flat!" he said, trying to show a strong front in the hopes that she'd give up. He could already feel the numbness caused by the massive loss of blood setting in.
"Why you!" she said, infuriated at the insult. She outstretched her arms again, letting fly over ten daggers, some of which were burning.
"I didn't know you were that stupid!" Keitaro mocked her. "I made you follow me here so that the foliage would make it impossible for you to use your daggers!"
"You have much to learn, child!" the much older woman said cockily. As if on cue, Keitaro suddenly heard their familiar hiss.
"What?!" Keitaro said in surprise. The daggers had actually hacked their way through vines, vegetation and even wood to embrace their targets. They also burned all of the dead plant matter that happened to be in the area, quickly engulfing the area with flames. And to make matters worse, the daggers suddenly multiplied by nine. Thinking of no other way out of his predicament, Keitaro jumped as high as he could. Amazingly, the daggers actually followed his movement and adjusted their trajectories. Fast as lightning, though, Keitaro kicked them all to the side, harmlessly, since they came one by one. He landed with a smirk on his face, but felt a massive pain on his mouth just as he was about to insult her skills to aggravate the older woman further.
"You shouldn't have underestimated me by just thinking that I just fight with daggers only, child," she hissed. She slowly advanced to him, one hand still covering her delicate nose, while the other reached to her side. Keitaro stumbled backwards and crashed into a tree. He put his good hand to his mouth to feel what damage he had gotten. The reports from his tongue were bad; all he could register was the sharp metallic taste of blood.
Shling! Keitaro tensed when he heard the distinct sound of metal sliding against metal as the Yukuza's woman unsheathed her until-now unknown sword.
"From the look on your eye, boy, it seems that you didn't expect me to fight with a sword either, did you?"
Keitaro just nodded no, frustrated that she could somehow see in the dark. He heard a swooping motion just as she said, "DIE!"
(O)
She could swear Urishima, that vile, evil, perverted male had just entered his room. She had sworn to deal him swift justice after what he did to Kitsune. But when she stormed in, he was nowhere to be found. What frustrated her the most was that his residual ki hinted that he had in fact just left. She searched the entire house and turned it upside down looking for it until the sky became dark. By that time, dinner was already set and Shinobu was calling for her to join the rest.
To her utter frustration, Keitaro wasn't even in his seat. Spirits curse that damn Urishima!!! she thought furiously and took her seat. They waited a little longer for Keitaro, but he was nowhere to be seen. Finally, after Su's impatient insistence, they all started eating.
Motoko ate at a proper pace, trying to cool down from the wrath she felt for the resident pervert, or as she liked to think of it, the 'spawn from hell.' But she felt something was amiss. Besides the lack of Keitaro's ki, she could swear that she felt some bad vibes from Naru directed at Shinobu for some reason. Everyone knew that Keitaro had dumped her in favor of spending a day with Shinobu after the entrance exam, but she couldn't possibly be jealous of not receiving the attention of the beast, could she?
When she finished eating, she went to Su's room. She had left first, since she devoured anything that got near her with the efficiency of a school of great whites. "Su, can you find Urishima for me? I have searched everywhere, but he is nowhere to be found!"
"Why?"
"I need to… find him…" she answered cryptically, not wanting her soil her innocence while at the same time trying not to give her ideas.
"Are you guys playing hide-and-seek? Or are you two gonna get it on behind Naru's back?" she asked again with a straight face. She also decided that Motoko had an interesting neck and jumped on her to hang around it.
Motoko was reminiscent of Shinobu when she was around the man in question and tried not to hurt the little one for such a blatant insinuation.
"We are playing this game of 'hide-and-seek,' if you must," she said, clearly showing that her patience was running out. But it wasn't like she was lying; Urishima was hiding from her wrath and she was seeking to deal it.
"If you wanted to cheat that badly, all ya had to do was ask!" Su said and jumped off. Motoko fought the sudden urge to violently strangle the child. Moments later, the monkey came back from her 'storage area' a. k. a., a big pile of dangerous inventions with an utter look of confusion.
"What's wrong?" Motoko asked.
"I can't find him…" she said, scratching her head. She banged the radar a couple of times, to 'fix' it, but it gave the same result.
"What do you mean you can't find him?" Motoko asked, frustrated.
"Either my radar don't work, or Keitaro has been wiped off the face of this earth!" Su said, jumping around for no apparent reason.
So Urishima is no more, eh? No matter, someone else just did us all a favor. Motoko walked out of Su's jungle, a smug smile on her face.
(-O-)
Uh-oh… I done piss people off…
And remember, click the 'Go' button. (Flames are still understandable)
Ya'll come back now, ya hear?