Assassin Drones: The original saga
Fuyuki's training Arc. De Arimasu!
By Alex Young
The Kurile archipelago, 3:00 am. March 1, 2003
According to legend, during the reign of Tokugawa Ieyasu, someone had brought in a lot of raw, unrefined Lapis Lazuli rocks from abroad. One particular samurai had stashed these rocks in a secret location to be ground up and forged into his katana.
This was with the help of a local alchemist who had just slain a wolf, and had one of its fangs ground up and mixed in. Thus the tamahagane mixture was mixed in with powdered Lapis Lazuli and wolf's fang.
After the forging process was done and over with, the Ruriga katana was born. The blade had sucked up life force for every kill and because of this was widely feared across the land.
The blade is also purported to manipulate the emotions of its wielder's every opponent. Fits of rage or sorrow have been well documented, as well as sudden love interest spikes within from about a few minutes to the better part of one day of being attacked.
However, many samurai were so pissed off with the owner and scared of this terrible power, that they just up and killed the original owner of the Ruriga in the dead of night! The cult of Ruriga was formed shortly thereafter, and the namesake blade was buried somewhere in the Kuril islands sometime before the attack on pearl harbor.
When the Soviets took control of the Kurile islands after the war, they began their search for Ruriga, but they never found it. Eventually, in 1990, 45 years after the end of World War 2, the Next Generation Task Force did eventually find it through intel dug up from many former members of the dissolved cult of Ruriga.
The NGTF, deciding that the cold war has gone on long enough, used the Ruriga to incite feelings of such deep hatred within the Soviet Union, that it ultimately led to their dissolution in 1991.
The newly founded Russian Federation finally cooperated with the U.S.A. in forming the Ruriga protection committee later that year. However, it was dissolved with the foundation of EX.W.A.T.I., and the blade's temple had been sealed off.
In this case, an ever curious Fuyuki Hinata was about to undo that seal and take a look inside. He had sought to know more about the blade as he took any and all scrolls concerning the blade's history, as well as Ruriga itself with him out of the temple.
Gial was like a stealthful predator sitting atop the underground temple's secret entrance, waiting in the wings. Ruriga had beckoned for Fuyuki to return it to its original owner, for his spirit was trapped inside, and can only be freed if returned to the owner's grave.
Fuyuki had decided that he'd much rather learn more about what the blade can do and whether or not it actually lives up to the legend. Ruriga can also sense that Fuyuki's willpower has increased drastically, and with his imperceptibility of aura energy, it's a deadly combination.
Aoryuzen was fairly interested because of its reputation for radically altering its opponents' emotions and sucking up life force. He plans to use it to alter Ranma's emotions, and expose the hive mind for capture. Aoryuzen turned off the camera feed and thus, his latest plot began to formulate.
Back on the Kuril archipelago, the Rat pack was out with Kill Toro and Jiraiga in toe, also in search of Ruriga. Tank Viper, along with some former Kamui and Kurain members in the Don Viper gang were already there standing guard for the team of investigators with the disappearance of Ruriga.
Radon was accompanied by the Rat pack, who promised to let him live if he works with them for this assignment. This is part of Radon's ploy to play the Rat pack and Xiu Wong enterprises off against the Don Viper.
The Twinssassins Yurere and Yurara were also there accompanying Radon as old friends. They honed their skills as professional assassins playing various games together when Radon was only 4 years of age.
Tank Viper leapt up from his post to meet Radon and glare him in the eyes. Rip Rat immediately chomped on Tank viper by the waist, tossed him around, and spit him out into a large thicket.
Tank Viper fired back with his naturally occurring tank gun, and Slaughtersjaws literally bit the bullet with his pharyngeal jaw tongue. "They say that the weakest dogs usually bark the loudest." Tank Viper taunted.
Slaughtersjaws then tossed the bullet right back at Tank Viper, while Dark Claw moved in to slash several of his henchmen to pieces with razor sharp wings. Xiu Wong commandos clashed with the Don Viper henchmen.
Kill Toro had quite a beef with Tank Viper when he was still human, and he still does in his current form, which was probably why he insisted that he alone be the one to slay Tank Viper. In all fairness though, it's just another skirmish between Xiu Wong and the Don Viper set to last until the cows come home.
The Kuno Estate, 9:00 am
WIth the Kuno siblings away at school, Sasuke was left behind to manage the newly installed automated security system. The robots that were positioned for deployment against intruders were not mechadrones, but true robots instead.
After a while of inspectring the various subsystems and writing them as "up to snuff," Sasuke figured that he has plenty of free time until the Kuno siblings come home. The Kuno siblings know that very well, and have therefore allowed him to hide a Playstation 2 video game console, along with a television in a secret compartment in the attic.
He has to be very secretive about it all, otherwise he'll be sentenced to a week of 24/7 slave labor. After all, Sasuke is very good at hiding and concealment, even remembering to get an electric generator producing enough voltage to power the television as well as the Playstation 2 video game console.
Toramasa was out shopping for school supplies and meals for the day now that his secondary school store and the hallway in which it's located have been refurbished and injected with vibrancy now that Furinkan High has been rebuilt during the Valentine's day investigation.
Now that he's hauled a significant portion of school essentials, Toramasa figured that he might pay a visit to the Kuno estate. The moment that Toramasa knocked on the door, Sasuke paused his game and answered the door.
"Who is it?" Sasuke queried. "It's me. Frickin Toramasa Kobayabawa! ya pencil-necked meathead!" Toramasa roared before Sasuke fearfully opened the door. "Sorry about that, I was just dropping by to have a word with you about something." Toramasa broached.
"Well, I'm listening." Sasuke replied. "You see, there's this mysterious samurai sword known as Ruriga. No one knows the name of the person who first used it in combat, but its powers of emotional manipulation and life force draining are absolutely terrible..." Toramasa conversed about Ruriga with Sasuke all day long to no end.
EX.W.A.T.I. FOB Whiskey Delta 74, 7:00 pm
Kevin and Zeke were prepping their Apache helicoter gunship for a little night time patrol when they spotted several burglars escaping from the drop zone base. This was a vaguely familiar face stepped in to dispose of all the burglars within seconds.
It was Mantis, the combat android! Yes, he was killed off about a year ago, but he's back, reverse engineered for service in EX.W.A.T.I. and fighting fit. EX.W.A.T.I. scientists had their interest in Ruriga rekindled after Fuyuki took it out of its underground temple.
In fact, the scientists are very interested to know just what makes the Ruriga work the way it does, which was the very reason why they were in search of the site of a very special Lapis Lazuli deposit cordoned off by the local government for EX.W.A.T.I. itself.
The Lapis Lazuli deposit was purportedly near the beacon antenna that Jared had discovered on guard duty. Many terrorist organizations took advantage of the resulting outcry to wage jihad and retake control over Afghanistan.
This was why Mantis was deployed back into Afghanistan, along with the rest of task force Zulu Lambda 409 and the Shadow of Allah jihadi division. Zyururu was among those already having infiltrated the Don Viper occupied village nearby.
Zyururu had already made negotiations with EX.W.A.T.I. regarding his participation in this particular mission. Zyururu suspects that the Don Viper is trying to undermine the keronian presence on Earth in sponsoring these terrorist organizations.
EX.W.A.T.I. High command agreed on the condition that he secretly surrender any useful intel about Keron's military technology and invasion plans to them. As soon as Zyururu (albeit with an ulterior motive) gave the okay, the Shadow of Allah moved in to wage Jihad against the Don Viper sponsored terrorist camp near the village.
Task force Zulu Lambda 409's mission was to insert Mantis as a spy within the Garuru platoon as well as to escort and guard the miners against terrorist attacks. One of the miners reported signs of a significant Lapis Lazuli deposit, and proceeded on ahead.
The Lapis Lazuli ore was then processed into individual samples for shipment into various EX.W.A.T.I. laboratories across the world. Various test subjects were exposed to the stones, and the scientists found that the processing had made the stones much more potent at emotional manipulation than their unrefined counterparts.
Therefore, part of Ruruiga's legend proved itself to be very true, and EX.W.A.T.I. thus sought to have it stored in a top secret location for its own use and to protect it against those who would want to take over the world with it.
The Tendo residence, 4:00 am. March 2, 2003
Fuyuki was there training with Ranma as usual with Natsumi and Momoka watching from out the porch. This time, the focus was on roof hopping and bare handed blade catches, which took some very good hand-eye coordination.
This was when a rather irate Tatewaki Kuno burst the gate doors down to challenge Ranma once more. "RANMA SAOTOME! YOU DARE TO VIOLATE AKANE TENDO, YET AGAIN!? YOU ANIMAL!" Kuno bellowed as he swung his bokken into striking position when Fuyuki put his latest training to its test.
Surprise surprise, Fuyuki passed with flying colors as he caught Kuno's ridiculously sharp bokken, and swiftly disarmed him a few seconds later. Fuyuki's older sister, Natsumi then rushed to help him and Ranma combat Kuno.
Kuno then rushed to grab his bokken, which he did as Fuyuki jumped on his head and grappled him by the tongue. "What's the matter, cat got your tongue?" Fuyuki teased to Kuno's apparent furor.
Fuyuki then jumped off to kick Kuno in the lower jaw before Ranma booted him high into near Earth orbit. "Heh, just another day in the office, I suppose." Fuyuki mused as Ranma cracked his knuckles once more.
"Say, Ranma. Would you mind letting me and Winter spar with each other." "Sure, why not." Ranma replied to Natsumi's request before retiring to take a bath. Fuyuki immediately drawn his Ruriga while Natsumi chose to wield a pair of daggers.
Fuyuki, aiming to see if the Ruriga legend was true, lacerated Natsumi in the gut, with the wound itself just shallow enough not to be of any disease concern. He needed only cause a flesh wound in his sister to really get things going.
It was right then and there that Natsumi began to feel highly amorous for who else but Ranma Saotome, which was highly unusual considering that she is Ryoga's primary love interest and that Ryoga was her secondary love interest.
Ranma was already getting out of his bath by the time that Natsumi casually sauntered on in clad only in her new lavender bra. "Hey, Romeo." Natsumi breezed sensually, much to Ranma's surprise.
{Aw shit! Another fiancee!} Ranma gulped as he backed against the wall with Natsumi closing in ever slowly. "Come on, Ranma! Let's ditch this dump, get married, and have kids together! Okay?" Natsumi then oozed as she closed in to kiss Ranma's lips.
"OH NO! DON'T COME ANY CLOSER!" Ranma screamed as he slipped out from the space and near the door fearing for his life, and for good reason as soon as Akane kicked the door in. "RANMA, YOU STUPID JERK!" Akane screeched as she stomped on up to mallet Ranma upside the head.
Akane then malleted Ranma like a baseball bat, knocking Natsumi out cold as soon as Ranma made contact with the wall. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING, RANMA!?" Akane growled dangerously as she stomped on up the grapple Ranma by his scorpion tail.
"AKANE! SHE BARGED IN ON ME! NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND!" Ranma growled back as Natsumi woke up as her normal self. What's more was that she had absolutely no idea how and why she wound up only in her bra!
Strangely enough, even though the effect was very potent even with the flesh wound because it had stored so much life force. However potent the effect may be, it will only last as long as the wound has not healed.
Therefore, if the wound heals, the effect wears off immediately (not that a good sharp blow to the head won't help to shake it off either), and that was the simple, brutally honest truth behind the legend. Natsumi didn't want to get caught in the middle, so she crawled her way out to get dressed once more.
"Wow, Winter! I had no idea whatsoever!" Natsumi panted knowing that her wound was well and fully healed because she, much like Fuyuki was a natural healer. "Let's keep that one between the three of us, sis." Fuyuki replied with Momoka in the loop as they all went home figuring that Fuyuki got his sufficient training in.
It was this very same incident, timed with the near arrival of Girls' day, that would serve to drive the patriarchs next hair brained scheme, along with Aoryuzen's latest plot to capture the hive mind from Ranma.
Even though the dojo was locked off with the Japanese dolls in full display for Girls' day, Gial was already hanging around, with Aoryuzen's plan and its preparation already well ahead of schedule.
High up in the pacific ocean, 10:00 pm
The Gargantuan N.A.S.A./Lockheed Martin was cruising overhead for the better part of about a week since its latest launch. Its mission this time was to scan the surface of the Earth as an early warning beacon for any threats to the Ruriga mission (known internally as Operation: Thylacosmilus).
Back on Earth's surface, Akane, already clad in a formal pale yellow kimono, had unlocked the Tendo dojo door, stepped inside, sat down kneeling, and closed her eyes awaiting Ranma's presence. Raikoume and Kamikase were just gracious enough to let that happen before they got to work laying their Kusanagi land shark trap with Gaedool's help.
After having tightened all the silk wires, they buried the motors in partway, and installed the various shark fin blades. After a test showing that the blades react appropriately using the grass as a trigger mechanism, all three assassin drones decided that all they need do is wait for any unwary victims.
The backwoods of Kyushu, 3:14 am. Girls' day, 2003
"Algol! Did you find anything?" Scirocco called out as his trusty falcon, Algol landed on his master's arm pointing in the direction of a map to where Ruriga samurai's gravesite is located. "HEY! DAT MAP IS MINE!" One of the Don Viper thugs screeched.
"Heh, looks like I have company." The anti heroic martial arts falconer, Scirocco breezed out as he motioned to sic his falcon on his aggressors. Radon was also there fighting along side Scirocco as little more than a helping hand.
Radon also found out that the Don Viper gang and Xiu wong's commandoes (Rat pack included) had both formed an uneasy alliance with each other as reinforcements from both sides arrived on the scene.
Tzu Lin and her Blood Scoripon soldiers had just shown up on Radar Viper's radar. "WHAT DA FUCK!? YOU FUCKERS LED US INTO A TRAP!? I SHOULD'VE KNOWN YOU'D BE PLOTTING TO BRING US DOWN!" Radar Viper accused ending the alliance at that.
Radon and Scirocco took advantage of the resulting chaos to escape as Blood Scoripon and the Cat pack joined the fray. Tank Viper opened fire on Blood Scorpion, the Cat pack, and the Rat pack simultaneously, adding fuel to what would go down as the Girls' day firestorm.
After escaping the battle between two paramilitary units and an organized crime syndicate, Radon and Scirocco had just arrived at a map to the grave site. Radon had his Macedonian twins still drawn for protection.
Once the both of them had arrived on the scene of the grave site, Fuyuki was already there having plunged the Ruriga blade into a blade shaped hole in the the gravestone. Therefore, the rights to use its fullest power have been entrusted to Fuyuki for about a good solid three weeks.
The Tendo residence, 5:09 am
The patriarchs, and for some odd reason, Happosai were all up bright and early for Girls' day, albeit for completely different reasons. This day was very special for Happosai because it meant for him that he could nab any womens' underwear he wanted!
The patriarch's reasons were not nearly as perverse, but equally obvious; they wanted to see Ranma arrive into the dojo to kiss and eventually marry Akane to love her (they already are in love by the way, but don't plan on marrying until they both get a good solid game plan going and somehow work things out with as many parties as possible).
With that, Genma and Soun stepped onto the grass when the Kusanagi blades propped up and attacked the both of them. The patriarchs' feet and legs hopped about like pogo sticks as they both rushed to escape amid the blades, land mines, and bear traps.
All of which combined to give them a rather convincing illusion that a ravenous pack of gun toting land sharks was coming after them. Finally, both Soun and Genma escaped with their feet still attached to their ankle sockets.
Ranma was woken up by all that ruckus and peeked out the window to see what the hell was going on. {I shoulda known these A-drones would do this, but I ain't fallin for it. No sir!} "HUURYAAA!" Ranma screeched as he jumped right over the carnage.
It was as though Ranma was already wise to the assassin drones' plan and that of the patriarchs so he wouldn't exactly play along this time around. Ranma landed straight through the roof knocking Gial down in the process and kicking him into the door where the patriarchs were still standing.
Raikoume and Kamikase were quick to shut down the system, dismantle it, and retreat in an instant after Gial landed on the trap himself, and because Fuyuki had already dashed their hopes of manipulating Ranma's emotions with the Ruriga at the moment.
Ranma turned around to see that Akane was still kimono clad, and was already kneeling down awaiting Ranma's arrival. As soon as Ranma got in close enough, Akane opened her eyes, and embraced Ranma to kiss him once more.
Meanwhile, Soun and Genma were already gone chasing after the assassin drones for their transgression. "You creeps can't keep running away for long!" Soun snarled as Genma began to pelt his quarry with lots of sharp rocks continuing to chase them all the way into the woods.
Momoka's room, 11:00 am
There was yet another beautiful doll collection much like in the dojo, and Momoka was there also with eyes closed awaiting Fuyuki's arrival. She was clad in a pink sakura kimono with white accents, and her white obi.
Fuyuki, clad in his white dress shirt, white tie, and white dress pants, opened up the door to see Momoka open her eyes, and stand up to face him. "After we deal with Baio and company, will you marry me?" Fuyuki proposed, a request to which she can only say a highly ecstatic "YES!" thereby setting their marriage plans (albeit slowly) in motion.