High above the rooftops, he stalked his prey like an eagle, or a falcon, or some other kind of bird that stalks things. It had been many years since he last saw his face in the burning fields of Ikaruga, the face of the evil monster who froze his master in a block of ice and left his people to die while the Library tried to destroy the country. But as this man had told his followers, fear not, for what was Ikaruga but an idea? A country's true identity lived on in the hearts of its people, and enough people had survived and made their way to the city of Kagutsuchi that they would continue living and thriving under the ideals that Lord Tenjo had taught them. True, others had called the neighborhood "Ronin-gai," but as far as the man was concerned, it was just like their home of Ikaruga all the same.
The news had come in recently from one of his fellow Ikaruga ninjas: a man who matched the description of Jin Kisaragi had been spotted in Kagutsuchi, heading towards the Library with an armed escort. "Hey Boss," one ninja was telling him now, "You think we should wait until he is alone before making our move?"
"What, and waste this chance?" The boss responded, "I don't care how many men Jin Kisaragi has with him, I will defeat them all as long as I have the power of righteousness on my side!"
"Yeah Boss, I hear ya, but they have some pretty big guns…"
"Then how about this, you provide a distraction for the armed escort, and I will deal with Jin."
"But what if it's not the right guy?"
"Well then, I guess we'll find out, but I'm sure it's the right one. The blonde hair, the long sword, the pompous attitude…who else could it be but my arch-nemesis?"
"Well, you've never steered us wrong before."
"Exactly! That's why I must confront this foul demon, so that the memory of Lord Tenjo can finally rest in peace!"
"Hey Boss Bang," a second ninja appeared, "I've got those photos of Miss Litchi you wanted sir!"
"Really?" Bang stopped and turned around, "Let me see them!"
"Don't worry sir, no harm has come to Miss Litchi yet, but we'll let you know immediately if anyone tries."
"Aw, my sweet Miss Litchi." Bang mused out loud as he looked at the photos, staring at her lovely face, her beautiful breasts, her long legs, and then back to her breasts again. "Once I have finished business here, I will finally have the strength and courage to make her my woman!"
"No offense, Boss, but you've been saying that for the past few weeks. Why don't you just ask her out and see if she says yes?"
"What? And risk losing her forever? Not a chance! Now, here's the plan…"
"Look, I told you, I'm not a criminal." Ky Kiske told his armed escort as he was being led around in handcuffs to what he assumed was the headquarters of his captors, "I'm just trying to figure out what's going on here."
"Really? Well so are we." One of the NOL troops replied, "Specifically, why you decided to impersonate an officer of the Librarium, yet you don't seem to know anything about the NOL."
"That's what I'm trying to find out." Ky raised his voice slightly. His stint as a Holy Knight taught him a good deal of patience, but even that was starting to strain with the repeated denials that he truly didn't know any Jin Kisaragi or any Novus Orbis Librarium.
"Well don't worry," The same trooper replied, "Once we get to the Library up here, I'm sure we'll figure out your true intentions."
"For the last time, I'm not a criminal!"
"Yeah, that's the odd thing about all those people in jail right now: every one of them was convicted of a crime, but none of them are criminals. Funny how that happens, ain't it Mister Impersonator?"
Ky thought about this for a moment. It was awfully similar to a line one of his colleagues spoke when he was working with the International Police Force a few years ago, back when he was quite sure that everyone he arrested on orders was guilty of something. Then again, it turned out that not all of the men he arrested had committed crimes there, some of them just had the misfortune of crossing one of the higher-ups in the Postwar Administration Bureau. Ky suddenly recognized the irony of that statement as one of his captors repeated it back to him now. He stopped walking as he saw a figure on one of the rooftops nearby, and he appeared to be pointing a finger at him.
"Hey!" One of the escorting soldiers shouted, "Who said you could stop? Keep walking!"
"You don't see that?"
"See what?" The trooper pointed his gun up in the air, trying to figure out what Ky Kiske was talking about. After a few seconds, he decided to club Ky with the butt of his gun for being so uppity, until a couple of smoke bombs hissed through the air and landed between Ky and his escort.
"We're under attack!" A third member of the escort shouted, "Someone grab blondie here, take him to the Library! The rest of you, find cover!" Ky found himself grabbed by the arm and dragged away as the trooper held his weapon arm forward and the others tried to find their attackers through the smoke. The person he saw earlier leaped off the roof, and Ky thought he was going to break a leg, but instead he quickly came into focus as he dropkicked his escort through the face with a loud "TOOOOH!" sound before the soldier could fire his weapon.
The man springboarded off the soldier he kicked a second earlier, then tossed a shuriken that pinned his weapon arm to the ground just before his own feet landed. Ky might have applauded the action, except the man appeared very angry at him.
"Jin Kisaragi!" He shouted, "You thought you could fool me by traveling undercover with this pathetic NOL escort? Well your evil deeds end here, for I am the Ninja of Ikaruga, the Defender of Kagutsuchi and the man who fights for love and justice!" He struck a pose while taking the gigantic nail strapped to his back and tossing it directly up into the air. "I am Bang Shishigami, and it was you who killed my master Lord Tenjo and burned our country to the ground! You, the so-called 'Hero of Ikaruga' and the rest of the Library scum!"
Ky wanted to respond, but he was a still a bit in shock from the spectacle of the entire thing. What had happened to those escorts, and who was this self-proclaimed Ninja-Defender-whatever? Why did Bang have a grudge against this Jin character, and why did he also seem to think that Ky was this same guy when he never met either of them before.
"And with this battle, I shall prove that the spirit of Ikaruga lives on, and I shall avenge my master once and for all! Now, we shall fight!"
"Um…I don't suppose you could get these cuffs off me, could you?"
"What?" Bang thought about it for a moment, "Well, if you are prepared to battle me, I suppose I could make it a fair fight." Bang retrieved the key to the cuffs from the downed soldier's pocket, and tried unlocking them, but the key didn't seem to fit. After getting frustrated, he simply grabbed the nail still hovering in the air and let out a war cry as he slammed it down on Ky's hands. Ky instinctively tried to dodge, and the cuffs ended up snapping off anyway when the tip of the nail sliced through them.
"Look, I'm getting really tired of being accused of something I didn't do." Ky Kiske raised his sword and pointed it at the ninja. "So fine, I'll fight you for a bit, but when I beat you, I'm going to want some answers about this Jin Kisaragi guy everyone thinks I am!"
"Stop talking like that! You are Jin Kisaragi!"
"Well explain why my supposed allies had me in handcuffs!"
"A clever ruse, but don't try to talk your way out of this one, you vile villain!"
Ky Kiske took a deep breath. "So there's no way of avoiding this? Then bring it on."
"Hey Gilden?"
"Yes Rosen?"
"Why did we let that guy keep his sword after arresting him?"
"Well, he didn't seem like a very violent type."
"Are you serious? He looked a lot like Major Kisaragi to me."
"Well, if he was the Major, there's a good chance we wouldn't be standing here talking about it now."
"True, you do make a good point Rosen. But don't you think it's a bit dangerous letting him keep that weapon? I mean, what if he ends up fighting with them?
"Oh come on, Gilden!" Rosen subconsciously smacked the hilt of his spear on the ground, "He's got five soldiers escorting him with guns, there's no way that five highly-trained and heavily-armed soldiers of the Librarium could all be neutralized at once by one man with a sword, right?"
"Well, there was that one time when they ran into the Red Devil of…"
"Pure exaggeration."
"And that other time when a creepy kid supposedly used a large marionette to…"
"Mass hallucination."
"And Ragna the Bloodedge has been destroying entire Libraries with…"
"Oh come on!" Rosen ripped off his standard-issue patrol hat, the argument and the heat of the day both making him sweat buckets in the thing. "You keep up that negative attitude and we'll never finish our shift on a good note!"
"Sorry Rosen, just saying what everyone is thinking."
"No wonder you never got promoted, Gilden."
"Well I'm sorry Rosen, not all of us can get caught screwing the daughter of their commanding officer!"
"For the last time, Gilden, she told me she was 18!"
"And I'm sure that explanation gave our CO lots of comfort when he threatened to string your ass on a flagpole and whistle Dixie around it."