Chapter 6: Dojo Battle (Wednesday Morning: January 1st, 2003)
Tofu watched Daran drive the taxi away. Then he turned and demanded from Ranma: "What's going on?"
"Othan says we got three squads of assassins coming our way. Akane just spirited our weak point away," Ranma explained.
"Kasumi can hold her…" Tofu started and then stopped. "Nodoka," he stated.
Ranma nodded. "The assassins are after me and Akari. We know why they're after Akari."
"Othan have any idea why Henna is after you and not Akane or Ryoga?" Tofu pressed.
"No. Maybe she's starting to put two and two together," Ranma answered. "She may know about my Companion or figured out that I can tie directly into the Nexus - even if I'm just skimming the edges. She may see me as a real threat, even if I never fought against her. Either way, it doesn't matter. She's sending people after me, and I ain't backing down."
Tofu gave a light snort at the idea of Ranma backing down and crossed his arms. He raised an eyebrow and asked: "So what's the plan, oh mighty tactician?"
Ranma grinned. "Othan's already set something in motion. Akane is removing the complications as we speak. We just have to clean up what gets through."
"Disappointed?" Tofu teased.
"Hell, no. I'd never have gotten Akane out of here if it was more than a clean-up operation…." Ranma laughed.
Akane was miffed. Not angry, not pissed, just miffed. Her dummy of a fiancé had managed to get her out of the house and away from the battle using a most insidious weapon – logic. She knew he could be impulsive, she knew he could be silly, but she sometimes forgot that he could also be smart: smart enough to read a battle – or a war – and realize how the situation was breaking. Ranma had told her: "They tried to take me out precisely and it didn't work. Now they're going the other way – 'Nuke 'em from orbit, it's the only way to be sure.' They're going to simply blow us up. You're the only one who can stop that."
When she argued that she could come back, Ranma had nix'ed the idea: "Mom has no defenses. She's a sitting duck. Someone has to protect her – and you're the only one I trust to do that. Kasumi has to leave too. The wedding has to continue. Kuno's dead unless it does. We don't have any options: you're the only one who can keep things moving." It didn't help that Apay had been chiming in telling Akane that he was right. Grrrr… She had to agree in short order, but she swore she'd make him suffer if he got hurt.
Now, Akane watched the street intensely looking for signs of the strike. She noted Martial Artists here and there. Every now and then, she caught a glimpse of a ninja (both male and female). "Still on our side," she thought. She was also looking with her mind for something even more unusual. After a few more blocks, she found it. She leaned forward and told Daran: "Turn right up ahead."
He looked back at her in the mirror, his Chinese disguise never wavering. "But, Ma'am," he started. "We need…"
"Turn right up here," she repeated. "That much C-4 is a bit more than Tofu can handle on the fly. I want a house to go home to."
"Akane? What's going on?" Nodoka demanded.
"Hush, Auntie," Kasumi said softly. "Just let Akane do her work."
Daran dropped the Chinese accent and asked firmly: "What do I need to do?" Nodoka started in surprise as Daran's voice came from the Chinese man.
"Just drive past that white box truck," Akane replied. "My friend and I will handle the rest. Then we're going to make a pass through the rest of this neighborhood - this is the launch area. The Enemy is in for a big surprise when they pull their triggers. This way I don't have to worry about my fiancé while I'm getting ready."
Othan watched the taxi cab through his binoculars. Daran's text sat on his phone with the coordinates of the first truck. Three more white box trucks had been located, but one was not part of the assassins' team - it had contained only produce. Of the other two, one was too well defended. Othan had decided to not go for the remaining one, just let the Tendo girl quietly take out both.
He had no idea how Akane's power had grown to eclipse Tofu's ability to drain explosives and gunpowder, but he didn't care - the RPG he had deliberately placed in the young woman's range was dead as a door nail. While he liked Ranma well enough and was familiar with magic, he had wanted a little verification of Ranma's assessment.
Jacobs came up behind him. "How's it going?" he asked without preamble.
"Our 'allies' out-number the assassins at least four-to-one. If the assassins are aware of the others, then they're overconfident of their firepower," Othan answered.
"Or the leader is Bound," Jacobs stated.
Othan shrugged. "So we deal."
"What's the plan?"
"As soon as our little lady says the sweep is done, we take the nearest truck and seize the comm's equipment. Then we flood the frequency to prevent any organized response. We come up behind them and put down as many as possible without gun-play. Firearms are only to be used if fired upon – not likely anymore," Othan said. "The rest of the assassins will either have to fall back to us or attack the dojo. Either way, they're screwed."
Jacobs shook his head. "Do you really think this will happen with no collateral damage?" he asked.
"Not a chance," Othan laughed as he started to walk away. He looked back at Jacobs and smiled. "It just won't be our fault for once."
Ranma stood ostensibly looking out into the backyard. In reality, he was using Tofu's training to scan the surrounding neighborhood. Then he calmly walked out the door into the yard…
Sensei Miyazaki was tailing two assassins as they climbed along a set of row houses not too far from the Tendo Dojo. One of the assassins carried what could only be a rocket launcher. Miyazaki watched the man very carefully as he closed in silently. Upon reaching the end of the row, the two assassins had a clear view of the Tendo Dojo grounds. "Should we just take out the house?" one assassin asked.
"We don't know where they are yet. If we hit the house and they're in the dojo, they could get away. Just be patient," the man with the rocket launcher answered.
That was good enough for Miyazaki. He edge closer and took out a blunted chakram – blunted because Judge Sanu did not allow edged weapons outside of the dojo and Miyazaki had a great deal of respect for the irascible judge. Just before the Martial Arts Master could throw his disk, Ranma Ono walked out of his house and stood in the backyard. Immediately, the assassin raised his launcher, but both assassins were taken out by a sliding tackle from a female ninja that appeared from the shadows. The man holding the launcher lost the weapon and he fell over the edge of the roof. The second assassin leapt up and retrieved the launcher. The Kunoichi was forced to leap back as he swung the weapon at her like a baseball bat, then the man aimed at the (apparently) unsuspecting Ranma. Miyazaki threw his weapon, but not in time to stop the assassin from pulling the trigger. The Master hit the roof to avoid the expected backlash from the rocket, but nothing fired. The chakram smashed in the assassin's back and knocked him over the roof edge to follow his fellow. The rocket launcher tumbled after him.
The cry of "Ah hell!" burst out of the Kunoichi as she leapt after the man.
"Damn it!" escaped from Miyazaki. He raced after her.
On the ground, the Kunoichi carefully rolled one man over. She was a woman of average height and in her late twenties. "Broken shoulder," she said. "And unconscious."
Miyazaki looked at the second man. "This one's just unconscious. He's lucky the roof isn't higher."
A second woman appeared and looked at the rocket launcher. "You're lucky too, old man," she told Miyazaki. "The rocket failed to fire." Miyazaki looked crossly at her as she pushed something on the weapon and a burned shell fell out the back of the launcher. "That's weird," she commented. "The shell is already spent. He mis-loaded the weapon?"
"Doesn't matter," the first woman said. "Let's take both of them for safe keeping."
"Nerima looks after their own," Miyazaki told her.
"These assassins aren't yours, old man," the second woman said. With that, she flicked a small ball of knock-out powder at the sensei. The powder expanded completely enveloping Miyazaki. She was surprised when he leaped out of the cloud, spun, and caught high on the forehead with a kick. She dropped to the ground stunned.
"Pretty good, old man," the remaining woman said as she launched her own attack. Soon the two were exchanging blows and blocks rapidly.
The still whole assassin suddenly rolled away from the fight and sprang up. Without a word, he was running toward the Tendo dojo.
The Kunoichi on the ground shook her head clear and yelled: "Hey! He's getting away!"
Maomolin was working his way back to the dojo. He had taken Chiyoko out for a private breakfast and now she was in the marketplace admiring the New Years decorations the merchants had hung. True to his promise, the shape-shifter had told his beloved about the coming battle and then convinced her to sit this one out. Fortunately, Chiyoko knew she wasn't a warrior, so she just made Maomolin promise to be careful.
He was now back in his battle form – the one he modeled on Ranma's cat form. The extremely large black panther stealthily leapt from rooftop to rooftop while looking for any sign of the assassins. He stopped and sat on the roof of Tofu's clinic and watched two men walk openly down the sidewalk. While they looked unarmed, Maomolin could smell burnt gunpowder from both of them. "Interesting," Maomolin noted. "Looks like the Little Missy tagged them already." He debated several alternatives and then decided on the direct ambush. The panther leaped from the roof and landed behind the two assassins soundlessly. Then he slammed his victims' heads together and they dropped like sacks full of rocks.
"Now what do I do with them?" Maomolin wondered silently as he kept a paw between each man's shoulder blades. "I really shouldn't leave them here."
Just then, a cargo van pulled up and one of Kuno's men looked out the driver's window. "Two tuna a piece for them!" the ninja called out.
"No! Six tuna for both of them!" a Kunoichi countered from a rooftop across the street.
"I saw them first, Cat!" a mercenary called out from behind Maomolin. "You cut me out!"
"Screw this!" the ninja in the van yelled out. He shot something at the mercenary that quickly became a net. The mercenary hit the ground and the net flew beyond him. The ninja was shot from his van as the Kunoichi flew in the passenger side feet first and slid across the bench seat.
"Serves you right!" the merc shouted as he ran up to kick the downed man. The ninja caught his foot and tripped his opponent. The Kunoichi shot over the falling man, missing him. Soon, the three were involved in a free-for-all.
"I think you're missing the point!" Maomolin shouted in vain at the trio.
"You talk?" one of the downed assassins asked from where Maomolin held him.
"The question should be, 'Is he going to eat us?'" the second assassin asked.
"Too much effort," Maomolin answered. "Humans are too stringy – not enough meat for the trouble."
"How about letting us go then?" the first assassin requested.
"Ranma's my son," Maomolin stated. "I'm afraid things don't look too good for you."
"Oh…how about we offer to quit? You let us go, we leave all our weapons with you and then we run away in terror. If it helps, I'm already pee'ing in my pants," the assassin offered.
"So I noticed." Maomolin pondered the proposal as he watched the fight. "No help there," he thought. Out loud, he asked: "Won't you lose your souls to Henna if you quit?"
"Our squad leader signed that agreement – we didn't," the second man answered. "Personally, I think a career change is in order."
"Hmmm…" Maomolin rumbled. "All right…let's give it a try." He eased up on the pressure holding the men down, but didn't let them up. "Your weapons – all of them; and I can smell them. Leave one out and you'll be leaving your intestines out." The great cat extended his claws enough so the men got his point – all of them. He heard both men swallow hard. Very carefully, the men pulled out weapon after weapon until there was quite a heap at their heads. "The blades too," Maomolin insisted. The assassins complied.
Finally, Maomolin detected no further armaments, so he let the men up. The two assassins slowly got to their feet and looked at the huge cat. For good measure, Maomolin doubled his size and grinned at the men. Every tooth was presented clearly. The men paled. "Well?" the panther prompted.
"Right…AAHHHHHH!" The men screamed as they bolted away from Maomolin – and away from the Tendo Dojo.
"They're getting away," the mercenary yelled. Immediately, the three combatants stopped and tore off disarmed assassins.
Maomolin noted that the three had no chance of catching the terror-stricken men. "That was sort of fun," the cat mused. "I wonder if I can do that again…"
Ranma heard a "whump" sound from the surrounding neighborhood. Satisfied, he turned around again and walked back inside.
Soun was looking through a set of binoculars. "You've got to be kidding me," he said as his future son-in-law closed the door.
"Nope," Ranma replied. "Sometimes, springing the trap is all it takes. What do you see?"
"All the assassins were just taken down by a mix of Martial Artists, Kunoichi, ninja, and mercenaries. None of the assassins' weapons fired. How did you arrange that?" Soun asked.
"I didn't, your daughter did," Ranma answered. "Daran's her driver. She swept the area and took out all the ammo. All the assassins have now is hand weapons - and bad odds."
"So, that's it? It's over?" Soun asked.
"Umm…not quite," Ranma hedged. "There's likely to be a complication or two. Keep watching."
"Oh hell," Soun muttered. "They're now fighting over the assassins."
Ranma sighed. He pulled a digital recorder from his gi and pressed a button. The sound of a foxhunting horn burst from the device and the 'Going Away' call rang out like yesterday in the courtroom.
Tofu ran into the room. "Where did you get that?" he demanded.
"Sanu," Ranma stated with a smirk. "He handed it out as a party favor - you didn't really think Ryuu knew how to play that thing, did you?" Tofu just growled at his brother.
Ryoga, Akari, Mousse, Olaf, Mausu, and Ciren all came running into the room ready for battle. "Maomolin is on his way back," Ciren said. "He took Chiyoko to breakfast to get her out of the line of fire. Konatsu is already about. Daran's waiting for orders on where he should be."
"The battle's coming here," Ranma told them. "Our allies are distracted, so at least some of the assassins are going to survive the initial pounding and try to finish the job. They have no firepower - Akane took care of that. We just have to deal with mundane weapons. Ryoga and I need to Shield as much as possible in case Henna takes a failed assassin like last night. The rest of you should too if you can, so we're going to cut up the yard into zones - everyone man your zones, and don't fire into someone else's unless you know where they are. O.K.?" Everyone nodded, so Ranma gave out the zone assignments. Finally he said: "Go!"
The Dojo Destroyer sat on the roof of the Tendo dojo while participating in the battle. Doe's strategy was simple: an assassin would enter the compound and Doe took him out with a hurled dojo sign. Unfortunately for the assassins, they were not Nerima Martial Artists and they had little defense against a large chuck of aged oak hurling at them at high speed. Fortunately, all of them were wearing body armor and would survive. The only thing that kept the Dojo Destroyer from dominating the battle was that he had to be careful; many of the residents of the Tendo Dojo were Shielding and hard to spot until they attacked an assassin. Also, Doe didn't want to hit any of the ninjas or mercenaries that had followed the assassins onto the dojo grounds – they were allies of sorts; or, at least, not enemies.
One clever assassin did have a sonar motion system with him that he had saved from the damage of the initial onslaught. He could detect several targets with the unit, but the same unit made him stick out like a sore thumb, and Doe took him out with a sign before he could close with anyone. A few of the assassins stubbornly tried to reload their firearms with fresh ammunition, refusing to believe that every bullet they possessed had been drained (which left them as open targets), but most of the assassins used blades or arrows, which the defenders were very good at avoiding and countering. Doe caught several arrows, distracting the attackers, often to the point where someone on the ground took them out.
As the battle progressed, Ranma and company spent most of their time trying to unsuccessfully stop the infighting among the assorted Martial Artists, Kunoichi, ninja, and mercenaries, but they couldn't guard the prisoners and watch for the assassins - especially since it quickly became obvious that the assassins were targeting anyone who was associated with the Tendo compound, not just Ranma and Akari. The dojo crew didn't want to strike any of their allies either, so words were all they had. Finally, after all the assassins had been spirited away, Doe watched as Ranma stood in the yard alone with one of the mercenaries and Tofu.
"What the hell was all that about?" Tofu asked Othan.
Othan just shrugged. "Ego, I think. Everyone is certain they are the best one to question the prisoners, except for your neighbors, who just don't like outsiders after one of their own." He nodded at Ranma and Tofu as he said that. "They just wanted to give your enemies something to remember so they'll stay away."
"Great. Now what do we do?" Tofu sighed.
Othan looked at his watch. "Ummm….it's 11:30AM," The other two men shot their heads up to look at him. "I think you need to get married."
"We are going to die," Ranma stated.
'Oh, come on now," Othan laughed as he turned away. "Your respective others are going to be too happy to see you in fine health. You might be a little deaf from the scoldings, but death? So not happening…." He continued to walk away and used his arms to pull himself up to stand on the compound wall.
"I need three armored cars!" Tofu called out to him.
Othan raised his hand without turning around. "Done," he said. With that, he jumped down on the other side.
"We got to move," Tofu said. "Gods, I don't even know if they have Tatewaki yet." He yelled out: "Sasuke!"
A ninja appeared on the compound wall, standing about twice as tall as Sasuke. He bowed to Tofu and said: "Sasuke is hunting for Master Kuno, Lord Tofu. Last I heard, he found the young master's trail."
"I hope he hurries," Tofu muttered as he bowed an acknowledgement to the ninja. "C'mon…" he said to his brother.
The Dojo Destroyer watched as the two men entered the house. "That's right," he thought. "There's a second wedding today." Doe reflected on the battle and then stood up. "Some of the assassins got away. They're going to try again, but I'm not going to let them wreck the wedding…" With that, he leaped to the ground and took out his phone…
A/N: Next up - "Tatewaki", where we see the flip-side of "The Other Side of the Looking Glass".
