"You're outmatched, vixen," Tsubaki boasts. "What hope do you have against us?"
"Two to one: sounds like a fair fight to me," Hanna smirks confidently.
"Those weapons won't help you," Tsubaki sneers, referring to Hanna's nunchaku.
"You're right," Hanna agrees, catching and holstering her nunchaku. "But I do have this," she adds, unslinging the assault rifle from her back and aiming it directly at Tsubaki's head. "Oh dear, it appears you've both brought knives to a gun fight."
"You really think you can kill us both before we slice you open?" Kaede challenges.
"No‑one threatens my wife," a new voice growls.
Kaede spins to see Rob standing in the middle of the street, his rifle aimed directly at the pika's head. "Tsuba, we're fucked."
"Don't call me that," Tsubaki demands.
"Any last words?" Hanna asks.
Tsubaki and Kaede exchange a look, then simultaneously turn and charge, Tsubaki at Rob, Kaede at Hanna. Both Skarletts fire and miss, but before they can re‑aim and shoot again, the Jades have closed the distance. A vicious upswing of a tekko‑kagi wrecks Hanna's rifle and tears it from her hands, and the twin asymmetric katana make short work of Rob's rifle too. The Skarletts duck and roll under the follow‑up attacks, returning to their feet with close‑combat weapons drawn.
"So much for your plan," Hanna remarks to Rob.
"Can't win 'em all," Rob replies.
"No, you certainly can't," Tsubaki mocks.
Rob and Tsubaki are the first to re‑engage. Rob uses the momentum of his counter‑charge to power his thrust at Tsubaki's torso, but the tanuki parries with the water katana. She counters with her fire katana, only for Rob to catch the blade between the monouchi and yoku. Rob doesn't stop there though: he slams his full weight into Tsubaki, knocking her flat on her back. Rob inverts his sai and dives, aiming to thrust the monouchi straight through Tsubaki's ribcage, but it's now the tanuki's turn to exploit her momentum. She kicks up hard, striking Rob's stomach heels first. Winded, Rob flies several feet backwards, landing hard on his back, dropping his sai. Badly dazed, it takes a few moments for him to recover enough to try to get up, by which time Tsubaki is standing on his chest, both katana tips hovering over his neck.
Hanna fares a little better. Her initial nunchaku swings are deflected by Kaede's tekko‑kagi, but Hanna's speed allows her to keep the barrage up and prevent a counter‑attack. Slowly, the furious vixen pushes the increasingly desperate pika backwards. However, luck is on Kaede's side. With a fortuitous twist of her weapons, she catches Hanna's nunchaku chains between the claws of her tekko‑kagi. With another twist, Kaede rips the nunchaku out of Hanna's hands.
Hanna immediately backs off a few feet to regroup, but that gives Kaede an opening. The pika lunges, tekko‑kagi aimed for Hanna's chest. The vixen dodges, but without her tail, she fails to keep her balance, and she falls hard to the ground. Hanna's momentum rolls her onto her back just in time for Kaede to twist and pounce. The pika pins Hanna's ears to the ground with her tekko‑kagi, then sits hard on the vixen's stomach and stamps her feet on the vixen's wrists.
"So much for the 'legendary' Hanna Skarlett, the 'greatest' hand‑to‑hand fighter in the Red Scarves," Kaede smirks.
"You won't get away with this," Hanna grunts, trying her best to withstand the piercing pain in her ears.
"You're in no position to make threats," Kaede smirks. "Tsubaki, do you want the honour?"
"I have a much better idea," Tsubaki replies. "I trust you have some form of sedative on you?"
Kaede takes a compact lipstick off her belt. "I have just the thing," she smirks.
"Don't you fucking dare," Hanna growls.
Kaede ignores Hanna and applies the lipstick, then with a sensual smile, leans down and kisses Hanna passionately. Hanna tries to resist, but she is unable to prevent Kaede's kiss. As it ends, Hanna slips into unconsciousness.
"You… heartless… bitches!" Rob growls, Tsubaki's weight making it difficult to breathe.
"Kaede?" Tsubaki requests.
Kaede lifts herself off the sleeping vixen and strides over to Rob, reapplying her lipstick. She then kneels beside the pinned hare and kisses him passionately. Rob tries to resist, but Kaede forces the kiss, and soon, Rob is also unconscious.
Thirty minutes later, Hanna stirs slowly awake. Ugh… What happened? Last thing I remember, I was fighting Kaede, and… I really shouldn't have lost that badly… Hang on: why am I still alive? Why didn't they kill me? They had the opportunity, and yet‑ Shit. I know why I'm still alive.
Hanna slowly opens her eyes to see nothing but darkness. Am I blindfolded? Or is it just dark? She looks around her, but all she can see is a faint blur of light no matter which way she looks. Well, that answers that: my scarf has been put over my eyes. What else… Well, my arms are pinned over my head, with what feels like… one of Rob's sai? "Rob? Where are you?"
"Right beside you," Rob answers.
A wave of relief washes over Hanna. "Thank the Ancients you're OK! I guess you're in the same situation as me."
"Blindfolded by my own scarf, with my arms pinned above my head? Yep," Rob confirms. "I've tried to pull the sai out, but it won't move. Also, my ankles are tied to something heavy."
"Hadn't noticed the rope around my ankles." Hanna tries to pull the sai pinning her arms out, but she is also unable to move it. "We're stuck here until someone finds us."
"That's the point," Tsubaki Moto informs.
"And I guess this is the part where you gloat and give us some long‑winded monologue explaining a whole load of shit I don't give a fuck about," Hanna growls.
"I don't do monologues," Tsubaki replies flatly. "I bet you're wondering why you're still alive."
"Because you want us to know how badly we failed before you kill us," Hanna guesses.
"That would be pointless, since you've already worked that out," Tsubaki answers.
"Why are you doing all this anyway?" Rob asks.
"You mean the whole war thing?" Tsubaki replies. "To protect the future of the Gotoshi and the Hisui Teikei."
"By destroying two of the five cities?" Rob presses.
"By removing the two biggest threats," Tsubaki corrects. "And don't think we'll stop there. Once the future of the Gotoshi and the Hisui Teikei is secure, the Red Scarves are our next target."
"The Scarves are no threat to the Gotoshi or the Jade Alliance!" Rob argues.
"That's what you'd like us to believe," Tsubaki replies calmly. "That's why you all play along with this silly notion of establishing a diplomatic relationship. But I'm not fooled. The Red Scarves know what we did to Shang Tu, and they won't allow a force as powerful as us to exist. And it's no secret that both the bat and the otter disapprove of how me and Kaede run our dojos. They'll do anything to remove us from power, even if it means destroying the Teikei in the process. I wouldn't be surprised if they're wearing red scarves like yours when I finally hunt them down."
"You're paranoid," Rob accuses.
"I'm not paranoid," Tsubaki corrects. "I merely refuse to hide from the truth."
"When I get out of this, I will hunt you down and kill you," Hanna promises.
"If you get out of this," Tsubaki mocks. "Which you won't."
"I've escaped worse," Hanna reminds.
"By hacking off bits of you, it seems," Tsubaki observes. "Which reminds me: I didn't cost you your tail, your boots did."
"I wouldn't have been up there if it wasn't for you!" Hanna shouts. "This whole fucking war is your fault!"
Tsubaki kicks Hanna hard in the stomach, winding her. "It's time to shut you up," she decides.
As Hanna desperately tries to regain her breath, Tsubaki removes and doubles up the vixen's scarf, wraps it around the back of her head, threads a nunchaku through the ends, and releases the scarf. The scarf pulls taut, painfully ramming the nunchaku between Hanna's jaws, rendering her unable to speak.
"That's better," Tsubaki smirks.
All Hanna can do is growl impotently.
"I've enjoyed our little chat," Tsubaki smiles mockingly, gagging Rob with his scarf and the other nunchaku. "It's been rather relaxing, but I'm afraid, like all good things, it must come to an end."
Tsubaki walks over to a chain suspended from the ceiling and pulls it. Slowly, the wooden railroad tie Hanna and Rob's wrists are pinned to rises, lifting the vixen and hare with it. As they're pulled up, the rope around their ankles pulls taut and starts dragging another heavy piece of wood. A minute later, Tsubaki has winched them up enough that the wood tied to their ankles is suspended an inch from the ground.
"Don't make those faces: after all, I know how much you like to 'hang out' with each other," Tsubaki quips as she leaves.
Grimacing from the pain of having their bodies pulled taut, Hanna and Rob share a look of fear and desperation.
"Oh, almost forgot," Tsubaki adds as she returns. "Your friends are on their way here to kill you. Just thought you'd like to know that. Sayonara!"