Suenagaku na Aki
Chapter 12
Saitou looked at the bodies in front of him. Opponents like these earned his respect. What the ninjas sorely lacked in strength and skills, they made up in fanatical courage. It was a pity they had to be killed. They knew they couldn't win, he reasoned, but they attacked him nonetheless. Saitou knew that the deaths that he dispensed to them freely that day befitted them, as they probably didn't want to be captured alive.
"Saitou-san?"
Saitou turned around. Standing and saluting him was a police officer. "What do you want, Ryoga?"
"Hyoga"
"Hmmphh. Report why you're here"
"The Tokyo police station received complaints from the public regarding some men dressed in black coming here. I was sent to investigate"
Saitou started walking away from the bodies and toward Hyoga. "As you can see, they have already met their demise"
"Who did this, sir?"
"I did this"
"But sir..." Hyoga stammered.
"What?!" Saitou snapped as he stood two feet away from the junior ranking officer.
"Shouldn't you catch at least one of them alive?"
Saitou laughed. "Why should I when I have you?"
"What d..." Hyoga's question went unfinished as a fist knocked him out.
Saitou lifted the unconscious Hyoga and put him over his shoulder. "No normal police officer knows my real name. And I already had suspicions aboutyou ever since a background check on you turned up nothing."
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"What do you mean by 'The fun starts now?'" Kaoru asked but she asked it too late as the ninjas around Ichijo had disappeared. Seconds later, they appeared around Kenshin, weapons poised to strike.
Sanosuke tried to move toward one of the ninjas but a tug on his headband stopped him in his tracks.
"I believe your date is with me"
The street fighter turned around to see the teenager from the restaurant. "Look kid, can't you see that your sister is trying murder my friend here?" Sano said while shooing him away. He then turned toward Kenshin, but a stronger tug on his headband almost caused him to fall to the ground. Furiously he turned and grabbed his antagonist by the collar. "WOULD YOU MIND?!" he screamed.
"Sorry. For your information, she is not my sister". Asuka slapped away the other man's hand before putting a finger in his ear. "I'm not deaf, you know. And don't call me kid. I am already 15 years old. Anyway, she asked me", Asuka closed the distance between them, "to take care of you"
Sano did a double take. "You want to take care of me? You couldn't take care of Yahiko even if he is down with a fever" Then Sano heard Yahiko's loud battle cry.
"It seems that Yahiko and his teacher are busy for the time being" Asuka threw a punch but Sano blocked it easily.
Sano cracked his knuckles. "All right, you asked for it. Just remember not to go home crying since I won't go easy on you"
"Huh! And people say I have loud mouth", Asuka huffed while jumping away from Sano's counter attack. "By the way, my name is Asuka, not kid, not child or any other name that belittles my age. I am fifteen and am considered an adult"
"Sure thing, brat"
Kenshin eyed the three ninjas surrounding him cautiously. The first ninja, on his left seemed to be unarmed, unlike one wielding a katana on his right and a staff brandishing opponent at the front. He waited patiently, for the attack to come. Time slowed to a stand still as the former hitokiri and his enemies squared off against each other. Then when Kenshin saw the muscle tension on the ninja with the sword chang, he knew that the fight had begun.
Kenshin dashed toward him, intending to take him out as soon as possible. As he moved closer and closer toward his target, Kenshin noted that the ninja changed his stance into a defensive one. His instinct, honed to perfection trough countless battles told him that something was wrong. A rustling sound of chains confirmed his suspicion.
"Get over here!" the seemingly unarmed ninja threw a weapon consisting of a modified spear with a chain tied at the handle.
Kenshin managed to evade the attack by jumping away, at the same time baiting for a counter attack by purposely appearing vulnerable. But no attack came until he landed on the floor. Only then they continued with their offence.
Meanwhile, Kaoru pushed Megumi away from the path of three shurikens aimed at the doctor's head. "Move to the side, Megumi. This fight can't be won with a sharp tongue", Kaoru commanded as she narrowly avoided a spiked knuckle. Next to her, Yahiko swore in frustration as his quarry avoided his bokken easily.
Even as Kaoru herself was barely keeping up with her own opponent, she felt a feeling of dread. Something wasn't what it seemed. But for the moment, she had a fight on her hands and she needed to concentrate on it.
Sano had to admit, the youngster was good, almost too good for comfort. Unlike Sano who relied mostly on strength, he was faster, but his attacks lacked destructive power. The five punches that he managed to land on Sano had failed to injure him proved it. Then, to the older combatant's surprise, Asuka stopped fighting.
"Tired?" Sano asked with a smirk.
Asuka shook his head. "I was right when I thought that you would be holding back"
"So you made a bet with someone and made a bundle?"
Sano detected anger in the younger man's eyes. A moment later Sano was on his back on the floor, clutching his stomach in pain.
"Get up! I know that the Orochi shiki ni hyaku ni ju go (Orochi style no. 225) wouldn't affect you that much, considering that I only used 50% of my power. Asuka watched as the man in front him got up slowly with contempt. "That should teach you never to underestimate me"
Sanosuke rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Not bad. You punched me at the same spot ten times in less than a second. But you attacked my stomach, the most important part of my body, and you will pay for it" Then Sano's head jerked when he heard something. "Nobody asked about for your opinion, Kitsune! And my head is as important as my stomach", he shouted toward Megumi who only crossed her hands in response.
He then turned toward Asuka and grinned. Puzzled and distracted his opponent almost didn't see the punch coming and only ducked when it was an inch away from his face. Asuka felt a wave of panic when he realized that the punch he barely avoided had dented the temple pillar behind him.
Upon seeing Asuka's reaction, Sano smirked. "Can you still fight? I only used the Sanosuke-styled Futae no Kiwami at one-third of its strength"
"Che! I'm just surprised that someone with a small brain like you was able to learn such technique"
"Feh! I'm already up and fighting when you were still crying for your milk, kid"
"Right" Asuka executed a roundhouse kick aimed at Sano's head. "Fighting for milk with your siblings. You must be proud of yourself"
Kenshin had a hard time trying to defend himself from the three attacking ninjas. The problem was that they kept using false attacks; every time they attacked and Kenshin counterattacked, they quickly jumped away. When Kenshin tried to attack one of them, the others would attack him. It was as if they were trying to tire him out by using the tactic. But the former hitokiri knew that they bound to make a mistake sooner or later.
All the while, two spectators watched as the battles raged in the temple. Megumi was watching worriedly, as she knew that it's impossible for the fights to not have any casualties at all. Meanwhile Ichijo had jumped back to the supporting beam, and from her vantage point, had a good view of all the fights. She watched impassively, not making any move at all, waiting.
"Hiya!" Kaoru landed a hit on the ninja she was fighting, knocking him unconscious. She was able to trick him to move near his partner who was fighting Yahiko. When Yahiko used a Ryutsuisen modoki in an attempt to defeat the other ninja, the ninja she was fighting with mistook Yahiko's attack as being directed at him. He evaded, but in the process left him himself in a compromising position. Kaoru took full advantage of the situation. This didn't sit too well with Yahiko who had trouble keeping up with his own fight. "No fair! You took advantage of my attack", he said.
"If you want to complain about unfairness, do it to the man in front of you. He and his partner tried the same trick many times before I copied it", Kaoru replied as she watch a kodachi graze her student's neck as he narrowly avoided it. "See? He didn't even wait for you to finish your whining" She hoped that Yahiko would learn his lesson which was to pay full attention to the fight. It seemed that he understood as he only grumbled in reply while focusing his eyes on the ninja.
Kenshin sprinted toward the ninja with the staff while disregarding the other two. One way or another, he must end the fight as soon as possible. Taking out one of them would be a good start. The staff wielding ninja was quite unprepared for such sudden move from the legendary hitokiri Battousai but was quick to swing his weapon in defense.
Unfortunately his target wasn't there anymore. Kenshin had jumped up when he was quite near to him. As his staff became tangled up in his friend's chain, understanding came to him regarding Battousai's deceptively reckless move. By pretending to attack him, the Battousai induced his partner with the spear and chain to attack him, setting up the situation the two of them were in. By the time they freed their weapons, their friend was already defeated. His broken katana lay beside his unconscious body.
Kenshin looked at the two of them. "Who's next?"
Before they could move in to avenge their fallen comrade, Ichijo's voice stopped them dead in their tracks. "Can't you see that Battousai is trying to trick you into making another mistake?" She turned toward the ninja who was fighting Yahiko. "Tohma, quit toying with the child. Come and help your two fellow clan members take out Battousai"
'He was toying with me?' Blinded by anger, Yahiko executed another attack, but the ninja kicked him away before heading toward Kenshin. Unhurt but feeling demoralized, Yahiko just sat on floor, dumfounded. "He was toying with me..." A hit on his head brought him out of his stupor. "Itai... Busu, why the hell did you do that?" he asked grumpily while rubbing the sore spot on his head.
"That's for letting your enemy get away"
"Didn't you hear what she said? He was..." Another hit on his head stopped him.
"If he was toying with you, he would have inflicted massive injures on you" Megumi interjected.
"Ichijo only said that to distract you so that he could leave you. And she succeeded" Kaoru said absentmindedly while watching Kenshin's fight. Then she shifted her view to the fight between Sanosuke and Asuka.
"Orochi shiki san ju kyu!"
Sano chuckled as he evaded the attack. "What's up with naming your techniques with names such as 'Orochi style no. 39'?" He wiped off the blood from his broken lips. "Can't you use better sounding names?"
Asuka's hand traced the bluish black mark on his shoulder. "Are you trying to bore me to death?" He pressed the spot and winced slightly. "For someone who I'm assigned to distract, your not bad, ojiisan"
"What did you say?"
Asuka slapped his face a few times, swearing while Sanosuke wondered whether the teenager in front of him was dealing with a full deck.
"You're okay kid?"
"Maybe Sano's intelligence has rubbed off on him" Megumi said loud enough for the two of them to hear. Unfortunately the veiled sarcasm was lost on Sano who gave a thumbs up sign. Megumi sighed. Meanwhile, Sano's opponent spewed out colorful expletives as response.
Kaoru's eyes widened with the unintentional revelation by Asuka, It had confirmed her suspicion that a trap was being set up. But what? She shifted her gaze toward the leader of the ninjas. 'What is it that she wants?' Kaoru tried to piece together every bit of information she had to solve the puzzle. An attempt was made to kidnap her. Kenshin and Sano had been asked to join in a fight against Orochi. Ichijo wanted to see Kenshin fight. Asuka saying that his job is to distract Sanosuke. Kaoru was no closer to finding the answer when she saw Ichijo's hands moving backwards. Then it dawned on her.
"Kansatsu Tobikunai!" Ten kunais left Ichijo's hands and flew toward Kenshin. After waiting patiently for any weakness, she found an opening and grabbed the opportunity. Her leader will would be angry with her for doing this, but for her it didn't matter. She did what she thought was right. As the pointed weapons got nearer and nearer their target, she smiled, as the legendary Battousai was unaware of the threat that he was facing. Then she saw a woman launch herself into the air, sweeping away seven kunais with her bamboo sword and using her body to receive the remaining three.
Kaoru didn't exactly remember how she could have jumped that high and that far; she couldn't even explain how she managed to stop the seven kunais with just a bamboo sword. But as her body began to register the pain inflicted by the remaining kunais piecing her body, she craned her head toward where Kenshin stood, wanting to make sure that he was safe.
"KAORUUUU!!!"
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Author's note (14 March 2004)
It's been a while since I updated. Sorry about that. I just had to keep tinkering with chapter 12 over and over. Actually, chapter 11 and 12 were a single chapter until I took the fight part out to create chapter 12. And, the fight scene is supposed to be in Kamiya dojo, which I also changed to an old temple so that the fight can be made more interesting. All in all I changed about 80% of everything inside chapter 11 and 12, from the location to the enemies they were facing. The ninja that uses a spear with a rope attached to it may seem familiar to you. It's because I modeled it after a ninja character named Scorpion from the Mortal Kombat game. I will be putting the characters' bio after the current last chapter. Hopefully, this will not break FFnet's rule as this will be inline with FFNet's requirement that every chapter uploaded is related with the story's chapters. I feel that putting the Bio at the bottom page would be troublesome for some people interested in the characters.Geminidragon
------------- Usually when people are quiet when eating your cooking usually there are two reasons. One: they're too busy enjoying it that they forgot to talk. Two: They were eating Kaoru's or Akane's cooking :-p Anyway, I hope this chapter's cliffhanger is way better than the last one. :-p
Shandrial
------------- Well, here's chapter 12. Hope you enjoy it.
This chapter was checked by Fujifunmum