Takeo had been moved to a safehouse since this evening. They didn't know what clan Takeo had associated himself with, but if they were protecting him, he had to have gotten up the rankings to be worth it. The question was: How much did they actually care about protecting him?

Odds are if they were serious about keeping Takeo out of harms way, they would have gotten him out of the city and their assassins would have killed her already. If he was being held up in some suburban two-story house out of prying eyes, they just wanted the heat to blow over and weren't expecting intruders.

The guard standing outside helped confirm it. His eyes werent watching for trespassers. He tapped his foot impatiently and checked his watch for the time. He was more interested in getting his delivery food.

Tatsu waited as well. No use charging in after spending hours trying to track them down. She needed to conserve what little energy she had. Soon though, the small little delivery car would appear with a bored teenager delivering some 24/7 tofu. Tatsu began to approach the house, keeping her small frame obscured by the tiny black and white Trueno.

As the car pulled away, the goon barely got a look at Tatsu as she walked right up to the man and shoved her already drawn sword into his gut. People don't look for things they aren't expecting. So if a 20 something woman is walking towards you at 1 in the morning, you expect her to be asking for the time, not even look down at the sword held down by her feet.

He dropped to the ground.

Tatsu surveyed the two floors above and saw the one window with a light on. Takeo was there.

Chiyo walked down the steps of the safehouse. Takeo was getting so difficult to manage and she was this close to taking him out herself. The weasel had been made a Big Brother only a week or so ago and he came by here throwing his dick around like he was a big shot. Only now he's screaming his head off about some housewife wanting revenge. She didn't know what the Boss was thinking taking this guy in.

In the lobby was most of the goons Boss had loaned them. Half of them were street punks that didn't even know the name of their organization. Not that they'd tell them anyway. Some of them didn't even have weapons. Though some had bats and knives, Chiyo was the only one with an actual weapon. A sword. The weapon of a killer.

"Chiyo! We ordered some Tofu for the night. Boss is covering expenses right?"

Chiyo looked over at Momo. He was disciplining a punk that was goofing around with their knife. Momo was an old blood. Kept these punks in line and brought home the bacon. He was a good man, but just a man.

"Yeah Momo, just don't buy anything fancy."

"It's one in the morning, what's even open at this hour besides trash? We'll be lucky if the tofu didn't break apart in the water."

Chiyo walked back upstairs. She needed to check in on her Big Bro, however small he really was.

But as she made her way up, she saw Takeo freaking out and trying to pull his sword out of its sheeth. He spotted her and dashed to her in a frenzy.

"She's here!"

Tatsu stood in front of the door as she prepared herself. One man not even paying attention was one thing. Would she be able to win when they're fighting back?

"You're going to walk in there, kill anyone that gets in our way, and gut Takeo."

"Don't worry. You got this"

The door slid open a lot smoother than Tatsu was expecting, and she saw three men waiting around in there. A bald, middle-aged man with a tattoo on the back of his head and the other three were assortedly dressed punks.

The Bald man was already retrieving some weapon from his pocket but the other punks didn't even look phased by her.

"I've come for Yamashiro Takeo. Let me pass and I won't kill you too."

Of course that got a laugh from one of the punks and they walked over to her. He had a swagger to him and a cocky smile that said no one had ever punched him in the face before. Tatsu wasn't going to give him such a beginner lesson.

The old man saw it coming from across the room, but before he could speak up, Tatsu had already lifted the sword in one fluid motion. Before the kid could even blink, blood sprayed out of his face as a crimson line went across his cheek and nose. She had tried to avoid blinding the poor kid, but he'll have a lazy eye if he doesn't get the blood washed off soon. Either way, he wasn't much of a threat now that he was spasming on the ground, clutching his face.

Tatsu moved over to face the old man as the other kid ran over to help his friend. He pulled out a pair of knives. One a trench knife with a pretty bulky brass knuckle on the end, the other a long and sharp looking butterfly knife. He extended his trench knife foreward, putting it between the two of them. In the olden days of europe this might have have been replaced with a buckler or small shield.

He knew what he was doing. Unfortunately, Tatsu had the longer blade and he was playing defense.

If he had used his experience to his advantage and pressed her, he might have closed the gap while she was busy taking out the kid and pushed it to a close range fight. But at this range, with the length of her sword almost fully extended, there was no way to approach her.

She swiped right, feint. Then left, feint again. By the third feint he was wide open, and with one sure strike, his neck was split halfway. The room was painted red.

The other kid wasn't even looking at her, so Tatsu went upstairs.

The stairs creaked and the hallway was empty up there. Takeo and whoever else was up here was hiding.

Tatsu opened the door to her left. Dark. Was it because no one was in? Or because they wanted to seem alone?

"BEHIND YOU!"

She flipped around and blocked the long sword aimed right for her back. The woman must have been waiting for her in the other room. Had she picked the wrong room? Or if she had guessed the right door, would she have even less time to dodge her killing blow.

The woman had a bloodlust in her eyes as she pressed her advantage, forcing Tatsu to block every strike. Before she could even think, she was pushed against the window of the room and the woman gave her a kick straight to the solar plexus, launching her out the room.

Tatsu crashed out in the garden. The woman was good. Tatsu dunked and rolled away as she leapt after her.

The woman's sword was also a few inches longer than hers. Just enough that Tatsu was now the one at a disadvantage. If she charged in, that sword will skewer her. The bodyguard knows this too and slowly presses towards her.

Tatsu shifts to the left, hoping to awkwardly put the stone birdfeeder between them to give Tatsu a chance to outmaneuver her. The woman just laughed. As she walked up to it, she didn't even bother trying to strafe it. She just put one free hand under the stone bowl and with sheer strength threw it at Tatsu, forcing her to dodge instead of press.

"Is that all? You cut down Momo like you were a master and now you're hiding behind cheap tricks? Where's that bloodlust?"

Tatsu was backed into a corner. She felt something cold and wet press her back. A faucet with a hose attached. This was a garden after all. Tatsu eyed the hose's legth. It extended pretty far. Much farther than her sword.

With one swipe of her sword, she cut free the hose and grabbed it with her free hand. One flick of her arm sent a ripple through the hose, it's serpentine path whipping straight at her. The hose pulled back then and the metal end of the hose snapped against the sword, sending the vibrations down into her hand.

As she became distracted with getting the hose off of her and refitting her grip, the sword was no longer pointed towards Tatsu and she could go in for the finishing blow.

The sword plunged itself into the bodyguard's chest, killing her.

"Now … Takeo"