The Yakuza and gangsters had no such protection. They were crowded into one large room on the top floor, dressed lightly for the hot interior of the club made them sweat in their suits or overcoats. They drank sake, liquor, and whisky fervently discussed their war plans, territory expansion, and daily income.
The more they drank, the greater their excitement, and the greater their excitement, the more they drank. Even outside of the club, over the ruckus and loud music, Karasuba and Ryu could hear the men raving upstairs.
Karasuba entered first, followed by Ryu. Karasuba roared for the owner to come forward, who came quickly from the next room moving across the dance floor.
"Who are you both?" The owner asked.
"Karasuba, leader of the Discipline Squad! We are here to search the place for any malcontents."
The owner panicked. He ran towards the rear staircase, quickly ascending. Ryu and Karasuba followed him. Upstairs they encountered some sixty men, their swords, pipes, and knives drawn.
"We've come to subdue the malcontent under direct orders. If you resist, we'll kill you without mercy." Karasuba explained.
Ryu watched as all of them trembled with fear, shook with anger, and moved back in anticipation of the coming attack, but in the same moment five of the Yakuza, particularly brave men, suddenly attacked with their pipes and knives. Karasuba killed them with one stroke, her blade flashing before they could do anything.
Others fled back into the room and downstairs.
"Follow them." Karasuba instructed.
As one of the gangsters tried to escape down the staircase, Ryu stabbed him through the shoulder with his blade, while Karasuba glided, delivering the finishing blow to the man's skull. Now more tried to flee towards the front door or shove their way through to get to a staircase.
Ryu sliced open the upper bodies of five men, from the shoulder to the opposite side on the lower ribs. As Karasuba gave herself over to the thrill of the hunt, there were men hiding in the bathroom. She stabbed them through, dragging them across the floor and to the sink where she bashed in one man's skull.
The others tried to draw their swords, but were so weak that they collapsed.
Karasuba cut them through the spine, ending their suffering.
Soon Yakuza and other gangsters surrounded both Ryu and Karasuba. They came at the duo in a murderous frenzy, brandishing their swords fiercely above their heads. A vase by the wall, as well as a part of the wall itself was cut by two off course arcs.
Ryu returned fire and cut at the center of the first man's forehead, and whirled around, slicing open the forehead of the second attacker, watching as the blood ran into their eyes, and sprayed into his face making it difficult for him and them to fight.
The men who had went after Ryu came after Karasuba, and a ferocious fight ensued, their blades arcing and crashing, the tip of Karasuba's blade caught them on the chest, not exactly wounding them as much as ripping their chest to shreds.
Karasuba blocked another series of attacks directed at her wrist and immediately delivered counterattacks, cutting the men from the one side of the face to the neck. Blood sprayed as they fell away from her. Ryu fought furiously against four dozen or five dozen of the gang.
When Karasuba's blade burst through a shoulder, four of the gangsters threw down their knives and charged ahead with their swords drawn. Another five charged ahead to attack her, but Karasuba intercepted one before he could truly make his charge and cut him on the side.
In the same movement she brought her blade in a full arc, driving hard with her waist and hips, delivering a near simultaneous deathblow.
Aid from the rest of the gang was not likely to come. The one dozen on point patrol were already sliced and bloody corpses, ripped apart in the first seconds of the attack by a direct hit from Karasuba's blade before they could raise their guns.
The other two dozen were being swarmed by Ryu and pounded by his brutal sword work, and she knew it wouldn't last much longer than her own exchange. She could feel it. Panic was starting to set in among the gang and its commanders.
Her and Ryu's combined attack was pure ferocity.
Their strategy maximized damage but left them exposed and vulnerable to a well-organized counterattack, but no such response was forthcoming, and they wouldn't allow one to even surface in the minds of their foes. The gang's captains were unable to coordinate their efforts, unable to establish their lines of defense.
They couldn't even organize a proper retreat.
Escape was impossible.
Then Ryu was gone, speeding away from an explosion that ripped two buildings apart beside him and splattered glass. It had happened so quickly that Karasuba-even with the precognitive awareness of battle-hadn't sensed the movement come from the young man.
The two thugs had turned at equal angles, both somehow locking in on Ryu's path simultaneously. One had opened up with his gun to try to take down Ryu's shield of blades, while the other had unleashed a barrage of gunfire at the exact same spot, causing a massive detonation that destroyed a nearby shop and store in the blink of an eye.
It would have been a brilliant maneuver. These two thugs perfectly coordinating their efforts while under relentless assault to wipe out a common foe.
It was also impossible.
Ryu merely took evasive action. The wild man peeled off his blade's arcing run just as the men opened fire, narrowly avoiding the spray of bullets. The men closing in on Ryu from his flanks were also forced to break off their attack and run as Karasuba burst forth from a collapsing, sliced corpse of their supposedly fearless commander.
Even under ideal conditions it would have been hard to scramble so many thugs at once...In this situation it was unthinkable. Yet Karasuba and Ryu could feel them...Nearly three thousand all moving in tight formation, pressing the attack on them while they allowed themselves to pull back.
They were trying to establish a defensive line!
Someone was bolstering the morale of these thugs. Someone was using fear or perhaps, manipulation to counter the effects of Karasuba's and Ryu's blood letting and turn the tide in their favor. Only someone old, experienced, and austere would have the strength to oppose their combined will.
Ryu could definitely feel it.
Sheathing and drawing his blade, he was spinning, flipping, and swerving through the thugs' barrage of blasts when the presence crashed over him like a wave. It caught him off guard, but reacting with a quickness born of instinct, honed by training, and bolstered by the power of his fury, he slammed his foot down, and pushed hard off the ground.
He nearly lurched down and forward into a sharp dive, darting away from three successive blasts of a thug's shotgun.
Pulling out of the charge, he banked into a narrow pivot, and circled back toward the largest of the four buildings.
The commander was there.
He could sense him.
The ki was emanating from the largest of the four buildings like a beacon.
Now Ryu was going to kill him.
Further away, Karasuba was also locked in mortal combat with a group of thugs, though the battle was waged through the cars and drivers of their respective vehicles.
The thugs had more cars with greater firepower in average terms.
Karasuba had been relying on the element of surprise. The opposing Yakuza or street thug commander, or a mix of both, however, had likely been trained from birth for just such a confrontation as this.
The tide of the battle was slowly turning.
She gathered her will and lashed out with a sudden surge of dark, furious power, the finality of an attack that would swing the engagement back under her control. Spurred on by adrenaline, bloodlust, and the irresistible propensity to shed blood, Karasuba rammed her bloody, glinting blade into the nearest groups of cars, determined to break their formation with a brutal attack.
But the drivers didn't panic or break ranks trying to avoid her ferocious charge. Instead they met the assault head-on, their fellows firing their weapons out of windows, but Karasuba just angled her blade an inch at a time, slicing and causing the gunfire to ricochet.
On the other side of the battle, Ryu knifed through the defensive perimeter established around the tall building and its precious commander, too quick and nimble for the thugs to get a good aim on him with their guns.
Penetrating the lines, Ryu smashed his way into the heart of the base. The blast doors closed a fraction of a second too late. He opened them with a fist as he pivoted and skidded across the floor, wiping out most of the thugs unfortunate enough to be caught inside of his range.
As he slowed to a halt, he flipped into the air. Nimbly landing on his feet, he drew his blade in one smooth motion. The first sweeping arc of the blade caught the gunfire of the four men who had survived the initial assault, deflecting it harmlessly away.
Another flip closed the meter distance between Ryu and his attackers, while another crisp arc of the blade ended their lives.
Ryu paused to assess the situation, swiping his blade hard to the side to rid it of the blood marring it.
Mangled bodies, shattered wood, and shattered steel were all that remained of the thugs and equipment that maintained the building.
Smiling, he crossed over to the door leading into the deeper interior of the towering building. Ryu strode quickly through the halls, guided by the power emanating from the commander like a shark drawn by the scent of a bleeding victim.
A security team intercepted him in one of the hallways. The suits marked them as an elite squad of specially trained soldiers in the Yakuza. The best bodyguards the syndicate had to offer. Ryu knew they must have been good...
One actually managed to fire his weapon twice before the entire unit fell to his blade.
He entered a large chamber with a single door at the back. His prey was beyond that door, but in the center of the room a pair of guards barred his way with swords drawn. These were mere foot soldiers, however, workers of the higher ranking.
Ryu didn't even bother engaging them in blade combat. To do such a thing would be more than beneath him, so instead he thrust a brawny fist forward and used his fury to hurl them across the room beyond the sheer impact of his blow.
The first guard was stunned by the impact. By the time he struggled to his feet, his companion was already dead, the life choked out of him by the power of Ryu's steel fingers. The surviving guard retreated while letting gunfire fly as Ryu slowly advanced.
He crossed the room with measured strides as he gathered his power. He unleashed it in a storm of fury, bolts of violent power ripped through his body, tore into his bones, and drilled into the body of his unfortunate victim.
The guard's body danced in convulsions of agony until his corpse peeled from the wall it had been smashed into.
Reaching the door at the rear of the room, Ryu opened it and stepped into the chamber beyond. An elderly man, clad in a suit, was seated cross-legged on the floor. His creased and wrinkled face was bathed in sweat from the strain of going against Ryu and Karasuba for so long and having to command so many men.
Exhausted and drained, he was no match for Ryu who loomed above him, sword raised for the kill. Yet the old man made no move to flee or even defend himself. With certain death only seconds away, he kept his mind and power focused entirely on the battle and serving his last duty.
Ryu didn't admire his courage even as he methodically cut him down. This man was Yakuza, gangster, or thug, and Ryu had no love for any of them regardless of what face they came with nor what country they came from.
The old man's calm acceptance of his demise robbed his victory of any meaning.
"Death without victory, and victory in name only." He muttered to himself as he stalked back through the halls toward the door and Karasuba, anxious to leave before someone in the Yakuza or these common thugs blew the building up with some heavy firepower.
The death of the old man turned the tide once more.
Resistance crumbled.
The battle became a rout, and then a slaughter.
No longer protected by the austere power of their elder, the remaining thugs were completely demoralized by the terror and despair both killers had spawned in their minds. Those who were strong willed gave up all hope save that of escaping the battle alive.
The weak willed were left so despondent, they could only hope for a quick and merciful death.
Both were cut down methodically.
Ryu launched himself from the building mere seconds before it was destroyed in a glorious and cataclysmic explosion from some zipping, heavy explosive.
The Yakuza's losses were heavier than expected.
Not a single Yakuza car, driver, guard, commander, or the common thugs employed by them had escaped the battle alive.
Karasuba strode through the carnage and wreckage left behind from the tumultuous battle. Debris, machine, building, and human alike laid sprawled across the city blocks, the stacks of smoke stretching high into the desolate winter sky were only overshadowed by the exhausting flames in the fires below.
She spotted one man dragging himself, a blood trail behind, his left leg partially missing. She drew her blade up, cutting him from the back of his neck, across his right shoulder blade, leaving her blade to exit through a pocket of his ribcage.
"Karasuba!"
"Ryu." Karasuba breathed.
Ryu's eyes narrowed and he stepped back, turning slightly. He brought his blade up to his hip, keeping a two hand grip.
"You have pushed me and tried to manipulate for the fucking last time. Do you understand what I am telling you?"
"You have become very powerful, Ryu. Your rage and fury smolders, but you must distill it. You must learn to use your hatred as your have with your rage and fury." Karasuba admitted.
"I have become more powerful than anyone right now, and I will become the most powerful of all! I will even overshadow you and outclass you, my dear Sekirei!"
More lightning poured forth through Ryu, though unseen, the burst of power made him quake and become even more settled in his defensive posture.
"You still have a lot of catching up to do if you want to cut me in half for sport." Karasuba remarked.
"It is obvious our contest will be settled by our skills with the sword."
Karasuba slowly drew out her sword from her side, its blood drenched blade humming to life in the howling winter winds.
Ryu leapt at her, moving in with a sudden and devastating thrust. But, it never got close to hitting. With hardly a movement, Karasuba turned the blade aside with her own. Ryu regrouped, and went into a wild flurry, the likes of which he had not shown against his Sekirei, Koto, or even Miya, raining blows at the nimble woman.
Karasuba's movements looked triple what they actually were. She didn't step back or to the side, yet her subtle blocks and swift parries slashed and stabbed with Ryu's furious assault. It went on and on for many moments, but eventually Ryu's flurry began to slow, and recognizing the foolishness of this attempt to overwhelm, stepped back fast.
With a sudden burst of sheer power, Karasuba flew forward, her blade working so violently that its glinting glow eclipsed the fire and bright lights over them.
Ryu held strong, though, parrying and deflecting with his blade brilliantly, each block backed by all of his power and will, or else Karasuba's strikes would have driven right through.
Just as he was about to launch a counter, though, Karasuba was gone, leaping high and turning a cartwheel into a full flip to land right behind Ryu, in perfect balance, striking hard. Ryu reversed his footwork, moved his blade left, then right, and pivoted hard, intercepting the blow.
He drove forward, before either even had the chance to disengage from the other's blade.
With a snarl of rage, Ryu reached more deeply, letting his anger flow through him as if his physical form was a mere conduit for its power. His tempo increased suddenly, three steps forward, three more, four more, two back, three back, one to the side, perfectly balanced all the while.
Now he came at Karasuba with a series of cunning stabs, angled down, left, and right, but never at a complete linear line. Never could he strike high, for Karasuba kept her blade sweeping majestically, leaping and spinning, flying all about, parrying each blow meant for her neck and offering cunning counters that had Ryu shooting forward viciously rather than retreating.
But Karasuba, in complete anticipation of the movement, veered neither left, right, nor back, but rather, stood her ground. Ryu had already retracted the ill timed thrust, and began a second stab along a different course, this time coming low to the left diagonally, but Karasuba had the move scouted, and went right back up to meet the thrusting blade.
A sudden, off balance stab by Karasuba had Ryu quick-stepping forward even more intent on bringing her down, for the first time, and then Karasuba launched herself away, up and back. Furious, Ryu lunged after in pursuit, slashing hard for Karasuba's head.
In his rage when his slash missed, he reverted to a sudden thrust, driving forward with all of his weight to skew its trajectory.
Karasuba's blade barely caught the blow, holding the blood soaked blade at bay, locking the two in a contest of strength, physical and of ki.
"I wasn't expecting that!" Karasuba congratulated.
Her blade began to move out, just a bit, and both turned harshly from each other, slashing across their line of vision in unison, even as they skipped back two steps, the first signs of sweat and fatigue coming into play, they made one last bid.
Ryu panted, bringing the sleeve of his hoari up to wipe the sweat from his brow. He was more than pleased to see that Karasuba was breathing hard herself, her arms shaking from the strain of such a long and bloody battle.
Karasuba settled herself, slowly sheathing her blade. "I will show you some techniques of my forte with the long sword."
Ryu took her conceding with a nod, keeping his sword at his side. "Why would you do that?"
He was genuinely confused.
"You have propensity and potential to master some of the techniques, now. My forte is killing, before you couldn't have learned these techniques because of your restraint, but you are different now, no?"
Ryu locked eyes with Karasuba. "Show me."
Karasuba smiled grimly.
Takami had always proven herself to be somewhat, if not at times, far more reasonable than Minaka. She proved she wasn't anywhere near the raving, basket case that Minaka was-before he even caught his stride or warmed up properly to turn the ante up.
She wasn't a saint by any means, but she already made, and would continue to make contingencies and reparations for what Minaka would put them all through in the long term.
So far that only included the MBI Card, which handled everything that there was to handle at the moment.
His relationship with Takami had always been somewhat amicable, but rocky just the same. He had no love for MBI nor anyone close to Minaka like Takami was, but after Miya, Toyotama, Matsu, and Karasuba told him to keep a working relationship with her, he did.
So, it was no surprise when he got a phone call from the chain smoking woman. He had saved her number after their last chat, where she tried to manipulate him by all means. He didn't answer it right away, he didn't shoot up from his bed, and quite frankly he just wanted to ignore her.
"Darling..." Karasuba whispered, grimacing at the sound.
With a sigh, Ryu sat up and moved out of the bed. He answered the call shortly after, turning his focus from the hotel floor to the sky outside.
"What do you want? I'm kind of busy here."
"I am sure." She sounded partly amused. "I need you to step outside. Alone."
Ryu glanced back at Karasuba, focusing on the curves of her hips. "I don't know. Give me a few hours."
"Now, Ryu."
"You're not going to bore me with pictures again, are you?" Ryu scratched his scalp, flicking his finger at the window.
"That was a one time deal with those spinal pictures. That is to be kept between us. It's rude to keep a lady waiting. Do come alone, Ryu. I need to explain this to you before this whole Sekirei Plan gets out of hand, hurry." Takami pressed.
"Alright. Give me five minutes." Ryu sighed, shaking his head in frustration as he ended the call.
The woman didn't even sound angry or impatient. She sounded frightful and near the end of her limits, if she even had any at this point. It was still enough to make Ryu a little concerned, after all, it wasn't in Takami's nature to waste time being emotional.
Karasuba rolled over on the bed, opening one eye. She didn't mind the mess in the room from their battle, if anything it made their encounter in the bed all the more gratifying. "We're going to need more than five minutes, you know."
Ryu shook his head, getting himself dressed.
"Are we in agreement about who our prey are? Please tell me we are...That conversation is still making me feel good. Killing those fools was fun, but our battle afterwards was something I will never forget." Karasuba remained relaxed, one eye open as she allowed herself to smile in gratification.
"You can have Yume, Karasuba. I won't actively search her out for war, but if I get my chance I am going to terminate her. If you get in my way at that point in time I am going to run you through." Ryu's tone shared none of levity or gratification.
Karasuba grinned, wrapping herself up in order to keep her modesty as she stood up. She sauntered over to Ryu, biting her lips as she locked eyes with him.
"Don't tease me. I am going to expect that when the time comes. Even if I'm running away."
Ryu smiled briefly, gripping her hips roughly. "The chase would make it more satisfying."
Karasuba laughed softly, adjusting to compensate for his brawny grip. "Musubi is mine too, darling. I have to catch up with her and let her know I am still her friend...If one of us gets Kazehana or Mutsu, we'll share the prize."
"Of course."
Kazehana was part of Uzume's, Karei's, Hari's, and Miya's betrayal after all. She was the biggest part of it considering she was working in the middle with all of them.
Just thinking of her drawing breath was enough to make Ryu angry.
He whipped his fist into the wall, growling when the wall imploded.
Karasuba whistled. "Quite the temper you have, even when you are keeping it under wraps."
Ryu grabbed his sword, keeping it in a tight grip.
"I look forward to seeing your propensity to kill, Ryu-sama. I look forward to seeing you and your birds wreak havoc on all. I will be right beside you doing my own thing, leading the Discipline Squad of course. We can paint the whole city crimson, isn't it romantic?"
"You've seen when I can do now up close."
"Yes, but it remains to be seen if your Sekirei can become as tried and true as you."
"No one is going to match you in that regard."
Karasuba rubbed her chin, laughing softly. "That reminds me. I better be getting back to MBI. These streets won't patrol themselves, and there are so many people to kill. I wonder how many people they have killed since I've been with you meandering..."
Ryu shook his head.
Once he was certain Karasuba wasn't going to follow him, he made his way outside, keeping his sword in his tight grip before he put it under his obi. Takami wasn't standing outside waiting, as it was cold and snowing, but there was a black car in front of the hotel with tinted windows, nothing too extravagant.
Ryu approached the passenger window, knocking on it. It rolled down a few inches, letting out cigarette smoke in one cloud.