The birds were chirping, a gentle wind was blowing, and the morning sun shone brightly for all to enjoy. All in all, it was a perfect day to be out and enjoy the beautiful day, and Randy and Howard were more than happy to spend a part of it waiting in line for the game store that was selling the brand new Grave puncher JRPG edition to open, and the rest of the day playing it.
"Oh man Cunningham, I can't wait. I'm so honking hyped!" Howard exclaimed excitedly as he bounced in his place in line in front of the local game store, "in just a few short minutes we'll finally get our hands on a copy of…"
"GRAVE PUNCHER JRPG EDITION!" Both he and Randy exclaimed at the top of their lungs as they raised their fist up toward the heavens.
"Would you two keep it down, it's early in the morning!" Yelled another person who was also waiting in line, Clearly annoyed by the two boys' excitement.
"Sorry about that," randy quickly apologized with a nervous smile before turning back to his best friend, who was mentally rolling his eyes at his best friend's tendency to be polite, "yep, it won't be long till we be punching those graves!"
"You got the money for the game right?" Howard asked, pointing a finger at his best friend.
"Don't worry buddy I got it right here," Randy reassured as he presented his best friend his wallet.
"Awesome!" The short chubby boy exclaimed with a double fist pump, "just want to make sure otherwise we wouldn't be able to purchase Grave Puncher Jrpg edition."
"Don't you have money too?" Randy asked with a raised eyebrow as he put his wallet back into his pocket.
"Nope," the shorter boy replied nonchalantly with a smile, not surprising the purple haired teen in the least.
"Spend it all already," Randy said more as a statement than a question.
"Yup," Howard replied, still smiling.
"Howard, you got to be more responsible with your money," Randy reprimanded as he rolled his eyes.
"Why, I got you best buddy."
"You can't keep muching off of me forev-," Randy began to say before a random teenage girl suddenly bumped into him.
"Ow, hey!" the tall purple-haired boy exclaimed at the girl who was quickly walking away, not so much as offering an apology.
"Yeassh, and people here call us rude," Howard said as he crossed his arms over his chest.
"Actually they just call you rude, and two, I know righ…Wait a second," Randy said before feeling something was wrong. The purplette began checking his pockets for something and his eyes widened in realization, "That honking shoob took my wallet!"
Upon saying that the girl that bumped into him broke into a sprint.
"Get after her," Howard exclaimed with a panicked expression on his face, "without money, we can't buy the Game!"
Not even bothering to give his best friend an annoyed look, Randy immediately sprinted after the pickpocket.
"I'll save our spot in line!" Howard called out toward his friend.
Randy ran as fast as he could after the thief all the while being careful not to bump into anyone. The pickpocket, unfortunately, had a significant head start over him, and apparently didn't care about running into anyone as she shoved anyone and everyone who was in her way.
Fortunately, that wasn't too much of an issue for Randy, his time as the ninja has greatly improved his athletic capabilities, and was quickly gaining on the thief.
"Stop right there thief!" he yelled, unintentionally speaking in his silly heroic voice, as he and the thief ran past multiple bystanders who were confused by the spectacle.
"Why would I?" The thief yelled back, not looking back as she knocked over a trash can right in Randy's path.
"Cause that's my wallet you swiped you shoob!" Randy exclaimed as he simply jumped over it and continued chasing after the thief without losing his pace.
"Finder's keepers' buddy!" She yelled as she knocked over a food stand containing a large number of oranges. Said oranges sprawled out in front of Randy's path who wasn't deterred in the slightest.
"It was in my pocket, not on the ground!" He countered as he hopped on a bench and leaped over the oranges.
"Whatever, it's mine now loser," she said as she knocked another trash can over, "you snooze you lose buddy."
"Would you stop knocking things over!" Randy exclaimed in annoyance, as he leaped over the knocked-over trash can.
"Just give up, I'm not giving it bac-"
Bam!
Suddenly the thief was punched in the face, not only stopping her in her tracks but also sending her flying flat on her back.
"Woah!" Randy exclaimed as he came to a stop as he watched the person who stopped the thief pick up his wallet and began walking toward him.
They were a teenage Japanese girl that looked to be a few years older than randy. She had tanned skin, turquoise eyes, and dark brown hair tied in a long ponytail that reached down to her calves, with a white ribbon with the ends of the ribbon standing straight up.
She wore a black sailor fuku uniform with a red trim that showed off her midriff, and white loose socks with brown dress shoes. Randy figured that it was the uniform for whatever school she attended.
She also had a figure that reminded Randy of those two girls he talked to a few days ago. Something that Randy was trying his best not to pay attention to.
"This is yours right?" The girl asked as she held Randy's wallet up in front of him, her tone masculine yet still sounded feminine.
"Yeah, thanks," randy said with a grateful smile as he took back his wallet from the girl, "that was really Bruce of yo-"
"Hi there, names Howard Weinerman, grave puncher extraordinaire," Howard said as he appeared out of nowhere and got between Randy and the tanned girl, surprising both of them at his sudden appearance. The short chubby boy gave the tanned girl a flirting smile as he tried to come off as cool, "you know if you want I can show you how to punch graves like a pr-"
"Not happening buddy," Homura shut down with a deadpan expression on her face as she placed a hand on her hip.
"Yeah buddy, she's clearly way out of your league," Randy said in agreement as he couldn't help but smile in slight amusement.
If Howard was at all bothered by what he heard, he didn't show it as he continued to look appreciatively at the older girl.
"Anyway, I haven't seen you guys before," the tanned girl said, ignoring the orange-haired boy's gaze, "you guys from out of town or something?"
"Yeah, me and my buddy, Howard, are from Norrisville," randy said, as he checked to make sure he really did get his wallet back. After confirming it was, and nothing was missing, the purple-haired teen put the wallet away in his pocket.
"Norrisville, huh," the tanned girl said with a tilt of her head as she crossed her arms over her ample chest, "can't really say I'm familiar with it, other than the rumors that a lot of crazy things seem to happen in that town."
"That would be putting it mildly," Howard muttered.
"Though I did hear something about there being a Shinobi clan in that town, and how they pretty much protected it for a long time," she continued before she once again placed a hand to her hip, "is it true?"
Randy wasn't sure if it was just his imagination or not, but he could have sworn there were hints of excitement in the girl's voice when she asked about the ninja.
'Eh, probably not,' Randy dismissed with a shrug.
"The ninja? Yeah, he's real!" Howard exclaimed proudly as he placed a hand on Randy's shoulder, causing the taller boy to slouch a bit.
"Really?" the tanned girl asked a bit skeptically, and again Randy wasn't sure if it was just his imagination, but the girl also seemed to have a bit of a hopeful tone in her voice as well, "no offense, but I'm going to need more than just your word."
"Yeah, I got some pics of him," Howard said as he got his phone out, already opening up the photo app."
"Really?" the tanned girl asked with a raised brow.
"You do?" Randy asked in surprise.
"Yep, feast your eyes on the ninja!" The chubby boy said as he took his hand off of Randy's shoulder and brought his phone up for the tanned girl to see.
She looked at the screen and Immediately the girl's eyes widened in shock, and her face turned completely red like a tomato much to Randy's confusion.
"Wh-what the hell are you and your friend doing in the bathtub!?" The tanned girl asked, completely flustered as she tried, and failed, to avert her eyes from the image on the phone.
Confused by the girl's reaction, Howard looked at the screen and his eyes widened in shock at the image being shown. Randy, who was looking over his friend's shoulder, could only stare in absolute horror, his jaw falling to the floor as all the color in his face drain away.
"Ehhh, oops," Howard let out as he rubbed the back of his neck. The short chubby teen was surprisingly calm, as if he didn't just show an extremely hot girl a super embarrassing photo of him and his best biffer, "wrong photo."
"Wrong photo!? WRONG HONKING PHOTO!?" Randy yelled into his friend's ear, making the shorter boy flinch, "THAT'S THE PHOTO YOUR SISTER USES TO BLACKMAIL US! WHY THE HONKING JUICE DO YOU HAVE THAT PHOTO ON YOUR PHONE!?" Randy exclaimed as he pulled on his own hair.
Howard merely shrugged his shoulders.
"That's not important," Howard dismissed as he scroll through his photo gallery.
"Pretty sure it is!"
"Anywaaaaay," Howard said with a roll of his eyes, before once again presenting his phone to the still blushing tanned skinned girl, who seems to be somewhat stuck in a daze, "once again, feast your eyes on the ninja!"
The orange-haired teen's shout seemed to pull the tanned girl out of her daze as she vigorously shook her head, before blinking a few times.
"R-right," she said before coughing into her fist as her blush died down, however her cheeks were still red.
Randy couldn't help but groan as he buried his face into his palms at that.
As she looked at the phone screen, it showed an image of the Norrisville ninja standing proudly over the corpses of large killer robots.
The tanned girl looked unimpressed.
"You really expect me to buy this?" She asked with a raised eyebrow as she once again crossed her arms over her chest, her tone unconvinced, "no shinobi would ever show himself out in public so brazenly, much less pose for a photo op. That could just be some kid pretending to be a shinobi just for kicks."
Randy couldn't blame the girl for thinking that. After all, other than the Norrisville ninja, no one has really seen any ninjas ever since the Edo period. And even the people who move into Norrisville don't believe in the ninja's existence until they see him in action.
But he also couldn't help but flinch at what the girl said, it felt like she was personally directing that jab at him. He'll admit there were times when he felt like he was just some shoob running around in the ninja suit.
Yeah, the Nomicon reassured him that he was the right guy to be the ninja, he was brave, unstoppable, and pure of heart. But even then he still felt like he wasn't meeting the expectations befitting of the Norrisville ninja, especially those times where he messed up royally.
Like that time when he slipped up and allowed Debbie Kang to figure out he's the ninja, the time he took Plop-Plop away from the seal that protected him from the power ball's influence, how he abused Rachel (he still hated himself for how he treated her), and how he hurt Howard during their fight against evil Julian.
Randy couldn't help but shiver at that memory. When he used the power orb on evil Julian, he could feel its influence washing over him, saying it would grant him unlimited power, power to defeat the sorcerer himself, power that surpasses the 800-year-old evil.
He could understand why evil Julian was obsessed with the balls. Even with just one of the chaos orbs, Evil Julian was unbelievably powerful. The guy not only gave Randy a hard time in their fights but also smacked him into the ground and make him eat dirt in pretty much every single one of their encounters.
And when he channeled its power to attack evil Julian and overwhelmed his classmate's evil duplicate, it felt great. As Evil Julian begged him to stop and the sounds of his cybernetic body cracking filled the young ninja's ears, Randy couldn't help but completely enjoy every minute of it at the time. Something that scared the modern-day ninja immensely.
It scared randy, even more, when it felt like that sadistic joy came from within rather than from outside.
"Okay," Howard said undeterred, bringing Randy out of his thoughts, as the shorter teen once again scrolled through the phone's gallery, "if that's not convincing, then how about this."
The short chubby teenager once again brought his phone up for the girl to see. Instead of a photo, however, the screen was playing a video of the ninja fighting monsters, specifically the fencing team that got stanked after they lost to Flackville High and performing feats that no regular human can do.
Randy will admit, that was his most epic battle against the sorcerer's victims yet. their attacks were as fast as they were precise. combine with the fact that their swords were sharp enough to cut Principal Slimovitz's car in half with just one swipe, and Randy found himself putting his mad sword skills to the test.
The Norrisville high fencing team was definitely a lot stronger than most of the stanked people he went up against.
Though now that Randy thought about it, the more athletic a person was, the stronger their stanked forms seemed to be. Bash, Brawn Brickwall, Jacques, and even Theresa and Morgan's dance team to a lesser extent have all proven to be much stronger than the average students that get stanked.
the purple-haired boy merely shrugged off the thought. The sorcerer was gone, so he didn't have to worry anymore about fighting off stanked individuals. instead, he returned his focus back to the tanned girl who was still watching the videos on Howard's phone.
As the video went on, the doubts that the tanned girl had begun to vanish.
"So, do you believe the Ninja's real now?" Howard asked with a smug expression on his face.
"Yeah, I thought you were most likely just pulling my leg, but there's no way you can fake this. He's real, he's really really real!" The tanned girl said excitedly, her tone losing some of its masculinity as her eyes sparkled with childlike glee and she began hopping in place...which also made her chest bounce.
Both Randy and Howard were taken aback by the girl's sudden change into a slightly cute demeanor, so much so that her bouncing assets didn't even register in their minds.
Apparently also realizing this, the tanned girl froze in place before she began coughing into her fist and regaining her composure.
"Forget you saw that," she said in a calm yet threatening tone, her voice returning to normal. The dark look in her eye told both Randy and Howard that they would be in a world of hurt if they didn't comply.
"S-saw wh-what?" Randy said with a nervous smile, as he could feel the killing intent radiating off the tanned girl like one would feel the heat radiating off a blazing fire. The purple-haired teen couldn't help but gulp in fear.
"I didn't see anything," Howard said quickly, his tone doing nothing to hide the panic he felt, "did you notice anything Cuningham?"
"Nope!"
Satisfied, the tanned girl smirked and the killing intent Randy felt from her faded away before she turned around and began walking away.
"Well it was nice talking with you," she said as she gave them a wave without turning to face them, "See you two later."
"Later," Randy said as he waved back.
"My offer still stands!" Howard called back with a smile on his face, before placing his fist on his hips, "I think I had a shot there."
"No buddy, you didn't," Randy said in slight amusement as he patted his best friend's back. Suddenly a thought finally occurred to the tall purpled haired boy regarding his best biffer, "Hey, weren't you holding our place in line?"
Upon hearing his friend's question, the shorter chubby boy's smile vanished within an instant as his arms dangled at his sides and his eyes widened, "Ah, wonk!"
Homura couldn't help but smile in excitement.
If those boys were telling the truth, then it would mean The Norris shinobi was real and likely here in japan.
when Suzune-sensei told her and the rest of her team that the legendary lost clan could be arriving in japan, Homura will admit that her excitement at the idea had gotten the better of her at that moment. She could still remember how much the other girls didn't appreciate having their ear drums ruptured.
when she was little, she use to hear stories about the Norris clan so much. Those stories inspired her to strive to become a powerful shinobi.
She may no longer be on the side of good, but that still didn't mean she no longer idolizes the Norris clan. Maybe not so much for their heroism anymore, but mostly for their renowned strength.
And if those videos were any indication, then the clan members more than likely lived up to the legends.
The tanned skin shinobi clenched her hand into a fist in anticipation, hoping to finally have a chance to fight a member of the famous shinobi clan.
Suddenly her mind shifted toward that image of that lanky purpled haired kid and his chubby friend in the bathtub, and her face turned completely red again.
"God, why was that image surprisingly hot!?' She mentally added in her head as she face-palmed while blood began to leak from her nose.
Debbie Kang stood at the back gate. She hasn't seen a lot of students go out through the gate, or more accurately, Debbie hasn't seen anyone yet.
Though she guessed that shouldn't be surprising. The way to get here from the classes was a little out of the way. You probably would never have noticed the gate unless you knew about it beforehand.
The fact that the school had one wasn't suspicious, but she did find it a little weird they weren't told about it.
Granted, not being informed about the rear gate wasn't suspicious either. There are plenty of places at her old school she didn't know about before attending Norrisville high. But something in her gut told her that she would find a big scoop here.
However, after a couple of minutes of nothing interesting happening, the younger journalist let out a sigh.
"There's nothing here," she said in slight exasperation before walking out through the rear gate.
'I'll come back some other time if I still don't have any big scoops,' she thought to herself.
Little did Debbie Kang know, two pairs of eyes were watching her from a distance.
"About time she left, eh Ikuraga," the Katsuagi said from on top of a tree branch, with her ravenette friend perched on another branch of the same tree.
"There's something off about her," Ikuraga said as she pinched her chin between her thumb and index finger.
"I know right, she's shorter than even Hibari and she's already starting to grow a pair," the blonde said with a lecherous grin before raising her hands up and began making groping gestures, "maybe I could help make them grow faster."
"Katsuragi," Ikuraga reprimanded with both a stern and annoyed tone, as she chopped the back of the blonde's head.
"Kidding, kidding," katsuragi chuckled as she rubbed the spot where the ravenette hit her, before gaining a somewhat serious expression, "but yeah, it was weird how that chick was just standing around here. Other than us, no one really knows about the gate, and she doesn't seem like she's a shinobi."
To that Ikuraga nodded in agreement.
"You're right, if she was a shinobi she would have been more subtle," the ravenette said with a frown, "Still we should be careful about her, I have a feeling we're going to see her more in the future."
"We probably should figure out what her name is if that's going to be the case," Katsuragi said as she placed her hands behind her head.
"That might be a good idea," Ikuraga said in agreement.
"Also is it just me, or do a lot of the kids from Norrisville seem to have Japanese ancestry?" Katsuragi asked causing Ikurage to blink a few times.
She was right, Ikuraga didn't think about it before, but a lot of the Norrisville students did seem to have Japanese ancestry despite coming from a city in the united states
Hibari let out a groan as she rubbed her head.
"Mou, what happened?' she mentally asked herself as she opened her eyes.
She found herself sitting on one of the benches in the park not far from the school, and looking down she saw the black book resting on her lap.
Hibari tilted her head in confusion as she wondered what she was doing with it. she never remembered taking it out of her bag.
Come to think of it, she never even remembered coming into the park to begin with.
she then heard a groan to her left, and turning toward the source, Hibari saw her best friend Yagyu sitting right next to her, rubbing her head as well.
"Yagyu," Hibari spoke up, gaining the white-haired girl's attention, who seemed to just now realize the pinkette's presence.
"Hibari?" Yagyu asked blinking in surprise, before immediately scanning her surroundings and then toward the pinkette.
"What happened? Are you alright?" Yagyu asked Hibari, concern evident in her voice.
the pinkette simply nodded her head, "No, I'm alright Yagyu."
The eye-patched-wearing girl let out a sigh of relief at that. for a moment, Yagyu was worried that the both of them were captured by enemy shinobis. Thankfully, it just seemed like she and Hibari just simply fell asleep in the park.
"By the way, Yagyu, do you know what we were doing just now?" Hibari asked with a tilt of her head.
"I'm...not sure," Yagyu admitted as she rubbed her forehead. for some odd reason, she felt like she had gaps in her memory. she immediately shook the ridiculous thought out of her head, "It probably wasn't important."
"Are you sure?" Hibari asked, somewhat uncertain as she absent-mindedly placed the book back in her bag.
"Yes," Yagyu said as she and Hibari got up off the bench. Though somewhere in the back of her mind felt off, what it was she wasn't sure. however that feeling quickly went away, and both she and Hibari began walking.
The bushes behind the bench both girls were sitting on then began to shake and Katsuragi popped her head out from the foliage.
"Ugh, why am I in the bushes?" the blonde asked as she rubbed her head before her eyes rested on the now empty bench, "and why do I suddenly feel slightly disappointed? like I lost my chance to grope some nice boobs?"
She scratched her head in confusion, before shrugging her shoulders.
"Ah well, no point in asking about stuff like that," she said in a casual manner as she began to walk away with her hands behind her head.
The Nomicon couldn't believe it was in this kind of predicament…again.
Normally this wouldn't be so much of an issue. Most people wouldn't really understand the importance of the book, and would more or less brush off the contents within its pages. Just like McFist's brat, and that Bucky boy did. Not even Viceroy even realized what it was until the sorcerer explained to him what exactly he was holding within the palm of his hands.
However, that wasn't the case here. Instead of falling into the possession of some random civilian, it fell into the hands of another ninja, or shinobi as she calls herself.
Out of the millions of people in Japan, the ninja lost the Nomicon to another ninja.
Even ignoring the fact that ninjas outside the Norris clan still exist, the probability of it coming into the possession of another ninja by chance was ridiculously low.
If she or her peers had managed to even so much as peek within its pages, not that that was even a risk of that happening with those girls alone, they would have immediately realized what the Ninja Nomicon was and try to learn its secrets.
that was something it had to avoid. the Ninja Nomicon holds powerful techniques and secrets that would be dangerous if they fell into the wrong hands.
That's why the Nomicon didn't want to risk falling into the hands of the teacher. He may seem like a decent enough individual, however, the Nomicon wasn't sure if that was truly the case or just a mask. After all, the most dangerous enemy often wears the mask of an ally.
And even if he was a noble individual, the same probably isn't true about those higher up the ladder than him.
It was safer to remain within the possession of the pink-haired girl until an opportunity for it to reunite with the ninja can present itself. And if a fight occurs in the process of the ninja reclaiming the Nomicon, the book was more than confident the ninja can easily handle the pink-haired girl.
so when the pink-haired girl was about to bring the Nomicon to her sensei, the book Shloomped the girl into its pages and immediately into the ultimate lesson. a strategy that the current ninja had used on Debbie Kang when she was going to expose his secret as the ninja.
Which, in hindsight, was admittedly a good call on the ninja's part despite panicking at the moment. Had the Nomicon focused more on Debbie Kang instead of the ninja, the situation probably would have been resolved without drama.
And not only did it help prevent the girl from bringing the Nomicon to her sensei by making her forget about the idea (at least temporarily), but it allowed the book the chance to learn a bit about modern shinobis, and throughout the days that it was within the possession of the young "shinobi" it learned a bit more about the girls and their shinobi training routines as it observed them,
The pinkette that was In Possession of the Nomicon, Hibari, was a bubbly and cheerful girl, and her presence seemed to brighten up the mood of everyone around her.
Though she was incredibly clumsy and lacked confidence in her own abilities. The latter of which was holding her back immensely.
The white-haired girl, Yagyu, was a talented and highly skilled shinobi for her age, though she did seem cold and somewhat distant toward the other girls with the pink-haired girl being the complete exception. There wasn't a moment, if she was allowed to, where she wasn't by the pink-haired girl's side, and seem to be quite protective of her. The pair seemed to be really close, though the white-haired girl's constant babying of her friend will only hinder the both of them immensely.
The blonde one, Katsuragi, was highly energetic and always seemed eager for a challenge. Respectable, though her tendency to…invade her peers' personal space left a lot to be desired.
The ravanette, Ikuraga, seemed to be the leader of the group of girls and carried herself in a dignified and composed manner…at least until the blonde-haired girl started acting up.
Though, centuries worth of ninjas being vigilant for potential victims of the sorcerer allowed the Nomicon to see that there was something bothering the ravenette, as well as the blonde, though the latter hid it slightly better.
The brown-haired girl and apparent granddaughter of the famous shinobi the school was named after, Asuka, seemed like a perfect candidate for the role of the Norris ninja. She was pure of heart, though oblivious to the innuendos she says occasionally, dedicated to her training, and seems to have the desire to protect others. Traits that she shared with the current Norris ninja…minus the innuendos.
The Nomicon couldn't help but feel stabs of nostalgia and sadness running through its pages as it watched the young shinobis train together and interact with one another. Memories of happier times with the rest of the Norris nine, back before the sorcerer came into power.
It also gained bits of more detailed information by mind wiping the girl, and occasionally a few of her friends, whenever she tries to bring the Nomicon to her teacher.
Apparently, the shinobis of the modern era were divided between two factions, Good shinobis, and Evil shinobis.
The girls were all apparently part of the "good shinobi" faction, and the school they attended was dedicated to training "good shinobi" such as them in order to deal with yoma and other shinobis from the opposing fraction, or "evil shinobis" as they called them.
Though the Nomicon highly doubted things were as black and white as the young girls seem to believe, especially since the "good shinobi" faction was working for the government.
Even from what it learned from the girls' minds, the Nomicon already found a few things of the "good shinobi" practices that it both personally disliked and strongly disapproved of.
Such as the perverted blonde's situation with her parents simply because they failed a mission.
The Nomicon could have probably learned significantly more from the teacher himself, but it wasn't going to risk the more than likely possibility of things going south. It wouldn't be the first time individuals were able to escape its pages and avoid the mind wiping, Randy and Mac Antfee were strong examples.
The pink-haired girl was easy enough to handle at the moment. She was easy to frighten, even unintentionally, and she was slow to regain her composure compared to her friends, so it was relatively easy for the Nomicon to make her take the ultimate lesson.
The other girls weren't as easy to deal with, however, especially Yagyu. They all quickly regained their bearings and all attempted to escape, fighting off the effigies it sent after the girls. There were even a few times the Nomicon needed to…be more direct in ensuring they take the ultimate lesson.
It was thanks in large part to the girls being unfamiliar with the Nomicon and its mechanics that it was able to get them to take the ultimate lesson.
However, it couldn't keep mind wiping the girl forever. Eventually, the rest of her peers and teacher would become suspicious of her constant sleeping and gaps in memory.
It was already becoming more and more difficult for the Nomicon to find opportunities to make the girl forget about bringing it to her teacher without drawing suspicion.
Unless something changes, the likelihood of the Nomicon's nature being revealed to these shinobis is likely to happen.
The Nomicon tried to come up with ideas of how to prevent that from happening and getting back to the Ninja, however, almost all of them wouldn't work. There's only so much you can do when you don't have any limbs after all.
However, there is one idea that can ensure the Nomicon's secrets aren't exposed and can help it get back to the Norrisville Ninja. It was risky, highly possible to backfire, and went against one of the most important rules the Nomicon had.
But at the moment it's really the best option it has, and hey, as the ninja and his friend would say…Wiggle room.
Besides, from what it saw so far, the pink-haired girl would definitely benefit from it, and would no doubt be desperate enough to agree to its terms.
"Oh man, that was an awesome boss fight!" Howard exclaimed as he set his controller on his lap, before pumping his fists in excitement.
"Heck yeah it was,'' Randy agreed with a wide and fulfilled grin on his face.
It was one week since Randy and Howard purchased their copy of grave puncher JRPG Edition And had just defeated the third boss in the game…after dying to it a number of times.
"But Seriously I can't believe how hard that guy was," Howard breathed out before flopping onto his back, "he made the last two guys look like chumps! Especially with those unfair abilities."
"I know right!? That shoob kept brainwashing some of our guys and making them fight us," Randy exclaimed before throwing his hands up in exasperation, "and what made it worse was he gave them buffs making the fight more difficult!"
"Well it's over, we beat 'em, that's what matters!" Howard exclaimed with a grin before clenching a fist in front of his face, "and sweet cheese does victory feels so good."
Randy let out a chuckle before flopping down onto his back, "and we own this victory to your strategy."
"Ugh, don't remind me," Howard complained as he messaged his head, "I haven't used my brain this much since principle Slimovitz made us attend school during Saturdays."
"Thankfully you didn't end up making black holes this time," Randy muttered to himself with a smirk.
"Ugh, I hope I won't have to use my brain this much anytime soon."
"Hate to break it to you buddy, but there are going to be a lot more bosses later on, and for sure they're going to be tougher than the one we just went up against," Randy said, shooting down the orange-haired teen's hopes, to which said teen couldn't help but let out an agonizing whine much to the purplette's amusement, "we should do a whole lot of grinding before we head further into the story."
"But grinding is so boring," Howard whined again.
"Yeah that's true," Randy admitted with a shrug of his shoulders before sitting upright, "but "A ninja must always be vigilant, lest he be unprepared for the struggles ahead." And we most definitely need to be prepared if we want to take on future enemies.
"Did you seriously just quote that stupid book?" Howard deadpanned as he too sat upright.
"Yes I did!" Randy said proudly, not a hint of embarrassment showing in his expression or voice, before giving his best biffer a disapproving glare, "and the ninja Nomicon is NOT stupid."
"Whatever," Howard scoffed with a roll of his eyes.
"Speaking of the Nomicon, I better see if it got anything new for me," Randy said as he got up onto his feet before making his way to his bag where he kept the Nomicon, "It's been a while since I shloomped into its pages."
"Just don't stay in there for too long," Howard said as he sat up, "I want to get back to punching more graves, and I can't continue without you. Well, I can but I don't want to deal with you asking me what you missed while in the book."
Randy resisted the urge to roll his eyes as he looked in his bag and pulled out his math book, or rather the ninja Nomicon he disguised as his math book. Originally, Randy didn't bother disguising the book, after all, no one really knew about it. Heck, he and Howard didn't know about it either until the former found it in his room, and they've prided themselves on being the ninja's biggest fans. Of course, that was before he misplaced it and (after a series of it being passed around by Bash, Bucky, Principle Slimovitz, couch Green, Howard, himself, and Bash again) Randy had to sneak into McFist industry to get it back, but not before the sorcerer informed McFist what the Nomicon was.
After that whole ordeal, Randy opted to disguise the Nomicon with the cover of his math textbook, lest McFist figures out his identity as the ninja.
Randy opens the book, expecting the usually glowing ancient pages and the pulling of his consciousness. However, what he got instead were mathematical equations and trigonometry formulas.
'Oops, that's my math book,' Randy thought to himself somewhat embarrassed as he put the textbook down, before pulling out another textbook with the math cover. He opens the pages, bracing himself to be Shloomped once again into the Nomicon…only to stare at a page regarding circumferences.
He continued staring for a solid minute before letting the textbook slide out of his grasp and landing on the floor with a thump. The sound makes Howard jump and the chubby boy looked at his best friend, who was as still as a statue.
"Um, Cunningham is everything alright buddy?" Howard asked, concern evident in his voice.
Randy didn't respond to Howard's question, he just remained frozen on the spot.
"Oi, Cunningham, what's wro-" Howard began to ask again when Randy suddenly began frantically searching through his bag, "Um, CunningWOAH!"
Howard let out a yelp as he ducked underneath a thrown History textbook.
"Where is it!?" Randy exclaimed as he pulled out his Science textbook. He quickly flipped through its pages, and let out a panic whine when he saw only science stuff.
"Where's what?" Howard asked before he had to once again duck to avoid being smacked in the face by a flying science book.
"It's not here!"
"What's not here!?" the short chubby boy asked before his eyes bulged wide open and his irises and pupils shrunken as he narrowly avoided being skewered by a sai, which was now impaled on the wall, "WHY DO YOU HAVE A HONKING SAI IN YOUR BAG!?"
"Nonononononononononononono!" Randy at this point was now reduced to merely throwing any and all content from his bag, surprisingly a lot of which were sharp and deadly.
Howard couldn't help but wonder why his best friend thought it would be a good idea to keep his ninja weapons in his school bag, especially since his ninja suit already had seemingly bottomless pockets for him to store his weapons. Not only did it run the risk of his best friend getting in severe trouble if they were ever discovered, but it risked revealing his identity as the honking ninja.
He also wonders why his best friend thinks it safe to throw deadly weapons sharp enough to cut steel so haphazardly!
After nearly getting decapitated by a wakizashi, Howard finally had enough, "CUNNINGHAM WHAT'S WRONG!"
"I CAN'T FIND THE NINJA NOMICON!" Randy exclaimed as he turned to face the orange-haired teen while pulling his hair.
"I thought it was weird that stupid book was so quiet for so long, it normally doesn't go longer than three days at most, and that's really rare," Howard said nonchalantly with a shrug of his shoulders, "And it's been a bit longer than a week since we last heard so much as a peep from it, I'm honestly surprised you didn't notice that up to now."
Randy's body stiffens at his best friend's words, his eyes going wide, his pupils shrinking to the size of peas, and his breath quicken as the young ninja began to hyperventilate.
"Uh oh, not again," Howard said with concern as he immediately covered his ears with his hands before Randy let out a high-pitched scream.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Within the headmaster's office of a castle, a hooded figure looked about her new quarters now that she took over as the school's new headmaster after the previous one had to undergo… "early retirement" at her…request.
A sickly inhumane smile grew on the hooded figure's wrinkly face. With her newfound tools, she will soon enact her revenge on the one who robbed everything from her, and then chaos will engulf the world.
The hooded figure then began to let out maniacal laughter, as the orbs hanging from her neck began to glow a sinister purple.
However, not even a moment later, anguish high pitched screaming began to fill her ears and she ceased her laughing.
"Is that…the pained screams of a young child?" She asked as she tilted her head in bemusement, "but it isn't my birthday."
Within a large castle full of butt statues, a group of four was sneaking around in the shadows. They stopped in their tracks when the sounds of screaming echoed from outside the castle.
"Hey, Joker you hear that," A young man in his late teens wearing a skull mask asked another teen about as old as him who was wearing an Avian mask.
"I feel that baby," the Avian mask-wearing teen said nonchalantly with a straight face.
"Dude, don't say that," the Skull mask-wearing teen said with a deadpan, "Don't say that ever again."
In an office on the top floor of a corporate building, a large muscular man wearing a black suit and a pair of glasses was conversing with another individual whose body seems to be completely replaced with cybernetics. Their conversation stop when they both heard screaming.
"What the hell is that?" the man with muscles on his muscles asked in annoyance as he took the cigar out of his mouth.
"The sound of a young pup crying out to the heavens for the loss of a dear teacher," the cyborg said with an arrogant smile, "such a common meme."
"What the hell are you talking about Monsoon?" the muscular man asked with a deadpan.
Within dark space, right outside a galaxy, was an armada of countless ships all resembling cuttlefish or squid. They were all seemingly dormant, hibernating as they drifted across the darkness of space. That was until, against all logic, the sounds of screaming echoed across space.
One of the ships, the largest of them all, began to activate for the first time in thousands of years.
"What is that," it asked itself as it observed the impossible phenomenon, "such a thing should not be possible".
The ancient machine then activated its sensors, "Scanning Anomaly. If this could disrupt the cycle, it must be found and dealt with."
A young girl with short purple hair wearing a white parka and stockings with purple and white stripes skipped into the kitchen and toward the fridge. She hummed a cheerful tone as she opened the fridge.
"Nothing like a nice delicious pudding after a hard day of-," the girl began to say as she grabbed a pudding but stopped when she heard screaming.
"Huh, what the nep is that?" she asked no one in particular.
A naked muscular man with strange markings all over his muscles stood proud in the center of a massive chamber that was empty except for him and another individual doned in impenetrable green armor who radiated pure anger.
"No blood can be spilled in this…holy plac…," the naked man began explaining to the fully armored individual, but stopped when a high-pitched scream filled the chamber, much to both men's confusion.
"What is that?" the naked man asked as he looked around the chamber before his eyes widened in anger.
"Oh me, is that my sister?" He growled as he clenched his fist tightly, before throwing his head back and yelling so loud that the chamber violently shook, "Leave me alone Amara! You and brother already took everything from me, what more do you want!?"
The armored individual, unaffected by the shaking happening around him, merely tilted his head in confusion as he watched the naked man continue to scream.
(Prime RC9GN universe, three weeks ago)
"This is so honking Bruce!" Randy exclaimed in excitement, "I still can't believe my parents moved us next door to your house!"
"I know right," Howard exclaimed just as excited, before hearing his best biffer scream, "also why are you screaming Cunningham?"
"I'm not screaming," Randy said as he tilted his head in confusion.
"Then where is that coming from," the shorter boy asked as both he and Randy looked around trying to figure out where that screaming that disturbingly sounded like Randy was coming from
(this universe in the present)
"Cunningham calm down!" Howard cried out as he put his hand over Randy's mouth, effectively putting an end to the taller teen's screaming.
"How the juice can I calm down, I lost the honking Nomicon, and…" Randy then began to breathe heavily as sweat slid down his face, "What do I do, what do I do, what do I do? It's a book of 800 years worth of ancient ninja wisdom and I honking lost it. Without it, I'm wonked, I'm so honking wonked."
Randy grabbed Howard by the collar of his shirt and lifted the chubby teen up into the air.
"I'm spiraling Howard, spiraling, SPIRALLING!" Randy shouted into his best friend's face, unintentionally spitting in Howard's face much to the orange-haired boy's annoyance, before vigorously shaking the shorter boy back and forth, "SPIRALING!"
Smack!
The young ninja's cries abruptly came to an end when Howard, who was now sporting an annoyed deadpan expression, slapped Randy in the face.
The force of the blow was hard enough to make randy head turn to the side with a bright red handprint appearing on his cheek. Randy merely stared off with a far-off expression.
"…Thanks Howard," Randy said dumbly as he gently set the shorter boy down. Randy took in a deep breath before letting it out, to which Howard once again raised his hand up ready to slap the other boy.
"I'm good, I'm good Howard, spiraling over! Spiraling over!" Randy exclaimed as he quickly reached out and grabbed the shorter boy's arm, before slowly lowering it, "Spiraling over."
"Seriously Cunningham stop freaking out," Howard said with a roll of his eyes as he crossed his arms over his chest, "It's not like you need that stupid book."
"Yes I do Howard, if I didn't have the Nomicon, I would have been done in from the beginning," Randy argued angrily, frowning at his best friend's usual dismissal of the Nomicon's importance, "Where do you think I learned the ninja air fist, the earth attack, my super senses, the ninja art of healing? "
"Um-" Howard tried to come up with a response but nothing really came to mind.
"The Ninja Nomicon holds powerful techniques and knowledge that could be dangerous in the wrong hands, Randy explained as he walked toward the window before leaning his head on the glass, "I have to find it before someone else does and looks inside it."
"Oh come on, Cunningham, we both know that book won't open for anyone unless it wants to be open. No one's going to open the book alright."
"I hope you're right Howard," Randy said with a concerned frown as he looked out the window.
Hibari let out a dejected sigh as she flopped down on her bed, not even bothering to change out of her school uniform.
Today's training didn't go so well, as usual, in fact, it was by far Hibari's worst performance as of yet.
Kiriya-sensei had them spar against one another. Her opponent was Katsuragi
The fight was the same as always, far from even but far from hopeless either. Hibari was able to get a few good hits with her unpredictable style but she still lost.
That by itself wouldn't have been so bad, however, Kiriya-sensei also had them practice their aim with Shurikens.
And like in most of her other training exercises, she didn't do all that great. While her friends were all able to hit the bullseyes of the targets Kiriya-sensei set up for them, Hibari on the other hand couldn't even come close to hitting the center of the target no matter how much she tried.
Her friends helped her during practice by showing the pinkette the correct way to hold Shurikens and how to twist her wrist when she throws it.
However, Instead of improving, her aim would get worse and worse as the days progressed despite the amount of practice she did.
Her aim eventually got so bad, that her shuriken didn't even hit the practice dummy and instead ricocheted off the rocks behind it and nearly struck Kiriya-sensei in the head. Of course, the experienced shinobi caught it midair with no issue, but Hibari still couldn't help but feel embarrassed at her performance.
Her loss in the sparing match just felt like a reminder of her inadequacy.
So as soon as school was done for the day Hibari ran home as fast as she could, making sure to avoid her friends, even Yagyu.
She's not as strong as Katsuragi or as skilled as Ikaruga, or as smart as Yagyu or even Asuka.
'I never even wanted to be a shinobi in the first place,' Hibari thought to herself before squeezing her eyes shut as tears threaten to leak.
Suddenly Hibari heard a soft humming sound.
Opening her eyes and Lifting her head off her bed, Hibari looked around her room wondering where that sound was coming from.
Following the sound, her eyes eventually rested on her school bag that she threw on top of her drawer, which the inside of it was glowing brightly.
Blinking, the pink-haired girl climbed out of her bed and slowly and cautiously made her way toward her bag.
Eventually, Hibari reached her bag. However, she just stood there looking down at her bag with a nervous expression, worried that if she tried anything her bag might bite her.
Hibari shook the silly idea out of her head, bags don't bite people.
But they don't glow either.
Hibari stood there a moment longer, working up her nerves, before slapping her cheeks.
With a brave face, though still nervous, Hibari slowly and carefully opened her school bag.
And saw the black book she found a week ago emitting that very same glow.
Hibari blinked in surprise as she pulled the book out of the bag.
As she held the book in her hand, it ceased emitting that strange light, and Hibari tilted her head in confusion.
The entire time that she had the book, it never did anything like this.
"I wonder what it means," Hibari mumbled to herself. Before she could ponder any more, the book suddenly opened on its own much to the pink-haired girl's shock.
"W-wha-," was all that left the pinkette's mouth before The pages of the book glowed brightly, and Hibari felt something pull on her conscience.
The young shinobi's eyes then glazed over and became unfocused, similar to that of a fish, before her body crumpled to the floor much like a puppet whose strings had been severed.
As Hibari lay on the floor, her body motionless save for the rising and falling of her chest, the mysterious black book landed next to her head wide open as its pages glowed.
AN: Alrighty third chapter is up and running, and now Randy now realizes that he lost the Nomicon and Hibari is once again sucked into the book's pages. Though things might be a little bit different this time. Hehehe.
Also, I now got a beta reader, Squeegeman, to help me out with my grammar. So Bruce!
I've also crossed post all of my stories onto "Archive of our own" BTW.
Anyway, I'm already working on the next chapter, so I'll see you guys then. Enjoy your time with your loved ones and Merry Christmas and Happy new year.