"It does look like Trouble," you agree. "I take it you ladies will be moving out, then?"
"We really should," Kahlua reluctantly admits, glancing at her sisters.
"Mother's instructions were quite clear," Moka adds, returning the look.
Kokoa regards her older sisters for a moment, then sighs grumpily.
"We did promise to protect Big Sister's friend from ninja, though," she points out. "We're supposed to keep our promises, right?"
There is a long pause. All about the arena, you can see the tournament's robed, in-house security personnel moving into position, covering the exits in twos and threes in case they need to evacuate the crowd, while larger squads flank the ground level from all sides, ready to leap into the impending fray at a moment's notice. As for the ninja, their respective groups have moved somewhat apart, several members on all sides fingering a variety of weapons that no one has yet tried to draw. There is definite talking going on down there, but try as you might, you can't make anything out over the uneasy murmurs of the crowd. Looks like you need more practice - or maybe an application of ki to your ears.
"You were the one who actually said that, Kokoa," the blonde sister points out. She doesn't sound like she's objecting, just stating a fact.
"And both of you went along with it," comes the little redhead's response.
"Mother would probably say something about verbal contracts here," the silver-haired middle sibling muses. "On the other hand, Father would have a few things to say about turning your back to a threat."
The three sisters exchange glances.
"Oh, for crying out loud," Cordelia groans. "Will you three quit it with the amateur scheming hour already? If you're going to go, then go. If you're going to stay, stop trying to find excuses that aren't going to fool your parents any more than they're fooling anyone here, stay, and deal with the fallout later."
"While we're on the subject of staying or going," you cut in before the Shuzen girls can respond, "what's your opinion, Cordy? Personally, I'm in favor of staying put and seeing how this turns out."
Gained Warrior Born F++
"Well, duh. You're a guy, it's about to be a fight." She shrugs.
"That's not the only reason I want to stay," you deny. "Sensei did tell us to stay here, on pain of being knocked out."
"That was before we knew there was going to be an outbreak of ninja - or general mayhem," Cordelia adds, frowning down at the waiting area. You follow her gaze and find that Lyra girl looking at the crowd of shinobi with a decidedly sharklike smile, flexing her fingers in time with a slow pulse of her dark aura. Not too far away, the incubus Cambiel - once again back in a human guise - is twirling his javelin while he studies the field in turn; something about his expression makes you think he's picking out targets.
The Announcer, meanwhile, has taken a long look around before saying anything. "Ladies and gentlemen," he finally declares in a controlled voice, "it looks like there's going to be an unavoidable delay. At this time, we would like to ask you to please move quietly and calmly towards-"
His words are interrupted by an explosion. It doesn't come from anyone on the floor - in fact, most of them are visibly startled, looking up towards the source of the noise, which happens to be one of the private boxes. Its windows are shattered, though still holding in place - the wonders of modern engineering at work - and the spiderweb effect plus the smoke inside makes it impossible to see exactly what's happened. Despite that, there is a general outcry of dismay and anger from the blue-clad ninja group, followed by a low, harsh chuckle from the leader of the brown squad.
Violence ensues. In the first few seconds, it's clearly blue against brown, with Shiden's evidently evil brother going straight for Hayate with the kind of certainty that indicates Ryu will either get out of the way or get trampled - but given Hayate's proximity to Evoreth, the red ninja almost immediately jump in, moving to try and retrieve or at least defend their master. Lyra and Cambiel follow without hesitation - you clearly hear a cry of "Glorious!" from the girl before the screaming of the crowd drowns everything else out - and the security guys likewise move to subdue the troublemakers.
With your various enhancements up, you can see EVERYTHING. The very first thing you learn is that there is a major difference between watching two martial artists face each other in a regulated duel, and watching something like fifty of them go at it in a general melee - especially when most of the participants who weren't part of the tournament are carrying live steel. You try to track the strongest fighters, but there are just so many people moving around down there, you can't keep up. You doubt you'd be able to tell exactly what was going on even if half of the combatants weren't using ninjutsu, demon sorcery, or whatever the heck it is that's powering Lyra - HER, you have no trouble tracking, mostly because she's glowing like a dark star. Images flicker in and out around her as you try to keep her out of the main field of your ki-augmented vision, providing one more distraction for you to contend with.
You have a shielding spell ready and waiting to cover your entire little group if this trouble turns your way, but for all the mayhem going on in and around the ring, the ninja and other fighters don't appear interested in the crowd, which has by now thinned to about half of its original size. The lower sections are virtually abandoned, and this proves to be a fortunate thing, as there is a loud crash from that area. Your head whips around in search of the cause, and you find Sakaki Shio engaged in a brutal fight with some equally-huge, rather better-dressed guy who wears sunglasses and has a distinct scar across his nose. Chairs are being bent, battered, and torn up entirely around the pair, who carve a path of destruction down across that scetion before the stranger manages to throw Sakaki over the edge and into the central mob. The man with glasses pauses, watches the brawler recover and put down two ninja and three security guys in about six seconds flat, and then leaps after him, landing with a force that you swear shatters the floor. Lyra spins about in mid-air, homes in on the two like a missile - and gets batted away by a double-backhand for her interest, Sakaki and his opponent not even looking at her as they resume their match. The levitating girl whirls wildly for a moment before getting herself back under control, her dark expression saying clearer than words that she's pissed at the unthinking dismissal she just received, but before she can do anything about it, the oni that Ryu took down in the previous round comes out of nowhere to engage her in an aerial battle. You focus on that for a moment, stealing more pointers on the mechanics of flight - and then a bit more on the use of lightning, when Lyra smites her opponent from the sky, followed by another insight into teleportation as she cuts out the middleman, so to speak, and closes instantly with her preferred targets. This time around, Sakaki and his partner break off long enough to actually see the girl before they knock her flying.
And in the midst of this chaos, the Announcer CONTINUES to holler commentary, somehow avoiding being smashed, skewered, or stepped on by the small army.
Gained Augmentation E+++
Gained Body Flicker F+++
Gained Doppelganger F+
Gained Illusion F++
Gained Japanese D
Gained Lightning Elementalism F
Gained Mage Sight E++
Gained Summoning E
Gained Watchful D
Gained Wind Elementalism F+
"Okay," Kokoa shouts, her tone gleeful. "Everything I said before about this tournament being boring? I take it all back!"