Disclaimer: The following is a fan-written fiction, the views and opinions in this story are not intended to be viewed as those of the author. Ranma 1/2, Urusei Yatsura, Inuyasha, and Five Pound Gospel are the creations of Rumiko Takahashi, property of their respective rights holders and publishers. Please support the official releases.
CW: This story will contain violence, strong language, sexual humor and situations, drug use, Moroboshi Ataru, and Happosai. You've been warned.
|Conflagration|
The soft clop of hooves and grinding of wooden wheels on pavement was a strange sound as the Mendō oxcart slowly ground its way down the street past the Sherman home. Standing on the patio, listening to the sound of it passing, but familiar enough with it to not risk a potential encounter with Mendō Ryōko, Ryūnosuke sat on the patio, looking up at the night sky with a restless look on her face.
Her impatience and eagerness to go out and resume her hunt manifested in an unconscious, rhythmic tapping of her heel on the hard packed dirt path that led to the closed gate of her new home.
The patio door slid open. Expecting Nick to emerge, Ryūnosuke was surprised to see Helena instead. The new maternal figure in her life wasn't normally up this late, usually turning in not long after Hector and Imogen finished dinner and tired themselves out playing with her, their father, Nicole, or Ryūnosuke herself.
Though drawn by the odd sound of livestock and cart passing through, when she saw Ryūnosuke fidgeting up a storm, Helena smiled and walked over to the edge of the patio.
"Where's Dad?" Ryūnosuke asked.
"He's gone to bed, why?"
Ryūnosuke's expression switched from restless to frustrated before she looked back out at the courtyard of the Sherman compound. "I was hoping to know if I can start looking for those perverts."
Helena hummed and looked back into the house. Nicole was sitting on the couch, doing homework with a set of purple cat-ear headphones on her head to block out the world as she studied. Further into the house her husband was asleep, with Hector and Imogen curled up with him. It warmed her heart to find her home so peaceful, but she knew that Ryūnosuke was too restless for tonight's tranquility.
She answered, speaking gently. "Well, you are an adult." Ryūnosuke perked up and looked back at her as she continued. "You're in good health and you have your wits about you–even with school to consider, we're not going to tell you what you can or can't do–just offer you suggestions."
"So, what do you suggest?"
"If you want to go, then go. If not, Nicole will be up for a little longer and she needs help with her written Japanese."
Ryūnosuke let out a huff. "I'm barely good at Japanese writing, myself."
Helena giggled. "Still, it's your decision to make if you want to go out there–if you think you're ready. I think Nick went to sleep content knowing you'd make the call yourself."
Therein lay the rub. Despite her earlier spar with Nicole, Ryūnosuke wasn't sure if that was good enough. In fact, the only thing she really did learn from it was that she enjoyed fighting, and that she had the potential to be better than she was.
But that didn't tell her if she was better than Kamaitachi.
"I don't know," Ryūnosuke answered. "Right now? More than anything, I want to beat that smug jerk who treated me like I was the weirdo when we fought. I'm just not sure if I can."
"I know you can," Helena replied.
"That's nice of ya to say, but…" Ryūnosuke paused and sighed. "The guy I fought was… he was pretty tough, made short work of me easily even when I was giving it my all."
Helena nodded. "Nick told me about it. He said thereabouts that time you'd already been beaten up beforehand, and you were fairly upset about it, right?"
"Yeah," Ryūnosuke confirmed.
Helena folded her arms just above her pregnancy-rounded stomach and looked up at the night sky briefly as she thought of what to say next.
"Just as much as it's about physical strength, a battle is a mental thing, and it's not just against your opponent. Having a clear head and a broad perspective going into battle is just as important as being in good health and rested, right?"
When Ryūnosuke nodded yes, Helena asked. "Do you think if you fought Kamaitachi then as you are now, you'd lose?"
Ryūnosuke took so long to process that she blinked a few times. "… Huh."
Fujinami Ryūnosuke, frustrated by her embarrassing defeat, furious over having her womanhood constantly called to question, and dealing with all the other crap in her life went into that fight like she did every fight–to vent that fury into the universe where it could only impotently fester any other time. She lost because she was so angry she didn't care about anything else, just shutting Kamaitachi up and reclaiming her pride.
Ryūnosuke Sherman, on the other hand, had yet to be in a real fight.
Could she win?
"Oh, hello," Helena's abrupt greeting jolted Ryūnosuke from her introspection, and she looked up to see Kuno Kodachi walking up from the wall she'd effortlessly hopped over.
"Can I help you?" Ryūnosuke's new mother figure asked.
Kodachi bowed. "Forgive me for my unannounced entrance." She came back up. "My name is Kuno Kodachi, and I've actually come to speak with Ryūnosuke about an urgent matter."
"Kuno… would you happen to be related to Tatewaki?"
Kodachi nodded. "The very same, he is my brother and I've taken his place as head of House Kuno with his hospitalization."
Ryūnosuke stood up. "So, what's up?"
"I humbly request your aid in battling the Sickle Gang. They've begun a rampage throughout my neighborhood and with their numbers, we need all the strong and able hands we can get to quell their riot."
Concern flashed across Helena's matronly face, as she looked at Ryūnosuke, to see what answer she'd give.
Without an ounce of hesitation, Ryūnosuke answered Kodachi's request. "Shoot, if they're stirring up trouble, I'm in."
Regardless of if she was ready to face Kamaitachi or not, Ryūnosuke Sherman wasn't about to let the Sickle Gang do what they wanted, especially if other people were in trouble. Her dilemma was settled. "Let's go."
Kodachi smiled. "Thank you."
She turned to Helena. "If that is all right with you…?"
"Helena Sherman," the older woman introduced herself, and it was Kodachi's turn to be surprised.
"You wouldn't be the Helena Sherman of Sherman Farms, would you?"
"The very same," Helena replied with a cheeky smile.
Ryūnosuke gave Kodachi a pointed look. "Don't make a fuss about it, got it? To anyone!"
"Perish the thought," Kodachi assured her. "Now, if you may hurry, the worst of the fighting has already begun."
Ryūnosuke turned back to Helena. "I won't be out too late, Mom."
Helena nodded. "Do what must be done and take care of yourself, your father and I know you can do this."
With a broad, determined smile, Ryūnosuke took off ahead of Kodachi, swatting her backside as she passed her. "Get a move on, if you want to save your neighborhood, Princess!"
"Oh!" Kodachi jumped from the smack and smiled after Ryūnosuke. Looking back at Helena, she bowed in gratitude, before leaping over the wall and joining her.
Nabiki stared at the gates of Butsumetsu. Not too long ago she'd thought she'd only ever end up involved with them as a hostage. But here she was, boldly dashing straight into the lion's den to rally the realm in defense of itself. It was out of character, and she'd be the first to admit it…
But even without the steady financial compensation for her time and effort, she had to admit there was something thrilling about this–about this whole conflict in general. A band of brigands with insane goals waging war with their little community, and even she was doing her part to defeat them and bring some semblance of tranquility back to a place that was honestly never peaceful to begin with.
She chuckled at that thought. "… I wonder what comes after this," she mused aloud before she noticed something off…
"Huh."
Blood.
The scent of it lingered ever slightly in the air, along with the stink of men who had been exerting a load of effort. Something bad happened here, and recently. Nabiki shook her head and walked over to the gate, cautiously knocking on it with enough force to be heard.
A boy with curly hair–though matted with sweat–poked his head out from the small crack. "Who the–?" He nearly bit his tongue with how fast he bit the question off. "You from Furinkan?"
"I'm Akane's sister." Nabiki confirmed. "They're fighting the Perverts at the school right now."
As much as the boy seemed to want to complain, he simply sighed in relief. "So those bastards ain't comin' back." His head perked up and he pulled open the gate the let her through. "Come on, Boss'll wanna talk to ya."
It wasn't time to quibble and it wasn't time to make a scene, so Nabiki just followed him into the courtyard. As her gaze swept around, the number of the boys didn't seem too thin, but there were more than enough bruises and haunted looks to say that it wasn't a bed of roses. She stopped walking both because she had reached Soban and because the state of the big lug shocked her.
"Hey." Soban's voice still retained its rumble, but the weariness evident over his body shone in his voice. The behemoth looked even worse than usual–like he hadn't slept, with his body swathed in little scraps and cuts. What needed bandaging had been, but it was clear he'd been put through the ringer. "Sorry, I'm tired."
Sympathy wasn't entirely foreign but Nabiki still had to work to make her words not sound condescending. "That's okay, you look like you've been through it." That was understating it, Lum Invader hadn't done this much damage to him.
A chuckle past the large boy's lips as he managed a slight smile. "The guys who came here got it worse."
Curly cleared his throat. "Yeah, we got a few POWs waiting for us to sort out."
Nabiki saw this bit of posturing for what it was–the boys were worn out and didn't want to admit as much. "That can wait, you guys gotta get moving."
It was clear the Sickles didn't have quality on the level of Katie or Akane, but they had more numbers than what Akane was used to thrashing on the daily–if the number of men being disappeared off the streets for the last few days suggested.
Curly was all too aware of that. "Look, Tendo. I know we had a deal with your sister and her pal, but we've been at it with those bums for a bit now, and it's stacking up."
Nabiki put a hand to chin, trying to sort things out. She was used to having blackmail or bartering for such exchanges, ensuring she got what she wanted without paying anything of value. Problem was she wasn't the principle person who made the pact with them and only by association to said person had she been allowed to speak without issue.
Compounding this, she wasn't ever dealing with boys on an even field anyways. She either leveraged Akane or their own vices to ensure she held absolute dominance. Furthermore, Sōban was obviously only standing so his gang would stick together.
If the wrong move was made, they'd go spilling out and be taken by the next lynchpin that could offer them the safety they were used to.
Something's off… That thought shot through Nabiki's head again, but she pushed past it. How do I finesse this? Maybe I can convince them to keep the Sickles pinned so they would have to stay and be defeated? Can they even do that?
"Wow, Sōban-cha, you look awful!" The voice of Lum Invader drifted down from above, removing Nabiki's need to say anything.
"Lum," Both Curly and Sōban said as a greeting to the alien princess in her famed tiger striped bikini.
Floating above, she looked thought if a bit airheaded, a slight spark of electricity dancing off her horns. "Goodness, seems everyone's in danger!"
"Tomobiki's been hit hard too huh?" Nabiki asked, curious about what that neighborhood has been dealing with.
Lum nodded in confirmation. "Yup, there are almost no boys left!"
"Lotta those guys can't even fight…" Curly murmured with actual sympathy. Whatever bad blood there could have been with their rivals at Tomobiki, bearing the bruises and bumps from the Sickle Gang's attacks made it vanish like water under a bridge.
"This is a pickle," Lum seemed lost in thought.
"Hope is not lost," a voice called, just off to the side, hidden by the shadows.
"We got a full on invasion going on at Furinkan." Nabiki replied.
"And we're a little beat, and beat up," Curly had to be the bearer of bad news.
"Bah! Nothin' a little grub won't fix, right, Lum?" The mysterious speaker in the shadow said.
"Well maybe," Lum didn't sound convinced, as she wondered who this mysterious person was.
"It'll just take one bento." The voice promised.
"Really?" Nabiki turned to face the source of the voice. "You got some magic up your sleeve?"
From the shadows finally emerged one Moroboshi Ataru, carrying a very normal looking fried chicken bento. In fact, it looked like it was from a corner mart…
Before anyone could really think or react, he strode over with confidence to Sōban, stopping and holding it out. "Here big fella, you need your strength back."
Lum craned her head in confusion as Sōban didn't move to take it.
"Come on, Shinobu made it and everything; don't hurt her feelings!" Ataru admonished.
BA-BUMP!
"Oh crap, he just-!" Curly finally processed everything and looked at Soban.
The beastly man who towered over everyone else no longer looked tired. In fact, he was standing ramrod straight, his tanned skin beginning to turn red.
BA-BUMP!
"Ah crap, he said it!" One of the other boys cried out.
Curly grabbed Nabiki and drug her back from the area around Soban. "Moroboshi, are you actually stupid?!"
"What? We need him in the fight!" Ataru said, the picture of innocence minus the devil horns and forked tongue he was sporting.
"He's gonna go berserk and flatten the town!" Curly shot back.
"Nope, just everything between him and this bento!" Ataru said, calmly waving it back and forth.
BA-BUMP!
"Shi-Shi-Shi-SHIIIIIINOOOOOBUUUUU!" Soban howled, becoming almost entirely bestial in tone as he bellowed into the night. The building shook, the gates shook, hell the MOON looked like it was quaking from the might of Sōban's cry!
"Wow!" Lum felt the turbulence and steadied herself in the air. "Goodness, he's back to normal"
"Normal and that guy don't belong in the same sentence!" Ataru laughed as he held aloft the bento. "Come and get it, big guy~!"
With that taunt, he did what he was known best for–running as fast as he could out of the gate. Sōban, without hesitation, leaped over the wall surrounding the school and crashed down onto the street behind him.
"DAMN IT, MOROBOSHI! HE WAS DOING FINE FOR MONTHS!" Curly yelled at him before he turned to the rest of the Butsumetsu delinquents. "If you can move ya legs, let's get after the Boss, boys!" Curly hollered after he had let go of Nabiki. "It's up to us to keep him outta trouble!"
"Wow, just like that," Nabiki uttered as the courtyard emptied to leave her and Lum.
"Darling normally isn't this proactive," Lum noted.
"If I had to guess, it's because he wants to be seen as the big damn hero who saved my sister and her friend, which is about in line with his behavior." She shrugged her shoulders. "Saved me a headache, at least."
There was a rush of air, and Lum was off and flying at speeds that only jealous anger could drive her to. Watching the girl fly off, she shrugged her shoulders and pulled out her phone to make a call. "Hey, my job's done here. The cavalry is on the way."
"Splendid!" Kodachi answered. "Do find a good vantage point, as we all converge for the climax of this glorious battle!"
Screaming at the top of his lungs, a young man of the Sickle Gang lashed out at Kaori, wildly swinging down with the gang's signature weapon. The blue and red-clad delivery girl stepped to her left to avoid the strike. The young man turned towards her, swinging the weapon as he did. Kaori stepped back from the slash. Raising the sickle to swing down again, he stopped when Kaori drove two fingers from her right hand into his belly, balled her left hand into a fist to slam it into his solar plexus, and then opened her right hand to drive the heel of her palm up into his chin.
Kaori spun, ducking low under the swing of a wooden nightstick aimed for the back of her head. Catching the leg of her attacker with her right arm, she came up and tripped him forward–slamming her palm into the falling Sickle Gang member's stomach and launching him into the arms of two more attackers.
Even as those three toppled over, she had to spring into the air and land atop Mendō's destroyed mobile command center, where Mendō himself was now cowering to escape the sea of men in leather surrounding and inside the vehicle.
It was a grim scene, even if the quality of fighter was lacking, the quantity was in dire need of addressing.
"Why are there so many of these losers?!" She asked herself more than Mendō. "There has to be close to a thousand of these guys!"
As she said that a Sickle gang member clambered onto the command center, swinging a chain over his head like a helicopter rotor. "Yiyiyiyiyiyi–!"
Kaori was faster, dashing in low and fast to deliver a palm thrust so powerful that the shockwave erupted from the man's back before she turned and kicked him into another gangster that scrambled up onto the roof, knocking both off it.
"I take down one and three more take their place!" She turned to Mendō. "Hey, Shooter! Are you going to do anything other than hide up here?!"
Mendō shored up his façade as best he could. "I'm not much of a swordsman without a sword." He looked down at the mob below as it went unsaid that he would rather not fight this crowd.
It didn't need to be said, Kaori could read it on his face. "This must be a nightmare for you, huh?"
Noise from the crowd below drew her gaze, Kaori's turned to see Dr. Tofu struggling to keep the wave of men from washing over him. The good doctor moved with the grace and speed of a flowing stream and his blows landed with the smashing force of a rock launched from a trebuchet. But it didn't help. As Kaori described, one fell and three more replaced their fallen comrade.
This is quite uncomfortable. Tofu thought to himself, as his kimono was grabbed at the right-hand sleeve and pulled by a middle-aged man making strange, happy sounds at the sight of him. Rather than let himself be dragged down, he slipped his arm out of the sleeve and brought his hand down to chop the neck of the man, causing him to fall unconscious instantly.
But it's better they're acting like this towards me than the girls. He concluded before yet another masked man came at him, wielding a sap–a heavy set of lead weights wrapped in dense leather to cushion the force of its blow.
"I GOT YOU, STUD!" The masked man jeered, while swinging the sap at Tofu's head.
"You know, I would rather not harm you," Tofu said as he windmilled his staff to parry the attack, then jabbed the man in the elbow with one end and made the entire man's arm go limp. "'Do no harm' is the motto of doctors the world over."
The Sickle Gangster looked at his arm–now limp, numb, and not moving when he tried to. "My arm, what did you–?"
Jabbing with the staff like it were a spear or pool cue, Tofu delivered a salvo of six blows, striking the man in the face, chest, other arm, and stomach before finishing with a fearsome uppercut blow to the groin that sent the man sinking to the ground with a silent scream.
"That said, as long as it doesn't hurt, I will hit you as hard as I can."
As if to line up for exactly that, a dozen more of the mad mob surrounded him–taunting, jeering, and making obscene gestures of invitation to him.
"Well, at least tonight isn't dull." Tofu said to himself with a bit of cheer, his shoulders kept square and at the ready.
Kaori looked back at Mendō and spoke with the implications dripping from her words. "I hope you're taking something important from this."
Confident that he wouldn't, she jumped back down, landing in the Doctor's blind spot to parry and deflect attacks aimed at his back as he covered his front and her back in turn. Her family's style was one honed from years of beating up deadbeat customers and would-be thieves. It had no outward basis any familiar with the martial arts would recognize with a glance, but–
"AGH!" One larger member of the horde cried as a swift uppercut from Kaori sent him flying.
–it was effective… and painful.
"This is a numbers game, and we're losing," she lamented to Dr. Tofu as he struck pressure points to disable several more opponents.
When a pair of gangsters rushed her, she jumped to kick one in the face with her right foot, then sprang off him to kick the other with her left.
Dr. Tofu agreed. "Our difference in strength is being used against us as well." He struck the arm of a man trying to strike him with the blunt side of a sickle, twirled his weapon and struck his opponent across the face. "This is making me appreciate Akane's aptitude at this more and more."
Right as he said that a Sickle Gang member's body cartwheeled through the crowd like a racing car coming off the track and through its audience. At the other end of the trench of human bodies carved by the hapless gangster, Akane was already lifting another man off his feet after swinging the sheathed blade she appropriated off Mendō into his chin.
Turning around quickly, she brought the blade around and bashed another man in the side of the head, sending him spinning off the weapon as it continued and connected across the solar plexus of a third man.
As the man doubled over, Akane jumped onto his hunched over back and used her elevated position to clobber multiple attackers with punishing low kicks before she jumped off and landed on another gangster's head to drive him into the ground on his back.
"She's not even trying to be gentle," Kaori pointed out.
Dr. Tofu laughed as he poked another man between the eyes with his staff, knocking him out. "But she hasn't killed anyone, yet!"
Akane's violence spree was crowd control, running interference between the Sickle Gang and Katie as she ran the ones with Kamaitachi. The Sickle Gang second in command was on the offensive, swinging his weapon in a figure-eight pattern over and over, trying to open wounds on her arms or torso.
Katie was able to keep the pace, however, earning only shallow cuts on her forearms as she stepped and weaved, waiting for an opening.
Kamaitachi did not disappoint her, lashing out with an overhead cut that Katie brought her left arm up to stop the shaft of the weapon and hold its blade away from her body.
"So which side of your family is the gorilla on?" Kamaitachi asked as he pressed his weapon against Katie's block. "Because I'm betting father, but I'm hoping…"
Katie let go of the shaft of the sickle and lashed out with the back of her hand for his face, but Kamaitachi slapped the blow away as he opened the distance between them. "Dagnabbit, is bein' miserable trash all yer capable of?"
"I'm capable of so much more." The implication that the tall girl wasn't worthy of him getting fancy hung there.
Katie let out an annoyed huff. "Then show me something! For all the feeding yer boys do, they ain't got no meat to 'em!"
Kamaitachi spun the sickle in his hand until it resembled a metal disk. "And you call me miserable, while you refer to men fighting for something real in their lives as meat!"
Katie weaved down and left under Kamaitachi's rising diagonal swing with the spinning weapon then sprang back from him when he put his whole body into a spin and swung down to catch her low. When Kamaitachi brought his hand back from the powerful swing, he let the weapon fly from his grip–only for Katie to catch it by the handle and throw the weapon blade-first into the ground.
Kamaitachi rushed in right behind the weapon, and when Katie brought her hand up it was to block first one, then two, then three spinning kicks. At the end of the third spin kick he grabbed the back of her head and vaulted into the air above, turning fast as he could to swing his heel down onto her head.
After Katie crossed her arms over her head to block the heel drop, Kamaitachi switched to repeatedly stomping on her guard. She weathered the blows, glaring up at him as she shouted. "Something real in their lives?! The hell kind of shit are you projecting on these people?!"
Planting his feet Kamaitachi somersaulted off her. As he arced backward through the air, Katie kicked the sickle she embedded in the ground up at him, the Sickle Gang's second in command catching the weapon at the last possible second before he landed.
"You could never understand," Kamaitachi spat back at her.
"What in tarnation is there to understand?!" Katie demanded as she closed the distance and feinting a quick swing for his face that he quickly countered with a swipe from the sickle. Leaning back from the blade, she went in fast, kneeing Kamaitachi in the stomach.
Stumbling, Kamaitachi brought the sickle back like he was hacking through wheat, but Katie caught his right hand and guided him and the weapon past her–only to take the sole of his boot to her face as he hooked his left leg up and over his head to kick her. Still controlling him despite the blow, she turned him around while twisting the sickle from his hand.
Relinquishing the weapon, Kamaitachi traded it for stomping Katie's right foot, before elbowing her in the stomach and shoving her back off him. Turning around, he swung a roundhouse kick she barely blocked but was still spun around by.
Seeing his opening he advanced on Katie, striking with quick jabs that she first wildly blocked before retreating while parrying. "Pervert, weirdo, fetishist! That's all you have to say about us!" He said with his strikes before he spun and kicked with his left foot, the blow striking Katie's guard like a rifle shot.
"All you can do is try to shame us for what we want to be!"
When he brought his leg up and swung it down to try to hit the crown of Katie's skull, Akane swung and used a high spin kick to block Kamaitachi's leg.
"Is that why you wear those masks?!" The younger of the two girls demanded, before hooking her leg around his. She brought hers down, throwing him off his planted foot and into a spin away from her.
Kamaitachi landed smartly, then strongly blocked a flying drop kick that Katie had aimed for his chest, the sheer force of the blow throwing him back into the arms of his comrades, who kept him from falling.
He brought a hand to his face, covering it and bringing attention to the fact that his face was very much without a mask. "Idiots," he snapped at the two of them, "The mask is a symbol of freedom! So that the wearer can be who he wants and not be burdened by the lie he's forced to live!"
Pulling his hand away, he stepped away from his comrades, his pulse thumping in his ears as he broke into a vicious smile. "The Sickle Gang wears their mask to be immune to the shame and hatred of society, while we fight to be who we are!"
As more Sickle Gang members began to surround them, Katie and Akane both scanned their opposition while not losing their focus on him. Katie called out. "It's funny you should say that, since you don't wear a mask."
Kamaitachi laughed bitterly as he was handed two more sickles, one for each hand, by his soldiers. "My burden is different." With flourish he pointed forward with his right hand, commanding his gang to attack. "A mask isn't enough to bear it!"
As the mob converged, Akane readied her unsheathed blade. "I'll take him, Senpai, deal with the fodder!"
"I could use a breather–" Katie said before she stepped forward and slammed a front kick into the chest of the first leather daddy to reach her. The shockwave blew down the men behind them and cleared the path to Kamaitachi. "Light him up, Akaneko!"
Akane shot towards Kamaitachi, swinging her weapon left and right like a club. The men attempting to close on him were thrown aside, knocked to the ground or thrown into the air by the sheer force of her blows. Her eyes widened, and her vision red at the edge, she yelled out loud and swung down vertically onto Kamaitachi, who managed to block the blade with both of his.
"Urgh… if your friend is a gorilla then you're a chimpanzee!" He spat as he recovered just fast enough to deflect another swing from Akane, and another as he retreated backward.
"And you're a baboon!" Akane shouted as she pursued.
With both weapons tight in hand, Kamaitachi slashed at Akane–only for her sword to parry the two swings with one motion. Surprised by the speed she countered with, he went in again, the wide, sweeping strokes of the weapons meeting the lacquered body of the sheath, not even chipping it as she deflected his strokes and created an opening to swing the weapon for his side, forcing him to jump back.
As soon as the gap was opened between them, the second in command baboon's troop tried to fall on her. Taking the hilt of the sword in both hands like a baseball bat, Akane swung and caught one of her attackers in the side, before swinging him around and using his body to batter the other closing gangsters.
Even as more of them were thrown aside, more fell in, Kamaitachi letting out a laugh. "Do you see? This is what conviction looks like, the determination to fight for a better world, and you idiots are in the way!"
"In the way?!" She yelled back before she ducked under a crowbar swung for her head, and uppercut her attacker off his feet and over the next oncoming wave.
One more finally got inside her space, behind her, a baseball bat raised above his head.
He didn't have the chance to bring it down as Katie's knee collided with the side of his head. Landing in the space he vacated, she performed a roundhouse kick that sent another gangster backflipping onto his face.
"We were minding our own business just fine until you decided to make your nonsense our problem!" Katie roared back.
Feinting an overhead strike, Akane dipped her sword down and then violently swung it up, catching another man in the chin before spin-kicking him towards Kamaitachi.
he caught the projectile leather enjoyer, and barely had a chance to set him aside when he had to defend first against Akane thrusting her sword for his chest, and then Katie's flying crescent kick that came over top Akane's head like a cruise missile low over the horizon.
The kick connected, and Kamaitachi bowled over many members of his gang as he tumbled along the ground.
Akane blinked in surprise and then looked at Katie. "Senpai… that was clean."
Katie chuckled. "What can I say? Your lead's easy to follow."
"Kamaitachi!" numerous members of the Sickle Gang cried out in worry, as Kamaitachi got back up and rubbed his nose with his forearm. His grip on his weapons was still vice-tight.
"I'm fine!" He snapped back, his voice tinged with indignation for taking such a strike. "At the end of the night, they're so few against so many of us."
All around Katie and Akane, the ranks of the Sickle Gang seemed to not diminish at all. The same could be said of Kaori and Dr. Tofu, backed against the side of the destroyed command center. Atop the ruined vehicle, Mendō Shūtaro swallowed nervously as leering gazes fell on both Dr. Tofu and him. So preoccupied he was with the crowd in front of him, he did not notice the several Sickle Gang Members quietly climbing onto the wreckage behind him.
Katie spat on the ground. "Conviction? Determination? Y'all got nothing but a whole messa dudes."
"You jump people in the dead of night!" Akane added.
Kaori called out. "People are too busy laughing at you to have their guard up!"
"Whatever struggle you're fighting for," Dr. Tofu added, "Is won by nothing but the shame and guilt you claim to despise!"
Kamaitachi narrowed his eyes, as Akane gestured to them. "How many of these guys are here because they're too ashamed to not take off the mask?"
For the first time since the wild melee began, the energy of the battle shifted. Among the battered, the beaten, and of course the still standing… many of the army in leather-clad quietly faltered and shared quiet looks.
Katie called out after Akane. "How many of y'all are only doing this because you'll never be able to look your wives or kids or parents or even yer own dang friends in the eye if they knew you were squeezed into leather booty shorts and studded vests and told to beat up teenage girls?!"
Kamaitachi drew back in shock as he heard the wave of murmurs radiate around him. "Oi! OI! Don't listen to them!"
"Yeah! Don't listen to them!" A bold, sharp voice called out.
Katie and Akane looked back and found three members of the Sickle Gang surrounding Mendo. It was Megane, Perm, and Kakugari in their full sickle gang regalia. Lum's Stormtroopers, now Leathertroopers, held a sickle, a cricket bat, and a mallet respectively to Mendō's head.
"They've taken Mendō hostage, oh noooo…" Akane said in a dull, unenthused, and supremely sarcastic tone hopeful that something bad was about to happen to him.
"Call it shameful, call it degenerate," Megane extolled, "But the struggle of men denied is not to be spoken of lightly!"
Kaori's left eye twitched. "What is this idiot talking about?"
"Who in tarnation is this bag of hot air?" Katie grumbled to Akane.
Megane, determined to be heard as much as hear his own voice, continued. "After losing our country, being branded as landless on our own land, yet still expected to submit to the twisted expectations and customs that benefit anyone but us, why would men not rebel against the oppression of a tyrannical society?!"
He held aloft his sickle. "Look around you, at the achievements of men, at the world that was built by our hands and then taken by the undeserving! This is what we are fighting for, to reclaim it, and our place in it! No more being cogs in the machine, no more being derided as perverts or delinquents for our passions! No more being expected to bow down with our heads on the floor to those weaker than us!"
Katie's brow furrowed in frustration as Megane's speech had its intended effect, and the murmurs that her and Akane's prior questions started fell silent. "Ugh, another bona fide Flavor-Aid drinker."
Kamaitachi let out a laugh. "Well said, my guy… you really have the spirit."
"But spirit alone is not enough."
And suddenly everyone was at high alert, as the crowd behind Kamaitachi parted and Madame Kamenbell and his entourage slowly stepped forth and joined his side.
Katie stared in confusion at the outlandishly dressed old man. "Wait a second… is that the ol' VP?"
"Okamada-sens…?" Akane stopped and made a face. "… Oh no, that's lame. Offensive even."
Kaori gawked at the flamboyantly dressed leader of the Sickle Gang. "This is the head honcho?"
Dr. Tofu nodded. "It would seem so."
She made her own face. "Ugh, how did Ucchan lose to this weirdo?!"
"Madame Kamenbell!" Megane shouted, others quickly joining in.
Mendō was the most disgusted of everyone here. "He's the weirdest one yet…"
Megane whirled upon him. "Don't insult Madame Kamenbell, he is the face of our revolution!"
"The ugliest revolution since 1949," Mendō muttered.
Madame Kamenbell extended a hand out to Mendō. "Young man, why speak ill of the Sickle Gang? We fight so that all men can reclaim their world."
Mendō rolled his eyes. "Two simple reasons: I despise so-called men like you, and I am son of the Mendō family–I already stand at the top of the world."
Katie shrugged her shoulders. "I'm gonna let him have that."
"I won't, YOU SUCK!" Akane yelled out at Mendō.
Madame Kamenbell continued as if what Mendō said never mattered. "And now that I have appeared, it is now the hour of our victory is at hand."
He gestured to Akane and Katie. "Move aside, do not stand between destiny and I."
"Nah," Katie bluntly replied.
"No," Akane sharply answered simultaneously.
Madame Kamenbell then stepped aside and brought the blade of his scythe to Soun's neck. "I am not asking."
Anger flashed across Akane's face. "DAD!"
He brought it closer to Soun's neck and Katie lashed out her hand to grab the back of Akane's collar. She immediately froze in place, teeth bared in fury.
Soun appeared calm despite the situation he was in. "Akane! Do not attack this man rashly."
"Listen to your father," Madame Kamenbell taunted, dipping into his more sedate tone as Vice Principal Okamada. "Show that you have some kind of respect for authority."
Katie agreed. "He's right, hon. Don't run at him all angry like, now."
Still bristling, Akane remained still. "How dare you lay a hand on my family?!"
"No one of yours has come to harm…" Madame Kamenbell scanned the battlefield of his wounded and battered, his eyes narrowing in disgust. "And I have been extremely generous in that regard."
"When you let yer dogs off leash, it's on you if they get bit or get hit," Katie coldly retorted.
Speaking of dogs, Kamaitachi looked on at Madame Kamenbell with all the adoration of a puppy just happy to be here. "You were able to get the key?"
"It and soon our world will be hours," his master replied as he began walking forward–urging Soun to walk with him up to Katie and Akane.
Katie glared at Madame Kamenbell, and then at Kamaitachi. "You realize that what he wants is insane, right?"
"And stupid!" Akane added forcefully.
There was a bitter laugh, as Kamaitachi shot back. "Anything to ease my burden."
Katie did the slightest double-take. "Hang on, what…?"
Her kouhai snorted in derision. "Whatever, you delusional…!"
Katie pulled Akane back again, keeping her from lashing out at Madame Kamenbell and allowing him to walk past.
Giving both girls a felonious side-eye, Madame Kamenbell continued on towards the school with Soun beside him. "The two of you needn't worry," he said without looking back. "In spite of all you are now, you will be welcomed openly into the beautiful world that awaits."
Soun gave Madame Kamenbell his own sinister look, as the extravagantly dressed man chuckled. "In fact, I hope you will be the first to embrace what is to come. It will be… poetic."
Out loud he called to his right hand. "Kamaitachi! Compel them to embrace destiny, with all the force you can muster." He said before he and Soun disappeared through the school's gates.
His subordinate snapped into his salute. "Yes, Madame Kamenbell!"
Akane was bristling. "We need to go after them!"
"We're gonna," Katie replied as the crowd of Sickle Gang members began to close in again. "We just need our exit."
Kamaitachi began advancing towards them. "None of you are going anywhere, not when we're so close to creating our beautiful world of men!"
Kakugari looked at Megane. "Wait, what was he talking about just now?"
"Yeah," Perm spoke up, "The vibe's getting a little weird, man."
Puffing up his chest, Megane blustered. "Without a doubt, he speaks of the path of our ascendance to glorious manhood, our heavenly mandate, our key to a successful insurrection!"
Mendō looked up at him. "Are you sure about that? Because after seeing that weirdo, I'm starting to wonder if you like Lum, or are just using her to avoid allegations."
Offended at both the insinuation and the besmirching of his dearest Lum, Megane glared down at him. "Allegations of what?!"
The sound of heavy panting and strain caught the attention of both Mendo and the Stormtroopers, and they found Moroboshi Ataru climbing onto the wrecked command center.
"You know…" he said while trying to catch his breath. "… The weird leather outfit… the masks they have you wear… at certain bars… and I think I heard… a radio playing… Livin' La Vida Loca…"
"Moroboshi?!" Both Mendō and Megane shouted together in anger.
Ataru held up a hand. "Hold on… I just ran all the way here… from Butsumetsu… I need a second…"
He took several long, deep breaths, and then did a double-take. "Oh? Hey! Mendō! Dig the drip, you almost look cool." He walked over and handed a bento box to him. "Here. This is for you, then."
Mendō stared at the bento, surprised, before turning a suspicious look at his rival. "Wait, what is this?"
"Just a bento Shinobu made," Ataru said as he headed back over to the edge of the command center's roof and sat down to slide off it. "Enjoy!"
Mendō looked at the box in his hand. "A bento… made by Shinobu?"
In that moment, he thought of Miyake Shinobu. The kind girl who was beautiful and kind in her own way, a grounded–down to Earth even–contrast to the exotic Lum Invader and the tomboyishly brash Ryūnosuke. A pang of longing struck him. He realized he missed her; he missed all the girls from Tomobiki–
Wait.
Moroboshi said he'd come running all the way here from Butsumetsu.
Mendō knew Moroboshi was talented both as a sprinter and a distance runner, but he had run all the way from Butsumetsu to Furinkan enough to be out of breath like that. So, he was running faster and harder than usual.
Quickly he strung the facts together. Ataru was running for his life. From Butsumetsu. With a bento box. Made by Shinobu.
That he just gave to him.
The roof of the command center began to sway, and the ground beneath it trembling all but confirmed his newly realized fears.
"Oh no," he said in quiet horror.
Dr. Tofu and Kaori felt the rumbling too, as well as all the Sickle Gang.
"What is that…?" Dr. Tofu asked, worriedly, as the rumbling grew stronger.
Kaori looked past the confused crowd around them, as Katie and Akane recognized the approach and got ready. "I think… we need to move!"
They did just in time. With all the physical force of a runaway freight train, Sōban smashed through what remained of Mendō's expensive mobile command center, sending the Sickle Gang Members around it, Mendō himself, and Lum's Leather Troopers flying in every direction with the wreckage.
"SHIIIIIINOOOOOBUUUUU!" He bellowed, his voice like the very horn of the freight train he hit like. "SHINOBU BENTOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
Kamaitachi turned with alarm towards the human calamity mowing through his ranks. "What the hell?!"
As if that wasn't bad enough, a great racket was streaming in behind him. The war cries of young men the rough and tumble delinquents of Butsumetsu High School filled the air as they arrived in a full charge.
"LOOKS LIKE MOROBOSHI LED US RIGHT INTO THE THICK OF IT!" Curly yelled from the front of the charge. "OKAY, YA BUMS! START KICKING ASS AND SNATCHING MASKS! THE PUNK WHO BRINGS BACK THE MOST GETS FIRST DIBS ON BREAD AT THE COMMISSARY!"
With that motivation, many fists rose up as the Butsumetsu students yelled out as one. "OI!"
Sōban's gang, like the wake of an out-of-control battleship, crashed into and washed over the Sickle Gang, punches and kicks flying as Madame Kamenbell's insurrection turned into a full-blown riot. Amidst the chaos, Mendō hit the ground and rolled, Shinobu's bento box landing on and spilling all over him.
"Gah! Oh come on, this was expensive!" Mendō shouted out. "And my weekly allowance is only five hundred million yen, now!"
He wiped some of the bento off and stopped when he saw in his hand a clump of rice and a sausage cut like a cute little octopus. Pale as a sheet, he turned and looked up to see Sōban, his massive mouth wide open with tongue hanging out, with every intent to eat the contents of the bento even if it meant devouring him, too.
"Moroboshi you son of a bitch!" Mendō screamed as he began running for his life, pushing aside and making his way through the Sickle Gang to try to keep ahead of the human steam roller behind him that flattened those not pushed far enough out of the way.
Katie, satisfied to see the arrival of the cavalry, turned to Akane. Both nodded and spoke as one. "And that's our cue!"
Both girls sprinted for the gate in pursuit of Madame Kamenbell and Soun. Realizing they were getting away, Kamaitachi bristled and took off after them.
"You're not going anywhere near Madame Kamenbell!" He shouted before he leaped forward and fell towards Akane's back to kick her.
Akane looked back and prepared to defend herself when Ryūnosuke imposed herself between her and Kamaitachi to block his kick with right arm raised strongly in defiance, surprising her. "Ah?! It's you!"
Though she was wearing a short skirt and t-shirt, Akane quickly recognized the formerly bitter tomboy. Her knuckles already scratched and bruised from fighting her way through the crowd to get here, Ryūnosuke shoved Kamaitachi back and assumed a low, open stance with her right hand and foot leading.
"Get going!" She called back. "I gotta get my runback, anyway!"
"Thanks!" Akane and Katie shouted before both hopped over their school's wall and into the courtyard.
Kamaitachi stared at Ryūnosuke in confusion. "Runback? Who are…?" He stopped when he recognized her voice. "Wait, is that you, Tama-kun?"
Ryūnosuke scoffed. "Who else would it be? If you want to get by me, you gotta fight me!"
Clenching his teeth, Kamaitachi assumed a more aggressive forward stance, the knife edge of his right hand aimed at Ryūnosuke. "Fine then, I don't mind a little bit of light work before I go clean up the mess Madame Kamenbell's about to make."
Ataru Moroboshi: "Roses are red, no man beside me shall prosper. With this handmade bento I summon: Big Sōban, the Opp Stopper."