Kuno regarded his brilliance with pride as he carried the one girl he'd managed to rescue onto the train with him. There was no way that the damnable sorcerer would expect him, the Blue Thunder of Furinkan-cho, to travel by such a plebian manner.
Indeed, it was likely the fact that he had come in this manner rather than by limosine that the sorcerer was lax enough that he had managed to recover even one of the three girls and women he'd come to rescue.
"You there, put down the girl!" a voice declared and Kuno turned to see a man in official outfit bearing a baton. Obviously a corrupted member of the local constabulary.
"Truly the hands of the foul one extend far into the belly of the realm," Kuno declared as he shifted the weight in his arms so to bring his bokken to bear.
****
"Sousuke! Wait up," Kaname shouted as she jumped onto the train at the last moment before it sped off down the tracks.
"Miss Chidori," Sousuke said. "You should stay back, this is going to get dangerous."
"Listen, I might not know anything about arm slaves or spells and magic and stuff like that," Kaname said, unaware of the full irony of the statement given that as a Whispered, she had access to more knowledge on some things like that than most people. "But I know about perverts and beating on them. And if you're busy fighting the jerk who's going to be getting Eija out of the area? Huh? So you just take care of the fighting and I'll back you up."
"Just stay back out of the way," Sousuke said as he pushed forward through the unoccupied back car. "The enemy showed that he is a cowardly sort using all manner of dirty tricks. I doubt he would have been able to capture Eija so quickly if he hadn't been posing as an injured man like you said."
When they came into the next car, the sparkling of three o'clock transit passengers backed away in shock on seeing a teenager burst through with what looked like a shotgun in hand.
"This is not a problem," Sousuke said. "I'm Jindai High's Student Security Chief. This is official business."
"Don't mind him," Kaname said nervously. "It's just a paintball gun, really. Not a problem."
They were passing through another car when they heard the sound of struggle up ahead.
"There's the target," Sousuke said, pushing through to the next car and watching Kuno dispatch a uniformed police officer.
Kaname ducked aside one of the doors as she heard the shotgun fire off two of the stun rounds. Peeking around the corner she saw the man with the bokken bat both of the large rounds away.
The bokken wielding swordsman lay down his prisoner behind him as he blocked the shots and stabbed forward in rapid fire strikes that pushed the air forward into invisible projectiles.
Sousuke was taken surprise by the first volley and slammed into the wall of the subway train, vacated by a number of civilians. He felt a number of injuries as he rolled foward and fired again, but nothing he couldn't deal with.
This time, his stun round impacted the older man on the shoulder spinning him backwards. He took the opportunity to load his shotgun with more stun shells as his enemy recovered.
Kuno turned about to swing his bokken and had to interrupt the attack in order to dodge aside from the first of Sousuke's shots. His counterattack swung down downward and was intercepted by the shaft of Sousuke's gun, which fired almost the same instant.
The last stun round slammed into Kuno's face throwing him off his feet even as the bokken slashed through the shotgun and Sousuke dodged out of the way.
Drawing a knife, Sousuke leapt forward pushing the swordsman back further into the car.
Kaname watched as the mercenary pushed forward, noticing that Eija was now behind Sousuke and the way to her was clear.
Darting forward as Sousuke and Kuno continued to fight, Kaname shook Eija lightly before picking up the small girl and running back out of the car where the fight was going on.
"Umm, wha.." Eija started to say as she came to. "Any 2s? Go fish."
Blinking around and eyes widening as she started to push herself up to standing, unaware she was currently being carried. The result being that both of them toppled to the ground.
"Are we on a train?" Eija demanded as she looked at the world speeding by.
Kaname sat up and looked at Eija, eyes rolling.
"Eija, you're a super-powered martial artist with psychic powers and magic spells, right?" Kaname asked.
"Well, yes," Eija noted.
"So why is it I keep ending up having to carry your unconscious body?" Kaname demanded.
Eija scratched the back of her head in imitation of her mother caught in similar embarrassing moments and laughed nervously.
"It does seem to be getting to be a habit," she noted.
Back at the fight, Sousuke wasn't trained in chi-enhancing techniques, but his combat and true battle experience was still easily superior to Kuno's. Kuno had been practicing his art for the last seventeen years in the same half-delusional way he'd done so for the first part of his life.
He'd been involved in a few local encounters, but had been refused for service in the JSDF unlike several of the Nerima martial artists. As a result, he hadn't been involved in the spill over battles with pirates and rogue military units from the Chinese civil war.
The only thing keeping him near even pace with Sousuke were those chi skills that let him use his bokken to tear through the surroundings. However, without the subtlety to his attacks, the chi-enhanced strikes were uselessly off target.
The train came to a jarring stop at the Nerima station, which jostled Kuno in a manner unforgiveable in martial artist of his self-proclaimed stature. In the opening, the swordsman felt the mercenary's knife blade slash through his achilles tendon and then again into his shoulder.
"You're finished," Sousuke said.
"Never!" Kuno declared, trying to stand up and get into stance again. "I am the invincible Blue Thunder of the Kuno clan, no mere child could defeat me without the trickery of some sort of magic."
"Negative," Sousuke said in a smug tone in he reserved for weaker opponents. "You already had the only magician in the area unconscious. Magic was not a factor, merely your own incompetence and weakness."
"You cannot stop me from freeing my love from the foul hands of that sorcerer, Ranma Saotome," Kuno growled as he finally got to his feet...
...and found himself knocked senseless by a woman's fist as she stepped onto the train.
"Damn lunatic bastard," the woman said, holding a carry on bag and wearing a travel uniform. "What do you have to do with Ranma...oh, nevermind, I see Eija-chan."
"Saotome-san," Eija said walking over. "Do you know this person?"
"Unfortunately, yes," Akane said. "But when did he learn about Ranma?"
"So, you do know my mother," Eija said. "From before that visit."
Sousuke and Kaname were about to ask their own questions in response to that, but the sound of a cell phone interrupted that thought.
Sousuke reached down for his phone and raised it to his ear. Quickly, his eyes widened as he heard over the line the situation developing further on in Tokyo.
"Excuse me, Lieutenant Commander Saotome," Sousuke said. "Miss Chidori, Miss Satomi. I'm afraid there is a situation I must attend to back in our neighborhood. Can I trust you to stay here and explain the situation?"
Before Kaname or Eija could answer, Sousuke was dashing across the train platform for the line just leaving back the other way.
"He does that often?" Akane asked as she bent down to hand-cuff Kuno and lift him, carrying him off the the train, the two teens following along behind her.
"He's always jumping to do something," Kaname said. "Do you mind if ask why you carry hand-cuffs? That's a naval uniform, not a police officer's."
"Let's see," Akane said, dumping Kuno. "How to explain the handcuffs."
She paused and then looked over at Kuno's unconscious form.
"Is he explanation enough?" she asked.
Indeed, it was likely the fact that he had come in this manner rather than by limosine that the sorcerer was lax enough that he had managed to recover even one of the three girls and women he'd come to rescue.
"You there, put down the girl!" a voice declared and Kuno turned to see a man in official outfit bearing a baton. Obviously a corrupted member of the local constabulary.
"Truly the hands of the foul one extend far into the belly of the realm," Kuno declared as he shifted the weight in his arms so to bring his bokken to bear.
****
"Sousuke! Wait up," Kaname shouted as she jumped onto the train at the last moment before it sped off down the tracks.
"Miss Chidori," Sousuke said. "You should stay back, this is going to get dangerous."
"Listen, I might not know anything about arm slaves or spells and magic and stuff like that," Kaname said, unaware of the full irony of the statement given that as a Whispered, she had access to more knowledge on some things like that than most people. "But I know about perverts and beating on them. And if you're busy fighting the jerk who's going to be getting Eija out of the area? Huh? So you just take care of the fighting and I'll back you up."
"Just stay back out of the way," Sousuke said as he pushed forward through the unoccupied back car. "The enemy showed that he is a cowardly sort using all manner of dirty tricks. I doubt he would have been able to capture Eija so quickly if he hadn't been posing as an injured man like you said."
When they came into the next car, the sparkling of three o'clock transit passengers backed away in shock on seeing a teenager burst through with what looked like a shotgun in hand.
"This is not a problem," Sousuke said. "I'm Jindai High's Student Security Chief. This is official business."
"Don't mind him," Kaname said nervously. "It's just a paintball gun, really. Not a problem."
They were passing through another car when they heard the sound of struggle up ahead.
"There's the target," Sousuke said, pushing through to the next car and watching Kuno dispatch a uniformed police officer.
Kaname ducked aside one of the doors as she heard the shotgun fire off two of the stun rounds. Peeking around the corner she saw the man with the bokken bat both of the large rounds away.
The bokken wielding swordsman lay down his prisoner behind him as he blocked the shots and stabbed forward in rapid fire strikes that pushed the air forward into invisible projectiles.
Sousuke was taken surprise by the first volley and slammed into the wall of the subway train, vacated by a number of civilians. He felt a number of injuries as he rolled foward and fired again, but nothing he couldn't deal with.
This time, his stun round impacted the older man on the shoulder spinning him backwards. He took the opportunity to load his shotgun with more stun shells as his enemy recovered.
Kuno turned about to swing his bokken and had to interrupt the attack in order to dodge aside from the first of Sousuke's shots. His counterattack swung down downward and was intercepted by the shaft of Sousuke's gun, which fired almost the same instant.
The last stun round slammed into Kuno's face throwing him off his feet even as the bokken slashed through the shotgun and Sousuke dodged out of the way.
Drawing a knife, Sousuke leapt forward pushing the swordsman back further into the car.
Kaname watched as the mercenary pushed forward, noticing that Eija was now behind Sousuke and the way to her was clear.
Darting forward as Sousuke and Kuno continued to fight, Kaname shook Eija lightly before picking up the small girl and running back out of the car where the fight was going on.
"Umm, wha.." Eija started to say as she came to. "Any 2s? Go fish."
Blinking around and eyes widening as she started to push herself up to standing, unaware she was currently being carried. The result being that both of them toppled to the ground.
"Are we on a train?" Eija demanded as she looked at the world speeding by.
Kaname sat up and looked at Eija, eyes rolling.
"Eija, you're a super-powered martial artist with psychic powers and magic spells, right?" Kaname asked.
"Well, yes," Eija noted.
"So why is it I keep ending up having to carry your unconscious body?" Kaname demanded.
Eija scratched the back of her head in imitation of her mother caught in similar embarrassing moments and laughed nervously.
"It does seem to be getting to be a habit," she noted.
Back at the fight, Sousuke wasn't trained in chi-enhancing techniques, but his combat and true battle experience was still easily superior to Kuno's. Kuno had been practicing his art for the last seventeen years in the same half-delusional way he'd done so for the first part of his life.
He'd been involved in a few local encounters, but had been refused for service in the JSDF unlike several of the Nerima martial artists. As a result, he hadn't been involved in the spill over battles with pirates and rogue military units from the Chinese civil war.
The only thing keeping him near even pace with Sousuke were those chi skills that let him use his bokken to tear through the surroundings. However, without the subtlety to his attacks, the chi-enhanced strikes were uselessly off target.
The train came to a jarring stop at the Nerima station, which jostled Kuno in a manner unforgiveable in martial artist of his self-proclaimed stature. In the opening, the swordsman felt the mercenary's knife blade slash through his achilles tendon and then again into his shoulder.
"You're finished," Sousuke said.
"Never!" Kuno declared, trying to stand up and get into stance again. "I am the invincible Blue Thunder of the Kuno clan, no mere child could defeat me without the trickery of some sort of magic."
"Negative," Sousuke said in a smug tone in he reserved for weaker opponents. "You already had the only magician in the area unconscious. Magic was not a factor, merely your own incompetence and weakness."
"You cannot stop me from freeing my love from the foul hands of that sorcerer, Ranma Saotome," Kuno growled as he finally got to his feet...
...and found himself knocked senseless by a woman's fist as she stepped onto the train.
"Damn lunatic bastard," the woman said, holding a carry on bag and wearing a travel uniform. "What do you have to do with Ranma...oh, nevermind, I see Eija-chan."
"Saotome-san," Eija said walking over. "Do you know this person?"
"Unfortunately, yes," Akane said. "But when did he learn about Ranma?"
"So, you do know my mother," Eija said. "From before that visit."
Sousuke and Kaname were about to ask their own questions in response to that, but the sound of a cell phone interrupted that thought.
Sousuke reached down for his phone and raised it to his ear. Quickly, his eyes widened as he heard over the line the situation developing further on in Tokyo.
"Excuse me, Lieutenant Commander Saotome," Sousuke said. "Miss Chidori, Miss Satomi. I'm afraid there is a situation I must attend to back in our neighborhood. Can I trust you to stay here and explain the situation?"
Before Kaname or Eija could answer, Sousuke was dashing across the train platform for the line just leaving back the other way.
"He does that often?" Akane asked as she bent down to hand-cuff Kuno and lift him, carrying him off the the train, the two teens following along behind her.
"He's always jumping to do something," Kaname said. "Do you mind if ask why you carry hand-cuffs? That's a naval uniform, not a police officer's."
"Let's see," Akane said, dumping Kuno. "How to explain the handcuffs."
She paused and then looked over at Kuno's unconscious form.
"Is he explanation enough?" she asked.
