Chapter 15
The dropship on board had been in service long before the Litvyak had even been commissioned. Its hull had seen several tours of combat, but the vehicle remained in operation despite the wear. Vic pressed his fingers into the hull, wiping some of the grime off the unit number, TKY-7.
“Very fitting that we would be using this ship for the mission,” Vic said to the troops assembled behind him. There were around a dozen awaiting his orders. “This was the ship I flew when I was a young Lieutenant. We battled against the terrorist forces of Liberation lead by the tyranny of the One World Order. Every man and woman here no doubt has been affected in some way by the war. Whether it be friends or loved ones, we have all had something taken from us. Well today, we finally take something back! We owe it to our sons and daughters and the future of our people to finally rid the world of this menace!”
The squad of troops had roared in excitement almost on cue. Vic had waited for the cheers to cease before he continued, “Inside of this village, we have finally discovered the terrorist mastermind, Hideo-Jin-Ni.” Vic had stopped short upon hearing some short outbursts from a few of the troops. He nodded and asked, “A show of hands of who knows who that is. It’s definitely a good number. Many of you may have been children when he disappeared, but every day we face the consequences of his actions. Liberation and the O.W.O. have yet to relent. We offered peace, we offered a chance to live on our own, but they murdered our daughters, our sons. While they rave at the destruction of the modern world, we rage. We rage against the forces that want to extinguish the fire that has guided us here, we march forward, and we finally claim our future for ourselves!” He immediately waved his arm over his head, signaling the already anxious team to board. With a roar, the men marched forward into the dropship.
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Rei knew that time was running short. Night had already befallen the village, bringing the cold air from the valley with it. If the attack happened tonight, it is unknown if the populace would be able to brave the freezing temperatures. As she had left the shrine, Naomi had spotted her in the distance.
“Rei, over here!” Naomi called out to her. Rei made a dash towards her, stopping short just a few feet. “Easy, what happened in there?”
“I don’t have time to explain. We are in danger.” Rei said.
“Jin is assembling the troops now; you and Hideo need to leave!”
“What are you talking about?”
“Something happened in there and he was talking about outsiders and others,” Naomi had started to stumble over her words for a moment, “he’s gone completely mad!”
This remaining time was too short to deal with a crisis. Rei braced herself once she realized that there would be troops present soon. It was clear at this point she may be stuck fighting two fronts, so she tried to use every second sparingly.
“Naomi, I am going to talk to Jin. This might sound insane, but you need to get as many people as possible out of here, right now.” Rei said calmly. Naomi clenched her teeth and let out a sigh.
“Nobody is in danger, just calm down! I know everything feels like it's falling apart, I understand that,” Naomi said as she reached out towards Rei, resting her hands on her shoulders. “I know everything with Shugo is troubling you, its ok.”
“This has nothing to do with Shugo!” Rei screamed before pushing Naomi off her. “You don’t understand, these people are coming after Hideo, and they will use violence to get him. If we stay here, they are going tear through each and every one of us; we will be powerless to stop them. Now, we need to go!”
“Nobody’s going anywhere,” Jin called out to the two as he stepped forward. “This village has stood here for decades and if we die, we die here.”
There were four warriors already in full gear surrounding his flank. They were already starting to spread around them, keeping Rei between them and the shrine. Unknown to Rei, a pair of archers had begun to make their way towards their positions—each on top of shacks nearby.
“Father was doing everything to protect us! Things don’t make sense,”
“Father?” Jin quickly muttered in disgust. “Mother had no choice but to wait for him. I’m certain all of this was no more than him wishing to sow his noble oats. He made a mockery of our village and has brought a new threat here. I will not stand for this disgracefulness any longer!”
“He was trying to stop another threat! If anything, I say that he is far more noble than you will ever be! He entered a fight that wasn’t his for freedom. He was doing the right thing and if you had a spine, you would have done the same thing!” Rei yelled back at him, inching closer towards the group. She continued, “Now, are you going to hold a grudge over his head because his mistake was doing the right thing?”
The right side of Jin’s face had started to curl upwards while he laughed softly under his breath. He had started to spiral.
“We’re not going to execute him or exile him,” Jin said before pulling his katana from its sheath, “we are going to turn him over and spare the village. That includes the secret weapons he has hidden.”
“You’re insane.”
“And I am the Daimyo. As Daimyo,” Jin pointed his weapon to her, “I am placing you and the fugitive known as Hideo-Jin-Ni under arrest.”
Jin started to walk towards her with the other troops drawing closer. At the same time, the first archer had loaded an arrow from his quiver. He gave a pull on the string with his fingers still pinched firmly on the nock. Rei’s focus had been on Jin and the others, but she could feel something. There was a tingle that had caused her stomach to turn. The sudden feeling that death was upon her had struck like a bolt. At that moment, the battle robe had started to phase from its usual bright red to black. The reaction had carried over to Rei, causing her hair to mimic the shade.
“She’s a demon!” One of the men quickly screamed, seeing her clothing and hair starting to turn black.
The archer, still locked in on Rei, took the shot. In that moment, Rei had felt a foreign presence jerk her head from the inside, causing it to snap back and to the left. Miraculously, the arrow in flight had barely glided past her face. Rei felt as if she no longer had control over herself. She finally came back through but had immediately recoiled in horror. Despite dodging the arrow at the last second, it had continued forwards, striking Naomi directly in the chest. The blunt force combined with the edge had little in the way to stop it as it tore deep into her bosom and into her heart. She had not known that she was hit as she gasped for air.
Rei and Jin both cried in unison, horrified at the sight. Naomi had stumbled backwards in agony as everything started to slip, becoming blurry. Rei had not even been given so much as a second to mourn before the second archer across the way had taken a shot at her. With the new suit’s onboard AI, she managed to make a pre-emptive dodge out of the path of the arrow before turning to the woods. She had no choice but to run. In the back of her mind, she feared that this new piece of equipment would take over, making her lash out against her tribe. The situation had become so dire that she would need to get to safety before she could get time to produce a plan. She had raced towards the edge of the village, successfully evading any additional volleys of arrows. Jin had felt a tremendous amount of pain seeing Naomi on the ground. As fast as he could, he had rushed to cradle her in her last moments.
“Naomi, stay with me!” he cried out in a panic as Naomi shook inside his arms. She had already ceased breathing. “You’re going to be ok, stay with me, please!”
Jin had continued to cry unintelligibly as he felt her slipping away. Naomi had hardly managed to lift her hand towards his chest before everything had gone dark. As her body had slowly begun to droop in his arms, Jin knew it was over—Naomi had finally left this world. The feeling had been too much for Jin to keep bottled inside. He pulled her closer as tears dripped onto her bloodstained robe. In that moment, he had felt a burning sensation deep inside—rage. It had come to a head, bringing him to his feet. Without an order or a word, he grabbed hold of the second robe from the ground and dashed off towards Rei.
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Toki had chosen to walk alone that night. For his sake and his sanity, he had always chosen to spend some time away from the village. On tonight, of all nights, he had made the trek towards the river to fill a pale—alone. His head had been cloudy following the ceremony. There lingered the constant thought of Shugo’s passing. What Shugo had been willing to do for the village had only motivated Toki to keep pushing. However, the images from the event had been constantly replaying in his head. It was something he could have stopped. He stared down into the water, seeing the blurry reflection of himself staring back from the strides. Unknown to him, Yulia had been watching from the tree line as the rest of her team was approaching the village rapidly from behind.
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She had already established a telepathic connection with Vic and said, “I’ve spotted one a few clicks from the enemy camp, I am going to engage.”
A pause. Vic’s voice had replied, “Be very careful.”
Yulia casually strolled out from the tree line, with a metal staff close by her side. The surface of the object was completely smoothed out, glistening in the night. At the end, there was a metal ball covered with spikes protruding from its surface. Toki had taken a sip of the river water to enjoy the refreshment but had immediately noticed that he was not alone. Over the tree line, he had noticed the dropship hundreds of feet in the air high tailing it towards the village behind him.
“What is that?” he asked himself. Just mere moments later, he had spotted Yulia walking towards him with the loose-fitting blazer over her blowing in the wind. He had never seen anyone dressed like her. The appearance had been so foreign that Toki had immediately put himself on guard. “Who are you?”
There had been no response from Yulia as the gap between the two had gotten narrower. At the end of her staff, the spike ball had dropped to the ground, revealing a metal wire connected to it. Yulia whipped the ball and cable over her head, sending the blunt object soaring across the river and towards Toki’s face. In the very last second, he had performed a clean and swift leap to the side, avoiding the flail. Just as the attack had been launched, Yulia had lunged through the air, closing in on him in no time. Toki went for a defensive sidestep in response to his attacker, but Yulia had completely overwhelmed him with her speed and strength.
She had delivered a few palm strikes to his chest, each one colliding at inhumanly fast speeds. By the time Toki had been able to react, a chain reaction from the hits pushed him off the ground and backwards into the side of the hill. On impact, the wall of the mountain face behind him had let out a loud thud before exploding in cloud of dust. Toki’s jaw had dropped as a glob of blood and other fluid launched from his mouth. He had not expected this small woman to have this much power. Each of the hits was beyond anything he had felt from any previous opponent.
“That wasn’t too hard.” Yulia said to him, approaching once more. Toki locked in on her and leapt up out of the debris, bracing himself for a long battle.
“You are very strong!” Toki exclaimed as he stumbled to his feet. From the impact, he could tell that something in his rib cage had been broken. After realizing some tightness in his right hip, he delivered a fast side kick to his side. The momentum had popped his leg free, providing instant relief with a loud crack. “It’s about time, I was getting tired of pottery.”
Toki quickly thrusted his arms forward and into a front stance, letting out a quick shout. Yulia only smiled at him—she had no idea what to expect. There was a surge of power inside of Toki’s body as he looked into the Deep. The sudden release had caused a quick gust of wind to launch outwards from his body as the muscles from his waist up had quickly doubled in size.
“You can do that? That's cool!” Yulia shouted in excitement. Toki had begun to glow. Another blast of air had ripped across the battlefield, doubling his mass again. She had become nervous. There was one final blast, this time causing the upper half of Toki’s Gi to explode into nothingness. Yulia could only mutter, “Oh shit!”
Toki blasted off towards her, swinging his fist into her abdomen. The flurry of attacks happened in an instant. The first strike had lifted her off the ground just a few feet, leaving her wide open for the follow up. Toki had brought his next fist down and across the side of her head, sending her spinning violently against the rocky ground. The dust and gravel from the impact had not even been able to leave the forest floor by the time Toki had grabbed a hold of her face. Finally, Toki let out a battle cry with his opponent’s head still firmly in his grip. He had slammed her face against the side of the rocky face of the mountain before dashing off ahead.
The fleshy substance of her face had kept intact, but the sheer force from the massive warrior’s grip had been able to carve out a massive trench with Yulia’s face as he dragged her across the rocks. Toki pulled her back out of the mountain, swinging her towards the river. Her body had crashed into the ground, causing a massive explosion of rock and dirt to tear into the night sky. Toki stood straight up with his arms still in his front stance as Yulia emerged from the cloud of debris, unscathed and still holding her weapon. She pulled back on the staff still in her grip and whipped it forward. The sudden and quick movement lifted the spike ball off the ground and back towards Toki. Even faced with death, he kept his composure while the projectile sailed towards his face. Without hesitation or resistance, Toki lifted his arm to the weapon, catching it in air and absorbing its momentum.
“I underestimated you! Get ready for my ultimate,” Yulia had failed to get the rest of the sentence out. Before she could blink, Toki had used his intense speed advantage and closed into deliver an uppercut straight to her chin. The force launched the petite fighter upwards, leaving her helpless in the air. At last, Toki jumped up and circled around her with his fist clenched to deliver one final swing. The two forces collided. His fist had not been able to put a dent in her, but the power of the impact had sent Yulia plummeting to the ground like a comet. The ground had exploded with dirt once more as her body had buried itself deep inside. Toki floated gracefully towards the forest floor. He had never seen anything take so much of a beating. Whether or not she was still alive under the rubble was not something he wanted to find out, so he turned back towards the village, making a run towards it in the hopes that he could thwart the coming ambush.
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Rei had crossed a few kilometers in just a matter of minutes. The speed of her reactions and movements with this new equipment would take a lot of time to get used to. Soon enough, she had found herself far from home and in one of the many meadows scattered about the forest. It was time to take that long awaited moment to collect herself. The suit had still been engaged, keeping it and her hair the same dark shade. Rei tried to gain control of it, but the constant flow of commands streaming through her subconscious was too much to handle.
“If there is anything in there, please stop.” Rei muttered to the suit as she began to pull it from her skin. That unknown force had only continued to call out to her—she was not out of danger’s grasp just yet. Once again, she felt as if she was being watched in the distance. Rei lunged forwards and turned back towards the woods with her sword held high, yelling, “If you’re out there, show yourself!”
At ease,” Jin quickly shouted back from the darkness. He was alone. The men had stayed back to help Naomi and deal with Hideo. “Let’s talk for a minute.” “I’m not going to let you surrender us to them!”
“Just stop. I know that you have changed. There is no way that I can compete with you without this,” Jin spoke as he lifted the second robe to her.
“This thing has something about it. I believe if you put it on, we can defeat these guys before they get here! Forget surrendering, let's fight! You and me, brother and sister. The heirs of Hideo-Jin-Ichi's clan can bring the fury!”
Jin smiled at her through his grief-stricken face. Naomi’s death would be on his mind for years. Before continuing, he unfurled the battle robe before her to finally gaze at its design. “If that’s what you think, then tell me how this works.”
“Jin,” Rei had started to tremble with excitement as she replied, “thank you!”
She approached him, explaining everything as best as she could remember. Jin stripped down to just his trousers, shivering for the brief time he had spent trying to get the uniform around his torso. Unlike Rei’s, this one had been a bit more rugged from years of use. Its sleeves had remained intact, fortunately, and the material was very flexible, hardly restricting the motion of his arms.
“Alright, how do I close it?” he asked again. Rei traced the seams towards the bottom like before. Once she pressed the two squishy prongs together, the suit began to bind to him.
“This next part is going to feel weird, just stay calm.” she said calmly. Jin closed his eyes, inhaling deeply as the suit had begun to retract and hug his body, further defining his physique. As the onboard AI continued to pair, he felt as if there was a second pair of eyes watching as the presence in his robe began to reach out to him.
“This is,” Jin stuttered as the tickling beneath the robe finally ceased, “this is amazing!”
“This is all we need! Now, we won't be able to damage them with conventional weapons, so we need a plan,” She declared while falling into deep thought. “Then we go forwards with my plan.”
“What?”
“There will be no more bloodshed. As Daimyo, and active authority of this village, I hereby order you to remove the suit and surrender.” Jin said as his suit had started to react. Just like her, it had started to phase into a jet-black color. Rei clenched her fists as she realized her fatal error.
“You can’t do that!”
“I am going to do it. You do not have the mental fortitude to lead a revolution, and I choose to end this war before it begins,” Jin said as he began to unsheathe his sword once more. “Now you’re going to make the right decision, or I’m going to make it for you.”
Rei lifted her weapon to him. The darkness of its metal had blended it with the night, leaving him on edge as he stared into it.
“So, you’re going to surrender?” she asked him. The words had been off putting to him.
“I’m not surrendering, I am turning over a criminal so there doesn’t have to be more bloodshed!”
“You can call it whatever you want, coward,” Rei swiped at the air, taking her defensive stance. “Shugo might have run, but he had the courage to face you. When he was faced with disgrace, he proved himself. Now our village is in danger, and you want to kneel. Disgusting.”
“Last chance, Rei. Take off the suit and hand over that weapon.”
“Make me.”
Jin had finally chosen to attack. He lunged forward with the first of his three blades straight forward. Rei had sidestepped him, letting his weight carry him forward. He caught himself mid-flight, finally coming to a grinding stop. The two locked eyes before commencing the battle.