“Ah, what in tarnation?!” Katie cried out as the smoke filled her nose. When the smell hit her, she stumbled. It was disgusting–a pungent mix of rotten eggs and gym socks that stuck to the smoke and made her eyes water and her gag reflex go off. “It stinks, oh God!”

Akane covered her face in vain as the smoke passed over her, too. Soun, just on the edge of the smoke bombs, brought the sleeve to his gi up to cover Kasumi’s face as she yelped in surprise. Fortunately for either, it didn't appear to be that strongly smelling from where they stood at all.

As the smoke billowed, the triumphant laughter of a young man filled the room, and recognition made both Akane and Katie freeze.

“K-Kuno?!” Akane gasped.

“What the…?” Katie began as she managed to open one eye and look through the blinding smoke. That open eye twitched as she snarled. “Are you kidding me…?”

It was the unmistakable silhouette of Kuno, with what should be a broken arm holding out a bokken at his side as his laughter calmed.

“As you can plainly see, I, Kuno Tatewaki the Invincible Blade of Furinkan High School, stand unharmed before you,” he declared, “Your flashy moves and foul demeanor, amusing as they are, were merely style to make up for substance you truly lack!”

Katie wiped her eyes again and her expression turned to confusion–then into a flat glare. Kuno chuckled again and pointed his bokken at her.

“However, if you pack up your things and leave Nerima immediately, to never be seen again, I will forgive you for your transgression and spare you a truly awful fate.”

He brought the wooden blade to his shoulder and laughed again.

“You must also pay a restitution fee, as well. I do not ask for much, just drop what money you have on the floor and leave at once.”

By this point the smoke had cleared enough for Akane, Katie, Kasumi, and Soun to see that “Kuno” was actually a tall bar stool wearing Kuno’s pants, with a very short, bushy-eyebrowed, monkey-like young man in a ninja gi wearing the top part of his usual attire. He also wore a wig that helped complete the illusion, and in the hand not gripping the bokken he held a microphone to his lips as he tried to emote the suaveness of Kuno and let the voice modulator do the rest.

“And Akane Tendo must go on a date with me, for allowing me to suffer such indignity, at a later date of my choosing!”

Katie walked up to the ninja and kicked the stool out from under him as he laughed again, causing him to fall flat on his face and swallow the microphone.

“Uncool, man,” she snarled.

The ninja, Sarugakure Sasuke, quickly got up–groaning from the nasty sensation of having a working microphone in his stomach. Hacking out a cough, he looked up at Katie, shocked.

“H-how did you resist my poison smoke?!” He demanded.

"Barely! That shit almost tore up my nose, you piece of shit!”

Sasuke pointed at her defiantly. “Now only begins your suffering! I will not forgive you for what you have done to my master!”

“Your Master? Wait, are you like Kuno’s ninja or something?” Katie asked.

“He is!” Akane snapped angrily.

“I don’t need your forgiveness, but hey… since you’re out of a job now, how about you work for me? I always wanted a pet ninja.”

“I AM NO ONE’S PET! ESPECIALLY NOT TO A LOOSE, LEWD WOMAN!” Sasuke roared.

Katie wondered what he meant before she noticed he was gawking at her relatively candid training attire, and scowled harder.

Realizing he’d been caught gawping, Sasuke folded his arms and turned away. “I am a loyal servant to the Kuno family, and for them I would gladly lay down my life!”

He turned back to face her, more smoke bombs held between his fingers. “Now prepare for a taste of true hell–!”

A simple front kick scooped Sasuke straight up into the air, before Katie spun around and swung a high kick straight up into his stomach with such force, that there was feedback from the unseen speakers he’d used with the mic. This was followed by a muffled pop and Sasuke belching fire from the whole microphone exploding in his gut.

Akane winced from the racket, while by the door Kasumi brought her hand to her mouth as she gasped at the violence of Katie’s dispatch of the ninja.

Her leg held high, Katie balanced the folded over ninja on her heel, as she stared up at him.

Her voice seething with contempt, she spoke. “What are you, twelve? ‘A taste of true hell?’”

She brought Sasuke over her head in a wide arc and slammed him into the floor of the dojo with enough force to buckle the planks and send him straight through the bottom of the dojo and into the cold, bare dirt under the building.

As splinters rained down around the edge of the hole made in the floor, she leaned down and looked. He was still conscious, and in quite a lot of pain. Good, she wanted to make sure he understood completely how badly he fucked up.

“You don’t know nothin’ from nothin’, let alone about some ol’ true hell! Git up on outta here with that ruckus,” she snarled at the crumpled shinobi.

“Oh my…” Kasumi murmured in a lower voice than usual for her.

Soun gaped at the girl, shaken, as he murmured. “Such power, such ferocity, such brutality…”

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

He grinned. “Akane has made a friend that shares her interests well!”

Kasumi turned to him, bouncing in excitement. “I know!”

Katie looked up from the hole and to Soun as she realized the damage she’d done. “Oh shoot, I’m sorry about the floor. I’ll pay for it, I promise.”

Soun brightened more and turned to Kasumi. “She’s not a cheapskate either!”

Kasumi was less enthused about his attention to that detail.

The patriarch of the Tendo home turned to his new guest to reassure her. “Well, as long as you’re taking responsibility, I don’t see the harm done.”

Akane joined her side. “That was amazing, Senpai!”

Katie looked over at her. “Senpai?” She cocked her head a bit to her left, to look at Akane from a slight angle. “I ain’t much of one…”

“That execution, you have to show me how to destroy someone like that!” Akane’s excitement would be disturbing to anyone who did not know here as well as her family, or as Katie was beginning to understand.

“I suppose, but Senpai? That just sounds so… I ain’t used to that kind of formality…” Katie looked back at the hole. “Besides, I didn’t put the little guy out completely.”

Sure enough Sasuke began to haul himself out of the floor. He had an evil smile on his face, as if getting his butt kicked had been a part of his plan the whole time.

“Hmhmhm… indeed… you were clever to hold yourself back, as I expected you to,” he croaked.

Akane looked from Sasuke to Katie. “You held back, why?”

“Because we’re being watched,” Katie revealed.

Akane, Kasumi, and Soun looked around quickly.

“Wait, we are?” The youngest Tendo asked. “Who’s there?”

Sasuke let out a weak cackle in triumph. “That is correct! Kodachi-sama, have you seen enough?”

“Oh my, yes, I certainly have,” a new voice, that of a noble young woman, answered.

Then, the entire inside of the dojo was subjected to a gentle fall of petals from the ceiling.

“Rose petals?” Akane asked.

Katie caught one that fell near her. “They’re black.”

When she looked ahead, her eyes widened again at the sight of the woman responsible for them. She was simply beautiful, her gorgeous complexion accentuated with black lipstick and violet eyeliner, and with long silken black hair that was pulled into a side ponytail that fluttered off the right side of her head and ended past her waist. She wore a crisp brown and white sailor fuku, with a red ribbon to tie it. It was the uniform of St. Hebereke, both Katie and Akane realized–one of the really expensive private schools in Nerima.

Katie could only be impressed at her entrance, circumstances notwithstanding. So this is the part of town where all the hot, dangerous girls hang out.

“Who are you?” Akane asked, unnerved by the arrival of this unknown, weirdly alluring woman.

She did not hesitate to introduce herself. “I am Kuno Kodachi, sister of the man you know as Tatewaki, and mistress of this Sarugakure Sausuke.” She gestured to the ninja, who was still grinning maliciously at them.

Akane entered a fighting stance, as did Katie.

“So what, you want a hospital bed beside your brother? Because I’m already done with your whole family.” The latter warned.

“Same here!” The former agreed.

“Given your reactions, it is obvious to me that what my servant has described is true. You humiliated my brother, shattering his bones, his pride, and his spirit. You left him a hollow wreck of a man, who had to be carted to hospital nearly in pieces.” Kodachi looked between the two of them, before settling on Katie and gesturing to Akane. “All because you took objection to his courtship of this homely girl?”

Akane almost lunged to start punching her bloody. “Homely?!”

Katie held her arm out, holding the firebrand back. “I shut him down because he was bullying the whole school into beating her up. Why wouldn’t I?”

Kodachi let out a soft, dark laugh. “For that, I believe a fitting reward is in order, for your selfless intervention at my brother’s expense.”

Katie snorted. “Oh, and what would that be?”

Sasuke laughed. “You know nothing Kodachi-sama’s madness, and how deadly she could be in battle!”

Katie and Akane looked at him, then back at Kodachi.

“Vicious beast of a woman!” He called Katie out with a fist clenched, eager to see Kodachi’s first blow. “You only only barely withstood my poison! Allow my Mistress would show you what a real terror of toxins is capable of!”

Kodachi, reached behind her.

Katie and Akane prepared for anything.

They were not prepared for her to draw a beautifully crafted engraved silver handheld mirror lined with black rose patterns and offer it to them.

“Here, a token of my gratitude,” she said, “A one-of-a-kind artisanal mirror commissioned as a gift for me for my sixteenth birthday; valued at well over seven hundred thousand yen.”

Akane and Katie dropped their stances, confused at the offer of a genuine reward instead of some sinister attack. At the same time, Sasuke all but leaped out of the hole.

“WHAT?!” The ninja yelled out.

Looking at the mirror, Katie reached out with slight hesitation and took it. “Okay…?”

Kodachi continued. “I would also like to offer my sincerest apologies. My brother can be something of a boor when it comes to that which he cannot have, throwing tantrums this way and that. This treatment of you, Tendo-san, is absolutely unacceptable to the proud name of the Kuno family.”

Sasuke could not believe what he was hearing. “K-Kodachi-sama, but your brother… his love…!”

“Love? Is that what he calls his disgraceful behavior?” Kodachi asked, amused by the very notion.

Sasuke nodded. “Yes! His love for Tendo Akane burns brighter than any star, his passion is unmatched by that of a hundred men, two hundred!”

Kodachi’s gaze fell upon Sasuke, sharper than any blade, making him freeze with fear. “A passion that can outmatch two hundred men, but cannot best one girl?”

Katie had to look away, to protect her eyes from that burn. “Dang…”

Akane almost felt sympathy for the little creep, when she saw Sasuke’s shattered expression. “I think putting him through the floor was nicer…”

Kodachi thrust forth her hand, pointing at Sasuke. “You let your devotion to my brother cloud your judgment on a matter as sacred as love! That fool rightfully earned his crushing defeat for his embarrassing idea of courtship, and unjustly seeking revenge upon his behalf rightfully earned you yours! OHOHOHOHOHOHO!”

Katie worried her lower lip. Okay, she’s hot, crazy, and does the ojou-sama laugh. Girls in this neighborhood are amazing.

How did she not find this part of Nerima sooner?

A beeping from the house caught Kasumi’s attention and she brightened. Turning back to the group, she called. “Excuse me, Kodachi-san, does this mean that you’re a friend of Akane-chan’s?”

“An acquaintance, at best, but I bear no ill-will towards her.”

That pleased Kasumi to hear it. “Well there’s no need to be a stranger, please sit down for dinner with us. It’s just about ready to serve.”

Akane was on the fence about this. On one hand, being friends with Kodachi didn’t seem so bad if her idea for showing apology was handing out expensive gifts and hurling abuse at people trying to mess with her.

On the other, it’d give her brother an excuse to come straight to the house.

On the gripping hand, Kuno Tatewaki was a broken shell of a man who wouldn’t be bothering her for a while at least.

Furthermore, if she was as athletic as she looked, she could probably learn a few things from her (and about her brother) and incorporate that into her style, so in case Tatewaki did come back to bother her? Akane would have even less of a problem pummeling the pompous ponce.

That reconsideration tipped her hand. “Please, Kodachi-san, join us for dinner. Kasumi is a very good cook.”

Kodachi took a moment to ponder the offer. “Well, it has been some time since I’ve had a meal prepared by someone other than my servant…”

She looked down at Sasuke, much as one would look upon an insect needing to be stomped on. “And since the fool will be indisposed due to his injuries, I will gratefully take your offer.”

Akane and Katie both smiled, for different but overlapping reasons.

“Great!” Akane cheered.

“Cool,” the taller girl said with her.

Kasumi gestured for everyone to follow her. “Wonderful, please come to the sitting room.”

Soun couldn’t help his own smile. When did this house suddenly get so lively?