A Sword's Shadow Falls on Tokyo (Misaki and one open slot)

In the seediest parts of the Tokyo underground a young teen girl in a school uniform with a short skirt was brought into a dimly lit, smoky Yakuza owned club. Two tattooed young Japanese men led her across the main room, past yakuza members entertained by prostitutes in loose robes, drinking sake and eating assorted foods. They eventually pull back a paper sliding door and enter a private room.  There a particularly large and fat man, also in formal attire, was having a private dinner, laughing and snorting as he ate, at a small tv screen showing a Japanese game show.

The two young Yakuza bring the girl in, grabbing her forcefully by the arm and make her kneel on the futon mat. They lift the sack off her head, and it turned out to be the Diana, looking around her new surroundings rather calmly, her eyes spotting a decorative scroll on a nearby altar, before looking at the fat man. “Boss Budo! We’ve brought you tonight’s entertainment. This girl was too easy. She was drinking alone at a bar when we approached her. Convincing her to come with us was a snap.”

“Good, good. Ooh, she seems to have some European blood going on. A foreigner? and What school is that? I didn’t know real students had skirts that short.”

“We don’t really know boss. She must be a loose girl, since she was talking to alot of men.”

“I see. Well then, get out. I’ll call you when I’m done.” Budo said, rubbing his hands together and licking his lips at Diana. The girl, still cuffed and gagged, tilted her head at Budo. The two men look at each other, bowed to their boss and leave.

“Bastard, the girl will probably be unconscious and stink once Boss Budo is done with her.” One of them said, his companion agreeing.

“Remember the last girl? We had to take her to the hospital!”

“Yeah, didn’t even get the left-” A loud scream in Japanese stop the men before they even reach the exit of the tea house. They turn around, and the massive, round form of Boss Budo crashes through the paper sliding doors, missing an arm from the elbow down, blood trailing in his wake. Screams of horror come from the mouths of the women, as they flee in their loose dresses, leaving their wooden sandals behind. The dozen or so Yakuza in the teahouse draw their assorted melee weapons, and attack the katana wielding Diana, whose blood stained school blouse had its top button open.

“Fuck! We have to go to the clan! Sam?” The yakuza Sakai turned to his companion, just as blood started to pour from his mouth and a scimitar materialized in his chest. Sam falls to the ground, lifeless, as Diana begins killing yakuza, prostitutes and guests indiscriminately.

Looking on in horror, the yakuza flees for his life, abandoning friends and brethren, screaming into the poorly lit and sparsely populated streets. “Bakemono! Bakemono! Monster! Monster!” He said, running as fast as his legs could take him.

This place got seedier by the night. Every time you think these men get their heads under control, they show just how weak their minds can wander. Each one of these little clubs made up the primary funnels of all the illicit goods through the Pacific Rim. The fact these men counted street thugs among their advisory positions filled Misaki with disdain.

They lacked subtlety.

They drew unwarranted attention.

The draw of whatever they happened to be chewing on smacked as they dragged a girl into the club. Her body kicked with an energy that showed her expression of character even with the bag over her head. Misaki sat in the corner of the club with an opium hose with two mannequins possessed with the surrogates from the spirit realm. A cloud of smoke grew from Misaki's mouth, blotting out the young girl and her escort.

Once the cloud dissipated, only the dolls remained.

Only one course of action stood in this man's mind. The same course of action that surrounded him with filth and squandered riches. Resources and goods fell just as sporadically as his seed across whatever girls his men picked up. Power would not require the abduction. This man possessed no power and Misaki would let him know. Misaki crept through the shadows in her cloaked form, a blazing fire inside of her wanting to manifest itself in physical fire. But, she could pass the fire.

This young girl squirmed against the handcuffs while the gag kept her quiet under the approach of the physically large man. Any woman would willingly give both of her hands to avoid the absolute terror of being relegated to nothing more than a doll to this man. Her gagged murmurs showed Misaki what she wanted to see from her. A kindling to ignite.

The fox witch materialized as flames flew from Misaki's hands with a focused precision. The flames steered around Budo and scorched at the cuffs around Diana's hands. Once the cuffs broke, the foxfire would mark the girl's wrists for Misaki to exploit later once Diana showed her what she could truly do. The carnage of the girl worked in wonderment. Absolute raw power, but unrefined. Right now the girl was iron. Her blade cut through tenants and patrons regardless of class distinction of criminal nature. She was a primal force against the order of complacent crime. Misaki watched with glee as the worthlessness of the club descended into chaos, but this girl needed to be forged into true steel.

Iron could break through the flashy metals like copper, but eventually breaks under its own weight.

This girl would eventually break herself against the terror of the night if left to her own devices, but Misaki sat well with watching the show, before she would need to intercede to shadow bind Diana and begin to forge her.

The teahouse became eerily quiet, save for the classical Japanese opera playing on the radio. Bodies were strewn about, blood everywhere. A stray arm or leg twitched. Vacant eyes looked up at the ceiling, while inside a decapitated head. The room began to stink of human waste, as death did not offer the dignity of controlled bowels or bladders. The small framed Diana moved aside Budo’s much bigger, stinking body with an unusual ease, as the girl retrieved then laid out the ancient scroll mounted on the altar in the fat yakuza’s room.

Diana planted the Blood Drinker sword in the ground, and as she read the ancient texts within the scroll with glazed eyes, the blood inside the tea house’s main floor began to flow against gravity towards the fell katana, clearly harvesting the spilled life force. For all her skill, a rare few gunshot wounds and deep lacerations cut into her fragile form, ripping huge holes in her clothes- but her wounds closed rapidly and she showed no pain; the Blood Drinker’s thirst was being slaked, and it healed its wielder readily, strips of flesh sewing themselves back into her body. Diana put on her gauntlet once more, unable to detect the spell worked onto her flesh.

A ghostly figure- perhaps some form of spectre, meanwhile, materialized before Misaki. She was a short woman with long ghostly hair, and wore ancient armor from a long passed civilization. Her armguard and Diana’s were one and the same, though the specter’s armor was more... complete.

“Why do you hide? Come out and say hello. There’s no need to be shy. I’m sure young Diana would like to meet you, Gumiho.”

"A pretty, pretty display." Misaki tapped her finger against her cheek as she looked upon the blood drenched girl. Before she could take notice of the look returned to her, the guise of an armored figure presented itself before Misaki. "So she is only the avatar." A tool of someone else's emply would not do Misaki as much good as she once thought, but the standards for which this girl entered the club meant the girl could only have just received these powers bestowed to her. "She called out to you? Was in rage of revenge or hope of survival?"

The blood along the floor dissipated into the crevices of the blade within Diana's hand. For all the violence and displays of gratuitous gore, the girl cleaned up after herself quite well. Speaking to the vassal felt useless to Misaki. If this girl channeled the powers of a higher being, it would be much easier to barter behalf of the recipient- unless she could strike a deal with Diana to free her from the constrains while keeping the powers.

"You take care of yourself quite well girl." Misaki surveyed the room to see a few of her own dolls destroyed in the carnage of the melee. All the better she supposed, it would throw off any scents for her. "I thought you would be too messy to strike a deal with, but that is a nice power that sought you out." Bloodstains soaked into the fabric of Diana's clothing, but the stains no longer dripped with any viscosity. An open wound would continue to push the blood further from source, but these wounds, running the gambit from stabs to gunshots, all seemed to have receded unnaturally. "Do you feel like the lesser of two evils? Or do you feel like the lion killing the hyenas whom constantly steal from him? Because I know which one I am and I know who you are my dear, sweet, friend"

"A foolish, youthful adventurer who knows not the value of her own life... better to be put to good use by her betters than wasted in meaningless pursuits." The Ancient Warrior responded, looking at her host with contempt and a hint of dissatisfaction. She frowned ever so slightly when Misaki simply bypasses her and spoke directly to Diana, her ghostly form having no way to affect the supernatural creature.

Diana looked at Misaki as she strode into the open at last, picking up the sword from the floor, interrupting its meal; the sword almost felt as if it expressed annoyance. "...Whoever you are, I'm not looking for a fight, unless you get in my way. I'm looking for this-" she pointed to the scroll. Completely mundane, without a trace of magic, but therein was a japanese poem, a riddle of sorts, and the illustration of a few exquisite daggers. "-and nothing else." She said, convinced of it. The Ancient Warrior dipped Diana's hands in far too much blood for simple larceny, though.

"The Kumiho is a life eating spirit. They are cunning and wily, with many ulterior purposes. She was here for some reason... we should find it out." The Ancient warrior stood between them, advising her ward while eyeing Misaki.

"I don't really understand... what's she saying." Diana said, partially to the Warrior and to Misaki herself.

"So, this scroll is your way?" Misaki began to circle Diana. "Interesting." Her devilish eyes looked over the blood soaked attire standing in contrast to the lack of scars along the girl's body. "And what will you do with this? Do you seek power?" Misaki whispered her venom into Diana's ear. "You won't find power here. You will only find the dogs begging for scraps. Praying to be invited to the table. I can offer you the head of the table."

Stepping from behind Diana and moving towards the back of the tea house, Misaki knew the time to leave came. In minutes the area would be swarmed with police, and those who hid in the shadows would never stray into the light of justice. "Come now. Come and see what I can offer you in the warm places in the darkness. Come see what the price of power can be and come and see just what you are willing to do to free yourself from the grips of others."

The temptress fox continued to weave her lies and pry and deadly wedge between the ancestral spirit and the nine tailed fox, but she needed an instrument. A weapon forged and formed in the crucible of blood.

"Now we're talking. But I don't take gifts from strangers... What do you want in exchange? You could help me find these daggers, then I'll lend you my skills. Is that what you had in mind? or something a bit more... long term?" Diana knew better than to turn her back on her spirit. She was wearing her gauntlet after all.

Once it had finished drinking up the blood of her victims, Diana picks up her sword and sheathes it ceremonially. The Katana's thirst was slaked, but it would seek more eventually.

"The daggers are at a guarded shrine, with lots of magic users. Help me, and I'll help you." She offered again, making the bargain plain and simple. She was always wary of being exploited now that the Ancient Blades had resurfaced in the world once more.

"We will leave for this place tomorrow. You need to dream tonight. You need an experience not of this world." Misaki left through a door to the alleyway, turning back. "But you cannot stay here, for it is dangerous to the power to use it on those unwilling." Misaki kept nothing to her name on this world other than a large section of geisha houses among Japan. While the other houses declined since the end of World War 2, Misaki kept her doors open with a steady flow of never aging girls appealing to not just the emotional needs of Japanese men, but also the gaijan who came for tourism and business. Her attendants slid the door open for their Lady and covered Diana in something other than blood covered outfits. "My attendants will clean you and find you something more fitting to wear. We do not want to attract attention to ourselves. Many will be seeking us and we must find these daggers of yours."

Each girl who worked in Misaki's establishment took on a different form every five years. Under the veil of magic, they were all fox spirits, exiled with Misaki. Each remained unearthly beautiful and delicate in appearance. Draped in exquisite kimonos of reds, purples, and blues, and others of orange, and green, and silver. Ornamented foxes and sparrows played on their silk sleeves.

Once the night grew too late, Misaki would retire to her quarters and take her meditation until morning when she would meet back again with a fresher, more well dressed Diana.

Imena came to Japan to help Elaine find something about a dagger. The details really stood no bearing at all and left out a great deal of details, but Imena knew eventually, all of Elaine's plans somehow came together. This one would probably be no different. Imena strode through the streets in a black skirt with a pair of suede brown boots up to her knees. Her blond pony tail reached down just to the cuff of her sleeveless, green turtle neck. Her phone told her she came to the exact location, but she couldn't see her partner anywhere. "Elaine, where are..." Her accent adorably came to a muffled end when a hand wrapped around her mouth and pulled her back into the alley.

"Did anyone follow you?" A kimono wearing Elaine poked her head over Imena's shoulder to interrogate her. Imena shook her head, still fluttered with nervous energy. "Good. There's a weird Chinese lady who was following me for a while." Her fingers released Imena's mouth and let her move forward. "Now onto the important things in life: finding magic items."

"We are these daggers?" Imena did not understand why Elaine would keep her mind so far away, but maybe it explained why she told her so little about the dagger.

"No idea. But when I see something that tells me to follow it, I'll know just where to go. Until then, let's head to this sauna I read about." Elaine pushed past Imena grabbing the English time travelers rolling suitcase. "It's near a shrine they say is enchanted or something stupid like that."

"Wait Elaine." Imena began to run to avoid being left behind by her spirit shaman.

Diana’s gaze fell elsewhere whenever she was spoken to, her attention going to and fro, giving the impression of an unfocused, cluttered mind. She followed Misaki to the geisha house, taking this chance to rest.

The foxes quickly crowd around Diana and approached her, but, unfamiliar with these beings, she drew her sword partially, to show them the blade. The fox spirits paused in their tracks when they saw the blackened blade, backing away in fear. They could sense its malevolence, and its power- not only to slay humans but to affect spirits as well. No one could be safe from it.

“You there, I’m quite famished. Prepare me something to eat. Something with rice, I’m sick of fast food. And it better be good.” Diana muttered to them, sensing their fear and revelling in it. She realized her hunger and weakness from the nonstop pursuit of her unclear goals. She realized she’d been living off convenience store sandwiches and pastries, and she’d gotten even thinner, sustained only by her sword. It controlled her as much as she did it, and she didn’t know it. The fox spirits rush off to prepare a proper meal for a growing fighter, as they cautiously offer Diana access to the wardrobes and taking her tattered dress.

Once in her room, she picked out a Japanese school uniform for tomorrow, dark in color and rather loose fitting for her, to let her blend in this society. She also picked out a simple yukata for the night. A large, steamy bowl of rice alongside a platter of vegetables and chicken teriyaki was prepped and put before her, and Diana finally eased her personality to eat, letting the sword rest nearby, always in her sight.

Once her bath was drawn she went as well, taking the time to appreciate the wooden tub. Using a mirror held by a reluctant fox for her, she cleaned out the grime and dirt marring her skin. She paid little heed to the perfumes and oils, realizing she had developed many scars, scars that healed rapidly but never truly disappeared.

Once all was well she dressed herself up again, Diana fell into her dreamless sleep, her sword never leaving her side, never quite becoming idle. In the morning she sought out Misaki to speak with her.

"I see you found your amenities well enough." Misaki sat at her tea table, one of her attendants brushing her hair and placing it up with a fox pin. "Today we set out to find these daggers of yours. You are the mouth of the blade are you not? Did it tell you anything as you slept?" A stream of tea poured from the kettle into a cup for Diana. "We will not be the only ones seeking it. A secret organization has hunted me for sometime and now it seems our paths will align."

When they left the geisha house, a sigh of relief would sweep over the denizens of the house. Prayers and offerings filled the halls to appease the evil spirits raised in the house. "My hand maidens fear you." They continued on their path. "The power you wield. Or should I say-the power that wields you." A pair of black boots rose to Misaki's knees, hidden beneath the dress just above her knees. A coat covered her upper torso and made her stick out among the summer clad population they passed. A dark pair of shades hid her eyes from those gazing at her. "You must be more than just the avatar of the blade. It gives you power at a price. You must learn to negotiate that price." Before them sat a special place. A place of refuge and retreat. A spring ran from the mountains, crossing paths around a geyser heating the water. A shrine was constructed here, but in contemporary years, it now hosted a lodge popular with tourists and pleasure seekers. "Fools buried our gifts beneath their pleasure. It is a boon for us. Never destroy what gives us cover."

"This water is great." Imena sunk into her own tub where the spring water poured with her ceramic tea cup in hand, clad in her blue bikini. A sauna attendant tried to find somewhere to hang the holstered pistols Elaine handed her. "What were we supposed to be doing?"

"We were doing things today?" Elaine looked over to Imena, her hair pulled back to keep it from getting in the water. She left her boots on the side of the tub. She poured some bath salts into the water and started swirling her fingers to try and get them away from her brown bikini top. "I think daggers or something. Who knows."

"You do?" Imena pulled her head up and looked over to Elaine.

"Oh yeah, we were looking for daggers here, some dumb ninjas want them and something about a fox demon." Elaine stretched her leg out of the water and kicked phone to her. "We've got time and this bath is pretty good. Plus, I just put in more bath salts."

While Imena knew she should question everything Elaine just said, this bath was really nice. Grabbing a bottle of bath salts, Imena laid her head back and soaked in the water. "Yeah, we have plenty of time."

They did not. The ninjas were there and so was the fox demon.

Diana changed into her Japanese school uniform and met with Misaki in the morning, taking a seat and sipping tea.

To her first query, Diana said nothing. The blade has only spoken to her once, and it was all she needed to know. “I am in control of the blade. Its power is leashed to me. It needs me far more than I need it. As for the dagger, it is simply part of a greater plan.” She declared, confidently. She seems to have asserted herself better since putting something in her belly.

The fox maidens were alert enough to prepare a bowl of rice porridge, with egg and a fair amount of dumplings. Diana’s activity warranted high amounts of calories, and the more she ate the more coherent she was. It seemed the sword exploited her simple hunger to weaken her mind to its influence. “If they stand in our way, I will simply cut them down and feed them to the blade.” She said, finishing her meal in record time.
Bathhouse/Shrine

Diana followed Misaki to the bathhouse, where once the shrine had stood. The young lady felt perplexed, but her senses told her the daggers were here.

“Heavily guarded? Looks like that didn’t make money. Well, let’s not waste time then.” She entered the bathhouse and looked around the sparse lobby.

“Welcome! Oh my... we don’t allow school children to come in on weekdays miss...” The receptionist said meekly, trying to tell Diana not to come in.

“I’m going to take a look around.” Diana declared simply, continuing to walk into the establishment.

“Um... alright...” The receptionist said in a quivering voice, just as the girl walk past. Once she turned her back though, the attendant slowly brought out a suppressed handgun, taking aim to shoot Diana in the back.

Meanwhile...

The Sauna attendant with Elaine’s holstered pistols broke into a short sprint once out of sight, running down a hallway and tosses the pistols into the bottom of the kitchen’s waste dumpster, just as a regular employee came in to throw a couple of buckets of fish guts and clam shells over it.

Another male employee, a janitor, was washing the floor from the other side of the baths. He had overheard their conversation, and, as suspected, they too knew of the artifact that was here. The ninja clans could no longer be idle and had activated their agents within the bath house. He parked his mop bucket right there and brought out a weapon from his cart, opening a secret panel in the bamboo partition, taking aim at Imena and Elaine’s heads with a silenced pistol.

This girl lacked the finer qualities of style. Misaki knew the girl spoke for herself simply because no wielder of power would ever say they wielded power. No one ever believes it when someone announces such a statement. Still, this girl accessed something special- and terrible. She needed refining, and not soft like bending wood to make a bow, but hard and cruel, like beating iron into steel. This girl needed to be broken.

Misaki stood back to allow Diana a chance to infiltrate the location on her own. She immediately drew unwanted attention to herself and announced her presence and her uncooperative behavior, but she drew the dagger from the sheath behind the secret of this sauna. As the attendant drew pistol and aimed it towards Diana, Misaki merely strode by and placed her hand in front of the gun, taking the bullet to her hand without as much as a flinch. Her elbow soared into the girl's throat and moments later found herself bound and gagged in a closet while one of Misaki's dolls took her place at the front of the sauna. "Now where did she go off to?"

"How much more time til we need to look for the daggers?" Imena tilted her head slightly over to Elaine while still keeping the back of her neck pressed against the pillow.

Elaine sighed. "Shut up."

Acting as the spectral harbinger of important news, the small dog emerged into the room to prod Elaine into doing her job. "So, this is detective work? You know I don't like to get involved in your work or life..."

"Then don't."

He sat his little legs under his regular sized hips and looked to the back of the room where the janitor toyed with the partition. "But, and this is important, there is a man behind you about to shoot you in the head."

"Coordinates?"

"Halfway between eleven and twelve."

"Height off the ground?"

"He's hunched over so about three feet."

Elaine grabbed her boot and filled it with water. She checked the counter balance for a moment and tossed it behind her. Before the man could pull the trigger, the boot impacted against his head, causing his shot to go off and hit the wall on the other side of the room.

"Oh dear." Imena shot up form the bath.

"He's all wet, so do electricity."

Outlets and lights surrounded the room, giving Imena good access to the source she needed. Lightning sprung forth from the lamp on the side of the room, shocking the man and incapacitating him throughout.

"Well, I'm done here." With that, the small dog stood to his legs and began to walk away.

"Good, no one is going to miss you."

"We'll put that on your tombstone."

"I think we should start looking into just what this place is." Imena pulled herself from the bath and went to grab the bag she brought in with her, but to her dismay, she found nothing. "Were you talking to the little dog?"

"Yeah, he was wearing a Hawaiian shirt and sunglasses."

"Aw, that's adorable." Imena brought her hands together over her heart.

"Get my pistols." Elaine kept her eyes closed as she soaked.

"They're gone too." The only thing Imena managed to retrieve was Elaine's boot. "We're unarmed and this place wants us dead."

"Well..." Elaine locked her arms on the side of the tub and lifted herself up. "Do you think it was ninjas or fox demons?"

"I wouldn't even begin to..."

Water flew as Elaine let her hair down and began to shake herself dry. "At least today won't be boring."

Once the undercover ninjas brought out the weapons, mayhem erupted at the bathhouse. Employees and customers in the bath areas and the lounge alike were quickly running outside as electrical disturbances and gunfire broke out, especially when Misaki not so subtly replaced the receptionist with some eerie clone. This proved to be the end of the ninjas’ camouflage, as their agents were all that remained, dressed as staff members bringing out the guns and the more traditional weaponry... and sorcery even. Their lead appeared from nowhere, wearing traditional kunoichi battle garb. They confronted Diana in the 10 foot wide female locker, where a trio of bathhouse ninjas were waiting.

“Ugh... ninjas. Get out of my way if you want to keep your limbs.”

“You know not what you do, child. You are working towards an unspeakably evil goal! You are going to bring darkness to this world!” The masked kunoichi said, her garb making her stand out quite well.

“What do any of you know? The sword is powerful... But I am its master!”

“Fool. None can claim mastery over Blood Drinker. We know the history of the accursed weapon you carry, the lives it’s taken! The chaos it has sown! You must give up this goal and walk away!”

“You’re the chattiest ninjas ever. Let’s see you back it up.” Diana drew her sword and was eager to begin the melee, closing the distance with the first ninja and breaking through his defense... only to find that the ninja fell down into a pile of sliced up towels.

"Amateur. The blade has taught you only how to prey on those weaker than yourself." The hallway suddenly goes dark, and the ninjas press their advantage as Diana was quickly shot from the back by an assailant emerging from the locker with a blowgun, hitting her with a poisoned dart. The girl let out a cry of pain, as the ninjas closed in and quickly fills her front with bullets from an Uzi, Diana unable to block them all the bullets effectively. The pain cripples Diana, and her blood stains the floor and the lockers...

The ninjas were playing it pragmatically, not entering melee with the wielder of a demon sword; they ruthlessly exploited their advantages, knowing the price should they fail.

Meanwhile, with Elaine and Imena...

Three ninja warriors dressed as bathhouse staff begin their attack on Elaine and Imena. Striking from hidden wall openings with murder holes, they ambush them from afar by throwing egg bombs, unleashing highly irritant clouds of tear gas and iron filings, hoping to impair the two women’s senses. A second bomb, a needle grenade, would then be thrown in for good measure, to pepper them with razor sharp poisoned needles.

The hail of gunfire led Misaki to where she needed to find Diana. The poor girl looked lost and out of her very simple element. Misaki slowly faded into nothingness, only her footsteps remained as she walked past Diana and towards the ninjas pelting her with gunfire. While darkness easily kept Diana at bay, it only made Misaki stronger, her sharp eyes cut right through the unnatural darkness and found her targets.

Oil flowed from her hand in a blob like form over into the locker room doorway. Her fires sparked and burned away the form of the ninja; Misaki did not care whether she killed the ninja or not. She only wanted to instill fear to give her a passage to the daggers. A trail of oil led the flames from one part of the locker room to the other, the fire trailed like a lost puppy. The shinobi could stand and die or run. "Your blade controls you too much." Misaki came out of her hidden guise over the bloodied girl. "You bleed your own blood far too often and fall into the simplest of traps. You are a hound, not a fox. And as such, you just bark at what frightens you, never knowing that controlling it would solve all of your problems."

"This smells terrible!" Imena wrapped a towel around her nose to block the aroma coming from the eggshell bombs. The gas seeped up and filled the room around Imena, sending her to find shelter behind the counter.

"Did you find my guns?" Elaine rolled to avoid a bomb sent at her and came up with her legs going through the paper walls and kicking back two of the ninjas.

"Not yet." Digging in the wrong place led to results like that.

"I'm useless without those guns." Elaine shoved her hand through the murder hole, grabbing the ninja by the neck and pulling him into a wooden pole to send him to the ground. "I wonder if this is related to the whole dagger thing?"

"I don't think ninja randomly attack people for no reason." Imena threw towels and bath salts from the drawers, until she remembered how nice the bath was and how expensive those salts costs. Then she wrapped them in the towel for later. "I feel we should take this as a sign that we made a good decision followed by a bad one."

"Yeah who knows. Kharma right?" Elaine threw her elbow into the murder hole to catch the second ninja square in the nose. She pulled her arm out as the shinobi on the far side dropped a more menacing looking bomb out his murder hole. "That one has a fuse."

"How big is the bomb."

"Is there a small enough size to make you comfortable?"

"Not really." Imena peaked her head out and saw the small bomb's fuse grew shorter. She jumped over the counter and flew towards the bath. Taking the same line of thought, Elaine found herself in the earlier bath with her head under the water. The bomb burst and poison darts and iron shrapnel flew around the room, but it avoided the two companions. They both emerged unscathed, but another bomb filled with the nauseating gas started to leak between them. Imena dove under the water to outlast the bomb, but Elaine burst out of the water again and threw her entire body through the paper wall, grabbing the ninja and throwing him back into the room. The other two shinobi watched as their partner blocked their gas attacks.

Elaine spun around delivering a spinning heel kick to his head, putting him on the ground. The second ninja grabbed her from behind placing his arm under her armpit to pin her shoulder to her ear. Imena emerged to see the scuffle. She dove fist into the back of the man's knee to get him off of Elaine and then emerged from the tub. "I'll get us something to wear."

"Good thinking." Elaine brought her knee in the face of the downed ninja, disorienting him enough for her to bring the same knee down again against his face.

"Do you want a towel or a wrap." Imena grabbed a blue wrap and tied it around her waist.

"Do they have a yukata?" Burying her fist into the third woman's collarbone, Elaine brought her elbow around to knock her off balance.

"No, they have towels."

"That won't work; what's a wrap?" With a quick spin, Elaine threw her arm around the woman's neck and flipped herself around to dig her feet into the ninja's back to push off of her form.

"It's a little piece of fabric you just tie around your waist." Imena pulled out a black one to show Elaine as she worked to dispatch the last ninja.

"Oh, that looks nice." Elaine finished the fight by grabbing the girl's arm and propelling enough force to flip her upside down and drop her on her head, knocking her unconscious. "Let me see that." She reached for the black wrap and tied it around hips. "Well that looks good." A ceiling tile dropped to the ground atop a mountain of debris and destroyed paper walls.

For a brief moment she lay still, hovering on the edge of death... then Diana gasped as the blade’s power set in, her flesh feeling as if on fire as it expelled the dart and bullets, then knitting close with an unnatural speed that compelled her to wail in terrible pain. The girl got up and looked at Misaki and at the flames. This was so humiliating for Diana, falling for such a basic trap.

“Fine...” She got herself up and looked around, and saw that the locker ninja and submachine gun ninja were on fire, running around like headless chickens, screaming in pain, while their leader disappeared. Diana turned them into headless ninjas with little ceremony, frustrated at how they used such dirty tactics against her... but of course they would, they’re ninjas... her head hurt from these thoughts, feeling some were not her own.

“Let’s keep going. The shrine is this way...” She led Misaki the short distance to the pool areas, past the male pool and towards the female hot spring... which had been soundly trashed by two women in swim wear and towels, injured ninja and trashed paper doors everywhere.

“Well... This is going to be challenging.” She said, knowing the entrance to the old shrine was supposed to be where the spring was now. She looked around and laid eyes on the two in wraps. She didn't so much as address them as talk down to them, really coming off bratty and arrogant. “...More ninjas posing as guests? No... They’re different... whatever your reason to be here ladies, you should leave.” She said, this time gripping her sword cautiously and keeping an eye out for more surprises.