The Hinomoto Rebellion (51 page)

As the blast of noise and heat died down, 26 realized that hot pricks of pain were peppered across her back and wings. She carefully rolled over and stood up at the edge of a five meter circle of carnage that was being stared at by several others.

“Oops,” muttered 26 under her breath.

 

Andrea threw herself back to the floor as a wild, gun-wielding swing went over her. The silver-haired martial artist brought her knees up to her chest, then kicked herself back up to her feet. She brought her arm up, the katana blade still being held back along her forearm to make it a close quarters weapon.

Yasakuto quickly stepped back away from the blade, letting it slide up and miss his face. While Andrea’s arm was raised from the failed strike, the Daimyo extended his leg and landed a kick in the middle of her chest, sending her spinning back down. She rolled across the tatami mat on the floor and leaped to her feet as she tried to catch her breath. Her chest was aching as she gasped for breath and sweat dripped from her face. Her muscles cried in protest, begging her to lay down and stop moving. She glared at the Daimyo. Holding the katana reversed was making her arm and hand burn with the exertion of keeping the blade at an angle it was never meant to be used at. Her knees were shaking as she struggled to keep standing.

The two combatants stared at each other, cold malice in Andrea’s eyes and calm confidence in Yasakuto’s. The office surrounding them was a disaster– furniture broken, paintings and walls slashed through or perforated by bullets, and statuary smashed to bits underneath their feet. Both
ronin
and Daimyo were covered in cuts, bruises, and dust from their battle.

Andrea ran one of the mantras Kanjou had taught her through her head several times as she breathed raggedly, fighting the desire to drop to the floor and let the world slip away. She kept the image of fire in her head to help her retain her focus. Tony’s place on fire, the temple and the library on fire, and the fires that would burn Shibasaki should she fail.

Daimyo Yasakuto paced a few steps in either direction, staring confidently at Andrea as he adjusted his grip on his pistol. The
ronin
’s cold eyes watched him intently as he let out a low chuckle.

“Andrea, my dear. Let’s end this. You can’t keep on fighting. I see that you’re straining to even stand. Give up and come to me. I’ll make sure you never want for anything ever again. No more fighting, no more struggling just to put food on the table. You will live in luxury with me.”

A half-smirk crossed Andrea’s face. “Let me put it in short words for you, Ran. Fuck. Off.”

Just then Andrea heard footsteps behind her in the hall. She turned just enough to see Fushicho and Roni come into view in the doorway. They hesitated as they stared at Yasakuto and Andrea, looking unsure of their next moves. The silver-haired martial artist quickly turned back around, leaping toward Yasakuto as she did so. The Daimyo was grinning and raising his pistol toward the two girls in the doorway, his finger tightening on the trigger as he did so.

“NO!” The Tiger screamed as she sprang across the distance between herself and the armed man in two large strides.

Andrea rammed into Yasakuto with her shoulder, sending him toppling to the floor, his gun flying from his hand and skittering across the tatami mat like an insect. The silver-haired
ronin
followed the Daimyo to the floor, landing upright on his chest and pinning his arms to the floor with her knees. There was a flash of light off the sword as she spun it around and brought it down toward Yasakuto’s neck.

“Andrea! NO!” cried Roni.

Yasakuto let out a yell as the sword came down at his throat, his eyes automatically squeezing shut as the blade approached. He waited for the sharp hot pain of the katana plunging through his flesh and ending his life, but it never came. After a moment, the Daimyo opened his eyes.

Andrea was still sitting on top of him, the blade of the katana only a hair’s breadth from the skin of his neck. Her bangs were covering her eyes as she breathed heavily, blood running down on to her already soaked tank top from the grazing bullet wound on her neck. Every breath that she exhaled was a low growl in her throat. She stayed like that for a few moments as Yasakuto stared up at her. From the sidelines of the battle, Fushicho and Roni held their breaths.

Finally, Andrea snarled and tightened her grip on the sword. The Daimyo winced. “Have mercy! Andrea... I did all of this prove that I could be with you!”

Fury swept over Andrea. “You killed Tony! You destroyed my family, my home! You’ve tried to kill me and my friends! How can you lay there and say you were doing that for me!?” Her knuckles were white on the grip of the katana, her face twisted with rage. “You’ve killed countless
ronin
in your... ‘quest’! All because you love a piece of
ochiudo
scum!? You grew up with us, Ran! How can you kill them and claim to care for me!?”

“You were testing me. I know you were.”

“
SHUT UP!
I was never testing you! Don’t blame your blood thirsty killing on me! I won’t be responsible for it!” Andrea jerked the sword forward as punctuation to her shouting. Yasakuto let out a cry as a trickle of blood started from the scratch on his neck.

Fushi stepped toward Andrea, her hands outstretched. “Andrea, think about what you’re doing before you stab him. I know you’re mad at him right now, but you basically have two choices.

“You can kill him– you’d certainly be in your rights to,” continued Fushi, “And you would prove to the world that all the propaganda about
ronin
is absolutely true. You’d prove to them that we’re all blood-thirsty murderers who kill everyone in our sights.
Or
, you could put him under arrest and turn him over to the authorities, which would show Hinomoto that all
ronin
aren’t criminals and murderers with no respect for the law. It’s up to you, Andrea. Your call.”

Yasakuto swallowed hard, his eyes wide as he stared down the sword. Andrea didn’t move for a few long moments. With her face covered by her hair, it was almost impossible to tell what she was thinking. Finally, she looked up, her bangs falling back to frame her face.

“Nothing would make me happier right now, Ran, than to shove this sword in to your neck and watch you die,” she said, her voice disturbingly calm as she focused her ice blue eyes on his black ones. “I’m not ashamed that I’d take great pleasure in getting revenge for Tony, and the bar, and the Aka Ryuu.”

She smirked, “However, I think that it will be more satisfying to watch you rot in jail for
all
the crimes you’ve committed, all the people you’ve killed, all the lives you’ve ruined in this supposed pursuit of me. I would hate to take the revenge away from the rest of this country. I want to see you behind bars for the rest of your life. And mark my words, I will testify to everything you’ve done and personally see to it that they toss out the key after they lock you up.”

Andrea removed the sword from his throat, grabbing on to his tie and jerking him to his feet as she sheathed the katana at her hip. She seized his wrists and jerked his arms behind his back painfully, causing him to cringe. “Roni,” Andrea motioned to one of the unconscious policemen lying in the hall with her head, “Get me some cuffs.”

“Sure!” Roni ran over to the cop and pulled the handcuffs from his belt, taking them to Andrea. Fushicho followed, a small smile on her face as she stood to the side. The Tiger slammed the cuffs onto the Daimyo’s wrists, tightening them just enough to make sure Yasakuto was uncomfortable.

“Come on, Andrea! You can’t do this to me! We’re friends! You can’t do this to a friend!” he protested.

 

Andrea yanked his arms harder. “We were friends once upon a time, Ran. Not anymore. Now shut up,” she snarled into his ear. There was a click from across the room. “How tragic. Unrequited love.”

Both Yasakuto and Andrea looked up at the same time to see Ryoku standing across the room. What was once the Daimyo’s gun was in the winged villain’s hand, the weapon pointed at Andrea. Yasakuto turned his head toward Andrea. “You see? No one will ever put me in jail. I have this country in my grip!”

“Shut up, idiot,” Ryoku snarled, “I’m not saving you. I’m taking care of myself.”

The Daimyo looked like he had been slapped across his face. Andrea snarled. “Drop the gun, Ryoku. I don’t have time to play with you.”

The black-haired man smiled, his visible eye lighting up. “I’m afraid I can’t do that, Andrea. You see, I came here to kill you.”

 

Deuce and a group of
Kemono
quickly regrouped and ran toward a line of the SWAT members. Their laser guns whined as they warmed up, but the
Kemono
were on them before they could fire off a shot. Deuce snarled savagely as he leaped across the last meters between himself and the man he was approaching, his claws and teeth bared as his eagle wings flared out behind him. Before the large lion and eagle
Kemono
could even land, the policeman had turned and was running away, dropping his TK-52 hand-held unit as he did so.

Deuce roared and gave chase for a few steps as the man quickly shrugged off the gun’s power unit while he ran screaming down the street. Following right behind him were the rest of the policeman’s line of officers, also shedding their guns as they ran. From the other end of the battle, Deuce heard an explosion ring out as another of the volatile laser guns was destroyed.

From behind Deuce and his small group a cheer began to rise up through the air. Deuce turned quickly to see what was going on, only to find that the
ronin
and the
Kemono
were the only ones still standing in the street and on the steps of the Capitol. What had started as a small cheer of hope turned into a roar of victory as the few remaining police and SWAT officers raced away from the rebels in panic.

Andrea’s eyes were wide. “What?” she choked as she stared down the barrel.

“I was promised the opportunity to prove that I’m better than my goody-goody ‘better half’, and I’m taking it now. What could be more perfect to prove my superiority over Densetsu than by taking away something that he loves? Maybe I can even get him to fight me properly instead of being a cry-baby about it.” He brought the gun up higher, aiming at Andrea’s head.

“I fail to see how killing me will do anything other than make you a murderer,” Andrea said, keeping a firm grip on Yasakuto’s cuffs.

Ryoku chuckled. “Call me what you will. You’re what Densetsu cares about the most in this world. He values you even more than he cares about rejoining with me. He will do anything for you.” He cocked the pistol. “More importantly, he’ll do
anything
to get revenge for you.”

Ryoku’s finger pulled back on the trigger, causing the end of the gun to explode with fire and noise. Andrea’s mouth was open in a silent shout. The Daimyo shouted, his arms twisted uncomfortably as he yanked against the handcuffs Andrea was holding.

Blood sprayed onto the floor as Andrea fell, pulling Yasakuto down on top of her by the cuffs around his wrists. Roni and Fushicho screamed as the silver-haired
ronin
and the Daimyo collapsed. Their bodies lay motionless as a puddle of blood starting to seep out from under them. The other two Aka Ryuu moved to come toward Andrea, but Ryoku turned the gun on them. “You two stay there,” he snarled. They both stopped in their tracks, expressions of horror across their faces as they stared at Yasakuto and Andrea’s prone bodies.