Chapter 13

"You need to have a doctor look at these ribs."
Ranma was kneeling on the floor of the Bell Jet-Ranger wrapping
tape around Akane's chest.
"I'll be fine Ranma." They'd been having this argument since
they'd taken off from the heliport on top of the building where the
Gakidou had been held. "Just tape them up. We don't have time to stop."
"There's nothing holding you together except tape." Ranma glared
up at Akane. "You look like a mummy, even more than the old ghoul, and
that's saying a lot. At least promise to stay on the helicopter after we
land."
Akane ignored Ranma's pleading look and moved her arms and legs
experimentally. Satisfied, she rotated her torso with a wince.
"Stupid. You want to pull something loose?"
Akane batted Ranma's hands away.
"I've got to see . . ."
"You've got to see nothin'. I've already told you. . ."
"Children, children."
The two teens turned red-faced toward Cu Lon.
"The pilot. . ."
"Your other nephew, the pilot." Nabiki said with a faint grin.
"Is there anyone in Japan you're not related to?"
"Family is very important when you get to my age." Cu Lon
returned primly.
"As I was saying, the pilot tells me that we should be over the
island in another five minutes. Between my great-nephew's electronic
expertise and Genma's ability to steal documents, we were able to send a
fake message to Minister Takehiero. That message told of Tendou Akane's
defeat in the Gakidou and stated that we are bringing Tendou Nabiki and
what is left of Tendou Akane to his private island. This should allow us
to land unmolested. With any luck Ranma, Ryouga and Ukyou will be
convincing enough as Yakuza delivering Akane and Nabiki for the
Ministers' pleasure to get them inside the compound. Once inside, they
will dispose of the guards and open the gates for us." Cu Lon indicated
Shan Pu, Moshu, and Genma and herself.

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"Hands off, Dai."
"Aw, come on Naoya. The boss is going to kill her anyway. Why
can't I have some fun?" Dai followed his own suggestion, pinching a
breast and laughing when the bound girl moaned in pain.
Naoya glared at Dai and didn't like what he saw; middle-aged,
overweight, with a sour smell of too much sake and too little soap. But
his family had a long history with the All Japan Patriotic League, and
Naoya had to babysit the creature.
"You may, of course, do as you wish Senpai." Naoya's stomach
churned, but Dai's family connections made him technically Naoya's
superior. "It is just that I am unable to fathom how this can be
explained to The Minister."
Dai paused at the mention of this omnipotent figure. In Dai's
pantheon there was The Minister, the Emperor and God. The Emperor might
be more powerful, but the Minister was much closer. As for God, what had
he done for Dai lately?
Seeing Dai hesitate, Naoya followed up his advantage.
"The Minister wishes to make an example of the Tendous to anyone
who might oppose him. He is going to kill this one" Naoya indicated the
bound and semi-conscious Kasumi "in front of Tendou Nabiki. The other
one as well, assuming she survived Ketsu. I am sure The Minister will
welcome your expertise in devising a painful and humiliating end for all
of them." Nyoga was just congratulating himself on diverting the hulking
moron when Dai's glacier sharp mind picked up on the one, to him, salient
point.
"Huh, I bet I can make her really squeal." And before Nyoga could
stop him, Dai pressed the glowing tip of his cigarette to Kasumi's
breast.

"O-neesama!"
They were almost over the beach, descending to land when Akane's
cry jerked all eyes to her.
Akane's head snapped forward, her "other" enhanced senses
quivering.
"O-neesama, they're hurting her!"
And with that anguished cry, Akane flung herself out of the
helicopter. Strong arms snatched Ranma back as he tried to follow her out
the door. He could only watch helplessly as she curled into a ball, and
hit the surf, spinning across the water like a skipped stone. Once,
twice, three times she bounced before she hit the rocky shore and took
off at a pounding run to the compound two hundred yards from the shore.
"So much for the element of surprise." Cu Lon's mind was racing
to deal with this new development. "Land now, as close as you can." She
ordered her nephew. "Ryouga, you, Shan Pu and Moshu go left. Ryouga, make
a hole in the wall. Once inside create as much confusion as possible."
She threw a small radio to Shan Pu. "If you find Kasumi, let everybody
know, then get out with her. Otherwise keep working your way to the
center of the building. Genma, you and Ukyou come with me. We'll go to
the right."
"What about Ranchan?"
Cu Lon chuckled grimly as she forced a radio into Ranma's
clenched fist.
"He's going up the center, after Akane."
A single glance at Ranma's fixed gaze was proof of this
assertion.
"Then I'm going after Ranchan. Someone's got to watch his back."
"Fine, there's no time to argue." Cu Lon spoke to Shan Pu without
turning her head. "Shan Pu you stay with Ryouga and Moshu. I need you
with them."
Shan Pu subsided with a rebellious mutter, then settled to watch
as the helicopter made its descent. As the ground grew closer, she could
see guards boiling out of the compound as someone finally decided that
something was wrong. She could see muzzle flashes as weapons on the
ground fired at the helicopter. Then, the attention of the guards was
divided as they noticed the lone madwoman charging them from the brush.
Of the twenty or so guards Shan Pu could see, four peeled off to deal
with Akane, seeing her as a lesser threat while the majority concentrated
on the helicopter. Shan Pu could hear bullets hitting the helicopter,
like hail on a slate roof. Since she could do nothing about it, she
concentrated on the drama below. As she watched, Akane blasted through
the first four guards like a blow torch through rice-paper. The remaining
guards were suddenly hit on the flanks, and more and more of them turned
their attention from the helicopter to deal with this new enemy.
It was, Shan Pu decided watching the battle below, like throwing
bunnies at a badger. Noisy and colorful, but hard on the bunnies and
irritating to the badger. As she watched, rifle armed guards seated in
roof top shelters noticed the peril of their fellows, and some turned
their weapons away from the helicopter and toward the lone girl. They
were temporarily stymied because the fighting on the ground was so close.
But sooner or later they were sure to get a clear shot at her.

As Akane exploded through the first four guards, her mind was
only partially on the fight. Most of her enhanced senses were searching
for O-neesama. They were hurting her. Akane was frantic with the need to
get to her sister. So focused was she on searching for Kasumi that the
first shots almost hit her. Almost. The same ability that let her predict
where an opponent was going to move with a fist or kick, also let her
predict where the shot from a pistol or rifle was going, and so move from
its path, "before" it was fired. There were limits to this, of course.
Eventually she would move out of the path of one bullet and into the path
of another, or a shot would be fired from such close range she wouldn't
have time to move. Even as she thought this, she sensed a rooftop
rifleman drawing a bead on her. At the same time, she was engaged with
two more shooters on the ground. By the time she dealt with those two,
the rifleman would have killed her. And then, just as the second gunman
fell to her front kick with a broken neck, Akane sensed the rifleman die.
And then one of the guards in front of her fell, with a feathered shaft
protruding from his neck, and another guard and another. The remaining
guards retreated back into the compound, firing wildly as they did. Akane
glanced over her shoulder to see Shan Pu holding a short, Mongol compound
bow. As she watched, Shan Pu fitted another arrow to the string and
loosed it at a figure crouching behind a barricade. Only the crown of his
head was showing, but this was enough of a target for Shan Pu. The heavy
war arrow pierced the gunman's skull, like a railroad spike through an
egg.

Takehiro Kenzo, Deputy Minister of Finance, huddled in one room
of his once spacious island retreat wondering what had gone wrong. Two
hours earlier he had received word over his private and encrypted phone
that Tendou Akane had been beaten and was en route, with her sister
Nabiki, to his island. This news had taken the edge off his anger at
losing the closed circuit TV, and anyway, he could always watch the
video.
An hour ago he'd been sitting in his library with good friends
and old brandy waiting for the weekend's entertainment to arrive. He'd
start with Tendou Akane he thought. He didn't expect her to last long.
Ketsu didn't usually leave much. Still it should make for an amusing warm
up. Then, Tendou Kasumi. Breaking a virgin was always exciting, and his
men would appreciate the treat when he gave her to them. And lastly,
after she had watched the destruction of her sisters, Tendou Nabiki would
die. He'd smiled in anticipation. A "modern" Japanese, a woman who
thought she could compete with men. He'd enjoy showing her how wrong she
was. And after the somewhat lesser pleasure of delivering the leftovers
to the elder Tendou, he'd made a mental side bet on whether Tendou Soun
would die from shock or live long enough to kill himself.
Forty five minutes ago, his guards had reported a disturbance at
the front gate. This had been followed rapidly by gunfire and panicked
reports of exploding walls, devil bears with goblin riders, demons that
killed with a touch and others that threw lightning. Then the intercom
went dead and the lights went off.
Takehiro and the last two of his bodyguards had retreated to the
interior room where Tendou Kasumi was being held.
He knew who had to be out there.
He didn't know how they'd done it, but somehow they'd gotten to
Ketsu, turned him. If he got. . . No" he corrected himself. "When he got
out of here he'd make it his top priority to have Ketsu tracked down and
killed slowly like the traitor he was.
And he would get out of here. There was only one reason to come
here; rescue Tendou Kasumi. As long as he had her he was safe. They
wouldn't dare harm him as long as he had her. He would use Tendou Kasumi
to get back to Tokyo. Once there, he would have them all killed, Tendou,
Saotome, and everyone who had helped them. And everyone who knew them. He
shivered with lust as he thought of the orgy of killings he would
unleash. It was their fault, all of this was their fault. If they hadn't
shown such disrespect to their betters; if they had just done what they
were told, none of this would have happened. It was all their . . .
Deputy Minister of Finance Takehiro was lifted off the ground and
slammed against the wall by the force of the explosion. He slid down the
wall to lie like a bundle of old clothes. Only half conscious, he watched
two of his body guard die at the hands of a raging demon that bore a
faint resemblance to a small girl with short dark hair.
Naoya was having a very bad day. First he'd had to babysit Dai
when he'd much rather have put a bullet in Dai's head and feed him to the
sharks. Except that would have been unnecessarily cruel to the sharks.
Then, just as he'd expected to get a quiet cup of tea at the end of his
shift, he found himself crouched in the dim glow of emergency lights with
very nervous men with guns and The Minister, who stank with fear. And
with Dai. Let's not forget Dai. Especially not when Dai had gotten, god
knew from where, a katana. And one that looked of sufficient quality to
be a national treasure. Naoya felt nauseous. A katana in the hands of a
man who shouldn't be allowed scissors with a point, and who wouldn't know
a katanakaji from a katanashi.
Naoya was wondering if he could sneak out the back when the world
blew up in his face. From his position under an overturned desk, he
watched The Ministers' two bodyguards die as they turned to confront
Tendou Akane. Behind her came a tall, teenage boy wearing a red Chinese
style shirt. He recognized the boy from descriptions as Saotome Ranma. He
watched Ranma approach the bound form of Tendou Kasumi and begin to
release her. Naoya watched Dai rise from the floor where the explosion
had thrown him, watched him raise his katana to strike Ranma down from
behind. . . and watched a young man with a long brown pony-tail smack Dai
across the head with. . . a spatula?
Naoya wanted to cheer when Dai hit the ground, but opted for
quiet adoration, and hoped no one would noticed he was there. Especially
no one with heavy steel objects, or sharp steel objects, or lightning.
or. . . he just hoped no one noticed him.

"Ukyou! What are you doing here?"
"Watching your back, sugar. And a good thing too."
"No one move."
Everyone jerked around to see Takehiro holding a pistol to
Kasumi's head. He curled his free arm around her neck and began walking
her backwards toward the door.
"I'm going to leave here now. Tendou Kasumi and I are going to
walk out of here and to your helicopter. Your pilot will fly us to Tokyo.
If he does not, I will. . ."
Tendou Kasumi was the daughter and granddaughter of Samurai. Her
family had lived the warrior's way for over eight hundred years. Her
hands were still bound, her eyes blindfolded, but for the first time in
days, she wasn't tied to a chair. She knew where her enemy was, and more
importantly, she knew where Akane was.
As Takehiro stepped backwards, Kasumi let her legs buckle.
Takehiro stumbled as he suddenly held a dead weight in his hands, and he
instinctively grabbed Kasumi with both hands, moving the pistol away from
her head. As soon as he did, he seemed to realize his error and jerked
the gun back to her head. He was much too slow.

"Don't kill him!"
Nabiki shivered at the look in Akane's eyes as she turned toward
her. Gathering her courage, she went on before Akane could turn Takehiro
into a pink and grey stain on the walls.
"Don't kill him," she repeated "I've got a better idea."

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