They were mostly men, with a few women. Many of them were down on their luck businessmen who could track their family generation back to some samurai or another. As in many countries, Japan was not lacking for poverty stricken, desparate individuals with impressive lineages.
They had been homeless, directionless, and huddling in small corners of the poorer parts of the city. Now they had purpose, they had a leader to seek....
And they had someone to blame for their pitiful situation.
They at least had waited to really form until they had reached an area where their lord had battled the police. Then, armed with the occasional police firearms along with clubs, bottles, knives and whatever else they could grab, the untrained mass began to wreak havoc.
Needless to say, their were many who agreed with Kuno that were of a more intelligent bent and sufficed to wait until such time as they could contact him about true plans. Until then, however, they watched on the news as this mob grew and started working their way through the streets.
****
Cheng-Huang and Kumobara paused as they came to the site of the mob's birth.
Kumobara looked over the scene with horror. Her brother...her brother had caused all of this...if he were not found and stopped, he would revive the Warring States period and sink her country and people into a pool of blood.
"This will be...diff..icult," Cheng-Huang said. "Without revealing who I am."
"We must stop this however," Kumobara said. "Preferably with no killing." Cheng-Huang nodded at that, and leaped down from her flagpole perch to join the fray as Kumobara swung down.
****
Down a nearby alleyway, three other women viewed the situation from a lower perspective. Soyokaze was lowering herself to the ground after seeking a higher perspective and grimmly turned to her sisters.
"Looks like Jishin's experience with masses of untrained idiots is going to be useful," Soyokaze said. "There's over a hundred of them, and there are fire arms."
"We'll be careful," Kagayaki assured her.
"And stick together," Jishin said. "Like Ranma said."
"Where is Ranma?" Kagayaki asked. Her sisters suddenly seemed nervous.
"He rushed out of the school when he heard about his parents," Soyokaze said. "I don't really blame him if he's not here, but I think the mob might already have been across his path...so..."
"I'm sure he is all right," Kagayaki said. Jishin nodded firmly and growled.
"He better be all right," she said angrily. "Let's go!"
****
"Damn," Miss Amazing said. "Look at all that."
"I do not think we can handle this on our own," Infinity protested.
"All we have to do is buy sometime for the police to regroup from Kuno's attack and get over here," Ukyou said. She sighed and prepared to jump down, telekinetic cushioned of course...she was going to have practice that...maybe she could learn to fly.
"You're going to get yourself killed one day, Miss," Infinity said, shaking his head resignedly.
"Maybe," Miss Amazing said. "But not today." And then they leaped into action.
****
Ranma frowned and considered his situation. He should go to see about his parents...but that mob down there could hurt people...seriously...or worse.
He sighed and glanced in the direction of the hospital before starting his run down the side of the building. He couldn't cling to walls as that Kumobara chick he'd heard about, but he could control a fall, and he could run and leap fast enough to go up them.
Ranma entered the fray
****
Cheng-Huang dodged as she sensed the incoming knife, and then ducked under a swung baseball bat. In response she swiped out her foot and took the nearest four of her opponents to the ground from the circular roundhouse. A flip took her into the center of another group where a lesser application of the Amazon spiral dealt with the foes there.
She could sense when Kumobara, staying out of the melee this time, released a web from her relatively safer perch on the wall and entangled a good dozen of the mob. She had to move quickly though, as her higher position made her the perfect targets for the few guns.
They weren't the only ones fighting, at the edge of her senses she could feel the traces of other battles, though there was too much activity for her to get details.
A burst of wind far across from her was followed by a blast of fire that would have been painfully bright could she have seen. Kumobara had to shade her eyes, as for those in that part of the mob, they were as blind as Cheng-Huang for the moment, and had not the other senses to replace sight.
They resolved to figure it out later, right now they had their own problems.
Across the way from them, Miss Amazing had reliably discovered how to reproduce the mental attack she had used on Tsubasa and was adding it to her arsenal of physical attacks to deadly effect. Telekinetic shoves, painful mental attacks and exceptional weapon skills (though she was still bringing her naginata skills up to match those of her spatula) was enabling her to make a large dent in the mob.
The added presence of a nigh-unkillable and highly talented ninja did nothing to hinder her.
And, as for the guns...she kept a mental ear open for anyone thinking about aiming at her.
Like Cheng-Huang, she too was aware of the other battles going on. She could see Kumobara swinging over the battlefield and spraying net webs, and she saw the effects of the Tendo Triad's battle, and she knew there was at least one more fight out there. However, like Cheng-Huang and Kumobara, she and Infinity had other, more pressing concerns.
Then the distinctive cry of "Hiryu Shoten Ha" was clearly heard and a tornado ripped through the bulk of the mob, stunning all for several seconds.
Miss Amazing smiled. In the center of the trouble...just like he always was.
****
"Well," Kumobara said, smirking. "It seems that Ranma has entered the fray. It seems as though we'll be more than a mere delaying factor for the police."
Cheng-Huang nodded as the comment reached her sensitive ears, and then she returned to the battle.
She paused as she sensed one among the mob moving with deliberate action than the others. She frowned for a moment, going on the defensive as she focused on the man. And then she gasped.
"Kumobara!!" she shouted. "Tarou is here!"
And then the man took a small canteen and poured a cup of water over himself. Cheng-Huang was already leaping back as the rapidly growing monster cast aside half a dozen hapless rioters.
"MOOO!!"
****
"What the...?" Ranma blinked at the sound. The tornado had faded and he had been about to take the opportunity to move back to the attack, when he had heard that, and looking around, saw Tarou not far away. "What the heck is he doing here?"
"Vile fools!!" a booming voice roared as a blast of fire roared down out of the sky to reduce a number of rioters to char. "You think that your decadent little inbred country is peak of humanity? You shall learn the error of your..."
A burning, demonic figure touched down in the ashes and faced the frightened rioters. He raised burning hands toward them.
"Vengeance is mine to dispense!" he growled.
"Hey!" Ranma shouted. "Moko Takabisha!" he snapped off. The chi blast was not as powerful as he could make it, but it certainly attracted the attention. "These freaks are idiots and loons, but that don't mean you gotta kill them."
"And loosing a tornado in their midsts is different, Saotome?" Onryu demanded. Ranma winced. "Fine! If you want a fight! I have my own score to settle with you!!"
****
"We've almost got them beat!" Jishin declared joyfully. "They're running!"
"Something's comin!" Soyokaze warned. "Watch the skies!"
"Oh my," Kagayaki said, looking up.
A swarm of brass eagle-sized birds, came swooping down upon them. Talons outstretched. Between her and Nabiki several of them never reached their targets. But that still left many to harry the sisters.
The rioters, at first as nervous as their opponents, soon realized the birds did not attack them and rejoiced.
"The Blue Thunder sends us aid!" they cried, and rejoined the battle.
****
There was something...slippery and thin, in the area. Miss Amazing could just sense it on the corner of her senses, but could quite lock to it. It had a sort of natural defense that seemed to be derived from a latent instability that ran through the thoughts of this new threat.
It was going to take some concentration to bring that target down with a mental strike. One on one she could probably do it...but while fighting this, admittedly flagging mob?
She tossed a kinetically charged kunai and watched as the woman she'd tossed it out casually drifted out of the way like a cloth in the wind.
"Well," the woman said, and this close it was hard to see her as human. "I wasn't planning on getting directly involved in this, however it may serve my purposes, but...if you insist!!"
A pair of lengthening, cloth-like arms, that Miss Amazing had no doubt possessed strength, lashed outwards toward her and Infinity.
"Ittan-Momen!" Infinity gasped as they dodged.
"What?" Miss Amazing responded. "That's just a folk story!"
"No the creature that faced Kumobara at St. Hebereke!" Infinity corrected.
"Indeed!" Ittan-Momen declared. "That is I. Now, I believe you, I and my friends..." she gestured to the rallying rioters that remained conscious. "Have some things to discuss."
See other episodes by Thrythlind
(Posted Tue, 17 Dec 2002 05:35)
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