A large, grand fortress made of stone. A large sqaure wall surrounds the tall fortress. On each corner there is defensive tower, equipped with a cannon. The walls are thick, with gaurds regullary patrolling them. Its a very big fortress now. Moritsune's little trip to his shadowy master ensured high increases to his budget. With a bigger barracks and yard, and overall more territory. More troops as well. This fortress is located at the base of the Kuro mountains, with some forest surrounding it. Infiltrators beware - the back forests are even more gaurded then the open front. For obvious reasons, of course....

Its a large fortress for a man with an even larger appeteite for dominance.






To say the girls were well trained would do nothing other than state the obvious. Zhen dipped under the intestines as she started her charge/call for guards. Within seconds she would be in Ame's face, swinging away with her knives.

Veir would be stalled for a moment with a flying head comming at her. She would use the butt end of her knife to bat it out of the air.

Fünf used her knife to 'catch' the intestines and promptly throw them on the floor for some inept guard to trip on.

If one "Perfect Weapon" in Ame's face wasn't enough, Vier and Fünf would be joining the party game of "Pin the bloodstain on the Amethyst" within seconds.

Whatever happened to the random bodyparts Ame threw about happened. Whatever happens in Ryukami stays in Ryukami. And whatever Ame chose to do next will probably do something in the end (let's hope.)

She's so enraged by the fact that there are people with weapons in her way (of what, one could only imagine) that Amethyst completely disregards what happened to her diversion and dives tachi-first into the chaos. Blood from the flinging guard intestine splattered over her face and robes in her throw of it and rush afterwards.

Zigzagging quickly to the right, Ame would attempt to get past Zhen and towards the other two. Her sword, being in the left hand, would make an effort to deflect the knives on her way. Slash one, slash two, slash three. None were made to hurt Zhen, but instead catch the swinging, shorter weapons.

If she gets past the first woman, Ame would then go straight for Fünf. Arcing up her sword into position to take it in both hands, skidding to a safe distance of the female adversary (and intestine that probably now hits the floor), holding the sword back abruptly, taking one step forward, and thrusting it forward with intent on impaling Fünf. Since her sword is so long, there are limited options on weapon to weapon combat.

Even so, Ame is blindly set on killing the one character if she makes it over there. She will disregard saftey from Zhen and Veir and focus all energy on hurting Fünf.

If she doesnt' get there and is, instead, stalled by Zhen, Ame will attempt to catch one or both of hte knives with her sword and make a further attempt to headbutt. If she can only catch one knife with her sword, she'll try to catch the other with her hand - just to get closer and attempt the same head to head skull-cracking strategy.

The attacks thrown towards Zhen did the job they were intended to do, which Zhen assumed to get her out of the way. She let Ame get past her and become surrounded. In this hallway it would be easier for the 3 of them to deal with Ame if she were surrounded.

Zhen followed behind Ame, knives ready. When Ame stopped, she would be turned into fillet something. Zhen wasn't the expert chef, but she did know how to cut meats.

Vier, not wanting to be left out, decided that Ame cube steaks would be a more suitable choice cut. She had a spot she thought would work perfectly, and did the same thing as Zhen. Her aim was lower than Zhen's.

Fünf didn't have the luxury of picking how she would dissect Ame. Her job was to keep from becoming a kebob. She braced her arm with her free one and did a kind of leaning dodge to the side using her knife to parry the larger blade as it scraped along the blade.

There were footsteps coming closer and closer. Were there just guards, or were more of the "Perfect Weapons" with them? Only time will tell.

When she stopped to kabob Fünf, a sharp slice came to her back (right side). Her eyes glanced over her shoulder to see Zhen carving her out like a pumpkin on some sick holiday. Then attention diverts immediately back to the stab. This is when Fünf slides free from the tachi's menacing blade and catches it with her own weapon of choice. Then there was Vier, who is still background noise to Amethyst.

With a second slice to her back from Zhen (all cause Ame stands there for a second too long and doesn't act, mind you), Amethyst flicks her blade horizontally to break from the metal on metal action with Fünf and, with great strength and a left foot planted firmly on the ground, Shin'i curves in a full circle around Amethyst - in the direction Fünf chose to divert to, past or through Vier's approaching attack, and into Zhen if she chooses to keep cutting up Ame from behind. Pivoting, Ame's sword would continue the circle and end up back at Fünf again.

And let's not underestimate Shin'i. Unlike the weak knives getting stabbed around to no end, that sword was made to bring a full-fledged horse down from a strong gallop. It's heavy and when it makes the attempted full circle it will leave a hefty fwoof sound in the air. Blood on the blade will scatter in rain around her.

It had been a while since any of the 7 had run into a threat as great Amethyst was. Regardless, it was a matter of time before the tachi fodder showed up, and with any luck so would more of the 7.

Zhen knew her knives would catch Ame's attention. She thought it would be best to try a kind of guerrilla tactic....only without going into hiding. It was just as well she was jumping back because the tachi would have cleaved right through her if she casually backed off. She still managed to get the very tip of the tachi to draw a nice red line across her chest just under her collar bone.

Vier would have to change her plans. With a tachi of Ame's caliber is being swung around the way it is now, she needed to dodge. Luckily for her she already already in a downward momentum. She used that momentum to get under the swing and right up next to Ame. Vier's haircut was now a good 2 inches shorter, but she would get over it. Zhen didn't get a chance to leave a knife in Ame's torso, but she would get a chance to put one in her left leg. Vier didn't want to dodge an Ame with Greater Cleave all night. With one hand she tried to drive a knife into Ame's thigh, and the other was ready to palm-strike Ame in one of Zhen's wounds if she got the chance. She wasn't too sure about that chance though. Who knows what Ame will do.

Now Fünf had the most time to prepare for the tachi to come round to her. It didn't matter since she already knew she needed to move. Just before she does her own jumping back maneuver, the Tachi Fodder appears at the door she is jumping back to. How convenient. What's a ninja without some kind of Substitution technique? Fünf's technique was taking the nearest piece of fodder and throwing it at Ame. It's not like he was going in a different direction anyway. He'd just get there faster with the tachi welcoming him with open arms....or whatever tachis have.

It didn't take Fünf long to order the lemmings to run towards the cliff. She stopped the last two from running into their doom to turn them around. She sent them back with a message. Get the other 4 and no more guards. Zhen's plan to get at least 2 of the other 4 with this wave of guards failed, and they wanted as many guards to play with Kokyou and friends as possible. It wouldn't be much fun for them to wander the fortress alone trying to find the 7 of them. Besides with the 7 of them heading towards Ame, they needed guards to stall while they got back in place for the trapping.

Having missed everyone important, she turns her attention towards Vier and rips up her sword, still in momentum, to downswipe some serious damage towards her. However something - or someone - inevitable runs up and stops her before she can. This someone is a guard, aka Tachi Fodder. Instead of angleing her sword so it swings upwards after the circle, it slices through this random guy's neck instead, thereafter getting lodged in the skull of another.

To make matters worse, Vier then decides to implant a knife in her leg. Any normal person would freak out, scream, "You Stabbed me! LIVING SHIT I've been stabbed!" Ame, of course, is having too much of an adrenalin rush at her kill frenzy that she completely overlooks the fact that her leg has been kabob'ed and turns her attention from the woman next to her, back to her sword still stuck in this guy's head - the tachi fodder is bleeding through the eyes and convulsing so badly that his guard friends can't immediately get around him to hurt Ame - then back towards the woman again.

Her pupils dilate a few times, then go to almost non-existant in her rage. She opens her mouth and literally roars at Vier, "RAAAAH!" Before making a sudden attempt to headbutt her. If successful, she'd then kick the now dead guard off her sword, knife still lodged in ledge presumably.

Vier didn't get that chance to pummel Ame's fresh stab wounds like she wanted. While she was mid-punch, Ame's forehead started coming crashing down on her. She had just enough time to start to bring her arm up to try and push Ame back slightly...or something. It didn't matter much. Within another second and a half she was backing away from Ame with a rather pounding headache and blurred vision.

Zhen took this opportunity to resume her guerrilla tactic. She charged at Ame with her knives ready to turn Ame into a 1:1 scale voodoo....thing....doll.....whatever.

Fünf's options were slightly limited. She had quite a bit of tachi fodder in her way and couldn't just jump into the fray again. What she did have were some shurikens. If she could throw some at Ame and hit Ame, then it would obviously be helpful. Of course if the tachi fodder moved in the way, there wasn't much she could do about that. She did what she could and threw 3 at Ame. 2 whizzed in between the heads of the tachi fodder, and the other demoted one unlucky piece of fodder from tachi fodder to shuriken fodder by moving in the wrong spot at the wrong time.

The headache also blurred Ame's own vision a little, but not nearly as nicely as it did Vier. She successfully did her kick to get the dead guy off her sword - blood spewing from her wound in the action due to the contraction of her leg muscles and.. all that general stuff. Just in time, after freeing her Tachi, to see a partially blurry guard stand in her way, a blurrier figure behind him throwing something, the guard abruptly screaming one of those death cries, and a sharper, more shiney blur whizzing at her.

From past experience - ya know, the one just previous to the fortress where she stopped a noted knife and accidentally killed a merchant - Ame instinctively raised her tachi to hopefully flick the free shurikan in another direction.

Now this shurikan has different properties than a throwing knife. So it's only a 15% chance of it gliding off the sword blade and heading straight for Zhen behind Ame. 35% chance of it randomly hitting a wall. And 50% chance of it bouncing back towards the general direction of Fünf and hitting another guard in the eye.

Whichever happens, Ame will then make a move to let go of her sword with her writers hand, rip the knife from her left thigh, and throw it at the on-coming Zhen behind her. Glaring all the way.

Vier was still catching her bearings, but she was still getting shurikens ready for her own use. After the guards all dropped and another 1 of the 7 showed up, this hallway would turn into an angry beehive.

Fünf watched as the shuriken came flying back towards one of the guards. It was slightly entertaining with his screaming and all after he lost his eye. She got more shurikens ready for whizzing while she gave the rather loud reminder to the guards to start attacking neo vs smith vs smith vs smith vs smith vs smith vs smith...etc style. She had to wait this time. There was too much movement by the guards to throw anything into melee.

Zhen now had a knife flying at her with a glaring killing machine behind it. She had to change her slight swaying motion that people make while running. Zhen deftly turned in such a way that the knife grazes her cheek. Oddly enough Zhen was taking the most of all the damage from Ame. As she dodged she made eye contact with Ame and returned a glare. This glare though had a small Chaotic Evil smirk to go along with the glare. The smirk said one thing: "We enjoy making this hurt." She had something up her sleeve.

The guards would get to Ame a second before Zhen would. Very shortly, 2 other people would be arriving as well.

Ame continued to glare at Zhen (who I can't remember all the damage taken of. That last headbutt was pretty feirce to Vier and I thought she won the 'Ame hurting people' contest, excluding the guards.) All this time while Vier recovered and Fünf ordered the crap out of the guards to more than likely Do something more productive then die.

Her glare more said, "Kill! KILL!! KILL EVERYTHING! GRAAAH, KILL! KIIIILL!" than anything even reminiscant or meaningful like Zhen. Due to this, the baikokudo was completely unconscious of her opponent planning anything. She was prepared to hurt the obviously biggest threat in the room right now. Grabbing her tachi with both hands now and raising it up above her head (pretty tall sword, so this'll be a scene to remember.) and preparing to cleave the rushing opponent in twain.

That's all until those guards get to her first, tackling Ame from behind and sending her face first into the ground - a second before Zhen gets there. More than likely a second before she walks into the sword which now points diagonally upwards from the ground where Ame lays.

Vier and Fünf could only stand and wait for what Ame would do next. They stood there with their flying stars of dooom and watched.

Zhen was very lucky she was the most agile. Before the guards were tackling Ame from behind, she had shifted into her own stance/style. Something Kokyou would recognize, but that's not important here. What's important is how she managed not to get impaled by the tachi. Her footwork changed slightly, and her speed seemed to almost jump noticably. Between Ame's getting tackled forward and her own sidestep maneuver, somehow both parties managed to miss each other. It was so close, the tachi ended up getting Zhen's sweat on the side of it. Zhen went skidding on the ground towards the door Fünf was standing next too.

Sechs and Sieben show up at the other door on the other side. It didn't take long for any of the girls to show up. It's almost as if they were nearby waiting for an ambush...The two of them were suprised to see Ame under the pile of guards. If this wasn't Kokyou, then it has to be Kokyou nearby.

Sechs spoke up. "Kokyou is here. Head East back to the spot!"

Ame tried to say something legible. Something like, "****** Kokyou, Pay Attention to me." But it just came out as rambling noise, "RrrrrrrrRRRAAAAHHH!!!" As she put her weight into it, got her legs back under her, and got up with half the guard squad on her back. Her hand, which was hidden under a guard who tried to lay on her sword, grabbed that very sword. Pulling it back from under the surprised guard, then stabbing him. That done, she flung her arm out to free her sword of him and, with one final umph, knocked the rest of the guards off of her. Her pupils were still almost non-existant as she was having serious anger management issues.

Glancing around for Zhen, her eyes spot Vier and Fünf. As blood spurted out from the guy she stabbed behind her, her pissed look was only that much more amplified.

A large vein pulsated on her forehead.

She hyperventilated at them for a moment.

While Ame was breaking free of the dogpile, Vier had made her way from the middle of the hallway to the doorway where Fünf was. Zhen was out of sight outside the hallway behind the wall getting ready to unleash the shuriken motherload.

"Formation Epsilon Five," she shouted back towards Sechs and Sieben. The newcomers caught the hint right away. The guards were yelled at to attack full force again while all 5 girls were completely outside the hallway with shurikens ready. 2 on each side with Zhen hiding with Vier and Fünf.

After the eventual slaughter of the guards, Ame would be standing in the middle of a highly coordinated crossfire of shuriken. If she tried to charge the girls early, well...things would start earlier.

Ame watches Vier get over to Fünf while the guards slowly recovered. Still nowhere could she find Zhen in the immediate area. But She looks about ready to take her aggression out on the other two. As for the other new characters to the scene, Ame hasn't yet noticed them to a full extent.

And as the guards were ordered to attack, the sake woman noticed at the last second through her blind hatred of everything in this fortress that they were planning something. However her acknowledgement of some evil plan came about two shurikans too late.

A guard grinned snidely at her being cornered, another got up and looked a bit concerned about the whole issue. And others were also getting up to join them. But as the guards started their battle plan again, three immediately fell with sharp shineys poking out of htem at odd angles. Ame looked beyond the guards to the two women in sight, then behind her at Zhen's location when another guard got hit and the rest of the guards started to freak out.

Just then, as she came to realize that Zhen was standing there, angrilly, Ame was hit in the upper right shoulderblade by something. She deflected a few others with her sword - hitting more guards, sadly enough - then pulled the painful object from her back to realize it was a shurikan. Upon this realization, two more hit her - one in the right shoulder, another in the same shoulderblade. A third cut a slice over her bloody leg, cutting the pants partially. Oh, there were other shurikans being thrown, but the guards did a good job at eating them for her.

This gave Ame a reactive idea, as deflecting everything with her sword is seriously not working. She stabbed her tachi into the ground and grabbed two of the guards that were still alive and next to her. The next onslaught of shurikans completely covered the two body-shields , but it was clear that Amethyst took alot less damage than before; though she still got cut here and there and another shurikan eventually planted itself just slightly in her left lower leg.

After Ame takes her hostages for shields, Zhen signals with her hand to stop. There were maybe 3 guards left who hadn't been killed off. Ame had 2 and the third was standing there wondering what was next.

She points to the last guy to let him know she is talking to him. "Run your sword through that meat shield and kill that woman behind it, or you won't get the chance to commit harikari." The guard hesitated for a moment.

"Do it!" she yells at the man while nodding towards the other 2 across the hallway. As soon as Ame tries to dodge the sword, the firing squad would resume. She hopped Ame didn't find a way to dodge the sword and keep her meat shields up.

The guard lets out a "YEARRRRGH!" as he takes the steps forward and thrusts his blade at the shield.

It was unlucky for these girls that Ame had been trained from four to fight in wars and then, halfway through life, trained by Hiko to tone the abilities. Ontop of that was her training from Obsid to dodge better and avoid swords.

So what does this all mean?

She stood there, a guy in each arm that are somehow both still alive dispite being decorated with shurikans. Most likely moaning and bleeding to all ******. She listened to the women giving their commands, then glared at the third, and last, man in the room. He looks back, seems unsure, then steps forward and stabs at the guy she's holding on her right.

Dispite the throbing pain in her thigh for taking on more weight to her left side, Amethyst shifts weight onto it and thrusts the sheild she's holding into the approaching sword, making the blade slide through him and behind her back. She then lets go of hte guy, reaches past him, grabs the newcomer's hilt, and pulls him foreward haphazardly as he's leaning into his sword strike.

When he's close enough, she makes a measure to spit in his eyes before headbutting him (pretty bad, but not as nastily as she did to Vier). When he's distracted by this, she takes a step towards him - all this time still holding hte first shield to keep Zhen and friends from shurikaning her from behind and the new guy infront of her to block Vier and Funf - and knees him in the crotch while he's disoriented.

Provided the guy takes the crotch hit, Ame will THEN move his sword so her last shield slides off it and, thrusting his sword arm behind his back, use the new - obviously pained - guard as a new shield. The move from old sheild to new shield will probably leave her open a little, but the third second into it every shurikan thrown from Vier's side will land in the new guy.

To make things move fast, Ame will Thereafter turn towards Zhen and start walking towards her, sheild covering front and back - hallway walls covering her sides. She's limping slightly and walking over dead bodies on her way, so it'll take a while to get there.

They all had to give Ame some credit. She had fought them off longer than anyone else had in the past. Not to mention Ame using the flood of armed NPCs to her advantage. To top things off, the person they were supposed to be ambushing had shown up and 5 of them were delayed here. They underestimated Ame, but after a couple of weaker opponents showed up much earlier, who could blame them.

If they were going to meet up with Kokyou's party, they needed to find a way to do this soon. For now they would stall for a moment.

Zhen spoke up. "It looks like there's more to you than meets the eye. Kokyou must have some kind of incredible deal involving sake to hire someone of your ability to help him."

Now that they're talking, Ame has time to walk up close to Zhen's end of the hallway. She's still limping, still hyperventilating. But now that she's worn her aggression out on 80% of the guards in the Mori-bastard's fortress, Ame is only a little more level-headed conversation... a little.

"****** Pyro, ****** abilities. ****** sake." She pauses... The guy behind her whimpering like a ball-crushed kid. "Don't ****** sake, but ****** the other two..."

She tries to shift the body infront of her to get to her pocket, but can't in her present position. And there's no way Ame's going to let go of her shields just yet due to the 5 opponent's endless shurikan collection.

Hyperventilating continued, she was absolutely covered in blood, her dark green eyes cold and pissed.

"Just. Read. Me. The. Note."

Zhen motioned for Fünf to walk over and get the note. Ame was essentially disarmed, and if she tried to re-arm herself she'd end up covered in shuriken. Zhen was cut up the worst, Sechs and Sieben were on the other side, and Vier took a nasty hit, so it was Fünf's turn.

Fünf slowly approached with her knife redrawn. When she was close enough she asked, "Where is it?"

Glancing behind her suddenly with some paranoia towards Fünf, the baikokudo grit her teeth. No, after what happened and Fünf being the leas hurt, she couldn't trust this person to dig through her coat pockets. "Back OFF." She started to say.

But how was the note going to be transfered?

Ah, that's it. "Here, hold this." With a twist, she broken the wrist of the poor live shield to get his sword, then pushed him at Fünf. Sword in hand, Ame reached up, stuck two fingers in one of Many inside pockets, and tossed a folded slip of paper over her remaining shield and onto the ground infront of Zhen.

No matter what Fünf does with the newly aquired body of hers, there's no way that woman can do some attack on Ame while Ame has the one guy's sword and is currently holding it between her and Funf. If Vier from the other end of the hallway tries to throw something, Funf and the guard would be in her way.

And while the entire move was abrasive and rediculously crazy, it was Clear Ame went for no other pockets or tried anything funny (unless provoked by Fünf) after the note was thrown out.

Zhen inches forward and glances up and down at the note and back at Ame while dictating the note.

"`Come meet your fate to the true successor at the fields.` There's something about a guy named Hiko being hurt there also."

She backs up a little. "Now where were we?"

There was definately a reaction from Ame at being told the letter. So some ******er hurt Hiko. Crap, she hasn't seen Hiko in so long and thought he was dead. But if he's alive and hurt somewere, she'd better get there soon to help him.

"... Nowhere, I'm done with this fight. And this ******ing fortress... Too many bad memories."

She walks past Fünf, stabs down the guy's sword to grab her own, and starts out towards Vier. "Go have fun with Pyro, Aki, and Hayate."

It was obvious to the 5 of them that Ame was done fighting. She had put enough distance between her and Fünf for the shield system should she drop the other one (which she just did by the way)

Vier moved out of the way without turning her back to Ame. All that was left for Ame was to actually leave.

"Three of them you say? Well it looks like we both got something out of this encounter......Baikokudo. Go have your fun."

It was almost as if there was much left unsaid or some jazz like that

Provided ame doesn't get the shit shurikaned out of her back, she'll go down the hallways - most likely any guards that come by her will avoid her.. what with all the dead bodies strewn around and her covered in blood.. And somewhere after feeling like's she's far enough away from those bitch women, will drop the shield. Once at the back door, Ame will the leave out the way she came - taking one or three throwing shurikans still attached to her on her way.

After Ame left the 5 of them huddled together to discuss briefly the current turn of events regarding the Kokyou party size and Zhen's bleeding wounds.

Sechs: "Nothing much has changed. We still split them up, and take Kokyou down while he's separated. Akisu should be willing to go along with this plan. The other one, we'll have to decide on later."

With that the 5 of them make their way to where Scythe Master was waiting for his trap to be sprung.

*Last time on The Great Thief Akisu, we were following our young thief as he followed the Sake Shoppe owner and Hayate into the nest of festering evil. We last left off with Kokyou kicking down a door and making short work of a guard as four others came at him. Now we continue with our regularly scheduled program.*

*Aki got to the side of Kokyou and blocked a sword aimed at him, while using his other sword to stab the man in the gut. Bleh, worthless guards who really didn't know how to fight. Probably just as well, they'd need their strength for the people Kokyou was worried about.*

Hayate glanced around at the guards. He examined each and every one of them for a brief moments, slowly collecting data within his calculating mind. There wasn't much to think about them for....they were typical guards. Cowardly, honor-less, incompetent. Equipped with minimum combat abilities.

Hayate touched the hilt of his daito. It had been sleeping for so long. Quiet, peaceful. The blade had no need to be drawn in many months.

It would be a disgrace for me to draw you on these opponents....

With that, Hayate threw out his hands and assumed a martial arts stance of a the Hebbi No Dojo. As guards came his way, the ronnin struck out his hands in a snake-style series of quick jabs. Both of his arms darted out quickly, in a blur, like the heads of two deadly snakes striking at their prey. Hayate would side-step blades, and jab at vital organs with lethal precision. Three guards would fall over instantly, paralyzed from Hayate's jabs. Seconds later they would start to cough up blood, violently spazzing around on the ground.

Hayate calmly looked at the other guards.

"You are not on my level. Those of you who still wish to live....take your pathetic lives and go. Never cross my path again, or else I'll erase all traces of your decrepit existence from this earth."

Maybe the guards would run away, maybe they wouldn't.

The guards were stunned for a moment. These 3 men had just effortlessly killed off a number of guards. One of the guards recognized Hayate's style.

"F-fall back!" he managed to spit out before looking over the three of them again. On his left was the unarmed Hebbi ronin. On his right was General Akisu. In front of him was a man with a look in his eyes that was like staring down an angry bull. Now that the guard thought about it, the guy in the middle hadn't stopped walking forward.

Kokyou mowed down the panic stricken guard like he was making a path through a thick jungle. The other guards took off running while Kokyou followed on his death march. The killing intent was pouring out of every pore on Kokyou. Something felt odd about it. Almost as if there was something very unholy deep deep underneath the surface. It would be hard to believe if someone was just being told that Hiro's personality came from this guy.

The hallway ahead wasn't as brightly lit as the other rooms and hallways.

*As Kokyou moved, Aki fell in behind him once more, grinning to himself. It had been awhile since he'd fought and killed someone. He'd forgotten how much he enjoyed it, though he would never tell Hiko such a thing. Despite the fact that his Tousan would probably know without saying a word.*

*As they moved into the hallway, he pulled a small ball from his pocket and tossed it into the middle of the hallway, giving his two comrades a quick warning to close their eyes as he squinted, prepared for the bright flash that would smoke out someone hidding in the shadows.*

The guards were all frantically running now. Running from the murdering terror manifesting itself as Kokyou. While he had offered them a chance to live and hoped they would have run away sooner, Hayate remained indifferent about the fate of the guards. They were worthless, not of any threat or challenge. Thousands of them could die in an instant, and Hayate wouldn't even bat an eyelash.

He slowly placed his hands into his pockets and strolled down the dim-lit hallway. He walked alongside of Akisu, who seemed to be enjoying the slaughter. The ronnin would only shake his head. There was no joy, no honor, nor any skill in this confrontation. Hayate enjoyed facing these guards as much as he enjoyed swatting away a pestering insect.

No....he wanted something stronger. Something better. Something worthy enough to call an adversary....

Within a few more moments, Aki threw something, signaling Hayate to cover his eyes. Hayate raised his hand to cover his face quickly.

Is there an enemy ahead....? A worthy one....?

Kokyou looked back at the bloody scene they had created until the flash had flashed. After the flash he waited a second to listen for anything aside from the panicked guards.

From the darkness a small object was thrown between Kokyou's legs. Within seconds a red smoke started coming out. The smoke was a mild eye irritant that would get flushed out fairly quickly.

He knew. They were ahead, and he started heading into the darkened hallway. Normally he wouldn't rush into things like this, but he was partially blinded by his feelings, which might be his downfall.

Ugh. *Aki grumbled as he blinked his eyes, trying to get the irritant out of them.* So they want to play with smoke bombs, huh? *He grabbed one, ready to toss it out, until he realized Kokyou was plowing forward.*

*What the hell was that idiot doing? He put the smoke bomb back in his pocket and drew one of his swords again and quickly followed after Kokyou. At least if anyone attacked, they'd get him first.*

Both eyes stung for a moment, even though Hayate kept his hands put up from Aki's initial smoke bomb. The ronnin did not expect such a strange object to enter onto the battlefield. They were trying to weaken the three by using such honor less tactics. If there was one thing that Hayate detested, it was opponents who had to resort to smoke and poison trickery. The only true way to fight was a direct confrontation with a blade....

Still, he stood back, rubbing his eyes. If there was an opportunity to strike at him....it would be now. While he remained flat-footed. Hayate's ears wiggled for a few moments as he rubbed the irritate away. He was anticipating an attack, a strike from the shadows from a cowardly foe. If such an attack were to be made, Hayate would be slightly ready for it. The irritate in the eyes was troublesome, but a true swordsman relies not on vision alone.

Unfortunately, Hayate was so concentrated on an oncoming enemy attack and getting the irritate out of his eyes, he failed to notice Kokyou rushing off. Rushing ahead with too much haste could be very fatal for the trio.

There hadn't been any other smoke bombs being thrown down the hallway. He came back to his senses when he reached the end of the hallway. Something caught his nose right away. It was lamp oil, and it smelt unusually strong.

He stopped at the very end of the hallway and turned his head back a little while still blinking the tears out of his eyes.

"Aki, do you smell that?"

*Aki stopped and sniffed the air. Oil? Enough to be strong enough to smell easily, which could only mean one thing.* Run! *Aki turned and started dashing back over to where Hayate was.*

Something stung Hayate's nostrils, but it was very faint. It came from the direction up ahead, where Hayate wasn't near at the moment. Some sort of oil. Oil that would have a rather interesting reaction with fire, it seemed like....

Before he could really notice anything more, he would simply see a rushing Akisu and Kokyou running at him. Hayate was confused for a moment, before realizing the situation and rushing towards the back as well. Hoping to avoid whatever explosive trap was being set for him and his companions.

Sieben was on the other side of the room that the hallway led to. When she heard Aki yell 'Run,' she lit a match and threw it on the floor. Within seconds the entire room was alight with flames dancing along the floor in a pattern. There was an almost direct path deliberately left between where she was standing and the hallway the 3 of them were retreating through. She was also holding a small box in her other hand. Her face was behind a white mask with the number 7 painted on the forehead.

A small line of fire chased the 3 down the hallway partway. The oil was purposefully poured in a line just to taunt the 3. The line was on the right side of the hallway. If Hayate had followed Aki and Kokyou, he might have found his feet to be slightly warm.

Kokyou knew how oil + fire would be the worst thing to happen to them. He even tried to do it to Aki enough times when he was Reiji. He took off the second Aki yelled.

He turned back after it was safe and tried to take in the scene he was looking at. He couldn't see the small box, but he could see the path. They seemed to be trying to put fear or confusion in their minds.

As soon as the flames start to die down, he planned on heading back in. Unless his friends see the box and can guess what's inside.

*Aki was being a little more cautious this time and wasn't about to go rushing in after Kokyou again. Though he did glare across the hallway at the person in the mask and then noticed the box on the ground.* Reiji... *He muttered his name in warning, not that it was even the right name.*

Hayate's feet felt a little warm.

"Guah!"

He quickly jumped away to avoid the trail of blazing fire. It went everywhere for awhile, lighting up the before-now dark room. For a brief second, Hayate thought he caught a brief glimpse of something. White. 7. Something.

But he turned and quickly moved to avoid his feet going from warm to burning. First the opponent attacked with a cowardly eye dust....now they're surprising them with a fire trap. Traps. Tricks. Games.

This individual was quickly gaining Hayate's ire.

Why doesn't he simply come out and face us already?!