Chapter 1: The Blind Phoenix

Takezo thinks on the question a moment combined with the information then responds in a casual simply conversational manner, "It seems you had not received the full story nor the true story. First we, the Kurama Shin, do our best to walk in shadows, move in silence and protect against Oni exploitation and violence. As well as the unnecessary exposure of folks such as ourselves. Basically the normal world need not know of the existence of us nor Oni as it would greatly complicate their lives making things much harder for them than they already are. Now Tesla's imprisonment of an Oni for exploitative purposes was not only wrong but also threatened to eventually expose the presence of the Oni. Either by discovery of what they were actually doing or worse an open war between the Oni and those backing Tesla once the Oni found out what was being done to their kind. Further it had nothing to do with medicine but the creation of energy at another creature's expense. Kind of like strapping you into a chair and using you as a living battery. Sadly we determined that the only way to permanently release this Oni from any potential mystical ties that were being used to bind and enslave it was to enact its mortal death releasing it back into the spiritual realm. This process we use leaves no remains as remains could be used to retain mystical ties. So as you can see our purpose aligns closely with that of your organization as we both have the good of the people in mind, which we have determined means keeping us and the Oni off the public radar so-to-speak."

Hearing what he says moves Aaron a little. A little but enough to confess. After a sip of the tea he spills his secret. "I... see. It looks like we do share a lot in common actually. It seems like you do good work, then. I don't really think anything should be bound and captured against it's wishes, unless it gives up that right. And you don't lose the right just by existing. But in the spirit of this straight forwardness, I have to tell you... that part of my mission, my secret mission, was to get close to you. Form a bond with you. Maybe it would lead me to the Phoenix. Or to others in your order. I don't know, but there it is."

He drinks a bit more of his tea and waits for the response.

"I see, well perhaps that can be arranged. The forming a bond between you and I part. I see no reason that our two organizations through our collaboration cannot work together. Further getting to know one another's culture is generally beneficial to ones own progression through life. Perhaps you can teach me some of your cultures traditions and I can share more of ours. With my schedule I will probably be busy for the next few of days but I am sure we could arrange a future meeting between us if you would like."

Aaron nods. "That sounds like it could be beneficial for everyone."

The two continue having their dried sweets and tea and enjoy a general conversation on various topics.

Cycle 3, Scene 1:

Lacy drops into the shadow of the building across from Sumomo's residence. Only the vapors of her warm breath rising into the cool air of the clear skied night would be detectable and even that was essentially invisible. She focuses on controlling her breathing after the exertion of traveling quickly across the city by roof top so that she would be difficult to be tracked and so her target would not see her coming. Based on her investigation, she expected Sumomo to return home any minute. This time she would discover what Sumono was hiding ... whatever it took.

As the minutes past without any signs of Sumono, Lacy grew frustrated and impatient. Where is she? Unexpectedly her phone vibrates, startling her. It was tucked in a tight pocket in her black ninja suit that hugs the phone against her body. She was surprised because she had silenced all notifications except ...

Pulling back deeper into the shadow, into a small alcove in the building, she checks the message:

~~Target has left the city, abandon mission ... report about yakuza-like ninja interference received. new mission: investigate their involvement ... details available at hq~~

"F*&#!" Her frustration boils over as she spins and side-kicks a metal emergency exit door at the back of the alcove. The bang echos loudly out of the alley. Some pedestrians walking by in the street, startled by the sudden noise from the darkness, hurry their steps in fear of what's going on in the darkness.

The massive dent warped the door enough to let some of the light from inside out into the alley. Lacy starred at it in satisfaction for a moment until the fire alarm began to blare.

"You've got to be kidding me," Lacy exclaims with exasperation before shooting her grappling gun upwards and swooping into the night to escape ...


First the pheonix, now Sumomo ... two opportunities ... two fails ... I'd better surpass expectations on this next mission else my next review at the Agency will not go as I hope.


On her way back towards her apartment, fortune shines her way. In the street below she hears the obnoxious unmuffled crackling roar of souped-up sports bikes speeding through the city. Looking over the edge of the building, what she sees confirms her suspicions. A swarm of colourful crotch rockets are weaving through traffic at dangerously high speeds. The riders wear black leg guards but are bare-chested, showing off brightly coloured full-torso tattoos with similarly designed and painted motorcycle helmets to match.

Lacy had looked into the yakuza-like ninjas who had ambushed her two days ago and they were apparently a rising force in the underworld of the city. They have been publicly flaunting their power more often in recent months including street racing on motorbikes late at night. They were rumored to be lead by a ninja master, probably a "Lost One", who was teaching pupils and now using their skills for personal profit through organized crime.

Well, this looks like as good an opportunity as any to finding out what they're up to ...

Lacy jumps off the top of the building into the cool night air high above the streaking motorcycles. Her zip line gun fires, securing itself somewhere in the darkness of the building tops, controlling her descent. She timed it perfectly, landing straddled immediately behind the rider of the last bike. The rider tries to turn to see what the hell is going on, but was too late to stop Lacy from wrapping her zip line around the rider's waist and locking the release of the line causing the rider to be jerked backwards off the seat. Lacy arches backwards to avoid being knocked off in the process, her legs squeezed tightly around the body of the motorcycle to hold on. The bike immediately pops a wheelie with the rider gone and all the weight on the back, but Lacy reacted quickly to flex her body upright again, catching the grips and shifting her center of gravity to re-balance the bike. Before landing the wheelie, she has already begun accelerating forward. Her bright blue hair has come loose from the hood of her ninja suit, flowing behind her like a comet.

Once she catches up to the rest of the pack, she keeps her distance, not wanting to be noticed by the gang. They "parade" through the city at high speed doing ridiculous stunts and showing off their blatant disregard for public safety and the local authorities before eventually heading back to the industrial sector. They stop outside a small warehouse. Lacy has stopped and ditched her bike a few streets back, sneaking up to watch from the shadows. As the gang enters the warehouse, Lacy climbs up to an open window to look inside.

Taizo pulls out a small box, and turns it on. From its end, a multitude of pale blue rays shot out, sweeping over every inch of the derelict warehouse. Checking the device's screen, he sees that the scan detected no anomalous energy signatures within the warehouse. A sigh leaves Taizo's lips as he pulls out his phone, leaving a cloud of vapor as his breath hits the chilly night air. He crosses off another possible location on his notepad app with his finger.

He turned to leave, but when he detected the sound of engines approaching the warehouse, he halted. The door burst open as a raucous gaggle of suits and tattoos wandered in, tipsily laughing as they were working off the adrenaline high earned through their pursuit of creative traffic law violations.

One of the more alert ones noticed Taizo alone in the center of the warehouse. Her tongue flits out, its split ends tasting the air like a snake. She smiles as a singsongy voice leaves her mouth.

"Kukukuuuu... Hey guyssss, we got a Ninpo userrrr."

Immediately, the gang's eyes lock onto Taizo, while Taizo stared back at them. They slowly draw out their weapons, a hodgepodge ranging from normal weapons like lead pipes and swords to esoteric ones such as three sectioned staves and war ladders. Just before they begin approaching their quarry, Taizo lifts his arm up. A grenade flies out of the sleeve of his designer jacket into the face of the split tongued woman.

"Kuuhh!?"

It blows up, sending a large part of the group flying away, some bits unattached, with the rest scrambling to cover. However, it seemed that these were deceptively well trained fighters, as they quickly reorganized themselves, preparing to overwhelm him in a charge with their numbers.

He punches a nearby crate full of flour, causing it to spill out into the warehouse as a cloud. Hopping back, he waves his hand and ignites a spark, setting off an explosion of flame, immolating those who dare to get too close to the wall of flame which separated the gang and himself.

Lacy leans up against the window and just as she peers through to see the gang confronting the stranger the grenade explodes. The glass shatters with the shock wave and Lacy falls forward into the building. A strap on her footwear catches on a protruding nail in the frame of the window and she finds herself hanging upside down as the heat of the flour cloud detonation wafts up the walls of the warehouse. From her inverted view, the warehouse is a scene of chaos. The unfortunate are writhing in flame or worse. Some are fleeing, fighting fires, or helping the injured, while others are trying to get to the stranger through the flames, their bizarre weapons looking for revenge.

Lacy struggles to pull herself up but can't seem to get free. Suddenly she notices an unusual shadow encompass her, something rushing towards her. Reacting quickly, she grabs a shard of broken glass and slices herself free, falling a story towards the warehouse floor. Above her the jagged hooks of the war ladder crash into the wall right where she was hanging. Then the wind is knocked out of her body by the impact with the concrete floor. Her vision blurs and spins as she gasps for air.

"I recognize you!" says the biker standing over her. His massive arms begin to flex in preparation of hefting the giant war ladder to swing at her again.

But before he can, other gang members begin running up the ladder to escape through the window. "Great thinking Strong Step, that window's the only exit now!"

The hulking biker looks towards the collapsed entrance, now engulfed in flames, then back at the immobilized Lacy with a knowing grin and follows his mates up the ladder.

By the time Lacy peels herself off the floor, her gasps are caused more by smoke than the fall. Fire is all around, no exit in sight and the ladder is gone. Across the warehouse she sees the stranger locked in the throws of battle with the remaining gang members, evading wild attacks: a cinder block whirling on a chain, terrifying strikes from a giant human-sized mamushi that appears to be wearing fragments of a biker's outfit with searing burn marks down one side of its dented head and a pack of angry snow monkey's summoned through a portal that had briefly winked in and out of existence.

Flames rise all around and Lacy starts to feel panic swelling up in her until she sees the pipe through the smoke on the other side of the warehouse. Summoning her remaining energy, she closes her eyes and reaches out. She feels water all around her, hidden in the mains and lines of the city's system below the streets. She pulls with her thoughts and it surges towards her. The pipe on the far side of the warehouse begins to vibrate, faster and faster, until it bursts and water spouts forth. The jet sprays with such force, narrowly missing the stranger, it knocks the remaining gang members and their pets through the collapsed entrance and down the street while soaking everything else in the building.

As the gush fades to a trickle, Lacy collapses with relief and exhaustion into a warm puddle hissing where it splashes against the dying flames. Opening her eyes, she finds the stranger, a teenager, standing over her, drenched from head to toe.

Taizo sweeps a clump of wet hair out of his eyes, frowning with displeasure.

"...And who are you?"

Lacy looks at the kid, incredulous. "You're WELCOME," she says as she struggles to get to her feet.

Her hand is bleeding from a gash along her palm after using the glass shard to cut herself free. In fact, she realizes she's completely missing her shoe. It must have fallen off after slicing it to escape. She does a reasonable job of hiding the discomfort initially, but winces as she straightens, her entire back feels like its going to be a massive bruise from her fall.

After a moment she recovers her composure and slicks back her wet hair to get it out of her face and then looks back towards the kid and says, "My name's Lacy. I've been investigating that gang and happened to follow them here tonight. What about you? What's your name and how the hell did you get mixed up with them?"

Lacy? I believe she was second highest on the list of suspects the old man gave the dog. Taizo doesn't let his frown loosen up as he responds with an unsubtle air of annoyance.

"Yeah, not gonna tell you that."

He tries to swipe the water off of his jacket, droplets spraying off of it indiscriminately.

"Geez, do you even know how much this brand costs? Heard of something called restraint?"

Lacy laughs at the hypocrisy of the teenager's statement.

Pretty sure the water will dry. All this fire damage on the other hand, not sure it will be as lucky as a phoenix, so if any one needs to consider restraint ...

She decides against pointing that out and instead tries to smooth over the situation because she wants to know more about what's going on. The kid genuinely looks upset at being soaked, so she tries to remedy the situation.

"Aww, but you look so cute, like a wet puppy," she says with a wink. "Let me see if I help you out."

She concentrates on the water clinging to him. She can feel it and knows she can still manipulate it. She reaches out and ruffles his wet hair. The water in it seems to cling to her hand in ever growing droplets and blobs like a ferrofluid to a magnet. She pulls her hand back and holds it palm out towards the teenager as more and more water pulls from his clothes almost like a vacuum. By the time he is dry, a shifting ball of water hovers in Lacy's hand.

"There you go, is that better?

She cups the ball of water with both hands and then splashes it into her face to rinse off the dirt, dust, flour and ash. Feeling refreshed, she slicks back her wet hair one more time and takes a big breath of air now that the smoke is clearing. She doesn't bother drying herself. She enjoys the moisture, the feel of the water trickling down her body, the way it makes her clothes cling to her, adding a sheer quality to the ninja suit, an illusion of transparency that some teen-aged boys would likely find appealing or perhaps distracting. Being neither shy nor modest, she continues in a relaxed and casual manner.

"Now then, I'm not bothered to know who you are if you're shy about it, but why don't we discuss what happened here, so we can help each other out and maybe stop something like this happening again?"

Taizo flinches with surprise as Lacy puts her hand on his head. Nobody has ever done that to him. At least, nobody except his mother. But she was long deceased, and her touch only a faint memory.

Initially thinking it an act of aggression, Taizo was about to shank Lacy with his hidden weapons, but quickly realized what she was doing as he felt the water on his body travel up towards her hand. His hands pat down his newly dried clothes, confirming that she pulled off all of the water, and none of his belongings.

The experience was...rather pleasant. Like drying off after a swim.

"Hmm. Yes, that is bett-"

He barely gets another word out before Lacy begins washing her face with the water. The sight of her refreshed after cleaning off the grime brings to mind one question. Is reusing bathwater environmentally conscious or just lazy? Taizo snorts a little, finding himself amused at the ridiculous thought which the scene brought up. Although Lacy's action didn't have the exact effect that was intended, it certainly loosened the irascible Taizo up.

"Alright, I can tell you that much. Not like there's much to say, though. I was just here doing my own thing when those guys came in."