Summary:Ninja's are combing the streets. Two particular ninjas don't want to be found. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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Tonight the city is crawling with Ninja. It's not the sort of thing the average person would notice but for those who are attuned to movements in the shadows, who keep up on the little tells that show who is doing what where and who might have a reason to be worried for their safety, it's plain as day. They've been moving over the rooftops in the worst parts of town, avoiding the areas where the police patrol heavily. They've fanned out in a net so they're either looking for something specific that they don't have a good location for, or they're gathering something in LARGE quantities. Possibly both.
Shiranui is avoiding them at the moment. He can take groups of Hand, or Si-Fan or even Snakeroot operatives but he does not want to start one fight and have groups converge on him like so many army ants. At the moment he is out on one of the taller buildings in Brooklyn, peering over the city scape, noting where the hostile Ninja are moving and looking perhaps for one specifically. One that used to be hostile but isn't.
"Come on, come on… where are you." He has her phone number, but he doesn't want to call her. If she's on the move and her phone rings, it might give her away to some really nasty people.
Looking for something or perhaps someone …
To Shiranui's left, on the building across the way there's a movement, there and then gone. If he wasn't looking, he might just think it was a heat haze but it doesn't move like that.
Then Ryoshi is sort of just there, running along the wires between the buildings. It silhouettes her against the skyline for the time it takes the shrouded form to make the pass - but people have to be looking up to see her.
Shiranui fluidly launches into motion. He takes a flying leap and then a second midair to cross the street and get head of Ryoshi on her path. There's no way she won't feel that. He's close enough that he should be zapping her with a headache which he does feel a BIT bad about but…
When he arrives on her rooftop he calls out. "Ranna. Hold up a moment."
It's unusual at least for him, to be having an encounter like this without a fight. Or at least, without expecting a fight. Or… maybe optimistically hoping there's not a fight?
He really doesn't want to fight.
The masked woman just makes the edge of the building, getting her foot on the ledge as Shiranui uses his abilities. She's stumbles and nearly goes over, recovering just in time. "Ryoshi…" she hisses. She's in costume, after all.
Her dark eyes fix on the man and she shoves him, hard. "You did that deliberately. You wanted me to fall."
No, no fight. Just a pissed off woman with a headache. "What do you want?"
"Ryoshi." Shiranui says in a hurry as if trying to get to the point. "Tell me they're not looking for you."
They might be looking for her AND doing other things. That's entirely possible. He glances back over the city. He can still see places where they're moving. None of them in this direction but if they knew these two were here they might chance it even through the police patrols.
"We're not safe in the open. Can you keep up with me if I use my powers?" Or will the pain cripple her?
"I can't tell you that." Ryoshi answers, moving away from the edge of the building and towards the shadows. What she doesn't say is that they are looking for her. She doesn't know. "I've been on the move all day, avoiding them. They haven't seen me yet."
"I can keep up." Ryoshi answers. It's going to hurt, a lot, and when they stop she might not be good for much, but she can force herself to do this.
"Come on." Shiranui takes off at a run. Ranna knows from experience how fast he can move. They move over the rooftops for nearly a mile and a half before he drops down to street level and - several blocks after that - down a basement set of stairs and into an old set of prohibition era tunnels that connect to the drainage systems. Only once they're well down does he slow and stop using his abilities.
He isn't even winded and is barely sweating. Bastard.
"Left turn up ahead. I've got a little stash of food and some bedding." It's not a safe house per se. More of a bolt hole, but… when they get there, yes. There's food. Light. Heat. Bedding. The food is MRE's but still.
"Have they compromised your house yet?"
Shiranui can move fast but so can she. Ryoshi's training is excellent and the only real differences in them is the extent of their enhancements and her gear.
It's not too hard to keep up, the Order Ninja blocking out the pain as best she can. When they arrive, she is sweating - the cold sweat of pain. She staggers against the wall and drops her head in her hands. "In my pouch, pain killers. Strong ones. The pharmacy gave me them."
"This morning. I was about to get home from shift when I saw them. I managed to sneak in through the bathroom window and get this gear before sneaking out again - they nearly found me then but I'm … sneaky."
"Why now? What's happenened?"
Shiranui opens the pouch and finds the painkillers. A couple moments later he places them in her hand along with a bottle of water. "Take a breather." He says quietly.
"I am not sure. Something's changed. I don't think we've done enough to them to make them seriously alter their plans, so they must be executing the next phase. And that requires that they find something."
There's a pause and Shiranui's mask starts to 'dissolve.' It's nanotech, Ranna knows that. Underneath there is a young asian face, still slightly concealed by the hood but voice no longer modulated.
"The only thing that makes sense to me is that they're recruiting more labor. That they've tested whatever they need and are going into production overdrive."
"Thank you …" Ranna keeps her head down and Shiranui can see the curve of her neck where the implant that's playing up is located. The skin is glowing bright pink, like something is aggravating it.
"Or we've done just enough to make them accelerate." She says, finally looking up from under her lashes. She goes silent as the mask dissolves and finally pushes herself from the wall and moves towards to him.
Getting right in his personal space, Ranna pushes the hood back and then brushes the hair back, inspecting Shiranui's face carefully.
"Hey!" Shiranui blinks. He had expected her to remain where she was and he backs away as she starts to inspect him. By the time he's pulled the hood back though she's gotten a very good look at him. A good enough look possibly to find him again later. Which is only fair. He's seen her out of her mask.
"Someone's never been taught about personal bubbles." He mutters as he turns and leans down to pick up two MREs and inspect them. "Do you want barbeque sauce with beef, or pork sausage in syrup?" Yum yum.
Not really. But it's got lots of energy in it.
"You're much better looking than I expected." Ranna answers, her own mask - the cloth - around her neck. Either she's being dry or it doesn't occur to her that saying things like might be … rude. Blunt at the very least.
"You removed the mask, I wanted to see." the Order ninja takes one of the packs without looking and turns away, keeping her back to Shiranui.
"I have to find somewhere else to stay, don't I? It's unlikely I'll get out of the city without being found."
"Did you expect an oni of some manner?" The tech-ninja says as he cuts the package opens. There's a heater in these things. It uses water. It's got the world's silliest instructions on it but it's definitely there. And he wants hot food right now.
"I'm afraid you do, Ryoshi. If your place has been compromised you need to find a new one. It's not the sort of thing you want to leave to chance, that they might come back when you are sleeping or… set fire to it." Because they wouldn't care if there were innocents in danger.
"No. Though you act like one." Ryoshi answers quietly, still not turning back to look at him. Her hair is held in a pony tail that falls down her back. She's familiar with the MRE's at least, opening hers and heating it. The smell makes her gag a bit - that's a side effect of the headache and the pills.
"I'll keep moving then. There are the homeless that live in the streets, I can blend in with them well enough. There's the sewers and tunnels under the city where others live, they'll do as well. And I'll keep away from others." She's silent, her shoulders bowing inwards as she hunches slightly. "If they find me, I won't let them hurt others."
"I do not think you should try to live on the streets. Winter is coming and it will be getting cold soon, and you will find it harder to keep a job if you have no home address." Shiranui points out.
"I know some places. I can give you a couple of names of people who can find places to live. They won't be nice but they'll be warm and secure at night." She may have to change them periodically, hence the 'broker' he is going to suggest.
"The implants really did shut you down, didn't they. I would not have figured you would care at all for innocents based on our previous meetings."
It's a testament perhaps to how much they really did to their own agents in the name of accomplishing their goals.
"Why? Why are you helping me?" Ranna asks that a lot lately. She's still not looking at the hooded man as she holds that little tin and waits for it to heat. "I … don't deserve anything but your blade to my heart."
She won't argue about the lodgings. Shiranui will find out soon enough what she decides to do.
"I … was raised to revere life. To honour it. I trained so that I could protect those who couldn't protect themselves. I don't want to talk about what they did to me."
He might not give her the choice.
"Because I am a warrior, Ryoshi, not a murderer. I do not want you tortured and killed by them any more than I wish to kill you myself. Had you fallen to me in a fight I would not have lost sleep over it. But this is different."
Ah. His food should be hot now. He takes it out and starts to eat. "Besides. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. And I think if you can see them with unclouded eyes, you will not only never go back to them, but you will fight them at every opportunity."
It's a quite Ryoshi who retreats to the corner of the room they're in. All Shiranui will see is a jerk of her head and her shoulders hunch more as she sits. "Thank you, then."
That's it. That's all she says before she starts to eat, back still to Kian, lost in her own cloud of misery.
Kian finally sits down against the wall and eats his MRE slowly, savoring it. There's crackers and there's a side dish and there's peanutbutter and hey, this one has candy. Sweet. Literally.
After what may seem like a long silence he speaks up again. "My name is Kian, by the way." No last names but hey. A name that isn't Shiranui is more than she's had to go on in quite some time. He must trust she won't try to kill him because that might be enough to track him with, even without the last name.
Ryoshi might never go back to the Order willingly but that doesn't mean she won't go back.
When Kian speaks again, he can see her flinch at little, shoulders tensing and finally relaxing. Slowly Ranna turns to look at him, still picking at that meal that she has.
"Thank you, Kian. Don't tell me any more and I'm sorry I looked at you…" She's really, really, not. He's lovely. "… Shadow Stalker is still around and if the Order don't kill me, I'm a liability. At least until I get this implant disabled."
"Diablo… Daredevil is going to let me meet a friend who might help. I also thought I had a hankering for guacamole."
"Punch a cop if you want guacamole. I know a guy who seems to show up whenever the police get their undies twisted." Kian mutters. He doesn't tell her any more but he does nod in acceptance to her apology.
"For what it's worth I hope it works. I'd offer you someone to go to but as I mentioned this is sort of beyond any of my contacts. I'm glad that Diablo, Daredevil, whatever he is. I'm glad he had at least an option."
"And if it does work… maybe you can leave all this behind if you want." Or if she doesn't, maybe she can lend a hand.
"He's a pretty cop." Ranna looks down as she says that. "And he's offered guacamole and chips at least twice. He's got connections maybe he can help too. I … I'll ask. If I can't find him, I'll just a punch a cop as you say - won't take him long to show up."
"I don't know if anyone can. Daredevil mentioned Mister Richards or Mister Stark - they're so far out of my orbit it's not funny. Maybe I'll learn to live with the pain and the other … effects … won't manifest."
She shrugs. "I have much to atone for, Shir—- Kian. My soul and my honour are blighted. I can't leave this behind."
"Then I hope you can get it fixed enough that you CAN atone for it." That she lives long enough to atone for it. He doesn't say that part but Shiranui hopes she does all the same. She's probably got a lot that she feels she needs to make up for and honestly… he might agree that she does, bad as that sounds to say.
"I'm sure you can find him. They all seem pretty… active out here. Stay down here as long as you like. Sleep if you need. There's bedding over there. Just lock the door when you leave. I'm going to stay myself for a bit." Because it's crawling with ninja up there and he doesn't want to have to fight all of them.