Summary:Shiranui and Ryoshi go looking for some answers Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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While fight clubs and training are all very important, and having money to pay the bills is definitely a necessity the fact of the matter is that there are some big problems and while the Hand was put on the back foot for a while, it definitely appears to have recovered. There are drug production centers springing up all over the west side of Manhattan, and off into Hells Kitchen as well. They're low key and the drugs aren't making a big splash on the street though in some ways that's even more worrying than if they were.
Shiranui is at present creeping on top of the roof of a warehouse. There are people in it. People he really doesn't want to know he is here. So he's trying to be quiet.
Creeping is easy to do for Ryoshi. She's not as well equipped as Shiranui or as enhanced, but she is good at what she does.
The small ex-Order Ninja ghosts behind the other ninja, keeping quiet as she peers through the 'glass' tile there. She doesn't say anything - making noise would be bad.
Right now, she's just following the leader.
here's a skylight up ahead, aside from the one that they're moving over now. When they reach it Shiranui points. Two long tables, both attended to by the same sort of empty eyed, drugged up forced labor that they'd seen before. You know. The ones with their tongues removed.
Then he points a bit further up. The overseer. They hadn't been able to take prisoners previously. Not ones that could talk at any rate. But…
There's a good chance.
Ryoshi crouches so she can peer through the skylight, nodding as she sees the labourers. Yes, she can see them. Her eyes track along the table to the overseer and there's another nod, that's the one they want.
Quickly she surveys the rooftop. There's a couple of skylights they can go through and a door. The only other way in is likely through the door on the east side.
Pointing to herself and the skylight a bit further up, Ryoshi indicates she'll go through the roof.
Once she's in position Shiranui pulls the sword off his back and she can feel him activate it. It'll hurt probably but there's nothing for it. He drives it down into the roof and cuts a hole in it, dropping down to the floor below. There's a sudden cry of consternation as he does. Guns sweep up and fire. He blocks them - briefly - as he rolls into cover. He doesn't say anything but NOW would be a good time for an intervention
Ryoshi steels herself for Shiranui to activate his sword. Her implants send a shock of pain through her head. That has to be fixed soon - it's not just the pain that she's worried about, it's the fact they may fail and kill her.
The delay to deal with that is factored in to her movements though. The small ninja crashes through the skylight and tumbling on the table.
A Chakram does an almost lazy arc of the room, hitting the barrels of nearly weapon pointed at them.
A foot lashes out, kicking one of the labourers under the chin, as she rises, a chain with a hook on it in in her hand.
Shiranui bounces among the combatants that Ryoshi has just disrupted. He slices one, bounces up, kicks off the air to leap to another, slices that one, uses him as a shield against more bullets, bounds to another. He dashes around the room like a squirrel on a sugar high.
"Stairs!" He calls. Stairs. Their target is rabbiting, trying to escape. It's sensible, but it was also anticipated. Hence the hook.
Each time Shiranui uses his power, there's a sharp arc of pain through Ranna's head. She can't help but flinch and yet she manages to keep her focus, the chain arcing out, controlled by her mind. The hook wraps around the railing, letting Ryoshi pull herself up quickly.
As she reaches the edge, the small woman flips over, landing on her feet in front of the foreman. "Hello Sir, we'd like you to be our guest…."
The foreman doesn't respond, just turns and runs for a window, apparently fully willing to dive out of it even though this is the second story. Shiranui isn't in a position to halt the fleeing foreman. He's busy contending with half a dozen gunmen.
Slice.
Five other gunmen.
Bounce, slice.
Four other gunmen.
"Oh really, you're going to do this hard way?" Ryoshi shakes her head, the hooked chain snaking out without having to 'throw' it, wrapping around the mans torso and tightening.
The Order Ninja isn't very large and certainly doesn't weight a heap - with the mans momentum she has to lean into the chain to hold him tight. "We really don't want to hurt you …" she grunts. All she has to do is get him to stop, and then drag him to an exit, so they can ask him some questions.
Easy, right?
"Are you surprised they're doing it the hard way?" Shiranui calls out. He's still busy but he is now down to two gunmen. They are on opposite ends of the room though. It's like a puzzle but if the ninja gets it wrong he gets shot. He IS armored though so very much better him than her.
Ryoshi has her own problems anyway. She gets the man tangled around the midsection but when he realizes he can't just break away from her he turns to YANK on the Chain and transitions into a roundhouse kick aimed at her face. If he can't get away from her then he'll do this the other way.
"ooof." Ryoshi really is quite small and the foreman carries a lot of muscle, so she finds out. She stumbles as the chain is pulled towards the man - just barely remembering to let herself go with it as he kicks at her.
That's easily dodged for the enhanced woman, or it would be if Shiranui hadn't been using his powers. She crouches, still getting caught in the shoulder as she does and yanks the chain down. Driving her elbow up to try and hit the mans chin.
The man IS still tangled and only has the use of one of his arms. So he goes down. Hard. And when he's kicked he goes out like a light. Moments later Shiranui finishes up with the other two guards. They're down and they won't be getting back up.
"Right…" He says, spinning his sword once and then wiping blood off it. "Good job Ryoshi. Let's move him shall we?" Not onto a rooftop that'd be a pain. Just out of the way and into some place where they won't be quite so easily interrupted if reinforcements show up for Team Bad Ninja.
There's a room where they lock up their 'laborers'. It has restraints. That'll do nicely.
"You hurt at all?"
Ryoshi's nose is bleeding - and not because she was hurt in the fight - and she's favouring her shoulder but the small Order Ninja shakes her head. "Not badly. I'll live. You'll have to help me move him, I … can use my gift a little but …" It works better on cogmium and smaller things.
Moving the foreman with her mind will leave her helpless for hours.
"That room. Are you hurt? They were shooting a lot."
"Not badly. Bruised. I was hit a couple of times but my armor took it." Shiranui says. They do managed to get the man moved between the two of them and the tech-ninja shuts the door and goes to find some water. Which he manages.
One cup of water later the man is blinking himself awake. "Uh… where… who. You! You don't know what who you are messing with!"
Armour. That might be nice. Whilst trained to melee, Ryoshi really is a distance fighter. Witness the darts and the chakram.
The chain unwinds from the man and flows back onto Ryoshi's bracers. She grunts as the foreman wakes up.
"Do you recognise us?" She asks, frowning a little at his comment. Or was it just that they attacked him outside? "The Hand. We're messing with the Hand and The Order of Si-Fan. We know who we're messing with, what we want to know is what they're doing…."
Two darts form from the metal on her braces and hover in front of him.
"And if you want to keep your eyes, you'll tell us everything you know."
"I know who you are yes. You're asking for trouble just being here. The Hand doesn't forgive. It will track you do-"
"We are familiar." Shiranui cuts the man off. "And she will take your eyes out so just tell her what she wants to know. I don't want to have to watch it."
The foreman deflates. "I don't know much. Tell me what you're after and I'll see what I can do. That's easier than 'everything'."
As Shiranui talks, the darts move closer to the foremans eyes, underscoring the other ninja's words. Would Ryoshi do it?
Probably.
"What is it your doing with the drug when you make it?" the small woman starts, the darts not moving now that he is talking. "And what does it do, the drug I mean?" That's two questions - hopefully he doesn't get distracted and only answer one.
"It is blessed by the Beast and consecrated for the honored dead." The foreman says, almost piously. Almost. "It brings about a spiritual oneness which allows the dead to impart their skills upon the living."
Shiranui rather doubts that but this guy seems to believe it. "Why, then, did one of your drugs give a guy boxing skills?"
"All souls go to the Beast in time."
THAT gets a stare from Kian.
"What?" Ryoshi blinks about her mask, her dark eyes fixing the foreman with a glare. "The dead can impart their skills on the living? You mean, if I took some of these drugs, I could be imbued with Grandmother's fighting skills?"
Ryoshi might almost believe it. Then again, she is from the Order of Si-Fan.
"No they don't. Not all souls go to the Beast." It's hard to tell that Shiranui is staring, except for the pointed way his mask is fixed on the foremans face.
"Is it random, then? Which skills are imparted? How are the souls chosen?"
"You would be imbued with the fighting skills of the one whose essence is crystalized into the drug." The foreman says carefully. "But you would suffer great harm if you were unworthy."
"And street thugs are worthy, are they?" Shiranui breaks in.
"Not all is as it seems, you abomination." The foreman mutters. "The souls of the dead are selected by the heads of the Orders, and their essence is drawn from the great beyond. A gift of the Beast which our members pray devoutly for…"
"Heads of the Orders? The Order of Si-Fan is one, I'm assuming. Who are the others? And how are the recipients chosen?" Ryoshi growls as the foreman calls them abominations.
"I have to agree with my friend here. Street thugs are hardly worthy. If you want to keep your eye, you better start talking."
One dart moves slowly towards inward until the foreman can feel the point against his eyelid.
"Th… the Hand is one of course. And the Snakeroot Clan. They have their representatives. But only the highest orders of the servants of the Hand know how to directly commune with the Beast."
The Foreman starts to look nervous again. "We, um, we have tested lesser versions of the holy concoction on those willing to work with us. A boon. And one that brings them closer to union with the Beast."
"It's addictive you mean." Shiranui says.
"It… has certain psychological properties."
"You did, did you…" The dart moves back from the foremans face, Ryoshi watching the man. "So let me get this straight. You're testing this drug on the thugs to see what it does."
She's so not happy about this and she glances to Shiranui briefly.
"I'd ask what you do with the test subjects but I really want to know how these representatives are, how we can find them and which … servants … can commune with the …. Beast."
Her lips twist slightly as she says that. It doesn't sit well with her at all.
"Do you think that is something they tell a foreman? My job is to make the drugs, or see that they get made, and see that they get delivered to the docks down on the west side. That's it. The head honchos don't really come around here."
Shiranui nods. That wasn't entirely unexpected. But the docks. That must mean someone picks them up.
"Who takes them from there?"
"Someone with a boat. I don't know, they're always small and very fast. They look expensive."
No doubt.
"I think you look like a dead man." Ryoshi says darkly. "Or a blind man. Depends on how you keep talking to us. You seem like a clever man to me, I'm sure you've heard things. Names, places…" The dart moves again, pressing against his eye to remind him what she can do.
"Where at the docks and when? Tell us about the schedules and … when you're next delivery was due."
Was due. There is no way he's going to deliver it.
"We make shipments every four days at the lower piers near Battery Park! The next one was due tomorrow!" The foreman says hurriedly. He doesn't want to lose an eye, no. "But when they find out that this place was attacked I am sure they will move the meeting point." And if they find out the foreman talked he might be in some trouble.
Granted he is in some trouble now with Ryoshi threatening to take an eye.
"I swear that's all I really know. They don't give us much. Why would the Hand do otherwise?! Secrecy is what they do."
"Tomorrow hmm…" Ryoshi looks to Shiranui and raises an eyebrow. Looks like they have a date tomorrow night. "I'm sure they would move the meeting point, *if* they find you've been attacked. Is there any reason they would know that now? Sure, you've a couple of dead workers but … that's easy fixed."
"Do you want to keep your eyes?"
"Of course. I won't tell them. Not until the day after tomorrow, anyway…" The foreman says. Of course he still has to explain at some point why he's missing a shipment but that is his problem in Shiranui's opinion.
"I think he has the point, Ryoshi." Shiranui says as he stands up. "We can lock the door behind us. It'll take him a couple hours to get out, so even if he double crosses us we'll have a head start."
Ryoshi considers for a moment, letting the foreman make that delivery but quickly discards it. "You will tell us exactly where you are to make this delivery and take your time in telling your masters."
He's a dead man anyway. He'll just be a sighted dead man this way.
"Have you got enough from him, Shiranui?" She's tempted to leave a calling card for the foreman to hand over.
"I think we do yes." Shiranui rises standing up. The foreman might know a little bit more but he can put together this information and others to get a much more complete picture without having to press the man quite so hard.
"We should get out of here. I don't fancy having an encounter with Shadow Stalker while we're making our exit." And as he had mentioned previously, the assassin is back in town.
"Alright then." Ryoshi recalls the darts, the metal flowing into scales and up her arms again. "You've been most helpful. You get to keep your eyes. Remember, you said day after tomorrow. I suggest you find somewhere to hide till then."
Not turning her back, the Order Ninja backs out of the room they are. "Can you secure the door, Shiranui? We can go …"
No, she doesn't want to meet Shadow Stalker at the moment.