| [Dec. 16th, 2009|02:57 am] |
Some hand-signals were easier than others. Ryouma jerked a thumbs-up and turned it sideways at the squat, square tower dominating the fortress's nearest corner. According to the blueprints Intel had provided and Katsuko had interpreted, Masahiko and his closest aides kept their offices and bedrooms in this tower, leaving the remaining three for supplies, barracks, and more sentries. Assuming he hadn't decided to move into the grain stores, he should be easy enough to find.
Of course, Ryouma had probably just jinxed their mission by thinking that. He bared his teeth at whatever was watching and launched into the seals for a henge'd kage bunshin. He hadn't got much of a look at the dead guard's face before blood masked it, but in the dark and at a distance no one would be looking for detail, anyway. If they got close enough to see his bunshin had a straight nose where the guard had a crooked one, they were too close.
"Watch our backs," he told the clone softly, and slipped off into the gathering dusk.
He shaped more seals as he went, gathering chakra at a low roil. Greenish darkness hazed his hands. The heavy wooden door at the end of the wall opened inward; he nudged it with his toe, and a thin trickle of yellow light spilled out. "Yousuke?" someone asked. "Somethin' wrong? Your shift's not over yet--"
For a flicker of a second, Ryouma considered releasing the Nikutai Tokasu, weaving a henge, and trying to pull it off. But there were far too many ways that could go wrong--and he was better at killing than lying, anyway.
If they were quick enough, maybe they wouldn't even set off any alarms.
His first kick smashed the door back into the wall, half-crushing the man who'd been standing behind it. Ryouma slammed one blackened fist into his face before he could let out a scream, and spun to meet the man lurching up from the poker-table and reaching for a knife. Then Katsuko was in the guard-chamber with him, and the sweet tang of blood mingled with the heavy reek of rot.
Only one man managed half a scream before Ryouma dissolved his voicebox and Katsuko's sword slid between his ribs. Four corpses in as many seconds. Ryouma caught his first breath since he'd kicked the door down.
"We're good," he said, and went to check the inner door. |
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