| [Apr. 13th, 2010|07:11 pm] |
"No, we're awesome," Katsuko corrected. She eased the last guard's body down to the floor, rifling through his pockets for any cool-looking useful items. Shrugging when she couldn't find anything, she withdrew her hands and glanced at the man's face--or what was left of it.
Ryouma hadn't been joking when he'd said the Nikutai Tokasu was a rot jutsu. The man's throat and jaw were completely decayed, putrid black sludge leaking all over his chest. He smelled like the corpses left to moulder for weeks on the battlefield. Katsuko backed away, resisting the urge to put her hand over the nose-holes of her mask, and got to her feet.
Her partner was peering through the inner door that led into the fortress's passageways, the muscles of his back and shoulders taut with adrenaline and anticipation. She slunk up behind him and tapped him on the back, fingers flickering in scout-sign when he turned to look at her. All clear?
More guards, Ryouma replied with a shake of his head, come check noise.
Damn it. This had to be quick if they didn't want Masahiko's whole damn army coming down on their heads. Although that would be kind of fun.
After a moment, she signed back at him, We attack. Kill them quiet.
It was a reckless plan, but it would buy them the time they needed to get closer to Masahiko's quarters. If it succeeded.
Well, she hadn't made it into ANBU by running away from danger.
Ryouma nodded at her and gave her another thumbs-up (she could almost feel him grin behind his mask) and slipped into the inner passageway, his hands flickering inky green. Katsuko hefted her blood-slick blades and ran after him.
Right, left--they turned and nearly ran over the small group of five guards who were coming around the corner, torches held high. "Shinobi!" one of them squeaked in surprise, and that was all any of them had time to say.
Katsuko took the one who'd talked, sliding around the clumsy thrust of his spear and cleaving his head neatly in two with an overhead strike. He sagged onto her, body still twitching, and she spun and pushed him onto the blades of two of his comrades as they advanced. They staggered backwards under the weight and she sprang forward and up, kodachi and katana blurring. Two heads, eyes and mouths wide with surprise and terror, fell towards the ground. Katsuko cursed and threw herself forward, leaving her katana buried in the guards' bodies. She managed to catch one head with her free hand and speared the other with her kodachi before they could hit the ground and make noise.
There was an odd gurgling sound and Katsuko looked around to see Ryouma pinning the remaining two guards to the wall, one inky green hand wrapped around each neck. Katsuko turned away as she saw the brown-black dappling of rot creep up each terrified man's face and laid the heads down, gently, on the ground.
Ryouma looked at her once the rot jutsu had done its job, dark eyes almost invisible behind the Ram mask. Katsuko started to scout-sign--
And a loud, braying sound, like the wail of a thousand pained hunting dogs, shattered the silence in the corridor. "Intruders!" someone bellowed from up on the wall, and the call was taken up and repeated throughout the fortress until it seemed like the walls of the corridor themselves were crying the alarm. The headless bodies piled up against each other swayed and collapsed to the ground with a clatter of armor.
She stared at Ryouma. Ryouma stared back.
Fuck.
Katsuko snatched her katana up and started to run. |
|