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Because there was a time where I believed,
That even though we’re apart,
There will come a time in our lives,
When our paths will finally meet again.
“All right, let me get this straight-”
“Sure!”
The man looked at the teenage girl with his green eyes, and continued, “You’re a ninja.”
“Yup! A kunoichi! A female-”
“‘Shinobi,’” he said, raising a hand to show he understood, “And you’ve come from the ‘Temple of Ozunoi’ -”
“Hey, not so loud!” the black-eyed girl whispered harshly, her hand on his mouth the second the name left his mouth. Her small legs gripped his ribcage, and her overall tiny frame clung to him like a monkey.
He tore her hand off, and finished, “And you’re looking for a boy by the name of what again?”
“Um… wait, give a second.” The girl got off of him for a moment before crawling back onto his leg. “Hmm… ah, yes. I’m looking for someone by the name of… Shaine.”
“Shaine? You mean, ‘Shane?’”
“That too!”
“…” the man continued to look down at her.
“What?”
Shaking his shaved head, he asked her, “What’s your name?”
“Call me Michiko!”
“Michiko? What type of name is-”
“It’s not my real name, silly! I’m a kunoichi, and we receive a special name when we’re allowed to leave the temple! And mine is the greatest! I mean, c‘mon? MICHIKO?! Doesn‘t it sound like a chibi!? But then when I come, and go WHAM, BAM, PUNCH, SWING, no one will know what hit them!”
The man rolled those green eyes, and said, trying to shake the ninja girl off his leg, “Look, Michiko, I have no idea who Shane is, and I don’t want to. Now go bug someone else.”
Michiko’s eyes widened, and before she blinked, the man was almost certain those onyz eyes flashed completely white. She squeezed his leg painfully. “You’re lying. As a matter of fact, you have a close friend by the name of Shaine Nakamura, a musician with a drug problem that goes to you for drugs, and pays a hefty price for five ounces every week on Wednesdays at noon at the corner with the weird store and the car that never sells.”
His eyes narrowed dangerously at her. She knew too much. “How did you know that, girl?”
“I just told you! My name is Michiko-”
“I can give a crap what you’re stupid name is,” suddenly, Michiko found herself being suspended mid-air by the man’s strong hands. Her gi was held tightly. “How did you know all that?” He watched as those eyes turned white again.
Michiko’s lips formed a sly grin. “Let go of me, Jassuten Raisu.” (Justin Rice)
The man, Justin, was suddenly very afriad of the obnoxious girl in front of him. But he held firm, and shoved her body against the wall inside of a dark alley. Taking her neck in one hand, he held up a pocket knife to her throat. “Tell me, or I’ll slit your pretty little neck.”
This time, Michiko laughed at the threat. Now her eyes were fluttering back and forth between white and black, almost like static. As creepy as those eyes were, Justin pushed the knife against her pale flesh. He tried to get the information out of her again. Instead, her eyes stopped flashing, and they stayed black.
“Let go.”
Blood dripped from her neck. “No.”
“Then die, Jassuten Raisu.”
The last thing Justin saw were white, white eyes and a flash so bright, he was left to the darkness.
“Kami, forgive me. But I must complete my mission.”
Michiko bowed to the bloody, eyeless form below her. Turning away from him, Michiko returned to the light of the streets of Los Angles.
Her eyes were a lovely shade of green.
“…we lost Justin.”
“What? The noob?”
“Yeah. Someone cut off his communicator.”
“Damn, that was a good one too. How‘s the body?”
“…dead. And apparently eyeless.”
“Eyeless? Wow, we have a sadistic b*****d on our hands. Love to meet him.”
“Sources say he was with a girl when he entered the alley he was found in,” glasses looked at him, “and she was looking for someone by the name of Shane.”
“Shane?” He placed a hand next to the blond, “As in Shane Nakamura?”
“Exactly. And apparently she’s armed.”
“What type of chick are we looking at?”
“Give me a second, I’ll get a visual,” turning his blonde head away, glasses stared into the screen with swift fingers clicking away at the keys below, until a picture was slowly downloaded. A girl with girly black hair and blue eyes looked back at them.
“That’s strange,” he said, “John said she had the same shade of black eyes as me when she went in.”
“…but she had green when she came out. The same shade as Justin‘s were.”
“You don’t think she’s…?”
“Taking her victims’ eyes? Yes, I do.” Brown eyes glared at the blue-eyed girl. “We have to find Shane before she does. God knows what she’ll do to him.” He straightened himself up to head for the door.
“What color are his eyes, Kal?”
Pausing, Kal looked back at his friend. “Violet.”
“Violet…? But he’s Japanese-”
“Half. Both parents were half white, half Jap. Got his dad’s name.”
“Wow, Michiko-chan,” Asuka stared in awe at the green eyes in her sockets, “You hit the jackpot with those eyes! They look good on you!”
Michiko grinned, and thanked her best friend. Stepping out of the swirling blue votex, the portal closed behind her form. Looking around, the curly-haired girl asked, “Where’s Kasumi-chan?”
“Oh, she’s in the… what’s it called again? The konpyuta room?”
“The computer room, Asuka-chan. You passed Foreign Studies, you should know that by now!” Michiko said, making her way through the temple. Asuka walked by her side.
Asuka pouted. “I know, but… it’s so hard! Why the heck do we need to know all of it? I mean, no one ever uses, “tape recorders,” anymore!”
“I know, but they make us learn it anyway. You know how the elders are-” Michiko began to say as they entered a small, somewhat cramped room.
“And how are the elders?”
“Kasumi-chan!” Asuka piped, walking over to her friend. “Oh my gosh, look at Michiko’s EYES. They’re so pretty! Look, Kasumi-chan, look!”
A pair of brown eyes sent a glance to the spoken girl, and smiled. She turned the chair she sat in towards her friend, and away from the computer screen. “Ah, green. They look lovely, Michiko-chan. But I think I like black on you better. Goes better with your Eye.”
“Thanks, Kasumi-chan.”
The two girls took their usual seats in the small room as Kasumi went back to work on the computer. Once they got comfortable, Kasumi said, “You need to be more careful, Michiko. You were seen.”
Michiko’s new eyes widened. “W-What? That’s impossible! I covered up my tracks and acted my role perfectly-”
“I know you did, but that’s not how you were caught.”
“What do you mean, Kasumi-chan?”
Suddenly, the printer sprung to life, and Kasumi snatched the printed paper off the tray. “According to this, the guy that those eyes of yours belong to had a tracer on him. Obviously they lost you when you came back to the temple, but…
“You still need to be careful though. One of these days, those humans are going to get tricky, and put trackers in your eyes or your nerves or something.”
Michiko looked down for a moment. Kasumi’s lips formed a line, and Asuka simply said, “Don’t worry Michiko, we’ll get Shane back next time.”
“Yeah,” Michiko spat, “But when’s next time? Once the elders hear about this, they’ll have a field day about my liability and they might send me back to the academy.’”
The three girls shivered.
Kasumi crumpled the top sheet of paper into a ball and threw it into the trash can. “They’ll find out eventually, but until then, let’s just go ask if we can go on a team mission this time. I got a new lead moment just before you guys came in, and it’s a good one.”
-
High in the sky, there is a mountain. This mountain, unknown to humanity, is called the Ozunoi. Atop this mighty sky mountain is a temple named Ozunoi Temple by its occupants - the Ninja.
Now the Ninja are very much like the ninja we know from Japan… as a matter of fact, they are. No one knows how they got there - they don’t either - but they were there. Their ways haven’t changed much since the era they came from… that is, until recent years.
Up in the sky, this temple has been cut off from civilization for years. It was only until the creation of planes that they were found. You would think that they would be the talk of the world, but for some strange reason, anyone who sees this mountain dies anywhere between a minute or a day of landing. No one seems to see the pattern, but the ruling powers of the world do. Yet, they say nothing: it could be their heads next.
But just because we couldn’t get into their world, doesn’t mean they haven’t been able to get into ours. After the thought of maybe that there is something below them, this civilization sent their own down to scan us, know us, and record us. In their schools, they began teaching an extra classes - Foreign Studies and Transportation 101 - and forced each new generation to study our world and how to get here.
This story begins with three kunoichi - the Ozunoi word for a female ninja - and four shinobi - a male ninja. Two of the boys were twins and two of the girls were twins. The Ozunoi elders were very worried about this: the last time two pairs of twins were born was when a plane almost struck their temple. And to top it off, one of the twin girls had the ability to read minds and the one of the twin boys had the most stunning violet eyes: both a part of a prophecy that would bring an end to the Temple. Unwilling to release the gifted twin girl, seeing as her power would be convenient to have, the elders ordered the violet-eyed infant to be killed.
Thankfully, the father overheard this, and managed to convince one of the transportation ninja to save his child… he knew there was no other way to save him. He wrote the child’s name - Shin - in the only language he knew and was very poor in… English.
Keeping her word, the woman Shin’s father had talked to gave the child to a nice-looking couple. Seeing a name crudely scratched on a scroll, the couple decided to name the child Shane… or at least they thought that’s what the paper said.
Back up at Ozunoi, the other children of Shane’s generation were raised like other children, including the gifted girl - Michiko. Michiko, Asuka, Kasumi, Ryou, Rokuro, and Shou were the only ones of their age: another part of the prophecy. Michiko and Asuka are the twins. They were never told this and were raised seperately. Shou was never told he had a twin. Michiko loved Shou. Not like a man, but like a brother. They were best friends. Each child graduated from the ninja school with their own tops marks.
Asuka was the runner. She preferred to stay out of close hand-to-hand combat but she could do it if she had to. With her powerful legs, she could easily apprehend and kill a person without even blinking. She and Rokuro have been in love for years and work very well together.
Rokuro was the strength. He could break anything and not feel a thing with his ability to stop his nerves from sending messages to his brain. The problem with this is that if he uses his ability too much, his nerves could be permanently disabled. Thus Asuka helps prolong his nerves’ lives by finishing what he started.
Ryou was the weapon specialist. His knowledge of how to clean, use, and make weapons is far beyond his years. He could make anything into a weapon if you gave him a enough time and supply. His problem is that he was more of an reflex fighter and he wasn’t much of a planner. He loves Kasumi.
Kasumi was the healer. She used her sharp mind to both out-maneuver and destroy her opponents. She isn’t very strong, but she can take many hits without slowing down because her medical abilities. She doesn’t like to fight, but she’s the devil with steel strings. She loves and compliments Ryou very much.
Shou was an illusionist and portalist. He wasn’t much of a fighter and many said that he shouldn’t be in the ninja world and that the elder chose the, “wrong twin.” Shou never quite understood what they meant until he got older. Shou was always too much of a dreamer, but Michiko loved that about him.
Michiko is the one that every focused on. She was small and quite quick. Unlike her sister, Michiko is more sadistic and likes to fight. Her power is to read the mind and memories of a person for certain amounts of time. Unfortunately, the more she uses this, she must replace her eyes because of the strain. Kasumi often gives her special powders and liquids to help the exchange.
Shin, if he was properly trained as a ninja, would be the opposite of his brother: he’s not so gentle. Not only would he be an excellent fighter, he would be stubborn and keep getting back up. Though the two are mostly identical twins (eyes), Shin’s aura is more menacing than his brother’s and much more scary. He is a pretty well-rounded person, both in brain and body. He doesn’t mind fighting, but he gets bored easily.
After graduation though, it all went downhill. Shou learns he has a twin; a twin with violet eyes and his face. He immediately tells Ryou, who in turn tells Kasumi. Kasumi doesn’t seem surprised - she had read the scroll containing the prophecy. She tells the two that Michiko and Asuka were probably also twins, seeing as the twosome looked alike and their birthdays were very close.
Shou is enraged. He begs Kasumi to tell him more, and she states that his brother was probably dead: the elders ordered his execution when they were born. He continues to beg the two to keep this a secret from Michiko and Asuka (whom he secretly loves) and to help him with his new mission. He had to find out what happened to his lost kin.
Back on Earth, at the age of 19, Shane is a college drop-out. He’s very bored because school is no challenge for him. He has already conquered most of the gangs and he simply gives up power the moment he has it. His recent thing is drugs and so far, he’s amused. The one thing he doesn’t give up is his guitar, in which anyone could find him playing in an alley. The government, suspicious of his origins ever since elementary school, keep a close eye on him. Shane has a team on him constantly.
Meanwhile, Kasumi slowly figures out the truth for Shou. She tells him that his brother is actually alive because of the begs of his father - who bears several scars on his face to prove he went through punishment. The woman who saved his brother was killed. She says that the boy is currently living on earth by the name of Shane Nakamura, though his Ozunoi name is Shin. Shou is very happy to know that his brother has a name, and he swears on his blood that he will bring Shin back home no matter what.
But before she could tell him more, Shou was summoned for a mission… the very mission that costed Shou’s life. The elders had plotted this murder though and Michiko knew it in her heart.
Michiko, knowing that Ryou and Kasumi were hiding something, asks Asuka to help her. Asuka agrees, and they confront the shinobi and kunoichi. After much bugging and irritation, they agree to tell.
This time Kasumi tells them everything. Asuka is elated that she and Michiko were sisters, but Michiko is devastated. She feels responsible for Shou’s death. Mad with rage and hurt, Michiko swears on her blood that she will bring Shou’s brother back in place of Shou.
So, in secret, the foursome manage to squeeze their missions in with their personal quests. As Michiko claws her way towards Shane, the prophecy continues to brew…
 Ukeire · Tue Dec 22, 2009 @ 01:53am · 0 Comments |
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