Pov. Mai Shiranui
It's been two weeks since my grandfather told me the truth of what was going on. I was reluctant to believe it, so I decided to see if it was true for myself. So I decided to spar with others in the village.
It was very easy to get all the guys around my age to fight me seriously. All I had to offer them was a kiss if they won, the fact it was so easy said a lot about them as well as that Zhao brat.
'Need to talk about it with grandfather about increasing their espionage training.'
After the sparring, I confirmed that what grandfather said was true. Yes, I won all my spar, but it was much more challenging than before.
Getting the older members of the clan was much more difficult, but in the end, I convinced them that it was all to get me ready as clan leader. After a few fights, it was obvious that I couldn't win against most of them.
After realizing this, I started retraining and got more experience in real sparring matches against the clan members. After a week of this, I decided to spar against Zhao again, but this time, I'll be serious.
"Huh, oh yeah, I forgot to tell you I'm leaving."
Pov. Zhao Zheng
"What do you mean you're leaving? Didn't you want to learn the Shiranui-ryuu Ninjutsu style!" Shouted Mai.
"Yeah, and I already got the gist of it. All I need now is practice," I said as I shadowed boxed as I produced small flames around my fist.
"Huh, wha-, how!" She shouted.
"You're not the only one that knows that fighting style in the village, and since you didn't come back for a rematch, I thought you did want to fight me anymore. So I just sparred with someone else," I said.
"But what about our bet, and you teach me your fighting style. Plus, you still haven't fully mastered the Shiranui-ryuu."
"True, but like I said, what I need right now is more practice, and what better way than real combat. And if you remember correctly, I said you can try to steal my fighting style, not that I would teach you it. As for the bet, I didn't really care for it from the beginning," I said as I started to walk towards the exit of the village.
"Wait a minute. I worked hard for this. You can't just leave. And even if you don't care about the bet I do," she said as she got in my way.
"And how is that my problem," I said.
"I, yo-, gahhh, you just can't leave until we spar again," she said as she stomped her feet and threw a fit.
"Sigh, here catch," I said as I threw her something.
As she caught it, I rushed up to her and grabbed her hand. I then flipped her behind but made sure she didn't get hurt too badly when she landed on her back.
"That makes two dates you owe me and consider that a thank you for the help no matter how miniscule it was," I said as I walked away.
"Are you sure you want to leave?" Asked Lucy as she popped out of nowhere.
'Yup, I got what I came for, and I have other business to attend to.'
"But isn't she a top tier waifu?"
'Yes, but like I said before, I'm not really after all the waifu's I meet. Sure, I'll probably try to hook up with most of them, but if I can't, then it doesn't matter. This isn't pokemon, and I don't care enough to become a waifu master.'
"But you haven't mastered the Shiranui-ryuu Ninjutsu style yet. So wouldn't it be better to stay?"
'Like I said, I've already got most of the basics. All that's left is practice, and what better practice than real combat experience. Plus, I really have other things to do.'
"Fine, then what's next?"
'Hope you like vodka, comrade,' I said with a smirk.
Pov. Mai
As I lay on my back and watched him walk away, a lot of things were going through my mind, but the main thing was that I was thinking that I was going to kill him.
"Coward," I said silently to myself as he disappeared into the forest as I was getting up.
Looking at what he tossed at me, it was a scroll. Opening it, I see pictures of people fighting. The name on top Chi You – Armor Form was written. The writing on the bottom said, "This is only one part of my fighting style and the most suitable for you, but I doubt you'll even be able to learn that with your attitude. Good luck."
"You better watch out next time we meet. I'll take all your techniques."
‐-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Three days later
Somewhere in eastern Europe, a small plane was flying in treble weather.
"Okay, we're over your target. Get the vodka and get ready to jump!" Shouted the pilot.
"We're not landing!" Shouted the passenger.
"Are you crazy it's a war zone down there, but I'll get as low as possible so you will be able to jump without dying!"
"What about a parachute!?"
"That's what the vodka for, we-"
Bang, bang, bang
"Yebat, I'll kill those fuckers for shooting at us! Whatever, just jump when I say!"
As the plane lowered its altitude more shots were trying to hit it.
"JUMP!!!"
As something fell out of the plane it quickly gained altitude as it turned around.
"Good luck you crazy fuck," said the pilot as he laughed to himself.
Pov. Zhao Zheng
As I jumped out of the plane I used strings as stepping platforms to make my way to the ground.
"Last time I hire a Russian pilot to take me to a warzone," I said to myself.
"He was the only one willing to take you to a war zone so don't complain," said Lucy.
As I looked at my surroundings making sure there were no threats present, I was in a snow covered forest.
I start walking forward with a bottle of vodka in my hand. After a short walk I made my way outside the forest onto a cliff overlooking to see a city at war with itself. It seemed there were gunfights on each block, houses were set ablaze, and many civilians were running to try to find a safe place. Unfortunately from what I could see there were no safe places to hide in the city.
"It seems like they're done playing with this country. Well that works for me the less they care about this place the more likely I would be able to find something on them."
This country was a small but peaceful place before the Illuminati got their hands on it. They wanted to experiment with it, the fact that it was small and slightly isolated made it easier for them to control. And when they were done with it they threw the country into a civil war to cover up their involvement.
"It's sad that this isn't the first country they've done this to, it also won't be their last if someone doesn't give them a good ass kicking," said Lucy.
It was true this wasn't the Illuminati's first time doing this since their end goal was world domination they had to do countless tests to see how they would go about it. And unfortunately small isolated countries were the dest testing grounds for them to get a jest of what to and not to do.
As I made my way to the city I saw the dead bodies of soldiers, civilians, and rebels. Weapons were also tossed around the streets so I picked one up. It was an Ak-47, the gun of choice for the slavic people.
"Why are you picking up a gun? It's not like you need it," asked Lucy.
'I don't need to do a lot of things but I do them because I want to. In this case I want to shoot at my enemies with Ak-47.'
"Mortals," said Lucy as she rolled her eyes.
As I made my way through the war torn city I had to kill several people. But I tried to keep the killings to a minimum since I'm here to gather evidence not fight a war. So I only killed those that tried to kill me, I even saved a few people that were going to get killed.
"Hey, do you hold a grudge against God for killing you?" Lucy asked as she was staring at the dead bodies on the street.
'Not really'
"Really, most humans would hold a grudge. Or they'll have regrets or worries about dying."
'Well I didn't grow up in the nicest of neighborhoods, don't get me wrong it wasn't like this where there are dead bodies every other step on the streets. But it was the kind of place where you would learn of the concept of death from a young age. So I tried to live my life with as few regrets as possible. Plus my life wasn't exactly the best, wasn't the worst either but it wasn't easy and it wasn't getting any easier with the way the world was going.'
"Then what about family members and loved ones, humans always tend to worry about them."
'The only one I would be worried about would be about my mom but my siblings would help her out. As for the problems my death would bring, they would be minimal since I had quite a bit of savings and life insurance so they wouldn't have many problems. And I didn't have a girlfriend at the time so no problems there.'
"With the way you acted around women I thought you had a girlfriend before you died."
'It's not like I never had a girlfriend, but I just didn't have one at the time of my death so it's not like I'm not used to being around women. Plus the fact that most women I run into nowadays have a different mindset set to those in my old world makes it easier to get along with them.'
As we were talking I came across a group of rebels firing on a pinned down group of soldiers. From the looks of it the soldiers had some civilians with them so they also had their hands full keeping the civilians calm so they wouldn't panic and cause them more trouble.
So I went around the back of the rebels and started firing behind them.
Pov. Third person
"We can't hold them back forever! Where's that back up we requested!?" Shouted a soldier over gun fire.
"We're on our own! The whole city has turned into a war zone, they don't have enough people for everyone!" Shouted a soldier back.
"Running out of ammo here!"
"There's more enemy reinforcements!"
"We need a medic!"
"Fuck, Fuck, Fuck!"
Throughout all the chaos and the soldiers shouting there was a group of civilians huddling up together trying to get as low to the ground as they possibly could. Strangely enough none of them was making a noise, not even the children. As if they believed made the slightest noise the bullets themselves would know where they were hiding and kill them.
And yet all you had to do is look at their faces to realize they were seconds from losing it. None of them was calm as they let on, not by a long shot. If even one of them panicked it would set off the rest of them. The only thing keeping them from losing it was a soldier trying her best to keep them calm.
"Does anyone have any more ammo, I'm out!"
"Here, it's the last mag we got so make it count!" Shouted another soldier as he tossed him a magazine.
"Everything is okay, we will beat those awful bullies back," said the soldier with as calm a voice she could muster to the children in the group.
"Captain, something is going on with the enemy's!"
"What are they doing!?"
"It doesn't matter what they are doing there getting out of coverage, SHOOT THEM!" Shouted the captain.
For some unknown reason they couldn't understand the rebels were getting out of cover. Knowing this was their only chance to survive they started shooting those that could. Suddenly they heard several explosions, it looked like someone tossed several grenades behind enemy cover.
"I thought we ran out of grenades!?"
"We did, it seems we got that back up after all, don't let this chance slip, KILL THEM ALL! Shouted the captain.
"AYYYYY!!!" Shouted all the soldiers with renewed confidence.
"See I told you it would be alright, our soldiers are the toughest there is," she said, causing hope to reappear in the civilians faces.
After a short while all the rebels were killed and after making sure the area was cleared of hostiles they allowed them to relax a little as they waited to see who saved them. But they made sure to not completely relax due to being in the middle of a warzone.
Soon they saw their reinforcements and were shocked due to it only being one man. Though they were thankful for the help they were also confused due to the fact of how he looked. He was wearing a black trench coat, black suit, purple tie and black shoes. But the strangest thing was the mask he was wearing, it looked like a jester mask with what looked like a purple centipede pattern going down the right of its face.
"Captain what do we do?" Asked one of the soldiers.
"For now nothing but don't drop your guard, I doubt he's come here just to save our ass's," he said with a serious face.
He came close enough so they could hear him but stayed far enough so they wouldn't get too nervous.
"Go that way to get out of the city and save those civilians. I killed most of the people that would want to kill your group, but don't let your guard down," he said as he pointed in a certain direction.
"Thank you for your assistance and if it's possible could you take the civilians to safety? Since we have a duty to continue to fight the rebels to protect our country," said the captain, not bringing up the strangeness of this situation.
"Sorry I can't do that, I have some business to attend to," said the masked man.
"And what sort of business is that?" Asked the captain as the tension grew among his men.
"Sigh, look I don't want to fight you since it could put the civilians in danger. And if you want to keep fighting for your country then I suggest you leave this place and survive since your country ended a long time ago."
"What do you mean by that?"
"You know what I mean more than I do, you live in this country after all," said the masked man, not caring that the soldiers around him were getting ready to shoot at him.
"..... You're sounding an awfully lot like those rebels, next you're going to be saying our government is being controlled by some shady group," said the captain after staying silent for a short time as he put his hand on his pistol ready to draw it out at a moment's notice.
The man just chuckled like he just heard a funny joke.
"They're even worse than you lot, unlike your group that refuses to accept the truth due to pride, stubbornness, logic, or some other reason they believe the lies they've been fed."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Have you really not thought about it? The fact that your country's proud and strong army has been pushed to this point. Sure it's not like it's the strongest army in the world but do you really think a ragtag group of rebels was able to turn your capital city into a war zone with just a can-do attitude and the power of friendship in such a short time."
"..... You don't mean"
"Ding, ding, ding we have a winner. Yes they've had their fun playing their games with your country and now it's time to clean up. But then how to make sure no information gets out?"
"They burn everything to ash."
"Two for two, but don't feel bad this isn't their first time doing this and it won't be their last. Your country didn't stand a chance, so I suggest you take those civilians and get out of here," said the masked man with all the playfulness in his voice gone by the end of his sentence.
"You expect to believe all that."
"Believe it or not I don't care"
"Then why tell us all this?"
"Well seeing how you're acting I doubt you would have let me pass this point without a good reason. And I would hate to kill you all for no reason which would also lower the chance of those civilians getting out of here alive."
"So you think you can take me and my man by yourself?"
"....." the man didn't say anything but his silence gave them an oppressive feeling.
"Captain what do we do?" Asked one of the soldiers.
"... sigh, pick up all the equipment we can carry, we're getting out of here."
"But captain"
"I already made my decision, our first and more important mission is to protect the civilians so we're getting out of here."
"Good luck," said the man as he walked past them.
"Captain, everything is packed up and we're ready to go," said a soldier after a few minutes of packing their equipment.
"Good, let's get out of here and get this people to safety."
"Yes Sir!"
"What someone's missing," said the captain after looking over his men.
When he said that a child went up to him.
"Mister, miss soldier when after that man saying something about the truth," said the kid.
"Dammit," he said as he looked at the direction where the man headed towards.
Turning his head and looking at the civilians and that direction a few times before saying "Dammit, let's go."
"Captain, are you sure?" Asked a soldier.
"Yes, let's go. Hopefully, she stays safe with that guy with her."
As they departed, the captain faced that direction one last time before whispering, "Good luck."