(John POV)
'Should I summon more Taimanins to help out? No, it might expose our location if I do that. Ugh! Waiting here while they fight is very nerve-racking,' I thought pacing back and forth while occasionally staring out at the harbor, shifting my weight from foot to foot, occasionally crossing and uncrossing my arms, before doing it all over again.
"It's ok to worry about them John," Kuroyuri said, turning me around to stare into my eyes before she pulled me into a hug, "but you need to be able to trust them that they'll make it out alive. Don't forget that you can bring them back if they die."
"You're right, but it's still nerve-racking being on the sideline," I said, hugging her back, breathing in her sweet scent, and started to relax until I realized that she left out the part where Jubei and Kagero could not be revived. Well, Jubei should be fine, he's got that main protagonist aura around him, maybe. As for Kagero, there's not much I could do from here, though I did tell them what might or might not happen if reinforcements do arrive and hopefully they'll prevent her death from happening.
I closed my eyes, mentally shaking that last thought from my mind as I took another deep breathe of Kuroyuri's scent and wondered why was her waist so squishy. Without even thinking about it, I unconsciously started playing with it and wondered how did she have a muffin top with her stomach being flat.
"John, I know it's one of my best features, but I would prefer if you would save the exploration when we're not behind enemy lines."
Blinking, I moved my head back enough to stare at her in confusion before I realized that my hands weren't at her hips like I thought they were, but lower, more specifically they were on her ass.
"Huh, so it is. It really is a nice ass," I said still playing said ass, enjoying the feeling of her underlying muscles under all that softness until I forced myself to let go, after giving it one last squeeze. "Sorry, I didn't know how that happened."
"It's fine," Kuroyuri said waving off my apology. "Now I know you won't get nervous when I start teaching you about the bedroom arts and how to turn it back on your attacker."
I was about to ask for clarification on what she meant by "bedroom arts" when I felt the hairs at the back of my neck stand up and heard the soft sound of a sharp object cutting through the air.
"Get down!" Kuroyuri suddenly said tackling me to the floor as she landed on top of me, which saved our lives as I heard whatever it was being stopped by the wood bearing with a hard thunk.
Ignoring the painful bump at the back of my head, I stared at the chain above us and followed the weapon as it flew back to that pale looking shadow guy at the other end.
"God dammit Jubei. You had one job to do and you didn't even do it right," I muttered spitting Kuroyuri's hair out of my mouth. 'Well, at least Rinko and everyone else will have 1 enemy less to fight,' I thought trying to look at the bright side.
"You can yell at Jubei later, John," Kuroyuri said keeping an eye on the shadow guy as she helped me get back up.
"I was hoping you would dodge that. Now I can take my time to play with you after I kill the boy," Shijima said, licking his lips before he swiftly entered the shadows as his laughter echoed around us.
"How did you find us?"
"Hehehe, and why should I tell you? It's not like it would matter."
"So it was by luck, then," I said drawing my sword, looking around wearily, standing back to back with Kuroyuri, trying to come up with a plan. At least I had the foresight to give everyone a boost before they left or I would have died without knowing how.
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(Rinko POV)
"Sssss~."
Rinko without even looking cut the venomous snake in half before it had a chance to move more than an inch from the shadows.
She expected enemy ninjas to leap up onto the roof, throw kunias or something while she was in the air or even blowing up the building she's landing on. What she did not expect was snakes and it would have cost her her life if she was anyone else.
She was fortunate enough to be wearing her Taimanin suit when a snake jumped out from the shadows just as she just landed trying and failing to bite through her taima-reinforced suit. She quickly dispatched it and dodged a second one to her left before beheading it.
"Doesn't thia feels a little too easy, Rinko?" Misao asked landing behind her as she looked around wearily.
"Yes, and that's what's worrying me."
"Oh you should be more than a little worried."
Rinko and Misao both tensed as the snake controller, Benisato appeared from the adjacent rooftops shadow.
"I thought you died back at the temple," Rinko said staring at her intently, while discreetly looking for any signs of stitches or stiffness in the body. She wouldn't be surprised if they were using their dead teammates body as a bomb; they did it with Kagero's friend, so why not hers.
"Oh I would have," Benisato agreed, keeping an eye on them as she brought up one hand close to her face as a snake slithered out of her kimonos sleeve, letting it kiss her cheek as she petted it, "but luckily for me, I decided to escape while you were all distracted by my little darling, leaving behind a perfect replacement. After I deal with you both, I'll have a little ''chat" with Yurimaru."
Rinko's eyes narrowed in response before she suddenly disappeared and reappeared behind Benisato sheathing her blade with a click.
Benisato's eyes widen in shock at her disappearance before her expression froze as a thin red line slowly appeared around her neck, forming into a drop of blood that trickled down the side. She fell to her knees with a soft thud before falling on her side, which finally allowed her head to separate from her body, rolling away as the stump erupted in a shower of blood staining the roof.
Rinko stared down at the body in anticipation for a few seconds before relaxing, and blinked at the numerous amount of snakes slithering out of Benisato's clothes.
Without a word, Misao and Rinko killed all the snakes easily enough and destroyed Benisato's body, head included before leaving.
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(Kagero POV)
She looked up to the sky waiting for the passing cloud to block the moonlight. Just as it turned dark, Kagero darted from cover to cover, staying in the shadows the best she could, following the layout from her memories taking the shortest route to the harbor.
She looked back to make sure no one was behind her and winced at the wounds she received from running head long into a wire trap. Luckily it wasn't deep enough to cause any major bleeding thanks to her clothes somewhat protecting her, but it still stung from time to time.
She peaked around the corner to see someone standing over a dead body. She raised her tanto parallel to her body ready to attack from behind before realizing it was Jubei.
"Psst, Jubei."
Jubei jerked, quickly turning around, his sword raised to defend himself as his muscles tensed preparing to move. He soon relaxed as Kagero moved from her spot and walked towards him.
"It's good to see you."
"You too, Kagero. Where's everyone else?"
"We split up in teams of two. I lost track of Midori when we were suddenly ambushed. I don't know where she is, but she knows the plan."
"I see." He said looking at her for a moment before pausing as he saw her wounds, "Your hurt."
"Yes, it's from the ninja wires they set up," She said showing him her wound, "It's certainly annoying and forces me to slow down."
"I saw it from up on the roof. It's only a few streets down that way," Jubei said pointing at a direction in the west.
"You think I'll let you interfere after all the problems you caused me?" Yurimaru asked, suddenly appearing at a nearby rooftop as he raised his hand allowing electricity to spark off traveling to all the wires surrounding them, trapping them in.
They raised their weapons, preparing for the battle of their lives. They shared a look before splitting up going in two different directions, forcing Yurimaru to split his attention between them.
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(John POV)
"Gah! Fuck!" I screamed barely dodging the claw as it grazed my leg forcing me on my knees. I was forced to roll to the side as the claw was recalled passing through were my head would've been, already learned the lesson after the first time.
"John! Are you ok?"
"Y-yeah, tis but a scratch," I said standing back up while keeping some pressure off the injured leg. "Fucker keeps attacking me and it's starting to piss me off."
"Kekeke."
Somehow on the next attack, I managed to move just in time to dodge it as it flew past me and I grabbed hold of the chain. I pulled, trying to drag the fucker out, but I ended up in a stalemate until that fucker retracted his weapon causing me to fall foward.
Kuroyuri using the opening I provided, stabbed downwards as she landed on top of the spot where the chain was coming out from, before jumping away leaving her weapon behind.
We watched with bated breath, waiting for him to do something and something he did.
His form slowly appeared from the shadows and Kuroyuri threw a kunia at his head, the metal sinking halfway in. Blood dripped out from the wound combining with the slowly forming puddle underneath.
"Fucking finally, I didn't think it would be this hard just to kill that guy," I said falling down on my ass feeling a little light headed from all the blood I'm losing from my wounds.
[You leveled up x 16]
[Rinko leveled up x 7]
[Misao leveled up x 14]
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John McClain
Lv. 29-> 45 [2,567/4,500]
HP: 9,060/28,000
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"That was close," I said happy that I leveled up yet disappointed that I don't get to have my health filled back up. Now I have to figure out how to get stronger so this doesn't happen again. Maybe Kiryu Sabato could help with that?
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(Misao POV)
Arriving at the docks, Misao couldn't help but silently marvel at the size of the ship, it was larger than all she has seen in her life. Her mood turned somber thinking about her friends and how they would find this place interesting.
Pushing back her nostalgia, she returned her focus back to the situation at hand, she spotted the boxes being loading up by the crew which was halfway done. Not wanting to waste anymore time, Misao with Rinko following behind ran foward drawing their weapons for the battle.
They were forced to stop when a few familiar bodies of different sizes walked out from one of the store rooms, blocking their path. Narrowing her eyes she tried to search for another way in and spotted a few more bodies stumbling from the sides.
"They're surrounding us, leaving the area behind us open." Rinko said looking from behind.
"They're bombs aren't they?" Misao asked rhetorically, already knowing the answer as a few started steaming as they headed for them.
Rinko using her ninja arts, sliced them apart, causing them to explode, which caused a chain reaction destroying a few others nearby.
"The explosions are smaller than the last one we faced. It's obvious that she traded quality for quantity and if so, it shouldn't be too hard to deal with them all," Rinko noted comparing the two explosions.
"Which leaves the traps that we can't see."