Round 4: Ultimatum

[Raigyo]

Hearing the rustling coming from behind him Sei let out an annoyed huff. So the guy was smart enough to not bother with his bunshin. Good for him. Glancing back as the kunai threatened to cut his Achilles tendon he simply jumped to the side to avoid it. Sighing as he watched the man land just ahead of him Sei came to a sliding halt. "Looks like I can't play it safe anymore," the blonde haired brawler sighed to himself.

Canceling the bunshin all three of them would fall into useless puddles of water on the ground. Reaching behind his back he pulled out two black gauntlet like gloves and his tanto. Slipping on the gauntlets with the sharpened nails he kicked off the ground, and darted towards Hanz. As he narrowed in on the Shinobigatana a sound caught his attention from behind him, which caused him to suddenly break his dash and jump back.

A shadow appeared a few feet in front of Hanz, and grew increasingly big by the second. "ORAAAAA~!!" Gan roared as he dropped down onto the earth. Standing up erect he pointed his finger directly at Hanz's head. "Oi, as soon as I take care of you. You're pretty little girlfriend's fittin' to get it," he said as he pounded his fists together. With a big ol' grin across his face his body flickered before reappearing behind Hanz, attempting a sweeper kick to knock the young Swordsman to the ground.

Slinking behind a tree Sei would stay at a reasonable distance from the fight. With Gan's sudden appearance he felt no reason to enter into the frey. Why get himself killed when there was somebody else willing to do it for him?

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As the two entered into the house they would find it to be quiet. Eerily quiet, the kind of quiet you find yourself in just before something really bad happens in a horror movie. Though, this was real life. Which meant that things could only turn out even worse.

Seemingly emerging from the shadows Raigyo quietly closed the door behind them, making sure that they'd hear it once they it was closed. He then leaned against the door with his arms crossed and a smirk on his face. "Boo," was all he would say after they more than likely turned around to see the cause of the sound.

[so|NY|]

"Shit..." Having missed his mark, Hanz would simply watch as the man prepared himself for round 2 of their little confrontation. With the bunshins returning to the state from which they came, it was now a one on one battle. Hanz's right foot shuffled outward a ways so that his feet were shoulder width apart. Lowering his ass a bit by bending at the knees he was ready to take this man head on when suddenly he punked out. Then it became obvious why he did so. A meteor landed between the two of them. Standing up straight, he looked at the man as he pointed at him. Tilting his head to the side, his left eyebrow raised up a little ways as he gave the man a confused face. Apparently this was some kind of tag team match. This man had regained his conscious apparently and was ready to hit someone.

"Girlfriend? Humph...I'm just trying to smash."

His bloodline would be become active at this point to even the odds a bit. His tail would not become visible just yet though. As the man disapperead, Hanz heard the dirt behind him get disturbed. Looking over his shoulder, his peripheral vision made note of where the first one went off to. Making a mental note, he wouldn't turn his back. Instead, he shifted his weight to his right foot and pivoted so that he was facing his left. With this man immediately to his left and the other somewhere to the right, he realized that no one was chasing Shikome. Now considering the fact that they had been trying so hard before and now had diverted their attention to him it made him wary. His left knee would come up as his thigh would be parallel with the ground to avoid the sweep. Extending his leg out with great force, he would counter attack the sweeping opponent, but would not stick around for much longer than that. Something didn't feel right.

Remembering that the blonde dude was talking to someone on a radio while the other man was going for a little swim, that meant that there was someone else. Placing his hand on his scabbord guard, he would cover the top hole before pressing up on the tsuba with his thumb. Now that Shikome was clear of the area, he wouldn't have to worry about affecting her too much. A genjutsu would be unleashed upon the two of these men as a high pitched frequency would emit from the sword. Suddenly, there was a swarm of Hanzatsu's.

Going from one Shinobigitana to ten would no doubt liven things up for them a bit. Hanz himself would would close his sword before shunshining to his right. 4 would head toward the tree to deal with the blonde guy. 3 for the hot headed one. And then 3 would scatter, as well as the real Hanz. He would appear to take off deeper into the park, however, seeing as how it was an illusion, one of them was in fact "inside of him". They would split into two, one being real, the other seeming real. Hanz gave chase to Shikome. He realized that this was simply a diversion. She was still in danger.

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[S h i k o]

As soon as the door closed, Shikome turned and pushed Izumida behind her. Dread stuck in her throat as she saw Raigyo's form leaning against the only entrance and exit that wasn't the window. She could prolong this meeting and ask him what the hell he was doing here, but that would be redundant. She knew exactly why he was there. And exactly why she had to fight for Izumida.

"You just don't give up, do you?" she asked, teeth clinched tight. "This has nothing to do with Izumida. This is between me and The Boss."

At this point, her mind was racing. She couldn't keep saying no, but she was too stubborn to say yes. No one dictated what she did, especially not Raigyo.

"I know why you're here. You have 30 seconds to make your demands, and I'll decide whether or not to kick your ass up and down this apartment and then chuck yo' ass out the window."

[Raigyo]

Raigyo's smirk seemed to grow a little wider after hearing her little threat. Part of him wanted to simply wait for those thirty seconds to pass so that she could attempt it. Though, that'd have to be something he'd do on his own time. Right now, he was on The Boss's time which meant he didn't have time to play around.

Leaning forward he took a few steps towards Shikome, and then looked down at Izumida. "See, you have nobody but yourself to blame. Had you simply complied with The Boss's demands your brother wouldn't have been involved at all," he said as he turned his attention back to Shikome. "But I digress, your parents owe a lot of money to us. So, since they're not here it's up to you to pay it off. You have two options Shikome," Raigyo explained as he pointed down to Izumida.

"Give us the kid as payment for your father. Or you can come back to the Advisory Board and work off the debt," he said before letting out an amused huff. "It'd be just like old times."

[S h i k o]

"Like [expletive deleted], [expletive deleted], [expletive deleted], [expletive deleted], [expletive deleted] it will!" Shikome exclaimed, pressing her hands on Izumida's ears as she swore.

"I know how you assholes work. That covenant is a life time contract. And I'm not signing my life away. You can forget that [expletive deleted] [expletive deletd]."

She uncovered Izumida's ears. "However. I will pay my father's debt to protect my brother. But I'm not signing the covenant."

If there was a way that could work, she'd make it work. But there was no way she was going to sell her soul to the Underground.

[Raigyo]

Raigyo laughed a little as she began to swear at him. It wasn't so much that he thought of her as a joke, but it just brought back memories. "Ah," he said as his laughing died down. "There's the Demon-chan I used to know and love," he said as he walked past Shikome and stopped in front of the table. Reaching into his jacket he pulled out a brown scroll.

"Look, I'll throw you a bone here," he said as he pressed the scroll onto her chest. "It's a temporary contract. Basically, it says that you'll be returning to the Underground to be paying off the debt," he explained. "Some details can be negotiated later."

[S h i k o]

"Keep your filthy fingers off of me," she spat venomously as he tried to cop a feel when he handed off the temporary contract.

Shikome snatched the scroll from him and turned to make sure her body faced him, and that Izumida stayed behind her at all times. Then, she shuffled him over to the couch and motioned for him to sit, and then she sat herself down. She'd have to read this thoroughly. The proprietors of T.U. were not exactly the most honest people to make deals with. She unrolled the scroll and examined it for a few minutes, over and over, searching for catches and fine print. It was clean.

As clean as something this illegal could get.

"Fine," she finally said, biting her thumb enough to break the skin and let a tiny drip of blood gush forth. She signed her initials on the bottom, and the scroll rolled itself up and sealed itself immediately. She palmed it, and held it out to the standing Raigyo.

"Now get the hell out of here."

[Raigyo]

After Shikome snatched the scroll from him Raigyo sneered as she turned her back to him. He'd remain silent though. This was a critical time, and he wasn't about to have it fucked up by one of his little side comments. So, while she read over the scroll again and again he just crossed his arms and waited. A smug look appeared on his face as she signed the contract with her blood.

It was done.

"Pleasure doing business with you," he said as he took the scroll from her, and returned it to its place in his jacket. Reaching behind him he pulled out his radio and opened it to all frequencies. "Mission accomplished. Now get back to base," he said as he walked towards the apartment door and opened it. "See you soon," he said as he waved and exited the building.

[so|NY|]

Hanz knew that he wasn't the target of those two so he wasn't surprised when he didn't see them again. Reaching the building that Shikome and Izumida lived in, in his hurry he almost knocked a man over. Throwing his shoulder back, he would eye the man suspiciously as he was exiting the building. He didn't know who it was, or where he was coming from, but something set off his spidey senses.

Ignoring it, he made his way to the door that had been left open a crack. Pushing it open, he would finally come to a halt. Considering the fact that he was resistant to heat, despite all of that running he still hadn't even broken a sweat. Standing in the door way and seeing the two of them on the couch, Hanz stepped in the room.

"Kome...You got some esplainin to do."

Desi Arnaz was somewhere turning over in his grave for this terrible Ricky Ricardo impression. Closing the door behind him, he walked forward and leaned up against the wall in the living room. Placing one foot on it, his hand dug into his pockets as he searched back and forth between the two of them.

"Somebody start talkin."

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[S h i k o]

When Raigyo left, Shikome jumped up and did a once-over of the house, searching for any exploding tags, hidden people, or whatever, and when she thought the place was secure - or at least as secure as it was before he got in - she came back and sat beside Izumida, then placed her face in her hands. What had she gotten herself into? What had her father gotten his kids into? Should she have left when they left? But what kind of life would they have had on the run? This just wasn't fair.

Then suddenly, she was startled by Hanz entering the room, and demanding answers. The fact still stood that he was a Shinobigatana, one of Shou's chosen few. If she was now contracted with T.U., it wasn't in her best interest to be responsible for snitching. Then again, maybe he was the only person who could get her out right now.

She decided to take that chance.

"You got decade to spare?"

[so|NY|]

A smirk rested upon the lips of the shinobigitana member. It was would seem as though this was a long story. That was a given from the jump though. People just didn't try and kidnap people because it's fun to do. Well...crazy people do. But these dudes were organized. Crazy people usually aren't. There's simply no method to madness.

"I'm listenin."

Tiltling his head, he puckered his lips as his hand would open inside of his hoodie to grab at his stomach. As he bit the inside of his cheek his stomach rumbled and groaned like a disgruntled employee. Hanz still hadn't eaten.

"You ain't happen to grab that chicken on the way back, did ya?"

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[S h i k o]

Shikome blinked for a moment, mouth agape as he made the comment about the food. Was he serious? A part of her actually wanted to laugh, though, and a smile met with her lips.

"You are something else, you know that?"

The girl grabbed Izumida by the hand and led him to his room. "Pack your stuff. We're getting out of here." Then, she headed back to the kitchen where she opened the cabnet and pulled out some insta-ramen. "I hope you like the packaged stuff, because this is all we have right now. They're 10 for a dollar, so you know how that goes," she called into the common area. 'A dollar? What the hell is that?' she thought to herself. She poured water into a pot, sat it on the stove, and then dumped the ramen noodles into it. It was so strange to be making ramen right now. After all that, her hands should have been shaking.

And they were.

But doing this right now for him was calming her. It was giving her something to do with her pent up anxiety and adrenaline. After she started it boiling, she headed back into the front room. "Sorry I don't have much to offer you. But I figure if you're truly hungry, you'll eat what's in front of you, no?"

Enough small talk. Get into it.

But it was harder than she thought. Shikome wasn't exactly the best at talking about herself or her feelings. But, now that Hanz knew at least this much made her feel a lot less awkward. Maybe telling the whole story would finally make her feel better.

"Okay. You ever heard of the illegal street fights going on in Kiri? The ones that Shou passed that decree on? Yeah, I'm sure you have. You're a shinobigatana. Well...that's who those guys were. Fighters."

Shikome had done so much talking up to this point. Or, at least she felt like she had. She took a breath an let it all sink in for a moment.

[so|NY|]

Instant ramen. Well...so much for tempura. At this point though he just needed something edible. Everytime he swallowed his stomach whispered a thank you. Taking a deep breath, he followed her into the kitchen. Looking at a counter, he eased himself up onto it and watched her as she went about making the noodles. Honestly he could've went home and made it himself, but he appreciated her doing it for him.

Lifting his feet, he wiggled his toes back and forth for a moment or two before letting them drop. Licking his lips, he placed his elbows on his knees and then leaned forward a bit. Tilting his head, he paid close attention for when she finally got started. As an interrogation specialist, he knew she was stalling, but as she got serious, he did the same. The Underground was something that had gotten out of hand. He read over the investigation into them once or twice but nothing really stood out in his mind.

"Ok. So what's an organization like that want with Izu-kun?"

He had an idea that it wasn't Izumida that they were after. Thinking about it for a second, he would switch the question up a bit.

"No--What's your involvement with them."

Might as well cut to the chase. Hanz didn't speak while he was eating, so he had roughly three minutes to get some answers.

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[S h i k o]

Shikome leaned back on the counter next to him, using her elbows as support. She knew this question was coming. Frustrated, she let her head drop back, then cracked it to the left, then the right, and looked back up at the wall straight across from her. "Well, my dad used to be a bookie. He took bets and paid winnings depending upon results and, depending on the nature of the bet, the odds." She was sure he knew what a bookie was, but she didn't want to spare any details right now. "Anyway, he got into some trouble himself, digging his own debt with The Boss, the guy in charge of all that. So, he high tailed it out of Kiri, taking my mom with him, and trying to take us, but I said no and stayed with Izumida. I'm no punk. Besides, they weren't looking for me..."

She stood straight up and walked over to the pot she'd made the ramen in and tossed it in the sink angrily. "...I can't lie. I was into the fighting too. I've been fighting down there since I was a genin. I...have this technique...that made me...yeah."

She turned back to him and walked back over, standing in front of his sitting place.

"To make a long story short, they want me back, and they're using my dad's debt to get me back in. Izumida was gonna be collateral." She paused and clasped her hands together. "I could have my throat slit for talking to you right now, but at this point, I just don't think I give a fuck."

Her eyes met with his as she tried to gauge his reaction. He probably thought she was more trouble than she was worth, but she wasn't going to lie to him anymore.

"So if you wanna get as far away from me as possible, I would completely understand. Heck, I don't even think I wanna be around myself right now."

[so|NY|]

Looking at her as she eased beside him, her hands weren't shaking as visibly as they had been previously. This meant that she was calming down a little. Maybe it was doing good for her to get it off of her chest. It made sense. The children would have to pay for the sins of the father, but it wasn't that simple. They would have been trying to capture both, but they were obviously simply going for the boy. Leverage. It played over and over in his mind the situation and the story and then it all came together. As she turned back to him and confessed her involvement with them, that's when it all made sense to him. Usually, criminals simply marked their target and then took it out.

"So the rose has a lot more than thorns eh?"

He chuckled to himself as he lifted his legs and wrapped them around her thighs. Bringing her closer to him, he leaned back and propped himself with his arms locking behind him. It wasn't that he was scared. He knew that no harm would come there way. Leaning to the right, he peeked into the hallway and then moved back to looking her in the face.

"You think I got where I am by running?"

Taking the time to let her eyes see his when he had his game face on, he searched back and forth between hers for a second before raising a brow. The playful careless look would return to them. Hanz was many things, but a coward wasn't one of them. Now was the hard part though. Having a grip on the situation, he wasn't sure what her options were and he couldn't really sympathize with her position.

"So what you gonna do?"

It was a simple question, but he knew that the answer wouldn't be so simple.

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