And here's part 2 where we meet another member of the family
It must have come as quite a surprise when he attempted to plunge a sword into my back and it plunged but didn't go into my back but somewhere else instead
Ryu performed the distraction perfectly, making the woman turn exposing her back to Kayju's heart thrust. Then things just went wrong, the thrust was made but nothing happened, only a strange static electric feeling, the hairs on his arms raising, then the hair on his head and then there was an all-enveloping explosion of sound, light, pain.. then nothing.
They were good, they actually surprised me, I knew that they were there, I knew they would try to kill me but they still surprised me. However my natural energy field shifted the sword's strike into the other space and then that portion of the Dragon that resides within our family got angry.
Being hit by lightning is quite enervating, it clears negative chi and opens the sinuses. Of course I'm used to it, the three would be assassins however weren't and their smoking' slumped still jerking bodies were evidence to this. At least they were still alive sometimes the Dragon is not as careful as I would like.
My immediate thoughts were twofold, the safety of my mother and grandfather and what to do with the three unconscious men who would soon be starting to come around. I needn't have worried, already approaching were a group of our neighbours and friends led by the redoubtable Madame Li, five foot of insulted Chinese dignity and irascibility, shouting " Miss Vanille, Miss Vanille you ok ,what these bad men do?". The men even as they woke found themselves being harangued and cuffed around their heads, in that way only small elderly women seem to be able to do and cowed into submission. I knew that I could return later to find them still being browbeaten by women not unlike their mothers and grandmothers. I did not envy them.
Of course I really did not need to worry about my mother or grandfather, they are two of the scariest people on this or any other planet. What can I say my mother is the current residence of the full power of the Jade dragon, protector of the Imperial line of China, of course there is no Imperial line left, so he protects us, I think because he actually rather likes us and we amuse him. Now grandfather is old , really really old, he won't even admit to how old he is, though things the Dragon has said, especially when he told me stories as a child suggest hundreds of years old, maybe even more. Grandfather is also a true master of chi, he has taught me things that would make your hair curl. He can manipulate not only his own chi but also that of those around him as well, to the uninitiated he might as well as be some sort of magician, oh and did I mention he can use any style of kung fu and any weapon. He scares me at times but of course he is my granddad and I love him to bits.
I centred myself to feel where they were, where their chi was, ah granddad was at his teahouse, interestingly it took a wider search to find Mother, she was in Japan, so she must be visiting the source of this current trouble.
Which sent me back to look at the would be assassins, a quick rummage through their kit, revealed that they were Black Lotus clan ninjas, expensive to hire, with a good reputation. This made me glad that they had not been reduced to smoking greasy spots, this might seem a strange attitude towards people who only a few minutes previously had been trying to kill me but these were only hired guns, their attempt would have fulfilled their obligations under their contract and they did not deserve to die for the stupidity of their oyabun.
I left them to their fates with my neighbours and headed towards my Grandfathers teahouse, my curiosity piqued at what my mother would find out.
And here is part 3
Mai Li, the Hidden Jade Dragon, observed the man at his large western style desk, he was apparently watching something on a computer screen intently. She was not impressed, he had no sense she was there, so she took advantage to take a tour of his office.
It was strange to find such a westernised room in what was a beautiful Edo period building, elsewhere in the house it was all tatami and gorgeous painted sliding paper screens. There was a wealth of exquisite pottery in one room, obviously set up as a tea ceremony room. The dichotomy had surprised her, this oh so solid room ensconced within this luminous, traditional house.
She had wondered at first if this was truly the Oyabun of the Black Lotus clan but it was, it would seem that even ninjas are not immune to the inexorable rise of the accountant.
She drifted through the air unseen, as she entered flying over the curtain wall, past sensors and tripwires as if they weren't even there. she could of course have ridden in on the electricity supply but she wanted to see the building, to gain a sense of her surroundings in case she had to fight her way out.
She brought a spark of electricity to her finger and flicked it at the man, sat there in this double breasted Armani suit, it crackled as it his neck, overloading his nervous system and reducing him to a jerking, twitching mess. She then allowed her stealth to drop, so she appeared floating in front him, a figure in a bright, apple green silk cheongsam style dress, deeply embroidered with an imperial dragon curling around her body in a figure hugging form.
" Now, now Oyabun of the Black Lotus, what did you think would happen when you sent your Genin against the Jade Dragon Triad?"
Saying which she leant swiftly forward across the desk to jab her long bright green polished fingernail into a nerve cluster in his neck, paralysing him from that point down. Sparks started to curl up from her feet, slowly floating upwards, spiralling round her, until they were circling round her head like a crown. Jabbing her fingernail deeper and twisting, she induced waves of pain in the Oyabun.
"Who hired you? Who thought they could endanger my family? Though to be honest all they have achieved is to attract my attention, which they will regret!"
The Oyabun drew a ragged breath and through clenched teeth he said,
"My Lady, we did not know, we were only given to identify our targets and where to find you in Hong Kong, if we had known, we would never have taken the contract", he gasped, "I of course cannot reveal who hired our clan but they dishonoured us in the way they deceived us, so I will say that, though they dressed as Chinese, they stank of hamburgers, amongst themselves, when they thought we could not hear they spoke in English. They talked of punishing the family of those girls who had transgressed against them."
The woman nodded, bowed slightly and replied,
"Hai Oyabun your honour is restored, where we can we will return your clan brothers to you unharmed, this of course may not be entirely possible but if reparation needs to be made you may contact me here."
With that she laid a small embossed card upon the desk and disappeared.
The card bore only two things, a Jade Green Imperial Chinese dragon and an eight digit number.
If you want to see why the Black Loyus were hired http://twitter.com/BombGirl
Here's the first part of a longer story, it's been written a while but I write long hand and it's a pain transcribing stuff into the computer, so we'll have to see about the other parts
The story itself could be in the CoX universe..or maybe in another... the characters however are in CoX.
A Tiger by the Tail part1
They had been following, observing the target for two weeks now and this morning finally they had been given the order from their oyabun to kill him.
They did not reflect on why their oyabun wanted, an apparently harmless, rather doddery old man dead, so their lord decreed , so it would be done.
They had decided that, after reviewing their information, their two weeks of close observation of his routine, that they would kill him after he had had his early morning walk, after he had completed what business he did and while he was enjoying his morning tea at the quiet teahouse near his home. This teahouse was sufficiently secluded to ensure no interruptions, while offering them enough avenues of egress, a seemingly perfect place to do what they needed to do.
They had covered every angle, done their research, down to what tea he drank, in the morning it was a delicate dawn-picked silvertip white tea from Fujian province in China. The one tasked to find this out had pronounced it the finest tea he had ever tasted. The old man followed only a loose routine, he seemed to enjoy wandering and talking to the people in the area round his house, invariably however after at most a couple of hours he would retire to the teahouse for an hour or so before resuming.
His house was decided as being too difficult a place to carry out the killing, as people were forever coming and going during the day, and at night it's position, at the end of a cul de sac would mean that with only one real way of egress they would be more likely to be noticed. So it was decided that the quiet teahouse was the obvious place to do what they needed to do. They did know that others of their clan were in Hong Kong to carry out other killings, which seemed to be linked with their task, this morning they had received the order to carry out the killing and they presumed the others too had received the order to complete their business this day.
The old man sat, as he usually did in the courtyard of the tea house, at a small table slightly out from the intricately overhanging roof, in a small patch of sunshine sipping his tea apparently enjoying the moment. Slowly, silently they manoeuvred themselves into position, the three members of the clan positioned themselves correctly, following their training immaculately, Tetsu was now above the target, Tanto ready to drop on the target, plunging the sword through his chest from above piercing his heart. Kyo was ready if needed to provide a distraction and he, Miko, was the supposedly unneeded fallback, he closely observed the old man, readying himself to give the signal to Tetsu.
He gently inhaled ready to give the signal, when he saw it, he was studying the old man intently, looking for that relaxation, instead he saw it there in his eye, behind the battered, twisted glasses was a glint, a seeming fire, a flash that said all too much. They thought they had come to slaughter cattle, now he knew everything they thought they knew was wrong. This seemingly frail old man, was not the prey, he was a tiger and they were in its lair. That glint, a faint distant sound of thunder from the perfectly clear blue sky and the old man seemed to change, all sign of dodderiness fell away, he was centred, contained within himself and even as Tetsu dropped, the old man looked directly into Miko's eyes, wagged a long nailed finger at him and moved.
He only seemed to shift slightly but that meant Tetsu was struggling to land his blow, Kyo reacting quickly through his kunai, the old man was like lightning, reaching out plucking them from the air and in one smooth movement, he span turning and plunged them into the dropping Tetsu's eyes. He crashed to the ground, lifeless and in a blink of an eye the old man was on Kyo, there was a blur of movement, a hint of an inky blackness and Kyo in turn slumped, bonelessly to the ground.
Before Miko could draw his sword fully, the old man was on him, striking him with hardened fingers, once, his right arm was dead, twice, his left leg collapsed under him, third, pain exploded over him and blackness took him.
He came to, to see the old man crouched next to him, sipping from a gently steaming cup of tea, he could smell the delicate fragrance over the flinty smell of the courtyards floor. He found he could not move, it was if his body was dead to him, he couldn't even blink.
"Ah so you return to the land of the living young man, I think your oyabun has failed you, let me see you are from the Black Lotus clan, hmm your training was good, you prepared properly, your plan was good, even well executed, unfortunately however your initial information was woefully inadequate. I take it that you do not know who I am?....Aaah that was not meant to be rhetorical..."
Miko felt a sharp pain and he gasped, he could feel his mouth again.
"Well young man did your oyabun tell you who your target was?"
Carefully Miko answered "no Sir ", he felt that given his position a degree of respect was in order.
" Ah I thought so, though I suppose he may not truly have known himself if his client did not properly disclose it, eh!...I still do think he should have checked not just taken the money" he chuckled.
" No sir I do know we were hired by someone else but we only received an address and pictures to identify you, I am only second rank in the clan I am not privy to more information than that."
" Well I will show you some respect, possibly more than you deserve and then depending on how well you answer my questions I will decide your fate. I am Master Tan Xi, number one in the Jade Dragon Triad, the only true triad left in this sorry world."
Oh by the way you can see Master Tan Xi over on my deviant page look in the gallery @sekmet-CoH