Chapter 81

Almost Immediately, the Ex-Foot Clan Shinobi opened fire, mostly with Anova DP-Three Assault Rifles firing Trinium Alloy Bullets that they likely got from their Utrom Backers back before the Foot Clan was thrown into disarray and suffered from all these defections. I was able to snap a Wall of Force in place with a muttered incantation and mystic gesture to take the hits for me, however. The Trinium Alloy Bullets flattened against and bounced off the shimmering wall of mystical force.

"Didn't you guys learn the last time?" I questioned.

"Yeah, actually, we did." Smirked Ryuji as he raised his hand in the air.

He snapped his fingers and suddenly a whining noise was heard from above me, as if capacitors were charging. I looked up and spotted a single Ex-Foot Clan Shinobi on a nearby rooftop with a giant device that I immediately identified as a Travi-Com Communications Laser that had been retrofitted into a rifle! To make matters worse, he had a firing angle that would let him shoot down over the top of my wall of force!

"Fuck!" I swore as I heard the whine start to reach a crescendo, I immediately began casting a Teleport Spell. Good thing I did too, because the beam that lanced out at where I'd been standing burned through the concrete and left a molten hole going down into the sewers and even boring into the bedrock a bit.

I came out of my Teleport right next to the Ex-Foot Clan member with the laser. He attempted to turn to fire at me, but I channeled my Chi into a Senshippo of Master Tung Fu Rue that smashed my foot and fist into him and sent him flying off the rooftop to land in a nearby alleyway. The delicate retrofitted laser smashed against the pavement and sent off sparks as it shorted out from the sudden, harsh, impact. I also spotted the various people who'd been looking forward to watching a bit of street theater scatter for doorways or otherwise take cover.

Unfortunately, I didn't have time to spare for anything else, because the four remaining Foot Clan Shinobi immediately began running up the side of the building using Chi to adhere their feet to the bricks. That was a neat trick that I hadn't learned from my books, or during my training with Master Splinter or Chin Gentsai. However, as I watched on, the lead Ex-Foot Clan Shinobi opened fire with his assault rifle and forced me back over the edge of the roof. As yet more Trinium Alloy bullets whizzed by, I snarled and muttered an incantation.

I was done playing around. The longer this dragged on, the more chances random people had to get caught in the crossfire. Seriously, Ryuji bringing this much high-tech firepower to what was essentially a local Underworld Dispute was one of the reasons the guy had the reputation of someone not to fuck with! You couldn't predict whatever sort of crazy stunt he'd try to pull!

As I muttered my incantation, I took a stance like an archer, one hand in front holding a bow, the other drawing back the string. As I did so, a shimmering arrow of green, hissing, crackling, acid appeared ready to fire. I leaned over the edge of the Rooftop, sighted down on the Lead Ex-Foot Shinobi, and let fly. The Acid Arrow streaked out and struck true, burning into the Lead Shinobi's chest. The Ex-Foot Clan Shinobi lost his grip on his Wall-Running Technique and plummeted down, taking another of the Ex-Foot Shinobi down to the street level with him. They landed with a crunch, a red puddle beginning to seep out beneath them.

The other two fired back of course, but I simply leaned back out of the range of their bullets. I skipped backward and began to charge a Denjin Hadoken from the Ansatsuken Style, waiting for them to crest the rooftop. As they did, I let fly with my Chi Beam. The pair were totally unprepared for a blast that could junk a modern military Infantry Fighting Vehicle. They were blasted off the rooftop, landing on the pavement below as little more than charred corpses.

In all this, however, I'd lost track of Ryuji. That had proved to be a mistake as I felt a fist smash into my face from my right side, sending me stumbling away with a busted nose and bruised cheekbone. I turned, taking up a stance, to see that while the Ex-Foot Shinobi had been taking up my attention, Ryuji had taken the opportunity to climb up to the rooftop from another direction.

He stood there grinning at me like a madman, one hand in his pocket, the other loose at his side, ready to strike, block, or do whatever he needed. The guy's stance was full of holes, but I was an experienced enough fighter to realize those holes were illusory, a trick to draw in idiots and less experienced fighters before punishing them severely.

"What's wrong? Not gonna come at me?" Sneered Ryuji in slightly accented English.

"I'm not that stupid." I huffed.

"Could've fooled me! Tangling with me ain't exactly conducive to your health." Smirked Ryuji.

"I didn't ask to get tangled up with you, Yamazaki. I didn't even ask to get tangled up with Geese Howard, he just brought trouble to me and now he's got you doing his dirty work for him! Some bigshot you are!" I scoffed.

"Oi! I don't do Geese's dirty work! I ain't his buttboy, you see a staff or bandana on me?" Demanded Ryuji.

"That doesn't mean you're not doing his dirty work for him! Lemme guess he roped you into this with some sort of promise of more territory for the Yamazaki-Gumi here in South Town, right? He's not gonna pay you, you know. You don't get to be in his position by paying for outside muscle. In fact, he's probably hoping we take each other out. Save him the trouble of dealing with me himself or paying you, plus he can take what territory you've got in South Town for himself when you're gone!" I pointed out.

"Fuck off! You're trying to get in my head? You don't get in my head, I get in yours!" Spat Ryuji.

"That's not a denial, Yamazaki!" I retorted.

"All right, here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna fuck you up, then I'm gonna go shake down Geese Howard, just cause all this talk of hypothetical shit is pissing me off!" Snarled Ryuji.

As he said that, however, I was already moving, flinging a literal Fireball using the Techniques of the Great Kung Lao at his face. The literal ball of fire the Chi sparked in my hands flew toward Ryuji only for him to swing his hand up, trailing hazy, blood-red Chi, and smash his fist into the Fireball. The Fireball dissipated into wisps of Chi and Ryuji brought his hand back down, flinging an arc of blood-red Chi at me, that I was forced to dive away from, tucking myself into a shoulder roll and coming up in a crouch.

Ryuji hadn't just stood there, however, and he was leaping for me, shadowy after-images of Chi making his movements a blur as he did. I channeled Chi into my own movements and launched myself into a Shoryuken of the Ansatsuken, attacking upward with a flying, Chi-powered, Uppercut, just as he attacked downward with his own Chi-powered assault. My fist met his palm and a sonic boom echoed from the force of two powerful blows colliding.

Both of us were flung off the rooftop by the collision of Chi-based assaults, the only difference was that I was able to cast another teleport spell, teleporting myself several blocks away to a distant rooftop I had marked out for that express purpose. I immediately began Chi-powered rooftop parkour, making my way all the way back to the Ground Zero Arcade before stopping. I didn't see where Ryuji landed before I teleported away, but it looked like he'd been headed for a parking lot.

For my part, my right wrist seemed sprained and the bones in my hand seemed bruised. My nose was broken and my cheekbone bruised, and at some point, my eardrums had burst from the sonic boom. I was willing to bet Ryuji's own hand that he'd thrown his attack with was in a similar shape. Hopefully, he'd back off and actually think about what I'd told him about Geese. I, fortunately, had healing potions just for this occasion, though I only had the kind Xander wouldn't use back in Sunnydale because it made him feel too much like a Vampire. They were made from Troll Blood according to an Old Recipe ascribed to the Schneider Clan of Austria I'd found in one of Luther's various after Amanda had deeded me his New York City Apartment.

As I pulled a Red Apple Cigarette out of my pocket and lit up one-handed, breathing in the smoke, I idly wondered how Amanda was doing. We hadn't really spoken much since I'd gotten to South Town, our normal schedule of phone calls every couple of weeks or so had lapsed a bit. She'd mentioned she'd been headed to Kiev on a tip regarding the location of one of the lost Faberge Eggs, apparently, it had wound up in the collection of one Nadia Zelenkov, an Ex-Soviet Assassin from the Cold War who had become a key member of the NKVD under Stalin and the KGB after his death. Zelenkov had recently died and the Egg had been discovered among her estate. Amanda had been on her way to steal it when we last spoke.

"She's a big girl, she can handle herself." I muttered, breathing out a cloud of smoke through my nose and shaking off the feeling of something going wrong there.

And with that, I stubbed out my cigarette and headed into the Arcade, making my way to Chin Gentsai's Apartment via the underground tunnels. When I arrived, the apartment was blessedly free of squabbling teenagers and their unrequited love. I took that as a good sign and headed for the bedroom I'd been using. Two downed Schneider Troll Blood Healing Potions later and I was good as new.

I exited the bedroom just in time for a dejected Kensou to return from what looked to have been a major heartbreak for him. He hadn't taken Athena's initial talk well, but it looked like he'd just gotten a second talk. He took one look at me, grunted, scowled, and then made his way across the apartment to the room he'd been using, slamming the door shut behind him. That was just peachy, he'd gone from being angry to being mopey. That wouldn't work if we had to face the Yamata-no-Orochi. Sighing, I resigned myself to my fate. I was going to have to talk to him myself and figure out a way to reassure him that I wasn't trying to steal Athena from anyone and that I wasn't the reason she'd said she wasn't into him. Maybe if I can hook him up with a cute girl this will blow over. South Town was a city of nightclubs, after all.

I made my way over to his door, taking a deep breath to steady myself before knocking. . .

XXXX

AN: All right, so here we see the fight with Ryuji, along with a setup for what will hopefully solve the teenage drama currently driving a wedge into the Team. Ulysses is hoping that taking Kensou out for a guys' night and offering to wingman for him will fix that, meanwhile, he hopes Ryuji will take what he said about Geese to heart and maybe start going after the Howard Connection himself.

Other nineties stuff this chapter includes mentions of the Great Kung Lao and his techniques from Mortal Kombat, the Ansatsuken and its techniques from Street Fighter, the Schneider Clan of Austria is from Castlevania Sixty-Four, while the Foot Clan, Splinter, and Utroms are from TMNT, Trinium is from Stargate, Travi-Com and the Communications Laser are from Congo, and the Anova DP-Three Assault Rifles are from Goldeneye. Meanwhile, Amanda and Luther are from Highlander the Series, Xander, Sunnydale, and Vampires are from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Nadia Zelenkov the KGB Assassin is from Command and Conquer Red Alert, The Ground Zero Arcade is from Robocop, and Red Apple Cigarettes are from the works of Quentin Tarantino. Finally, all the Magic Spells were from Second Edition Dungeons and Dragons. Everything else is from King of Fighters.

At any rate, the next chapter will be Ulysses attempting to take Kensou out for a Guys Night to take his mind off Athena and hopefully solve some of the tension in the team.

Stay tuned. . .