An Assassin's Respite

I Let My Guard Down

Kazuna gets home from school and sits on his couch. Training had been tough enough ever since his classmates rescued him, but between his run-in with those goons and Yuu’s heavy-handed training, he’s been feeling extra exhausted and beat up from even the most simple training.

“Are you alright Mr. Kazuna?” Kari asks.

Kazuna looks over to her and gives her a reassuring smile.

“I’m fine, just a little tired.” He says.

“Really?” She asks with a pout.

“Okay fine. I’m a little banged up, but it’s nothing that a little rest won’t fix. Now, why don’t you go and get cleaned up.” He assures her.

“Okay.” she says with a smile before running upstairs.

Once Kari makes it up the stairs, he lets out a sigh.

“Rimi.” He calls out, prompting Ria to appear.

“You know you don’t have to watch me right?” He asks.

“That’s not why I was invisible.” She says in defense.

“I know. They might make a move, so keep your guard up.” He says.

Ria just nods before going invisible again.

“They chose a bad time to take action. No, I should say they were smart about when to take action. It’s almost like they used those henchmen from before to weaken me. If they’re being that cautious about me, then they must have some type of understanding of my strength and capabilities.” He thinks to himself.

He sighs as he realizes thinking about it too much won’t do him any good so he decides to tackle the issue in a different way. He makes his way around the house closing all the curtains. All the doors and windows were already locked so he didn't have to worry about that.

"This won't stop anyone from getting in, but at least it'll make it harder for them to pinpoint where everyone is. Assuming they don’t have a way to pinpoint us without seeing us," He says to himself. 

He closes the curtains on the last window downstairs before making his way upstairs. He starts with Kari's room before going through the hallway and his room. He knew that Ria would already have her window locked and curtains, so there was no need to go into her room. Once he finishes with the last window upstairs, Kirin appears next to him.

"Why go through all this extra trouble when we could just go and kill the guy," He suggests.

"No, I can't leave Kari and Ria here," Kazuna replies.

"But it'll be quick," Kirin urges.

"Back off Kirin, unlike you, Kazuna understands that a simple approach isn't always the best approach," Karma says as he appears.

The two dragons flare at each other ready to scuffle, but Bahamut stops them.

"Enough you two. Kazuna, although I understand your hesitance to leave Kari and Ria, but I, for one, think Ria is competent enough to defend Kari long enough for you to return," He states.

Kazuna looks at Bahamut, contemplating his suggestion when Kari walks out of the bathroom. 

"Oh, Mr. Kazuna, I'm done so you can go ahead and take a bath," She says.

"That's okay, I'll let Ria go next," He says.

"Oh, okay, I'll go tell her then," Kari says.

Kazuna decides to continue his conversation in his room to avoid anyone listening in.

"I understand where you're coming from Bahamut, but I don't know how much Ria has improved, and I don't know how strong the enemy is. If I had more information, then leaving Kari's safety to Ria would be an easier decision to make," He states.

"Indeed, we aren't privy to a lot of information, but sometimes risks are necessary to increase the chances of success," Bahamut states.

Kazuna flops on his bed, weighing his options. He very well could be putting Kari in more danger by allowing the enemy to come to him, but it was the only way he could keep an eye on her. As he struggled with his two options, he made the mistake of dozing off.

He couldn't have been asleep for more than thirty seconds when a loud crash jerks him awake. He starts to think it may have been a dream when a subsequent scream rips away that possibility. He jumps from his bed and rushes to the shouting. He burst through Kari's door with Kirin in hand just to see a strange man holding an unconscious Kari.

"You've got guts breaking into my house and trying to kidnap her," He growls. 

He was trying his best not to let his emotions get the better of him. If he acts rashly, he could end up letting the guy get away worse, hurting Kari himself.

"It was easier than I thought, you've been keeping a close eye on me this whole time, too bad you dropped your guard when it counted the most," He says while jumping out the window. 

Kazuna follows suit, ready for a fight. As he jumps through the window, a hail of metal rains down on him. He manages to deflect most of the pieces, only receiving a few minor scratches.

"Oh, you are good. That attack was from your blind spot, and you barely got scratched by it," The man notes.

Kazuna doesn't reply and just glares at him.

"Not much of a talker, are we? Well, it doesn't matter, I've gotten what I came for," He states.

"You think I'm just going to let you walk away with her?" Kazuna asks.

"A guy can hope," The man says.

He swings his arm to the right, and a storm of metal slams into Kazuna, slamming him into his front gate. 

"Now, off I go," The man says as he rides a wave of floating metal away.

Just a few seconds after he was knocked away, Kazuna recovered and was already beside the man. 

'Katsuchi style first strike; sheathed slash.' 

He shouts as he unleashes a lightning-fast s***h, but the man blocks it with a wall of metal. Kazuna changes stances.

'Katsuchi style third strike; fang of the dragon'

He slashes an x through the wall of metal as if it was butter.

The man tried to give himself some distance, but Kauzna wasn't going to give him any space.

'Shockwave'

He says as he continues to follow up on his onslaught. The attack shocks the man but seems to leave Kari unharmed.

"It seems that she keeps the powers she last copied until she copies someone else's power, that's good to know," He notes.

He starts to stall before falling to the ground. He lands on someone's roof and jumps towards the man. 

"I only have a couple of lightning attacks left. I'll have to end this quickly," He says to himself.

He reaches the man and prepares an attack when the man throws Kari in front of him. Kazuna's eyes widen as he hurries to stop his attack. The man smiles as a wave of metal comes from the right of Kazuna. Because he was off-balance from stopping his attack, he wasn't able to completely defend himself from the man's attack. The attack sends him crashing into a roof. 

"I had fun playing with you, but I think I'll take my leave," The man states as he rides his wave of metal away.

Kazuna tries to jump after him, but he just falls over and slides off the roof. He places a hand on his ribs and can feel a warm liquid. He looks at his hand and sees that it was his blood. That last attack must have cut him pretty bad. He looks back at the man carrying Kari away in helplessness. 

He grits his teeth and slams his fist into the concrete, cracking the ground around him.

"NOOO!!" He shouts in anguish.

Ria shows up next to him, with her hair soaked. She must have jumped out of the bath and threw on some clothes due to the commotion. She looks from Kazuna to the silhouette of the man that was carrying away Kari. She takes a step towards Kazuna but then realizes what she really should be doing. She turns towards the silhouette and gives chase.

Kazuna notices Ria chasing the man and tries to pick himself back up.

"I can't just sit here and do nothing. Even if I have to crawl, I will rescue you, Kari," He says to himself as he does just that and starts to crawl.

He only makes it a few feet before Kagura helps him up and puts his arm over her shoulder. She must have heard the fight and came out. 

"What happened?" She asks as her eyes fix onto Kazuna's wound.

"They... took Kari," He grunts.

"No," Kagura gasps in disbelief.

"I have to go after them," He says as he tries to limp forward.

"You can't even walk, what are you going to be able to do?" She asks.

"So what am I supposed to do? Let her be kidn*pped?" Kazuna asks in anger.

"No, I'm going to take you to the hospital so that you can get treated and don't die of blood loss. Mrs. Kamina works at the hospital on weekends so she'll be able to heal you tomorrow," She states.

"The teacher that heals with sunlight? But it's night," Kazuna asks.

Kagura nods in response.

"You can at least get your wound treated for now and get some rest until tomorrow," She states.

"Okay," Kazuna relents.

"Where's Ria?" She asks.

"Chasing him," He answers.

"Perfect, Ria can pinpoint where they're taking her while you get back into fighting shape," Kagura states.

A surprised expression passes over Kazuna's face. While he had let his emotions get the better of him and hinder his ability to think clearly, Kagura had remained calm and was able to think rationally. 

"Thank you, Kagura," He whispers.

"Eh?" Kagura squeaks while blushing.

"W-why are you thanking me?" She asks.

"If you hadn't talked some sense into me, I would have done something that probably would have gotten me killed. And if I die, then who's going to save Kari?" He explains.

Kagura smiles.

"Right," She says.

Kagura has her mom drive them to the hospital where they check Kazuna in. He was rushed to the ER, where they were able to stop the bleeding and close his wound. They had told him to get some rest, but due to the events of that night, Kazuna had a sleepless night. He eagerly awaited morning so that he could have Mrs. Kamina heal his wounds, and he could go after Kari.

Once noon hit and Mrs. Kamina started her shift at the hospital, Kagura had her treat Kazuna right away. It only took her thirty minutes to fully heal Kazuna since he had already been treated. Once Kazuna changed clothing, he started to stretch to make sure his body felt right.

"Alright, now to go after the guy that took Kari," He says mostly to himself as he grabs his swords.

Kagura walks into the room and is caught off by what he was wearing. He had on all black clothing that could only be described as ninja clothing, except he didn't have anything covering his face. She wasn’t sure what the material was, but it was definitely something more advanced than cotton.

"What are you wearing?" She asks.

"What I would wear during missions. I sent Karma to grab them last night," He answers.

Just as he finishes getting his sword belt on, Ria appears next to him, startling Kagura a bit. She found it easy to forget that Ria could go invisible since she never participated in any of their training exercises in school.

"Did you find their base?" He asks.

"Yes, it's a factory in the south part of town. Most likely, there is a large underground portion where they'll be keeping Kari," She answers.

"Got it," He says. Now that he was all ready, he heads for the door, but Kagura grabs his arm.

“Wait, aren’t you going to get help from any special agents?” She asks.

“There’s no guarantee that they’ll even believe us or act immediately. They’ll probably want to gather more information. There’s even a possibility that they already know about them but want to use them to find their boss.” He replies.

“You really don’t have a high opinion of special agents do you?” She asks.

“When you know the way they operate, it makes sense.” He says.

"I'm coming with you then," She says.

"No, it's too dangerous," He replies.

"I know it's dangerous, that's why I'm coming with you. I'm tired of you running headfirst into danger and not asking for help. Besides, I can take care of myself," She says.

"Really? Then do you think that if it came down to it, you could kill?" Kazuna asks.

"Huh?" She chokes.

"You heard me. Everyone that we run into will be trying to kill us, so you have to be prepared to do the same, or you're going to die," He elaborates.

Kagura stares at him, hesitant to answer. Just when Kazuna was about to leave, she spoke up.

"What if I fight to survive? Wouldn't that be the same?" She asks.

Once again, the two stare at each other before Kazuna sighs and scratches the back of his head.

"Fine, you can come along. You probably would have followed us anyways," He states.

"How could you tell?" She asks.

"You have your sword on you. There was no way you were going to take no for an answer," He explains.

Kagura looks at her sword before clenching the hilt.

"Well, are you two ready?" He asks.

"Yes!" Kari and Ria reply in unison.