Kameno Mushashin walked slowly through the corridors of Dark Heart High. Actually, walked was the wrong term; he crept, blending in with the walls and floor. It was only five in the morning, but he had to be in position for the rest of the day- after all, he did have a mission to carry out. He had nineteen targets to deal with in preparation for tomorrow. **************************************************** Dark Heart High Netherworlds Educational Institution For The Universal Propagation of Evil Started be Mads This Chapter by: Doctor Nightfall Chapter Thirteen: Assassinations?! (Or, Unlucky for Some) **************************************************** Coach Truncheon never saw what hit him. He was arranging the vaulting horse in the old Floggery attached to the Gym (But they never used anything so namby-pamby as Corporal Punishment these days) which was now used as an extra equipment locker and a private exercise room. All he knew was that there was barely a rustle from the doorway, and then four sharp stings at his knees and elbows- and then everything went black. Kameno snuck away, in a manner befitting a ninja. Maybe four of the drugged shuriken was too much? No. He was a big man. He should only be unconscious for a few days. ***** "Hi, Yuri!" "Hiya, Leilei!" *blink* *blink* All in all, this looked like being a quiet day. It was Manday, and a few people looked rather selfconscious after the dance. Particularly Maimsworth, for obvious reasons... "So, what do you have first?" "Same as you, silly. Basic Villainy, Remember?" "Oh yes. I kinda forgot- Bala's been quite talkative since the dance." Yuri looked at balabalalde with a funny expression. Bala was talkative? "Are you sure?" "Oh... I see what you mean. He's certainly been animated. He seems to have enjoyed himself- especially the last dance." Leilei's face assumed a leer, which did not look good on a six-year-old. "You seem o have made quite an impression on him. What did you do to him while dancing?" Balabalalde blushed and –looked- at Leilei. She ignored it. "Nothing!" "You sure? You know what they say about Dancing- Vertical expression of horizontal desire and all that..." "Oh, lay off! And let's get to class." ***** Craig Maimsworth, the Knight Erratic, was calm, cool, and collected. He was also late, and so was running, hence he didn't look quite so cool, calm and collected as he would have liked, but it was the thought that counted. The reason for his state of mind was thus: Only most of the school had seen the fiasco of the magnificent Detonating Girlfriend at the dance. Unless you could think like him, you wouldn't be so calm. The thing was, so his (apparently) misfiring mental processes told him, was that only MOST of the school had seen this, and so the rest wouldn't tease him about the disastrous date. He hadn't factored in the fact that those who had seen it would have told their friends and colleagues about it, and so he would end up with nonstop teasing nevertheless. But now he just had to find a way to his class on time, and avoid the cloud of white, petunia-scented smoke that was drifting towards him. White smoke smelling of petunias? In an instant, his sword was out and at the ready, and he saw a flash of white from the corner of his eye. "Show yourself!" A knife flashed in front of his eyes, and a drugged blade scratched his throat. Craig twitched, and fell to the floor in an unconscious heap, sleeping the sleep of those in chemical heaven. ***** Yuri had just got out of class. It was now recess, and so it was a long fifteen minutes before the next lesson. Oh, well. And then she saw the flash of rainbow-coloured hair. That couldn't have been... "Ransha? Ransha!" The girl took no notice. Yuri jogged up to the girl, and grabbed her by the arm... ... removing a length of skin. "YEEK! Not to mention Ewww!" "Do you mind? This body is almost new!" "What? Aren't you Ransha?" "Ransha?" The slightly grey and sagging face frowned. "I'm not Ransha." Then it lifted in realisation. "Oh- was that the name of the girl at the dance? I'm Ryuji. I'm a Merkla demon, you see? Noone was using this body, and I took it over. My species can only exist by posessing dead bodies." Yuri absorbed this. Considering Vice-Principal Akurei, and Aug-Sensei, a body-hopping demon wasn't really out of the ordinary (Or what she was coming to think of as ordinary). Still, this was Ransha's body, and Ransha had always looked good. Ryuji didn't. "Do you ever do anything to the bodies to prevent them... you know?" "Oh, you mean rotting? Well, we're allergic to formaldehyde, and you can't move after a coat of varnish. I do have a salted corpse mimmifying at home, that's meant to work..." "Have you ever considered makeup?" "What?" "Look, you're a girl at the minute, right?" Ryuji nodded. "It's insulting to all girls to go around looking like that. Come with me a minute..." ***** Yasuko fumed. This was a full-on fuming session, and it would, sooner or later, if she didn't do something about it, result in an explosion of temper that could level a small building. Not only was the little tramp hitting on her ex (Ki), but now she was hitting on the guy she'd met at the dance! Admittedly, she hadn't been interested in him at the time, but Ransha had a hot body. Now he was in it, she was getting quite hot herself. But who would have thought that the little tramp swung both ways? It mattered not. The little tramp had to PAY for this! Now, where had Lisa gone? ***** Kameno couldn't believe his luck. There, below him, were fifteen of the rest of his targets! They seemed to be going over strategies for the fencing match they were due to attend tomorrow. Not that they would attend; he was about to deal with that. A little gas bomb was dropped into the room from the ceiling space, and he crawled away quickly as the howls, screams, grunts and cries started and quickly died away. Sitting in a quiet corner (i.e. dead silent) he went over his notes. He quickly found the notes and photographs of the fifteen he'd just rendered unconscious (and very, very ill for the next two days). Then he crossed of Coach Truncheon, and Craig Maimsworth. The Maimsworth boy hadn't been classed as much of a threat, but it was best to be sure. He'd been included mainly as a precaution- even if he was a hopeless swordsman, if they couldn't field anyone, then they'd forfeit the match. Still... he had two targets left. Ki Tamaida would be interesting, though a blowgun dart would probably be enough. Yuri Mikagami. She was still a threat- probably. No one knew what her powers were as she hadn't demonstrated any- but, seeing as she was the daughter of Troi 'Hellstorm' Mikagami, they couldn't afford not to take any chances. His remit on this mission was not to actually kill anyone, but just to incapacitate them. Given, though, her parentage, she was very likely to be rather hard to incapacitate. Thus he had been issued with some remarkably potent toxins, some of which were designed specifically with demons in mind. They would cause some spectacular and messy deaths if they were introduced to humans. After all, wasn't he trained as a Demon Hunter before he was sent to Knight School? Still... a relation of the Hellstorm. That would be a challenge (and a feather in his cap- hood- whatever- if he pulled it off. ***** "I look stupid." "No, you don't! You look just how Ransha would have wanted her body to look. As I said, Ryuji, you're a girl at the minute, and ought to look and behave as a girl ought to. And that includes makeup." Ryuji couldn't fault the logic. And besides, as he looked in the mirror, he considered that he did look good. The base and foundation covered up the discolouration that had set in with decay, and they were helping to keep the skin together. The light eyeshadow also made him look more like the girl Ransha had been. He looked almost... human. He couldn't believe that he and his clan had never thought of this before. Mind you, it had been a terrible trouble getting him- her- into the girl's toilets, but, as Yuri had said, she couldn't exactly go into the boy's toilets, not to mention the fact that he wasn't one at the minute. Yuri finished packing her makeup kit away. "Well, Ryuji- I'm glad I helped you, but we'll have to go. Recess is almost over." "You're right. And thanks." He paused, cocking his head to one side. "What's that noise?" ***** All the bodies had been found, and now the school was in uproar. Principal Amakusa was in the infirmary, looking at the unconscious figures- stacked five to a bed here, in at least one case. Nurse Sybil was a little overwhelmed, and had locked herself on a cupboard in her chibi form. Amakusa had passed off the attacks on Coach Truncheon and Maimsworth as grudge attacks, but this... this was intolerable. It was then that Akurei walked in, clutching one of the sensors for the Virtue detectors. "Look at this! Half the wires have been ripped out!" "So this is sabotage. Should we be thinking the same for the faults we've been experiencing?" "Probably. Whatever is going on, I think we have at least one intruder. This isn't as skilled as some of the other things that have been done. We still don't know what happened to Aug-Sensei's clock, but causing it to run at twice the speed it should doesn't seem to have any purpose here at all." "It seems to me that the person responsible must be long gone. But it would be prudent to tell everyone to keep an eye out in the school, in case of other attacks." Akurei turned to leave. "But... this could be another diversion. The sensors malfunctioned every time there was a previous attack, so it could have been to hide something else. We should still be on our guard." "As you wish, Sir." ***** Yasuko giggled to herself as she worked in the kitchen. This stuff would work! The little tramp had hit the nail on the head when she had given that response in class. Do the job yourself; no messing about with deathtraps that might go wrong. Here was a bucket full of custard mixed with a number of drugs that she had obtained from Lisa; and when it was dumped over Yuri... the girl would be humiliated beyond belief. Pouring the concoction into a bucket, she hefted it and flittered away to the girl's locker room- she was always the first one into the room. This would be _fun_. ***** "Yuri!" The bell had just gone, and Yuri was heading to the locker rooms to collect the books she needed for the next part of the day. "Hello, Ki. What's up?" "It looks..." He looked around quickly, and then started again. "It looks like there is something afoot. Seventeen members of the fencing team have been, as the English put it, nobbled." "Oh, you mean the people in the infirmary? That can't be right. It's probably just Yasuko up to no good." Ki gave her the list of names. "Okay, maybe you're right. But what next?" "You and me. If you go- well, where would we be without our equipment manager?" "But that's insane!" "No, it's calculated. If-" Ki suddenly stopped, looking round. ***** Kameno took aim with his blowpipe. Kameno took aim with his blowpipe. This was just too easy. The final two targets, just inches apart, and he was in a perfect position to eliminate them both. He levelled the blowpipe at Yuri Mikagami's throat. ***** Ki had felt the brief tug at his Chi, and then pulled his katana free, gliding in front of Yuri and cutting the dart from the air. There, in front of him- he could see the guy now- was a ninja, dressed all in white, reloading a blowpipe. With a yell- he would never remember what it was he'd shouted, probably something like 'Get Him!'- he ran towards the ninja, blade proudly raised high. ***** Kameno cursed violently, and tried to remember everything he'd ever been told about the Steel Thorn clan. Dropping the blowpipe, he pulled the shortsword from his back, blocking the first blow as the dark samurai attacked. ***** Ki thrust, cut, and thrust again. This had to be the reason that the other students had been knocked unconscious. Here was the man responsible for laying out Coach Truncheon. This ninja was very, very good with a sword- and he could only have come from Knight School. He had to have been sent by their fencing club. Knight School was twinned with Sakura Art, with which they had a match tomorrow. Now it all made sense. ***** Kameno backed away, towards the girl's locker room. He didn't know that that was what it was, but he did know that once through the door, he would have enough time to get out of view. After all, was he not known as the White Shadow? Had he not perfected the art of vanishing in a cloud of petunia-scented smoke? He'd be able to get away, no problem. ***** Yasuko smiled as she hovered, ready with the bucket. Yuri was always first into the locker rooms- and even if she wasn't, she was still in the perfect position to drop this on top of her. The door opened- and Yasuko, lost in her reverie of Yuri's humiliation, dropped the bucket. ***** Kameno felt something above him move, and, without a second thought, used his sword to cut whatever it was away from him before it could hit him. The blade bit into the metal bucket, pushing it towards the maddened swordsman in front of him... ***** Ki saw the ninja suddenly look up and cut at something above him. This was his chance... ***** Several things happened at once: Ki was drenched in steaming yellow glop, which also splashed the ninja. Ki thrust his sword into the ninja's shoulder- enough to incapacitate, but not kill. The ninja brought his sword down onto Ki's head. The sword was stuck in the bucket, and made an almighty clang, also knocking Ki silly. Ki lost all bowel and bladder control due to the drugs in the custard, and the smell caused the ninja to throw up. Yasuko yelled something quite unprintable, which shocked Yuri. And finally (everyone agreed that this happened at the end) both Ki and the Ninja collapsed. ***** End part thirteen. I do apologise for the lateness of this part- but a few things intervened, like coursework, closure of the computer labs at Uni for a few days (twice), the nervous breakdown of my computer, and a couple of personal matters. Hopefully, this is not too formulaic. I hope I haven't messed up anyone else's ideas, and hoped to add a little colour to the background. Have fun! ***** Principal Amakusa looked at the mess. This incident had the unique distinction of being the single messiest (and possibly the silliest) incident in the history of the school. To think, though, that one agent could cause so much trouble... he had only one option. "In order to search for more interlopers, I am cancelling all classes for the rest of the day." There was a cheer, and, while the students cleared, he tapped Yuri on her shoulder. "Yuri? You know the fencing match tomorrow?" "Yes, Sensei?" "Good luck." "What?!" "Well, you're the only member of the fencing team left. You've GOT to take part." "..." "I know you can do it. I'll see you tomorrow..." As he left, Yuri was still in shock.