章節 201: Bad Odds

"What is happening out there!?" Taki Kazo exclaims as he peeks through the blind of the window at the highest room. He turns around and focuses on the other people present, his bodyguard Norio Akuhara, his girlfriend Chiasa, and the two Arasaka ninjas he'd been lent.

"We're getting attacked, what else?" Chiasa drawls, seemingly uncaring of the situation.

"I know that! I'm asking why the fuck we're losing!" he jabs a finger at the window, "ALMOST ALL OUR GUYS ARE DEAD!"

A ninja kicks open the door of the room and uncloaks, "It's Wakako-sama! She brought the Mox, mercenaries, and the one called Zombie!"

"Ni, where's your blade?" another ninja questions.

"Still in the chest of Zombie, I stab at his heart yet he still stands! I fear he is like Smasher-sama!" that ninja exclaims, sounding almost fearful.

"What's that mean for us!? We're stuck up at their mercy!" Taki yells.

"We have called for an evac, but it will arrive in ten minutes! We will not last that long!"

"Wait, so we're actually in trouble?" Taki's clueless girlfriend quibbles.

He scowls at her, "Did you think I was losing my shit over nothing!? We're fucked! That bitch Wakako sent a fucking army at us, along with her immortal-fucking lapdog! And all we got are some useless assholes in expensive armour!" he gesticulates wildly at the ninjas.

"If you wish for us to leave, we are amenable to it." one quietly retorts, fed up with their client's disrespect.

"Yeah? And what would you boss think if you left us to die?" Taki shakes his head, "What are we going to do until the evac gets here!?"

Norio stands from where he'd been irritably sitting, a gauge in his cheek from where he'd been incessantly scratching, "We will blockade the room." he states before shoving furniture against the door.

Taki nods, "Y-yeah, good, the rest of you do that." he orders and turns to watch the ants below slowly tear apart the building. It wasn't a lie to say that most of the Tyger Claws under his command had already died, aside from the ones out maintaining 'order' in his territory, the rest seemed to have been slaughtered, or simply run away.

He pauses when he realises he served almost no purpose to Arasaka now that he'd lost his foothold in Japantown. His position wasn't hereditary or anything like that, power was the only thing that mattered, and now that he'd lost it, he was surprised they hadn't simply thrown him to the dogs.

Chiasa slides up next to him but he brushes her off, growling at her, "Why the fuck aren't you helping barricade the door!?"

"Y-you what? I'm your woman, not your henchman!-"

He draws his gun and presses it against her forehead, "Do as your told, whore! Or I'll have the ninjas use you as a meatshield!"

...

"We're done! Piece of shit!" she storms off and reluctantly gets to work.

----------------------

Ori flexes his blood-covered fists as he approaches the final floor. The remaining Tyger Claws had attempted to surrender to him, but he wasn't about to let those douchebags get off so easily. Wakako's forces had already moved up to the fourth floor, but he wasn't willing to wait and risk letting Taki getaway.

He reaches the seventh-floor door and gives it a firm shove, only to find it barricaded on the other side. "Open up and I might be gentle!" he smashes out the small window and shouts, only to back up as a blade stabs through the door in an attempt to skewer his brain. "Alright! You want it rough then!"

He tears off a piece of Composite Ceramic from his arm and wraps his Monowire tightly around it to act a weight, then, he throws it through the window. Once through, he starts whipping the wire around like a madman, cutting through the door and the barricade, along with anyone unfortunate enough to be nearby.

A couple slashes and a tug later, the entire barricade falls to pieces in a big pile. After retracting the wire and putting the Ceramic back on his arm, he peeks into the room and looks around. The ninja heat signatures were around the room, one in each corner with two hanging off of the roof.

He could also see three people hiding in the on-suite bathroom, though, one was clearly a bodyguard of some sort... He flashes a grin and cracks his neck, "Seven against one, you sure you like those odds?" he queries as he hefts the LMG, pointing it at them.

*Shiik!*

Four monomolecular kunai whizz by him as crashes he back into the wall and opens fire. The ninjas all begin leaping around like some kind of circus act, one throws a smoke bomb by it proves ineffective against him due to all of his enhancements.

He tags one ninja in the leg, causing the guy to roll away as the other cover for him, jumping ahead with their blades ready.

"W-why even fucking bother with guns!?" he angrily shouts, seeing the ninjas dodging almost all of his bullets. Perfect aim or not, since they could see the trajectory of his bullets due to the barrel's placement, unless he had a smart gun he was unlikely to do any real damage soon.

Gripping his LMG in one hand, he whips his Monowire at one, blocking his path of retreat. The ninja elects to take some bullets instead of getting dismembered.

Finally having enough, the other three launch themselves at him, two with blades and one wielding two kunai.

He steps backwards back into the hallway to funnel them towards him and give them less space to dodge. The leading one bounces off of the door frame and jumps straight at him, taking three or four shots to the chest in an instant. He still tries to cut Ori's head off however, but he just ducks his head and smashes a fierce straight kick into the guy's side, sending him flying into one of the other ninjas.