Chapter 4
In a flash, Toshiro and Ryu locked blades.
“Please tell me. Why are you doing this?” Ryu gasped.
“Because you couldn’t.”
Toshiro calmly disengaged Ryu and thrust his blade in an attempt to pierce Ryu’s heart.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Toshiro evaded Ryu’s swift counter.
“It means that you’re weak!” Toshiro scowled, now attacking in rapid succession.
Toshiro was fast. His blade was pure white, fashioned of ivory with sapphire trimmings and decorations on the hilt. It was long and Toshiro handled it with expert accuracy. The blade was thin and came to a sharp point. As if the weapon itself weren’t hard enough to handle, Toshiro was a skilled swordsman. Swift as lightning, and yet with enough force to slice a man’s arm off. It became clear to Ryu that this could be one heck of a battle.
Ryu hadn’t thought of it until now, but all of his weapons were only a few classes above hand-me-downs. For ninja, a sword was not as important as a weapon more suited for assassination. Therefore, their swords were not as high-classed as those of Lord Mitsuhide’s status. A sword made of ivory (which is made with elephant tusks) could shatter Ryu’s second-class blade.
Ryu sidestepped another of Toshiro’s attacks. He ducked under an attempt to behead him, jumped over a leg sweep, back flipped away, trying to gain distance. No use. Toshiro shot forward with a yell, attempting to slice Ryu in half. Ryu shot upward, throwing a round of shuriken toward his attacker. The silver stars, designed expertly for swift range attacks, fell to the ground uselessly against Toshiro’s guard.
The hall was large and empty, echoing every heavy breath Ryu huffed. Gasping for air, Ryu found the time to assess the situation as both men stared each other down. However, there was one major difference in the each of the two rivals. One stared in anticipation of his opponent’s next move, knowing that it may finish him off. The other, with a sense of superiority.
In any case, it seemed to Ryu as though Toshiro was simply toying with him. And he was.
“Tired yet?” Toshiro mocked. “Come on, I’m just getting started. Or shall I just kill you now?”
Ryu muttered an obscenity under his breath, having regained some of his energy.
“Toshiro.” Ryu whispered, looking down as though he were ashamed to ask such a thing. “Why? What have you been doing all this time? First you kill me, then you get me involved in this Organization, then you come to me with this story about how they need my help…And now this. Why?”
“Simple” Toshiro gave a small chuckle as if Ryu should have known the reasons behind his twisted smile. “I was bored. Nothing more. When I attacked your village I was a rogue ninja, it was a simple act of entertainment. When a fool dressed up like a ninja challenged me I thought it might be fun to squash the little bug. I never dreamed that he’d be immortal. That’s when it became a more premeditated sort of thing. I took interest in you and invited you into the Organization. As a matter of fact, it was not Renji that planned the rebellion. I gave him the idea. I planted ideas into the fool’s head and he believed every word. To be honest, I can’t say I knew something like this would happen, but when it did I came to your village and spun my web and you fell right into it. And now here we are. But there is one thing that I know about you…that even you don’t.”
Ryu took advantage of the situation. In a flash, he whipped a handful of shuriken at the scowling mastermind behind the web of lies that had taken him away from his loving village. Stepping quickly to the side of Toshiro’s counter, Ryu thrust his sword at an upward angle, impaling Toshiro through the shoulder blade.
There was a long pause and for a second, Ryu thought he had actually done it. A sick, twisted smile spread across Toshiro’s face. He started to snicker, but it rose into a loud, twisted, cackled that echoed through the empty corridors of the castle.
“Did you honestly think that could work?” Toshiro sneered, obviously unaffected by the gaping hole in his shoulder. He leaned forward and whispered mockingly into Ryu’s ear. “I’ll let you in on a little secret. You’re not the only one who’s immortal.”
He wrapped his gloved hand around the blade of Ryu’s sword and slid it out of the wound. He laughed as though he and Ryu were old friends and Ryu had just told a joke, a soft, humorous, sort of laugh. At the same time he was trying to say an obscenity, which made it sound like he was surprised at the damage Ryu had done.
“Look at this. I think you shattered my shoulder blade.”
With a swift swing of his sword, he shattered Ryu’s blade into many steel shards, falling to the ground, clanking as they landed at his feet. Ryu stared in awe, however, only for a second. But it only took a second for Toshiro to twirl his blade and run it through Ryu’s heart. With a quick flick of his wrist, Toshiro ripped his blade from Ryu’s chest at an angle. He stared solemnly, knowing that he had just finished off his comrade.
Comrade? He thought to himself. Simply a pawn with which I gave myself a bit of entertainment. He turned away, sheathing his sword in disgust of his “comrades” weakness.
Everything in Ryu’s world went fuzzy. He could feel his pulse slowing rapidly as a strange sense of sickness overtook him. Blood sputtered from his throat, running down his lips like red waterfalls. He felt his knees thud against the cold, marble floors. Darkness overtook him. The last thing he saw was Toshiro walking away in disgust and silent contemplation.
