A Sword's Shadow Falls on Tokyo (Misaki and one open slot)

For a brief moment she lay still, hovering on the edge of death... then Diana gasped as the blade’s power set in, her flesh feeling as if on fire as it expelled the dart and bullets, then knitting close with an unnatural speed that compelled her to wail in terrible pain. The girl got up and looked at Misaki and at the flames. This was so humiliating for Diana, falling for such a basic trap.

“Fine...” She got herself up and looked around, and saw that the locker ninja and submachine gun ninja were on fire, running around like headless chickens, screaming in pain, while their leader disappeared. Diana turned them into headless ninjas with little ceremony, frustrated at how they used such dirty tactics against her... but of course they would, they’re ninjas... her head hurt from these thoughts, feeling some were not her own.

“Let’s keep going. The shrine is this way...” She led Misaki the short distance to the pool areas, past the male pool and towards the female hot spring... which had been soundly trashed by two women in swim wear and towels, injured ninja and trashed paper doors everywhere.

“Well... This is going to be challenging.” She said, knowing the entrance to the old shrine was supposed to be where the spring was now. She looked around and laid eyes on the two in wraps. She didn't so much as address them as talk down to them, really coming off bratty and arrogant. “...More ninjas posing as guests? No... They’re different... whatever your reason to be here ladies, you should leave.” She said, this time gripping her sword cautiously and keeping an eye out for more surprises.

A good thrashing in the late morning usually meant Elaine did something good with her time. She only put three people on the ground, but already Elaine knew plenty of good things would continue to come to her. And then bad things came to her.

Imena looked to Elaine and then back to the blood dripping girl. "For some reason being told to leave only emboldens my resolve to stay here."

"What she said, but in English." Still without her pistols, Elaine would just have to do this the hard way. Getting close to a sword wielding girl always found itself complicated by mortality. So, Elaine decided to find short cut through her. With a step forward, Elaine shadowstepped behind Diana and aimed to place the bottom of her foot square in the back of Diana. Hopefully she could shake the girl's resolve and get her away from thinking straight.

"She thought we were ninjas Elaine. They must be here for the artifacts." Knowing how her friend fought, Imena ran back to scavenge Elaine's boot and returned it to its mate, while tossing Elaine's cowgirl hat to her.

"Much better." Elaine ran her hand across the brim to bring it down upon her forehead. "Ninja this." Elaine began to spin into a rotation aiming to place her heel directly into Diana's face when she felt herself slip. An oil slick removed all the friction from her grip. Elaine stumbled in getting back to her feet on the first attempt. "I think they just mopped."

"Boots." Imena threw the pair of boots to Elaine and fired a burst of electricity towards Diana to try to keep her away from Elaine.

Misaki remained in her hidden form, more than content to tilt the tide of battle, but not wanting to take control. "Remain in control. This is a lesson in subtlety. Don't let them know your actions until it is too late."

Diana ducked under Elaine’s kick, just barely, her foot grazing the teenager’s face, and her form didn’t even allow for a counter attack. The sword pulsed with excitement. It longed to taste the blood of a worthy foe. Diana’s second opponent proved to be no slouch either, projecting electricity- Diana redirected it by grounding the katana into the stone floor.

She turned to Elaine with a smirk. “You’re quite skilled. I think I’m going to kill you last. But I have a more important reason to be here... much like you.” Quite literally from her shadow Diana pulled out a pair of scimitars, and brandished them; a play of light and a burst of magic, Diana split into three copies of herself, each one wielding a pair of scimitars, to duel both Elaine and Imena, while the third copy plunged into the water and swam to the deeper parts to reach the submerged gate.

The scimitar wielding copies lashed out in a dervish of blades, the Dianas pressing the offense against them both. Her electrified katana remained in the ground, becoming inert as the Warrior had changed her arsenal.

Not only did the electricity fail to take out the opponent, it somehow supercharged the katana sticking out of the ground. Imena thought about whether or not grabbing the surging blade would do any good, but in the blink of an eye came face to face with Diana. She ducked to avoid the dervish twin blades swinging for her. She planned on getting towards Elaine to flank the foe, but saw Elaine already coping with the offense of her own.

Whatever trickery happened, Imena did not want to try to find out if the illusions were real or not with her own body. Elaine looked to be in a little more control than Imena of the fighting. Even though her footing still did not meet up to the greatest standards, Elaine donned her boots to give her more grip. she rolled back with the savage steel impacting the ground only inches from her with each blow. Once she came out of the roll, she grabbed a towel from the rack and closed the gap against Diana. The towel whipped out to snare one of Diana's hands, once the fabric latched on, Elaine would spin inside of her guard and thwart her head directly up against Diana's chin.

Misaki looked on as the battle continued. Diana would need help to defeat Elaine, and Misaki wished to see Diana defeat Elaine. Soon she would break her cover, but first she wanted to see if Diana could recover those blades on her own. One of the Diana's put Imena on her back, swinging both blades to finish her off. Imena's head ducked just below a cement drain, giving her just enough cover to avoid the blades cutting her in two. "Restraint Diana." Misaki spoke out loud from behind the counter. She walked into the fray between Imena and Elaine, ushering the oil slick to grow closer to Elaine, while tossing a bag filled with a vile gas towards Imena. The gas smelled sweet and enchanting, but really only sought to disorient anyone getting too entranced by it.

"Restrain this." Elaine would try to flip Diana onto her back and dislodge the blades from her hands. "Imena, get up and get behind me." Before any more of Diana's attacks could befall Imena, Elaine would shadow jump in and push Imena out of the way, leaving only her quick reflexes to try and deal with the opponent in a superior position. And this marvelous smelling gas.

Elaine’s Diana was promptly relieved of one scimitar and stunned from the blow to the head, though thankfully she was made of sterner stuff and was only momentarily disoriented as to let Elaine get free. These copies had less skill than the whole, but were close enough to Diana’s skill. Imena’s Diana attacked aggressively, slicing apart paper walls while leaving shallow marks on rock and concrete. Elaine exceeded the skill of both clones, but defeating them was a secondary concern.

“A good spar. Let us continue this later. Spirit! The way is open now!” The two mirror blade clones spoke in unison. Once the two women were there in one part of the pool, and being gassed, the other clones leapt into the water, picking up the Blood Drinker along the way. Down below, the real Diana found the ancient sealed door, and with the Hand of the Warrior relic, its demonic runes opened, and the stone door lifted itself out like a stopper, a rush of water spiralling downward into a deep, dark cavern...

Diana and her clones were spun down the vortex, a maddening experience but one she was not unprepared for. The water cascaded down into a dark abyss, and Diana and her clones grabbed onto thick vines that grew over the years to catch those who fell into this dark place. They quickly recover and step out of the edge of the bottomless pit, The cavern’s ceiling glowed with luminescent mold... and the air of the cavern so rapidly cold that the water clinging to Diana was quickly freezing.

"Is she coming back?" Imena stood over the broken spring gazing into the abyss. Cracks began to form all along the edges of the spring lining. Whatever transpired down there stayed a mystery to all within the bath house. Imena turned back to see Elaine still enamored with the perfume filling the room. It only grew to annoy Imena with a nauseous aroma.  The cracks of the water now became more evident for what happened below. A freezing presence swept over the room, blowing away most of the gas from Elaine's sitting position. "It's gotten fairly chilly in..."

"Good night dear." Misaki slammed her elbow harshly against Imena's lower neck, knocking her to the ground in front of Elaine. "Now, I need to see how long she can go without devouring you." Under the belief Elaine still could not defend herself, Misaki took her time tying Imena's hands together. In her patient and precise work, she left herself open to the blunt of Elaine's boot swiping her in the face. No pain announced itself, but the arrogance brought out a fire within Misaki. "So you wish to toy with me as well." The soft touch of her fingers pressed against her head. As she pulled them away, claws drew out from both of her hands.

The smell of cinder drowned out every other smell in the room. Elaine knew exactly the course of action she needed and dove under her sweeping claws. A sphere of fire flew just over her shoulder, leaving a trace of light illuminating her. Fire sparked up as the flame torched the oil slick separating Elaine from the kitchen. "Now." Misaki tapped her claws to her cheek. "I'm going to teach you a lesson."

With each swipe Misaki flung at Elaine, the agile cowgirl countered with a quick control of motion. She darted and dodged both flame and steel. Elaine tore through the paper wall into the kitchen, tipping a garbage bin. Fish fell out of the bin and paraded onto the ground. The sheer force of Misaki tore the bin in half, missing Elaine, but letting her see something more interesting. Misaki rose her hand to deliver a finishing blow, when Elaine darted up to grab Misaki and shadowstep with her in her grasp. Elaine would come out over the spring, dropping Misaki into the frigid water while Elaine fell just outside of the pool. "Imena, guns!"

"I dun one git." Imena's head rolled back and forth.

"Oh right." Elaine sprinted across the room, sliding across the floor to grab her long lost holster. Elaine strapped it around her waist and prepared for Misaki to make her reappearance.

Unless Misaki could teleport, fly or had the strength to resist a powerful vortex, she too would be pulled under into the caverns. Luckily though, the water no longer plummeted into an endless abyss, as it froze over some twenty feet down, making the fall quite survivable.

Diana’s clones quickly disappear as she replaced the Mirror Blades with Ash Bringer, as it glowed with heat and warmth that beat back the biting cold. It was a welcome relief as the environment proved to be... sub zero. She looked at her spirit guide, the Warrior, who too appeared distressed. She did not remember it being this cold.

The cavern stretched out to finite dimensions, a little larger than the bathhouse complex, with rows of and columns of massive stone columns spaced in thirty foot intervals supporting the entire underground. The shrine itself was locked in a massive block of ice, a dark figure sitting in lotus position at the base of the shrine’s steps.

“...This is bad.” Diana muttered to herself, as she used Ash Bringer to take a glimpse at the situation she was in. She looked back at the falling water to see if they deigned to follow.

Every ounce of warmth in the bathhouse faded in the wake of the swirling waters. Misaki threw her hands to grab the edge of the pool. While her body would withstand any pressure, the amount of strength she could summon paled in comparison to the sheer force of the vortex. A hard pummel landed against her fingers. Through the blurring waters, Misaki could make out the form of Elaine pounding against her fingers with the hilts of her pistols. Nothing strengthened Misaki's resolve like the emboldening of others.

No pain sat in her joints, but her strength sat in as much absence as her pain. Two fingers pried off, followed by a hand. Before she lost grip of the ledge, Misaki reached out and grabbed Elaine's hand. She released herself to the tide of the vortex. Nothing could break the magnitude of the pool. Misaki could only wait for the channel to open and drop her within the chamber of the cryoninja. Elaine splattered on the ground next to Misaki, still reeking of an abundance of perfume and bath salts. In her moment of defenselessness, Misaki wrested Elaine to her feet and pried her claws against the cowgirl's throat. "Move and you die." Misaki turned her attention back to Diana. "You have discovered the chamber. What do the blades tell you, my Lady Avatar?" Misaki would hold Elaine under duress while Diana looked over the secrets of this location.

Misaki found her attention thrown off by the arrival of Imena threw the cascading entrance to the complex. "Elaine, I almost..." Imena broke her sentence off when she spotted the situation Misaki held against Elaine's throat. Her hands were still tied in front of her, but Imena loosened them enough to almost let her slip free.

"Diana, my dear, are you getting closer to finishing this, because I've finished..." For the first time Misaki noticed the dark figure before the shrine of ice. "Take what is yours my dear. There is nothing in this world you cannot take."

"That's a negative thing to teach a teenager; you should back off on the..." Misaki dug her claws into Elaine's neck to silence her.

"Nothing."

“...My guide tells me, this ice wasn’t here before. Well then, just a matter of... getting past the ice.” Diana walked up to the shrine, a modest ten steps up, and brought the fire blade to meet the ice at the temple door, the large falchion glowing white with the heat of the desert. Slowly it melted the temple ice... but a pale glow emanated from the dark figure locked in ice at the bottom of the stairs.

“No.” A spectral whisper rang throughout the caverns, as a ceremonially armored shinobi warrior decked out in gear appeared, the dark figure in the ice gone. He shot a blast of supernatural frost towards Diana.

Diana barely had time to react to the freezing blast, ducking out of the way.“My sword!” The blade was half-way embedded into the ice, and the blast encased it in an icicle. Parted from Diana, the heat blade slowly became inert.

“That is not your sword. And neither does the weapon that lies here.” The spectre’s cold, deathly voice escaped from his long dead mouth, chilling like a grave in winter.

“...Er... uh... can’t we talk about this?” Diana backed away from the temple doors, looking at her spirit guide... who was not there. She was on her own on this one. The icy spectre exuded an aura of fear, something that penetrated even Diana’s protection; it was hardly a surprise since this was one of the warriors of old that resisted the Ancient Warrior.

“A few words and you took my gauntlet... and my hand... from me, blood sucker.” He held up his one arm which was an icy claw, his other arm adorned in a gauntlet identical to Diana’s. Everything the Ancient Warrior gave to Diana was taken from someone else, and now she confronted one of them. “There will be no words this time. No matter what form you may take. Only your demise.”

Diana ducked as sharp icicles came at her face, and she leapt away from the temple porch as the frost spread. She rolled and landed, drawing Blood Drinker from the shadows. In a cloud of mist the spectre was before Diana, and they exchanged blows in hand to hand combat, the Blood Drinker becoming cold at each place the spectre deflected the blows, with his own icy sword formed from thin air. Diana manages to cut through the specter's arm... his ice arm.

“No blood runs through my veins for you to take this time, Murderer.” He kindly reminded Diana, who bit her lip in frustration. She had become overly reliant on this sword... and had to wait until she could draw a new one. The spectre delivered a feint, then a powerful kick that sent Diana flying.

The falling water up to the surface quickly froze, closing the only way out. The pulse of cold parted the cold mist in the cavern, revealing scores of long dead and frozen warriors who tried their luck with the shrine, half buried in the ground. Elaine and Misaki were sitting on some preserved samurai’s face.

Diana found herself near her erstwhile ally, slowly getting up as her internal organs set themselves right in a very audible manner. She looked at Elaine who yet lived in Misaki’s grip. “Well... someone certainly is holding a grudge! I don’t think this is an ordinary revenant. He’s... really powerful.”

The Icy spectre approached the four women, his grip forming icicle blades.

“None shall leave this place. All will know the cold embrace of death!” He said his intentions very clear, a wall of ice slowly engulfing them... It seemed perhaps, they were all in this together.

Ninja Frost Revenant – Occult 3 Str 4 Spd 5 Dur 6 Abi 10 Fs 10

Strange bed fellows did emerge from this unexpected encounter. Misaki let go of Elaine's neck and pushed her forward. A quick slice of her claws severed the binding around Imena' hands. An alliance made of necessity would only last for as long as the necessity, but Misaki knew her new tool would need more help than just the blade she came into contact with less than a day ago. "Fight or I'll kill you myself." Misaki pressed her fingernail into Imena's shoulder, provoking just the response she hoped to achieve.

Elaine grabbed her guns off the cold ground and let two bullets fly. Each bullet would curve in an arc and impact along the ground near the ice revenant. Her bullets would erupt with the flick of her finger against the hilt. Once her speed built up, Elaine would force a shadow jump through the ice demon and come out on the other side of her. Both pistols would fly back and a hail of bullets would erupt towards the creature's neck.

Lighting blasted from the side of the room with enough heat to cut the frigid cold asunder. While nowhere near as mobile as Elaine, Imena still scampered along the ground in an attempt to make herself a much more difficult target to hit. The main course of defense on Imena's mind set came from hoping the creature would be more drawn to either of the combatants in front of it than her, but still she rained with a fury of electricity surging from all around her.

Content to rest within the shadows, Misaki slipped into the air and cast a air of invisibility about her. Fire heated her fingers, but this battle would be one of many and she did not intend on being left without a way of defending herself- or assaulting others.

Diana looked at her former enemies now turned desperate allies against this undead Shinobi. As he approached, the frost spread and intensified around the wraith, making no place safe from the cold. Diana’s frame frosted over as her flaming sword remained stuck in the ice at the temple.

With a surprising ease, Elaine’s bullets connect with it, blasting into his flesh as does Imena’s lightning. The attacks hit home with an initially satisfying intensity as the wraith let out a tortured shriek. Diana closed in and delivered a reaping blow with the blackened katana, only to find her blade striking into solid ice, biting halfway through the ice decoy’s neck.

“Fuck!” The lady let out a most audible cuss, as Diana was disarmed a second time as creeping black ice encased her blade and nearly taking her hands. At this point she’d lost two weapons without even laying harm on the creature. Desperate, she resorts to summoning her Mirror Blades, twin scimitars in each hand... but she did not know where the thing would reappear.

The creature loathed any attack that brought light or heat the most, and silently crept up from below Imena, emerging up to its waist from black ice and deathly shadow to grasp at her legs, desiring to root her in place with his cold embrace.

Slipping through the floors, the creature disappeared from sight. Elaine began to acknowledge everything different in her environment between the shadows, the floors, and the ceiling. One bullet slid into the chamber of Elaine's guns before she cocked it back into place. She could not say she was happy to see Diana split into so many more incarnations, but if it killed this creature, she would deal with it.

A snap of cold took Imena's leg. Crawling up her flesh, each particle locked its icy teeth into her leg. As the creature re emerged, Elaine darted forward. Rolling on the ground, Elaine split the legs of the shinobi and fired one bullet into each of its legs. When she came out of the roll, she would lock onto Imena and wrap her up. Her momentum carried more than enough weight to push them through real space and brought Imena out of the clutches of the cold.

With a speck of distance between them and the shinobi, Imena let loose another blast of lightning while Elaine detonated the two explosive rounds in the creature's legs. Elaine bolted to the side with a hail of gunfire riddling towards the ninja. Her charge stopped when Elaine could use the corner of the wall as a means of changing direction. Her chambers clicked past one another as six more rounds slid into place.

The creature keened in pain as its lower extremities exploded and assailed by lightning, but it too simply collapsed into a heap of ice and snow. Icy claws reached out from beneath the women’s very feet, as more of these ghosts of wintry vengeance seemed to manifest, attempting to overwhelm them.

Diana too had her own troubles. Even when she saw the creature engaging the lightning wielder and Elaine, more ice apparitions began to take to the field, sluggishly emerging from the cold ground. They lash out with attacks, and Diana was put on the defense to avoid their deadly grasp. Knowing what happens when she attacks, she uses the weapons scattered about this cold graveyard to press her offense, connecting with well placed blows that predictably caused the beings to revert to ice, trapping their weapons.

The creature seemed far too numerous. She only then noticed, by the temple, that the Dark figure within the ice was still there. “Wait... he never left his ice block.” Diana hastily concluded, and moved to confirm it.

“Show yourself!” Not wanting to lose another weapon she picked up a broken spear and chucked it at the ice block in front of the temple then followed up with an old sword in the dirt. The attacks slowly cause hairline cracks in the ice, and with a third blow, the frozen tomb was shattered open to reveal the revenant’s true body, still so eerily whole and preserved, a deathly pallor. He steps out physically, detaching from its icy prison. His eyes glowed with a pale azure light, like the hellishly cold heart of the underworld itself. His gaze fell on his liberator.

“Clever child... But by setting me free, my full power can now be unleashed!” In his hand he generated a sphere of numbing cold and darkness, visible as he pulled the intangible cosmic energies to himself and expelled the little heat remaining where he was. Having had time to study his opponents, he fends off Diana with a single armoured arm, deflecting her deadly sword blows, defying her counters and countering her attempts to sweep his knees with his own swift kicks.

The girl’s skills impressed enough to hold attention, but alas, the cold sphere was unleashed against her, and Diana found one arm frozen solid even as her deadly cascade of steel connected against him and landed a deep chest wound, which quickly froze over. An acceptable exchange for the undead.

Diana cried in pain as she was kicked aside, her right arm having completely frozen solid- down to bone and blood- and shattering upon impact. With her blood sword trapped in the ice at the base of the temple stairs, she could not hope to recover from so grave an injury.

The real ice revenant goes to battle against the two women as his ice clones crumple under their attacks, planning for the fodder to have worn Imena and Elaine down, perhaps expending their ammunition or power.

While things never looked good to begin with, they definitely took a turn for the worst when Diana's arm shattered. Elaine knew this would require more than just shooting in a general direction for an extended period of time, so she tightened the draw string on her hat and prepared for someone else to do something while she shot in a general direction for an extended period of time. This creature seemed to vanish from his mirrors and retreat to the true form he never actually left. Elaine could barely tell if that gave her a blessing or a cruse, but knew she at least had a target to shoot at now. Two bullets flew by to impact into the ninja's chest. With the use of her bullets waning, Elaine tried to think of something more desperate. Skilled in a little of this and a little of that, Elaine dashed more of this and less of that into her pistols grips and prepared to go into close combat against the ninja using her pistols as tonfa.

Imena lost track of where Misaki went off to, but knew she would not leave her protege behind, especially with such a grievious wound pouring from her arm. The only medicine Imena familiarized herself with found itself banned in all developed countries over one hundred years ago, so the time traveling adventurer did the next best thing to medicine, she shot lightning out of her walls. Instead of just directing it as a bolt, Ieman would try to create an electrical lasso to pull his arms away from encasing Elaine in ice.

Once she cleared a proper path for Elaine, Imena would try to grab a container to put water in. A water bottle from years ago fell down the spa pool and floated into this very moment. Imena filled the bottle and prepared to toss it with a jolt of electricity within it. Once the bottle hit, she hoped the ninja would try to absorb the water into his own body, subjecting himself to the heat and electricity he so much hated.

In a brief instance the spectre reached down and reclaimed his gauntlet from the shattered remains of Diana’s arm. He wears it on his icy claw, and then turns to the two women to engage them.

The true Revenant avoided Elaine’s bullets with inhumane speed and finesse, evading entirely rather than blocking them with a wall of ice, knowing they had secondary explosive effects from the decoys he deployed against them. He obliged Elaine’s challenge but only briefly, exchanging blows, attempting twice to claw at her with his icy talons. The Revenant found her his equal in hand to hand, using his still armoured limbs to counter and deflect, but Imena’s interference would have tipped the scales.

He attempts to bypass Elaine by leaving on the spot a still attacking ice clone, while he slipped beneath the ice and reached for dangerous Imena. She launched a projectile towards him, and he responded by freezing the glowing bottle entirely in midair. He was intent on taking out Imena first.

Diana was still in shock at the loss of her arm, one of her most severe injuries taken to date. She could feel the numbing cold creeping in through her wound, as she struggled haphazardly to find her Blood Sword, the icy ground helping not at all with her nerves.

Now the situation required the actions of the more overt nature. Elaine continued her rain of ammunition, but found herself gazing at the top of the cavern when the cold enforcement of an arm broke against her chest and knocked her off her feet. Imena darted to put a piece of rock between her and the shinobi, but his advance came from below. She stumbled and plummeted to the ground with her foot ensnared. The situation called for Misaki.

While this defender of the realm wasted his time with her common foe, Misaki stepped from the shadows. Her protégé needed work- and from the looks of it, a new arm. All in due time Misaki thought as the oil began to seep along the ground. A block of ice pinned Imena to the ground, entombing her legs just below the knee. This creature cut off an arm just earlier, imagine what he could do with such a defenseless foe, Misaki pondered while her oil reached the shinobi. A spark of electricity jumped from Imena's hands towards her aggressor. The smallest of flints lit the biggest of fires.

Flames engulfed the floor and spread rapidly. Misaki would not just burn her foe where he stood, but in each place he attempted to retreat. Biting back on her spell, Misaki smiled at the gesture done for her. She would repay the favor in due time for sure, but for now, she landed the heel of her foot into Elaine's chest to knock the air out of her lungs. Her hand grabbed the clone and fire sweltered from her hand to melt the creation before allowing more of the fire to blast against the guardian standing in her way.