Shawna looked into Jamie’s eyes and he knew that she could see his pain. Finally, she spoke. “What happened that day?” She took her chin off her hand and used her thumb to wipe a tear from the young ninja’s eye.
Jamie shuddered involuntarily as he replayed his first encounter with the Warui ninja in his mind. He had prayed she would not ask that question. Finally, he took a deep breath and said, “Our childhood ended . . ..”
Chapter Fifteen
July 24, 1988
Wednesday, 2:27 PM
A strong, chilly wind blew through the trees, uncharacteristic for the southern Missouri summers. Though not yet three o’clock in the afternoon, the sky had already darkened with thick, gray clouds that smothered the sun, which had already ceased its fighting and accepted the inevitable. A storm was coming. And it was a big one.
The four teens, three preteens and one child walked hurriedly down Poluk street, trying to get the one girl among them . . . twelve year-old Yoshi . . . home before the rain started. They had spent the past three hours practicing their martial arts in the park until the clouds had started to roll in.
The youngest three stood under the carport as Jamie, Simon, Dave and Buster walked Yoshi to the front door. “Wanna go with us again tomorrow?” asked Simon, easily as big as Dave, but much more gentle in nature.
“Weather permitting,” replied the Japanese girl as she hugged each of them, lingering a moment on Jamie. “Will you call me later?” she asked him.
“Sure,” he returned. “Right after supper.”
She reluctantly pulled away and smiled at her friends before opening the front door and disappearing inside.
The boys regrouped by Yoshi’s father’s car, then headed toward Jamie and Buster’s street, Speedway.
“Dude,” mumbled Dave from his place next to Jamie, “do ya think she’ll ever actually practice with us when we go ta the park?”
Jamie sighed. “We’re probably going to have to accept that Yoshi doesn’t want to be a ninja.”
A slight thud from the inside of Yoshi’s home, now three buildings back, caught the young ninja-in-training’s attention. “Did you hear that?”
“Hear what?” asked Buster.
Jamie was already looking back toward the house curiously. “Their side window’s missing its glass.”
“Maybe he’s fixin’ it, or somethin’,” suggested Zack.
“It’s about to rain,” Jamie pointed out. “He wouldn’t have left it uncovered.”
Without another word, Jamie started, at a half walk and half run, back toward the Funakoshi’s house. His friends followed him.
As they approached, the young ninja-in-training heard clearly the sound of metal ringing off of metal. He’d heard this sound during his training on many occasions. Two swords, possibly more, were hitting each other.
Reaching into his pocket, Jamie produced the only real weapon that he ever carried with him . . . a shaken, more commonly known as a throwing star. With a trembling hand, he grasped the doorknob and pushed the door open.
From inside, he heard Yoshi’s father, Kuji, yell something to her in Japanese. Though he couldn’t understand what was said, the voice was filled with desperation. Jamie stepped inside, followed by his friends. They were standing inside the foyer of the house. Yoshi was standing in front of the hallway to his left, looking in terror at something out of sight. Jamie gaped in horror, as Kuji stumbled past her, three arrows protruding from his back, and his ninja-to clattering to the floor at Yoshi’s feet.
The ninja master looked up at his daughter and summoned enough energy to mouth what could have only been, “Run.” Then his head dropped to the floor and his eyes stared lifelessly across the room.
Through his own tears, Jamie could see Yoshi drop to her knees next to her father’s lifeless form. “Father . . .,” she muttered weakly. “Father . . ..”
The girl had yet to acknowledge her friends’ presence. Luckily, whoever had taken Kuji’s life probably didn’t know that they were there, either.
A man’s voice came from the hallway. Jamie couldn’t understand the words, but the tone was condescending. Yoshi looked up toward the voice, her eyes overflowing. Her grief turned to terror as a shadow came into view. The figure’s arm reared back in preparation to throw something and the girl began to crawl desperately backward. Then the source of the shadow launched a small metallic dart at her face.
It got halfway to its target before it was knocked off course by a four-pointed throwing star. The two weapons clattered to the floor on the far side of the room.
One figure, followed by four more-each dressed from head to toe in black-stepped out of the hall, looking at the dart and star in surprise. Then the first of the assassins looked at Jamie. “Who are you?” he demanded in English with a strong Japanese accent. “How did you learn to do that?” The young ninja-in-training glanced at the speaker’s neck and the dragon pendant that dangled there was forever burned in his memory.
Jamie’s rage blotted out the prayer that Buster was offering to God for the death of His faithful follower. His attention focused solely upon this leader of the assassins, he replied, “I am the student of Tanemura Funakoshi.”
The other four ninja gasped in astonishment, but their leader’s eyes simply narrowed as he commented, “So, it would seem that the rumors are true.” He gestured toward Yoshi and said, “The future jonin of the Funakoshi has been neglecting her training.” He pointed to Jamie, “And the current jonin has taken a gai-jin as a student.”
The Warui leader leaned his head back toward his followers. Almost too casually, he ordered, “Kill them.”
The four genin pulled their swords and moved forward.
One took a swipe at Dave, who dodged out of the way and chided, “Hey, watch it with that thing, dude! You could put somebody's eye out!” Dave’s massive fist reciprocated the attack by slamming into the warrior’s face.
Dave’s victim staggered backward and Simon wrapped his arms around the villain from behind. This was all that Jamie could make out before the first of the ninja got to him.
The young ninja-in-training easily dodged a downward cut. A flash of lightning illuminated the house as Jamie grabbed his attacker’s wrist with his left hand and elbowed the ninja in the face with his right arm. He grimaced slightly when he felt a slight crunch.
As the shock of Jamie’s attack forced the ninja to loosen his grip on the sword, Jamie grasped it with both hands and spun in a full circle, wrenching it from its owner’s hands and striking the shadow-warrior down as he came back around.
Jamie looked at the man he had just killed and bile began to rise in the back of his throat. The movies had always made it seem so easy to kill someone and walk away. But the young man knew this would haunt him for the rest of his life.
Successfully fighting the urge to vomit, he looked around to see how well his friends were faring. Dave and Simon had already subdued their opponent, who was lying unconscious under an overturned bookshelf. They had gone to help Buster, who had been evenly matched with another of the ninja. Now the three were over-powering the assassin.
Jamie glanced at the ninja who Pete was fighting just as the preteen’s right foot shot out, knocking the ninja backward and over Zack, who had dropped to his hands and knees behind the warrior. B.J. was watching this exchange with fascination from his spot behind the large, blue sofa.
The sound of the ninja leader’s voice grabbed Jamie’s attention. The words weren’t aimed at him, as they were in Japanese. He looked to his right to see the ninja standing over Yoshi, whose panic-stricken eyes were glued to the man who had killed her father. Between his words, the murderer grabbed his ninja-to from its place on his back and nudged the blade belonging to Yoshi’s father toward her with his foot. She picked it up and held it in an awkward defensive stance.
The ninja finished his speech and took one swipe with his sword, knocking Yoshi’s blade from her grasp. The man laughed
and yelled something in triumph as his blade descended toward her neck. Jamie didn’t realize that the voice screaming “NOOOOO!!!” was his, nor did he remember his feet moving him to cover the distance between where he was standing and where his friend was about to die. All his awareness, and not just a slight amount of relief, was focused on the metallic sound of his ninja-to blocking that of the ninja from its mission of death.
The boy and the man locked gazes for what seemed like an eternity. Then Jamie roughly pushed his opponent straight back into the far wall, getting him as far from Yoshi as possible. Jamie’s nose nearly touched the mask of the murderer as the young man proclaimed between clenched teeth, “You’ve taken too much here, already!”
The leader of the raiding party shoved Jamie back and then took a swipe at his head, but he easily ducked this attack. The next attack was blocked with a clang that resounded through the house. The next was blocked as well, then the next, and the next . . ..
The leading assassin couldn’t get through the defenses of the young ninja-in-training. His eyes very quickly lost their arrogance as he realized that this gai-jin, who hadn’t even completed his training, might be his match.
Then, his fears were proven correct. Jamie’s ninja-to swung upward in an arc, neatly severing the blade of the other sword just above the hand-guard. The teen continued the momentum into a 360-degree spin and brought the heel of his left foot into the chest of the murderer, sending him sprawling from his feet.
The lead ninja looked up at Jamie, a mixture of fear and respect in his eyes. “You fight well.” He produced a small, silver ball from the inside of his black vest, pushing aside the necklace to do so. “I will not underestimate you the next time that we meet.” Throwing the ball, he leaped to his feet. As it hit the floor between Jamie’s feet, clouds of smoke billowed forth, filling the room and blinding the young fighters.
When it cleared, the Waruiyatsu were gone.
Chapter Sixteen
November 17, 1991
Saturday, 3:02 PM
Jamie shuddered, tears running down his cheeks at the memory of that horrible day. “We found Yoshi’s mother, Mai, still sitting on the couch. She never knew what hit her.” He shook his head. “The things that they did to her in the instant of her death are too gruesome to talk about . . ..” He cleared his throat. “We also found three of the ninja dead in the kitchen, where Kuji had fought them before Yoshi came home.”
“And Yoshi tries not to remember that day because of the pain?” inquired Shawna.
“It’s more painful to her because she thinks it’s her fault that her father died.”
“That’s absurd!”
The young ninja wiped the tears from his face with his forearm. “I know. But I realize why she feels that way.”
“Why?”
“Kuji was one of the finest fighters in our clan,” explained the leader of Adventure. “Whenever I had the honor of sparring with him, I was usually disarmed almost immediately. He could have easily taken all of the ninja who attacked them that day.” He shook his head sadly. “But Yoshi, who had been neglecting her training, was his weakness. When he saw her there, vulnerable, he hesitated for just the right amount of time . . ..”
“I can only imagine what she’s been through.”
He took a deep breath and let it out. “Yoshi’s only remaining blood relative was Master Tanemura. He told her he wouldn’t force her to finish her training. Not only did she choose to finish it, but she went beyond what was expected of her. Seeing her weakness in the sword as what led to her disgrace before the Warui, she bought every book that she could find on the ninja-to, and on short swords in general.” He looked up at Shawna. “You’ve seen how good she is with two swords?” At the honor student’s nod, he explained, “She taught herself that.”
Shawna smiled. “Well, at least you don’t have to rescue her anymore.”
He chuckled mirthlessly. “She can kick my tail any day of the week now.”
“Who was Simon?”
“Huh?”
“You mentioned a boy named Simon.”
Jamie sighed and looked back down at his feet. “He was a friend of ours in Jameston.” He shrugged. “That’s a whole other story.”
She nudged him playfully with her elbow. “We have nothing but time.”
He smiled. “Ask me again, sometime. The memory of one life-changing failure is enough for one day.”
“Okay,” she responded. “No pressure.”
Glancing back up at her, their eyes met. They stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity before the young ninja looked uncomfortably away and Shawna cleared her throat with the same discomfort.
“So,” began the girl, “have you found any stations that play music on Dave’s radio?”
Jamie shook his head. “No. All I can find are news reports about us.”
“Got any tapes?”
Jamie looked toward the lab table where Dave’s backpack lay. “Dave’s got both our collections in his bag.”
Shawna climbed to her feet and walked over to the table. After unzipping the army-green bag, she pulled out a leather tape-case. She opened it and looked inside. “’Metallica,’ ‘Def Leopard,’ ‘Poison . . .’” she looked at the young ninja, “This is Dave’s case, isn’t it?”
Jamie chuckled in response.
She smiled back at him and opened a smaller, red case. She fingered through it. “I don’t suppose you have any Christian music?”
“There’s a religious song on the MC Hammer tape,” was Jamie’s reply.
“I mean, do you have any tapes of only Christian music?”
The young ninja cocked an eyebrow. “Like a Gospel collection?”
Shawna sighed. “It has been a long time since you were in church, hasn’t it?”
“About four years.”
Shawna dug through her pocket and produced a tape that was missing its case. “Modern Christian music doesn’t always sound like ‘How Great Thou Art’ or ‘Victory in Jesus’ . . . not that they are bad songs, mind you.” She put the tape in the player and flipped the switch from Radio to Cassette. “Modern Christian music rivals secular rock and pop bands in quality.” She pressed Play. The music was outstanding and sent shivers down the young warrior’s back. The singer was enthralled by God. To him, God is the Creator and One Who walks with thundering footsteps. He is awesome.
Jamie walked over to stand in front of her, finding himself drawn into her brown eyes. “I thought you were all about science.”
“And?” she asked.
“Can you study science and be a Christian, too?”
Shawna smiled at him. “Why would you expect me to be so unintelligent as to not see the efforts of our Creator all around us?”
* * *
Amy swore in frustration, looking off down the hallway toward where she had seen John half drag Laura. They had disappeared into the gym.
“You might want to keep your voice down when you use words like that,” commented a voice from behind her with a chuckle. She turned to find Buster walking up the hallway with Dave. The preacher continued, “You might embarrass some sailor.”
She flushed, though she couldn’t quite understand why she felt like this around Buster . . . and only Buster. “I’m sorry,” she smiled meekly. “I didn’t know anybody was standing back there.”
“Ease up, dude,” commented Dave. “It’s not like cussin’s a Bible-bad thing.”
“Actually,” corrected the skinny, dark-haired kensai, “Colossians 3:8 speaks against swearing, but I’m not giving you a sermon . . .” he smiled, “ . . . unless you want one.”
Dave scratched his head in bewilderment at Buster’s comment, then looked at the pretty girl and asked, “What’s wrong, dudette?”
Amy sighed in frustration. “I just can’t ignore it anymore.”
Now it was Buster’s turn to look bewildered. “Ignore what?”
Amy
looked back down the hall. “John and Laura got into an argument over Jamie.” She closed her eyes and shivered. “Laura commented on how much it bothers her that John’s always harassing him. John got mad and drug her off down the hallway.”
Dave and Buster exchanged worried glances. “I don’t think so,” muttered the big teen, as he started purposely up the hall.
Buster and Amy hurried to catch up. “Dave,” said Buster quietly, “remember that we’re supposed to be here to protect the students . . . not fight with them.”
“I am protecting one of them, dude,” retorted Dave.
The three pushed open the double doors to the side of the gym. Dave strode in, followed by the other two. He scanned the room. A few of the students were playing basketball, having cleared the court of the dance equipment and food. The three made their way around the stage to find the girl sitting on the floor on the side opposite the double doors. Laura’s hair covered her face as she wept and there seemed to be no sign of her boyfriend.
“Are you okay?” asked Amy.
“I just . . . “ she sniffled, “ . . . I just need to be alone right now.”
Shawna’s cousin reached out with both hands and gently pushed the hair out of Laura’s face. Her eye was red and was already beginning to swell.
Buster’s eyes widened in horror.
Dave’s heart broke. How could anyone do this to someone who seemed so sweet and innocent? “I’m gonna kill’im,” proclaimed the big teen.
Buster cocked an eyebrow at his friend.
Dave sighed. “Okay. Maybe kill’s a strong word.” He gestured at Laura. “But he does deserve what he’s gonna get.”
”Please,” pleaded Laura, as she sprang to her feet. “Don’t hurt him.” She rubbed the hurt eye. “I shouldn’t have provoked him.”
Buster looked at her in disbelief. “Are you serious?”
“I should have known that arguing with him would just make him more angry,” sobbed Laura. “I deserve what I got.”
Dave had heard enough. “Listen dudette,” he said, “you were the one who was right in the argument. And even if you weren’t, nobody deserves to get what you did.”
Invasion of the Ninja Page 11