by Sally Keira
"Well, I can spot ex-SAS a mile away also!" Satoshi grinned back at Lawso.
Kaiya hid her amusement, she was bluffing when she guessed Satoshi was CIA. She had not even considered what Lawso’s fighting background had been yet. Good, she thought. She could now presume a great deal more about their skill sets from that small amount of background information on them both.
“So Satoshi, can you set up a diversion around here to distract Kazuo and Yoshito?” Kaiya kept focused on the task at hand.
“Sure, Kaiya,” Satoshi agreed pleasantly.
When Satoshi parted from them he took the dagger with him with the intention of setting up a trap nearby. Lawso and Kaiya set off to circle round, until they could meet an earlier part of their track. This ambush tactic was more effective than doubling back over ground already covered.
Kaiya kept pace with Lawso, distracted with the newfound knowledge that he was previously Australian Special Forces. What she knew about SAS soldiers was that they were some of the world’s most fit, tactical and extremely deadly units. She could not decide whether she was more surprised or impressed. It would be interesting to know why he left the SAS, and how he came to be completing Mizuchi Ninjutsu training a world away from his former life.
“So, wanted to be alone with me, did you?” Lawso whispered. “I knew you liked what you saw in the bath!”
“Ha, you have a high opinion of yourself,” Kaiya snorted at him, shaking her head. “I’m not interested. I’m here to fight, to train and to kick your ass!”
“Bring it on, babe,” Lawso replied with amusement.
Kaiya rolled her eyes, trying to hold back a grin. Even if she had liked what she had seen in the bath, he was not getting a piece of her. She was here to win.
Lawso and Kaiya continued onward in the darkening forest. The last light of the setting sun was almost gone. Their pace eventually slowed due to their decreased visibility. They were aware of the quiet of the forest, the rustling of leaves and the occasional sound of small animals foraging around. Their footsteps were precise and almost soundless. Kaiya felt Lawso watching her again.
“What are you looking at?” Kaiya snapped in a whisper.
“I’m just observing your technique at stealthily creeping. You aren’t bad, I can barely hear you,” Lawso conceded.
Kaiya grinned at him in the darkness.
“Well you’re a bit noisy, but you foreigners often lack care and patience,” she told him.
Actually, she knew he was pretty quiet too but she was not about to tell him that. She missed the sly look on his face as he led them onward in the dark. After a while Lawso stopped, crouched down and ran his fingers through some mud.
“It is a full moon, we could use some camouflage on our face,” he insisted.
He approached her and gently splattered a streak of mud onto her cheek.
"Hey!" Kaiya hissed in an outraged whisper. “I don’t think this is necessary at night time”.
“It is,” Lawso disagreed.
He reached out and boldly cupped her chin with his free hand. In her surprise she let him turn her face upward, so he could stare into her large green eyes. He slowly rubbed some cold mud into both of her cheeks with two fingers of his free hand. Frowning, because she was questioning the point of this, she could swear he was deliberately making sensual circular movements across her face.
“So, what did you do to get onto the CIA’s radar?” Lawso asked.
Lawso had a serious look in his bright blue eyes as he watched her response to him stroking her. Heat rushed to her face again, so she was glad it was dark. She also noticed his eyes linger on her lips briefly.
“How do you know I’m on the CIA’s radar?” Kaiya asked. “Maybe Satoshi has heard of me from whoever recommended him for this training.”
“Unlikely,” Lawso said, earning an instant frown from Kaiya.
With both hands Kaiya grabbed the wrist of his hand cupping her chin, and tugged downward.
“Stop touching me,” Kaiya snapped.
He lost his grip on her chin. With one finger, he put a final streak of mud on her small nose before she managed to turn away.
“I dirtied your pretty face,” Lawso smirked, unable to keep a straight face anymore.
Kaiya punched him hard in the ribs in her outrage at his teasing. Lawso blocked her second swing at him, and doubled over soundlessly, pulling her down almost on top of him into a bush. She took the opportunity to wipe the mud off of her face and onto his shirt.
“Kono yaeou!” Kaiya swore at him in Japanese.
Lawso seemed to find that funny too, even though he was still rubbing his ribs where she had hit him. Unbelievable that this man was clowning around on their first challenge. The other team were probably completely disciplined and serious whilst hunting them. Kaiya frowned at Lawso in the dark. She pulled herself up into a crouching position, having regained her baring’s.
“Done, irritating me?” Kaiya whispered.
“For the moment,” he grinned back at her.
“We've circled back round to our earlier path," she whispered.
"Yep,” he whispered back. “We need to wait here silently until Kazuo and Yoshito pass us, then hopefully we can attack Anton if he shows up later. You stay put here while I find another spot to jump him from".
Before she could respond he was gone. In the silence Kaiya huffed to herself because she did not like Lawso taking charge of her plan as if he had come up with it. She was also irked that he had been playing with her with that mud. Cocky bastard, she thought to herself.
Kaiya waited in silence behind that same bush. So much time passed that she wondered if they might actually be able to remain hidden until sunrise. She shivered lying on the damp uneven earth, with numb feet and branches sticking into her back. Suddenly she heard a faint crackle of a radio and her heart pounded in her chest. Kazuo's whispering voice was just metres from her, but she could not see him from her dark position.
"Anton, we've picked up their trail. Yoshito left you a marker".
Anton muttered a short reply and then there was silence again.
Kaiya was unsure how much more time passed before she found the courage to leopard crawl out of her bush. She needed to take down Anton so determination spurred her onward. At first she was unsure of what direction to crawl in, so she stopped and listened. Somewhere in the distance she registered a thud of what might have been a tranquiliser shot.
“Ahhh!” Satoshi deliberately cried out.
Ok not that direction yet, she thought. The sound of sticks snapping and the thud of fists clashing with flesh in an altercation close by, caught her attention. Knowing that must be Lawso in action, she would need to get there before Yoshito and Kazuo did. Kaiya sprinted through the trees until she reached a violent brawl going on between the two large foreign men.
Laughing, Kaiya picked up Anton's dropped rifle. Once she had a clear shot she took Anton out with a shot to his back.
“I’m shot…” Anton also deliberately screamed out before he passed out.
Now it was two on two. Lawso abandoned Anton’s unconscious hulk on the ground and stood, his eyes on the rifle in Kaiya’s hands.
“Mine,” she told him because she could tell he wanted it. But he could get his own.
Lawso shrugged and resisted arguing. A look of understanding passed between them as they quickly split up.
Kaiya crept on alone in the dark amongst the shadows of the trees, back in the direction of Satoshi’s earlier cry. Her heart continued to race and quickened as she stepped over a body on the ground, which she realised was Satoshi. Leaving him behind, she knelt lower and continued on in a crawl. Their remaining opponents must be very close by, she thought. Because otherwise they would have taken off with their first unconscious captive.
Kaiya peered through a bush and could see Kazuo dangling awkwardly from one ankle suspended in a vine. His other leg was free with his foot barely scraping at the ground. Impressive, that Satoshi had mana
ged to come up with an actual booby trap with just a knife. Kazuo still had his rifle in one hand and was attempting to free himself by pounding the butt of the rifle against the vine. Kaiya thought he looked ridiculous. Smiling harshly, she put an end to Kazuo’s efforts with one accurate shot to his butt.
Kaiya was surprised that Kazuo did not cry out to let Yoshito know he had been shot. Kazuo must have known that Yoshito could see him. Panicked because she had probably given away her position, she moved to retreat. As she did so Kaiya heard a thud and registered pain radiating from a dart in her own back.
“Ahhh!” Kaiya cried out loudly so that Lawso would know she had been shot. Yoshito must have left Kazuo dangling there as bait, she thought, as she slumped forward and unconsciousness claimed her.
***
When Kaiya awoke she found herself lying hunched over on her side, with her body pressing down on one arm and her cheek lying in dry dirt. She felt the warm sun on her face, before she opened her eyes to find herself lying in the dojo courtyard. Her feet were bandaged properly now, but also bound together with rope around her ankles. Her wrists were bound too but behind her legs. She tried to sit up but could not. A shadow fell over her.
Kazuo bent down and pulled her up by her waist into a sitting position. She was forced to bend forward due to the position of the secured ropes. Kaiya glanced across the courtyard and spotted Satoshi and Lawso also sitting separately bound in forward leaning positions, with their hands also tied beneath their legs. They were watching her but did not speak because they each had some sort of gag placed between their teeth.
"What the hell is this, Kazuo?!" Kaiya demanded in Japanese.
"You lost and this is your penalty, apparently," he replied, struggling to keep a straight face.
Kaiya was seething to wake up to this humiliation.
“You were passed out much longer than Anton, Satoshi and myself because Lawso later shot you with a second dose of tranquilliser,” Kazuo told her.
"Why the hell did you do that?!" She yelled across the courtyard at Lawso, still speaking Japanese.
Lawso seemed to understand but could not speak, so he shrugged at her in an amused manner.
"Kazuo, you untie me right now or I'll-"
Her threats were silenced as Kazuo shoved a gag into her mouth.
"Sorry Kaiya," Kazuo said, as he rose and walked off chuckling.
Kaiya started thrashing about and ended up back lying scrunched over on her side in the dirt. She tried to buck her way across the courtyard making furious muffled noises. Her efforts just ended up adding more dust to her face and clothes. Anton appeared out of a building and walked over to her.
Anton deliberately laughed down at her and menacingly said, "If you don't stay upright and accept your penalty I'm going to keep doing this…”
Kaiya flinched as Anton kicked dust in her face. Sneering in satisfaction at her predicament, he then stalked off in the same direction as Kazuo. Kaiya fumed into her gag. She struggled for a while longer before realising her movements were futile. After settling down, she remained motionless on her side for some time. Her arm took the brunt of her weight and started to hurt after a while.
Much later Yoshito walked past her and hesitated when he saw her lying in the dirt. He pulled her upwards by her shoulders and placed her into the forward sitting position again.
"Kaiya Takahashi, I apologise for using you as a human shield. Obviously, I took you because you were far lighter than Satoshi. I knew Lawso was not far behind me. Had he not missed his long range shot by a couple of centimetres, it would be the three of us sitting where you are now.”
Yoshito stood and nodded politely at Lawso and then nodded at Satoshi before he left the courtyard. Kaiya stewed for a while but eventually accepted the fate of the forced forward sitting position. It was not painful, just humiliating, especially with that gag in her mouth. It was upsetting to learn that she was the one who had been returned to the dojo causing their defeat. And even worse, it was a family nemesis who had carried her unconscious body over that distance. She wondered what her father would think if he found out.
Kaiya glanced between Lawso and Satoshi, and thought they both looked ridiculous. Satoshi had closed his eyes in boredom from sitting there for hours, she wondered if he was asleep. However, she was very aware that Lawso's blue eyes kept returning to her. Kaiya wished she was in a less compromising and filthy state.
It was hours before the losing team were finally given relief. The domineering faceless Japanese voice eventually bellowed out over the loud speaker, the command that Kaiya was waiting to hear.
“Yoshito, Kazuo or Anton. Please release the losing team from the penalty position”.
Now Kaiya knew what happens when they lost a challenge. She planned to work hard to ensure she did not lose again. Once Kazuo untied her, he quickly jumped back out of her way, correctly anticipating that she would take a swing at him. He knew her well!
“Not my fault you lost,” Kazuo smirked.
“You’re lucky I’ve lost feeling in my limbs,” Kaiya snapped back.
Kaiya stormed off straight into the weaponry room and returned brandishing a samurai sword. All five men were looking at her in alarm.
"I'm going to finish washing my fucking hair, boys. If you all know what is good for you, you'll stay the hell away from the hot spring until I'm done! In fact from now on, if I am in the bath stay the hell away from there!” Kaiya declared.
Satisfied with her own rant, Kaiya stormed across the courtyard with the sword and slammed the door of the northern dojo wall on her way out. Once alone, she took off at a run because the urgency to pee had set in hours ago and her bladder was about to give out.
Chapter 3
Kaiya awoke the next morning in her small room feeling surprisingly well rested. She thought about how Yoshito had prepared a large traditional meal for everyone yesterday, whilst she had suffered that humiliating penalty with Satoshi and Lawso. After she had returned from her bath she had found the others in the kitchen pagoda, chowing down on Kamameshi rice, chicken and vegetable pot feast. Yoshito had offered her a bowl and she had politely nodded her thanks. Her should-be nemesis was difficult to hate, even though he had won the challenge using her body. Kaiya shuttered in disgust at that acknowledgement. Yesterday was behind her now, she would mentally prepare herself for whatever challenges awaited her today.
As she stretched and lifted herself off her futon, she spotted a rolled up scroll next to her on the floor. She removed the strand of sting tied around it and unravelled the paper to find beautifully painted Japanese script. The instructions translated to:
Kaiya Takahashi, you are to lead your opponent’s today. The focus of your teaching will begin after breakfast with wall climbing skills. After lunch, you will take the group outside the dojo and lead them in mountain climbing techniques. Make good use of the equipment available in the weaponry. I will expect your lessons to extend into the evening, but you may return by dinner time.
Kaiya was astonished that someone had managed to deliver that parchment to her room without her waking. She wondered if anyone else had received one. It was uncanny how none of them had seen anyone else moving around the dojo since their arrival.
Kaiya rolled up the message and dressed quickly. While she braided her hair, she considered the challenge of asserting her authority with these rough men today. At least climbing was a set of skills that she particularly excelled at. And being in charge was her forte. She already had some experience leading her father’s deadly ninjas, and would likely be promoted to a permanent leadership role after she completed this program. So, she knew she could handle five more assassins. Kaiya eagerly took off downstairs to eat breakfast and make her preparations.
After breakfast, the men were sitting on the steps of the kitchen pagoda, unsure what the morning would entail. They all noticed that Kaiya had disappeared into the weaponry room again. She laughed to herself as she recalled the looks on their faces when she had bran
dished the samurai yesterday. Their expressions were curious now, as she returned from the courtyard with another bag full of ropes and metal spikes.
“Traded in your sword, did you?” Lawso’s deep voice rang out.
He was sitting in the centre of the opponents, with his long legs sprawled out in front of him.
“You’re about to find out,” Kaiya smiled secretly as she dumped the final bag in the dust.
She was satisfied that five pairs of eyes were still watching her. After she selected a double grappling hook from one of the bags, she secured a chain and coiled rope to the device. Holding the chain and grapple in her right hand by the loop, she lowered the grapple almost to the ground next to her boot. The rope remained loosely coiled in her left hand. Kaiya deliberately looked into each of the men's eyes one at a time, pausing slightly longer on the bright blue eyes watching her with interest. Now that she was ready she finally spoke.
"See that crack on the wall?" Kaiya asked them, as she stepped closer to the wall.
Kaiya subtly shifted her weight and slung the metal grapple up over the wall, precisely landing it over the top. The shadow of the hanging rope was touching the crack she had aimed at. Tugging the line hard confirmed it was secure, so she knew the hook had set into the stone. Whilst still holding the rope in her left hand, she ran at the wall. She propelled herself upward with a hand over hand movement up the rope, whilst her feet ran vertically up the stone. About ten seconds later she swung her leg up over the wall and pulled herself up on top.
“Did she just run up a wall?” She heard Anton ask in disbelief.
“Yeah, I think she did,” Lawso sounded impressed.
“Can you do guys do that?” Satoshi asked.
“No. I’d just climb the rope, almost as fast,” Yoshito said.
“So would I.” Kazuo said. “You’ll get used to her showing off.”
Kaiya hid her amusement and focused her attention along the top of the wall. The width of the wall was similar to the width of the balance beam in her gym at home, and she was probably about six metres above the ground. Standing to her full height, she reached both her arms high above her head. A breeze lightly pressed against her body as she stood concentrating. After a few moments, she propelled her body forward into two cart-wheels, and sprung upwards high into the air, twisting into a forward front tuck somersault. She landed gracefully back on the wall with her feet perfectly placed together. Only one little toe was over the edge within her boot. Her back was arched with her arms stretching to the sky. Exhilarated from her risky display, she turned grinning at her audience. The only one of the men not sitting with his mouth gaping open was Kazuo, because he had seen her show off like this many times in the past.