Jamie and Yoshi wore their ninja uniforms. The suits consisted of black pants, a vest, and detachable arm coverings that fit over the back of the hand and were held in place there by a black loop that fit over the middle and ring fingers. Their boots, called tabi, were also black in color, with a split between the big toe and the rest.
As the two walked around the weapons room in their teacher’s house, gathering up the weapons that they would need, Jamie began to worry about his parents. How would they react to what he and his friends were about to do? He knew that they were proud of his sense of responsibility, yet he also realized that they hated the concept of him being in danger. They had been relieved, but angry when he and the others had battled the Togakura at Yoshi’s parents’ home. They had been extremely mad when he and the rest had fought a street gang in Jameston after that same gang had almost beaten B.J. to death. How would they react now?
The young ninja shook his head and sighed. "I’m glad that we don’t have to go to my house to get my ninja suit."
Yoshi smiled. "I suppose that you are pleased that your young friend, Max, found it and asked you about it?" A couple of months back, his Sera friends had been at his house playing a role-playing game, when Max had found the costume in a metal chest at the end of Jamie’s bed. Jamie had lied to him and told him that he just had it as a "collectable." The very next day, he had taken it to his sensei’s home to leave it. He kept his personal ninja sword, called a ninja-to, as well as his practice weapons, in his father’s footlocker. He wanted to at least have a means to practice at home. He also prized the blade that Deck Pendragon had forged for him too much to leave it anywhere else, and he had figured that nobody would think to look among his father’s old socks.
Thankfully, Tanemura had enough of a collection of weapons to arm a legion of ninja. They had each grabbed a crossbow with a quiver of bolts, several throwing stars (called shuriken), a couple of handfuls of caltrops (tetsu-bishi), a few smoke balls, and a mask (dochi).
Finally, Jamie grabbed a ninja-to and sheath from the wall. Jamie examined the sword that he had chosen. Like most ninja-tos, its blade was just over two feet in length and straight, not curved like the katanas of the samurai. The hilt was wrapped in either shark or eel skin (either way, it was probably imitation, considering the fact that these swords were made in the twentieth century) with black cloth braided over it. This last feature was more for added grip than for decoration.
Yoshi had developed a style where she used two of the swords. This was a self-taught thing, as neither Jamie, nor even Tanemura, could use two of the weapons at the same time. Proud of his niece’s ingenuity, the jonin of the Funakoshi clan had commissioned Deck to craft two of the ninja-tos with Yoshi in mind. Each was balanced perfectly for her, and she was quite proficient with them.
Jamie looked at Yoshi and asked, "Are we ready?"
She sighed, a smile of resolve on her face. "We are ready."
"Then let’s get the others."
* * *
Jamie was relieved that the others hadn’t taken their suitcases out of Buster’s van before they had left the young ninja’s house for the Bluff. Each was armed and ready. The notable exception to this was B.J., who sat on Tanemura’s couch, sulking.
Dave wore a pair of camouflage army pants with black army boots. His muscles rippled under the plain, white T-shirt that he wore under a black, leather vest. Various fighting, hunting and survival knifes were sheathed on his elastic belt, on his pant-legs, and on his boots. The ensemble was completed with a navy blue headband.
Buster wore a pair of white, drawstring pants that were a part of a karate uniform. He had chosen white jogging shoes and a black T-shirt. Two pair of nunchaku were sheathed in black, leather straps around his legs. His small, silver cross gleamed in the streetlight from the chain around his neck.
Pete had changed into a black jumpsuit. He wore a matching sweatband, with the only conflicting article being his white tennis shoes.
Jack hadn’t changed out of his western attire. He leaned over the hood of Buster’s mini-van, counting his darts. The cowboy fan had added a gunfighter-type belt to his ensemble. Each of the bullet slots held a wooden dart.
Zack still wore his black parachute pants and Bart Simpson T-shirt. He looked in Buster’s passenger door mirror, making sure that the spike in his hair hadn’t been messed up. Jamie noted how much his cousin’s hairstyle made him look like the cartoon character on his shirt.
Buster cleared his throat. "I know that you guys don’t always like to hear about religious stuff, and all that." He sighed, then continued, "But I just wanted to offer a little group prayer, considering the situation."
Yoshi gently took his hand. "You know that I will gladly accept prayer."
Jamie took her other hand and nodded to Buster.
One by one, all the members of the group grasped hands until they were standing in a circle. Buster, Yoshi on one side and his brother on the other, prayed, "Holy God of Heaven, we give you praise for the relationship that we share. Each of us feels a bond to one another that is stronger than one of normal friendship. We are a family . . . A family that You, in Your infinite wisdom, have brought together. I pray that I can be half the blessing to them that they’ve been to me.
"Lord, lead us in the endeavor in which we now strive, to free those who have been kidnapped. Help us to be a beacon in the darkness . . . and keep Your protective Hand upon us." Buster sighed, then continued, "In Your Son’s Holy Name, Amen."
Each of the rest of the group followed with an Amen of his or her own.
Buster wiped his hand across his eyes. "Now I feel a little better about walking into the lions’ den."
* * *
Steve sat on the floor next to Leslie. Around him were the majority of the students who attended Sera High, numbering 118.
John and Freddy, seated on one of the benches, had been talking amongst themselves. Finally John stood and said, "We’ve got an idea."
Steve looked at Shawna, who had just finished leading a small group in a prayer. She eyed the two with disdain. "Oh, do tell," she muttered.
"We’ve decided to offer to let them keep Steve, Jeremy, and Max."
Shawna sighed in exasperation and rubbed her right temple with her index and middle fingers.
Leslie rolled her eyes and commented, "Well, aren’t you so giving."
John was ready to defend his idea. "Maybe they’ll be happy with just a few of us and let the more important of us go."
Max looked up at John and said, "Excuse me? If they let the important people go first, you guys’d be here for a long time."
John folded his muscular arms across his chest and growled, "Shut up, small-fry!"
Max narrowed his eyes and climbed to his feet. "You shut up, small-mind!"
There was a pounding sound on the door and a deep voice with a heavy Japanese accent yelled, "SILENCE!"
Max turned away from John and seated himself next to his brother. Nobody cared to continue the argument.
* * *
On the opposite end of the gym was a small office. Coach Bevlin covered the walls of this room with awards that he had won while he was in high school. To most students, the framed certificates that wallpapered the room, leaving very little empty wall space, would be impressive. But to the sinister man who sat in the coach’s chair, examining a shuriken, it was just a bunch of useless paper.
The door to the office opened and a familiar voice said, "There is still no sign of the Funakoshi, Master Obata."
The jonin of the Togakura arose from the seat and stood at his full height of 5’10", impressive for a member of their clan. "You have posted watches on the eastern bridge?"
"We have, Master."
"They will come." He continued to examine the throwing star that he held. "They are such sentimental fools. I suspect that the gai-jin has friends in this school. He will not allow them to be harmed."
"Our spies have seen him conversing with a few of the students who are held in the locker room, Master."
Obata turned to look at his subordinate and raised an eyebrow. "Indeed?" His lips parted into an almost friendly smile. "Well, we should make the friends of the chunin of the Funakoshi clan feel more comfortable, would you not agree?"
"What are your orders, Master?"
Obata turned away from the ninja, examining the dartboard on the other side of the room, and stated, "I am leaving for our base by the river. I leave the matter in your capable hands."
The other ninja, his voice tinged with excitement, said, "Yes, Master!"
"Separate these ‘friends’ from the rest in the locker room. If you have to begin killing prisoners, start with them."
He turned his head to watch the other ninja bow in compliance. As the chunin turned to leave, his leader’s voice stopped him. "Tanemura is to be taken alive, Kuzuki." He turned back to the dartboard, throwing the shuriken and easily hitting the bulls-eye. "His niece is to be killed, but do this mercifully. She cannot help that karma has chosen her to be the one to bring about our fall.
"As for the gai-jin . . . You can make him suffer before you kill him."
* * *
The door to the locker room opened and two of the ninja stepped in. One of them pointed at George, Max, Steve, Jeremy and Shawna and said, "You five will come with us."
"Why?" asked Steve as he climbed to his feet.
The ninja who had spoken appeared agitated and responded, "If you must insist upon asking questions, then we will be forced to sever your tongue."
Steve defensively covered his mouth with both hands.
Lesly leaped to her feet and grabbed Steve’s right arm. "No!" she yelped, unusually overcome with emotion.
The ninja who had been silent this whole time stepped forward and began to pull a dagger from his belt, but was stopped by the other. "We are not to harm them!" The speaker looked at Lesly almost compassionately and said, "I have a wife and child. I know the pain that you feel now." He gently removed her hand from Steve’s arm and continued, "I assure you that he will not be harmed if our demands are met."
Steve cupped Lesly’s face in his right hand and, using his thumb to wipe a tear from her eye, whispered, "It’ll be okay. I’ll be back." He leaned forward and gently kissed her lips, then turned to follow the other four out of the room, the sound of her sobs causing him more pain than the severing of his tongue possibly could.
* * *
The minivan sped past the turn onto Highway 21, which would have led the adolescents to Jamie’s house. The young ninja looked longingly in that direction.
"Do you think they’ve missed us, yet?" asked Pete from his place in the back seat.
Jamie shook his head. "They go to bed early. They would have expected to be asleep when we got home." He leaned his forehead upon the cold glass of the window next to him. "They won’t know that anything’s wrong until morning."
"Even then they may not know," suggested Yoshi. "Uncle Tanemura had discussed having us all at our house one night this weekend. They may assume that we are there when they awaken."
"What if they heard about the school on the radio?" queried Jack, who was sitting next to Pete. "Since their son is a ninja, and they probably know what they dress like, they might think that this is all just a little too weird to be a coincidence."
Jamie sighed. "I just hope my dad doesn’t get sick."
* * *
The five sat on the bleachers on the raised area that was often used as a stage when they turned the gym into an auditorium. Tonight, however, the only thing that was there was the stereo system that had been used to play the music.
George looked at Steve and asked, "Why do you think they singled us out?"
Steve thoughtfully pinched his bottom lip. "I’m not sure." He looked around at the other four. "I can’t see what we all have in common that would interest these people." He gestured at Shawna. "She, Max and I are honor students, but that would leave out Jeremy and yourself." He gave a friendly smile. "No offense intended."
"None taken," said George.
Steve continued. "Max and I are brothers, but there are no family ties between the three of you, and I fail to understand why they would care about that, anyway."
He looked at George again. "You knocked a few of them around with the handle of the mop that Mr. Brown had used to clean up Freddy’s vomit. That might have caught their attention. But it doesn’t explain us."
George looked at Jeremy. "Maybe you yelling, ‘I’m Robin Hood!’ got their attention.
Jeremy smiled self-importantly until Shawna offered, "I’m surprised that they didn’t mark him a lunatic and kill him on the spot."
Steve was just about to ask George where he’d learned to fight, when the silent ninja who had brought them from the locker room came forward. "It is ten minutes until midnight," he hissed. "You had better hope that your friend gets here before then, or one of you will be the first to die."
The five looked at him, a mixture of fear and confusion upon their faces. "Wh . . . What friend?" demanded Shawna.
The ninja just shook his head and turned away.
Steve was really perplexed. "What friend of ours could interest these ninja?"
"How about Deck?" offered Jeremy. "He’s a pretty good fighter."
"And more of a nut than you," remarked Shawna. "They wouldn’t have brought me out here for being his friend."
"How about Jamie?" asked George.
"What would a ninja clan want with Jamie?" asked Max. "Besides, I wouldn’t exactly call Shawna his friend."
The other three males each raised an eyebrow at him and Shawna blushed.
* * *
Buster pulled the minivan into the gravel parking lot of the high school building. Jamie climbed out of the vehicle and pulled his glasses off. Sliding them into their case, he pulled the small, plastic, two-sided container that held his contact lenses from his pocket.
Dave walked up to stand next to his older cousin as the young ninja put the right, then left lens in their respective eye. The big teen sniffed the air playfully and declared, "I smell a majorly awesome battle comin’, dudes!"
Pete stood on the opposite side of Jamie, looking at the darkened high school building. "Maybe you smell that ton of styling gel that Zack’s got in his hair," he suggested.
"Hey!" exclaimed the pervert. "The chicks love it!"
Jack tipped his hat back and said, "The word ‘chick’ went out with the eighties."
"Nobody told me," declared Zack.
Jack finished loading the darts into his guns and commented, "That’s because nobody likes to talk to you."
Jamie walked over to stand next to Yoshi, who had been pinning her long hair up so that it would fit in her mask. She looked at him and sighed. "I wish that we could have reached Uncle Tanemura," she said.
Jamie put his dochi on. "Surely he’s heard the news by now. He’s probably on his way here as we speak."
"I suppose that you are right," agreed Yoshi as she followed suit with her own head covering. "I am sure that B.J. has told him everything by now."
* * *
Tanemura Funakoshi placed his car keys on their place on the rack next to the back door to the house. He walked over to the refrigerator and opened the door. Reaching in, he grabbed a can of V8 and opened it.
Sighing, the Funakoshi jonin thought about the trip home from the Bluff. The accident on Highway 67 had kept him stopped for fifteen minutes while they moved the trailer of the semi from the road. The wreckers had already been there when he had arrived. Luckily, nobody had been seriously injured in the wreck. He figured that the driver had fallen asleep at the wheel. He couldn’t be sure about this, however, since the fuse for the circuit upon which the radio ran had blown when he was pulling out of the hospital parking lot.
After muttering a quick prayer of thanks that Jamie, Yoshi and their friends hadn’t been coming home at the time of the accident, Tanemura took a drink of the vegetable juice and headed toward his bedroom. I suppose that Yoshi decided to stay with Jamie at his house tonight, thought the old man wearily. I will go see them tomorrow.
Had he thought to look around a little more before he retired for the night, he might have found Yoshi’s half-finished note . . . or the eleven year-old boy dozing silently on the couch.
* * *
"Why aren’t we tryin’ the front doors?" inquired Dave as he and the rest of Adventure followed their leader around to the side of the building.
"It’s always locked during a nightly school function," explained Jamie. "Besides, I’m sure the Togakura’ll have it well-guarded."
"As if they would leave any route clear," corrected Yoshi as she pressed against the side of the building with her friends.
"True," conceded her clan brother. "But they went through an awful lot to get us here to completely bar our way in."
They came to the set of metal doors on the western side of the building. On either side of them were two large, glass windows. Jamie cupped his hands over his eyes and leaned his face up to the glass.
"See anything?" asked Buster.
"Nothing." The young ninja grasped the handle of the right door and pulled. It opened just enough to note that it was held shut by a thick chain.
"Guess we’ll hafta break out a . . .," commented Dave.
"Too much noise," interrupted Jamie as he examined the window, his hands straying to an inner pocket in his vest. "We want to keep at least a slight element of surprise." Pulling his hand from his suit, Jamie produced two suction cups that were each topped with a thick, leather loop. Sticking them on the cool, smooth surface of the right window and pressing to attach them, he motioned Dave forward. "Stick your hands through these hoops."
Dave did as he was told. Jamie pulled a small instrument that looked like a scalpel from his belt and placed it to the top, right corner of the glass.
"Why’s the blade of that think sparkling?" asked Zack.
"It’s diamond-headed." Jamie cut straight down the side, then across the bottom and back up the other side. Looking at his larger cousin, he instructed, "Brace yourself. This might be a little heavy." He finished by cutting across the top.
The glass fell toward Dave, who grunted, "You weren’t kidding," and gently set it onto the sidewalk.
The young ninja just smiled, though he knew that his friends couldn’t see it through his mask. This would definitely be a story to tell his grandchildren . . . If he lived long enough to have them. He climbed slowly through the window and moved a few feet to the double-doors that led to the side of the gym, peering through the small window in the left door, he noted about twenty black-clothed figures walking around the gym, talking amongst each other. Two more stood guarding the door to the girls’ locker room. Looking downward, he could barely see another chain locking these doors.
Then another sight caught his attention. Max, Jeremy, Steve, George and Shawna were seated on the stage, separated from the rest of the students. He caught his breath and turned away from the door. The Togakura must have been spying on him for quite some time. They had easily picked out his friends, and even his crush.
Looking back into the window, he noted two ninja, one wearing the necklace of a chunin, approaching the five. The other started to reach for Steve, but the chunin stopped him and grabbed Max instead. Jamie looked quickly at his watch, which read 11:55 PM.
Looking back up at the clock that was on the wall of the gym opposite of Jamie’s doors, he read the time as midnight. He almost swore. "It’s five minutes fast!" he exclaimed, despite himself.
Yoshi was at his side in an instant. "What?"
Jamie looked at her frantically. "They’re going to kill Max Adams!"
Dave looked at the doors. "Don’t think I can break these down."
"There’s another way in," suggested Jamie and he turned and lunged down the hall.
The group followed him about a hundred feet before the wall to their right that enclosed the gym turned and ran away from them, forming the northern wall of that large room. Jamie ran along this wall until he came to an old brown, wooden door. Taking hold of the handle, he turned it to find that it, too, was locked. He looked up at Dave. "No time to pick it."
The big teen moved back several spaces to give him-self a little running room . . ..
* * *
"Well, young one, " commented the ninja with the strange necklace that was shaped like a Y, "it would appear that your friend doesn’t consider your life important enough to risk his own." The other ninja held Max’s hands behind his back as the speaker pulled a straight dagger that looked like a shortened version of the ninja’s sword from his belt. "I do hope that you do not take this personally."
"Of course not," replied the teen sarcastically.
George, Steve and Jeremy leaped to their feet, but several of the ninja grabbed them and pinned them back into their seats.
"Please don’t do this," pleaded Shawna, tears streaming from her eyes. "He’s just a kid."
"Yeah," said Max, mustering all the courage that he could find. "I just crashed the party!"
A BOOM that resided through the gym brought everyone’s attention to the northern entrance. Standing in front of the doorway was a group of adolescents, each dressed in a variety of clothing that looked as if they were prepared for a fight. The sight upon which everyone fixed, however, was that of the two ninja who were with the group.
"Funakoshi," whispered the ninja with the dagger, his voice filled with the wonder of a coming battle. His eyes narrowed as he called out, "Where is the other of you?"
One of the two masked warriors, a female with two swords strapped to her back, answered, "My uncle could not be reached. I hope that we will provide enough entertainment for you."
"We shall see." The Togakura party leader’s voice was now tinged with humor. "Togakura. Kill them."