** Chapter 53 **

** Afternoon, Isolation cell, “Stonehenge” prison, late afternoon, Nevada Desert, USA **

Ibuki groggily shifts sideways, coughing and feelings consciousness land on her like a pile of bricks, her eyes hurt and her body quakes with dull pain all over, she pops one eye open slowly and looks around, her pupil shifting quickly to adjust to the bright light pointed at her, causing her to wince in momentarily disorientation.

“What the h*ll?” Ibuki mutters in Japanese and lets her other eye slowly open as well, her brows furrowing in confusion, she looks down at herself and her eyes shift to a flat, agitated look as she shifts her arms some only to find them unresponsive.

She scowls and turns slowly, wincing only slightly, her body was aching, but she would live, a collection of blue bruises and burn marks would flaw her smooth milky skin, but she would have to live with it for the time being, for the time being.

“A straightjacket eh? I don’t know if I should be flattered or worried that they consider me a threat…” she muses lightly to herself and shuts one eye while noticing nobody is around, and beginning to fiddle with the rubber straps, trying to untie them, wincing some as she stretches her arms some to try and achieve this.

She then pauses as she hears footsteps and sense 2 people approach, lying down on the cold floor, and shutting her eyes, and pretending to be unconscious, listening intently to their chitchat from outside as they begin opening the door.

“Yeah, I didn’t like it either, but the warden is the boss, and them medics said she’s fine” One says and kneels before her and gently tucks his hands under her left arm, lifting her up some. The other follows suit on her other arm “I didn’t think this pretty little thing, could be that deadly,” he muses as they begin hauling her off.

“Well it’s a real shame she messed with that Taggart b*tch, always makes the warden lose it” one says as they drag her down the corridor, Ibuki’s legs dragged behind her body, while her head lolls limply against her chest, her unconscious façade quite convincing.

The conversation continues shortly, the topics not interesting anymore, Ibuki instead continues fiddling with the straps, choking down some pain, and beginning to unknot it, loosening it slowly as they take her to the warden’s office, and put her down on a chair.

“Wake her up” a harsh voice instructs, and Ibuki pops one eye open “Don’t bother” she muses coolly and leans back into the chair, as much as she can at the moment. The two guards are ordered out and Ibuki is left with the Warden, face to face.

He is a large and bulky man, around 6 feet of flesh and flab, bald headed with a high forehead, a small squashed nose, huge lips, his arms folded and fingers intertwined as he regards her with twin beady little green eyes hidden behind a pair of spectacles. His skin is stretched over his face, sweaty and bright, looking like a huge swine in a suit and glasses.

Ibuki regards him calmly while her eyes roam about lightly before looking at a picture of him as younger man, and hmming lightly, pieces of a small puzzle beginning to fit in place, a small smirk reaching her lips as she shakes her head lightly.

“I find nothing amusing Ms. Hasigawa,” he muses coldly and his brows furrow as his face contorts in an angry little frown, while leaning forward some and glaring at her coldly “I’ve worked hard to maintain a certain balance in this penal institute, and I’m not about to let you, spoil it” he muses.

Ibuki’s shoulders shake some as he breathing hitches lightly, lips pursing as she chokes down laughter, causing him to redden slightly and pound his fist onto the table hard “I demand to know what is so amusing Ms. Hasigawa?!” he demands

“Well, for starters, you Warden, I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone who looks so…interesting” she says, with a long pause and chuckles lightly, then inhales deeply and sighs. “Secondly, the little charade you’re putting up. Balance my a**, you’re just watching your little kid, Lisa’s back” she says and opens her eyes slowly, a look calm and calculating banishing the amusement, “Ne?” she muses and lifts a slender brow at him.

His eyes widen shortly, before they narrow and he snarls lightly “You’re delusional Ms. Hasigawa, and you are violently unpredictable, provoking and assaulting your fellow inmates and guards, what am I going to do with you?” he asks and quirks a brow.

“Don’t you find the story of me assaulting 6 inmates quite far fetched Warden? You think your people upstairs will actually buy that?” she asks and leans back, inwardly smiling in relief as she loosens the straps some and is more comfortable.

“They will with your file,” he says and shrugs “Now I’ll give you one last warning, leave the other inmates alone, or I’ll have your pretty little a** beaten, raped and broken, and nobody will give a d*mn, you here me?” he muses in a malicious tone.

Ibuki’s eyes glimmer with a dark glint as she wears an impassive and emotional lacking façade. “I’d be careful who you threaten warden…If I die, you might screw up Interpol’s investigation of Shadowlaw operations, this will bring up a grand tribunal to investigate you, see what you’ve done, and get you into jail here,” she muses darkly.

“Besides, if I were you, I wouldn’t threaten a woman who can kill or cripple you in 20 different ways,” she muses calmly, and smiles sardonically at him, with a dangerous glint flickering in her eyes.

“Bold words, partially true, except the last part, you’ve got cheek for a misbegotten b*tch in a maximum security prison miles away from civilization under my command” he muses and chuckles lowly, “I’d be more polite If I were interested in my welfare if I were you” he adds and clicks on a button the guards coming in.

Ibuki eyes him calmly and grins lightly “You’ve got balls, I’ll give you that Warden, but I don’t play by yours rules, if that, worthless, gutless, weak, pathetic, slutty, stupid b*tch of a b*stard offspring, Taggart, even looks at me the wrong way. Then I guess we’ll meet again” she muses, content as the guards look surprised, but a spark of realization seems to settle in.

The Warden grinds his teeth as they begin wait for his order “Take her to the showers, then back to isolation, and keep her there until I tell you otherwise, no free time, no showers, no nothing from her return and so forth, Am I clear?” he asks angrily. The guards look at each other, uncertainty in their eyes; before he barks the command at them, and they comply unwillingly.

Ibuki coughs politely when they’re outside the door, causing the guards to pause in place, still holding her above the ground some, “I CAN walk you know,” she says with a hint of agitation, them letting go, and dropping her, she hits the ground “you could’ve warned me first?!” she says angrily and gets up, causing them to chuckle.

She then begins walking, with them behind her, muttering all the way about stupid men and their ideas of a joke, and how she wished she could slap the fat baldhead of some pig headed warden in Japanese. The two Yanks have no idea what she’s rambling about and choose to ignore it as they lead her to the showers.

The guards then untie her straightjacket’s straps all the way, not noticing how she loosened it just enough, to rip the strands if she really wanted to, causing her to grin inwardly, it could come in handy later, should she be in need to blow this Popsicle stand. She rubs her wrists, and then massages her shoulders lightly, them hurting faintly.

** At the same time, Middle of the night, Secluded beach, near Ashkelon, Southern Israel, Middle East **

She sighs contently, the gentle sea breeze caressing her face, her long hair ruffling lightly. She missed her blond hair somewhat, but dying it, gave her quite a nice touch, and helped her dodge attention, it scrambling any first impressions, of law enforcement agencies.

She pushes out a small exhale; her rosy lips caressed by her tongue as she moistens them some, the Middle Eastern heat quite a problematic thing. She waits impatiently, sitting in a thin, sheer and quite revealing dress, it blowing in the wind, no intentionally, but any other sort of fabric hard to endure in the high humidity and smoldering warmth, she also was suffering from wearing some stockings who concealed her backup insurance, a small pistol, right on the outer side of her leg.

She is sitting in her rented car, sprawled in the back seat, the engine running and the air conditioner soothing her overheated body. She is drinking some diet Cola from a 12 oz bottle, while idly looking at her watch from time to time, sighing lightly in boredom.

He was late, so very late, she was tired, so tired. She had been waiting for hours. But then again it was to expected, Israel’s intelligence was very developed and hard to sneak by. She just hoped he’d deliver, otherwise, she wasted a whole day in the blistering heat, and that would not be appreciated, not one bit.

She had a plan, a very intricate one; all she needed was some gear, to be able to sneak by that blasted Cyborg. She didn’t exactly feel very enthusiastic about doing this job, but a good 5 Million in unmarked American dollars, and a steamy night with Gill, could persuade her enough to give it a go.

She had to admit she liked Israel, it had its nice resorts, and interesting variety of people, but it had its downsides, like people being impulsive and not punctuate. With killer humidity and smoldering heat in the summer, it feels like sitting on a little patch outta h*ll puked out of the bellows of the underworld.

She also had to admit her Palestinian contacts were quite willing and useful, with their constant battle against what the “Zionist occupation” they were ever the resourceful and helpful little batch of people, always looking for funding with the Israeli manhunt and intelligence overtime job on cutting down the terrorist infrastructure.

She personally wasn’t interested one bit in their political and religious affairs; she had money, and lots of it, because despite her love of utilizing her Arab contacts, here and elsewhere in the middle east, there were some things that they just couldn’t achieve.

Thus, she then turned to the Israeli side; their black market was quite vast and often as absurd as it is, is willing to sell munitions to the very Palestinians who blow up in their cities and shoot their wives and children, she finds this both amusing and sad in a way.

Regardless to their political views, the all mighty dollar or New Israeli Shekel could break beyond origin or religion, a quite respectable and large chunk out of the intangible term of “everyone”, in this case. She was sure of this factor from personal experience,

She too was part of this statistic mostly; of course, she had some minimal ethics of the profession, part of her reputation and one of the important things that brought customers to her doorstep. Truth be it that her failure to kill the young Shinobi woman Ibuki had hindered her flawless record, but she found ways to work around the small mishap.

She was expecting Shadowlaw extermination Cyborgs to come for her, for her insolent qualm to interrupt the lord Xavier’s master plan, but it seems she wasn’t worthwhile to waste his resources on, that was fortunate enough, having to change her identity, overcome plastic surgery and build a new identity would’ve been tedious.

She still had a bone to pick with that ninja come to think of it, but she could postpone that notion for another day, right now she had to remain sharp and focuses, she wasn’t out to go murder some nobody, she was out to whack the most dangerous, individual in the world.

She sighs heavily in relief when she sees dual lights in the distance. She frowns and grunts lightly as she sits up and gets out of the car, she smoothes her dress with her hands and leans on the car, crossing her arms under her breasts and waiting for the man to park the car.

A man steps out of a silvery Volvo S70 gleaming lightly in the moonlight. He is 6 feet tall, wearing some casual clothes, a sleeveless thin fabric white shirt, a pair of shorts and carries a large black one-strap bag in his hand.

“You’re late Haiim,” she says flatly, while her brow ticks, scowling some and glaring daggers at him, walking toward him, impatient to get back to her hotel room and sleep blissfully and peacefully, away from this blasted intolerable heat.

He shrugs and kneels by the bag “Leave me alone woman, you know what it took to get this thing out of the factory, if I were caught I’d been court marshaled and sentenced for 15-30 years,” he says and sighs and mutters things in incoherent Hebrew.

He opens the back and shows her the merchandise, she inspects it, kneeling beside him and silently watching, probing and checking if it’s all the real deal and in good shape and operational. Upon being satisfied she stands up and nods and he begins packing it all back into the bag.

Once he’s done Vibora kicks at him and sends him sprawling on his back after her foot collides into his chin, sending him falling onto the sand, she then kneels beside him and grabs him by the neck, lifting him some and digging her nails into his flesh some.

“I’m a very busy woman, you stupid little piece of trash, and next time I have to wait on some remote beach for 10 f**king hours, you’re going to be found floating lifeless in this here sea, you got me?” she asks coldly, while repelling his blows easily as he curses her, calling her a crazy, stupid b*tch.

She grins coldly and then hmphs at him “I’m off to work, for your insolence, lip and attitude, I’ll repay you with your life, consider yourself a lucky guy, because you won’t get another chance,” she says and gets up, and begins heading back for her car.

“I don’t think so B*tch, I think I’ll be getting my money or you’ll be floating lifeless in the sea,” he says and reaches for his pocket. Before he can think, she spins around, a silenced sound is heard and a bullet pierces the night and he falls down lifeless.

She shrugs and twirls her gun around her finger before returning it to its holster under her dress, all non-chalantly. “I warned him” she muses to herself and throws the bag into the back seat before entering her car and putting the key into the ignition, she sighs tiredly and then takes off into the night.

** Back in “Stonehenge” prison **

She then steps into the shower’s changing room and pauses as she hears them follow, she whirls around and gives them a questioning look. “We’re not allowed to take our eyes off you…” they say and shrug.

Ibuki’s eyes darken and a warning look flares within them. “Don’t make me hurt you boys…” she says coldly and gives them the crooked eye glare, eyebrow ticking some, causing them to back away some, as she grabs a towel and promptly shepherds them outside.

She shuts the large steel door behind her, it being quite thick, shielding people outside from entering if locked, it most likely an old bomb shelter renovated.

Ibuki shakes her head “Either men are naturally stupid, or just plain dense, those two, I’d say both” she mutters and begins stripping, looking down at her body, huffing slightly at the blue and purple bruises covering her body, swearing to get that fat a** warden one of these days.

Ibuki then grabs a towel and some soap and shampoo, cheap branded and disgustingly chunky and sighs some, missing her long bubble bathes at home, reminiscing momentarily of her past, eyes moistening a bit, before she shakes it off, walking with shoulders slumped a bit, into the shower area.

“Hey there little girl” A male voice speaks to her, and she pauses, her momentary occupation in thought and memories dulling her precognitive chi senses and causing her to be caught off guard as several hands push her against the wall. “The warden said the girl would be cute, but didn’t say you’d be sexy…” another says.

Ibuki feels sick in the stomach as they begin touching her, hands roaming over her, while holding her against the wall, so she can’t escape, these men leering at her, their loathsome firm touch making her stomach twist, as she swallow a lump of bile, thrashing some, but being held against the wall.

“Hold her good, so I can take her hard, I like’em screaming…” one says, while he licks her neck, causing her to shiver, as the other laugh. She on one hand feels a pit of panic and wants out, instinct rising and like a caged animal facing a predator, her thoughts spin out of control.

Then she takes reigns over herself, breathing heavily and forcing it down, she was a warrior, not a victim, she had power, she had skill, she would not let this lowlifes rape her like this, she would die first.

Then she focuses and the ninja within dominates her, as a small, amused grin reaches her lips as she pushes her head back, looking at the man about to try and enter her by force, with half open, mocking eyes, as she chuckles lightly. “Now, Now Boys...I’d really suggest…you cease and desist now. If you do I might let this slide…somewhat…” she says in a calm, if slightly tense manner, her eyes then narrowing and a dangerous look gracing her face.

She was being extremely controlled and polite, not wanting more trouble, but at the edge of her nerves as hands rub her skin roughly, and tongues and teeth run over her, making her rage grow, and urge for violence build.

“What’re you going to do, eh? Bitch? We’re 3 guys, and you’re one, athletic, sexy little morsel, but still singular, alone, without the guards here, and with us pinning you down, we’re just going to have a LONG fun time,” he says and reaches for her inner thighs.

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you…” she mutters, her eyes steeling and ablaze with cold controlled rage as tilts her head sideways quickly, sending a painful head butt into a man, who was biting her neck’s nose, sending him reeling. Her left arm and hand free, she folds her fingers to her palm and forms a tight first, sending it flying forth and slamming into the man’s body with crushing force, exerting a pained exhale from him, and making him stagger back while holding his chest.

She then turns and grabs one of the men, pressing his face to her body, not caring about decency, before grabbing his hair and shoving his head into the wall, hard, causing him to groan, as a bit of blood smears on the wall.

She then pushes him back and turning in place while extending her foot, it slamming into another one’s cheek hard, her heel hitting his jaw, and dislocating it some. Before one of them locks her hands with his own, holding her from behind and pinning her to the wall.

She feels his weight against her, his wretched body pressing to hers as he curses her and rams his fist into her side, then grabs her hair and tries to shove her head into the wall, she stops her momentum with her hand and slams her elbow into his face, sending his head whipping back.

He then growls and then pushes her hard against the wall, trying to violate her forcefully, but she is not in a angle which would allow him so, she not being that stupid. Thus, she instead feels something, which is not a hand brush against her leg as she shifts sideways some, and grabs its upper part with her hand.

The man’s eyes widen some in fear before Ibuki twists it very painfully, in a very awkward angle. Then she frees her elbow and slamming into the man’s lungs, so he can’t scream, then turning around while slamming her knee into his crotch, with vicious force, three consecutive times.

The man crumples to the ground, in agonizing pain, the other two try to back away, but Ibuki’s eye gleam with cold fury, so this is why they sat here, demented and psychotic murders and rapists, she’d fix them once and for, she always wanted to make sick bastards like this pay truly for scarring women with such a sin.

They turn for the door, but she blocks their path, not caring for nudity, they had gotten their little taste of fun, now it was time to pay the fee, in pain. She presses forward, making them back away and turns the water on, in one of the showers, doing so with every shower she passes by, their screams of pain and terror choked down by the running water.

Once she’s done, the three are lying on the now ever growing wet floor, alive, unconscious, but their libido, manhood and lust would be quite damaged, for a long time, if she had something sharp she’d have been more content, but the call of the moment she’d live with what she has.

She showers calmly, before changing back into her prisoner attire after drying off, and looking darkly content, she wears a cold façade. She knocks on the steel door and the guards open it, then she pushes the guards back, when they try to put the straightjacket on her, her look signaling she’ll go there herself, and if they even think about it, they’ll hurt badly.

That shuts them up, as the three begin walking back to the isolation block, that warden has just made himself a dangerous enemy. By the end of her stay in the prison, she would make sure, he’d get his due, she would give him a permanent Sex change for doing that, one way or another, she would be in there for life as it is, making one sick b*stard pay, wasn’t going to make things worse.

With the thought of vengeance on the man who disgusts her with his cowardliness and abuse of human lives to his own whim in mind, she enters the cell quietly and folds her legs to her chest, brown eyes cold and calculating. Ibuki had sheltered her inner fire, after what X did, suppressing it some, but not anymore, she had nothing to lose, she finally gets it into her head that she is at rock bottom, and that means Ibuki Hasigawa had just become a hundredfold more dangerous.

** Late afternoon, Streets of Manhattan island, NYC, USA **

“That was one close call...” He mutters into the air, looking upward and sighing lightly, he then arranges his baseball cap and pushes his sunglasses back; the spectacles shoved back to the end of the bridge of his nose.

His long hair flaps lightly in the wind, the long strands dancing on the breeze. He walks confidently and looks around as he walks, eyes scanning everything, because his latest ordeal making him a bit paranoid, it being a feeling he had almost forgotten, he preferred it that way.

He is wearing a dark blue and red New York Knicks T-Shirt and some slightly torn jeans, a handy cosmetic change he had arranged personally to help him blend into the atmosphere better. His hands are tucked neatly into his pockets and his Nike air sneakers tap lightly as they hit the pavement in his repetitive walking.

He passes by the masses of people and is intrigued by the sheer variety of people, their nationalities, languages and ethnic background always baffling him, the frank amount of diversity reminding him perfectly just why finding agents and contacts in this city is so darn easy.

How innocently they go on with their ignorant and unimportant little lives, unaware they are simply pawns and large dollars in the battle between huge firms in the economic battlefield. That they are nothing but future soldiers and bloodlines for their country’s future quests into uncharted political spaces.

He can’t help but snicker at this, their insignificant little lives meant nothing, they were no less than cattle, how amusing he found these humanoid insects. He could crush any one of them within his hand like an annoying bug, but he knew that would be unwise, it might cost him with another pestering manhunt by the local police forces, it was fun the first couple of times, but it was getting old.

He finds his goal, pushes the thoughts out of his mind, he then walks up to the payphone, runs his hand on the outer cover of contraption, finds a small niche, and places his thumb into it, a soft violet glow fills the small dimple and he picks up the phone and dials a number quickly.

“Hey bob, yes it’s me old buddy” he says and smiles. ”Lord Xavier, the target has been removed, but I was assaulted by an unidentified creature. I’ve got some of its tissue that I scraped off my hand, It is being delivered as you speak to me now… he thinks to his master it being transmitted via the psi-chip implanted into his skull.

“Excellent Jason, as usual you don’t disappoint me, although you tell me old news, I already sent a clear up team, they abducted the specimen and destroyed the evidence, as well as “persuaded” the coroner and officers to keep it to themselves alone, well except for the fishes, on the bottom of the Hudson river that is.” his master replies and a dark chuckle fills his head

“Really? That’s marvelous! I’m so glad to hear” Jason beams and laughs lightly as if in excitement. “How go the plans milord?” he asks mentally while “listening” to Bob.

” All goes according to plan, Ryu and Akuma successfully reduced each other to a weakened state, just as I planned when I pitted the bout between the two, it was ever-so easy to persuade Ryu into the position, Akuma I had a bit more difficulty with, due to his demonic possession, but I managed to nevertheless.” Xavier sends him.

“Me? Well I’m just traveling here and there, you know me” Jason says and nods enthusiastically, “What about the evidence, psionic killings are the trademark of Bison’s personal hand, it might bring interesting questions to the minds of the crime fighting teams…” Jason sends his master while laughing some, as if being told a good joke.

Quite simple Jason, I sent a clear up team, I killed both Ryu and Akuma in the same manner, Akuma first, since his demonic nature was unpredictable, Ryu himself thought he did it, until I proved him wrong, then I killed him. I used the method of inward nerve failure that causes the body to consume itself before the nerve system is consumed by the damage, At the same time I had our scientists develop a special form of bacteria that is transferred through blood that does the same damage. X sends him and Jason nods “Yeah it has been a while, we should meet up soon,” Jason says to the phone.

“The clear up team had infected every unprotected rescue team person. We placed cuts and small lacerations on their hands, which were the cause of them being infected since it’s a bacteria that passes through bodily liquids. Then we spared some to make it look authentic and not like a cover-up and the coroner and Chunli who were supposedly protected from bacterial infection by their latex masks, I then infected both bodies as well and personally used the psycho drive to convince the corner she had missed the bacteria up until now X sends with a small content chuckle.

“Well I think I could do that, where do you wanna meet up ol’ buddy?” Jason says “But what about the bacteria, how did you explain their infection, and the developed bacteria’s origin?” Jason sends while supposedly listening.

“Aren’t you the curious one today? Blech, I guess once I’ll let you in on the info, since I’m quite content with my plan’s development, I purchased the factory using on of our vassal companies, which is connected to the Umbrella corp. whose biological and chemical experimentation are world renowned by now after the incident in Raccoon city.”

With the recent outbreak of the T-Veronica Virus on one of their isles, and their near destruction by some former S.H.I.E.L.D operative and his sister, I was easily able to frame them for developing the germs. Dubbing the bacteria and attempt to build a trap to kill the two, I then let a rogue scientist of them, approach Interpol and “ spill the beans” accompanied by forged documentation and proof of their “sin”, and equally put sufficient info to frame their life line of cash, Gill. Xavier explains casually.

Jason has to admit, he’s impressed, the plan was intricate and covered in all directions. X had been doing his homework it seems and had truly proven resourcefulness and wit. He wonders just how long he had been planning this little trap for Ryu and Akuma, and finds himself baffled by the wide scale usage of resources used to cover up, and finds himself grinning as this was one boss he liked working for, and is thankful he does not have to work against.

Jason smiles “Will do, see ya soon” He greets the phone, “I understand Milord, I bow before you genius, I’ll head back for HQ as soon as I finish the next objective…” Jason sends and “disconnects” the call and walks out of the booth. Things were going great, life was good, and he had another job, and wasn’t reprimanded of almost compromising the mission, he was thankful and relieved, now to get back to business.

** that same Evening, “Stonehenge” Prison, Nevada desert, USA **

“She what?!” the warden asks, brow ticking and fist slamming against the wooden table. His beady brown eyes ablaze as he glares at the guard before him. The man flinches some but repeats his report, if a bit nervously, making the Warden’s rage become more apparent.

“That’s it,” he says and gets up, smoothing his overly tight clothes and runs a hand through his hair, glaring at the guard and barking out a command “Get the b*tch to the country yard” he says angrily and leaves the room, intent on making that b*tch pay this time.

The guard salutes and opens the door for the warden before shutting it behind him. He has a dreadful feeling in the pit of his stomach, that something bad was about to transpire, but orders were orders, he sighs softly and walks through the prison, toward the isolation block.

Meanwhile, Ibuki sits in her cell, in a meditation stance, soothing her raging spirit and hurt pride and the burning need and urge to maim the warden for his cowardly ways. She is clad in her prison overall, the straps on the floor, it pealed off down to her waistline, her upper body uncovered beside a tattered bra.

She feels somewhat better now, she had meditated for the majority of the afternoon and is now sharp and focused once more, her body aches less, her chi soothing and healing her body some, it being worse that it was before, even if cuts and bruises remain, internally she was mostly well once more.

“This is going to be a long prison term…” Ibuki murmurs to herself in Japanese and opens her eyes, standing up and stretching, her bones shifting and small popping sounds heard as she shivers and groans lightly as her body shivers and her muscle is stretched pleasantly.

Then she hears guards outside talking and quirks a brow, stepping closer and listening silently, not making a sound, then backing away as the door is unlocked and pushed open. There are three guards, usually nothing, she couldn’t handle, but she had no will in getting herself into more trouble.

She cooperates when they put her in the straightjacket again, reluctantly, but still doing so. She is shepherded outside, she winces and shuts her eyes partially as the bright sun hits her face, her eyes already accustomed to the darkness and the sudden light somewhat painful.

She is then brought before the warden, she looks around and notices the other women are assembled and a sense of slight anxiety and caution flares to life, she is then stopped before the warden who looks at her grimly.

“Ibuki Hasigawa, due to your constant assaulting of fellow inmates…” he begins to which Ibuki scoffs at him and cuts into his words, eyes amused and a smirk on her lips.

“3 men are sent by you to rape me, and I assaulting them? You’re as delusional as you are stupid Warden, who’s gonna buy that one? The Tooth fairy?” she asks, causing the women around her to chuckle some and the warden to promptly slam a baton into her gut, causing her to exhale sharply, but remain standing nevertheless.

“You are nothing but trouble woman, though I am usually a remorseful man, I must not let the likes of you interrupt the special equilibrium I have made in my long years as warden here…” he says and motions the guards to grab her and push her past him, him stepping aside and them pushing her against the steel flagpole.

She doesn’t resist, but rather lets the amusement leave her eyes and eyes him coldly, “You are confident and arrogant now, in a position of power, with personnel and influence backing you up. You allow yourself to run this corrupt system and abuse and mistreat any inmate who crosses your little bastard daughter. But mark my words warden; a day will come, when you will learn the true meaning of consequence, for every action you make now, will have a reaction later.” She says.

The guards cuff her hands and ankles one to the other, causing her to stumble but be unable to fall after they tie her hands and legs to the pole tightly. She winces and pulls herself up, muscles aching at the awkward position they are left in. She glares at the warden that in turn, inhales deeply.

“You will be left her without food and only given the needed amount of water, for the next 2 days, upon you will be returned to your original cell, the next time you’re out of line; you will be disciplined in a harsher manner…” he says and turns to the other inmates.

“Let this be a lesson to you all, insubordination will not be tolerated, any acts which resemble rebellion will bring along painful repercussions,” he muses and gives Ibuki a side glance with a smug grin before turning and heading back to his office, laughing lightly to himself;

Ibuki rolls her eyes before she grunts, a fist slamming into her gut, causing her to exhale sharply. “You aren’t so tough now, are you B*tch?” Lisa Taggart says with a snarl and slugs her again, causing Ibuki to exhale lightly, her muscles tensing and absorbing the blow.

Ibuki looks up at her and her eyes gleam coldly “I would refrain from the continuation of this…” she says before her head whips sideways, she exhales slowly and spits a surge of saliva before glaring at Lisa who is about to hit her again.

“I’ll remind you, if I kill you, my term here doesn’t change, and believe me, I won’t mind much sitting in isolation for a few months…” Ibuki says quietly so only she can hear. Lisa scoffs at her and punches her “Blech! You’re bluffing! Haha, this is what you get for crossing me!” she shouts triumphantly and continues raining down blows on Ibuki until she is satisfied.

Ibuki is left aching and bleeding from a busted lip, a black eye in the works and her wrists slit from the movements forced upon her bound body, blood drizzling down her arms and down to her shoulders. She stands against the pain and licks her lip, before spitting the blood/spit mixture as Lisa turns to leave.

Ibuki makes a mental memo, to settle the score with Taggart another day, before the audible buzzing is heard and the inmates scatter for lunch. She looks around and scowls to herself, he cousin didn’t stand up for her, she just stand from the sideline and watched, this was not acceptable, it would have to be dealt with once she gets back to her cell.

** Late evening, 3 days later, Ibuki and Mei’s cell **

Mei is lying down on her bunk, looking up at the slightly crumbled ceiling, the grayish plaster and stone mixture cracked and releasing dust from time to time. She sighs lightly, it was dull living in this prison, Ibuki may be able to concentrate on her little training sessions, inventing new initiative moves and keeping in shape, but Mei, she was just not as enthusiastic.

She couldn’t help but pity her cousin somewhat, she had high ideals, dreams, ambition and the will power to never stray from them, even in the face of impossible odds, most would admire her for it, Mei just pitied her for naivety and stupidity, for in the real world, dreams and ideals mean nothing.

She finds her cousins mind games and struggles with the warden useless and futile; it was that very foolish idealism that got her into this prison in the first place; The exact same naivety and stupidity in believing the promises of one of the more ruthless and malicious of the lords of the underworld.

“Be careful with her, why don’tcha! She’s in crappie shape as it is” she hears a guard say, and the other grunting in response as they walk up the steel stairs. 3 minutes later Ibuki is brought into the cell and put on her bunk, she is out of the straight jacket, bandaged and unconscious so it seems.

The guards scatter and Mei shrugs and shuts her eyes, sighing and deciding sleep is a good choice of actions now, easing down and sighing as she winces some against the steel hard bed’s springs and sighs.

Then she gasps some as she’s pulled off the bed, she grunts as she hits the floor hard and groans some as she opens her eyes, she then gasps a bit again and is lifted to her feet and planted against the wall hard, the first thing she sees is two angry, brown eyes glaring at her with rage.

“Oh, you’re awake…” Mei, to which Ibuki’s eyes narrow and her hand moves to her neck, fingers digging into her flesh and pushing her head back, Mei’s life was in her hands, she could snap her neck, cut of nerve pulses to her spine, she could even cripple her for good with a calculated exertion of pressure upon her neck.

“I take you’re…displeased” Mei muses while coughing some as Ibuki’s other hand moves to her ribcage and her fingers pressed between her ribs and cause her to wince and find it hard to breathe. “You think?” Ibuki hisses quietly, her face cold besides her eyes that are ablaze.

“It would be expected that a cousin, who you had allied with against a common foe, to not just watch me suffer and be beaten up, or at least have the dignity to bring you some food and water, which you had to be given by complete strangers, and not by your own blood, don’t you think?” She asks in a dangerous tone.

“Well maybe your cousin, has a little more brains than you, and knows not to cross forces beyond her control at this given time, unlike you, what you see as cowardliness I see as realism, you’re so blinded b your will to keep your ideals and heart clear, that you refuse to accept reality,” Mei croaks out and pushes Ibuki.

Ibuki lets her do so and stands straight while crossing her arms, scowling at her with disgust, “dishonorable coward…guess the black dragons never change,” she whispers in Japanese and sits down on her bed.

“Like your Shinobi brethren are any better, you’re so naďve and foolish,” Mei spits out grimly and massages her neck while hmphing, to which Ibuki scoffs at her, “If I’m so naďve, why don’t you enlighten me, oh wise one,” Ibuki replies sarcastically.

“Well It’s quite simple, your ideals are based on your ninja training, but your clan have no honor, they murdered your father and tossed you out of the clan because you shamed them, they double crossed you and years ago your father, for the sake of their goals and inner politics.” Mei says.

Ibuki looks doubtful, “If I recall correctly, it was your father, who betrayed his clan, my clan, and blew the whistle on his own brother, causing my father’s demise, so I don’t see how your theory is so solid and true.” Ibuki muses while rolling her eyes and lying down.

“Well, not many know that the Shinobi high council ordered my father blow the whistle, they sent my uncle, your father on a suicide mission so he would be removed. You see his will to resign his position a shame and blemish to the clan, so he was humiliated and destroyed on a personal grounds and clan honor was only reduced some, his own foolishness put to blame.” Mei muses.

“You’re lying” Ibuki says, and shuts her eyes, though something within her finds sense in the words, in the tactics, in the behavior she’s heard of, whispered in the shadows. “Geki would not allow it” Ibuki says.

“Geki agreed reluctantly, voted out in the council, he betrayed both his brothers, and kept a place of power, and only raised you as his own, and worked so hard for you, out of his guilt.” Mei says, “Your uncle, the oh so noble master of Shinobi, is a traitor, but he is something I admire about him, despite it all, he’s realistic, he compromised.” Mei muses.

Ibuki pauses, pieces of the puzzle beginning to fit in place, that’s why Geki treated her so well, that’s why he initiated her despite he failure to defeat Ryu, that’s why he gave her a second change after her losing to Gill, that’s why she’s alive now, and not killed for crossing the clan.

Everything sinks into place and Ibuki falls silent, pained beyond words, the sense of betrayal burning and heavy, it pushing into the very fibers of her soul, her entire life was a lie, her father’s death a well choreographed hoax, her mother and her own pain, a by product of greed and pride.

She feels a part of her die within and her eyes dim some, everything and everyone she believed in gains new proportion, and all the muck is finally cleaned out of the gutter, the cat out of the sack, the sins replayed, the truth revealed.

Ibuki feels her life being turned upside down, Ignores Mei’s ranting, and moral capitulation and mocking of her, she is too absorbed in her own pain and disbelief. She can’t believe how foolish and blind she had been all along, she had wanted to believe, she doubted things so often, but didn’t will to open her eyes, now she had, and the pain of the truth, cleaves her heart.

For the longest time, Mei long asleep after Ibuki ignores her, she looks into the darkness, glaring into the great nothingness and finding it so much weaker then the void in her heart right now. She had fought for so long, and for nothing but lies, she had been used; her friends and foes had pawned her.

In the end she reaches several conclusions, she would never again consider herself part of the Shinobi. She would use their teachings, and stay true to her path. For the teachings had good and honorable sides to them, they were an asset, and art, even if the ones teaching them were bastards, backstabbers and hollow and empty.

Geki had put it perfectly, she was no longer Shinobi, and Ibuki knows now, that in truth, she never was Shinobi, she had never been able to compile the shadowy parts, betrayal, the mission is all, honor is life, she just didn’t believe in that, her mother had taught her otherwise.

She was raised to be loyal, to be generous, to be determined and to stay true to her heart, her mother and father were the only persons in her life, who had stayed true to her, she would not let these new ghastly facts ruin her.

She owed her deceased parents, she owed them to stay herself, she wouldn’t become like Mei, she wouldn’t compromise, she wouldn’t become a coward, wouldn’t turn selfish and abuse her powers for her own gain, she would use them only when needed, and no more.

She finds after almost dying inside, she had closed the cycle, the shadows around her past have been lifted, she had found herself at long last, she was Ibuki Hasigawa daughter of Ryo and Kumiko Hasigawa. She was an independent, honest and determined woman. A user of the arts of advanced Ninjitsu passed on to her by her ancestor Shinobi, and believer in the ancient philosophy now long since corrupt by greed and selfish ambition.

She would not bend down before temptation, she would not relinquish her ideals for benefit, she would stand fast and stay strong, she would one day escape this prison, she would hunt down the murderer of her mother and redeem her tortured soul, and would then rebuild herself, for her parents memory and for herself.

Her cousin, even if she was “realistic”, even if corrupt by her traditions and past, was still the only family she had now, she would not give up on her, she would try hard to make things work. Nevertheless, not in the way of compromising, as Mei would want them to be, things would work her way, one way or another, with or without Mei’s consent, for Ibuki had had enough, this time around she would seize her own fate, in her own way.

Now all she has to do, is wait for the right time, and something inside tells her, that time would come soon enough.