Only a Shimada Can Control the Dragons

Mamoru POV:

I left the kid where he was, thankful that he didn't try to fight me or rush in.

He was quite the handful while he was in that form and I wanted to put all my focus into something else.

Someone else.

Drawing my katana, I slowly walked down the hallway.

A Hashimoto member, not hearing any response or fire, dared to peek around the corner and saw me approaching.

He signals to another and they both jump around the corner, opening fire.

The implants in my eye take effect, slowing down my brain's perception of each bullet fired and the cybernetics in my arm respond.

Bullets drop to the ground as my arm moves at insane speeds from deflecting the fire of two assault rifles.

Seeing that I was unharmed, they stopped firing and looked at each other.

They retreat back around the corner and I let them because there's no way they can escape as I already sabotaged their vehicles.

I have to remember to teach that to Shawn later.

Taking my time, I walk down the hallway and round the corner, for a knife to come slicing at my face.

I step back, dodging the knife as the second guy stabs towards my stomach.

I step to the right dodging his stab as I swing my katana, slicing through the stomach of the guy closest to me.

The other guy starts to panic, backing up and falling on the ground, slashing the air in front of him with the knife.

Using my foot, I kick his companions gun up and catch it, firing into his chest.

Reaching down, I search his dead body and take all the ammo he has for the weapon.

There's too much silence within the factory and there's more guys that have been unconfirmed, which only means that something was up and I probably was going to need this gun.

I encounter no more Hashimoto members as I walk throughout the entire factory.

I wasn't worried about not finding anybody, for I knew they weren't stupid enough to brave the desert at night.

Walking out the front of the factory, I hear the clicks of multiple guns being aimed at me.

I remain unfazed while five of the gang members guns are shaking in fear but they don't open fire.

"When my boys told me there was a guy who could deflect bullets, I only thought of one person.

Motherfucking Mamoru."

An eight foot bulky Asian with his hair sleek back and a black leather jacket with a tigers head on the back of it pushes past the line of men.

He has a scar down the right side of his face that looks freshly healed and a smug look as he looks down at me.

I keep my anger at bay as I look up at him, maintaining a calm face even though my insides are burning with hatred.

"Long way from home little Mamo. Actually, you don't have a home to go back to do you?"

It takes a lot of effort but I don't take the bait from his taunts.

"Of course when the Hashimoto start an operation in the States, they would send their dog, Hachiman Hashimoto here.

They throw a bone and you're there chasing it down happily while wagging your tail." I counter back.

His face turns into a snarl as one of his men hands him a shotgun, which he throws against his left shoulder.

"So who's the other person you got with you?

Don't tell me the great Mamoru is teaching someone.

What's he going to learn from you, abandonment?" He taunts.

"I don't owe you anything except my sword. Be a good boy and come fetch."

With his free hand he reaches into his pocket and grabs a giant cigar putting it in his mouth.

One of his men, holds up a lighter helping him to light the cigar.

After a few brief seconds, he takes the cigar out of his mouth, releasing a puff of smoke.

"Kill him."

No sooner than he says those words, do a barrage of bullets come my way.

The bullets come at slow motion as my eyes track the position of each fired and sends a signal to my brain telling me where to have my arm at a certain time.

My arm responds to my brain and begins moving to deflect the oncoming bullets.

Having five guys with assault rifles shoot at you, requires a lot of concentration, so to ease the burden on myself, I deflect a bullet back at the guy at the end.

The bullet sinks into the space between his eyes and he falls back, lifeless.

But, his gun continues to fire as he falls, aiming to his right as it sprays down the gun next to him before running out of ammo.

Three guys remain as two of them don't bother trying to reload and draw knives, nervously shuffling so that each guy is on either side of me.

The last one stumbles around with the gun, trying his best to reload while scared.

One guy nods at the other who flanked me, and they both charge me at the same time.

Trying to my right, I take a step back so I can have both in my view.

The one who was behind me reached me first, swinging his knife downwards.

I step further back and it slices the air where I once was.

The third guy finally managed to reload his weapon and begins shooting.

I grab the guy who missed his swing and use him as a shield as the bullets riddle his body.

Seeing that he just unintentionally killed his comrade, he stops firing with eyes wide open.

Using the dead guy's body, I throw it at the other guy with the knife, which lands on him.

While he's down, I plunge my katana into his throat, and his struggles slowly stop as the life ebbs from his eyes.

The last guy is still in shock from killing his own teammate so Hachiman walks over to him.

Slapping him hard on the back, he yells, "What are you waiting for? Shoot him."

Listening to Hachiman he begins to open fire on me once again.

While deflecting those bullets, I resist the urge to deflect one back at Hachiman.

That would be letting him off too easy for what he's done.

So instead I deflect a bullet back at the gunman, which strikes him in the head.

He crumples to the ground as his gun continues to fire towards me, which I have to keep deflecting.

Suddenly my eyes focus on a bullet that's larger than the rest and I absentmindedly deflect that back as well.

However my mind registers as it travels away, that it wasn't a bullet, but a large black container.

It explodes and a cloud of gas catches me off guard making me stumble back coughing.

My senses flare as they try to locate Hachiman.

His voice appears behind me, "After fighting you once, I learned your little tricks Mamo.

Fool me once, shame on you."

I swipe at where his voice is in the gas but it passes through nothing.

To my right I hear him once again, "You Shimada's think you're so high and mighty.

Boasting of being for the people of Kanezaka.

You can't even protect yourself.

Do you want to know if Lady Shimada begged for her life?"

Tired of hearing his voice, I raise the rifle, firing blindly through the smoke silencing him.

The air is still as there is complete silence as I strain for any sign of him.

My instincts flare, and I dive to the left as a bang goes off behind me.

I clear the initial blast of the shotgun, but the pellets of it's spread tear through my side.

Landing on the ground, I begin coughing up blood.

The gas clouds from the smoke grenade clears and Hachiman levels his shotgun to my face.

He arrogantly smiles, "Tell Lady Shimada I said hi."

I close my eyes accepting my fate.

A flash of blue snaps my eyes open, and I see Hachiman's body fly to my left.

Looking I see the kid with his hand outreached and I realize how foolish I just was.

I couldn't leave him alone here with Hachiman.

I needed to atone for what I've done by avenging Lady Shimada.

Hachiman slowly gets up a bit dazed as he struggles to figure out what hit him.

Looking over at where he had Mamoru dead to rights, he notices a tiny red dragon slowly inching up his left shoulder then circling around his body as it grows larger.

It rests on his head and his eyes snap open as his next words echo through the night, sending a chill through everyone that hears it.

"Doragon no ikari o abare sasete kudasai!"*

*Let the dragon's fury rampage!