CHAPTER 41

継承 Keisho

Inheritance

Ojiisan had told her it was ordinary hypnotism, but it was not. Now she knew that to find the unguarded part of your opponent’s mind and make it bend to your will required something more than ordinary hypnotism.

Instinctively—or because of her training—she’d done that. She’d taken the strength in her hara and projected it with a short sharp yell, like the kiai she used when kicking or punching. She didn’t know why she was doing it, but she sensed it was her only way out. Her arms and legs were shackled, and the yell expressed her inner fire and power. Her body shook from the force of the energy moving up with the sound. Nothing could counter it.

Rossi froze where he stood before her. His cruel expression replaced by the quivering grimace of a frightened child.

“Get away from me!” she said harshly. To her immense surprise, he did as he was told. If she’d been in doubt before, she now knew she was in full possession of his mind. He was under her control.

She kept her own mind in sharp focus on his, as if practicing kyuudo archery. She had to keep her focus on the bulls’ eye and couldn’t waver from the target. She commanded him to open her shackles, holding his thoughts steady. Then she had him call a guard inside. She knocked the man out with a quick strike and changed into his uniform.

Then she had Rossi take her to the master circuit breaker. She shut it off and smashed the main switch. The wail of the alarm stopped as soon as darkness descended. She had him return the weapons that had been stripped from her: her shuriken throwing stars and shinobi gatana ninja sword, as well as the spiked shuko and ashiko arm and leg bands.

Now Rossi led her to Soji’s cell. She incapacitated the guard with one strike under his nose, all her energy coiled into the palm of her hand, flicking it up.

Inside the cell, Soji sat as still as a statue, slowly exhaling from his nose.

“Soji…Soji….” she said in shinobi kotoba.

Her uncle turned his head without interrupting the rhythm of his breathing.

“Jet!” He stood, and in the dark she saw the vague outline of his exhausted face.

“We have to find Hiro,” she said. He nodded almost imperceptibly, then resumed his breathing, walking out of his cell stealthily.

“What about him?” he shot a glance at Rossi, inert beside her.

“His brain is tofu.” She laughed. “Don’t worry.”

They moved down the hall, Jet going first, gliding along the wall as if shadows, wearing the black air like a cape. She struck out one guard after another along the corridor until they found Hiro’s cell, a small glass cut-out enabling them to see inside.

Sensing their presence, Hiro stood inside and mouthed the password in shinobi kotoba.

Jet keyed in the number: 673944. The door slid open with a hydraulic woosh.

Hiro was shocked to see Rossi, but Jet waved her hand in front of his eyes, and Hiro soon understood.

“Saiminjutsu!” he said. “You’ve been busy!”

Jet nodded, then turned to Rossi. “How do we get out of here?”

“The elevator, or the fire stairs,” he answered in a sleepy voice.

“Impossible,” she told Hiro. “The power is out, so the elevator won’t be running. And I’m sure they’ve staked out the stairs.”

“We could climb the elevator cables,” Hiro said, “but brown-eyes probably thought of that already. He’ll have put men there.”

Jet nodded. She knew he was right. Takumi would have anticipated their next movements. He wouldn’t make the same mistakes twice. No doubt, he was already one step ahead of them. They had to think fast.

“Plan B?” Jet whispered.

Hiro gave her the thumbs-up and swung into gear.