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War Of Shadows	By : TurtleNinja Category: +S through Z > Samurai Jack Views: 3353 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Samurai Jack, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
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As I turned around and headed into the hall to catch up to Chimitsu, I quickly wiped the blood from my katana and sheathed it before it dried. I was getting tired, not so much from the fighting but from the fact that Fuki had nearly sucked the life from me if not for Chimitsu's intervention. I could see her rolling her freshly healed shoulder up ahead of me and wondered if it had healed as completely as it looked.

"Are you all right?" I asked as I caught up to her.

She glanced over at me and nodded, slowly lowering her arm.

"I'll be fine," she stated with a wink. "Clash of essences. Whenever you strike a Dark Elemental with your katana or I strike one with my nodachi, it causes a clash of essences that makes it slightly difficult to heal from. It's closed, but it's going slow in repairing the mobility on the inside. Give it a few minutes and it'll finish healing itself. You, on the other hand..."

She moved around behind me and I could feel her looking at the nasty cut across my back from when she had struck me. It probably looked and felt worse than it was, but I had no doubt in my mind that she was likely feeling very bad for hurting me like that. There were a few moments in which she gently probed at my back before starting to invoke her healing magic.

"Chimitsu-chan, if I may object..." I began.

She paused and moved back around to face me.

"You need healing."

"And I will only become injured again. Save your magic reserves until we face Aku. Ekirei and Mad Jack are not anything we have not faced before, but Aku is strong enough that we will both need to be at full strength. You cannot do that by wasting your magic in healing me after every fight."

"Minamoto-chan..."

"No, Chimitsu. I insist. It will be all right."

She sighed softly and finally relented, nodding.

"All right. C'mon, let's go."

I followed her down the corridor, this one swimming with a heavy heat in the air like the humidity of a jungle. I had a pretty good idea which one of the remaining Dark Elementals was going to be next and knew that Chimitsu and I would have to give it all we had. Neither Eki, nor Mad Jack, would waste any time with seductions or illusions or powers this time and I was ready for nothing less than an all out fight from the moment we entered the next room.

The heat began to grow unbearable and I could feel the sweat trickling into the wounds on my back, stinging as it mingled with the blood. Yet I ignored it, heading on down the hall with Chimitsu towards the next room and the next Dark Elemental. Only two of them stood between us and our goal with Aku and a part of me was nervous, while the other part of me was anxiously anticipating the completion of this long quest.

Finally, we entered a room that felt a bit cooler than the corridor outside, much to my relief. I felt as if I could breathe easier and not feel as if the air itself was pressing down heavily on my body until it had crushed it. I wiped at my sweaty face as Chimitsu and I came to a stop, looking around for the next Dark Elemental.

We both drew our blades, knowing that it was unlikely that Ekirei was going to waste her time with introductions or even greetings. It was just a matter of time before she showed herself and attacked us. The lights were up and the room illuminated without any sign of illusion or pretense about it.

Despite our readiness, neither of us saw the attack coming right away and Chimitsu had barely enough time to block it. She raised her nodachi as Eki slammed into her, flaring her wings out to slow her backwards slide. Had it been me, I likely would not have had the speed or strength to block such an attack.

"Eki, what an unpleasant surprise. Do you always greet your guests like this or is it just us?" Chimitsu asked.

"Just you, dearie."

Chimitsu smirked and flung her dark twin aside, leaving an opening for me to attack. There was no need to wait to exchange words, not when all three of us knew what had to be done and I drew my katana while Eki flew through the air, dashing forward to leap at her the moment she got to her feet. I sprang at her the moment she appeared to see me coming, swinging down in an overhead strike while she was still unbalanced.

Sparks flew as my katana slammed down onto her nodachi, forcing her to kneel as I landed and pushed down with all my weight. Slowly, her surprised expression turned into a devious grin, her eyes showing her enjoyment of this little fight. I pushed down even harder, watching the nodachi sink back towards her head and felt nothing but a desire to see her fall quickly so we could continue on our way to Aku.

In a flash, a sharp pain radiated up from my groin and I snarled, stumbling back a few feet. Eki pulled herself to her feet and grinned nastily at me, spinning her nodachi around in one hand. I gave her a sharp glare as I tried to will the pain away as I realized that she had taken the opportunity to fight dirty right away with a foot to my groin.

Slowly, the pain ebbed away and I was able to raise my katana again, returning to a fighting stance. Eki simply grinned and rushed in again, our blades meeting in a shower of sparks over and over as they clashed repeatedly in between us. Chimitsu stayed off to the side, watching and waiting for an opportunity to help me if necessary, but otherwise stayed out of it, knowing that she could do nothing to hurt Eki.

Eki pushed down on her nodachi with one hand and swung with the other at my head, forcing me to duck out of the way. In turn, I slammed my elbow up into her chin, followed by a knee directly into her solar plexus. She stumbled back and shook her head before wiping at her mouth, her eyes turning cold and hateful.

"How dare you..." she snarled.

"If you can fight dirty with cheap groin shots, then turnabout is fair play, Eki."

Her expression darkened and her full mouth curled into a snarl as she dashed in again, slashing at me furiously. She was slowed by her anger and the weight of the heavy nodachi and it was relatively easy for me to dart out of the way as the blade came down. I sprang off the walls and out of the way, trying to get in an opening and counterattack, but it was difficult when she had the same speed Chimitsu did, even if she was slowed down some by the heavy sword.

I leapt up onto a rock and watched as she rushed in, watching the edge of her nodachi and the speed at which she was running. At the last moment, I sprang high up into the air and flipped over her, watching as her blade slammed into the stone, Eki realizing too late that she had to stop. I landed and wasted no time in spinning a roundhouse kick into her head while she was trying to pull the blade out, knocking her face-first into the stone wall.

She slumped to the ground for a second before forcing herself to her feet again with a low growl. In a flash, she reached up and ripped her nodachi from the stone wall, whipping it around so violently that the force of it striking my katana jarred my body right down to the bones. Surprisingly, it did not shatter the metal of the blade, something that had to be attributed to the magic infused within it.

Again she struck at me violently and rapidly, sparks flying whenever our two blades met in a shower of silver-white as a result of the clashing powers of the two weapons. I stayed on the ground this time, although I was unable to avoid getting clipped by her flashing blade as she struck furiously. Several times I felt it bite into my arms and legs, even across my back and stomach once or twice as I dodged and blocked.

Finally, she paused and watched me, panting a bit. I could feel my breath coming hard, too, but was not about to let that get to me as long as Eki was on her feet. We circled each other, staring into each other's eyes and waiting for the other to initiate the attack this time.

Chimitsu moved up onto the rocks behind me, staying out of the way as the battle between myself and Eki intensified. The tension in the air was thick, almost as thick and heavy as the humid air outside in the hallway. We both knew that an attack was inevitable, but whether or not it was Eki or myself that struck first remained to be seen.

Deciding to not wait for her this time, I leapt forward, striking as quickly as she had struck me before. She blocked as quickly as she could, but while her blade was larger, it was also heavier and she did not have the speed that came with a lighter blade like I did. As a result, I was able to land several blows, cutting into her skin and skimpy costume with relative ease.

The more we fought, the angrier Eki got and the angrier she got, the easier it was for me to break through her weak defenses and strike. I could not possibly wear her down, but was slowly wearing myself down as I looked for an opening in which to strike her down with. If this kept up, she would be able to counterattack and take me down first before I had a chance.

A sudden snap kick caught me in the jaw and spun me around until I landed hard on the ground, my head reeling dizzily. I groaned and gasped for air as I pushed up on my elbows, tasting blood between breaths. My katana lay a few inches away from my hand, but I was too stunned to move quickly enough if Eki chose to strike.

I spat out blood on the ground and tried to pull myself back onto my feet, hearing Eki rush in towards me for the kill.

With a loud roar, Chimitsu vaulted into the air from her hiding place, landing to block Eki's strike at the last possible moment. There was a moment of shocked silence before the two women began to duel, giving me time to recover from that last nasty hit. I could hear the clash of their blades behind me as I hauled myself to my feet and leaned against a rock, trying to regain my full senses.

Slowly, I turned and continued to lean against the rock as I watched the two women fight, seeing an even match between them. Chimitsu could not kill Eki, but as far as I knew, it was possible that Eki might be able to kill Chimitsu and that would be disastrous. I knew that alone, Eki was more than a match for both of us.

I had the disadvantage of being mortal and tiring out easily, but Chimitsu's disadvantage lay within the fact that she could not finish the job with her dark twin. That was my job because I was not bound by Elemental Law and held the only instrument that could destroy the Dark Elemental. Chimitsu was buying me time and now that I had recovered, I knew that only through teamwork would we be able to throw Eki off balance.

By forcing her to fight two of us instead of one, we were certain to get an opening in which I could kill her.

With the decision made, I pushed myself away from the rock, snatched up my katana, and dashed into the fray. Chimitsu's eyes met mine for a brief second before I struck, tearing my katana along Eki's sensitive wings. Feathers and blood flew everywhere as my blade rendered them useless, drawing a loud, angry roar from the Dark Elemental.

She swung around at me blindly and I ducked, hearing her roar again as Chimitsu's nodachi tore into her side, spilling even more blood onto the floor. Instead of swinging at her original, she chose to ignore Chimitsu, swinging once more at me and forcing me to block. She pushed me back several steps before making a sudden swipe at my collarbone, tearing a nasty gash across my chest, shoulder, and arm, barely missing my neck.

I roared in pain and retaliated, striking as quickly as I could, tearing more cuts into her flesh. I pushed back with my full weight on my katana before slamming my fist into her jaw, snapping her head back as I dropped to sweep her feet out from under her. She fell hard, one wing turning at an odd angle as she landed and rolled to her side, pulling herself up to her feet again.

No sooner had she pulled herself to her feet than she was leaping at me again, striking violently over and over again, sending sparks flying through the air as our enchanted blades clashed repeatedly. Chimitsu had once again pulled herself back out of the way amongst the rocks, letting me take care of Ekirei, even though I had hoped for a team effort.

Chimitsu watched from the rocks with her nodachi sheathed on her back, apparently feeling that she would only be a hinderance rather than a help in the fight since she could not hurt Eki, much less kill her. I would have to do it all on my own and began to wonder if Chimitsu would have been better off staying behind with the others. Yet there was no time for regrets and no turning back for either of us.

She was here with me and there was little she could do except distract Eki while I fought.

Left, right, up, down, left, left, block, over and over again we struck at each other, tearing wounds into each other as time wore on. I was beginning to feel the exhaustion creep into my aching muscles, but would sooner wear myself into a collapse than let her win. There just had to be a way to get in an opening somehow, there just had to be.

While she was hardly sweating, I knew that she was tiring, her body struggling to regenerate the wounds that kept coming and coming. If she was anything like Chimitsu in that respect, soon she would exhaust her regenerative abilities and her wounds would no longer close. If I could hang on that long, I could wear her down, but it seemed more likely that she would wear me down first before she exhausted herself.

A particularly hard shove sent me sprawling onto my back hard enough to slam my head into the stone and knock my katana out of my hands a few feet away. I rolled aside as she slammed her nodachi down in an attempt to run me through, rolling back to belt her in the chin with a hard kick, knocking her away from her own weapon. As soon as she fell back, I rolled away again and pulled myself to my feet, dashing over to pick up my katana.

Eki wiped at her face again, swearing profusely as she spat blood out onto the floor and reclaimed her nodachi. One wing still hung broken and a few wisps of hair had come loose from her long braid. She panted heavily, watching me from where she stood, waiting for me to attack again while I took the opportunity to try to catch my breath.

"Don't you know when to give up?!" she roared.

"If giving up means laying down and dying, then no. You know as well as I do that this is a battle to the death. Until one of us has perished at the other's hands, this fight cannot be decided."

With another roar, she leapt in and brought her nodachi down in an attempt to slice me clean in half. I had seen what she was planning the moment she sprang at me and rather than wasting my energies in attempting to block, I simply stepped aside, leaving nothing but air for the blade to cut through. Instead, it plowed into the stone floor, leaving Eki shocked and unable to free it from its stony confines.

I took the opportunity of her distraction to wheel around and ram the blade of my katana into her back, pushing until the hilt was a hand's length away from her back just below her wings. A sickening gurgle escaped her throat as I let go and took a few steps, waiting for her to fall and turn to dust. Yet, surprisingly, she did neither of these, turning around to face me and stare into my eyes with shock as the blood trickled from one corner of her mouth.

She looked down at the blade projecting from mid-stomach and then up to me before breaking into sadistic laughter. I was unsure of what to do when I saw her still standing there, having expected her to die as quickly as the other three had. Somehow, she was able to remain on her feet and alive, but in no condition to resume her assault.

A nasty grin crossed her battered face and she sent me flying back into the rocks with a blast of wind near Chimitsu. I struck hard and collapsed at an angle, half on my side, half on my back and aching all over. It was a weak blast, I knew, for I had not broken anything and knew that she would have killed me if she had done it with her full power.

Chimitsu immediately leapt out of her hiding spot and knelt down next to me, cradling my head in her arms.

"Minamoto-chan! Pull yourself together! She's not dead yet!" she cried.

I groaned and pushed her away, leaning on my side as I took a few deep, careful breaths. It hurt, but I guessed that the worst she had done to me was bruise me. Chimitsu-chan knelt there, ready to invoke her healing magic on me, but I pushed her away again, refusing to allow her to exhaust herself no matter how badly I was hurt from this.

Slowly, she stood, waiting for me to get back onto my feet. In those brief moments, we had both figured Eki was too weak to attack and far too weak to withdraw her nodachi from the stone, giving us a moment of recovery time. Yet the Dark Elemental had one last desperate ace up her sleeve and staggered over to us, walking up directly behind Chimitsu.

I looked up, seeing her behind my beloved angel and realized that she was going to try bringing down Chimitsu with her. She knew that Chimitsu was the key to healing me before the final battle with Aku and was going to remove her so that I would easily fall at the demon's hands. My eyes widened and I pushed myself up in an attempt to draw Chimitsu's attention to her dark twin behind her, but I was too late.

In an instant, Eki had grabbed Chimitsu from behind in a bear hug, impaling her on the part of my katana that protruded from her stomach. It now held the two of them together, the edge extending out through Chimitsu's midsection just below her sternum. My breath caught in my throat as I saw her emerald eyes darken with surprise and pain in the embrace of her dark twin.

"If I have to go down...then...I'm...taking you with me!" Eki grunted, grinning sadistically at her original.

Slowly, she pulled back, withdrawing the blade painfully from Chimitsu's torso, spilling blood all over the cheerful green and white gown. With a gasping, choked groan, Chimitsu fell to her knees, trying desperately to heal herself before she succumbed to the injuries. I hauled myself to my feet as Eki turned around and launched myself at her from behind, grabbing ahold of my katana that was still embedded in her.

With a savage yank, I tore it out of her sideways, nearly cleaving her in half. She fell to her knees, yet she was still barely alive. One hand supported herself while the other pressed to the wound, a gurgling laugh escaping her throat as I raised my katana for the final strike.

"See you in Hell, samurai..." she snarled a second before I took her head.

Her body and its lost head had barely just landed on the ground before they both turned to dust and blew away on the wind. I leaned against the nearest wall, panting, relieved that this fight was over with at last, leaving only Mad Jack and Aku between myself and this planet's freedom. My body ached and stung with many, many cuts, but we had a bit of time to catch our breaths before fighting my dark twin.

Chimitsu coughed and wheezed as she pulled herself to her feet, her wound closing beneath her torn, bloody gown. I noticed that it healed faster this time and realized that even though a Dark Elemental had caused the wound, they had done it with my katana. It was not supposed to be able to injure those of pure heart, but perhaps it was fortunate that it was my katana and not Eki's nodachi that had caused the wound.

I feared that if it had been the nodachi, the clash of dark and light powers would have killed her instantly.

She made her way over to me and smiled, leaning up to give me a kiss. I returned it briefly before gazing into her eyes, looking to see if she was all right. After what I had seen with her shoulder, I was not entirely certain that the other wound had closed completely inside.

"Are you all right?" I asked in nearly a whisper.

"I'm fine. It was at least your katana and not her nodachi. I'll heal by the time we get to MJ's level. You sure you don't want healing?"

"I am certain. I want to save it for right before Aku, especially when you just took a hit like that. I want to give you time to regenerate your magic before making you heal my wounds. I have fought Mad Jack before, both as a mortal and as an Elemental. I know his fighting style, his moves, and I am not afraid of his magic. I will be fine, I promise."

"All right. Let's take a short break to catch our breaths and then we'll go find MJ and kick his ass, ok?"

I chuckled softly and kissed the tip of her nose. She was much too cheerful sometimes, but it was refreshing nonetheless. I sat down and leaned against a large rock for a few moments, knowing that Mad Jack had to know what had just happened and that we were going to be coming for him shortly. Whether or not he realized that his moments were numbered, I did not know, but I had been waiting for this fight for a long time since his reincarnation and was ready for it.

I hope you are ready, futago, for when the time comes, I will make you pay with my own two hands.
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War Of Shadows