Three Square Meals Ch. 084

In a bewildering array of improvisation, she mixed in a confounding mix of feints with her parries and ripostes, lashing out at Mikaboshi every time he fell for one of her deceptions. Her blades struck home again and again, gouging out chunks of his synthi-flesh as they danced across the hangar. A slice to his left arm, a slash across his right leg, a stab to the gut, a chop to the shoulder; the hits came thick and fast as she flayed his metallic body.

"You're doomed," she whispered under her breath, as she raked her right blade over his left hand and severed his little finger.

Mikaboshi stared at her with wild eyes, frantically trying to defend himself against her remorseless barrage of attacks. Normally, he preferred to be on the offensive, striking hard and fast to eliminate a foe before they knew what had hit them. But against Shinatobe... she seemed to know what move he was making before he'd even started it, tickling him with her razor-sharp blades every time she anticipated and countered his attack.

His heart was pounding in his chest, icy tendrils of fear clawing at him as he finally understood how outmatched he was. Mikaboshi realised he only had one chance, and he stumbled backwards, pretending to have been overbalanced. As this frenzied woman pursued him, he knocked both her swords out wide, then suddenly charged forward, dropping his blades as he lunged for her exposed face.

Sakura was forced to drop her own swords and grab for his wrists as he pounced on her, Mikaboshi too close now to be able to protect herself with her ninjato. He knocked her backwards with the impact of his wildly unpredictable bull-rush, and he fell on her, his nine-fingers only inches away from clawing her beautiful, flawless skin.

She grinned evilly at him now, her armoured hands radiating the cold of the grave. Ice began to form around his wrist, spreading outwards as she sucked all the warmth out of the air.

Mikaboshi's cybernetic limbs felt sluggish and unresponsive as the hydraulic oil inside froze, paralysing his arms just as effectively as if they'd been made of flesh. He looked at her in horror as she clamped down with all her strength, shattering both limbs at the forearms. For a second he toppled over onto her, until she shoved him away to land on his back with a clang. He tried to react, but she pounced on him, straddling his chest and pinning him to the deck.

Gesturing behind her, the wind picked up, whisking her two swords into her hands. She raised them high overhead as Mikaboshi shrieked in terror, knowing the moment of his death was upon him. Sakura slammed the blades down, driving them through both his shoulders and impaling him to the ground. He was utterly helpless now, staked out on the hangar deck by the swords shoved through his body.

Sakura leaned back and closed her eyes, taking a deep breath before exhaling slowly. "You don't know how long I've waited for this moment," she murmured, when she reopened her eyes. They glinted with anticipation as she added, "Oh wait, you should know exactly how long... It's been seventy-five years since I was kidnapped, raped, and tortured."

Mikaboshi was wracked with fear as he gaped at her. "Wait, we can-"

"We'll forgo the kidnapping, and the rape is too hideous to contemplate... but torture, that one has promise..." she crooned, staring into his eyes. "Do you remember what you told me, that first day we met?"

He could only shake his head, staring at her in terror.

"You'll forgive me if I paraphrase," she said, leaning down to study his petrified face. "My name is Sakura Honami, but you may address me as Justice, which means you're totally fucked."

Before he could respond, she gripped his head with both hands, ice spreading out from her fingertips and chilling his titanium skull. He shivered uncontrollably as she froze his cranium, the cold seeping through to his still-human brain beneath. Reaching for something on her belt, she pulled it free and held it in front of his terrified eyes.

"You see this?" she asked him, letting the metallic object catch the light. "I made it from the cybernetic implant you shoved in my brain. I thought since you like cybernetics so much, you might like it back."

"Sakkk-urra, waaittt...." Mikaboshi stuttered, his voice modulator juddering with the ice seeping into his skull. He watched her draw back the thin steel blade, but his eyes were suddenly drawn to the countdown in his HUD.

"0:02"

Raising the dagger above her head in both hands, Sakura screamed out her release, letting go all her hate and grief as she stabbed down, plunging the blade through Mikaboshi's cranium. The metal was incredibly brittle after being exposed to such intense cold, and it offered no resistance as she drove her dagger up to the hilt in his frontal cortex.

"0:01"

Mikaboshi juddered a couple of times, then lay still, his body now lifeless beneath her.

"0:00"

Sakura's shoulders sagged and she began to sob, tears rolling down her cheeks as she wept.

John strode across the hangar, then knelt beside her. "Everything's going to be okay now, honey," he murmured, pulling her into his arms.

She leaned into his embrace, crying softly with the release of decades of pent up emotion. With the hate purged, she felt hollow now, emptied out after finally achieving her vengeance. He whispered comforting words in her ear, stroking her hair as he told her how wonderful she was.

Sakura pulled back a moment and a look of guilt and shame crossed her face. "How much did you see?"

"Most of it," John admitted. "Alyssa and the girls got to Calara before I did, so I came after you. There was no way I was going to risk letting you get hurt, not if I could help protect you. I would have stepped in if you needed my help, but you never did, not for one moment."

She heard the pride in his voice and she gazed into his eyes in confusion. "How can you be proud of me after what I just did? I could have captured him, handed him over to the Terran Federation to stand trial."

"Be completely honest with me: I won't judge you whatever you say," he said, gazing into her eyes while still holding her tight. "Considering everything Mikaboshi had done, would a trial have felt like justice to you?"

Sakura glanced at the frozen corpse beside her, then slowly shook her head. "No. He got what was coming to him."

"For what it's worth, I agree," John said, nodding firmly. "All that matters to me is you and that you got what you needed to move on. But know this: He'll never blight anyone else's life. You've avenged the thousands he and his men killed, and saved the lives of thousands more that he would have kept on killing."

She smiled at him, reaching up to brush his cheek. "Thank you..."

"Thank me later," John replied, returning her smile and lifting her from his lap. "We still have work to do..."

He replaced his helmet and they walked out of the Hangar, not giving Mikaboshi so much as a backwards glance.

***

Sarutahiko crawled out of the burning hangar, both his legs completely severed mid-thigh. He'd been speaking to one of the techs when the hangar door had been blasted inwards and the entire bay seemed to explode in an orgy of destruction. The shuttle he'd been standing next to had been struck by some kind of beam weapon, blowing it apart in an instant and while the tech had been ripped apart in the explosion, it had merely knocked Sarutahiko flying.

Normally he would have considered being caught in any kind of blast to be extremely bad luck, but being thrown clear actually saved him from being completely obliterated in the subsequent salvo of beams. He hadn't escaped unscathed though. It was one of those lances of blue energy that had vaporised his legs, leaving him staring at two glowing stumps when he'd recovered from being hurled across the hangar.

After that, he'd listened in growing horror as his fellow assassins had been torn apart. First there were reports of some white-armoured girl massacring the guards, then frightened talk of a group of soldiers running through the base gunning down operatives. Someone had even reported that the Lion was here and it was he leading this massacre.

What had started as a spirited defence of Yomi-no-kuni had turned into a rout and now the survivors were being hunted down. One terrified voice after another went silent as the band of assassins were exterminated to a man. It seemed that no matter where they hid, they were ferreted out, but Sarutahiko had a plan. He knew Mikaboshi had an emergency escape route out of the fortress. All he needed to do was-

"VrmPkaow!"

Calara lowered her Punisher rifle and nodded with satisfaction. She'd hit the crawling cyborg in the head, blowing it clean off his shoulders.

"Nice shot," John said, patting her on her armoured shoulder.

The girls had immediately evacuated Calara back to the safety of the Raptor. She had pleaded to be included in their cleansing of the base, so once John had agreed, Jade ferried the Latina up to the Invictus to don a suit of Paragon Armour and collect a Punisher rifle. When she returned, she brought a replacement helmet for Sakura and with everyone fully armoured, they had begun scouring the base of enemies.

Dana grinned at the Latina as she studied the mangled remains of the cyborg ninja. "That's the last of 'em. Faye just swept the place with an active scan and there's no more life signs, apart from us that is."

"Alright, let's head up and rejoin the others," John said, turning and walking back down the gloomy tunnel they'd just arrived by.

"I spotted a ton of cybernetic parts in one of the rooms on the second level," Dana said, bouncing along the corridor in her excitement. "Can we do a load of 'requisitioning'? I'd like to see what makes these guys tick."

"For Faye?" Rachel asked, walking alongside the redhead.

Dana nodded enthusiastically. "Yep!"

Calara shot her an uncomfortable glance and her voice was quiet as she said, "I'm not sure we want to be reusing cybernetic parts from trained killers. It seems... wrong."

"I'll just take a peek and see what I can learn," Dana replied, giving the Latina a reassuring smile. "Then I'll just space all this junk and make an improved version for Faye!"

*We've found Mikaboshi's stash of high-grade cybernetic parts,* Alyssa said, speaking to them all telepathically. She hesitated for a moment, then added, *Sakura said he was equipped with more advanced cybernetics and that she's fine with us taking back pieces to study, but I'd rather not bring any reminders of what she's been through. Especially not when everything's still so raw.*

John nodded, a sympathetic expression on his face. Turning to look at Dana, he added, "We could go to the armoury right now so you can take a look. How long do you think you'll need to research the cybernetic parts?"

"I can memorise everything I see, so it's really just a case of taking some bits apart to see how they work," she said with a shrug. "A few hours should do it."

"Alright, let's go then," John said, before putting his arm around Calara. He squeezed her gently as they walked in step together. "How are you holding up?"

"I'm expecting an adrenaline crash at any moment," she replied with a tired smile. "But thank you for letting me be part of the cleanup operation, I really appreciate it."

He returned her smile. "You're welcome. It was actually very helpful having another skilled marksman on the fireteam."

*And better for her to remember these bastards fleeing like rats as we cleaned house,* Alyssa said fiercely, speaking only to John.

He didn't visibly react to her words, but he thought back to his blonde Matriarch, *Yes, exactly, that's why I allowed it. The last thing I want is for Calara to start having nightmares or flashbacks from being held captive. This should help her put it all behind her.*

It didn't take long to reach Mikaboshi's armoury and Alyssa was waiting for them when they arrived. She was standing by a huge vault door that had been smashed open, the reinforced portal now lying flat on the floor, having been battered off its hinges. When she saw them, she rushed over to hug Calara tightly.

John glanced at the door and asked, "Wasn't Irillith able to open that for you?"

Alyssa smiled at him and shook her head. "She's busy in Mikaboshi's inner sanctum. I had fun bashing my way in though, so I was in no hurry to drag her over here."

"Has she found anything interesting yet?" he asked, watching as Dana stepped through the portal, her eyes wide like a kid in a candy store.

"A few things actually," Alyssa replied, as she walked over to the armoury with Calara, her arm wrapped around the brunette's waist. "I'll keep an eye on the girls if you want to go take a look. Tashana and Sakura are with her."

He nodded and waved the girls goodbye, before striding away down the passageway. Irillith had marked important locations in the base on the HUD overlay and Mikaboshi's armoury wasn't far from his inner sanctum. John found the door thrown open to the throne room when he arrived, with three armoured girls gathered around the monitors.

Irillith was sitting quietly on the throne, a serene expression on her face as her glowing violet eyes darted between monitors. There were thirty monitors in here and sixteen of them were rapidly sifting through data as the Maliri hacker scoured Mikaboshi's computer systems. On the remaining fourteen monitors, pictures and information appeared as she found anything pertinent or interesting.

Tashana stood protectively beside her sister, watching in fascination as her twin dredged up every dirty secret that Mikaboshi had been hiding. Sakura was on the opposite side of the throne, hugging herself as she stared at the glowing monitors.

John strode over to the troubled Asian girl. "What's the matter?" he asked, putting his arm around her.

"Look," she whispered, nodding towards the screens.

He turned around to join her in staring at the monitors. Ten of the fourteen screens were flicking through what appeared to be personnel files, cycling through the pictures of scores of men, along with their criminal records. All of them were known felons, with extensive and brutal histories of criminality before they'd been recruited by the Master Assassin.

"Mikaboshi kept meticulous records," Irillith informed him in a detached, distracted tone. "By Terran standards his digital security was extremely robust, so he must have felt safe in retaining all this information. All his data archives are on an internal network with no external connectivity, but I've created a bridge and I'm uploading everything to the Invictus."

John glanced at her, watching as her eyes flicked back and forth. He'd assumed she was looking at the monitors at first, but it was apparent now that she was looking into the cyber-realm. "I take it his security didn't give you too much trouble?"

Irillith just raised an eyebrow and smiled. She paused for a moment, blinked, then turned to look directly at him. "Would you like to see what Mikaboshi looked like? His real face that is?"

John glanced down at Sakura and when she nodded, he gestured at the bank of monitors. "Sure, let's see."

The central four monitors went black for a second, then flickered and were replaced by a man's face. He had mousy brown hair, pale skin, a narrow nose, and beady eyes that had a wary cast to them - like he'd spent most of his life being hunted.

John gaped at the picture in shock. "He wasn't even Asian!"

"None of them were," Sakura said quietly. "I was the only one..."

"His name was Dominick Hooper, born May 15th, 2644," Irillith informed them, bringing up his criminal records on the adjacent two monitors. "He worked as a hitman for years and was the prime suspect for dozens of crime syndicate murders. There were a number of outstanding warrants for his arrest when he disappeared in 2686. It was assumed he'd been killed by a rival."

John shook his head in amazement. "That must have been when he adopted this 'Mikaboshi' persona."

"That's correct," Irillith confirmed, bringing up a picture dated September 7th 2687. It showed the golden-brown face of a handsome Asian man, who looked delighted as he grinned at the camera. "That was taken after his full-cyborg conversion. He made scores of upgrades to that chassis in the decades since then."

Squeezing Sakura's shoulder, John said quietly, "Have you found any reason why he did that to himself?"

"There's extensive data in here regarding ancient Japanese culture, Shinto mythology, and tens-of-thousands of images of young Asian women," Irillith said, glancing at Sakura with sympathy in her eyes. "The pictures weren't of models, they appear to be normal high-school girls, the timestamp dating them back to 2703. I've been running a search algorithm on a hunch and it just found something."

John nodded, giving her permission to proceed. The four central monitors swept clear, replaced by a very familiar, very beautiful face.

Sakura let out a shocked gasp and took a faltering step forward. "I remember when that was taken! It was for the yearbook when I graduated from High School..."

"He picked you for his 'Shinatobe project' out of a huge number of Asian girls," Irillith said, a bleak expression on her face. "I'm really sorry."

"I thought it was all my fault..." Sakura murmured in shock, gazing at the picture of herself taken when she was eighteen-years-old. "That I'd just been kidnapped because I'd been foolish and gullible enough to walk into their trap."

Irillith slowly shook her head. "If their initial plan failed, Mikaboshi had ordered the men abducting you to kill your parents and capture you when you returned home. He provided them with at least a dozen other contingency plans - they wouldn't have stopped trying until they'd successfully kidnapped you."

"By stopping to help that man with the broken hover-car, you actually saved your parents' lives," John said gently, pulling Sakura in for a hug.

She just leaned against him, too stunned by these revelations to reply.

Meeting Irillith's sympathetic gaze, John asked, "Have you found out anything else?"

"Mikaboshi had an emergency evacuation plan which he triggered when we assaulted his base. He diverted funds from dozens of accounts into one private, highly-secure account," she replied, the monitors flickering in front of them before they showed account details and bank transfers. Giving him a smile of satisfaction, she continued, "I've diverted the entire balance into a new account which we can use as a victim reparation fund. I've started identifying surviving relatives of all his victims and can allocate payments accordingly."

"That's excellent work," John replied, looking genuinely impressed with her initiative. "You're right, that's exactly what I'd have wanted to do with his money. How much is there anyway?"

Irillith's eyes flicked to the central screen, which immediately displayed a bank balance.

"Holy shit!" John exclaimed, staring at the number in shock. "He had over three-hundred-million credits?!"

She nodded, her eyes darting over to a scrolling list of payments next to the names of victims. "He was a prolific hired killer before he effectively retired and started up his stable of assassins. Sakura was the first, but she was the only one forced into this. The rest were recruited and all volunteered for full-cyborg conversions. Between them all, they've completed thousands of contracts." She gave him a wolfish look as she added, "Do you want to see who paid for your assassination?"

He blinked at her in surprise, then nodded, his eyes narrowing. The scrolling list of contracts stopped on his own name, the file expanding to provide details on the contract, including the date it was created, how much was paid... and who instigated all this trouble.