Shego and Kim could not believe their eyes as they stared at each other. The pale woman wanted to know why she was running into someone that she knew as a maiko named Akako in Senior’s castle as it was burning to the ground. The fire was thanks to Drakken’s secret weapons, which actually turned out to be dolls that he hooked up to throw fire. Yeah, he was really a genius, Shego thought sarcastically.
Oppositely, Kim wanted to know why she was running to a woman that she was certain was “yojimbo-san.” She could just tell that Shego was the bodyguard from body type. Not to mention, thanks to the fire illuminating the place, she could make out the green complexion and she was pretty sure that “yojimbo-san” was the only person alive with such a skin tone.
“Akako-chan, what the hell are you doing here?” Shego demanded to know, more concerned than angered oddly enough. She had been hoping that the girl was some place safe and yet there she was in a burning fortified structure.
“What are you doing here, yojimbo-san?” Kim countered; her tone was not as forceful as the other female’s voice. She sounded somewhere between confused and disappointed, which was how she was feeling too.
“And why are you dressed like that?” Shego asked as she got a good look at the outfit the shamisen player was wearing. She then noticed the swords on the redhead’s hip. The pale woman frowned. “You’re with them, aren’t you?” Shego growled.
“And if I am?” Kim said in a slightly offended tone. She had done so much to make sure that “yojimbo-san” had not been captured before when the traitors had been rounded up and yet there the bodyguard was with those fugitives again. It was like she had troubled herself for nothing. She was close to feeling like a fool for acting on the behalf of the bodyguard.
The pale woman snarled in pure fury, taking that question as a confirmation that the redhead was one of the Shogun’s dogs. She was about to ignite her hands and tear into the teen with no mercy, but the fire around them blazed up higher than before. The ceiling began coming down and Shego figured that it was more important that she get out of the castle alive rather than punishing the petite redhead at the moment. She shoved Kim away from her with hateful force.
“We’ll settle this some other time, Akako-chan,” Shego said the name with much disdain and a frown tugged at her lips.
Kim fell back while Shego climbed to her feet. The green-skinned woman took off in the direction that Kim was facing. The redhead pushed herself up from the floor and was about to go after the departing villainess, but the ceiling collapsed. The olive-eyed female jumped back to avoid having burning debris fall on her head. Shego turned back around to see what happened as she heard all of the wreckage hit the floor; a part of her that she refused to acknowledge now that she knew what Kim was turned to make sure that the younger warrior had not been harmed. She saw that Kim’s path was blocked and so, she made her escape, still thinking that she might be able to get to Drakken and the Seniors.
“Yojimbo-san!” Kim called almost at the top of her lungs to make sure that she was heard.
There was no response to her shout and she had to move back as the fire blazed higher around her. She shielded her face from the fire and then decided to get back to her friends as smoke began to fill the hall. They were going to have to get out of the castle soon or they were going to be trapped. She returned to the couple to see that they were still fighting with the mechanical dolls.
“Guys, we need to get out of here! The whole place is on fire,” Kim informed her friends with urgency in her voice.
“What about the fugitives?” Yori asked while making sure to hold off any opponents that were near her.
“With luck, someone else found them because at the moment, we can’t do anything about them. We need to get out of here,” Kim stated firmly.
“Koibito, let’s listen to Kim,” Ron said because he noticed that the inferno was now pretty much out of control and the toys that they were trying to take down were not helping because they just kept adding to the fire. They were going to be stuck in the blazing castle if they continued on with the battle and search.
Ron grabbed his wife and decided to make a dash for the nearest exit. For him, survival always beat out finishing a mission, especially when his spouse was involved. Yori was similar being a ninja and all, but she usually believed in finishing the mission before making a hasty getaway. Kim was right behind her friends because she was certain that there was no way for them to finish the assignment with the heat wave that the fort was experiencing.
The tinker toys that they had been battling did not seem ready to leave the trio alone, though. The Bebes turned to follow the fleeing invaders and engaged them again. The friends turned around to fight just in time to avoid being cut in half by the dolls and their swords.
“Why must people think things like this up for evil?” Ron hollered as he tried to force a doll away from him with the Lotus Blade, which was back in the form of a katana. He ended up having to kick the metallic female in the chest to push the thing away.
“Because there’s always some mad scientist out there that takes up insane things instead of doing something relaxing,” Kim replied while throwing one doll over her shoulder into another doll.
“Like flower arrangement?” Ron wondered out loud.
“If we ever run into a villain that does flower arrangement, I might have to quit doing this,” the redhead commented. She suspected that any bad guy that did flower arrangement too was probably uniquely insane and she just needed to stay away from such a bad news individual lest she lose her mind too.
Yori tried her best not to laugh at all because of the dire situation that they were in and forced herself to not imagine some insane assassin doing flower arrangements. Ron was not as good as his spouse and had to imagine some psycho doing flower arrangements. He started laughing slightly and then suddenly got attacked by another doll. He yelped and then started to defend himself against the machine. As they continued to try to fight off the dolls, they could tell the fire was spreading quickly and badly.
“We’re going to be fried at this rate!” Ron pointed out the obvious while still keeping back the Bebes.
“Then we need to act like this is serious,” Kim stated, which was also rather apparent.
“Using real moves on toys? We should be ashamed,” Yori muttered.
“Yori-chan, I think it’s our honor to live through this one in any way that we can, even if we didn’t get the bad guys and they’re just toys,” the redhead commented.
The shinobi (1) agreed with that, but she was still a little insulted that they were going to have to use good attacks against mindless dolls. Kim could relate to that, but they had to get out of that fire and they had to do it quickly. So, it was not really the right time to be too proud to show up a doll.
Since they were breaking out their serious attacks, Ron put his sword away, kind of. He changed the Lotus Blade into the weapon that he worked best with, a bo-staff. He went to work right away on the dolls with his staff and using his tai shing pek wa as best he could. It would seem that he was on point; he always worked best in combat when under pressure.
Yori fell back on some mystical ninpo techniques that she could use. She lured a couple of dolls in and then vanished as they were about to attack. The dolls ended up hitting each other, which was what she counted on. She could not believe that she was using such techniques on toys, but she continued on, using whatever ninpo that she could coupled with any attacks that seemed to work.
Kim went to work too and gripped her sword tightly. She dashed at the dolls and cut through them, which her friends expected her to. The couple even recognized the sole attack that Kim continued to use since it was working well against their nonliving opponents.
“Hey, Kim, did you ever think that if you didn’t call the slash attack the ‘nine-tails of fury’ that the rumors of you being a fox might ease up a bit?” Ron joked as he finished up the dolls around him. He did remain alert, just in case some more foes came out of nowhere.
“Let’s just get out of here,” Kim replied with a bit of an attitude as the machines dropped thanks to her and her friends’ efforts. She had the attitude because she hated to even hear about those ridiculous rumors. She did silently agree with her best friend, though.
It was possible that maybe if so many of her sword techniques did not have anything to do with fox spirits then people would not consider her a fox. But, she could not help the names of the techniques. Her sword style went way back to the start of the Possible clan as far as she knew. She could not just go changing such things just to avoid the rumors going around about her. Besides, people would always talk no matter what.
The trio broke down the mechanical guards that were in their path and made a beeline for an exit. They made it to a part of the yard of the castle that was not on fire and fought with some more Bebes. It was then that they realized that they might have a problem on their hands. Would they be able to remember the proper way out with fire-crazed dolls nipping at their heels along with an out of control blaze chasing them in its own way too? They were about to find out.
“Do these things ever stop coming?!” Ron hollered in annoyance as he beat back a pair of Bebes while Yori and Kim were busy debating on which way they were supposed to go to get out of the castle.
“We took a right here,” Kim argued, which meant they needed to go to the left to get out of the deadly castle.
“No, we didn’t. We came from that way,” Yori disagreed while pointing to their right.
“Could you two just pick a way and let’s go!” the blonde young man begged.
Yori and Kim looked at each other and smiled. They nodded. “Up,” they agreed.
They both grabbed Ron and leaped over the high wall that was in the way. Ron had to yell from the surprise; it was force of habit. Rufus was still in his sleeve and he cheered because it was a fun trip, even if it was unexpected. As soon as they landed, they all took off running. They jumped any other wall that they came to, including the last one that fortified the castle. They seemed to forget that there was a moat around the castle.
The trio hit the water with a huge splash. They sank rather deeply because of the equipment that they had on them, but they easily swam to the surface. They all gasped in some deep breaths of air as soon as they popped up from the deep, manmade pool.
“Again!” Rufus squeaked as he emerged from Ron’s collar and he spit out some water.
“Why didn’t we do that in the first place?” Ron inquired in a bit of a puzzled tone while making sure to keep his head above the water.
“Did you want to leap that many walls more than once?” Kim countered. They would not have had any strength left in their legs to do the job that they were supposed to if they had leaped those walls to get into the castle keep.
“Point taken,” the blonde commented.
“Um…would it not be a good idea for us to get away from the wall with a fire going through that castle so easily?” Yori pointed out.
Kim and Ron nodded in agreement with that. They swam to the edge of the moat and pulled themselves out of the water onto the shore. They moved back from the castle and sat down to catch their breath. They watched the fire build up and wondered if the others made it out safely.
They got the answer to that question some minutes later. Everyone regrouped and Betty had in her possession the main fugitives as far as she was concerned, Senior, Junior, and Drakken; Shego had not been able to make it back to them, but they had been caught before that anyway. They were all bound and gagged because Betty was in no mood to hear anyone’s mouth at the moment. It would seem that “yojimbo-san” got away, Kim noted since the green-skinned bodyguard was not among the captives.
“All right, everybody, let’s head back to Edo!” Betty announced to the group. She had everyone that she needed since she had the escapees.
“Wait,” Kim said. She was not certain why she was speaking up, but it seemed that her mouth had done so automatically. Was she about to say her words out of revenge or curiosity, she wondered because she knew just what she was about to bring up.
“Yes, Kim-dono?” the one-eyed woman inquired with a bit of a sigh. She did not want to hear anything at the moment. She just wanted to get back to the city and get back to her normal life. Not to mention, she still had to face Vivian’s wrath. Maybe she should have stayed in the fire, she considered.
“There’s still one more person to catch,” the redhead informed the leader matter-of-factly. Did she want an excuse to go after “yojimbo-san” and even if she did, why, she asked herself. She could not figure it out, or so that was what she told herself. She did know that she wanted the chance to go after the green-skinned warrior.
Betty looked at Kim and wondered if the girl was talking about Shego. Had Kim seen Shego? She supposed that she was going to have to find out because if the redhead was talking about Shego, she was going to have figure out how to get Kim to understand that chasing Shego was pointless. No one alive, or even dead, would be able to capture Shego and bring her before the Shogun.
“One more person?” Betty asked as if she was very curious.
“Drakken’s bodyguard,” Kim informed the elder woman.
“Drakken’s bodyguard?” Betty echoed. Was that what Shego was? Drakken’s bodyguard? She probably could not have sunken any lower if she tried and she doubted that Shego would sink that low. Shego had way too much pride to be the servant of such a weed, she tried to convince herself.
“Yes, ma’am. I’ll go after the bodyguard with your permission,” Kim stated.
Yori looked at Kim curiously. She was not sure how to take the redhead’s volunteering to hunt down “yojimbo-san.” Did Kim just want to see him again or was she really going to go out of her way to turn in a friend and have that friend crucified for treason? Yori doubted that it was the latter and would bet her left leg that it was the former.
Kim was not even sure why she had just offered herself up to more work when she should have just been thinking about going home and reveling in that. What was she hoping to gain in going after “yojimbo-san,” she silently asked herself several times. Did she want answers to the questions that she now had, like why the bodyguard did not just continue to enjoy her freedom rather than risking everything to be with people she claimed to dislike? There was of course the obvious question of the bodyguard being a woman in the first place.
“You’ll go after the bodyguard?” Betty echoed in a calm tone, not letting it be known that she was milling the idea over. Could she let Kim go after Shego if that was who the teen was referring to? There was a lot of room for error, but then again, the redhead was not the type to make mistakes. It was also very unlikely that Kim would do something rash, but she could still do something that would not end well.
“I will,” Kim confirmed with a confident, strong nod.
Betty considered the request quietly. It was very possible that Shego was not the bodyguard that Kim was talking about. She thought about it for a long moment. She looked at Drakken and thought some more. There was no way that Shego would be out with such a loser, she told herself. The bodyguard had to be someone else other than Shego in the one-eyed woman’s opinion because she was certain that it just was not in the pale woman’s nature to remain with someone like Drakken. She did wonder what Shego was doing at the castle, though.
It was not uncommon for Shego to be involved in some sort of plot to overthrow the government. She bounced around, moving in all kinds of nefarious circles doing who-knew-what in the underground, and surfaced every now and then for some big scheme that always fell through; sometimes before it even got started. She never seemed to care and just disappeared back into the shadows, waiting for something new to catch her attention. But, she never made an appearance as a servant for someone. If anything, Shego was a co-conspirator in plots that she was involved, even if a lot of the time, she only seemed to be involved halfheartedly. With that in mind, Betty figured that Kim was speaking on someone else and she made her decision on that knowledge.
“Get going,” Betty ordered the redhead in an almost uncaring tone.
Kim nodded, but before she did get going, she threw on her other clothes since those were dry. She then turned to her friends and bid them farewell. She noticed the look that Yori was giving her, as if demanding that she explain herself, but she could not. She did not even know what she was doing, after all. She did like to think that she was not going for the same reasons that Yori assumed that she was going, especially since she now knew more about “yojimbo-san” than the ninja did.
“Take care,” Ron said to the olive-eyed samurai in a strong voice, one that said he was confident in her abilities. “When you get back to Edo, we’ll hang out,” he added just to let her know that they were getting back to their normal lives for a little while once she returned home. No more favors for Director Betty for a while.
“Be careful,” Yori said to Kim, trying her best to mask her concern for the redhead.
Kim smirked to show her confidence. “I’ll be fine.”
Yori shrugged slightly; she was not too sure about that. She was kind of worried. It was not that she thought something bad would happen to Kim, but she just wished that she knew what Kim was trying to do. It probably would help matters if the redhead knew just what she was attempting to do.
Shego made her getaway from the castle and through some trees while trying not to think about how she had left the others behind, not that she had much of a choice with the stronghold burning down. She was not too surprised by what happened in the castle, as far as Drakken’s machines went anyway. His plans seemed to sound good in his head, half the time they looked somewhat good on paper, and then when they were put into practice something always happened to screw it up. It was one of the things that made him amusing and she probably would have tried harder to rescue him if it was not for one person.
Look, Drakken was a screw-up, but he was her screw-up. Yes, he did annoying things, but something that was annoying could also be amusing after she had a chance to sit down and think about it. Maybe she would have considered the stupid move with fire-shooting dolls amusing days from now because of how unbelievably dense it was for the man to make toys that threw fire, but did not have judgment to know when and where to use it. Obviously, he did not think that far ahead. Despite his shortsightedness, she still would have gone back for him and maybe even tried to wrestle him from Director Betty, but she just did not want to see that one person.
So, Akako-chan had actually been a spy, Shego silently growled. She could not believe that she of all people had allowed a spy to get to her! And there it was she thought that she had made a friend. Stupid, she berated herself.
She could not believe that she fell for that act! She thought that Akako was just some cute, little shamisen player. She thought that the girl was trapped in that gilded cage, longing for freedom, but she did not have the courage to pursue it. It had all just been a lie, though! The girl had lied to her.
Something underneath the fury made Shego even angrier and that was the pain that she was experiencing. She tried her best to ignore the underlying agony of being betrayed by someone she thought was her friend. She tried to tell herself that she did not care. Well, no, she cared enough to be upset, but not enough to be hurt. She would get her revenge on that lying, little bitch. She was just not going to let anyone make a fool out of her.
She thought about how happy she had been when she thought that Akako had left the teahouse to be free, but it turned out that she just left because she had not truly been a prisoner. She just used that, Shego growled mentally. She had been played by a kid. It was unforgivable!
Shego figured that she would escape for a while, but she was going to eventually go look for that evil, little redheaded tramp. She was not going to let Akako get away with toying with her. She would get that kid back and teach that the damned whore to never fool around with her again, not that the lesson would stick long considering how pissed she was. She might just have to slay that little bitch and be done with her.
Kim took off on the bodyguard’s trail. She left behind her horse because she thought it would be easier to track the green-skinned woman on foot. So, she was off to wear down her zori sandals. She doubted that “yojimbo-san” had gotten far and even if she did, Kim was confident that she would catch up to the bodyguard soon enough.
But, she asked herself, what would she do if she did catch up with the pale woman? Would she just sit down and try to talk about things, like why the green-skinned female returned to Drakken? Would she just fight with the bodyguard and take her back to Edo where she would be crucified for treason? She was not sure. She considered that she would know what she was going to do when she caught up with the bodyguard. Well, she hoped that she would know when she caught up to the bodyguard because she disliked feeling confused and torn on an issue.
She felt a little stupid for having gone out of her way for the bodyguard since “yojimbo-san” had gone right back to those traitorous idiots. And she was ready to believe that “yojimbo-san” might actually be a bit stupid to have returned to such losers. They had already been captured once. Did the green-skinned woman really think that they would get away a second time? But, she supposed that also applied to her.
She had assumed that the bodyguard would not go back to her master. Why had she thought that, she asked herself. Maybe she was just wishing much too hard and she could not even figure out why she had wished such a thing. What had she been thinking? Where was her head that day?
She wanted to be upset with herself and with the bodyguard for not doing what she should have, but she could not manage that. She was just curious as to what went wrong. Why had the bodyguard thrown away a chance to be free to stick with traitors? It did not make any sense to Kim, no matter how much time she devoted to contemplating the matter. She needed an explanation from the person that just threw away her hard work.
It seemed almost ungrateful, in Kim’s opinion. She had given “yojimbo-san” a gift that the bodyguard claimed to want, but it was not cherished. A part of her soul felt injured from that and she desired answers as to why the present was not loved and cared for. The more she thought about it, the more she felt that she required those answers.
She continued to tell herself that it would not take too long to catch up to the bodyguard, even though days passed and she did not catch up to the pale woman. Had she underestimated the bodyguard? How had “yojimbo-sand” gotten so far so fast? She decided that hers was not to question. Hers was just to locate.
(New day)
Shego was lounging underneath a tree. She had a new travel hat and had it pulled over her face. She had a long piece of grass in her mouth. She was obviously just relaxing. She was considering what she should do now. She could keep running for a while, she could go back to Edo for her revenge, or she could just go look for a new clown considering Drakken was more than likely dead on a cross by now. She then figured that she was going to have to let those thoughts go for the moment because she could tell that she was about to have some company.
“Yojimbo-san,” Kim said as she stood before the pale woman.
Shego looked up and smirked. It would seem her question had been answered and that the gods were smiling upon her because she did not even have to go anywhere for the answer. She was going to have to go for revenge with the bitchy redhead right in front of her.
“Akako-chan,” Shego said the pet name with such venom that it might as well had been an insult.
Kim was lost now, especially since she could sense that “yojimbo-san” was far from pleased to see her yet again. What was she supposed to do? Did she want to take the bodyguard in? Did she want to just talk? She was not sure and nothing was coming to mind. She could hardly remember the questions that she wanted to ask, but out of everything, there was still a dull ache underneath the surface about the fact that the bodyguard had thrown away the effort that she had taken to let the pale woman keep her desired, beloved freedom.
“It’s good that you came to me,” Shego commented with a smirk tugging at her lip.
“How so?” Kim asked curiously. Maybe the bodyguard wanted to talk and they could clear everything up. Then, maybe, she would be able to figure out just what she should do with the bodyguard.
“It just means I don’t have to go back to Edo to kill you,” the moss-hued warrior replied as if that was the logical answer and she climbed to her feet.
“Kill me?” Kim repeated in a tone that showed she did not understand.
“Yup,” Shego said and she put her hand on a sword that she had on her hip. It was not quite a katana that she carried, but it did the job more often than not. Her blade was a ninjato(2). She was not even going to bother to take her hat off for the fight apparently.
“Wait, yojimbo-san, you don’t really want to do that,” the younger female objected. She honestly did not think that anyone wanted to get into a sword fight with her if it could be helped.
“Yeah, I do,” the pale woman replied with conviction.
The redhead samurai was not sure what to do and then Shego came at her, so she did not really have time to think about what was happening. She leaped back, avoiding getting cut in two. Shego laughed a little bit; the kid had some sharp reflexes.
“Fine, you want to do it like this, then I’m just going to have to take you down and take you back to Edo,” Kim declared as she put her hand on her long sword’s handle. It would seem that everything between them, whatever it was, had been ruined the moment that she literally slammed into the bodyguard back at the castle.
Shego scoffed. “You think you’re so big and bad because you work for the Shogun. If you think you can take me on, come on. Hell, if you beat me, I’ll go back to Edo voluntarily with you and turn myself in,” the pale woman boasted.
“Then I guess you’ll be going back voluntarily and turning yourself in,” the redhead stated.
“Bring it on now then, A-ka-ko-chan,” Shego replied, saying the name slowly and pronouncing each syllable to further taunt the younger female.
“It’s Kim. Possible Kim,” she introduced herself with pride.
“I’ll be sure to carve it on your grave,” Shego remarked in a dangerous tone while deciding to untie her hat for the battle.
Kim did not respond to that and Shego charged her; the pale woman’s hat flying off behind her. They clashed swords, which surprised Shego. The raven-haired female thought that she would be easily to run the olive-eyed spy through. She was aware that Kim would have some skill being a dog for the Shogun, but she did not think that Kim would be any match for her.
Shego went into another strike, but Kim blocked that also. The emerald-eyed fighter was fast, Kim noted. Faster than any other opponent that the girl had faced or could even think of. That was all right, though. She was fast too and she never lost.
Kim went on the attack as soon as she had the chance, which stunned Shego, but the pale woman managed to avoid the strike. Kim could not believe her eyes; someone had just dodged her? That almost never happened.
Fine, Kim said to herself. She just started another attack, but again Shego dodged. The pale woman then countered, but Kim moved out of the way. They clashed swords again and again. Both surprised by the way the battle was going, or how it was not going considering it was not going in either of their favor.
“This kid is pretty good,” Shego thought to herself. In the back of her mind, she noted that it was nice to go against someone that did not crumble five seconds into a fight.
Kim was of similar thinking. She was unaccustomed to fighting against someone for more than a minute or so, especially in one-on-one combat. She had always thought that the Possible sword techniques were the most powerful of any form, but Shego was countering her and avoiding her like it was something that she did everyday. It was impressive.
The two continued fighting against each other and then they suddenly locked weapons. They pushed away, both flinging the other’s sword away. They gawked at each other for a moment in disbelief and then they looked at their weapons, which were point down in the ground as if the earth were their scabbards. They turned their attention back to each other and then Shego smirked.
“Well, samurai-san, you seem to be out of luck,” Shego commented in a cocky tone. She used “samurai-san” because she did not even want to think of the damnable redhead as the Akako that she knew and had come to like.
“How so, yojimbo-san?” Kim inquired rather curiously.
“I’m better without a sword,” the pale woman remarked and she put her hands up in a fighting position, as if her hands were claws instead of making fists.
“Isn’t that coincidence? So am I,” Kim riposted with confidence as she put her hands up, balling them into tight fists.
Shego decided to call Kim’s bluff and dashed at her. The moss-hued warrior leaped into her attack, coming at Kim with a powerful claw strike. Shego had nails that were close to an eagle’s talons and she had come very close to tearing into Kim’s throat with them on that first assault, but Kim dodged.
The redhead went to counterattack with some well placed punches, which Shego dodged. Kim kept coming with hers until the green-skinned woman countered and tried to cut her face off. Kim leaped back and then had to avoid a swarm of shuriken being thrown by Shego at an incredible speed. The younger warrior sought refugee behind a tree and breathed a sigh of relief as she heard a bunch of projectiles getting pinned into the wood.
“That isn’t going to work,” Shego practically cooed as she seemed to manifest in front of the younger female.
Kim jumped into the tree to avoid being peppered by four-pointed throwing stars. Shego followed her into the tree and kicked her out of it before Kim had a chance to totally settle onto a branch. The samurai righted herself in the air and landed on her feet. She immediately had to flip away from her landing space as more shuriken rained down on her. How many of those things did the bodyguard have?!
“Quick little thing,” Shego muttered.
Kim stood up right when the assault ended. She put her hands up to be on guard for when Shego came at her again. She looked around and did not see any sign of the emerald-eyed bodyguard. She knew that the older woman was around somewhere, though.
“Peek-a-boo,” Shego remarked and she was about to kick Kim hard in the ribs from the back right, but the redhead surprisingly blocked.
“I see you,” Kim replied as she countered and kicked Shego right in the chest.
The green-skinned woman coughed as the blow landed and she flew back. She was able to catch herself and threw her hands up to defend herself properly as Kim came in for a second attack. The raven-haired fighter could not believe how fast the little redhead was. Her hands were almost a blur and Shego knew that if she was just a little less of a warrior than she was, Kim would have destroyed her easily. It was rather extraordinary.
Kim would have concurred with that thought. She could not believe that someone was keeping up with her hands and blocking her attacks. It was not something that happened often and it certainly did not happen for a long time, over a minute was a long time. It was something that amazed her.
They were both in a sort of shock. The shock was not so severe that they were no longer battling. No, they continued with that as fiercely as they could. They did not care about how incredible things seemed. They were out for theirs. They wanted things and they would have them, even if it was at the cost of the other, even though they had both felt such a connection before. Nothing mattered aside for winning.
1: shinobi: a ninja.
2: ninjato: ninja sword. It’s not as long as a katana, but it’s longer than a wakazashi (the short sword samurai carry). It’s also a straighter blade and usually held straight ahead so that the opponent cannot tell its exact length.
Next time: the fight goes on.