Night Blade: Day of Reckoning

By Kyle M. Perkins

Chisai's been captured! But by whom?

The adventure scontinues when a mysterious figure appears at the cliffside where Niko and Kitsune chased Chisai, up to the point she disappeared! With the help of some local family, the duo track down Chisai's location and encounter a fight they didn't expect!

After saving Chisai, they make their way back into town, but yet again encounter more enemies over one of the medallion pieces! In the middle of the fight, a long time friend of Niko's arrives and makes a deal with Chisai and a few others, which may make Chisai double-cross Niko to give up his prized weapon: the Banish Blade.

Meanwhile, Kitsune goes up against a stranger with an ability like his own: the ability to move earth. However, the stranger is also super-strong. Will Kitsune be able to fight back and survive his challenger?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kyle M. Perkins
• Release date: May 7, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310935107

Kyle M. Perkins

When he's not writing story lines or scripts for upcoming novels or mangas, Kyle M. Perkins usually designs, develops, and hand-codes web-based services using a mixture of multiple web languages, including PHP, MySQL, HTML, CSS, jQuery, and more, as he has been doing since 2001. He also teaches computer courses at a local community college.Kyle is also working on story lines for various mangas titles, including such titles as Crystal Blaze, All Souls Crescent, Phoenix Rising, and Omega Noir, all produced by Lunar Productions, a small studio run by him and Keat.As a 2nd Degree Black Belt in Taekwondo, Kyle has many years of experience in the martial art, including becoming State Champ in Weapons for 2 consecutive years, and a Level 1 Instructor for the American Taekwondo Association.Kyle thoroughly enjoys watching sci-fi and anime series, with his favorites being "Star Trek: The Next Generation", "Doctor Who", and "Sword Art Online."Kyle lives in Waynesville, NC, with his wife, Keat, and their three cats, Niko (yes, the name is the same), Chi, and Maru.

Book preview

Chapter 1

I came to further seek your assistance.

Recognizing the voice of his former assumed captor, Kitsune quickly turns around to face him. Tora! What are you…..WHOA! He loses his footing on the edge of the cliff and starts to fall off.

Kitsune! Niko says from the other side of the car, hopping over the car's hood and landing on the cliff's edge, he reaches out for his friend, but Kitsune's hand is just outside of his reach. KITSUNE!

Thinking that he had just lost his two new friends and feeling alone again, Niko calls out once more with all of his might as he reaches over the edge of the cliff. KITSUNEEEEE!

It's all coming to an end.

In the blink of an eye, countless thoughts started flying through Niko's mind as Tora's unscheduled arrival probably means that he found out the one task that he had asked of his student, Niko, would now be impossible to finish. Although the task of simply 'fetching' the stolen medallion seemed simple enough, a fight over the medallion caused it to break into multiple pieces, and Niko, along with his new friends, are on a quest to retrieve them before Tora found out.

The fact that the medallion was now broken means that Niko had disobeyed his teacher, which means that the Banish Blade, a powerful sword that he won in a fight at the national Taekwondo Championship against his old friend, Tsuyoki, would be taken away as a form of punishment. Additionally, the thoughts of Tora's disciplinary techniques scare Niko as he thinks about losing his mom, dad, and his cat, Shadow. Tora has always been nice to Niko and his family, but losing something as precious as the medallion means that an equal punishment must be met.

Along with losing his new sword, he also just witnessed a new friend, Chisai, disappear into thin air off the side of the very cliff that he is leaning over. Memories of the past few days started appearing in his mind: winning the tournament, picking Chisai up from her school after being informed by Seyogi, the first transformation of Chisai's demon abilities, and the surprise arrival of the both of them on the strange training grounds.

To make matters worse, he just lost another new friend, Kitsune, over the side of the cliff. More memories appear in Niko's mind: him and Chisai fighting a gold bird and Kitsune at the training grounds, meeting back up in the forest to fight the Niko and Chisai clones, fighting Omego, meeting Karen, visiting the matsuri, confronting Kazeyama after the warehouse incident, going to Kitsune's old house to rest up after a long day's events, and the trip of chasing Chisai to this cliff and almost driving off the edge.

Completely ignoring Tora's statement, Niko's mind focuses on the precious memories he has left of what he is about to lose.

My child, your fears are not to be seen. Please focus on the task at hand, Tora says as he walks up to the car, opposite of Niko.

Shut up! What do you know? Niko yells back with an aggravated tone, not realizing who he had just yelled at, or what he had just said.

Master, please listen to Lord Tora, Seyogi says as he hops under the car and runs toward Niko.

In Niko's experiences, Seyogi had never needed to lie to his Master. Realizing that his squirrel guardian was putting trust in Tora, Niko calms down, knowing he could trust the squirrel. As he sets his emotions aside, a voice is heard from over the cliff.

Did you really think that I'd fall to my death from a rock cliff? Kitsune floats up on a rock slab, becoming level with Niko. Come on, man! Kitsune tosses a rock in the air and it falls back down into his hand.

Kitsune?

Did you forget about my ability? The rock in his hand immediately flies backward, away from Kitsune. I can move earth at my will.

An overwhelming sense of joy flows through Niko as he leaps from the cliff edge toward his friend with open arms.

Whoa, man! Watch where you're jumping! Kitsune says, flailing to maintain his balance from the oncoming impact.

The rock slab shakes a bit as Kitsune compensates for the additional weight of an unexpected passenger as Niko's arms wrap around him tightly.

I am sorry, Master Kitsune, Seyogi says as he approaches the duo. Master Niko had some troubling times as a child, and formed a minute case of separation anxiety.

It's no problem, little squirrel. Just…. Kitsune tries to pry Niko off. Get him off of me!

Seyogi coughs into his paw. *Ahem*

Recognizing the signal from Seyogi, Niko quickly releases his grip around Kitsune and backs away, careful not to step off the rock slab. Sorry, sorry. I just-

Kitsune cuts Niko off, putting up a hand between them. Don't worry about it. Let's just focus.

As Kitsune walks off of the rock slab toward the car, Niko starts to feel the slab shaking and quickly runs to the cliff's edge for safety. No sooner as he jumps onto the plateau, the slab falls downwards and crumbles as it hits the side of the tall cliff.

Now, as I was saying, Tora continues as he slowly walks toward Niko's car, with Kitsune on the other side.

Hold it! Kitsune calls out as he hits his hand against the hood of Niko's car. I want this car to stay between you and me. Got it?

Tora stops walking forward. As he lowers his head into a slight bow, he sighs. Very well, young one.

Niko runs to the front of the car and places his arms on the hood with a hard force. Okay – I'm good. He says as he quickly looks between Kitsune and Tora. So, what's the plan?

Plan? Tora says as he stands upright from his bow moments ago.

Trying to recover his breath, Niko feels a bit frustrated as the point doesn't seem to be obvious. Yeah, the plan to rescue Chisai? You have one, right? That's why you're here: to tell us the rescue plan, right?

Ah, yes, the plan, Tora says as he continues his explanation. As I was saying, I noticed a change in her behavior earlier today. As a result, I tracked her movements to this area and tried to form a gateway to transport her to my house for protection. However, it seems that the thief has implemented a mind control technique over her and gained control of her body and abilities.

Thief? You mean the same one that stole the medallion? Niko says.

Precisely. The signature of his power is the same, and as such, I cannot track his whereabouts or where he has taken Lady Chisai.

Why would he want Chisai? Niko asks as he ponders the connection between the thief and Chisai.

Is he using the psychic power of the medallion? Kitsune asks.

At the mention of the medallion, Niko looks over at Kitsune with a quizzical look.

You know, the same thing that Omego used on me to fight you guys? Kitsune answers.

Feeling satisfied to his look, Niko nods. Yeah, that sounds about right. He looks at Tora for a reply. Is that possible?

As the medallion is not in my possession anymore, it is highly possible. However, if it were the psychic power, I would have detected its presence. Sadly, I do not. Tora says.

So, how are we supposed to find her if you can't locate the thief, and we have no way of tracking her down? Niko asks.

I am unaware of a possibility. That is why it is your task to do so, Tora answers as a white oval light appears behind him. I will leave you to your decision, and expect you back soon with the medallion, young ones. He turns and starts to walk through the light. He stops before fully walking through and turns back to face the men. Before I leave, I would like to leave you with this to ponder.

Niko and Kitsune look at each other, wondering what Tora was about to say.

Beware of what you do not know, because that will be the greatest danger you will encounter. Tora says, then disappears through the light.

As expected…., Kitsune says under his breath.

As the light gateway disappears, Seyogi hops across the trunk of the car. Appearing on the roof, Niko looks up at him. You're not going with him, Seyogi?

Nay, Mi'Lord. I have chosen to stay with you along this journey, to make sure you are working on bettering yourself and developing your abilities.

So, you're here to babysit me? Niko says with a smirk.

Feeling like he had just said something offensive without intent, Seyogi steps back in defense. No, Master! I did not say anything of the sort!

Niko lets off a light laugh. Don't worry about it. It'll be nice to have you along and helping us track Chisai down. He walks around to the driver's side of the car and opens the door.

It'll be interesting to see what he brings to the team. Kitsune says as he opens the passenger door to get in.

I promise not to disappoint you, Master, Seyogi says as he grabs the edge of the driver door frame and scurries into the car.

Niko starts the engine and drives away from the cliff.

Where do we start? She could be anywhere in the world! Niko says.

Trying to think of options, Kitsune ponders the question. Does she have a phone? We could track it by the GPS!

Yeah....I never got the number, so unless you want to crawl through thousands of wrong numbers, I think we should consider that Plan B.

Okay, well, what about her parents? Would they have any ideas?

Cringing at the thought of having to face her parents again, Niko reluctantly answers. I'm gonna have to say 'No' to that. Her parents aren't really the friendliest of characters.

Okay, well, what about…. Kitsune thinks through his thoughts for a bit, then answers. I'm out of ideas, man. Without something as simple as a tracking device that we can connect to, I don't know where to begin. Tora said that the thief was using a special type of magic to control her, and we don't know what the thief's range of magic is, so we could be chasing her down for a while.

I hope not, Niko says as he drives through the forest again toward the city. How about we go back to your dad's place to see if he can help us?

Seems like a good place to start, or at least brainstorm with his equipment, Kitsune says as he relaxes into the seat.

Pulling into the driveway of Kiban's house, Keshi is standing outside in her usual lab coat. As Niko slows the car down to bring it to a stop, he notices her standing on the front deck and forgets to press the brake all the way. Keshi notices him and waves back with the cutest smile.

Niko? Kitsune calls out as he notices the car not stopping. Niko? NIKO! He grabs on to the nearest secure objects he can find in order to brace for an impact.

MASTER! Seyogi calls out as well as he grabs Niko's shirt and starts to shake him.

The car slowly bumps into some trashcans, rattling the tops of the cans and shaking some loose electrical equipment piled in them. Whoa! What? Niko asks as he looks around, trying to figure out what just happened as the car ceases its movement forward.

You got distracted by my sister again, didn't you? Kitsune says with a slight disgust. With the car now stopped, he opens the door and steps out.

Um, uh, no. No, I didn't. I was…., Niko tries to say.

Shut it. Kitsune says as he slams the door shut, almost on Seyogi.

Seyogi! Niko calls out, noticing the squirrel almost became squished in the door. It's okay, you can come out with me. He offers a hand down to the squirrel, who runs up his arm and onto his shoulder.

Thank you, Master. I've never had to deal with an anger as strong as that before.

Yeah, I guess he does carry a temper with him, huh? Niko says as he steps out of the car.

NII-SAN! Keshi says from the front porch in her usually bubbly tone.

Preparing himself for an all-frontal tackle, Kitsune puts his arms up and braces his stance. Moments later, he realizes that he is still standing. Sis? He asks as he slowly lowers his arms and sees Keshi still on the front porch.

Nii-san! Welcome back! Keshi says, still in her usual bubbly attitude. I thought you had been through enough today, so I just wanted to welcome you home!

Lowering his defenses, Kitsune walks up the staircase toward her. That's…., he pauses to realize what he was about to say, knowing it didn't sound right. …so unlike you.

Well, I have had a few years to grow more mature, Nii-san.

Niko starts to walk up the staircase with Seyogi on his shoulder..

Hello, little squirrel! Keshi bubbles with a wave.

Hello, Mi'Ladyyyyyyyy… Seyogi says, almost falling off of Niko's shoulder. Feeling the squirrel struggling to stay up, Niko reaches up with his opposite hand and grabs him.

Enough staring, squirrel, Niko says.

Pulling himself together, Seyogi straightens up. Yes, Mi'Lord. At once.

Kitsune walks through the front door, he calls out generically. Hey Dad! Got a question for you!

Niko and Kitsune stop walking in as footsteps are heard from below them. Moments later, a door swings open which leads to a basement laboratory with Kiban in the doorway. The lab goggles strapped to his father's head show evidence of burn marks from a recent experiment, along with some matching marks on his otherwise pristine lab coat. You called? He says breathing heavily.

Yeah, it's about Chisai, Kitsune says.

She's been taken, Niko follows up.

Taken? Oh my. Any idea where? Kiban quickly asks, trying gain some perspective.

No, that's why we've come here, Niko responds.

Well, that is a conundrum. Kiban walks away from the basement door and past the boys, into the kitchen.

Niko, Seyogi, and Kitsune all look at each other, trying to figure out what they are supposed to do.

Dad is just thinking, that's all, Keshi says as she puts her arms around the two boys, almost knocking Seyogi off of Niko's shoulder, again.

The noise of a breaking coffee cup comes from the kitchen. EUREKA! Kiban yells. Within moments, Kiban rushes back to the basement door and descends the stairs. Quick boys, follow me!

Without questioning the motivation, Kitsune follows his dad with Keshi following soon after.

Niko is left with Seyogi in the front doorway pondering other options.

Master, are you going to follow them? Seyogi asks.

I guess so. What other choice do I have? Niko says as he approaches the basement stairs.

The dimly lit staircase scared Niko a bit, but if his new friend, his new friend's father, and the bouncy eye-candy of his went down, so can he. As he descends the staircase, he pushes countless low hanging cables, small pieces of equipment, and a rolling cart or two out of his path, until he notices the three Kaji family members surrounding a series of glowing screens. As he approaches the trio, Kiban quickly yells out. I'VE GOT IT!

Alright, dad! I knew you had an option. Kitsune says.

Yay, dad! Keshi says, as bubbly as always.

What happened? Niko asks as he approaches to get a better view. The various screens have countless lines of code, map layouts of the local area, and three-dimensional diagrams of various devices.

It was easy, really, Kiban says as he spins in his chair and turns toward Niko, outlined by the glow from the monitors.

As Niko looks across the various screens, trying to make out any kind of solution to the problem at hand, he can't comprehend the amount of technological gibberish in front of him. What was?

Kiban turns back to the screens and points to them, one by one, as he explains his technique. Proud of his latest achievement, words start flying out of his mouth at an almost incomprehensible speed. I knew that Chisai still had the Taiseki, and it has the basic hardware to generate a position pre-installed, but it can't report it to outside sources, so I wrote a series of scripts to piggy-back off of the encrypted sub-band frequencies in order to mimic the transmission of the orbiting satellites and parse the receiving signals to triangulate her location, then pushed that new script from my broadband antenna to bounce off the satellites and transmit to the Taiseki, Caught up in his explanation, and proud of his accomplishment, it never occurred to him that his audience was not as technologically educated as he had become. Then securely connected to it using my secret hash key and secure shell, then commanded it to execute the scripts, reporting back to me the exact coordinates of her position, then cross-referenced that information with the map software to generate a corresponding latitude and longitude location, then …., Before Kiban continued the rest of his explanation, he quickly glances at his audience and notices Niko's glazed expression, which was a clue that he had been talking tech a little too long and lost his audience. Taking a deep breath, he exhaled and says in a normal speed, In simple terms: I found her.

Snapping out of the 'overwhelming techno-babble' confusion, Niko heard the words that he was hoping for. Great! Where is she?

Kiban turns to his keyboard and typed in a few keystrokes. The monitor directly in front of him showed a wide view of the local area from space, then after a series of sequential zooms, highlighted a specific square of map in red. There. He said as he points to the highlighted area of the screen.

Trying to determine exactly where there was, Niko moves in for a better look. That's- he starts to say.

Mount Imedeho, Seyogi says, cutting Niko off.

Kitsune follows up. But isn't that a dormant volcano?

Correct. It hasn't erupted for thousands of years, but it could at any time, Kiban answers.

But what would Chisai be doing at a dormant volcano? Niko asks.

Kiban shrugs his shoulders. Don't ask me. I wasn't the one that captured her.

Then we have to go get her before it's too late! Who knows what's happening to her? Niko says as he turns around to run back up the staircase, tripping over a nearby heavy duty backup battery and falls to the ground, tossing Seyogi forward.

Rolling into a defensive position to reduce any impact, Seyogi quickly jumps out of the roll and climbs halfway up a server rack. Master! I do wish you would watch where you are going!

Pushing himself up off the ground, Niko growls. I know, I know. He stands back up and carefully maneuvers around the remaining equipment and cables to get to the staircase. Seyogi jumps onto his shoulder as he approaches with Kitsune not far behind.

You guys know how to get there, right? Kiban calls from his terminal.

Yeah, it's only about an hour away – maybe less if we stomp it! Niko calls as he runs to the top of the stairs and out the front door.

Thinking he knows what his father is going to say, Kitsune stops on the staircase, expecting to get an earful about safe driving. Don't worry – I'll make sure he doesn't run off the road, He says before continuing up the staircase behind Niko, with his father and sister not far behind.

The sound of the car's engine revving was enough motivation for Kitsune to hurry down the outside staircase and rush over to Niko's car. Within seconds, he grabs the door handle and swings inside with the car screeching off into the distance in the west.

Watching Niko's car from the front porch as it drove away made Keshi a little uneasy. Do they know what they are getting into, Dad?

As Kiban steps up behind her, he places a hand on her shoulder. I don't know. But that's what Kitsu-kun is known for: getting into trouble. We can only hope for the best. He lets go of her and walks back inside. There's not much we can do from here, so let's continue our research on our latest experiment.

As Niko's car becomes smaller than a speck from her view, Keshi hopes for the best as she walks back inside.

Traveling along the highway with the sun in their eyes, Niko, Kitsune, and Seyogi slightly shield their eyes from the illuminating sun rays. Do you know of any roads that lead to the base of Mount Imedeho? Niko asks, trying to think of any means of travel from their current location to the mountain.

Um, I know of a dirt service road leading to a power substation, but that's about it, Kitsune says. If it's still there, we can take it.

Great! Lead the way, navigator! Niko says.

Do you know of any reason why Lady Chisai would be the target of the thief? Seyogi asks, trying to continue the conversation.

As they ponder the question, Niko and Kitsune stay silent for a while, until Niko speaks up. The only thing I can think of is that the thief stole the medallion, and now he stole Chisai for her powers. Any other ideas?

Wait! Kitsune quickly says. If this 'thief,' or whoever he is, stole the medallion, why did Omego have it?

The point shocks Niko as he realizes Kitsune's point. Good point. Did Omego steal it from the thief?

I highly doubt it, Seyogi responds. If Lord Tora could not detect the thief's presence, nor his location, I highly doubt that a simple petty criminal such as Omego was able to steal it from him.

Seyogi, you know about Omego? Niko asks, trying to connect all of the dots.

Regrettably, yes, Seyogi sighs. He has been attempting to be a high-class criminal for many years, but has never successfully achieved that status.

So would he have stolen the medallion in order to improve his status and make it into the big leagues? Kitsune asks.

"Not likely. My suspicion is that the thief gave the medallion to Omego," Seyogi says with a snarl.

You mean, Omego and the thief are working together? Niko snaps.

It is highly possible, Seyogi says. Although, with their combined powers, they could be unstoppable. My only hope is that they have not done as we have concluded.

If they have joined forces, then we will be in for far more than we expected, Kitsune says as he sits back in his seat.

Regardless, we must find the thief and save Chisai. We may be able to get more information about the medallion and where the other- Niko quickly stops himself before he revealed that the medallion had become fragmented. Recovering from his slip of the tongue, he continues, "it wound up," Niko says.

You mean Omego does not possess the medallion any longer, Master? Seyogi asks, trying to clarify his understanding.

Well, uh, he had the medallion, then…. Niko starts trailing off, trying not to admit that the medallion had been shattered based on a combination of attacks from himself and Chisai. His promise to Lord Tora was to bring the medallion back, presumably in one piece. Niko momentarily has a flashback to shortly after Chisai's transformation, when Lord Tora touched his forehead and filled his mind with bad thoughts if the medallion was not returned. At the occurrence of the memory, Niko shivers in response.

Knowing that he wasn't a match for Niko and Chisai, he hid the medallion and ran off. Kitsune finishes Niko's statement, continuing the coverup. We haven't seen him since, He says with a smirk, trying to play off the story, and making sure that the fire piece of the medallion was well hidden in his pants pocket.

Processing what Kitsune had said, Seyogi offers up a validation point. How odd. If Omego, the petty criminal that he is, possessed the medallion, he could have easily beaten Master Niko and Lady Chisai.

I guess he didn't know how to use it correctly, Niko offers, followed by a light laugh.

Sighing, Seyogi can't think of a better reason. I suppose you are correct, Master. Straightening up his posture, he quickly points forward toward the mountain. Therefore, we must confront the thief to recover the missing medallion! Onward!

Right! Niko and Kitsune say simultaneously as the car speeds forward.

Traveling down the dirt service road toward the base of the mountain, Niko was expecting to see some sort of sign that they were in the correct location. The power substation was there, just as Kitsune had mentioned, but there were no signs of travel, construction, or any recent activity nearby. The sun, lowering behind the mountain and covering the whole area in an orange and red hue, was making