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[img]https://i.imgur.com/ziR5Pse.png[/img]
[b][color=FD0000]wordcount:[/color][/b] 2576 (+3)
[b][color=FD0000]Location:[/color][/b] Forbidden Kingdom - Shinjuku 
[b][color=SpringGreen]Bowser Jr: Level 15 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=SpringGreen]//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////[/color](283/150)
[b][color=Aqua]Rika: Level 12 [/color][/b] EXP:  [color=Aqua]/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////[/color](119/110)
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While the bot battling contest was in the process of being packed up in the late afternoon, Junior’s phone received a new notification, indicating that he’d been sent a private message via Shinjuku’s inter-knot. It came from a user by the name of MyMondoHaveYou. It read as such:


[i]Salutations. This is Taion, whom you met earlier today. Firstly, allow me to apologize for our conduct earlier. Looking back now, it’s hard to remember why we allowed the fight to escalate to such a dangerous degree, but it’s clear that you did no wrong. Furthermore, whatever you did to us awakened us from whatever trance we were in, jogging our memories. It’s a sobering realization we’ve been given, and we’re still trying to pick up the pieces. We are grateful, though, to have the wool lifted from our eyes, and outraged at the lie we’ve been living. So thank you, kind strangers.

I can only imagine that you offered this method of contact for more than the expression of our gratitude. Whenever we attempt to talk to anyone about what happen, they seem willfully ignorant, not to mention worryingly antagonistic. We want to find our friends, and we are concerned, above anything, for the safety of our daughter. If there’s anything else you could offer us, we would be even deeper in your debt.[/i]

[color=SpringGreen]”See, told you it’d work”[/color] Jr said to his sister who was still reading the message over his shoulder (She hadn’t exactly got a lot of practice as a disposable grunt of the Abyssal Fleet).

One she was done she nodded, and then the two of them went back and forth about how to respond, before finally setting on the following:

[i]Hi!

Yeah, there’s a whole bunch of stuff your gonna need to know eventually, but main ones are this stuff:

1. Yup, anyone with the red light in their eyes isn’t allowed to notice that everything’s messed up right now. Plus they can’t back down from a fight which is why you did what you did, so don’t worry about that. It happens

2. Clover already wasn’t like that and never was, because she’s new instead of stolen. There’s a place for people like her (and you) but don’t wanna say that stuff here. Might be someone’s listening? Dunno if the people who we gotta worry about would bother (seem like kinda lazy badguys) but better safe than sorry right?

3. We’re trying to keep a low profile atm in general. Was why we were doing the cassette beast stuff. You got a good spot where we can meet up and talk without drawing a lot of attention? We’re on the east side of town right now.[/i]

Then all there was to do was wait for a reply.

They didn’t have to wait long. Judging by the speed with which Taion issued a reply, he’d been staring at his phone -or equivalent device- since the moment he sent his first message.

[i]If this place for people like Clover is safe, we’re interested and want to know more. We have an apartment in southern Shinjuku, the area called Sotenbori. Just a little farther south than the Shinobi district. If you see the ninja academy with the giant sword on its roof, you’re headed the right way.[/i]

[i]K. Be there soon. Will keep u posted[/i] Jr typed back quickly after Rika had finished reading, and only then thought to ask Seek what a route would look like to get there.

Fortunately, they were more south east than south, as it turned out, and so it didn’t seem like it’d take that long to make it there, as long as they avoided any sticky situations on the way there.

[hr]

About five minutes later and the pair were in the middle of being blown away by a  [url=https://i.imgur.com/DtvqYJq.jpeg]tornado[/url] of bubble gum. 

Rika managed to recover thanks to her aerial mobility, but her brother just kept going till he smacked into a wall and got [url=https://i.imgur.com/GXaJopX.jpeg]stuck[/url] there. The boy heaved and struggled, but it was no use. He was trapped.

Those responsible? A [url=https://i.imgur.com/eaxSTLu.jpeg]pair of kids[/url] who stuck close together, one armed with an oversized sword hammer, and a third armed with an [url=https://i.imgur.com/DJxMD7O.png]oversized toy drill[/url]

Not exactly the gear Jr had expected ninjas to be armed with, and he especially hadn’t expected said weapons to be made out of bubble gum either. Yet here he was, stuck to a wall as a result of that.

[color=Aqua]”Can I fight them now?”[/color] Rika called up to him from where she’d landed on another rooftop, while the kids closed in.

“Nah just give it up!” the hammer wielding boy called out “You might have given the cops the slip, but you were really dumb to step on ninja turf like this!”

The girl with the round sword chose to, instead of talking, to blow a large bubble of [url=https://i.imgur.com/O3AoFwr.png]gum[/url] which she then launched at speed towards Rika. The shipgirl leapt out of the way of this as it was caught in her projectile slowing field, only to be taken by surprise when the drill wielding kid burst out of the ground, having somehow burrowed into and under the roof without actually damaging it.

The strike launched her upwards, with the rocketing up after her to start combo chaining her.

[color=SpringGreen]”You can fight, you can fight!”[/color] Jr yelled at her as she aim-glided to recover from the launch, but she really didn’t need his permission at this point.

She launched up above the boy’s charge with the featherfall rune while charging her vault breaker, before slamming right back down onto him. 

The boy wasn’t lacking in talent however, thrusting the drill up to meet her strike, but the fist smashed through his strike regardless and launched him upwards as a result. 

Now below, she flipped around faster than him, and fired her grappling hook up, snagging his shirt and pulling him down into her oversized grasp, palm mounted machine gun pressed to his back.

[color=SpringGreen]”without killing them!”[/color] Jr belatedly added, prompting her to roll her eyes. As the two other kids closed in, rather than threaten her hostage (a likely pointless act vs the Galeeming anyway) she instead turned him upside down and shook him to empty his pockets.

Out of these fell a [url=https://i.imgur.com/QxPoYvq.png]colorful container[/url] with decoration similar to the hilt of the weapon the drill wielding boy was wielding, which she caught in her gunletted palm. 

She then promptly tossed the boy at the other two as she short hopped backwards while trying to open the orb shaped gum pack with her mouth and oversized fingers. The two boys collided as a result, but the girl kept coming, swinging her bat like sword at Rika. She juked out the way, finally cracking open the pod, and getting a piece into her mouth to chew, hoping that the results would be quick.

[Hider=Rika level up]
Skill: Art of War(frame) (Titania Prime): Rika gains the ancient space ninja’s mastery of melee weapons. This includes access to the default [url=https://warframe.fandom.com/wiki/Stance#Stances]stance[/url] of numerous weapon types (and hypothetical usage of stance mods), a [url=https://warframe.fandom.com/wiki/Melee_Combo]combo[/url] meter that increases her melee damage output the more she uses melee attacks, and the ability to [url=https://warframe.fandom.com/wiki/Melee#Blocking]parry[/url] many kinds of attacks (including bullets, but not explosions) (status effects still penetrate this defence) assuming she can get the weapon angled correctly in time (blocking angle depends on weapon type) .
[/hider]

[hider=item get]
[url=https://ninjalathegame.com/_materials/img/ninja-gum/drill-gum/thumb.png]Drill Beast Gum Pack[/url]: a pack of gum that allows the user to blow a bubble out of which they can form the same named drill beast, a drill shaped katana made of bubblegum which can, alongside drilling thrusts, perform a spiraling [url=https://i.imgur.com/wni2xqR.jpeg]Shinobuzz Attack[/url] and allows the user to ‘dig’ into the ground, where they move around swiftly and sneakily (only a splash of gum and a breathing reed are visible) before launching an ambush.

Also allows the blowing of [url=https://i.imgur.com/GB9HdBL.png]gum grenades[/url], [url=https://i.imgur.com/6b04nra.jpeg]gum shields[/url] and performing of [url=https://i.imgur.com/9xp7o4d.jpeg]gum dashes[/url] (all of which rely on a recharging supply of of ‘Shinobi Energy’), as well as the forming of a [url=https://i.imgur.com/gS25Z6U.png]Punishing blade[/url] (which can fire gum shots on every swing) after a long cooldown.

The weapon is non-lethal, and generally ends fights via launching foes into surface to which they stick, referred to as an [url=https://i.imgur.com/GXaJopX.jpeg]ippon[/url]

The gum only works if a person is a ‘ninja descendant’ 

Also if it does work, it physically de-ages the person to around the age of 10-13 a few minutes after usage.
[/hider]

Copying what the ninja kids had done when they had come to confront them, Rika blew a massive bubble of gum, reached for it, grasped a point, and then whipped it down, forming her own drill beast weapon in her hand. Then, as the sword girl slashed, she brought up the drill to block, perfectly parrying each and every strike with her new weapon.

“What. The. Heck?” the girl complained alongside each parried strike, before demanding to know “how?”

[color=Aqua]”I’m special”[/color] Rika retorted in a moment of ego, before launching herself upwards in between sword blows, only to drill right back down onto the girl, knocking her to the ground.

She had to then leap out of the way again as the hammer boy tossed his weapon, which went spinning over the head of his friend who demanded he be “careful!”

Before the spinning hammer could get back to him, Rika used her grappling hook to pull her and the boy together. She rammed him with the gummy drill before they collided, before tossing him away before the hammer returned to him. After that she practically collided with the drillboy as both weapons buzzed around each other, each failing to find purchase, till she had to leap out of the way of another of the sword girl’s gumshots.

Jr watched this impressive tango go on for a few more moments before finally working out a way to get free. Sort of. The metal mecha hand of his striker Blodia ripped up brickwork as much as it pulled him free of it, but still, free he came before being tossed back towards the fray with a shout of [color=SpringGreen]”Rika catch me!”[/color]

His sister did just that, leaping up and grabbing the boy and then touching down lightly thanks to her fall damage negation. It also caused him to get stuck there. For a moment. Then the boy managed to grab his staff that had been stuck just out of reach (but which now was only stuck to a detached brick rather than a wall) and cast [color=SpringGreen]”Esuna!”[/color] to wipe away the remaining gum.

[color=Aqua]”So how are you not gonna kill em?”[/color] Rika asked, as she brought up her own solution in defence of her brother as the sword girl came in swinging.

[color=SpringGreen]”Like this”[/color] Jr replied, before lifting his staff again and casting [color=SpringGreen]”Repose”[/color] causing the sword girl’s eyes to shut as she fell instantly asleep. She woke up almost immediately, but that’s because Rika thrust her drill beast forwards into her, knocking her back.

The hammer kid got a forced nap next, and promptly smacked nose first into the ground as a result, which also woke him up (with a nose bleed)

[color=SpringGreen]”Oops”[/color] Jr said with half a laugh, even as Rika used the opportunity to hit that kid with a gum grenade, leaving him [url=https://i.imgur.com/jXet78j.png]gum bound[/url] as a result of taking both a direct hit and two hits of the subsequent 2 second blast.

Rika lunged forwards, seeing opportunity, and with a swift series of drill beast hits followed by one that sent him and her flying forwards propelled by the drill itself, and the end of which the kid was launched straight into the wall Jr had been stuck too, and was in turn trapped there.

She didn’t get time to revel in that victory however, as a shout of [color=SpringGreen]”Sis! Help!”[/color] came from behind, prompting her to turn and find her brother running from the other two ninja kids. His spiky shell was stopping them from attacking his back safely, but both were in the midst of pincer maneuvering him as Rika burst out of the ground and took the drill boy by surprise, knocking her away and then going to clash with the sword girl. 

That in turn gave Jr time to sleep sword girl, and for Rika to grenade and ippon her, sticking her to a wall as well.

The final ninja kid faced down the koopa kids alone, activated [url=https://i.imgur.com/gS25Z6U.png]Punishing blade[/url] Gum Ninjutsu and prepared to give a heroic shout about how he’d avenge his friends only for him to promptly fall on his sword as Jr cast [color=SpringGreen]”Repose”[/color] on him as well.

Rika copycatting his move and springing it on the sleeping child swiftly put an end to any dreams of heroic last stands, as the third of the ninjas ended up stuck to the wall.

Shouts along the lines of “you won’t get away with this” got a reply of [color=SpringGreen]”We totally will!”[/color] and a blow raspberry from Jr before he got a [color=SpringGreen]”High five!”[/color] from Rika.

After it however, he gave an [color=SpringGreen]”Um”[/color] as he looked her up and down.

[color=Aqua]”Hmm?”[/color] 

[color=SpringGreen]”Well. Uh. Ya see…”[/color] Jr said, trying to find a way to get around the issue, before just going out there and saying it [color=SpringGreen]”I think you’ve shrunk”[/color]

A brief and heated exchange followed between the boy and the girl who’d become very touchy about her height, until a photo provided by a floating Rotom Phone and a height analysis by Seek of said photo proved the reality of the situation: Rika’d lost a few (physical) years and a fair few more good inches as a result of not reading the ninja gum’s small print of it being “not for people over the ages of 13” in the heat of the moment.

Suffice to say she was not best pleased by this.