Senran Kagura: Heart of Fire

Chapter 15: Shiina, The Steel Knight

After being chased for half an hour, Yoichi finally turns around to throw kunais at Rin. She swiftly blocks them, and then throws her weapons at Yoichi. She jumps out of the way and makes her way up a building, reaching all the way to the roof. Rin follows her and when she reaches the roof, Yoichi was standing there, with her back towards Rin.
Rin tells her to turn around and face her, and she does. They begin fighting, Yoichi with her sword and Rin with her Fūma Shurikens. They have a fierce fight, but ultimately, Rin overpowers Yoichi. She walks up to Yoichi, whom she threw with great force backwards. She points her weapons at Yoichi and asks her what her ties with Tokei were. When Yoichi goes to answer, someone with shiny metal armor, a giant sword and a sturdy-looking shield crashes down between them. She makes a hole in the roof, but jumps back up. She slams her giant sword in the ground and stares at Rin. "And who might you be?" Rin asks. "My name, is Shiina, the Steel Knight." the woman answers with a very serious expression in her face. She looks up at the sky and the stars. Rin tries to attack her with a very strong kick while she's looking at the sky, but her attack is useless against Shiina's strong armor. Shiina looks down on Rin, and she jumps back to her last position. "And you're one of the elites? That attack didn't move me an inch, and this isn't even my shinobi form." Shiina says as she shrugs. Rin gets prepared to do a Ninja Art and Shiina just keeps looking in expectancy. Rin pulls out a scroll and shouts "Rinko Mangekyō!" and a ferocious whirlwind forms around Shiina and Yoichi after Rin throws her shurikens at them. The whirlwind stops and Rin gets her shurikens back, she then uses another scroll and mutters the words "Renpu Dai Sharin!" and uses her weapons to create a forward-facing vortex of turbulence in front of her. When all that is done, Rin is shocked to see that both Shiina and Yoichi were complete unscathed. Shiina lifts her sword and tells Yoichi that they are leaving. Rin tells them that she is not done, and that they will not go until either side is dead. Shiina, over her shoulder, tells her that she should save her breath. When she does, a deep wound is opened on Rin's abdomen, and she falls down to her knees with her eyes open widely. She starts breathing heavily and looks up at Shiina, who was right in front of her. "Do you really want to die here?" Shiina says with a violent look in her eyes. Rin is left speechless and Shiina and Yoichi leave. While jumping through rooftops, Yoichi tells Shiina that she shouldn't have saved her, that she had a trick up her sleeve. Shiina just keeps looking forward as they run. They reach an apartment complex and enter one of the rooms. Yoichi asks Shiina why she came for her and she stays silent. "I need you alive. You are my only partner." Shiina mutters in a very low tone. Yoichi sighs and walks to the bathroom. Rin sits down next to the ledge in the roof, and a great number of masked shinobis appear before her. "Suzune-sama, what shall we do?" one of them asks. "Follow them, I can take care of myself." Rin answers. Yoichi looks in the mirror and sees a small cut on her forehead, she opens the tap and splashes water on her face. She stays in the bathroom, sitting down on a closed toilet, looking at the floor. Shiina enters the bathroom, she was in her underwear, with her hair in a bun. She gives Yoichi a bandage and sits down in the bathtub. Yoichi applies the bandage and she hears a very low footstep on the upper floor. The room above them was vacant, so she suspected something was going on. Shiina sees her stand up and she stands herself. She asks Yoichi what she heard and gets in a fighting stance. The shinobi grunts enter their room and start inspecting the place. One of the grunts opens a drawer and finds a bunch of panties strewn about, he lifts one up and stares at it. Shiina appears behind him, and takes him away, covering his mouth. She drags him to the window, knocks him out, and throws him down to the trash cans below. Another grunt enters the same room and sees the open drawer, she walks up to it and Shiina closes the door, she then proceeds to slam her shield into the grunts face, flinging her back and then hitting a wall. The other two grunts are together, searching a different room, one of them hears a faint thud on the bathroom and splits up to investigate. Once he enters the room, Yoichi tries to blindfold him from behind and the grunt, lost and blind starts flailing about and eventually grabs Yoichi's boobs, she transforms and stabs him with her sword and he slowly dies in her arms. She gets out of the bathroom and starts searching for the last grunt. Both her and Shiina silently run towards the last grunt and Shiina bashes her with her shield and Yoichi aims her sword at her when she's on the floor. Yoichi tells the grunt she can live, as long as she tells Rin a message for her. "Tell her this, I will fight her again, face to face, soon, so we can settle this. Now go, get out of here!" She angrily shouts at the scared grunt. The grunt quickly runs away and leaves everything behind. They look out the window she left from and watch her run away. "Are you sure you're ready for that?" Shiina asks Yoichi. "Of course, it's happening, and I'll be ready." Yoichi answers in a very serious tone.

The next day, Shizuku wakes up and stretches while yawning. She then looks to the window and sees Tokei standing there. She stands up and walks up to him, and asks him how he slept. Tokei interrupts her and asks "Shizuku... What is the Chaos Reincarnation Sphere, what is the purpose of it, and why me?"
Shizuku stays quiet and stutters when she tries to answer. Tokei sighs and walks away. When he goes to open the door, Rei and Naraku walk in. They ask him where he was going, he keeps walking and doesn't answer. They both look at Shizuku by the window and Shizuku stares at both in the eyes and then out the window into the sky.