My Ninja Girl 4 by Gideon Caldwell (latest novels to read .TXT) 📕

again lighting their pathway forward, the corridor wide enough for them to be able to walk three people abreast if they wanted to. It was damp inside, and it smelled of wet metal, but the space seemed safe enough, many of the surfaces smooth with small grooves in them to provide better traction.

At the back of the group now, Micah kept his backpack on the front of his body, his upgraded bucket helmet inside, as well as his prosthetic gatling gun, wrist shield, and several charge packs. He had used the energy weapon to light the fire earlier, Micah well aware that once he ran out of charge packs that he would need to figure something else out. There was always Liza’s stash, but the heat was currently on, and it was going to be increasingly difficult for them to travel in public in Neo-Hokkaido, especially now that they were most certainly on the Hermetics’ radar.

How would the Hermetics react once they encountered them again? Were they truly enemies? Would they be forced to war with them, or was there some other option, some angle he hadn’t thought of yet? Micah remembered Ahmey, the sixteen-year-old nun who had allowed Soraya to activate the mind control mantra with her industria seed. He couldn’t help but shake this feeling that if ever there was a leader, one that could bridge the gap between both sides, it was the young woman.

But how? Micah knew that the solution had something to do with her, but he was unaware of how the pieces fit together in the end. The Hermetics didn’t have the mechanisms necessary to run the country, and while the Society of Monks did, they had resorted to oppressing and attacking their own people, poisoning them when possible, not to mention their exploitation of the poverty-stricken outer provinces.

Ahmey was the key, of this Micah was certain, but he had yet to uncover the door. This was another reason he thought it was a good idea to leave the country for a while, to give him time to regroup. All six of the districts of Neo-Hokkaido had either gone into lockdown, or were close to doing so. Perhaps he would get a better perspective outside looking in, as long as they didn’t stir up trouble in Heian. A low profile could also give him some perspective.

One thing was for certain—Micah knew he wasn’t the person that was going to be able to lead Neo-Hokkaido, nor did he want to become the poster child for the rebellion, or martyr for that matter, anything like that. In fact, the deeper he got into it, the more he wanted to operate as almost a shadow force, the way that the Monks of Repose had operated for so long within the Society of Monks, yet one with more influence, one that actually was able to get the job done and deliver on its promises.

“I don’t believe we’ve introduced ourselves,” Milsung told him as she let the group go ahead a bit. “You are, after all, my sister’s husband.”

“It’s been a crazy couple of weeks,” he replied, still slightly shocked at how much she looked like her older sister, their body types similar, their hair almost the same aside from Milsung wearing hers in two ponytails like Liza did.

“So I’ve heard. And somehow, you, a former medical student who has no experience in any of these kinds of affairs, are in the center of it. How curious.”

“Somehow,” he said, not quite registering if she was simply making a statement, or judging him in some way.

“I suppose stranger things have happened.”

“Oh, yeah? Like what?”

This caused Milsung to laugh. “You are wittier than I thought.”

“Trust me, I’m not,” he said, looking ahead at Yuri, who was walking next to Bunni, Micah’s eyes tracing over Yuri in her athletic clothing. It was weird to miss someone on both an emotional and physical level, Micah wishing that he could teleport everyone else away from him for an hour so he could simply be alone with Yuri. But his group had continued to grow, and now her sister was part of it as well, which could potentially add another complication. Certainly not another wife, though. He was glad his grandmother hadn’t made any crass jokes about that; if he was going to marry another one of his steadily growing entourage, it would likely be Liza, especially after the bond they had formed lately. There’s always Soraya, he thought, smirking at this notion, and simultaneously wondering which part of his brain that had arisen from. Yeah, right…

But he had an understanding with the kitsune now, the two closer than they had ever been, which was saying something, considering when they first met she had tried to kill him. Anything could happen, truly. If he hadn’t been a believer of that weeks ago, he certainly was now.

“What do you think of my sister?” Milsung asked so only Micah could hear.

“I think she’s… everything. I know that there are those out there who would judge me and say I don’t know her well enough, or that we haven’t been together long enough, or that our age difference—considering she’s from like fifteen hundred years ago—is a complication, but there’s something that comes from surviving a series of events, ones that could have led to death, that brings two people closer. We’ve also been running nonstop since the time we got married, so there hasn’t been much downtime for us to really pick apart each other’s lives.” Micah shrugged. “Maybe that’s a good thing. Maybe relationships are damaged when there’s too much time to nitpick at them.”

“And Bunni?” she asked.

“Bunni is Bunni.” He glanced up at the Plains Dweller, and the way she towered over the other two with her large rabbit ears, which almost touched the ceiling of the underground tunnel. She was hot, vivacious, and always fun.

“Do