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

“We’ll get through it,” Micah told her. He felt the urge to bring her into his arms for a moment, but resisted.

“You think?”

“I’m sure we will,” he finally said, not wanting to dwell on Youseg’s final prophecy. Eventually, the two of them joined the others in the main room, where they were served some of the food that Liza had prepared. It’s better than it looks, Micah thought after his first couple of bites. There was a crunchiness to the paste, and while the meal was soggy and warm, he could tell that if he ate enough, it would be filling.

We can always have something more substantial once we get to Ahmey’s monastery…

The plan wasn’t complicated. It was early morning now, and they would leave for the floating district of Uyanga once they were all packed up. They would gain entry to her shrine, and start the discussions from that point. It all seemed so simple, but Micah knew not to relax his guard yet, if ever. There was still a particularly thorny issue dangling over them, one that only Ahmey could solve: what if she didn’t agree? What if she thought that now wasn’t the time?

Hopefully, that’s not the case.

Micah placed his helmet on, just about the time that Liza and the others did as well, Yuri helping Bunni. They had to play a part now, and this part would require all of them to be wearing buckets.

“You’re hurting my ears,” Bunni told Yuri, her tone only half-joking.

“Just stuff the damn things in there,” said Soraya, who already wore her helmet. “That’s what I did.”

Micah had seen her like this before, yet he still found it odd for the kitsune to be dressed like a Neo-Hokkaidan. It was strange for all of them, really, especially once Bunni finally got her helmet on, the Plains Dweller towering over the group.

“Well, this is interesting…” Bunni said, her voice with a metallic tinge to it. “I knew there was a bunch of crap available in these things, but I didn’t expect all the little lights. Does my voice sound funny to you guys?”

“You sound like a robot version of yourself,” Soraya told her.

“Call Bobi,” Micah said as he stepped over the other side of the room.

“You rang?” the AI asked inside his bucket, his voice loud for a moment before dimming.

“We’re ready to go.”

“That is good news! I was wondering when you would come out. The sky is clear; it’s a nice morning, the birds are chirping, and they are also defecating. There’s a lot of birds defecating on the vehicle at the moment that I’ve had to try to clean off the windows, but I’m not quite able to. Would you be able to bring a rag? I don’t like flying with dirty windows.”

“Sure,” Micah said. “I’m going to check in with Choro very quickly as well.”

“Don’t forget your grandmother!”

“That was implied,” Micah told Bobi. “Call Choro.”

“Nice, everyone is on the channel. Hello all,” Choro said, his voice clipping out for a moment before maintaining a steady volume. It was clear by the sound that he was speaking to them at a distance, his words a bit harder to make out than Bobi’s. “Ready for the day?”

“Ready as we will ever be. How’s my grandmother?”

“I don’t know how she did it, but she actually convinced one of the monks to spend the night with her. Can you believe that? They were up all night and it was… disturbing.”

A dozen images Micah hoped to never think of again came to him. “Seriously?”

“I wish I was lying. Hold on, let me check on her,” Choro said.

Micah heard some rustling around as Choro went to the other room. His grandmother spoke to Choro for a moment, catching him up on the previous night’s proceedings, Micah not able to quite make out what she was saying.

“Good news,” Choro finally told him. “It wasn’t what I thought. Whew!”

“I wish it was what you thought!” his grandmother shouted in the background. “I was getting a foot massage from that quiet young man, and I needed some serious work down there as well. What can I say? My nails are thick and he wasn’t that strong, so he fell backward a few times when trying to clip them, which explains the noise. What a weak little bitch. I told him as much, but he was polite and simply moved on to the next toe. I should have kicked him in the face, but I’m trying to behave. What kind of cucked monks does Youseg have around here?”

I really don’t need to hear this right now, Micah thought, both Bunni and Liza chuckling.

“It’s not my fault that you’re a light sleeper, Choro. You know who else was a light sleeper? Micah, when he was a baby. I used to take care of him for his parents, and I swear, whenever I felt like visiting the old pleasure zone—you know which one I’m talking about—even if I was in another room, Micah would wake up and start crying…”

“Please go somewhere else,” Micah told Choro, his cheeks red under his mask.

“Ugh. I didn’t want to hear any of this nonsense. Is there any way we can put a filter on her? A muzzle maybe?” Soraya asked.

“Hey, just consider yourself lucky that you’re not the one stuck in a house with her,” said Choro.

“What? What do you mean by that? I’m hurt! Now shut up and let me talk to my grandson,” he heard her say. “Micah? Sweetie? How are you doing? How are my granddaughters-in-law? Or is it granddaughter-in-laws? Who the fuck cares what it is? Grammarians can eat my bush!”

“—And… I’m in the other room now,” Choro told him. “I’ll make this quick because it sounds like you need to get moving. I’ve made contact, and everything