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

so long,” she said, barely able to hide the confidence in her voice.

Bunni snorted. “Show off.”

“Am not.”

“Are so.”

“Whatever.”

The Plains Dweller placed her hands on her helmet, itching to get it off. “We should probably get inside.”

“Good idea,” said Micah as they came to the front steps of the shrine, which had recently been swept, tea candles placed in copper bowls arranged along the main pathway.

A gentleman as always, Micah slid the door open and waited for the ladies to enter before going inside himself, where he found Ahmey deep in meditation, the nun sitting before a painting of a deity, candles lit around her. Her head was freshly shaven, and she didn’t immediately respond once they entered the inner sanctum of the shrine, Ahmey continuing to mumble a mantra, deep in her practice.

It registered immediately on the HUD of Micah’s helmet, taking him off guard. There was a glow of industria radiating around the teenager, and as a gauge appeared, Micah noticed something that he had already assumed.

Ahmey was truly powerful.

Rather than interrupt her, Liza and the three Royal Star Ninjas got onto their knees and sat behind the nun, respectfully waiting for her to finish her practice. Micah did the same, not really knowing the protocol for an event like this. Still, it wasn’t hard to figure out, which was something he hadn’t gone through before.

After a five-minute pause of silence, Ahmey finally bowed her head forward, the flames of the candles flickering brightly as she did so. “You have returned,” she said, still bowed forward. “Welcome back.”

As he had before, Micah found it odd to witness such a devout teenager, one whose voice had a hidden wisdom behind it. She was unlike any teenager he had ever met, a poise about her that didn’t match her age, an air of authority. He was a skeptic when it came to claims of lineage and things of that nature, but he certainly noticed that there was something unique about the young nun, something amplified by her industria halo. Even more impressive was that she had recognized all of them, including Yuri and Bunni, whom she had never met before, in a matter of seconds. And she had done so without turning around to properly greet them.

“We were in Heian,” Yuri said after she went through the process of removing her bucket helmet. Bunni waited for Yuri to finish and removed her helmet as well, Soraya quickly doing the same. Ahmey had a bucket as well, seated next to her on a silk pillow, Micah noticing that it was the same sleek design that the elite monks and nuns wore, something a bit more chiseled about its features, upgraded compared to the helmets of the lower ranks.

Ahmey finally turned to them, a pensive smile on her face. “Heian is certainly a place I would like to visit. What did you learn there?”

“This.”

Yuri focused on Ahmey’s bucket helmet and levitated it. She then spun it around and slowly lowered it back to the pillow.

Ahmey nodded, impressed. “I’ve heard of this power. May I ask who taught it to you?”

“Youseg,” said Bunni. “Also, we should probably introduce ourselves officially. I’m Bunni, and this is Yuri.”

Ahmey slowly lowered her chin toward them. “At last, the leader of the Royal Star Ninjas and her second-in-command. I’m glad to see you safely made it out of the black site. I had faith that you would, but faith and reality rarely align, or so the old saying goes.”

“We did,” Yuri said. “And thank you for your assistance in that regard.”

“It was my pleasure. And I see now that you have made it back to Neo-Hokkaido. What is it that you intend to do here?”

“For one, we’re being hunted,” Bunni said, “so we should probably throw that out there. We need to hide out in a safe place for a while. But I’m guessing you already knew that…”

“I have heard chatter through the channels, yes, and rest assured that this is a safe place,” Ahmey said. “It is the last place they would look, considering my ranking.”

Micah continued to stare deeply at Ahmey. He knew that she had a familial line to Neojuku, the ancient nun that grew the power of the Society of Monks, but he didn’t have a solid idea of where she ranked within the organization, nor did he quite understand the power structure of the often spoken about, but little understood, upper echelon.

“Then I suppose the discussion should shift to why we are here,” Yuri said. “As the old saying goes, while we talk, the cows have left the pasture.”

“Yes, I’ve heard that one,” Ahmey said.

“Micah, will you catch her up?”

“Um, sure,” he said, glad that his helmet was hiding the tight smile that had taken shape on his face after she volunteered him. While he had no problem speaking for the group, Micah had assumed Yuri would do most of the talking. He didn’t mind taking the ball from her, but it had thrown him off guard just a hair. “So, as previously mentioned, we met with Youseg in Heian, and if you didn’t know, he actually laid out some of the prophecy for what has already happened in the famous comic series he wrote years ago.”

“Graphic novels, yes,” Ahmey said. “I’m familiar.”

“You’ve read My Ninja Girl?”

“I’ve perused the volumes available here, yes.”

“Then you know,” Micah told her carefully, skipping over what Youseg had revealed to him, that he could very well die in the near future. “We seem to have come to a crossroads. I guess you could call it that. Yes, a crossroads. And after discussion with Youseg, we believe it is time.”

“Time for?”

“To do something, to stop the Society of Monks from going any further onto the dark path that they have found themselves on, the