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

She was down on both knees, her swords somewhere off to the left, one of them stuck in the side of a nun’s body.

“Are you all right?” he asked as he came to her, immediately placing a hand on her bruised cheek. He began absorbing her injury almost immediately, even though Liza could heal as well.

Micah didn’t want her to suffer.

“Almost had them,” she said, a look of relief appearing on her face. “How did you do?”

“Surprisingly well. I thought it would be Yuri or Bunni rescuing me.”

“He did really good,” Yuri said as she placed a hand on Micah’s shoulder, the leader of the Royal Star Ninjas still alert in that moment, ready to engage anything that came their way. There was more commotion outside, and some inside the next chamber as well, shouting, which told Micah that the coup may not be going the way they needed to go.

“We’ll get in there in just a moment,” Yuri said, reading his thoughts. “Just waiting for…”

“That was fun,” Bunni said as she came trotting around the corner, her fully extended glaive resting on her shoulder as soon as she came to a stop. “What took you guys so long?”

“You’re the last one to join the party,” Liza said as Micah helped her to her feet.

By this point, he had absorbed much of the punches she had sustained, and now his own jaw hurt, his cheeks as well. It wasn’t so bad, and the adrenaline coursing through them only made it hurt less. This was an advantage, he realized, of healing in the moment. It provided an almost shared benefit with his own body chemistry.

But he could think more deeply on that later and how it related to the limited medical knowledge he had picked up as a student. Leading the way now, Yuri charged toward the inner chamber, Bunni behind her, followed by Micah and Liza in the rear, the nun slipping her helmet back on as she ran. Yuri stepped aside, Bunni doing the same as Micah aimed at the door and began firing on it. The lock gave way and the door popped open.

They entered like a tram running off the tracks, Yuri funneling right, Bunni left, and Micah and Liza holding the middle.

What they found wasn’t at all what Micah had expected. There had clearly been a fight between Soraya and the personal security allowed to accompany the other members of the High Council, evident in the bodies strewn about, blood streaked across the walls, and some whimpering off to Micah’s right.

The kitsune had cleaned up shop.

It took Micah another second, but then he realized that he had been off about his thinking the entire time, that this was what it was supposed to look like, that this was what they had truly been planning, a coup on steroids, considering the activity outside.

Before them, seated at a circular table, were the eight members of the Council, all but Ahmey bent forward, their hands on the tables. Looking grizzled as ever, and nursing a side wound, was Soraya, who had her helmet off and her sword at her side as she stood behind Ahmey.

“Just in time,” Ahmey said as she tilted her head up toward Micah and his companions.

They naturally circled their way around the table, Micah taking Soraya’s place directly at Ahmey’s side so the kitsune could provide better perimeter security. After all, even in her injured state, she was better trained than Micah.

This should be interesting, he thought as the young nun began to speak, Micah focusing on the literal upper echelon, the people who had been in charge of his society, and for that matter, his life in some way, shape or form, since its conception. While Micah was able to see their information on his HUD, none of their names meant anything to him. This truly had been one of the more clever moves by the Society of Monks; most people in Neo-Hokkaido had no idea who was running the show aside from the head monk at their local temple.

Aside from Ahmey, there were two other nuns, Micah recognizing the one sitting next to her as Saru, who was in on what was happening. The rest were men of varying builds, some looking younger than others, and at least two of them with the bodies of older men, clear in the way their robes were draped over their shoulders, and their overall posture as they kept both hands on the table and visible.

“The Society of Monks has broken their promise to the citizens of Neo-Hokkaido, and for that, it must be restructured,” Ahmey said, each word carefully pronounced and being simultaneously broadcast. Not only could he hear her voice in the room, but Micah could also hear her in her helmet, Micah glad to have the Hermetics on their side, the rebel group responsible for quickly transmitting the information in real time. He imagined the buildings in the Golden Trash District lit up now with a picture of Ahmey and her voice, the words typing out as she spoke.

By the end of the day, everything would be different.

Everything.

Micah wished he could see what was going on outside. The building rumbled every now and then, and he imagined Bobi’s mechas doing some serious damage out there against whatever the Society of Monks had unleashed. There was certainly a chance for chemical warfare, but the Hermetics would all be masked up, and aside from calling in an attack on one of the lower districts, who would also be prepared for the Sweating Sickness, the monks didn’t have a lot of options.

In a way, they had backed them into the corner.

Ahmey spoke as if she knew that, the young nun quickly listing the litany of reasons she was going to be taking over management of the Society of Monks, and why she