The OTHER Pink-Haired Ninja DJ Girl

Escape From the Dojo

"Ninja Rappa! Come! Quickly! We must act now! Before it is too late!" Researcher Kucha gestured frantically for the experiment, the girl.

"B-but Master Kucha! Our ideals! Our principles!" Legs trembling, Rappa could only stare down at the lifeless body of the (treacherous, traitorous) Umbra Headmistress. We... were supposed to work together... as heroes! To stand against villainy, as one, and to never surrender!

"Come, child, come! Ideals and principals mean nothing if we are dead and can no longer carry them out!" He grabbed her hand and dragged her away. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her look over her shoulder, still staring at the Umbra Headmistress in shellshock. She had only just become aware of the woman's evil, after all. Poor girl... She is so much better than any of us ever were...

"Your ideals and principals are strong, yes," he continued, trying to soothe her as best he could as they raced along the corridors of the research base. "However, the forces of evil overwhelm us. They were not successfully held at bay. Perhaps it was the ideals and principals of others that faltered." Mine, and hers. No, not Rappa, but the "Umbra Headmistress". "The fight is not over, but we must fall back and regroup!"

"Ah. Yes. Of course... As plants retreat into the ground come winter, so too must even the greatest heroes and ninjas retreat when the threat of danger is too great..." Rappa murmured, subdued. It was not the same as surrender or flight, a true ninja never backed down from anything, but it was folly to rush in blindly into battle. It would only serve to get them all killed. That wasn't very ninja.

"Did... Did the evil get to the Umbra Headmistress too...?" Rappa stared up at Researcher Kucha with forlorn eyes, and his stomach tightened. What to tell her? The truth was... No. For the Umbra Headmistress was always "evil", just as he was. But could Rappa withstand that truth? She was a strong girl, but still just a child at heart... All "Master" Kucha cared about now was helping Rappa escape from the "dojo".

"I do not know when, but yes, it appears so, my child," said Researcher Kucha grimly, and it was a statement that was neither full truth, nor full lie. The Umbra Headmistress' scornful tone echoed in his memory, as she derided morality as a paper-thin veil humanity hid behind to justify its cruelest and most selfish acts. He could not deny that there was some truth in her words too, but she was not exempt. Her dismissal of morality was exactly that which she accused everyone else of doing: a justification for selfish ambitions. She hadn't just hurt Rappa, but so many others...

The others! "Come quickly, Rappa! Your fellow ninjas of the dojo need your help!"

Fellow... ninjas...? The reminder of her heroic calling, her honor-bound duty, was enough to draw some life back into Rappa. Yes! That was right! She could not leave them behind!

"Here is the key to their parts of the dojo. I will hold off the invaders!" Researcher Kucha slid a keycard into Rappa's hand. "It is the fragment of an ancient ninja scroll with the power to unlock all the dojo doors, with or without your personal ninja sigils!" he muttered urgently.

"Yes, Sensei!" Rappa bowed to him, her hand slipping out of his to take the keycard. It was the last time the two would ever see one another, Researcher Kucha bowing back to her before turning to face the onslaught while Rappa retreated behind him.

Run, my child, run! And never stop running...

ooo

Rappa's feet skidded to a halt just outside one of the large, sliding doors of the dojo. Piki Piki. She quickly pressed the ninja scroll against the ki sensor. It drew the spiritual energy from the ancient fragment and the doors slid open. Rappa raced inside, and by the time she emerged out the other side, four other ninjas were sprinting and flipping after her.