100HT: 74. Midnight

Teen Titans © DC Comics

74. Midnight

Bushido was bored. It was a rare feeling for the swordsman since lacking in his etiquette was completely foreign to him. He yawned, leaning against the tree with sleepy eyelids ready to droop and cast him off into the land of dreams. Struggling to remain awake, he rubbed his eyes and sat up, shaking his head quickly. Bushido leaped down from the tree, stumbling and regaining his balance. He glanced down at his belt, pulling out his coveted Titans communicator and heard its familiar chime.

Blasted True Master. How did his mother stand her?

"Are you out of that tree?" Her shrill voice rang through his ears like an explosion ripping through his mind.

"My Titans communicator has gone off. I am needed," Bushido politely explained, waving his beeping device in the air.

Chu-Hui gazed at it as she stepped out of her fine hut. Staff in hand, she stared at it before gesturing for the communicator. Opening it, her eyebrows immediately raised. "…What is wrong with you?"

"What do you-? Oh, God! My eyes!" Bushido cried, backing away in horror. "I swear, True Master, I do not know anything about this!"

Chu-Hui smirked, looking back at his communicator in ill humor. "My, my! Those are cute pictures of you and Robin. They are very…intimate."

"They are not real. I do not know how they-"

"Young, thirteen-year-old fangirls, I know. They're crazy," Chu-Hui interjected. "Someone sent them to you. Someone in America."

"Kid Flash," he hissed, gritting his teeth. "He simply loves to embarrass me with interesting pictures he finds on his precious internet."

Chu-Hui smacked his shoulder, rolling her eyes. "They are stupid pictures. Get over it. Besides, that was the only thing sent to you. You weren't alerted to any mission."

Bushido nodded, bowing politely to his master. "I understand. Anyway, is there anything else I am to do?"

"Get back in the tree, and stay awake." Chu-Hui smirked at his crestfallen expression. As Bushido climbed back up the tree, she added, "I'll know if you sleep. You have a habit of drooling, by the way."

Bushido gaped indignantly, watching her laugh and stalk back into her petite home. Grumbling to himself, Bushido hoisted himself back into the tree, climbing the branches. Settling himself back down, Bushido sighed and gazed up to the stars. They twinkled just like the old, childhood song, shimmering in the air like they were just a magic trick, to be seen and not believed. They moon was a croissant, somewhat full with fresh holes puncturing the silver dome.

Sighing, his thoughts clouded over, simply thinking about his life. He became a Titan to help people even though he proudly belonged to the Japanese Justice League, created in a replica of the Justice League of America. His mother, the first Bushido, was one of the founders of the prestigious, heroic organizations. Membership extended from Katana of the Outsiders to the kind, intelligent Dr. Light of Japan.

Glancing up, he groaned and took out his Titans communicator. He had no idea why Chu-Hui forced him to remain in that tree. Sitting for six hours was no what he would refer to as training. Robin mentioned doing the same thing, but he also added he learned a lesson. Bushido never got around to asking what it was as a disturbance in Tokyo distracted him. Bushido grumbled under his breath, holding the hilt of his sword securely.

Why must I stay here? Bushido thought tiredly. My eyes feel so weary; I could sleep at any moment. I wish a mission would arise so I could escape this place.

A sharp, crackling sound instantly diverted his attention. Alert, Bushido leaped down, knowing it was the precarious sound of smashed twigs echoing in from the stairs and crumbled, fall leaves getting crushed. Unsheathing his blade, he raised it next to his head and patiently waited. Any sign of sleepiness immediately vanished. Bushido's stony eyes dashed around, ears searching for any other familiar sound like heartbeats, breaths, footsteps, or…

…growling?

Bushido whirled around towards the staircase, finding Bear, on the guardians, facing him. "Bear, what are you-?"

Before he could finish, Bear smashed his paw onto his stomach. Gagging, he slammed into the tree, sliding down and groaned. Before he knew it, Snake's tail wrapped around his waist, pressing him harshly down against the ground. His lungs were constricted, preventing them from expanding. Struggling to breathe, his sword dropped from Bushido's grasp, much to his horror. Monkey dropped from the sky, grinning wickedly, holding himself up with his tail.

"Well, well, lookie here! The True Master's newest pet!" he sneered, flicking Bushido's nose tauntingly.

"What is going on here?" Chu-Hui demanded, storming out. Gazing in shock at her guardians' actions, she shouted, "What are you doing? Have you gone mad?"

"No, my lady," Bear gruffly commented and pointed down to his chest were an engraved S in an orange metal circle remained. "We simply follow a new master."

"That…that letter! It cannot be!" Chu-Hui gasped suddenly, whirling around with her cane held up just in time.

A metal staff ripped the wooden stick in two, and Chu-Hui balked at her broken shards of her cane. Looking up in electrified shock, she could not react in time, to find a steel-toed boot smash her in her cheek. Crying out in pain, she clattered to the floor and moaned in disdainful pain.

"True Master!" Bushido cried, writhing.

"A long time has past, Chu-Hui. You've lost your touch since you trained me," Slade sneered, walking down with his arms behind his back.

"Slade Wilson, I expelled you," Chu-Hui growled, wiping her face of spit and dirt, "for your low, callous ways."

"But I learned just enough from you. I was your first student, after all," he remarked. "Snake, we have no use for the boy. Crush him."

"Yessss, Masssster," Snake hissed, coiling his tail tightly around Bushido.

The Japanese teen weakly shouted, ribs cracking and compressing into his body. His inner organs felt like they were getting pierced by daggers. Eves bulging, Bushido's body exploded in agony as he felt consciousness slipping. Hearing the True Master call out his name, Bushido's arm ripped up, and he socked Snake across the face.

Snake reeled back in pain, accidentally dropping him. Collecting his sword, Bushido aimed it at Monkey, who lunged at him from the tree. Smacking him aside with the hilt of his blade, Bushido dashed over Monkey's fallen body and kicked Bear across the face. Shouting out to his master, he gasped, watching her prowess.

Chu-Hui socked her elbow square across Slade's face, and he grunted, falling back. Crying ferociously, she kicked him feet out before ramming her foot into face. Snarling down at him, she pointed a weathered finger to her expelled student and commanded him to leave.

"This, Bushido, was my first ward. He was my first failure. Your mother was my first success," Chu-Hui informed, glaring down at Slade.

Sneering, Slade hissed, "I'm the failure? Look at yourself, True Master. Your husband left you for fun, to play, and took on his own students."

"So what? Why are you here?"

"I'm here for them. Now that I have what I want…" Slade removed a smoke bomb from his pocket and tossed it in her face.

Chu-Hui gasped, mouth absorbing the poisonous smog that lurched down into her lungs. Bushido slashed through the smoke, collecting her in his arms and leaped up onto the roof. Squinting out, he cursed in his native tongue, realizing that Slade and the guardians escaped.

"True Master, are you all right?" he questioned in concern.

"Yes, I'm fine," she admitted, rubbing her throat. "I'm just regretting being old."

"I am sorry for failing you. I-"

She sighed deeply, cutting him off. "No, it's okay. You didn't do anything. Why Slade wants the guardians, I don't know. I kept you awake to learn patience, to wait for your opponents moves to come to you, and you succeeded, for the most part."

"True Master…"

"Ah, don't worry about it." She waved her hand, smiling. "Let's go to bed."

Bushido watched her shakily step back into their home, sighing to himself and nodded. "Yes…True Master…"

…

For this series of one-shots, Bushido's gonna have a storyline. Why? Because the ones I picked for him all fit in with the True Master. XD