The Martial Unity

"…Interesting," Rui mused. "They actually agreed…? I wasn't expecting that."

He turned to Master Reina. "What do you think is the probability that they're sincere in revealing their identity?"

"…Fifty-fifty," Master Reina remarked with thought. "I depends. They could be either paranoid or duplicitous; it is difficult to discern which without meeting them."

"Agreed," Rui nodded. "Regardless, assuming they do indeed intend to reveal their identities, then I just need to survive all the assassins and let the Voidreaper kill me."

Master Gurren and Master Reina exchanged a puzzled glance.

"So you do intend to kill yourself?" Master Reina pouted. "That sounds boring."

"I intend to pretend to succumb to the hands of the Voidreaper," Rui chuckled. "I'm going to need someone to play the part of the Voidreaper convincingly enough."

He glanced at Master Reina with a pointed look.

"Me?" She was flummoxed.

"You've already got your body morphing technique, so I know you can do it," Rui smirked. "On the day of the assassination, you're going to have to be the Voidreaper. You will pretend to kill me and take my pretend corpse to the people who want me dead, and when they reveal themselves, I will have won," Rui smirked. "It's the perfect plan; they won't know what hit them."

A grin arose on her face as she realized the entertainment value of the plan that Rui had proposed. "Hehe…that does sound fun, I can't deny."

"Good," Rui nodded. "Then that's the plan so far. In case they try something funny, I want some insurance. We'll have to carry a tracker in my pretend cadaver so that Master Gurren can intervene."

"Hmph, arrogant as always, arrogant brat," he snorted. "I never agreed to partake in this machination of yours."

"I'll teach you a technique that allows you to estimate the distance of all celestial objects you see in the sky," Rui replied.

"Done,"

Rui smirked. "Good."

Rui was no expert in astronomy, but the Parallax Method was an ancient way of estimating distance. It was also extremely simple and elementary. He didn't mind sharing it with Master Gurren for this favor.

"Still, I don't understand," Master Gurren narrowed his eyes. "Why not inform the Martial Union of this? Isn't that the most common sense plan? Once you inform the Martial Union, they'll definitely provide you with a security detail of Seniors, maybe even Masters, to protect you from any assassination attempt until years worth of investigation leads them to the source and they eliminate it."

"That's precisely why I'm avoiding them," Rui replied. "They're overbearing. They solve every problem with Martial force because that is the only way Martial Artists know how to solve problems. Either fear of their power or power itself. In order to protect me from proven unknown threats of assassination, they will pressure me into sacrificing any and all privacy and freedom for the sake of protection. I will be stalked by Martial Seniors or Masters. It's bad enough to deal with it at the Orphanage, but I tolerate it because it's for my family's sake. However, I absolutely refuse to make sacrifices of freedom and privacy for the sake of protection outside of that."

This was one thing Rui was consistently adamant about his entire life. It was the same circumstance as it had been more than a decade ago when Chairman Deacon discovered the true identity of the Voider, and the Martial Union offered protection for his family in exchange for his absolute loyalty. He had refused to sacrifice his liberty back then, and he refused to sacrifice his liberty today.

"On top of that, if the Martial Union finds out, I will lose blackmail material," Rui replied. "The best part about having proof that a certain individual or individuals are plotting to kill me is exposing them to the Martial Union. That is the core of my threat. I can bend them to my will by threatening to expose their plot to kill me to the Martial Union or the Kandrian Bureau of Investigation. The statute of limitations for crimes against Martial Artists is much longer, so I'll be able to squeeze them for decades."

Rui grinned sadistically.

He had absolutely no qualms about extorting and blackmailing people who plotted to kill him. He was not a saint. He was not Raul.

"We'll have to execute this cleanly," Rui remarked. "We can't afford to make mistakes."

He turned to Master Reina. "I will be the one to go through the briefing session that they will organize for the various assassins. I'm strongest when I collect data on my opponents. I will study all of them thoroughly during the briefing and use that to my advantage during the assassinations. However, you will be taking the place of the Voidreaper instead of me during the assassinations. I will only do so during the briefing. This means that you will have to match my Voidreaper persona and body language."

Master Reina snorted. "That's trivial. I have mastered persona mimicry. I shall ensure that none of them come away wiser."

Rui nodded. "Also, can you guarantee that nobody will notice your Master status?"

"Yes," Master Reina nodded. "That's trivial enough; it takes a particularly powerful high-grade Martial Master with a slant towards sensory to sense me."

"Hm," Rui nodded. "That means I should keep you away from the Truthseeker or Master Zentra and people like that. That's fine."

"Alright, then the plan is set," Rui replied. "I got to the briefing to gather as much intelligence as possible. On the day of the assassination, Master Reina takes place as the Voider, and I will allow the assassinations to happen. I overcome them all and then pretend to succumb to the Voider, and Master Reina will procure my body and head to the designated area to learn the identity of my death-wishers and extort and blackmail them with it, and then everyone lives happily ever after."

"Yes, but the biggest point of failure in this operation is you," She remarked with concern. "The assassins they're going to be hiring are not second-rate; they're all at the peak of the Senior Realm. On top of that, you're going to be fighting them back to back."