Red-Clad Ninja

Anyone familiar with Jessica Jones would probably say that Jessica had a terrible temper and was exceptionally good at causing trouble. It seemed that wherever she went, trouble followed, as though she were a trouble-generating machine.

But if you asked Jessica, she would disagree.

Rather than a trouble-generating machine, she thought she was more like a magnet. It felt as if even when she sat at home without moving, all kinds of trouble would come knocking on her door. There was no escaping it.

Like now, for instance.

Joining forces with a superpowered girl she had never met, wearing a mask, to fight a group of mysterious Eastern ninjas... It sounded absurd, but Jessica felt like exactly the sort of script she would be handed.

Still, Jessica's arrival did make things much easier for the girl in white. She possessed tremendous strength and reactions far beyond ordinary people's. Although she knew nothing about fighting either, her sheer physical power posed a huge threat to the ninjas.

With her joining the fight, the ninjas could no longer find an opportunity to go after Little Gwen. The girl in white no longer had to hold back, and the two of them quickly knocked down all the remaining ninjas.

"Thanks." The girl in white let out a long breath and looked at Jessica. "It really would've been dangerous just now if you hadn't been here... But how did you find this place?"

Jessica remained expressionless. "I followed you for two hours."

The girl stared at her in surprise. "You said you... Wait, quit joking around."

Yeah, how was that possible? Most of the way, she had been running across rooftops or swinging between buildings. How could this woman possibly keep up with her? By plane?

Would you believe me if I said I chased you on foot? Jessica thought.

But that was the truth. The girl's web-swinging between buildings was astonishingly fast, but she was not constantly in motion. After swinging for a while, she would occasionally stop atop a building to rest. Jessica had kept pace by leaping across rooftops the whole way—she could not shoot webs or swing like Spider-Woman, but she ran very fast and could jump remarkably high.

Still, Jessica Jones was probably the only reporter in the entire city who could keep up with this girl in such a hardcore way...

"What's your name?" Jessica gave her uniform a once-over. "People like you usually have some kind of codename, right? A superhero name?"

"Um... You can call me Spider... Spider-Woman."

"Spider-Woman." Jessica raised an eyebrow. "I think maybe 'Spider-Girl' would fit better."

The girl said unhappily, "I'm an adult!"

"Oh? Really?" Jessica did not quite believe her. Her gaze casually swept over the other girl's uniform. "Honestly, before I heard your voice today, I always thought you were a guy."

The girl looked as though Jessica had struck a sore spot. Angrily, she grabbed Little Gwen's hand. "All right, I'm taking this kid home."

Indeed, getting Little Gwen back to her parents was the top priority. But interviewing this girl called Spider-Woman was also Jessica's job. If she missed this chance, she might not get another. So Jessica said, "Once you've taken her back, could you talk to me some more? About your abilities, for example? And also..."

Spider-Woman waved a hand. "Sorry, but I generally don't talk to people..." Her voice abruptly stopped. Her pupils contracted, and she suddenly cried out, "...Watch out!"

Spider-Woman moved in an instant, slamming her palm against Jessica's shoulder. Caught off guard, Jessica was shoved backward onto the ground as a flash of silver streaked past her face.

It was a throwing knife, trailing a long iron chain behind it. It skimmed past Jessica's nose by a hair and embedded itself in the wall with a clang.

Jessica broke out in a cold sweat. She had superhuman strength and extraordinary reflexes, but her body was not invulnerable. If this girl had not reacted so quickly and saved her, her head would probably have been pierced straight through by now.

The throwing knife was yanked back, its chain rattling through the air. A man dressed in red and masked with a cloth over his face slowly emerged. His gaze was sinister, his footsteps light and soundless. The chain-linked knife spun circles in his hand, reflecting a cold, harsh gleam.

Rubbing her head, Jessica got to her feet with some annoyance. "What? Did one slip through?"

"I think this one seems a little different from the others," Spider-Woman said.

The man pushed off with one foot and shot forward. He was fast, far beyond what an ordinary human should have been capable of.

Silver flashed. The throwing knife shot forth like a silver bolt of lightning, aimed directly at Spider-Woman. The girl tilted her head and sidestepped it, flicking out two web-lines, but he evaded those as well.

In the blink of an eye, they had closed in on each other, the red and white figures tangling into a rapid blur.

This red-clad ninja was clearly different from the fodder before. Not only were his moves and skills vastly superior, but even his physical abilities were beyond normal. Spider-Woman could not put her finger on what it was, but she clearly sensed that every one of his attacks carried a strange swirling current, as though an invisible yet tangible force wrapped around his fists and feet. Every strike covered a wide area, forcing her to twist aside and evade.

Spider-Woman's physical abilities surpassed his across the board, but she did not understand fighting techniques. In combat, she could only rely on her exceptional reflexes and speed to respond on the fly. On top of that, she did not want to take his life and held back the force behind her punches and kicks, leaving her at a disadvantage instead.

Jessica got up and joined the fight as well. She did not know any fighting techniques either, and her reflexes were far inferior to Spider-Woman's, but her strength was immense. Every punch she threw howled through the air, forcing the red-clad ninja to duck and evade. She was no small threat.

Little Gwen hugged her knees and huddled in a corner, watching the three of them fight like gods, trembling too much to make a sound.

Before long, the red-clad ninja found an opening. With a flick of his wrist and a flash of his blade, he used a feint to make Spider-Woman pull back and evade. Then he seized the chance to launch a flying kick, his boot striking her square in the chest. A dark boot print immediately appeared on the front of the girl's snow-white uniform as she was sent flying backward.

The red-clad ninja did not stop moving. After a flick of his throwing knife, he immediately hurled it in the opposite direction. It sliced through the air from a tricky angle, leaving a bright red gash on Jessica's calf. Jessica's knee buckled, and she dropped to one knee. The throwing knife bounced off the ground and sprang back up, scattering a few sparks before eerily changing direction and shooting straight for Jessica's face.

I'm dead.

Jessica's pupils shrank. In that brief, inescapable instant, that simple thought surfaced in her mind.

She had never tested how hard her skull was, but she was pretty sure it could not stop that knife. She instinctively closed her eyes, gritted her teeth, and waited for her forehead to be pierced... But it never came.

A black hand reached out from the shadows and caught the throwing knife midair.

Jessica waited for quite a while, yet no attack came. Curious, she opened her eyes and saw a man standing before her in a black trench coat and black fedora, his face concealed by a cloth mask and dark sunglasses. He had caught the knife one-handed, his coat billowing in the wind behind him. He looked like one of the male leads in a Western movie, and he truly did possess the imposing air of a powerful man.

The man turned around and said to her in a low voice, "Enough. Take the girl and go. Now."

The moment Jessica heard that voice, she froze.

That voice was... the boss?