Leer is officially stealing Nanako's thunder for this part. The whole wanting to be friends thing. So, is he the lazy shounen hero and Nanako the quirky martial arts girl?

The sudden name change caused my eyes to flicker and say, wait what's happening.

Oh nuffin'. Just trying to find my true self and all.

By the way, Leer hasn't just worn down Shizuka's patience in him. He's personally and deeply insulted her and the Mizuno way of life and war. Expect her to say as much and to play for keeps.

Though she'll probably be killed in this fight. She has no durable sword or apples, just a guardsman's tanto.

Yeah, the rest of us need to step it up.

If the team pet gets the first kill we'll never live it down.

Leer doesn't want to kill her though. At most he'll force her retreat, either back to her teammates or back to Makai to lick her wounds. Letting her get back to Zel though is a really bad idea. Considering the healer is on their side is a bad thing. If she really wanted to die, she'd need to personally force him into it.

Basically, Masumi is a terrible person so I thought I'd better give some warning she might be terrible in Shizuka's direction soon because unexpected terribleness is terrible.

On the priorities side, Masumi loved the idea of getting a magic cloud by giving a ninja a makeover, but killing takes priority. Plus she's the type to think she can have her cake and eat it too.

She went over to the good team's table to figure out what their deal was. She then discovered they'd succeeded beyond their wildest dreams in finding some of Kurama's followers, so she decided to try and nip things in the bud by killing them right then and there. It's easy to win a race when all the other runners are dead.

Fast travel options come and go, but the opportunity to wipe out half the opposition in one fell swoop doesn't happen often.

Remember, the evil team is the chosen champions of a demon emperor, so they're pretty skilled!

Behind the scenes, people were itching for some action so I thought I'd oblige. I think the collateral damage of anarchy equals or may even exceed the damage caused by democracy.

Now Masumi is put out with Shizuka because once the violence started, Shizuka didn't commit to it at all. Having half the backup you were expecting to have is not a pleasant surprise.

She's also a sadistic demon cat who eats people, so she doesn't work through her issues in a healthy way if she doesn't want to play at being nice any more. It's not a good idea to get on her bad side even if things are her fault.

It'll be interesting to see if Zel takes Masumi to task for starting a fight unilaterally come to think of it.

Ah but the laws of team match-ups says the five guys on the bad side are an approximate match for the eight guys on the good side. That does suggest a higher level of personal competence.

The villains of a story usually start off being able to beat the crap out of the heroes too. So Shizuka's disadvantaged currently, but that just means she's lost some of her edge.

Kick the cat! Bite him! Spray water at him! Create distractions! Use dirty ninja tricks! If all else fails, shout 'Halp, I am under attack!' and see if this paranoid city does anything to assist the young woman being brutally attacked by a cat monster!

Use the Moe-Moe bullet!

(Throw Chizuru at him)

Arhra, I actually think that's quite the opposite. The recurring bad guys theme usually means they get their asses handed to them time and time again, but once in a while they get the upper hand. You guys really should have pulled a Team Rocket with this one. Leer would have been the easiest to fool out of them since he doesn't do ki sensing as actively as Izuna does and they probably could have cheated him out of the money Kurama gave them.

Also, on another note, I'm not so sure how high the stairs go and whether or not there's an actual advantage to being at the top of them. With a large tower, I was certain there'd be a lot of steps.

Well, it's debatable where the line is drawn really, but what your talking about here is really more for an episodic adventure series with no major overarching plot, where the 'Bad guys' appear every episode and almost every episode's plot is wrapped up by the credits. Because Pokemon and Power Rangers would be awfully depressing shows if pluck and friendship weren't enough to win the day, every day, right?

On the other hand, there's shows which do have a defined plot that drives the show. These don't have 'Bad guys' per se, they have 'Villains'. Villains rarely 'get their asses handed to them', because then they wouldn't be a threat. And when the real driving force behind the show is the conflict and the battles, there needs to be a legitimate threat to contrast the heroes, or there's no tension at all. They may not always win the episode, but there's certainly a chance they will, especially if it's an important issue, and it's very rare that their plans are impacted in any meaningful way whatever happens, at least until the season finale (and even then...) Did Azula get kicked about by Aang for three seasons? Was Fate arrested after her first outing?

Hell, even for the first type, Team Rocket was a scary threat in their first episode. It's the villains job to give the heroes a scare after all!

Plus the fact that there's eight of you and four of us (well, five, but Yuurei spends most of his time as our handy spirit phone) means that the law of Narrative Numbers is on our side!

Astral Bushido Heaven Armor! Shizuka Mizuno! You are the finest warrior of your entire clan! And you are a single ninja! THE LAW OF INVERSE NINJA IS ON YOUR SIDE!

You can totally win this fight.

And so he shall remain until I can figure out who the hell to help: Shizuka or Kagi. I really don't know right now, honestly.

Quick! Draw straws!