Killer Ninja Monks: Fantasy (Cyberpunk?)

She hurled herself around the corner just as a bullet cut through the air where her head had been. She heard the whine of its passage and swore. They were actually trying to fucking kill her. All she'd done was steal one little statue--not even a very good statue--and they were actually trying to fucking kill her. She was going to kill her fence for this, if she made it out alive. It's just a statue, he'd said. There are so many in the temple that they won't even notice it's missing, he'd said. No big deal, he'd said. And now she had two hundred killer ninja monks on her trail. Make that two hundred killer ninja monks with guns. She lifted the lid from a sewer pipe and dropped into the guck, pulling the lid shut after her. Maybe killer ninja monks weren't familiar with the sewer system.



Inspiration: I wanted more action.
Story Potential: High.
Finished Length: Novel? Could be a short story, I suppose.
Notes: In the sewer, she discovers that the statue is gone, freaks out, searches through clothing. Finds that she's acquired a new tattoo in the shape of the statue. At that moment, the monks drop down, see her--and fall at her feet in worship. Yup, she's now become the newest incarnation of something important. She isn't, however, the person that some factions (among the monks and elsewhere) intended to see get the statue's "blessing". I think this is fantasy, but it could also be science fiction--cybernetic statue, monks, very cyberpunk. Almost more tempting to do it that way.


Written as a fantasy short story, "Charity From a Thief." Maybe. Not sure if this was the actual inspiration, but I think it might have been.