When Sly, Diz, and Rioichi returned to the safe house, and met back up with the rest of the gang, Rioichi was a little surprised to find that there were five people that were dressed like Sly was and had canes of their own, where he informed the master ninja that he was actually Sly Cooper, as he didn't want to alarm Rioichi earlier while they were talking, and that Gilda, Derpy, Diz, and Carmelita were all members of their clan as well. Rioichi clearly wanted to ask what was going on, as he seemed interested in figuring out why there were so many members of their clan, but he sensed that time was of the essence and got down to business by, somehow, rapidly carving a small wooden statue of El Jefe with a swing of his sword. He confirmed that El Jefe was the source of the village's problems, though Bentley used his connection to the future that they came from and pulled up the record that was attached to the name, where he also confirmed that the tiger was a mercenary and a military strategist of the highest order, so much so that he believed that he could take over a country commanding three blind mice with only plastic spoons. Despite everything that they discovered, from Rioichi and Bentley, the gang agreed on their next course of action, that they needed to set things right and take El Jefe out, and the first course of action was heading back to Rioichi's sushi restaurant and getting it open... and Rioichi also made a slight comment about likely needing more fish before he could reach that point.
During their talk, however, Clockwerk flew into the safe house, in his miniature form, and landed nearby for a few seconds, informing Bentley of what he had seen and heard so far, while at the same time glancing over at Rioichi while he did so, before heading out so he could assume his true menacing form while he continued surveying the village... while at the same time Sly moved out with Rioichi and Carmelita so they could get the sushi restaurant up and running, and whatever Rioichi needed to do to accomplish that.
"Thanks to what El Jefe's done to the village, the front door is the only normal entrance." Sly commented, as he knew that Rioichi had an access point in the fish's eye, but without any of the wires and walkways in place, which he used when he was going out on his heists, the only other entrance they could use was the window above the front door, "We're going to have to get rid of the guards before we can get you inside."
"Maybe we can use the armor again?" Carmelita suggested, because if the armor allowed Sly to get into the prison that Rioichi had been stuck in, without the guard actually questioning him as much as he should have, then maybe it would work here as well, and she could see that Sly was thinking the same thing, "You could approach the guards and then 'relieve' them of their shifts... and then both Rioichi and I can go in there and get the mission underway."
Sly smiled as he dropped down into a small hidden area and slipped back into the magically enchanted armor, though as he started to slip into the armor he glanced out of where he was hiding and noticed El Jefe walk up to the door and no doubt inform the guards that they weren't to let anyone inside the building. When the villain from the future was gone, and the armor was in place, Sly emerged from his hiding place and marched up to the sushi restaurant like he owned the place, where he noticed that the guards were sweating by how he was holding himself and how intimidating his armor was and the glare he was giving them. A few seconds later Sly stopped in front of the pair of guards and informed them that they were dismissed, to which they saluted him and walked out of the area that they were in, heading to a new part of the village to guard while Sly stood there with a smile on his face, as he honestly couldn't believe that the plan to get rid of El Jefe's guards had been that easy, before he assumed the position in front of the door and tapped the shield a few times as he stood there.
The moment Sly signaled them Rioichi ran over to him jumped onto the shield as Sly bent down towards the ground, using the shield to launch his ancestor up to the window, where he opened it and slipped inside the restaurant, before he did the same thing with Carmelita and resumed standing straight as the two of them disappeared into Rioichi's base of operations and closed the window behind them.
"I must admit, you have a nice looking place," Carmelita said, as the part of the restaurant they were in was just as the Thievius Raccoonus said it was, while at the same time she noticed the door on the other side of the room had a lock that could only be opened by the knives that Rioichi used all the time, before she glanced back at Rioichi as he pulled the rug up and pulled his cane out from where he had been hiding it, "and that is an interesting place to hide your cane."
"No one checks under the rug." Rioichi replied, as that was the entire reason he had picked such a place to hide his cane, both when he was supposed to be the owner of a sushi restaurant and when he had been accused of serving bad sushi to the Shogun, before he swung it around for a few seconds as he readied himself for their mission.
Carmelita nodded as she followed after Rioichi, as he climbed up one of the bamboo stalks that were growing inside a pot and then used the Ninja Spire Jump to move forward, before using his own enhanced focused jump to get over to a fan that allowed him to get on top of the structure in the middle of the room. Fortunately she, just like the rest of the family, had a skill that separated them from the rest of the Cooper Clan, as she had developed a more powerful jump when she was originally chasing Sly, a 'Mega Jump' as Judy called it, to compensate for her lack of skills, since she didn't know how to use Sly's techniques for a good number of years. When she joined them to chase after the Klaww Gang, and actually ran with them, that was when she found that she had learned a few of the Cooper Clan's techniques by simply watching Sly and the others, turning the Mega Jump into her personal skill that she would likely write into the Thievius Raccoonus at some point in the future. She braced herself for a moment and jumped off the spire point that Rioichi had landed on, allowing her to reach the fan in question, before doing it again and landed beside the Cooper ancestor, who smiled at her before moving forward again, where Carmelita smiled as well, as she was happy to have impressed Rioichi by her ability to keep up with him, before following after him as he sought out the guard that had the first knife.
As they entered the next part of the restaurant, and Rioichi made his way behind the guard that was carrying his carving knife, Carmelita noted that the Cooper Ancestor moved with the grace that the family tome spoke about and actually adapted well to the new spotlights that were in his restaurant, which he was going to take down once this mess was over with, but she did smile when he recovered his knife and knocked out the guard. From there it was a simple matter to open the door and slip into the next part of the restaurant, where they took turns using the small statues to get over a laser grid and then knocked out the guard at the end of the line, before jumping up to a pair of rails that allowed them to get behind the guard that had the second knife. It was in that moment that Carmelita showed Rioichi what she knew about taking things from people's pockets, as she carefully extracted the coins with her cane, which was now second nature to her at this point in time, and removed the thing fillet knife, which she handed over to the elder Cooper, who used it to unlock the door near them and allowed them to press onward. Behind that door rested another laser grid, this time with moving lasers that forced them to time their jumps perfectly, though that was nothing for Rioichi and Carmelita, as they were both able to get over the obstacle without being hit by any of the lasers, meaning that the guards wouldn't notice what they were doing.
The next room had three guards standing around inside it, though that wasn't a challenge for the two of them, as not even a few minutes later all of the guards that had been in the room had been taken care of and they were already moving on to the next part of the restaurant, so they could complete their mission. After that they quickly made their way through another laser grid with moving lasers, allowing them to find the guard that was carrying Rioichi's cleaver and take it from him, before knocking him out and inserting it into the door that was nearby, which in turn allowed them to pull the lever and restore power to the entire restaurant.
"You are a talented kunoichi," Rioichi commented, as the walk out of the restaurant, via a path that only Rioichi knew about so they didn't have to worry about any modern day traps, gave them some time to talk and clarify some things that had been bugging him, "are you like the others? Adopted into the Cooper Clan? Or are you a member of their group?"
"You could say that I'm adopted, even though you'd be partly wrong." Carmelita replied, to which they paused for a moment and she reached towards her neck, where she pulled out a chain necklace that had a special ring tied to it, so that if she had to be a thief she would keep the ring Sly gave her close to her at all times, "Allow me to properly introduce myself, I am Carmelita Montoya Cooper, formerly Carmelita Montoya Fox. Sly is actually my husband."
"Truly?" Rioichi asked, as he had seen the look of love in the younger raccoon's eyes when they returned to the safe house, when he looked upon Carmelita, and knew that they were definitely made for each other, even though the nod that followed confirmed his suspicions, "He is lucky to have you. It is good to see the clan thriving in the future, with five strong ninja practicing the techniques I and the others before me wrote into the ancient tome."
"Actually, there's seven living Coopers at the moment," Carmelita said, to which she noticed that Rioichi was looking at her with some interest, meaning that he was surprised by the number and had to be wondering why he hadn't met the other members yet, "the ones you haven't met are our kids Daniel and Elizabeth Cooper. The reason they aren't here with us is because we left them in the future, because they're only a little over five years old and only just started reading about the various techniques that you and the other ancestors wrote into the Thievius Raccoonus... and we also left them in the future since we're dealing with someone who wants to destroy the history of the Cooper Clan, so they won't be used as hostages against us."
"A wise decision." Rioichi replied, though he could see that Carmelita missed her kids already, meaning that she loved them and would have done anything for them, but instead of focusing on that he noticed that they were nearing the end of the passage and pushed the hidden door open, allowing Carmelita to exit the restaurant first before following after her, but they were surprised when they spotted Bentley and Murray heading to the safe house... and Murray happened to be pulling a cart of fish at the same time.
"I didn't think they'd take your earlier suggestion seriously." Carmelita commented, as she was sure that there were some leftover fish that Rioichi could have used, that weren't bad due to his imprisonment, before heading to his fishing spot to get more for the future.
"It was not a suggestion, it was a statement." Rioichi said, because at this point he was going to have to clear out all the fish that had been left in his restaurant and replace it at some point in time, though he smiled when she looked at what the duo was able to collect, "Their load will keep me going for a few weeks, before I need to replenish my stores myself, and I am grateful for their assistance."
Carmelita nodded her head in agreement to that, as the Cooper Gang had been great allies to her and Interpol when she was still in law enforcement, though before she could say anything else they spotted Diz flying overhead with what appeared to be one of the geisha costumes, from the geisha house that they had taken pictures of. When they returned to the safe house, and the fish were put in an area where they would be safe for Rioichi in the future, Bentley informed them that they were taking Madam Geisha's costume for a few moments and making sure that Murray could fit in it to get some information from El Jefe, since the tiger liked to visit her and had no idea that she was on vacation at the moment. The downside of that was that Diz noticed that since Madam Geisha was a rhino, and Murray was a hippo, there was a size difference that might be noticed by someone that knew the owner of the shop, but fortunately he also had a way for them to get around that. In that moment Rioichi got an understanding of Diz's powers, about the same understanding that everyone else had when they thought about his powers, as Diz allowed the chaotic properties of his magic to pick up one of the rings that he was carrying and enchanted it with something special... so when the spell was complete, and he had Murray put it on, the air around Murray shimmed and in his place was Madam Geishae, much to their surprise.
"I spent a few minutes studying everything and everything that was inside the geisha house," Diz explained, though at the same time Murray glanced down at himself in surprise, especially since the ring seemed to have faded away and had been replaced by a small golden item that belonged to the attire he was wearing, "With that ring on you'll not only look like Madame Geisha, but you'll sound like her as well... and, more importantly, you'll be able to fit into her costume without having to worry about something happening to you or it."
"An illusion spell... interesting." Bentley said, staring at Murray for a moment, before he ducked behind one of the hiding areas of the safe house and slipped into the costume that Diz had taken from the geisha house, "Murray, once you're ready you should head out for the geisha house and see if you can't get anything from El Jefe when he arrives for his meeting with Madame Geisha."
"O... Okay Bentley." Murray replied, to which the gang stared at the direction that the voice came from, as the spell had also modified his voice as well, making it impossible for anyone to determine that he actually wasn't Madame Geisha, before he walked out in her costume with an odd blush on his face.
Rioichi, despite not actually going to the geisha house to see what it was about, knew the makeup that was associated with the geisha and helped Murray put it on, though once it was in place Murray, or 'Madame Geisha', walked out of the safe house for the geisha house, where Rioichi went along to see if he could figure out what the guards would think of Diz's work in hiding Murray's true form. Apparently in anticipation for this venture, since he knew that the first time period they would be heading to was ancient Japan, Bentley had Murray practice one of the most popular routines that the geisha performed, though at the same time the rest of the gang didn't want to know if it was for their venture or for his own interests, and he wasn't going to say anything. It wasn't long before the gang could hear the sounds of Murray starting the routine with the guards that were in the building, where Rioichi stayed in the shadows for a few seconds before reporting that they were all somehow enthralled by Murray's dance, as he was able to step out of the shadows and the guards ignored his presence... and, after some time, the guards seemed to be overly excited, as each of them started throwing the currency of the time period onto the floor that Murray was dancing on, flexed their muscles, and pulled out roses that they either put into their mouths or threw onto the stage.
Once the routine was done Murray stayed inside the building, as El Jefe would be coming soon enough and it was best to greet him accordingly, allowing Rioichi to return to the safe house while Bentley headed out with his RC Car, which he had modified with the ideas that Penelope had come up with and his own ideas, making him sigh as he wondered where she could have gone.
About an hour later Bentley, who was staying on one of the rooftops that the guards didn't bother to patrol for some odd reason, spotted El Jefe walking through the village and smiled as he deployed his RC Car, which he used to follow after their enemy, while at the same time using the chicken disguise he had created to slowly bypass the guards that were happened to be standing on the path that he was following. When El Jefe stopped for a few moments, to stare at the prison according to what the camera was showing him, he made a comment that the prison paled in comparison to his 'statue fortress' and that the gate switch was under the bridge, giving him more information for the future. A few minutes later El Jefe stopped in front of the fishing cave that Bentley and Murray had gotten their fish from earlier, where he said something about having sealed them and that his Dragon Gates were invincible as long as his lazy guard didn't get distracted by sushi, another useful piece of information for Bentley's plan, and then El Jefe revealed that the switches for the Dragon Gates were actually in the mouths of the dragon statues. The most interesting part that Bentley discovered was that El Jefe was definitely working for someone else, that much he and the others had figured out after finding out who the tiger was, and that he was looking for Rioichi for a specific 'package', something that they needed to figure out at some point in time.
When El Jefe stopped at the geisha house, where Murray was waiting for him, he found Madame Geisha standing outside and bowed for a moment, while at the same time kissing 'her' hand for a few moments, allowing Murray to grab the scroll that was on the tiger's back and toss it to Bentley... and allowed him to figure out that the target that El Jefe was looking for was Rioichi's cane, which only told Bentley that they needed to finish setting things up for their final operation and then they would restore Rioichi's time period and his section of the ancient family tome.