Blade of the Seven » Places

         

The laughter of Ren had caused a spark of annoyance to shoot within her veins, her thoughts abruptly coloring in incredulous disbelief. This man..laughing suddenly?! What is so funny? fumed her inner voice, her confusion only driving it further. With an exhaled huff, Rin merely bit her lower lip at his accusation.. after all, how could she deny the truth?

Just as she was about to openly defend the honor within her promises, the male Oni's tone came out evenly and swiftly, almost holding a sense of being coy embedded within his words. "If I do tell you...will you anwser my question then?" Quirking an eyebrow at him in a mixture between intrigue and hesitation, the half-oni took a pause."Al...right..." echoed out her prolonged response, uncertainty causing the syllables to stretch longer than necessary.

         "Stop lollygagging Araki, we should have met up with the others nearly a week ago," Mio sighed, being careful to keep her voice low as possible.
It was uncommon, and extremely dangerous for a female to travel around in these warring times, let alone as a samurai. Should anyone with malevolent intentions discover that she masquerading as a male named Ryuu Hayashi, would almost certainly provide horrible consequences that sent a chill down Mio's spine just thinking about it. But she felt that she had to help stop the war, and that was something that, as a woman, was very hard to achieve during these times.
Glancing behind her, she noticed Araki had drifted further and further than when she had remembered last time. With an exasperated sigh, Mio turned on her heels and began to where Araki was staring. As much she loved working with the kind man, unless there was someone in trouble, he took his time during their travels, something that made Mio jittery.
Placing her hands on her hips, she quickly dropped them down to her twin, reversed blade sides, hands on the hips was not exactly the most manly thing to do. "Araki, if you don't get your but in gear, then I'll..." her threat was interrupted as a loud scream pierced through the clear air of the forest.
With a silent glance, Mio took off towards where the sound had seemed to come from, weaving elegantly through the trees. Adrenaline pumped through her veins, excitement rocketed through her like a bolt of lightening across the darkened sky. Ready for whatever dangerous trial would come their way. After all, this was what she was born to do.

         

Ayane Miyashiro

---

Within that time Ayane finished smoking, turning her pipe over so to let the ashes fall out. Tapping it with one slender finger Ayane slid her mask back into place but left the cloth folded over her hat. A small smile on her lips she sat back in her seat her eyes looking over the scenery around her.

"After thinking through logically... I believe you are right, mistress, just as you always are."
“My dear girl I may have lived a long life but saying I’m always right isn’t exactly correct.” Ayane spoke softly to herself so Amaterasu wouldn’t hear her words. If the girl knew that her mistress doubted herself then problems would arise. What they would be she wouldn’t know, each living being in this world reacts differently.

"Mistress... have you ever met with the Yukimura? Or any of the other clan heads?"

Ayane thought for a moment wondering if she should shed more light on the fact that she has lived eight times to her guard. no that won’t be necessary. Although it was obvious Amaterasu was curious Ayane wasn’t about to let the conversation lead to more questions that needn’t be answered.

“No I have yet to meet the head of the Yukimura clan but I do know many things about her; things that she wishes I didn’t know of. As for the others I have only met the previous head for the Kazama clan however he is no longer in office. It’s the first time in 800 hundred years that all the clan heads were female something I’m sure the elders have a hard time accepting.”

Although the rest of the ride was a bit bumpy Amaterasu kept apologizing for it which both amused and irritated Ayane. Red eyes watched Amaterasu’s back not bothering to tell the girl of the wall they were headed right for. People are such simple creatures so easily distracted and this is the girl who has been protecting me for how long? frowning a bit.

"Miss Ayane,"
“Mmm
"We've arrived at the Yukimura's household.”

“Oh really, how delightful" her voice dry. Lifting the cloth back over her face Ayane prepared herself for stepping out of the carriage but hesitated by Amaterasu’s question.

"Do you need help getting out, Miss Ayane?"

Shuddering at the idea of having to touch her guard Ayane chose to ignore her offered hand as she would so often do. besides she isn’t paying attention to what I’m doing “Amaterasu I doubt there would be people trying to kill us so soon. Don’t waste your energy trying to find something that isn’t there.”

Patting down her kimono of any dirt that may have collected on the fine silk. Ayane looked around before taking slow steps towards the main household. She stood tall with her head held high to make a good impression on the servants. Her hands held before her in the folds of her sleeves Ayane paused just long enough to catch the attention of one of her own servants.

“Girl, do inform the head of our arrival.” the girl nodded happy to be of use and went in search of the Yukimura’s head or whoever was in charge of the household at the moment.

         

Shiba Kondo

Shiba opened his eyes slowly, looking up at the rays of sunlight broke through in between the leaves of the tree. As he looked towards the entrance to the village Aya was still nowhere in sight. "How long does it take to get ready to leave?" Shiba thought to himself as he sighed. As he slowly started to stand up he could hear Aya in the distance saying bye to everyone. Aya emerged from the entrance of the village in her normal attire looking ecstatic. "Did you take long enough or should I take another nap." Shiba said with a smirk.

Aya puffed up her cheeks and crossed her arms, and proceeded to lecture Shiba on why its impolite to rush a lady. After Aya finally noticed that Shiba had all, but stopped paying attention. They proceeded to get on with the long trek from Kazama village to the Yukimura village. As they walked with an escort for a short distance until they reached the outside of another small human village. There a wagon was waiting with two deep tan colored horses, the escort helped Aya up onto the wagon Shiba. Shiba grabs the reins and looks at Aya "You ready, it's going too be a few days before we arrive. I have already arranged for some places along the way were we can stop, eat, and sleep."

A few days go by as the two travel by wagon, and get ever so closer to the Yukimura village. By now they were still a day or two out, but as Shiba looks around his eyes start to close ever slow slightly. He could feel as his body tells him to sleep while his mind tells him to push onwards, the constant long uneventful days have slowly drained him with little time to sleep since he is constantly staying awake to watch over Aya since they are away from home and unprotected. As Shiba repeatedly blinks trying to stay awake, his body slowly nods back and forth in a tired fashion. Shiba looks over, as Aya sleeps and decides it's better to stop then to risk an accident. He pulls off towards a rather fair sized village and gets directions towards the nearest inn, they arrive and after sneaking Aya into one of the rooms as to not alert anyone to her presence Shiba finally sits down in the corner exhausted from the countless hours awake.

Aya convinces Shiba somehow to take a nap at least so that he can recover his energy. As he lies down, he can feel his breathing get heavier and a headache set in. Quickly Shiba drifts in to sleep and is completely out.

         

She had just sat down when Aka asked her opinion on the matter at hand. She didn't know why he cared, he usually solved his problems the same way, but maybe even this idiot knows his limits. Aka stood from his seat and walked to the window, swinging it open allowing the muggy summer winds to dash through. While she thought of the best course of action she took the black cloak off over her head, sending her unfortunate hair into a frizzy shamble of knots. The heat was really getting to her, she loathed to take her armor off, but the heats of Kyoto were much greater than her hometown.

The Shichitou, honorable men of the people, up holding order in place of this corrupt government. Sounded like a godsend to the citizens in this catastrophic time, but ultimately the group would prove a nuisance to Kimiko, so removal was required. Smirking as an idea came to her, Kimiko rose from her seat with slight assistance from the wall, ”If these people aim to protect people, the obvious goal would be to make the citizens of Edo hostile towards them.” Walking to the other side of the room she grabbed her red cloak and flung it bunched over her shoulder, ”For now let us try to summon them, not throw ourselves at them. Unless of course you have an idea of your own Aka?”

         

Ayane Miyashiro

---

At that particular moment the sound of water slipping back into its basin could be heard. Porcelain skin glided through the reflective liquid that was so essential to life. Long black hair that seemed darker than night itself swayed and floated in the water. Along elegant fingers danced in the water as it washed away any soap residue from her skin. Sliding one slender leg over the other the woman blew a couple bubbles that had formed in her hands.

Ayane sighed, ducking her head underwater before resurfacing as she stepped out of the tube. Black hair stuck itself to her body dripping with water and steam. If you looked past the screens and the steam one would see a rather beautiful woman with a slender body that suited her tall height. Of course no one would ever manage to get past her doors or through her guard at that.

Stepping behind a silk screen, Ayane slide into her kimono pulling her hair from underneath it. It didn’t take her long to get ready slipping a fox’s mask over her face. And as always she wore her customary hat with the clothe obscuring any view of her head. One would see her hair but that was about all she would allow them to see. Not even her trusted ninja have ever seen her face they only knew her as the head of the clan, whom was hauntingly beautiful and rather intimidating with her tall stature.

Sliding open her screen doors to her from, Ayane stepped out of her room not caring if Amaterasu was there or not. Let her scurry to catch up to me a smile slipped its way onto her pink lips knowing full well the girl was probably expecting her.

Walking to their carriage it almost seemed as if Ayane was gliding. Releasing an aura of superiority and elegance at the same time. Those she passed in the hallways of her home stopped what they were doing and bowed as they got out of her way, saying their greetings. Only a small handful followed her and Amaterasu. They were the Elders of the Miyashiro clan but none could ever beat the wisdom and knowledge she held within that mind of hers.

Stepping down onto the walkway Ayane paused looking at the bright sky before turning to Amaterasu, “Amaterasu, go get my favorite pipe. It looks like we’ll be having nice weather today but we all know all good things come to an end.” her voice sounded deep and beautiful as if each word was meant to be heard slowly.

Without waiting for a reply Ayane continued on her way to the carriage only waiting long enough to look behind her to catch one last look at her home. Stepping inside she sat down folding her hands neatly on her lap. “This should be an interesting meeting” she said aloud to no one in particular.