Chaser: Remnants of the Old World
Own nothing whatsoever…
Episode I
"God, fucking son of a fucking bitch!" Shimazu Yoshino cursed while climbing up the rocky terrain. Being annoyed is like a grain of sand to her, Yoshino was seriously ready to kill the first person she sees. It has been five years since she last saw her beloved cousin, the war Lillian and Harada raged on for as long as Yoshino could remember. Born into aristocrat families, both Yoshino and her cousin took up the swords and followed their parents' footsteps becoming a reputable knight. Yoshino is a headstrong person with a strong desire to serve her country, while her cousin is the exact opposite from her leading them to a lot of arguments and all of them started with Yoshino.
Harada isn't the only country trying to invade Lillian though; Kosglow and Trazzel are also trying to claim Lillian for their own. Lillian is a country of luscious geography, fertile soils and connected Terra River leading out to the open ocean. With both land and sea, the country flourished thanks to the wise ruling of their Queen, but that brought malice and hostilities from neighboring nations such as Harada, Kosglow and Trazzel.
Yoshino was stationed at the border of Trazzel, while her cousin stationed at Harada and no matter how much Yoshino begged to be stationed with her cousin, the Queen wouldn't consent to her request. That was until recently that Yoshino was relieved from her post when they sent her good friend out to take over so she could visit her cousin or more likely backing up her cousin. During her training days, Yoshino's personality practically scared most of the fellow trainees off but one person. But Yoshino can't claim to be the girl's friend as she was one of the instructors who happened to be very young; Yoshino later learned that the girl held one of the highest positions in the nation. The girl was the Queen's Advisor and a Marshal in her own right, she'd achieve it all at the tender age of twelve.
MgM
"Captain, Marshal Fukuzawa has arrived," a young soldier said standing outside of Yoshino's tent. "I'm coming," Yoshino said picking up her helmet from the table, putting it on before heading outside. "Marshal," Yoshino said as she got down on one knee as the rest of the troops got down on their knees. "Captain," a soft but firm voice said in return. "What brought you all the way out here, Milord?" Yoshino asked respectfully in front of the troops. "Her Majesty ordered for me to take up your post, let us go inside to further discuss this." Fukuzawa Yumi said walking pass the young Captain. "Ha!" Yoshino said getting up and followed right behind, waving her hand to dismiss the troops.
"It has been a while," the Marshal said turning around after Yoshino closed the tent. "It is indeed," Yoshino replied with her arms wide open and hugged her superior. "Kosglow is being pushed back as we speak, we've managed to enlist the help of Lord Satō Sei of the Yamayuri Kingdom on that matter. I've spent three years at the border, one year in Yamayuri in order to gain Lord Satō's trust to aid us in this drawn-out war. In recent year, I was sent to asked for reinforcement from across the water," Yumi sighed walking up to the table."I take it that it didn't went well," Yoshino said after a long moment of silence between them. "Nijō Shuta sent his youngest daughter, Lady Nijō Noriko to aid us against Trazzel as she's a capable warrior as well as a lady." Yumi said turning around to face her friend and subordinate. "I've asked Her Majesty to relief you though she denied, so I suggested that you will be aiding your cousin once you leave your post here did she agreed." "Really?!" Yoshino was ecstatic at the news. "But," Yumi added and her friend's excitement quickly deflated. "Why must you always have a "but"?" Yoshino whined. "You will be going there alone, I will not let you take any of the troops here. The Queen will sent out reinforcement from the Capital," Yumi said with a calm and stern look on her usually mellow face.
"Ah?!" Yoshino dropped her jaw open at the news. "Hell, here I thought it was something major like take all the troops with me." Yoshino said finally sighing a sigh of relief. "Thank you for the help, you don't know how much I appreciate this." Yoshino said clasping her hand with Yumi in a professional way of shaking hand instead of hugging. Despite her heavy armor, Yoshino still managed to move naturally in it like its regular clothing to her. Her superior on the other hand, dresses in complete rawhide leather with no weapon on her. Despite her rank, no one has ever seen Fukuzawa Yumi carried any kind of weapon with her even when she's heading out to the frontline.
MgM
"Shit! Fuck," Yoshino cursed yet again as she tried to get a grip on a rock sticking out on the side. "Arrgh…" heat raising up inside her body, Yoshino punched a hole into the wall of the mountain and grabbing onto her as she pulled herself closer to the top. "Rei-chan, you better be waiting for me…" Yoshino said to herself as she punched another hole with her other hand. Resorting to brute force in order to climb faster, she was getting tired of going by nature.
"Son of a…" Yoshino trailed off once she's at the top of the place that overlook the massive battlefield below it. Removing the rope that Yumi had given her, Yoshino looked around for something solid to tie it to, she finally found a rock and tied the rope to it before tossing the rest of it over the other side of the mountain. "Gloves don't fail me now," Yoshino said making a fist with her right hand. Carefully, she moved to test the rope to make sure that it's secured enough before descending herself toward the battlefield below.
Below, the war raged on with Harada having the advantage of having a larger army than Lillian leading by Hasekura Rei, Lillian's young General. Harada have an army of 5,000 strong men, while Lillian facing its opponent with only a thousand women strong. Most of the men were busy defending against Trazzel and Kosglow, Lillian was truly spreading its military force thin due to the sudden attacks from Trazzel and Kosglow since Harada has been Lillian's long standing rival fighting each other for ages.
In Lillian, under the Queen's rule, Princess Mizuno Yōko worked hard just like those that served under the Queen. She is well-versed in everything be it scholarly things, politics, combats, or house-whole things, she could do it all as a requirement to be the next Queen of nation that's constantly defending itself from invasion of other stronger nations. At first, she questioned her mother's decision in having such a young person as her Advisor and Marshal, the highest honor to bestow to a warrior. But after seeing how the girl could diplomatically requested for help from Yamayuri, Yōko started to see the girl with a different light even though she's not sure how good the girl is in the battlefield. It was really unclear of the girl's background, even the Queen herself knew almost nothing about Fukuzawa Yumi except for the fact that she's a superb Advisor and Marshal who is able to delegate sensitive matters with true profession and performing her duty without question.
A/N: Yay, another MgM-story. Quick note, in this story... the main focus will mostly be on Yumi and Noriko. I always imagined that Yoshino is this kind of rough around the edge kind of warrior, with a temper and foul mouth, the complete opposite of Rei, the soft-spoken and polite kind of warrior who can cook without blowing things up. "MgM" in the middle means there's a break between time/change of scenes. Hope you guys enjoy~